The Magic Room *Permission Only*

Spoiler

Reisey:
So far, they have kidnapped Laverna, and if you've read the last few posts, Aisha's currently really ticked.
They're almost at the Lazzan tribe.
Blake could probably try to calm Aisha down, Tath and Lav are in the wagon still. Everybody else is outside.

Tathiel

Wow, just...wow. Why on earth did Aisha even care so much? She had always known that women and money were sort of my thing, and she had put up with me flirting before. Then again, I had never been caught kissing one of them before.

I was absolutely furious, and I found myself pulling out my dagger. "You know, that amputation thing still stands," I hissed.

She said something, but I was too preoccupied with digging around for a mirror to hear what it was. How bad could it be? Going to the palace with singed hair...thanks Princess, thanks. What a wonderful impression to leave on the royals.

Unable to find a mirror, I turned to glare at Laverna. She seemed to find this funny of all things. Granted, I had been thriving off of her fear not too long ago, but that was....different somehow. Okay, so not really, but whatever.

"Obviously, my good mood has been spoiled. You had better pray to God that your little friend comes quietly, or I might just kill both of you," I snarled.

Confused, furious and absolutely exhausted. The rest of the night had better go well.

When Laverna is alone...by any chance could she spot a black mare she recognizes as Anya because she knows Flip? Thanks]

Aisha

The thing I love about my wings are their complexity. Yes, straps do tie around my shoulders, but that's only for security. The real support system comes from the steel... branches. As I mentioned, the wing frames are welded steel, firm and strong, but bouncy and lightweight. Sprouting from the part of the frame most don't see, hidden by the slight lattice work and sometimes my hood, are two steel rods. Or strips. Maybe a combination? Either way, they're crucial to my flight.

One leads down the outside my left arm, wraps around my elbow, then continues its path down, now both on the outside and inside. The segments extend down to my palm, being flamethrowers and all, and connect to a thick strip of fire proof material around my knuckles, this over my thick leather knuckle gloves. Try to get that mental image.

Now, at the elbow, shoulder, and wrist, the metal rod-strips are hinged to allow my movement, but they also work up tension in the workings of my wings, which gets them pumping, and then flying. And -added bonus- if I don't want my wings bulking up the place, I twist my arms in, and snap! The wings fold around like body armor. You see why storage isn't a big for me- I have my bag, and the wings take care of themselves.

So when I told Blake to speed up (rather harshly; I might have scared him, especially him being our newest member) and told Alba I had to get a prop of mine from the caravan, I shouldn't have been surprised that she folded her arms and gave me a hard stare; she knew I was dead lying. Blake didn't, though, so I yelled that he would be my witness, twisted my arms in, and ducked into the caravan, deciding I'd just rip the doors off when we stopped.

I threw myself into a seat, pulled my cloak tighter around me, and popped the hood. Desert Queen still looked fazed by my fire show just ten minutes ago, and I snorted a little. Out came the igniter, my new best friend. Well, and the wings.

Which had a built in flamethrowers.

Which just goes to show that the Swarian in the caravan liked fire a little past too much.

Blake

I pushed the old horse to go just a bit faster. That Aisha girl was scary, no doubt, but that's just more reason why I should listen to her. Wouldn't want the pyromaniac against me. I can't really blame her though. After all, she is pretty pissed off at Tath. The guy's a flirt, everyone knew that, he just has really bad timing I suppose. Smiling broadly, I stroked Speckle's mane. In response, he brayed and went back to his sugar cube chasing.
"How's it going," a voice from behind me asked. I turned my head around to smile and nod, but whatI saw was almost too much to handle. I burst out in loud guffaws at the sight in front of me: Tath's hair, singed, fried, and downright horrid!
"Tath! You're hair... How did... Aisha! Hahahahaha!" Tears specked the outer rim of my eyes and, through blurred vision, I could see Tathiel's frowning face.
"Shut up and steer the caravan." With that, he returned inside, mumbling something about stupid newbies and fire hazards. Still chuckling a bit, I turned back around and finished leading old Specks, urging him to go just a bit faster just in case Miss Pyro herself decided we were going too slow again.

