People you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley

[+ZincAboutIt]

Vivica perked up at the sound of Grey's voice filtering through a few doors, accompanied by the continued static and occasional high-pitched whine.

"Oh!" She said, then grinned - a little wider this time, and quite a bit sharper, less cheerful. More predatory. "I almost forgot about Sierra."

She looked over at Nox, who was still twirling his many spikes and pens. He really was something else, easily her most complex hallucination to date. And an excellent conversationalist.

There's a new girl back there," she said, sipping her coffee and looking around for the other cups. "We're doing an experiment. And then, afterwards, we'll have cinnamon rolls! Wanna join? You do seem busy, but I'll even let you have a roll. You seem like you can handle the sugar, Nox. Not like Bennington here - he just goes wild with sugar. Don't you Bennington?"

The little octopus gave a great loop through the air, then pulsed with a dark, violet light. Vivica could sense his eagerness to get back into the other room, back to the chair and the images on the wall and the sharp, snapping crackle of sound coming from the radio transmitter. Her blue eyes glittered with a reflection of that dark light, and her smile only widened.

"Come on, come on!" She beckoned Nox forward, then picked up the other two cups of coffee, holding them by their handles with a slightly-shaking hand. "It's getting good in there."

@Voidus

Edited December 3, 2019 by ZincAboutIt
alterations, weird formatting

[Zephrun’s Imperium]

"One," Sierra said, shuddering.

@Snipexe

[+Sorana]

Temeria walked along the street, carefully keeping away from the fast carriages and close to the wall of a nearby house. Aln had told her to walk into an alley, and Mac had did that and vanished. So it should be rather easy. Walking into an alley, sounded like something she could do. She paused at a crossroads and looked around, then randomly chose a small street to her right. It was narrow, the houses left and right casting it into deep shadows and she paused for a moment, took some time to collect herself. The sister she remembered was no brave person, but in the end, she couldn't discard the fact that her warning might have some merrit. Bracing herself for whatever might come Temeria took a step forward.

Her foot hit the ground with a soft sound and she carefully took another step, then another. There was a man lying on the ground, obviously begging for money and she tried to avoid his glance, his dark eyes, combined with the shadow's of the houses made her uneasy. Quickly she passed him, wondered when something would happen, where the huge unseen danger was her sister had been talking about. She was halfway through the alley when she realized that most likely she had gotten something wrong. Or maybe there was a rule as to which alley to choose. Exhaling her body relaxed when nothing jumped her from the dark and she continued to walk, randomly turned left and right. She could always ask for her way back later - had no idea how to get back to the boarding house in the first place. She would have to get a new set of cloths somewhere, something that fit this world better and maybe she would have to spend some time thinking about getting another weapon. Something less conspicious than a sword.

Lost in her thoughts she didn't notice the change in her surroundings, had stopped paying attention a while ago. Back in the army, someone would shout if an attack neared, it wasn't her role in the middle of a row to think of these things, and sometime between considering what to do and realizing that nothing happened, her attention had wandered. Deadly on a battlefield, but on a battlefield something happened. You weren't walking through a city, waiting for some magical stuff to happen.

When she looked up she sky was gone, replaced by something she couldn't find words for, apart from the fear in quietly instilled in her heart. Swallowing she forced her gaze away, her hand closed around the handle of her sword when she tried to understand what had happened, looked back the way she had come and only saw an alley, stretching a lot farther on than the last turn she'd taken. Sweat covered her palm and Temeria swallowed, forced herself to try to keep up a brave facade when something she couldn't even point at scared her to the bones.

"He-" Her voice shook and she stopped speaking, slowly took another hesistant step forward. "Hello!" She finally shouted. "I am looking for somebody who knew Mac."

The sounds echoed strangely and she flinched back at them, as if something unseen was sneaking up on her. When she whirled around, nothing was there, only the sky, that seemed to suck her up, and again, she looked away, as if pretending it wasn't there changed anything. "Come on." She added quietly. "Anybody, I don't care. Just let me get over with this." And then she could turn around and go away. Temeria clung to the thought, although a nagging voice told her, that maybe this time going home wasn't as easy as asking for the right way.

