Guard of Steel, Woman of Silk

Subject: Re: Guard of Steel, Woman of Silk Sun Jan 12, 2014 9:42 pm

He folded his arms over his chest, arching an eyebrow disbelievingly at Falcon and heaved a mighty sigh. He quite honestly couldn't go anywhere without trouble following, could he? Rolling his eyes and sighing one more time, he simply gave up, the acceptance of his role in society clearly scrawled over his expression. "Tell me the gig first, then." He replied and uncrossed his arms, sticking his thumbs in the loops of his belt, shifting his weight to one hip and waited for something strange to come out of Falcon's mouth. "Though if you want me to put a knife in one of these blokes-" he waved a hand lazily at the Surahnians walking up and down the street, patrols of on-duty units passing their location with an unfortunate amount of frequency. "-then double whatever price it is that you were already going to offer. I've only been in the city for a few hours, but these guys definitely aren't fat obnoxious nobles. Whatever I have to do for you isn't going to be easy with them around."

Subject: Re: Guard of Steel, Woman of Silk Sun Jan 12, 2014 11:27 pm

"I need you to take something from one of them. A little girl. She is not to be harmed, rather, she is to be led all around the markets and the city, then deposited into the Burly Maid. She is to be treated well, and thankfully for you, her father will never find you because this..." Falcon flicked his fingers at Russ's face du jour. "Does not really exist."

He grinned.

"The price, well, name one, and we'll see if you're being greedy."

How could the man refuse a price he could dictate?

Subject: Re: Guard of Steel, Woman of Silk Mon Jan 13, 2014 12:16 am

Russell stared at Falcon for a moment as if he didn't understand what he was saying, then finally laughed. "You want me to kidnap a little girl?" He asked, clearly amused and chuckled to himself. "Augh, demoted from feared assassin to candy-peddling pedophile." Lifting his hands in a gesture of defeat, he seemed to accept the idea of kidnapping a helpless little girl with ease, deciding that it would be less dangerous than trying to kill one of these hulking foreigners from across the sea. "I'm guessing that you want her to be seen by as many merchants in the city as possible so…" he did some mental math for dramatics even though he had a price already in mind. "I'll charge you five hundred now, another thousand when I complete the job. Kidnapping a girl might be easy, but parading her about is probably what’s going to get me killed.” Especially if she was the type of girl who screamed when frightened. Then he was really going to be in trouble.

Subject: Re: Guard of Steel, Woman of Silk Mon Jan 13, 2014 12:45 am

"Is that all? Well then, the Mistress shall be pleased." He tittered and jumped up, shapeshifting in midair, and flying out of the shirt the man had loaned him. He flew to the palace, a cry piercing the air. It sounded mocking, but Falcon was always amused at mankind. He perched on Deos's balcony and groomed his feathers as he waited for the woman, proudly wearing the King's ring around his neck.

It was a gift from the man for being so good a wordsmith and messenger.

Subject: Re: Guard of Steel, Woman of Silk Mon Jan 13, 2014 1:43 am

Russell only waited long enough for his shirt to float back into his hands and the time to put it on before getting far away from the alleyway of their little clandestine meeting. He had been hoping that Falcon would have tried to negotiate his price down, but the fact that it had been accepted so easily was worrisome. Maybe he really was getting himself in over his head and didn't even know it yet. Whatever the case, it was time to get to work.

After asking a few questions and trying to affect the same intensity of the Surahnians (no mean feat by any stretch), he found his target's house and silently observed it from an innocent stoop across the street. He saw the shadows of the residents passing by the windows every once and again, marking the targets as inconvenient obstacles while looking for his true goal. Eventually he decided that studying the front of the house was getting him nowhere and moved a couple streets down, made a quick climb onto a roof, and moved silently back toward the house he needed to be at, keeping his body low to avoid attracting attention. Most people simply didn't think to look up, and he hoped that Surahnians were the same in at least this much.

As it turned out, all the sneaking really wasn't necessary and he could have kicked himself in the shin for all the extra expended effort. The little girl he was looking for was simply playing in the back yard. Whether she was actually gardening or only pretending or playing with dirt, he didn't know or care. One look at the window and he saw that whoever the two adults inside weren't paying attention. Or at least not enough attention to notice him drop down from their neighbor's roof into the garden not two feet from the little girl, clamp his hand over her mouth, and simply walk out of the garden and into the small gap between houses two doors down with the girl under his arm.

*-*-*-*

She had been in the middle of brushing her ebony hair, making certain that it was more than presentable for her meetings later that night. The motion of Falcon's landing attracted her attention and she looked up to see him land. Pulling the fine brush through her hair once more, she set it delicately on the counter of her vanity and turned toward her winged messenger. "So, how did it go? Did your little boy toy take the bait?" There was no jealousy, only amusement. Deorwynn knew what Falcon was, had crafted him to be that way even. If anything, she could be delighted that her little bird could pull off even the wildest tasks with seeming ease.

Subject: Re: Guard of Steel, Woman of Silk Sat Jan 25, 2014 6:17 pm

Tilenaia had been raking the dirt with a tiny toy rake made just for her. Normally she didn't like being in the dirt, but it had just rained and so it was moist, and she liked to rake the soil back to find worms. While she didn't like to be in the dirt, she did like bugs and raking the soil back was a good way to find them. The stranger had gotten her just as she was reaching for a worm, and he muffled her cry, far too strong to be bothered by her wiggling and kicking feet. However, the farther they went, the more she relaxed. She was tired, and couldn't be bothered to be hysterical for too long. Daddy would get her.

