Blood on the Rocks (M)

[Lion]

Quinlan might have cringed at the sight of such handiwork.  He'd seen ritualistic carvings before, some he'd done himself.  These were vaguely familiar and his eyes paused to the marking that was stuck into his left palm. 

"I can't say I remember who this man is...."  He paused suddenly.  "Wait a minute.  Before we go any further, maybe you should tell me who you are first.  Got a name?  And what were you doing snooping around?"

[kleineklementine]

Didn't remember? That was interesting. The skinny redhead was becoming more intriguing. She couldn't help but wonder if he'd been intended for a similar purpose as poor Mr. Kravitt here.

She had gone back to examining the body as Quinlin answered, or started to answer. But she glanced up at him when he turned the question back around at her in a moment of deliberation. Then went back to the body.

"Zahi," she answered matter-of-factly. "I was sent by northern interests looking to clear up some space in the Ketra underground market." All of this was entirely true, if a little vague. But it was all Quinlin really needed to know. "Our friend here," she said, standing up straight again, done with her close inspection, and taking half a step back from the body, "was a big man in the criminal element down here."

Then she looked at Quinlin. "What do you remember?"

[Lion]

Truly he expected a more guarded response.  Then again, nothing made a more perfect lie than telling the truth.  Quinlan knew that better than most, and from first glance, so did this odd woman.  That's what he decided she was.  Odd.  It was a perfectly acceptable summation for someone so interested dissecting a bloodied man several hours dead.  Even the smell didn't seem to faze her.  She probably did this an awful lot...and Quinlan wasn't sure he liked what that told him.

It was immediately clear to him that he wanted to keep any association with him as quick and as brief as possible. 

"Hm.  So matter of factly," he commented idly and stared back at the body.  Suddenly it felt as if something sharp struck his temples and his hands went up to hold them, the blood from his left palm smearing on his cheek.  He cringed.  "Gah!"  Then he looked at the body again and the crusted blood that remained underneath his fingernails.

"Kravitt," he muttered with a scowl.  "That's what the bastard's name is."  He closed his eyes and tried to focus.  "He spoke real fast.  Like if he did, you wouldn't catch on to what a bad deal he was trying to sucker you into.  He was real friendly though.  He paid good for a round of drinks.  Can't fault a man for stupid generosity.  Except for now maybe."

He shook his head, opening his eyes and observing the body once more, the swift cut across his throat.  "He was looking for someone for a job he said he had.  I guess I figured he paid good on drinks, the reward was equally promising.  Looks like the joke's on him."  He smiled and laughed, but his expression quickly faded.  "I guess we weren't alone after all.  Huh...  I thought the room was drafty."

[kleineklementine]

Zahi watched Quinlan with a cautious curiosity. His extreme reaction to the name was interesting, to say the least. There was something... off about this man that she hadn't quite put her finger on yet. But little of her curiosity or interest showed on her expression; she watched stone-faced as Quinlan recounted his dealings with the dead man.

"Yeah, I believe that. His type are usually charming and generous. I'm not sure there's anything stupid about it. He did good business. Well," she cast a casual glance over the corpse, "did good business."

Her gaze shifted from the corpse to Quinlan and something almost approaching amusement flickered on her features. "Looks like the joke is on you, though. Kravitt here is safe and dead. You're the one with, let's say, unfriendly, molotov-tossing religious fanatics on your heels." She leaned back, crossing her arms, and concluded, "Seems like you're the one who should be worried. And what I want to know is - if that lot was the one chasing you after - who did the dirty work? And what did he have," she inclined her head to the corpse, "that presumably you now have, or they think you do - that they want."

[Lion]

"Generosity without agenda is foolish.  Men can't learn to fend for themselves if their given everything palm in hand," he said with a snarl.  "But I guess it can't hurt when you got a lot of palms to grease.  Everybody's gotta get their cut."

He moved around and pulled the cloth of the man's lacerated shirt apart and observed the ritual markings along his upper body and his crusted bloody fingernails traced along them.  "Funny you mention religious fanatics.  He didn't seem much like the religious type. I would know."

He snorted a little and observed the fanged mark along Kravitt's palm.  "You recognize that symbol?"

[kleineklementine]

"Men like Kravitt always have an agenda." Zahi had spent enough of her life in the care or employ of the Zantaric and Arca underworld to know that any successful crime boss always, always had an agenda. No one gave things away for free.

"Oh, I believe he wasn't religious. But those wounds aren't the work of a random killer. Or of a professional." She stepped beside Quinlan, looking closer at the body again. "Then again, it's messier... less careful... than you'd guess a proper ritual would be. Who knows," she shrugged, "I could be wrong. I don't see wounds like this very often, though."

Her eyes followed Quinlan's to the man's palm and the fang markings there. They were, in fact, not unlike how the Bloods marked their own quarries. But this wasn't their work. That, at least, she was sure about. She raked her memory for details of the last human sacrifice she had seen, so long ago in the forgotten, ruined temple outside of Zantaric. But she couldn't get the details in focus.

"Sounds like you do." She wouldn't mention the similarity to the Blood Wolves own symbol. She paused, then decided to ask, "Is it something local?"

