Sorana

I don't know how it works exactly, only that it works. Anyway yes, it would make sense to have a separate language

Sloane seems to belong here, in this dreary environment, with the rain and the deep shadows and you watch him close his eyes, only to open them again shortly afterwards with a small sigh. It's as if he is a part of this, tied to it in a way you will never really understand. Maybe he is. In the end you know close to nothing about him. "There is room for improvement." You state, indirectly correct him and sling your coat around your shoulders, carefully stowing your braid inside. You place your hat on your head before you step outside, a small frown on your face at the rain. "But it serves its purpose and I suppose that is everything I can ask for in a place like this." You extend your hand, indicate the houses and alleys around you. Back home you had a good place, with large halls and hallways, with laboratory that was just outright perfect. Here, you had to lower your expectations, and while you still ended up with something some might consider huge or fortunate, it's below what you are used to. Your feet make dark, wet sounds on the cobblestones when you start to walk along the street. It's not far, and you hope that Sloane doesn't mind a brisk pace. The sooner you arrive, the sooner you can get out of the rain again.

They had died because of her. Because Aoryen had decided to protect her while helping Ana. Feeing sick at the thought she forced herself to nod. "I have no place to go." She admitted and pointed towards a building at the side of the place. It was located in a corner of the place, meaning there were less people there, less traffic rolling by. "Maybe we can lean her against the wall, wait for her to wake up?" She suggested and started to walk over. "Will you stay here for a while, or does your ship leave soon?" The words had left her mouth before she could stop herself, the desparation, the fear in them easily to hear. If he left, then the other urchins might come, and they would hunt them, or maybe they told someone. Wide-eyed she stared at him, afraid that he would place Ana's body on the ground an leave them behind.

Sagitta laughed at his words as well, more out of comradie, than because she found it funny. She knew that the fact had to hurt Price. "I am good, Price." She told him quietly. "Give me some time, and you will be better than most of your soldiers here." Looking around the place, she tapped her fingers against the handle of her weapon. "A general. In that case, you should find arguments that convince him. Speak of the war, of new abilities. Like the -" Her face twisted at the memory and she had to take a moment to compose herself. "The Nomads know how to cause explosions. Their shamans, they are entropy instincts, but I have never seen an entropy instinct cause an explosion that large. They use other substances to help their powers along, combine alchemy with magic. If you gain that knowledge-" She lifted a hand, dragged her fingers through her hair, when she recalled the screams, the smell. "It's devastating on a battlefield." She said quietly, avoided his glance, wondered if the price to travel there had just grown into a region she didn't want to pay. If Tühine knew, Cahaya would know as well. And then they all would blow up soldieres, rip them to pieces. She repeated her gesture, but didn't take her words back. It was no option to let the gods leave on their own. They had to come with them.

"Lance is at the warehouse." Attayl replied, unsure what else to say. If they burned down the warehouse he would die, and while she wasn't sure what to make of him, he had helped them. A little at least, so maybe aim for a compromise? "And yes, they will. Maybe we can warn Lance, and then set the whole thing on fire?" She suggested, made a gesture around the room, as if she was standing in the warehouse already. "The problem is, we lack information. We don't know how important this particular warehouse is to them. Nor do we know, if it really is their hideout. I would prefer to go there, try to sneak into it, see what we can find out about the situation." A grim look entered her eyes, when she stared Brilling square in his eyes. "I won't end up selling myself to them as well. I am done with that. And if it means, that I have to kill, to get away from them, I will do it. I only want to belong to myself, to make the decision what I do and with whom I do things myself? I know, it's maybe too much to ask, but I have to try. This is my chance, my possibility to change something." And she had to take it. "I don't enjoy to kill people. But I never saw a conflict like that resolved without a knife. If we can find another way, I am always up for it. But I don't want to be the one dead," she heard desperation creep into her voice, but still she continued to speek, "I want to leave this place, I want to do learn how to read and see the world just like you do. I want to be free."

