Beware Enchanted Rings

[Kai]

A few miles away from the bustling town of Radasanth, lay a small merchant town named Sylorn, it was a very small town, only one bar and inn, several shops and houses on a small street and one noteworthy looking building that seemed to have been renovated from a old warehouse.

It was within this Small lazy town that a man with a considerable past now lives, unlike his glory days of old; one can usually find him on the decking of the large house with a powerful bottle of alcohol. Currently freeloading in along with three people who he had met and became odd allies with, being the unofficial bouncer of there small delivery company, payment, a roof and 3 meals a day.

Kaiser Nightwind, Survivor of the Castagar war, Master of obscenity and all round goof, seemed at first glance to be rather content with his life.

Yeah

Bloody

Right

Kai sighed for the Umpteenth time as he watched in Dismay the carnage that was known to him as Jesty rip through his castle with one mighty stroke of her sledge hammer.

His castle had been a deck of cards of cause

And the Demon was one of his ‘Friends’ that he had met in some forest when a witch had decided that they would all make some interesting pets, the group had stuck together and Kai found that the Jester and his ‘boss’ were much too sticky for his liking.

Kai had spent days, sitting around moping about doing nothing, Quite Frankly it pissed Sera off royally, Maverick was out of Town and Jesty was out Trying to cheer him up, and failing miserably. The Pent up tension finally reached a boiling point and like a well drawn string silently snapped.

“I’m headin out, you guys want anything from the shops?” he finally asked, Causing Sera, who had been looking at some paper, accounting or something for her well run business, in surprise and Jesty to start day dreaming about something or other.

He got no reply so he just made his way out after collecting his jacket from the back of his chair.

His tail was swinging violently as he left there home, not that he was about to punch someone in the face anytime soon, it was more of a pining, a longing for the old days, back when he was fighting in wars, questing with friends, being Told to grow up by the one man he personally saw as a master swordsman.

Oh and taking this piss out of his mono coloured best friend, who hadn’t come around to pay a visit in a while, damn no wonder kai accepted that random challenge to the citadel, he was bored.

No not bored, Kai realised, he was god damn restless, drinking himself into a stupor really wasn’t doing anything to hold him back, and it was feeling like a god damn dam, ready to break free.

That meant two things...

Either A: he was going to slug someone in the face some time soon

Or B: trouble was about to slap him in the face multiple times. Karma was a bitch, and his few years long Vacation was quite Possibly coming to an end, after leaving him for so long with nothing to do, it was almost guaranteed that something was about to turn up and turn everything he knew on it’s side.

By the time he blinked and realised he was walking with no destination, he stopped and looked around, seeing a few stores of the market were on today, odd, they usually weren’t open today, must be passing trader. Without any Real money to bargain he settled for simply walking up and simply browsing what they had on show.

Which wasn’t anything grand at all, a sword here, bit of cloth there, Ooo Elvin rope, nice.

“And how may I Interest you today?” the merchant asked, and Kai sniffed with amusement, not really paying attention “Just looking” he replied before reaching out and picking up the most simplest of rings.

“Ahh, I believe that ones enchanted” the merchant said, obviously eager to sell something today. For Kai he took a look at the ring and almost snorted with laughter, the thing must have been brass at best, nothing serious could have been enchanted on it right.

“Oh ya? What?” he asked challenging the Merchant to make a good sell and in true and good fashion the Merchant did “Not sure, only heard from the guy who gave it me that it involves a Sacrifice type of enchantment”

The Silvet freeloader blinked at that, Sacrificial Enchantments were supposedly stronger than your average simple enchantment, lot of blood involved, heck there was a bloody death involved due to the obviousness of the name. Kai didn’t believe it for a second. “Meh, what’s the worst that could happen” he asked the Merchant.

Now kai, was a tactical genious, being able to recognise most forms of offence due to seeing most of them once before, and personally experiencing things in battle that would make anyone quickly learn not to get into the position again.

Kai however has no past experience with Magic, echanted or other such kinds of rings.

So his mistake was genuine and valid.

After all once the Ring slipped onto his finger, he initially didn’t even feel the change, the only thing he did notice was the Merchant was slightly taller and had a look of confused bewilderment, then kai realised that something had changed.

He looked down to inspect the damage, and found only two words

“….oohhhh shit”

[Canen Darkflight]

A gentle ray of early morning sunshine was all that was needed to wake the Khaian from his peaceful night's sleep as it broke through the gap in the curtains and illuminated and warmed his face. Slowly, Syrion's eyes drearily opened, focused on the disturbance momentarily, before rolling back up into his head and turning over to face the other side of the room, throwing the cover over him again to trap the warmth.

