"Don't need coin if you know where to look." Ruli pointed out. "Vagabonds and children. That's where I'd start. Observant, and ignored by most. Though, well, coin wouldn't hurt in trade." He realized, that offering coins to either in exchange would be a polite exchange. "Did Ysaryn mention how long ago she was taken? Or how long she's been with Envy and the others?" Logically speaking, it had to be less than six months since Ysaryn joined. She'd said she'd heard about Ziad being hit, after all, and thats not something one would hear easily while in captivity.
If they had tried to turn her into a doll, perhaps she hadn't been held long.

Ruli pursed his lips at her offer, shaking his head. "No. I want to find this location they're holding the elves, if possible. Or the place where her family is hiding." He glanced sideways to Kire. "I didn't mention back in the mountains out of fear of Ysaryn overhearing, but I overheard a small snippet while the Gemini man walked by. Something about the problem with the elves being dealt with soon. Permanently. I have no idea if he meant the ones the have, or the ones that have avoided captivity."
His blue eyes met hers. "I am a little ashamed to admit that I am honestly afraid of telling her that I overheard that. She's sort of terrifying." That, and he doubted he could prevent her from storming back here and endangering herself. Headstrong, just as Kire was. Chieftesses, the two of them, Ysaryn had mentioned. Must be a qualifying trait.

"Let's see if we can figure out where the elves live, or where they're being taken. Anything that would help." Ruli countered her suggestions.

Kire shook her head in response. “I haven’t pressed her for details just yet. And we didn’t exactly leave our last conversation on a good note.” She rubbed her nape, sighing. “The window would be brief, I imagine. But while we’re here, it would be useful to know when this Gemini had come here, too, while we’re at it.” She looked about, observing the crowds, as if she would expect to see green eyes looking back. Where are you? It was terrible enough to worry about finding Ikegai and Akuma; throwing a Gemini into the mix just sounded like the perfect storm.

At Ruli’s observation about Ysaryn, Kire smiled, if only briefly. “She is, isn’t she? I see what you mean,” she said, without looking terrified at all. “A rather intense woman, that.” Her smile disappeared, though, as she pondered on what he had just told her. “If the Gemini is thinking of opening a gate, a whole community of elves that these humans don’t care about would make for a perfect blood sacrifice. Maybe the dormant magic in elf blood would feed more power into the ritual. But at this point I’m just guessing. When these blood mages are involved, my mind just assumes the worst.” She shook her head. “That means I need to find them before this happens. Gods be damned.”

She grunted, not liking any of this at all. “Alright. Find the elves first. Let’s start with your suggestion. Vagabonds, children, anyone in the margins. Not anywhere around here, I’d assume?” Despite herself, she was relieved that Ruli didn’t refuse to help with the task. “Outskirts of the city sound like a good place to start?”

He was relieved she didn't mock him in anyway for being nervous around the elf. He said little, but the piercing gaze she often settled on him was far too much like a predator debating on whether or not she was hungry enough to eat. The smile she tossed together with it was worse, somehow.
As Kire mentioned the blood sacrifice, and the dormant magic in the blood of the elves, he inhaled. He couldn't imagine the sight of something like that, so many dead and slain, their blood being used for darker deeds.

"Edge of the festivities, for vagabonds." He suggested. "They'll be hoping for dropped food, or people leaving who need to discard what they don't want to carry. Offering food or coin would work in our favour. For children, watch for the ones running through the crowd, bumping into people. Thieves, more than likely. If we catch one, we can threaten reporting to loosen tongues."
"I don't know if I want to hunt down Ysaryn's people without her with us," Ruli offered as they wandered the street. He shivered whenever the wind blew, his shoulders hunching against the breeze. "At least not initially. Even with Bolym here, I doubt they'd be receptive."

“No, Bolym wouldn’t be helping them warm up to us at all,” Kire conceded. She didn’t know, though, how willing Ysaryn would be to come back here for this particular purpose. It was one thing to be helping the Ziad refugees with supply runs—a task she hadn’t particularly relished—it was quite another to ask her to be involved in tracking down the men who had taken her. “If the other elves are terrifying in the same manner as Ysaryn, perhaps more, then I agree. And I imagine we could make a better case for cooperation with them if we have more to give than just my abysmal hunches.”

