An Inconsequential Arrival

[Jenica Sabiny]

The human didn't own a cat, nor had she ever, by the looks and smells of this house. And then the human actually backed away from the thing, as if scared or threatened by it. This was all the vampire needed. She slammed the wine bottle into the doorframe, shattering the bottom of it with the centripetal force of the swing, and held the serrated and jagged edges out toward the cat. The vampire moved herself between the human and the cat, reacting on pure instinct - and at the moment, she felt the need to defend the human from any outside threats.

There was nothing moral or upstanding in this action; the vampire was acting from the same instincts which made large cat predators snarl and swipe at scavengers when they tried to steal or pick off a kill. If this creature represented even the smallest hint at injury to the vampire's own prey, the creature would attack blindly until it felt such a threat had been neutralized.

Even so, to an outsider, it looked as though the vampire were moving with the sole intent of defending the human from a potential threat - a completely unexplainable and random reaction. If she'd had actual hackles they would be at point - but as it was, the vampire stood tense and at the ready to attack. Her other hand moved to her back to clutch the shaft of the arrow which rested there, in case it was needed.

She stood with her back to the human, glaring at the cat without a word. Two animals never needed words to communicate, and the vampire expected the cat to understand the implied threat here.

[Amira Lum]

Amira jumped as the vampire swung the bottle into the frame, expecting the jagged glass to be thrusted at her. She took a step back, not even watching the vampire, her gaze directed irrationally at the shards that plummeted to the ground, visible only as motion in the shadows to which her eyes had not yet fully adjusted.

When the last broken bit had fallen, she looked upward, surprised. No pain, not yet. What was the beast waiting for?

The beast in question had directed her attention at the cat, to Amira's surprise. Did the vampire consider the feline a threat? It certainly looked like it. But to whom? To the fanged monster? She very much doubted it.

In fact, it looked like the vampire was defending Amira, which made no sense. What did she care? Anyway, it was just a cat. Diseased or no, it couldn't do anything more than bite and scratch, and that shouldn't have concerned the predator, right?

Unless...

Amira shook off the thought. The vampire didn't care about her well-being at all. She was prey.

Prey on whom the predator had turned her back.

Grunting with effort, Amira stepped forward quickly, driving her sword at the vampire's back. She closed her eyes as metal hit flesh, turning her head away, and threw her weight into the sword.

She continued to look away as she pulled her sword back, wincing at the sickening sound and the retch-inducing feeling of the metal of her weapon sliding between sinewy muscle. She refused to even look at her newly-filthy sword, taking a step back and directing her eyes in the general direction of the pile of shards by the door, searching for a glint, a glimmer, a hint of light.

All she saw was dark.

[Valz Malar]

The woman, Ryalyn, introduced herself to him and echoed his thoughts on negotiation. The wry grin stretching across her face made it seem as if Ryalyn had this creature just where she wanted it. Which was fine with Valz, the idea of negotiation may have been floating around his head, but it certainly wasn’t one of his strong points. Just as he was preparing to ask how her “friend???” was going to be a liaison he heard hurried movement from behind the door. The sound of shattering glass made him stand and start moving towards it. Less than a second later and his boot was pounding into the door as close to the handle as he could get it. The force shook the door, dust coming down from the ceiling, the door twisting in its frame, preparing to give way. He reared back and was prepared to kick again when a sound from inside chilled him, to his core. Steel makes a very distinct noise when it parts human flesh. There is an almost imperceptible pause just as it pierces, the person being stabbed involuntarily sucks in a breath in anticipation of the pain, pupils dilate, sweat pores open when the adrenaline pours throughout the body, a thousand separate tiny little actions all just as the body is punctured. The sound was similar to that chain of events with something missing. The grate of blade through flesh was heard by Valz clearly, but the sound was missing just enough of that human quality for him to have some idea of what was happening inside. In any event it was enough to make him stop kicking the door.

If haste was needed in any situation, surely this was one. Lowering his foot, Valz pushed off the hallway and threw his entire body into the door. He could have sworn he heard Ryalyn say something but it may have been his imagination. Whatever it was or wasn't would have been lost in the noise and impact of his body colliding with the door. Valz had the oddest thought as the door blew off it’s hinges and as his body fell, almost in slow motion, with it to the floor: “I never even checked to see if it was locked.”

The sudden change in light from half-dark to pitch black left him on the floor, on his side, wooden splinters embedded in his body, effectively blind. This couldn’t be good.

