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A Fiend in Need
Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 4:30 pm
by Neronin
92nd Day of Zi’da, 717th Arc.
Etzos
The chilling cold of Zi’da had settled over the of Etzos by the time Neronin finally ventured back into the city proper. He moved in the shadows, carefully avoiding any patrolling watchmen. He was bedraggled and tired from long months flitting from forest to farm house and back, not to mention the trials he had spent being abused and manipulated by Vuda. It was cold and the deep darkness bit at more than his physical form. He knew who was hunting him now. It wasn’t Vuda, or the Coven. It was the same damn mage who had tormented him since childhood. Gavrel. His old master had once again returned to the city that Neronin had so succinctly robbed him of.
Neronin walked slowly along the uneven cobbles up the all too familiar street. He had been this way before, more than once. He wasn’t sure if this was the best idea, but he couldn’t bring the hunt back to the cave. If Gavrel found out where Noth lived he could destroy all they had created together and then Neronin would not have any allies. But the forlorn necromancer had another ally, possibly more suited to hunt mages than anyone he knew. Zipper.
He knew his childhood flame lived up here, though he had no idea if she was home. Zipper was always an elusive sort of girl, which was part of their initial bond. He found himself hoping, not for the first time, that he would see her again, albeit for different reasons now. That was the way of growing up on the streets, everything turned darker and ruined the once naive simplicity of friendships.
Neronin moved further into the recesses of a nearby alcove as a pair of tired and unobservant guardsmen ambled by. He held his breath and kept his eyes locked on the backs of their heads as they disappeared around the corner at the end of the street. After they had passed Neronin felt it safe to move more quickly down the street. What were the chances that two midnight patrols would be walking down the same street at the same time?
He lengthened his stride until he came to the familiar, half-abandoned looking home he knew to belong to the Transmuter. The necromancer glanced inside the small window next to the door. Darkness inside the window did not bode well. Neronin cursed under his breath and rapt once on the door.
The house remained silent. The necromancer glanced around before knocking a second time. “Zipper! It’s me. Open up!” He hissed through the wooden panels of the door. There was no response. Neronin decided to take more drastic action. Neronin felt the crackling surge of power that was his Rupturing spark ignite and course through him. He had used it before for this type of thing, but not in a while. Neronin wasn’t confident in remembering Zipper’s home so he sent the ether to his hands and crafted a Scrying spell through her door. He couldn’t see very well because it was dark inside, but he felt it jogged his memory enough to perform the blink. Neronin felt the spark rejoice at its own power as he opened the temporary portal into her home and stepped in.
A Fiend in Need
Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 4:32 pm
by Neronin
He stepped out inside and his feet left footprints in the thin layer of dust. It would be an odd sight if Zipper should walk in, a soaked and shrouded man just appearing in her home. Taking a cautionary look around he shook back his damp hood and shook the rain out of his grey, deadened hair. Glancing around the room it looked much the same as the last time he had been there, though evidently sparsely used. Clearly Zipper did not spend much time in the house. Another sign that he may not find her there.
“Zipper! You here?” He hissed into the night. Tenderly feeling his leg where he had been gouged Neronin winced and grimaced in pain. The cold wasn’t helping his aching wound. He slumped over to the table and fell into a chair. The necromancer glanced at the door. How long would Zipper be away? Trials?
…. After the 3rd break, he was starting to wonder whether she even lived here. Normal people clocked off work, went back home, got some sleep, woke up at a break too early and kept the same sad schedule they did over and over and over again until they died. But no, not Zipper. The Zipper he knew had evolved into some twisted stitchborn almalgamation of workaholic, insomiac and-
There was a loud high-pitched shriek of anger from outside the house, a sound that could have been someone banging the front door in frustration, and-
“You picked a very, very bad house to rob,” the sour note of Zipper’s voice crept into the house. “I know you’re still here, you daft cunt.”
The door crept open and Zipper emerged, sizzling pewter energy wreathed around her right hand, the ether missile serving as both as torch and weapon. She moved slowly, cautiously, as if expecting to be pounced on at anytime.
Neronin stood up, hands raised placatingly at his sides. “Zipper, it’s me. Nero.” He growled in pain as his leg gave a spasm of pain. “I need your help.” He reached down to stabilize himself on the dust covered table.
She peered at him from the fringe of the sizzling light that was her hand… peered a little too long for his comfort, before she finally said: “You could have just sent a letter instead of banging down my door.”
The necromancer shrugged. “I really couldn’t have. And I didn’t bang your door down, I left it intact and fully functional.” He wanted to easy the situation. She would be mad no matter what, but it was best to get her as calm as he could before giving her the news. “It’s ah… good to see you again. How have you been?”
A Fiend in Need
Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 4:32 pm
by Neronin
“How have I been? How have I been, you prick. You’ve been gone for three seasons, and how have I been? Just straight up vanished from the museum, but no, how have I been?” she said, taking a step closer to him with each ‘how’, her peering expression quickly warping into seething rage. “How have YOU been? You, you, you, fuckin-”
And then she hugged him. Mutated countenance and all, she hugged him.
