Closed Preventing issues. ( zand/ job thread)

[Ximal]

6th winter 512AV

A frosty morning in the spires, Xi sat in the back of the guards office awaiting his assignments fro the day, reflecting upon who would be accompanying him around the spires. He'd lately been given new orders and told he'd have a partner working with him for a bit. Xi sighed, fantastic exactly what he needed a rookie getting in his way and ballsing up everything he did. Or even worse reporting him if he lost his collective shyke again and went on a killing spree of slavers. Xi sighed, he didn't have much choice in the matter. Stretching out in the office he slumped against the back wall in the chair he'd chosen to sit in. It wasn't much to do whilst waiting there, he was left along with his thoughts and hi's mind he just wanted blank so he meditated. His eye's closed and his posture somewhat lacking in straightness but he was silent and still. motionless for the moment, just focusing on feeling out the djed pathways in his arms, and now starting to let his mind focused even further down, into his thighs and shins and finally his feet, hoping to learn something about his own inner coil of djed flux, his mental spiralling pattern of his own djed flux was something he'd want to draw one day when he got better at it. he'd want to mark this down to document his own inner workings and reflect upon them at a later date and even compare them to other's . Taking a deep breath he let his mind just roll around his body as he awaited the arrival of his new parter...What a fun day this was going to be.

[Zandelia]

Zandelia was once more being called upon to protect the Spires, as she had been during the Reclamation and again afterwards in the aftermath and chaos of victory. It seemed that it was her role within the city, her temperament unsuited to most other proclivities of the employed variety. She had been offered the opportunity for re-hiring on the evening of the 1st of Winter - the staffing had been short that ngiht and she had needed a job to earn some gold. Her funds were not inehaustible after all, and if she wished to leave the Spires during the season then she would need supplies - and supplies cost money. As such she had taken up the opportunity to protect the Spires once mroe, it helped her image and fileld her pockets.

She could not complain, she knew how to kill things well enough, as well as how to hit things until they were incapacitated and ready for questioning at a later time. In some ways it was a form of training, both martial and mental. In any given day she could learn further tricks with weapon and tongue. Her investigative skills could flourish also, mired in a world that favored the prepared and observant. As she walked towards one of the guard houses, a dreary and simplistic affair like the others, she kept her eye open – the old encampment was home to many unsavory sorts.

Don’t want to get jumped by a few drunken mercenaries playing thinking with their groin she told herself as she pulled her cloak ever tighter, warding her torso from the cold.

It was difficult to do much about the hem of her protective garment though, it flickered in the breeze intermittently in a fit of its own freedom. Chilled winds cut through her shins, what they lacked in force they made up for in pervasive numbing. She trudged onwards, her gaze darting around her as she passed many a group of almost frozen revelers. The life of those who lived in the base camp now were bloody, they celebrated their life every evening – some didn’t make it through though. Fights were common, deaths scarce but still too many for the taste of many of the cities leaders. It was partially why the Guards had been formed and developed, given provisions and powers of law. They did the grubby work the highest in the society did not wish to contemplate.

“Not that they can really run from it. Their precious city of tress is on the map now, for better or for worse” she told herself, breath misting before her eye momentarily.

She paused, her hearing catching the small sound of snapping branches and the ever so slight crushing of snow underfoot. She turned and before her were two men, both leering in the way the male species often did at her. Their hands, however, were not at their groins but at their hips – sword hilts firmly in their grips. They meant harm to her, though not after a good raping or two she imagined. She pulled her hood back and stared at them in silence, slowly tilting her head to the left whilst placing her ahdns on her own hips. They had not seen her weapons before, covered with her cloak as they had been, but as she pushed it over her elbows with the stance they came into view. They stepped back slightly and one drew his sword and brandished it sluggishly towards her.

“I dunno Tom, she’n looks like she knows a thing or two” the unsheathed one spoke to his friend.

“Thing or two with her mouth! I’ma gonna get her! Use her…soft bits. Give her to Duncan after, he’s the biggun’ a’ter all..” the weapon brandishing thug slurred.

“You couldn’t catch me if you knew which way you were looking. I suggest you listen to your friend here before you find you don’t have anything to use my…soft part with” she growled at him menacingly. It was enough to give him pause, raising his sword up for a few moments, considering.

