COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose...

Lutis tipped his head a little in agreement. Such a shame. He didn’t really know what she was planning, but it was a bit late to back out now… unless he wanted to back out completely and find a new place to stay, but he had trying to avoid that so far. Hence actually being good for once, complying with the lawkeepers rather than just beetling it out of there when they had started taking notice of him.
“I can’t see you lettin’ me out of it, so… looks like I’m in darlin’.” So much for a quiet-ish day, they were going to go and wrap themselves in a bit more trouble. Well, life was for living… there was no point in sticking out the slow road, right? Every day was a new day and, could anything more go wrong?
Lutis really hoped not.

“They’re no friends o’mine. Although, maybe I should retract that… being friends with a law enforcer might come in handy one day, mightn’t?” A dodgy tactic though too, when a lot of even his habits were somewhat… questionable. He gave Soneya a wide grin. Might as well throw himself right in the deep end here, rather than pussyfooting around; at least if he got caught, that way he knew he had been giving it his all.

His chair scraped the floor as he hauled himself up to his feet, beating his hands lightly on the tabletop to rouse his companion. “You don’t need no excuse to be seein’ me. I am fine company t’be keepin’. Why wouldn’t you wanna stick around?” He winked at her, then started towards the door. “Lead the way, princess. Already wasted enough time today!”

Ah, he caught the bait. Soneya suppressed a grin but instead nodded her head in agreement to his words and got out of her own chair. Dropping a handful of coins onto the table, she followed Lutis to the door, ignoring the terms of endearment he kept throwing at her. They were starting to bug her again. Very much so. Which most likely meant that she was sobering quickly again.

“Sweetheart, your company isn’t as fantastic as you think,” she muttered as she brushed past him, so close that they almost touched, and walked out into the street, turning towards where she thought to approximately remember the house in question to be.

Picking up their earlier conversation to fill up the silence between them, Soneya said: “Maybe you’re right. Being friends with a lawkeeper, difficult though it might be with certain… shall we say habits, could prove to be interesting. It would definitely come in handy from time to time indeed.” The thought had never entered her mind, but then again, she had never really gone down a completely criminal path. A little white lie here and there did not a criminal make.

The walk through town was still quiet despite the fairly advanced hour of the morning. It seemed as though the crime had put something of a muffling blanket over the place and everything was a bit slower, a bit quieter than usual. Or maybe Soneya was only imagining things.
“Do you feel this, too?” she asked, glancing at Lutis, voicing an idea from her thoughts without realising that the man might not know what she was talking about since he could not read her mind after all.

“I dunno about that, you seem to be invitin’ me along. That ain’t the normal behaviour of one who don’t like it.” Lutis grinned again as he held the door for her, amused by her quips. Her tongue had come back again, then.
He didn’t know where she was taking him, unfamiliar with the little town they were in, but was thankful to see that she wasn’t headed back towards the law house. Well, that was one destination ruled out; not straight back to the law house, for her to turn him in on his questionable lifestyle and pocket some of her obviously coveted coins. From the way how she had happily admitted that she overcharged for her services.

He looked at her sideways as she broke the quiet between the pair of them again, looking her up and down. She didn’t seem the kind to associate with… his kind, although here she was, quite happy to keep his company for a little while longer, despite knowing of his illicit activities.
“You’re a strange one, Soneya. Didn’t take you as one to think anythin’ like that.” He had thought her a bit more of a proper missy when he had first come across her… offended by anything remotely illegal. Most people outside of Kaionar were like that; although perhaps he shouldn’t have been surprised, when she had been quite calm when he had pulled out his lockpicks. In fact, she had tried to get out through the door herself, with that magic of hers. He had mistaken her rather more than he had first thought, apparently. Funny, how things turned out.
“You got some of those certain habits up your sleeve then? I won’t tell.” He looked at her closely, then laughed, looking away around the street again. The day was much more pleasant now, warmer and fresh, quiet. None of Kaionar’s dust, foul smells and foul dealings to be worrying about; this was a sweet little town, once you disregarded the morning’s… incident.

“I feel… full. Relatively cheerful, for havin’ been stuck in a cell t’morning. Havin’ a pretty girl around’s always a cause for cheer though, innit?” He laughed again, shoving his hands in his pockets. “This is the life. What’s up, your magic senses a’tinglin’ or something?”

“Yes, they are tingling.” Her reply was barely more than a grunt. Of course, he would have to go and make fun of her for sensing something he was obviously completely oblivious, too. But for a change, she wasn’t above relenting that maybe she was just imagining things. Lutis making fun of her was definitely a hint that he did not in the least understand what she had meant and he certainly didn’t get the same feeling, so maybe she was just overreacting due to stress or whatever. Maybe she still felt the alcohol’s effects.

“Sweetheart, there is a lot you don’t know about me. I cannot imagine why you’d try and pin me down for whatever it is you have pinned me down,” she accused him in an exaggerated voice, making it clear that she was merely playing with him. “Certain thoughts need to enter someone’s mind,” she continued in her normal voice, “otherwise you don’t get where you want to be in life. Simple as that.” She would however not elaborate on her habits. No, no.

