Third strike

[Grim]

Grim Gordon sat patiently in a large comfortable chair that sat atop a sort of stage in the warehouse behind the thieves bar. This was so to say, his throne room, where he held any conventions for his guild and carried out any business that concerned the guild. There he waited for return of two henchmen who he had assigned to arrest a particular riff raff. No one was told that they had to attend, but the word had spread that the king was awaiting a detainee. Like with most things that were to be held in the thieves’ throne room, members of the guild knew it was expected of them to attend.

There were bleachers lining the three sides of the small warehouse that the throne was not seated by, and those bleachers had begun to fill. Members of the guild feared their king and knew that anything he did would be largely talked about. No one wanted to be left out of the loop.

Finally, the two henchmen who had been dispatched that morning arrived in the arena carrying a man between them with a bag over his head. They dropped him in the middle of the room but still held him, the king stood up, and the crowd began to bustle. When Grim got near to his prisoner, one of the two men that stood still at his side, each holding one of his arms pulled the bag off his head.

“Do you know why you’re here?” Grim asked the man, audibly enough that the whole crowd could hear his voice reverberate off the warehouse walls.

The man stared down at the ground and said nothing, but nodded his head.

“You have been warned not to thieve in Celesta without the protection of the guild.” The king exclaimed the man’s transgressions aloud and looked around the arena at all those in attendance before lifting the man’s head to look him in the eyes. “Yet you have been caught stealing for a third time, still without my consent.”

One of the two men holding the prisoner reached into a pocket and drew out the item which the transgressor had stolen. “A necklace!” Grim proclaimed aloud. “You crossed me for a mere beaded necklace?” How foolish that was, really, after being warned twice already, to cross the thieves again for something of such little value.

The king then reached into his pocket and came out with a set of brass knuckles on. “You can build your own bead necklace now.” He yelled, and then struck the man fiercely square in the jaw with a resounding crack that echoed in the hall. The man’s scream was blood curdling, and blood stained his face. Grim struck again, just as hard, and the man screamed again, blood then pouring from his mouth. With a third strike, Grim had smashed almost all the man’s teeth from his mouth, and blood already covered the front of the prisoner’s shirt. As the thief king paused, the man knelt his face down and opened his mouth, letting the teeth blood fall freely to the ground. That done, Grim lifted the mans head yet again and smashed him in the mouth two more times, knocking the last few teeth from his mouth.

“Take him away.” He then exclaimed, instructing the two henchmen who had brought the man in “Collect the man’s teeth and give them to him in a coin bag.”

[Simone]

She was bored, more bored perhaps than she had been in a very long time. This wasn’t a good thing for someone like her, for as they say, idle hands are the Devil’s playground and this woman was no stranger to that playground. She walked; allowing her black heals to click on the surface of the cobbled street beneath her when she came to what she knew to be the Thieves guild and smiled, her feet coming to a complete halt and a dark, shadowy smile turned up the corners of her lips.

Simone stepped into the darkness and was gone in a dark haze of shadows, the black hands of darkness grasping her and taking her into their loving embrace down and to her desired destination within seconds.

She stood for a moment with a smile on her lips that only proved to widen as she watched what was unfolding in front of her eyes now. No one would have noticed her, she moved behind the bleachers in the darkness and, just like the shadows themselves, lurked within and in the background until she came up, her shadowy form wrapping around the poles to guide her atop the seats and behind the rest of them, all so into what was going on in front of them, they never even saw the dark shape form into the woman who now, sat poised in the background, watching this magnificent show of authority unfold before her eyes.

When it was over, she couldn’t help it she put her hands together and clapped slowly, rhythmically once, twice and then a third time. “Beautiful, absolutely brilliant.” She stated in a dark voice from somewhere in the back of the bleachers.

She then allowed herself to melt back down and into the shadows, and slowly made her way to the front where she stepped out, a dark mass quickly forming into a woman dressed in black. Even the small pouches in her belt were black; nothing in the woman’s entire ensemble was a shade lighter than black, even her brilliantly shining orbs were of the deepest dark, no distinction between pupil and iris.

She did not say another word simply stood there and watched, stood so still that one might have thought her an illusion, if it wasn’t for the rhythmic rise and fall of her amble breasts beneath the corset she wore so well as she breathed.

The room had gone silent, there was an intruder in their midst and one at least oen of the onlookers had run into before.

“Oh I do apologize, am I interrupting something?” She finally spoke, breaking the silence that was surrounding them.

