Closed Where it all began (Cardian)

[Viridian]

64th of Spring, 514 AV Time: Early Evening, Leth is beginning to rise overhead Location: In an alley near the docks She didn't mean to. It was an accident, a terrible terrible mistake! The screams, they lasted so long, and were so loud that Vi felt certain that someone had heard them. The man had writhed in pain, twisted and contorted, his body spasming as he was slowly eaten from the inside by her venom... by HER venom. She could still taste it. Her fangs were still extended, still dripped red from the puncture, and without thinking she licked the moisture there. The taste of iron, and the feeling of warm liquid flowing down her throat were with her now. She could not forget it, could not ignore the racing of her heart. Eventually he stopped moving, and his eyes rolled back in his head and it was silent once more. Vi wrapped her long arms around herself, her own claws digging into her pale skin as she inched backward, pressing her back against the wall of the tight space. Her eyes were wide, pupils fully dilated so that she could see perfectly in the darkness. Amethyst light was sure to glint from those points, but she could not stop staring at the body. She had never killed a person before... Never in all of her time as a slave. She had seen this done to rats, and rabbits and other small rodents that she was given to eat, but never to a PERSON. In a way it was odd. Somehow she had expected a human to react differently than an animal, but the fact that he had died just as easily was striking to Vi. So, even the masters were no better than animals... Maybe she should run... but where would she go? She was a slave, and a Symenestra at that. No one in this city would harbor her. She could not swim, and even if she could she could not make it tot he shore without drowning. And if she DID then she could not survive in the wilderness on her own. There was nothing to do, no where to go. It was hopeless. There was a sound. Breathing? Someone walking? Vi didn't know, but her heart thudded in her chest and she bolted to her feet once more. Her eyes looked around, but the alley was a dead end. Someoen was coming around the corner, they would see but she could not get away in time. She had to hide, she had to do something. With a final glance at the body, and then to the entrance to the alley Vi jumped backwards, turning over in the air so that she landed on hands and toes against the wall of the building behind her and she stuck against the sheer surface. As quickly as she cold she pressed herself into the deepest shadow she could find, making herself as small as possible in a corner and praying that whoever it was did not look up. Her eyes were wide. Dear Rhysol, please don't let them reflect the light and give her away. Please... She prayed to the god of this place, Please save me.

[Caridan]

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T'was then that a shrieking sound beckoned Caridan towards a dusky alley, veiled by Akija's shadows, inapt within the mellow sploshing of lake Ravok. A strange sound indeed. A cry for help but wordless. Despair, shock and agony entwined into it. An elaborate lace work that only the mouth of a man truly in hell could make.

A moment - and only for a moment - he halted in his stride, calculating coldly if it was indeed a wise decision to investigate such a guesome sound. After all he was not the one to loan a helping hand to a drowner. He wasn't the type of man to step out his way in aid of another. But the sound was too sevear, ripping the blackenning evening air with it's razor like cacophony. The possibility of violence did cross his mind but that too was uncommon within Rhysol's domain. Whoever in their right mind would cross the Ebonstryfe? Thus it was the uncanny and somewhat morbid curiosity of the young half-blood to resume in indulging his oh-so-curious habit.

But then the air once more hushed.

He leaped over a gap in the platforms, almost loosing his footing for a moment before swiftly darting into the shadows of a smaller alleyway which shaded his slender stature from the eyes of Leth, he came alas to a scene he wasn't quite expecting. In all his years in Ravok he never quite witnessed such a curious sight, thus he rubbed his eyes abruptly, ensuring that they did not deceive him. However they did not.

"My, my... what a mess." he spoke to himself in a hushed tone, beholding that which now bathed in the light of the moon in something of a disgusting sculpture. Caridan looked past his shoulder, back into the alley from which he came, ensuring that he'd not be caught by another soul. He couldn't afford to have his hands stained by another man's blood. Yet it seemed that his was the only soul enticed by the hollering scream.

