Snippet #1303205

(Apologies if this is a bit shakey, I was rather later than I would have liked in introducing her)

Hells on a race horse, these people were mad. Inali had quietly trailed the fascinating group from Edwin's gambling hall, where he'd been raging about lost revenue from bad custom worrrying off other patrons. She'd kept her knapsack with her and in plain view, moseying along after them. The shaven man was a problem, his eyes were a hawk, sharp for snakes. So was not tripping over the hard folk following them. She didn't like the look of the giant. Something sour and ugly sparked in him. She'd not want to have to fight him. Instead Inali decided to trail them, hunting the hunters.

She was curious about Grey, as she'd dubbed the woman child in the cloak. Evidently this was revolving around her, regardless of Captain Highwind. Inali had taken a moment to place his features, the scar tugging at her mind. She'd seen a drawing of him when leaving a watch station in a city somewhere back on the Meridian border. She'd guess he'd aged a bit since then, perhaps five years by her skewed reckoning. At least she no longer panicked and gave her age as forty when humans asked. It would seem she was among few in recognising his face, he'd been given no particular trouble for all the Vado called for his blood.

When they'd vanished into the building ahead of her, Inali figured she'd want a better look before having to go through the one door. She moved quietly around the building, noting the length of the building. It crossed to the next street but didn't have another entrance. Glancing down the facade, Inali could see where an entrance had been blocked in and plastered over. Perhaps the building had another purpose before being a storehouse. Inali slipped back along, stopping in the middle of the alley. It was perhaps a grown man's armspan, and there were narrow windows. She looked to either side for anybody paying attention. None.

Inali suddenly surged up the wall in a fluid and silent motion, stopping at one of the highest windows. The beauty of humans; they so rarely looked up. Leathery limbs clinging to the warehouse as well as bracing against the other building across the alley, Inali looked in.

The shaved man was going toe to toe with the giant. And the giant... Inali narrowed her eyes, assessing him. It was restorative, but something was off. The giant simply absorbed the lost blood back into himself. He didn't regenerate any of it. The shaved man was in trouble. And then his heart stopped. Inali saw it, the little spark of life. It looked like sunlight seen through a thin scraped hide, and it went out.

And came back on. Inali had heard of it but not yet witnessed such a thing, committing the sight to memory for recording. His ancestor did not sleep. He was wide awake and strong. If she could, Inali must ask him about it.

The cunning woman was explosive, literally. Inali winced at so much uncontained and raw power being thrown around like bread dough in a bakery. Had nobody ever trained her? How could the cunning woman's elders missed so much talent? Allowed her to learn to grasp but not to weild? That was dangerous and Inali suddenly very much wished she wasn't hanging on the wall when she threw an assailant through the bricked up door. If her power got away then despite how quick Inali was, up here was not the place to be if the building began to collapse.

She glanced back to the giant in time to see him leave. The moment he leapt, Inali scuttled the further four feet up, seeing the man descend in a grand arc. He would be several streets away by the time he landed. Not true flight, but close enough. The young cecaelia had been right, he was indeed sour.

Enough. That was a lead she couldn't follow for now, and what she could learn about the motley crew inside was so much more tempting. She would drop down and continue to follow them unobtrusively until a good time to make herself known. Coming so close on the heels of being persued for reasons other than a chat, she could be unwelcome. Even if cecaelia were known in Northwall, they were still not always well received and these were clearly travellers.