"I am voiding your warrant! It's time for you to go!" The crag-faced man didn't appear concerned about the Lalafel's sudden presence, continuing to march forward as if he could simply step on Lamandu or kick him aside.
He was about to try and do so, in fact, when a crackling voice called from somewhere on his person, "Themiaaaa!"
The Nunh stopped short as though he'd stepped on a nail, wincing likewise, and with his eyes pinched close and his tail shivering he twisted one of the ornate rings on his hand and held the affixed linkpearl up to his ear. Sounding somehow more vicious than when he'd struck Antimony earlier, the Nunh barked, "What!"
D'edy's voice lamented from the pearl. "It's boring! The killer turned himself in. Just some psycho hobo killer or something. So Lamandu and Antimony aren't implicated anymore and Learner's... Oh! It looks like we're coming home now."
D'themia's expression twisted. "What?"
"Give yourself a kiss for me! See you soon!"
"What?"
No answer came from the linkpearl.
"What! Gah!" D'themia slammed his fist into his open palm and shouted into, "I'll rip your tail and gift it to Lolorito you emaciated, obnoxious-" He fell suddenly silent and snapped his hands to either side, where the shook for a moment before his fingers unfurled. The Nunh turned his frustrated gaze to the ceiling, joined his hands behind his back, and exhaled a long, slow breath that might've been dragonfire if his anatomy suited his demeanor. The huntresses in the room shifted subtly and renewed their stoic composures.
Finally, D'themia's gaze dropped. First he looked at Lamandu, his nostrils curling, and then to Antimony, "Has your investigations yielded their expected results?"
Antimony forced herself to watch her work for several seconds longer, steeling her nerves against D'themia's tone, before very deliberately setting her pen down alongside the papers. Her tail twitched anxiously, but this was luckily out of view where she stood behind the desk. Pursing her lips, she lifted her head and met the nunh's gaze with her own, purpling bruise and all. To her credit, she maintained her composure.
"I am just wrapping up," she acknowledged, paused, and then nodded. "I will need to take these records to the CRA for report. You will likely hear from them via other channels soon."
Lamandu let out a breath. So Learner wasn't going to come after him on flimsy, trumped up charges. Not that they would have stuck, given that he legitimately had no involvement in the matter. But he and his office were coming under enough scrutiny of late. He didn't need anything else, no matter how petty and pesky the matter was, being raised against him. But good, it looked like Antimony was done. Good new all around, "Not that you could have stopped us, you cannot simply void a warrant by saying the words," he said, addressing D'themia.
"I could not have stopped you?" D'themia muttered hoarsely before putting his heel to the Lalafel's chest and pushing the tiny armored man away from him with all his weight. "If I have you beaten beyond recognition and thrown to the refugees for meat, the supposed tenacity of your paperwork will not be much comfort to you!" In response to the Nunh's anger, the huntresses shifted, leaning slightly forward and easing their arms away from their sides. It was a pose of readiness, eyes wide, unsure when they would be expected to act on D'themia's threats.
The man growled at Antimony, "You will show me your results. Do not make the mistake of pretending that you will not."
The older woman's ears shivered close to her head at D'themia's threats. She cast a concerned look towards Lamandu, worried for the small captain's safety as the nunh shoved him forcefully across the floor. Surely he wouldn't act on such threats, though - it would only get him, and anyone else involved, into even greater trouble. She had dealt with belligerent clients in the past, and D'themia Nunh was just a particularly bad one.
Resting her hands flat atop the papers, she pulled them into a single pile. "I can only tell you that we've enough that you will be contacted again soon, I'm sorry. A formal write up will reach you soon to allow time for legal defense on your end." She swallowed, looking to Lamandu, and then added tensely, "And I should remind you that physical assault of investigators will be included in the report."
The breath was knocked out of Lamandu as he was brushed heavily into a filing cabinet, numbly recognizing the threats leveled at him and his blackmailer. He drew out his sword, long as it had been since he'd done that. It had been a long time since he had seen any real action. D'themia did not know that though. So as stood straight, Miqo'te towering over him, he cleared his throat.
He hadn't even heard Antimony's protests; but his voice was firm, "That was an assault on a Brass Blades Officer," he said brandishing his sword, "If you do not let us leave quietly with our work, you will have to be placed under arrest for assault and obstruction of an investigation.
