Ghosts And Flames

Most jobs in Ishgar went through the guilds, which left guildless mages like Saiko picking up the scraps. Her life was not luxurious because of this, but she was able to pay for food and have a roof over her head most nights and that was enough for her. It was also why she had been so surprised to receive a job addressed directly to her.

It seemed that word of her ability to talk to spirits had started to spread among some circles, and the noble in charge of Hargeon Town had thought she might prove useful in an investigation. Carrying her doll in her arms, she walked up to a guard outside the mansion the job had indicated. “...I am here for a job.”

“We don’t hire girls your age,” the guard responded, making a shooing gesture. “Go look elsewhere if you need a job.”

Annoyed at the treatment, Saiko pulled out the job request and handed it to the guard looking at him crossly. She hated when people misunderstood her, though was not self aware enough to recognize it was usually her own fault.

“You should have said it was for a mage contract in the first place,” the guard replied tersely before letting the girl through the gate. A servant from the mansion arrived almost immediately after as if they had teleported there, causing Saiko to jump. The servant led her into the mansion and to a big fancy room with a big fancy desk occupied by a big fancy man. Like, he was huge compared to the small mage, she was actually a bit jealous.

“I am Saiko,” she stated, standing just a little straighter than she normally did. Not at all because she was intimidated, mind. “I received a job request.”

“Yes, yes,” he said with a dismissive hand. “I am aware of who you are. Though you’re much younger than I expected. Are you sure you can talk with spirits?”

Looking up at the spirit of an elderly woman hovering over the man’s shoulder, she shrugged. “Tabetha says you still don’t eat your greens properly.”

Turning pale at the mention of his mother’s name, he turned to look where she was. Of course he saw nothing. Whether he fully believed her or not, he at least seemed convinced enough to start outlining the job in more detail.

“Uh, an-anyway! There has been an increase in bandit attacks on the trade routes outside town. The caravans are found completely stripped of goods, and the merchants and the bodyguards are all found dead. We’ve already asked other mages to investigate but absolutely no clues to the perpetrators have been discovered. We suspect a mage is assisting the bandit. That is why we called you. We are hoping you can ask one of the victims and track down their hideout. I don’t expect you to actually fight them of course, we’ve also hired a more capable mage to actually take out the bandits.”

Him assuming she could not take on the bandits herself was frustrating, but she stayed quiet. Her pay had already been written into the contract, and another person would not affect it. All she hoped was that they would not prove annoying to work with. “Okay,” she said simply. “I can do that.”

“Good, good. The other mage we contracted hasn’t arrived yet, so you’ll have to wait for them. Now, I have other duties to attend to.”

With a brusqueness that bespoke of his privileged background, she was quickly shuffled out of the big fancy room into a slightly less big and fancy room. Everyone was super polite as they brought her to the room and poured her some tea, but she could tell she was seen as an outsider here. Sitting her doll next to her, Saiko sipped her tea quietly as she waited.

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Lehanna had not been all that far away when the initial encounter with the guard and this strange girl came about. Her hesitation since she had come into this curse had pitted her mind so heavily against the logic she knew was overwhelmingly more likely. However, that dreading sense in the back of her head kept intruding on her progress to feel more normal. If that day could ever truly come, she was sure she could find it. Be it by herself or with the help of those close to her, then she would make sure she broke this curse by any means necessary. Until then, she would make sure that she would keep herself at an ease of distance from any commotion or issues if she could help it. Managing this sense of fear to communicate or otherwise was something worth pushing herself through.

Seeing the girl gain herself entry using the paperwork given to her made her chuckle. It had been a couple of years since Lehanna had been in the same boat as her. Always being judged for her age and size, scoffed and dismissed without an adult or in general. Even at her age now she got a little flack, but something about her appearance made her credibility a bit less of a hassle to get to and done her jobs. A couple of silent breathing exercises got her to calm herself a bit more and relax. Preparing herself for being around multiple new people felt daunting --and above all else silly.

Oh well, here it goes.

