Private Tales A Chance Meeting

[Isaac]

Vel-Lorraine

"Teekle!" Isaac shouted as the cat suddenly jumped from his shoulder and rushed into the alleyway to the left. His hand came up to rub at his face, the heavy rain slashing from the sky and soaking deeper into his coat.

That damned cat never seemed to care about the weather. It could be the hottest day of the year or be snowing seven inches. Never did Teekle care about his surroundings, only whatever scent had caught it's interest. Isaac could only shake his head, frowning for a moment as he rubbed at his face and stalked after the wayward feline.

"I should have sold you to that Wizard!" He called after the cat. "He was real interested! I Bet I could still find him!"

It was an empty threat of course.

Teekle had helped him through more than he ever could have put into words.

It was the way of their relationship. Teekle lead him to things he never considered, pointed the way beyond what Isaac could understand. That was why he was there in the first place, to help the Droupout to understand, to show him the way.

Isaac turned the corner, moving into the dark alleyway. It was empty, as much as he could see, though something moved at the other end. A loud breeoooow echoed out from Teekle, the cats purring voice echoing out a dozen meters ahead of him.

 

[Anais]

The alleyway wasn't empty. The children had a knack to working in the shadows, it was really all they'd known; and the light, where one would be seen, was much more a thing to fear than the dark. Three of them had settled on various perches along the alley.

One of them moved when they saw the cat, and the other two glared at their brother as the cat drew attention.

"Shh." the little boy hushed the cat from the shadows.

"You shh." whispered another young boy's voice.

"Both of you shh!" demanded a little girl, and for a moment nothing moved and no sounds were made before..

"Heeeeere kitty kitty.." the first little boy beckoned.

"Alix, shut up, leave it--" the other boy said, though was abruptly stopped short as a hand slapped over his mouth.

"Shh! There's someone coming." the girl's voice whispered furiously, but the boy called Alix had already made his move and had successfully thrown an empty sack over the cat and was hauling the squirming package over his shoulder.

"Alix no!"

"Lessgo!" he yelled, and at once the three children were off and running through the alley and across the next street onto another. They were particularly quick on their feet, and the hopped over obstacles and wove through small spaces like ghosts.

 

[Isaac]

Teekle let out a loud echoing meow as it was tossed into a bag and suddenly plucked from the ground.

Isaac's eyes immediately shot open, something red flickering through his vision as his mask turned into a twist of anger. Lips thinned, and he shouted. "HEY!"

His voice seemed to boom with an echo as he darted forward into the alleyway to chase after the children.

The kids were quick, far quicker than he would have thought they would be. He could see them dart through the streets. They skidded and slipped over obstacles, darting around the few people ahead of them and weaving around what was ahead of them as though they had trained for years.

The Dropout shouted, his voice echoing behind the children.

A curse escaped Isaac's lips, his fingers tightening as a woman stepped into his path. His hands came up, half shoving her as he tried to balance himself. He teetered to the side, nearly falling before he spun on his heel. The kids darted over a stack of crates, jumping and laughing as they disappeared.

"Fuck." He said quietly. "This isn't going to end well."

Inside of the bag, draped over the boys shoulder Teekle squirmed. It growled and hissed, black claws springing forth from it's pawn. Claws which pierced burlap and raked over flesh, stabbing through just enough to catch the boys skin.

 

[Anais]

The children ensured they were out of sight before taking some dark and crooked stairs that wound around a corner and onto a little lane. The buildings were dilapidated, but some dim candlelight shone through the gaps in the smashed and boarded windows. They barged through the door and closed it behind them, though before Alix could put the squirming sack down he felt the claws bite into his back.

"OW!! Little gobshyte clawed m--!!" his words were cut off by his sister's hand slamming over his mouth with a wide eyed glare, the sack falling to the floor and the feline wriggled free.

 

[Isaac]

Teekle bound outward from the bag, quickly leaping away from the children and rushing towards a stack of old crates in the corner of the room. The cat nimbly bounded up the crates, hopping up the stack of near broken wood.

It’s movement was strange, off.

Every step seemed a strange blur, every movement was as though it went in both directions. An uncanniness clung to the cat, as though reality itself began to bend and warp around the small feline.

