Zandelia watched Revy Hiroe set about the task she had been given with workman-like aplomb, direct and to the point with her activities and simple yet eternally elegant. Zandelia suspected that the woman did not really consider her own actions overly much, or at least in terms of thinking much further ahead of the present. The warrior woman seemed to be happy enough to leave such considerations to her employer, the burden of planning lumped solely upon Zandelia’s own mind. She did not begrudge that task, in fact she relished it all too frequently. She had learnt that one only improved their skills in the arts of intelligence gathering if one put them into constant practise. Such was the way of her personal advancement, plotting and scheming her way towards more information than she hoped her competitors had in the greedy clutches. It took no small amount of planning to succeed at what she intended to this day. It had taken weeks, in point of fact.
Bribes, intimidations, tailings and rumours. Those are the building blocks of my trade, and it took all of them for this. Taverns were frequented all too often and slavers followed far too closely for my liking. All for this day she thought to herself as her found her eyes beginning to admire the woman before her even further.
In some ways Revy Hiroe was the lucky one, in others she was cursed in comparison with Zandelia. She lived in the present and thus had few cares outside her personal remit. However she also had few plans and as such had no direction in which to focus her indomitable willpower. If they could but combine their bodies and minds into one entity they very well might have been unstoppable on a very basic level indeed. Still, two people they were and Zandelia could not help but appreciate that fact. The way the woman’s lithe body moved, pressure to a point and purpose. Her muscles rippled and her intense gaze was became filled with irritability and rage. Zandelia hoped she could help the woman temper that portion of her personality, otherwise it might very well be the death of the warrior – and there was no point to her dying when she could warm the bed sheets all too well.
“Oh, I would like to have some fun with the man my dear, some fun indeed,” she smiled, placing her hand upon the woman’s forearm gently, “watch and see what happens to those who live for nothing but spreading misery” she growled as she approached the man upon the floor, a gruesomely wolfish smile upon her lips.
She pulled her dagger from its boot sheath as she crouched down to put herself on an eye level wit the slaver scum, his eyes darting this way and that as realisation that he would die this day began to set in, delicious fear shining from his turgid orbs. She would gain more information than he had given, much more indeed – her plans hinged upon that fact. She needed to know the number of guards, their names and faces down to their eye colours. She wished to know their habits, their vices and their weaknesses. If any were wounded she would learn of it, if any would sleep with the dead themselves she would ferret such information out. Only then would he die, after slow torture indeed.
“Now tell me, what I want to know” she smiled at him as she saw a tear finally trickle out of the corner of his left eye.
Thus began a half-bell of terrible inflicted injury, specifically surgical in causing the most pain for the least threat to life. She dragged her dagger across his skin, catching it upon the flesh further each time as she gouged slashes into him that grew deeper and deeper until they began to meet bone in some places. His screams were muffled by the fact that his throat became to raw to do so after a little while. An ear had been sliced off to tease out names and faces. An eye had been put out for even more information, the shock causing him to pass out before a knife in the thigh had awoken him. When she was done with her interrogation she knew all that she needed to and more, his usefulness gone and thus his throat opened to the dirt. She wiped her hands upon his clothing and sighed to herself as she awaited the inevitable judgement from her mercenary.
“I suppose you think me terrible now, well that I can deal with if it means we survive this day. The good news is we no longer need his uniform as it would be useless to us at any rate,” she spoke out without turning her back, not able to meet her gaze for the disgust there, “the bad news is that I may very well have to improvise a little more than I like. Still, we will see what can be done” she finished as she stood up after re-sheathing her weapon in its respective boot. Only then did she turn.
“Know this, before I am judged. His kind have done more to me than most could live through and he deserved every bloody second. If you don’t like my methods then be quiet about it. I don’t need another person telling me how awful I am. They made me who I am, and I use that as a weapon against them” she spoke out, only meeting the beautiful warrior’s gaze once throughout, and fleetingly at that.
“Now, what we need is a nice drink I think. Let us pay this hiding place a visit and see what we can dig up for our little intrusion. We will not be engaging them for now, not until we have researched the odds against us. However, you do get a drink or two out of me and my charming company, so I suppose it’s not too bad” she smiled, this one a genuine one for Revy Hiroe.
It was with that she began to lead them towards The Pig’s Foot Tavern. It was in silence she led their duo, not able to bring conversation to the forefront of her mind and suspecting that the other woman would wish to think about things more than talk for now. Perhaps after and ale or two words would come, but for now their eyes were open in their search for advantage.
