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[indent][i]'[color=ff57ff]The X marks are gone. Well, that makes s--![/color]'[/i] The thought didn't get to finish itself before a brilliant [i]something[/i] went off in the distance. Her eyes were dragged to the spectacle, stopping the arbiter's movements in full. Hopefully that came from their side, and hopefully it wasn't a [i]bad[/i] thing. Something uncomfortable nudged at the back of Siena's mind, as if telling her she should feel more concern about the entire situation. Signs were pointing to [i]bad[/i], and though her mind could scream that at the top of its lungs, Siena was struggling to feel the usual surge of anxiety and horror...only an oddly prepared calm. 

It started with a bang. 

Siena had barely been able to angle her body for a step before everything went downhill. Her ears rang with the echo of a blast, a wave of heat crashing over her briefly as dust kicked into her eyes from the force of [i]whatever[/i] had gone on. Grimacing at the second assault on her vision, the girl shook her head to clear it. [i]'[color=ff57ff]No time. How many seconds was that?[/color]'[/i] Fingers tightening around her miniscule weapon, Siena blinked away the hazy cloud that tried to settle over her vision.

She wished she hadn't.

The blast had done some work, leaving only two of the vermin-based creatures behind in its wake. Still unsettled, still uncomfortable in her own skin--[i]they were so fast![/i]--she couldn't react when they threw themselves towards her. Coffee-stained eyes widened for a fraction of a second. Too fast. Too close. The plan was to fight them off with sneakier tactics, not in a straight fight. Even borrowing Ezio's name wasn't going to make her small, frail body a match for a monster. She stepped back, as if that would give her any distance, but found the path blocked by another figure. 

[i]'[color=6ecff6]I'm Padma, as you may have guessed.[/color]'[/i]

The older girl put up a fight, repelling the first assault with a swing of her knife, but it wasn't enough. [i]They were so fast.[/i] A shriek tore through the air, this one more chilling than the squeals from the beasts. Padma went down in a spray of blood, and the predatory beasts came bearing down before reality could settle in. It wasn't until the screaming stopped that Siena's mind registered that Padma was dead. [i]It was too fast.[/i] The mage felt a shudder run up her spine--still human, still Siena somewhere in there--and willed herself to feel a mix of horror and grief, but the emotion didn't surface. Ezio Auditore da Firenze was an assassin, and death didn't terrify him. [i]'[color=ff57ff]Not me. Not me, not me, not me.[/color]'[/i]

As the creatures feasted on her comrade, there was only a faint shout in the back of the brunette's mind that she should have been scared. The thought was drowned out over and over again by a calm string of reasoning for the next move. [i]'[color=ff57ff]Don't say anything. Kill them before they notice you. This may not be a bad thing.[/color]'[/i] A wave of nausea at such cold calculation told Siena that picking such a developed version of Ezio was a mistake. This one was too accustomed to his work, too exposed to death. To his influence, Padma was a comrade to be mourned when the time was right, and emotion was to be tamed. Under other circumstances, she would have been happy to have such clarity, but the sense of numbing calm sent alarms off. [i]'[color=ff57ff]Wrong. You shouldn't be okay with this.[/color]'[/i] 

But already she felt her body start moving, borrowing the skill that she'd found so enthralling from her mark. There was no guarantee that the squirrels would remain interested for long, and a straight fight wasn't what she picked Ezio for. Target in sight, she started her movements towards the squirrels, coffee-stained eyes flicking to the base of the skull as her feet moved with an odd sense of lightness. Not much movement th--

[i]'[color=ff57ff]Wh-what?!'[/color]'[/i] A flicker of movement from the corner of her eye and the sight of a crude shape of earth swinging was enough to send Siena backpedaling a few steps despite her distance. Swearing breathlessly to herself, the brunette thanked the shock for setting in long enough to avoid an untimely collision with an earthen club. [i]'[color=ff57ff]Not enough time to make my way safely behind the other beasts.[/color]'[/i] The thought rang out above the cacophany in her head, making it a priority. 

Overwhelming calm. 

Her body was moving before the thoughts had all registered, jerking her out of the predicted flight path of the squirrels, left hand already moving to readjust its grip on the knife--best to ensure that they were dead before Grant wasted more energy on them. Too many other beasts, not enough time. Ezio wasn't going to last forever--not that his skill would have done much against monsters many times Siena's size. 

She was going to need cover again.[/indent]