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Topic Started: Sat Mar 9, 2013 11:18 pm (122 Views)
Lady Eko
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TLDR Summary (click to toggle)



For the past few weeks, Enric Roldan couldn't help but notice that his friend and employer Eko was acting really restless. She would barely talk to him whenever she visited Mohdu's Inn and Tavern except to give him special jobs. And she didn't even explain the jobs, either, she'd just be all 'go rough up so-and-so down the road, he's making trouble' or 'there's been a lady threatening the tavern, make sure it's not going to be an issue.' He was a cleaner, basically. When he brought up Eko's curtness with her directly, asking whether he did something wrong or angered her, they went and had lunch on the rooftops like old times. Eko had apologized to him about being so cagey, saying that she was just really busy trying to set something up. But after that nice lunchtime, she continued to make herself scarce. At one point she got so carried away that she called him "Chief of Security" instead of just Enric.

Tonight was different. Eko entered Mohdu's Inn and Tavern with a genuine smile on her face. Recent successes had made it possible to clean up and refurbish some of the furniture in the tavern area, which gave the interior a nice homey feel. The place was packed at this time of night with good old Western Quarter regulars, who turned to wave at Eko. Their words overlapped, greetings and small talk and requests for her to sit down and drink with them. These days, no one went to Mohdu's if they weren't alright with Eko. Enric stood in the bouncer's spot near the entrance. He was a big guy, a teen-ager just a year older than Eko herself, and he had a halfway decently-forged bastard sword slung over his back on a crude baldric.

"What's that you're carrying, Eko?" he asked. "Paint?"

The girl motioned for him to follow with her free hand, her smile turning wry. Eko had cleaned up a little bit recently. None of them were starving anymore, but it showed the most on her. She wore fewer layers, and the jackets themselves looked a little cleaner and less ragged than they used to. Her clothes actually fit her and matched. Eko had even grown a little in height these past few months thanks to the better nutrition she was getting. She no longer looked like she was tired all the time. Enric would even go far enough to say that Eko actually kind of looked like her age -- seventeen as of last month -- for once.

She set down the can of paint on the nearest empty table, then turned to face Enric. "I have an odd job for you."



Every Thursday night, Eko's big brother Dian and his friends would gather in a den in Sokolovsburg called the Bleeding Sword to hang out, smoke and play cards. This was not something the family was normally aware of, but Eko's good friend Ketta discovered this tradition when she was tasked to shadow Dian for two weeks. The werecat really pulled through and got a lot of valuable information during that job, and Eko gave her a bonus as a reward for being so helpful. As predicted, he and his friends were there tonight, too.

Eko pushed open the double-doors to the establishment with both arms. Three of her security employees -- one from the Feisty Mare and the other two based in Mohdu's -- followed her. They wore black scarves to conceal their faces. Her brother was the smug, handsome young man sitting and laughing amidst six of his closest friends.

By the time Dian had even recognized Eko, her employees had already raised their crossbows and opened fire on his friends. Most of them barely even had time to stand up, much less draw their weapons, before they were mowed down by heavy bolts. Other patrons at the den fell prone, a couple crying out in surprise, but Eko barely paid attention to the scenery as she watched her brother's friends -- the ones who had beaten her up and even one time thrown her out of a glass window -- die. Dian was frozen.

The shooting stopped. Eko nodded to her employees and they calmly exited, leaving her near the exit facing down a man who was slowly coming to realize the full extent of his anger and outrage. Before he could find his words, she spoke. "Dian, remember when we used to have little races across Sokolovsburg? I won most of the time, if I recall."

He gave her a look that was difficult to describe. His hands were trembling with rage or fear or both. Dian slowly pushed himself to his feet.

"If you want revenge, you'll have to catch me first," was all she added before leaving the Bleeding Sword.

It was so blatantly a trap, but Eko knew her brother well. He would come barreling out of the building in moments. In a towering fury, he would follow her blindly and try to kill her once and for all. She knew that, after pushing against him for so long, this was the point where he would break. Where anyone probably would. Eko knew she herself would certainly get angry if any of her friends were injured or killed-- oh, wait, Dian had already done that. Eko liked to think of this as a delayed retribution.

Eko didn't have more time to think as her brother came sprinting out of the Bleeding Sword at a fury-fueled speed that was nearly unbelievable. Moments before he would have collided with her, the girl jumped up into a large ventilation shaft directly above her, legs scrabbling for purchase. She climbed fast upward, ignoring the dirt and grime. Dian made a feral sound, saw he wouldn't be able to fit, and took an alternative route. Both of them knew the nuances of navigating the Beehive better than anyone. If she didn't move fast, he could corner her in this maze.

It was a game of cat and mouse, basically. Then again, it wasn't obvious yet which one of them was which.

He spotted her emerging from the ventilation shaft and resumed his charge. Eko bolted, taking a harsh left up a set of dark staircases, running two steps at a time. At the top, she vaulted over a ledge and grabbed a dangling piece of rope which she climbed up to a nearby balcony as fast as she could. Dian was able to follow on this stretch, but couldn't keep up. The rope crackled under their combined weight.

Almost there. She didn't need to go all the way to the top. All she needed was the right angle.

Dian didn't realize he was being led anywhere particular until he was trapped on a ledge, right out on the edge of the Beehive, in the open air at least fifty feet above crowds of people. Eko finally stopped running. As she spun around to face her brother, she freed her whip and gave it an intimidating crack.