Ophelia nodded, not even questioning if it was wise to follow him or not. Something about him, just made her follow. "I feel so stupid." She sighed, used some water to clear her mouth while she hastened after him. "I should have forseen how this would end?" She should have. If she had any idea about life outside of a house at all. If she knew anything about the world at all. "I can clean your cloths?" She offered, unsure what else she could contribute. "I'm not a great cook, but I know about cloths. And hair, but - " her eyes darted to her bloody scissors. "I am sure, I can get the blood out of them." Looking around, she suppressed the question where they were going. In the end it didn't matter. Anywhere would be better than here.

She hesitated, she would simply have told their superiors, and then leave the rest to them. He's no soldier. She reminded herself, don't treat him as one. "Why don't you tell them, that you've got information about other applications of instincts in the north?" She suggested. "Ask for the ressources to take a closer look. Worst thing to happen is that you find nothing, and if I look around, " she made a sweeping gesture with her hand, " lots of money goes into this research. There is no reason, why they should disagree. You could mention the powers of the gods as examples?" It would be close to lying, withholding information, but again - not her superiors, not her country. If she claimed to follow the gods, Sagitta swallowed and looked over at the two. Her mother would have bought the horse herself, so that she could follow them. "I don't know, Price." She added quietly. "I know nearly nothing about your country, about what you respect and what not. I, I don't know what to tell them, but I still think we should follow these two?"

Shana scooped up some water with her hands and then dunked her face into it, cold water running all over her face, down her throat and a little even down her shirt. She looked up, looked at her face in the mirror. Her grey eyes, her light hair. She looked harmless, maybe even cute. Just like any fifteen year old girl would. Inhaling a little stormlight she watch it highlight her fair skin, the way it made her hair shine just a tiny bit. She looked less harmless now, more like a fifteen year old girl playing around with some special effects on their mobile. Holy sheen or something like that. Highlight your skin and hair. The door opened and she turned her head to see another girl step into the bathroom. She headed directly to the toilets and Shana exhaled, made the glow vanish again. Her hands gripped the basin in front of her, while she continued to stare at herself, at face. She didn't look like a killer. She finally decided, didn't look at the girl again when she washed her hands. Her face was harmless, and while trained, her body looked sportive, not like a soldier or a killer of some sorts. Stepping back from the basin, she tilted her head to the side, watched her hair, as it fell off her shoulder, the girl thankfully leaving the room. Contrasting Rob or Edwin, she was popular. She was good enough to represent their school at events, and while her grades never had been good, people rarely cared about grades, when she won a competition for them. The other pupils liked her, they admired her, they wanted to be like she was. Boys wrote her nice letters on valtentines day and if she didn't do her homework, then someone always let her copy theirs. Her life was perfect. Except, that it wasn't. None of them knew, and she was sure, that if they knew, they would discard her. Rob, Edwin, James, Cassie, Leona, they knew and they still liked her. They spent time with her and they tried to help her. Contrasting the empty ones at school. They were her friends. She pulled out her mobile, checked for a reply from Ben, and frowned when there was non. Maybe his mobile was switched off, or maybe he was still asleep. Healing others tended to leave him exhausted and he had healed her again, several times actually. Still, she couldn't shut down that nagging feeling of worry and her thumb hovered over her display, when she considered to write something else. Could she? Wouldn't it feel as if she pushed him to reply? I love you. She finally typed. If you need something, let me know, please? Grimacing at the words, at their cheesiness, she stuffed her mobile back into her pocket and finally left the bathroom.

