"I WILL TEAR YOU IN HALF, *******" Shiva roars, her hand twitching, causing her blade to appear in her right hand. "YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS." 

Shivala doesn't even seem to notice Ling pulling at her and Ling doesn't know what else to do. She is too weak to break these two up, but the last thing she wants is for them to fight. Her fear spikes as shadows being to swirls around her feet, something she is unable to control. Trying to make herself heard, she shouts over them: "Stop it, please STOP!"

Nikolai smirks. "You are welcome to try, but I suggest that you calm down before you do something you are likely to regret, Shivala. I think you should take a rest." There is a swirl of magic the ring gifted to him by Ling as things begin to slow down and a faint ticking sound like that of a clock can be heard for a moment as Shiva finds her body starting to lock into place and her very muscles begin to tighten, but the strength of her rage is too much for the weak magic and with a roar of anger she breaks the enchantment. Nikolai sighs in irritation. "****."

No sooner had Caio said it than more shouting could be heard along with sounds of a scuffle. Caio springs from the chair, perhaps that hangover was more malaise than alcohol. “What’d I say?” he comments to the other level-headed members of the party as he sprints towards the room the others were in, Ghoul flying right behind. He yanks open the door and then vanishes, reappearing like a shadowy specter between Shiva and Nik. “I don’t know what this is about, but seeing that Nikolai is stark naked I can only assume. Stop it.” As he says the last words he shoots an icy glare at Shiva, seeing that she is the aggressor here. “Put that away. And gather your things, we’re leaving before we end up on another mission to pay off a debt. Poor Alaris hasn’t even had a chance to try the baths.”

"Please don't be mad Shiva, please! I'm sorry, I just got so drunk and... I don't know, I'm sorry. Please don't be mad at me." Ling tries to appease Shiva and pull her back, anxiously looking at Caio in hope that he will control the situation somehow. She is even paler than usual, her hands shaking slightly and her eyes darting between the two most important people in her life. They're going to get rid of me now.

With a moment of struggle, Shiva feels the wave of lethargy pass as Nikolai sighs "DID YOU JUST...." She squints her eyes with indignation, then suddenly relaxes. Her posture goes slack as she lifts her hand into the air.

But before she can do anything, Caio has appeared between them and commanded Shiva to calm down. "....Fine." With a gesture, the sword is gone. "Happy?" she says in a sarcastic tone. With Ling pleading at her side, she sighs loudly "I'm not mad at you, Ling. I'm just disappointed...with you." She looks to Nikolai as she emphasizes the word.

Raising her hand once more, she curls her fingers into a fist, her eyes focus on Nikolai and her expression goes dead-pan. A moment later, darkness exploded from Nikolai, engulfing the area around him. Now, I would like you to explain yourself." 

The door to the baths had almost closed itself after Caio's entrance when it flies open again and slams into the wall.

In the doorway is the aforementioned Alaris, hair askew and eyes flashing with fury, backpack hanging heavily off one shoulder. They shake their head in utter frustration.

When they speak, though, their voice is a hoarse whisper that nevertheless fills the room. "I will stomp a mudhole in all your asses if you don't stand the **** down."

 From within the sphere of darkness, you all can hear Nikolai sigh exasperatedly before the magical darkness simply vanishes as he stands there glaring back at Shiva. "Yes, I did just try to hold you, because you threw me across the gods damned room, Shivala, and then you threatened me with your sword. Although..." he glances down at his own fiery blade. "I suppose the sword was justified." With a simple spark, the flame blade winks out of existence. "Now, you demand that I explain myself? By all means, I shall. A beautiful young woman, whom I find to be intoxicating and exceptionally beautiful and interesting, expressed an interest in having a romantic interlude with me.... after she has twice scared away other women with whom I had planned on indulging myself with. While you---" 'Don't say it...' "have spent the past two nights in the embrace of others. Quite frankly I couldn't care less whom you spend your evenings with, so I would suggest you do the same for me. I had no intentions of having sex with Ling this night, but she made every effort to ensure that I did not get to enjoy myself and then threw herself at me after scaring one of my ladies half to death. If you had any intentions of Ling being someone you were interested in pursuing, then you should have put your energy into that relationship instead of chasing tail with whomever gave you that!" He gestures angrily towards the bracelet she proudly wore across her wrist. "Now, if you'll excuse me... I'm going to get myself dressed and spend the rest of my evening in solitude. I have had quite enough of this sort of ridiculous nonsense."

The shadows around Ling slow as Shiva tells her that she isn't mad and both Nikolai and Shivala stand down. Colour rises to her cheeks as Nikolai calls her beautiful and she smiles, but that smile quickly fades when he continues talking. romantic interlude... threw myself at him... it was just a drunken night to him, a placeholder for the other whore that ran off... that's what I am. Ling stares at the ground, suddenly feeling incredibly stupid. When Nik says he wants to spend the rest of his evening alone, she does not object. Without saying anything, she leaves the room and heads for the suite.

