Dust to a Daemon. Tacere.

[tacere]

((OPEN: LIT or SEMI-LIT PLEASE <3))

His silken, layered, hood pulled up over his slim features, obscuring them in the shadows until you could only see part of his collarbone and neck. Soft, sand colored eyes looked out from the obscurity into a big top, full of laughing, painted faces, jugglers and dancers, death defying acts, into a world full of noise. The lone man spoke to nobody, leaning his head back down slightly, white robes cloaking him in layers, a man who lived in a world of movement, in a world of both sand and sea. He was Tacere. A single wisp of pure white hair snaked past his hood, and he lifted a tanned hand upward to tuck it into the shadow. As he lifted his hand, it was grabbed at the wrist by a large, slightly portly man, who leered down at him, and in a hoarse, slurred voice remarked “Oh, look at this boys. He’s thin, this may be more fun than I thought! Now what does your face look like under all those pretty wrappings?” With the other hand, the man reached for the hood, and Tacere’s eyes turned to an angry shade of slate gray, with the other hand he jabbed the other man in the solar plexus, but so swiftly that it looked as if he simply moved his wrist on his lap. The man immediately doubled over, releasing Tacere’s wrist and stumbling backward into his fellows, who fell back as well, rolling themselves down the steps as the audience nearby pointed and roared with laughter at the pathetic, clumsy attempts to rise back up which were thwarted by all of them trying to get up first. “Idiot mortals.” Tacere muttered under his breath. He wrinkled his nose under his hood at the stench of the place, all the bodies close together produced heat, and in the sweltering cover of the tent, the human audience was sweating. The cloying odour of their body was unpleasant, especially to the sensitive nose of the ash daemon. He swiftly tucked his white hair away and stood. His robes swept gracefully behind him as he weaved his way through the crowd, avoiding the pickpockets and beggars on his way out .One of the troupe gave him a funny look, and whispered to another member, and he found that it was opportune at the moment to leave. Ducking out into the open sunlight, he sighed. Finding himself wandering, he noted a few old women rambling on about some shipyard. His white robes were mostly obscured in the swirl of fabrics as he made his way to the port, following the smell of fish and salt water until he looked at a rather suspicious area, littered with taverns and all sorts of shady folk. He leaned quietly against a stone wall and stared out at the sea, the shadows lifting a little to reveal a faint outline of fine, high cheekbones silhouetted by the light… Waiting.

[Cory]

A somewhat well dressed 14 year old walked out of one of the taverns at the port. He wore tight blue denim pants, a slightly over-sized grey buttoned up shirt with a brown buttoned up vest worn over it, a black eyepatch covering his right eye, and black shoes. He was carrying two buckets full of water, and walking towards the edge of the port. An older gentleman opened the tavern door soon after. "Now that you finished mopping the inside, you can get started sweeping out here. Been too long since you did that, and this month your earning that apartment above my tavern, or else" the old man said. Ciel had been mumbling the man's word mockingly, until that 'or else' bit, which is when Ciel stopped and turned around. "Or f*ckin what" Ciel shouted. "Or you and your sister don't live up there anymore" the man said. "Bullshit. Without me you would'a ran out of drinks years ago and went out'a f*ckin' bizness. But if you insist I could easily take my f*ckin ass elsewhere and let some other people in on my talent" Ciel said. "alright alright alright. geez. Just make sure some sweeping gets done out here" the oldman interrupted Ciel before going back inside while muttering, "damn brat." Ciel picked up one of the buckets of water and dumped its contents into the sea. As for the other, Ciel kneeled down besides it and stuck his finger in it. At which point the dirty water turned into clean red wine. Ciel took a sip. "Shit that has a kick to it" He would get back up on his feet and brush aside some of his purple medium length hair as his azure blue left eye scanned the sea. He wasn't looking so much at the ocean as he was paying attention to the various ships and boats leaving port and sailing away. "Mind helping me out?" someone asked.

Ciel turned around to find that another 14 year old had walked up to him. Ciel raised an eyebrow as he said, "What the f*ck do you want" "Hi. my name is Genis. I heard you were a healer with the rebellion" he said before raising his arm to show the gash along the length of his forearm. "You have any money?" Ciel asked. "....no" Genis said. "The people I help for free are people I know, or people in the rebellion. You're not either. I don't know who the hell you are, and what the hell makes you think I'm your personal f*cking doormat. Get lost asshat" Ciel told him.

Genis then put his hand on Ciel's cheek. "What the f....." Ciel abruptly stopped partway through his sentence when Genis's eyes glowed briefly. "Oh shit, its you! My best buddy in the world Genis who I see everyday" Ciel said after Genis lowered his hand. Ciel took another look at the gash on Genis's forearm. "Shit I'll be happy to take care of that for you" Ciel said. As Ciel's hand passed over Genis's arm, the wound would heal. "F*ck you need to be more careful, tell me who did this to you" Ciel said. "Oh there's no need to worry about that" Genis replied. "I'll take your word for it since you've never lied to me" Ciel replied. "Mind if i have some?" Genis asked upon noticing the red wine in the bucket. "Sure take the whole thing" Ciel replied while giving to him. Genis drank some and then started to walk away with it. "See you later, buddy" Ciel said buddy. Genis just waved him off as he went.

Then Ciel walked back over to the tavern and started to sweep with a somewhat oversized broom. A homeless person than approached Ciel and asked to be healed. "Get the f*ck away from me and get a god-damned motherf*cking life you sicko" Ciel shouted at the homeless person while hitting him with the broom. As the homeless person wandered off, Ciel gave him the finger. As the homeless person tripped and fell off the port and into the ocean, Ciel laughed.

