The Little Princess [Closed]

"You're going to get a tummy ache if you eat that much," Remi said, hastily taking a sandwich before Fable could finish them all.

Meanwhile, Rory sighed.

"Oh. I guess that explains it," she said. "I'll write down the address for you again. But don't forget it this time. That said...there's still the fact Lise isn't around. And that blasted cat."

Despite herself, Rory let out a yawn and stretched her arms.

"Mm, it's getting pretty late," she said. "I think both you and Remi should turn in as well. It's been a long night. It's not like you have anywhere to go, right, vampire?"

"I'm not-" Valen stopped himself and sighed. "Thank you for the hospitality. I'll trust you to look after Remi for a while. I'm going to go into town and find information on what happened to Liseran. Better to do it now then in the morning when the Expiate is more active."

"Maybe I'll stay here," Fable said. "Me and the girls can have a sleepover. Paint our nails, talk about boys. Oh, let me tell you about this total cutie who totally looks like a vampire-"

"You're coming," Valen growled through clenched teeth. His shadow shrugged its shoulders and sunk into a pool under his feet.

Upon hearing that Valen was going to leave again, Remi rushed to him and grabbed his wrist tightly.

"Wait, you can't can't leave!" she pleaded. "We just got here and you and Lise keep disappearing the moment I see you two!"

Saying the last statement, Remi clung onto Valen's leg, as if holding it would be enough to keep him from moving away.

"And if we're talking about information, I'd be able to find out faster," Rory said with her hands on her hips. "I don't think you have to worry too much either. Lise can handle herself, and if she is not around, it's most likely her father found her, is all. We'll have other people look into it. Besides..."

Almost within a click, Rory's axe swung and stretched longer. The pointed tip of its handle glared at Valen from a foot away.

"Unlike Lise, I'm a little more thorough about who I let help me," she said. Her light blue eyes narrowed and there was almost a visceral sense of hostility in her glare. "I want to know just how you know Liseran and Remi, and I also want you to tell me your background. Capisci?"

Valen looked down at the little girl who pleadingly clung to his leg.Then his eyes slowly went up to the axe pointed at him, his expression remaining rather unperturbed.

"I doubt that's any of your business but..."

Valen reached a hand inside his coat and laid a long object on the table. It looked like dagger with a thin, triangular blade in a leather sheath. It had a wooden handle wrapped in a cloth, but the odd thing is that the end of the handle looked cracked and splintered like it was broken off something.

"What's in that sheathe should tell you everything you need to know." Valen stated plainly, fanning out his hand towards it.

If Rory pulled the knife out of its sheathe, she'd see the emblem of the Eisyln military on the base of the blade.

Rory regarded the knife with wariness. Swiftly snatching it from the hand Valen used to offer it, the knife was unsheathed and examined. Seeing the emblem, Rory's eyebrows rose.

"This is the Eisleynian military seal," she said before regarding Valen. She seemed to relax slightly, only to stiffen up again and point the sheath at Valen. "This doesn't exactly prove anything though. You could have easily bought this off a pawner or, worse, plucked this off some dead soldier in the mountains."

She tossed it back to Valen and exhaled sharply.

"Whatever the case, I can't let you look for Liseran alone," she said. "I want to know where she is, too. I can't exactly leave you with Remi, but I don't trust leaving you with Liseran either if you find her. Even if she is capable of holding her own."

"I thought you said Lisey gets held captive more times than a damsel in distress?" Remi said candidly.

Rory gave the girl a tight smile, slightly peeved at the girl's candidness revealing too much.

"Not at all, dear," she said. "Whatever the case, Remi, I'd prefer you stay here."

"I'm not staying!" Remi suddenly burst out. "Besides, if we're following your logic, I wouldn't be safe alone AND don't you think Liseran would get upset if she found out a certain SOMEONE let me sneak out and ALSO has been wandering out at night?"

Remi stated the last part rather smugly, a small smirk on her face. Remi, for once, seemed flustered, and pouted.

"Fine," Rory said defeated. "But the moment you get tired, you're telling me. And you have to promise to stay next to me, okay?"

Remi bobbed her head and clutched her fist in triumph.

Sighing, Rory turned to Valen and scowled.

"So. Where were you planning to look for Lise anyways? Did she mention anywhere she planned to go before?"

"Perhaps," Valen conceded, "However, if I had come across a dead soldier, there would be much better things to swindle than a broken off spearhead."

Valen carefully pocketed away what Rory had thought was a dagger. He closed his eyes and sighed.

"Fine. We'll rest the night."

Abruptly, Valen took a seat at the closest vacant chair and crossed his arms. He didn't say more than that despite being adamant about going out to gather intel earlier. Was he actually concerned about Remi's wellbeing?

