Prologue of sorts

“That’s quite a lot of money,” Ash breathed.
“Let me hold it!”Aeris squealed. Pouncing forward, she grabbed eagerly at the glimmering coins.
“Back off!” Ash shouted smashing the girl across the face. Aeris returned the gesture by clamping her sharp teeth down on Ash’s shoulder. The two went down, battling so ferociously they didn’t notice Cicery calmly retrieve the money they’d dropped.
She cleared her throat delicately, calling the attention of the meeting back to herself. The two elves looked up, both sets of eyes immediately latching onto the bag of coins in her hands.
Hastily making plans to kill his companion later, Ash took the initiative to speak first. “We…we can’t really give you the final word on the matter…we’re not nobles or officials or anything.”
“I’ve no need for nobles,” Cicery said coldly.
“What’d you mean?” Aeris asked.
“I see no reason to involve more of you than necessary,” Cicery replied with a cool shrug of her shoulders. “Unless you think you need more help. Of course, that’s all the money I can give you, so you’d have to split it further with more people…” She allowed the implications of her remark to sink in unspoken before continuing. “Do we have a deal?”
A slow smile split Ash’s features. “You got it.”
“Good. You have three days.”
With a nod, the elves disappeared into the forest. Cicery’s eyes lingered on the vacancies their departure created. “Lanius.” A figure separated itself from the shadows. “Keep an eye on them, will you?”
“You don’t think they can handle it?”
Cicery’s eyes flickered with irritation. “It’s not a matter of abilities, I just need to be sure they don’t lack the proper encouragement.”
“Encouragement?”
“Really, Lanius,” she sighed patronizingly. “Every idiot knows you can’t trust elves.”