Fate - First Reply Wrongdoing

[Khari]

Khari walked up holding a handful of berries, some strange looking leaves, and what appeared to be a bowl which she had stolen from a nearby servant's house.

When Jane had said those parting words to her she had felt sort of bad, though it had taken her some time to figure out why. The guilt of lying perhaps, of not even telling the woman her real name. She frowned a moment as she approached. "I have some dyes."

This bit of knowledge was one she had learned herself.

In her line of work it often paid to be able to disguise yourself, and dyeing your hair was an exceptional way of getting people not to recognize you. She quickly placed her ingredients in the bowl, mashing them up with the butt of the knife she had been given.

"It'll last a few days." She told Jane. "Then you can wash it out with water."

It would make her hair a brilliant shade of red though. "And..."

She chewed her bottom lip.

"It's Khari, not Khali." The Daemonette said quietly. "I had to have a cover name...and I'm not very good at them."

Slowly Khari stepped over towards Jane. "Sorry for lying."

 

[Jane]

Oh. Dyes. Jane had never thought to use those before in her hair. Not that she was particularly experienced with using dyes for anything anyway. More skilled people did that for clothes, not her. Clever idea though. Even if it only lasted for a few days. Probably got ragged and she'd be dying (heh) to wash it out with water no matter how much she loved it being red. Like blood, basically. But blood in her hair got ragged and nasty a lot quicker.

Khali bit on her bottom lip. That was a nice move. Jane was going to use that one on Lord Cyprus.

It's Khari, not Khali...

Oh.

...Sorry for lying.

Jane just flashed a grin. Said in a genial, nonchalant manner, "Don't worry about hurting my feelings, Khari. Everybody does what they gotta do. Nothing wrong with that."

The Eunuch had Jane enslaved for years and years. Was she truly mad at him? No. He was just doing what he had to do in the world. Not that Jane didn't plot and scheme to kill him. Not that she didn't take pleasure in rubbing her feet all over his dead face, a nice little revenge for him pinching coin and refusing to purchase new shoes for her--even when she was First Overseer. But there they were, opposed to one another. The Eunuch had his needs. Jane had hers. The game was set and she had won. She prevailed and world moved on. No hard feelings.

A tiny lie was awfully small compared to that.

Jane turned around so that Khari could apply the dye to her hair. Mingus, thoughtfully, took off his coat and draped it over Jane's shoulders, just in case any of the dye should drip down. Wouldn't stain the dress.

Jane made a quick, additional remark on the matter to Khari, "I don't know why you hid your horns though. They're gorgeous. What's a girl gotta do to get a set of those?"

Khari

 

[Khari]

Khari quickly applied the dye, painting Jane's golden hair with the mixture.

She knew from her own experience that the dye would work quickly, especially on blonde hair. On her own darker locks it tended to set in after an hour or so, but for Jane it should just be a few minutes. Something she was thankful for now.

A small chuckle echoed from her lips as Jane asked after her horns. "I don't know."

The Daemonette spoke the truth.

"Your mother needs to make a deal with a demon." That was what she had been told all her life. The Dynast herself had said that she was the spawn of a Devil, the creation of a bargain between a woman and a being of another plain.

Khari did not know if it was true, did not even know if she had a mother in the first place. She had always been this way, had always looked like this. Even as a child her horns had been there, smaller, but always there.

"That's one of the stories." She told Jane. "Another is that your father need be seduced by a succubus."

A shrug rolled over her shoulder. "Another is that I am simply a being of the Abyss, brought to this world by dark magics."

Khari sounded almost sad. "Not everyone likes them as much as you."

 

[Jane]

A demon. A demon. A deeeeeeemon.

Oh my, could this night get any lovelier? Mingus looked a little spooked from what Jane could see in the corner of her eyes. But Jane. Oh no, not Jane. She was positively thrilled, and it showed in her eyes and the wide smile that crossed her face. So her back was to Khari right now. So what. The energy Jane radiated was surely a thing to be felt, a brimming excitement and amiability that was like a quiet crackle in the air.

A demon. One of her Favored Enemies. Half of one, at the very least. Right here beside Jane and doing up her hair into a lovely shade of red. Oh, what was that? Hmm. Too bad...too bad that she left her amulet of Astra in the house with Deborah and the lawmen along with her armor and weapons. That was just...too...bad~. Astra and friends could take a fucking nap.

