Northern Winds [NC-17] (IC)

[Gareeku]

After he had ordered his food, Gareeku walked the waitress walk away, before turning to look out the window. Observing the peaceful scene, the wolf watched as the landscape continued to rush past the window, while the moon above shone with a bright light, softly illuminating the edges of the nearby clouds in a soft silver, while stars in the otherwise clear sky twinkled. For a moment, Gareeku's eyes turned to look at Aisha, before turning back to look outside once more.

Turning away from the window, the wolf then looked around the restaurant from where he sat, observing the other customers in the restaurant as they ate and talked with one another. As he so, he thought back to what had happened recently, or to be more precise, how he and Aisha have acted around each other. He had seen her for years, not since what happened that fateful day, and not even 24 hours after he sees her again, they begin to act strange around each other. For years he had put up a cold front to everyone, but somehow she could see right through it. And now, now that the darkness within him had even affected his normal state of mind, she still was this way with him. Why?

These thoughts, however, soon disappeared from his mind when the scent of freshly cooked meat reached his senses. Turning to look around, the wolf saw that the maned wolf waitress had returned, a plate full of food in each of her hands as she walked up to the table, before setting them both down in front of the two warriors and walking off. Wasting no time, Gareeku immediately tucked in.

[Stygian]

Chin in his hand, the bat glanced skeptically at the jackal. 'Mmm-hmm. And I'm sure that your fondness for shocking people didn't play in at all,' he commented. He sighed, then turned his head back, and put two fingers to his temple in that way he had for a habit, tapping it. So where to from here? he thought. Obviously things are going as well as one could wish, what with Ash responding to 'treatment' just as I had hoped, yet I hadn't counted on this little thing showing up...
   Kerya had provided a demonstration, but they had been the ones to hand out really useful information. Thus Stygian thought it the time to take the conversation elsewhere. 'Of course, don't expect us to help without anything in return. Caritas in omnibus and my will to do Creatures harm aside, it is we who have provided thus far,' he said, and leaned forward once again, almost smirking at the stoat. 'Which brings us to you. You have explained your situation, and I think I know a little of what to expect. But what were your intentions? Feel free to ramble.'

[Mel Dragonkitty]

When Deirdre accepted the suit Mel stood. "I am sure you want a quiet moment to put yourself back together. I think I will see how the others are doing. Our second cabin is opposite." With a small nod to the gryphon she slid past the undead standing in the doorway, giving him a look that was all hint as she did. One step had her at the other door. She knocked and asked, "Everyone getting settled in?"

[Boog]

Richard rolled his eyes at Mel's look, it taking a second for him to realize that it was because Deirdre was changing. He was dead; such things weren't exactly still within his realm of interests. However, he didn't want to make Deirdre uncomfortable (even if he wasn't sure what she meant by unpleasant individuals; wouldn't be the first adventurer to see undead as traitors. The idea that someone had no problem with him never even crossed the dead man's mind). Bah. If she says anything I'll look away.
"Yeah, all of it. Keats did all that, huh. Didn't have her pegged for the-" the undead blinked, "Then again, guess I did have her pegged for the type to do something like that. Kinda shocked she actually did it, though." Assuming you can prove it, but it doesn't seem too far off. "I'm still getting used to that myself. So... Adventuring?" Richard quirked a barely-still-attached eyebrow, "Always figured that was a job that involved more armor, mebbe jeans and a t-shirt, than fancy suits."

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

Still wearing that smirk on her face, Keaton casually shrugged and lolled her head to the side, peering lopsidedly at Stygian. "It could have, yes," the jackal acknowledged without a noticeable amount of begrudgingness. Walking over to the wall, Keaton leaned against it casually, folding her arms and tilting her ear in Kerya's direction, listening attentively to her testimony. Normally she wouldn't be so interested, but her attention span was petering out, and she needed something for her to latch onto.

