Three Dogs, A Mob, And Far Too Much Noise

[Anonymous]

It took Cestus Kessaris a moment or two to work out what was happening. There was an enormous crowd making a variety of outraged noises outside his shopfront, with three great black dogs snarling at something in the centre.

Was it a mage?  It had better not be, dirtying the street outside his shop, them with their soft hands (probably hadn't done a day's work in their lives, save for waving their fingers in the air and muttering odd words) and their greedy eyes. It had been a mage's eyes - a Necromancer's eyes - that had gleamed in the darkness, shining with delight as they watched him run for his life. He'd nearly died in that arena - it must have been more than a dozen times - and all for the sake of a Necromancer's little experiments. Bastard that he was, he'd invited guests down to see. Made a regular little party of it. Deikronos had come many times to see the new soldiers that had been made for his armies. Porthos, the fleshling...he had come just because he could. The Testing sometimes counted as a form of execution, and he was the legal-minded one on the Council.

 He was also the vilest thing Cestus had ever seen. In his mind, he'd dubbed Porthos Butcher's Bits - it had made the whole thing easier, and he'd been able to dream about the horrible thing being strung up on a meathook. That had to be worth something.

It might be a criminal...Cestus could live with a criminal. He'd known some good men - difficult as that was to believe - among the criminals who were chosen to do the Testing. Plenty of bad ones too, of course, and every man among them dishonest, cruel...dark to the bone. Even so, there was brotherhood of a sort down there, and a peculiarly blackened and twisted kind of honour. If a man died outside the boundaries of Testing, it simply meant that you had less time to wait before one of the Necromancer's new projects had the chance to eat you. It might have been worth it in the outside world to kill a free man you disliked, but not if you were there. There, it just got you into trouble that much faster.

He was glad to be out. Five years on, and he laughed louder than anyone else when he was in the pub of an evening. He drank more than any of his friends did, even though he was the smallest man. It helped - he hadn't yet found a better way  to mask the sound of slavery in Necromantia.

He put down the butcher's knife he had been holding and went to see for himself. Hopefully it wasn't one of them filthy mages. If it was, he'd...

  "What's all this, then?"

[Anonymous]

Ano snarled at the crowd, his scimitar held firmly in hand. It pulsated crimson and azure alternatively.
 Let us kill them... the blade whispered into his mind it's stainless blade gleaming in the mid-afternoon sun.
 "No" Ano growled, dogs stood in a wide circle around him all growling at him though non seemed willing to advance on such wild looking guy with such an obviously magical weapon. The man himself was tall, with the physique of a well trained soldier: solid and compact. His hair was a tangled mane of acid green streaked with emerald.

[Anonymous]

The man was obviously a mage of some kind. His hair was green for heaven's sake, and his sword - a great long scimitar of a thing, sharp and ugly - was glowing red and blue. He seemed to be talking to it, too...Cestus could just about hear the word "No" forced out through gritted teeth.

The fool! The damned stupid fool! He was the worst kind of idiot, trapping himself between a wall and Declan Frithie's animals, all the while with such an obviously magical weapon clutched in his hand. Idiot!

It was such a waste to see a man like that torn to pieces by dogs. Face to face, in a reasonably fair fight, it would have been fine, but he was simply crouching there with his scimitar, holding them off without even a hope of properly defending himself. There was no fun in killing a mage who would not or could not fight back. It made you no better than they were.

"Declan!" he shouted over the heads of the crowd. "I thought you cared about your dogs?"

"I do!" Declan roared. He was well known for his dogs. Fierce and strong as lions they were, and the word on the street was that he loved them more than any of his children. He would beat his sons if they misbehaved, but no one could ever recall him laying so much as a finger on any of his precious dogs. "Who says I don't?"

"Me. What do you think you're doing, feeding them on mages? Everyone knows they're poison. You'll make the poor things ill."  He shook his finger in warning, and then winked. "Remember Dec, your wife won't appreciate you sitting up with them."

There was a roar of laughter and Declan flushed bright red. Most of the crowd had worked out what he was getting at by now.

"Leave the mage to me." Cestus ran his thumbs over the strips of leather wrapped around his hands, feeling the sharp brass studs sliding beneath his touch. "You'll be happier for it, I promise....and I know what to do." His eyes glinted dangerously, and one or two of the people standing nearest stepped very carefully out of his reach.

