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Linota blinked at Cairo when he echoed her own observations then gave him a cautious look. Was something going on with him now?
“That’s what I just said,” she hissed at him, still feeling the pain of her racing heart. She dropped her volume a bit more. “Even if he suspects something, it won’t ruin the whole plan. He can’t know everything.”

Even as she said it, her stomach lurched in panic. Did he know everything? That could very well be one of the powers he gained from his mass of treasures, Linota had no way of truly knowing.
“We have to just keep going with the plan until something happens,” Linota told him, trying to comfort him and herself. “We roll with the punches. Like always.”

“Winota?” A little voice came from the kitchen’s shabby doorway.
It was little Henry, the youngest of the kids. Linota didn’t know how old he was since Henry didn’t know either and Radigan didn’t care to know. He was old enough to work and small enough to fit into tight spaces, that’s all Radigan knew. If Linota had to guess, she would say six, but she didn’t know dung about children's ages. From ages three to nine, it was a real toss up.
“Hey, Henry,” Linota said to him, trying to sound gentle and motherly. What came out was rushed and uncaring, but she added a smile to seal the deal, proving she could try to be nice when she wanted to.

“I’m hungwy,” he told her.
Linota looked around at the giant mess of food in the kitchen before she sighed. “What happened here?” She asked Henry.
“Suh Wadigan,” Henry told her. It was all the explanation that was needed.
Linota nodded her head at him with an ‘ahh’, impressed that he answered the question so shortly, like he wasn’t six. As she gathered whatever food was left un-ruined and prepared it to cook, an icy dread seeped into her veins. It felt like her stomach and heart had made a pact to destroy her insides.

“What’s going to happen to them?” She whispered to Cairo and to herself. “To all of them, when he’s gone?”
She knew this was no place for children, even for teens, but without Radigan, Linota had no way of knowing what would happen to the closest thing she could call a family. Not all of the teens got along- Hell, most of them didn’t, but they still looked out for each other when push came to shove. Cairo and herself had an adventure to go on, with the aid of others, but what did the other kids have?

She continued to stir the ‘mush’, which was what they called the heated mixture of water and bran, until it resembled its namesake. Her hands were shaky and she told Cairo to take over serving the food to Henry, so that she could splash more water in her face. She wanted one of her candies, needed one, but she needed a clear head for the plan more. She knew Radigan would be in his bedroom for a while now, seeing Arlanni go in with him. Poor girl. Linota was gifted in that she wasn’t so gifted in the looks department. She could be pretty if she tried perhaps, but that scowl wasn’t going anywhere. It didn’t stop Radigan, but it definitely deterred him. She was never his first, or even fifth, option.

’Any second now, Assallya,’ Linota thought, repeatedly looking towards the front door.

Assa'alliyeh Kressanthair, formerly Assa'alliyeh eabd man Alkiel was now simply Knyssa. It was a simple name for a simple girl from Westgate.

Her hair was now black as night which made her fair skin seem all the paler and all her make up was done in such a way that it was nigh invisible. She had no lipstick, no nail polish but the colour of the blush on her cheeks only heightened natural light to make her look slightly more gaunt. She also looked dirty,

Knocking hesitantly she turned to one of the urchins, expressly ignoring Linota so as to avoid suspicion of collusion.

"Excuse me," Assallya said meekly, pretending to be timid, "I heard you could find a job here?"

Realizing what he just did Cairo says "my bad i got a little worried and started thinking of a second plan if things went wrong, i must've gotten too into it and stopped listening" brushing his nerves too the side and started thinking about the younger children radigan held captive. "Maybe theres an orphanage in another town? If we're going with those two then we have to leave them with someone who can be trusted to keep 'em all safe but what's the best option i know there a few orphanages in the next town we're going through so maybe they can take care of them" Cairo says due to becoming a bit protective of the younger kids over the years taking punishments for them because he thinks actions speak louder than words so he wouldn't say it but they knew he cared.

Despite the fact that not being heard was one of Linota’s biggest pet peeves, she placed a hand on Cairo’s shoulder in silent reassurance. She may have squeezed a little too hard. She knew how he felt and she was also unable to outright say it. Unlike Cairo, Linota’s fear was rapidly turning to anger, like most of her emotions did. She took Henry’s poor excuse for a meal off the fire and served it to him in the pot it was cooked in with a loud clang. It made Henry jump, which made Linota feel bad, which only fed her anger more.