[tacere]

The soft creaking of a wooden door was added to the multitude of noises, people shouting raucously, seagulls screaming at one another for fish, drunks fighting in a bar. But this small sound caught Tacere’s attention, and his eyes flicked over to his right, where a slim boy with an eyepatch had just walked out holding two rather heavy looking buckets, battered and worn through obvious use. This gloomy ‘F_ck the world and everyone in it’ air that the youth held piqued his curiosity. After all, most youths were just as noisy as the gulls (and in his opinion just as stupid) A single brow lifted under the shadows…. Interesting. It had been a long time since anything had amused him, after that little Uni… Umi? He couldn’t remember well enough. When had that been? No matter. But at any rate something that interested the daemon was a rare thing indeed. Where could a youth have gotten such an… amusing vocabulary? A twitch of his lip and it ghosted into what many would say was the closest he had ever come to a smile. He tilted his head slightly, moving himself closer as the boy stumbled off towards the edge of the docks. The foul mouth on this brat was surely something. His eyes gleamed with interest as the boy had flung a pail’s worth of filthy water out to sea. But then. Put his finger in the other and gave it a sip? A single red droplet that escaped the leaky bucket alerted him and the scent when it dashed against the floor. Wine? A supposed miracle… In his intrigue, he was about to go closer when a brash, wounded youth brushed past him and asked for help from the other. The other then easily sprung into a veritable fountain of foul words and profanity. Until the other put a sort of hypnosis in effect on Ciel. Healing the wounded? Water into Wine? It was a twisted Jesus figure. Bizarre, yet… appealing. Hm. As Genis began to leave, Tacere purposely moved himself ever so slightly so the youth would bump into him and stumble. The wine spilled across the floor, and the boy lay sprawled, his clothing although filthy, now wet with a rich port wine to boot. The boy looked up to yell a protest, but a look of cold ash, black as charcoal yet bright as ice stared out from until the shadow, and the teen gulped emptily for air, as if he were drowning beneath the daemon’s cold gaze. Hurrying to his feet, he left the bucket and ran off somewhere.

He pulled his hood up over his face a little more, hiding his jawline in the depths of the fabric again. He scanned the crowd of people and saw the boy from earlier who was sweeping away dust with a broom clearly too large for his slender build. Clearly the boy had a cynical mindset, not one to trifle with. And an interesting adaptation for his age, it was evident that the youth had suffered through a great deal his short existence. When a man who had previously spoken to the boy fell into the ocean, the daemon had a split second to decide a course of action. He chose the one most interesting to him. He quickly shed his robes, leaving him in a skintight white, sleeveless silk top with a high neck and loose, yet form fitting pants, a look that suited him, without a second thought he leapt into the water and yanked the man up, tossing his frame over the dock, before swinging himself up and quickly concealing himself in the shadows of his robe again. The man coughed up some water, looking at the tall white cloaked figure who made a gesture with his hand to leave. Under the robes, the water lingering in and on his garments soon vanished, a slight steam escaping from the shadowed hood, in a rather scary effect. Being a demon born of fire, yet from the death of the bright flame, water didn’t usually last too long on him. Convenient enough he supposed. He went up to the laughing youth and looked down at him from under the hood. He reached a hand upward and pulled the hood backward enough so that Ciel could see the tips of his shockingly white hair, his eyes, and the tanned jawline under the hood. Leaning forward, he opened his lips and asked, “Now could an interesting youth like yourself tell me what business there is with this.. Rebellion?” Out of a bored fancy, he turned his hand to ash and the rings clattered to the ground, before he reformed it and picked up the rings, replacing them. “I would pay you for any time you have missed I assure you that bat inside wouldn’t mind.” His voice was smooth like desert honey, cold like the steel of a scimitar forged in ice, and as welcome to the ear as any angel’s to the mortal soul. “Where are my manners? I apologize, my name is Cinis [latin for ash from a dead fire]. And you are?” Now Tacere wasn’t so foolish as to hand his name out, so he used his other name… The name of his origin. One hand draped loosely at his side, he waited for the purple haired boy to respond.

[Cory]

(( this is the very abridged version of my post. since the original version i had typed up got deleted when an asshole 'accidentally' pulled the plug on the computer seconds before i was about to post it. as you can imagine i was exhausted and furious at that point, hence an abridged version. ))


Ciel laughed at the man falling in the water. Ciel stopped laughing when Tacere pulled him out of the water. "Well that sucks" Ciel mumbled, as he watched his amusement for the day evaporate like the water on Tacere. Ciel attempted to get back to sweeping infront of the tavern, but stopped when Tacere walked right up to him. "Personal space much?" Ciel said before rolling his left eye and making an 'ugh' sound. His original plan was to let Tacere perform his song and dance and then slam the door in his face afterward. That plan went out the window when Tacere mentioned the Rebellion. A nerve was struck. A very raw nerve. Ciel spent the rest of the time Tacere was talking attemtping to cool down. Though as Tacere was about to find out, cooling down wasnt Ciel's forte.

"Did you use this island's entire supply of bleach to get your hair like that? I hope it hurt like a bitch. What's with the jewelery, trany? What exactly is so fucking interesting about me?, am I your type you pedo. Is that voice suppose to make me quiver and get on my fuckin knees and beg to suck your dick? And fucking lastly...." at this point the volume of Ciel's rant starting getting gradually louder. "Do you think I'm a fucking idiot !? Do you really really fucking expect me to believe that you have no fucking clue about the Rebellion, that you've spent your entire fucking life under a fucking rock and are completely bat-shit obvlious of the Rebellion. That you somehow randomly got whisked away to an island where almost the entire population has something to fucking do with the rebellion and yet you singularly alone are in the dark about it, as if the Rebellion were some huge fuckin secret conspiracy!!!!!!?" by now a whole lot of peoples gazes were fixed on Tacere, and some people had started to gather around the two of them. Ciel either didnt notice that, or didnt care about it. "And how would you know whether I have anything to fuckin do with the Rebellion one way or another. Thats quite a friggin assumption to make. Hey let me make some assumptions about you, Cinis. What if your just some douchebag piece of shit spy for the government, here to use that trick of yours to go through walls and shit to find out all the shit you aint suppose to fuckin know and run back to your fuckin masters to tell'em everything like the bend-over-buddy you are!!!!" Ciel seemed exhausted by his own rant, and stopped to catch his breath. Though he looked up at Tacere with a glare.

