Kai, Stopper of Floods, Breaker of Storms, Sinker of Fleets, Incarnation of Pisces on Liphilius, of the Great Shark Tribe
Location: Arcadia, Celestialan Tower
Accompanying: Nawai'Ano Maikiki, Rain Maker, Drought Stopper, of the Great Shark Tribe; Oh, and the Eccentrique

None would suspect they'd find the most powerful Zsill mage in the world sleeping on a rock while his fishing pole dangled from one hand. That was why it was the perfect disguise. Well, it would have been the perfect disguise if a certain headstrong apprentice hadn't rudely shaken him awake and handed him a missive from the Order.

Upon reading about an urgent meeting of the Eccentrique, Kai's first reaction was to keep fishing. When one Maikiki gave him a firm glare, he'd reeled in the line -- acting shocked that the bait was missing -- and gone to grab a boat.

It would have been faster to travel overland until they reached the southern cities of Elvira and Elmira, instead of sailing around the coast, but Kai seemed determined to miss this meeting. So he was quite surprised when he walked into the tower and saw the others gathered.

"Ah! It appears I am on time for once." He stretched and moved to lounge in his accustomed spot under the symbol of Pisces. "It has been some time. Allow me to introduce my apprentice, Nawai'Ano Maikiki. Maikiki, these are the other Eccentriques."

Nesryn felt herself tense, knife immediately in her hand as the door behind her opened. The sharp curse of her husband however caused her deathly gaze to calm and for her to not quite bare her teeth any more. Nesryn said nothing as she wiped the flat of the blade on her thigh and sheathed it, accepting Dimitri’s shirt to wipe the blood off her face. She hated it... the feel of blood on her skin. She was quick to rid her face of it and wiped at her mouth and cheek with a grimace as the other two fretted over the body. Of course Dimitri was clearly unsettled where Eir held a more cynical view of the situation.
He was right, they couldn’t leave the body here. Nesryn had done her fair share of disposing of bodies and knew without a doubt that Eir’s cliff suggestion was the more effective one. Of course, if there had been a river near by she would have usually dug a straight six feet down and buried the man standing up in the river banks. It allowed time and erosion to take away the body without leaving a suspicious skeleton.
Still silent, she simply began to wrap the cloak tighter around the man, using the arms of it to secure the material.
“What’s going on...?” a sleepy and confused Bryer stood in the doorway, rubbing his eyes. Once look at Nesryn’s blood spattered appearance and the shirt in her hand and he froze. His eyes took on that distant expression he got when memories of the Truce raids came back to him. It was a few moments before he seemed to rouse and quickly turn to go back inside. Nesryn sighed as he left and shook her head slightly, still not speaking. She turned the body over with a foot and grabbed one end of the bundle, starting to drag it. She didn’t have the ability to speak and hardly noticed if either of the men followed or tried to assist.

A rope around the ankles and around a rock. A few hefty swings and they watched the body plunge into the white foam at the base of the cliff. The sunrise was already beginning to light up the sky and Nesryn moved to lean wearily against Dimitri. While it wasn’t easy to do what she did, the weight on her shoulders had lifted greatly. A wave of nausea hit her and she hurried away to a nearby bush to heave. Tears pricked her eyes and she rubbed them away, standing up once more and putting her hands on her stomach with a sigh to herself. She would see the healer tomorrow as well... for they all needed to get home to bed.

Later in the day Nesryn woke with a start, eyes wide and her chest pounding. Realisation filled her and she clapped a hand over her mouth and looked to her husbands deeply asleep form. A spark of hope filled her, but after last night’s events... it was evenly tempered with fear. She’d keep it from him for now. Just until she knew it wasn’t her body imagining things.
Shakily, she lay back down and curled up next to Dimitri, a hand tentatively resting on her abdomen.
“All-Mother bless this child...” she whispered softly, closing her eyes.

