RP: Kohana [Kohana] A Wanderer turns warrior

Fire laughed softly as she filled the bowls with stew, and once finished, took off the apron she had been wearing, hanging it on a hook. Then she would walk after Eric, grabbing a sort of open fronted shirt off a hook by the door, as well as a deep violet sash. She put the fine silk shirt on, pulling it closed around her front, and tied the sash around her waist, off center, like a belt.

"If you need to practice, and 'someone' sent you to me, then it is obvious that you are not just some fresh meat plucked from the crowds to settle a debt. You are a warrior that this person saw great potential in. I was trained in both the ways of the fist, and the ways of magic, so whoever it was that is your mystery benefactor, thinks that you already have the fighting skills, and need someone who can present a challenge you haven't seen before."

She jogged after him until she was right by his side. Looking up at him, she smiled, and then looked around the yard to the other fighters practicing in the early evening's waning light. "HEY YOU MISCREANTS, FOOD'S ON THE TABLE IF YOU WANT IT, AND IF YOU COMPLAIN, YOU ANSWER TO ME!" She shouted, and then as most of the other gladiators ran for the dining hall, she elbowed his bicep and jogged towards a small gated door leading into the larger colosseum proper.

"Well come on, if we're going to practice, you need to see what the terrain will be like." She called over her shoulder at him as she approached the guards and started negotiating with them to get the actual arena as their training grounds. "We won't be bothered in here, and we will be able to practice up until an hour before your match. That's when the gates will open, and people will start coming in to place early bets. We want you to remain a surprise until then."

Eric had just gotten outside when he heard the sounds of someone coming up behind him. He looked over his shoulder as he continued to walk, seeing that Flowing Fire was catching up to him. She explained her actions to him and he simply nodded as they continued to walk. He looked in the direction she shouted when she gave the others the call for dinner, then looked back toward her as she lightly elbowed him. As she started jogging toward a small gate he continued to walk at a steady pace as he followed her. He reached her just about the time she finished negotiations with the guards and they were let past. He nodded silently to her statement of wanting to keep what he was capable of a secret. Though probably not for the same reason she was thinking of.

When they were actually in the arena he took in the sight of it all before kneeling to the ground. He picked up a handful of the soil, softly sifting it through his hand. "This ground has seen its share of bloodshed, though that is to be expected." Even the feel of this area was different from that of the common area where the other gladiators were. Not a particularly religious person by nature, the mercenary still had the same faith that he was raised on. With that said, this place seemed appropriate for an old ritual of that faith. Biting his lower lip until it bled, the soldier of fortune spat some of the blood onto the ground. After that, he stood muttering softly and dusting off his hands lightly. "Earth that has been stained with my blood, receive from now on only the blood of my enemies."

Once that was done he looked over to Fire. "I am ready when you are, how would you like to begin?" Eric was moving as he spoke, heading into an open area of the arena where the two could practice. Once Flowing Fire was ready he would drop into his stance and face off against her. Course this was only practice, so he wouldn't be trying to injure her as they sparred.

Fire had waited patiently when he had knelt to perform his ritual, but as soon as he stood back up, or even just looked up, she would sprint towards him with a look that showed quickly why her name was so appropriate. She moved like flowing water, but with the unpredictability of a flame.

Unleashing combos of punches and kicks, she wouldn't wait for him to be ready. He would be ready when the first blow came, or he would quickly find himself on his back with her standing over him.

She didn't want to hurt him, so rather than using her claws for open strikes, or a closed fist, all of the strikes were open palmed, meant to strike and drive the wind from him or send him off balance, more than draw blood. She was testing his reflexes and ability to think while in battle. If he passed, she would move on to the next portion of his 'lesson'...

He heard her before he saw her, his eyes flickering to her direction. His thoughts flickered through his head as his arm circled up to intercept the first attack. *So that's how it's going to be.* If he had only been trained for fighting in matches then that first attack might have taken him off guard. However he trained for war and the battlefield was usually where he fought. There, like in this instance, the enemy is rarely polite enough to wait for a bell to ring and start the fight. As he blocked he stepped to the outside of whichever leg Flowing Fire had toward the front and forward. While she attacked he continued this method of blocking, causing the two fighters to circle and prevent Flowing Fire from developing her forward momentum to her advantage. His other problem was her fist and feet were to fast to follow, she was very quick with her strikes. To counter this he watched her shoulder, hips and eyes to gauge where the attacks were coming from and where there intended target from. In this matter he defended himself, as calm as the earth and as untouchable as the wind, while he waited for his chance to strike.

