I'm here.

[mire]

“Bah. This sucks.”

Charmae looked at her surroundings, recognized nothing. Yep, she was once again completely and unquestionably lost. She was, however, fairly certain the soil that dirtied her boots belonged to Rosinder. She had seen guards, the machine ones that eyed her coldly and offered no help whatsoever. Arthur had said they were the enemies of Rosinder, and that it would be in her best interest to stay away from them. She trusted and respected Arthur’s word, and thus followed the given advice.

Ah, Arthur. She recalled the high knight of Rosinder, responsible for numerous acts of kindness that had saved her life in the past. The memories of their time together floated up to the top of her thoughts, made her laugh a little. Last time they had met, she’d been lost, just as she was now. And he had come, out of nowhere, offering aid to a damsel in distress.

Oh, how she hated to think of herself like that.

She blew out a breath, scratched away an itch on the side of her head. Without a thing to do, or a direction to go (she would likely get even more lost if she dared move), she bent down to converse with her faithful companion.

“What do you think Atticus? Do you think we shall be rescued once again? By him even? Our luck has always been mighty high. Shall it uphold today?”

She didn’t expect it to, but the world was so magnificently capable of miracles. As if someone was writing a prescribed story…

[supernal]

This is the story of two simple people living through not-so-simple times. The story of two lovers, whose inexorable bond, though it went unseen by the world at large, tied them across land, water, and sky. This chapter of the story, however, takes place an appreciable time (days, months, years?) before their souls realize that their respective ethereal echoes exists in the other.

Charmae stalks a land ravaged by war – the phrase was misleading. The land as a whole found itself relatively unscarred. Its hills still rolled, barren come winter and frosted with green come spring, its forests still thrived and chirped with life, and its oceans still nursed the land and its people. Save for the spots where Rosinder and Renovatio once met, that is. Those were pockmarks across an otherwise unblemished canvas; smoking craters of war and steel tinged with blood and tears.

And save for where the resistance refused to cow to Renovatio's iron will; rust and gunpowder, the severed heads of heroes and the bloody spines of traitors.

Charmae stalks a land full of parasites and thieves that now stalk her. The guards of the cities that the woman trudged through, cowards in metal shells or mindless automatons that desecrated every inch of ground they stepped on, let her pass on but took note of her. Only the former, the men with hearts and blood and needs, dared to follow her.

A group of about five. They wore their armor in full, after all it marked them sons from another land, and only the leader felt secure enough to go with half-plate. He was skilled, strong and fast. Had attained the rank of captain three years before his brother and had the sword to show it. But all five of them walked with that noxious swagger of a people that felt entitled to more than they earned.

"Heeeeyyyyy girrrly! Heey now, come on, slow down for us willya? A couple of big, strong, Renovatio soldiers just want to have a chat. We helped liberate your land you know pretty thang. And we keep you safe at niiight. Don't you think you owe us a few words at least? Maybe a drink back in town?"

Hills surrounded them. The captain walked with his hands swinging freely at his side, but the four around him kept their hands near the hilts of their swords. The sun was out but not high. The town in sight but too far to scream for help.

Besides, who would come?

[mire]

“Oh boy…”

Charmae recognized the men as the soldiers she had seen before, the ones that stalked the border separating Rosinder from Muhir. Of course she had noticed they followed her; they were not timid in their strides. However, she had hoped they were merely carrying out their duty as patrol guards, and that the road she traveled was commonly used for such purposes.

So much for that hope.

Atticus sensed the danger. Before Charmae could scoop him up and keep him out of harm’s way, he had already sprinted in front of her, using his tiny body as a shield. She did not dare to step forward and remove him, rather brought a hand up to the hilt of the weapon strapped around her waist. She couldn’t fight for shit, yet did not see why the men should be made aware of that. Left with no other alternative, Charmae decided to practice her intimidation skills. Maybe she would get away with it.

Now, how should she do it?

She cooled her expression, hilted her head upward just a tad bit. In her mind’s eye, she looked pretty badass.

