Off-World

[Bailey Raptis]

((Author's Note: This post, and the posts that follow, are re-posts of storylines previously housed here. If you've already read them before, feel free to ignore them. I'll let you know when I reach something new. Thanks!))

November 26, 2016
Celestial Citadel

"Archmage! Archmage!" The shrill shouts woke me from a deep sleep. I groaned, rolling over in bed. The goblin who woke me lowered his voice some, but not enough to keep it from my ears. "Can we still call him the Archmage?"

"He still has the title until tomorrow," another, slightly deeper goblin voice answered.

"Archmage! Archmage!" The shouts resumed, and I tried to drown them out by covering my head with a nearby pillow. This effort was not successful. "There is someone here to see you! She is very pretty and she is wearing dress clothes!"

"All right, all right," I grumbled, throwing on some gray sweatpants and a maroon t-shirt. I fumbled with the drawstrings as I trudged across the sand floors from my bedroom to the foyer. A goblin handed me a coffee mug with the words "World's Best Archmage" wrapped around the center. I took a sip as I arrived in the entryway, pausing when I saw who my guest was.

"Mr. Raptis." The elvish woman waiting in the entryway spoke my name with a raised eyebrow. She wore a greyish-black A-line skirt, a white blouse, velvet black pumps, and had a light brown leather messenger bag draped over her shoulder. Her brown hair was pulled back into a bun, and the only sign of make-up on her face was a smidge of purple eye shadow to bring out her bright green eyes.

"Miss Laoroth. Did you not get the memo about the Archmage challenge?" I tried to put a teasing tone into my words, but my curiosity took much of the playfulness away from them, and she wrinkled her nose.

"I am sorry, Mr. Raptis, but I pay no attention to the duels. Other than...I knew you were the Keeper of Water when you first hired me?"

"And now I am the Archmage. Well, was. I was challenged for the title last night and lost. I actually have a very busy weekend ahead of me cleaning out my things and searching for a new place to stay, so unless this is urgent news, I am not sure why you have come all the way out to the Isle."

Her nose wrinkled again. "I would not be out here, this early in the morning-" She paused to give my outfit a deliberate once-over, before continuing, "- if it were not urgent. We found your brother."

She caught me mid-coffee sip, and I had to turn around so that I spit the liquid over my shoulder and not all over her clothes. An unfortunate goblin received an unexpected shower, and ran off screaming in shock. "Sorry!" I called out to his back. I turned back to Miss Laoroth, coughing. "Did you just say that you found my brother?"

"Well-" She cut herself off to put the bag down on a nearby table, unzipping it and pulling out several sheets of paper. "Here's what we know. A little over a month ago, someone matching the description you gave us, with the name you gave us, showed up on a CCTV camera on the planet Z5456, commonly known as Hades. Per your orders, our source monitored him without contacting him, and confirmed that, as of two weeks ago, he was still on the planet. He appears to have rented a warehouse near the space port, and is living there as well."

"Wait...did you say the last word you had on him was two weeks old?"

"Yes. Mr. Raptis...do you know how far away Hades is from RhyDin?" I shook my head, and she continued. "Hades is located on the Outer Rim of this galaxy. Unless you're willing to spend a fortune for high-FTL communication -- which you didn't say you were -- it takes about two weeks for our messages to get out there. Hell, you'll be lucky if it you can get there in two weeks without experimental spacecraft. And you aren't going to find any cruise ships or passenger vessels willing to go that far out of the way for a backwater planet with little tourism and trade."

"Merda." I gripped the cup tighter, watching my knuckles whiten, and then relaxed. "Well, you have done precisely what I have asked you to do, and now I know why it took you so long to track him down. So he is at the edges of the galaxy..."

"That's what it appears like. The only other information we could find relates to him leaving RhyDin, but goes back to last December. We were unable to find any other evidence of his travels between then and now. Should we keep looking?"

"Yeah, yeah," I responded with a distracted wave. "I am not sure what good it will do, but I suppose it would not hurt to at least have that information. Will there be a way to send me the information?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I am going to Hades. Will there be a way to send me the information on a cellular phone or some other communication device I take with me?"