[Lion]

Quinlan kept his eyes on the body, the markings, the cuts.  His mind prickled with needles that made him shut his eyes tight and hold his breath.  When he opened them, he took his hands away from the mark and looked at Zahi.  "The cuts don't have to be perfect or even aligned right to be effective.  What matters is the offering and the words, spoken with intent.  This mark...is strange because it's a holy symbol.  To some circles.  The Mark of Macaris.  Some lunatic who claimed to have the ability to turn the minds of animals.  The Mark is meant to be protection against betrayers and turncoats, y'know snakes.  I don't remember him having that before he died though."

Quinlan shook his head and walked a few steps around the room.  "Gah..."  His head continued to hurt.  "Irony, I think."  He turned back to Zahi.  "My best guess is he tried to cheat someone else and they didn't like that much.  That mark...  I've seen it before...  They call themselves the Keepers of Cathar.  Funny, I thought they were just a holy brotherhood; y'know, help the sick, feed the poor types."

[kleineklementine]

Quinlan was becoming more and more interesting to Zahi. The micro-signs of discomfort. The familiarity, apparently, with strange religious practices. She wondered if he really was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, or if he had more to do with this than he was letting on.

She wondered if she should keep pursuing this at all. Kravitt was a con-man who conned the wrong group, it seemed. That was of no particular interest. It was a lost opportunity for the Soot Wolves to make an impression in the Ketra market, but that was all. Her interest was if there were underground feuds that they didn't know about, and it didn't seem like that was what was going on here. But Zahi knew she wasn't going to walk away from this just yet. The strange redhead and his mangled corpse had her curiosity piqued.

"You sound like you know a lot about this stuff," she commented, raising her eyebrows a little. "Is that why Kravitt wanted you for... whatever job this was?"

[Lion]

Quinlan wandered near the bed, plopping down on it and burying his face in his hands.  The pain in his head only increased the more he tried to remember.  His blood burned in his veins and his palm itched.  He brushed his hair back and looked up at the door, as if half-expecting those lunatics to burst right through it.  It wasn't the first time he'd been hounded by people who wanted his head and it wouldn't be the last.

"Coulda been," he said dryly, eyes hardening.  "Or maybe I was just the only fool he could find. within a hundred miles."  He shook his head.  "No...no...  He...knew.  I guess it ain't much of a secret, but it's not something I just wave about.  He knew I was a blood mage.  That's why he wanted me.  I could get to places he couldn't.  Some knowledge isn't good for some men to know. I guess his body is evidence enough of that."

Quinlan looked up.  "He wanted me to get something for him.  Said he was gonna give me the key to find it.  A talis....man."  He stood abruptly. "Where is it?" he said, eying Zahi.

[kleineklementine]

Aha. That's what was different about this man. Zahi watched impassively as Quinlan flopped onto the bed with obvious signs of discomfort or pain. Zahi had never been the biggest fan of mages. Magic always seemed a bit like cheating to her. Like making a path of ice instead of just running very fast through a fire. But Quinlan made a little more sense now.

But not every mage knows about esoteric religious sects.

When he suddenly jumped up and demanded the talisman of her, Zahi just cooly put her hands up, palms forward, as a sign that he didn't need to get so bent out of shape about it. "No need to get all excited," she said. "Nothing special about what I have. There was one around the neck of all of those goons chasing after you." She pulled one of the talismans out of her pocket and tossed it to Quinlan. She reserved the other one for herself for the moment. Then something almost resembling a smile crossed her face. "I was going to bring it out eventually."

[Lion]

He practically snatched it from her hand and examined it closely.  He wiggled and shook it and even bit it to make sure it was real metal.  He sniffed and felt around it, turning it over carefully in his hand like it was a piece of glass.

"There's got to be something unusual about this.  Something..."  He moved toward the candles on the side and held it closer to the light.  He saw something reflect on a minute piece of glass hidden in the talisman and he held his eye up to it.  He saw a glare in the fire, but and suddenly the candle sputtered out.  "Strange...it seems to react to light..."

[kleineklementine]

Zahi sat on the end of the bed, leaning against its splintered wooden footboard, and watched Quinlan examine the talisman. Casually, she pulled out the second talisman and turned it over in her hand. Now that she was looking closer at it, she felt a chill run down her spine.

She recognized several of the markings on the talisman. They could also be found on the walls of the ruined temple. For a moment, Zahi felt as though she was physically transported back there. It was a part of her life that she tried very hard not to linger on. And reminders of it were not very welcome.

"These Keepers," she asked, turning the talisman over, "where are they -"

But Zahi wasn't able to finish her sentence. She was cut off by a sudden, loud, and urgent bang! bang! bang! on the door.

[Lion]

Quinlan swung around, pocketing the talisman she gave him and moving quietly to the door.  "Git!  We're busy!" he huffed loudly and grabbed the edge of a dresser, rythmically banging it against the wall.  He moaned loudly and hit the wall harder.

He signalled to Zahi to make a noise.  "Moan damn you!" he hissed.  "Oh Yeah!  Oh!"  He scowled at her.

