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 Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 1:19 pm
The Guard regarded her blankly for a moment.
"236 Processing Error: Language unknown." The Guard turned to Julian, who was giving Rabid a look torn between exasperation and barely-contained amusement.
"State thy business, traveller."
Julian toyed at a spiky corner of his mask, eyeing the Guard apprehensively.
"We in'cent trav-ler's from Gurga. Brother has home in city - me, wife, and pets go into city to see him." he rambled in a heavily accented and nasally voice, knowing Rabid was going to kill him for calling her his wife. And Malachi would most likely try to eat his eyes for that pet remark, too, her reflected dully.
The Guard loomed over Rabid, scanning her briefly with an infrared laser.
"DNA scan accepted."
The Guard eyed Malachi and Cole without remark as it then crossed to Julian. He gave a gulp as the scan moved up and down his body. Oh, but he hoped it had worked....
"DNA scan accepted. Be welcome to Hakursta - please, no outside food or drink beyond this point. Enjoy your stay."
With a sigh of relief, Julian grabbed Rabid by the arm and hoisted her up, half-dragging her through the now open gate. Cole trudged behind them, giving the Guard a fascinated look as he passed it. The Guard bowed it head to the dragon respectfully and turned away, slinking back inside the guard station.
"Come on, dear, gotta go, now."
The gate closed behind them as they crossed the threshold, static electricity sparking back to life in the conductors and sealing them inside the city. Pushing his mask up and wiping a bit of sweat off his face, he looked around apprehensively.
"We gotta keep moving - I've got an apartment we can crash in 'til morning."
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Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 1:27 pm
"They don't speak Vavvian," Rabid panted and refused to lift her mask up. her cheeks were bright red underneath.
Ike perked up immadiately and tore his mask off, dropping to the ground. Oh a whim, he fell to the ground, bouncing back up onto Julian's back almost immediately. He let out a loud squawk and giggled.
"Good Julian," he said and dropped to the ground, walking clumsily on all fours, just in case.
"Two bedroom, right?" Rabid joked.
She could always move herself to a couch.
Or the roof.
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Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 1:42 pm
Julian looked at Malachi in astonishment at this sudden acceptance, and smiled. Clearing his throat awkwardly at Rabid's question, he nodded while looking away.
"Hell, I don't even know what Vavvian is. You gotta remember, Rijan's pretty isolated from the rest of the world - our tourism comes almost entirely from Fisk and Gurga." he cleared his throat again. "Anyway. The apartment. It's in one of the towers towards the middle of the city - we better get going or we might run into another Guard."
Picking up Malachi's discarded mask and handing it back to him, he drew his own back down over his face.
"Alway keep your mask on - its considered unrefined and rude to show your face in the city, male or female."
Sure enough, everyone they passed in the streets wore a mask - even the beggars and homeless. Marching through the streets silently, Julian gave Rabid a sidelong glance. She'd taken the wife comment better than he'd anticipated, thankfully.
The apartment tower soon loomed before them, a glass and steel behemoth of modern architecture that reflected the last dying rays of sunlight with a bloody light. The sliding glass door to an outdoor elevator opened for them as they approached. Julian shooed an apprehensive Cole into the thing and looked at Rabid, holding out an arm to keep the door from closing.
"Well, ladies first."
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Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 1:48 pm
Ike sighed an pulled his mask over his eyes, now completely unable to see unless he crossed his eyes. Damnable squirrel-eyes.
Rabid quickly picked her son up and stepped into the elevator.
"Hey, if we run into any more guards, I could just start reciting poetry. Maybe their heads'd explode." She snickered at the thought, and was quite glad to not have to remove her mask. When you were the undead, a little blush looked like someone had went a little trigger-happy with a can of red spray paint.
"This is completely insane," Rabid murmured as she put her own hand out, keeping the door open for Julian.
This blindness was beginning to make Malachi nervous, and he whimpered slightly and buried his head in Mummy's chest and flicked his tail.
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Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 2:13 pm
Julian entered the crowded lift and pressed one of the glass buttons. The lift began to climb smoothly upwards, rapidly passing dozens of floors. A minute later, the lift slowed and stopped on the eighty seventh floor, its back door opening to admit everyone out into the small corridor. The door at the end of the hall slid open as they approached, the lights inside the apartment flickering to life on their own.
Crossing the frame almost resentfully, Julian gave a bow to Rabid and tugged off his mask.