“Buggr that!” he screamed, enough to capture anyone’s attention nearby, the guard house should have had someone in it she knew. They would have heard and would come. She didn’t need them at the moment, but if others jumped in she could find herself quickly outnumbered.

He ran at her, his feet staggering a little and trying to skewer her with the point of his weapon. She sighed and stepped to her left, darting around the blade neatly, he was neither very skilled or very sober after all. She grabbed his extended wrist with her right hand and pulled her left arm back. Fist curled and covered in cold iron his elbow joint stood little chance against her attack – it dislocated as her fist smashed into the outside of the elbow and followed through with ruthless efficiency. The man screamed and fell to his knees, sword dropping from his hand and into the snow.

“Warned you…idiot” she spoke into his ear, though she doubted he could hear her in his smallish world of agony.

[Ximal]

The quiet meditation of Xi was now being disturbed by a few hooligans. Xi sighed slowly letting the breath escape him and conditioning his body to get ready for instantaneous action. Xi stood up from the chair in the guard office and stretched out his limbs before the loud scream. Never a dull day. Xi took off like...Well like the lumbering ox that he was. Xi took off like zith who hadn't eaten for a week. Xi ran it was only a hundred yards but still that was a fair distance. Closing in on the situation Xi spotted what was happening, two men and ...Was that zand ? What in the heck was she doing here ? Still Xi watched her almost effortlessly take down one of them, dodging the blade with ease and then to the best of his knowledge, dislocated his elbow with a swift smack with the cold iron tonfa. She was dangerous with those things...Notably so. Still Xi thought it best to give her a hand. Closing in on the situation he'd lined himself up with the second of the two men before leaping into the air and latching his arm around the second's neck an driving him through the air head first into the ground, and speaking out politely to zand as he closed through the air. "Morning zand." After driving this guy's face into the dirt he pulled himself up from the ground and gave her a sort of cocked headed look. Coughing slightly into the front of his knuckles "Y'know you attract trouble like a magnet...I'm not really one to talk there though, am I?" Xi smiled lightly brought his fist down sharply into the temple of the one on the ground screaming of a dislocated arm. Picking up the unconscious one of the two he'd knocked out himself he slung the poor moron over his shoulder before speaking to zand again. Well zand what brings you down here this morning ? And i see you've caught a glimpse of the "locals" which are left, most of which are completely stupid, and it only gets worse with the alcohol."

[Zandelia]

Zandelia still held the wrist of the destroyed limb as the attacker feel to his knees, roaring with acute pain loudly enough to turn corpses into Nuit just to get him to cease his bawling. She kicked him once in the short ribs, it drove the breath out him enough to cause a small period of spluttering semi-silence. She turned to approach his comrade but a large blur passed her and launched itself at her next opponent to swiftly dispatch him from consciousness. She tensed for a moment at the unknown intrusion before realizing she knew the man – Ximal. She relaxed and prodded her own fallen in the ribs again for good measure. Ximal, sadly, put an end to his suffering with a mighty blow to his jaw and then both were unconscious.

What did they mean I wonder? Who is this Duncan? A local bully strong enough to unite mercenaries under his banner? she asked herself in silence as Ximal threw one man over his shoulder and set off towards whence he had come.

“Trouble finds me often, especially when it is looking for me. I have not quite mastered the art of stealthy dealings it seems” she told him as she grabbed the right leg of her own man and began to drag him through the snow, trailing in Ximal’s wake.

The journey was short and clothed in nothing but the sound of tramping feet, spotted with the occasional groan from behind her. Their destination was the guard house of course, she had had Ximal’s movements watched and knew he worked there – she was to be his new partner in preventing crime. She had need of the money, though a few well placed requests had made sure that she had been posted with Ximal. She needed to know that exactly what he was capable of, what his psychology spoke of him and whether she could trust him enough to request certain services of him. As they reached the door she let Ximal enter and stayed outside, throwing the man against the wall of the building so that he was propped up.

“You stay in there and make sure he’s still and can’t hear a damned thing Ximal, I’m going to ask this man what he knows about something” she told him just before the door swung closed and cut sound off from the interior rooms.