The banging occured again and Quinlan panicked, pulling a dagger from his sleeve again.  He quit bang on the wall and instead pushed the dresser in front of the door, yelling out feigned cries of pleasure.

[kleineklementine]

If Zahi were a different person, she might have laughed at Quinlan’s valiant attempt to make love to the poor dresser. As it was, she just looked at him with a vaguely amused expression. She did not, however, join in his efforts. Zahi would, honestly, rather face whatever was on the other side of the door.

The woman got up off the bed and hastily threw the sheet back over Kravitt. Then, hoisting the corpse, she shoved it under the bed. Moving probably too slow for Quinlan’s nerves, Zahi then removed her boots, her trousers, and finally her top so that she stood in only her small clothes. It didn’t occur to her in that moment that the tattoos etched across her back, sides, and arms would mirror some of the symbols and motifs of the talismans. Removing the long dagger from her boot, she took it in one hand and walked over to the door.

She paused for a half a moment in front of Quinlan, matter-of-factly undoing his belt and shaking her head at him. ‘Oh, oh yeah,’ she mouthed and rolled her eyes.

Pulling the dresser just a few inches from the door, Zahi unlocked it and leaning into the door so that the dagger in her left hand stayed hidden, opened the door and peered out. She did her best to keep a casual air about her, but her body was tense and ready for a fight if that's what was on the other side of the door.

“Sorry!” she said with a breathy laugh. “There a problem?”

[Lion]

At her mocking, Quinlan's furrowed his brow and stuck his tongue out at her like a child.  He was behind the door and held his dagger tightly when at last she opened the door. 

It was nothing more than a small child, a wide-eyed girl with a clearly shocked look in her eyes and she had a set of fresh sheets in her arms.  "The...The....the...the....Old Man.....s-s-s-s-s-said he forgot to give you these!"  She shoved the blankets at Zahi and ran off down the hall.

Quinlan smirked, stepping back.  "Geeze what'd ya do to her?"  He peered at her back for a time and studied the tattoos on her back.  They were interesting markings and Quinlan traced along one with the edge of his dagger.  "Interesting...  Where'd you get these?" he asked, curious.

[kleineklementine]

Zahi took the sheets from the girl and watched her run down the hallway. She turned to Quinlan as she shut and relocked the door, her expression unimpressed.

"Says the man who barracked the door against a seven year old," she said, throwing the blankets at his head. "Poor dresser."

Going back over to the bed, Zahi crouched down and pulled Kravitt back out from under the bed. She stayed crouched next to the corpse; pulling the sheet back, she began to carefully inspect what remained of the man's clothing.

While she studied, she asked Quinlan, "So, he was going to give you 'the key' to find some talisman? The talisman I gave you, though? Seems like those were right outside the window. Shouldn't take them too long to catch up with you, either." Zahi poked into Kravitt's trouser pocket. "So what did he really want you to find? And what was he going to give you? Did he say? Do you remember?"

Zahi stopped suddenly, looking up at Quinlan. "What is the last thing you remember, anyway?"

[Lion]

Quinlan threw the blankets on the ground.  "The last thing?" he mimicked, though he heard exactly what she said.  He blinked and then looked up at her, pointing to the body.  "That.  I woke up next to that...  Blood was everywhere like a bomb went off.  Those lacerations.  I didn't do them...  I...I don't know.  I might've.  I don't think so...  I"

He shook his head.  "I don't know what it was exactly he was looking for.  He wouldn't say.  He just said the talisman was the key to finding it.  But...those markings on it.  They look a lot like the ones on your back.  Explain that."

[kleineklementine]

“I meant from before you got knocked unconscious,” Zahi retorted. “You’ve pieced together some other things. Were you already in that room? Do you remember? Or were you somewhere else?”

“It seems pretty strange that he’d task you with finding a talisman worn around the neck of a shady group of assassins or fanatics or whoever they are that would be chasing you down shortly after the fact. Maybe he was playing you with all that ‘pointless generosity.’ Maybe he was going to deliver you to them.”

She looked back down at body. The mess they’d made of him.

“Doesn’t seem like they were too impressed. Or someone else interceded.”

His comment about her back, though, made Zahi frown. And for the first time she looked unsettled. Somehow that hadn't occurred to her. She'd borne the marks for so long, she didn't really think about them. “I guess we took inspiration from the same source,” she answered. “Don’t worry. I’m not a demon conjured up by some cult to deliver your soul or something.”

[Lion]

Quinlan blinked at her and his expression  turned darkly amused.  "Oh I know that.  You're too...astute to be any demon.  Nevertheless...ask a lot of questions.  And answer even fewer.  Where did you get them?" he repeated.

He stepped closer and tilted his head curiously.

[kleineklementine]

"I guess I'll take that as a compliment," Zahi remarked dryly.

But when Quinlan moved closer to her to look over her tattoos, she stood up, facing him so that her back was away from him. However, the markings curled around her shoulders and collar bone. She frowned; she did not like having the lens turned towards her.

"Nowhere special," she answered, her gaze darkening, but not with amusement. She didn't offer where she got the design for them. After all, that wasn't what he asked.