Attayl watched Zeke pale, and at Nerin's last command he turned around, ran out of the door. Soon after, the sounds of his fast steps vanished as well and he was gone. She looked at the door, as if trying to understand where he had gone, that he had left so easily. Her eyes darted to Nerin and she corrected her thought. Not easily. Nerin had made him leave. "Thank you." she muttered under her breath and straightened. "We should go to the warehouse?" She asked, her voice shaking only a little. They needed to stop the Scarlets from winning, they had opposed them openly, there was no way they would survive if they ended up in control of this octant. She knew these laws by heart, had grown up with them. It wall about pleasing who was in charge and making sure you stood on the right side if a power change occured. Only they had messed the last part up. "Get Lance and then make sure, nobody ever comes here again." While she spoke, her hands reached for her knives and she cleaned them, then fastened them to her belt. She could run away, do what Brillin had suggested. Find a train and leave, build up a new existence somewhere. But Nerin - she owed her and she felt like she should make sure that she could continue to live here before she left Elendel once and for all. Attayl looked at her hands, at the blood that, despite scrubbing them, still rested under her fingernails. She had killed. But it wasn't the first time, and she knew it wasn't the last time either. She had survived on these streets by using what she had, her body, her brain and her hands. She could curl up somewhere, wait for the storm to blow over, dress up nicely and resume doing what they told her. Or she stopped it. Her hands brushed over the dress, over her curves and she pursed her lips in thought. It was her body, her live, her path. And she was done with being a victim. She had trained with her knives, she was an allomancer. Not too practiced with the last one, but she was useful. The gang was dead, this was her chance to start down a new way. And once they were done here, she would ask Brillin if she might come along, travel the world. Leave this stinking mess of a city for good. "I've been to the warehouse before." She continued, her voice turning steady, there are several entrances. For the workers, a huge one for the wares and of course the fany one for the potential customers." She knelt down, made sure her boots were fastened tight, then she straightened her dress, pulled her hair back to a ponytail. "I can lead the way there. Maybe we can surprise them. They are powerful, but if they don't see us coming-" She left the end of her sentence open, instead her fingers tapped her knife in a very explicit gesture. ============= @Ookla the Maybe-Existent

Follow the chasm until you reach another cave. There are creatures there that imitate voices, but we weren't attacked by anything. You should be able to cross that cave and reach a forst, partially standing in a lake. Move past the lake, don't deter from the way and then you reach the cave we are at. Althea replied, made sure she sent him the corresponding pictures along with her description. It hadn't been far, they had spend a lot of time discussion the mural and the animals and the mushrooms. Without that she doubted that their journey would have taken them a whole day. "No, no monster is coming." She turned to Wes. "Don't worry about that." Her eyes moved around the cave again, and she wished that they had never found it. Adren was right, and she had to admit she was running out of ideas. Apart from handing it to the DA and hoping they would simply go on with letting the other inhabitants of the city live their lives. "I agree. This much wealth could easily be the base for another great guild." She shifted her weight to her right leg, unsure what to do now. "But that doesn't lead us anywhere." The fact sounded dry and hard in the air around them, while she looked at Adren. "Do you have any other idea that doesn't neccessarily leads to the city collapsing in one way or the other?" @ElephantEarwax

"Ana?" Ophelia asked, knelt down next to her and tried to move her to a more comfortable position. She had killed him. A part of her screamed, but mostly she didn't care. Instead she simply shook her again. "Ana?" Nothing. Turning around to Aoryen she looked at him, hoped he knew what to do now. They needed a place to go somewhere, where Ana could rest, or maybe they had to wake her up. She shook her head again, unsure what to do now, unable to really grasp a situation. Did they have to bury the bodies? Or should they flee? Murder was forbidden, wasn't it?