"Maybe so," Linota said to Cairo, shaking her head doubtfully. The orphanages were always full, but perhaps they couldn't turn them away.
There was a knock at the door, snapping Linota out of her thoughts. She hurried over to open it, but one of the younger teens jumped in front of her and excitedly ran to swing it open. Linota could only watch as he addressed the stranger with a brash ‘what?’. She had been expecting to see Assallya in rags, but instead saw an unfamiliar girl with black hair wearing rags. She had to blink a few times before it registered that this girl was Assallya. Out of everything that could have surprised her about the woman’s new look, the fact that she looked twenty times younger without makeup was the most outstanding.

“I’ve got a job for you,” the boy said as he made inappropriate gestures at Assallya and looked her over with obvious intent.
Lintoa rushed over, grabbed the top of the young teen’s head in a hand, and flung him backwards with more force than was usual. He yelled obscenities, told her just how forceful it was, but didn’t bother coming back.
“That depends on what you’re willing to do,” Linota told this version of Assallya coldly. “Because if it’s not ‘anything’, you can forget about it.”
She stared at her as if to convince her to play along.

Once Assallya was inside, saying whatever she had to to get in as was the plan, Linota pulled her into the kitchen. "Radigan is in his bedroom with.. a girl," she said. "There's no telling how long."

Ren was nervous. he had not thought of making up where they came from, but Azumi ensured him to leave it to her.

"We are diplomats from an eastern continent called Kamigawa! We seek the most influential people in this town in order to know your peoples more! As you can see, we have taken the liberty of returning an abandoned building to it's former glory and have made it our headquarters for said diplomacy, if you don't mind, of course!", She said proudly.

"Mom, was that a refere-", but Ren was quickly silenced by Azumi, who nodded.

Assallya swished the ragged, colourful skirts around her bare ankles. The colour was muted and faded and a bit short in her as if she'd been wearing this outfit for far too long and had almost outgrown it.

"Excellent," the young pickpocket and whore replied in a whisper, "We can head straight to his storeroom and take a peek. We need to know what he can use against us."

-and what the spoils for this little diversion would be.

"Cairo," she continues to whisper, "Keep watch. We don't want to be caught browsing."

Once there she'd grasp Linota and cast a quick, tiny little spell. They and only they would see anything magical begin to glow.
How strongly they glowed would likely indicate its power and the colour and pattern of the shifting glow would make it possible to infer what the that magical item might do.

The building had been repaired and decorated to within an inch of its life. Explosives had been hidden throughout. Tables groaned with food. As a final touch, Lio had cast a spell so that music played just loud enough for all to hear. Old elf songs could be heard so clearly that some even tried to find the musicians. The trap had been set and the bait laid out, now all they had to do was catch their prey.

If anyone was curious enough to ask who Lio was, she told them the truth. "I am Liothryth Terandes, of the house Farnesai. Master Mage in the line of Glorandal Thewarin. I have recently recovered from wounds I received while defeating an army 500 years ago at the battle of Elsen's Tor. I met these travelers when I rejoined the world and have decided to help them."

This introduction may not have meant much to most people besides sounding impressive. But there would be a few who had heard some of the names. And anyone who had studied anything about magic would have come across Glorandal Thewarin, an ancient elf mage who had become know as one of the nine great powers of his time.

Her manners were a blend of friendly and formal. There could be no doubt that she was who she said she was - and was superior to everyone there.

“His bedroom is his storeroom,” Linota told Assallya just before she was grabbed by her.
She was fully aware that she had just dragged Assallya into the kitchen, but she still couldn’t help tightening her muscles at the spot she was touched. Though her awareness of that came and went like it had never happened at all when she started to blink glowing spots into her vision. She pulled Assallya’s arm back to her, gripping it like a vice.

“What did you do?” Linota asked in an angry whisper while she tried to blink the spots away.
She thought she was going blind, but her vision was starting to normalize to the glowing colors as she looked around. A few things in the kitchen clutter of ‘cheap treasures’ were faintly glowing, which was what made her think she was losing her sight. Now she could see them: A goblet here, a fork there. Wait, a fork?

Linota looked at Assallya, even more confused than before she had looked around to study the glowing objects. Even if Assallya had been in the middle of explaining, Linota’s periphery caught an array of colors from below. She would let go of Assallya, if the woman hadn’t pried out of her grip already, and step back to look down at her feet.