Shiva stands there for a moment, the anger dissolving into sadness. As Nik begins to walk away, she speaks up "Nik. I'm not jealous. Yes, I've spent the last two evenings with two different women, and with any luck, I will know the embrace of many others. And ok, you're right, Ling has been making every effort to get your attention and I'm sure that the disruptions she caused were bothersome." Shiva stops and steps in close to Nikolai, keeping her voice low "But I'm upset because of who we  are to her. You know what her life has been, and you know how painfully accustomed she became to being used as an object for sex. We are suppose to be different. We should show her that she has immeasurable value, beyond her physicality. And of course she's going to tempt and taunt us, her experience has taught her to do so in order to be seen with anything other than malice." 

She sighs, her voice beginning to tremble "But we can help her learn that she doesn't have to do that anymore. We can help her see what a treasure she is. So we have to say no. Always."

Nikolai stops mid-stride as Shiva's words cut deep through his anger. He turns to watch Ling flee suddenly from the room. His shoulders sag heavily, but he straightens himself in preparation to tear into Shiva. He was ready for a fight. "Shiva..."

 'She's right, you know. You need to listen to her more often.'

'Shut up. You don't know what I've been through.'

'No. You must learn to temper your anger. I did, and I faced more adversity than you can imagine, child.'

'Child?! How dare you---'

Suddenly Nikolai drops to his knees like a marionette puppet with its strings cut as he is flooded with a torrent of terribly painful emotions... War. Such a war as Nikolai could never have imagined. Fear of being hunted like a wild animal... that he was familiar with... And then... genocide. Millions upon millions of people snuffed from existence. He lived the pain of this place... this Auschwitz. He grabs his forearm as a burning pain flares over his skin... The screams... the awful screams... He couldn't take it... He grabs his head and screams like a feral beast. "Make it stop! Get out of my head! STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!" And he pitches forward, face-first into the hardwood floor... unconscious.

Two fingers rub Caio's temples. The headache was back. "We're all ****ed up in the head. Lets. Go." he remarks coldly to Alaris and Shiva. He walks over to Nik's limp form and lifts him up, one arm around his shoulders. "I think we avoided any serious damage but... Alaris you should probably be the one to talk if the staff has any problems. I know you're probably tired of cleaning up our messes but... you're very good at it. One of these days I'll treat you myself." he says before dragging Nik back to the suite.

Shiva approaches Nik as he begins to show signs of distress, then drops to his side as he loses consciousness. Once Caio has picked him up and asks Alaris to smooth things over with the staff, Shiva realizes that she may have caused problems for the whole group. "Alaris...if you'd be comfortable with it, I'd like to help you speak with the staff if they have any issues." She doesn't hold eye contact with Alaris for more than a moment while she speaks with them.

Her mind moving to Ling, she takes a few steps in the direction of the suite, then stops. "She needs time. We'll talk later."

As Caio carries Nikolai back up the corridor to the suite, he suddenly finds himself face-to-face with Alicja, who is leaning nonchalantly besides a wall-mounted candelabra.

"Everything okay, my sweets?" The woman asks with sharp eyes and a cold smile.

The others are too close to Nikolai when he collapses for Alaris to move in to help, but his strange fit gives the aasimar time to recover their military bearing and wipe the disappointment with Nik off their face. Alaris looks around the bath as Caio and Shiva speak to them and shrugs. "Overall, this is hardly the worst mess... nothing but Nik seems to be broken and I doubt this place is any less familiar with screaming and shouting than any other high-toned whorehouse. Take him back to the suite and we will see if he's alright."

They walk beside Shiva, throwing a companionable arm around the tiefling's shoulders as they follow Caio and Nik. "Thanks, Shiva. I think two of us will definitely handle this better than one."

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"Everything okay, my sweets?" The woman asks with sharp eyes and a cold smile.

"No problem at all. Why?" Alaris replies with a grin.

"Will you be staying with us much longer?" Alicja asks sweetly, apparently unphased.

"That probably depends on the size of our bill, right? And if there's a sort of mandatory get-out-of-here time?" Alaris nods back, friendly and curious.

Ling walks into the suite without saying a word to Astrid, slumping down into the sofa and pulling her legs up. For a moment, it looks like she is going to cry and she digs her nails into her palms. Abruptly, she pushes up and walks over to the window, then crosses her arms and stares out of it. "Enjoyed your quiet bath in the whorehouse, did you?" She finally says, sounding bitter.

Alicja shakes her head.

"You may stay for as long as you can pay for. Would you like your bill?"

"I believe that we'll be leaving once our friend has rested and feels well enough to travel. Your hospitality has been a wondrous reprieve, ma'am. Thank you."   

Straightening up, Shiva does her best to embody grace as she speaks to the Madame, "May we see our current total?"