For a moment Cris wondered if he could have been the cause of Aello’s headache. In his experienced he had never had such effect on people when using his art, but today magic seemed to have its own voice. What mattered to the swindler more, however, was that despite the fact that the pain would have cost the girl good mood, it should have also made her less concentrated on him and whatever aims he had. All he had to do was walk the thin line between annoying her and exploiting the weakness. Or at least he thought so. ”Well, if you are sure of this then I will not object,” Crismento finally spoke when the girl appeared to have overcome the worst of the aches. ”Though I should say that I happen to be aware of so-…” The con artist didn’t get to end his sentence that would have been just the first thread in the new web of deceit. Instead his eyes could only catch a brief glimpse of a little gleam of light reflected from a metal blade. Cris reacted quick pulling his hands away from a table in a hasty retreat, but he wasn’t fast enough to avoid it completely. The edge of the dagger caught two of his left hand fingers as the brushed against it, cutting open small a wound on each of them. The swindler slid back with the chair away from the table, instinctively throwing his injured hand even further back. He could not hide the shock and surprise in his face and remained frozen in that position for a couple of breaths as he watched Aello trying to figure out what had just happened. Cris heard her words clearly but could not believe that they were spoken. He had already been aware that she was capable of seeing through some of his lies and masks somehow, but he didn’t know she could see him completely. Her no doubt magical eyes and senses left him no shadow to hide in and he felt naked, exposed and vulnerable. Disarmed… He needed to think quick to get out of this situation and running seemed as good of an option at self-defence as hanging himself in this case. Alleys were just as safe as the tavern and this deranged murderer probably didn’t carry her bow around for nothing. He would have to talk himself out of this, like he always had, even if her ability to know everything about him presented a great challenge. And yet her question confused him. Crismento did his best at composing himself and hiding away feelings of anxiety. From his experience in similar situations in Sunberth he knew that showing fear would not lead anywhere he wanted to end up. Then again the threats usually were some brutes that got suspicious about the rumours and information he was trying to sell them. Nevertheless he wiped away every emotion from his faces except the genuine surprise and forced his lips into a smile of slight amusement. ”You think they are sent like this, mind reader?” he kept his tone quite as the attention they were receiving already was greater than he would have preferred, but his words were coming out in quick succession. ”When they sent someone for me, I only had a luxury of briefly noticing them far away before being drugged and taken away.” He clutched his wounded hand briefly glancing at the bleeding cuts. Carefully he reached out for a napkin while watching Aello for any signs of additional aggression and after retrieving the cloth he wrapped his injured fingers in it. Figuring that he was already on the deep end of risk pool already, Cris decided to take another gamble. He leaned closer to the girl knowing full well that next time it might be his throat and not the table that gets the blade buried in it. His heart raced as if he was a fourteen year old boy sprinting to his first date with the prettiest girl in town, while the muscles in his legs tensed and were prepared for a sudden jump should Aello attack him. ”I’m not sure if you can tell or know, but I wasn’t treated as a friend of the city either,” his voice turned into whisper since the risks of being overheard were higher while they were still regarded as tonight’s performance by the clients of the tavern. The swindler didn’t know how exactly the girl’s ability to discern truth, facts and lies worked so he tried to be careful with his wording. ”I am not the enemy, Aello. You should know that I am hardly a threat to you, but those who are… They are nearby. Always nearby. And if we continue this scene we will get someone sent for us.” |
OOCI wonder whether the fact that Cris doesn't know who Aello is talking about helps or harms his case.
Also, I'm not sure if you can tell, but his knowledge of magic is rather narrow