@Ookla the Foxed

[kenod]

KanMien was working on a set of documents, reading through the incident reports, while Kumiko sat in a corner, reading a weird book she had found in one of the storage warehouses. She frowned as she read through the current report. It seemed to detail an increase in activity in the underworld, something about a new crimeboss. She sighed and put the paper aside, feeling tired. The chaos following the Plasmacore incident was finally done it seemed, but it seemed other things were ramping up again. Crime was ramping up, strange reports about missing buildings and the like, and now reports of Atium of all things being found in some set of caverns below the city. Just as she wanted to sigh again she noticed something though, and stood up. Kumiko looked up at her, curious. "Come on," she told her, stretching out her arms as she walked to the door. "It seems we have visitors." Kumiko smiled and jumped out of the beanbag chair she had been sitting in, walking up besides her, and together they left the room.

The two of them walked out of an alley KanMien had twisted in front of them, and when they walked around the corner they found a young woman who looked like she was from Roshar. "You called?" KanMien asked, her voice being carried through the alleys.

[+Sorana]

2 hours ago, Ookla the Foxed said:

The two of them walked out of an alley KanMien had twisted in front of them, and when they walked around the corner they found a young woman who looked like she was from Roshar. "You called?" KanMien asked, her voice being carried through the alleys.

Temeria jumped in surprise at the voice, it seemed to come from all sides at the same time, and she whirled around again, her heart beat calming a little when she saw the two of them. They looked positively human, at least as far as she could see. Of course they were. She chided herself. Mac had looked like a human as well. All the rest - it was only her imagination running wild. Change the sky a little, add some creepy shadows, and trust her mind to paint monsters everywhere.

"Hello." She repeated, shifted her weight from one feet to the other, something about these two made her uneasy. She couldn't pinpoint it, just like she couldn't pinpoint anything here, but something about them - maybe it was only the way they held themselves. "Yes, I called." She replied, surprised by how steady her voice sounded. Slowly she forced herself to removed her hand from her sword, tried to appear more or less relaxed. It was always better to try to appear strong in unknown territory.

"I am looking for somebody who knew Mac."

[kenod]

KanMien nodded, a slight smile on her face. "I guess I'm familiar with him," she said. "He is my boss after all." She looked at her, wondering why she was here. She obviously wasn't a denizen, and if she was a new initiate then Mac would have normally taken care of her personally, at least if he was the one who had recruited her. Then a frown appeared on her face as she thought about the woman's words. "Hang on a second," she said. "Did you just say 'knew'?"

As KanMien was talking Kumiko walked further out of the shadows, her tail and ears becoming visible. She gave the woman a somewhat disinterested look, though she did wonder what she was doing here. And, of course, why she and KanMien had to deal with it. Still, she was getting bored, and she figured KanMien would appreciate a distraction from her paperwork as well.

[Voidus]

The spren flitted from one street to the next. It raced along a street before hitting a wall and then backtracking before zooming down another side street, a small little bolt of light racing from street to street, attracting a few startled yelps as it rapidly twirled out of the way of people at the last minute, leaving some faint scorch marks on their clothes.

It had only looked away for a moment, seeing a new kind of flower and wondering what it would smell like when it burned, but when it burned back the person had gone again. They must have vanished into one of the side streets, but something about those made the spren a little uneasy. It didn't like that sensation, the faint sense of worry and discomfort that encouraged the spren to leave those alleyways alone.

Flaring itself a little brighter for comfort it had raced into the alleyways to try to find the person it was looking for, but streets were difficult to remember and the spren didn't even know which ones it was supposed to follow. Why didn't people glow like the spren did? It would make them much easier to find. Or they could burn, burning things were always easy to find.

It finally saw a familiar figure and raced to follow, but just as it was giving chase the spren noticed the sky changing, that happened sometimes but this wasn't the other sky either. This was something altogether different. The sprens brightness faded and it slowed its pace, its head swivelled about to look at the sights around it but it felt profoundly uncomfortable being alone in this place.

Catching sight of the figure ahead as it began calling out, the spren slid across the ground towards them, still watching it leapt into the air as two other figures appeared. Landing near the feet of the person it had been following, the spren gave another leap, soaring up from her ankle to shoulder where it landed, guardedly watching the other two figures.

