Unrest

After being released and brought on as an ally rather than a prisoner, Ridahne had been relatively amicable to Gregory and Rylie. Not overly friendly perhaps; like most Azurei, Ridahne felt real friendship was earned, not given. But she'd been cooperative at least. When she looked up at Gregory, brown eyes focusing tightly on his, it was a reminder that she was a wildcat that would not be tamed, and she would do things her own way. "I don't care what your policy is, Gregory," she stated plainly. "Like I said, if your superiors have a problem with it, I dare them to look me in the eye and tell me no. Besides, you may not have the choice. Ajoran, at least, knows some English. Not a lot, not like I do, but some. Either way, Taja don't like speaking English, even if they know it, especially not in a wartime situation like this. It's...a pride thing. But anyway, thank you for your understanding," She said more seriously, more sincerely. "At the very least, I'll know you support me on this. Believe me it's...it won't go unnoticed."

Ridahne herself was curious as to what the councilman might have done to piss off the Sota enough to cause an act of terror, one that took significant resources to carry out. Just to get here, they would have needed space ships, and Azurei was a long way from the expansive city of Vannec. It was not a trip lightly made.

Gregory left the room to go call in to his superiors with the information she'd just given him. It was just so easy to tell him, to pass that information from one human to another. Seeing him close the door behind him, knowing that he was making the call to base made her stomach twist. And somehow, the blue tattoo on her nose seemed to hurt just a little more, too. She was a traitor. There could be no arguments made for making a rash decision in the heat of the moment, or buckling under torture or some other kind of pressure, nor could she argue that she did it out of fear. She was just...handing all of this information over. Willingly. And no matter how certain she was that this was the right thing to do, Ridahne felt guilty, so guilty. Who knew how many of her friends were involved in this, or would soon be? How many of them would she betray for her treachery?

Ridahne gave an apologetic glance to Rylie--her emotions were so strong, how could she not be picking up on them? Her tough facade relaxed a little when Gregory left, also. It wasn't that she didn't like him--he did buy her beer and pizza, and that made him alright in her book--but she almost felt like she knew Rylie better somehow. Maybe it was because of their psychic contact a bit ago, she thought.

"I wish I didn't know them, either," she said sadly. "Ajoran and I...we...he was my favorite sparring partner. I liked his style, it kept me on my toes some days, but then other days we flowed together so smoothly it...well we have a word for it, te'shamis. It's the same word for 'dance', but it literally means 'art in motion'. We would spar every week before the sun rose, unless we were both out on some kind of mission or something. I uh...I'm a former Eija myself, if you haven't figured it out already," she added quietly, almost timidly, as if this was not something she wanted everyone to know. Lastly, and very softly, Ridahne added, "Ajoran's a good man. I don't understand why he would do this."

There was a silence between them; Ridahne didn't mind. But when Rylie spoke again, the subject had turned to Ridahne's life story rather than the mess they all found themselves in. Typically, Ridahne would have shied away from the interest in her personal life, but this time the change was a welcomed one. When asked if she was a traveler, Ridahne pulled a face that was somewhere between a grimace and a smirk, as if to suggest there was more to the story. She suspected, however, that this was Rylie's goal. Ridahne couldn't blame her; any smart person with observation skills would have noticed by now that it was an odd thing for her to be so far from home and the natural thing was to wonder why.

"Um...you could say that, yes. I...have been um, homeless for a little over a year now and I moved around my home planet for about a month and a half before I started bumming rides off merchants and smugglers or whoever would take me to hop planets. I've been on this one for about a month now, but in this city for only about a week. I get money where I can, shower where I can, and travel with whoever will take me with them. It's been an experience. Talk about culture shock. But I miss home. I dream about it sometimes, about the ocean, and the red sands. Oh, and my cat..." she allowed a small smile. "Big cat," she clarified, holding her hand up to where her shoulders would have been. "Mitaja was my hunting partner. It's traditional to hunt with a cat rather than a rifle, but we had both."

Rylie gave the woman a slight smile in return for the look of apology she was giving her. Yes, she felt every nuance of guilt, every nagging doubt but it was understandable and Rylie would have wondered slightly if Ridahne hadn’t felt something akin to guilt or doubt. What she did was not easy.

Rylie listened as Ridahne talked of Ajoran and how they had worked together, sparred and such. She felt sad to know that such a partnership had existed and now it was divided.

She held her breath and her tongue as Ridahne told her that she was once an Eija. I knew there was more to all of this... With great tactic, Ridahne told her about herself without giving out too much information. Rylie wanted desperately to ask more questions but thought it better to match Ridahne tactic than go in head on with the topic.

With a slow inhale and a thoughtful look Rylie spoke once more. “Perhaps his being a good man has not changed but he is simply following orders To not do as he was told seems as it if would be far worse than living with what he has done. It is not like he orchestrated it though in the grand scheme of things that part won’t matter....”

Her eyebrows knitted together, her mouth wrinkling as she thought about the no win situation the man would be in.

Rylie turned the conversation back onto Ridahne. “After almost a year most people would be somewhat homesick.”

She was tempted to ask why Ridahne left home but reminded herself to be tactful. She focused instead on the cat.

“Your feline friend sounds very big. He or she? They are a common pet and hunting companion? Here we just buy our food and only have each other really for company, unless you have a dog or a wee cat...” Rylie chuckled. “Tell me about your cat and who is looking after her while you...travel?”

To some cultures, the concept of being an 'insider' or an 'outsider' informed a large number of their practices and beliefs, and Azurei was no exception. A very traditional bunch, they were said to originate from a close-knit tribe of desert nomads who grew and eventually settled, and who had very little understanding of neighboring cultures or tribes. And while in modern times they traded and interacted with other nations, the idea of turning their backs outward stuck. They were very proud of who they were and what they stood for; to meddle too much in the affairs of outsiders was frowned upon back home. Ridahne, like all Heartlanders, let go of some of that, for they had to trade and communicate with neighboring countries across the sea just to get by and thus saw more of the outside world. More than that, Ridahne's mother was only half Azurei. Even so, Ridahne found it a little difficult to share these personal details with Rylie, an outsider. Not that it was anything she felt she wanted to hide, but it just took a moment of deliberation before she decided to speak. Old habits, after all, live long and die hard.

"I hope he is still a good man," she mused softly. "You have a point about following orders..." her tone suggested that wasn't all she had to say; a 'but' would follow. And sure enough, "But he still could have. It's possible. If a Taja acts independently from an order, if he improvises when he should not had, it could cost him his life. If he steps down from an order, if he simply refuses to carry out a task given to him, then...It's different. I've seen what happens to those who don't follow orders, and he could have chosen that path. And it wouldn't have stopped anything, but at least he wouldn't have the deaths of hundreds on his hands...My life isn't worth that of a hundred innocent souls. Why should his be?" She wondered, mostly to herself and, in vain, to Ajoran. She knew he could have said no.

"Ajoran shouldn't have become Taja in the first place. A Sota can nominate him, ask him to join her, but he has the right to refuse. It's even honorable to refuse, if he feels like he cannot serve her properly. It means that only the best of the best are Taja. But everyone knows...they're ruthless. They have to be. A good Taja will do anything for his Sota, even....once I saw a man with a broken Ojih. He interrupted an assassination attempt and the knife caught his face enough to scar it. He was given much honor, but I've never seen a man's eyes more empty in my life. He was broken, and he would never be whole again."

In regards to being homesick, Ridahne smiled wistfully. "I am homesick. I miss the heat, you know? It's so cold most of the year in other places. And I miss the color. Oh, Rylie, maybe someday I could show you--in my memories, I mean. There's a place where the dunes meet the foothills of the mountains...my father would take me there when he was home, just the two of us. And we would watch the sun come up. There'd be blue and pink and orange in the sky and a crimson red all over the sands and the rocks, it was like they were on fire. And then the ocean...the sea was always my playground. It's a dramatic place, Azurei. I wish I could show you in person just one morning in Azurei. It's beautiful."