---

...Deirdre:

Surprisingly, Deirdre seemed unperturbed about Richard's attendance in the room while she changed, although secretly she felt slightly uncomfortable. Ah well, weren't Undead sterile? Meant he wasn't getting sick kicks out of being a voyeur, and he did have the courtesy of averting his eyes. Mel leaving the room granted her some privacy, so she wasn't entirely offended when she, turning around so her back was facing Richard, removed her jacket, unbuttoned her dress shirt (disconnecting the clasp in the back which allowed her wings some room), and deftly stripped herself of the garments. Underneath, the entirety of Deirdre's chest was bound in thick bandage, keeping her chest almost perfectly flat, and effectively hiding anything that would reveal any awkwardness, save for the cuts cleaving through the durable material of her bandages. Mottled scars of various shapes and sizes tarnished Deirdre's feathered pelt, the most prominent scars diagonally crisscrossing this way and that about her chest, disappearing mid-length beneath the layers of bandages, while another notable scar was a halo of pockmarks carved into her shoulder. Other injuries were quite visible from her front side, but due to the fact she kept her wings spread so she could shield herself, Richard couldn't see most of them.

"Yeah, she did," Deirdre said, picking up the pinstriped suit. There was fortunately a hole in the back, as well as for the crimson undershirt, but putting it on would've been more convenient if she had some sort of patch or charm to conceal her wings. "Cut me up real bad, too, when I was sent to bring her in." Deirdre brushed her fingers over the horizontal scar crossing over her cataract-marred eyes. "Probably one of the worst cases I had ever taken care of."

Suddenly becoming self-conscious that their current line of conversation was going to make Richard uncomfortable, she gladly ducked to his next comment in-between slipping on the silky red undershirt (with some difficulty) and putting on the pinstriped jacket. "I'm not an Adventurer anymore, though," Deirdre shrugged her shoulders as she started buttoning the shirt, and then the jacket. "Retired a month ago, after... well, after I was diagnosed." Tilting her head in Richard's direction, Deirdre smirked at him, then turned around to face him now that her outfit was assembled. "Trust me, I normally choose more conventional outfits for Adventuring. Though I like the fancier suits otherwise."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha wasted no time digging into her steak either, each bite of the meat sating some of the hunger and fatigue settling in her stomach that came from running and from worrying.  There were very few times that the warriors could actually settle in and relax, and moving quickly on the spacious train certainly seemed ideal.

But with each bite, enjoying the night and the whispered silence and near-solitude of the dining car, there was still some silence between the wolf and panthress...though there was a lot of noise in her mind.  Her eyes sometimes slowly looked up to Gareeku, and then darted back down again to her plate.  In her mind the past and recent events kept playing...the fighting, his changes, her worries, the dance...

He must be wondering what's wrong with me.

But he's one of my close friends...he has the right to know.  To know why and to know that someone cares.

And he'll think I'm a fool.

And I've already told him that I care enough to be there for him.  And I'm tired of arguing with myself.  Say something already.  Break the silence.

...Alright.

"You know, amigo," Aisha said with a light smile, after swallowing her mouthful of steak.  "I never did get to tell you exactly how glad I was to see you again...with all of the running and fighting going on."  Her voice was quiet...it was certain nobody else could hear her.  "Ever since that day...well, there hasn't been a time that I haven't wondered about you.  If you had died..." her voice cracked.  She cleared her throat and continued.  "...Or just gone.  After all of that, to say that I was worried would be something of an understatement."

She looked back up at Gareeku.  "I hope I don't sound strange, or something, but...I missed you, my friend."

[SpottedKitty]

"My intentions?" Kerya said with her ears perked attentively. "At the moment, I intend nothing more than to help all of us come through this situation still alive and in one piece. It is something of a tradition for mages of my School: when we are judged by the senior Adepts to be worthy of the rank and title, we go out into the world for a year, to see what we can make of ourselves. I have studied our history, and it seems the School's founders intended their students to avoid becoming a typical mage cloistered in a lonely tower researching the whichness of the why."

