PM to join Swords of Shadow and Light. [Lexa Maze]

[Mortuus]

Mortuus allowed her nose to crinkle in disgust as she easily sidestepped an unskilled overhand chop. These thugs had absolutely no skill with the weapons they wielded. It was rather insulting actually that whoever had sent them to kill her had thought that they would be enough, even without Lexa's assistance this wouldn't have been much of a fight. Again her sword swung through the air, cutting into his neck this time with a sick bone crunching sound.

The thug fell to his knees with a loud thump, his eyes rolling up into his head. Mortuus placed her foot on his back and wrenched her sword from him, which was covered in blood and bits of brain matter. The assassin cautiously approched her open door, blade at the ready. She slowly peeked out the door, glancing both ways. There was nothing, just the dark empty streets of Zeltiva.

The assassin headed back inside and looked at Lexa, her expression still very much alert.

"Cover the door while I search the bodies. Lets see who these men were and why they were so keen on breaking into my house." Mortuus said, gesturing to the door.

The smell of burning meat hung in the air of the assassin's house and her night clothes were covered in blood. Those were secondary concerns, compared to the mystery of who these men were and, more importantly how she was going to explain the three bodies in her house to the Wave Guards.

One thing at a time, the assassin thought, stooping down over the first of the bodies.

[Lexa Maze]

Lexa had to refrain from throwing up as she caught the woman wrench the sword from the back of the mans neck. Gods, gods, that was disgusting. She couldn't look at the dead thugs on the floor. She wished she'd just gone home. It's not like she was needed her, Mortuus, or Lexa alike could have taken these buffoons down with their hands tied behind their backs. Surely this wasn't it? Three unskilled thugs to take down an assassin? It felt like some sort of trap. Lexa was sure there had to be others out there. Lexa didn't say a word to Mortuus. She didn't really want to look at her. She wanted to run off into the night. And she could have done. Whoever these people were, surely they couldn't be interested in her. But she stayed there anyway. She walked over to the door silently and peered outside, eyes narrowed. "What a lovely life you lead, Mortuus" Lexa said bitterness, and disgust laced each syllable. Without turning to look at her she continued "When you were a slave you have no choice but to get caught up with people like that. And now you choose it for yourself." Lexa grimaced as her foot suddenly touched the man laying on the floor beside the door, where she stood. His throat severed, his eyes open and staring. She looked away from him again, imagining her father grinning like a beast and saying to Alar "Good job boy. Another perfect kill". She walked out the door a few steps, not venturing past the circle of light the open door was projecting onto the ground "There has to be more out here somewhere." She said "Those unskilled idiots can't be it." She was sick of waiting for these baffoons to show their faces. Maybe the idiots in there where the bait. Possibly there were more out here who had more skill. Suddenly she heard a noise, a scuffle. Lexa grabbed a throwing knife out of her belt and threw it in the direction of the sound. There was a curse and a thump. Her blade had shown her the location of whoever was there when they dived to the left to avoid the projectile knife. Lexa yelled back inside "There are more out here." She hissed backing further back into the light "Maybe a lot, I'm not sure. I think they are advancing." Lexa got into stance. The dark was highly disadvantageous for them, but her eyes were slowly adjusting

[Mortuus]

Mortuus felt a little pang somewhere in her chest as Lexa's accusatory words reached her ears. Perhaps it was emotional hurt? If so it had been quite sometime since last she had felt something like that.

It probably hurt because it was true, she had chosen this lifestyle after becoming free she chose to kill because it came easily to her, not because it was the only thing she could do. He skills could easily be geared towards helping people, the Wave Guards probably would have happily accepted her into their ranks. No, she had instead chosen the path of the deadly assassin, who possessed no pity or remorse. Such was her lot in life.

Mortuus shook off the distracting thoughts, she could worry about the finer points of morality later. At present she had bigger things to worry about.

The assassin finished looking over the thug she'd first killed, finding nothing of worth besides a small coin purse with a few silver miza's in it. The woman growled in frustration, apparently the person stupid enough to send the thugs had not been to stupid enough to give them anything to indicate who hired them. A shame, that would make the job of putting her sword through their heart that much more difficult.

Mortuus had been about ready to move on to the next corpse when Lexa called out about more men on their way here.

Wonderful, the assassin thought, sarcastically.

Mortuus needed to get out of her nightclothes if she was going to be battling men tonight.

"Lexa, close the door and help me move the table over it, I need some time to get my armor on." Mortuus ordered, moving to the table herself.

In the back of her mind she was wondering when the Wave Guards would finally take notice of the situation. Whoever had sent the thugs here not only wanted her dead something fierce, but apparently didn't care over much if the guards found out. That meant one of two things, they were either insane or powerful enough to pay some of the guards to look the other way, Mortuus wasn't sure that either appealed to her.

