The Howler's expression clouds at the name.  There's memory there, but no decision about its meaning yet.  She gives a quick nod and redirects her gaze to the mountains to the north.

  "We arrived at port together.  I haven't seen her since, though.  Probably off turning beggars into zombies, I imagine.  Seemed considerate enough; it's probably an improvement in their lot.  She even leaves their souls in place, sometimes, like the doctor and the warrior she keeps close to her.  I don't know what she is, either..."

  She takes a deep breath quite suddenly, having forgotten for several seconds.  "Well, that's not true.  And if you're working for her, you'll live longer if you know more.  She's something close enough to a god the difference doesn't seem to matter.  It's what she used to be that I can't help you with.  I haven't heard her lie after weeks in her company, so whatever she's promised you, I expect you can..."

  Gaja abruptly turns back to face him.  "She gives and takes life as easily as I put one foot in front of another.  What could she possibly need you for?"

"A god you say?"

He clapped his hands together once in delight, rubbing them together with a look of pure satisfaction on his face.

"What a time to be alive, when such legends walk the earth!  Well, if she truly is a god, then she is not a god of wealth and fortune.  "

He laughed as he spread his arms wide, and she saw that he was now holding a not insubstantial pile of gold coins in between his fingers.  He rolled his wrists, and with a practiced bit of legerdemain the coins  once again vanished.

"Her operation requires substantial funding, and the cooperation of the guild, should she actually wish to be successful.  This is a dangerous city, for those without friends.  I am abundantly capable of providing the former, and aim to secure the later as well.  Doing so requires a bit of mischief though, which is why I find myself out in the countryside having such a lovely stroll."

He was being cryptic now, showing off a little without giving away too many details.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:01, Thu 06 Dec 2018.

  "Hmph.  Mischief."  She looks back at the mountains, but only for a second before making eye contact again.  "And what would the punishment be if they found you engaged in your mischief?  Hanging?  Slavery?  A day in the stocks?  Some cross words from your mother?"  There's a dare in her eyes.

Vasati shrugged.

"What sort of mischief would the guild be interested in all the way out here?"

There weren't a lot of options, unless one was looking to get into trouble at the Falchetto Estates.

"And if it isn't enough mischief that discovery could lead to the Order of Redactors getting involved?  Then honestly, what's the point?  Hardly makes for a tale at all."

  "The other people I've heard talk about that order sounded scared of it.  Called them razors.  So whatever you're doing, some very powerful people will be upset?"  Her confusion over the term sounds genuine, and she doesn't seem to have sorted out which guild he meant.  It's not clear whether she'd sound more or less excited if she realized what he was implying, but she seems to like the scale of it.

  "You must be very brave, to do this thing."

Vasati laughed.

"Brave?  No, no, no.  I'll leave the bravery for the heroes and warriors.  I'm happy to be a coward, but a lucky coward, and one fond of having powerful friends."

He wiped his brow, though there was no sweat there.

"Is that what you are, Signora?  You must be something grand, to claim the fastest Sunchaser as your own?"

  She rolls her eyes at the naked flattery, but she's smiling still. After all, she started it. "No, no, of course not. I'm just the favorite of many powerful spirits." All the same, she turns her mount in the direction, Vasati had been walking when they crossed paths and urges it forward. It doesn't really move at a human's pace, so she stops slightly ahead.

  "And they agree with me that the powerful of Vissio are not as upset as they should be. Come. I'm not loyal to these people's headmen. Whatever mischief you're here for, I have plans for worse, later. You can show me the defenses I'll need to be careful of."
This message was last edited by the player at 07:18, Thu 06 Dec 2018.

Vasati let out a loud and deep throated laugh, his voice melodious and his mirth genuine.

"I tell you, a perfect stranger, that I'm looking to kick a hornet's nest.  And what's the first thing you tell me, you want to join in the fun?  I've half a mind to think you're a sellsword in the employ of the Falchettos, looking for an easy reward of a fool."

He patted his stomach as if it were swollen and heavy, though in truth he was possessed of a powerful build far more prone to muscle than fat.

"I may be foolhardy, but I'm no easy mark.  What have the lordlings done to offend you so?  I'm not looking to start a war, just looking to seize a little power.  The families don't like to share, they are too worried about losing what they have.  Connections require trust, and nothing builds trust quite like a beginning together.  Starting from the bottom and reaching the throne together, as it were."

Again he found himself uttering the words he had spoken to Plaga.  He supposed they were true then, or he wouldn't keep finding himself in positions to speak them.

"I like your spirit..."

A play on words, or just coincidence?

"... and I like to surround myself with up and comers.  Let's be frank, you and yours are about as up and coming as they come.  But why would you devote yourself to this cause? More importantly?  What task do you think I could set you to?"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:51, Thu 06 Dec 2018.

  Gaja watches him curiously as he answers her, and the expression doesn't follow what he's saying particularly closely. When he finishes, she looks a third time to the north and slowly nods to herself.

  "I misunderstood. That's my fault. We do things... differently, in the blighted lands." When she glances back at Vasati, she's gone a bit wistful. "I thought your motivation was... Well, not greed, anyway."