"Danger" The spren said in a quiet flicker.

There was something it was supposed to do when there was danger, some way it was supposed to help. But the spren couldn't remember it, something else had to happen first.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Voidus followed Vivica's gaze, looking towards another room. He felt her excitement mounting, felt the eagerness of Bennington at whatever waited them in there. Voidus considered it, considered taking a break and simply speaking with some people for a short while. The news of the discovery of Atium would be able to be handled by other departments for the time being, surely he could spare a little while to catch up with some denizens?

But after a moments hesitation he shook his head, the DA was always better than those outside the guild but there were still far too many who regarded him with something close to awe, or fear. As something apart from the rest of the world. As a god.

"Tempting though cinnamon rolls are." Voidus said. "Perhaps next time."

With a final grateful smile he vanished, Elsecalling into another Alley. His smile slipped a little as he found himself alone once more, it had been nice to have a conversation like that again, however brief it may have been. How much of his life had he now spent wandering alone in an Alleyway?

Shaking his head, a determined light entered into his eyes. No time to be musing right now, there was something he'd need to check on. If Atium had been found beneath the city, and growing rather than simply stored there, then there was some undue Shardic influence in the world that he hadn't noticed, most likely it was simply an unintended side effect of the Worldspike. It was unlikely, but there was a small chance that there was some failure in the barrier that had caused this, something that allowed more than was intended to leak from the spike.

[+Sorana]

Temeria took a step back when she saw the ears and the tail. Her foot caught on something and she stumbled, but when she looked down nothing was there. Maybe one of the cobbles. Her head jerked back to the second figure, the one with the ears and the tail and she realized that her hand was back at her weapon.

"I did." She started to explain, when the spren was there, sat down on her shoulder. Reliefed that she wasn't alone anymore she lifted a hand as if to touch it, but then remembered the burn marks it had left and stopped herself. Danger. A warning. The spren had followed her, only to deliver a warning. Spren didn't do that, and that this one had done it. There was a deeper meaning to it, there had to be. The spren had followed her around for a while now, so there had to be a reason. Temeria looked back at the two figures, she wasn't sure about the human part with the ears and tail and forced herself to concentrate on the situation at hand. She could figure out what to do with the spren later.

"I did say knew." She started a second time. "He left. Said he would never return. And then he vanished." She wondered if she should mentioned the coin, or maybe the house, wasn't sure if she should do it. Maybe they would take it away, and she wanted to keep them. It was a reminder, of his kindness, of the other words he had left her. Those about making a difference, but these words had been directed at her, and she wanted to keep them for a while. She shut her mouth, finally decided to stay quiet and not explain anything more, worried too late that her hesitation most likely had given away, that there was more.

Edited December 5, 2019 by Ookla the Dreamer

[kenod]

KanMien looked at her, trying to hide her shock. "He... left?" She asked slowly, trying to make sure she had heard it right. She shook herself trying to regain her calm. "Thank you," she said. "I don't suppose he left any message?" At the same time she wondered what she should do with the news. Nobody in the department seemed to have known about it yet, but everything still seemed to be running as it should right now, and there was no knowing of what that news should do once it got out. Normally she'd have to ask the department head, but he wasn't really available right now. Which likely only left Voidus, if he didn't already know about this somehow. Of course, all this did assume she was speaking the truth.

"Do you happen to have some time?" She asked of the woman. "My superior would probably want to talk about this with you."

[+Sorana]

Uneasily Temeria looked around. There was only the alley, nothing else. Nothing apart from the shadows that seemed to move, as if they were waiting for her to take a wrong step. Or to stay here alone. Ice cold fear grabbed her heart and she swallowed. Alone. Here. No, it wasn't an option. She could deal with something corporal, something she could use her sword to hack apart. But this - this was something completely differet. She couldn't fight a shadow. The question of the one who had greeted her was no real question, although she supposed she should be glad that she didn't take her hair and drag her away. Somehow she felt as if they were able to do that.

"He did leave a message." She finally replied, her voice shaking slightly. Her eyes flickered over to the one with the tail. They were quiet, but that only meant that she wouldn't hear them before they sunk their knife in her chest. She had to be careful. The question hovered in the air between them, while she groped for words, tried to come up with something that was useful and at the same time hid her fear at being left along in this place. And her fear at going somewhere else but back to the boarding house. She could take the spren and run. The only question was where.

