A Deal and a Chance

Nue is awake and Voa has never been happier, at least since they started this quest. He still looks too pale and his blurry eyes stare blearily as they shift around. He looks lost and the Nashoban is still pointing her strangely shaped hand cannon at him, with its long barrel and weird handle that looks like an axe head.

"You there, Shadow?" Croons the Nashoban, smile sharp and terrifying brown on black eyes glimmering. She swings the hand cannon around, twirling it around until she holds the barrel of the cannon like it's not a weapon, pointing instead the other end at Nue, the sharpened and axe-shaped end makes Voa wonder if the hand cannon works both as a cannon and as a bladed weapon.

Nue doesn't answer and just frowns instead, he looks sick, his feet rearranging constantly his stance so he doesn't fall with all the swaying he's doing. At her side, Arsu shifts again, trying to stand with no luck, he mostly looks like frantic worm and in any other situation Voa would probably laugh at him. Voa returns her gaze towards the Nashoban, that is patiently waiting for Nue to attack.

Voa has never seen a Nashoban up close, their often dark skin—Darker than Ifrans most of the time—has a greyish hue to it and in some parts of the face looks more like the bark of a tree than skin. All this accompanied with the way their eyes look— black sclera instead of white, and slightly sunken—make them look otherworldly to Voa, but from what she had learned in class, their looks are not a curse or a sign of Godling-blood, but instead a natural response that took centuries thanks to the almost complete absence of water in Nash.

A soft mumble reaches Voa, and her eyes shift to Nue, that looks more pained than before, his free hand reaching towards his head, to softly touch the wound and hiss at the pain it produces. He's clearly not okay, since instead of staying where he is, he starts to move towards Voa and Arsu with unsteady steps.

"Oh?" Chuckles the Nashoban and Nue pays her no mind, kneeling in between Voa and Arsu and looking between the two in confusion. The knife he had been holding being dropped by Arsu's head without much care, before he stands again and faces the Nashoban again. With a heavy sigh, he pats his legs and torso, like he's looking for something, face gruntled in a way Voa has never seen; He looks like a grumpy child that had lost his favorite toy.

"Who….Who are you?" Mumbles Nue with narrowed eyes, and Voa forces a nervous laughter down as it threatens to spill and break the terrible tension that has filled the camp.

"Me? Well, little shadow, my name is Bowdre, leader of this gang" smirks the Nashoban "Now, are we going to fight or should I start with your little friends?"

"Fight?" Asks Nue, confused, then, he shakes his head slowly "Not a fight if I have no weapons"

"No we-where is your knife?" Asks the Nashoban with some tension underlaying her voice.

It's a this moment that a knife flies from behind Nue and plants itself in the shoulder of the Nashoban, not too deep, but enough to make the Nashoban flinch back a step in pain. Voa gasps at Arsu, know crouching behind Nue arm still raised from throwing the knife. Withania, that until that moment had been quietly simmering in anger, whoops loudly in joy.

Maybe they'll get out of this alive, or maybe they'll just make the gang angry and end up dead.

Yeah, that last one seems the most plausible at the moment.

The Nashoban laughs as she pulls out the small knife, looking at it with a satisfied smirk.

"Will you fight then, Ifran?" She Asks as she starts prowling forwards.

Arsu stands, back straight and a glare firmly in place, no weapon on him but still ready to fight whatever is thrown at him. Nue stumbles again and falls to his knees, his hands raising to hold his head and grunting in pain. Voa tries to scuttle towards him, but mostly end up fidgeting in place and Withania tries to stand without much success.

"I'll fight, if you make it fair" snarls Arsu "Give me my sword"

The Nashoban—Bow something, if Voa had heard correctly—laughs and her gang joins her in the amusement, but she kicks Arsu's sword towards him.

Voa just stares as Arsu and the Nashoban circle each other like beasts, the Nashoban with her axe and Arsu with his sword, neither attacking, just observing the other with sharp eyes as the gang cajoles the two fighters with rude words and howls.

Arsu finally takes a swing, his sword slashing the air as the Nashoban takes a step back and she retaliates with a heavy swing downwards on Arsu's sword that he barely dodges. They go back to circling and Voa takes the time provided to think.

Nashobans, mostly the gangs, all that they want is gold, not matter the kind, just gold and treasure. And Voa…maybe Voa can actually stop the fight.

