Closed Peace and Quiet, Carving and meditation

[Banir Ironwood]

Banir began to step between the two of them now, his clawed hand leaving Alea's shoulder as he passed her by. He was larger, he was stronger, he could take a lot more damage than her. He and Yuros had promised to protect her despite what stood in their way. Though the only thing that was said, was to keep her safe. Banir considered this immeasurably important, for without his word he was just another monster to rage. As well this girl that was at his back was more family than anyone of blood. Only Falix was closer than her to him, but even so the last thing he'd want would be her harmed. Though it wouldn't be by his own hand, he didn't want it to be at the hands of one of his friends either. As he stood between them he made sure that he let his own intimidation show. His red eyes backing up the threat his body made. Clearly not pleased with the display from Alea and even less so that Ximal was so quick to turn hostile. He was going to set things right, and by Izurdin's strength and Morwen's touch he'd do it to the best of his ability. Looking at Alea he looked her clear in the eyes, the red crimson almost trying to escape his eyes. He was angry and with good reason seeing as she was not helping the situation.

Taking a breath as he folded his arms across his chest again, his muscles flexing clear even under his think jacket. His armour clinking as his movements shifted the hefty cold iron. The bladed fingers tapping on his arm as he prepared his words for her. "Alea thank you for, defending me but I, am able to do so, on my own. More importantly I, think it best not to, agitate this any further. Broken bones take a, while to heal." He had to pause and take a few breaths to rest his throat for a moment, after a moment he prepared his words again. Bringing his bulk around he sighed and then cracked his shoulders. "Ximal, Alea is an old friend with, very odd habits. What you recently saw was, me attacking her. In my defense I thought, someone was attempting to, harm me with an attack, from behind. I realized who it was, when she revealed herself. This was nothing more, than an indecent more of, coincident and mistake. Also I ask that you, forgive Alea her temper, seems worse than my own." He took another long and slow few breaths. His throat was starting to hurt now and his blazed eyes kept looking between the two.

Banir had never played as a mediator before, or anything revolving around peace negotiations. This was his absolutely first time with this and though this so far was just people butting heads. He was praying to every god he could think of in the pantheon that this didn't result in a fight. He could easily take Alea's punches, Ximal's too so long as they didn't have that extra kick he gave them. But this may very well be the death of him, he made special prayers to Dira and Rak'keli. One to help him should he be mortally wounded, and one to embrace him gently if the later prayer didn't reach Rak'keli. Thankfully his face was shrouded and his eyes really displayed his rag. Hiding the cold sweat that was breaking out on his brow. The feel of that sweat sliding into his scars and flowing on the damaged tissue almost caused him to shiver. Almost, he'd not show weakness, not in front of these two. Not when he was trying to put and keep the tensions down between his friends. He could at least pride himself with not panicking at diplomacy.

[Ximal]

