Scelerosis Nulla Requies

A knife edge life. Battles with instincts, scruples and inevitable descents.

Moderator: Mesteno

User avatar
Mesteno
Seasoned Adventurer
Seasoned Adventurer
Posts: 311
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2018 5:55 pm
Location: Rhy'Din
Contact:

Re: Scelerosis Nulla Requies

Post by Mesteno »

[Continued...]

"Even if the new Nordic temple we visit does have a portal for us to reach Ysgard, we have to get from it, down to Nidavellir," Mesteno mused, absently rubbing at his jaw. He seemed to have less trouble pronouncing these planes than he did tangling his tongue around others. Perhaps again, because of his close association with the Alfar. "I don't think it's going to be an easy trip. Two outsiders showing up on a plane they've no obvious connection to? Word would get back to the Gods on the opposing side so fast... And what about these dwarven smiths? We need something more solid on where he is in there if it’s as maze-like as you make it sound. Either something we can use to guide us directly to him, or a map of the tunnels."

He didn't point out that they were going to be as unwelcoming to them as the natives of Ysgard might be. They truly would have to rely on stealth to get past them all, and not to wind up lost or imprisoned themselves. His attention strayed back to the Grey Waste, and the question was there on his lips, the obvious what's so bad about it? But his suspicions had deepened, and he let the subject be, as Lexius had intended it.

Lexius folded his hands behind his back again and settled his gaze on the Sadist as he spoke, head canted and eyes narrowed just a little bit. The signs of thoughtfulness even as he spoke. Was he weighing and measuring Mesteno with his gaze?

"There is nothing easy about Ysgard." he agreed. Yet...was that a faint smile on his lips as he studied Mesteno? "I think you will like it. The entire Plane is dedicated to the concept of achieving glory and proving worth though individual struggle. Battles and competitions are ongoing and endless, designed to prove the mettle of their participants. Those that fail and die are reborn to try again and improve. Those that succeed spectacularly may be chosen by the Valkyrie to strive for even greater achievements. Keep in mind, Mesteno, the Norse gods control only a small portion of this realm. There are many, many other Powers across the breadth of the Plane and its layers. There are also the souls of the dead, called Petitioners, the natives of the land, called the Planars, and an endless varieties of those like ourselves who adventure there for their own reasons."

What began as an incredulous look for his suggestion that Mesteno might like Ysgard smoothed out into contemplation as he described it to him in greater detail. Battles and competitions, yes, they were very much his thing, yet the bite of apathy still seized him strongly. He'd yet to recover his usual vigorous appetite for such things, and wouldn't feign it to offer reassurance. It would have to do that he took the whole matter seriously, that he wasn't just shrugging his shoulders and suggesting that whatever unpleasant visitors came for him from the side of Zeus and his cohorts, could come and he'd cope (or not).

"If you know of any connections with Nidavellir, I'll leave research on that to you,” Mesteno decided. “In the meantime, I can visit the Nordic temple. Maybe I can persuade one of the Alfar to go with me so they can distract the worshippers by talking about their Gods while I investigate. They owe me a favour or two." Not that he liked ever having to call them in.

Lexius nodded then, agreeing to Mesteno's plan. "That is a good beginning. Find out what you can with the help of the Alfar. But do be as discreet as you can. We may have better luck going to Sigil and using a door there to get to Ysgard, but we can bypass that if there is a stable portal here in RhyDin that we know the destination of."

"So we have a back-up plan by going to Sigil,” the necromancer declared. “Nidavellir is going to be the biggest challenge. I know fuck all about dwarves. Still, they sound something like the Alfar Stonedwellers - they live underground and manipulate the rocks and minerals," he mused - he'd had little to do with them personally - there had been a feud some years before and the furtive race harboured old grudges against their tall, beast-bonded cousins. "I'll leave that part in your hands," he decided, apparently dismissing it before discussion could even begin. He had a more important subject to broach.

Mesteno turned away from the maps, and the weight of his eyes settled full upon the Elf. So serious the expression!

"I was an ass the other night. All that bullshit in the temple and when we got dragged out of it, and I never asked what happened to you, or if you were okay, because I was too busy raging about the idiots that dragged us into it. Or, well, the idiots that dragged you into it because of me. I'm sorry, Lexius, for you being involved and for being a bastard to you."

Maybe that was the only way he could handle apologies, by littering them with curses!

Any trace of a smile faded back into the usual serenity of Lexius’ expression, though he maintained more than a little of the thoughtfulness that had been clinging to him. After a lengthy silence, the Elf replied solemnly.

"You owe me no apology, Mesteno. You do not need to...cater to me at the expense of being who you are, even if who you are sometimes annoys me. More often, I find that person surprising and interesting, and as flawed as I am, if in different ways. For some reason, that appeals more than I imagined it could." Those angled features got a little edgier then. He'd mostly recovered from the encounter with Hades in the two short days he'd been back in the desert, but there was still an extra bit of sharpness to the planes of his face that he made cutting with the severity of his expression.

"What I truly dislike, however," he went on, tone hardening as he took a step closer to the Sadist (he couldn't really loom and he wasn't trying to, but being that close was enough to support the seriousness of what he said next) "is when you try to choose for me what I should or should not do." Lexius could be blindingly hypocritical at times! "While I grasp your need for independence and I do not often understand the intricacies of a...friendship, I am fairly sure it includes not leaving ones friends to struggle on their own if one wishes to offer assistance."

Soaringly hypocritical, though Mesteno was kind enough not to point it out. As if he would easily take help with things himself?! Well, they weren't talking about him right now.

Lexius frowned then, fairly certain he was supposed to accept the apology regardless. So he said the words. "I wish to be involved. Stop being sorry to have me unless you truly wish me to be gone." Wait, those weren't the right words.

Mesteno was as surprised by some of what he heard as he was grimly accepting of others, and if possible, some of the severity, some of the apathy-induced dullness bled away as he considered it all.

