Only One Thing That I Know How To Do Well [Moon]

[Imogen]

Frost 33, 122

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~ Frost 32 ~
Rose Teahouse, Kalzasi

"There are, in my experience, two ways to do anything." the witch told the swordsman. "The easy and smart way, or the hard and stupid way."

Imogen tapped the parchment laid on the table near Moon's hand with one finger. Well- actually, she reached over to tap it, realized her arm was too short, and leaned over the table until she could manage. The Sunsinger was still in human form, having had difficulty acquiring better-fitting clothes in the spare two days since she'd arrived, and she was feeling a little better about being so small... but it wasn't perfect.

"If you want to catch this guy, we can scoop him up in a day. But what will it change? In a city the size of Kalzasi, there are a hundred people who will take his place. If you want to get at the source, the people who actually matter..."

"...then we've got to think a little less reasonably."

~ Frost 33 ~
The Midden, Kalzasi

Moon found the witch waiting at an entry to the Middens, squatting at the foot of a wall where upper Kalzasi met the waterways and scrutinizing the insects skittering around the damp, mossy stones. She was dressed lightly, carrying no bags of any sort, and had no weapon to hand- the better to avoid attracting any notice. When she noticed Moon's approach, however, Imogen produced a small, cheap brass hand-mirror from somewhere. The back was marked with faint scratches, the marks of a frankly hilariously bad bit of scrivening, but what worked, worked. She offered it to Moon.

"I hope you know your way around this... place." she said, distaste plain in her voice. She'd been in the sanitary facilities of Zaichaer in past years, but the primitive architecture of the fetid labyrinth below Kalzasi was an entirely new experience in things smelling like shit all the time. "All you've got to do is identify our man and make a purchase. You can toss it in the drink after, of course, I won't make you keep contraband."

[Moon Jae-Seong]

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~ Frost 32 ~
Rose Teahouse, Kalzasi

Out of some strange serendipity, Jae-Seong ended up running into the odd girl he’d met just a few days prior, one who called herself Imogen. She’d informed him of a job she wanted to do with him, and with ample curiosity regarding the girl herself, he agreed with no protest. The implication was that the two of them would solve this particular bounty with methodology more unorthodox– what that meant, he didn’t quite know, but he also didn’t quite care.

~ Frost 33 ~
The Midden, Kalzasi

The day after, he’d made his way down to the Midden, dressed in tight, flexible, yet durable, dark fabrics that covered most of his skin, fine leather gloves and heavy, spiked leather boots; he wanted to be able to shapeshift between Lycan and Zoan form with ease whilst still having some semblance of protection against sharp force trauma. Though what he wore was semi-revealing in the way it clung to his frame, he’d put some looser fabrics over the top to slightly mitigate this; he was going primarily for function. His weapons weren’t manifested; he’d call upon them when they were necessary. Once he’d spotted Imogen, he approached her– the girl did not appear to ‘fit’ in here very well, but frankly, would she anywhere? She moved in her skin almost like it was alien to her.

To her first statement, “...I’ve been down here quite a few times. The nature of it is a bit labyrinthine so it’s hard to say I know it ‘well,’ but more than…nothing, certainly.” If Jae-Seong could avoid it, he wouldn't come down here– he would for jobs, but for no other reason.

When Imogen handed him the brass mirror, he looked upon it inquisitively, at first not sure what it did. He wanted to laugh at the attempt at scrivening but he held his composure well enough; only minor confusion would be reflected upon the man's visage. Realizing that it did, indeed, work, there was no point in critiquing the quality. It would serve as somewhat of a guide for them in finding their quarry, and with another stroke of serendipity, the man was not exactly far from their current location.

“Interesting. You make this yourself?” He had to know. “...but, this way.”

The swordsman gestured into the distance and began to move, assuming his companion would follow him further into the darkness of the Midden’s Waterways. They were on their way to a place dubbed Port Udor; it wasn’t somewhere Jae-Seong was fully familiar with, but he’d passed through it once or twice. He wouldn’t claim to be a fan.

“You have much experience underground?” Admittedly, he was curious about what the other had gotten up to in the past, strange as she was.

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'Thoughts'

"Synskrit Tongue/Speech"

"Common Tongue/Speech"

"Inandoth Tongue/Speech"

[Imogen]

"Ah, yeah, a bit." The witch's words echoed off the wet stone, seeming to take on their own life as they bounced around the narrow corridors. Imogen had always enjoyed the acoustics of caverns; it was every other part she could leave. "Sunsingers had an outpost in the Warrens beneath the city for a while. I spent a while down there with my uncle. Didn't really love the place."

