All Tied Up

by **Lucian Hill** on November 5th, 2014, 4:02 am

The raven had watched in a vague amalgam of horror, admiration, and curiosity. This was no less than the second man she had watched this woman, this widow, single-handedly kill two men. The man's death was gruesome, and yet it was simoultaneously beautiful in its own right. He was, more than likely, a despicable man, and he probably deserved his death. Lucian, however, was in no less than awe at her abilities. This made him distracted, which he had no right to be; especially in such a dangerous situation. It was only when Saris yelled at him to duck that he ducked, instinctually at her command, and narrowly missed a large clay vase being smashed into his head.

The widow was too far away from him to help him immediately. This man could kill him before she even made it back to the raven. Lucian did not like these odds.

Adrenaline kicked in rather rapidly, the fight-or-flight response exploding in his head, pumping through his veins. Lucian was already crouched now, and he turned on a dime, trying his best to tackle the man at the waist. The surprise and the man's awkward stance from missing with the vase had already made him unsteady on his feet, only helping Lucian push him to the ground. Lucian, on the ground with him, only thought of one thing - and headbutted the man in the groin.

The man keeled over in pain and kneed Lucian in the ribs, while the raven forced himself to stand up, not quite feeling the pain in his side nor his head at that current moment in time. The man was curled up in a ball, as much as he could've been in a ball because of his large size, and hopped over the man. Lucian took his leather-booted foot, his mind suddenly turning to how worn-in and molded to his feet the boots were right now. This was what occupied his mind as he repeatedly stomped on the man's face and then the throat, tears forming in his eyes but not yet streaming down his face. He only stopped when the man stopped struggling, and he turned to Saris.

"I..." He paused, not wanting to continue his sentence. The raven's mind was buzzing with questions. "We should go." His thoughts turned to the man they had seen enter the store, and he pushed back the corpse of the man that tried to kill him, now wincing at the pain in his head and ribcage. Both were likely bruised, though he tried to ignore it, still looking at the widow. He walked into the store again, looking at the objects on display. The raven pocketed a small trinket, a small wooden carving of a flower. It was someone's loss, though at the time he didn't necessarily care whose. The tiny carving fell snugly in his pocket next to the key and the...his Night Eyes coin.

He spun around, his eyes wide in panic, and he ran over to Saris' fresh kill. The raven dug through his pockets frantically, pulling out miza after miza until his eyes finally fell upon what he was looking for. His membership into the Night Eyes. Thank the Gods that he had remembered before they left. This detour, however, made them stay much too long - and when a couple of thuggish looking brutes bursted through the door, he turned on his heel and ran down the hallway, tugging on the widow's arm on the way out.

If the raven was good at anything, he was good at getting away. He didn't want to leave this woman behind, however - she was too valuable, she knew too much, and he was growing fond of her despite her gruesome activities. He didn't quite know why, but he was beginning to trust this damn widow. That was a dangerous thing in Sunberth, and he was wary of the feeling.

He didn't look back to see if the duo were being chased - he simply dove into the midst of the crowd and attempted to blend in.

by **Shai** on November 5th, 2014, 4:36 am

Shai stopped short as Lucian took down the man. There was no way to employ her make-shift whip without hurting the crow. Nor was a wrestling match appropriate for the delicately boned woman. She stepped back as the deed was done by stomping on the thug’s neck. Without judgment, she played silent observer to the watery eyes. It wasn’t an easy thing to kill, but it was the way of Sunberth. Once long ago she would have done the same as he, but years had worn on the pieces of her soul that felt remorse for killing those who would see the spider harmed.

“Yes, let us be quick.” She replied in a whisper over the reticence of death. Spinning in her spot, belt dangling to-and-fro the Symenestra found the first pieces of her missing affects; her picks, wrenches, and war fans sat on a table as of yet not put on display. In all the thief realized it had been only a handful of chimes since they had tossed her into that office.

Wrapping her hair up quickly into a bun she shoved the picks and wrenches in the black hair, keeping it in place. The fans went back into their loops in her belt only just in time. More thugs burst through the door and Lucian grabbed her arm. Without a modicum of further insistence the spider sprang after the crow.

For all that the Symenestra’s limbs were long, his height made his stride yet again longer. She kept pace through. The thieves had a headstart getting away from the uninformed guards. When they came to an important turn she grabbed his elbow and lead the way to the Quay. From experience came wisdom, and if the kill didn’t hit Lucian immediately it would very soon. First kills were a hard thing, from them arose painful questions.