Brushing her hair from her face, her ebony bangs fell back into place while making sure all of her items were with her. Having her guildmark present even over the cursed appearance of her arms had been a bit of a blessing and it seemed she didn't have to say much at all as the guard took notice of it almost immediately when she turned her arm over to show it seated on her wrist. The bright pink hue over her teal and tribal like themed look was a bit of a blessing to her in some instances. Adjusting the sword wrapped in a tarp cloth hanging on her back by a strap, the Silver Wolf mage made her way over to the guard and simply showed off her mark to him. Her eyes shifted up, saying not a word as he shared a look of annoyance. "Geez... more children. Whatever, go in." He commented with a grunting tone. A slight roll of the teens eyes was the only natural comment she could think of for the moment. She wasn't going to argue either.

The cursed mage took her time walking through the home into the room being escorted by the servant that had brought the first mage over. When she entered, she expected to see the client as well, however she found that the slightly younger girl was left alone... or rather with this doll she had with her. "I take it you're the mage I'm in charge of?" She asked, looking over from a position standing behind the chair the doll was in. "I saw the interaction with the guy outside. I don't miss those days." Her remark made her sigh in a bit of relief and some of a displeasure for remembering those days for sure.

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Having not noticed the other girl enter the room, she jumped in her chair. Thankfully she managed not to spill her tea on herself. Puting the tea town, Saiko grabbed her doll and stood to face the newcomer hoping holding the doll close would hide the faint aura of her magic within the doll. Fully intending a cross response to the girl that had caused her to jump, she halted in her tracks as she took in the unexpected appearance.

“...cool…” Saiko said with an obvious sparkle in her eyes. The other mage appeared to be slightly older than her, but the inhuman features of her body was like nothing the younger girl had seen before. Realizing she was staring and probably making a fool of herself in the process, she pushed down her admiration.

“I’m Saiko,” she said, introducing herself. “I’m used to it. No guild mark.”

Having introduced, she took a moment to evaluate her coworker in more detail. Just based on appearance, there was little doubt the cursed girl would be able to handle a few bandits. She just radiated a kind of strength that made Saiko feel small and weak. Which, if she was being honest with herself, was the truth. It had only been a few months since she started to learn how to use her magic after all.

“I find bandits, you kill bandits,” she said, explaining the job in what she felt was sufficient detail. Intending to move past the older girl toward the door, she instead stopped and crouched down looking closely at the long, scaled tail. “...can I touch it?”

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When the girl had taken notice of her voice picking up to address her, she snatched up the doll and hugged onto it. Honestly, a small part of her smiled from the cuteness thinking to how nervous she would be and latching onto her partner to shy away from, but she repressed those from showing physically on her face. Then again, her curse surely made sure she couldn’t express her emotions, so this would certainly be an interesting experience. What she did seem to be a bit puzzled by was the sound in her voice. The little “cool” comment she made after looking back to the mage.

”It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Saiko.” She replied, nodding slowly as she added on that she had no guild mark like her own and shrugged slightly. ”I can understand that. Most people look at someone your age and assume that you’re either not worth the time or too concerned trying to involve you the affairs of a guild. But I can assure you that when you do decide, you’re sure they are looking to you as a person and not your abilities.” She refused to call herself lucky in having to not experience being used for her magic by her own guild, however outside of her guild had been a different story.

While her mind had been a little lost in thought recalling the incidents she’d been exposed to, Lehanna gasped and jumped a little when she realized the girl had gotten up and got to her tail, wanting to touch it. The former slayer looked a bit puzzled and surprised at best, looking at her for a moment before her body hesitated to retract herself and nodded her head a little quietly. ”I- uh. Sure, I suppose.” It was apparent of her hesitation, but she didn’t want to do it for the most part. Still, she had to push her boundaries on her own more often.

”Also, towards your comment over the bandits… I don’t plan on killing anyone. I was here to protect you and stop bandits, but I do not kill. Let me be clear on that, Miss Saiko.” There was a bit of sternness to her voice. Adamant of not wanting to do any killing under this curse for fear of turning into the person she had been cursed by, she refused to allow that to happen above all else.

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When the other girl spoke about guilds, she could only give a small frown. “Always rejected. They say I’m creepy.”

She was used to the treatment now, but she would be lying if she said it had not hurt her feelings at first. After having been told it several times since, she had just come to accept that she was in fact a creepy girl. That was her lot in life. Her sister Suki had been the only one that really accepted her to begin with.

