Oppressors Should Say Please

[Miklos]

The tusky woman was playing with her whip in an almost obscene way. Miklos hadn't had much to do with her in the past and he didn't want to start now, not least because of her temperament. She was entirely too trigger-happy with that stupid whip, and the way Mik saw it, they faced enough pressure from outside the rebellion without drama and strife among its members as well.

Not that he cared, really. All he wanted was to get that stupid guard back so the man would know just how much he'd ruined Miklos's life.

Still with his ever-present surly look on his face, Miklos stomped over to the downed table and nodded at Kala before flipping it upright. The table was heavy, but Mik had spent practically his whole life training with a sword and wearing around heavy armor - a piece of wood was not going to stand in his way. With a crash the table settled onto the floor and Miklos eyed the rest of the wreckage of the room.

"Y'need more... bottles, or somethin'?" Despite having been her gaoler for a while now, Miklos had no idea really what Kala did, or what she needed all the potions and bottles and herbs and things for. It reeked of magic and Miklos had always tried to steer fairly clear of that - not that there was anything wrong with magic, of course, but it was better when it stayed away from him. Still, she was his responsibility and therefore if she needed something, he was supposed to help her get it.

[Qamra Kalara]

The table's return to its upright state was met with the hiss of another can sliding across the floor. She heard what was said, but she wasn't listening. They had passed from her mind. What emotions they might feel, what thoughts might cross their minds: irrelevent, all of it. None of that mattered to Qamra. She was there for her own reasons, and they were there to help in those reasons. No matter whether or not they had their own goals or wants: they were only traces in her air, not even well formed enough to really be useful.

She slipped into the effort of her practice, perfecting the perfect unity of her muscles and the whip's response. Like that she could forget the draw of the smoke, of the urge to take it in and quiet the beasts that rode down the back of her skull. All she had to do was wait for Three and the rest of the fools in motley to talk over whatever current plan needed enacting, and then she could slip away and have a moment, a private moment, between her and the spirits. The whip danced around her as Qamra shivered in delight at the thought.

[Kala]

As soon as Miklos had approached the table Kala had stepped back with the understanding that he would flip it upright for her. He was her guardian, or keeper or whatever they called the man who watched over her. Although why she needed someone watching over her was beyond her, she was a grown woman who had been taking care of herself for a dozen years or so. And on top of that it wasn't like she was able to go anywhere or leave this magic-forsaken town.

Okay, so maybe I caught some stuff on fire that one time and he had to put out for me...and perhaps he does keep me from wandering away from vendors without paying for my supplies, which also keeps me from getting beaten or involved with the guards who could be a bit bothersome. And perhaps in instances like this he is handy. Although I wonder if he had been around would he have helped me when that wicked old hag (sorry Mother, but I am just being honest) was being so cruel. I wonder if he would consider helping me keep her off my back, permanently even.

"Did you say something?" Kala gasped out loud as she silently rebuked herself. After today she was determined to pay better attention to everything going on around her but so far she seemed to only have had a 50% success rate. "Whatever it was, could we talk about it after we gather supplies? I had a...." Kala stared at the mess and then down at her hands where bright red liquid was slowly seeping through the cuts on them.

"I had an accident." She concluded, glancing quickly at Qamra before settling her gaze back on Miklos. "I will need new...well everything. And some extra stuff too."A thought formed in her mind and she tried very hard to refrain from grinning as she scampered over to Qamra and placed her hand lightly on her upper arm as she drew her whip back to strike at another can. "

Excuse me, um..umm. Oh dear I ah, I forgot your name again." Kala started to play with the hem of her cloak before looking up at the tall woman and rushing onward. "Oh well, I was wondering if there was anything in particular you would be wanting. I am going shopping for supplies you see and if there is something you need made now would be the time to speak up. Of course you know certain charms require special ingredients and I don't want to bother Mister-what's-his-name over there," she waved behind her in the general direction of Miklos, "and drag him all over this crazy place more then once today. So what do you need? Just no potions, my eyebrows have just grown back after that last one the other whats-his-face wanted me to make." Kala rubbed her eyebrows in remembrance of that particular request. Charms she had down to perfection, if she focused that is. But potions were so much harder, so much more a risk at getting mixed up and causing serious damage.

[Miklos]

"An accident. Yeah," Miklos agreed after thunking the table back down onto its legs. He looked at the girl strangely, wondering why she was fumbling for words. It wasn't like he was being intimidating. Maybe she was scared by the tusky woman. Lord and lady knew he was scared a little by her whenever he saw her... especially when she was playing with her whip like that. Unnerving crazy woman, she was.

