Never in her whole career had she met someone seeming so excited to take on a killer. Terrified and fighting for their life? Sure. But excited and giddy to fight for it? This dude seemed just about as crazy as her. If she made it away alive, she'd consider this an interesting story to tell.

"You are infuriating," she groaned in the middle of throwing the book. If he could fight dirty she could to. At that point, all rules were long forgotten. She had been too busy diving at him to miss the candlestick swinging into her side. "Ouch!" She gasped, stumbling off to the side and nearly falling. It had hurt pretty good, and she was sure there'd be a bruise forming on her ribs.

Catching back her stolen breath, she made a quick dash for the balcony, but the young man had made his speech and jumped over to grab hold of the vines.

No! Sort of?

Seeing the vines come undone beneath, she watched as though she was on the edge of her seat. Her mind worked in slow motion as he made his less than graceful escape, formulating the next part of her plan. "And you aren't getting away that easy!" She called out after him, watching him leave for the garden. If he got too far she'd never find him, and going back out the way she came would slow her down too much. It would seem she was going to take a fall of her own.

She sheathed her dagger quickly and climbed over the banister, squeaking as she slipped, barely catching onto some vines to break her fall. She may have weighed less, but the bundle of vines she grabbed were no more merciful to her. They promptly dropped her to the ground, landing her on her rear in for a very sore tailbone later. Lorelei hopped back to her feet and started towards the garden, looking for any sign of where the Prince had gone. Her cloak fluttered behind her, a look of sheer determination lacing her uncovered features as she ran.

Saul, more surprised that he was still alive and excited that he was alive, watched the woman briefly. She attempted to take the same pathway he did and it looked like she had it go about as well as he did. Not great but it had worked, more or less.

He winced, pacing his way through the gardens with his dagger in hand. Sapphire eyes scanned the shadows of bushes, spotting a couple trees and making his way between them. She was smaller than he was which meant there weren't many places he could go into that she couldn't.

He'd have to rely on just moving constantly or finding shadows that he could tuck into briefly. That would be what he would have to do.
His eyes swiveled almost immediately, catching a hidden shadowed space beside a tall hydrangea bush that he tucked himself into, waiting breathlessly to see if the assassin would pass by or see him. His hand rested on the hilt of his sword, just in case.

The gardens were tall and well maintained. Flowers of all sorts dotted the pathways and rested in bushes that rested neatly beside the walkways. Fern bushes rose up in arches, resting in well trimmed patterns that blended with different types of trees. Apple trees, pear and peaches all in a neat row. With other maple, oak and pine trees planted in perfect rows and patterns. The gardens were massive and extensive.

Which was why Saul was relatively confident that he had found and excellent hiding spot. It was off the beaten pathway, tucked in between two trees and then a good ways with a thick fern bush to his back and the hydrangea leaves hiding a lot of him, what was left was shrouded in the dark of the shadows.

More or less, Saul hadn't exactly prepared for this exact scenario. He had figured it would be the best course of action and, surprisingly, he was right. In a matter of life or death, rather than sticking around to make sure the other person was dead--and risking yourself. Getting out of said situation, throwing them off and getting a better ground for yourself was almost always the best route to go. Which was why he was in the gardens.

Jumping out behind her would've been cool, he knew that. But he also was well aware that assassins never just had one weapon. They had an arsenal hidden on them. He had approximately two. And a half if he counted the myriad of sticks and branches on the ground and in the trees. But those wouldn't do much good for him if she still had a sharp weapon. Sharp outweighed dull by a lot. No one brought a club to a sword fight, because that was stupid.

His sapphire eyes caught the tip of her hood, just over some of the ferns and he held his breath, watching the way she moved on by. He was, theoretically, stuck by all means. But he had his sword which outreached her daggers and knives. Instead, he carefully knelt down, scooped one of the sticks up and threw it across the way, wincing as it crashed out of sight.

Those poor bushes.

But his eyes trailed to her hood, waiting to see what she would do. If nothing else, he had to try and get the jump on the assassin--granted, he didn't want to necessarily kill her. As he had learned, some do it solely because they have no other source of income good enough to support a lifestyle that they require--or they've been strong-armed into it.

Very rarely, he had found, was it because they wanted to.

He figured she was not in the latter category and his curiosity was spiked up as he recalled her noting that him feeling bad was not a bad thing. It meant that she didn't want to feel nothing but had come to that conclusion by the sheer amount of death she had seen.

