@SilverDragonsBlood
She hated working with a partner. Absolutely hated it.
But jobs were thin on the ground nowadays, and beggars couldn't be choosers. Unless she wanted to be a literal beggar, and in Zantaric that was a more than dangerous prospect. Jynx grumbled to herself as she leaned back against the rather dilapidated shack she waited beside, scowling up at the heavy gray clouds overhead.
It was going to rain soon. Wonderful.
She cursed under her breath and scuffed her heel against the worn, dirty cobblestone. "
I know yer a genius with them quick fingers, love," she mimicked her employer with a mocking twist to her mouth. "
But yer gonna need some muscle for this job, a little...somethin' extra." She scoffed. "Something extra. Whatever the hells that means."
On her shoulder, Tiameth squeaked and nuzzled under his mistress's hair, peering up at the steely sky uncertainly. Demons tended to dislike rain. Jynx huffed and patted the little creature absently.
"Don't worry, girl. We'll do this job, get our pay, and be off searching again," she murmured- she was almost more trying to sooth herself if she was being honest. Nearly two years she'd been looking for Ilieth's amulet now, and so far not a sniff of the damn thing. Just false lead after false lead after-
I don't have time to think about this. She had a job to do. And where was her gods-be-damned partner, anyhow?! Her employer had said she'd meet him here just at dusk, which...well, she
thought it was dusk. Hard to tell with the cloud cover.
As if on cue, three heavy drops plopped against the crown on her head.
Aaaaaand now it's raining. Perfect.
I don't need this shit, Jareth thought, digging out his sets of knives. I have a good thing going working solo. He put his thigh belt on, attaching four throwing knives. Then, one knife with in the back of his pants, and two others on his right hip. Why would I work with someone else who would just slow me down? He slid his sword into its sheath on his left hip. I don't even need the money! He threw on his cloak and accessories, putting his silver mask in a satchel. Well, we know I'm gonna go.
Outside, it looked like the sky was going to open up any minute. He hurried through the village, catching sight of dark red curls. Feeling a few drops of rain, Jareth put his hood up. He hated the feeling. Every time he wore the thing, he felt like a piece of him was being sold to the devil.
"Hey," he said simply, approaching the figure. "I was told to meet a redhead at dusk. Guessing that means you. What's this shit about an amulet I'm supposed to help you with?"
Jynx has shrunk back into what little shelter the overhang of the roof above her provided, and she made no effort to hide the scowl that swept across her face as her new “partner” finally put in an appearance.
“Took you long enough,” she huffed. Tiameth peeked our from her hair curiously, giving a soft chirp and an inquisitive tilt of her head.
Not bothering with an introduction, Jynx strode forward into the rain and made a sharp turn down the street, back toward the city proper. She twitched her fingers as her contact impatiently. “Look, all I know is Badger wants this amulet pinched, and for some reason she thought I needed your help to do it. This a shop job, you ever worked one before?”
"I'm more of a hit'n'run type of guy," he grumbled.
Seeing the little creature peek out from her mess of red curls, Jareth couldn't help the smirk that crossed his lips. He didn't find much joy in his life, ever since he was cursed by this godforsaken magic, but that thing was freakin' adorable.
"Do you even know what this amulet is for?" Jareth asked. "Or do you blindly take jobs from people named Badger?"
She glared over her shoulder at him briefly before turning her attention to the road ahead. "I know it's valuable, and I know Badger's just about the only reliable contact I've got in this forsaken town. And I know the job pays." She shrugged. What more did she need to know?
Without her noticing, Tiameth shimmied around on her shoulder until she could peer back at their new partner, tilting her head from side to side. He wasn't afraid of her- at least she couldn't smell fear on him- which the little demon wasn't used to. She chirped curiously, then suddenly launched herself toward him with a flutter of wings and latched onto his arm, peering up at his face.
"Tia!" Jynx whirled around, a flash of concern crossing her expression before she managed to school her face back into a scornful mask. "Leave 'im be, c'mon." She twitched her fingers at the demon, trying to call her back.
Jareth jerked slightly, not expecting the little creature to attach itself to him so quickly. "Hey, there," he said softly.
He made no move to assist in returning Tia, as he heard her call the thing, back to its master. If Tia wanted to go back, she would, and if the woman wanted her back so badly, she could actually make a move to take her back. Wasn't his problem.
