|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 10:28 am
"No," she answered simply, honestly with a coy smile, "Not while trapped here. That is why I need the key," she pouted slightly and leaned back into Sam, reaching her arms up to wrap loosely around his neck and head behind her, tangle her fingers again in his messy hair. She gave Quintus just enough time to start thinking of a reply before she went on.
"And you can not use the key," she smiled darkly, violet eyes penetrating his cool exterior. "Nor can you kill me," her voice dropped to include a hissing threat and that undertone of ghostly whispers rose to warn in a thousand tongues, a thousand languages that caused chaos in his mind and spoke of Death.
But it passed as she shrugged off the shadows in her eyes and rolled her shoulders against Sam's chest. "I am trapped," she explained, her voice soft, almost sweet again, tempting, "Sealed in this damp prison where my magic can not reach your world. But you. You I can set free of here. I can give you a taste of my power and send you out into the Mists. Send you where my key is so you may return and free me. For that I will give you your heart's desire."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 4:59 pm
Quintus nearly bit his tongue to maintain silence until he composed his thoughts. The rhythm of his heart filled his ears, making it difficult to understand what she was saying. She could not free herself. She could free them. She could not be killed. That didn't mean he had nothing in his hands.
"Interesting. But the two of us can die." He left it at that. Dying to spite a foe was not in his plan, but neither was rotting in this dungeon in her place, which might be the case. If she could convince his companion to do something unfortunate, he could be killed. Quintus didn't want to do anything of the sort, but he wouldn't be trapped here like this forever.
"The key. Where is it? What is it? And before we go," he added, trying to stay ahead, "what precisely is stopping you from leaving?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 8:21 pm
Ruby lips curled in a coy little smirk as the woman watched Quintus while leaning into and hanging off of Sam. "As my Champion you will not so easily die," she purred. "It will be needed if you are to find the key. Which you will have to find. It is hidden, scattered beyond my knowing," she flicked a hand in a graceful, tossing motion for emphasis then smiled at Quintus again. "For what it is - well, it is magic, the same that keeps me here. Ancient and powerful magic. An artifact. Three of them more precisely: an ivory wheel, an ebony gem, and a sword. You will know them when you see them," she purred holding out her hand again for Quintus to take. "And you will see them. In this life or the next. You will play my game" she sneered the last word, as if she had read it from his mind. Just as she had answered questions he'd not actually asked but only thought.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 11:10 pm
"Hmm." Quintus made no recognition of her evident telepathy. She deserved none. "One last question." This was the important one. She apparently had all her angles covered. She had the game wrapped up pretty well. This, however, was the problem. He hoped.
"What happens if we just sit down and don't go?" Now he had to be ready for an attack. Either she was in control and she'd let it slide by with the same infuriating arrogance, or she'd become frustrated, and the angrier she was, the more likely a fight was to come out. It was something he was hoping for, really; it would clarify the conditions and the players. She had to be lying. She gave off every sign that there was something she wasn't saying, that she had to persuade, that she knew of no other way but controlling to get her will, which meant there was obviously something they couldn't know or they'd refuse. But what if she wasn't? What if she just didn't know any other way, and she'd keep her promise if they kept theirs? Well... that'd be the best ending, anyway. He'd hope for it. For now, he kept focused on her, subtly shifting into a slightly wider stance. All she had to do was move.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:38 am
There was no sudden fight, not even a flash of anger in the woman's lying eyes. If anything she was amused. She looked at Quintus much the same as he looked at her, with a sort of distant recognition and his questioning half refusal only made her smile nostalgically. “If you,” she stressed the word with a nod at Quintus and rolled her shoulders against Sam again, obviously having no doubt the merchant was already hers, “would rather stay then make yourself comfortable,” her voice dropped to a darker tone but still managed to be beautiful as she gracefully waved a hand at the darkness around them and it dissipated, recoiled from the motion like a living black fog.
They could see the chamber now, cavernously huge and once grandly elegant. Carved reliefs bore flaked gilding and rich paint, jewels still glittered in mosaic patterns on high columns, tapestries, silk drapes, rich carpets, golden chandeliers, candelabras, and statues of snakes told of long past glory. The place had the look of a temple. But it was empty, cold, barren. Only the behemoth coils of the giant snake to keep company with skeletons sitting posed in pews, heads bowed in eternal worship. The snake was watching, its body wound between columns and the massive head rested lightly on what must have once been an altar at the back of the chamber, the object of the skeletons' devotion.
“I am afraid though, I haven't any of the comforts required for your survival,” the woman pouted coyly. “Unless you've food and water to last till the end of time.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 6:16 pm
Quintus let the edge of his mouth turn up. "I didn't say I wanted to. And I didn't say I. I said 'we.' If we don't go, what's the consequence?" This was perhaps the first time he'd spotted something he might call a crack. She'd ever so slightly bent what he'd said to promote her cause. She had to have them. One or both. They were vital to her. She could threaten to remove them, but then when would she next get 'champions'? She couldn't afford to lose them, either. A rush of confidence hit him. She could protect herself, she could protect the snake, but she clearly couldn't protect them in the field, wherever that would be. He had found the weakness, and it was time to crash in on it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:01 pm
“The consequence is just as I've said” she answered a bit coolly, “Don't go then you obviously stay here. Forever. Where I have neither food nor water to sustain you. Though you might be fun company for a while I think we would all prefer you not die here,” her voice dropped a bit and violet eyes narrowed slightly but she shrugged it off again and smiled. “As for the 'we'. . . well, I don't think you really speak for both of you,” she turned to face Sam again with a pouty little smile as she ran cold fingers through his mess of hair, “Does he now, my sweet little Champion?”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:08 pm
"I merely asked." A crack. Warmth lost. A tinge of a threat. A breakdown of that romantic facade. Perfect. It was all he needed. He just needed to prove it was there, to serve as a reminder to himself, but more importantly to her. In the end, she was just as powerless as they; it was just a matter of playing the cards right.