Xi took a long slow breath holding back a want to really lay into the little shyke with words rather than fists. Still Xi had a better reign on his temper than that as of late at least...The spires had that sort of effect on him. though She did have a point he didn't know her and he didn't know if she could handle herself especially against banir. Xi just took a deep breath and exhaled before lifting hia arms and folding them across his chest in a manner similar to banir, but his one less tight more of a sign that he wasn't going to let his arms out of his sight lest they do something he couldn't control. Though her last words did happen to strike a chord with Xi's nerves and his eyes flashed a glance towards her. Not one where his eyes changed colour like banir but one that conveyed a lot of intent to really teach her a lesson. Still another deep breath and then he spoke to her and now he'd take her off at the knees with words and perhaps at least try to shut that oversized mouth of hers. "You can insult me when you can tell the difference between concern and accusation miss davenport. And perhaps children should keep their mouth shut when the adults are talking, because i wasn't asking for your opinion." Xi's words had both a bite of anger and a bite of a condescending tone. He was though talking to banir not her, he'd known banir for a while and was asking for his reasoning and he knew about banir's anger and right now he was starting down the barrel of it. As banir stepped in front of her. As banir defended her Xi gave him a rather...unimpressed look, especially when he was being civil towards her and simply asking banir for an explanation. Though Banir had cleared up what had happened and Xi for the most part believed him. He'd only known banir a short while but he knew what warriors were like with swift reflexes. Another deep breath and a slow exhale, he believed banir. He'd let things slide but only because it was a misunderstanding, her attitude however would remain a bone of contention. Xi left his hands open and light. Xi wasn't going to attack mostly because he didn't want to have to try and subdue a blind raged rock. Xi titled his head and cracked his neck lightly. "Alright, banir i believe you. Just keep her temper and her mouth under control. If you cant do that i might recommend a gag and some rope. Else i'm tossing her in the jail until her head cools off mostly because i don't want her disturbing the peace, partially because i don't want to have to deal with her. " Xi's own eyes met banirs, his rage filled crimson one against Xi's own anger filled deep blue ones. The first time Xi had shown banir angry eyes, and hopefully the last. Xi took another slow breath and let his djed flow our of his muscles again and back to the main reservoir he had.

[Ana Sol Starris]

Out for a stroll, the thief went, adventure and amusement being her goals in the Spires. For she had grown quite bored in the last few days, her mind turning at a sluggish pace from what once was as fast a cowards feet, running, sprinting far away from mobs and murders. With her black cloaks hood up and hiding most of her face, she wrapped the cloak somewhat loosely around her body, masquerading the fact she had a weapon on her person and where her fingers were supposedly. Just waiting to be quick, and thievy without the owners know how. There was no real destination she was heading to, she was just exploring a world which she had so unrightly ignored the first few seasons of arrival. Ana thought it to be crinimal, she should at least know where everything was if she ever needed to plan a quick escape from local authorities- namely Ximal. Ximal! Ana paused, her eyes stared from the cloak at the hulk of a man a ways away from herself- she had heard him before she saw him. Out of instinct, she began inching her way towards the small group, choosing branches and bushes to be her guise. She wanted to see if she could pick anything interesting up from the three. One, Ana recognized, but did not remember where they had met, but he was- at where she could see, looked to be just as tall as Ximal was. Next to them was a girl, in furs, the ex-thief felt a pang bounce around her mind as the fur reminded her of things. She would have to get some soon too, soon, she didn't know how bad the winters up in the Spires were- but she didn't want to freeze in an unknown land. From what Ana could tell, the girl was the one being picked on by Ximal, or the other guy, she couldn't tell exactly- but it seemed the other guy was defending her. Did Ximal have the knack for picking on people who were smaller than them? Moving silently, she looked around on the ground- of course there would be no rocks or stone up in the trees, there was no snow as of yet, so she got the idea to.. Well she had no idea. What could she do to distract him from the girl? Hmm... She thought to herself, trying to piece together a plot. For now, she just sat and watched the trio. From what Ana could tell, the trio was tense, had something happened just before she had arrived? She was never one to show herself when in hiding, but maybe she could just shimmy a bit and still be a unnoticiable- yet hear them better, she cupped a hand to her ear and turned that side of her head towards them to listen. "Alright, Banir I believe you. Just keep her temper and her mouth under control. If you cant do that I might recommend a gag and some rope. Else I'm tossing her in the jail until her head cools off mostly because I don't want her disturbing the peace, partially because I don't want to have to deal with her. " Ximal said. Ana frowned, he had used a lot of the word I in that, was it really his choice? Was it his worry? Yeah, he was a gaurd, but he wasn't some police force that was in charge- he was a gaurd of cages. That was all. What she did, she may come to regret later, but Ana silently stepped out of her hiding place and behind Ximal, inahaling quietly she said in a loud voice "who made you the leader of Spires, Ximal? Cut the girl some slack- you only just met her, I assume since you're threatening her for something so silly as temper, don't let power get to you just because you have it- if you throw her in jail for some petty reason- you're no better than those in Sunberth." Ana seethed silently underneath her cool exterior, arms at her sides lightly- tensed. She was ready for anything that would be thrown at her, not for retaliation or defence, but for retreat- she was paranoid still. Defending a complete stranger? What was she thinking!?