It was nice to be in a soft, warm bed, even if he did have to pay a somewhat large amount of money for the luxury. Mostly his recent jobs had involved protecting or escorting people of no particular importance. Couriers, wanted criminals who didn't want to be caught short of the law, anyone dumb enough to part with a lot of their money for his no-questions-asked services. Naturally these people seemed to want to spend a lot of time on the road, and camping out in the middle of forests, deserts and out of the sight of the local populace in general was now second nature.

So, for once, being able to wake up without being savaged by some hideous, salivating creature or being held at knifepoint by a widow with a grudge was nice. But, like anything in life, it came at a price, and that price was, of course, money.

Syrion stirred further, now unable to fall back to sleep, and eventually threw the duvet onto the floor in a fit. He couldn't ever seem to get comfortable when he was emotionally, mentally and physically drained. The jobs had stopped coming, finance for his work was getting thin again, and soon, he would have to go out and look for some big employment. Perhaps a short term contract protecting some paranoid government official, one of the big pay days down at the local cop shop on a bounty?

Who knows?

This in mind, he wandered out of his bed and into the bathroom, splashing the cool water onto his face. Looking at his somewhat shaggy figure in the mirror, he pondered on what to do next.

Sylorn must have some demand for my type, judging by the criminal fraternity around here... Syrion determined, rubbing his eyes and scratching his neck. I'll shop around, put my foot in the door. But for now, time to head downstairs and make some friends over some early morning ale and some boar meat. Beer and pig grease: the oil that keeps the protection engine running.

Ten minutes later, he was at his table, denoted by the vomit stain, his vomit stain, that he had left as a territorial marking device after his previous night's heavy social evening. A plate full of roasted boar meat and a tankard of ale were soon within his clutches, and as happy as larry, the bodyguard for hire began to chow down.

It was an important rule in his line of work that one should always eat and drink when he or she could, because you never knew when the next good meal would come.

[Kai]

Poke

The initial surprise had worn off moments ago

Poke

The Merchant was still gob-smacked

Kai, was right now rendered utterly speechless, amazed and shocked, but the silvets great tactical, mind made two observations, the first was never to put on an unknown enchanted ring, no make that item ever again. The second was that, this wasn’t that big of a deal right, so what if the change wasn’t an illusion right.

Out of Morbid Curiosity Kai eyed a mirror for sale in the merchants wears and without permission or even asking, considering the current situation made all things like that rather moot. Fingers grasped the handle and pulled the reflective side into view.

‘… That’s … ‘his mind failed to come up with a response as the face looking back, was really not his own, err well it was, but it actually wasn’t, umm maybe that wasn’t a way of describing this.

In the mirror, was a young looking girl, who Kai noted had a similarity to both his own mother and too his own daughter, yet instead of a Silvets Trade blood red eyes, his magically dyed green eyes looked back, but his hair, which had been greying anyway returned to it’s shocking grey. Despite having the face of two relatives, he did find the face somewhat, from a 3rd person perspective to be rather attractive, but that thought died rather quickly.

Kai put the mirror down and just to make sure

Poke

Yup, they were still there, and just to make sure that what he still thought was happening had indeed happend, unashamed he pulled his now ill fitting pants, and shoved in a searching hand for his one true male friend, unfortunately his hand had to file a missing person wanted poster.

Kai turned his –Her attention back to the Merchant with an amused expression and a chuckle to the situation, seeing as how the ring had transformed him, reverting back to normal was a simple process of taking the ring off.

Ahh, how perfectly simple

“Interesting ring, but I really don’t think your gonna be able to sell a ring that flips a persons gender like this” Kai shrugged before reaching for the ring to pull it off, and encountering some difficulty. Not to worry, probably just his –her skin bunching up preventing the removal.

Kai was there for at least 10 minutes before coming to the conclusion that he wasn’t pulling this ring off any time soon. That pretty much started the downward Spiral that would make the rest of the Silvets day.

“Ok jackass, tell me how to get this damn thing off!” she demanded, deciding now that she didn’t like being a girl, things were decidedly off, weight, size, reach, feel and touch, the way his clothes felt now, tight in new area’s and loose in others.

The merchant wasn’t much help, “I don’t know, I didn’t even know it did that!”

“What the HELL were you thinking selling a potentially dangerous item?” Kai roared back, only slightly panicky about the situation

“What w-were you thinking putting it on?” he retorted, and unchecked in all history books, was this the time Kai failed, in any kind of come back, Kai, the one who would pull down his own pants in the middle of a war zone just to moon the other army, was rendered utterly dumbfounded.

He- she growled in frustration, clenching a fist and smashing it against the table the merchants other items were on, her tail literally stood up and erect, to tense to actually feely move about under its own accord.

