Behind Those Golden Eyes

Status
Not open for further replies.
Tal, who was quite used to Aisha’s tendencies despite not having seen her for quite a while, did not miss a beat when she ‘corrected’ him about the gender of her sword. It was something for her to decide and develop. He was actually rather amused she’d already pulled out a name for him. “Then I will have to apologize properly with my own blade.” He grinned at her mischievously. That may or may not have been a bit of an innuendo but he was putting a lot of effort into not doing anything that would set off that argument again.

“Hmm…” Tal chuckled softly at what he considered a strong exaggeration. “I think you will be just fine. We’ll take it slow so you can stop thinking your way to destruction though.” He was quite convinced that at least half of her problem, especially now when she was older and had likely a lot more coordination than when she was a child, was that she was so convinced she was a clumsy danger to society that it was all she knew how to do anymore. The girl who could run so swiftly after him (for a human) and dodge around obstacles certainly had the coordination needed to swing a sword without injuring anyone but the people she was trying to.

Now, strangely enough, it was about that moment that it really sunk in for Tal that they were actually doing this. The long term planning he was doing had suddenly become a lot less abstract and he felt himself grow somewhat apprehensive. He wasn’t sure he could do this, interact with his past like nothing had changed at all. He had become rather set in his ways these past few years and throwing Aisha in the mix was a shock to his system that they would be working out quite possibly for a long time to come.

Tal closed his eyes and mentally sighed, pushing away the sudden swarm of emotions when he felt a ‘ping’ of danger. His eyes snapped open and swiftly surveyed the crowd around him, but no one stood out and the aura he sensed was gone. “Shit.” He cursed softly. He highly doubted that was related to his current target and that was almost certainly a bad thing. “Well that’s just lovely.” He said louder. “Let’s return to the inn then, this crowd is getting to me.” To a passer-by Tal would sound like just a normal guy speaking, but to Aisha who knew he tended to speak in a more refined manner he would sound a little off, both in tone and phrasing.
 
Tal grinned mischievously and Aisha couldn't help but think 'boys' with a sigh in her head. She might even have unconsciously rolled her eyes. "Well, I better leave my safety in your hands then. But remember, my father would most likely chase you to the end of the world if something happened to me." It was just a joke, but suddenly she realized that if something actually happened to her, even if it wasn't Tal's fault, her father would actually try to hunt him down. If he got to know that something happened to her of course. If no one came with the news to them then they wouldn't know. The thought that she might get hurt didn't scare her as much as the thought that her father might want to kill her friend just because he thought Tal was responsible for her safety.

'Stop thinking about things that will never be an issue, stupid'
Aisha thought to herself. Even if something happened to her, her father would never have a chance to get to know about it. Except if Tal decided to tell him. But would he care to do that? She wasn't sure. He had clearly cut all connections with everyone at home except for her, so would he still feel obligated to tell people what had happened if something happened to his traveling partner?

At that moment Tal cursed softly. Aisha looked at him confused as he started to speak. Something was going on, and he probably couldn't tell her what at the moment. "You're so paranoid." She told him as if it was a normal occurrence in their everyday life. She could kind of guess what was going on. Tal thought someone saw them, and that someone shouldn't get suspicious of them. "You met Irie yesterday, right? Don't forget to tell me what happened. I will get mad if you try to keep secrets from me." She knew Tal would understand that the first sentence was a cover up.
 
Tal managed a tight grin for her, but it was obvious that he was not happy. If he were by himself it would be little more than a non-issue but with Aisha he could not be so careless. He led them back to the inn, acting as nonchalant as possible. The innkeeper was back now but he didn’t even give the two of them a passing glance as they moved quickly up the stairs. Tal motioned for her to wait outside their door and quickly unlocked the door and shoved it open, stepping quickly to the side. No projectile went past him so he considered that a promising start. He then peeked inside and followed up by moving warily into the room. He didn’t sense or hear anyone. Either they had not found where they were staying yet or they were keeping their distance for the moment.

