Ex Infernis

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

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Ex Infernis

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[Heavily adapted from live roleplay with Lexius and Gemethyst. This was very much Gem's story, and one of the last I ever got to write with her. Some of the main posts were contained in her own folder on Dragonsmark under the folder name 'The Den of Iniquity' and I'd highly recommend reading her stuff if it can still be accessed there. She was a talent, all around wonderful person, and valued member of our community. RIP, Gem.]

September 29th, 2015


"Whenever you're ready."

Mesteno hadn’t even finished speaking when Lexius shot forward across the trampled lawn to strike at him.

It was early evening, and as he often did, Lexius had come to play tutor. He’d persisted in resuming their lessons as soon as they’d recovered physically from the rigours of their journey to rescue Aiden, an exercise which benefited his student as much mentally as it did physically.

The Elf’s movements were stunningly quick, the precise jabs of the dual wielded training sticks a rapid succession which allowed no room for slacking on the part of his student. It had been months before Lexius had permitted sparring, no matter how quick a study Mesteno proved to be. Every basic movement he required performing to perfection, every stance and step pedantically corrected until the training sticks sang. Now, he pressed him viciously, striking with intent to make him regret every slip.

There was a prize to be won, and Lexius meant it to be hard earned. Not far from where the pair fought, a handcrafted pair of darkly stained, metal banded sticks rested enticingly in a bed of muslin cloth. Lexius had carved them for one pair of hands only, weight, balance and reach particular to his student.

Mesteno had wanted them without even touching them. Or perhaps he’d simply wanted to prove himself. As quick as he was, as skilled with a blade, he’d never yet managed to touch the Elf with the training sticks. Now, he fought with undisguised aggression, fending off Lexius’ blows and boldly offering his own offensive, striding across the flattened grass barefoot and steady.

In time, both became aware they had an audience.

Beneath the dappled shade of a tree, Gem observed the pair with a faint smile tilting her lips. She did nothing to call attention to herself, but moved unobtrusively from the treeline toward the porch of Mesteno’s dilapidated cabin where the prize waited on a shabby table.

The bout continued for long minutes, Lexius abandoning all pretence at playing fair, wielding his psionic abilities to send his opponent’s weapons off course of their targets, and then crowding him to force a retreat.

Foul mouthed (Gem’s jaw dropped at what he dared call the Elf), goading, Mesteno only encouraged him, furiously defending until an opportune moment permitted assault. Lexius’ choice to abandon the rules sparked a predictable preternatural counter spun of shadows reaching to trip swift, elven feet, but it was when Lexius vanished entirely, and reappeared behind his unprepared challenger to strike him soundly in the spine that Gem finally called out her support.

"Oh! Cheater!" It couldn’t be helped that she inwardly approved of his tactics, but she’d plainly picked her side. "I won't slice the Elf's hamstring for you, Mesteno! Get in there and smack him hard!"

Growling, more for permitting Lexius to land a blow than due to any pain, Mesteno spun to guard against further strikes and dug deep, using reserves of energy he rarely had to tap to fight back with a ferocity that could be truly frightening. Lips peeled back, snarling, he fought Lexius into the trees until he could beckon their aid, but the dextrous desert creature evaded the whiplash of their limbs, and rolled beneath another well aimed swing.

“Aye.” Lexius murmured it, almost so quietly it went unheard, but there was nothing but approval for his student’s determination in that single, softly uttered word. It was a moment later than the tattoos littering his arms flashed, intending to dazzle Mesteno’s sensitive eyes.

Despite the brilliance of it, the next ankle-aimed swing of the Elf’s sticks struck nothing but air as Mesteno deftly hopped over them and brought his own weapons down sharply toward the back of Lexius’ head, forgetting entirely to keep his attack friendly. It was only several lifetimes’ worth of training and natural speed that saved the elven skull and left a shoulder crunching under the weight of the strike instead.

Lexius danced back, away, one stick held up and across his body, eyes narrowed intently. His second stick had vanished, and he was flashing teeth in a hard smile. "Done." He announced.

Gem sucked in a breath and rose from where she’d sat, ready to help if such was needed. Her concern was obvious, furrowing her brows as she studied Lexius.

There was no adequate way to describe the feeling of success Mesteno experienced after several long months of training and never being able to land a single blow. Doubtless it made him eager to pursue for a second, a third strike, and he was after him like a hound with the taste of blood on its tongue, the flash of his gold-shot eyes uncommonly bright. After a moment though, he did stall in his forward motion, but it was not because Lexius had declared their match done. It was due to the particular absence of one of the Elf's weapons, which he'd been watching for so intently before then.

"Ah-- shit, did I get you?" He meant badly.

The Elf's smile vanished, though he didn't completely relax just yet. "Enough to earn your reward."

"I'll be sure'n get you better next time then," Mesteno told him brightly. He did flash him a smile though, quicksilver in its brevity before he angled a nod towards the porch and its petite occupant.

Gem remained there when it seemed Lexius didn’t require the aid of her healing, but it was not long before she was turning their attention from the matter of prizes to the cause for her visit, and neither Mesteno nor his injured opponent protested given the urgency of her words.

"While I hate to interrupt this lovely sparring, and would love to participate sometime if you please, I...think I am in trouble, Mesteno." She’d a look he knew well. There was not a doubt in his mind that the trouble she spoke of required a capital T. "I don't know what to do." Her hands were wringing together as they sometimes did when she was uncertain, the knuckles white with the strength of her grip. "You might be able to help. And, hell, if Lex knows something on the subject, his advice would be well received, too."

Gem's words eradicated any lingering scraps of smile Mesteno wore, and he set his sticks down in the hammock before approaching her, faintly sweat-clammy hands already reaching for her shoulders as if he meant to hold her still to examine her, brow etched with the bars of a frown.

"What'd you do? Who's after you?"

Lexius tucked his remaining stick under his hanging arm, and pressed his palm over one of his myriad geometric tattoos. When he lifted that hand away, the tattoo was gone, and he stepped into motion after Mesteno, gaze slanted to watch the interaction between him and Gem. He said nothing, but he was lingering there and listening.

Gem had pulled in a breath as Mesteno gripped her shoulder. Too frail. Her pearly teeth bit down on her bottom lip but she did meet his gaze.

"Well, I've been ailing a bit. Nothing really dreadful. Nothing really fast. It started back before the bairn was born. I thought I'd got rid of whatever it was. But then...well. Things have been happening." She held her breath for a moment before continuing quietly. "I found wards carved into the stone walls surrounding Quellarin, spaced out at half-mile intervals. I researched the pattern and... It’s death magic. I think a witch rather than a necromancer, but I don't know enough to be able to tell. And..." Oh, but there was more coming.

Gathering his beads up, Lexius levelled an intent look on the pair. The mention of death magic had his attention, but he still said nothing.

"I found more of those markings inside. I think it means one of my staff has turned on me. Maybe Bart. He's the only one I have trouble with." Never mind the ex-pirate who sounded his cannon off the rooftop every night at moonrise. Never mind the ex-poisoner chef or the ex-con financier who handled her books and all important details. The list could go on. "I found something in the trash." She proffered the crumpled paper to Mesteno, who took it wordlessly and did not protest when Lexius stepped in behind him to examine it over his shoulder.

"Do you often go through your trash?” Lexius asked simply.

Gem gave a little chuckle. "No, though I do frequently go through other people's. I dropped a ring and thought it had fallen into the trash can in my bathroom. I found that in there."

Lexius nodded, but asked no more questions. Not just yet. And since Mesteno was so nicely distracted, he splayed his hand over that spot his stick had landed on the man's spine, fingertips barely brushing skin at the top of his neck. Nosey and pushy. He bent his will to enact a little more healing as he listened, but found his task made difficult when Mesteno played eel, wary of what the hand might stumble across.

You killed my mother, bitch. Don't think you won't pay. The note was signed simply "Terrel's Scion".

"I remember her.” Mesteno murmured. “She was that crazy bitch from about twelve years back. Blackmailing you and threatened you with all sorts of perverse shit. Have you taken on any new staff over the years?”

He pressed her as if to direct her towards one of the shabby garden chairs there, and Gem let him to begin with, but drifted to a halt before sitting as he and Lexius looked at the note. Silver brows furrowed as she nodded slowly.

"Yes. The new maids. Bart won't keep his hands off them, and so none of them stay for above a few weeks. I have a constantly rotating...." She paled as she considered what an idiot she had been. They would be given the code to get in and out of the very well protected manor, naturally. "But they are vetted before they are hired. Joseph handles that..." She let out a hissed breath. "I can tell you now that if it is Joseph I am ***, and not in a good way. He knows all of my business." Her hands fluttered in little graceful arabesques. "But the real problem in all this is that Jewel and Nyx spend time there. I won't let them, now, and what if I can't get this hex off me? If I die, that leaves you and Rei with Jewel and Jack, Ben and Lir with Nyx." She was distracted. Tired. "You are still the executor of my will, chev." Because he needed to know that. She'd died once already.
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Re: Ex Infernis

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[Continued...]

"Don't jump to those conclusions prematurely, cara mea," Mesteno warned her. "You know full well I'm not about t'let you go again. I'll pull an Orpheus and bring you back from your trickster God. Except, y'know, successfully." No looking back!

He was giving the new information she fed him serious thought though, chewing over it all with a face gone granite stony. "Sounds like there's definitely more than one person at work here. Maybe one disapproved of the tactics of another and disposed of it in a rush, or someone else mistook it for litter while cleanin' and tossed it out. Whatever the case, I'm gonna need to come over and look at what you found carved. Am I likely to run into Jack there?" He was fully aware the scarecrow man would rather he be dead!

Gem was understandably dispirited as a result of a year spent being magically drained, and was not thinking with her normal intrepid and intransigent positive methods. She winced at the mention of Jack, her hands again going to wring in front of her.

"It's autumn and... and you know how he is.” Mesteno didn’t need to confirm it! “We mostly live over at Benjamin's place. It just kind of happened that way. I can't say he won't pop in, though, because he is unpredictable that way." She considered and let out a slow breath. "I don't know much about death magic. You do. There is something on or in me or ...I don't know how a hex works. But if you can get that nullified that would be a good start. I can't seem to keep much energy up and it's getting worse."

Lexius had stepped away as they spoke, but he studied Gem - more than just her pretty, if somewhat scrawny, exterior. He dipped a thread down, brushing it over her physically rather than mentally this time. The examination revealed a draw, a drag. As if something was very, very carefully being siphoned off her in incredibly slow and careful increments.

"Don't worry about it. If he's there he's there. I'll come over whenever suits you. Need to figure out whether it's something that's anchored in you instead of just existing in and around your home though," he added firmly. And that was when he turned to look at Lexius. "What've you got?" Because he just knew what he was up to.

Gem lifted one hand and squeezed very briefly Mesteno’s forearm, a touch he returned with a light brush of fingers over her knuckles. Her gaze moved to Lexius though, keen for an answer to the question.

Lexius narrowed his eyes again, half masking the bright glint of those strange colors as he bent his will to the study. He didn't even bother trying to deny what he was doing "She is weakened." But that was obvious. "Something pulls, but the trail is lost once it leaves her." He couldn't see magic. But he could see the effects. "Her energy still regenerates, it is not blocked, but more slowly than the drain."

"I'd try and feel it out myself, but it's autumn, and I don't trust myself to have adequate control to just examine you and not latch on inadvertently. It's too easy to accidentally drain someone when they're ill," Mesteno confessed, backing up until his spine was against the railing near Lexius' collection of miniatures – hand crafted representations of the creatures they’d encountered over the past few months. "If there's something on your grounds though, I'll be able to feel it out, and there's the potential that I'll recognise the offender's school of necromancy by looking at the words or marks they leave behind. In the meantime, I'd suggest doing your own background checks on the staff, and trying to see whether any of the girls have their hooks in y'long term staff."

"I will aid in the interrogation if you wish." Lexius offered.

Plainly surprised, Gem blinked, and then gave him a faint, sweet smile of appreciation. "I would be so pleased if you would."

"You had any unexplained deaths at Quellarin recently?" Mesteno this time, never short of questions.

"Not people, not that I know of,” Gem admitted. “There have been some carcasses of wild animals that looked a bit mangled. I have the chaps out with shotguns and such when they move about the grounds, in case there is a wild bear got in somehow. But I myself walked the wall of the property. That is how I found the hexes. Or wards. Whatever they are. None of the wall is crumbled or broken, certainly not enough to let anything in that can't leap an 8 foot stone wall with concertina wire atop it, backed up by Mer's technomage wards and my own traps, too."

"What did you do with the cadavers? Did you burn 'em? Bury 'em?"

Gem nodded at Mesteno. "We burned them and buried the bones that were left." She offered him an apologetic look. "I didn't realize it was part of anything. If it even is."

"I doubt there's any connection," he agreed, "but to be on the safe side, I'd like to examine some of the bones. Don't worry about digging them up," he told her, and explained no further than he needed to.

"Very good. I shall have my cell. Call me when you can join me at Quellarin. Lex is welcome, as well. For now I must depart." She paused for a moment. "I appreciate your help, both of you." And then she was gone, moving into shadow so swiftly it was hard to follow her lines as the melted from view.

Mesteno cast a lingering look in the shadows where Gem had vanished.

"Shoulda known something was going on. No one, not even an elf takes that long t'recover from pregnancy, even if she did have 'em awful close together." Plainly he cared a great deal for her. The elven woman had known him since he was a teenager, taught him how to read common, how to use his first gun. It was only natural he'd be protective.

Lexius sent a cup floating his way, filled with water to help replace what he’d lost through the sweat of their sparring. The necromancer took it almost absently, but his gaze strayed across to the prize he’d all but forgotten with Gem’s visit. Instead of going immediately to collect it though, he was examining the Elf closely. "How much did I hurt you back there? Really."

"You cracked the joint between the clavicle and acromion. It would have shattered both bones completely had it hit with the force you intended.” Lexius didn’t sound at all upset. “A lesson to me, how much force you can put behind a move. It is healed now." He assured. The Elf did not ask after Mesteno's spine. The move away from his touch had been a clear enough no.

Mesteno frowned when he realised his attack had done as much damage as it had, or perhaps because it would have done more if the Elf hadn't been able to soften the blow. He fidgeted with his cup briefly, before the predictable apology. "Carried away. I shouldn't have tried t'get you that hard when it's just a sparrin' match. That was a poor show of control." Or rather a lack of it. "I mean hit you that hard, not get you that hard." Sometimes words went wrong.

The Elf quirked a smile. "Are you sure?" Obviously, he wasn't receiving apologies today. Was that some sort of innuendo? No, no. he was just calling Mesteno out on his intent.

Mesteno, semi-convinced that Lexius’ mind was disinclined to anything as base as innuendo, changed the subject. In truth, the elf’s mind only worked that way when he was relaxed enough with a particular person. He hadn't allowed that in a long, long time. He was also...trying. But he didn't go back to the issue to try again when Mesteno let it slide.

"You guys seemed pretty comfortable with one another. You got some history I’m not familiar with?"

"We've known of each other quite a long while. But only superficially."

"She's a good woman,” Mesteno told him, and meant it. “Wouldn't hurt t'know her better. Except she'll introduce you to half the inn and then people will try to be your friend." Playfully tormenting!

"We shall see. She has much chaos in her." And Lexius was no big fan of chaos.

[End scene.]
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Re: Ex Infernis

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[Adapted from live play with Lexius.]


On the whole, Mesteno was a perceptive creature. Rarely surprised, and often shrewd to the point of irritating the subjects of his observations, it was difficult to imagine him oblivious to anything. And yet he had been, and likely always would be, caught floundering by interest that was not of a platonic kind. Come October, months since he’d parted ways with his lover of nearly three years, he’d remained celibate, settled into the safe stagnation of living unattached, and unprepared to consider that there might be other options.

In his defence, the interest had come from an unexpected party, and had not been announced. The single, suspect incident which might have offered a scrap of forewarning too vague.

"You got pockets full of creature bits for me?" he’d asked Lexius one afternoon at Sanctuary. It was shortly after their return from Nidavellir. The Elf had diligently sampled many of the creatures meant to deter them, and Mesteno had extracted a promise that these would be shared.

Up until that point, Lexius had been smiling, but the expression became edged, and his blue-violet eyes had dropped glinting to the turtleneck Mesteno was wearing that afternoon.

"I do. The most recently taken from the inn." He’d answered, lifting his eyes again.

"From the inn?" Genuinely puzzled, Mesteno hadn't connected the dots. "Well, what is it? Anything new is always welcome."

The Elf had stared for a long, breathless kind of moment as he tried to decide whether Mesteno was acting particularly well that day, or if he really hadn't picked up on his meaning. "This sample is not from something new." And then he’d reached out to hook his fingers around the top of Mesteno’s turtleneck and tug it down.