[tacere]

Tacere’s gaze became flat, empty and blank. Clearly this child had no clue as to what control was, which was why it had seemed strange that the boy had even bothered to stick around with the old coot, not knowing the control he did hold. His eyebrow twitched when the boy asked about bleach. And he was puzzled…. What was…. Bleach? He knew of the bones that became bleached white by the desert sun and sand, but what was this bleach thing? But each word that flew out of the brash youth’s mouth made Tacere raise his brow ever higher? So many different words he knew not, and clearly these words weren’t the best language. He took a glance around, knowing that the boy was saying too much, and getting too loud. To each of Ciel’s points, Tacere quietly made not in his mind of the reality. He was never alive, so he had no life to ‘spend under a fucking rock’, and if you count the desert sand as rock, then well, yes he had indeed lived “under a rock” as the youth screamed. As the boy grew into hysterics, Tacere knew he had to say something or risk getting the two of them dragged off by the guards. He turned to the crowd gathering, “I’m afraid the boy has heat stroke, very common in the desert. His hysteria is a clear enough symptom, stark raving mad. I had just asked him who his master ‘twas so I may ask of where to board. Does anyone know of where his master may be?” The crowd clearly looked relieved, it was an easy story to believe, that Ciel had indeed gotten heatstroke, rather than the thought of this stranger being curious about the rebellion. A man from the group piped up, with a high shrill tone, one that was used to wheedling, ‘I know of the brat’s boss. ‘E’s actually in that tavern right there! Good sense of timing you ‘ave.’ Tacere’s hood fell back over his hair, as he gave a nod of appreciation. The group dispersed, going back to carrying and scaling fish, or moving cargo. Tacere opened the door to the tavern and quickly (SORRY FOR GODMOD </3 Just didn’t know what else to do won’t happen again. Honest) gave ciel a light push to get him inside, shutting the door behind the two of them as they went in. Now fortunately the tavern was nearly empty, and in a sudden fit of emotion, as one he hadn’t had before, Tacere reached up and yanked the hood off his head, his blazing white hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes all glowing in the dim light let in. His dark gray eyes narrowed, as he quietly hissed out, “What was that? Even a child of the desert knows more than to scream and rant in front of them!” He glowered for a second, “And to answer your previous questions; one. I was never alive. No pulse, no heartbeat, so therefore, I’ve never had a life. Two, I’m from the desert, ever hear of the wanderers? Three, for all I know the rebellion could be a popular sea shanty. Four, no assumptions were made, that other child said so as did you yourself mention that you were hence affiliated, five, if I did use this power as you hence mentioned, why would I bother to ask you? Rather than force it out of your thin neck? But I didn’t did I, so rather than making assumptions, I suggest you start paying attention.” He looked down at the little boy with an eyepatch and matched his if not exceeding his glare, his various earrings intertwined and clinked softly as he heaved a sigh. When was the last time he had said half so many words to anyone?

((It's perfectly alright, and I myself know how irritating that can be. /sigh, bad memories. I posted asap so this was maybe 10 or so minutes to write, sorry if there are any mistakes~ <3 ))

[Cory]

Ciel had expected a reply from Cinis, of any sort really. Which, as Ciel would find out would come later. But first came....total bewilderment. Cinis(Tacere) and the crowd had abruptly started talking with each other as if Ciel had blinked out of existance. "Hysteria!!!? What the Fuck? What the hell would I ever be doing in the middle of a fuckin desert to get heat stroke?" Ciel said in his own defense. Except the crowd wasnt listening.... No, it wasnt quite that simple. The people standing around could here him just fine. They were just choosing to ignore him. Yes Ciel was incredibly useful to the people of the island Krit and to pirates and members of the rebellion who docked at Krit's port, due to his powers. Which is why his presence was...tolerated. However Ciel was also, at least according to the people on Krit who had to deal with him on a daily basis, an asshole. Therefor believing Tacere's version of events was just less stressful and made their day simpler. ...Yes the people of Krit werent winning any awards for morality any time soon. "This is bullshit" Ciel said at how the people continued to pretend he wasnt even speaking. "Master!? What fucking master. No one owns me, I'm not property or any ones friggin slave, I dont have any god damned master and you all know it. That asshat-jerk in there is the equivalent of a landlord that I put up with" Ciel said, apparently in vain. In the next moment he found himself suddenly inside the tavern, and at bewilderment's peak.

"Huh? Wha......." this would have been followed by a series of profanities, but instead Ciel was caught off guard by what Tacere had to say. Ciel's eyebrow raised again while Tacere spoke. "Boo-hoo, you dont have a fucking life. Cry me a fucking river while I play the tiniest fuckin violin on the planet. Thats your damn problem, but you are alive, otherwise you couldnt be standing here. But No I've never heard of the friggen wanderers and no I dont give a flying turd what the hell the stupid children of the desert do" Ciel walked over to the bar to pour himself a drink at this point. "wow thanks a lot... "the oldman who owned the tavern said in responce to Tacere's comment about the rebellion being a popular sea shanty. You would think he would stop Ciel from getting that drink, but he didnt bother. After turning some more water in wine and gulping it down, Ciel looked towards Tacere. "So, Cinis, you were fuckin spying on me talkin to that asshat kid whos ass I told off. I think I pegged you right about being a pedo, or at least a peeping-tom" apparently Ciel didnt remember the part of his conversation with Genis that he was nice to Genis. Which likely had something to do with Genis's powers. "Gives me less and less reason to trust you worth a damn, Cinis" Ciel said. While Ciel took another sip of the wine, the oldman sighed. "Just give him a try at least. If he dies in the attempt, oh well. If he decides he doesnt care much for it then let him quit and leave. Its simpler and less trouble to approach it that way" the old man said. "Unless he quits and runs off to the government and tells'em all the shit he sees with the rebellion. What the fuck would we supposed to do then after fucking ourselves like that?" Ciel repled. "Well as the older brother of one of the higher ups in the rebellion, I'm gonna go ahead and ask my brother about giving this fella a try, or at least answering any curiosities he has about it" the oldman said. "the fuckin coward-ass older brother who doesnt do shit for the rebellion or help in any fucking way or care about any other friggin things besides getting himself and every other fucking person around'em drunk for money, you greedy bastard" Ciel mumbled in responce.

[tacere]