"I think sometimes you grasp the intricacies of friendship better than you know," he admitted to him. It wasn't quite a smile on his mouth, but something in his tone was suggestive of humour. "A lot of friends, no matter how good, wouldn't be willing to stick their neck out with something as fucked up beyond all reason as this though. They'd figure the risks too high, and I wouldn't blame them for it. I certainly wouldn't expect it of them, there are limits after all. Most folks have other people to consider before they make these choices, family and loved ones that wouldn't be happy about them swanning off to another plane to aid someone less important than they."

It was all perfectly reasonable sounding! He would of course, simply be helping him with whatever he had to deal with in the future, and telling him to shut up if he protested any assistance.

"I don't wish you to be gone," he told Lexius, finally. "When it seemed like you meant to for a while, it seemed really fucking unfair," (Oh that word again! Down he went on the scales.) "'cause hey, I'm just getting to know someone, a someone who I happen to consider a damn good friend already, and I was losing him. So stick around, huh?"

The Elf gave a snort. But he lost some of that sharpness. Maybe they were the right words after all. Right enough, at least, to stir Mesteno a little, leech out some of the dullness from his gaze and flush a little life back into his voice. Lexius promptly went over everything he'd said again and each nuance of reaction to it. He also stepped back to give Mesteno more breathing room.

"I've nowhere else I wish to be." He'd already decided to stay despite the continued...complexities of doing so. He just might also have decided he'd been keeping it simple for far too long. The Elf twisted his lips a little with a harsh kind of wryness. "And no true considerations beyond my own." Apparently, He didn't consider whatever strange kindship he shared with Jason and Lan as priority over his own choices. Lexius left it at that rather than risking screwing it up by saying anything more on the matter.
Image
User avatar
Mesteno
Seasoned Adventurer
Seasoned Adventurer
Posts: 311
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2018 5:55 pm
Location: Rhy'Din
Contact:

Re: Scelerosis Nulla Requies

Post by Mesteno »

[Continued...]

"This situation presents a challenge for us both, I think. I do enjoy a challenge. Now, let me tell you of the feather, for I believe that was meant for me." But first, he gestured toward the tunnel that had led them into this room from the main cavern, inviting Mesteno to head back that way. Lexius, at least, wanted coffee.

Mesteno followed of course, back along the stone passageway with its myriad curiosities and its silk draped paintings, though not without one last backward glance at the cavern they'd just left. It felt wrong to leave the beads behind, for some reason! "You've some connection to angels then? Is that why there was one at Alvaka after the first incident with the titan?" He hadn't forgotten. He'd had to raise one of them up after all, to take its blade.

The beads were not left behind. They were right there on the table where Mesteno had left his jacket on the pillows, curled around and between the small tray of sliced fruit and those bread rolls. Sneaky, they were!

Lexius was still going over that brief exchange of words in the library, half his mind set to reviewing again and again just what each of them had said. It was a fine distraction, for what he had to reveal next touched a subject he'd much rather not discuss.

"Sit. I will make coffee." He said that first, moving to that little kitchen area to begin the brew. He took down two mugs from one of those curtained, stone cabinets without even asking Mesteno if he wanted any. “Did Koyan ever tell of Whisper?" he asked that, back turned to the Sadist, rather than answering the question. It was an answer of its own, really.

"Only in passing,” Mesteno admitted as he parked himself amongst the cushions, reaching to slip a finger beneath the strangely silent beads. “I knew who he was before Koyan and I ever really became friends. An old lover of mine thought highly of him, and missed him when he was no longer around. He didn't say where he'd gone, or whether he was just another casualty of being swallowed up by Rhy'Din."

The beads did nothing to prevent Mesteno from picking them up Just a string of beads, really, rattling against the table. Of course, once the Sadist seemed certain they would continue to play dead, that's when they decided to coil around his fingers and squeeze. Sneak attack!

He glanced up from the beads to watch the Elf as he set about prepping the brew. "Are you going to tell me he was an angel?" That certainly hadn't been mentioned at any point!

Lexius kept his back turned, but one might imagine he was frowning just from the tone of his voice. "Not precisely." He knew that much for certain. "He was the link between Alvaka and those Gods. He was a Planar, but not the typical sort. Something unusual, and tied to an angel. He worked for them, the Gods, in a fashion akin to how Pharlen is employed." He made the comparison without giving Mesteno specifics as the scent of the coffee filled the airy space of the spacious cavern. "He went missing not so long after the first Titan was defeated."

By then he had composed his features into their usual serene line and was returning to the table with the mugs. He slid one Mesteno's way then settled into the pillows comfortably himself.

"My knowledge of Pharlen's work is minimal," the necromancer admitted quietly. "Just... one of those powerful figures I was always aware of, spoke to in passing, but never really questioned too deeply. It has only been recently, with the situation with Taneth, that I've come to know a little of what her capabilities." And that little was probably more than he could achieve in the remaining span of his mortal days!

With the beads coiled up around his fingers, he slipped his focus away from the Elf and back to them... and quite calmly, and without any sign of discomfort flickering across his features, he popped his thumb out of the joint and slid it in against his palm before freeing it from the tightened trap, a deft turn of his wrist spilling the coiled but slackened length of them down his fingers to leave them free again. He left the beads draped across one knee, making no excuses for having been handling them (Lexius had never protested after all!) and reached forward for the coffee with both hands, cradling the mug in the curve of palms.

"So the event and his disappearance were likely connected. He was snatched away by someone?" He didn't want to say that he couldn't imagine anyone just up and leaving Koyan, for obvious reasons!

Lexius eyed the beads, eyed Mesteno's hand and what he'd done to his thumb, but said nothing of either thing. Instead, he buried himself making a plate of food. "You may eat if you are inclined." he added aside, with no real expectation either way. Mesteno seemed disinclined. Back to the subject!