In the end there was no alternative and she stepped slightly to the side when it seemed as if something was moving towards her. Her eyes. It had to be her eyes, they were playing tricks on her mind. "And yes, I've got some time on my hands. I came here to bring this news and if it is relevant to your superior then I will gladly talk to him." There. That sounded as if she actually knew what she was doing.

[kenod]

KanMien nodded, glad the woman had time to come with them. "Alright, thanks," she said. "Now I just need to find out where they are," she muttered under her breath. Voidus would be the logical choice in this case, but she had no clue where he was right now. She decided to ask around, and took a pen out of her pocket. Twirling it around she sent a message around, asking if anyone knew of his whereabouts. Who knew, with some luck Voidus himself might answer.

In the mean time however, it seemed like they might need to make their guest feel more at ease. She thought for a second. "We don't seem to have introduced ourselves yet by the way," she said. "My name is KanMien, and this is Kumiko." she gestured to Kumiko, who gave a short cough. "Ah, right," she added. "Takamine Kumiko, I mean. Family names seem to be important in her culture, from what she says. For some reason they normally introduce themselves with their family name before their given name." She then looked at the woman expectantly.

[Voidus]

The spren watched on, caution and pleasure contrasting within it as the one it had followed stayed where she was, speaking confidently. She kept one hand on her weapon and didn't back down or move away as she spoke, remaining guarded but not allowing herself to be cowed. The spren felt a deep satisfaction, a confidence that it had made the right choice. As it heard her speak the spren felt a sudden sense of elation. The words were not the Words that it needed, but they were a start.

The spren slowly brightened again, gaining assured of itself now it stood proudly on the shoulder, facing the other two as they introduced themselves. The spren remembered names now, things usually called themselves by a name. It had a name too didn't it? And the one it had followed, she had a name didn't she? It turned towards her once more, curious this time.

--------------------------------------------------------------
One step away from exiting the Alleys, Voidus paused. The pens had all stilled, his arms returned to normal. But just as he was about to shift towards the street he felt one more message. After giving a tired sigh to himself he reached into the pocket once more, pulling the pen from within and activating it to receive the message. His tired expression shifted to a hint of regret as he realised what the message was about.

He could confirm it from here, simply be on his way and continue on towards the Worldspike. But he owed Mac more than that, owed it to the last one to see him in this world to hear their words. The last words that Mac had given before leaving.

He turned in place, heading alone, deeper into the Alleys once more.

[+Sorana]

"My name is Temeria." She replied, committing the strange names to memory. "Temeria Shenet." Her last name sounded strange on her tongue, despite the fact that she had never changed it to fit the names in Iri better. But now, with her sister around, it had become something more than a reminder, it had turned into a real familiy name again. It might tell everybody who her sister was, and that immediatly placed her into the same house by nothing but affiliation. If that was good - she had no idea if Aln's guild was important enough to protect her, or if it was the other way round. Maybe she had just painted a huge target on her back.

Temeria grit her teeth when she realized that she had no way to judge the situation at all. She didn't know enough about the place, about this world and she still felt observed, as if something was there, right behind her shoulder, staring at her, waiting for a mistake. Focus. She chided herself and couldn't stop her head from turning, checking if the alley behind her was empty. It was. Only the shadow's appeared to have moved around a little. The spren was burning brighter, and  she found it standing on her shoulder, as if it was proud of something. It was here. Relief that she wasn't completely alone got rid of some of the fear and she took another breath. So far it was nothing but two persons. Mac had been nice. Ignore the shadow's and stay calm. Panicking wouldn't lead to anything as tempting as the thought was.

She tried to come with some nice tidbit as well, something like the comment about family names and when she couldn't think of something, went with a question. "Do you live here? Or is this, " She made a gesture along the alley, "More like a connection to a different place?" Too late she realized, that this was probably something everybody knew and that her words had revealed her as being completely clueless. Well, she couldn't change them now anyway.