He worked his way through the crowd and offered one of his hands to the man. "You. Come on."

[Anonymous]

"You. Come on."

Ano was shocked by the man's out stretched hand... keeping the scimitar between him and the dogs he stared into the man's eye's (which were a dark brown), did this person mean to help him?

Cut down the man the blade screamed in anticipation.

"We are called Ano" he offered sheathing his blade.

[Anonymous]

Cestus slammed the man against the nearest wall - conveniently, the nearest wall was along the side of a small, dark and nicely private little alleyway. He'd kept a tight grip on the man's sword arm as they'd left the crowd behind, and suprisingly enough, the man - Ano, wasn't it? - hadn't struggled at all. Maybe he wasn't as stupid as he looked.

"You're an idiot," he told him fiercely. Even if he wasn't quite so clueless as he seemed, Ano was still being spectacularly slow to catch on. "A total and utter idiot. I don't know why you can still walk." It was probably best to talk to Ano as though he were a child. So far, he'd shown all the good sense of a stunned toddler.

A blatantly magical weapon, being openly used in the one kingdom that might kill him for possessing it - what was this man thinking? He was either too stupid for words or he was totally mad. Actually...now there was a thought...

Cestus thought he had some idea what a madman ought to look like. One of the criminals he'd known in Necromantia - in fact, it was the man who had taught him to fight with the straps - had spent three months quietly losing his mind. Totally wordless, he'd suddenly started screaming; he'd screamed and cried and thrashed around for a week or more, and his eyes (when you looked into them) had been dark and empty with terror. Sasha was no better than an animal, and he'd gone for Testing without a weapon in his hand. The tears had still been wet on his cheeks, but aside from a wordless grunt he hadn't made a sound.
 
But Ano's eyes didn't have that look to them. Whatever else he was, his eyes were clear and there was something behind them. He didn't seem to be mad as Cestus understood the term. He sighed and dropped his hands to rest by his sides.

"I don't know why I'm doing this," he admitted. What was he doing, being civil to some stupid mage when he already knew they were evil? "I honestly don't. But it's best if I take that off you, before you do something stupid and hurt yourself."

He reached out to take the sword.
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(Is there anything else you think I need to know about your character? If there is, PM me with the information)

[Anonymous]

Something stupid?

The man was reaching for Sivad! (the scimitars name) Ano was filled with a gnawing sadness he had thought this man meant to help him. Lashing out with a hard shove and  diving to the side Ano rolled gracefully into a run, not bothering to check if the man was pursuing. A stack of boxes set against the alley wall allowed him to half climb and half leap to the roof top. Then sprinting across the roof he lept to  the next building barely making it across, stumbling now Ano kept going this time dropping off into a mostly deserted street.

You see what trusting him almost did? He nearly seperated us! Sivad snarled.

"Quiet, he got us away from the crowd!" Ano murmured.

He brought up the hood of his cloak and walked swiftly toward the cities more high end area's hoping the man had not been fool enough to follow, because now Ano had a job to do starting with those damned dogs and their arrogant master.

[Anonymous]

Cestus barely managed to catch himself from stumbling, and took a split second look to see where Ano was going.

Damn it. He was on the roof. Cestus was too heavy, and the man was too limber to be slowed down by a little thing like rooftops. He himself would have to go by ground, and hope he was quick enough to grab him as he dropped.

Feet thudding heavily on the cobblestones, Cestus ran along the wider street outside the alleyway, trying to keep Ano in sight as best he could. He wasn't as quick on his feet as he had been in his youth - as he recalled it, all the demons of hell couldn't have matched him then (and they had tried quite hard to do so) - but he could still put on a burst of speed from time to time. He clamped his lips together and snorted air harshly from his nose, trying to keep up the pace he needed. If he slowed down, Ano would disappear altogether, off to do all the gods alone knew what. Something unspeakable, no doubt.

Ano dodged lightly around and over the rooftops, with that blasted sword strapped over his shoulder. Cestus could see his silhouette running, given an odd shape by the bulge of the hilt. Good grief - did nothing slow this man down?

He glanced up at the rooftops again...and suddenly, Ano was gone. Cestus couldn't see him. There didn't seem to be anywhere he could have jumped to, but he simply wasn't there.

Cestus swore quietly and let his hands drop by his sides. There was the beginnings of a stitch making itself felt underneath his ribs, and he was puffing like an old horse. "I've lost him," he muttered, still catching his breath - he realised with some surprise that, a few years ago, he would have hardly needed to slow down by this point. "I've bloody lost him."