Tacere’s white eyebrows furrowed at the center as he listened to the little brat who wouldn’t shut up, idiot couldn’t see that the two of them weren’t normal? Hell, for all the boy knew, the daemon was about as alive as a puppet. He was death. He was a being born of death, something that ate what little life was nearby at its creation, Incompetent mortals. Suddenly he was filled with an unbridled fury, he wanted to grab this scrawny boy by the neck and dig his long sharp nails deep into the pale flesh until- He quickly broke off the thought. What had overcome him? It was unlike him to even feel emotion, let alone let it run away with his common sense. And. Where was his hood? He resisted the urge to yank it back up over his face. He leaned his head against his hand, covering his features with a soft sigh. “The wanderers are not some tribe, but a collection of immortals or undying that roam around endlessly in the desert, and waylay those that cross their path.” He looked up, and in the dim dirty light of the tavern his face looked strange. Cheekbones seemed to be sucked it tight, his eye sockets empty, and the blazing white hair slipped across his face until he was left with nothing but a bare skull. But then one would blink, and he would seem to be as he was before. Again his white brow twitched, the boy clearly hadn’t paid any attention to what he had said before, seeing the slight jumble up of topics that had spouted from his mouth. Shaking his head lightly, he noted the boy once again openly used his powers and gulped down a good pint of wine. “Spying? I would call it unintended observation, though it seemed that you and him were on good terms. You even handed him the bucket of wine.” “Well for starters, I don’t really have much confidence or knowledge of you either. Not even a name.” He cast a sharp look towards the old man, giving him a glance to calculate some facts. Aged, clearly beyond his life expectancy, possible breathing troubles, limp where arthritis is damaging his hip and knee, minor, but too much exertion and he would break like a crisp leaf under a thick boot. He looked back at Ciel, regarding him with a cold, but not mean look. He gave another look at the old man, except this one was puzzled. Was this old bat really going to bring him to the rebellion? His gaze flickered back to Ciel, who had muttered angrily under his breath. "I won't die..... I've always been dead." He murmured, too low for the old man to hear.... He looked toward the old man, and gave a tilt of his head, "Thank you." Those words seemed strange on his tongue, what reason had he had before to thank anyone before? He dropped an arm, the other resting on the hilt of a sword, hidden under his robes. Habit.

((SORRY FOR THE DELAY </3 I was sick for about a week )

[Cory]

( many apologies for the delay. Writers block and slight-depression make for a nasty cocktail. But i'm over it now, and quiet inspired to write, which tends to be the ironic result of such emotional/creative lows. blah blah blah, lol, enough with this excuse/verbal-vomit, time for some story.)



The old man held his chest at the sight of tacere, having noticed the brief skeletal mirage of tacere's features. The sight of which having nearly stopped his heart. Just one glance and the old man was closer to understanding Tacere's true nature more than Ciel ever would, and yet still cosmos away from comprehending what Tacere was. The old man looked away as his hands grasp on his shirt briefly tightened. He would steal Ciel's wine and gulp down quite a bit. "Your welcome" the old man replied, with a confused tone, due to the dissonance between the 'thank you' and the being that had spoken those words.

"what the fuck!" ciel shouted at his stolen drink. But he let that matter be upon noticing the old man's grasping of his chest. Ciel sighed, a distant and removed look flashing in his left eye. He stood up on the stool and walked ontop of the bar, making his way to the old man before kneeling infront of him. "Leave me be" the old man said annoyed. "...just shut you goddamned trap" Ciel said in a subdued tone as he placed his hand on the old man's chest. Though there was no physical sign of anything occuring, aside from the old man's posture erecting and seeming slightly more energetic, Ciel was indeed healing the old man of whatever malady had stricken him in that moment. "I need to get out of here, i hate the fucking sight of you" Ciel told the old man stoicly. Ciel usually wasnt one for a stoic tone, but once in awhile his sister did seemingly rub off on him. Ciel would grab a knife from behind the bar, then proceed to jump off the bar and walk right up to Tacere.

What prompted the little display from Ciel that was about to occur was unclear. It could have been Tacere's comments about the wanderers being immortal and undying, or about how Tacere himself 'wont' die, or perhaps from Tacere's admitted lack of confidence and knowledge in Ciel. Who knows. Anyway. Ciel would take that knife and, well for a moment it looked like he would attack tacere with it, but then Ciel would violently and rather abruptly stab himself in his left eye. A stream of blood ran down the side of his face like red tears. It was obviously painful, but Ciel only whinced. He then pulled the knife out and tossed it away. The knife would bounce off of Tacere's robes before hitting the floor. Though the trajectory of the knife had been accidental since Ciel had rendered himself blind since the eye patch still covered his right eye. After tossing away away the knife Ciel waved his hand over his left eye socket, and thats all it took, his eye was abruptly healed as if the wound had never even occured.

"time for some more fucking unintended-observation" Ciel said before walking out the door. It was easy for anyone to see the change in Ciel's mood. What wasnt easy was figuring out what small tiny little thing prompted the change. The old man would pour two drinks incase Tacere wanted one of them at this point. "Go ahead now, better catch up with Ciel before his whims change about leading you to the rebellion, that is if your still interested." the old man said.

[tacere]

It was out of the corner of his eye, the ash daemon noticed how the old man suddenly clutched his chest in pain. What had he seen before that had given him such a fright? Tacere knew the answer, and also knew that the old man was lucky. Many that had seen that skeletal face, most rather, never lived to tell the tale of the man with the mask of death. He smirked for a second when the old man snatched away the wine that Ciel, had earlier drank, knowing the youth would be annoyed. To the ‘You’re welcome.’ The old man had spoken, Tacere gave a slow blink, noting the odd tone of puzzlement in the man’s voice. As he had expected, the sapphire haired youth had shouted angrily, but what he didn’t expect was the boy’s sudden shift in demeanor. Far from throwing buckets, Ciel had placed his palm on the other’s chest, and was… Healing him? There was a definite flow of energy from the youth, an energy that all beings alive were drenched with, and it had moved into the old man, making him seem a little younger. The white haired male regarded this scene with a slight puzzlement, wondering why the youth hadn’t just let the old man shrivel away and taken over himself, but then he realized. A child in this world was a frail, standing alone in the world of adults, no matter how gifted that child is, it is still a daunting task. The ash daemon shifted his gaze back to Ciel, who was walking towards him with a small sharp knife, perhaps one for fruit, in a tight grasp. “Child…” Tacere warned, his grip tightening on the hidden sword hilt… Without warning, or even time enough to react, the figure before him plunged the knife deep within his own eye socket. With a start, Tacere almost instinctively went forward to staunch the bleeding, but stopped himself. The boy had made himself blind. Why? He glanced down at his white robes, which were unstained although the knife had hit them, since only the handle had brushed against them. The answer to his unspoken question became evident as with a wave of a hand, the youth had healed his eye, leaving only the bloodstain on his cheek remaining. Without thinking, Tacere reached a hand out and wiped off the blood with a cotton square he had in his hand, before crushing it into fine ash in his palm. He gave an odd half smile at the way Ciel had brazenly sauntered out the door, seemingly in a better mood. He made a motion to walk after him, but the sound of two cups hitting a well-worn wooden board caught his attention. He took the offered drink, again with a slight tilt of appreciation, poured in a small quantity of ash from a bag hanging at his hip (Ciel’s blood ash had been discarded) and downed it in a gulp. The ash would actually make for a cleaner cup in the end, which was a plus for both parties. “Good bye.” He turned around and smoothly walk out the door, but not before pulling his hood up again, over his hair and face. When he found the lad, which only took a minute or so, the taller male stayed within his arm’s length of Ciel, but not within the boy’s reach. It just seemed a little less strange if they weren’t so close. They walked up out of the wharf, and a patrol walked drunkenly out of a brothel, laughing raucously and passed the pair by. Too close for Tacere’s liking, but he sighed and he waited to see which way Ciel would turn next.

