| | | COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... |  |
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Eldarwen
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|  Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose...  Tue Jun 24, 2014 9:14 am | |
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“‘So-called’,” Soneya grumbled, annoyed. She was about to suggest the idiot asked their fellow guest, but quickly shut her mouth before the words tumbled out. If they were believed without anyone else being questioned, it would avoid anyone ever finding out that Lutis and her had faked being a couple the previous night. That would be better left unrevealed.
Besides, the woman quickly noticed that concentrating on her breathing and stomach were far more important than anything else. She tried to take shallow breaths through her mouth because a deep breath through the nose had almost sent her vomiting, but this wasn’t a much better solution. At least it seemed to make it a little less bad, so she stuck with looking out of breath and like a bit of a nutcase. Then again, they weren’t too fond of the pair anyway, so what.
“We already checked the ears,” the man in charge replied, a large specimen of a muscular man who had not been present the last time round. He made a bit of an impression on Soneya when she finally tore her eyes away from the dead dragon and to the voice. He was very, very well-built, she had to admit, but he was frighteningly enormous – to her small standards at least.
When the man added nothing else, she tentatively asked. “And? Nothing? Nowhere else either?” The man just glared at her. Right, I guess that means ‘no’. Soneya just shook her head and moved closer to the dragon. If they hadn’t found anything that didn’t mean that maybe she couldn’t, or Lutis for that matter. Different sets of eyes.
In the meantime, Lutis’ other question was answered as well. They’d picked up the dragon on the opposite side of town, very far away from the spot where the night dragon had been found, but in plain sight as well.
“This is just weird. What’s the use in killing dragons?” Soneya muttered as she started her work. Of course, in the meantime, her and Lutis had begun developing certain theories but that wasn’t information she was prone on divulging.
Instead, she concentrated on the dragon. Better state for sure, but there was once again something odd with the way the dragon had been mutilated.
“Hmm…” Soneya cocked her head this way and that before she went to get a chair and positioned it next to the table upon which the wolfdragon lay. Once standing on top, she looked down, once again shaking her head and frowning. She climbed down, repositioned the chair before standing on it once again.
The officers were all looking back between the dragon and her, but mostly focusing on her face, so while she couldn’t look at Lutis in the horrified manner she wanted to, she made a small motion with her hand, hoping he would catch it and understand that he should really come look at this. To the room at large she said: “Does this look like a pattern to you?” Her hand was retracing a few bloody lines in the fur of the dragon. What she really wanted Lutis to see however, was the shape next to the pattern they had already found on the night dragon. If she wasn’t completely mistaken, it was one of the glyphs on their sheets of paper.
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| | | | Rogue
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Mon Jul 14, 2014 8:54 pm | |
| “Well, I dunno what you expect us t’find then, if you’ve done what we did yesterday and come up empty-handed,” grumbled Lutis under his breath, standing far away still until he really was forced to move. He didn’t want to get involved in the slightest, but there wasn’t any way of getting out of the room (at least, innocently), without getting his hands dirty. He hoped he wouldn’t literally have to. Sidling closer, he tried to ignore the drips of blood that stained the floor, sad at the thick fur that coated the poor dead dragon. It would have been handsome, alive.
What was the use in killing dragons and then leaving the corpses, was perhaps a more pertinent question, Lutis thought. There were too many reasons to kill off the beasts- simple ones, such as they were preying on crops or townsmen, or more complex, for magical use, or superstition, or downright nastiness. He took a couple of laps of the table, bending to look at the dragon’s ears and fondle the soft fur when they were unmarked, then drew a blank. There was a lot of blood and mess, but it was matted and difficult to tell, and he certainly wasn’t going to start poking around in some mangy carcass for whatever clues the lawkeeper wanted, but wouldn’t look for himself.
Soneya, on the other hand, was much too eager for all this crime-solving business. His eyes strayed from the wolf dragon to her as she paced around, shooting her a confused look as she dragged over a chair. “I hope you’re not about to sit and do something gross, because I am outta here if you start poking around.”
Thankfully though, she restrained from actually prodding the thing. That would have been too much. He saw her small gesture, but was again, reluctant, until she spoke.
Fine, guess he would have to do something useful. With a sigh, he dragged up a chair next to hers from the side of the room, making sure to be extra careful that it wouldn’t snap or wobble him into the carcass if it broke as he stood on top.
Whether it was disgust, surprise or the urge to vomit that was strongest when he saw the now all-too-familiar symbols engraved into the dragon, Lutis couldn’t quite tell. His face scrunched up in dislike as her hand traced in the air the main symbol staring back at them, but his eyes were drawn just as quickly to the other. He found one hand sneak to his mouth to cover it, wiping up over his hair as he looked over at Soneya. Ah, so that was why she wanted him to stand on a chair.
“Uh…” He blinked a couple of times to find himself, looking up and away at Soneya with a gaze that said we are going to have a talk later about this. “Well. That ain’t quite as surreptitious as an ear mark. Whatever your killer’s up to, he’s not being subtle about it any more.”
Literally writing a word on his victim. If things had been grim before, this had just taken it to a new level. “There’s your clue. It’s a bit bigger than last time. Would’ve thought you might spot it second time round.”
Perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to sass a peacekeeper, but the day wasn’t turning out great so far for the pair of them, and Lutis wanted to go back to peace and quiet. Wasn’t that what these officials were for, keeping peace, rather than throwing lives upsidedown?
“We finished now? Because we have stuff to be getting on with.” Lutis jumped down off the chair again, looking over the pair in front of him before towards the door. “Murders to solve for other people, that sort of thing, y’know…”
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| | | | Eldarwen
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Wed Jul 16, 2014 5:25 pm | |
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It was interesting how the smell of the dead meat didn’t bother her so much anymore when she was focused on something else but as soon as the thought entered Soneya’s head, she pushed it away again. She did not want to think about her roiling entrails.
She almost repeated her gesture when Lutis finally dragged a chair over to stand next to her. At least now that practically everyone was either imitating her by standing on chairs or just towering above all the rest, she could exchange a glance with Lutis without it looking suspicious in any way.
When he almost snapped at the lawenforcers, she had to grin but bit her lip to keep from doing so. Not that it didn’t serve them right. They had been idiots. The mark was so obvious, it was almost painful. It was worrying though. Not the fact that the murderer had repeated the same symbol as before – though that maybe too – but what worried Soneya the most was the apparition of the glyph. She wasn’t quite sure which one it was but she could have sworn that it had been one of those Lutis had been working on last night. It made her nervous.
