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Maq pauses a few yards from the store, making sure that Sunil is keeping up behind him.

Sunil floated out of the store behind Maq and almost bumped into him when he paused not far from the door. Scowling, she stopped herself in the air beside him.

"Don't know how to get home? Even dogs know how to get home."

"Just wanted to make sure you could keep up, Sunil." He shakes his head slightly, not really certain where all her malice comes from. Turning forward again, he takes off, zipping in a direction to the east of the store, away from the main area of the city.

Sunil sighs. Children. Of course she could keep up. As an air elemental, she was actually most at home when flying through a large open space.

As Maq took off, presumably towards his home, Sunil followed. Gliding smoothly behind him, Sunil actually had to work a little to keep him in sight. Perhaps it was a good thing he had paused at the beginning, although she would never admit it.

After a bit of flight, a stone fence becomes visible in the distance. As they approach it, the house behind comes into view, several of the windows lit, though the majority of them are darkened. Maq flits between a pair of iron spikes on the top of the fence, then hovers over the winding path that leads up to the house, waiting a moment for Sunil again, before shooting her a grin and wheeling to the left, darting around the side of the house.

Frankly Sunil wasn't paying too much attention to Maq as the house came into sight. Sh had always believed Kam's house was pretty big, but of the couple houses she had now seen Ka'm was by far the tiniest.

When Maq darted to the left around the house, Sunil was busy admiring the iron spikes on the fence. Not too long after he headed out, she looked around to realize he was no longer in sight. For a moment she was worried. The grounds were much to large for her to find one feien without running into Tera. Luckily she had magic detection and could pinpoint Maq's relative direction from her.

Closing her eyes, Sunil felt around for Maq, ignoring all non-feien magic in the vicinity. It didn't take long to find him and she set out in his direction.

A *lot* of non-Feien magic lay in the vicinity, the most visible of which being intricate patterns in glowing emerald green that trace the walls of the house, arcing up over the roof, and dipping down into the ground below.

Maq waits for Sunil in front of a window at the back of this side of the house, where dim candlelight filters out and cast a golden glow on the grass below.

Sunil approached Maq a little out of breath from having to catch up.

"There is a lot of magic around here. Are you sure Tera won't know I'm here and suspect something?"

Sunil peered into the window as she spoke, noting that the room within looked like a bedroom. Tera's perhaps?

"Ter said that the house came with a lot of protective stuff that would let her know if someone with death on their mind entered the premises, but that's about it." He lands on the sill and looks into the room, squinting a bit to see if he can spot anyone there.

"Death for anyone? Or just for the inhabitants?"

Sunil crossed her arms and hovered in the air, now unsure whether she should land on the sill or not. It was possible the house wasn't going to like her.

"The inhabitants. After I got here, she had to make a big deal of introducing me to Walter; he's this fountain in the front hall that holds the house's Guardian." He grins a bit, restraining the urge to beckon her in.

From her seat on the bed, Quantel looks towards the window, sensing Maq and hearing him speaking with someone. Arturo? Could he have brought the man *here* for their lesson?

Sunil gave an internal sigh of relief and landed on the sill still scowling. Guardians? Protection spells? What a pain, but worth mentioning to Kam.

She walked over to Maq and peered in, noticing that Quantel must be somewhere relatively close since she could feel her. With the other magic around Sunil couldn't pinpoint exactly where within the immediate part of the house Quantel was however, so she just looked at Maq.

Once she had touched down, Maq takes off again, flying high into the air, before dropping like a rock over the bed, tucking his arms and legs in so that he formed a bit of a Feien-ball. A split second before he hits, he spreads out, landing on his stomach and bouncing into the air several inches, flipping over, and falling back on the bed on his back. He laughs breathlessly.

Quantel shakes her head, his bouncing having jostled the sheets of parchment off her lap. "I would take it that your practice did not go as planned, if you are still so full of energy." The Feien who had landed on the sill was not Arturo, which left only two others Sunil or Nero. And the form is much too big to be Nero.