“I owe you nothing. This is not my land, and if it was, I wouldn’t consider you a liberator of anything. Now, if you would excuse us, we have things to do.”

[supernal]

How would things advance from here? Perhaps the small group of soldiers, though highly trained and undoubtedly skilled enough to dispatch a single woman individually let alone functioning under a group dynamic, were nonetheless unaware of what kind of weapon this woman had in her hands. A sword, that much was clear. But the caliber of that sword was unparalleled; its power mythical. And no one here but Charmae herself, and her pet, knew it.

On the other hand, perhaps Charmae overestimated the power of her sword and what it was capable of against soldiers who knew the rhythm of warfare. Maybe she would draw her blade, and it would glimmer with power, and it wouldn't matter.

Sadly, no one would ever know.

A single arrow whirled through the air. If it could, it would marvel at how the ground looks passing beneath it as it flew overhead. It would appreciate the feel of the wind nestling its body, the whistling sound emitting from its fletched end, and might even think to warn the man that stood directly in its path.

What was it with this soldier? Maybe all of his armor and all of his training numbed his instincts to arrows, told him that he didn't need to worry about things like blocking or dodging a piece of sharpened wood. Maybe he didn't even hear it to begin with. Whatever the case, one of the soldiers lost his life. Something clinked, something hard, and one of the five fell to the ground face first. A sliver of metal sticking out of the back of his head.

Another whir. Another whistle. Another thunk. Another body to the ground. This time the metal jutted out from his back where, if the line was traced, the flechette pierced his heart. And on one of the hills a distance away, where the man was seen but indistinct, stood Arthur. Bow in hand.

By now the soldiers wised up. They brought their shields up, the captain took cover behind his soldiers. He looked at Charmae, smiled and winked.

"You're in luck princess. You get to see men at work. Men! Draw your blades."

They had swords and guns. They drew only their swords because there were more of them than there was of their enemy. If this was one on one, and if they knew who they were up against, maybe they would have done things differently.

"Kino. Leave the captain to me."

[zombzeh]

[table:tl5d0nkg][/table:tl5d0nkg][table2:tl5d0nkg]A girl stood by Arthur Terces's side, just as she'd done for some time now. Whether it was for her mission or survivability, the girl always stuck with Sir Terces. She observed the fallen bodies with cold, golden eyes, hidden partly behind bangs of black hair, fallen to the base of her chin (while the rest of her hair seemed to be ear length at most). Although tattered and worn by time of traveling and a lack of other clothes, her outlandish and formal green military uniform seemed to be tailored specifically for her. It fit her slender figure without adding much bulk to her appearance.

No doubt Arthur was older than her. The girl couldn't have been older than fourteen or fifteen; in fact, whilst heavily clothed as she was now, it was easiest to assume that she was thirteen or fourteen. She was short, a good five feet and two inches tall at best-- five and three with her boots on --and lightweight; her gear uniform and all the goods she kept in her pockets added a fair twenty pounds to her small frame, but without such things to weigh down her person, she was no more than one hundred pounds . . .

[hr:tl5d0nkg][/hr:tl5d0nkg]

Over the last weeks, Arthur Terces had learned five important things about the otherwise mysterious girl that called herself Kino:

I. Kino was one of Herr Kommander's newest--and youngest--subordinates.

This, of course, was discovered within their first meeting.[/table2:tl5d0nkg]II. Kino was easily shaken out of her default stoic demeanor.

The girl hastily ceased being so disheveled and nervous since their first meeting, replacing a nervous demeanor with a wholly stoic one. She never smiled, frowned, or grinned.

At least not until Sir Terces opted to bathe himself in a stream--a stream that Kino was already in the midst of bathing herself in. The following few days were extremely uncomfortable on her end. She was blushing and frustratingly refusing to look at or address Sir Terces's general existence for at least several hours. She was unable to maintain eye contact with him for several days.