She was steering them towards the Quay. Her home was all but complete, only the the furnishing was unfinished. Still over the streets and alleys she finally slowed to a stop. The spider spent the majority of time on the rooftops, running and jumping had given her some endurance but nothing extraordinary. “Ahead is Scars territory.” The gates were just an alley away, “If you have enemies there, tell me now or say nothing at all.” Not that it particularly mattered, Shai lived in their domain but was not a Scar. There were friends and colleagues among them but she would not be forced to live by their rules. If Lucian had enemies, Shai would find a way to hide him.

She leaned against the corner that would bring the gatehouse into view. Glancing back over her shoulder, the second story of her home was jutting out above the walls.

by **Lucian Hill** on November 5th, 2014, 10:17 pm

He was unsure of their destination. The raven could sense his trinkets rubbing against each other in his pocket, but they weren't what was on his mind. Lucian was still in shock, both mentally and most likely physically, and he had let the widow take the lead without question. His head buzzed with questions and concern, but he felt detached from reality for the entire trip. The pain he should've been feeling didn't come yet, adrenaline keeping him moving despite sudden exhaustion. The raven had shifted twice, killed a man, and sprinted away from pursuers before even having breakfast, and his stomach groaned in protest.

"No, no enemies there. I barely know 'em." His voice made it obvious he was elsewhere, though it was also obvious that what he had done hadn't quite made it to him yet, but he subconsciously blocked out what was happening around him and simply followed Saris to her destination in the territory of a gang he knew next to nothing about. Was she a member of the Scars? Maybe, possibly, especially if she lived there. But there was always the chance she wasn't, but that possibility wasn't on his mind.

The raven, instead, focused dangerously on the inside of his head, ignoring every fiber of his being screaming at him to pay attention before he got into more trouble. They had run far enough that they had some time before the men found them again. He reached into his pocket, pulling out the Night Eyes coin. Now he wasn't even sure it was his, and he was unaware of the possible consequences of killing someone else in the Night Eyes - even if he didn't kill this man, there was every chance the other man was part of the gang. However, he knew they prided themselves on being secretive, and the men he had seen were too brutish and large to seem particularly intelligent, and there was no reason that he knew of for them to kidnap another member of the Night Eyes - himself.

Resigning to the fact that it must be his coin, the raven was suddenly overcome with brief flashes of the events that had happened only chimes ago. The man grabbing at his boot as he stepped on his neck, Lucian too afraid and confused to stop what he was doing. The man bleeding out, his neck pouring blood and his mouth gagged with the belt of the man whose insides slowly turned into mush. It was entirely gruesome, and he had been a part of that.

He thought about the skill and ease at which Saris had done it; she had obviously done this before, and had no visible qualms. The raven could not understand how she was operating so easily at that moment, and he audibly sighed. Blinking hard in a desperate attempt to get the wetness out of his eyes, he forced himself to pay attention to the outside world. A breeze blew salty air into his nostrils, but after living in Sunberth his entire life, he paid it no mind. Anyone looking at him would be able to tell that he was in shock, a tiny broken floodgate precariously keeping his emotions locked in until he was out of the sight of public. The fear of letting out the flood of emotions in public was perhaps the only thing keeping him from breaking down in the street.

by **Shai** on November 5th, 2014, 11:04 pm

Shai nodded, leading Lucian forward and through the gate’s to The Quay. The final leg of their trek was efficient; growing quicker in proportion to the raven’s silence. The walls were stone, along with the Quay house on their right. It was the wooden home to left, the flesh of the wood still bright from being newly cut and constructed.

The front door wasn’t locked, why bother when it was all but empty? Everything of value was on the second story, which had no feasible way for a human to reach. The first story was nothing more than shop front without wares. Shai pulled out a chair for Lucian and let him settle into it. He was retreating in on himself, or so the spider assumed by his silence. Without fanfare or explanation she ran to the nearest wall. Microscopic cilia rippled out of her body and the spider scaled the wall as naturally as she walked on two feet. In a little more than a chime she had stripped a blanket off one of the beds in the second story.

The whole room exuded an incense of fresh oak and sea brine. The only furnishings on the first floor were a handful of shelves, one table and the chair Shai had brought out. Everything about the room was unused. It was a new beginning for the spider in every possible way. There was a world being left behind and a life chosen when the construction had begun.

She returned and draped the blanket around Lucian. Some part of his reaction was triggering her long dormant mothering instincts. It would be painful later after the crisis had passed, she would forestall thoughts of her own son.

