The story so far: Darklis and Nikole, searching for the items on their Thieves' Guild test, have stolen a safe. A very conspicuous safe, in a city full of people searching for it. Pity they didn't think to ask about the combination...

Nikole says "How long is this going to take?

The alley is dim in the twilight; outside, crowds are pushing past each other on their way home.

Nikole says "They're going to come back looking for this soon!"

Darklis hisses, "I'm *trying*," which sounds a lot like, "Shut up!" as she works at the lock.

Nikole looks around the alley for something to cover the safe with if they have to run.

The lock is, incidentally, not the keyhole sort; there's a dial with numbers. Is Darklis examining the safe closely, or just diving right at the lock?

Darklis gave the whole safe a perfunctory look, but is most interested in the lock. Although the numbers dismay her a little, so she might give the whole thing a better look.

There are a lot of the dismaying numbers. One hundred, in fact, represented by little hash marks.

Other than the dial, the front of the safe is pretty blank. There's a stylized picture of a frog etched into the top righthand corner of the door.

Darklis twiddles the dismayingly numbered lock a few times, and then studies the whole stupid case, pretending like she knows what she's doing. Hopefully, she gives the frog a poke.

A tiny "zzt!", as of static electricity, crackles around Darklis' fingers!

Darklis lets out a squeak, no more - she's being *quiet* -- and jerks her hand back! After a moment, she pokes it again.

Nikole jumps nervously! "What?"

The stylized picture doesn't look like a frog anymore, actually. It's now a lizard, with a horned crest.

When Darklis pokes it again, there's another "zzt!" and it shifts, fluidly, into a stylized gazelle.

Darklis hisses, "It *zapped* me! And it changed pictures! It's mag--ow!--gic!"

Nikole says "Don't you know how to open magic locks?"

Darklis rolls her eyes. "Not the lock. This ... deer-thingy." She pokes the etching again, wincing pre-emptorily.

zzt! Now it's a monkey-like creature, with tentacles around its mouth.

Nikole has been dragging over several boards nailed together like they once covered a window, and not watching Darklis with the safe. Now she looks. "Um. Do we need a wizard?"

Darklis shakes her hand, and squints at the thing. "I wonder if it's some kind of hint as to what the numbers should be turned to." Curiously, she zips the dial around a couple times, to clear it, watching the little etching thing.

The dial turns smoothly in Darklis' hand. The picture doesn't change.

Darklis goes, "Hm," and pokes the etching again. With a different finger.

zzt! The monkey dissolves, melting into random lines which reform into a falcon.

Nikole is practically hopping up and down in agitation, although very quietly. When those goons don't find the safe with the vunnocks, they're going to come back here!

Darklis scowls hugely at Nikole. "Do you have a *better* idea? I'm trying to see if I can figure this out!" Another poke. She wants to see if it gets back around to the beginning.

Another zzt!, and now it's a hedgehog.

Darklis squints. "What a weird looking thing." She zots a few more times, and then lowers her head down to right next to the dial, which probably looks pretty silly, and begins to see if she can hear tumblers falling into place as she sloooooowly turns the dial.

With the next zzt!, the picture turns back into a frog, and goes around the cycle again as long as Darklis keeps poking it.

Nikole watches Darklis curiously to see if she turns into a frog.

Darklis stops poking it when it turns back into a frog. And she doesn't turn into one!

The dial is smooth and quiet, and Darklis hasn't worked with one before. But there _might_ have been a click as it passed 7. Or not.

Darklis hups! and holds her breath. Then, with her face all squinched up, and biting her lower lip, she nervously turns the dial back the other way, still holding her breath.

Voices filter into the alley, from the crowd. "Did you hear?" "You mean the safe?" "Aye - I'm off to look. Are you?"

spin-spin-spin-click. The dial stops at 39, with a promising sound. The door is still closed, though.

Darklis, who is a fairly godless little creature, mutters a soundless prayer, and edges the dial back the other way.

Nikole holds the boards ready to push over the safe!

There's another click, that sounds like tumblers falling back into place.

Darklis whispers, "Shit!" and zums the dial around to clear it, then stops at 7 and 39, and tentatively tries the door.

click-click, right where you'd expect. But the door isn't opening.

Darklis bites her lower lip, and, on an impulse, pokes the frog again.

"zzt!" It's a lizard. The voices are very close now. "Heard some girl made off with it." "Really? I heard it was wild vunnocks."

