DKMortals/SessionEight

[14:05] <ST> After the cold of Ralinona's balcony, the brothel is almost numbingly warm. The guard, perhaps prompted by Ralinona, gives directions to the blue lounge, the area in the Seven Sighs where Pear Blossom and her closest friends were known to work.

[14:06] <ST> Crowds and catcalls follow the pair through the brothel. A young man tips a wink to Winter Fish, calling, "Never had my way with a raven before!" Dark hands reach out to touch Hare's cheek, and a woman speaks in a throaty voice, "Why so cold, Momma? Let me warm you up, Momma."

[14:09] <Hare> Faithful Hare evades the woman, cheeks red and embarassed by her blushes. She sticks close to Winter Fish. She had managed to "lose" partners in investigations in brothels before, and questioning the young man had been twice as awkward as it should have been.

[14:11] <Fish> He grins, sliding back into his persona. "Oh? Some of us hide our raven's better."

[14:13] <ST> The man whistles sharply as Fish and Hare move on. At length, the Once Dead step into a circular room, lit with wan blue light from a hald dozen paper lanterns. Thick carpets, also blue, cover the floor, strewn here and there with sofas and cushions and the occasional gateway table. Fragrant marijuana smoke fills the air. Clearly, this is a room for affluent patrons - the scowling doorguard

[14:13] <ST> gives the Once Dead a withering look, but she doesn't challenge them.

[14:13] <ST> The reason why becomes clear a moment later, when a woman sitting on one of the couches speaks up. "Welcome," she says. "I am Blind Lily. I have been expecting you."

[14:14] <ST> She is a woman of Realm birth, by the look of her, with short, dark hair and a slender, pleasing form in a silken robe. A thin linen strip, as blue as the room's furnishings, covers her eyes.

[14:16] <Hare> Faithful Hare takes in the room, counting the number of additional ears. Though no doubt whatever they said would make its way back to Raliona regardless of whatever precautions they took. "You know why we're here, then," Hare says, moving to sit on a stool by Blind Lily's couch.

[14:17] <ST> "Ralinona informed me," Lily says, nodding. "She has her ways. I am... sorry to hear about Pear Blossom's death. She was a good friend. Well, as good a friend as a competitor could be." Her face trembles a bit, in what appears to be genuine pain, before she smiles weakly.

[14:18] <Hare> "I'm sorry the news came to you so abruptly," Hare says, glancing at Fish. "What can you tell me about her?"

[14:18] <Hare> Open-ended questions were best, at least in the beginning.

[14:21] <Fish> Fish glances at the doorguard and the other patrons in the open room, before giving up and joining the two ladies in the center of the room. He could lean against a wall, but be too far for comfortable conversation. Besides, this was a brothel, the guard was probably the only on he had to worry about. He chose a seat that kept her in view, although not facing her.

[14:21] <ST> "We don't always speak about our pasts here." Lily leans forward, feeling deftly for several teacups and the pot. Laying them out, she reaches for the teapot and begins to pour, not spilling a drop, as she speaks. "I do not know much about her life. She was a friendly woman, and a curious one, and they tell me a beautiful one. She knew how to play Gateway, a rarity even here. We... were...

[14:21] <ST> often I thought of her as almost a sister, and not just in trade."

[14:22] <Hare> "How did she spend her time, when she wasn't with customers?"

[14:23] <ST> "Often we would play Gateway. Occasionally she would read, sometimes to me, but often on her own, in her own chambers. She was a woman who valued her solitude." Lily reaches down, taking up one of the cups and having a sip.

[14:26] <Hare> "Did she have any particular friends, besides yourself? People she saw often?"

[14:28] <Fish> He stares at the blindfold, trying to see if it might be see-through when pressed to her eyes. Perhaps is was a curiosity to drive up her price. If she really was blind, well, he could see paying more.

[14:29] <ST> "In the Seven Sighs? Royce, perhaps," and Lily gestures behind her, where a young man with dark hair and shining eyes has laid out a singles game of Pike Me on a table in front of him, moving the cards back and forth with a frown. "Other than that, I do not know. She had customers, but no more or no less than anyone else here. What she did outside the brothel is another business entirely -

[14:29] <ST> I seldom leave here, so I can't comment on it."

[14:31] <Hare> Hare sees her hand tremble. "Are you sure? Can you think of anything? We are trying to bring her killers to justice- any small detail could the key to that."

[14:32] <Fish> "Was there anyone else you both played Gateway with frequently?" It sounded like some kind of Realm sophistication, not that he'd heard of the game before.

[14:33] <ST> She answers Fish's question first, taking a breath to steady herself. "Various patrons. Occasionally Ralinona herself, though she always won. But..." She hesitates. "If you truly want to find her killer... then... then perhaps you should ask me about her. I was here, last night, when she was. She sat where you do now, my lady."

[14:34] <Hare> Hare leans forward. "Tell me."

[14:36] <ST> "I didn't hear all of the conversation, or even most of it. I seldom intrude, and I was busy with a customer, a fat old merchant from the Great Ice. If I had known... if I had known that Blossom was being lured to her death while I charmed and flattered that wretch..."

[14:36] <Fish> he cocks his head. How did she know who the killer was? They hadn't described her. He wouldn't mention it yet, but he'd know before they left.

[14:37] <Hare> "What did you hear? How did the killer..lure her?"

[14:38] <ST> "I cannot tell you what she looked like, of course. But I could hear her speak... a soft voice, young. I could tell by how she sat down that she was slight. I could smell her. I heard Pear Blossom call her beautiful. That... means nothing from the mouth of a courtesan, of course, but it sounded genuine."

[14:38] <ST> She sets the cup back down - now her hand does tremble, and the porcelain rattles against the surface.

[14:39] <Hare> "What else did she say?"

[14:40] <Fish> He lets Hare handle the questions. She would be better at this. In the past, when he'd needed answers, he'd gotten them bny more crude methods than could be used here. Especially with Ralonina about to dissapprove fatally.

[14:41] <ST> "I'm not sure. I heard the usual back and forth, the flirtation. I remember thinking the girl sounded rough and uncultured. Her dialect was Haslanti, but rural. I remember that she smelled... strange. I couldn't believe she had made her way back here, in such a rough condition. I thought she must be beautiful indeed, or wealthy, and slumming."

[14:43] <Fish> He sits, waiting for her to let slip anything that told him why she thought the girl was the murderer, to pounce on that. Hopefully a more direct agressive question from him could disconcert, especially as he had mostly kept quiet so far.

[14:43] <ST> "Their conversation was strange, and only half-heard - I was busy with the damned merchant... I remember hearing Pear Blossom say, 'Such a beautiful maiden, and such dirty slippers.' I have no idea what it might mean. I remember the girl wanting Pear Blossom to go with her, and the clumsy sound of jade hitting a table... and then..."

[14:44] <Hare> "Smelled strange how? Did she smell like anything?" The courtesean was good; a neat deflection from a discussion of her friend, but with useful information. Hare wondered how much Lily; whether she had betrayed what she knew to her mistress, and felt guilty, or whether she had kept silent and feared Ralionna's retaliation.

[14:45] <ST> "Before this, you must understand, Pear Blossom had been playful, almost cruel. But then the girl said something, quietly, so quietly only I could hear it. 'There is no such thing as silence.' There was a hurried rustle, and I had to attend to the merchant, and then they were gone." She gives a ragged, shuddering breath.

[14:46] <ST> "She smelled of many strange things. Cedar chips. Salt and the sea. Incense, strong and cheap, maybe to cover the rest." [14:47] <Hare> A warehouse by the docks? "Did she often leave the brothel with customers?"

[14:48] <ST> "No. Never, before. I wondered... but I did not speak of it to Ralinona... and..." She bites her lip, hard, driving the blood from it. "...that was a mistake."

[14:51] <Hare> "It may have been too late, by the time she left the brothel," Hare says, to comfort her. It might even have been true. "Where did Pear keep her lodgings?"

[14:58] <ST> "I do not know," Lily says, and a tear works its way from beneath the silken strip. "I may never know. But I hope you find the killer. Maybe it was the girl... maybe someone she knew, but I can't imagine she wasn't involved. Pear's room is only a short way down the hall. Ralinona has given her permission for you to look inside."

[15:00] <Hare> "One last question. In the time before she died...did Pear ever seem to believe she was in danger?"

[15:02] <ST> "No. If she did, she did not show such fear to me. She was a secretive woman, but a strong one. And a smart one as well. I do not think she would have gone with the girl if she feared her."

[15:04] <Hare> Secretive. That was useful. "May we search your room as well? She might have hidden something there."

[15:04] <Hare> Or not, if they truly were as sisters; it would be incriminating if they found anything. But Faithful Hare would be thorough.

[15:07] <ST> "I..." Lily jostles a cup on the tabletop. "I... Ralinona did not give permission... I don't think..." But she quiets herself. "Fine, but be quick, and silent. It is next to her own, with an adjoining door." From her sleeve, she produces a slender key and eases it into Hare's palm. "Leave it on the table by my bed, and... please, limit your investigations to those things that may be useful

[15:07] <ST> in finding the killer."

[15:08] <Hare> "Of course." Hare nods her head in a half bow. She glances at Winter Fish. "Lets go."

[15:09] <ST> "If there's anything I can do to help..." Lily says, raising a hand. "Know that I will. Even if... she was a dear friend to me. When I think of-"

[15:10] <ST> "Oy! Lily! Feeling rowdy tonight, are you?" a voice calls from the doorway. A red faced man swaggers in, and Lily turns to face him, a smile like the porcelain teacups forming on her face.

[15:10] <ST> "Perhaps, Olan. Do have a seat..."

[15:11] <Hare> "I understand." Hare resists to scowl at the customer. She rises and winds her way through the courteseans to the hallway, stepping over a handsome youth entwined with a woman smelling strongly of fish and liquor. Poor caged birds.

[15:12] <Hare> But then, it was also their business to inspire others to feel "protective."

[15:12] <Fish> He touches her shoulder gently with a rough finger, leaning close "One more thing. Was the interrupting merchant a regular, or might he have been a confederate, to help seperate your friend?" He asks quietly, an amorous expression on his face. It bothered him being interrupted int his beutiful place by a lout like that. And if the other caused trouble, he could bpt him through a wall.

