[Quest] A Dark Rendezvous (Anselm, Avari, Leigo)

[Leigo]

It didn’t take the boy long to take the cue and duck out. When a stranger proclaims killing you more casually than going for lunch then that’s what you do of course. Similar to the scaled woman’s idea, he too fled from sight quickly. And much like her, he too pulled himself to the side of the road, finding shelter in shadows that ruled the in-between of the alleyway housing. Crouching down, he did his best to cover up his arms. Something still perked his interest though. What if those three were in fact the ones that could take him to Lion? Then by ducking out he would utterly ruin his every chance of getting in touch with the organization that had wronged his family. He couldn’t have that. Confident on following them, the blond all but forgot Anselm and how poor his attempt at hiding was. He couldn’t outrun them, not using someone else’s feet anyway – unless he…. Did he plan to stop and have a chat with them? If they catch up to Anselm… more concerned about people finding Onuo than anything else, he wasn’t sure if the familiar would get his sentiment. IF they catch him and he tries to talk before they really kill him, then and only then will we try to help him. Yes, I got it! The creature’s voice made even the boy shiver a bit, after all whenever Onuo’s voice wasn’t mechanical something wrong was going on. Hurdling himself into an even smaller space, Leigo’s interest grew through the sky. Murderers or not, he was going to follow them if he ever got the chance. There was no doubt he could find Anselm and the Konti again. But those three…

[Cascade]

The rain rang down on the streets even harder. It seemed to mute their surroundings, and it was difficult to see much. The voices of the cloaked women were nothing more than garbled words. They were getting closer to the other group. But then, the old woman seemed to realize something, and in a panic, rummaged through the thick and various folds of her cloak... in the end, she couldn't find it. "Perhaps you left it in the ship?" asked the quiet one. This cloaked figure looked at the stumbling person, the one who was drunk with her words. "We will head back right away. You stay here, you will do nothing but slow us down. Also, make yourself invisible." Their words would not be heard by the other group in the alley. All the other group would see was that the old woman and the quiet one would rush off towards the direction of the docks one more. They left a resentful and puzzled woman behind. Whatever item they had left behind, it was probably very valuable if it was able to make them forget their goal of remaining unseen. The process in which they rushed back into the open streets defied their goal. Aside from that, they left the confused girl behind, a girl who seemed out of herself and was lost in her own oblivious world. The unsteady woman struggled to walk over to a nearby crate, unto which she sat down. Amidst her current state of lack of judgement, she knew she had to wait for her group to come back. She fiddled something around her neck, and looked around suspiciously, heeding her companion's last instructions. "Make myself invisible? Pfft, how's that even possible...?" her words trailed off. There seemed to be a moving shadow. She squinted her eyes and could barely see anything, but she swore she had seen the shadows moving. A cat? Were her drunk eyes playing with her? She scurried to her feet and made a move to rush towards the docks, to her companions -- her paranoia getting the best of her. She moved unsteadily and slowly, and if the other group were actually interested in some answers, now would be the time to act.

[Anselm]

Anselm stopped at the end of the alley and turned to look back. The Konti thief – I really must ask her for her name – and Ogiel Abranox, the boy with the familiar he seemed determined to keep secret – a thoroughly paranoid young man - had both disappeared. Two of the cloaked figures were hurriedly making their way back down the alley toward the harbor, leaving the third one sitting on a crate. Old man, he thought. This is none of your affair. The wisest course of action at this point would be to take your treasure home and thereby avoid the entanglements and complications that will undoubtedly follow if you remain here any longer. Then he slowly made his way back toward the place where he and the Konti thief had concluded their business. He stopped a short distance from there and watched the woman on the create. She abruptly stood up, looked around and started to follow her companions. Unfortunately for her, she was unable to walk either quickly or in a straight line, and soon found herself leaning against a brick wall. The body Anselm currently occupied had been old and somewhat decrepit when he acquired it, and since then had suffered considerably as a result of some of Anselm's less-that-wise choices, such as the one he was making now. Nonetheless, he was able to propel it along at a surprisingly fast gait when he wanted to, and quickly found himself beside the wobbly woman. “My dear,” he said in a deep gravelly voice that had been known to frighten young children. “Do you require assistance?”

