Payton shook in his hold and her lip quivered as her eyes stayed wide. She tried to run through everything she had read about the man to see if she could say anything that would spare her life. Then again, she knew he would ask her questions first. She just needed to be cunning enough to get out of this alive.

The man leaned closer over the short girl, making her look up at him. He gave a soft smile, a dangerous one she knew.

"My lady…why have you brought me here," he questioned.

His voice sounded annoyed and she could tell he was. What had he been doing that had been so important that he would be this upset about being transported here? Then again, she realized, this was Tezzeret and from what she got from the books, he believed his time was most valuable.

"I didn't bring you here…that's impossible to do."

'Seem ignorant. That's right…' she thought to herself, forcing herself to keep eye contact with his icy stare.

His hold tightened on her throat a bit. She got worried so she pressed back against him. For some reason, his breathing hitched and his hold faltered once her back met his chest. She took this opportunity and ducked under his hands and fell to her hands and knees. She rolled away and bolted for the door. She knew the other planeswalkers would be nearby, or with her luck Nissa had wondered so far away without them being able to stop her.

Tezzeret chuckled and was on her again in a second. He wrestled with her until he had her pinned against the wall, holding her wrists in his human hand and his metal one encased on her throat.

"That was clever. Don't try it again," he threatened in a voice that was threaded with not only the threat but slight amusement.

"I'm telling you! It's impossible for someone to transport someone from somewhere else…some…" She blinked a bit and frowned.

Tezzeret cocked his head, confused of why she repeated the word again but brought her attention back to him by stepping closer.

"If only you knew…perhaps it was the dragon…," he mulled for a moment.

"It would seem," he continued, "That your use is small but still there. This is your home correct?"

She gave a short nod, afraid to speak at this point. A million things ran through her head about how he could kill her. She was defenseless in this position. He cleared his throat and it brought her back to his question.

"Yes it is. I live here with two roommates and three other guests at the moment," she replied.

She figured the more information she gave, the more inclined he would be to trust her. He released his hold and stepped back, watching her stumble from the sudden release.

"Who are your guests?"

She was about to answer when the door opened and Nissa walked through the door.

"I will stay…but only because it was my decision."

"Yes well. You have to be some kind of smart if 'your decision' just happened to be the human's suggestion," came from Tibalt as he entered followed by an unamused Gideon.

Nissa growled and whipped around to glare at Tibalt, both reaching for their weapons. Payton gasped and pushed past Tezzeret and put herself in between them.

Tibalt looked down at her and straightened with a wild smirk on his lips.

"You have made a reckless mistake, little one," he said as he stepped forward towards her.

Payton tensed up and she felt Nissa move to get around her and saw Gideon do the same. She braced herself to get hit by him but a loud voice stopped them all. The three planeswalkers turned to look at their newest edtion, a mix of annoyance and surprise on their faces.

Payton panted softly as she shot a thankful glance to the artificer though she knew he didn't do it for her own benefit. Tibalt smirked at the man, eying his arm wanting nothing more than to tear it apart to find out how it works. Nissa placed a hand on Payton's shoulder, pulling the shaking human behind her as she stepped forward. Payton disappeared behind the taller woman and she leaned against the banister to the stairs for support. Gideon turned and faced the man, regarding him with a neutral expression.

Tezzeret chuckled. "Well…This plane is full of surprises…an elf and demon residing in the same home with humans? Do explain."

"Trust me. It's not by choice," Nissa growled out.

"We appeared here last night. We haven't been able to access mana to go back," Gideon continued, putting up a hand to stop the ornery elf.

Tezzeret frowned. He closed his eyes and tried to pull mana from the land. His eyes snapped open and he glared at the brunette. He knew this had to have something to do with her. For now, however, there wasn't anything he could do about it.

"What keeps you here, though?"

Tibalt snickered, "Something about the first option being the only option. They offered a place to stay. We took it."

"Besides," Payton said softly, placing a hand on her suddenly pale and tired face, "Having you all rampage the town isn't exactly laying low."

Tezzeret raised an eyebrow at her and stepped towards the rest of the group. Nissa bristled and barred her teeth and tibalt cocked an eyebrow. Gideon had never put his weapon away and stepped to put the girl behind him.

Tezzeret rolled his eyes and held up a hand towards her "She is ill."

The three turned and looked at the girl but her eyes had closed and she slumped to the floor almost lifelessly. Gideon turned quickly and knelt in front of her, feeling for her pulse. He had slight worry in his eyes. This girl was their only link to this world, her and the other two. He let out a sigh of relief feeling the faint and slow heartbeat.

The half-demon was leaning closer, his curiosity getting to him. He could hear her heartbeat, but he didn't understand it. It was almost as if it was taking just a second longer to beat than normal. He licked his lips slowly and pushed past both man and woman in front of him and was about to put his hand on the male's shoulder when he felt a surge of power hit his back.