“Hmm…” Tal hummed softly while he pondered. “Well, looks like we’re good for now.” He called to Aisha softly, letting her in and locking the door behind her. He went and checked the window and their stuff for signs of someone else having been there but it was all just as he’d left it. He gave a tired sigh and sat down on his bed, which still smelled faintly like he had when he had fallen into it this morning. “You sure you don’t want to go home? We’ve got a sneaky one on our tail.” He felt that it was probably too late for her already though. He would just have to be vigilant. He hadn’t expected to pick up followers again so quickly. He then of course realized his mistake and barely managed to hold in a round of cursing. He would have to avoid his old haunts from now on.
 
Aisha followed him and tried to conceal her worries. Was someone following them? Could they be dangerous? What had made Tal so paranoid all of a sudden? She just had to keep it to herself until he said it was safe for them to talk. Once outside their room he motioned to her to wait outside. She couldn't find any reason for it, but she did as he instructed. There were times to question and times to oblige, and in this situation it was definitely the latter.

Tal called her to come inside after a short period of time had passed. Though it had felt as an eternity as she had stood out there leaned against the wall, not sure what was going on. Tal locked the door and sighed tiredly as he sat down on the bed. What could have made him worry so much? Just a while earlier he had pretty much bragged about how he would give the world to someone if they were important enough to him. Now he was upset about a possible spy?

"What? No." She exclaimed at his question. How could he even think that she would turn around so easily? Sure, she still had her doubts if she really could handle it, that wouldn't go away in just a day, but this was not enough for her to turn around. "What's going on Tal? Who do you think was following us?" She didn't think he knew much more than she did, but if he knew absolutely nothing then he shouldn't have reacted like that.
 
Tal stared up at the ceiling in silence for several moments before responding. “It is hard to say just who is following us. It is hardly a new thing for me to be followed. The difference being is that they knew it was me under cover, so they’re someone who has been after me for a while. They also have in their employ someone who is at least passable at concealing their aura. That narrows the list down quite a bit and I don’t really like any of the names on it.” Most of them were people he had refused jobs from and had not inconsiderable resources to cause them trouble.

He took a few deep breaths as the knee-jerk reaction to get Aisha out of danger finally started to die down and he was thinking rationally again. “They will almost certainly try to contact me in the near future, probably through you.” He purposely did not say just how through her. “In the meantime I need to finish up this job quick and get us out of this city.” He didn’t like leaving her alone for any period of time but he didn’t want to bring down more heat on them when there was already a situation brewing. He would just have to bank on whoever they were not having the force needed in town to try anything just yet.
 
A chill went down her spine as Tal told her that they might try to contact him through her. The thought of being left alone after hearing that felt unbelievably discouraging. But as long as she stayed inside and everything was locked, then she should be okay. At least that was what she hoped. What about Tal? What if they went after him while he were doing his job? She might feel safe in there, but it didn't feel safe to think about him out in the open.

"What do they want from you?" She asked him worriedly as she sat down beside him on the bed. Was someone out to kill him? Probably, he did have a job that would give him such enemies.
 
“To know that I would have to know exactly who was after us.” Tal was relieved to be functioning like his normal self now. He was also quite glad he’d gotten Aisha the sword, so while she didn’t have the skill to use it she might at least have some intimidation factor. “There are only two likely scenarios though, either they want to kill me or they want me to do something for them and I’ve turned them down before.” He shrugged with an annoyed sigh and sat up. “I am going to finish my current mission as quickly as possible tonight. If I take more than two hours you should probably make for the inn I told you about.” He purposely didn’t mention what one, as they could be watched right now.

