The Fool proved quite capable of handling herself, to Sanguine’s genuine pleasure and relief. The loudest of the crude soldiers was “coerced” into becoming part of the show himself. The music added a different level to the noise of the room, but it was pleasurable. Even the half-witted and three-quarters drunk soldiers shut their loud mouths to enjoy the show. They still whooped and hollered like braying asses, but it was much more tolerable as a chorus rather than a shouting match.<br/><br/>Sanguine allowed himself to laugh for the first time in what felt like years, listening to the fool humiliate and throw knives at the offending soldier. Lady Fool seemed quite as capable with blades as she was with her tongue. For a moment, San imagined how her coordination might extend to needles, axes or even explosives...<br/><br/>Perhaps it was the wine going to his head, but Sanguine was beginning to think that Lady Fool might hold the keys to both kingdoms if one knew what to offer her. And of course, if San decided not to plant mistrust within the minds of the Aserits, prone to mistrust as they already were.<br/><br/>As the show continued, the food and wine both ran dry. After splitting a day old bunt cake filled with candied fruit, between himself and Eyes, San opened another bottle. He was quite enjoying the show, the whistle of knives that weren’t aimed at him, the shared laughter of others and a full stomach. If he didn’t know this feeling as merely the precursor to pain, he might have once been naive enough to mistake it as happiness, optimism, relief or even comfort.<br/><br/>True to Sanguine’s past experience, the feeling was short-lived.<br/><br/>“She doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing out there!” The victim-guard’s friend broke out. “She’s a peasant! A slave! What if she wings him? Injures a soldier, nearly knight, the eve before a damn war may descend upon our city, then would you laugh?”<br/><br/>The man began to rise from his bench, and Sanguine who had taken great pains to reign in his temper all day, had consumed just enough wine to lose his patience. As the man rose, the blind man whipped a small metal orb from inside his sleeve at him. The razor thin wire connected to the orb followed in a wide arc. The metal wire looped twice around the man’s neck before San caught the orb again and yanked the Soldier back into place hard enough to draw blood.<br/><br/>In that moment, one could have heard a pin drop in the crowded mess hall.<br/><br/>“Though I am no more than a peasant and a stranger to you, I’ll sever your head from your shoulders if you raise a finger against that girl.” San seethed through clenched teeth.<br/><br/>Eyes was at the ready as well, her hair standing up on her back, ears pinned back on her head and a low growl issuing from her throat. The wolf alone seeming to keep the mob at bay from rushing the blind stranger.<br/><br/>“You rotten sneak thief, bastard.” The bound soldier croaked through his nearly closed throat, trying still to claw the wire out from around his neck. “We won’t forget this. I’ll find you some night, when your wolf is asleep and cut you to pieces.”<br/><br/>“Pray then that I don’t find you sleeping first.” San answered, inhaling the scent of the man’s blood as it trailed down the wire to his fingertips.