Ridahne thought 'homesick' would never be quite strong enough to describe what she felt some days. She loved seeing the outside world and hearing all the stories from people of different walks of life, not to mention eating all the different food. But deeply and truly, she missed home. She missed her brother and her friends, and their unreliable jeep that sometimes wouldn't start. She missed speaking her own language with people who understood her. Someday, she supposed, she'd have to find a place to call home again. So far, she hadn't found it.

"Mitaja? A she." Ridahne smiled; she loved that cat. "She's more akin to....like...an ocelot or a caracal than a little tabby cat like you keep here. She's got black ears and there are two black bands on either foreleg, and a little black on her face, too. But she's mostly a light reddish tan. Very affectionate and will steal your breakfast in the blink of an eye. They're kept further inland as just pets, still, but out in the Heartlands and the mountains we still actually use them just to get by. We're the poor district," she said with a light laugh; she was not ashamed. "And good luck trying to grow much out there in the sand, so we have to fish and hunt for most of our food. The rest we trade for. That's what we do, trade. We, as a district, handle most of the seaward trade for all Azurei, and then we fish and hunt." She flicked her scrimshawed bone earring, the ku'o, and said, "I come from a long line of fishermen. That's what the Torzinei clan does for the most part, even now. The rest of the districts west of the mountains are much more modern, but out there we're too poor to be anything but traditional," she said with a chuckle.

"Hadian takes care of Mitaja, now, when he's not at sea. When he is, I imagine our neighbors take her in. Poor girl, she probably wonders where I've gone, now that I'm...traveling, as you put it. You might call it that. Traveling. Wandering might be more accurate...traveling implies a destination. But I haven't found home yet. Where's home for you?" She wondered.

Rylie nodded. She knew what it was like to learn that a friend was involved in something questionable and the hope you held out that perhaps they hadn’t changed from the person you once knew. The hope that there was good in them, honesty even if what they did was not right.

Ah Anna, I hope things work out differently for Ridahne than they did between you and I.

She thought about her friend, rather former friend less so now than when she was first arrested but still, at times like this her face would flicker in a memory. Thoughts of a time when Rylie was younger, before Gregory or the military.

Rylie shook her head, casting the past aside to focus on Ridahne.

She smiled sadly and couldn’t help wonder if those that committed the crime felt as much guilt as their countrywoman who sat here now. She had only witnessed it yet she felt so strongly that what her people did was wrong, that no matter the cost those that did it should have disobeyed their orders.

Is death, betrayal...being a traitor better than dealing with the guilt of innocent lives? Rylie looked down at her hands and found herself agreeing with Ridahne. No matter the punishment disobeying was better than what they did.

“So he chose this role, this position as Taja.” Rylie sighed. “Sometimes people change and it is sad to see the path they choose.” There was understanding in her voice and hints that she related to Ridahne’s perspective on things more than what she was telling.

She looked up once more at Ridahne as she spoke of her home, of showing Rylie in her memories sometime.

“I would like that Ridahne. I would like to see the red, the dramatic colours and the ocean.” Her hands rubbed her thighs. “And perhaps your cat too. She sounds lovely. I am not one for pets myself.”

Rylie stood and paced a little. The subject of home was a bit of a sensitive one. Not because it was upsetting to her but because it tended to get mixed reactions from the people she told.

“I don’t really have one, never really did. I suppose now it is mostly due to how much Gregory and I travel for work. We have a permanent residence, sort of....whenever we go into a town if we are there for longer than a week the military will rent us an apartment. Currently we have one here in the city.”

She stopped walking and faced Ridahne. “I never really had a home, no family that I am aware of. I was left at a military base when I was younger. I don’t remember my parents at all. The base was sort of home I guess but even that moved as they moved me and I spent a lot of time in a lab so I am not sure that counts either.” Rylie smiled.

“So home is wherever I am, wherever Gregory is. Advantage is I never miss home.” She shrugged slightly.

Rylie was never sure how much to tell people about herself. She answered Ridahne’s question but bypassed details of her childhood. Those tended to be the things that made people the most uncomfortable.

She had never known her early years were unusal. Rylie had been happy. It wasn't until she had told people who asked and watched the resulting awkwardness that she began to learn to be more selective about the details she gave out.

"Aye, he chose it. He would have had a grand ceremony in private amongst all her other Taja. All those men dressed in full regalia. He would swear an oath to her, and she would give him his blessing. The...Kyojih'ki...uh..." she snapped her fingers a couple times, searching for the english words. "Master tattooer? Anyway, he or she or whoever it is gives them the Taja mark. It's a big to-do, and for those marks, and for those indicating the Sota, they don't use tattoo guns, the electric ones? They use sharpened bone needles, and it's done by hand. A lot of people do bone-needle tattoos elsewhere on their body, just for tradition's sake. I've got a couple." She tapped two black bands that encircled the lower part of her left bicep. "They hurt," she laughed, trying not to be so glum about her friend. She needed something to laugh about, something else to think about for a moment. "Do you have any tattoos?"

Ridahne smiled. "Don't like pets? That's strange. I guess if you never grew up around them or something, you wouldn't be used to them. I grew up playing with this stray dog that the whole neighborhood sort of adopted, and we got Mitaja as a kitten when I was a little girl. My mom got sick and passed away when I was relatively young, and my dad had to out to sea often, so there were a lot of times she and Hadian were all I had to keep me company. And..." she smiled mischievously, "I suppose the neighbor kids, too. I picked fights with them all the time."

Ridahne couldn't imagine not having a family though. She'd left hers behind and even when she was at home they weren't always together, but she had them all the same. She had the memory of them when they were gone. But to not have one at all, and to have no place to really call home...Ridahne thought that would feel so empty. She supposed Rylie didn't feel that way, she seemed like the sort of person that would be fine with it. Still...
"I'm sorry," she said. "The idea of 'home' is so important to us...I can't imagine what it would be like to not have one. So..." she seemed nervous to ask, but her curiosity was burning. "You say you spent lots of time in a lab...I'm not sure I understand what that is. Lab. There's a dog called a lab, isn't there? But I can't imagine that's what you're talking about," Ridahne chuckled.

Rylie listened as Ridahne explained briefly about the way one becomes a Taja. Their rituals, good and bad revolved around tattoos. It made sense, even humans used them to mark births, deaths and other things they wished to remember.

She asked if Rylie had any tattoos and the dark haired woman simply looked down at the floor. “Well...one but it isn’t like what you have and it doesn’t symbolize anything. It is a sort of id tag...” Rylie lifted her hair and turned. On the back of her neck was a small tattoo, almost like a barcode on a package. “It allows them to scan it and find my military file. In case I die or what not...”

She lowered her hair and turned to face Ridahne again. “It isn’t that I do not like pets, at least I think I don’t. I am never home and really with no permanent home can’t really have an animal. As a child I wasn’t allowed anything like that.”

Rylie was not at all surprised to hear that Ridahne’s childhood involved fights, whether playful or otherwise. The woman seemed scrappy, like a person willing to take on a challenge or stand up for others.

“There is no need to apologize, everyone comes from a different background. Yours involved family and mine did not.” Rylie smiled but it grew slightly strained as Ridahne inquired about the lab. Well she asked...

Rylie paced a few times before sitting down. “No not like dog. See I apparently showed signs of my ability at a very young age. My parents, from what I was told, did not know what to do so they brought me to a military base. From there I was sent to a facility where they housed me, educated me but it also involved time in the labs where they tested my ability. They would see how far they could push my limits. You know, that sort of thing. Very clean place. The scientists let me do all sorts of things while hooked up to machines. When I was little they would give me treats if I did well. I read a lot. They put me through military training and in the end got me this job.”

She looked over at Ridahne and smiled. “So no family and not a childhood like you, I didn’t get into fights.” She chuckled. “There were no other children, at least as far as I know.”


Rylie thought back fondly to the sterile white room with its steel machines and all the wires. They had had her do all sorts of things, taught her how to invade thoughts, read them and block them. If she hadn’t grown up there she wouldn’t have her job and she wouldn’t have Gregory.

