…..:::::|. The Ladi: East Ward .|:::::…..

As the Agents and their young wolaenki hunters collected in something resembling a marching order, they said much of nothing. Only watched Marvynn flinch and convulse in fits of madness.

Halycind wanted to parse out the whole thing, wanted to ask every question her mind could conjure but she opted to let the moment rest into memory. Something over Siin's shoulder caught her eye and she snapped from her thoughts of the Mad Mage.

From between the slats in the windshields, Halycind saw what looked to be a plume of black smoke in the shape of a man. It solidified its form just as another man stood wagging a finger at him. Strangely, he looked like the man who'd bumped her the day prior. Cutting a sharp look to the one wagging a finger, the smokey man stretched out a palm and raised, from between the cobbles at his feet, a dripping black carrion of a steed.

Halycind stole a frightened look away. She let her eyes roam about herself as to not completely drop into insanity.

Had anyone else seen this? When she slowly glanced back, the two men still stood there. The one who had pulled bones from the earth, mounted the steed in a shroud of swirling darkness and rode from the one still angry in his stance.

The angry one, beautiful even from this distance, sighed and adjusted his black and grey robes. When he looked up, directly at her, Halycind snapped her head back to her group and burst into conversation.

“Oh, really?” Her interjection didn't rightly place into Percival's words but he allowed the interruption.

“Yes. We go to the Chancery.” He said with a strange look on her.

“But I don't get on with stuffies.” Kodlaa burst.

“You're on Gaen a Nce...you better get used to it.”

“But the port city--”

“Is an entirely different beast.”

“Percival, what was all that?” Siin shouldered his way closer to his commander.

“You knew he was here?” Halycind surmised. She was holding her elbows in a sort of private comfort.

“Naturally.”

They recoiled.

“Based on what my scouts told me, I routed all our treks to meet here in the Ladi so when he showed his lovely face, I could collect him.”

“How many irons you got in the fire?” Siin squinted.

“Literally....All of them.” Percival broadened his width as he remarked; wholly satisfied in his orchestration.

“Uuhh, you're engaged, yeah?” Kodlaa pointed a wavering finger at him. “Your fiance mind you, uh—“

“Eberhavven, ice it.” Siin shoved her arm. “He's nice and all but he is still very much an Agent with the ability and license to end your life.” He stared on her with such reproach.

“Oh faetz, Ynggrloch, you're right I'm being a total gop. Sorry Percival, I'm just attracted to getting the job done.” She shrank into her embarrassment.

He huffed a smirking chuckle. “Quite alright.”

“Yeah you are right, Siin. When did you get so resp--what are you doing?” Halycind complimented as she realized he was attempting to discreetly wave an uncorked vial to the backside of a man passing opposite them. He giggled as he corked it.

“Collecting a good fart, you didn't smell that.”

“What?” She scowled flatly.

"Also did you call me brilliant?"

"I don't remember saying that."

"You absolutely did." Both Percival and Kodlaa said in unison.

Then as soon as he stuffed the prize back into his vest pockets, the sun's high-rising rays cast a glint on another prize now in a little boy’s hand. He'd been slinking through the crowds peeling at the pockets of distressed townsfolk.

When the child neared him, Siin snatched him up by all his dark cloaks.

“Really? Really? You just saw our Exemplariat shred a man.” He scolded, shaking the boy by one hand. The girls wondered if the Terile Function was affecting his strength also, because he held the boy aloft as if he weighed nothing. “It's bright outside. You're wearing—no.” Percival saw a familiar authority pouring from the young battlemage. “You see what everyone else is wearing? You stick out like a sore thumb.” He calmed himself a tad. “I get it, you thought you'd make some money off the mayhem, pick up some extra coin...perhaps eat tonight; but it's bright! Daylight!” With a hard flick he tossed the abject urchin to the cobbles. Bags of coins spilled from hidden pockets of his cloaks. “Get good. You defame the name of rogues everywhere.”

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The kid collected what he could while skittering away nodding.

“But we're rogues.” Halycind reminded.

“Would you wear colours of the night in the screaming sun?” Siin shot.

“Depends on the surroundings.” Her hand followed rolling scenarios in her mind as she spoke.

“Exactly.” He bit.

She nodded in acquiescence. Percival hummed as he also saw a familiar rage welling now in the young mage; a detachment of sorts.

“aBn, Quench, Hydrate.”

“Yes, ser.” Siin’s anger dropped and thought of his cool refreshing drink back at the Inn. Veygornne and Critza chose to walk with him as they were rubbing out soreness and fatigue of their own. The pools would be for all of them as low-rising ticked on.

...

