(no subject)

[sythyry]

Return of the Sleeth [somewhere over Choinxeia; 27 Trandare 4385]

The last flames in the sun flickered out at the traditional hour. It is pleasant to fly in a sky-yacht with giant burning candles around it; we bring our own light. Also we can be seen from tens of miles off, which would be a problem if we were pirates or city guards or adventurers or something. Fortunately we are tourists.

In this instance, we are tourists who are trying to meet one of our number, outside the little village of Goldenprallow. We were fairly sure that he was there, since we (Thiane, Vae, me) had seen a flicker of Locador, looking more or less like mine.

We hadn't decided on a specific spot to meet, just "near Goldenprallow". But, how hard could it be for a Sleeth to spot a giant floating candlabra in the night?

And it was fairly urgent to find Rheng, or at least, Snootloose. Quendry was exhausted, and crying in his mother's arms, and refusing to go to sleep until Snootloose was his once more. This had disrupted the kitchen considerably, since Arfaen was supposed to make dinner, and couldn't. Calla had graciously agreed to cook; but we are not proceeding towards getting organized. I suppose I shouldn't expect half of Castle Wrong to be very organized, even if we are living in a yacht now.

We circled around Goldenprallow a few times, slowly, listening for the roar of a Sleeth. No roar, no Sleeth, no Snootloose. Also no dinner for Windigar and me in the cockpit.

Two-third of an hour later, on the third time around Goldenprallow, a shout from the ground.

Ground:"Ahoy, the candelabra!" Ground was not a Sleeth. Ground was a Herethroy wearing armor and carrying a three-handed sword. We decided to be polite to Ground.

Me:"Ahoy, the ground!"

Ground:"What are you doing?"

Me:(explain, explain, explain)

Ground:"Well, you're scaring the village. Could you please make your way to the city skyport, and come back to Goldenprallow tomorrow if you need to?"

Me:"No, we're trying to meet a Sleeth here so the Cani boy can sleep. "

Ground:"Dern cryptic Zi Ri!"

Me:(explain, explain, explain)

Ground:"That's, um, very noble or something of you. Could you please stop circling the village, and land, or something that's not quite so spooky?"

Me:"Certainly; we don't want to annoy the natives. I apologize to them, in fact. Do you have any idea where the Sleeth might be?"

Ground:"No, I'm afraid not."

Rheng:"The Sleeth is here in the bushes these last two hours."

Me:"Why didn't you say so the first three times we were here?"

Rheng:"I am eating a spare gazelle."

Eventually we sent the knight back to Goldenprallow with a barrel of reasonably good wine by way of apology, and landed, and let Rheng aboard.

Me:"Did you get Snootloose?"

Rheng:"I am the thief supreme! Snootloose is in my left saddlebag."

Arfaen:"Wonderful!"

Quendry:"Snootloose!" [falls asleep instantly and has to be carried back to his cabin.]

Rheng:"And in my right saddlebag is the true prize of your desiring, rrai!"

Me:"Snootloose is also in your right saddlebag?"

Phaniet:"Has the nendrai been up to her tricks again?"

Rheng:"Rrai, you are the funny Zi Ri! Open my saddlebag, and behold!"

Phaniet did, running her hands through Rheng's backfur. Rheng stretched luxuriously. One must always wonder who is doing what with whom in Castle Wrong Strayway.

Then she opened the saddlebag, and stared.

Phaniet:"Great googly-eyed gods. There's a tail in here."

Rheng:"Do not exaggerate! In my saddlebag is only three-quarters of a tail!"

Me:"Leftovers from your dinner?"

Phaniet:"Hardly. A Cani tail, male, young adult. He ate garlic sausages and cabbage for lunch, probably at a cheap lunch-house by the public pond. He was very worried -- how long were you stalking him, Rheng? No, he's not scared, just worried. Angry, too."

Rheng:"Close enough for a Cani nose."

I can't smell. (I mean, I can smell, but not the way a Cani or a Sleeth can smell.) So I looked at the brown stripes on the tail. Many, many Cani have brown stripes, but who would Rheng want to maim?

Me:"Is this Quendry's father's tail?"