“I didn’t know how to get along with people though, I will say that. Gregory has had to teach me a lot of things when it comes to social behaviour and activities.” She laughed a little more. “You should have seen the first time he tried to talk to me or take me to dinner.”

Ridahne smiled, finally feeling like she really had something in common with this woman. For just a moment, she looked a little less like a marked-up vagabond with a chip on her shoulder and more like a young woman. “Ah, see? We’re not so different, you and I. Your tattoo tells all about your life, so does mine. Looking over someone’s Ojih is a little like scanning yours and looking up your file. Actually it’s a lot like that. And then when we die…” she cut off there, suddenly unsure if she wanted to proceed. Among outsiders, it felt so personal, so private. Outsiders never understood, she was told, and the one time she did try and explain it to someone, she found this to be true. Then again, they did not have an Ojih, how could they understand?

“Promise me...if I tell you something, you won’t tell anyone? I mean, except Gregory, I don’t care if he knows and I figure the two of you are kinda one anyway. But it doesn’t leave this room…” She took a breath. It was going to be hard trying to explain this to an outsider, but in a way, she wanted to. For her own sake. There would be a lot of things she would need to explain to anyone who got even remotely close to her and it wasn’t like she’d get to go home anytime soon...she was going to have to let go of the idea of outsiders real fast if she was going to get by in this world. “It seems silly, but um...that’s the primary purpose of the Ojih. For when we die, I mean. See...when we die, those with an Ojih are sent to the...I guess you could call him the Gatekeeper? And he reads your Ojih and matches you with a name on his list that tells him where you’re supposed to...where you’re supposed to go. Which is why you can’t alter it, or break it, or leave something out. If he sees your Ojih and has no match for it...you cannot go back, but you cannot move forward, either. You have nowhere to go, and you get stuck forever….” Ridahne was obviously very uncomfortable by this point and she regretted saying as much as she did. “It’s um...heh, it’s dumb, It’s an old legend…” she rubbed her palms on her jeans and tucked her hair behind her ear, both awkward fidgeting gestures.

Regarding Rylie’s time in the lab, Ridahne hardly blinked. She did give her sort of a quizzical, pondering kind of look for just a moment, but the idea seemed logical to her. “Oh, I see,” she replied matter-of-factly. “I guess we do something similar, only instead of telepathic abilities, it’s fighting skills, and instead of a lab we have an arena.” The woman shrugged. “Seems like the same end-goal though, testing you out, seeing what you’re capable of, training you up. Except ours is more of a public affair, like a sporting event. Yours seems more...private?”

Ridahne laughed, imagining an unsociable Rylie trying to cope with Gregory coaxing her out to a date. She’d had a similar phase when she’d ventured away from home, particularly when she went to Yurgon, still on her home planet. For being so close together, Ridahne was surprised to discover that Azurei and Yurgon had a very similar gesture that meant very different things, and for flashing at her, she knocked one of his teeth out with the pommel of her sword, and was promptly kicked out of the restaurant she was in. Or when she first experienced an outer-ring bar and had a guy relatively nicely but persistently come on to her, she got fed up with hearing him bring it up over and over and put her fist into his gut hard enough to make him drop. She was also promptly kicked out.

“Well you turned out alright in the end, as far as I can tell. But I mean, what do I know? I’ve only known you for less than 24 hours,” she teased, a small smile on her face. “I’m curious, what happened when he asked you to dinner? I can only imagine how that might have gone down,” she chuckled.

Rylie nodded, a smile on her lips. Ridahne compared their tattoos, their similar meaning. It was the first time someone did not immediately find Rylie’s tattoo or the reason she had it to begin with odd or strange.

She nodded as Ridahne grew suddenly reserved, introverted and quiet. Her question, asking Rylie to promise not to speak of what she heard about the Ojih brought goosebumps out on Rylie’s arms. She was being told something very personal and it was both flattering and unnerving.

“That doesn’t seem like a dumb legend at all. Thank you for telling me. I can tell this isn’t something you normally discuss.” Rylie ran a hand through her ponytail. “I like it, the idea that by carrying your life with you that when you die there is someone who can tell you where you are meant to be. Gives one hope for more after death.”

To cover the awkwardness Ridahne turned things back to talk of Rylie’s childhood. The brunette nodded. “Yes sort of like your fighting training. I am uncommon you see. I am told that labs are meant for experiments, not people but I don’t think of it any different than putting one through any sort of training. My military training wasn’t all that different in fact. I mean I wasn’t hooked up to machines but different training, different equipment. One doesn’t train and read a person’s brain activity the same way they would their physical strength.”

It was nice not to have someone squirm or get uncomfortable at talk of the lab. So often people grew horrified that a child grew up in a lab with people running tests on her but Rylie didn’t find it bad at all. Sure she missed out on things that people do in childhood but she had many skills to make up for that time.

“Yes it was private. I mean as private as something can be with at least five people in a room with you while you perform various tasks but definitely more private than a sporting event.”

She couldn’t help but laugh as Ridahne commented that she turned out alright. “Gregory might not agree. He says I have grown very good at faking things in certain situations but I lack certain social standards still. Also missing out on certain...rites of passage?...as a child mean I dont’ always judge situations well.”

Rylie shrugged. “I guess it is lucky for me though that I have Gregory. He helps though it isn’t like I am easy to take advantage of. The whole reading emotions and such means I know what people are thinking and deceit is a pretty strong emotion. As is guilt.” She smirked.

Gregory came back in as Ridahne asked about him getting Rylie to go to dinner with him. He chuckled. “Bonding are we? Let’s see. I approached this pretty girl, she had been working with my team a little bit but she kept disappearing. Never ate with us, didn’t bunk in the bunkhouses. They didn’t tell us who she was or what she was able to do. So I approach my mysterious co-worker and I ask her if she was interested in dinner. These large eyes looked back at me. She nodded, responding ‘Of course it is the third meal of my day. Why are they thinking of changing it?’”

Gregory chuckled as Rylie blushed. “I stared at her, dumbfounded. I said, ‘No interested in having dinner with me.’”

He crossed to Rylie, hand on her shoulder. “To which she replied ‘You are not cleared to eat in the laboratory with me’. You can imagine my surprise but I rolled with it. I asked her to go to a restaurant with me and was asked. ‘Why would I do that?’”

Gregory laughed and hugged Rylie’s shoulders. “She was so cute. No concept of dating, relationships. They never let her socialize and when she was around people it was in drills. Not exactly a party, you know?”

Rylie put her hands up. “Hey it worked out didn’t it?”

Gregory nodded as he laughed, “Yes but I have never been on a more awkward first date in my life. I mean, don’t get me wrong it was endearing in a lot of ways but to take her to a restaurant when she had never been off the base was an experience. She was so overwhelmed and yet not in a bad way...”

Rylie put her hand on his leg. “It was like a whole new world to me though. I had never been where there was just people and regular clothes and food that didn’t come on a tray. Not to mention all the paperwork just to be able to go.”

Gregory nodded, both smiling as they remembered the time fondly. Rylie looked over at Ridahne. “I wasn’t cleared to be with the general population. The team was also a bit of an experiment for me, to see how I handled people and the emotional feedback. They weren’t sure if I was a danger to myself or others if I was out with regular civilians at the time. Gregory had to do a lot to get them to let me off the base and I was only cleared for an hour and a half.”

He stood. “We can tell her about the first time I kissed you another time.” He looked at Ridahne. “She hadn’t had much physical contact due to the whole connection thing and sex ed wasn’t exactly high on their list of things to teach her. They also hadn’t taught her how to read attraction so you can see how that might have gone.” He smirked slightly.

“Right now though I have given them the information but I don’t want to wait on them. I want to do some looking around the city as well as get some clothes for everyone and toiletry basics for us. Sound good? I know I could do with getting out of here for a bit.”