((Glad to hear you're feeling better, and sorry about the strange post, 2 hours of sleep a night for the past week, along with massive deadlines will do that to you; lol))

[Cory]

Ciel ignored the drunkards coming out of the brothel. Well he wasn't quite ignoring them as much as he just wasn't entirely paying attention. His thoughts were elsewhere.

:: Ciel had just healed his eye, opening it to find Tacere up close, really up close, and wiping the blood off his face. 'Hey that isn't necessary, quit it' Ciel thought, but never said. He rubbed his cheek briefly before leaving. ::

While the drunkards passed by, Ciel was looking at his hand, a slight blush on his face. Which Ciel only allowed himself, because Tacere wouldnt see it from his position at Ciel's rear flank. Without turning around, Ciel's gaze averted to the side he figured Tacere was on. "What the fuck am i thinking....." Ciel mumbled as he let his hand drop. About a third of the way en route to where Ciel had been guiding Tacere, two people in black robes leaped off of a rooftop and landed gracefully onto the street directly in Ciel and Tacere's path. "What the fuck!" Ciel exclaimed as he abruptly stopped.

Ciel had no idea who these people were. Though the black robes they wore made Ciel briefly think of his twin sister, who tended to wear a lot of black leather cloaks and all other manner of clothes in black. "good for you rejects, you can jump off a roof. What the hell were you expecting, a prize!? Now If you don't mind getting the fuck out of our way" Ciel told them. The two in black robes looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders, and then looked back at Ciel/Tacere. "am I not speaking friggen English or something??? go join the circus, or jump off a higher rooftop, or cut yourselves while huddling in the corner for all I care. The point is, Leave" Ciel blasted at them. "The loud mouth must definitely be our target Ciel" one of them said. "His voice makes my ears bleed" the other said. "Go fuck yourself you sons of bitches......wait, how the hell do you know my name!" Ciel turned to Tacere. "Are they with you?! was this all a fuckin trap" Ciel asked. "And that must be our other target, the ashe deamon Tacere. There's no mistaking it, just look at him" one of the two in black said. "I guess they're not with you" Ciel said as he calmed down slightly. "Wait....Tacere? you told me your friggen name was Cinis you asswipe" Ciel said.

"How unexpected and fortuitous that two of our targets would be in the same place" one of the two in black robes said. The other pulled out a strange hand sized device. "Your respective abilities will be of great use to our guild" one of told both Tacere and Ciel. The other in black pulled out a katana, and then in almost the blink of an eye he was directly infront of both Ciel and Tacere. He would quickly spin-kick Ciel in the face, causing Ciel to be sent flying back a considerable distance, and immediately after the spin kick he swung his katana at Tacere's midsection. Mid-swing, the air immediatly around the katana became frigid and ice started to form around the blade.

Ciel was sent flying, smashing through a passing wagon, then rolling and bouncing off the pavement, before finally landing face first on the ground. Ciel was in terrible pain, even getting onto his knees was painful. The guy in the black robe that was holding the strange device, would seemingly fall into his own shadow, and then rise out of the shadow of the broken wagon. "This is nothing" Ciel said as he spat blood. Ciel would heal his injuries. Then Ciel's body would glow with a red aura, a sign of his Anesthesia spell going into effect. This would make Ciel temporarily unable to feel any pain, from any wounds/injuries Ciel expected to receive from this guy in black. The figure pointed the strange device towards Ciel. "What the fuck is that suppose to do" Ciel said, while standing up. "I am pleased to show you" the guy in black said. The guy would drop into his own shadow again and then rise up behind Ciel out of Ciel's own shadow. He grabbed Ciel by the back of the neck and lifted him up off his feet. Ciel's feet dangled widely as he struggled to get free, and to breathe for that matter. The strange device that the guy in black was holding would glow white, which is when the guy would stab the device into Ciel's back. Ciel shouted; his abilities would be sucked out him and stored within the device.

Afterward he dropped Ciel and looked at the device. Ciel crawled away from the guy. The red glow that had been around his body was gone, without Ciel's consent, and way before the spell's own time limit. Ciel tried to heal the wound in his back, but nothing happened. "What....what did you do to me?!" Ciel exclaimed. "90 percent obtainment....that's unusual. What manner of power could resist, what are you hiding behind that eyepatch" the guy in black asked as he approached Ciel. Ciel suddenly felt sharp pain from behind his eyepatch. He tightly grasped the eyepatch with both hands and cringed in pain.

[tacere]

Tacere followed the young boy through a dark alleyway and was surprised when a pair of cloaked figures dropped in front of them. "Friends of yours?" The answer was evident in his profane response. "Child be quiet......" Tacere changed his stance, his eyes narrowed under his hood. "You know not who you may be dealing with." He winced as Ciel blatantly admitted who he was. "Not a wise decision..." He looked up at the pair, "What business have you with this child? Leave us." The men clearly weren't the brightest, rattling off that they were indeed targets of some sort. He glared once at Ciel. "My name is Cinis. At least, that is one way to say my name." He had little time to debate with his companion, before one of them mentioned something about a guild.... Guild? Oh these were a pair of idiots under some sort of vast puppeteer. Brilliant. Absolutely what they needed at this time.

What happened next enraged him. "Now that was quite uncalled for." He noticed the ice fringing around the katana. Interesting. With a strange twist of his arm, he smashed the length of his forearm smoothly against the katana, and didn't.... Flinch? No trickle of blood stained his white garb, and the ash daemon smirked. "Naughty children should be punished." He quickly lunched forward, snapped his elbow into his opponant's left eye, breaking part of the socket, and dug his free hand's fingers into the opponant's rib. yanking it close and hearing an audiable 'pop' as he drew the figure in close. "Know your place mortal scum." His face went pale again, much like a skull except for the teeth.... And the eyes. The eyes were impossibly dark. And swirled with a sort of enchantment hidden deep within, and the teeth gnashed, sharp and long. He screamed into his victim's face. his mouth unhinging as he scraped his teeth around the man's head. Then he let go, his features were the same. There was nothing different. Other than a strange white mist that encircled him. The man saw death at every turn. A young girl, her legs twisted in a horrible fashion crawled up to him on her elbows, grabbing his hand, pulling it closer to his face, then she suddenly began to eat him. And the windows were melting, the buildings were bending closer, all of them seeking to devour this poor cloaked soul.