She leaned against the table, tapping her claws on the tabletop thoughtfully. "It has its agreeable and disagreeable aspects. In one of my first ventures, I defeated a rogue mage and... ah... acquired much that has been useful. One of his spells, though, is the one that left me in an alley in Haszal with my head in a bucket. I must find the time to take that spell apart again and discover what is going wrong with it, before I try it again."

Kerya paused and looked up as someone knocked on the door.

[Stygian]

Stygian tilted his head a bit, looking quizzically at the stoat as she explained her situation. 'You tested something new and volatile on yourself? Or am I misunderstanding the situation?' he queried. 'Forgive me if I say, but you're being too dire-'
   The bat was interrupted, and his ears perked and swiveled, as there was a knock on the door. Mel stood outside, and spoke to them. He pondered letting Keaton get it, but knowing the jackal he thought better and stood up, pushing the door aside. 'We're just fine, thank you. You were mentioned,' he said, and stood aside, inviting the dragoness inside. 'It seems that our new companion does not have a proper mind shield.' He seated himself again, glancing a bit at Kerya. He knew exactly what it was like to hear others' thoughts, and just what things might come up, even in a world that was used to psychics like Cubi. He could only wonder what Keaton was overhearing of Kerya's thinking and interpretation of things going on.

[Boog]

Richard kept his eyes locked on the ceiling until Deirdre turned around, nodding at the appropriate points. He was already under the impression that Keaton was dangerous. Most of the group was, although he was withholding judgment on the ferret girl. She looked fairly harmless.
"Retired?" this one caught the musician by surprise; he'd only been dragged adventuring on the 'guest diploma' (a fancy way of saying that he'd joined an adventurer's party, or in those cases been drafted, without actually having any training or permit) and didn't know much about adventuring as a profession so much as something that happened to you, "You guys retire? I always figured you just, y'know, stopped."

[Mel Dragonkitty]

The disguised dragon stepped into the cabin. "No shielding? I thought that was the first spell everyone learned." In the quiet of the cabin Mel realized the little mage really was unshielded. It hadn't been obvious in all the crowded locations they had previously met.

Initially Mel moved to just place the shield on Kerya, then paused. The mage would be better served by learning the spell. Unfortunately it would be impossible for the stoat to learn the spell the dragon generally used; components of the draconian language were lower than the normal range of hearing of most of the smaller species. Searching her memory she pulled up a shield used by Being mages. Performing the spell slowly and directly in front of Kerya Mel held the completed spell suspended for the foreign mage to examine for incompatibilities with the magic she used.

[SpottedKitty]

Kerya glared at the bat for just a fraction of a second. Perhaps only his sensitive ears could have picked out what she very quietly muttered to herself as Mel entered the cabin. "... think I have not the sense the Lady gave to a new-born cub? I made sure that spell was working before I dared to pass through it myself — three times I have gone over it with a flea-comb, and I still do not know why by the Names the Other-loving thing went so badly wrong when I sneezed..."

Her face was all friendly smile, though, by the time Mel offered to show her the mind-shield spell. She stared intently at the space between the snow leopard's hands, as if she could see more there than any of the others could.

"My thanks, Mel, this is a completely new type of spell to me. None of the Schools, or even the Guild themselves, have knowledge of anything capable of affecting the mind directly. Hmm. It does not seem to be related in any way to my normal physical shield spell, but I think I see... ahah!"

Ears and whiskers perked up, the little stoat reached out to where Mel held the spell ready. She poked at it with an outstretched claw, tracing a path in loops, tiny spirals, twists and turns, while her other hand, held out to the side, traced out a similar but not quite identical path. In this case, her clawtip left a trail of light in an increasingly complex structure that grew to resemble a large, complicated knot. Several of the loops and curls were fringed by something that could only be called scribbles; they looked like the result of a drugged bird chasing a drunken worm through a bottle of rainbow-coloured ink and then across a page. Kerya muttered to herself as she worked, only sometimes clearly enough to be heard. "... and a loop here... twisting to — what colour is that?... and braid under... knit one, purl two... and greenish-yellow purple... and I think that is it!" she said at last, as her colourful construction flared with light, then faded away and vanished.

