Nerini waited until she heard the archer move away and down the road, bow undrawn, and then she spun the lieutenant around and pushed him hard in the same direction, levelling her swords in Keana's direction as the man drew his own. Like her, he had two lighter blades though his were curved and widened to almost double at the ends. Included with the serrated edge on the inside of them, this made the swords very effective in catching hilts and disarming opponents and gashing very ugly holes in people.
"You picked a bad side to work with, Kea." She said thoughtfully, spinning her blades, knowing that it would only take him a little while longer to figure out who she was.
Keana smiled at her words, spinning his blades idly as he murmured. "C'mon, I work with all sides, mainly the ones who ask me to work with them and pay me for my troubles. You know this, darling."
She let out a breath and inclined her head, lowering her blades to sheath one of them, before she raised that hand and pulled back her hood, her expression hard. "I could debate with you all night on this matter, however I have things to do. Now are you here to kill me, or are you just being paid to tell the people who want to kill me that I'm here?"
Keana grinned wider upon seeing her, spinning his blades into their sheaths. "We are under a meagre information contract, I have taken no contract to kill or hinder your movements in any way, my beautiful Vixen. I should have known it was you sniffing around, I know the people I've trained. Who are you working for now?"
Nerini frowned darkly at the man, sheathing her second sword as she avoided that question and addressed the pressing topic. "You better not have had anything to do with this, Kea."
He blinked in surprise, glancing around before holding his hands up in surrender. "The grand self-inflated lord who disappeared on this road? No. We were contracted after that. I don't openly oppose the Regency, I'm not an idiot."
"So, help me, if you're lying to me..." She growled, taking a step towards him, anger flaring at his dismissal of Kanny.
But Keana didn't step back, standing in place, his expression shifting almost imperceptibly to one of cool confidence. "Careful with your threats. I have a pecking order to maintain."
Nerini let out a slow breath and shook her head, catching herself, knowing that she was pushing the boundaries of any vestiges of friendship. If they were still friends after all that had transpired since she had left the company. "Kea, do what you will. I expect nothing from you."
And with that she shifted past him, walking towards the opposite woods, her hands braced on the hidden knives in her armour as she heard him turn and follow her. Nerini wasn't convinced she could fully trust him and being surrounded by him and half of his people set her teeth on edge. But him sheathing his swords was an unspoken agreement that she would honour until he gave her reason to truly consider him an enemy.
"I realize this, though I think I am the one who is the injured party in our friendship." He smiled at her, falling into step beside her as they entered the woods. "I wouldn't lie to you about this. We don't generally do the murder for hire thing anymore, isn't much of a market for it, and draws too much attention."
"Did you watch for him? Was it your scouts that alerted his ambush?" Nerini glanced at the man who watched her easily, finding herself hoping he was being truthful.
That thought surprised her. She had not thought she still cared about the man's opinions and friendship.
"No, I told you, Vixy. We were contracted after whatever happened, happened. My men here were approached to keep a watch on anyone snooping around. I was up here dealing with them for deciding on a contract with unknown parties without my permission when we got word you were here." Kea shrugged easily again, grinning as he walked with her, as if they hadn't parted rather stormily.
"Have you alerted them?" She ducked under a branch, and moved around a tree, pulling her eyes away from the man as she scanned the forest, before continuing further into the trees.
"No. I haven't fully evaluated if I want to. It is good money, but I don't trust a good thing." He shrugged, moving with her, glancing around for a moment. "What are you looking for?"
"They didn't leave me much to go off." Nerini said softly, looking to him for a long moment, wishing she could confide in him, like she had been able to once.
She caught herself nearly doing so, before shaking herself and continuing her slow trek through the unbroken snow, trying to stay focused on the forest around them. Still, her affection for him had her continuing. "This contract isn't going to end well for you, Kea. You should back away from it now, you're on the wrong side."
"I don't see it as sides, you know that. I don't have the luxury to stand up for one side of a war or another. I do my job, feed my people, and survive. These nobles you work for, they draw lines in the sand and demand loyalty. They are born with no worries but the feuds and wars they start or perpetuate, while the rest of us pay the price for them." Keana's argument was the same one they had gone through so many times before.
She had been unable to get through to him all those years ago, but still, she tried again as they walked. He had never believed her about the higher calling, the darker forces outside human control. Keana had only believed in the fate he created for himself, or the world that was created by the classes of their world.
"This isn't one nation versus another, Kea." She murmured softly, shaking her head. "We're all paying the price for survival, not gains of land or feuds, but survival."
Kea chuckled at her words. "Nations come and go. Regents reign and die. I live free. You could live free too, if you would stop it with this loyalty thing. Whomever your employer is, they aren't worth your freedom. Leave these pure-blooded lords and ladies to their games, this isn't what I trained you for. I trained you to be here, beside me."
