Celestial Watchers

[Alexander Kai]

The city was full of hustle and bustle. A man walked. He walked with such a pace that most passerby did not pay him a second, glance, assuming that he was in a hurry to get to where he needed to be. The white tank top was a bit out of place for the autumn weather, as it was starting to get slightly colder. The pants looked almost warm enough to make up for it, but one looking closely could see the goose bumps forming on his arm.

He was well armed, two swords on his belt, one on each side, as well as two throwing daggers strapped to each of his legs. He also had a dagger attached to his back, but it was made for use as a weapon of an alternate style. His walk, aside from suggesting that he might be in a hurry, had a grace about it that suggested that at the very least he knew how to move efficiently. That is, he never wasted his movements, and one could guess, that even if he wasn’t good at combat, he at least looked good doing it, as he was quite muscular and handsome. At five feet ten inches, the man was the perfect figure for the kind of jobs he did as well as the kind of person he was. Not so intimidating that he scared away everyone (indeed he could be quite a warm individual when he tried, and also a charmer in his own way) and yet not so small that everyone underestimated him.

Alexander Kai, truth be told, was very good at combat. His former master had trained him well, and he knew how to bring death and pain upon anyone he might find. He slowed his pace a bit as he approached the wrong side of the downtown district; the part of the district where even the commander of the guard was hesitant to travel alone in. Alexander walked openly, he was known here only because of his former master, and was the kind willing to test his luck. He did not fear death, which in fact was the job he had come here to do.

Having been paid by another, Alexander Kai was here because a certain guild master needed to kick the bucket, so to speak. He did not care for the details this time, just for the money. The sum was outrageous. The name was too insignificant. Something wasn’t right, but Alexander figured that either way was a winning situation for him, if he received even half of the money, he would be filthy rich, and if his employer tried to kill him, well, that would make it all the more fun, right?

He slowly approached the building at the dead end of this street still walking openly, he was curious if the guards would know anything, or if he would just be better off taking out the entire guild. Such was his skill that these thoughts passed through his head like air, and spread through his body like fire, his muscles alternately tensing and relaxing, ready for the action he knew he was about to start.

[Qallasque]

Qallasque awoke with a start at the sound of a bell. Linus, perched on her chest, looked as though he had been awake forever. He always did. She stroked his head gently, willing him to go find something to eat. Linus twitched his nose and complied, scuttling out of the dusty room through a crack in the badly carpentered boards. Another visitor...

The Marn chapter of the Piquantére's Guild wasn't exactly a thriving bastion of commerce. The town was too small to allow a booming spice trade, and it was only the patronage of town's elite that kept the Guild's mules on the Northern Trade Route. Indeed, were it not for the fact that Thar Shaddin straddled the Northern Trade Route, the ships taking cargo from Darleone Island and the Western Continents to Keltaris would probably never see their charge so far as Marn, nor would the works of the Eastern spicecrafters of Tian Xia come anywhere near the little shack in which Qallasque had been working for some seven months now.

The young lady's task was simple: Any time the bell in her room rang, it meant that somebody at the front door had rung it. She was to answer it, and welcome certain visitors. If they were delivering spice, she was to direct them to the Guildmaster. If they were collecting spice, she was also instructed to lead them to the Guildmaster's quarters. Any other purpose for visiting the out-of-the-way little shack was unwarranted, and for such visits, nothing less than a forceful rejection and a slammed door would suffice.

It was not very often that an attempt was made to steal the secrets of the Piquantere's Guild. After all, they dealt in spice, a simple trade that was anything but rife with subterfuge. But the secrets developed in that little shack were such that one with the right contacts could make use of them, to a rather substantial profit: Motive enough to warrant the hiring of a plucky, yet unassuming little bouncer such as Qallasque.

After a moment's hesitation, she leapt up and walked with soft footfalls out of her room to the front of the dark, labyrinthine little shack. Peering into the eyepiece, she eyed the man standing without, not recognizing him as one of the usual traders. She would wait until he rang again before acting.

[Alexander Kai]

Alexander Kai understood the basic system that most guilds used to greet their patrons and clients. He'd manipulated door men before, and this would be no different, or so he thought. He rang the bell again, and announced himself.

"I am Alexander Kai, here to pick up various spices for The Spicer's Guild master of Guang Gun"

He wasn't really sure what to expect, but he was fairly certain that he could talk his way to the guild master, of course, his overconfidence led him to forget to think his plans thoroughly which often caused him to mis-step should things not go according to plan. One small twitch or slip of his mien, and he couldn't handle the avalanche that would come with it.

[Qallasque]

As Qallasque watched the fellow's lips move in a fish-eyed sort of way, filtered by the gnomish spyglass set into the heavy wooden door, she listened the words that incongruously traveled from them. She always found faces so comical through the spyglass.

Linus clambered up onto her shoulder as she gazed at him, and she cast a thought to him. Watch, follow. Not sure about this one. Linus scuttled off to the Guildmaster's chambers, and found a hole in the thin boarded walls to snuggle up in. The inner walls of the Guild were more like fences of nailed-together boards than anything. The whole rectangular space of the shack had been partitioned off by arrangements of floor-to-ceiling planking, and the occasional skylight shone venetian patterns of light through the spaces between the boards, illuminating arcs of airborne dust with pale, pine-filtered renditions of the natural sun.

