Private Tales The Place That Hurts The Most

A private roleplay only for those invited by the first writer
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"When I thought I had felt everything, when nothing seemed to have a new flavor, when all colors became dull and gray... you came into my life."

Most women would have been terrified walking into that alley while a man followed right behind them. They would have gone into the tavern instead of risking being in the dark shadows of the small town on the outskirts of Vel Anir. Or maybe they wouldn't have, as thieves and highwaymen often visited this location, waiting around for a rich man to send a poor man to gather interest for a job that had to be quiet. Most women would have had more sense than to ask for trouble for cheating one of the merchants with desperate men acting as his private army.

Everleigh was more desperate than the man that followed after her. She was aware of the others, too, but it didn't matter if she got out of this with a full and heavy coin purse. She made a left, and he made a left. She felt the others stumble along from the right. She could imagine how they smirked, the glint in their eyes when they realized she was heading to a dead end. They must have thought her stupid. They must have thought her easy.

They had no idea that she was leading them into a trap. The smaller the space, the better for her to conserve her magic with only one spell to undo the group of men and their heavy, clopping boots. Couldn't Viktor the Frugal hire men who knew a thing or two about stealth? She supposed that when he had nearly fifty men under his employment, he never feared being cheated out of a card game. This town was his until the Guard began tightening their laws and protocols.

She came face to face with a wall, rats as large as her foot hopping out of the way from a bed made of hay with a forlorn and forgotten dead man rotting on top. The stench was something she was used to, having been around death far longer than any of Viktor's men blocking the only entrance and exit.

"You got somethin' belongin' to us." A momentary pang at a familiar drawl. She turned her head a little over her shoulder. "Hand it back and we won't hurt ya... too much." The man smiled, stretching out a long, thin scar from his cheek, over his lips, and ended at the curve of his chin. He coughed. The smell of the dead man was too overbearing. He brought a free hand to cover his nose, and that was when Everleigh jumped towards his face with a fist aimed against his hand, effectively breaking his nose.

She exhaled the breath she had been holding as the men behind him began to move into action. But it was too late for them. Everleigh preferred close-quarter combat because the purple mist from her parted lips didn't take long to spread amongst the men. One grabbed her throat, getting a handful of her cloak. Their strong grip weakened in seconds.

It was almost too easy, sometimes.

Alistair Krixus
 
The fall of Viktor the Frugal mini-empire did not end with a bang, but the scratching scribble from a signature by one of Vel Anir's countless bureaucrats. The signature was attached to a simple order. A decree promising a crackdown on criminal enterprises. This issue could have taken months if not years, or eventually forgotten in the maze of bureaucratic false promises. However, Viktor was unfortunate for another reason, Alistair Krixus had just finished his most recent assignment and he needed to relieve some stress.

A bunch of common brutes and thugs, they had no idea what they were walking into. A figure had been following this procession for some time and had recognized the woman leading these men along into such an obvious trap.

Most of those men were dead before they hit the ground, one or two were both lucky and smart enough to try and run. They made it two steps back towards the exit of the alley before a dark figure stepped from the shadows and silently plunged two knives into their necks instantly ending their lives.

The figure dressed in all black waited for Evie to finish the job before a bit of light revealed a soft smile.

"Evie, why am I not surprised to find you here?" Alistair asked with a sigh.

He knew his own assignment to be an official one, which meant that Evie was likely her own downtime. That begged the question, what was Evie doing in her own downtown to be the target of Viktor? Then again, she could have ended the man's whole enterprise if she so desired.

Everleigh Ebersol
 
The bodies fell, purple mist evaporating into nothing more than the breath it was supposed to be in the first place. She had no need to discard of them, thinking that when they were found, they'd be much like the forlorn body on the hay behind her. When she looked up, she saw Alistair then. Violet eyes widened as she took one step back. She hadn't noticed him, and something about that didn't sit right with her.

Who else could be following her without her knowing? Had she grown so sloppy in just a few months?

"You know me, I love looking for trouble." She eyed the glint of steel stuck in a thug's throat before meeting Alistair's gaze. Something told her that he wasn't after her, but it begged the question: how many knew of what she did, and how many didn't? "It's been awhile." Everleigh pulled down her cloak, revealing violet hair that was short and unruly as if violently cut while it was in a braid. "When was the last time we saw each other?" She knew the answer before even asking the question. "Oh, yeah, at that lame dance the Academy threw for the initiates. Did you ever get my last letter?"

Alistair Krixus
 
Evie had not lost a step in her combat, although the short hair was a bit of a surprise. It would seem her disappearance had been tough on her. Everleigh's disappearance had worried Alistair originally, but ultimately, she was just another one of his classmates fleeing the bonds of the Republic.

