Closed Consequences (Kuvarakh, Aislyn)

[Kuvarakh]

Wanda looked a little confused. "Is something wrong with his body? It looked like it was functioning okay up 'til now. It's not the hands again is it?" she looked at 'Maya' with a little embarrassment. "Hey, don't feel bad if your glyph job didn't completely take. I had to do that under pressure once, too. It was close to two full seasons before he got it all coordinated."

She chuckled with a shake of her head. "And then, right after that, he went and had his accident and messed his hands up. I'm sure whatever is wrong will smooth out before long." She looked around again, "Is he getting Phobius?" Another shake of the head. "That poor boy was so upset by the body laying here on the floor I thought he was going to pass out. I hope he starts to get used to it. If he's going to be an errand boy for our Kuv, he's going to need to get used to seeing a dead body now and then."

She saw the pad of sketch paper and connected Mr. Ekans' remark about pictures to that. But his follow-up comment about snakes raised an eyebrow. And the hiss he put on the "s"es did not help, but she assumed it was part of a private joke between Maya and him. Trying to be helpful, she directed them to a corner of the front "common" area, where more light could be allowed in with the raising of a large blind.

She did a slight double take as she started to step away after opening it. She looked back outside. She turned to Maya and Mr. Ekans, "There are some customers coming, so I'll have to leave you two alone to your sketching." She headed back to the counter to get out her ledger and schedule book, as two women came in, carrying on a conversation they were clearly in the middle of.

It soon dragged Wanda into it, as it pertained to color coordinating of drapes and upholstery, something Wanda had been forced to do a great deal of, after the "buzzbugs" had ravaged nearby buildings, and they'd had to replace quite a bit of interior materials. That had been the occasion when she had had to scribe Kuvarakh's glyphs for him.

The bugs had been accidentally created by him in the center of a large carving into which he was transmuting an extensive and complex combination of properties and substances. They'd come out devouring anything in their path, including the stone of many nearby buildings. Efforts by djed crafters to stop them only antagonized them further. The fact that their bodies had been turned metallic turned out to be the vulnerability that Kuvarakh was able to exploit.

He'd slipped the shop's transmutation ring over the top of the carving, to surround it, and then activated it with chargers to create magnetism. Just before doing that, he'd laid a number of metal sheets on the floor, the kind armorers worked with. He successfully managed to cause the bugs to be magnetized to the metal sheets. But got so many bugs ON him, as the activation took effect, that he was pinned there with them until he could tear himself free, leaving large pieces of his body behind, crawling with furious metal insects.

The loss of ichor was a death sentence for him unless Wanda could do the transference glyphs on the spot. A mutual friend provided the body, and they'd managed to save him. But it had been a very sloppy job, and had taken a long time for Kuvarakh to get even a rudimentary degree of control over the new body. The sight of Kuvarakh's twitching, half-eaten and maimed body had been a source of nightmares for her for a long time as well. It was an episode she was glad to put behind her.

At the time she had not questioned where the body had come from. Learning later that it was a victim from the site of a mass murder had all been part of the terrible learning experience for her. She was really only just getting over it. She was not sure how well she could deal with another desperate, violent situation. Hopefully, such a thing would never happen again...

[Aislyn Leavold]

For the love of Ionu, she was not going through this again.
Aislyn could have attacked Rey right then and there, though she knew she was no match for him in a one-to-one fight. It would be cunningness vs brute strength, and since the woman would be acting on anger, brute strength would win over any day. He was so infuriating, yet she was so trapped. She couldn't act, or her cover would be blown.

Her angry thoughts over Reysin’s words were pushed over the edge by his feigned innocent look. Was she really being forced to work with that man? Out of all the people in Alvadas that Kuvarakh had the chance to employ, he just had to give it to petching Reysin Ekans, or whatever his name really was. It was infuriating. Absolutely infuriating. The only thing holding her together, the paper thin border of her mind holding back the impulse to bring her fist up into his stupid smug face, was the fear she held of being found out. Wanda was still there, she couldn’t go at him now- it would be far too obvious there was something more than just his irritating remarks sparking conflict.
But really, would it kill him to be nice?

In this form, with this face, there was no way he could hold anything against her, yet he was still such a… Well, such a snake. Aislyn had nothing against snakes in general, but when that reptile had a human form and was called Reysin Ekans, her favouritism drew a line. Did Kuvarakh even know the man was a petching snake beast? And on top of that, if Rey really was under Kuvarakh's employment, what was his job? As far as Aislyn knew, his only talent was chasing people around hedge mazes. How did that benefit Kuvarakh?
What use was a snake to a Nuit?