  She shakes her head and squares her shoulders then. "Seize what power you can, but take it with you elsewhere. Some day, I'm going to burn down the hornet nest and the whole tree it hangs from. This is fair warning, I think."

Visati pushed out his lips in a gesture of sincere surprise.

"Oh, and what have the hornets done to evoke such wrath in you?  Or do you mean everything?"

He gestured back towards the city itself.

  "No.  Not everything, I suppose.  It was going to be everything, once, but that was before I learned city folk are slaves, even the free ones."  Gaja spits on the ground to her left, and there's nothing to explain it but expressive custom.  Then she glances down at the "beast of destruction and war", which has by now started picking up small stones and shuffling them around restlessly.  There's a chill slowly creeping into her eyes, pushing out the excitement, and even sympathy, from earlier.

  "I told you we used to raise them.  Now we means I, and I don't have the time.  It would have been Gaja Shining Fifth, if you met me a year ago, and you'd have been surrounded by my family when you did."  She gives Vasati a grim smile and explains no further.

"Ah, vengeance then.  That I can understand."

For the first time since they'd met, his voice was no longer full of light and laughter.

"Are the Falchettos included in this vengance?"

He kept walking in the direction of the estate.

  As Vasati approaches and then passes them, Szkarik reaches out for his knees, but stops at a hiss from Gaja.  She's still looking through the spot had been standing in, but eventually turns them around to follow.

  "I don't plan to do them the honor of learning their names.  I'll know them by the height of their walls, and they will know me by the sound of those walls falling."

  She pauses to whisper something to Sarnai, and her voice is softened when she continues.  "It's not time for war yet.  And no one has ever bought my sword.  But if you're going to be a mite in their blankets, it serves me to keep them from squashing you."

  Then she again looks up at the mountains, but this time smiles and gestures at the dark clouds starting to condense near their peaks.  The sea breeze had been caught up by a southerly during their talk, come to think of it.  "And so does that.  A storm will rinse the salt out of the earth and wear down these rocks a little.  Maybe the upcoming harvest will be a good one after all."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 18:49, Thu 06 Dec 2018.

"That would suite my purposes perfectly, actually."

Vasati said, sounding surprised.

"They possess something that doesn't belong to them, I mean to liberate it.  It's a secret though, not something they are supposed to even know about, let alone own.  They can't make too much of a fuss if it goes missing, provided they don't suffer too many other slights. Are you comfortable operating under those constraints?  This is to be a mission of subtlety and finesse."

He arched an eyebrow inquiringly.

"I intended to do so myself, but a distraction would be ever so lovely, particularly if said distraction didn't mind riding in to the rescue should alarms get triggered.  Can you think of a reason why you might be visiting Vissian nobility?  More importantly, can you think of a reason why they might see you?"

There was a careful calculation behind the questions, like he was testing for something.

  Gaja pulls up one sleeve in response.  From just above the wrist to as far as the fabric will bunch up, she's decorated with either authentic Howler tattoos or an unbelievably tasteless display of Vissian adolescent rebellion.  She lets the sleeve drop.

  "Even with a good disguise, I could manage the accent, but I know the words their workers use, not their money-counters and magicians.  I'd never pass.  Find me the right shade of ochre to cover my marks, and I could be from the pyramids.  I think a distraction that is ever so lovely might be better; I can be very hard to look away from."  She gives him a heavy-lidded gaze and a loose smile that just begins to part her lips.  Even out in the middle of the savanna, it's viscerally inviting.  It could be a weapon in a parlor.

  "But then I'd need an escort with a good reason to leave me unattended around a pack of hyenas."

"An exotic foreign mercenary, perhaps?  Coming to offer her services to one of the major houses?  Then you don't have to pretend to be anything but yourself.  I find that the best way to lie is often to not lie at all, but merely guide your mark to the truth that you want them to see, rather than trying to avoid the truths you don't."

He suggested, leaning in as near to her as the Sunchaser would allow in response to her smoldering gaze.

"A little false speach though, to spice things up.  Perhaps you were slighted by.a rival house who failed to realize your potential?  I'm sure the Falchettos would appreciate a demonstration of your talents.  Some flashy, something dazzling.

He clapped his hands together excitedly.

"Do you have something in mind?"

  "Are you saying... I should... Hmm."

  Gaja remains quiet almost a full minute as they continue walking, her lessons apparently suspended for now.  It happens gradually enough to escape immediate notice, but Vasati also falls silent during that time: footsteps, breathing, heartbeat, even the susurrus of clothing moving past itself all fade away.  When she opens her mouth to speak again, the voice comes from the opposite side of the path—and it's undeniably his.

  "That so-delightful iceberg which you have seen, tell me, is it well known that we set out on behalf of the Signori Lorenzi?  Because if these hoarders of forbidden things are as jealous as you say, this information may just intrigue them."  She watches his first attempt to reply with transparently feigned concern when no sound comes of it, then lets that sink in for a moment while she continues.

