Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » Bloodied Shards IC (CLOSED!)

The water mage teleporting didn't bug Victi in the slightest.

The water mage taking the girl with the funky magic away to safety? A bit annoying, she was curious to see what she was going to do next, but that was fine.

The water mage stealing her hireling including her frickin' map made her genuinely furious.

That said, she was now alone outside the wall of a city with a largish number of guards, an angry chimera inquisitor, and probably their backup incoming. It was time to make herself scarce.

She wrapped herself in various stealth magic, turning invisible, masking her scent, and making her movements silent. Once she did, she walked quickly through the gate of the city until she could find an alley to de-stealth in and walk out of, still disguised. Then, she made her way toward the centre of the city.

A few minutes and some time-saving teleportations up to and between rooftops later, Victi came into sight of the university and its grand library. Or, well, presumably that was the library. Really she would have liked to not be the only one to be searching through ancestors-knew-how-many old books on the subject, but sometimes that would just be the way things went.

She went through the door, thankfully seeing vast lanes of book-filled shelving inside, and went to wait near the front desk, where a tall, slim, dark-haired chimera woman was filling out paperwork for a large cat while a child milled around. Unfortunately, it was not the weirdest thing she'd seen all day, but at least this was less.... frustratingly weird. She didn't like children much, but it reminded her of libraries in any other city she'd visited on any other world.

At the gate

The undead closing in on the injured chimera abruptly stop, each now carrying a crossbow-bolt in its neck and another in the chest. Thalia strides furiously out through the gate moments later, replacing the box on her repeating crossbow as she does. "Someone explain to me what has happened here," she orders to the scattered guards, "And where the people who did this went."

* * *

In the caverns

"Woah, WOAH!" Geoff exclaims as Isabella turns on him, "Hey, I was just trying to make you not have to deal with the Inquisition! Try to help you figure stuff out about why they're getting so excited!" In the process, he's also readying his own spells. Mostly defensive, though he did also get a frost nova ready in case things came to that, though he really hoped they didn't. He could tell something was wrong with her right now, and just... hoped she could understand...

While Lisa fills out the paperwork, Cornelius turns his attention to Victi, greeting her warmly. "Welcome, young lady. What can I do for you?" He can easily take a few minutes to get her request and fetch an assistant to guide her wherever she needs to go.

Lisa doesn't notice the new visitor until the librarian draws attention to her. The flash of white fur...startles her, to say the least. Her head jerks up from the paper and her yellow eyes lock on Victi for a few seconds until she processes just another chimera, and not the kitsune sorceress she'd been dreading an encounter with. She chuckles at her own paranoia and returns to her task.

Still, for as long as the other person is there beside her, she keeps casting nervous glances that way. She also pulls Liliath closer, her hand wrapped tightly around the child's to keep her from trying to wander over and talk to the stranger. Lisa can't quite puzzle out why, but something about the lady seems off. Maybe it's just the white fur or the brief glimpse of unnatural-looking eyes, vivid green ringed by violet. Or perhaps it's something a little more reasonable. She seems impatient. No, not just impatient. Lisa gets the feeling that the woman will violently snap if another single thing goes wrong with her day. Noticing this instills some fear, but also a wave of empathy as Lisa considers what she'd been through lately. When she finishes the paperwork and slides it over to Cornelius, she offers Victi an awkward but friendly smile.

"Hi, yeah, texts on archaic ritual orders and.... what's the phrase.... alleged illuminate groups? Histories of small, hidden groups who allegedly have or had access to shocking amounts of power, influence or resources," Victi says to the librarian very much in the tone of someone who was in the middle of a day going slowly wrong, not really bothering to hide her irritation at her day from much of anyone, "specifically by magical means: rituals, power objects, mind control, that kind of thing."

The lady in front of her.... also looked like she was having a day, and was way to freakin' paranoid. Who was the kid, anyway? Looked nothing like the lady.... whatever, biology was the bird's thing. Suspicious, maybe, but frankly Victi didn't care if they were related or master and apprentice, kidnapper and abductee, or if the chimera woman was the kid's mind-slaved puppet at this point. Seeing the flash of panic in the woman's eyes as they locked with hers kinda felt good, though, even if she didn't enjoy that it did. It was an advantage to the mana addiction for sure, but being abusive for no reason felt.... petty.

Victi gave a bit of a smug smirk in response to the awkward smile anyway, it was just easiest at this point for her while she was this peeved, and waited for the odd librarian's response.

“Alright then let’s go.” She smiled happily “What’s a membership card?” Liliath asked curious. She then noticed a new stranger, but she also noticed that Lisa pulled her closer to herself. Did Lisa know this stranger? Was this stranger bad? Many question filled in Liliath’s mind and she wanted to ask the stranger who she was, but she was not sure if Lisa would like that.