Each one of the people under Kuvarakh’s employment had a certain job. Phobius was a messenger, this new Kelvic girl was a bodyguard… Even Aislyn had a job. She had a purpose, while, as far as she could tell, Rey did not. The Dhani couldn't design tapestries, or drawn glyphs, could he?
At the thought of glyphing, Aislyn was brought back to the memory of her experience drawing the shapes on Kirby- or rather, Kuvarakh's- body. The experience had been almost traumatic, but it was necessary. It was her job. So what was Rey good for?

An idea flew through the woman’s body like an electric shock. Two images connected themselves in her mind- Her memory of Rey in his massive snake-beast form, and the memory of Kirby’s body. The puncture wounds that had puzzled her so much. She had thought they were from a weapon. Not a weapon, no, the marks were from a snake.
Rey had killed Kirby. Rey had brought Kirby's body to Kuvarakh. Aislyn had put Kuvarakh in Kirby's body, and now he was in trouble for it. That was where this Kelvic girl came in. It all fit together like a puzzle, the only question was why? What use did Rey have, now that Kuv had the body he wanted? And how had he known the body Kuvarakh needed a body? Was Kuvarakh now somehow in debt to Rey, and that was why he was still around? It made sense. Rey somehow finds out Kuv needs a new body, gets one for him, then turns around and tells the man just how much trouble the body he now wore was in.

Kuvarakh had said he never asked for the body, adding to her suspicions about Rey's ulterior motives for helping. It seemed like something he would do- Stick someone in a body with a thousand debts yet to be paid and then ask a thousand gold for it. Then Kuv had to keep the snake around as his informant, or he risked death. Permedent death. That was why Rey was still under employment. Reysin was in it for the mizas, while Kuvarakh was in it to stay alive. One of those was significantly more important than the other.
Petching two faced liar, that's what Rey was.
Aislyn's intolerance for Reysin grew greater still. Not only did he spark her hatred back when they had first met, when she was “Nise”, but now he was aiming provocative actions towards “Maya”. That was two of three personas that had a reason to hate the man. More than enough to warrant action greater than an angry gaze. So, how could she annoy the hell out of him without compromising her persona or the task at hand?

Letting the thought run across her mind, Aislyn took Wanda's lead and moved herself over towards the window. The woman was right in her movement- the new position had better light for drawing, along with having a better view. They could see anyone passing by on the street, and anyone passing by on the street could see them. At least, from this angle. If they moved away from the small table, they were once again invisible inside the shop.

Wanda's questions were met with silence for a few ticks as Aislyn thought. She smiled at the woman, though her mind was elsewhere. She was thinking
"No, no... Nothing with his hands this time, thankfully." Aislyn let a hint of pride work it's way into her voice as she commented on the glyphing job. "I believe the transfer into the body went quite well, though the body itself... That's a different story." Aislyn was once again surprised Kuv hadn't mentioned the problematic history of the body he was occupying now. Nor had he mentioned the Kelvic girl. Strange.

"It's not Phobius, that I know for certain. He was getting the bodyguard girl- A Kelvic, apparently. Neither me or Rey" She spat out his name. "..have met her."

As Wanda finished off the conversation, Aislyn turned her attention back towards the task she had been given. The sketches were taking shape now, with more finely tune details surfacing. Facial hair, eye shape, all the bells and whistles. According to Rey, they still didn’t look right, but at least they looked like people, instead of a mess of shapes and lines.

The sketches were going well, and with the rate they were moving at, Aislyn's mood greatly increased, though she figured she should at least make an attempt to annoy Rey while she was working. The woman began a lively whistle at the highest note she could muster, working out a tune she had often heard her mother humming at home. She switched between drawings, each of them slowly taking shape. A few times she had to near completely restart, but Aislyn had redone them quickly, with an image of the men's faces in her mind. Soon they would be finished, and Aislyn would be out of there, with her encounter with Rey being nothing but a minor annoyance in her day. Perfect.