But that was of secondary importance now, as she had gotten permission to touch the tail. Carefully she reached out, stroking it gently. As if she might break it if she was too rough. “Pretty…” she said with a small smile on her face. The texture of the scales was nice, and the fur made it seem extra special. She had no idea how the cursed mage was seen by others, but as someone who had been prejudiced against given her magic Saiko tended to be completely accepting of others. At least until they annoyed her.

At the other girl’s statement that she would not kill anyone, she just shrugged. She thought killing the bandits was easier, both in terms of effort and preventing them from hurting others again. Besides, if they captured them and turned them over they would probably just get executed anyway. “Whatever you want.”

Having gotten her fill of petting the tail, she stood up and motioned her head to the door. The job would not get finished while they stood here, and there was always the risk of the bandits attacking someone else before they were stopped. That would probably look poorly on the two mages, so it was an outcome she would prefer to avoid.

The client had not actually told her where to go, but outside one of his guards was waiting to lead them to the most recently attacked site. When they arrived it appeared like a typical country road, other than hills and curves blocking the view of the rest of the road. A closer inspection would reveal some splintered wood and dried blood, but little else.

Saiko saw more than that. A half dozen spirits, dressed in both merchant and guard clothing, shuffled around in the daze of those recently killed. Stomping its feat in fear near them was the spirit of a horse. Apparently not even the horses had been spared. These spirits were strong enough to have remained after death, but not so strong that others could see them unless they had The Sight.

Walking up to the spirit of the horse first, she carefully touched the side of its head with her hand imbueing magic into her hand to allow the illusion of contact. Sensing what she was, the horse pressed its head into her hand, and she could feel the memories of soft fur as she comforted it. A soft expression donned her face as she spoke, “it’s okay. You can go, the pain is gone.”

Giving a quiet whiney only Saiko could hear, it turned and walked off disappearing into nothingness after a few steps. Satisfied, she approached one of the guards. “What is your name?”

“...Phillan…” he mumbled through his daze.

Having gotten what she needed, the young mage found a stick and began drawing a perfect circle in the dirt before standing in the center. It was large enough for her to move around a bit, but as she began to cast her spell she remembered her coworker and hesitated.

“Umm, spirits can attack,” she said. “The circle is safe.”

Belatedly hoping she did not smell weird and not entirely comfortable having to invite someone into her circle, Saiko waited for a response before beginning her spell. Then she drew upon the shadows around them, filling the circle with protection magic while reaching out. “Phillan, come to me and be seen.”

Suddenly the spirit of Phillan moved to just in front of the necromancer, screaming loudly as it woke from its daze and realized he had been murdered. “Calm,” she ordered. “We are here to avenge you. Please tell us what you saw.”

Phillan looked at the pair of mages, twitching when vengeance was brought up. Like most murdered spirits, it wanted justice. “They appeared suddenly. At least two dozen, not there one second and then there the next. Now idea how. Magic, probably. After they killed us, I saw them take our cargo and leave.” He hesitated a moment, trying to recall the memories of his time just after death. “I think they went… that way.”

Looking over toward the direction the ghost pointed, she naturally saw nothing of note. Still, it was at least a starting point. Turning to look at the other girl she asked, “do you have any questions for him?”

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The cursed mage was quite a bit worried about letting someone touch her tail. Frankly, the only people who have ever voluntarily ever touched her tail had been herself, Elara, and maybe her guild master if she ever asked. Though she’d been in situations where people had touched it from either ignorance or childish curiosity much like Saiko had been seeming so far. Giving her the moment to look at her tail and keep her body from reflexively snapping the tail away, possibly hitting the girl in the face by accident. ”I just think you haven’t found the right place. At one point.. I didn’t think I could stay in my guild. I’m positive you could find yourself a place to call home. Just don’t let someone change who you are just to fit in.” She tried to assure her, wanting her to know that if someone who was a monster like her could find a place to accept her, a misunderstood girl like Saiko had great potential to find somewhere.

