She stepped forward, prepared to throw, but from her left Firebrand lurched forward, running at the woman. Caina paused then, unwilling to throw with her partner so close to the target. There was a clatter as the pipe fell to the ground- Caina hadn’t even seen Firebrand throw it. As he approached, she moved as well, keeping back a ways as he reached the woman.
The fight was quick- it was even more obvious now, how inexperienced the woman was. She dropped too quickly, unaware that the best way to survive muscle was to stop it before it could reach you. Fired too late, and now she was…
It was then that Caina moved in, bumping her shoulder gently against Firebrand’s as she passed: a congratulations, on the successful fight. A tag-in as well, as she stepped close to the woman, bending down to take the pistol laying on the ground and toss it to Firebrand. Hopefully she hadn’t misjudged, and he would catch it.
Only once the pistol was out of the way did she speak, still using that same accented voice from before. “Aye. I’ll get rid of the body, you keep an eye out. Tend t’ yourself.” Then she knelt, one hand reaching for the woman’s throat to feel for a pulse. And there it was, steady at Caina’s fingertips- if a bit faint.
The knife came out once more- Aodh might see it, might recognize what Caina was about to do. But she didn’t hesitate, drawing the knife clean across the woman’s throat with a well-practiced motion, then wiping it clean on her victim’s shirt. ‘Just like killing sheep’ she thought, flashing back to the first time she’d traveled from the Rose to Vienda. It was there that she met the old storyteller, that her eyes had been opened to the beauty of Vita. A city urchin at heart, she’d never much ventured out into the wild, except to swim at the Drought. But it was there in the wilderness that she’d found something that made sense- something that wasn’t to do with violence and hate, like the rest of the world seemed to be.
Her religion- because that’s what it was, even if she didn’t use that word too often- was a solace from the less savory aspects of her daily life. It was protection.
So when she killed, she didn’t think of it as taking a human life. It was like killing sheep for food. Vitanism held the belief that all life was equal, so why should killing a human be any different from hunting? That’s how Caina thought of it, anyway. Others might disagree.
The knife disappeared back into its sheath, and Caina stood, pulling the body with her and hefting it over her shoulder, then turned for a place to stash it.
They were too far from the sea, and the likelihood of The Wisp and Ava coming out while she was gone were too great. Caina’s eyes roved over the street, finally settling.. up.
Now she turned back to Firebrand, the body still over her shoulder. “Give me a hand. We’ve got to get this body onto the roof.”