[Alea Davenport]

Alea bristled at Ximal's condescending tone, but she was too busy wondering how it was possible for a man to be so arrogant to come up with a snappy reply. She had been under the impression that the Jamoura were in charge of the Spires, and though he may be the size of one, she was pretty sure simple guards didn't have the authority this one was acting like he had. Still, at his level of being full of himself, he probably wouldn't hear anything he said, so it would just be a waste of breath. Maybe she could formally complain to someone who was really in charge.

Still, it wasn't quite in her to let an opponent have the last word. As much as she knew continued arguing would be a waste of time and effort, keeping silent felt too much like letting Ximal win. And letting him win just meant he would continue throwing his weight around the Spires where it didn't belong. It had nothing to do with Alea being a sore loser. Nope, nothing at all.

Lucky for possibly everyone involved, Alea never got a chance to make her decision, because someone stepped in and berated Ximal in her place. It was a girl's voice, coming from a cloaked-figure who Alea hadn't even noticed approaching. Alea stepped partway around Ximal to be better able to defend her new ally if necessary, and she grinned and winked at the other girl in gratitude. Now that it was two on one, Alea felt much more confident about telling Ximal off.

"Yeah, you want to talk about disturbing the peace? You're causing more of a ruckus that I was. Look around, is anyone complaining? Using your position to get rid of the people you don't like? That's just the kind of scum move that makes people not last long in a place like this. You've got a problem with me, let's take it up with the Jamoura. They are the rightful authority in this city, and they can decide which one of us is causing the problem."

She knew Banir wanted to keep peace between them all, but she couldn't help it. Ximal was wrong. She couldn't just stand by and let someone be wrong, not when there was something she could do about it! And besides, if Ximal did feel strongly about this conflict enough to force Alea to go to the proper authorities, Alea at least trusted the Jamoura to listen to everyone's side before making wild accusations.

[Banir Ironwood]

This was going rather well by his standards, no one had been harmed. Cooler head where prevailing and it was going to come out alright. However right as he was relaxing he felt eyes on him. And not a fraction of a chime sooner had someone decided to blurt out their opinion of the situation. He felt his own nerves on edge as he noticed Alea head toward the new visitor. Surely the gods where testing him in this? Because there was no way that right after he had defused the situation that by his luck someone added in their two miza's breaking the good balance. And to add insult to injury Alea had decided to open her mouth. The urge to put his hand to his face came rather strong but he knew that would do nothing in this situation. But he needed to get his priorities right, first off he needed to protect Alea. Should anything happen to her he'd not forgive himself for allowing it to happen. Yes she was a pain, yes she was a great source of annoyance, and of course she more than likely deserved it. But he still couldn't allow harm to come to her, not while he was here and had control of himself. Quick to step between Ximal and Alea, weather he liked it or not his body would be her shield.

"Okay lets all just, calm down here. There is no need to, bring the Jamoura, into this dispute surely, they have more important, things to see to. I'm also sure we all, have better things we could, be doing than just, starting a needless and, pointless argument." Banir didn't need this, to be surrounded by angry people or at least those who encouraged its growth. His blazed red eyes stared back at everyone. At some point he had raised his hands trying to calm the situation down once more. The irony was very clear to him, and its taste was rather foul in his mouth as the berserker was trying to keep those around him calm. He let his mind focus once more on the task at hand, his rage red eyes held in constraints as he tried to prevent an incident from occurring. He knew that Ximal would at least listen. After all the man was a guard so chances where he also wouldn't want the Jamoura's bugged with such a trivial matter. Alea was also smart, occasionally, and hopefully knew to concede now that she had hopefully spoken her hearts content. As for the stranger, yeah he had nothing on her.

