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Siegell hummed softly, his pen scratching the paper. "Parts of small animals," he murmured, already writing the answer. As he finished, he said, "Shares. Feh, this puzzle's a bit too easy..." He scanned the puzzle for a harder, more rewarding clue. "Exclude the possibility of instruments of torture in soldiers' quarters. Barracks. Goddess, come on now," he sighed, shaking his head as he wrote it down. "Brought up by a bewildered reader... oh, that's t-- no, wait, reared." He sighed, then paused.

There was a presence in the room. The mercenary slowly put aside his puzzle and pen, then stood up and in one fluid movement picked up his glaive, turning it in his hands. "Someone is very sneaky, to come into my house unnoticed," he murmured, narrowing his eyes.

He did not, by any means, know what was going on. He just felt like there was someone else in the room. Siegell had learned long ago not to dismiss such feelings. He'd killed a lot of assassins because he paid attention to that feeling.

Siegell didn't turn. "I like to think so. But I would have to know who the others are first. Too bad you won't be alive long enough to tell me, hm?" He stepped away from the lamp and into the shadows. In the dark corners of the room, it was as if he had melted away, his long dark cloak and dark blue clothing blending into the shadow better than any black. He stood perfectly still, allowing himself to disappear from sight. For all he knew, his adversary could see right through darkness like daylight. Therefore, the trick was to get her outside. Just had to get her interested...

His hand whipped up to his face, and suddenly Siegell's infamous white porcelain mask whipped through the air straight at Asami's head! "So, let's see!"

Siegell paused over in the shadows. "It's just I can't help noticing you're still allllllllllll the way over there. You gonna come fight me, or just keep yapping about it?" He shifted his grip on his glaive, stalking through the shadows. "I'm waiting... Beginning to think you don't have the guts."

He made a silent calculation and let his glaive flash in the light filtering through the window.

Siegell was several feet away from the window, though, and he laughed as he rushed in at Asami's side. The b*****d had held his glaive all the way out to the window! "Now!" he laughed, "This is more like it!" He rushed her out of the dark, lunging at close range to shove her with the handle of his weapon, then pushed away and moved back until his back was to the front door. "You'll have to do better than that, I think. In the meantime, why don't you tell me what you're here for?" The employers of his would-be assassins usually didn't live long either.

Siegell rolled his eyes. "You know, I sort of gathered that." His hand moved back to the door handle, forced to let down his guard for just a moment as he turned it, starting to turn his glaive so that he would be able to duck out into the sunlight once he got it open. Slowly, he began to push the door open, already backing up.

Siegell raised a brow and kicked the door the rest of the way open. He stood in the doorway, taking his glaive in his hands again. "Is that so? I haven't heard any offers yet. Usually people coming to make offers knock first." A brow raised. With the sunlight behind him, it was impossible to see what a mess his face was, his body merely a silhouette against the bright light. Most people had never seen underneath his mask.

Siegell raised a brow. "No, I like to be able to kill my employers." And then he stepped back into the light, his face suddenly revealed in full. "I don't care what you see of me, woman, and you won't live to tell anyone about it anyway." He spun his glaive as he stepped back onto the grass.

The left half of his face was a hideous mess of scars. Large swaths of skin were missing from his cheek, leaving long rivets of torn flesh, all of which was pulled back toward his left temple. The left half of his nose was all but missing, and his lips didn't close all the way.

"Now," he hissed, "Are you going to stand there talking, or are you going to come fight me?"

Siegell was at a disadvantage against a swordsman, using his glaive. It was meant to fight axes and other spears, not swords. He managed to turn Asami's blade aside as he jumped back and brought his weapon up across himself. His back was to the stable. He had to get a spear, or a swordreaver, something to properly counter her sword. Damnit, she was a lot faster than the usual assassins.

"All right," he growled, "Try that again, we'll see how you like it when I take your stomach out of you."

[Too lazy to log into Siegell just now. :V

Edit: And Safari isn't working anyway. Thank you, sonofabitch.]