Sunil stepped into the lighted part of the windowsill and watched Maq's antics with a tiny grin. She contemplated following his example, but it would hardly make an appropriate impression on Quantel. So instead Sunil glided in slowly and landed lightly on the bed close to Quantel. She leaned down and placed the displaced parchment back on the younger woman's lap.

"Hello Quantel. Reading?"

Sunil raised an eyebrow, but refrained from reading over Q's shoulder.

Quantel tips her head backwards slightly, so as to be able to look up at Sunil as she responds. "Just a bit of magical theory. I had thought that if Maquinar was off, honing his own skills..." She trails off, not feeling the need to finish the sentence for Sunil, as the older woman probably understands the unspoken part.

Maq sits up, running a hand through his hair. "If you guys want to chat, we can hold off on the other stuff, you know." He grins broadly.

Sunil glanced at Maq and shook her head.

"We can chat anytime. Raiding, presumably, has to be done with a particular window of time during which we can safely remain undiscovered."

Sunil turned and looked back down at Quantel impassively. It had to be hard for Quantel to guess what Sunil was thinking, since Sunil herself wasn't really sure.

With a graceful, almost careless gesture, Quantel lifts the papers from her lap and sets them to the side. Rocking forward slightly, then back again, she stands, hair swaying softly with the motion. Those slender fingers tuck a stray lock of it behind her ear before she gives them both a lift of an eyebrow. She decides not to ask after the lesson with Arturo, but to instead keep focus on this "raid", as they referred to it. "Shall we begin, then?"

Maq shakes his head slightly, chuckling. Oh, but this was going to be fun. He makes a broad, sweeping hand movement. "Ladies first, of course."

Rolling her eyes as she turns away, Quantel takes off from the bed and glides towards a door that stands beside a bookcase.

Sunil turned and raised an eyebrow at Maq.

"I prefer to be last. No one behind me."

She guestured for him to follow his sister and hopped into the air ready to follow.

"All right." He takes off as well, heading towards the same door, landing on the floor beside Quantel moments after she touches down. He waits for Sunil to catch up.

His sister, however, doesn't. With one hand on the wood of the door, Quantel makes her way from one side of it, pausing at a point several inches from the hinges.

After Maq left to join Quantel, Sunil did the same and eventually landed next to him. Noticing Quantel has already begun doing something, Sunil is both relieved and annoyed. She hadn't wanted to have to do any planning, but following other people's plans make her nervous.

Once she has reached the point she was seeking, Quantel unceremoniously drops down to her stomach, flattening herself against the pile of the carpet and beginning to inch her way under the door.

As an explanation, Maq offers, "Ter still locks the closet." And true to his word, the space that Quantel is slowly inching into seems small indeed, even with the carpet pressed underneath her form.

Sunil shrugged.

"I remember. Otherwise we wouldn't need Q."

Sunil sneered a little at Quantel's back.

"Sure you're not too big to fit Q?"

Quantel doesn't respond to Sunil's jibe, she merely focuses more on sliding the rest of the way beneath the door. Maq, however, narrows his eyes slightly, but shakes it off before he asks, "So, why are you so interested in Tera's notes again?"

Sunil tossed her head and crossed her arms over her chest before replying.

"I have three reasons, " Sunil uncrossed an arm and held up three fingers, "First, I am interested in the feien in general, so any information I can get my hands on is of interest. Second, she has notes older than me and history can be invaluable. Third, I like to cause trouble and stealing falls under that category."

Sunil folded the fingers down as she named each reason and eventually recrossed her arms over her chest. She had a fourth reason, but it was hardly something she was ready to admit even to herself.

"Why do you want to get into them? Or help me anyway."

Maq is tempted to mimic Sunil's stance and cross his arms over his chest as well, but settles for the more familiar resting of his hands on his hips, left hand close to the hilt of his rapier. He tilts his head to one side, then the other, causing his neck to pop lightly, before responding. "Well, I never really got a chance to finish reading them before. Right now, though, I'm more interested in that other scroll Tera stuck in the drawer, the one that made her lock it."

