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Silver
Jul 4, 2017 6:39:19 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Jul 4, 2017 6:39:19 GMT
Gabriel shrugged when Akir noted he was favoured by the Gods. He’d wondered about this himself, at times. Showing her the knife had for once not been about bragging or ego though - one simply sounded ridiculous trying to explain they had an imaginary weapon they could will into existence. It was far easier to show the thing when asked.
“I have been the Daemon Lord for over a century. The Daemon Lord who ruled before me, Rah, was not close with the Fae. He tolerated them, we’ve never had animosity with them, but believed in keeping the Daemons separate, focused on ourselves. I have a far greater interest in and respect for the Fae than Rah, and since I’ve worked to strengthen the alliance and fought alongside the Fae both personally and with Daemon contingents, perhaps their Gods wished to make their approval of our improved relationship clear.” This was Gabriel’s theory, although he’d also lived in Litharia for more than three hundred years. Given such a long time frame perhaps his favour only reflected his many years of being around, and in a highly visible way, to attract the attention of said Gods.
“I believe in them, of course. I respect them for their power and influence. I appreciate their importance to the Fae. But I do not worship them, not in the way you worship your Gods. Daemons, in our homeland, have no Gods at all.”
Gabriel waited, still and quiet, as Akir called for her horse. The animals registered Daemons as predators too, and rightly so, so he was unsurprised when the beast appeared but remained skittish and uneasy around him.
“Prey animals don’t like me,” he responded with a grin, one that showed his now-retracted fangs and if anything made the horse more anxious. He made no move to approach or touch the animal - she seemed skittish as it was, and without good training in being around Daemons, he could make the creatures bolt with as little as a glance in their direction.
“Tell you what,” he added, in response to Akir’s offer. “Take me to this man who pointed you in my direction so I can confirm your story. I’ll be quick about it, and then I will even arrange for your healer given that I was the one to give you that injury.” Gabriel in fact carried no coin and rarely paid for anything, but he had more than one way to cover the cost magically at no great loss to himself. If indeed her story was confirmed it seemed a fair deal to him. If it became clear she was lying she would not, for obvious reasons, need a healer but rather a grave digger, and Gabriel would not be arranging that.
Though not at all in the terrible shape that Akir was in, Gabriel was also keen for some rest and recovery time. They had walked throughout the night and he had not slept for some three days, which while not terribly unusual for him still took its toll. He didn’t hunt in the desert either, so would need to find somewhere to eat. There was no question of him leaving the oasis during the day anyway, but given he had nowhere else to be in any great hurry he thought he might stay another night and day following that, before leaving under the cover of darkness to return to his more regular Litharian haunts.
“Lead the way,” he offered, with a sweep of a clawed hand that caused the horse to snort in alarm.
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Silver
Jul 4, 2017 7:10:50 GMT
Post by Akir the Viper on Jul 4, 2017 7:10:50 GMT
“T’ e’ch the’r own, yeah?” Akir commented on Gabe’s declaration of not worshiping the gods. The last thing she wanted to do (besides be killed by him, of course) was try to tell him how he was wrong, blah blah blah. Deep down, maybe she did think he, along with many people, were wrong for not worshiping the gods they believed in. But none of those peoples’ lives, including his, were part of her business. There were other people in her home oasis that had jobs specific to spreading a radical version of their belief. Akir was not one of them. She was merely one that had to help keep the place safe by collecting the blood price.
Personally, she could not understand why the fae were as important as they sounded to Gabriel. They were daemons’ allies and were well respected, but why did a whole race deserve respect? Why not only base respect on an individual level? It was an almost hypocritical thought since not even a day ago, she assumed all daemons were practically wild animals, but it intrigued her. Perhaps the concept was more foreign to her because she was not a part of politics and did not even know very much about the current war going on. She’d met a few fae before, more than any daemons, but they were all…what was the word…soft? Tree hugers? Akir had never seen how powerful their magic could be, so she had a skewed perspective on them as well.
It made sense that the horse was uncomfortable around Gabe. Ever since she actually met him, Akir herself felt a little on edge, separate from the chance that he would still kill her in the end. It was almost an instinctual thing, as if her body was constantly reminding her how naturally deadly he could be. Animals had better senses than humans, so she imagined it was a more intense feeling for the horse. She cared little for the animal however, and only used it to help get her around places and carry light loads since it was not a heavy pack animal.
The amount of skittishness the horse had was actually quite annoying, so she just let go of mare and let her follow them from a distance. Gabriel’s offer was very appreciated since she did not want to end up spending all the money she had for a healer that could properly fix her arm. Gods, she hoped they wouldn’t have to break it again. She wasn’t sure she could handle that at the moment.
“Soun’ lik’ a d’al.”With that, she nodded at Gabe and lead him along the outskirts of the village to the place where she had first met the man. It was a quick walk, no more than half an hour, when she saw the familiar mud house with a well in front of it.
It looked like she even had a stroke of luck! The exact man that had told her to follow the wrong target was out there, even as it was getting late. It looked like he was gutting some sort of animal on a bloody wooden table in front of his house. The man was quite tall and burly, but overall unimpressive with his sandy blonde hair and dull gray eyes. Most likely he was either a shifter or a human, but whichever it was he was about to have a nice surprise.
Even Akir felt a little pissed looking at him. She motioned with her head in his direction to Gabe and commented, “Tha’ man bu’cherin th’ an’mal on th’ tabl’? Tha’s him, yeah?” She looked around and there only seemed to be a few people out and about, most of which had big water pails and were filling them with water from the well. A few witnesses wasn’t really a big deal, especially in the Boil.
