Fable - Ask Zealots In A Traitors Shadow

[Smiley of Ragash]

Despite his young age, Smiley was good at his job. Not that anything less than absolute perfection and obedience was expected of him as a protegee and underling of Lady Medja. But even with that, Smiley had to say he was good at this whole follow orders and kill people thing. Not that he had done many jobs, usually too busy being educated and honing his skills and magic. But the few he went on the Witch Boy had done well, eager to please his mistress. So much that he had hoped that he would be alone on the next job without any handlers or partners. But not only did he have a partner, but it also wasn’t even a fellow underling of his Lady! It was some Immortal, one directly under the service of God-Emperor Gerra from what he was told. Smiley supposed this job was under the interest of not only Lady Medja but couldn’t they have taken care of this matter themselves? Or Smiley could have done it alone?? He didn’t need some stupid Immortal as a babysitter!

Smiley tried not to squirm on the rooftop he was crouched on, his thoughts making his mood sour despite the smile forever on the boy’s face. The Witch Boy was waiting for said ‘partner’ to arrive at the arranged meeting spot, the woman named Shaharyzad. There was a phrase she was supposed to say that would indicate she was trustworthy, and he was supposed to reply with ‘but the north stars still shine red’. Then they were supposed to do the stupid job together. Hunt down the former palace servant, Abba El-Hashem, that had been feeding information to Tel-Madu and their damned Scorpion. The man had hit the ground with his family (children he had adopted supposedly) as soon as his treason was uncovered, another leak they had to fix. But the two weren’t just supposed to kill the men. No, they specifically had to leave him alive long enough to figure out what (probably Ragash) noble ordered him to do this because a mere servant did not have the power base to leak so much, so they can chop this snake off at its head. But they were running out of time before whoever paid this man found out Abba and a few other servants had been found out. Maybe the reason he was assigned with this Shaharyzad was that they were spread thin with this treason uncovered? No, there must be another reason. Or not. Politics was his Ladies thing, not Smiley’s. He didn’t get people all that well.

Suddenly he twitched as another person approached his hiding place. Whoever it was was good, Smiley didn’t sense them until they were basically in striking distance. Oooooh that was cool! It was probably his partner but just in case Smiley gripped his knife then turned around. “Hiya!” He greeted the shadowed figure cheerfully, waiting for either the code words or an attack.

Shaharyzad Bal-Madora

 

[Shaharyzad Bal-Madora]

Shaharyzad never questioned an order in her life, not even now though she definitely wanted to. A child?!?! She was going on a mission with a child?!?!
She remembered the training she underwent in the Madrassa of War when she was a child, but she didn't finish her training till last year and she was hardly a child anymore.
But still she didn't question it, especially when the orders came from Gerra himself. If a child were to be her partner then there must be something special about him.

For this mission she was specifically dressed as an immortal. She could have gone incognito in casual clothing, but her mission required that the God Emperor be represented while they interrogate and mete out punishment to the filthy traitors.
From one of her contacts she learned that the boy had some... peculiar tendencies... So she might leave the interrogation up to him when the time came.

She had to meet up with the child in this area. She didn't immediately see him at the spot but that meant little to her, she decided to stake out the area and cover all of her bases. When she saw him she was supposed to give him the code phrase, such subtlety seemed pointless to her since she already had a pretty good idea of who she was working with, but the precaution was an added safety measure.
She was supposed to present him with the phrase, "We've met under a desert moon". If he made the correct response she will know he's the one.

She began by taking to the rooftops, not difficult at all but it gave her a good view of the streets below and all around her and she was skilled enough to not be noticed by traversing in such a way.
When she climbed up to the rooftops she was surprised to find a child sitting up there on the same building she chose to climb. Outwardly he gave no sign that he's noticed her, so she silently crept up behind him.

Once she was so close she could have stabbed him she saw him stiffen as his danger senses picked up on her presence. She smiled behind her mask as he stood up and turned with a bright greeting.
"Not bad but not perfect, little one. We've met under a desert moon, haven't we?"

