Who: Cian & Seloria What: Investigative attempts and epic misunderstandings Where: The Miliona estate; a party When: Tonight! Rating: PG-13 for language, some allusion to the business of the missing kids. Nothing explicit. Status: Complete
“You know,” Cian said as he found himself face to face with the blonde girl yet again just as he was trying to work, “I’m starting to think you’re following me, goldilocks.” And it was damn inconvenient, because he’d had to get himself invited to this fucking party under a quickly construed alias, and it would really be better if no one he knew too well saw him here, considering his business for the night.
He had almost all the necessary pieces to the puzzle now, and the way it was shaping up was really starting to piss him off. He’d decided to venture here himself instead of calling on tiny again -- he could vanish too, now, and unlike her, he’d know what he was looking at when he found it. Better not to delegate this task.
But first, to get out of this ballroom and away from his unexpected (and unwanted) shadow.
Seloria wasn’t sure how she felt about Cian popping up everywhere. He appeared to be looking for something and didn’t appear to be hindering her own investigation, so she’d let his presence slide. This just felt like far too much of a coincidence. Being nobility, you could hardly walk two paces without being slapped with an invitation to one thing or another. True, those slowed down once her sister was rumored to be a fell knight, but she didn’t run in the same circles.
“I could say the same,” she said, without so much as a quirk of her brow. Instead, she had a rather pleasant smile as she looked up at Cian. “I would ask how you got in,” but that would be rude and she felt like she knew the answer. She’d seen him at several upper class functions before and he did clean up so nicely every time. “We appear to have a lot of similar interests as of late.”
“Doubtful,” he said, though he was beginning to wonder in spite of himself. Then again… an idea comes to him, absolutely insane, but he’s got a feeling about it. “And -- through the door. Like you, I guess.” A small, narrow smile, then the gamble, “One doesn’t have to be on the same social level of the master of the house to do business with him, it seems.” Painting himself the business partner of a man he was really coming to dislike was very deliberate; if indeed the little blonde was mixed up in this guy’s sideline, he might end up having to bury her, eventually, which would be unfortunate as she was occasionally amusing (when she wasn’t irritating).
That statement, the one about the business, tipped something inside of her. She regarded him differently. The shift was in her eyes. The light-hearted playful glint in them no longer had a sharp edge, but a cold one. "So you are in business with Lord Miliona," she said without the telltale lilt, but the question was clearly implied. She should have been more inclined toward conversation, but she found herself feeling the need to recoil. She took an imperceptible steadying breath. It fit really. He had been on both sides of the trail, and she'd seen him more than once while conducting her little investigation.
"What kind of business are you two dealing in?" she asked possibly too innocently, but the overacting was on purpose. Miles had tried to teach her another way, but a tryhard got different results than a master. A young, inexperienced girl got underestimated more often than not.
Unfortunately for her, Cian knew too well that age was rarely a factor in the human potential for cruelty; by the time he’d reached hers, he’d been a killer several dozen times over. You did what you needed to survive. And some people, he knew, did what they didn’t need, for the hell of it. He didn’t think she was that sort, but she was in this business, one way or another.
Faram damn all, he was going to demand a premium from Hier and his woman for this added complication.
“Bit of a delicate question, don’t you think, between near strangers?” he asked. Then, “Gotta work on your poker face, goldilocks. Generally when you try to stab someone, the eyes make a good target but a shitty weapon.” He wasn’t smiling anymore, though his posture was still relaxed. “Listen, some free advice from me to you, which I know you won’t bother taking, but what the hell: steer clear of dirty people, or you’ll get your pretty dresses all filthy, too. There’s still some honor among… thieves. Like takes care of like, as they say. You don’t want to be caught in the middle of that.”
When his smile disappeared, Seloria's expression turned to that of a petulant child. She was clearly acting at this point, no longer bothering to hide what she was once he'd called her out. "I was hoping we could become good friends," she said with clear disappointment in her voice. "You appear to be a good one to have." She meant it and she didn't. If he was mixed up in the children disappearing, the only reason she'd want to become close would be to find a nice soft spot to shove the knife in.
There was something she wanted to say, but couldn't give away too much. "Thank you for your concern, sir." If it was concern. It sounded more like a threat from where she was standing. In her mind, things weren't stacking up so well in Cian's favor. "I will consider your words." There was something rude on the tip of her tongue, but she bit it back. She didn't appear too upset to be found out by him as a member of his own guild. He hadn't exactly hid it, but he hadn't said it outright either.
He'd caught the shift in her eyes. He'd given her that. He'd always been helpful, hadn't he? If this was his business, then it would make sense for him to try to push her out of it. The suggestion had to be made out of convenience or even courtesy, but not out of kindness. "I can only suggest you find a different person to do business with," she said softly. "And quite soon."
“As expected, you have no intention of listening,” he said. And that was a shame (and bound to be a mess) but he didn’t back out on things he’d said he’d do, so he’d take care of this ugly shit. (And never mind that Hier hadn’t hired him to clean up, just to solve a riddle; the cleaning up, that was for his own benefit.) “Have it your way, then. I’ll probably be seeing you.” Fuck all. But that was all the time he could spare for her; he had to get himself upstairs and back before the guests thinned out, and at this point, he didn’t really give a fuck if she saw him go. Whatever her role in this was, it wasn’t accomplice, and that was all he really cared to know.
“So with that,” a slight, falsely polite bow of the head, “you’ll have to excuse me. Business calls.”
Maybe striding off across the room and then brazenly through the door that led out to the foyer (and the stairs, and the rest of the house) was a bit much, but it didn’t matter what she thought right now, and he was in hurry. He donned invisibility in a shadowy corner and began his quiet and methodical ascent past an oblivious hired guard.
He hadn’t lied -- he had business to attend to.
Seloria had puffed up the moment he'd bowed. Her face had gone from petulant to simply ice. It was all quite genuine. It all worked so well with the way he made his way straight out of the room. It allowed her the luxury of glaring after him and not having to speak with anyone for quite some time. It gave her time to think up how she was going to move next. She was thinking far too much these days and was probably going to obtain wrinkles on her brow for it if she wasn't too careful. There was the temptation to follow him out, but they had already drawn far too many eyes. So instead, she grabbed the nearest flute of champagne, found a partially covered place to sit, and "sulked".
She might as well let him make his money now. This well would run dry soon enough.