[Avari]

Still standing in the deepest shadows of the alleyway with her back pressed tightly against the wall, Avari had to fight from gasping aloud in astonishment when she saw the old man with the silver cane hurry back through the alley at a surprisingly fast clip. She had thought the old man had departed for good, but here he was, coming to stand beside the unsteady woman and actually speaking to her. Even from here, Avari could hear his unmistakable gravelly tones, so raspy that he could probably grate wood with his voice. For a moment, the Konti was overcome with confusion and admiration that the old man would be so bold as to openly approach the strange woman, while she remained cowering in the shadows.

However, his boldness afforded her a chance to be bold as well, though in a different way. His speaking to the unsteady, wobbling woman provided a good distraction for Avari to emerge from her hiding place and either follow the woman's progress or get a better vantage point to observe her companions when they returned from the docks. Avari inwardly thanked the old man as the strange woman's gaze flicked up toward him, prompting the Konti to detach herself from the wall and slide a few feet closer to the end of the alleyway.

Before she could go further, though, Avari hesitated and glanced back at the boy who had leaped into hiding along the wall as well. She was curious about him, too, and wondered if he was also dangerous. Who else but a very dangerous man would dare to materialize out of the rain in a dark alley and then cheerfully announce themselves? And he had mentioned the name of Lion. In any other context, the Konti wouldn't have immediately thought of the man who had introduced her to Yshul's worship, but here at the dark of night, hiding from murderous strangers in black cloaks after handing over a stolen amulet to a mysterious fortune-teller, it was impossible not to guess that his Lion and hers were one and the same.

He had phrased his question about Lion rather oddly, though, if Avari recalled correctly. Were they the ones who could lead him to Lion, the boy had asked. What could that mean?

"You there, boy," she whispered at him, careful to keep her voice low so it didn't carry to the unsteady woman's ears. "Looking for Lion, were you? What bu...buthinethth do you have with him?"

She pronounced the S's as Th's not because she had a lisp, but because she knew from experience that the sibilance of the letter S made it the most easily overheard part of any whispered conversation. With any luck, the boy possessed sufficient wits to understand what she meant and respond in kind. It still staggered Avari a little that she had to fear being overheard at this time of night, when the docks were supposed to be deserted and no one could possibly be out and about. Yshul was testing her, no doubt about it. There had to be an opportunity for profit in this outlandish state of affairs with the old man, the boy asking about Lion, and the three cloaked strangers so casual about killing others.

Easing a few more feet forward, Avari glanced back at the boy again. A faint, mischievous grin quirked the ends of her lips when she threw a final whispered message to him.

"Piethe of advithe. If you want to catch Lion'th attention, go run a shell game in the park," she told him, remembering how Lion's operative had watched her. "Better than thneaking up on thtrangerth at night, and thafer too. Thith thort of thing...it jutht leadth to trouble. Believe me."

With that, she tiptoed along the wall all the way to the corner, where she could just peer around and get an adequately clear view of the docks, piled with crates, and the black-cloaked old man standing behind the strange, wobbling woman. Avari tucked her hat lower on her head and watched avidly from beneath its sheltering brim, wondering how the woman would respond.

[Leigo]

Of all the stupid, irresponsible idiots how did they end up getting the biggest one? Seemingly without much hesitation, the old man left refuge and jumped to socializing. In other circumstances, Leigo might have considered him bold, but all he could see at this point was a threat. A time bomb that could give up Onuo, Leigo… hell even the Konti – it needed to be stopped. Speaking of the woman, before the boy could get a decent reaction to this gargantuan mess – the white haired stranger crept closer. While the girl deformed the sanctity of language on her foreign lips, it didn’t take him long to notice why she was doing that. Still, he could hardly take her seriously. Her words fell almost on deaf ears. She didn’t look like a fighter, either. By the looks of it, all it would take to scare her away was another sound of footsteps and maybe a noticing glare or two. It was hard to believe it was people like this who cost him his father. “My business – my problem, but if you can find Lion it might prove worthwhile…” trailing off, he switched his thoughts to Onuo in order to hear his view on things. Surprisingly enough, the sociopathic icicle had no objections to the current situation. Silence truly marked many of the familiar’s features, Leigo was used to it by then… but couldn’t the creature at least make an effort to think in less outlandish ways? Unlike the woman, he was not yet paranoid enough to desecrate Qalaya’s heritage, but once she started sneaking away to get a better look at the fantastic duo that strolled down the street so casually; one thing was certain – she couldn’t help him find Lion, and all the money in the world wouldn’t change that. Without a doubt his best bets were the three strangers that mouthed off murder so easily. Somehow they seemed more like assassins than smugglers to him… were this truly the people his father had associated himself with? Going after the scaly albino, the blond stopped just a few inches behind her, leaning over to get a better look of whatever the hell Anselm was trying to do. From this point he could notice the woman being less than alert and aware, but he couldn’t be certain if she had indeed been drinking. If only for a minute something in Leigo flared up. Would they really catch Anselm? And if they did, would it really be a bad thing? Actually, that would much likely silence Leigo’s only slip up concerning the familiar. Going with that logic, the boy could feel himself slowly rooting for these night owls to come and capture the monstrous Nuit. Maybe they could even poke and prod him till he… well whatever it was those things did when they finally died…