[Ryalyn Kylana]

Ayden's lazy gaze fell on the creature now staring her down, armed and clearly very dangerous.

What is it? Can you tell? Ryalyn asked him, her mental voice inquisitive if not a little bit excited. He knew she could hear the shattered glass from outside since there was obvious pounding now on the door, probably from that noisemaker of a sidekick she picked up, he thought wryly to himself.

Easily able to see in the darkness of the room, he took a brief but thorough survey of the creature's appearance. It was quite obvious to him now that 'it' was really a female. Under the grime he could distinguish someone of humanoid build with patches of pale skin that looked human but unnaturally so. But ... he was certain she was not human. She didn't smell or feel human to him. And he didn't smell or feel any fae or dragon blood in her either, which was obvious to him because of his companion. Internally he was quite puzzled.

All the same, he replied in a sarcastic and drawling mental voice, Judging by the fact that this creature clearly hasn't bathed in the gods know how long, it's a bit difficult to say....

He observed the creature's actions curiously, showing no expression nor acknowledgment of its challenge. The viciousness he felt coming from her seemed as if she were protective of the human, which in some respects he sensed, but, having taken a predatory form quite often and observing them in their natural state ... he highly doubted that was the whole situation. The feeling he sensed was an awful lot like his companion's own predatory side that she was not really aware of. Her people had dragon blood. He could feel it coursing through her, neck and neck with the fae blood. And on rare occasions, when she was endangered or severely angered, it would rear its ugly head. Granted, he did the same, since he was so unequivocally protective of her, but that was different ... or so was his opinion.

He blinked lazily and responded to Rya's now incessant mental prodding, But she is protective, and, in my opinion, in a predatory way. Doesn't so much as look it as feel it.... Ugh! He halted in indignation because as he spoke to Rya he noticed the creature reaching for the arrow that belonged to his companion. He could not see it, but he certainly could sense the unique spell coatings on the arrow, and they simply screamed of defilement to him. NO creature such as this should ever lay hand on such elegantly made weapons as those belonging to his companion. Pushing his annoyance aside however, he quite calmly, if not a bit snide, replied to the creature,

"If you don't mind, I do believe that arrow belongs to my companion. I know she would want it back...." He cast a bored glance at the girl and continued to say in a slightly disgusted, drawling voice, "And if you think I want that you're sadly mistaken." Frankly, he had no stomach for eating humans. But internally he smiled, for in that single glance he knew, we really need not do anything to help this girl. She seems to be doing rather well herself....

-------------- ~ * ~ --------------

Outside, Rya listened carefully to Ayden prattling away at her in his usual manner. She stool relaxed, arms crossed casually, one foot propped up against the wall with her head lowered slightly and her eyes closed in focus. She could see and hear Ayden's thoughts best this way; the way he saw things and described things were reflected in her mind's eye like the reflection one would see through tinted glass. She knew what he showed her was only a warped version of what was really there most of the time, but with all her years of practice, she could easily discern truth from illusion.

At one time, she heard the shattering of glass as she conversed with Ayden. She opened her eyes in time to see Valz vaulting for the door and starting to break it down. She felt no concern, however, since she knew that Ayden would have said there was a problem if there was one. She watched from her spot against the wall, a sly smile cocked on her face. If only he knew how pointless that is.... she thought to Ayden, a little laughter in her voice.

She continued her multitasking of observance and listening to Ayden, frowning when she heard Ayden voice sudden disgust. She was about to ask why he had made such a noise when she felt his sly mental smile and heard him mentally comment to her, we really need not do anything to help this girl. She seems to be doing rather well herself.... At that moment, Valz succeeded in breaking down the door, and through the dust and splinters, her eyes pierced easily into the dark of the room and to the situation beyond. She smiled at her companion as he calmly looked down at Valz then up at her, a strange glittering in his eyes. Took him long enough, he thought to her.

[Jenica Sabiny]

When the sword pushed through, it took Jenica a full three seconds to realize that she'd just been run through her right shoulder. A chunk of metal, sharp and long, was now sticking out from where it hadn't been a moment before. And the muscles in her shoulder were displaced, some of them severed and some shoved to the sides of the blade itself to make room for its presence.

It didn't hurt until the blade was wrenched back out from her body, a movement which hauled the vampire backward a step before finally exiting the bone and flesh with the distinct suction of metal through skin.

Another minute before the pain started - a dull ache, centered in her shoulder, which tingled its way down her arm until she started to feel herself lose her grip on the shattered bottle's neck. She tightened her grip with whatever muscles remained to obey her commands, and staggered forward until she could brace a fisted hand against the wall, clutching the shaft of the arrow.

