Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-3293219-20160801233042/@comment-5543592-20160806004026

"Just headache.  He broke into the Hall last night, where I was practicing.  I tried to attack him, but things weren't really in my favour from the start..."

Last night.

Leya moved along about the room, practicing his stances, stepping through the swings. The Taneth Tower of the Hall of Virtues of War was quiet and dark, all others asleep at the hour, and she had the training floor to herself. The padded floors, sterile, thin walls, and wood edges where floor and wall met were all familiar to her now and gave her a sense of belonging.

Thus, her focus was so great, that she did not notice someone joining her in the room, until she turned, sword extended out, and found a man standing not an inch away from the point of her weapon.

He wore the robes of an Alik’r warrior, a red cape draping down his back, and his hijab—his head covering—was pulled up to hide his face from the bridge of the nose down. His eyes were a blue colour as sterile the as walls: lifeless, intense, and without a flicker of emotion. A scimitar was in a sheath at his hip, which was belted across his waist. His skin was a dark charcoal colour, and even though you could only see a fraction of his face, he was clearly a Redguard.

Leya, gasped, stepping back, sword still raised, but now to defend herself. “Who are you? How did you get in here?!”

“I let myself in.”   The man said, reaching up to pull the lower portion of the hijab below his chin, revealing the face of a not-quite middle aged man, as he appeared to be in his mid-thirties. He had strong, worn features, the looks of someone who had been born in hardship and never grew out of it. He would’ve been handsome, except there was something distinctly off-putting at how he seemed to always look slightly smug. The creases around his mouth and cheeks were absent from his eyes—he was someone who had never naturally smiled in his life.

“What do you want?”   The Redguard woman asked, watching him warily. It was never a good thing when a strange man appeared out of thin air.

The Alik’r smiled. “I’m glad you asked. Since you want to know, it’s you I came here for.”

Leya blinked, and warded him off with her sword. “You’d better leave. I’m not someone you want to mess with.”

“Are you?”   The warrior asked, moving closer, unafraid of the blade within easy striking distance of him, or that held in the hands of someone skilled in the Way of the Sword.

Leya’s grip tightened on the sword and she extended it further out at him, but he was undeterred.

“Come on then.”   He whispered, close enough that the point of the sword touched his chest. “Show me.”

Leya shouted and lunged forward, intent on forcing the blade through the man’s sternum. He simply turned to the side the instant before she applied pressure and she stumbled past as she completely missed her target, off balance. The Alik’r smirked at Leya’s back.

Leya used her momentum to spin around and launch a swing at the Redguard’s head, but he lowered it as if bowing to her, and it passed harmlessly over the back of his neck.

Finally, she took a stance and executed a routine chop for his abdomen, which he dodged in calm side-step, fingers laced in front of him like he was bored and waiting for her to be finished. She then advanced a step forwards, feinting a stab for his shoulder, but then redirected it by arcing her arm to send the blade down towards his side.

The move to avoid that one seemed as effortless as the others as he stepped around it, except this time he had been forced to lift his arm to keep his balance. Leya frowned. He was toying with her. Each step he took was with inexplicable grace, almost as if he knew what move she’d make before she made it. He was obviously a master and someone far more skilled than she was.

“Oh ho ho, very good.”   The man chuckled, clapping his hands, before suddenly taking on an intent expression. His sword seemed to almost appear in his hands, leaving its sheath in a blur. “But not good enough.”

<p class="MsoNormal">He swung in an overhead chop down at her, which Leya easily parried, but suddenly he’d brought the blade below her and was swinging it upwards. Leya cried out, both stumbling back a step and swinging out with her weapon to avoid being cut in half from head to toe.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Alik’r smoothly transitioned into a stab, which caught the fabric of her clothing, slicing it open, but missing the skin. Leya’s reaction was a half-second too late, and in that second she realized he hadn’t been trying to kill her. If he had, she likely would’ve been dead before she’d even known he was there.

<p class="MsoNormal">The realization did little to help her though. She was thrown off balance as her clothes snagged and then tore open on the scimitar’s edge, and she couldn’t find her stance again.

<p class="MsoNormal">The warrior wasted no time in taking advantage of the situation. In a graceful move, he crouched low and kicked out in a semi-circle, sweeping Leya off her feet. She landed with a thump on the floor, knocking her head, sword flying from her hand.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Ah!”   She cried out, the blow taking her by surprise. “Why—“

<p class="MsoNormal">The man, switching from a crouch to kneel beside her, raised his sword, and smashed the pommel of it into the side of her head before she could finish the question.

<p class="MsoNormal">He tossed her up onto his shoulder and then withdrew his note from a pouch at his waist, attached it to the end of Leya’s discarded sword.

<p class="MsoNormal">His job done, he vanished out onto the balcony.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">"He had me captive for a while, held in the apartment up there.  About twenty minutes ago, he said 'your saviors are coming', gagged me, and then tied me up to that rafter." She pointed to it.

<p class="MsoNormal">"I guess he meant you guys."