Seduced by a succubus. Hah, wouldn't that be something? If Khari's mother turned out to be Hyatta, the succubus who launched the invasion of Guillotine. So far as Jane knew, Hyatta was banished back to wherever she came from, so...still around too.

HHHHhhhhhhaaaaa! A being of the Abyss! Brought to this world by dark magics! Now Jane was really worked up, and Lord Cyprus was going to GET IT. She was going to work off all of that hot and bothered heat through the heels of her feet and CRUSH him. (ohitwasgoingtobesoooo~good~)

Not everyone likes them as much as you, Khari said. Sounding a bit wounded.

Jane didn't want to turn her head and look back while Khari was applying the dye and working it in, but her eyes tried to look around anyway.

"I'll punch anyone who disparages your horns right in the mouth. Right in the fucking mouth." Fuck the tally, she'd take a couple more lashing to express herself honestly. "You can always show your horns around me. You got that, sister? Always."

Khari

 

[Khari]

Khari smiled as she put the last of the dye in Jane's hair, scrubbing it for a moment so that it would actually set in. When she was sure that it would actually stay put, The Daemonette reached up and quickly washed off the excess dye.

As she had predicted Jane's hair was not a brilliant shade of red, something close to what her own had been during the glamour.

In the dark it was hard to see, at least it would be for most normal folk, but once she stepped into the lights around the Estate it would come into full view. Khari admired it for a few moments, rather pleased with herself as she took a step back. "Thank you."

In Dornoch she wore her horns openly, carrying the Dynast's protection, but outside that it was always dangerous to display them.

Even if she did have a protector or two.

"We'll make sure Cyprus sees them." She assured Jane. "Before he dies."

They always did add a little more 'flare' to things.

Quickly she cleaned off the butt of her knife, offering the bowl to Mingus and telling him where she had taken it from before glancing back towards the Estate. "Ready when you are."

While she'd been collecting her ingredients Khari had already mapped out her way in. A simple enough path with the use of her magic.

 

[Jane]

We'll make sure Cyprus sees them. Before he dies.

"Just when I thought this couldn't get any better," Jane said, turning around and handing Mingus's coat back to him and touching lightly the tips of her new hair with her palms. A little on the right. A little on the left. She took a second to adore the job Khari had done. It was very nice.

"Oh yes, I'm ready."

Mingus glanced about and decided to just set the bowl down on the ground beside a tree and come back for it later. "Here, Jane, give me your arm."

"What for?"

"I'll escort you to the door. It's...that sort of affair here. Formal like."

"Hm. Alright."

She held out her arm straight at shoulder level and Mingus had to gently direct it down, such that they could lock the crooks of her elbows together in a courtly fashion. Which was entirely foreign to Jane, such a fashion, but she went along with it. She could play a part. She played one for years trying to get closer to the Eunuch, to get the perfect opportunity. This wasn't all that different.

Jane looked to Khari. Winked. And said, "I'll see you in 'Lord' Cyprus's bedroom."

With that, Mingus started along and Jane, arm in his, followed his lead. They approached the walls of the Estate, the parked carriages, the main gate itself.

Places, everyone. Places.

Khari

 

[Khari]

Khari waited for a few minutes after the two departed, knowing it would be best to give Jane as much time as possible before she moved out.

As she stood there she thought about Jane. She knew almost next to nothing about the woman, and the reverse was true as well. Yet there had been more acceptance in the other woman than in most people she ever met. That in it of itself had endeared her to Khari, more than it should have. Two pieces of herself were at war.

The untrusting, damaged little girl that had been used and thrown around. Then the grown woman who yearned for something more.

Fulfillment, friendship.

Khari chewed her lower lip, frowning for a few moments as she slowly began to drag herself away from the spot she'd been rooted in. Her head shook lightly, finger playing over the hilt of her knife as she began to walk over towards the estate.

She could already see the lights, the slight pinpricks of glowing lanterns and candles in windows. The Daemonette forced her mind to shift gears, to move to something else. The job ahead. Her task.

She was good at that at least.

