"You did /what/?"
Alexastra leaned forward, her expression incredulous but inwardly thankful
that she had thought to soundproof the building when she acquired it. In a
chair across from her, Thestilus flinched. In his hand rested a silver ring,
emblazoned with the Marcus family crest. When Alexastra tried to grab it from
him, he clenched his fist tight around it and pulled it away. "You haven't
called for a meeting in two weeks!" he retorted, clutching his hands to his
chest. "Did you expect me to just twiddle my thumbs and wait?"
Alexastra slammed her fist against the table, and then rose to her feet.
"Yes, you fool! Why should I call for you if I don't need anything from you?
Things were proceeding exactly as I had planned!" She stepped off to the side
and started pacing, running the fingers of her right hand through her headfur
in an effort to regain her calm. It didn't help much. "Your job," she said
after a few paces back and forth, "is to sit on Linafex and make sure he
doesn't do anything stupid until we're ready." She sliced a hand through the
air to cut off his reply. "It is -not- your job to meddle with Brightleaf's
inn employees, or to try to burgle Xavier Marcus' rooms for blackmail
materials. Do you have any idea how -badly- Marcus would have reacted to
another blackmail attempt?" Throwing her hands up in the air, she continued,
"And then to top it off by letting another thief in because you forgot to latch
the window behind you! What were you thinking?"
"Mostly I was thinking 'don't get caught'," Thestilus snapped back. "You
know: Kyia's watching, and who knows how close the nearest Lightbringer zealot
is. It's not Daedra'kama yet, so-"
"Which is why you shouldn't have gone in the first place. That's what
patsies are for, you half-brained imbecile!" Alexastra exclaimed, hands thrown
wide in exasperation. "If you had half the sense that Lord Ba'al gave a
hound-" Alexastra stopped herself before her rant could truly gather speed and
sighed, massaging her temples as if to dull a headache. She circled smoothly
around the back of Thestilus' chair, her footsteps as silent as a cat's, and
draped a wing across his shoulders. Stooping down to the child-imp's level and
dropping her voice into something soft, placating, and almost maternal, she
sighed, "Oh, Thestilus. I'm sorry. I forget how new you are at this business.
You're what, barely eighty years old?"
"One hundred and twelve next month," Thestilus said, eyes warily fixing on
the clawed hand resting high on his thigh.
"Close enough. Now, I've been doing this a lot longer than you have, and
there are a few things you need to learn about ensnaring mortals. First," she
said, gently drawing a line across his trouser leg with a claw tip, "is that
this is very delicate work. You've just ruined two, perhaps even three of my
backup plans, because you moved too quickly." She scored another line.
"Second, have a backup plan. Have several. If a thief surprises you while
you're burgling, offer to split the take. Whatever the answer, stay out of
reach. Try a bit of negotiation before you run. We have resources that some
might find useful. Lastly…" Thestilus gulped. A razor had appeared in the
she-daedra's hand on his shoulder as if from nowhere, and now nestled against
his throat. It tingled with the characteristic tightness of a mithril edge.
Alexastra smiled. "A little something I learned from a Southlands wanderer:
Be patient. It is the -slow- knife that penetrates." She turned
the hand on his thigh palm-upward. "Now give me that ring this very instant
or I will carve a smile in your throat, pull your tongue out through it, and
leave you for the Lothanansi." Thestilus carefully dropped the ring into her
waiting palm, and she folded the razor in one hand before slipping it back into
a pocket nestled inside her sleeve. "Don't get me wrong," she said, tucking
the ring down the front of her dress. "You've got some good ideas, but I'd
appreciate you running them past me -before- you implement them. Okay?" She
patted him on the knee and, just to further mess with his head, gave him a
motherly kiss on the cheek before gesturing him toward the door. "I'll see
what I can do to clean this up. In the meantime, keep Linafex under control.
Study him. Figure out what makes him tick."
The barrage of shifting emotions almost worked. She nearly had him out the
door before Thestilus recovered from her psychological warfare. "I already did
that," he snapped, digging in his heels and resisting the push of Alexastra's
wing. "He's all wrapped up in his daughter. He wants to marry her into a
higher class."
"Yes," she said, impatient to get out and fix what Thestilus had bungled,
"but why does that appeal to him? Is it just for the sake of his ego, or does
he actually care about her welfare?"
"Why should I worry about that?" the child-imp sneered. "It's far too late
for him to back out now."
Alexastra slapped him on the back of the head. "Because, you idiot, if he's
still doing it for his daughter, then Velena could contest his contract if
something goes wrong and he gets killed too early. Don't just assume the net
is tight: check it."
"She won't get him out of it. He signed of his own free will."
"I've seen it happen."
"You're joking."
"No, I'm not. It was a couple of centuries before your time. Don't ask
around about it; Lord Agemnos doesn't like to be reminded. But that's not why
I'm telling you to investigate."
"It's not?"
"No, it's not." She folded her wing against her arm, seized Thestilus by
the collar, lifted him up off the ground, and locked him in a nose-to-nose
glare. "I'm telling you to do it," she said, clipping each word, "because
anything less is sloppy… AND I HATE SLOPPY!!"
Thestilus made a very satisfying thump when he bounced off the wall across
the hallway, and Alexastra shut and locked the door behind him. "Idiot." Her
sharp ears picked up what he called her in return as he walked away, and she
smirked. Maybe next time she had to spy in Metamor, she'd be one of those.
After all, if dear Edward could make the shape look good, she could make it
look downright stunning…
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