Tathiel

I eyed Aisha carefully, tempted to start shouting profanities. I restrained myself. The last thing I needed was to be burned to death by a girl I had been working with for years. If I was going to die, I'd rather it be in luxury with girls wailing at my bedside. Of course, Aisha would kill me if I said anything about that.

"Guess what ladies?" I asked instead, hiding the fact that I was still absolutely enraged. Pretend it never happened, that's the way I roll. Or, for now anyways.

"What?" Aisha snapped, narrowing her eyes.

I held my hands up defensively and stepped back. "I just thought you'd like to know that in about five minutes we're at stop two." I smirked at Laverna, who scowled in return. "You remember the plan, am I right?" The question was directed at Aisha, who rolled her eyes and nodded.

The plan was simple. The girls would scout first, return to Blake and myself, who would then bring Laverna to the princess, blade at her throat. A few threats here and there and we've got the bait for the prince. Back to the caravan and it's off to Aggar.

Simple enough.

I pulled out my dagger again and twirled it around in my hand, grinning like a fool. Despite the fact that I half-hated Aisha right now, and that I hated Blake for laughing, I was in a pretty good mood. I had other shirts, and I could give myself a quick haircut before we got to the palace. My spirits were up again, and I prayed that there was no way to bring them back down.

Aisha

Dirty jerk.

I did the Aisha equivalent of pouting -jaw locked and glaring out of the hole that we called 'window'- and waited. Just five minutes, right? Easy enough. Sit tight, don't get the igniter near my folded-over wings, don't get in Desert Queen's line of vision. Don't need another person hating me right now. Although she probably already did. So this was futile.

Anyway. Glaring, locking, and fuming.

Five minutes passed in a very tense silence. We lurched to a stop, and Desert Queen snapped something about something. I smiled tightly at her and stepped out, reopening my wings on my way. I twirled a fire staff around my hand, settling into a rhythm as I walked. It wasn't lit, but soon... soon, I'd feel fire on my hands again. I slipped my gloves off, only wearing them while dormant, and tucked them into my pockets, resuming the rhythm. One, one, one, one, one.

Settling in the even beat, I cocked my head forward to Alba, who nodded, took out a knife, and followed me. I waved my hand to the left, and she took off to those tents. Scouting the townsfolk. Townsfolk? Townsfolk. I took off, running, and then skimming, to the fancier looking tent, where I knew the twins slept. My staff still flew in circles, the blackened surface staining my skin. Smiling and swaying to imaginary music, I sidled up to the canvas. Steady breathing and light snores. Good. I pushed the flap aside and slipped in, disarming the twins silently.

An array of knives, a bow and quiver, one sword and two slingshots now rustling about in my bag, I slipped out, held up my igniter... and...

WHOOO.

(That was me blowing two fireballs from my igniter. If you couldn't tell.)

Tathiel

My mouth twitched in a smirk as I turned back to Laverna, who was glaring daggers at me. "I do believe that's our signal," I said loudly, chuckling. "Come here sweet-heart, don't want to have to knock you out again." I grabbed her upper arm and gave a firm yank before turning to Blake. "You get to wake up our little Mountain Princess, I call holding the dagger."

He arched an eyebrow as I shoved Laverna out of the wagon, jumping down behind her. "Umm...okay?"

I rolled my eyes, grasping Laverna by the arm tightly. "Just keep quiet and don't do anything stupid," I muttered. To Laverna, "All set then? I suppose not. Too bad."

"Snake," she muttered.

I just chuckled, shoving her forwards. My stomach was flipping, I don't recall ever being quite so excited for anything in my life. We walked silently, keeping low. The whole time I was worried about Laverna shrieking, making some sort of noise to give us away. Of course, I had momentarly forgotten about my little bluff. She wouldn't say anything.