That didn’t necessarily make her sound any better but it was the truth. Mostly everything she had achieved in life was because she had been willing to take a certain risk, make certain tough decisions and act upon what she had decided rather than letting opportunities slip away again.

The feeling she had previously had returned, stronger than before. Something definitely was off but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. Putting a hand on Lutis’ arm, she stopped in the middle of the road. “Something’s wrong.”
The house she had been steering towards wasn’t far off and all of a sudden, she realised what it was that was off.
“Lutis, I think we should reconsider our plans.” Stepping forwards a bit, she positioned herself in a way that should anything hit them from the front, namely from the house in question, she could shield him with her body – her body would of course not be harmed as she was already building up a shield around herself and him if she got the time. Magical water bubbles definitely came in handy sometimes. The air shimmered slightly around her and whoever noticed it would see the air as if looking into shallow, very clear and clean water. It was barely noticeable except for those looking closely.

The shield snapped into place around both of them not a moment too soon when the house suddenly exploded and a wave of very strong magic launched outward as the building collapsed. Soneya gasped, tried to hold the shield but her attempts were futile, her power not enough to stop the aggressive hit to break her bubble.
With a strangled scream, she crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Lutis just shrugged his shoulders and put his hands in his pockets to Soneya’s patronising words. He didn’t really have any moral highground to take at all, considering his own ‘profession’, but that didn’t really come into his mind very much. He didn’t much like how mages worked with their overrated services and highly irregular fares, and having to lose his money to a person like this just didn’t make him happy. Didn’t he work in quite a similar way himself, in many ways? Bending the rules of society to get what he wanted out of them.
No, course not. This was all on Soneya. Anyway, the better they got along now (ha!) the more chance there was of being able to call up a favour with her at a later point in time. Whatever and whenever that may be. As he had said before about the lawkeepers, it was all about who you knew.

He did think she was losing it a bit as she stopped him as they wandered along, to wherever it was she was taking him. There was nothing in front of them. She was a strange one.
“Soneya… you ahreet?” He could be cocky at times, but understood wariness well; how else did he manage to avoid prison so well? This seemed unnecessary however, with hardly anyone around and nothing really to bespeak of danger. Apart from her ‘funny feeling’, of course.
Frowning, he took his hands out of his pockets as she took up a defensive stance, squinting when he saw the air shimmer a little. He had felt fine up until a minute ago, but now her defensiveness was putting him on edge, and he didn’t like it.
“Soneya…”

There was hardly time to gasp before the building in front of them suddenly exploded outwards, stone and mortar blowing out across the street. Lutis threw his arms up in front of his face to protect himself, crouching to the ground as tiles and rubble rained down around them. The air was full of dust and he was shocked, until a small piece of wood hit him on the shoulder, bringing him back to the danger. They couldn’t stay here! He looked up frantically, then scrabbled to Soneya’s side, putting his hands to her face and neck. Out cold. Had she been hit by something? Possibly, although it was hard to tell; he thought she might have fallen before the house had come down.
“Can’t stay here,” he grunted, picking her up and slinging her over his shoulder. She was heavy. “Come on you.” He carried her away, setting her down carefully against a wall in a slightly less open street, where they were less likely to get hit by falling rubble.

The impact of her butt connecting to ground and her back slamming against a wall – or so it felt to her - brought Soneya back to her senses, though she was confused and felt like the world was spinning crazy circles around her. For a moment, she didn’t remember what had happened and her eyes fixed on the only thing she could see – Lutis – while they were attempting to swim back into focus.

“Wha…?!” Coughing, Soneya closed her eyes in pain and doubled over, her hands flying to her tummy as the cough cramped her muscles. Flowery swear words poured out of her mouth in between gasps as she forced herself not to throw up.

Her magic senses were still tingling and she was sure that this wasn’t the end of it so she really wanted to investigate but Lutis had done the right thing in getting them out of harm’s way. They were relatively safe from the backlash where he had brought them and they should probably get out of the way. Law enforcement was sure to be there any moment.

Law enforcement…!
“We need to get out of here!” Scrambling to her feet, Soneya swayed a little but ignored her dizziness. Grabbing Lutis’ hand, as much to drag him along with her as to have something to hold on to and to actually keep her upright, she began sprinting down the alley. In reality, she was running rather slowly but with the world threatening to collapse all around her, she felt like she was going at the speed of light. “If someone finds us here…,” she pushed out between gasps but then couldn’t continue anymore. Lutis would know what she meant and she had to concentrate not to topple over again.
What the hell had that blast been?

Lutis had tried to be careful putting Soneya down, but apparently not softly enough as she woke, her eyes glazed as she looked up at him.
“Not a great time t’take a nap, sweetheart,” he said, although was thankful she had woken up again. Looking down the small street they were in, he could already see figures running to investigate the disturbance, the sound of shocked voices and calls for help. Too close, to get away from there. “Careful. About them magic senses… bit of an overload, eh? An’ apparently taken your sweet tongue, too.”
She could really curse like a Kaionarian, when she put her mind to it.

He rested his hand on her shoulder as she struggled to restrain herself, wary and becoming increasingly worried for their open position. Nobody had come across them yet, but it was only a matter of time; and that building had made one hell of a mess of the street. And the house. Lutis didn’t neglect to remember how quickly fire could spread between buildings if it suddenly caught fire- whatever was left of it.

