Cleaning House (Raven)

[Inoadar]

xxxxxxx25th of Spring, 514

Inoadar

Inoadar left The Spot with the job details. He was to break into a house in the Noble district and dispose of a dagger and some incriminating letters; letters to a mistress on whose behalf the man had murdered his wife. Inoadar rolled his eyes at such foolishness. There were perfectly good brothels in Ravok. 'Why complicate your life with mistresses?'

He doubted there were threats of divorce involved. The wives of wealthy men in Ravok were not likely to make waves over such indiscretions. It stood to reason they had as much or more to lose by such a scandal. The husband may be embarrassed for a short while, but he would suffer no true censure from the upper classes. And the wife would only be labeled a loose tongue by her peers. Such marriages were based on status and alliance, not on love. 'That was for the young and the poor.'

But this sounded like one of those inexplicable cases of some man obsessed with some young beauty, and losing his head over her. Chances were, she was the one that set the authorities on him. Surely she was only after his money, and blackmail was as good as alimony to such a woman. Inoadar didn't blame her. If anything it was the man that had earned his disgust. Not that he felt any moral qualms over the infidelity; or the murder. it was more that the man let himself care about something so much that he made himself vulnerable to it. 'What were prostitutes for if not cases such as this?'

He intended to stroll by the house in question and take a few notes on the level of surveillance under which the house was being held. For that was the single most important detail. The authorities were supposedly already watching the house. He wanted to know whether this meant the Ebonstryfe, the Black Sun, or some hired team of "independent investigators." 'You spelled that 'T-H-U-G-S'.

He of course had the one distinct advantage they lacked. The hidden locations of the evidence. This had been included in the information, along with the address of the home, the promise of one hundred gold mizas, and the warning of the existing surveillance.

It was entirely possible that these "authorities" were not after an arrest, Ebonstryfe or not. It was entirely possible that they sought the items so that THEY could blackmail the man. It was entirely possible that they'd considered the likelihood of a contract for such a job being placed at The Spot. It was entirely possible that Bohir Adams, the owner of The Spot, and a man that had somewhat of a grudge against Inoadar, had given him the job just so he'd get into trouble. It was entirely possible Inoadar was already being followed.

He glanced again at the window to see the young woman's reflection. Yes, it was entirely possible that all these things explained why this woman was following him...

x

[Raven Nightfoot]

"Sorry sweety, but someone literally JUST took the job." Raven's eyes widened slightly in surprise before her expression shifted to annoyance, "By who?" she asked the old man who she'd only recently learnt was the owner of The Spot. She'd discovered the shady tavern the day before and had been uncertain about taking the evidence disposal job from the wall, so she'd given herself the night to think it over. By the morning she was dead set on taking the job and earning the sweet reward, she needed it anyway, she still owed that mage, Clyde, a clock. "Sorry sweety, but I can't tell you that." the man said, although his eyes darted involuntarily toward the figure of a man disappearing through the door and it took Raven only a moment to guess that the man had been the one to steal her job. She needed the money, even if she had to steal the job from someone else. "Never mind, I'll be back." she said, her amber eyes still locked on the doorway as she made her way out of the building and into the open air. She followed the stranger for several chimes, she assumed he wouldn't realise he was being stalked. She had thought about staying hidden, but it had been a long distance between The Spot and the destination and she'd figured it would be less suspicious if she simply strolled along. Because of the gap between herself and the man, she had yet to get a good look at his face, but that didn't matter, she knew he was the target. Her mind was racing as she tried to come up with a plan, not only for the job, but to outsmart the man as well. So far the only thing she'd decided to watch him for the time being, until she came up with a plan. Perhaps she could just offer her assistance. Team up. Half the reward was better than no reward after all and considering he had all the important details about the job, it seemed like the best way forward...for now at least.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar

Inoadar wished he'd gotten the reversible clothes from 'Jester's Corner', but they were pricey at two hundred fifty gold mizas. It was not that he never had that much money, but it was never liquid enough to put into something so situational as that. He could sure use it now though. He'd like to duck into an alley, employ his other impromptu disguise skills in conjunction with those clothes, walk back out right past this tail, and then start following her.