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Silver
Jul 5, 2017 6:50:25 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Jul 5, 2017 6:50:25 GMT
“My thoughts exactly,” Gabriel agreed. Religion could be a touchy subject at times, though his genuine interest in it often precluded all but the most fanatical worshippers from getting annoyed with him for a more or less faithless stance. If the Gods themselves seemed unbothered by his choice not to worship - had favoured him anyway - it seemed to him like they demanded respect through the sheer reality of their power before they demanded blind faith. He wondered, too, whether they cared about the Daemons choice to worship or not. The Gods he’d met belonged to this land and the Fae; he figured, if anyone had to worry about it, it was the Fae and not him. The same with Akir and her Gods - why should they care what inter-dimensional beings like the Daemons believed? Especially if your faith had a creation mythos, he figured that meant the Gods were interested in their own creations first and foremost. The Daemons, hailing from a different dimension entirely, were made of different stuff.
Relieved when Akir released her mare to follow at a distance, because it meant he needn’t worry about getting too animated and sending the animal panicked into the desert, Gabriel was relaxed and in a rapidly improving mood as they wandered down the quiet oasis town street. He was pleased that Akir accepted his offer - you always risked wounding an unreasonably self-sufficient individual’s pride with that sort of thing, but given it would cost him only a chance to use his magic again, it was a small effort for Gabriel and hopefully of significant benefit to the injured assassin. The streets slowly came to life as they walked, people emerging from simple houses into the already-bright dawn to begin their day. He drew attention even now - silver-skinned, clearly Daemonic - any of his brethren staying in the town were probably indoors already, wisely reversing the usual schedule while they were in the desert to sleep during the sunlit day and be more active at night. Gabriel had a job to do first, though, and he was very much looking forward to getting it done. Removing that last tiny shred of uncertainty was an appealing prospect.
The street they found the man on was quiet, happily. He had neighbours but the foot traffic was light, they were off the main drag. Gabriel’s demeanour changed at once when Akir pointed out her informant; he was relaxed, smiling, pleasant. While the magic could not quite overcome the hint of predatory threat it went a long way to creating a casual atmosphere. He was just swinging by for a chat, no big deal. No reason to panic. The man raised his gaze to them as they approached, butchering knife in hand and blood splattered to his elbows.
“What der you wan’?” Gabriel smiled, shrugged. Easy. Relaxed.
“I was hoping for a quick chat, is all. See, my friend and I here had a bit of a run in a day or two ago. Do you remember her?” The man squinted at Akir for a moment, then nodded.
“Sure. Was askin’ after a man who passed through here, right lady?” Gabriel didn’t give Akir a chance to answer. His body language was non-threatening, but his eyes flashed fire for a split second.
“Yes, yes that’s it. Do you remember what you told her?”
“Sorta. Said he’d passed through here the day before, but had left to go out inter the desert. Headed for them old ruins to the south.” There it was then, the confirmation of Akir’s story. There were few travellers that went that way - it was not en-route to anywhere of significance, and was far enough out of town to require some planning and preparation to reach.
“Could it be,” Gabriel asked then, his tone suddenly much colder.
“Could it be that you got it wrong?”
“Wait a minute, it were you! Hey, the picture looked close enough, right? I ain’t giving her back her coin for the information neither. Ain’t my fault if she fucked it up.”
Gabriel was not personally all that angry with the man. He’d been greedy and stupid, but this in itself wasn’t usually reason enough for the Daemon Lord to lash out at someone. However, he was rather pissed off on Akir’s behalf, considering the man had been careless at best and deliberately malicious at worst, interested only in his own gain with little regard to the consequences of providing bad information. So, although he’d intended to kill the man himself, Gabriel instead seized the front of his bloodstained shirt telekinetically, not moving otherwise. He hoisted the man off the ground, causing him to thrash and wheeze as his air supply was compressed.
“Akir, I think you should have the pleasure, if you want it. Out of the two of us, it’s you he screwed over the worst.”
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Silver
Jul 5, 2017 7:36:49 GMT
Post by Akir the Viper on Jul 5, 2017 7:36:49 GMT
Akir wasn’t sure what she expected to happen. Would Gabriel not give him a chance to speak? Instead of going into a murder happy rage, he simple approached the man, and she trailed behind out of curiosity. His demeanor was…different though. Like underneath his calm composure, he was more like a volcano ready to blow at any minute. Or had he always been like that? Perhaps it came with being a daemon.
She waited impatiently as he interrogated the man, lighting tapping her foot against the ground. Her thoughts continued to churn on what Gabe intended to do with the man. Maybe he was some form of sadist? Or perhaps not. Akir never gained much pleasure from killing another person. It was just a job, like gutting a fish or hunting an animals, nothing more.
When Gabe’s tone of voice changed, it sent a familiar cold feeling to the pit of Akir’s gut as her body remembered a similar tone used against her during the painful moment of almost dying. She watched indifferently as the man realized his mistake and placed the blame on her, which was fair. It truly was her fault in the long run, but that did not mean she was willing to die over something that could be fixed and she showed this with an expression of annoyance and furrowed eyebrows. What Akir expected was for Gabe to throw him hard against a wall too, or use his fire to burn the man to a crisp. Instead, he lifted the man off the ground and into the air. For some reason, he was wheezing and struggling for air, and she assumed that was the daemon’s doing.
His offer to let her kill the man was completely unexpected and she was frozen for a moment, her eyebrow cocked questioningly at him. Was he serious? Hesitantly, she took a step toward the idiot that took her coin and told her where to go, but she stopped. Not a few feet away, there was a viper hiding in a patch of grass. It gave her an idea. “I th’nk it w’s rea’ly me tha’ scr’wed mys’lf o’er, yeah? I shoul’nt ha’e b’en lazy abou’ conf’ming th’ informa’ion. Bu’ sadly f’r him, I’m no’ in an un’erstan’ing mood.” Akir was still set on punishing the man somehow.