Clambering down from her chair, she put it back from where she had taken it before turning to the officials, nodding along to Lutis’ words. “We would appreciate it if we could take our leave now. We have helped you all we can, and frankly, that stench…”
Soneya didn’t have to fake the heave of her stomach but she exaggerated it a little. She did feel sick though and she was in desperate need of something to drink, were it just a glass of water to wash her mouth and get rid of the smell of blood which seemed to have permeated everything.
When both of them asked to leave, the tall, intimidating guy moved a little closer to them and Soneya had to look up to be able to see his face, something she did not appreciate. His expression spoke volumes of how far he trusted them especially since they were so eager to leave but when the mage had to bend over and cover her mouth in order not to vomit on the man’s shoes, he decided that for the time being they were of no further use.
“You may go.”
Without needing to be told twice, Soneya scrambled to the door, gulping fresh air as soon as they stepped outside. “Gah, I hate that place,” she said, none too silently. “And I wish they would stop pestering us with their investigation. We are not on their payroll!”
“I heard that!!” came an angry voice from inside and involuntarily Soneya ducked.
“Of course, better to do them a little favour than having to rot in a prison cell.” Alone with Lutis to top it off. Reason enough to comply. She couldn't hide the brief shiver that rushed down her spine though but she wasn't even sure anymore why she even shuddered.
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| | | | Rogue
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Wed Jul 16, 2014 8:51 pm | |
| Lutis wasn’t quite as neat and tidy as Soneya was, leaving his chair right where it was, but he didn’t care what the officials thought. Let them deal with it, when the pair of them had already dealt with everything else so far. His mood was sour with such a myriad of bad things that had happened to them, and this wolf dragon with its writing did nothing to improve his mood at all.
His face was a scowl as they were stopped, and didn’t lighten as they were let out from the prison, stalking irritatedly down the corridors without barely seeing where they were going, and having to rely on Soneya’s direction to get them out of there in the end. The door to the building banged heavily behind them as they left, his feet kicking up dust as he flipped the bird back at the building in response to the shouted words behind them, not caring for whether it would earn him a cuff of his own.
“This is bad. This is like, move across the island bad. Like, I’d rather be in Kaionar an’ in some guild’s really bad books bad.” Glancing over at Soneya, he shook his head, then took a long breath of air, exhaling heavily. “Half of me wishes you hadn’t ha’ seen them marks, it might’ve been better for us.” But on the other hand, if she hadn’t, they would have still been under a veil of mist on this whole thing.
“It’s a thief rune, otherwise I wouldn’t have recognised it, ‘course. It uh, was a bit messy t’read, sort of mashed together-“ a shiver ran down Lutis’ spine, his words unpleasant when it was describing something cut into a body, “it said ‘mage, leave’.”
It was a chilling thing to find, in all honesty, and felt horribly close to home. “He knows what we’re up to.”
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| | | | Eldarwen
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Wed Jul 16, 2014 9:52 pm | |
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“Truthfully,” Soneya returned Lutis’ look, “I wish I hadn’t seen them either. As much as it pains me for the dead dragons, but what good does it do anyway that we know?” She wasn’t expecting results after just one day, of course not, but she had deep down hoped that their help would have helped the peacekeepers to already finalise their investigation.
It had been a silly hope. There was yet another dead dragon in the building they had finally brought behind them, there was a dangerous book on the loose and they had papers full of incomprehensible magical notes on them that could mean who knew what.
When Lutis explained what the rune had said, Soneya first looked at him with an open mouth and wide-open eyes. Her instant reaction was to shout a “What?!?” before she took a deep breath and continued yelling – in a low voice though so they weren’t overheard: “How can he know? Are you sure you aren’t confusing the rune with another one? We’re not even doing anything! Do you really think this was for our benefit? What kind of sick game is he playing? Bastard!!”
Though when the words finally started sinking in, Soneya couldn’t help but start trembling a little. ‘Mage, leave’ wasn’t exactly giving many options as to the meaning of the rune. Quite the contrary, and frankly, it scared Soneya.
“What should we do now?” Much to her dismay, she wasn’t able to completely hide the fear in her suddenly rather soft voice, so to compensate a little and make her appear stronger or so she thought, she looked at the ground instead of at Lutis, not wanting her eyes to betray her emotions. The more she thought about the rune, the more rattled she felt. And she did not like this. At all.
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| | | | Rogue
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Thu Jul 24, 2014 8:41 pm | |
| Ah Lutis winced a little at the volume of Soneya's exclamation, head swivelling back towards the law house in fear of being overheard. Thankfully, they were out of earshot now; suddenly having an epitome after an interrogation didn't seem like the best of ideas. He waved his hand to try and quieten her down, guiding her away from the middle of the road so they didn't attract so much attention.
"I may have dropped our uh, ever-so-useful book on someone's head last night, and I have this bad feelin' it mightha been our murderer. I didn't get a good look, it was dark, obviously. And yeah, that rune was uh... kinda... blurry, in the stuck with bloody fur and stuff way." Another grimace, then he rested a hand on Soneya’s shoulder in a hopefully reassuring gesture. “It mightha just been a fluke. At least, I hope it was…” his eyes drifted away from her, then snapped back again when he realised he wasn’t being quite as cheering as he had aimed for.
“Maybe we should just…” He gestured aside with a thumb, maybe we should just leave now. “But… ah, I’m too nosy t’take my own good advice. I wanna see this through, if only to see some fu- screwed up asshole into them lawkeepers’ grabby hands.” Shrugging helplessly, he crossed his arms over his front, looking out across the street now. “Time to really piss off our murderer with actual investigation, rather than mincin’ around.” They hadn’t really gotten a good look around the blasted out house yesterday, and as most of their found ‘clues’ were either useless, or missing now, it seemed like the best place to head to in Lutis’ view.
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Fri Jul 25, 2014 8:22 am | |
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When Lutis admitted just exactly he had done with the book, Soneya glared at him. The guy was completely and utterly hopeless! It was one thing to drop the book out of a window where they could potentially retrieve it again if they ever wanted to get near that damn creature inside it again, but come on! Onto someone’s head?
“Of course it was the murderer. With our luck, who else could it have been? Gosh…”
It was safe to assume that Soneya was not a happy cookie. Rattled because of the warning, shaken because of the new murder, and annoyed that she had to deal with all this nonsense, which included the man standing opposite her.
