Behind Those Golden Eyes

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There was such a large and varied amount of information that even Tal's incredibly ordered (information wise) mind was having trouble keeping track of it. Reluctantly, he grabbed some paper as well and started writing furiously before he started getting it all mixed up. He finally sat up with a sigh and stared down at his own notes as Archer spoke to himself. "It's possible but not particularly practical." He frowned at the paper. "The new moon thing is almost ridiculously common. Either the world went into left field completely or there might be something to it. They wouldn't be the first creatures to be effected by the moon..." He somehow sounded both hopeful yet doubtful. "They did make their attack quite close to the full moon..." He sounded like he was talking himself into the idea.
 
"Well, if the full moon fuels, then the new moon might empty." Archer proposed. "We could always prepare ourselves, and if they seem to act differently during that time, which one would expect if their main source of power was completely drained, then we'll go in." The worst that could happen was that they had to go back home and think about another plan.

"We might still have a problem with those circles though. If she also uses them then you won't be able to go in freely. I wonder how many guards Jeremy has now. He doesn't have his mansion anymore, and everyone was killed at that time. Their resources in manpower is most likely also running low. As long as there's no witch in the way it shouldn't be too hard to go in on my own if I had to." Once again he had gone back to mumbling as he often did when deep in thought about plans. But it didn't matter much. Taliesin would hear him either way.
 
"It's about as good of a plan as we are going to get." Tal agreed, feeling more determination than enthusiasm about the plan. He stood up and stretched for a few moments before starting to pace. "That's it then. In the meantime we'll just have to entertain ourselves for two more days." He said with a grin that was not quite his usual. He could use the distraction. The worry was starting to wear on him and starting to show. It was a concern for more than one reason, as he never did quite entirely trust Archer. After this whole thing was resolved, one way or another, he would have to settle things with Aisha because his emotions were starting to near the state they had been just before he had run away and that was unacceptable.
 
Archer definitely noticed that something was off. But he didn't care. Whatever went on in Tal's mind didn't concern him. It was just bothersome when people put their noses where they didn't belong, and he knew Tal felt exactly the same. "Let's use these two days to recharge ourselves in the most entertaining of ways." He smirked. His way of recharging had very little to do with sleep, but everything to do with the bed. If they would even be able to reach it.

The days past fast, and the preparations for the new moon was going smoothly for the witch. Aisha had been moved to a secret location and been replaced by her double. Shiela wouldn't give life to the doll before Tal came close to the building, otherwise she would waste precious energy and the doll might even die before that demon got to her. It was important to wait until the last moment. She and Jeremy would sneak out during the day, but they would make sure that someone saw them while they pretended to try not to be seen. That way Taliesin would get the confirmation he needed, that they were escaping temporarily because her powers were decreasing. Then they could safely watch through the eyes of the doll when the two assassins came and took the bait.

"We should probably leave now before those two wakes up." Shiela told Jeremy. It was important that they would be gone hours before Taliesin and Archer could hear about it, otherwise they might think it worth to take up the chase on them first. She kept a close eyes on their auras. Yep, still heavily asleep. Considering they probably planned for the night, they shouldn't be up and about for some more hours.
 
Jeremy was a mess of both anxiety and excitement, though he was doing his best not to let it show on the surface of his face. "Of course." He murmured to her words and nodded, wishing he had quite the range she did to be able to keep an eye on the two assassins. That being said once they were doing their 'attack' he wouldn't have any problem. With that thought he brightened and followed Sheila in a sneaky yet obvious way sure to get the attention of the right people as they left.

Several hours later Tal woke from a deep sleep caused by ridiculous levels of exertion and stress in a short period of time. He knew immediately that it was nearly time to make their attack and reluctantly untangled himself from his lover, running one hand gently through the long hair before finally getting entirely off the bed. He pulled his clothes on quickly, knowing that Archer would be soon to follow. While the other man got dressed Tal went out to check if the sign had been given. He found a man whistling cheerfully outside the back door. Said man didn't otherwise acknowledge Tal but that was all the confirmation he needed. Tal headed back inside to get his sword. "It seems there might be something to the rumor after all." He was feeling more hopeful, though he couldn't quite shake a tiny bit of doubt. "Time to take care of this situation." His eyes flashed with his irritation before he turned and headed straight back outside. He was not much inclined to wait any longer.
 