[Yisanareysin]

He had expected that Maya, upon being called out, would be upset, shocked, maybe embarrassed or afraid. He had not expected anger, and it infuriated him. She was angry at him, when she was the one who had judged him before they'd ever met. The audacity of it! His fingers touched his dagger through his coat. Perhaps he'd have to arrange for a little.. accident for her. Ugh, but Kuv was bound to notice their animosity when he got here, and Rey'd be the first person he would suspect if she went missing mysteriously. Perhaps he could push the blame back? ("You shouldn't have told her, Kuvarakh. Don't you know snakes bite when cornered?" That's what he'd tell him, and the nuit would flinch away from the truth. Or maybe it had been Phobius who'd tattled. "Your little runner told her. You knew a bag of shiny gold wouldn't keep him quiet forever. How long before he tells someone where that body came from?" Then maybe he'd get to eat the little snack.) He grimaced. As satisfying as those fantasies were, he still had to work with Maya for now. Ugh, to think he had thought this would be fun. Well, at least now they were both angry and uncomfortable. Following the two women, he was thinking up increasingly elaborate ways to get rid of Maya when something Wanda said struck him. Her glyph job? Take? Surely she didn't mean... The hint of arrogance in Maya's voice, and the mention of a transfer confirmed it. Well, that answered two questions. So the Nuit body swapping whatever involved glyphing then. Interesting. He had assumed it was something a Nuit could just do, as simple as a Dhani or Kelvic shifting. And if Maya had done it... perhaps she had seen the marks Rey had left on the body. If so, perhaps Kuvarakh had been forced to explain how two punctures had killed a healthy, full grown man. He still didn't see why he'd had to tell her that Rey was the Dhani in question, but it did make Kuvarakh's (and he was sure it was Kuvarakh now) choice to tell her more understandable. He was still going to have angry angry words with the man though. Even as his frustration at Kuvarakh decreased, his anger as Maya doubled. How dare she condemn him for killing a man, when without that murder Kuvarakh would be dead? Bad enough when he had thought she knew only Phobius's account of a deadly monster. But Kuvarakh would have explained the whole situation (well, not the part about having arranged it all beforehand, most likely). How banal, how.. ugh. How predictably human. Rolling his eyes at the way Maya spat out his name, Rey settled down at the table, and was prepared to try and finish off these sketches as quickly as possible when he heard Wanda speak. Customers? He whirled around, focusing in on himself. His mind shifted slightly, and he sensed. As he scanned through the front wall of the shop for auras, he began furiously strategizing. Wanda was already walking toward the door, she'd likely be the first casualty. If he let one slip past him, they might take care of the little artist for him, and he'd have clean hands to show for it. Mmm, Kuvarakh would be furious if both humans died. So, save Wanda then? That could make it even easier for- Oh. Nevermind. Two women walked through the door, and from the smell of their auras, were exactly what they seemed. He relaxed sheepishly, letting his hand drop from his dagger. Luckily, the women were too engrossed in their own conversation to notice the action. He sighed softly, then paused. He took another breath, and froze solid. That scent. He knew that scent. Where did he know it from? That scent of oddness, of wrongness, of... of danger. It couldn't be. Of course it could. He had seen what she could do. Slowly, he turned around, not bothering to hide the shock on his face. There, bent over a sketch, whistling some annoying little tune. Maya. Nise. His eyes fell on her shoulder, where an azure triangle was inked. No, not inked. Marked. It seemed to him to pulse with power. He let his sense fall away. "You." He whispered. "What the petch are you doing here?"

[Kuvarakh]

Wanda had always considered herself fairly intuitive. But it took no extraordinary insight to see that there was something between these two guests of Kuvarakh's. Wanda was inclined to make assumptions on Maya's behalf, having met her before and found her to be friendly and helpful. She was also a woman, and the sexes tended to stick together.

Maya had named the man "Rey", and not in a terribly friendly tone either. And HE was hanging back as they settled in the corner, clearly brooding about something. She wondered what the nature of their acquaintance - she was suddenly hesitant to assume "friendship" - with Kuvarakh was. It seemed pretty clear that they didn't like each other. How is it that the Nuit got them to work together? And just what was it they were doing? Sketches, obviously, but sketches of what?

At least they stayed quiet in their work as Wanda settled with the two ladies seeking some enhancement to a shipment of yarn they were hopefully going to get in a few days. Wanda began to put together the ages-old contention of romance gone wrong. This seemed the most likely explanation for their attitude. A lover's spat, resulting in cold-shoulder treatment by her and brooding by him.

Wanda sighed quietly and returned her focus to the customer's instructions. She would let the argument run its course. Getting involved was always a foolish course of action. A comment or two reached her ears from the pair in the corner. But she applied the notion of arguing lovers to her interpretations of their meanings, so nothing struck her as strange.

Even when "Rey" asked Maya what she was doing here, Wanda took it in the sense of "If you're so mad at me, what are you doing here with me?" She made an effort to ignore the ongoing contention and finished taking the order. The women left eventually, and Wanda weighed the wisdom of asking the pair to either accept each others' differences or go home and finish their argument there.