Nesryn gave him a rueful look as he so generously offered to take on the duty of cooking dinner- Elviyenne cuisine at that. She nuzzled into his side and looked up at him.
“Such a sacrifice to offer your time and energy to cook for us. Are you sure it’s not just because Luna and I are hopeless at it? Mmm?”
She gave a slight chuckle before her mouth formed at frown at his request she see a healer about her stomach. She felt that was unnecessary, it was just a stomach bug and surely she’d be over it. Hell, even now she was feeling nothing of that nausea. However, she gave a nod in agreement and decided she would make a time to see the healer if things still went awry.
“I am sure it is just a stomach bug... but I will do as you ask my husband” she said gently, pouting a little as she watched him get up and dress himself again. With a small sigh she tugged her clothes back on. They’d need to be some semblance of put together before they went out again.


That night, the pair had settled down and Nesryn could hear the soft ride and fall of Dimitri’s breath as she lay awake. The couple were entangled together and Nesryn felt herself slide slowly toward that cliff of unconsciousness.
The slight hiss of grass moving in the distance...
Nesryn’s eyes shot open and immediately she tried to slip from Dimitri’s embrace to carefully creep to the window. Making sure her face wasn’t in the light of the moon, she peered out.
A silhouette of a figure walking at a half crouch toward their home. Two Katana... It was Tika.
With swift steps, she gently shook Dimitri awake, putting a blade into his hand.
“Tika is coming toward the house” she put another blade in his other hand “Stay guard over Luna , Eir and Bryer. He shouldn’t make it that far but just in case”
She had already pulled on trousers and tucked her nightgown into it, pulling on her cowl. Giving him a kiss, she fled downstairs.

Nesryn’s heart beat in her ears as she moved swiftly into the darkness, cowl shadowing her face until she seemingly disappeared into the shadows surrounding the house. She hadn’t intended for the bounty hunter to get too close, but even now as she moved at a crouch past Bryer’s garden she could see NAME approaching at a steady pace. A few moments and she was waiting beside a tree he was about to pass. Soundless, she stepped out into the pathway and flicked three knives in his direction with a movement of her wrist. Her brow furrowed further when he staggered and dodged all of them, drawing his two blades and dropping into a defensive stand. Rushing forward, she brought down her own sword in a diagonal fashion, forcing him to catch it with both his blades. She forced her sword down, pushing his blades tightly together before bringing it up toward his throat. His own deft movement saw that she barely missed and had to bend out of the way as he struck out at her, her cowl being caught by the edge of his blade and forced back off her head. Her face was now obvious in the moonlight and as NAME took a few steps back, she could see his face split into a toothy grin.
“This is not the first time you’ve tried to stop me claiming a bounty Scythe-“
She said nothing but regained her balance and prepared to strike out again.
He put his blades over his shoulders and sheathed them, raising his hands in a placating gesture. She didn’t put her weapon away as she glared at him.
“How much is Hythian offering?”
“50,000 gold”
Her weapon lowered a little in surprise.
“Only 50,000? It’s a wonder you even bothered. I took you to be a man who knew how to balance cost versus gain...”
The amount he’d have had to pay to gain passage let alone information on their whereabouts would have been steep. It didn’t make sense to-
“Nonono...” he chuckled, “You misunderstand me. 50,000 gold each. Dead or Alive. He didn’t seem to mind”
She held her weapon taut again, eyes narrowing.
“You won’t be seeing a scrap of that bounty-“
He gave a shrug, taking out a knife and lazily spinning it in his hands.
“I don’t mean to go toe to toe with you. Tsk- I know when I’m out of my depth. But Hythian’s information said there were four of you. 150,000 gold seems like a highway robbery”
Not needing to hear more, Nesryn thrust out, blade clashing with his dagger. He gave a grunt and deflected the action before flinging the blade at her so he had a moment to draw his swords. Nesryn gritted her teeth and set her resolve. This man would die tonight, or she would die trying.
Clang of steel against steel rang through the front yard of their house and Nesryn gave a snap of annoyance as someone tried to exit, probably Dimitri in order to help. With a kick, she forced the door shut once more and resumed her duel with the bounty hunter. The moment of distraction had cost her and she gritted her teeth as the blade grazed her neck before she veered away to avoid too much damage. He was pressing her backward, trying to get her too close to the house to be able to fight effectively. She’d seen this tactic before, and as she came a step away from the wall she remembered just how to deal with it.
Dropping her sword, she leapt up to grab the edge of the roof, flinging herself toward the bounty hunter, who was not expecting her to leap at him. Her legs went around his shoulders and she was able to disarm him as she pulled them both to the ground. Her thighs clenching around his throat and his weight on top of her. Drawing a knife she grunted as she reached and sliced cleanly.
She grimaced as the spray of blood came forth and his body stilled.
She dropped her knife shakily and shoved the body off herself, standing up and eyeing the scene she’d created in the moonlight. Nausea welled up and she chastised herself for the weakness as she grabbed his cloak and covered the body. Her breath was shaky as she stood there, taking a moment to gather herself. She’d need to dispose of the mess...