[Cascade]

The cloaked woman moved with panic, although because of the fact that she couldn't walk in a straight line, she got nowhere. She almost shrieked when Anselm stepped in front of her, his deep voice causing her alarm. Now that he was much closer, she could see him clearly. Anselm stood in front of the woman. He could see her eyes strange eyes as she stared up at him. They were human in shape but her pupils were considerably larger, and her irises had a strange hue of gold. The color of her skin was ashen and morbidly pale, and she held up a hand to her beating chest, and one could see the odd set of 'claws' on them. She was a Symenestra woman. They were known to have excellent eyesight, and if the rain had not been pouring down and if she had not been drunk, she would have spotted the other people almost instantly. Perhaps it had been luck to catch such a person off-guard, Anselm would never know. "I need no such assistance from you. Please, go away," the woman hissed. As she said this she attempted to move away from him. Her back hit the brick wall, not allowing her to do so. Soon enough, two other people came into view as well. It was a Konti woman and a human. The cloaked girl gasped. She seemed at a lost. Her brain was yelling at her to run, but her body wasn't allowing her to do so. Aside from that, she knew she couldn't make any sudden movement, especially on a wet and slippery road. Anyone who was familiar with the Symenestra race would know why. "K-keep away from me!" she said shakily. "What do you want? Is this a set-up? Who told you we'd be here?" The agony and turmoil was evident in her expression. Her voice was slightly slurred but understandable, and as she spoke a strange glimmering pendant swayed from a silver string tied around her neck. Alarmed, she took it in her hand and tucked the pendant inside her cloak. "I won't give it to you people..." she said. "My companions will surely be back soon. I won't give it to you. I-if you stay here they'll kill you... I'm warning you." Would they call her bluff? Her companions had gone back to the docks, and she had no idea how long it would take for them to come back. And what was that strange pendant that she was hiding from them? The girl stared at them with frightened golden eyes, her lips visibly trembling. The woman was frightened and in a hazy state of mind. If the three were curious as to whom this strange woman really was, perhaps there was some way to get the information out of her, with techniques that would prove more useful than usual because of her current state. Or, they could use force, if they thought it would be more effective.

[Anselm]

Anselm took a step back and examined the girl in black. He had not met many Symenestra in his journeys and he was curious about her. But he was more curious about the pendant. Ignoring his companions, he shifted his sight to look past the woman's cloak and brought the pendant into focus. It shimmered. It's edges became blurred. What is so special about you? he wondered. That people are willing to kill to keep you from falling into the wrong hands?

[Avari]

Avari didn't know whether to curse or flee when the strange woman gazed in the Konti's direction and unmistakably picked her out from the shadows in which she had been doing her best to hide. The ease with which the woman had spotted them was such a shock that it drove all thoughts of the young boy's babbling about Lion straight out of her mind. The woman's eyes, which were wide with fright at the moment, shone an extraordinary golden color in the dim, distant light of the torches along the docks and streets as they turned toward Avari. They were almost as bright, in fact, as the glimmering pendant that she nervously tucked out of sight beneath her clothes with shaking fingers.

Even at this distance, the woman's fear was unmistakable and, to Avari, startling. Normally, the Konti expected someone who had just caught her sneaking up on them to give her a thumping or drag her to the authorities, not shrink away in terror. However, the woman seemed to think she was the one under attack, judging from her words and the way she visibly trembled under her black cloak. Avari couldn't understand why the golden-eyed woman didn't just make a run for it, if the mere sight of them terrified her so. Unable to discern most of the woman's Symenestra characteristics from this distance, and not terribly knowledgeable about the spidery race even if she had noticed the signs, the Konti was mystified by her behavior.