She scanned the crowd, already looking for people they could possibly get information from. Some of them, she noticed, had what looked like paper orchids. For the bride, apparently. As they moved away from the busier parts of the city, Kire paid attention to the vagrants and peddlers. Those who would have an ear for gossip, and for the other outcasts of Cordon. With her usual face, Kire knew it would be hard to take on a feigned innocence, but with the disguise Ruli had made for her, it made pretending to be a clueless visitor easier. Not that she already wasn’t one by default.

As expected of gossip, there was conflicting information, and some that were outlandish. One even suggested the Lord Itallo’s mines were manned by living corpses. But Ruli’s belief in a kernel of truth in myths also held true, or truer at least to Kire, where gossip was concerned. There were strange happenings in the outskirts of the city, and in the seaside crags, where the water often crashed against the shore so violently that people rarely visited. “There is a man with the Lord Itallo. Green eyes? Young-looking. Who is he?” she asked one vagabond after plying him with some drink.

“Oh, him? Gavin Gemini? Or is it ‘the Gemini’? Foreigner, y’see. Strange name. Not bad-lookin’, but looks dead inside, y’know?”
“What’s he to the Lord Itallo?”
“His ward. Best man. Met him, oh, right around this mysterious beauty tha’s ‘bout to marry the lord. Ya gonna stick around to get a look at her? Itallo’s a lady’s man; she musta been really pretty to snag that dog, heh.”
“Mm. I see.” Ward. “He must be quite young, then, if he’s Itallo’s ward.”
“Right. Foreigner woman. Anyways, ya got any more of this?” The man grinned, shaking the wine bottle. Kire raised her brows, not really expecting him to finish the whole lot in one sitting.

Ruli nodded, glad she also doubted they'd be welcome. "Considering we have little else to go on beyond you abysmal hunches, they're still the best we have." He tried to offer. Certainly more than he had in his months waiting in Ziad for some clue, some trail to follow.

He remained quiet the rest of the way, his eyes searching the streets for any sign of what they needed as Kire cornered a man in rags, his oily hair thin and sticking up at odd angles. When the vagabond confirmed that the man Ruli had spotted was in fact a Gemini, or at least boasted the name, he refrained from glancing to Kire. No need to suggest to the man they were bribing that his information was that good.
Still, the man demanded more drink, and Ruli pursed his lips. Having gotten a confirmation, he wanted answers on another topic.

"We hear elves are a problem here. That they attack people on the street. If we want to avoid them?" He asked. The man shook the bottle again, grinning cheekily, and Ruli's frown deepened. "We can't give you more if our throats are slit in the dark."
The vagabond, realizing this, lost his grin. "South east part of town. All wetlands, not much else there."
Ruli glanced in that direction, thinking it would be easy enough to follow. The location where Ysaryn had instructed him to arrive was in the eastern part of town, the land uneven and damp, but not quite wetland.

“Hm. Will keep that in mind,” Kire said, noting the direction Ruli was looking at. “Been hearing talk about other strange things happening around here, other dangers besides the elves. Know anything about that? It would be a shame to have our visit ruined by any trouble.”
The man looked at Kire, clearly doubting that these two were the type to avoid trouble, but the promise of liquor smoothed over any apprehensions. “Eh, not any more than your average port city, I wager. Unless you’re an elf. The good lord’s plannin’ on driving the whole lot outta Cordon for good. Got big plans, that, talk’s been goin’ around for months. Maybe settlin’ down’s got him thinkin’ of expanding Cordon’s power.”
“Mm. As any lord usually does.” Kire paused, remembering something. “Does he own any mines? For gems and such?”
“Yep. Why’d you think he’s so rich? Good looks can only get ya so far. Now, where’s my drink?”

Kire kept her frown, thinking the information over as they left the man to his liquor. A man with resources like Itallo, rich on minerals and slave trade, would make for a formidable lord, indeed. “Expansion,” she murmured. That would fit into the plans to exploit and eradicate the elves. “More flesh for his trade, and more land to sink his claws into.” And with a Gemini by his side? “Maybe this man’s trying to be a king. That’s usually what lords with ambition aim for. When a leader like that takes on a large-scale endeavor, and making a big deal out of a marriage, that’s usually the first step towards claiming some sort of throne or higher status.”