"Welcome to my humble home," he said in a dry tone, sweeping his arms out.
Cole stepped gingerly into the apartment, eyes darting suspiciously around. Seeming satisfied that there were no raving machete-wielding lunatics ready to gut them, the dragon melted into shadow and crept up into a dark pool of shadow in a corner of the columned ceiling, only his eyes remaining visible.
Sadako poked her head out of the bag in fascination, blank eyes glittering behind her mask.
"Big," she said, head turnng 360 degrees to get a good look around.
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Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 2:21 pm
"I keep forgetting that you're a rich," Rabid glanced down at her son, "B-A-S-T-A-R-D."
"Mummy," Ike said as he tore his mask off and jumped down, "You're just teaching Ike how to spell bad words." He grabbed Sadako from the bag and began wandering the apartment with her, exploring carefully.
Rabid snickered and yawned and murmured, "Stress, stress, stress..." This was nuts. Flying creatures and evil women and weird accents and huge apartments...Gods...
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Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 2:36 pm
Julian snorted.
"Kid's got a point, ya know."
Shrugging off his frock coat and tossing it and his mask onto the long wrap-around couch, he sighed and looked out the window that made up the entire back wall. The city sprawled farther than his eye could see, a crystal mass of glowing lights.
It made him sick to look at it.
Pushing a button on the wall panel savagely, he resisted the urge to spit as the veil-like curtains drew themselves across the window wall. Pressing a few more buttons here and there, the lights dimmed accordingly and the massive television flickered to life. Smiling as he watched Cole nesting in the corner of the ceiling, he turned to Rabid.
"Well, considering I'm still recovering from the whole possession thing, I'm gonna hit the hay. The bedrooms are on the second floor, but you can kip in the garden terrace if you want - there's a couch and some blankets out on the pavilion by the pool." Honestly unaware of how much of his wealth he was revealing in this innocent statement, he waved tiredly before heading upstairs on the small, gilded lift.
"Good night."
Sadako nestled against Malachi, most likely thinking of how this was her first night away from her beloved Lenore.
"Good night." She said slightly resentfully, tugging off her mask.
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Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 2:42 pm
"G'night, Julian," Rabid murmured and waved slightly. She and Ike wandered for some time before she found said couch. She flopped down and fell asleep almost immediately.
Ike lay on Mummy, placing Sadako carefully beside him.
"Night, Dolly," he murmured, "We find Len. No worry." He soon fell asleep too, curled up into a little ball and hugging his tail.
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 9:22 am
__Part 28 (PoD1)
The little bar town Julian and Rabid had left a while ago was now into its full nocturnal swing. Dozens of buildings that had looked empty and abandoned flourished with lights, music, and increasingly inebriated people. Lenore wandered the cobblestone streets appreciatively, admiring the outside of a Goth scene club. A long line of people dressed in black, long clothes despite the warm weather captivated her, their spiky jewelry and piercings delightful to look at. They stood idly outside the club, glaring at anyone who dared stare at them. Brushing off her dirty clothes and straightening her blood vial pendant, she joined the back of the line and beamed as a group of shaved-headed girls with Edward Scissorhands-esque body suits looked at her in surprise.
"My name's Lenore and I'm a Mishap, what's your name?" she asked the nearest girl lightly, flaring her tail feathers like a peacock. The girl gave her a slightly haughty look and responded in an airy, chiming language Lenore couldn't understand. The other girls tugged at each other's sleeves and whispered behind their hands, pointing openly at Lenore's bird-like feet and razor feathers. Feeling a little self-conscious, she abandonded the girls and dove a little deeper into the line. It was a black, spiky mass of fetish straps and buckles, and for a while she was unable to see anything but the sea of legs. She was lost in the line for nearly half an hour when she was suddenly pushed inexorably forward as the club doors opened.
Moving along with the flow of traffic, she suddenly found herself in a dark, cloistered place. Black veils hung low from the ceiling, turning the red lights above them a fetching sanguine color. The place was themed to look like a graveyard, and despite herself Lenore felt suddenly quite at home. The mass of people within the club were too busy talking, dancing and drinking to notice the small child in their midst, giving Lenore ample time to explore.
Suddenly wishing Cole and Sadako were with her, she climbed up the spiral staircase up into the nearly pitch black upper level. People were scattered here and there at single seater tables reading, talking or smoking, and it was too dark to notice the tiny girl as she sneaked around.