It would be on one of the punches. His hand crossed his body, and he blocked the punch inward like he had been all along. However this time he stepped just forward without moving to the side. His body spun along the arm and his elbow snapped around, passing either just in front of or clipping Fire's chin. Continuing to spin, Eric would end up behind Flowing Fire. The hand that blocked would come to rest gently on the back of her head while the palm of the arm from the elbow strike would come in contact with the chin. With a quick jerking motion, Eric would let the limbs slide over fur and skin without applying pressure as the soldier of fortune took one more step back. As it was the attack would just leave the sensation of his palms sliding against her, but if he had gripped down his grip would have twisted the warrior's head around backwards. At least this is what he was attempting to do. Obviously Flowing Fire wouldn't want this event to occur and might just have a way to stop the mercenary.

Fire was impressed.

It would have been a lie to say otherwise. He knew the basics of blocking, more than that, he was practiced in his movements, but at the same time, he was obvious.

With the block, she spotted her own opening, and as he slapped her paw away and spun, she would do the same in the opposite direction. With this movement, his elbow strike would graze the side of her head rather than the chin, and when he reached forward, to try to go for a neck breaking maneuver, her pawpalms pressed to his chest, and all around them the wind began to kick up dust and throw pebbles in growing force...unnatural force.

Soon, the both of them were standing in the eye of almost hurricane force winds, and then the tiger would raise her right leg and attempt to use it to kick against his left hip to use it for a kick that propelled her up and backwards, flipping into the winds that buffeted her, allowing her to float above him slightly with a grin on her face.

Even if it failed though, she would have a good strike to a vital joint. It would limit his mobility unless he rolled backwards with it, and if that were the case, he would be struck by the wind's force, losing himself momentarily to the dust storm.

"You must remember, not all of your tactics will work on those who are able to bend the elements. And what is more, you will be dealing with one who's touch can rot the flesh...Your attack is good, but your defense is weak. You are quick to end the fight, and that gives your opponant opportunities. A dagger would have ended you before you even got your hands to my neck, Mercenary."

A young woman approached the exterior of the Colosseum. The guards at the entrance stepped aside as she neared.

"The Mercenary and Flowing Fire are in the arena," said one of the guards, earning a short nod from the visitor.

Navigating a few hallways, she arrived at an archway that led onto the arena floor where Flowing Fire and the new captive were practicing. She remained in the shadow of the arch, not quite out of sight but to the side enough that the focused combatants wouldn't notice her easily. From there, she watched, yellow eyes studying them both.

Nelew was at the arena at a suggestion by one of her trainers to evaluate the new fighter. Lenwe initially rejected the idea, but Nel requested to go, to his surprise.

So she watched. Nel had seen Flowing Fire fight before, so she knew the tigress' basic Kata sets and tendencies, but that knowledge was only marginally useful since Fire's on-the-fly movements avoided any set patterns. They had sparred once before and, despite Nel's training, Fire had put up a strong fight by exploiting Nel's previous inability to innovate. But Nel had learned much since then, if they were to spar again it would be a whole new fight.

Nel's attention shifted. The man that Fire was sparring was new, his style different than the other fighters, and he apparently did not know about the Kohanians'...alternative abilities. This would be interesting...

His maneuver failed to do what it was suppose to do and he received a palm strike to the chest. It was lucky that this was just training, because if it hadn’t been Fire could have done some serious damage to him with that mistake. However he didn’t have long to contemplate this as the wind began picking up all around them, they were still in the middle of training and Flowing fire wasn’t an opponent you could let your guard down with. She kicked at his hip and his arm circled down and out to guide the limb to the side of his hip instead of allowing it to contact directly. His other hand would come down on top of the foot and he would twist the limb as he pushed it up and back. However since Fire was trying to flip away using Eric as a spring board he probably only caused his opponent’s flip away to have an extra twist. He looked up at her as she spoke, remembering words similar to hers about his defense from another person. His sensei had said something similar after breaking his arm in three places. However it had been two years since had anyone with meaningful skill to practice with, the skills he had were rusted.

