The Beginning

Calantha followed Seth into the dusty tavern. Wooden tables were bunched together on one side of the room, candles melted onto their surfaces, and a crude bar where a portly man doled out ale to his rowdy customers was on the other.
But Calantha was more interested in the patrons, not the crumbling aesthetics. There were probably fifteen men inside. Calantha sidled over to an inconspicuous corner and observed.

Unsure what Calantha was looking for in her victims, Seth followed her to the corner, looking for humans that met his own requirements. He didn't expect to find many intellectuals in a place like this, but a couple looked the part. "What are you looking for in a victim?" he asked, wanting to make sure her pick would be inside the ones he had mentally chosen.

"Talented," Calantha said simply. "That's my only prerequisite. Look there."
She pointed to a man huddled alone at one of the tables, his hood shading his face. He looked lithe and secretive. Casting subtle glances around the place, the man also looked suspicious, which meant he had enough wits about him to appease her.
"Do you see the callouses on his fingers?" Calantha eyed the mortal's hands, cupped around a mug. "He is a musician: a good one. I can tell." Giving the Blur a look that meant business she said: "I want to hear something beautiful tonight."

"Musicians often have a good senses of hearing and touch, and this one seems like he may have a nimble mind. Good enough. Now, would you like to get him, or shall I?" Seth replied, watching the cautious man. He may be harder to lure in than most of the insects, but a minor challenge could be enjoyable.

Calantha shrugged, watching him. "How would you go about it?" she asked, curious. "Luring him in I should say. Discreetly," she emphasized.

She clearly wanted to see how he would perform such an act, so he decided not to use his usual method. He casually strode over to the man, and took a seat next to it. He made sure his eyes were shining some before he walked over, so not to startle it as much later. "Sir," Seth tapped it on the shoulder, to which the man gave a slight jump. "Yes?" it replied cautiously. Seth turned his eyes just slightly brighter, and threw a hypnotic quality into his voice. "M'lady over there," he nodded at Calantha, "is a singer in a quite renowned traveling troupe, although she asked me not to mention the name of said troupe, and has quite an eye for talent. One of her accompanying band members has fallen sick recently, and she was wondering if you might join her in her next showing. You will, assuredly, be paid a good deal more than you would get in one of your regular days. I can tell from your eyes that you're interested," Seth's own eyes flared brighter, now that he knew the man was quite under his charm, not only from the spell of his eyes, but also from his silver tongue and promises of gold. The man also appeared calmer and more trusting of Seth "If you could just follow us back to our traveling cart, so she may hear you before the show, we would be most obliged." He stood and lifted a finger, initiating the man to follow. It stood, as if in a trance, and Seth guided it to the door, giving nod to Calantha to follow.

Calantha watched her companion charm the mortal in a matter of minutes. Impressive. She could admit to herself, though not aloud.
She followed the two outside and risked morphing her Glamour into something more alluring.
"What's your name?" she asked the man smoothly, smiling with scarlet lips and shining blue eyes.
"Llyus," he said slowly, politely dropping his hood and exposing delicate, artistic features, dark hair and eyes.
Calantha cast a demure look she had practiced too many times and clutched his arm adoringly. "What is your instrument? Lute?"
Llyus shook his head. "Harpsichord."
"Perfect!" Calantha exclaimed, strolling with him aimlessly down the road. She glanced at the Blur and widened her eyes in a 'what now?' expression.

Clearly Shiftie was not as skilled at this as he was. "Our traveling coach is just outside the village, not to far of a walk," Seth said suavely. The man seemed a little suspicious of leaving the village with two strange strangers, but Seth, as usual, had a plan for this. "After all," he laughed jovially, "We don't want anyone knowing were here and forcing us to listen to pitiful auditions of musicians much less skilled than yourself." He slowed his pace just slightly, and pulled Shiftie closer to him. "Dear," he whispered, barely audible, "if it's not to much effort, could you shine that large rock near the edge of the torchlight into a glamorous stagecoach?"
((Just remembered Seth doesn't know Calantha's real name, so I switched back to his nickname for her.))

Vythica turned towards Hawthorne, "How much further would you say the inn is?" she asked him, "I'm not sure if we should've left those two alone together. Who knows what they'll do!" She tried to sound lighthearted, but in reality she was wondering what the two Unseelies might do. Unseelies weren't known to be kind to mortals.

((Hope you guys don't mind that I jumped in, haha.))

((Yeah, I think I used Seth's name by accident too))

"Of course not, Darling," Calantha said just as softly.
She focused her Glamour there. It was harder to shape the magic around inanimate objects, but soon a chariot, lavishly painted pink and gold with large, white chariot wheels stood before them, with only a slight shimmer perceptible to Fae eyes.
"We're staying at an inn on the west side of town," she said, imitating Blur's air of nonchalance. "All my equipment is set up there. We would be delighted to have your talented company."
Calantha kept on a bright smile the whole time but already it was beginning to wear on her.