We finally made it to the tent, and I shoved Laverna through the hole in the canvas, following closely and making room for Blake to scramble in. I pushed myself to my feet, holding my dagger firmly against Laverna's throat and nodded at Blake.

>Given permission to hijack Blake, since Reisey's apparently MIA.<

Blake

I swallowed. Kneeling by the princess's side, trying to not touch her face in any way (say what you want, I'm a gentleman, right?), I nudged her side.

"Uh... uh... Princess?" I kept my voice soft. If Aisha heard that, she'd blow us all up, being as mad as she was. I could hear the metallic clicks of her igniter outside the tent, too- best not to say Tathiel's 'endearment' within her hearing range.

But the real Princess mumbled and turned over. I groaned and nudged her side harder. "Princess! Wake up, please?" She jerked suddenly, and I scrambled back. And then, with a groan, I realized that she hadn't had a weapon. I'd seen Aisha rifling through them. Tathiel snickered loudly, and I blushed.

That's when the princess's eyes groggily opened, directly pointed at the desert princess and the knife at her jugular.

I tried not to moan as her eyes narrowed to slits and eased into the corner, at the beam holding up the tent. She attacked me, the entire structure'd fall. (It was a trick Tathiel had taught me. I could see the approval in his eyes.)

And now I hoped and prayed I didn't crush under a ton of canvas.

Anzeila

No. For the love of God this couldn't be happening! I turned away from the man in the corner, having already figured out that attacking him would be stupid, and glared at the blonde with the...um...singed hair. He looked absolutely ridiculous, but it harldy mattered. Any man holding a knife to my friend's throat was an automatic threat.

I reached for my bow and arrow, finding it gone and cursing in Lazzan. So they had apparently thought of everything.

"I'm pretty sure you've figured out by now that you have to cooperate, hmm?" the blonde asked in Aggarian.

I glanced at Laverna and bit my lip. I was running through my options, but they were all being signalled out by the fact that Laverna's life probably depending on my cooperation, as the blonde had said. That and I was outnumbered two to one, plus there was clicking outside. Add one and possibly twenty more for all I knew. Dammit.

I slipped out of bed slowly, careful not to disturb Shale. The last thing I needed was a hostile cobra biting everybody.

I crossed my arms and glared at all of them in turn. Blondey chuckled. "Somebody come in here and give us a hand," he ordered, voice stern but quiet.

I stole a glance at Laverna, who seemed absolutely mortified, mixed with a whole lot of blood-boiling anger. I couldn't say I felt much different. A girl entered, flicking some bizarre-looking contraption that made flames sputter. She was glaring at Blondey like she would murder him if he would allow it. Charming.

"I'm going to need you to hold a blade to her throat so we can go after the prince."

My head shot up. My brother?! What? One of us wasn't enough for one night? My hands balled into fists, but one glance at the dagger had me convinced to let them do what they wanted.

Aisha

"You are in absolutely no position to order me around, Tathiel." I hissed. My father'd been Aggaran, and only now would his accent cut through Mama's Swarian.

"Princess, now's really not a good time," he muttered through clenched teeth.

"Watch your tongue," I whispered as I passed him, patting his shoulder and flicking my igniter across his jawline. He swatted at me, but I was already kneeling by the princess. I cooed at the sleeping cobra (there was a man on my favorite street who'd had one as a pet that gave me kisses) and unraveled a scarf from my hair.

"It's soft, okay? Rope'd chafe your skin." I whispered for really no reason, tying the scarf around her wrists tightly. Another few scarves were produced from the bag, one going around her eyes, another her shins, another one her upper arms. Four strips of black fabric now striped her body. I helped her to her feet, shooting a tight smile at a boiling Tathiel.

"I will kill you." the princess said in a low voice.

"Eh. That makes over two dozen deaths people have promised me. I'll let you keep the scarves, though. I have plenty." Her jaw locked, and I loosened the scarf around her eyes. Only slightly, of course.

