Redmane's Story

"Symir? He is one of my closest friends and a bit more at times. Honestly all I know is he has spoken to me about his past once and said his father was a monster and he had some military training. I cannot figure for the life of me why anyone would want you to find him." When Redmane continued to speak about 'laying him to rest' Dominic began to panic as he had no wish to die due to some crazy fan thinking she could help him end it all. "Are you insane !?! I think I'm going to be sick."

"For a man in your position it is quite understandable." Redmane replied with a nod, "Healer it is." She said, turning she left his dressing room. She knew now what her prey did, but she did not know why she was sent to find him. So now she was to find Elena, a brief question of where Symir went, then leave the Operah House. That was all she had to do.

Moving without being noticed once more to the rafters above with a cry of a eagle in time with the music like normal before appearing behind where Elena enjoyed the play down below. Stepping into view she took a seat behind Elena and made as if she herself was enjoying the play down below. "Tell me" Redmane spoke up quietly, "Where did your companion disappear to ?"

Elena turned to the new found company she had only to eye her up and a knowing smile took over her beautiful face as if she had figured out a secret that someone was trying to keep. "You must be the Countess of Mercenia! Symir is such a dog to not speak of you more often but I now understand what he meant when he said that the word was exotic, in a good way my lady." Elena spoke in a rather heavy accent as she while she turned in her seat to get a better look at Redmane. "I am sorry to say that he did not say as to were he was going but I have a hunch." She began to lean in a bit and giggle slightly. "Before we came as a group to watch my brother he had said something about wanting to visit the Lenour Estate, a rather lofty looking place just a few blocks from here, the Lord of the house is going to throw a party right after he is done watching this. Once this show is over he is going to be revealing his companies latest find which is apparently a diamond that is much larger than my fist. So I am sure that is were he will be once this play is over."

Redmane smiled, Countess, that was a good cover. "Yes, I am her." She said, snickering softly she said "It is good also that he did not speak of me, because I made him promise. But I see that he let out my name, and my.... looks." She said, she faked being angered, "Men do not keep their promises under drink I suppose" She mused.

She miled again, "Your brother, Dominic I assume, a good singer, looked a bit ill when I spoke to him, so I sent for a Healer, he's backstage. Did not look too well." She said, "He is OK, now though. Nothing to worry about." Then she asked "Your brother mentioned that Symir was in the military some time ago ? I am unhappy that he kept that information from me, I met him in my gardens. Two of my guard were accosting him." She lied, though the way she spoke made it all the more real. "They took him for a thief, but I liked him, sent my guards away. He never told me he was military, seemed more of a hunter for a tribe of sorts. Not a warrior type."

She heard a crack of thunder outside, perfect, rain, the perfect cover. But a storm, that was worse. Not exactly her prefered method of undercover work, but then it might work. "What house did you say that was again ? I am to stay at a friends place this night, Melina Lenour. She gave me a key to get in through through the kitchen. Said the cooks were the better way to get into the house without worry of the butler getting all amiss of the water." She chuckled then, making it seem as if she had been to the estate several times already. And if Symir was headed there. It made things even better.

She'd walk.

Elena looked rather worried at first when Redmane spoke of her brother but a sudden wave of relief ran over her when she was told he would be alright. "Dominic was always trying to impress everyone. His failing health is nothing new to be honest but I am happy to hear that he will actually be seeing a healer." her gaze kept on Redmane the entire time only to then look surprised when the sound of thunder came over the theater. "My fair countess I do wonder if the rain will let up for the party after this play. The one I spoke of that will take place at the Lenour Estate just a few blocks away from the opera house here. One cannot miss it and I am sure Symir will be there."

Elena began to fumble around a bit as she slowly stood up just to then straighten her dress a bit. "Symir from what I recall acts as a royal guard and has said he has fought in few battles. Though he never truly liked talking about his time before he came here." Elena suddenly turned to a passing nobleman who had brought an umbrella just to snatch it and offer it to Redmane. "Symir assured me he would be at the party. I figure you should be able to catch him there as he might be helping set it up still. He is a rather well respected man and you are rather lucky to have such a hold on him. He spoke rather fondly of you before he left so I am sure he will be excited to see you there." With that said she offered the umbrella and smiled a bit more. "Now if you will excuse me I must find my brother. I do not wish to see him pass out again."

Redmane smiled and held up a hand "I will be fine, rain is OK, it is nothing to worry over. You will need it more then I" She said in regards to the umbrella. "It is just water" Symir was a soldier, he had some skill, that made sense. She smiled again. "Thank you, I need to get going, otherwise I will be late. I promised Allison I'd help set up. I am late as it is." She said with a curt bow she went to the door and exited without another word. By the time Elena made it to the hall Redmane had disappeared completely.