Imogen followed Moon as the man set off. It was still disconcerting to be so small- her steps covered less ground than she was used to, and she had to focus or risk falling behind. It was also strange to have to look up while talking to someone, though she found that oddly pleasant.

"I scratched the symbols, if that's what you mean, but I got the design from an expert. It's a focusing aid, but backwards. That is, it doesn't help you focus, it helps me focus on it."

Doubtless the Circle had some scholarly term for the simple dweomer, but being a witch was all about eschewing stupid names in favor of simple descriptions. The academic mages had never impressed her much, anyway.

The two continued through the dark and the damp. Imogen didn't really understand why they had to go this way; Port Uldori was, after all, a perfectly available seaport one could walk to on the surface. Perhaps it was the only route to some hidden den of smugglers, or a black market? The Ork was glad, for the first time, of the strange slipspace map her mind had unceasingly charted since Carina had inscribed the Rune on her back. If there were a smuggler's lair in Kalzasi, that was information she'd be glad to know for future dealings.

The pair made good time. It was impossible for the Ork to tell just how far they'd traveled through the grimy paths below the earth, but she could tell through the slipspace that it was a significant distance. Once she was sure they were well underway, she broke the silence again.

"Let's review the plan one more time, Moon. Once you spot the scoundrel, I'm going to slip off. You engage him for a few minutes- buy whatever you want- and then go to the last point where you saw me. If all goes well, we'll be in a position to identify his factors by sundown."

[Moon Jae-Seong]

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To the girl’s commentary about where she’d learned the Scrivening design, Jae-Seong quirked a brow. “...I see. Have you an interest in Scrivening or did you just come across the pattern previously in your travels?”

He was, admittedly, curious. For himself, he hadn’t delved much into world magics, though he did admire their practitioners…however crude some may be. Maybe one day he’d choose to indulge his curiosities on the subject more thoroughly, but that would have to be filed away for future endeavors. For now, he had more pressing matters to focus his thoughts.

The caverns beneath Kalzasi were both infinitely intriguing and incredibly repulsive, all in one. He did like the darkness, the inherently clandestine nature of the winding paths and all the little spaces one could hole themselves away in. And yet at the same time, the cons of the place were endless.

The path they walked wasn’t an exceptionally long one but it was certainly not an interesting one. They didn’t even encounter a single other living thing aside from the occasional skittering vermin until the two of them arrived at what one could only describe as a small, dark encampment; it appeared to be something of a market along one of the Midden’s many waterways, and based on the descriptions of the little ‘port’ they had been looking for, one could easily hazard a guess and assume that this was correct.

Looking to his companion as she spoke again, he nodded. “...alright. It won’t be long, so don’t stray too far.”

He had no idea what exactly it was she intended to do, if anything in particular, but he figured he would be better served to ask about that after the fact.

Scanning the figures doing business within this strange, innately nefarious market, it was moments like these where the swordsman found himself envying those with Semblance. In the dark, such a magic would make gathering information far easier, but eventually, he did clap eyes on a figure that fit the description of their current quarry.

“There,” and with that, he stepped away from the girl.

Their quarry wasn’t the most charming of men, nor was he the most clean, but what was, down here? The man’s apparent front was a dealer of bladed weapons, though of a standard sort, nothing particularly strange nor unique. But from the information the swordsman and his eccentric friend had gathered beforehand, they knew better, and he knew exactly which words to say and questions to ask to gain access to Nikolas’ more coveted stock.

It took a moment to decide what exactly it was Jae-Seong wished to acquire from the man, esoteric as some of his stock was, but he’d decided, in the end, upon a small, peculiar dragonshard. It was one he himself was fairly unfamiliar with, but found interesting nonetheless; supposedly, it possessed power over darkness, though weak, given the size of the shard. Once procured, he returned to where he’d come from, leaning against a wall to wait for Imogen’s return.

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'Thoughts'

"Synskrit Tongue/Speech"

"Common Tongue/Speech"

"Inandoth Tongue/Speech"

[Imogen]

When Moon returned from his purchase, he found no trace of the witch- instead, he found only her clothes, neatly folded and lightly draped atop each other on a neat pile on the ground, near the wall where they had parted ways. She'd been dressed lightly, and so there wasn't much there, but the strip was clearly pre-planned; she'd laid down a small length of burlap atop the floor to keep her shift and shirt and breeches from the damp and muddy ground.

