Thunder of Thanasis Oops

[Azad]

Thanasis - The Lilwen Estate

"Ahhh, this shit is too easy with you." Azad said as he held up a brilliantly sparkling sapphire necklace. The gem practically glowing itself as he held it in front of a candle.

Besides him a little dragon turned in quick circles, bounding happily up and down upon the wooden floor in excitement. "Okay okay, careful. If your trick isn't going to silence that kind of thudding."

The Thief said with a wide grin as he leaned down and scratched the little Dragon's head. Spinny almost immediately pressing into his side and letting out a small growl of appreciation. The Dragon's maw falling open as shadowy flames crackled down in his throat, a strange sort of noise that Azad had come to realize was something very much like a cats purr.

He patted the little dragon for a few seconds more, than slowly rose. "Lets see what else there is, eh?"

Azad said with a wide grin, and then headed towards the door which lead out of Lady Lilwen's apartments. His head, invisible as it was, poking out into the hallway. He spotted no one of course, and even if he did, all they would see was a door that had swung open all on it's own. Azad stepped outside, smiling to himself as the music from down below echoed up even down here.

His amusement couldn't be kept in check as he thought of all the rich fools dancing and bandying about at the Gala below. The Lilwen family had long been of high standing within the upper reaches of Thanasis, wealthy beyond even most other noble houses, their soiree's were praised even by the Queen herself. Getting an invitation to a Lilwen party was like getting handed a bar of gold. There were rumors one could sell an invitation for the price of a Home in the upper district.

Not that Azad really gave a shit, he just knew it meant two things; There would be lots of shit to steal, and everyone was going to be distracted by all the pretty dresses.

He just had to make sure to keep his head down, and by the end of the night he would be several degrees wealthier.

Just as the Gods intended.

 

[Nadya]

"Stop playing with your dress, you're going to ruin it." Chastised Lady Caliar, swatting at the offending hand of her eldest daughter.

Nadya directed an exasperated look her mother's way, clicking her tongue in addition to whispering heatedly below her breath, "We are not here for me, it's Stasya you want married off." Her sister three years younger than her, and by far the prettiest daughter. The Caliars boasted four daughters, a family with old ties to a dying god of old in Thanasian history. That god had chosen Nadya to be his rider, but after a decade, whispers had begun to surface about whether the great Storm Dragon Kalyss should chose a new bond.

"We are, nadi. You're behaving that considered unfit of a guest of the Lilwens."

Nadya was an Ascendant, her choice of career after bonding the dying god at his behest, but she rathered being in the skies than being in stuffy dresses and put on display. Stasya was better suited for it. She watched as her sister laughed and smiled, using her fan to appear demure and mysterious as a great many bachelors made effort to greet the young woman.

She also heard the whispers going around as to why the eldest, the heir, was not making an effort to carry on the Caliar legacy.

"I need air." Nadya sighed, picking up her silver skirts with reluctance and quickly excused herself. There surely was somewhere quiet she could hide out in for a short while to escape the types of people she wanted nothing to do with.

 

[Trask]

There was in fact a place to hide. The garden balcony overlooking the grounds was secluded, almost.
A solitary figure sat off to the side smoking a pipe and nursing a drink.
He wore his military clothes, armour and tunic denoting his position at the wall, which had him wonder why he was called back to this awful place.
His narrow eyes followed Nadya, set on a wholly unremarkable face he did not look at all like a man who would have reason to be upset at being invited.
But he was, parties needed to be attended that he might beg donations to the Wall Effort, speak of the bravery and sacrifice and all those other lies the powerful liked hearing about poor bastards who die for their comfort.
"Evening."
He said, in forced friendliness.

Nadya
Azad

 

[Azad]

Waltzing through the estate with reckless abandon, Azad moved through the upper floors like a crow collecting shiny rocks. He poked his head into a few more rooms, glancing around the guest halls and even the suite belonging to Lilwen’s lover.

He pulled open one of the dresser drawers, Spinny preoccupying himself with what appeared to be a pair of pants. The little dragon bounding around the room as though it were simply another hour of play time. ”No accounting for taste.”

Azad said to himself as he drew out a gaudy shirt embedded with small rubies. His head shaking as suddenly the door to the suite went crashing open. Spinny freezing in place, and the thief doing no better as he dropped the shirt and slammed the drawer shut. Two drunken louts falling into the room, their arms wrapped around one another as they loudly kissed. The Thief's features twisting in disgust as he watched the two seemingly try to eat one another's faces.