“Under the circumstances” she snarled “I think I am going to have to hold onto the ring” the tone was low, serious and too the point, but the merchant’s brain shifted gears rather quickly “Not a chance, that’s my ring I own it, cut your own god damn finger off”

Kai was not easily pissed off, unless of cause he was experiencing some form of mid-life crisis, which anyone may agree, this was a perfect excuse to be able to get pissed off rather quickly.

“Not gonna Fucking Happen pisscheese, but if you really want it so bad” she stopped before raising a fist, the one with the ring that won’t come off was on, said finger was the only one extended “Then I am gonna have to shove this so far up your ass, your brains gonna be feeling it. Or I could do it the easy way and slug you in the face. So as a Fucking consolation prize, I should at least get to keep the bloody thing that has so far, ruined my day, and it’s still fucking morning.”

Rant done, Kai spun on one heel and effectively stomped away leaving one rather jaded and cowed merchant.

Kai could not help but stop and ponder things over once again, ignoring effectively the new sensations that this brought on, kai morbidly thought on how it could actually be fun, when his brain kicked in gear at least, then the joke soon lost it’s funny. Kai was actually startled about the fact that he- she, no HE god damn it, was seriously tempted to slug someone in the face, he hadn’t had one of those urges for a LONG time.

“snap out of it!” she ordered herself, stopping dead in the middle of the street attracting curious eyes of the towns citizens, which was quite furiously ignored. ‘think logically here’ what Kai had here was an Enchanted ring, that Changed his Gender and won’t come off. Supposedly it was created from a Sacrificial enchantment meant that the Ring was possibly magically intended to stay on his finger till Kai died. Great, Kai wasn’t a mage, so his own knowledge on this subject was sketchy at best, theoretical and guess work at best, but there was one thing kai did know.

Anyone who knew anything, information, the past, jobs and general gossip were barkeepers. Sad but true, and Kai knew that his own local Barkeeper was in the know about several wizened old mages who lived nearby, that could direct him in the right direction to find some kind of cure.

And not even sparing a single second to even wonder what Jesty and Sera would do if Kai returned home in the wrong gender; the thought included lots of wounded ego, pride and a serious blow to his currently lost manhood, and newly gained Womanhood …

That was the reason Kai was Sprinting Down the street, shoulder barged the door almost causing the door to fly off it’s hinges as she burst through. Flashed up to the bar itself pulled and threw a random person off a stool for better access to the barkeeper and all but grabbed the man by his collar.

“NEED, INFORMATION, ENCHANTED RINGS, CURE NOW!” Hysterical, Kai? Never, at the moment it was more like a bestial rage that threatened death and pain, to the wrong answer. The Barkeeper, being the quick witted and astute and observant person that he was, listened to the words carefully, recognising the clothes of this Madwoman, to be that of his best customer and quite intelligently replied.

“What the Crabby hell happened to you?” Kai then found no restraint, her left hand snapped out, grabbed him by his collar, pulled him closer to her and shouted in his face “Wrong answer, try again please!”

“Well what the EFF H Happened!” he asked rather alarmed.

Kaiser Nightwind was quite aware of the scene this was probably making, but didn’t really care, if it came to it, and if she had any hint that anyone here had a cure, she would leap on them and wrestle them for it before even asking if it worked. She was also morbidly aware that some of the male customers here would just love for that to happen.

Kai nearly shoved her finger in the mans face giving him a close inspection to the ring

“Enchanted ring, go figure, won’t bloody come off either! I want to know how to get it off”

“Cut off your own finger?” someone to her left brilliantly suggested, and it came somewhat of a surprise when Kai suddenly spun around and did indeed Slug Someone in the face, the man dropped from his stool and onto the ground like a sack of potatoes.

“Now you’re just barred from here for two weeks you know” the bartender stated off handily

“Your loss” Kai replied, now effectively in a much more solemn and calmer mood

[Canen Darkflight]

"You're disturbing my meal, and pissing off the patrons. You got a problem? Sort it out outside."

A voice solumn enough to communicate a great deal of distaste at the Silvet's temper tantrum floated quietly across the now awestruck and silent tavern room, reaching the silver haired woman who had flown into a fury at the bar. There was another moment of silence. No one moved.

"I'm sorry, perhaps you didn't hear me..."

Syrion got up from his table, slowly and calmly sliding back the chair so it made a horrible scraping noise across the rickety wooden floor, that horrible screech of wood on wood ringing through the room and making the patrons cringe. His large, booted feet lay heavy thumps onto the stained decking, each footstep like the bellowing of a war drum, his arms ready to carve a path through people out in the way if necessary. It wasn't. People parted like the waves as Syrion's hulk approached the bar, stopping just short of an unconscious man lay in a pool of his own blood, and the offending aggressor.