At least it slightly took the fear away that she could get angry at Lutis. The man actually had a purpose in her life. She hadn’t thought the time would come that she would think that. But it just went to show that even she could be wrong from time to time.
“A fluke?” It slightly took the wind out of Soneya’s sails when Lutis said he at least hoped it was one. Why would he hope it was a fluke? Was he saying he was worried about her? He did put his hand on her shoulder as well. But no, that was just… common sense almost. Everyone did that. Shaking her head, she dismissed any notion of him caring for her. Of course he didn’t. If someone came after her, they’d come after him. He was only worried about his own hide. “I’d hope so too,” she replied, “but with our luck… Do you really believe that?”
Sighing, she straightened up and tried to shake the shivers. “But I guess you’re right. We started this, let’s finish it. The bastard can’t be left to roam free.”
When Lutis continued talking, a grin spread across her face. “My kind of man. Let’s do this!” If they were going to continue, they might as well do it right. And if the mage was starting to be annoyed with them, well then they might as well make use of it and piss him off properly.
They easily found their way back to the ruins they had only visited a few hours ago, even though it somehow seemed much longer but that was probably due to the lack of decent sleep. Nobody was there, which probably meant that people had scavenged the house for anything they thought they could make use of. Law enforcers had been done their sweep, now it was their turn. And if nobody was around, well then they wouldn’t be interrupted either.
“How do you want to go about this? And we’re still not really sure what we’re looking for, are we?” Soneya asked as she let her eyes roam over the ruins, wondering where they should start and with what. Maybe there was a hidden door somewhere? Or just a hidden something?
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Mon Jul 28, 2014 9:05 pm | |
| Lutis wanted to say how he hoped that their murderer had a bloody good headache now, but the look on Soneya’s face stopped him from running away with his mouth… this time. Instead, he shrugged a little more sheepishly this time.
“With makin’ all that noise, we couldn’t really keep it in the room…” The book hadn’t really been useful anyway, unless you could label it useful to have an inanimate murderous object close at hand. It could have been useful in some situations, but this one… perhaps not. “It was that or get well an’ truly busted last night. Even worse.”
A nasty thought that they might have had more than visitor at their door had the book not made it out the window sprung to mind as well; the one that they had had was harmless, but their murderer, he didn’t like to think what might have happened if he had come looking for his book, rather than having it just deposited on him…
Two murders were quite enough.
“My kinda girl!” he responded in like, a crooked smile appearing on his face at Soneya’s agreement. It was better than him poking around on his own, then getting caught right in the thick of it with no backup. Not the best place to be, in that instance; hopefully they would be able to protect one anothers’ backs though.
Lutis’ determined spirit didn’t wane as they landed back at the ruins again, only seeming to improve when he saw there was nobody around to disturb their efforts in investigating the wrecked house. Clicking his fingers, he too looked over the wreck before them, hoping that something would leap out at him that just felt right to investigate.
It didn’t, and then he was a little bit stumped. He scowled, then looked to Soneya.
“Well… I was hopin’ somethin’ would just stick out. Guess it’s down to elbow grease now though.” Not such a pleasant prospect, but on closer inspection, the house had been blasted apart so well, there wasn’t too much that looked so big, it would be impossible to move. Shrugging off his coat, he threw it over a sticking out piece of wood, rolling up his sleeves to get started.
It was hot work, and quickly he found himself covered with a fine layer of dust and dirt, his fingers aching from prizing up stone chunks or wooden beams to have a good look at what was underneath. There wasn’t much system to his work; when he got stuck or bored in one place, he moved to the next. Pottery from the kitchen mixed with broken furniture, scattered papers and general household mess that was present in any building lived in. Nothing particularly stood out, but Lutis started to make a pile anyway of things that looked vaguely useful or valuable (to him, for… certain purposes). After what seemed like hours, and probably was, as he was rather hot and sticky despite the not-too-unbearable sunshine, there was a fairly good collected pile of… well, still just stuff.
He dusted off his hands and made his way over to Soneya, carting the things he had found in a heap within his coat, using the wide piece of material as a sling for the papers, books and other junk that he had come across.
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Wed Jul 30, 2014 10:29 am | |
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Soneya laughed shortly and in a not very amused way. “Yeah, wouldn’t that have been nice if something had stuck out?” Obviously though they had no such luck. Why she kept thinking that maybe, maybe something like that would happen, she wondered where she took that kind of optimism from sometimes. Or maybe it was just plain idiocy. Which obviously wasn’t helped by the fact that she was partnered up with someone like Lutis.
The latter was currently the target of her glare, but soon enough, she just sighed and followed his motion. Rolling up her own sleeves, she went to work. At first, she tried to be organised, moving from area to area, trying not to overlook anything and inspect everything. After a certain amount of time however, she realised that it was quite simply impossible to be organised when surrounded by such a mess, so she did what Lutis seemed to be doing as well, and moved about randomly from one spot to the next, stopping wherever she thought she might be in luck.
A few potions were scattered around the place but most were unlabelled, so Soneya decided she would be better off not touching them, especially after what had happened with the book the previous night. Without guidelines or instructions, she was unwilling to touch anything magical of this magician. There was no telling what horrible things might happen otherwise.
There were a few recipes for lotions however and healing increments that she thought could be interesting, so those she pocketed. There were a few rarer ingredients lying about as well, which she also pocketed after careful inspection, but there wasn’t much to speak of really. Nothing she couldn’t fit into her pouch – which was conveniently lying in her room at the inn. Good thing she had a few pockets she could put things into.
A few more papers and books, but nothing that seemed to really strike her as useful, Soneya stopped in front of a dresser, which looked as though it could have been a nightstand or something along those lines. Rifling through it quickly, there was nothing of interest and she was about to get up again from her crouched position, when she suddenly noticed that the drawer seemed to be deeper on the outside than the inside. “Hidden compartment,” Soneya muttered, intrigued all of a sudden as she felt around the wood to find some kind of trigger to lift up the fake bottom.
It took her some time but she finally did, just as Lutis arrived by her side. Sparing him the interrogation on what he had found for the time being, she just lifted his gaze at him as she pulled the fake bottom out, previously having dumped all other contents onto the floor.
“It’s a miracle this thing is still in one piece at all,” she muttered as she stuck her nose back into the drawer. And gasped.