Rheng:"Close enough for Zi Ri eyes. You may now reward me thoroughly."

Me:"I didn't ask for his tail."

Rheng:"You employ a Sleeth, you employ the Thief Supreme! You do not ask. This is important! When you are in court, you must say, 'I do not ask for his tail! Give me the mind-spell of truth, I say it again, I do not ask for his tail! It is all the fault of the Sleeth!' But the Sleeth is the thief supreme, the Sleeth cannot be found."

Me:"Well, we're not going to court over this."

Rheng:"Rrai, no, we are going to Srineia instead! As we fly we will know that revenge is done! He crimes and wickeds at Arfaen, at Quendry, at Mellilot, at you! Today, he weeps because of crimes and wickeds! He would tuck his tail between his legs in his shame, but, somehow, he cannot!"

Me:"I think that rescuing his son from him was enough revenge. Besides, I didn't ask for this tail and I don't want it. I'm going to have to spend several cley to send it back."

The first cley was for Fresh Meat, which wards off spoiling. And the first complication there was, what power? It's a lot harder to reattach the thing while the spell is in force, and the more power, the longer the spell lasts. But my fellow master-healers at the Healers' Guild know what power I use, and they will think strangely of me (and that I am apologizing badly) if I don't do it as well as I can. So I did it the ordinary way (full power), and hoped that he didn't actually need it for a couple more weeks.

Tomorrow morning we're going to have to stop by some city or other, and send the tail back by post. With an apology, probably some incense. Arfaen will have to pick it out, and Rheng will pay for it. Probably from future wages. If we were on a schedule, we'd be off the schedule.

Me:(an impassioned lecture about how we should not take revenge for every insult, because we are traff and otherwise wrong, and would have to constantly fuss with revenges.) With most people I would take an ethical argument, not a practical one, but ethical arguments with Sleeth are not always very useful.

Rheng:"I do not see the problem. That is a good way to live!"

Me:"We get so many insults that we could spend every moment and then some on revenge, and still not get finished"

Rheng:"Stalking the Cani, biting off the tail of the Cani, these take one minute or two! You spend much more time waiting for me to finish my dinner, rrai!"

Me:(gets distracted, complains about that too.)

Rheng:(looks unimpressed.)

Fortunately he has no enemies in Srineia, so he won't go biting tails off there.

Comments

[momentrabbit.livejournal.com]

Fortunately he has no enemies in Srineia, so he won't go biting tails off there.

... Yet.

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

You beat me to it.

[zeeth_kyrah]

I dunno about tails, but hm. I guess that would be the least physically damaging maiming short of taking an ear.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Yes; I think that is why he did it. He even left the gentleman a bit of tail.

[bloofox.livejournal.com]

I don't know, taking an ear would mess up your hearing pretty badly on that side, tail would mess up your balance. Maybe they're about equal. Though I'd rather be clumsy with perfect hearing than vice versa.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

The tail is also an important part of communication for Cani.

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Well, all things considered, there are worse ways this could have gone done. Cats typically bring back heads as gifts.

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

Never send a sleeth to do a...
...actually I have no idea who this job was right for. An Orren? They're terrible at thieving, I suspect. A Cani? They'd probably refuse. A Zi Ri to use mighty and skilful magics to discover and steal Snootloose? That would probably work, modulo the might and skill of their magics, but it seems like swatting a fly with a tree trunk and a complexity 20 Ruloc Herbador spell.
Anyway, your adventures continue to delight, amuse, and confuse. Best of luck, Sythers. :)

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Khtsoyis are pretty good at it: Flying silently, adaptive camouflage and such, but can have some of the same issues with ensuing violence that Sleeth have. Not having a nose also means they tend to be a poor choice for robbing Cani. Your best bet would probably be a Rassimel. The ones who get into the field tend to be very good at it and they aren’t quite as prone to violence/accidental loyalty or relational issues, wild rushes, and the like.

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

I suspect that an Orren thief would be good at grabbing anything shiny.