D'themia Nunh was entertained by Lamandu's valiant stand. It was always valiant to him to watch a Lalafel try to defend himself with something other than laws or ethics. All that armor and his little sword made him about as threatening to D'themia as an oversized Scorpion. The tiny Brass Blade's growling tone had come with the satisfying click and shift of the huntresses around him taking their lances from their backs; the Nunh didn't have to look at them to know their ready stances, their wide eyes. Women were predictable like that. Strong Miqo'te women, once armed, needed only a word from their Nunh to assert the will of the tribe.
"Who will arrest me, tiny soldier? You are well outside your jurisdiction here. The only law is... Well, my law." He gestured to the huntresses, their white armor and ornate lances. "So who will arrest me? Who will witness the crime, and who will report it? What judge will oversee the trial who will not understand and pity the plight of an affluent man such as myself? None of these things will happen, and even if they could, they would not happen in time to save you. So, tell me," he leaned forward, his smile fading, "Am I not being generous -- oh, very diplomatic -- when I request merely to see the results of your investigation into my own tribe's monetary affairs? For I am not obligated to request, or to restrain my women."
Antimony tensed, her hands stilling over the stack of papers briefly before she took them up. Her eyes flicked briefly to the satchel sitting next to her feet, then back to D'themia. Captain Tyremandu's words and actions bolstered her somewhat, knowing that he was alright and that he was not presently backing down. "You know what we were looking for," she spoke carefully, her nerves showing themselves clearly in the way her ears twitched and her tail quivered, curling against the back of her legs. "I can say that your records reveal a, ah, suspicious parallel to what we found in the Brass Blades' archives. It is not my place to level official accusations, however, only to pass on my recommendations to the CRA."
Blood pumped erratically through the small man's veins as the D'themia's guard began to surround him. He was screwed every which way. Screwed if he defended Antimony. Screwed if he didn't. For once in the past few hours, he actually wished that Learner was going to come to arrest him on bogus charges. "You aren't above the law in this, D'themia. Your tribe is allowed to exist in this compound because it benefits trade; but that doesn't mean that an attack on officials will be overlooked. Learner certainly won't."
"If Learner were not a fool he would not have left you here alone." The Nunh chuckled. "He believes that I am the victim here, can't you tell? And it is true, for a woman of these tribe lies dead this morning and the Witch of the Sagolii comes here with lies." He pointed towards Antimony and barked, "She has found nothing! Divest her of her work and tell me what mistruths she has constructed!"
The huntress that was immediately next to Antimony spun on the woman and approached her with fast, hard steps, leading with the shaft of her lance held before her. She was prepared for Antimony to resist or to flee, and the huntress's businesslike gaze did not give much hope that either would be permitted.
Ears laying flat back against her head, Antimony squeaked in surprise as D'themia's words commanded a huntress to stomp towards her. The older woman's tail twisted, curled between her legs, and she frantically grabbed her bag from the floor before backing away from the oncoming huntress. "You--you will do no such thing! That would be tampering with evidence and interfering with an officially sanctioned investigation. More--more marks I would have to report! D'themia, this nonsense will do you no good."
One of the huntresses stalked past him towards Antimony in an obviously threatening manner. Crazy it probably was, considering his company; but the desperate adrenaline was pumping throughout him. Lamandu struck out at the woman, sword slicing at the back of her knees. "You will do no such thing!" He announced. He was probably dead. But better that than rotting in a jail cell with no money or prospects.
Yeah, Lamandu was probably dead. The woman he'd attacked cried out, knowing immediately what had happened to her and who was responsible. She managed to fall away from him and roll, trailing blood as she did so. The other huntresses, already in ready stances, had moved before their compatriot's knees had even hit the floor, lances and growls bared as they rushed at the Lalafel.
D'themia, in surprise, dropped all guise of fury and backpedaled from the confrontation, staying well away from any weapons. One moment ago Lamandu had been an oversized scorpion, but now he was hostile, and it was up to the Huntresses to deal with him. The Nunh paused on his heels when he was far enough away, for only an instant, before he pivoted and broke into a run, vaulting a desk to skirt around the violence and get to Antimony. For a large man, he was fast, his tail extended high behind him as he dodged furniture like it wasn't even there, throwing himself onto the table Antimony's paperwork had been on a moment before, and crouching there in front of her.
A Lalafel in armor was one thing, but D'themia Nunh knew how to deal with a disobedient woman. He growled, "Last warning, witch. I've already come this far, so I might as well go for broke."