She decided to go in the back, thinking that her presence was probably hindering their candor with each other. But before she left, she hooked up the bell spring to alert her if anyone came into the shop.

[Aislyn Leavold]

And that was when everything went to shyke.
That precise moment, the exact gesture, expression, hiss of hushed words. That shock of realization. The moment Aislyn's world pretty much came apart.
Everything crumbling to ashes, and with just six words.
What the petch are you doing here?
To anyone, it would be a simple question. Maybe phrased a bit rudely, but a simple question. To Aislyn, it was the end of the world.

Calm. Calm down. It's fine. Everything is fine.
Aislyn had gone through more panic attacks and more unveilings of her power in the past season than she had her entire life. She could not add another incident to that list. Even so, a ringing noise soon became evident in her ears, drowning out her whistling. She could no longer hear the tune. She couldn't even tell if her lips were still moving.

Her voice cracked. Her hands shook. But Aislyn decided to speak anyways, trying to push against the growing panic in her mind.
"I have no idea..." The woman swallowed hard. She felt as though she were choking. "...What you're talking about."

Aislyn took a quick glance over at Wanda, praying the woman was facing the other way. She was in luck. The Alch shopkeeper was so preoccupied with the customers at hand, she hadn't noticed the drama unfolding at the tiny table in the corner of the room. Which, unfortunately, was indeed situated in a corner. Aislyn was trapped, with Rey in front of her and a wall or window on either side behind her. That little tidbit of the scene didn't help matters much. She was boxed in, forced to face Rey. And this time, it was much worse that just "Nise" being compromised. Nise was expendable. She was an illusion Aislyn barely used anymore. But Maya...

Maya was Aislyn's everything. Her daily face, her working persona. The body in which Aislyn inhabited in order to put food on the table for herself. She had spent nearly six years bonded to the face everyone knew as Maya, and now all those years were in jeopardy. That was why her reaction was so much worse. So much harder to contain.

"You know why I'm here, anyways. I'm here for the same reason you are. Kuvarakh called me in. I thought that was obvious by the way everyone knew me." Her voice came out stronger than expected, considering her heart was beating a thousand times a minute. "I can't say the same for you, snake."

Her fear morphed into anger. Offense being her only defense at the moment, she tried to turn the argument around, speaking in a forced whisper. ”You’re the one ruining everything! You weren’t supposed to be here- You were supposed to- Supposed to…” Aislyn felt heat run to her face as she stumbled her words together. Anger was driving the conversation, and anger was a fuel that burned quickly. Soon, it left nothing but blind hatred. Not that there had been a lack of that in the first place.
”...Just…”
The woman felt lightheaded, though whether it was from fear, panic, anger, or a combination of all three, she wasn’t sure. She brought a hand to her eyes, letting a look of exasperation pass across her face, though exasperation was not the same emotion passing through her mind. No, her inner expression and her outer expression were two very, very different things. Fury, and frustration, which, although often mixed, were not the same thing. Far from it.

Aislyn's hissed whisper gained several volumes as Wanda and the customers left the room. With no audience, the pair now had no responsibility to keep appearances clean. She stood up from the table, running her hands through her hair and keeping her eyes down on the charcoal sketches that lay on the table in front of her.
”Leave me alone. You get it? Okay? Just… Just walk out of here, stop following me, stop looking for the solutions to questions I’ll never answer, and just…” She looked the man dead in the eye, anger, fear, and exasperation filling her last word.
”Go.”

[Yisanareysin]