I also suspect that an Orren thief would just grab anything shiny, even if her goal was to grab a particular piece of paper.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

That's so MEAN! He tried to give you a nice gift, and you threw it back in his face.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Well, no. If Sythyry had thrown it back in his face, Rheng could have eaten it, attached it to a tail and made it into a toy for Quendry, or attached it to a totem which would consist of tokens of his victories, to show his prowess to the barbaric nomads of the far branches.

Sending it back to the person who he got it from, now that's mean!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Making the son a toy out of the father's tail? Monstrous!

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Rheng's the one who just took off Quendry's father's tail, not me, I hasten to point out. I am not that sort of Sleeth! But well, what did Rheng expect you to do with the tail anyway?

[solanth.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's a nice gift so much as it is a "look what I just did, isn't it awesome? I can prove it!"

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Is stealing tails the Sleeth equivalent of counting Coup, or is that just a libertine thing to do?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

It's not a libertine thing at all! It's violent and shocking!

[solanth.livejournal.com]

Presumably it's simply the Sleeth thing to do.

[mharreff.livejournal.com]

It is not the very Sleeth thing to do! It is the somewhat Sleeth thing to do of course. But biting the tails off of Cani means the Cani make the noise and commotion, and those are not good things for the Sleeth who wants to slip away in the quiet and enjoy the good meal, possibly the gazelle.

[solanth.livejournal.com]

Well, if you're not the Sleeth who is also the Thief Supreme, I suppose you have a point.

[mharreff.livejournal.com]

Silliness. The best thief is so good, his mark does not know the thief is there until much after.

Perhaps Rheng wishes the challenge, and causes trouble for himself so that he has bigger challenges to conquer and show he is the Thief Supreme. I do not know!

[solanth.livejournal.com]

The best thief is probably also not a Sleeth, but a Rassimel. I would assume Rheng's ultimate goal is not to be the best thief, but to amuse himself, and proper sneaking around is surely not the most fun a Sleeth can do.

[mharreff.livejournal.com]

Perhaps Rheng is annoyed by the howling, but he cannot bite the howling Quendry or he finds the many trouble. Perhaps he thinks Quendry's father makes Quendry howl and so makes his ears hurt, and he gives the suitable chastisement.

Or perhaps he is in the poor mood at stealing the used rag doll and bites someone nearby.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

I personally believe it's a Sleeth/Cani thing myself.

[mharreff.livejournal.com]

Silly Cani, they make much of nothing and act surprised when a Sleeth does not do the same.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Sometimes revenge hangs like a ripe fruit, waiting to be plucked. On a really lucky day, you've even got someone willing to do the actual work in your stead. And I'd imagine Quendry's father isn't feeling quite so high and mighty with his tail bitten off.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Well ... I didn't much want revenge on him. Even Arfaen didn't exactly. (She was horrified when she heard about the tail.) And he was never feeling high and mighty about losing his wife to a Herethroy.

I certainly don't like him much, but I mostly wanted to get Quendry and, earlier, Arfaen away from him.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

There's Rheng's vengeance too, don't forget. The Thief Supreme was made to steal a rag doll, and ultimately the blame lies with Quendry's father.

[mharreff.livejournal.com]

The very thing this is!

[winterbeast.livejournal.com]

Why didn't Sythyry simply animate the doll and have it fly to the sky-barge on it's own?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

It was out of range -- we were a few miles away at the time -- and behind a city wall.

[rowyn]

So ... your excuse for not sending Quendry back was that it was too much trouble, right?

Now that you're sending back the tail and admitting that Rheng delivered it to you, what's your excuse for sending Rheng back to steal Snootloose when you weren't willing to send back Quendry?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

We didn't particularly make an excuse; we simply didn't return Quendry.

Indeed it is somewhat of a kindness to make it clear to the paternal family that Quendry is safely kidnapped, and not dead in the Verticals or something.

But it's probably just as well that we'll be a vast distance away for a few years. This was supposed to be a simple vacation. Hmph.

[solanth.livejournal.com]

Does Vheshrame law have anything resembling a statute of limitations?

[zeeth_kyrah]

I suppose it takes more experience with large undertakings, especially vacations: there is always going to be something complicated that happens along the way. That is why the masterful and rich Zi-Ri wizard is along. Aside from, you know, being the person who actually wanted to take the vacation.

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