Archer woke up as he felt something moving away from him. He almost tried to grab Tal before he could get out of bed, but then remembered that they had important things to take care of. The tired assassin forced himself up to his feet and started to get dressed. Did they have to save her during this new moon? Couldn't they just wait until the next month? He would definitely enjoy a relaxing vacation away from her for a while. So far Aisha had been the only one causing them trouble, so why not leave her there? Then she could cause Jeremy trouble for a month... Or twelve.

Grabbing his sword he followed Tal outside. "I'm guessing I'll have to go in first and check for demon traps so you don't become completely useless again." Archer smirked, already alert and ready for action. It was incredibly convenient when one could just turn off their tiredness on demand. Though he would definitely prefer to sleep rather than save the damsel in distress. Again. It seemed to have become an every other week to every month occurrence for them. Damn, if he had wanted to become a knight he wouldn't be an assassin. But what didn't he do for a good sleeping partner and a ton of money.
 
Tal shot Archer a tight grin. "It's almost as if you read my mind." He was forcing himself to not feel any irritation at the idea of him being 'useless' but even he had to admit there wasn't much else to call it. What the right runes did to him was quite terrifying for a man who previously considered himself too powerful. Speaking of, he also had a good idea what was on Archer's mind and his smile turned more grim. "I feel your frustration as well. Believe me, this will be the last time. One way or another." Occasionally, in his darkest moments, he thought of killing Aisha himself just to be done with it all. He'd take that last step into being a true monster and one of the biggest things dragging him down would be gone.
 
"I'll definitely remember that you said that." Archer smirked. He wouldn't let his partner go back on his words once they were done.

Making a quick check with their spy, they got to know that Jeremy and the witch had sneaked away during the morning. No girl had been seen with them, so they could safely assume she was being guarded in their original hideout by others. Maybe they felt it being a too big of a risk to take her with them if Tal and Archer would have gotten a hint about her powerlessness. That was at least the theory they had to go on now.

Getting closer to the shop, they could already see two guards inside it from the windows. So she had her hideout somewhere in there. Or maybe even beneath the shop. "I'll be back within five minutes." He told Tal with an overly confident grin. Even if Jeremy didn't mean to be sloppy, he still lacked the means to do a perfect job and getting the perfect guards now when he had lost most of his belongings. Thus Archer was sure this would be easy. Sneaking in through a window in the back of the shop, he cut one of the guards from behind before even having been seen. The other one noticed him when his mate fell to the floor. He drew his sword and went for an attack, but Archer was fast to dodge it and cut the man's throat. Looking around he found three symbols which probably could compromise things for Taliesin, so he quickly erased them before opening the door and giving Tal the ok signal.

"I'm guessing there's a secret passage somewhere." Archer said while trying to figure out where it might be.

Meanwhile, Shiela was spying on them from afar. "The demon has entered the shop." She reported. It was time to give life to the doll. If Taliesin didn't feel Aisha's aura, he would become suspicious. "Sifyren o wea kin go shin fy ton." She mumbled, and the doll started to move down in the dark hidden room. Now it was just a matter of time.
 
All of Tal's many years of training and discipline were required to keep Tal waiting not-so-patiently out of sight. He hated having to leave things to Archer like this. It was maddening! Finally, after what seemed like far too long, Archer emerged and gave the signal.

Faster than the eye could see, Tal was across the street and in the shop. His eyes darted around the room while he reached out with his senses. For a moment his brows drew together in consternation, before Alisha's aura started to pulse at him from down below. He relaxed marginally and set about finding the way down. Having a direction helped immensely and it was only a few short minutes before he found the hidden door and let the two of them down, reluctantly letting Archer take the lead in case they ran into any more inconveniences. On the way through the hidden level they encountered one more room of guards, which were only trouble because the room was warded so Archer had to fight alone until he managed to destroy the glyphs. At that point it was a straight shot to Aisha.