Darklis poke. poke poke poke. All the way through the cycle. It's just an idea, but maybe the numbers *and* the little etchings will open the damned thing.

Nikole can't take it any more! She pushes the boards over the safe (shoving Darkliss as necessarily), sits down on them, and pulls Darklis down on top of her!

Nikole hisses, "Look like a boy!" as she pulls Darklis into a clinch!

*Look* like a *boy*? How the hell does one *look* like a *boy*? At least Darklis is back in her own clothes, and not wearing a skirt. Look like a *boy*? Darklis does the only thing that comes to mind, which is grope Nikole's chest. Hopefully the men will be too far away to see the wild-eyed expression in her eyes.

A second after Darklis pushes the picture for the last time, there's a distinctly audible "thunk!" from underneath the boards.

Nikole hopes the boards and her body muffled it enough...

A head pokes into the alley. "Whaddyer think? This's the right street..."

Nikole turns bright red, but determinedly nuzzles Darklis's neck to hide both their faces.

Darklis crows, "Yes!" at the thunk. Uh. At groping Nikole. Right. At least it's mostly a whisper, so her voice won't give her away.

The speaker coughs. "Ahem. Don't mind me, folks." He starts poking among the debris in the alley, looking politely away from you.

Nikole squeaks (somewhat exaggeratedly)! "Hey! Go away! We're um!"

He's a middle-aged man, maybe thirty, with a face largely hidden by his grubby hat.

Nikole says abashedly, "Busy!"

Nikole has no problem blushing extensively.

He cackles, turning over a barrel and peering behind it. "Go um somewhere else, then."

Nikole says "We were here first!"

Augh! He's not going *away*! *Do* something, Nikole! Darklis is just going to grope you and die of embarrassment. Quietly.

The man turns around, squinting at the boards you're sitting on. "And I'm here last. Move off them boards, I want to see 'em."

Nikole is the one whose chest is being groped!

Nikole says "Bugger off and leave us alone!"

Darklis, in her best boy voice, which sounds like an adolescent whose voice is changing, says, "Gimme a break, mate, I been here workin' on her all arternoon!"

Nikole blushes darker! and tries to look not quite ravished, but almost!

He laughs. "I don't believe it. C'mon, move over and I'll let you be; we're checkin' the alleys."

Nikole says "Checking for what? What's so important you have to bother us?"

He raises eyebrows - or you think he does, under the hat. "Talkative wench, an't she?" He addresses himself to Darklis. "You teach her not to mouth off like that, boy, or she'll land you in a fight."

Darklis looks up, grumpily. "You lookin' fer whatever made alla that ruckus earlier? Some girl came tearin' in here an' got all 'mbarrarsed at us an' took off the other way. Haulin' some kinda box." She elbows Nikole in the boob. "Shut up, you." There. Was that manly enough?

"Hey, Skint, you finished in there?" calls a voice from outside.

Nikole started to swell up to chew out the guy for calling her a wench, but deflates somewhat painfully and glares at Darklis.

"Almost!" calls the man. "Oh? What kinda box, then?" He stops moving towards you.

Nikole glares but lets Darklis do the talking.

Darklis /looks/ at the guy. "I wasn' really /lookin'/, ya know?" She does a leer at Nikole's cleavage, as well as she can, anyway. "Kinda big. She didn' look like it was easy ta move, but she tried right hard."

Nikole heaves helpfully, and volunteers, "She went that way".

The man grunts thoughtfully. "Sounds right. Thank'ee, then." He raises his voice. "This way, man!"

Nikole mutters, "Just go away" and glares at him until he does.

A short stout guy tromps into the alley, stops, coughs, and leers at Nikole.

Darklis hrmphs, and does the groping thing again, and Manfully Ignores the other men. Er. Whatever.

Nikole glares at him too!

"These folks saw her go that way," points Skint. The short one tosses a copper at Darklis, and they leave.

Nikole squeaks at the groping!

Nikole waits until the men are well away before pushing Darklis off and sitting up.

You can hear their voices slowly moving off. "Sheesh. Young'uns these days....."

Darklis lets out a wheeze, and gets the coin after the men have left, and then *stares* at Nikole. "Act like a *boy*?" she hisses, and then, "I think I got it open."

Nikole, still quite red, rubs her poor abused breast, and scowls at Darklis. "I hope yours swell up as big as Kattalin's so you can find out what it feels like to keep getting them banged!"

Nikole says more cheerfully, although still pretty quietly, "It worked, didn't it? What've we got?"