“Look at this!” Soneya whispered always reverently when she moved aside so Lutis could take a peek. Before them lay the most gorgeous pendant she had ever seen; an intricate design of a couple of incredibly detailed dragons curled around the most beautiful stone she had ever seen. The pendant itself was fairly small and attached to it was a very delicate chain, long enough to make the pendant disappear behind any kind of clothing, even the very deeply cut-out ones.
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Tue Aug 12, 2014 10:35 am | |
| “Ooh, now that’s a nice ‘lil trick cabinet,” Lutis said as Soneya hauled out the bottom of the drawer she had opened, setting aside his armful of stolen goodies to lean closer and see over her shoulder. It was dark and dusty, although that was probably the fault of the exploded building all around them more than anything else.
Their suspect was becoming more and more interested, and incriminated, with everything they found, and they hadn’t even hardly started looking through everything they had dug out so far. Hearing Soneya’s gasp, he put his hand on her shoulder to look better as she poked around at the bottom of the drawer, his curiosity peaked, especially with a reaction like that.
His eyes widened at the prize tucked away out of easy sight, fingers twitching with an instant kleptomanic urge.
“Well ain’t that a jewel an’ a half…” he breathed, looking closely at the fine detail, the intricate curl of the dragons that was close to realistic. It was obviously worth a fortune, easily more than anything else in the house (at least by instant recognition, although perhaps some of the trashed books might have been more, one upon a time), and had Lutis questioning why someone who lived in such a house owned an object like this.
The guy was also a maniac though, so, you had to give him the benefit of the doubt.
After a moment of staring at their priceless find, Lutis reached out to pick up the necklace… pausing with his fingertips only a few centimetres away from the gold as he had an afterthought.
“Maybe we shouldn’t touch it. That book went crazy last night, who knows what this might do.” He dreaded to think, and quickly removed his hand from the drawer to find a scrumple of paper that they could pick the jewel up in instead, without touching skin. It looked somewhat dangerous, the glint of sunlight on the jewel bringing out bright reddish tones, and sparkling off the dragons, so they looked like real miniatures. Given whom their owner was, Lutis wouldn’t be surprised if something had been done to tiny dragons to turn them into this.
“This guy has some… some dodgy stuff. There are some not-so-great books I found too, come look.” Lutis unravelled his coat from around the pile of things he had acquired, showing her the spine of a book or two that dealt in obviously suspicious magic. “I think we’ve found our killer… now’s just to actually y’know, find him.” And somehow stop him… or turn him into the authorities. Not an easy task.
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Tue Aug 12, 2014 10:59 am | |
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Soneya knew it was the wrong thing to be worrying about while she was staring at this beauty of a jewel but when Lutis put his hand on her shoulder for leverage to get a look, she almost flinched. It wasn’t exactly that she minded – which in and of itself was a horrible realisation for her – it was rather that she wasn’t used to this kind of human interaction anymore. Lutis had gotten closer to her in the crazy hours since they had first met than anyone in a long time. It made her strangely uncomfortable.
“Maybe you’re right,” she agreed, turning her attention back to the man in question and the necklace. She was still looking around for a pouch or something of the sort when Lutis simply used a piece of paper. That would do the trick as well.
“It’s so beautiful,” she murmured as she inspected it as it rested in the paper. “But you’d really think that those dragons could come alive at any moment. Do you think it’s a good idea to take it? Maybe we should just leave it?” But it was so pretty. They couldn’t just put it back, could they? And what if someone else found it, one of the children maybe? What if chaos ensued? What if something happened? “Nevermind, just bag it.”
Turning to the books and other assorted items Lutis had grabbed during his search, Soneya nodded her agreement. Running her fingers along the spines of the books just for the sake of it, because not all of the titles were written there, she could feel the thrum of magic pulsating in some of them. “I hope these aren’t going to offer us as lovely a surprise as the other one. They should be helpful though in figuring out a little of what he was attempting to do.” Or so she hoped. She might be a mage but she wasn’t as proficient as she might need to be in order to figure out what was going on here.
“Are we done or do you want to have another look around? Because if not, then I’d suggest going back to the room, make sure our other papers are still in place so you can get back to work on the runes, while I go through the magic books. And we should definitely get some food. I’m really, really hungry now. Aren’t you?”
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Tue Aug 12, 2014 5:55 pm | |
| “Aye, it’s a pretty ‘nough thing. So was that book though, and look what it spat out.” Lutis folded the paper over into itself with the necklace tucked safely (hopefully) inside. “We’ll take it with us.” If anything, it would be worth a pretty buck on the Kaionar market… and Lutis was all over those sorts of valuable items. “I hope they don’t come alive at least. Keepin’ this stuff in one piece’d be great.”
He put it away safely, sorting his other things into some sort of orderly mess, so that it could all be carried relatively easily. “Hopefully not. You ain’t stuck to any of these books like a possessed thing though, so I’m guessin’ they might not be as powerful. Hopin’ so.” Picking up one of the slimmer tomes, he tossed it in the air and caught it, his eyes flicking over the spine to read the title. They all discussed magic, and although Lutis had no interest in that, he thought Soneya might be able to make something of it all using the books he had picked out.
“I think I’m done here… there’s more to hunt through, but it’d take us days. Half this stuff’s too heavy to lift too.” There was a limit to which Lutis was willing to go to physical labour for, and when they had already gathered up some pretty impressive looking things already, it was time to call it quits… for now. They could always come back if it all proved fruitless (and worthless, although he doubted that one).
“Food’s a good call. We’ll pick something up on the walk back, then… book. Wahay.” He wasn’t the studious sort, and the afternoon sounded dull, but hopefully they’d find their way a little out of the shark-infested waters they had found themselves in.
Trekking back to the inn, they got a couple of odd looks hauling their armfuls of things through the main room downstairs- even more perhaps due to their abrupt exit that morning. Some people were so nosy. Thankfully they weren’t stopped and questioned though, left alone to drop their stuff all over Soneya’s desk without any prying tag-alongs following to ask after their adventures of the day.
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| | | | Eldarwen
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm | |
|
The reminder of how she had behaved the previous night as soon as her hand had touched the book – even if it had been completely unintentional, not her fault, and she had absolutely been influenced by some sort of dark magic – was not something Soneya wanted to hear. Really, really not. But not that Lutis cared. Obviously.