She knelt by the man, watched as consciousness returned slowly due to the pain in his arm, still dislocated as it was. She unsheathed her father’s dagger and made sure it would be the first thing he would see after feeling the pain, the blade reflecting the moonlight gruesomely. She took hold of his arm as a guttural sound was torn from his throat, yanked hard as her knee braced his shoulder, pulling terribly until the pop sounded and his arm was straightened again. He was screaming now, his vision no doubt blinded temporarily. She waited for him to come back to reality, arm cradled upon his chest protectively, and watched as rage was replaced with the chill guise of fear. She merely looked at him and smiled, slowly and menacingly.

“Well my friend, it looks like we are alone,” she spoke to him, almost conversationally as his gaze darted about and his feet skittered a little, “and I have questions for you. Tell me what I want to know and I shall let you live. If you don’t…well…you have soft parts that can be removed” she indicated the region he had been thinking with previously with the tip of her curved blade.

Fear was a more powerful motivator than actual harm in investigation she knew, pain merely hardened the target as stubborn nature set in. The fear of pain though, that was powerful indeed. The trick was to sell them the lie that they would be free of it if they cooperated. Still, you had to first make them aware you were willing to deal pain. She slashed her balde across his leg, lightly enough to cut but not too deeply.
“Understand?” she asked darkly.

“Y-YES!” he shouted at her as he madea good attempt at trying to force himself backwards through the wall.

“Good. Now…who is this Duncan? A small time bastard around these parts?” she asked him. It was a simple enough question he would tell truth on, it purpose to ascertain his ‘tells’ and his truth giving visage.

“No, no he’s the leader of a few of us! Damn tough and evil enough to rip your head off for no reason” he whispered at her, voice beginning to break. There was no lie in his eyes, his face had barely moved beyond grimacing and wincing.

Good she told herself.

“Shhh, I will not harm you now, not if you keep this up” she told him, hand patting his cheek gently, a move designed to force trust upon him – of a sort.

“Where is he based?” she asked.

“Out east” he told her, his eyes glancing away.

“You were doing so well too” she told him as she noted his eyes and stabbed her dagger into his thigh, deeply this time. His screams were terrible to ehar but she oushed through them and withdrew her blade.

“South! SOUTH!” he shouted.

“Well done, you remembered our arrangement. Now, one last question, who does he work with?”

“What?!”

“A mercenary always has those who pay them, who is yours? His?”

“Some lapdog named Calhun! Its all I know! He hired us to get ready to take something!”

Zandelia merely sighed outwardly, the name one that she had hoped would not be uttered. This proved he was a dealer in mercenaries but nothing more. Still, it was unsettling for her to know of the connection, the spy in her piecing together another section of the jigsaw. She placed her left hand upon his neck and pushed her wrist against the hidden button – spring blade lashing out to viciously end the man’s life. She stood up and wiped her cleaned her blades with handfuls of snow, drying them on the soft fabric of her robes. She stripped the man of his valuables before leaving his cooling body against the wall, her hands filled with a short sword, a couple of daggers and two pouches of what she assumed was gold but had little time to inspect.

“Rest with Dira” she told him as she entered to Guard House to greet Ximal properly this time.

[Ximal]

Following xzand's request upon reaching the guard house he raied an eye brow at her before booting open the cage doors and tossing the large sack of human refuse into the cage locking the heavy bars shut. These bars could hod both him and jamoura so they were pretty strong in all fairness. Though something did catch his attention a scream from outside. What in the name of ivaks breath was she doing ? Xi still thought to pay it no mind though instead adjusting the bow upon his back lightly and reaching a finger across the blade of his cold iron handaxe. Still it took a while for the moron he'd knocked out to awaken and notice his nose was broken and that he was now missing another tooth from his vapid smile. Xi sat next to the cage in a chair facing the opening. A cold iron blanched leer came at Xi through the bars as the merc went for his weapons only to find that Xi had stripped him of all of them. "Where the bleeding petch is my gear!" Xi shot the merc a look through the bars one which would shake some normal men to their cores. As Xi then lifted a knife off of the table next too him. And smiled as he shifted it around his fingers, before placing it back down. And speaking slowly in a low tone. "you jut wait right there i've a friend who wants a word with you in a few minutes. So please calm down and wait. She'll be here shortly. Mind you though if she didn't get here soon, it'll be me asking the questions and i can assure you, she's a lot nicer than i am." Xi smiled with an evil twinkle in his eye before snatching the axe from his side and tossing it hard into the cage letting the hard sharp edge of the axe blade stab in to the bar as he awaited zands arrival and thought to lightly torture the prisoner with mind games instead of actually hurting him in any way. No he'd levae that to zand, it wasn't a thing he chose to do.

