"Ajax, Dzan! Thank goodness! Are you two alright?" Sigvor asks, rushing towards them.
Ajax is leaning against the alleyway wall with his arms crossed, while Dzan is sitting on a wooden crate. Dzan’s head is lowered, his fingers interlocked in contemplation. He looks up at Sigvor and speaks with a sigh.
"I'm fine, Sig. I just needed to catch my breath." Dzan says. He doesn't look like he wants to talk. His face looks frazzled, even more than he looked earlier to Sigvor. Sigvor’s face looks slightly confused, but he doesn’t want to push Dzan to be sociable and open about his state of mind when he doesn’t want to be. Ajax also replies to Sigvor’s question.
"I'm fine too, Sigvor. That whole fight there wasn’t really a big deal, there weren’t any strong fighters or magic users in that crowd. Really though, I have to give you praise for getting that woman's daughter away from all the fighting. That was amazing, it made my job a lot easier." Ajax smiles brightly. Sigvor returns his smile with one of her own.
"Ah, haha, thank you, love, I really enjoy getting praised by someone as strong and handsome as you…” Sigvor walks up to Ajax with a mischievous smile. She slowly moves her hand to touch his bicep. Ajax doesn’t dodge or push him away, but he does blush as little.
“And to think, when I first met you, Olah called you a twig.”
“I don’t think I changed much in my muscles, did I?” Ajax looks carefully at his musculature. His muscles don’t seem to grow all that much whenever he tries to pass “energy” into them to make them stronger. Maybe he’ll have to ask Shaula later.
“You could have fooled me.” Sigvor winks, and then bursts out into laughter. Ajax awkwardly chuckles as well. He isn’t used to her being this friendly to him. Over the past few weeks, she has gotten to know more about him, but he’s learned very little about her. Sigvor keeps a low profile around Ajax and Shaula, mostly listening to their stories when hanging around the group.
Around their other friends, Sigvor seems more open, playful, and now she’s behaving like that with Ajax too. She reminds Ajax of a friendly, sociable cat as opposed to Olah who’s more like a fussy yet loyal cat.
I wonder what changed? Ajax thinks to himself. Well… I did do a lot back there. Saving that woman probably won me some extra favor with Sigvor too. Trust, huh…
Ajax smiles warmly. Sigvor stops laughing and smiles warmly as well upon seeing his face, answering him more honestly about the praise he just gave her.
“Don't worry, Ajax, it was the least I could do. But, tell me. How did you find your way out here? Did you also hear the commotion?" Sigvor asks curiously. Dzan also looks up at Ajax, wanting to know. If he knows about what’s going on in this area, does the rest of their group know?
Are they going to come over here and help out too? He doubts that; there’s still much going on in the square and Angelidis didn’t look like she wanted to leave at all.
"Shaula told me about some weird rally going on out here. Though, I actually saw some people with the rings on their fingers. I was following them, because I thought they would lead me out here to where the commotion was, and they did."
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"You noticed those ring guys too, huh?" Sigvor concludes, satisfied with his explanation.
"Do you know what they're doing here, Sigvor? Back in the square, two of them tried to hurt Prisca. They were trying to bring someone they accused of stealing from the square out here. The poor guy too; he was concussed and bleeding but thankfully Prisca was there." Ajax rubs the back of his neck. Sigvor scoffs, her expression bitter.
"All I can really say is that they're the biggest pricks at this thing. You know, Dzan? I actually saw the woman who tripped the girl, Willia." Sigvor tells Dzan with a sharp expression.
"Oh, yeah, someone did trip her, it wasn't just some random person?" Dzan asks, puzzled.
"No, she had one of those rings on too. They're really trying to instigate the mob of racists into doing more bad shit. Well, I guess it's not like that's high tier magic or something, they’ll get what they want easily."
Sigvor thinks about the quick paced incident back there. It didn’t take much for the crowd to get into a frenzy, though Pieroly having a line they crossed did help them out a lot. Sigvor doesn’t know what she would do if Dzan, Angelidis or Malia were spit on by some creepy racist. Some things are important enough to protect with your life.
Well, maybe I would have tracked them down after the fact instead of bashing their heads in front of a group of like-minded racists. Or maybe I wouldn’t have…
"...By the way, how did you create that sound, and the smoke?" Sigvor and Willia had heard that ear splitting noise and seen the sudden eruption of smoke where Pieroly was held. Willia started to panic, but Sigvor realized what was happening. How did they make that happen?
"The smoke… Ah, that was actually something that Dzan had." Ajax says.
"Yeah, that was mine. It was an all-in-one smoke and stun grenade I bought on the black market. It was a fail-safe type thing that I had if I wanted to get out of any situation that I couldn't deal with. Funny thing, I actually decided to buy that after my run-in with you and Shaula." Dzan smiles wryly while Ajax laughs awkwardly.
Dzan had never been so easily defeated by someone. It made him wonder if there was a way to mitigate risks around similar powerful people.
"It was an expensive thing, you know? A pretty complex magic device…" Dzan complains half-heartedly. Ajax laughs again.
"Don't worry, I'll pay you for that. It was really useful. In fact, if you're able to tell me where you bought it, I'm certain that Shaula would be really happy." Both Ajax and Shaula are always in the mood to play with some interesting toys when they get the chance.
"... I'll think about it." Dzan says, noncommittally.
Dzan stops leaning against the wall and starts walking out of the alleyway. Sigvor is about to follow him, but Ajax grabs her shoulder and signals that he wants to talk. Dzan doesn't notice them start whispering to each other, he only continues to leave. He's in his own thoughts right now.
"Sigvor… What's with Dzan?" Ajax asks, slightly worried. He speaks just quietly enough that Dzan, even with his beastkin's enhanced hearing, won't hear.
"What do you mean…" Sigvor asks. He has already noticed that Dzan is dealing with something he's not going to share. But how did Ajax figure that out?
"It's just that… I sensed he's under a lot of stress right now. I know how stressed he was when Shaula beat him up and he was about to die. He was surprisingly calm that day, all things considering. It made me think he wasn't afraid of death, afraid of anything really. At least less afraid than I would be.”
Ajax looks towards Dzan’s back and frowns slightly.
“Right now though… he seems to me like he's on the verge of a nervous breakdown. His heart rate is just wild, not like it was earlier today. He… Is he going through anything right now? I asked him how he was in the morning, and he said he was fine and he looked fine then. Now though…"
Sigvor nonchalantly looks back at Dzan for a second. She watches him leave their line of sight. Ajax can tell that she’s also worried.