 

[Jane]

Mingus and Jane arrived at the doorstep of the estate as one of the last carriages pulled up. Two rather fine looking men (Mainlanders might even have called them "gentlemen") and either their wives or their Deborahs--so to speak--stepped out. They greeted Mingus and Jane, asked her who she might be. And well, there was this prostitute in Cerak that Jane was good friends with--until she got stabbed and the dwarf pirate that stabbed her got stabbed himself. But she had been an act, alright. Her whole persona for her clients was that of an exaggerated version of a Mainlander Lady, specifically one from Elbion; the men fucking loved it, save for that one piece of shit dwarf.

So Jane adopted some of that persona of her late prostitute friend. Why not? Probably a better sell than being the cool bitch she usually was.

"Why absoluuuu~tely, my dear!" Jane tittered. "I'm here to be the darrrr~ling company of my Lord Cyprus!" She fanned herself with a hand. "Feather~ me~, I'm flushed! Do I look flushed? Surely I look flushed!"

Seemed to work. Those two gentlemen and their fuckholes--despite those latter two quietly giggling--made no fuss about it. They all exchanged introductions, and only one of the two gentlemen seemed a little...perturbed? disdainful?...but that was when he was talking about Lord Cyprus. Well good. All aboard the "Cyprus Is A Cunt" galleon.

Jane gave a parting wave to Mingus, a surreptitious knowing wink, and then entered the estate along with the other latecomers--Cyprus's personal guards giving her no trouble.

* * * * *​

And...heh...Mingus was absolutely fucking right about Lord Cyprus.

First, Jane entered the grand foyer with the latecomers. This was where most of the action was at. If pretentious had a smell, then the foyer would be reeking of it. All the Lords and Ladies of the whole region were here. Not that Jane knew any of them or even particularly cared outside of Cyprus himself.

Speaking of.

At first, Jane thought Cyprus was a really big dwarf. Which would've come with some worrisome implications, given the persona she'd adopted. But he wasn't, he was human. He was just...apparently wider than he was tall? It was honestly difficult to tell in that fine, flowing noble get-up he had on. And where was his neck? No, seriously, all mirth aside, where in the immortal hell was his neck? And did he always have a sloppy, smug smile on his fat face? Did it just rest like that naturally?

The smell was the second thing Jane noticed after she got close and did the whole introductions thing. It wasn't like he didn't try to cover it up with natural oils. Not all that dissimilar from Jane with Deborah's perfumes, actually. Here was the difference. First, he clearly had more time to get ready for this than Jane did--she would have loved a nice long soak in a heated bath before coming here. Second, that tiny, subtle undercurrent of rank odor underneath the scent of the oil had a particularly off-putting mustiness to it. How?? How was it both subtle and potent at the same time? Jane had smelled battlefields that were more appealing than this. Heh, maybe she was wrong, maybe pretentious did have a smell, and it was exactly the aroma coming off of Cyprus.

The man could not shut up about himself. He had this whole preamble ready for Jane right as soon as she introduced herself--it lasted for no less than ten solid minutes, Jane was sure. To be fair, it made Jane's job way easier, and throughout her time in the foyer, she learned quickly that all she needed to do was give Cyprus a little prompt and off he'd go, rambling on to the detriment of all the other people they were in a circle with. Alright, so it was kind of funny to watch the other nobles endure Cyprus's loud and boisterous mouth while trying desperately to at least appear cordial. Shared suffering. Ha.

Cyprus pinched Jane's ass multiple times throughout the evening. He was also nose-level with her bosom because of Deborah's heeled boots, and he had this other thing where he'd (poorly) try to covertly sniff her breasts when nobody else was looking. Big, windy-cove-that-you-wouldn't-dare-set-anchor-at sniffs. Wet sniffs too, like a horse with hay fever. He graduated from doing it from the side to practically plunging his nose straight down Jane's cleavage at one point (ugh, she could feel the small dab of cold, clear mucus from his nose on her left breast, and it was DIS-gusting). Deborah's fucking perfume did the damn trick, Jane had to give her that. As far as Cyprus went, Jane just weathered his creeping hand and soggy nose, played along and acted oh so interested and quite warmly flustered for him. She was a spider, and this was part of the web she weaved. As he got bolder, she got bolder. Stretching provocatively. Brushing against him. Whispering little things to him, enticing him, hinting at him that she would just adore the chance to see more of his estate...particularly his chambers.