The human had done this. The human...who had a weapon. She'd forgotten the weapon. And that might very well prove to be the last mistake of her short life.

Panting again, eyes closed. She'd lost interest in the cat; who cared about a cat, when your guts were all soup, and your fist was grinded meat, and your shoulder...the vampire heaved as she adjusted to this new pain in her body's unlimited list of pains.

The door was now being attacked and splintered, soon to give, but the vampire closed her eyes and ignored the sound. She wasn't capable of worrying any longer; she wanted to retain her grip on the bottle and arrow, and she would do this to her last living moment. They were the only weapons she could even remember having in her possession.

The cat was speaking, and Jenica was so lost in her painful daze that this fact didn't even offer a blink of confusion from her. Where she was in her head, cats could speak and shadows whispered directly into her mind, speaking of something coming, something large to defeat the sun...

The door would fall within moments. The shadows invaded her with their urgency and pleas for her to move. She'd developed such a relationship with them over the years, to the point that her own insanity had morphed her inner voice of reason into the dark's stream of consciousness, forever colliding within her brain into a cacophony of voices. And now these voices were screaming for her to move, to do anything at all. She was in a room with a talking cat and an armed human. And the door would soon allow another two warriors to enter this small, confined space.

She needed to get out of this place, out of this house. But there were three armed adults and a talking cat in her way. That, and a door. But not for much longer...

The vampire gathered her strength with great heaving breaths to focus her energies into one goal. As the wood shattered and gave way, the shadows morphed into one solid voice which urged her that now was the time to run. Now, right now.

Jenica complied. To the best of her ability.

She twisted and burst away from the wall seconds after the door slammed forward and down. A man fell forward with it, but Jenica ignored him in favor of flinging the broken bottle she'd obtained earlier as a projectile missile at whoever might be standing outside the door. As the bottle flew, she came right behind it, but not to attack, though she braced the arrow's shaft, ready to slash with the sharpened end if need be. Instead she only counted on the shattered bottle turned weapon acting as a suitable distraction, enough to get her through the door and down the hallway, back toward the kitchen where she knew an already-shattered window would allow her a direct outlet to the outer world. She took no pains to avoid the man laying across the doorframe, nor did she take stock of where his arms might be placed. Either she would stomp right over him, or she would be caught trying.

It was darker than normal in the hallway, for such an early time of day. The vampire didn't care what this might mean; she only cared that the shadows had not led her astray, that she may in fact be able to move freely outside, at least for a moment's time...if only she could get out the door.

[Amira Lum]

She heard, vaguely, the pounding on the door, the splintering of the wood. Yet another part of her house demolished, and if she'd injured the vampire enough, she thought, she might just live to suffer through cleaning the place up.

But the door would open, gods willing. She would no longer be enclosed in this smothering darkness with a monster and...and a cat that spoke? She gasped for breath, as if the darkness were filling her very lungs. Her sight had yet to adjust; was there any light at all in this wretched room?

It was too like a dream.

Dream...

She fought it, fought the state that threatened to overtake her, swaying on her feet. She had to stay alert, for the vampire surely wasn't dead. She wasn't sure if it was even possible to kill the beast. The danger remained. Amira was already living a nightmare; she wasn't sure if she would be able to handle slipping into another.

The door fell.

By instinct, she stepped back, away from the door. Movement. The vampire was moving back too, and suddenly the creature burst out the door, trampling over the figure that had fallen through.

Quickly, Amira moved towards the doorway, not to chase the vampire, but in search of light. There wasn't nearly enough, she reflected. She wondered if she ought to hurry after the beast, but honestly, if the vampire wanted to leave, why stop her?

But what if she came back?

[Valz Malar]

Landing left Valz gazing up at into a cat’s face. If he hadn’t already seen it change shape and appear to talk to the woman, Ryalyn, in the hallway he may have been surprised at the intelligence displayed there. But on a day like this not much could surprise him. He half expected to feel a blade pierce his skin, an enemy jump on him or some other form of violence conducted on his body. Which is why when a boot smashed into his hand, further driving wooden slivers into it, he barely let out a sound. He felt the weight of the creature bear down and vault off his right hand and out into the hallway. His eyes and head followed her even as he began to pick himself up. Unsure of whether or not his hand was broken or just badly bruised, Valz couldn’t risk taking his eyes off the door. A moment of distraction could be disastrous.

