World Walk

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"Right." Laurelle agreed. "Let's not take too long." She dropped her voice to a whisper. "There are a lot of eyes in this city, and we don't know who's reporting to our target or not. If we move quickly we have a better chance to catch him off guard; it would be best to take a nonstandard approach. If they are expecting us, they'll have all the usual entrances guarded or warded." She took a drink. "That warehouse is pretty bunched up next to the nearby buildings, and I noticed that one adjacent to it looks abandonded and, I think, has roof access. I say we go through that building, then cross to the roof of the warehouse, and come on them from above. I'm the sneak here, so follow my lead. You'll both want to stay on the roof. Close enough so that when I find our man, you can follow his translocation. He might try to fight when he has the home turf advantage, and the appearance of two more foes could surprise him."

Skye nodded. "How can we help from up there, though? Hell, I don't want to just sit on my ass while you infiltrate the place." She asked.

"You two are pretty loud, so your spellcasting would just alert the whole building. If, it was cast while you were on the roof or otherwise close." Laurelle said. "This is a pretty good sized city, so we're hearing the sound all the time. If it's distant enough, they'll ignore it even if it's loud. One of you, at least, can cast a persisting divination before we get there to let you keep track of the people in there. After that, telepathic communication at close range is extremely quiet even for mages with strong Connection. You can concentrate on maintaining the spell and keep me informed while I do the heavy lifting, so to speak. That's only one of you, though." She looked to Skye. "I have another idea for you. It's possible I'll have quite a few guards to deal with when I find our guy. And I want them to be disorganized. When I give the signal, I want you to cast the loudest spell you can think of without too much collateral damage and then burst the roof and come to my location. They'll be in disarray and we can take advantage of that."

"Helluva plan." Skye noted.
 
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Demi smiled as she listened attentively to Laurelle explain her brilliant plan. The most unsure thing about it, she supposed, was that they had no idea what kind of dimension their target would warp off to: its degree of malleability; its essence. She worried at the thought of entering the dimension right into a trap and being evicted or sent to her doom by the dimension's owner lazily singing a song. "Sounds like—" She noticed her tone's relative loudness and lowered it. "Well, sounds like a plan," she said. "You swipe Hawke's papers, Skye and I concentrate on beating up our target and his cronies."
 
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Laurelle nodded. "Anything you want to do in the city?" She asked. "I'm going to go sleep, so you're free to do whatever you want until nightfall. Scout the area a bit more, explore Cygnus, go shopping." She didn't want her companions, who weren't nearly as tired as she was, to just wait in the Inn while she rested.

Skye looked critically at her mug. "I'd like to find some better booze. Think I'll go look for a bar with alcohol that doesn't taste like a rat's tail was left in the keg." Apparently the ale hadn't been as good as the wine. "You joinin' me, Demi?"
 
"You better rest up, Laurelle," Demi jokingly commanded her exponentially-tired friend, nodding at her.

"Never doubt it," she replied to Skye after that was done with. Drinking together: the ultimate in bonding activities. She wished a little that Laurelle could be around, but... she really needed the sleep when even Demi could detect tiredness in her every step.
 
It didn't take Skye incredibly long to find a respectable looking bar. There seemed to be a lot of bars in Cygnus. Probably something to do with the nature of the clientele. If there was anything mercenaries loved as much as money, it was strong drink. Skye picked a table at random and ordered ale for them both, shelling out a gold Daric to pay for it. The Estillian coins were the heaviest currency, so they were worth slightly more than other coins. One was enough to pay for several drinks, although it would have bought more if they were in a civilized area. Everything in Cygnus was overpriced.
Skye took a long drink from her mug. "Much better." She commented. "I think they might actually be remotely competent here."
 
"Mm," Demi agreed after having a sip herself. She'd never been a connoisseur of drink or food before, just enjoying it as long as it was fairly palatable, but she somewhat regretted finishing a whole mug already at the inn when the ale of this pub was clearly superior.
"So where in Estillia are you from, Skye?" Demi had meant to befriend Skye a bit more during the past day, so this was a good opportunity to get to know her comrade better. "Capital?" The guess was based on the intricacy of Skye's armor, but she could be from anywhere.
 