From within the closet, a soft thump can be heard by those listening for it.

Sunil files that information away in the back of her mind. She was also interested in said scroll, but unless it contained the secret to feien immortality she was only mildy curious about its contents.

"What do you think the other scroll is about Maq?"

Sunil was not listening to the closet and so missed the thump.

"I'm not sure. I thought it was in Gospen at first, but then the words crawling around made it jumbly." He glances at the closet door, having heard the thump himself, but feels confident that Quantel would make some other noise if she needed help. "I'm betting Quantel will be able to read it, though. I'm just curious about it."

"Sure she'll tell you the truth about what it says? I didn't think you two were quite on trusting terms right now? Games all forgotten?"

Sunil looked at Maq's rapier and remembers he once said he would someday make weapons.

"How is the progress on learning to make weapons?"

His eyes light up at the mention of that subject. "Pretty well. I've about got the plastic where I can flatten it out; once I can do that, I'll be able to make some broadswords, or claymores."

As he speaks, a cold, metallic object pokes Sunil in the foot as the end of the key slips out from under the closet door.

"That sounds great. I've been looking into weapons actually. As soon as you're ready I want to commission one."

Poked in the foot, Sunil drops down to a crouch. She takes a hold of the end of the key and speaks into the closet, "If you just hold onto the other end I can probably just pull you out after it Quantel."

Sunil didn't really think about the possibility that that might end up harming Quantel.

Quantel's voice, though muffled as it is by the door, can be heard clearly. "Very well. The other objects in these confines are bothering me."

Maq had stiffled his snort at Sunil's reaction to the key, but watches now with interest, also not thinking about the possibility that Quantel might be hurt by this upcoming procedure. After all, she had gotten *under* the door just fine...

Sunil took hold of the key firmly and basically threw herself backwards to pull the key out from under the door. As a consequence she ended up pulling a little up as well as out and on her back looking up at the ceiling.

The key itself came out easily, and lands softly on Sunil after she falls. Quantel slid out nearly as easily, yet had the presence of mind to let go before Sunil fell, and thus has to pull herself the rest of the way out, gripping the carpet in order to do so.

Sunil's sudden movement had caught his attention, and Maq moves quickly to stand beside her, looking down at her. He misses, then, Quantel rising to her feet, as he asks Sunil, "Need some help up?"

Sunil frowned up at Maq.

"No I do not."

She pushes the key off onto the floor with little effort and then slowly gets to her feet. Looking down at her midsection, Sunil once again is thankful that bruises don't really show on her dark blue skin.

"You ok Quantel?"

Sunil looks over at the younger fairy, grateful she hadn't come out flying after the key to also land on top of her.

Blinking at the thought, Quantel looks down at herself, her hands smoothing over her belly, which has the slightest of red tinges from the burn of coming across the carpet so quickly. She then looks behind her, twisting her left leg slightly to peer at what appears to be a long scratch that runs down the length of her leg.

Maq winces. "Need something for that, or do you have it covered?"

Quantel's upper lip curls slightly. "I do believe I have it covered." She waves her right hand dismissively. "The two of you may go on with the key, as I am certain you are so eager to."

Sunil raised an eyebrow at Quantel.

"Doesn't look that bad to me. You have cure I suppose?"

Sunil didn't even wait for an answer before looking at Maq.

"You heard her highness. What is the next step?"

"Next step is we take the key and unlock the drawer, so that we can open it and get the notes out." Maq frowns a bit, looking at Quantel, but she has already taken off and is currently heading for her shelf.

With a sigh, Maq leans down and picks up the key. "I'll lead again." He lifts off himself, heading towards the desk.

Sunil watched Quantel and rolled her eyes at Maq. She knew they were going to use the key to open the drawer. She wasn't a moron. She simply wondered where the drawer was. Stupid unknown geography.