Brooding over this fact, she barely caught what he had been saying, so she merely nodded agreement, gathered up a few books and papers into her arms and left the rest for Lutis before making her way out of the house, or rather what was left of it.
The food they picked up would last them for a while and though Soneya instantly ravaged one of the small pies, she had bought a few extra pies, as well as some pastries, for the both of them for later use. It might turn into a very long day. Maybe she should ask the owners about room service. Then again, getting some fresh air later on would probably be a good idea, especially if they were going to spend the afternoon stuck together inside a small room for their studies.
Back at the inn, Soneya ignored the patrons. All of it was none of their business and their glances were annoying her. But she was proud of herself for not snapping at anyone. As soon as they got to their room, Soneya dumped the new treasures onto the freshly made bed and turned towards the table to inspect their belongings.
“Thank goodness, it’s all there still. Though...” The mage cocked her head to the side. “Someone’s been looking through them. That I do not like. Now who knows what the maid is going to tell those annoying lawkeepers if they’re going to show up here next. Or she might just run to them and tell them we’re evil sorcerers. Honestly, some people!”
Annoyed at just about everything then, Soneya sat down into the same chair she had occupied the previous night. “Let’s just get on with it then.” Not that she was much in the mood anymore, but they had a lot of material to work through and it wasn’t going to be pleasant, of that she was certain.
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Wed Aug 20, 2014 10:23 pm | |
| Happily for Lutis, he had managed to find a few pennies of gold amongst the ruins of the house- a veritable treasure trove it had turned out to be in the end! They were spent all too quickly, although the stock of food that was added to their armfuls of things already (that could be sold quietly after they were finished with them), brightened Lutis' outlook. The warmth of food in his belly only improved him too.
Their room looked really very smart once they had delivered everything into it; books, papers, packets of food and ink and quills for writing with... it was a positively studious atmosphere!
Disgusting, really. He should have been out pilfering from this sort of place, not settling down to spend the afternoon in one. Lutis' lips subconsciously curved into a disappointed pout as he snacked on his pastry and wished that it was someone else's task to read through all these books. They looked so heavy and boring.
"It better just have been a maid, otherwise we might be in shit with those lawkeepers again real soon." Lutis hated to think whether they had had their things ransacked while they had been detained by extra officers, and he started to look through and check that nothing had gone awry. They seemed to be in the same order as before, just more scattered than they had all been left. "Or our wizard friend. I'm hopin' for lawkeepers, if it comes to pickin' between them two."
He then realised that perhaps he couldn't have been much more depressing, and pulled a face before taking his own chair too. "Well, they ain't here waitin', so we're probably fine. Have a book." He pushed one across the table, sighing reluctantly before putting his hand on one for himself.
There were a few more bits and pieces here and there to translate into common letters, some notes written in very questionable handwriting, completely indecipherable diagrams, and eventually, a drawing of the dragon pendant Soneya had found. It was only by fluke Lutis found it, bored and flicking through another book with his thumb, barely paying attention- until a flash of red ink, and a vivid outline of a dragon.
"I got something!" he blurted, having to rifle back through the pages to find it, paper rustling under his hasty fingers. "Look, the pendant! Finally, something useful."
Smoothing out the pages underneath his hands, he presented the double spread with pride so that Soneya could read too, or at least look at the picture, as Lutis was doing. Relishing his find. | |
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Wed Aug 27, 2014 1:23 pm | |
|
“If I had to choose, I’d go with the lawkeepers as well, though neither option is very heart-warming at this time. They’re both annoying. And I’d be much happier if both parties just disappeared out of my life,” Soneya muttered as she shuffled papers around, clueless as to where to start really, even if she had been the one to nudge Lutis just now to get started. At least he could work on the runes some more and thus knew what to do. Her? The options were too numerous.
Just then Lutis pushed a book towards her, and she decided that this would take the decision off her hands. She would start with this book, no matter how useless it might turn out to be. It couldn’t be completely useless if they had taken it back with them though, could it?
The question really was to find anything useful for the present case. All the magic spells and potions and theories she stumbled across where interesting and by no means useless in the wider sense, but they didn’t really give any insight into their current predicament, which wasn’t even their own predicament, they had just somehow slipped in and were now practically forced to deal with the mess. Such nonsense!
Lutis’ exclamation ripped her out of her thoughts and she instantly jumped up, hurried around the table to stand next to the man as he pointed out the diagram of the pendant he had found.
“Oooh!” Soneya began smoothing along the pages as well, hands almost tangling with Lutis’ until she left her hand on one side and started skimming through the text that was printed around the picture.
“You know, you were right not to want to touch that thing. Those dragons can apparently really come to life, though I’m having a little trouble understanding how this could happen, or why. I’m assuming that it isn’t necessarily guardian duty though that brings them out. I’m thinking something more violent.” The text wasn’t always very legible and some of it was once again written in code, so she might just as well be completely wrong with her guess. Most likely actually. If the dragon pendant was in any way useful for conducting violence, then she was pretty sure the magician would have taken it with him instead of leaving it behind for anyone to find.
“Look here, is that one of those runes again?” the mage asked, pointing out a specific part of the text. “Do you know what it means?”
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Sat Sep 06, 2014 10:11 pm | |
| It was somewhat heartwarming to see Soneya just as excited over his find as Lutis himself was, as she scurried round the table to look at what he had found. Perhaps it was just the excitement of a lead... or maybe she was as bored of the whole book thing as he was. A rather large chunk of him hoped for the latter, if only so that he wasn't the only one that books really didn't appeal to.
"The dragons can come to life?" he exclaimed as she read and paraphrased from the page, certainly pleased they had been cautious now. "What sort of... this guy is crazy. How many deadly dangerous things do you need in one house?!" Apparently the answer was 'a helluva lot'. Way too many for Lutis' liking... he hoped that perhaps that was the end of inanimate objects that might possibly try to kill them, but the cynical part of him said that it probably wasn't.
"Is it worth hopin' that they won't come to life with us standing here gawping at a picture of them?" he said doubtfully. "Maybe they can't hear us, wrapped up..."
Once Soneya was at the bottom of the page, he turned the book back towards himself a little more to actually look and see what the words said next to the picture- in all his excitement, he hadn't actually bothered to look and see what was written. Sure enough though, it didn't tell them either the most explicitly useful of things (that would be too easy, of course), but it at least wasn't completely illegible.