"Suffice it to say then, what he did for them had far reaching consequences for many, many mortals. And you are correct. His disappearance seemed tied to the incident. It was him I was asked to find. And failed to do so. But he is the reason I know so much of these matters. I have no doubt that feather belongs to him and he suffered the same fate as Ares. He simply suffered it first."

That said, the Elf ate. There was meat in those bread rolls! Something spicy from the smell of it. He liked his food as he liked his coffee.

"The feather was bait then, to make sure you'd remain interested in assisting," Mesteno mused. The Grecian deities were a manipulative bunch, and he couldn't help but admire their methods somewhat. "What doesn't make sense, is that I know the first titan wasn't summoned up. It attacked Alvaka, or at least that's what Koyan told me when he was showin' me that big hole it left behind. I could understand them taking Whisper captive if he'd been doing something like.... calling it up for sport, the way we did the second time, but why incarcerate him? Something in his work offended the Gods so they locked him up? And can we be sure that he's in the same place?"

What he didn't state, because he was sure Lexius had already thought of it himself, was that they might have no intention of letting them free Whisper. That it was simply a 'we have him'. "We damn well better be sure Ares is weak so we can negotiate the fuck out of Whisper's release if they're not locked up together," he muttered.

The beads, having been bested, had gone still again to rethink their plan of attack, the three black ones nestled comfortably into the Sadist's palm as they plotted. Oh so slowly, the other end began to drip down Mesteno's arm toward his elbow. Just gravity! It wouldn't be gravity, though, when they began to twist around Mesteno's bicep.

Lexius nodded, taking a careful drink from the coffee before he spoke.

"It was bait. There is absolutely no certainty that they will be in the same place, though the feather itself suggests he may still be alive. But I will not waste any advantage with Ares on securing his release." Heartless bastard! Kind of sounded like he wasn't going to even try looking for Whisper. Lexius might, like Mesteno, admire their skills in manipulation, but he wasn't inclined to submit to it willingly.

"However, in case it is not simply a tactic to ensure I aid you, we should consider the possibility of having to deal with a second captive in some manner." As for that other part, Lexius settled a long stare on Mesteno before he spoke.

"It did attack Alkava." He confirmed. "But Ares and Whisper were more than just hapless victims in the incident." Given that it had all happened while he was, well, dead, Lexius couldn't be certain of every fact. But he sounded confident in what he was saying.
Image
User avatar
Mesteno
Seasoned Adventurer
Seasoned Adventurer
Posts: 311
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2018 5:55 pm
Location: Rhy'Din
Contact:

Re: Scelerosis Nulla Requies

Post by Mesteno »

[Continued..]

There was a curious tilt to Mesteno’s head, as if Lexius had surprised him in admitting he would not use the opportunity to secure Whisper's release. For a moment he wondered if the idea of rescuing Koyan's old lover, just as the Turk had returned, was simply too difficult for him. After all, the Elf had admitted his feelings remained, and it would amount to self-sabotage! It put a crimp in his brow, but in the end he dismissed the theory. Lexius wasn't so petty as to do such a thing, and heartless though it might sound, there was the matter of their own future freedom and survival to negotiate before they considered others.

"If they are incarcerated together, Whisper might be of some help getting us out. If he really has been trapped there all this time, surely he'll have been moved about a little, maybe got to know his captors, their routines, who we need to be particularly careful to avoid. He might actually give us an advantage, rather than slow us down."

He blew some steam from his coffee, and tested the temperature with a small sip. Still too hot for his tongue. For now, he let the beads roam as they would.

"If they weren't victims, then what?" he pressed quietly, slouching back further in the cushions as if he couldn't quite get comfortable with... well comfortable things around him!

It was a complicated matter for the Elf that he was attempting to boil down to its most basic parts. As Mesteno imagined, he valued their survival, and the power to wield it with Ares, far more greatly than old promises. That portion of it no longer mattered, anyway. But still, he had a little pride of his own. Finding and bringing Whisper back to RhyDin had been something he'd failed to do. Something he'd had to admit to someone that he'd failed to do! That did rankle, more than a little bit. The Elf was no more satisfied with failure in a thing than the Sadist was.

The Necromancer made some fine points in the argument for going after the guy and Lexius considered them dispassionately before giving a nod of agreement. "We shall see how it plays out." He agreed.

"Perpetrators." He answered the last with a bit of grimness. "I cannot believe it was random, blind bad luck that had a Titan, of all things, something tied to Whisper's origins and his work, attacking Alkava. The only other possibility would be another among the Pantheon having set it upon them. And were it that, I doubt Ares would have been so willing to draw up another on Koyan's whim alone."

They were guesses, of course. Educated ones, but still guesses. And he could well be wrong.

"Unless Ares wanted a war amongst the Pantheon," Mesteno pointed out reasonably. "You said yourself, he's chaotic. It wouldn't be the first time deities have jostled about for a better position in their hierarchy, and if he's not on great terms with his parents, it'd make a great deal of sense to use a titan as nothing more than a device to some greater end. What's nine years in Nidavellir, when you have a whole lifetime to spent reaping the benefits of the division you ultimately cause?"

He opted for sitting up, resting his weight on his elbows against the table's edge. The beads were let to roam where they wished, unmonitored, and the mug was kept for heating his palms more than anything else. Absently, he blew a little of the steam away from the surface, watching curlicues stretch and drift and fade to nothing.

"It does seem more likely it's something relating to Whisper's work though. What I don't get," he added, as if this were the first thing he didn't get and not just one of many, "is that if Whisper vanished after the first titan, and I'm thinking that was probably closer to ten or eleven years back, then why didn't Ares, who likely knew where he'd been taken, or why, tell Koyan when he met him to arrange the summoning of the one we fought?"

Lexius got that frown again. And the beads paused where they had slipped underneath Mesteno's hair. But they weren't too interested in the conversation, only the Elf frowning. When Lexius cleared the expression, looking at Mesteno intently, they continued to try and braid themselves into all that rich, red hair the Sadist had.