After making a note to herself about where Quantel had crawled off to, Sunil lifted off to trail behind Maq with a sigh.

With a jabbing motion, Maq drives the key into the lock of the drawer, then grasps its head and leans downward, twisting it in the lock. A faint click can be heard, and he grins. "There we go. Help me with the drawer?" He lets go of the key so that he can move downwards and grasp the handle.

Sunil nodded and grabbed a hold of the handle as well.

"On three? One... two... "

"...Three!" Maq pulls, feeling the weight of the drawer give, dragging it outwards.

As soon as she felt the drawer give, Sunil let go and floated quickly up above the drawer, beating Maq to the inside.

And what an inside it is. Papers in all shapes, sizes and colors abound, rolled, folded, bundled and scrunched. Amongst the papers are coins of various origins, numerous keys, writing instruments, and even a sheathed dagger towards the back. The dagger glows faintly, magically, where it has come into contact with a rolled piece of parchement.

Maq flits inside as well. "Her notes are in that notepad right there." He points to a green bound notepad.

Sunil waved a hand idly at Maq and walked over to the glowing dagger and parchment.

"What is this?"

Unable to resist, she stretched out a hand to touch the dagger.

As her hand comes in contact with the dagger, a low, silibant whispering starts in the back of her mind, a language she doesn't recognize. ~Ith mithasss iranilosss... Uth arant mer'Tilit...~

Maq, not noticing that Sunil has her hand on the dagger, has already moved past towards the roll of parchment that lays against it. "Here's that scroll of Ter's!"

Sunil paused, startled at the voice in her head and let go of the dagger. She blinked several times and did her best to file away what the dagger had said, but since it didn't make any sense to her she couldn't properly recall most of it.

Sunil slowly turned towards Maq as he spoke, but his words didn't really register. Sunil nodded, hoping that would be an acceptable response to whatever he had said.

Maq had already lifted up the roll of paper by that point, grinning broadly. As soon as it is no longer in contact with the dagger, the dagger ceases to glow.

"This, and the notepad, and we're good to go, Sunil." He motions his head back over towards the notepad.

"Oh yes of course."

Sunil walked back over to the notebook and grabbed it firmly. She then lifted herself up into the air, pulling the notebook up with her.

"Good to go."

Maq rises up out of the drawer as well, arms wrapped around the roll of paper. He drops it on the surface of the desk as soon as he clears, it, then turns to see if Sunil needs any help with the notepad.

Sunil scowled at Maq to signal she didn't need anyone's help and then struggled with the notebook for a minute or two before eventually placing it on the surface of the desk. As soon as she caught her breath, Sunil flipped the cover open to the first page of the notebook.

The writing within the notepad is neat, elegant, and easily read.

"Met my first Feien today, a pair of them. Corvus, a black colored fairy that is about seven inches tall, and Aileron, a white colored fairy that is about eight inches tall. Both appear to be highly intelligent to the point of arrogance. Their interaction was interesting; however, I was distracted by the manifestation of our first Sigil, so I wasn't able to pay as close attention to them as I wished to."

Maq is busy unrolling the paper, trying to hold it open so that he can read what's on it, or attempt to, at least.

Sunil scanned the page and frowning, turns a couple more pages to skip ahead in time. She takes abcolutely no notice of Maq and the scroll.

Further in, the pages read:

"...quite entertaining. S reminds me of myself, after I had gained my independence of L's control. She has claimed the group of them as her "gang", to which the rest readily agreed. She seems to be the only one of the four without some sort of rare attribute, unless she has one that will not show until she grows.

Eyes... So many differences with the eyes. I wonder if the genetic make-up of their eye structures is affected by..."

There's the sound of a thump from the other door of Tera's room, which causes Maq to look up quickly.

Sunil also glanced up at the thump and looked at Maq with wide eyes.

"Tera," she mouthed, lifting an eyebrow quizzically.

Shaking his head, Maq sets the scroll down, tucking it behind some books that Tera had left on her desk. There is another thump, and then silence.