“Woah, careful, I’m not carryin’ you round this place if you faint again. Can do without.” He clung to her hand as she leapt to her feet, running to catch up with her and hold her a little more tightly. They didn’t exactly get along, but unfortunately, they had been thrown into a bit of a mess together. “Woah. Woah!”
This was a mess, with the explosion behind them attracting people all over. Although their street had been clear before, now that backfired on them as lawkeepers appeared at the other end, taking this shortcut they had dived into by chance as a quick way to get to the scene of this new… well, crime.
“Run, that way, go!” He hustled her back the way they had come. Nothing was turning up lucky for them today, was it?

“Oh hell,” she muttered as Lutis’ dragged her around to run back the other way. With the officers or whoever these guys were this close already, she wasn’t sure whether they hadn’t noticed that the two of them had been running towards them when they turned into the street. If they had, it could cause them quite a bit of trouble.
In addition, the rapid change of direction had sent Soneya’s head swimming again and her nausea spiked to the point where she had to stop. At least her brain seemed to be working again and she was wondering whether she could not use this to her advantage.

“Might as well use this shitty feeling,” she said in a low voice, hoping Lutis would hear, before grasping his arm with her other hand and letting herself bend over. It was relieving the cramps in her stomach a little but it did nothing to make her feel less like vomiting. Her fingers were still tangled in his and she held so tightly that her knuckles were turning white. That gesture however was less show than she wanted to make believe.

“What’s going on? What’s happening?” she wailed, not too loudly because she didn’t want to overdo it, but enough that whoever was quickly approaching could hear that something wasn’t right with the duo. “I told you I don’t want to see. What if someone died? I don’t want to.” She tugged at Lutis’ arm and tried to drag him back towards the two law enforcers into the direction the men had to have seen them running. “Please! Let’s go back,” she inserted a little sob before going very still except for the shiver running up her spine and making her whole body tremble. “Oh.. I’m going to be sick.”

And that she didn’t even have to fake.

None of this was good, even on a day which had started out alright. It just hadn’t been worth even waking up this morning, for all this to happen.
The only good thing was lunch, and now he was starting to regret eating so much with it making him feel heavy and slow.
There was a shout behind them. Oh, it could get worse.
He tried to tug Soneya further as she came to a halt, but she was looking pale and obviously wasn’t going anywhere more without one helluva fuss. Grimacing, he started working on some sort of alibi to give them a reason for being where they were, looking up to where the lawkeepers were approaching, then giving more attention to Soneya.

He had to hand it to her, she really could put on a bit of a show when she wanted to. Lutis didn’t think all of this was an act- she really did look green- but certainly she couldn’t have been this bad?
“Ahreet, ahreet, relax. Told you before, I dunno what’s going on, I just wanted a look.” He put one hand on Soneya’s back as she leant over, leaning to look at her face as if he was really concerned. “I’m sure it was nothin’. Jus’ some youngsters messing around. Or a dragon, y’know what they’re like.” He made a face at the two law officers as they got close, like he was longsuffering for this sort of weakness by Soneya.
“Not very good with anything abnormal. Gotta have her peace,” he murmured at them, grimacing before going back to his doting. “We’ll head back, don’t you worry.”
It was a bit late for that though, as she was promptly sick. The law officers leapt away in disgust, one very quickly excusing himself to continue down the street, the other pausing only to make sure that they were fine before following his companion.

“Yeah, really fine. You alright, Soneya?” Lutis sighed once they were gone, the grimace now permanent on his face as he pulled her away down the street a bit further. “If that was acting, way too far. Let's get goin' someplace else, then you need a time out, I think."
And he could work out what the hell had just happened. The place would be swarming with people in minutes or less however, so they had some time to spare before he- they- would be able to get a proper look.

“Of course, I’m alright,” she retorted once the lawkeepers were out of earshot. “I just puked up my guts, but other than that, I’m peachy!”
Standing up straight still hurt a little and she was still a little wobbly on her feet but with a little help from Lutis, she was able to remain upright and somewhat steady. She may not like the thief, but she sure was glad to have him by her side at that moment.

There was no need to further discuss which direction to take after that since they both knew they needed to get out of the area and out of sight as quickly as possible so that nobody could tie them to the incident. She was fairly certain that someone would make the connection between the dragon murder and the house exploding seeing that Soneya had made the connection between magical symbols and the murder and the officers were bound to realise this was a magical explosion. Or maybe they wouldn’t but that wasn’t her problem.

“I think the two incidents may be related,” Soneya said as they were hurrying – well as much as it was possible for her – down the streets. She wasn’t quite sure where they should be going but maybe her room at the inn where she was staying was their best choice. She wasn’t sure whether Lutis actually had a place to stay or not. Then again, she could sort of use the fresh air since her stomach was still rebelling a bit.

“Could we just head outside the line of houses for a bit? For a bit of greenery and some fresh air that doesn’t involve explosions or the dead dragons or the disgusting scents related to either.” And she really, really, really didn’t want to bump into anyone who could be prone to causing them trouble.