Ruli kept thoughtfully quiet as they wandered away again. Like any lord usually does, Kire had said, but Ruli had no inkling to that. The King of Ziad had never tried to branch out, only to maintain control of his isolated city, and he secretly didn't even control it. Envy did. Envy was trying to expand his reach only to protect and aid.
The world was a very odd place.

Ambition. That was the word she used to describe Itallo and the other lords who wanted to expand. Maybe that had been the missing characteristic.
"Who would want to be a king?" Ruli found himself asking aloud, unable to fathom wanting to be like the late Ziadi King. He shook his head. "Let's look for the warehouse. Would you mind? Maybe we'll learn more, there. If not, at least we know where to start."

Kire nodded. “It’s a good place to start. Let’s just be back here to see this parade later. Maybe we’ll finally see Itallo or his Gemini ward.” She pursed her lips, thinking over the leads they had gotten. “Do you think it’s in the general direction of the wetlands? How far or near do you think it is from where Ysaryn’s people live?” As they made their way down the street, it occurred to her what a sharp contrast their task was to the increasingly celebratory atmosphere around them. “If Ysaryn had been able to escape, maybe they’ve moved the location, too, or found a way to hide their tracks, unless they’re that confident that retaliation from the elves wouldn’t be a problem.”

Her thoughts went back to his earlier question, though. “Men who aren’t satisfied with their station, I suppose. People who lust after a throne are after the power and influence. Noblemen who serve under somebody else. Some prince a few places removed from the throne. And there are kings who wish to be king forever, heirs be damned.” She shrugged. “I don’t know necessarily if it’s an easy life they want, because sitting on a throne has its own set of problems. I don’t know how things work here, but that’s usually how it goes back where I’m from.”

Do you want the throne back? This time, Kire heard the question in her own voice. She rubbed her face as if to wipe the inevitable frown away. “So why did you make my new face something that would piss off Zekiel?” she asked, glancing at him, her brow raised.

Ruli audibly exhaled. "Fuck." He swore. "I didn't think of that. That they'd move." What were the chances of them hunting them down, were that the case? "We'll need to press her for more details." He said firmly, knowing full well that conversation would not go smoothly. "What she remembered, how far, if Bolym could give us any further details. I think if she ordered it, he'd tell us." The man seemed to obey every order the elf spoke in his direction, even if he hated it. Even if he felt the need to argue about it, first.

He glanced her way again as she spoke about the temptations of power and the problems sitting on a throne carried. It sounded very much like first hand experience. She was a chieftess, so suppose she would have some experience.

And then she asked about Zeke and his enchantment, and he let out a huff of laughter, though no smile accompanied it. "You wanted to look like a local. Zeke is as close as you can get." He pointed out. "Giving you an identity that ties you to someone else isn't a bad idea. Having the ability to claim kinship can always be helpful. That, and he's human."
Ruli glanced her way as the buildings grew less and less maintained, less extravagant, less tall. The smell in the air changed, too, the reek of rot and mud clogging his nostrils. "Zeke was only pissed because he doesn't like you. If I had made you look like me, he'd have been just as pissed." Or more so, potentially. It hardly seemed like the man was fond of anyone, at the moment.

They stepped into what was undoubtedly the beginning of the slums. Paths cut through short, lopsided homes that could have been habitable, were it not for the rot creeping up the wood, introduced by the pools of water that had begun devouring the base of the walls. The roof and frame tilted and dipped threateningly on most of them. Following the 'road' that wound through the shacks, between the reeds and bushes, leaping over the small pools and swerving around the larger ones, they made slow progress. Ruli kept his head up, his arms tucked close. It was somehow colder here than in the city, the pools likely contributing to the lack of warmth.

"I see a lot of tracks in the dirt. So I would like to say we're in the right direction." Ruli shivered, gesturing with his elbow the boot prints in the ground, left while the earth was soft and wet, now hardened and imprisoned.

