Kistal, once offered the bindings and seeing the blood, bared his teeth in an annoyed growl. "Reminds me of the bindings on flight risk slaves. We need these off and tended before they get infected. The chains are usually reused." He planted the spear into the ground and pulled out a few scraps of metal that turned out to be homemade lockpicking tools. He couldn't afford a good set just yet, so he was making do as he could. "These slavers were amateurs. They are using models of shackles older than when I was a kid. It should be but a moment. These have a particular weakness in the core that I think..." As he spoke, his fingers worked the tool and the lock let out a strained and almost broken click, the shackle undoing. "Can be heavily exploited. There, Nix, wiggle your fingers to get the blood flowing. It will be a bit prickly."
He then moved and knelt down, doing the same quick break on the leg shackle. He pulled the chains off rather unceremoniously and tossed them to the side with a face heavy with disdain. "I hate those things. Were any others still bound and needing my help? Hell, any slavers I can execute? I have a serious bone to pick with them, especially for messing with a beastwoman."
Upon being asked to see to Hilde, Chihiro gave Bidzil a solemn nod, kicking up some sand as she turned on her heel and jogging over to the injured half-Varuk. She knelt down and placed a hand on Hilde's chest, feeling her breathing. "Broken rib or not, let me listen a bit. Any blood in your mouth? I swear, if you are too badly hurt, Allard will make snakeskin boots out of me." Her other hand took Hilde's in her own, giving it a little affectionate squeeze. "On the other hand, knowing how you grew up, he may have expected you to do something like this."
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Kalla
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"Twas a battle most grand in the night," Sev replied grandly, clearly unphased by the woman's lack of surprise. While he had some skills at blending into a crowd and going unnoticed the Sylve's true talents lay in his magic and slight of hand, not stealth. So being noticed was a little disappointing but not unexpected.
"Many a rebel bandit assaulted this town, and many were cut down by myself and the other defenders. Truly I am surprised it was possible to fail to notice the battle," Sev continued, "but to answer your question, the wounded are being tended to, there are no prisoners to manage, to my knowledge, and the fair maidens who have just returned from captivity are being cleaned up. Thus there is little for a warrior-mage such as myself to do but to flirt.
"Thus I have come to you, I am Sevuid, Warrior, Mage and traveler," Sev finished with an elaborate, if not exactly proper, bow.
Tali floated to the ground as he spoke about the battle. A knowing smirk came across her lips as he tried to make it sound grander than reality. "It is hard to notice a battle when you are functionally dead. I just got better." She then moved into a much more proper bow, even mimicking her arm movements with her wings. "But I digress. I am Talise Rangatira, all around helpful succubus and eternal wanderer. Remember, a succubus has heard all the cheesy flirting, so you have your work cut out for you to bring something new."
She gave him a wink as she rose back to full height. Her wings once again wrapped around her hips and thighs as a sort of skirt, though it was for comfort rather than modesty. Sev would notice her eyes move to follow someone behind him. "Hmmmm, I remember her...oh yeah! That was a couple weeks ago in the tavern. That was a good night. Anyway, where were we? Oh yes, introductions. Nice to meet you Sevuid. Call me Tali. It is so suffocating to be referred to formally."
“A real live Succubus? With a living past lover as well? If it weren’t for your appearance, I’d assume you were pulling my leg!” Sev laughed, “none-the-less, if we are discarding the formality then you may refer to me as Sev.
“And were you truly dead last night? I have mastered many tricks, but returning from the dead isn’t one I can claim,” Sev continued, “generally I try to avoid being injured but being able return from the afterlife would lend a whole new layer of deviousness to my abilities. I assume that skill is reliant upon your demonic nature?”
While Sev had partly picked this woman to speak with due to her beauty, he had also pegged her as unique. The revelation, or at lest claim, that she was a succubus mostly eliminated his desire to ask her to bed, stories he heard about succubi seducing and killing men were too common for him to ignore, but she was still something Sev didn’t fully understand. Something new and interesting, making her half the reason he traveled.
Also in the back of his mind was the battle with the magic canceling odd man, the fear of loosing his ability to use mana again had followed him like a shadow. This woman might provide a distraction from such thoughts, but with her unique abilities might also provide some knowledge that would help should he ever encounter someone else able to completely counter his magic.
His surprise at her brazenly being open about her nature was adorable. She feigned annoyance and leaned forward, hands on her hips, but her face had a warm smile. "Just because I'm a demon doesn't mean I like to kill my lovers! Those other succubi give us good ones a bad name. I just make people feel good and also destroy a bandit here or there. You know, normal adventuring stuff." While she was feigning annoyance and her tone was playful, what she said was serious. She had never met demons other than her mistress, so she had no real idea about why they left a trail of corpses anywhere they went. Perhaps her mistress being a good demon was an oddity for most.
She dropped the joke after and straightened back up as he talked about coming back from the dead. "Sev, to be honest, neither myself nor my mistress knows why. It is pretty obvious I did not start as a demon given my appearance. I achieved apotheosis, though the ritual was perverted and I stole the result to save my skin. All I know is that any fatal wounds knock me out for a time, then I come out of it nearly starved. I try not to get killed often, but I have died about a dozen times."
“I imagine most people try to avoid dying, just some are better at it than others,” Sev said with a smile, “though rarely does anyone get another chance. Despite how good one might be the reaper comes for us all, if you truly can return from the grave then I can’t imagine the price you must pay for such an ability. Perhaps it’s the souls of those you have… destroyed here or there, you trade their lives for your own.
Sev paused for a moment, looking into the distance as he considered such an ability. While his theoretical knowledge of magic was as minimal as most of his education, he’d found that generally the price exacted by magic was greater than benefit granted. His gift of illusions and light was great, but in return it demanded he abandon his past life and live in fear of being discovered. In that moment he suddenly realized that there was a man out there who knew what Sev was, and while the self-proclaimed king hadn’t held that against him, all he had to do was release that secret and Sev would be forced to pick a side. Perhaps that was why he’d reacted so violently, some part of his mind realized that in a single sentence Jeevak could once again crush Sev’s life.
“Eh, I’m sure it isn’t that simple,” the warrior mage shrugged, pushing that line of thinking out of his mind, “magic rarely is.”
Tali gave him a bit of a grin. "If souls have something to do with it, my Mistress and I have yet to see it, but I only utterly destroy those that are evil. I usually just take a little bit of blood and then cuddle them back to health. Souls are not my only way to feed." She brushed her hair from one side of her face before holding her chin in her claws. "However, this talk is only theoretical. I have many things to do, but first I need to loosen up my muscles. I remember a bathhouse somewhere in town. Was that damaged in the attack or can a girl get a hot bath today? Waking up on a grimy floor isn't good for my complexion."
She was kidding of course. She knew she always smelled and looked amazing since her demonic nature ensured that, but she was serious about the feeling. She still had mortal feelings from before the ritual and grimy floors and unintended sleep made her feel like she needed to wash up. Sev likely would peep if given a modicum of chance, but Tali never minded someone seeing her without clothes on. The other ladies, though, might cause him some troubles if he tried.
“Now that you mention it, a nice bath does sound divine,” Sev replied, “walking through a desert and then fighting a battle against a mad plow-share wielding anti-mage is far from good for anyone’s complexion. As for the location of the mythical bath… I am unsure, but the town isn’t that big. I’m sure we’ll find it before long!”