Tacere smirked as he stood away from the curled up, screaming figure. For in his waking nightmare, his hallucination, he tasted hell for the first time. He turned around, the mist swirling around his figure. He bit his tongue, resisting the urge to cry out 'CIEL' and lunge for the frail figure. He saw that.... That thing enter into the boy's back, rip flesh, push aside bone, and steal power from his very core. Tacere quietly moved until he was close, not within reach, but close behind the second person in black. Ciel was hurt. Clearly in pain. And.... Not healing? Why? What? 'What manner of power could resist?' The man was cornering Ciel, who had clutched his eyepatch in the throes of some unseen ill. Inching forward, Tacere suddenly leaped and jabbed his hand into the spine of the other, and the last of the smoke assailed the cloaked figure. Now the man spun his head around, in a cold sweat from pain. There was something in his back. A parasite. He had to get rid of it! And all of a sudden, baby's hands stuck out from his spine, crying and reaching for something. He crawled around, desperately trying to find something to cut himself free. FREE. He looked at the thing in his hands, 90%... That was important. He had something to do. Yet he couldn't remember anything other than he HAD to get that thing off his back. The hands became many, and they writhed around, pulling him from the insides as he felt his stomach cave in from the baby's mouths, inside him as their hands scrabbled through the air. He took the device and stabbed himself, over and over. He threw the thing at the child, and it skidded and lay nextt to Ciel. Who would only see the man start frantically trying to rip himself open. Eyes merely showing the whites as he was trapped in this illusion. The poor man was digging his hands through his intestines, yanking them as he saw it. A baby's face, smeared with blood as it cried and continued to gnaw on his innards. Feasting itself on this bloody spoil. Tacere wasted bo time. These illusions would only last a matter of minutes. The mental scarring could be permanant, but the illusion itself was short. "Come with me Ciel."

He scooped Ciel up, as well as the device, in his arms, wrapping them with his long white garb and ran. Swift as a fire that leaps from tree top to tree top. When he thought themselves far away enough. He ducked into an overhanging market corner. Leaving the corner, he quickly hid his beautiful silken outer robe in a bone white pack, then toseed that into a worn looking gray knapsack, pulling on a simple gray cloak and hood, long enough that it nearly touched the ground, He also beneath it wore a black tunic, of finer make, but still not unusual. Even under that hood he wore, he pulled away his white hair with a darker gray cap, and now he looked much less conspicuous. For the boy. He also had stolen a similar cloak, and after gently covering the back wound with a cotton cloth, bound tightly to stop the blood flow, he put on his a dark blue shirt, and a slightly lighter gray cloak, unhooded, but a messy cap to hide the boy's hair. They were safe.... For now. He ducked away into an empty stall and he set Ciel down on his stomach, s oas not to agitate the injurt further. Now about this device. He set it near the boy, and whispered, "Ciel.... Are you alright?"

((Sorry for that, but I figured it would be better to understand a story, and then we can get right back into the thick of trouble Not bad for a quick 30 minutes of cram writing haha, I'm a bit pecked for time in the holidays))

[Cory]

A man dressed in black robes, who was apart of some guild that Ciel had no knowledge of, had just stabbed Ciel in the back with some strange device. Ciel tried to heal himself to no avail. It was gone, Ciel's white magic was gone. It had been extracted from the very core of his being. Ripped from him. Ciel felt the space where the white magic once was. "....90% containment...." Ciel heard someone say in the background. Then Ciel felt that space being filled. Pain. It ruptured with unexpected intensity from the eye behind his eyepatch. Ciel keeled over in fetal position on the ground, both his hands covering the eyepatch which covered the source of his pain. In the background Ciel heard the two guys in black robes making all sorts of horrible noises, Ciel had no idea what the hell Tacere was doing to them but it sounded brutal and fatal. Ciel would have at least tried to check, but the pain was now spreading throughout his small body, it was outright dibilitating. Was someone touching him, was someone carrrying him, was he being moved somewhere? It was hard for Ciel to put together any of it while he was passing in and out of consciousness, due to the pain. "This pain....this pain is....familiar!" Ciel mumbled.

:: Flashback ::
many many years ago. aboard a ship sailing across the sea.

Ciel rubbed his eyes as he walked out onto the deck. "what happened?" Ciel asked. There was a large crowd of people on the deck, and a large open space in the center of that crowd. In that open space Vendisa stood quietly. To her far left was Xion. To her far right was Ciel and Xion's parents. "Why are you out here, go back to sleep" Ciel's mother insisted. "I felt something......, and it woke me up" Ciel replied. He looked over at Xion and could see right away that something wasnt right. His parents gave each other glances. "Xion, perhaps its best you follow your brother back to bed" their father said. Xion looked in the direction of their mother and father. Her expression was utterly blank. "Who are you?" Xion asked her parents. The look in their mothers eyes at that moment was if she had been stabbed in the heart.
Ciel started walking towards Xion. "brother, who are those people?" Xion asked Ciel. When Ciel was close enough, he went to take Xion's hand. But then in the blink of an eye, Vendisa had gotten in the way and harshly pushed the two of them apart. "What are you doing? What happened to my sister?!" Ciel cried out. "Its your bloodlines curse, isnt it" Vendisa said. "Yes. but its never awakened in a family member at such a tender age. To think that Xion's version of the curse would be so cruel" the father replied. They then looked at Ciel in a worrisome way. "We've also never had twins in our bloodline, who knows how a curse thats been split in half between twins will behave or react." the father said. Ciel then yelled out and fell on his knees and held his eye. "brother?!" Xion exclaimed. She tried to get to him but Vendisa kept her at bay, while being careful to avoid skin-to-skin contact with Xion. "Its the same thing i felt when i woke up! it hurts!!!" Ciel cried out.
"Damnit" the father exclaimed. He rushed over to Ciel. "I cant stand by and see my children affected by this curse so young, so soon. I would do the same for your sister, but unfortunately the way her curse seems to work prevents me from doing so" the father half explained. Xion's gaze averted. Vendisa's gaze shifted to Xion. The father ripped off Ciel's shirt and put both his hands on Ciel's chest. "papa, what are you....." Ciel trailed off as he started to feel something going inside him. "Your sister has no idea who we are anymore, to her your the only family she has left.....well aside from that one cousin of yours....but no one counts the cousin. Anyway, you have to be able to look after her, and how can you do that if your dealing with the curse as well. So i'm going to stall it for you, Ciel, keep it at bay and in a stasis of sorts. Your version of the curse, It will never awaken any further than the tiny bit it has today" his father said. "How??!" Ciel wondered aloud. "My white magic will make it possible, and i'm giving it to you" his father said. And with those words Ciel glowed white as his fathers magic was forced within the core of his being.