Leaving Mel's original spell alone, now she went through several sequences of two-handed gestures, her lips moving slightly, although this time no sound came from her muzzle. The first sequence almost looked as if she were weaving a cat's cradle, but the next ones were shorter and simpler, until at last she ran through a quick one-handed gesture. She cradled a handful of — apparently — nothing, and held it up for Mel's inspection.

"There, that is the best I can do quickly, I think," the little stoat said, breathing a little heavier than normal as if she had just run up a flight of stairs. "Before I try it out on someone —" for an instant, almost too quickly to notice, she grinned toothily and glanced sideways at Sebastian, making a tossing motion in his direction with her tail, "— does this look to you as if it should work, Mel? I was forced to make a change or two, but it seems to be doing the same things as your spell."

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel peered thoughtfully at the spell, mentally dividing it into the various components that she  had been taught the spell needed and inspecting each piece for it's own strength as well as it's fit with the other parts. After a long thorough stare Mel ventured, "That should work just as well as the original. I am guessing that the points of difference are where it has to mesh with your other defenses?"

[Stygian]

It seemed that Stygian had almost turned to peer out the window at the landscape running past outside, but he did notice Kerya's teasing gestures, why he stared back at her. To him, her explanation really had only said that the spell had not been new, but still volatile. When Mel's next comment came, he couldn't really ignore the opportunity to return the pass she'd made.
   'She doesn't really have any other defenses, Mel. Not what I can sense,' the bat commented. 'Although she seems to throw some mean magic bolts around. Because I don't think it was you who turned that poor man into a valve.' He smirked cruelly, ears tensing and shifting a bit where he leaned on his hand.

[SpottedKitty]

Kerya blinked and looked at the bat with a genuinely puzzled expression as she allowed the spell in her hand to dissipate. "What do you mean, Sebastian? I cannot even use any of the transformation magics, only the strongest of our Adepts can control them. Something else that I see is very different here." She shuddered briefly from whiskers to tailtip. "I would not even if I could — those spells are so powerful and unpredictable, they frighten me. We have legends, cautionary tales, of what happens when — not "if" — they go wild."

A vivid image flashed through the little stoat's mind, one that had given her nightmares many times over the years. A woman, a chimaera, no two parts of her body belonging to the same species, raising her arms and calling on all her power, and all her fury, and all her will, to demand that the gods themselves grant her desire. She wore the shredded, half burned rags of what were once richly decorated robes. Kerya forced the image out of her mind before it ran to its conclusion; the one that always left her shivering in horror.

[Stygian]

Again, Stygian's eyebrows shot. They were doing that quite a bit too much lately, he realized. But then, the little mustelid was not previously known to him, and not part of any of his knowledge or calculations. Still, he had to find out more about her, more of what she really was and what she was really after. More of what made her tick. The way things were, he could not let some minor little stone like her get in the gears of his machinery...
   The bat smirked at Kerya. 'Unless I am mistaken, you were the one who repulsed that poor Mythos' spell and turned him into a fire suppression access. Or a fire hydrant. You know, big, red metal thing?' he said. He hoped it would come as a shock to her. 'I'm honestly quite impressed. Even though the mass is somewhat similar, a transformation like that is highly unlikely.'

