It took three rounds of ale over the next hour before the effects of the nightstalk made themselves known. The sailors’ words began to grow more and more slurred, far more quickly than the seasoned men should’ve been affected by the watered-down ale. Still, with just a mere drop per tankard, the poison proved a subtle enough effect that none of them seemed to take particular note of it.

This particular poison was one of several vials Allana had accrued over the years. She looked forward to when she’d be able to produce specific potions like nightstalk with her gift abilities, but that was supposed to be an Initiate improvement of her ability. Until then, she could only make a potentially lethal resilience poison with her gift, but she made a habit of collecting other poisons when she had the opportunity to expand her repertoire.

“At least they’re drinking like thirsty mules,” Allana noted derisively.

“Mhmm.”

Allana studied Tenebres through narrowed eyes at the unenthusiastic response. Normally, the two would pass the time with some bantering or light conversation while they waited, but Tenebres suddenly seemed unwilling to indulge in their usual flirting. He had stubbornly ignored all of her attempts to engage him since she had come back from her conversation with Mari.

Allana’s eyes narrowed as she thought about the timeline of his mood shift. Was he really that sensitive? Just because she was trying to tumble a pretty barmaid? Allana was ready to call out his sulking–but then she heard what she had been waiting for.

As promised, Mari had managed to keep one of the men from getting any dosage of his own, and he had waved the serving girl down.

“Wench!” He called. “Another round for me and me friends!”

“Aye, I heard ya!” Mari shouted back as she walked by, but she didn’t get far before a couple of the other men groaned out refusals.

“Yeah, I think I’m ready to call it, Gert,” one of the drugged sailors decided, as another stifled a yawn behind a hand.

“Oi, are you serious? It’s barely ninth bell, what are you talkin’ about?”

The lone sailor, apparently Gert, that had been spared the nightstalk proved as stubborn as Allana had hoped, and she watched gleefully as the man insisted on another round for himself, hurling insults at his companions as they gathered and left the tavern.

[Gift of Poison] experienced gained

Experience: 65%

“Ready?” Allana asked Tenebres.

The boy blinked, finally pulled out of his brooding, and his large, expressive crimson eyes came into sudden focus. His gaze darted around, and he noticed the departure of the bulk of the sailors. “Right. Yeah, yeah let’s go.”

Allana rolled her eyes, but restrained herself from teasing him. She was still new to this budding friendship, but she suspected that he wouldn’t appreciate her usual banter at the moment.

That sort of restraint was new to Allana, and she found she didn’t particularly like it. She was used to speaking her mind, and she liked that Tenebres was usually willing to keep up with her conversationally. Few boys, or men, in Lowtown had managed to spar with her verbally.

We definitely need to have a talk, Allana decided.

For now, however, they had work to do. Without another word, the two stood and moved across the taproom. They knew each other well enough even after such a short time that they didn’t feel the need to coordinate. As they approached the sailor’s table, Allana hung back a couple steps, letting Tenebres lead the way.

The slender boy hooked an ankle around the chair directly to Gert’s left and sat down.

“Well hullo there…” the man growled in what he probably thought was an attractive way. Then he blinked, and Allana smirked at the moment it took him to figure out Tenebres’s gender. “Oi, wait. I ain’t no moony guff, you clear off! You can find some other guy to buy you for the night!”

Tenebres’s eyes went flat, and Allana moved in before the boy could respond sharply. She settled easily on the other side of the crude sailor, and he whirled on her. His eyes narrowed for a second in evident lust–then widened as they recognized her.

“Y-you’re the Purple Poison!” He gasped.

Allana arched an eyebrow at the name.

“‘The Purple Poison…’” Tenebres echoed from the other side of the sailor. “That’s a new one.”

Allana couldn’t help but grin. His voice still sounded a little bitter, but it was good to see some spirit from the boy. “I think I liked the Violet Edge more.”

“I don’t know, I still think there’s something there with ‘violet’ and ‘violent,’ right?”

“Right. Because nothing’s more intimidating than wordplay.”

Tenebres tilted his head at Gert. The brawny, drunk man seemed stricken by her presence, and their light joking only seemed to be making him more disconcerted. “He seems plenty intimidated.”

“And by the ‘Purple Poison.’” Allana shook her head. “No accounting for taste, I suppose.”

“Y-you’re Telik’s bitch!” Gert finally managed to gasp.

Allana’s eyes went flat, and before either man could react, Allana had slammed one of her conjured daggers into the table top in front of him.

“She doesn’t like that word very much,” Tenebres commented, as if making a casual observation.

Allana swallowed thickly and tried to control herself, recognizing that Tenebres’s joke was an attempt to cover for her. Allana hated that her reputation was intertwined with that of the feared crimelord, but fixing that would need to wait. For right now, she needed to make use of the old man’s name, whether she liked it or not.

“Aye,” she finally growled. At the very least, the man seemed thoroughly intimidated now. She flashed a quick look around the room, and was satisfied to see that no one was willing to meet her eyes. Except Mari. But she didn’t count. The two men drinking at the closest table to Gert’s even made their way to the bar to give them space.