"The boys woulda loved this," she said to herself. Deimos especially, since the third level of the club a demonic theme she was sure he would have appreciated. As for Osso and Malachi - well, bones and Vampiric-looking people were everywhere. Feeling particularly homesick, she shuffled through the crowd and took a seat at the far end of the bar that was completely plunged into shadow. Plucking one of her more damaged razor feathers off (they had almost completely regrown, and she'd been molting the old ones for a while), she twirled it in her long fingers before starting to scratch a picture into the cold black marble counter top.
The bartender, a young woman with dark brown skin, a violent pink mohawk and punk attire that seemed a bit out of place in the club, noticed the movement in the corner. Picking up her order pad and snaking her way past the other tender, she leaned on the counter and picked up a pen.
"What's your poison?" she shouted over the pounding music, her richly accented voice nearly lost to the music.
Lenore gave a start as the pretty lady with the cool hair started talking to her. Poison? Did she mean like cyanide or mercury? Thinking hard, Lenore leaned a little closer so that the lady could hear her.
"D'you mean like arsenic?"
The girl could barely hear the piping voice over the music. Not for the first time, she wished she could've gotten a job somewhere quieter. She picked out the word "arsenic" in the reply, and felt her eyes roll involuntarily. Great, this guy was either a bad joker or some teeny bopper emo-kid looking for a quick influx of pity.
"No, a drink, ya bloody sod! Drink!"
Oooh. A drink. Okay, then.
"Chocolate milk, please!"
The girl clapped a hand to her forehead. She hated it when she got customers like these - too intent on staring at her to do more than flirt idiotically or start inane conversations. Turning away and shaking her head, she ducked out from the bar into the second floor kitchen, wincing as bright lights hit her in the face as she entered. Ignoring the yells from the cooks as she picked her way through, she grabbed one of the milk jugs from the giant refrigerator and a bottle of chocolate syrup that was usually meant for the Irish Coffee. Squirting in half the bottle and stirring it with a swizzle stick, she made her way out of the kitchen and back to the customer. Slamming the milk down with a snide smile, she licked a bit of stray syrup off her fingers absently.
"There ya are, mate, one chocolate milk. Enjoy."
"Thank you!"
The girl was turning to another customer when she saw the strangely fingered hand pull the tumbler glass full of milk into the shadows. She gaped at how tiny it was, and how strangely deformed it looked. That was far too tiny to be an adult's hand...
Lenore slurped down her chocolate milk happily. Oh, the pretty lady had been extra nice and given her lots of chocolate - how lovely! Stirring it with the sword-shaped swizzle stick, she spun slowly on the rotating bar stool. Goodness, but this was fun. It was certainly a relief to stop thinking about Crow and stupid, evil Julian for a few minutes. Curling her fingers and toes in pleasure as she took another sip of the milk, she spun 'round to face the bar and noticed the pretty lady staring at her.
She waved, though was a bit unsure if the lady could see her.
The girl saw something metallic winking in the bloodred light in the shadowy corner, some kind of spiky armwarmer or something her milk-drinking customer wore all the way up to their shoulders. She was about to venture over to the corner again when the other tender tapped her shoulder and jerked his thumb at a waiting customer.
"Talee, ya got people waitin'."
Talee gave a grumble and and went over, taking orders. She glanced warily over at the shadowy corner, unable to snuff her curiousity. After a minute she shook her head and turned away. These Gothic types were just too weird for her.
Slurping down the rest of her milk and sticking a finger into the glass to wipe up what was left of the syrup, Lenore watched the pretty lady with interest. Her clothing was a lot different from the other peoples - hers was colorful, instead of solid black or dark red. Her guy's tank top had a spraypainted skull done in red, artfully ripped and then closed with safety pins. Her plaid skirt was more safety pins than fabric, and her fishnet stockings were almost too ripped to be wearable. Her heavy boots made loud clunking sounds when she walked across the metal floor, laces trailing.
Lenore liked her immediately. Clambering off her stool and jumping soundlessly onto the bar, she jumped down off it and into the cramped area behind it. Sneaking past the other tender, she reached up and tugged at the lady's skirt.
"My name's Lenore, what's yours?" she shouted up to the lady, smiling innocently.
Talee looked down at what was tugging her skirt, ready to slap who ever was trying to peep at her. What she saw made her blood freeze. A child, a weird, big-eyed, spiky armed, weirdly deformed child was smiling and waving at her, an empty glass coated with chocolate syrup clutched in one oddly digited hand.