At the same moment that he subconsciously acknowledged that she was quite a strikingly attractive woman, he also attached some innuendo to her being a "tail". 'Yeah, I'd like a piece of that tail.' he snickered to himself as he started to make his way toward an alley anyway.

The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that he'd seen her before. He thought perhaps it was somewhere routine like the Ferry or The Spot. He'd just left there, after all, but he figured he'd remember a woman that looked like that. It must have been somewhere that his focus could not be on girl-watching; somewhere that some drastic incident had dominated his attention.

it struck him almost at once. 'The Riot! She was the girl I bumped into. The one that dropped all the gold that had sent the crowd into a greedy frenzy. She better not be thinking I'm going to reimburse her.' he thought sourly.

He didn't bother watching her as he made his way to nearby alley, but at the last moment he checked his entry and instead turned and leaned his back against the corner on the building. He drew his dagger and set to cleaning his fingernails, casually waiting for her to approach him.

x

[Raven Nightfoot]

Raven continued to casually follow the man from what she thought was a relatively safe distance, unless the person was less dim-witted than the average citizen. Even though she wasn't putting on a show for anyone, her leather clad hips continued to sway naturally from side to side, a quirk she'd developed and was quite fond of. It was all part of her natural allure, something that she'd developed piece by piece until it had become part of her. Her movements drew attention to her butt and curves, her tight outfit assisted by emphasising her assets instead of obstructing them and if she needed a coup de grâce there was always her amber gaze and sultry smirk. When faced with a situation, Raven's first choice was always stealth and if that failed her second was always seduction, followed by escape and finally, if there was no other available option, combat. The order was by no means set in stone, often changing to suit the situation at hand, but it generally remained more or less the same and today was no different. The more she stared at the man's back, the more she felt that it looked familiar, although it was just a back, those weren't nearly as unique as a face, so she reasoned that she could just be mistaking his back for that of someone else. Even with thee discouraging thoughts, the feeling of deja vu continued to linger within her, a constant nagging tug at her mind as it attempted to urge her into remembering. It had been more than several chimes now and Raven was getting impatient, surely it couldn't take this long to get to the destination. She was anxious, itching to get the entire situation over with, itching to reap the rewards, but she knew that was still a long ways away. Her current plan was still just to shadow the man until she saw something she could use to her advantage, an opportunity of any sort. She didn't like it, but she knew that she had to be patient. Her amber eyes turned to the sky in thought for only a moment but when they returned to the direction of her target, he was no longer walking away. Instead he was simply leaning against a wall, with a dagger in his hand. "Nothing to worry about." she told herself as she neared the waiting man, her hips swaying as she approached. He was waiting for her, he'd known she was following him. Was he going to try and kill her? Dozens of thoughts ran through the young thief's mind, followed by dozens of ways to deal with the change in situation. Raven settled on one, the simplest one. "Waiting for me?" she said in her usual sultry teasing tone, lips curving into a smirk as she came to a stop. She made sure to remain at least two arms lengths away in case he attacked.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar

"Waiting for me?" The woman cooed innocently. She was cool one, that was for sure. If not for the fact that she was undoubtedly after something, at his expense, he might have even taken a liking to her. Of course you didn't have to like a woman to appreciate her as a potential bed partner.

She was not so cool as to trust that she could come within a dagger's swipe of him. Not that he would have stricken her down before finding out what she wanted first anyway. Besides, he would prefer to take his lips to that sleek throat, as opposed his knife...

NO! He was getting distracted again. 'Focus, focus...' he told himself, making an effort to restrain his peripheral vision from taking in the numerous curves and hollows of her form. He opted to look her directly in the eyes. It did not help. He found himself involuntarily envisioning them closing as her head tossed side to side in the throes of pleasure. He wondered what sort of enticing cries or whimpers she made when she...

He shook his head to clear it. "Actually, I was just waiting to see if you would pass me. That would be the proper move, in order to allay my suspicion that you are following me. So you're either an amateur, or you WANT me to see you."

It suddenly dawned on him that she would have simply approached him right off if this was the case. This, coupled with her extraordinary good looks, convinced him that she was there for no other reason than to divert his attention. He could suddenly almost feel an assailant sneaking up behind him.