His brows furrowed, and his blue eyes flared up and then quickly narrowed, displaying his quiet anger as he saw fit to get his message across. But then, a quick, familiar flash of a face he had seen before swiflty bolted through his memory.

"You..." Syrion began, the images of Kaiser Nightwind from his latest Citadel encounter flickering through his brain. As the Silvet turned to face him, the Khaian's eyebrows raised, and he took a step back, taken aback.

"Oh...not what I expected. Well, whoever you are, clean up your mess, and get out of here. I've not had a good, peaceful meal in a while. I want to enjoy it."

[Kai]

There was an initial moment of silence after Kai had quite admirable decked the intrusive man, She was calmer now that she had vented a lot of the tension that had built up to fast too quick for anyone to handle. It was still there, but much more tolerable, and there was going to be nothing that would stand in his –her way, pity upon them if they did.

Then the next obstacle showed its face

Someone who had been having a peaceful meal thought too much of himself, making his presence known, thinking that they had all the power in the world to kick her out without information the bartender possibly knew.

Unlike her usual attitude to such people this one was frowned upon and mentally she chided fate ‘I don’t need this crap right now!’ she stood rooted, eyes closed and one fist clenching and unclenching in an attempt to hold off something she may regret.

Kai was even trying to count to ten, backwards, in his own nearly forgotten native tongue.

The man approached and the vast sea of shocked spectators, many among those who recognised her clothes, form, tail and reputation kept quiet, stayed back and knew to stay out of the line of direct fire.

She turned to face the man and gained a small amount of surprise and a whole lot more of an urge to crash her had against the hard oak bartop. The chanced of encountering ‘HIM’ again so suddenly was such an improbability that showed once more how Kai’s lazy was quickly spiralling down into oblivion.

Syrion was young a foolish and prone to mistakes, the fact that Kai had initially thought him to have a resemblance to Canen, and to actually know one of his Trade attacks was aggravating and annoying seeing as how there was no possible way such things could happen.

The man, who Kai didn’t actually know the name of seeing as how after there tussle in the citadel, he had left after getting his arm fixed and healed, not to mention a few memories erased of being buried alive under what Kai recognised to be a landmark of his past.

But still, the man seemed to actually have a small bout of recollection before dismissing the obvious, after all, Syrion had met him when kai was fully male and happy about it, there was no way a girl of similar style was even going to make the man think that they were one in the same.

In another Time and another place, likely one where kai wasn’t suffering with a gender crisis, things would have probably degraded into a barroom brawl, quite possibly ending with the Radasanth guards coming to town.

Kai Scoffed as she gave the man a once over, completely weapon-less, doing well now that he was not crushed to death “I live round here” Kai stated simply turning partially around to the barkeeper, keeping eyes on the person he met in the citadel.

“I bet if you suddenly became a woman due to some fucked up ring, you would be handling the situation in stride won’t ya?!” she turned and looked at the pooling red blood coming from the one she slugged and blinked before looking at her still clean knuckles, feh, must of hit his head with the fall, no way, even pissed off as she was she could muster enough strength to draw blood, not when she hit the guys cheek and loosening a few teeth that it.

“Unless you know of a possible cure to get this damn ring off, I am all ears, I’ll leave peacefully and even fucking pay for your meal, but if you don’t, then shut the hell up and keep yer damn money grubbing nose outa my damn business!” She then turned her entire Attention to the bartender and nodded in his direction “I’ll make ends meat later, right now I want a list of all the local mages you know!”

[Canen Darkflight]

The woman's dialogue was jumbled, messy and angry, and as she jumped from sentence to sentence Syrion tried to make sense of what he was being told, all the while attempting to restrain himself from thrusting a balled fist into the side of her jaw. Usually he was above hitting women, but sometimes, you couldn't say what you wanted to with words.

Then, his focus suddenly shifted to something he thought he had just heard, incorrectly, maybe.

Did she say she had just suddenly become a woman? Syrion pondered, questioning his own perception of the past fifteen seconds. Or did I just imagine that?

The bartender was looking more and more anxious, and Syrion was growing more confused by the second. Would he ask the question?

There was no way he wouldn't try and make sense of this. He'd have to get his answer now his curiosity had peaked.

"Right. Firstly, I might have heard you wrong, but i'm sure I just heard you say a moment ago that you put on a ring that just turned you into a woman." Syrion's face furled into a contorted mixture of confusion and curiosity. He was now stroking the bottom of his chin between his finger and thumb. "Secondly..." His expression changed to a more threatening look. "...Unless you want to be collecting the fragments of your smashed skull off this filthy floor with a pair of broken hands, you better learn to show me some respect, and the people of this tavern some respect. This is the wrong place to come in and start a row, and i'm the wrong person to wind up, capeche?"