 

[Smiley of Ragash]

Smiley craned his neck up at the adult and relaxed a bit at the words. So the person under the Immortal outfit and mask was Shaharyzad. Or someone who get the code out of Shaharyzad, but Smiley was too young to get all paranoid assassiny. If she was a sham then the boy could just disable and question her.

But still, his proverbial feathers were ruffled at the woman's critique, not that she might be able to tell under his usual smile. So what if she could sneak up on him?! If she tried to stab Smiley he would have thrown her off the roof, or if she was weak simply ripped her limb-from-limb. It was only with weak living creatures he could do that with. Though based on her credentials she probably wasn't weak. She'd better not be.

Smiley looked at the fellow servant of the Empire from beneath his eyelashes. "Aaahh but the north stars still shine red Ms.Shaharyzad! Nice to met you, I'm Smiley!" He chirps at her, using magic to float up to where her mask is, meeting her at eye level. "So you ready to hunt down our little traitor and his spawn? Can't wait myself! According to Lady Medja's sources, Asa is hiding out in a warehouse some blocks away from here! If he gets away from us all I'll need is some of his hair to track him anyways. Not that he can." Smiley finishes with confidence. He floats over the edge of the roof, hovering in the air. "Should we like, do a briefing or something or just get moving? I can carry us to the warehouse!" It and hovering above eye level is some of the small ways he tries to show superiority to other operatives without fully making them angry. And he wanted this job over with quick.

 

[Shaharyzad Bal-Madora]

She didn't even notice his antics, her own dogmatic thoughts too occupied with the mission and her orders. His greetings were polite and he gave the correct response, nothing else mattered. She took note of his ability to fly and factored that he has magical talents in to her plans.

"We can brief each other on the way there. Death is the ultimate fate of our targets, so escape isn't a concern since there is no restriction on crippling and maiming. What magic are you able to use? If I have an idea of your capabilities then we can strategize how to use you to your greatest capacity."

She consented to whatever form of travel he preferred. "I advise we land on one of the nearby buildings so we can be in a better position to begin staking out the warehouse. If our masters have deemed that two specialists be used for this mission, we can expect that this will be more difficult than it seems."

 

[Smiley of Ragash]

Smiley gave a sideway loll of his head, the Immortal was joining him in going straight to business it seems. "If you say so lady!" The Witch Boy says, pausing att he edge of the roof, then twirling around to face the woman. "My main thing is kinesis, lifting things up with my mind, as Lady Medja does! I can lift up several objects at once, ranging from about a fork to a cart. I can lift people too, but only if they are too physically weak to resist me. Regular army types tend to be fine, but anybody more trained than that can instinctually resist my magic if it's near them. You'll be able to tell what I'm talking about when we start to head over. My second thing is mental magic. No mind-reading or memory altering things like that, I'm more for headaches, vertigo and hallucinations, ya know? Then there's some smaller stuff, Collage spells. I mentioned my tracking spell, but I can also do whisper spells, alerting spells, hiding spells, small flashbang spells, that kinda hedge wizard stuff. They take a moment to prepare though." Smiley rattles off, knocking off fingers as he goes on and not mentioning that his smaller spells don't always work. "Speaking of which if we want to whisper and only hear each other, my whisper spell, I'll need to mark you with my magic first. I'll take it off later, or you can get another mage to do it if you want." He finishes with a shrug.

He nods to the wisdom considering the difficulty of the mission. Specialists huh? He didn't think about it that way. Honestly Smiley had thought of this as an easy job, it was just a servant after all, but Shaharyzad's words were making him feel more cautious. "If you say so! I'll try to be subtle as we fly over! And maybe as we do that you can also tell me what you can do Ms.Immortal." The boy says and reaches out a hand, red magic leaving his fingertips to cautiously hover toward to larger woman. Some people considered flying under his influence unpleasant, something about upset stomachs, but it was a good way to sneak up on people. Ultimately this and the magic mark was her decision to make. "You ready?"