As she stepped away to go grab the viper, the door to the man’s house opened and a small child called out to him. A woman stepped out too, but she screamed at the site of her husband and she quickly grabbed the child and held him to her side. Akir ignored them and quickly swept up the snake from the grass. Most vipers were venomous, but the one she grabbed was deadly. It was a notorious quick killer that destroyed the central nervous system before poisoning the blood.
The snake, relatively small in length, was coiled around her wrist and forearm. She approached the floating man and helped out her arm palm up, the tip of her longest finger just inches away from the man’s right eye.
Though helpless, the man struggled, but Akir did not back down. The viper slithered down her arm and rested on her palm. It flicked its tongue at the man and just barely missed his eye.
“Shkingey.”
On command, the snake striked, digging its fangs directly into the man’s eye and ingecting its venom. Blood pooled down the puncture wound. He tried to scream and escape, but he was still help by Gabriel’s magic.
Akir was not quite finished yet though. She looked up at the wife and son, frozen with fear, and scowled. Because of the man’s actions, not only had she suffered, but Gabriel had been inconvenienced with her attempted assassination. It was only fair that another person had to be inconvenienced as well. Though it pained her, Akir wrapped her hand gently around the snake, reared back, and threw it at the family.
Again, the woman screamed and instinctively let her son go. Instead of swatting at the snake, she backed away. Instead, the snake lunged at the boy mid-air and bit him in his arm before plopping to the ground and slithering away back to the shadows.
Content, Akir turned around and re-approached the man while ignoring the crying boy and worried mother. She whistled for her horse, who reluctantly approached as she was standing next to Gabe. Quickly she reached into one of the sacks he carried, and she pulled out a very small vial with a tiny amount of clear liquid.
First she showed it to the man, then she held it up so the woman could see. “Th’s is th’ an’idote, yeah? Only en’ugh for on’ of y’u.” Akir tossed the vial to the woman and, though she stumbled and almost dropped it, managed to catch it safely.
Looking directly into the man’s eyes one last time with a rather bland and indifferent expression, Akir finished with, “Ei’her y’u or y’ur son d’es, yeah? An’ y’ur wife ge’s to make tha’ cho’ce.” Either way, he’d lose something. If he lived, he’d lose a son and the sight in his eye. If he died…well…that was that. She felt some sense of joy from being able to get back at him, but it was minimal.
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Silver
Jul 6, 2017 6:22:57 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Jul 6, 2017 6:22:57 GMT
Gabriel shrugged one shoulder, the old scars decorating that part of his body bone white in the sunshine, in stark contrast to the subtle iridescent sheen of his skin.
“You may have been careless, but he was somewhere between passively greedy and actively malicious. Greed is a sin, is it not?” In many faiths it was, anyway. Gabriel had explored enough of religion to have learned some frequent commonalities between them.
The Daemon Lord watched impassively as Akir carried out her revenge. Her well-deserved revenge, in his opinion. Stalwart and unmoving, his only role was to keep the man still, ensnared by the power of his mind with the man’s toes just barely brushing the ground and his windpipe collapsing under the pressure. There was no pity or concern in Gabriel’s gaze when the snake struck the man, no hint he was remotely disturbed by the gore - because, of course, he wasn’t. Death featured on a frequent enough basis in Gabriel’s life, and often dealt by his own hand, that this was just another day as far as he was concerned.
In fact Gabriel didn’t react at all until Akir threw the snake at the man’s family. At this point the Daemon released the informant from his telekinesis so he hit the ground with a dull thud. His hands were over his ruined face as soon as they were free, blood pooling between his fingers, but the Daemon was oblivious to the man’s quiet moans. Gabriel would have released the man anyway - there was no need to suspend him any longer when death was just around the corner for him - but there was an element of surprise to his reaction too. He had not expected Akir to involve the family, and while he harboured absolutely no interest in the woman, Gabriel did ascribe to the Daemon’s unspoken code of protecting children, or at least sparing them from deliberate harm. However, while this was a code he lived by, like with anything else he had no expectation of others outside of his immediate sphere of influence holding the same opinion. He would have disciplined a Daemon for the action, but as it was Akir - a Human, with her own beliefs and codes - he instead glanced at the boy’s mother.
“You know that’s not an actual choice, right? Save the child, and if I find out later that you decided otherwise, I will crush both you and your husband’s skulls like ripe grapes in my bare hands.” He smiled pleasantly at the dying man’s wife, a casual smile rendering his expression misleadingly relaxed and friendly. She was wailing but the threat in his words shut her up and she nodded, grabbing the boy’s uninjured arm to haul him back inside. And with that said, Gabriel lost interest in the entire family immediately.
“Alright, it seems you were telling the truth. Consider yourself spared, and your unwise but admittedly brave attempt at lopping my head off forgiven. Which, by the way, is something rather special. I am not particularly well-known for my forgiving nature. Do you know of a healer you would like to seek out, or do we need to ask around?”
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Silver
Jul 6, 2017 7:51:39 GMT
Post by Akir the Viper on Jul 6, 2017 7:51:39 GMT
Akir’s religion did not necessarily have ‘sins’. What many others considered bad, hers considered to be naturaluntil abused too much, and even then Akir really didn't delve too far into judging others. She was way past the point of actually pointing this out, because the deed of exacting her vengeance was done. Like Gabriel, she was over the family the moment they were done with them. Now she was sorely intent on finding a healer to fix her arm, followed by finding somewhere to sleep. Sleep sounded like a dream, or a drug at that point. She turned her back to the to-be dead man on the ground and smiled with a demeanor that changed as if nothing had happened in the past hour.
“Wha’ do y’u take me f’r? I looke’ f’r one th’ momen’ I c’me h’re,” Akir responded with a teasing tone. It was habit for her to look for healers for a number of different purposes. One, the most obvious, was for situations like the one she was in. The rest all pertained to bribery or some form of purpose to help her with assassination targets. She started walking in the direction of the clinic which was further into the village, her horse trailing behind. “I’s no’ far, yeah?”
