Fate - First Reply Chameleon

[Soleil Verdane]

"What called?" Soleil asked the shopkeeper, Douglass Mueller.

"That," Douglass said of the reptile on the counter which had caught Soleil's attention, "is a chameleon."

A slow day was it, here in Mueller's Odds and Ends general store. Not situated in the bustling markets closer to Anir Square, Mueller's served a smaller community of homes close to the northeastern wall within the grand city of Vel Anir. It was a humble little father and daughter operation, Douglass's wife having passed and his sons choosing full-time service in the Guard. Douglass knew a good number of reliable merchants and traders from his caravanning days, and with Kyla's help he kept the store stocked and running well.

Just sometimes you had slow days. It was just an elf from the Elven Quarter (Doug kept his eye on him) and this odd girl with odd eyes inside his shop right now.

Soleil watched with fascination as the chameleon, in its slow loping way, walked across the brown counter and atop the green mat at its center. And she watched with more fascination as its colors began to change.

"Magic?"

Doug chuckled. "No, not magic. That's just what these little fellas do. They blend in with their surroundings. Makes it easy for them to hide from predators and to catch prey."

"Where find?" Soleil asked curiously.

"Oh, uh..." Doug, not used to the laconic manner in which this odd girl spoke, deciphered as best he could what she meant, "...well, I didn't find it. Friend of mine, a trader, found it aboard one of his wagons a few days ago while he was offloading. As he joke he just asked if I wanted it as a freebie and I said sure, and that was that." Doug chuckled again. "Friendliest little creature. They're probably not all like this."

Soleil reached for her jacket pocket. Pulled out a small pouch of coins (heavy for her, light for anyone else) and set it on the counter. Those funds were supposed to be used for her to purchase supplies for an upcoming mission, but instead she asked: "You? Sell to me. How much?"

Doug, that affable chuckle a mainstay of his interactions with most everybody, replied, "What? The chameleon? Oh no, I'm sorry sweetheart, I kinda like the little guy now. He's been growing on me."

Soleil smiled pleasantly. Asked again, "How much?"

"I know you like him, but..." he sighed, trying to let her down as gently as he could, "...he's not for sale."

Soleil glanced over her shoulders, back at the rest of the store. The elf was browsing over a small case of lesser gemstones a few aisles over, his back to them. Segmented light poured in from the slats on the closed window shutters. She looked back to Doug. Tried another approach.

"Please?" She pushed the pouch forward, indicating for him to take all of it. "Yours. Good trade!"

Doug shook his head, feeling bad but sticking to his decision. "I'm sorry. Look, I'll sell you just about anything else inside my shop, but the chameleon isn't for sale. I really am sorry."

Soleil took the pouch back. Slipped it back inside her jacket pocket. "It's okay."

Just then, the elf smashed open the case of gemstones. Not worth much individually, mostly used as cheap alchemical reagents, the elf grabbed two fistfuls and shoved them into a sack and then bolted for the door.

"HEY!" Doug said, standing up from his stool behind the counter.

But it was too late. The elf had flown out of the door, and the door was arcing back around to close itself after having banged off of the wall.

"Damn it. These stinking elves. Why did we ever allow them a Quarter in our city? They hate us, and just cause us troub...what are you doing?"

Soleil had taken off her Pendant and began twirling it around as Doug was speaking and she belted him in the head. His skull cracked from the unnatural force of the trick weapon, blood seeping through the tears in his flesh and his right eye coming loose from its broken socket and hanging limply as he fell lifeless behind the counter.

"What's going on?" Kyla said as she stepped out from the backroom, having heard her father's shouting over the elf. And then she saw him on the ground and her face paled and her hands steepled over her mouth. "Dad...dad...?"

Soleil rounded the counter and spun the Pendant and struck Kyla in the head as well. The force made Kyla spin and hit the wall face first, and she slid awkwardly down it leaving a streak of blood until her body came to rest. Dead.

Soleil cleaned her Pendant in Kyla's bloody hair and put it back on. She went to the counter and scooped up the chameleon, said, "You? Coming with me," and then placed the docile lizard in her other jacket pocket.

Then she assumed a face of panic and ran to the door. Threw it open. Ran out into the street, only a light and sparse crowd going about their business, and she shouted while pointing her finger in the general direction she had seen the elf go.

"ELVEN THIEF! ELVEN MURDERER!"

But it was too late. The swift elf was long gone, already disappeared and likely on his way back to the Elven Quarter. Yet the Anirians on the street near her stopped, surprised and captivated and curious as to what was going on.

Among these Anirians, a fellow Initiate, also on brief leave in Vel Anir city. Soleil spotted them and called, "Killed! Elf killed them! Come see!"

 

[Kor]

This was why Kor much preferred to return home to the Aviary on his outings. He didn't need to worry about anything disturbing his peace when he was among his family. True, even in the city people tended to give the blind Initiate a wide berth, if not for his obvious affliction for the fact that it seemed to bother him so little. They all assumed his broken eyes meant that he could not see the looks of pity, of disgust, of sick wonderment on their faces.