“Thankfully we slept most of the day away.” Tal stood and pulled out yet another outfit, though this one she would recognize. He must have had 5 copies of this exact simple black outfit and he wore it all the time when he was not in disguise. Unless it was essential to him getting inside, Tal never was disguised when he finally went in for the kill. He wanted people to know who was coming for them. After all, he lived on his reputation. He took over the bathroom and emerged looking like his usual immaculate self. “Try not to worry about me.” He attempted a reassuring smile that just looked all kinds of wrong and forced on him. “I can take care of myself. You just make sure to put the pointy end of the sword through anyone if they try to get in here.”
 
Tal told her what they most likely were after, the she didn't like either options, though the latter was to prefer. Though, if Tal had refused an offer from people that could hunt him down, what could they have wanted him to do? Was he simply not interested or did he think that it would be wrong? There were no time to ask him at the moment, she knew he wanted to hurry to get his job over and done with. And now when he had scared her into believing they both might die, she also wanted to leave the city as fast as possible to make sure that they would become safe. At least for the time being.

This time when Tal decided to change clothing, he seemed to be more aware of his surrounding. He did go to the bathroom instead of changing in front of Aisha. Though at that time she wouldn't even have noticed if a man stood naked in front of her. She was too much in her worries of 'what if's'. What if Tal didn't come back alive, or what if someone broke into their room at the inn.

Eventually Tal came out from the bathroom. It was crystal clear to Aisha that he forced that smile on his lips, which didn't make her feel better at all. "I know that." She said, trying to play offended, but instead it came out as weak and worrisome. She sighed. "Just... make sure to come back unhurt." She told him. "And I'll make sure to shove Jacob into anyone that dare approach me.... Except you." She then continued, as she completely forgot, or just didn't care that much, what name she had given the sword before.
 
Tal couldn’t help but wince at her lack of regard for her sword. He shouldn’t be surprised since she had hardly grown up learning sword work from his father but it still bothered him. He supposed that would change as she worked with it, hopefully anyway. If you did not respect your sword you did not tend to get far in the world of sword fighting. “See that you do.” He gave one last displeased glance around the room before hopping out the same window he had last night. “Don’t forget to lock it.” He called behind himself softly before landing lightly on the ground. He had a bad feeling about this, but he could do nothing but press forward and hope for the best. He slipped through the city like a shadow, a demon intent on a swift kill.

For a good hour after Tal had left it looked like Aisha just might make it out in the clear. Unfortunately, almost to the minute an hour after he had left, there was a polite knock on her door and a pleasant almost old-man voice called through. “You should go ahead and come on out dearie, we have no intentions of harming you unless you struggle. Regardless of your condition however you will be coming with us.” He spoke very matter-of-factly about her impending kidnapping. As far as he was concerned, it was. He had men covering all of the exits, especially the windows, and the door was hardly going to be an obstacle for long if they decided to bash their way through.
 
Aisha locked the window after Tal had left. And for the next twenty minutes or so she repeatedly checked the door and the window so they actually were locked. During the first hour alone she felt the paranoia take over. But shortly before the hour was over she started to feel a bit more secure and her pacing back and forth ceased. Just when she was starting to feel relaxed someone startled her by knocking on the door. She was dead silent, hoping that it was Tal. Though last time he had been able to get in all by himself even though everything was locked. Then someone started to speak from the other side of the door, it sounded like an old man.

She had no intention of opening the door, as if she would give herself up just like that. Aisha tried to calculate her chances of getting away by jumping out the window. But not only did she realize they might have someone waiting outside in case she would run, but she also realized that she most likely would land in a way that hurt her body and she wouldn't be able to run at all. For now she could just wait, if it seemed like they would get through the door, she should take the window as an emergency escape.

"Sorry, but I'm not allowed to open the door for strangers." She replied dryly. There was no use trying to stay silent, they knew she was in there. And even if they had had their doubts, they would probably have broken in either way to look for themselves if they she were there or not. She held a shaking hand on the sword as she kept her eyes on the door from the other side of the room. As long as the door was closed, she would be safe. Hopefully by the time it was forced open, she would have come up with some kind of escape plan.
 
