Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » The fate of the Mirrored (1x1)

Sharn, the city of towers. One of the biggest, most visited cities in the whole of Eberron. The city, built upon a cliff near a great drop, was a bastion of riches. But even in a place as magnificent as this, there were many unseen problems.

In the lower cities sat Vermin, leaning against one of the gigantic towers overlooking the people who ran past him. The representatives of House Thuranni were clear on the matter. He was to wait until someone approached him with a task. Being the loyal dog that he is, Vermin listened. And thus he sat there for two days straight, looking like a beggar and living off of the scraps some kind people would throw at him.

Today the sun was high in the sky, yet Vermin could catch no sunlight. The gigantic towers blocked off any light in the lower city. At this point the Shifter felt like his patience was being tested, but still he refused to move. It went against his code. The Shifter leaned back against the wall of the tower and bit into a half rotten apple, hoping to find a worm somewhere in the piece of fruit. All the while his boney fingers stroked over the back of a rather big street rat. The creature found comfort near Vermin. Though this meant no one dared come near the Shifter to give him any food or coppers, he didn't mind. The rat was the only true social contact he had in days. No amount of food or money would sway him from this moment.

Hopefully someone would give him a task quickly. Shifters weren't know for their amazing feats of patience.

Evilyne Pierce stood there, observing the man who was petting a rat. Yuck She thought and raised an eyebrow. This is why she never worked with other commoners. Evilyne didn't see herself as a commoner but more as a royalty of some sort. After all, she was better than everyone else. Better than the disgusting humans with their disgusting feelings like love or compassion and better than the rest of the population, scum that she tried to avoid at any cost. If she didn't hate making her own hands dirty, she wouldn't even ask for their help. Well, that and the fact that she loved having someone working under/for her.

She walked up to the tower where the man was leaning against and did the same. Both of her arms crossed over her chest and her right leg pushed up against the wall. "Isn't the weather nice?" She said with a honeyed voice. Her smile was sweet yet sinister. "The perfect weather to get a tan, don't you think." As she looked up and down at the man, she shrugged with a grin on her face. "So, you come here often..?" Evilyne had now turned her body towards him and she supported her head with her hand and the other was resting on her hip. Her eyes were glittering with amusement while she waited for the man to respond.

When the woman decided to stand in front of him, Vermin looked up with his glowing red eyes staring her right in the face, silently listening to her strange manner of talking. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he kept weary, but this was too odd to be a coincidence. This had been the person he was to wait for!

Vermin slowly stood up and composed himself before answering, allowing the rat to scoot away."Yes..." He suddenly spoke, seemingly unsure of his words. He had never been smoothest talker. Not that in his line of work it was required."Good day to tan... Good day to die, too." He stated as if this was a normal thing to say."It is my first time in Sharn. But I have seen everything."

"Are you here to to tie the noose?" He suddenly asked, referring to the rope around his neck. The Shifter looked as though he had just escaped the gallows. The rope dangled over his chest and the noose hung like a wide fitting necklace. He held out the rope for her to hold. Whether she'd tighten the noose or not would determine what happened next.

When he didn't seem to get her jokes, she arched her eyebrows and chuckled. "Wow, tough crowd." But it wasn't like she was used to people laughing at her jokes. Most of the time people were screaming out of fear or pain, too shocked to laugh. She prefered a scream or a cry to laughing anyway, so it was all good.

Evilyne looked at the noose and thought about it. "No, not just yet. I can't use you if you are dead, can I?" she winked at him and walked to the other side but then she started laughing. "Well, unless You are undead. Had that happen to me, once. Kinda freaky, smelly too." As she looked at the shadows against the wall of people walking by, she kept grinning like she knew something the shadows didn't.

Vermin raised a brow."The noose signifies closing a contract with me. It serves as a constant reminder I have a job to do." He explained."But if you don't know this, perhaps you are not the one I seek."

With that the Shifter sat back down, finishing his half rotten apple and pretending like the woman is no longer standing there.

She shrugged. "How modern of you. But I don't close deals like that." she untied the bag from around her belt and threw it in front of him. "But if you arent interestes, thats fine by me." She proceeded to walk away without the gold, not even caring that She left behind a fortune. She had more Where that came from.

"I'll just ask someone else.. I mean,it's not like im the One who's losing something." another shrug was given and she turned around to face the city.

Vermin looked down at the bag. Then back at the woman leaving and then back at the bag again. He really did not want to chase after her. Clearly she was not the one who he had to wait for. But he did not want to wait any longer for a client who was probably not going to show up. He picked up the bag of gold and tied it to his rope belt before chasing after Evilyne on his hands and feet.

When he reached her he got up on his hind legs again."You do not understand. It is part of my code. I am not allowed to perform any tasks unless the noose is tightened around my neck. If you truly want my help, you will do this."

Looking back at the noose again, she sighed. "Ugh, fine." with as little touching as possible she tightened the noose. Her face cringing at the thought of having to touch the disgusting poor person rope. "Only because I heard you were the best. I don't normally touch stuff that isn't the finest quality so you praise yourself lucky." she pointed at him with a nod to convince him of that statement.