"Take us where we need to go." Quintus smiled full on, though without any warmth. Only the smile of a victor, however temporary. He wasn't helpless.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:14 pm
Sweet ecstasy and rapture. To further his thoughts is to risk inappropriate conduct. All he had picked up from the conversation between the two is that the man did not like the woman and the merchant liked the woman very much. Throughout the dialogue Sam had kept his hands still, resisting the urge to clutch her to him and hiss for the man to go away.
This man did not speak for Mad Sam.
When she turned to him it was as a surprise to even himself that he could form the sentence, "No M'lady, I am yours if you will have me." With nary a giggle or break in his voice. His thoughts, however, did not return from their resting place and his hands stroked her back in restlessness.
Sam was on the verge of losing his mind. He made an effort to say so, "If we could move this along, I," he chose his next words carefully as he could, "I am wanting." though his words were vague his actions were not, he leaned his face to hers in a momentary effort to kiss, but pulled back to maintain some semblance of control.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:27 pm
Sam's kiss was nearly met with crimson lips but she did not pursue it when he pulled away. Instead she turned her head to smile at Quintus for his defiant order. She did not let it crack her though, merely smiled and leaned her head lightly to Sam's shoulder as she pulled a hand down from his hair and held it out again to Quintus. “First, you must be made Champions,” she purred.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 8:15 pm
Quintus cocked an eyebrow. "What does that involve, if you don't mind me asking?" He hoped she did. He didn't like the hand extended to him; he'd prefer to avoid contact. Too many memories involved. Plus it made him uncomfortable in general. What was she going to do, anyway? Did this involve a change? "Made." That word worried him.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:04 pm
The question did not seem to bother the temptress. She just smiled coyly and pulled her hand back to tangle again in Sam's hair. “A taste,” she purred, “Of my power. To give you strength to survive what you must endure leaving here.” Her voice was sweet music again, her expression calm and promising. “And a kiss,” she said it lightly, almost laughing, as she turned her head back to Sam with an inviting pout of ruby lips. “To seal a promise to keep our bargains.” She watched Sam now with lidded eyes, pulling him gently closer. “Come,” she breathed only to him, “Taste my lips so you may be free.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:15 pm
There was no resistance. Mad Sam leaned close to her lips and took her body in his arms, and while he pressed his lips against hers his arms pressed her body against his. He held her tight, not wanting the moment to end. Loathe he was to let go and watch another man kiss her but for them it would not share such passion, the traveler was sure of that. At this moment he was hers and she was his.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:28 pm
And in that moment, that electric flicker of lighting to blind his world in the dark, there was nothing else. Briefly Sam existed only to taste those lips, only to hold that delicate frame, her skin to his. But like the lightning, the crash of thunder soon followed. Sam felt a quaking in his knees then a tightness in his chest. Suddenly he was aware of the cold - an icy chill that reached to his marrow, as if that woman had drawn the warmth from his bones. He felt dizzy, could not breathe, could not move, could not even fall down. He was frozen there as the woman pulled away, stepped out of his clinging embrace to approach the other man.
From what Quintus saw the woman's kiss had paralyzed the man but he had no way of knowing if it were a natural reaction or something nefarious. He also had no way of knowing the depths to which that kiss had taken Sam's mind, was still taking it. As if a floodgate had opened, all the knowledge, the power of entire worlds was rushing through his mind. Life. Death. Time. Eternity explained. All became known to him in that flood and for a moment he was God.
But the woman had turned away, shed him off as a snake sheds skin, and turned her eyes on Quintus instead. She was pleased, smugly proud but wanting as she stepped up to him, hands outstretched to embrace her reluctant Champion with a kiss of those deadly lips.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 1:08 pm
The hooded man sat gracefully, with just a slight hitch in the movement, across from Alana and settled back in the chair with a quiet sigh. He just sat there, hands folded under his cloak, face hidden in shadow, pale lips a tight little smile. Time moved steadily by. The people in the market milled about their daily lives not seeing the two strangers sitting at the corner table amidst flowers, and shade trees, and the bustle of life.
After a while it became apparent the girl was not going to do anything so Traveler gave her a gentler smile and slight nod before he spoke softly, “You're not accustomed to social situations, I see.” His voice was clearer now, smooth and almost gentle – far from the dry rattle of their first meeting. “I'm afraid I've fallen out of practice with. . . your sort.” He paused to give her an apologetic smile then shook his head slightly. “It has been a long time since I have spoken with someone from, well, your place,” the smile fell and for a brief moment Alana saw something in his hidden face that might be called regret. “Not really home anymore,” the man muttered softly but shook it off and forced the smile back on his pale lips. “This isn't a safe world to be alone and socially awkward in,” Traveler told her lightly. “You will need to find a guide, someone to help you. And you will need to have something you can pay them” he paused and his head moved subtly as if looking her over. “Do you have anything of value?”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