The Elf knew Mesteno was smart. Had noted it several times, if only to himself. He would be a fool to discount what the man was saying now. Especially when he had the advantage of having been much closer to Koyan in the wake of that first incident and during the second. So he gave a measured nod.

"A good point." He allowed. "All very good points. And something we should consider before making any sort of bargains with him." Not that Lexius planned on leading with a bargain. No, he had something a little more invaisve and permanent in mind. "Perhaps then, those of the pantheon that now inhabit RhyDin are seeking more than a break if they are so eager to have him back."

[End]
Image
User avatar
Mesteno
Seasoned Adventurer
Seasoned Adventurer
Posts: 311
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2018 5:55 pm
Location: Rhy'Din
Contact:

Re: Scelerosis Nulla Requies

Post by Mesteno »

[Adapted from live play with Lexius' writer]

August 29th, 2015

In a garden far beyond the city limits of RhyDin, Lexius was sat studying vividly blue criale berries growing thickly on twisted vines. He was taking care to isolate the strain his troubles were causing, loath to infect the Sadist with his morose demeanor. The man had enough misery of his own without having to share the Elf's.

A vague tingle came first, rippling across the Sadist's mind three seconds before Lexius spoke, low and smooth and remote. Mesteno.

There were certain pleasures to be had in simple, monotonous tasks, and there were plenty of those to be found about a stable yard. In the tack room the necromancer was sat, a bucket of warm water by one boot, gleaming with a pale film of iridescent soap from the constant dip of a dilapidated sponge. Good, clean smells, of soaped leather, oil and hay.

As they had been since spring, swallows dipped in and out of the stalls he could see through the window, aerial acrobats snatching the flies from the air. It was restful.

In fact he'd been so intent on his work that the first tingle rippling across his mind took him unawares, and he sat up straight on his stool, fingers clenching tight around the sponge and squirting half the water it was laden with over his chaps. Thankfully there was no one keeping him company in the tack room to see it.

Lexius, came the mental reply, and it was pleasantly improved on his last attempts, each time a little more skilled, though he did not excel in this as he did immediately with any physical task he was put to.

The Elf monitored Mesteno's progress with the mental exchanges as he tended to monitor everything else. And he hadn't failed to notice how much smoother it came to the man if he didn't think about it. Yet even when he did, he seemed to be improving. He offered no praise this time.

Have you visited the Nordic compound? Compound might have been too drastic a word, but until they knew more about it that was the one he was going to use. This day, he did not peek through the necromancer's eyes or do more than maintain that feather light touch that allowed them to speak.

The initial surprise fast fading, Mesteno set his hand back to the task of wiping the remaining soap residue from the rich, brown leather of the saddle, lifting the stirrup leathers to work into all the awkward spots a lazy clean might miss.

Leif and I visited yesterday, came the reply, and likely the resigned note that those mental thoughts carried with them hinted already at the lack of success. He clarified anyway though. They were friendly enough about showing us around, but Leif sensed nothing of any portal energy, either functioning or dormant, and there were no hidden spaces or suspicious venues below ground. If there is anything, its well warded to keep anyone from detecting it, but I'm fairly sure the construction of their site at the same time as that of the Grecian is nothing more than coincidental.

He almost stopped there so that Lexius could get a word in edgeways, but thought to tag on, He sensed nothing of ill will or deception from them empathically, either. Have you had more luck?

Lexius was mildly surprised Mesteno chose to give the report mind to mind. It was a lengthy stretch of conversation to have even if he was the one maintaining the link. The Sadist did quite well, keeping his mental tone modulated and clear and his focus on point without distraction or drift. He might have mentioned it, but that risked Mesteno starting to think about it rather than simply doing it and doing it well.

Perhaps it is coincidence. The Elf allowed, though he did not sound entirely convinced. He did not doubt Mesteno's conclusion or question Leif's skills, he just rather tended not to believe coincidence truly existed!

I've researched three known location for portals from RhyDin to Ysgard or Nidavellir. All have either dissolved or been destroyed. Not an uncommon thing for this city. So there was probably nothing nefarious there beyond the way the Nexus worked. I've a contact in Sigil working on the matter. She will obtain us a guide and mark the door there, should we need. He paused a moment...then continued. We should be about it soon. More delay might an unwanted visitation. Mesteno knew from who! Are you ready to travel?

I'd still be curious to know how recently those portals were destroyed, Mesteno confessed, tossing the sponge aside into the bucket and reaching for the little tin of polish. It might be that the opposition is already working against us, just in subtler ways than we expected.

Travel? He hoped Lexius didn't mean right that moment. Surely he couldn't. So he began slowly working the polish into the leather with a soft cloth. If you tell me when to be ready and what you think I'll need to bring along.

That nice, quiet stable Mesteno was working in... got a little less quiet. The horses were putting up a fuss, somewhere down the corridor of stalls. Somewhere near the entrance. Snorting at first, startled and quick. Then a little neighing, tinged with fear. A particularly excitable steed kicked his stall wall. Thwack! The sound of it echoed sharply above the other noises.

Someone was muttering just underneath the commotion in a sort of...hissing voice.

"Calm yer furry fuzzbrains down. Aint here for ya. Stupid horses. Worse'n 'umans." The grumbling dissolved into another, harsher language even as the Elf was answering Mesteno's comment.

We do not have the time to investigate the matter. Or the portals. Tomorrow, I think. No latter than the day after. I will make you a list.

There was obvious distraction through their mental connection. Whatever was happening out in the stables had put another halt to the necromancer's work, and he strained to listen, half expecting the source of the trouble to be his surly Arabian. It was rarely any of the other animals, respectable as they were. It wasn't until he heard the kick of that shod hoof against the wall that he set down the polish and cloth, wiping his hands dry carelessly on the dusty suede of his chaps so that he could go prowling out of the tack room to see what might be amiss.