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

As the discussion inclined away from the awkward subject of what Creature had attacked Kerya and toward her painfully-nonexistent mental defenses, Keaton leisurely lolled her head to the side, lazily observing the stoat from another angle. Even though she was not the sort to go about rampantly invading peoples' minds and desecrating their private memories and thoughts, Keaton couldn't help but feel the insistent tug of temptation pull at her curiosity. She had no interest in dissecting Kerya's mind, but she wanted to inspect the stoat's mental defenses on her own. Surprisingly, Keaton's motives were rather innocuous--if she had noticed something amiss she would've alerted the stoat to it, and maybe volunteered to set up a mind-shield. Of course, Mel was more of a capable candidate to handle such a task, but Keaton had an almost obsessive need to establish herself as useful at least once in front of a new person she actually considered an acquaintance.

Discreetly, Keaton extended her mental influence, hoping to investigate Kerya's defenses in a way which wouldn't alert anyone to her devices.

Unfortunately, even Keaton's good intentions didn't end well for her, at times.

The first thing she was smacked with was a particularly vociferous mental image of some sort of horrid monstrosity, vaguely feminine, but mostly resembling a demented caricature of sorts, a barbarous hodgepodge of various creatures melded into one abomination; emboldened by how particularly abhorred this concept was by its creator. Keaton yelped and swiftly backpedaled out of the periphery of Kerya's mind, hopefully undetected, then withdrew, attempting to look away and appear as inconspicuous and unsuspecting as possible.

---

...Deirdre:

Deirdre seemed to find Richard's incredulity at the fact Adventurers could retire amusing. Still methodically adjusting her jacket, tucking in every minuscule offending detail which seemed out of place until she had achieved a more desirable appearance, she turned her head over so she could address the Undead simian.

"Pff. Oh yeah, it happens all the time," Deirdre laughed. "A lot of Adventurers retire. Most of 'em die rather young in their careers... usually around their early or mid-twenties. Since I'm thirty-four and retired two months ago, I was probably one of the lucky ones."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[SpottedKitty]

"Big red metal thing...?" Kerya asked in complete bafflement. "I saw something like that, I think, back at the club just before the lights went out. Let me think... Mel, you were there, some guards attacked and I saw you deflect a greenish spell I did not like the look of... then I think about then I found a pool of magic nearby, I drained some of it to replenish my power reserves, then... everything went berserk and something knocked me down. Did you see what happened, Mel?"

Just then, Kerya felt a very slight tickling sensation behind, or possibly between, her ears, that had been there for a few seconds, suddenly vanish. Keaton made a stifled yelp of surprise, and she turned towards the jackal to see what was wrong.

[Stygian]

In the murky lighting of the cabin and against the dark, it was very hard to spot and distinguish anything black against the background. So the others could not clearly see if Stygian's eyes shifted or not. His suspicious frown and the sudden perk of his ears though made it seem that way, as he looked up from his seat and over toward Keaton. He might not have been able to sense what was going on, but what had happened, he could guess in just a couple of seconds. The topic was right there, and he knew the Jackal, after all.
   'Oh, for Hell's sake, Keaton...!' he began, then moderated his tone and looked at the 'Cubi less angrily. 'What did you feel? If you're going to prod in someone's head you can at least show the courtesy to share it with us others.' He turned his face to Kerya, taking on an apologetic look and tone. 'I'm sorry, but if the damage is done...'

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel looked puzzled when Ignatz mentioned someone getting turned into a valve. When he clarified that he was speaking of the chaos and odd magic in the club the pieces of that mystery clicked into place in her memory. "Ah, that was you.  Amazing. I've never seen anyone rewrite a spell in mid-execution before. Turning that poison fog spell into a transformation one in that split second must be a very precision operation."

But before Kerya could answer Keaton gave a little squeak that distracted all attention to the jackal despite her attempts to appear nonchalant.

[Gareeku]

As the two of them ate their food, silence had once again fallen between Gareeku and Aisha. However, while the pantheress was worrying about where Gareeku had been for the past few years, the wolf was busy stuffing food into his mouth. Typical male, one might say.

