[Nyxia]

(Click for Human Form)

It was a little after eight in the evening on that cold winter day when Kindra looked out the shop window at the pouring rain. The shop had survived another of those slow days with few customers daring to venture into such weather, and Nisha was somewhere in the back of the shop stocking the scrolls they'd gotten a week ago to shelves. As lovely as the rain outside looked on the other side of the window Kindra shuttered, she would have to go out there soon, not something she was looking forward to in the least. With a half glance to the counter beside her, her hands stroked the invitation card in her pocket once more. Was she really going through with this? Could she afford not to? More questions than answers raced through her mind, causing her to chew at the corner of her lower lip in frustration and fear. It had been years since she'd picked up a job at all, since she quit that life for something simple and less deadly.

Still she knew not to turn her back on this opportunity, and thus Kindra reluctantly shrugged into her heavy over coat. "Nisha, I'm gonna be gone for a few days love!" She called to the back of the store, and waited to hear the other woman's response. She knew Nisha would never tell her no, since after all the rain was suppose to fall for another week at least and the store would barely see any real activity. Instead all the greeted her was silence broken by a few rustles of parchment and the shifting of books. A faint smile broke across Kindra's face at the silence, it was just like the other girl to get wrapped up in reading rather than stocking. She was about to turn for the door when she saw the orange stuffed cat sitting on the front counter staring at her. That wasn't unusual either, the strange toy almost seemed alive at time, appearing randomly about the shop when things were quiet. Kindra regarded the toy cat with a soft smile, "Look after her, will you Nazar." The only response she received was a slight gleam from the toy's black bead eyes. With out another word she was off, headed out the door and down the street in the pouring rain.

[Nyxia]

The invitation was for dinner in some urban cafe on the northern end of the city, quiet a distance from the shop near the southeastern end. Normally Kindra didn't mind walking the city at night, taking in the sounds of the city's peace and the way the light shown in the streets. Tonight however the rain had changed all of that, and made her want to just get off the street and into the warmth of her apartment. Instead she would weave her way through the city streets heading far past her home and into an area she knew very little of. She was running on auto-pilot as she passed the market center and turned left; this was all so sudden, so out of the blue that it made her a bit leery of what she was getting into. Images kept flashing in her mind's eye, memories of the life she'd known so well.

Flash Back
The night was chilled and damp just after the rainstorm had passed, and a woman wandered the mostly empty streets dressed in dark clothes and a black military coat her heels softly clicking as she walked. This was just another job, another pointless appointment that kept her running on her little wheel like a mouse. Suppressing a snort that almost came out with the thought, she pushed open the door to the shady little place, a dine in casino in the slums. She didn't have to look around to find him, her newest employer sat at one of the high roller black jack tables in the very back. Quietly she informed the security at the door who she was here to see, and passed the burly man. Everything was going according to the arrangements, so far at least; most men didn't realize they'd hired a woman until they saw her, after which many thought they were owed a different sort of deal. It never ceased to amaze and disgust her how men could be, still she had to pay bills and eat just like any other woman.
(End Flash Back)

Without even realizing it, Kindra found herself standing a block from the building headed in the wrong direction. She could have laughed at herself, as she felt it was a true sign of how she felt about all this. Again she had little choice in the matter, since who ever invited her seemed to know right where she worked and lived. She remembered leaving the flowers out on the front steps until the land lord threw them away, an act she felt now was not in her best of interest to have done. She mulled over as she stood in front of the two story cafe debating with her if she should go inside, she was almost ten minutes early after all. Still the weather was not working in her favor, leaving her jacket soaked and her hands slightly numb with winters kiss.

[Nyxia]

Knowing what is good for someone and what isn't helps little when viewing it for yourself, as does knowing which is the greater of two evils. Armed with such knowledge Kindra rubbed her icy hands together one last time and scanned the nearly empty sidewalk around her one final time to make sure there was truly no escape for herself, and pushed open the glass door in front of herself. Inside the cafe was no more evil than any of the other over priced swanky places down the row beside it, but the darkly painted walls and dark wood floors still gave it that eerie feeling of dark magic and illegal deals. It took her a moment to regain her inner composure, while on the outside she seemed like she was studying the dark flower painting that line the wall to her left. Slowly the smells of sweet flat breads and cooked meats filled her nose, and brought her out of herself enough that she look over to the man standing behind the dark wood podium watching her intently.

