Convergence

The stream of dust that arose at Afreet's will before him like a highway kicked so high into to the sky that it was hard to miss it as took a wide turn around a small village east of the Capital's main trade route. It exited the northern side of the city and went straight all the way until the inner body of Armetisia. He'd been running for almost 90 minutes straight, when he plunged head first in a hill of sand to obscure his location. His momentum drove him so far into it, that the sand was almost cold. He wished he could stay there, in the comfort and shade of the darkness, but he, sadly, had to breathe to continue living. He took his time wiggling, like a worm, out of the massive pile, until he found himself in the shade of the hill. The sun was only about two hours from setting, he would enter at dusk, the last moment possible to get into the capital city, where he would finally get the agents off his tail. It was weird, the sun was almost halfway to the horizon, which would mean that the entire encounter would have only been 2... maybe 3 hours ago, when he was shot at randomly by on the exact opposite side of the country by one of the biggest gunman he'd ever seen. A knight of... it didn't even matter anymore. The last time he had turned around, once again making use of these sand dunes and hills, he couldn't even see the man's helicopter that he'd left in. Afreet mentally reminded himself it was to be expected, he was literally the fastest thing on these sands, or any sands, anywhere, and it wasn't healthy for him to question his ability to escape. The knight, if his skills were at all on point, would be able to follow him atleast to the surrounding area, but he had to be and hour and a half, maybe two hours behind him in the clunky machine of his, and Afreet would be lost in the crowd of the Onochoan capital by then. A city, he reminded himself, that not even high status knights would be able to enter after dark without buying off the entirity of the residential royals. Afreet did not know a man, not even Gil to his knowledge, who had enough money to cover such a bill. Even then, Afreet would hear about it long before they made it into the walls.

He readjusted his majorly maligned turban back into something respectable and pulled his cloak about him incredbly tight, and began to make the long, half hour walk to the main road checkpoint. The trip felt faster than it usually did, the adrenline taking its sweet time to die off and Afreet's mind kept busy by infinite thoughts. What were that Knight's reasons for showing up in the middle of the fucking desert just to harass some thug about stealing the property of a militia of a different nation? It made no goddamned sense, and while he accepted her innocence, it was just so much of coincidence that an Arm' official was just sitting out in the middle of the desert for the two of them to find. Something didn't add up, and Afreet didn't feel like playing passive on the fact. He'd very rarely been followed outside of a schooner and he'd never even seen a helicopter like that up close. He'd press his contacts, grease some palms, and pin that son of a... " Ummph"

Afreet stepped into a hole that had spontaneously formed in response to his weight. With a tug, he pulled it free from the desert's gripped, remembering, once more, that he'd lost a horse in all of this. Normally it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but no matter what, he didn't need to buy another one for the next few days. Even if it was an unnofficial sale, something like the sale or theft of a riding animal would be easy to track. Finding a face in a dusty crowd was extremely difficult, but finding a horse that matches a description? Not at all, the imp would just need to work his feet for the next few days, is all.

He made it to the road finally. Tossing some coin around he was easily able to find himself a wagon with a hidden compartment to make it past the checkpoint. These were easy as hell to find, everyone had something they wanted to hide, and a horseless person didn't just walk into a capital city. Major amounts of scrunity from otherwise absent minded guards were the normal fair. But even so, Afreet received two knocks on the outside of the wooden ' bench ' about half an hour later, and without much frill, he simply walked into the closest open doored building and sat down to rest and stretch out a bit. Only one more step and he could finally relax a bit. With a 'hmph' he stood up and marched, with his cloak closed tight and his turban extremely low, across a few blocks to a small barrel salesman's shop. He circled around to where an older sign was leaning against the wall. Making sure there was no one looking down this particular short pathway of street... which took about 3 minutes of just standing there, he leaped against part of the wall, jumping off into an open window on the second floor.

It was a doorless room, with nothing but a small 3foot by 2 foot shaft going up to the roof, a bed, a desk, a lamp, and some more meat. This as all packed into about 35 square feet of room. It was a hideaway, the window never closed, but there were patchy curtains that could be pulled across it. There, Afreet waited, he had it all planned out in his head after about half a dozen times of using this room. About two hours before the rising sun, he'd wake up, head to the first floor of this, and use a hidden key to get fresh water and relieve himself. He'd head back to the roof and use the shaft to reenter the room. He'd do this two more times, then he'd go out, wash his clothes, by a horse, and leave this city for atleast 3 weeks.

Same as always, all according to plan.

Magnificent. Everything, was just so damn magnificent. The soldiers killing other soldiers, warriors and knights tearing into each other. Mothers crying, fathers murdering, children weeping, and the Gods' Green Realm burning at his whims.

Life for Gil Could not be better. As such, he felt a strong urge to play a little, and by playing he would of course set fire to something. But of course he wouldn't do it, oh no, his hands were far too pretty for that, plus HIMSELF actually doing something? Hell, what would the point of having underlings and henchmen be then? Prior to the present moment, Gil had contacted his Aegis of Fire, Markus, and told him to go blow something or another up in Armetisia. But of course, Gil in his infinite foresight knew all too well that to send one man, no matter how powerful he was, was just a plain stupid idea.

So he would send two!

Yes TWO! TWO Aegis members. He would send his favorite hand picked Desert Imp Afreet, his Aegis Of Wind. Oh man, the carnage made Gil as giddy as a school girl. Floating above the current dwelling of Afreet, laughing at the idiot mortals waltzing about like their world was perfect.

He hated that.