[Zandelia]

Zanelia pushed the door of the Guard House closed, cutting off the icy chill of the breeze sweeping through the old Reclamation Camp. She allowed herself a small shiver as a semblance of warm from the room began to thaw her limbs before making her way towards the seated Ximal, her partner in guard duty it seemed. She placed the various items upon the table with a solid thud and shifted it about with her hands, trailing her fingers between the melee of objects – they were a small bounty but everything was useful in their current situation. She looked up at Ximal after a few moments and pushed one of the pouches towards him without saying anything. She took the short sword and hefted it in her hands, pulling the blade free and feeling the weight – rough but serviceable whas how she could describe the weapon.

“We have spoils, small though they may be. Call it an advance on our pay for no one will miss them” she told Ximal with a small grin upon her lips.

“Bitch! What did you do to him? Petching, shyking, whore!” the third person in the room snarled at her, spittle flying from his mouth, though thankfully enough without spraying the pair of guards a few paces away.

She turned her attention to a small clay pitcher of liquid upon another hard, scarred table in the room. She walked towards it slowly, casually as if he had never spoken out of turn. She picked up the pitcher and poured some of the contents into a cup of carved wood. Picking up the cup she tasted it and found it to be one of the Spires local home brews, sweet and weakly alcoholic. She raised her eyebrows at Ximal and made her way towards their prisoner as he raged and railed against his misfortunes. She handed the cup to him at arm’s length so that he could not harm her if he went for it. She nodded at him as she proffered the cup, waiting for him to take it.

“You may be a prisoner but we are not savages, drink and feel its warmth fill you. I have no need of your death. In fact. I would very much like to broker a deal with you” she told him when he did not immediately take it.

“Deal? What kind of deal?” he asked her, shrewd eyes darting from her face and to the cup alternately.

“You like freedom don’t you?” she asked him in a rhetorical manner, gesturing with the cup once more until he finally broke and took it from her greedily.

She stepped back and dragged a chair into the middle of the room so that she could sit down, chair facing backwards and arms upon the back of the chair. It was a deliberate move that made her a singular person, removing Ximal from the equation to some extent. She needed his corroboration and he was smarter than his recently deceased friend – he had proven that already. She looked at Ximal and smiled at him, something the prisoner would not be able to see. Returning her attention to the prisoner she decided to open the proceedings with something direct and to the point, a bench mark from which the man at their mercy would only see improvement.

“So, what do we do with criminals Ximal? I hear you are quite…forceful in meting out justice. Care to share your wisdom. I don’t wish to scare him but he isn’t in a very good position is he?” she asked him casually, her eye still upon the prisoner who was becoming agitated again.

“ I’d rather let him live, but at the end of the day that’s up to him isn’t it? His friend told me of a large group ready to steal something,” she dropped that knowledge into the conversation casually, seeking to persuade the prisoner into a parley, “I think that is worth finding out about…don’t you?”

“Go on Ximal, have some fun. Try not to kill him now” she gestured her chin towards the prisoner and hoped Ximal would see what she was thing to do.

There is no right way to tell him after all she thought as she got ready for a little investigative torture.

[Ximal]

Xi leant forward in his seat resting his elbows on his knees to emphasise his presence in the situation as zand interrogated the now prisoner after assessing the now claimed "loot" Which zand would more than likely be selling off to fill her own purse Which didn't bother Xi much he had his own fair share of currency from this job and it was already starting to weigh him down substantially. Still he kept himself noticed as she glanced back at him trying to convey some sort of plan mostly about what was going to transpire here. However upon her pulling of the chair to the centre of the room the she flicked a smile at him almost confirming his suspicions about what was happening, either he was being used again or he was part of a plan, and right now he felt like it was both, still either way he'd get some solid information out of the dumb petch in the cage. And learn a few things off of zand on how to interrogate a prisoner. Before he knew it he was being dragged into this however he chose to keep up how he'd been acting prior, building up a layer of intimidation and trepidation towards the prisoner. What did he do with criminals ? Xi simply stood up cracking the knuckles of his fingers individually before cracking all of them across the connection to his palm. "Well it's simple we break them. Just to make sure they don't break the law again." Xi smiled slowly, at the mention of zand suggesting that he take his time beating upon the idiot mostly to help coerce the information from him. Xi stepped up to the cage door before prying the hand axe from the door and swinging open the cage he stepped in slotting the axe back into his belt. "Now, think carefully, do you want to loose a finger or a few teeth ? Your choice after all it's your appendages."