“We’ll find it,” Kire stressed. She hoped Ysaryn would be willing to talk to them more about the details, or at least ask her help to vouch for them to her people. Maybe there were others who had a brush with danger like her, or knew somebody who had been taken. Given what the elf had already told her, no doubt there would be many who would fall under the latter. “No matter how secretive they might be, something of that scale is bound to leave traces behind, especially if they’re attempting any sort of blood magic, too.”

She listened to his explanation about Zeke and the likeness, and like Ruli she noted the change in the air, as well as the more decrepit homes the further they went from the center of festivities. “Me?” She raised a brow at him then. “Between the two of us, you might be ahead on the list of people he currently dislikes. If you had made me look like you, he’d probably throw more of a fit.” She felt the chill in the air as they walked, silently berating herself for again forgetting to dress properly for the cooler seaside city. She glanced at her companion, guessing that he was probably having a worse time, being more used to heat.

The slums into which they had walked reminded Kire that there were, sadly, so many things Amria had in common with this world. She wondered if there were humans who lived here that would mingle with other outcasts like the elves, or if the prejudices extended to the outskirts, too. She nodded when he gestured at the tracks; she would need more to go on to know this was the right direction, but nevertheless she kept her hand on her sword-hilt. As they made their way forward, following the tracks, Kire felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. “We’re going the right way,” she said, looking around them for more signs. The feeling was faint, but it did remind her of the presence she felt in the city the other day.

Following the tracks and the traces she was sensing, they came to a place where even the slums began to thin out. The ground looked like it had been disturbed by a lot of activity recently. “We’re close,” she murmured. Ahead of them, there appeared to be a ramshackle building that looked to be partway through being dismantled. She straightened up, looked to Ruli and nodded. “Gemini magic,” she growled. The traces were still faint, like it hadn’t been activated for a while, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t any danger present. Rather than walk straight towards the building, Kire paced around it, looking at the ground, their surroundings, trying to find traces of runes like the one she had seen on the Kartaian corpse, or any sign of a trap. She wondered vaguely if her nose would bleed from being so close to a Gemini site, though something was different about the way this particular one felt. Back home, though of course the aura of each Gemini was unique, there would be a similar undercurrent, a same feeling or smell, which had helped her identify that fleeting sensation in Cordon. But now that she was exposed to it longer, the ‘signature’ was slightly different, too.

Now for the building. “Hmm.” The closer she stepped towards the building, the more peculiar she felt. She stopped, her eyes on the ground, tapping her foot on it. Something was off about the grounds around the building.

"That was the point." Ruli informed quietly. "He isn't bound to bash in his own face. Mine, on the other hand. I figured your face has seen enough for a while." He shivered, glad that his every exhalation sent warmth across its cheeks. He fell into quiet after that, as speaking didn't warm his skin as much, and, coinciding with his own personal comfort, the surrounding area sent a chill unrelated to the cold up his spine. The footsteps, the many places one could hide, the silence.

Ruli swallowed when she said they were going the right way. He'd seen no clues, nor seen her gesture to one, so assumed she'd managed to sense the enemy. When she confirmed it a short while later, almost growling the word out, Ruli looked left and right. He could sense nothing. No tingle in the nape of his neck, no scent in the air that didn't smell right.
Maybe only she could smell it because they were from a different world. A different brand of magic his own couldn't locate.

It had been the issue with Akuma, hadn't it? A voice reminded him, forcing a hidden frown.

"What is it?" He whispered quietly, looking forward. "I can't sense anything." His eyes looked toward the building they had carefully avoided, finding no sign of movement. Then they dropped, to her tapping foot, and his eyes skimmed the ground. No, still nothing. Ruli felt oddly useless, and he wasn't happy with that.
"Why is it so quiet?" he whispered. "They can't possibly have day jobs, right?"

Kire shook her head, not knowing what to answer. “There’s something off about the place, but I can’t put my finger on it.” She touched the ground, trying to see if that would sharpen the sensations she’d been feeling. “Hmm. Casting a glamour on yourself is one thing, putting it on a whole other place is another. I’m not sure if that’s what’s confusing me right now.” Kire frowned in thought. “Maybe we could—” She looked up sharply, towards the dilapidated warehouse. She pulled his sleeve, retreating with him away towards some of the nearby shacks. “Someone’s coming.”