Nissa jumped back and narrowed her eyes at the metal on the human's arm that was whirring and glowing a luminous blue. Humans and their contraptions. She didn't trust it for a moment, especially after seeing what it had just down to the red-skinned man. She moved to check on the brunette who had her eyes open but they looked too empty for her to be there.

Tibatl growled up at Tezzeret and said man only placed his arms behind his back calmly.

"Now, you will not touch her in my presence, demon," he started, his voice threatening.

"You can only wish to stop me," he growled out before pushing himself off the ground and trudging towards the stairs.

A small hand caught his shirt sleeve rather weakly, but Tibalt allowed Payton to do so. He met her eyes, brown eyes that just begged for them to get along. He was going to respond, but he stopped seeing the hints of forgiveness in there. Was she really foolish enough to believe that her forgiveness meant anything to him? He snatched his sleeve away and went back upstairs.

"I'm surrounded by children…," she muttered softly to herself.

Payton flipped through the mail slowly, opening what was for her, which was most of it. She was in her office area, one small room located in the back. It had various art tools, photography tools, and files everywhere. It was an organized mess. She had pulled her brown locks into a messy bun and had decided to don her glasses considering her eyes had begun to hurt. She had a visitor today, and he watched her every move. At least when she asked him to hand her something he would just comply. Tezzeret wasn't such bad company, but then again she has yet to give him any real reason for him to treat her with anything less than respect in her own home.

"You are a rather busy person…that's admirable," he commented after a moment of listening to her humming softly.

She glanced over her glasses, a soft blush growing on her cheeks. "Uh…thank you.

It was true. She was flattered that he would even say something like that to her. He had just admitted out loud that he admired her for working hard, and why wouldn't he? From what she gathered about him, still a mystery to him, he valued the hard workers when he ran the Consortium. She met his eyes and her blush faded. She saw it in his eyes; the deceit. He was giving her meaningless compliments to butter her up and get on her good side. As they shared this eye contact, the man noted the intelligence in her eyes. Maybe she was just another girl, always wanting to be complimented, buttered up by a man being charming. However, perhaps she was just too smart to let him get away with it. He would have to watch out for her…he knew her type and they were dangerous. He didn't doubt her strength whatsoever. She was weak physically, no doubt, probably had no training whatsoever for battle. He could tell, though, that what she lacked there, she made up for tenfold with brains and strategy. He hoped she could walk the Blind Eternities. He would have to ask on a later date after he found out her worth.

Payton stood up and walked past him and reached over him to put something in its place. Only reason she didn't ask him to do it was because it was confidential, part of some things that Mari asked her to take care of legally. Despite Tezzeret not knowing what a restraining order was, it was still none of his business unless she let him know.

As she leaned over, he leaned back so they wouldn't touch, but it was certain that no matter what, it was an awkward thing to do. He took the moment to study her more closely, watched her focus on her task and put the file in the right place. He took note of her scent, her features, everything. He wanted inside her mind. His lip twitched in a slight snarl, the thought bringing him back to a certain mind reader but it was gone by the time and smiled at him and straightened.

"I'm going to go start a dessert. There is pizza on the table I can heat for everyone but I feel like baking," she clapped her hands and literally skipped out of the room, leaving him confused.

Tibalt leaned against the archway to the kitchen as he watched the short one put two circular pans with cake mix into the oven. It smelled heavenly in there, even he could appreciate that. He had been enjoying a rather nice conversation about torture devices, to his surprise she knew a lot and didn't even skip gory details. It was unbecoming, but it was entertaining to watch the elf leave the room in disgust.

Payton turned on her heel and smirked at him. He raised an eyebrow at her sudden bravery of approaching him as such. She leaned in close and he tried to stop her hand but since hers were still wet from washing dishes, it slipped through his and snagged his dagger.

He snarled at her as she darted past him and he was about to summon what little mana he had to end her when she started laughing and holding it above her head. He stopped as he realized that she was attempting to mess with him, even though that still annoyed him.

"You're walking a dangerous path, girl," he warned, pushing himself off the wall.

"Oh just lighten up. I was surprised I even got brave enough to do this," she admitted, chuckling nervously. No matter what she was intimidated, that was for sure.

He smirked widly and she gasped and turned to run but he tackled her to the ground and rolled with her as she tried to keep it from him. He could at any time have gotten the dagger, but he was getting a closer look at her. He was benefitting in no other way but learning what made her cringe as he kept his forcefulness down but didn't really hold back on the roughness. If she was going to be stupid enough to do this, then she would learn from it.

She laughed, however as they came to a stop in the hallway, her laying the hand that held his dagger out as far as she could s she held a hand to his chest. He hovered over her, chuckling down at her in slight amusement. He grabbed her wrists and pulled her hand from the dagger.

He pushed his face close to hers noting how she blushed and chuckled deeply, "I won"

"What are you doing…"

"Wait! Cain! NO!"