Davidl/OnyxBlossomFiction

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Night. A tavern somewhere in Nexus, empty save for the yawning proprietor and a young woman. A girl really, she sits by herself, bare feet folded underneath her, and attacks a plate of stew and a loaf of bread. She's a southerner by the looks of her, with dark skin and thick red hair, and her travel-worn cloak is red as well. On the bench next to her is her traveling pack, and leaning against the table is a bundle, nearly as tall as she is, but it must be light because she carried it easily when she came in.

Presently three large men come into the place; she looks up only briefly even as they come directly to her table, after conversing amongst themselves for a second. When the largest of the men, a nasty-looking piece of work with one eye and a twisted scar like an inverted question mark on his cheek, sits down across from her she merely gives him a once-over with large orange eyes, slowing her chewing for a moment as she unobtrusively moves her bundle a little closer to her.

"Well", the big man asks with false garrolousness, "and what brings a pretty young thing like yourself all alone to Nexus?"

She doesn't stop eating, and in fact seems to be doing her best to ignore the three even as the other two move behind her. "Just passing through."

He laughs. "Who'd want to just pass through Nexus? There's so much to do here!" She doesn't so much as smile, but he presses on. "So where would you be going, then?"

"North." She's eating a little faster now, as if she wants to finish up soon.

"North is a big place," the man laughs, sharing a wink with one of the men standing behind the girl. "What's your important business up north, that you can't see the sights in our fair city?"

She looks up at him now, talking through a mouthful of stew. "Won't know 'till I get there."

"Ah, something secret, is it? Well, we think we have a better offer. A nice-looking girl like you can make good coin here in Nexus." He winks again and makes a lewd gesture, which makes both the men behind the girl laugh nastily.

Her eyes narrow, showing the first edge of something hard. "Not interested." She moves her right hand nearer her bundle, carefully setting down her bread with her left.

The man stops laughing. "It wasn't a request, girl."

She slowly, gracefully, unfolds her legs; her feet hardly touch the floor. There is a quiet menace in her voice, but the big man has heard too many girls' threats to pay it heed. "Another man tried to make a concubine of me once. I killed him in his sleep."

The big man cracks his knuckles; his hands are easily twice the size of hers, and he'd be at least a foot and a half taller, if they stood up. "Well, I ain't sleeping, girl. Care to try your luck with me?"

She looks down at her plate of stew, not quite finished. There's a hint of a sigh, perhaps at the waste.

"Yeah, alright." And when she looks up, her eyes are no longer orange - they are bottomless pits, opening up to an infinity of *someplace else*, someplace dominated by towers of bone and brass, the unholy geometry of which will twist a man's mind until it breaks.

Cut to black.

A short time later, peacekeepers from the Ever Vigilant Hawks mercenary company arrive on the scene to find four dead men and a very big mess. The state of the bodies makes positive identification difficult, but they are believed to be the owner of the inn and three thugs known to be working for the local brothel, the Green Veil. There is no sign of the young southern woman one witness claims to have seen leaving the scene.

Onyx Blossom, as always, moves on.