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((Gabi Summoning no Jutsu! *poof*))
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Espa followed Sol wherever he was leading them. Tsai's weight was starting to pull at the back of her mind and she was starting to get a little bit impatient.

Bored, she probed around for Mick, Saruo, or Rym. She found Mick and blithely followed his adventures in the bath house. She chuckled a few times at Mick's reactions to the beautiful women of the bath house causing several of Sol's minions or apprentices to give her confused looks. That was fine by her, they could think what they liked.

Then, when Mick was shoved against the wall, she had to comment in his brain at last.



Her mental voice spat out in Mick's mind.

(( symbols are telepathic thought))

"I don't need to be powerful."

Her deep brown eyes were staring at him now, her hand still gripping the shadowsilk for strength. He couldn't be a spirit, a spirit wouldn't say something so wrong...

Tiel had always been taught that a balance of power was far more important than the power itself. Balance would create goodness for the world. Whatever she did, became a part of that balance...

She didn't want power. She didn't mind if she had it, but all she wanted was to make beautiful things.

"No. I'm not going with you," she said firmly. Another thing she had always been taught was not to run off alone with strange men. "My father will be back soon. You should go. I'll ask my father where I can go, to learn more about them..."

She glanced toward the door, her gaze just happening to fall upon a nail Rigel had left in one of her father's pieces. "Maybe...you could help me explain what happened." He might not believe her. If it weren't for the solid shadows beneath her hand, she wouldn't believe herself.

((You really don't need to quote people when their post is on the same page or right above yours, you know. The quoting helps when the post you're responding to is a few pages back, but when you're responding to a post right above yours, quoting just takes up more space.))

Isn't that what power is? Tiel thought to herself. Power was power, whatever it was used for. She didn't wish to gain power...

Subconsciously, her hand stroked the shadowsilk once more.

...she only wished to develop the power she had. She only wished to craft beautiful things, like her mother and father had done together, and her father continued to do alone. That was all. Yuri's offer, and reasons he gave, seemed so wrong they made her shudder.

He had planted no seed in her heart. Only questions, and an odd sort of fear of him and his wrongness. Though, he and Rigel combined had helped her to fully realize what was inside of herself.

"It will be alright," she said softly to the shadows once Yuri was gone. "You'll help me explain to father, won't you?"

She ought to close and lock the door, now, before anyone else scary came in. Father wouldn't like it if she left it open, even if it wasn't her fault at first. Tiel started toward it, then stopped, realizing that her arm was stretched out behind her, her fingertips not wanting to leave the shadows.

Just for a moment, the girl thought, then proceeded to close the door.

arrow Hefter's Haven

It didn't take Rigel long to find the bathhouse, it took even a shorter time for him to find a back entrance to the place. Once again Ink's little letter told him everything he needed to know, except what to do to the guy. He could be creative there.
He took his first step into Hefter's Haven.

Girls. Girls. Girls.

He suddenly wanted this job to be over a lot sooner, fun beckoned. Was a good thing though, according to the letter this would be a rush job. A half an hour to bring somebody to a slow and painful death, he hated rush jobs. But... He did want a bath pretty badly.

He stuck to the shadows around the hall until he came to one of the dressing rooms and changing rooms marked by convenient signage on the wall. This would be the hard part, getting to him unnoticed. Which would be made easier by the stack of towels that jumped out in front of him as he entered the room. Empty, and hopefully it would stay that way.

Rigel wasted no time undoing a few of the cords on his upper outfit, it fell around his waist. He pulled two hidden cords out from the top that now circled around his belt. Rope was an infinitely useful invention. He rolled up his bottoms until the cuff was around his the top of his calf, where he tied them in place. He pulled one of the larger towels from the rack and wrapped it around his waste concealing his outfit and effectively his arsenal as well. He appeared as an ordinary bather. Except for the countless horizontal scars staggered across his arms and three of his metal pins laced in the skin of his upper right arm. He was sure these people would think they were spiritual or ritualistic or just ornamental.

From there on in Rigel was only bothered by the occasional attendant stopping to ask him if he was being tended on.

"Yes, but not as much as I would like to be." Rigel would always respond in his normal semi-opiated tone.

-----------------------------

His gurthyness was busy bathing himself and singing badly. He was on top of the world, he had money and power. And was on the dawn of making his political debut.
Then quicker than he could realize what happened there was two sharp pains jaw and one in his neck. He went to scream in pain but he couldn’t, there was a needle in his throat paralyzing his vocal cords. He wanted to grind his teeth, but the second pin was preventing his mouth from closing.