@Ookla the Foxed

Edited December 8, 2019 by Ookla the Dreamer

[Guest Coda]

Quote

If anyone wants to RP with Corenar, a Rosharan person with a secret past that not even he knows, please do so. AonEne, my former RP partner, became very busy. Corenar currently knows basic Hemalurgy(from meeting Ene's guest Denizen) and is interested in Investiture in general.

 

[+Sorana]

10 hours ago, Coda said:

If anyone wants to RP with Corenar, a Rosharan person with a secret past that not even he knows, please do so. AonEne, my former RP partner, became very busy. Corenar currently knows basic Hemalurgy(from meeting Ene's guest Denizen) and is interested in Investiture in general.

Quote

If you want to rp in this thread, I have to decline, sorry.

Otherwise yes, although the character I would like to use is a little bit crazy.

 

[Guest Coda]

Quote

I could switch threads. Sounds great.

@Ookla the Dreamer

[+Sorana]

12 minutes ago, Coda said:

I could switch threads. Sounds great.

Quote

Okay. Just pick one, or general Alleycity?

 

[kenod]

On 12/6/2019 at 8:34 AM, Ookla the Dreamer said:

"My name is Temeria." She replied, committing the strange names to memory. "Temeria Shenet." Her last name sounded strange on her tongue, despite the fact that she had never changed it to fit the names in Iri better. But now, with her sister around, it had become something more than a reminder, it had turned into a real familiy name again. It might tell everybody who her sister was, and that immediatly placed her into the same house by nothing but affiliation. If that was good - she had no idea if Aln's guild was important enough to protect her, or if it was the other way round. Maybe she had just painted a huge target on her back.

Temeria grit her teeth when she realized that she had no way to judge the situation at all. She didn't know enough about the place, about this world and she still felt observed, as if something was there, right behind her shoulder, staring at her, waiting for a mistake. Focus. She chided herself and couldn't stop her head from turning, checking if the alley behind her was empty. It was. Only the shadow's appeared to have moved around a little. The spren was burning brighter, and  she found it standing on her shoulder, as if it was proud of something. It was here. Relief that she wasn't completely alone got rid of some of the fear and she took another breath. So far it was nothing but two persons. Mac had been nice. Ignore the shadow's and stay calm. Panicking wouldn't lead to anything as tempting as the thought was.

She tried to come with some nice tidbit as well, something like the comment about family names and when she couldn't think of something, went with a question. "Do you live here? Or is this, " She made a gesture along the alley, "More like a connection to a different place?" Too late she realized, that this was probably something everybody knew and that her words had revealed her as being completely clueless. Well, she couldn't change them now anyway.

@Ookla the Foxed

Quote

Sorry, for the late reaction, I got somewhat distracted.

KanMien scratched her head, trying to think about the question. "That's a bit of a difficult one," she said. "The Alleys themselves form a separate world that we live in, but at the same time we generally don't live in the Alleys themselves. Our labs and living spaces connect to them, and are part of this world, but aren't alleys themselves. Honestly, I'm not sure if anyone fully understands the nature of this place. Voidus or the Stranger might, though I'm not sure. I think Mac was the one who understood the nature of this place the best, but well..."
She shrugged, looking somewhat uncomfortable. "As for what the Alleys themselves are... I guess they're both a location and a connection at the same time. The amount of Alleys is supposedly infinite, but only a small number actually connect to alleys in the real worlds, and the others can shift around in all kinds of ways, to the point that we don't even have any maps, and any navigation needs to be done on instinct, and can only be done by Denizens. And of course, there are other hazards too. Some Alleys don't function according to any known laws of physics, possibly because they're intersecting with worlds that work according to different laws. Others vanish into the void, or are home to beings that have never existed. Yet in others time flows differently, and there are even Alleys with multiple temporal dimensions."

[Guest Coda]

Quote

I don't care. Whatever you feel like.

@Ookla the Dreamer

[Voidus]

Temeria. The Spren gave a resolute nod as it heard the name, doing its best to make sure it remembered it. People put importance in names didn't they? They said them a lot at least, and they felt important when they said them. The Spren should probably remember Temeria's name now that it had learned it. Temeria Temeria Shernet. It sounded nice to the spren, interesting. Like something it wanted to burn, but words shouldn't be burned. The spren remembered that much, words must never be burned.

