Chapter 3: "Oh, darn!  I broke a nail!"
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Seyla smiled as she walked away from her room, where she had left
Lieutenants Kimberly and Oliver.

"I hope they hit it off,"  she thought.  The idea that this might be
inappropriate behaviour for imperial soldiers crossed her mind, but then,
she remebered 'inappropriate behaviour' for mercenaries, too....

Seyla chuckled, and headed down the hall in the direction that Kimberly
had said Sascha might be.  Humming quietly to herself, she turned around
the corner, and ran straight into a strange woman who was running at full
speed directly into her.  Seyla backed up two step, and instinctively
clenched her fists and drew her claws from the back of her wrists.

"Yow!  I didn't know I still _had_ that instinct!" , she thought to
herself.

The two women stared at each other for several minutes, looking each
other up and down.  There was obviously fear in the other woman's
eyes.  Finally, the strange woman spoke.

"So.  I suppose you're going to turn me in, then.  Or would you rather
just kill me here?  I'll put quite a fight, and it'll leave a mess..."

Seyla sighed quietly.  Obviously, even without uniform, she appeared to
be one of Sascha and Akfek's soldiers.  Hmmm... maybe she could use the
situation to her advantage and find out what was going on...

"You know I don't like messes, but murdering Lord Akfek's first minister
is a grave offence..."  Seyla had learned a great deal about captives
over the years, and she had learned the best way to get them to tell the
truth about what they'd done was to make them think it wasn't anything of
a big deal...

It seemed to work.  For a brief second, the woman looked at her in
disbelief, and then she started to talk.  "Murder?  I was accused of
thievery, not murder!"  She then realized what she had done, and sighed.
"Listen, I'm just trying to get to my airship.  Then, I leave you alone,
and you don't have to worry about killing me.  Pretend you didn't see me
and your obligation ends there.  You can't be accused of letting me
escape if you're off duty and haven't seen me.  That way, we're both
better off.  I keep my head, you don't have to worry about taking it
off."

Seyla smiled.  She liked this woman's attitude.  Obviously, she was
intelligent, and capable of convincing people.

"Let me ask you two things:  First, your name, as an act of trust.
Second, a truthful response as to whether you succeeded in your theft."

The woman looked at Seyla.

"My name," she began, "is Malia.  And I just have escaped from being
captured.  Therefore, if I had anything, it would have been taken by the
guards."

Seyla looked warily at the woman.

"Now, you seem to be as seasoned a warrior as I.  Do you honestly expect
me to believe that if you had an item of value, you would not have
concealed it from the guards?"

Malia looked back in somthing bordering admiration.

"No, but I do not, either, fit the profile of a thief.  I have nothing
belonging to the Empire."

Seyla accepted her answer.  She was either telling the truth, or a very
good liar.

"Well, then," Seyla said, "let's make a show of it!"

Malia looked at Seyla, confused.

"If you have not hurt the owners of this castle, I have no quarrel with
you.  I am a friend, not an employee.  But, you must understand that it
makes me look very bad if I simply let you escape.  Give me your weapon.
Any weapon, but a dagger of sorts would do perfectly. "

Malia handed Seyla an arrow from her autocrossbow.  Seyla took it, and
took a long swipe at her shoulder.  It drew blood, but it would heal
quickly.  Then, she threw the arrow to the ground.  She motioned for
Malia to approach her.  Hesitantly, the woman came nearer.  When the
woman was near enough, Seyla grabbed her arm, and took a quick slash at
the side of her chin with her mithril claw.  Malia gasped in pain; this
was not what she expected.  But before she could respond, Seyla said,
very calmly to her:

"Now, RUN!"

Malia didn't wait for another invitation - she took off down the hallway.
Seyla stopped to pick up the dagger, and then ran off.  When she was sure
that Malia was able to escape, she called out to the guards, told them in
which direction the escaped criminal had gone, and ran to where Kimberly
and Tommy had said to find Sascha.

But, before she got there, curiosity overcame her, and she went off to
see how Tommy and Kim were doing.  She went back to her room and knocked
on the door.  Lt. Oliver opened it, and the two of them were standing at
attention.  But Seyla could see a smile in their eyes, and thier hair was
ever so slightly messed up.  Nothing dirty had gone on, she was sure, but
just enough to tell Seyla that they were having a good time.

"Miss Seyla," Kimberly looked at Seyla with concern, "are you all
right?"

"It's nothing, just a little run-in with one of the prisoners.  I've got
to go find Sascha."

Seyla went to grab a bandage from her bag, put it under the ripped sleeve
of her dress where the wound was, and started to walk away.  Just before
she left the room, she turned and winked at the couple.

"Go on," she said, "get back to it."

The two blushed, and Seyla closed the door.

Making sure to be sufficiently out of breath, Seyla ran full-speed down
the hallway.  After quite a long run, which did very well to wind her,
she came across a group of people.  Finding Sascha there, she sighed in
relief.  There was another man there, on Sascha's arm, who she didn't
recognize.  She assumed that this was Garland.  And, lucky her, among
other people there, Akefek was there, in all his glory.

"He's still cute, " she thought to herself before she went staring up to
Sascha.

"Seyla, what's going on?"  she asked.

"Prisoner,"  she said, authentically breathless, as she threw down
Malia's arrow, "ran into me.  Shot at me with an autocrossbow.  I only
got one swipe before I lost her.  Marked."  Seyla traced a line down the
side of her cheek to her chin.  "Here...  Did you know that these stupid
dresses really reduce your stride?" she said.

Seyla then leaned against the wall and sank to sit on her heels, catching
her breath, all the while not taking her eyes off Akfek.

"Now he," she thought, "would be an excellent prize."

She thought she saw him raise an eyebrow in her direction.