To her adjusted and well trained eyes he was about thirty, and looked not only nervous but that was likely due to his boss, Kindra after all knew the man who owned this cafe and he could even scare her at times. Putting forth her best friendly smile she approached him, "Reservation for a Mr. Tersiv, please." She told him, and waited for him to confirm the reservation. As the waiter confirm with a nod that she was indeed in the right place and started to lead her to the twisting stair way which lead to the second story loft, Kindra realized she was still dressed in her work clothes. Not that she looked bad or her clothes were a normal person's casual, it just struck her that she once upon a time dressed herself up a bit for these sorts of meetings. To late to remedy her outfit, Kindra merely followed the man up the iron wrung stair case to the deserted second floor.

If the first floor had set off her sense of evil, the second floor reminded her grimly of death. It was dimly lit by several fake candles which flicked odd shadows on the floor and ceiling, giving the whole room a more sinister feeling than a romantic one. The chair and tables she passed were made of darkly colored iron and almost burnt black wood, and looked more torturous than comfortable. With each step she took the floor boards groaned and cracked, as if protesting the treatment of her heels upon them. It was deathly silent around her pass the sounds of the floor, giving her goose flesh on her arms and a cold chill up her spine from which Kindra tried not to shutter visibly. Now set on edge she almost jumped when the waiter stepped a side to allow her to pass and sit at the empty table. "Mr. Tersiv will arrive shortly, miss." The waiter told her as he laid out to menus on the table and scampered away, leaving Kindra to her thoughts; one of which was to tell the owner, Dav, to change the eerie death's shadow feel of the place.

[Nyxia]

Kindra seated herself in the hard wooden seat of the iron chair, glancing at the open menu periodically. "Mr. Tersiv." She scoffed quietly to the empty room. "Could he have been any less imaginative." Since asking the walls for answers was the quickest way to find one's self locked in a padded room, she instead admired the dark room with her sunset blood eyes. It reminded her of her old boss, General Zekagh, before she'd left the Navida ranks. With a third glance around the room to assure herself no one would suddenly pop out of the shadows given off by the candle light, she stood from her chair and moved to look out the window at the wet black street below her. It was too close, too similar to that night for her taste. At the thought her body was racked with deep tremors, despite the room around her being toasty. Once the tremors had passed, her curiosity had waned enough that she decided to return to the table and wait.

Turning from the window Kindra was surprised to see a figure looming in the room now, one she hadn't heard enter. Carefully she made her way back to the table and the faceless figure who stood beside it, trying to maintain a level of composer and an air of chilled disinterest as she reached out for the back of the chair. "You must be Mr. Tersiv." She greeted, no sense in exchanging names since he already knew who she was, and she he. The man before her silently nodded and waited until she'd seated herself before sitting down in his own place across from her. Without making so much as a shuffle he lifted the menu up to his face, never saying anything to her. Kindra kept quiet as well, as the waiter dashed up the stair case and hurried across the wooden floor to them.

"H-how may I serve you?" He stammered staring at the man, under her watchful eye. Leaning around the side of the menu to see what the Mr. Tersiv pointed to on the thick paper and scribbling notes he then turned his attention to her. Unable to pay for much in this place she shook her head at the man allowing him to be dismissed.

"Have something, my treat." The deep voice ordered her, stopping the retreating waiter in his tracks. Kindra almost jumped in surprise at the voice, one so familiar to her she couldn't help but growl in return. Nevertheless she watched the man return, a deep glare now laced her features as she picked up the menu once more and glanced at it.

[Nyxia]

Finally finding something inexpensive in the five pages of thick paper she sent him away with a small order to satisfy both her boss and her stomach, much to the waiters thankful gesture none to soon it seemed. Once it was clear the young man wouldn't return for some time, Kindra turned to glare heatedly at the man across from her who was smiling back at her. He looked like a predator with those fang glittering in the flickers of fake candle light, something which should have unnerved her; but they both knew it wouldn't she was too furious to be afraid, and he liked her that way. To her his grand scheme all made perfect sense now, how he knew where she lived, the shop she worked at. That only served to make her more angry with him though, but anger took the chill from her bones and allowed her to focus on the here and now of things. "How dare you..." She began in a low but dangerous tone that betrayed her underline rage.  

