D'edy Nunh watched drops of wine fall from his soaked sash to the floor while he haphazardly swung it about. Puffing out his cheeks, D'edy caught his sash and tucked the wet end into a pocket, which was immediately stained red. He then dashed about in a small circle around where he'd been standing, using his feet to pull the dangling edges of his robe over the floor and soak up the little droplets of wine. While he did this, he stammered, "Uhm, nothing. I'm just thinking... See, I'm curious... And your friend did get rid of my keeper, so... I might take this opportunity to... Well...If D'themia doesn't show up I'll never find out why you're here, right?"
Thin tail flying out behind him, D'edy spun and ran towards the stairs leading up into the tower, his feet slapping on the hard floor. "As long as I have a free second I think I'm going to be annoying. I bet I can find him!" The fuzz of his ears bounced as he jumped onto the first step.
The strange nunh's antics across the floor distracted Antimony from much of what he said, such that she almost didn't catch him dashing off. She tossed a bit of a wide-eyed look Lamandu's way, grey brows arching up behind the rims of her glasses, and then scrambled to scoop up her bag. Her brain processed his last words several seconds later.
"You know where he is? Or where he could be?" She lifted her voice insistently as she felt her feet carry her after the miqo'te's bobbing ears and tail. "We will go with you, then." Her own tail flicked behind her in an agitated manner. Why wait for that overbearing guard to return when they could just make use of this young man?
"No, no," D'edy Nunh spun five steps up. He failed to stop his momentum, so fell backwards on landed on his elbows between steps, his wine-soaked robe making a wet splat on the stone. He kept a palm up despite this and said with only a mild cringe, "No, you can't come up here. That would be bad. Just wait for a second. And don't tell anyone where I've gone!" He pushed himself up backwards, crab-walking for half a meter before turning and ascending on all fours.
No sooner had the echo of the Nunh's warning faded than the door to the tower was thrown open. It slammed inward, loudly, revealing the small, puffball-haired huntress. Her eyes were wide open, and the omnipresent cheer she'd had before was gone. "Hey, D'edy! What are-" she paused, her eyes flicking around, tail shivering behind her. She looked at Lamandu, then at Antimony. "Where'd D'edy go? What are you doing by the stairs there!"
"Wait! It won't matter once he--" Antimony's words, and steps, halted immediately at the heavy thud of the door behind her, the noise shaking the walls and lodging solidly in her ears. She spun around, ears shaking to dispel the echoes of the sound, and barely held back a cring at the huntress's exclamation.
"Ah, that! I was... just..." She cast a glance towards her lalafell companion, still lounging on his pillows, "... looking around! Here. Down here. The stairs' vicinity is pure coincidence!"
Returning to a more upright position, the small man, who seemed so terribly out of place amongst all the Miqo'te found in the compound, spoke up, "D'edy? I believe he said he had some business to attend to. Had confidence that we could entertain ourselves in the meantime. We weren't about to go running around and getting lost in the place." He turns towards Antimony, who appeared far to curious for her own good, standing at the edge of the stairs as she was. "Really Antimony, I know you're anxious. Come sit down and settle out those nerves a bit. I don't know why you're so reluctant to. One could almost make the assumption that you don't know -how- to relax!"
The woman's blonde tail flicked behind her. With the light of day at her back, she appeared almost like a caricature of a woman, wire thin at limbs and hips but the white armor making her broad at her shoulders. Her ears shifted about, invisible in her hair, and the movement manifested as a twitching of the yellow puffball on top of her head. Blue eyes flicked down at Lamandu, then up at Antimony, who stood very much like she was intending to take some kind of action.
"D'edy," she hissed, stationary for a half instant more before her body shot forward, lance flickering sharply above her as she bent so low she was almost on all fours. She ignored Antimony and Lamandu as she went to the stairs, shouting as she went, "D'edy Nunh don't make me tackle you down!" She was well behind her quarry, though.
"Wait!" Antimony found herself calling out again, though for a different reason this time, hands reaching out as though to try and stop the huntress, though not following through with the action. Her tail fluffed up, sticking almost straight out behind her. "There's nothing--nothing to worry about! He's only gone to... well, we must see D'themia Nunh!"
"D'edy will return on his own, no need to rashly fetch him back." Lamandu was rather relaxed about this whole situation, still content to sit at his table, voice unraised. "He's perfectly capable of managing his own matters."