And it worked. He melted like ice cream without a frost mage around to keep it cold. This was a first, she had to say. Normally--at least when she was with the Sisters of the Citadel--she just...took the men she wanted. What were they gonna do? Fight back? That only made it better. Both methods, enticing and taking, were fun in their own ways. Too bad the prize for her first time enticing was a walrus.

Well. She'd just have to content herself with his blood and the feel of her feet dominating his fat, smug face.

Jane let Lord Cyprus hook his arm around hers. Together they made their way to the stairs ascending up from the grand foyer to the second floor.

Alright, Khari. Almost showtime for that lovely knife and those lovelier horns.

Khari

 

[Khari]

Khari's journey into the estate was more exciting than she would have liked.

It was not Cyrpus' guards that posed the problem.

They were as clueless as their master. Some of them seemed to stare out into the middle of space, others watched the treeline as though it was the only threat that could occur, and still others were simply asleep at their post.

It got to the point that Khari let herself relax, that she took it easy.

That was a mistake.

It was the sound of a gasp that pulled her out of her lethargy, the distinct sound of someone breathing in with a shock. Her head whirled towards it, violet eyes piercing through the darkness as she saw a man standing atop the roof peering down at her. Fingers clutched at her climbing rope, but as her eyes locked with the Guard she knew in an instant it would be a problem.

One hand had lashed forward almost as soon as she heard the noise. Thin tendrils of light laced through the air in an instant, a thousand strings that extended from the tips of her fingers like the strings of a marionette. They danced through the night, and then caught onto the Guard.

They latched onto the man, and then with one quick pull blood poured forth.

In an instant the guard was rent into a thousand thousand pieces, dozens upon dozens of strings catching and rending his flesh all at once.

Before the man even had a second to think he was nothing more than a stain of blood upon the rooftop, his body in pieces and his voice lost to the abyss. Khari looked up for a moment, lips thin, and then she continued to make her way up towards the room that Mingus had indicated.

By the time Jane and her 'companion' made it to the room Khari was already tucked into a dark corner.

 

[Jane]

Voices outside the bedroom door. Coming closer.

"...must have been fabulous for you, my Lord! Oh feather~ me~!"

"That's what I've been saying this whole time! Who cares about a bunch of dumb greenskins, am I right? If you ask me--and you've asked me--then the only thing I'm sorry about is that Bhathairk wasn't destroyed sooner!"

Jane and Cyprus shared a muffled, obnoxious laugh on the other side of the door.

"Good for business, I say! Good for business!"

The door opened and into the dim room lit mostly by the soft light through the wall-sized window Mingus had mentioned stepped Lord Cyprus and then Jane. Lord Cyprus shut the door and Jane immediately turned to him and let out a husky breath. A big, sensual smirk crossed her face.

"But enough about business, wouldn't you say?" she said in a low, sultry voice. "I think...my Lorrrrd Cyprus...that it is time for pleasure."

Cyprus started to tug at his frilly, noble shirt. "By the gods, why haven't I met a woman like you befor--?"

Jane immediately invaded his space. Pressed a finger to his lips and herself hard up against him. She looked down on him with half-closed eyes and a smirk that was as devious as it was sinful. "Ssshhhh...ssshhhh...I think...I'd like...for you..."

She drew her arms underneath her breasts and hiked slowly hiked them up, completely and utterly capturing Cyprus's attention in the eclipse of her bosom. "...to properly meet two big friends of mine..."

She slipped a hand back over his mouth, drank in that delicious begging look glassing his eyes as he looked up at her, then leaned close to his ear.

And said, "...Khari, and her knife."

Khari

 

[Khari]

It wasn't the knife that came.

Those strange lattices of light appeared around Cyprus' neck in an instant. They drew over his throat like lines on a piece of paper, wrapping and wrapping as they pulled tight against his throat to the edge of drawing blood.

Two more appeared around his wrist, folding along his flesh and cutting through the cloth of his finely tailored shirt. "Hello."

Her voice was that of a vipers.

