|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:42 pm
Jade checked her watch. Two twenty five. Okay so she was 5 minutes early. She'd never been good with these sort of things. Was early a good thing or an inconvenience to the host?
"Bah!" Somehow every time she found herself on a small street in front of a weird store, there was always a mist of rain. Granted, it may only have happened a few times in her life but she was pretty sure that it was misting every time. Five minutes early, inconvenient or not, would get her out of this mist.
Jade approached the store and peered through the windows. The designer purse under her arm revealed her love of shopping but this wasn't necessarily her type of place. Catching her reflection in the window she pushed back a few blonde flyaways. She heard a hissing chuckled behind her but she refused to turn around. This thing, this Strix, refused to leave her alone and so far, refused to communicate with her.
Letting out a deep sigh she pushed open the door and looked around for assistance.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 6:34 pm
Hae-min and her assistant had the afternoon off--well, not off, they had taken a volatile piece of magic to a specialist. That was part of the 'fun', Hae-min had been saying reflectively. Guinevere, poor Guinevere, looked totally unconvinced. Martel, normally dead emotionally, was a little embarrassed. Aleph did not look like alpha at all.
So Jade was met with Edward, ink-stains on his collar, finishing up... something. Notes on some summoning or other. But, he did look up and say, tiredly, "Banshee, stop bothering Miss Mixlin. You are Miss Mixlin?..."
If you wish, said something. Behind Jade, a black-skinned woman with red hair shut the door. Then she faded out of sight, as if she'd never been there.
"My name is Edward Fauste. It's a pleasure to meet you." He dipped his fingers in a bowl of water, wiped them on a piece of cloth and then held out one hand to shake. "You're early; that's all right, though. It's been a while since any client has bothered to make an appointment."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 7:27 am
Jade jolted only slightly when the black skinned woman just seemed to be behind her. "Oh jeez.. sorry ma'am. I jump when things pop out.."
She would be polite to everyone, normal or not. Upon moving to Gaia she had learned that every single weird thing in the world was just an everyday event here. She had a hard time telling what was a thinking, speaking person and what was not.
Jade cast her eyes around the room before resting them on Edward and he was enough to make her blush, only slightly. Jade wasn't a bad looking woman but with the exception of her striking green eyes, she was rather plain and hadn't done herself up. She certainly wasn't used to being in the company of attractive young men. She had always been the girl who dated funny, plain looking fellows. Edward was much younger than she had imagined!
"Nice to meet you Edward." She readjusted the bag on her shoulder and reached out to take his hand. Luckily her initial blush was already gone. "It's just a little messy outside and I didn't want to get too wet. I like your.. umm shop?" She got the feeling that you didn't pay with much money in here. It reminded her of her father's old bookshop back in London, except more organized.
"I was referred to you. I believe my father called? He got your number from some of his friends." Well, Tom and Carmine weren't really friends but they knew exactly where to send her.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 5:18 pm
It is fine, said the invisible woman.
Edward shook his head. "You're the first she's spoken to in a long time," he informed Jade. "I'll take it as a sign that this will go smoothly." Signs and portents were more Hae-min's area than his, and even more than Hae-min's they were Martel's. Being dead tended to help you with that.
"Yes. It was a bit surprising, honestly. Hmm." Edward was pulling down books, now. "He didn't give me any details. What exactly are we dealing with here, Miss Mixlin? Do you know? The only employee with any talent for divining is currently out on an errand, you see."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 6:04 pm
Jade took the compliments as they came and was good at not questioning too much. Her father was right when he said that her talent lay in adapting to any situation.
"Well Mr. Fauste," she took her handbag from her shoulder and sat it on the nearest flat surface."First I'd just like to say that whatever you know about my family... well I'm not like them. I just don't have the magical thing that they have. So all of this is mostly just strange to me. But it started up a week or so ago."
Jade started to mill around, pace slightly while she tried to briefly recount the tale. Her voice lilted with a gentle English accent. "I turned thirty, don't tell anyone," she smiled a little, "and Dad was talking about how it was only yesterday I was a little girl.. you know.. and he brought up my tenth birthday. Basically, on my tenth birthday I tried to prove I was just as good at magic as my sister. I summoned something. I didn't know anything about it at the time. Strix. Dad saved me.. I swore off magic and never tried again." Jade exhaled, glad to spit out the summary without the details. Of course it had to have taken some magical ability to summon. Thinking of it still made some part of her long for those skills.
She turned her emerald eyes back to Edward. "While I was remembering my birthday so many years ago, I am pretty sure that it came back.. or never left.. I don't know. But it's been around since. I think it likes to torture me."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 7:56 pm
"Your secret is safe with me," said Edward.
He glanced up from his books to smile at Jade. At his desk again, he started to flip through one of the thinner ones, nodding when she had finished relating her tale. "Sounds fairly textbook, if you've spent most of your life working with demons, I suppose. Hmm." There was a box on his desk; he was flipping through it.