++++++

Once more outside Redmane stood for a long moment in the rain, covered only by a slight overhang she waited but a moment before moving through the alley and picking up her sword. She then walked the rest of the way to the mansion where the party was to be held. She made her way to the back. Where the kitchen was and entered through there. The cook did not even turn in her direction. Only saying "Close the door before you let the heat out!" She stole throu the kitchen completely unseen thanks to her jaguar cloak skill. She picked up Symir's footsteps, but they were older then her last passing over them.

He was there, she could feel it. But the manor house was massive. Which meant she had to do some searching before she could corner him. She wanted to learn more about him.

Redmane did not need to go far in the manor house before coming upon an open door to a rather massive library were Symir and the Lord of the manner were. It was a rather interesting site to behold as Symir with his mask covering his face held in one hand a dagger at the throat of the noble while in the other the diamond that was spoken about earlier. "I think business has been rather well for you. Though I am afraid that in the end there was very little you could have done to keep this away from my attention." Symir whispered just to then lead the fellow over to one of the far bookshelves. From what could be seen Symir had a sword still within its scabbard and a bow holstered along with a few strange looking arrows still in their quiver.

"You will not get away with this. Whoever you are I hope you realize that as soon as you take my Dia...." The noble was cut off as Symir quickly removed the blade from the mans neck and knocked him out cold with the but of the weapon. It was rather unprofessional of him to just knock the man out however it was necessary in order to get him to shut his mouth.

Redmane listened at the door before she heard a thud inside, she knocked, once more faking it "Uncle, is everything alright ?" She tried the handle, it was unlocked. Her sword she had hidden in a voidlike space. She entered the study. Her eyes caught sight of the Lord of the Manor on the ground with a nasty cut on his head. Well this was going to suck. She brought up her hand, snapping towards the door a silvery mist formed around her hand as the door locked with a strange pattern of a mandala appearing over it to keep it locked until she could figure out what happened.

She went to the Lord of the Manor and scented Symir all over the man. She helped the man up and carried him over to a bench and set him down on it gently. She never saw Symir, but she knew he was in the massive library. So she called out. "Let us talk. Its been a while old friend has it not ?" She faked the accent again really well. Acting like the exotic Countess he'd once seen. "I was expecting you to be helping with the setting up of the tables for the eating area. Not perusing the library of its common ore." Apparently where she was from, diamonds were common as water. It was platinum and mithril that were the real money makers on her world.

For all intents and purposes she appeared completely unarmed. And soaking wet.

Symir sat atop one of the book shelves looking down at the rather familiar sight just to then hold the diamond high into the air and admire it for what it truly was. This score was no ordinary rock but something more entirely as it shimmered ever so slightly in the new found light. "Talk? I do recall the last time you and I talked my lady your father almost had me killed. Though I do tend to find myself reliving those wonderful evenings we shared over fine wines and warm fires that it pains me to say it must not be so." Slowly Symir stood from his seat with such grace it was a fluid motion as he gave a mock bow to the lovely woman and pocked the diamond while sheathing his knife. "If it is any consolation prize I thought you to be dead. I suppose the years have been kind to you."

Slowly Symir began to walk down and across the bookshelf just to hop to the railing of the second floor and shimmy his way up and over only to take up a small towel that had been left behind by one of the staff when they were rushing about, tossing it down to Redmane, just to chuckle a bit as he watched her from his new found height. "You will catch your cold if you keep yourself standing soaking wet like that."

Redmane snickered, catching the towel without so much as a snap of her wrist. she dried around her face though did not bother with her clothing. After all, she was a cat, water was a fact of life to deal with. "Then it should please you that my father is not a thorn in my side anymore. I ousted him." She lied, she kept up appearances long enough though which made it seem pure truth.

"The years have indeed been kind" Redmane continued, moving closer to the stairs before stepping up them. Still speaking. "No, not dead. Not yet. Not for a very long time." She came to a halt at the top of the stairs and leaned on the railpost. She was indeed exotic, without her sword, hidden somewhere, she could easily summon it when needed.

She nodded towards where Symir had pocketed away the diamond. She felt something of a draft at the same time. "What importance is that stone ? It is so common at my home that you come here to steal it ?" She asked.

She smiled then and stood away from the rail and stepped closer to Symir. "It pains me a bit to say it, but, Elena and her brother were hoping to see you here this evening, but... as a thief, unexpected I must admit. but it would harm your friendship with them in more ways then one. It could sever ties with me. Though....." She felt the draft again, this time slightly stronger.

She turned to Symir, "Do you feel a draft ?"