Somewhere, dogs were going wild. He could hear them nearby, barking and yelping at the top of their lungs. Something, or maybe someone, was upsetting them.

Oh no...

He knew where Ano was now. Still puffing, he turned around and ran back.

[Anonymous]

Decan Frithie was greiviously hurt a shallow second mouth having been gracefully opened along his throat. He lay in the alley between a run down tavern and apothecary,  two of his dog's lay slain on top of him while the third bled it's guts out all over the place.

 "All dead now..." Ano whispered wiping his blade with a perfectly white rag. "Are you still hungry?"

We are always hungry... Sivad said slowly but we will be fine for a few days

Sheathing his blade once more Ano sighed and stretched thinking about his friend Davis, Davis who died protecting him from a mage's cursed blade, Davis who's soul was then imprisoned in the scimitar he now held.

Strolling down the alley casually Ano crossed the sparsely populated street and with out breaking stride climbed swiftly onto the back of a moving horse drawn cart. The driver who was bickering with his wife failed to notice as he plucked up and apple and to a large noisy bite out of it. He wondered if the man from the mob had found the bodies.

Ano began humming a lively tune to himself cheerful and fast. The old couple were far to busy arguing to notice him, the mob was obviously quieted some what and of course they hadn't even had time to call the city watch. Thing's had gone much better here then they had in Arca.

[Anonymous]

That settled it. Whoever Ano was, whatever he was, he was stark, raving mad. He must have been mad. There was no other explanation.
 
Cestus opened the gate to the Frithie house, stepping over the sleeping dog on the front step. A small boy - Dylan, he thought, the youngest of the Frithie boys - was curled up with the dog, one arm thrown carelessly over its neck.

"Are you looking for Declan?" Diona Frithie asked. She knew Cestus by sight, and she knew who he usually came to see. "He went off with three of the dogs twenty minutes ago, but he should be back soon."

"Um..." Cestus struggled for the right words. He wasn't very good with this, and as much as he respected Diona, it had always been as Declan's wife. He didn't know how to speak to her alone. "I've already seen him."

"Something wrong, Cestus?" Diona was a notoriously shrewd woman. Not many people could lie to her without her knowing...and more to the point, without her allowing them to get away with it.

"I need to borrow one of your knives. A sharp one, if I can?"

"Cestus." Good grief, but she was clever. "Don't lie to me."

"A sharp knife...oh, and Declan's pony." Given a choice, he wouldn't have taken Declan's pony - quite aside from it being Declan's, it was also the foulest-tempered beast he'd ever known. On top of that, the shaggy little dun pony hated him with a passion, even more than it seemed to hate everyone else. But if he was going to have any hope of catching up with Ano, he needed a horse, and this miserable excuse for a pony was the best he would find at short notice. At least it was fairly strong.

"You're procrastinating, Cestus." Diona put her hands on her hips. "And you're not very good at it. Stop wasting time."

Cestus sighed. It had to be said. "Declan's dead. The dogs, too."

That was all he was going to say on the subject. He wasn't going to tell her about the dead dogs with their bellies laid open from neck to tail and their innards spread over the cobbles. He wasn't going to tell her about Declan's slit throat. He certainly wasn't going to tell her about the blood. He was a butcher now - he knew what blood looked like, what it smelt like as it dried; he knew what happened when you cut along an animal's belly and took out the offal, or what happened when your knife slipped. A missed cut, straight into the intestines, could stink out the whole yard for a full day. Knowing these things didn't mean he had to tell her about them.

"And you want the pony because...?" Diona wasn't looking at him. She was looking at her little Dylan, her little boy who cuddled great savage dogs in his sleep. Cestus couldn't tell whether she was crying or not.

"I know who did it, and I think I can find him."

"Do it then." Diona went into the small stable and led the pony out by its rope halter. It tried to nip her fingers, but she slapped it sharply on the right flank. It laid its ears back and gave them both the equine equivalent of the evil eye. "Go and catch him...if you can, go and kill him. That'll be enough."

Cestus swung his left leg over the horse's back and looped the halter around to make a rough bridle with reins. Its saddle was the wrong size to take him - he would have to ride bareback. He cursed the horse, now stamping and snorting irritably, for being such a horrible little thing. He cursed Ano, who had started this, for being...well, mad. He even cursed himself for agreeing to go on such a wild and stupid chase.

