14th day of Spring, 514
Inoadar hurried through the alleys of Ravok. He was eager to return to Tine's Exotic Goods. He'd dropped some items off there the night before, items he'd obtained while aiding a young girl who'd shown up at the NMSS, the 'Nitrozian-Moletta Sanitary Station'. He had been going through the motions of playacting as doctor there. This was not to say that he had no medical skills. He was skilled enough to tend to the cuts, burns and bruises that most customers sported who came stumbling in, seeking aid. But this girl spoke of a burglary gone awry, resulting in the dislocated shoulder from which she was suffering.
Normally, Inoadar would have covertly aggravated the injury, speaking of the necessity for pain killers, and then warning of the high price of them. He would then offer the "client" the option of paying off the debt by being a test subject for his research. Research into the many fields benefiting from the labs he and his partners had paid to have installed there. Labs that he needed to get the most use out of when he could, since part of what paid the bills was the renting of them to citizens and non-citizens alike.
However, this situation called for partnership of a different sort. After resetting the girl's shoulder joint, he'd gone back with her and used his "alternative" skill set to help clear the way for the liberating of a few trinkets. As usual, things had not gone as smoothly as he'd hoped, but the two of them had managed to slip out with a few items of possible value. He had taken them to Tine's to have them assessed.
On this return trip, however, he happened upon an ongoing weapons and exercises display by a squad of Ebonstryfe soldiers. Their prowess was a marvel, the choreographed motions and lethal implications of the hissing steel left the growing crowd both daunted and appreciative. The squad commander shouted counts and codes and the men responded without hesitation. Kicks, punches and slashes missing flesh by hairs' widths only because the potential victim had made an equally impressive evasion, also on command.
The timing of shouts and grunts, stomps and swishes was a brilliant martial counterpoint to the spontaneous whistles, claps, and "oohs" and "aahs" of the crowd. Inoadar himself found himself in awe of such melee mastery. Being a man of the more subtle sciences of serums and subterfuge, he was always cautiously appreciative of such skills that his strengths would not easily turn aside. His appointment with Tine's could stand to wait a few chimes while he enjoyed the spectacle.
Fate, however, would not wait, it seemed. In the crowd, a man took notice of the poisoner's presence. He knew that, in the past, Inoadar had been willing to help the lingering remnants of the ill-fated rebel faction, The Rising Dawn, slip out of the city. He did not know that Inoadar had since come to embrace the worship of Rhysol. He did not know that the poisoner no longer went by that name. That a 1000 miza bounty had already been collected following Inoadar's faked death seasons earlier. He did not know that he now went by the name "Nolan Parnell", a name on a set of citizenship papers that had once belonged to a man strikingly similar in appearance. A man Inoadar had killed during the Rising Dawn riots a year ago to add credibility to the faked death.
Only a very few knew that Inoadar and Nolan Parnell were one and the same. And not even Inoadar knew who these others were. He only knew he'd received a note stating that "We know the truth" a short time after the bounty had been collected. Nothing had come of it however, and now he was as devoted to Rhysol as any man on Mizahar.
This stranger, however, only saw the man that had helped his brother escape the Black Sun dragnets that had devastated the ranks of rebels throughout town. Rotting rebel corpses still hung from gibbets as object lessons against the foolishness of defiance. This man was determined not to join them. So he called to the poisoner, to a man he thought could help him. "INOADAR!"
The squad commander took notice of the call, and his eyes quickly swept the crowd for a reaction, even as Inoadar looked around in alarm to see who had shouted.
Normally, Inoadar would have covertly aggravated the injury, speaking of the necessity for pain killers, and then warning of the high price of them. He would then offer the "client" the option of paying off the debt by being a test subject for his research. Research into the many fields benefiting from the labs he and his partners had paid to have installed there. Labs that he needed to get the most use out of when he could, since part of what paid the bills was the renting of them to citizens and non-citizens alike.
However, this situation called for partnership of a different sort. After resetting the girl's shoulder joint, he'd gone back with her and used his "alternative" skill set to help clear the way for the liberating of a few trinkets. As usual, things had not gone as smoothly as he'd hoped, but the two of them had managed to slip out with a few items of possible value. He had taken them to Tine's to have them assessed.
On this return trip, however, he happened upon an ongoing weapons and exercises display by a squad of Ebonstryfe soldiers. Their prowess was a marvel, the choreographed motions and lethal implications of the hissing steel left the growing crowd both daunted and appreciative. The squad commander shouted counts and codes and the men responded without hesitation. Kicks, punches and slashes missing flesh by hairs' widths only because the potential victim had made an equally impressive evasion, also on command.
The timing of shouts and grunts, stomps and swishes was a brilliant martial counterpoint to the spontaneous whistles, claps, and "oohs" and "aahs" of the crowd. Inoadar himself found himself in awe of such melee mastery. Being a man of the more subtle sciences of serums and subterfuge, he was always cautiously appreciative of such skills that his strengths would not easily turn aside. His appointment with Tine's could stand to wait a few chimes while he enjoyed the spectacle.
Fate, however, would not wait, it seemed. In the crowd, a man took notice of the poisoner's presence. He knew that, in the past, Inoadar had been willing to help the lingering remnants of the ill-fated rebel faction, The Rising Dawn, slip out of the city. He did not know that Inoadar had since come to embrace the worship of Rhysol. He did not know that the poisoner no longer went by that name. That a 1000 miza bounty had already been collected following Inoadar's faked death seasons earlier. He did not know that he now went by the name "Nolan Parnell", a name on a set of citizenship papers that had once belonged to a man strikingly similar in appearance. A man Inoadar had killed during the Rising Dawn riots a year ago to add credibility to the faked death.
Only a very few knew that Inoadar and Nolan Parnell were one and the same. And not even Inoadar knew who these others were. He only knew he'd received a note stating that "We know the truth" a short time after the bounty had been collected. Nothing had come of it however, and now he was as devoted to Rhysol as any man on Mizahar.
This stranger, however, only saw the man that had helped his brother escape the Black Sun dragnets that had devastated the ranks of rebels throughout town. Rotting rebel corpses still hung from gibbets as object lessons against the foolishness of defiance. This man was determined not to join them. So he called to the poisoner, to a man he thought could help him. "INOADAR!"
The squad commander took notice of the call, and his eyes quickly swept the crowd for a reaction, even as Inoadar looked around in alarm to see who had shouted.
x
everyone else is too far away or unattractive 