While they weren't too far from one another in age--separated in age by eight or nine years, which wasn't uncalled for amongst their contemporaries--they also did not know each other well, which bothered Kino tremendously. Trying her own personal morality was a surefire way of breaking her deadpan mask. Pain was also an easy method . . .

III. She hit hard, but took hits just as hard.

Kino was undoubtedly powerful. It was clear within their first skirmish with Renovation soldiers that Herr Kommander ordered her to stay with Sir Terces for a very good reason. Without Terces's assistance, she dispatched a six man troupe with little more than a dagger on her person. The girl, despite her young appearance, had strong legs, and knew exactly how to both defend herself and use her age against her aggressors. It was easy to underestimate, at least until it was too late . . .

However, as much as Kino was able to dispatch a man with a series of well placed kicks, she fell quickly. Another skirmish had her hit in the sternum with an armored boot. Then, she could do little more than collapse, clutch her chest in breathlessness, and wheeze in struggle to breathe for a solid hour.

IV. Common was not Kino's native language.

For the longest time, conversation between Arthur Terces and Kino was stale and completely one sided. It roughly consisted of Terces speaking long winded philosophies whilst Kino stared at him perplexedly and said nothing. For awhile there, he might have even thought she was of weak intellect, at least until they got into a skirmish with a few isolated Renovation brutes. There, she was hit hard in the jaw, resulting in the loss of a back molar, immediately calling for a slew of curses in another language--and likewise calling for slew of crying in that language when she had to be taken to the closest town's clinic to have the corresponding upper molar removed, for fear of the also broken tooth becoming infected or abscessed.

The simple fact of the matter was that Kino herself was not an unintelligent girl, she simply didn't comprehend larger Common words and was better capable of understanding shorter, simpler sentences. Whenever she spoke in Common, she clearly had a very prominent accent, one that reduced her ability to pronounce distinguishable r's and l's and forced the breakdown of multi-syllabic words into separate and carefully pronounced syllables. There were some words she simply was not physically capable of saying.

One time, a man in a town they'd passed through asked her to pronounce "parallel." Kino kicked that man in the shin.

The girl was trying to learn two languages, Herr Kommander's and the most common of all languages, and for a girl her age, that was a daunting task.

V. Kino loved sleep more than anything else.

Once, when they were traversing the countryside, Arthur allowed her to sleep a few extra hours than he might have preferred. Exactly what he was thinking when he did that and why, only he probably knew. Maybe he was just being nice to the girl. It was two hours before high noon that he woke her, and the grumble and groggy glare she addressed him with was the same as that of an early morning glare--a method of addressing Sir Terces that he no doubt had become accustomed to with her in a very short time.

[hr:tl5d0nkg][/hr:tl5d0nkg]

Kino nodded to Arthur.

Terces had the captain, Kino had the rest. There weren't many men left; this was a fair deal. Of course, the captain would likely be much stronger than his men . . .

"Prease be carefur-r," said the girl in anticipation of the soldiers' advance. It was something she always said before they rushed into a fight, please be careful: sometimes, the only-- but best --indication that she cared for Arthur Terces's well being . . . for whatever her own personal reasons, be it Herr Kommander's orders or a general want to not see Arthur Terces as a casualty of war.

More often than not, she could take care of herself, but she could be easily overrun, and Kino was well aware of the fact that it took little more than a knee to the stomach or two to put her out of commission. It was important to her that Terces was to take caution if he suddenly found himself alone in a combat scenario.




Edit: fixed a couple of horribly glaring spelling errors; my mistake.

[mire]

And luck upholds.

Inexplicably and fortunately, Arthur appeared just in time to save the day. Surprised, Charmae misplaced her voice, and could do nothing more than simply mouth out his name. She threw him a smile, and despite her close proximity to the enemy, completely abandoned herself in the momentary joy of crossing paths with an old friend. Atticus was not, and had never been, quite charmed by the high knight. He recognized him, made an indiscernible sound, and leaped up to the arms of his master. This brought Charmae back to her senses, which quickly ordained her to remove herself from the situation.

