<strong>Summary of the Eagle’s Talon</strong><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">Key Members:<br/>Mylin: Owner, assassin. Beautiful and deadly, with a number of supernatural abilities that make her easily on par with the foursome.<br/>Staniel: Minor prophet, able to detect probabilities and outcomes well enough to win most bets.<br/>Chasen: Shapeshifting muscle, capable of troll-like regeneration and able to survive all but the most devastating of attacks. He’s also resistant to magic and fire, which make him doubly effective.<br/>Larsony: A female capable of manipulating minds with any of her facilities – voice, appearance, etc. She also has the ability to commune with animals and insects, making her an ideal spy. </div></div><br/>Mylin turned from the rooftops with a small smirk on her delicate features. She wasn’t worried about the loss of that one, nor was she worried about what the fleeing survivors would do, or where they would go. Larsony would be able to follow them and Chasen wouldn’t be too far behind, not once they were truly vulnerable.<br/><br/>“That was…unwise, mistress,” Staniel said, taking her from her thoughts of celebration.<br/><br/>Sharp, emerald gaze flicking to Staniel, she snapped, “Whatever for? The bounty claimed that he could be killed. There is no risk in reducing their number…”<br/><br/>Staniel shook his head, delicate, almost effeminate features silencing his guild mistress as effective as a shout from anyone else. “Probability shifted the moment he died. I cannot imagine why, but things are less certain than they were before.”<br/><br/>That brought Mylin back a step or two. The certainty of their triumph tasted a little bitter in her mouth. Staniel’s predictions had made their guild the top one in the city, if not the entire Western coast of the circle sea, and she knew better than to disregard them.<br/><br/>“I will call Chasen back. Inform the mercenaries that they are to press the group relentlessly. No rest for them. I don’t care how the odds might have changed; we won’t give them the advantage by hesitating too much. Or overcommitting.” Her call felt sound: if odds were shifting, it was probably because the fleeing group had some way to defeat Chasen. That would more directly even the odds. Though the Eagle’s Talon did have a number of other members who she could activate if needed, Chasen was her best bet, martial skill versus martial skill.<br/><br/>Staniel nodded, making no comment as to whether or not her command changed the odds. He saw much, but not everything.<br/><br/>A few seconds later and the rooftop was empty, more mercenaries thrown into the fray to chase the foursome (including the fox) through the city streets. By now the constabulary had gotten wind – or, more likely, decided they couldn’t ignore the happenings any longer – and were engaged, too, however. In minutes, the docks and surrounding area were transformed into a maelstrom of pressing flesh, shouts, and violence. None of it aimed properly at the foursome.<br/><br/>* * *<br/>In death, the Shadow dreamed. Dreams of plague, of murder, of rape: wrapped in a cocoon of pure malevolence, Dean’s confused spirit had no respite from the nature of the Shaded Glory and its corrupt hungers. Only this time, there was something else in the nothing. A shape that “looked” or rather, felt, a bit like a small ship…<br/>