The man across the table chuckled in return, a humorless sound which echoed in the dark corners of the room. "My dear, you wouldn't have come if you'd known." He replied watching her reaction. She'd always hated when he did that, telling her the truth of things just to gauge how she would respond to it. It made her feel like she was dangling on a string which kept getting yanked to make her dance, and Kindra didn't dance for anyone. That had never seemed to matter to him, not all those years ago, and not today. His humored expression rolled the tides of rage and vengeance which coiled tight in her stomach, killing her appetite all together. Before she could open her mouth to give him a sharp or even snappy remark at those words the waiter, looking more frightened than before scuttled back up the stairs and to their table. A bottle of dark wine in his hand and two glasses; one he set before Kindra and poured half full along side her water, the other he placed before the man and filled 3/4th the way. Once his tasks were finished the waiter left the bottle in the center of the table a fled once more to the safety of the first floor.

Watching the waiter's flight with mild interest Kindra turned her attention once more to the man, and let out a soft but exasperated sigh. "You've gotten senile in your old age General, I retired from the army almost three years ago. You've no business with me now." She smirked, watching how with those words the amused smile fell from his face like a mirror from a wall. Truth be told with such a sudden change in expression she half expected to her the shattering sound of glass on hard wood floor, and was amazingly disappointed when the sounds never actually came. Instead she slowly lifted her glass to her lips and took a slow sip of the water,unwilling to touch the liquor until she knew exactly what the General wanted from her.

[Nyxia]

Taking a sip from his wine, the General pretended not to notice her wariness. "Your contract still has eight years on it, whether your enlisted or not. There's no sense in protesting, my dear Kindra." Both knew he was right, Kindra was still under contract to the Navida army no matter how she disliked it. "I can, and will call on you any time I wish." He continued on, pointedly telling her that in effect he still owned her. For his part General Zekagh wasn't the kind of man who "owned" anyone, he called in favors from those he knew he could and he never forgot who those people were. His mention of her contract was meant only to remind Kindra that she was still in serves to him, and thus he was calling in that favor.

That happened to matter very little to Kindra who sat on the other side of the table from her old commander with a deep glare and a tightly coiled cannon of rage ready to explode at any second. It wasn't that she hated him personally, in fact she and the General had gotten along quiet well for the four years she'd worked for him. Better than she had with most of her previous commanders, and that said something considering how a woman in the ranks of the Navida had gone over with most. Still the sneaky way in which he had coordinated this little meeting made her unhappy with it, and true to herself she wasn't about to let him speak without first informing him of how she felt. "Maybe, I hadn't forgotten it after all." She began, twirling the water glass by its stem as if it was something more than just a water glass. "That doesn't mean you can do things like this, if you wanted something from me you should have just requested it. You know how I hate this covert stuff."

1.1

[Nyxia]

Kindra was to say the least annoyed when he smiled at her over another sip from his glass, before plopping a massive file folder down on the table before her. The thing was about four inches thick with a few papers hanging out of their places from the tight squeeze put on them, making her almost groan aloud. She kept from doing so as the restaurant below them had ten minutes ago begun to hum with voices of other patrons oblivious to what was transpiring in the exclusive VIP tables. Reaching across with both hands Kindra carefully brought the file back to herself, mindful of the candles and her own water glass. Even in the dim room the halfling's eyes could read the dark ink on the pages as she flipped through them, fully aware of the General's eyes seering her with their intense look. "These reports..." She muttered to him, knowing the old elemental would hear her just fine. "Stígandr, what was he tracking?" She was riveted by the information before her, something Eilya would want to be let in on.

Everything from weather reports to strange sightings and odd activity in the area, she'd run over her former partner's reports at least three times before Zekagh cleared his throat. Snapping up to eye him she noticed the waiter on the stairs with their food, looking as terrified as any poor creature should. Tucking the file under the table, Kindra smiled to the man as he neared them. "Thank, it looks wonderful." She praised, her appetite having suddenly found it's way back to her. The spring salad here usually hit the spot, and it made her smile a bit since it would be him who picked up the tab on her treat. Once both glasses were refilled the man disappeared once more down the stairs and passed the armed guards the general usually traveled with. "So." She began after two bites of her food, once more eyeing some of the reports in her lap. "You want me to give Stígandr a hand with whatever this is he's found?" She had a bit of a smirk, always bailing him out was kinda fun.

[Nyxia]

At another glace up to gather a fork full of leaves, petals, and fruits Kindra noticed the eerie look on Zekagh face. That expression had never ceased to concern her, as it meant nothing good when she saw it. The General set his fork on his plate and took a drink from the water glass rather than wine before setting his eyes on her once more. "Stígandr has vanished, we sent him in with a new recruit and neither have been heard from or seen in over three months." His whole expression of amusement and good nature replaced by the commander she'd known, causing the gravity of the situation to slam full force into Kindra's chest. Her fork clattered into her salad as she gasped to catch her breath, now she understood why it was her they'd come to instead of one of their own.

