<div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/7/7f/Ibuki_eyes.jpg)</div><strong>Name :</strong>Heini (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=231826.msg11399165#msg11399165)<br/><strong>Element :</strong>火 Fire<br/><strong>Location &amp; Time :</strong>Palace, water clock tower<br/><strong>Tagging :</strong>Li Shin<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Being carried into the palace like a trophy was rather humiliating for the young cut purse. Fortunately they soon passed into a more private area, although every step up through the tower was excruciating, and the girl was forced to save her breath. When they arrived in the clock tower the thief looked around, fascinated. "Wow!" she gasped out, genuinely awe-struck by the workings of the clock The humidity soon had her sweating, and she was relieved to be on her feet again, the rather awkward trap-pole removed from her neck. "This is amazing. How does the water get back up to the top of the mechanism?" Her eye also caught a small stack of coins on what someone who knew about clocks would know was the escapement mechanism. The coins were really old and almost certainly priceless, each was of an exact known weight and they were used to keep the clock's timekeeping true.<br/><br/>She faced the judge's stare unflinchingly, as the silver haired woman got up in her face. "Your eyes are the most beautiful shade of blue..." She quipped, then added softly, "I have no need to defend myself, I am entirely justified in my actions. But if you insist the I will tell you: I was abandoned by my parents, cast out by those who treated me as worse than a slave. I have no learning but what I have taught myself and no talents other than to take what others do not need. Would you rather I starve? Then kill me now, because I would rather a quick end that a slow one!"<br/><br/>The pressure that forced her arms up was sudden and powerful, and Heini's mouth fell open in surprise as her strength was simply overwhelmed, not by strength but by power, her muscles and nerves simply overridden as she was lifted bodily off the floor and her finders pressed into holes in the wood above her, then locked in place, her feet dangling for a moment before the pillow was placed beneath them.<br/><br/>"Hmm, Thank you...!" she offered in response to that, having dangled from a pole all the way from the river, and then up the steps to this clock room with its slowly moving mechanisms and dripping water, her neck and shoulders were feeling somewhat delicate, and it was something of a reliefe to feel the cool ceramic under her feet, although it was a little slippery from condensation.<br/><br/>When the mirror was placed in front of her Heini was actually shocked. "Oh my! Gods and Demons, I've got really skinny!" She examined her own gaunt face and wirey figure, apart from the breasts that jutted perkily from her ribcage, the smooth hairless mound between her thighs that she kept that way for reasons of hygiene, the large dark nipples, the lank and greasy hair that sprputed unkempt from her head at odd angles. "I've changed... And not for the better..." She muttered softly<br/><br/>The last time she had seen her own reflection it had been while she was cleaning vomit off the floor and bed of a student's room, the girl having had too much to drink the night before and the monks having given Heini the job of clearing up the mess. She had seen herself in the mirror in that room as she helped herself to the girl's jewellery as payment for cleaning the room. She had not looked anything like this!She barely recognised herself.<br/><br/>That was not a good memory, because one of the monks had caught her with her hand in the jewellery box and that had been that. Her defence that she considered it a just payment for the work was not even listened to let alone considered, and so she had given up trusting in "due process", or saying things in her own defence. People will hear what they wish to hear and no more.