The monster slid away from her mien. The self-accuasation of a beastial nature that allowed to hide the toll killing took on her. It was in the throes of slumber that the memories could overtake her, the wrong she had caused, the men whom saw her only in their last breaths. What was left behind was rare vulnerability that only a handful could admit to having seen, none of them were in Sunberth. Somewhere deep beneath the murderous Symenestra’s mask was a real soul. It bordered on revelation for Shai herself, she hadn’t let the broken facet of her personality show in years.

Chell was safe for now, Shai was certain. There would be time to worry about him later, for now the new acquaintance held her attention. The Widow watched him carefully, hesitantly. “Lucian…” She started quietly, the eerie roll of Symenos accent heavy on her tongue. “You are safe in my nest.” Confidence rung clear. Without a doubt, this included from herself. Nests were not exclusive to Avians, it was also the name for a home and family for the Symenestra. The two meanings were interchangeable. “It is ok to be hurt here, little Raven.”

by **Lucian Hill** on November 6th, 2014, 12:39 am

Lucian came to himself suddenly, finding himself sitting in a chair, Saris climbing up the wall. Her house had no stairs, and he could now see why. His head hurt, but the raven couldn't tell whether or not it was from mental anguish or actual, physical pain. He cocked his head to the side, accepting the blanket with a blink and staring at the wall, his face away from Saris.

It was only when he turned back to look at the widow that she would see the tears streaming down his face, confusin writ in his eyes and expression. Regret flooded his mind. He had not meant to kill, to murder, only to subdue, and yet he had found that he couldn't stop once he had started; whether it had been of sheer panic or another reason, and that scared the raven. He cried, silently, no sobbing involved, just tears. It wasn't until the widow spoke that he shuddered and his face fell into his hands.

This reaction was for but a moment, because almost as quickly as it had happened, Lucian stood up. He stepped gently over to Saris, and suddenly threw his arms around her in a hug. The raven did not know why he did this, but it felt right to do at that moment. The expression on her face was one of someone who genuinely cared, and of someone who empathised with him. Empathy was incredibly difficult to find in Sunberth.

It was then that the raven felt the bond. He didn't know how it was supposed to feel, but he knew that this was what it was - a tidal wave of connection that crested in what felt like slow motion and crashed down more quickly than he could comprehend. A flood of emotions filled him, and he noticed that some of them were not even his own; they were foreign, yet not foreign. They were from Saris.

They were faint, difficult to fully grasp and hard to read, but they were hers. He grasped the widow tighter, crying harder and not saying anything. He had bonded after, what, 5 years? He had felt that he would be alone for the rest of his relatively short-lived life, yet somehow he had bonded to someone. The raven wasn't sure how the bond was supposed to happen, only that it had and that it was to this woman he had just met. A thought rang in his conciousness, not unlike a bell.

He wasn't alone anymore.

He felt something from Saris though. An emptiness that she was struggling to ignore and conceal. She was missing something, and while he didn't know what, he felt the strong urge to help her find it.

"What are ya missing?" His question was clear, despite the tears now slowly falling down his face. The raven wasn't quite sure whether he was crying from happiness, sadness, fear, or all of the above, but he knew that somehow, everything was going to be okay for a while, even as the pain in his ribs suddenly decided to make itself known. He flinched, dropping his arms from around the widow and moving them to his side.

He rubbed what was most certainly a bruise, and proceeded to take off his shirt. He looked at the widow, and then at himself, inspecting his arms and chest for any further injuries. He finally noticed the pain in his arms where the ropes had held him and rubbed against his skin, leaving red marks and rope burn. A bruise was most certainly forming on his ribcage, though pressing down on it he felt nothing broken. Not that he was a doctor, but he assumed that there would be more pain if one of his ribs had snapped. The raven picked up his shirt and put it back on after a few chimes, the slight cold seeping through the sparsely furnished bottom story of the house.

by **Shai** on November 6th, 2014, 1:34 am

It was an instant. A single heartbeat the horrible lonely silence left by Chell’s distance in her mind met a new current. It was a lash of lightning and soothing all in the same emotion. In the next breath she felt the shock, Lucian’s shock. The chill of horror that cause his tears, only it muddled as the experience took them both at once. The startling clarity of the moment faded into a dull sense of him. Shai knew somehow, that if she closed her eyes no matter what Lucian went in the room it would be as natural as breathing to point him out. It was the strongest part of the bond for her, his location.