"I'll, uh, look into that and get back to you. You said you were moving?" I nodded. "When will you be leaving? Where will you be staying until then?"

"As soon as I can get everything settled here. I will probably rent a room at the Red Dragon Inn until then."

"Good, good. Well, I will see you when I've got a better idea of what we can do for you when you travel out there. Good luck. Oh, and Mr. Raptis?"

"Yes?"

"Be careful. Hades is just as lawless as RhyDin is, and the planet has no ley lines or whatever it is that makes magic work here. Your Archmage powers won't work there."

I opened my mouth to correct her, then let it snap shut. Instead, I gave her shoulder a friendly pat. "Thank you, Valadhiel."

"Bailey." She dipped her head in an acknowledging nod, before stepping out the door. I turned back around, and shouted for a goblin.

"What is it, Archmage? Wait, can I call you that?"

"Yeah, yeah. You can call me whatever you want, as long as you get me a bottle of whiskey."

"Right away, Archmage!"

"I will be in the study." I trudged slowly through the front rooms of the citadel, heading for the small, book-lined room near the back of the tower. I flopped into the chair behind the desk, staring at the musty scrolls I had laid out on the wooden surface but never found the time to read. With a sigh, I shoved them off, set my mug down, and pinched the bridge of my nose.

[Bailey Raptis]

November 26, 2016
The Annex

I spent the rest of my morning and my afternoon racking my brains for an answer to my dilemma, in between shifts of moving my things from the Celestial Citadel into a much smaller and less opulent room in the Red Dragon Inn. Perhaps fortunately for me, my brush with death last year had the unforeseen benefit of limiting the possessions that I now currently owned, making the moving process somewhat easier. More difficult was trying to find a goblin willing to risk his or her life and limbs to keep track of Krakeninho, and working with Sargasso to try and communicate to my pet that I was going away for some time. He made it quite difficult to leave the Isle, hugging me with all of his tentacles wrapped around my torso, but he did eventually let me go, leaving a few fresh bruises on my chest to go with the black eye and cuts on my cheek and temple.

I came to the Annex that night to say goodbye to my friends -- the ones that I had a good idea would be there. Cane, Eden, Taneth. Mason and Eva, if I was lucky. I also came because I had a sneaking suspicion that the one person who could help me hedge my bets on the journey I was about to undertake would likely also be there. Jewell Ravenlock. The Empress. The Overlady. The fae I tried to kill last year.

I walked into the Annex feeling disconnected to my body, even though the whiskey I consumed earlier had long since passed through my system. My clothes felt like they did not fit, and the messenger bag on my arm felt like an anchor. I am surprised I even managed to toss my first gift, a gourmet chocolate bar with salted caramel flavoring, to Taneth without missing her.

I made the rounds, telling Eden, Cane, Jewell, Taneth, and Lirssa that I was taking a trip off world. I ordered a Badsider and barely touched it. I told them my cover story -- my lie. I told them I had found my brother. I knew, however, that if I wanted the help I was probably going to need, I would have to tell Jewell the truth.

"May I bend your ear for a bit, Empress?" I asked her quietly. I decided my opening move should be flattery. Given her nature, and given what I had observed of her before, it seemed like a good place to start.

Jewell lifted her eyebrows and straightened up, watching an older gentleman limp his way into the Annex. "Me? Uh...sure. You're not going to try to kill me again, are?" I could not tell if she was joking or not.

I brushed aside Eden's excitement for me finding my brother with a small smile and halting words, before heading for a more secluded spot at the end of the bar. I gestured with a wave of my hand for Jewell to follow me, and once she had (although it did take her some time to make her way over), I dropped my voice even further. "I am not going to try to kill you. I have a gift for you, and a favor to seek."

"I see." She had left behind the drink that Lirssa had made her earlier, and my own Badsider sat unopened, sweating from the neck down to the label.