There was something Akir wanted to ask. Truly, the clinic was only a few buildings away and before long, it was within sights. It was a tiny little hut, pretty cliché if you asked her, but from what she had found out prior to leaving the village, the healer used magic for her patients. Akir’s arm depended on magic; no normal healing would help it at the point it was at.
Still, before they entered as they approached the hut, she stopped in her tracks and turned to Gabe, cocking her head to the side and raising a brow. “Wha’ was tha’ wi’h the chil’? Back th’re?” There was not issue with what he’d said, but she was very, very curious. Her tone was laced with that curiosity. “Y’u don’ s’em th’ type t’ rea’ly care abou’ chil’ren, yeah? N’ o’fense.” Akir personally was very indifferent to any of them outside of the temple. They were more like pests than anything else.
Before he could answer, a short woman, shorter than both Gabe and Akir, with blonde hair, dark skin, and a heavily freckled face emerged from the hut. She wore a palm-leaf skirt, a soft-looking poncho, and some straw sandals. For a healer, she seemed rather young, but appearances could be deceiving.
The woman sized the two travelers up and down and asked in the boil tongue, “What do you need?”
Unsure if she could speak the common tongue, Akir responded with the same dialect and language. “I have a badly set and previous compound fracture in my arm. Might be getting infected. Can’t really move anything. Shoulder is broken too.” Would she truly be able to enjoy life with only one arm? Gods, she hoped the woman could do something. Akir flicked her head in Gabe’s direction and continued. “He’s paying, yeah? Just need to be able to use my arm again. It’s pretty beaten up.” That was an understatement. She would not worry about healing any other pain or bruising that she felt. Gabe had fixed the internal bleeding she had when he had threatened her with torture, so everything but her arm could heal with time and sleep.
The woman scowled momentarily, and sighed. “I’m not open just yet, but I’ll let you two in. I’ll get you some clean clothes too, free of charge. Common in."
She returned back into the hut and motioned for the two of them to follow. Akir smiled again at the daemon, switching back to the common tongue. “I th’nk she’l w’rk nic’ly, yeah? Prom’se I won’ try t’ ki’l y’u aga’n ‘f I ge’ my arm back.” The past was the past, and Akir was content to move past what had happened. Even though she had been in severe pain and tired beyond her limits, he seemed like good company for someone that had almost killed her. His good looks and general 'don't fuck with me' attitude was a bonus.
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Silver
Jul 7, 2017 9:28:38 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Jul 7, 2017 9:28:38 GMT
Gabriel glanced at Akir when she asked about his intervention with the child.
"Greedy git might've convinced the woman to save him instead of the boy. He deserved death more, that's all." Well, that was the main reason - he wasn't convinced the man cared enough about the kid for the boy's death to be adequately painful.
"I don't spend much time around children for obvious reasons, but Daemons are one of the species that have the protection of them built into our base laws. Daemons reproduce rarely, slowly, like the Fae. I guess that means we value them, we're more at risk of dying out than Humans." Human children in fact could be changed into Daemons, and it was only this and the continued one-way flow of the portal that kept Daemon numbers anything close to stable in Litharia. Though the Daemons in the Dream Land were if anything slower to produce children than those in Litharia - immortality and violent lives making this decision easy to delay - the population over there numbered in the hundreds of thousands, even millions. Enough to provide a slow trickle into Litharia willing to give up that treasured immortality for adventure.
The hut that Akir led him to looked exactly like a hut you might guess a healer lived in. Gabriel hoped the woman had healing magic - Akir's arm was probably beyond healing the old fashioned way, but even if it wasn't it would take weeks, even months. He wasn't planning on sticking around the desert that long by any stretch of the imagination. He remained silent as Akir communicated with the woman; Gabriel could catch enough words of the Boil dialect to follow the conversation more or less, but he spoke none of the guttural tongue at all. When the woman waved them into the hut he acquiesced happily enough - he wanted out of the rapidly brightening sunshine. It was barely dawn and already the day was hot - it promised to be a clear and searing, the kind of day for lounging around indoors. Preferably with something cold and alcoholic.
"Glad to hear it," he replied, tone wry. The inside of the hut was simple but scrupulously clean - a good sign for a place of healing, he thought. Gabriel glanced around and spotted two hammocks strung over the far side, by a window that let in what little breeze might be found in this furnace of a desert. Without bothering to ask if it was okay Gabriel made a beeline for the closest one and stretched out in it, arms folded behind his head so he could watch the goings-on through eyes that were already half-lidded.
"Don't mind me, I'll sleep while you get your arm sorted. Try not to scream too much, it's very distracting and will give me weird dreams." He grinned - Gabriel no longer wished to prolong or worsen Akir's pain, but he presumed as an assassin she would deal with it as befit her training and profession. No need to be too sensitive about the situation.
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Silver
Jul 7, 2017 21:33:48 GMT
Post by Akir the Viper on Jul 7, 2017 21:33:48 GMT
Akir had never really thought about how it took more time for daemons to reproduce, or fae for that matter. She knew that they lived a long ass time, much longer than humans and their short lives, but it never dawned on her that it in turned affected how many of them there were. “I gue’ tha’ makes s’nse. Hum’ans bre’d l’ke bu’nies. Can’ s’em t’ sto’ an’ take a br’ak.” She laughed, but Akir was a little serious. The boil was overrun with humans and, the few other places she’d visited such as the city or spirit, were also overrun with people. Humans were kind of a menace, but she was on of them. Oh well.
The hut was very homey and looked comfortable. She supposed that was the point since when healing, it was good to make someone feel relaxed and safe rather than stressed and concerned. Akir was neither of those things though, and she followed the woman to a tall wooden table. The woman untied the cloth holding up her arm and gently placed it on the table. Akir winced and shifted it to the side so that her elbow was not directly laying on the hard wood. She wondered how many other patients had used the table before her and, noted, that it was quite clean for a haler table. No bloodstains, no scratch marks, nothing. Perhaps the woman used her magic to clean it, or she replaced it.