However he felt like he had met her before but his mind wouldn't let him recall anything other than that. Besides the little cloaked woman had yet to show her face. So there was little point in trying to remember her. What proved to be more interesting was her willingness to call out Ximal like she did. Obviously she knew Ximal somehow, and was confident in her knowledge of him to do such rash behavior. For her he had no words, but knew if it came down to it he may have to through his body in front of her just in case things became violent. This was not how he wanted his day to go, all he wanted to do was peacefully carve and let the day pass by.

[Ximal]

Xi began to wonder how it'd become everyone against him ? All he was doing was trying to understand what was happening any NORMAL person would. However now it had become a situation where a small girl was really trying his patience. Only one other small person came to mind when it came to being annoyed. And speaking of the devil the voice shot out from out of line of sight and caught Xi off kilter and then a torrent of abuse flowed out from the little ... girl. infront of him. Now Xi was beginning to loose his grip on control as he felt liro leaking in slowly. he could feel the icy fangs clawing over one side of his face rather than the back of his head like normal and as such his eye's reflected it. One the normal currently very pissed off and controlled eye and the other filled to the brim with insanity and blood lust. Xi managed to hold himself together as he glowered back into Banir's eyes. To let him know the situation would not end well unless he shut alea up. Taking a long slow controlled and restrained breath he almost growled out a barking order to the voice he almost instantly recognized. Flashing his gaze in the direction of the voice her barked out. "ANA! Get over here. If your going to talk like that at least have the courage to do it to my face. And i'm not letting power get to me. Power is an illusion only solong as you have the following to sustain it power holds sway. I've no following ergo i have no power. " Then his attention flicked back to alea. Right now. He really was not impressed. The little woman had seriously done a number to his patience. Right now he wasn't in the mood to be clever, if liro got out then all of those near by would be in danger. "Disturbing the peace is what you've done. What i did was my job making sure everything was in order. If there's a person being pinned to a tree then i'm damned well going to find out what's happening even if the one doing it is my friend i will still want a reason. And no i'm not using my position to gt rid of people i don't like normally i try to talk things through with them but since your being an obstinate little child who refuses to shut her mouth i foolishly assumed that would get you to close that engorged mouth of yours. But no all it's done is get you to incessantly flap your gums with no accurate thought as to the nonsense that left them. If we took this to the jamoura it would be you in the wrong. I'm just doing my job. And perhaps if you looked around alea you'd see that there are only four of us here so of course no-one is going to complain." Lastly Xi turned his attention back to banir, leering at him to try and see just how good his skill at understanding was. trying to convey the point with only his eyes and the differences between them to banir. To get him to prevent her from escalating the situation. Then finally he spoke to banir. "Banir, if you want the situation to not escalate 'please' silence her." Then with almost a whisper of voice in liro's tone another sentence flickered out the words crumbling into decayed insanity. "Or ElSe ThEre mIght bE...rAmIfIcAtiOnS..."

[Ana Sol Starris]