Hearing the pantheress speak, however, snapped Gareeku out of his eating and into the realisation of how Aisha had been while he had been gone. Swallowing the mouthful of food he was eating, the wolf listened as the pantheress expressed her worry for him when he had disappeared. Hearing this, concern for Aisha immediately made itself apparent within him as he set down his knife and fork.

"Well I'm here now." Gareeku replied softly, looking her in the eyes as the slightest hint of a smile could be seen at the corner of his mouth. "I have missed you too, Aisha."

[Boog]

Richard smirked slightly at Deirdre's choice of words. "Lucky until you fell in with this group. Fell in with them by accident two days ago and I've been shot at, taken apart, kidnapped, had my house broken into, stabbed numerous times, and I'm now skipping town. Luck isn't the word I'd use." Of course, it IS a weird turn of events that a retired adventurer with a connection to Keaton was in the club Stygian was headed for on this night... The undead chose his next words carefully... Compared to usual, "You know anything about what went down at the club? That Laertes jackass, those monsters..." So far the bat's keeping the plan to himself save for whatever we're doing in the immediate future, and I don't trust that at all. Who else is he gonna 'accidentally' pick up, and why?

[Aisha deCabre]

It seemed hard for Aisha to expect just what kind of reply she would get to her statement.  Her stomach carried enough butterflies for her to temporarily lose her hunger...that almost never happened to her.  She wondered about this.  She had elbows on the table and her head resting on two fists, and glanced to her nearly-finished plate.  She wondered...perhaps it was possible that she cared for him more than she thought...

But then she heard the wolf speak, and looked back up to see the hints of a smile tugging on his lip.  The panther returned his gaze, and a smile of her own, hearing him say that he had missed her as well.  The butterflies subsided, but her heart thundered.  "I...thank you.  I'm glad to hear it, Gareeku," she replied quietly, laying her hands on the table.  "And you are here, true, which I'm all the more glad for.  I never gave up on the possibility that you were alive, and...it was true."

She paused for a moment, and then reached across to lay her hand upon his own again.  "Just make sure that if you have to leave again, you let me say goodbye," she chuckled softly.  "I doubt I could take losing anyone I care for."

Aisha then released a sigh to release the last of the tension, slowly pulling her hand back.  That was when the waitress passed, asking how everything was, before putting the check in front of them for when they were finished and walking off.  Aisha smirked, cutting into the last of her meat.  "I'll take care of that, if you'll permit me.  You payed for my drinks at the club...and saved my neck on top of that.  It's the least I could do."

[Gareeku]

Listening to Aisha speak, Gareeku felt her hand rest upon his on the table once more. This time, however, he took his other hand and placed it over the top of hers, not even thinking about it as he did it as he continued to look into her eyes.

It was then, however, that the pantheress released a sigh and pulled her hand away. Secretly, the wolf didn't want her to, but didn't say anything for fear of sounding somewhat stupid in his opinion. No sooner had Aisha pulled her hand away, however, that the waitress passed them and asked how everything was for them, before leaving their check on the table and walking off again. Listening to Aisha speak once more as she resumed eating, Gareeku shook his head.
"No. Let me pay. I insist." the wolf replied, before picking up his knife and fork and cutting into the last of his own meat. "You do not need to pay me back or anything like that. I did what I did because I wanted to...because I care."

[Aisha deCabre]

As Aisha bit into the steak, she listened to Gareeku as he replied, insisting that he pay for the meal.  The panther looked as if to argue, but instead, she withdrew her voice with a soft smile upon her face from his next statement; that he, too, cared.  The warm way that she felt right then, the panther was more than happy to accept the offer, nodding in response.  "Thank you then, Gareeku...I appreciate it all.  And you know, I don't care how much you say you've changed...you're still the one I've always lo--...known.  Noble and true," she said, her voice and countenance sincere.  Still she pondered over missing a beat with what she was almost going to say, her face suddenly warm.