“I-I already told his thugs everything I know, I swear it!” Gert babbled.

Allana met Tenebres’s eyes for a moment, and his expressive face betrayed a tiny hint of his surprise. Clearly, he hadn’t expected the crime lord’s involvement any more than she had.

Still, she didn’t need a charm boon to take advantage of an opportunity that obvious. “He feels otherwise,” she told the sailor, her voice quiet and threatening. “That’s why we’re here, fool.”

Tenebres leaned in from the other side, and managed his own attempt at sounding intimidating. To Allana, it sounded more than a little silly, but Gert seemed to buy it. “So you’re gonna go over every detail with us again, understand? And maybe, if my friend here is satisfied, she won’t need to take her dagger back out.”

“F-fine, fine!” Gert nodded frantically, looking back and forth between them. “On the Sailor, I told everything I know!”

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“Well, pretend we know nothing,” Allana ordered him. She had to keep her eyes off of Tenebres, knowing that his reaction to her phrasing might draw a grin out of her. Need to stay in character. “Start from the beginning.”

“R-right! Whatever you want, okay? We were out on a fishing pass a week or so back, and one of our nets hauls up this nasty looking beasty! Vicious thing, all scales and teeth. It was bad business, but Cap’n Ryehardt, he kept a few men with the right gifts for killin’ things like that, and they did their job, right?”

Allana nodded. She kept her face carefully blank, not giving away her curiosity of what this thing was, or how some fishers managed to kill it. She’d never heard of an outsider appearing in the bay before–and what kind of fishing captain kept battle-gifted on board? “Keep going.”

“Yes’m! Well, the Cap’n, he decided to call the trip short, even though we only had half our chillhold full. Some men needed care, y’see, and Ryehardt always did right by his men. A right honorable man, yessir, that’s why me and the boys joined up with him.”

Allana rolled her eyes at the drunken man’s inability to stay on topic, and Tenebres muttered, “We care little for your opinions on the good captain, Gert. Continue.”

Gert’s eyes went wide, and he nodded eagerly. “Oh, yep, yep, beggin’ your pardons, o’course. So, we turned sails and headed back to port. But the Cap’n, he passed the word, he wanted everyone to stay quiet ‘bout the fishman. Now, I thought that mighty queer at the time, cus the Cap’n, he didn’t explain nothing to the rest of us, just told us to keep our mouths shut. Now I know, course, cus you all came looking around, that he was gonna sell the body to your Old Man and didn’t want any wardens peekin’ in on the deal. Right common sense, that.”

Allana and Tenebres traded a look around the sailor’s bulk, and she knew he was as alarmed as she was. Telik wanted the body? Why would a crimelord want an outsider corpse? By now, Gert was all but babbling in drunken fear, and needed no further prompting to continue spilling his guts.

“But then, y’know, the boat got attacked, while the rest of us was on shore leave, and they took the fishman with ‘em!”

“By who?” Allana snapped without thinking.

“I don’t know, you gotta believe me! All I know is they gotta be pretty darned slick, y’know? It was the middle of the night, not one man in four from the crew was on board, but the Cap’n, he had kept the body watched since we got into port. One of his fighting men was at the door, and no one even heard him get himself killed!”

Allana grit her teeth. No doubt the thief was, at the very least, connected to the other death gifted, but all of this still hadn’t turned up any actual leads they could follow.

“What happened to the boat after?” Tenebres asked. He must’ve known that just cutting out now would make the man suspicious, so he continued the interview while Allana was distracted by her irritation.

“The Cap’n must’ve known that your Old Man wouldn’t be happy that his goods were gone and decided to cast off and find fairer waters,” Gert claimed. “Me and my boys, we were part timers. We had only sailed with him a couple months, and he didn’t bother sending for us. So, we figure, we don’t owe him any Sailor-damned silence anymore. I don’t got no reason to hide nothin’ from you and yours, right? I don’t want to be on the Old Man’s bad side, yeah?”

“Correct,” Allana snarled at him.

Tenebres gave her a warning look, and she subsided. It would feel good to take out some of her frustrations on the crude man, but there was no profit in that. They needed to keep their involvement quiet, after all.

“We’re satisfied,” Tenebres told him, “for now. But if I were you, I wouldn’t go thinking that this gets you off of Telik’s blacklist.”

Gert swallowed, and he threw a panicked look at Allana. She decided to encourage his fear and gave him the most sinister grin she could manage.

Tenebres patted the man’s shoulder sympathetically. “You’re telling people Telik’s business, friend. That’s not a great choice. I might recommend that you clear out of town for a bit. Find another boat that can take you and your friends, and see if you can find those calmer waters Ryeheardt went searching for.”

“Aye, aye, I take the point. I’ll be off by first light, I swear!” The man went to stand, and Allana leaned back, letting him.