He dove suddenly at her, grabbing with the intent of swinging her in front of him, to be a shield against whoever he assumed must be about to stab him in the back. he pivoted as he did this, feeling somewhat foolish to see an empty alley behind him. He quickly looked up to scan the alley above eye level, to catch a glimpse of any that might be preparing some hostility from a window or rooftop.

Seeing nothing, he looked around for anyone that might be staring at his rude behavior, not including the woman before him. "Okay, so just what DO you want?" he said, with a hint of embarrassment in his voice.

x

[Raven Nightfoot]

Now being face to face with the man, Raven suddenly felt quite uneasy about the confrontation. Perhaps it was the dagger in his hand, maybe it was the way he'd calmly waited for her to approach or maybe it was something else entirely. The man had no obvious worrying qualities, no massive bulging muscles, no giant toothed club, no floating fireballs, but even still Raven felt intimidated. Her amber eyes took a moment to glide over his form, dressed in dark colours just like hers, before locking on his green ones, watching them intently in search of the man's intentions. When he spoke she felt the edge of her lip curve upward, her sultry smirk growing ever so slightly as she crossed her arms over her chest and shifted her weight from one heel to the other, trying to match his calm appearance. His first guess had been right, she was an amateur when it came to stalking people, but Raven would never admit it. "The latter..." she started with a simple shrug, her eyebrow raising curiously as she saw something reach his face, a thought. Curiosity quickly turned to shock as the man dove at her, her arms shot out from their position at her chest as she took a instinctual step back, but it was too late. The man had her in his grasp and spun around, holding her with his front pressed against her back. Her heart beating rapidly as she winced, anticipating the piercing pain of the dagger that he was surely about to plunge into her, but it was his voice that reached her instead of cold steel. "Okay, so just what DO you want?" A short sigh of relief escaped her lips at not being stabbed, not yet at least and then she picked up on the embarrassment in the crazed man's voice. What? Had he thought he was about to be attacked? Was he insane? Hearing and seeing things that didn't exist? All these questions and more ran through Raven's head in only a tick, none of them less worrying than the others. She was now experiencing an unusual mix of worry, shock, confusion and most of all...annoyance. The man's position behind her combined with his proximity was her first priority, she wasn't safe in his grasp where he could plunge his dagger into her neck with ease. He'd already proven himself to be less than stable and she didn't want to be in his grasp when insanity came knocking on his door a second time. "Well, first of all..." she started off, leaning into the man, pressing her back into his front then shoving him off as roughly as she could and taking several steps away from him before spinning around. "What the petch was that?" she asked annoyance now evident. Her breathing slowly began to calm and she felt the last bits of shock leaving her body as she finally regained her composure, not daring to take her eyes off of the insane man, waiting him cautiously. "I want in." she said bluntly, "The job you're doing, I want in." she said more specifically incase there was any confusion. She allowed herself another short sigh to calm herself, he had caught her following him, there was no point in lying about her intentions...for now at least.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar

Having seen no evidence of an ambush, Inoadar did nothing to maintain his grasp on the girl, though he did allow his fingers to trace the swell of her backside as she pushed off from him. She spun around with indignation, demanding an accounting for his behavior, the color in her cheeks only adding to her allure.

Inoadar eyed her levelly, now making sure not to let them stray over her features. He started to grin, adopting a flamboyant demeanor more worthy of an aristocrat. He graced her with an exaggerated flourish as he bowed, letting only a hint of the laughter he restrained come through. "And exactly which category of disgrace should I confess to, good lady? The one where I am such a fool that I allow myself to be completely blind to a potential ambush because my attention is diverted by the sight of a beautiful woman, dressed to flaunt her charms? Or the one where I am such a cad as to wrongfully treat you as though you may have even been a willing partner to such an ambush?"

He dropped the act and leaned in close, all serious. "Neither cad nor fool am I, sweetheart. I make no apologies for taking sudden precautions. You are following me, and you have exactly five seconds to tell me why." The dagger was suddenly a prominent feature of his presence.

He had to give her credit for standing her ground. "I want in." she said bluntly, "The job you're doing, I want in."

Their gazes fenced for a moment before his grin returned. "And with two seconds to spare..." he said, sheathing the dagger. He'd been on the verge of scoffing at the notion that she knew what job he may or may not be about, but it occurred to him that this would be an admittance that he did not know how long she may have been following him. 'Had it been all the way from The Spot?' he thought, considering that she may be useful after all.