It might have made sense for her to leave a note, but Moon searched the entryway back to the Waterworks in vain. It seemed that the woman had simply waited for the swordsman to depart, stripped naked, folded up her stuff neatly, and wandered off into the dark caverns alone.

Thankfully, before the baffling scene could grow too stale, Moon felt a sudden burst of movement and sound. Investigating, he found that the small, scratched mirror which Imogen had presented to him was glowing; when he turned it over, he discovered that a small Window had opened on the side not decorated by crude Scrivening. Looking closely enough, the image clarified.

~~~

In the small glass circle, from above, Jae could see Nikolas taking inventory of his stock, speaking with customers. The Window was situated a little far away, but if he strained, the swordsman could just make out the words of the smuggler and his clients.

"...can get it for you, yes. But it's harder, since Zaichaer." the smuggler's voice wheedled, almost whining, but his cadence was hypnotic. "Still, top quality, top quality powder, and straight from the Imperium too, by airship. It'll get you past anyone's alarms, no doubt, and none of the usual spells will show you've been, either."

The client, a burly fellow with a weird knit cap and elaborate mustache, responded dryly: "Your promises, ser, I do not require. Only your wares. Can you have the powder by Glade?

The conversation continued along those lines, with Nikolas reassuring and charmingly effusive, the client trying in vain to cut through. After a few more minutes, the burly man spit onto the ground at the side of Nikolas' door and left, apparently content.

The glass continued to play this scene as the smuggler dealt with several more two-bit clients before closing down his shop for the day. As he packed up his wares and signaled his ratty bodyguard to follow him, locking the meagre door to the ramshackle building, the image in Moon's hand began to follow him. It appeared that Imogen had, by some manner of artifice, arranged to provide Jae with a talisman which would track and show him his quarry remotely.

The peddler and his guard continued onward, making their way out from the outskirts of Port Udor and heading towards the forested land around the edges of Kalzasi. To meet with his contacts or benefactors, perhaps?

[Moon Jae-Seong]

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Returning from whence he had parted from the witch, Jae-Seong was, at first, very perplexed by the fact that Imogen was not present. Now granted, she did not tell him what it was she intended to do, and in her place were her clothes; though he was confused, he did, at least, rule out the idea that she'd abandoned this venture. What she'd left behind was meticulous in a way that led him to believe she intended not to entirely abandon her possessions.

To some, it might be totally baffling that somebody would strip naked in the Midden of all places, and Jae-Seong did think the girl to be altogether odd, but he did not think her to be totally dull. She was…strange, not stupid. If he thought she were completely incompetent, he'd not ever have wanted to work with her at all.

As such, he could only assume that she, too, must be shapeshifter of a sort. Being Rathari himself, if he were to take on his Beast form, he would also shed whatever adorned his body at the time. He also knew that Animism as a Cardinal Rune existed, and such shapeshifters would also shed their clothes in their animal shapes. Of course, he could not place which of these things she was, nor could he be entirely certain she was either, but he couldn't quite think of much else for an explanation.

Nonetheless, that did not outright tell him what exactly her thought process was. Atop the neatly folded pile of clothing, too, she had left the Scrivened mirror behind. And, as he pondered, the mirror emitted noise; a slight, coruscant glow could be seen 'round its edges, laying face down as it was. Curious, he picked it up, and instead of his own muddled reflection, he saw a Window overlooking Nikolas' interactions with a client.

Bemused and still not quite sure exactly what it was he was meant to do, he continued to watch the smuggler negotiate with further clients until he made the move to leave…and then whatever was the mirror's point of view followed him, somehow. How very curious!

Following his previous line of thought, he knew she had Traversion, and so it made sense to assume that it was through her eyes that this Mirror was seeing. Further, given the fact that Nikolas appeared oblivious and that the angle was overhead, the swordsman's previous assumption of shapeshifter was further bolstered…but he did not have time to sit there and think.

Collecting the witch's discarded belongings, he moved to follow the smuggler with no dearth of distance. Jae-Seong did not need to be close to keep track of the smuggler– he had Imogen’s eyes to guide him.

Soon, they would depart the depths of the Midden and into the Kalzasern forests. And while Jae-Seong did keep himself concealed and far away from his target, he would look 'round the vicinity as he moved; he wanted to see if he could spot whatever shape it was that his companion assumed.

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'Thoughts'

"SynskritTongue/Speech"

"Common Tongue/Speech"

"Inandoth Tongue/Speech"

[Imogen]

Scanning the area for Imogen proved fruitless, but she was visible to a sufficiently careful watcher; on the back of the smuggler's ratty mantle, in the form of a copper-colored beetle, which had tucked itself between two folds so as to avoid detection.

Although the beetle form was quite convenient for stealth and infiltration, the senses of such a tiny animal tended to be unusable at a human scale. To that end, the witch had projected her soul, invisible, a few meters away from her motionless beetle-body. She kept one astral arm extended, holding open the thin Window which she very much hoped was projecting to her prepared mirror as planned. Otherwise, this whole endeavor was going to be pretty embarrassing when she tried to explain it to Moon later.

Technically speaking, this might have been about the most complex series of spells Imogen had ever attempted, but she never thought of magic like that. The essential power of the Cardinal Runes was that they connected the will to aspects of the world usually invulnerable to such commands, and she had been taught to imagine each as though it were another limb. To maintain several magics at once was distracting and draining, to be sure, but no more than trying to walk and swing a sword simultaneously.

Below her (in two different ways), Nikolas dithered before entering the forest. He walked about the road in a slow circle, obviously trying to act natural while getting a good eye of everything in his surroundings. Being no Sembler, he did not spot Imogen or her magic, and began to slowly make his way off the path, heading towards the woods at a leisurely clip. Every so often he stopped and lifted a concealed mirror to the level of his chest, furtively checking to ensure the he was not pursued.

Industrious, this smuggler, but his efforts were in vain against the level of coordinated spycraft being brought to bear this night.

Once he reached the treeline, Nikolas produced a dark lantern, adjusting the flap to produce but a sliver of light before he lit it, and then moved on. He stalked the shadows slowly, softly, padding through the brush- and he kept at it for miles. The man's partners were evidently professionals, as they had set up their rendezvous site far enough away from the city or any official road that even elite House guards with aura glasses would never spot the telltale signatures of their merchandise.

Still, all good things must come to an end, and so too must all illicit things. After what could well have been an hour of creeping through the brush, Nickolas finally came out- at the edge of a small, dark cove on the southern shore of Lake Udori. He stopped and fumbled with one of his bags for a moment, then produced a small spyglass and scanned the darkening horizons with care. Seeing nothing, he made his way down to the shore of the lake, aimed his lantern out to sea, and began to quickly open and close the flap, pulsing a wan signal out into the darkness for anyone watching.

He waited for a few minutes, then shone his lantern again. Then again.

After the third time, an answering set of flashes emerged from the darkness, and Nikolas closed his own lantern, stomping over to a fallen chunk of driftwood and sitting down with a sigh.

"Oooh, I'm getting too old for this." the smuggler breathed into the cold night.

It was another twenty minutes before a rowboat appeared on the dark waters, sailing slowly to the beach. There were two men on it- both wearing clothes plainly chosen to be discreet. They dismounted the rowboat and approached Nikolas, who had been trying to control his heartrate and breaths.