He looks over at Sunil. In a soft whisper, "Maybe we should close the drawer up, in case someone comes in..."

"I'll put the notebook under the pillows on the bed. You go close the drawer."

Sunil closed the notebook quickly and lifted it up again. She barely made it over too the bed and pushed it slowly underneath a pillow. Then she flew back over to the desk in case Maq needed some sort of assistance.

As soon as Sunil had started to lift the notepad, Maq had moved over to the open drawer, placing his shoulder against the outside of it. Concentrating on moving it *in*, he pushes, and sure enough, the drawer starts to slide in. By the time Sunil returns, Maq has nearly gotten it completely in.

It closes with a satisfying snap, and Maq pulls away, rubbing at his shoulder absentmindedly. "Do you want to get the key? We can just hide it for now."

The doorknob of the second door rattles slightly.

As the door's knob rattled, Sunil looked over her shoulder. This seemed bad. She looked back at Maq and nodded her assent before grabbing the key out of the drawer's lock.

"I'll go hide with it outside the window," Sunil hissed and started flying towards the window they had come in.

About to call out after Sunil, Maq catches himself just as the door to the room opens, exposing another room behind it, and a tall, blonde man holding the knob. The man looks inside, catching a flash of blue going out the window. "Hell, you and your sister didn't have another fight, did you?"

Not spotting Tera behind the other man, Maq breathes an inward sigh of relief. "Nah, Ben. That was just a friend of mine; she needed some air."

"She?" Ben strides across the room, chuckling. "Entertaining guests, are we? You're more like Tera than you both think."

Sunil hunched outside the window with the key and listened to the discussion inside. It sounded like she was going to have to make an appearance, so she looked around for a place to dump the key. She grimaced and dug a shallow hole in the ground in front of her, then placed the key inside and covered the whole thing up. Hopefully, she would be able to find it again, but no one else would happen upon it.

With the key buried, Sunil flitted back up to stand on the windowsill.

Maq had snorted in response to Ben's last comment. "Not sure what you mean by that, 'cause you're the first friend I've seen her bring over."

Ben blinks for a moment, then laughs, swinging his hand down to try to ruffle the little guy's hair. "You're a regular spitfire, y'know that?"

Bringing his hands up, balled into fists, and mock-sparring with Ben's palm, laughing. "Pick on someone your own size, you big lunk!"

Ben glances over at the movement on the windowsill, then blinks, surprised. That definitely *isn't* Quantel.

Sunil smiled in what she hoped was a friendly way at the man joking with Maq. She wasn't going to say anything though. Inevitably whatever came out of her mouth would get her into trouble somehow.

"Ben, this is Sunil. Sunil, this is Benedict, a friend of Ter's from her homeland." Ben, never sure how to greet any of Tera's many housecreatures or their friends, gives her a half-salute.

"Well, guys, I hate to break up your little..." He searches for a word, since given Sunil's size, he really doesn't think they were doing anything on a personal level, "...playdate, but Tera wants Maq and Quantel to join her in introducing a new creature to Walter."

Maq makes a bit of a face.

Sunil nodded. This would be an excellent opportunity to peruse the notebook herself. She waved and said to Maq, "It has been fun. I'm sure I'll see you again."

And to Ben, "Nice to meet you."

Then Sunil jumped backwards off the windowsill and pretended to fly off around the corner. Instead, she merely flitted over and then up above the window to wait for the room to empty.

From within, the voices of Maq and Ben can be heard.

"Go get your sister."

"All right." Quiet for a moment, then, "Come on, Quantel. I know you're awake."

A bit more silence, then a soft response that can't be heard from outside the room.

Maq sighs. "You know that Walter freaks if everyone in the house isn't present. He'll know you're hiding out up here."

Another mumbled reply, and then the sound of Maq's wings taking him back to the door, which closes shortly after that.