Ximals harsh command cleaved the air in two, sending a shock wave of mind numbing paranoia down her spine. As if to try and explain, she began to fiddle with her cloak and stayed firmly planted where she was- yet didn't look at him either "well.. It's not my fault I happened to be coming the way opposite you were looking" it was a mumble, but she felt she shouldn't press harder on as she creeped towards the trio. The closer she got, the more her mental alert system went off- tensing her body and putting her on edge. Instead of going to stand in front of Ximal, she tip toed to the girl- Ana held her own finger up to her mouth, and made a 'shhh' gesture to the strange, loud one. Then in as swift, and careful of a motion that she could have made: Ana pointed behind herself with her thumb, attempting to use as much cloak as she could to shield her actions. Then she pointed to the girl in front of her, Ana shook her head lightly, even though it may have been a slight movement of her hood. Ana was attempting to tell Alea to shut up, without having to use words. The last gesture the ex-thief made was a praying one, eyes leering from under the hood in a hopeful expression. All of this. All of these gestures were being done while Ximal was talking, maybe Ana had distracted the girl enough, but if she had not. Ana would promptly cover Aleas mouth with a small palm, sharply. Hopefully she would finally get the idea, or Ximal would finally canter off somewheres else. The last few words said by Ximal, made her look behind her shoulder at the olf and blink, held a finger up as if to say something, and then said nothing. The finger wilted. Stupid petchers... I should flee soon... To the nets! Ana thought to herself. The ex-thief made a little cough, then said "maybe our friend here just has a bad case of stomach flu? Making her cranky? Can't blame her for that, can ya? ...She does look a bit under the weather, you're not feeling well are you? I know how sick people look, because I've been sick alot myself and I've been around alot of sick people too" Ana jested a bit, to Ximal, turning back to Alea, beginning to gently nudge her in the direction of the medical petal "I know exactly where you can get medical remedies, cheap too, good service, good doctors- heck, they may give you a candie for good behaviour" under Ana's breath, she whispered as quickly and quietly as she could "just go with it."

[Alea Davenport]

Alea cocked her head quizzically as the girl approached her, making strange gestures. Ximal had called her Ana, was that her name then? Ana kept pointing to Alea and Ximal. Did she want Alea to attack the large man? Alea certainly wouldn't mind, having almost forgotten Banir and his desire for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. She was tired of Ximal's nonsensical words, and she intended to tell him so.

She stepped forward and took a deep breath, about to let her big mouth take her where it willed, but suddenly there was a small hand over her mouth. She shot a confused look at the girl, and the idea flashed across her mind that she could easily break such a weak grasp, but if she started down that road of violence, she wasn't sure she could stop. Besides, Ana was Alea's ally against the much bigger threat that was Ximal.

Alea considered Ximal, really looked at him for the first time. She was never one to back down from a fight, even one she knew she would lose, but if everyone else thought she should stop antagonizing Ximal... Well, she certainly wouldn't give him the satisfaction of imagining for one second that she had backed down, but she might be willing to delay the inevitable confrontation until such a time when she was more prepared to face him. And so she let the others believe the cloaked girl had Alea suitably restrained.

At Ximal's implication that Alea could be "silenced", especially by one such as Banir, she realized that she couldn't just let him get the last word like that. Ana declined to comment, and Alea did not like that any person could so intimidate another that they would choose not to speak their mind. And so Alea waved her arms angrily, even going so far as to shake a fist at Ximal, all while yelling unintelligibly behind the hand.

But when Ana started rambling about illness and doctors, Alea became distracted by confusion. She wasn't sick, and even if she were, that wouldn't have anything to do with why she was mad. She tried to explain this to the girl, but all that could be heard was slightly indignant gibberish. It wasn't until Ana's last whisper that Alea realized she had a plan, but she couldn't fathom what it could possibly be.

[Banir Ironwood]

Noticing the tone of Ximal's voice he prepared, his muscles prepared for a strike and his great dam of rage ready to break free. He might not be able to beat an enraged Ximal, but he could sure as hell slow him down or at least cripple him by matching his anger with his own. Though the objective was to avoid violence he was not afraid to attack Ximal if he threatened one of his oldest friends. However the choice weighed on him to attack his new friend as well, he had thought situations like this over before in his head. If one friend hated another, from what he resolved apathy would end up with someone dead. Acting to hastily will result in a loss of a friend. The middle ground was best, trying to calm one and restrain the other. Not easy but so far it had been accomplished, after all Ximal was a sensible man. His eyes trained on the new person as she approached behind him, taking full note that his back was open to a dagger the idea was to avoid violence. But he knew that the little person wouldn't want to diminish an object between her and her possible aggressor. That was an illogical move that made little sense, after all he was a full body meat shield and would more than cover an escape. Banir felt physical relief in him when the new person managed to shut Alea's mouth.