Death was not an unfamiliar sight to the eyes of a practising poison crafter. After all he had granted the end upon many an animal before, had it been a mouse or a rat or a dog. He'd watch them die in agony or in silence however such a death was a far more silent one. It was cleaner. Never in his life had he ever laid his eyes upon the sight of a man laying contorted and cold on the wooden floor, bathed in a crimson pool of his own blood which in the gleaming light of the evening looked almost romantically red. Almost beautiful. The man however wasn't quite befitting the scarlet essence which now drained from his corpse. However had killed him had obviously no appreciation for the fine art of murder.

As a child he read many novels about fictional anti heroes who ended their enemies with but a swipe of a blade. There was no cut on the stranger. Nothing but two holes from which the blood seeped.

Caridan stepped forward for a better view, careful not to get just a little too close. It dawned on him just how unafraid he was. In the novels of his childhood death was such an awful thing. It affected the innocents so terribly, twisting their minds and sent them into the dark abyss which would change their character forever. Yet Caridan felt nothing but this flame of curiosity burning deep at his core. A need to observe and record between the pages of his own mind for this was not a sight seen often. Perhaps he'd been unable to truly feel any anguish, pain or fear as the dead man before him was a stranger. Or perhaps he was just incapable of being phased by the murder all together, for his mind already began spinning all the possible tails of how this occurred.

Caridan was a strange one indeed. Even though his gaze could not part with the sight before him, his core was peaceful like the waters of lake Ravok. There expression on his face was unaltered. A hint of something vaguely resemblant of a smile twinkled about his lips as it always did, for the sight brought him no pleasure either. It was simply a fact. and factually his mind worked, very logically, forsaking the very notion of being enslaved by such foolish concepts as emotion. Of course he did feel but he felt other things and even when he did, it was on a far more shallow a level - which was of course a somewhat subconscious thing.

He checked once again that no one was approaching, wishing to spend just a while longer with the corpse. Perhaps if he stared at it long enough he could determine the causation of death and whom it might have been that rendered this poor mean dead. Perhaps he could figure out the motive.

And this was definitely a murder - he was sure of it. The wounds on the man's body were two and such punctures don't just appear out of nowhere. Analytically he took apart the body with his eyes, attempting to restructure a possible scenario like one would restructure a dosage of poison from it's base components. "How puzzling." he spoke aloud, softly, thinking that only the lake itself could hear him. "Oh Rhysol, behold the chaos at hand. Is this your plan for the city? Or will you punish whoever did this?"


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[Viridian]

Vi held her breath, she actually held her breath as a figure came around the corner. He would see her, she knew he would. He had to. She was right there, so obvious, everything giving her away. She pressed herself against the wall as close as she could get, willing her clothing not to make a sound as it brushed against the surface, begging that the light did not reflect off her eyes. She thought about closing them briefly, but she could not bear it. To be blind and frozen in place would be too much for the girl to bear.

The man approached the body, and she could see him as clear as day. He was young, handsome with features that any woman would desire. Even in this moment Vi could appreciate the cut of his jaw, the way his hair fell to his shoulders, and the way the corners of his lips curved up ever so slightly, as if he were hearing an amusing joke that just briefly caught his fancy... But no, this was not the place for that. Who would smile at a dead body? Who looked almost 'happy' to see something so terrible, so grotesque, so... so...

Vi bit her lip, her fangs still extended and their tips dripping a bit of the poison still. She quickly licked them clean, looking up and to the side, seeing if there was any escape, anyway she could get away without being seen. IF she moved too far from this spot the light of Leth would shine on her and reveal her presence. If she went straight up he would notice her no matter how small she made herself. If she tried to stay in the shadow of the wall she would have to go directly past him, approaching mere inches away before she could slip by. Her eyes searched frantically, for anything, but then they lit upon her salvation. Below her there was what looked like a hatch, a small door that opened up below the docks that would surely lead her down to the waters. Perhaps this was a convenient loading area for a shop nearby. or maybe it was used for smuggling... But it didn't matter, it was her only escape.

