Welcome to Gaia! ::

She didn't bother to glance back at him, assuming that he'd follow her directions unquestioningly. Behind them, the door slammed shut.
Saiya was up on the second floor by now, peeking in doors as though it was perfectly natural and not at all an invasion of privacy. Most of the tenants were out and about at this time of night, anyways. The landlady didn't exactly rent to the respectable types, anyways.
Finally, at the end of the hall, her search was greeted with a cry of, "Malkin!"
And she disappeared into the room.
Just before she vanished from sight, there was almost what could have been a smile on her face.

The room he walked into was empty, mostly; a bare wood floor, fireplace in the corner, a window facing the hallway, a bed in the corner. Someone lived in there--there was mud on the floor, recently tracked in by a pair of men's boots--but they didn't use it for much more than sleeping, by the look of things.
Storing stuff was out of the question. If you wanted to keep something really safe in Southroot, you didn't keep it locked up in your room. With all the cracksmiths in the city, you'd have to be really ******** flat to think that would help.
"Bang." said a voice behind him, heavily accented, like Malkin/Jesse had been in the desert. "You're dead, mister."

"That's what the men this morning said." the voice explained, apparently not listening to anything Unsane had to say.
"Then they took away Nicholai. Mummy said Nicholai was a nice man."
A small, round brown face, about at height with Unsane's waist, peered around him and looked up. "Nicholai was going to take us away from here, Mummy said. Are you a friend of Nicholai's?" As an afterthought, the child added. "You're funny-looking."

"I ain't a midget!" the child said, putting on an offended face. "I'm almost halfway to my first indiction." He puffed out his chest, obviously proud of the fact. Then, his face crumpled. "Mummy went out. She didn't take me with her. 'N been gone a really, really, really long time." His small frame hunched over, and he stared at the floor. "She said she was going to get Nicholai back."

"Per'sus gives us food." the child said softly. "I tol' him Mummy was sick. He don't know yet. Mummy said to keep quiet." The kid looked up at Unsane, eyes wide. "If she don't come back by tomorrow, I'm s'posed go to Per'sus's pack. But I ain't gonna."

"Morgan Locke." the kid told Unsane, obediently. Then, his small brow furrowed with the effort of thought. "Mummy says Per'sus trains dead peoples. He took...he took Twist-tongue and Stitchlimb and the Malkin and Austin Scrow and the Darksaints, all seven of 'em, and Demetrius Gayle." Morgan looked up, eyes wide. "Nicholai says that Demetrius Gaye could turn into a shadow and slide under people's doors, and that's how he got 'em all. But they's all dead now, even the Darksaints. So if'n I go to Per'sus, I'll end up like them, won't I?"

The kid's face twisted up in puzzlement, then he shook his head. "I ain't. But...but... Per'sus's clutch don't go straight t'the Wall like--like you 'n me would. They take 'em to Auzoris Court."
Morgan pushed his little, chubby fingers together, lowering his eyes nervously. Clearly, this was not a subject to be openly discussed among the natives of Strata.
"They do...things up there. The hocuses. Bad stuff."
Then he clamped his lips shut, obviously not wanting to say anything more on the subject.