[ When last we left Nebrinel, she was in a very bad spot. More specifically, she was prone, still half-asleep, and had the sneaking suspicion that her soul was about to go to feed the minimal sentience dwelling within the twelve inches of very, very cold metal being held against her neck. She's likely had better days. ] [ Fyril, for his part, is awakened by a scratching sensation at his back and something tickling his pointy elvish ear. And this is where the SESSION STARTs! ] * Fyril wakes up sort of groggily. "This place didn't look like it had bedbugs..." * Nebrinel 's body stiffens slightly at the familiar feel of Morganti steel. She opens her eyes slightly in an attempt to gauge who/what is going on. (Her thought even rhymes!) [ "It doesn't," says a voice from just above Nebrinel; presumably, the fellow with a knife. "That's a Jhereg on your back. And since it doesn't take a lot of his venom to kill someone your size, I'd recommend against moving much." ] * Fyril widens his eyes, and doesn't move much. He does keep looking out the window, though. [ "Alright. First thing first; I'm supposed to be killing you right now, so I'd appreciate it if you sort of lay low for a while after this. Second, I'll need something to take to my 'employer' for my work, and it needs to be either Morganti or part of a Great Weapon. Understand?" ] * Nebrinel says simply, "Yes." [ "Good. Now, I'm going to step back from you, and I'm going to put this gods-damned thing away for now, because I hate having to touch it. And while I'd rather not have to, I'll note that I can still kill you in a heartbeat whenever I want. Just in case. Understand?" ] * Nebrinel frowns, and says, "Yeah." [ The man steps back, and the sensation of the weapon vanishes. He draws another knife, though, and begins idly flipping it in the air as he resumes speaking. "Right. Glad I got that out of the way; sorry, but people tend to be kind of apprehensive when I visit them unexpectedly." ] * Nebrinel snorts, and stands, pulling her blanket up with her and wrapping it around hersrelf. "Completely understandable, I am sure." She gestures towards Fyril. "Are you going to call off the Jhereg?" [ "Oh, and you can move now. Both of you. Loiosh is going to stay on your shoulder though, Fyril." ] [ "There jhereg stays where he is. Seems our friend's been carrying a lot of spices around, and he likes their smell." The winged lizard in question licks playfully at the side of Fyril's face. ] (Who thought cooking could be so dangerous.) (And stealing.) (Cooking things.) * Fyril starts slightly. "He's not going to do anything if I move?" [ "Not unless you do something that seems threatening to me, no. Don't worry about being misunderstood; he's very intelligent, for a being with no opposable thumbs." The lizard hisses annoyedly in the man's direction. ] * Nebrinel looks at the man with a frown. "So, more collection work?" * Fyril sits up uneasily, careful to balance the lizard correctly, and turns his head to sort of look at it. He doesn't seem all that put off by it, now. "You like spices, huh? Just the smell, or you like the taste, too?" [ The man's hard to see in the darkness, naturally, so I'm not going to describe his features. "Okay, here's the thing, now. You remember that elf you fought near the Angry Porcupine? The one that just wouldn't die?... ah, you guessed already. Good."] [ "And he likes the taste, too. Er, except celantro. He hates it when I put too much celantro on something." ] * Nebrinel looks, probably down, into the man's eyes, still frowning. "Well, you did imply it was a job. Just not for who." [ "Oh, the same... thing. I don't know what he is, but he's sure as hells not an elf. After that nice little fight you guys had with him, I tried to quit his services. He wasn't happy with that, and so he tried to put me under some sort of brain spell. Even succeeded, for a while." ] What a pleasant employer. * Fyril nods carefully. "Yeah. Not going to get much repeat business that yeah. Hey, you mind if I feed him something? I have some leftovers from lunch, they're pretty spicy." [ "You have no idea. Bastard's not even paying me, anymore." ] Hence the not killing us. [ "Sure, go ahead. Anyway. He's gotten the idea that one of you two has a Great Weapon, or part of one. So I'm here to kill you and bring the thing to him. Ada and the other human that was traveling with you will be targeted before long, too. Dunno why he's not going after them right now, but I dunno a lot of things about him. And for the record, I've got other