There had been no effort to intercept Lexius' hand. Mesteno was entirely too trusting of him by then, but his eyes had widened as the neckline came down far enough to reveal the tell-tale wounds. They were not the neat, deep puncture wounds usually associated with the bite of kindred. He'd pulled away before Sinjin had been able to skewer his throat with them neatly - two stunted slices remained, scabbed over, with minor bruising that had already begun to fade.

Instead of babbling excuses, or demanding to know immediately who'd tattled (he'd figured that out fast enough, since Halcyon had been the only one there) he’d laughed. Not one of those quiet, murmur-low sounds he muted himself to in public, but a bright, undiluted sound, just a little rough like velvet rubbed the wrong way.

"Y'know what? I wasn't even wearin' this to hide them," he’d told Lexius candidly. "Honest t'God coincidence. Did you really get samples somehow?"

Lexius let go the sweater, satisfied the damage was healing well enough. Mollified. "Hmmm." was his only reply to the explanation. "I did. Vampire blood is usually... uncooperative, but I managed to salvage and separate enough of it, I think, for you to toy with." He held up the vial. It was half full of refined plasma. "What is your... relationship with him?" He truly was trying to keep out of it, but the entire thing had tweaked him.

Having settled into a lazy lean against the railing of his porch, Mesteno watched patiently as he revealed the grisly sample haul. A leather roll unfurled across one of the distasteful garden chairs.

"Sin’s one of my brother's lovers," he explained. "But before that ever began, he was my friend. There was a time we were linked because of what you're holdin' right there," he wagged a finger toward the vial, and did not explain the past tense. "Dynamic shifted a little after I got more involved with the necromancy, for obvious reasons. He likes to bait me, because he knows I'll hurt him, and we both enjoy that."

Lexius had very nearly frowned, but he’d smoothed it away and tucked the vial back into the roll. That unbound leather contained quite a few of them, all meticulously labelled. Plasma, blood, flesh, stone. All kinds of samples that he'd collected from their journey through the Planes. He stepped away from it with a gesture that Mesteno could claim them and processed the information in silence.

All of it, no, none of it was his concern, he’d decided. "Very well." He hadn’t asked for more details.

Weeks had passed.

The discussion had been forgotten entirely (at least by the oblivious necromancer) and another evening had come, spent on that same porch, occupied in much the same manner. It was not so very long since Gem had asked their aid, and Lexius had healed rapidly from the injury he’d sustained, challenging Mesteno to win the sticks.

"Why were you sorry to have hit me that hard?" The Elf had asked, never mind that Mesteno had already told him why.

Confused by the need to answer again, Mesteno rested a forearm against the railing and studied him. After a moment, and a slow blink, he obliged anyway. "Lack of control isn't something I’m proud of, particularly 'round someone who values it. I don't want you lookin' at me like I'm undisciplined, or bein' disappointed. And I hurt you." He knew he had. "While I know a great many people who'd appreciate that, I don't think you're one of them."

"I find you neither undisciplined nor disappointing." Lexius had assured, and with no little amount of gravity. "And while I find no pleasure in receiving pain, you should not allow that to limit your potential. Neither one of us will learn what it truly is if you hold back." All very sensible, logical, rational. Then he’d asked something completely off the wall. "Do you enjoy giving pain in everything?"

"Are you asking if I like to give pain when I'm..?” Prudishly, Mesteno refused to say it.

"When you have sex." Lexius finished and confirmed, watching him intently.

"Yes." Finally. "But it's swings 'n roundabouts where that-- I mean sex," there, he said it too, still taken aback that Lexius of all people was broaching the subject, "is concerned. Inhibitions are a turn off. I encourage whoever I'm doin' it with to be equally as rough. Not that they usually are but…" He’d trailed off. "Why?"

It’d been the initial, awkward exchanges of a conversation far more personal than Mesteno had ever expected to share with Lexius. Having established that their tastes were more than a little conflicting, Lexius’ frank answers to the necromancer’s questions about his personal life had been surprisingly intriguing, and his lamentations about past choices something Mesteno could grimly share in.

"You don't get to choose," Mesteno had been saying with his usual bluntness. "Attraction happens, you'll see a face, learn a mind, it'll be there and become a torment until you act on it. You might deny yourself, make yourself even more miserable by doing it, but desire chooses for you more often than not."

Lexius’ confession had not been immediately in the wake of that resigned statement, but it had come.

"You are my type, Mesteno." So far as the Elf was concerned, he’d filled some very specific criteria. Having dropped that bomb, he dared continue, making matters worse. "And I am finding myself… becoming somewhat possessive. When Sinjin put his fangs in you, I found I disliked the idea not merely because he is a vampire, but because it is you he put them into. I am not suggesting anything, simply informing you of this,” he paused to choose the word, “difficulty."

"I'm findin' this difficult to understand,” Mesteno had murmured after what was far too long, and during which the Elf had sat grinding his teeth, internally damning himself for mentioning it. “Help me figure this out. You, despite knowin' I’m a sexual sadist, that I can hardly deal with takin' my clothes off in front of people, and that you would be the one belly down, with my teeth in your throat, still consider me ‘your type’?"

He didn't touch on the fact that Lexius was plainly still deeply emotionally distraught over Koyan, or the obvious distress of his own over Evander that made him feel a twist of guilt over even thinking about bedding someone else. Yet he’d decided then to look at him. To try and see beyond the friendship, beyond their occasional student and teacher dynamic. Instead he examined him with new intention, stripped of his carefully self-imposed mental boundaries, beyond which Lexius had existed quite safely.

He considered Lexius handsome. It was not something he’d been unaware of, but due to the Elf’s very nature, his stoicism and carefully maintained personal boundaries, he’d never once considered him sexually. How easily that pre-conception of him as a being disinterested in sex snuffed out after a single conversation. There was nothing innocent about the way in which Mesteno studied him then.

"Not completely." Lexius allowed. "Nor, as I said, am I suggesting anything."

Repetition. For both of them.

"I know you're not suggestin' anything," Mesteno reassured, gesturing the notion away, "I know, I'm supposed to just sit 'n be aware 'n let you figure it out yourself. Then you can find a way to persuade yourself you were safer not bein' interested in anyone, and you got it all under control, right?"

The Elf had turned from him, too aware of the new regard. Uncomfortable with the fact that part of him liked it.

“It is something you should be aware of," Lexius spoke to the dark, "and something I will master. Your life is your own, and complicated enough without my...idiosyncrasies." And then, more harshly. "Stop looking at me like that." An order.

It was ill thought out, but stealthy on his feet as he was, it was no great feat for Mesteno to be propping up the wall one moment, and right there, beside Lexius the next. There was no physical contact, no reaching for him, but there was little more than a hand's span between them.

"How would you like me to look at you then?" He was pushing his luck, asking for another psionically induced gust of wind to catch him in the gut, or to put the Elf in a foul mood. In truth, he was curious to see how, when he could barely stand being close to someone, even putting up walls to deter contact, he'd cope with even the most minor of invasions of personal space.

Lexius could have prevented it. He didn't need to be looking at Mesteno to know precisely where he was positioned. He hardly needed to see anyone, really, to deter an attempt at getting too close. But there was nothing. Nothing but a slanted, penetrating look for daring to push.

Reckless, yes. Strong willed. Displaying the traits he found appealing hadn’t helped the matter! It prompted the next impromptu words that left his lips.

"Look at me as the one who will make you take it again." It sounded a promise made with conviction.

He heard himself, though, because Mesteno’s prediction came true. The air shoved the Sadist back, intended to push him right back into the wall he’d originally been leaning against. Instead the stubborn necromancer slapped a hand down on the railing, grasped tight, and conceded a single step.

"If you persist I will wipe the memory of this conversation from your mind." Then Lexius did sound angry, had felt angry. And that was the reason he’d suddenly paused and seemed to look inward. Was that real? He wasn't sure.

"No you won't," Mesteno told him, sounding entirely too confident of the fact. "'Cause that'd be unforgiveable and you damn well know it. I trusted you enough to let you in my head, you play nice in it."

"No. I will not." Lexius agreed, serene once again, at least on the outside.

Mesteno however, was busy considering his own hypocrisy. Lexius had confided, lowered his guard, and he'd been taking advantage of the fact to push. It was his turn to angle a look out across the woodland, the sharp lines of his profile half hidden behind the usual unruly red river of hair.

"I'll try not to look at you," he’d finally allowed magnanimously.

"Very well." The Elf agreed, as if that had been the only correct response Mesteno should offer. Mesteno hadn’t been in the least surprised when he’d changed the subject as if the previous conversation had never happened at all. "I have books for you."

But of course, things had changed.

[End.]
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Re: Ex Infernis

Post by Mesteno »

[Adapted heavily from live play with Gem, Pharlen and Lexius.]

October 5th, 2015



Two elves, a Timelord and a necromancer…

At first glance it was the formula for a bad joke, but Gemethyst, Lexius, Pharlen and Mesteno had accomplished a great deal in the space of a short afternoon. Gathered in Quellarin’s entrance hall, Pharlen was sharing her findings with an attentive audience.

"Females, I'm assuming two of them, have been coming to the wall, and their appearance coincides with the die off along it." Her investigations amongst the dryad inhabiting the property had been revealing. Even the trees has deigned to speak with her as she wandered, lulling them to calmness with the strum of her guitar, and leaving in her wake a promise of protection. "What do the hexes look like?"

The hexes she spoke of had kept Mesteno on his toes. He’d discovered them carved into the encircling walls at precise distances, and buried before each, grisly remains still carrying the taint of violent deaths. Only one had stood out from the others, left to decay above ground and plainly human. It had been visited more than once, a stinking heap of intestines slowly crisping, with the most recent deposit no more than a few days old.

Gem had been busily instructing her head of staff to assemble the rest of her household in one of the rooms above. The pretence of a pay rise had been a sure-fire way to accomplish it swiftly, giving Lexius opportunity to pry amongst their minds for evidence of malice. Now the petite elfess returned in time to catch the conversation as Mesteno explained his discovery.

"Like somethin' made by someone who wasn't all that sure what they were doing.” The necromancer had found them inexpertly crafted from blood, ash and wax, the sloppiness reprehensible. “I haven't decided whether haste made their hands clumsy or whether they're just that new to what they're doing."

He reached to pull the paper he'd been making his notes on from the pocket of his jeans, and angled it so the others could see. "I recognise a little of it, but not the origins. Some of the symbolism suggests demonic energy was involved."

"New to what they are doing?" Gem considered the information for a moment. "I have lots of new maids. If one of them...well, maybe they are new to the hexes themselves?"

Whilst Lexius examined it, Pharlen took a photo of the sketched sigil, though she, too had been able to recognise some of it. "I'll see if Des's come across that."

"What was real odd though,” Mesteno confided after further discussion, “was the pull of the energy. All that dead vegetation by the walls, everything it's pulling from you... and it's going in two different directions."

They’d little opportunity to discuss it further. Via the manse’s intercom they’d been informed the staff were assembled as Gem had requested, and together they made their way upstairs for the next step in their investigation. Lexius’ time to shine.

He’d strung out mental feelers even before they got to the room. Given the excuse Gem had given for the impromptu meeting, he expected to detect some level of excitement or anticipation coming from those gathered within. He concentrated on those sensations (whatever they might be) and began to twist them apart and assign them to individuals as soon as he stepped into that thief’s playroom.

One particular maid, fearless of mind when he’d examined her and making her peers anxious with her whispers had brought the hounds of Lexius’ search to her. Sure enough, Mesteno’s study of the energy sapped from his elven friend and her land had led him to the same individual, playing channel to what was flowing off from her toward the city. Their scrutiny had not gone unnoticed by the maid however, and with psion and necromancer both distracted with their metaphysical investigations, it was Pharlen, playing shrewd observer who caught the threat.

"Stop." she barked it out, and the dance of the maid’s fingers had slowed, stopped, her expression caught in the initial stages of panic as she’d ceased to move at all. "Casting something," Pharlen told the others quietly. She'd learned damn fast what wiggly fingers meant, thanks to Desdenova.

Lexius’ hounds became vipers, sure and sleek and swift as they sank into the maid's mind, coiling around the parts of her brain that deprived her of voluntary motion control. "I have her." He murmured, building a shield around the woman's mind, and delving deeper, deeper.

"Mind yourself," Pharlen warned, and released the flow of time to run once more. She loosed it slowly so it wouldn't jar Mesteno or Lexius away.

Unfortunately, the Timelord’s initial stasis around the maid hadn’t been swift enough to stop the casting fingers from completing the final part of the spell. Instead it, along with the maid had been contained within the space around her. It’s release spelled chaos.

A swirling cloud of red erupted behind the girl. A ten foot tall, bipedal figure, clawed and fanged, with a reptilian face emerged from within, reaching for the maid’s head with murderous intent.

The staff scattered, all but Fagan who stationed himself beside Mesteno and Lexius, an axe in hand. Pharlen and Mesteno had immediately drawn on the creature rather than get in close, while Lexius refused to relinquish his grasp on the maid’s mind, following her thoughts to the ‘him’ behind it all, the mastermind whom the foolish maid had hoped to become consort to.

It was Gem who took a more direct approach, nimbly assaulting the demon from behind to try and bury her blades in its back. The creature was barely distracted, since the little elf was hardly large enough to consider a threat, and inevitably his hand had closed on the maid’s head, crushing it to little more than pulp and splinters… though not before Lexius had been able to plunder her mind for clues.

Driven backward by the hail of (deafening!) shots, and neatly hamstringed by Gem, the demon had collapsed, furious and injured. Batting ineffectually at the group as they pulled Gem clear from beneath it, the next assault has come from Lexius, threads sent to penetrate its mind that it attempted to fend off with a fiery mental blast of its own.

Whilst a few of the threads had withered under its defence, it hadn’t been enough to keep the psion at bay, a mental riposte finally enlightening him to the origins of the creature.

An Ammit, a soul eater, and it wasn’t long before it had begun to try and snatch the soul from Lexius’ flesh, a task made more difficult by the fact that Mesteno was in turn rotting the demon, decay channelled right through the blood slicking the hardwood floor. The flesh bubbled and began to fall from its limbs, but its attack on Lexius had been enough to stagger him.

It was the beads the desert elf always carried that had sprung into action to defend him, unwinding from his belt of their own accord and, glowing, had leapt snake-like into the air before the demon. A gong-like sound had shaken the very grounds of Quellarin, and arid desert winds had ripped through the room as Lexius’ guardian jumped zealously to his defence.

Gem had dropped to her knees, clamping her hands over bleeding ears but unable to keep from staring, awed.

Mesteno had seen the beads act of their own volition before, but never had he seen Lexius stagger like that. Spitting a curse in his native tongue, eaten up by that gong's deafening ring, he manoeuvred his way across on unsteady feet, squinting to keep the heat and wildly moving air from his eyes. But only so that he could stand at the Elf's back, a palm to his spine to hold him steady.

"Great spirits," Pharlen breathed, wide eyed. She touched Gem's shoulder and watched Lexius keenly. She too had seen him stagger, falter, but not in a damn long time.

The demon gave an unholy shriek that seemed to echo the gong's flight of sound, the hot blast of arid wind only drove sand further into his flesh, and then the spell that had called him gave up its ghost. He slumped to the floor, a mess blood and bone, but nothing of the demon was left. What remained was human. Only lacking a head.

"You okay? Everyone alright?" Pharlen asked, bloody faced, but it wasn't anything that bothered her. Her blood might bother others. Stuff was potent and alive, silver in the red.

Gem nodded. "I'm fine. Just...so tired." The pull of energy from Gem had increased exponentially with all the effort she had expended. She looked ready to crumple, though stubbornly she rose instead. "Yes, as Pharl asks, is everyone okay? Pharl, your face, it bleeds." Concerned, she’d studied Pharlen, and then Mesteno and Lexius. "Are you alright?"

"Mm? It'll stop," Pharlen had answered absently. Her wound was clotting, and she was far more concerned over Gem, head tilted and brows knit.

The beads were on the floor by then, just an innocuous set of sandalwood orbs drenched in rotting blood and entrails. Lexius looked grim, perhaps a touch pale, as he straightened from his half lean and touched a hand behind him to Mesteno's hip.

"I am well." He murmured, voice as gritty as the dunes. And then a confirming nod to Pharlen. "I am well." He repeated. A little more clearly, this time to Gem.

Bullshit. A dubious remark from Mesteno for Lexius alone along the mental link. Use one of the tattoos.

They cannot fix this. The Elf murmured along the link that had never quite dissolved.

Mesteno took that touch to his hip to mean that he'd prefer to stand unsupported, and without complaint collected the beads up from the floor, dripping with assorted goop. The place smelled too much like prey to him, and his stomach was twisting itself into knots. He was doing his best not to look at Pharlen like she might taste pleasant.