"It isn't. I don't--We don't talk about it much amongst ourselves to begin with. Not that it's taboo, but we just all know about it. You have to know about it to get an Ojih, and I never met anyone who chose not to get one. And as you've probably guessed, we don't commune with outsiders a whole lot and we certainly don't share our secrets. Not many outsiders know about that, or what Ojih marks mean or...well, a lot of things. And...I wouldn't call it....hopeful. That's just the wrong word, because not all marks are good, you know? It's more...well you don't have to worry about it. There's some peace in that at least, and it takes all the speculation out of death. It's nice, but it's a great responsibility to keep it up," Ridahne explained. Absently, she fingered the bone earring in her right lobe, twisting it around, feeling it wobble back and forth when she let it go. She remembered carving it herself when she was a girl (with her father's help, of course). She was so proud when she presented it to the tattoo artist!

Ridahne pondered to herself why people would find the testing of one's abilities unusual. Was strength and intelligence not as valued here as it was at home? Intelligence, maybe--that's what school was for, she guessed. But having grown up far away from the notions of animal testing, genetic engineering, and lab-created synthetics, Ridahne did not immediately understand the difference between 'experiment' and 'test'. Conceptually, they were the same thing. But even she could not deny that growing up in a testing facility was not normal, and telepathic powers were even less normal. Heck, before Rylie, Ridahne did not believe they really existed. Maybe most people were unnerved by that kind of power, or felt, like she had, that their privacy would be somehow invaded without their consent.

"Was it the same five people all the time? Or was it different every day? I guess if you liked them, and they were good to you, well, I don't see what's so bad about it. As long as you were happy." Ridahne knew what it was like to be raised very differently than the status quo--even at home, Heartlanders were far different than those inland, and mixed-heritage children were more different still. Far be it from her to judge another person's lifestyle, she thought.

At the mention of rites of passage, Ridahne's interest sharpened. One of her favorite parts of exploring the world beyond Azurei (besides food and drink) was learning all the different ways adolescents became adults, and all the milestones and traditions along the way. Those things said a lot about a culture, she thought. They tended to distill the most important elements and values and manifest them into one event. Some people valued intelligence--graduating from multiple levels of schools served as benchmarks to show how far one had come. Some valued relationships and family, making marriage one of the most important parts of a person's life. In Azurei, they valued loyalty and strength, which was partly why everyone's Ojih was started with the traditional bone-needle method. It took forever and it hurt much more than the modern electric guns, but that pain made the finished product much more rewarding.
"What kinds of rites did you miss out on? Like...what do you do out here? I've heard so many different ones, they're fascinating to me."

Ridahne laughed at Gregory's retelling of their first date, and suddenly appreciated Gregory a little more as a person for being willing to just roll with that. Personally, she would have just been too confused to keep going. "I like that you kept going, Gregory," she chuckled. "I guess it worked well for you in the end. And you seem to have made some progress, Rylie."

Even before Gregory could finish speaking, Ridahne was up on her feet in a flash and looking for her shoes. The entire morning, the woman had been anxious to get moving and it didn't take much convincing to get her ready. "Yeah, yeah, sounds good," she said, already lacing up her hiking boots. "I've been itching to get out of here all morning. I'm all for relaxing but suddenly when it's not a good idea to be out, that's all I want to do. Go figure." She swiftly packed all her things in her bag again out of habit and stuffed it underneath her bed. There wasn't any reason to, really. Nobody was out looking for them and nobody could easily get into the room. It was just...habit.

"I'm pretty sure there's a Goodwill a few blocks from here. That place is amazing! I never knew! You can find all kinds of things there and for really cheap. That's probably old news here, but it's relatively new to me anyway." She smiled. "Though it's hard to find things there sometimes. I always have been a 'tall drink of water' as you say here. As for where to start looking...We should go scope out like uh...the seediest hostel you know of, maybe an abandoned warehouse or two if there are any." Ridahne took her own gun from her bag--a small revolver of a relatively low caliber, though it was still lethal, and stashed it expertly in the back of her waistband underneath her loose fitting tank top. The handle was a dark wood with a complicated pattern burned lightly into the surface of it. "One thing I do appreciate about the Azurei Eija: even if you get uh...not so nicely discharged, they let you keep your weapons. They make sure you have them both and as soon as you do, they tell you to start running." Ridahne laughed softly; it was not a fun memory per se, but it was simply a part of life now and she had just accepted it. "Not the scariest gun in the world, but sometimes all you need is a gun itself and your opponent backs off. Most people aren't looking for a fight. Alright then," she said, grabbing her wallet and stuffing it in her back pocket. "You ready?"

Gregory was laughing as Ridahne made a beeline for the door. She wanted out and that was fine by him. The very idea of waiting around for someone to call and tell them that they had a lead drove him nuts. He wanted to get out there, to look around and find a trail. With Ridahne they have the best chance for finding one or more of these men, maybe even the leader or two.

Rylie stood and made herself ready to go. Boots back on, jacket too but her mind was elsewhere. She was still thinking about what Ridahne had told her about the Ojig and when they die. The idea that it did not mean more but meant peace was a different concept and she liked the idea. She wasn’t religious at all, didn’t believe in a heaven or reincarnation. She had been taught science and to her death was simply the end of your lifecycle. The idea that you could find peace at the end before that last breath because you have a place added something to the concept of death.

She followed Ridahne and Gregory to the door. Gregory had shouldered a pack and had his bag of weapons in one hand.

“To go back to your question I had a team that I saw all the time. It was only as I progressed or if someone left the team did I see new people. Usually the same five doctors. They were nice.”

Gregory grumbled. “Ry, they ran tests on you. I wouldn’t call that nice. You were a lab rat, not a person to them. That isn’t a life.”

Rylie sighed. “It wasn’t that bad, really.”

“Only because you didn’t know till much later what you were missing out on.” Gregory opened the room door and scanned the hallway.

“No one out there. Maid is five...no six doors down. She is vacuuming.” Rylie stated as she stepped into the hall. “And it wasn’t bad because they weren’t mean to me. the tests never hurt or did damage.”

Gregory’s mouth pressed into a line. “Sure but you also never played outside, caught a butterfly, went swimming in a lake or the ocean. You sat in a classroom with other kids, never tossed a ball or learned to do a cartwheel. Never rode a bike or had a sleepover. Those things are just as important as not being mean to you. They took away your chance to be a kid and to grow up doing kid things.”

She pressed the elevator button. “Ridahne says I seem to have turned out okay.” Rylie looked over her shoulder and smiled at the woman. “I know you are sad for me and angry at them for what they did but you know that they were just doing their job. I can’t be angry for that.”

Rylie gestured to Gregory. “You wanted to know the sorts of things I missed out on? Those things. No bike, no swimming. I also never went to a dance, never played baseball or any sport. I never had or went to a birthday party, I am told that is a big deal.” She smiled.
The elevator doors opened and she stepped in, holding the button to keep the doors open for the others.

“Never learned to play an instrument, never had a summer vacation, never went camping or to a summer camp. I can keep going if you want.” Gregory stated with a tinge of anger to his voice. He stepped in next to Rylie.

Gregory looked at Ridahne, there was a serious look in his eyes. “You said you liked that I kept going, kept at it with her. Well I think she is worth it and I want to show her all the things in life she missed. I want to see that happiness in her eyes every time she does something new that the rest of us take for granted. Only good part of the way they isolated her is now I get to enjoy and appreciate showing her. I get to hold her hand on her first roller coaster ride and throw her a party.”

Rylie leaned over and kissed his cheek softly. “Yes you do and we will do all those things and more once this job is done.”

Gregory nodded. “Yes but for now we hit a few stores for toiletries and clothes then off to do some scouting.”

Ridahne patiently stood against the front of the kitchenette counter that jutted out adjacent to the door, slender hands curled lightly and casually around the hard rectangular edge. At first glance, she looked relaxed, mellow, and relatively at peace with the world, but a closer inspection would reveal the subtle tension in her body language. She kept the profile of her body small, pinioning her arms close to her sides with her feet directly under her. Her amber eyes were the biggest tell of all; at no point did they stray from the door. She wasn't about to bound out the door if her new teammates were checking the immediate area, and she felt in the pit of her stomach that she needed to be ready to act at a moment's notice.