[15:13] <ST> "Ah... he was not unknown to me, but not frequent enough to be well known," Lily says, not turning to face Fish. "Not like Olan here, no?" The man laughs.

[15:15] <ST> "Don't take long," she warns Fish, but her voice is light. "I may need that room soon."

[15:12] <Hare> "Lets look at Lily's room first," Hare mutters to Winter Fish, slipping the key in the lock.

[15:16] <Fish> He nods, disappointed at Olan's reaction, and joins Hare. "Lily's first, yeah." No need to disrupt her custom.

[15:18] <ST> The way to the rooms isn't guarded, a rare lack of security in this place. But once a customer has gotten this far into the brothel, he or she is too well known to easily get out again should a mishap occur. The key unlocks Lily's door easily, and Hare pushes it open to reveal a spartan room. Bed, dresser, chair. A hooded lantern shines through a red paper covering, casting a lurid glow. It

[15:18] <ST> must certainly be for the benefit of Lily's customers, just like the silken scrolls on the walls.

[15:20] <Hare> "We need to be fast," Hare says, somewhat regretfully. It would need to be well-hidden. She prowls the room. "Pear would lack the tools to do extensive carpentry, but a small panel might be possible..." Or sewn into a pillow, taped inside the lantern, concealed within a haft...Truly thorough searches required destruction. "Try not to break anything."

[15:21] <Hare> She is very careful. Perhaps too careful.

[15:22] <Fish> "I won't" He starts by simply looking in places that dustomers wouldn't bother with, and probably wouldn't have been used by the owner of the room. She had no use for the small mirror that went near the makeup, so he glanced around that. Also, for anything behind the wall scrolls, above the decorative carvings of the dresser, over head height and out of sight.

[15:24] <ST> Hare doesn't find much in her quick search. The pillows are springy and soft, as they should be. The feather mattress yields no suspicious lumps as she presses up and down its length. Unless she wants to spill its guts, she couldn't find more. The wardrobe, hung with costumes of patterned silk, and fur, and leather, yields little as well. Knocking at the rear of it produces no strange sound.

[15:25] <ST> All in all, Hare turns up nothing suspicious until she begins turning out the drawers. Reaching, perhaps a trifle gingerly, into a nest of frilly underthings, her fingers meet something firm, and she pulls it forth.

[15:26] <ST> A painting, curiously done on the surface of a mirror. It portrays a woman that is clearly Lily, though several years younger, smiling wider than it now seems her mouth is capable of, with a pair of bright green eyes. A sigil on the back marks the mirror with the symbol of House Cynis.

[15:27] <Fish> Fish sees her draw it forth, laying eyes on it as soon as she, as he had been sneaking a look at the other things on interest in that particular drawer as it was being investigated.

[15:29] <ST> Fish's own investigation leads him to the mirrors, the baseboards, the carvings, all those things that Lily would be unable to reach and unlikely to think of often. He finds a flame piece perched and concealed atop a piece of decorative carving on the wall, loaded and ready for use, but there appears to be little else of interest.

[15:29] <Hare> "Another spy?" Or a Dynast down on her luck?

[15:30] <Fish> "I doubt the blind woman likes to shoot." He slips it into his waistband, behind overshirt. It seemed likely the owner was dead, and he missed his own that he had given up at the door.

[15:32] <Hare> "You'd be surprised," Hare answers mildly, remembering the Blind Beggar. She had a scar three inches long on her calf from his throwing daggers.She frowns when he conceals the flame-piece in his clothes. "Next room."

[15:33] <Fish> He would have to ask her later. If Lily had really stored it there incase of a customer problem, he wouldn't want to let her find out at the wrong time. Besides, it would be good to be sure that someone else had hidden the weapon in her room

[15:34] <ST> Pear Blossom's room is dark, but the light from the hall under the door and from Lily's room lead the Once Dead to the lantern soon enough, and a few moments of fumbling in the dark light it. Without its paper covering, it casts a much more clinical golden light throughout the room.

[15:36] <ST> If the Once Dead were hoping for a dramatic sign, they don't find it. Cushions lie in one corner, alongside a small bookcase filled with a variety of books. A neatly made bed. A window, closed and tightly shuttered. A wardrobe. A desk, its surface taken up by an elegant pen set.

[15:37] <Hare> "No need to be gentle this time," Hare says with enthusiasm. Still, she sweeps her eyes across the room before she starts, noting the patterns of dust on the desk. It would be useful to know whether Ralionna had it searched it first. She opens the window to let in the slanting evening light and peers out. If she were a spy, she would want a way to exit clandestinely.

[15:40] <ST> The writing desk looks bare of dust, although Ralinona must certainly have been at it. Still, something about it seems strange. Letting it go for the moment, Hare opens the window, letting in a gust of chill air. The lantern sways and gutters, but doesn't go out. On the masonry outside the window, so artfully done as to look like mere natural cracks, are a series of handholds. They appear to

[15:40] <ST> lead down into a dark alley. Without looking for them, you'd never know they were there.

[15:43] <Fish> He lets Hare take care of the escape routes, instead searching through the most obvious places first, the dresser, drawers, looking for anything that might be out of place, and especially any writing, or set of pens and paper for correspondence.

[15:45] <Fish> Even if they couldn't find any notes, knowing what she wrote on might let them find her correspondence elsewhere. It was possible she sent news to the dead man. If so, the killings were more connected than they'd thought, and more targeted.

[15:45] <Hare> "Ah..hah," Hare congraulates herself, pulling her head back in. She turns to the desk, squatting down in front of it and easing open the drawer as Fish searches. Spies often hid things in desks, in secret compartments or whirls in the wood. It was a compulsion of the profession, Hare believed. She lies flat on her back under it and compares the dimensions of the drawers Fish was pulling open and rifling through

[15:45] <Hare> with the dimensions of the bottom.

[15:46] <Hare> She sneezes and wipes her nose.

[15:46] <ST> Fish doesn't find much at first glance, other than the fact that Blossom keeps a wider variety of outfits than Lily does. He pushes past Southern silks, a hanging wolf fur, and a bizarre outfit with spikes that actually prick his finger, before his hands fall upon something rigid, sewn into the lining of one of the kimonos.

[15:47] <ST> He pulls it out and sets it aside as he and Hare attack the desk together, shucking drawers. Fish pours through the papers there while Hare pokes about the workings of the thing, and both come up empty.

[15:48] <ST> Fish finds only erotic poetry and various admirer's notes, and Hare realizes that the desk contains no secret compartments whatsoever. Perhaps, under the scrutinizing eye of Ralinona, simply hiding a thing was asking for it to be discovered.

[15:49] <ST> Fish sorts through the papers, but they don't seem useful, there might be something in there, but he doesn't see any names he recognizes, and staggering through note after note of Haslanti patrons clumsily praising Blossom's beauty turns up little of interest.

[15:50] <Hare> Hare scowls. She relied on people to be predictable. She sits up abruptly and bumps her head painfully against the desk. "Ow!" Rubbing the bruise, she crawls out from underneath it. "I'm tapping the walls," she informs Winter Fish somewhat defiantly. She hadn't felt so useless since she'd had the "talk" with her boys and reduced them both to mirth.

[15:51] <ST> As Hare begins to tap along the walls, Fish finds a sheaf of blank, creamy paper, and a few halfhearted poems in a delicate hand. It doesn't look like Blossom wrote a lot, though she wanted to leave the impression that she did.

[15:52] <Hare> She goes over the walls and floor thoroughly, pressing her ear against them now and then. She'd ceased feeling silly doing this routine since she found a dead clown in Nexus hidden in a secret closet.

[15:54] <ST> Hare's found her share of secret compartments, loose floorboards, and hidden bodies, but the walls and floor of Blossom's room feel unusually solid. Perhaps she was the kind of spy who kept her notes, and her secrets, in her head, for both walls and floor yield utterly nothing. As she completes her circuit of the room, doubtless feeling mounting frustration, Hare's eyes fall once more on

[15:54] <ST> the writing desk and the set atop it.

[15:54] <Hare> If not the desk, perhaps the pens...?

[15:57] <Hare> Her eyes brighten. "It's a puzzle!" she exclaims...perhaps a little too loudly. Wiping the dust absently off her pants, she pulls out the chair and plops herself down. "My husband's good at this kind of thing," she says, pulling the pieces out of the box one by one.

[15:57] <Hare> She examines the box as well, to determine whether it was part of the puzzle.

[15:58] <ST> Alyeska would certainly find this one interesting. Hare strips the linen covering from a silken cord, unfolds the box, snaps together a pair of decorative side pieces, slots in one of the strangely shaped pens... and finds herself looking down at a cunningly designed miniature crossbow and a handful of pen-bolts. Hidden in plain sight.

[15:59] <Fish> He keeps one of the sheets of paper, to compare to other paper and handwriting. He gives the rest to Hare, showing her the one he was going to keep.

[16:00] <Fish> That done, he sits on the bed, and starts fiddling with the Kimono. He wondered if he could slip whatever it was out, or whather she would've had to rip the dress to get it out.

[16:01] <Hare> "Clever," she comments of the crossbow. She disassembles it and packs it into a pencase. Alyeska might be able to tell her who made- and thus who Pear had worked for. He was familiar with all the best craftsman. "Hmmm?" she looks over the paper Fish found. Like him, she finds herself searching for anagrams in the poetry lines.

[16:02] <ST> Fish eases open the seams of the kimono that he earlier tossed aside. They yield easily, almost as if made to do so, revealing a long, thin device with a metal disc at one end and a pair of brass plugs on the other.

[16:03] <ST> The poetry appears to be what it is. Hours of study might yield something, but it just as well might reveal nothing but a lot of clumsy affection.

[16:05] <Hare> Hare wishes someone wrote her poetry. She never got anything but lewd jokes and flowers, when Alyeska remembered their anniversary. She looks up to see Fish fondling the kimino. . She starts as he reveals his find. "That's a farlistener! Spies in Nexus use it."

[16:06] <Fish> He shrugs. "i'd call it a tin ear." He tries it against a wall, the one adjoining them to Lily's room. Perhaps that was the reason the walls were so solid, so that sound would travel well through them.

[16:07] <ST> "I thought you were going to talk my ear off," a man's voice brays in Fish's ear. "Who were those people you were talking with, anyway?"