"Oh my bloody GOD!" she shrieked, abandoning the customer currently harrassing her and picked the child up gingerly, momentarily put off by how feather light she was. Bolting from out behind the bar and racing downstairs to the employee lounge, she kicked the battered old steel door open and looked around to make sure no one else was skulking around. Locking the door behind her and setting the kid down on the worn out couch and stared.
"How the hell did you get in here, child?"
Lenore couldn't help but giggle at the pretty lady.
"Everyone went in, so I went in too," she said patiently as though stating the obvious. "An my name's not Child, it's Lenore. What's yours?"
Talee tried not to stare at the girls many deformities, but it was hard to be polite. The girl looked almost...bird-like.
"Uh, my name's Talee. Talee Latero. Chilld - uh. Lenore, why are you in here? Where's your mumma?"
Lenore smiled and played with the swizzle stick, licking off a bit more of the syrup.
"My whole name's Lenore Ligeia Adyamaur. P'eased to meet you." At the mention of her "mumma", Lenore suddenly sniffled as reality came back to bite her in the butt.
"My mumma's been kidnapped. She gone, an' I dunno where she is." she said sadly, head bowed and tears starting to smart in her eyes.
Talee ran her teeth over her lip ring anxiously. Okay, so the kid knew her whole name. Good. She probably knew where she lived, too. But by the sound of it, that wasn't a place she could go back to, since her mother had been kidnapped.
It was turning out to be a bad night.
Sitting next to Lenore and smoothing down the girl's snarled hair, she smiled as kindly as she could as the girl looked at her with animal-like eyes.
"Don't worry, sweetie. I'll take care of ya 'til we can find your mum, okay?" she said, fully intent on dropping the child off at the police station as soon as possible. But when the little girl smiled at her and gave her a tight hug, Talee found she was a bit unwilling to dump the child and get her even more scared than she must already be. Heaving a sigh and taking Lenore by the hand, she unlocked the door and ventured out into the club. Her boss, a deeply intimidating man with a steel bolt through the bridge of his nose, started yelling at her as she crossed the floor to the exit. Talee waved him off with a one-fingered salute that Lenore cheerfully copied, and forced her way out into the warm and quiet Rijani night. She marched to the employee parking and opened the car door for Lenore, smiling slightly as the child looked up at her in curiosity.
"C'mon, kiddo. I'll bring ya home. I didn't like that job much anyways."
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 2:07 pm
__Part 29 (PoD1)
Crow was half-asleep, exhausted from her raging and crying, when the now quite badly damaged door creaked open again. She stirred a little, blinking as the cold silver light poured into her darkened chamber. Pulling the shredded coverlet over her head, she gave a sleep-slurred mumble and curled under it, trying to get back to sleep. She gave a shriek of protest as the coverlet was ripped off of her and Something picked her up and threw her out of the bed and onto the splintered arm chair. Shocked into wakefulness, she glared at the indistinct form of Jeddeth as it threw the coverlet back on the bed.
"What the hell do you want? Go bug someone else."
Jeddeth's masked face turned to face her slowly, its breath rising in a cloud despite the warmth of the room. Far from intimidating her now, Crow stared back in profound irritation.
"Yeah, the whole Darth Vader breathing-and-looming thing ain't that scary anymore. You really need a new gimmick."
If Jeddeth took this insult about its looming personally, it didn't show it.
"Thou shalt come with me, One-Called-Crow.'
Crow gave Jeddeth a dagger stare.
"What, not gonna order me around? After all, I'm a slave, aren't I?"
Jeddeth did not reply, merely contenting itself to glide towards the heavy door and hold it open for her. Knowing she had no other choice but to go where it lead, Crow kicked open the chest of drawers tucked in one corner and yanked out a new dress to wear before elbowing her way past the masked creature. Jeddeth put a gauntleted hand on her shoulder and guided her gently through the hall, its masked head bowed down to look at her.
---
Jeddeth escorted Crow to an unfamiliar chamber, illuminated not by the bizarre motionless silver fire, but by regular torches. It was a pleasure to bask in the flickering warmth of the flames, seeing as every other room in the place was freezing. Looking around in dull interest, Crow gave an unimpressed sniff. The room was chiseled from some warm red stone, its rough-hewn walls covered with crudely made, fraying tapestries. After the monochromatic color scheme she'd been subjected to the last few days, seeing things in color again seemed almost unnatural. In a raised basin at the center of the room was a pool of sorts, filled to the brim with thick black fluid that rippled and moved as though being stirred by wind. Crow ventured over and leaned over it to inspect it closer, and found that though it reflected everything else in the room, it didn't reflect her face.