Naturally, she ran to where Arthur stood.

“Arthur! How—why are you, well—I was just…” She glanced back to the soldiers, shrugged off their comments. “This is definitely not where I expected to meet you next.”

It was all too much. She had just gone from being lost, to being harassed, and then from being rescued by a friend. Who was writing this story she called her life? It sure as hell was a ride.

[supernal]

Arthur heaved a breath as the bow fell from his fingertips to the ground; the bowstring glinted slightly in the waning light, hinting that it was made of something aside from mere flax or linen fibers. He dropped his quiver as well, slung the shield from his back to his left arm, but kept the sword sheathed at his side.

"I will be. Thank you Kino."

Though his eyes never once left the three men, two of whom began advancing slowly with their shields held down now that the threat of archery had been neutralized, Arthur's attention shifted from Kino to Charmae. His countenance, once seemingly only capable of portraying a stony grimace, toyed with a smile.

"A conspirator to the resistance. Have no mercy on her! On any of them! Leave the bitch alive, I want her when we're done.

Arthur's smile vanished.

"Charmae, stay here with Kino. She'll protect you."

As if whisked away by an otherworldly force, Arthur launched himself into the air. The two soldiers advancing towards the two women, or the woman and child rather, had their targets acquired. Their job was not to dispense with the man that fancied himself an acrobat; no doubt their captain would make short work of him. For now, they had other things to focus on. . .

Arthur landed nearby his foe for the day.

"Very fancy, but tricks don't mean anything when it comes to the blade."

Arthur's eyes fell to the gun holstered at the captain's side.

"And what do you know of the blade?"

The captain sneered. No more small talk. He rushed forward, his speed impressive, his elegance more so. The captain swung his sword in a quick, short arc with intent to land the edge in a powerful cleave along the crook where Arthur's neck met his shoulder. The motion itself was efficient and the captain's technique flawless. All in all, something worth contending with.

Arthur raised his left hand; the blade met with the back of his hand and went no further. It didn't even draw blood.

"Wrong."

The knight's right hand moved to his sword's hilt swiftly and drew up with as much celerity. But he did not draw his blade, did not intend to kill the man (yet), and instead let his sword's pommel pass through the soldier's open guard and crash unceremoniously with his mandible. Teeth shattered from the force. Blood spattered. Eyes closed. When Arthur followed with a headbutt, the captain's forehead nearly folded in on itself. The man fell to the ground an unconscious heap.

Arthur slid the sword back into its home. He turned about slowly, a tension in his chest making him sluggish now that his threat had been dispatched. Kino was a good fighter. Charmae had that blade of hers, and the little scamp Atticus. But, despite the odds being vastly in their favor, it did not stop the knight's concern.

[zombzeh]

[right:30gzxe34][/right:30gzxe34]

Sometimes, however, age and gender could not get Kino the jump on someone. She used it to her advantage whenever possible, allowing some of the swiftest victories, but it wasn't too terrible of a loss when she hadn't that opportunity. That, unfortunately, was sometimes the result of her uniform. It was very clear that she was involved in some military business, despite her young age and the tattered appearance of her uniform. More than likely, this had been the case just now.

The girl glanced to her right, to the woman Arthur wanted Kino to defend. She didn't look like much, but Kino wasn't one to judge.

Kino disregarded those she was to guard as little more than that: individuals to protect. Out of necessity, her focus shifted to the soldiers, who undoubtedly wished to kill Kino and those of her temporary guardianship. These two men were regarded with the same stoic, unfeeling stare.

Although Kino traversed the countryside with Sir Terces, she was not his ward, nor did she learn anymore than (scarce) language from him. Kino was a student of Herr Kommander's philosophy, not Arthur Terces. Brutality, efficiency, and conflict control were his-- and, in part, his women's --weapons. None of these could be achieved with selfless mercy.