Now all of this was playing in the back of his mind, because there was something else occupying his forethought. With his guard up, he glanced to the left and right at the swirling wall of wind. He then looked back up at fire with an odd look in his eyes. From beneath the mask of distant professional attitude his curiosity was peaking through. “So magic is real, how do you use it?” A lot of people believe in magic as a child, but somewhere along the way they loose that belief. But if you think about it magic is a lot like religion. Even though most people never truly receive signs from the god or gods that they believe in they continue to believe in them for the rest of their life. His father had put forth a question like this when Eric was younger and was having doubts about a number of different things in his life. When you begin to question what you believe because you don’t have any evidence to support your belief, ask yourself this. Is there any evidence to suggest what you believe is not true? Now he was given evidence that magic existed, so it existed.

He didn’t notice when Nel came in or that she was standing there watching. He just had more pressing things requiring his attention. Not that Fire’s wind storm would make it easy to see the Warrior Maiden even if he had been looking around rather then dealing with the issue right in front of him.

Fire was impressed when he was able to counter her lightning fast maneuver. His motions did send her twisting through the air, right into her wall of wind. She floated for a moment until he made his comments about magic.

"It is something that my people train in for most of their childhood to hone and focus." She floated to the ground, still standing on the edge of the swirling wall of dust and stone. "Those who wish to train their abilities will go to the temple of the element they show affinity for. There are those who show great promise in the magical arts, but choose to be bakers or blacksmiths instead. Just because you hear the call to weild the arts, does not mean that you necessarily are required to heed it. Also, as I am sure you have already begun considering, our land does not follow the rules set forth by the warriors of the stars."

She weaved her paws again, and the wind would die down to just a gentle breeze passing by Eric, but it buffeted under the tiger again, lifting her inches off the ground where she folded her legs and floated on the air current, just slowly hovering around him a few times, and then stopped in front of him.

"They tell us that because they cannot explain it, it can't exist. But as you can see, reason does not make truth. To further answer your question, I will start by saying that to weild the arts, you first must learn which style fits you. The styles that my people have discovered to this point are summoning, channelling, ritual magic, augmentation of fighting abilities, and direct casting. We have the monks of Kee'Awloo studying other styles to see how we could use them, and they come up with new ways every few years. Once you have found your style, you must go on a quest, either within yourself or a quest into the wilderness to find your element."

She smiled knowingly, just floating before him.

"And after that, you can study in the temple of your element, being taught how to mould your life to follow the path that it leads you down. Brace yourself and I will show you what I can really do."

She would unfold her legs and return to earth. Her hair and clothing began to flap as the wind directly around her began to kick up again, and a glow began to form around her paws.

"Bring your hands up to block with both arms as if I were seeking to strike you in the head. And when the wind hits you, focus yourself not on blocking and enduring, but imagine yourself spreading the wind, seperating it like one seperates the sheets of silk in a market. One arm going high, the other coming down and sweeping it away from your body..." Fire shouted over the hurricane winds.

And then, like a cylinder being turned onto it's side, the wind shifted to flapping behind her. As she thrust her paws forward in a 'haduken' style stance, the wind shot past her, and towards the other warrior. If he tried to endure the winds he would endure grave injury, if he followed her instructions, the wind would indeed seperate and flow around him like a stone within a fast moving river.

As she spoke, he listened. His hands dropped from guarding his body to being ready at his side. They were still training, but this seemed more of an instructing moment rather then a sparing moment. The wind died down around them, changing into a small column of air that allowed her to remain off the ground. As she moved around him he turned slowly, always facing her and it was in one of those turns that he noticed an odd lump in the shadows of the arch out of the corner of his eye. He briefly flicked his eyes in that direction and witnessed a pair of yellow orbs looking back at him. His attention turned back to Flowing Fire, but now he could feel the gaze that had been covered up by his focusing on his current sparing partner. She started giving him instructions about what to do for the attack she was about to perform and his gut instinct told him that he better listen carefully to this. His arms rose so his hands were in front of his face, wrists crossing with about six inches between them. From there he watched as Flowing Fire prepared to attack.

