[h1][center][color=007236][i]Mergoux the Butcher[/i][/color][/center][/h1]



From her perch, high on the roof of one of the surrounding buildings, Mergoux watched the slave-slave progress. The sun beat down upon her helmeted head, but she did not mind its heat, solely focused on the events conspiring before her. Her hand twitched towards her crossbow, but she knew that acting now would be foolish. [i]Too many people...[/i] she thought to herself. She wanted badly to act, to put a stop to this... evil, but she was only one, and she counted at least forty guards over the slaves, not to count the Noble bodyguards. 

As it was, all she could do was watch. Watch as families were torn apart, starting with one she surprisingly knew of. She was never much one to keep track of which noble houses were feuding with each other, being more concerned with her hunt, but even she knew the Eidelweiss family. Her interest piqued, she watched their sale, eyeing the two youngest boys with interest. A fighter-paladin and a doctor? At those ages? Prodigies no doubt, and judging by the defiant looks on their faces, they weren't about to be cowed into servitude so easily.

As the plan formed quickly in her mind, Mergoux was already on her feet, moving across the roof and sneaking back through the window she'd come out of. The building was public, but not the part Mergoux had snuck into to get to the roof, and as she stepped back inside, a guard rounded the corner of the hallway. "What the-" he began, surprised to see the Warrior climbing into the building. Taking advantage of his momentary shock, Mergoux bolted, sprinting down the hallway away from him. "Stop!" shouted the guard, giving chase. Ordinarily, Mergoux would be able to outpace most guards, but this one was young, fit, and he knew the building a whole lot better than she did. 

Left, right, then left again. Mergoux ran down mercifully empty hallways, the majority of workers in the building having abandoned their posts to watch the proceedings outside. Risking a look over her shoulder, she saw the guard had vanished. Good, she'd lost him, or so she thought. She looked back just in time to slam into him. He'd taken a shortcut apparently. Her momentum bowled them both over, but she was first to her feet. The guard scrambled hastily to his own, expecting the woman to run, but Mergoux had had enough running for one day. 

She curled her hands into fists around the hilts of two oddly-shaped weapons at her hips. They were knuckle-daggers, long knives with knuckle-dusters built into the grips. The guard managed to get his sword halfway from its sheath before he was sent reeling back, blood spurting from a suddenly broken nose. Reactionary tears filled his eyes, clouding his vision as he fell over, howling with pain.

[color=007236]"Stay down,"[/color] she told him, voice thick with a Nordic accent. He complied, though Mergoux wasn't sure if he'd even heard her. Still, the threat was dealt with. He'd be fine, not something many who had met the Butcher could proclaim. Mergoux sheathed her daggers and made her way down three flights of stairs and out into the courtyard, whereupon the rest of the nobles were in the process of being sold. She glanced over just in time to see the two brothers being lead away by their chains. She couldn't lose sight of them! She didn't know the face of the man who bought them! Mergoux began pushing her way through the crowd, making a beeline for the two brothers, her eyes fixed on her targets.