:: End of Flashback ::


Ciel woke up briefly while Tacere was bandaging the wound on Ciel's back. "You dont have to......" Ciel passed out but would wake up fully when Tacere was putting a cap on his head. Ciel would sit up briefly taking into account the new shirt and cloak, while reregistering the bandaged but still-there wound on his back. Ciel would of had all sorts of collorful commentary about how the cap didnt fit right and was messing up his hair, but at the moment Ciel's mind was just too distracted for that. Ciel's hand raised slowly to cover the eyepatch. "Oh no....." Ciel said under his breath. For the moment the pain had lessened to tolerable levels, and if asked Ciel would deny there being any pain at all now, but things were still happening within him. He glanced over at the strange device that Tacere laid out as he registered Tacere's question. "I'm alive arent I. so...your fuckin welcome...i guess. But dont even think about gettin friggen mushy or crap. In fact now that you've done your service to humanity for the century, why dont you go back to fucking livin under rocks or unliving or all that fuckin wandering nonsense??!" Ciel said.

[tacere]

This post is mostly complete sh-t. I'm deeply sorry.

Tacere's mind quickly replayed the events, as he hurriedly bandaged the small boy before him. What exactly was that device? And what did the man mean 90% containment, was that strange? He looked down, jolted back into reality by the mumbling of the small boy. Watching Ciel’s eyelids flicker as they were closed, the daemon realized the boy was dreaming. He smiled, now how could one dream after something like that? Looking back at the bandaging, he frowned as the red started to seep through, swiftly, he undid the bandages and reached into his bag for a smaller bag, full of another kind of ash, the ash of an acacia tree. He also pulled out a small bottle full of a clear paste. The paste itself was nothing, much like beeswax but softer, and he took a small portion of the ash and crushed it together with the paste, making a salve, which he applied liberally to the boy’s wounds. “Better.” He mumbled to himself. It was a natural antiseptic and would also make as a barrier to slow the bleeding and increase the speed of healing.

Discarding the old bloody bandage, he bandaged Ciel once more, taking care to make it a bit tighter to hold the wound firmly shut. He looked at the boy’s lips, as they started to move ‘You don’t have to…” then silence. The boy had fallen back asleep. Tacere sighed, and reached a hand up to his face, rubbing his eyes. The bright light around the crowded market reflected off of the metal armor of the store in front of them, and Tacere looked at it with curiosity. From his seat he could see several well made chain link shirts and gauntlets and the like, but none that he would choose for himself or the boy. With one hand lazily resting on Ciel's head, he absent mindedly began mussing with the boy's hair, petting it much like one would pet a cat or other small animal. THen Ciel opened his eyes and Tacere abruptly took his hand off of the child's head, instead patting Ciel's back as he helped him into a sitting position. The daemon narrowed his eyes. The boy's frame was still quite tense. "Ciel. How much pain do you feel?" He was quite unprepared for the angry outburst that leapt out of the injured boy.

They were sharp words, angry, bitter, biting words. Slightly irritated, he rose up from his seated position, and looked down at Ciel with one eyebrow raised, only partially visible from the shadow this hood cast. "Well, if I were to do that, I don't expect you would survive very long. Something is wrong with you. Between the lack of healing ability" At this moment, Tacere watched Ciel's expression carefully, before continuing "As well as an inability to bandage your own back, you would be in for a little trouble." He sat back down against and gingerly prodded the dressing (aka bandaging) before propping Ciel's arm's up into a position, so he looked ery much from the torso up like a "Y" and pulled the tunic over Ciel's head. The messy cap was also put over the boy and a cloak was left with only the top 3 button's buttoned. Now that the two were differently, and suitably dressed, Tacere relaxed, perhaps just a tad. "Do you have anything you would wish me to carry for you?" The daemon ignored the more obvious, immediate question, who in the hells were those men in black cloaks?

Assuming the boy would be hungry, he pushed a small wrapped parcel of fruit, cheese, and bread closer to Ciel, and pushed for a more serious question. "Who knew that you and I were going together? The old man, your... Whatever he was, I assumed it was only him. Do you recall any others in the bar?" Silently, the taller tanned male cursed himself for not being as cautious as usual, for this was not the first time that one of his excursions had ended poorly. He pulled out a flask hanging on his hip and took a swallow. It was an ash and water slurry, mixed in case he could not reach for the ashes themselves.

[Cory]

(( What? Why would you think it was shit?? I certainly didnt think that when I read it. In fact I honestly thought it was quite good, so many things to react/respond to. And written in such a short time makes it all the more impressive. It takes me forever(2/3hours) to think up my posts in my head. Your writing/descriptive skill is well above and beyond mine, I struggle to keep the quality of my posts anywhere near yours. ^_^ And this post of yours especially gave me quite the mini-epiphany.))




Ciel's emotions were raw. What those guys in the black cloaks had done to Ciel was unprecendented. Were they doing it to others? Was what they did unreversable? Ciel's emotions were a volatile soup of chaos, that was only aimed at Tacere because Tacere was standing the closest, and there wasnt anyone else in particular to aim at for the moment. And underneath all of that Ciel was still in actually pain. Not from his back injury, Ciel could feel the admiral job that Tacere had done in tending to that. But the pain Ciel could feel threatening to spread from within his right eye, the eye always hidden behind his eyepatch. Despite the fact that the eyepatch was covering it, Ciel still held his hand over the overpatch, that hand becoming more tense.