"Now, if you complete the task, there is more Where that came from." She looked down at the bag on his belt and smiled. " And who knows, maybe you can buy yourself something nice. Or maybe an outfit for that little smelly friend of yours?"

Vermin was surprised the woman didn't tighten the noose tighter. It was a lot more loose than he was used to. But the Shifter knew this was not because she was empathic towards him, but rather disgusted. Her jokes flew right over his head and after a short silence he spoke again."The Hanged Man has heard your plea. I, Vermin, will be loyal to you until the task is done." He spoke solemnly. He found it odd this woman had heard of him. Good assassins were the one you didn't know. Perhaps she really was contacted by House Thuranni. It didn't matter now, now that the contract was made.

Because of that, Vermin got a bit more talkative, but not by much."If you say so, boss." He answered her."He was not my friend, though. Rats just see me as kindred, is all."

"Boss? Hmm, I like the sound of that but you can just call me Eve. Also, Vermin huh? Cute name you got there." Eve gave him a disgusted pitty look but then focused on the road again, trying to not step in anything weird or smelly. "Ew, these roads are something else." She complained as she looked at the ground.

When he mentioned being kindred with the rats she nodded but seemed confused. "Oh, that's..euhm nice." She smiled but it was more of a polite smile meant to hide her loathing. As long as she didn't have to touch or smell them, she was fine with him having friends or partners or whatever. But the moment one of those things touched her, she would seriously filet one and feed it to her dogs.

With 2 fingers she held her nose and stared at the ground, trying to avoid any unpleasant surprises. "Anyway.." She said, sounding nasal. "Let's talk about rules. What are your demands, what are mine? Stuff like that. Just so that there are no euhm missunderstandings between us." She talked to him like he was a 5 year old. It wasn't really her intention, it was her way to talk to people who hadn't proven anything yet. There had only been one person in her whole life who had gotten respect from her and that had been her teacher. He died a couple of years ago and even though she didn't shed a tear, she did miss him every now and then. Well, missing is a big word for someone who didn't have any feelings.

"Very well, Eve." Vermin answered, looking down at the road."This is the lower city of Sharn. All the filth the wizards up in their towers don't want to see gets sent down here." He answered her statement.

A slight hint of a smile came across Vermin's face as he listened to about what she thought was a mutual agreement."You hired me. I don't get to set the rules. Anything you want done shall get done. No matter who needs exterminating, no matter what needs taking, no matter who needs be protected, I shall do it. I have no other demands than for you to stay subtle about our dealings and holding up your end of the bargain. That is all."

"I suggest we talk about the details somewhere private, out of sight, out of mind." He suggested as he no longer could handle walking on his hind legs and started walking on all fours again.

"And where do you wanna do that?" she asked curious. She wanted to puke thinking about whatever filthy place he could take her. Taking him to her home was out of the question, that was for sure. "Please tell me that there aren't any special friends there." Evilyne smiled awkwardly and looked at the ground while cringing her nose.

(Sorry for the short respons, I'm trying to get back into rping but it's gonna take some time!)

"Somewhere you won't like." Vermin stated as he took the lead and lead Evilyne through a maze of narrows paths between the towers of Sharn. It was clear all sorts of filth gathered here. Including rotting corpses. That alone was proof enough no one came to this dark underbelly of the otherwise beautiful city of towers.

"Here we can speak freely." Vermin spoke as he stood upright again, sticking his finger down his ear to casually retrieve a small maggot that had crawled its way up there."What do you need done?"

As soon as she saw the filthy garbage they called part of a city, she cringed and fake puked. "Wow, this is euhmm-nice. Seriously, you couldn't take me to a pest infected toilet? It would have been nicer than this." With two fingers on her nose and her other hand holding up her dress so it wouldn't touch the ground, she walked behind Ratboy.

"Okay, lets do this quickly, I can already feel my skin burning. I'm going to have to throw away my clothes. Ugh" She took a deep breath and took out an old looking piece of paper. "This is what I need you to take for me." She showed him a picture of a mirror. It was old, with gold decorations on it. It's reflection was a weird color because of its age and you could see a couple of cracks in the corners. Above and under the mirror there were weird signs or letters, carved in wood.

Vermin ignored her comments as he chewed on the maggot and accepted her note."Hmm... A mirror. I won't ask questions." He stated as he gave the note back."Tell me who owns it and I shall retrieve it for you."

"Well, that's the problem. Just you, on your own, can't retrieve it. We will have to work together." She stated as she rolled her eyes and waved her hand around. "It's protected by some kind of spell or illusion or something. There is not a single story that's the same as the last one. Like they all saw something else." She frowned as she tried to explain without sounding totally lunatic.

"The man who guards the door is called Khjali. He is both deaf and blind, yet he can speak every language in the book. He is wise beyond words, at least that's what I heard." Eve shrugged and smiled.