Sunil slowly twisted upside down and peeked in through the window. Satisfied no one was present, she popped in onto the bed and pulled out the notebook.

As for Maq's assertion "Walter" would know of her presence, Sunil had no worries. She wouldn't be here long enough to sense. She only hoped the house didn't have magical burglar alarms.

Sunil closed her eyes, still holding onto the notebook, and dipped deep inside her for her magic. She nudged it until it spread throughout her entire body and she felt herself grow bigger. When she was happy with her size, she lifted herself into the air, her larger body better able to balance the large notebook.

Sunil gave one last glance around the room and made for the window and into the night.

Not that he wanted it to happen but as long as he interrupted it now he was content. And for good measures he still held on because... well, he adored Sunil. Cling, cuddle. Nero was looked upon as he replied, his excitement sparking fidgets and energy into Tosten at the sight.

Sunil ignored Celaien, since all of her attention was focused on Tosten who was making her look all soft in front of everyone. Really she liked Tosten, but this was too much. No one was going to take her seriously if he could subdue her.

Sunil yanked the arm Tosten was holding onto and growled, "Would you let go? I am so sick of you always clinging to me! Enough is enough! Leave me alone or you'll regret it!"

Sunil's voice rose steadily while she spoke until she was basically screaming.

Smiling happily, Nero took to the air and soared lazily over to Tosten. He froze in place however, hearing Sunil's outburst. Almost defensively, he latched his arm around Tosten's and frowned. "Ma'am, honestly. You're being very unpleasant."

When Sunil yanked her arm Tosten was lurched forward a step, as he had hooked himself on there pretty tight. That didn't last however as when her voice rose to such levels he released her like she might as well had burst into flames with her statement and burned his flesh. Recoiling in terror, those mismatched eyes just stared at her, wide and confused like a puppy not understanding why it had been kicked for wagging its tail. He had hardly become aware that Nero had joined them, even when the younger feien had hooked onto his own arm and spoken after the ringing in the air had begun to pass. "S-... Sunil...?"

Sunil narrowed her eyes at Nero's interference. This was between her and Tosten, he had no place here. "This has nothing to do with you, Nero," she hissed at him before looking at Tosten and continuing to speak. "I am sick of you always clinging to me like I am your friend. We're not friends Tosten. I don't have friends. If I never see your stupid face again it will be too soon!"

Tosten was positively stunned... what had occurred since they had last spoken to make her fill with such venom for him? It seemed so random to him that he couldn't take it in a glance as being honest feelings. Instead he shook, stared cluelessly and just accused in weakening tones. "Y,you're lying..." Right? Of course! She lied a lot, she seemed to like lying, so clearly she was lying now. Silly game. Maybe she forgot about that paper she signed.

Sunil frowned and raised her voice, fists clenched at her sides. "What part of 'I hate you!' do you not understand?" Sunil growled in frustration and struck out at Tosten with an open hand, intending to slap him.

"Enough!" shouted the red and blue feien. He surged forward with what little speed he could muster and hooked his arm around Sunil's elbow, straining backwards. The palm froze a few millimeters away from Tosten's cheek. Looking guilty, Nero dropped her arm and dived back behind Tosten. "Sorry, not my place," he muttered.

As quick as Tosten was, no one had tried to strike him before. It was Nero's quick actions that saved him as all he did was flinch fearfully, eyes squeezed shut and head tilted sharply to one side. But when he heard Nero's shout instead of feeling any actual pain he found enough courage to peek open his eyes, catching the last glimpse of Nero releasing Sunil and darting away. Of course there were no grateful offering for the brave little feien as Tosten still barely acknowledged Nero's presence, staring at Sunil with eyes that held no thought beyond fear. His chest heaved in terrified gasps before he got muscles to move. Nero's shield was gone in a big ole' flurry of feathers as in one massive flap he lit to the air and was gone from the shop like a panicked bat out of hell.

Sunil growled in frustration again as Tosten fled. "You shoudn't have interfered. He had it coming." She then turned and drifted out of the store.