[16:07] <ST> "Come on, Olan," Lily says invitingly. "Do you really want to talk about _them_ right now?"

[16:08] <ST> A moment later, the sounds from the room indicate that he does not.

[16:10] <Hare> "I don't think there's anything more to find here," Hare says. Then, from curiosity: "Do you here anything?"

[16:10] <Fish> He doesn't bother listening to them. "Works fine. Apparently Olan and Lily had a rather long conversation. Byt he way, lemme see that bow-box." He'd like to see if it'd shoot straight, maybe see if he could find the maker's mark. He knew quite a few of the crossbow makers near here. And if it was any good at all, something like that would have to have been made by a Haslanti

[16:11] <Hare> Hare hands the pencase to him. "I'm taking it home to show to m- to an expert."

[16:13] <Fish> "mmm" well, maybe she knew another, he wasn't going to say anything. "Ah, if he won't need it after, mind if I keep it?" It seemed like it would travel well, and it would come in ahndy.

[16:13] <Fish> He passes the box back to her, and the pens.

[16:14] <Hare> "Ah- probably." Winter Fish struck her as rather aquisitive at times.

[16:15] <Hare> "We're ready to go, I think." Her lips twist in a smirk. "Nothing more to do here. Right?"

[16:17] <Fish> "I need to ask Lily another question, so I guess I'll have to stick around." He grins. He would have made another excuse if he hadn't wanted to talk to her. He'd have plenty, and varied buisness tonight.

[16:17] <Fish> Well, perhaps more of a leer than a grin, but all to the good.

[16:18] <Hare> "Suit yourself," Hare says, feeling sorry for Lily all over again. "But - make sure Jek doesn't get in any fights, right?"

[16:19] <Fish> "Jek? S'long as there isn't an idiot big enough to get between him and his girls, he won't be making trouble tonight. But yeah, I'll keep him in line."

[16:21] <Hare> "Right..Ah...We'll meet tomorrow to question the Cathak." A subtle cruelty overmasters Hare's compassion. "In the morning. Early."

[16:23] <Fish> He grimaces. "Ah, Jek won't be worth tea in an icestorm early tomorrow. And I'm not young."

[16:28] <Hare> Faithful Hare grins. "Don't the followers of Yo Ping say, that is young hearts that preserves youth?" She slaps him on the shoulder, and slips out the door before he can weasel out a more reasonable meeting time.

[16:35] <Fish> He sighs. Well, the morning was the morning, he wasn't going to worry about it overmuch. He leaves for the commonroom, grinning and planning on how to bide his time till Lily was free again. He was sure there would be something to do.

[16:37] <ST> Fish's head is more than a little light, on marijuana smoke and perhaps a little more, by the time Olan remerges, flushed and pleashed with himself. Lily follows a few minutes later, composed and elegant as always. "You're still here," she says, taking a seat next to Fish. "And you've seen Anya, I gather. I'd recognize that cloying perfume anywhere."

[16:42] <Fish> He smiles his satisfaction to the world. "Some of us are a bit too crude for delicate things."

[16:43] <ST> "Would that more men had such an attitude." She smiles slighty. "Did you find anything?"

[16:44] <Fish> He grabs her wrist in a calloused hand, not hard, but firmly enough to control it, laughing slightly, and acting the boor. He forces her hand behind his back, to the outline of the flamepiece over his shirt. "Think you'd need this as well?" he asks, masking the real question under the crude joke.

[16:46] <Fish> It took a bit of contortion to not crush her hand between the weapon and the couch without making it apparent that he wasn't, but he tried. He didn't want to hurt her, just seem like he might be.

[16:48] <ST> "My flame piece," she says softly, then laughs, slipping her wrist from his grip. She raises a hand to forestall the guard at the door, who has already taken a step forward. "You actually did search my room, then. You did a good job of hiding it."

[16:48] <ST> "Not that Olan would have noticed if you'd ransacked the place."

[16:52] <Fish> He speaks softly, making sure not to reveal anything of the actual conversation in his demeanor. "Ah, well, if it was yours, I'll return it. Shall we go somewhere private where I can hand it back?"

[16:53] <ST> "Indeed," she rises, leading him along the hallway to her room until the others are out of sight. "Why did you take it? And what did you find?"

[16:57] <Fish> He slpis the flamepiece out of his trousers, and passes it back, hopefully none the worse for wear. He hadn't considered it when approaching Anya earlier. It had made undressing interesting, keeping it from her, but creativity made things interesting.

[16:58] <Fish> "Thought someone else might have stashed it there, didn't think you'd be one to shoot." He touched her face lightly, near the bottom edge of the blindfold.

[16:59] <Fish> He'd handed it back mouth to her hand. Unless she was very fast, he'd have time if she tried to spin it on him.

[16:59] <ST> Lily hefts it, testing the weight. "Blossom suggested I get it, actually." She doesn't react as he touches her face. "One doesn't have to be precise, and usually by the time they're causing trouble, they're breathing loud enough to hit in the dark."

[16:59] <ST> "If you doubt my blindness, I'd be happy to show you. Most men prefer not to see."

[17:01] <Fish> He nods. "So just for protection against your customers. Well, I've no need to interfere with that. Did she make any other suggestions, perhaps helping you buy the thing?"

[17:02] <ST> "I provided the jade, she provided the piece. I don't know where she got it, but they're not hard to find."

[17:05] <Fish> Ah well, a dead end then. Still, interesting that she'd been the one to buy the weapon. Clearly they had been close. He changes back to the earlier subject. "I believe you by now, but I'd still like to see. If you're still working?" He strokes a hand down her arm.

[17:09] <ST> Lily raises a hand, unfastening the silken band there. The sight is terrible, masses of scarred tissue overflowing the sockets - her eyes have clearly been gouged out, and violently, in the past. "I'm still working," she says, quietly. "But usually this is where most lose their interest."

[17:14] <Fish> He turns her head towards the dim light coming into the hallway, with a finger on her chin. "Thank you." It didn't seem to be the same work. "Live enough violence, and it doesn't phase you much. Well, the aftermath at least." He pretends not to feel her slight shudder. Yes, variety did make things interesting.

[17:16] <ST> "I wish that were true," Lily says. "Perhaps I haven't seen enough yet. But then, I haven't seen much, lately." She laughs, a strangled sound.

[17:20] <Fish> "Come" he grabs the silky strip of her blindfold before she can retie it, and leads her to her room by it. Maybe he'd use it for her wrists. A part of his mind wondred how the courtesans decided their prices - was there a set price for everything that was added up for a total, did they charge whatever they felt was deserved after their work, or whatever they thought they could get from the buyer? Probably changed house to house, and to the tastes of the boy or girl working as well.

[17:23] <Fish> Probably changed house to house, and to the tastes of the boy or girl working as well. Lots of profit in it, that he knew. But most places, that wasn't for the whore. It never had been his racket, so just academic interest, put aside as he drew her into her room.

[14:39] <ST> After the "investigation", it takes a while for Winter Fish to find Laughing Jek again, though perhaps in such pleasant company, he isn't actually looking very hard. As the man moves through the brothel, he is the subject of catcalls from women and men alike, spoken with that casual professional naivete they've tried to hard to cultivate. At this late hour, the place has started to relax

[14:39] <ST> slightly, but only slightly. Winter Fish finds Jek nearly insensate on a divan piled with a tangle of limbs that might be three women or four- it's hard to tell at first glance.

[14:39] <ST> He raises his head blearily from a set of cleavage to nod. "Maybe... s'wasn't that bad a night after all," he offers

[14:41] <Fish> He grins. "Anything left, or it all burn a hole in your pocket?" The Once Dead paid them handsomely, but most of them burned through their pay just as fast. Especially after a dnagerous mission, hedonism was tempting and available.

[14:43] <ST> "Ask Shera, here..." Jek says, patting the head of a brunette who seems to be squirming from beneath him. "She's got her hand in my pocket."

[14:43] <ST> "My name is Cheryl," the woman corrects, without much venom.

[14:43] <ST> "Whatever," Jek slurs. "Hare still around?"

[14:45] <Fish> He laughs "You still have pants on?" He'd spent a fair amount also, though not as much as it seemed Jek had. He had enough extra streams of cash that his monthly pay was suitable for pocket cash, but he still tended to hoard it. He had been a little annoyed that RALINONA HAD LEFT THEM TO PAY FOR THEMSELVES. bUISNESS, HE SUPPOSED.

[14:46] <Fish> oo"She left a while ago" annoyed and resigned to the two of them staying the night here.

[14:48] <ST> "Yeah, well... she's no fun anyway." He shrugs. "What did you find ou- you know, I don't even care right now. You make a good point about... the pants. Gonna deal with that now. Take it easy, Fish." He doesn't so much go anywhere as turn his head into the previous woman again, eliciting a throaty chuckle from her.

[14:49] <ST> It's at that moment that Fish hears the faintest of whispers in his ear, even though he knows there's no one behind him. It is the voice of the Dragonblooded woman, Nellens Ralinona. "Still swimming around, little fish? I want to talk. You know where I am."

[14:51] <Fish> One of the girls starts to play with the seam of his recently recovered leggings. He reaches down to remove her hand, patting it lightly and pushing her back into the pile. He'd mostly worn himself down already, not having the energy of the younger soldier. Besides, he had just recieved a much more attractive proposition.

[14:52] <Fish> He smiles, waving at Jek as he leaves, circulating the floor of the brothel until he can slip away to Ralonina's garden unobserved. He knew enough not to remove his outdoor clothing this time.

[14:55] <ST> No one acts to stop him, perhaps tipped off, perhaps just aware that Nellens Ralinona could take care of any mortal assassin better than they. The balcony has accumulated more snow since the last time, but little of it seems to cover Ralinona or the divan she has chosen. Perhaps she brushes it off when no one's there to watch. As she sees Fish approaching, she sets aside the book she was

[14:55] <ST> reading and nods to a couch across from her, covered with a good inch of standing snow.

[14:58] <Fish> He strides over and plops down in the snow, trusting that his sealskin leggings would andle the snow without getting his ass wet. Besides, he wouldn't let her inconvinience him. He leans back into the couch. Either the coverings were more waterproof than they looked, or she replaced the padding frequently. Or it was magic, of course.