Lori had never lost a target before. Her intentions had been to wait until the Prince was asleep and emerge from her hiding place in his room before killing him. At least then she didn't have to hear begging for fight them for the most part. It had taken her a while though to develop such a good method of killing. It was simple, yes, but it had worked without fail until now. This prince was an odd one, and she wasn't that sure how to feel about it.

Having stopped and listened, she didn't hear anything at first, only the silence of night and the singing of crickets. The Prince was probably long gone. Or was he? That crash in the bushes caused her to look in that direction, her heart racing. It didn't make sense, though. Nothing had been disturbed in that direction when it had in the direction she was going.

Lorelei stared at those bushes for a few long moments and there was no other movement. Her Prince wasn't over there. Anyone smart would have ran after a commotion like that and he was smart. She couldn't let him know that she knew so easily, though. Now, she had a good idea of where he was and she just had to figure out how to make her move without giving him the time to run.

She had thought of just running away and leaving him to live, but she was so scared of the consequences. He didn't deserve to die. He was always so carefree looking and even in the face of death he'd been bouncing around with a giddy look in his eyes. Who could just kill someone like that?

Coming out of her thoughts, Lorelei bent down, taking one of her knives from her boots before straightening back up. She pulled her arm back, aiming the trajectory of the knife towards the bushes that she'd heard the crashing. Only, when she'd started to throw, she turned around and let the blade fly. It would have been much too high of a throw to even hit the Prince unless he was further away than she thought he was.

The crazy part? She knew it was too high. Maybe, just maybe she really didn't want to kill him and felt bad about it.

She hadn't moved much. Much to his chagrin. Saul winced and slowly ducked down, inching forward minutely. Bit by bit. Inch by inch.

His sapphire gaze whipped up as something whistled overhead and into the bushes behind him. That... that was a wild throw and he knew it. His heart skipped a beat before he stood up slowly.

His hand pulled his sword out and he finally stepped out behind her, pressing the tip to her back. It wasn't terribly hard, just enough to let the woman know that he was there.

"What if I offered you a deal?"

Saul spoke quietly, faintly even, as he lowered the sword from her back. "You don't have to go back to wherever but you don't have to keep doing this either," he started slowly, quietly, keeping his voice low. She was surprisingly short compared to himself, at least a head or two shorter than him but held a somewhat solid build. He seemed like a giant compared to her in height and build. Completely strange.

After a second or so, the prince's eyes softened, a lopsided smile on his face. "How about I offer you ... a job of sorts instead? It'd come with money... a title... and hopefully a bit more stability and safety. You don't have to kill, you don't have to steal or break in or anything of that sort anymore. But it might be something within your best interests. No one has to die, or get hurt. But it'll be a... new job. Perhaps a better one?"

Saul tilted his head to the other side, he knew he was open and vulnerable. But at the same time, he had brute strength and a sword. He did have a bit of an upper hand at this point.

"What do you say?"

Lori was so tired of the killing and having someone else's blood on her hands. While outwardly she never let it show how much it bothered her, she had nightmare after nightmare that left her gut wrenching as she tried to catch her breath. Maybe letting herself being taken in would be better? Or just running and running until she ran out of money in a place she felt safe enough to start over in.

But then... She didn't know how to do anything else. She wasn't a lady and her life had been violence for a long time now. What if this was all she could ever do?

The pinch of a blade adding gentle pressure into her back made her stiffen, a quiet gasp slipping from her lips. She'd been right enough about where he was, but he was taking advantage of her purposefully bad, blind throw. She didn't blame him either since she could easily have hurt him had she wanted to in that moment. Instead of ending her, though, he spoke.

As he lowered the sword from her back, she full faced the other, a perplexed look on her face. Why would he do that? Her brows furrowed lightly as she let him finish speaking, her lower lip trembling slightly. If he was being honest in his offer, she could finally have the break that she needed and the start of a new life, but there was always the chance he was lying. Then again, he'd surely know she'd die anyways for an assassination attempt, so there was no point in taking her to jail when he had the chance to kill her hisself.

While the Prince spoke, she observed him in their close proximity. He was taller than she'd originally thought as well as strong and lean from the looks. The feature that stuck out the most? Those sapphire blue eyes. They glimmered so radiantly in the dim lighting of the moon... Combined with that lopsided smile, she could almost admit to herself that he was rather easy on the eyes.

Lorelei considered his offer for a moment, her own expression seeming to soften away from the stressed look she'd been sporting. Perhaps then she'd even looked a little.. scared. "You'd really do that? Rather than taking me away like we both know that you should?" She questioned, her voice shaking just a little bit. She had lowered her weapon back into the sheath before she gave a nod to further confirm her answer. "Because that sounds like a dream come true. I want to take this offer," she answered, her heterochromatic eyes shining softly as she focused on him.