They never bothered to look up at the raven circling overhead, bound to Kor through a tight magical bond that made its eyes his own, its lungs and heart beating in time with that of the human. From the sky, everything looked so insignificant. Everything was trivial. A safe haven for him to escape to when the realities of the world became too tiresome to tolerate.

Unfortunately even a place in the heavens couldn't shield him from Soleil's cry. It was surprising enough to break the connection, hearing somebody whom he considered one of the quieter of his flock release such a piercing sound. Again his vision went black, and his head turned towards the sound of Soleil's call. A murder? A robbery? Honestly, he failed to see why that was their concern. People were slain in this city every day, and unless he was being offered some incentive to give chase, the elven culprit could do as he pleased.

"So? What's the problem?"

He graciously chose to ignore her choice of the word 'see' when asking him to come to the building she'd just fled from. Instead, Kor focused on that little flame of life hidden away in her pocket, a small smile crossing his lips as he leaned in towards the pocket in question, reaching out to the chameleon with his milky white gaze. "What stories can you tell me, brother?"

 

[Soleil Verdane]

"In there," Soleil said, pointing back toward Mueller's Odds and Ends. The door still stood wide open. Some of the curious bystanders were starting to tentatively edge forward, some coming closer to the two Initiates. Some hesitantly approaching the open door, as if there might still be some tangible danger lurking inside.

The local Guard hadn't caught wind of the commotion yet, none were yet visible, but it was an inevitability that they would.

Soleil kept that look of alarm and distress, molded through careful observations of the same in other people. She kept it even as Kor leaned toward her pocket, toward the chameleon perched in there, its rough skin turning black to match her jacket.

"Him? Nearly killed," Soleil said. "Elf? Fleeing. Chameleon? Almost stepped on."

She pressed her hands to her temples. This was a sign of stress, very conspicuous. Inwardly Soleil was calm, unaffected, but much like the chameleon her outer self was changing to blend in with her surroundings.

"Man? Woman? In there? Dead! Me? Tried to help. Tried. But dead. Nothing could help."

She reached down and touched the top of the chameleon's head with a finger.

"Me? Helped him. At least."

Kor

 

[Kor]

Kor furrowed his brow, tilting his head towards the sound of Soleil's seemingly upset fragmented sentences. It wasn't like her to be so worked up over a murder, granted he wasn't necessarily close with the pale-skinned woman, anyone who'd met her in passing could tell you that death didn't disturb her in the least.

It was something he admittedly liked about Soleil, how unfazed she was by the world around her. She just skipped and pranced through it all without a care.

One could almost make the argument she was as blind as Kor.

One of his hands extended to press against the pocket with the Chameleon within, the leather, cloth, and iron rings on his fingers catching slightly against the fabric as he smirked at the faux emotion she was displaying. "You shouldn't lie. Like you give a damn about a random murder."

Just the same, he doubted she truly expected he would care either. His hand fell back to the homemade leather and fur coat he wore over his bare flesh, something cobbled together from the rewards of his last hunt, undoing the top buckle to let the collar hang open. Hanging from his neck were an assortment of whistles, each shaped differently so that Kor could distinguish them from touch alone.

"If you wish to go on an Elf hunt, you need only tell me. Fassu enjoys the texture of the meat."

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Soleil glanced back over her shoulder, her expression still distraught. The onlookers were edging in that slow and cautious and ultimately curious way toward the open doorway, the crowd building, the back of said crowd seeming to gently push the front of it forward. Then came a woman's cry of "Kress! No!" as undoubtedly this same woman had caught sight of either Kyla or Douglass's bodies.

Then Soleil looked back to Kor, the distraught look dropping immediately from her face. Neutral, calm, unaffected. A little glad, even, so said the slight smile, that he suggested what he had at the very end.

All Soleil had wanted was the chameleon. The elf, as it so happened, gave her the perfect opportunity; without him, she would not have been able to feasibly claim the creature. Now the fiction needed to be maintained. And Soleil didn't mind at all.

"Yes," she said. "Our business? Killing elves. Elf murderer? Easy target. City on our side."

The clanking of armor, and from down the street came the first city Guardsmen approaching the scene, led by a bystander who had summoned them.

Soleil's smile grew. Her eyes flashed with a sly eagerness readily available for Kor to witness. And then she turned, watching the Guardsmen approach, her expression changed again to a mixture of dismay and anger. Three of the Guardsmen were directed to go inside the shop, and then the fourth approached Kor and Soleil.

"Lieutenant Holbrook," he said curtly, introducing himself. "Which one of you saw what happened?"

Kor

 

[Kor]

"Which one of you saw what happened?"

Oh, lovely. The Guard had chosen to get off of their generous behinds and join them.

Kor closed his eyes, holding back a sharp retort. Honestly, did he need to begin wearing a sign around his neck that said 'blind'? It didn't matter. Crossing his arms over the chain of whistles around his neck, he tilted his head towards Soleil's voice. He'd been hoping they still had time before any of the Guardsmen got here, but evidently this was the one day of the year the oft-lumbering force decided to be prompt, albeit not prompt enough to save anybody.

