It took Silveredge five entire minutes to wrestle Vhalan's old cloak away from Niku, who put wider holes in it than had already been there before. Still playful, the hound bounced around until the Shadar-kai had sat back down on the stone steps, then put his forepaws into her lap, knocking the thread out of it.
"Niku," Silveredge groaned, watching the thread bump its way downhill. Studying her gaze and understanding the problem in a flash, Niku bounded off after the thread, successfully stopped its progress with a heavy pounce, then proudly trotted back with the spool in his mouth. Although the thread was a bit damper than it had been when she bought it, Silveredge was still grateful not to have lost the five silver that the thread had cost her. As she took the spool out of the hound's mouth, she leaned forward and kissed him.
A young, sandy-haired male walked down the street and turned toward the house, then looked down at the Shadar-kai and the hound with a smile. He noted the darkly colored loose tunic and breeches as well as the low-riding spike-chain belt at once. "Something I can help you with, miss?"
"Oh- I'm waiting for someone," Silveredge replied, looking up to meet the young Human's gaze. "Niku- the hound- he's convinced she's around here, so I figured I would simply keep myself busy until I saw her- are you also a follower of Lliira?"
"I don't know if you could call me a follower of anything," the young male replied gently, reaching down fearlessly to scratch Niku behind his ears. After a few sniffs, Niku sat peaceably and allowed the display of friendship to continue. "If there were a god, or goddess, or a bunch of them- well, who says we're even supposed to know who they are? Who says they need, or want our worship? Who says they know or care about us at all? I think...well, I suppose I'm agnostic."
"Oh, you've done well, Niku," Silveredge cooed to the hound immediately. "If ever there were a place for her, this would be it- Mi'ishaen must be here!"
"Mi'ishaen?" the young man echoed thoughtfully, pausing his movements to look away for a few moments. "There's a name you don't hear every day- yes, yes, and I know I've heard it. A Tiefling, isn't she?"
"Yes, she is," Silveredge enthused. "If you've ever gotten into a conversation about gods and goddesses with her, you must remember her- she's quite like you. Black hair, red eyes- only a bit shorter than you. And doesn't like magic very much at all. I actually don't know what she'd be doing anywhere near a clutch of believers."
"That's done it," the Human laughed, patting Niku a few more times before standing straight again. "She comes by here every now and again on her way to somewhere else- I suppose she's gotten a job nearby or something, but I don't ask her business, she doesn't ask mine. Let me see if anyone inside has seen her today- I'll be right back."
And with that, the young man moved by Silveredge to knock on the door. The door opened and closed without comment or greeting, which was strange to the Shadar-kai. She shrugged it off, figuring that different people had different customs, and some of them would always seem strange to her.
Once inside, the sandy haired male took hold of the Elven woman who had opened the door and marched her away from it. Once he was certain that he was out of earshot, he bowed his head close to the female and whispered, "You seen Dodge?"
"Hasn't left the house in two days," the Elf replied simply. "Won't admit it, but that ordeal two days ago shook her but good. Been training like she means to kill a dragon in a week."
"I'll get her," the male nodded, letting go of the Elf and heading for the basement. As the Elf had noted, Mi'ishaen was training with both daggers, and was in the middle of an attack somersault.
"Wait, wait, hold up, honey," a female voice puffed. "It's Whisper- you must got yourself a message."
Mi'ishaen sheathed her daggers mid-jump, prompting the unseen woman to clap lightly.
"Oh, Spark," the young male laughed as the recognition hit him. "You've a message yourself. Dark was looking for you after the Nithraz job."
"I wasn't gonna stay there to have folk trip over me, now," Spark replied with a vaguely amused tone. "New High Captain means business, and moved right into where I was at, though he was told it was haunted. So I shook some plates, made some noises, and came on down here. And then here come Dodge- we been havin' good fun."
"Well, Dodge's woman has a hound with a blessed good nose," the Human sighed. "Tracked you right here, and now she's sitting on the doorstep, thinking you'll happen by. Got a spike chain on her hips. Dressed like she could kill a man with a spinning kick."
"Oh-" breathed Mi'ishaen, running a hand over her sweaty braid absentmindedly. "Let me get up there-"
"I'll go up- I said I'd check if anyone had seen you."
"Well, get yourself an ale and let's go," Spark advised. "Soon's she puts her eyes on it, I can make-"
"No, never mind that," Mi'ishaen interjected. "She might be armed, but she's unbelievably gentle- just stand there and talk to her; she'll be too polite to tell you to push off."
"She can't know where the spot is," Spark reminded gently. "We gotta get her to forget it somehow."
"Just- she- I don't think she's a problem," Mi'ishaen managed, crossing her arms over her chest. "She doesn't go looking for trouble if she doesn't have to, so why start any?"
"Just so happens, sugar, that you're trouble," Spark laughed, allowing her outline to begin to glimmer so that both of the other operatives in the room knew where she was. "but she sure did come lookin' for you. Tell you what; I'll keep an ear out- you just try and keep her from gettin' curious."