oocsorry for poor quality i've got a lot of crap to do. Feel free to have xi doing s few actions next post

[Zandelia]

A small smile graced her lips as she watched Ximal approach the small cell, grabbing his throwing axe as he did so. It was not that she enjoyed torturing others, or that the giving of pain pleased her overly much, it was that it was enjoyable to have someone else to do it for her. Ximal was far from her follower and would probably never work under her in the fashion she needed, however for this occasion he was a rare blessing. The last such person whom had done similar favor for her had been Revy Hiroe – a woman that she missed dearly now, more than ever. As she watched Ximal enter the cell, threatening all the while, she wondered if she would ever see that beautiful warrior woman again in her life. Of all women she had formed the deepest connection with Revy, slightly more beyond the physical, and she had left for Taloba.

And never returned, is probably dead. Most good things in my life seem to die before very long she found the melancholy thought drifting into her mind before she banished it to the depths of her psyche, for now.

“Try not to hit the face too much Ximal dear, his face is the only thing he has left,” she attempted an instruction to seem in a position of power to the prisoner, “besides, ribs hurt more and with so little damage beyond bruising. We don’t want to kill him…we’re not monsters after all” she finished with an airy tone, affected disinterest and emotional detachment.

She merely continued to watch as Ximal began with a few rough cuffs to the sides of the man’s heads, a smart move as it would disorientate the man and make it all but impossible for him to fight back. When the man cursed and raved, trying to lash back at Ximal, he got a firm knee to the gut which crumpled his torso over. He fell to his knees and received a few gentle kicks – or gentle for Ximal at any rate – before falling to the floor. Cuffed on the back of the head he was then dragged back to his feet and thrown against the bars before Ximal advanced upon him again, blows casually lashing out to inflict fear more than damage. Ximal was being smart, either due to Zandelia’s words or out of his own version of honor, he was taking it slowly and easily. As he finished the round he looked at Zandelia and shrugged, the prisoner had given nothing on what Zandelia had indicated.

Tougher than I thought, or smarter perhaps she mused as she motioned for Ximal to exit the cage.

Pushing herself up and out of the chair she paced her way casually towards the prisoner and through the threshold of his misery. She approached him with confidence and made a point of crouching down so that he could see her face through his pain. She did not strike out at him despite the fact that he recoiled from her as if she were a raging inferno seeking to char him to pieces. She exercised her patience as she waited for him to realize he was not about to endure further, immediate, punishment.

“As I said, we are not savages. Now, we could spend all day beating what I want out of you if you like, you will break eventually. Everyone does. The only variable is how much they are damaged before doing so,” she told him gently, not knowing if it were truth but putting enough threat into her kindly tones as she could think of, “or you could tell me what I want to know about this Duncan?” she asked him, did nothing more than asked.

“What do you want to know?” he mumbled at her through puffy lips and numbed jaw.

“Everything. His group’s numbers, their exact location, whether they are smart or foolish. How skilled are they? What is it the plan to steal and when?” she asked him, voice like honey dripping from the tip of a spoon.

It took a long while and she did have to give a few gentle ‘encouragements’ more than she liked. In the end though she gained what she wanted and stood up to look down upon him – he was not overly harmed, as she said, he has been a smart man. Smarter than his friend at least.

“Go on then, go. I uphold my bargains criminal. Leave all of your possessions, money and weapons. The only thing you may have is your cloak back against the cold. Leave the Spires and I warn to stay away from Duncan…he will be dead before dawn” she nudged him with her foot.

He looked up at her incredulously before kissing her boot with babbled thanks and stumbling towards the door of the Guard House, cloak nabbed from the table and thrown around his shoulder hastily.

”Looks like we have work to do Ximal. Twenty chimes walk down the southern path out of the camp and a further ten chimes to the east through the trees, that’s where their camp is. We can plan along the way I suppose” she frowned down at the ground, wondering when it had been exactly that she had become so accustomed to brutality.