The old man let out a soft disappointed sigh and then gestured to the men around him. The people of the inn had pretty much all cleared out once they saw the troop of shady men walking in as if they owned the place. “Very well.” There were several loud thuds as two bigger men took turns ramming the door. Once it was obviously quite loose one solid kick sent in crashing into the room. Immediately, the men swarmed in, looking to overwhelm Aisha before she could really bring the sword to bear. They had been briefed by the spy that she most likely had no skill with the sword as Tal had been preparing to teach her so they were pretty confident as they burst in and rushed at her.

The old man followed at a more sedate pace to watch the struggle. “So who do we have here hmm? It’s pretty rare for Taliesin to have a companion. Did you manage to woo him with that pretty face of yours? T’would be a first for sure.”
 
Aisha backed away one step every time they rammed the door, knowing that it wouldn't last for much longer. Eventually she found herself pushed to the wall, and without even having noticed it she was already holding the sword in both hands, prepared to defend herself to the best of her weak ability. Once they swarmed in it was no question about the outcome, she would loose one way or another. But as the fool she was, she at least tried, and failed within the blink of an eye. She had only been able to scratch one of the men's arm before at least three others had been able to take her down. It couldn't have taken more than a few seconds.

"You are pretty stupid if you think anyone can woo him. He doesn't care about anyone but himself, he would probably be overjoyed if I finally disappeared out of his sight." Aisha tried to break free from the hands holding her down, but they were too strong. At least she could try to lie her way out. There was no way they could know she was his childhood friend.
 
“Ah, a valiant attempt child.” The old man chuckled. “Normally I would agree with you, but the sight of someone traveling with him is so unheard of that I can’t help but suspect that you lying to me.” He smiled then, a decidedly dangerous smile. “No matter though, we’ll get all the answers we need soon.” He gestured to the men again and they bound both her feet and hands before carrying her downstairs and into a carriage. Two men sat on either side of her while the old man sat across. “You’ve got a bit of a journey ahead of you so I suggest you settle down. If you struggle too much the men might decide to entertain themselves with you along the way.”

The old man settled his head on his hands in a musing pose. “Perhaps you could pass the time explaining how one such as yourself managed to acquire such prestigious company?”

~~

Tal had finished his kill in record time. He’d been sloppy and simply cut his way through the house, almost allowing the man to escape but he didn’t have the time to sneak in around the guards. Whoever showed up tomorrow would be treated to a bloody mess and he honestly didn’t care at all. All he could think about was he had to get back to the inn as soon as possible. The bad feeling just wouldn’t go away and for him, that was bad news. Even if he couldn’t quite consciously sense what was going on across town, his subconscious was obviously picking up serious trouble.

He arrived back at the inn some half an hour after Aisha had been taken. He knew she was gone well before that. For several minutes Tal stared around at the destruction, seemingly in shock. If he’d been thinking rationally, he might have tried to play off an indifferent reaction to make her seem less valuable but Tal had never been very good at concealing his anger and despair was…well it turned into anger too. “SON OF A BITCH!” He finally burst out and smashed his fist through the wall. He barely paused for breath as he started to completely demolish the room, and proceeded with the rest of what was thankfully now a deserted inn.

At the end of a rage filled 15 minutes, the outer building was barely standing. It was then that a messenger, a bit too smug and a lot too stupid, decided to make his presence known. Tal didn’t even hesitate. Hell, he didn’t even turn around. He beheaded the man in one clean sweep and then confronted the body with blazing eyes. He was still too angry for words so he retrieved the letter and proceeded to slice the body to pieces just for good measure. Now completely covered in blood, Tal felt a bit calmer. He licked the excess off his fingers and gave an almost ecstatic shudder. Aisha wasn’t here to see him. He could be as demonic as he wanted. And with that thought, his mind returned to the letter he had stuffed away.

He took care not to smudge the letter with blood and quickly skimmed it. Once he was done he carefully put it back in his pocket and sighed softly. There was one bit of luck in this situation. It was not one of the ones that wanted revenge on him so he had something to bargain with at least.
 
