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You've got blackmail! [P]; Private: Eko
Topic Started: Sat Dec 8, 2012 8:21 pm (607 Views)
Miriel
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"Bah, I need to get more practice." Miriel muttered as she attempted to pick the lock on the door, furtively glancing over her shoulder for anyone watching. After several minutes of this, she was about to give up in disgust when she finally got it to open with a *click* stepping inside the home with a satisfied smile.

Not long later, Miriel stood, back leaned against the wall facing the door as she took a bite of the bread, presumably homemade, that she had pilfered, if the information she had received was accurate, the girl would probably be here fairly soon, and they could have a little "chat" without outside interference from her family.

Excellent.

Hopefully Eko would be willing to actually talk though, the Avariel hadn't actually gotten or asked much in regards to information other than WHERE she lived, probably a mistake now that she thought about it, but what was life without a little risk.

That, and she wanted to actually have some money LEFT from what she had been payed in advance, seeing as she was about to betray the little nobleman rather badly, and that probably meant she wouldn't be getting the rest, barring breaking into his home and taking it. And more information would have cost more. "Hey I have to be cheap about SOMETHING" She thought, taking the second to last bite from the piece of bread, and brushing crumbs off of her cloak.

She absentmindedly looked around, her breathing starting to get slightly more shallow as she started to become unnerved by the underground nature of the place. She wanted to leave, and quickly, but she had business. If it had been any smaller in the beehive she wouldn't have been able to force herself down into the tunnels though..
Edited by Miriel, Sat Dec 8, 2012 10:43 pm.
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Lady Eko
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Ansha, like seemingly all dogs, didn't care if it was a bad day. She just kept on being the happiest dog alive. For some reason the hulking canine insisted on carrying a beef bone all the way across the city, and that must have been the source of her unending dog-cheerfulness. "You're not going to be allowed to take that into the house," Eko told her, jumping down from a low rooftop just before the entrance to the Beehive began in proper. Ansha, being a dog, proceeded into the network of tunnels regardless of the warning. Both of them knew these passageways well. If all the lanterns were put out, Eko could bet they would find their way home only slightly slower than usual. The pale-eyed girl descended through a convoluted network of travelways and staircases pressing deep into Sokolov's sinkhole.

No one would be home for a while today. Most of them were at work. Grandma and grandpa were having a meeting with some old friends from Istan over in the outer districts of the city, where it wasn't so dark all the time. It would be the first time in a long while that Eko would come home to an empty house. Soon enough, there it was: 121 Deep Lane, Sokolovsburg, Balefire, an indentation in the stone with a door built into it. Eko fumbled with her keys to produce the desired one, shoved it in the lock, and realized that the door was already unlocked.

Not a good sign. Eko panicked for a moment, took a deep breath, and slowly pressed the door in. Her free hand exchanged a key for a dagger. Ansha remained oblivious of the danger. The footpad's mind flashed with possibilities. Terrible things. Vampires, wraiths, werewolves, ghuls, ghouls, face-eaters, flesh-rippers, zombies, necromancers, what to do, what to do...

None of those things. Just a damned thief.

At that moment Eko was ready to reject the whole concept of thievery, if she could. First failing to mug someone because of her stupid idiot brother, and now she was the victim. Maybe it was just karma. Eko hated karma. She prepared to kill her intruder by flipping her dagger into an inverted grip.

Wagging her tail, Ansha lumbered up to the bread-eating burglar, completely giving away any element of surprise Eko still had. The dog had taken the slobbery, mangled beef bone into the house and only remembered to drop it when she needed the use of her tongue to greet the home invader. Eko clenched her jaw -- she really could never be mad at that animal -- and approached, keeping her weapon clearly in view. "Get out," she said softly.
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Miriel
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Miriel blinked as Eko walked into the door just as she finished the last bite of bread. Composing herself quickly, she forced herself to take several deep, calm breaths. Then Ansha pounced on her, licking Miriel on the face as the tiny woman suddenly found it impossible to remain calm, and promptly started hyperventilating as she attempted to push the dog off. Unfortunately, being hollow boned, while GREATLY conducive to flying, was not so great when one tried to push their weight around, and she ended up sliding down the wall with a rather panicked expression, ending up with a dog in her lap still trying to lick her.

"A-a-ack ge-get off me you slobbery mess." She bit out, as in her panic she didn't even stop to consider Eko's order to get out, or the fact that she had come here wanting to talk to the girl. She did however, look up just in time to see Eko, who, having walked in was now towering over her, the fact that Miriel was now sitting down making the larger girl with a knife suddenly that much more intimidating.