Finally running out of patience Tal moved ahead of Archer to open the door. He cracked it open warily, but it did not seem like there were any more traps in the final room. Something about that bothered Tal, but he put the thought away for the moment. They would deal with that issue when it became more apparent.

Tal eased into the room, his sword out and at the ready as he approached the Aisha doll, carefully cataloging her appearance and letting nothing show on his face.
 
Archer and Tal made their way down into the secret passage, and once again Archer had to take the lead when the symbols were in the way. But just as he had predicted, it did not seem as if Jeremy had been able to get the best of guards in such a short time, thus they were easily beaten. At least compared to a demon, or his former guards. It did take a bit of power and time to get them all, but eventually he defeated them and could go on to remove all the markings.

In a dark room, the doll, a perfect replica of Aisha, lied on the floor. Once the door opened she started to move. "Tal?" She asked after having watched the man coming closer for a moment. It seemed as if she could not believe her eyes. The scars on her body from knife and burn wounds were clearly visible from the ripples in the clothes. The doll tried to pull herself up to her feet, but it seemed like the pain in her neck area, thigh and ribs seemed to hinder her from getting very far. Shiela had made sure to check how sever the girls wounds were to make a good impression. Maybe she played it up a little bit extra for Taliesin to get extra close to it once they'd taken it back.

"Tal, I can hear footsteps coming from down the hallway. I guess twelve at least." Archer informed. "What do you want to do?" He knew Tal was the type that rather killed everyone before leaving, but there were always situations where people decided to do something else than what came natural for them. Right now there were three possibilities in Archers mind. One, Tal would give Aisha to him and then take care of the guards while they ran. Two, Archer got to take care of the guards while those two ran. Or three, Both ran with the girl and not bother with the guards. They could make it out without a confrontation if they left immediately.
 
Tal stepped quickly towards Aisha at the sound of her voice before jerking himself back, still wary of a trap. It seemed though, that aside from the men approaching there was nothing else. Something was still pinging in his mind that something was off, but it was still far from the best time to think about it. Making the decision he darted over to Aisha, picked her up as quickly as possible without aggravating her wounds and turned to Archer. "Let's go." He was out the door almost before he finished speaking. Not the best move with Aisha in his arms but if need be he could put on his demonic speed and leave Archer behind. The man was plenty able to take care of himself.

Luckily, it didn't prove to be a problem as Archer was pretty fast for a human. They slipped past the guards and were lost in the back streets almost immediately. Tal wanted to check Aisha's wounds but he decided it could wait until they got back. The lack of pursuit as they returned to their place of hiding seemed to indicate that their greatest enemy was indeed powerless at the moment.

Tal carried Aisha inside and set her on the one bed, taking a step back to look her over. His eyes were flat and cold at the sight of the more overt torture this time around. It made him quite angry though he knew the emotional scars would be far greater from her previous torture. The problem was he could see the extent of these ones. "Archer, get some water and food." He murmured while deciding how best to approach the wounds. And Aisha. "Have they been feeding you well?" Though if they hadn't it wouldn't have been the best move for that brat's spawn. Her wounds were several days old and cauterized at least. Painful for her but it did seem to have kept them from getting too infected or such.
 
The Aisha copy whined when Tal picked her up. Obviously the movements pained her stiff body, just like they would have Aisha if it had been her. They hurried out, and Archer was prepared to take down the guards would they catch up to them. But they didn't.

Once in the safety of their hideout, which they should probably change before it became unsafe, Archer did as he was told and left the room to get that bothersome girl some food and water. Aisha's voice was rather dry as she tried to speak, that in itself probably told him that she was very dehydrated. "Only water.. Sometimes." Just speaking seemed painful for her as tears started to form.

"I'm sorry. You would have been better off if it hadn't been for me. I can't do anything right, can I?" Shiela tried to make the doll as realistic as possible by reading Aisha's soul. The problem was that it wasn't always Aisha actually revealed her true feelings. Maybe Tal wouldn't think about it, but Aisha had made it very clear to him that living as an assassin was one of the worst things he could do. While she did believe he might have been better off without her, she still wanted to change his life, and that was the only side he had shown her so far. It was just a small flaw, but it could doom the mission if Tal thought it was too out of character for her. But considering the torture she had gone through, it was easy for most people to overlook such minor mistakes.