Nikole helps pull the boards off the safe.

Darklis, properly outraged, but very very quiet, says, "Well, it was your idea! And you kept *talking*. Move, move." She pushes away the boards, and takes a look at the safe.

The door to the safe is faintly ajar, its picture frozen on the monkey-creature.

Nikole stifles a squeak!

Nikole gets a stick or something and pushes the safe door open more.

The door swings open with a slight squeak. Inside are two objects: a small wooden box, and a small velvet bag.

Nikole quickly fishes them out with the stick, not wanting to get zapped!

Darklis picks up the bag, and peeks inside it. Carefully. Away from her face. She doesn't want it to blow up on her nose.

Nikole says "Let's just go! We can look later!"

The bag contains several stones; you can't see clearly without shaking them out.

Nikole does quickly check to see if the walls of the safe are thick enough to hold a secret compartment or anything.

They're thick enough, but there's no sign of any such.

Nikole closes the safe and puts the boards back over it, then, to muddy the trail further.

Nikole whispers, "Let's go!" and goes *away* from this alley!

Darklis nods!

Darklis tucks the bag under her shirt at her waist. "We don't want that pair to see us, though!"

Nikole definitely goes a different direction, yes! She hides the box in her satchel.

Outside the alley in the other direction is Quarter street, busy with carts and people going home. The well is visible to the northwest.

Darklis peers up and down the street. "Should we go over a couple streets to make sure we don't run into anybody looking for us?"

Nikole says "Aye, we should get away from where the stampede went."

Nikole and Darklis sneak a couple of blocks perpendicular to the path of the stampede and then make for Mindy's.

Mindy's is right where you left it, almost invisible in the shadows.

Darklis lets out a breath. "Whew. C'mon." She knocks on Mindy's door, then goes in.

Nikole checks in all directions for Boys before ducking inside!

No Boys are visible.

Nikole follows Darklis inside then.

Mindy is snoozing at his desk. He crooks a finger at you to come closer, not opening his eyes. "Find it?"

Nikole says "Maybe!"

Nikole finally gets out the box and looks inside it.

Mindy opens his eyes. "What do you mean, maybe?" He sits up.

Darklis waves her hands at Nikole. "Look inside! What's in it?"

Darklis crosses her eyes at Mindy. "It's been kind of a rough afternoon."

The box is lined with velvet, and contains one perfect pearl.

Darklis shouts, "YES!"

Nikole brandishes the pearl triumphantly!

Nikole says "WE DID IT!"

Nikole hugs Darklis!

Mindy grins in satisfaction, revealing yellow rotted teeth. "Thought you could do it. Here." He holds out a hand for the box.

Nikole passes it over.

Darklis hugs Nikole!

Nikole says "What's in the bag?"

Darklis digs it out of her shirt and opens it up, carefully spilling jewels into her palm.

"pfhem-hm-hm-hmmmm," says Mindy happily, and tucks the box away. "Very satisfactory, young ladies. Now what's this?"

Darklis says "They're the other thing that was in the safe."

The stones are small, less than half the size of a copper, and unpolished, but they gleam softly blue in Darklis' hand.

Nikole strokes the stones with one finger, admiringly.

Nikole says "Sapphires?"

Mindy tsks thoughtfully and reaches out for them. "No, topaz, unless I miss my guess. Not bad at all."

Nikole says "I thought topaz were yellow!"

Darklis drops them into Mindy's hand readily enough. "Are they worth anything?"

Out comes the glass, and the gnome ignores you for a good ten minutes, squinting and pfhming and examining each gem minutely.

Nikole fidgets a lot while Mindy examines. "Where are we going next, Darklis? Aspasia's? A temple? That boarding house?"

Darklis scratches her nose, and looks Thoughtful. "Well, we've got the spoon, which nobody expected. Now we got the pearls. I think we should go to Aspasia's and see what we can do about the papers you're supposed to get, 'cuz then we'll be able to get the gold bar."

Nikole says "Aye. I hope these topazes are expensive, because we might have to buy more clothes to get in."

At last Mindy slips the glass from his eye and looks up. "Not bad, mm. Fifty."

Darklis, promptly, says, "Each?"

He chortles. "No."

Darklis hmphs. "Fifty *what*?"

There are seven stones, actually, roughly the same size.

Darklis squints at them. "Are they supposed to be a matched set like the pearls?"

Nikole says "Fifty what?"