reasons to not kill you." ] * Nebrinel closes her eyes for a split second, and shrugs. "Probably because they're far away. I wouldn't know why he'd think that we'd have great weapons." She smirks. "Doesn't he know how hard those are to get?" * Fyril leans down to the floor for the satchel, picks it up, and pulls out a small container with some meat and vegetables in it. He opens it, and looks at the lizard somewhat uncertainly. "Now, what's the best way to feed you..." [ "They're not hard to get for him. I've collected a total of seven complete weapons for him so far." The lizard, meanwhile, looks at Fyril oddly, as if expecting the answer to be obvious. ] * Nebrinel gapes. "By all the gods..." [ "Yeah. Heavy shit, hm? I'm not lying when I say I'm the best there is at what I do. My motto is that anyone can be assassinated - in theory, this includes Xivilai. My employer thinks you have some sort of ties to her, but can't really be sure because he can't look inside that rock she lives in." ] * Fyril draws out a fork from the satchel, picks up some food, and tries feeding it to the lizard. ["He does know, however, that she's got a Great Weapon. He thinks the two humans that were with you do, but he also thinks they have ties with Xivilai, too, which is probably why he hasn't had me kill her yet." The lizard allows itself to be fed, munching happily with what look like very sharp teeth.] * Nebrinel shrugs. "If it's all the same to you, I don't care to confirm any of his suspicions." * Fyril grins happily at the lizard, and gives it some more. "You like it, right?" [ "I don't care, either. I'd just rather he not end up with all of these weapons - Gods only know why he wants them all - and I'd rather not have to make Ada dead." ] [ The lizard nods and eats more. ] * Nebrinel shrugs, and can't help but smirk at him. "Anyone can be assassinated, eh?" [ "Yeah. Except him. When I tried to quit, I was rather vehement in the presentation of my arguments. I found out some rather interesting things about him then. Like, he doesn't have a spinal cord. And he apparently has more than one heart. And his braincase is empty. These make him rather difficult to kill in the usual ways." ] * Fyril continues to feed the lizard. "Always good when someone can appreciate good cooking, I think." If all you used was a knife, perhaps. [ "Tell me about it. You'd be surprised how many good restaurants he's discovered for me." He turns back to Nebrinel. "I used a morganti knife. The strongest one I could find. It hurt him, but not much and not for long." ] [ "I think the only thing that could really take him down is a Great Weapon. Better yet, lots of them. You guys messed him up pretty good when you fought him before." ] And to think we only paid with my clavicle. * Nebrinel turns her head back to look at Fyril. "Can you find one of the longer Morganti blades in your backpack?" * Fyril pauses in feeding the lizard, and reaches down into the satchel to rummage. He pulls out the second longest dagger. "You want this one, or the next one?" * Nebrinel turns back to The Mysterious Assassin. "Well, Master Assassin? Will that be sufficient?" [ "Probably. Anyway, this brings me to why I'm here. Well, the real reason. You guys are the only people I know who have more than one Great Weapon amongst you. Therefore, you are the only people I can alert that have a chance of killing him. And you need to do this." ] * Nebrinel frowns. "Not that I do not cherish the idea of attacking one as seemingly invulnerable as him, but we still lack quite a bit of necessary information. Like where he could be confronted, who is supporting him, and what is resources are. Seven great weapons provides one with a great breadth of abilities." * Fyril lays the weapon aside, and feeds the lizard the rest of the leftovers. [ "All good questions. He hangs around in Elnohfey City. He seems to be either part of some elite sub-branch of the guard there, or impersonating someone who is. He won't touch the Great Weapons. At all. Someone's supporting him, but I don't know who; I've heard names when he thought it wouldn't matter, and they're not the sort of names people on this planet can pronounce, much less give their babies." ] [ "All the other things I normally collect on people I'm looking to kill don't apply with him. He never leaves his branch of the palace except to meet me, sometimes. Nobody's ever seen him sleeping or eating. He never visits inns or bars or brothels, he has no mistress, and apparently no friends." ] [ "Why nobody's ever been suspicious of him is beyond me, frankly. Maybe he's done good work in the past, or something." ] * Nebrinel mms. "Well, who can speak for the lunatic tendencies of the royalty." [ "Not me. That's why I'm a crook instead." ] [ "So. Any other questions, or can I get back to being a mindless pawn of an inhuman evil mastermind?" ] * Fyril cocks his head. "Does the Jhereg have a name?" * Nebrinel chuckles. [ "Yes. 