"More runes, great. This is getting more dodgy by the line." Thief runes and magic spells, not something that came together often... and probably with good reason. He mouthed syllables under his breath as he translated, then a somewhat interested look passed over his face as he actually processed his reading.
"Well, I am not sure that particular rune there," he said, pointing too at the one Soneya's finger was hovering over, "should be read out loud. From the looks of it, that there's the beastie that'll unleash the beasties in our pretty death charm. Not nice, would not recommend saying said word. It's not that common though, so we should be alright.
"So, on the up side, we have uh, more dodgy shit to show our lawkeeper friends. On the down side... more dodgy shit that might kill us in our sleep." He tucked a spare scrap of paper into the page so they could find it again and then started to flick through the rest of it to see if there was anything of use. "This guy keeps gettin' worse and worse. I thought we were just on the hunt for some crazy axe-murderer, but this is all gettin' more an' more confusing as it goes on." They needed to get back on track, not get diverted by all these other weird leads they were finding. The trouble was, whether these other weird leads were actually helpful for their first goal... Lutis let out a small huff of frustration at the thought of that. Rabbit holes and red herrings, or ma.ybe not. | |
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Tue Sep 09, 2014 8:29 pm | |
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Soneya stared at Lutis. “I sure hope that isn’t going to make them come alive!” The mere thought of a look being able to bring an inanimate object to life was somewhat scary. Correction, it was downright frightening, and there were endless possibilities on what else they could potentially have already brought to life if that were the case.
“No, no.” Shaking her head, Soneya focused back onto the writing. “I’m sure that isn’t the case.” Of course, with their current track record...
When Lutis began analysing the runes she had pointed out, her eyes stayed on his face and the instant his expression changed, her lips parted in excitement, and because he didn’t instantly spill it, she pressed: “What? What is it? What do they say?”
At his explanation, a dark cloud passed over her face. “Alright, let’s not mention that one then.” Why had she even bothered trying to deny the fact that their fate would be blessed with some good luck? Of course the key to bringing the damn things to life was right there, probably woven in to everything else in attempt of making it a trap. It made her wonder what those dragons would do to whoever awoke them inadvertently.
“Do you think it’s a good idea to hand this over to the lawkeepers?” On the one side, she was sure it would be the right thing to do, and it was their job after all. But on the other side, there was this little voice inside her head that kept screaming at her not to put anyone else in danger. There was enough of that going around already. Lutis and she could take care of this themselves. But could they? Really?
“Do you think we could handle this by ourselves? If we knew where to start?” That was the biggest issue in her opinion at the moment. Even if they did manage to figure out what all this gibberish was supposed to mean, there was no guarantee they would find an actual starting point. The mage could be out there getting his next dragon ready for the kill while they were brooding over silly books and papers.
Sighing, Soneya slumped down, crouching next to Lutis table with her head lying on her arms on the table. “What are we going to dooo?” No matter which way they turned it, they were screwed. And no matter which way she looked at it, she wasn’t quite sure they would all get out of this unscathed. There were too many people involved in this in the meantime and Soneya couldn’t help but wonder if the mage wouldn’t target all of them just to make sure none of them knew anything or told anyone anything. He definitely would be coming for Lutis and herself if it had been him whom Lutis had hit in the head with the book the previous night.
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Mon Sep 15, 2014 8:35 pm | |
| "We don't even know where to start. There's so much stuff just everywhere, finding the first thing in the line of things is just... it's just impossible!" Lutis said in frustration, his gestures getting sharper by the moment in irritation. He gave the book in front of him a shove, letting out another huff of annoyance. "This is useless. I am far from being a scholar." He just didn't want to look at any more dense, stuffy pages full of difficult-to-read words, stuck bending over a desk for the rest of the evening. It wasn't natural, and at that point in time, looked like the worst fate in the world to Lutis.
Copying Soneya's depressed stance over the table, he turned his face to lie along his arm so that he didn't have to see the mess in front of them, filling his vision with her lovely face instead. He might have smiled before, to have her so chilled in his company (especially given their previous animosity), but the books had worsened his mood.
"This is so far from anything else I've done. I mean, I know there's been murders and stuff before in Kaionar- not that I've been involved- but I've never tried to actually sort it out. This is... this is like the opposite of what I do." Stealing, not killing people. Or dragons. Who were technically people, if you listened to some humans. "Books and piddlin' round the danger, I don't really know how to do this stuff." They'd tried not to get into trouble, but they had already just from doing nothing... so perhaps it was time to take a different tack.
"We're not gon get anywhere like this when we don't know what we're doin', and this guy's just evading us all the time. Maybe we should stop dancin' round the actual subject and just go and face him head-on and just... I don't know, do something stupid and actually get somewhere with all this. We're just getting run round in circles like this!" His fingers curled into claws for a moment, then he relaxed against the desk again, shutting his eyes against the cool wood.
"Where did they find that body yesterday? We should go check out that spot, and back to the first one, with the night dragon, see if they're the same. Then go anywhere else that's the same as them two. And hope we have a bit of good luck." Or maybe it was bad luck, to go out hunting for a crazy murderer, but it was swings and roundabouts with these things. "I'm sick of sitting doin' nothin' but trying to work out stuff we're stuck on."
Pressing his palms against the table, he shoved back his chair with a scraping noise and stood, abandoning the books entirely. "Might as well get started." | |
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Sat Sep 27, 2014 1:31 pm | |
|
Soneya blinked at Lutis’ suggestion and turned her head towards him. For a moment, she was intensely aware of how intimate this could possibly look to an outsider, the way they were hunched on the table, with their heads on their arms, facing each other. She had almost smiled when he had tried to save his practically invisible honour and assured her that he wasn’t technically involved in the murders in Kaionar. He had looked almost adorable then, and now too...
Shaking off the thought, she turned her attention back on why she had looked his way. “You.. want to go after him? The mage? The dangerous guy who warned us off with runes of all things so nobody else understands?”
She shook her head and straightened up, unable to believe what she had just heard. Getting on her feet completely, Soneya began pacing the room. “That is insane, Lutis. Insane!” How on earth could he come up with such a ridiculous plan?! They would get themselves killed if they bumped into the mage and he happened to get pissed off, which was not even a probability but an absolute certainty. Sighing, she stopped and once again turned to face him. “But I think it’s the best plan we’ve got.”
Moving towards the window, she looked down into the alley below without saying anything for a while. Behind her, Lutis was making far more noise than necessary again as he got up from the table, clearly with the same thought in mind. They might as well go to their deaths now rather than in a couple of hours.