Ridiculous. They wouldn't come here.
She wondered then if there would be something else to trigger her sense of caution. Perhaps they weren't coming here, but what if someone else was, and specifically for her? What if local police or vigilante teams or whoever else saw her enter the hotel and confused her for the perpetrator?

With the coast clear, Ridahne was quick to leave the hotel room, though even with Rylie's approval of the safety of the area, Ridahne was on alert. The soldier in her came out a little, though she started to relax as the conversation started up again.

"You make it sound so terrible, Gregory," Ridahne teased. "Rylie doesn't seem so phased, and isn't that what matters in the end, really?" She did try to see it his way, and she supposed that what she found the most odd about the whole thing was that Rylie had been isolated. Ridahne thought testing was normal as the sunrise, but childhood isolation did give her some pause. She wondered what she would have done if someone tried to put her in a building or a room all her life and decided that she probably would have bitten and scratched and howled like a hungry sand cat. Then again, Ridahne had tasted the salt of the ocean and split her lip in a fight, seen the glory of a purple sunset and galloped on a horse, skid around in tight circles until the tires of their Jeep kicked up the sand and the dust until all their hair was russet brown. If someone tried to coop her up, it would be ripping all of these things away from her. But if Rylie never had those things, they wouldn't have taken anything from her, right?

"I think it's just weird to you, that's why you think it's so bad. Don't you have all-girl boarding schools? And places where religious women and religious men live where they teach young children to live like them? To me it's not a whole lot different." She shrugged. "It's a way of life. My childhood wasn't bikes and balls and summer camping, it was very different, but I liked it well enough." The woman smiled, stepping into the elevator. "I dunno. You spend enough time living on the edge of the world, half in and half out, and suddenly you start rethinking what's normal." She laughed softly, watching the crisp blue lights numerically mark their descent to the lobby: a pristine, quiet sort of place where nicely dressed employees smiled and spoke softly behind smoothly curved counters.

There weren't many people there in the wide, expansive room, but one of the few started to stare. Ridahne could feel the man's eyes scorch her cheek where her Ojih lay. She chanced a fleeting glance at him, so quick and so subtle that she wondered if the man even knew; he had the most perplexed look on his face, and a touch of apprehension. She could tell he wasn't going to do anything, he wasn't that sure of himself, but she knew he was wondering if she was involved, if he should be worried during his stay here. Ridahne lowered her head and lengthened her strides a little; with her long legs, it didn't take long for her to overtake Gregory at the front and she reached the outside door first. How did she get herself involved in all this? A sickening twist of regret wrenched in her chest; she shouldn't have come here. Part of her felt she shouldn't have left home. She should have just followed orders in the first place. Done as she was told....

"Ridahne! What are you doing here, I thought you were West! What time is it?"
"Shh, Hadian, shh! I don't have much time okay? I just needed to see you before I go."
"Before you...?" Hadian pulled the covers off his bed, rising to his feet. "I'll get some light in this place then. Wh--"
"No! Nuhno, Hadi, don't worry about that. Don't. Please don't. I'll be gone in a minute, I just need to say--"
Ridahne's urgency began to worry Hadian now more than ever. He grabbed her shoulders. "What's gotten into you? Ri, what's wrong?"
"I can't explain it, I don't have time, Hadian. Please, just let me--"
"Can't? What do you mean you can't? Ridahne! What's wrong? Is this about a man? So help me, if it is, I'll gut him in the street."
"No, Hadi, It's not a man. Please, I--" She stepped back and into the moonlight coming from the bedroom window and Hadian could now see the fresh black ink between her eyes.
"Ridahne!" he gasped, tears springing to his eyes. "What have you done?"
Ridahne cried too, sinking her face into her older brother's chest. "I'm sorry Hadian. I'm so sorry."
Hadian held her tightly. "Why do you never do as you're told?"

Wasn't that just the question of the century, she thought. She always had to stir the pot somehow, it seemed, and fate was not with her. She was trying to do the right thing, here, and yet there were still people out there who gave her scorn. Sure, it was only one person, but it stung no less. In that moment, Ridahne wanted nothing more than to return home to her favorite beach spot where it was cool and silent at night, and where she could be alone.

Ridahne tried to stay positive. Not just for her sake, but for Rylie's, lest she pick up the mess going on in the Azurei woman's head. "I don't care where we go for clothes and things, you know the area better than I do. I wonder," she said, getting into the back seat of the car, "If we actually find them, what will we do? The three of us can't take them all."

Gregory grimaced as the elevator descended. “It is terrible. No child should spend their life like a lab rat. even if they were nice to her.”

Rylie shook her head. “No point debating with him Ridahne. He is sure that I missed out on so much and that they are horrible people. I understand. I can feel why he thinks that and it makes sense but can’t miss what you didn’t know about right?”

He frowned when Ridahne mentioned all girls schools of where men and women live separate. “Sure we do but at least you are around others. Can you imagine being seven and never seeing another child? Never talking to anyone your own age?”

As the doors opened and the lobby appeared everyone went silent. Gregory was alert but looked casual. To the average person he was simply a man with two women, stepping out of the elevator. Anyone trained would notice the way his eyes swept the room, the way he checked the exits.

Rylie was breathing evenly. Her mind open to those that sat in the lobby. Boredom. Lust... A man and woman stood near each other and it was readily apparent that they were lovers. She didn’t need to read more to know that it was not that man’s wife. Her eyes suddenly flickered to a man. He was staring at Ridahne Fear, confusion, apprehension. Nervous. Tense... Clearly the man did not know what to think. Perhaps he saw news and recognized that she was similar to those who had attacked yesterday. Rylie watched him but knew he would not make a move.

Gregory only gave Ridahne a cursory glance as she passed him. He was confident that they were not being watched and a nod from Rylie confirmed it. They both followed Ridahne outside.

Wasting no time they were once more in the car. Gregory shifted in his seat to look at Ridahne. “No we won’t take them on but we will track them, we will call for back up and we will watch them, tail them and slow them down if it looks like they are trying to get away. At this point I just want to know where they are and if they are planning any more attacks.”

He started the car and drove them off.

Rylie took a deep breath before turning slightly to look at Ridahne. “You okay?” The question was purely out of courtesy. She wanted to show the woman that she was not always trying to read her emotions. She had gotten some, it couldn’t be helped, when they were in the lobby and she knew the woman was slightly distressed, perhaps a little upset but she did not actively try to find out.

“I don’t think he was going to do anything. Likely saw a news report about people with tattoos and it made him nervous. We will likely see that a lot if we go to too heavily populated places.”

Gregory nodded. “Which is why after we stock up on toiletries and anything else we need we are sticking to back alleys and the other places they might be hiding.”

Rylie nodded. “We don’t need vigilantes seeing you and deciding they want to ‘help’ us. We can leave the front, the more open stuff to the police. We can take to the shadows.”

Gregory drove a short distance before pulling into a strip mall. First stop was a drug store where they purchased all the typical necessities. Next was a grocery store for easy to carry food for the day. They returned to the car and drove to a department store. After grabbing essentials like socks and underwear for everyone, including Ridahne the cart was filled with some basic clothes, mostly black and a few pairs of jeans. Everything was easy to move in and would allow them to blend into a crowd or into the shadows.

The shopping trip took about forty five minutes after all the stops and once more the trio found themselves in the car.

Gregory turned to face Ridahne. “Okay you gave me ideas of where they might go but where do you want to check out first? Pick a place, anywhere you think they would go after an attack like that and we will go there. Not there? Who cares we just pick another. Got it?” He smiled at her. Following and tracking like this was one of his favourite things to do and he had done security detail for politicians for too long.