Once Saiko had seemed to have gotten her fill of playing with her tail, the two left the building and made their way outside to meet one of the clients guards. Remaining rather silent through the whole thing, Lehanna chose to keep her mind focused on the surroundings as they made their way towards the last location. Her job had been to escort and guard the slightly younger teen and she had no real issue about it, though she wished it wouldn’t actually have been combat oriented. Oh well, she had to try and be a little less rusty anyway. At least it’s not something significant like some of her other jobs and happened to only be some savages from the sounds of things.

When they arrived to the site, her eyes began to survey the surroundings. Some of the destroyed debris of the wreckage and fighting. The dried blood staining the earth, a bit of it on the debris, but most of all had been the sudden speaking. Both Lehanna and the guard had looked to Saiko as she had begun to speak at the air was a bit strange. Could she really call her strange after the things she’d witnessed and experienced herself? Good god no. Instead, she’d taken a moment to observe the girl and see exactly why she was chosen for this and to what extent she had expressed for the task.

She did a bit of a double take when she watched the other girl drawing a circle around herself. Was.. was this serious? There couldn’t be a pheasable way to actually be doing whatever she was supposed to be doing. In an attempt to approach her and ask about it, the cursed mage approached the girl when a barrier of sorts appeared around the two. When she attempted to open her mouth and speak, Saiko had already begun to speak, addressing someone named Phillan. The sudden appearance of a man randomly popping into existence and letting a horrified scream made her body jump. Her face bore no shocked or scared expression, simply closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath to keep from wanting to speak out about what had just happened. After calming him down, the spirit had described to the best of his ability what he had been a victim of and what would have happened during their ambush.

Afterward, Lehanna had been asked if she had anything she wanted to ask. Calmly folding her arms at her chest, she would shake her head slowly. ”No, I don’t have any for him.” She replied, unable to really show the baffled and surprised look on her face that was much more of the hurricane of questions came about in her mind. ”That direction I believe leads towards a light smoke billow in the distance over the treeline. They might have too much stuff to carry at one haul quickly. Likely they’re waiting for backup and daylight to move everything.” The Silver Wolf mage pointed out in the same direction as the spirit, showing a faint show over the night sky where the smoke actually was.

”If ever there was a time I wish I could still be able to eat fires… now would surely be one.” The teen thought to herself, letting off a light sigh and shrugging it off a moment later.

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The older girl was being nice and telling her she would find a home eventually, but to her it just sounded like platitudes. How could anyone who looked so cool ever have trouble finding a place to fit in? Everyone liked a badass beauty, very few had a fondness for necromancers. It seemed best not to say anything though, she did not want to be rude.

When her partner declined to ask any questions, she gave a nod in return and then turned back to the spirit. “Rest now,” Saiko said gently. In response, Phillan began to fade from view. The magic that had made him visible was drawing him to whatever was next. Having helped others to learn about his killers, he went peacefully. The other spirits that were too weak to be seen would eventually fade on their own, she simply did not have enough magic power to help everyone cross.

For her part, the younger mage could not see the smoke. If it was the right direction, it at least seemed like the best place to start. The older girl seemed unhappy about something, probably thinking how creepy Saiko was, she thought. She was used to it, but it still hurt a little.

“I will get help.”

Moving to the edge of the clearing, she once again raised the hand that was not holding her doll and closed her eyes, reaching out with her mind. She could sense many, but most were old. Too old for purpose. Eventually she found enough fresh ones, and began to draw upon the shadows. Nothing appeared to change directly around Saiko, but that did not last for long. Soon she lowered her hand and opened her eyes back up to the site of a half dozen small woodland creatures approaching. The ones she picked only looked slightly dead, which meant their senses would be untouched.

Remembering she was not alone, she turned back and tried to explain which amounted to the single word: “scouts.” Satisfied with her explanation, she waved her hand forward and sent the undead into the foliage. Pushing into the grass and bushes, Saiko followed after. After traveling most of the distance toward the smoke, she suddenly stopped and pointed at several locations.

“Lookouts.”

