Ways & Means

[skyler manfield]

Closed to Rheawien...


The finalized decision to take Deacon, the leader of the Radasanthian Crime Syndicate, down once and for all, seemed to give Skyler just the edge she needed. Instead of ducking down alleys and hiding behind disguises, she walked through the bazaar in a small town near Radasanth where the prices were a bit higher but she'd have a bit more warning if Deacon or his goons were to come stomping around nearby.

Rheawien had offered, after only one night together (one night of very heated intimacies), to spend a bit of money to help the assassin rebuild the so-called arsenal she had lost when she'd been captured and thrown in that sewer of a prison in Salvar. All of it, even the night less than two sunsets ago with the dangerously hot half-elf, seemed ages away now as she shopped through the wares of an apothecary for the right poisons to take out Deacon's men so she could get to him.

"What is that?" Skyler asked pointedly of the pharmacist, who came over to look at where her long fingers indicated, "I've never seen it before now."

"You wouldn't have," the old man replied, motioning her to come around behind the dusty curtain that seperated the common drugs from those only sold to more knowledgable customers, his hand knotted and twisted from arthritis, "We just began trading with Fallien. Their poisons are so much more intricately mixed than the ones you find here in Corone."

Skyler glanced at Rheawien, knowing these rare Fallien poisons were going to cost quite a bit more than the normal nightshade and tansy mixes Skyler normally would have bought. Well, this was Deacon. If he'd taken over from Hawk, she probably needed to spend a bit more if she wanted kill him, much less to come out with her ass still in one piece. With a shrug, she followed the merchant behind the curtain, sneezing as she set the dust to clouding when she brushed into the tattered linen.

"I need to stop someone in their tracks - not necessarily kill them, but if that happens..." she shrugged nonchalantly, her fingers tracing lightly over the faded labels on the tiny glass bottles which lined the shelf before her. It was dim in the back of the shop, and she had to squint to read the strange, spidery words on the labels of the multi-colored bottles.

"If that happens, you won't be heartbroken, eh?" the apothecary laughed dryly, "I say you should use Vadha’manikkali, a paralytic which can kill in large enough doses. I might also suggest Mallaku'akta if you have the money to drop on such a strange drug. It will scare your victim with illusions and nightmares until he forgets that you are there."

The names of the poisons were strange and yet somehow even just the sound of them was intoxicating to the young assassin. Her fingers itched to ply her trade once more without fear of Deacon breathing down her throat. If he was gone, dead, maybe Hawk could return safely and take the Syndicate over again like he should.

"How much?" Skyler asked simply, not looking at the herbalist, but instead at Rheawien, as though the two conversed silently over strategy.

[Rheawien]

To Rheawien all this pussyfooting and meddling with smelly, poisonous substances was naught but nonsense. What was the point of toying around with toxins when you could just shove a blade into someone’s belly and get the job done in an instant? Yes, there was a chance that you wind up only wounding your opponent, and with poison on your blade, even a scrape would’ve been a deadly wound. But nowadays her prey seldom succeeded to escape. And even if it did, she was more keen on sending one of her glaives to do the chase for her then waiting for some poison to kick in. But she was she and Skyler was Skyler; everybody had their own way of operating.

So, while the spindly assassin browsed the funny-named wares of the aged chemist, Rhea examined the more mundane herbs on this side of the curtain with no real intention to buy something. There were countless jars lined on the shelves, some made of porcelain and some of glass and some from terracotta, each with their own scent. Separately, one could actually find something fragrant and pleasing to the nose, but the combination of all those scents formed an odor that forced Rheawien to constantly scratch her nose. She even sneezed a couple of times, when she opened up a jar that seemed to be filled with something that smelled like oregano, and some kind of a black powder made her eyes water.