I eased her through the flap that led to her brother's section. Tathiel struck easily, kicking the boy awake, snarling something, and then getting Blake to bind him. With a sullen prince, a vengeful princess, and her utterly enraged bestie in tow, we slunk back to the caravan. The captives (though that word felt sticky and thick in my mind) were then bound to the cart, Alba climbing up to the roof with Blake.

"Aisha. Caravan. Now." I heard Tathiel steadily say.

I grabbed a lighter, a collapsed staff, and a bottle of fuel, jammed my hands into my leather knuckle gloves, and stormed after Tathiel, the caravan beginning its descent to Aggar.

Tathiel

Aisha stormed in, glaring at me like she wanted to kill me. At this point, I wasn't doubting that she didn't. "What?" she snarled, clicking her little contraption.

I eyed it cautiously. "Do you really have to disrespect me like that in front of the captives?" I asked coldly.

She snorted. "Disrespect? Since when are you in any position that deserves respect?"

I returned my glare to her, but I didn't have an answer for that. This should be like one of those things that didn't need an explanation. We respected each other, which means that I deserved respect too.

"That's what I thought."

Before I knew what I was doing, I had raised my hand, hardly able to stop myself before I slapped her cheek. No. Absolutely not. I told myself sternly. She had flinched, just slightly, but it still made me feel guilty.

I lowered my hand, swallowing hard and glaring at her. "You are so extremely fortunate that I have enough self control to keep myself from doing what I was just about to do," I hissed. Ridiculous. She had blasted me with fire for crying out loud! Slapping her really wouldn't have been that wrong...but the fact that I almost did was still making my stomach churn.

Aisha

I clenched my jaw and fists, staring down at the toes of my soft leather boots. Flames flickered into my vision, and I could hardly resist clamping Tathiel's hand around the igniter, still piping hot from use. The only thing stopping me were his words-

"You are so extremely fortunate that I have enough self control to keep myself from doing what I was just about to do,"

It was always him, wasn't it? His 'good heart' that saved me from the streets of Swaria. His 'generosity' that paid for my props, even when I'd protested, saying I had enough. His 'cleverness' that got me out of so many jail cells. His 'good luck' that kept me from, for once in my life, meeting my father.

Enough.

"And you," I started. My voice shook. "are so extremely fortunate that I didn't kill you when I was eight. So fortunate I didn't leave the troupe when you told me I had no family. So fortunate," My voice was cracking now, "that I decided to stay here, for you, when I knew there was love and comfort back home."

My chin quivered. My mind reeled. My heart raced. I'd never told him about that- last year, he'd told me I'd never have a family. That night, I packed up. All my things, my father's old shirt, the one he left at my mother's before he left, the day she said she was pregnant, my mother's cracked mirror, the first rose someone had ever thrown me, preserved in a solution, saved from time. All of them tucked carefully in my bag. Wings unfolded, heart broken, tears covering my face, I was about to leap from the caravan, to fly away, to Swaria forever, when Tathiel had woken up, sitting atop the cart, guiding Speckles.

I couldn't do it. Just couldn't. When he wasn't yelling about how much I owed him, or trying to outdo me in every way, I knew Tathiel's heart was golden. I couldn't bring myself to leave this man -boy, rather, he was hardly older than me- alone, with two companions and a horse, to roam and con and swindle for the rest of his life.

So I went back inside, unpacked, and laid down. Pretended to sleep. When Tathiel came in, after his shift was up, I didn't dare tell him I'd been on the very verge of escaping this life, didn't dare open an eye.

And now, a full year later, I couldn't bear to think of his face that night. When he woke up- so burdened, so scared, so... so stripped away, to reveal the person he tried to hide. I shuddered and fell to my knees, then rolled to the side.

Legs bent at awkward angles, my hands pressed to my face to hide all my cracks, I did the one thing I'd never let Tathiel see me do.

I cried.