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Get help? What in the world did this girl mean by that exactly? More spirits to call on to gather information? Guards to apply an ambush with? The cursed mage looked around wondering how and what the other teen planned to do when she'd heard the rustling of bushes. Given the information the client for their job had given them and the guard who had come with them, it wouldn't have been a hard stretch to think an ambush via the woods to happen again. They did look like a pair of sitting ducks for the most part... or at least Saiko did. Not any offense to her, but if her only abilities were calling upon apparitions and let others to see them as well, it didn't do her any good to be help via combat. On the other hand, she didn't appear to be a fighter when she first taking up jobs, so she had to push her logical bias aside and let her prove herself if and when the time came.

A hand raised to grab hold of the hilt of her sword when the rustling produced a forest animal who appeared to be small in stature. In fact, several of them appeared and surrounded Saiko. Looking over them a bit, she couldn't tell how or why she was able to call on them like she was some kind of nature related magic. She'd heard of people possessing multiple magics, however she'd never really seen people use them in person with or against her. Even during the escort in Navarick, she had never seen anyone do so... at least that she knew of. Calling them scouts, they had seemed to have been looking out for the camp and reporting the findings back to Saiko, which did seem like quite the solid strategy. She addressed locations for several lookouts that the camp had, which the former slayer nodded and approached her.

Quietly, Lehanna followed her secondary client towards the camp when she grabbed onto Saiko's shoulder and pulling her back. "Wait. You did good getting here, but don't ever double check for yourself." She said, speaking quietly, almost in a whisper. Gently trying to pull Saiko down, she would point out a thin wire between two trees, tethering to a bowl hanging from a tree. Most likely a sound based trip alarm rigged up. "I speak from experience.. sadly having had to have my girlfriend rescue me before. But that was also a year or so ago so I digress." Putting that horror story behind her, the dragon girl had begun to lead Saiko over to around the tripwire trap and up behind a brush looking right into the camp.

She inspected the grounds, spying to see just how many actual bandits had been around. Lehanna caught an eye on four bandits holding various weapons near them while the three lookouts had just been looking out and occasionally yelling in their own banter to a conversation over the campfire in the center. Behind the group had been the missing items from the cart, which she made sure to silently point out. "You've been doing an excellent job so far, Saiko. If you can cause a distraction, I will charge on in there and try to chase them out. If not, we can quickly devise another plan."

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Saiko had not seen the tripwire, but that was part of why she had stopped where she did. Her undead creations could smell the living so she had an idea of the bandit's perimeter. Actually detecting the traps was a bit beyond them. If she had been on her own the obvious solution would have been to send something like a boar barreling through to the camp. Not exactly subtle, but it would have tripped any traps on the way. She was glad she was not on her own though.

Truthfully she should have been paying more attention to the warning, a senior mage was taking the time to share her extensive experience. It was an invaluable learning opportunity for the younger mage. That was not the part of the story Saiko focused on though, as another part had caught her attention. “Girls can date each other?” she asked with wide-eyed astonishment.

Growing up she had lived in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, and had never left until the plague had hit. The handful of families had all been mothers and fathers. The stories her mom had told her as a child were all princes rescuing princesses and knights saving damsels in distress. While she had enjoyed the action and daring-do of the stories, she had never been able to relate to the girls falling for boys. Boys just did not interest her.

Finding out that girls did not have to date boys was like a firework going off in her mind. Part of her wondered if Suki had known, Suki had always been the smarter of the two. Probably, Saiko decided.

Pulling her mind out of the reverie it had fallen into, she tried to pay attention to what her fellow mage was saying. Right, a distraction. She could do a distraction. In fact, she already had the means to do so handy. Reaching out with her mind, Saiko gave silent commands to the undead under the command. Soon the small critters made their way into the camp, initially unseen by the bandits who were probably busy counting loot or looking out for Rune Knights. Finally one of the bandits noticed as a bunny came up next to it, but before he could say or do anything the undead forest creatures one by one began to explode.

Violently.

By the time all of them had exploded due to Saiko’s Corpse Explosion spell, the camp was in chaos and filled with screams. Some of the bandits had been unfortunately close and were now missing a limb or two, but all of them were covered in blood, guts, bone splinters, and burn marks from the magical explosion. Looking over to her partner, she made a gesture as if saying “your turn.”

