[center][h3]Renault and Fora[/h3][/center]

	The Gringam market was an open square in the center of the city of Tringam. Why it was called Gringam and not Tringam was a testament to the city's first mayor, who was more of a warlord than anything else and no one wanted to tell him he misspelled the sign when he announced the building of the market. Despite his academic failures, the market itself was a success. It was a large open area with a glorious fountain modeled after a Benean courtyard (fitted with an arguably fox-like version of Benea at the top). Surrounding this was open flagstones for people to ponder around while browsing the mishmash of stalls and blankets or to run across from store to store — the buildings marking the perimeter of the area.

	Renault was standing in front of the statue, staring at the likeness of Benea and pinching his chin. This was the first time he saw another culture’s depiction of her, and from what he heard, the warchief had a bit of a crush and it was apparent in the stonework… very apparent. Lifting a brow, Renault soaked in the artistry, trying to figure out why they picked a fox of all animals when an elbow rammed into his rib and he jumped.

	He turned to Fora and blinked. “Did you spot the merchant yet?”

	To still be visible and yet to avoid having too much to wear, Fora was at the moment a long fur cloak with a wooden mask and a hood. “Yes. The path is not the easiest though, you have to go up a catwalk of wood planks and ropes, and walk over the market, you can see it from here, where the squirrel kids are playing in. Surprisingly easy when you are a lithe invisible woman, but I fear you might struggle.”

	“Hey, I can be lithe!” Renault frowned and looked up at the suspended walkways that a completely different warchief had installed after declaring “This square is a bit flat.” Once again, no one felt the need to disagree. The paladin cracked his knuckles and craned his neck.

	Fora smirked, since nobody could see it. “Hmm~ Well then, go for it, champ. Make sure to keep a swing to your walk as you go up there, helps to keep your balance.” 

	“Whatever,” Renault waved a hand. “I’m a paladin, it’s just a mess of planks.” With little else he made his way to the catwalk and marched right up it to the mangled mess of suspended planks, ropes and platforms. Here and there a stall was nailed to a platform and the more desperate merchant was hawking in front of it. 

	Taking his first step off the catwalk and onto one of the planks, the wood immediately began to swing forward underfoot. “Woah!” Renault hissed as his front foot was sent outward and his backfoot remained on the catwalk until he came to a full split. His voice squeaked. “Weedss.”

	Although hilarious, the situation wasn’t exactly helping Fora’s objectives. It didn’t take long until an invisible hand held him. “Sigh.” Fora said, aloud, not even sighing. “Come here, hold my hand, I will help ya with this, before you fall down on that poor pottery stall down there.”

	Renault grabbed Fora’s hand and yanked himself up. Making sure his voice was back to normal and standing up tall, the proud man shook his head. “Nah, I can do it — just caught me off guard is all.” Clearing his throat, Renault scanned the upper level until he spotted a dingo-man over by a booth of fish. The paladin clicked his tongue. “Fishy.”

	A pause and Renault looked back down at the planks. This time aware of how far they swing, he started to walk across them nimbly and with precision expected of his footwork. He danced around a family of possum-people and skirted around the squirrel kids until ultimately he landed on the platform with the fish stall.

	Drengant Bartago immediately slapped a massive fish down on a cutting board and bared a cleaver fit for a horse. “How much you want?”

	“Depends on what you're selling.” Renault crossed his arms and the dingo-man squinted.

	“Fucking fish.”

	Fora had been at the stall already a bit before Reunault, and had been poking around as well as she could. While the dingo was distracted, she swiped a few goods that were definitely not fish, and put the ambrosian tech right in the stall’s display, not too far from the lobsters and shrimps.

	“Well what about those?” Renault pointed a finger at… an ambrosian finger. Drengant twisted a scowl. 

	“Those aren’t for sale, they aren’t even mine.” He started to swipe them from the display but Renault pressed.

	“Then whose are they?”

	“My sister’s.” Drengant slammed his cleaver into the cutting block. “You ask a lot of questions.”

	“Well maybe I should ask them of your sister!” Renault leaned over the counter, matching Drengant’s tone.

	“Maybe you should!” Drengant barked back. 

	“That’s it!” Renault hissed. “I’m kicking your ass!”

	“Bring it on, flower-forehead!” The dingo man rolled up his sleeves and started to march around the stall. Renault cracked his neck and shook his arms free of his cloak. 

	“I’m gonna muzzle you, you dog-faced piece of shit!”

	“Shit!” A squirrel child mimicked as it ran by giggling. Renault angrily shook his head and jabbed a finger forward at Drengant

	“Look at what you’ve done!”

	The dingo-man scoffed. “Me!?”

	While this sad display was unfolding, Fora continued her work, taking advantage of the new dingo-less status of the stall to check for as many clues and tech as she could, eating some shrimp too, the little treats native to Daman were far tastier than any swamp prawn from the Dusklands.

	A sharp knife pricked Fora’s back and a silky voice fell over her shoulder. “Something doesn’t smell like fish, did I find it?”