“I think they found the dragon in a sort of courtyard to a bigger house on the other side of town, so basically opposite from where the night dragon has been found. We should be able to find the place easily enough. This town isn’t big enough to get lost in, even without proper directions.”
Before they left, Soneya made sure this time that the papers and books were neatly stacked with the most harmless seeming at the top, in case there were curious eyes. Everything else was stuffed into pockets and pouches so they left nothing of value behind. “In case we have to make a run for it,” she explained. If shit hit the fan, she wanted to be able to run without having to look back or crying over the loss of some thing or other.
The deed quickly done, they were already out and about town again. A pair with a mission. Though they had no idea what exactly that mission was supposed to be. “Maybe we should look at the first crime scene again before heading to the other one. It would avoid us having to cross through town more than once. This is practically on the way after all.”
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:43 pm | |
| Yeah... maybe he was being insane. All his frustration over the books and trying to make some head or tail of this complete impossible puzzle had sent Lutis a little bit crazy... good thing Soneya was there to get him grounded. Right? Right?
Wrong. She was insane too. Perhaps they shouldn't be allowed in a room alone together, when they brewed things like this, with no sane person around to stop themselves from getting killed. Brutally murdered, from the situation already. And yet, they both still thought this a good idea!
"A courtyard might mean they know they're being tracked. Bit less conspicuous than the middle of the high street... they're probably in town during the day, laying low by mixin' in with everyone else. That's what I'd do, anyway. Keep tabs on everythin' and peoples' doin's." It would explain how they had already been singled out by the murderer as dangerous people to have around. How else would he have known that there were investigators on his tail?
"Why d'you think I wear a big coat?" To stash things in, of course- Lutis quickly put his many pockets to use as they tidied away the contents of the table. Those sorts of things always took longer than you thought they would, and mess was made so quickly... He might have taken a few more things off the table had he known more firmly whether they were making an escape straight away after whatever foolish plans they enacted, and had he any interest in books... which he did not, so they stayed. The slip of paper for the dragon pendant he did shove in one pocket though, just in case they needed a killer beastie.
Soneya's plan was as good as any, so they headed to the previous crime scene first. It was a bit weird to actually stop again in the road- of course, being the main street, they had walked down it plenty of times since their gruesome find, but it was different to actually stop and look like they had the first time. There wasn't much to see at all... just a little disturbed dirt, although that might have been from the frequent traffic that used the road. Either way, there wasn't much at all they could use as evidence, or clues. Or anything.
"We'd do better off at the next spot I think," Lutis eventually suggested after scuffing his toes against the dusty ground for a moment or two. "There might be a bit more to see... and he might still be around, y'never know."
The courtyard crime scene was a very different place to the openness of the road- it was almost completely enclosed, only small, with the eaves of the buildings jutting out far over open space. It wasn't unpleasant, except from the thought of a corpse lying amongst the fairly pretty planted area in the middle, positioned no doubt to catch the sun as it passed overhead.
It didn't fill Lutis with confidence, to have only one way out of the little space; the way they had came in through. Going back out through the middle of the 'roof' didn't look too viable at a glance, although there was more than enough room to spit the both of them like chickens if their killer was a skilled archer too.
"I don't like this one bit..." | |
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Thu Oct 23, 2014 8:02 pm | |
|
Lutis was probably right, though it left a bitter taste in her mouth to think he was and to secondly think that they might be observed with every step they took. It might mean that they were in far more danger than she had considered so far. She hadn’t even thought about how the mage knew everything. She had assumed magic, but maybe he did do the more mundane thing and just kept his eyes open and tabs on everyone who got too close.
Chilling thoughts, when she considered what he could possibly do to them.
The first crime scene was a failure, but that was to be expected since it was a fairly used place where lots of people walked through every day, but despite that knowledge, not finding anything did nothing to make Soneya feel any better. On the contrary, she was growing frustrated and she was on the brink of taking it out on Lutis, but only barely refrained. She needed him after all. He was the one with the criminal knowledge.
“This is of no use,” she muttered nonetheless when they were rummaging around the courtyard. The place was surprisingly nice for it to be a murder scene and Soneya kept getting distracted from the task at hand until Lutis pulled her back onto the task at hand, but not quite in the manner she’d expected.
“What?” she asked as she turned towards him, expecting him to have found something, but instead, he was looking around and more particularly up onto the roofs. And that was when she realised that he was – once again, grr – right. This really was not good.
“Do you think we should just... you know...,” Soneya hesitated as her eyes went over the ground again without detecting anything before she continued, “should we just leave?” What if is concern was based on truth? What if there was someone somewhere up there who wouldn’t hesitate in killing them? They were easy targets here, and while she possessed magic, she wasn’t quite sure how she should be able to effectively defend them against an aerial attack. “I would never be quick enough,” she muttered more to herself than to her companion.
“Yeah, let’s go,” Soneya said, a note of urgency creeping into her voice. Was she imagining things or could she feel magic? Strong magic? Growing stronger or closer or whatever?
“Lutis... now! Something’s coming!”
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Tue Oct 28, 2014 8:37 pm | |
| Letting Soneya investigate the plants in the middle of the courtyard, Lutis took it as his job to poke around in the general outside 'stuff' left by the owners of the properties that backed onto the little area. A few boxes and pots, but nothing of interest- or more specifically, nothing that was worth anything. The eaves themselves were just covered in cobwebs. Well, he took that as a sign that their killer wasn't an acrobat, using the rooves to get up and down off the streets. That was good, it meant he could use them as an escape route himself if they came across their unpleasant foe.
There was nothing incriminating to be found around, although that didn't stop Lutis from poking around until Soneya's sharp words brought his attention back fully to her again, twisting to look up. First he frowned a bit, then heard the urgency in her voice.
"Now? Shit. Go! Go!" He ran to her side, pulling her out of the middle of the underbrush and full view of the skylight. His main concern was anything that might come through there straight down and attack, but of course, their only option for an exit was also an awful situation. He sorely hoped this wasn't a trap to catch them both as he dashed towards the opening they had arrived through to start with, tugging Soneya insistently after him. They couldn't get trapped, because he didn't want a face-off with the murderer of dragons.
It had gotten fairly dark since they had wandered from the first crime scene to this place, and even more since they had been looking around, so the alleyway outside was difficult to see along. It wasn't dark enough for the figure at one end to be invisible though; just difficult to see, a shadowy figure against a black background.