[15:00] <ST> Ralinona leans back, adjusting a thin robe that might as well not be there, completely unselfconsciously - or so she would have observer's believe. "Did your companion already leave?"

[15:02] <Fish> "One of them, the one that might have caused problems. The other is occupied happily, and won't be looking for me for some time." He eyed her appreciatively, as she was inviting him to, but returned his eyes to her face, acknowledging her beauty but not losing himself in it. "You wanted to talk?"

[15:05] <ST> "Straight to business, then." She smiles in a predatory way. "I appreciate that in an... associate. If, as you indicated to me over the head of that meek little creature you brought in here, that is what you wish to be."

[15:07] <Fish> He nods. "Yes." This was dangerous for him, but he rather doubted Ralinona was connected to the networks he used to travel, and she certainly wasn't beholden to any of them. Working with her could be immensely profitable, and shouldn't expose him to any chasing him.

[15:07] <Fish> If she had been involved in that buisness, he never would have lived as long as he had in Icehome.

[15:09] <Fish> "You seemed to want information from us earlier. I have a network in the Ravens." Exaggerating things a bit, but the Once Dead didn't keep gossip from eachother much. Their pasts, often, but most of them cared little enough for the day to day secrets they worked around that information was easily available.

[15:10] <Fish> That was what came from recruiting so much from scum otherwise dead. They would follow the Once Dead's laws, to be allowed to live, but they would not respect them all.

[15:12] <Fish> "I could be useful to you." And she to him. He accepted that it would have to be a somewhat subordinate relationship. She could kill him easily, of course, so it couldn't be any other way. But he should be able to keep himself seperate from whatever her normal operations were.

[15:13] <ST> "I had some of my other associates ask around about you while you were having your fun," she says, as blithely as if she were talking about the frigid weather. "You're a relative newcomer to the Once Dead. And you should be aware that if you spied for me, you'd hardly be my only source."

[15:13] <ST> "You'd need to make yourself worthwhile. You'd need to prove yourself honest. And you need to know if you try to talk to me from both sides of your mouth, I'll cut your lying tongue out."

[15:14] <ST> A chill wind whips up around her, stirring the ends of her hair, casting open her robe. A bit of deliberate theater.

[15:26] <Fish> "I'm not stupid enough to lie to you." True. He'd make plenty off the margins working with her, and perhaps even protect his position slightly. If he pulled anything, even if he succeeded, he would be making more waves. A quiet buisness relationship would help. A noisy takeover would most likely get him killed, even if he somehow managed to deal with her.

[15:29] <ST> "Good," She smiles. "Or else, you think you're a good deal more clever than you are. You'd hardly be the first mortal to do so. But in the end, the touch of the dragons always wins out. If you betray me, Winter Fish, your death will come. The only question will be how, and I assure you it will be painful." She nods, as if satisfied. "But there are great rewards to be had for those who are

[15:29] <ST> loyal. The lapdog gets fed the choicest morsels, as they say."

[15:30] <ST> "Your loyalty to the Once Dead is from this moment void. It remains as a polite fiction to make your life easier, but if you accept my bargain, make no mistake: you are mine."

[15:30] <ST> "This is your last chance to walk away, little fish."

[15:35] <Fish> He shakes his head. "I'm a buisnessman, I'm not looking to be a lackey. Depending on what you need, I might be able to help you as more than a spy, but I'm sure you have better lines for most things than I'd be able to offer. If you want a follower, then I appologize that I've wasted your time. Oh, and let me emphasize, I'm not muscle. Not that I can't find some, but it won't be me." He had terms too, and self respect. He wasn't looking for a master to serve, even if she would offer hims ome protection. Eventually, he would be expendable, and she would need something that would expose him. No, a buisness relationship where they might call on eachother for men, material and information was what he had been offering.

[15:37] <Fish> He had terms too, and self respect. He wasn't looking for a master to serve, even if she would offer him some protection. Eventually, he would be expendable, and she would need something that would expose him. No, a buisness relationship where she might call on him for information, material, maybe men, and he could have another channel for goods, maybe call in favors. That was what he was offering.

[15:43] <ST> She laughs, the softest of chuckles. "There's some steel in you yet, even if it is of poor make." Well, she could work with that. "Most Dragonblooded would cast you from their sight for such temerity, and many would give you a few broken bones or take a life in payment. But my house, distant though it may be, has a certain... admiration for stubborn mortals. And if one of them is foolish

[15:43] <ST> enough to wish to try to cheat a Nellens in business... perhaps I can oblige. If I wanted followers, I could find them by the dozens with a lot less effort than this."

[15:44] <ST> "Doubtless you accord your current superiors as much loyalty as you offer me. Very well; I can treat with a viper if I know it's nature, and I take it you like to line your nest with jade."

[15:46] <Fish> He nods, lounging on the couch, but all musles tense. He was trying not to let them quiver with the tension, but he was sure she knew no matter what he did. Well, it was still worth the effort to control, so that she could he that much pride in him.

[15:50] <ST> "I want information on the nature of the Anathema that was recently spotted in the city. And yes, I've already asked those I could find - and I keep hearing whispers about the Once Dead being there, and staying longer than most. Finding that information - who, and what, and how - is the first thing I want from you."

[15:51] <Fish> "I have no desire to cheat you, I just wish to remain my own man. Just as you don't own the butcher who provides this house with meat, I would deal with you honestly, providing what I can of what you wish." At least he hoped she didn't own the butcher. If he misjudged her, this was already disaster.

[15:51] <ST> "Secondly, and in the interest of fair play," she leands forward, grinning in a way that suggests she's hardly being fair. "I will tell you that I know Pear Blossom was a spy. I know she belonged to your Ears of the North. I want to know who killed her nearly as much as you do, because a kept spy that doesn't even know about its cage is hard to replace."

[15:54] <Fish> He nods. "That I can do. And if we find who killed Pear Blossom, I will return with that as well. I have this much for you now. My partner questioned her corpse. She was killed by a small, beautiful girl, and she believes she was killed because of her connection to the Immaculate Dragons."

[15:55] <Fish> He nods to himself. He thought she'd been a spy, it was good to get firm confirmation.

[15:55] <ST> "Of course you will be honest." She says, with a demure smile. "I do not appreciate lies."

[15:57] <ST> She listens to the information, nodding slowly, as if considering how much to say in response. "That may be the case. I do not rule out coincidence. But if the killer wanted only to kill a courtesan in my service, there were many easier choices. For the effort needed to trap Pear Blossom she might have had a dozen others."

[15:57] <ST> "Still, I will keep a look out, though I could hardly close the brothel the week before Calibration.

[15:57] <ST> "

[15:59] <ST> "For that matter," she muses, "I am not the most observant Prince of Earth, to say nothing of my employees. If she wanted the devout, she could have targeted that scrabbling excuse for an Immaculate Temple."

[16:00] <Fish> He nods. "That was worrying us as well. If that is the only motivation, why aren't there more bodies? It is possible that the killer lies to her victims. Both of them have had their eyes burned out. It might be torture, but perhaps it is part of some ritual, which could be her true purpose."

[16:01] <Fish> "She, or they, did. An old Raven was killed as well. He had been studying there, and had also been forming trade relationships with the Realm."

[16:03] <ST> "Whispering Bear? Interesting." She brushes snow from her eyelashes, heaving a sigh. Her breath makes no steam as it emerges into the cold air. "I did not know he also was murdered. He came here a handful of times, but none worth noting. I know of him only through his connection with the Talon of the Realm. You may wish to inquire with Cathak Sora about this."

[16:03] <ST> "I believe she was passing fond of the fellow, though that does not become even an unExalted dynast."

[16:04] <Fish> "Do you know which of the girls he frequented? We would like to talk to them about him later, just incase."

[16:07] <ST> She shrugs. "I do not know. You could ask around. In any case, I got no reports of interesting pillow talk - he kept business and pleasure separate. He stopped coming at all after his conversion." Truth - or a test?

[16:14] <Fish> He nods. He would ask them anyway. Maybe she wasn't telling him anyway, or maybe he had said something that sounded innocuous at the time, but meant something now. It was worth being thorough, especially in Ralonina's domain.

[16:15] <Fish> He wanted to properly project his capability after all.

[16:16] <ST> "Anything more?" She asks in a lilting, saccharine tone, underlaid with steel.

[16:17] <ST> Below, on the streets, an old man dutifully scrapes away at the ice collecting on some of the cobblestones. A rowdy drunk tossed from the brothel's second story lands beside him with a thud, and he steps over him as if he isn't there and continues working.

[16:19] <Fish> He smiles. Well, he would wait for her to offer, if she ever did. She had put up with enough insolence from him for the night. "Not if you have no more requests." He gives a half bow before getting up, and leaves the balcony, waiting till he is indoors and out of sight to brush the snow off his backside.

[16:20] <Fish> Well, that had been interesting. His heart was still hammering. He wasn't going to sleep any time soon. Perhaps now was a good time to start talking to the girls. Maybe he could find something, and maybe he didn't need all the money in his pocket.

[16:21] <Fish> He frowns slightly as he returns to the parlor. Well, next time they would have to discus renumeration. For now, he was still proving that he was worth it.

[16:24] <Fish> He slouches slightly, and grins more widely, the lines in his face drawing more attention to the crude tattoo marring his cheek. The rest of the night, he would return to his worn mask of the crude bumpkin.

[16:29] <ST> Faithful Hare leaves the brothel at last, stepping out from its still raucous atmosphere into streets almost funeral by comparison. A few figures move: a pair of drunks clinging to each other, minded by a third, sober friend (drinking and roaming alone on an Icehome night was a recipe for freezing to death). An old man scrapes ice from the streets, head down. Otherwise, there is nothing but

[16:29] <ST> the night, and her, and the way home.

[16:32] <Hare> Hare wanders through a market, weighing a decision in her mind. It's more important to do this fast, she tells herself. The perpetrator could be making an escape even now, she tells herself, against the flush of excitement and guilt.

[16:33] <Hare> She fumbles with a coin, and pays a boy to send a message home, informing her family she would be held up for a few hours . Now she feels the reward of spite: she, no less than Fish or Jek, anticipates a long evening.