It was a feeling that only seemed to enhance itself as the cat suddenly leapt from the top crate and into the shadows upon the ceiling.



Isaac stood in one of the alleyways that the children had run down, a hand running slowly running alongside his jaw. He scratched idly at his beard, peering around the dark of the street and squatting down.

In the dirt he could see tiny footprints pressed over themselves, boots belonging to the children that had rushed away from him. He inspected them for a moment, his gaze flickering towards the direction they had gone in. At the end of the alley the dirt disappeared, turning into heavy cobbles.

As he looked outward a sound came from his side.

“Mreeeeooow.”​

Isaac snapped his head to the side as Teekle stepped out from between a small barrel and a snoozing homeless man. ”Ah, there you are. Got away from them, huh?”

“Mow.”​

”Dropped you?” His head shook. ”Did you scratch him?”

“Mrow, mow meow.”​

Isaac took in a breath, hand coming up to squeeze the bridge of his nose. A loud sigh escaped him. ”Great. Guess we better find the fucking kid. Last thing we need is a baby demon setting the place on fire...”

Teekle let out another loud ‘breoooooooow’ which could only be taken as sass.



It was then that Alix would notice it. The scratch on his back, just barely there, not even enough to bleed. It pulsed ever so slightly, not an ache of pain, but something else. A black vein spread from beneath the wound, edging underneath his flesh and crawling forward.

 

[Anais]

The boy shoved his sister away from him and tried to jump for the cat as it climbed onto the crates and managed to get itself out. "Ah shite. See what you did Sage?" Alix huffed and rubbed at the back of his shoulder as it pulsed. He muttered to himself as he shrugged out of his threadbare jacket and lifted off his shirt to try and get a look at the scratch.

"Alix!.." his brother and sister said simultaneously as they grabbed for him to inspect the strange, black vein that spread under his skin.

"Wut?! Wut is it?! I can't see!" he bleated in panic at his siblings' reaction, but he soon saw the veins creeping over the top of his shoulder and onto his arm. The boy let out a wail. "Gerrit off! Gerrit OFF! ANA!!"

As soon as she'd heard the wailing she was rushing down the creaky stairs and charging into the room with a small, half-orc child in her arms. "What? What's wrong?" she asked as she put the infant down and went to Alix, her gaze widening.

"What happened?" she demanded in her own panic and lifted the child up onto the table as they told her about the cat. "Ezra, get me a strip of cloth. Sage get a fire started and put some water on the stove, and bring me a knife." she winced. She'd never seen anything like it before but assumed it to be some sort of poison or venom. She took the strip of fabric from Ezra and tied it around the boy's upper arm as tightly as it would go in effort to prevent it spreading into the limb.

"Ezra, Sage, go find this man and his cat and bring him here. Now."

 

[Isaac]

Isaac was wandering down the street, his eyes slowly roaming around the different streets. "You're no help at all."

"Mreow."

Teekle answered simply, the cats head slowly following Isaac's own gaze. The creature lay draped across his shoulders, practically lounging in place. It seemed as lazy as a seal on a beach, apparently not intending to move for the rest of the day.

The Dropout shook his head.

"I don't care if you were in a bag! You're not a ca-" His lips sealed shut as a woman on the street gave him a strange look. Isaac shrugged.

"Fucking homeless."

She said with a shake of her head before stalking off down the street. Isaac glanced down at his clothes, frowning for a moment and about to object before another curt meow cut him off. "Hm?"

His head turned.

"Oh." Slowly the dropout stepped forward. "Hey! Kid!"

He shouted to one of the urchins coming out of an alley.

 

[Anais]

The two children swivelled toward the voice and ran for the man. Ezra was a half elven boy, identical to Alix aside the scar through his right eye. Sage was a little older, around ten, and she looked mostly human aside her bright green catlike eyes. Both children reached for the man's coat and tugged at it.

"You gotta come with us!" Sage said frantically, pointing back toward their home.

"Aye, yer stupid cat clawed my brother!" Ezra hissed, his nose wrinkling at the feline sprawled on the man's shoulders.

 

[Isaac]

Teekle let out a hiss.

"He points out that your stupid brother put him in a bag." Isaac said flatly, resisting the pulls of the children.