"If Badger's your only reliable contact, you've gotta get out more. Can't have only one person there for you for the rest of your life." He went to scratch the creature's chin, unsure if the action would actually be welcome.
Jynx rolled her eyes, clicking her fingers at the demon again. When Tiameth refused to return to her, she frowned, a growl rumbling in her throat. "Godsdamn- get back here you little traitor."
Tiameth literally stuck her tongue out at her and settled more comfortably into the curve of Jareth's arm. With a tsk of impatient disgust, Jynx looked back up to meet his eyes. "You're right, you can't just have one person there for the rest of your life."
She turned to continue walking. "You can't afford to trust anybody to be there. But if you haven't learned that yet then I can't help you."
"You're too cynical," he said softly. One would expect that from a life in Zantaric, but despite his cursed life, Jareth refused to give up the little hope that he was clinging to.
Secretly, all he wanted was to get back to his sister again, but he knew that it wasn't an option. So, why should he hate the life that fate has decided for him?
Jareth chuckled lightly, as Tia rejected the woman. "My name's Jareth, by the way," he said. "If we're working together, I'd rather not address you as 'hey, you.' What's your name?"
She snorted at that. Too cynical. No such thing. "Jynx," she replied curtly after a moment. "My name is Jynx."
She glanced back over her shoulder, then added with a sigh and a roll of her eyes, "The little traitor is Tiameth. I mostly call her Tia."
The little demon chirped at the sound of her name and climbed up onto Jareth's shoulder, apparently getting used to the drizzling rain. Jynx paused suddenly, brow furrowing.
"How much do you know about this job, anyway? I was just told you were extra muscle- what were you told about me?"
"Jynx," he repeated with a nod.
Great name. She probably is one...
"Extra muscle?" He said, sounding almost insulted. Jareth decided to let it go, as there wasn't a point in arguing what she didn't know. Besides, maybe it was best she didn't know.
As Tia climbed onto his shoulder, Jareth knitted his brows. It wasn't that he didn't like it, but it was getting a bit to close to entering his cloak. That was a strict no-no for anyone but him. He was protective over the cloak, so he offered his hand for the creature to scurry up his other arm.
"I don't know much. Just that we're after some amulet, and that you were the boss. I was told to meet a redhead thief and not be surprised by any companion she might bring." He smirked at Tia. "Given the warning, I was expecting something much worse than Tia."
Jynx raised her eyebrows as Tiameth scorned his hand in favor of clambering up onto his head, where she perched quite cheerfully.
The demonlord smirked, flicking her eyes over their companion. "Tia's...sweet. She's also just about the least of my potential companions."
Alright, so they knew next to nothing about each other. That could either be very good or very bad- if they didn't know each other's skills this could go very poorly.
"Well, what can you do?" She waved a hand at him airily. "What makes you worth partnering up with?"
Jareth smirked. He enjoyed showing off to an extent. The elf took a step to the left, entering a shadow. Glancing around, he suddenly disappeared, Tiameth going with him. He whistled from the shadow of a another building behind Jynx.
"I can travel through shadows once every twenty minutes," he said. "Good for an escape. I'm handy with a sword, and I have... Well, I'll simplify it and save you the explanation. Let's call it dark magic for now. Bottom line, there's a shitload I can do with it."
He looked the girl up and down. "What about you? What can you do?"
Her eyes widened and she whipped around toward his voice. The moment they reappeared behind her, Tiameth seemed to decide that her new friend wasn't worth spontaneous teleportation and launched herself back into Jynx's arms with a chittering complaint.
"Easy." Jynx stroked her head gently as she looked Jareth up and down. "Alright, that's impressive, I'll give you that," she said with a lopsided smirk.
Her smirk widened at his question and she glanced down at the fuzzy creature in her arms. "Tia, return through the Veil."
With another little chittering sound and a soft pop the demon vanished from their plane. Jynx planted her now empty hands on her hips and tilted her head at her "partner". "She's normally just for recon anyway, I can Summon her back when we get to the shop."
An eager smile spread slowly across Jareth's lips. "The veil?" He said. "So...huh. So, you're a demonlord, then?"
He nodded subtly, thinking about the warning about her possible companions. Made a lot more sense now.