Archer came back with water and a sandwich. For now it was just important to get something into her, a luxurious meal could wait until she could appreciate the taste.
 
Tal's eyes narrowed at she started to speak, wanting to hit her on the head for crying when she had no water to spare. That itself also pinged him as a little odd though. He couldn't put his finger on it but it seemed like everything for the past hour or so had been...off. Like if you took the world and then put a not quite fitting replica on top of it kind of odd. At that thought, a suspicion started to form but Tal pushed it back as soon as it started to form and instead pulled in his aura like he was upset and didn't want to show it. "Stop crying." He murmured softly. "You're wasting what little liquid you have." He took the water from Archer and carefully sat the doll up, helping her drink. "And yes things would have been better off without you. Though I wouldn't have met Archer for quite some time and that would have been much wild sex missed." He grinned playfully at the other man.
 
"You're just saying that so I will stop complaining about what a pain she is and how she always gets in the way of our sinful desires." He joked while pretending to mope. "Let me tell you one thing though. The devil must be proud over us." A grin spread over Archer's face. As usual he didn't stop joking simply because someone got hurt. She had chosen to be there, thus it was her own fault. He might have thought about holding back if she had gotten involved after having left them, but now that wasn't the case.

The doll fast finished the glass, though maybe a bit too fast as she started to cough at the end as if some went down into the airways. Shiela definitely tried to make her as pitiful as possible so that the demon would let his guard down as much as humanly possible. "My only good purpose was to give you a sex friend. Now I'm feeling so much better." She said sarcastically before smiling weakly. If it had been just a month earlier, Aisha would have blushed and probably not said anything to Tal's comment. But now she was so used to both Tal's and Archer's behaviors so she had started to joke back at them. It was hard for Shiela to read Aisha's aura for details though. More complicated things started to blur together as Aisha were in the process of changing her approach to them but might no completely have gotten there yet. She started to realize that she probably should make the girl speak as little as possible, otherwise Tal might suspect something.
 
Tal flashed Archer a matching grin before looking down at Aisha with a small frown. He still couldn't shake that odd feeling. Aisha's phrasing wasn't quite right. Or perhaps he was just imagining things. He shook his head and pulled her up so she rested against the wall before standing up himself. "Eat the sandwich slowly or else you'll throw up." He spoke before handing it to her. Whatever feelings he might have he did not have the patience to play nursemaid. It wasn't very fair considering how both of his companions had done so at one point but luckily he wasn't too concerned about such things.

"Now then." He turned to Archer. "We should probably move soon, did you have any ideas?"
 
The girl nodded and took the sandwich. They would only get one chance to take the demon by surprise. Shiela was searching after an opening every single second, but at the moment she did not find a good enough opportunity. She'd rather go through with the plan sooner rather than later as Tal might find something too odd bout Aisha if she kept the charade going for too long. But for now they seemed to be fine.

Archer leaned against the wall, thinking over their options. "Depends on what actions you want to take next. If you want to make an attack, then I suggest we find something not too far from here so we'll easily get back. In that case there is an old building on the other side of town. It has been empty for years, but all the furniture are still there and it's easy to sneak in invisibly through the alley." He suggested. It was easier to take over an empty building than living under someone else's roof. Especially if people were chasing you. If no one had seen them go into the building, then Jeremy would have a harder time finding them. Well, the witch would probably make it a bit easy for him, but it all depended on her strength. If her powers would be low for a few days, then a completely secret hideout would be possible.

The doll stared at them with wide eyes. "You're not going to attack them, are you? You saw how much damage Kellen could do, and he wasn't even a wizard." Of course Shiela didn't care if they would attack or not. Now she was just hoping they would give her information about it. Hopefully the doll plan would go well, but if Kellen and Tal decided to get to it during the next few hours and she hadn't been able to make a move, then at the very least she would know what they were thinking. And even if they would wait some days, there was a possibility that the doll plan would fail. Sure they would change their plan since they would know that she had spied on them, but except for moving the date, most people didn't change their plans very much. They believed in the way they did things too much to care to change it.
 