She had been sure there was nobody in the warehouse. From the gaps in the walls, it seemed empty of people, but now she could see two figures emerge. In the distance, she observed the two men who came out, apparently from out of nowhere. One of them looked to be an older man, but he didn’t interest her so much as the tall man beside him, dressed in rags. He seemed human, except that his skin looked strangely pale—no, not just pale. There was a bluish tinge, like he was too cold, which made his short dark hair look all the more black. Though they were too far away to ascertain what they were talking about, Kire got the impression that the older man was berating the tall one, or talking down to him about something. The older man was gesturing around them, and the tall one didn’t respond, merely nodding along after every other word. Then, after looking about, perhaps to see if anybody was around, the older man walked away, taking a different direction from where Ruli and Kire were. The tall man stayed behind. Standing watch?

“Where did they come from?” she finally said, whispering to Ruli. “Do you think there’s a way in there for some underground hideout?” That seemed to be the most likely explanation, given that they were watching the place carefully and would have heard them before this point.

He narrowed his eyes at the building, still unable to see what she meant, to sense anything beyond cold and chill. "Like I did with you?" He repeated, clarifying. Indeed, doing that with a whole building would take a lot of work, but it wasn't impossible. He and Envy had managed it at least once in Ziad, though it had only been temporary. Being unable to cut into the building itself, they'd painted the enchantment on in the night, but the ruthless morning sun caused the paint to flake off before the day had passed.

As Kire yanked on his sleeve, he hurried after her, ducking behind one shacks, standing behind her as they both peered around. He inhaled softly through his teeth when his eyes fell on the man with the tinted skin, both in awe and fear. In silence, they watched in inaudible conversation, one-sided as it was, before the older man stalked off.
"I don't know." Ruli whispered. "Underground? Here? Seems like it would be only muck underground." He pointed out, his eyes still on the man left watching. "He's half-Kartaian." He gestured. "The blue-ish tint. They're rare to see. Dangerous, I'm sure. So don't get close."

“Yes, like this enchantment. I imagine putting an illusion on something this big would be tremendous work.” Kire crouched as they hid, lightly touching the mud. “Would the enchantment be enough to confuse our other senses, like smell and touch? I could feel the traces around here, but it’s strongest around that place. If I get up close enough to the warehouse, I might be able to tell if there is a protective illusion around it.” But there was, of course, the matter of the tall sentry.

“Half-Kartaian?” Kire looked at Ruli, brows raised. “Huh. So they don’t have the sun weakness as pureblooded ones. Does that mean they have Shadow-Walking and the touch thing? How would one of them end up here?” Kire knew that Ruli probably didn’t have the answers, but she figured it wouldn’t hurt to try. She couldn’t see a weapon on him, though perhaps he may have a small enough blade that he could hide under the rags. None of the terrible blades the Kartaians had, at least. “Hm.”

Kire ducked behind the shack again, thinking over their options. “So. Do you distract him, while I jump in there and check inside the warehouse? Or can you Walk us there then get away before he makes a move? Or wait till he goes away?” She tapped her cheek as she thought it over. “Two against one, we might be able to take him, if it came down to it—oh. We really need to get you a weapon or something.”

Ruli blinked upon hearing her question, and after some thought, he nodded. "It could. Its high level enchanting, however. I've only ever managed such a thing once before. It took me nearly a week to get it working properly."

He studied the tall figure ahead, still in awe over him. "Not all, no. Matter of chance, like any breeding." Ruli whispered. His eyes roamed the figure, then the building behind. "Mmm. I'd rather not risk taunting him unless we know what weapons he has. And no, I have to know where I'm going in order to Walk us there. Best I could do is get us to the door." Ruli whispered. His eyes slid to her, disliking that their best option for the moment was for him to distract the half-breed while she slipped inside.

"What will you do once you're in there? I don't like you going in blind. I don't want to go in blind." He declared, looking back toward the watchman. "If you face trouble, do your portal thing and get out. Scout. I'll work on him."