And yet, even with this annoyance bothering her, Rhea didn’t feel that shopping with Skyler was a nuisance. She would’ve liked to believe that it was because the young girl was on a personal crusade, out to take down the largest congregation of bad men in Corone, and that she was honorable enough to offer a helping hand. But that would’ve been a very appropriate lie. The truth, however, was much less chivalrous. The night of heated passion that the two girls shared a couple of days ago was the scratch for the itch that Rheawien had for a long time. Skyler brought her pleasure when so many rejected her and for that at least the half-elf owed. And once the mission was done and Deacon was dead and buried, if the assassin lass decided to prolong this relationship, turn it into something more then just sporadic nighttime rendezvouses... Well, her white-haired lover certainly wouldn’t be the one to say no.

That was why Rheawien did more then just endure the shopping; she unlaced her money pouch and allowed Skyler to purchase whatever she found necessary for the execution of her plan. So far, the uncanny pair had visited a weapons shop. Rhea had tried to make her companion invest in a solid long blade, but her words had fell on deaf ears. Instead of a weapon with a decent reach, Skyler had opted for a set of twin damascus daggers and delyn throwing knives. “To each her own,” Rhea had thought, shrugging her shoulders at Skyler’s weapons of choice.

The pharmacy was their next stop. Rheawien tried to take the bravo girl to buy some new threads, but once Skyler’s gray eyes fell on the chemist’s place, everything else paled in comparison. Her assassin comrade was on her own territory here, the half-elf didn’t fail to notice. Half the poisons that Rhea had to spell out letter by letter, Skyler seemed to know by heart. She was like a child in a candy shop, only some of this particular candy could take a grown man down in seconds. It was a rotten way to kill a man, but it was a rotten world out there. A girl got by any way she could.

The question of the price was pretty much the only part of the conversation that Rheawien acknowledged. The chemist spoke of some Vadymana-something and Malliku-somethingelse, names that meant as much to the white-haired vixen as mutterings of a lunatic. She untied her canvas pouch and handed it over to Skyler.

“Buy whatever you deem necessary. I have no idea what’s what here,” Rhea said, handing over about eight hundred pieces of gold currency. She had very little use for money. She did her best to save her shinies, but when her bankroll reached over fifteen hundred and she was already armed to the teeth, she realized that were just gathering dust. She spent a dozen here for lodgings, a dozen there for food, but that was about it. Nothing that some quick mercenary work couldn’t offset.

Leaving Skyler to her purchases, she scoured the shelves again, searching for some leaves of Mentha. They had absolutely no poisonous properties to speak of, but they did help making your breath more bearable after a night of drinking. Or just nights in general. When she finally found them, dusty on the upmost shelve, she had to stretch quite a lot to reach them.

“I’ll take some of these as well. Just a handful will suffice,” Rheawien said to the old geezer whose eyes lingered on her visage for but a moment before they were drown to the impressive cleavage that was on display below her gray cloak. It wasn’t that the half-elf aimed to make it look as... scandalous as it did. But the blood-red Lightbane breastplate that she donned as a precaution – they were, after all, out to kill the leader of the Syndicate – clung to her figure greedily, almost like a corset. But seeing as it was the only piece of armor Rhea had, it wasn’t like she had a choice. Besides, it went quite well with her pants; they both enveloped her like second skin.

[skyler manfield]

It took her the best part of an hour, but Skyler finally got the chemist down to what she thought was a reasonable price for 8 doses of Vadha'manikkali (16 if she didn't want to kill, only paralyze), and 3 doses of Mallaku'akta. Judging by the old man's smirk though, he made a decent profit and Skyler could have negotiated better. No matter, wasn't like it was her money, and she now had what she needed to take Deacon out.

"Care for lunch?" Skyler offered, as if it were her money she spent, "God's know I'm damn near starved."

There was a little deli nearby that wasn't half bad, at least not if you didn't mind hunks of fat dangling from your meat, wilted greens, and half-stale bread. Skyler never minded, as any food was better than none. She took off in that direction without waiting for a response, figuring Rheawien would steer them elsewhere if she had other plans.