Mindy shoots Darklis a quelling look. "Fifty coppers, miss, or two gold and ten if you prefer."

Nikole says "Five gold."

Darklis folds her arms. "If they're supposed to match up with the pearls, I bet that makes them worth more to *you*, if the pearls are for you."

He snorts. "You'll find no better price elsewhere, young lady."

Mindy shakes his head at Darklis. "These I wasn't expecting to see. They're pretty, and we can move them, no question, but no great find."

Darklis purses her lips. "Four gold."

He sighs deeply. "Three gold, then, if you're determined. I owe you a bit for the work on the pearls."

Nikole says "Half a gold each? We went through a lot for those pearls!"

Nikole folds her arms protectively across her breasts. Ow.

Darklis says "Three and a half gold."

Eventually you persuade Mindy up to three and a half gold, but there he sticks. "You can take them elsewhere, young ladies, if you've a mind to get cheated and likely betrayed to the city guard."

Nikole says "We'll take it!"

Darklis grins, spits in her palm, and offers her hand to Mindy, to shake on it.

Mindy solemly produces a pouch and counts out three shining gold pieces and ten copper ones. The blue stones disappear into their bag, and then into a cubbyhole.

Nikole appropriates two of the gold pieces.

He peers at Darklis' hand dubiously. "Is this a new fashion?"

Darklis looks startled. "It's how you seal a bargain!" She eyes the gold. "Copper or silver's less noticeable."

Nikole looks abashed and puts the gold down again.

Mindy sighs, and shakes Darklis' hand very gingerly. "Not here, young lady; watch those customs, they brand you as an outsider. Pfhm, very well then; how would you like your payment?"

Nikole lets Darklis handle this, since she knows about coin money.

Darklis rubs her nose. "Okay," she says about the handshakes, and then, "Let's see. Three golds and ten coppers, that's ... keep a gold, Nikole, and we'll take three silvers and twenty coppers."

Nikole tucks one gold into her bag, which is probably safer than hiding in her clothes, and definitely safer than her cleavage.

Mindy counts out the money, pfhmming.

Nikole beams brightly at Mindy.

He clicks his teeth. "A pleasure doing, hm, business with you, young ladies; if you find more, you're welcome in this establishment. Ahem."

Nikole says "I'm sure we will!"

Darklis grins. "We'll be back. Are you open all night?"

Mindy grins. "Tonight of all nights, certainly." He leans back in his chair and closes his eyes.

Nikole leaves Mindy to his nap and goes outside.

Darklis grins again, and follows Nikole out.

Nikole cheers very quietly! "We got two!"

Outside it's almost full dark, but not quite; men walk up and down the streets, lighting pitch-soaked torches on tall poles.

Darklis puts a finger over her lips. "Shh!" She does grin a lot, though, and does a little dance. "Okay, to Ast...whatever her name is?"

Nikole says "Aspasia. Aye. That way, he said."

Darklis says "Do you have a plan?"

"That way" is north and east, in the direction of Lavender Street.

Nikole says "Not yet! We should scout it out and see what kind of people go in and out. I reckon we might be able to sneak in like servants or something."

Darklis snorts. "Well, I'll never make a fine lady, so it'd better be as servants!"

Nikole says "I reckon you'd make a good gentleman, though! You sure seem to like pawing young girls!"

The quickest way "that way" is straight north, and turn right at the Thieves' Guild. You can see it looming ahead of you, lit by several torches.

Nikole and Darklis cut over a block to avoid the Guildhall, in case they want their spoon back.

Over a block takes you past the Crucible, which is just shutting down for the night. The grumpy woman Darklis talked to is dousing her lamps.

Darklis rolls her eyes. "You *told* me to act like a boy."

Nikole says "I didn't mean *that* kind of boy!"

Nikole rubs her breast again. "You didn't have to *hit* me! That's tender, if you hadn't noticed!"

Darklis, honestly apologetic, says, "Well, I'm sorry about that."

Nikole says "Aw, it's all right. It got them to buy it, and that's the important part."

Darklis nods, then giggles. "We got away with it!" she whispers triumphantly, and then goes oh hey! "There's the Crucible. Wanna stop and see if anybody else's come looking for the lethe-snifter?"

Nikole says "Sure."

Nikole says "We got away with it!"

Darklis, thusly, pops into the Crucible.

Nikole tags along behind Darklis.

The proprietor turns, with a start. "We're close-" As she sees Darklis, she backs away. "Hey!"