Now that at least the potential explosive substance had been removed it was time to now let everything wind down. Mentioning with a finger subtly for the new person who apparently was called 'Ana' to leave. Hopefully she saw his silent and simple gesture, but chances where she was already dragging Alea away. His suspicion was confirmed when he heard the muffled shouts, letting out a simple sigh of mostly pain and regret. She was an idiot, an utter idiot when it came to such situations. Thankfully he was at least getting pretty good at this, maybe he could persuade Ximal to relax and just calm down. Putting his focus back on the man his eyes shifted in colour now that his friend was safe as she was dragged off to the medical petal. Forcing his mind to shift emotions he remembered the feeling of carving. The steady feel of the mask in his hand as his metal moved along taking off another layer to reveal what was beneath. A calm white over took his eyes, though the red kept a strong resistance in its center. Calm flowed off his person as he hoped to persuade reason and logic out of his friend. This way at least they could hold a civil discussion.

Looking up at the man he took another breath as he began his attempt to persuade and reason. "Ximal, now that the whole situation, is settled. How about we go, I've learned how to, to a degree, steady my rage. You might also find it, interesting." Now that Banir had seen Ximal's own anger perhaps his suggestion could inspire him to take it. Though Banir could only hope as he looked up at the man, he of course could take what was dished out. Ximal could get as angry as he wanted. He knew that anger dulled and diluted fighting abilities, though the strength offered was nothing to scoff at. Thinking became more of a Sisyphean task. There he at least had a chance to try and out wit his opponent.

[Ximal]

Xi was now almost entirely focused on holding back liro if he slipped out then at least one person was not walking away without a serious injury. Xi closed his eyes and tried to fight back the encroaching power covering his face with his hand and clenching the other at his side. Xi took deep slow breaths as he listened to what was being said around him. Ana was clearly trying just to get out of there and to do what banir couldn't shut her up. In this he was grateful and would probably end up thanking her later on. Xi's breath pace quicken slightly as he felt his shoulders tense and feel his grip regaining but slowly. Another round of here idiocy and he would loose himself. Xi locked his mind on the task ahead of him. and tried to brace himself against liros encroaching influence. Xi cracked open his eyes lightly and he saw the ignorant little shyke being carted off by ana. Slowing his breath he felt he might be able to let some of his precautions slide. Xi took a deep breath and then his tone lowered but the influce could still be felt around him and thetension still seen in his left hand. "i'm happy that you've learnt to constrain your anger but...What you saw was not anger. That was insanity. All warriors have anger. I believe i said that to you at one point. But all use it differently. My anger keeps the madness within me in check. i constrain the insanity with my anger. And it is my anger that keeps me calm. " Xi took another slow deep breath before lowering his hand from his face and drawing his hood up again. Liro was like Xi's personal hell, and whenever his anger was redirected then the beast was unleashed. He had to keep his anger burning and aimed within. To be sure that liro didn't slip free and abuse the teaching kalia had bestowed upon him. Xi lifted his eye's back up and glowered into banirs. Fires of anger burning within both but Xi's anger serving a greater purpose than simple out flowing rage and power. Xi shuffled his coat around him and twisted his cloak back into place. right now Xi was not in a happy place and that was clearly evident. Xi was always angry, but never angry with people. just at the beast within. Anger was the only feeling he had strong enough to hold the beast in place. Madness be gets madness, just as hate breeds hate. Alea's ignorance had only added fuel to the pyre but had it been things for him to reflect upon then he would heave held onto it. and possibly even used it to better himself but no her being an ignorant petulant child, had almost cost him his freedom and her and banir their lives. "Banir you do what you have to, to restrain your anger. I need my alive to serve a different purpose. And later i think we both owe Ana a debt of thanks ."