Last edited by Rogue on Wed Jan 08, 2014 8:26 am; edited 1 time in total

“Great, glad t’hear it. And you even managed to miss everythin’ but the floor. Come on, we’d better not be hanging around.” Lutis was careful with Soneya, the woman looking pale as anything, but perhaps… better for it too?
He kept a hold on her as they walked away, looking frequently over his shoulder to see if they were being followed, or perhaps more importantly, whether there were any lawkeepers around. They had to lie very low after all this; two events in one day!
“You think?! Buildings don’t even explode in Kaionar, and I should know! Ahreet, there might be over their fair share o’murders- I don’t have a part in that, before y’ask- but this is some little town. Definitely ain’t supposed to be murders an’ explosions goin’ off left, right an’ centre.”
Lutis felt quite uncomfortable about that fact. Especially as they seemed to somehow be getting tied up in it all. He ruffled up his hair, then let out a long breath. “I gotta think more about this. Then we gotta crack into that house tonight… or, the remains.” It was like someone was almost trying to frame them, with the coincidences that had come together so far. “For now…”
Well, he had nowhere solid to go. Soneya had spoken, and he couldn’t really invite himself to wherever she was staying so… “The town wall’s not far from here. The rainforest’s kinda close, although a bit sticky t’be considered fresh.”

This was just one huge mess, really, wasn’t it? Lutis wasn’t really an outdoorsy type, so acted rather bemused in the way they were just taking a walk now, instead of actually doing something. He’d rather do this than have to look after Soneya puking up more of her guts though, as she had so daintily put it.
“Either someone’s out to get us, you’re out to get me- although I’m doubtin’ that, don’t you worry, considering you’re the one lackin’ breakfast now- or we’ve been caught right in the middle of unpleasantness. Which might turn into the first, if our mystery murderer finds out about us. Where were we goin’, anyway?"

“I couldn’t agree more,” Soneya replied. “I just hope those buffoons haven’t ruined everything there was for magical evidence in the ruins. I wouldn’t put it past them to have destroyed anything there was to find in their ignorance.” Not even a second of hesitance crept into her answer when Lutis suggested breaking in. Then again, there wasn’t really much left to be breaking into, or so she assumed. It had been quite a blast after all.

She may have been feeling like utter crap but when Lutis started musing on the ongoings, her head snapped up. “Why would you think someone is trying to set us up?” It didn’t make any sense! “Nobody even knew we would bump into each other. We didn’t even know we’d bump into each other!” And maybe it would have been for the best if they never had.

The quick motion had instantly made her feel sick again, thus she braced a hand against the wall they had finally passed in order to steady herself. She ignored the fact that he had been toying with the idea of her setting him up even though apparently he didn’t quite believe it. Who knew what he had been planning, but she wasn’t exactly in the mood to play those kinds of games with him right about now.

“Where…?” Soneya looked around, somewhat lost all of a sudden. It wasn’t that she didn’t know where they were but it just struck her how odd this situation was. Her and Lutis taking a walk. Yeah… That hadn’t exactly been what she had planned. She had just wanted to get away from the magic residue. “I don’t really know,” she admitted. “I just… wanted to get away. And with every step away from that magic, I’m feeling better already.”
Frowning, she stopped and looked at him. “Oh, you meant… Magician,” she said by means of explanation. “I figured that if anyone knew something, it would be him. Or if it had been him who did it, then we might have been able to find some kind of clue.” The fact that he had something she was interested in was best left unsaid for now.

When her dizziness finally passed after what seemed like ages, Soneya let go of the wall and started walking with her partner in crime again. “That was some strong magic,” she muttered. “I can still feel it.” Come to think of it, she could still feel the magic yes, but that also just reminded her that she had taken the brunt of the explosion to shield this idiot, and he hadn’t even thanked her for it. Typical.
“It probably isn’t going to wear off completely until tonight anyway. We’re not going near that place until it has worn off.” Not that they wanted to go in daylight anyway. Better not to be seen by anyone.
“So what’s the plan?” she asked, though there wasn’t much to be done with her for the time being, which she promptly demonstrated by sitting down on the nearest patch of grass she could find, just on the outline of the rainforest.

Lutis made a face at Soneya’s hopes, knowing that by the time they got back to the house, it was probably going to be bare of anything useful- if this little village was anything like Kaionar was. Which apparently, it was actually turning out to be. Once the lawkeepers were done, no doubt nosy locals would want to have a poke around, then the less nosy locals, then the children of the place when they were finally allowed to run amok through it. Granted there wasn’t another explosion in the meantime, of course.

“Just thinkin’, I haven’t got any basis to it. But, don’t you think it’s kinda a coincidence? First we both come across the same dead dragon in a street, then we’re headin’ off somewhere and that somewhere decides to blow up. Bit fishy, innit?” He looked over at Soneya, thinking. “I bet there’s people out there that wouldn’t like the either o’us, let’s be honest. You’re a mage, I’m a… well. Sleepin’ on rooftops, and that never pleases anybody. Three happenin’s and I’m callin’ it.”
He really hoped something else bad wasn’t on the way though, because the threat of prison already loomed pretty close on the horizon, and he had no interest in seeing the inside of another cell, thank you very much.