Head shaking as he quietly motioned to Spinny. His hand pointing towards the window.

The little dragon almost immediately whipped forward. His sinewy form drawing up the wall as a single claw slipped over the locking latch. A second later the window popped open, the two lovers so ensconced in their moment they hardly noticed the breeze.

Azad quickly stepped up to the window, his silent steps falling on the carpet before he grabbed the edges of his escape hatch. Crawling quickly outside onto the buildings eddies, directly above the Garden Balcony.

 

[Nadya]

Nadya swore when her first discovery for somewhere to be alone was already occupied.

"Oh, for fuck's sake." The Ascendant was at her wit's end with the night, and no mood to talk with anyone.

She glared, her grey eyes turning dark as her aggression awakened her dragon down their bond. Kalyss preferred his bonded in such fire, and the thoughts of hunting sprung to her mind. Yes, perhaps it was time to bail on this forced evening altogether and go do her own thing. After all, Lady Lilwen only invited her in hopes that the god sized dragon would be seen by all. Nadya had gone without a dragon's escort this evening.

"I was hoping to find the exit, actually."

 

[Trask]

He gave a look over the edge of the balcony. It was a good distance to the ground, two stories.
"That hedge down there might break your fall if you are so desperate."
He gave a pull on his pipe and a bitter smile as his head was almost lost in the smoke for a second.
"Not that I blame you for wanting to flee all of this."
He waved his drink at the vague notion of inside for a moment. His voice was hoarse and deep as if he was incredibly tired, it dripped with disdain for those inside.

Azad
Nadya

 

[Azad]

Az had no idea what the people on the balcony below were talking about, and truthfully he really didn't give a shit.

As long as neither of them happened to look up at exactly the right moment, their presence suited him perfectly well. A good thief was one who didn't get caught, a great thief was one who no one knew was there in the first place.

Well, at least until someone discovered everything that was missing.

As Azad and Spinny slowly made their way alongside the building, crawling and stepping on thin ledges, it became readily apparent that despite her wealth Lady Lilwen had not paid her stone masons well. It seemed that really every step was fraught with a shifting rock, or a mid balanced gargoyle. Every time he moved, dust fell from his place and towards the balcony below.

Fucking rich people. Azad contained in his thoughts. Only ever want to pay for what people se-

Before he could finish the thought, the stone beneath his foot slipped. Built with substandard mortar, the rock wall half came lose, two of the three bricks Azad had been using to support himself suddenly drawing free. The thief scrambling to turn in an instant, his hand grasping tightly against the stone wall as the bricks tumbled down and crashed into the balcony below.

His form still near invisible, especially in the dark, but the sound loud enough to echo through the party.

Nevermind alert the two dunces on the Balcony.

 

[Nadya]

Irritation and annoyance went hand in hand and the Ascendant rolled her eyes. "Yes, what a marvel you are with conversation and suggestion." Voice dripped heavily with sarcasm, already not wanting to entertain his dry conversation.

Trust men to think they had all the answers to a ladies' plight!

Before she could even turn around and leave, bricks crashed just shy of the doors leading back into the hall to the ballroom. Instantly alert, for she was not keen to receive a brick to the skull. There, a speck against the stone, was the telltale sign of where the bricks had fallen. There were others adjacent that looked as if they were near to fall also, but Nadya knew enough that it was not mere force of nature the bricks fell.

Someone had to be near. Or possibly a fucking Kesh Dragon was running loose while the party was in full swing...

"The Lilwens don't own Kesh Dragons..." She told herself in a quiet breath.

Daringly so, Nadya went to pick up a brick and take steps back, peering up at the spot where the brick was missing from the facade. Readying herself, brick in hand, she threw it as high as she could to test whether there was something there unseen, or perhaps proving it had been a dragon of some sort to tear out bricks like that.

 

[Trask]

"Soldiers are not payed to be good at..."
His head snapped to the fallen bricks.
On the wall, loose masonry could cost a soldier their life or meant the wall was being scaled. Even this far from it the reaction was still strong.
"Don't stand there!"
Trask's voice chastised, seeing Nadya walk over to a brick and pick it up.
"If the stonework is this loose more could fall, step back!"
She threw it!
Trask stood up sharply.
"What the devil do you think you're doing?"
Was this some I'll conceived act of suicide he wondered?