Neronin was always a bit shocked when Zipper continued to show signs of affection. She was really the only one in his life who had and he had never really come to terms with how to handle it. The necromancer patted her back and sighed with relief. It was good that she wasn’t mad yet, she would be though. “Look Zip, I’ve had some bad people on my back and I had to get out of town for a while. That’s actually why I’m here. I thought if anyone could help me, it’d be you.”
“5 bits back and you want something already,” Zipper said, giving a little chuckle. “5 bits back. Take a seat, I’ll go grab the candles. And then you’re going to tell me everything.”
Neronin gratefully slumped back into the chair he had occupied. He leaned back and flung out his leg as she fetched the candles and busied herself with lighting them. They threw the debraggled and neglected room into even sharper relief and Neronin found a slight smile crooning the edge of his mouth. “Ever the interior decorator, aren’t you, Zip.” She shrugged. He ran a hand through his grey and dead hair without a trace of self consciousness despite his deteriorated appearance. “It’s my old master, he came back back in Ashan and I thought I scared him off, but he’s been dogging me. He’s got a new apprentice who quite the thorn in my side as well. I don’t know how they’ve been doing it but that apprentice has some way of finding me.” Neronin said.
She sniffed. “Probably following the stench. You reek.”
Neronin shot her a cold look. “At least I have an excuse.” He held his hands out to the warmth of the nearest candle to melt the stiffness. The necrotic spark within him lurched at the unpleasant sensation. He had begun to feel more and more the pull of the spark and less his humanity. It only peripherally bothered him. “I don’t know, Zip. It’s something I haven’t come across before and obviously I’ve been worried. I’ve spent the past seasons eluding them through the farmlands and the woodlands, squatting in...recently vacant homes.” He glossed over his necessary murders in his flight from Gavrel. A needless euphemism, maybe, but one that came naturally now.
Whatever they once were, whatever friendship they still had, she was Black Guard now. She was nominally the enemy. He trusted her… but he trusted others too, and it was betrayal after betrayal after betrayal that gutted him like a fish tossed around by a bunch of mongers. There could very well come a day where ascending a particular rung of the insipid institutional quagmire they called Etzos would require some proof of competence, like say outing a certain necromancer at large from the law…
They were friends. Maybe his only true friend. He just didn’t know whether that meant enough.
A Fiend in Need
Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 4:37 pm
by Zip
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Zipper seemed to ponder on it for a moment.
“You get a good look at them? Gavrel and the kid?”
“Oh I’d no Gavrel’s shit eating grin anywhere. I spent half my formative years under his torment.” Neronin responded with a controlled tone, though the bitterness of his words and perhaps Zipper’s memory of their shared childhood betrayed his emotion. “The apprentice I’ve never seen before she chased me through the woods. That’s how I got this.” Neronin dipped his chin to his leg wound. “I Blinked away from her and ended up coming out about five feet above the ground. I lost my footing needless to say and tumbled down a slope. My fall was stopped by a jagged tree branch after it tore through my leg. I managed to Blink away again, but she almost caught me.”
“You just spent the last bit telling me you got beaten by a girl.” Zipper chuckled, holding up a hand to stop his latest retort. “Get a close look at their eyes?”
“No, if I had let her get that close I probably wouldn’t be here to tell you about our happy encounter.” Neronin grimaced. “Do you have any pets? I need some lifeforce to steal to heal this up.” He gestured to his wound, covered in a dark layer of blood.
“You know I don’t.” she said, straightening up in her seat. “I’ll grab you one of the strays that always whine outside at night in a bit. You sure you didn’t see the eyes? I suspect you’ve, bud, have been attuned to.”
“Attuned? Some scrying magic?” Neronin frowned in worry. He hated hearing about magic he wasn’t familiar with, especially when it was directed at killing him. “What can you tell me about it?”
“Not some scrying magic,” she said, leaning in close. “THE scrying magic. The Empath manipulates, the necromancer-” she gestured towards him “-plays with dolls. The Defier whines till the cows come home and the elements sing. The Transmutator rules.” He rolled his eyes. He rolled his eyes hard and she chuckled in response. “And the Attuner seeks frequencies. They tell me certain breeds of divine slaves can track you. I have no expertise there and I am of no help - but I am intimately familiar with the idiosyncrasies of Attunement.”
“So they are following me based on what? The sound I give off?” Neronin asked, confused.
“The frequency you give off.” she said, leaning even closer. “The very essense of your being that betrays the entirety of you.” she poked him in the chest. The theatrics weren’t very appreciated. “They know your general location and, this is conjecture, they can see what you’re doing if they’re powerful enough. The fact that you have seemed to elude them so far suggests the former… unless they’re toying with you.”
Boxcode credit: Yolande
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A Fiend in Need
Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 4:38 pm
by Zip
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“Gavrel doesn’t play with his food.” Neronin shook his head, staring at the flame of a candle. “It’s like him to create a new apprentice to take care of the old one. I’d wager he found out she could track mages and shared his spark on the spot to get to me. Not the brightest one, Gavrel.”
