Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-25582638-20151210004452/@comment-5999656-20160206055546

Fenhong's eyes met Cyzarine's for a moment after Cyzarine spoke, and that sent a growing feeling of low dread surging into her chest, for some odd reason. it was as though an impassable chasm was opening between them, but then, had they really had anything at all? Clearly what Fen had perceived as the budding of an understanding between the two was being overshadowed by the motives and decisions of their superiors, so to speak.

Any further vague feelings were dashed at hearing Brunhilde's comment, and Fen snapped back to attention, eyes blazing at the woman.

'What is up with you people talking shit about my family?!" She took a half-step forward before feeling a firm hand on her shoulder. She glanced up to see that Zanipher was facing the woman as well, and without turning she lifted a finger to her lips. Zan's eyes darted to Fen without her face turning, and she gave a cocky grin before letting go and refocusing her gaze.

Fen was dumbfounded. That - what Zan had just done there was her gesture, a motion she'd been using ever since she was young to shush her C4T3R friends when they started to get rowdy. Identical all the way down to the narrowing of the eyes. To see what she considered her signature gesture repeated a another human being was shocking to the young teenager. What was their connection?

Zanipher gently lowered both arms to her sides, and instead of addressing Brunhilde called out at the retreating figures of Aricia and Cyzarine. Her bodyguards, meanwhile, loomed close to Brunhilde in a menacing motion.

"Point noted, Miss Bluthardt. In turn I would advise you to refrain from using your status to meddle in affairs that are none of your business." But by then the two females had descended the staircase and were out of earshot, it seemed.

Zanipher had been trained since early childhood to keep her emotions coldly in check, not unlike Cyzarine. And although there had been only two big slip-ups in her past, Zan considered those days long behind her. And it was only logical. She was not the CEO of the Daybreak Syndicate and Sixth Dragon of Vale at the mere age of 25 for nothing. What kind of a Dragon Head would she be if she let petty insults affect her? She responded the way she always did when she was angry: she smiled. Here was a confrontation she might enjoy.

The two women stared at each other, each sizing up the other. Zanipher said nothing for a few seconds. Then she reached up and deftly snapped her fingers twice, loudly, in Brunhilde's face.

"Look, I know it's de rigueur to get into gossip involving the cream of society, but I wouldn't take any of it with any more than a mountain of salt. As a high-class woman yourself, you should know that none of it's worth our time. There are some that declare the Bluthardt family to be the primary operators of the Black Order Battalion!"

Zan smirked. In order to play the role, she couldn't let such obvious challenges go unanswered. But she herself was assured that if their threats became an open attack on the Dragons, the combined might of nine mafia heads and their associates would be no easy force for one rich family to conquer. So there was nothing to worry about. There had been a brief moment when she considered the possibility that they had somehow procured information that implicated the Syndicate as an arm of the Dragons, but a quick recap of her actions reminded her that such a thing was impossible. Instead -

"Brunhilde Engelnacht. It's not safe to go around making baseless claims about powerful corporations. If I weren't a tolerant person, you might be put on some version of a hit-list, and the ticking clock towards the moment of your death would already be fully wound. But," Zan sighed, "since I'm not an asshole, I'll let it slide this time."

She began to descend the stairs as Fen followed, meek and silent. However, halfway down she paused.

"I'm paid to procure sensitive information, but not to take other people's shit. Therefore," she pulled out the contract Cyzarine had signed, and folded it neatly in half before ripping it lengthwise into tiny shreds.

"I'll consider this agreement null and void following your poor reception. We have the right to reject offers if we feel that doing so will put us in cases of extreme danger or distaste. Your's falls into the latter category. Don't expect that we will have a good reason to meet again." With that she finally turned and stepped swiftly down the stairs with Fen and the guards following close after.

Meanwhile, one of the men sitting on a plush armchair at the end of the hall rose, pulling his Scroll up in front of him as though he were mesmerized by it, and began striding swiftly towards the stairs, and right smack into Brunhilde. The impact sent his Scroll flying out of his hand where it clattered on the ground. His attention shot up and he glared at the woman.