Mystydjinn
[Insert rimshot]
Two days after the events of Cascade of Change
Tang Xhuei, dead. Deliver left hand with ring to the corner Lupnar’s of thirty-fourth and Third Street when completed.
Alone.
No reward without proof, first-come first-served. 4500 Exa
“Forty-five huh?” The reader gave an approving upside-down smile, and cracked her wrist casually.
“Well alright then Tang, looks like you just made my shitlist.” Aelf sighed, tore the paper down from the board, and looked it over carefully. The parchment was drooping from last night’s rain, though the ink had stayed strong, it must’ve been expensive; more importantly, it was for expensive assassins.
Any mercenary the poster had been looking for would have to be a reader, and literacy, much less, intelligence was a rare and expensive commodity in the area. If they were looking for someone learned enough to read that meant one of two things.
Either the hit was coming from a big crime boss in the area, or Tang was some big crime boss.
Aelflead had been trolling around Terminus for a while now, living deeper in the shadows of Terminus than she usually cared to delve since her job at the Arx, where she’d not only gotten stiffed, but raised another bounty. This time a legal one.
She was trying to lay low until she could make enough exa to bounce out of Terminus, and hopefully before the winter when it’d be nigh impossible to leave. More importantly, it got harder to hide in Terminus in the winter months. Staying hidden needed money, and in winter jobs slowed down; the cold weather tended to make people bunch up together and try to get along.
It was too cold for crime in late Vesper, meaning anyone who was out picking fights were desperate low class folks picking legal ones; and if she had to fend off a mom and pop store down on their luck, she may as well rip her veil in half all on her own. Being a wanted spurii with eyes like hers made it flimsy enough already.
Knocking off crime bosses was more dangerous to her veil* than mom and pop for more reasons though. However, she was lying low in Lupanar, where law was whatever the people with power said it was, and the people with power tended to have violent mood swings. Attacking someone with intent to kill, business or not was reason enough to be angry for a sane person, for the maniacs and sociopaths that ran the Terminus underground, it was a declaration of war from one person.
The warrior started to walk away. I could probably take him if we fought one on one but… She groaned. This guy’s sure to have goons all over the city and some creepy right hand man. She sighed, I kill creepy no name guy’s ‘master’ and they’ll have everybody and their fetus’ on my arse; and that’s if I make the hit. The redhead turned down an alley and leaned against the damp brick wall there, and frowned in thought. Familiar name too...
Aelflead pulled out the wet parchment decisively and slowly, then read aloud. “First-come first-served. Forty-five hundred exa,” she read wistfully, and began to weigh the pros and cons. She heard footsteps.
“If I do pull it off that is a lot of cash, hypothetical creepy guy probably can’t do much outside the city...” She stood up from the wall and cracked her knuckles. “I could catch an airship with that cash too, it’s not like this Tang guy owns a fleet for his henchmen to send after me.”
The footsteps grew louder and the splashing puddles telling the tale of the owners approach.
“If I really wanted, I might even be able to buy a ship with all that cash.” She pulled each arm over her head, stretching her shoulders and elbows casually.
“Hey, what’s up lady?”
“Yeah, what’s up?”
By the time the footsteps’ owners called out to the spurii, she was hopping up and down in the alley, bouncing from one booted foot to the other like a boxer practicing footwork. Hashing out the details quietly, in her mutterings under her breath.
“Hey lady,” one stranger asked. “Can’t you hear us?” He held a knife his hand, steel, with his fingers and thumb wrapped around the handle incorrectly. “You got anything on you sexy? Me and bro man here,” he gestured to the enlil standing on the other side of the woman. “We’re a bit down on our luck; we could use some exa or a good time.”
The laicar’s friend chimed in. “Yeah,” he said slowly, taking in the redhead’s form with a greedy look. “Way down on our luck ma’am,” he grinned, “but I think a good time’ll raise our spirits enough, don’t you?”
The woman smiled and nodded to herself, Better to try and fail than to keep slumming it with these pricks. She’d decided, and all thanks to the alley’s beggars.
They deserved a prize for being such a big help.
“Sure guys, I can show you a good time.” She stopped bouncing and stood still to face them, “I mean, it’s the least I can do for two folks who helped me decide what I’m gonna do,” Aelflead lifted her hands and took off her gloves. “Just make that you two keep it a secret, huh? Can’t have you two telling people I’m here”
The bird and member of the hive mind stretched equally stupid grins across both of their face, and bent down to get at their slacks.
After a few minutes later, the three of them had left a sticky mess on the ground and wall nearby.
Aelf cleared her throat and wiped stray flecks of blood off her neck with the terran’s borrowed handkerchief before tossing it onto the pair's broken unconscious bodies on the floor. | Then tugged off her gloves and stuffed them back into her pockets, making a vague mental note to wash them later, blood was a common sight in this part of town but even still it was good to remain cautious. Then, dusting herself off, she stretched and left. No use in keeping them company any longer, I think they're feeling much better now.