Something going on, he managed to think, Lexius' way, so that he wouldn't assume that he'd forgotten him. Unfortunately he offered no further explanation than that, and with shrewd, golden eyes flicking across the yard for the source of the unfamiliar voice, he called out "S'a private yard, whoever that is. Y'can't just come wandering around here."

Not once had he stopped to suppose that the source of the commotion might be one of those adversaries the Elf had warned might come looking for them if they didn't act soon enough. It was the stable yard. Nothing ever happened there!
Image
User avatar
Mesteno
Seasoned Adventurer
Seasoned Adventurer
Posts: 311
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2018 5:55 pm
Location: Rhy'Din
Contact:

Re: Scelerosis Nulla Requies

Post by Mesteno »

[Continued...]

There near the entrance to the stalls stood a demon it all its malefic glory, its long spaded tail lashing to and fro as it raked red, burning eyes across the building. It seemed its gaze alone might be able to set it alight. Some of the wood might just have been smoking, but actual flames were prevented by Mesteno's timely appearance, drawing the creature's gaze his way instead.

The demon stood a little under six feet tall and was clad in the finest Armani suit that money could buy, the clothing obviously tailored to his compact, muscled frame, complete with a hole for that tail. Covered in dark green scales, two short, black horns sprouted from the top of the demon's head, curving up than slightly forward. Those would make fine stabbing weapons if the demon decided to lower its head and charge like a bull! At the moment, though, it confined itself to glaring at Mesteno for all it was worth, a trickle of smoke curling out of the slits it had for nostrils.

Fire, wood, hay and horse. It was a bad combination in general, and the last thing Mesteno wanted to do that afternoon was spend his time rescuing terrified equines from their stalls and getting dragged all over the fields.

The scent of smoke made his lip curl, an angled flare of nostrils as if he meant to expel it rather than have the smell become an acrid taste on his tongue. Fucking demons. He hated demons. Least of all when he wasn't clad for combat, and he could only blame himself for not taking that precaution.

Sweeping assessment of the demon was made in a heartbeat. Height, build, reach, extra appendages - yeah, tail - and he saw those horns, too. His expression darkened, but indicated nothing of distress.

"Ya bein' dat necromancer den?!" The demon demanded harshly, stalking his way in polished loafers rather than on cloven hooves. "Where's dat damn elf? He better not be hidin'! Elf! Getcha bony ass out here!"

"I don't know who you're talking abou--,”

Given the sense of the Sadist's distraction and what he had said, the Elf was sneaking a peek through Mesteo's eyes. Vith. He said suddenly. Then air displaced in a rush somewhere off to the demon's left and the Elf appeared with a wild clattering of beads.

“Oh for fuck's sake." Mesteno had heard that drow curse, and knew precisely its meaning thanks to long association with Gem and Cianan. Barely had it tickled his brain than the rush of air announced the arrival of the very Elf he was denying knowledge of.

So he let the arrival serve as distraction, and unapologetically called down the shadows stretching long in the afternoon sun, snapping them brutally into the demon's ankles to try and topple him on his ass there in the yard. He wasn't opposed to unfair tactics, after the Grecian Gods had been so unrepentant about utilising them on himself and Lexius.

Unwisely, the demon turned away from Mesteno to shoot a daggered look Lexius' way. Actual daggers, made of black smoke, shot forth from his red eyes and went streaking in his direction, only to impact harmlessly upon an invisible wall surrounding the Elf

"Dere ya a-glak!" The demon exclaimed, interrupted mid-tirade by the shadows that coiled around its legs and pulled it down to the ground. The demon's spaded tail stabbed wildly and ineffectively at the darkness as the demon gargled and hissed and growled in its own language. The ground began to rumble threateningly as the demon falied. "Getcher pansy little shadows offa me, ya hairless monkey!" It demanded with way too much bravado for being unable to escape from those shadows. "Dey're ruin' my suit!"

"Mesteno," the Elf sounded far calmer than he had in the Sadist's head, "meet Sulphur." That demon had to be more imposing than he currently seemed, but so far, there was no evidence of it.

Hairless monkey? The necromancer touched damp fingers absently to the riot of blood and gold hair as if he thought it might have walked off somewhere, then narrowed a glare on the creature, whom scaled, hadn't much room to talk about being hairless.

"No, I don't think I will." A deadpan retort, and if anything, instead of being daunted by a visit from a demon, he looked down the straight, strong line of his nose at it, and folded his arms with characteristic arrogance. "You're fuckin' lucky I don't crush you, comin' out here an' makin' a scene. Not t'mention shootin' whatever the fuck that eye shit was at my friend here."

The introduction saw him peer sidelong at Lexius, a note made of the name and perhaps a scowl that his own had been handed out so carelessly. If they weren't going to kill him, the horned bastard could wander off and share it with whomever he liked.

"Why is he here?" he asked the Elf, and wound the shadows up that little bit tighter.

Sulphur was snarling and spitting in demonic again for the continued confinement...which he should have been able to break out of easily. The Elf furrowed his brow just a touch.

"I imagine he is here about Whisper." He murmured with a vague note of distraction in his tone.

Sulphur should be (had been!) much more powerful than this. That was the reason Lexius had cursed and ported right to Mesteno's location. Oh, the Sadist could take care of himself well enough, without a doubt, but a ninth level demon could still wreak some terrible havoc.

But Sulphur wasn't. In fact, Sulphur had gone still, slumped as if in defeat in the dark embrace of the shadows.

"Y'damn right m'here 'bout Whispah. Y'gonna find'm dis time?!" The demon shouted it, but he remained lax there on the ground with dirt all over his fine, fine suit.

The Elf damn near scowled.

That was the last thing Mesteno expected to hear. He was plainly a demon after all, and Whisper had been, judging by the feather, something a little lighter in nature.

"If you've come here trying to make sure a... friend? gets aided, you've a funny way of trying to persuade people to do a good job of it," he remarked, plainly derisive of what he'd seen so far. It was Lexius’ wordless frown that surprised though. It appeared he'd no more liking for someone pointing out a failure than the next man.