He still could not discount the possibility that she was affiliated with the group watching the target building. His mind began plotting instinctively. Even if she WAS, truly, just a freelancer, her most valuable contribution to HIS efforts, was to be someone to take the fall for the coming larceny. He needed no help to do the job itself. But she could be a good decoy for a clean getaway. He'd had enough of desperate pursuits through the alleys and plankways of Ravok.

So he really only needed to establish whether she was in league with the thugs he would be up against. 'Simple enough to determine,' he reasoned inwardly, 'If she knows where the target house is, then she had no need to see the job details from The Spot. Which means she already HAS the details. And that could only be due to her being in on it.'

But it wouldn't do to act as though he was letting her in on his job out of mere kindness. She would know better than to believe that. "If I let you in, it's only because you will be helping me check for traps, you understand." He figured that would be a self-serving enough reason to fool her into thinking he would otherwise play fair with her. "Well, I'm off then, if this is an agreeable deal, then follow along." He deliberately headed in the wrong direction, waiting to see if she would betray her enemy allegiance by correcting him.

x

[Raven Nightfoot]

The overly extravagant bow earned the man little more than an annoyed eye roll from Raven's amber gaze as she folded her bare arms over her chest and shifted her weight from one foot to the other, all the while watching him expectantly. She certainly wasn't foolish enough to buy into his magical switch in demeanour from volatile and insane to remarkably polite and friendly, then again, perhaps the sudden switch in personality was just further testament to his mental stability, or lack thereof. When the man finally sheathed his dagger Raven didn't allow herself to relax, still watching him cautiously and more than slightly annoyed, it seemed like he was prone to sudden outbursts and she wouldn't allow herself to taken by surprise a second time, at least not willingly. He spoke, she listened suspiciously and after considering what he'd said she responded with a simple shrug, "Fine." she said nonchalantly, searching for traps huh? A waste of her talents but she wasn't exactly in a position to argue at the moment, besides, allowing him to underestimate her would only make it easier for her to pull one over on him if she so desired. The man finally turned and began walking, in the direction they had just come from Raven noticed, "But weren't you..." she began to say as she looked between the man and the opposite direction before shrugging and following him, "Whatever." she said as she followed behind him, still watching him, though far less cautiously than before. The reason she stopped herself from mentioning that he'd been going in the opposite direction before was because she realised that just because he had come from The Spot, it didn't necessarily mean he was headed straight for the job location. After all he could have been on his way home or anywhere else for that matter. As she followed the man, hips swaying as she moved and her amber eyes examined the back of his head once again, but from a much closer position than when she was stalking him and yet again she became aware of the slight sense of familiarity his back seemed to bring. "Have we met before? You seem vaguely familiar." she said curiously, shortening the gap between herself and the man, but only slightly. Raven doubted she would forget meeting such a...memorable man, but just because she doubted, it didn't make it an impossibility.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar

Inoadar caught the short slip on the woman's part. It was not conclusive though, so he ignored her, hoping she would give a more specific objection to his direction. He pulled out the packet of job details he'd been provided by Bohir Adams at The Spot.

Ultimately, it didn't really matter which direction he went at this point. They crossed the People's Market and passed the rest of the way through the Merchant's Ring and into the Noble District. The woman had kept up without difficulty and had voiced no complaint about Inoadar's direction. He kept his snickers to himself, thinking she must be mad with frustration over his refusal to share any details. Her silence was greatly to her credit though.

Soon after passing into the Noble District, he paused and found a Ravosala platform and called back cheerily, "Well, we're here." He stepped down and waited for her to join him. "Make yourself comfortable, sweetheart. The boat's not due for a bell or so." He supposed that she was probably smart enough to figure out that none of this misdirection was part of his instructions. If he was just catching a Ravosala, it would hardly matter whether he caught it here or somewhere else.

The boat came much earlier than he'd said, but still she did not call him on any suspicions she may have harbored. There was occasional small talk, but anytime she broached the subject of the job's specifics, he refused them. Her first indication of pertinent data was the fact that he gave the boatman a location all the way across town in a different arc of the Noble District. The boatman made no complaint about going so far off his usual routes and Inoadar handed him a bonus of five gold.