~~~

On Moon's mirror, words suddenly appeared:

They're speaking now, but I can't get the Window closer. I think the men are carrying Abjurinium.

A surprise, to be sure, but not that great- Nikolas had promised the client earlier that he had contacts in the Imperium, and they were frequent users of the rare magic-damping dragonshard.

He's handing them money, but also notes he's taken. Probably selling them information. We could try to take them now or follow them back to their ship.

[Moon Jae-Seong]

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There was no obvious animal, figure, indicator– nothing, really, that gave away where exactly it was that the witch lurked, and yet, wherever she was, her plan to follow undetected was working quite well on top of affording Jae-Seong the ability to maintain a much greater distance than he’d otherwise need to keep track of the man. Unfortunately for Nikolas, though he did try, his precautions did not lead him to discover he was being tracked at all. The swordsman was extra cautious, especially because he didn’t actually know exactly what it was Imogen was doing and he wished not to ruin it.

They walked for quite some time– far longer than Jae-Seong would’ve initially assumed, but it was of no matter; he’d walked plenty long distances before. At least it was only a bit above an hour and not some half-day or days long journey.

And once the smuggler had stopped, so too did the swordsman, peering into the mirror at a safe distance while he awaited something to happen. When Imogen was unable to get close enough to hear the men’s voices, he was at first confused, but an explanation soon arrived in the form of text upon the mirror’s surface. It would appear that they were trading in Abjurinium, though this was not a surprise to him, either; Nikolas had limited stock of a surprisingly large variety of dragonshards down in the Midden.