[Ximal]

As Xi stepped out of the cage he sat himself back down in the chair on the opposing wall, just out of her whispering earshot. His fingers lightly tracing over his for head, he was in a situation he wasn't proud of but then gain this was zands area, personally he'd have just clobbered the pair of them and tosses em in the cages to rot. But then again zand was the information gatherer, so obviously he should have known she'd do more to try and get the information out of them Xi just simply sat at the back of the room. Rolling over thoughts, and checking his gear was all in place, leaving zand to "interrogate" the merc in the cages though Xi personally had just done most of the interrogation, he hadn't hit him too hard, just hard enough to make him know that it was the start of something. No if he'd of done his normal routine then this could have gone very differently. Still Xi just let zand get along with whatever it was she was discussing with the cap...Wait. Make that formerly captured she'd just let the moron go. Xi sighed and hoped she had a damned good explanation for this. Though when she started explaining things to him , well it became sharply apparent that she'd let him out as part of a bargain and now odds were he was going to tell this "duncan " that they were going to some after him. Though zand suggested a plan, be made along the route. Xi glanced at her and then started to speak whilst readying his things. "I'll come up with a plan, i just need the facts, how many are there, how big is the camp, and then i'll formulate the plan, even though it may not look it i've been doing this for over a season. So zand i'll tell you the works of the plan on the way there however i would recommend that we make haste. It's highly unlikely that he's heeded your words and now he has a head start on us. " Xi shifted the bow on his shoulder and then marched out of the guard house but let zand take the lead. Mostly because she got teh directions partially because this allowed him to think.

[Zandelia]

Zandelia pulled her cloak about her tightly, keeping at least a thin layer between herself and the bitter elements. Pulling her hood up she watch its hem ripple slightly as she took in the surroundings. She had let the fool go, but mostly so that she could see if what Ximal was suggesting could be called correct. They had both frightened the man and he now had two choices – to return to warm Duncan and trust in the safety of numbers, or to leave the region alone and almost certain to die. She doubted he would take the latter no matter how much he had been scared, he was no fool. She wanted to point this out to Ximal immediately but instead bit her tongue as he spoke – he was the ranking ‘officer’ after all. It may not have meant much but ultimately he was in charge.

Doesn’t stop me advising though does it? she reminded herself coolly, her gaze finally locking upon a stumbling figure in the distance, heading south, the direction he had told her the camp was in.

“Looks like you’re right Ximal, the bastard is heading the way he told us, South. However, I let him go to see if he would lead us to his friends. I couldn’t trust his words. He would have made anything up to get out of there and no one can detect every lie” she responded as she set off in pursuit of their prey, Ximal at her side.

The going was not as difficult as she had feared, the snow carved in a general path by their quarry that also made it easy enough to follow him, for now. Still, the chill winds numbed her face and she knew before long it would dry her lips and cause them to crack – a consequence of cold weather she bitterly disliked. Her lips were useful tools and she hated trying not to wince every damned time she tried to talk to someone. She reasoned, not for the first time, that she needed a mask to wrap around the bottom portion of her features. She pushed the concern to the back of her mind as she proceeded to tell Ximal what their newly freed prisoner had told her.

“He said the camp was small and generally filled with disreputable types,” she began, lining up the information she had simply enough, “no more than eight in number but smart enough to post a couple of sentries, so if we can get rid of them quickly and silently we’ll have six to deal with - maybe less” she continued to fill him in.

“Duncan is well armed and equipped but the others aren’t as well turned out. Iron weapons for the most part, no archer amongst them worth much either, though we can’t be sure of that yet. Leather armor rather than metal too, except for Duncan. No mages either, so no fear there apparently. I’ll be able to see if any are there though, I think” she stated that with as much confidence as she could muster, she had not mastered her abilities yet, not by a long shot.

“Apart from that we could use the environment to our advantage. They’ve been there longer than we have but I fancy we are better at working with what we have than they are. If they were much of a threat they wouldn’t be forced to live in the woods and we’d have heard of them before tonight” she told him, knowing that it was only half true.

It might actually make them more skilled in that they haven’t been caught, but I can’t assume that yet she thought as she continued to follow the fleeing prisoner and awaited Ximal’s formulations.