The stable yard was kept swept clean, thankfully, not even a stray strand of hay left to spoil the Armani - just the dust and damp from the usual foot traffic, and the resident animals. Still, Sulphur looked sort of pathetic once he ceased to struggle, and Mesteno considered reeling the shadows in to allow him back to his feet.

"You promise to give the dramatics a rest and I'll let you up," he told him. With Lexius present, he suspected they'd be able to put him out of action quickly enough, and he didn't want Sulphur holding grudges he might come slinking back to see paid in violence because of stung pride.
Image
User avatar
Mesteno
Seasoned Adventurer
Seasoned Adventurer
Posts: 311
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2018 5:55 pm
Location: Rhy'Din
Contact:

Re: Scelerosis Nulla Requies

Post by Mesteno »

[Continued...]

Sulphur was all about the dramatics! What Mesteno was asking was akin to him requiring the Sadist not draw breath for the span of their conversation. And so the demon snarled and spit and cursed and huffed, his spaded tail waving about frantically, before he finally rasped out a reply.

"Fines! Aint like m'gonna barbeque y'skinny ass. Aint a scrapa meat on ya worth tastin'!" He responded...dramatically. But he'd gone still again, tail stabbed into a stone on the ground as he waited for the shadows to dissolve.

The Elf had composed his expression back into its usual smooth lines and nodded to Mesteno. He is weaker than he once was. Came his voice across the Sadist's mind. His distant gaze was still on the demon and the beads rattled quietly by his side. Which caused Sulphur to shudder briefly.

The wing of a brow arched at all the overblown cursing, but Mesteno waited with patience, unimpressed until the creature tired himself out. He hadn't felt any strain in the shadows he'd compelled, and it almost felt like bullying to keep him there. Lexius' reassurance further convinced him to allow the release, and with no visible command, light and darkness fell once more in its natural patterns, devoid of the distortion he'd enforced upon the gloom.

Just because Sulphur seemed weakened, didn't mean he would let his guard down though. The absence of restraint kept him on his guard, and he watched him with a scrap of wariness thinning his mouth, tension evident in the hard lines of his shoulders.

"He's here looking for you," he remarked to the silent Elf. "Should I... I don't know, leave the pair of you to talk?" Not that he would be slinking far, if it became apparent that was desired. He still wanted to know what Sulphur's interest in the matter was.

Lexius stepped Mesteno's way as he unwound the shadows from around the now clearly sulking demon.

The beads clicked again, this time in a clear greeting to the Sadist, which drew a snarl from past Sulphur's scaly lips. The demon flopped over and hauled himself up off the ground with as much injured dignity as he could muster.

"Stay." It sounded like an order for the necromancer, but Lexius phrased almost everything as such.

He knew who you were before he came here, he added assurance across the tie confidently. He could almost taste the flavor of annoyance and frustration that Mesteno felt, not only at his arrival but for the revelation of his identity to the demon.

Meanwhile, Sulphur flung the rock off his tail with a twitch (away from them!) and took great care dusting off every inch of his suit before he turned back toward them, eyes burning less red and more black now. But he still looked livid.

"Dey mighta demoted me, but dey didn't take m'ears." Sulphur had no ears at all! Just slits like the space where his nostrils should be. But that was beside the point. "And m'ears been tellin' me 'bout dis vile elf," boy, did he invest some serious scorn into that word, tail stabbing in the air Lexius' way, then jabbing toward Mesteno, "and his pet human come traipsin' through hell an' stirrin' up Himself."

Hades had made a big mistake taking them down into his realm no matter how he'd tried to keep it on the down low.

"And me, m'thinkin' 'Sulphur, can't be dat same stupid elf couldn't get da job done before, right?' But den Himself gets to sculptin'. Y'know, like he does of dem he's makin' a special place for....and low'n fuckin' behold, it's da same elf!" Stab, stab, stab went the tail toward Lexius. "And me, I knows y'wont have no better luck'n ya did last time without m''help. So here I am, t'guide ya right along."

Sulphur grabbed the lapels of his jacket and stood proudly, waiting for their gushing thanks for his uncharacteristic generosity and charity.

"I'm not a pet," was Mesteno’s first remark, a simple statement he didn't bother to back up with explanation, because the damn demon didn't deserve one. "And it sounds like what you've done is decided to meddle. Which I'm not sure is considered playing by the rules. Last thing we need is your boss hearing about your visit and blaming it on us."

He was in no rush to go back down there and grovel as he'd been forced to last time. His nerves had been prickling for days in the aftermath, raw and sensitised after the attempt to cleave soul from flesh.

"Strikes me you must have a reason for wanting to make sure we get Whisper out. Also got me thinking you must expect something from us in return for you playing 'guide'. Since when did your kind ever do anything without wanting payment?"

Sulphur flashed his teeth at Mesteno in something that was probably supposed to be a smile but was far too ghastly to convey anything other but horror. His teeth were as black as his horns and as sharp as a shark's. His tail, at least, settled down to poke at the ground around his dusty loafers. But smoke began to trickle from his nose slits once again.

"Whispah don't be deservin' what he got anymore'n I did!" The demon growled. "But with dat moutha yers, m'sure y'gonna deserve what ya get when Himself gets ahold of ya like he's plannin'." Sulphur sounded like he would relish that day, too!

"Well since you've been demoted 'n all, I doubt you'll get to have any fun punishing me when your boss' plans come to fruition. Doubt you'll even be important enough to get a spot in the audience," Mesteno mocked, unable to resist the compulsion to further antagonise.

The demon’s scales flashed from green to puce in about three nanoseconds, the ground gave another shimmy and shake, more daggers (these ones flaming!) started leaking from his eyes and his mouth opened to deliver a fiery tirade.

"Do not." Lexius commanded.