[Grim]

Grim had been watching the poor fool be dragged from his arena when an unwelcome voice broke the silence. Not only was Grim annoyed at the sound, but he was also quite frustrated at the idea that someone slipped into his guild past the thieves who were supposed to be keeping it safe from intruders. Obviously that was what this woman was, as he did not recognize her voice. What good were his goons for anyways? He would have to beat them all in good time for being so useless.

“Why are you here?” the thief king demanded, walking towards the intruder. “I don’t recall making this anyone else’s business.”

Once Grim was face to face with the woman in black at the base of the bleachers, which hadn’t been far from where he was, he leaned his head in beside hers. He took a big whiff, looked the woman up and down, then made a face as he looked into her eyes. His face bore a disgusted look. “Shadow mage.” He stated, though he hadn’t seen where she came from, it was fairly obvious at that point “You have no business here.”

Grim was about to turn and he had even started to, but then he swing out his right arm to the woman’s face to strike her with a heavy back hand. “This is not your place!” he yelled aggressively, also reaching to grab the woman by the collar with his other hand.

[Simone]

The bleachers held in silence, no one knew what to do, or they did and were doing it. She was expecting to be overwhelmed in little thieves trying to capture the impossible. She still hadn’t put that thought aside either though, and had made a trail behind her movements through the bleachers to ensure her unobtainable self, stayed just that way, that was of course, from his lackeys, he, however, was the one she came to visit, not them.

As his hand swung to hit her in the mouth and his other to grasp her jacket, a shadowy form jutted up as if to block him, though solid at first, Simone smiled and just as his hand was about to hit that shadow, it faded, not disappeared but merely faded to allow his hand the freezing passage through it, to strike her.

Her head flew to the side; a few droplets of blood flying from her lip as his other hand grasped her jacket. She righted herself then however and licked her lips, her once shadowy smile, now even more intense as she tasted her own blood on her tongue.

“Careful Thief King, I just might take a liking to you.” She told him with as near a purr as a human voice could get, that shadowy cool hand now lying over his own as he held her jacket.

Her black orbs swam with a shadowy substance, barely contained inside covering the whites. “You ask why I am here?” She began, licking the blood from her lip again. “Well.. you see…” She paused to once more clean her lip before moving on. “The devil made me do it.” She finished, giving him a defiant grin.

[Grim]

This woman was defiant, she was impudent; she was a pest. She was also very attractive. Her attempt to taunt him had not failed; he was quite scorned. He hated to be defied, and hated even more to be mocked. This woman even passed aside the physical blow he had thrown her. She obviously wouldn’t be put out by any further physical assault, nor did she seem weak enough in mind to be taunted back.

Grim curled his arm as he held the woman’s collar and pressed her lips to his, forcing a kiss. He didn’t hold it long, only enough to say he did it. Turning then, he pulled the woman by her collar and threw her towards the center of the arena, far from any shadows and into the bright lights. A mage was obviously above the thief king; he was merely mortal. He had to take her from her comfort zone and put her in the greatest disadvantage he could.

She was not prone to physical abuse, and he was quite sure of the same to mental or emotional. Perhaps he should rape her and take from her, her pride and her dignity, if indeed she had any. She was certainly attractive enough; it would serve to be his pleasure as well as he would hope, her regret.

Walking up to where he had thrown the mage, Grim reached down to grab her collar again. He was yet undecided as what he would do, but he couldn’t let the thieves still present see him weak. At very least, Grim needed to give a strong showing of power. A weak response to this intrusion could easily throw off the setting he had just placed over the impudent fool who thought he could steal without the guild.

[Simone]

Simone returned his short kiss; she wasn’t above allowing him that. She knew what she was getting into the moment she dropped in for her visit. She had heard the tales of the Thief King, heard of his iron fist dealing with his own kind and his further distaste of outsiders. Word didn’t stay in one spot around the city after all.

When he threw her away from the shadow, she laughed as she spun around to face him, her hand moved to a pouch in her belt and blew a powdery substance into the air, that substance seemed to float, like dust particles in the light around the hall only visible when the light hit it, as like dust, it moved about and was impossible to catch in ones hands.

She stood there in the middle of the light though still his thinking of her being without shadow was wrong, there were shadows within her jacket, under her hair and even between her breasts, though she wasn’t trying to put a show of strength, had she wanted that, the shadow protection that had allowed his hand to pass though, would not of done so.

Once more, when he approached, she did nothing and his hand grasped her coat easily enough as she continued to smile defiantly at him. “Why don’t you let the kids go to bed now?’ She asked in a silken tone, brining a hand up to run over the side of his arm that held her so tightly.