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he felt the shadows move. It would be imperceptible to most people but Valz had always felt an affinity for the shadowy places. They made him even harder for the average person to spot, but these shadows, this room, was different: almost malevolent. It made him want to get out of that room. He started to look for the woman, hoping he wouldn’t find her body on the floor.

She blew right by him making a beeline for the door. Valz couldn’t help but notice the sword in her hand, dripping blood.

[Jenica Sabiny]

Jenica raced with the shadows screaming into her head that she wasn't going fast enough, that she would miss her chance soon. The warrior outside made a grab for her arrow-wielding hand, caught her arm and seemed to want to say something, but the vampire was nothing if not a pure animal. Still moving forward, she slashed out with her free hand to scrape the deepest gashes possible into the warrior's hand as she wrenched her arm from the grip and continued down the hallway, heedless of whether her fingernails now carried flesh beneath them or not.

Out. All that she wanted was out. It wasn't so much to ask, was it? The shadows didn't think so; the vampire didn't think so. But the sun, oh the cruel sun...

The vampire was in the kitchen now, running for the darkened window. The shadows were more insistent, more panicked. They thought her chance was almost up, and perhaps they were right. She aimed for the window, still full speed ahead, a steam roller with the goal in sight...and then the glass on the kitchen floor skid beneath her boot, and she was flying forward but without wings of her own. She slammed forward onto her stomach against the ground, driving small shards into her skin in enough places for her to register the pain. Her momentum carried her into the wall in a graceless heap, belly flat against the floor save for where shattered glass separated her skin from the tiles.

The vampire lay silently for several moments in confusion before the reeling whine of the shadows began urging her back up, up and out through the window. The vampire moved without will or purpose; she moved at their request. Her arms came close to her body, her palms braced against the ground, and she began pushing herself up to the tune of tinkling glass as it was pulled back out from her body by her sagging shirt. The pain was incredible, so intense that the vampire could barely manage her sluggish pace. Slow and methodical, she pulled her knees forward, reached up to grab the sill and pull herself up higher, perhaps even onto her feet. It was still dark outside, not night but dark enough for her to leave, but every movement was piercing agony, and where vaulting over the sill had been a simple act of will before, it was now the most impossible maneuver she could imagine.

The vampire stood on shaky ground, staring out the window in a daze as the shadows continued their chanting inside of her head.

[Amira Lum]

She stopped momentarily, registering the fact that two other people -- humans, she hoped -- were standing in her house. Were they there to help? She couldn't assume that, she reflected, based on what she'd been through on only her second day in Marn. Still, they hadn't jumped to murder her yet, so she guessed that neither of them posed a significant threat. Yet.

The grating of glass against tile made Amira wince, and she began to move towards the kitchen. Back to that wretched room? Didn't the vampire know how to use a front door?

The beast in question, she saw as she stopped just inside the doorway, was standing -- if you could call it that -- by the window, slivers of glass falling as she pushed herself up. Amira groaned in dismay. It appeared as though she wouldn't be able to set down her sword just yet, despite the pain the weight already caused.

"Aren't you gone yet?" she hissed. "Get out, or die and get it over with. I don't care. But don't linger in my kitchen like a houseguest."

She stepped forward, her eyes raking over the vampire's injured body. She had moved past pity for the wretched creature, and for now there was nothing to fear from it. But she hated it. She hated the ruthless beast more than she would have thought possible. She wanted it gone, for good.

But could she bring herself to kill it?

Well, probably.

[Ryalyn Kylana]

Rya smoothly stepped to the side away from the wall and into the hall to avoid the propelled bottle thrown violently through the door. But in so doing there was no way for her to avoid the creature that suddenly burst through the dust and debris in the doorway making a beeline back toward the kitchen and subsequently right toward her. Normally she would have just let it go by with little care or interference. But there, clutched in its hand, was one of her arrows. Revulsion welling up inside her, she reached out as the creature came at her, grabbing its arm that held the arrow with a strong grip and planted her feet in an attempting to stop it.

------------------

Ayden had followed the desperate creature out the door, treading quickly yet carefully to avoid the man still strewn upon the floor casting a thought to Rya as he did so, Hmmm, I wouldn't intervene if I were you. Looking down at the man below him, his eyes glowing green with distaste, he made an audible "Hmph" sound of disapproval. Jumping down off the pile of rubble he sensed the woman from the room breeze past him. He tilted his head at her curiously, taking in her somewhat bloody and disheveled state.