Losing to Kino more often than not meant the end of one's life. She was not merciful. Murder in the name of duty and/or self defense did not break her moral code. She was brutal when she needed to be, and every move was made with efficiency in mind. Swift kills were her preference.

The two soldiers approaching her might well experience a similar end. Once the men were close, she acted without second thoughts, as if little more than instinct guided her bones. Her dash was enacted with unparalleled haste; the girl simply threw herself at the gap between their bodies--between the men and beyond--without even a fraction of warning. It was in the moment that she'd pass the two men by that Kino would draw the blade behind her back, and with the elegance of efficiency and control, she'd turn on a coin, to spin and face the rears--or perhaps profiles--of her antagonists, all the while carving the initial Z into the air with her dagger drawn: a Z, to sever, initially, their Achilles tendons, up, and across their throats.

Were her foes to fall, Kino would clean her blade on a section of one's untarnished clothes, and whilst turning her attention back to Sir Terces, slide her dagger back within its shelter.

[mire]

Without dispute, Charmae joined the side of the young girl assigned to protect her. Given their current circumstances, she did not say a word or attempted a smile. Introductions and ice breakers would have to be saved for later. She trusted Arthur, and his word had never failed her, yet in this instance Charmae had some difficulty accepting a little girl should be made responsible for her safety. She was a grown woman, for God’s sake! A grown, weaponry incompetent woman yes, but grown nonetheless. If anything, it should up to her to protect the young girl.

Charmae set Atticus down, reached out to touch the sheath of the sword she never used. Even if she could use it, she would not; her sword was not meant to be seen. However, there were instances in which the need was far greater than the fear and thus required Charmae to make use of the gift strapped to her thigh. She hesitated, as she always did whenever such a situation came about.

During that moment, the girl Arthur had called Kino took away the lives of her aggressors, subsequently eliminating the need for Charmae to do anything. She remained useless, set aside until the conflict ended.

Ah, the woes of a damsel.

Atticus fiercely clung to his master’s side, clearly agitated by the battle and the presence of that knight and his little girl. He didn’t like Arthur, and certainly would not take kindly to his friend. Why, if he had not shown up, he would have taken care of his master! It was his duty, after all. He growled—at whom, it was not clear.

Preoccupied for Arthur’s safety, Charmae barely even hear the jealous cry of her small pet.

“Is it over?”

[supernal]

Kino performed her job in a fashion Arthur had come to expect from her. Brutally efficient, and executed without reserve or consideration for the lives of the men pitted against her in ill fortune. Although Kino and Charmae were a respectable distance away from where Arthur currently stood, he could still make out Charmae's words over the deathly silence that had settled in the lands. He could hear the wind as it skirted the ground.

"Almost."

Arthur turned back to the captain's body and knelt briefly beside the corpse. He reached both hands out and nestled the captain's head between his palms. With that, Arthur rose steadily to a standing position, lifting the captain's lifeless body from the ground as if it didn't weigh anything at all. Thumbs flitted across the captain's eyes, lifting the eyelids back, and Arthur's grays stared into the captain's blues with deafening purpose.

Arthur's irides deepened in shade and then altered in hue. Further and further into the dismal depths of gray, and then purple and then black. And then his eyes glowed with power, ribbons of energy and sparkly stuff uncoiled and fluttered in the air by his head like a small procession of flags.

The faint notion of movement rippled through captain's corpse. It wasn't a corpse at all. The captain was still alive. The captain's eyes, which had been open but distant in his unconscious haze, suddenly sharpened and focused on the red-haired man that held him aloft by the head. The Renovatio lapdog parted his lips, furrowed his brow, and seemed poise to sully his tongue with obscenities or demands made with no chips to bargain with. But the captain didn't get that far.

An aura of power, color and consistency not unlike what crowned Arthur currently, surrounded Arthur's hands and then bled steadily into the captain's eyes. What issued next from the captain's mouth was nothing more than pitiable howls of pain and half-formed gurgles pleading for mercy. The skull that Arthur held in his hands shook rampantly, as if there were life caged in that cranium fighting to get out; black polish settled over the whole of the captain's eyes, steamed, and left nothing behind but empty eye sockets.