And it was a compelling sort of command. A telepathic domination that had Sulphur choking on his forked tongue just after his teeth snapped closed hard enough it sounded like a gunshot ricocheting through the stable yard. The ground calmed, the daggers winked out and Sulphur dissolved in choking, sputtering coughs until he got his breath back.

Lexius stepped again and the beads gave another little rattle as his side, causing Sulphur to hunch his shoulders.

"Shut dem up." Sulphur snapped, clawed fingers pointing toward the beads and his tail slithered into hiding behind him.

"You had little useful information to give last we spoke." The Elf finally joined the conversation! "If you have more now, then speak it." He ordered the demon around just as easily as he did Mesteno!

Sulphur puffed his scales like a blowfish.

"Before your visit attracts unwanted attention." Lexius added. Mesteno had it right. This was entirely against the rules as the Elf understood them.
Image
User avatar
Mesteno
Seasoned Adventurer
Seasoned Adventurer
Posts: 311
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2018 5:55 pm
Location: Rhy'Din
Contact:

Re: Scelerosis Nulla Requies

Post by Mesteno »

[Continued...]

"Dey aint gonna find me!" Sulphur said hot, flames licking at his jagged teeth. "Dey aint got no reason ta even watch me anymore." And at first, the demon seemed dejected, for his puffiness vanished and he sagged all the more. But then his scaly lips curved hard with cunning and malicious glee. "Dat'll be deir undoin'. Now listen." He instructed, stepping closer and bringing with him the scent of brimstone and...well, sulphur!

Mesteno wasn't happy with how close the reptilian-like demon had dared come. Precaution only, he drew up a few threads of shadows to wind gauntlet-style about his forearm and hand, leaving fingers sheathed in razor edges darkness. Good enough to swipe with and do some damage if things got nasty.

"Dey gave'm to dem smelly little, hairy smiths." The demon meant dwarves. His tone was vicious. "Butcha gotta get Whispah free first or it'll unravel dem both, cause dat empty headed, war crazed idiot is bound between da two planes!"

The necromancer moved up beside Lexius while the demon seethed and hated. "Well this makes certain choices a whole lot simpler if he's telling the truth," he murmured. Lexius hadn't been all that driven to rescue Whisper unless he was particularly easily accessible after all. "But this thing about being bound between two planes? Please tell me you got some idea how we can free someone from that..."

There had been something else though, and he fixed a look back on Sulphur, his arms loosening from their arrogant fold - a half assed attempt to look less supercilious.

"How is Whisper being used to keep our main objective," he wouldn't say 'Ares' in case it drew attention from places unwanted! "stuck between planes?"

The Elf said nothing, and looked back to Sulphur, impassively awaiting an answer.

Sulphur was pacing by then, stabbing the air with his tail to accentuate his fuming reply.

"S'causea how he is, ya nimwhit!" Didn't Mesteno know anything?! "Da Sisters can't touch him, but dey still got da power t'snip da man-slayer's thread. And you," he growled at Mesteno, "can feed'm d'sense of his death with da horn. Den dey can say he's dead and his High'n Mighty'll believe it!"

Clear as glass, right?

Sulphur suddenly snapped his head around to the left. "Remember. Whispah first. In da caves!"

Suddenly, the demon was in a rush. And just where he was looking a line of fire split the air and crawled down toward the ground, opening a flaming gate that the demon bolted for like his tail was on ice.

With a final frown at the place the portal had been, Mesteno turned toward Lexius, and did his best to shake off his irritation lest the Elf think it was aimed at him. "Can't say I'm looking forward to meeting him again in the future, but the visit was worthwhile, if he spoke the truth."

Parts of it, certainly, clear as glass. Aside from figuring out how to touch the horn without instantly dying however (he remembered Ares warnings well enough when he'd been instructing on its collection!) there was one, rather yawning hole in Sulphur's suggestion.

"We save Whisper, and 'High'n Mighty', as he dubbed him, is gonna notice him eventually unless he finds some way to hide where he'll never get into any trouble or have any kind of life. I can't see him readily agreeing to that. And you know he's probably gonna find his way back to Koyan, maybe lead trouble right to Alvaka."

He was of course skipping over the part where Whisper potentially reuniting with Koyan was probably going to be a kick in the teeth for the poor Elf.

The portal left a scorch mark on the ground that was fast fading. Lexius spent a long while silently studying the place where the demon had disappeared before finally looking back to Mesteno.

"He was telling the truth. How he was telling it, however, is up for interpretation." Demons were great liars, but they were really at their most dangerous when they decided to apply their skills to the truth. They could certainly weave it in very interesting ways. "But his concern for Whisper is real enough. He was the only help I could find when I searched years ago, as limited as that help proved to be. He either suffered for trying to offer it, or fell into whatever trap Whisper did."

The beads swayed lazily at his side, contented and murmuring quietly amongst themselves, unconcerned with the all too valid points Mesteno went on to make. The Elf, however, considered the truth of the comments with a subtle frown curling his lips and his jaw working teeth in a slow grind. It didn't matter. It wasn't his business or his concern. Only their task was worth giving his attention.

"We shall handle that as it comes. For now, prepare yourself. Even if he believes he was not monitored, we should be about the task."

"Whatever you think will work," Mesteno conceded. If Lexius was willing to wing it to a point, he wasn't going to object. A little recklessness was appealing, even if the potential for an unpleasant death (and more unpleasant afterlife in Hades' clutches) did loom over it all like a particularly ominous pall.

"If we need to leave pretty much straight away, I'll have to go home first. I keep nothing here," he admitted, unapologetically. It was a livery yard after all, and he wasn't going to go wandering through Ysgard and Nidallevir in his chaps! "You probably have things you need to gather too, so tell me what hour and I'll have my shit together by then."

In fact, all he had with him that would be of any use was the rune-carved labradorite hanging about his neck. It hadn't come off his neck since Lexius' had handed it to him the other night, a talisman intended to help guard his mind from the dangers lurking in Nidavellir and Ysgard.
Image
User avatar
Mesteno
Seasoned Adventurer
Seasoned Adventurer
Posts: 311
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2018 5:55 pm
Location: Rhy'Din
Contact:

Re: Scelerosis Nulla Requies

Post by Mesteno »

[Continued...]