"She's the one you want to ask. I've no idea what happened." Casting a small smirk to the dark-haired girl beside him, or where he assumed she was, he leaned towards her, his head hovering over her shoulder. "Sure would be a shame if you missed all the fun answering questions, Soleil." He needled softly. If they decided Verdane was involved in this, it was more than likely they'd want to keep her around. That would mean no hunting for her.

She was a crafty one though, and while he did take a few careful steps behind him, slow and steady, he didn't act to intervene. Soleil's craftiness was one of the few things she showed open pride in. Now, he wanted to hear her work. If she failed, it would be nothing to call some of his friends in to deal with these interlopers in his hunt. He'd no love for The Guard.

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Soleil heeded both Kor's open and Kor's confidential remarks. Yes. Fun. She didn't expect for an opportunity to go hunting in the middle of the city to pop up today, yet it had. This was why she had begun to enjoy the Academy once missions began: there was always a steady stream of enemies, people she was allowed—and encouraged—to kill. And as well, she was placed in the proximity of other Initiates who shared her predilections.

Initiates like Kor.

"Me? Saw everything."

Lieutenant Holbrook was about to ask her a question when fissures opened in the flesh of her cheeks and went rippling down her face. The Lieutenant was a bit taken aback, but regained his posture when her flesh sealed. Yet the unnatural display made clear her magic for him. "You're Dreadlords aren't you? Initiates?"

Soleil nodded.

From the shop, one of the Guardsmen poked his head out and hollered, "Two dead in here, Lieutenant. And a little ransacking to boot."

Holbrook scowled. "Fucking knife ears. Could've been any of them."

"Me? Know elf's face. You? Take us along." She gestured to herself and Kor. "We hunt. Find murderer."

Holbrook had to untangle Soleil's clipped speech patterns, but he got it eventually and then drew a satisfied breath through his nose. "I've been waiting a long time for this. Ever since they put up that godsdamn Elven Quarter." He stroked his chin with a fiendish glee. "Initiates, you're under my command. Do a good job of this and I'll send official letters of commendation to your Proctors. Give me an hour or two to put together a force to seal off the Elven Quarter. Report to the entrance of the Elven Quarter then. Once you're there, we're going in."

And with that, Holbrook turned and went inside the general store to see the scene for himself.

Soleil turned without turning (her body inverting its orientation in that strange, fluid way) to face Kor. Smiled. Said simply, "I like to hunt."

Kor

 

[Kor]

Kor so rarely found himself laughing, but even he had to subtly bring the palm of his hand up to cover his snickering mouth as Soleil gave the poor guardsman nightmares for the next month with her impromptu demonstration. It certainly went a long way in ensuring the man didn't try to push them around too much. Most Guards weren't in a hurry to piss off Dreadlords, even if they were merely initiates.

It didn't stop this Holbrook person from taking their command though, unfortunately. Just as well as Kor hid his laugh, he now hid the scowl he wore as Soleil offered up their services and the Lieutenant started making plans for them to scour the Quarter.

Letters of commendation meant nothing to Kor, and Holbrook was no doubt planning on taking the lion's share of the credit himself. Still, he nodded when Soleil pointed in his direction, watching from a Raven perched upon a nearby rooftop.

"When it comes to tracking down a target, you won't find much better than us."

It seemed to satisfy Holbrook; he delivered them their orders and left to investigate the scene of the crime. Kor disconnected from the raven and let out a deep sigh. An hour or two? Their mark could be long gone by then, but they'd only be punished if they went over Holbrook's head now. At the very least, Soleil drew a small smirk from him upon her declaration. "We've that in common, although I admit I wish the Guard hadn't gotten involved. He's making a lot of assumptions in closing off the quarter. There's nothing stopping our mark from simply leaving the city or hiding in another section."

Oh well, no point in complaining over what couldn't be helped. With a shrug of his shoulders, he turns to walk towards the quarter. "Thought the man was going to faint when you gave him a show. Needed that laugh."

 

[Soleil Verdane]

They were in this now. Some days were just very much better than others. Today? She got what she wanted, and then she got what she didn't expect but wanted just the same.

Needed that laugh.

Soleil's smile became a grin and she said, "Dreadlords better than Guard."

She turned and started to walk with him. When she spoke it was cool and casual, all of the show of looking distraught and upset having vacated from her tone and expression now that their backs were to the onlookers and Guardsmen at Mueller's shop.

"You? Right. Elf maybe here, maybe there. Who knows."

She made a popping sound with her lips, one of those frequent tics of hers. She idly petted the chameleon's head with a finger, and the docile creature in her pocket allowed for it.

"But Holbrook? Doesn't care. Wants excuse."

Not that it mattered to Soleil. Holbrook could do whatever he wanted in the Elven Quarter, so said her nonchalant attitude about it. She already had her chameleon. Now, all she needed to do was ensure that the Elf Thief couldn't talk and implicate her.

She tapped Kor on the shoulder as they walked. Said, "Where eyes?" This, in her way, asking where one of Kor's birds were so she could show him something.

Kor

 

[Kor]

The longer he spent with Soleil, the more he was finding himself enjoying her company. Too many of the Flock felt a need to overcomplicate every little thing they did with morality, personal motive, and whoever they were looking to sneak into their room.

Verdane had a simplicity that Kor much appreciated. She didn't dance around things, she simply said them. It made everything much easier.

"If he wants us to wait two hours for him to prepare, I propose we have the elf's corpse before that time has passed."

A challenge. When Holbrook arrived to the Elvish Quarter to tear it apart for one mark that wasn't worth the scrap parchment his epitaph would be scribbled on, Kor and Soleil will have already done the job in short order. Kor smiled as he imagined the look on Holbrook's face. "The two of us should have no problem with such a task."

He felt a tap on his shoulder, and moved his head to indicate he was listening. Her request was met with the raise of his hand and the sharp snap of his fingers. Kor had sent Repent to perch and rest for a spell after Soleil had unintentionally broken their connection, and instead the other of his own birds he'd brought with him, Archene, a red-tailed hawk, swooped down with a cry, landing on the metal band Kor wore on his wrist and tucking her head under Kor's chin in an affectionate display.

"I have Archene and Repent with me today. Archene is still young, but she does as I command her, and will follow you if I say so. Repent is my oldest friend. He obeys only my voice."

Kor didn't mind some of his classmates handling his birds as long as they proved themselves trustworthy, but none touched Repent. Not if they wanted to keep their fingers.

Soleil Verdane

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Soleil's eyes lit up with enthusiasm at Kor's proposal. Kor? Ambitious. Benefit! And it did indeed benefit her, because with just the two of them they could end the elf thief efficiently, before he had any chance to say too much and before any Guardsmen could possibly have second thoughts.

Other Initiates might have been rule-followers. Not Kor. Kor did what he liked, and that was good. That she could understand. Only follow rules to blend in or to gain temporary advantage; otherwise, why follow rules if they do not incidentally coincide with what you want?

Kor's hawk came down and landed on his wristband. The way Archene interacted with him was...interesting. How did he do that? How did he train the animal for that? Could she do the same with her chameleon? Also, her chameleon would need a name too.

But other matters first.

"Look," she said, turning her gaze onto the hawk, the proxy by which Kor could see. And Soleil's face...broke apart. The flesh, the seeming flesh as it were, became what it truly was: magical sand. The sand started to rearrange itself, forming into a representation of the elf's face. Soleil's memory was one of her strong points, and even though she had not gotten the best view of the elf, still the resemblance was uncanny, despite it being an amalgam of sand. The elf's features: a very pointed chin, high cheekbones, slightly hooked nose, sharp jaw, ruminating eyes.

Then the sand swirled for a moment and Soleil's face appeared once more, "flesh" and all.

"That was him," she said. "Holbrook? What I think? Like most Anirians. Can't tell difference! Doesn't care to. Useless."

Soleil swayed her head side-to-side as they walked, as if a favorite tune was in her head.

"You? Clever. Go without him. Good suggestion!"

Kor

 

[Kor]

Even if Kor could see the brief look of curiosity, she paid to Archene's behavior, he wouldn't have thought anything of it. Most of the class thought his relationship with his birds was bizzare at best. Kor didn't blame them, of course. The kind love he held for his feathered family wasn't something taught within the walls of The Academy. For Dreadlords, unconditional loyalty trumped unconditional love.

Archene's head swiveled to watch Soleil as Kor continued to walk, tilting her head as Sol's face split apart in a gnarled depiction of the elf that she'd so eagerly chosen as their target. Kor had heard of the extent she could manipulate the sand she was comprised of, but the detail in her portrayal was exceptional.

Kor quickly committed the sight to memory, and Archene seemed to lose interest even before Soleil's face had returned.

"I don't suffer people who waste my time without any benefit to me. Holbrook would make me sit on my hands so he can steal the glory. I'm bored, and I want to hunt."

He gently stroked Archene's head with his fingers, a small smile creasing his lips before raising his arm up to send her flying away with a cry. A dim glow seemed to emit from Kor's eyes as he looked up after her, his tongue snaking out to run across his bottom lip.

"She's looking for somebody that matches what you showed her. The moment she finds him, I'll know exactly where to go. Until then, let's walk the edge of the Quarter."

 

[Soleil Verdane]

THE ELVEN QUARTER​

Most walls in Vel Anir were defensive structures, filling the city with plenty of fallback points in worst case scenarios and making a maze of nightmares for potential invaders. Some walls were to keep people out, like those that separated the noble part of the city from the commons. But the walls around the Elven Quarter? Ask anyone, and they would likely tell you they were meant to keep people in.

Soleil didn't know and didn't much care for the short history on how the Quarter came to be. Presumably the area had been so damaged during the Tide of the Dead and the subsequent Revolution that all had been abandoned, and then with the rise of the Republic the decree came for it to be built anew into the Quarter of today.

To Soleil, all that was inside these walls were easy targets.

She strolled lightly beside Kor as they walked and waited for Archene's return. She mused, "Elves? Why live here? Not wanted. Not us. Enemies. What? Elves stupid?"

The way she said it made conveyed the sense that, yes, she did think they were stupid, but she didn't think that could be the only reason. Like some sort of intrepid explorer looking for a lost treasure—It just has to be the next room of this ruin!—she verbally explored for the answer to this conundrum.

She made a twirling motion with her finger beside her head.

"If planning something? Bad strategy, this. Do it from Falwood. Idiots."

Then she laughed, right on cue.

Kor

 

[Kor]

Kor tilted his head slightly in her direction as she made her opinion on the elves known. The two of them had similar thoughts on the rules and their flexibility, but while Verdane seemed to think of Elves as lesser, Kor had a slightly differing point of view. This section of run-down slums was more than what most people saw it as. Kor had watched it just as he had the rest of the city.

"Doesn't matter if it's elves or humans. Both races are full of idiots, Soleil. There are men and women of great power, wisdom, and skill both with and without pointed ears." It was a surprisingly tolerant stance from somebody who had so willingly agreed to hunt elves specifically with her. "Just as how both races are teeming with scum and worthless dregs. I'd have just as soon agreed to help hunt a human as I did an elf."

Archene looped around, flying over their heads as she called down to her Master. Kor raised his head and furrowed his brow. What she had just told him was... interesting. And he wasn't sure what it implied.

Stopping dead in his tracks, Kor spun towards a side road that led deeper into the Quarter with a puzzled expression on his face. "Archene saw our mark, running into an old housing unit only a few blocks down..." It should have ended there, but it was the 'and' that was inevitably coming that he found so strange.

"And Guardsmen are already surrounding the building. Holbrook's men."

 

[Soleil Verdane]

"Elves? All worthless."

Soleil subscribed wholly to the hardline Anirian view on elves, if only for this reason: that this view gave her full license to kill them without consequence, and indeed even to be tacitly praised for it. At least, this was the way it used to be, and she had been looking forward to taking full advantage of it—then the Revolution happened right as she came of age to partake in more missions. This, Soleil found, was disappointing.

She had wanted a bloodbath to mark her becoming a Dreadlord. Instead, what she got was this Quarter full of prey right in Vel Anir itself, all of whom she could have killed with no justifying excuse at all if the Revolution had never happened. But circumstances changed. If she wanted a bloodbath here, any level of bloodbath she could get, she needed to get clever.

And with the revelation that Guardsmen were already surrounding the building with the elven thief in it, there was opportunity. The only problem? She doubted Kor would be willing to go along with the ploy she had in mind. So she calculated that, when the time came, she would need to trick him too.

She stopped when Kor stopped, smiling brightly, as if they the two of them weren't Dreadlord Initiates at all and they were on the way to some delightful festival.

"Faster than we thought!" she said of the Guardsmen's arrival. "Them? Going without us? You're right! Both races? Idiots!"

She trilled her tongue sharply, arcing her eyes grandly as if watching the sun's path from east to west play out in a couple of seconds.

Kor

 

[Kor]

Kor merely shrugged at Soleil's line in the sand, no pun intended, on elves. It mattered not to him what she thought of the sharp-ears. He was not one of them, after all. It did give him momentary pause though; he could have sworn he heard the slightest hint of frustration in her usually stoic tone. Almost as if she was correcting him on an elementary fact.

He shook his head slightly, continuing into the Quarter. Psychoanalyzing Soleil Verdane sounded like a good way to lose your mind, and he didn't need the extra help in that department. "Why lie to us, though? If he wanted the glory to himself, he had the authority to tell us not to get involved." Kor smirked as Archene swooped down from the sky and perched on his shoulder with an affectionate nuzzle. "Of course, it wouldn't have stopped us, but my point stands."

It smelled of a trick, and yet Kor couldn't discern what it meant. Oh well, the best thing to do in such a situation was to spring the trap and kill whoever laid it. If these guards got in his way, they wouldn't be the first he'd ripped into ribbons. As they weaved through the streets of the Quarter, other shoddily dressed elves that peeked out of their homes to investigate the commotion ducked back into cover at the sight of them, rightfully so; It didn't take much to be accused of a crime for an elf in Vel Anir.

"Also odd is that Archene didn't see Holbrook himself, just his men. What is that buffoon up to?" They could see the dingy housing building in front of them, painted a sad blue and almost seeming to sag to the left with wear and tear. Just as Kor said, a ring of soldiers surrounded it.

Clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth, he turns to his 'partner'.

"What do you think, Verdane? How do you want to go about this?"

Soleil Verdane

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Why lie to us, though?

Soleil just shrugged, ostensibly not bothering to spare a thought for the question. And indeed, to her, such a thing was irrelevant. What she was concerned about was the opportunity she saw at hand; not just the killing and silencing of the elven thief but in creating even more cause for retaliation against the elves of the Quarter. Because that is what Dreadlords did. This was why she had devoted herself to the way of the Academy, to the pursuit of becoming a Dreadlord, instead of simply escaping at her pleasure. The Academy had promised her that which she wanted. Or, at least, it once did; the promise was there, but it was far from pristine now.

But there were options. Options to take what she wanted. And here, with these elves and Holbrook's men, this was such an option. So, with the Revolution, she wasn't allowed to just kill these elves in the Quarter? Solution? Easy. Make it allowed.

Soleil peered from their current vantage towards the target building. Then looked to Kor with eyes gleaming with calculation.

"You? Go right up to them. Play dumb. Me? Create opportunity."

As if anticipating saying "create opportunity" might be an insufficient explanation of her part of this plan, she added afterward:

"Trust?"

And smiled.

Kor

 

[Kor]

"Trust?"

Kor liked to think that he and Verdane had some similar thoughts on that word. He doubted that Soleil truly trusted him, and likewise he could never place complete faith in her. Trust was vulnerability, placing your well-being in the care of another and believing they would value it. So the question made him smirk, seemingly amused at the thought.

"No, but I'm interested in seeing what you're planning regardless."

Besides, it mattered not whether elves or men stood before him. If they were in the way, he would brush them aside like insects. If for some reason Soleil's opportunity missed its mark, Kor could make his own opportunity. Turning from the Sand Woman and making his way towards the circle, already some of the Guardsmen turned to give him quizzical looks and raised brows.

They did not pay him much mind for long. The Initiate rose his hands, and a cacophony of sound began to sound from above. Birds of every size, color, and cry seemed to pour from the cracks and crevasse of the city and its alleys. They swarmed, circling the sagging blue building as though they were all but vultures over a fresh corpse.

Kor smiled up at the flock, bright and wide. Genuine happiness, to see the loyal creatures join him, the only ones he could truly trust. The guardsmen all stood transfixed by the loud, colorful sight, as though it were the eye of a hurricane.

"Their eyes wander..." He muttered to himself. "Now Verdane, show me what you can do. Part them and open our path..."

Soleil Verdane

 

[Soleil Verdane]

No, but I'm interested in seeing what you're planning regardless.

Answer? Smart, thought Soleil of it. And when Kor turned from her to approach the blue tenement with its blockade of Guardsmen she dissolved silently into a cloud of sand, the grains stretching out long and thin and thus all the more difficult to see, snaking up the façade of nearby buildings, crawling along rooftops.

Kor's flock might have seen the grains filtering into the blue tenement from above, but the attending Guardsmen did not.

* * * * *​

"So you know his name? Where is he? Huh? Spit it out," said one of the two Guardsmen already inside the blue tenement. They had cornered two elves in their room (a small and scant living space if ever there was one) and were pressing them for answers. As it had happened, these elves, in some misguided and naive impulse, had decided to speak up as the Guardsmen were walking through the halls, banging on doors, demanding anyone inside to open up and talk with them. They didn't think any of the elves would actually oblige them, and all they were really trying to do was spook the murdering thief into making a panicked mistake and to go running, unsuspectingly, into the blockade outside, but hey, these two knife-eared idiots did open their door and in so doing had garnered their attention.

The elves were hit with a barrage of piercing and leading questions. Baffled, not even understanding the situation nor what had happened at Mueller's Odds and Ends, one of them, blurted out the name of a third elf who stayed in the room as well but who was not currently present. The Guardsmen took this as an admission of association and this led them to their present badgering.

Badgering that was to be cut short.

Grains of sand slowly coalesced into the form of Soleil behind the pair of Guardsmen. The elves saw her first, eyes widening with fear that the Guardsmen took for evidence that they were onto something.

Soleil's Pendant swung around and bashed one of the Guardsmen in the face from behind and his body fell over dead. The second Guardsmen, caught by surprise, had but time only to glance over in horror at his fallen comrade before said comrade's own knife, taken from its sheath by Soleil, raked across his throat. Both of Soleil's arms detached then and dropped the Pendant and the knife and floated down and drew the swords of the fallen Guardsmen. One of the elves cried, "Don't!" and the other tried to run, tried to bolt past the Initiate. Both were slain each by a floating arm of Soleil's, and all told the scene was a red mess with four bodies strewn about the room when she was done. But the work wasn't quite complete. Not yet. She needed to make it look right, and she didn't have much time to do it; she glanced around the room and picked up a hammer from a small table (taken from its attending chisel, the elf wearing the apron was probably a mason in life) and dipped it in blood; she quickly arranged the weapons—the knife, the two swords, and the hammer—so to make it look like a natural fight had broken out. The Guardsman who had had his throat slit was still alive, but just barely, choking and gargling on blood as his bulging eyes followed Soleil around.