Nadya
Azad

 

[Azad]

”What the devil do you think you're doing?”

Azad was wondering much the same thing, but unfortunately, he didn't really have a valid response. Especially not when a brick hit him right on his upper shoulder. A spasm running through his muscle almost immediately, forcing his hand to unfurl as he suddenly lost his grip.

Falling from his perch on the wall, and leaving Spinny behind.

The thief went crashing down onto the balcony, slipping out of his dragons field of shadows and landing with a loud thud. His back prickled by broken bricks, and the two strangers looming over him. ”Ow.”

Az groaned, his head lolling left and right. Eyes flickering open as he slowly looked up towards what would surely be a pair of new friends.

”Oh…” He intoned, offering his most charming smile to Nadya. ”Hello there.”

 

[Nadya]

Without word, Nadya slowly brought her gaze to the 'soldier', as if to challenge him into saying her instincts were wrong when there was a handsome stranger smiling up at her. Probably concussed...
"Finally. Some stimulating conversation." Another pointed look to the other guest of the Lilwens. Nadya stepped back and crouched beside the man that fell, her own smile twitching. "Curious. I wonder why you kept yourself hidden." She had not expected someone to fall after throwing that brick. In all expectations, she believed a dragon would be behind scratching at the stone and loosening the bricks.

The silver skirts puffed around her as she had crouched, almost swallowing some of the brick that laid beneath the smiling fool. "Well? Were you invited to this soirée or sneaking your way in?"

 

[Trask]

Trask met Nadya's gaze with a look of utter concerned indignation.
"That was still dangerous!"
He strode over to the splayed man and knelt beside him. He did not look like a guest.
His eyes looked up to where he had fallen from.
"Congratulations Miss. You've caught a thief it seems."
His dull and unremarkable face grew a smile like a weed sprouts in a garden.

 

[Azad]

Fuck me. Az complained within the depths of his thoughts, flickering his gaze from the beauty who had crouched above him to the man dressed in armor as fine as he had ever seen. Why can't anything ever be simple?

He asked himself as the interrogation began. His face twisting in an unreadable question as Nadya pressed him for an answer, and Trask outright declared his guilt. The thief grimaced inwardly, but let only surprise show on his face as the Ascendent made his claim. The insinuation one that should have spent most men sputtering.

”A thief?! Azad echoed, playing his incredulous part.

”How dare you sir! How absolute dare you!” He balked, still not moving from his place on the pile of bricks. ”I'll have you know I'm no thief! Furthest thing from it! My profession is an honorable one.”

What was that again? Azad thought to himself, his eyes briefly flickering up at the window where he had first crawled out from, then back towards the other two. ”I'm a…Prostitute, err, Escort.!”

He declared quite freely. Correcting himself to the more ‘proper’ term for this sort of company. ”And I'll thank you to rescind your statement immediately.”

 

[Nadya]

She had gotten in an eye roll before her open mouth and unsaid words were interrupted by the proclaimed escort. Nadya changed her chastisement to a look of 'that would teach you'.

"Not a thief." At that, she snorted lightly, casting another withering stare at Trask. "I'm glad that is settled."

But Nadya stared at the stranger again, a smile on her lips that looked almost feline. "Amazed you were able to be snuck in. You know, last year's event caused quite a stir when a minor lord hired an escort but introduced her as his niece. He also ran into his mistress, who suspected the lord to be unfaithful." She chuckled, now standing and offering a hand to the handsome fool that fell from above.

"If Lady Lilwen caught wind of you, oh boy... I think the theatrics would lighten up the evening significantly."

 

[Trask]

Trask's smile fell from his face as the mysterious man's explanation came from his lips.
His plain eyes caught Nadya's and he felt she believed this thief about half as much as he did himself.
"I'll rescind it when you've proven me wrong Thief. Now if you are an escort, why were you up on the roof skulking about and who hired you to escort them to this event?"
This was the most interesting thing to happen all day. Maybe he could turn this to his advantage, if he brought in a thief caught in the act then few could refuse his request for resources to the wall.
"Yes I dare say Lady Lilwen would be most interested in you!"
He added to Nadya's masked threat with his own venomed words.