"I asked if ye wanted t'get some more gear," He repeated gruffly. He was about to say more when the girl ran over to the tusky woman and started nattering away at her about something. Shopping. More shopping. Well, if it was only one trip that would be much better - the sooner he got off-duty and home to feed his birds and horse, the better. Watching this young sorcereress was his job (well, one of them) but not his favorite thing. She was flighty and twitchy and made Mik nervous. Not nervous, exactly... just, her twitchiness rubbed off on him and he didn't like it.

Kala chattered on about eyebrows and Mik tuned her out. When she wanted to go she'd head for the door or tell him or something. If the tusky woman wanted to come along, it might be more complicated. Mik just wanted to go home and feed his birds. This day had already had too much excitement.

[Qamra Kalara]

Injuring Kala was a thought that did cross Qamra's mind, but years of discipline halted the movement before it had a chance to go anywhere. Instead, she shared an ugly grin with the chit, flicking her whip so she caught it in her other hand. She drew the whip taut across the back of Kala's neck, focusing on her movements rather than the words she spoke.

"Interrupting a warrior is dangerous, girl." Qamra bent so her head was nearer to the level of Kala's. The chitling was such a tiny, fragile little thing. A delicacy waiting for an opportune moment to be served. She looked over the girl's shoulder, to where Miklos stood. "Didn't you think to tell her that, Birdman?"

Qamra drew her hands closer together behind Kala's head, and then pulled them away, causing the whip to snap against Kala's neck. Still watching Miklos, she turned her head a little to whisper in Kala's ear, "Or should I show you?"

[Kala]

Kala gave Qamra a black stare, on that she knew that she was famous for around here. "I have never worked with warriors before coming here." she stated before continuing. "I have always worked alone. You cannot expect me to know the etiquette if it has never been taught to me. And that stung." She stated rubbing her neck where the whip had snapped against it.

"Now then," Kala sat down at Qamra's feet and searched through her cloak for some paper and a pencil that she knew where in there. Finding it her held the pencil poised and looked up at the lady expectedly. "What do you need? I mustn't keep Birdman waiting and the shops don't stay open all night."

She started to gnaw on the end of the pencil as she waited for a response of some sort. The woody flavour filled her mouth, she really should stop doing this. She ruined more pencils then she ended up wearing down but it was a bad habit that she just couldn't seem to break. Pulling it out of her mouth she inspected it. Perhaps if she ate more....maybe Mi, Miko, oh whatever the Birdman's name was, maybe he would get her a snack while she was out. Maybe if she offered up some of the rats from her traps he would even take her to the Marn graveyard later. Birds ate rats right? True she was saving them for her experiments when she got the time but she could give him a few here and there.

Or maybe he would let her see her sister...she had never tried to see how close she could get to that man, he was always just there in the background if he was there at all. but perhaps now was a time to look at him a different light. It was obviously that little miss creepy here wasn't going to be of any use but him....there could be potential there.

[Miklos]

Miklos started forward when Qamra flicked the whip at his charge, but then subsided with a glare. He could probably take the tusky woman in a fight, but what would be the point? Making her bleed would make him feel better for letting her whip Kala without his intervention, but it wouldn't bleed the crazy out of her by a long shot. And she did need some crazy bled out of her.

"She's m'charge, tuskface, not m'student," Miklos grumbled back at Qamra. "Playing wit' fire's th'only way she'll learn not t'touch."

He didn't really like the name Birdman. It was accurate, sure, but not exactly complimentary. Here was just as bad as the guards with people thinking he was more than a bit crazy (or more than a bit magical) with his birds. But magic was out of the question - a battlemage would have sensed it or something, or used their magics to detect it - and crazy... well, crazy might be more accurate but was also still wrong.

And anyway, a Birdman should have wings of his own. And as much as Mik envied his feathered companions their flight, he couldn't fly himself and he never would.

"C'mon, Kala," He said in a low voice, keeping an eye on the tusky woman and her whip. "Unless she wants anythin' more from us, let's get ye some things." He jerked his head towards the door and waited for the girl to move.

[Qamra Kalara]

"Yes, come then and take her from danger before she burns herself on things she doesn't understand. Take her to buy the things she needs before she wastes more of my time and yours."