Syrion's eyes steeled into daggers, and his knuckles tensed, the anger welling up inside of him.

"So, what the fuck is going on?"

[Kai]

And once again, whoever the man was had spoke in a haughty tone looking down upon kai. Now, if there was one thing kai hated, it was when people spoke down on people, or in some way think they were superior to everyone else. They were the people Kai absolutely loved slugging in the face, but there was one thing she quickly came to realise.

And a quick glance over to the bartender confirmed kai’s suspicion, despite charging in demanding information for a cure, it seemed no one could quite understand what she was saying. Damn, she thought ruefully, loosing grasp of the situation and acting in panic and a major adrenalin rush, just the perfect start anyone could need.

Kai took in a deep breath, a very deep breath so that everyone in the room could hear her breath and the exhale that soon followed it, then eyes turned back to the obstacle, or rather the man, who he had met in the citadel, and gave him a shark like grin.

“Without me as a distraction, this town faces the full wrath of Jesty”

Suddenly the whole bar save a few from out of town took a breath, choked on it and suddenly turned around and went back to there own business. Kai watched that with a satisfied smirk. Jesty, was a rather lovable individual, judging what Kai had got from her story she had been a court jester of some insane demon prince, so her actions, moods and actions were all greatly exaggerated.

On kai’s first day in Sylorn she had tried to put her head in a horse’s mouth curious to know what a “gift-horse in the mouth” actually was. And with Kai’s presence her attention instead of being spread amongst the towns residents was constantly upon kai, just trying to cheer him up.

Kai had only not gone insane because he too had a prankster in him that appreciated everything the young demon did, and then some.

It was all the Respect Kai got, and also kept what peace he could, and in return they ignored her business when epic pissing matches between Kai and Jesty started.

The bartender grunted “Humph, damn nuisance, that one, But kai, your still bared for two weeks, and you’ll be cleaning this place for that one” his head nodded over to person Kai had slugged, now having his head tended too by the barman’s two lovely daughters.

Kai nodded but not without a grimace before turning back to Syrion

“Oh I know what your like to wind up, you dropped a ceiling on the both of us in the citadel remember” Kai commented, surprisingly not in a voice that would wind a person up but more in a tone that she knew exactly what he meant, and a decent enough clue for her identity for the man.

Kai expected him to fall on his backside with laughter any second, when his brain made the connection of cause, Kai sighed just at the mere mental image of it, there was no way she could face Jesty or Sera right now, Kai would NEVER live it down.

“So how many local mages do you know?” She asked turning back to the Barman who held a hand to his chin, thoughtful before shrugging “None Actually”

“ … oh son of a-“ she stopped, no doubt annoyed, “Great, Thank fucking God Gideon and Canen ain’t here, Those damn Nocturnes would really be loving this.” An odd comment kai knew, to actually name those two, but she knew out of everyone she knew, it was those two, there opinion that would matter, the only ones that would matter. Speaking of Nocturnes, she turned an eye back to Syrion; there was a connection there, but hell if she knew what it was.

She held up the hand that bored that cursed enchanted ring, the metallic almost brass like surface gleaming in the light, damn thing was mocking her.

“You’ve been on the road right” it wasn’t a question “you should know someone, right?”

[Canen Darkflight]

Alright. OK. What is going on? The guy in the Citadel was a girl. Or is now a girl. Either way, he, or she, or it has changed, and I don't know why. And I really don't know why I care either...but what about what he, or she, or it, just said?

The past five minutes had contained too much information for Syrion's head to process. His breath beighted, his eyes flickering across the room, the Khaian stood still, and tried to take everything in.

One thing at a time. Straighten out your mind.

Syrrion took a big gulpful of air into his lungs, and attempted to make sense.

"So, if I've understood what I think I've understood, you are the same prick I fought in the Citadel, only that now you're a girl against your will, which, if memory serves me correctly, you were not before." Syrion paused, a bright, gleaming smirk smeared across his face. "That's a theory called Karma in action, bitch. You mooned me, and you lost your ballsack for it."

" I'm not even sure that under the circumstances I would even want to help you at all. But there was something else..." Syrion turned, pacing a little down the aisle between two sets of tables, before turning back. "You mentioned a name. Canen. How do you know that name?"

Another pause, another breath of air, and a raucious laugh left Syrion's lips. "Tell you what, we'll trade information. You tell me what I want to know about how you know the name Canen, and I may be able to point you in the direction of someone who might know how to give your balls back."

A smattering of quiet mirth rippled through the patrons within earshot. Syrion liked having the crowd on his side, and it provoked him to round off nicely.

"After all..." Syrion continued with a wry smirk "...he may just give you a bigger set than you had before. If you even had any."