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Saiko's reaction had really thrown the elder teen off a bit. Sure, Lehanna was a bit oblivious to that at some point in her life too, however she did know quite a bit more than it seemed the necromancer had at her age. Even despite it only being roughly a 3 or 4 year age gap between them, Lehanna's necessity to bury herself into books and studies growing up vastly separated her from the reality of the world until she was thrown into the wild without anything but a stick and spark of fire to her name. A lot's come and gone in the few years she'd gone from a sheltered bookworm to a depressed freak of nature who couldn't push her mental demons aside for 5 minutes to see the light at the end of the tunnel, however to think someone didn't even know that much about something like that truly surprised her. "Well uh.. yeah." She replied at first, seemingly sounding a little surprised by her reaction. "Two boys can also date each other. But I will say, if you're ever going to find someone you want to be with that you both want to be there for each other. Love can be a really fickle thing. We're both still young, so truly there's no real rush to find that connection."

The wonder of whether a dead pan, almost emotionless sounding explanation could be taken seriously. The last thing she wanted to do was confuse someone during what is logically the most defining point in a persons life. Putting that aside, she had to refocus towards the job before they would eventually catch them. Saiko had seemed to send in her critter friends again, which she wondered and followed curiously. Would they just bite them and force them to scramble around by chasing them until-

BOOM

Well... seems not. Her eyes widened in shock as she watched them explode in a rather gruesome outcome, which only made Lehanna continue to look on in what appeared to be an expressionless stare. That was just a downside of the curse, really. The inability to express emotions aside from her voice was frankly an issue that she found a blessing at times. Perhaps this was one, because if Saiko could see how she truly would have looked in that moment, the result would be drastically different. "That was.. wow." She replied, standing up from the brush and pulling her sword from the cloth like veil. Fire quickly engulfed it only after pushing through the brush cover, trying to not set the entire forest on fire. Most of the inner bandits had been too busy screaming and flailing in agonizing pain and injuries. The surrounding scouts had moved in to see what happened only to now see the dragon girl standing in the encampment. "Hey! What did you do here!" One demanded, making Lehanna look over as her ebony bangs fell over her left eye. "Me? I was chasing some critters along and they up and exploded. Seems you boys have a knack for trouble, but I don't think this all here belongs to you."

At this point, more of the scouts came closer to the Silver wolf mage albeit surrounded her. A couple shifting attention to their fallen and pain riddled crew, others dead set on glaring at her while readying crossbows and swords. "I'll give you a chance to retreat with your friends before they lose too much blood. Judging by time lapsed and injuries, you have roughly 17 minutes and 20 seconds to get them medical attention before they go into shock. Another 2 before they bleed out... assuming you don't hit too many bumps along the way. That.. or you can try and defend plundered loot and potentially end up in jail yourselves." She kept her eyes locked to the crossbow wielding bandit who yelled at her, showing no sign of a bluff. Honestly, she wasn't bluffing either. "17 minutes 10 seconds. 9 seconds. 8 seconds..." She pushed the pressure on them, trying not to fight them if she could help it, but some of them seemed hesitant to continue.

"You three! Get them out of here! I'll make sure there's no witnesses..." he put on a cheesy grin, looking her over and seeing her tail finally being noticable from the light of the multiple fires realized something as a lightbulb dinged in his mind. "You know, maybe I won't kill you, but I could probably get a pretty jewel for an exotic thing like you on the black mark-" That grin turned into shock and fear as a single swipe of her sword launched a wide sweep of fire outward. Much of the ground and debris of the makeshift furniture they had around were caught in a blaze. Her eyes were narrowed some, though no other show of anger laid on her face --she was livid. By some miracle, she had managed to avoiding hitting the bandit himself, but she wouldn't make such an act of mercy go a second time. "Finish that sentence, and I will cut your tongue out and cauterize it with my sword, you filthy ingrate. This is your only chance, and you have little time to leave before I change my mind." Her hand was shaking, gripped so tightly on her weapon that Saiko would clearly be able to see. She'd been made a damsel in distress far too many times. The idea she'd allow it to happen ever again would never occur. Not until she sought the cure for her curse.

Bumbling to keep to his feet, the bandit didn't even bother trying to find any path in the fire and opted to run right through the flames, burning and charring his legs, hands, and clothing. The others as ordered continued to carry their cohorts along into the night, leaving Lehanna to simply take in a deep breath of air, and exhale it. Though strangely, as she did so, a blue colored flame exhaled briefly. "Well... at least the merchants goods are safe... I hope I didn't scare Saiko now."