She cast a furtive glace back at the man, he seemed fully focused on the body and did not even look her way. Sucking in a slow breath Vi began to move, slowly, painfully as she reached forward a hand and gently, ever so gently placed it back on the wall so that her claws would not clack against the surface. Shifting herself slightly on her toes she began to raise one leg, pulling her knee toward her chest and casting glance after glance to see if she were noticed. She laid her foot down equally soft as her hand before, being certain her claws would not be heard. She continued this action, over and over, moving as slowly as possible, and when she could she moved with the wind in the hopes that the sounds of rustling fabric might be mistaken for some distant noise over the lake, or perhaps nearby...

After what felt like centuries she reached the floor of the dock, stilling clinging upside down to the wall. She glanced back at the man, reaching her hand forward as slowly as before to grasp the rope handle, long fingers curling around the rope as she pulled and... The loudest creak she had ever heard echoed in the silence. It sounded like the hinges had not been oiled in years, and the wood loudly protested being shifted. She was so startled that Vi lost her grip on the wall and tumbled forward off of the wall. She gasped, released the handle and instinctively tucked herself into a ball to roll with the impact, instantly springing back to her feet. She did not look back at the man, she knew he heard the sound, surely he saw her. She simply turned and leapt at the wall, kicking off of it with one foot to send her toward the other wall where she stuck and clung to its sheer surface. Quickly she raced up the walls surface, her fingers latching onto the lip of the roof and pulling herself up and over so that she rolled flat onto her back on the top of the building. Her breathing was hard, her eyes wide in fear and she remained perfectly still for a few ticks. Did he hear her? Did he see her? She wasn't sure, but she had to check. She had too...

Rolling slowly onto her stomach Vi approached the edge of the building, her hands grasping the lip as she raised her head just high enough to look back down at where the man should have been, her Amethyst eyes shining in the moonlight.

[Caridan]

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A rusty crack shattered the silence about him. Startling it was, sending shocks of adrenaline though his veins, pushing him back a step, turning his porcelain face abruptly to the origin in a veil of wind blown black hair. Sweeping it from his face with one smooth motion he witnessed but fragments of what was quite an elaborate display. A girl so slender and fragile. Her body darting up a wall with indescribable finesse.

Once Caridan's eyes lay upon the girl however the dosage of adrenaline lessened, the fear from his heart gone as it regained it's steady tempo. She was clearly more frightened than him. Perhaps she was the killer; a slight Symenestra girl in Ravok - there was no other explanation.

He'd hurry after her if not for the speed with which she has scaled the building and disappeared above it's edge. But within moments he saw sparks of amethyst peering at him and so boldly yet warmly he looked back at her. His face contorted into an almost welcoming smile, his own eyes locked with her's. His hands raised to his torso, the palms pointing away from him to signify that he was unarmed and did truly mean no harm... none of the immediate obvious nature anyway.

Caridan stepped closer, forgetting the body that lay but a stone's toss from him. Instead he strolled over to the edge where the building plunged into the wood of the platform at a right angle and looking up he spoke, not too loudly but loud enough for her to hear.

"What's your name?" he asked, his voice saturated with obvious, almost child like curiosity. Caridan would allow enough time for but a one word answer, should it be revealing of her identity or not. Anything else he'd cut off with a voice so casual that one would think they were merely discussing the weather.

"You needn't fear me, girl. I'm not one to rat you out to the Ebonstrife."

He took a few steps back, gesturing with his hand for her to descend from the wooden structure, hoping that she'd listen. There was a certain authoritarian quality to him; perhaps it was the way in which he always conducted himself with such bold self assurance. Decorum of an arrogant being who thought of himself highly. But he didn't look down on her. Quite the opposite, he spoke to her in a manner with which an older brother may speak to a younger sister, nothing more, nothing less.

"You don't strike me as a killer." continued Caridan frivolously. " Was this your work? Don't be afraid to tell me the truth for I'll know if you lie. There's no particular interest in this matter for me besides perhaps simple human curiosity. But you're something else all together aren't you?"

The smile lessened now until his porcelain feature regained it's neutral appearance. He didn't look harsh or cold. Quite on the contrary his pale face still possessed that idiosyncratic warm aura about it. His lips bore a soft curve, parted slightly in pondering of the situation. His eyes were water, perfectly blue sparkling with interest.

