OoC: Blech, this post sucks.

BiC:

Chronos did not answer her immediately. Instead, he motioned for her to follow him into the alley on the south side of the building. “This is the address Kenjin told me Kat would be located at,” he explained. “It is a brothel, a place where women are treated as slaves towards the lusts of mankind. Do you understand?” Selene’s eyes grew wide, and the Dark Eye noticed a lump form in the back of her throat, but she nodded all the same. “We will infiltrate this building and obtain Kenjin’s daughter.”

“How do we do that?” she asked, in the same hushed voice the ronin himself had adopted. “Do you have a plan?”

“That is what I brought you along for, Selene Vlaxen,” the ebon knight replied. “We will enter, with me posing as a client and you as a worker, the bedchamber areas and search for Kat. She will not be out on the floor working, she’ll be somewhere in the back. Understood?” His mask gazed down at her, and the angel grew noticeably more frightened. “Stop that. If you flinch every time I look at you, no one is going to believe this ruse. I know I appear terrifying, but control yourself until we can find Kat.”

Selene slowly nodded. Chronos, satisfied, placed his right arm on her shoulders. “Follow my lead,” he ordered. “Do not speak to anyone, and do not make eye contact with anyone inside. I will protect you.” But, when he touched her, she felt nothing but cold, and shivered. “Are you alright?”

The lump in her throat emerged yet again. “Y-yes, Chronos,” she stuttered. “I was just- your arm is so cold…”

“Deal with it,” he hissed. “Be glad I did not use my left one.” Selene bent her head to check the Dark Eye’s other arm, and gasped when she saw the coat sleeve hanging empty. “Ask your lover about that later. For now, focus on the mission.” Selene, though she had possibly never felt more uncomfortable in her life, allowed the ebon knight to lead her through the door.

A stale scent invaded the ronin’s nostrils, one that happened to give off the particular aroma of a lavatory that had not had a good cleaning in many years. Selene, he suspected, gagged briefly. But she regained her composure, as Chronos expected from Zorlo’s mate, and followed the Dark Eye’s lead through the brothel. Thankfully, no one disturbed them, quite possibly because Chronos was not the kind of person anyone would want to chat with. If anything, when they entered, people made it their business to get out of their way. Everyone ignored Selene, who walked draped in his shadow. Let’s get to the back rooms. Kat’s will be different, noticeable, so that we can find her. He opened the door to the backrooms and helped Selene inside, shutting the door behind them.

“Wait.” Selene, who had begun to already head down the hall, stopped upon Chronos’ word. “I don’t want interruptions by anyone outside here.” He lifted his arm and summoned the metal of his skin. Selene’s eyes grew as small grey tendrils began to trickle down the Dark Eye’s right arm from the insides of his coat to his fingertips. He pressed his hand against the wooden surface of the door or, more specifically, the area of the keyhole. The metal wormed its way into the hole and destroyed anyone’s ability to open the door without extreme force. The metal stretched from the keyhole to the hinges on the side, tightening the bolts and ensuring this. Satisfied with his work, Chronos retracted the metal into his body. “Let’s get this over with,” he said, turning back towards Selene. He did not grasp Selene, but his coat swept past her as he begun his march down the corridor. The angelic woman followed.

Chronos encouraged Selene to ignore the noises coming from the rooms on both sides of the hallway, as they would only serve as a distraction. “Look for something of Kenjin’s. That would be our best bet at finding his daughter.”

“Like what?” she asked.

Chronos’ brain internally began a debate over whether or not he should just leave her here to find her own way back to The Green Dragon. “A yin-yang symbol,” he answered. “Also, an aura, a very specific aura. My Arm Striker will be able to detect it when we reach its proximity, but you should be able to too. She has a natural affinity for luck.” As if on cue, the Arm Striker began to pulsate with a brand new beat. Though he had not matched Kat’s rhythm to any specific beat, he was certain that this was her. “Can you feel her?”

Selene nodded. “Yes, she is somewhere ahead.” They passed five doors before they finally stopped, on Selene’s whim. “This one,” she announced, pointing towards the door on the left. “There is a very strong aura in this one.” Chronos, who knew her to be correct, decided to check to make certain.