Nerini shook her head and kept walking through the snow, looking around and shaking her head. Clearing her mind, she found her talent, the pull, and followed it through the woods. "You never understood me, Kea."
"Is Lina your real name? Or is it Vixen? Or do you go by Cara like you once told me? I think I understood you much more than anyone else ever did in your life even if I never knew your name. I could have found out exactly who you were, you know that, but I let you be. I knew you'd come back, I knew you weren't done with this life. Though, I don't know why you didn't ask me for help on this. You disappear without a trace, then suddenly you're back in Aupana and you did not even intend to say hello." Keana stopped head, grabbing her arm and nodding in a direction in a diagonal from where she was going, his expression hard. "There's magic there. It's big, and it's trying to hide something."
Nerini trusted that expression, recognizing it as one that sensed a danger, his own talent to see magic and what magic was trying to hide.
"I didn't think I should expect your good will." Nerini said softly, following his line of sight with her own eyes, hesitating for a moment. She glanced down at his hand, then raised her eyes to his, finding him watching her. "We didn't leave on good terms, I have no call for asking anything from you."
"Oh, you broke my heart, darling. But we'll always be friends." Keana's expression grew disarmed for a moment and he gave her arm a gentle squeeze. Then he sighed and let her go, offering a shrug that saw his expression change back into the rogue he showed the world.
Nerini let out a breath and trudged forward, ducking her head as she strained, pushing against an invisible force that tried to hold her back. Still, she unsheathed her blades and ducked her head, walking against it. "Freedom without morality, would be a prison to me." "Who decides what's right and what's wrong?" Kea stepped up beside her, raising his hand toward whatever force was pushing back against her. "It's easy to be a good person if you don't need to be bad to survive. The real world isn't black and white, dark and light, good and bad."
Nerini stumbled as the force disappeared upon Keana's touch, sending her into a clearing that had been invisible up until that moment. Nerini gasped as she looked at the trees around her, watching the magic fade and reveal the horror of what had been hidden only moments before.
She glanced at Kea, knowing it was his presence that broke the spell that was guarding the clearing, knowing that he was seeing what she was. Then she forced herself to look back to the twelve armoured bodies hanging from the trees around them, bodies ripped and torn, frozen in the winter cold.
Nerini glared, trying to fight the tears welling up in her eyes as she slowly began to recognize the faces of the dead that were frozen in terror. "There's no shade of grey here, Kea. This is bad, this is dark, this is what I'm fighting."
Nerini knew she didn't need to say it, seeing Keana's expression as he took in the sight of the twelve people ripped apart and hung up in a macabre show of human suffering. After looking at him, she moved closer to the bodies, moving around to each one, searching their features, before closing her eyes with relief when she didn't find her brother amongst the dead.
Then Nerini railed against that thought, clenching her fists, feeling a sudden revulsion at herself. As surely as it wasn't her brother hanging from one of these trees, the clearing contained men and women she knew, warriors she had grown up with. They were people whom she had fought beside and visited, broken bread with and seen living.
They had all been people who had lived, loved, and died for her family. Nerini stumbled back, closing her eyes for a moment as the waves of grief washed over her. She heard Kea whistle, knowing he was calling and signaling his men, even though he didn't touch her, she felt his presence as if she was leaning on him.
"We need to cut them down." Nerini cleared her throat as her voice broke, then said the words again, firmly, looking up and moving to climb the first tree. "They deserve better than this, their families deserve better than this."
Keana didn't argue, staying silent as they worked together to lay the dead warriors gently on the ground. They lined them in a row, closing their eyes and settling their bodies with what respect they could manage.
When they were done, Keana looked to her and shook his head. "I need to go. My contract isn't decided, and I can't be seen helping you until it is. The villagers are coming and will help you get them back to the village. I will find you when you're done, we'll talk."
Nerini whirled on him as she processed the first part of his words, snarling in fury. "Kea, if this didn't decide your contract, then we are done. You've chosen your priorities, and they will be your downfall. I have not seen any of their contracts survive."
"Your precious employers are just as capable of killing as anyone else, darling!" He snapped, motioning to the dead men. "I have seen men destroyed by all sides. Death does not change my mind. The only thing I can control is myself, and I have people to employ."
"And I have evil to remove from this world." Nerini glowed back before turning away from him, kneeling by her family's master at arms, placing a hand on the woman's chest ducking her head in respect. "And this is our difference. This is why I said no to you."
"The only no I will truly take, is your sword on my throat." He murmured painfully. "Your ideals will fail you, darling."
"Your greed will kill you, Kea. The people you work for give out gold because it has no value to them, they don't intend to allow you to stay alive long enough to use it." She said softly, mournfully. "Leave. Keep your conscience clear, I can wait for the villagers alone."
Nerini didn't look up until the villagers arrived and by then, Keana and his company had disappeared into the settling darkness of the woods.