When the wind first hit him he did resist for a moment, his toes digging into the earth as the Gale pounded onto him. It felt like if he moved his hands he would loose what protection his face had from the incredible force coming at him. His eyes focused though and his hands moved apart. One guiding high and the other sweeping low and as they moved he could feel the force on him lessening until he finished the movements and the air flowed completely around him. Perhaps because it was a magical wind, but he felt a familiarity with it. Not that he could feel the wind in his soul or anything like that, but it felt familiar to part the air like. The hair on the back of his neck started to stand up as he felt a tingling sensation running down his spine. His hands continued past where Flowing Fire had instructed them to go and he brought both hands in front of him in a clap. For a brief moment he thought he heard the sound of rolling thunder, but possibly that was an illusion of the roaring wind. But what he did consider now he was standing in the center of a magical effect, and the extra movement that came to him by instinct might just have been a very bad thing to do. His hands started to part ways again, but probably anything that was going to happen because of his actions would start happening before he managed to move.

Fire laughed and clapped her paws as the pillar of wind left her, and slammed into his defense. At first, she saw him resist, and this frightened her. But then he followed her instructions, and the wind seperated around him. With the clapping of his hands, she too heard the roll of thunder, and a thought came to her.

Closing her paws she took a step towards him to stand just outside of his hand to hand range. Canting her head to the side, she would look at one side of his hands, then the other, the right into his eyes. Her tail flicked in little motions, and she gave a simple statement.

"Do that again. This time, focus your mind not on what is seen, but on what is not seen right before you. Focus your mind not on the motion, but on what you wish for it to accomplish."

She then took a step to the side, and would watch his hands. There was something there when he blocked the windstrike. Something like a spark of blue fire that seemed to appear between his hands when he clapped them against the wind. If that were true, she wanted to see it again.

To help with her experiment, she dropped into a wide stance, breathing deeply as she focused on the far wall of the arena in the direction Eric faced. She rested her paws on her hips, and would move them slowly through the air. As she punched out, a small visible ball of dust and stone rose from the ground, spun out to half way to the wall, and then arced back right towards where Eric stood.

"Remember, do not focus on what is there, focus on what you wish to accomplish with your strike..." She muttered softly to him without looking over.

It was an odd feeling, as the wind died down his hands moved apart. It felt like someone had put an entire bottle of superglue between them and his fingers felt stiff. Fire came forward, staying just out of his range in case he struck out, however that was about the furthest thought from his mind at the moment. He looked her in the eyes as she spoke and nodded slowly and placed his hands in front of his face in a guard. His mind focused on the task that he had to accomplish. His eyes fell onto the ball of wind and stone that his sparring partner, or perhaps in this case his sensei, was forming in front of him. If that hit him there was a good chance that he would be seriously hurt, perhaps even killed, by the swirling debris. The corners of his mouth twitched up as his lips peeled back. He was grinning now, things were about to get interesting.

The ball spun towards him as his hands began the movements he had done before. The familiar charge he had felt before shot down his spine and caused the hair on his neck to rise. However this time the charge extended down his arm and the hair there began to stand on end as well. The ball of wind was closer now and less then a second from striking his eyes closed and his hands clapped together. His mind focused on a strike that would split the wind as the image of lightning played on the inside of his eyelids. His hands parted, his right hand extending forward with an open palm in a strike just as the ball of dirt and stone came within range of his touch.

Watching with bated breath, the tigress followed each of his movements with her mind, they were nearly identical, and as he spread his hands the ball of wind again split around him, flowing to be behind him where it would reform and circle wide and come at him a second time. But as it did, Fire was more interested in the now larger effect happening between his hands.

Like a single string, between his hands for just a moment had been a thin bolt of lightning. So he is able to bend the storm, how very interesting Fire thought as she stepped in front of him, and like a professional streetballer, caught the ball of wind as if it had mass, spinning it from her left paw to the right over the back of her shoulders with a smile.

"Very good. For an off worlder to even get that much of an effect is impressive. You have good mental discipline." She tossed the ball up into the air, and as it came back down, she slammed it hard into the ground, causing a shockwave to shoot out from it, putting a small crater at it's epicenter.

"That might be an interesting ability to try and cultivate while you remain here, Merc. It seems that you are a Stormbender, able to augment your blocks with the power of the storm. A bit of warning however, those with your gift almost always tread the path of the closed fist. Guard your heart, lest you follow in the footsteps of those like the Shadow Witch..."

And then she began working through a short kata to again loosen her joints and muscles, stopping with a wide bowed stance, one paw closed palm out by her face, the other extended flat straight from her shoulder.

