As the adrenaline wore off, Arensha stared at her bloody claws with a mix of astonishment and bewilderment, not entirely believing what had just happened. She wondered whether this was a nightmare that she would wake up from and find herself safe and sound between the sheets curled up by al-Samara's side in the morning. Then he noticed the cut across her belly - in the confusion she had almost forgotten about the wound herself, but now that she was reminded of it, she felt a painful pang that dug deep into her stomach and a throbbing ache that refused to go away. It hurt, and the grimace on her face showed as such.<br/><br/>Watching him rummage for a healing potion and then being laid down onto the bed, the catgirl felt her heart skip a beat and was glad that this wasn't merely a dream after all. The expression of worry on his face as he tended to her wound was a side of him that she hadn't seen before, and she herself felt a small flame flicker to life within her heart, an emotion stronger than mere duty serving her master's needs or even her own lust during their bouts of lovemaking. Arensha had never been ashamed about pleasing al-Samara with her body before, but now of all times she found herself blushing as she muttered a half-intelligible "I'm fine" in response to his question.<br/><br/>The heat between her legs was growing unbearable and Arensha was just about ready to take al-Samara right there and then and finish what they had been doing before they were interrupted, not caring that the eunuch guards were present (they were eunuchs, after all), when he pulled away and became all businesslike. Arensha managed to restrain herself from anything too forward, after all it probably wasn't the appropriate time right now. She gave al-Samara a light kiss after slipping back into her clothes. "I know you'll get to the bottom of this and find who's responsible," she whispered, and left him with a weak but warm smile.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>After Garetz's diagnosis, Arensha was relieved, not just for herself but also for al-Samara. She noticed that Bakr was looking like he wanted to say something, but was holding himself back while she was present... possibly because she was present, which only made her more curious what he said to say. Though, asking outright probably wasn't the best way to go about it, so she pretended not to notice for now.<br/><br/><em>Sense Motive: 13 (https://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=71470)<br/>Knowledge Arcana: 18 (take 10 with Lore Master)</em><br/><br/>Arensha recalled the second assassin's jerky movements and unnatural eyes. "He was movinya stranyaely, and his eyes were glowinya yellow - a symptom of somethinya wronya inside, because the eyes are a window to the soul. It was almost like he was a puppet on a strinya," she said. "Somethinya doesn't make sense though," she added, "someone already hired assassins to hide their own involvement, why possess them on top of everythinya else?"<br/><br/>She paused when Garetz inquired about her ability to take down an assassin, especially with Bakr present. Finally, she relented and told the truth. "The assassins dropped from the ceilinya and just barely missed al-Samara and me, and then he was facinya them one against two... I don't really know why, but that's when I remembered how to fight. It's true I dropped one of them, but he had his back turned, nobody was expectinya me to do anythinya more than cower in the corner, not even myself." She tried to downplay her involvement in the fight, and changed the topic by adding, "And it wasn't only fightinya... I've been gettinya glimpses of visions lately, when I'm really focused, like when I'm dancinya or playinya."<br/><br/>After Arensha's visit was finished, she left alone while Bakr remained - and there was no way she wasn't going to try to find out what he had wanted to say all this time. Unfortunately, the thick door proved impervious to her attempts to listen in, and she only caught bits of muffled conversation but nowhere near enough to make heads or tails of what was being said, forcing the catgirl to leave, frustrated, yet again.<br/><br/><em>Perception: 14 (natural 1) (https://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=71471)</em><br/><br/><hr/><br/>It wasn't surprising that the harem girls were casting strange glances Arensha's way, given the events of the previous night and being denied the chance to ask her directly, but Hanifa of all of them looked the most concerned.<em>Why does she care so much about me?</em>The catgirl wondered, and images of her visions and the Hanifa-look-alike in them flitted through her mind.<em>Did I know her before? But if I did, why hasn't she reintroduced herself to me? She can't speak but there's nothing stopping her from writing a letter explaining everything, is there?</em>Something wasn't adding up, though it wasn't worth subjecting her to the suspicion of Ahriman over...<br/><br/>Her turn came up, and Arensha entered the golem's room, immediately sensing the truth-telling enchantment cast upon it. She told him about the events of the previous night in simple, straightforward terms without unnecessary embellishment - starting from lovemaking with the Sultan, then spotting the assassins in the ceiling while lying on her back, and moving on to her suddenly remembering how to fight in the heat of the moment and the subsequent battle up until the last assassin was dispatched by al-Samara's spell and the guards rushed in. She kept quiet about the flashbacks she was having, seeing as how they were unrelated to the issue at hand.<br/><br/>There was one more thing she could say, but up until now she wasn't sure whether she should. Someone was trying to get between her and al-Samara, probably a jealous concubine who had nothing to do with the assassins, but it had been an overt albeit hard-to-trace attempt on her well-being all the same. So it was only fair that she use whatever means were at her disposal to defend herself, right? or so she justified to herself. "There's one more thinya," Arensha said. "Two days ago, I was walkinya up the stairs to the library when I saw that a<em>grease</em>spell had been cast on the steps. Luckily I saw it before I stepped on it and I cleaned it up before it could hurt anyone else. I didn't know who did it, but if I hadn't spotted it in time, I would have slipped and hurt myself - and then I wouldn't have been able to be with Sultan al-Samara last night," with all the implications for how things might have turned out differently in that case, she left unsaid.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Perception: 14 (another natural 1...) (https://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=71474)<br/><br/>Arensha was dressed in her harem outfit and looking her best, hoping to catch al-Samara's eye again for another evening, hopefully uninterrupted this time around, when she saw someone moving suspiciously through the courtyard. Her eyes still slightly dry from the lingering effects of the Desiccating Ember, she didn't manage to get a good look at who it was and by the time she had rubbed her eyes, the person had disappeared behind the hedge.<br/><br/>"I saw someone dart behind the hedge," she explained when Alfreldi asked what she was looking at. "I'll go check it out-" she reached down out of habit for a piece of gum, to power the spell needed to turn herself invisible, only to realize that of course she didn't have it. That wouldn't stop her from investigating, regardless... "If it turns out to be more assassins, you run and don't look back until you find a guard, okay?" she would say, in all seriousness, if Alfreldi wanted to tag along.