Children should be seen, not heard, as the old adage went. Or at the least if they were heard it should be because they were doing their chores and properly expending their effort. Therefore, she ignored Kala. It was a common way for her to treat the girl whose uses were, as far as Qamra was concerned, nigh unexisting.

She drew up her whip, running her hand along its length as she coiled it up and settled it about her hips. She went to collect the targets she'd hit, settling herself into a steady breathing rhythm in preparation for the next round. Hopefully it would be absent of interruption.

[Kala]

Kala looked back and forth between the two people. Fine then, if neither of them were going to give her what she wanted then she would just have to find a way to take it...or in Qamra's case, find something to give. Slowly getting up with an almost pout on her face she walked past Mikalos and towards the door

Now what would work on a crazy lady? I would say poison but chances are that one isn't susceptible to poison, training against it sometime. Anyways poison is more like a potion and I am rubbish at those...my luck it would turn out to be some sort of healing thing, or explode. It will have to be something magical, I can do that. I can't give it to her, it will be suspicious if she didn't ask for it...I can say it for someone else. As a gift perhaps, she might be tempted to take that. And I can put a magical lock on it, but what should it do?

"Oof" Kala grunted and she looked up. It appeared as though she had bumped into the wall beside the door. This is why she had to start being more alert! Although at this point looking like a fool may be just the thing that she needed to keep everyone in the dark about her plans. After all who would expect and idiot to come up with a genius plan? Pulling the hood of her cloak that had been obstructing her vision and kept her in her own little world as she walked Kala turned to Mikalos.

"Well then? Are we leaving or just standing around watching madame smelly do her stuff? What?" She asked as the looked at her, or at least that's how it felt, she was toying with her cloak as she let her mind wander, as long as she controlled it, she could be her usual type of self. "She smelled, a fact that I think I established before and I am not one to remember names very well. Perhaps I should write them down...make a little book with drawings or descriptions of all of you. Not that I meet a lot of people. I really should memorize names better. Anyways shall we go?"

[Miklos]

She just kept chattering! Usually Miklos could tun his charge out but while he was trying to pay attention to tuskface he had to be alert and that meant actually being alert and that meant hearing Kala's chatter... His charge walked into a wall and he couldn't contain an eye roll. Honestly, this girl wouldn't last a minute by herself. She'd find a cliff and walk off it or jump into the Ofriyu or find her way into a wolf pit and die.

Mik usually wasn't prone to thinking that other people were idiots but Qamra always rubbed him the wrong way. Something about that tusky woman made him want to chop something in half with his sword and then keep swinging until it stopped moving. She made his skin crawl.

"Let's go," he muttered, ushering her down the hall at a brisk pace. Once outside he raised an arm without looking at the sky and in a few seconds his white gyrfalcon swooped down and landed on his outstretched arm, then sidled up his bicep to perch on his shoulder. She stroked her beak through his hair in greeting, then tilted a sharp eye at Kala and watched the girl warily.

Miklos motioned towards the market and nodded at Kala to go ahead and lead the way.

[Sebastian Morylin]

Sebastian had warned the sitter that he may be late returning home this evening. He'd pay her extra for what it was worth. The fact that she had even agreed to watch his children in the first place was deserving of extra pay. He couldn't count the number of rejections he had received from the parents for the young ladies he had asked; he should have known that they would be more concerned with their family reputation than some extra bishani in their pockets.

Three had asked to meet with him, mostly likely for an update on the progress he had been making and any new information he had gleaned. Nothing out of the ordinary, so the meeting should be quick, but for some reason whenever he was summoned to the warehouse things always took much longer than they should. Sometimes he wondered how anything ever got accomplished. Rather than everyone putting their heads together to run this operation like a business, it seemed more to him like a constant battle of egos that hindered any progress.

If I were put in a position to run things...,he thought to himself. No. I wouldn't do that. As much as he missed the store and missed running a business, there was no way that he would entertain the idea of climbing further up the ranks of the Paragon hierarchy. He didn't even believe in their message. Once, once he had taken up one of their pamphlets more out of curiosity than anything else, and he could hardly believe the worthless dribble spilled across the page. That fact that people actually fed into that garbage was frightening more than it was surprising. The level of ignorance...it made him worry for the future.

Overthrowing the government...

Accepting magic users...

What was the world coming to?

Sebastian never really considered himself to be a real Puradyne and in no way was he some kind of extremist, he would not have taken up with an elf had he been, but this agenda of theirs was...well it was not sensible.