The spren held its footing on Temeria's shoulder, staring down the other two figures whose names it had already forgotten. The cloth beneath its feet was textured, it could feel the little threads coming off and weaving together in some kind of pattern. The spren had to hold itself back from singing the loose threads, Temeria hadn't burned them yet, that was probably for a reason. Maybe she wanted to burn them later instead? Somewhere less dangerous? That would make sense, no point burning something if you couldn't enjoy it.

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

Stepping silently from an Alley, Voidus straightened himself as the scenery changed around him, the sky shifting overhead, the plain path between two looming walls of buildings. Two figures standing together opposite him, while another stood in the center of the path, a small glowing figure standing on her shoulder. Voidus let his gaze wander over those present, watching for any signs of other parties remaining unseen before finally stepping forwards from behind Temeria.

"The Alleys." He said in a controlled voice. "Are an ever changing mystery, but not one we are inclined to discuss at length with others."

Stopping in between the other two figures, he turned to regard Temeria, hs gaze paused briefly on the spren, then on her sword before finally focusing on her face. The dark pools of his eyes locked onto hers, staring intently as though to forcibly pull what he needed to know from them.

"You were the last person to see him?" Voidus asked, voice tensing for a moment. "Mac. Before he left."

[kenod]

KanMien gave a nervous look at a Voidus as she stepped aside. "Ah, sorry sir," she muttered. Curious she looked at what was going to happen, hoping it wouldn't be too dramatic, or if it was, not catch her and Kumiko in the blast radius.

[+Sorana]

Temeria whirled around in surprise, drawing her sword a little when suddenly, finally, something changed behind her. A figure had appeared, but before she could do something, reposition herself or even judge if the figure was a threat or not, they moved, stepped past her and stopped only when he, it was obviously a man given his figure and the way he moved, stood in between of the two that had greeted her earlier.

He dismissed her question without even looking her way - not that she really had understood KanMien's explanation completely, but it had felt better than this simple - it's not your business. Apart from that he was right. It wasn't her business. And yet, at least the part she had been able to follow had helped to grasp this eerie place to a certain degree. It was sounded a little like the thing she had used to travel here. A portal, in the shape of an alley. Given the length of KanMien's explanation that was probably mostly wrong, but it was something she could picture and so she went with it.

The figure turned around, allowed her to see his face, the short hair and his eyes. The eyes. They were dark, endless pools that seemed to reach out for her, while they first focused on the spren and she instinctively lifted a hand, as if to shield it from them. Feeling stupid at her defensive reaction, she slowly lowered her hand, but still shifted her weight, to be able to move more quickly. Then the eyes brushed over her sword and finally locked onto hers and she nearly immediatly looked away, down at the ground unable to stand them even for a heartbeat. She could still feel his stare, as if he was looking past her skin, as if he tried to pry her open with nothing but his eyes and she moved a step away, unconciously trying to get rid of this gaze, of the feeling. The cold fear returned, grabbed her with relentless, icy hands and she felt her grip around her sword grow tight when she fought the urge to start running right here and now.

When he spoke again his voice had changed a little, tensed when he refered to Mac and the little slip of control changed him from awful spirit of the dark to something else. Something a little more human. No, not human, she immediatly corrected her own thought. Mac had declined to be a god and yet referred to himself as one, he had told her, that his guild had created this world. Whoever this man was, it would be safest to assume he was the same category. Powerful enough to create a world. A god. Temeria considered to fall to her knees, and decided against it. It would have been the wrong way with Mac, and at the moment he was the only thing she had as reference. She swallowed, tried to keep her thoughts in one place and to avoid the dread that rose in her throat. One step after the other.

She forced herself to look up again, focused her own gaze on his chest, just below his neck. It would make it possible to see if he moved, without meeting his stare directly. She had been taught to look there, to avoid her eyes giving away where she aimed her next blow at. It was as far up as she could bring herself to, fear holding her throat in a tight grip. And maybe she should be proud that she was still standing anyway.