Nevertheless, Avari had been spotted, so there was certainly no more point in hiding. She wondered if she could somehow make something out of the golden-eyed woman's fear, though. Her companions might have been ruthless killers, but this woman didn't seem nearly as lethal-minded. The Konti darted a quick glance in the direction where the woman's friends had gone, to make sure they weren't emerging out of the rain, and judged--or possibly merely hoped--that they were not returning for a while. She decided to come out of hiding.

Putting on a bold front, even though her heart was pounding, Avari stepped out into the open. Slowly, she approached the place where the golden-eyed woman stood frozen before the old man. He wasn't saying anything, so Avari cleared her throat to bring the woman's attention toward her. She made a soothing, patting motion with her right hand, her fingers spread and palm facing downward.

"Hush, hush, it's all right," she ventured in her gentlest, most murmurous tones. "We're not enemies. We're not here to hurt you. At least," she added, thinking of the strange boy who kept mumbling about Lion, "I am not your enemy. We're not here for your necklace, all right? I promise. It's all right."

Continuing with the soothing motion and calming voice, Avari crept a little closer. It felt almost as if she were dealing with a skittish deer in the Silverwood Forest or a shy Konti child. Both, like the woman, were extremely sensitive and fearful creatures who could react in unexpected ways, and both often proved more dangerous than they appeared at first glance.

"Don't worry, it's all right," she repeated softly. "I was just watching you because I was curious who you were. We don't often get young ladies like you, stumbling into the city in the dark of night, and in the rain, no less. That's all it was. It wasn't anything but curiosity."

Moving extremely slowly and cautiously, Avari came just a little closer, until she could see the woman's pale, almost ashen skin and the unnaturally huge, dilated pupils in her golden eyes. Indeed, she was pale and slender enough to be a Konti, except that no Konti had eyes like that.

"Tell me," she continued, as kindly and gently as she could, "what's your name? I'm called Ari."

[Leigo]

Unsure if he was pissed off or worried as his companions went to stand in the spotlight one by one. Well, one thing was certain – remaining obscured was no longer an option. Still unnerved by the ease with which this newcomer had noticed them, the blond too stepped out into the street with less than savory taste in his mouth. No matter how he looked at it, the whole set up seemed to be a bad idea. Yet if they were to observe it all correctly, there were three of them versus three foreigners. They already caught one of them so that left them at three versus two and they didn’t know about Onuo, so it was much likely a four to two matchup. Shrugging Leigo suddenly couldn’t realize why he was scared in the first place. Even if worse came to worst, it was very possible that he was the fastest runner in the group. And when it came to knowing the streets around the docks by heart, he could hardly imagine an equal. He would let the Konti do most of the talking, sliding only after she had finished to add his own thoughts. No sound coming from his mouth, it was no other than Onuo that he talked to. You and I will need to be ready for anything. Anything… that word sounded so impishly stupid – just like everything, but without the aftertaste of megalomania. The familiar acted as if he remained completely unfazed by anything that had just transpired. Aren’t we always? The cold tone gave away insecurity for the first time in a while, yet the pair hardly cared for it by this point. It was quite alright to be insecure here. After all, even their insecurity was much better than the chances those around them had if things went south. Smiling to the girl, Leigo tried to look friendly. He didn’t know what the others planned, but he was perfectly content with waiting for the others as long as the conditions remained unchanged.

[Cascade]

As Anselm used his skill in auristics to take a look at the pendant, he saw that it was nothing special. It had no magic to it... it seemed to be ordinary glass. There was something else though, something he wouldn't be able to pinpoint. However, with his current level of auristics, Anselm wouldn't be able to arrive at a conclusion. All he would know is that while it looked like ordinary glass, it was something more. The Symenestra woman seemed to calm down at Avari's voice. Her shoulders relaxed as she peered at the Konti with curious eyes, although it was obvious that she was still wary. Her lips were a thin line as she glanced around quickly, as if wishing for her companions to arrive, or as if looking for an escape route. "I will not tell you my... uh, my name, Ari," said the woman wilfully. Her words continued to come out as slurred, but she seemed to be regaining her right state of mind as each second passed. "Leave. Leave me now." She was being adamant in not speaking about the pendant. It appeared that the group had to approach differently. Perhaps if one of them were skilled in implanting certain emotions, it would work? The girl was acting brave, and it was evident -- for while she attempted to put force behind her words, she was trembling. It wouldn't be too difficult for a person to implant more thoughts of fear in her mind... and once this happened, it would be easier to ask about the pendant, to intimidate her to hand it over and to speak about it.