His glassy gray eyes looked hollowly at her, but he examined her magical aura. Her purple and toxic aura was sharper, not gaseous like a typical person might envision a poison. No, Evie was not just a poison, she was a knife dipped in poison. He even spotted some of the runes on her body. Not done by him? Rude.

"Yes, the dance...and I believe so, although I was disappointed to never receive a response. Though...you've been busy."

He had spent some time on her little assignment that she had requested, but he had never got the chance for more advanced experimentation without any response from her.

"What are you doing here, Evie?"

Alistair did consider Everleigh a friend. She was one of the few that Al reserved a softer expression for, but such mannerisms were gone in this moment.

Everleigh Ebersol
 
Her suspicions about her letter being intercepted seemed true, but she wouldn’t risk proffering that to Alistair now. With a fluid stretch of her arm, she opened her cloak. Everleigh had to toss the armor she often wore, though she made sure to keep the leather vest, arm bracers, thighs and greaves. But the pants she wore were loose, and upon closer inspection, they were muddied men’s knickers instead of the tight breeches she preferred. They clearly did not belong to her.

Her hand dipped down, plucking the purse from her hip and giving it a shake, letting the coin clink and clank against each other. She grinned at Alistair then, remnants of her devilish mischievousness contrary to her angelic looks reappearing for a brief moment, as if they were initiates once again.

“Gambling. What else would I be doing?” She could have remained as a proctor at the Academy. She could have gone with her original plan, to be deployed as a dreadlord in the army of the North. Or if she had wanted a more domesticated life, she could have taken that stipend, maybe start a business? Everleigh had scoffed when that idea first came to her one lonely, summer night. What business did a dreadlord know other than breaking bones and spilling blood?

“What are you doing here, Al?” In other words, was he here for her, to bring her back to Vel Anir and imprison her for taking Miklan away from the Academy? Everleigh tried to read his face, but that was the thing about Alistair: he had a poker face almost as good as hers. Sometimes it felt like looking in a mirror.

Alistair Krixus
 
A feeling of disappointment settled in his stomach as he realized that at this moment Everleigh was close to just being some overpowered swindler. She deserved so much better than whatever this was.

"I'm not sure. I was afraid to ask."
He replied with a straight face.

Only now did he turn to examine the bodies, only seeable from Evie's lingering magic. Was this a common occurrence, stealing from merchants only to wait for them to attack and then just killing them?

"The Republic has announced an initiative to crack down on criminal enterprises. Viktor was involved in smuggling along with several other crimes."

There was an unspoken truth, that the initiative had a lot of ambiguity written into it to allow for the discretion of the guard in its enforcement. The fact that Alistair was not already acting indicated that he had made the decision that Evie did not fit the bill.

"His men were a start."


Everett Ebersol
 
Alistair’s words hung heavy between the two dreadlords. Everleigh’s lips parted but no words could come out, her throat clogged with questions she knew she couldn’t ask. She cleared her throat, let her arms fall to her sides and her cloak swallow her form once again.

“Sounds like you’re still after Viktor.” Was all she could manage, feeling equal parts relief and gratitude towards the man that, even after all this time and all she had done, was still a friend. She didn’t have many of those anymore. With all the grace and power of a jungle cat, Everleigh stepped over the bodies, making her way to Alistair. She looked up at him, violet gaze squinting at their inspection.

The silence was interrupted by a drunken tune, off key and shrill. An old drinking song as old as the history of this town could be heard crashing through the night. Everleigh waited for the man to pass by the alley, completely unaware of what was there as much as he was unaware of the latter half of the song. He shouted the chorus, over and over again.

The night is young, walk on girl
The stars are bright, walk on boy
The moon is full with your hand in mine
The night is young….


“He has a point. The night is young.” Everleigh went to step past Alistair. “So what are you going to do?”

Alistair Krixus
 
He was, but Viktor would not be removed within a day. Alistair would go about that task meticulously so as not to let anyone slip through the cracks. Then, he would move on to the next.

The loud and uncoordinated chanting from outside the alley made the grip on Alistair's dagger tighten by instinct, prepared to remove any witnesses. He calmed when he realized the man was just moving by, and...he could not just kill him now. That was wrong...Why was he having such thoughts, he had not been so quick to kill since his time at the Academy.

For all of those thoughts, his eyes never broke from Evie's. He could no longer see them, only the aura around her. It would only take a little bit of mana to truly see but that was wasteful, so he refrained himself.

As Evie began to moved past him, he quickly stowed his daggers and then reached out grabbing onto her arm stopping her from leaving.

"First, I'm going to make sure you don't cause any trouble. Best way to do that is for you to explain to me what the hell you have been up to, while I buy you a drink. Deal?"

Everleigh Ebersol