"Mikra." Skye named a small Estillian city near the capital, Asimi. "Shitty-ass place, though." She laughed. "Next to no merchants there. They all pass us up for Asimi. The only money in Mikra is owned by my old man; he runs the place. The city's just his glorified estate. Everyone there works for him or gets evicted. Most folk don't care enough about the place to bother." She took a drink, already close to finishing her first mug. She held up a Daric and looked at it quizzically. "I wouldn't be surprised if he commisioned a new type of coin just see he could see his face on all the gold he gets to stare at." She commented. "Arrogant old bastard, but he's not too bad." She laughed again. It was obvious the alcohol was starting to affect her. She took another drink.
 
"Mikra, huh?" The small city had only ever been relevant to Demi as a name on the Estillian map in geography class. Skye cursing the place right out of the gate had made it seem like she despised it, but Demi assumed that the wind mage had a tough love for her home and family after factoring in the fact that they were drinking. "I'm from Tavus, but I never really connected with the place." She referred to a larger city in Estillia's north. "Had to go to Asimi for academy studies anyway, but..." She shrugged. "I dunno. I guess it just isn't that exciting to me since I haven't traveled around much. Might appreciate it a little more once I get back." Of course, she was saying this while in the Fragments, where everyone was a traveler.

Drinking some more herself, Demi let a passing wait-person top off her glass. "We should probably stop drinking after we finish these mugs, huh? We don't really have a whole night to sleep it off." She sipped a bit more and waited to see how her suggestion of moderation would fly with Skye, who seemed to have an affinity for drinking.
 
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Skye looked mournfully at her almost empty cup. "I guess that probably would be a good idea, huh?" She said regretfully. "...I've never fought while drunk before. The officers don't like the soldiers drinking before a battle." She grinned impishly. "I'd probably end up stabbing myself in the foot. Or I'd piss off my CO by tripping over his pike." She took one last long drink, finishing off her ale and slamming the mug back onto the table. She leaned back, folding her hands behind her head and pushing off a leg of the table to precariously rock her chair back and forth. "So, if we're not gonna get drunk, what should we do? ...Say, tell me more about this Taras guy. You didn't tell me how you knew him before." Skye said, recalling their conversation in Vada not long ago.
 
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"Not so fast." Demi raised a finger. "We're not getting drunk right now. But later— after we get Hawke's job all finished up? We're gonna gather ourselves up some drinks, warp off somewhere, and drink until we can't even stand up! You, me, and Laurelle." Demi didn't drink to excess as often as some of her cohorts, and she had no idea if she was encouraging any sort of habit, but she relished the idea that she was suggesting such a mischievous thing. "Hold me to it."

Demi's smile disappeared momentarily when Skye brought up Taras, but it returned soon enough. She was far enough away from wherever he was, probably. Geez, Demi, loosen up. You are about to talk about a mess of a dude, after all. She began after drinking most of the rest of her own mug. "We used to practice magic together a lot. He actually approached me to ask— he was training to be a knight already, but he thought he wasn't getting enough magic in... Weird thing is, he's somewhat of a strategist, so I have no idea why he wanted so bad to be just a regular fighter in the vanguard." She finished the mug, holding up a hand to shoo away the wait-person who was passing again. "Anyway, he's kind of, well... clingy isn't the word for it. But he is really protective. I actually had to yell at him not to wait on me so much a few times." She chuckled to herself to lighten her mood once again. "Sometimes I think he needs to keep his priorities a little straighter. Not that he's distracted or anything, but when he starts something he gets hung up on it 'till he finishes."

Demi cleared her throat, her face warmer than it was a few minutes prior. She was certainly buzzed— probably a bit more intoxicated than Skye, whom she imagined had a much better alcohol resistance thanks to her probably-better fitness. "Sorry, I'm rambling," she said, full of as much self-awareness as the alcohol in her would allow. "That's probably more than you wanted to know, huh?"
 
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"No, it's fine." Skye answered. "I used to know someone kinda like that. Starry eyed noble's son, spoiled little brat. A few years older than me, used to always getting what he wanted. He fancied me and wasn't very subtle about it." She laughed at the memory. "Told him I wasn't into guys, and that even if I was, I wasn't saddling myself with a pushy asshole like him." She suddenly lowered her eyes, staring at the floor. "Not long after that, he joined the army. Got his ass killed in his first fight. Guess I didn't fare too much better, huh?" Her tone was a little strained. She cleared her throat and forced herself to return to her cheerful tone. "From how you tell him, though, I'd've traded him for Taras anyday. At least a strategist has a brain between his ears and not empty space."