"Just stay put!" The dandelion-headed huntress shouted, echoing the instructions given by seemingly every Dodo, as she ran up the stairs into the tower. Under her breath as she went were muttered threats to D'edy Nunh, ho was well out of earshot. She would once again leave the pair alone in the luxurious waiting area.
"But we--" Antimony cut herself off as the huntress disappeared up the stairs, though her pounding feet were heard for many seconds after. The older woman stood at the bottom of the stairs, fidgeting with her glasses nervously, before casting a sideways glance in Lamandu's direction. One ear twitched.
"... well," she muttered after a time, her tail still fluffed rather dramatically though it now hung down towards the ground. "That did not go quite as hoped." She sighed, tail swishing. "I hope that so-called nunh hasn't ruined our opportunity to speak with D'themia."
"I'm sure things will work out quite alright. Not much we can do about it at the moment. We have no proof that these particular individuals are interfering in this investigation. If we find out later that they were... we can certainly charge them with obstruction, but as it stands at least we are inside and comfortable," responded Lamandu, shrugging.
Lamandu's words may have been intended to calm, but they only spurred further thought from Antimony. Silence fell between them, broken only by the faint, rapid tapping of the older woman's foot against the floor. Her brow knit together, and she frowned vaguely towards the lalafell, churning over a number of private thoughts.
She lasted all of one minute before spinning around towards the stairs. "No, I won't do it! I will not take being treated this way!" Pulling herself up to her full height and drawing in a deep breath, she made for the stairs. "With me, Captain. We will see this done, whether they like it or not!"
Narrowing his eyes at the almost war-like declaration, the sense of gravitas did not come onto Lamandu as it seemingly found its way into Antimony. "And throw this progress that we have made away? No, patience is a virtue, I am surprised you have not learned that in your age. This is likely what saw you thrown into jail the first time, and almost saw us needing militant force at the gate."
"I've seen enough at my age," the nerve of him bringing something like that up, "to know that they will not yield further unless a firmer hand is used. They will keep us here all day, waiting, in hopes that we will grow tired and... and retreat!" Her hands twisted about the strap of her satchel which she hadn't realized she'd taken up, wringing the leather until it wrinkled and cracked. She would not be driven away from this, through intimidation or through passive neglect, Antimony resolved, and ignored the small, internal suggestion that her single-minded focus was perhaps a touch too zealous and perhaps somewhat motivated by... other things. "Now get up here with me and do your part."
She began to climb the stairs.
Frowning, Lamandu considers his position, or rather that he wasn't really allowed to have one at this time. Even if she didn't realize it at this very moment, Antimony had the potential to make his life quite miserable if she so chose to. So, the lalafell dragged himself to his feet, following at the woman at as slow a pace as he could manage without actively seeming to be trying to lag behind, "Of course ma'am. This is your operation. I was merely playing the part of an advisor. But obviously you have no need for one." He followed that up with a mumbled opinion of his own, "Not that you haven't needed one in the past."
***
"D'edy Nunh!" The puffball-haired Miqo'te lunged at the thin man. He paused and looked over his shoulder as the small woman came at it, even smaller than she was and thin besides. His shaggy ears bounced under his saggy hair, and for a moment he looked petrified, before a smile broke over his face like a crack in a mirror and he slipped away from the huntress with surprisingly deft movements. The woman fell to the marble floor with a huff.
"Sorry, sis!" the thin Nunh announced, backpedaling down the hallway with light, dance-like footsteps. "You know how I can be once I'm interested in something!" He noticed Antimony's head cresting the top of the stairs in that moment, and waved to her briefly. Then, in an attempt to keep the attention on himself, he spun and began to careen down the hall, shouting, "D'themiaaa! Aren't you supposed to be in a meeeeting?"
"D'edy shut up!" The huntress stuggled to her feet and gave chase again. "This is not the day for this shit!"
Past several elegantly adorned stone doors lining the curving hallway, D'edy threw open a door through which light poured. He took a moment to cringe at the light, then shrugged and ran in. The huntress pursued him.
***
Lamandu's protests fell on willfully deaf ears as Antimony started her way up the stairs. She could hear shouts above them - presumably the huntress and that pretend nunh - though the winding stairs bounced the sound around to make the words difficult to distinguish. She crested the top of the stairs just as the huntress's fluffy tail disappeared around a sharp curve in the hallway they spilled onto, D'edy's voice a fading echo.