"Mm, you've got a point there," Ridahne conceded, wondering what it would be like if she didn't have children her own age to talk to and play with when she was a little girl. It certainly would have been lonely; her mother died when she was young and her father was a fisherman who would spend weeks at a time out at sea. She had Hadian for a while, but since he was older, he eventually started looking for work, too. First it was odd jobs around town for people who needed some extra hands, and in time, even he set off to sea to take over the family trade of fishing. Ridahne often found herself home alone, and when she wasn't playing with Mitaja or out on a hunt with her, she was picking fights and testing her strength and agility against other children her age in footraces, swimming matches, dive contests, or games. And that was life. She had to admit, life would be very lonely if she didn't have that. Then again, as Rylie said, it was impossible to long for something without knowing about it first.

In the car, Ridahne nodded back at Gregory; it was probably best that they didn't really engage at all if they came across the Taja, even though part of her wanted to just recklessly have at them for what they'd done. If she ever tried, she would lose that battle almost immediately. Even though Ridahne was good with a sword and with a gun, or just about anything else she could get her hands on, she was no match at all for a group of highly trained Taja.
"Think it might be worth taking on one of them and engaging if he's alone? They wouldn't be straying often, but inevitably one would break off from the group. You might be able to get him if you had surprise on your side, and numbers. You'd have to do it fast though, or you risk him alerting someone else and calling in backup. Just remember, 'going quietly' is not really something we do, as I'm sure you remember with me," she teased, smirking a little. She hadn't put up much of a focused fight; Ridahne thrashed around a lot in frustration, though she never really tried to escape or hurt anyone. However, no one could argue she was not quiet.

Ridahne turned to look out the window as Gregory started the car and drove off. She liked being able to see the city, but this wasn't how she wanted to do it. Before all this happened, she had plans of walking through the busiest streets and finding the most popular cafes or the best local hangout spots, plans of seeing the large park, and maybe an art museum or something. That all felt out of the question now. Not only did her tattoos and appearance give her some unwanted attention in public, but she had a job to do now. Before this was all over, Gregory and Rylie would need her help and she felt like she needed to be there to redeem her country.

"You okay?"
The question caught her off guard; the Azurei woman turned to look at Rylie, who was watching her, waiting for some kind of answer. She took a moment to reply. Her first inclination was to indulge the survivalist inside her, the warrior, who wanted little to do with opening up to another person. A funny reflex, she thought, because to get by in this world, she was going to have to get over that mentality.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she said a little bashfully, beginning to play with her curls and push them behind her ear as a nervous habit. "I know the guy wasn't gonna do anything, he looked more confused than violent, it's just....it's been a long time since someone looked at me like that. It's not the first time and won't be the last, of course, but...it just makes me realize how far from home I really am, and how messed up this whole situation is, and really I shouldn't even be here. I just keep thinking, I wouldn't be wrapped up in this mess if I was home. But I...made some stupid mistakes and so now I'm here. The way things are looking, though, seems like I would be involved eventually anyway, even if I was home. If things escalate, I could have been sent out here as military support....A-anyway, it's just a little...I-I have a lot of things to process," she finally said. She'd gotten so used to people not caring much or noticing her tattoos, or not knowing what they meant; it would be an adjustment do have the general public suddenly concerned and paying attention.

At the store, Ridahne grabbed a few things, though when it came time to buy some clothes, she selected choices sparingly. Ridahne was grateful for the wardrobe update, as a lot of her clothes were getting worn down (especially her socks) but she grabbed things with the mindset that she would have to fit them in that pack of hers, and thus she couldn't buy many things. For some reason, she kept feeling like this nightmare would be over in a few days, and then she'd return to her life as a hitchhiker and a traveler. As they got back into the car, she realized that was silly thinking. This would not be over soon, and even she couldn't accurately say what life would look like after the ordeal was settled.

"Wherrre tooo start....?" Ridahne wondered aloud. "Well...first, take us to the first hotel that comes to mind when you think 'organized crime'. Like the Rafia. Er...wait, no, the Mafia? The crime group you always hear about in movies. Where would they go? Take us there to start, and then if that doesn't pan out, we'll go to...the industrial district and find us a field of shipping crates or a warehouse, whichever we happen upon first. Sound like a plan?"

Gregory thought over Ridahne’s suggestion about trying to take one of the Taja if they could get the drop on him. It was a good idea and though the Taja were highly trained, as Ridahne made very clear it would be possible if they could isolate one. With Rylie able to tell them where he was, what he was thinking and Ridahne as well as Gregory’s fighting skills they should be able to take one down.

“I think it is worth it if we can do it and do it quickly. “ Gregory smiled as he remembered the complaining, snarling and noise Ridahne made having been brought in. “Yes I remember how going quietly doesn’t seem to fit your people’s ideals. I think if we do this right we can take one down. Knocking him out would be ideal but then we have dead weight to move and that is often harder than the struggle is worth. I say we try to an attack of opportunity or if one does not come up we make one.”

He gave Ridahne a look that screamed of scheming. “I am sure we can come up with something.”

Rylie sighed a little. She recognized that look, it didn’t take her ability to tell her that Gregory was loving the idea of ambushing one of the Taja. She couldn’t really blame him. He had once been a part of a very specialized infiltration team and now he was essentially her handler, her protection. It was a bit of a step down for him, lacked the excitement but he did it willingly, for her. That she could never doubt.

The car went quiet as Gregory drove and considered options for separating as well as getting the drop on one of the men.

Rylie felt bad as a wave of shock came towards her. Her question had made Ridahne slightly on guard and surprised. She caught the urge to hold back and waited to see if Ridahne would overcome it or not. The nervousness that came her way was understandable. Being open with people wasn’t something Ridahne seemed to do easily. Rylie understood that. For all her ability to read emotions she was often closed off or never fully honest about how she felt. Gregory said it was from the way they trained her as a child, teaching her to be in the utmost control of herself in order to shield herself. She was good at empathy though often it was more mirrored emotion than understanding.

Rylie nodded understanding. She remembered looks of confusion, apprehension but she could only imagine how it felt when you were looked at that way because of what your people did, not because you personally did something. Ridahne was being judged by her appearance, her race and not her actions. A small frown formed as Ridahne talked of mistakes and how life would be different if she hadn’t made them.

“Choices we make have consequences, good and bad. They are what make life interesting.” Rylie gave her a slight smile.

As they sat in the car, their shopping completed Gregory thought about what Ridahne said. “Okay hotel for organized crime....The Drake. We will start there. Just seedy enough. Also we can scope out the Meridian and Lord Ashbury. All within a few blocks of each other and all known gang meeting houses in some form or another. Then we hit the warehouse district.”

He started the car and began the drive out of the parking lot. The drive this time took them away from the downtown core but not too far out, just enough that the shift in the state of the buildings was noticeable. Downtown things were shiny and new. As they drove out of it, away from the office buildings things grew slowly more run down.

By the time he was a dozen blocks away from their hotel and the downtown core the buildings looked older, not falling down but not recently maintained.

Gregory pulled the car up a half a block away from the Drake Hotel. The building was narrow with dark red bricks that had seen better days. If the owners had tried to keep it up to date it would have been a beautiful historic building. One could count its fifteen floors and see the dark curtains in all the windows.

“What we have here is a remnant of another era. The Drake was once part of the downtown strip before the financial district moved it all a few blocks away. It went from the hotel of celebrities to the hangout for anyone looking to disappear from the eye of any who might be watching. It is a known place though and I am not sure if it is low key enough for your Taja’s purposes. A lot of business gets discussed here but deals, hand offs and such go down other places. There is still a bit of respect for its history.” Gregory leaned forward on the dash as he spoke. “So Ridahne what do you think? Worth us giving the place a walk around?”

From the beginning, Ridahne had her doubts about the pair of IP's, mostly because their 'introduction' involved the Azurei woman with her wrists tethered to the armrests of a chair, and the fastest way to turn Ridahne unreasonable was to pin her down somehow or trap her. Needless to say, her opinion of Gregory and Rylie hadn't started off terribly high, but they were quickly winning points in her book. Rylie, she felt like she could talk to a little easier than most and they had more in common than one might guess by looking at them. Gregory, though, was beginning to remind her of Hadian--practical, authoritative, and with a splash of mischief every now and then. Ridahne had a knack for trouble too, but she was usually the kind of troublemaker that got caught, while Hadian (and she assumed, Gregory) was the type to get away with it.