“You have…” Linota squinted down at them.
“Ooo, wings,” Henry noted, having become fond of anything shiny just as he was taught.
“Rings??” Linota hissed. “You have rings on? Take them off. Take them off.” She held out a cupped hand to take them from her and waved her other hand impatiently.

Then, as if on cue, the floorboards creaked under Radigan’s weight. Linota looked toward his door and clenched everything that could possibly be clenched.

---

Radigan dressed himself, all while reprimanding Arlanni for being a distraction and, again, a harlot. If she didn’t scurry out when he opened the door, he would kick her out. He would be in the middle of crudely telling her to go to the brothel when his sights landed on Cairo in the living room.
“Make use of yourself, boy,” Radian snarled at him. “Clean this mess in the kitchen.”
He would be heading straight for the kitchen, while Linota waited for Assallya to give her the rings.

There was a moment's hesitation, a blank look crossing Assallya's features. Then she realized the wisdom in Linota's demanding open palm.

It was difficult for the elf girl. She had grown accustomed to the safety, the reassurance, that the Ring of Regeneration supplied. Without it she felt like a knight without armour.

Reaching down even as she raised her feet one after the other she plucked the rings from her toes and quickly passed off the rings to Linota.

She definitely felt the need to say something along the lines of, "I'll want those back," or, "Don't you dare lose these." but there was no time.

When cairo was heading to the kitchen he hears a laugh he wishes he didn't hear at all "haha hey its little cairo how've you been kid?" It was a blonde man with green eyes covered by goggles it was caldwell sporting his usual evil smile he was by far Radigans favorite becoming his right hand he was older than the rest of the kids being in his mid twenties "man you and little lin must've had it rough you look like you got thrown into pig pen hahahaha!" He laughs maniacally at Cairos expense "why do you care?" Cairo ask with venom in his voice "woah what's up with that face your making little man?" Caldwell says cackling but Cairo just pushes past him "your the reason Radigan took my damn sword, why the hell would i even want to talk to you? You're annoying now leave me alone" caldwell smirks lifting up a katana in its blue scabbard "oh you mean this little doo-hickey here? Its pretty useless if you ask me but i guess the big man thought i deserved it more than you" mocking Cairo making him angrier "go away, Caldwell today's already bad enough" Cairo begins walking away again but caldwell grabs his shoulder "come on now we both remember what big man said the hierarchy's like a family we're supposed to be together like bro-" Cairo slap his hand away cutting him off mid-sentence "one: we are not sticking together like friends, two: i don't want to be anywhere near you, and three: we are not brothers" Cairo says in a calm but assertive tone. Feeling disrespected caldwell takes a step forward to Cairo to intimidate him only for cairo to take a step of his own to Caldwell giving his superior a death glare they stare at each other the tension could be felt if anyone were to see them until Caldwell scoffs and turns to walk off towards the same direction as Radigan leaving Cairo alone to do the task given to him.

Lio received the thanks of the townspeople graciously and tried to hide her amusement at those pretending they knew more then they did. To the all to perceptive woman, she smiled a knowing smile and said "there's something in your town I'm interested in."

A crowd had gathered but they hadn't yet attracted their prey. Maybe it was time to increase the bait. "It still needs something, doesn't it?" she asked the crowd. When they cheered in response, she raised her hands. She worked a small illusion spell to make her ring flash while more spells caused bushes and flowers to grow in front of the building.

That's enough for now, she told herself. All of the magic use was starting to wear on her. it was time to rest of a bit and enjoy some of the food that was there - if she could settle her nerves enough to do so.

Azumi and Ren kept watch for Radigan's arrival expectantly, though it seems he did not arrive. Ren asked Azumi to check the bombs for any faulty wiring or chemical related issues and report back to him as soon as possible. While his familiar went on her business, Ren decided to check on a tired Liothryth, who was in the midst of enjoying the party, at least until Radigan begins to thrash it.

He asked Liothryth regarding her wellbeing and told her that he and Azumi are quite adept at magic and can do whatever she could've done right now.