[Kai]

Kai snorted With Contempt; she quickly recognised the game the man was trying to play. Get the other Riled up so much that they loose there cool and enjoy the show as they made an ass out of themselves. It failed, Kai claimed to have invented that game after all, or at least be very talented in said game.

The crack the man made about Karma was quick and fluent of his tongue, Kai grinned at it and replied in full

“By that logic of Karma, if I show you my new Chest that means I get my balls back right? Then again maybe yours would actually Drop at that” friendly banter at its best, Kai could get into such pissing matches with his Boss it wasn’t even funny. But Fresh content was changing, and if it wasn’t for rather pressing matters this could have been kept up all day.

If Syrion acknowledged it or not he never showed it, instead it appeared that Kai had caught his attention, a name, ‘Canen’ well, Kai had to admit, and this was taking an interesting turn. She had already pegged the man as being somehow connected to the Nocturnes. After spending a lot of time around one you tend to learn there racial traits and Canen had things from his past flying at him constantly left, right and centre.

And Kai, more often than not, got dragged along for the ride.

This had to be the offspring of one of the bloody bastards, it HAD to be, having a Blood Trait ability was the first clue, the Resemblance which was unmistakable. If Kai to hazard a Guess, Canen was the father, considering Gideon had not been around for too many years to keep track off.

But there were a few things that could not add up, Canen and Gideon, heck the Entire Race was wiped out save those two, and Last Kai knew, those two could not conceive a child with anything but a Nocturne.

“Trade information … Suuure” she was sceptical, Blood Relation or not, this kid was still green, talented maybe, rough around the edges but still a god damn rookie.

Not that Kai was a rookie, just … umm out of Practice.

Then he made the jab that he may get bigger balls if he did, that set off a small bout of chuckling, Kai went to fold her arms, but that presented a small problem and after a little fumble and an accidental self groping, decided in favour of hooking thumbs into her pockets.

“Feh, Says the one who started cowering against the wall when the room got a little dark.” Silent breaths of awe flowed silently, as each person pretending to mind there own business will wonder how that ball was going to get thrown back.

“Insult aside, by ‘Canen’ I presume you mean ‘Canen Darkflight’ well if it’s information about him then, yah, I know him, being a sworn battle brother an all” a stray thought went through her head, if he and Canen were brothers, Strange considering the current situation, then that would make this man …

Some kind of Nephew?

Oh, shit just got real

[Canen Darkflight]

Sworn battle brothers?

"If my father took you as his 'sworn battle brother'.." Syrion noted, pulling up information he had remembered from Canen's memoirs, the only thing he had to tell him anything about his heritage, "..then you must be one of two people."

He walked forward slowly, and for the first real time since the Citadel, scanned the woman in front of him, trying to remember what she looked like as the male he had fought in the arena. Silvery fur and hair, a tail that whipped from side to side, and those crimson eyes coupled with the strength of this creature as he had known him all rang true to a description of the Silvet Kaiser Nightwind.

Kaiser Nightwind, a general in the Red Dragon army, and a veteran who had served alongside Canen.

The memoirs hadn't really given him much on other characters in his father's life. The notes dated back to an event called The Castigar War, a terrible conflict that had raged throughout a land called Karak, pitting a collection of smaller clans against the mighty Castigar army, led by Arius Mephisto. Mostly, the notes were of tactical nature: troop movements, planned raid dates and times, even an inventory of the remaining stocks and weapons inside the Red dragon's headquarters. There was even a note from Gideon to Canen regarding the current affairs of various allies. But when Kaiser was mentioned, it was in a personal diary.

Myself and General Kaiser took Solomon Bridge from the Castigars today. At times, his general idleness and laid back attitude concern me, and he is often easily distracted, but today he fought without remorse and without mercy, without which we surely would have been beaten back.

"Kaiser Nightwind, the Silvet." Syrion finally said. He looked up, and gestured an open hand to the table beside him, his attitude more relaxed and his temper cooled. "You want my help? Let's talk in my tongue. Yes, I know someone who might be able to help..."

Syrion took an ounce of gold from his pocket in the form of a coin, and flipped it into the air, catching it between finger and thumb effortlessly, flashing a smile at his soon-to-be business partner.

"But it'll cost you. Usually, I'm five hundred GP a time...I'll help you for a hundred dead."

[Kai]

Now this was odd, Kai admitted, the insults that had been passed back and forth were now as dead a doornail. Not to mention the mans tone, his attitude quite literally pulled a 180, changing from dismissal, to actual Acknowledgement or realization, or whatever it was called.

“Father eh, Yeah I see the Resemblance, The Dark Matter Orb Got me thinking way back too.” She commented idly, the usual arrogance taking an exit, this wasn’t the time for it, his manhood was on the line here, and unless Kai could find a cure in fast time, well.