"I think you should go back to Benjamin, love.” Pharlen urged Gem gently.

"Yes, but...there is still the pull on me. I was hoping that would stop." Gem shook her head.

"The sigils are still up. That drain will continue as long as they're there and aimed at you." Pharlen looked the menfolk over, frowning at Lexius in particular. “If that drain isn't stopping at Benjamin's property, we're going to find out just where and when it will." She promised Gem with a wild grin.

Mesteno made a brief attempt to scrub some of the floor filth off the beads and onto his thigh, but paused when he realised Lexius probably wanted some samples off them. He offered them across to their rightful owner, who produced a length of muslin from his satchel for Mesteno to coil the desolate beads into it.

The necromancer sliced a razor-keen look at Gem. "I'll make a stop at one of the Hexes on my way out and see if I can't follow it into the city."

"No, please. Don't go there alone," Gem had demanded, worried. "Or at least, not into wherever it goes."

"You can't come. You'll fall over." Mesteno had told Lexius, whom he’d spotted staring.

"Come on, lads. You know we're all dog food until we've regrouped," Pharlen scolded mildly, "And if I have to rez anyone, I'll make it hurt."

"Okay, everyone go home." Gem urged, smiling. "I thank you for risking yourselves as you have."

Lexius clamped his hand on Mesteno's shoulder. "Ladies." To Pharlen and Gem, by way of parting, and before Mesteno had chance to complain, they'd simply disappeared, air sucked into the space they'd once occupied.

"Well!' Gem had laughed at Lexius’ tactics. "Take me home, Pharl, or lose me forever!"

Pharlen tugged Gem off to a shadow. "Nooowwww."
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Re: Ex Infernis

Post by Mesteno »

[Taken from live play with Lexius and set immediately after the previous log]

October 5th, 2015


It was not back to Mesteno’s cabin that Lexius had taken the kidnapped necromancer. Instead, he’d spent more precious energy taking them further afield, caring nothing for permission, and it was in his desert home that they’d emerged, hand still clamped tight to his shoulder. He knew the man was entertaining the idea of following whatever trails he'd found on Gem's property. Alone. That seemed to be unacceptable. At the very least, he'd intended making it a more difficult thing to accomplish.

They appeared in the main room, and the Elf immediately tightened his grip on the Sadist's shoulder as the heat and the dry washed over them in equal measure. Just helping to keep the guy upright.

For Mesteno, the world reeled, he reeled, grasping outward for anything to brace himself against, and when there was no handy wall to seek for balance, he had no choice but to squeeze his eyes shut, lock his knees and hope the hand gripping fast to his shoulder didn't fail him. Thankfully, the dizziness never lasted overlong.

Fading fingers of light crept in through the yawning opening overlooking the sandstone valley. The sun was already well on its way to sinking into the horizon, though the sight of it was masked by all those cliff walls out there. Lexius spoke with the grit still in his voice. "Gem offered sound advice."

"You shouldn't have done that," Mesteno grimaced, straightening slowly. "I hadn't even checked the girl's body. And you! The fuck’re you doin'!? You shouldn't be wasting energy after what that thing did to you." What had it done? He didn't know. But he'd seen Lexius stagger, and that was bad.

Lexius knew he shouldn't have done it. There was no sane, logical reason for him to hold up as an excuse, either, other than the fact he absolutely could not bring himself to allow Mesteno to go out hunting whatever this was alone. No, nothing rational in that at all. When had his hand slipped to curl those long fingers around the back of the Sadist's neck? He couldn't remember (and that was BAD!) but he caught himself at it. Caught himself standing too close (to help the man maintain his balance, he argued internally!) Well, Mesteno had it now, so the Elf stepped back and let go.

"She will keep the body for you." He grasped onto that first part, finding some logic in there somewhere. "And Pharlen will take her where she will be safe. Whatever this is, is strong in its powers. Strong enough to wrest an Ammit from Anubis' control and corrupt it to its own use." And that was nothing to scoff at! "I will recover here. Are you well?" He'd been trying with everything else not to ask that last question, yet there it was, tacked on anyway. If the beads hadn’t been wrapped up and gunky, they'd probably have been snickering their little, wooden asses off.

Mesteno studied him closely, his regard one of stern assessment, looking for any scrap of fatigue or dullness to eyes which had been so bitingly bright during the confrontation.

"She's not safe anywhere so long as she's being drained the way she is," he retorted, though it was the low mutter of a man who'd grudgingly accepted that he wasn't going to have things his own way. He'd studied Anubis in the past of course, as any necromancer would have worth his salt, but he didn't, for once, go prying for more information on the demon. He was just watching Lexius with a frown instead.

Was he well? Sleep deprived, drained and hungry, but the worst he'd suffered physically that day was a splinter. Everything was what he might consider a minor aggravation. But Lexius...

Mesteno gave him no warning, he reached out a hand and pushed him, not exactly roughly, but not gently either, right against his breastbone. Time to see how poorly he'd fared! Whether he'd stagger.

The gleam of Lexius gaze was dulled and the pallor under his normally tanned skin might still be present, but Lexius didn't seem to have lost much in the way of quickness. Strangely, his reaction was physical rather than mental. That alone might be an indication of something.

His hand came up to catch Mesteno's there at his chest, giving it a twist and a tug in a rather classic, hand-to-hand counter move against such an assault even as he was pushed back. He caught himself within two steps, grimacing, but that didn't stop him from using his hold to shove back, forcing Mesteno into a back-step.

"Well enough to be ornery, I see." There was a growl in the Elf’s voice that held a certain measure of pain to it. The beads rattled their agitation.

"I was testing your balance," Mesteno countered smoothly, "not being ornery. Normally you'd be quick enough I wouldn't even get chance to do that. That... Ammit thing did a real number on you. The beads don't hop up 'n defend you without damn good cause."

"Very well." Lexius murmured, the shove forgiven, and stalked toward that little kitchen area on the far side of the cave. "You need to eat." That was what Lexius was most concerned over. Mesteno was energy drained, had promised days ago he would fix it. Yet there he was, still lacking. "You will do that before we go out on this again." A demand.

After a moment, Mesteno pursed his lips and gave a short, sharp, acquiescing nod. He'd go and feed before they pursued things further. If they found the culprit, it would be better to be strong enough to take them down in one hard hitting operation rather than rooting them out and prolonging the risk to Gem while they all gathered their strength.

"What did the Ammit do to you?" he asked, following the Elf to the kitchen to lean against a bare patch of rock wall, out of the way.

"Anubis created the Ammit to devour souls. That one still had the ability and used the connection I had to its mind to try to do so. The beads protect what they own." Just like they had when Aiden had been trapped. But Lexius didn't mention the incident. Instead, he seemed to be preparing himself some food. "I have extensive material on the entire pantheon. It was...a subject Koyan and I investigated in depth at one time. If you wish to review it, you may, but I do not think they are a part of this. There is a necromancer behind it all, however. That I got from the woman."

"So a necromancer with Egyptian links, powerful enough to wrest control of a deity's servant. Or," Mesteno went on loosely wreathing his arms, "the Ammit was gifted to this necromancer for some reason. I'm not sure why Anubis would take a personal interest in helping someone attack Gem - the God she's bound to isn't of that pantheon at all. I don't recall her ever mentioning a specific enemy with links to the Egyptians, either, but she's been alive a whole lot longer than I have. I doubt I know of them all."

He didn't look at all surprised to hear about Lexius and Koyan studying the Egyptian pantheon together. In fact he nodded again, adding "He used to torment me with the Papyrus Ani. Showed me it in his collection and let me see bits of it over the years before finally letting me have part of a copied version to study. Adam was good with languages. He was helping me study it before I cut him loose."

Lexius had some manner of spell on one of those rock cabinets carved into the wall above the sandstone shelf he used as a counter. From those he pulled what he needed to fashion the meat rolls he seemed to favor as food. He ate one even as he prepared the next, speaking in between bites while mentally filing away those little titbits of history Mesteno had provided him.

"The maid thought of him as ‘The Scion’. But her mind was twisted. I recognized the taint of necromancy in her thoughts as well as other taints of demonic manipulation." The beads finally managed to worm their way free of the muslin and came pouring out onto the counter, now clean, where they rattled like an agitated snake. Lexius devoured the last of the meat roll he held as he eyed then, then continued. "She was induced to believe they were in love. It may be whatever energy she leeched from Gem was used to power other spells he is working. I only heard half a name before the Ammit killed her. Jetr-something." He pointed a half-eaten roll at the Sadist. "That Ammit was almost completely corrupted. It may have been found elsewhere rather than taken directly from Anubis." He believed that more likely. He also believed it was very possible Anubis might send something looking for his strayed minion now that it had been destroyed.
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Re: Ex Infernis

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[Continued...]

"A necromancer with the ability to use love magic as well? The hell kind of mage is this?" Mesteno asked with a scowl, absently watching the beads rattle away on the counter. "Though, I guess if you sensed demonic manipulations, there could be incubi involved. I need to get the origins of this hex dug up. Maybe that'll give me some clue about where our necromancer hails from. We might even be able to hash together a list of suspects if Gem recognises the origins. And remember, just because you heard a name in the girl's head, it doesn't mean you heard the right name. A smart necromancer would use an alias, even with his minions, to help avoid discovery. What really confuses me is that they saw fit to need two siphons. The hexes carved into the walls, and the girl's clothes. I suppose they coulda done it as a precaution in case one was discovered and disabled, but there was nothing sentient at the other end that I could feel, accepting the energy. Why not increase the rate of consumption to finish her off fast instead of opting for this slow drain? I'm gonna have to look into that to. See if I can find any circumstance where it’s beneficial."

It sounded as if he intended to have his nose buried in books for the next few days.

The food seemed to be lessening the pallor beneath Lexius’ sun darkened skin. He moved to retrieve two wooden cups from a different shelf and filled them with water, one set before Mesteno, before he completely drained his own. The beads kept up a constant chatter at Mesteno as if he was in some sort of trouble.

"Stop it." The Elf finally muttered at them. Amazingly, they quieted!

Lexius shook his head, took a breath, and seemed to collect himself a little more. "Others may know the name, even if it is an alias. Perhaps there is more than one of them involved," he paused, eyeing Mesteno critically, "though most necromancers I have known of tend to work with extreme independence. Perhaps, as you suggest, he is binding demons to his service to work the spells he cannot. Given that Gem is an elf," he continued, "and obviously tied to every living thing on her property, it may be that he prolongs the drain to sap every ounce of energy he can from her and her land. That is a wealth of power to add to his own."

Between the chattering of the beads and Lexius eyeing him critically, it wasn't long before the concern sat so darkly on the necromancer’s angular face was shifting, sliding towards open consternation.

"That's a valid theory," he murmured, the downward curl at the corner of his mouth only adding to the look of malaise. "But I still want to know what he's fuelling. If he's not using it to feed the way I do, he's either storing it for some big finale, or he's trying to raise something that needs a great deal more to wake. Maybe something more powerful from the Egyptian histories."

Finally he dropped his theorising to scowl at Elf and beads. "Are they pissed 'cause I pushed you?"

Lexius canted his head to one side, almost bird like. Or maybe he was listening to something Mesteno couldn't hear. He took another drink from his cup, gaze unwavering. Some of the snap was back in the blue-violet of his eyes even if that dull ache somewhere beneath his bones hadn't faded yet.

"No. They rather enjoy it when you push me." He didn't mean just physically, either. That he made the admission at all was mildly amazing! Still, it wasn't as if Lexius could hide their glee during such times. The beads nudged at Mesteno, stretching off the counter toward the man, defying gravity with their reach. "They are concerned about you." He said that with complete neutrality, perhaps wondering over it himself.

One of Mesteno’s eyebrows went winging up sharply at the admission, and his arms loosened from their fold so that he could stretch a hand across towards the straining beads and hook a finger beneath them to drag them entirely off the counter.

"You worry about your Elf," he informed them stoically. "He got so woozy back there he almost passed out and now he's eatin' so fast he'll have a paunch come the end of the day." Neither of which were true, but at least there was some mild humour there in his voice to prove he was no longer unsettled by their chatter.

"The trail to follow is in her sewers." Lexius said then, but only because it seemed Mesteno was more likely to study first before going 'in search of'. "We should start there, perhaps, when we are ready."

"Why the fuck anyone would set up a base of operations in a sewer is beyond me. Maybe there's an entrance in them to something further down but..." Mesteno wasn't looking forward to the smell. He set the beads back on the counter so they could slither Lexius' way, and got a slap on the wrist and another series of chiding rattles.

Lexius turned a dangerous narrowing of eyes his way.

"I said I was gonna fix it, and I will!" the necromancer told the beads, mildly exasperated by their concern. "Saturday nights the clubs are full of freak show sorts. They come out in swarms. Best time to catch a meal without anyone noticing, and an interesting cocktail of energy to say the least."

The Elf said nothing initially, but he did set aside his cup and step closer to the Sadist, reaching to grab at that abused wrist within a light curl of his long fingers.

"They will worry as they will. You cannot convince them otherwise." That was said rather knowingly! He began cleaning demon bits from the Sadist's hand with a clean portion of the same cloth he'd used to wrap the beads. "I will cut this for you, so you may have samples."

"You mother henning me, Lexius?" Mesteno was amused, though he only tolerated the cleaning for a moment, before he turned his hand about with a familiar twist to catch Lexius' the way his had been earlier. Only he didn't twist and push. He just flicked the heel of his palm with an index finger before letting go. "Let me guess. I only get the sample once I've eaten."

Lexius let Mesteno go without protesting the countermove, though his jaw did tighten a moment. He stepped away, turning and folding the cloth carefully as he spoke. "Yes. It seems the proper incentive. And you seem to need close supervision from time to time." That last comment was all he had to say about the question. "You may go." It was a sudden, abrupt dismissal.

"I've survived this long." The reminder was probably unnecessary, and with Lexius' back turned, Mesteno didn't bother trying to argue his opinion around. Any other time he might have stuck around despite the dismissal, partially just to be a thorn in his side, his audacity a terrible thing. The truth was though, he knew Lexius needed to meditate.

"Get some rest, huh?" Suggesting, rather than demanding, and off he went, following the now familiar path from one cave to another, through hallway, library, laboratory and finally out via the alcove.

[End scene.]
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Re: Ex Infernis

Post by Mesteno »

[Heavily adapted from live play.]

October 10th, 2015

Weeks had passed, and there had been no contact from anything Greek.

Mesteno's resumption of work in the Old Temple District hadn't caused so much as a ripple anywhere else in the region, and the new Grecian compound was not only thriving, but seemed to be growing rapidly. People in RhyDin were flocking to the seemingly endless party being thrown on the broad avenues before the newly built temples. The converts were increasing daily.

Ares had taken his place amid all that revelry and celebration, rounding out the portion of the pantheon that now advocated all aspects of the Greek Gods and their people's relationship to them. In addition to that, Mesteno had heard whispers denigrating the Roman pantheon and its ways. All of it seemed to be a wild mess of rumours and here say. Not once was there mention of a tattooed man involved, but Aiden had not left.

Whether it was chance or fate that brought them together in the travesty of a nightclub built beneath an old church, Mesteno never paused to wonder. He’d only gone because he’d promised Lexius he would feed before they went in pursuit of Gem’s enemies again.

The notion of sinning in San Lucia’s bone lined crypts was a temptation for the city's population of nocturnal dwellers, and those with a penchant for swimming with the sharks. Mesteno had only been there once, years before, but it was the kind of establishment that remained fashionable year after year, a safe house for all manner of corruption. It also meant it was the kind of hive where Aiden liked to feed, thick with creatures with magic at their fingertips. There was no obvious sign of him amidst the desperate, seething mass of humanity that filled the sunken dancefloor. He was up there amidst the balconies, rivalling (or quietly destroying) the supernatural sinners that packed the place from ceiling to floor and happily draining the magic infesting the place as thickly as the uncounted acts of debauchery.

It was when he sensed the unique flavour of the necromancer’s particular energy that Aiden let the succubus who'd thought to make a meal out of him slump in his hold. Her long limbs were still draped about his body, claws catching in the black netted material of his clinging shirt as he turned a look over his shoulder from the darkened depths of that small space he and the demon occupied. His skin prickled with more than just the carnal energy he'd siphoned from the creature in his arms. His tattoo rippled with a glimmer of darkness rather than light, and it travelled from his shoulders and down his arms like a tidal wave of shadow. He knew that feeling. The tell-tale signature of its dark, hungering presence was something that wafted into the air like the scent of corrupted lilies garnishing a casket.