Caridan's body angled back to the corpse, but his head was still inclined towards her as he spoke. "My my, such shoddy work. You haven't planned it particularly well have you. Perhaps you should take a page or two from Markus Taelin or Dorotha Valandae." he joked, mentioning the names of the particularly pleasantly remembered authors of his childhood. "And to stay at the scene of the crime for someone to simply sniff you out? You're far too lucky for your own good, to have come across me at a time like this. You should count your blessings."

There was not a shred of fear within him. Not a shred of expectation that if she could do this to another, she might do this to him. He did underestimate the girl's capability of doing it again grossly.

"And what will you do now?" asked Caridan alas, thus ending something of a mini monologue. An inclination of his head for her to speak.


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[Viridian]

He saw her. Vi almost yelped as she ducked back down, pressing her back flat against the roof as her heart pounded in her chest. Her claws scratched at the wood, biting her lip she looked back to the edge. Slowly she edged back, looking down at the man, and the body... but she remained silent. She didn't know this person, why would she give her name? Why was she still here even. That was the greatest mystery of all. Vi fidgeted, caught between the instinct to run and curiosity of this person who stood so calmly before her.

The Ebonstryfe? What was that? Vi wasn't sure, but how he said it seemed to mean they were not someone you wanted to encounter. It struck Vi how little she actually knew of the city. She had been there for some days now, but she was a foreigner. She did not know the customs or the ways of the people. She knew her kind wasn't well liked, but beyond that she had no idea what to expect. Maybe this man was only trying to help... Or to draw her in to capture the murderer and end her for her crimes?

He was odd, though not in an unpleasant way. She was a slave, someone used to taking orders, to bending and bowing to wishes, and almost without hesitation she started to descend the wall once more, her head pointing down as she crawled cautiously down, her eyes still watching Caridan as she did. A small part of her wanted to trust him, because right now she was completely alone. She paused at the bottom, and she turned so that she would step off the wall feet first. Her eyes never left Caridan as she straightened, and she kept one hand on the wall in case she needed to quickly get away.

Her eyes glanced to the body, and then quickly away. Her expression was confused, a mixture of sorrow and retribution, like she was sorry that she killed the man, but not that the man was dead, "I... I-it was an accident. I didn't meant to." She gulped and looked up at Caridan, expecting to see judgement, condemnation and anger, but she saw none of this. Instead he was like a mirror, his blank features bringing to her mind how she herself must look. Frightened and unsure, distraught but not in a way that would suggest she regretted what happened to the man. She noticed she was biting her lip again, her fang hanging over her lip, still extended, and quickly she stopped to hide the murder weapon from sight once more.

He called it shoddy work, and somehow Vi felt her pride injured slightly. Was it really that bad? Was it so obviously done by an amateur? And most importantly, why the Petch did she care if it was? It was murder. It was the murder of a master by his slave. It was a death sentence, what did it matter if it was artful or not? She quickly tried to hide the disappointment on her face, though she was never very good at it. She felt like she was being scolded as an apprentice would be, having failed a work for her Master.

Vi wrapped her long arms around herself, hugging her body in hopes to comfort herself in this moment. She did not even realize she had released the wall, let go of her one chance of escape. Maybe she didn't really want to escape.

"I don't know..." She looked from the body to Caridan, and to the body once more before looking away, "I don't know what to do..."

[Caridan]

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"I... I-it was an accident. I didn't meant to." he listened to her admission as his eyebrow arched somewhat. Now that she stood before him, clearly hesitant, Caridan turned to her once more.

She seemed so fragile to him, so delicate. The uncertainty painted in her face, accented by a faint glimmer of a pointed tooth about the line of her mouth which was so quickly hidden once more. This frail hue seemed somewhat befitting of her person - like a dress it complimented her natural beauty. Perhaps this was what drew him in, now that he had a confession. Perhaps this beauty was the reason he had not turned around on his heel and walked away.

