Devils Roll The Dice, Angels Roll Their Eyes

Chapter 4 - To Make A Splash

"Wh-where am I? I got rights, y'know!"

"I wouldn't worry about that. You're right where I want you. And, long as you behave, no harm's coming your way. Are we clear?"

A muffled gulp was all that was heard for a little while, coming out from under a cloth sack. Yelan had to admit that she enjoyed this part a bit too much.

The room was dark. No one was inside except for Yelan and her latest quarry. Arms and legs bound to a chair, unable to see a thing, the captured character was completely at the woman's mercy.

"Crystal." The lone word was spoken begrudgingly after about a minute.

Yelan smirked, in a way that could almost be felt through the jet-black ether between them. "Alright then. Now, you're going to tell me everything I want to know. Hmm, where to begin..." The taunting captor walked right up to her prey. The warmth of her breath, the swishing of her coat, the clink of the diamonds inlaid in her wardrobe. All of it was more tangible, inciting an extra layer of fear. She knew exactly what she was doing.

"For starters, what in hell made you think you could step onto my turf and get away with it? Poking your nose where you shouldn't belong, you're quite the annoying little headache."

Even so, Yelan knew the exact type of nuisance she was dealing with. A pest, to be sure, but hardly any force was needed to crack the shell. From the moment the agent had eyes on her target, she'd won. It was a simple matter of extraction from that point, and she had more agents in Qiaoying than anywhere else.

"Look, I'm just here on orders from my boss, and he's got connections, aight? So... so don't test me? Yeah, there'll be hell to pay then, got that?"

A loud slap penetrated the air. The bound and blinded Treasure Hoarder, expecting serious pain to follow, leaped up in fear. The chair was shaking but the man sitting there was completely fine. A bit of a quivering mess, but fine.

In reality, Yelan had just smacked her temple in frustration. "Clitopho, do you even know where your gang is holed up right now? Be honest with me." Although a reliable explosives expert for the Hoarders, the man was perhaps better known for being a scammer at any opportunity. This reputation often got him sent on jobs with a high likelihood of no return. Somehow, luck of the devil, he'd managed to survive.

Of course, depending on who you believed, Yelan's clutches were a fate worse than death. In some cases, those rumors were true. This didn't need to be one of those cases.

Frankly, she didn't want it to be. As much as she enjoyed squeezing the answers out of someone, she had other things to worry about. Things like the lawyer snooping around at her doorstep. The cute, easily flustered lawyer that she could make a game of talking circles around, but nonetheless, the lawyer.

She had to play that game with immaculate precision. Her time and her network had been deployed relentlessly to get an edge. So far, it seemed as if Yanfei was, simply, there on unrelated business.

Of course, there were plenty of paths Yelan could lead the pyro wielder down. A quick, simple answer would suffice. Though, down to her core, the hydro user was a gambler. Letting Yanfei see more, that was her wager... what was she expecting to win, though? She still didn't know, but the prize felt worthwhile.

Clitopho, not knowing a thing about any of this and very much fearing for his life and dignity, squawked like a chicken.

"No, no I don't. They left me behind in Minlin, told me to go pick some Qingxin flowers for medicine. So I started climbin' up the rock formations and ended up catchin' the eye of some self-proclaimed Guhua Disciple. Got my ass beat an' by the time I got back- hey! Are you laughin'?"

Yelan very quickly ceased her hushed cackling and tried to return the interrogation to its point. "Pfff-no. Some kinda bad beat, kid, but I'd rather not hear your life story. I just need to know. Did you make explosives for them for use in Qiaoying Village? A couple years ago, perhaps?"

Silence. Yelan had everything she needed to know, not that she didn't already know anyway. "So it was you." The statement came out cold, hollow, and factual.

"N-no!" The Hoarder's shock fell away to a quickly activating survival instinct. "I didn't... didn't kill anybody. They had me makin' bombs, boss was wildly panicky. Said it was all for someone real high up. Swear I think he mentioned the Qixing. That's all, really. Don't hurt me, I'm sorry. I didn't... I didn't mean..."

Sobs could be heard underneath the sack. The man was an opportunist, sure, but this was no killer.

"Like I said," Yelan responded, "All I wanted from you was your information. Good boy." She was keeping her composure, but in truth... if this really did go all the way up to the Qixing... No. There was no way. That was hearsay at best.

Even so, the possibility left her shaken as her fingers snapped. A door off to one side cracked open, the slightest beam of white light entering the room. "You can take it from here, just knock him out and drop him off somewhere."

Yelan's orders were given to an assistant who was walking in, by the name of Lin. He was a bit of an overly blunt person, with the stocky frame of an enforcer. Yelan had no problem working with that. Made it easy to get to the heart of a matter.

"Yes ma'am. By the way, there's some trouble on the floor. Might want to check it out. Heard it's the lawyer chick." Yelan's head perked, her weapon instinctively materializing in her hand. The deep blues and foamy whites of the open sea mixed in a bow that pulsed with rage from its user.

Nothing going on around her registered. Clitopho's muffled cries of objection about his upcoming head trauma; the longer, uncaring update from Lin. All of it was discarded, as she vanished like a ghost. Dashing toward the scene under a watery veil, she could feel every second ticking by.

A minute to the floor of the teahouse, filled with patrons in shock. Waiters were trying to calm them down, comping spilled drinks and bearing the brunt of angry voices left and right. A few were pointing, crying. The door was blown open. Yelan darted out.

Another thirty seconds. Yelan was on the little cobblestone path leading to the teahouse's door. She kicked off from the entryway with a surge of hydro energy, leaping up to the sloped green-tile roof. Twenty more seconds. Yelan didn't have to do much surveying before she found the scene.

Three angry gentlemen were surrounding a trembling girl with rose colored hair and a bright red cap. Yanfei's emerald eyes shone with terror. Some words were escaping her mouth, but they would mean little. Someone was going to pull a weapon soon, and no matter who, it wouldn't end well.

That was unless, of course, a third party made the first move. Yelan rapidly obliged. A stop was put to the conflict when an arrow carrying massive amounts of elemental power exploded overhead.

The three men fell slumped to the ground, incapacitated. The water on their backs slowly faded from its state of bright turquoise excitement, becoming clear and invisible in the night. Yanfei, meanwhile, felt but the slightest of splashes on her cheek.

The two women's eyes quickly found each other's. A bright message of thank you was met with a sharp response of warning, all without saying a single word. Finally, the dark blue specter in the night broke the silence. "Try to stay out of trouble 'til it's time, would ya?"

Yelan, in usual fashion, didn't leave room for response. By the time Yanfei had processed what just happened, the mysterious teahouse owner had vanished yet again.