'Loiosh'." ] * Fyril nods carefully again, and looks at it sidewise. "Loiosh. All right. My name's Fyril, if you didn't know." [ "Heh. Thanks for the introduction, but I know." ] * Nebrinel chuckles and smiles faintly. "Then I won't waste my time. Do you have a trump of yourself, or do I get to spend time execrising my drawing skills so I can find you again?" [ "Don't bother. I can't be trumped. I have friends who'll contact you if something comes up, tho. One's a fellow target, so he has a vested interest in all this." ] As do we all, apparently. [ "Yes, you do. Now, I really need to get going, unless there's anything else." ] Not in particular. Fyril? * Fyril shakes his head slowly. "Nothing, really." * Fyril looks at the lizard sidewise again. "Come back again later, I'll feed you some more." He smiles brightly. [ "Alright. I'll see you around, then. Probably. And if I'm staring around blankly and mumbling to myself, that's a sign to stay away." Loiosh picks up the knife that Fyril offered, flying it over to the Mysterious Assassin Guy. The both go out the window. YE OLDE NINJA VANISH! ] * Nebrinel hmphs. "Well, I am pleased that didn't degenerate into a fight." She exhales noisily, and sits down on the bed. "Wonderful. Now we have to disappear." * Fyril looks a bit disappointed. "I kinda hoped Loiosh would want to stay. Oh well." He turns to look at Nebrinel a bit fearfully, notices she's covered, and turns more fully. "Shouldn't be too bad. Thieves are good at that." (Nebbie, you liar.) (Yeah, she is a practiced liar.) * Nebrinel shakes her head. "You must have missed the implications that he can see just about anywhere. He might not be able to see that we have great weapons, but the fact that we are alive is an awfully basic piece of information." * Fyril shakes his head and looks a bit petulant. "I was paying attention. He also implied he can't see inside the Lady's castle." * Nebrinel snorts. "That is the most annoying thing ever. I should have asked if there was anywhere else besides going back there." ( *pointlaughs at Nebby* ) * Fyril cocks his head. "What do you have against the Lady? I mean... she sorta creeps me out a bit, but living in the castle wouldn't be that bad. For a while, anyway." Relying on her hospitality again and again grates on me. I am certain it grates on her. The fact that it also means that we will once again be unable to do anything but sit around is not very pleasing either. * Fyril turns back away to look out the window. "You want to keep teaching me, right? We can do that there as well as anywhere else. And there's lots of books. And the kitchen..." His tone is almost reverential. * Nebrinel sighs. "Yes, there are lots of books. And a good kitchen. If only there were any other place." * Fyril turns to look back. "Can you think of any?" * Nebrinel shakes her head. "Faydra might have provided a similar advantage, but she's long gone. And whether any other powerful mage has managed would truly be a guess." * Fyril nods, and pushes the satchel back onto the floor. "So... we're going to go back, then?" * Nebrinel nods vacantly. It looks like she's trying to figure out something. * Fyril lies back down again, this time facing Nebrinel. "Something on your mind?" * Nebrinel blinks, and sighs. "Yes, of course." * Fyril looks at her. She looks funny sideways. "You want to talk? Maybe I can come up with something. Or should I just go back to sleep?" ('She looks funny sideways'?) (He's lying down, she's not. =P) I am debating how to confront Xivilai tomorrow when I inevitably Trump her out of the blue. I am still displeased with having to crawl back. * Nebrinel smiles almost creepily. "And that just scratches the surface." * Fyril nods slowly and sleepily. "Maybe we can... offer her something." He yawns. "You want me to help thinking?" I think telling her of the threat will be sufficient. I will just not enjoy it. * Fyril nods slowly again and closes his eyes. He murmurs, barely audibly, "I trust you." * Nebrinel smiles softly at that, and lies down on the bed. "Well, we're not going anywhere tonight." * Nebrinel . o O (Z.) [ Session End! z.z ]