"Ah..." he nodded in affirmation of her statement as if to say that he could have figured that much out on his own.

His remark evidently brought her some sort of distaste, for he could have sworn he saw a slight grimace flicker in her face. So she was more than just a frightened little girl, he thought to himself. There was hope of substance beneath the shell of fear which encompassed her and that he found even more enticing. Perhaps he could make use of her in the future somehow? And even if that wasn't to be the case he found himself to quite enjoy this encounter. This joy propelled him onwards.

No other words escaped Caridan's lips for a few moments as his blue, blue eyes watched her recoil and lessen somehow. The obscurely elongated limbs folding around her in the manner of a child, lost and confused. The thought glided though his mind that perhaps she had been a brilliant actress. After all what other person would be so very dependant on another with such exquisite acrobatic skills? If she had the brains then she'd have fled to the other side of Ravok by now.

But instead she stood before him like an animal with her leash unhanded, waiting for another to grab hold of her. "I don't know what to do..."

And then it dawned on his as to why he felt so compelled to trust her. The reason why it was logical to relinquish the foolish thought of this all being a simple performance. After all he had never been a man to fallow his instincts. Some might even say he had been born without. His capability to feel was flawed, besides he had always deemed it stupid to trust the heart not the head. This precisely is the precise reason why, if she had been a human, he would have returned home by now. But this was not the case. Symenestra weren't popular among Ravokians and Caridan was not a typical Ravokian citizen.

"Well it would be wise to start by disposing of the body. And it would be wise to do it now and leave this location before someone sees you." he prompted her, suddenly growing aware of the never-resting time. "The blood is a different matter. Someone will notice it in the morning for it has probably already seeped though the wood. But that doesn't matter. A puddle of blood doesn't scream murder to the eyes of more reasonable folk."

Caridan looked straight into her eyes as he spoke. His hand budged towards her, an outstretched palm for her to take should she choose to. His warm, charming smile alas returning to his face. "My name is Caridan by the way. Caridan Redding. You needn't fear me girl."


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[Viridian]

Hide the body. Yes it was so obvious, so logical, so... She should have thought of it. Vi knew it. She had stood there for chimes as the man writhed in pain, and then hid aimlessly for who knows how much longer. All the while someone had come and examined her work, and it was true she had been lucky that this man was the one that found her. It was luck, or providence... right?

Rubbing her arms against the chill in the night Vi looked between the Body and Caridan. It all made perfect sense when said calmly, and how he said it all made it seem as if it were all perfectly natural. Like death and murder were no more unusual than a slight change in the weather. So boring it was barely worth mentioning. Was this how free people talked? Did they care so little about the lives of others that they could rearguard them so easily? They did keep slaves after all, making them less than human (for the humans) and less than animals. Maybe that is what made you free, the depths of cruelty that you could bring towards another person. Maybe you could only be free if you became uncaring of the life around you yourself.

Vi looked at the hand extended to her, and she only hesitated a moment before she reached out one hand and grasped it. Her claws would lightly brush his skin, something that could not be avoided, and she would look up at Caridan and smile slowly, uncertainly, "I am Viridian." She knew that he would see her fangs if she smiled so directly at him, would see them as she poke, but for the moment that didn't matter. As quickly as she gripped his hand she let it go, folding her arms back in place once more as she looked back at the body, "How should we get rid of the body?"

[Caridan]

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Alas their skin met. alas, and truly it was a pivotal moment, saturated with symbolic meaning which Caridan made a mental note of. It had meant that she trusted him;; at least subconsciously if she had not yet been consciously aware of it. It was a metaphoric embodiment of a new relationship what was quickly becoming established and blooming in the dire nature of the situation.

He thought to himself for a moment as she revealed her name, nodding to it with a smile. And whilst normally it would have been a smile of victory, this one lacked the arrogance. In fact it his face almost looked compassionate.