Akir found herself a little envious as Gabe proclaimed he was going to sleep. From what she’d endure the last day, that’s all she wanted to do. Her eyes were sunken with bags, her face was a mess of paint and grime, and she probably smelled bad. Laced with sarcasm and a playful tone, she replied in the common tongue, “M’ ap’logie, y’ur lordy-ne’s. Can’ ha’e me b’ing a dis’raction now.”
The healer woman was gathering up some materials for her work, all instruments Akir was very unfamiliar with. Healers all had their own weird little things they did that worked for themselves. The woman paused and gave Gabriel the stink eye and said something in his direction. She turned back to Akir. “Why is that pretty man in my hammock?”
The shaman laughed and grimaced at the same time. “The pretty man is tired, that’s why.” She had no idea if he could understand what she said, but Akir hoped not. She didn’t want to feed that overconfidence of his, but like the healer had pointed out, he was very attractive. Back when she first met him, she didn’t exactly have the chance to admire his beauty.
“Can you ask him to get off?”
“No. He’ll probably break my other arm if I did that.”
The woman frowned and looked back at Gabriel before giving up.
She grabbed Akir’s arm in her hand and studied the outside. Any time she touched it or felt around her elbow, the shaman had to hold back a painful ‘yip’. She found herself scowling at the healer woman, but the short lady ignored her. She held her arm and Akir could feel a cool, tingling sensation from the tip of her fingertips to the top of her shoulder, down her chest, and all the way down to her toes. It felt like the woman was using some form of magic to check her body for injuries, and the healer confirmed it when she opened her eyes and had a look of pity.
“We have to re-break it, but I can fix it easy. We’ll need to do it now though. You’re already starting to get an infection in the bone.”
The so ‘matter of fact’ voice didn’t help. It was what she feared would be the outcome, but it was what it was. As long as the lady could fix it, she would go for it. “Do it,” Akir stated.
The woman motioned with her head over to Gabe as he relaxed in the hammock. “The pain will be too much for you to handle alone. You’ll need your pretty man friend to help.”
Akir sighed, She didn’t want to hinder Gabe any more than she already had, but there was no other choice. There was no one else around to hold her down. “H’y f’re du’e. Uh…I’ l’oks l’le I’ll ha’e t’ dis’ract y’u f’r a wh’le.” Worse comes to worse, she’d go outside and force someone to help if he wasn’t up for it.
The healer stood and pointed over to a rickety old looking raised bed. “You’ll you need to lie down there. Have him hold you down by putting all of his body weight on you. He’ll need to hold onto your shoulders so you don’t buck around too much.”
Akir relayed the information to Gabe on what he needed to do and she reluctantly went over to the raised bed and laid down. The woman came over and handed her a wadded up ball of cloth so Akir could put it in her mouth for biting down.
There was no warning.
Once Akir was secured, the woman grabbed her arm and placed a lot of pressure on it, just enough for a solid ‘snap’ to sound as all the healing that had been done over the day was undone from the bone re-breaking. The pain was intense and the shaman’s screams were just barely muffled by the gag in her mouth. Her body tried to fight against it as her back arched up, but Akir fought hard to contain it as much as she could.
The woman closed her eyes and gently touched the area where the compound fracture had been before. There was a dull light emitted from the touch, and Akir felt a sense of warmth in her arm where there had just been intense pain. Though it was soothing rather than bad, she could feel the healing process. She could feel the bone itself calcifying at a much faster rate in her arm. After the fracture was fixed, the healer moved up to her elbow and did the same thing, and after that her shoulder. When they were done, the woman smiled at her and nodded.
Akir spat out the gag and tried to get her breathing under control. Her body was still in some form of shock and she needed something, anything, to get it to calm down. So many hardships in one day took its toll after a while.
“Do you want me to heal the rest of you? You’re battered up pretty bad.”
“No. No, no. No. I’m done. Why can’t I feel my arm?”
Though the healing had been done, she still couldn’t feel anything. The woman rolled her eyes and went up to Gabe, expecting her payment. “Give it time. Maybe after a good sleep it’ll be fine.” With that, Akir thanked the woman and hurried out of the hut. She needed some air.
The whole process had maybe taken an hour at max. Though the sun was not fully in the sky but it was still hot outside. She wanted to sleep and, was sure that Gabriel wanted to do the same. Akir turned to him, her expression reading a ‘I’m really, really done with today’ look. “S’nce y’u pai’ f’r my h’aler, I c’n pay f’r a n’ce warm be’, yeah? I nee’ some d’mn sl’ep. An' a b'th.”
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Silver
Jul 8, 2017 11:08:42 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Jul 8, 2017 11:08:42 GMT
Of course, sleeping wasn't really on the cards. Gabriel had merely needed to occupy himself while the healing took place and getting comfortable had seemed like as good a way as any to do it, but he didn't know anyone that could sleep through healing. Rough, painful, torturous business, hardly very relaxing. He closed his eyes for a while anyway while the healer prepared, tuning out the chattering of the Boil dialect, though a smile quirked at the corner of his lip as he caught snippets of the conversation.
He hadn't expected to be asked to play an active role, but his eyes snapped open and he assessed the situation for a moment before nodding. Why not? It wasn't like the gore of the healing process bothered him, although he didn't love that it brought to mind memories of his own short stint as a Human. He'd been badly wounded then too, and incredibly unimpressed with his newfound ability to feel pain. He could therefore imagine well enough what Akir was about to go through. The Daemon Lord stood at the head of Akir's bed, forearms braced on each of her shoulders. It meant that he was looking directly down at her, but upside down from her perspective - a disorienting view, perhaps. He smiled.