The strangers mention of several books made her more curious “Do you need a book about-“. Liliath wanted to say shards, but she then realized she shouldn’t.

“Sorry nevermind.”

(Sorry)

(Sorry for all these double posts)

(Sorry double post)

The subjects the chimera requests wouldn't be suspect if not for the fact Lisa had been reading about those and similar topics for at least the past hour, and she was about to attempt to check out a private collection of scrolls recording ancient cults under the pretense they're for the High Inquisitor. But here she is, and there that damned white-haired kin of hers stands rattling off a list of topics that'd been the source of her headaches since this late morning.

The smug look she shoots her way doesn't help; it reminds Lisa of the smirk Raven flashes when she knows something her mistress does not, except the character it belongs to here is more than slightly sinister. Whatever secrets she keeps is much more serious than "I filled the cabinet with flour, and if you open it I'll say it was your mom's idea." It's not something that'll be funny in hindsight, but something that will have horrific lasting consequences if she doesn't find out...or if she does.

Further making the situation worse , Liliath nearly reveals the reason for their own visit. The moment she opens her mouth, panic rushes across Lisa's face, but all she can do is squeeze the girl's hand, silently begging her to shut her mouth before she reveals their own secret. If this is just a person who has a morbid interest in archaic artifacts much like that one young librarian, then Liliath's question wouldn't hurt.

But if she's another shard holder, or worse...

Oh thank God. Liliath stops herself hopefully in time, and the chimera can't possibly get out of the library fast enough; when she hands Cornelius the paper he frowns disapprovingly at the near illegibility of her last few lines. Clammy, shaking hands and a pounding head make for a difficult time writing.

"Ah, it seems to be the day for such topics," Cornelius comments as he takes Lisa's application. "I have an assistant who is well-read in that field of research. If you'll allow me a moment to take care of....Ms. Adeptus," he squints as he reads Lisa's last name, "I will gladly fetch her for you."

"And, thank you, ma'am," he says politely to Lisa. "I should have some blank cards right down here." He ducks under the counter. Among the sounds of shifting papers he continues to talk. "If you don't mind me asking, you two do not know each other, do you?" The tension in the room, emanating mostly from Lisa and her paranoid glances, is so thick he could cut it. Concern for the peaceful sanctity of his library, but also pure and simple curiosity, urges him to search for a reason one might seem so nervous around the other.

Oh.

OH!

Now this was getting interesting.

Between the lady's mild panic and the girl's curious start of a question, Victi got the feeling that things were getting... less inonvenient. She lost one chimera, made it was time to get another. This one seemed less handsy, too. She let out a small sound of amusement at the thought before speaking.

"Well, it's been a weird few days, at least, so maybe that has something to do with it." Victi suggests, her irritation visibly fading. She smiles slightly, though there is something a bit predatory about it along with the pleasantness.

"I.... don't think I know her, no..." Victi says, squinting slightly and pulling back a bit. Wait, crap, where chimerae far-sighted like her kind tended to be? They had the eyes for it, so she hoped so.

"Maybe we should get to know each other, though," she continues, friendly, if a bit too level in her intonation, "We already seem to have some interests in common, and I get the feeling we might share other things, too. You don't happen to be a tea drinker, do you? I've had a bit of a stressful day and could use some relaxation, if anyone else needs it."

"No," Lisa says. And she doesn't intend to get to know her. Unfortunately, the other woman has a different idea, suggesting they have similar interests and asking about tea.

"I don't..." she pauses, balking a little when she catches Victi's 'pleasant' smile. Having grown up friends with a talking sapient cat, Lisa can detect the biting chill of a predatory smile from miles away. On Raven, it's still disturbing, but almost cute when plastered on her face as she pounces a suspicious clump of grass.

This woman's smile makes Lisa feel like the poor mouse using that grass as cover.

When she steps back and invites her to tea, Cornelius's next reply- bubbling about tea and reiterating some of the weirdness Victi brought up, like how the coast caught on fire just the other day -becomes background noise as Lisa fixates at the odd way the woman moves. Chimerae don't walk like that, with a spring in their step that comes from walking on your toes like a cat or dog. She walks like how Cornelius walks in his feline form, but it's also eerily reminiscent of the way the magistrate and the other Kitsune she'd interacted with move.

This revelation settles into a tight knot in her stomach, a gut-wrenching realization that Lisa refuses to acknowledge at this point in time because here and now has to be one of the absolute worst settings for that confrontation.

Her eyes never leave Victi's as Cornelius jumps back into view over the counter and hands her a library card. "There you go, ma'am. I can now check out those library books for you, but unfortunately the scrolls will have to stay here."