[16:35] <ST> The boy looks disinterested, but perks up when he receives the coin - he thought he had run his last errand for the night, and hastens away at a fast clip. A man pushing a wheelbarrow of tar, stopping now and then to spread it on the road, shouts at him as he hurries through, waving a fist.

[16:35] <Hare> She makes her way to the seedier docks district, a hive of scum and villainy. She jogs up the steps to Red Boar's lodging. She could get peace and quiet here- if she insisted on it- and anyway a question had been building in her mind since the hints of conspiracy that morning.

[16:37] <Hare> He lived well off his various enterprises. The wood was freshly painted, a rarity in this district. It attracked attention; she keeps her head down against the curiosity off a beggar glancing at her, banging on the solid oak door.

[16:38] <ST> It takes more than one bang. There's a a muted curse, a fumbling, and then a few moments later, the door opens, revealing Boar's face. He's got a new bruise, a swelling over his left eye, but otherwise looks none the worse for wear.

[16:39] <ST> "Hare," he says. The unspoken question shines in his eyes.

[16:44] <Hare> Faithful Hare slides past him to get inside, loath to linger in the doorway. She turns again once she's inside, reaching up to touch the bruise. "Need ice on that?"

[16:45] <Hare> They'd settled- more or less- into a truce on boxing as it related to him and his profession- they avoided the subject.

[16:46] <ST> He grunts. "Ice? Where would I find such a thing around here?" He'd always been far quicker than he looked. "It's fine." He closes the door behind her and leads the way into his dwelling. A fire is burning in the fireplace, but it's a poorly ventilated one, and the air in the room feels smoky as Boar takes a seat and gestures for Hare to do the same. "I guess you're here on business," he adds,

[16:46] <ST> a touch of reproach in his voice.

[16:50] <Hare> Hare flushes. "More or less..." She seats herself, somewhat defiantly, on the arm of his chair. She leans back against him. The smoke stings her eyes. "You'd tell me- wouldn't you- if Engimatic Butterfly returned...if she communicated with you?"

[16:51] <ST> "Why would you care? You've changed your ways, after all. You're making an honest living as a mercenary now." Nevertheless, he doesn't protest as she leans against him. "Why wouldn't I tell you?"

[16:53] <Hare> A careful question- she'd known him dodge artfully. As perhaps he did now. She can feel the play of the muscles in his shoulders against her back. Well and good; she'd notice if he lied. "I don't know. Maybe she'd tell you not to. And I'm not a mercenary. Has she?"

[16:55] <ST> "You are, and she hasn't. Why would you think otherwise?" He doesn't seem to be lying - he hasn't gotten any more tense than he already was.

[16:55] <ST> "I don't understand these games you're playing. If they're to make you feel better about what we both know we're about to do, I wish you'd save it."

[16:59] <Hare> "I'm not- I didn't-" She reddens as her temper rises. Her tone becomes short. "There's a conspiracy. Involving the Realm. The Haslanti. It - it smelled like her. That's all." Perhaps not that strongly; it wasn't yet complicated or bizzare enough for Enigmatic Butterfly, not really. She looks away from him. "I miss her."

[17:01] <ST> "I miss her, too," he says at last, leaning forward. "I miss you, too. The old you, not this disguise you're wearing. I could see through all of them. I see through this one. Enough of this. You know we could both disappear overnight." He shrugs then - she can feel it, and changes the subject. "Conspiracy?"

[17:03] <Hare> She tenses, and relaxes as he changes the subject. She tells him about it. "I don't think there's anyone who doesn't know about the Anathema," she adds glumly. "I wish I didn't. Heard anything about a new cult?"

[17:06] <ST> "There's a new cult every week, near as I can tell. Not as bad as Nexus, but it's always bad around Calibration..." He mulls the story over. "The Cult of the Illuminated is the only one that goes on about the sun and shining ones quite so much, but this doesn't seem like their work. They're pathetic - a bunch of penny whores, old women, and gutter rats. They wouldn't be able to harm

[17:06] <ST> dangerous targets. And why would they want to?"

[17:08] <Hare> She shrugs. "She was called a whore of the Dragons...though she spied on one. No word on who she worked for before, though she met with someone called Hooded Owl the death of her death."

[17:11] <ST> "Hooded Owl? I've heard that name bandied about... a spy for the Ears of the North, I think. Maybe she was a spy for the League. She would have been hurting the dragon, then."

[17:12] <ST> "Positive connections with the Realm. Placement in the Haslanti structure... it's not much to go on, but it's something." He shrugs. "You might talk to Cathak Sora. You might just wait to see who turns up dead next."

[17:15] <Hare> "I'd prefer to avoid that," Hare says tartly. "I have some blood from the killer. I wondered if I might do some scrying here." She says it apologetically. He hadn't exactly had the patience to endure hours of muttering even when they worked together. "I'd never make it ten minutes in the same house as Mika and Delya."

[17:17] <ST> "Feel free," he says laconically, but she can hear the rill of disappointment in his voice. "But I probably won't be able to stay awake during it."

[17:20] <Hare> "Can I wake you later?" she asks, a quirk to her lips and a gleam in her eyes.

[17:21] <ST> He frowns, but can't quite keep the laugh out of his voice as he rises from the chair. "Maybe. If it's a pleasant waking." He tousles her hair in the old familiar way, passing her to climb the stairs.

[17:24] <Hare> She watches him go with a cheerful leer, then gets out the candles she'd bought him once that he'd never got around to burning. She places them in a circle and throws cinnamin, salt, and nutmeg in the air, whispering as she did so. The combination makes her sneeze.

[17:25] <Hare> It swirls in the air, mixing with the smoke, but doesn't settle. She sets the needle with its drop of blood in the center and begins to chant.

[17:32] <ST> At length, Hare's vision grows dim, her own blood pounding and hammering in her temples. She hears the rush of blood as she collapses in the center of the room, falling into an ecstatic trance. Her spirit rises, flying through the air south and east, the outskirts of Icehome blurring before her vision, then shifts, and tilts, and enters a dark room. A strange, glowing light flickers fitfully.

[17:34] <ST> A girl of perhaps twenty stands in a dark room, breathing heavily, her long, dark hair falling behind her in flowing tresses. Hare sees bodies scattered about her, splayed facedown on the floor. Chains hang from the ceiling, and attached to them is a strange contraption that Hare doesn't recognize. A glimmering sai of orchalcum is gripped in one small fist.

[17:34] <ST> Then, there is a lurch, and a moment of disorientation, and Hare finds herself looking through the woman's eyes, feeling her rasping breath, her rising excitement. She is not alone.

[17:35] <ST> "Finish it, Rose," a voice says, and the image shifts, to settle upon a woman in her middle years, dark hair curled up in a bun. "You're enjoying this too much."

[17:37] <ST> "Of course I am, Casca," the woman's voice responds. "They are betrayers. They go to bed with the dragons of the east, and deserve their fates. I only wish there were more time to mete it out. Do you lack the stomach to do our master's work?"

[17:37] <ST> Casca's face spasms for a moment. "Of course not," she answers. "But the boy..."

[17:39] <ST> "It was necessary," Rose answers. "They would suspect our purpose otherwise. And it was hardly undeserved. We must do such things from time to time."

[17:39] <ST> "Pick better victims," Casca says. "Even the Cult finds this vile."

[17:40] <ST> "Forget the Cult," Rose says, and the vision shifts away. "They are worms, not tigers." Her gaze falls upon a man, pale and drawn, and somehow familiar to Hare. One of the Once Dead? She can't quite place him. He lies propped against the wall, struggling to hold in his own spilled entrails. His eyes are terribly alive, bright and fevered.

[17:42] <ST> Rose steps forward, and her hand rises in front of her, coming into Hare's field of vision. "You have betrayed the laws of Creation," she says, her voice cold. "You have made yourselves the whores of the scavenger dragon. You have betrayed the Shining Ones. But the Sun is unconquered. The Sun is bright. Look upon it, and burn."

[17:43] <ST> The orichalcum sai flares suddenly, alight with a golden glow that almost seems warm, until it darts forward, into the man's eye. There is the horrible sizzle of burning flesh, and the man is screaming, and screaming, and screaming, and Hare is screaming also, Red Boar holding her in alarm as she convulses upon the floor.

[17:46] <Hare> Hare grabs onto him when she regains control of her limbs, shaking, and buries her face in his shoulder. "Well," she says at length, voice muffled, "I found the killer."

[17:47] <ST> He strokes her back softly, a gestue of uncommon gentleness. "Who?"

[17:50] <Hare> "A girl named Rose. Long black hair. Some kind of radical Cult splinter group. Pretty. She was torturing someone...he was familiar. . It's not the Realm. She's acting against Lookshy. She was talking with an old woman named Casca."

[17:51] <Hare> She pulls herself away from his shoulder and wipes her eyes. "S-sorry."

[17:54] <ST> "There's nothing to be sorry about," he says, clumsily. "I... will you catch her, now?"

[17:56] <Hare> "Not enough information for that. But I'm closer. I- I should go. There was a device...I need to make sketches before I forget what it looked like." Not to mention that her hysterical screaming fit had ruined the mood for any more entertaining activities.

[17:58] <Hare> She grins faintly, leans forward, and kisses him. "I'll see you later, yeah?"

[17:59] <ST> "I... understand." He breaks away from the kiss, a strangely troubled look on his face. "Be careful. If you need me... you know... you know I'll be there."

[18:02] <Hare> "I know." She gives him a peck on the lips and gets to her feet. She'd apparently rolled over the candles somewhere in the midst of it all; there are scorche marks mar the wood. "Sorry about the floor," she tells him, and is out the door before he can demand she do anything about them.

[18:47] <Hare> It's very late night- or very early morning. Hare is still deciding how to spin it as she opens the door to her house, the pencase tucked under her arm.

[18:51] <Hare> She stirs a fire in the pit. If she was going to wake Alyeska up at odd hours, he might as well be warm.

[18:54] <Hare> She slips inside their room and places a hand on the lump in the bed. She shakes it gently. "Darling," she murmurs.

[18:56] <ST> The covers slide aside, revealing a comically placed pillow, a note pinned to its surface. "Don't wait up!" It was, perhaps, his idea of a joke.

[18:56] <Hare> "Alyeska!" she exclaims. She is struck by a moment of fear. If the boys were unsupervised...