"You'd be surprised what you can do with common household spices and a demon," he was saying as he picked packets of herbs out of the metal tin. Cinnamon--camphor--celandine? Cherry? Ivy? What was this, some kind of... plant show or something? "Cinnamon, for instance, is strong in divination, as are camphor and cherry. Celandine protects--it's a good name for that reason as well. Ivy, also an aide for divination. Banshee, my demon--" the black-skinned woman made a reappearance over his shoulder "--is incredibly attuned as well to the comings and goings of the supernatural world. If it is as you say and this strix has been on you since your childhood, I don't believe I can banish it entirely... The best I believe I can do is to contract it to you. That should prolong your life greatly."
He was a little surprised that no one had thought to send Jade to a daemonolgist sooner. The connection might have been broken then, but once you had been bound to a demon for a certain length of time, well, it became ingrained. They, Martel and Edward and Tae-yul, had been on Gaia for twenty years at least--Edward had been nine when they left Earth, at any rate. He was thirty-one now. Standing up, finally, he held out the packet of celandine. "Hold on to that, please, Miss Mixlin." Whatever he'd been mixing he handed to the banshee, who took it without comment.
"If this works, the Strix should manifest here," he explained, "and once it is inside the shop, we have means to ensure it does not leave. Wards on the walls, and such, which the Banshee will kindly?... yes, thank you. Whenever you're ready, "
The banshee smiled, spread her hands to reveal powder, and blew it out into the room with an unearthly cry.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 8:19 pm
Jade watched him, feeling fairly clueless but absorbing as much of the information as she could. She had no idea about herbs and demons. Her first and only demon experience, she thought, had been a total sham. Apparently not.
Jade took the celadine in her hand, looking at it only briefly. When Edward mentioned that the red haired woman had been his demon she gulped. Perhaps she had the typical misconceptions about demons presented by movies, but generally it was natural to be slightly frightened of a demon.
Her fears were immediately tested.
The effect of the revealing powder was almost immediate. Where Banshee blew the powder it was as if the grains turned immediately into feathers. Mingling with the banshee's cry came a high pitched laughter, more like a mad giggling. The feather's swirled towards Jade and she flinched away (she'd never been a fan of birds). The formed into a mass shaped like a large owl with a white cheshire grin. The feathers swirled once more before the demon appeared fully.
"Ah.. ha.." In it's full glory, the ashen skinned Strix was not more than a torso, flaking in and out of the planes with an occasional ruffling feather. Blood red rimmed it's eyes and struck down the cheeks. More scary than anything, especially to Jade, was it's maddening grin. It's teeth would clack every once in a while like the clacking of a beak.
"Yooou.. You got me." The demon held it's hands up in the air in surrender before bursting into creepy giggles.
Jade was momentarily petrified by the being in front of her. Her memories from childhood, some of the most traumatizing, were now solidified in front of her. She would snap out of it in a moment, but for now all she could do was freeze and stare.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 9:08 pm
If Jade was afraid, Edward was an untouchable pillar of unshaken. A corner of his eyebrow twitched, but honestly, he dealt with his banshee every single day of his life. (Said banshee was scowling at the strix, expression starkly lit by the glow from her mouth and eyes.)
"We have got you," he affirmed, placing one hand on Jade's shoulder and squeezing it to let her know that nothing was going to happen unless she wanted it to. "And we shan't let you go until you've struck up a contract with this young lady. This time, she will be informed as to what she's agreeing upon." He didn't chide the strix, or appear horrified by what it had done. He was nothing if not used to the terrible actions demons might take in pursuit of power and evergy.
The banshee shadowing him, he stepped towards the strix, putting Jade behind him. "What is the original contract, strix?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 9:27 pm
In response to Edward's statements the Strix only smiled and clacked it's teetch every so often. It's eyes slid to Jade and she slowly, ever so slowly, relaxed under Fauste's hand.
"I kept my eennnd." It chittered. "And she didn't even notice!" It rolled it's head around in a circle, only halfway, as it was insisted he reveal the original contract.
"In return for maaagical powers." The Strix's eyes now slipped past Edward and stuck to Jade. "For enhanced magical powers the life of a child was bound to me. As the contract was with the said child, and interrupted," it muttered and looked slightly annoyed, "I fed upon her energies with no interference to her life, out of kindness my ear sssssir kindness, once a decade upon which time I was recovered in strength." The Strix's head tilt and tone seemed to press the matted that the demon had held back for some reason. But could you believe a demon?
"In return I gave her formidable magic power. I did! Do not blame Strix if she decided not to use them!"
Jade's jaw dropped and she felt her face flushing. She wasn't sure if she was embarrassed or enraged.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:15 pm
"I don't blame you," sighed Edward.