Temeria suppressed the urge to cringe under his stare, the way he didn't even blink unsettling her in a way she hadn't expected. A god. Mac had told her, she had known, but there were so many nuances of knowing things. She had known in an abstract way, but this stare, it wordlessly, easily proved her wrong. Anxiously she remained where she was, waited for his decision, for his next words. He agreed, even offered to go somewhere else, somewhere more comfortable for herself. She exhaled at the prospect to leave this place, to get away from the eerie sky that seemed to call her to look up and at the same time frightened her to the bone. It was distant, should be no threat, but she knew, knew with every instinct of her body, that it was dangerous. Her shoulders sagged down a little, only to grow tense again, when he gestured to the side and a doorway appeared. A doorway in a wall. Impossible, it was - he was a god. Watching him step though it, into a room beyond the wall she tried to come up with a reason, failed and simply filed the fact under 'things above her pay grade, think about later'. Obviously walking through walls was possible here. She followed as soon as he lifted an arm towards her, indicating that she should step through the door was well, his invitation as good as an order to her. Slowly she walked towards the doorway, braced herself for something, anything, and despite the fact that he had just demonstrated that it was possible, she was still surprised when she didn't end up walking straight against a wall. She stopped, turned around and tentatively extended a hand back into the alley. It worked. There was only air, just as if she had left the alley and stepped into a house. Curiously she reached out for the door, it was hard and solid beneath her fingers. Sharply she withdrew her hand and fully turned towards him, when she realized that her attention had wandered. "I apologize sir." She tried to save the situation, unsure how he would react to her distraction. She had known officers that could overlook small breaches in protocol, while others hadn't been that amused. Quickly she stepped to the side, to clear the doorway and added a late: "Thank you for the invitation, Sir." @Voidus

Surprised Sagitta looked at him, a frown creased her forehead. "Don't you plan to tell your superior about the gods?" She asked astonished that he thought it would difficult to get the neccessary ressources. He had been so excited at the prospect to meet and to test gods, if his organization paid him to test normal instincts, of course they would give him a pair of horses to follow some gods. "Don't you think they will see the potential behind this encounter?" She tried to look at the situation from his perspective. "They know things far beyond our understanding. If you proove yourself worthy, maybe they will share one or two tidbits with you." "Weapons." She added as an afterthought. "I can't train you with a butter knife. And preferably some armour as well. I am sure the journey will be dangerous. If the nomads act, like I know them, we might have to try to move past their sentries, secretly move deeper into their territory." Pausing she tried to recall what she remembered. "I think they travel, so there shouldn't be a force controlling their borders. But still, we have to be careful. They aren't known for their mercy." @Ookla the Maybe-Existent

"I didn't plan to." You reply and leave your glass behind. There isn't much wine in there anyway and it wasn't good enough to empty completely. A part of the reason, the other part is the alcohol. You need your head to be as clear as possible. Being a little tipsy is one thing, but you know that you need all of your wits in one place when you show him the place. The chance that he will understand immediatly is small, most likely you will have to explain what you are doing. Still the excitement thrums through your body when you watch him tilt back his head to drown the rest of the whiskey. His movements are focused, his voice clear, despite of the amount you watched him drink and it only adds to your fascination. Resistant to alcohol, or maybe advanced healing capacities. Fascinating. And dangerous. Standing up you take your bag and sling it over your shoulder, slowly walk through the mass of people towards the door. You can see them part for you just a little bit, as if they can feel your approach and want to get out of your way. Good. You aren't willing to loose time with a dense, drunk beggar, farmer, worker or whatevery they are. They are nothing but a walking store of material and you make sure you remember two faces for future use. One has a great back, and one's arms are shaped in a wonderful way. Later. You open the door with an extravagant gesture and invite Sloane to step outside, holding the door open for him. Cool air strems into the tavern, smelling moist from the falling rain. Lights reflect on the cobblestones and you feel a smile tug on your lips. The last time you invited someone - it ended badly. For both of you, if you are honest. Maybe today will be different.

Actually I like this option best. We spent our last days trying to get more support for our idea and forming alliances. I think we should try to make sure we keep them, although for further purposes. I considered to prepare arguments, but I think we pratially did that while working on the whole concept and in the end it's too late anyway. [X] Find our where the other gods stand on the other two proposals The most temption action is the box, but I fear that is has to wait. I'm not sure, if we can trust Hera enough to ask her to take a closer look at this matter, but that would solve this issue a little. She could start investigating, and we take over the next day. What do you think about this?