Holding the satchel to her chest, Antimony stepped into the hall and looked to either side, up the towering walls and to the doors. Several moments passed where the scene felt disturbingly still and silent, with Antimony poised at the front of the hall as she considered her next move. She heard Lamandu come up behind her and glanced down at the lalafell, managing something of an apologetic look.
"I suppose it's alright to assume that man knows where he is going. Better than intruding on every room in this place," she gave a very brief smile and then was off again, her tail trailing behind her like a banner. The click of her shoes echoed strangely in the stone hall, but she could not allow the sense of being a foreigner to dissuade her. She rounded the same curve D'edy and the huntress had taken, caught sight of the broad door flung open and left invitingly a short ways further, and regathered her determination before continuing towards it.
Lamandu followed with a sigh, he had rather been hoping that this entire thing would fall apart on the basis the Dodo's stall tactics. They were experts on the subject, unfortunately it seemed that Antimony was too obsessed with this whole bit, not that it came as a surprise. So he followed the lady at a slow pace, not particularly willing to speed the process up, "As you say Ma'am," he replied to her comment on pursuing D'edy.
***
The door that D'edy had fled into was a portal into somber air. The broad room it opened onto recalled the "waiting room" where Antimony and the others had been left, albeit smaller and more intimately furnished. Its outer wall was a broad window, letting dry desert air and sunlight fill up the strangely shaped, only vaguely round-ish room. At the center ere odd pieces of furniture that seemed like soft tables or short daybeds twisted into irregular shapes, adorned in pillows and dappled with flat surfaces on which sat incense, decanters, or polished crystal cups. There were three huntresses in the room, dressed in white, before the dandelion-haired huntress chased D'edy Nunh into the room and became the fourth huntress present. The huntress immediately stopped, as though beached against the dire mood of the room, and whispered, "I am so sorry."
D'edy vaulted one of the daybeds, trailing drops of red wine from his soaked robes, and landing in the middle of the room he interrupted a conversation that had been carrying in slow, heavy tones, between two men seated opposite one another. The thin Nunh with the fuzzy ears seemed singularly unaffected by the serious looks and tones of the others, spinning and falling back onto the red satin bed with a heavy thump that sent two pillows rolling across the floor.
The men at the center of the room rose straight, lifting their heads from their discussion and giving the sandy cat confused looks. One of them was a Hyur in white and silver armor. The other, a Miqo'te with dark brown skin and light hair, twisted his craggy features in annoyance. "D'edy."
"I'm so sorry," the Nunh said, mocking the tone of the woman that had chased him. He sat up and smacked the floor with his bare feet, grinning. "There are no naked women in here. Is this an actual meeting? Tell me what it's about!"
The huntresses lining the walls exchanged looks, though they remained stationary where they were, with their lances in their hands and their stances relaxed. Dandelion-head slinked back towards the wall and tried to pretend she belonged among them. Meanwhile the craggy man snarled at D'edy. "Take a guess, Nunh."
"Pardon," the Hyur leaned forward, gestured to D'edy, "Is this man-"
"No!" The craggy Miqo'te snapped.
D'edy pouted, though his ears popped up happily, "I am. I definitely am."
Another growl, "Are what, D'edy?"
"I'm not sure."
"Wait outside!"
Antimony continued her two-person parade down the hall, to the door, and then through the door without even a breath of hesitation. She had set her features into as firm and professional a look as she was possibly capable of, with a touch of impatience to drive home her point of no-more-messing-around-with-Anti. Upon entering the room D'edy had disappeared into, her eyes went first to the huntresses in white, and she stifled a flare of nerves before taking a few more steps inside. She could only hope Captain Tyremandu had not abandoned her and was right behind, prepared to offer the support of the Brass Blades.
She wasn't quite sure what she would do if he had fled.
Her eyes passed over the strange furnishings without really seeing them, snapping instead to the cluster of men further back in the room. One she recognized as the self-proclaimed nunh; the others were strangers to her.
Well, there was really nothing else to it now.
Antimony cleared her throat, put her feet together, drew her chin up, and announced, "Excuse my interrupting, but as a representative of the Commerce Regulation Agency and backed by the Brass Blades, I must meet with D'themia Nunh to discuss a financial matter of grave importance."