------------------

Rya retched her hand back as the creature tried to slash at her, just barely missing. She'd sensed the movement and the motive just in time to avoid any unwanted discomfort. She watched as it raced down the hallway like a rabid animal, her eyes glowing hot with displeasure.

------------------

Ayden, catching sudden movements in the corner of his eye, turned to watched it go. Sensing Ryalyn's instant change in mood, he approached her cautiously, wrapping his lithe body around her ankles in a soothing manner to calm her rage. He could feel the air tingling with it and since they were not alone he wanted to avoid anything ... revealing.

Sighed heavily he remarked, I thought as much, with no hint of sarcasm but rather sad submission. As the girl breezed past them as well, he watched as Rya closed her eyes for a few moments, turning toward the shattered doorway. When she opened them again they were normal. Ryalyn smiled slyly at the man who had gotten up.

"You look a little worse for wear ..." she said, sly amusement ringing in her voice.

[Valz Malar]

The sound of fast moving footsteps echoing throughout the house greeted Valz as his hearing returned to normal. The blow from landing on the door must have made his head ring harder than he originally thought. Rising from a half-crouch to his feet he was able to hear the woman, Ryalyn, comment on his appearance.

“Things didn’t go exactly as I had expected”, Valz said as he cradled his right hand.

A glance down towards his hand revealed a blatantly broken index finger and at least two other dislocations. Valz started for the doorway, the darkened room to his back when he heard something again. The first time was while he was falling on top of the door, he had heard a vague voice. More like the whisper of a voice at the edge of his consciousness. He couldn’t make out what it was saying, if anything, or even in what language. He just knew he had heard something. It had slipped his mind when the boot came crashing into his hand, but as he left the shadows of that room he heard it again. Faintly, from further away, as if the wind was carrying wisps of far off conversations. Shaking his head to clear the cobwebs and to try and exercise the voice he passed Ryalyn with a glance that spoke volumes.

“Shall we?”

And with that he started back down the stairs towards the kitchen where he heard voices which he could clearly place and understand. Fresh blood drops covered blood from earlier in the hallway. Blood seemed to be the thing which tied this charnel house and its current inhabitants together.

[Jenica Sabiny]

The vampire's eyes rolled into her skull as she wavered, and if the woman's voice hadn't cut through the silence moments later, the vampire would have collapsed and sprawled along the floor, most likely to never wake up again. The woman had, in a way, saved the vampire's life with just words.

The vampire would need to remember that, and cut out her tongue. But later, much later, when her skin wasn't so full of holes and she'd lost so much blood. More blood than she'd had before, it seemed.

Time to leave. Over the window sill, out into the day that wasn't bright, still not bright enough to burn. The shadows had ceased their shrieking; now it was the loudest cacophony possible, millions of voices speaking at the same time, urging her to move, up and over, now now now!

There was nothing rushed in the painful way that Jen moved her arms to grasp the sill. She didn't care about the human any longer; she cared about nothing at all but getting outside. She remembered that she was inside of something like a city, with tall buildings which could provide ample shade inside of an alleyway. That was all she needed, to rest and recover, and then return to this house and destroy the human female with a brutality far removed from sanity.

Over, but no up. The vampire merely leaned forward, gave a slight push with her legs, and was outside, sprawled on the ground. She blinked up at the sky for a while, not understanding why the light was blotted or what the large contraption in the sky might be. But she knew that the shadows hadn't steered her wrong.

Now they wanted movement again. Mechanical once more, the vampire complied, slow and measured as she sat up, got her feet under her, and began the stumbling gait away from the house. She didn't listen to hear if anyone followed; it was doubtful she'd even notice, anyway.

[Amira Lum]

The vampire was gone.

Thank all that was holy, the beast was gone, out of Amira's house and, she hoped, out of her life.

She stood there, among the broken glass, the tile cold against her feet, and traced a path with her eyes that took in the streaks of blood, the hole in the wall, the shattered window...

There were people in the hall. People that, one could argue, had saved her. It would be right to go and thank them, to offer her gratitude and anything else she could give them. Honestly, though, she couldn't bring herself to think about what was right, what was appropriate. Instead, she knelt on the kitchen floor, sheathing her sword, and began methodically gathering crimson-stained glass fragments into her hands.

She was alive, and out of danger. And yet now that the danger was over, now that the adrenaline was slowly seeping from her blood, she felt more desperate, more defeated than she had when the vampire had been about to kill her.