"Be welcomed, child."
Crow glanced at the tarnished mirror that covered one of the walls. The snowy-skinned woman who had seemed to dote on her before looked at her now as though she was an insect the woman dearly wanted to crush. Stepping daintily from the confines of the ancient mirror, the woman shooed Jeddeth away.
"Go haunt some other hall - I've no need of you, slave."
Jeddeth gave a rattling sigh in reply an withdrew, gliding silently through the crudely hacked portal and disappearing. Crow gave the woman a dead pan look and took a seat at the edge of the pool, watching the black water swirl and move on its own. The woman watched her with her equally dark eyes for a moment before speaking.
"So, Sarah. Have you finally decided to act like an adult instead of such a pathetically weak and complaining child?"
Crow eyed the woman with disinterest.
"The name's Crow."
The woman sneered.
"I will indulge your moods no longer. The date of the deal's closing draws nigh - you will soon fully belong to us, and your pathetic consciousness of self will be no longer needed."
This got Crow's attention.
"Yeah, about the deal. Could ya fill me in on the details, since you seem to be implying you and your Darth Vader-ripoff are gonna eat my soul or somethin'? Ya know, just for the sake of posterity?
The woman gave a thin smile.
"As you wish."
Dragging her long fingers across the surface of the pool, the woman whispered words in an evil-sounding tongue as the liquid within the basin began to roil and bubble violently. Crow slid off the edge quickly, staring at the viscuous surface in apprehension. The boiling liquid began to slop over the sides, staining the red floor a bloody black where it fell. The stink of congealed blood filled the air and made Crow gag.
All at once, the liquid rose up in the tortured form of a screaming face, empty eye sockets wide as its contorted mouth. Crow bit back a scream of her own as an unearthly wailing filled the chamber as the face melted back into liquid. The stink of old blood heavy in her nostrils, Crow dared to lean over the basin slightly.
She couldn't help but gasp.
The liquid's surface had gone smooth as glass, and something like a movie was playing on it. She looked up at the woman with a wry expression.
"Dude. Rip off Harry Potter much?"
The woman gave her a scathing look and pointed wordlessly at the pool's surface. Crow looked again and leaned in closer, as tinny voices seemed to be echoing across the pool's glassy surface.
"That...that's my dad," she said, torn between hatred of him and the surprise to see him in such a squalid backdrop. She looked at the woman in confusion.
"What is this?"
The woman smiled thinly again.
"This is the event that decided your fate. Watch and be educated."
Crow looked down sullenly again, watching her father slave in a filthy alchemists laboratory, and held her tongue as the voices became clearer.
---
"One ouce mercury, dash of powdered sulfur, one tablespoon pure arsenic, and half an ounce of gold..."
Yagadath squinted through smudged glasses as he ran one heavily gloved finger down the paragraph highlighted in his book, mouthing the words he couldn't pronounce in a futile attempt to sound them out. With a shrug and a grunt, he tossed in a scrap of gold into the viciously boiling contents of the cauldron, skittering away in case the great iron thing exploded like his previous seven had. The fire spit sparks and hissed as great globs of the mixture in the cauldron were thrown out, and Yagadath had to cover his nose with both hands at the awesome stink that came with the smoke from the mix's surface.
"That can't be right," he muttered to himself, dabbing at his streaming eyes as the smoke stung them.
"GRSHLRB!"
Yagadath started and stared. The cauldron had made a sound equivalent to that of a hippopotomus in the throes of a nasty bout with the stomach flu, and that always meant...
"DUCK AND COVER!"
BOOM.
Yagadath scuttled out from under his worktable warily, staring at the charred and steaming remains of his cauldron and eightieth-failed Philosopher's Stone. Kicking at the ruins in disappointment, he began the arduous clean up, grumbling to himself.
Four hours later, Yagadath was slumped over the worktable, fast asleep. His head rested on the beaten and torn book, a small puddle of spittle staining its oft-abused pages. Yagadath had doodled stick figures of himself wearing a crown above the emblazoned title of the chapter, an elaborately lettered "To Create the Philosopher's Stone". There were also scribbled complaints on the complexity of the recipe, most ended by multiple exclamation points and silly angry stick figures screaming in frustration.