Down there in the pit where the music throbbed like the heartbeat of some gargantuan monster, and the strobes of phosphorescent blue cutting through the fine vapour issued by the smoke machines, Mesteno fed. The dancers moved like the waves of a great sea, arms stretched high toward the skeletally decorated ceiling high above, the press of their bodies one organic whole and the impersonal press lewdly sexual. It had been no effort for him to adopt that same rhythm, knifing in amongst them, smothered in more physical contact than he’d had for months.

He was repulsed.

He was starving.

He let himself uncoil, a metaphysical unleashing that slipped across the masses and tasted not at their magic, but the life energy all but the undead contained. With so many to feed on to ever really threaten more than a mild case of weariness, none noticed beyond the undead, who knew him there amongst them and were swift enough to slide away rather than draw his attention. Only one, too vicious for his own good, was considering getting territorial as he slunk amongst the dancers.

Aiden watched and laughed. He found the show richly amusing, his gaze roaming away from the necromancer’s enticing motions in search of the Elf. The pair had been so inseparable on their journey through the Planes that he fully expected to find Lexius watching from somewhere nearby. The search proved futile and Aiden's gaze swung back to Mesteno, a sight he found erotic no matter the vague traces of disgust that occasionally curled his lips. He licked his own, wondered if he'd get a better reception this time than the last. He wondered, too, if he could be eaten in turn by the man's ravenous hunger. He didn't have a soul, he was one, given flesh.

He was entertaining the idea of a circular feeding cycle that might set up between them when he noticed the vampire skulking Mesteno’s way. He left his demonic meal sprawling on the floor, twitching and dazed, and hiked his ratty jeans back up over his hips as he moved to the railing of the balcony. He lingered there, ignoring the pitiful groan of the depleted succubus behind him. He wasn't going to charge in on his white steed to save Mesteno.

There was feeding to sate a need, feeding for pure gluttony, and then there was the risk of such excess that it became dangerous on a much broader scale. Having experienced all three over the years, Mesteno knew better than to be too greedy. He soaked up what he needed, each scrap of stolen energy a tantalising change, too myriad for him to fix on any one individual in that sea of bodies. The weariness of weeks washed away, left him feeling hotly exhilarated, energised in a way that left those flooded channels in him feeling molten. The bold, obscene eroticism of the dance began to filter back into the forefront of his thoughts as his hunger ebbed, and the deliberate touches intended to stoke the proverbial flames threatened to overcome his revulsion. It'd been a while.

He decided it best to slink out the way he'd come before anything inappropriate became of the whole sordid business, but in turning to slide off the dancefloor, came face to face with the kindred who'd decided he needed to not be there. The timing couldn't have been better. A surly vampire beginning to bare its fangs in front of him, and a tall, drunken dancer catching his hips from behind to whisper lewd invitation beside his ear on damp breath. To anyone watching it must have been mystifying... but the vampire lunged not for Mesteno, but his handsy admirer. In the chaos that ensued, a contentedly fed necromancer slipped away through the crowd while the bouncers intervened to pull the pair of brawlers apart. Sometimes, controlling undead came too easily. The necromancer looked particularly pleased with himself as he prowled from the dancefloor to the steps.

At least until Aiden, barking laughter over what he’d witnessed, decided he couldn’t let Mesteno leave without at least saying hello.

The Greek didn't move from his balcony railing. That mesh shirt he wore had no sleeves and there was no hiding the whiteness of the feathers coiled around his shoulders and arms. He was already getting some catcalls and looks from those who'd noticed him lounging there with his jeans still half undone, but he chose to ignore them, and coiled some of that stolen energy he'd taken from the succubus to send it zinging hotly across the room, straight for Mesteno. A dart of carnal lust sent to prick him in the back as he climbed the steps out of the pit. It was a parody of Eros' arrow that held a minor punch of power yet contained no compulsion to obey.

Mesteno was almost at the top of the steps when Aiden's little lust-dart caught him in the shoulder blade. The toe of his boot caught the top step, tripped him so that he had to catch hold of the banister clumsily (someone commented a few feet away that some people might want to go easy on the drink) and by the time he'd managed to straighten up and stood on the balcony proper, the tight cut of his tooled leather pants was feeling even tighter. Jostled gently aside, he gave his crotch a bewildered glare, but no matter how hard he tried to will it away, it seemed… disinclined.

Quite visibly, but certainly inaudible under all the noise, he seemed to declare "Ah fuck." And backed into the less crowded space on the balcony. Appropriately for his current dilemma, it was the section intended for the lustier clientele. It was also where he spotted the lounging Aiden in shameless disarray.

Mesteno tended not to be a believer in coincidence. Fate too often twisted him about its fingers, and once he'd spotted the demi-god, he had no difficulty in linking his presence to the unfortunate swelling going on down south. That dart had come from somewhere. For a moment he looked as if he might clear out as he'd originally intended. Why risk hearing things he was avoidant of by socialising with the flashy, theatrical demi-god? Yet he knew his curiosity would kill him if he didn't at least... say hello. So he went stalking over, ignoring the chafing. Less skilled at ignoring the state of Aiden's pants.
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Re: Ex Infernis

Post by Mesteno »

[Continued…]

Aiden grinned at him shamelessly, not the least little bit chagrined by what he had done. His blue eyes glittering with both amusement and the same sort of lust he'd sent zinging the Sadist's way and he did nothing to hide the way he raked it down the man's body as he came stalking closer. His gaze did linger down there, weighing and measuring with the look before snapping back up to Mesteno's face.

"Stalking suits you, Whippet." He greeted out loud, laughter still in his voice. He angled his body to the side, leaning one arm only against the railing and did nothing at all to fix the state of his jeans. He wasn't hanging out of them, but he wasn't completely concealed behind the half parted flap either. "And you do clean up nice. Have fun playing matchmaker down there?"

He wasn’t entirely incorrect. Mesteno hadn’t been short of admirers that evening. It appeared that on the occasions he made an effort, he was nothing short of arresting. His clothes were tailored, the fit flattering rather than swamping his frame into a mystery. The leather pants, black as sin, were teamed with a shirt of the same hue with a matte sheen to it, discreet, bronze embroidery at the cuffs and collar, worn open over a beater top exposing the sharp wings of his clavicle almost like an invitation. Hair he wore so famously messy fell like a sheet of burnished metal, blood and gold to his hips, with only the barest ripples left to it untangled. He was never going to be conventionally handsome but sometimes that didn't matter.

"Y'know, most people got less embarrassing methods of greeting a man," Mesteno told him once he was close enough he wouldn't need to shout to be heard.

Aiden's posture was inviting enough it would have been natural to join him there at the railing, but the necromancer was feeling particularly contrary thanks to the manipulation, and parking himself in that chair right there would put him at about eye level with the parted zipper. He finally decided to sit at the edge of one of the tables instead, where he could rest with his spine wilting and his elbows on his thighs, the better to hide the shameful business resulting from that whatever Aiden had used to get his attention. Half-tempted to reprimand him and tell him to fasten his pants, he had an inkling the bastard would laugh and leave them that way anyway. "What happened? Did the Greek parties not involve enough debauchery for your liking?"

The poor, unsuspecting succubus had completely passed out by then. She even sprawled prettily with her dark, wild hair artfully arrayed across the stained flooring and her splayed limbs somehow still suggesting seduction. No one else had yet seen to take advantage of her vulnerable state, but that might be because the demi-god was still lingering nearby.

Aiden took a moment to do another quick search for the Elf and came up empty again. He came to the hopeful conclusion they weren't as close as he’d supposed, and the grin he was wearing only widened when Mesteno chose to situate himself on the nearby table than take the invitation he'd silently offered.

Not one to be easily deterred, Aiden slid along the rail, closer to Mesteno’s position. "I called your name twice." He blithely lied, the truth of it evident in his sparkling blue eyes. "A guy can only eat the same kind of food so long before he wants a little...variety in his diet." From Aiden's look, Mesteno had a variety label tattooed on his forehead. The man confirmed it when he leaned in closer. "Need some help with that situation? Be happy to fix what I broke."

Aiden's lines were so bad that Mesteno couldn't help laughing, a low, rough sounding thing probably seen more in the slow shake of his shoulders than heard under all that booming dubstep.

"Oh, sure. That doesn't sound like askin' for trouble at all. Just as I wash my hands of one Grecian problem, I'm gonna go get 'em dirty all over again?"

He wasn't blind. Aiden was appealing in all those ways he'd be a fool not to notice, and that succubus' energy would've had him proudly saluting the notion without his hands if his pants hadn't done such a sterling job of keeping it all pinned down. Maybe it looked like he'd changed his mind though when he reached over, right towards the almost-exposed portion of Aiden's flesh... and instead caught the zipper deftly and yanked it right back up!

"How long will this take to go away?" he asked bluntly, and with a smile every bit as vicious as his uncomfortably eager libido.

The demi-god's smile flashed teeth even as a hiss seeped into his laugh when the guy pulled his zipper all the way up rather than down. "Gonna make me work for it, huh?" He didn't sound displeased with the notion. But he did lean back to a more comfortable distance and adjusted himself not-so-discreetly with a shrug. "I ain’t got no idea, Whippet. Maybe Elf Boy will help you work it out." He waggled his eyebrows lasciviously at the man along with the suggestion. "You two been doing a good job of keepin' low, but things are gonna escalate pretty soon. I should probably meet with ya both and give over some information."

Aiden had the stolen energy to thank for Mesteno's unexpectedly agreeable mood. Feeling so energised made him realise how low he'd let himself fall over the past few weeks as he cautiously avoided inadvertently applying the entropy of the Linewalker's ways. Normally, all that power, coupled with what was, in effect, an aphrodisiac, should've kept him going all night!

Lexius doesn't like being touched. Lexius gets angry if I even invade his private space. We're both a little messed up at present. He could've answered Aiden's insinuations with any one of those, yet they were private matters, and he didn't want to encourage questions over the whole thing.

"That's not his job," he offered back finally, before lifting a hand, nodding towards it, "it is his though." So easily seduced, too! Joking aside however he angled his head towards Aiden to catch his words, and his smile ebbed to a grimace. "Why do we need to be caught up in the escalation? Didn't we play our part?"

Aiden had zero restraint. He reached right out for Mesteno's hand and dipped his head down to lay a lick right across the man's palm. That only, before he let him go and grinned anew. "That way I can feel like I was a part of that action." A quipped explanation accompanied by a lascivious wink.

Mesteno sat staring at his palm, left speechless. He couldn't remember the last time anyone'd been able to twist his tongue into a knot with that kind of behaviour. Usually because he'd always been ready to counter it with something worse. He considered punching him, simply because it was his nature to lash out rather than offer a warning, but he didn't want the attention of the residents of this balcony, and he didn't want the bouncers to come strolling up to throw him out if he slugged Aiden hard enough to topple him over the railing.

"I ain’t sure about need, but when we Greeks throw a party, we like everybody to come and enjoy." Aiden explained. A fair warning they just might get pulled in! "Better to know what party favors to bring, am I right?" Even if Mesteno didn't seem likely to favor him with any action, that didn't mean he couldn't look. And look he did while the man chose to grace his presence. But he wasn't meaning to keep him overlong. Especially when there were others now eyeing them both for standing there and just...talking.

"People are gonna expect a show soon." He warned.

"All right, where are we supposed to come meet you?" Mesteno asked through clenched teeth. Those lascivious stares were starting to get to him, not least Aiden's. Maybe they did expect a show, since everyone else was sprawled about with their clothes hanging off. Tugging up that zipper seemed to go against the rules! After a moment's musing... "Dance or somethin'. Pretend you're tryin' to win me over with a strip tease. That'll keep 'em content. Maybe I'll find some bills to shove in places." No he wouldn't.

Aiden just might be gloating at having left Mesteno speechless for a little bit. The clenched teeth was just an added plus! He unfolded from his lean against the rail and didn't hesitate to give an enticing roll of his hips as he began to peel the net shirt up off his torso. He must have liked the Sadist's idea, even if he knew he wasn't going to get anything out of it.

Without a doubt, Aiden could move quite well to a beat, especially one as heavy and dramatic as the one that pounded through the air in the club.
"Don't worry, Whippet. I'll leave you a little note in your special place." He remembered! And invested more than a little innuendo in the term 'special place'. But Aiden wasn't lingering close after that. There was a guy just down the way who was all but drooling over the pair of them. "Have fun with my gift!" He said as he sauntered away toward his next potential meal.

[End.]
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Re: Ex Infernis

Post by Mesteno »

October 12th, 2015

Lexius has been avoiding him.

Four days had passed since they’d seen one another, and when the Elf chose to visit Mesteno’s home, he did so deliberately knowing he wouldn’t be present, leaving behind samples he’d promised but naught else. It shouldn’t have mattered, but after so long, Mesteno couldn’t help resenting the absence, and resenting himself for seemingly having developed some kind of dependence on his friend’s company.

There was a reason Lexius had remained away though, and that reason’s name was Koyan.

The Elf was in his library, freshly scrubbed clean of sand that he'd collected from a night and half a day spent on the sea of dunes. Studiously attentive to several old scrolls covered with hieroglyphics, the beads in attendance half sprawled across several of the parchments (as if they were reading, too), he nursed a mug of the spiced coffee he was so particular about, it’s aroma filling the library. He was dressed down, with bare feet and a sleeveless shirt tucked into loose silk trousers dyed a vivid blue that matched the strange, vaguely geometric tattoos that decorated his skin. He was not expecting visitors.

It was quiet, the air dry but cool, as the night slowly took over the day without the cave.

Lexius was not unaware when his teleporter triggered. Only three people had free use of it, and when he’d stretched out a thought he’d expected to find it was Jason. Instead, it brushed across Mesteno's distinctive presence prowling through his lab.

"Bonum vesperum, Lexius." The Elf had a necromancer stood in the opening to his library.

To his credit, the Elf did not frown when he looked up.

"Mesteno." His gaze swept over the man, taking in not only the visual, but also the sense of his energy. He could tell already that he’d fed as he’d promised to. He decided he looked much better for it, but decided he could have braided his hair. Left loose he found it dangerously distracting. "You are well." He finally stated. Not a question, but a fact. "Did you have a question about the samples?" Lexius looked back down to the unrolled parchment on the table before him even as the beads rolled lazily across their parchments, giving out a greeting rattle of their own.

The necromancer had been inclined to wait there in the doorway until he'd ascertained whether Lexius was opposed to his company. He relaxed once there was no immediate request that he leave, and made his way across to the table to settle on the opposite side, books and beads between them.

"I haven't had time to study them yet," he admitted, "though I might have if I'd had them earlier." He suspected at this point that Lexius had done more than the groundwork, probably able to derive far more from them than he'd ever be able to. "You should tell me what you've learned already, so I don't double up on the same work. I'll tell you how I've done with the hex," he added, more than happy to exchange notes, but certainly taking the opportunity to study the Elf as he made himself comfortable, furtively nudging aside cushions to sit on the floor.

"I confirmed," Lexius began with the explanation rather than belabouring the reason behind having kept the samples so long, "that the demon was, at its core, an Ammit. The corruption was necromantic in origin, though I suspect you will know better how that was accomplished. I've found no other evidence that Anubis used them for anything but devouring souls. I've begun to wonder if that is somehow connected to your soul." He did look up then, a faint smile curling his lips. He was still researching that!

"I doubt that anyone hunting Gem has knowledge of my... issues,” Mesteno admitted. “It seems more coincidental to me. But you can bet I'm going to ransack their shit whenever we find the fuckers. See if there's anything worthwhile t'keep or study. It's rare I find another necromancer who follows a strict school of thought. "You've shut yourself away a lot this week," he pointed out. It was a lame attempt at tact.

Lexius’ smile faded away.

"My presence is disruptive more often than not. It is better that I absent myself." He looked away and his gaze remained unwavering after he voiced the opinion. Lexius had sat outside that inn and watched, with invisible eyes, Mesteno and Koyan's reunion. He had realized in that moment that his presence, his involvement with Mesteno, would eventually tarnish the decade’s old friendship the pair shared. One way or another, he would ruin it. The thinly veiled coolness the desert man had shown him later, after the Sadist had left, had only confirmed the conclusion in his mind.

There was a span of quiet, the heavy angles of Mesteno’s jaw settling in against the curve of a palm, one elbow against the table. He looked displeased.

"If I hadn't already made it abundantly clear," and in his mind he had, but who knew whether others might reach the same conclusion? "I happen to like your presence. I don't find it disruptive at all. So. When you decide to go into hidin' next time, you should probably consider shuttin' down the circle my end or I'll make a habit of showin' up and harassin' you."

Difficult though he found it to insert himself into other people's lives uninvited, he just might follow through on that threat, too.