[Lexa Maze]

Lexa closed the door and moved over to the other side of the table, facing Mortuus. She surveyed the womans face but, if she had felt anything at Lexa's words, she wasn't showing it now. Together the two of them pushed the table against the door. She sighed inwardly and turned away from the assassin, using the excuse of retiring her ponytail, which had half fallen out. She then lent against the table, feeling frustrated and on edge. She wondered why no one had come to their aid? She'd seen guards around the city, so where the hell were they? Why did these people even attack Mortuus? She must have done something to piss these people off. Lexa shook her head and tried to gear herself up for another fight. She moved over to the window and peered out. There wasn't anyone there that she could see. Maybe the guards had stopped the rest of them? That thought was a bit hopeful. Sure they couldn't be stupid enough to make this much noise and expect no one to see them. "So what's the plan? They're all hiding in the darkness for the looks of it." Lexa said, still looking out that window "So is the authority system around here lax, or what. Surely some of them must have heard. The buffoons wern't exactly quiet"

[Mortuus]

Mortuus hurried over to her wardrobe, after helping with the table, and opened it. Quickly she stripped herself of her night clothes and began getting geared up in her street clothes, with her studded leather armor being placed above it. As she dressed she heard Lexa's question and mused over how best to answer it.

"The plan? The plan is we wait for the city guard to arrive, or for more thugs to break down the door. We have a good defensive position, no reason to give it up by leaving before the cavalry arrives." Mortuus said simply.

The assassin paused in the midst of putting on her leather chest guard and managed a glance over to her companion. She really didn't have to be here, she could have probably left at any moment but the warrior hadn't.

The assassin cleared her throat slightly, "For what it is worth, thank you for staying to help me out here. You didn't have to."

With that the assassin finished getting geared up, strapping her sword's sheath to her belt and slipping on her sandals. Mortuus looked at her sword and set about wiping the blood off on one of the nearby corpses. On the outside she looked no different than normal, the cold and pitiless assassin. On the inside she did have a trace of fear lacing her heart, perhaps this was what it was like to be prey. For a moment, a very brief moment, Mortuus allowed a trace of remorse to cross her heart for those she had killed.

She looked to the broken window with narrowed eyes, all she could really do now was wait.

[Lexa Maze]

Lexa nodded "Right" She said. There was silence for a long while. Lexa just stood, leaning against the wall by the window, not really knowing what to say to fill that silence. It wasn't fun, this waiting around for something, good or bad, to happen. It was even worse standing around a cramped up space with a bunch of dead bodies laying around. But the silence between the two was the worse. She had reached the assassin't heart once, but if her words had any effect on her tonight, or if they didn''t, she wouldn't know. Then the clearing of a throat made Lexa look up. At Mortuus's next words, Lexa let a smile cross her lips. The assassin turned back to putting on her armour soon after but Lexa still spoke "That is what friends are for, isn't it?" She couldn't see Mortuus's face for a reaction to that one. Truly it was difficult for her to say something like that, but she and this woman had a lot in common, And Lexa wanted this friendship. It would help the both of them out of their past. Lexa sighed suddenly. Nothing was happening outside. Nothing she could see anyway. Maybe the guards would knock on their door soon, proclaiming that the rest of the offenders had been defeated. But what would happen to the two of them? Would an outsider like Lexa be treated with more suspicion. What if they arrested her? One thing at a time, Lexa There was an air of fear in the room. In the silence between the two women. It wasn't difficult to pick up on, even though neither showed this in their expressions

[Mortuus]

Mortuus inspected her sword, it still had smudges of blood on it, something she was not fond of. It was not for some emotional reason, she just preferred her weapons to be clean as they were more efficient that way. Unfortunately the pitcher of water had fallen to the ground in their haste to block the door, meaning that not only could she not properly clean her sword but she would have to replace the pitcher too.

What had Lexa said? That she was the assassin's friend? It was an odd concept for the killer to wrap her mind around. Mortuus did not have friends, she had contacts and people she could talk to more than others. Still if friendship meant that Lexa was here helping her, then perhaps Mortuus would have to reevaluate her opinions on friendship.

The assassin became alert as she noticed movement from outside her window, her grip on her weapon becoming tight. A bang on the door sounded out shortly after, not like someone trying to break the door in but more like someone knocking.

"Open up, this is the Wave Guard!" Came an authoritative voice from the outside.

Mortuus felt slightly relieved at this declaration, she had not been looking forward to more fighting in her house. However she remained alert, just because the Wave Guards were here didn't mean that she and Lexa were off of the hook. There were three dead men on her floor after all, that would take some explanation.

Mortuus glanced over to Lexa and gave her a nod, moving to grip the table and clear the doorway.

"Hold on a moment, sir, we need to unblock the doorway." The assassin called to the Wave Guard beyond.

Hopefully this would go smoothly, if not then... well she would think of something.

[Lexa Maze]

The loud knock on the door startled Lexa. She tensed and then relaxed again when the voice declared that it was a wave guard, and not an enemy. Although this was not much comfort to the warrior. Being an outsider to the city, would they be more suspicious of her? This was a big mess, it was truly frightening . She's always been brought up not to respect authority by her father, and to resist them when practical. This was a view that had been contradicted by that of her mother. Together the two moved the table out of the doorway and Lexa stood back a little as the assassin opened the door. Lexa tried to keep a straight face. She tried to look natural and clam. She kept her expression neutral, but she kept shifting her weight between her two feet, and chewing on her bottom lip absentmindedly. The wave guard barged his way through the doorway and took a gander at the room. Lexa awaited him to say that they were going to be arrested. She waited for the worst outcome. Time seemed to slow down tenfold as she waited. Lexa felt like a cornered animal.