Settling Debts [FINISHED]

[Bee]

Shinrai had a steady eye turned on her, but his intense gaze didn't make her feel uncomfortable. He would keep doing as she said until this was over and she gave him the information--or, rather, "information"--he wanted concerning the legally questionable fun that Mnem and Minh had had with him.

"Akhar," she said, calmly, sweetly, like this could all be over in an instant; Mnem would make all the bad pain go away he if just cooperated. The weasel did not appear placated. He was perhaps too familiar with her to be fooled by feigned kindness. It didn't really matter. "You owe me a good deal of money, and I'm very curious as to why you refuse to pay up, given all that I've done for you in the past."

The weasel sputtered out something incoherent; it might have been pleading and it might have been excuses; Mnem did not care. She was not interested in excuses and she did not intend on responding to pleading with pity. She had expenses to attend to and an enterprise to get off the ground, and she wasn't about to accept no for an answer.

"This is only going to get worse, my dear friend," she said. The weasel merely shrunk back, and there was fear and also insolence in his eyes. Why wasn't the damn thing cooperating? She threw another nod at Shinrai. "See if you can get him talking."

[seraaches]

Shinrai was also rather curious about why exactly the weasel wasn’t working with them on this issue. Not only was he obviously out-muscled, out-ranked, and out-numbered, the visiting pair obviously had not only a disinterest in his welfare but an outright dislike of the Spade himself. Maybe it was just the way of scum, but part of Rai’s mind relegated to a closer attention to their surroundings and wot may or may not be occurring there.

It seemed most of the weasel’s neighbours had no desire to inspect the cause for the visiting duo; Jacks did not seem to be in excess out here. Or even normal. The stallion was very aware that his rank made him stick out some, but the only thing he truly cared about was not getting jumped by some upstart. Gangs were not uncommon here.

The stallion eyed his current project thoughtfully, using his tail to put pressure on the broken femur bony as he increased the pressure with his magic yet again. His fighting style tended to be more deadly if he wasn’t careful, so it took a lot of thought on how to just cause pain rather than actually kill the Six. Soon enough, the creature was trying to stop hoarse screams of pain yet again.

[Bee]

The weasel squeaked and squealed, but he failed to bleat out anything useful. Mnem was beginning to get bored. Rebellion was usually interesting to watch at first, mostly when one was sure it would be squashed easily and soon, but it grew dull very quickly. Her mind began fishing for possible reasons why the weasel was reluctant to even tell her why he was refusing paying her back.

Unless he was under some kind of threat from someone else, whom he apparently feared more than Mnem and Shinrai and his own possibly imminent demise. The thought of that set Mnemosyne's nerves on edge. She didn't like the idea of someone with more command than she running around. And what could this someone be threatening Akhar with?

She decided to try a different interrogation tactic. None of this slow build-up. Push the weasel to the far edge of pain and despair, dip him over it, pull him back. Show him everything she was capable of. And then make him one last offer, different than her earlier threats.

"One more time, Shinrai," she said, voice low. "Give him everything you have, but don't kill him, thank you kindly."

[seraaches]

Everything he had? Rai’s ears flicked back, giving him a devilish look, though it was really just him being throughtful. As much pain as possible as quickly as possible without killing the weasel. That might actually be a little difficult; he wasn’t a torturer by nature. His Heart pain-causing ability was really defensive in nature rather than offensive and his mind was following the same circles as Mnem’s with the singular exception of he wasn’t certain any sort of pain or threat of death could convince the weasel to talk, not if he was so determined to not.

The stallion walked around the weasel thoughtfully, almost absently sending another hoof out to crack the tibia of the Spade’s right hind leg. The creature wouldn’t be walking anywhere any time soon; at least not with his back legs. The weasel gave an angry hiss, collapsed on his floor. Shinrai tossed him onto his back absently, jostling the two broken bones without care. The weasel cursed loudly again, but the stallion was still circling, still thinking. Wot he thought might be best would be made more difficult by the fact that he had no knife and no hands with which to wield a knife. He’d done this before, but it had been more by accident.

The stallion stepped over to stand beside the Six and raised his front hoof carefully. He eyed the weasel cautiously; his eyesight was not meant for close range and his initial strike was a little off. The weasel screeched slightly as the sharp hoof scraped across his chest. He had little break, however, when the stallion did a careful hop back wards and then slashed his golden hoof across the creature’s belly, ripping through the flesh and exposing the man’s innards.

[Bee]

Mnemosyne eyed the weasel carefully, as he lay bleeding and helpless on the ground. He was looking at his exposed insides with an acute and all-consuming kind of terror, and she suspected that he thought he was going to die. Mnem had no plans on killing him--for the moment--but better he assume she did.

"I can protect you," she told the weasel, and something Akhar's expression told her that she had finally taken the right track. "From whoever currently owns your sorry hide." Sorting through her mental files of information concerning the Spade, she managed to dredge up something she had formally not cared about. "You and your lovely little daughter, yes?" She did not know how deeply Akhar cared for the child, as she evidently did not live with him and he had mentioned seeing her only infrequently, but it was a chance she was willing to take.

It paid off. The weasel took a rasping breath.

"You can tell me," she said softly, encouragingly. "Did he threaten you against associating with me?"

She had no idea who this "he" was, of if it were even a "he" in the first place, but Akhar would know.

"Eran said not to tell the bitch anything." The words were spat out of the Spade's mouth, accompanied by a bit of blood. She would have to give him medical attention soon. She could only assume that the bitch in question was her. "He knows you're...he knows you've been prowling a-about the City, trying to, trying to...."

