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Aurian looks up. To her, a shiver had run through the world, although few else in the tavern had noticed. The man at the table with her looked uncomfortable as well, his half-lidded eyes darkening as he shifted in his chair.

".. Something opened." Aurian nodded at her companion's comment. The man had a low, soft voice, soothing if he used it as such, although right now it was uncomfortable, and disinterested besides., but audible over the murmur of the tavern and the crackle of flames not far from their table.

"Through the magic, perhaps." He nodded to her comment. Her voice was worn, damaged by either too much strenuous use, or too little use, and rather empty, like a dead voice. Her own eyes were half lidded, although the fire struck gold under her silver lashes, and something darker in his. Few others would feel that, maybe mages, maybe elves, but not that many. Would anyone else do anything? Kousen looked to be thinking as well, his dark scarlet hair shifting in front of his face as he tilted it for the drink held loosely. Her own silver hair, mottled of colors of good steel and white silver, crossed her vision as she shifted, trying to ease the physical itch from the magic. Not that it did anything.

"Do we wait? Or seek the problem?" Aurian finally voiced, taking up her own mug in spidery fingers hidden by black gloves. Kousen drank from his, draining it slowly as he continued to think.

"Wait." He says, Aurian drinking her mug of alcohol slower. "If it stays, we seek." Both nod, pleased with the idea, and settle again with their cups and the coin for more.

Saia stood on a tree branch, high above in a dark and silent forest. Her grey, tattered cloak swirled quietly around her feet in the wind, as does her hair, black as the night and long enough to reach her knees. She narrows her eyes and the moon glints on the pure red matalic color. Saia too had felt the shiver running through the world, though it was far more familiar to her. After all, it was her who usually opened the portal. The portal was to Ares, or as the humans would call it; Hell. If someone was opening the gateways without her concent, she must stop them. Painfully. Saia leaps from the branch and lands 50 feet below with barely a sound, deciding to head north. She knew of a local bar where picking up information was quiet easy if you had enough liqour.

The pair sat easily at their chair, despite the amount of coin passed to the barmaid and the amount of jugs of 'something strong' passed back, neither were drunk, or showing the normal signs of being inebriated. Then again, Neither felt the slightest bit drunk, so it was to be expected.

"Draconic." Kousen offered, and Aurian shook her head.

"Not the right feel. Not draconic." Aurian replied, and both fell silent once more. "Angelic?"

"No. Feels more.. dark, than that." Both held a private moment of amusement at the personal contradiction. "And neither of us did it- do you think any angels would let us wander?" both amuse themselves with their drinks. "Demonic?"

".... Maybe." Both sat back. "... Not that I know the feel." Their conversation was left un-noticed, Angelic, their language, was little known, but by priests. The barmaid got her orders in common as fluently as they talked to each other in the other language, and although some other men wanted to know what the two talked about, the blades worn easily stopped them from demanding anything. The few mages in the room avoided them for the sheer strength both had in magic, although only the woman appeared Elven. Both wore dark clothes, pure black with red stitching in the woman's case, nearly black purple in the man's case, with lavender lining. And as long as they bought drinks, it didn't matter how long they stayed to the staff.

Saia races through the trees, traveling several miles in a minute. As she runs her hair blows back showing pointed elven ears, though nothing else about her seems the least bit elf-ish. She notices the town coming up and skids to a stop in front of an old tavern. She pulls the worn out cloak tighter around herself and flicks the hood up over her head. As she opens the door she immediatly notices two large magical forces radiating from inside. Saia pauses for just a moment before stepping inside.

"Hello, Aurian. I thought I recognized your presence." A chair is pulled silently to the table where Aurian and Kousen are sitting. Her voice as she speaks is low and sharp, like a serpent's hiss, and she speaks to them in common. Saia's eyes glow softly from under the hood of the cloak and she nods to Kousen, knowing of him, but has not actually met him before.

Kousen shifts slightly, actually just his head, to regard her, and he nods back. Aurian's ears flick, longer than the normal Elven and ridged at the back, and she regards Saia.

"... Saia, right?" She asks in Common as well, as if she might have forgotten which name went to which face. "I doubt we're lucky enough to all know Elven, or Draconic, are we?" Aurian turns from directly looking at Kousen to facing between Saia and him, and her eyes, now out of the direct light of the fire, glow very softly.

"Kousen Enasni-Tenshi." Kousen offers a hand to Saia, large but lithe fingered, in a dark glove without fingers, showing calluses from sword, the glove's knuckles capped. "I assume you are Saia." There's not too much interest, or care.

"Do you have business..?" Aurian asks, watching them both.

Saia stares at Kousen for a moment before lifting her hand and wrapping long, thin fingers around his in a handshake before quickly dropping her hand again and turning to look at Aurian.

"I am sure you both felt the ripple a while ago. I suppose I need your...help." She sneers slightly at the thought of needing help, but nonetheless she continues speaking, "I don't know who-- or why -- but somebody has breached the gateway and opened the portal to Ares."

She breaks off and glares at a waitress who was on her way to walk over. The waitress yelps and turns around immediatly.

"Whoever it is must pay for this...And as I said, I will need help, I am sure, as no normal person could even attempt to open the portal." She growls softly in annoyance and bares her teeth which are marked with small fangs. The firelight glints of her incredibly pale face, turning it an odd gold color.

Aurian absently watches the loss of more booze, and Kousen takes his hand back to his nearly empty mug.

".... So, we're to expect some.. immigrants, hm...?" Aurian muses, in Elven rather than Common, crossing her long arms behind her head, leaning back. "..."

"..." Kousen regards both women over his mug, his eyes a darker crimson than blood would ever be, darker than his hair.

"What kind of help... are you looking for?" Aurian asks in Common, tilting her head to look at Saia. "Tracking and hunting, hiding something, mass destruction?"

"Or all of the above...? Distraction?" Kousen gives his input to his mug, although his eyes are on Saia.

"We don't do any sort of leadership positions well." Aurian clasps her hands, leaning forward to rest her chin on them, elbows on the table, and watches Saia.

Saia smirks and her fangs glint even more. "Though the mass destruction sounds tempting...Tracking and hunting, mainly. I'm...horrible at tracking." She glances around the tavern before looking back to Aurian and Kousen. "Possibly fighting along side me. I do not yet know what this person is capable of. I doubt he will be too much for me, but it is always good to have backup, yess?"

She stands up fluidly and looks down at them both. "So? Are you two in, or am I to leave alone?"

Aurian and Kousen finish their drinks, moving at ease. Both untied loose knots on their sheaths that had been tying hilts onto sheathes, binding them across a wrist, and then stood.

"I don't suppose we might get paid..." Kousen murmured, in a jest, as both stood ready. He was half-Aurian's-head-shorter than she, although his hair was much messier, both shoving chairs back to the table.

"Sounds like fun." Aurian cracked her knuckles, settling them in her pockets.

"Where to first..?"