Diona passed him a large, sharp and rather wicked-looking knife. He didn't know where she had pulled it from, but it was ideal for what he had in mind. He tucked it safely into his belt and tightened his knees against the pony's rough sides. It snorted at him as rudely as it could, but moved along nevertheless.    

Now all he had to do was find Ano.

It was such a pity that finding people is usually the hard part.

[Anonymous]

It was night time now, the shadows cast across the city made it easy to move about without attracting more than the odd glance. So Ano managed to check put a lot of the city. He had come to Reajh for one thing, to free Davis. For 5 years he had hunted the mage who had reduced his friend to this...state.  Coming to Reajh however had only comfirmed that the man wasn't here.

Sivad as he now called his old friend would have sensed the man if he was within the city. Now it was time to leave, and quickly the blade whispered of the (south?) and the Hivan Ocean. His stomach began to growl just as he reached the city limits, and as he walked by a cart filled with apples, pears, and plums he plucked a few out of their buckets. Only to have a road weary looking farmer turn around and start yelling at him.

"Hey you! I saw you take those put them back right no-" the short fat man didn't get a chance to finish. Ano's free hand wrapped around the farmers throat.

"Quiet" Ano sighed impatiently, with a squeeze he crushed the cartilege in the man's throat. The man dropped silently to the ground gasping for air and Ano turned and strolled away as one might in his one home. A hour later he was two miles from the city curled up underneath a tree fast asleep.

[Anonymous]

Green hair was fairly distinctive. A glowing sword was also fairly distinctive - in Connlaoth, it was probably more noticeable than the hair. So why was it that no one seemed to have seen the one man who happened to have both? He'd been asking around for hours now, and no one had told him anything helpful.

He couldn't have simply disappeared off the face of the earth. He couldn't have. Even a mage would have trouble with that...and Cestus was beginning to suspect that, weirdly glowing scimitar aside, Ano wasn't really a mage at all. A mage probably wouldn't carry a weapon, and even if they did, they wouldn't have the skill to do what Ano had done to Declan, especially not with three dogs defending against him.

Cestus shook his head. He had to stay awake, he had to stay focussed. Ano was probably still running. If he stopped to sleep, he would lose him again. He couldn't allow that to happen. He'd promised that it wouldn't happen...and if he broke his promise, Diona would probably kill him and do something unpleasant with his remains. Ano was not getting away with it now.

The stupid pony had been difficult all afternoon. All afternoon, it had done nothing but fidget, lay its ears back, snap irritably at passers-by and occasionally flick its tail to get rid of the midges. He hadn't been tossed yet, but if this went on for much longer the idiot beast would probably throw him off purely for the pleasure of stamping on his face. He patted its neck gently.

"That's a girl...stupid...stubborn thing." If he spoke soothingly enough, the horse need never know how much he was insulting it. Mind you, where this one was concerned, anything was possible. "Come on...stupid bitch of a horse..."

There was a man - a farmer by the look of him, short and rather round (as sometimes happened with men bred for a hard life who ended up living a softer one) - standing by a fruiterer's cart loaded high with apples and pears. He was rubbing absently at his throat.

"'Scuse me, but have you seen a man?" Cestus leant over the pony's neck, and it snorted in annoyance. The farmer seemed as good a person to ask as any. "Black cloak, green hair, with a sword?" He couldn't think of any other distinctive features to add to the list, but Ano was distinctive enough already.

The farmer coughed, still rubbing at his throat. Now that he looked closer, Cestus could see small purple marks across the man's neck - the sort of bruising you might expect if a hand had grabbed him by the throat and squeezed very hard. "He choked me!" the farmer spluttered. "He stole my fruit, and then he choked me!"

"Which way did he go?" Cestus wasn't sure what Ano was trying to accomplish here, but whatever it was, he was leaving an impressive trail of destruction in his wake.

The farmer pointed south. "He went that way. If you catch him, get my money off him. He owes me for two apples and a plum."

Cestus nodded and went on his way. What in heaven's name was Ano trying to achieve? Unless he had a burning desire to get himself hanged, it didn't look as though he was going to succeed at any of it.

Hang on...

Cestus glanced backwards, unable to believe it. He'd just ridden right past him.