She waves a hand, nervously. "Go away. We're closed."

Nikole says "Sorry!"

Darklis holds her hands up, looking innocent. "I'm not doing anything! I just wanted to know if anybody'd come by who'd found a lethe-snifter!"

The woman rolls her eyes; her hand, which has been edging along the underside of a table, stops moving. "Good lords. What _is_ that thing? Four times I've been asked about that today, all by ragged boys who didn't buy a thing - and you. One of them even tried to steal my holy water." She snorts. "Don't you even try, miss, I've alarms set."

Nikole looks hurt! "We wouldn't!"

Darklis grins. "I donno what it is. I'll tell you when we get one, okay?"

The woman grins, reluctantly. "You do that. Now, are you actually wanting to buy anything this time? If not, I've a shop to close..."

Darklis lifts her head suddenly. "Hey. How much is a vial of holy water?"

Nikole blinks! She hadn't even thought of that! Sort of takes the fun out of it, but if it beats those Boys...

Darklis is Clever!

She perks up, and the hand drops to her sides. "Twenty, miss, and that's the best price you'll get in the city."

Nikole says "Twenty copper?"

Darklis's jaw drops. "Twenty copper? What, is it holy virgin's piss or something?"

Darklis adds, "Ten!"

"A bargain!" She stands on tiptoe to bring a vial down from a row of them, and sets it on the table - keeping one hand on it. "No need to be rude, miss. This's top-quality holy water."

Darklis makes a face. "I didn't mean to be rude at you. That just seems like a lot. Twelve."

The vial is small, maybe finger-length, but shaped to stand up on its own. A cork holds the water in, and something is scribbled in mystic-looking runes on a slip of paper around it.

She looks shocked. "As I live and breathe, the cheek! Here I offer you wares in good faith...eighteen, and that's my limit."

Darklis holds her breath, and tries, "Fifteen."

"In a pig's eye," she retorts. "I've a shop to close here and dinner to fix at home. Eighteen, or don't waste my time."

Eighteen copper! That's almost a *gold*. Darklis mutters, but shells out two silvers, wraps a hand around the vial, and waits for her change.

Nikole winces.

Without letting go of the other end of the vial, the woman scoops up the silvers and eyes them. After a minute she dips into a pocket and lays two copper on the table. "There." She lets go.

Darklis closes her fingers around the coppers, and waggles a finger at the woman. "You scalped me," she says, accusingly, but not with malice, and then she lifts the vial and dangles it in her fingertips. "But this'll help. Thanks."

Now that the deal's closed, she smiles genially back. "All in a day's work, miss. Good luck on your test!"

Nikole rolls her eyes, but says, "Thanks!"

Darklis grins, repeating, "Thanks!" and she tucks the vial into her shirt, then waves and hurries outside.

Nikole whispers, "Can we *do* that? I guess we can, since we stole the money to buy it."

Darklis shrugs happily. "They didn't say we had to *steal* things. They just said we had to show up tomorrow morning with the seven things."

Nikole says "I reckon so!"

Nikole says "Should we stash this with Mindy?"

Darklis chews her bottom lip. "It *might* get broken," she admits.

Nikole says "Aye. And it's not far to go back."

Darklis nods. "Maybe we better bring it back to him."

Nikole turns around!

Back up Quarter Street then, and up Sage Street towards Mindy's. Past a certain dark alley, out of which someone steps to grab Darklis and hold a knife to her throat!

Nikole shrieks and tries to grab Darklis out of the way!

Job hisses, "Shut up, you, or I'll mark her." He has an arm around Darklis, holding the knife to her, and the other is poised to counter any threat from Nikole.

Darklis heeps and holds her breath.

Job points his free hand at Nikole. "Give me whatever you've found. Put it on the ground. Slowly."

Nikole says "She has it. You have to let go of her."

Darklis quivers. This is a quiver intended to say, "Don't!" Oops. Too late!

He looks suspicious. "Where on her?"

Nikole says "I dunno, she hid it!"

Darklis, irritably, says, "Stuffed up my ass."

The knifepoint presses a little into Darklis's skin. "Shut up," he snaps tensely. "Where is it?"

Nikole marks by eye a nice sling stone on the ground.

Darklis says "What makes you think we *have* anything?"

Job grins fiercely. "One, she just said you did. Two, saw you running this morning like the whole city guard was after you. You got something. What is it?"

Darklis shakes her head a wee bit. "We *got* something this morning, but we don't have it anymore. She was trying to get you to let me go."