Now when the body hung limp in Arthur's grasp, there was no mistaking the situation. When he dropped the cadaver, smoke still wreathed about the skull.

Arthur motioned for the women to move closer if they hadn't already, then procured a pad of paper and a pencil from his breast pocket.

"Kino, meet Charmae. Charmae, Kino. Charmae! I didn't think I'd see you around here again, not for a while at least. What brings you back to Rosinder?"

[zombzeh]

[right:33tqzd6e][/right:33tqzd6e]

Kino watched Arthur's means of dispatching his otherwise defeated foe with vague criticism. That was not the quickest, easiest, nor most efficient way to dispatch a foe. Of course, Arthur wasn't restricted to methods of battle haste--but then again, Kino wasn't accustomed to much more than what she knew. As one of the Kommander's newest subordinates, she was still fairly sheltered.

That, of course, was why she was so shaken when she was pit with Terces in the first place. It was her first time actually out on a task of any sort, and she was afraid of failing miserably. So far, though, she'd been doing well. Sometimes, she didn't even seem to be that necessary; Arthur was more than capable of taking care of himself most of the time. From what she gathered, he either slept lightly or didn't sleep at all, which was phenomenally better than her approach to sleep: eight to ten hours a night or more.

More often than not, Kino hadn't the slightest clue what to think of the man. Arthur Terces was not a bad person. He was certainly of superior moral caliber compared to Kino's superior, Herr Kommander. He didn't overtly try to hurt her, either, which was certainly a plus . . .

Inefficiencies could be forgiven.

Kino responded to the introduction of her and Charmae with little more than a bow of her waist, one that--in her culture--was intentionally low. Were one to study her culture, one considered bizarre by most of Rosinder, one would discover that Kino bowing low and at her waist when she introduced herself or was introduced by someone else was indicative of social class. Judging by the way she carried herself and approached other people, rarely ever speaking unless spoken to, it was likely that Kino's family was extremely underprivileged, perhaps even slaves.

[mire]

The ordeal came to an end, brutally so. She wouldn’t have believed it, had she not seen it with her own eyes. Arthur’s strength was impressive, frighteningly so. She’d seen him in battle just once, long ago when they first met. The details of the event, however, were scarce and opaque. But she was certain he had not utilize such power then; you just don’t forget something like that.

Joyeuse herself seemed to have taken notice of Arthur’s power. The sentient sword stirred, albeit slightly, against Charmae’s thigh. Whatever message She meant to convey, Charmae couldn’t tell. Was She intrigued? Or apprehensive?

Atticus easily expressed his disdain. He stayed back, hid in the shadow of his master and pretended not to see either knight or little girl.

“Arthur! I am…pleased to see you, even if it had to be like this. I didn’t particularly mean to return to Rosinder—it sort of just happened. But I am happy to see you. And,” she moved to face the young girl, nodded her head in response to Kino’s bow. “It is very nice to meet you. Thank you very much, for protecting us. Isn’t that right Atticus?”

The stuffed animal ignored them all.

“Ahhh, that is not very nice. I apologize on his behalf.”

Quite uncomfortable being so close to the “mess” of bodies scattered around them, Charmae sought for an excuse to move.

“So, why are you here? Well, this is your land, but I mean…boy, it’s kinda hot, isn’t it?”

[supernal]

Kino passed silent judgment on Arthur Terces, and the girl was right. The trial that Arthur submitted the captain to was a horribly inefficient affair with which to dispatch someone. Ostentatious, messy, and a bit of a waste of time in all honesty. Arthur himself wasn't particularly prodigal, but by the strict standards that the Kommander, and by proxy Kino, operated under no doubt Arthur seemed a tad reckless.

But this assumed that Arthur, a widely reserved and laconic man, had a penchant for theatrics in killing a man which he had brought to the foot of death's door not moments ago with no more than two simple strikes. This was not the case.