But alas he couldn't just simply blow them all up, oh no, that'd take all the fun from his loving little pupils and servants. Disappearing and reappearing inside a room where Afreet was sleeping, soon to be waking up, Gil drew a chair with his mind and drifted himself downward to sit. After a minute of waiting for Afreet to wake up, Gil got tired and decided to make Afreet awake.

By lifting him up in the air and shaking him with his brain. "Hello there Afreet, you impy little shit. I got a job for you to do! A real important one too. Hey, are you listening to me boy?" Gil said as he twirled Afreet around with his finger.

The first emotion that arose from both Afreet's mind and face was one of pure annoyance. Wrapped in the one, horrid little sheet he had, he opened his eyes to find himself swirling in midair while being assailed with insults from a dark figure sitting in a chair across the room, a chair that shouldn't exist. While most people would scream, Afreet's eyes and mouth became stoic as he simply stared forward while spinning, no reply for several moments as he was twirled through the air. The frustration built and built in him, until suddenly he released it on his immaturish, bratish boss.

Slipping a knife out from the soft belt that tied his tunic, he launched down through his feet toward the sitting figure. Immediatly afterward, he yanked himself out of the loose psycho-magical grip that he'd been placed in. He tumbled to the dusty ground, smacking a bit of his head against the hard clay walls. He just sat there, leaning on his arms behind him on the floor, not saying anything. He knew the knife wouldn't do much of anything, but having a way to both vent your frustration and make a point about showing up rudely in a cramped safehouse was convenient.

" What, Do, You, Want? " He said. He had no hatred for Gil in anyway, but he was not in the mood to put up with this shit right now. His employer could, at the drop of a hat, solve all the problems that Afreet seemed to have been accumulating, but he'd rather spend his time performing silly bullshit tricks. Whatever this man had showed up for, Afreet wanted it done and out of the way as soon as possible. Gil had no sense of tact, something Afreet was beginning to value more these days as numerous people began to adopt the ' shoot first ask question later ' routine.

Sometimes he wished he could just have a normal job.

"I don't know Afreet, you tell me what do I want?" Gil asked Afreet before slamming him into the wall. "You don't get to take that tone with me child." He mentioned in a cold harsh tone. "Now then, I come bearing gifts! Cheer up, after having your people discovered, and getting your horse killed and drawing the attention of numerous soldiers and warriors from many lands. Sounds to me you need a vacation, and new toys!" Gil said snapping his fingers, making several new blades freshly made, all of high quality, appear within the room. He also made a set of clothes appear for the young man, very nice, fresh clothes, made of silk. "See, I only love my servants Afreet, you should learn to not be so stressed. Also, I figured you might want to leave this continent for now, since you know, shit has hit the fan for you. If so I have the PERFECT job opportunity for you Afreet, whattya say?"

Afreet consciously spit at the floor when Gil tried to toy with his loyalties. Gil had given him shit and stress, but for the most part, Afreet enjoyed the benefits that came with being a God Shield. Aegis had many resources, and for the most part Gil was truthful about looking out for his employees. Afreet had never once been challenged on a request, but then again, he was smart enough to not make demands. Denying a powerful being full control of your life on principle was simple and came with the territory of being a full blown warrior, most people respected your personal direction, even those in a higher position, but a warrior was not meant to hold the power of the pen. And the pen Gil commanded could sign the death of any man in the 6 kingdoms.

The imp listened to rest of Gil's insufferable babble with a straight face as he made his way to his feet. Dusting off a bit, he stepped forward... or shuffled forward, he was starting to regret the crampedness of this chamber, and watched as the 'toys' the man had spoken of float into mid air for a moment before softly making their way to the surface of his bed and desk. Before speaking again, he began to bundle up the silks and cloths, but he took one look at the 6 or so blades, and picked up the plainest one he could see. Toying with it in his hand, he slipped it into the middle of the bundle. He placed it next to his bag at the foot of his bed before picking up the other weapons and moving them out of the way.

" No need for the excessive decoration, I'm not trying to stand out, and any gold material is immediatly out of the question because of the weight." He said, flopping back onto his bed, with his back against the headboard, " Honestly, I thought you were a well tuned fighter and commander, shouldn't things like choices of equipment be second nature to you by now? " He added a smug smirk to the end, you take any step you can get away with.

"And that's why Afreet I chose you, always the smart and cunning one." Gil said a wide smile on his face. "Now about that job I need you to do, oh yea. You see, you're colleague and comrade Markus, the Aegis Of Fire decided he wanted some action, so I told him to go blow up a prison in Armetisia. Only thing is I told him to go alone, and if he goes alone he is most certain to get violently and beautifully killed by the Walkers that they have staioned there. Hence, I want you to go and play with him too."

Afreet's immediate response was," Why so I can be violently and beautifully killed by the Walkers to? And what's so beautiful about it ?" , but he followed the idea and began packing and stuffing things back into his bag. He made sure to slip the new knife into a leather holster, leaving the old one on the bed next to the rest of the glamorous junk.

He was not looking forward toward working with Markus. The guy seemed ok enough, but it he'd appeared, during their first encounter, to be on the arguementative side of things. This contrasted deeply with Afreet's way of going in on the edge and staying there. If he flopped a mission and made the imp have to play catchup, he'd skin the hothead alive... or steal various things from him, one or the other.

Afreet hoisted the bag up onto his shoulders, putting one leg out of the open window before turning back to Gil one last time. " Anything else I should know about, commander?" He put a sarcastic ring on the last bit of it, Gil wasn't the type of person Afreet would trust major strategical decisions to, but he'd never let the shadowy man know that.