Malice and Sympathy, A Game of Minds

[Deros]

While being pushed off, Kraela simply allowed her body to take its automatic course. While her legs were being shifted from her accepted center, her upper body shifted the other way, so that the hand that had been resting on Zanafar's neck drifted further down to wrap around his neck fully. Here, she tightened her grip so that her other arm could rise up and stab him in the upper arm as she had somewhat warned him moments ago. At last, she released her grip fully, landing lightly on the floor. "That's good to know," she said, making the knife vanish and the beads of blood on it drip to the floor. "I'll be sure not to let you know if I find someone like that. I've got more than enough stealth training to use it properly."

[Literal Comprehension]

He flinched with a grunt when the blade pierced his arm and he stopped to hold said arm with his other hand. He made a strained laugh. "You should really try and live more relaxed." He started walking on again, unwrapping a sash from around his waist. He tied it quickly around the bleeding wound. He supposed he deserved it.

"Even if you got it, you wouldn't be able to keep it." He tested his damaged arm, wincing slightly as he went down the stairs. It was still quite usable. He'd just have to wait for the pain to numb down. "Of course, I'd probably be nice to you and offer a trade. My fun toy back for anything you want that's within my ability to make. Then again, considering the way you're treating me, I might drag that offer off the table."

[Deros]

"The way you're talking, you wouldn't be able to keep it either," Kraela said back to him, pleased to get even the small reaction of pain out of the brain-dead man.. "Obviously, you've already had some challenge in that respect. But you'll find that I'm better at staying hidden than you can imagine. Now, you may leave. I need some time to figure out what this new toy does, anyways." With this said, she turned around and started to walk back to her room, hoping for yet another reaction.

[Literal Comprehension]

He laughed and stopped to look at her. "Aren't you listening? I don't have it right now. I think that already establishes that I'm not able to keep it. But I can get it back." He stepped to the side and leaned on the rail of the stairway. "Now, what sort of new toy would you be talking about, madame?" He smirked at her and leaned his head against the wall. "Toys are my specialty. At least if they're magical."

[Deros]

"Could be something you're interested in, actually," Kraela acceded without turning. She pulled a wad of money from her back pouch and pulled something out from their folds. "You like bells, right?" she asked. She rang the silver item softly before starting once again to her room.

[Literal Comprehension]

Loky's face didn't change except for his smirk slightly fading. His cobalt eyes reacted to the ring of the bell like a small 'big bang'. A flare of stars seemed to exploded within his eyes, a bright newborn baby blue turning and churning in the very center of their depths.

Well. This was a bitch.

His eyes still flared up by those stars of his, he quietly went back up the steps and followed after her. He kept a couple of feet in distance between them, his voice surprisingly soft and calm. His pride and self-importance, however, seemed to have vanished. He was left with only an air of observance and attention. He was, however, looking a little pale. Some of his blood must have rushed from his face when he'd seen the bell.

"You don't know what that is."

[Deros]

"Nope," she replied, still walking, although her mind took joy in finally scoring a real win against Zanafar. She wouldn't hold him for long. Just long enough for satisfaction. Sooner or later, she would get fulfillment from this man's emotions. She half-turned at the doorway of the room, careful not to allow her glee show as she observed his attentive features. "Hm? I thought you were going to leave. I was okay with it and everything."

[Literal Comprehension]

He stopped, still keeping that distance from her.

"Hand that back to me, Kraela."

His eyes were still full and bursting with those stars. They were, perhaps, the only real indication that his emotions were stirred up. His voice made the statement sound like that of a weary old man telling a naughty child to return a personal item. Which, the bell was.

"You don't want that."

[Deros]

"You know what? You're probably right," Kraela said as she continued into the room and sat down on the bed to get a better look at her borrowed trinket. She was no thief- she had planned from the beginning to return the thing. He didn't need to know that, though. "I've never been much for such trinkets. My own magic's always been more than enough, so there's not much point in relying on little things like this." She looked up, caught his eye, and looked down again, concentrating on not dwelling on the strangeness that his eyes has taken. If all else failed, she would still be able to escape. "Of course, I do know some people that would take it off my hands, even if it happened that it wasn't enchanted."

[Literal Comprehension]

He continued after her once she'd entered the room. He closed the door behind him and softly leaned his back against the wall. He continued to watch her like that, his face becoming paler by the idea of his bell getting sold off to someone else. His lips thinned. "You're crossing boundaries." He paused a moment, then continued. "If you even try to leave this room with that in your possession, I won't stop myself. I will beat you down." He pushed himself from the wall and silently stepped over to her, standing half a foot from the bed and stretching his hand out. "Give it back, Kraela. Don't make me say it again."