"My my" The fat man rolled over to see his attacker, bleeding from the shoulder where he had pulled the pins, "You sure like to eat, it almost made me miss my mark."

The fat man began to sweat... Even more than usual.

"I would have killed you with that pin if I hit the wrong part." He held his knife where the one with much girth, "And then we wouldn't have fun."

"So, I bet you would love if you could eat all that food again."

((Well, at least we've got a platform to begin the work with... ^_^))

Adrian stood beside Elisabeth, close enough to maintain their planned illusion, but far enough away to respect the wife of his friend. He kept an eye out for the girl, and also for Niklas who seemed far too rigid to keep with the "birthday" idea. He looked over at him and smiled.

Niklas, why don't you get down of that horse and help with some of these bags? I can't carry too much on this leg of mine.

He resisted the urge to surreptitiously wink, but Niklas would know that Adrian was merely keeping up with the plan.

"Do it yourself, Adrian. Helping you here isn't part of my job. Unless, of course, you feel like paying me extra for the physical labor..." Niklas' voice trailed off, a sweet voice that would have been kind if not lacking the vital bit of emotion that most people had. If one took took the time to actually think about what that lack of emotion meant they might have been frightened. If they'd known what else lurked within Niklas' mind, they might not have stayed near him even if Alexander had ordered it.

'Kill them. They were there. They were alive. They could have stopped your pain, but they didn't, and therefore they deserve to die.'

The voice, as usual, echoed through Niklas' head, but as usual he ignored it. He wouldn't kill them yet. They, and Alexander, were useful for now. So for now they would live, and for now he would follow. And once they were no longer useful, they would die. Just like everyone else.

arrow Hefter's Haven



His concentration on communicating with Espa was broken off at the sound of the scream. The first thought that flew into Mick's head was, Dear God, I shouldn't had left that perverted old fart on his own...

The mage began to rise, regretfully, from his bath, when...



Oh good, not Lupin. Well then...



Mick quickly scanned his newest guest, noticing the wound on his arm, as well as the professionalism in this man's eyes. This guy obviously was good about getting his job done right the first time.

The wound didn't phase Mick one bit. After all, he had seen Rym and Saruo looking much worse than this guy...

At the mention of a "him" the pieces of this simple puzzle took form in Mick's mind. "Well," Mick said calmly, "your him gave me a wonderful invite to a wall, so I compen-"






This guy is a little more sadistic than I thought... Mick gave the guy another once-over. The man could've blended right in with any crowd in Laburnum. He had his advantages, which he had bviously perfected in his work. His work, of course, being a contracted killer. Mick had met a few in his time, and ones worth naming weren't after his head, thankfully, when he had met them.

Well, he can make pretty good conversation, Mick thought, smirking on the inside. Let's see if the outcome of this will involve my a** being on the line...

"Say," Mick said softly. This guy, if he was as good as Mick percieved, would have been able to hear the mage's voice at the volume he was speaking. "Thanks for sparing me the trouble of taking out that sack of lard. People always seem to beat me to the punch."

Mick took a split-second to make sure his weapons were within reach. They were. "You can take it easy, Sir Professional. The attendants won't bother me unless I call for them." Mick stood up out of his bath water, raising his hands in the air to show he was unarmed, and crossed nude to the main door of the room. He opened it slightly and slid open a small hatch, showing a picture of a bright red rose, signifying, at Hefter's Haven, DO NOT DISTURB.

"Which, as you can see, I'm not going to," Mick added, returning to his bath.

Elisabeth held the young girl around her shoulders as she watched the interchange between Niklas and Adrian. The poor man was being forced to move their luggage while that lazy man who had as of yet not done a single thing. With a sharp stinging voice she called out

"Adrian, put those bags down. Niklas, you can either assist in removing the luggage or you can leave....without pay." sighing with frustrating she then offered a comprimise that under normal circumstances she would have offered the man "If you require additional payment to assist him, it shall be from my own purse" her tone low and dangerous. She was not in a mood to deal with petty stupidities.

With the hope that it would get the distasteful man to assist Adrian, she moved the child towards the inn, securing them all rooms. With Niklas' being as far away from her and the child's as possible. She still wasn't sure if they would be able to pull this off but she would do her damndest to make sure that they could if it would make Alexander happy.