"Speaking of the shop," he said, "when are we going?" He crossed his arms over his chest. "Or are we just going to stand here all night, comparing whose muscles are larger. Just a warning; I'll win."
Jynx laughed at that despite herself and shook her head as she turned to start walking again. "On any other night I might challenge you on that, but I'd rather get this over with," she chuckled. "Come on, it's this way. South side of town."
They were getting into the more heavily populated areas of the city, and she had to duck into the shadowed alleys and alcoves that provided some modicum of cover for a stealth operation.
Jareth found himself slightly confused at her caution. Of course any job like theirs required a certain level of stealth, but it was Zantaric. Stuff like that happened all the time, and it wasn't like they were in danger from the authorities.
Even so, the directions were that she was the boss. If that was the route she wanted to take, regardless of how unnecessary Jareth felt it was, he followed her example.
The jewelry shop wasn't hard to reach, and once they had Jynx ducked into the alley that butted up behind it and leaned back against the wall casually, glancing from side to side.
"Alright. Plan A." She looked to Jareth. "Tia can scout inside, then I'll sneak in and filch the goods. You alright standing lookout?" Her lips curved up in a playful smirk, a sharp contrast to the personality she'd initially shown. "I mean, think you can handle that, fancy mage?"
His eyes narrowed at her, and he scoffed with a slight chuckle. "Yeah," he said. "I think I can handle it."
He looked around them and shook his head, pursing his lips at Jynx. "If you and Tia pull this off, I just might feel like a third wheel on this little adventure."
Jynx shot him a wink. "That's the plan. And that's what I told Badger, but she wouldn't listen to me."
Absently, she dug her fingers into her palm to draw a thin line of blood and whispered, "Tiameth, come to me."
The tiny demon flickered into existence on her shoulder, cooing and immediately preening into her scarlet curls. She smiled and nuzzled the little creature in return, then shooed her toward the window of the shop.
"Sneaky," she enunciated with a firm look. "Take a look around for me, okay?"
Tia chirped an affirmative and swooped through the window. With a quick, "Keep a lookout," for Jareth, Jynx leaned back against the wall again and closed her eyes, allowing her senses to meld briefly with the demon's.
It was an interesting ability, being able to summon demons. Jareth's power could give momentary life to creatures of darkness, but he couldn't come close to actually summon a demon.
Plus, he didn't realize a demon could be as cute as Tiameth. That just wasn't right.
Jareth took his silver mask out of his satchel, glancing around quickly. He took his hood down, putting on the mask and pulling his hood back up. It was one thing to be seen in the cloak, but a whole different thing to be seen using it.
He pressed his hand against the jewelry shop, his eyes emanating with a blackness deeper and more consuming than anything known to man. A ripple of energy surrounded the shop. It wouldn't have been enough to actually disturb the demon or Jynx, but they might've felt it.
Both demon and summoner shuddered slightly at the influx of magic, but Jynx was too focused on looking at the interior of the shop through Tiameth's eyes to pay it much mind.
Empty. Empty and dark, but who knew how long it would stay that way.
"I'm ducking in," she told Jareth abruptly, coming out of her semi-trance. Then she blinked and looked from him to the building. "What did you do?"
He smirked. "The shop has a matter warping spell around it," he said simply. "Basically, only people within fifty feet of the shop when I cast the spell can see what we're doing."
Jareth felt slightly self-satisfied, taking his mask off and putting it into his satchel. "You can scream and jump like a banshee, but nobody outside of that range will notice."
Huh. She blinked. "Well, that's useful." She smiled crookedly and gave him a quick nod of respect. "Nicely done."
Glancing toward the window, judging the distance, she added quickly, "I'll be right back," and jumped to grab the sill, swinging herself gracefully up and through into the shop.
"Showoff," Jareth said, smiling to himself. If he attempted to do the same thing... Well, it wouldn't have been nearly as graceful, so he decided to play it safe and stay where he was. He could see well enough, and his magic wasn't quite charged enough to teleport again. He watched her through the open window, though the visual wasn't exactly the best he could've hoped for.
Jynx couldn't help smirking a bit at that. Alright, maybe she was showing off a bit, but it was kinda fun.
Landing softly on the balls of her feet, she slowly straightened and looked around the shop. Tiameth fluttered near the rafters, squeaking and chittering quietly. Silent as a cat, Jynx crept forward. The amulet was supposed to be stashed beneath the counter.