Neither said anything as he fled the taproom without a look backwards. Finally, Allana said, “I don’t think he’s even going to bother waiting for his friends. Why’d you add that bit though?”

“Our friend Gert seems to have chronically loose lips. I figured getting him out of town would be better than the fear wearing off and him deciding to talk about his brush with celebrity.”

Allana lips twitched in a small snarl. “I don’t like being thought of as his like that.”

“I know.”

“Let’s go,” she decided, standing up.

“Where to?”

“The office.” That was how they referred to Geoffrey’s lavish house in public, not wanting to mention the assassin too casually. “If we didn’t know about this fishman situation, he might be ignorant of it too.”

“Not that it does us much good,” Tenebres noted as he stood to follow her. “We know there was an outsider, it got killed, and now it’s gone. Not a whole lot to go on for finding our necromancer.”

“I don’t care about the thrice-damned necromancer!” Allana wheeled on him.

Tenebres faced her calmly, despite their size difference. Allana had several inches on him, not to mention significantly more muscle, but the boy was as unimpressed by her anger as he ever was. He simply crossed his arms in front of his chest and arched an eyebrow.

Allana flushed, magenta blossoms coloring her purple skin. Anger and embarrassment warred on her face as she noted the interested faces around them, many of whom had taken note of her outburst. “Outside,” she grumbled, not waiting for him to follow.

#

Allana didn’t stop until they found a small little cubby of an alley, tucked away from lights and sheltered from the wind. The night air was pleasantly cool, but the ceaseless breeze off the bay only carried more of the smell of salt and rotting fish. Allana took deep breaths anyways, trying to calm down. At least the setting of the sun had made the smell mildly less rancid.

“You want to explain what that was all about?” Tenebres asked. Only his calm tone, lacking any disapproval, kept her from wheeling on him again.

“It’s Telik.”

“You hate him.”

Allana had shared a little of what brought her into Geoffrey’s service with Tenebres after he had signed up with the odd assassin, but she found herself reluctant to discuss it, even with her new friend.

“Hate is too weak of a word.”

Tenebres stayed quiet, waiting for her to continue when she was ready. He was patient in that way, as if he knew when she needed time to think her words into order.

“He killed my parents. They owed him money, and couldn’t pay–and the only thing of worth they had was their little girl.”

Tenebres’s eyes hardened. “You mentioned that before. Part of it, at least.”

Allana nodded. It was easier, at least, to say those things to him. He knew what it was like to be sold out by your own parents. “Within a year of selling me to Telik, they were in even deeper. I don’t know what their fix was, Telik never told me. He just said that, by the end, what he did to them was a small mercy.”

“How old were you?”

“Four or five, I don’t know. Too young to have any real memories of it all.” She held a hand up to her own face, looking at the deep purple shade her heritage had left on her skin. “I remember they had the same skin as me, and I remember my mother’s eyes were…” She darted a quick look at Tenebres, at those expressive red eyes and the way they were focused on her. She coughed awkwardly, and continued, “He put me in this place. It was something like an orphanage, but for the children Telik had… acquired.

“It was only when I hit twelve that he started paying any attention to me again. He’d come by and put me, and some of the others, through our paces, testing what we could do. Those who did well, like me, we got to leave during the day. The rest of them… went away, eventually. I always assumed Telik sold them off to a slaver or the like.” Allana frowned. The fate of those children was something she made a concerted effort to not consider. “There were nearly a dozen of us in that place when I was growing up. But by the end, it was just me, Vernen, and Porgit.”

Tenebres snorted. “Those two idiots.”

“Mhmm. We each had our strengths. By fourteen, I could slit a purse without even a sharp eye taking notice. I could run across the roofs as easily as the streets, and pick a lock near as quick as if I had a key.” Allana found her hands coming together, her fingers fidgeting with one of her bracelets. The little copper and tin charms on the leather cord were among her earliest prizes, pilfered from a jeweler's daughter. “I always figured he wanted me to be a thief for him. Just another way to bring in some money. That was always what he cared about the most. Profit, profit, profit.”

“And you were okay with that?”

“I was,” she admitted, unable to contain a small, helpless chuckle. “It was fun. Like a game. Figuring out how to get into a place, what was worth taking. Avoiding traps. Making an escape. And I never stole from anyone who couldn’t handle the loss.”

“Really?” Tenebres seemed doubtful of that claim, and Allana snorted derisively.

“There’s not a whole lot of profit to be had in stealing from the poor, Seo.”

Tenebres huffed a little laugh. “I suppose so.”

“When I got my gift of poison, I started to suspect. The gift of stealth was one thing, that was plenty handy for thieving too, but poison…”

“He wanted you to be his killer.”

“His knife in the dark,” Allana confirmed. “Geoffrey told me, the day Telik sent me to start working with him. That was the day that he told me he planned to kill Telik one day, and then asked me to help him.”

The words helped Allana collect herself, and she felt her anger cool to something hard and sharp. She pushed off the wall, and gave Tenebres a fierce look. “And now I want to know why.”