[18:56] <Hare> She opens the door to their room.

[18:59] <ST> The boys sleep placidly and rather soundly. Delya snores slightly in his sleep. Alyeska must have put them to bed, and wonder of wonders, they stayed there.

[19:00] <Hare> Well. She'd get some sleep, at least. She'd pin Alyeska down if he returned for breakfast.

[19:01] <ST> Alyeska is not there when Hare awakes, nor when she drags her two sons with her to the Tomb, where they'll be scrubbing away in the armory today. After they're inside and under the watch of Fervent John, she returns to the front of the Tomb to find the others waiting.

[19:02] <ST> Jek looks like he's been beaten for several hours with the hangover stick. His eyes are red and squinting, and stubble stands out on his normally smooth shaven jaw.

[19:02] <ST> "It's a fucking crime," he mumbles to no one in particular.

[19:04] <Hare> Hare looks sprightly and full of energy, showing none of the ill effects of a night of limited sleep. She has the meanness of spirit to grin at him. A roll of paper is stuck under her arm. "Alyeska didn't come home- I'll need to stop by his work to ask about the devices."

[19:04] <Hare> "Then we can question the Cathak."

[19:06] <ST> Jek digs the heels of his palms into his eyes. "I wonder if he's got any willow bark to chew on."

[19:10] <Fish> Fish grunts, looking far better than Jek, but not as composed as Hare. He hadn't bothered shaving or washing after the long night, so he still smelled incongruously of clashing perfumes.

[19:14] <Hare> Her lips quirk at Winter Fish. "Your..questioning went well?"

[19:15] <Fish> He smiles. "It was worth the morning. Didn't learn much of anything though. Blossom had bought the flamepiece for Lily, so that she could protect herself, so I gave it back to her."

[19:17] <Hare> "Got to watch out for the blind ones."

[19:18] <Hare> She leads the way through the market district, a well-groomed area filled with the better class of craftspeople.

[19:18] <Fish> He grins, but doesn't reply.

[19:19] <ST> The door to Alyeska's workshop is just ahead. Hare raises a hand to knock, but a solid blow causes the door to drift open into a narrow, shabby hall leading back towards the rest of the workshop.

[19:21] <Fish> His hand drifts to the handle of his heavy ice chisel. "He normally careless about this?"

[19:23] <Hare> "He's a craftsmen," Hare answers. "He has customers."

[19:25] <ST> None today, it seems. The interior of the shop is fairly bare, and the goods Alyeska normally brings out are still packed away out of sight, the tables bare. It's not the first time Hare's seen it; he often gets caught up in his work.

[19:25] <Hare> Nevertheless, she's a little concerned. "He's probably upstairs."

[19:27] <Hare> She runs up the stairs. "Alyeska?" she calls.

[19:29] <ST> The door at the top of the stairs has stuck as usual. She's never been up there (something about a man needing his space to work), but she's seen Alyeska struggle with it before. After a solid tug, it opens - spilling a corpse into her shins. A familiar face - the one from last night's vision - looks up at her, seared eyes staring at nothing.

[19:31] <Fish> Fish is below her on the stairs. "Shit. Same work?" He couldn't see the face, but assumed it was her husband.

[19:31] <Hare> A shriek rips out of her before she can stifle it.

[19:32] <ST> The workshop, a broad, circular room, yawns beyond the corpse. More bodies are strewn about its floor, and everywhere there are torn and destroyed papers, splintered instruments and tables. The curious device Hare saw in the vision is gone now, the chains hanging empty, but whether she actually notes that fact at this moment is questionable.

[19:33] <Fish> "Jek, go get the door." Was this retaliation, did the enemy know that they were the ones investigating? Or was it coincidence. Had he taken the wrong comission?

[19:34] <Fish> He didn't think enough word had gotten out for this to be a copycat crime, unless possibly the perpetrator had contact with the original killer.

[19:34] <Hare> Breaking at of her frozen state, Hare goes to turn each body over, staring at its face before going to the next.

[19:34] <ST> "On it, Fish," Jek says, his voice tight. He doesn't ask. He doesn't have to. He slams the door below heavily, barring it.

[19:37] <ST> The window at the far end of the room is open, blowing a chill draught into the room and casting the pale light as Hare works. The first is a fat man - Hare notices, not with her conscious mind, that a black footprint mars the back of his shirt, as if someone had stepped there. She turns over the next and finds his throat cut, and turns over the next and finds his chest stiff with blood,

[19:37] <ST> and turns over the next and it is Alyeska, his eyes burned away as the others, his face, chests, and arms heavily scored with slashes.

[19:39] <Hare> Hare kneels down numbly the corpse. "Alyeska..." she whispers. Her heart squeezes in her chest, and her visions dims.

[19:41] <Hare> She strokes his cheek uselessly. She had watched that other man been tortured. How long before had her husband been murdered. Maybe...maybe if she had gone home that night.....

[19:43] <Hare> She wipes a tear angrily from her cheek.

[19:45] <ST> Neither Winter Fish nor Faithful Hare spot it in time. There's a sharp whistle, and then a pain strikes Hare in the shoulder. A knife trembles there, its tip buried in her flesh.

[19:45] <ST> From the shadows to one side of the door, a figure moves into the light. A woman, older, her face fleshy and soft, but her eyes bitter and hard. Her brown hair curled into a bun. Hare recognizes her as well.

[19:46] <ST> "They thought someone was looking for us. They thought someone would come."

[19:47] <Hare> "Murderer," Hare names her, eyes red from weeping. She tears the knife from her shoulder. "You will be hunted down like dogs. You and your cult."

[19:47] <ST> "I do not think so," she says mildly. "That would require the two of you to survive."

[19:48] <Fish> He grins, finally something to do. Well, something for the job, unlike most of the previous night. "Haven't fed many Ravens have you?"

[19:50] <ST> "On the contrary," she smiles, stepping from the shadows into the light. A pair of elegant, curving hooked swords are in her hands, and she slips easily into a defensive kata. "My friends and I have given the crows plenty of food."

[19:54] <Fish> "Ravens are bigger, smarter and stronger than crows." Jek better get up the stairs, fast.

[19:59] <Hare> Faithful Hare just snarls, sliding the tiger claws she kept attached to her wrist over her hands. She slides into Leaping Tiger stance, a style of strength and deception. "I dreamed of you, you know. Just like a Haslanti. Your sun rose and burned everything to ash."

[20:00] <ST> "They are no match for a tiger," she says, her grin only widening as she takes a step sideways, blades flashing around her. The sight of a plump-faced woman achieving such moves is jarring, incongruous.

[20:00] <ST> "And you need not worry. You'll never live to see it."

[20:03] <Fish> His words aside, this woman was dangerous. He didn't want to face her close in. He let his chisel thunk into the floor, the razor wedge at the tip sinks into the hardwood floor below them. He slings his crossbow around, slipping a bolt into it as he steps away from the enemy.

[20:03] <Hare> "Who do you serve, woman?" Hare spits out, circling. She stays between Casca and Alyeska's body, as though she could still defend him. "We will tear him down once we have killed you."

[20:04] <ST> "You dare to threaten him? Your League will burn, worm. His cleansing light will sweep all of this away."

[20:04] <Hare> "Who! Who did my husband die for!"

[20:05] <ST> "The Bull of the North," she says. "The both of you should feel honored."

[20:05] <Fish> As soon as the bolt is in, his finger finishes the last slack on the trigger, his loading hand hovering over the action, ready to start reloading as soon as the bolt exits the bow.

[20:08] <ST> Fish's bolt whistles through the air, but the woman is already moving. Her blade flashes, impossibly fast, as she steps through the stream of light into the darkness. There is a sharp whine, and the bolt caroms off the edge of her blade to shatter a piece of pottery on a distant shelf.

[20:10] <Hare> "Icewalker filth!" Hare howls as she flings herself recklessly forward. Her claws flash out, hooking the swords. This is not, strickly speaking, the dance of a Leaping Tiger, mixed as it is with a hurricane of rage and sorrow. Enigmatic Butterfly had never taught her to be so heedless.

[20:13] <ST> There is the scream of steel on steel as Hare attacks, the sheer brunt of her assault bearing the woman back and into a table. There is a crack, and strange arcane tidbits go spilling from the table to shatter on the floor.

[20:14] <ST> Casca remains untouched. "My turn," she hisses, darting forward, shoving Hare back. Her foot finds purchase on the table behind her, and she springs, vaulting up and over Hare's back, spinning in midair to scythe down at her with a hooked blade.

[20:16] <ST> The strike hits, but caroms off Hare's back in a spray of sparks. The woman lands, crouching, with a snarl.

[20:16] <ST> "What the fuck is going on up there?" Jek shouts from downstairs.

[20:16] <Hare> "Assassin!" Hare yells.

[20:17] <Fish> "Get the fuck up here!" he yells, not having time to think of being more informative.

[20:21] <Fish> He backs farther, trying to to back into a corner, but almost having to. She was fast. He was going to have to time his attack by her kata. He watches the swirling motions of her hook swords, waiting for patterns. Holding still was always the hardest, least it always had been for him. He timed his shot for the moment when the swords crossed over eachother, so that the bolt arrived immediately after they had seperated. If she managed to block it, she would ahve to break her rhythm.

[20:22] <Hare> "Together!" Hare shouts.

[20:25] <ST> Fish's bolt flies true, but the woman dances out of the way just in time - a bolt that should have taken her in the heart instead pierces her shoulder. Blood flows down the front of her white robe, bright and shocking. She is mortal, then.

[20:28] <Fish> He doesn't smile, doesn't react, focused so much on working the bow, cranking it back to be loaded as soon as it can be. He'd have to do it again. And again. But he could. He was settling into his own rhythm.

[20:29] <Hare> "Still sure you won't pay?" Hare asks. She lunges forward, catches one of Casca's darting swords on the sleeves of her shirt and twisting it harmlessly away. All a distraction. She raises her iron-studded boot to the height of the woman's chin.

[20:30] <Hare> *She summersaults backwards, bracing herself against the floor with her hands swinging both boots up to meet Casca's chin.

[20:34] <Hare> The satisfying, forceful blow of her boots cracking against Casca's face brings a smile to Hare's face and swings her into a handstand. She tumbles upright, landing crouched, straddling her husband's body protectively.