He was going to go with them, of course. If he didn't the boy would end up a sputtering manic demon out to eat whatever was around it, but that didn't mean he was going to do it immediately. These kids were utterly daft if they thought he was at their beck and call.

Even the Maestar's of Elbion hadn't been able to do that. "Besides, is he really that upset about a cut from a cat? You'd think urchins would be a little more accustomed to pain."

"Mreow."​

"Exactly." Isaac replied as Sage yanked hard on his coat and caused him to half stumble over. "Hey!"

 

[Anais]

The two children exchanged befuddled glances. "Yer can talk to it?!" Ezra blurted, gaping at the disgruntled feline and thinking better of reaching up to touch it.

"Come ON!!" the little girl protested as she pulled with all of her ten-year-old might. "It ent just a cut! It's all weird and icky an' its spreadin' fast! We gotta GO!"

 

[Isaac]

Isaac looked down at the kids, blinking slowly. "Errr, no?"

Children were generally known to be stupid, they would probably believe him.

The girl loudly spoke over him again, her voice about as grating as a knife straight into the ear drum. Half stumbling Isaac cringed, and then tugged his other hand back as he waved to her and finally relented to their request.

"Alright!" He shouted. "Alright. Show me the way."

He told the girl. "Just stop trying to tear my arm off."

The dropout shook his head.

"I'm sure he's fine anyway." It was a lie. He knew exactly what was wrong with the boy, and he wasn't entirely sure that he could fix it either.

 

[Anais]

Another dubious look was shared between the two children, and both relented as he agreed to follow them.

"He better be fine." the little girl said matter-of-factly. "Or I will tear yer arm off." she pointed a finger at him, her feline eyes narrowing in warning. "This way." she added, lifting her chin as she apparently took charge of the situation.

Ezra snickered. "Yeah.. He better be fine." he added with his own little jab at the air with his index finger. "This way." he repeated, and baulked when he noticed Sage glaring at him.

The pair scurried back in the direction they'd come from, looking back at the man and urging him to hurry. By the time they reached the stairs, Alix's yelps could be heard in the alleyway and the children bolted down them and barrelled through the rickety door into the derelict little home.

"We found him!" they exclaimed in unison, and Anais jumped slightly, looking harassed as she tried to stop the dark veins spreading. They were on his chest now, and crawling up his neck. Her hands were shaking though she was trying to appear as calm as possible, when the truth was far from it. She looked over her shoulder at the man as he entered, her eyes settling on the cat on his shoulder.

"What is this?! How do I stop it?!" she demanded, blood on her hands suggesting she'd already tried to bleed it out.

 

[Isaac]

Isaac raised an eyebrow as the child threatened him. "Good thing I have two."

What was with these kids?

Both of them seemed like utter freaks. One with cat like eyes and the other about as unsettling as an eclipse. He frowned for a moment, but allowed himself to be dragged along with Ezra and Sage. Eventually they went bursting through the door of a dilapidated warehouse.

The inside was dingy, though surprisingly well lit. As Isaac slowly gazed around the room another voice echoed out.

A woman stepped up, young, though older than the other kids he'd encountered so far. His eyebrows rose as he spotted the blood coating her hands.

"Well not by stabbing the fucking kid." He said with no small amount of incredulity.

Slowly the dropout stepped towards the boy, looking down and surveying the black veins that were slowly spreading beneath his skin. There was a shiver that clung to him, his skin seeming to turn a strange ashen color.

As he peered down at the boy Teekle began to purr.

"Oh boy." He said with a frown, fingers running over the rind of his chin. "Really did a number on him, huh?"

"Mreeeow."​

Isaac glanced towards Anais. "Really should teach your urchins not to steal cats."

 

[Anais]

She'd sliced into Alix's shoulder as gently as she possibly could, but it'd done nothing to stop the spread of dark veins. At his reprimand, Anais scowled, a retort about stabbing him instead dancing on her tongue, though she swallowed it down bitterly rather than risk him leaving.

She focused instead on pressing a writhing Alix down onto the table and combing her fingers into his hair, hushing his whimpering as the stranger came to observe him. Every second he stood there not doing something caused Anais more tension and she snapped at his complaint.