There was a black-cloaked figure curled up beneath that tree...and from beneath the shadow of his hood, there was a bare glimpse of shaggy green hair. His sword was propped against the trunk of the tree. Still within arm's reach, of course - no one would leave a weapon unattended without being able to reach it in a hurry, even if they were mad - but for once, it wasn't in his hand.

Cestus couldn't believe his luck. He slid from the pony's back as softly as he could, praying that the animal had the wits to stay silent for once. Softly...quietly...gently now...he crouched beside Ano's sleeping form, one hand hovering over his throat. Careful...if he touched him too soon, Ano would wake up.

He glanced behind him, just in case that strange sword had moved of its own accord - he didn't know what it was capable of any more. He honestly had no idea...but it was still behind his back, being blocked by his right shoulder. Ano wouldn't be able to reach it there.

He moved his left arm back very carefully, still holding his right hand a fraction of an inch away from Ano's skin. Careful, careful, further back...and then he lashed out, sinking his fist (brass studs, leather strapping and all) directly into Ano's stomach.

[Anonymous]

Ano awoke to a blinding flash of pain in his stomach, the shock of the rude awaking coupled with sheer force of the blow had him wheezing for breath and desperately grasping for Sivad where was he? A man stood over him and had a hand near his throat.

"Immolation!" he gasped. The blade burst into flames behind him. He hoped to god that would distract his unrecognized attacker.

[Anonymous]

"Argh! Son of a -" Cestus jerked away from the sword (still burning against the tree) and rolled frantically to put out the smouldering parts of his shirt. There were areas of his shoulders that prickled and stung and hurt like mad. He tried to ignore them. "What in the bloody hell did you just do?"

He pinned Ano with his knees and shook him roughly by the shoulders, so that the hood fell back and the ever-noticeable green hair was shaking all over the place. Cestus was almost certain he could hear teeth rattling. He didn't much care. "You crazy bastard, you'll kill us both!"

The tree was burning now. The grass around it was being sprinkled with falling embers, many of which had caught and grown into little spot fires themselves. This was going to get larger...if the wind picked up, or changed direction, it would grow almost too big to be stopped.

He dragged Ano by the hair and flung him over the pony's back with a grunt. "Stay there or I'll knock you cold...and I mean that."

The pony stamped and snorted, ears back and eyes huge with fear. For once, it wasn't going to disagree with him. Cestus swung his leg over and dug his heels into the pony's sides.

They had left the sword behind. Cestus didn't look back, but it was still burning.

[Anonymous]

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Ano yelled in fury, as soon as he had recovered enough to speak. With a solid knee to the side Ano startled the pony into rearing up and screaming out unhorsing both men. Ano fell somewhat more gracefully than the other man, but still landed hard. His bruised stomach and chest ached as he tried to get to his feet. It had been a good five minutes since they left Sivad behind.

Finally getting to his feet Ano began to limp back the way they had come. Grunting in pain with every step, he knew he couldn't get away from this man in the state he was in.

"You idiot" he growled turning on a rather shocked looking Cestus "Why did you do that? It was controllable Fire you fool I could have put it out with a single word! And now you've run the risk of me losing SIVAD"

Ooc: And we ask ourselves WHAT WOULD Cestus do?

[Anonymous]

There are no words to describe how much I hate you right now Cestus thought to himself. If he had been saying it aloud, it would have been nothing better that a growl. Even in the privacy of his mind, it still came out snarling. No, really Ano - there aren't.

"Fine," Cestus snapped. "Fine. Have it your way." He felt gingerly along the line of his ribs - thankfully, nothing seemed to be broken. There would be a regular little family of bruises, no doubt, but at least there was nothing permanent.

He clambered to his feet and watched the pony bolting, rope bridle still flapping along behind its neck. He wasn't sure if he was glad or annoyed to see it go.

"You want the sword back? All right, we'll go back there - on foot, because some idiot frightened the pony." He put as much venom into that as he could muster. It had hurt, after all.

"We'll go back and get your precious Sivad and you can show me how good you are at putting fires out. Yep, that's right...instead of bragging, you can show me. Does that make the little sooky boy happy?"

He brushed at the knees of his trousers and adjusted Diona's long kitchen knife so that it tucked more comfortably into his belt. "Just don't run too quickly...we wouldn't want you to have to kill anyone else now, would we?"

There was something deeply satisfying about the look on Ano's face.