There was no option to keep silent when he asked a question, no hesitation to think about her reply or to shape it in a good way. She went with the truth, without really thinking about it. "No, I wasn't." She shook her head. "The street wasn't empty, I am sure, others have to have seen him as well. But I am positive I was the last one he spoke to, at least outside of the alley he walked into."

@Voidus

Edited December 12, 2019 by Ookla the Dreamer

[kenod]

Back in the alleys Aylitha slowly trotted through the strange Alleys. It had been a long time since she had been in this part of Alleys. Or it felt so at least. She was certain she had visited less than two months ago, but her memories told her it had been decades since her last visit. There wasn't anything strange about that though. She just hoped that in this case she was in the time of her first memory, not her second. Otherwise...

She shook herself, a tremor going through her body, hair moving as if an unseen wind was moving through it. The search for proper candidate had been difficult. Finding the proper candidate wasn't difficult. After all, she already knew before she started searching. The difficulty was in trying to find someone else who would do. Still, she hadn't found anyone, and as much as she disliked it, she was the proper choice, setting her personal opinions aside.

She still sometimes felt her actions had been wrong, that she hadn't cared for her properly. To leave her exposed to what happened to her, to leave her to have to cope with things. It would have been much kinder to simply erase the memories, take in her mind, give her a new world to live in. But then, humans never seemed to do that. For some reason the idea would horrify them, though she had trouble understanding why. After all, a life without pain would be a kindness, right? Still, she had held back. After all, despite her own opinions, she didn't believe Karin would have approved of it. Not back then, at least.

Again, a tremor went through her fur, and she stopped in front of the door. A tentacle sprouted from the ground at her feet, knocking on the door. Politeness never hurt one anyway, and it was even more important when speaking to an equal. Like one such as Matthieu, head of Acquisitions.

@ZincAboutIt

[+ZincAboutIt]

Matthieu pinched the bridge of his nose and set down the piece of paper he'd been studying with a slight sigh. The spike in his other hand continued to twitch and vibrate; this Atium news had the whole DA in an uproar, and he'd received at least fifty messages in the last half hour alone. He allowed himself a small smile at the knowledge that it was Corette, his little Corette, that had made the initial discovery. He'd have to give the girl a promotion if she made it back out of the caverns. Maybe some Feruchemical Connection? Matthieu's smile grew wider, dragging up to one side like the curve of a fish hook. The girl was already a wraith in the dark; that would make her nearly unstoppable.

He held out his hand  and burned Iron, and the metal pen on the edge of his desk zipped into his waiting fingers. He jotted down a few notes about Corette, then got a bit lost in the plans for arranging a full Acquisitions inquiry down into the caves. When the knock came at his door, he was actually surprised.

Getting old, Matthieu, he thought with a low growl of irritation - more at himself than anything. And it was true. He was old now, old in a way he hadn't thought possible before, though he'd never admit it. He wondered, briefly, if his Lord had felt this old. Those days back in the Final Empire were smudged, faded memories now, but he could still recall the Lord Ruler's face, and his eyes. Matthieu remembered Rashek's eyes far more vividly than he could remember his own; it had been a long time since he'd been granted the Steelsight. He thought his eyes might have been green, or perhaps hazel. With another sigh, he burned more Iron and pulled at the latch on his door, allowing it to swing open and revealing the form of Aylitha.

Matthieu cocked his head for a moment, somewhat surprised to see her, then stood and gave his fellow Department Head a shallow bow.

"Aylitha," he said, his voice low and gravelly, though touched with a slight warmth. "It has been an age since we last met, though it is always a pleasure to see you. Do come in."

@Ookla the Foxed

[kenod]

Aylitha looked at him for a second, thinking. "It was?" She asked. "Alright, that's good to know. Still, I thought I was in this area a few months ago, though I probably didn't visit your office." She lowered her head, bowing in return to Mathieu's gesture, and walked into the room. Along the way her form shimmered, and a second later a young girl stood in her place, walking to one of the chairs and sitting down.

"It seems you have been busy," she said, looking at his desk. "Still, I guess that with your agent's discovery that is somewhat inevitable." She tilted her head for a second, as if listening to some inaudible voice. "It seems they're busy down there as well," she continued with a slight smile, "they seem to be having some issue deciding what to do now." She fell silent, hoping to let Mathieu fill in what his department was planning.