1043
Tang Xhuei, dead. Deliver left hand with ring to the corner Lupnar’s of thirty-fourth and Third Street when completed.
Alone.
No reward without proof, first-come first-served. 4500 Exa
“Forty-five huh?” The reader gave an approving upside-down smile, and cracked her wrist casually.
“Well alright then Tang, looks like you just made my shitlist.” Aelf sighed, tore the paper down from the board, and looked it over carefully. The parchment was drooping from last night’s rain, though the ink had stayed strong, it must’ve been expensive; more importantly, it was for expensive assassins.
Any mercenary the poster had been looking for would have to be a reader, and literacy, much less, intelligence was a rare and expensive commodity in the area. If they were looking for someone learned enough to read that meant one of two things.
Either the hit was coming from a big crime boss in the area, or Tang was some big crime boss.
Aelflead had been trolling around Terminus for a while now, living deeper in the shadows of Terminus than she usually cared to delve since her job at the Arx, where she’d not only gotten stiffed, but raised another bounty. This time a legal one.
She was trying to lay low until she could make enough exa to bounce out of Terminus, and hopefully before the winter when it’d be nigh impossible to leave. More importantly, it got harder to hide in Terminus in the winter months. Staying hidden needed money, and in winter jobs slowed down; the cold weather tended to make people bunch up together and try to get along.
It was too cold for crime in late Vesper, meaning anyone who was out picking fights were desperate low class folks picking legal ones; and if she had to fend off a mom and pop store down on their luck, she may as well rip her veil in half all on her own. Being a wanted spurii with eyes like hers made it flimsy enough already.
Knocking off crime bosses was more dangerous to her veil* than mom and pop for more reasons though. However, she was lying low in Lupanar, where law was whatever the people with power said it was, and the people with power tended to have violent mood swings. Attacking someone with intent to kill, business or not was reason enough to be angry for a sane person, for the maniacs and sociopaths that ran the Terminus underground, it was a declaration of war from one person.
The warrior started to walk away. I could probably take him if we fought one on one but… She groaned. This guy’s sure to have goons all over the city and some creepy right hand man. She sighed, I kill creepy no name guy’s ‘master’ and they’ll have everybody and their fetus’ on my arse; and that’s if I make the hit. The redhead turned down an alley and leaned against the damp brick wall there, and frowned in thought. Familiar name too...
Aelflead pulled out the wet parchment decisively and slowly, then read aloud. “First-come first-served. Forty-five hundred exa,” she read wistfully, and began to weigh the pros and cons. She heard footsteps.
“If I do pull it off that is a lot of cash, hypothetical creepy guy probably can’t do much outside the city...” She stood up from the wall and cracked her knuckles. “I could catch an airship with that cash too, it’s not like this Tang guy owns a fleet for his henchmen to send after me.”
The footsteps grew louder and the splashing puddles telling the tale of the owners approach.
“If I really wanted, I might even be able to buy a ship with all that cash.” She pulled each arm over her head, stretching her shoulders and elbows casually.
“Hey, what’s up lady?”
“Yeah, what’s up?”
By the time the footsteps’ owners called out to the spurii, she was hopping up and down in the alley, bouncing from one booted foot to the other like a boxer practicing footwork. Hashing out the details quietly, in her mutterings under her breath.
“Hey lady,” one stranger asked. “Can’t you hear us?” He held a knife his hand, steel, with his fingers and thumb wrapped around the handle incorrectly. “You got anything on you sexy? Me and bro man here,” he gestured to the enlil standing on the other side of the woman. “We’re a bit down on our luck; we could use some exa or a good time.”
The laicar’s friend chimed in. “Yeah,” he said slowly, taking in the redhead’s form with a greedy look. “Way down on our luck ma’am,” he grinned, “but I think a good time’ll raise our spirits enough, don’t you?”
The woman smiled and nodded to herself, Better to try and fail than to keep slumming it with these pricks. She’d decided, and all thanks to the alley’s beggars.
They deserved a prize for being such a big help.
“Sure guys, I can show you a good time.” She stopped bouncing and stood still to face them, “I mean, it’s the least I can do for two folks who helped me decide what I’m gonna do,” Aelflead lifted her hands and took off her gloves. “Just make that you two keep it a secret, huh? Can’t have you two telling people I’m here”
The bird and member of the hive mind stretched equally stupid grins across both of their face, and bent down to get at their slacks.
After a few minutes later, the three of them had left a sticky mess on the ground and wall nearby.
Aelf cleared her throat and wiped stray flecks of blood off her neck with the terran’s borrowed handkerchief before tossing it onto the pair's broken unconscious bodies on the floor. | Then tugged off her gloves and stuffed them back into her pockets, making a vague mental note to wash them later, blood was a common sight in this part of town but even still it was good to remain cautious. Then, dusting herself off, she stretched and left. No use in keeping them company any longer, I think they're feeling much better now.
1043