Tragic circumstances such as this one, for in the very textbook definition of the word this was indeed a tragic circumstance even if Caridan would beg to differ, may often have adverse reactions on the minds - especially those minds that are weak. It's a fact that been observed by curious scholars since the days of the Valerian or perhaps even earlier. Caridan thought about this intently. There were so many dangers to her right now and the timid decorum with which she's approaching the situation , as he was currently observing, could be indicative of slight weakness. She could become depressed, paranoid or, as he read some years ago, perhaps even develop a certain disorder which is heavily characterised by hallucinations and intrusive recollections of the event. He didn't want to see that happen to her for he had began feeling somewhat protective of her - something that wasn't particularly usual for Caridan. But then again, he thought as he pondered the matter a little longer, wouldn't it be so very interesting to be able to observe such behaviours in person? Wouldn't it be wonderful to observe how she deals with the circumstance she had landed herself into?

A devious seed of a plan was sown in the voids of his mind. One that he wasn't quite sure whether he'd be able to execute but one that would both give him farther leverage over the girl and a fascinating opportunity to clench his own long pale fingers around quite the unusual entity of a human cadaver. This was the point at which arrogant sense of his mind's superiority and an unrelenting thirst for knowledge began moulding Caridan's facial expression. But somehow he cared not to hide it. His eyes blazed up with cold blue flames of anticipation.

As she asked her question he turned his back to her, appearing perhaps somewhat rude but that too was significant. It was his own way of signifying that he trusted her and for the plan which would span over many many days, mutual trust was essential.

Inching towards the corpse he spoke as if he was reciting a page of a phantom book which hovered before his eyes. "You can always chuck it in the canal. But I'd advise you against it, Viridian." the name rolled melodically from his lips. He liked it. "Human flesh decomposes producing a flammable gas. It makes the body swell and float atop water like a balloon. even if it sinks to the bottom now, within the next two or three days he'd be popping back up for some unfortunate peasant to fish out. Hardly a pleasant ordeal."

Caridan paused to highlight the magnitude of his words. Often he liked to speak his many monologues in a way which would ensure they will be remembered. It was but a simple quirk of his.

"The only other obvious suggestion I may have is to hide and store it somewhere where it can be properly disposed of by fire. It'll melt the skin and the organs until there's nothing but bones which can then be thrown into the water." At this point Caridan should have probably been a little more careful with the severity of what it is that he chose to speak. Though his tone was as comforting and soft as he could possibly manage, his words were a tad on the cruel side. Too late. What was said cannot be unsaid. "Such a place could be my flat if you wish."

Caridan didn't wait for a reply however. He knelt down by the body to examine it only to be somewhat taken aback by the unfamiliarity that it now possessed. For a man that had lived his entire life being quite confident in the firm tone of bone and muscle in a male body, only accepting the more blubbery bits as fat due to his very basic knowledge of anatomy, this was indeed odd. The man before him looked like he had already began swelling from decomposition but how could that be? He'd been dead for far less than a bell. The skin yellowed and became far tenser. And when he pressed down on the biceps muscle in the man's arm it sunk right to the bone beneath his fingers as if the meat beneath the skin was replaced by porage.

Now Caridan had never any irrational phobias.. Even as a child he hadn't feared the dark or heights and when other children would flee from a spider he'd pick up the creature in his bare hands and spent hours examining its shape and form. In fact he had never really feared much in his life. For someone as educated as he was the world was predictable. This however astonished him, sending him backwards as if he'd been burned, looking to the Symenestra girl. His expression dropped. His face just a shade paler.

"What is the meaning of this?" he spoke quietly, almost in a whisper. Confusion rang thought out his voice. "What did you do?" He has not angry with her and that was very apparent in the tone he used. Simply confused, astonished and even a little frightened.


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[Viridian]

Her first thoughts had indeed been to dump it into the lake. After all who wouldn't think of that solution on their own? The waters were vast and deep, and even if it were found it would hopefully be so decomposed or eaten that they would be unrecognizable. It had never even occurred to her that a body might float... That indeed made things more difficult, and more trying to deal with.