“Hm, I figured that,” Kire murmured in reply to his answer. “I suppose it will be even harder if you want to make that illusion stick for an extended period.” She thought over his question. “Alright. Get us to the door, I’ll snoop a bit, and I’ll be out quick. I just need to know what we’re dealing with. I promise I won’t kill anyone unless I absolutely have to.” She smirked a little at that, before going serious again. “If you’re ready, let’s go.”

Speed was essential. The moment she was at the door she entered, trusting that Rulitus knew how to handle himself. At first, stepping through the warehouse didn’t feel at all unusual. The first thing she noticed was the smell. Burning. She recognized this smell. On a battlefield, specifically just after it. Or after a pillaging. They’re burning bodies. Kire almost gagged, but stopped herself from making a sound. Inside, the warehouse looked the way she expected: run-down, in the middle of being abandoned. The roof was partly open to let out the smoke, but clearly there was some protection over the building for them to not have seen or smelled it. The moment her mind steadied itself and registered what was inside, she was able to identify the signature of this magic.
Hiding behind what looked to be the dismantled parts of the warehouse, she could only just hear two men conversing near what might be a makeshift furnace, but it looked like they were complaining about the work. “Waste of flesh, this,” one of them said, the other chuckling ruefully. “They might be elves, but they’re still a warm body. Would earn us more coin alive.”
“Ain’t true, else you wouldn’t be here, doing all the bastard’s dirty work.”
Their chuckling grated on Kire. She was so tempted to pound their faces with her bare fists or the pommel of her sword, but she needed to hear what they were talking about.
“Don’t forget, after we’re done here, to do the, uh,” A long pause. “Aw, who even knows what this bloody witchcraft is. It’s unnatural, is what it is.”
“It’s what’s keeping us from getting caught, you dolt. Scuff out the runes is what you mean, right?”
“Why’d we need to move, then, if this place got the ‘protection’ or whatever it is?”
“Elves make trouble. And whoever else. The scum that live here. Something to do with being nearer the mines or some such.”

Kire looked down, squinting at the ground, trying to scan for signs of the runes they had mentioned. She found them at last, etched faintly into the ground, and on the walls. She looked at the pieces of the warehouse that made up her current hiding place and found older runes there as well. She was about to attempt to get closer when she heard one of them talking about relieving himself outside. That’s enough for now then. Kire disappeared in a blue flash, hearing the tail end of the man’s surprised yelp before reemerging outside.

Ruli exhaled, shaking his head. While he didn't like their plan, he had no better one. So he reached out to offer him his arm, recalling her preference for clutching his forearm, and they were suddenly before the warehouse door.

The half-breed turned when Kire opened the door, his eyes an odd murky red-brown. While the Kartaians boasted pure black pools around their red irises, his sclera was a strange pinkish red, like he'd been standing downwind of acidic smoke. He turned in place for a moment, trying to figure out how Ruli, and the woman who had slipped inside, had managed to get past him.
"That's right." Ruli said softly. "I can Shadow-Walk." He took a step, vanished, and reemerged on the half-breed's left, well out of reach. He blinked, utterly surprised. "Just like your sires. The elves that claimed your mother."
The emotion that rippled across the elf's face was not what Ruli expected. Anger, annoyance, sure. Not confusion. Not curiosity.

So Ruli kept taunting. "You've no weapon." He pointed out. "That means you can kill with thought, right? By touching someone?" Indeed, the elf raised his hands, peered at them as if he'd never seen them before, then looked up again, searching as Ruli Walked once more, appearing back in front of the warehouse. To better listen for Kire. "Can you not?" He asked as the figure spun again, his strange eyes pinpointing him. "Have they never told you the stories?" Ruli pressed. "Do you know who you are? You and I, we're brothers. Elf blood. And yet you're helping to capture others? Hurt them? Do you know what your masters are doing to them? How they're hurting them?"
The figure inhaled, shoulders squaring. "You let one go, didn't you?" Ruli asked sharply, noticing the indignation in the half-breed's eyes. "Fuschia coloured eyes. Not too far from yours. Fuschia hair. Wolf smile?" The elf raised his hand, burrowing fingers beneath his greasy, rust-coloured strands of hair, to where his own pointed ears sat hidden.