Feeling a little uncomfortable, she tried to change the subject. "So what was learning magic in an academy like? My pop hired a private tutor, so I never got the social experience of a school. Even when I was training to be a knight, I was a squire for one of the ol' Blues, not in a formal institute. I imagine you had lots of friends."
 
"That's rough," Demi murmured in response to Skye's talk about the death of a boy who indeed sounded like an analogue of Taras. "But you're not dead, so that's a plus."

"Academy life, huh?" She looked for the appropriate words to describe her life. "In a word, it's boring. Lots of theory, not enough practice... but that's just if you're using a word." She thought back to the numerous lectures, which had usually seemed useless to sit through after she'd gotten the basics of magic enough to experiment with it herself. "But it's definitely a place where you can learn a lot. I mostly just stuck to the same few friends... lots of holing up in the library the night before an exam." She tilted her empty mug, examining it to make sure all the fluid in it was gone. It was. "The best thing was getting away from my parents for the first time... actually, that was probably the worst thing too. I spent a while in my mom's dimension— my dad, too. It was more like my home than Tavus was, so it was a little weird when my parents—" She shook her head a little. "... Well, I'm not gonna bore you with family crap when you wanna hear about the academy. So what else... Oh! A lot of the professors there were certified sages, and a lot of 'em were pretty open-door. It was kinda cool to just go and ask a question and see what kind of weird answers they'd give you." She giggled to herself, recalling the several venerable robed men and women arguing over which was the most logical answer to the complete absurdities that Demi had occassionally asked of them.
 
"Would have been interesting." Skye noted. "All the people who taught me were experts in their field of study--magic, arcane theory, swordsmanship. They were pretty open to questions, but it's not like I had anyone to turn to for a second opinion." She was a little jealous of Demi's actually getting to know people. "I never had many friends. The only people my father introduced me to were other noble's sons. I know he was just testing the waters of what arranged marriage would benefit him the most." She laughed a little nervously. "Well, joke's on him." Skye noticed the door open out of the corner of her eye. Someone vaguely familiar stepped inside. It was the pink-haired bouncer from earlier. Off-shift, I guess. Maybe it was just her, but the lavender-robed woman's gaze seemed to focus on her and Demi when she walked in, then immediately turn to survey the room. She dropped her voice to a whisper. "Hey, what do you think her deal is?"
 
"No clue," Demi said fairly loudly before lowering her tone. "Think she's keepin' tabs on us?" Demi would be none too pleased with this woman if she intended on interrupting their conversation. "... Should we leave?" she asked uneasily, knowing that her spell-casting would unquestionably be affected if she had to use it while this intoxicated. She'd even left her pack at their room in the inn, figuring it would be safer there than wandering the streets upon her back for pickpockets to feast on.
 
"Yeah, we should." Skye agreed. "If she is keeping track of us, she can't just follow us out of here without making it obvious, so we should be able to lose her." She wondered if she was being a bit paranoid. But a good dose of paranoia was good for you. Skye got up, pushing her chair in. She kept one eye on pink-hair as she left the bar. She found herself stumbling a little. Good ol' booze... But I'll try to shake it off. When they were outside, she asked Demi. "Anything else you want to do, before we go get ready for our heist?"
 
"Hmммmmm..." Demi thought as she held a finger to her chin and looked skyward in a rather exaggerated expression of thought. "Nah, we prob'ly shouldn't," she said after noticing her gait, which was more affected than Skye's. "I don't wanna be walking the streets here right after drinking." She found herself jostled by a passerby on the street as she stumbled out of her path for a moment, thankful that the weight of her pack hadn't been there to make her fall down completely. Maybe the ale of the pub was more substantial than she'd given it credit for. Nothing a niec nap won't fix. Meekly muttering an apology that came too late, she put a hand on Skye's shoulder to stabilise herself... relatively. "Yeah, definitely not... A little bread and a few hours of rest sounds good to me."
 
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The pair headed back to the Inn to find Laurelle already fast asleep in the room. She hadn't bothered to change from her gray traveling dress, and her cloak lay on the floor next to the bed. She really was tired... Skye reflected. While her Connection came with its drawbacks, she was ultimately glad that she didn't have to rest so often as her companion did. Although, to be fair, Laurelle was tired more because she had barely slept, rather than overexerting herself from spellcasting. She eyed her armor (except for her gauntlet, of course), laying in a pile in a corner of the room, wondering if it would be too suspicious to wear it on the way to the target. While this was a city of mercenaries, most people wore basic sets of iron or steel, chainmail shirts and leather suits. Ornate Estillian work wasn't exactly common. "Eh, better safe than sorry." She muttered out loud, frowning. She pulled a blanket off one of the beds and tossed it on the ground next to her armor. Skye was so used to sleeping in a bedroll, she had come to prefer it to a proper bed, at least for shorter naps. She curled up in the blanket, holding her Focus to her chest. The feel of the cold metal in her hands was comforting. It helped her sleep. With her brain addled by the alcohol, Skye dozed off within a few minutes.