She vaulted the counter top and leaned down to search, probing cautiously with her fingertips. She touched metal and locked her fingers around it, pulling the pretty bob out and feeling the chain shiver against her hand.
Wait.
The voice echoed through her head and she froze. He hadn't spoken to her so clearly in days- he normally didn't have a reason to. "What?" she hissed quietly.
There was a long, horrifying beat of silence. Then Ilieth's voice slithered through her mind again. Keep it. Get rid of the hanger-on and keep it.
"What- why?"
Do not question me! This time his voice was accompanied by a jolt of pain and she only managed to half-stifle an instinctive cry, doubling over and clutching at her head.
Jareth watched her move through the store, then behind the counter. She was bent down behind the counter, but he was able to see her still well enough. When she stopped moving, his brows knitted in confusion.
Suddenly, Jynx cried out, holding her head and doubling over as though she had been attacked.
Instinctively, the man ran inside, climbing through the window. "Hey, hey, hey," he said, quickly approaching. "What happened? What's wrong?"
"Back! St-stay back!" Jynx staggered back from him several steps, blinking away the sudden migraine. Ilieth seemed to have retreated, for the moment at least, and the pain was slowly dulling. "I'm fine, just...gimme a minute."
"No offense, but you don't look fine," Jareth said plainly. "I don't mean to pry, but.... That's not true, I am prying. What the fuck just happened? You were fine a minute ago."
The thief bared her teeth at him, but her head was still aching too badly for the expression to last long, quickly melting into a pained grimace. "Just- a headache," she lied sharply.
Well, it wasn't entirely a lie, right? "They happen sometimes. Don't worry about it, I got what we need." She straightened and moved to brush past him, walking a little more carefully than normal. The headache seemed to have messed with her equilibrium; it felt like she'd had way too much to drink, but without any of the fun side effects.
"Bullshit," Jareth said simply. He folded his arms across his chest. At that point, his curiosity outweighed whatever payment they were getting.
"Yeah, fine, maybe so." Jinx glared at him and tried to pull herself up a little taller. It didn't really work. "So what if it's bullshit? None of your business, that's what it is," she grumbled.
"If we're working this together," Jareth started, "it is my fucking business. My partner has episodes of whatever the hells that was, so I'd like to know what the fuck happened to be more prepared for when or if it happens again."
Jynx bared her teeth. "Back off. We're working one job, it's not like I owe you my life story-"
But that would be so much more interesting, wouldn't it?
Another flash of pain and she doubled over with a cry, clutching at her head. "Shut up shut up shut up!" Panic was plain in her voice. He had never felt so strong before, so close to breaking through the careful barriers she'd erected around herself.
Jareth quickly stooped down to prevent her from going all the way to the ground. Her panic and pain made up his mind. "We're not going anywhere until I get a solid answer," he said. "Don't try to leave because I have the place sealed off."
"Fuck you," Jynx growled, not entirely sure if she was talking to the mage or the demon. Ilieth chuckled gratingly in the back of her mind.
"Demon," she spat out after a moment. "Demon, alright? People like me, sometimes we deal with the assholes more than we'd like. I've got one piggbacking in my head right now, and he's a little bitch and feels the need to- ah!"
More pain, probably in reaction to her less-than-respectful description of the demon. The thief whimpered quietly, eyes clenched shut. She hated how weak she sounded, but didn't know how else to satisfy his questions.
Jareth sighed, shaking his head momentarily. He glanced around, unsure if the demons were just in her head or if they needed a physical tether. From what he could tell, nothing around them looked particularly demonic.
"Assert his dominance?" Jareth asked semi-rhetorically. "Crazy idea, but how about you don't insult him?"
Jynx chuckled, though her teeth were still gritted in pain. "You kidding? That's the only kind of enjoyment I ever get out of this," she muttered, slowly straightening up. She took a deep breath. "Alright, come on. We've got what we can for, let's move."
"I don't know what instructions you got for once the thing was in your possession, but I'm not letting you go on your own."
Jareth allowed her space to lead the way, and he did away with the dark barrier he had created for their thieving privacy.
The demonlord rolled her eyes, but didn't argue as she crept back out onto the street, glancing around carefully to make sure their route was clear.
Once relatively secure, she darted out of the house, not bothering to glance back to see if Jareth was following her.