Elemental Thief Part I : Child of Calamity

Sacrifices: Cansal

Cansal glanced to the windows lining the wall he was walking along, frowning up at the dark storm clouds, wondering if it was the unsettled feeling rumbling in his mind that matched them, or if they were matching his own dark thoughts.

He knew that when Davanos said something smelled off, that something was wrong, someone was feeling the pressure of a decision that would cause them issues, and reeking of whatever people smelled like when they became stressed, or angry, or ready to do murder.

And Darya had looked more worried, more grave, than he had ever seen her when they had approached her while she was scoping out what she could see of the room. He had never seen Darya preparing to go into battle before, other than the skirmishes in the streets they had been fighting through the last few weeks, but it was as if she could sense whatever Davanos could smell.

He didn't like the idea of letting either Davanos or Darya wander off alone, knowing that Davanos had the talent to find issues, and Darya seemed to stumble into them through sheer luck. He also didn't like the chances that the rogue, the street runner whose name was most likely not actually Billy, was embroiled in all of it.

Cansal paused then, frowning as he realized he was looking right at the man, though he hadn't originally recognised him. The rogue was a chameleon, it seemed, dressed and comfortable as a courtier, standing and flirting with a group of nobles who looked like they thought they knew him, though Cansal was sure that the man had merely charmed his way into the group.

Cansal saw his profile, and despite the charming smiles and conversation, Billy's eyes were across the room, and Cansal frowned when he saw the man watching Darya, who was stalking along the outside of the ballroom, looking between where the Queen stood speaking with General Lianza, and someone standing out of Cansal's eyesight.

Cansal looked back to Billy, finding the man looking hard at him, meeting those brown eyes for a moment, before the rogue nodded in Darya's direction, his expression looking serious. Cansal was about to turn to get a better view when he was shouldered, hard. It caused him to stumble back a couple feet as a noble, a large man who was walking toward the main doors, while seeming oddly focused on whatever was happening on the main floor area.

His father had introduced Cansal to nearly every noble in Clairval during the balls and dinners since they were in the Capital. And this man was not someone he recognised.

"Hey." Cansal turned to that man, about to reach out to him when what sounded like a fight broke out in the crowd beyond where the Queen was, where he was sure he had seen Davanos moving.

Cansal turned and sprinted in that direction, coming around a corner, behind the large stone pillars and the ornamental tapestries that depicted long ago Clairvalan battles, seeing Davanos and a few of the Clairvalan Guard fighting with several men dressed as servants, silver serving trays scattered along the floor. Glasses were tipped over and smashed, spilling out what looked to be pills that were eerily similar to Silencers.

Cansal didn't stop to inspect them though, pulling out his sword and bringing it up to block an attack from one servant who had his own blade, falling into a fight with the man, who was a far better sword fighter than any server he had ever come across.

The man didn't fight in a style he had ever seen, the blades short and curved, spun to block along the length of the forearm or out along like a normal blade, and it was only because Cansal had been practicing with someone of Davanos' speed and two bladed fighting style, that it didn't take him completely off guard.

Still, he was breathing hard by the time he managed to put the man down with a heavy right hook, letting go of his two handed grip to do so, which clearly hadn't been expected. He spun then, turning to see that Davanos and the Clairvalan's had also subdued their opponents, and though there were a couple more Guard than when the fight began, Cansal was surprised that the brawl hadn't brought more notice.