Welcome to Gaia! ::

He nodded silently, his previously chipper mood destroyed, and took hold of Unsane's hand. "C'mon. I'll show you."
The boy led him out of the room and down the hall, until they passed the room Saiya had disappeared into. He pointed inwards, where two figures conversed by a blazing fire. Saiya's back was turned; and the dramatic shadows cast by the leaping flames were more than enough to mask his features.
"...got hit on by some city brat. You wouldn't believe how ********' cold it is up there, Perseus..." Malkin was finishing.

Saiya turned around, eyes already narrowed and hard and cynical.
"Damn. And here I was thinkin' I'd lost you."
Perseus, at the fireplace, stood. He was a tall man; his face tanned dark by some thirty-odd years of exposure to Strata's harsh sun, and his long sandy brown hair hung in a neat braid to his waist. Despite his size--at 6"4, he towered over the diminutive Malkin--he moved as quietly and gracefully as a cat as he walked over to Unsane, examining him.
He did not offer his hand. It was too easy to coat a glove with poison absorbed through the skin, or to tip the band of a ring with the same lethal substances.
Such was the paranoia of Strata's underworld.
"A friend of yours, I presume?" he said to Saiya, not looking away once.
"I guess." she said, shrugging. "He brought the damn snow." she added, venomously.

He raised an eyebrow. "Malkin's been talking overmuch, I see."
"I ain't!" Saiya protested, crossing her arms and stalking up behind him. "He followed me in her from Barthavos." She went past him, glanced out into the hallway. "Whatever he says, he learned on hisself. Mostly."
Morgan was gone.
Then, turning back to Perseus. "He ain't a threat, I think. Can we close the door now?"
Open thresholds made her uneasy. Lived too long in Strata, you got to turn out that way or die. One or the other.

Perseus raised his eyebrows at Saiya, but did not protest. Instead, he merely picked apart the tangle of necklaces he wore until he found the one he wanted. It was a cork. On a string. He twiddled it absently, and the spell closed down around Unsane.
A no-sense working, from one of the hocuses he owned. It was like being deaf. There was another for blindness and muting tongues, but he didn't feel the need. It was rude, but Unsane was a foreigner, and you couldn't be too careful.
He turned back to Malkin.
"They're still looking for you."
A little sigh, and she lowered her eyes, shoulders slumping a little. "I know. 'm sorry about skipping out on y'all, but it was the only thing coming to mind."
"You already apologized. Twice."
"Did I? Damn."
"But you're expecting me to put you up for the night?" he said, folding his arms, his expression sharp and voice cold. "After what you did?"
If possible, Saiya wilted even more.
"I hoped. I ain't got noplace now, Perseus. You know that."
He gave a curt nod.
"They've got wardings hanging all over your old place like curtains. I sent Margot over to straighten them out a couple of weeks ago, but they knocked her flat on her a**. They ain't ******** around."
"Reckoned as much." she said quietly.
Then, the words spilling out before she could stop herself, "Perseus, what'm I gonna do? They got a hocus on me, I'm sure of it, and they put a geas on me before the job! They gonna have me within a week!!"
The man stared at her levelly, and she bit back another outburst, shrinking back from him.
Then he spoke. Not unkindly.
"I can get one of the boys to do a warding for you. That'll throw 'em off for a while, but just as long as you keep moving. You ain't gonna find work in Strata 'till this is all over and done with, Saiya. Best get used to that. If I were you, I'd head out with your friend on the next caravan. Pick up some supplies--you still have your cache, don't you? Right. Good girl. Pick up some supplies and get out of here."
She bit down on her lip.
"Perseus, Strata is--she's my home. I don't know I can survive anywhere else. You ain't seen all the other cities. Latent isn't--she ain't like Strata."
"You'll get used to it." he said curtly, going to the table and writing, in neat round script, the name of an address. He handed it to her. "Renard'll fix you up if you can find him."
Then he took the working off Unsane.

"Don't sulk." Saiya said absently, picking at the dirt under her fingernails with a look of utter concentration. Perseus merely smiled his little smile and twisted another charm--a pewter ring on a leather cord. The world went black for an instant, before he lifted it.
"There are variants." he explained, calmly. Then, looking towards Saiya,
"You can stay for tonight. It'll take at least a day or two for them to get the word back out on you, I should think."

Perseus glanced over towards the door. "Morgan? Same story, pretty much as any kid. His dad was some kind of minor political tool from the North--skips out on 'em after Jezebel tells him she's pregnant. The landlady gives her a good deal on the rent, and some half-trained hocus she's shacking up with pays for what else. What was his name again?"
Perseus glanced towards Saiya, the only other one in the room who might have a sparking clue.
She shrugged. "Nicodemos or something. Came out've the Crescent Street district. Margot tried to teach him a bit, remember?"