In the days to come, it would make sense. The woman had lost so many in her time, Chell the most recent and temporary of these, that finding her people meant everything. “Yes, I have lost my Chell. He was not with me when were taken I think. He is somewhere else in the city.” Shai didn’t hesitate when she then revealed the truth of her magic. It felt wrong to hide it, malicious even. If Lucian was to be as close to her as the bond he would learn of her magic. Even if that magic was little more than spitting in the ocean. “He is a familiar, but he is safe for now Pryza. When you feel better we can seek him out.”

Shai eyed the bruises and rope burns. It was an expected consequence of living in Sunberth to be hurt. Still, it was entirely different looking at the wounds on another and feeling the strange concoction of emotions.. not as her own by any means but still within the confines of her being. Shai knew the word for it, Djed. Somehow part of what the Kelvic was must be related to the Irylid, perhaps some emotion had allowed this connection like the contract had allowed the familiary bond. If the spider had been an academic she might have delved further, but that was the end of the train of the thought.

The spider stared about her home, trying to dissect how she felt about this change. It wasn’t alien, but neither was it expected. How could this day have gone so far from the norm? It was a question that was rapidly approaching paramount. Somewhere in the beginning, there were answers and Shai suspected they both needed them. “My name is not Saris, Lucian. It is a moniker, my given name is Shai.” Answers would stem from being truthful, like the familiar and like her name. Shai know how to accept a true partner, a peer, and it only made sense to accept this new bond as another partnership.

She pushed the chair back towards the unused front desk. There she posed like a statue, her hands propped against the chair back held up the spider’s insignificant weight. Eyes sinking into far off thought, so many things known and unknown had culminated in this moment in time. Finally, the conjecture had to be put to an end. “Lucian what is happening?”

by **Lucian Hill** on November 6th, 2014, 3:39 am

Lucian blinked the tears out of his eyes. He did not know what a familiar was, but he didn't like the feelings coming off of Shai because of the loss. Shai. The name felt awkward on his lips, and awkward for the woman he had known briefly as Saris - while no doubt it was a pretty name. Regardless, he mouthed the name to himself, becoming familiar with the way it felt on his tongue. The raven knew he was going to have to get used to it, though he didn't mind.

He didn't understand what she called him, and he muttered it under his breath, but he looked at Shai. "I'm fine. Let's go find...Chell." It occurred to him that 'familiar' was a magic term, and he bristled at his bred-in hatred and fear of magic - but he couldn't hate Shai for using it, and he was going to have to get over it. He looked around the room, automatically checking his pocket for the collected trinkets, and looked at the widow.

His thoughts raced to compile all the information and events that had happened in such a short amount of time, frantically swimming through his new memories and the influx of information stemming from his new, and unexpected, bondmate. He finally took a good look at his surroundings; it appeared to be an empty storefront, ready to house goods but nothing to sell. The raven wondered what she could possibly want to sell.

He tugged on his sleeves, pulling the edges up to his elbow and set his hands on the table, leaning. His injuries weren't severe enough for them to stop looking for something that was obviously important to the Symenestra. He pondered on how instant the effect was - one moment there was nothing, and the next was a shock, a stunning influx of information and connection and belonging.

Without another word, he turned and walked out of the door, the only remnants of his previous emotions the raven had felt being the dried tears on his cheeks and reddened eyes. He could feel Shai following him, as if he had eyes in the back of his head. Lucian stopped moving soon after leaving the house, pausing in his movement to look at the widow.

His emotions had been on a rollercoaster that day, and his remorse over killing a man had been pushed out of the way for this new feeling. He didn't know what he should've been feeling at that moment; he just knew that he was supposed to be feeling something, and he certainly was. The only matter was in identifying it.

by **Vanari** on November 30th, 2014, 11:38 pm

Lucian

Observation	+5 XP
Intelligence	+4 XP
Unarmed Combat	+1 XP
Running	+1 XP
Climbing	+1 XP
Socialization	+1 XP
Escape Artist	+2 XP
Investigation	+1 XP
Interrogation	+1 XP

Lores :

Shai

Observation	+5 XP
Intimidation	+1 XP
Intelligence	+4 XP
Unarmed Combat	+1 XP
Climbing	+1 XP
Interrogation	+1 XP
Negotiation	+1 XP
Brawling	+1 XP
Socialization	+2 XP
Rhetoric	+2 XP
Leadership	+3 XP
Escape Artist	+2 XP

Lores :

Loot :

Notes :

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All Tied Up

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