Following Ra'kalesh's teachings, Janius retracted his arm as quickly as he could after hitting Kaleeth's chest. However, Kaleeth was just fast enough to grab about half of his wrist with her fingers. Janius reacted by pulling his arm back harder and twisting it upwards. He got loose, but not without Kaleeth's claws dragging on his skin and opening fresh and bloody wounds. He took a couple of steps back and winced, shaking off the blood from his arm and onto the floor.

"No fair," Janius quipped with a laugh as he bobbed from one foot to the other with his fists raised. "I cut my fingernails, you keep them long. This has to be a handicap!"

Janius had agreed not to hold back in this fight, but he intended to use his new wound to his advantage. At the first sign of Kaleeth attacking, he planned to swipe his hand in front of her eyes in an attempt to get blood in her eyes and counter. It was a dirty trick, he would admit, but he had to make use of every advantage he could get.

[hr]
"Peiter?" Sabine asked as she entered the room.

Sabine's first reaction to Peiter's greeting was actually to smile back. It was rare enough that he smiled these days that she sometimes forgot how warm it felt to see it. It was as she walked up to him and smelled the ale that things began to seem strange.

"You are undressed. Did you...have you been here alone all day?" Sabine asked with sympathy. She sat down closely beside him and craned her neck forward to see the bottle by his other side. "Have you been drinking alone as well?"