"Wait!" She shouts and both Arsu and the Nashoban freeze and turn to look at her. Nue, that had ended up sitting by her side also turns to look at her and Voa breathes in and out and thinks quickly "I'll tell you where are we going!"

That makes the Nashoban's eyes gleam with interest and Voa stops the sigh of relief as the outlaw somewhat lowers her axe.

"Will you, soft-touch?" Croons the Nashoban and Voa nods rapidly.

"We are looking for a treasure, a treasure hidden inside the Relic Pillar in the middle of Tlao" explains Voa, voice a rush and nervous enough that Arsu is looking at her with worry "We need something in Yaon to open the Pillar, that's why we were crossing through"

The Nashoban hums and starts walking towards Voa, leaving Arsu just blinking at Voa with a deep confusion in his eyes.

"Is that right? A treasure kept inside that awful eyesore?" Chuckles the Nashoban and Voa nods again.

"Yes, and from what I've seen today, maybe we could use your help" Says Voa with a raised tone "To get there safely, if you do…the treasure is yours"

The Outlaw stares at Voa with curiosity and Voa swallows nervously.

"Why seek a treasure you're just going to give away?" Asks the Nashoban and her gang echoes the question among themselves. Voa clears her throat, gaining the attention of the gang and the curious gaze of Arsu.

"I don't want the treasure" says Voa firmly, finally telling the absolute truth "I want the recognition"

It must sound true to the Nashoban, as she raises a hand and all the outlaws lower their weapons.

"You would give me this treasure, just for getting you there?" Asks the Nashoban and Voa remembers that some Nashobans sell their services as protectors, that it wouldn't be so strange and that maybe this would be a good idea. They do need some more people that can fight, since Voa is terrible at it and the princess can't even hold a blade properly.

"Yes"

The Nashoban takes a step back, face a thoughtful frown as she turns to stare at the rest of outlaws.

Voa takes the moment of calm to look over Nue, that is forcing himself to keep his eyes open and has started to probe at the wound.

"Are you okay?" She asks in a whisper and Nue looks her way, staying in quiet contemplation for a second before nodding slowly.

Voa doesn't believe him but smiles at him anyway, he at least looks slightly better.

"Let's talk shop, soft-touch" says suddenly the Nashoban as she crouches in front of Voa.

"We'll only talk untied and on equal terms" says Voa before the Nashoban can start talking. She stares blankly before bursting out laughing, then, she turns to her men.

"Arango, go back to town with the others" she orders with a careless wave of her hand. The man stammers and fidgets in place.

"B-boss?" He says and the Nashoban woman turns to glare at him.

"Arango, I gave an order" she says coldly "Should this deal not be to my tastes, I'll return to the town, but…if it suits me…I guess you won't be seeing me for a while. You're in charge until then"

The man, Arango nods firmly and motions for the gang to move out, they do so pretty fast, each disappearing behind rock formations and later beyond the mountains that served as a natural border between Nash and Ethe.

The Nashoban takes a seat, sitting crosslegged right in front of Voa, Arsu huffing and puffing but approaching the princess to untie her from her bindings. After that, he sat at Voa's other side, Withania at his side and glaring firmly at the Nashoban.

"So…a treasure…how can you be sure of it?" Asks the Nashoban and Voa reaches into her leather pouch, rummaging for a bit until she finds the key.

The golden metal glows in the sunlight and it seems Arsu had been right, it is Sun steel.

"There's a key to open it, we just got a third of it" explains Voa, liking the wondrous stare the Nashoban is giving the key fragment "The other two are kept in Yaon and Ifra, put together, the key will open the Pillar and if this is the key…can you even imagine what's hidden inside?"

They stay in silence for a while, the Nashoban thinking about the offer and Voa and the others finally stretching their limbs from their tied up positions. Withania had approached Kimara and was soothing the animal with gentle strokes on her snout, Arsu was crouching in front of Nue and checking his reaction to certain stimulus that could have been done gentler. Voa stays seated in front of the Nashoban as she stares and weights the Trinal Key fragment, eyes far away in thought.

It takes a while, but finally, the Nashoban reacts, offering back the key to Voa—that returns it to the safety of her bag—and leaving her hand hanging in the air. Voa, noticing the look the Nashoban was giving her, takes the hand in her own and with a hearty shake, the Nashoban smirks.

"Glad to join the party, soft-touch" says the Nashoban with the sharpest of smiles "You can call me Bowdre"