[Grim]

“They can watch if they want.” Grim answered sharply as he pressed the dark woman into the floor. “I really don’t care.” This was shameless, and so was she. That was usually the way he liked it, because so was he. This time he had aimed to shame the woman, but with that not possible, there seemed no harm he could do to her. The least he could do was take something from the situation, as frustrating as it was.

If nothing else, this act in the middle of the warehouse floor could serve as a tithe of sorts, a toll for intruding on his space. In any case, the king of thieves was not going to come out of that empty handed. This belligerent woman would surely provide him a welcome change from the shameless sluts and whores with whom he tended to have his way.

“I’ll take entry for entry.” Grim told the woman as he undid his belt and zipper. It seemed a fair trade to him considering the circumstances. It was not only the only reward he could hope to reap from this dilemma, but it was also likely the best no matter the obstacles.

[Simone]

“I knew I’d like you.” She purred again. “Seems a fair price, and may make me a repeat offender if this is the punishment I should get.” She replied back as he undid his belt and zipper.

As stated, Simone was no newcomer to the playing fields of the devil himself, and a live audience was nothing new to her either and this wouldn’t have been the first time she was made to perform without direct consent, though, perhaps it was still direct consent, this man was brilliantly dark minded and powerful, two things she held in very high standard and both a must for the opportunity to get into her pants, the third being of course that they didn’t smell.

“Though I do hope you intend to make it as violent as possible, I wouldn’t want to get bored again, after all.” She then said just as she moved her legs up and wrapped them tightly about his waist and with a strong jerk to the right, turned him over and smiled down at him, her left hand coming up and quickly taking off her jacket on that side, it would have come off all the way, but he was still holding to the other side. She looked down at his hand and then again to him with a sort of.. ‘Well?’ question in her deep black orbs

[Simone]

Simone however never hit the ground when he pushed her forward this time, instead she stopped just inches from the floor, padded against the fall from the shadowy substance of what was her existence. She then turned over and shook her head with a smirk up at him and then stood, that shadowy substance absolutely crawling over her body, melding into a form-fitting guise of clothing and she winked at him from her now standing position.

She looked around at the onlookers now peering most of them out from the vines that had their hold on them and she smiled and even though her smile was more to her benefit, it was still just as shadowy as ever, making her look darker than even before, perhaps more empowered than she was when she intruded in on their presence.

“I suppose I have to let them go now.” She said almost sadly as she turned to Grim. Someone would have to and she knew he wasn’t about to do it, the things looked as if they were very angry being unable to move an inch.

“Oh don’t look at me like that, truly, it wasn’t my fault.” She sighed and rolled her eyes.

Simone then walked over to Grim and looked him over once and purred. “Thanks, I like it too.” She responded to his comment then siding up next to him so that they stood each facing opposite directions she whispered in his ear. “Oh, I will be around.” She said in that same purr she used with him from the start.

[Grim]

Grim pulled his pants up and tied them on as he stood. He had reaped his reward, taken his tithe, his payment from the intruder and he was satisfied with it. His shirt was torn and shredded on the floor from the transaction, as it were, but it was a worth while casualty.

“Do what you will.” He told the mage in response to her question of duty to the thieves trapped in the vines that erupted from her loss of control during her penance. “I’m disappointed in their lack of escape as it is. I don’t care if they stay there ‘til they find a way out or rot.”

He seriously didn’t care. If they couldn’t get away from some vines, they wouldn’t be able to get away when it really mattered either. What hope could there be for a thief that could escape a plant? Those too weak to escape were probably too weal to keep their mouths shut if they were caught too, so Grim almost hoped that the mage wouldn’t let them go.

[Simone]

“Very well.” She responded, getting the feel that he didn’t care either way what happened to those still trapped though, she knew too that had they truly wanted, like Grim, they would have been out by now, surely, it couldn’t have been that hard.

Simone looked about the room and sighed, the least she could do though, was get rid of those vines not holding someone in its clutches and she waved her hand negligently and the unoccupied vines withered away leaving only dust behind. Normally this was something she would not have even bothered with and suddenly she laughed. “You must have been good.” She commented and then shook her head. “Or I’m getting soft..” She said this last with a dark little smile pasted on her lips. “No, I think you were just good.” She mused out loud as she made her way towards the bleachers on shadowed feet.

“Well then until next time” She stated, blowing him a kiss that would have been anything but sweet. Just then a pair of dark hands reached from the shadows and formed themselves around her and pulled her out of sight