Which made it seem even more closed in and cramped. The avariels vision blurred, and she passed out from the combined excess of oxygen, and the stress, one of her wings jarred loose from under her cloak and unfurling across the floor as the combined struggling, panic and loss of consciousness freed it. As vision faded to black, she muttered discontentedly. "jus... wanted to talk.."
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Lady Eko
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Eko stepped forward, ready to deal with the intruder once and for all. Disposing of the body would be an issue, but that was something she could worry about after the deed was done. However, by the time she stepped close enough so that she was looming over what she now realized was a very tiny, pale-haired girl, Eko spotted something wrong. The girl looked sick, and muttered something about talking just before slipping into unconsciousness. "Ansha, back off." She tugged a bit on the scruff of the eager animal's neck to get her point across, and Ansha dejectedly stopped, realizing there was no longer a chance to play with the home invader. The dog stepped away, giving Eko enough space to really study the thief. She was a small girl, even smaller than Eko, with pointed ears and hair so light it looked almost white. Her gaze flicked down at the wing poking out from underneath the thief's cloak, relaxed from unconsciousness.

Her stomach sank as realization set in. There was an angel of Celestia in her house.

For a few moments Eko just stared dumbly, completely clueless as to what to do. The war between celestials and abyssals bled into Balefire sometimes, but she was never involved in that kind of business. Why was one here, in her house, of all places? Was Dian poking his nose in places he shouldn't? Eko cursed over and over in her head, finally deciding to at least take whatever might have been robbed off the unconscious maybe-thief. She did a cursory check, trying to remove any weapons or coinpurses that were easily accessible from the girl's body. Then, foregoing killing the angel, Eko hooked her arms around the angel's armpits and prepared to drag her. Once she realized how light the girl was, she just carried her out instead.

She wasn't sure how far away to dump her. After a moment of indecision Eko placed the angel in the gutter around the corner, returned into her home, closed and locked the door. Ansha seemed to have already forgotten what happened, noisily chewing on her beef bone on the floor with two rows of razor-sharp teeth. Eko, still baffled by the whole situation, gave up on trying to rationalize it and started cooking supper for the rest of the family.
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Miriel
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Miriel awoke in the gutter, and a cursory check of her own person revealed that she was missing her main purse, though she still had an extra one for emergencies better hidden. Her short-sword, and her dagger. .....And her pack, with all of her supplies and belongings. Putting a hand to her head and taking a minute to compose herself better, she rose, walking at a rather slow pace back to Eko's house as she continued to straighten herself up with a calm, dignified bearing.

"I thought. Just maybe, I had gotten over that. That it had been long enough and I would be fine. ....Apparently not." She thought, rather annoyed.

Knocking on the door, she would either wait until a reasonable amount of time had passed, or until Eko had opened it before speaking. "Can we please try this again? I would offer to pay you back for the piece of bread, but you seem to have relieved me of my coin purse regardless." She seemed rather, formal and withdrawn for someone who had just been scared into unconsciousness and then robbed, her tone wasn't even angry, merely questioning, and rather soft.

"My apologies for breaking into your home before, it was." She paused for a moment, considering. "A rather poor choice, I should have simply waited outside to speak with you."

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Lady Eko
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Ansha stood in front of the now-locked door, wagging her tail in big lazy strokes. Eko glanced over her shoulder every once in a while, wondering who the dog was waiting for. She liked Eko's parents and grandparents, but wasn't a fan of any of Eko's siblings for various reasons. Putting that thought aside, the girl broke a fire stone to start the smokeless cooking pit in the center of the residence's largest room. Being the first person back, it would be Eko's job to cook dinner for the family. As she was getting all her pots and pans together, there was a knock on the door. Thinking little of it, the girl wandered over to the front door and slid open a rectangular peephole. The opening was arranged so high up that she didn't see anyone -- but a voice quickly drew her gaze downward, where she could just barely see the top of a blue-white head of hair. Eko slammed the peephole closed and refastened the latch.