Antimony let out a yelp, of both surprise and fear, when Lamandu struck out at huntress - a fear that became wholly realized when the others around the walls of the room mobilized towards the lalafell. "Captain!" Her voice cracked in warning but cut itself off when the nunh landed with a heavy thud on the desk in front of her.
Flinching away from the man, Antimony glared and snapped, "Cease this pointless violence!"
Blood dripped from the sword as the struck huntress rolled away, at least one of her hamstring sliced judging from the way she moved. He turned to face her sisters, bearing down on him as they were. He brandished his sword in front of him, unsure of where to point it as shadows threatened to overwhelm him. Antimony's shrill voice carried over everything happening at once. As one of the huntress came too close, he stuck out, firmly in his intent, but rusty in practice.
"Violence? Oh, this isn't even violent yet." D'themia smiled, looking Antimony over. He slipped off the desk and then lunched forward to take her by her one ear, pulling her up and forward. "This is what violence feels like!" He turned and slammed her face flat on the desk he'd just vacated, following this up with a hard elbow downward on her head. He left his arm there to hold her in place. "Shouldn't you know better than to talk down to the Nunh?"
The huntresses had the advantage of range on Lamandu, two surrounding him and using the points of their long lances to threaten him while the third woman pulled the injured huntresses away. They seemed more interested in controlling him than killing him, though they also had a vested interested in hurting him, and they told him so as they took turns stabbing at the openings in his armor.
Long lances wielded by experienced bodyguards against an out of shape lalafell Captain didn't yield much of a fight. He'd taken the one by surprise, but it wasn't long before his sides were bleeding and he was keeping himself upright by leaning against the cabinet D'themia had thrown him up against. His short sword only managing to knock aside the occasional stabbing.
Antimony barely had time to react to the sharp twinge in her ear before her face hit the desk with a crack. Something snapped in her nose, sending a tingling numbness across her cheeks and up her forehead, and then stars lit up across her vision as D'themia's elbow slammed down on the back of her head. Her limbs went limp for several seconds in shock, sending the papers she'd held scattering to the floor below her and beneath the desk, and then began to struggle, pushing up from the desk.
"You are not my nunh," she spat in a kind of horrified anger, her tail flicking behind her, whacking D'themia. "Get off of me!"
"Oh, I'm not? When you came into my commune, I became your Nunh." He pressed down on Antimony's head and grabbed her tail, pulling it up towards himself as though he could fold her in half with it. "Now shut up!"
He was about to try and do so, in fact, when a crackling voice called from somewhere on his person, "Themiaaaa!"
The Nunh stopped short as though he'd stepped on a nail, wincing likewise, and with his eyes pinched close and his tail shivering he twisted one of the ornate rings on his hand and held the affixed linkpearl up to his ear. Sounding somehow more vicious than when he'd struck Antimony earlier, the Nunh barked, "What!"
D'edy's voice lamented from the pearl. "It's boring! The killer turned himself in. Just some psycho hobo killer or something. So Lamandu and Antimony aren't implicated anymore and Learner's... Oh! It looks like we're coming home now."
D'themia's expression twisted. "What?"
"Give yourself a kiss for me! See you soon!"
"What?"
No answer came from the linkpearl.
"What! Gah!" D'themia slammed his fist into his open palm and shouted into, "I'll rip your tail and gift it to Lolorito you emaciated, obnoxious-" He fell suddenly silent and snapped his hands to either side, where the shook for a moment before his fingers unfurled. The Nunh turned his frustrated gaze to the ceiling, joined his hands behind his back, and exhaled a long, slow breath that might've been dragonfire if his anatomy suited his demeanor. The huntresses in the room shifted subtly and renewed their stoic composures.
Finally, D'themia's gaze dropped. First he looked at Lamandu, his nostrils curling, and then to Antimony, "Has your investigations yielded their expected results?"
Antimony forced herself to watch her work for several seconds longer, steeling her nerves against D'themia's tone, before very deliberately setting her pen down alongside the papers. Her tail twitched anxiously, but this was luckily out of view where she stood behind the desk. Pursing her lips, she lifted her head and met the nunh's gaze with her own, purpling bruise and all. To her credit, she maintained her composure.
"I am just wrapping up," she acknowledged, paused, and then nodded. "I will need to take these records to the CRA for report. You will likely hear from them via other channels soon."
Lamandu let out a breath. So Learner wasn't going to come after him on flimsy, trumped up charges. Not that they would have stuck, given that he legitimately had no involvement in the matter. But he and his office were coming under enough scrutiny of late. He didn't need anything else, no matter how petty and pesky the matter was, being raised against him. But good, it looked like Antimony was done. Good new all around, "Not that you could have stopped us, you cannot simply void a warrant by saying the words," he said, addressing D'themia.