"Your partner is here, so you are aware, but just as with what we were working on, focus on what you want to happen, not the fact she is standing and analyzing you."

And with that, the tigress advanced, this time starting with a basic legsweep aimed at hooking her paw behind his knee to try and collapse it so that she may use her agility to flip backwards and kick with her opposite foot into his chest, throat, or head.

The palm of his hand was smoking lightly and he could feel the pain where the electricity he had produced had cooked the flesh. He turned his palm toward himself and closed the hand into a fist. Skin cracked a little and wept as his fingers pressed into the injured area. His arms moved slower as they fell to his side with a slightly jerky motion. Right now it felt like he had been fighting for an hour rather then the 10 minutes that they had been at this so far. His eyes moved back to Fire and nodded slowly as she explained that he did have a talent for magic, more specifically the talent for stormbending. What she had done with the ball of air had been impressive, but as she got ready for the next round of sparing he raised his guard. He still needed to get ready for tonight’s match.

She came at him with a sweet to hook his leg and he took a step back to avoid the leg. Or at least he tried too. His legs felt like lead at the moment and Fire’s sweeping kick slammed into the back of his knee. His leg collapsed and as he fell his opponent’s foot came speeding up toward his face. His arms tried to intersect, but like his legs they weren’t responding at their peak right now. The foot connected with his chin, snapping his head back and sending him to the ground. Pushing himself up, he shook his head to clear it from the solid connection and wiped away some blood from the corner of his mouth. Forcing his limbs to work, he stood slowly and got himself ready to continue.

It probably shouldn’t be so surprising that he was being affected from his previous uses of magic. He went from not really knowing that magic existed to producing visible results in just a few minutes. True he had a good deal of training, but not with the idea of him wielding forces beyond human comprehension. It probably was amazing that he was even standing at this point.

Nelew watched the magic tutorial closely. She had seen this all of this before, in her previous bouts, but now her analysis had a different purpose. Of particular interest though was Eric's affinity for an art she was told he would have never encountered before. Nelew's mind buzzed with tactical preplays, but she paused when she noticed the effects of his "storm bending".

"Don't break him yet," she called out, stepping into the arena proper. Nelew wore a simple training outfit consisting of a pair of loose trousers that had bands around the ends of the trouser legs, closing them between her knees and calves, and a thick woven belt around her waist with a crew-neck cap-sleeved tunic worn underneath a sleeveless leather jerkin. Her feet were covered by leather moccasins.

If Eric wanted to know if his teammate was any good, Nel's small size and slim build didn't do anything to increase his confidence. But she walked more like a fighter accustomed to expecting attack than a female playing for distraction. Each step was taken without excessive movement and measured for stability in order to withstand attacks from any side. Every motion was fluid, planned. Efficient.

The pale warrior stopped ten feet away from where the two were sparring, her sharp yellow eyes locked on Flowing Fire's face. "If he is injured much more, he will not be at his best tonight." She glanced at his burned palms. "He lacks control. The healers should attend his burns before they are infected."

Flowing Fire looked up like a woman faced with her own death when Nelew spoke. And her fear increased even more the closer the Warrior Maiden came to where Fire was teaching the off worlder about the fighting style he would be facing.

And then Nelew stopped easily within her fighting space. Fire did the only thing she could think of when faced with an opponant of Nel's reputation, skill, and backing, she dropped to a knee and bowed to her.

"Mistress Nelew, I was not meaning to injure him so, I did not think he would be as drained as he had been from weilding such a small amount of the arts."

The tigress did not look up for fear of meeting the other's golden gaze. She breathed slowly, but the smell was strong with her.

"You are correct that he should be attended to, I will go get the healers."

And without waiting a moment for confirmation, she stood and sprinted for the gate that Eric and she had entered from.

A voice rang out and Fire stiffened like someone had put a knife to her throat. Eric kept his arms raised, but turned his head so that he could see Nelew approaching. Like he had done with Flowing Fire, his eyes scanned up and down Nelew with the intense look of someone trying to judge another’s ability. And while her build was slight, Nel’s movement marked her as a very dangerous person. The mercenary looked over at his sparring partner as she knelt and then turned his gaze back toward his ally in tonight’s match. Arms dropped as it looked like there wasn’t going to be any more unexpected attacks for now. For the moment Eric just watched the interaction, his eyes following the tiger as she ran from the arena. He sighed; it looked like training was over for now.