  "I still don't know what I've become.  But fire only kisses me now.  Every voice, even the sea and the church-bells, needs my permission.  That fence—"  She points at a waist-high stone wall surrounding a nearby olive copse, and water begins welling up from the ground at one corner.  "—will be sunk into the mud by the time you return this way.  There are other, flashier things, but they would not like the demonstration.  Are they and the Lorenzi allied?  If not, I will tell them I was cheated by a clever contract.  Outsiders seem happy to think my people don't understand how to bargain.  So now, of course, I am hoping to be hired by anyone who wants to enrich themselves at the Lorenzi's expense."

  She does, at that point, end the enforced silence.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:02, Sat 08 Dec 2018.

Vasati clapped his hands in delight when he heard his voice, his mouth open wide in an inaudible laugh as neither his tongue nor his beating palms created so much as a whisper.  He was still laughing when his voice was returned to him.

"Oh Signora, Signora!  You didn't tell me you were a thief!  What a marvelous display that was.  Perhaps your talents are better suited to burglary than bait after all.  Still, no, a plan is a plan.  Would be a shame to scrape it just because you reveal yourself to be too talented?"

His laughter finally stilled.

"I don't know where they stand with the Alonzi, though I will set my whispers to it when we return to the city proper.  Perhaps they will have secrets for me to share with you.  Now, I will be leaving you before we get too close to the estates.  It does our plan little good if we are seen walking together.  You work your magic, and they won't even know I've been riffling through their secrets until we are nothing more than tall tales."

  "Of course.  I've ridden outrider to pull guards from their posts before; I know how to keep them sure of their own success.  I'll need to know how long you need, though.  Or when you've finished—some signal maybe."

  She stopped short, looking into the distance, and withdrew a pair of curved knives, no larger than her own hand, from someplace near the small of her back.  "An animal call?  If it can be heard, I'll hear it.  Like the different set of birds up ahead.  We're close to something, anyway, maybe your estate."

  "In any case, if I'm going to be exotic, I may as well be brazen."  With that, she cut slits quickly down the sidemost length of each sleeve and a good portion of either pants leg.  With the cuffs still intact, the fabric mostly just billowed theatrically with her movements now, revealing considerable tattooed skin.

Sarnai, quiet before, spoke up, trying not to laugh as she imagined the chaos that were about to ensue.

"Do you want me to watch your mount and remain outside?"

It was interesting to think what she might do if a giant scorpion decided to wander off.

"Not at all, it will be much more impressive if you present yourself as the lady's squire. I assume suggesting such will not give offense?  If I am wrong, please correct me."

He said with a gleam in his eyes.

"But it is so much more of a show if we present the Signora as a foreign knight.  It will meet their expectations.  Even if such a thing does not exist in the Golden Wastes, it tells a story that they are likely to understand.
The Sunchaser makes it even better.  It alone would be enough to distract the whole house until my purpose is met."

He paused, thinking before he answered her question.  Instinctively, his hand went up to stroke his beard.

"I should not need more than an hour, even here my whispers have told me exactly where what I seek lies.  Should I succeed, there should be no need to signal you at all.  Should I be caught?"

He let a a low chuckle, full of self reflective mirth.

"I suppose it has been a while.  Should I be caught, trust me when I say that you will know."

  "Almost a knight.  Almost."  Gaja nodded slowly, a wolfish grin slowly growing.  "I know the story I will tell them, and it is all true.  It is a truth."

  Then she inclined her head toward a patch of shrubs nearby.  "You should go, then.  We know our parts.  And he's right, Sarnai.  More than a chief, you said, and they will understand that best if they think you serve, rather than follow.  Servants and masters are all these people know, and it's true enough that I protect you while you are... in training."  The idea, or a nearby one, makes her shift uneasily.  She doesn't show quite as much discomfort as the last time the topic came up.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:48, Sat 08 Dec 2018.

Vasati gave a shortened version of his usual flourishing bow, and departed without another word.

"I like him. I wouldn't trust him, but I like him." Sarnai said after he'd departed, smiling.

After a few moments, she averted her eyes from Gaja, and sunk her eyes a bit, copying the way she used to behave back when she was a serving girl back on the island. She'd seemed quite happy since they entered the savanah together, either because she was in natural surroundings again or because she was traveling with Gaja.

"Yes, mistress." She practiced.

It helped that she actually LIKED the person she was serving, but she was pretty good at looking like an inconspicuous servant.. it's why she'd ended up as a domestic servant even though she'd been taken fairly late as a slave.

  Gaja twists to look back at the honorific, lips pressed tightly together.  Then she draws in a deep breath, as though to speak, but lets it out in a huff of surrender before facing front again.

  "I used to play meek often.  Once I find out why the ukthee obey me..."  But she doesn't finish, and rides in brooding silence toward the cleared land ahead.  It suits her pretense of revenge well enough.  She lets Sarnai work out her own approach to the ruse along the way—the girl is probably better at it in any case.  As they near the point where too few trees remain ahead to remain unseen, she shifts her weight back, onto her ankles, and Szkarik stops.

  "Yeah.  I like him, too."

  And then she urges their mount on again.