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Boys dating each other made sense if girls could, but that did not particularly interest her. They had never drawn her interest, always kind of just existing in the background of her life. As for rushing, there was no fear of that. Her sister Suki had been the only person she had been really close to. Now there was not really anyone living like that. As she thought about this she held her doll a bit tighter.

The distraction seemed to impress the older mage, which made Saiko a little happy. Since her part was done, she hung back as the other girl took out her cool flaming. She wanted a cool flaming sword, not that she could probably lift the thing. It looked super heavy and her arms were more on the wet noodle end of the strength scale.

Seeing the flaming sword, and thus guessing at the other girl’s strength, it was then a surprise when she told the bandits to leave rather than finishing them off. Once the bandits were on the run, she came from where she had been waiting and looked up at her fellow mage.

“They escaped. Won’t they kill others?” she asked. Her voice was not accusatory, simply inquisitive. Whether more merchants died in the future did not particularly bother Saiko, she had been hired to lead the way to the bandits, and that she had completed successfully. If the client would be displeased or not with letting the bandits go was up to the client, not her.

Giving a shrug to the result, she made her way back to the guard who led the pair back to the mansion. There she got her pay and shooed away, which was what normally happened to her after a job. Still, part of her decided since the other girl had been friendly she should at least say goodbye. Finding a place to rest across the street, she waited for the elder mage to finish her turn reporting in.

“Never told me your name,” Saiko said when she finally emerged from the mansion.

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"It's a risk, I suppose..." She replied at first, lowering her weapon to her side and letting off a small sigh. It wasn't really going to be something she worried about too much. Putting the fear of god into them between her lack of care and the explosive abilities that her companion had come to introduce, it seemed they would need to worry about recuperation and whatever punishment their boss would throw at them before they had any chance of making some kind of return towards Lehanna, more than Saiko. Granted, she was the only one they had seen, so it stood to reason this would save the girl a bit of trouble in the future less a survivor recognized her antics later on. By then, however, it wouldn't matter much at all.

The raven haired mage approached the cloth that had covered her weapon and began to cover it back up again, ignoring the heat still rising off of it. She'd been used to it by now. "I'm not worried about it. It wouldn't be the first time I've made enemies and I know it'll never be the last." The reality of her comment would sound a bit gloomy albeit morbid to think about with her almost emotionless way of expressing her thoughts, but even she knew the logical point of this all was inevitable. Just better her than Saiko.

After giving her report in to their client, Lehanna had taken her leave from the building only to find the younger teen standing across the street from her. Was she waiting for a guardian? Maybe waiting for Lehanna for some reason? Mentioning she hadn't known her name ticked the lightbulb over her head to go off. "Oh, I'd completely forgotten. Getting rushed out of there threw me off. My name is Lehanna. Lehanna Seraph."

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Lehanna; finally Saiko had a name to put to a face. Usually she did not care about who she was working with, and did not bother to remember their name. That she had gone out of her way to ask was perhaps a bit of a surprise to the younger girl. Maybe it was because she did not know many people close to her in age, or maybe because Lehanna had been friendly in offering advice.

Now that the introductions were finally completed, Saiko wondered what she was supposed to do. Normally by now she would already have returned to whatever inn she was staying with, not interested in having a pleasant conversation. Given she had been the one to wait for Lehanna though, even she could recognize how awkward it would be for her to simply leave.

Right at that moment her stomach decided to loudly remind her that she had not eaten since the morning. A slight touch of rose color appeared in her cheeks, and she looked up at the older mage a bit sheepishly. “I’m hungry. Would you like to come?”

Whether the other girl accepted or not, Saiko decided to make her way to a tavern not far from her inn. It was quieter than others, with a female clientele. The different mages could still get rowdy when they got drunk, but at this time few were drinking alcohol. Her reward fresh in her pocket, she sat down and began to look over the short menu. Her doll was seated in one of the other seats at the table, leaving the seat across from Saiko open.