"Fine."
Mi'ishaen moved past the sandy-haired male and up the stairs without ceremony, leaving him to look at Spark's glimmer with a raised eyebrow.
"She don't mean nothin' by it," Spark explained with a shrug. "She'll get some sense about halfway through whatever cleanin' she's gonna put herself through."
The Human shrugged and left Spark, who let go of her prestidigitation spell, to return to the front door. When he arrived, he discovered that Silveredge had gotten up to speak to a passing Orc- or what seemed to her to be a passing Orc.
"Well, sorry all the same," he was saying, taking a step away from her. "I've never been good with animals."
"My lord needs no apology," the Shadar-kai smiled gently. Her hound had stood up on his hind legs and leaned heavily on her, which forced her to take a wide stance so that she wouldn't fall with his weight. "Niku is- excitable- and sometimes, people aren't quite sure what he's actually trying to do. At least neither of you are hurt."
"Say, miss?" the Human called, drawing the attention of all three at once. "The Tiefling you're looking for hasn't come by yet, so she's likely to be on her way pretty soon- you're good with a needle, aren't you?"
Niku padded his way behind the Human and pushed heavy forepaws into the backs of his knees so that he would sit down, and the male reached out and scrubbed behind his ears.
"It's not masterwork," Silveredge replied, indicating the cloth left lying just to the Human's right side, "but I can mend well enough. Does my lord need something mended?"
"You're too formal," the Orc interrupted. "I'm Stone; that's Whisper. We're groundskeepers."
"So we keep the hearths clear and the floors swept," Whisper added smilingly. "Stone has always had that way with words; don't mind him."
"My name is Jyklihaimra, but it might be easier for you to say Silveredge," the Shadar-kai smiled gently, watching as Niku turned his attentions from Whisper to some distant place behind Stone.
"He's on to something," Whisper smirked, ruffling the hound's ears one more time before taking his hand away. "Let's see- 'Jaee-cli-hayim-ra... did I get it?"
"That's the closest anyone here has come to it," Silveredge said, trying to keep the laughter from her voice. "Silveredge is just fine." Niku abruptly bounded off down the street, and she followed him with her eyes as long as she could. "I suppose he picked up a newer scent?"
"Aargh! Dog!"
Stone backed up to look down the street, then allowed a smirk to cross his face. "Newer scent alright."
"Told you she happened by around this time," Whisper nodded, satisfied. "C'mon now, Stone, before we get into trouble. See you later, miss- Silveredge."
"Good fortune to you, Stone and Whisper," Silveredge replied, getting up to let the Orc pass her and go into the house. When both males had stepped inside, she picked up her stitching work and turned her attentions to following the hound- and found him on top of Mi'ishaen. The Tiefling had donned a well-made, dark brown dress that would have delicately played about her calves, if it weren't crumpled under a large dog. A small box lay a short distance away from her.
"Mi'ishaen! C'mon, Niku, let her up," Silveredge soothed, tucking her work into a satchel at her side and sitting down in the middle of the street. The hound, however, didn't budge. As she reached forward in the attempt to physically urge him to move, Mi'ishaen caught a look at the clawed metal that dug into Silveredge's right wrist.
"What's that?" she asked immediately, forgetting to even greet the woman she hadn't seen in days. "Must've made a lot of money somewhere, for that piece."
"It was a gift," the Shadar-kai explained, scooting closer to Mi'ishaen. "More out of necessity than any actual- well, I'm not sure. Remember the male of my kind you saw before the guard came and took you away? Svaentok? He gave this to me. Because...either... either Ashok has been revived, or someone else has found his ring. The master ring."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Mi'ishaen asked as she summoned enough strength to sit up under Niku's indelicate embrace. The hound shifted himself and crushed her lower legs instead of her hips and upper body in response.
"The ring here-" Silveredge began, picking up her hair and indicating the piece in her neck, "-is part of a set. A spell touched set that links master to slave. And the master ring is..."
"Is now on someone who's alive," Mi'ishaen finished impatiently. "Can we get that one out of you?"
"No," Silveredge frowned with a sigh. "Ashok didn't have a true tiarnaí piercing, and could just take his off whenever he wanted. But this ring is genuine- there are locating and dominating enchantments, all locked in with a powerful permanency spell, and Svaentok seemed to believe that the ring had somehow fused with a nearby bone in my neck- I'm not sure of that. But I do know that I... wouldn't survive any attempt to get it out of me."
"So, then we find the master ring and... hmmm... and maybe don't destroy it," Mi'ishaen continued, beginning to think. Silveredge allowed her hair to fall off her arm and scooted in closer, so that she could comfortably rest her left arm inside of Mi'ishaen's right. "If you wouldn't survive just getting the- that ring out of you, there's no way actually destroying the master ring wouldn't have some sort of negative effect. Maybe we should find the master ring and then get someone to safely disenchant them both. Then you can decide what you want to do with them."