She seemed to slither from the darkness of the corner, those strange red lines on her face and horns giving off a soft red glow. Violet eyes pierced across the room, staring at the Lord. One of her hands was folded half up, a vague sense of a pull coming from her finger tips.

"WHAT THE FU-"

The last word didn't leave his lips.

Before he could finish speaking Khari suddenly tugged her hand downward. The odd strings latticed across his flesh drew tighter, cutting just barely into his flesh and spilling some of his blood down the front of his shirt.

"Now now." She hissed. "Wouldn't want to ruin our fun, would we?"

 

[Jane]

The glow of the magic string was matched by the glow on Khari's face, her horns--that lovely redness. And there she was, stepping out from where even Jane hadn't seen her. She was good at this, huh. Had more magic at her fingertips than just a disguise. It caught her by surprise (just what oh what could those strings do?) but she improvised.

"Oh, did I say knife? I lied."

Cyprus said stifled words into Jane's hand. Hm. She was going to need a quick solution for this, for both of her hands to be free. And, looking down at Cyprus's oversized cuffs and the damage done to them by the strings, she found one. Jane reached down and grabbed hold of the sleeve of Cyprus's shirt and the dangling, frilly cuffs. He voiced his half-finished exclamation before a tug came from Khari's strings and a tease of blood dribbled down from his neck--mmmhmmmm, that's what she wanted to see. Jane ripped free both cuffs and wadded them up and shoved them into Cyprus's mouth.

Now now. Wouldn't want to ruin our fun, would we?

Jane smiled a sinister smile, laced with malice. "That's right." She slipped a booted foot behind Cyprus's heel and poked his forehead with her forefinger. "Now have a seat."

She roughly pushed forward her finger and her hand as she swept back her foot, causing the big mass that was Lord Cyprus to go tumbling backward onto his ass and then flat on his back. Jane strode up and stomped (ahhhh, yes) on his chest and half-stood on him like a hunter triumphing over the kill of her trophy beast. She laid one arm across her chest and held the elbow of her other arm, making a shelf on which to rest her chin with the backs of her fingers.

"You've been a bad man, haven't you?"

Jane glanced to Khari. Ran her teeth across her bottom lip as if in preparation for a sensual feast.

Then back down to Cyprus. "And you fucked with the wrong two innocent maids."

Khari

 

[Khari]

The strings seemed to flicker and shift within the air as Jane moved the man around, elongating with subtle crooks of Khari's fingers and knuckles.

She didn't speak as her companion manhandled the wayward noble, instead choosing to stay silent as Cyprus was thrown around and taunted. She did not usually speak to her victims. Most often her methods were quick, decisive.

There was never room for banter.

As Jane stomped down on the man's chest Khari stepped forward, her boots letting out a muted click against the wooden floor. The strings shifted once more, bright violet eyes piercing through the dark of the room as she looked down at the man.

"You thought yourself immune." Her voice was low.

Anger clung to her tone, but it was not for this man.

The rage she felt in her chest was older than that, it went beyond Lord Cyprus. It was for all his ilk. For the men and women who stood above others and put their boots on throats. She hated them, quietly, all of her life she had despised them.

"Above judgement and law." Her fingers crooked, and the man let out a guttural sound as the strings tightened around his throat. "But here you are. Just a broken, dead, little man."

Khari hissed.

 

[Jane]

Cyprus let out a vexed whimper into the wad of cloth stuffed into his mouth, fearfully eyeing Jane and Khari in turn.

Jane lifted her booted foot off of the man's bulbous chest and started to slip off said boot. Judgment and law Jane didn't very much care for, but yeah, tack that on too. She didn't know every little thing that Cyprus did to the people of Yarrick, and if she was being honest she really didn't care. This was to Jane a moment that belonged more to Khari and her. But, sure, the folk of Yarrick could get some vicarious and delicious revenge through Khari's strings and Jane's foot.

Jane had her boot off now, and she set set it aside.

Then practically stepped on Cyprus's face with her bare foot. She roughly rubbed the sole of it over his nose and drove the heel wherever she pleased and let her wiggling toes dance over the disgusting sweat of his cheeks or poke into his eyes.