I'll start Wrath of Empire today, as it somehow always fell off my table. I don't even really know why, as I'd liked it a lot, but then there are more good books than I have reading time. Anyway with Blood of Empire home as well, it's time to get back into that series. I liked the first one a lot and I'm really excited to see how it might go on. I also placed some preorders on a couple books (e.g. Empire of Gold) hitting the marking in 2020 (apart from SA4), so I won't get bored anytime soon

"Wait!" Ophelia shouted, but Ana went along, plunged the knife into the urchin's heart. "What, why?" She stuttered and stared at the other girl. At the blood, at the knife, at the girl again. "But you -" She stopped, pressed a hand to her face, stared at the two of them. "But you can't simply kill them." She protested and continued to shake her head. "It's wrong." She stared at the corpses around them and fell silent. Wrong. But if they hadn't, then she would have been - it was neccessary. With a groan she stepped away from her vomit, repeatedly lifted a hand to brush through her hair, touched her braid, made sure it was still sitting in its place accurately. "Could we maybe leave?" she finally asked in a small voice, avoided to look at the blood spilled all over the place.

Snake stayed where she was, observed Corenar as he was leaving, tasted the air again. Interesting how he had simply turned around without another word, the moment she started to speak about him. Most likely her guess had been right - he was new here, maybe looking for an easy target, or maybe not comfortable to admit his missing knowledge. She kept her attention on him, unwilling to be surprised by an attack, and slowly moved farther away from him. Hopefully he would continue to leave. It had been close - too close if you asked her. Mike continued to stare at Wolf oblivious to Snake and her conversation with Corenar. He had stopped listening at one point or the other, Fox words had hit a nerve. Was it him? Was it really him who was responsible for this? He wondered and then shook his head. It wasn't possible. There was no way, that this was him. He would never hurt his friends, he would never do this. And yet, the thought, it stay with him, while he sat there, watched as the remains of Wolf slowly vanished. Four. Four of them left. Idly he wondered what might happen if they all left, if nothing remained but the pain and the fear. Nothing but the grief and the loneliness.

Wita waved at Kira and stayed behind Lews and Marcel, holding the box in her hands. "We found some clues that Christopher was hunting criminals." She explained. "They kill people, and they will try to do something at Big Ben." She peeked outside, and when there was no police she turned around to the others. "I think we should leave and try to get as much distance as possible between us and this place. Then we can try to get a ride to Big Ben and see what they are up to." Contrasting earlier her voice was earnest, no fun at playing detective in there. It had been a close call - the next time could easily be closer, or too close. Turning around to her friends she smiled at them, tried to remember details about them, how they acted what they did, how their faces looked. She wanted to keep it when she started storing again.

Snake shook her head. "I don't know if you ask the right questions." She stated offhandly. I am a Shapeshifter. Nothing more, nothing less. I am Mike." This time she made sure to keep Mike's voice the same as it always was. Important, she had to convince him that this was everything. She didn't know why he insisted on Mike having spikes, they weren't visible, nor was the Shapechanging so uncommon, that this was the only possibility. Unless - "You are new, aren't you?" She asked, and smiled at him. "The Dark Alley is powerful, but not everybody has spikes. In contrast - most don't. "Don't worry about it. Most hear the stories about the Dark Alley and immediatly think all of us grown up here have spikes in our sleeves."

A satisfied grin spread on Snake's face and resumed her relaxed position at the wall. "That's better." she told Corenar. To kill him, it would have been messy, she was sure of that. You never knew, as ready as he was to fight, in the end he might even be a match for Mike. "I am Mike." she replied, to clarify one thing first. "And I am not Mike. but mostly I am him. I use his body and brain, and while I change details - " again her tongue tasted the air, "to fit me better, I am still him and will always be."