Still trailing behind the small train of Miqo'te, Lamandu considered turning back and leaving Antimony to the Dodos, sure that she wouldn't last. Unfortunately, he was pretty sure that the Elezen would track him down and make good on the blackmail threats. So he moved into the meeting room behind the woman, standing as tall as one of his kind could. If he had to do this may as well do it in full measure, his blades uniform in full view. He holds out a hand "We apologize for this interruption, we had not intended to in this manner. But you need to come speak with us concerning certain matters."
D'edy Nunh let out a small, silent cheer in approval of the interlopers' appearance, and as soon as all eyes in the room turned to Antimony and Lamandu, D'edy was on his feet again. The fuzzy-eared, thin tail man appeared overwhelmed by a need to stay in motion, like a bird that would drop out of the sky if it quit spinning in circles. D'edy walked the open space along the broad, open window, where the white stone met the brown-yellow wall. Occasionally he stepped up into the gap of the window, swinging one arm out into the open air, but stepped right back down again.
Of the two men in the center of the room, the first to stand was the Miqo'te man, his broad golden tail sweeping elegantly behind him as he turned and gave Antimony a bit of a wide-eyed look, though his features remained in check. His face was not elegant as his gestures, cast in dark, rigid lines, with deep, dark eyes and a mouth that seemed carved into a permanent frown. The man spoke with a tone of obvious restraint, surmounting his surprise at the woman's interest to say, "Ah. Welcome. It's..." he shook his head. "Antimony Jhanhi." He looked to the Lalafel, "And with her, the lauded-"
"Lamandu Tyremandu!" The hyur man snapped to his feet, wide-eyed and open-jawed as though some long-absent nemesis had just entered the room. His silver armor clattered with the movement, light hair shifting over his features. "I hadn't thought these issues connected! Do you mean to tell me your Blades are involved in this, Tyremandu?"
Walking along the wall, D'edy laughed at the hyur's reaction. He hopped up into the window and began to walk the thin line of the wall between the wall and the long fall from the tower to the Husting's Strip. One or two of the huntresses gave him sparse attention, but it was dandelion-head, still looking out of place, who hissed in a whisper, "D'edy, get down from there!"
"Now." The Miqo'te man in the center of the room held out a calming hand to the Hyur man. "I will be pleased to welcome the Captain and the Witch of the Sagolii into this discussion." He inclined his head to Antimony and Lamandu, "I am D'themia Nunh, and my friend here is Bayard Learner of the Sultansworn. If you would please recall Mister Carceri, who I believe just left?"
Thin tail flying out behind him, D'edy spun and ran towards the stairs leading up into the tower, his feet slapping on the hard floor. "As long as I have a free second I think I'm going to be annoying. I bet I can find him!" The fuzz of his ears bounced as he jumped onto the first step.
The strange nunh's antics across the floor distracted Antimony from much of what he said, such that she almost didn't catch him dashing off. She tossed a bit of a wide-eyed look Lamandu's way, grey brows arching up behind the rims of her glasses, and then scrambled to scoop up her bag. Her brain processed his last words several seconds later.
"You know where he is? Or where he could be?" She lifted her voice insistently as she felt her feet carry her after the miqo'te's bobbing ears and tail. "We will go with you, then." Her own tail flicked behind her in an agitated manner. Why wait for that overbearing guard to return when they could just make use of this young man?
"No, no," D'edy Nunh spun five steps up. He failed to stop his momentum, so fell backwards on landed on his elbows between steps, his wine-soaked robe making a wet splat on the stone. He kept a palm up despite this and said with only a mild cringe, "No, you can't come up here. That would be bad. Just wait for a second. And don't tell anyone where I've gone!" He pushed himself up backwards, crab-walking for half a meter before turning and ascending on all fours.
No sooner had the echo of the Nunh's warning faded than the door to the tower was thrown open. It slammed inward, loudly, revealing the small, puffball-haired huntress. Her eyes were wide open, and the omnipresent cheer she'd had before was gone. "Hey, D'edy! What are-" she paused, her eyes flicking around, tail shivering behind her. She looked at Lamandu, then at Antimony. "Where'd D'edy go? What are you doing by the stairs there!"
"Wait! It won't matter once he--" Antimony's words, and steps, halted immediately at the heavy thud of the door behind her, the noise shaking the walls and lodging solidly in her ears. She spun around, ears shaking to dispel the echoes of the sound, and barely held back a cring at the huntress's exclamation.
"Ah, that! I was... just..." She cast a glance towards her lalafell companion, still lounging on his pillows, "... looking around! Here. Down here. The stairs' vicinity is pure coincidence!"