The pad and pencil were put into play while Charme and Kino exchanged transient pleasantries. Arthur murmured to himself while scribbling furiously across the front and back of a single page in his notepad. The keen eye and skilled mind, if focused on Arthur's lips, made out the words 'depot', 'explosives' and 'twenty'. No more.

"I'm glad that you and your little friend are well." Arthur ripped the page from his notepad. "It's most unfortunate you had to see that. I hope our next meeting is under more pleasant circumstances. I noticed this lot of parasites while on the way to a meeting at a camp, and knew it'd be a good chance to get some information. Most captains stick to where they're most guarded, but fortune smiled on us today. Whenever I get a chance to clean up scum," Arthur's eyes fell to the captain's and he spat square on its face. "I take it."

While Charmae responded, Arthur's eyes began to wander. Around the skyline, towards the various hills surrounding them, but never back to the town. Lips curled in, just slightly, chest expanded before a sharp, shrill whistle pierced the air. He waited. Waited. Waited. Then broke the silence.

High in the sky, a single bird circled around the group. Had the vultures caught wind of death so quickly?

[zombzeh]

[right:3c86fpky][/right:3c86fpky]

As a girl of little words, Kino didn't say much to Charmae. Kino bowed, Charmae nodded in acknowledgment, then addressed her with appreciation, at which Kino nodded in acknowledgment. She might have seemed rude about it, were it not for the fact that she retained a perfectly stoic visage. A stoic person--an individual of few emotional responses--was not often the type to think ill of another for no reason, nor the type to personally shun another with every intent to offend.

Once introductions were exchanged between she and Charmae, Kino's attention was back on Arthur once again. When they first started this journey, it was a matter of the task: protect Arthur Terces. She was afraid back then that if she let Arthur out of her sight, he'd get himself killed.

By now, however, it was a habit--a comfortable habit.

Watching Sir Terces allowed her the opportunity to pick up a few movements of his lips, however. She furrowed her brow as she tried to make sense of them. There were only a couple of words she picked up, before Terces stopped paying attention to his notepad and spoke to Charmae again. This was a difficult experience for Kino simply by nature of language barriers. She automatically thought he was thinking in her natural language. It was only when she remembered that he couldn't understand her language that she started trying to think of Common words to match those lip movements.

To do so, she had to move her lips in a similar way. A couple of times, she mouthed the same words--"depot," "explosives," and "twenty"--until they made sense to her. No doubt Terces would be able to see her doing this, not that it mattered much. If Kino was a spy for the Kommander, then she either made no effort to succeed at it or, in the most likely scenario, she was simply a terrible spy. It was unlikely that the Kommander would send someone like that out to spy on someone, though. More than likely, this was just a matter of her own personal interests and curiosities.

[mire]

Something was up, and she definitely was not part of it.

In any case, she owed both the quiet Kino and preoccupied Arthur some sort of compensation for their generous intervention. She disliked to consider herself a burden, and sought almost instantly to repay those she troubled in any way possible. Unfortunately, she wasn’t too sure how she would go about accomplishing that with these two. Kino didn’t say a word, and Arthur just scribbled on his notepad.

Was there anything she could do for either one of them when she still didn’t even know where the hell she was?

Probably not. That, however, did not deter her from trying.

“I am pleased to see you are doing fine as well. You have saved me so many times, I’m afraid I feel quiet indebted to you. I must repay you! I insist on it.” She dug into her pocket, demonstrated she had the means to abide by her word. “I am hardly in need for funds, so don’t worry about taking this.”

She stepped forward, determined to transfer the coins over to Arthur’s possession. She wouldn’t take no as an answer. Or at least, he would have to propose a different reimbursement option! Atticus, displeased by his master moving closer to that knight, flopped down on his back and began to meow. He preferred not to look at that knight, so he turned his attention to Arthur's silent pet. That’s what she looked like anyway. He stared at her, waggled his tail.

“Well then, take it! You must. Or at least, tell me how I can repay you.”