[20:34] <ST> The woman reels, lip splitting from the savage kick that Hare lands. She doesn't look quite so incongrously middle aged any longer, not with blood coating her chin and front. She gives a grunt of rage, and springs, her swords sweeping down at Winter Fish as he struggles to reload.

[20:38] <ST> There's the shriek of steel on steel plates. A line of crimson bubbles up on Winter Fish's side, running livid and red. Jek staggers up the stairs, blinking in the sudden light. Not stopping to ask questions, he bulls in, swinging at the woman who is assaulting his friends.

[20:38] <Fish> He wrenches the bow out of the way, unwilling to let her damage it. The fine mesh of the chain shirt he wore under his sealskins would take the blow, his crowwbow might not. And he had to use it to kill her.

[20:39] <ST> Casca deflects Jek's desperate blow with barely an afterthought, driving him back a step. A gust of wind blows through the room, rattling the hanging chains.

[20:43] <ST> "Who is this bitch?" Jek asks, a bit of wonder in his voice.

[20:47] <Hare> "A slave of the Exalted." Hare raises her hands to block the hooked sword's downward blows and drives her boot into Casca's stomach.

[20:48] <Fish> Fish grunts, conveying whatever Jek understood it to mean. At least he'd bought time for Fish to creak away from the woman. He raises his bow, making sure to keep it clear of the hanging chains, and fires at the woman. This time he aims at her side, slightly away from Hare. If she dodged it the easier way, she would be driven towards his ally.

[20:49] <ST> Casca's ready this time, spinning smoothly to block Hare's attack with the flat of her blade. The impact drives her back slightly, silhouetting her in front of the open window for Fish's attack.

[20:50] <ST> But she once more hears the whistle of his bolt, whipping her blade sideways, edge on. A shudder runs up her arm, and Fish's bolt skitters to the floor in two pieces, neatly bisected.

[20:53] <Fish> She bisects it, but she had forgotten the first rule of combat. Neat training ground moves are for training. In combat crude effectiveness rules. If she had blocked with the flat of her blade, she would ahve been fine. Instead each half of teh bolt hit her separately.

[20:55] <ST> She takes a staggering step towards Hare, blood bubbling from her mouth.

[20:55] <ST> "He... will kill... you all..." she wheezes, her dying fingers clutching at the other woman's chest.

[20:56] <Hare> Hare kicks her away. Casca lies crumped in a bloody heap. "Sow," she whispers.

[20:57] <Hare> Her voice is calm. "Jek. Go tell trembleshanks of the massacre. It'll be a short leap from him to the Ears, I'm sure."

[20:57] <Fish> He lets out the long breath, one he always held while hunting. Somehow breathing through his nose didn't disrupt him, but opening his jaw unseated the crossbow ever so slightly, so he was never breathing fully unless he was running for his life.

[20:58] <Fish> "Wait, first, lets be sure there aren't more."

[20:58] <ST> "Sure... but... what... I mean..." he seems shaken by what little part of the battle he saw. "What was she? One of the Fair Folk? No old lady should be able to... to move like that."

[20:58] <Fish> Now that the fight was over, he could feel the pain of the cuts accross his side. Well, he would live.

[20:59] <ST> Fish's wounds bleed quite liberally - they're in need of staunching, but he has time.

[20:59] <Hare> "If she were one of the Fair Folk, she wouldn't have lost. She was just well-trained. GO." She looks down at the scattered dead bodies. "We'll wrap up the crime scene."

[21:00] <ST> Jek, still shaken, nods. "But... Gods... Hare, what if there'd been three of them here? I... nevermind. I'm going. Fish, you should get that looked at."

[21:00] <ST> He hastens down the stairs, glad to be out of the new slaughterhouse and in one piece.

[21:02] <Hare> "Yes. Look at it, Fish," Hare says absently. She sinks to her knees beside her husband. "Oh, my dear," she says quietly, brushing his hair from his forehead. She leans down and kisses him, long and lingeringly, with none of the revulsion of corpses past. A cold breeze stirs the room.

[21:03] <ST> Alyeska stirs, the corpse giving a strangled cough that sounds familiar. "Asssskkk..." the cold, familiar lips move, but it's her voice. Alyeska is nothing but a puppet yanked on crude thaumaturgical strings now

[21:04] <Hare> She raises her lips from his and stares into his hollowed-out eyes. "What were you doing when they took you, love?"

[21:05] <ST> "Working on the aetheric essence engine with the others." The tone is flat, clinical. She might as well be anyone questioning him, not his wife.

[21:06] <Hare> "Aetheric essence engine?" she asks, shaken. "You were a...a watchmaker!"

[21:06] <ST> "No. Not watchmaker. Engineer. Government."

[21:07] <ST> "Tool. From Lookshy. To drive airboats."

[21:09] <Hare> Dragons from the East. Damn it all... She smoothes his hair uselessly. "H-how long did they torture you?"

[21:10] <ST> "The beautiful girl hurt us for... a long time."

[21:12] <Hare> Hare blinks. Tears slide down her cheeks, in spite of her best efforts. She would find Rose, kill Rose, by being professional, cool, not by behaving like a child who had lost her lover. But the last question slips out nevertheless. "D-did you know? About me and Boar?"

[21:14] <ST> "He is an old friend... nothing else to know." The body shakes once more, and goes still.

[21:16] <Fish> He had followed her wishes, looking away. Still, he couldn't have not heard. But they could both pretend he hadn't.

[21:16] <Hare> "Good," she whispers. "Good." He had died trusting her, then. Knowing she loved him.

[21:16] <Hare> She wipes her cheeks with her sleeve.

[21:18] <Hare> She looks up at Fish. "I can look at that," she offers in a flat, even voice.

[21:21] <Hare> She glances around and rips a sash from the dead woman and advances on them. "We have a better chance of catching them if you're not in a trauma bed for a month."

[21:22] <Fish> He hesitates. She wasn't in the best of states, and he knew nothing of her sorcery, except that she had said that the sooner done the better. But he was bleeding rather badly. There was not much on the outside, only what could slip through the hole the sword had made in his coat. But blood was slick down the coat's inside.

[21:22] <Fish> "Please." He starts to shrug off his coat, overshirt , mail shirt and shirt, wincing at each step from the pain in his side.

[21:23] <Hare> She doesn't take undue effort to spare him any pain. She pushes sides of the wound together with her hands, wraps the sash around his waist, and pulls it tight, putting pressure on the wound.

[21:24] <Hare> The bleeding stops almost instantly, and Hare grunts. "That'll do."

[21:27] <Fish> He grimaces and lets her work. Much worse had happened to him in the past. Hell, when he'd cut off his finger, all he'd had to fortify himself was a swallow of alcohol. He'd needed the rest of the bottle to keep mthe wound clean.

[21:28] <Hare> She turns back to the corpses. "I have some more questions to ask. See that the crime scene is not further disturbed. I may be able to track the aetheric essence engine."

[21:30] <Fish> He nods, knowing she wanted to be alone. He made his way downstairs, to meet the Once Dead who were going to be arriving.

[21:30] <ST> Annar, the doctor, arrives with Jek in tow, along with a few others. Startled Rabbit, Fervent John the excommunicated monk, and lithe Snow Peacock.

[21:31] <Fish> He rubbed the short stump of his left ring finger again, remembering. He'd sworn that the ring would never leave his finger, but it had been far too distinctive when he needed to go into hiding. We'll noone who had known him would recognize him now.

[21:31] <ST> "Trembleshanks told us to secure the place," Jek explains. "The Ears still aren't moving. I don't know why- is... is Hare all right?"

[21:32] <Hare> Upstairs, Hare kisses the dead more gently than is her custom. She asks them about their business, their contacts, whether they had known their danger. She asks them where Rose had killed them. She asks about their families.

[21:32] * Annar has joined #exalted1220

[21:35] <ST> The dead speak, flatly and evenly. They knew the dangers - they had, she quickly gathers, taken this job as Haslanti patriots, or simple wealth seekers, or for the glory. They collaborated with the Lookshy government to develop an essence powered airboat engine, which could revolutionize the military of the League. They were on the verge of a major breakthrough, cut short by an attack they

[21:35] <ST> had never expected. There had been three of them - a woman, an old man, and the beautiful young girl, Blood Rose.

[21:36] <ST> It occurs to her, belatedly, that this is dangerous information for anyone to know.

[21:36] <Hare> Hare's nostils flare. An old man. She had to get the old man too.

[21:38] <Annar> Annar arrives, bringing the Right Talon's battle standard with him. After checking that he wasn't needed medically, he plants it oputside. It looked like they would be here long enough.

[21:38] <Hare> She looks at the papers scattered about the room. She should preserve them too. The madmen wanted the aetheric essence engine project to fail; well. She would see it succeed.

[21:40] <Annar> He leaves three to guard outside. Hare needed the space above undisturbed for her investigations, but he wanted some of them close enough to get there in an emergency. He waited with Jek and Fish below.

[21:41] <Hare> She prowls the room, collecting them. She checks for hidden compartments in the room. She preserves an icy calm, except when she breaks down into a crying jag before she continues her investigations again.

[21:42] <Fish> "Shes fine." Fine as she could be with her husband dead. And the rest.

[21:43] <Fish> He still hadn't put all his layers back on, though he had redonned the armor, of course. "Hey, could you take a look at this? Make sure its closed right?"

[21:43] <Fish> "Hey, should we check if the sword was poisoned?" he adds, more animatedly. She had seemed crazy after all.

[21:44] <ST> Hare's investigation turns up all that mortal eyes could. There had been a battle, short, pitched, and one-sided. With a trio of those warriors up against engineers, it could hardly have gone any other way. Sorting through the papers, Hare finds them mostly destroyed, but more strikingly, incomplete. They have not been damaged, but stolen. Perhaps the engine itself has met the same fate.

[21:45] <Annar> He gives it a cursory glance, not wanting to disturb the bindings. "You're fine. Its going to be painful, so just take it. Does this feel any different than a normal wound? If it was really poisoned, you'd feel it by now."

[21:45] <ST> The usual messages, clumsily written in blood, cover the walls. BETRAYAL. An attempt to focus on the connection with the Dragon-Blooded.

