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Chasing Secrets

Started by DragonSong, August 03, 2017, 07:47:19 PM

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DragonSong

Her lip curled. "I heard you, I didn't know if there was any sort of wiggle room," she snapped.

A low growl started to build in her chest and there was a pressure behind her eyes, a coldness in her chest. She fought it back. "I don't live here. Ask the inkeeper for my room, if you like." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "I meant what I said before. Touch my cats and I'll have your manhood on a string."

Magyar

That actually elicited a chuckle out of Aohdei. A humourless chuckle, granted, but a chuckle nonetheless. He smiled a condescending smile and said, "That's assuming I have one, halfbreed."

His eyes contained the same playful curiosity a cat adopted when it was swatting around its prey, moments before devouring it. Cír twisted and snapped back into the shape of a stoat, before slipping under Aohdei's collar. The Demon began to walk back toward the tavern, seemingly paying Serena no more attention until he reached the door, and called back, "You really have no idea what you're dealing with, do you?"

DragonSong

No.

She really didn't.

But she wasn't about to admit that. Giving the demon an arch look and a slightly dismissive wave of her hand, she turned and continued down the street.

Once she was fairly sure she was out of sight, she ducked behind the wall of a building and leaned up against it, hand over her mouth and heart pounding.

What in the name of all the gods had she just agreed to? A soul, a living human soul, and she had two days to deliver it to be...eaten.

Oh gods. If she hadn't been damned before, she certainly was now...

Magyar

...

Aohdei did not like cats. They were intelligent, snobbish, cranky, and didn't taste nearly good enough to justify the immense trouble one would have to go through to catch one. They also fought with Cír often, and seemed to be able to smell his innate supernatural properties. That made them problems, each and every one.

And he was sharing a room with three. He stood on one side of the room, a disgruntled expression on his features. They sat all three of them on the one bed, shoulder to shoulder and didn't make a sound. Staring at him, just as he was staring at them. Cír sat on his shoulder, doing much the same. The five of them hadn't moved a muscle in ten minutes. Perhaps they hadn't even blinked, but that seemed unlikely.

A stalemate, and one that had no foreseeable end.

DragonSong

It was at least four hours later when Serena managed to return to the inn, trudging her way up to the room with a severe frown and a weight to her step that wasn't often there.

She had to think.

Pushing the door open, she groaned, "I know I've done something stupid, so don't all of you start- gods!"

Surprised that the demon seemed to have actually appropriated half her room, she jumped when she saw him, and all three of her familiars whipped their heads toward the door in unison. "You- what- how long have you been here?!"

Magyar

Aohdei turned his head her way, a little incredulous, "Since you left and I entered the inn. Despite how I may seem to you, I don't enjoy sleeping on floors or lurking in bars. Believe it or not..." He turned back to the cats, little devils they were. If they weren't her familiars, he might've eaten one or two of them. They weren't even actual demons, but they were just as hellish when they wanted to be. Suffice to say his experience with felines was a generally bad one.

"So?" he said expectantly, eyebrows raised ever so slightly, "What have you got?"

DragonSong

Serena eyed him warily for a moment longer, then moved slowly into tbe room and closed the door behind her. "A ritual," she said, lowering her voice slightly. "One that I think will serve as a fair enough compromise between need and morality, shall we say."

Magyar

Aohdei raised his eyebrows, mildly surprised. It had been years since someone had done a ritual in his favour, too many years in his opinion. The concept that this comely little witch with a predisposition to cats and a disgusting moral compass would be the first to reinvigorate his ritual life... well it wasn't expected, to say the least.

"What do you have, though?" He pressed, curiousity and impatience overriding his already lax manners, "For the ritual?"

DragonSong

Serena purses her lips and glanced away. "That...is where a slight complication arises. I need some time to gather supplies- no more than a day, I don't think. But then the ritual itself must be performed away from the town."

That wasn't really a rule of magic so much as one of her own making; she didn't want to risk losing control of the spell and hurting innocents.

Magyar

Aohdei's face dropped, falling into a grim, tight-lipped stare. His time here was wasted, and he said as much, "My time is wasted, then. I could've had my satisfaction already and be gone from this dirty pothole of a town-" He started becoming angry again, standing from the bed, adopting an almost predatorial stance, "And you deluded me!"

He stalked seemingly toward Serena before spinning on his heel abruptly, his cloak fluttering wildly as he bore for the door. He was growing in anger with each heartbeat that passed, muttering to himself, "The last time I trade with a wretched human-sympathiser, and a damned daemon she is too! Fucking hell!" He slammed the door open and made to go down the stairs. Though he hadn't said it, he was making a beeline for the first person he saw, a serving wench wiping down the tables in the bar. His body language might have given away his intention, however, and his intention was entirely a lethal one.