"You will." He predicted. Find it disruptive, he meant! Then he helpfully explained why. "Continued association with me will put a strain on your friendship with Koyan." He could have cheerfully choked Gem when weeks before she'd so carelessly spilled his name out there in front of the desert man along with Mesteno and Pharlen's. Still, he hadn't told her not to say anything, so he had no one to blame but himself. He'd 'seen' that Koyan had not missed it, though. "You would do well to keep our interaction to yourself." Interactions he seemed determined to now limit. The next part he added seemed to confirm that unspoken decision. "Just as I would do well to remember you have survived and prospered well enough without my interference." He might still be berating himself for the feeling of possessiveness that was further clouding his own perception of their...relationship.

"That's why you've been avoiding me? Because y'worried abou-- oh you asshole." Mesteno rocked backward a little, palm slapping down noisily against the table's edge. Never mind the insult, he was busy rolling his eyes! "Koyan isn't gonna care if you and I are friends. He didn't care when I was close with Bjorn," and plainly he had been! "and he didn't care when I was helpin' Alasdair," though he wasn't entirely sure the Turk had been aware of their association, even if it had been no secret at Bess' place that he'd been involved in that whole foul business with the Scotsman's captor. "Maybe what you two had was more meaningful, I don't know, but y'acting like he hates you. You aided him when that rift opened up at Alvaka - you really think he'd have asked for your help if he hated you?"

It seemed he might stop there, for there was nothing but mute appeal in those hawkish eyes. What he added on next was far quieter. "I've survived all right, but sometimes certain folks actually make it worthwhile. There's going through the motions, and there's having reasons to. Don't ditch me yet. At least wait for me to do something wrong."

Like he so often did when the beads got uppity (and the traitorous things did give a resounding rattle at the end of Mesteno's quieter comments) Lexius seemed to completely ignore Mesteno’s outburst. He heard it all, processed it as best he could, but he didn't bother to look up from the scrolls before him. Instead, he reached for his cooling coffee and had a drink, contemplating the core of what the man had said. Mesteno had a point, to a degree. He was the one blurring things.

Lexius finally looked back down to the scrolls and the quivering beads, determined to return to the important matters now that the rest was settled. "While I doubt Gem's problem truly related to your peculiarity, I still find the correlation an interesting one. Souls are not typically sentient when placed inside a mortal. Add to that the need to sustain yours with other souls, there may be a connection to its origins to be found among creations such as the Ammit. There is also the matter of you being referred to as a relic. This suggests something above the mortal plane, as well. There may be answers here that relate by happenstance alone." Though he didn't really believe in pure chance.

Mesteno said nothing more on the matter of their friendship. He suspected Lexius would want to think on it, or stick with the less personal business of their investigations. "I managed to find an origin for the hex," he explained, without any particular triumph to it. "A place called Waterdeep. Have you heard of it?"

Perhaps it was the tone of voice. Perhaps it was the fact that the mute appeal had gone, and Mesteno’s eyes no longer held any hopeful expectation. Whatever the case, Lexius felt too pressed to remain silent.

"That was long ago." Long ago that he’d helped Koyan at Alvaka. He closed his hand into a fist where it rested there on the table, tightened his jaw then shook his head. None of it was the point. Mesteno was, most likely, correct. Koyan wouldn't care so long as the interaction was simple. So he would keep it simple. "I am not....ditching you." He murmured, still without looking up at the man, before he forced taut muscles to relax and returned to the subject at hand.

You did. You meant to. Wanted to. He was ready to bite back with any one of those things, and agitated as he was, they were probably tangled up somewhere in his thoughts. A good thing Lexius wasn’t connected to him upstairs.

Sometimes Lexius' capacity for being withdrawn was so extreme that Mesteno was tempted to shake the living daylights out of him just to earn a response. While the Elf relaxed on the other side of the table, the necromancer sat there taut as a drawn bowstring, his knuckles white where lean fingers wrapped hard over the spine of some poor book he'd grasped at in his frustration. Maybe he'd intended to throw it at his head!

"Yes, I have heard of Waterdeep. It is on Toril." Lexius answered, finally looking up. "Some believe the drow originated on Toril."

"Gem has drow connections," Mesteno’s voice remained uncharacteristically monotone, tight. "I couldn't say for sure where she was born, but if that is her birth land, we can assume it’s an old f-- oh. Shit" He recalled at last the note signed by Terrel's Scion. "The energy being stolen from Gem and her grounds isn't travelling to anything living, but I didn't think about the potential of there being a corpse at the end of it. I never asked Gem what happened to that Terrel bitch's body after she killed her, but it'd make sense someone calling her their mother might want to bring her back. I just don't know why the note woulda ended up in the trash. How did this Scion get it into the house? And which member of staff woulda thrown it out?"

Mesteno's obvious tension did nothing to help the Elf maintain his calm. That shouldn't have been possible, for the man to affect him so, but there it was. Lexius uncoiled from his cushion and stepped away from the table toward the maps. He didn't even berate Mesteno for trying to mangle one of his books! He kept to the topic of Gem, convinced the Sadist's stress would ebb with both the physical distance and the ending of the subject that had spooled him up.

"Gem is part drow. Given that and her connection to Erevan," he knew there was more to that, though he hadn't uncovered it yet, "it would suggest she is also from Toril. I have no idea who Terrel is." He paused there to let Mesteno fill in the blanks for him, though he continued with the maps until he unrolled one of Toril onto the table.

The planet had three main land masses, but there were smaller islands scattered across the surface of the encircling seas. The northern and southern most edges of the map were capped with ice, leaving a wealth of habitable land spread out in between. Looked like a lush world, though Lexius had marked the deserts perhaps in a bit more detail than everything else.

"I only met her once or twice," Mesteno told Lexius, watching with his frown turned fierce as the map unfurled across the table before him. "My memory is a little fuzzy on the details - I'd probably been drinking." He made a dismissive gesture - in those days he'd spent most of his days in a stupor. "I recall Gem was in trouble with her - some old feud reignited here in Rhy'Din. Crazy bitch had this arena where she was letting people abuse virgins. Sacrifices, rape, monsters... She was intending on throwing Gem in there, so I--yeah I offered to take her place." Bits and pieces were coming back, and judging by his expression, he wasn't fond of what surfaced. "We ended up killing her before she got chance to send me in though. Still doesn't give me any clues as to why the note was thrown away though. The maid wouldn't have done it, surely?"

Lexius resumed his place across the table, but he did not sit. Instead, he refilled his coffee from the pot there then set the mug before Mesteno. A silent peace offering the necromancer seemed to accept with murmured thanks.

Leaning, the Elf pointed out sections of the map even if it seemed unlikely the Sadist would need to know any of it. The threat, after all, seemed to be in RhyDin now.

The beads, having been covered when Lexius unrolled the map, came snaking out from under it near Mesteno's elbow. They nuzzled at the joint, as if to soften it up for a slap.

"The central continent is Faerun. Waterdeep lies here, north along the western coast. It is called the Sword Coast. It is one of the biggest cities on the planet." He straightened and stepped toward his book shelves as he continued. "Toril has several gods. The one that rules death is named Bhaal, though on some dimensions of the planet he was usurped by Cyric." The Elf plucked two books from his library and brought them back to the table.

"These are in common if you wish to read them." Because they might be important to the current situation and Mesteno might not have researched these particular death gods. Even if he had, maybe he would find some new angle in the texts Lexius offered. "As for the note, I have no better idea that you about the note. Unless Erevan is taking a hand in things. Do you know how likely that might be?" Mesteno knew Gem far, far better than he. Did her god cavort in her life?

"Bhaal I've heard of in the past. Perhaps from Gem," Mesteno admitted, though he couldn't say for sure. "I'll see if there are any direct links in here, to the hex. I might be able to unravel it if I can pick it apart far enough. It'll be better once we get down those tunnels though, stop groping about at these fucking clues and see it with our own eyes. While it might be Terrel this Scion is bringing back, it still seems excessive to need that much energy to do it. She was only human, I think. Not somethin' you'd need to drain the land in order to raise."

Unless, he mused silently, drawing the length of the beads in circles at the edge of the map, her soul had been snatched by a God that didn't intend to allow her resurrection. It was a pity he had no way to talk to Bhaal directly unless....

"Aiden has links to Powers - not just the Greek ones, right? The way you explained it working when we were in Sigil, there's the potential he could arrange a meeting. He wants to meet with us soon anyway. I ran into him and he mentioned there was somethin' happenin' we needed to be aware of."

Lexius finally resettled on the cushion now that Mesteno seemed calmer. "The thing about Toril's gods, Mesteno, is many of them began as mortals." He would read about it in those two books he'd been given, to be sure. "It may be Terrel's Scion is seeking to somehow continue that fine tradition." It was just another idea to heap onto the mountain of supposition they were building. "As you say, it will be better to investigate the matter more closely before we rush to any conclusion." And now that Mesteno had fed, (and he was feeling better himself!) they could get to it. As for Aiden? The Elf frowned a moment and reached for the coffee, having a taste from the mug before he placed it back in front of the Sadist.

"He may be able to help, yes, depending on how far his influence reaches. He does seem to know a demon or two." That almost drolly given they had met at least one of those demons! "It's worth asking him. Did he say when he wishes to meet?"

As it happened, it was days later that they’d finally meet up with Aiden for that particular discussion. Before that, a group endeavour into the sewers beckoned…

[End.]
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Re: Ex Infernis

Post by Mesteno »

[Heavily adapted from live play with Lexius, Gem, Pharlen and a cameo from Jack Scott]

October 15th, 2015



"Would you mind standin' up, and turnin' around real slow for me?"

Mesteno, sat on the table opposite Gem’s seat, had been scrutinising her quietly for some time. He’d been distantly aware of the discussion she held with Pharlen about runes, of Lexius’ serene presence behind the little elf’s chair while the chaos of the dockside dive raged on around them, reliably repulsive. It was her suit though, the pliant leather thief’s attire she’d been wearing as long as he’d known her that had really snatched his attention.

His request put pause to the conversation, and obliging him without question, Gem rose, pushing her chair back, to turn about on the spot slowly.

He stopped her, reaching to catch her waist, thumbs aligned with her spine. Such a waspish little thing he thought he might nearly make his fingers meet if he'd a mind to. "Hold still," he instructed patiently, careful not to disturb her braid since he'd no particular eagerness to die from the bite of a poisoned razor. "It's a pity I can't get you to undress here to examine things more closely but..." One thumb circled over the small of her back, against the leather there. "I'm pretty damn sure y'gonna find something in y'clothing. Tell me, do you sleep naked?"

She held still, but craned her head to the side and back, trying to look over her shoulder to see what he was doing, or what he saw, perhaps. Her leather armor, one of several sets, did not reveal anything to her sight. "I could rent one of the rooms. I have another suit in my Belt. And yes, frequently. Depends on where I am when I actually sleep."

"Ever feel like you're a little recovered when you wake up? More'n you should from a simple good night's sleep I mean?" His fingers loosed their grasp so she might turn again, but he was eyeing the belt by then. "Might be worthwhile. But let me check the other before you slip into it. This ain't the same one you had on the other day, right?"

The elf frowned a little in thought, considering how she felt after waking up at Ben's. "Yes, I would say I do feel better in the mornings. It is later that I start feeling worse. And then, too, Ben and Lir and Jack have wards around their place that Pharlen said seemed to be limiting the effect of the drain. I hate to think what it would be like without that." Gem looked at Pharlen and then at Lexius, who’d hummed a thoughtful note as he listened. "The one I keep in my Belt is special. I never remove it except for emergencies."

Reaching into said Belt of Many Pouches, she soon enough pulled out another set of leather armor from a pouch that was entirely, even ridiculously too small to hold the set. She offered it, neatly folded, over to Mesteno. Her head tipped to the side like a bird. "If it is on my clothing it makes sense that the maid was doing it. She would not have been able to pull anything of mine from the Belt. So it seems like it should be safe."

Her skin crawled, thinking of that maid's hands on her clothing and armor, and working some spell that was even then touching her flesh.

Mesteno had barely touched the new suit before the frown eased from his sun darkened face. He offered it straight back with an abbreviated nod. "S'good. Go slip that on and we can head into the sewers. Burn that one. I can still follow the pull on you from the hexes y'got in the walls at Quellarin, but this should give you a bit of a reprieve."

"I will take the suit." Lexius interrupted. He’d no intention of letting it be incinerated before he’d had chance to study it.

"It won't fit you." Pharlen couldn’t keep from commenting, which had Mesteno choking on a laugh he never quite managed to smother.

"A few minor adjustments..." Lexius quipped back without pause, eyeing Mesteno sidelong.

"I'm not sure you'd fill it properly--" Mesteno wheezed.

"Alright,” Gem agreed after a moment of consideration. “I will be back after I empty it. Mesteno, perhaps you could see if any of my weapons and such have a drain when I come back." Then she set off to get a room. That only took a bit of bargaining and then she went upstairs, Lexius close on her heels (though Gem hurried ahead enough she could slam the door shut and lock it).

Shaking off his amusement, Mesteno slid from the table onto a seat beside Pharlen, his razor keen grin lingering tenaciously for a change. "Let me see what Des cooked up," he made gimme-fingers for her phone.

It wasn’t long before the elves returned, Gem in a fresh set of leathers and Lexius in possession of those she’d shed. Satisfied that she was rid of the drain, and that Desdenova’s work on the hexes had been admirably thorough, Mesteno sat back to listen to Lexius’ contribution to their research.

"The Ammit was no longer under its creator's control." Lexius confirmed, gaze settled back on the trio. "But there is a certain...sense from the samples I took that suggests we may encounter something similar."

Gem looked up from the hex that Des had drawn to Lexius. "Similar as in demonish, or similar in another way?"

"Egyptian?" Pharlen wondered, head tilting.

Lexius contemplated a moment before he replied. "Each pantheon has a certain flavor to their power. The Ammit was quite obviously corrupted and twisted by whomever has taken control of it, but at its core it was created by a Power from a particular pantheon, and that made it identifiable no matter how it currently looked. I found that same flavor in other aspects of this that bring to mind the Egyptian pantheon."

The thief looked from Lexius to Pharlen. "Wow, okay. The only involvement I have had with anything Egyptian is the brandy I smu... mmmexport from there through an old earth portal. But I have never..." She stopped for a full minute, a look of consternation on her face. Consternation and then intense pain. She looked over at Pharlen. "Ali...he wouldn't….no, surely not."

Lexius canted his head, already reaching out a thread that found the years’ old pain of something unrequited. "Ali?"

"Some people, you pay them enough, or you have them by a short enough hair, and they will do anything," Pharlen shrugged faintly, taking a long drink.

The elf looked down at her ale and considered. It was Mesteno who knew Ali Al Amat better than the others, she rather thought. She lifted her eyes to him.

"I can't imagine him harbourin' any hate for you, cara mea. You did nothin' to him, remember? So far I know, your association with him has been nil f'the last few years." Mesteno offered quietly.

She gave a slow nod. "He loved me until Fio came along. That's the long and short of it. And then I died. I came back 16 months later and he was...different. And they ended. But nothing else has been between us since before I died. He would not have, I am sure." She sounded more certain, the more she considered it. Finally she nodded, and looked up at Lex in response to his "Ali". "Someone I was connected with several years ago. He has not been around for a couple years now, I think. So it is extremely remote that he had anything to do with it. He is, however, half Egyptian."

"The source is not direct." The Elf clarified. "But the sense of it is there. A similarity that may connect to the Egyptians in only the most remote way." The way all deserts were connected by the fact they had sand.

Gem smiled. "I do have a lot of the brandy, though I doubt it would be motive for hexing me." She looked at each of them. "Are you all ready to risk life and limb for a chase in the sewers?" She didn't want any of them hurt, it was there on her delicate features.

"We should investigate." Lexius answered calmly.

"I didn't come dressed for a Cotillion," Pharlen grinned, carnivorous and bright.

"Take me to the nearest manhole!" Mock enthusiasm from the necromancer. Lexius endeavoured not to sigh.

"Let's go then." Gem smoothed her hands down her braid, her ribs, hips, and thighs. Just the sort of thing a woman did to smooth her leathers, right? And of course to check her weapons.

"I almost wish I wasn't the one able to sense the trail," Mesteno remarked morosely as he lurched up gracelessly from the chair. "I'm going to be the first to step in any shit." At least his boots weren't full of holes. He set off for the door with the others in tow.

"Pharlen, I don't know if you know this, and I'm pretty sure Lexius does not...but don't grab my braid. It will hurt you." Just a friendly warning! But one that had Lexius studying Gem rather closely as they left the Guzzling Goblin behind.

"Like a machine gun, love?" Pharlen was asking Mesteno as he was doomed to be on point. "Killer braid. You remind me of a less creepy Zhaar." She offered aside to Gem.

