MORITURI TE SALUTANT!! [S!4] ROUND 3- OPHIDIAN JADE!

Stealth wasn't exactly Nameless' strong suit, but luckily for her the foreigner was too rattled to really be on the lookout for anyone tailing her. They moved through corridors shared only with the black clothed figures who hurried back and forth with no regard for either Nameless or her mark. She took another glance at the poster she'd pulled from the wall, as if this would aid in her comprehension. Nameless couldn't understand the gratuitous Italian that covered the poster, but she knew a wanted poster when she saw one. She wondered, not for the first time, whether the florins the poster (presumably) promised were the same wooden currency that she had earlier deemed worthless. She wondered, once again not for the first time, whether she might have been better off sticking with Carlie; if this foreigner was not a foreigner and just someone acting the part then she would have thrown away a promising lead for a bad one.

These worries were slightly allayed by the altercation the foreigner had with the blindfolded man. Nameless had been keeping her distance; a little too far to be able to read his side of the conversation, but it seemed pretty important. Afterward, when the foreigner had hurried on, Nameless had paused for a moment and surveyed the place where the body had been. The only evidence of the blindfolded man's existence was a small patch of still wet blood, which according to her collar was real (and worth $7). It seemed to be proof that this was no mere act, or that if it was then it was one both parties were extremely dedicated to. But whatever the circumstance proved to be she wasn't going to make any money just skulking after her.

Lavi wasn't looking or thinking about where she was going. She was just moving, attempting to put as much distance between her and what had just happened as possible, as if that would make a difference. She found herself, without even thinking, entering a disused lounge. The room was wallpapered a sort of alarming dark asparagus green. There were a number of seats arranged in a rough semicircle around a low table covered with expensive looking silver cloches and a bottle of champagne in an empty bucket. Everything was covered with dust as though this room hadn't been disturbed for years. Lavi wasn't interested; she glanced around the room looking to see if there was another way out and then seeing that there wasn't she turned to head back out the way she'd came in, only to find the door blocked by a woman in a midnight blue dress and veil. She was wearing a bandage over one eye, a modest (by il maledictian standards) amount of makeup and was rummaging through a leatherish satchel that looked a little out of place compared to the rest of her outfit.

Lavi really wasn't in the right frame of mind to be dealing with people at the moment. She would have preferred not to engage her in conversation (from the way she was dressed Lavi half-suspected she might have been here to tell her fortune again), but after an awkward moment it became clear that she wasn't going to just step aside. "Excuse me." Lavi said, and promptly the woman pulled a notepad and pen from her satchel. "Oh." Lavi said as she started to write something. "Oh I see."

Nameless paused. She was sure that in circumstances which weren't explicitly transactional people liked pleasantries; small talk, introductions etc. They helped people feel at ease and then they'd happily buy whatever it was you had to sell them (probably). The problem of course with introductions was that they were hard to do when you didn't have a name, so she opted to cut to the chase. When she flipped the notebook around for Lavi to see it read:

'helo im

i hav an ofer 2 mayk u'

From the moment Nameless had started scribbling away it had seemed obvious to Lavi what was going on here; she was being mocked. The lack of a voice, the bandage covering her eye, the badly written communication; the parallels to Avox were obvious. She concluded that it was unlikely to be coincidental, the far more reasonable explanation was that she was a puppet of Imago intended as a cruel mockery of the man whose death had affected her so. She felt that unfamiliar (yet all too familiar at the same time) anger rising within her once again, and this time standing right in front of her was someone who deserved it; an agent of the demon who had inflicted it upon her. Though she doubted her ability to hurt Imago himself she could at the very least make his mockery of Avox suffer on his behalf. The urge was so compelling that it almost felt like her own will.

'wats rong?' Nameless had written after a long moment with no response.

Lavi clenched her fists and managed to wrest back control of her mind. "Go away." She spat. "Tell Imago that I won't give him the pleasure." She went to push her way past Nameless and get out of there before she lost control of herself again.

It had been a long time, Nameless thought, that a potential sale had gone so badly wrong. She grabbed hold of the arm of Lavi's robe and tried to hold her back. Strength wasn't exactly Nameless' strong suit either and she suspected Lavi stopped not because she had to but because she didn't particularly want to drag a stranger around.

"Let go of me." Lavi said plainly, though she could probably have guessed that she wouldn't. "What do you want?" she added after a moment.

Nameless struggled as she attempted to write and hold the notebook with the same hand, dropped the notebook and then in a moment of panic she scrawled a message on the sickly green wallpaper. 'dont no imago'

"Yeah, well you would say that." Lavi replied.

She took a shot: 'heer 2 kil' she wrote and then drew a little arrow to where she had written imago last time. Even if she wasn't particularly interested in carrying out the task, technically it was true.

Lavi studied her for a moment and considered that if she really was here to mock her pain then shouldn't she be doing that in a manner more pointed than simply existing. Lavi guessed she should at least give her a chance to explain herself. "Alright. Who are you?"

"You can let go now by the way." She added, as Nameless went to further deface the wall.

'i dont hav a naym' she wrote after she'd retrieved her notebook. Nameless hesitated, yes she was being truthful but she doubted it was making her look any more trustworthy. 'i sold it' she added unprompted.

"You sold your name?" Lavi thought again of Avox. "Why not just pick a new one?"

'alredy tryed it. tryed caling myself' Nameless paused thoughtfully. She couldn't actually remember what name she'd tried to make stick. 'not importent dusnt werk. sold not just naym but consept of naym'

"How is that possible?" Lavi asked.

'with this' Nameless tugged at the neck of her dress, exposing her golden collar beneath. Lavi watched for a moment as pale green symbols danced across its surface. 'mind if i sit down'

"No, go ahead." Lavi said absently. Nameless vigorously swept aside the coating of dust on the nearest seat before dropping down into it. The chair wasn't particularly comfortable, but it was nice to have a sit down after spending however long it had been on her feet, running this way and that. She'd not been this active for years. She resisted the urge to put her feet up.

"So does your collar just work on names or what?" Lavi asked. Nameless reached over to the next seat and wiped the dust away. "No thanks I'm okay standing." Lavi pre-empted her.

Nameless shrugged. 'i can sel nething i own' she wrote, 'sold my vois my i my hiyt my hair culer all sorts' After she passed the notebook to Lavi, Nameless leaned forward and lifted the nearest cloche to reveal a sprawling forest of mould; the food it once was all but unrecognisable under the rot. Nameless casually lowered the cloche. She didn't feel quite so peckish any more. She looked back to Lavi who looked a little shaken.

"That's some piece of witchcraft you have there." Lavi replied, almost a little warily. Her gaze had lingered on Nameless' collar for longer than she'd intended. She tried to marshal her thoughts and realized that they'd got a little off-topic. "Okay so name or no, what do you want from me?" She passed Nameless back her notebook but she was rummaging in her satchel again. She pulled out folded and slightly torn sheet of paper and passed it over. With a little trepidation Lavi unfolded it; she couldn't understand it but she recognised the format. It was a wanted poster and in the centre there was an impressively well drawn likeness of her. "Oh, here to collect a bounty then?" Lavi was beginning to get a sense of what kind of a person Nameless was.

Nameless shook her head. 'xchang rayt is orful' she explained. 'heers my ofer we trayd notority so ne1 luking 4 u luks 4 me insted'

"You can do that?" Lavi asked but a moment later she remembered her collar and wasn't so surprised any more.

'yeh i can trayd nething i own' Nameless wrote. 'nething u liyk abowt me u can hav or nething u want 2 get rid of i can tayk 4 a prise'