Turning to put her back against the door, the girl crossed her arms and listened to the burglar's honest plea. She apologized for breaking into her home and seemed intent on repaying Eko's family for the bread she ate. "Yeah. It was a poor choice," Eko said through the closed door after a pause. It had been a poor choice for multiple reasons, clearly. The small angel's reasoning was believable, though. She wasn't exactly the type of person Eko would peg as being a serious thief. "I'm not letting you in unless you tell me exactly why you're here, Celestial. Your kind doesn't come here without a reason, and never to the Beehive."
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Miriel
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"Oh. Um. You saw the wings, of course you did." Miriel blinked, before sighing. Although she would love to have someone think she was an angel, it was quite flattering really, it would probably be another, rather poor decision to not tell the truth here. "I am not an angel, though you would be far from the first to make that mistake both for me, and my species in general. Furthermore, I would rather not enter your home again, I have, problems with enclosed spaces and caves that I have clearly not gotten over, and just coming down here was bad enough."

"However, you are correct, I do have a reason for coming here. Though it is far different to what my employer would like." She smiled in a rather predatory manner, although considering the circumstances no one would actually see it. "A ponce of a noble called Lord Averin had some papers stolen from him that he wants back, and a girl of your description, and a dog matching the one that tackled me, were seen in the area. Eko." She paused as she said the other girls name, letting that much sink in before continuing.

"Unfortunately for him, I have a rather large problem with rich manipulative backstabbing scheming highborn pieces of scum and had a better idea. He clearly does not want to make this public, considering he hired a relatively unknown wanderer new to time, namely, me, to try to find you instead of notifying the guards of the robbery. Furthermore, it seems that he will be out at some high society party of some sort today. Giving, say, two enterprising young woman who have been inside his manor before ample time to sneak in and help themselves to some of his belongings."

She frowned. "Of course, I could understand if you do not trust me, I did just admit to having been hired by someone who has it out for you, and broke into your home. But regardless, I thought that perhaps you should know that you drew some attention to yourself, even if it was rather difficult for me to track you down."

With that said, the elf backed away from the door a bit, and waited for a response.
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Lady Eko
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Lord Averin. That unexpectedly rang a bell. She could almost guess the rest of the not-angel's story without even hearing it, but it was nice to know the details. Yeah, she had broken into one of his homes, not knowing it belonged to a Lord of Balefire until after the fact. A cursory scan of the documents quickly revealed how valuable they could be, even if Eko hadn't been able to understand some of the specialized vocabulary and big words they used. It was just a bundle of letters and reports, but they showed correspondence between a certain two parties that was quite damning indeed. She had the documents locked up in her secret safebox beneath her bed, away from the prying eyes of her siblings, while she was in the process of finding the... most ideal buyer for the information.

It was why she wasn't surprised Lord Averin was secretly hiring people. The girl had a pretty good street sense if she was able to track Eko down on just a vague description of her and her dog alone. She supposed the dog was a bit distinctive, but Eko wasn't too well-known outside of the Western Quarter of the city so it still would have taken some skill. After a few moments of silence following the girl's explanation, the door lock clicked and the front door opened once more. Eko's pale eyes narrowed on the tiny girl, expression neutral as always, and she motioned for her to come in. "Close the door behind you," she said over her shoulder, "And try not to faint again. Ansha, back off."

Eko pointed to one of the pillows near the cooking pit and took a seat on one sitting on the opposite side. She was in the process of cooking some oddly shaped lumps of greyish-black meat over a small smokeless fire. The footpad gave it the occasional poke with a fork, making sure it was cooking all the way through. "I wouldn't mind destroying Averin further. But I need to know your name first." She paused to await an answer, leading to another long silence. "We'll go scope out the place after I'm finished eating. I've had a long night. A bad one." Eko nodded to one of the two adjoining rooms. "You'll find your stuff sitting on the bottom bunk in that room over there. Didn't have a chance to sort through it yet. You can pay me back for the bread by not stabbing me in the back during this heist." Her eyes took on a severe cast, one that seemed a bit too dangerous coming from such a small and unassuming human girl.
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Miriel
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Giving a slight sigh of relief, Miriel stepped through the door reluctantly and closed it, heading straight towards her gear as Eko made her feelings on betrayal quite clear. She made a mental note to not underestimate Eko, and try to avoid getting on her bad side, but did not seem particularly worried. Strapping on her blades and getting her pack sorted away

"Had I meant you harm I would not have told you everything and talked, even as a ploy, that would be rather foolish to tell someone everything. You will have my utmost loyalty during this, so long as you do not betray me."