"I'm sure pipes 'n close quarters is a good combination for a bullet-***.” Mesteno replied, drolly. “Unfortunately some of us are likely to hurt if we get hit by ricochets and it'd be just our luck to hit a gas pipe or somethin' that'll spray us with nasty." No. No machine gun, thank you! He slanted a look both ways along the street as he searched for what he wanted...right there. Manhole.

"That's half the fun," Pharlen grinned, manic, but he definitely had a point!

Grinning in anticipation, Gem stopped beside Mesteno. She liked to be proactive to villains who sought her harm, yes thank you. "So if we get somewhere that looks like a spot that bad guys might be, let me look for traps, right?"

"Well this'll be a change, not sending me in for trap bait for a change," he remarked, aimed at a particular individual in their group (and earning him a mild snort in response). Up came the manhole cover, and he began the downward clamber, the soles of his boots ringing against the rusted bars of the ladder.

The sewers were predictably chilly, damp, and smelled of all manner of nasty things, that is, and a myriad of sounds could be heard in every direction around them. They had come down in a circular space with about five different tunnels or drains leading away from them.

Mesteno waited patiently until they'd all made the descent, and that paused for a moment as his eyes adjusted. No need for light, for nocturnal creatures like him. That flicker-flash was his eyes. "This way," he declared, setting off without pausing to worry about the others, heading without concern for one of the five drainage tunnels. Thankfully the others were just as well adapted to seeing in the dark; there was no light to warn of their coming.

While Pharlen went about the unenviable task of attempting to sort through the various scents, sea and skaven predominant aside from the more predictable and ubiquitous reek, Lexius pulled the muslin up from his shoulders, over his head to veil his nose. He’d four cut crystals hovering about his waist, though they produced no light which might draw attention. He spun out a web of thoughts as they went along, hounds coursing ahead and behind them, sniffing at things above and below. Better them than he.

As before, Mesteno had tagged his energy on to the slow but inexorable pull on Gem's energy, and was following it sure as a breadcrumb trail along a notably quiet tunnel. "Keep an eye on what's overhead," he murmured, even that soft sound echoing back sibilantly. "Wouldn't do to have things drop in on us 'cause we're busy focusing forward."

As they moved along, the walls changed in make up from brick to stone, to living rock, and back again as the sewer builders had decided long ago. Now and then there came a wet splooshing sound, very soft and quiet, somewhere behind Lexius.
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Re: Ex Infernis

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[Continued...]

None of them had been truly surprised when they came under attack by sewer denizens before coming close to their true targets. The skaven ambush had been easier to handle than the gelatinous ooze creature that Lexius loitered behind to collect samples from, and thereafter Mesteno set a punishing pace along the tunnels, deftly avoiding the stagnant water and ducking neatly under cramped stone ceilings. He did not stop when he came to junctions, but continued onward as if pulled by unseen threads.

The troop had no further troubles, and eventually the metaphysical trail saw the necromancer navigate the group to a wide, straight hallway that ran on for about a thousand feet ahead. To the right there were four or five more tunnel openings, while the left remained featureless. Despite the prosaic appearance, it was there that the trail ran.

"I don't like this. Too easy. Or something." Gem murmured.

Mesteno came to a stop, scowling intently at everything in the stretch ahead of him, and not least the seemingly featureless left wall, abruptly riddled with doubt. Had he taken them down an incorrect turn? "Something wrong here," he muttered, making no attempt to move onward.

"I do have a pair of machine guns. They're adorable." Pharlen offered helpfully. "Or a grenade or two?"

"I have some of those, too. Oh, if I throw the flashballs, close your eyes, everyone." Gem squinted at a portion of wall in the middle of that expanse. "Do you see the way the stone is sort of...squiggled there?" Elven speak for secret door possibility.

“Just make sure it's flashballs you're throwing and not mustard gas," Mesteno murmured, narrowing his eyes all the more at the anomaly. "Illusion, or just the way the wall has been aligned to mislead the eye?"

Gem trod forward very carefully, studying the way between with expert eyes. No traps. It made her itchy when there weren't any traps. She studied the wall again. "Not sure, chev." One hand graced the wall and delicately began to feel the spot she had seen. She gave a sudden nod to the party, pointing at the wall. Setting her head against the stone, she listened intently, silver brows rising. She turned and made her way back to Mesteno, Pharlen and the Elf over yonder. “I hear growling and hissing. And a few words, I think. Conversation."

Lexius’ mental threads had been searching down the obvious tunnels while Mesteno and Gem investigated the wall, but they promptly rerouted at the mention of voices. He played distant eavesdropper. Arguments. Whoever lurked beyond the stone, they were arguing bitterly.

Pharlen hung back and watched, head tilting. Her hearing wasn't nearly so keen as the elves’. "Hissing and growling likely means monstery."

"Hold," Mesteno murmured, a hand catching lightly at Gem's shoulder as he leaned close to the wall. His eyes had gone glassy, his energy sprawling broad to taste, tentatively, toward the source of the noise. A flutter of eyelids and then his eyes closed completely.

"There are many." Lexius warned quietly as Mesteno searched in his own fashion.

"Lot of dead things on the other side," the necromancer determined after a moment, easing backward, tongue darting over a dry lower lip in an unconscious show of eagerness. "Alive and dead. Animated... too many bodies though. I don't know what they're trying to accomplish with that many bodies." Too few souls. Not wanting to alert another necromancer to his nearness he deliberately avoided trying to wrest control of them. For now.

Gem had been busily examining the mechanics of the door while they listened. "I can open it. I think."

"If I can steal a few before we get in there, I can lessen their numbers," Mesteno offered. "But the minute I do, they'll know we're here."

"You should do so." Lexius confirmed, and then phased right out of sight.

"It will confuse them." Pharlen agreed. She finally pulled one of her adorable little Calico M100 out of the coat's inner pocket. Certainly she had the elderly Colt holstered on her hip, but 100 shots to a magazine was a lot better than six.

Gem stood next to the door and put one dagger in her teeth, the other stayed in her hand, and then she tucked a sticky acid ball or five in her free hand.

"Wait 'til I say." Mesteno instructed simply, and quietly set to work.

Someone was bleeding. It was not an unpleasant scent, either. Blood currency always gave things a nice little boost over the undead, particularly from a humanoid rather than an animal. The corpses - five of them - suddenly went haywire, moaning terrible sounds as they shirked the control of whomever held their leashes and began to attack one another. "Okaygonow." He blurted sharply.

Gem immediately pushed the stone block that would trigger the mechanism and instead of it opening a simple door, the entire wall sank down rapidly into the floor. An opening of some forty feet lay before them.

The room was huge, stinking, and ringed with small cages crammed tight with the bodies of dead women in various states of decay. A dais occupied the central space, with another cage atop it, this one tall enough to stand but offering no room to sit or kneel. A sole woman was its prisoner, crying softly, weakly, and not far from joining the other women in death judging by the sorry state of her. Another female, in no better shape, was sprawled unmoving on a stretcher to one side of the room.

It was difficult to see anything beyond the grisly contents of the cages to begin with, but the decidedly reptilian theme was too grossly obvious to ignore for long. There were signs of the crocodile everywhere. Statues, hieroglyphics and carvings, including some very lewd ones of a crocodile man having sex with female figures, some of them blatantly pregnant.

The creatures themselves were the crowning glory. The animals had been somehow domesticated, were being ridden by male figures who patrolled the central dais, but they weren’t alone. There were people everywhere who look like skeletons, zombies, and yet untouched by rot. Empty husks piloted by the riders, with no mentation at all. It was these, living undead that the necromancer had detected through the walls, and it was five of these who’d converged on one of the crocodile riders, who’d set his scaled mount upon them as they attempted to bludgeon him with their arms. Something glinted when they struck him, almost as if there were sparks. The crocodile was more than equal to the task of demolishing them.

"Heads up!" Pharlen yelled, and as it seemed the croc riders were leading the weird orgy, she aimed for those, firing across at head level for them. She aimed, rather than hosing out the bullets, and her aim was deadly.

The occupants of the room had turned to the dropping wall slack jawed, but scrambled into movement as Pharlen began her assault, directed by what appeared to be an elder bellowing commands. As the others overcame their surprise, they started to order their living bodies out to attack each of the party, save for Lexius who was still phased beyond their sight.

Gem set her acid balls at her feet (delicately) and plucked a shrapnel grenade from her belt, aimed for a section near the back wall and to the left, her side, and lobbed it in an arc above the bad guys.

Mesteno left the zombies he’d stolen on auto-pilot for as long as they could occupy the individual crocodile and its rider. While Gem and Pharlen took to all-out attack, the necromancer stood unmoving, though his scimitar was in hand should anything come close enough to need dispatching. It appeared he might leave the girls to it, as Gem’s grenade detonated and sent an eruption of charred body parts flying.

Lexius wasted no time at all invading the commander’s mind and clamping down on it like a vice. Somehow, he’d managed to slip past the riders and their army of undead, and had reached the older man to teleport him away from the chaos and back into the tunnel they’d arrived by. He had him in a smooth chokehold, just to ensure his behaviour.

The little thief was taking on the elder’s crocodile like a bull dancer of ancient Crete. She flipped in mid-air and leapt upwards, to land in the saddle. Her dagger aimed down, she rammed it right into the spine of the thing, and it was a lucky placement of blade, right between scales, or it would have glanced right off. The dagger severed the spine and the croc fell with a loud growling hiss, to expire on the stone floor.

"Dibs on those hides!" Pharlen yelled over the racket. Abruptly moving in, booting aside zombies - she had her own way of dealing with them, grabbing and 'pulling' them a few feet -- leaving them in piles of ash. She was curious about the girl in the cage, and also, curious what the remaining croc riders would do as she headed for it.

Finally, Mesteno’s inaction came to an end. The connections were mapped out, not by sight or scent, but metaphysically. He could see precisely which riders had which living dead harnessed, foolishly spreading themselves far too thin. Unseen, his energy unfurled, dark, drowning deep and eager. Not ravenous (he'd eaten too recently) but not about to turn down a meal. The riders were abruptly fighting to keep their own souls fixed, terror on their faces, their hands reaching out as if such an action might save them. Some of them had started to converge between Pharlen and the girl, but Mesteno's assault turned their thoughts fully on themselves. Fuck the girl. As their hold on their own minds and souls was shifted to a desperate drag of nails in ether, the zombies and others fell to the stone floor, as well, not broken, many of them, and quite ready to be piloted by some enterprising necromancer.

A few remaining crocodiles were headed for Pharlen on the dais, Gem already in pursuit. The Time Lord turned quickly at bay, side armed a grenade into an open crocodile mouth, then darted swiftly aside to get the loaded gator to crash into another.

"Gator goes boom!" she explained to Gem as she grabbed at her to drag her away, just in time to avoid another eruption of flesh.

Lexius kept firm hold of the commander, mentally and physically, and waited for the others to clear the room. His gaze was on Mesteno (who still looked as if he’d been entirely inactive all that time!) not so terribly far away, but he was monitoring Gem and Pharlen as things continued to explode.

When at last the room was still save for the two women, Pharlen’s attention turned back to the girl in the cage, who’d at last ceased to cry. She’d been pretty, before she’d wasted to skin and bone, and examination of the other sorry remains suggested they’d been similarly attractive once upon a time.

Pharlen pushed her into Stasis. Time stopped in the confines of that cage, and she constructed a true barrier to sever any connections to her. It had been a well meant attempt to secure her, but the sudden implosion of flesh inside the barrier as the girl was disconnected from the hexes on Gem’s land was not the grisly end she’d been hoping for.

"... Oops." The Timelord blinked. "I can totally fix this. Just uh. Yeah I can fix this." she nodded a few times, wide eyed.

Mesteno eased back to motion, swaying only slightly as if disoriented due to the shift of focus. Just in time to see the girl blown to pieces. "What th-- who?"

Lexius puppeted his captive along for a better view of the room inside. "Pharlen is destroying things." He told Mesteno, sounding quite matter-of-fact about it.

Pharlen scratched her head, perplexed. "Why the hell did she go boom? That usually doesn't happen."

"Who's this fucker?" Mesteno asked Lexius, trying to ignore the too-much-energy buzz rippling through his muscles after the unnecessary meal. No way to purge it! Cautiously, he followed the Elf and his captive down and into the room, occasionally sending disgusted looks at the splattered remains in the stasis field.

Lexius was steering the man toward the nearest cage. "He was in charge of this." The Elf hadn't actually searched for a name, just stolen everything else from his mind. He stuffed him into one of the cages with some rotting girls. No, he couldn't really talk at all. But he drooled very well.

"...I'll clean this up," Pharlen called, twitching. She'd repair the girl, but it was going to take some doing. After a moment, she shook her head and decided to shelve her for now, it would seem. She and the girl and the gore flickered out of sight.
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Re: Ex Infernis

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[Continued...]

The captive secured, Lexius pushed back the cloth from his head and dropped the veil, unwrapping a length of it from the rest to hand over to Mesteno. He hadn’t missed the cut he’d self-inflicted for the blood offering. "The leader had quite a bit of useful information." he informed the group as he studied what was left of the statues and markings in the room.

"Everyone still got all their bits 'n pieces?" Mesteno asked, searching each of them in turn, and then the multitude of bodies strewn about with eyes gone wild bright. In time, his attention ended up on the female on the stretcher, but he didn't ignore the muslin. "Y'like a walking first aid kit," he teased the Elf with a crooked grin.

"You bleed often enough that I carry extra." Lexius quipped back mildly.

"I'm already imperfect, a few more holes don't matter," was the necromancer’s reply, chuckled. He wrapped the muslin around the shallow gash in the back of his arm, snug enough to ensure the pressure would help slow any further bleeding.

Paused in his examination of the room, Lexius had another look at Gem. "Do you see any drain left on her?"

Mesteno studied the thief in question fiercely, wrapping her in frigid, dark energy as he prodded and pried and searched for... "She's not leaking anymore."

Gem studied the field and those fallen within it, a confused expression on her face. She looked at the symbols and emblems. She studied the crocodiles. "I don't get it. Terrell didn't have all this before...not twelve years back." She considered for a few moments. "I think maybe that girl that she sacrificed during our adventure of trying to save the princess might have had something to do with Egyptian...things. Styles? I don't know. It was about fifty years back.”

Mesteno angled a few steps closer to peer at what had her so confused. "Who's the sleeping beauty that missed all the action?" A gesture towards the stretcher. "Could she have some connection to Terrel or Waterdeep?"

The girl on the stretcher looked astonishingly like the one that had been in the cage. Before implosion. She was unmoving, clearly very weak and looked as if she’d been rather thoroughly used, too. “I don't know, Mesteno. Perhaps she was..." She looked where the cage had been. "Perhaps she was the next one up?” She frowned a little at mention of Waterdeep. A little stiffness tightened her shoulders. "She couldn't have anything to do with Waterdeep."

Lexius reached to curl one hand around Mesteno's shoulder, the other used to gesture to a series of hieroglyphics still fairly discernible. "They are the signs of Sobek, a crocodile god of the Egyptians. The commander there." He pointed to the cage where he'd stuffed the individual, "worked for a man named Jetrell. He holds sway over a place called Dethhame, here in RhyDin. He has been searching for a way into Gem's manor through the catacombs and is very interested in acquiring both her, and you, Mesteno."

He waited for them to digest that information and took to studying the girl on the stretcher they'd been discussing. He hadn't seen the original version.

Fear flashed in Gem’s eyes, not for mention of herself, but at mention of Mesteno. She looked his way. "Okay, so that's it. You have to stop now. You ...you can't keep helping me. He...she...they can't get you!"

Mesteno appeared to be studying hieroglyphics, listening to Lexius' revelations and trying to process Gem's denial about the potential links to Waterdeep. Instead of replying to Gem's concerns, he made a vague gesture towards the unconscious lass. "We should get her out of here. Did you discover a way to Dethhame in that fucker's brain?" Calmly, for Lexius. Oh so very calm.

"Dethhame? Where is that?" Pharlen inquired, returning as abruptly as she had left, sans evidence of imploded victim.

That Mesteno wasn't addressing her command had Gem standing there with her hands wringing. White knuckled. She knew quite well he was not going to listen to her.

Lexius’ hand slid from Mesteno's shoulder to his nape. A light enough hold, but still present.

The last time Lexius had him by the nape of the neck had been just after he'd dragged Mesteno out of Quellarin quite without warning. The necromancer slanted a golden eyed look across as if he half expected a repeat occurrence, but didn't protest the contact. Instead he touched a hand lightly to his spine in what might have been reassurance. He was fine this time!

"It is southeast of RhyDin." Lexius informed the others, ending his study of Gem. But not before he put a shield around her mind. That delayed his answer somewhat. "The place is well guarded by more such as these, and there is a particularly revered crocodile there. The rumors say it is sequestered and pampered. Perhaps the god himself or a strong avatar. Jetrell is fixed on Gem for her type of energy and some manner of revenge the commander did not know about. There was also something about a coffin. A glass coffin with a red headed woman inside. I have the image of this man if you wish."