Absurdly, Rey's first thought was I suppose I won't get to eat Phobius after all. It all added up now. They hadn't parted on the best of terms in the summer, and it seemed the little mystery had held a grudge all that time. And the waryness, he'd seen that with Nise as well, in the Cave. And her voice! How could he have missed the voice? She could only do visual illusion, her voice was the same. He should have realized just from that that Nise and Maya were the same. Nise (Maya? Niya? Mayse? Mise? Naya? Niseaya sounded good.) was trembling as she stared at him. Her voice was uneven as she spoke, trying to deny it. Her fear only confirmed for him. The question was why? Rey was clearly not a threat to her, an annoyance at most. And he had proven with Zeke that he was willing to play along with her game, so why was she so upset about being found out? Was it because she was not human? If that were the case, then surely she could just disguise her eyes, instead of putting on a whole new face. Perhaps... His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. Was she wanted somewhere? A criminal from Sylira, maybe? A Sunberthian on the run? No, that didn't seem right. What was it she had said? It was something bad enough, and petching scary enough that Ionu gave me their power to avoid it ever happening again. That didn't sound like someone running from anything as mundane as the Knights. But what then? Was she afraid that if anyone found out whatever it was would happen again? That seemed rather stupid. And if so, why would she have told Kuv... Had she even told Kuv? Well, he wasn't going to find out by standing around and theorizing. And it seemed like Niseaya had quickly realized that denying something he clearly knew was useless. And yes, she was back to childish insults. This one was a little better than "your small and bony brain". "Wanda may know you, yes, but that's because some of us have jobs more important than looking pretty. Or pulling out pretty illusions." Rey shot back pettily. She was getting angrier and angrier, stumbling over her words as she snarled at him. Again, why? From the way she was acting, anyone would have thought he'd killed her best friend, or something equally devastating. Not seen through a disguise. There was something more complex here, and he was dying to know just what it was. She'd cycled through fear, anger, and was now at annoyance and frustration, it seemed. Exactly the same cycle they'd gone through last time. In fact, it was so similar he half expected her to stalk off, then for Kuv to burst in through the door. But instead, she stood, and spoke. Rey couldn't help himself. He let out a sharp bark of laughter. "Such arrogance." He smiled grimly. "What, exactly, makes you think I was here to find you? Considering that I was here with Kuvarakh before you arrived, maybe you're the one following me." He stood as well. "You want me to go? I don't think you know what you're asking for. Say I leave. Then what? Do you really think that these people," He gestured towards her sketches. "are the only ones out of "Kirby's" blood? What do you think would have happened if I hadn't warned him, if I had just walked away? He'd be sitting here. Unwarned. Unprepared. Unarmed." Rey leaned in close to her. "If I leave, how long do you think it'll be befo-" His rant was interrupted by a loud banging on the door. Rey whirled around, slipping back into his sense. Two auras behind the door. He took in a deep breath, focusing on the one in the front. "They're here." Before he could take a step forwards, the door swung open. The short, stocky man, Vann, and the owner of the third voice, the man who had first seen Kuvarakh walked in. Rey glanced at Niseaya. "Still want me to go?"

[Kuvarakh]

The two men had surveyed the room and its occupants before taking their third step. The taller of the two held back and caught the door, keeping it from closing. He turned toward Rey and Aislyn in the process, his eyes boring into them as he held his arm through the door for some reason. The shorter one stepped up to the counter, knowing the bell spring on the door had already announced their arrival.

The taller one approached Rey and Aislyn slowly, with a ruthless, confident swagger, "No need to stay on your feet, friends. It's been a long day. You look tired. Go ahead, sit down. We have no business with you, nor you with us. Just sit down and let's keep it that way, eh?"

He clearly considered Rey to be a weakling, due to his short stature. The glare he directed at Aislyn had always been enough to cow women into obedience. He did not wait to see if she complied before facing Rey again and gently placing his right hand on Rey's chest in preparation of enforcing his suggestion that they sit.

No one moved for a moment and his eyes narrowed. He leaned in, "Do I need to count to three, pretty boy? Can you count that high?" he sneered as his hand plainly eased beneath his jacket. It was a warning and he did not care who knew. "Maybe I can help by counting your fingers as I cut them off."

But before that happened, Wanda came out from the back, all smiles. "Yes sir...Excuse me, Sirs." she corrected, noticing the second man. There was a pregnant tick where she saw the odd demeanor of the man squaring off against Rey and did a subtle double-take. A chain of observations followed, Vann noticing hers and Aislyn probably noticing his.

Wanda quickly cleared her throat, hoping to break the tension. "Welcome to Alchemmia Alchae, gentlemen. Are you in need of Alchemistry Services, or was there stock you wished to purchase? We have a number of enhanced materials for sale. If you can tell me what you're interested in, I can g-go back...and see...if w-we...have it n-now or will...will...need...t-to...pr-pro..." her voice quavered as she went silent.

She was holding a quill in position to start noting any details Vann stated. But as she spoke, his hands slowly reached up. One took hold of her left wrist and the other gripped the quill. Without breaking eye contact he snapped the quill in two. He dropped in on the counter before her almost ceremonially, as she stammered to a stop.

Still gripping her wrist, he spoke softly, like the velvet that lines a coffin. "As a matter of fact, I do have an order. I'm ordering you to go bring Kirby out here. Now be professional and fill THAT order. And treat it as a rush, please. We'll wait." He ever-so-slightly flung her wrist free as she stepped back, eyes wide in fear.