"What? Oh, just a second." Lisa pockets the card and tries returning Victi's smile. "Thank you for the offer, but we were just leaving and I have...errands to attend to." Her voice comes out remarkably even given her tendency to stutter under stress; she manages this by focusing on something else, something that feels a little less dangerous than chatting with a suspicious stranger. "Now, if you'll excuse me..." She turns her back to Victi and launches an attempt to deceive the Librarian.

“Ouch stop squeezing in my hand.” Liliath spoke a little annoyed by Lisa’s panic. Despite Lisa’s attempt to no to talk to the stranger -or barely- Liliath decided it was time for socializing.

Liliath let Lisa’s hans go

“I do like tea.” Liliath spoke to the stranger, she knew it would upset Lisa, but at this point she did not care to much about it. Lisa probably acted like this for no good reason.

“My granny always made the best tea for me.” She smiled a little “My name is Liliath, what’s your name?”

Well, that was a straight line if Victi had every heard one.

She did a quick magical-visual once over of Lisa, and didn't catch sight of any blood magic. That was good enough to take a shot in the dark for now.

"Victi Aurora," she replies to Liliath, though glanced up to see Lisa's reaction, having already heard the poor chimera's heart speed up and beat more loudly.

Knowing how sharp Lisa's hearing would be from her experience dealing with Drake, she quietly mutters, "don't worry, you don't have one, so you're a lot more useful alive," well below the volume a human could hear.

Raising her volume back to normal she continues with a light laugh, "Anyway, I'm pretty sure we should chat, I won't bite. We might be able to help each other out."

Trying really hard to pretend Victi isn't there, Lisa says to the librarian, "T-the scrolls. They're for-"

"Allow me to guess," Cornelius peers over the wire-framed glasses set precariously on his muzzle, one eyebrow raised ever so slightly in the expression of a man who is, quite frankly, unimpressed with the antics presented to him. "Lady Thalia requested you bring the scrolls to her?"

Lisa nods, but she isn't particularly hopeful. She can already hear what's coming.

He slides the two books over the counter for her, but tucks the old scrolls away in a drawer beneath the desk for safekeeping. "Unfortunately, I do not check out documents or artifacts from my private collection for anyone, the High Inquisitor included. "

"Oh."

"And she knows that." Then finishing with a polite smile, he folds his arms over the desk and says, "Thank you for the pleasure of your visit, Ms. Adeptus."

Thoroughly defeated, Lisa utters a "thank you" followed by an abashed apology. Then she taps Liliath on the shoulder. "Alright, are you-" She starts paying attention to her just in time to catch Victi's name.

If only the High Inquisitor herself would storm back through the door and smite me with her holy crossbow. Swearing under her breath, Lisa drops the books and steps in front of Liliath while reaching for her dagger; only Victi's quiet reassurance, whispered as to not alert most onlookers, stops her from attacking right then. She freezes, fingers curled around the pearlescent white handle of her sidearm. Her heart pounds in her chest. Shaking hands, heavy breathing bordering on hyperventilating and a tinge of pinkish-red creeping into her eyes threaten a panic attack.

Cornelius stares at her, mortified. "Ms. Adeptus!" Then he catches the second half of what Victi mutters- he currently possesses a form likewise sensitive of hearing. He leaps on top of the counter and crosses his arms over his chest, casting a pointed glare her way. "And you, Ms. Aurora- assuming you are more honest about your name than your face-that is enough.”

He slides off the desk and stands between them, exactly four feet of cold, restrained fury. "Whatever it is you two are playing at, I won't have it in my library. Would you kindly take this discussion elsewhere." He accents his command with a low growl, one that Victi might find familiar depending on how well she remembers the Draconic bandit Aurora.

And it's also a growl Lisa knows a little too well, from mostly distant but unpleasant memories. In that moment, her fear of Victi becomes second to her fear of what Cornelius the dragon might do if they don't listen. When he turns to glare at her, she nods once, picks up her books, and stutters, "A-alright, let..let's go, Liliath."

Assuming Liliath follows her, and regretfully certain Victi will too, Lisa backs all the way up out the door. Cornelius relaxes a little and waves pleasantly to the child; "And young lass, you are welcome to return here any time!"

“Nice to meet you Victi.” Liliath started feeling a little nervous between these 2. The main reason was Lisa who act like she had seen a ghost. “Yes why not the more friends the better.”


Hearing Cornelius telling that the discussion was supposed to happen else where she said “And I also don’t want a discussion near me.” She grabbed Lisa’s hand “Bye.” She waved to Cornelius “Come Victi.”


Liliath then whisperd to Lisa “Why don’t you like her? She did not do anything right?”

Victi addresses Cornelius first. Her previous irritation was beginning to return to her voice, but she gave a respectful bow to him nonetheless, saying, "With all of the rather substantial degree of respect due to someone of your station, knowledge-keeper, my intention was not and never would be to engage in combat within these halls. From what little I have seen of you and your intellect thus far, you will rapidly infer the nature of the situation between her and I if you have not already, but I would rather not involve you in it so long as involvement is not forced upon you. I would not wish to see you rendered incapable of performing your duties. I will now depart, as you have requested."