	Eeping with surprise and pain, Fora did the best she could to slip down the ground and quickly turn to meet her attacker, doing her best to stay quiet despite the desire to ask questions or yell. Above her was a fit woman who didn’t look too different from Drengant; sharing his dingo-like qualities. The biggest difference was this woman had two ambrosian arms of the highest quality that Fora had ever seen and a mean look in her eyes.

	“Drengant!” She barked, causing the fish hawker to flinch. “I think one of those Chameleon brats is trying to rob us again.” 

Renault peeked over and curled a smile. “Are you this sister I keep hearing so much about?”

“Quiet you!” Drengant turned back the paladin. 

“I am no chameleon. How rude!” Fora yelled, but only after she had already seized, and thrown, a bucket full of fish entrails, at the general direction of the dingo lady. The splash of red and purple painted the woman and her immense scowl.

She visibly shook with anger. “Who…. Whoooooo…. Whooooooo!!!”

“Are you sure you’re not owls?” Renault quipped before getting a punch to the gut from Drengant.

Fora was not gonna wait and see for what happened next, she was no paladin, and one stab was enough for the day, so with her agile reflexes she jumped backwards, one time to get off the stall, two times more to fall in range of a dangling plank-and-rope bit from an upper walkway, the plan would have been flawless if not for a detail.

Magistrates were naturally invisible, and drank pigment potions to become visible. The most common one was black, which is what gave then the paper white and oily black gradient features most commonly seen in the Dusklands. In Badja Kiri, newer magistrate compatible pigments were invented, which is why down there it was not uncommon to see magistrates in white and blue, or white and purple. New compatible pigments were discovered from time to time, a newly found one, it turned out, had been shrimp pink. 

With the tension and adrenaline pumping, the once fully invisible Fora was slowly, but notably, gaining a hint of pink, looking still very see through, but notably visible even for an entrail covered dingo woman. Everyone stopped and stared. Drengant’s fist fell from Renault’s stomach, his sister looked on with wide eyes, and Renault looked on with an arched eyebrow that only meant trouble. 

With the scene frozen, and with as much willpower as he could muster, Renault forced his eyes away and took advantage of the pause. His fist was a blur, slamming into Drengant’s side so hard the man let out a squeak before collapsing to the platform. In half a moment, Renault had leapt over the stall, snagging a fish on his way. The sister stabbed forward with her blade, but Renault held up a cod, the knife stabbing into the scaly beast. He let go of his fishy weapon and spun, grabbing another fish as he did and sent it in an arc.

	“Oof!” The heavy fish smacked the sister right in the nose and stunned her backwards. Renault’s hands disappeared under his cloak only to reappear, sending out a wire weighted with metal balls. His elbow shot out at the captured target and smacked her right at the base of the neck — her eyes dimming. 

	The sister’s deadweight fell into one of the paladin’s arms. He turned back to his partner, victorious.

	Fora took the chance to swing and jump back, looking at them both up and down and smirking, for once that act being visible to everyone else, “Good job, but…” looking sharply to the side, she could see some sort of commotion starting, and the market would soon erupt in a chaotic rumble. “I think it's time to bail. I got an escape route, just follow my voice and be ready to jump from rooftop to rooftop.”

	Renault gave a serious nod. “I’ll be right behind you.”

	Fora nodded too. “Alright. Come with me.” she jumped again past the stall and the boxes, quickly making way to a nearby makeshift bridge. “Over here. Quick, and kick it off the edge soon as you are past it.”

	Although the fallen bridge would delay others for a little while, it would not stop them for long, and with so many eyes in the rooftop market it would be a long walk before they had fully eluded any pursuer. Fora showcased her agility around the maze of ropes, taking more dangerous paths to scout ahead for Renault, and now half-visible, giving him full view of just what she meant by ‘lithe’. Once past the shanty of stalls and wooden structures, she stopped for a moment, observing the structure.

	“Renault, kick that wooden pillar to your left, and then run, run as fast as you can.” she ordered, because as the already half-rotten from the humidity of the last snow melt structure was hit, it started to crumble, causing a chain reaction all over, ultimately causing the collapse of a whole poorly kept stone building onto the street. Renault would be able to spy Fora with a smirk and shaking fists as the world crumbled and a large cloud of dust rose, covering them all and making it impossible to see past one’s armsreach.

	A hand soon touched Renault’s arm. “Over here, I got the whole path ahead memorized.” Fora added, smiling, her face increasingly visible and showcasing an excitement at the whole planned chaos unfolding. The two would continue their rooftop path but not for long, Fora pointed at a shanty house with a half-collapse roof and then both would slide in.

	“Shh” Fora signaled, pointing at an old mole woman, the house owner, staring at the ruckus and cloud of dust rising from the market. With light steps they would move from her living room to her kitchen, and take the back door to a stairway, now it was time to run, if not slide, downhill, as the snowmelt from the heat of all houses provided a small stream down straight to the edges of the town. A bit foul smelling, and with many close calls as they had to move past iron grills and under makeshift stone and wood bridges, but ultimately, they were fully out, the noise and smell of the town left behind as they entered a nearby forest, stopping at a grove where Fora had already hid a basic cache of supplies, including enough ropes to bind a dingo woman.