Walking over and sitting down against a wall in the same room as Eko, Miriel leaned against it and closed her eyes as she waited for the other girl to finish cooking and eating. It really had been quite a long night, and she was a bit tired, although the involuntary nap had admittedly given her a bit of rest, getting dragged about and waking up in a gutter had pretty much eliminated most of the rest from that.
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Lady Eko
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They were out not long after that. Eko tore across the city at a steady clip. Normally the poor city planning of Balefire would make the trip to Lord Averin's estate long and slow. Eko, however, fully embraced a simple fact: the shortest distance between two points was a straight line. Her small body clambered across stairwells, leaped between rooftops and even swung on ropes. If she could cross over or through something faster than she could go around it, she did. Ansha was probably following her on street level; that dog only ever really disappeared from Eko's proximity when she was getting food or visiting friends. At the end of her journey, the girl sat at the corner of a rooftop, waiting to catch her breath before the real scouting would begin.

In front of her stretched the familiar sight of the Averin estate. It was a respectably sized mansion surrounded by a garden of darkplants with black leaves. "The back entrance has an easy lock to pick, and wasn't guarded when I first came here. It probably is now," she spoke low to the winged girl. "We could try the windows. We're small enough to fit, even with your wings, I think." Ansha, who had finally caught up, stopped in the street and panted up to Eko, wagging her tail. The girl urged her dog to go off somewhere and hide, and the dog sauntered off to follow a strange smell. Eko looked to Miriel. "Looks like you were right. Lead the way, then."
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Miriel
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Following closely behind Eko, Miriel struggled to keep up. Although she was quite acrobatic, this being attested to by her capability to keep up at all, Eko was on her home turf, and it showed. As such, Miriel ended up arriving at the estate a full ten seconds after Eko despite having started right behind her.

"The windows may work." Miriel responded in an equally hushed tone, looking at the manor with interest. "If I recall correctly, that one, the third window from the left above that roof." She pointed towards a specific section of the place. "Leads into a guest bedroom, we could sneak in through there relatively easily after getting the window opened, and even if the door is locked it shouldn't be too hard to get through considering it's inside and not his personal chamber, or a family members room."

Carefully making her way through the grounds, and looking for any signs of movement in the garden, she led the way towards the house, thankfully it did not appear that he had anyone patrolling the grounds, and the plants were relatively safe. Climbing up the house was also not really much of a challenge, it clearly wasn't made with the best of security in mind so much as luxury, even if Averin was a tad paranoid and kept guards at nearly every door.

"Can you get it open? She gestured towards the window expectantly.
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Lady Eko
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They decided to take the windows, and Eko dropped down to ground level without much more than a confirmation. She snuck up to the ground on cat's feet, disappearing into a tangle of darkplants. Eko poked her head out to make sure no one would see their entry, then clambered up the side of the building. Miriel was quick to follow; with their tiny bodies they were able to get themselves up to the second floor windowsill easily. The scrapper curled onto it, rummaging through her things while her partner-in-crime asked about opening it. Almost on cue Eko produced a small bag of tools and pulled out a lockpick. It took some odd angling to get the window open, since it didn't use a traditional tumbler lock, but she eventually managed to pull open the latch and open the glass screen from the outside. Damn nobles and their clear-glass windowpanes.

Eko squeezed in and took in the familiar sight of Lord Averin's study. It was far more disorganized than it was during her last visit. Going through the house for valuables revealed this to be the case for the rest of the house, as well. Food left out to rot, dirty laundry lying on the floor -- it was like he had fired all his servants or something. Eko pocketed some choice jewelry she hadn't had time to relieve him of last time, then managed to locate a new door. As she picked it, Eko made a comment to Miriel. "Looks like the door to a dungeon." Thick and made of metal, it was difficult to open and took both of them to push completely ajar. They descended down a stone staircase into a dimly lit, musky chamber.

Eko hadn't been far off at all. There really was a dungeon hidden in Lord Averin's estate. The cramped compartment had six full cells built into it. Getting a bad feeling, the scrapper pulled out her big knife and kept it close. A droplet of water fell and echoed through the dungeon. Someone around the corner snored; another voice down the way they were going groaned softly. Eko searched for a dungeon armory, where Averin might keep the possessions of his prisoners. Instead she found one of the empty cells filled with a pile of clothes, weapons, and -- what jumped out to Eko -- the paraphernalia of a Balefire Sheriff. A whip, a badge, some nice swords, lots of stuff. Eko tried to unlock that cell, but repeatedly failed. Someone in the cell nearby shifted and released another small groan.
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Miriel
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"I have never really liked dungeons, and there probably is not even anyone down there, do we have t-" Miriel sighed as Eko went on ahead, and followed her down into the dark, cramped dungeons with GREAT reluctance, her breathing quickly becoming more rapid as she forced herself to stay alert.