He lay back then and took a nap as they wended their way though a long series of canals. They reached a point where a hardly noticeable ring of soft bells brought Inoadar sharply awake. He looked around and nodded to the boatman, who made for the nearest platform.

They disembarked, but remained on the platform as a young couple took their place aboard the slim vessel, their eyes only for each other. Inoadar waited until the boat was out of sight, then took a quick look around. He gauged the locations of certain landmarks and checked marks on the canal walls. Apparently satisfied with that, he then looked around to be sure there were no onlookers. Then he turned to Raven with a crooked grin. "Can you swim?" he asked innocently.

Without waiting for an answer, he pushed her off the edge into the water. He had to hand it to her, she was disciplined enough not to shout or scream in outrage. The look on her face gave sufficient indication that she was going to be very upset if he didn't join her in the water immediately. He chuckled once and accommodated her with a much smoother entry into the canal.

"Alright, take a deep breath...and down we go." he rolled over and plunged below the surface.

x

[Raven Nightfoot]

Slightly annoyed by the man's choice to ignore her question about whether they'd seen each-other before, Raven allowed the topic to slip away, deciding to try and figure it out on her own, though currently it was near the bottom of her to-do list. From then on she followed in silence, the distance between the two of them decreasing, but only slightly, as they made their way across the floating city. The complete lack of any sort of details was another annoyance, but just like before Raven thought it best to answer the strange man's silence with her own, knowing that if the roles were reversed she'd probably be doing the same. "Well, we're here...Make yourself comfortable, sweetheart. The boat's not due for a bell or so." The man's steps came to an abrupt end and, followed by his statement of their arrival, caused her to examine their surroundings, the action allowing her to hide the slight scowl that glazed her face at his unwelcome pet name for her. They'd arrived at a ravosala platform, which meant that they were most certainly not 'there'. Amber eyes narrowed suspiciously in his direction as she grew even more suspicious of his intentions, she could see absolutely no reason for them to have walked such a distance only to arrive at one of the many ravosala platforms in the city. She opened her mouth to voice her thoughts, to question the man's actions but quickly shut it again, his cheerful disposition leading her to the conclusion that he was trying to test her patience, enjoying it even. She would not give him the satisfaction. The small boat arrived much sooner than expected, to Raven's relief, but she was too busy trying to decipher the suspicious man's motives. The longer she remained in his unusually calm presence the more nervous and uncomfortable she became and by the time the two of them finally hopped off of the ravosala, her mind had come up with all sorts of horrific results. Raven was so lost in thought that she couldn't even react to being pushed into the water, though her heart did nearly stop from the sudden shock as she splashed into the icy lake, one of the gruesome scenarios she'd though up on the ride over seemingly becoming a reality. He was going to drown her, the psychotic man had taken her on a long and unnecessary trip just to force her into a watery grave. The cold water did little to quell the sudden spike of fear that ran through her entire body, though she still couldn't seem to express her complete disagreement with his plan, all her energy being focused on the effort it took to keep afloat. Her amber eyes watched helplessly as the murderous man jumped joyfully into the canal to finish the deed. "Alright, take a deep breath...and down we go." "What the petch!?" The words finally seemed to make find their way out of her throat as she yelled in what was clearly a mixture of fear, confusion and anger, but it was too late, the man's form had already disappeared beneath the dark water leaving Raven alone in her fight to remain afloat. Frantically the female thief splashed her way over to the wooden dock, grabbing onto the cold surface and pulling herself out of the water in a mess of deep breaths and profanity. "Petch this!...If that insane shyke thinks I'm going to willingly follow him to my untimely death he's in for a big surprise. " she muttered as she pushed herself up onto her knees, all the while trying to catch her breath. "I've already nearly drowned to death once, there's no way I'm going for twice." she muttered angrily as she got to her feet, remembering the day she'd fallen off of the docks as a child. It had been at least a chime by now and the man still hadn't emerged, either he was wherever he'd wanted to be, or he had drowned, either way, Raven wasn't sticking around to find out. "Insane Shyke." she muttered, casting one last glance towards the dark lake before walking off and shamelessly leaving the man to do the job on his own.