"Other way, other way, someone's down there!" Lutis hissed at Soneya, spinning to head the opposite direction. "Run!" There was no point in hanging about, when they obviously were in danger now, and there was nowhere to hide. Better to get the hell out of there and question things later.
He chanced a look behind them as he pushed Soneya the opposite way, his eyes growing wide to see that they were pursued now; evidently they had only just managed to escape from the dead-end of the courtyard in time. | |
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Wed Oct 29, 2014 10:04 am | |
|
When Lutis came for her and dragged her out, she did not resist but simply let him lead her out of the courtyard and into the street, blindly running by his side, accepting to follow his lead. Her head was clouded by the heavy haze of magic and she couldn’t pinpoint its origin, or its purpose. It was unsettling to say the least.
“What?” Soneya’s whisper took on a note of shrillness though she was proud of herself that she kept her voice low. Now was definitely not the time to lose her head, but the fact that someone really was there…
“I can’t see!” And it was true. By now, she couldn’t see a thing anymore, and it wasn’t even that dark. Everything seemed to blur together into a mass of formless, undefinable shapes. What was wrong with her eyes? No matter. They needed to run, they needed to get out of there as quickly as possible, and preferably unscathed.
Not for the first time in this whole adventure, she was glad that she wasn’t on her own – even if it was Lutis she had to contend with. At least his thief’s eyes were used to this kind of gloom and he could find his way without trouble.
When Lutis abruptly changed direction and dashed off towards the other end of the alley, she did the only thing she could think of that would not leave her stranded, momentarily blind, amidst enemies. She grabbed a hold of Lutis’ coat and held on so tight that she could feel the strain in her entire arm while she valiantly tried to keep pace. Damn the guy could run if he needed to. Soneya herself started feeling more and more sluggish. If it wasn’t for her iron grip on Lutis’ coat…
“Lutis!” The words came out slurred, like a drunkard’s and Soneya felt as though the world around her was coming to an almost standstill. What was going on? What… Even her thoughts started to feel sluggish and she could barely manage to put one foot in front of the other to keep up with her companion. And then she couldn’t hold on anymore as all strength left her body and blackness hovered at the edges of her consciousness, threatening to drown her.
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Wed Oct 29, 2014 11:55 am | |
| Lutis mostly disregarded Soneya's squeaky words as they ran from the figure behind them, pushing and pulling her along as fast as she let him, although it wasn't quickly enough. It was just fear talking through her mouth; the next larger road they came out onto, although just a quiet street full of houses, had a couple of torches hooked into brackets on the walls which cast a light down onto the road. As Lutis hustled Soneya along though, tightening his hand around one of her arms to pull her along, they blew out one by one with a hiss and a trail of black smoke.
Oh, this was bad. His instinct to leg it had been correct, then.
"Come on Soneya!" he urged, pulling her along, his eyes wide to look behind them. Already their pursuer was gaining more and more ground on them, his steps long and deliberate. Lutis could see perfectly well in the dark, but although there were features on the buildings and road, any defining aspect of their pursuer seemed vague and completely lost. It was like he was featureless.
"Soneya!" She had been getting slower and slower as they ran, struggling to move quickly enough, but now she definitely was in trouble. Lutis had no idea what it was, but he was unaffected, so he figured it might be something to do with magic- the lights had snuffed out with it; could this man be doing something to her too? He paused to hook his arm around her waist, pulling hers over his shoulder to half-carry her along the street. "Come on, we gotta go!"
He had never cared about magic before now, but he was suddenly really grateful he was completely untalented in that area, because they would have been gonners if they had both been suffering like Soneya was. She barely seemed to be able to hold herself up now; then fatigue hit her again and Lutis had to grab her quickly to stop her from falling to the floor.
"Come on girl, Soneya! Soneya!" His voice became more insistent and he turned to look at the figure, only a few paces away now with arm outstretched towards them. "What've you done to her? HELP!" His voice raised louder, appealing to any nearby that might hear, in adjacent streets or nearby houses.
The man didn't respond, except to gesture a little more with his hand. A cracking, rumbling noise came from the ground, then the cobblestones lining the street began to move, turning into liquid underfoot, cracking and breaking and shuddering under the force of whatever magic the mage was using. Lutis staggered as their footing became unstable, hanging onto Soneya grimly to avoid falling to the suddenly jagged ground. | |
| | | | Eldarwen
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| | Subject: Re: COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose... Wed Oct 29, 2014 6:48 pm | |
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Soneya was vaguely aware of being half-carried onwards but she was too far gone to do much anymore, though she was still moving her legs as much as she could. “Lutis!” She repeated his name over and over, though she wasn’t quite sure what exactly it was she wanted to tell him. To leave her and save himself? To do something? To save her? To make the haziness go away? She didn’t know. Thoughts failed her. Words failed her. Then her whole body failed her.
And then the floor was looming much closer. Not that she could see it, but the whoosh of air just before her face connected to the ground made her realise that she was falling. And then she didn’t. Lutis must have caught her. Lutis? Was that the right name? It was all such a blur. Someone else was there. Someone with magic. She could feel it calling to her, lulling her into sweet nothingness, making her believe that everything was alright, that everything was as it should be.
Wait, that wasn’t right. Was it?
Suddenly, her whole body felt like it was shaking and instinctively she snatched at the first thing she could find to keep herself upright. The wiggling and jiggling of the ground was so abrupt that she felt herself smashed against whoever it was holding her upright and she clung to that person with whatever little strength she had left.
Thoughts seemed to come rushing back to her as her body began to regain a little strength and her head a bit of sense. Or was that just an illusion? A means to make her feel safe just before he made the earth swallow them up? Soneya’s head snapped up as that thought entered her mind but just as quickly as it had slipped into her head it was out of it again.
The movements of the ground were turning into a full-blown earthquake and Soneya was starting to feel sick with the motion and the war going on in her head as her mind tried to fight the outside invasion. Whatever kind of magic this guy was using, it was very strong, very intrusive and felt evil.
There! There it was. Calling out with her magic, she snagged the tiny rivulet of underground water and pushed it up through the cracked ground. With all she had left, which really wasn’t much, she pushed it towards the attacking magician, in hopes of it making some kind of difference though she feared they wouldn’t be so lucky. The guy was incredibly powerful.
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