“I’m guessing it’s like a muscle that you just find out you had after spending most your life not using it. Either that or the people here just have a much higher reserve for this sort of thing because they grow up in an environment saturated with it.” He was referring to magic and how Fire seemed disappointed by how little he was able to use before it wore him out. It wasn’t an excuse, just an observation as the soldier of fortune tried to be as objective as he could about the matter. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his pack of cigarettes and lighter, setting one of the coffin nails ablaze as he sucked smoke into his lungs. For politeness sake he offered one to Nel before returning the pack to his pocket when she either took one or refused.

“So you’re my partner for the match this evening.” As he spoke he looked directly at the woman standing near him. He got the feeling she could kill him quite easily if she chose too, however this didn’t seem to spark the same fear as it did in Fire. “Let me guess, you don’t care for second hand information about who you’re fighting with either.”

Nel watched Flowing Fire leave the arena. Her face was rather expressionless, but not slack. Stoic might be a good term. She had a way of looking at someone that let them know they were being studied; whether that unnerved them or not depended on the person and whether they knew why they were being studied.

She turned to Eric, ignoring what he said for the moment, and held out her hand, palm up.

"Let me see your hand."

Smoke exited his nostrils as he looked down at the open hand. Well like she said before, she wanted him in one piece for the match tonight. So the mercenary walked over to her and offered his hand, palm up, for her to see.

Lowering her hand and looking at his outstretched palm, Nelew confirmed what she had seen when he parried Fire's attack and refined her estimate of the intensity of the bolt that Eric's attempt had produced. Like his talent it was unexpectedly strong...but against practiced wielders, even of a different discipline, he was still a novice.

"You need more training before you will be able to be effective with this art. Two uses drain you too much, do not use it tonight," she said bluntly, looking up at him. "We are at a disadvantage..."

Then she paused. She had never lost a match, but this was her first appearance in a team event. She knew that tandem matches did not require all members of a team to remain standing, one could be incapacitated and the other could still win. The Mercenary would be a hindrance in his present condition, she could remove him from the match at the beginning...

But the fight was intended to be a test of his skill, not hers. The addition of Lady Mistwalker and Nelew were last-minute, it seemed, and Nelew was not entirely sure why that change had been made. She never questioned her assignments, but presumably the additions were a back-up if the fight between The Mercenary and The Scientist failed to entertain.

The pause lasted less than a second. "Do you know our opponents?" she asked, her eyebrows lifting in the first display of anything resembling emotion since Eric had met her. She had seen The Scientist fight, but not yet had the chance to observe Mistwalker and had only heard reports of the swamp witch's methods.

He didn’t need the obvious told too him, however outwardly he nodded with the statement that he needed more training before he used magic in a battle. As for the statement about being at a disadvantage, it was possible. The Scientist would have robot weapons and his chemical substance, and Mistress Mistwalker would have her magic. From the way he understood it Mistress Mistwalker would be quite skilled at magic, but the Scientist wouldn’t be as much of an issue once his weapons and chemicals were neutralized. To top it off, the two of them would be going in without weapons and his newly discovered talent for magic would be more a hindrance then a help at this point. Still, he wasn’t going to allow himself to be die at this point in the game.

“The Scientist has robot creations that he is allowed to bring into battle with him and uses a serum to transform in battle. The serum wears off when The Scientist tastes blood, no matter whose blood it is. From what I understand without his serum he is sub par at combat, but until that and his robot weapons are dealt with he could be problematic.” Breathing deep from his cigarette, the mercenary exhaled another cloud of smoke before continuing. “And Mistress Mistwalker is the leader of the Boogywalkers and is capable of rotting flesh from the bone in moments if she can grab a hold of you. She also has the speed and flexibility of a Nagual which is why someone recommended that I practice with Flowing Fire to prepare for the match.” And that pretty much summed up what he knew of their opponents.

“Did your father order the change in the match? The impression I got before was it would be just me and the Scientist.” It was still nagging at him, a feeling in his gut. It had been since he had first heard the news, but he had no way of either confirming or denying anything so he had put it out of his mind. However if Nel was the daughter of Lenwe then it was possible she knew something he didn’t. And the way he asked was plain enough not to point fingers at anyone.