She picked up her Pendant then. Smiled to the dying men as she watched the light leave his gaze and the clutching hands around his bloody neck go slack and the last breath collapse his chest. And then she disintegrated into sand and slithered away.

Time and impatience would draw in the other Guardsmen, and they would see what the "elves" had done, and they would be furious. Anger was one of the few emotions she knew herself, and she knew how it worked more intimately than other emotions she could only deduce. Then, they themselves ought to be more pliable to the idea of retribution, maybe even of killing every single elf in this sad tenement to not only be sure they got the original "murderer", not only to avenge their two fellows, but in their rage to send a message to the rest of the Quarter. Just like the Vel Anir Soleil was promised before the Revolution.

If Kor was still outside speaking with the Guardsmen, Soleil might even have time to casually rejoin, sauntering up from around a nearby corner, smiling blissfully as she patiently waited for them to lose their patience and for her plan to unfold.

Kor

 

[Kor]

It was rare that anything happened capable of escaping Kor's many eyes, but in the brief moment he took to summon his flock he found that he'd completely lost track of his partner. Where she'd stood moments earlier was empty air when he next turned to look back. Curious, but so long as she upheld her end and gave them the right opening, she could do as she pleased. The flock held steady above the tenement, drawing away any curious eyes, save for those on the blind boy himself.

More than a couple of the guardsman, already on edge, were unamused by his presence. The majority of them weren't so foolish as to cross one, however. So while they weren't likely to allow him entry, they also weren't about to try and chase him off. Kor could have fought his way in, of course, but while he had no qualm with slaying guards, the sheer number of them and rather public setting made that course of action ill-advised.

No, he would await for Soleil's distraction.

Yet for some time, there was no such distraction. His flock picked up on some odd noises from inside, but could sense no movement. The Guardsmen were beginning to murmur amongst themselves, looking around as if expecting one of them to have an answer that they all sought. Eventually, they sent in another pair to search the building for the missing Guards within. Even Kor himself felt the idle drum of his fingertips on his arm as it crossed with his other. Had Verdane failed? It seemed unlikely there was anything within that building, or this entire quarter, that could slow her progress even if it wanted to.

Unless he'd overestimated her.

As though she could hear his doubts from wherever she was the pair of guards ran out of the building, calling to their brothers in arms with rage and freshly shed evlen blood reddening their flesh. "They've killed our men! The dirty sharpears!"

Slum elves killing fully equipped Guardsmen? Kor felt a smirk pull at his lips. He seriously doubted that. Now though, it made sense. The murmurs became shouts and calls of anger and action. Any attention left outside the building turned towards storming the inside to stick a weapon into any unlucky elf still inside. The circle of men closed in as they all sought an entrance. Some didn't even bother, striking out at nearby onlookers with the wrong shape of ears.

"Clever girl." He mused, raising his hands and slowly bringing them together. As he did so, the circling birds lowered, the sounds of their cries increasing as they sought windows, battering them with their own bodies until they cracked and shattered. The largest of them poured in like rain, attacking anyone, guards, elves and anything in between.

He needed to be sure of whether their target was inside or not. If he was, the birds would keep any hands but their own from touching the unlucky bastard. Kor admired the chaotic display they'd transformed the old building into in a matter of minutes, turning his head slightly when he caught Soleil returning from the corner of his vision.

"Certainly whipped them up into a frenzy. You think the one you're looking for is in there somewhere?"

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Soleil had her chameleon out, holding the lizard in one arm and lightly stroking its head with a finger. Whether the display of the creature, once owned by the late Douglass Mueller, could be considered bold or not was irrelevant to her at this stage. She was confident in herself. Confident that such a small detail amounted to nothing now with this frenzy of rage induced among the Guardsmen, confident in her ability to lie should she need to. The prize that was the chameleon belonged solely to her now, and the prize of elven blood was the next thing to be claimed.

If she'd heard the praise spoken by Kor she would have greedily drank it up. As it was, she came to a stop before him just after, and as the avian flurry summoned by him was wreaking havoc inside the tenement.

At his question, she smiled with the utmost pleasure at all that was happening.

"Don't know. Ask Archene."

Soleil glanced toward the tenement, beaming with satisfaction from all of the commotion within.

"This?" she said grandly. "What we were promised. Vel Anir: never-ending war."

Yes. War. The only place she could be herself without any reservation, without hiding anything.

Kor

 

[Kor]

Kor felt his smirk falter a bit as she presented their work like it was some grand design. He didn't care about never-ending war, not did the thought of endless conflict entertain him. Servitude to the Republic was a means to a far greater end, and this was more of a distraction for him than anything else. What should the Initiate care about the wellbeing of a bunch of elves, or Guardsmen for that matter?

Still, he could practically feel the expression on her face. That Soleil would smile so genuinely at least told him that she was getting something out of this. More power to her.

"Is it everything you imagined?" Kor didn't display his lack of amazement outwardly, instead focusing on doing as she'd instructed. It would be hard to concentrate on finding Archene through the enormous flock filing in and out of the buildings window, feasting on friend and foe alike, but after a moment of focus he made the connection. Like the loyal girl she was, she'd not partaken in the carnage, and had put her efforts towards finding their mark.

And find him she had.

"He's still alive. Locked with a few other stragglers in the attic." Kor's eyes seemed to pulse with light as he looked through Archene's, the hawk rapping her beak incessantly on the attic door affixed to the ceiling of a room on the top floor. She'd seen them sneak up there, she must have, otherwise she wouldn't be so insistent. Smart girl. "My flock will protect our trip, but we should go before Holbrook himself shows up looking for blood."

As much as Kor would enjoy ripping the man apart, it likely would land him into more trouble than a few Guardsmen. Not worth the hassle, in his own opinion. Then again, Soleil didn't seem to care about consequences. If she wished it, he'd be content to watch.

Soleil Verdane

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Is it everything you imagined?

"Not yet," Soleil said, and then trilled her tongue, as was her wont, though this time there was an unmistakable quality of excitement to it. She dreamed at times of the old way. She dreamed of graduation, who she would explicitly challenge, how fun it would be. These things were lost, but at least the Republic was unstable, and war was still being fought all around the land...until dreadful peace was at last returned.

But she had her own plan to fulfill her needs.

At present, Archene had spotted their quarry. And more for mere enjoyment, the elven thief needed to die to make the concealment of her murder complete.

"Holbrook? Slow," Soleil said, depositing her chameleon pack into her pocket where the docile creature seemed quite content to lounge. Then she laughed. "Guards? Slow. Dumb. Weak. Dreadlords always do the work."

With that, Soleil strode into the tenement, practically gliding through its chaotic halls. Doors were being thrown open and shut, these in a frenzy of elves or Guardsmen running from the harassing birds and hoping for sanctuary and nowhere finding it. Banging of all kinds could be heard: those aforementioned doors hitting walls; items clattering to the floor as tables and shelves were knocked over; people in their haste tripping and falling or, of course, elves suspected of hostility (easy to do in this mess) being slain and dropped right on the spot. It might seem to an outside observer that Soleil and Kor were blessed by a god of fortune, for they went untouched through the otherwise harrowing scene.

At last they came to the final set of stairs, enclosed and cramped with walls and a low ceiling, the locked door of the attic ahead with Archene dutifully pecking away at it.

Soleil, playfully, rapped on the door with her knuckles, the sound lacking the same sort of punch as would come from normal bones. "Knock, knock," she said, smiling, then glancing back to Kor.

Kor

 

[Kor]

This had become far less about the slaying of elves for sport and feast, and more a journey of mild fascination with the sand-woman. There were few mortals without wings that Kor found even remotely interesting, but then Verdane was no mere mortal. She was more. Or... was it less? He hadn't quite decided yet, but it was that curiosity that led him to follow her into the tenement, led by the eyes that surrounded them.

It was almost humorous, how walking untouched among the unbridled chaos of one's own creation could feel so peaceful and serene. The panic, the bloodshed, the death the two of them had unleashed upon this sorry quarter... It left a stench in the air, a pressure that bore down on their shoulders. And yet, none of it touched them. Not a speck of blood, a scrap of debris, or nary a stray feather. This disaster was their symphony, and like a conductor at the podium, it surrounded them without touch or taste.

Still, Kor was nothing if not opinionated in his own right, and as they walked he felt the need to clarify something she'd observed.

"Dreadlords are as dumb as the rest of them. It's why they've ended up battling themselves so many times. They allow history to repeat itself, without course correction or consideration of the past."

Likely irrelevant to Soleil, he supposed. Kor was beginning to understand that the only thing she truly wanted was what they'd done together today: Unrestrained violence.

"You would kill me if it meant furthering the drums of war, and I would do the same to you. Our reasons are different, but that we prioritize our own desires over sanity is stupidity defined."

Reaching the attic door, the wood beneath them thoroughly decorated with the blood that dripped from Archene's talons, Kor only briefly met Verdane's eyes as she smiled. Grasping his knife, he wedged its blade into the large gap between the cheap attic door and its frame, easily snapping the lock.

The frightened shout of a male could be heard as the door swung uselessly open, the sight of Soleil's friend scrambling to the back of the long, but enclosed wooden attic, stacked with nothing but cobwebs and insects.

There was nowhere left to run.

"Do it then, Verdane. Show me what makes you feel alive."

Even he felt his blood pumping, Archene bobbing her head in excitement.

Sate me, Soleil. Satisfy my curiosity. Are you different?

Soleil Verdane

 

[Soleil Verdane]

The elven thief was down on the floor, back pressed against the far wall, hand held out, pleading that he had done nothing, that there was some mistake, that he would serve Vel Anir however it wished.

Soleil just approached, taking off her Pendant from around her neck as she did. Spun it round and round.

And bashed his skull in. No ceremony. No words exchanged. No empathy. No mercy. Just like that it was over.

Soleil stood there. Staring down at the thief's body. Smiling that selfsame blissful smile she showed in all other circumstances.

Kor