At first, Jae-Seong was unsure how to reply to Imogen, but he realized that his voice would likely carry through the Window. Since Imogen’s projection was too far away for him to hear the smugglers speak, it was likely safe for him to verbalize his thoughts, further if he spoke in a low voice.

“I think intervening now would be wise– they may have more men on the ship, and provided we don’t outright kill them by mistake, we can question them regarding the ship’s location, so on, once they’re subdued. Ask about the notes, too.” He paused, not sure what kind of approach they should take.

“I think only one of us should approach at first, and the other strike from the shadows once they’re well and truly distracted. I have no preference on either role– what say you?”

And when he’d proposed this idea, the half-Rathari lurked crouched nearby, close enough to see the smugglers with his own eyes, but far enough away to still be unnoticed.

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'Thoughts'

"Synskrit Tongue/Speech"

"Common Tongue/Speech"

"Inandoth Tongue/Speech"

[Imogen]

Imogen guessed that she was more than a match for the three smugglers on the shore, even if one or all of them were armed or mages, but she was a professional above all. Given the choice between a large chance of success and an even larger chance contingent upon a small delay, the witch would choose the later every time. She concentrated on her Window, making the minute adjustments which would permit her communication:

You go in first. I'll position myself in their boat to cut off any escape.

The Orkhan beetle did not wait for her co-conspirator's reply, confident that he would agree, but instead cut off the aether to the Window after a few moments and scuttled silently down Nikolas' cloak until she was in a position to jump to the sands without the buzzing of wings. The copper beetle was useful both as a small form and because it was much less prone to accidental squishing while she was distracted, but it was a rather shiny critter and the sound it made in flight would easily draw the attention of the paranoid men.

Beetlegen Ward scuttled awkwardly across the sand. The beetle form wanted to buzz, to create little updrafts to help itself balance while re-orienting on the shifting surface of the grains, but she wouldn't succumb. She didn't think that the smugglers would realize that something was up just because they spotted a beetle, even a very shiny beetle, but she didn't care to take needless chances. Much better to make sure that the surprise was total.

After a lot of scooting and scuttling, Imogen got herself to the side of the conspirators' boat and permitted herself a quick buzz to get herself airborne and over the lip of the little craft. Once inside, she reignited the flow of power through her Cardinal Runes and began to expand, converting magical energy to matter as the beetle chitin melted and expanded, the unseen hairs of the insect bristling as they began to expand and thicken into proper fur.

Less than a minute after Imogen had gotten into the rowboat, a whole-ass jungle cat the size of a huge dog lurked inside the boat. She peeked over the rim, risking being spotted in order to put eyes on the smugglers and ensure she'd be ready for when Moon made his attack.

[Moon Jae-Seong]

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The swordsman blinked in a sort of disbelief as the window ceased to be and contact with his ally had been cut. He still had no idea what shape it was that Imogen had decided to take, and thus he was operating somewhat blindly, but he supposed if she trusted him enough to have gone this far, that he should extend that trust to her and simply do as he’d intended– catch the attention of their quarry, one way or another. During his approach, his steps were light, almost leisurely, giving Imogen time, if necessary, to reposition herself.

Jae-Seong hadn’t managed to close the distance all the way between himself and the smugglers prior to them noticing him, though he hadn’t expected to. The men were paranoid, likely on edge, and the presence of a strange man caused one of the smugglers to point, knocking one of his companions on the shoulder and calling for the man to ‘look!’ Nikolas, in turn, swiveled around to look at the stranger who’d approached, immediately taking a defensive posture.

They were smugglers, not warriors, and while they weren’t completely inept fighters, they had cargo to protect. Without a word, the three of them tried to flee to their rowboat; while they had no idea what Jae-Seong’s intentions were, they had little and less desire to find out. However, the swordsman wasn’t sure where Imogen was, and so in his mind, his singular goal was to stop and subdue them.

With that goal in mind, Jae-Seong didn’t draw his sword, but took off running towards the fleeing men. Running across sand was a somewhat obnoxious endeavor by default, uneven a surface as it was, so why not make it worse for them? With his Elementalism, the mercenary sought to foil their attempts at escape. Conjuring a concentrated gust of wind low to the ground, he’d throw sand in the men’s faces whilst simultaneously causing the sand itself to grip at their feet. Due to this, all three of them graceless, they fell flat on their faces.

In short order, Jae-Seong would catch up to them, hoping Imogen would show herself at some point prior to them getting up.

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'Thoughts'

"SynskritTongue/Speech"

"Common Tongue/Speech"

"Inandoth Tongue/Speech"