"And it would be best if we saw you in the caravan, not the inn, for now, given the hour," Seth said, mostly at Shiftie. They were getting close to the caravan, and Seth slid up to her, whispering again. "Would you care to use your gift on him when we get a little further away from the village? After all, he'll probably panic if his hand goes straight through the door handle..."
((The grammar in my last post made me sick, hahaha.))

---

Hawthorne peered through the foliage. "Not far," he said as he spotted some lights through the trees. Three candles set up in a triangle, two in bottom floor windows and one in the centrally located upper floor window... yes, that was the place. It's odd window arrangement made it easy to locate from the rear, which was precisely why he made this his inn of choice in the area. "I see it just a little ahead," he replied to Vythica, pointing to the triangle of lights. And even before she mentioned it, he was questioning leaving those two alone, but decided to leave the subject untouched for now. He'd just have to see if they seemed a little too happy for just sitting in the woods for a couple hours when they met up again.
((Do you want Zephyr to be her name for him? Since it's kinda fading out at the moment haha.))

((Your grammar was fine!))
Calantha was now confused. Gift? Hmph. She'd have to improvise.
To distract Llyus from their tangle of persuasions, Calantha grinned devilishly and pecked the hypnotized mortal on the cheek.
"It is most accommodating inside," she told him, stepping aside to give him access to the imaginary door.
As he reached for it, she picked up a stone and knocked him unconscious. She turned to the Blur.
"You did mean my gift for random violence, didn't you?" Her ruthless grin was easy to hold now and amusement quivered in her stomach.

((Okie dokie, I'll use Zephyr from now on.))

"When do you think we should head back?" Vythica asked Zephyr, "if they aren't up to no good now they'll be getting restless soon." She allowed herself to laugh a bit. She hummed to herself as a she walked along with her bodyguard, "I just hope they don't get themselves in too much trouble..."

"I meant your hypnosis, but that works too. However, it may be hard for him to play like that. And do you expect him to play after he's been knocked unconscious and dragged further into the woods?" Seth asked, lumping the mortal over his shoulder. He really didn't know what to do with it now, and was regretting letting Calantha choose when they could kill it.

---

"Once we get to the inn and make sure there's a room we can head right back." Hawthorne straightened out his robes and knocked at the door between the two first floor rear windows, and waited for a response.

"Oh, he'll play," Calantha said, impervious to his remorse. "But what's this talk of woods? How about I meet you back at the inn? You can bring him. I'll be there momentarily."

"Perhaps it would do you some good to remember exactly who will be in the inn, and what they are?" Seth said, unsure what was missing in Shiftie's though process, but knowing something surely couldn't be adding up in her head. "You can take him out to the woods, have him play a little tune, and then I can dispose of him how I wish." He already had the exact method in mind, but she didn't need to know what it was. It would be best if she could be totally oblivious to his method of feeding.

"And I'm supposed to find a harp sitting around in the woods somewhere?" Calantha asked skeptically, hands on hips. ((I changed harpsichord to harp; it fits the time period better.))
"It would be so easy to sneak him past those straight-laced Seelie. You're a friend of shadow, are you not? Besides, playing music can hardly be considered evil. I'm sure however you dispose of him may rub our traveling companions the wrong way, but a few pleasant tunes will do no harm."
Calantha knew the monk and the Nixie would balk, and she simply loved stirring up trouble.

"I'm sorry, now who exactly was hit on the head with a rock? I highly doubt there's a harp just lying around the inn, either. You or I could easily get, and by get I mean steal, one from most local artisan shops. I'd much rather eat in peace, thank you very much," Seth said with a tone of finality. Also, he didn't want to see what concentrated wind power would do to his body, and wind was just the specialty of that strange monk.

"Well, fine," Calantha huffed. "You go meet the others, how about? They must be suspicious by now. I'll take him." She put a hand possessively on the unconscious mortal. "Who knows how long he'll last alone with you? And I haven't had my fun yet!"
Overtly, Calantha glanced past the borders of the town into the tangle of wood.
"I'll return to the inn later, and I'll leave him in a convenient place for you when I'm finished. Does that meet with your satisfaction?"

"Minimally. And what shall I say for you? That you wandered off and I got bored?" Seth replied.

"That would be most probable," Calantha said wryly. "You seem to get bored often. You must always be involved in some sort of game. Did you have many vices in your old life? Say, poker?"
Earnestly, she held out her hands for the man still slumped over the Blur's shoulder.

"Too simple. But yes to the vices, since there aren't many virtues for a character like me," Seth smiled cruelly, and left it at that. He dumped the human at Shiftie's feet, and headed off towards the direction he believed to be west.
((Anyone notice the very subtle Panic! reference?))

((Vices and Virtues?))

Calantha watched Blur go, feeling agitated, but when she looked down at the man a different emotion flooded her chest.
"I hope I didn't hurt you," she murmured, touching his scalp tenderly... Yet she thought.
Lifting him with relative ease, she disappeared to find a harp and a hiding place. Looking up at the sky, she noticed the gray clouds were broiling with lavender bruises. She prayed for a storm with lots of rain and lots of thunder.

Seth walked a few paces away, then remembered after glancing down at his still human arm, shouted back "Shiftie!" and gestured to his appearance.

((And yup! xD))