Eye for an Eye

JP with Winteroak, Cindy, and White_Caribou

On a good day, Shalia would have been drawn in by the instruments, the beauty of the string plucks and new melodies that filled her head with bliss. This day was not exactly that.

She would not dally with her words here. Her hands folded calmly in her lap.

"On the grounds of our treaty, I request a private audience with Sister Locust."

The music was beautiful, which only added to Islana's distraction. What was with her? She was never this distracted by almost anything.

The redhead let herself focus more on the conversation. It probably wouldn't look good to have Shalia's slave seem to not be paying attention.

Shalia's words stunned the pair. They had expected the woman to come here demanding satisfaction and reparations regarding her wounded guard and the abduction of her slave. They had not expect this.
"An audience with the Seer?" Agizul repeated slowly looking at Amastan. The bald woman looked at Shalia and Islana.

Two foreigners. The same foreigners from the most sacred prophecy. One with the status to speak for the Odonine Warchieftan. Requesting an audience. One they could not deny without immediately breaking their newly found treaty. But two take their kind to the heart of the homeland? To their Holy City?
Surely this would be folly.

"And what do you seek with this audience." The bald woman asked Shalia.

Their expressions of hesitant shock threatened a prideful grin on Shalia's lips, but she resisted.

"We should get to know better those we ally ourselves with, yes?" The look she threw between Agizul and Amastan was sharp. "Wouldn't want to think of your people as a faceless entity."

"A treaty like this urgently requires more...inside deliberation. Leader to leader. I have wished to meet the great Sister Locust from the moment I first learned of her, and my duty as diplomat commands me to represent the Aghul to the Prophetess. Personally."

Her head tilted slightly in awaiting their response.

The two priests looked at one another again. They knew she was within her right to ask for such an audience. There was very little to discuss now. Those were concerns for another day. Now they would have to uphold the treaty the Prophetess had agreed upon. Shalia Nix spoke for Koshnem after all.
"We are departing in two days. You are most welcome to join us on our trek back to the Holy City." Agizul said bowing his head. Amastan looked at Islana and smiled. "You should had run when you got the chance, child."

The look on the faces of Amastan and Agizul, at Shalia's request, wasn't lost on the young woman. They had not been expecting that.

Islana knew that denying the request would break the treaty. She would have realized that even if Shalia hadn't told her.

The thought of seeing the city and the people her curiosity couldn't get enough of was exciting. That was until the words of warning by Amastan.

Islana eyes met the bald headed woman's but she couldn't decipher anything.

Even with those words, the thought of trekking though the desert, the heat, sun and anything else negative the redhead's mind could come up with, the want to see this Holy City was somehow stronger.

"Excellent. That is all I needed to ask. We head out in two days then."

Shalia stood and gave a bow in respect before turning to face Islana, scanning the area near the entrance as she did. A single guard stood at attention inside the tent, the others likely being ordered out in preparation for the meeting. Her eyes flicked over to his form and she eyed him like prey.

"Walk ahead of me," she commanded to her slave in a whisper, hand guiding the redhead a few steps forward.

This was all a little too perfect. Too clean. She had come to realize carrying out the unexpected was quite enjoyable.

As they approached with Islana in the lead, the singular guard eyed them warily. Shalia sent him one of her charming smiles as she passed, but it was not the only thing he would receive on her way out.

"One more thing…" She said casually to the priests, turning her body around slightly. When she did, a short dagger of ice formed from her palm and she plunged it into the guard’s hip.
He stumbled to the side with a pained grunt, clutching at the wound for a weapon but the ice had exploded into smaller fragments on impact, melting away promptly. His eyes shot over to Amastan and Agizul, his free hand half-pulling out a curved sword, expecting them to order an attack. Raise alarm.

They did nothing. It was an equal action to what had occurred at the market--they were not blind to it.

Shalia kept her piercing gaze toward the priests as it unfolded. Where the erupting shards would have cut the surrounding area on anyone else, her skin was untouched as fresh snow. For added effect, a visible cloud of cold radiated around her hand.

Silence hung eerily as Shalia simply walked out into the night, standing taller than Fang itself.