At least out here there weren’t many people to come and question them, and nobody around to try and kill them or whatever else was going to happen to them… Lutis was generally a pretty positive person, but there was a limit to these things when they had already brushed once with death today, if Soneya’s reaction to the explosion was anything to go on. It had definitely hit her worse than it had hit Lutis, although he wasn’t quite aware of that yet…

“Magic? Magician? Woah, I don’t want nothing to do with all that. Magic is not something I go in for.” Lutis held up his hands in front of him, then shoved them into his pockets. “That magic? Strong magic? Can you do some explainin’, ‘cos I’m not quite understanding. Was that magic, that explosion back there?”
His knowledge of such things was very, very limited. Bar knowing that putting a load of alcohol in a room would give you an explosion, but that was mostly unlucky taverns. He looked at her closely as he sat down nearby, stretching out his hands behind him onto the grass. It might have been relaxing, had the rest of their day not been quite so draining already.

“You do have a point,” Soneya admitted, when Lutis reiterated all the ways in which the day’s incidents might not have been a coincidence after all. “But I’m still a little reluctant to believe it. Having a grudge either one of us individually, sure, that I could easily believe, but together? It just seems… odd, you know?” Though she was willing to go on a little faith.
“If there is a third incident that supports this argument of yours, then I will believe it.” Not that she wanted something else to happen. The day had been long enough and it was barely half over, with a long night ahead of them, too.

At least for the time being, they were on their own and most importantly, in a quiet place with barely any people and no sign of any more deaths or explosions or whatever else fate had in store for them. A few moments of peace – that would be lovely.

“The magician I wanted to go visit, the house I challenged you to go in, that is the one that blew up. I figured he might know something about the dead dragon since we’ve already established this morning that there were magic symbols carved into the disgusting dragon neck. But now…,” Soneya trailed off for a moment, considering the jumbled up thoughts racing around in her head.

Realising Lutis had actually continued with the questions, the mage snapped out of it and answered with a bit of explanation, as requested. “Yes, back there, that was a magical explosion. I’m not quite sure how he did it since it isn’t my area of expertise but it was magical, which was also why I could sense it before it happened. Remember I kept telling you that I could feel something. It was the magical energy I could feel, which also allowed me to throw up shields to dampen the force a bit around us. Not that it did much good.”

Taking a deep breath, Soneya wrapped her arms around her knees a little and bent her head down, breathing deeply in and out a few more times. When she lifted her head again, she fixed her eyes on Lutis and picked up the earlier train of thought she had abandoned. “But now, I think he may have actively had something to do with this. I think that he may have killed or help to kill the dragon and consequently blew up his house or had it blown up for him to cover tracks.”

“Oh, great. Thanks for that,” Lutis said glumly. That possibility of Soneya trying to do him in popped back into his head again. He wasn’t a suspicious sort of person, but she really wasn’t making a good case for herself at the moment.
But, another magician. It told him that Soneya had perhaps a few more connections within the little town than he did- otherwise he wouldn’t even have been out that morning, because he’d be kipping still on one of his friends’ floors- and that all this was going to put him quite out of his depth, when he knew barely anything about magic. Bog-standard normal objects were much more his thing.
In fact, after al this kerfuffle, he was wondering whether he would have to ban himself from dealing in magic after today... if he survived.

Idly, he traced with one finger onto the grass the symbol that Soneya had mentioned, pressing the blades flat for a moment before they strung up again, refusing to stay flat… probably a good thing, when it had already been proved as a dangerous thing to know about.
“More your area than mine. I guess the first thing then’ll be t’head back there tonight… or earlier, if we can without drawing attention. Or getting caught, that’d be less than ideal… then have a mosey around an’ see if we can find another of them symbols. Or something more than just a symbol.” He frowned at the grass, then looked up quickly, adding hastily, “although, not another dead body. Can do without.”
With any luck, there wouldn’t be a decreased magician waiting for them. Probably a good thignt hat the officials were going to take a look around before the pair of them got their hands on the ‘crime scene’, as it had suddenly become.

“Shields?” Lutis hadn’t seen any… oh. That was why Soneya had seemed so suddenly wiped out by the explosion, while he was relatively alright, bar a few bruises. “Uh… thanks.”
So maybe she wasn’t out to get him. That was reassuring. He was so out of his depth. “Yeah, I do. Sucks to be a regular guy when there’s magic suddenly up an’ trying to kill you.”
He looked over at her pensively, then frowned and laid back against the grass, folding his hands behind his head. The day was deceptively pleasant, with a blue sky and a warm breeze. Not really fitting with everything that had happened before. Thinking, he started to sound out a few of his thoughts.
“Yeah, I think he had something to do with all this. A big something. I say we head back there later on, when it’s nice an’ quiet, and do a bit of poking around. See if we can find another o’them symbols, or something more. Then go from there. An’ if there’s nothing else like that… then you’ll have t’wrack your brains for any other magic users in t’area we can take a day trip to. Or if that’s not something we can do… finding another night dragon.” He made a face. That probably wasn’t a great idea, considering one had already copped it that morning.