“Why not Noth? Why not your Al-whatever?” she asked. “Which, by the way, your creepy boss, partner, associate, whatever brand you wanna put on whatever you two are has noted your absence, but I’m digressing. Why me?”
Neronin’s gaze shifted around the room. Right, this was where she would get mad. He braced himself and sighed. “Really? Mongrel has noted my absence for three seasons? Thanks for the information. I hope you aren’t charging for that deep insight.” He grunted and shot an angry glance down at his leg wound.
“Free of charge. I believe the terms ‘slowed down operations’ and ‘Divinya being not up to the task’ were bandied around here and there. I agree on the latter.”
“Well, She is a bit farther back in her education than me. But I came to you because I knew you would be able to help me. Mongrel is brave and vicious, but he isn’t a mage.” Neronin hesitated for the briefest moment before continuing. “Also, I thought it prudent to keep the location of our home base hidden, incase Gavrel was tracking me with magic, as seems evident.”
“Fair enough.” she said in a tone that was clearly expecting something else. Her priecing blue eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “Selfish, inconsiderate to my personal well being over your operations, and disappointing, but fair enough.”
“If we kill them all then there’s no threat to your home.” Neronin said in response. “Besides, it’s not like you spent your time here, right?”
“Gee, buddy, you’re not using that house over there. Do you mind if I infest it with NECROMANCERS?” Zipper screamed. “There are boundaries, Nin. You’re desperate, I get it. But don’t turn my house into a thrall warzone.”
Neronin nodded. He wanted to lash out at her. To explain exactly what he had gone through to separate his allies from the pursuers, but emotion was for the weak. He reigned in his feelings and kept his face impassive. “Well, that’s why I want your help to find them before they find us. I want to bring the fight to them.” He said, the last a question. It hung in the air between them.
Boxcode credit: Yolande
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A Fiend in Need
Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 4:38 pm
by Zip
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It hung in the air for too long.
She stared at him as if she didn’t know him, didn’t actually know him - and because she was so much like him, he knew what she was thinking. She was weighing the risks, measuring sentiment against the cold, glacial core of pragmatism that was at the heart of their beings. For all her rage and bluster, she was ice as he was ice…. And he appreciated that about her.
He would appreciate it more if she came down to the side of helping though.
“Okay,” she said, the simple word salvation to his ears. “Okay, I’ll help. For old time’s sake. I’m… relations between me and the Prince haven’t been great as of late. Long story. Bringing you back in one piece might go some distance into mending that bridge.”
“Prince? What Prince?” Neronin asked, momentarily at a loss. “Oh, Mongrel?” He almost laughed. “I had forgotten he adopted that as a name.” Neronin stood up and held out an icy hand. “Thank you Zip, I knew I could count on you. If it matters to you, I will do what I can to patch things up with Mongrel. And-“ He really did smile this time, the expression faint and unfamiliar on his usually impassive face “I’ll owe you one, just like old times.”
“Just like old times.” Her smile was as genuine as his. “So what’s the plan? How long before they come knocking?”
At that Neronin glanced at the door. “I’m not sure, but we can get out of here if you want. I need to find someone...something to suck the life out of. I think perhaps if we head to the Underground or out into the farmlands we may be able to level the playing ground a bit. It’s three on two right now, but one of Gavrel’s cronies is as mundane as the rats in your walls. If we can kill him we might be able to take them on in the open.”
“I’ll like my house in one piece, yes.” Zipper said, glancing at the door too, before looking back at him… then glancing at the door again. “Before I go grab one of those awful cats, I think it’s a good idea to make sure I don’t lose track of you.” This idea came with a deep sense of foreboding, but Neronin said nothing.
Her eyes flashed scattered black for a moment… and he knew it should have dawned on him why she was so familiar with the damn magic.
“Hey, you’ve got one Attuner on your tail for the moment. What’s another one?”
Neronin sighed and nodded. “Is it done then?”
“It’s happening. I didn’t need to inform you. I could have done it silently, but I did.”
“Yes, thanks for that.” Neronin said in a sardonic drawl. He saw her eyes narrow a little over the next two or three bits or so as she sat in stolid concentration. Neronin stood and moved over to the door. He peered out of the window and looked back at her. “Street is empty if you’re ready.”
“You don’t take an instant to build a thrall, yes? Give me some time, Nin.”
“I can build a thrall in an instant.”
She sighed. “How fast they grow up.”
More time passed as Zipper stared at him with those unnerving eyes of scattering black… and then he peered closer and he saw the truth of them: there was a tiny shadow within each pupil, beating on the walls of her cornea and… and sobbing. Sobbing for freedom. The black stains on her eye walls were streaks of black blood-
“It’s done. Shall we proceed to save my house?”
“Yes.” Neronin nodded.
“Well then,” Zipper said. “Let’s go kill some necromancers.”
Boxcode credit: Yolande
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A Fiend in Need
Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 2:45 am
by Khymarah
“What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark?
It would be like sleep without dreams.”
This is my first thread that is collaboratively written across both PC's and I admit I was thrown for a moment, but as I continued to read it was interesting to see how intertwined the story became. Really cool concept guys!
If you've got a question or concern or if I've missed anything, don't hesitate to PM me!
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