"How diddle you do, rat-man!"
"Uh? Huh? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" Ping screamed as he saw the silver-haired mage wearing a porcelain mask with blue swirls painted on each cheek.
"Saying hello to my favorite comedian! What else?"
"You are supposed to be stationed to the west of this location! So, why are you here?" Ping uttered through gritted teeth.
"Well, I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd swing by to say hello! So! How's it going?" Nox said nonchalantly.
With a twitch in his eye and gnashing his teeth, Ping glared at Nox with irritation and frustration written all over his face. However, as a lightbulb lit up in his head, his frustration seemed to vanish as a malicious smile replaced his frown.
"Hehe! You know what! I'm not even mad! In fact, this is rather fortunate! Really, I am glad you are here! For it saves me and my clan some suffering that you came to see me today!"
"Oh? Sounds like someone has some funny new material for me! Come on then! Spill it girl!"
"Well, why don't you go in and see for yourself?" Ping said, smiling ear to ear with a visible vein on his forehead, as he directed Nox towards a dilapidated stone building Ping had converted into temporary barracks for his men upon arrival.
Humming a merry tune, Nox carefreely skipped her way into the building without a hint of caution.
"Howdy Doody to your duty! Anyone up for a good old game of hopscotch?" Nox said upon entering a building full of soldiers putting on their armor.
"Wait? Isn't that?" One of the soldiers muttered as he seemed to recognize the silver-haired woman who just burst into the barracks.
"Seize her!" Ping ordered as he blocked the entrance behind Nox.
"Hm? Hopscotch, not your thing? Well, what about checkers?" Nox said, pulling out a gameboard as the soldiers quickly surrounded her, weapons in hand.
*Swish**Clatter*
Seeing her holding out a board of checkers, a soldier wielding an enchanted blade swiftly cut it in half, sending all the game pieces clattering to the floor.
"Hm? Checkers not your thing, huh? Then how about chess *Swish* then *Clatter*? Hm? Chuts and ladders *Swish*!"
Some time and several destroyed boardgames later, Nox found herself in chains and locked in a mobile cage being dragged into the territory of the sages.
"I spy with my little eye, something that rimes with-!"
"WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP!!!" The soldier next to her cage shouted, long since tired of listening to Nox pestering for someone to play a game with her.
"But then how will you know what I spy? Anyways, it rimes with, bat!"
"If you don't shut up, I will rip out your tongue!" The soldier threatened.
"Wrong! The answer is rat!" Nox said, pointing towards her blood-relative walking at the head of the group to avoid having to speak with his prisoner after a few failed attempts of gloating.
"*Sigh* I'm a man of my word!" The soldier said as he tugged on Nox's chain to pull her up to the bars of her cage.
Now within arm's reach, the man reached for her mask, as it would get in the way of her mouth.
"Huh? Why won't it come … off? This mask!" The soldier said as he noticed.
Unfortunately, removing the mask appeared to be a more uncomfortable task than he bargained for, as it had been quite literally welded on to her face. Of course, given Nox was a mortal woman, he could still very easily rip the mask off if he wanted, but the idea of tearing off a woman's face to cut out her tongue seemed a little too extreme even if she was obnoxious. Still, he was a man of his words.
"*Sigh* Words spoken cannot be taken back! Sorry about this!" The soldier said, pulling out a dagger, intending to carve off at least the area around her mouth.
However, having just cut a line down the side of the mouth of her mask with his dagger, Nox, having somehow gotten her hands on a paintbrush began doodling murky red lines upon his face.
"*Spit* Ach! What! Stop it, or I'll *Spit*!"
"Hey, hold still! I'm not done with your makeup! Tsk! Need more paint!" Nox said as she fumbled the lipstick.
Enraged, the soldier reconsidered going easy on her and decided to fully tear off her mask instead. However, before he could, his anger turned to dread as he saw where Nox had gotten her red paint from. Looking down, his torso was wide open. He hadn't felt anything. There was no sound, nor pain. Heck, he had been looking right at her the entire time, yet he hadn't even seen her move, but at some point, Nox had disemboweled him. All but his cultivation core and his beating heart had been removed from his cavity.
"Wh-What's going on he-! Argh!" He stuttered out, suddenly feeling a sharp pain in his chest as Nox shoved her paintbrush inside his torso.
"Hey, hold still! I'll need more paint to make you a pretty little princess!" Nox said as she pushed the paintbrush up against the man's bleeding heart.
"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! STOP!" Another soldier shouted, having noticed something was off.
The remaining escort had turned a blind eye to the man trying to carve out Nox's tongue. Though not all of them would go so far as to carve out her tongue themselves, many of them would very much want the woman in the cage to shut her trap as well. Hence, most of them had chosen to look away as their colleague attempted to silence the woman. However, when they suddenly heard the sound of their fellow conscript struggling and grunting in pain, they turned their gaze over to the pair to see Nox with her hand inside the man's chest.
"Hey! I wasn't done with that! Give him back!" Nox complained as they pulled the unfortunate soldier away from the cage.
Shortly after this incident, and a few failed attempts to search her body that ended with similar results, they agreed to just ignore Nox's babbling. Many of the people here were conscripted against their will, and their only job was simply to transport the prisoner, nothing more. So, as long as she didn't leave the cage, which she seemed more than happy to stay in given the lack of resistance she put up when captured, none of them were going to risk their life trying to confiscate anything she may or may not have had on her person. Hence, they just decided on a rule to avoid touching the bars of her cage and left it at that.