Nadya
Azad

 

[Azad]

"I can't tell you that!" Azad declared, continuing to sound as though their every word was no more than an insult. The excuse, at first, seemed like a poor one, but it would get better...probably. Hopefully.

"Do you know what my employer would do to me?" Quick wit and the ample skill to improvise were almost as important to a Thief as a light hand. Lying was practically a way of life in the corner of Thanasis Azad was from, and he was determined to use every ounce of that experience in this moment. "A...run in, is precisely what I was avoiding, you see."

Azad continued, the lies slipping from his tongue as he grasped Nadya's hand and used it to pull himself to his feet. Ignore the blips of pain which spiked from the bruises now patching on his body. "I was just supposed to be a bit of...fun, you see, and then my employers partner found them missing and..."

He left the rest unsaid, though gave Trask a look which still screamed naught but; How dare you not believe me.

"I climbed out the window." The Thief offered, pointing to the third story of the Manor. "Truthfully, a rather humiliating experience. A man of my quality doesn't expect to be climbing out windows."

Azad huffed, looking at Nadya as though she may be a source of sympathy.

 

[Nadya]

Nadya looked to the other present, the one that clearly had not heard the many stories of brothels and pleasure told around a campfire or in the mess hall at the Wall. She snorted, allowing him to remain in that ignorant innocence, and helped the pretty male up before taking a few steps back to lean against the stone wall. In her ballgown, it looked wrong for her to not stand tall and pretty as the silhouette was made for, but she was comfortable to observe from this distance.

"If you go reporting that handsome face to Lilwen, then watch as she would laugh you off and show off her own invited company for the evening." Nadya shrugged at the other, gathering he was one of those stationed at the Wall, but not someone of power or leadership. She was a Wing Leader, tasked with training her own wing of recruits and Ascendants alike. Perhaps she was too busy to notice the likes of him on the Wall.

Nadya now met the gaze of the escort, lips smirking. "But that does not mean you will be welcomed. Every Great House of Thanasis is in that hall. Even minor noble houses, influential merchants, hells, even the Royal Advisor is in attendance. You may be granted to swim in this ocean, but that is not the say the fish don't bite." The Caliar rider shrugged. "It's a party, so I don't feel like ruining the evening by playing Wing Leader."

 

[Trask]

"She'll only laugh if he is who he says he is."
Trask pointed out to Nadya.
"If he is what I suspect, a thief, then I expect Lady Lilwen will be in a much more agreeable mood and perhaps see fit to grant my request for aide to the wall."
He spared her a moment's glance through a puff of his pipe.
"Everyone wins."
His eyes rested again on the man who fell from the roof. They held no softness at all.
"Or you can tell me who you are and whome you are serving so that I can negotiate my silence on the matter with them."
It was far from honourable conduct but honour saved no-one when the Jarllax came. Having a full team of well fed soldiers with decent equipment did.

 

[Azad]

In the name of Kress’ great big backside would this guy ever fucking quit?

At least the beauty was on his side, and she thought he was handsome. A fact which Azad filed away in the back of his mind for later. ”Look, Ser.”

The Thief continued, his tone clinging to the false agitation donned by Trask’s accusations. Though bitten back as he tried to interject some respect.

”If you expose me to Lady Lilwen, you'll humiliate my employer.” He remarked, a fact which in this lie would be quite true. There was no employer, of course, but if there was, his wife would very obviously learn quickly of the ‘Escort’ her husband had hired. ”Similarly, if I expose my employer to you, he'll be offended I couldn't keep my mouth shut. I'll lose his business and those of his fellows very quickly.”

Azad let a hint of panic slip Into his tone. ”You would put me on the streets, and for what? So you can feel a sense of justice?”

The thief shook his head.

”If it's money you want.” He said through gritted teeth, this time not having to act an ounce. ”I would be happy to pay you myself.”

 

[Nadya]

Nadya rolled her grey eyes.

"You wasted time coming here if you're after aide for the Wall." There was a healthy sum being paid to the Wall, the number swelling each year. "The Great Houses donate money to the Wall and the outposts, in exchange for keeping their precious heirs away from the front lines but still part of the Thunder."

She jerked her chin at the pretty face.

"He's more inclined to give money than the Lilwens. If you bothered to learn about the aristocracy, you would know that Lilwen's only son died in a jarlax ambush. Save yourself the breath." And the embarrassment, but she kept the last thing to herself.