"If you'd like, I don't mind sleeping outside," Valen stated plainly. "Since you can't trust me. I'm accustomed to the cold anyway."

Rory flushed a bit, realizing a little too late that the weapon wasn't a dagger. Okay, she wasn't that good with weapons that weren't heavy two-handed ones, but that wasn't her fault!

Instead of continuing to go out, Valen suggested staying instead. Rory arched her eyebrow. He had seemed eager to find out what happened to Liseran but had changed his mind. That didn't have to do with Remi, did it?

And even if it did, just because he's being considerate to a kid doesn't mean he's not up to anything, she thought to herself.

Rory crossed her arms.

"I'm not that cold, idiot," she said when Valen offered sleeping outside. She sighed. "There's a guest room around here. You can sleep there. That way, if you move, I can here you and shoot you before you can so much set foot out your room."

"Rory, don't be so mean! He's nice! I promise!" Remi scolded.

Rory sighed and put her hands up in defeat.

"Alright, if you say so," she said a little too patronizingly. She placed a shoulder on Remi and offered a small smile. "Why don't we get you a bath? You'll feel nice and toasty afterwards."

Remi beamed.

"Oh, yey! Can you do that magic thing Lise does when she puts bubbles in it?"

"Of course," Rory said as she gently pet Remi on the head. "Why not go start the bath and I'll come up with the spell shortly."

Remi rushed up the stairs, her footfalls sounding as they hit against the hollow wood and across the second floor hallway. Rory remained where Valen was with her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed.

"She could be right, Rory," the low sweet voice of a woman suddenly said. It didn't seem to be coming from one place directly and echoed through the room. "They might not be that bad."

The living area would suddenly turn bright as the chandelier's candles glowed bright blue. The blue light would flicker before turning into a smog of violet smoke, wrapping around Rory's legs before forming into a wispy blue and violet wolf with glowing bright blue eyes. Cantic marks and floral lines seemed to run along its fur. It would then stop circling around Rory and rest at her side.

"Odd to see one of my kind so deep into this town," the wolf would say as she looked at Fable. "Even odder with a partner brave enough to do so."

"Oh, you're here," Rory said as she looked at the wolf. She'd look back at Valen and Fable. "Valen, this is Mayari. She's my partner."

Valen looked at the small wolf and gave a small nod before turning back to Rory.

"Oh, don't mind him," Fable hummed. "He actually doesn't like Incantii much."

Valen's shadow stretched across the wall behind him and started walking along like a shadow puppet theater. It looked like it was peering into cabinets and jars, showing little interest in the new incantus.

"To be honest, one of my strong suits is evasion. Besides, all the fun stuff happens in the big cities. I can't be missing that. When I heard of some 'ruckus' happening over here while we were two towns over I was so disappointed! I just begged Birdie to bring us back here and see what went down. Oh, and that guy is too accustomed to wandering. He can sidestep the expiate easily thanks to his background."

"I guess that would make sense," Rory said skeptically.

Meanwhile, Mayari wrapped around her legs, rubbing her back against Rory's shins like a cat or a dog seeking attention.

"Rory's rather elusive herself," she said coolly. "There's no one in our operations like her."

Hearing Mayari, Rory glared.

"Mayari!" she warned.

"What?" Mayari said feigning innocence. "You don't think Liseran's already spilled the beans by now to this man that you're all in cahoots for a Walpurgis resistance?"

Rory's lips pressed hard against each other. Mayari started walking towards Valen, circling him and she inspected him.

"You know, we could use someone like you. Your position and skill to sticking to the shadows might be beneficial to our cause. After all, Walpurgis have an obligation to protect the interests of other Walpurgis, right?"

"Perhaps," Valen admitted, staring absently at the broken off spearhead in hand. "But I'm neither on the side of the witches or the royals. My character is a wanderer. I'm just an observer and my interests are my own."

"We're like a match made in paradise," Fable hummed whimsically. "Even before this whole hunt went down, I was always a loner. I'm much more interested in watching what goes on and collecting my little stories."

A black hand stretched out from the wall and dug into Valen's travel satchel, pulling out a worn out leather book, the pages wrinkled and yellow from age. Fable leaped out the wall and sat as a silhouette of Valen in the chair opposite of him, pulled out a quill pen from seemingly nowhere and scribbling.

"Chapter 4," Fable hummed aloud. "In the dark of night, the wandering shadow found himself housed for the night by a tepid little pup and her companion thinking him to be a kindly lost soul. Little did they know, they were in the presence of a former-"

Valen suddenly unsheathed the spearhead and stabbed it into the ground at Fable' feet like a tent stake.

"Hey! No fair!" Fable whined, his form twisting a morphing until it was just a shapeless black of black mass pulling this way and that, unable to move from its spot. "You know I hate it when you do that!"