The moment Tacere chose to carefully observe Ciel's expression, is the moment he would see the glare in Ciel's azure left eye. "So basically, according to you, I'm inept, incabable, and impotent. Go fuck yourself! Who died and put you in fuckin charge, i'm not your problem, i'm nobody's baggage, you're not responsible for me or anyone or anything. You're not my fuckin fath..." Ciel caught himself and then hesistated to finish the sentence. And then out of nowhere Tacere grabbed Ciel's arms, raised them up like a 'Y' and starting putting the tunic onto Ciel. "Hey! What the fuck are you doing!! Didnt you hear anything I just...." Ciel got quiet as Tacere was adjusting Ciel's tunic and doing the top three buttons. "stop it..." Ciel said softly, as he blushed and his gaze averted.


::Flashback::
many, many, many years ago.

A two year old Ciel, his twin sister Xion, and their father were on the deck of a ship. "why is tonight so special daddy?" Xion asked. At this age Ciel and Xion, despite the gender difference, looked exactly identical. Same shaped face, same height and weight, same skin tone, same medium length raven-black hair, same azure blue eyes. "Pirates are good at all sorts of things, one of the things we're best at is parties. Tonight our queen Vendisa is holding a grand celebration, and only pirates are allowed. Thats why we're getting all dressed up, Ciel" their father said. "daddy, my name is Xion" Xion said. "Oh.. sorry dear" their father said. "That's it! i'm dyeing my hair purple, so you can tell us apart for once!" Ciel exclaimed. "I dare you" Xion said with a laugh. Their father cringed at the idea. "How about you just wear this instead" their father replied as flopped a classic pirate hat onto Ciel's head.

::end of flashback::


As Ciel's thoughts returned to the present, Tacere was placing the cap on Ciel's head. Ciel's blush slowly faded while he brushed aside some of his medium length dark purple hair and then adjusted the cap slightly. Then Ciel got abruptly furious, as his hand returned to its place covering the eyepatch over his righteye. "Yeah you can fuckin carry something" Ciel said as he picked up the strange device that the black-cloaked guys had used on Ciel. "Carry this!!!" Ciel would throw it at Tacere. "And what the fuck is this now! I'm not your good-damned charity case. go find someone else to pity! I dont even like cheese!" Ciel tossed the cheese away. "Bread! Are you kidding me!? What am I a fuckin prisoner, do I look like i'm begging for bread and water, geezus!!!" Ciel threw the bread at Tacere too. Though he did eat the fruit happily. "Dont friggen look at me like that, I like fruit" Ciel mumbled while eating that fruit. He only registered Tacere's next question once he had finished stuffing his face. "No there wasnt anyone else there. Just you and me and the old man." Ciel said.

And then Ciel froze as a dark thought crossed his mind. "the old man was the only one that knew. the only one.... the only one that could have told them. What if he's with them, what if he's been with them all along... all these years.... How could he do this to me, to Xion.... how could he betray the pirates like this, how could he betray Vendisa. When?! Why goddamnit!!!" Ciel exclaimed. Again the hand covering the eyepatch over his righteye tightened. A cold look of betrayal flashed across his left eye. Ciel started walking back towards the tavern. "No....maybe they tricked him, maybe they threatened him... yeah that must be it" Ciel was mumbling to himself, trying to convince himself.

[tacere]

((I mainly thought it was crappy because of the fluffy details, I didn’t really have any meat to the post, so I dressed it up with descriptions and things ahaha. It’s always good camouflage, and that’s very sweet of you to say~ I enjoy reading your posts, they’re so active :3 ))

Tanned skin crumpled together at the middle of the daemon’s brow, his eyes sharpened in a scowl for a moment as he sensed the pain radiating from the smaller of the two. He reached forward towards Ciel’s hand, which was firmly clapped upon the eyepatch as if he were to pull it off, but hesitated and lowered it to his side again. Better not to aggravate Ciel again. The sun shone into the marketplace, full of the hustle and bustle of people, however the ash daemon was fixated on the sudden burst of anger that gleamed in the beautiful blue eyes of the other. He waited out the barrage of accusations until there was a slight gap between the words that flew out in bullets, and used that opportunity to dress the boy. Why had the boy suddenly reigned in his tongue? Was it something to do with… Ah. Now he saw. Father. Clearly this boy loved his father very much. Apparently something in his previous motions mimicked a memory of the child’s father. Interesting.

“Shush.” Tacere murmured as the other exclaimed when he pulled the tunic over his face, but a soft smile dawned in the corners of his lips as the other quieted. He flickered his eyes upward to the boy’s face as he was doing the last button and was surprised to notice a pink blush had leisurely stretched itself across Ciel’s face. With a pleased glimmer in his eyes, he noted that the young one had removed his hand from the eyepatch in order to fuss with the cap. Feeling a bit less tense, he stretched and was completely unprepared for the sudden burst of anger that exploded from the injured male. With a quick hand, he caught the alien mechanism, surprisingly heavy for its size, and tucked it in the pack. “Well I’ll make note of that. I don’t know what people usually eat. The last child I was with enjoyed fruit and nut bread.” He watched the cheese fly overhead, and with a flick of his wrist caught the bread that was launched at his face, slowly lowering his hand with a slightly irritated expression, a single brow twitched as the key indicator, he was quelling the spike of annoyance that shot up in his mind. He looked down at his hand, and the bread turned black, then crumbled away in his grasp. His mood was placated somewhat by the sound of fruit crunching against teeth, and he looked to see Ciel quite contentedly munching away at the fruit. “Alright, Sorry sorry.” He smirked and jokingly looked away briefly as the other continued to snack.

He turned back and waited for the reply from the boy, it came after the other had finished consuming the produce. The answer that he received was not one he wanted to hear. “I see… We must not leap ahead of ourselves. These people are dangerous.” Tacere’s eyes gleamed with the sudden fountain of information, Vendisa, queen of the pirates. Clearly the boy was at least acquainted with her. He was cut apart from his thoughts when the injured, purple haired, boy began to walk towards the tavern. It was still a good distance away, but Tacere in a brash moment, scooped the other up and sat him back down. Before the other could scream at him or hit him across the face, the daemon explained himself, “As much as I am curious and angry as to what happened we are not sure. If he were to have betrayed you, then his tavern is too dangerous to attempt attacking, there might be others there. Much too risky, especially with you and I labeled as targets.. If he didn’t hurt us and he was forced or fooled, then that tavern isn’t safe because we were found. If they did it once, they can do it twice. We need to stay away from there. “ He paused, hoping that he would not be slaughtered with another onslaught of violent words, “Is there somewhere else we can go to in the area, to avoid detection? Perhaps this…. Vendisa could aid us?” He blinked, and looked searchingly at the figure before him, eyes maintaining an intense contact. “Well…?”