I reached over for the bag, opening it up and retrieving a small blue jewelry box lined with velvet. I had not had time to purchase something brand new for Jewell, but the blue-and-white sapphire brooch I had worn in the top button of my tuxedo shirt for the Archmage challenge was essentially new. I had only just worn it for that match. Where I was going, fancy jewelry was not going to be of much use. I should have probably handed it over to her, but my fear of the fae overwhelmed me, and it was all I could do to push it in her general direction, hands and voice shaking. "The present is probably the best place for us to start."

She tsked at me when she saw my hands quiver, responding with a soft tone of her own. "Really, Bailey. I'm not going to harm you." She opened the box and looked inside, smiling. "Very pretty." She touched the brooch, then clicked the box close and looked at me carefully. "What is the favor you seek?"

"I assume you are familiar with fetches." I left just a hint of a question in the words, but not too much. I did not want to insult her by asking an obvious question, or insult her by assuming she knew more about the ways of the fair folk than she actually did. I was trying to walk a tight-rope, aware that each and every word was precious when dealing with a faerie.

I watched as her features instantly hardened, like water into ice. "I am." In response, I grew quieter still, now whispering.

"My 'brother' is my fetch. I am traveling out to Hades to kill him. However, it is a planet without magic, so I will be at something of a disadvantage once I have arrived there. I am looking for any sort of magical device that might help me even the odds, help me make an escape if things go...bad. Even something I could tap into like a mana battery. I do not have the Archmage's powers anymore, but I have learned a thing or two from my year on the Isle."

I studied her carefully as she nodded, a thoughtful expression on her face. "I could possibly supply you with both, an item that has a stored bit of mana in it as well as a way to make an escape. Although..." She tilted her head, her tone shifting to something more matter-of-fact. "...to empower the second the first item would need to be pretty strong." She shook her head, continuing. "Either way, yes, I could secure you these items if you need them. But why in nature are you even asking me of all people?"

That was a good question. It was a question I had asked myself, when I tried to think of who I trusted and who had the means to resolve my dilemma. I trusted Kate, but her vessel was an airship, not a spaceship, and I had already bothered her once already with saving my life after one of my adventures had run into snags. I could not ask her to do the same for me again, even if she did have resources. No, Jewell was it. "I cannot ask my fellow stolen ones, because they think that I am a traitor. The ones who dragged me away to Arcadia years ago are also...not fond of me. I know no one else who is familiar with the ways of the fae, and you -- you are the closest thing to an ally I have left in that world." Everyone else was dead -- or wished to see me dead.

Her eyes finally warmed up again, when she spoke once more. "And in return for doing such a thing for you, Bailey? Whatever shall I ask?"

I finally cracked open that Badsider and took a sip from it. "I am not giving up my true name, although I wonder if such a thing might be obscured by the fact that my doppelganger is out there living my life."

The ice returned to her expression, and she hissed her reply so quickly that I recoiled instinctively. "I would not ask such a thing of you."

It took me a few moments to regain my nerve, and I felt myself stumbling over the words I had to say. "That is good to know. I feel like that tends to be the go-to offer your type like to make, though. You will forgive me -- my experiences with your kind have mostly been...terrifying. Unreasoning. I am not used to being able to...bargain."

She seemed offended, and I had already begun to prepare myself for the likelihood that my efforts had backfired on me. I ducked my head and prepared to be denied in my request. "Bargaining is such a pain when I collect neither names nor souls. I would ask something much simpler of you. Loyalty. For you to never betray me yourself nor to my friends or enemies in word or deed." She paused for a second, then added, "Or thought!"

"So I receive a device to help me during my trip to Hades, and in return, I cannot betray you myself in word or deed, nor may I betray you to your friends or enemies." At the addendum, I glanced at my beer bottle and snorted. "In thought?"

She smiled, but only slightly. "The thought part is more about thinking something about me and allowing someone to take that info right from your pretty little head. You can think all the mean things you want about me."

"I would hope that I have learned enough from my time on the Isle to protect my mind from psionics, but fine," I said. "I believe that I am around a powerful psychic who can rip thoughts from my head, thoughts which might in anyway betray you, I will bury them deep down."

