It was easy to ignore the figure standing in the shadows that hovered around the door; impossible to miss, certainly, but easy to ignore. It wasn't that the boy was bad at going unnoticed, Ivy reflected, he just always seemed to stand out in the Guild. Like he belonged somewhere else- somewhere far, far away. He had the look of one who'd seen things- not that you didn't get a lot of those in the Assassin's Guild, but these were things that most people didn't even imagine seeing. Secrets. Painful ones.

Of course, it could have just been that he was do blessed shy- and who ever heard of a shy assassin? And that would be why he isn't an assassin, now wouldn't it? She chided herself silently while absently plucking a beaker of quirim oil from young Renler's hands. The boy looked up at her with wide, innocent green eyes, the barest hint of mischief glittering at the corners.

"Back to your seat, youngling. You'll finish that tincture without cheating, or I'll have you cleaning out the compost bin for the next three weeks." The Master Poisoner kept an eye on her students as they played with the various powders, oils, plants, and solvents that made up her specialty. They were children, none older than ten, but they would be highly trained and highly paid assassins very soon. "And stop sniggering, if you would, madame Catherine. Lady Coralin would be most displeased to learn that you received low marks in my class, of all classes. You would do well to strive towards mastering your mother's sense of poise."

The girl in question, oldest of the group at eleven and a half, made a face and went back to measuring out the appropriate amount of quirim root. Her partner at the table, a short but stocky girl child with a mane of red hair, was gnawing on her own supply of the deadly poisonous root as she boiled down the leaves of the plant, which contained a somewhat less deadly variant of the poison.

The portly assassiness sighed and eased herself onto a battered and slightly scorched looking stool. Her chin sank to her heavily beringed hands. "Master Blaine, I've been sniffing out thieves since before you were born. Do come in and take a seat- perhaps you can explain to your Foxbird the particular qualities of raw quirim root on an empty stomach."

The thin healer slid into the room, slightly shamefaced. "Good evening, Lady Ivy." His face was downcast, tilting his dark hair across the scarred half of his face. Ivy smiled kindly at the young man.

"Come, sit, sit. Children, pay your respects to the healer. Foxbird, spit out that root before your insides decide to view the world from outside your body by way of your mouth. I've heard that the regurgitation of the lungs is particularly painful, though I've never seen it myself. Generally the victim either dies or passes out well before it reaches that stage- but you seem to have a rather hardy constitution."

The redhead in question leapt up from her seat and launched herself across the room, squealing something that sounded vaguely like "Papa!" Blaine took the assault rather well; he managed to catch the ballistic ball of red hair without falling over. The other children took the more reserved route and murmered their greetings.

Ivy noted in her usual detatched manner that the healer boy only smiled when around his "daughter". Quite a remarkable pair, the two of them; one considered himself a monster, the other was considered by most others to be a monster. The children cared nothing for the rumors surrounding either the man or the girl; they saw both as friends, interesting and valuable ones, at that.

"Since I'll never get Foxy back in her seat now, why don't you explain to these children the medicinal values of quirim, Master Blaine?" It wouldn't hurt to try and bring him out of his shell; even the children sometimes made him tense. Evidently the only place Blaine was completely comfortable was the morgue; and the morgue of the Assassin's Guild gave even the High Master's pause.

The healer looked up through his concealing curtain of hair with an expression that bordered on panic- until Foxbird bit him. She was all innocence and amber eyes, but thankfully he could take the hint.

"Well...Lady Ivy was right about the poison- we get a few victims in the Wards every now and then, and it really isn't pretty. The root and leaves are what you're working with now, but the healers use the flowers to make an antidote for most conventional poisons..."

He would have made an excellent teacher, Ivy reflected. It was a shame about his face- and that mess with the thieves guild. Still, his parents would be proud of him, were they not haunting the Guildmasters right now. Certainly, he was well known and well liked, even with that fae animal child attatched to him. It was easy to ignore the rumors about her and accept the fact that she really was just a little girl- so long as you ignored the tail and the claws, too...
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I'm just trying to distract myself from the concept of Discworld slash right now. I wasn't even looking for it, honest! But you find the most random things in the strangest places...