Nikole looks somewhat abashed that her plan failed.

He shakes his head, tensely. "Don't believe you." He bites his lip, looking over first Darklis and then Nikole for obvious hiding places.

Nikole has a pretty obvious hiding place. Well, obvious to a teenaged boy.

He spots it. Backing slowly into the alley with Darklis, he orders, "Come in here."

Darklis drags her feet.

Nikole follows warily.

Job drags Darklis. "You, strip," he says to Nikole.

Nikole makes eye contact with Darklis for half a quarter of a tenth of a second.

Darklis is made eye contact with!

Nikole heaves an eyecatching sigh.

Job looks impatient and a bit desperate. "Now."

Nikole tugs the bottom of her shirt out of the waistband of her trousers, and then peels it off over her head, in a way that causes plenty of jiggle.

Job stares, evenly divided between lust and greed.

After a few seconds he adds, "Empty your pockets.

Nikole says "I don't *have* pockets!"

He looks momentarily nonplussed. "Oh."

Nikole smoothes her trousers demonstratively to her hips, then folds her arms under her breasts, framing their rose-tipped paleness in the brown of her arms.

Job coughs nervously. "Um. Okay. Tell me where your stuff is, before I do something to her." He presses the knife into Darklis' neck. A thin trickle of red runs down.

Darklis would swallow, except there's this knife at her throat. Do something, Nikole!

Nikole says "I don't reckon this is what the guild means by thievery. Any rockhead with a knife can threaten a girl half his size."

Darklis looks impatient. And slightly injured. She's going to rescue herself in a second here.

Nikole looks scornful and half-naked and distracting.

He glares at Nikole. "Rules are rules." To avoid the distracting sight of her, he looks down at Darklis. "You want a permanent scar? Talk."

"Well," Darklis says brightly, "I was born in Rune, by the sea. My father ran off before I was born and it was just me and my mum, but she died when I was about three, so after that I took to begging and then when I got a bit bigger, to thieving." She rattles on.

Nikole sighs blatantly. "Go ahead and give it to him, Darklis."

"Argh!" Job steps on Darklis' foot, hard, in desperation. "Stop stalling and give it to me."

Darklis yowls! "Hey! Okay, fine! I'll give it to you!" He's a bit off-balance now, right? Darklis drives her elbow backwards towards his gut, as hard as she can.

Nikole instantly jumps on Job, trying to get hold of his knife arm!

Job sidesteps Darklis nimbly. Unfortunately this brings him right into range of Nikole, who pulls his arm down.

He yells and twists away, dropping the knife.

Nikole kicks the knife away!

With a muttered curse, he takes off out of the alley, running fast.

Nikole is between Job and the exit!

Nikole swings her foot at his legs!

Job stumbles over Nikole's feet, but only a little, and keeps running.

Nikole grabs a stone for her sling, but Job's out in the street with people who would talk if she shot someone down.

Darklis staggers upright, and rubs her throat. "Let him go. The jerk."

Nikole says "Pigfucker!"

Nikole says "Are you all right?"

Darklis swallows carefully. "I think so?"

Nikole sighs relievedly (and very visibly). "That's good."

Nikole puts her shirt back on quickly.

Darklis nods a couple times, still rubbing at her throat. "Boy, I thought he'd get more distracted by you undressing."

Nikole says "I thought I put on enough of a show! I guess he likes boys."

Darklis grins a little. "Guess so. C'mon, let's go give this vial to Mindy. That wasn't any fun at *all*."

Nikole says "No it wasn't! If I have to take my clothes off, I want to be appreciated!"

Nikole and Darklis go quickly and very very carefully out of the alley!

Darklis snorts. "Yeah, and if I'm gonna get my throat cut, I'd rather it be over something more than a vial of holy water." Quick quick careful careful!

Nikole says "That's why I said you should just give it to him. Then he'd have had something of ours, and I could have shot him. And even if he got away, it's something we can just buy."

Darklis says "It cost almost a whole *gold*!"

Nikole gets a kerchief out of her bag and dabs at Darklis's throat.

Nikole quotes, "Blood's dearer than gold".

Darklis lifts her chin up. "Is it too bad?" she asks worriedly, and then smiles a little. "Shoulda reminded me of that a few minutes ago."

Nikole says "Not too bad. You'll still be able to get guys."

Darklis hehs. "Like I have lots of luck there anyway. Ok. Let's go to Mindy's."