The tattooed woman grinned back at him. "I think, somewhere between your military training and my street-rat background, we could come up with something indeed. You may want to be prepared to knock him out, just in case. If he grew up anything like me, I don't doubt there's a possibility of losing a finger. You can laugh, but I will not hesitate to bite someone if I have no other options. I sent a man to the infirmary that way once." Ridahne had a very subtle but triumphant look in her eyes for a moment as she silently recalled sending the man away howling. He did deserve it.

In response to Rylie, Ridahne gave a small smile, dark brows raised. "Heh, well, it really has been interesting. In every possible sense of the word..." Ridahne was quiet for a second, glancing out the window at buildings and people they passed. "I don't think I ever really understood how big the world really was. I thought I was well-traveled just for leaving Azurei and going across the ocean, and now here I am on practically the other side of the solar system! And there have just been so many new things....interesting doesn't even begin to cover it," she laughed softly.

They pulled up to a dilapidated brick building that Gregory explained the history of; Ridahne tried to imagine it a swanky, happening place where the rich and famous played on the weekends, but it was hard to think of it that way now. She supposed that if maybe the masonry was power-washed a bit and the door repainted, or the curtains replaced, the place might look more like its former self, but looking at it, Ridahne knew this is precisely the kind of place seedy characters would draw to.

"Yeah, we should start here. No need to go tromping through the place quite yet, I've got an idea that will expedite the process and tell us if they've even been here or not. If they have, we can pick the place apart, but if they haven't, we can move on and spend our time elsewhere. If I walk in there with all my tattoos and everything, and I start talking to the clerk in my native language, Rylie, you can read them and figure out if they've seen someone like me come through before." Smirking, Ridahne popped the car door open. "C'mon," she said, and without waiting for an answer, the tall woman pushed open the front door to the Drake and went straight for the counter, where an overweight woman with sagging cheeks and an e-cig sat.

"Ja'ti. Havo sha a'ae?"
The woman looked nonplussed at Ridahne from over her burgundy glasses and, with a sigh, answered, "I can't understand you, hon. We speak English here."
Ridahne went slower this time, pretending not to understand. "Havo. Sha. A'ae?"
"Our rates are on the wall there." The woman pointed to a piece of paper tucked inside a plastic sleeve hung on the wall beside the desk. Ridahne rubbed her forehead and sighed, obviously frustrated. She leaned on the desk, quickly but in a restrained tone of voice trying to explain something to the poor receptionist, who did not understand a word being said to her. The woman, equally frustrated, spoke louder and above Ridahne's frantic foreign speech. "You want one night? Two?" She held up one and two fingers respectively; Ridahne pretended to get angry now, slapping her hand down on the wooden desk and taking a slow, deep breath. She was making a scene, but the encounter would certainly make the woman reflect on any tenants of hers that were of the same origin.

Well? Any luck? She thought hard, hoping Rylie was reading her, too.

Gregory gave another mischievous smile as Ridahne commented about being prepared to knock any of the Taja they might get alone out. He was fairly certain he could come up with a few ways to make that happen, without really doing permanent damage of course.

Rylie was out of the car in a flash. She had gotten a surge of action, drive to move and knew what that meant. Gregory was much the same.

They approached the desk, Rylie on Ridahne’s heels and the woman looked up apathetically. She was unfazed by the sight of Ridahne, the tattoos and piercings.

Apathy, uncaring, slight annoyance.

Rylie frowned. The woman wasn’t scared but was it in her nature not to care? Not to react given the things that went on in this place?

The volume grew louder between them as they strived to make the other understand.

Frustration, more annoyance....she has done this many times before.

A flicker, another mind though this one the thoughts were clearer, one she had a connection with. Ridahne.

Rylie’s eyes moved to Ridahne and she shook her head a little. Licking her lips she focused on the round woman once more. Come on...give me something.

She stared and the woman looked at her. “You look like you speak English. Can you make her understand I get it she wants a room. I just need to know for how long.”

And there it was. The faintest shift. The woman was trying to figure out what Ridahne was doing here when the rest weren’t.

“Thank you I will take her outside and see if we can figure this out.”

The woman frowned but nodded.

Rylie took Ridahne’s arm and turned her to the door. She leaned in close, her words a harsh, low whisper. “She isn’t confused by you, not the first and she can’t figure out why you are here when they aren’t. I don’t know if it is because they left for good or because they are gone for the day.”

Dark nostrils flared, Ridahne looked convincingly angry, like a toned-down version of how she'd been with Gregory and Rylie upon their meeting. Though she heard Rylie tell the woman they would both go outside to sort things out, she did not make any move to do so until Rylie's body language indicated that they would do so, taking her by the arm and guiding her away from the less-than-amused desk clerk. As she let Rylie take her to the door, Ridahne turned back and scowled sourly at the woman, like she'd been offended in some way.

Hmm. So they'd been here, it seemed. That was reason enough to give the place more of a look-through, in her mind. Even if they'd already gone, Ridahne wondered if they couldn't just find some clues as to where they went. At the very least, either she or Rylie and Gregory could interrogate the clerk to see when they checked out, or any other tidbits of information they could get from her.

Once outside, Ridahne dropped her facade, smirking smugly as she slipped back into the car; it would be best if they talked in private where no passerbys could hear. That lady had no idea that she was being played, though now Ridahne needed to remember not to speak fluent English around her, lest she get wise. She doubted the Azurei warriors would have involved her in their affairs, but she couldn't help but wonder if they'd bribed her to keep an eye out for them. In a place like this, she'd probably do it.

"Well. That worked nicely. I can't imagine why they would leave and find a new base of operations without leaving the city completely. If I had to guess, I'd say they're still here. Sounds to me by her reaction that they're out right now, which could mean a multitude of things. I'm gonna guess this isn't the only troupe of Taja in the city, and they've split up on purpose. Either that, or they might have gone to reunite with their Sota. Might be worth finding out if she's here with them...we can figure that out with the help of that poor woman in there. We can pretend I'm looking for my sister, and I'll deliberate on whether or not to stay the night for a minute before getting a room. We can tell her I'm waiting for my sister to meet me here. If she's seen a Sota at all, I imagine it'll come to mind. And then we can camp out in whatever room we get, sneak around the place and look around until we find something. Sound good?"

There was a pause, and then Ridahne's brow furrowed and she said softly, "Before we do this...if the worst happens, and they find us and decide to attack as a group...I'm asking you for my sake and for yours. Run. Please. No matter what happens, just run and get away. I'm sure you're excellent warriors and I don't doubt you can hold your own, but if we were ever overpowered, they wouldn't just kill you. They'd take us all captive and I would get brought before a Sota to give a Luora Khan--a Blood Oath. A Luora Khan is...well...it would let me buy my way back into Azurei. Back home. And potentially back into the Eija, but the blood isn't supposed to come from me. Typically she would send me after an important target and if I succeeded, all would be well. But in this case, if they catch us together, they'll take you in with me and insist that I kill you instead. Sort of...insult to injury. And don't worry, I wouldn't do that to you, I wouldn't betray you like that," she said, though she felt dirty for saying it, considering her past history. This was different, though. "I just don't want to see you caught up in that, you know?"

Rylie slipped back into the car and the air of relief that flowed at her from Gregory was so strong she was sure Ridahne could even tell.

Gregory reached over and squeezed Rylie’s hand. He really did dislike it when she went someplace like that without him. She could read his emotions, she would know if he was in trouble but he couldn’t do that for her, if she was hurt or in danger he wouldn’t know until it was too late and that didn’t sit easily with him.

“Nice job though she really was not phased by you at all. Speaks of someone who has seen it before.”

Rylie turned in her seat to look at Ridahne.

“Oh so they are here?” Gregory looked from Rylie to Ridahne.

“Not exactly....” Rylie frowned. “Either here and gone right now or were here and gone for good.” She looked at Ridahne as she commented that she didn’t think they would up and move to another base of operations in the city.