The dust swirled, its heady, spice-tainted odour pouring into the outside world as Qallasque opened the door for the mysterious guest. Without the hampering effects of the fisheye lens she found the fellow rather attractive, if a little young for her. He's kind of cute, actually...

But through these idle, unprofessional musings, she held her chin up high, and did her best to look down at Alexander, who was, if anything, a little taller. "I assume you have your papers in order?"

"I assume you have your papers with you?"

[Alexander Kai]

Alexander Kai kept a straight face as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the false papers that his employer had given him. They were decent forgeries to be told, not the best, but definitely a good piece of work. There was a chance, however; that if she looked closely she would have noticed the very things that made the forgeries fake and not real, and a good part of Kai’s plan was relying on the fact that no one checked too closely. At least, for long enough that he could get to the guild leader to assassinate him.

He handed them wordlessly to the slightly shorter lady, noticing the way she was looking at him. For a minute he thought of something, and his expression changed in that brief instant, but it was only a flash of an expression which was gone a second later. Alexander’s heart beat was up, though he showed no visible sign of it, catching himself, he stopped himself from giving in to one of his worse vices, his appreciation for women. While he waited for her to say something about the papers, he did what he could to seem impatient, tapping his foot, and shifting his weight from side to side, though truth be told he had never honestly minded the waiting.

[Qallasque]

Having been rudely awoken from what was turning out to be a rather nice dream, Qallasque was in no mood to squint, clear her eyes and analyze the signatures and seals. The papers looked the same as all the others, and she swung the door open wider to allow the lad passage.

"Go right down the hall to the end."

She had her hand on one hatchet hilt as she waved the spice trader in ahead of her. She heeded Linus' warnings, and was careful to watch his every move. As her head cleared of sleep and her senses sharpened, she felt something oddly familiar about the trader, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

Linus, crouched between the planks, heard the approaching footsteps, and thought perhaps it's time I paid Merge a visit. Without a smidgen of logic to grace the act, he simply vanished, and was in a place far removed, a place of pure and brilliant white, where all was of the mind's creation, and nothing stood firmly. He sensed Merge's presence here, and cast his thoughts towards his fellow Archon.

You have led him to the house with a will, have you not? You interfere. What is your aim in this?

He wanted answers. He had plans for Qallasque's current life, and would not have them tampered with.

[Alexander Kai]

Alexander Kai walked towards the door on the right with confidence, doing everything he could to make it feel as though he were exactly what he claimed to be, despite the fact that he knew better. He glanced behind himself once. Partly because the door girl had been cute, but more so because there was a twinge of... something, and it was a something other than love that made him think twice about this job. But that was only for a moment. He turned and focused on his task, opening the door, and making ready to kill the guild master.

---

In the meantime, far away in a realm not of theirs was an entity. This entity was a starling, not just an ordinary starling, but one the specialized in manipulating things, people, events, time, anything it would manipulate and influence without having to actually to the real work to do itself. This starling, enjoyed imparting thoughts into others, giving them false hope and promises, making them do anything, at any cost, for what they perceived was a good reward but discovered that they weren't going to get in the end.

The starling's name was Merge, and it half stood half floated on ground that wasn't really ground. The starling looked around feeling another present, it saw something in the distance, knowing instantly what and who it was. "Ahh Linus, what brings you here? Surely you're done discovering death by now, aren't you?"

[Qallasque]

Linus' irritation with his fellow Archon waxed, and it could be felt as a ripple of negative energy, roiling in the white expanse. "The task of unraveling the infinite is a task never finished. That does not render it fruitless, mind you. You, on the other hand, might end up doing just that, if your little toy botches this for me. If you wanted to play together, you might have asked first, before waltzing up and putting all of your pieces on the gameboard."


(ooc: sorry for the short post. I think the story might flow better if we finish the conversation between Merge and Linus before going back to the guild. That way, they might reach an agreement, and Linus might affect the way Qallasque reacts.)

[Alexander Kai]

Merge regarded Linus with a mild interest, he was not the least bit cautious, and in fact seemed carefree about the entire scenario, quite aloof indeed. "My 'boy' as you put it won't botch up anything. He's simply there to start a war between one spice guild and another. I, like you, am here to observe, and try to unravel this mystery which is manipulation, and likewise time works against me as well." Merge paused as he extended a wing towards the smaller entity, though physically, Linus was bigger, they were of about equal power here, and friendship made sense.

"Watch, wait, we shall see what happens, and learn something regardless..."

[Qallasque]

Linus sighed audibly. "Very well, Merge. We shall play it your way this time." He grudgingly admitted to himself that patience was a virtue worth learning for a deity-to-be, and then vanished back into the spice hut. Just as the door creaked open, and Alexander and Qallasque entered the room, Linus nestled himself into a crook in the rafters of the Guildmaster's office, and began to observe keenly.

The Guildmaster, a bear of a man, did not stand up. As a matter of fact, he barely rewarded them with a glance, instead grunting, "papers on the desk, boy."