"Melody Sareth" by Jessica M. Jordan

The night was much like any other night, a bit chilly, but comfortable. This was not to say that the lady that walked in the street felt the chill, indeed she felt nothing if not comfortable. She wore heavy robes, in lieu of the gown she normally wore. It was a deep blue and quite flattering to her slight form. The inner robe was cinched at the waist with a boned outer corset, while the outermost robe flowed freely around and behind her. The staff that she leaned just slightly leant years to her apperance, and her face was not easily seen for the hood she had drawn over her head covered her delicate features.

She wore the robes more as a formality. They marked her as a conjuror, a mage, whatever the folk chose to call her. Though the blue color might suggest a musician. This was certainly -not- the case, but the robes had been a gift, and the color choice had not been hers to make. She could have adjusted the color easy enough, but then she would have offended the only person this plane that she meant not to offend. She idly thought that she wouldn't do well to offend Drels, but she would enjoy doing it. This brought a small grin to her well hidden face. The grin vanished quickly, for this was not a social call. She had been brought here on guild business, discreet guild business at that.

She assumed that her work for the Dweomerlord was known only to him; if it weren't - if it was common knowledge there would be no point. She was grateful for the perks this "assignment" (and how she hated assignments) lent her. She was required to take on no more apprentices. Her single, long time apprentice, Rune was quite enough for her. Rune had long grown out of the "apprentice" and "pupil" stage for her.

She hated her fondness for the boy, but it was undeniable. It was also dangerous.

She came to the door she meant to find much sooner, had her thoughts not hindered her. She had made contact with this particular group of younger mages some weeks ago, and had weasled her way into acceptance, not without the aid of Rune. She paused for a moment and shed her natural appearance of dark skin and light hair, for the publicly acceptable one of a mere human woman. She pulled her hood down from her head and let it drape behind her, she shook the long dark brown hair so it would fall free - attractively. These "mages," or so they called themselves, were young enough so that they still saw beauty with their eyes. Silly boys - it was too bad she couldn't save herself the trouble and kill them herself, but there was osome silly rule about not brutally murdering fellow guildsters. And she had been encouraged to notify Drels before she disposed of any guild members, so for now, she sucked information out of them the easy and the hard way. The hard was actually sitting and listened to them. The easy was, of course, was to grasp their thoughts. But she had to have some level of conversation for them to be unsuspecting.

The third time her staff struck the ground outside the door it swung open. She frowned at the cheap use of the art for such things as door openings. She stepped into the room and was immediately assailed by smoke of some sort, she took a small whif and identified it as a mind altering substance. That would make the process of aquiring information a little easier, but a little more unpleasent. She walked to the back room where the congregation of six men were, and sat down at the seat that was immediately offered. They were all elaborately dressed in robes of differing colors, but most were purple.

The tall one spoke first, "Lady, we welcome you."

Then the skinny one, "Would you care for a smoke?" Melody instantly turned her nose up - just being in the space was making her a bit unclear, but she quickly remedied that by clearing the air around her with a mere thought.

"No, I would not. What would you boys like to see tonight?" The six men immediately began discussing and whispering amongst themselves. The short one, who had decided to be the spokesperson for the group tonight, spoke up.

"Lady, we would like to see a show of force. Against the five of us, you surely could not hold just one subservient." Melody stifled a chuckle, but nodded. Perhaps she would enjoy herself this night. She smiled just slightly for the men's benefit and gestured that they should take up positions on the opposite side of the room.

"Who will be my victim?" Melody said and immediately the tall one stepped forward. He offered an elabortate bow and Melody did not return it. He took a ridiculously large defensive stance as Melody left lifted her hand from her staff, which stayed balanced upon the floor. The remaining five men stood a good distance away on the other side of the room. Melody raised her right hand and the tall one went rigid immediately - his skills were meager at best. The five immediately threw spells at her that she easily countered while invading their minds for the information she sought. She flattened her palm and the tall one lifted from the ground, still rigid in his ridiculous pose - his eyes frozen open with a look of shock on his face. The five continued throwing spells that she had mastered under her father's tutaledge at the tender age of six. The tall one raised a few feet higher and she switched her concentration to him, his mind had yet been untampered with. She invaded his mind and was suprised to find such hate and malice - but she did enjoy finding it.

One of the five threw a decent novice spell that she had to counter audibly rather than thoughtfully. She pulled what information she needed from the tall one and then closed her fingers of her outstretched hand, the neck broke in a clean crisp crack. The spells stopped immediately, and she let him drop to the ground. She had gotten all she needed to get, and she walked toward the door - this had been interesting information indeed - but she had killed one of them. Ah well, an acceptable loss in her mind. He had been a guild member, but just a novice. She heard a few of the men giving chase behind her in the street and threw a glance behind her, stopping them in their tracks. She turned around, gave the same ridiculous bow that she had received - and vanished from sight, staff and all.