"I...I don't...know...any Kirby, sir. I...I really don't." There was real fear in her voice. It cracked on the last word as Vann, who had begun to turn away, froze for a moment, then turned back with a heavy sigh.

"It would be a shame for us to have to weigh ourselves down with a hostage just to ensure that a prick like Kirby makes good on his debts. It wouldn't be right for you to have to suffer for his greed and dishonor." his voice was smooth as the polished face of a razor. "Now, I'm suppose you don't want to be a tattle-tale, right? Well, I can appreciate that. So I'll tell you what, if he's here, just say nothing for five ticks."

Two ticks passed, and Vann started to turn toward his confederate again. Wanda's voice froze him in place again. "I said I do not know any Kirby, sir. You are welcome to search the premises yourself, if you do not believe me."

Vann started to turn back to Wanda, who visibly trembled. But he was diverted by the voice of his taller compatriot, who was staring at the sketches now, rather than Rey. "Hey boss, check out these drawings. It looks like they knew we were coming." He reached for the nearest one, taking his eyes off Rey and leaning over, reaching with his right arm, which was the closest one to Rey.

[Aislyn Leavold]

”Stop acting like you’re any better!”
Aislyn’s voice carried far louder than she would have liked- She really didn’t want Wanda in on this, so she had tried to keep it quiet, but it seemed like that plan had just gone out the window.

”You didn’t have to snoop around in things that had nothing to do with you! I went out to that tavern what, a season ago? And even then it was on accident! It was late, I was cold, and I decided to stop in for the fire and a story. What did I get? A snake and the worst headache I’ve ever had.”
Aislyn knew she was pushing it. She wanted to scream at him for chimes on end, but she knew that if she did that, he’d never agree to what she planning to ask. Unfortunately, Rey didn’t share the same mindset, laughing sharply at her. She was arrogant? Her? Had he tried looking in a mirror?

As he continued on with his rant, Aislyn’s earlier thoughts about her were confirmed. Rey was practically blackmailing Kuv with his life, keeping him informed about Kirby’s lackies in exchange for mizas. Her anger blossomed again. She had been right- Rey was nothing but a money grubbing, arrogant, two-faced-
Aislyn didn’t even finish her thought before a man practically knocked down the door. The stranger had an air about him, the way he walked in, the expression on his face. A familiarity. Something was wrong.

”They’re here.”

Oh. So that was it.
They. The ones Aislyn was drawing mugshots of. The ones that were literally trying to end Kuvarakh’s existence. What fun.
The woman momentarily forgot about her spat with Rey, standing behind him and peering around his arm. She was his shadow. Forgotten. Or so she hoped.

Unfortunately, Aislyn was not as forgotten as she thought. Just ticks after they walked through the door, the taller of the two marched right up to Rey, though his look of malice was aimed at her. He had one of those bull-headed attitudes with his speech, talking to her as if she were his plaything.
Suddenly, working with Rey didn't seem so bad. This was mostly due to the fact that all of her hatred for him had just been transferred to her hate of the two men in front of her.
Though that didn';t mean she didn't find it entertaining when the man questioned Rey's counting skills.

Aislyn was about to interject into the conversation with a wise crack of her own, but was interrupted by Wanda's entrance into the room. Petch.
Petch petch petch petch petch.

The severity of the situation finally hit her as the second man began spewing threats at Wanda. It was when the second man snapped her quill that Aislyn stepped foreward to intervene, only to be blocked by the first man';s hulking figure. She was, once again, trapped against the window and the wall. A mouse, cornered by a snake. Or, rather, a snake, a thug, and the fear of being found out. But any mouse, when corner, will bite when threatened.
Aislyn ran a tongue over her naturally sharp teeth, gained from her Zith blood. It was one of the first times in her life she has been grateful for the feature. A secret weapon. A last resort.

Aislyn looked helplessly over at Wanda as the second man continued berating her. When the man inquired about Kirby, however, Aislyn remembered just how little the woman knew. From what she had seen, Wanda didn't know where Kirby, or rather, Kuvarakh';s body had come from, how he had acquired it, who the body had been before death, or even how it... He had died. Which also meant she might not know just what Rey was.
Aislyn had a feeling the alchemist would soon find that last part out.