“Later tonight. The magic has to dissipate first. We can’t know for sure what else we might possibly trigger if there’s still some lingering residue.” She’d said it before, or at least in a similar way, maybe he hadn’t quite understood. Or maybe she was just being obnoxious and taking his words at face value when that wasn’t quite what he had meant.

Sighing, Soneya draped her arms over her knees, letting her wrists dangle a little as she rested her chin on top the small hill she’d created. Breathing deeply a few times had definitely helped a little but her head still felt a little woozy whenever she moved it. Definitely not going anywhere any time soon, she thought, though she wondered how much patience either of them was going to have.

She agreed though, nodding along, when he mentioned his reluctance to find another body. She couldn’t have agreed more in all honesty. Dead bodies had never been her thing.
Though she completely brushed over his thanks and remained quiet. There wasn’t anything to say. As much as she had been bitching about him ignoring that fact earlier, he hadn’t known and she wasn’t about to tell him he was welcome either. In truth, she didn’t know why she had bothered. She could’ve gotten rid of him quite easily or just protected herself. For some reason though she hadn’t, and as long as she didn’t know why, she was quite simply going to ignore this from now on.

“Mmmh, I’ll have a think about possible other magic users, but I’m not quite sure how many there are in this area. I knew about this one because he was – or maybe still is – fairly powerful. But let’s hope none of such measures will be necessary. You’d be way out of your league and basically just a dead-weight if you can’t sense magic. I can’t protect you all the time.”

Well, alright, it sounded arrogant and it probably was, but at the end of the day, the truth of the matter quite simply was that Lutis was not a magic user. He had not even an inkling of a magical tickle in him, couldn’t sense, didn’t know how to deal with it... what was she going to do with him?

The way Soneya spoke about it, Lutis didn’t want to find out what triggering ‘lingering residue’ would do to them. He would much prefer to keep all his limbs, even if it meant having to wait for their investigation to continue… or rather, start. That explosion definitely had looked like it was enough to obliterate him, and he had things he wanted to do still with his life.
Let alone the fact that exploding wasn’t really the way he liked to see himself going.

He let a few thoughts idle through his mind as he stared up at the sky. This whole thing was strange, how they had suddenly been thrown into the middle of everything. But, there wasn’t really any questioning they could do with the little knowledge they had. It could hardly be called knowledge, anyway. Just a few random squiggles on a body, and the blasted remains of a house. Great.
“Don’t need to remind me I’ve not a clue what I’m doing, thanks,” he said a little sourly, turning his head in the grass towards her. “I didn’t want t’get tied up in it all.” He sighed, then looked up at the clouds again. None looked like that shape on the Night Dragon of the morning, which was probably… well, definitely a good thing. If he had seen that… it would have been creepy for starters, and then he would also have heavily doubted his sanity.

==X==

It was dark now, the little village quiet again, with the main bulk of the day already passed. Lutis and Soneya had returned to the sight of the explosion from earlier, cautious how they approached, with the road looking nothing like it had before… ash and rubble lay thickly at the edges of the streets, moved out of the way of passing traffic and the way of those who actually wanted to use the road.
The house was a mess, put bluntly. The front of it had ripped itself to shreds, the back still standing, although not looking particularly safe. Especially considering the use of magic. It hadn’t blown up any further however, which was a bonus- the place had been swarming with goggling onlookers in moments, the officials hardly away from the scene before kids were climbing in the rubble, their blasé parents looking for gold amongst the ruin.

Lutis was a little more careful, but still blissfully unaware of health and safety as he stepped over the ruined doorframe and into the building.
“Well this is worse than Kaionar, an’ that’s sayin’ something.” It really was.

“People are dogs,” Soneya muttered as she observed the crowd happily picking their way through the ruins without any consideration for anything not in their own personal interest. Even children were playing around, probably daring each other to fulfil silly challenges. And nobody was even considering the damage they were doing to the magician’s property – well, more damage than there already was – but worst of all, they seemed completely oblivious to what the after-effects of a magical incident such as this explosion could do.

But why should she care what happened to other people? Let them go wander off and do their thing and live their petty little lives.
“Lu...!” Too late however and the man had already stepped over the threshold before Soneya had completely finished checking everything. There seemed to be nothing magical left in the air however, or at least nothing Soneya could easily detect. Nevertheless, it was almost a relief to not see anything smash Lutis’ head in. Not that a little blow to the head wouldn’t do the man some good.

Following in his footsteps, she moved close to him so she could whisper in his ear. “Look for anything out of the ordinary,” she muttered and realised, as soon as the words had left her mouth, that they were completely ridiculous directions. Almost anything could be out of the ordinary depending on people’s points of view. “That is, anything that has weird symbols on it, which could resemble the ones we found on the night dragon’s head.”

Her own eyes were already roaming over the crumbled premises and she instantly wondered whether this had really been a good idea. What did she expect they’d find? The place was a complete and utter mess, and to make things worse, there were scavengers milling about and trampling all over the place, breaking things and even worse, stealing objects that could potentially be useful to Soneya.

“Honestly, do these people have nothing better to do with their lives? I thought we’d be alone!”