"At least you've got something nice to look at through this, right?"
The crack of breaking bone was audible throughout the hut, and Gabriel leaned into the table as Akir struggled against him. Daemon strength outweighed a Human any day though, at least until magic got involved, and aside from the ripple of muscle tensing in his arms and shoulders he didn't move. Only when the healer nodded at him, indicating her work was done, did he step back and watch her perform what he guessed was a pain-relieving spell to complete the intervention. Gabriel caught the healer's eye and something about his gaze seemed to intensify - the vibrant teal of his irises, already unnaturally bright, almost seemed to glow.
"I will pay you tomorrow night at sundown. I will return to this hut with gold. You trust me, yes?" The words were important - this was Gabriel's magic at work, intensified by direct eye contact, that made him an impeccable liar. She would read no deception into his tone, his claim, his body language. He appeared utterly sincere. Combined with a powerful emotional manipulation designed to make her feel trusting, and she allowed them to walk out of the hut without so much as a word of dissent. She preferred payment up front but it wasn't like she insisted on it always - for locals, especially, she often allowed time for them to gather payment. With the expense of her services being high this was sometimes necessary. Gabriel, of course, would not be returning. He planned to get out of this oasis well before his deadline.
"Ah, well, paid is a rather loose term. I hope you're not too fond of her as a healer, you probably won't be able to go back to her. Ever. I'd avoid this town for a couple of years too. But we're away free until sundown tomorrow." He gave her a winning smile, since he hadn't really explained himself fully when he said he would cover her healing, but he figured she couldn't complain too much. She just got a magical caretaker for free, when magical healing in Litharia was extraordinarily expensive.
"Careful, Akir, that almost sounded like an invitation," he added, brow quirked and smile turning decidedly lascivious.
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Silver
Jul 9, 2017 4:51:12 GMT
Post by Akir the Viper on Jul 9, 2017 4:51:12 GMT
Like he assumed, Akir wasn’t really bothered by the fact that Gabe had no intention to pay the woman. It was interesting to see how his magic worked though, and she even found herself slightly influenced by it, even if it was not directed at her. His magic was powerful as noted over and over again. Again, she had to remind herself how it felt nice to have him more on her side than against her. She’d be so very, very dead.
As they exited the hut, she shrugged her shoulders at his exclamation that she’d probably never be able to go back. “If I rea’ly nee’ed t’, I coul’ force h’r t’ h’lp m’ aga’n, yeah? Bu’ I pro’bably won’ com’ b’ck h’ere af’er I ki’l my targe’.” It was such a tiny place, she had such little interest in it. Most people in the village couldn’t afford her cult’s services, so the chances of her even being forced to go back were quite slim.
Akir’s eyes rolled as Gabriel blatantly flirted with him, but the corners of her mouth raised into a smile anyways. She scoffed amusingly before stepping closer to him, looking up with her own form a coy smirk. Akir raised her hand and placed it against the shirt on his chest, just barely making any contact. Slowly she moved her hand down along his chest, down his abdomen, and just to where his pants hung at his waist. Her eyes flicked up from his, down to his chest as she moved her hand, then back up to his all the while batting her eyelashes. She was no stranger to flirting and found it quite fun.
“M’ybe it is. If y’u c’n hea’ up th’ wa’er and make ‘t a ho’ b’th.” She playfully placed her hand on his chest and gently pushed him away, all the while smirking deviantly. At this point, she was fairly comfortable around him, and with the idea he was not going to kill her. She’d be the first to admit he was hot and, on the plus side, her cult had no qualms against having sex for pleasure. They viewed lust as a natural part of life, thus it was not a sin in their, or their gods’ eyes. Akir herself was considered a big flirt among her sisters and she had no shame in who she decided she was attracted to. Gabriel defiantly had a ‘bad boy’ vibe to him, ever since Akir met him, and she liked that. He was hot as hell too, but still she would not admit such a thing out loud. His remark earlier while he was holding her down confirmed that he thought very highly of his appearance. Not that she blamed him.
A hot bath and sleep were all too promising to Akir, so she eagerly asked the nearest resident where she could spend the night, and they directed her to the far side of the village. With new-found energy and no pain, she walked with Gabe there.
Just at the outside of the inn, which was just like every other stone-based building in the Boil and overall rather uninterested, there was a very, very familiar man. She did not see her original target at first, because she was walking and wrestling with the one of the bags on her mare, looking for a spare set of clothes. He saw her first and, most likely, word got around that she was hunting him down. The man took one look at her while she had no inclination that he was there, face pale with fear, and fled.
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Silver
Jul 10, 2017 9:29:41 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Jul 10, 2017 9:29:41 GMT
Life could be funny sometimes, Gabriel mused idly. Two days ago he been close to torturing and killing this assassin, and now she was flirting with him. He watched her with one brow raised, expression amused and more than a little intrigued, and he laughed when she finished by pushing him away. He loved it when fate threw you unexpected curve balls like this, and the idea of what Akir was proposing was so much more fun than being all angry and murderous with her.
"I suddenly feel mysteriously grateful for my Fire Elemental heritage," he grinned.
Gabriel's mind was already firmly entrenched in the gutter as they wandered across the oasis, the sun creeping ever higher into a pale blue sky. He was counting on a sensuous, lazy, indulgent afternoon so when he spotted a man that matched the drawing Akir had shown him far more closely than Gabriel himself did, the Daemon Lord frowned. He didn't have time for this, it was hot and he was tired and now also fairly turned on. Gabriel sighed loudly and reached out telekinetically - he didn't trust his control to manage a moving target yet, but it was easy enough to topple a large stack of crates and boxes into the fleeing man's path. The hapless Human crashed hard into the sudden barrier he found himself faced with, the wooden slats cracking under his weight as he skidded onto the paved road and took a whole lot of skin off his face. Gabriel winced - nasty. Hands in his pockets, casually watching the man groan and try to catch his breath and find his feet, Gabriel wondered if helping Akir was cheating. He didn't know what the rules of her contracts were, so he didn't interfere further as the man staggered upright and whirled to face them, blood dripping from the end of his chin. His eyes were rolling, panicked, and he turned clumsily around and started scrabbling through the pile of debris so he could continue running.