This situation gave Gem a birds-eye view into Jack's concerns for her when bad stuff happened that needed fixing, in this case, she felt that way about risking Mesteno. This was looking like it was only going to get worse. Though they had stopped the drain on her. The thief sucked in a breath at the words Lex gave them. "That...that has to be Terrell."

"A glass coffin. They expect her to arise," Pharlen noted, idly extended a healing to the girl on the stretcher. A glimmering run of gray light off of her hand and arm - she'd picked up a few tricks over the years, and this was one of them. The girl seemed to bloom nicely, though she was still sleeping the sleep of exhaustion.

Gem nodded to what Pharlen said. "So that means they have her soul, too. Body and soul." She looked disgusted. "She so needed to die. She still needs to die."

Lexius examined Gem curiously. That was a lot of passion.

Gem lifted a shoulder in a slight shrug. "She has done heinous things. She is planning to do more of those. To Mesteno. She must be slain before she can accomplish such."

"I think we're going to have to pay Dethhame a visit sooner rather than later,” Mesteno remarked darkly. “Gem..." She was going to hate him. "You know what they'll do to you if they get hold of you. Maybe you should stay here in the city where you can be protected. Recover."

The elfess stared at Mesteno in shock. "Did you really just say that?" As if she hadn't said the same thing to him.

"I'm not recovering from anything." He replied bluntly.

"You can't squash people's heads like grapes unless you're strong enough." Pharlen backed Mesteno up.

Gem opened her mouth to reply and had to shut it on those words. But she crossed her arms under her chest and just looked at him with that stubborn look he knew all too well. "If you try and leave without me I will just follow on my own. But hey, if you want me running around like a loose cannon, so be it!" She nodded politely to them and started off for the sewer tunnels.

Lexius suppressed a wince.

"Someone freeze her?” Mesteno asked. “Wait-- not you Pharlen!" Just in case.

The Timelord pointed at Gem. "Stasis field activate!" she's such a liar, all she did was waver time in front of the wilful she elf.

The she-elf hissed like a cat and backed up like one, in a great leap that brought her almost back to the circle of the others. Then she whipped around towards Pharlen. "Don't you dare!" Because she totally believed the woman would. Silvery sparkles were swirling around her hands.

"I can keep her unconscious only." Lexius murmured to Mesteno, adjusting the shielding he'd put in place just so. He leaned to lay one of those crystals that had been hovering around his waist on the girl's chest. He’d meant the girl on the stretcher, though it was misconstrued as Gem rather too easily.

"Listen to reason.” Pharlen urged. “I promised Jack I'd do what I could to keep you safe. Even when you're bound and determined to go balls out into crazy." she held up her hands, palms out and empty. See? Just an old brand on her left palm.

With Mesteno and Pharlen unmoving, Gem’s disbelief had her shifting from indignant determination to remain involved, to a genuine anger. Scottie’s arrival upon the scene, pristine amidst the muck, at last brought an end to argument.

"Ah, Gemethyst. I was looking for you." A universe of stars lived in the black velvet of his eyes. Their light in his gaze above his grin, splitting his face from ear to ear. A Cheshire cat could do no better. Or a Coyote. He wore winter as a mantle. Oblivious and uncaring at what he walked right into the middle of.

Gem made herself calm and smiled on the Crow. "Were you? It seems fated that I be found. As it happens, these were wishing me elsewhere. For safety's sake, you know." She did not look happy about it, but offered introductions between the ribbon-clad man and the psion nonetheless.

"I am certain they have young Nyx's best interests in mind." The star gaze landed upon the trio of helpers.

Lexius had gone quite still at the Crow’s arrival, but finally he inclined his head a fraction, his thumb brushed once, twice, three times along the side of Mesteno's neck before he withdrew his hand only to lean a little closer to the Sadist. "Do you wish anything from here?" he asked, without taking his gaze from Gem and Jack.

For a heartbeat, those sweeping motions of the Elf's thumb seemed to hood Mesteno’s eyes, but he caught himself at it before it became blatant. "Not now. I'll come back later and make a more thorough examination."

The thief turned her gaze towards the others. "I thank you for the help in freeing me from this Scion of Terrell. I will stay out of it from this point forward." Submitting with a good grace, and a formal thank you for their help. Her hand was laid in Jack's and she turned into him, pressing into his ribbons. Mention of Nyx was diabolical.

"I'll be in touch," Mesteno told Gem. Perhaps he hadn't written off her involvement after all.

"Take us widdershins?" Gem offered a soft plea to the Coyote, though she did nod at Mesteno for his words.

"Why would I ever go right, darling?" Scottie winked and took her left, ribbons lifting into a rainbow blur until that was all that was left of the pair save for a faint sound of sylvan laugher.

The remaining trio were left to depart the sewers in their own time, already planning a visit to Deathhame.

[End.]
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Re: Ex Infernis

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[Adapted from live play with Lexius.]

October 17th, 2015


Lexius had spent the better part of the previous day amidst the carnage Gem and Pharlen and Mesteno had left in that hidden room below the city. He had samples aplenty, carefully collected and catalogued, precisely separated and labelled for distribution. He didn't mind playing collector since they had done the majority of the work during the battle. He didn't even mind that they'd left the unconscious girl for him to dispose of as he saw fit. He didn't kill her, at least, but transported her back to the city and left her in Jason's capable care. The commander, though, had met a more permanent end. At the very least, he'd earned himself a season's worth of crocodile meat which he'd left drying and marinating for future use.

It had been late, late, late into the evening before he'd gotten around to visiting his library to begin his research on the things he had seen, the information he'd gleaned from the commander's mind, the bits of statues and copies of hieroglyphics he'd brought back. He wasn't unaware Mesteno had visited the cave, but didn't find the evidence of his 'theft' until he began to search for the books, the scrolls, the maps that he needed.

Collecting the items from Lexius' library had been fairly time consuming. Unaccustomed to the system he used to file his texts, Mesteno had spent the first hour simply acquainting himself with what was where, and another span of time equally as long selecting the victims of his theft. No, borrowing. That was what it was. Either way, he did fairly well for himself, and had spent the remainder of that night reading about Sobek, delving into legends and tales of his cult followings, searching for any details of his worshippers in Rhy'Din, and of course links to necromancy.

It bothered him that he'd somehow become as much a target in the whole business as Gem was. How Jetrell had even learned of him when he didn't make his talents common knowledge was beyond him, and after the whole Grecian fiasco, he was petulantly considering it all rather unfair that it had all developed so soon - and this time at no fault of his own.

To the Elf’s credit, he didn't crash the Mesteno’s cabin and demand the return of his items. He didn't go there and join the man in the research. Instead, he'd waited (holding the samples as captives!), busying himself with other things, until well in the next day. When he still hadn't heard from Mesteno by then, he knew he would have to go searching.

So it was that Lexius appeared in that clear, trampled patch of lawn just out in front of the cabin. He hadn't really wanted to be visiting the man so soon. He'd fully intended to leave the samples he'd collected in Mesteno's lab and take himself back off to do the research in solitude. He'd acted somewhat...rashly in the wake of the encounter and had been attempting to allow the memory of those actions to settle, to fade. But Mesteno, he decided, was being difficult.

Turning toward the cabin, he sent mental threads out searching, searching even as he scanned the place with a look. Three owls came winging down out of the trees to say hello while he stood there.

Lexius hadn’t been the only one distracted by memories of those unexpected touches in the hidden base below ground. They returned unbidden to the necromancer’s mind, the phantom weight of a palm at his nape, the sweep of the thumb he could have sworn was not intentional. It was not something he intended to devote any focus to, and yet there it was. He'd known Lexius wouldn't come anywhere near him as a result of it, and that chafed too. He'd already turned it all about in his head, wondering what the Elf might have done had their roles been reversed.

He was sat on the living room floor when Lexius arrived on his front lawn, his back against the couch, a map unfurled beside his hip, and his own carefully illustrated images of known, stable, RhyDin rifts and their exit points on his lap. He was recently showered enough to be a little damp still, water bleeding off his hair to darken the shoulder of the forest green Henley he wore, the sleeves rolled up about his elbows. The dogs were nowhere to be seen, nor the cat. In fact if not for Lexius' additions to his land, the property would have been unusually quiet.

Lexius' searching threads found Mesteno within, but he didn't make immediate contact. Nor did he move straightaway toward the cabin. Instead, he indulged the owls with attention and fresh bits of crocodile meat as he collected himself, smoothing away any ragged edges on his serenity. Only then did he shoo the feathered pests off and head for the porch. The beads clicked a jaunty rhythm as he climbed then crossed the porch and stopped in the open doorway to eye the Sadist calmly perusing his stolen goods. No shame at all! It was somewhat amusi....no, it was annoying. But not wholly unexpected. The Elf did not step inside, but spoke from the doorway as if he was some vampire that required an invitation to enter.

"I recall requesting you inform me which items you...borrow." Smooth tranquillity. Peaceful sands, still ponds.

Mesteno made no attempt to try and hide the fruits of his labour - i.e. the pilfered books. Instead he lifted his chin, arched one brow. Arrogant bastard. "Have y'come to slap my wrist with a ruler for failin' to do so?" he asked smoothly. "My old teachers preferred the cane." He didn't sound particularly traumatised by it, either. Habits developed young!

He noted the loitering there in the doorway, even considered refusing to extend an invitation so that his damned manners (Lexius had some after all!) might keep him stuck there on the porch, but in the end he took pity. Sort of.

"If you stay put there and don't come in, I'm going to look at you to my heart's content. I've been staring at maps and text for so long that my eyes could do with some good leering." Nor did Lexius have to call his bluff, since he began immediately, unrepentantly manipulative. He slipped him a decidedly interested look that descended by degrees further south. Maybe he'd been taking lessons from Aiden.

Lexius stood there and stared at him, expression unwavering even if he had gone a little....still. By contrast, the beads continued to lazily sway by his thigh, even adding a little swirl to their motion, as if showing off for Mesteno's stare. Or maybe they were waving a hello. They didn't do any snickering. Yet.

The theatrics going on beside the Elf's thigh almost inspired a deviant smile, but Mesteno kept it contained for the sake of lechery. While he'd intended it as a mechanic to prod Lexius into entering, it was no chore. No, the deviance seemed to have given way to something steadier, quieter... weightier. There seemed to be a moment where he considered-- and then it passed as his gaze snapped back up to meet Lexius' eyes, finding them narrowed in a manner that made his audacity peak all over again.

Lexius would have been disappoin.....no, he'd have been satisfied to see the Sadist display a little shame for his actions. Maybe even offer an apolo....no, arrogance just looked right on the man, even if it tweaked the Elf in ways he found both surprising and suspicious.

"Your former teachers were far too lenient." He informed the man as he stepped (stepped, not stalked!) inside, though he didn't invest any real threat into the words. He did, however, twist his Will and given Mesteno a telekinetic shove to the chest. Not so hard it would send him sprawling, but hard enough to, perhaps, make his point. Stop it!

"Show me what your larceny has earned and I may be willing to allow this to pass."

Lexius earned himself a soft grunt for that telekinetic shove, and as the Elf had planned, he was not sent sprawling. There was a jolt, as if he'd had to rebalance abruptly, and a couple of sheets of paper slid from Mesteno’s lap untidily.

"Larceny now, is it? Does failing to inform switch my borrowing to larceny? C'mon, Lexius. You were busy in the sewers, I had no idea how long you were going to be down there. Figured I might even be done with 'em before you were finished."

Done with them, and perhaps riding off south east to whatever he'd managed to dig up on the maps.

"What happens if I've nothing worthwhile to share?" he asked curiously.

The beads gave a chortling rattle as the Elf drew closer to the Sadist's position then wrapped themselves snugly around Lexius' thigh. The Elf frowned down at the string. He damn near growled at it! Which was better than growling at Mesteno (which he’d supposed was probably the reaction the man was looking for). Cool waters, calm sands, tranquil breezes. The beads promptly unstrung themselves from his belt to pool noisily on the floor and across the fluttering pages of notes that had slipped from the Sadist's lap. Lexius looked back to Mesteno.

"Larceny it is." He confirmed. "And I am quite sure you intended to be finished as quickly as possible." If only to try and slip away and handle the matter on his own. He had Mesteno's number. The man did earn a vague scowl for the notion. It was a part of the reason his hand had wound up circling Mesteno's nape, as if to prevent him from doing that right out of the sewer! That last question was full of traps. Lexius trod the answer carefully as he crouched down to have a look at the maps, star charts and texts rather than the Sadist.

"I'll confine you in a room to play nursemaid to that woman the lot of you left me to deal with until this is done."

"Gem is recovering. Pharlen had to go put the girl she splattered back together. I take things apart and the woman needed putting back together. I think you understand why you were the logical choice to see to her care." Mesteno pointed out with just a touch of smugness, as if he knew whatever Lexius might offer in counter couldn't suffice. "Vinci non potest logica!

"Unfortunately for Gem 'n I, Egyptian Gods seem to have a lot of followers in Rhy'Din,” he went on. “Their cults are far spread, though Sobek seems to have far fewer temples devoted to him than the usual favourites. There's a couple of cities based on rivers to the south east where it's possible it might be more popular, but nothing definitive. You mentioned south east, but not how far south east, this Deathame was located," he added. "It'd be nice to know for... logistical purposes."

The beads were worming their way through the papers and charts, heedless of what they disturbed, until they could slap Mesteno's hand. Greeting, admonishment, encouragement, disapproval, humor?! There was just no way to tell what that action meant, though it was stinging as such contact usually was. The necromancer snatched his hand back with an amused mutter.

Lexius snorted mildly, but the corner of one lip might have twitched toward a smile. Difficult to determine for sure given the way his hair swept forward as he studied some of those charts on the floor. He'd never had a look at Mesteno's work mapping Rhy’Din’s rifts, though he had heard mention of it in the past.

"I believe," he mused, almost absently, "that should I tell you the precise location, or even something slightly less general than southeast, you will be off and about the business of...." he looked up and over the man, past the slanted line of his brow, dual colored eye gleaming knowingly, "taking things apart." He did smile then, the expression somewhat wicked "Vinci non potest logica."

"But you do know it!" Trust Mesteno to deduce that, and focus entirely on what he wanted from it, rather than Lexius’ deliberately avoidant reply.

Maybe it was the smile which played catalyst, wicked as it was. That coupled with Mesteno’s constant desire for one-upmanship. Lexius had shoved him earlier, and that wasn't something he was going to simply forget. Balancing whilst crouched was a tricky matter, but it was made far worse when slinking shadows sought to snag the Elf's ankles and pull hard to one side. Mesteno wasn't so gentle, either.

Lexius’ leg jerked out and his boots slid across the floor before he caught himself with one hand on the air itself. His eyes flashed brighter for a second as he stabilized, and actually barked a laugh that left Mesteno looking unguardedly delighted. Lexius sliced a thread of thought, sharp as a scalpel, toward the toying shadow so he could settle himself down on the floor, legs folded.

"I don't trust Gem not to run off alone," Mesteno informed him, wearing one of those broad, vicious smiles that never looked quite safe. "If I have to get there before her, I will."

"She is not the only one not to be trusted." Lexius commented, pointedly. Mesteno had just proven that! Still, the Elf seemed far more relaxed than when he'd arrived not so long ago. Play with someone trusted. He'd actually missed that. "I believe she taught you far too many bad habits I will now have to train out of you." He paused a moment, giving the man a meaningful look.

"While old dogs can learn new tricks, despite how the old sayin's go, you have t'have a lot of patience. Takes 'em time. I suspect I'm too human for elf lessons - they probably last longer'n we've got. You'll just have to put up with my bad habits for as long as you can tolerate me." Though Mesteno was tempted to throw in a 'carrot or stick?' query, as if he didn't know Lexius' teaching habits by now.

"We will get there before her." Lexius stated. That wasn't a demand, it was a fact, said as he made himself more comfortable, removing the satchel to set aside. "Or do you wish me to raze half the region should something unfortunate happen to you?" He reasoned with himself that he just might have gotten a little too comfortable there. "Show me what you learned."

"Hey it's me,” Mesteno reminded. “Have a little faith here. Besides, that'd require entirely too much effort." And then he let it go, because he was feeling oddly flattered that anyone would even joke about going to such lengths.

"I have a wealth of faith in you, Mesteno." Lexius answered somewhat gravely, just to make sure Mesteno understood he was serious. Still, that didn't mean he wouldn't raze things. Whatever that drive was, it had gone from a weak, flickering spark to a tidy little flame. He'd felt it ignite the day before when he'd ripped the information from the commander's mind that Gem wasn't Jetrell's only target.
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Re: Ex Infernis

Post by Mesteno »

[Continued...]