Jane's cheeks flushed madly red as she could feel the man's struggles, his agony, beneath her foot, as she stood tall over him and looked down at her helpless captive and that swooning feel of domination excited and warmed her thighs.

She let out a husky sigh, enjoying every piece of the moment. "Oooohhh...you're so right, Khari. He does look little from here. And that's quite funny! Here I was, worried he might not fit through the door earlier. Then how would we kill him?"

Her smirk cracked open into a thin grin. She flashed her eyes to Khari, and then back down to Cyprus.

"Show me what those strings can do."

Khari

 

[Khari]

All it took was a crook of her finger.

The tiniest, smallest little nudge of her knuckle. It shifted ever so slightly, moving just enough for the strings to do their work.

Lord Cyprus could feel it almost immediately, his body going rigid, his eyes bulging. Fear showed upon his features, terror like the man had never felt before. His mouth opened up to let out a scream, but no sound came from his throat as he was suddenly and unceremoniously sliced Into ribbons.

The tightened and cut in an instant. Three of them sliced through his throat, a great spurt if blood erupting as the others took off his hands at the wrist.

The cuts were perfect, pristine. A surgeons knife would not have been able to do a better job, and as soon as the strings passed through flesh they seemed to disappear. Khari took a single, smooth step back, gliding over the carpet as though she were liquid. Blood cast itself from the corpse, spreading out from the Lord Cyprus' body in a slow cascade.

Khari couldn't help but feel a pang of despair for the poor maid who would have to clean this mess.

 

[Jane]

Jane shivered with pure delight.

There really was nothing like feeling someone's last moments of life. Those last, bright flashes of pain before the dark set in. Every delicious little jerk and twitch and spasm. She felt it now from Cyprus. Felt it through the bottom of her foot and trembling up her leg and right to where she really liked it. Ohhhh, it was sooo~...good.

She was biting the skin beneath her bottom lip as she felt the spray of blood on her foot, her shin, saw the splatter of red against the green of her dress. And she just couldn't help herself--her vice was calling. Jane crouched down and dipped two of her fingers into the gorgeous wound which separated Cyprus's head from his neck and pulled away with blood on the tips. She stood and admired the blood and then ran her tongue slowly over her fingers, licking the blood clean. The man was disgusting walrus, that much was certain, but blood was blood--he was not befouled by sickness, so fuck it. Other than that, everyone bled the same.

Jane rolled her shoulders. Swiveled her head around luxuriously. Let out a relaxed mmmmmmm...

And she looked to Khari. Said, "I like the way you work."

Then she chuckled. Held her own cheek for a moment and pretended to draw on her face with a finger, "Funny thought: I could draw matching lines on my face." She wiggled her toes and leisurely batted Cyprus's head side-to-side with her foot. "We've certainly got enough paint for it. Can't make them glow, though."

Couldn't do horns either. Unless they were to happen into one of those things in the Spine or something. Those animals that butted heads and jumped on rocks and did dumb stuff like that. Jane had heard about them. What were they called? Ah, she couldn't remember.

Khari

 

[Khari]

This woman was disturbed. That fact became very obvious as Jane continued to speak, though, Khari wondered if that mattered at all. Sanity was something most people clung to, but she had seen many lose it. Her hands fell by the wayside and she let out a small breath.

She hadn't realized she'd been holding it. "No, that something I can't do either."

"They do it on their own." Khari had never been able to control the marks on her face of the ribbons within her horns. They shifted and changed with her mood, pulsating and deepending in color with her rage, fear, and even joy.

She took half a step away from Jane, looking around the room for a brief moment.

They were not thieves, at least she wasn't, but ther was always something interesting about seeing the inside of someones life. How they arranged things, what they had, all of it was a mark of them as a person. Lord Cyprus apparently loved gold.

Opulence.

It was befitting of the man, and as disgusting as one could think.

"You should probably leave out the window with me." Khari said as she picked up a small golden statuette. "Too much blood on you now."

 

[Jane]

No, that something I can't do either. They do it on their own.

Jane took a casual step backward and started to wipe her foot off on Cyprus's shirt. Said as she did, "Ah, what can I say? I adore the look. And I'm not shy about tossing flattery around when I do."