"Lovely! Do we have a deal, Bailey?" Her voice brightened, and I could feel the pull of glamour on my own emotions. I took another sip of beer and paused a moment to gather my thoughts.

"Is there a handshake? Magic words?"

Jewell giggled. "We should shake on it, yes." She offered her hand out to me. I managed to keep from shaking this time before I took it and sealed the deal. Warmth coursed through her grip, and I could feel the magic flowing down my fingertips and into my palms. She released my hand, and I scratched my head. A sick part of me wanted that warmth to last longer. "When do you need the items by?"

"How much time do you need?"

"Probably could have it within a week. Shorter if you needed it sooner." She leaned against the bar, now, casually, and a sudden wave of shame washed over me.

"...please don't tell anyone else what I'm doing,," I mumbled fast, my eyes dancing away from hers. She paused, then smiled.

"I won't. No reason to, you know? I've got enough going on."

"I do not think most of my friends would understand. Kate, probably, but not the rest of them." Finally, I remembered the question she had asked me, and answered it. "Wednesday, possibly?"

"Wednesday. Sounds good," Jewell said, nodding. "Enjoy your last few nights, okay? And -- well, don't get yourself killed." She took a step back with a quick smile, and I downed the rather large remainder of my beer.

"You too. Stay alive long enough so I can tell you all how it went when I come back." I scooped up my bag, jumped off my stool, and began making the rest of my farewell rounds.

((Edited and adapted from live RP. Thanks, Jewell-mun!))

[Bailey Raptis]

December 1, 2016
Star's End

"You sure you got a ticket?" The big, beefy, and burn-scarred steward took my boarding pass and studied it like the paper bore the news that his mother had passed away. He read it, stuck it close to his face and scrutinized it carefully, held it out at arm's length, and then flipped it toward me, apparently satisfied that I was not the bearer of bad news. "You sure you wanna go to Hades?"

"That is why I purchased a ticket, yes?" The worker snorted as I fumbled with the fluttering paper and stuck it back in the front pocket of my pants.

"This ain't a pleasure cruise. You also gotta work to keep things running, and-" He paused to give me a very deliberate once-over. "It ain't easy work." He gestured over my head, towards the line of mostly men stuck behind me. They wore overalls, or mechanic's jackets with their names sewn over their hearts, or neon construction vests in shades of orange and green. They carried their belongings in duffel bags, many of them in camouflaged hues of green and brown and black. Some of them had dirt and grease on their faces already -- or maybe they had never even washed up in the first place? One or two of them made a show of glancing at their watches, or tapping their feet on the steel dock leading up to the gangplank. I had thought my decision to wear no makeup, a short haircut, a black-and-white gingham button-up, blue jeans and black combat boots had been wise, but even my most casual clothes did not fit in the blue-collar wardrobe. Neither did the rather large suitcase I had dragged up to the side of the spaceship. I sighed as I turned back towards the entryway.

"Are you a fan of the duels?"

" 'Course I am. Best sport on RhyDin." With that, I handed the ticket back to him.

"Look at the name on that ticket. Does it ring any bells?" He grunted as he grabbed at the boarding pass. I watched as his eyes danced back and forth between it and myself, and stifled the urge to laugh as they grew into saucers.

"Bailey Raptis? I thought you were a-"

"Woman?"

"Girl, but yeah." He leaned forward and peered down at me, eyes narrowed. "You not a girl, are you?"

"I do not think this is an appropriate place to prove such things, and besides...does it matter? The Overlord is a woman. Three of the four Opals are women." I shrugged as I ran my fingers through my hair. The steward looked me over, and then snorted once more.

"Whatever. Get on board, there's people waiting." I craned my neck at the line of people and sighed.

"Fine, fine. Let us get this over with." I bumped the man's shoulder as I walked past him and felt his glaring eyes on my back, but instead of responding, I merely turned up my nose and added some sway to my walk. It was likely the last bit of fun I could see myself having in the near future.