"I could not have stopped you?" D'themia muttered hoarsely before putting his heel to the Lalafel's chest and pushing the tiny armored man away from him with all his weight. "If I have you beaten beyond recognition and thrown to the refugees for meat, the supposed tenacity of your paperwork will not be much comfort to you!" In response to the Nunh's anger, the huntresses shifted, leaning slightly forward and easing their arms away from their sides. It was a pose of readiness, eyes wide, unsure when they would be expected to act on D'themia's threats.
The man growled at Antimony, "You will show me your results. Do not make the mistake of pretending that you will not."
The older woman's ears shivered close to her head at D'themia's threats. She cast a concerned look towards Lamandu, worried for the small captain's safety as the nunh shoved him forcefully across the floor. Surely he wouldn't act on such threats, though - it would only get him, and anyone else involved, into even greater trouble. She had dealt with belligerent clients in the past, and D'themia Nunh was just a particularly bad one.
Resting her hands flat atop the papers, she pulled them into a single pile. "I can only tell you that we've enough that you will be contacted again soon, I'm sorry. A formal write up will reach you soon to allow time for legal defense on your end." She swallowed, looking to Lamandu, and then added tensely, "And I should remind you that physical assault of investigators will be included in the report."
The breath was knocked out of Lamandu as he was brushed heavily into a filing cabinet, numbly recognizing the threats leveled at him and his blackmailer. He drew out his sword, long as it had been since he'd done that. It had been a long time since he had seen any real action. D'themia did not know that though. So as stood straight, Miqo'te towering over him, he cleared his throat.
He hadn't even heard Antimony's protests; but his voice was firm, "That was an assault on a Brass Blades Officer," he said brandishing his sword, "If you do not let us leave quietly with our work, you will have to be placed under arrest for assault and obstruction of an investigation.
D'themia Nunh was entertained by Lamandu's valiant stand. It was always valiant to him to watch a Lalafel try to defend himself with something other than laws or ethics. All that armor and his little sword made him about as threatening to D'themia as an oversized Scorpion. The tiny Brass Blade's growling tone had come with the satisfying click and shift of the huntresses around him taking their lances from their backs; the Nunh didn't have to look at them to know their ready stances, their wide eyes. Women were predictable like that. Strong Miqo'te women, once armed, needed only a word from their Nunh to assert the will of the tribe.
"Who will arrest me, tiny soldier? You are well outside your jurisdiction here. The only law is... Well, my law." He gestured to the huntresses, their white armor and ornate lances. "So who will arrest me? Who will witness the crime, and who will report it? What judge will oversee the trial who will not understand and pity the plight of an affluent man such as myself? None of these things will happen, and even if they could, they would not happen in time to save you. So, tell me," he leaned forward, his smile fading, "Am I not being generous -- oh, very diplomatic -- when I request merely to see the results of your investigation into my own tribe's monetary affairs? For I am not obligated to request, or to restrain my women."
Antimony tensed, her hands stilling over the stack of papers briefly before she took them up. Her eyes flicked briefly to the satchel sitting next to her feet, then back to D'themia. Captain Tyremandu's words and actions bolstered her somewhat, knowing that he was alright and that he was not presently backing down. "You know what we were looking for," she spoke carefully, her nerves showing themselves clearly in the way her ears twitched and her tail quivered, curling against the back of her legs. "I can say that your records reveal a, ah, suspicious parallel to what we found in the Brass Blades' archives. It is not my place to level official accusations, however, only to pass on my recommendations to the CRA."
Blood pumped erratically through the small man's veins as the D'themia's guard began to surround him. He was screwed every which way. Screwed if he defended Antimony. Screwed if he didn't. For once in the past few hours, he actually wished that Learner was going to come to arrest him on bogus charges. "You aren't above the law in this, D'themia. Your tribe is allowed to exist in this compound because it benefits trade; but that doesn't mean that an attack on officials will be overlooked. Learner certainly won't."
"If Learner were not a fool he would not have left you here alone." The Nunh chuckled. "He believes that I am the victim here, can't you tell? And it is true, for a woman of these tribe lies dead this morning and the Witch of the Sagolii comes here with lies." He pointed towards Antimony and barked, "She has found nothing! Divest her of her work and tell me what mistruths she has constructed!"