Tathiel

I blinked, swallowed hard, felt my insides turn to some sloppy mush-like substance. I should have still been absolutely furious with her, but all I could feel was guilt. Had my little stunt with the Desert Queen really cut that deep? And if it had, then what did it mean?

I should have done something right away--reacted. But I couldn't, I didn't know what I was supposed to do. Would she accept comfort? Or would she swat me away? Better yet, how did I comfort her?

I sighed, sank to my knees beside her and rubbed my face with the palm of my hand. This was absolutely ridiculous... I unburied my face and stroked her cheek lightly. I hadn't felt this disgusting in a long time. Heck, I hadn't really felt truly guilty in what must have been forever.

"Princess?" I whispered softly, trying to sound as apolegetic as I felt.

"What?" she muttered, voice cracking and making me cringe. Had I really done this? I hadn't seen Aisha cry since...well, I could only really recall one time seeing her cry, and that was just a few tears. Tears that I wasn't supposed to see in the first place.

I went against all of my better judgements and pulled her up gently, wrapping my arms around her and holding her close. Good lord I felt bad. "I'm sorry. I'm absolutely disgusted with myself...I can't believe I almost hit you." Truth. Whether she believed it or not, I was telling the truth.

Aisha

I'd give him credit- he was warm. I hugged him back tightly, glad for this one second, I had the old Tathiel back, the one that had stopped the entire company when he saw a tiny, dirty, firethrowing girl on the street corner. I brushed the singed ends of his hair free, pressed my forehead into his shoulder, and waited patiently until the tears stopped coming. I sat back on my heels, shivering now that Tathiel's body warmth was two feet away, and hiccuped.

"I think... I think I'm going to go flying. Clear my mind some." I said softly. He nodded and cleared his throat.

"Yeah. Yeah, do that, then." he said, his usual husky voice back. I nodded back and let him help me up. Unfurling my wings, I trotted to the door frame. Clutching the sides for leverage, I turned my head.

"Tath? ... Thank you," I said quietly.

"Anytime, Princess."

I smiled weakly and leapt from the caravan.

The wind caught in my wings immediately. I angled upward, gaining height quickly, until I was a good ten feet above the caravan. I shivered and pulled my cloak up; it had been hanging off my elbows. Pulling the hood up to hide the remnants of tears that were being tempted to ice over, I held a guarded flame against my sternum, feeling my accelerated heartbeat. Had Tath done that?

I shook my head and let my hood fall, twisting my hair into a cap and angling down. I landed softly in the cart, where I had been supposed to be before. Desert Queen and Warrior Princess were speaking softly, Prince Sullen looking drowsy again. Warrior Princess shot me daggers and dropped her voice to the point where I knew Desert Queen was straining to hear and respond. I pulled my knees up under my chin and hugged my shins, feeling my skin against my cheek.

I wasn't sure if my mind would ever decide what made sense now.

Anzeila

Beautiful, just beautiful. Wonderful even. I was chained to the back of some wagon, on my way to where other than Aggar, probably to be sold into slavery and never see my family again. Lovely night, thank you blondey with the singed hair.

Idiot.

I inched closer to Barron and Laverna, speaking quietly in Lazzan. Every part of me was begging that I kill the girl behind me, but even I could see that I was weaponless. If she was responsible for Blondey's appearance, I doubted I would want to get in her way anyways.

"You scared?" I asked quietly, hoping the fear in my own eyes wasn't evident. Despite the blood-boiling anger, I was quivering on the inside.

Barron sighed and stole a nervous glance at the girl behind us. "A little bit I suppose. Who wouldn't be?"

I returned the sigh. "I suppose. We need to figure out how to get out of this."

"Trust me, the blonde with the singed hair is in a bad mood as it is, I doubt he'll let us get anywhere," Laverna muttered.

I chose not to ask, not yet. It would only make me madder, and there was already nothing I could do. "Well, what do we do then?" I wondered aloud, keeping my eyes on the moon. It was just a sliver tonight, but it still offered some comfort.