"So thinks Svaentok," Silveredge nodded slowly. "I never thought I'd see the day when one of the tiarnaí would encourage a slave to win her freedom."
"I think a little better of Big Baldy now," Mi'ishaen smiled. "What does this trinket of his do?"
"Makes it more difficult for the shadows to eat my soul, I think," Silveredge replied, resting her right arm on her thigh and looking down into the cobalt blue center. "It's something to do with my blood- the way it uses it. It hurts to move it, but it's as though the pain sews me closer to my bones. I- don't really know how-"
"Well, I know how difficult it was for you to get around without forgetting people, or things, and to quit disappearing in the dark," the Tiefling stated heavily. "This thing's supposed to help that not happen. I get it. What's with the belt?"
Silveredge moved her arm and looked down at her hips, where her spiked chain sat quietly. Most of the spikes ran along her back, but there were a few mischievous ones near her thighs that preferred to remind her of how sharp they were. "This was a gift too- a part of my initiation into the coven of the Raven Queen here."
"So you did get religion!" Mi'ishaen exclaimed. "Jeesh, between you and Aleksei- if I see Bahlzair walking into a temple, I'll be forced to build an altar myself. What's the tune of their wail?"
"The acceptance of death and the call to fill the brief life given us with great deeds," Silveredge replied, looking into the radiant red eyes before her. "I think I'll see plenty of great deeds, with you."
"I dunno how I'll spar with you, with that thing," Mi'ishaen laughed. "Looks like it's got some real reach to it. I assume by all those scratch marks on your arms that they taught you how to use it, too?"
"Oh, yes, there were daily- no, I guess nightly- training sessions," the Shadar-kai said, contemplating the healing cuts with a suddenly distant tone. "And it seemed natural- as though I should have had a chain in my hands all my life. As a weapon, I mean, instead of-"
"I brought you something else," the dark-haired female proclaimed suddenly, cutting Silveredge off. Niku finally took his weight completely off her. Spying the box, he padded over and clamped his jaws around it. "Oh, get it from him before he bites it open."
Silveredge got up and moved behind Mi'ishaen to Niku, rubbing behind his ears as she took hold of the package. "Alright, thank you," she said calmly. The hound understood that she meant to have the package without a game, and whimpered quietly as he let go and laid down. Silveredge returned to Mi'ishaen's side, even closer than she had been before.
"Don't pout; we'll give you some sport in a minute," Mi'ishaen encouraged. "Trust me, you're gonna love this as much as she will- open it."
Silveredge turned her attentions from Mi'ishaen, who was brushing off her dress, to the half-wet package in her lap. Pulling away the packaging carefully, she found two small katars. She looked up at Mi'ishaen, not wanting to assume ownership without express invitation.
Mi'ishaen raised an eyebrow at her. "What, do you think I bought them for myself? Try them."
Silveredge delicately lifted each katar out of the box and onto her lap, watching the gleam of the afternoon sun catch the blades. Niku popped up and batted the box away from her, suddenly deciding to sport himself with pushing his teeth into it and shaking it apart. "Thank you- these are- lovely," Silveredge finally managed, fitting her hands into the handles.
"Didn't know you'd be trundling off to find religion and a whole new fighting style- in less than two months," Mi'ishaen quipped. "All I found was a bunch of rogues."
"That's quite important," Silveredge counseled immediately, fixing Mi'ishaen with an unexpectedly intense look. "You're a rogue. It's healthy to find companions of like mind- very necessary. Being alone all the time is-"
"Who needs to worry about being alone?" the Tiefling interrupted. "Not you. You've got me- and you've got that dog."
"You've made friends," Silveredge smiled, feeling herself warm considerably at Mi'ishaen's last statement. "May I please meet them?"
"They're nothing to look at," Mi'ishaen replied, testing the sharpness of one of the spikes on the chain with a single finger. "You could've met them in the coven, on the street- anywhere."
And Silveredge, as Mi'ishaen had suspected she might, bit her lips and gave a short, wordless nod.
"What do you say we go find someplace where the same stew isn't served for more than four days running?" the Tiefling suggested, turning her red orbs up toward Silveredge's gaze with a devious smirk.
"There's a Human-run boarding house just outside of the market," Silveredge suggested. "Have you tried it?"
"Well, I bet you haven't, or you wouldn't ask," Mi'ishaen shot back knowingly. "Up, dog, and let's go."
Silveredge tucked the katars into her satchel, tied Niku's strap to herself first, then around his neck, then reached her right hand out to Mi'ishaen, who carefully took it up. Neither one of them spoke about it, but secret smirks were shared about the Shadar-kai wearing the breeches and the Tiefling wearing the dress, as though it were some inside joke too delicate to be spoken aloud. And they walked, fearlessly, hand in hand, directly toward the Market District.
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