"Sooo...do you need to deal with that now?" Gabriel watched idly as the man tripped over a box again, landing hard on one knee and swearing in the Boil dialect - Gabriel definitely knew that word, it was very rude and made him smile - before regaining his feet and started to clumsily flee down the street.
"Because I can either help, or go and get the bath ready and be waiting for you once you're done...?" Another suggestive smile. He didn't mean to be distracting...well, not too distracting.
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Silver
Jul 10, 2017 19:47:04 GMT
Post by Akir the Viper on Jul 10, 2017 19:47:04 GMT
“I ha’e a f’eling I’ll b’ m’re gra’eful f’r it,” she had jested about his elemental magic. Sex was great, but so was a nice refreshing and hot bath. Oh how she looked forward to being nice and clean. Baths were expensive and she could not always afford that luxury, so most of the time she had to use lakes or water holes in different, secluded oasis locations. The temples had amazing baths there, but well, she wasn’t there now.
Akir had not looked up from her bag until she heard a crash. She was lost in vivid and sexual day dream while looking for some spare clothes. She was only brought out of it when, once the man crashed, Gabe had asked if he she needed to take care of something first.
Under most circumstances, she would have been a little pissed for someone helping her with a target. The gods didn’t necessarily disapprove, as long as she performed the kill, but there as something about the chase that Akir enjoyed. Though not a sadist, she did have some of her moments of ‘killing people can be fun’. This was not one of those moments. When she saw the man, face first in a pile of dust, she sneered from pure irritation.
Even in that situation, the daemon continued to flirt with her and she found herself caught off guard by it. She did not turn to look at him, for her face was just the slightest hint of pink as her thoughts were jumbling around in her mind all over the place. She was ready for a bath, sleep, and some fun quality time with a man whose company she was beginning to like more and more.
Regaining her composure, she turned around and placed her hand under his chin, with her thumb pressed against his lips. Leaning in she started with a soft kiss before pressing with more intensity and hunger. It was not a long kiss, and she wanted to keep it that way even if her body already felt partly on fire from the sexual tension. When she pulled away she smirked coyly. “Jus’ ge’ the d’mn ba’h rea’y.” Before she turned away, Akir winked, and then her expression of irritation returned as she stomped in the direction of the man who was working on trying to get up.
There were people in the street, but Akir did not care. The Boil was a harsh place, one that thrived on the concept of ‘survival of the fittest’. There were no laws. Murder happened on the streets all the time. The worst that would come of it would be if her target had friends that’d help him. From the information she’d gathered about him, he had none.
The few people that were out seemed to have their heads turned, pretending that nothing was happening. Akir stomped over and, without realizing it, used the arm that had been healed to pick the man off the ground a few inches by his clothes. She straddled him and pulled him up to look at her. His face was a bleeding mess of road rash, but she ignored his suffering.
“Okay, asshole,” she started in the Boil tongue. “You are causing me way more trouble than its worth. First, I almost died because I was stupid and let someone mislead me to kill a person that was not you. Then I get back here to a healer, only to learn my arm had to be re-broken.” The whole time she spoke, the man was giving her confusing ramblings of ‘what? No? huh?’, but Akir ignored him and continued. “Then, get this! My day was just getting better. My arm was all healed, I felt better, but gross and tired, and then I was just on my way to go fuck a really hot daemon and YOU….you just HAD to get in the way.” None of her plans had changed, it was just annoying that they were delayed.
She pushed the man on the ground and he struggled to get up, but Akir’s own strength overpowered him. He was a weak, frail thing. She grabbed her scimitar and touched the tip to the ground and raised it at an angle so the blade was above the man’s neck. He screamed and struggled, but still Akir stayed.
“Ash val’yn togath nu avarafey dath.” It was a small form of prayer that translated to, ‘Gods, please accept this offering of blood and life’. Without even the slightest hint of any emotion, she gripped the raised hilt of her blade hard and, with as much force as she could muster, brought the blade down through the man’s neck, completely decapitating him.
Blood spurted onto her face and she cursed with annoyance. Thank the gods there would be a hot bath waiting for her. She was tired of blood squirting into her face. She stood from the body and left it were it was for the rats and looters. For a second she stared at her arm that felt mostly functional now. That made her feel a bit better.
She stomped back to the entrance of the inn, eager for the bath and man that awaited within.
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Silver
Jul 12, 2017 8:00:08 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Jul 12, 2017 8:00:08 GMT
Gabriel did not hang around to watch the assassination. The man was nothing impressive - the way he'd paled and tried to run when he'd seen Akir, and how easy he'd been to thwart in his attempt to flee, suggested she should have no problem dealing with her target now that she definitely had the right man. There was no fun in waiting around to watch such an easy kill so the Daemon Lord entered the arched front entrance of a very nice looking establishment and approached the front desk. He was quickly accorded a room, lied and cheated his way into paying for it, and was escorted to the upper floor forthwith by a silent, frightened-looking servant girl who was obviously uncomfortable around Daemons.
"You can go," he told the girl, as soon as he was shown the right door. She fled at once and Gabriel grinned to himself, before turning to inspect the room. It was a good size, with high ceilings and pale sandstone walls. Doors on one wall led to a small balcony - Gabriel left them closed and drew the curtains to block out the brightening sun. A bed covered in dark purple and cream silks dominated the room, and in an adjoining room a large built-in bath - more like a spa, crafted from bricks of a pale gold stone - was accessible via large sweeping stairs. He turned on the water and experimentally poured in some kind of scented oil, which was a shimmering bronze in colour, floated on the top of the water, and smelled of sandalwood.