She was distracted, nervous, and more than a bit jumpy. It took all of her concentration not to just disappear into the shadows and never be seen again - even by the half elf she now owed so much to. Deacon was the leader of the entire bloody Syndicate. He had, as Hawk's second, leveraged his way into the loyalties of most of the Council with money and threats, and then tried to get Hawk out of the way by getting Skyler to assassinate her own mentor. Of course even if she hadn't killed Hawk, Deacon had still succeeded. But she knew that if she could just take Deacon out, then many of those who pretended loyalty to him out of fear would turn on him in the end.

At least she hoped so. Rumor had it that Deacon had holed himself up in his "mansion" beneath the streets of Radasanth, a disgustingly luxurious spider-hole set in the midst of the catacombs which now lay at the center of a labyrinth of tunnels and booby traps set up by his predecessors. Fortunately for Skyler, she'd been down there many a time for training and could run those tunnels in the pitch black as if she were born in them. Where Deacon had posted guards was anyone's best guess, but she figured if she could get the map in her head down on paper, Rheawien might have an opinion of where they would best serve the crime lord.

Skyler realized her mind had wandered and paused in a bright shaft of sunlight that shone down through an opening in the leafy elms that stood stately between the shops on either side of the wide avenue. A glance around for Rheawien made her smile, wondering just how far ahead of the white-haired minx she'd gotten.

[Rheawien]

“Now where did that girl go?” Rheawien wondered, standing with her hands on the curves of her hips and scanning the wide street that unfolded before her. She had stopped for some window-shopping shortly after Skyler mentioned something about a meal, inspecting a selection of high boots made of crocodile skin. But by the time the half-elf acknowledged the price tag and realized that she could buy six pairs of cowhide boots for one pair of these fancy polished ones behind the glass, her assassin friend was gone. And even though Emerton was a modest river town several leagues east of Radasanth and its streets weren’t nearly as wide or as densely populated like those of the Corone capitol, Rhea failed to find a specific person in a steady stream of bodies.

Doubt crept into her mind as her eyes passed over the quaint streets, making her think of the probability that Skyler intentionally fled. After all, the assassin lass acquired the tools for her mission; it would’ve been a perfect time to say farewell to her benefactor. Rheawien suspicion in this particular scenario was further amplified by the fact that this wouldn’t have been the first time she was hung out to dry. Sarah Dahlios had a habit of pulling of a stunt similar to this. The Lavinian would lure her into the bed only to later disappear with both Rhea’s dignity and Rhea’s bankroll. This time the circumstances were different, but the result seemed to be the same.

That her negativity and unsaid accusations were uncalled for, the white-haired lulu realized once she reached the next crossroad and took a gander to the intersecting avenue. There were lush trees lined up on each side of the street, their crowns meeting overhead to form a natural awning. The shops were scarcer here, giving way to the residential two-story constructions with arced windows and small terraces. It almost looked like the Government District back in Radasanth, albeit more modest in both glamour and the size of the housings. In the middle of this urbane scenery was Skyler, casting a smile over her shoulder and blowing away the smokes of Rhea’s suspicion. She hurried after the brunette with a smirk of her own.

“Girl, you sure walk fast,” Rheawien said to her once she was close enough. They proceeded through the soothing shade side by side. “I turned around for a moment and you were nowhere to be seen.”

It wasn’t that the half-elf couldn’t move fast. If situation dictated such an action, Rheawien could quite probably outrun any and all adversaries that opposed her. But shopping was different. When she was on the prowl to toss away some gold pieces, Rhea liked to do it leisurely, almost lazily, purchasing something in one shop and lazing around in at least three others. But Skyler was different, her vocation crawled beneath her skin, making her conduct business almost methodically. It was probably because the girl could scarcely relax, always wary and cautious, acting with a specific purpose or not at all. Rheawien could respect that trait. She didn’t like it a whole lot – it made Skyler dead serious way too often – but she could respect it.

The food shop that the assassin led them to was on the far end of the green avenue, where the town slowly degenerated into less organized outskirts. But despite the fact that stone gave way to wood as the material of choice and that the houses here seemed more modest, the deli still looked better then anything a person could run into in the Slums of Radasanth. There was even an outdoors terrace – which looked like more of an oversized porch with a roof that probably couldn’t handle even the lightest of rains – with half a dozen sets of crude chairs and round tables. Rheawien decided to sit outside; it was a vibrant day and judging by the smells of fried meat that were coming from the insides, the interior was probably pretty stuffy and hot.

