Random 61

"He's arrogant, I know that much, but I don't want to think him utterly stupid. That'd be stupid on my part, underestimating," he said, eyes half-closed as she went through his hair. How long had it been since someone had actually done that for him? "I don't want you to stop that, but it's distracting," he muttered, finally closing his eyes. If foxes could purr...

She gathered the whole long bunch in her left hand and lifted it. "Well, how short would you like it?" she asked, putting her knife against the back of his neck, angled to cut his hair close to the skin.

"Shoulders," he said, looking languidly at her, all the while going through many scenarios in his head. Kai put on a rueful smile. "As long as it covers my ears. They're sensitive... and too showy." Although, to be honest, he suspected she already knew how sensitive they were.

She would have liked to startle him a bit, for not letting her cut off the hair before combing through to the end, and pther upsets this morningm but kept that to herself. He'd probably guessed, anyway.

"All right. Stand straight." She erred on the side of a bit longer than intended, in case it needed more evening out. One clean cut got rid of enough hair to still make a wig of. That laid on the windowsill, she fussed with the edges a little. She was used to her own hair, which was less smooth, so some uneven edges didn't show, but it would be good enough.

"So, what did you have in mind?"

Oh, he did. And Kai did stand straight, but couldn't help but smack himself mentally for reading that in more than one way. In his teens again? Oh, probably. So much confusion, and he felt worse for causing some to Sylvie.

"You're not going to like it, and I'd rather not tell while you have a knife near my neck," he said. Then considered again. "Or you might. Suffice to say, it's only the sign of things to come for the Sabas."

If he was trying to be not confusing, he was doing it wrong. "What is? A sign, I mean."

She pulled a strand straight and cut off its end before combing out the whole mess one more time to check if it was even enough.

He wasn't trying to, swallowing a bit. "It means, what I'm going to do is only the start to what I intend to do the Sabas. I'll just blurt it out now." Pause. "I intend to have a chat with one of them, and I'll use to that letter to get in... and probably kidnap one of them." Kai winced.

Her first thought was that it sounded risky, but she considered before answering. She could not think of any other source of information anymore but the source of the problem. Yesterday for a moment she had hoped Kaisre might have been hired for other business before, like transporting the artifact they assumed was causing the weather, but that had led nowhere. The letter had no incriminating details that would make it useful to show to anybody else, working with the assumption that locally established businesspeople would be believed over strangers.

No, she didn't like it, for several reasons. But at least some of them might be solvable problems. "And then take them where?"

That was his line of thinking as well -- by now, Kai was very much convinced the Sabas were behind this. "Auker's place. I have my... suspicions about her. The way she handles her booze, the way she talks." Kai blinked. "I think she might be one of Luck's war priestesses. And to make it to that age, she must have been either very lucky or unlucky. I'm not sure, but she wouldn't bat an eye if I dragged in someone chained, beat up or naked, to say the least."

"If you aren't sure, are you planning to give her a warning?" She concentrated on that trivial detail to keep her voice level, and tugged at a strand of his hair here and there as if making sure the length was close enough, to keep him from turning around yet, afraid of what he might read in her face. I want to trust him, damn it. I don't want to be afraid of him.

"It might be best. I already made her angry once," Kai said, thinking of the surprise he'd been faced with. He, of all people. At the same time, he was feeling lost again. He'd found and lost something, once more. Kai-Sebastian-Fox-Hat knew how to read voices, and knew fully how to interpret them. This time, though, it was too much. The half-elf lowered his head without warning, rubbing his face and breathing deeply. It had happened again. It had fucking happened again.

Sylvie wasn't entirely sure that was about her or Auker or this whole mess, and wasn't about to ask. But she had to say something. She laid the comb and knife down on the windowsill and, slowly, slipped her arms round Sebastian's waist. Leaning against his back, her chin on his shoulder, she whispered, "I'm afraid. I'm afraid something goes wrong, and we are hunted down and killed. I'm sorry." It was not complete, but it was a truth.

He sighed, long and hard. "I'm afraid of that too. No, I'm afraid it'll happen to you. Myself, hah." He sounded bitter, but then, staring almost angrily at the floor, leaning back to the touch, Kai went on: "No, I think Auker ought be left out of this just this time. I know some people who want answers worse than we do." His head leaned back against her. "No, I won't allow you to come to harm, and I'm not saything that because I'm some macho ass. I just don't want you to."

She left unsaid that he did not look invincible right now, but one of her hands strayed up to the wound on his temple. "I would like to return that in full." She swallowed and said, "If we can think of anything I can do to raise the chances for this to work out, I will... but..." She shrugged. Keeping out of the way and not being a distraction might end up the most useful thing she could do at this point.