She had left home broken, and she'd come here to build a new life. She hadn't expected it to be perfect, of course. But all she'd wanted was peace, and perhaps the barest semblance of happiness. Instead, this single event would be the one to define her experience in Marn, a telling preface to her new life. What more would happen?

Tonight, she would sleep, she would rest, but nothing would be changed when she woke. The closest thing she had to a home would still be in ruin. She would still be afraid to step out her door, for fear of what else lay in wait. She would still be alone and afraid. There was nothing she could do to change that.

What would she dream of tonight? However horrific it would be, it would pale in comparison to what she'd experienced, for it wouldn't be real. No matter what happened in her dreamworld, she would wake. She would escape.

From this, there was no awakening.

She stood, balancing the small pile she'd gathered in her left hand. What a wonderful beginning.

[Ryalyn Kylana]

Rya followed Valz down the hallway back to the kitchen, Ayden smoothly trailing behind. Stretching her senses before her she had the notion that the thing was no longer in the house. This gave her a mixed sense of emotions but Ayden prodded her thoughts toward other things. As she followed Valz she un-shouldered her pack and began riffling through it. She pulled out a little drawstring leather bag. Slinging her bag back on her shoulder, she opened the pouch and inspected the contents. Will we need more, do you think? she heard Ayden ask curiously as he watched her. No, I think not. she answered. The herbs inside were still in good condition since she had dried them a few weeks prior to their visit to Marn. They would work fine when she put them to use.

Looking around Valz to look into the kitchen, a frown came upon her face. Something that had been at the back of her mind was bothering her again. She sensed something outside the norm that had no reason for being there.

"Here," she said, offering the pouch to Valz in her left hand as she stepped around his right side. She paid little attention to whether or not he took it, however. Stepping around the girl, who had bits of glass piled in her hand, she stared out at the fleeing creature, stumbling across the grass. The strange sensation was fading away as the creature escaped them which gave her a bit of ease but something else seemed very wrong. Grazing up to the sky her eyes narrowed, glowing an erie sort of blue. The sun's rays were diminished by a great shadow, casting a strange darkness across the land.

"An eclipse ... " she murmured rather perplexed as Ayden jumped up to perch upon the windowsill before her. "How strange." She tilted her head slightly still watching. "There shouldn't be one here for another couple of months-" She smiled quite suddenly, as her eyes scanned the shadow in the sky. Laughing she exclaimed, "What sort of contraption is that?!"

[Valz Malar]

Valz was glad he didn’t live here. The kitchen looked like a troll had rampaged around it while hemorrhaging blood. A woman stood in the middle of the room, oddly beautiful in her distress. Valz felt, for the first time like an intruder in her home. This was the woman who he had heard cry out, who had had her face smashed into a window while he watched, who had chased after a monster in her own home. She stood holding a pile of glass in her hands, looking lost; in no way did she look defeated, just tired. Had he been a weaker man he may have tried to say something to comfort her or to see if he could help. As it was Ryalyn squeezed by on his right and handed him a pouch. Reflexively reaching out with his right hand Valz grabbed the bag as it fell. The pain in his hand was intense but not enough to make him cry out and disturb the sudden quiet of the room.

Shifting hands Valz took his eyes off the woman and the window that the creature must have departed from to look into the pouch. A pungent smell that was foreign to him greeted Valz’s senses. He didn’t recognize the dried plants inside the bag but guessed that they had some kind of healing properties. Taking a few and pocketing them in his clothes he awkwardly tied the bag back up and tossed it to Ryalyn who was busy looking out the window talking about some object in the sky.

The moment for quiet had passed. Valz was able to dig out the few Bishani he carried with him and laid them on the counter.

“Ryalyn”, Valz said as a way of goodbye, with a nod of the head.

Turning towards the woman, bleeding and bruised in her own kitchen,

“Ma’am, I’ve got to get going. You should be safe for today, but I would suggest moving if possible.”

Walking through the door Valz turned his head over his shoulder to address the woman once more.

“If you ever need help I live above a shop that sells random things on the Western edge of the Shanty. Look for a candle maker’s stall next door.”

Without looking back Valz headed back for the alley he originally came from. He couldn’t help but notice the blood trail from the creature. For half a second he considered unsheathing Animus and ending the creature. But after taking stock of his hand and the wood splinters piercing his side, he decided that he had poked his nose in others business enough for one day. The blood trail went one way, he went the other.

Valz would wonder many things after he got back to his room. The most important was what he would regret the most later, not ending the creature while he had a chance or telling the woman, he still didn’t know her name, where he lived.