Making comfortable their trek, the girls split a pair on either side of Percival and watched townspeople stare at the collected mage in a box floating alongside. They came upon the other end of town, after ten or so minutes, where a semicircle of coloured buildings lay in a somewhat official looking area. A

s they entered the plaza, it seemed more of packed dirt than mosaicked walks. They thought either the King Regent was putting his coin into the development of roads and townes or he was grossly mismanaging his royal taxes. Empty gallows stood to the far edge of the open space. The gallows were eerily quiet, not that they wanted to see swinging bodies but both girls wondered of Marvynn's fate.

There was a terrible clamour to the right of them, where stood the more colourful of the edifices dealing with the King's business. Stark yellow painted latticework on Ashwood facades framed doors painted a bold crimson with all the railings and noticeboards painted a rich black, denoted the entrance of the Gruhavian Chancery.

It was of no surprise to anyone the chancery grounds were full. Many wanted to post their loved ones elsewhere of their near fates with death by transmutation. The chancery semeguardsman, decked in metals and cloths that matched the strong hues of his country’s standard, tapped the stones underfoot repeatedly to no avail in his attempts to quell the crowds.

Only when a re-cloaked Percival Hollichek and his company of two aspiring Agents walked toward them did the crowds start to quiet around them. They parted letting them walk straight to the guard. One woman close on the semeguard, grabbed at the first Agent hand she could reach and poured gratitudes profusely. Kodlaa looked guilty toward the woman and then to Percival. She hadn't been made an Agent so she wanted no gratitude. Percival nodded away her trepidation. Kodlaa bowed a head to the woman, then saw the mess of her own colourful hair hanging in her face and committed to cleaning herself up as soon as she got the opportunity. She lifted her brow and covered the woman's very grateful hands with hers before taking it away.

The semeguard nodded a brown head and stood aside to allow them entry.

Percival walked, unaffected by either glance or interior, over to the half-story staircase. Halycind tapped Kodlaa away from her gaze of the diamond-paned windows on near every wall, to the Ashwood of the balusters that lined the stairs and walk above. Their fingers ran happily over the oil-smooth twisted Ashwood as they ascended the steps. Halycind wondered if Chanceries every place were decorated in such regalia. She figured with all the rules and regulations she was told Gaen a Nce had, their posts littered the land. Ashok had two. The Split-Wolves either sent a runner with letters or a carrier bird.

As their happily vibrated fingers finished their trek over turned rails and banisters they had blindly followed Percival into what looked to be a sitting room for the Chancellor. A credenza with a small locked chest, a quill and ink, and a stack of ledgers and envelopes stood amidst nothing more than one bookcase, chairs and a large grey rostrum in one corner; laid in charts and sigils and indecipherable writings. By unspoken command, the glass box of Marvynn floated over above the rostrum and four sigils lit to a pulsing green. It held there in a comfortable hover. Of one of only two chairs, Percival took the largest. Kodlaa sat childlike with crossed legs in the other, harder, chair. Halycind without really any place else to go just stood leaned nearest a window with her arms folded.

After a few moments, Percival cleared his throat. A man in black, red and yellow robes lined with gold trim, tripped his way out of the door to greet them. It was the rotund woman's doting husband. He situated himself and snatched a ledger from the credenza.

“Exemplariat...” and Percival paused for point as the man hastily scribbled on the page. “Percival Hollichek, Weroanqua Halycind Solveig Ylva Aphsa Carabaan Cashtiel, amidst lady Eberhavven Kodlaa arriving to close charter.”

The little man nodded eagerly and disappeared back into the Chancellor's office.

If the girls shared anything, they shared the detest of regality in all its formalities. Both of them fought back their grimaces of hearing their full names. Percival seemed fine.

The Chancellor's belly entered the room before he did. A long chain and medallion lay flat over silken brocade dusters lined with fur. A myriad of crisscrossed golden closures belted the man into his caftan about six times over. It seemed he'd need a full hour just to close all of them. He was strangely well decked for someone of his station.

Hmm, this postman's a fatty. Kodlaa haunted her friend's mind.

I'd like his medallion...I know that. Halycind made a note of it. There hadn't been a bauble that caught her eye that didn't also end up in her pockets someplace. Taphsel had tried to scold that out of her.

The girls didn't look at each other, as they'd learned very young not to do while haunting. The practice frightened most other races of Dureyr. The wolvkin couldn't live proper without it.

“Greetings, Exemplariat.”

“Greetings, Averesse.”

“New missi in tow, I see.”

Kodlaa burst to a happy correction. “Oh, we're Ladies not misses, ser.”

“Missi...as in officials.” Percival clarified.

“As in Agents?” She brightened.

“Of which you are not...yet.” Percival straightened.

“Among other things, your scroll cases were damaged in the kerfuffle so we are having another cast for you.”

“How long's that gonna take?” Halycind shot up.

“Only two pachs. Shan't take us but that to complete the report.”

“Whah.” Two hours to write a letter. Kodlaa exploded into Halycind’s mind. We don't have to wait for that right?

I hope not.