There was indeed a draft but Symir ignored it as he first felt it when Redmane ascended the steps and even more so when she was as close as a moth that was attracted to the flickering of a candle flame. "My dear you speak as if I have not already taken into account my losses and gains from this little expedition. If it has not yet dawned upon you that in another hundred years or so things will change for the worse then why would it really matter if I lose a few friends here and there." Symir whispered as he slowly placed his left hand upon Redmane's cheek just to offer a warm smile while he drew a bit closer allowing for a gap to be made long enough for him to flick his right wrist allowing a single gold coin to drop and land between his right middle and pointer finger.

Again there was yet another draft though this time it was a bit more noticeable as Symir took a step back as if keeping his distance from Redmane allowing him to hold himself by the railing and look over at the scene he had created bellow. "You know I would almost say that I missed these moments between you and I if it were not for the fact that this entire situation could never be. You and I were never meant to be. As history tends to repeat itself I watched you drop off from the face of the world and yet here you are." The implication was considerably bold as Symir looked back at Redmane only to grimace slightly as memories of the foreign exotic lady he had once fallen for came rushing back in bloody waves of emotion and dread. The fair lady had plummeted from her window at the keep in Wer'Guawysvern and her body was found broken and battered upon the sandy dunes bellow. It was that gruesome day that every chain and event that had unfolded to this point to a reckoning of unimaginable proportions. Yet Symir swallowed his pride began to play with the golden coin allowing it to tumble betwixt his fingers as if he was playing a game while he waited for the fair lady to speak her mind once more.

"And yet" Redmane replied; "Here I stand. Thankfully the healers were able to mend my broken bones." She lied, she was never hurt personally.but since she had assumed the role of his old flame, she faked it quite well. It was not easy, but she figured it out, slowly. "You need no--**...." What the ?!

Then her ears hurt.

She cast her gaze around the vast library. Moving as she did so towards the stairs to go to the first floor as a sudden explosion of white energy shot past her. She whiped up a fast defense mandal like spell of pale red to absorb the energy but was still knocked back and down the steps, she rolled quickly to her feet and was about to cast her own spell when she stopped, what the hell was that ?

"EEEEEEEEEEEeeeee! Oy! Let go of my soulstone!!" A voice cried out as white energy shot towards Symir and a ghostly visage appeared at the railing. A woman no older then twenty five, stood, or seemed to stand, all any saw were ghostly wisps and nearly see through skin. The reason for the draft had arrived. And she looked very angry. Mostly because of the Lord of the Manor being knocked cold.

Symir could not beleive his eyes as he watched the events unfold and when the ghost appeared and made itself known there was little other choice but to act and escape with the prized jewel. "My beloved I'm afraid that our time has been cut short. This gem belongs to its new rightful owner and I must collect on my dews somehow." Symir jested slightly as he fell backwards and landed on the floor beneath him with a loud and thump allowing the wisps ball of energy to fly right over him allowing him enough time to roll off from the second floor and land like a cat on the landing bellow with great ease. The bow wielding thief dashed forward and tumbled over chairs and leaped tables as he forced his way to the window towards the southern side of the library only to nock an arrow against the string of his bow and take aim at the spectral being before him.

"Orn ibafarshan." Symir muttered in Draconic as his arrow began to shimmer and fly as he let it loose towards the spirit in hopes of disrupting it and forcing it to become dormant once more. He knew that his father would never be proud of him but if stealing this diamond was the only way to get him closer to his goals then so be it.

A flick of a spectral hand and a pane of ghostly glass covered the window. The arrow shot through the ghost. She did not slow down as she shot forwards towards the thief. The Lord of the Manor carried the soulstone with him at all times, mostly to protect what it carried, the strange ghostly being. Who was now defending as best she could her home. Which was now hot property. She floated a good half meter off the ground, human sized apparently. The red dressed woman at the foot of the stairs behind her as her attention was focused on Symir.

At the same moment that the ghost cast her spell, Redmane cast her own at Symir in order to try and protect him, unfortunately she miscast and struck at the window. Effectively locking the only path out of the library. Ah hell! Maybe the rain was getting to her. She drew her own bound bow. The spell she had been taught at the Vale where she grew up, it was pretty much a Magic Missile. She took aim at the ghostly creature.

The ghostly creature shot forwards then at Symir, with every swing of her ghostly limbs at his body a wisp of ice cold was left in her wake where she made contact. With each swing she spoke. "Give. Me. My. Soul. Stone. Ya. Little. Thief!!" Apparently the diamond was more then common ore where Redmane was from. It housed something important.