Shana sighed and then followed him towards the building. "See you." She said quietly, and then finally stepped into the building and inside her classroom. It was loud, as usual, their teacher would still have to come and she forced a smile on her face, while she greeted her classmates. Yes, there had been a fight and she had somehow ended up between the lines. No she wasn't hurt. No, she hadn't done the homework, but if she could just write down the results, real quick? They continued to talk, to chat, to talk about newspaper articles and what they had learned about the fight, while Shana copied the homework. She knew she wouldn't be able to explain it, but then it didn't matter anymore. She knew she had failed - so this single homework wouldn't change the game. She was already so far behind, that she had no chance to catch up, no matter what she did. Still it was like a blow to her face, when she finally held that sheet of paper in her hands, when she saw how badly she had failed. "We need to talk." Her teacher informed her and she nodded, knew that they had to talk. See if there was a way to save her. The other pupils had left for the next class, while Shana waited at her teacher's desk. The woman looked at her, gestured for her to sit down, a grave expression on her face. "You know, that you need to do really well on the next test, or you will have to redo the grade?" she asked and Shana only nodded, stared at her hands. "I suppose my - , Doc has to sign this?" She asked and gestured at the test, saw sorrow cross the woman's face. "Yes, he has." she replied softly and then nodded to herself, as if she had made a decision. "Shana, would you like to go somewhere, to talk?" She asked carefully, and Shana jerked upright, the test forgotten. "What?" She asked, unable to put everything into the simply question. Did she know about the killing, about the Voidbringers? But she couldn't know, the Unmade - "You are in an age, where sometimes a girl would like to talk to a woman, preferably to her mother." Again the sorrow and Shana slowly understood what this was about. Poor urchin, having bad grades. "Doc is fine." She snapped at her teacher, and started to stuff the test into her bag. "I don't need someone else." I don't need someone pretending to be mother. Her mother. Shana swallowed, her hands curling into fists. "Then maybe a place, where you can catch up on maths. Maybe talk to others, that overcame the same situation you are in?" Her teacher went on and Shana strongly shook her head. "I am fine." She insisted, her eyes resting on her red hands for a moment, before looking away, back at the teacher. She seemed concerned. Truly and honestly concerned and while her words maybe weren't the right ones, she really tried to help. "I appreciate this. But I am fine." She repeated stubbornly and nearly jumped up when the woman raised an eyebrow as reply. She wasn't fine. But maybe she didn't need to be fine. She only needed to be able to kill and then the world would be fine. Without waiting for her to say anything else, Shana rushed from the room, angrily wiping tears off her face. She was fine. She had to be. Stupid maths. She could always redo the grade, it didn't matter. She needed to train to be fit, to polish her fighting skills. Then she would be able to finally move past this. If they got rid of them all - if she knew she oculd protect the others, there was no need to kill. She only neededto be come strong enough, intimidating enough, that she could do it. Breathing hard, she stood in the hallway, it was more or less empty, she was late already, had to go to the library. She dabbed at her eyes again, furious at herself for crying, at the teacher for talking and at the world to throw all of this her way. Her parents. Why did everybody have to mention her parents. Couldn't they simply leave her alone? "Shana...?" she heard her teacher from behind her, and ignored her, ran along the hallway towards the library. Let her think she was some poor urchin. Maybe that would stop her from following Shana around.

"The cires, because you killed them!" Ohpelia yelled at the sailor. "You just hacked them into pieces and killed them!" Her voice was loud, shrill and she pushed herself back up. He was right, but that only made things more complicated, only hurt more. They had threatened them and in the end, they had to decide. Did they? She stared at Ana afraid what the girl would do. She was the one that had asked them to help, she was the one who should know what to do. And yet - Ophelia looked at the whimpering urchin. "We've got to help him." She whispered quietly, unsure if anybody could even hear her words. "We've got to take him somewhere where they can help him. We have to. They can save him, maybe, we could ask the gods, we could see if they, if we pledge them to, maybe they will consider, I mean without a hand, he will starve and - I just, I don't know, we should do something?"

Snake gave a quiet laugh and pulled her arm our of his way. "Slowly, slowly, dear." She drawled. "Do you wants answers, or do you want to fight?" Deliberatedly she opened her mouth a little, let him see the sharp teeth in Mike's mouth. Loosing her relaxed posture, her body tensed, head moving slightly from left to right, while she stared at Corenar. "It's one or the other - you won't have both." Her voice changed at these last words, dropped back to a man's. The words felt heavy, strong in their phrasing, and she was surprised at them, couldn't quite point where they came from. Fox maybe, but Foy - they didn't sound like Fox.