Eiyuu Kishi Den

Zira caught the movement in her peripheral, and tossed her head back to see the archer in the window. There's one, she thought. The dark elf quietly padded her way across the square, then slipped into the space between the building the sniper was in, and the neighboring structure. She could feel sweat starting to bead on her forehead as the strain of maintaining control over the spirits began to take it's toll on her. However, she could hold it for a few more minutes, with some effort.

Zira snuck around behind the occupied building and found the back door. Leaning back against the wall, she slowly turned the doorknob, easing the door open and waiting to see just what the open door attracted... She couldn't be sure if there were more brigands inside, aside from the archer.

A man stood in the center of the room, back to her. He seemed unaware of her presence. He was armed with a huge axe in his hand and a dagger by his side. He wore chainmail and on his back was a crossbow quiver and a crossbow.
"No sight of the trespassers?" he asked. "Nope check by the other window. And no signals from the others. They should still be hemmed in, in there" replied the 'sniper' by the window.

Two men, Zira thought, frowning to herself while she still maintained her invisibility. This may be a little complicated. The dark elf padded closer to the free standing brigand, tip-toeing so the heels of her boots wouldn't click on the floor. She didn't have the energy to call upon another spirit, so she would have to do this manually. Removing one throwing dagger, she approached the fellow from behind, inching as close as possible before striking. Putting one hand over his mouth and putting the blade to his throat, she drew him back while willing the invisibility spirits to cover him as well.

His eyes shot open and the intent of motion was there. None came however as she moved fast. Hot blood greeted her a moment later as life poured out of him.
His comrade remained unaware. "I hope we can get rid of these two fast. We shouldn't have lingered here for a cheap extra kill. The boss won't like it..." he luckily did not look in the direction of his friend.

Valerios meanwhile bit his lower lip. What if she had gotten hurt? There was no way of telling. His behaviour was less than knightly, sending out the fair lady while he hid behind a wall. He opened and closed his left gauntleted hand nervously. A bit longer. If there was still no reaction, he'd risk it and go look out there.

OOC: I didn't mean to kill him, but ok, whatever, we'll roll with that.

After laying the body down quietly, Zira released the invisibility spirits that concealed her as she hid behind the corner of the hallway. Her spiritual reserves were feeling quite low, but she could muster another summon instead of attempting to fight the archer when she took him hostage. "Gentle pixies who bring sleep, fill the eyes of my target with your sand and bring him to a deep slumber," she spoke softly, and with a faint shimmer, the spirits responded, swirling about the archer's face until he dropped where he stood, deep asleep.

Zira hurried over, taking his weapons and tossing them into another room. She couldn't drag him out of the building and across the street, but she could bring Valerios to him for their interrogation. Hopefully there weren't any other men lingering in the village. Moving to the window, she looked across the village square to catch the knight's eye.

OOC: oops, sorry!

IC:

Valerios moved quickly to the opposite building, as soon as he had detected her.
Other arrows or bolts remained unseen and he entered the building.
The young knight in full armor moved with remarkable speed up the stairs, holding his sword tightly in case Zira ended up in trouble.
Finding a man with a slit throat and an unconscious individual at her booted feet, he rose up an eyebrow. "Remind me not to anger you without very good reason..." he said, clearly impressed.

The dark elf shrugged nonchalantly as Valerios acknowledged the body. "A necessary evil," she commented. "This one can be interrogated, if you would be so kind as to move him," Zira said with a grin, seeming quite pleased with her catch.

Valerios passed her, glancing at her amused.
"Such joy at the catch of the day..." he teased her as he knelt next to the man.
He seemed unconscious but he quickly checked him for weapons or papers.
"Hmmm what's this?" he pulled out a golden necklace. "There's blood on it" he said.
Wiping it clean, he revealed a crest. "This is the heraldry of Sir Elrond Fitzpatrick..." he said. He glanced at the man. "Did they ambush him?" he asked, more to himself than to Zira. He backhanded the man awake. The prisoner's eyes shot wide open.
"Where did you get this from?" he asked, holding out the necklace.
"A few days ago... a Knight and retinue came by. The boss led us in a surprise attack on him"
"Who is your 'boss'?" he asked "And how come the village is deserted?"
The man's gaze had fallen on Zira again and he squirmed back nervously. "The work of 'her kind'" he said suddenly.

Zira frowned. "I didn't realize that dark elves were still a problem in Kanon," she murmured. However, she felt no kinship to these dark elves, if they were indeed the root of the problem. "Answer his other question, then tell me about these dark elves."

The man swallowed and his eyes darted from left to right, as if he was looking for a way out. "I can't..." suddenly he was backhanded by Valerios.
"Torvik... his name is Torvik" he finally said "He's made a deal with your kind" he said as his gaze moved away from Valerior to fix Zira. "Bunch of sadistic wenches... they get great joy out of all this... I'm not even sure they care about the plunder... or profits".

So the bandits and dark elves are allied... Zira thought to herself. It seemed that if her own kind were causing trouble, then it was a good thing that she decided to travel with Valerios. "Then if you're working with the dark elves, why is the village empty? What happened to the people?"

"Gone... never to return" he grinned maliciously suddenly.
"The Dark Elves dealt with 'them'. We do not know what they did but from one day to the other, the village was empty and the boss got new orders. We raid passerby's. Caravans are purposely tricked this way. And occassionally we receive orders to capture a specific person or object. A fruitful deal for both sides".

Valerios frowned "Disgusting" he noted. He glanced at Zira "Well you're a... a Dark Elf. Does this make any sense to you?".

Zira shook her head. "On Marmo, dark elves may kidnap a human here or there for some deranged reason or another, but never entire villages--well, large groups. Marmo hasn't much in the way of villages to compare to here," she mused. "I have to wonder, why would they risk incurring the wrath of the human armies by taking the residents of an entire village? Someone would be bound to realize something was amiss and report to Shinning Hill."