“So, how come you know of this place anyways?” Rhea asked once she was settled on the cushion-less chair. She looked for the menu somewhere on the table surface, but all she found were tin platters and unpolished utensils. She picked up the knife all the same and made a slow, stabbing gesture towards Skyler, chuckling as she did so. “Did some hush-hush business here before perhaps?”

((Whatever Skyler orders, Rhea will have the same. You can also bring up the topic of getting some info on Deacon if you want to.))

[skyler manfield]

"Sorry," she laughed apologetically, "When my mind wanders, I forget to make sure you can see me. Never thought I'd find a time when disappearin' wouldn't come in handy."

It had been hard to describe exactly what her talent was to Rheawien, and the best she could do was say she could become invisible to those who didn't know where to look for her. That wasn't exactly the case, but close enough, and it didn't require Skyler to try to explain in depth just how sneaky she could be.

As she took a seat across from the white-haired elf, one of the waitresses came over to take their order and smiled as she recognized Skyler. Normally the assassin would have been up and running, but she knew she could trust everyone at Owen's Deli and returned the girl's smile.

"Sweetie!" the waitress exclaimed, leaning down to hug the rail-thin girl happily, "Long time no see! Was a time when we here thought you was dead. That was the rumor goin' round. Old man'll be glad to know you ain't though."

"Good to see you too Emily," Skyler replied, "But let's not let too many folk know I'm still 'round. Deacon wants the whole dead rumor to be true - he's lookin' to make it so if he can."

"Oh my!" Emily exclaimed, her blonde curls bouncing brightly around her rosy cheeked face, "Well I'll make sure to say I saw your dead body then, just so Deacon won't come lookin' for you here."

"Not necessary," Skyler laughed, always put at ease when around Emily and her family, "Anyways, at the moment I'm so starved I think I could eat half a horse - I'll settle for cow though if you got it. Your daddy still make them roast beef po'boys he's so famous for 'round town? If he does, we'll both have one, and some of your mama's apple beer."

Emily nodded cheerfully and bounced away from them to the next table and then disappeared into the kitchen. Skyler shook her head and laughed. That girl always had too much energy. She looked up at Rheawien as the half-elf asked about how she came to know this backwater little deli.

"No hush-hush business here," she laughed again, showing that when she smiled enough she actually had dimples, "First time I came here was with Rose - the madame at the brothel I was born in. She was trying to buy Emily's older sisters Izzie and Kate. Fortunately, their daddy, Owen, would have none of that. Emily and me started playing that day - she was my first friend - and after that I snuck out of Radasanth with the turnip carts as often as I could get away with. Got several lashings for that."

Emily brought their lunch to them in a hurry and bustled off to yet another table. Their sandwiches were overflowing with hunks of roast beef and slathered with gravy, and Skyler dug right in, washing it all down with the bittersweet cider that she loved. This place was more like home than Radasanth was she thought for a moment. At least she always had wished it was home. When she was a child she had dreamed of being one of Owen's many daughters - he had 12 of them - happily working at the Deli and bickering with her older sisters. Instead she'd stayed out from under foot at the whorehouse and been bought by Deacond by her 11th birthday. Some dream come true.

Skyler shook herself from her wandering thoughts, took a deep swig of her cider, and sat back in her chair. There was a lot of planning to do if she wanted to ever live a life free of Deacon. And Rheawien was the only one who could help her do that.

"If I draw you a map of the tunnels under Radasanth, and all the booby traps, you think you could figure out where Deacon might post his guards?" Skyler asked sliding her plate off the parchment placemat below it and motioning to Emily for her charcoal stick, which was promptly put in her hand.

"Deacon, if he knows I'm comin' for him, has gone down to his underground mansion," Skyler sketched out the center of the catacombs, and then began tracing the mazelike tunnels that branched out from there, "He's got himself holed up here. If I can get there, without his guards killing me first, I think I might have a chance."