[Deros]

"I insulted your pride, your company, your skills, your way of life- nothing I did so much as touched your emotions, not in a negative way in the very least. But now you're willing to harm me? It's such a small thing, Zanafar, so why has it wrought such a great change in you? This," she said, holding the bell up and ringing it lightly again, "will be the item you purchase with that information. Adequate information, not these mostly-truths that you've been feeding me."

[Literal Comprehension]

That next ringing of the bell made it obvious he was getting stiff. And his eyes raged on. For a moment or two, he seemed to consider this proposal of hers. She was a woman with conscience. Perhaps not a perfect one, but she had it nonetheless. Could he trust her to return the bell if he talked? His eyes went from her to his clenching hand. He could feel his temper rising into his knees, invisible tremors sinking into them. He hated to see himself stressed like this. So he closed his eyes, and all of a sudden his fist lifted into the air and slammed into the wall with enough force to startle the nightstand. He breathed in and out slowly through his nose, trying to calm himself. This was annoying.

"Fine." His hand slid from the wall, and he pulled a nearby chair closer to the bed before carefully seating himself with his eyes on the floor and arms on his knees. "It's one of my mother's heirlooms. It's the last thing she ever made." The stars in his eyes died out, one by one. What used to be a brightly lit night was now a dark and lonely sky. "She sacrificed a lot for it."

[Deros]

Kraela watched him carefully while he fought his own rage, ready to move the moment he decided to turn on her, leaving the bell on the bed. She may have been fairly cruel, a manipulator at best, but before that, she valued her own flesh. And although she would normally be able to evade him, a man enraged was a dangerous thing to face in the best of circumstances. She was better off playing it safe. Luckily, it seemed that he had come to the same conclusion, for he drew a chair and sat in it. Kraela relaxed slightly- she'd be out of reach within two seconds of any threatening move made by him instead of a quarter second.

Still, it seemed that he meant her no harm- although against his will, he told her the truth- a truth, at least- about the bell. She sympathized with him somewhat, although the first thing that came to mind was "momma's boy". She threw that thought aside immediately that would make her a daddy's girl by association. Sympathy or not, she wasn't yet ready to let him go. "Tell me about your mother," she asked, gazing at the bell with something like respect and pity.

[Literal Comprehension]

He relaxed a little more, quietly sighing. "My mother?" Now why would she be interested in her? He answered that question with a little scoff. It didn't matter. He wanted the bell back. And what difference did it make, if she knew a little more about him than most? He wasn't sure what he would say though, and he leaned against the back of the chair as he mulled this over. His hands set themselves on his knees and he stared at a corner of the room.

"There's not much to say. She got into a bad marriage, sacrificed something in order to test my father, then got more than what she'd expected." He closed his eyes, trying to calm himself again as his knuckles went white from clenching into fists. A few moments later he was relaxed again, if somewhat defeated. "She was a special woman with all the freedom in the world to do what she wanted. And she sacrificed that for the love of just one man. She wasn't a poor mother, but she would have been a better one if she'd had a better husband. She was a loyal wife with a poor lover who would rather see her buried in his graveyard than let her leave. She was right to fear him every moment of the day, but who could blame a breaking heart for wanting to struggle for life, love and respect?

"She went against the laws of nature and fused everything that had made her special into that bell, leaving me with more than I would have bargained for. For it, she died. For herself, for me, she lost her life." He stood up and slowly repositioned the chair by the table, then returned to stand in front of Kraela. His eyes looked down on her with a numb, somewhat bitter and somewhat regretful gaze. "It's ironic, that I can be what I am only because she's dead. I can feel a fire, a vigor for life only because she lost hers. I was thirteen when she made that bell. Only a day older than that when she died. I was alone to deal with the consequences, to learn what it was she had to bear with. It was a mistake for her to make that bell, but it's done and that, along with the circlet on my head, are all I have left of her." He slipped a hand into his pocket. "Satisfied?"

[Deros]

Kraela was tempted to ask about the circlet, but realized that it wouldn't give her enough information to be useful for the amount of stress it might give him. "Well, I see that you are indeed human, so I think that I'll be content with that," she said, laying the bell on the bed beside her and Stepping past him to the door without it. "I would prefer you leave through the window, for the sake of both of our reputations. I won't have a subject that simply walks away, and you'll be known for a disappearing act. Goodbye, Zanafar. Let's hope to never meet again." Without waiting for a reply, she opened the door and closed it behind her, strangely unsettled with the power that had just been handed her. Her mind reorientated the moment she stepped off of the stairs. It didn't matter, as long as she didn't ever have to use that information.