Clearly, Yagadath did not have patience needed for the art of alchemy.
He stirred in his sleep, eyes rolling under their lids. The lingering fumes from the failed Stone had begun to affect him, his dreams twisting into bizarre half-conscious hallucinations his worn and sleep-deprived mind could hardly understand.
He could hear someone whispering in his ear...
"Bershnnk!"
Yagadath sat up, wide awake and heart pounding. Morning sunlight poured into the dirty laboratory, dust swirling in the golden shafts that cut into the room. Shreds of half remembered dreams clung to his dizzy mind, and he stumbled out of the lab to get a breath of fresh air. The Fiskan sun beat down heavily on him, and the light glaring off the uninterrupted desert that stretched for miles burned his unfocused eyes.
"Just not my week," he muttered sullenly to himself.
Stumbling like a drunk back into his lab, he gave a half-lucid laugh as he saw the state of his work area. The latest failure had blackened the walls and set the paint to blistering and peeling away, revealing the crumbling mud brick beneath. With a careless shrug, Yagadath took his seat at the table again and laid his head on top of the book. He was too tired to care about this...
When his eyes opened again, night had reclaimed the world. His head was no clearer - perhaps the fumes had done more damage than he'd originally anticipated. After all, he had to be hallucinating the white fire that roared so merrily in his dingy fireplace.
"One-Called-Haderka, ye are chosen."
Yagadath blinked slowly. Oh yeah. Major hallucination.
"That's Yagadath Haderka. Doctor, if you want to get technical. I'm a scientist, dammit."
"Ye are no physician devoted to the welfare of man, One-Called-Haderka. Ye are a failure in the most true sense of the word."
Yagadath twitched. He wasn't going to be insulted by some hallucination in his own laboratory.
"Now listen here, you stupid vapor-inhalation induced bit of brain damage. You'll not speak to me that way in my own fireplace. Go bug someone dropping acid - I've no need of someone else telling me how worthless I am."
The fire flared a little higher and slithered out of the fireplace, tendrils of icy flame snaking around him. He sighed and leaned into the touch of the tendrils - the icy coldness was a pleasure to his fevered body. The blaze's harsh light grew gentle, sparing his eyes from further discomfort.
"Forgive mine words of cruelty, One-Called-Haderka. The trivialities of human civility are lost upon me, I am afeared. I come to ye with a proposition of great value, if ye would care to hear it still."
Yagadath eyed the fire suspiciously. Hallucinations didn't usually speak so eloquently. But, what the heck, he'd go with it as long as the trip lasted.
"Sure. Shoot."
The tendrils withdrew, and the fire began to mutate. In the space between hearbeats, the white fire had transmuted into a voluptuous though cadaver-like woman in black. Her onyx eyes fixed on Yagadath slyly. He merely stared at her, mouth slightly agape.
Damn. Whatever I inhaled damaged all the right brain cells, he thought to himself in astonishment. Tearing his eyes from the low cut front of her clingy dress, he watched his haggard face reflected in those shining eyes.
"And you are?"
The woman smiled.
"I am the Dead Queen, Avatar of We-Who-Watch, and the bringer of what you desire with all your heart and soul."
Yagadath felt his breathing go shallow.
"The Stone..." he rasped. The Dead Queen smiled and ran a thin finger down his cheek.
"What would you be willing to trade for eternal life, wealth, and glory?"
Thinking as quickly as his still-hazy mind would allow, he looked around the lab aimlessly. What could he offer that would be equal?
The Dead Queen watched his struggle in detached amusement.
"Speak quickly. My masters do not care to dally long to hear out your decision."
But it's just a hallucination, a small nagging voice in the back of his mind protested. You're not gonna get it now, and you never will.
Sensing the Dead Queen's growing impatience, Yagadath tried to think faster. What was an equal trade for eternal life...?
Suddenly it clicked.
Raising his eyes timidly to meet the black ones of the Queen, he wrung his hands wearily.
"I offer you my soul."
The Dead Queen smiled again, a slow vicious smile that chilled him to the bone.
"I do not accept."
Yagadath felt his knees weaken.
"But it is all I have that is equal!" he protested angrily. The Dead Queen cocked her head to one side and stared at him unblinking.
"What if I asked for the soul of another?"
Yagadath felt hope flare in him again.