[Anonymous]

"Damn right I'm having it my way! that's my friend you left back there-and to your god damned wannabe be horse good riddance!" Ano snapped. Though his cheeks reddened alittle in humiliation. In the state he was in riding would have been alot more comfortable.

He heard the man behind him get up and start to follow him.

"What's your damn name anyway? And why I the hell do you keep following me?" Ano asked rudely over his shoulder.

[Anonymous]

"I've got three things to say to you, so shut up and listen." Cestus tried to keep his voice level. It was nowhere near as easy as shouting would have been. Or, for that matter, as satisfying as simply punching Ano in the face. Then again, nothing would have been as satsfying as punching Ano in the face. "You might just learn something useful."

"First off, that wasn't my horse. It belongs to a friend of mine. In fact, it belongs to the family of Declan Frithie. You cut his throat."

He paused for effect and so he could actually make it up the hill without lrtting out too many odd noises.Sometimes Cestus had to face the fact that he wasn't quite as fit as he liked to pretend. But, on the bright side, Ano didn't have to know that.

"Secondly, just so you know, Diona Frithie would probably be quite pleased with me if I cut off your nadgers and brought them back to her on a plate. She doesn't know why you did it - neither do I, to be honest - but you went to the trouble of killing her husband. As you might have guessed, she's not particularly happy about that. This knife here," he pulled it out from it's place in his belt and held it under Ano's nose, watching his eyes sliding inwards to focus on its point, "is actually meant for cutting your heart out of your chest and making you eat it."

He put the knife away delicately, tearing a strip from his shirt and polishing its blade with the greatest care. "Now, young Ano my lad, I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with you. My instructions are to kill you - if possible, to kill you as slowly and painfully as I know how...and believe me, I know several ways to do  that. Either way, I'm not letting you out of my sight."

Cestus picked his teeth idly and proceeded to inspect his fingernails in minute (and hopefully irritating) detail. All he had to do here was wait. It was all mind-games. It was always mind-games.

"Are we clear on this?" he asked. "I'll follow you to the ends of the earth if I have to, but as long as you know that, I'm sure we'll get along just fine." He smiled at Ano as he brushed past his shoulder. It was not a very nice smile, but at least all of his teeth were visible...actually, on second thoughts, it might not have been a smile at all.

"Oh, and Ano? If you're still wondering...my name is Cestus."

[Anonymous]

Ano felt a sudden surge of respect for Cestus, as they began to walk back toward Sivad. The man was hardier than he had thought, and certainly more confident then he had come to believe. As he limped along considering the mans words and breathing heavily he suddenly decided that Cestus should no the truth about the man he had killed.
   
     "He's alive you know, the scimitar I mean" Ano watched Cestus' strides slow a bit. "A sentient mind is trapped within the blade... the mind-" Ano caught himself he had said to much and now the real questions would begin. Probably starting with "Are you mad?"

[Anonymous]

Cestus stopped dead, staring at this strange young man. If that hadn't been the most sensible thing Ano had ever said to him, he would have abandoned him as a lost cause then and there. Then again...this was Ano he was thinking about. Nothing about Ano was even remotely sane.

"You mean there's something living in it - I mean, him?" Cestus had to remind himself about that. If the sword was alive, it probably had a gender. Most things did. It might even be able to hear him. Best to be polite then. "Seriously. The sword's alive?"

Cestus had never thought he might see one of these things in Connlaoth. They hated mages, after all, and a sword with a bit of somebody's soul in it had to be the most blantantly magical object ever invented.

Cestus had spent most of his life in Necromantia. He hadn't spent a great deal of time (or any time, really) among the upper crust of society, where such a weapon might be brought out at gatherings for everyone to admire or else hung above the fireplace as a memento. His time there had been spent among people whose weapons consisted mostly of whatever had been close enough to snatch up...or, if there was no other option, only bare fists. Nevertheless, such things were possible, and he knew it. Now that he thought about it, 'his' Necromancer - his old master, the one who organised the Testing - might actually have owned one.

He wrapped his hand in cloth and went to pick up Sivad, presenting it - him - to Ano hilt-first.

"Your sword, sir." He bowed mockingly. "If I may ask...where do we go from here?"

[Anonymous]

Blinking in sheer amazement Ano accepted his blade, and slid it back into it's shoulder sheath. Oh thank god I was scared you weren't coming back The sword sighed in relief. Cestus looked Shocked.

 "Sivad did you just broadcast your voice to our new aquintance?"