Returning to a more upright position, the small man, who seemed so terribly out of place amongst all the Miqo'te found in the compound, spoke up, "D'edy? I believe he said he had some business to attend to. Had confidence that we could entertain ourselves in the meantime. We weren't about to go running around and getting lost in the place." He turns towards Antimony, who appeared far to curious for her own good, standing at the edge of the stairs as she was. "Really Antimony, I know you're anxious. Come sit down and settle out those nerves a bit. I don't know why you're so reluctant to. One could almost make the assumption that you don't know -how- to relax!"
The woman's blonde tail flicked behind her. With the light of day at her back, she appeared almost like a caricature of a woman, wire thin at limbs and hips but the white armor making her broad at her shoulders. Her ears shifted about, invisible in her hair, and the movement manifested as a twitching of the yellow puffball on top of her head. Blue eyes flicked down at Lamandu, then up at Antimony, who stood very much like she was intending to take some kind of action.
"D'edy," she hissed, stationary for a half instant more before her body shot forward, lance flickering sharply above her as she bent so low she was almost on all fours. She ignored Antimony and Lamandu as she went to the stairs, shouting as she went, "D'edy Nunh don't make me tackle you down!" She was well behind her quarry, though.
"Wait!" Antimony found herself calling out again, though for a different reason this time, hands reaching out as though to try and stop the huntress, though not following through with the action. Her tail fluffed up, sticking almost straight out behind her. "There's nothing--nothing to worry about! He's only gone to... well, we must see D'themia Nunh!"
"D'edy will return on his own, no need to rashly fetch him back." Lamandu was rather relaxed about this whole situation, still content to sit at his table, voice unraised. "He's perfectly capable of managing his own matters."
"Just stay put!" The dandelion-headed huntress shouted, echoing the instructions given by seemingly every Dodo, as she ran up the stairs into the tower. Under her breath as she went were muttered threats to D'edy Nunh, ho was well out of earshot. She would once again leave the pair alone in the luxurious waiting area.
"But we--" Antimony cut herself off as the huntress disappeared up the stairs, though her pounding feet were heard for many seconds after. The older woman stood at the bottom of the stairs, fidgeting with her glasses nervously, before casting a sideways glance in Lamandu's direction. One ear twitched.
"... well," she muttered after a time, her tail still fluffed rather dramatically though it now hung down towards the ground. "That did not go quite as hoped." She sighed, tail swishing. "I hope that so-called nunh hasn't ruined our opportunity to speak with D'themia."
"I'm sure things will work out quite alright. Not much we can do about it at the moment. We have no proof that these particular individuals are interfering in this investigation. If we find out later that they were... we can certainly charge them with obstruction, but as it stands at least we are inside and comfortable," responded Lamandu, shrugging.
Lamandu's words may have been intended to calm, but they only spurred further thought from Antimony. Silence fell between them, broken only by the faint, rapid tapping of the older woman's foot against the floor. Her brow knit together, and she frowned vaguely towards the lalafell, churning over a number of private thoughts.
She lasted all of one minute before spinning around towards the stairs. "No, I won't do it! I will not take being treated this way!" Pulling herself up to her full height and drawing in a deep breath, she made for the stairs. "With me, Captain. We will see this done, whether they like it or not!"
Narrowing his eyes at the almost war-like declaration, the sense of gravitas did not come onto Lamandu as it seemingly found its way into Antimony. "And throw this progress that we have made away? No, patience is a virtue, I am surprised you have not learned that in your age. This is likely what saw you thrown into jail the first time, and almost saw us needing militant force at the gate."
"I've seen enough at my age," the nerve of him bringing something like that up, "to know that they will not yield further unless a firmer hand is used. They will keep us here all day, waiting, in hopes that we will grow tired and... and retreat!" Her hands twisted about the strap of her satchel which she hadn't realized she'd taken up, wringing the leather until it wrinkled and cracked. She would not be driven away from this, through intimidation or through passive neglect, Antimony resolved, and ignored the small, internal suggestion that her single-minded focus was perhaps a touch too zealous and perhaps somewhat motivated by... other things. "Now get up here with me and do your part."
She began to climb the stairs.