  • Love
Reactions: redblood
When she first started to travel with Tal, she could never have imagined that she would get into such a situation. But now she was amazed over how she could have missed to consider it. It wasn't the worse case scenario at least, she hadn't been killed after all. As long as she survived, she would be able to change her future path. For the moment she just had to make sure they didn't feel like killing her, and hopefully she could find a way to get away before Tal got involved. Though that was probably already too late.

Aisha's legs and arms were tied, and she was carried down to a carriage. Once inside she figured she wouldn't have any way of escaping. Sitting between two of the men with both legs and hands tied up would make it impossible to actually open a door and jump out. She tried to stay calm, but she started to feel the adrenaline disappear and the panic rising.

"Why? Jealous?" She replied, trying to hide how scared she was behind a cocky attitude. "I forced him to take me with him. It took me less than an hour to convince him. He's actually very easy to sway if you just know how. But I guess you know nothing of that since you still haven't gotten him after how much time?" Aisha could hear her mind yelling at her to stop saying stuff that might tick the man off. But the small parts of adrenaline that still flowed through her didn't want her to stop. He wanted the truth, and he got it. She had convinced Tal, that old man hadn't and couldn't. She knew things to say to get to Tal, that old man didn't.
 
Instead of being annoyed, the old man looked quite pleased with the information. “Less than an hour hmm?” He rubbed his chin musingly and smiled brightly at her. “You must be something special to him indeed. I don’t think we’ll have any problems acquiring his assistance anymore do you?” He had a strong suspicion now that she was related to his past somehow. Tal had managed to drop off the radar entirely for a couple weeks and in that time picked up this girl who had apparently seemed very comfortable with and was going so far as to teach her the sword craft perfected by him and his father. He had no doubt now that she was exactly the piece they needed to move Tal to their will. "Of course he will rage for a while, because we both know he's got quite the temper don't we? But make no mistake girl even he is not fast enough to stop a man from slitting your throat at this distance."


~~

Now that Tal had the rage at least simmering in the background, he went ahead and salvaged what he could of their supplies. It mostly consisted of a lucky pair of clothes for him and Aisha’s sword and training gear. The sight of which threatened to make him loose it all over again but the guard, which had been distracted by his other mess so far, was finally coming his direction. As nice as some more murder sounded he had some very specific targets for this anger and it didn’t feel like being wasted on some random guards.

So he slipped out the window again, bring Aisha’s sword and his clothes but leaving the training swords he’d cracked before he had gotten a hold of himself behind. Briefly he thought about getting a carriage and just bullying his way out of the city. He then realized it would cause more trouble than satisfaction and decided to instead let a little of his demon out and jump the walls. There was extra security all over the place but Tal was now in patient stalking mode and had no problem waiting until he had the pattern memorized to sneak through.

The unfortunate side effect of that was that he was now far too far behind them to be able to catch up and maybe take them out in the road which had no doubt been part of their plan. He could do nothing but set out into the forest, taking the short cut since he wasn’t limited to the road and it would just be troublesome for him anyway.
 
Aisha cursed herself for letting her childish behavior leading the old man towards the right direction. Maybe it would be better for her just to keep her mouth shut from now forth, who knew what she might end up telling him otherwise. But that decision was fast cast aside as he suddenly called her a girl. She barely even thought about how he just had threatened to kill her.

She stared at him, shocked and confused for a few seconds. Had it been that obvious that she weren't a guy? Moments later, once she was able to get herself together, she spoke. "How did you notice that I'm a girl?" One would probably have believed that she was shocked because of the threat on her life. But because Tal had reassured her that it was believable that she was indeed of the opposite gender, she had not been able to question it at all. He did everything perfectly, he couldn't be wrong. Except if he wanted to do something wrong. Was it Tal that had been faulty and just not realized that it wasn't very believable? or was it her body language that made it look too suspicious? In that case Tal should have told her to think about that. But what obligations did he have to do anything for her? Well, it was he who wanted her to hide her gender, so he was kind of responsible.