Her own mother had sent a healthy sum in hopes to sway the High Ascendants from telling Nadya to be in the reserves, but Nadya pleaded her case. She had the only Storm Dragon in Thanasis, one with unique powers that had won Thanasis many wars in past history.

"I don't know about you, Money Purse, but this guy looks like an escort, no offence," Nadya shrugged, smiling nicely to Azad. "A face like that, and... well, you've got eyes. A noble would have hired him from an elite service. Finery and jewels, not common coin to pay for his company. Coin is for the cheap houses in the Outer City." And paying in jewellery or clothing would hide any evidence of such a profession. At least, this was all that her very rich and rakish uncle had told Nadya and her younger sisters last Solstice over dinner.

 

[Trask]

"It is not enough!"
Trask snapped.
It was never enough. After food, the constant maintenance of the Wall itself, officer's wages, fuel, weapons, equipment, materials, tools and a laundry list of other things there was barely enough to spare for the rank and file wages let alone the unexpected or what it takes to replenish the ranks they lost to frequent attacks.
As a result there were sections of the wall that were only a third staffed. Often this fact was played down to the public but Trask often did not care about image. He could not afford to.
"Regardless. I was commanded to plead the case so that is what I am doing here. Believe me, I'd rather be anywhere else but I lack the freedom to come and go from my duties as I wish!"
He hoped she got that particular barb and that it hurt before he returned to the thief.
"I cannot be bought and you have convinced me of nothing. I could not see you on the wall before you fell, how did you attain invisibility?"
Annoyed as he was at all of this he had more questions but he felt he could guess at the answers.

 

[Azad]

"Oh none taken at all." Azad said, smiling wide as he gently stepped over and away from the front of the building. Now confident that neither of his new companions would immediately jump him if he stepped from his immediate landing point.

"If such compliments are meant to be offensive." The Thief said, taking the opportunity to flirt just the slightest bit. "I might have to ask you for a drink to hear a few more."

He said, coming to lean casually against the balcony railing.

His off hand gently shifting so that it could relax behind himself. Fingers flickering ever so slightly as he desperately tried to motion towards Spinny still up upon the wall above. His hand vigorously waving to the tiny dragon in an effort to get him to come down.

"Invisibility?!" Azad parroted incredulously.

"What are you talking about?" He asked, feigning confusion. "I was crawling along up there!"

Az pointed with the hand resting on the railing. "You must not have seen me in the dark, Ser. Please, how can I assure you? This night has been horrid and humiliating enough."

Which was the first, unsurprisingly, actually true.

 

[Nadya]

Nadya rolled her eyes, her head falling as if she had dozed off.

"Gods, if I knew coming out here was going to be boring conversation, I would have stayed inside." she groaned, lifting her head and looking between the two.

"I say, we get those drinks," she nodded to Azad, "and you can go beg for money from the nobles. I think that would call for an entertaining evening, no?"

 

[Trask]

He might have tried harder to stop them but officially Nadya outranked him and if she wanted to risk her position for a pretty face she could do so all she wants. Not that any repurcusions would ever reach her privileged behind. No doubt she would attempt to shift the blame on him somehow.
This was her call and one of two things would happen.

The thief would escape Nadya with whatever he had stolen or he would not.
Either way this was no longer his problem. His smoke break was over.

"Do as you please Wing Leader and on your own head be it."
Tipping the last of his pipe over the balcony he re-entered the ballroom intent on forgetting that he saw either of them for no doubt he would inevitably be asked about it.

"Goodnight!"

 

[Azad]

He heard another brick fall as Spinny made his way down off the wall. Azad internally cringed, hoping the unfortunately natured soldier continued with his departure. The thief offered him nothing less than his most winning smile, nodding his head and bowing ever so slightly as Task neared the door.

Well. Az thought to himself. That wasn't so bad.

His gaze flickered over towards Nadya. Now it's just me and you...

Azad couldn't help the smirk that flickered on his face, eyes wandering over towards the sleek black dragon darting on the underside of the railing. Spinny slithered himself slowly down half-way between Azad and Nadya, stopping and waiting.

"I owe you a debt of thanks." Az said, sidling up to the Ascendant. "I doubt he'd have let me off without you."

Now he just had to slip away from her.