Gregory nodded. “Sure I am all for more recon but I think I want....” He reached around his seat to the bag on the floor behind it. Pulling it into his lap Gregory began to scrounge around in it. “This. I want to be in communication. I won’t go in, not yet as I think eyes on the outside are a good idea in case they are just out for the moment.” He held out two small coms. “You two wear these so I can hear and if you are in trouble I can come in to help.”

It was not a question. Rylie recognized the tone and did not hesitate or argue with him. She took her com and began to get it situated so it was not visible.

Gregory held Ridahne’s out. “Just place it by your jawline, near or in your hair. It picks up the sound really clearly and it is hard to see there. Tiny too, wireless which makes them hard to spot.”

As Ridahne turned serious Gregory looked to Rylie. She of course was reading Ridahne’s emotions and intentions. Her response was to nod slowly and solemnly. Rylie understood Ridahne’s concerns. Gregory followed her lead, knowing she had a better read on the whole thing in general.

“Agreed. We won’t let them take us but we won’t just sit back and let them take you too. If we are smart they will never know we are involved until they are arrested and being tried.”

Gregory nodded sternly. He was stuck on the point that this was to be as covert as possible. He didn’t want any of them getting noticed.

“Now then, shall we go rent a room and camp out? Gregory maybe you can come in about half an hour from now and rent another room. Gives us two places to run and get out from should this go bad.” Rylie looked from Gregory to Ridahne.

Gregory nodded. “I will stash the car close to an emergency exit point. Let’s see what we can learn.”

Rylie looked at Ridahne. “If you are good with this plan, let’s go.” She smiled a little.

Ridahne didn't need to be a telepath to know that Gregory was apprehensive about this whole operation. Not that he didn't have good reason--it was risky to be that close to the Taja, especially for Ridahne, who was much more recognizable as more than just a citizen than her partners. She guessed however that the Taja would pick up very quickly on the fact that Rylie and Gregory were IP's if they were allowed the opportunity to observe them. Ridahne, even, could pick one out from a crowd if she was paying attention. In Azurei, IP's were rare and when they did pay the desert a visit, they certainly did not fit in. Often paler skinned than the natives, shorter, and some had light hair, the foreigners spoke little to no Azurian and simply did not know how to interact, with a few exceptions. This side of the system, they were a little harder to distinguish, but Ridahne knew the mark of a soldier when she saw one. They would just have to be vigilant.

Out came the little coms; Gregory offered one to Ridahne, whose russet eyes widened as she plucked it from his hand. Obviously, she'd never seen one up close before, but she certainly knew what they were. She had an uncharacteristic smile on her dark face, giddy and girlish, but she put that away very quickly, placing the com behind her left ear where it would be hidden by her dark hair. She had enough metal in her ears to begin with that unless someone was looking for a com specifically, it would be easily missed, even if her hair wasn't covering it. The untrained eye would be drawn to the big silver plates at the top of her ears first, anyway, as she kept them nicely polished.

Ridahne nodded resolutely, taking a breath before she left the car again to re-enter the building. Determined, she went right for the woman at the desk, who looked at her in defeat as if to say 'not again'. The clerk did not speak; she looked up from her red glasses, which had slid down her nose, and waited. Ridahne licked her lips, took a breath, and said slowly and with a very heavy accent, "Sister, pa'ona. I m...meet sister...here." She tapped her finger on the desk for emphasis, and occasionally would look back at Rylie as if checking to make sure she was saying it correctly. "You see pa'ona--uh, sister? Mm? She...ah...tall. Dark. She ta...uh..." Ridahne glanced back to Rylie, then the woman, stuck. She tapped her inkwork on her face.
"Tattoos. Surprise," she said, as if that was obvious to her already. "No hon. I ain't seen your sister. Lookin' for anyone else, while you're at it?"
Ridahne sighed. "I meet sister here," she insisted, turning around to Rylie for a moment. The Azurei woman rambled softly at Rylie for a moment, took a second to think, then pointed to the filebox of card keys behind the desk.
"Finally," the woman breathed to herself, handing her a piece of paper, a pen, and the card key for a room upstairs. "Sign this. Sign?" she made a writing motion with her hand and Ridahne put down an illegible signature. The woman didn't really care, she was just ready to have the foreigner out of her hair as soon as possible.

Victorious, Ridahne moved upstairs and found the room that matched the number on her card. It wasn't a dingy room--Ridahne had stayed in worse--but it was far from its past grandeur and the once sanguine carpets now had kind of a dull brownish-gray quality to them. There was a window that, luckily for them, faced the street. As soon as the door was locked behind them both, Ridahne dropped her act. "Perfect. If we crack that window open a little, I might be able to hear them come in. As long as they're talking. I'd know Azurian from a mile away," she smirked. "I guess I'm not the only one around here that would, though. I think it's best if I was quiet and out of sight as much as possible. I'm almost tempted to just ask the lady at the desk where to find them, but I've got a really bad feeling about that. I'm probably paranoid, but I don't want to risk the chance that maybe they paid her off to keep them informed. It's not really their MO, but I wouldn't put it past them. It's not worth the risk."

Ridahne paced around the room a little, checking it out. She wasn't really an indoors girl and it showed. "Okay. So what do we do now?"

And just like that a plan was set in motion. The women would go in and he would wait, following them in after a short time. Gregory set his mouth into a firm line and nodded as he watched Rylie and Ridahne prepare to leave the car.

At the last moment he reached out, grabbing Rylie’s arm. “Be careful”

She smiled. “I will.”

Armed with their new coms they headed toward the hotel once more.

“Can you hear me alright?” Rylie whispered as they walked.

“Loud and clear. Let’s keep it that way.”

Rylie was on Ridahne’s heels as they re-entered the hotel. As Ridahne put on her act for the woman Rylie nodded when appropriate. She watched the woman carefully looking for any emotion coming off the woman that might help their research.

As Ridahne pointed at the tattoos and the woman sighed Rylie was hit with a sense of acceptance, familiarity. This woman had had contact with others like Ridahne. Rylie frowned a little as woman said she seen her sister. The woman wasn’t lying. She hadn’t seen a woman but had seen others. That meant the men were staying here, at least some of them. The woman is somewhere else? Two locations would make sense, split up and it makes them harder to locate. I bet they have a third location as well, a meeting spot. Likely there is a place to keep their things.... She made a mental note to ask Ridahne.

The transaction complete the women moved up to their room. Rylie sensed only a few others in the rooms near by. There was a junkie, currently shooting up and Rlie blocked them before the high from the drugs kicked in. She learned long ago that it was not something she enjoyed experiencing. It was like she was taking them and the temptation to seek out the experience again was too great. It was something the researchers monitored from the beginning, this addiction to others feelings. So far Rylie seemed unaffected in general but she took steps not to risk situations like this one.

One room seemed to contain two people, in the throes of passion. That too she blocked off. The only other thing she got was someone sleeping.

Rylie nodded and opened a window. She looked down at the quiet street below. She could see the hood of their car.

“I wouldn’t ask her anything else. If we press too much she is likely to bring up your presence to them when they return. Speaking of...I am trying to figure out if they are coming back and she stated she hadn’t seen a woman which means could she be at another location? Do they sleep here but meet somewhere else? What about keeping their things, do they keep their weapons and such with them? Supplies? Would they store them or buy as needed?”

Over the com Gregory’s voice reached them. “Paranoid is just fine. We need to be on our toes. No telling if she will notify them or has a way to contact them while they are out. would they have a network in place?”

Rylie frowned. “I didn’t get a sense that she was in on anything. She seems to just keep to herself. That isn’t to say she wouldn’t mention it in passing. Or ask them about a woman. Depends on how afraid she is of them I would guess.”

She leaned against the wall. “As for what’s next we wait for Gregory to get a room and we plan from there.”

“Speaking of...I will be in a room shortly. I want to scout out the hotel...floor by floor sweep. What do you think ladies?”

Rylie looked at Ridahne. “Feel up to wandering?” She smiled and pushed off the wall, heading to the door.