"I also have that problem with cramped quarters." She closed her eyes momentarily, trying to imagine herself in a bright open field. And failed miserably as the chill of the place and the general feeling of gloom just made it worse rather than better.

Sweating, she made her way over to the cell where the groan had emenated from, and peered inside. As soon as she did so, she let out a gasp of disbelief, and put her fingertips to her forehead. "You... may not believe me when I tell you who is in this cell." She said softly, gesturing towards the door as Eko attempted to open one of the others.

Inside, was the Lord Averin, still dressed in his finest and seemingly recently imprisoned judging by his relative health and the state of his clothing. It seemed that he had been drugged or hit on the head judging from how out of it he was, but his eyes blearily looked up as he heard the voices.
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Lady Eko
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Eko went to look for herself, and was quiet for a long moment. Inside the cell was none other than Lord Averin himself. A weak Lord of Balefire, Averin was trying to bolster his own power by playing to both sides of any conflict he could wiggle himself into. He was a half-dragon, his dark green wings broken behind him. Short horns curled out from either side of his prominent widow's peak. He was still dressed in his fineries, indicating that he perhaps hadn't been incarcerated in his own estate for very long.

Upon making this realization, Eko at first wasn't sure what to think about her own blackmail material. Was it Averin or an imposter that was going to make that deal? Then, looking down on the drugged and wounded Lord, another thought crept into her mind. It blossomed into an idea so staggering that it made her hands tremble. She was unable to speak. Sitting in front of her was a vulnerable Lord of Balefire, right here in the flesh, one who everyone hated and would not miss. He was entirely at her mercy. And she could just... everything she was working for could be...-- but she cut off her own thinking quickly and forced herself to think rationally. Her plans would never become that easy. There was no way to get what she wanted above all else by killing him here and now. In fact, a far better plan came to mind.

"We're saving him," she stated, turning back. "Your talking probably woke up the j--"

Eko cut herself off to duck past a billy club about to come down on her skull. The wielder had come around the corner where she'd heard him snoring just earlier. He was a tall, stocky minotaur in black and brown leathers. A keyring dangled at his hip.
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Miriel
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"Hrm, oh." Right, the jailor, Miriel had forgotten about that in her worry over entering dungeons. Horrible place to be really, and had it been up to her they would have stuck with the surface. Although finding a lord of balefire imprisoned was probably worth the.... irritation?

Still sweating and breathing heavily, she turned to face the minotaur as it took a swing at Eko, and analyzed the situation. "clumsy, powerful, strong, used to throwing its bulk at problems and intimidating opponents through sheer force." She forced herself to think rationally, drawing her regular blade and holding it at the ready with a narrowed gaze.

Advancing past Eko, she attacked with a casual uppercut with the blade, followed by a series of thrusts to gauge the guards defensive ability and keep him on the defensive, at least, that was the plan, they were a little shaky. Luckily for her, the minotaur was apparently rather terrible at fighting an opponent actually capable of fighting back, and not only was forced to retreat, but got a nick on the arm from a clumsy effort to parry her last thrust as he was forced against the wall.

locking her blade with his club in response to a wild swing from the guard, she smirked, and he suddenly dropped the club as she sliced with a dagger that she had drawn from behind her back in the midst of her advance, neatly severing the nerves in his limb and leaving it hanging limp and useless.

It was at this point that the guard managed to actually take stock of what was happening and charged in a rage, forcing Miriel to jump backwards in a panic. Unconsciously imbuing her blade with earth magic, it was her turn to swing wildly and rely on instinct and muscle memory.

*CRACK* The blows force nearly doubled, she slammed the hilt of her blade into the minotaurs jaw, sending the heavy brute of a guard off balance and spilling over backwards with a dazed expression that soon faded into unconsciousness, his body going limp as he crashed to the ground on his back, his head slamming into the wall behind him.

It actually looked a lot more impressive and planned out than it had actually been, and Miriel attempted to calm herself again off with a deep breath as the adrenaline wore off, and failed "I... I need to go upstairs again, these conditions do not agree with me at all. Do you think that you can handle Averin with the guard... taken care of?" The Avariel, looking a bit ill, would make her way back up the stairs back into the nice, lit, and spacious upper rooms of the mansion.
Edited by Miriel, Mon Feb 25, 2013 10:21 pm.
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