	“Hah! Now that was quite something, wasn’t it?” she almost glowed in the quality of her work. Truth be told, most of it was unnecessary, but it was better to be safe than sorry. She also continued to be fully unaware of just how vibile she was, which made the fact she had a proud victorious pose as she looked back at Renault notably dorkish, as no one was supposed to see it, so why even bother? “Now, can I trust you to finish it and bind her? I would help but I need to rest, my legs and arms turned into gelatin.”

	The paladin was already tightening the final knot on the unconscious dingo-gal when he shook his head at his pinkish companion. “Did anyone ever tell you that you’re a little scary?” He cracked a grin. “Pink might be your color, though.”

	“Yes, quite a few times actually.” she nodded to herself. “Had quite a name for myself back in the academy.” she added walking around as she talked.

	“You are getting quite good at hearing me out too, you barely could notice me back when I first went invisible, now you can pretty much follow me around. Guess I gotta murder ya later to make sure we can spy on Benea’s garden and baths.” she stretched. “That is a joke though, I am not even one of the agile ones as far as active magistrates go.”

	Renault blinked and stood up straight from his stooped position. He slapped a hand on Fora’s shoulder to pin her midwalk and laughed. “You idiot, I can see you.”

	“Huh?” she blinked. “What do you mean, I haven’t taken the ink in so long… What the…” she looked down, and saw her form, still a bit see through, but increasingly visible, to confirm, she picked up the nearest metal object and gazed upon herself, from the braided hair to, well, everything, it was all visible.

	“Oh!” she gasped and stepped back, eyes wide. “Renault… This is…”

	“YES! Oh Renault! (the paladin choked on his breath) You wouldn’t know for how BLOODY long I have been seeking something like this! Nyoriko that bitch will have her chin upon the ground when I show up with a fully natural, renewable, pink dye. This will be talk of the boutiques, THE dye for all chic magistrates in the next festival. If I was a Xaviorard merchant, I’d be rich!”

	It took her a long moment for her to cool down, the woman slapping at Renaults’ shoulder with a wide, wide smirk, almost making her look like one of those half-foxes of the Daman. “Man, what a day, got to break stuff up and make scientific breakthroughs. Phew!” she took a deep breath. “Anyway, uh. Do you have like, spare clothes? I guess walking about naked isn’t that viable when I am visible, no?” 

	“Hmm..” Renault fell into a deep thought, eyes sizing Fora up as he did. He looked down at his cloak and then back up at Fora and repeated. “Hmm…” Another second went by and he shook his head. “Nope.”

	“Okay then. Guess I will just walk around with you like this then. All day. Until I die of hypothermia or something.

	“Ugh.” Renault shimmied his cloak free and tossed it over Fora’s shoulders (a veritable clank sounding as hidden weapons jangled inside the folds). He crossed his arms, now bare and revealing the multitude of needles and knives strapped to his biceps and forearms. “I’m not that much of an asshole. Close, but not quite.”

	Fora was quick to adjust the cape into a tunic, keeping a few daggers in the fold. “Much warmer. You are a good guy Renault. Remind me to give you back your wallet when we get back to your main camp. I needed a bit of collateral for when we had our mark.” it was impressive how much more annoying she became when she was humanized in form, fancy clothes and invisibility really did lots to make her more imposing. “Wanna make bets on what we will have to do for her to spit out all we want? Oh! Maybe set up a good kidnapper bad kidnapper routine!?”

	Hefting the sister over his shoulder, Renault regarded Fora with a raised brow before letting loose a sigh. “Add a little bit of pink and suddenly your bubbles come out, huh? We can go with that plan, and if it doesn’t work I can wind you up on another rant until her head explodes. Deal?”

	“Ah. Do you know what we call doing that in the Badja Kiri Psychological Department? Benean tactics~” 

	Using his free hand, Renault flicked her forehead. “And don’t you forget it.”

[hider=Summary] Renault and Fora are back at it again. We open up with Renault sizing up a particularly generous sculpture of Benea and an invisible, naked Fora doing surveillance for the merchant Drengant Bartago. They find him in the upper floating platforms of the Gringam market and decide to squeeze some information out of him. It doesn’t work and Renault and Drengant get into a fight (well if you can call it that) before Fora is found out by Drengant’s sister, the assistant to Jole. Her and Fora have a spat and in the end Fora (unbeknownst to her) becomes visible by eating a shrimp. The nudey ghost routine does wonders at distracting the siblings and Renault manages to use all his will to take his eyes off Fora and use it to get the upper hand. He goes all paladin on their asses and kidnaps the sister, and then escapes with Fora.

Later Fora showcases a bubbly side to her on account of the shrimp chemicals and Renault is amused. They decide to interrogate the sister when they get back to camp, but not before Renault reluctantly lends the naked Fora a cloak to wear.[/hider]