Soneya’s words weren’t that helpful, if Lutis had to admit; but he didn’t want to irritate the woman, when she already looked pretty pissed off to see their crime scene less-than-perfect. It was a mess, bluntly put, and made no better at all by those who decided it made a good playground now. The people were like rats, crawling over everything and ruffling up what was already chaos into something completely untenable.
“Will do,” he murmured back to her. It’d be a tricky job though, with the place a mess and dark already. They needed a bit of peace and quiet to have a good poke around by themselves, and not be disturbed, their work disturbed, and most of all, not get spotted for being a little bit weird in their behaviour. The last thing they needed was the law enforcers dragging them in for questioning again. Twice in one (very long) day was certainly two times too many.

They just couldn’t work like this though. Barely a few steps into the building and he was already being used as a obstacle for a racecourse, kids leaping from broken stone to broken stone around him as they chased their way through the house. They had been doing it all day, from the way they were already skilled at the task. Lutis frowned, then grabbed out at one by the collar, dragging the wriggle child to a halt.
“Don’t you have bed t’go to?”
The child merely tried to bite him, growling like an animal and barking. Apparently it was some sort of hunt game; the other ‘dogs’ came back yapping and yowling at Lutis once they discovered one of their pack was missing. Fantastic, Lutis just loved another complication. He rolled his eyes and dropped the little miscreant, but it didn’t seem to do much good. In fact, now they were following him as he set to trying to find what they were looking for, barking and yapping at his heels in the most irritating fashion until he ended up just yelling at them.
“Bloody hell, y’were better at your games!” He scowled, then folded his arms as one jumped and yapped at him.
“Gis us a new one, then!”
“A new… oh!” Lutis’ disgruntled look disappeared suddenly at the suggestion, his mind whirring before a sly smile appeared on his face. Quickly replaced by a bright one, his arms folding behind his back. “I gotcha one. It’s a treasure hunt, ahreet? Me an’ my girl,” he gestured to Soneya, “want you to find a special symbol. Like a squiggle, might be on anything.” He drew it into the dust of a block on the ground, giving the children a thumbs up when they started to nod. “First one t’get, you’ll get a surprise.”
They whizzed off as quick as they had appeared, eager to be rewarded with Lutis’ prize. He gave Soneya a wink, then started his own searching, digging through the heavier bits of rock in the hope there might be something buried underneath.

She didn’t much care for what he was doing, and even less for the other people, who simply seemed to refuse to leave and go home. What was this nonsense? This was worse than a scavenger hunt.
Soneya soon managed to block out the rest of the world though, slowly picking her way through the ruins in search of something useful. There wasn’t much left that was either not destroyed or not stolen by the others but there were a few small magical items here and there she slipped unobtrusively into her pocket.

‘Me an’ my girl’... What?! Soneya’s head snapped up as that little snippet of conversation got through to her ears after all, mainly because it was the only voice in the bunch she knew. At this was definitely not something she wanted to hear. Glaring at him across a pile of rubble and a handful of kids – what was going on? – she hoped that he would just drop dead. She was so not his girl!

And then she realised what he was up to and her eyebrows rose a bit higher in her face, softening her glare somewhat. She wouldn’t have taken him to be the kind but this actually seemed like a strike of genius. Now instead of just the two of them going through the rubble, they had a whole pack of kids doing their work for them.

Despite herself, Soneya gave the thief an approving nod before turning her attention elsewhere again. And that was when her eye fell on a book poking out from yet another pile of cracked stones. Nobody else seemed to have noticed this so far, or maybe they just weren’t interested in books. But somehow, the mage felt a pull towards it and thus, she took the few steps separating her from the item and bent down to retrieve it.

As soon as she touched it, she felt a brief pulse against her hand. This was definitely a magical book. There was no doubt it. No normal book would send a greeting like that into the hand of whoever picked it up.
Soneya slowly let her hand glide over the immaculate cover. There was nothing drawn on it and it seemed unharmed by the explosion. There didn’t seem to be a single dent or scratch on it anywhere.

And that’s when her fingertips suddenly caught in what seemed to be a carving, but invisible to the eye. Squiggly lines that she could not quite define, until she let her fingers roam over the spot a second, a third time. Then, she almost dropped the book in surprise.

“Lutis!”

Lutis almost laughed at the look Soneya gave him as she overheard his rudimentary plan and familial tone, but he managed to restrain it. No need in irritating her again, and he did need her to interpret whatever it was they eventually (hopefully) came across.
That stare though, it was almost too much for him. He smiled genially back, paying no more than the attention deserved. If she was going to make a scene, then he’d just make some sarcastic comment about needing to start work on their little quest and ignore it.

Waving away the children gathered around him, he paced around a little to survey the mess on the floor, before crouching next to one of the bigger pieces of rubble that lay across the ground. There was no chance of a few kids moving a block like that, so he started to shove and pull on it, so he could have a look underneath. It was heavier than he thought, and didn’t really want to budge… but Soneya didn’t give him much time to check it out and see if he could move it any better before she found something interesting herself.
Probably a good thing, as he wasn’t the strongest, and was quite liable to crushing his feet under a block like the one he had chosen.