The last of the meal seemed to pass in the peaceful silence that filled the dining car.  Some of the customers had already left, leaving it nearly empty for the night.  With the plate finished, and the feeling of a full stomach taking her nerves, the panther stretched in her seat.  "Hmmm, from all the rumors I've heard about food on a train being untasteful, it was rather good," she commented.

Aisha glanced to the lingering darkness of night passing by out of the window, and then grinned back at Gareeku.  "Dios mio...I don't know about you, but I might be ready to try sleeping.  So long as nothing else goes wrong to interrupt."  To avoid jinxing from the statement, she knocked a few times on the wooden table and rolled her eyes, grabbing her cape and standing up.

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

As she recuperated from inadvertently reading Kerya's mind, Keaton suddenly became aware of the daggered glare she was receiving from Stygian, who did not appear amused about her fidgeting around with the contents of Kerya's thoughts. Although the bat himself did not ostensibly radiate any immediately detectable emotional energy, Keaton could practically feel the intensity of his gaze prickling and blistering on the back of her neck. Sighing, the jackal brushed her hand over her forehead, toying with the strands of dirty-blonde hair draped helter-skelter about her face.

"What?!" she demanded defensively when she noticed that not only Stygian's eyes were on her, but just about everyone else's were as well. When Stygian asked what she had seen, a slightly flush-faced Keaton sighed irritatedly and folded her arms under her chest, looking very embarrassed at the fact she had been discovered. "Fine. I saw some.. weird... monster. I don't know what's going on in your head, Ker, but that was one fucked up monster there. Didn't look like any Creature I've seen in Furrae, either."

--

...Deirdre:

Deirdre's expression reached a more quizzical, darkened angle when Richard asked her if she was aware of any connections between Laertes and Stygian. Blinking, her feather-tufted ear twitched rapidly, thoughtfully, then she answered, "I don't even know who this Laertes guy is, to be perfectly honest with you, Richard," she said with a shrug. "I really just had entered that club because I needed some time to unwind. The whole situation was just..." she sighed, then chose her next words carefully, so not to offend. "Bad luck, I guess."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[SpottedKitty]

Kerya cocked her ears slantwise at Keaton's words; she knew exactly what she had been thinking about just a moment ago. Her tail twitched once and fluffed out slightly, then a sardonic grin came on her face. "So, you saw the old Empress in my thoughts, did you? Good luck getting her out of your head again: the Lady knows, I have been trying for years. That foaming, shaved monster is... one of those cautionary tales I spoke of. And that is all I will say for now, the full tale does not make for comfortable listening, or telling, this late at night."

She turned back to Mel with a sigh. "That was none of my doing, Mel, I cannot rewrite someone else's spells either. I do not understand what happened there. I am missing something, I know it — something obvious..."

Thinking back to the discussion just before the jackal's interruption, Kerya was becoming very confused, a state she did not enjoy in the least. She wished she knew how Sebastian and Mel had misunderstood what she was capable of. Normally she wouldn't mind all that much: a little extra mystery and aura of danger usually did a mage's reputation little real harm, and could in the right circumstances be helpful. If what Sebastian had said and implied was true, though, and that burst of wild magic had transformed someone in an uncontrolled fashion... she was getting queasy just thinking about it. And a horrible suspicion was creeping into her mind, that the random burst had come immediately after she drained what she thought was a natural pool of magic, free for anyone to use. The two thoughts had not come together yet, but they were now close enough to wave to one another.

[Stygian]

Before, Stygian had only expressed a sort of mild surprise at some of the points brought up throughout the conversation. Now though, the bat's features seemed to darken as he looked down, pressing his back further up against the back of the seat and drawing up a knee to lean his elbow on. Getting the peculiarities of Kerya's speech had been easy enough. Now, getting what she was saying...
   Something seemed to bode ill, when the corner of the bat's mouth drew upward. 'Well, if that is the case... If I understand things right, and you say that... heheee...' he said, and peered at the stoat. For a second, the little mustelid thought she could see a deep, cold glint of blue in his obsidian eyes amid all that dark. 'You seized, and wrenched the magic out of shape. Most curious. Was the club's protection failing your fault as well?' He grinned, and not just on the outside. If the little thing had such powers, she might indeed be useful. Tearing magic apart or corrupting it was something that he was familiar with, yet keeping it intact through the process, or draining it as this Kerya seemed capable of, was something new to him.