Mesteno plucked up the papers that'd gone scattering off his lap, uncovering some investigative beads in the process. "The guys who were ridin' round on the crocodiles were Rhy'Din mongrel types from what I could tell. Nothin’ off-world, which makes me think it's not some cult from Waterdeep that's been imported here. This Jetrell guy has probably been poking around in necromancy he doesn't know much about, which was why the Hex was so sloppy. Maybe just as a way to raise Terrell? Anyway, he opts for Egyptian, hence the Ammit he appropriated and the links to Sobek. You mentioned there bein’ a real big crocodile, right?"

Lexius freed his cup and skin and a rolled bundle of food from his satchel, setting himself up to eat as they conversed. He spoke as he filled the cup. "Is it possible he was having the girls place the hexes in his stead, thus the sloppiness?" And then a nod once he'd taken a drink. "And it seems likely the point is to eventually raise this woman." Terrell, he meant. "The commander had only heard rumors of it,” he went on. “Something large and bejewelled and kept in a special room within Dethhame. An avatar of Sobek, at the very least, if the rumors are true. I was also able to sense more on a connection. Something of death, fertility, life. The Egyptians had triads of their gods in particular regions. This feeling reminds me of the Triad of Abydos. There is was Osiris, Isis and Horus. Some legends included Seth."

He chomped on a crocodile meat roll and went silent, watching Mesteno (whose hair he’d noted was distractingly loose again) and allowing him to continue uninterrupted.

"I won't discount the possibility," Mesteno admitted over the maid theory, "that or they were rushing. You're right though, everything I've turned up on Sobek was connected to fertility, the Nile in particular. We could tie that into thieving the energy from the plant life around Quellarin, since the whole grounds seem to be thriving. Also might be why they were stealing and using young women for their rituals down in the sewers. All of child bearin’ age, and that girl you rescued," grudgingly! "was about as well used as Rhy'Din's best hookers. I'm not rulin’ out the potential that this Terrell's Scion was following in his mother's footsteps with the whole 'let's rape and slaughter virgins' bullshit, but the hieroglyphics I saw down there were very... crocodile screws girl oriented." Cue the snarl of distaste, though it might have been for the food the Elf was eating. "I figured Deathame was going to be somewhere near a river though, due to Sobek, so here's where you..." He used one finger to turn a map around for Lexius, "pinpoint it for me so I can find a convenient rift to travel through instead of having to hike there."

Lexius had a secret desire to see Mesteno not only eat real food one day, but to relish it. Besides, it was very apt to eat one's enemy. It appealed to the darker part of the Elf's psyche. Then again, maybe he'd spent way too long alone in the desert with only those beads. The String was currently muttering to itself as they coiled over a particular star chart, completely ignoring the pair.

"A path to power, perhaps. He had no other recourse but to align himself to this god to achieve his vengeance. Or perhaps he truly believes." Which would make him even more dangerous. There was little worse than a truly devout believer. Lexius washed down the last meat roll with a long drink from his cup as Mesteno spun the map about then looked at him expectantly. His smile was so calm, yet somehow hinted at a touch of devilry. It might be he was trying to tempt that similar expression back onto Mesteno's face, no matter how unwise or unsafe

"I do not know the precise location." He admitted. He was telling the truth. Mesteno had just assumed he knew it! "The commander had never actually been there. At least, not in a manner that he recalled its precise location. Along a river seems a very logical assumption." He didn't quite look away from Mesteno to the map just yet.

"You don't!?" Mesteno looked up sharply from the map, something accusatory in his tone until he spied the Elf looking at him, and with that devil's smile to boot. Lexius was the king of mixed signals, and it left the necromancer particularly on edge. "Not even a vague distance?" A hundred miles or a thousand - it made a big difference.

"Some distance." Lexius replied, finally glancing down to the map himself. "Not close to the city. That was the only impression I could get from him." He was visually picking out the rivers that would likely fit the bill, not really concerned that Mesteno was watching him again.

In fact, the necromancer was finding it difficult to concentrate on rivers and maps, or even the fact that those beads were investigating his star charts. He'd managed to steal all of one look back at the map he'd twisted around, and then he was eyeing the Elf again. Or rather his chest. In fact he went so far as to reach over and touch his fingers just south of his clavicle, not in any particular haste that might make him jerk backward to avoid it.

"You dropped meatroll on y'self," he told him - it was a lie of course.

"I do have..." Lexius began, but Mesteno’s hand was against his chest, and the Elf went quite still, not moving a muscle from the neck down. He knew damned well he hadn't dropped any bit of food, but he looked down anyway, perhaps just to see Mesteno's fingers pressing against his shirt. What a sucker. "I did not."

Tawny fingers snapped upward, and flicked the end of his nose. Lexius jerked his head back, complete surprise shimmering across his sharply angled features. He curled a snarl at the man in the next instant, but it was mostly fake. "Bastard."

It was Mesteno’s turn to bark a laugh, so very different to the deliberately muted, softer sounds he let slip in public on rare occasions. He even slapped a palm down over his own knee, hawkish eyes bright with amusement.

"Swear t'God, even kids don't fall f'that shit these days!" He was going to rub it in while he could, the broad smile back with a little extra bite to it. Sharp as it was, he ought have fangs.

Lexius actually rubbed his nose, as if Mesteno might have left a mark on it. Whatever else he might have muttered was drowned in the sudden, wild snickering of the beads. He didn't bother to glare their way, too busy keeping a sharp eye on the Sadist now and trying not to snarl with more heart for his comment. Or maybe he was swallowing another laugh. Both, actually. Added to that was the satisfaction of having put that look back on Mesteno's face. Very unwise. He savored it anyway and...what the hell was the man talking about?

"You do what?” Mesteno was asking, returning to business. “Have an idea of the distance? I was thinking one of these two," he explained, splaying a pair of fingers to indicate his choices. They were notably both on impressively large rivers bordering desert lands, as close to Egyptian habitat as he'd been able to find with what small knowledge he could scrape together over the course of twenty-four hours. "If you're not sure, I can go snoop around both and see if there's been a resurgence of Sobek worship around those parts. Maybe get a look at the local croc population to see if they have more than a passin’ similarity."

The beads slapped the Elf's knee, and he brushed a hand out to push them away with a brief growl, gaze dropping back down to the map as he reviewed what Mesteno had said during his distraction. No easy task when that damned hair was being annoyingly, artlessly eye catching, a great river of bold red just a little dark from the damp. Oh, but he was volunteering to go jaunting off alone again. Cue the Elf’s mild scowl. It wasn't a bad idea, but he had some information to impart first.

"I am trying to get Aiden to meet us sooner. He may, as you suggested before, be able to provide some information or assistance in the matter given his connections. It is much more likely he may know others of this particular pantheon given the association of the lands during that era." His fingers twitched where they rested on his knee and he curled them slowly into a fist to keep from reaching out to touch that hair. "Even should he be unable to help, I should be able to tune crystals to the particular flavor we found in the sewer. It will help us find the correct place."

The idea of meeting with Aiden sobered Mesteno again. It was not a dislike of the individual, only his connections. He knew there was news coming from that direction too, whether they liked it or not!

"If he does have links, I'd be curious to know whether any of them can tell us if there's direct opposition to what Sobek's worshippers are doing. I've been trying to work out why, with all that energy, they still haven't succeeded in raising Terrel. Like I said, that amount of death is unnecessary for one mortal to be brought back. I've found nothing about Sobek himself requiring sacrifice, and those zombies marching around in the sewer weren't powered by anyone but the five riders we slew. I'm missing something obvious." Loath though he was to admit it. He did though, because one thing Mesteno never claimed to be was perfect. His eyes narrowed on the map again, as if he were tempted to go wander out in search despite the sketchy details, but after a moment he sighed, sitting back, haunches to heels with a grunt. "I'll save myself a wasted trip if you can find the right place with the crystals. You tell me when you've done it though. No solo heroics." Hypocrite.

Lexius was listening to Mesteno, without a doubt. He was even, somewhat distantly, mildly sympathizing with the man's frustration on the matter. They were missing something. He was absolutely right. They should concentrate on figuring out what that was before they did anything else. And a part of him was pondering the matter in depth. Really. But the rest.....

Lexius reached right out and curled two fingers around a few strands of the Sadist's red-gold hair, letting it move on its own as the man settled back. He watched it shimmer across his fingers intently and answered that insanely hypocritical comment with an absent murmur. "So sayeth the King of Solo heroics."

"Please," Mesteno scoffed, plainly amused, "I can't think of a single incident over the past few months where I've--," What had he been going to say? Something contrary of course, but also rather true. Lexius had been there at his side for every escapade which came to mind, and a damn good thing he had, at that.

There was a lacking end to his argument though, because he'd glanced down in time to see the Elf's fingers in his hair. Such a small thing. Unobtrusive, barely even registering where the hair dragged across skin and knuckles. Somehow it struck him as rather forward though, and for anyone else that would've been laughable. He'd had strangers sink their fingers into it with more familiarity than this barely-there touch. But it was Lexius doing it, and so he lifted sharp, whiskey gold eyes to fix them on his face. Was he as absent looking as he sounded?

Lexius was studying the smooth slide of that colorful hair across his sun darkened fingers as if he was trying to memorize the distinct qualities of each, individual strand that touched him. It was not an unusual look on him, that intent focus, but he typically didn't allow such study to divert the majority of his attention so thoroughly. Mesteno broke off his rejoinder, and the Elf didn't really notice right away. He did when the Sadist moved.

He’d lifted a hand and, quite deliberately, reached to sweep a few strands of hair away from the Elf's cheek, perhaps aiming to slide it back behind a pointed ear. "Fair's fair," he murmured.
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Re: Ex Infernis

Post by Mesteno »

[Continued...]

Lexius’ gaze snapped up, still too bright, to meet the look Mesteno was giving him. He seemed mildly startled, which was not a familiar expression upon those harshly angled features, but it was something more self-directed that in response to Mesteno’s reach. Surprisingly, rather than jerk back, Lexius instead went quite still and allowed the touch. Statue still. Was he even breathing? Fair was for innocents and fools. Fair was a lie. Fair was just trouble waiting to happen.

A certain tightness invaded the set line of the Elf's shoulder, evidence of his muscles’ involuntary coiling beneath his clothing. The Flaw reared its head.

That wasn't the touch he coveted...was it? He clamped his will down on the faux reaction and remained unmoving, even when Mesteno's fingers brushed perilously close to his compact, pointed ear. That one there had a small, silver cuff attached to the point. Yes, he was breathing. It left him in a sudden rush.

"I have not, in the past, usually favored long hair." He admitted out of nowhere, his usually smooth voice gone just a bit jagged around the edges. "But I find yours intriguing." He supposed everyone did though. He was explaining. Maybe apologising.

Mesteno was sorely tempted to touch the decorated ear, if only because he knew there was a propensity for it to be sensitive. The notion of taking advantage of that startled, deer in headlights look was almost too much, but he satisfied himself with nothing more than pinching a lock between thumb and forefinger as if to memorise its texture, its weight.

"Intriguing?" he echoed the word, perhaps with a sly-wolf touch of amusement to his tone to watch the way his mouth struggled not to smile outright. "Haven't ever had anyone call it that before." More often than not he was chided for letting it knot so carelessly, or some woman would threaten to fasten ribbons in it (one or two had even followed through on the threat!) "I could always snip some off for you, if you're inclined to examine it for its... intriguing properties." He'd not improved at all in the acting stakes, and clearly he was teasing him by this point.

It was Mesteno's hand, rather than his offer though, which might cause more friction. Rather than returning to the safety of the maps and the scattered pages they'd been discussing, his knuckles dragged a deliberate path along his spine, between his shoulder blades before he ceased to play the torment.

No. His was not the touch the Elf craved. His touch tended towards sinister before long, became a terrible, painful thing.

He was not the Turk. The Flaw in Lexius would have no other.

"Your hair was long once," Mesteno was reminding, unaware of his struggle. "Why'd you cut it?"

Mesteno's ill-concealed amusement achieved what his reach did not. Lexius swayed his body away even as knuckles travelled the rigid steps of his spine. A frown bloomed like dark ink through liquid across his lips. Lexius looked elsewhere.

"Unnecessary." Absolutely remote, his tone, the tattered edges of it sliced into a fine point of detachment.

No, not the touch he wanted. It was no more real than his reaction and he was the fool in the fairness equation. Nothing about the exchange was anything Mesteno would want. Lexius returned to his study of the map and tried to recall what they had been discussing.

Mesteno’s surprise was all too blatant. Down came the walls, a door slammed shut in his face. His imagination conjured up the clank of a lock drawn into place. He hated it. Worst of all that remote quality to his voice, the unwelcome distance.

"It does not matter." Lexius stated of his hair.

Even his questions were dismissed like an irritation! Mesteno almost picked the beads up to throw at him, he was so insulted.

"I would rather you did not pursue this matter alone." The Elf went on, and tapped a finger to the map, in between the coils of the beads. Where had that star chart gone, anyway? Well, it didn't matter. The beads were now right there between them, silent but present. Little spheres of annoyance.

"I've nothing else to share on the matter," Mesteno informed him, surprised at the sharpness in his own voice, a whip's crack. "By all means if you've any theories, anything I might have overlooked, do tell." There, he had his safety back.

The Elf did not flinch for the cutting edge in Mesteno's voice. The smooth line of his brow furrowed minutely, but that could easily be a reaction to the way the beads suddenly rolled across the map, trapping his fingers before they could get away. The string squeezed on tightly as he drew his hand back, the length of the strand whipping up off the floor to coil around his forearm. Lexius managed not to scowl at them, but just barely. He refused to be chastised by their antics or Mesteno's sharpness.

"You are, as ever, thorough." It was the blunt truth, not a compliment meant to mollify. Lexius uncoiled himself off the floor, rising back to his feet. "I will craft the crystals. The girl has some lingering essence of the taint she was under still in her. I will use her blood and whatever I can trap from Gem's armor to tune the crystals to the particular frequency we seek. Then we shall explore the rivers. Should I hear from Aiden, I will let you know." Even if Aiden had promised to make the contact through Mesteno.

Lexius finally look at Mesteno again, from on high now that he was standing. His expression remained severely serene, but he didn't say anything more. Nor did he disappear abruptly as was his usual way. Instead, he stared at the man for some time in silence while the beads quietly strangled his arm.

There was a foolish desire burning in the necromancer’s chest, to find some way to leave the Elf as stung as he'd been in the wake of that sudden change in attitude. He'd made a habit of spurning friends with a few carefully chosen words, or via actions he knew they would disapprove of. Why was it so difficult to do with Lexius?

In the end he said nothing. Either he was going to wait patiently until those tasks were achieved, or he was going to act out in some manner everyone would find reprehensible when no one was around to see it. It was only when he realised Lexius was still standing there, and hadn't vanished that his irritation was polluted with a thread of confusion. He could practically feel the weight of his stare, and he'd a distinct dislike for it while he was there kneeling on the floor in a position most would consider almost subservient.

So he got up. Of course he got up. And he waited, because the silence was heavy, and anything he might say in those moments he knew he'd regret.

The war going on inside the Elf was, thankfully, completely contained. The ground remained stable, nothing started to dance on its own inside the room, none of the maps or charts spontaneously caught on fire. But the Elf's eyes were still too bright, the blue shards of color gleaming with the darkness of the energy that was coiling behind them. His cells were clamoring one thing, his synapses firing their agreement, both chafing at the binding hold of his Will.

Mesteno was not the one.

The sensible, rational, mostly-believable parts of his mind agreed. But under all that bullshit there was that tiny little flame of something (fascination? curiosity? possession?) that had grown just a little bit larger for having felt the slide of red-gold hair across skin and the drag of knuckles along his spine. Why had Mesteno done that if not merely to taunt him?

A predator toying with its prey, amused with its weakness, he decided.

Lexius tightened his jaw against a few unwise words of his own as the Sadist reclaimed his feet, still searching for the balance that had somehow slipped away from him. He'd lost it. That sense of ease he so rarely had with anyone. He'd destroyed it with one thoughtless, simple act, and he found, in that moment, he regretted that loss most of all. He was fairly sure that was real.

"For a time," he finally said, voice gone soft but still somewhat remote, "I grew it long because others favored it even though I did not. And then for a time, I grew it only to cut once each year as a remembrance to Samir. Now I keep it as I wish it."

Perhaps it was displaying more weakness, giving Mesteno that information, but he gave it anyway as if it might bring him back that thing he had just lost and now suddenly missed. The Elf didn't linger, though, to see if it worked. Instead, he bent his head a fraction in a shallow nod, and abruptly disappeared.

[End.]
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