Touya took the hat that was handed to him and eyed the accessory carefully. Did she really intent for him to wear that? With a deeper frown, he slowly put it upon his head and glowered at the ground. He was sure he looked like a fool right then, but he supposed that if it saved their lives he could bear with it at least until they left the city.
“And that leads me to my next point. Why hasn’t Reginald been arrested? We shouldn’t have come back to Altheim,” April said as she looked around the street they were on after closing up Reginald's home. Touya glanced around as well, noting that the street was near empty because it was still very early morning. April took hold of both Damea and the Therian then and began moving down the street towards the western gate.
“We can’t trust Reginald. He may be the one who leaked the information of Val’s location to HQ. He may be working for HQ. Let’s just get out of here first. I’ll tell the rest later, and then you can tell me about those murders.”
Touya lifted an eyebrow at her, "Reginald working for this... 'HQ'? Why would he do such a thing?"
"It may not be Reginald, Touya," Damea answered as they followed after April. Every now and then they would pass steam powered mechanisms that fascinated the Therian, though he had no time to really examine them.
"What do you mean?"
"Therian's can shape shift, right? What if Reginald isn't really 'Reginald'?"
Touya grew quiet then as he thought about what Damea had implied. Was it even possible? For Reginald to have been a Therian the entire time in disguise? No... impossible. He wouldn't believe it until he saw it, until there was more proof to back the theory. They had worked their way through the near empty streets towards a courtyard where on the other side, loomed the western gates. Touya, who was next to April, could feel her apprehension. Her body language told him all he needed to know. She was anxious and fearful.
“Stick close and act natural. Hopefully we’ll be able to slip past. If things don’t go according to plan…I suggest we split up.”
Reaching out, he took hold of her arm and pulled her to a short stop. Leaning down he whispered in her ear, "You're too tense. Relax. This is your city, act like it is. Everything will be fine. If not... leave that to me if this fails."
Pulling away he gently pushed her forward to lead the way and fell into step right beside her. Damea followed on her other side and smiled at her. The mercenary gave the former soldier a wink as they approached the gates. Touya could feel the tension in the air and figured it was because of the earlier killings. He had a terrible feeling that the rebel Therian's were behind it, but he couldn't figure out why they would be in the city to begin with.
As they approached the gates to the city, the guards eyed them suspiciously and started forward. Touya's breath hitched as he watched them. What were they going to do now? The guards looked intent on stopping them from their advance towards the gates. The Therian's gaze shifted from one side to the other. What was he going to do now? There had to be a way to get them out of the city. Touya leaned down towards her once more as the guards got closer.
"I'll draw their attention. I'll meet you on the other side, I promise you," he said and bowed his head lower to slip off the hat and face the soldiers that drew nearer. He couldn't draw the blades along his right forearm, but the other was more than enough to be intimidating. The knives cut through the fabric of the jacket that April had provided him and he shoved the woman forward, making it seem like he was about to attack her. Damea, who was startled by the sudden show, wasn't sure what to do until Touya began glowing.
"Therian! It's one of those damned faceless! Stop him! He's going to kill civilians!" The soldiers shouted. Touya grinned at them and started backwards, drawing them away from the gates. As chaos ensued, Touya caught site of Damea taking hold of April's arm and dragging her towards the gates. Turning swiftly, Touya aimed his magic carefully so as not to hit anyone, but make it look as if he were trying to. The explosion was more than enough to gain the full attention of the guards and create enough panic to let April and Damea slip out of the gates easily enough. The Therian whirled around and swiftly started for the alleyways of the city.
He wasn't sure what the Therian was planning when he leaned down to speak to April as they approached the gates to the city. The guards had spotted them and had moved to intercept them from leaving. It was most likely because of the recent attack and Damea knew better than any that they would stop them from getting out of the city because they were most likely still searching for the culprit. Damea frowned, knowing that from the reports they were suspecting a Therian was behind the attacks and with Touya with them it was going to make getting out of the city all the more difficult.
It was only until Touya had shoved April and then allowed his body to glow brightly that Damea figured the Therian was going to do something stupid once again. Grinding his teeth together he couldn't do anything about what Touya had planned or done because right then chaos erupted all around them. It was all he could do himself to get to April to make sure that he didn't lose her. Taking hold of her arm, he started taking her towards the gates whether she wanted to go or not. There was no time to try to get to Touya, especially since he'd just revealed himself.
"Damn fool," Damea cursed as he made a bee-line for the gates. People were screaming and running around after Touya's show of power and exploding a merchants stand. Damea weaved his way through the mass of people, trying to reach the gates as quickly as possible. He was almost there when the jostling from other frightened people finally worked his grip free on April's arm. His fingers slipped from her and he whirled around with a look of fear. Immediately, he'd lost her. He couldn't see passed the people and the shoving and pushing was doing nothing to help him. Damea couldn't find her and he felt his heart rate rising as he tried to get back through only to be swept backwards continuously from the fleeing citizens.
Cursing to himself he turned around and let the flow take him to the gates of the city. Luckily there weren't that many people, just enough to make things crazy for several minutes. Once free of the throng of people, Damea quickly made his way off the main street and turned around eagerly to watch the gate, hoping to spot April before anyone else did.
She had been hiding in the shadows, watching the western gates carefully. It was her only way out of the city then seeing as the guards she'd killed had been on the northern gates. Ahmeil hadn't meant to kill them, but the fools had been too damned smart for their own good and her disguise as a soldier had been blown far too quickly. Luckily she'd learned quite a bit about the rumors that floated around in each of the cities. There was a scientist that was performing experiments on Therians, but not only Therian's, humans as well. Her lips curled into a frown. Human's were disgusting, foul creatures with no sense of honor or respect even for their own. She hated them, despised them and wished for every single one of them to burn in whatever hell they believed in.
Her eyes had narrowed as her thoughts had drifted from her original intent. However, when she came back to the present, she witnessed something intriguing. Three persons were being approached by the guard, nothing new about that really as all morning anyone who'd attempted to leave had been approached and turned away. However, it was the taller of the three that intrigued her. Underneath the hat was long silvery hair, loose at the moment, but she knew that the man who bore that style usually kept it braided.
Ahmeil's eyes flashed as she caught a glimpse of the pale icy blue eyes underneath the rim of the hat. Touya Khan glanced around as if expecting something terrible to happen, or maybe he was looking for a way out of their precarious situation that was about to arise. Whatever it was, she didn't care. What she did care about was that he was talking with two humans, and he seemed to be rather close to them at that. How could he!? Why would he do such a thing!? Didn't he know!? Didn't he know how ruthless, how brutal, how.... demonic... the humans were? Rage boiled through her as she watched him.
Then he sprung into action, taking off his hat and revealing himself to the public. Directing a blast at a merchants stall, he created so much chaos that it was hard to track him. Grinding her teeth even further, she uncrossed her arms and pushed off the side of the wall that she'd been leaning on. Ahmeil took one look at the people around her and shape shifted into a woman about her size. That woman had gone too close to the Therian and Ahmeil reached out like a snake waiting to strike. Pulling the frightened woman into the dark alleyway she withdrew her mechanized weapons along her arm and slit the woman's throat. Dropping the human mercilessly, Ahmeil ran into the crowd, fear painted on her face easily. It was in this way that Ahmeil Leain left the city and made her way into the trees just outside. Once she was far enough away she returned to her original shape and watched the road from a distance. She should have gone to find Val immediately after escaping the city to tell him of her findings, but she wished to confront Touya. There were things she needed to tell him and depending on his response, she would either kill him or love him like she used to, like the brother he used to be.