Mnem remembered Eran, vaguely. Smug-faced twerp. Ambitious.

And stupid, apparently.

What was he trying to do--keep her out of business by putting her old contacts in his pocket?

She debated about asking him more. How much did she really want Shinrai to know about her operation, exactly? What would he do with the information? He had little love for Mnem, certainly. She would just have to keep the upper hand, and keep him quiet. No telling him anything significant about his abduction, then.

Not that she had been planning on doing that anyway.

"Let's fix our friend up a bit," she told the stallion. "Then we'll see what else he has to say."

[seraaches]

The stallion sighed and gave the tri-coloured female a dour look. ”I am not a healer, Mnem. I rarely have reason to help anyone I’ve just injured.” Plus they didn’t even have medical supplies! He gave a sigh and turned to the weasel who still didn’t seem to be all that pleased to see him. ”Do you have a first aid kit?”

Not exactly, it turned out, but he did have some first aid supplies and the stallion went to fetch them. He came back with a bit of a dilemma; he didn’t have his bipedal form and, thus, no hands. So the green horse offered the gauze and things to the canine to do. Whether or not she felt it was below her, if she wanted to help the Six of Spades, she would have to be the one who did. The stallion’s tail idly flicked against his hind legs.

[Bee]

While she did not care to administer aid to the creature that had caused her so much bother, Mnemosyne was quite familiar with patching herself--and sometimes other people--up, and Shinrai's limitation of hooves seemed to preclude involvement in the process. She looked through the aid kit. Primitive, and Mnem would rather she were using her own far superior supplies, but it would do. The weasel would need stitches, and while Mnem had trained herself to give them despite the fact that she had paws rather than hands, they would be clumsy and not nearly so functional as ones applied by someone with nimble fingers.

But they would suffice.

She patched up Akhar as best as she could. He was tense. Obviously in pain, and he knew that his experience was not yet over. And there wasn't much in the kit that would help alleviate his suffering. She rested him on his ratty couch, and began questioning.

"Water," said Akhar, suddenly, and his voice was tight and raspy. "May I...?"

Mnem nodded to Shinrai. "Please fetch Akhar something to drink, darling." She knew the stallion would not like being delegated such a menial task. She did not care. The less Shinrai heard of their conversation, the better. "Dehydration only complicates things."

Mnem began asking. How much did Eran suspect she had accomplished? How many of Mnem's old contacts had he approached? How many of the ones Mnem had approached had been persuaded to work for Eran instead? Where was Eran staying, and what was he exactly was he planning?

The answers to most of these questions were entirely satisfactory. Good.

[seraaches]

The green ears flattened backwards against his head at the task, but the stallion simply rolled his eyes and went. Surely this job would be over soon. It had to be. Right? Ack, better not to ask that question of even himself. Knowing Mnem and how his luck went with the woman, he’d be stuck here all night. With a careful swipe of his tail, the stallion strode off into the kitchen.

The area was cramped for him; the apartment wasn’t built for a hooved creature. The kitchen wasn’t for sure nor did the weasel have hoof friendly dishes. Rai stood in the kitchen for a very long several minutes, staring around the very unfriendly environment before his tail flicked in frustration. ”Well, how the snot am I supposed to do this?” Just like Mnem to not remember the small details. By the time he figured out a way to get a glass of water out to the pair, the weasel would be healed and able to get his OWN water.

Well, exaggeration or not, the stallion began to nose open drawers and cabinets looking for a way to bring wot was needed. He finally settled on a large bowl and filled it with water before carrying it with slow, careful strides back to the entry way.

[Bee]

She let Akhar drink for a moment before continuing her questions. There was not much of anything else she needed to know, save perhaps for whatever information the weasel could give her regarding Eran's plans and the time-frame in which he hoped to accomplish them. She hoped Eran was stupid enough to tell so much to an underling who was in his service under duress, and her hopes were somewhat realized. What Akhar knew was vague, but useful.

Mnem wondered if it might be possible to get one of her own contacts to quietly have Eran disposed of. Or at least terrify him back into obscurity.

"I think we're nearly done here," she announced, both to offer a bit of relief to the weasel and let Shinrai know that his service was nearly over. "Akhar, my people will be in touch. Your daughter will be fine." And, because occasionally Mnemosyne valued honesty: "I do not believe I can say the same for you, but perhaps for the right price, we can work something out."

The weasel looked entirely amenable to this suggestion. Excellent.

"Come, Shinrai," she said merrily, and sauntered toward the exit.

[seraaches]

Well, finally, the stallion thought in relief. He may not have many more important things to take care of today, but they were certainly going to be more interesting… even if it was simply watching paint dry. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, since some frisson of curiousity threatened at the odd proceedings. Nevertheless, he didn’t want to be involved. He had too much riding on his eventual addition into the Courts. The stallion flicked his tail again, and stalked from the apartment. He didn’t even glance at the weasel as they departed, though the peevish thought flicked briefly beneath his mind that Mnem was calling him by his real name before the lowlives. He didn’t want his name associated with her. A sigh, but it was really too late now. Just because nothing mattered to Mnem but Mnem…. No, deep breaths, deep breaths. Let it go.

The horse followed Mnem out, not saying anything because he didn’t want to discuss the events of that night in this part of town. All he needed was someone trying to blackmail him when he became a power in the Court.

Of course, came the amusing concept, he could just kill them if they tried. He was going to be very powerful.

(( 15th post ))