Forcing himself to calm down was something he had done numerous times before, and it worked this time, too. But he would rather have just melted there into her lap and live happily ever after. Unsurprisingly, it hadn't happened before, but this time -- this time, he was going to do his best. Not like the other times. No, this was the last time, Kai swore, that he was going to be used as a pawn, a tool and a proxy.

"You've already raised the chances," the half-elf said, fondly, calming down with every passing second. "And I might have an idea that might be less risky than it sounds..."

The plan, all told, wasn't idiot-proof, but he told Sylvie anyway.

In the downpour, someone stalked the streets. First, House Crow (with multiple apologies and some food, a visit to his room), then the shrine of Fortuna and finally the tailor's. And a certain other place.

The Saba estate. He came in through the rain, having scratch the scab on his face until it bled a little and waited for the blood to congeal. Finally, a man walked up to the estate's front gates and came face to face with a huddling, shivering guard wearing the Saba's livery.

"What d'you want, squire?"

"Well, I got this letter, see." The man looked over at the walls in awe, making note of his six feet of muscle and fat. "Got orders to show it so's I can talk to the big man." The last three words were full of irony as he handed over the letter, sheltering it with his raincloak.

"Huh," said the guard, looking the slightly stooped, slightly injured face with strange eyes, the hat and hood covering most of his head. Any sensible person would've dressed like that in this weather, the guard mused.

As he read, the stranger offered a flask. "Chilly and cold, friend, here. Have a nip," said the unknown face, having taken a sip of Auker's prime stuff.

The guard nodded, taking a sip and smiling and wincing at the same time. "Well, thanks, squire. Nice stuff, there. Homebrew?"

"Yeah, cousin makes it. She's drunk off her ass half the time," the man laughed. "Potaters, believe it or naw."

At that, the guard laughed and slowly went over the letter again, nodding and grinning in good humour for a change. "Yeah, go on through. The kitchen, if you know where that is, that's where you ought to go. Through there. Have to say, you're lucky. The young master's away an' his cousin's in charge for now. Second floor, mind," the guard said, handing the letter over. "Say, can I have another nip?"

"Mate, if this pays out as was promised, you can have the whole flask," said the stranger, grinning and handing out the flask.

Auker wouldn't miss it, would she?

--

It took a few shows of the letter and some innocent questions from guards and staff to get where Kai needed to be. He'd stopped thinking of himself as Sebastian, strangely, but in the end, after some bickering with the staff about the need to dry his boots and himself before seeing Brice Saba, he found himself at a door leading to the man's office, not far from the apartment that wasn't too far from his memory, either.

"Hey," say the guard, as he presented his letter again, shivering genuinely. The bodyguard looked it over and grinned. "You're damn lucky the cousin ain't around," the man said as he opened the door for Kai.

"Yeah, so I heard," Kai said, entering the room, dripping wet and looking miserable, the wound bleeding again. The half-elf looked far different from what he had back during that day at the theatre, but was still nervous. That was fine -- he used it in his act.

How he hated the acts.

Brice had taken the opportunity to sort some of the paperwork Ludovic was neglecting to push the most important items on him at the first opportunity, so his desk was rather swamped. When he saw an obviously distressed stranger come in, he asked in suprise, "What happened? Who are you?"

"Kai, sir," the miserable-looking person said, looking as if he was about to stop himself from shaking water all over the room. "We was given a job to watch after, ah, er, Langoll's... you know, and told to... come here if we saw anyone snooping," Kai said, offering the letter nervously.

Brice skimmed the letter. It was unmistakably Ludovic's handwriting. The man needed a bloody keeper.

Brice got up and walked around the desk to pull up a chair for Kai. "I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting anyone." Langoll, gods, what a mess. "Please tell me what happened, from the beginning." He checked his own impulse to pace or lean on the table edge, partly since he did not want to make Kai any more nervous by the inevitable looming, and went back to his seat again.

"Well, uh, he told us to look over that whole Langoll thing and, uh..." Kai rubbed his wound and blinked a few times, staring at the floor. "We found someone snooping, 'course, wouldn't be here otherwise. She was a real wildcat, too," the man said nervously, pointing at his face. "Still... she, uh... well. She was very annoyed. She seemed to know somethin' about what was going on, and she had some choice words, oh, yes sir, choice words. We searched her, o'course." At that moment, Kai seemed to remember something and rummaged through his pockets, muttering.