Frowning, Lamandu considers his position, or rather that he wasn't really allowed to have one at this time. Even if she didn't realize it at this very moment, Antimony had the potential to make his life quite miserable if she so chose to. So, the lalafell dragged himself to his feet, following at the woman at as slow a pace as he could manage without actively seeming to be trying to lag behind, "Of course ma'am. This is your operation. I was merely playing the part of an advisor. But obviously you have no need for one." He followed that up with a mumbled opinion of his own, "Not that you haven't needed one in the past."
***
"D'edy Nunh!" The puffball-haired Miqo'te lunged at the thin man. He paused and looked over his shoulder as the small woman came at it, even smaller than she was and thin besides. His shaggy ears bounced under his saggy hair, and for a moment he looked petrified, before a smile broke over his face like a crack in a mirror and he slipped away from the huntress with surprisingly deft movements. The woman fell to the marble floor with a huff.
"Sorry, sis!" the thin Nunh announced, backpedaling down the hallway with light, dance-like footsteps. "You know how I can be once I'm interested in something!" He noticed Antimony's head cresting the top of the stairs in that moment, and waved to her briefly. Then, in an attempt to keep the attention on himself, he spun and began to careen down the hall, shouting, "D'themiaaa! Aren't you supposed to be in a meeeeting?"
"D'edy shut up!" The huntress stuggled to her feet and gave chase again. "This is not the day for this shit!"
Past several elegantly adorned stone doors lining the curving hallway, D'edy threw open a door through which light poured. He took a moment to cringe at the light, then shrugged and ran in. The huntress pursued him.
***
Lamandu's protests fell on willfully deaf ears as Antimony started her way up the stairs. She could hear shouts above them - presumably the huntress and that pretend nunh - though the winding stairs bounced the sound around to make the words difficult to distinguish. She crested the top of the stairs just as the huntress's fluffy tail disappeared around a sharp curve in the hallway they spilled onto, D'edy's voice a fading echo.
Holding the satchel to her chest, Antimony stepped into the hall and looked to either side, up the towering walls and to the doors. Several moments passed where the scene felt disturbingly still and silent, with Antimony poised at the front of the hall as she considered her next move. She heard Lamandu come up behind her and glanced down at the lalafell, managing something of an apologetic look.
"I suppose it's alright to assume that man knows where he is going. Better than intruding on every room in this place," she gave a very brief smile and then was off again, her tail trailing behind her like a banner. The click of her shoes echoed strangely in the stone hall, but she could not allow the sense of being a foreigner to dissuade her. She rounded the same curve D'edy and the huntress had taken, caught sight of the broad door flung open and left invitingly a short ways further, and regathered her determination before continuing towards it.
Lamandu followed with a sigh, he had rather been hoping that this entire thing would fall apart on the basis the Dodo's stall tactics. They were experts on the subject, unfortunately it seemed that Antimony was too obsessed with this whole bit, not that it came as a surprise. So he followed the lady at a slow pace, not particularly willing to speed the process up, "As you say Ma'am," he replied to her comment on pursuing D'edy.
***
The door that D'edy had fled into was a portal into somber air. The broad room it opened onto recalled the "waiting room" where Antimony and the others had been left, albeit smaller and more intimately furnished. Its outer wall was a broad window, letting dry desert air and sunlight fill up the strangely shaped, only vaguely round-ish room. At the center ere odd pieces of furniture that seemed like soft tables or short daybeds twisted into irregular shapes, adorned in pillows and dappled with flat surfaces on which sat incense, decanters, or polished crystal cups. There were three huntresses in the room, dressed in white, before the dandelion-haired huntress chased D'edy Nunh into the room and became the fourth huntress present. The huntress immediately stopped, as though beached against the dire mood of the room, and whispered, "I am so sorry."
D'edy vaulted one of the daybeds, trailing drops of red wine from his soaked robes, and landing in the middle of the room he interrupted a conversation that had been carrying in slow, heavy tones, between two men seated opposite one another. The thin Nunh with the fuzzy ears seemed singularly unaffected by the serious looks and tones of the others, spinning and falling back onto the red satin bed with a heavy thump that sent two pillows rolling across the floor.
The men at the center of the room rose straight, lifting their heads from their discussion and giving the sandy cat confused looks. One of them was a Hyur in white and silver armor. The other, a Miqo'te with dark brown skin and light hair, twisted his craggy features in annoyance. "D'edy."
"I'm so sorry," the Nunh said, mocking the tone of the woman that had chased him. He sat up and smacked the floor with his bare feet, grinning. "There are no naked women in here. Is this an actual meeting? Tell me what it's about!"