Just beyond the desert city's reach a small crowd had gathered to watch a man and woman dance. Well not exactly 'dance' but more like battle. The man's form was hunched over, his palms rested on his knees, sand blew past his feet, and he breathed in heavily, exhausted. Sweat stained his simple white shirt, it dripped from his features, the man was soaked.

Across from him stood a woman in a simple black silk dress that nearly matched the color of her hair, nearly. Unlike him however she wasn't bothered by the heat, nor did she show any signs of fatigue and or exhaustion. In contrast to her dress her skin shone white, even with the desert sun overhead she unlike Reinhart remained true to her natural tone. The boy before her however was tanned now, a golden brown, with a small spot of red here and there, mostly around the cheeks.

Relaxed in her stance she waited. Reinhart tried to catch his breath, he cursed under it and felt the sand slap his face as the winds picked up over him and everyone around them. Shouts came from all around, instinctively he looked up only to catch one too many unfamiliar faces. It was not long before he turned his attention to her, though he remained in his resting position.

As the wind blew over him it too blew over her and still trying to catch his breathe he was lost in a memory the moment he saw this woman remove stray locks of jet black hair from her face. His reminiscing did not go un-noticed.

"You're not getting anywhere...again."

The smallest hint of annoyance lined her otherwise neautral tone.

"Sue me."

Reinhart replied not trying in the least bit to hide the annoyance and sarcasm that lined HIS tone. However, he straightened out, stood up right, and looked to his 'opponent'. It was amusing to her, seeing him try so hard to learn something he knew little or nothing about. She had to respect it as well though, she'd amired his persistence long before she was dead. Sighing lightly she folded her hands before her and waited.

Why? The word kept looping over his head as he looked Celeste in the eyes through the blowing sand shutting out all sound around him. Breathing steadily now he tried to focus as best he could, his target, Celeste. Reinhart threw his hands out to either side then closed his eyes, the shouting around them soon ceased as the winds and sand seemed to whirl only around him for a few short moments.

Celeste had told him he had to imagine his attack before he attempted it, it sounded cliche to say the least but after so many failed attempts he was ready to try anything. All around him the world fell silent, the only traces left of it were the grains of sand that brushed against his face, his focus didn't falter however. He tried to imagine something he'd not yet seen, how was he supposed to imagine something he didn't understand?

Something he'd never seen done, he couldn't copy and something he'd never done he surely could not repeat. What the hell? He asked himself. His focus faltered. The world screamed back into being, Celeste stood before him with just enough dissapointment in her charcoal eyes to give Reinhart the impression that she may've been losing faith in him. Everything died down, he only wiped the sweat from his brow as he looked up to the sun and said...

"s**t."

"Hey."

A faint voice said in the darkness.

"Hey!"

It said again becoming more clear with each passing moment.

"HEY!"

The voice called out shaking the world bringing Reinhart out of darkness and back to where he lay on his back facing the blistering desert sun. Instinctively he tried to sit up, his muscles however told him otherwise, they refused to give him an inch. Everything around him was either blurred or drowned out by sunlight, what the hell happened to him?

"I think he's okay!"

Called out the figure that, according to him was standing over his motionless form.

"Damn, what...what happened?"

Finally, his body gave way, his fingers dug into the hot sand beneath him as he grit his teeth and forced himself to sit up. Instantly he reached for his head with one hand, had someone hit him with a brick?

"You fainted."

Said Celeste as she approached him from the right.

"I what?"

He replied still not able to recall whatever caused him to take a nap out in the open desert.

"She said you fainted."

Said a small dark skinned boy to his left, the figure and voice that yelled at him earlier.

"I heard what she said. I mean what happened?!"

Obviously Reinhart wasn't too pleased to find himself on the ground with a headache that felt more and more like a hangover with each second. He was starting to feel nauseous, he wanted to lay back down.

"I suggest you lay back down."

Right on cue.

"You've pushed yourself too far, too fast, I think we're done for today."


Just as he'd surrendered to the fact he needed to rest he shot up from his position and nearly grabbed Celeste before his legs gave out. On his knees, he squeezed sand between his fingers clutching the sand as if he could break it. Everything hit him at once and one by one he lost his senses till the last thing he saw was the sand beneath him coming closer and closer.

Reinhart lay flat on his face in the sand, both mental and physical strain shackled him to sleep.