Readily giving up, he wandered over to her with his eyes fixed on the ground, looking for primarily useful things, but also shiny- or more importantly, expensive- objects to acquire. Alas, anything in sight had already been snatched up by excited looters; the best place to look now was definitely under all the rubble, as he had already been doing.
“Whatcha found?” He came to stand next to her, hands by his sides for now, remembering all her warnings about magical objects and nasty outcomes if they were messed with. He’d like to keep all his fingers. The temptation to touch the book she’d found was very strong too however, and he had to shove his hands into his pockets to keep himself from plucking it out of her fingers and having a good rummage through. “Nice find. Am I gonna lose my hands if I touch?”

“Huh?” Soneya replied, lost in her inspection of the book’s cover, without even realising what Lutis had really asked when he finally showed up by her side. It had taken him long enough. It was only when she fingered the carving once more that his words did sink in. “What? No, of course you aren’t going to lose your hand. It is a magical book but it has no residue whatsoever of the explosion.”

Before he could even think up another ridiculous question or – he would just dare do such a silly thing – walk away again, she thrust the book into his hands. “Here, you will be fine.” Without further ado or waiting for him to say or do anything, she took up his right hand without asking his permission in order to place it on the cover exactly where she had found the symbol.

“Do you notice something? Can you feel it?” Using his fingers to mimic the moves she had previously made to reveal the invisible carving, she expectantly looked at him, gauging his reaction. She was completely oblivious to the fact that her gesture might be construed rather differently from what she had in mind and that to people potentially watching them it could look very odd indeed.

“You said not to tou—“ Lutis started to protest Soneya’s words, acting as if he were being paranoid about this book she had found, but then that didn’t really work as she just pushed it into his hands anyway. He made a small sound of discomfort, trying to draw his fingers away, but that only resulted in almost dropping the thing.
It hadn’t given him some lightning shock or set him on fire (or worse) though, so he gingerly took hold of it properly. He did surreptitiously move his body away a little however, just in case.

Maybe the book was possessed. Soneya was acting rather more rashly all of a sudden, as she took hold of his hand, and he gave her a look for that.
“Gettin’ a bit familiar, ain’t we?” He grinned though, pressing his fingers against the book cover to try and notice whatever it was that Soneya spoke of. His brow furrowed when he couldn’t discern anything, then widened again as he rubbed over the carving, looking at her in surprise.
“There’s somethin’ there! But…” he pulled his hand away and peered at the cover. Nothing to be seen. “How weird.”
Stooping to the ground, he gathered up a handful of dust and rubbed it onto the cover front, but again, there was nothing to be seen. The dust just spread across evenly, collecting around the clasp of the thing, but nowhere else. Brushing it off, he tried to prize the book open, but there was no movement in the lock, stuck shut without a key.

“It’s strange, isn’t it?” Soneya asked with wide eyes as she looked back at Lutis, brushing off his joke. For a moment, she had feared that maybe she had just imagined the whole thing, that she was going slightly mad, but now that she had confirmation that the symbol was indeed carved into the cover – and invisibly so, who did that?! – she felt a little better.

Watching Lutis pour sand over the book, she was about to ask what he was doing but instantly shut it again when his actions spoke for themselves. “This is getting weirder by the second,” she muttered as she kept observing her companion.

When she realised his attempts to open the book were futile, her heart sank. “A key? Really?” Heaving a deep sigh, Soneya surveyed the still bustling room around them – for a moment she had actually forgotten that they were not alone, much to the amusement to some of the kids newly in Lutis’ employment, who were staring at the pair as though they were expecting them to do something freaky any time soon.

“Where on earth are we going to find the right key, or any key for that matter, in this mess?!”

Cue a third kid coming crashing through the ruins holding something shiny in its head and with a beam on its face to rival the shine of the object it was carrying. The boy certainly thought he had made an extraordinary discovery and Soneya could only hope that it really was something big. “All yours,” she muttered under her breath when the boy stopped breathlessly before them.

Despite the need for a key to open the book, Lutis still tried to prize open the thing with his fingers, scratching at the smooth surface. So irritating, that they had managed to find this thing, and now, no good. He could set his lockpicks to work on it, but probably here like this wasn’t the best idea. Some small measure of subtlety was still needed in day-to-day life, and trying to break into someone else’s things screamed of anything but.
Later he would have a go at it, but right now… perhaps not.

He frowned at the book, then up at Soneya as he had to concede defeat, at least for now. “Well, that trick I used this morning might do some good but, I ain’t doing that right now. If you get my meaning.” And she couldn’t blame him one bit for his somewhat shady behaviour. It was for the good of their investigation, wasn’t it?

But, fate was smiling on them as he brushed off the dirt a little better, plastering a grin on his face as a ragged child slid to a halt in front of them.
“What you got there eh?” He bent down and plucked the key from the boy’s dirty fingers, looking at it closely before whisking it away out of reach. Just in case. “Pretty. Your reward…” He reached out and plucked a boiled sweet out from behind the boy’s ear, ruffling his hair as he did so. “Good job. Off y’go.”

» COMPLETED ~ Party Time! With Liz and Eldar
» Anyone for the rescue? (Cold, Parade, Eldar)
» Chance Meeting [Kor] - Completed
» Height of the Hunt (Eldar & Nen)
» The Altar of Stars (Alex X Eldar)