-

She was woken up by Laurelle hours later. She looked up at the older girl, shaking off the last of the booze in her system. It had left her with a splitting headache, however. That's how it goes, I suppose.
Laurelle looked much better. She had her usual hard, serious look, but she had obviously slept well. The light mage looked prepared, come what may. Nodding to her and sitting up, Skye looked out the window at the crescent moon high in the sky, its silver light dancing along the cheap, dirty glass. Skye loved the moon. It reminded her of herself--constantly waxing and waning, changing every night, but still a perpetual, solid constant.
She shook her head. Time to get down to business. She slipped into her armor, welcoming the sturdy, heavy feel of the metal shell. Strapping her sword to her waist, she ran over the incantations she'd likely be using that night in her mind. Basic wind attacking spells, telepathy, etcetera.

In a few minutes, Laurelle had the three of them sitting at the table next to the far wall of the room. "You two look suitably refreshed." The thief commented with a grin, aware of the pain they had to be in. Alcohol did have its disadvantages, after all. "You ready to get this show on the road?"
 
"Never been better," Demi lied, feeling upbeat despite a slight hangover. Once she'd got bread in her belly, she felt an order of magnitude better, and more importantly not very intoxicated anymore before going to sleep several hours ago. Despite all the rest she'd gotten the previous night, she still had no trouble nodding off in an actual bed. "Let's do this," she said in response to the Laurelle's question, eager to try out her new staff, eager for the reward that a success in the raid would bring, and of course eager for the aftermath she'd promised to Skye earlier in the day.
 
"Let's get going, then." Laurelle said. "I haven't been on a good heist since I left Estillia."

-

On the way, she repeated the plan to her partners-in-crime. It probably wasn't necessary, but best to refresh their memory. She had left her cloak at the Inn, changing into her tight, practical outfit in preperation. Cygnus, she noted, was just as active at night as it was in the day. The only change is that things were even more hushed than usual and a variety of thieves and cutpurses roamed the streets. Laurelle's wicked looking knives and Skye's armor convinced any potential thug that they weren't worth stealing from, however. Finishing her summary, she said. "Now get those divinations going. We're just a couple blocks away." Skye nodded and cast her spell. The focus of the spell was Laurelle, rather than people in general. Demi would handle general surveillance. Skye just needed to know where the thief was so she could make her dramatic entrance.
 
Demi nodded, beginning the incantation for a general-area divination. A magical buzz radiated around her before the street and the buildings ahead of them came alive with the little flames of each person's magical esssence registering their selves as present. One of them stuck out, seeming familiar, but Demi ignored it for now. It must be a fluke or something.

-

Taras sat bored upon a box in the warehouse, resting his podao on his shoulder lazily. He'd tied it to one of his bracers with a small length of rope lately, but he wondered if that would just give him a dislocated arm if it was pulled in battle. It'll break if I will it to, he guessed.
"When's the show starting?" he idly asked a patrolling guard, who frowned at him.
"This is the show, Estillian," the guard replied dryly, as if he himself was not Estillian as well. "We are guards."
"You should work on your self-esteem," Taras muttered before increasing his volume. "'People with good heads on their shoulders' is what this guy said he'd needed. Not 'guards'."
"You should work on keeping your mouth shut," the guard grumbled before resuming his patrol.
Taras was growing to hate sitting in this damn room full of boxes, his intricate armor and sword sticking out in the middle of all these bog-standard schmucks. What's /in/ the boxes? Hell if I know! Or care. It didn't help that the minds running the warehouse seemed permanently impaired: he was stationed in the largest room and also the front room, which nobody in their right mind would enter through if their goal was to infiltrate. Screw this. He sighed and began making his way to a catwalk above, which was a more sensible entry for someone breaking and entering to steal whatever trash it was that Taras had signed up to protect. If I didn't need the money so bad, I'd still be searching... And they better be paying in Estillian coins. His stomach grumbled, reminding him to buy some food as soon as he got his first payment from the damned recruiter with whom he'd decided to take up a mercenary job.
 
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