It took Tal an exceptionally long time to respond to either Archer or the dolls words. For almost two minutes his eyes were unfocused and his head tilted ever so slightly to the side. His aura was still muted but aside from one brief flash of what might have been excitement the roiling colors had stilled to the stillness of intent focus.

As suddenly as Tal had left them, his eyes were as clear and wild as ever. He picked up the conversation as if there hadn't been that strange pause. "Kellen had the advantage of surprise. Now we have an idea of the dangers lurking out there." There was an unspoken, 'even for me' at the end. "That being said, attacking is out of the question until you are stable and somewhere marginally more safe than this questionable establishment." His tone indicated he was not interested in any more conversation on the subject. "You should rest Aisha."
 
Shiela could feel her heart pounding a bit too fast. Why was Taliesin silent for so long? Had she said something wrong? Did he suspect something? No, there shouldn't have been anything so far that could have given her away. Then, finally, the demon started to speak once again as if the awkward pause hadn't been lingering at all. She breathed and smirked a bit. Everything was still going perfectly. Soon they would be able to make their attack.

"Waiting until she's stable could take a long time. They will most likely attack us long before that happens." Archer said bluntly. "Or have escaped to figure out their next move." He then added. It all depended on what Tal considered stable though. Mentally she seemed to recover pretty fast in comparison to others. She had been through a lot already and all the other times it had only taken a little while before she started to pull herself back together. But physically, it would definitely take her a while to get better. The wounds he had seen wasn't too bad, but considering her color he guessed there could be a bit more he couldn't see. Well, one good thing came with it at least. She wouldn't have to bother thinking about the baby anymore. There was no way it could have survived the stress of a torture session.

The Aisha doll had already obediently stopped talking about it, mainly because Shiela didn't want to say something suspicious. But while she slowly munched on the sandwich she noticed that someone wasn't there yet. When they attacked Kellen there had been another demon with them. He had been gone when they raided the place, and she had been frightened that he might come back since he was strong. But he was still not there. Wouldn't he come back at all? She wanted to ask, but she didn't know his name, nor his relationship to the others. Damn it. He could become a problem if he suddenly appeared. For now she just had to hope he had other things to take care of.
 
"I know." Tal spoke with irritation, though he was only half paying attention to what Archer was saying. He was in fact trying to wrap his head around Aisha falling silent so easily. He frowned at her for a moment before shrugging it off, deciding she was just in that bad of condition. "We'll let Aisha rest for a little while and then take her somewhere sufficiently out of the way before figuring out our attack." The problem being he didn't trust a lot of people to take care of her and while one of them was on their way back they would still have to make due until then.

He tilted his head back and stared up at the ceiling musingly before a niggle of a memory started to come to him. His eyebrows both rose and he shook his head, chuckling softly to himself. "Where there is him..." He didn't necessarily trust this person, but aside from Aisha and his father they were as close as it got. He had completely forgotten that the man had moved here a couple years ago.
 
Archer shrugged and let the topic drop. It wasn't much use arguing about it, especially since Tal technically was his boss, so he would always have the final word no matter how bad the idea was. He would just obey until it became too ridiculous, at that point he might just leave. But so far, Tal had not crossed that line, and Archer doubted the man he respected so much, the worlds best assassin, would ever sink that low.

The doll looked up at the mumbling man, slightly curious, but mostly scared. It wasn't much of a stretch for a girl to be scared to be left alone with a stranger after what she had been through. And Shiela would make sure to make use of such emotions to get the information she needed. "Who is him?" She asked, her voice shaking just the tiniest bit. Shiela wondered if it could be the white haired demon that traveled with them before. That was a possibility and in that case she would have to take care of Tal before they reached him. But it could also be someone else. Someone not counted into their plans. That would be even worse, as it would be hard to ask for the details about him without becoming suspicious.

Archer was also curious whom Tal was mumbling about, but in comparison to the girl he thought was Aisha, he did not mind waiting for the answer until they met him.
 
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