A flicker of blue light behind him told him Kire had left the building. Without tearing his eyes from the half-breed, Ruli stretched out his arm for her. "You're on the wrong side." He said, before he and Kire vanished.
With a grunt, the figure darted forward, eyes wide in fear, and he frantically searched for them as the warehouse door was flung open.

Ruli took them back to the edge of the slums, where he and Kire had emerged from the black emptiness every time. He pulled his arm free, glancing back toward the warehouse, curiosity tearing across his countenance. "What did you learn?" He asked Kire quietly, leaning back against the wall. His heart was racing, sweat dotting his brow despite the cold.

Kire, too, was catching her breath; getting pulled into the shadows almost immediately after emerging from her own portal was a different kind of jarring than usual. “You won’t like it,” was the first thing she said once her head had stopped spinning. “They were in the middle of—burning evidence.” She told him about the bodies being burnt, the runes hiding the inside of the building as well as any indication of what’s happening inside. “They said something about moving closer to the mines. I assume those are the ones Itallo owns.” Her lip curled in anger. “They said, ‘waste of flesh’, like these bodies were meat to be sold in market. Which they probably do to the slaves when blood magic isn’t involved. I was this close to just murdering them.” Kire glanced back at the direction they had come from, looking like she had half a mind to following through. Not yet. Can’t have the enemy alarmed this early.

She breathed deeply, the smell of muck and rot miles better than the reek of burning inside the warehouse. “I wonder, though, why the subterfuge. If Itallo has total control, he wouldn’t bother hiding everything, right? The men don’t sound like they fully understand what this is all for, either.” She leaned against the wall, arms crossed. “What about you? Did you get him to say anything?”

Burning evidence. Bodies. Ruli blinked, somehow both surprised and unsurprised at this news. Somehow, he'd still been hoping they'd be wrong and everything would be normal. It would all be a misunderstanding. As Kire went on to describe the runes and the men's conversation, he curled his lip.
"I don't know whether or not to thank you for refraining." Ruli said bitterly. They deserved it, but making a mess this soon would cause them more trouble than not.

"No amount of influence and control will make this sort of thing acceptable to everyone." Ruli pointed out. "Even if the nobles and travelers agree that ridding the city of elves is okay, the elves themselves would rise up and fight. Itallo is controlling more by being discreet."
His mind went back to the half-breed, the look on his face when Ruli had asked if he was aware of what they were doing to the elves.
"I..." He began, trying to think. He had said nothing, responded to none of Ruli's taunts with words. Only expression and movement. "No." He answered after a thought. "Something was off about him. I don't think he's there willingly."

In turn, he explained the half-breed's expression in response to Ruli's words, the hurt and anger. "I think.... I have a theory that he let Ysaryn get out. Looked the other way. I don't know. And if he has any of the Kartaian's powers, he isn't aware of them. Or he's a very good actor."

“You’re right, I suppose. Even the men I overheard didn’t sound too keen to be dealing with magic so closely. If even the dregs of society are shaken by something, you know it’s really taboo.” Kire let out a deep breath. His theory about the half-Kartaian sentry made sense. After all, why would a city so prejudiced and exploitative towards a whole race be willing to deal with a half-elf, unless it was a one-sided situation? “You have a point. Besides, the way I see it, he doesn’t stand to gain much from feigning ignorance. If he had those abilities, it would’ve taken less effort or energy to subdue or kill you, then bring you to his master.”

She looked past him, towards the direction of the rest of the city. What kind of people would assent to this? A familiar feeling crept down her spine; she remembered the last time she had thought to condemn a whole town for something similar, for giving quarter to blood mages and forbidden arts. She had smelled burning flesh on the day she had marched her army into the town, too. The Gemini had not forgiven her for it. She had not forgiven herself for it. She met Ruli’s gaze. “We really need Ysaryn for this, don’t we?” She sighed, straightening up. “If your hunch about the half-Kartaian man is right, do you think it’s something we could use, should we see him again? Chances are though they’d probably speed up their timetable for dismantling this old site.”