'I wish Tal was here.' The thought suddenly entered her mind without warning. If Tal was there then they would threaten him to do what they wanted him to do. She shouldn't want him to be there. But she couldn't help that her thoughts wandered in that direction.
 
“Hmm?” The old man tilted his head briefly in confusion and then chuckled as she realized what she was getting at. If Tal were there he would have spotted him as the spy watching them in the market, who apparently had similar skills in aura reading as Tal. “Oh, don’t you worry dearie he did he work quite well but the same eye’s that can hide themselves from him can see beyond the outer to what is truly within.” He gave her hand an almost sympathetic pat. “You do make quite the cute boy toy as well. I’m sure Tal would have been just as appreciative of you if you were actually your disguise.” He paused and raised an eyebrow, feeling a little twinge from her. “Oho…one of those are you.” He tilted his head back and laughed uproariously. “I see. I had thought the report strange but his little midnight visit makes sense now.”

The old man leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "Don't worry, I won't tell a soul. It'll be more fun if they think you're a boy."
 
So Tal hadn't done a mistake. That was a relief. But she didn't even have time to think about that as the man continued to talk. There was no doubting it that what he said about Tal was true, which only made what he said more embarrassing, and hearing how he spoke of Tal's visit to his 'friend' just made her feel worse. Emotions was mixing together, fear, embarrassment, jealousy. He brought up pretty much everything she didn't want to remember.

Then he leaned in close to her ear and whispered. His enjoyment of the situation started to mix anger into her emotion soup. She tried to keep herself from kicking the man, or attacking in any other way, which proved harder than expected, but somehow she managed. Keeping her limbs was her priority at the moment, emotional outburst had to come second.

"Thank you for your kindness." She answered dryly, completely aware that her anger towards the man was clearly visible. She was also fairly certain he didn't care. Or worse, he cared and enjoyed her anger. "What do you think you will get out of this? You can't black mail him with me forever, and if you kill me he will most likely kill you. I could either survive or die this, either way Tal won't let you go unharmed. You are digging your own grave." She tried to let her reasoning and emotions work together, but her anger probably took the upper hand in the end since she had no idea what Tal actually were going to do.
 
Aisha was right in one respect. The old man was definitely enjoying himself probably more than one should at the situation. He also didn’t seem too terribly concerned about her words. “You overestimate me though.” He murmured deprecatingly. “I am simply a meager spy who has a few tricks on occasion. It is the Duulars that will be doing the blackmailing and reaping the rewards. I suspect that I will be coming out of this just fine however and so will they. We can keep you as long as needed, this would hardly be the first time a hostage has lived out their days with their captors. And with the golden-eyed killer’s sword at our beck and call we will soon be completely unchallenged.” He had the kind of misty eyed look of someone who had a vision of the future that they would give it their all to put into play.

He fixed her with a steely glare then. “So you should go ahead and get comfortable, because once we reach the mansion you are not going anywhere.”
 
So the old man wasn't the mastermind behind it. It felt both surprising and a bit too obvious at the same time. While it felt like he could have been the one planning it all, it still would have been a bit stupid for someone to expose themselves to such a dangerous man as Tal. Of course they would send out someone to do the job for them.

Aisha would probably have told him that Tal wouldn't let them use him like that for very long. But her words got stuck in her throat as he gave her that glare. A small part of her brain screamed at her to tell the old man off. She wasn't going to be stuck in some strangers mansion. She would surely get away and find Tal. But her fear was drowning the small voice in her head, and she stayed silent. For now it was more important to calm her emotions down so that she could think rationally, and then she could come up with some kind of escape plan. She turned her eyes away from the man and looked down on her hands. She didn't care if he believed that she had given up, or if he knew that she was simply plotting her escape. But more arguing with him would only make things harder for her.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.