"I will give it - just name the one you want, I'll get it for you!"
The Dead Queen nodded in approval.
"Do you know why my masters chose you to receive such a gift?"
He shook his head. Who could fathom the reasoning of hallucinations? The Dead Queen toyed with a lock of her silken hair and leaned against the worktable.
"Because no other alchemist in Fisk would so truthfully vow to deliver the soul of an innocent to us without thinking of the repercussions." She smiled once more and sauntered around Yagadath, taking him in her arms and whispering in his ear.
"Give us the soul of the girl child you will sire six years hence, and the Stone is yours."
Leaning into the Dead Queen's touch, Yagadath nodded mutely.
"It is yours," he whispered back.
And suddenly everything was a blur of pain and icy, suffocating cold.
Yagadath awoke covered in spiderweb on the floor of his dingy laboratory. He ached terribly and rolled onto his side to retch when a glint of scarlet caught his eye on the worktable. Dragging himself up to the table, he stared numbly at what he found.
A perfectly spherical, shining red stone, red as blood, rested on his old book.
With a shriek of triumph, Yagadath seized it and danced clumsily around the laboratory, his mad laughter shaking the dust from the walls.
---
Crow stared open mouthed as the images faded from the pool's surface. The Dead Queen (for obviously that was who the woman was) looked at the girl appraisingly.
"Well?"
Still staring at the pool, Crow heaved a sigh.
"Cripes. My life really sucks."
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Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 6:34 am
__Part 30 (PoD1)
"GAH!"
Thunk.
"OW!"
Julian clutched at his head, cursing and grumbling to himself. The fall out of bed had been a nasty enough wake up call, but he certainly could have done without whacking his head on the glass nightstand. Checking to see if shards of glass had been shoved through his skull, his fingers grazed a lump that was rapidly swelling to golf ball size.
"Ouch."
Looking around in disorientation, he tried to remember where he was. The events of the previous day hit him like a sledgehammer, making his growing headache even worse.
Still grumbling and shaking his head sullenly, he wandered out of his room and down the master staircase into the gigantic living room.
"Rabid? Malachi?"
He paused, trying to think they could've gone.
"Sadako?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 6:39 am
"Naurrrrgh..." Rabid groaned and blinked, sitting up. She looked around and had to take a few moment to orient herself. Right. She was with Julian.
She spotted Julian and sat up, waving and wearily calling his name once or twice. What time was it? Eurgh...
When Mummy sat up, Ike immediately awakened. He found Skelly in his hand. Funny...he didn't remember falling asleep with him. Eh. He yawned widely and picked Sadako up before climbing off Mummy's lap and sitting beside her.
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Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 6:45 am
"G'morning."
Julian picked a remote control off the coffee table and began pushing buttons at random. The lights dimmed, the television activated, and the giant curtain over the window wall drew back theatrically. Wincing as the late morning light hit him in the face, Julian threw himself on the couch and yawned widely.
"So, up for another day of the rescue mission?" he asked Rabid dryly as he touched the bump again gingerly.
Sadako stirred in Malachi's grasp and looked around at him.
"Lenore," she said flatly.
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Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 6:50 am
"Of course," Rabid yawned. Her eyes, immediately adjusting to the light, flickered to the bump on Julian's head.
"Are you alright?" she sked. It wouldn't do to have a damaged rescue-companion...especially brain-damaged, "I could fix that, yanno."
Malachi looked down at Sadako, confused.
"No, Ike is Ike," his ears folded back, "Ike and Mummy and Julian and Sadako and Cole still looking for Len." He sighed and hugged Skelly to his chest. What a way to start a new day...
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Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 6:56 am
"Nah, it'll heal up in a few minutes anyway."
Wandering into the kitchen, he pushed a couple more buttons on the remote. The coffee brewer bubbled to life, and the automated KitchenBot hummed to life.
"Two eggs over easy and grits, please," he said to the 'Bot as he dug around int the fridge of something sweet. The 'Bot gave an affirming rattle in binary and rushed off.
"There's gotta be somethin'... ah ha."
Drawing out a chocolate pudding cup, he glanced at Rabid and waved his hand airily around.
"Feel free to gorge - I have to make a couple phone calls before we can go anywhere."
Sadako looked at Malachi mournfully, but didn't speak again. Wriggling out of his grasp, she scuttled across the floor and hoisted herself up onto the couch.
"Want Len," she said angrily, giving Julian a bullet stare.
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