Deciding to go with something hearty to recharge the energy she had used during the job, she waited for the food to be delivered. Since she normally ate alone, she tended to be silent while she ate. Not that she was particularly good at conversations under normal circumstances.

A brow raised at the sudden sound to burst through the bit of silence between the pair after she'd given her name to her slightly younger colleague. The grumbling of her stomach would have made anyone smirk, smile, or even giggle a bit in reaction. Unfortunately for Lehanna, that luxury was not afforded to her at all. She was stricken with the curse and it robbed her of her emotional expressions. Of course, she did find it kind of cute and amusing, however it could not no matter how hard she'd tried to for her to appear on her face. It wasn't even as though there was a phantom sensation of her smiling and trying to make ease of her plight with hunger, but instead she seemed to be indifferent to it as did she do with... anything anymore really.

The funny thing had been that despite not having any actual emotional reaction, when Saiko had asked if she wanted to join her for a meal, the cursed mage definitely had to admit she was surprised. Her eyes widened slightly, eyebrows raised. Pointing to herself even in a doubtful question after she'd looked around in making sure that she hadn't been speaking to someone else or her doll she'd held onto this whole time. "M-Me? I- Are you sure?" Honestly, Lehanna was not at all used to being invited for anything by other people. With the exception of Elara, Victoria, and Kita, she had no real experience being invited places, especially looking like the monster she believed herself to be.

It didn't seem to bother the girl, so without questioning it, she opted to follow her along to an inn that had served both food and alcohol. Why she chose this place, she couldn't fathom why, but she really just decided to not say anything. If they allowed her patronage enough she came here without so much as asking directions or double checking that they were headed the right way, then she certainly couldn't argue that idea. "I don't think I've ever been to a place like this for anything more than maybe passing by or a bottled water... depending where you go anyway." She commented, seating herself across from Saiko, her eyes following the girl as she placed her doll in the seat beside her.

"Do you mind me asking why the doll is so important to you? Was it a gift from someone special?" It was the first assumption that came to mind, logically speaking. The way she used to see kids in the orphanage growing up clinging to old stuffed animals, the rare couple cut or slightly charred showed little, but lots about their origin of why they ended up in foster care or an orphan overall. No matter how little show of emotion she had, there was always a soft spot for those like herself that she felt a connection with. She hated it was this way, but at the same time she knew trying to change it might not be in her best interest either.

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When Lehanna mentioned never eating at a place like this, the younger girl just shrugged. Whether it was because of how Lehanna appeared or not, Saiko did not even consider. She thought the older mage looked cool, so she assumed everyone else did too.

“Hear rumors,” she said in response, “helps find jobs.”

Since she was guildless, finding work could at times be a challenge. Most clients went directly to their local guild, which left few left for everyone else. A place like this where mages got together to eat, drink, and swap stories was the perfect place to learn about potential clients that needed help outside of the guild system. In the case of Hargeon Town, due to it not having its own guild. Anything that could not wait for a request to be sent to a guild would usually take anyone that was willing to put their life on the line.

The moment Lehanna asked about the doll, the necromancer visibly froze up for a moment. No one asked about her doll, probably because they just assumed the weird, creepy girl carrying a doll with her was completely in character. Now confronted with the question, she tried to decide how much to say. Could she trust the other girl? No, not entirely. Yes, she did like Lehanna and she had been nice to Saiko so far. That had earned some trust, but a single shared job’s worth of trust only went so far.

“Her name is Suki,” Saiko finally said. “I made her body and clothes myself, my dad taught me how before he died. She’s not very talkative right now.”

It was rare for her to speak so much at once, which showed how much the doll meant to her. The doll in question had long black hair the same color as Saiko’s, with a similar skin tone. Her dress was simple, but well made. Clearly simpler more for cost reasons than a lack of skill. Perhaps the only thing out of ordinary was that the doll’s eyes were closed, as if asleep. It was an apt description given how the doll sagged limply in the chair.

Now that she had said as much as she was willing to say for now, she wanted to change the subject. Talking about herself was uncomfortable, as she rarely had to do so. Rather than focus on herself, she wanted to try and shift the conversation to the other girl. “How’d you end up so cool?” she asked, her eyes shining a little as she stared at the dragon-like features of Lehanna’s body.

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