Lexius nodded once, but he hesitated before he replied. He'd noticed the trail of the copper and leather cord he'd made clinging to the side of Mesteno's neck. As powerful as it was, he knew the protection provided by the gift would not be able to overcome the effects of the place he was fairly certain now that they would have to go. The Elf spun out his thoughts around them, building a shield that was momentarily visible in a shimmering ripple of color through the air. That even as he stepped toward the man and murmured gravely.

"Between the Planes," he began, "can only mean between the Wastes where Niflheim is and Carceri where Tartarus lies. To access him through Tartarus would be foolish, which means we will need to go the other route. Niflheim is..." he paused, seeming to struggle for the correct word, shook his head. "It is not a place for either of us now. But we must go there, Mesteno."

It was concerning, the way Lexius looked sounded so... daunted? And nearer. When did Lexius ever choose to be nearer if he could help it?

"The Wastes... you mentioned those before when we were looking at the map," Mesteno recalled, and there the familiar pin-scratch of a frown was, wedging itself between his eyebrows, the dark chevrons of them severe. "You never did tell me precisely what there was to be so concerned about there," he reminded. And so if he was going to find out, it would be now, and if the Elf denied him the knowledge, he'd flat out refuse to go, and probably wind up prey to whatever came hunting them next. The stubborn fold of arms made that pretty clear. "Out with it. Give me the worst." Now who sounded commanding?

The air that Mesteno took on, the bossiness in his tone and posture, actually lightened some of the gravity from the Elf's demeanor. Only for a second. Only a little bit. It damn sure amused the beads, though. They started a snickering sort of clatter that probably just proved they were as cruelly sadistic as they were kind.

Lexius actually reached down to silence them before he spoke.

"The layers of the Waste are known as the Dooms. Niflheim is the doom of the spirit. It saps life and will and purpose from anyone that lingers there too long, inspiring only apathy, despair and hopelessness." He reached to almost touch the pendent on Mesteno's neck. "This will not be enough to fully protect you from it. It is insidious and constant. You must ready yourself here," his hand rose, again almost touching Mesteno's temple, "for the weight of such a place." He was already sounding grim and made no mention of how he might stave it off himself.

Mesteno watched Lexius closely as he explained, doing his best (which wasn't anywhere near good enough) to disguise the fact that each word seemed to tighten the hinge of his jaw a fraction further, to peel his lips back a hair further from his teeth in a savage seeming grimace. The psion had not been wrong when he'd stated it was not a place either of them should be going given their current states of mind.

Parting with Evander was still too fresh. And for Lexius, being so near to Koyan again…

"Well," the necromancer said, and his throat was tight enough that the words were very, very quiet, "you'n I are gonna breeze through that fuckin' place. I don't know what we were so worried about."

It was an attempt at humour, sarcastic, and it didn't work in the slightest since he had no real mirth to inject into the tone of his voice.

He turned away for a moment, did his best to make it seem a casual thing, but he wouldn't have fooled a toddler with a performance that poor. Anxious habit, the grind of knuckles into breastbone, and he was recalling all too vividly how immediately stricken he'd been with the fluid from the attack of the Fury. She'd had him beaten, a sole aggressor. What luck would he have surrounded by a plane of it? Lexius at least had practice in the art of serenity, the assistance of the beads. He loathed the thought that he might prove a hindrance.

For what seemed a long time, he inspected the singed patch of ground where Sulphur had disappeared, but there was a final, absent sounding sort of murmur, barely loud enough to carry.

"Bonus dies mori. Paratus sum."

Lexius frowned when Mesteno turned away, the first words the man muttered given only a faint, harsh snort by way of acknowledgement. And then he stood there and stared, frowning deepening enough to draw the lines across his brow again. This right here was why he had not mentioned the unique and unpleasant properties of Niflheim before now. It wouldn't have served either of them to let the Sadist continue on in ignorance.

Lexius did an amazing thing without any warning whatsoever. He closed his hand over Mesteno's taut, knotted shoulder and pressed a thumb, skin to skin, against the preternatural coolness at the back of the man's neck. The touch was a little too warm, that minor point of contact carrying the same hint of grit the rest of his skin did.

When he spoke, it was with focused intent.

"You will live." That might be how he was going to go about it. The singular purpose he would not lose sight of in that kind of place. And then he attempted a little humor of his own. "And we will hurry."

The shield around them dissolved and then the Elf stepped back abruptly, as if he'd just caught himself being...compassionate. The touch went away.

Mesteno had only begun to wonder at it. Almost thought he'd imagined it.

"You're such an optimist," he remarked, with a cheeriness which whilst forced, at least proved he was making an effort. He needed distraction from what was twisting up his nerves. He'd been fine with everything until the Grey Wastes!

"Bring something warm and rugged,” Lexius advised. “Some manner of survival gear as well as your weapons.”

"I've just the gear," came the assurance. The necromancer was nodding, listing off the necessities mentally and then turning back to face him, no scrap of anything morose to be seen in his expression. "If you can send me back now, I can be all packed and ready in an hour."

The Elf was still frowning, but it was faint by then. The ghost of some displeasure he kept mainly to himself. He did not reflect the Sadist's attempt at levity in any fashion. He wasn't watching Mesteno anymore, but rather than yard and that place where Sulphur had once stood. He was focused now only on the task at hand.

Whisper first. Which meant Nidavellir and endless tunnels, drwarves, gnomes and dark elves. Not the drow, but a different sort. He rubbed his fingers together absently, then took the beads in hand, instead, before nodding once.

"Very well." He gave Mesteno no chance to say or do anything else were he so inclined. The stables were gone and the Sadist found himself home.

[End.]
Image
Post Reply

Return to “Fading Light”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest