Private Tales Like Oil and Water

[Iktovian]

The cool night breeze was a comforting touch against the back of his neck as he knelt at the edge of outcropping overlooking the little settlement. The inhabitants liked to call it a town, in his eyes it was little more than an overgrown village. If not for the fact that he was getting paid to be here, he wouldn't have ever known that it even existed. As it was it had taken a great deal of effort to actually find the place, he was pleased that after making the long trek from Elbion he hadn't been forced to wait around for his accomplice to show up. The dark elf had been as prompt as his employer had said he would be, waiting for him when he reached the village.

Iktovian wasn't sure how he felt about his white haired companion, but as long as he didn't prevent them from finishing the job he didn't really care. He was here for the money, having taken on the job for the coin, even though assassination was not his normal line of work. But he was used to sneaking into places and getting out unnoticed, how different would this be? He'd do what he always did, just this time there was a throat to be slit on the way out. Simple enough.

Turning to Alak, he gestured towards the village down bellow, its streets empty and silent in the eery moonlight. "What do you think? Quite enough to get on with it?" He was the expert after all, Iktovian had no qualms with admitting to his own deficiencies and deferring to others. Even his own pride would not get in the way of getting paid.​

 

[Alak Rasivrein]

Alak Rasivrein was certainly not unaccustomed to jobs like this one. Since leaving his home in the underground, he had made his living off of the seedy, criminal underbelly of society. Assassinations, robberies, and many other unsavory bits of business had been at the core of what he did. This mission - this job - was both lucrative and provided the opportunity for the dark elf to enhance his own power. it was as win-win as it got.

The wind was cold, but now that the night sky had emerged, the dark elf found himself all the more comfortable. His eyes could easily see in the darkness of the surface, which paled in comparison to the underground. It had taken him years to adjust to the bright of the sun, but the dark was still where he felt the most at home.

He nodded quietly as his eyes swept over the landscape. Everyone had turned in for the night already, and they should move before the first of the farmers rose to take advantage of the daylight hours. It was a good thing his partner arrived when he did or else the pair may well have been left with no options but to wait another day - a prospect that Alak found most distasteful to say the least.

"No witnesses," he said. They both knew what that meant. If they could avoid killing anyone but their target that would be better, but Alak wasn't above slaughtering everyone in this village if need be. He wasn't interested in a garrison of the Baron's men after them, or worse... bounty hunters who would chase them across the world.

"His house is on the north side," he said, pointing to a building that looked slightly nicer than the others. Indeed, it was a slightly larger, and Alak could only assume it indicated the high status and standing of the shaman in the village. Either that or his wealth and power. Either meant it was possible that an alarm could bring down a whole village of idiots on the two.

He pulled the dagger from the right side of his hip and held it in his hand before slipping down from their higher vantage. The snow crunched softly under his boots, and Alak wished for a snowless night. Perhaps he could have cast a spell to silence his footsteps, but he'd rather save his energy. No point in expending whatever energy he might gain from this operation, so he took to the old style, placing his feet on stones as he picked his way down the hillside in the darkness. Wit

 

[Iktovian]

Nodding in agreement and understanding, Iktovian pulled out his own dagger and followed after Alak, landing softly in the snow before slowly and quietly stalking towards the village and the shaman's house in particular. His cloak wrapped him, with the hood pulled up to reveal as little of him as possible, but he hadn't drawn any blood just yet, leaving the enchantment on the cloak stay dormant for now. If he had to rely on the cloak when dealing with simple villagers like these then he ought to consider picking a different line of work.

So they moved towards the village, slipping in and soon moving through the small huts, still undetected. He was starting to think this was going to be an easier job than he had expected when a man suddenly came stumbling out of from behind a hut. As the man noticed them, eyes widening before he raised his hands and a bemused smile split his face, the village drunk probably, Iktovian shot forward and clamped a hand down on the drunk's mouth. Spinning his dagger around in his hand he slammed the hilt into the back of the drunk's head, knocking him out. Dragging the man around to a nearby clump of shrubs, he tossed him in, hoping that his presence there would be passed off as him being blackout drunk. "No witnesses." Iktovian said to Alak with a smirk, before gesturing ahead towards the shaman's house. "Let's get this over with before more fools show up. I'd expect the entire village to be full of drunks if they are cursed to live here."

The shaman's house was not too far ahead now, though as they got closer he noticed a light within the house, and shadows moving within, more than one shadow. The town might be asleep, but it seemed like their friend was awake, and not alone from the looks of it.

Cynical Phoenix​

 

[Alak Rasivrein]

Alak watched as Iktovian slammed a dagger hilt into the head of the drunk and smoothly lowered him to the ground. He was anticipating - expecting - his partner to draw the blade across the man's throat, but... it didn't happen. He seemed as though he was going to leave the man alive. He smelled of alcohol, and likely wouldn't remember anything in the morning, but he definitely wouldn't remember anything if he were dead.

The dark elf paused for a moment, trying to decide on a next step when it snapped inside him. No risks. He wouldn't risk his life for some piss-poor drunk. He plunged his blade into the center of the man's throat, and though the man didn't wake, there was a slight gurgling sound as blood covered the elf's hand.

"Cín cuil na sab, na i crystal cin're naud. Cin heed onlui mui nall." he whispered the words of the spell as the blood drained out, the life force binding to the crystal, which for the briefest moment seemed to glow dull red before there was silence. The man was dead, and there were: No. Witnesses. He didn't care if people knew they were there, as long as they didn't know who was there.

He pulled the dagger free and rose into a low crouch, moving toward the side of the building. The glow of the window came from a single small candle at the far side of the room, and the shaman... oh my... that was a whole different type of ritual that he and his lady friend were partaking.

He held up two fingers to his partner to indicate that there were two inside, leaving one for each of them. They were quite... pre-occupied at the moment, which gave the pair the element of surprise, but they would both need to die.

"He will need to be eliminated before he can cast a spell or pronounce a curse," he said. The other last thing the dark elf wanted was to have to worry about how to lift an obscure curse. "I can prepare a spell of my own to cut him off," he suggested, knowing that surprise would give him more than enough time to prepare a spell. Wit

 

[Iktovian]

Watching Alak take the man out..more permanently than he had, Iktovian just shrugged and followed after the elf once he started moving again. Dead or hidden, it didn't much matter to him. As long as they got paid at the end of this night he didn't care if they put the whole village to torch.

Waiting while Alak snooped inside the house, he prepared himself for whatever waited inside. When Alak crouched back down to indicate that here were two of them, Iktovian assumed it was a guard. So when he took a peek of his own his eyes widened as a smirk appeared on his lips. Ducking back down, he suppressed a chuckle as Alak started speaking.

"I can buy you a few moments, dull his senses for a moment or two. Strike them."

He was running rather low on his reserves of emotions, this was a perfect opportunity to stock up once again. Desire, it was harder to collect than most, so every drop helped. Nodding to Alak to indicate that he was ready, he closed his eyes and reached out to the couple within the house, and sucked in. With a rush their desire flew into them. But while normally he would have used it with precision, this time he sucked it in, going in for sheer brute force to rip it out of them. It killed off their desires more quickly as the shock hit them, reducing the amounts he could draw from them, but it would leave them stunned for a moment or two. Just the opening they needed.

"Now!"

He had done his bit, now it was up to Alak to handle the shaman before he recovered enough to pull any tricks of his own.
Cynical Phoenix​