Il a fallu un moment à Ru pour comprendre ce que Nero disait. Il parlait étrangement, presque comme s'il n'était pas utilisé pour la langue. Quand Ru a compris, il a dû se demander plus à propos de ce Nero. Ayant vécu sur un manoir isolé pourrait expliquer certaines de ses tendances étranges, peut-être qu'ils parlaient une langue différente là-bas, et ce n'était pas la langue maternelle de Néron. Qu'est-ce que la psychologie? C'est peut-être lié à la forme magique de Nero? Les pensées de Ru ont été coupées quand l'homme a pris un poignard à sa main. "Un accord lié dans le sang, mon arrière grand-père disait, ne peut jamais être brisé. Laissez-nous monter et combattre ensemble, allez-vous laisser votre sang avec le mien?" Ru blanqué à ceci, pas sûr de quoi faire. Un serment de sang? Il semblait un peu beaucoup, pour un travail si... ouvert... comme ça. Les serments de sang ont rappelé les parties les plus sombres de la sous-cité, le genre de pensée que les assassins et les conspirateurs utiliseraient pour se lier ensemble. Ru n'avait jamais été un grand fan de l'assassinat. À son avis, il était beaucoup plus honorable que de laisser une pauvre sève morte dans son sommeil. Ce n'est pas quelque chose dans lequel il voulait s'impliquer.
"Uh..." Ru s'est arrêté, essayant de trouver un moyen de diffuser la situation. Un moment plus tard, il reprit son sang-froid. "Le serment que vous offrez est beaucoup trop solennel pour cette occasion." Il a dit formellement, pliant la main offerte par Nero et le lui rendant. "Je ne serais pas non plus celui à jurer. Cet honneur appartiendra à Ordore, qui dirigera cette fête de scoutisme. » Pendant qu'il parlait, la formalité laissait peu à peu sa voix, mais elle restait un peu plus sombre que d'habitude. "Nous devrions rassembler Misala, et ensuite nous pouvons aller à lui." A cette Ru a commencé à prendre la direction de l'assassin, en travaillant à répondre à la question antérieure de Nero.
"La ville que nous allons diriger n'est probablement pas sur vos cartes. La plupart des endroits sont soumis à la fois aux bandits et aux bêtes sauvages, et ont tendance à ne pas rester trop longtemps. Un bon nombre d'entre eux finissent comme Misala là-bas." À ce moment-là, il s'inclina vers les restes enflammés de Misala-the-Town. Les gens qui vivaient ici n'étaient généralement pas les plus chanceux, ni les plus riches. Ce qui faisait partie de la raison pour laquelle Ru n'est jamais venu ici beaucoup. Ils arrivèrent bientôt à 'Misala' la personne, qui se jeta volontiers avec eux après avoir été sauvés d'une conversation avec une femme brun énergique cheveux. Ru a continué à parler alors qu'ils se dirigeaient vers Ordore. "Le village que nous allons vers est dans cette direction." Ru gestes vaguement avec son bras dans la direction de la ville, puis continué à parler. "Je crois que c'est un peu en dessous d'une journée de marche d'ici, et il devrait être à l'abri des Chevaliers Lumineux. Ils ne viennent pas souvent ici. Ordore ici peut vous dire les détails si vous le souhaitez." Ru a terminé son monologue à l'approche d'Ordore et Eddy. Il a rendu un salut exagéré à Ordore avant de s'adresser à lui. "On dirait qu'on est tous prêts."
**Image: ** ( Ru wears simple leather clothing, tougher than wool or linen, but still comfortable to go about both daily, and nightly business. When travelling, he carries a pack and a worn, but still water resistant cloak which sometimes acts as a pillow.
**Name: ** Ru
**Gender: ** Male
**Race: ** Human
**Age: ** 21
**Alignment: ** Mage
**Personality: ** Ru tries his best not to take life too seriously. Wandering between Meridian's outlying towns, he has made many acquaintances, and also a decent amount of enemies, and has grown to believe that as life gives, so it takes away. Ru likes to take things at face value, but knows that others often will try to deceive him. A somewhat ironic trait, coming from a thief and an illusionist, but past experience seems to teach that constantly wondering whether the people beside you will later betray you simply becomes tiring. So long as he still has his life and a mostly intact body, why not live and let live? The paladins are the exception to Ru's uncaring nature. Their presence is a threat to his way of life, for if they knew him as a mage, he would surely find himself dead, or worse, trapped.
**Bio: ** Ru was born to a denizen of Meridian's underground, into an unremarkable, and rather unfortunate family with far too much to worry about already. By the time Ru could walk, it seemed he had wanted to get away. Not from his family, who he loved, or the life they had, which, while not great, could definitely be worse, but from the undercity. His early years were fairly unremarkable, but as he grew, he came to discover more about the world around him, and the more he glimpsed of the sunny world above, the more the undercity felt like a prison. For a time, he resented being born down here in the dark, away from the light and the open plains. But when he discovered he was a mage, he came to realize he should be grateful. Had he been born above, and lived above, and been discovered above, his world would have changed to make the former prison of the undercity seem as wide and open as the entire world. And he also knew that it would be dangerous to stay below, for although the luminous knights would never fully purge the criminal and magical element from below, each time they tried, a few wouldn't be able to flee fast enough. And so after one such raid, Ru fled, taking everything he could and made his way to wander the surface, free.
**Initial Spells/Techniques: **
- Replicate: Ru creates a short lived illusion of himself. This copy has very little physical strength, and can easily be revealed as merely an illusion upon touching it, or destroyed if hit with sufficient force.
- Blur: Ru makes his form harder to distinguish, blending into his surroundings and becoming hard to focus on, as if you were looking at him with your eyes crossed. When heavily blurred, people seem to have an aversion to looking in Ru's direction. His illusions can also do use this ability.
- Telekinesis: Ru can move objects magically. It is easiest to simply *pull* things closer, or *push* them directly away, and while he can rotate objects and move them in other directions, it takes more concentration and willpower to do so. Ru cannot seem to affect himself with this power.
**Skills: ** Ru is quite handy with daggers, but is also familiar with short swords and crossbows. While he won't be winning any fair fights against a trained swordsman, Ru prefers to fight with as many advantages on his side as possible. Locks of all sorts are no match for his skilled fingers, allowing Ru to enter and leave without a trace - other than the valuables that leave with him. Ru is accomplished at scaling buildings in order to reach more discreet points of entry, and those skills can be applied to climbing other surfaces as well. Of course, Ru would be a rather poor thief if he had no skill concealing himself, a skill which is greatly enhanced by his magic. Although he has a small collection of poisons, he prefers not to use them, and most, though debilitating, are non-fatal.
(In short, *Familiarity with daggers, short swords, and crossbows, lock picking, climbing, moving stealthily, and poisons.*)
**Combat Strategy: ** When forced to fight, Ru tries to use anything he can to his advantage. When blurred, blows that opponents thought would land can easily pass through empty air as their eyes deceive them. He uses this quite effectively with his replicates, exploiting peoples tendency to block blades they see coming towards them, even if they aren't particularly real. His telekinesis is used to destabilize his opponents in battle, making them trip up or lose balance. As a thief, not an assassin, Ru prefers not to kill, only to occupy his opponents long enough to escape.
**Unique Equipment: ** Ru keeps several daggers and lock picks hidden on his person with a dingy short sword strapped to his hip. His crossbow and bolts tend to remain hidden within his pack along with whatever food and other possessions he has at the time. Although there have been times he could have purchased better equipment, he still carries on with what he has.