For @nameaprice. Continued from here.
Sivir rushed to throw all pretense out of the window, now being openly hostile, but Mariam was confident in her ability to turn this anger to her advantage. She set the cup down gently, meeting Sivir's aggression with the sterness of a mother.
"I see. You believe I set up that terrible job years ago. You're wrong."
Mariam licked her back teeth, tasting the sweetness of the tea. The job's details were still fresh in her mind grace to some late-night reading the day previous. She lightly smacked her lips as she related some back to her.
"The young woman who accompanied you, who I suspect attempted murder to cover up her tracks, was your employer's daughter. They're both part of a Noxian tradition that produces spies and seducers. Whatever her fate, whatever you removed from the ruin or released from within it–" a pause, made that much somber by Mariam's slow expiration, "had a terrible ripple effect, with yourself at the center. I doubt that was their intention. In fact, I'd wager something completely unexpected happened."
The sweltering heat from the ovens had infiltrated the space, making sweat roll down Mariam's back. She wasn't thrilled with her interlocutor's attitude either, and got to thinking Sivir might have gone crackers after the experience, making her a liability. Her own pride, a relic of tribal living, smoldered inside of her, no less vicious though swaddled in fine linens and tasseled sashes.
Mariam leaned forward, resting her jaw on her fist. She adjusted her hips until the butt of her sword jutted out towards her elbow, one arcing motion away from cleanly swiping at Sivir's throat. She could see it, clear as day, like one of those Piltovan moving pictures she'd had the pleasure of watching some years back. Her fantasies notwithstanding, Mariam decided she would only resort to violence in self-defense; mirroring Sivir's feelings.
"Soreana made several mistakes. Chiefest among them was sending her inexperienced daughter into an uncharted section of the ruins. It might've been some kind of initiation, or an attempt to advance her career. Either way, I don't mourn her loss, if indeed she is dead," Mariam confessed, fingering a stray curl away from her eyes. Having made her stance clear, she saw it fit to return to the topic at hand.
"You'll note my jobs are well-informed, professional, profitable."
Mariam listed a couple of those jobs off of the top of her head. Some harkened back years, when Sivir's name hadn't yet made it on any gold-cornered ledgers. The Noxian then inclined her head to take stock of others present.
"I know your band's composition. Names, names of relatives, their achievements, and their crimes. Soreana only remembers your name because you took something from her. If she wasn't intending to kill you before, she is now. I would humbly suggest gathering more allies instead of driving them off with foul language."