The hand through his hair made Dimitri almost melt into her touch, finding that there was no better feeling than her affection. Nesryn’s loving tone as she used her pet name for him made his heart squeeze, reminding him how much of his heart was full of love for this woman. He didn’t want to mess that up by continuing to upset her, but he was beginning to get confused by these mood swings. She usually was hard to read but now it seemed like a game of Russian roulette. And the trigger finger was always itchy. He couldn’t stand to see her cry and hated hearing her that overwhelmed, but he wasn’t quite sure how to take all that stress off of her shoulders. It didn’t mean he wouldn’t try.
Her apology wasn’t needed, but he took it and gave her a softer smile, one full of adoration. “It didn’t help that I antagonized you. I sounded like Aly today...” He gave a shudder of regret. “Stress and fear are easy to understand after the life you’ve lived, love. But I want to help shoulder some of that if you’ll let me? If you truly feel something is wrong we can prepare properly just in case. I’ll even leave the floorboards alone...” He said, a bit of humor leaking in as he began to realize she was the culprits behind that undone repair. “How about we do something relaxing today to get your mind off of it? I’ll even make dinner since you and Luna have been working so hard? I got ahold of some spices from the merchant ships out of Ilydia Bay...plenty of Elviyenne peppers and dried spices to really give some veggies and meats a kick.” He said as an offer to maybe help calm her senses. She still seemed a bit off so he didn’t want to push her stress more.
“But I...would like for you to at least see a healer about your stomach if it continues to bother you. I know you didn’t want me worrying as I often do over you, so I’ll try to be better about calming down a bit. Not pestering, if you will.” He gave her a more lasting kiss before pulling away and climbing out of bed. He got dressed with some effort not to just pull her back into bed and say ‘screw it’ to the world today. But he was sure the others might have been a bit concerned by the yelling disappearing.
By the time they were out of the room and cleaned up properly, Dimitri went and apologized lightly to Bryer before setting about making dinner with help from a few of the others. Meanwhile, he glanced out the window, wondering if this bounty hunter really did mean to harm Nesryn and his family. He wouldn’t allow it of course, but he really contemplated how to prepare properly. Perhaps he should ask Nesryn to at least teach him a few things, even if he knew he was a bit too clumsy to be that skilled. Either way, her worry got him thinking enough that he decided to be a bit more vigilant even at the expense of his calmer thoughts.

Nesryn gave a languid stretch and a happy sigh, her body flushed as she cooled off. The woman didn’t refuse her husbands hold, leaning into him as he nuzzled against her. His soft apology made her give a small sigh. All this quarrelling was pointless and he did have a point... Gently she trailed her hand through his hair, brushing it out of his face affectionately. It was getting quite long recently she had noticed.
“I love you too, hearts fire... You are right though. I shouldn’t run after him just because he’s here. If he is here out of coincidence, like you think he is, then it’ll pass without incident. But if I go in there with no proof or reason... Then I’m creating trouble for us”
Her hands absently fiddled with the longer hair at the nape of his neck, weaving a little braid as she spoke. As of late her temper had been volatile and her moods awry and inconsistent. It was obvious that it was creating tension between the two of them and she felt that weigh on her.
“I’m sorry for being so... aggressive lately. I don’t know what it is... I think perhaps the whole stress of this situation with us escaping has taken its toll. Now that I’m finally starting to settle somewhere it’s probably the guild part of me that makes monsters in the shadows...”
Gently she placed a kiss to his temple and embraced him with a squeeze.
“We should probably get up and start thinking about what we are going to have for dinner”