[SpottedKitty]

Kerya's ears perked forward as she gave the bat her full attention. "What was that, Sebastian? There was a... spell of protection of some kind in the club? I could sense nothing of that nature when I entered the building, although the style of magic people use here is just different enough from my own that sometimes I do not... notice..."

Her voice trailed off as two particular thoughts in her mind came together with what she was saying, leaving only one possible conclusion. "Shave and mount it, I did do it!" she whispered in a shocked tone. "That was no pool of free power I drained, that was the protection spell! I took away half of its power without taking it down cleanly, so of course it went wild — it was the backlash from the spell collapsing that hit me a moment later and knocked me back on my tail!"

Kerya's eyes grew wider and her ears dipped lower as she realised that, accidentally or not, it seemed she might be at least partly responsible for the transformation. And with no obvious way to reverse it, and no guarantee the victim would still be alive anyway... She moaned and clamped her muzzle shut with one hand, clutching the table edge with the other as she staggered dizzily from the motion of the train. Her eyes darted about the cabin, then she made a diving leap past Mel and out the cabin door. As she landed there was a quiet snap and something clattered to the floor at her feet. She nearly tripped over it, then scrambled along the corridor towards the bathroom at the end of the car. First the cabin door, then the bathroom door, slammed so hard they bounced half open again, and the sound of the little stoat being violently ill could be heard clearly over the clattering and rattling of the train's wheels. In the cabin doorway lay the object she had dropped; a sheathed dagger on a leg strap with a broken buckle.

[Stygian]

And so the truth finally came together. Most of the others seemed shocked. However, Stygian's face remained neutral, up to the very point where Kerya threw herself out of the cabin, dropping something and scrambling for the bathroom. The bat grinned then, viciously in his darkened face as he sat back. Oh, yes. Curious indeed, he thought. And useful, I am certain. Though we shall have to guide and help her, or she won't last a day in this world. Getting caught by a Cubi as she was is proof of that...
   Though caught up in his thoughts, the bat couldn't help but notice the item the little stoat had dropped though; a simple, ordinary dagger with a bit of wear and tear to it, it seemed. Yet that she should wear such a thing, when it clearly was not decorate... A memento, most probably. Whatever the case...
   The bat's eyes still fastened on the knife, something moved under his jacket and then crept out from beside him, a half-liquid tentacle or something with slightly blurred contoures, made of the deepest black. Snaking forth quickly, it slithered over the floor, before its end changed shape and split, growing three jointed fingers, each ending in a long, curved claw. The thing carefully pinched the dagger into a grip, and then lifted it, bringing it up to Stygian's hand as he stretched it out, and then proceeded to creep back up under the white of his jacket again, vanishing. Gingerly, the bat looked at the knife, spinning it between carefully touching fingers.

[Cogidubnus]

 It was three or four cups later when the mouse waitress came back with a pot of coffee, and the wolf waved it away, and thanking her anyway. Raising her eyebrows and grinning, she simply shrugged and walked back, leaving a check for the coffee on the wolf's table. He fumbled for a few coins, leaving two or three on the table as a tip, and standing quickly donned his hat and glasses before walking back out of the dining car and back into the main hallway.

As he walked through, he heard the sound of gagging in one of the rooms - raising an eyebrow, the wolf walked back into the main cabin, where Stygian was idly flipping a seemingly ordinary knife in his hand. The wolf took a seat, feeling the cold night emanate from the glass behind his head.
"Didn't really take you for a knife guy." the wolf commented idly, leaning back on the bench seat.