“Now, Selene Vlaxen, listen for the sound of silence.” Chronos, well-versed in the skills necessary to listen to silence, heard nothing but the breathing of a single person inside the room. He also heard Selene, who fidgeted far too much to be able to properly listen to silence. He heard her accelerated heartbeat and her bated breath as she attempted to mimic his efforts. “Can you hear her inside?”

“I-I hear one person, I think,” she replied hesitantly. “It doesn’t sound like there is anyone else inside the room.”

Chronos nodded. “Very good, Selene Vlaxen. Flawed, but good.” He grabbed the door handle, and pulled the door open. “Let us see if you were correct.” Both entered the room of Kenjin’s daughter.

Clang! Selene screamed as a knife lunged at the Dark Eye’s face. Chronos, uninterested in what had been tossed at him, waited for the knife to rebound off his mask and into the nearby wall. “Silence, Selene Vlaxen,” Chronos ordered, and checked his face for any shreds. Finding that his mask was intact, the ebon knight entered the quiet darkness of the room. “Kat, come out this instant. You know my voice.”

Selene could not discern where Kat was in the room, but Chronos’ vision did. She sat upon a bed of light velvet, dressed in Druid clothing: a black robe with a hood shrouding her face from view. “The legendary Dark Eye returns to me here?” hissed a harsh voice in the darkness. “I would have never imagined my father to give you all his worldly possessions. Have you been too busy in the Dome to come for me, Dark Eye? Too busy playing with the dead instead of rejoicing life?”

“It is a pleasure to see you as well, Kat,” Chronos answered. “You have absorbed the negative influences of this environment. We need to take you away right now.” He then turned to Selene. “Kenjin created Kat as a sponge, with the hopes that she would become a human based on her interactions with others. When she interacted with me, she absorbed my inability to feel emotion. Now that she had been here for so long, her emotions have evolved to spite and hatred, reflecting this place. It will take time to return her to an agreeable level.” He held out his arm to the darkness. “Kat, come with us. Your father has summoned you for your unfinished business.”

“I know,” Kat snapped. “My father gives me information, Dark Eye, unlike you. The Black Ixis is what I was created for, Dark Eye. I was designed to find it.” Both heard her shuffle, though only Chronos saw her move off the bed and towards them. “Tell me, Dark Eye, what were you made for?”

Chronos did not answer. “Let’s go, Kat. Now.” His tone indicated that his finite patience was waning. Kat, though it was very clear from the aura Selene was sensing that she did not want to obey Chronos, grasped Chronos’ glove and allowed herself to be led out of the room. Selene closed the door, and followed the two out of the dank hallway. The woman was silent after that, unwilling to converse with Selene or even Chronos, though she refused to release his arm from her grasp. As a result, Selene had to open the doors for both of them, for Kat did not seem to want to do anything for herself and Chronos had only one arm to use. They left the Swallows Gentlemen’s Club without further incident.

The walk back to The Green Dragon was quiet, something Chronos always preferred to conversation. Selene followed Chronos and Kat back to the tavern, and the Dark Eye sensed that she wanted nothing more than to escape into Zorlo’s arms and be soothed from her night’s events. Personally, Chronos could not understand this need to be with others, but attributed it to emotion and left it at that. Kat, however, was a different matter. Perhaps Kenjin wanted Selene and Zorlo to meet his daughter so that she could learn to love. Her absorption of my personality seems to have vanished since her time at that club. Maybe Selene and Zorlo did have a part to play in this, Chronos thought, as they arrived at the tavern.

“Selene Vlaxen, go upstairs to Zorlo,” he commanded. “Kat and I shall retire to our room, as we have things to discuss about our mission. We will depart in the morning for the Black Ixis.” Without saying goodbye, Selene practically bolted to the door of The Green Dragon and disappeared from sight. After a few moments, Chronos and Kat followed her inside, where Chronos noticed that, by the watch’s hands, only two hours had elapsed since they had been gone. “Release my arm.” Kat, if she heard him, chose to ignore his command. “Then you should sleep. Come.” Chronos led the daughter of Kenjin up to their room. Briefly, he considered whether or not he should go and check on Zorlo and Selene, but decided that they should have some time alone. He opened his own room’s door and led Kat inside.

__________________