"Why?" Dian said, out of breath, his own weapon coming out. He flowered his shortsword, looking for an opening in the defenses she wove with her lash. "What the hell did I do to make you so angry?"

"Everything."

She came in fast and flogged him so hard across his forearms that it carved a bloody gash. Then she didn't stop. People always thought of whips as non-deadly weapons, but they really did cut like a knife. Dian kept holding his arms up in a guard over his face, unable to strike, as Eko relentlessly struck his arms, his stomach, his legs, with nowhere to back off. He finally found an opening and came in with tight slashes; Eko drew in her whip so only the belly was exposed. While she was able to catch his opening strike with the handle, she couldn't completely protect herself against his technical prowess with a blade and ended up taking multiple deep cuts to her hands and torso. Eko beat him back with the belly of her whip, then slid behind him and looped it around his sword arm. Wrenching it, she took her weapon and wrapped the whip back and forth, around and back, contorting Dian's arm and weapon into a painful position. Eko kicked him in the back of the legs to make him fall, slipping her weapon out of the grip and cracking it again just above him as he lay on the ground. The whip found his neck and tightened around it of its own accord.

Dian pulled at his neck, but didn't have the strength to break free. Eko walked over to the railing of the ledge and shoved the handle of her whip around and into it, bracing it as well as she could.

Bleeding, strangled and badly swollen, Dian found a way to try to look smug even now. His words were interspersed with wheezes while he struggled to his knees. "You finally won against me. Feel better about yourself? You're still not as good a fighter as Bethari," he slurred.

Eko took a long pause, looking out over the city of Balefire from the edge of this cesspool of a borough people called Sokolovsburg or the Beehive. It took her a couple seconds to push down the sudden flush of anger her brother's words had given her. She didn't want to give him the pleasure of knowing he could still get to her. Below, the world sparkled with thousands of lanterns pushing back the almost suffocating darkness. It was absolutely beautiful. Eko decided in that moment that she still loved this city.

She grabbed Dian and threw him over the edge. Her efforts were rewarded by the sickening snap of bone.

It was only a matter of time before someone would recognize the body hanging in plain view of the most well-traveled part of western Balefire. Maybe they would recognize the killer, too. Eko could only hope.



No one was at home, like usual. These days, even her grandparents had to work in order for them to keep their nice below-ground home, one of the bigger ones in the neighborhood. Eko had met up with Ansha on the way back. The dog still loved her. She had already packed up all her possessions beforehand, so her trip to the house was quick. Eko entered the alcove in the stone, made a beeline for her bedroom, and pulled the bag of things out of the secret compartment below her bed. On her way out the girl stopped in front of the bedroom door of her younger sister, Kasih. She pulled out her knife and carved a message into the wood. Perhaps the dumb little girl wouldn't understand what it meant right away, but she would once the body hanging off Sokolovsburg was identified. "It WILL be short," the carving spelled out in jagged, angry letters, the letter 'will' being much larger than the others.



From the base of the Beehive, the lanterns lit up Dian's hanging body shockingly well. Her whole plan had gone perfectly. Months of careful planning had finally paid off. With Dian gone, only a few close obstacles remained, and they weren't nearly as threatening. While Eko didn't see the crowds of shocked gawkers she expected, there were a few people here on Threeclaw Street who noticed that body and mentioned it in low voices. With time, word would spread.

Eko and Ansha returned to Mohdu's later that night. The sign out front had changed. Painted near the corner of the sign was a fist-sized symbol. Silver outlined in black. A stylized set of C-shaped lines, each one bigger than the last, like a visualization of sound. They radiated out in two opposing directions. Eko was pleased by Enric's artistic ability. She entered Mohdu's.

"Do you like it?" Enric was quick to ask. His forearms were dusted with paint.

"Yes. Thank you. Tomorrow I'd like you to take a trip to the Feisty Mare and paint it there, too. When things in Sokolovsburg have died down, paint it at the Safe Place as well."

He wasn't aware there was something going on in Sokolovsburg, but took his orders in stride. "Uh, sure. Can I ask why? I mean, I know why, but why paint the symbol now? Why not when you first claimed Mohdu's?"

"Because we're not hiding anymore." Eko gave a small smile up at her friend, patting him on the back. "Things are going to get a little tougher for a while. I'll explain more later. You'll have a chance to leave my employment if you don't like the way things are about to go."

Enric blinked. He hadn't the faintest idea what she was talking about. Sure, Eko had always had this strange... atmosphere about herself. She was definitely a planner. Arden once told her she had her eyes set in the distance, always looking at some horizon no one else could see. A little too poetic for Enric's tastes, but probably accurate. But he couldn't guess what kind of crazy vagueness Eko had in store that trumped her recent escapades. "Oh, no, I would never-- I mean, I like working for you, Eko. You're my friend."

"Thanks. I really appreciate it. You're a good man, Enric. I'll protect you." He could only laugh at that response -- it was funny because he was technically the guardian of her assets -- but he felt some nervousness creeping into those chuckles. His reply was a meek goodbye as she left to talk to the inn's proprietor, Mohdu Narang. Enric eavesdropped and caught something about her moving into a special room. Was that why she was carrying a bag with her? This whole night was giving him a bad feeling. And despite Eko's friendliness when she was speaking directly to him, he noticed something different about her now. She looked a lot more restless than she did even before tonight, and didn't bother to hide it.
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