He had joined the Paragon as a way of weakening the Guard. They needed to be brought down a little, shown the errors of their ways and restructured so as to better serve their purpose. They needed to better serve the proper citizens of Marn. Paragon had simply been the only option to obtain that goal.

So he slowly made his way to the warehouse. He changed directions several times in his travels, taking a path that crisscrossed across the city in a way that would give the impression that the man was out for a leisurely stroll, with no real destination in mind. His clothes were simple, of plain design and he kept his face shadowed under a hood, as many people did in this part of town.

As he approached he recognized a familiar figure by the pet he kept perched on his shoulder. He was accompanied by the girl Sebastian could only explain as odd and by the look of them, they meant to head further into town.

"Three inside?" he asked in a hushed tone as he passed. He knew the man wasn't much of a talker which was fine as conversations in the street were discouraged, but a nod of the head was all he was looking for.

I've got a long day ahead of me and the last thing I want is more delays.

[Kala]

Kala caught herself holding her breathe as she stared back at the bird that landed on Miklos' arm. Birds were really majestic things but she always felt that they, partiulary his birds, stared at her, if not through her. Maybe it was just in her mind or mabye they sensed something about her. Maybe she was part bird too! She cocked her head as she thought, glancing sideways to look at the both of them on occasion. Perhaps her father had been a bird shifter too? Was that possible? An elf who could shift? Perhaps if she started to jump of boxes she could see if she could....no that was silly. Now was not the time to think about flying. Although it would be nice, usefull even.

She was about to open her mouth and speak to Miklos when a hooded man attempted to pass them and asked a silly question. "Three what?" Kala demanded as she bounced past the man, eager to be outside and breathing in comparatively fresh air. They really should crack a window open one in a while, or perhaps let her burn some pretty smelling candles once in a while.

She turned around but continued walking backwards, not wanting to be pulled away from her errands and perhaps a ally forming trip. "People don't clarify things often enough." She stated to no one in particular.

[Three]

It was cold. Three hated cold. It made skin brittle, prone to annoying scrapes. It numbed the hands and dulled the senses. Very dangerous. A pair of heavy gloves made a rare appearance on Three's normally bare hands. I hate the cold. Even under the heavy gloves, his knuckles were sluggish. As he drew up his cupped hands to blow hot air in an attempt to warm his frigid fingers, he rounded the final corner to the warehouse. Sebastian should be here now to- the hell. There was Sebastian, accompanied by Miklos and Kala. The latter looked distressed, the two former as brooding as always. "Having fun out here?" he said, hoping to startle at least one of them. He succeeded in getting a jump out of Kala (no surprise there), but Miklos' eyes just locked onto his like those of the birds he kept. Unsettling how similar they are. Sebastian didn't even look over. Obviously trying to play it off.

"Get back inside," he snapped without waiting for an answer to his previous question. "You'd better have an excellent reason to be chatting out here." Why am I so paranoid right now?

It's cold. I hate the cold.

[Sebastian Morylin]

Sebastian had heard footsteps as Three approached the group. It was part of his training to listen for the frequency of steps, how hard they hit the ground and to determine without looking if the person approaching from behind were in some way a threat or a man out for a peaceful walk. He did not react to Three's attempt to startle them. He did not turn to look at the man.

After he was sure that Three was done with his little game, he calmly asked, "shall we continue this inside?"

He didn't have time for games and he had even less patience for them right now. However, Sebastian wasn't the kind of man to challenge Three and his tactics. He simply wanted to check in, do his job and get on with his life.

[Miklos]

Miklos grunted greetings at the two men and then stared at Three. Who the devil had a number as a name, anyway? That was a bit stupid. Maybe it was just a nickname, not that it really mattered. The boy was still jumpy and squirrely and Miklos didn't like anyone who was like that. He could barely stand to be around Kala as it was, with her constant chatter and bizarre ways.

Sebastian and Three grumbled at each other for a bit and Miklos restrained an eyeroll. What was the point of posturing like peacocks in mating season if all you were talking about was going inside. He jerk his head at Kala and started walking. "C'mon," he muttered. "Let's get yer shoppin' done."

Not bothering to wait and see if she was following him, he flicked his arm in the air and sent Ylli winging up skywards. One of his crows quickly came down to take her place on his shoulder - as much as the gyrfalcon was his favorite, a crow was much more subtle in the market. A snow-white falcon wasn't exactly common to be found on someone's shoulder, especially a someone who wasn't a noble.