DragonSong

"What- wait! Wait!"

Without thinking Serena lunged after him and latched into his arm, stumbling slightly as she did so she half fell against his back. The warning growls of her familiars thrummed through the air behind her as she tried to crane her next to meet the demon's eyes. "I don't understand- you said I had two days, what difference does it make just waiting one?!"

Magyar

Aohdei tore his arm away but stopped on the stairs to turn and bare his very inhuman teeth and snarl, "You have no idea what it's like to be a day away from going feral! If I can eat today, I'm eating today! His words were punctuated by weak sparks flying from his lips like spittle, his features suddenly seeming more angled, and his expression contorting in rage. He may have been two days from ferality, but even soul sober, he was still very much the demon.

DragonSong

The tiny witch fought against every instinct screaming at her to turn and run- and another instinct, long buried, that burned hot and bright in her core with a snarl to match his, but she shoved it away and pretended it had been nothing.

"I can get you more than a soul or two," she blurted out, just a tad desperate now. "Please, if you just wait, the initial ritual is taxing and very involved, but it works and then I can summon the spirits with a simple incantation and a proper blood sacrifice. Do you understand? I could call souls for you with little more than a word and a cut- whenever you wanted! You just have to wait a little longer, please."

Again without thinking she reached out for him imploringly, mismatched eyes wide and hair rather touseled from the small scuffle.

Magyar

Aohdei slapped her hand away, and growled, "How much fucking longer?!"

And he really did growl, a low, inhuman sound that sounded as if it should have come from something that didn't resemble a man so much as he did. Cír slipped back into his jacket, taking a place on his ribs, just under where his heart was in this body. And this body... he hated it. It wasn't originally his. Some bastard had shoved him into a body, a formerly human shape that was increasingly twisted in his inhabitance of it. More and more it began to resemble his true self, by a nearly imperceptible degree. In time, perhaps he would seem a shallow representation of his original form... but unless he was freed of this, he saw no end in sight to this tortured existence.

DragonSong

Yet again Serena found herself fighting the urge to skitter back from him. "I just need a few supplies," she murmured, trying desperately to keep her voice calm and collected. "If I go out now to get them- hell, you could even come with me if that would make you more comfortable. But if I just get these few things, we could...we could head out of town and complete the ritual before moondown."

She screwed up her face a bit at the thought. This would be much more rushed than she would have liked, and probably not a very clean summoning. She'd have to do the whole ritual again to make a simple recasting really feasible, but if that was what it took she was willing.

Magyar

Aohdei stared at the witch, contemplating her words behind the resting intensity of his gaze before finally, he said, "Fine... fine! We go and... get the ingredients for whatever you need!"

He brought his hand, whiteknuckled and pointing, up to her face though, "But if this takes too long, there will be consequences to be sure, just you remember that!"

DragonSong

Serena raised her hands peaceably, eyes wide. "Understood," she said quickly. After a moment when it seemed he actually meant what he said, she gave a short sigh of relief. After another moment or two, when it seemed clear he wouldn't start shouting again, she tried to slip around him. "Well...follow me?"

Magyar

Aohdei let out a sigh of release. Angrily, sure, but release nonetheless.

"Lead the way," he said in a deceptively calm voice, his eyes still simmering quietly.

DragonSong

She nodded quickly and- with no small amount of trepidation- turned her back on him to lead him back out of the inn.

Sensing that they would not be returning, her familiars came bounding down the stairs behind her. Sorren and Blaze carried her bag between them, which she bent to take with murmured thanks and slung over her shoulder. The black tom leaped up onto her shoulder as she did, while Jasmine took her usual place in the bag itself, head poking out under Serena's arm. Blaze kept pace at her feet.

All three cats kept their eyes trained on the demon whenever possible.

Trying to ignore that, Serena made her way as casually as she could manage out onto the main street before turning a sharp left to make her way toward the herbalist's shop. She knew there wouldn't be perfect supplies, but the best she could find under the circumstances.

Magyar

He missed the feeling of fire burning in his veins. The tingle... the sting, even when he was infused with new energy... he hadn't felt that in some time indeed.

But this witch was supposed to help him. She would help him, lest she deal with his consequences. He was even considering just consuming her, once she took him away from all the other humans to help him discreetly. But her demonic heritage would undoubtedly come back to bite him in the ass if he did.

"What are you?" he asked suddenly, after several minutes of walking silence, "Specifically? What is the nature of your heritage, your abilities?"