There was no need for him to heat the water in the end. Instead, he'd gotten one of the expensive rooms, which featured plumbed in water and magical heating. All he needed to do was turn the gilded taps on and wait for the bath to fill, before exploring the room's other amenities. It didn't take long to locate the little cupboard stocked with liquor, and after rifling through a selection of black glass bottles, he chose some kind of Boil wine and poured himself a glass.
By the time Akir was done and reached the room Gabriel was very naked, and lounging very unselfconsciously in the bath himself, drink in hand and an expression of blissful relaxation softening his features. He turned his head as she entered, lazily opening one eye, his smile slow and sultry and mischievous.
"Bath's ready."
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Silver
Jul 12, 2017 8:30:16 GMT
Post by Akir the Viper on Jul 12, 2017 8:30:16 GMT
Truth be told, Akir hadn’t thought that Gabriel would get one of the more nice rooms that such a tiny village had to offer. When she had entered, she was actually quite impressed at how quaint and cute the place was. There was already steam in the air, and Akir could smell the hint of some form of Boil oil that was commonly used in their baths. She was so ready to be comfortable and relaxed that she didn’t even bother tying up her mare. The horse was trained to not move from its location anyways and could fend off predators, so she had nothing to fear.
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Gabe already lounging in the bath. Damn, he was so attractive. His bright skin and dazzling eyes didn’t really help her try to keep a tingling sensation from spreading across her body. Quickly she placed her fresh new garments on a small table. What came next though, she had been looking forward to all day.
Her back turned to Gabe but still within full view of him, she crossed her arms and removed the destroyed and disgusting clothing she had been wearing for the last day and a half. Most of her small waist and hips were exposed, but her breasts were lightly wrapped with a material that helped kept them firmly in place. Blatantly, Akir looked over her shoulder as she unwrapped them and let the material fall to the floor, not bothering to pick it up. Her back was mostly smooth and soft in its appearance, besides the left portion that was laced with intense burns that had scarred her body. Around five years ago, she would have been self conscious about them, but now she appreciated them. They added character to her and actually made her feel like more of a badass.
Finally she dropped her harem pants, completely exposing her plump backside. Stepping on her toes, she turned around and puckered her lips just a little at Gabriel, swaying her hips in a seductive fashion as she made her way to the wine he had opened. Of course her face was still stained with new blood from the man she just killed, but oh well.
Akir poured the wine into the glass and almost skipped happily over to the warm water and handsome, very naked daemon. She inched her way in, loving the incredible feeling of clean, warm water as her feet went in first, then the rest of her. Purposely she had decided to rest just outside of Gabe’s reach. Akir completely submerged her head under water, washing away the paints and blood on them, and rose to expose her dark, smooth, and dirt free skin.
She grabbed her glass and took a sip. Akir inched a little closer to Gabe, brazenly taking him all in with her eyes as they started with his facial features and moved down. Slowly and sensually, she moved even closer to him and straddled him, her thighs firmly locked around his waist and her breasts just above the water line. She trailed her fingers along his collar bones and down his chest while her other arm that held the wine glass, the one that she had just regained usage of, rested over his shoulder.
“S’. D’es ev’eryone tha’ tr’es t’ k’ll y’u en’ up sl’eping wi’h y’u?” Her tone was hot and heavy and she batted her lush eyelashes.
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Silver
Jul 15, 2017 23:45:42 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Jul 15, 2017 23:45:42 GMT
Ordinarily, Gabriel wasn't one for lounging around in the bath. Elementals could be drained by exposure to their opposing element - for a Fire Elemental this was, of course, water. A fullblood Fire Elemental, reliant on a high body temperature for their biology and their magic to survive, could be dangerously affected by full submersion in water. As a halfblood Fire Elemental Gabriel's body temperature was still hotter than the water, and the sensation of it being lowered by submersion uncomfortable, though it was unlikely to be deadly without more prolonged exposure to colder water than this. In this kind of situation, the quantity of the water limited and contained, he had the effect of keeping the water heated just by being in it and causing steam to curl off the surface and fill the room. Gabriel also had a surprising preference for cleanliness, given his lifestyle and the amount of time he spent covered in other people's blood, so as always it was a war between his dislike of water and his desire to wash away the dust of three days in the desert. Desire won, especially given the company.
He watched with half-closed eyes as Akir undressed, helped herself to the wine, and wandered her slow unhurried way to the bath. The same wine was on his lips; strong, like everything made in the Boil, with a heady cinnamon flavour overlaying the sweetness. His only response to her finally drifting closer was a slow smile, lazy and heated and suggestive. He liked her brazenness, her easy confidence. Putting his own glass down on the stone lip of the bath he ran clawed fingertips over her waist and ribs, down over curved hips, careful not to draw blood as his claws lengthened instinctively in response to arousal. His pheromones, another biological Daemon response designed specifically to entrance their partners, made the room smell like roses to him, though Akir wouldn't be able to sense it consciously. Humans responded to it unconsciously, though, and Gabriel's magic made his stronger than usual.
"I can count on one hand the number of people who have tried to kill me and lived to tell the tale," he grinned. His voice was gravelly; he was not unaffected by this slow, teasing dance, as no doubt Akir would be able to tell as she pressed closer to him in the water.
"And normally, if I'd done to them what I did to you at those ruins, they'd be so shit scared of me they'd be running away rather than towards me. I don't scare you?" He wasn't trying to scare her; he was genuinely curious. He couldn't tell if Akir was unusually brave or had an unusual disregard for her own life. He had no intention of hurting her again, obviously, but he'd given her a decent showing of his abilities back in the desert, and she'd suffered for it too.
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