Ren was also the type to never let his guard down to anyone except his closest friends and family, making him a rather easily unnerved individual, constantly worrying about something or someone

"Look", Ren changed the subject, in an attempt to ease himself of the suspense, "Is this Radigan guy related to some sort of deadly interdimensional being? Our world has some mention of a King Radigan, who helped out a being called, 'Dehdmhen', in destroying an entire nation, though I'm not entirely sure if the textbooks I read were just some madman's ravings"

Since Cairo was caught up with talking to Caldwell, Radigan walked right past him and into the kitchen doorway. There, he froze. His sights were set directly on the rings that had just jingled into Linota’s hand. She closed her grip around them, a little too late, and blinked at Radigan a couple times.
“Sir Radigan, I was just getting this girl ready–”
“Stealing from me, girl?!!” He cried at her before lunging forward and snatching Linota up by the wrist of the hand that held his rings.
He demanded that she give them to him and she did, after a very brief and sorrowful glance at Assallya. Radigan inspected them in one hand, the other still clutching Linota, before he stuffed them in one of his inner coat pockets on the left side. They didn’t seem all that valuable to him, but it was the principle of the matter! He dragged Linota to the front door and swung it open, only to be met with music and a commotion he hadn’t noticed before. He looked around confusedly, before taking a few steps outside, Linota in tow, to get a glimpse at crowds going into the old abandoned building.

“What the hell is this?” He growled, pressing his fingers into Linota’s wrist in contemplation.
She gritted her teeth, more from the extremely undesired touching than from the pain. She tried to jerk her arm away once, which brought his focus back onto her. He bared his own teeth at her then dragged her back to the house, throwing her inside. If the other two had tried to follow, he would grab hold of their shirt collars and throw them too, proving there was strength underneath his layers.

“Keep an eye on them!” He told Caldwell as he passed him on the way to his bedroom. “I’m going out.”
He used a key he pulled from another inner pocket, on the right side, to open the door. He didn’t bother closing it behind him, for he only needed to grab his most powerful treasures.
“Don’t let them go anywhere, understood?” He continued yelling at Caldwell from the depths of his cave-like room. “And check over the new girl! See what else she’s hiding. Leave no stone unturned.”
When he reemerged, Linota’s heart sank at the sight of her staff in his greasy, meat fingers. Of course it was. It was perfectly carved, intricately decorated, and had an everflowing hourglass of white and gold sands- when it wasn’t in use. It was beautiful and it never failed to turn heads. Radigan locked his bedroom door and stuffed the key back into his coat.

“Yes, Sir,” Caldwell told him obediently. It was hard for him not to be a smartass, but he wasn’t an idiot.
Radigan grabbed his too-big hat from the rack–something Linota knew was making up for something small–and was gone, slamming the door shut behind him. It left Linota, Assallya, and Cairo under the zealous, watchful eyes of Frederick Caldwell. He looked over Assallya briefly, but his eyes fell on Linota.

“You were just in the middle of being punished, weren’t you?” He asked her, as if genuinely curious about the situation. Then a smile wormed up his dry lips. “It’s only fair that I pick up where he left off. Otherwise, you won’t learn your lesson.”
The smile looked too excited for Linota’s liking and she took one step back to ready herself, a defiant glare already trying to spear her foe. She was still seeing colorful, glowing things, dully in the background, but she tried her best to ignore them for now. Caldwell would leap to grab her, unless stopped by the others.

Just before Caldwell could grab Linota a lead pipe hits him square in the head sending him to the ground as he sits up infuriated he sees the culprit was none other than Cairo staring at him with anger in his eyes "what the hell do you think you're doing?" Caldwell asks through gritted teeth trying to hide his pain, Cairo says nothing to him and just stared at him like he was nothing with his leap pipe ready for a fight "SAY SOMETHING DAMMIT!!" If anything could enrage Caldwell the most it was disrespect and being ignored "fine then i guess i'll have to beat the respect into both of you!" He threatens.

"And our prey appears, I assume", He whispered to Liothryth and walked over to Radigan, calling over Azumi, who followed soon after. Ren held his right sleeve, fixing some sort of contraption underneath and then held the holstered pistol subtly. He already wanted to eliminate his foe, but held back as much as possible until the time was right.

"This is a party that celebrates the establishment of our Headquarters of Peace! We apologize if we diplomats of Kamigawa were not able to invite you, dear friend! You are still welcome, though!", Azumi spoke. Ren simply nodded and tried to form a smile under his hood.

Assallya wasn't sure what to do. The smart thing, the thing she'd done a hundred times, if not a thousand, was to simply take the beating and move on. They were well past that now.