"She's not lying- there's no Kirby here. You can try looking around, but be careful what you touch- You never know what's going to come to life and bite off your big nose."
Aislyn gave thug number two a vicious smile, looking him dead in the eyes. Unfortunately, due to this perspective, she didn't see the hand coming towards her face, courtesy of thug number one.
His hand hit her face with a crack, the momentum and surprise of the movement sending her backwards into her chair. Her hand immediately flew up to her face, though shock wasn't the emotion that came to mind. She had asked for that, but that didn't mean she wasn't angry about it. The attack hurt quite a bit more than one would have expected, and Aislyn now understood Rey's anger at her when she had sent the same movement towards him.

A sharp bark of laughter and even sharper words interrupted her thoughts, "That';s quite enough talking for you, sweetheart. Wouldn't want to have to cut off your tongue and Shorty's fingers." The man gestured to Rey. If they hadn't been in the situation they were, Aislyn probably would have laughed. She had seen the anger on his face whenever he was referred to as short. This was do ably driving him insane. She made a mental note to tease him about his height later. If there was a later. The woman didn't like how serious the first thug had sounded when he was talking about slicing off body parts.

The man closest to Wanda began talking again, this time threatening her with hostages and going on about Kirby's debts. Aislyn opened her mouth to object about the state of living that Kirby was in (which was currently not very alive), but decided against it when the pain in her cheek flared up again. She fumed silently, her burnt pride feeding the fire.
That was the strange thing with Aislyn's mind; When faced with the possibility of being exposed as an illusionist and liar, she crumpled in fear, yet when faced with real danger- enraged thugs looking for revenge sort of danger- she gained a sort of arrogant confidence. Which, of course, was both a blessing and a curse.

Now stuck sitting in the chair nearest the window, Aislyn looked out onto the street briefly. She wondered if she could somehow signal for someone, anyone to intervene on the situation at hand. But, as Ionu would have it, the Alchemmia had positioned itself on a deserted street, no savior in sight. They were going to have to get out of this by themselves.
Aislyn's thoughts were interrupted by another voice. The first thug again, though only one word actually registered in the woman's mind. Drawings.
Petch. She had left the sketches unattended, face up on the table in front of her. The charcoal marks were distinct enough now for any fool to see the similarities between sketch and person.
There was no denying it now. The thugs knew that Aislyn and Rey were connected to Kuvarakh- or Kirby, as the band of men thought. They were going to start cutting off fingers soon, or, if they were extra unlucky, tongues.
It was beginning to bother the woman how little that worried her.

[Yisanareysin]