Vi's eyes stayed locked on Caridan as he spoke, sweeping over his blue eyes and calm features, and when he turned the burrowed holes in his back as she mentally clung to him for support. She could barely form coherent sentences in her mind, and thus trying to wrap her head around this situation was becoming more and more difficult to bear. There was a sense of revulsion at the thought of burning the body. She could almost imagine the smell, and the thought made her stomach turn and she clasped a hand over her lips. More a move to comfort herself than for actual need. She did not know how she felt of this option, but then what other option did she have? Nodding her head slowly she was about to agree with this course of action, though she paused as he glanced back at her.

In the darkness she could see perfectly, and she noticed his skin paled ever so slightly. He had knelt before the body, but what he saw did not seem to agree with what he expected to see. She heard his confusion, and the sudden tone made Vi step back against the wall without thinking. She wasn't afraid, or rather she shouldn't be afraid. It was just an odd trick of the wind that changed the man's demeanor. Surely... Or perhaps he saw something he had never seen before?

Swallowing, Vi steadied her voice, clearing her throat a couple times before answering just as quietly, "I... I bit him, and injected my venom into... into his body. It digests muscle and tissue, even bone over time. We... T-that is, my people, we can't eat solid food so we have to digest it before we consume it. It happens fast usually, but when we are starved as... as I was, the venom becomes much more powerful and corrosive." She swallowed again, her eyes watching Caridan, "Is... is this a bad thing?"

[Caridan]

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He watched Viridian talk as she did, absorbing every word into the fabric of his mind, anxious not to forget a single detail. And as he did so his face lit up once more and so very profound was his expression of pure joy. Eyes ablaze with blue flames at the prospects of... yes indeed this girl was precious and he wouldn't let go of her it it meant bending the very fabric of his person to suit her. The prospects of a new poison to study. Above all the excitement of today this by far was the most exciting of occurrences.

" No no, of course not." he protested, fighting that overwhelming joy. Suppressing it within himself. "Forgive me for being startled. You see I have only ever read about the Symenestra in books and what not. Never had I the pleasure of meeting a being such as yourself in anything other than my imagination." he chuckled at the words. "Oh Viridian, you truly are magnificent."

He longed to touch her. To wrap his arms around her and give her a warm squeeze even if only for a moment. But this was not the place nor the time for such displays of affection. And he did feel volumes of affection for the creature she was ad the things she could do and the marvellous joy she brought him on this day.

Caridan's initial thought was to poor out the contents of the body via the lesions on it, as some digested sludge had already seeped out. A disgusting yellowy red of blood and protein and fat all in one. Suffice to say he wasn't willing to try this delicacy. But then something he remembered her say made him change his mind. "but when we are starved as... as I was" Caridan's mind echoed. "but when we are starved as... as I was..."

Pushing the corpse's coat out of the way, the young medic grasped the edge of his fine wool shirt and tore it viciously until a thick stripe came off. He then used it to bandage over the holes, keeping it very tight and the knot sturdy so that no more of the body's contents would spill out and soil his own clothing. How he hated to get his hands dirty. And directly proceeding the action he thoroughly checked though the pockets of the coats and the corpse's pants, finding quite the sum of golden mizas which soon found a new home between the fabric of Caridan's own clothing. Why should it go to waste when the money could be spent in better ways.

"Listen, Viridian." he motioned her over, checking in the mean time if the bandage was sturdy enough. Satisfied with his handy work he instructed her. "I'll carry him. My flat isn't far at all. I'll have to ask you to climb the roof tops once more and fallow me, keeping an eye for anyone who might be crossing my path. You'll have a better view of the streets from higher up. Can you do that for me Viridian?"

Caridan wasn't one for heavy lifting as his very stature was quite slender. But he felt confident that he could just about make the journey. The body too seemed a little lighter with the amount of bodily fluids lost. None the less, with considerable effort Caridan pulled the corpse onto his shoulder, suspending it down his back so that it flopped quite uncomfortably. Holding the dead man proved quite a challenge as his body was so soft that it slipped out his fingers on more than one occasion, thus he held him by the cloth of his clothing instead. Alas ready he nodded to the Symenestra to pick up the pace. They have spent far too much time here and indeed been very lucky to not have been discovered.


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