There was a spell that could cause him to forget the last few minutes. She'd used it to get herself or of trouble many times when caught sneaking about where she shouldn't be but they'd have to use it fast.

A sudden, devilish glint appeared in the blonde sorceress' eye and she began to chant softly. With Caldwell's attention, and more importantly, abject fury distracting him Assallya could probably have shouted the ancient arcana accompanied by a dance routine and he wouldn't have noticed.

A sound and the magic shifted, a flick of a hand and the stream of power twisted, another sound and another, a few more hand gestures and the magic began to form a pattern. Then, when the pattern was released she fixed her blue eyed icy gaze on Caldwell's back.

"Move not!" she said for dramatic effect and neelessly made a hurling motion with her right hand, releasing the spell of paralysis.

Let the two say what they wished, beat the young man down or whatever. She'd wipe his memory for Linota and Cairo. She even already had a plan for that.

"Sharess' tits be praised..." she thought smugly to herself, "fireballs my arse, enchantments were much more useful."

Lio took a deep breath at Radigan approached. Here we go, she thought and fed just a little more power into her protection spells. This had to be the slime they were here to deal with.

"Good day," she said to him in a very pleasant voice, ignoring the staff pointed at her. "We were not aware of any permission being needed to hold a simple party to introduce ourselves to our new neighbors. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Liothryth Terandes, of the House of Farnesai. Master Mage in the line of Glorandal Thewarin. I take it you are the mayor of this fine town?" Her tone was very calculated to give no insult but to sound genuinely curious but her body language still projected supreme self-confidence.

Linota shielded her face from the loud clang the lead pipe caused, having forgotten Cairo was carrying it. Her mouth fell slightly open at the sight of Caldwell on the ground and she looked at Cairo gratefully, though only for a moment. Caldwell had started yelling, evidently not too badly fazed by a lead pipe to the skull. What was this man made out of? Linota had the strong urge to gut him and look at his insides to find out, but Assallya’s chanting pulled her from her reverie.

“What is she doing?” Caldwell spat, looking between Linota and Cairo with growing panic. Then he looked at Assallya. “What are you doing?!!”
He scrambled to get up, though the hit to the head made him wobbly like a newborn fawn. “Stop!” He screamed at the same time Assallya yelled at him to ‘move not’ and he obeyed, stuck in his horrified and pretzeled position.

Linota’s lips parted even more at that and she turned her head to stare at Assallya.
“You can just do that?” She asked her, bewildered. “You could have– We could have just–”
Linota’s head spun with all the ways Assallya’s little paralysis trick could have saved them a whole lot of time. As she stared down at Caldwell, lost in the what if’s, she started to notice the faint, colorful glows on his body. She cautiously approached him then opened his coat to find the source of the strongest glow, patting around with searching fingers. She came upon a pocket with a small, jewel-like bulge and fished out a pocket watch. It was Radigan’s gold, jewel encrusted pocket watch.

Linota's golden eyes flicked up to look into Caldwell’s, which were already frantically staring right at her. He knew that she knew, and she knew he knew she knew. She smiled at him with mock appreciation and tucked the time altering watch into her own pocket. He made grunts and gurgling sounds as she did and as she continued to search him, but he could do nothing more. The other glowing things she found on him were a stone and yet another ring. She had no idea what they did and would present them to Assallya questioningly.

“His bedroom is there,” Linota would tell Assallya next, pointing at the door. The rainbow laden glow emanating from the room was unmistakable. “It’s locked, but not magical.”
At least, she didn’t think it was. She kept her distance in case it was, but seemed perfectly fine to let Assallya go check for herself, giving her an encouraging little nod.

Seeing Caldwell was unable to move as Cairo approaches and takes his sword back "whats with that face man?" He mocks getting in Caldwells face all Caldwell could do was watch as Cairo took his sword back his face becoming red with fury with a vein showing on his forehead "hey assallya do you need a lockpick? I still got a few" Cairo offers to assallya watching as Caldwell gets more and more angry but couldn't do anything about it.

"Hurry please," Assallya asked of Cairo, surprised that he wasn't taking further advantage, "We have half a candlemark before my Spell of Forgetting is useless."

She continued examining Caldwell's stone and ring as she continued, "-but be careful. Watch for runes and glyphs. Trapped runes and glyphs are hard for even this with magic to see if they're not careful. Otherwise they'd make for horrible traps."