There was no saying exactly how ‘Complete’ this change actually was, and he really had no intention of finding out either.

“It’s Just Kai” she muttered when he said her name “an, on that note, Drop the Silvet part too, unwanted past an all that” as soon as Kai had said that, she suddenly wished she had not, for some reason, some foreboding reason, she knew that was going to bite her in the ass.

Karma indeed

Syrion Gestured to one of the chairs, seemingly in a Business mode of thinking, odd how that suddenly changed as quickly as it did. Still now that it seemed things were moving along and the Obstacle seemed more like a boon each passing second, until of cause he made the notion that he cost 500 gold for his services.

“500 gold, and your still making pit stops at dumps like this?” Kai asked surprised however that comment did not go unheard the barkeeper, back to his own business now that the initial excitement was over.

“Three weeks KAI, Barred for THREE WEEKS”

“Shit” she muttered before taking a glance around the bar, eyeing all the patrons who were now back to there own business. Being in a female body was one thing, feeling people staring at her like some kind of … umm well girl was really unnerving.

With a second thought she pulled a chair out, spun it around and mounted it backwards, not because she wanted but these darn chairs were not made for people with tails in mind.

“Considering you said we were going to trade information, I guessed that there wasn’t going to be any problems” she said, examining her own hand. Now that was distracting, she realised, it was nothing like it should have been, slender fingers, his worn and battered hands were now missing in favour of smooth delicate looking fingers.

Kai worried if this Body lacked his normal strength, crap that would be a problem

On another note, Kai found that her palm was free of any scar, in fact her arm was free of any scar, unusual considering Kai had one of the most scarred bodies he had ever seen in his life, all of them nicks, scratches, slashes and gorges from battles long ago.

She shook her head out of that and turned back to Syrion “The fact that your Offering your services, tells me that your going to tell me something I am not going to enjoy hearing right now.” She said almost groaning “And on a side note, don’t say your 500 GP a time, right now, innuendo’s like that are playing havoc with my sense of judgement” and that was ALL kai was going to say about that

“And again on another note, I don’t actually know your name, or if you even took Canen’s Family name”

[Canen Darkflight]

Although Kaiser probably found the sudden change of attitude a little bizarre, given their current level of hostilities, Syrion knew full well why he had to lean a little on the Silvet. This wasn't some far flung admiration for the odd creature, or even an attempt to coarse out of him a piece of life-changing information on his father, Canen. Syrion couldn't care less about the events of the Castigar War, Gideon, the Khaian people or even, to an extent, how his father disappeared.

All he wanted to know was the answer to a simple question. Why do I experience Canen's memories?

Most of Kaiser's other comments had gone in one ear and out of the other. Something about a Dark Matter orb, charging too much money for his services and something about how he resembled his father. Well, what a bright spark he is. Syrion thought to himself. I resemble my father, eh? Who would have thought it...

But then, just as Syrion was about to make a smarmy remark in the way only he knew how, someting Kaiser said had caught his attention.

“Considering you said we were going to trade information, I guessed that there wasn’t going to be any problems.”

Brushing aside the other comments for now, Syrion turned his attention to this.

"You guessed there weren't going to be any problems..." Syrion repeated, making sure he had understood all of what Kaiser had just said to him. "This, my friend, is Corone, real life, not the boy scouts. I told you that I knew someone who could possibly, and I emphasise that word to its maximum, help you out."

Syrion stood up, eager to get his point across. "The way up to this wonderful and magical chap is possibly one of the most dangerous trails in Corone, filled with all sorts of people who would love to stab, punch, kick and rape you to death. I know the trails like the back of my hand, and I don't think a hundred gold is a lot to ask."

With a wry smile, he turned his head back over his shoulder at him as he made a move towards the tavern door. "A hundred gold. Up front. I can be ready in thirty minutes. But I need to know one thing...you can stand a fight, can't you? I can't be doing with anyone who bottles a fight the second they think they might break a nail."

[Kai]

The news about the path to Syrions Contact wasn’t all that surprising, in this world, even going to the local shop could end up throwing you into some perilous adventure. Kai was no stranger to that either, in fact Kai could have swore that he saw that flying towards him, err her, and it had.

‘It’s Always something dangerous isn’t it’

Kai had to suppress an urge to simply let her head drop onto the table, no matter how long her vacation had lasted for it was over in the blink of an eye, quite possibly beginning when he had accepted that random challenge from the citadel. The Payment Syrion was offering wasn’t exactly pocket change either, but 100 GP was a lot kinder to her wallet than his standard 500GP, truly the boy had to learn a little value for money there.

Then something Syrion had said clicked within Kai’s head, sounding so stupid, and unbelievable that she had to repeat it to herself first.