There was an emotion in her eyes that Saul couldn't quite figure out. It seemed to almost be hesitation but at the same time regret, but reluctance with a hint of grief and maybe anger and a touch of consideration--there was so much in the look that she had when he had finished speaking.

"We both know what should have happened," Saul admitted with a rough chuckle, almost looking away while his free hand rubbed the back of his neck. "Either you actually killed me or I'd have killed you and ... to be honest, I really don't like hurting others. I've seen a couple of others who do this and honestly, a lot of them don't really want to, that's the thing. They don't want to but they're kind of roped into it. They become numb--and I picked up on it because you said that it was good that I felt bad. It kind of means that you don't want to do what you're doing but you have to for some reason. Money, life, whatever. It doesn't matter what they want now. You can have a new life, a new chance and something better than what they promised you. Especially since this life? It's not what you want. There's a different look when you do want to do it."

Solomon lifted his hand up and slid his sword into its sheath as well, readjusting his shirt briefly. "There was only one guy who wanted to do it because he could and let me tell you... that... that was a freaky look in his eyes. You could tell he didn't really have much of a soul, just the void of thrill."

Saul shook his head and finally offered his left hand to the woman, his right hand resting idly on his belt. His lips pulled into another smile, lopsided and genuine as he starting speaking again. "But I feel like if we work together, we can do so much more than if we ... y'know... run around like cat and mouse. Or cat and cat--there's a better metaphor there. There's something that has to be stopped and we both know it," his eyes softened again, "so let's work together."

Lorelei had to trust this man. He seemed really sincere and as the heir to the throne, she knew he had to pull to give her the life she so desperately wanted. It was just so hard to give in and trust him. To trust herself not to turn around and hurt him anyways when he least expected it. Ugh. Just that thought made her want to hurl. She didn't want to hurt him, and if she didn't have to she wouldn't. He was offering her a better life and she was going to take it. No matter how conflicted it made her feel.

Lori nearly winced as he described having seen people in her occupation before. He described herself nearly to a tee and it was startling. He had gotten a good read on her even when she thought she wasn't giving anything away. "That's the scary part. I don't feel bad, or well, I didn't at least. I haven't felt any sort of way about what I do until tonight," she told him, pausing for a moment as she shook her head. "I don't think I've wanted anything more than a simple life.."

A brush of her right hand pulled down her hood, no longer letting it remain and conceal the majority of her face. Lorelei breathed in a sharp breath as he moved to sheath his sword, but she slowly let it out when she reminded herself that he didn't want to hurt her. She nodded in understanding as he mentioned having seen a man who wanted the life of causing death. "Those are the really scary ones. I've met a couple in my time," she admitted, a small chill running down her spine.

Her gaze dropped to the hand he offered out to her, hesitating for a moment before slipping her hand into his, her free one resting at her side. Hearing his gentle voice again, she met his gaze and that lopsided smile. It almost made her want to smile. "I don't want to keep playing those kinds of games.." she said softly, her gaze full of hope and maybe even a bit of trust. "How do we start?"

Saul was relatively internally surprised. He kept his surprise inside however. He was fully expecting her at some point to just try and shank him. But instead, he found himself surprised that she was actually accepting what he was saying which sent a flutter of surprise through his heart and a tiny bit of warmth.

His smile grew far more genuine and bright as he bobbed his head. "A simple life, not worrying about where you're going next or your next meal--or even where you're going to get clothing from. You won't have to worry about that at all, I promise," he confirmed with a brief nod, the dazzlingly bright smile crossing his face as she slipped her hand in his.

"Well, I can't entirely--well, I could just cause a scandal... oooh, that sounds like fun. Okay, so we're going to head into the library briefly. I know there was a noble family line that was supposedly, mysteriously, all killed or died. Rumor had it though that one of the daughters survived. We dazzle you up, pull on your mysterious past and viola, you've got yourself a title and it'll explain why you may not have noble mannerisms."

He nodded firmly, rather proud of himself. "That way, we can... uh... well, we can call it a 'courtship' while we work on figuring out who's doing what behind the scenes," his free hand lifted up, using finger quotes around the word. "It'll at least explain away why we're always so close together. Otherwise, it could get a bit... unseemly in the eyes of other nobles. Not that I'd care but... well, mother does."

Saul winced and shook his head. "She's done so much but I'm sure she'll agree with this plan. Do you have any hesitations or concerns at all? I am so sorry, I am... I have a tendency to just talk. Duke Torrentale says it's not a charming quality."