[21:47] <ST> Hare returns to the body she investigated earlier, noticing the dark shape in the form of a footprint she saw their earlier, with more important things on her mind. Reaching out a finger, she finds that it moves when she pokes it. A piece of tar, long dried, in the shape of a slipper. It must have broken free during the struggle, perhaps when whoever it was - Rose, from the size of the

[21:47] <ST> footprint - kicked the fallen man.

[21:48] <ST> "Man..." Jek takes a seat, leaning his head back against the wall. "No offense, Fish, but I'm really glad I missed most of that fight."

[21:50] <Fish> He eases back against the edge of a desk, not wanting to bend his waist enough to sit down. "Didn't miss much. I killed her fast." He says, sourly.

[21:50] <Hare> Tar. Where does tar come from? Boats...and...Tanning works. She breathes into Casca's mouth. "Where did the others take the aetheric essence engine?"

[21:50] <Annar> "What happened?" he asks, looking at both of them.

[21:52] <ST> "Didn't tell me." The bones thrash in their cage of flesh as Casca speaks. She is not reluctant, merely clinical. Did they suspect she might fall? Could they know of Hare's abilities?

[21:53] <Hare> Hare grimaces. "Why did you remain behind?" Wasting her questions, she was wasting her questions.

[21:54] <ST> "Knew you would come sooner or later. Waited to kill you."

[21:55] <ST> Jek shakes his head. "I don't know... there was a woman. Looked like your mother, fought like... well... my mother."

[21:55] <ST> He laughs weakly at his own joke.

[21:56] <Hare> "Why? There would be other investigators."

[21:56] <ST> "Not fast enough. Wanted to slow you."

[21:58] <Hare> One more question. Only one. "Where are your headquarters in Icehome?"

[21:58] <Fish> "She was waiting for us, waiting for someone to look into the killings. We weren't expecting bodies. This is, ah, Hare's husband's workshop. We were here to ask him about a bow we'd found." He pauses, adding "She was damned good."

[22:00] <ST> "The Temple of the Cult. The fury of the Unconquered Sun."

[22:03] <Hare> "Just so." Over taken by an irresistable impulse, she grabs the woman's hooked sword and dashes her throat open with. Pointless. She drops it. Frowns at the tar.

[22:06] <Hare> She supposed she should examine the hooked sword for maker's marks, but she just couldn't be bothered. They'd take it into evidence. She tromps down the stairs. "I'm going on a personal errand. Then I'm tracking this tar." If that didn't work, she supposed she could track down some of those penny whores and guttersnipes Red Boar had mentioned as belonging to the Cult. They'd tell her where the temple was after

[22:06] <Hare> they were dead, if not before.

[22:08] <Hare> "We'll rendeveus in two hours. That includes you," she adds to the ones with the flag. "There are two more of these 'tigers.' We will attack in force. One at least is a sadist; that's a weakness we can exploit."

[22:08] <Fish> "Hey, you alright?"

[22:09] <Hare> "I'm fine." She turns. Her face is strained, stretched. "Don't I look alright?"

[22:09] <Annar> "Are you sure you ought to be alone?" He didn't know her well enough to question her about her errand. Once Dead avoided looking into eachothers personal matters.

[22:10] <ST> There's a commotion from outside, voices raised in alarm. "Let me in!"

[22:10] <Annar> "You should take one of us, safety in numbers."

[22:10] <Hare> "I think they're too busy moving their prize to concern themselves with tracking me in the streets." She nods briskly to the others. "Farewe- what?"

[22:12] <ST> "Listen, this is a closed workshop, and I don't know who told you you could come here-" the voice of Snow Peacock comes through the door.

[22:12] <ST> "They said Fish and Hare were here! I have to see them!"

[22:12] <Annar> He races out the door. If there was a crisis he wanted to deal with it. And he didn't want to be inside with his weapon outside.

[22:13] <Hare> Hare runs down the stairs after him. "What?" she snapped as the door opens.

[22:13] <Fish> Fish moves slowly behind him, having retrieved his Chisel from above. If four ravens couldn't take care of it, he was sorry help at the moment.

[22:14] <Fish> "What?" he echoes her.

[22:14] <ST> Brother Thunder stands there. The monk's face is pale, and drawn, and he's breathing heavily. Likely he sprinted here. "You said-" he gasps as he sees Hare and Fish emerge. "You said if we were attacked, that we should tell you..."

[22:15] <Hare> "What happened?"

[22:16] <ST> "Shimmering Twilight is gone. Please... you must help us..." He seems less stern than last time, less sure of himself.

[22:18] <Hare> "Who took her?"

[22:18] <Fish> "She seemed a bit of a scamp when I saw her, sure she hasn't run off, maybe with teh pie vendor?"

[22:19] <ST> "I don't know... she was gone this morning. It's not like her... I can't imagine who would do anything to a child." He takes time to shoot a glance in Fish's direction. "Certainly not. It's a child's crush, and nothing more. She wouldn't worry us like this."

[22:20] <Fish> His face hardens. "We'll look for her. But you had better pray to your Dragons that shes off with her crush. Whatever that might do to her soul is better than the alternative."

[22:21] <Hare> "Blood Rose wouldn't hesitate to torture a child. I have some information that she had taken a boy-" She should have asked after him. She curses herself for her stupidity. She needed to be smarter than this.

[22:22] <ST> "I... thank you. I hope nothing... amiss has happened. But I fear it has. I will aid you in your search as best I can."

[22:23] <Hare> "Tell Winter Fish about this Cathak person. I've another errand." She nods curtly to him and pushes her way into the street.

[22:30] <Hare> She finds her children in the Tomb. The vault is cluttered with weapons, arranged in haphazard racks. A few brightly polished breastplates are product of Fervent John's supervision. For a moment anxiety seizes Hare, until she hears Delya shout. "Ah- hah! Take that!" and crash a buckler into his brother's shield. Mika tumbles backward into a suit of armor, setting off a domino effect of crashing metal.

[22:32] <Hare> "Boys," Faithful Hare says, as the din echoes and rings in her ears. She looks at her eldest son. "Taking care of your little brother?" she asks him.

[22:32] <ST> Fervent John gives a long, pained sigh as Hare enters. "I guess I picked up more patience from the Immaculates than I th- Hare? is something wrong?"

[22:33] <ST> "Sure" Delya says blithely, as his brother worms his way free.

[22:35] <Hare> "They're done for the day. Mika. Delya. We need to talk." Faithful Hare's eyes blaze, but her face is colder and harder than her children had ever seen it. "Give us some privacy, John?" she nods to him.

[22:37] <ST> John nods, gladly vacating the scene, and closing the door behind him. Ranks of armor and polished weapons rear dangerously, and Delya and Mika's eyes roam among them.

[22:38] <Hare> "Boys, pay attention," she tells them, her voice constricted. She takes their hands.

[22:38] <ST> Delya rolls his eyes. Mika, at least, is still innocent enough to look contrite. Perhaps he senses something wrong.

[22:42] <Hare> She grips their hands a little too hard. Delya's eye roll sparks her temper; she reacts without thinking and for the first time in his life, she slaps him hard across the face. She doesn't feel guilty, not yet, at the shock on their faces. "Listen, I said. Your father is dead. He was murdered sometime last night."

[22:43] <ST> They freeze, not really understanding it. Mika stares up at her, blank faced. Delya, the oldest, always proud of his maturity, is the one who starts crying first. "Who-Who'd want to kill papa?" He hasn't called him that in a half dozen years.

[22:46] <Hare> Faithful Hare softens. She cups his cheek, brushing away his tears. She hadn't done that in years, either. "Bad people." She hugs him hard.

[22:47] <ST> "Wh-what do we do now?" Mika hugs her as tightly as he can, his face wet with tears.

[22:49] <Hare> She lets the question linger for a few moments. What now, indeed? Haslanti custom said widows and widowers should move back in with deceased's family. Alyeska had a sister; a round, kind woman with a family of her own. She should take the children to them. But she was not Haslanti. The answer crystallizes in her heart.

[22:49] <Hare> "I'm going to take you to Red Boar." She brushes the tears from Mika's face. "You can't be children any more, do you understand?"

[22:50] <ST> Mika doesn't reply. And suddenly, neither seems to find the prospect of spending time with Red Boar pleasing. It is Delya who asks, eventually, "Where are you going to go?"

[22:51] <Hare> "I'm going to kind the people who murdered your father, and I'm going to kill them."

[22:52] <ST> They take a moment to digest this. "Good," Mika says at last, voice muffled against her stomach.

[22:54] <Hare> She takes them through the streets to Red Boar's lodgings, one hand on each of their shoulders and eyes watching hawklike for potential assassins. She pounds on the door.

[22:55] <ST> Red Boar opens the door, the swelling on his head somewhat diminished. He doesn't seem shocked to see her till he looks down at the boys, their faces red and raw.

[22:55] <ST> "What the hell?"

[22:56] <Hare> She meets his eyes. "Alyeska's dead. I'm going after the killers. I need you to look after them."

[22:57] <ST> "Hare-" He stops, visibly shocked by Alyeska's death, but not as dismayed as he might be. "Don't go alone. Let me come with you. We're..." He looks down at the children, a clouded expression passing over his face. "We're partners, damn it."

[23:00] <Hare> She's finding it difficult to speak, suddenly she feels like bursting into tears again as she had not since she found the body. She wants to hide herself in his arms and never come out again. She remembers the cold bite in her dream, the blood that had poured down her thighs. A little Haslanti after all. "No. I-I need to be sure they're well-looked after." In case anything happens. She reaches out to touch

[23:00] <Hare> his fingertips to hers. "I'll have the Once Dead. This is more important. Please," she whispers.

[23:02] <ST> He's silent for a long moment. Words that might have passed between them seem to hang, suspended and unsaid, over her childrens' heads. "Very well," he says. "Be careful. Come back to... to your children." Before she can reply, he turns, guiding them inside and closing the door. His eyes follow her own until the door blots them from sight, closing firmly.

[23:05] <Hare> She watches the cold door, and steels herself. She turns and jumps back into the bustling street. She would find them. She would find them and she would kill them, if she died herself.

[23:05] <Hare> She feels a sharp pain in her stomach, and grits her teeth against it.