There was something somebody said at some point when Jane got to the Mainland. Maybe it was in Alliria, or Guillotine, or Minaris--somewhere. She wasn't sure. For all she knew it was in Thagretis of all places. But it was something about imitation and flattery, and sounded really good when the guy said it. Had that ring to it that certain sayings did when they struck at something true in a concise way. So that, basically. What he said. That's what she was getting at.

Jane, her foot mostly clean of Cyprus's various juices, bent and grabbed the boot and slipped it back on. Would have been rude as hell to shove her foot still drenched in Cyprus's foul sweat into Deborah's boot. They really were nice boots. And that was done right as Khari secured for herself a nice little trophy.

"Yeah. Window it is. Even if I had my sword and armor, Astra wouldn't like me sashaying down the stairs and inviting a mess. And I've got enough floggings on my tally already."

Really though, weren't these the best nights? The ones where she starts out with a clean tally, does something fun, and then winds up with a tally that, while a pain in her backside, she grins and bears because it was still worth it?

Jane walked toward the massive window. Looked over to Khari.

"Climbing sucks, but I can get down just fine." She grinned. "And even if I fuck that up, I'll end up where I was going anyway."

Khari

 

[Khari]

Khari smiled. There was something about a simplistic worldview that appealed to her.

Most of her life was filled with plots, schemes, daggers in the dark. It was dangerously refreshing to be around someone that was more straightforward. Even Ichika didn't provide that, though her friend could hardly be blamed for that fact.

"I'll catch you if you fall." One would argue that wouldn't do Jane much good. The woman was larger than Khari and a fall like that would logically have seen her ripped out of the window right after.

She raised her hand and wiggled her fingers. "Magic."

The Daemonette said by way of explanation.

Before following Jane over to the window Khari poked around the room a bit more, gaze flickering over things until she spotted a journal upon the desk. She lingered for a moment, then snapped up the leather bound book.

It slid into the satchel on her side.

"Light reading." She said to Jane with a shrug as she walked over towards the window.

 

[Jane]

It was a good thing Khari clarified. She had a mental image of tumbling from the window and somehow landing on Khari's horns and, you know, that wouldn't be so fun. It'd be fun if she threw somebody else onto Khari's horns. Otherwise, if it was her having an oopsie and falling on them, not a good time. That was for the masochists. And Jane hated masochists--you weren't supposed to like pain, that ruined the whole experience.

Magic, though.

Jane canted her head and stroked her chin and said, "Hmmmmm...don't tempt me. I might just want to see that in action."

Jane examined the huge window as Khari browsed the room, walking from one side of it to the other, musing aloud, "Now where in the immortal hell is the latch." Then to Khari as she continued to search around the window. "How'd you open this big fucker anyway? Me, I would've broken it and left a proper mess. Yeah I'd be pretty bad at your job."

Jane smiled and placed her hands on her hips and just waited for her. Khari had the magic touch, in more than one way certainly. Ahhhhh...now that she was thinking about it, maybe she should have Blessed Khari right before she did her magic-string-thing. Empowered it with a little help from Aionus. Would Aionus have liked that? Nope. Would it have made an even bigger splatter of blood on Cyprus's carpet? You're damn right.

Ooo, Khari found something. A second trophy. Light reading. Oh, that was a journal. Cyprus kept a journal? Pfft, what'd he write in it? And, more importantly, was any of it legible after all of the sweat drops soaked into the pages? They'd find out later, she presumed.

"Alright. Let's raise sails and catch the wind. I'll follow your lead as best I can."

She paused.

"And if I can't..."

Then raised her hands and wiggled her fingers.

"...mmmmmagic!"

Khari

 

[Khari]

Khari nodded her head, looking at the window for a brief moment before surveying the room one last time.

Her eyes caught on the corpse in front of her, lips thinning. She wondered briefly if the man had ever even thought about death before. Nobles rarely did. Either too self absorbed or too busy breaking the backs of the poor to ever think about what consequences might reach them.

The Daemonette shifted, stepped away from the middle of the room and quickly stepped up besides Jane. "It helps that I do this for a living."

She told Jane.

"Most of the time the designers think they're more clever than they actually are." Her hand ran up the side of the window, finding a small panel of wood that was slightly out of place. She popped it away, and then grabbed the handle there. A slight gust of wind rushed through the new breach in the window.

