Post by Shinku on Aug 5, 2020 15:14:51 GMT -5
As Kanra called for her, Kohengi gave her a little wave with her paddle. She was unable to do more than that as the guy who had grabbed her was not just covering her mouth but also pressed her arms to her body with his other arm, so she couldn't move them without strain. The other kidnapper took her legs and so they carried her away into the crowd.
What a shame. Kohengi would have loved to watch the fight unfold. Especially Kanra's fight. The woman had some very odd ability and once they would meet up again, the curious woman wanted to have a closer look at her guide. If the stern woman would let her. And maybe even if she didn't.
After a while and multiple turns and passes through the market stalls, they stopped moving and set her down, though they didn't let her go.
„I'm going to remove my hand from your mouth and I don't want you to scream, got it?“ he told her. There was a moment of awkward silence. Awkward for the two kidnappers. Their curious hostage was waiting rather patiently for what was going to happen next.
„Err. Nod if you understood that.“
Kohenig nodded and the man slowly removed his hand from her face, though he held it ready to shut her up again if she should scream. Kohengi didn't scream though. The man had told her not to scream and she had agreed to it. Besides, she didn't saw a reason to do so. But he hadn't told her not to speak, so she voiced her opinion in the most civil voice possilbe.
„I'm sorry, but I actually have somewhere to be.“
The two men exchanged a glance.
„And where would that be?“ the older of them asked.
„Not sure to be honest. That's what I have Kanra for. She's the guide and I hired and will lead me to the people I need to meet.“
For some reason that brought a smile to the men's faces.
„So you're paying her, right?“
„Yes. According to our agreement.“
Funny question that. Wasn't that obvious? If you hired someone you were supposed to pay them, either with money or with something of equal value. That's how things worked outside in the world. Even Kohengi understood that and yet those men seemed rather clueless. Maybe she should teach them? She didn't really mind teaching. Sharing knowledge was a nice thing. It wasn't as interesting as sharing knowledge of something she loved and cared about, like clockworks, but knowledge was knowledge.
Before she could offer her services though, the man went on, having gotten through some thoughts himself.
„If you're paying her, she'd want to get you back, right? You haven't paid her all the money you own her yet?“
Shaking her head, Kohengi went to explain how things worked when dealing with such people as guides and the likes from the black markets.
„No. I paid half upfront and will pay the rest afterwards. Right now the money is actually being kept save by a third person who will bring it once everything is over. I mean, all deals done and such. When i don't need her services anymore, like when she fullfilled her contract.“
She was trying so hard to find the right expression that she almost didn't notice an important thing. But as she spoke it dawned on her. She had left her suitcase behind.
While she had been mostly trueful in her story, the part about the money being in the hands of a third person was a lie. All her belongings, especially her important and valuable belongings were in her luggage. All but Koko'wai, who was still in her hands.
Did she need to worry? Would Basti think to bring her suitcase along once they had dealt with the turbulence? By the way they had accted, those attackers didn't seem like a big problem for them, but Basti was quite an airhead and would probably not think about her suitcase. As for Kanra, Kohengi just couldn't figure out what she was thinking.
A strong hand was put on her shoulder and was trying to lead her somewhere.
„What do you think about meeting our Boss?“ the man asked her.
„Uhm... I'm not really here for courtesy calls. Unless your boss sells Kairouseki, I don't think I'm interested right now.“
There was another of those small pauses that other people tended to take from time to time in Kohengi's observation. She had failed to notice that she too took those pauses and more often than not her pauses were longer than the usual ones as she tended to get lost in thoughts, but at least she had started to recognize them in others. Though she wasn't fully certain what they were about.
„Sure. Our boss has a lot of Kaiseki to sell. So why don't you come along?“
„Uhm... First, it's Kairouseki, not Kaiseki, and second, I really need to go and get my suitcase.“
She turned to go back, but the grip on her shoulder strengthened and turned almost painful.
„No. I don't think so.“
The man was not smiling anymore and his younger partner looked also rather serious.