“Can I stand in a fight? Hey now look here, although this” she said before waving a hand to reference the body “May be completely different, but this!” she now pointed to her head “Hasn’t changed one bit!”

The Pointed finger curved back into a fist

“I live, eat and breathe Fights, and although there missing I have Scars for every fight I should have run away from, but I haven’t. Unless you haven’t noticed, or noticed in our fight at the Citadel, I get into trouble, very easily, and I sure as hell have enough wit to get out of it too.”

Her hand slipped into her pocket under the baggy shirt pulled out the GP pouch and slammed home 50 GP onto the table in front of Syrion.

“Half an hour, You get the Rest when you show up at the Main gate in Half an hour, there’s still a few things I want to know” Kai abruptly got up and onto her feet and took off from this business meeting, back to her lodging to collect her Grapple hook, and to tell the Boss that she might be away for a while.

That and to wait for them to stop laughing too

[Canen Darkflight]

Whatever the season, the heat of the day always left this area of Corone almost immediately, chased away by the wind that rises from the north in the late afternoon. The cool air is carried to every corner of the city by an intricate webwork of canals, which is why the warm glow of indoor laterns appears earlier in the day. It's also why pedestrians, who often brave the brutal winds and knifing cold, feel a special kinship after sundown.

The effect of sundown in this area of Corone was almost supernatural, thought Syrion. For nearly an hour he had been sitting beneath a tree on the banks of one of the canals that bristled past the main marble arches of the town's gates, studying the map of the route he had scrawled out before. Everything from the stops they would make to where they could seek emergency shelter if it all went wrong had been maticulously planned right down to the finest detail, each denoted on the parchment with a different colour ink. Now, as he watched the sun drop lower in the sky and the streets begin to empty and the riverside promenade become virtually deserted, Syrion let out a sigh, and looked back toward the gate.

Nothing. Where is Kai? I'm not going to wait here forever. If he...she's not here in five minutes, I'm taking off.

(Edit to follow. Kai, you can post if you want, the edit i'm making is purely cosmetic.)

[Kai]

Kai didn’t stop until she was outside the door to her lodgings, knowing this was going to be embarrassing and tempted to try and sneak in and out without anyone seeing, no actually, that was exactly what kai was going to do.

With a flick of a key and a push on the door, it swung quietly open, and the Silvet cautiously poked her head in to look around, no one left, and no one to the right, perfect. Satisfied she opened the door to make her way to her room, only to get pounced on by an unforeseen shadow.

“KAAAI … umm, you look different” one voice, kai knew this assailant to be Jesty; however she was also currently sprawled out on her back and was effectively pinned by the small young demon, how she wasn’t quite sure.

Kai opened her eyes to the young demon, partly surprised that the Young demon had not noticed, ok no, why was kai surprised, seriously this was Jesty, everything she has done or is going to do is a surprise, so therefore nothing is a surprise. Kai wasn’t sure about the logic either; just that Jesty didn’t notice the rather obvious.

“I changed my hair” Kai said in hope, and believe it or not the Young Demon seemed to believe him “KAY!” and like an athlete she bounced up and off kai, to go terrorize the town again.

Kai sighed, got up and proceeded through the open door, While Jesty was rather, air headed, Sera was cunning, conniving and all around a sadistic piece of work planted on this planet. He just about reached the foot of the stairs before her voice sang out from the top.

“Well what do we have here?”

It was hauntingly beautiful, but kai still wanted to do nothing more than run away, briefly she toyed with using the same explanation she had used on Jesty, but sera was smarter than that, oh hell might as well go for broke.

“heh, the magic hair dye finally ran out, I was gonna go head out to change it again” Kai offered, this made Sera pull a questioning look before smirking evilly and sitting herself down at the top of the stairs. “Indeed, although, you seem to have picked up some … ‘alternate’ features, and supposedly lost some other, neh?”

Kai groaned, no choosing to ignore the Neko in favour of not doing anything rash, Kai ascended the stairs, and luckily Sera got up too, but just as soon as kai took one step past Sera, the neko lashed out with both hands, one grasping her chest while the other examining her waist.

“My, healthy aren’t we?” The Neko slurred, but kai didn’t hear that, she was already running down the hall way, very freaked out she dove into her room, seized the Grapple hook from the desk, opened the window and leapt out, and took off running, with Sera’s laughter still ringing in her ears.

“Must find Cure, Must find CURE!” Kai chanted as she darted to the main gates, spotted a tree, tore up into its depths and proceeded to shake and cower while holding her knees.

It was a long time later, did Kai notice Syrion, sitting at the base of the tree, his head buried in a map, along with a stern expression. Curious Kai glanced in the direction of the sun, and guessed that it had been an hour since getting the curse, wow, time flies when you’re efficiently freaked out.

“so, when are you going to say hello?”