The huntress that was immediately next to Antimony spun on the woman and approached her with fast, hard steps, leading with the shaft of her lance held before her. She was prepared for Antimony to resist or to flee, and the huntress's businesslike gaze did not give much hope that either would be permitted.
Ears laying flat back against her head, Antimony squeaked in surprise as D'themia's words commanded a huntress to stomp towards her. The older woman's tail twisted, curled between her legs, and she frantically grabbed her bag from the floor before backing away from the oncoming huntress. "You--you will do no such thing! That would be tampering with evidence and interfering with an officially sanctioned investigation. More--more marks I would have to report! D'themia, this nonsense will do you no good."
One of the huntresses stalked past him towards Antimony in an obviously threatening manner. Crazy it probably was, considering his company; but the desperate adrenaline was pumping throughout him. Lamandu struck out at the woman, sword slicing at the back of her knees. "You will do no such thing!" He announced. He was probably dead. But better that than rotting in a jail cell with no money or prospects.
Yeah, Lamandu was probably dead. The woman he'd attacked cried out, knowing immediately what had happened to her and who was responsible. She managed to fall away from him and roll, trailing blood as she did so. The other huntresses, already in ready stances, had moved before their compatriot's knees had even hit the floor, lances and growls bared as they rushed at the Lalafel.
D'themia, in surprise, dropped all guise of fury and backpedaled from the confrontation, staying well away from any weapons. One moment ago Lamandu had been an oversized scorpion, but now he was hostile, and it was up to the Huntresses to deal with him. The Nunh paused on his heels when he was far enough away, for only an instant, before he pivoted and broke into a run, vaulting a desk to skirt around the violence and get to Antimony. For a large man, he was fast, his tail extended high behind him as he dodged furniture like it wasn't even there, throwing himself onto the table Antimony's paperwork had been on a moment before, and crouching there in front of her.
A Lalafel in armor was one thing, but D'themia Nunh knew how to deal with a disobedient woman. He growled, "Last warning, witch. I've already come this far, so I might as well go for broke."
Antimony let out a yelp, of both surprise and fear, when Lamandu struck out at huntress - a fear that became wholly realized when the others around the walls of the room mobilized towards the lalafell. "Captain!" Her voice cracked in warning but cut itself off when the nunh landed with a heavy thud on the desk in front of her.
Flinching away from the man, Antimony glared and snapped, "Cease this pointless violence!"
Blood dripped from the sword as the struck huntress rolled away, at least one of her hamstring sliced judging from the way she moved. He turned to face her sisters, bearing down on him as they were. He brandished his sword in front of him, unsure of where to point it as shadows threatened to overwhelm him. Antimony's shrill voice carried over everything happening at once. As one of the huntress came too close, he stuck out, firmly in his intent, but rusty in practice.
"Violence? Oh, this isn't even violent yet." D'themia smiled, looking Antimony over. He slipped off the desk and then lunched forward to take her by her one ear, pulling her up and forward. "This is what violence feels like!" He turned and slammed her face flat on the desk he'd just vacated, following this up with a hard elbow downward on her head. He left his arm there to hold her in place. "Shouldn't you know better than to talk down to the Nunh?"
The huntresses had the advantage of range on Lamandu, two surrounding him and using the points of their long lances to threaten him while the third woman pulled the injured huntresses away. They seemed more interested in controlling him than killing him, though they also had a vested interested in hurting him, and they told him so as they took turns stabbing at the openings in his armor.
Long lances wielded by experienced bodyguards against an out of shape lalafell Captain didn't yield much of a fight. He'd taken the one by surprise, but it wasn't long before his sides were bleeding and he was keeping himself upright by leaning against the cabinet D'themia had thrown him up against. His short sword only managing to knock aside the occasional stabbing.
Antimony barely had time to react to the sharp twinge in her ear before her face hit the desk with a crack. Something snapped in her nose, sending a tingling numbness across her cheeks and up her forehead, and then stars lit up across her vision as D'themia's elbow slammed down on the back of her head. Her limbs went limp for several seconds in shock, sending the papers she'd held scattering to the floor below her and beneath the desk, and then began to struggle, pushing up from the desk.
"You are not my nunh," she spat in a kind of horrified anger, her tail flicking behind her, whacking D'themia. "Get off of me!"
"Oh, I'm not? When you came into my commune, I became your Nunh." He pressed down on Antimony's head and grabbed her tail, pulling it up towards himself as though he could fold her in half with it. "Now shut up!"