For his part the General sat silently, allowing her time to process and make peace with this. Soon though it became apparent to him that she wasn't going to manage that very quickly. Coming to terms with what this all entailed was something a man could do, but women were a funny bunch and this woman was the funniest of them all. Folding his hands on the table he watched her gasp for air and shake her head knowing the flood of questions now in the wings to assault him any moment.

Sure enough the questions came to her, just as the tears pricked at the corners of her blood eyes causing the edges of her vision to become watery and distorted. So many things pushed through her thoughts as she sat there staring at her plate in the darkness which wrapped the room. Her body shook and ached with her vein attempts to control the tremors, "Is he...is he gone..." She whispered, unable to raise her voice any further than that. Afraid of the answer she looked up to see Zekagh take in a slow, deep breath.

[Nyxia]

The pair sat in silence for a long stretch of a minute, before finally Zekagh decided to answer her. The information he had was at best limited and mostly unreliable but he owed her that much. "We don't know that he is." He began just to help her keep her head, since they had no solid intel on what had happened. "But we don't know he's alive either." The finish of such a thing was unpleasant but business was always this way, wasn't it. He tried his best to not scrutinize her from across the table out of respect as she was forced to take this all in. "How soon can you be ready to leave?" He question swirling the wine in his glass.

One thing Kindra had always appreciated about General Zekagh was that he didn't treat her like a delicate flower just because she was female. Right now however he showed his calloused side, but she knew he was right. Soldiers died all the time and the world kept turning, but at the same this wasn't some faceless name either. Pulling back the tide of her emotions Kindra picked up her fork once more and began to think about all she'd have to do before she could just go hunt down this thing Stígandr had been on the trail of. This time though the silence seemed eternal as she picked at the cranberries and mango's among the lettuce and spinach. It was hard to plan how this would work, and with each bite her stomach twisted in knots. "I have to inform Eilya, and then I'll have to pull on my contacts." She announced to dim room and her plate, "It might take some time to track them all down again...Give me three days."  At least it was an answer, likely not the one he wanted but it was too late to give that another thought.

From across the table she heard the general snort as if he was stiffing a laugh, and then his glass clanged but still she refused to meet his eyes. "I already spoke with Dr.Suhoiae, but if you feel you must then by all means." He growled a bit, and Kindra guessed Eilya hadn't been so willing to let her go. That wasn't the point by any means, rather just annoyed the man that a woman would tell him what to do. But he continued "She was...reluctant to help, but understood the problem here." If the situation had been anything else Kindra might have laughed imagining the conversation that had transpired between the two strong headed people. Before she could add anything or ask anything else, General Zekagh stood from the table and set his napkin next to his plate. "Gather what you need, but do try and be quick about it my dear. Much rides on your speed as it does your abilities." He instructed, setting a small parchment note beside the half melted candle at the center of the table. With an unnatural swiftness for someone of such a size, the earth elemental vanished down the creaking stair case to pay their bill and disappear into the night.

[Nyxia]

Kindra sat in the silent darkness, barely paying mind to the dim flicker of the candles on the table or the taste of her meal. Her mind was a whirl of what had to be done, of who she'd trust and who she'd track down; equipment and information she'd need to gather, recon mission and what she was going to tell Eilya. This was going to be one of those long nights that would take her back to the doorstep of Asysin, that was enough for her to groan quietly. Still she had no other options in the matter, and it mattered little if she even did. With the creeping feeling that the room was closing in around her, and the air was being squeezed out of it. Thus Kindra called the waiter up to get a box to put her salad in, and thanked the man before picking up the file folder, the card with the next meet location, and her slightly wilting salad.

Her first few steps into the chilled and damp night air brought her back to life, not in the way she'd ever hoped it would. Tucking the file under her jacket, Kindra made her way down the dark street creeping through the night like a shadow. The life she'd thought she'd given up when she joined Asysin and Eilya, yet here again she was sneaking away like an intruder in the night. Growling at people who passed her on the stone streets, Kindra's mood had gone from bad to worse in the two hours she'd been at dinner. Turning her face up to the sky, she allowed the rain drops to splash and soak her face as she pondered why the universe seemed out to get her on so many levels.