Khari shrugged, then pushed the window open further.

Violet eyes peered down into the courtyard below, eyes wandering towards the walls and then towards the light of a torch to the far east. "There's a guard in the east courtyard. We should be alright though."

The Daemonette said as she slowly slipped out the window and began to descend the walls.

 

[Jane]

"Cleverer than me." Jane paused. Visibly thought to herself if that was truly a word permitted by Common or not. A small shrug later and she decided that it was.

And there. Some little thing that would've taken Jane a lot longer to find and would have tempted her mightily to just throw a chair through the damn glass during the search. Yeah, Khari did this for a living and it showed. Kinda strange that she'd even be so keen to get the hell out of Yarrick before dawn. Must have made a slip up someways back. Nobody was perfect.

"Guard in the east courtyard, eh," Jane said as she leaned her head out of the open window and peered about and felt the night's air on her face. "Too bad we couldn't have invited him up here too. But look at me, being greedy."

She looked down. Wasn't too far. Higher than your average second story, because why the hell wouldn't it be, Cyprus and all the rest of 'em loved heights for some reason. Boggled Jane's mind. She hated being up in the crow's nest. Point was, Cyprus at least didn't live in some tower or castle spire, so that was all well and good.

Jane watched Khari's motions and where she gripped and how she went about it, trying to be quick on the uptake here. "Alright. Ship nests, building faces, same thing, right?"

Carefully, with a learner's cautious hesitation, Jane started after Khari in her own descent, taking her time to find solid handholds and footholds.

Khari

 

[Khari]

Khari moved down the side of the building as quickly as she could.

Jane was slower, much slower, but that didn't matter much. One of them needed to be on the ground, and it would be better for Khari to catch her any how. About halfway down she heard a sound beneath herself, lips thinning as she noticed someone below.

It was a man, and a woman.

Their arms were wrapped around one another and their faces smushed together so violently that at first she thought one was attempting to devour the other.

Her heart skipped a beat, then she realized what was going on. "Snogging" it was called, or at least that was what she'd read.

"Jane." She hissed at her companion, hoping to catch her attention as she motioned below.

They had to stop. Just for a few seconds.

 

[Jane]

Jane paid nowhere near as much attention to their surroundings as she did to her efforts in scaling down the back of the manor. She wasn't trying to bust her ass with a sloppy foothold that led to a slip that led to a fall that led to a bad time capping off a good time.

That said, she did faintly hear the sound of voracious intimacy going on somewhere below. Damn, even Astra and the Dark One Alarak could agree that a couple of somebodies down there were practically trying to eat one another's faces, with all that wet smacking going on.

Jane.

The hiss. From Khari. Jane stopped--more so to redouble her hold on the adornments and window sill--and hazarded a look down.

She saw Khari alright.

And she also saw the noble couple.

Well, she didn't know what caused it. Maybe it was the angle, or maybe it was the lip-based reverse tug-of-war those two were engaged in, or maybe it was the sole fact that they could murder Cyprus and nobody as yet cared but what'd get them was something as pedestrian as being seen in the wrong place.

But a stifled laugh rumbled in Jane's throat. Quiet and curt as such laughs were, trapped behind a closed mouth and puffed out cheeks and half-formed without the proper release. Jane nibbled on her bottom lip, even as the corners of her mouth curled upward.

Uh, well. Maybe they didn't hear it?

Khari

 

[Khari]

"What was that?"​

A feminine voice echoed through the dark of night, and Khari tensed almost immediately. She never much liked killing innocents. They were by and large idiots, fools who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and their corpses often made more mess than was worth it.

She frowned for a moment, fingers folding away from the wall as small sparks echoed from her fingertips. She prepared to lash out, to cut them to ribbons.

"Nothing, baby. Don't worry about it."

"But what if we get caught."

"No no we won't. Trust me, no one knows this spot."

"But my husband."​

There was what Khari could only describe as a slight groan. Her gaze flickered towards the man as he rolled his eyes and looked at the woman. Lips thinned for a brief moment and he shook his head.

"Alright well..the woods aren't too far, yeah? We can go there."​

Charming. Khari thought to herself as the man and woman peeled themselves away from the wall and headed towards the front gate.