"I think not!" Symir roared out in frustration as things seemed to grow a bit more dire. His only means of escape was locked and being backed up against a wall was never a good idea, especially if the blows were as cold and chilling as they were. Quickly Symir tumbled off to the side barely avoiding a spectral hand just to find himself flicking his wrist and allowing three silver throwing knives to land gently into his palm which he tossed towards the ghost in question.

"You know it would be more helpful if we called upon the powers of Iomodia once more!" Symir shouted towards Redmane in hopes she could call down a spell from that lawful goddess in hopes of putting an end to this nonsense.

"I got a better idea!" Redmane said, she cast the Magic Missile, it missed and thankfully did no harm to the library wall. When the spirit creature came her way she b rought up a fast defense spell, the strange runes sprang in a circle from her wrists and took the brunt of the ghostly attack before the spirit turned back to Symir and struck at him repeatedly.

"Hold that diamond up!" She began to cast a spell that could cast out the soul trapped within. Since the soulstone was what held the spirit, something told her something was up. Something deadly wrong here. Which meant she had to cast out the trapped soul.

Ice formed a sickly deadly scar on the wall as the ghostly fingers struck against the dark paneling, leaving burn marks of dead rotting wood within seconds of the ice melting away. The fingers of the spirit were leaving trails of deadly energy behind them as they swept through the air. Her strikes halted for but a few seconds before they came on at Symir once again in a flurry of fast blows. However the ghostly creature, if that was what it was, seemed to be keeping Symir and Redmane in a single area of the library, away from the Lord of the Manor.

"Shit!" Symir let out a muffled shout as he felt one of the icy hands just inches away from his body tearing away at the sleeve of his shirt and revealing part of his arm and what appeared to be scales of some kind that were part of his flesh. With another quick tumble out of the reach of the ghostly visage Symir began to run towards the unconscious Lord of the Manor just to then raise the diamon up high above his head like he was instructed.

As soon as Symir raised up the diamond Redmane angled her cast and struck it from long off. The diamond for a scant moment glittered brilliant white as the missile connected solidly dead center. She never missed. Then her ears rang and the lights went completely out.

As soon as the diamond was held up out and the spirit sprang for it, the exact same instant it was hit in a brilliant flash of white light. An unearthly shriek sprang from everywhere around the two mortals as the spirit disappeared in an insant.

Two seconds after the brilliant whiteness cleared from their eyes the lights within t he library completly died. Even the candles. For long moments there was not a sound.

Suddenly from the other end of the expansive library through the shelves light of pale blue shimmered, flickering like fire. A growl was heard before it faded to a low heartbeat. Then the flickery strange light becan to move, closer to the pair. Thumping of footfalls, heavy footfalls were also heard. The strange sound of heavy breathing seemed to echo

Redmane then realised what just occured, what had just been woken. "Oh. Skat." She muttered softly. To Symir, who she knew was either lost in the dark or confused she threw another missile in his direction, over his head actually to light the way. Crying out simply "Run!" She took off in his direction. Fleeing from whatever was coming.

Symir had never encountered such magics like this in a long time and when things began to grow dark and the voice of Redmane's pleas to run hit him he was already up and moving right when he saw her pass him. "The Hells did you do?" Symir asked rather incredulously as he kept pace with her and began to draw an arrow from a quiver just under his arm and was about ready to notch it and fire off at the thing behind him soon if things did not seem to clear up.

Redmane ran down the length of the library to the door, but it was shut, and with the lights out she was unable to find the knob, had she used her skills she'd have spotted it to get them out. But her fear overcame everything else. In a hushed whisper since they were far enough away she said. "How was I supposed to know freeing that thing from the diamond you carry was a Maia ?!" She herself could not believe what she had freed from its prison. "Whatever this thing is, it is beyond us both. We have to get out of here"

The footsteps continued as the flickery purple blue ghostly light got closer and came to a halt at the place where the Lord of the Manor snoozed on the lounge chair. A hand touched the mans brow. Making sure he was safe. Now to deal with the thief. In an intant the purple blue ghostly light went out. And the spirit found them again. Reappearing, now almost completely corpreal. Her arms crossed. She stood between them and their path out. Pale lavender eyes stared at them both. She towered over the two. She pointed towards Symir. "You stole what had been my soulstone. yet...." She turned to Redmane, who stared shocked to silence. "... you freed me from it. I do not know if I should thank you or try to kill you."

The Maiar then smiled as she became a bit more humanlike, her ears were pointed, her hair long and brilliant white. "Instead of choosing I will instead warn you. Try and steal from here again, and I will kill you. But, other then that, you are both welcome here, Symir." The Maiar said. Yes she remembered him. He had been there before. When he was casing the place to nab the diamond.