The huntresses lining the walls exchanged looks, though they remained stationary where they were, with their lances in their hands and their stances relaxed. Dandelion-head slinked back towards the wall and tried to pretend she belonged among them. Meanwhile the craggy man snarled at D'edy. "Take a guess, Nunh."
"Pardon," the Hyur leaned forward, gestured to D'edy, "Is this man-"
"No!" The craggy Miqo'te snapped.
D'edy pouted, though his ears popped up happily, "I am. I definitely am."
Another growl, "Are what, D'edy?"
"I'm not sure."
"Wait outside!"
Antimony continued her two-person parade down the hall, to the door, and then through the door without even a breath of hesitation. She had set her features into as firm and professional a look as she was possibly capable of, with a touch of impatience to drive home her point of no-more-messing-around-with-Anti. Upon entering the room D'edy had disappeared into, her eyes went first to the huntresses in white, and she stifled a flare of nerves before taking a few more steps inside. She could only hope Captain Tyremandu had not abandoned her and was right behind, prepared to offer the support of the Brass Blades.
She wasn't quite sure what she would do if he had fled.
Her eyes passed over the strange furnishings without really seeing them, snapping instead to the cluster of men further back in the room. One she recognized as the self-proclaimed nunh; the others were strangers to her.
Well, there was really nothing else to it now.
Antimony cleared her throat, put her feet together, drew her chin up, and announced, "Excuse my interrupting, but as a representative of the Commerce Regulation Agency and backed by the Brass Blades, I must meet with D'themia Nunh to discuss a financial matter of grave importance."
Still trailing behind the small train of Miqo'te, Lamandu considered turning back and leaving Antimony to the Dodos, sure that she wouldn't last. Unfortunately, he was pretty sure that the Elezen would track him down and make good on the blackmail threats. So he moved into the meeting room behind the woman, standing as tall as one of his kind could. If he had to do this may as well do it in full measure, his blades uniform in full view. He holds out a hand "We apologize for this interruption, we had not intended to in this manner. But you need to come speak with us concerning certain matters."
D'edy Nunh let out a small, silent cheer in approval of the interlopers' appearance, and as soon as all eyes in the room turned to Antimony and Lamandu, D'edy was on his feet again. The fuzzy-eared, thin tail man appeared overwhelmed by a need to stay in motion, like a bird that would drop out of the sky if it quit spinning in circles. D'edy walked the open space along the broad, open window, where the white stone met the brown-yellow wall. Occasionally he stepped up into the gap of the window, swinging one arm out into the open air, but stepped right back down again.
Of the two men in the center of the room, the first to stand was the Miqo'te man, his broad golden tail sweeping elegantly behind him as he turned and gave Antimony a bit of a wide-eyed look, though his features remained in check. His face was not elegant as his gestures, cast in dark, rigid lines, with deep, dark eyes and a mouth that seemed carved into a permanent frown. The man spoke with a tone of obvious restraint, surmounting his surprise at the woman's interest to say, "Ah. Welcome. It's..." he shook his head. "Antimony Jhanhi." He looked to the Lalafel, "And with her, the lauded-"
"Lamandu Tyremandu!" The hyur man snapped to his feet, wide-eyed and open-jawed as though some long-absent nemesis had just entered the room. His silver armor clattered with the movement, light hair shifting over his features. "I hadn't thought these issues connected! Do you mean to tell me your Blades are involved in this, Tyremandu?"
Walking along the wall, D'edy laughed at the hyur's reaction. He hopped up into the window and began to walk the thin line of the wall between the wall and the long fall from the tower to the Husting's Strip. One or two of the huntresses gave him sparse attention, but it was dandelion-head, still looking out of place, who hissed in a whisper, "D'edy, get down from there!"
"Now." The Miqo'te man in the center of the room held out a calming hand to the Hyur man. "I will be pleased to welcome the Captain and the Witch of the Sagolii into this discussion." He inclined his head to Antimony and Lamandu, "I am D'themia Nunh, and my friend here is Bayard Learner of the Sultansworn. If you would please recall Mister Carceri, who I believe just left?"
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"Song dogs barking at the break of dawn, lightning pushes the edges of a thunderstorm; and these streets, quiet as a sleeping army, send their battered dreams to heaven."
Hipparion Tribe (Sagolii)Â - Â Antimony Jhanhi's Wiki