Falcon jumped from his perch and shapeshifted midair, his feet touching the ground lightly. "Of course he did. He cannot be traced, which is the best thing, mistress." He walked toward her and sat on her lap, taking up her brush. As he groomed her, he whistled a tune he'd learned from a songbird he'd eaten a while ago.

When he was finished, he laid the brush down and leaned back against her vanity. "He'll figure out you were involved. How do you wish to keep the guard from retaliating against you?"

Subject: Re: Guard of Steel, Woman of Silk Tue Feb 04, 2014 5:52 pm

Russell was two parts grateful and one part worried when his little captive went slack in his arms and stopped struggling. He half expected her to make a dart for freedom at any second, trying to catch him off-guard and rouse the whole damned city that she'd been kidnapped, but it never happened. He hesitated to go walking out onto the main streets with the girl, but part of his pay had been to parade the girl in front of every gossip monger that the city had to offer, and that's precisely what he was going to do. Taking a deep breath and cursing all of the gods that he could recall, Russell started out and tried to look as dignified and stoic as he could while hefting a little girl under his arm.

Surprisingly, he remained oddly unmolested for quite a long while, though there was a fair share of stern glancing in his direction. He didn't dare to meet anyone's scathing look, instead keeping pointed straight ahead straight through the market district. It wasn't until he came upon some guards that the issue of his carrying around a little girl was raised, and he decided to duck into an alley and make a few sharp turns before things could even approach the violent level. Or even the awkward question level, for that matter.

Russell couldn't have been more relieved to finally reach the Burly Maid where he was much more comfortable at answering awkward questions. In short order he'd bought the girl a room and arranged it so that she wouldn't be allowed to leave until her father came to gather her. After making his excuses and promising to return later to check on the little lass, Russell got the hell out and never looked back.

*~*~*

Deos smiled to herself, twirling a lock of her freshly brushed hair in her finger absently as she thought on the issue. "My dear, if he ever figures out that I gave the command, I'm sure he'll come raging in here. I'll deny it, of course. After all, what possible motivation have I to put his beloved little girl in a brothel? He has done me no wrong according to their humorless creed, which I understand of course. I can't expect the poor stone-man to spare a courtesy for a foreigner." Heaving a dramatic sigh, she began applying her makeup. "Whatever would I do should he refuse to believe me? Cry, I suppose. I'd convince him in other more pleasurable ways, of course, but I'm afraid that our mutual friend is not that sort of man. Perhaps I shall simply have you make passes at him until he is uncomfortable enough to leave me alone…" Her lips curved up at the thought, having quite taken a liking to watching the great monolith that was Sildred squirm from the much smaller Falcon. "I could always threaten him, of course. If I could steal the girl once, surely I could do it twice, but the end result would not have to be the same… I would feel bad resorting to such things, however. That dashing knight is such a fun man to toy with, and I would hate for him to feel threatened that the lady he is honor bound to protect is capable of such unpleasant business."

Subject: Re: Guard of Steel, Woman of Silk Wed Aug 27, 2014 8:19 am

Sildred had gone straight from patrol to his in-laws house to pick up his daughter. When he saw his father-in-law outside, brows furrowed, with a hand up to prevent him from entering, the guardsman's eyes widened and he clenched his jaw so tight his teeth ached. He had never one to roar his fury.

With a ferocity reserved for enemies, Sildred shoved past his father-in-law, deaf to the man's words as he followed behind him, trying in vain to coax Sildred back outside to explain to him exactly what had happened.

Sildred did not need to know, both his in-laws would have been outside waiting for him if his daughter was dead. He would have known the moment he'd gotten off patrol if some harm had befallen his daughter.

The rumors of a strange man and a little girl were making more sense and he had an icy glance reserved for his mother-in-law as he passed her and went to the backyard. There was his daughter's tiny rake, made for her with his own hands, lying amidst moist earth and a man's bootprints.

He thought of insulting his in-laws, of cursing them, rebuking them, but ultimately he knew he would come to regret burning that bridge.

"My daughter will now reside with me. I will take a wife, we will have communal barracks in which to live. You have the honor of choosing for me candidates. Consult your neighbors."

With that Sildred took to inspecting the ground, and saw that, for just a short while, there were bootprints leading him in the right direction. It was not long before he was in the market, and did not hesitate to ask merchants exactly who and what they'd seen. When it was evident that Sildred's daughter was the girl they'd seen, patrolmen familiar with the man took up the task of interviewing merchants and parroted the information back to Sildred.

It was maddening to stand around, as though he were doing nothing, as he waited for others to correspond all the information they were gathering for him, but Sildred knew this was better. He would cover more ground like this, he would find Tilenaia faster, and he would have a squad with which to pulverize the immoral peska into the ground for daring to steal another man's progeny.

For daring to take his tiny princess.

Sildred and his squad moved to the less savory district of New Surahnia and he wore a scowl as they entered the Burly Maid. His men fanned out behind him, and headed into the establishment to block all exits. There were Surs and non-Surs patrons, thus he had to speak first in Surahnian, then in Common.

"A young girl was kidnapped from her grandparents' home. Information has led us to this establishment. Relinquish the girl, and the fine for compliance in a crime, on the heads of the owners, will be far lesser. Choose to disobey, and the owners shall be dragged in chains to the square."

All Surs knew the square meant a rightful and public flogging. Sildred was, after all, in a position of authority to deal punishments on a local scale. The paperwork for the crime had already been drafted, it was one of the first things Sildred had seen one of the patrolmen do.

"A small daughter was taken. People say she is here. Give her back, and we do not drag owners to square and beat them. Instead, owners will pay fine for being part of crime."

(I figure here is where we get Tilly back and also maybe observation by Russ, as he didn't entirely leave the area?)

» Woman Talk Over Archery [Izzy x Eldar]