It omits, said the banshee, sourly. She was sulking quite openly now, and had since gone invisible. Edward sighed again. "Jade, is this contract still agreeable to you now that you know the terms? If you want to renegotiate, what terms do you prefer?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 5:42 am
Magical powers? She had them? All this time? There were other questions, a thousand, but she had no idea how long this negotiation would last.
"Now that you are recovered," She stepped up slightly, trying to take some sort of more active role in negotiations for her own soul, "What does that mean for me? When would this contract end?"
"Oh.. do not look so angry.." The Strix seemed to look on her with a strange affection. Jade had a hard time deciphering it. "I am a fair creature and this arrangement is always, ALWAYS about what we want. Am I right, Mr. Summoner, sir? I just want energy, sustenance. She wants powers. I am sure you wanted something when you contracted your lady friend as well." The Strix grinned again. If Banshee had remained visible, he may have even hit on her. He was a strange one. "Whether it be common knowledge or a miracle. It is alwaaaaays about our wants."
"But you are saying that you gave me powers. You gave them to me.. back when I was 10?"
The Strix nodded.
"And I never used them." Her brows furrowed. "You never answered, when will this end? And how much 'sustenance' will you need?"
The Strix once more clacked it's teeth. "No more than I have thus been taking, lady. I stick with you and you, just by living, feed me. You will feel weak sometimes, tired, but the more you use your power.. the easier it will be to bear. At such time when I am fully restored to my previous loveliness, we may renegotiate or end the contract. You don't think I've been a legless wisp forever, did you?" It laughed again.
Jade looked at Edward a moment as if he would make the decision for her. She literally was contemplating being bound to a soul sucking monster. And a creepy one, at that. But the powers... they were something she had wished for since she was only a child. Jade decided it was time to step up. She must have had some power to begin with to summon this thing. She had to have the tiniest bit of natural talent. This would be her jumping off point!
A new home. A new future.
"I agree."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 8:59 am
This one was a little more... astute, wasn't he. Edward crossed his arms, thinking that it'd probably be a million years before anyone learned exactly why he'd chosen to summon a banshee when there were thousands of other spirits and demons that could have done the job twice as well. By now, of course, breaking his bond with the red-haired demoness would likely kill him, and definitely make him a vegetable. He--
Edward shook his head, cleared out those thoughts. "That's true. Hardly ever does someone come to us with a necessity such as this one." He fell silent to let the pair of them finish their negotiations. It was fascinating, watching a binding with his own eyes; usually he simply handed them a book and off they went, to return where Sofiel could look into their minds, see what they saw, and Edward could write down what they remembered.
"If you're agreed, then little else is necessary," he said. "Unless Miss Mixlin would like a hard copy of the terms?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 10:10 am
"I don't know how it works in magic land, but in the real world we never sign a contract without having a hard copy. Especially not in London." Jade smirked. In her mind though, she felt as though she were making too much light of such a situation. She'd been normal only seconds before and now she was signing a contract with a demon.
"Very good. I approve." Strix clacked and smiled. "I like Miss Mixlin. I like you very much." It's feathered head swivelled and Jade suddenly realized that despite it's birdlike nature it also seemed somewhat like a feline. Each of those animals was familiar to her and each was akin to her father's type of magical origins. She wondered, just to herself, if that meant anything.
"I don't know how much your opinion matters at this moment Strix." Jade perhaps should not have been so hostile to the being right off the bat, but she was still rather angry about years of being cheated by it. "If we are to be bound together I do not want any more subterfuge. This is my life keeping you alive so I would like a modicum of honesty and respect. Now sign the contract." Jade pointed her finger and admonished the demon as if it were one of her children. It became clear that she was a mother.
Strix only cackled again, seeming to enjoy the downtalk very much. "Yes ma'am."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 10:57 am
Edward quirked one eyebrow. "Some demons do require a hard contract," he said, stepping over to the desk and pulling out a slip of paper and a larger piece of parchment. "Other demons do not. It is a..." He paused to write something on the larger piece, then passed the parchment to the Strix. "Personal preference, one might say." The only writing instruments in the shop seemed to be quills, which explained the ink spots all over his shirt cuffs, but not the perfect handwriting on the page. "Make sure I got all of the conditions right. Please."
The smaller slip of paper he kept to himself.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 11:11 am
Strix, for the first time, dropped it's smile as it read the contract thoroughly. Perhaps it was used to giving it's victims the sleight or perhaps it just took the actual contracting very seriously. Jade wasn't sure if she found it's mocking grin or it's more serious tone to be more worrisome.
Luckily, being from a wizarding family meant that Jade knew how to use a quill. When the Strix had marked the page (it was more of a symbol than a name) she made sure to read it over very carefully. With an affirming headnod, she scrawled her own neat signature across the bottom.
"Well. That's done." She looked to the demon with her striking green eyes. "I better not regret this." If she did, it was too late.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