From the way NiseMaya (that sounded much better) was trying to hide behind him, it seemed like the answer was no, she didn't want him to go. Hah. Rey stood his ground as the human approached him, his whole body tense. This didn't look good. The last thug.. no doubt he was waiting outside, standing guard for these two. If they made any commotion, that one would come running in. Three armed men was more than he could deal with, especially in his human form. He should have hidden in the corner the moment he'd heard them knock, so he could shift. Thirty ticks, that was all he needed, but even that was out of the question now. So, he was going to have to deal with them. Wanda, he doubted would be of any use. NiseMaya might be of some use in a fight, with her illusionism and her race. Not that he knew what race that was, but whatever she was she couldn't be squishier than a human. Nothing was squishier than a human. How he wished he could just squish this one. Rey ground his teeth, his mental hood flaring as the human put a controlling hand on his chest. He had never liked being ordered around, and to have to take it from a human not even half his age infuriated him. When the man threatened him though, he backed up, perching on the edge of his chair. Best to comply for now. Allow the thug to let his guard down. His hands came together behind his back, his left hand settling on his right wrist. It would take only a small flick to spring out the blade in his bracer if he needed it. The spring blade was small, and didn't have even close to as much reach as his flametongue. Certainly not enough to do any real damage if it went anywhere but the throat or the eye. But the edge of the blade was coated in Rey's own venom. It wasn't enough to kill, not in such a small dosage, but it would hurt like Hai. Hopefully enough to disable him. He was prepared to strike when Wanda came out from the back, pulling the human's focus from him. He took the opportunity to shift his position slightly, so he'd have room to attack if it came to that. From the dangerously icy tone that Vann was taking with Wanda, that seemed rather likely. Although apparently, NiseMaya hadn't noticed Vann's tone, directing a mocking comment towards him. Rey winced in anticipation when he saw the two thugs briefly glance at each other. The slap still took him by surprise, and for a moment his world felt upended. It was easy, sometimes, to forget that humans reversed the natural order of things, that their females were not viewed reverently as their males. He half expected a queen to burst in the door and execute the thug for his insolence. Instead, Vann simply continued with his threats like nothing had happened, and his henchmen glared alternately between the two of them. Rey turned to watch Vann instead, now offering Wanda the chance to simply say nothing. That one was the more dangerous of the two. The three, most likely. How to take him down? He had the needle launcher, with a full dosage of venom. That was his only hope, really, since he'd never be able to take down two armed humans in this form. If he missed, he was pet- Well, it seemed he was already petched. His head snapped back as the taller thug reached out for the sketches. Oh yes they were well and truly petched. What to do what to do? He had to act quick, before he lost the element of surprise. Springblade to the man's weapon arm might injure him enough that Rey would have the advantage. But which arm was his sword arm? Earlier, the man must have reached for his weapon with his left hand, since his right had been on Rey's chest. No, that didn't mean anything, since he was reaching for the drawings with his right. A weapon usually rested on the opposite hip, didn't it? Which side had the man reached for? Rey didn't petching remember, and he didn't have time to try and recall. He only had one shot at this, and if he got the wrong arm he was dead. Even if he got the right arm he might be dead. He had to be prepared to make a hasty exit. If he could make it to the door before Vann, he had a chance. He could outrun any human, and it didn't matter where he went as long as it was away. Still, best to make an effort. Which meant doing the riskiest thing Rey had ever done. Let this work. He prayed. If there is a deity of desperate actions, please let this work. Leaping off his chair, he swung with his left hand, his fist glancing off the man's cheek. The man jerked back with a curse, his right hand reaching into his jacket. Right hand. Rey's left hand flew to his bracer, flicking a catch. His spring blade popped out, and he lunched, slashing at the man's right arm. The movement left a long, bloody gash across the man's forearm, and he dropped his unsheathed weapon (a knife, from the glimpse he got). Rey quickly kicked it towards NiseMaya, flicking the catch again so the blade retracted. He whirled around, prepared to launch the poisonous needle at Vann and end this. His arm had barely begun to move when he was slammed into the wall, hard enough for him to see spots. He reached for his flametongue, only to have a body shove up against him. His vision was filled with the thug's angry face, and Rey had only a single moment to regret everything before the human's uninjured forearm was pressed up to his throat. As he clawed at his attacker, his eyes, pleading and desperate, fell on the illusionist. Help me, damn you.

[Kuvarakh]

Even with his back to the erupting struggle, Vann knew what the sounds implied. Years of experience in tense, violent situations spelled it out for him better than the proverbial "thousand words" a quick look would have provided. He did not waste his time to bother with such a look.

He moved like a cat, surprising for his seemingly chubby build. But he vaulted himself almost completely over the counter, only sliding on his butt the last foot or so, to land right in front of a screaming Wanda. To her credit, the rush of her panicked adrenaline focused on defense as she swung the stool she'd been halfway sitting on up into the side of Vann's head.

Again though, experience served him well, as he anticipated the move and swung an arm up to block the bulk of the impact. But it jarred the knife, which had appeared as if by magic, from his grip to clatter on the floor. She tried to run past him, but he bull-rushed her into the wall where it merged with the counter.

She was cornered. Mad terror fueled a flurry of ineffective attacks with mundane items on hand. The last thing she grabbed was an apron, which she held bunched in front of her as if it could shield her from harm. Vann laughed cruelly and grabbed the collar of her blouse, flinging her around and tripping her to send her tumbling to the floor.

He saw the knife at the same time she did. She crawled desperately towards it. The force of his kicks sent her off track with gurgles of pain as she tried to reach the blade gleaming on the floor. If anything, he laughed all the harder at her futile effort. Hope bloomed in her heart as her hand closed around the hilt, only to be replaced by pain and despair as his boot slammed it flat on the stone floor.

He grabbed a brutal handful of hair and pulled her, shrieking, to her feet. His eyes glinted with anticipated savagery as he got a new grip on the retrieved blade. Somehow, the apron had caught on her knees as she had crawled, and even now, hooked on some accessory to be left hanging from her arm.

Their eyes locked and Wanda's pitiful cry couldn't match the horror of what she saw in Vann's eyes. His arm cocked back, the blade ready, and shot forward to hit her where the apron hung by her side. Her gasp seemed suddenly to be the only sound in the room, and she went limp.

Vann 'tsk'ed in mock sympathy, and propped her up in front of him, turning to see what developments the other struggles presented. He was ready to bring the blade back up to her throat and announce that the wound was not lethal, but that he was quite willing to deliver one that was. Or that he and his men would leave, with Wanda and no one else, and that anyone following them would get her killed. It all depended on what the situation was.