That said, she straightens from her bow, turns, reavealing the tightly-clustered fluffy tails behind her, and follows the other two out. By the time she reaches the door, the tails are invisible again.

Catching up to Lisa and Liliath, Victi sighs, "Okay, after all that you can't tell me you don't need some kind of stress relief. Your heart sounds like it's about to explode and, frankly, even beyond you being way more useful to me not dead, I'm not a fan of collateral damage. Let's relax. You don't have it, I have no reason to hurt you."

Cornelius's fur rises toward the end of her explanation, detecting something of a threat when she explains she doesn't want him incapable of performing his duties, but he answers her bow by lowering his head. "Thank you."

As she departs, his eyes widen as he catches a glimpse of those illustrious tails. A small, surprised breath escapes his lips. By the time Victi reaches the door he'd let go of his own magic and become, once again, a dragon. He crosses the lobby in four long strides and stares after her, watching the nine tails disappear before they touch the light of day, and then she's gone out into the city.

With a curious hum, he muses, "What are you, Ms. Aurora?"

He reluctantly returns to his post at the front desk and retrieves the scrolls Lisa had tried to take. He can't help it, it really has been a weird past few days, and he must discover why. Cornelius might as well get a head start with some light reading.

Outside, Lisa walks as quickly as she can, hand wrapped tight around Liliath's wrist as she tries to escape into the crowd and lose the sorcerous.

"I can't explain well now," she says to Liliath, "But she's a very dangerous- GAH!" She shouts as Victi catches them, dropping Liliath's hand, spinning around and again stepping firmly in front of the girl. Pressing the books tightly against her chest, she meets Victi's suspiciously friendly approach with a brief, stunned silence, followed by hysterical laughter.

Between heaving gasps for air, she manages to strangle out some words. "I-I-I can't believe it...haha...I meet the-the face behind m-my terror since that message arrived, and she...she invites me to...to tea!"

"Why?" Her laughter dies with one last gasp, "Why...why..." Why anything? She squeezes the books in her arms, her voice drops to a hollow whisper. "...I know who you are. I think I know what you can do...a-and you're right, I don't have it. Anything else you could possibly want from me, I'm sure you could somehow take by force. What's stopping you?" She straightens up and makes eye contact with Victi for the first time since they'd left the library. Her eyes are wet and very nearly red, but her normal color seems to be slowly creeping back into them as she continues, her voice completely hoarse.

"...it's not that I'd rather have that, I just don't understand." Feel free to explain while I look for the tea parlor.

Victi looks at the almost disturbingly scared and frazzled Lisa with... not pity, but not really empathy or sympathy, either but something in that general sphere. She wasn't usually the gentle type, but this girl was so broken down that Victi couldn't help but feel a little bad for her.

She tilts her head slightly, keeping her two-banded eyes locked with Lisa's gaze and thinking for a moment before saying, "Well, I mean, if I wanted tangible objects then sure, I could, but that's not what I want."

When she continues, her speach is as blunt and straightforward as if she were giving directions or explaining the solution to a math problem. "Frankly, you aren't valid prey right now, you're involved in this anyway so talking to you could be useful or interesting, and honestly offing you would just be kinda sad right now. Like, seriously, you look like you need a break, I like my opponents armed and ready, yunno? I mean, sneak attacks and ambushes are one thing, but just ending someone in the night or beating up on someone who's already a wreck just feels cheap and gross," she explains, shrugging near the end.

"Also, my day got super annoying a few minutes ago, so letting that off would be good for me and doing that alone isn't exactly easy or enjoyable," she adds, "Let's get you calmed down before you burst something, okay?"

Liliath finally realized what the fuss was about. The shards! She knew she wasn't supposed to talk about the shards, but she felt like she was in danger. And lying to someone who could hurt you did nt sound right to her. People figured out that she lied very easily.

She also thought that Victi would figure out she had one anyway because of the cuts on her hand. "I do have one, a shard I mean." She said soft well she now squeezed in Lisa's hand not knowing what to do now.

She looked a little upset to Lisa "Sorry." She whisperd

"Yeah, okay, see, I was wondering why you two were together," Victi replies, sounding oddly pleased, "Whatever though, I'm not dealing with that right now. I'll figure out a way to take that from you without hurting you later. One complication in my scheme at a time right now, thanks."

She stops in her tracks a moment later, then starts walking again while saying to Liliath, "Oooohhhhh.... you actually don't realize who I am yet, huh? It seems like most of you people got the memo, but I guess you didn't. Hey, Panic-attacks? you might wanna show her so that she gets the situation, if you have it. Or if you just saw it or heard it... you know, let her know what you know."