"Will you just stop whatever this is or tell me what to do please?!" she frowned. Ezra was standing next to her, staring down at his twin for a long moment before looking up at the man with mute plea.

 

[Isaac]

Isaac looked at Teekle for a moment, the Cat giving him a dead pan expression.

"Alright alright." The Dropout said eventually, his head shaking as he leaned down closer towards the boy and the wound carved in his shoulder. A frown touched his lips as he inspected the wound, though Anais' cuts had now opened it further.

She'd not done any more damage, that much he could tell. There would be a scar, but there would have been anyway.

A frown touched his lips. "This is new..."

The words were a quiet murmur, almost not enough for anyone else to hear. Teekle let out another quiet meow, almost as if it were answering Isaac.

"I can fix him." He told Anais. "But I'll need a few things..."

 

[Anais]

Ana stared at the stranger as he examined the boy, looking for any idiosyncrasy that might betray his assessment. The uncertain frown was enough for her to demand a quick "What is it?!" and she looked between he and the cat, her knuckles pale as she gripped the table that Alix was currently squirming on.

"What? What do you need, whatever it is, we can get." she answered, and the other children in the room seemed to stand to attention.

 

[Isaac]

He looked at the merry band of miscreants, frowning slightly.

There was a choice rolling around in his head, his eyes slowly peeling towards Anais. There was panic on her face, true panic. He had no idea what these children meant to her, they were clearly not hers. Siblings perhaps? No. They did not bare any resemblance in the slightest.

Isaac frowned, then glanced towards the children again. "I'm going to need some Bane Thistle, Frog Wax, and the left hair of a blonde noblewoman."

He began to rattle off instructions, glancing at Teekle briefly as he finished the list.

"Breooow."​

"Oh, of course." Isaac said with a shake of his head. "I'll need Al'a'mere paste."

The Dropout nodded, as if that completed the list. Then he looked to Anais. "You stay here and help me. We're going to slow this down."

 

[Anais]

Ana's face contorted into confusion and she gave an incredulous laugh under her breath at the man's list of demands, and she'd been about to retort when the children all set about rushing their demands and her head was yanked to one side as sage tore out a few strands of her hair and slammed them on the table.

"Ow! I wait!" they weren't listening, and the door slammed behind the three. "Be careful!!!" Anais bellowed after them, rubbing at the side of her head now short a few strands. Her cheeks burned and she scowled at the man before dropping her attention back to Alix who'd gone ghastly pale.

"Just tell me what to do." she growled irritably.

 

[Isaac]

Isaac raised an eyebrow as one of the young girls jumped up and practically tore Anais' hair out.

A noblewoman, how interesting. Isaac mused to himself as he watched her cheeks redden and her face turn into a scowl. She quickly turned on her heel, glaring a burning hole through his skull as she beckoned him forward.

For a moment Isaac remained quiet, and then turned away from her.

A hand came up, almost ominously so, and then simply tapped Alix on the forehead. A sound carried through the room, almost like the slamming of a gong. It was not loud, but audible enough for Anais to hear it. For a second the Boy seemed to tense, his body half jumping off the plinth he lay upon.

Then suddenly he relaxed. His head lulled to the side and for the first time since his scratch he seemed to lay completely still. "You need to come with me."

Isaac said with a whirl, his cloak fluttering as he turned away from her.

Teekle jumped off his shoulders, bounding forward towards the door that the children had just exited.

"They'll take a few hours to get those ingredients, Bane Thistle only grows in a forest ten miles from here so that will take a while in it of itself." He mused, quite pleased with himself. "We'll have the time we need."

 

[Anais]

She felt her heart leap as Alix reacted to whatever the stranger's touch had done to him, her eyes wide with worry as he stilled. Had it not been for the slow rise and fall of his chest she'd have driven the bloody knife into the bastard's eye socket.

"The time we need for what? What did you do to him?.." she asked defiantly as he seemed to expect her to follow him. "You will tell me what is wrong with him, what you did, where I have to go with you and what you plan on doing to fix him before I'll even think about leaving him here alone." she demanded, her arms folding across her chest and her slender brow rising in question.

 

[Isaac]

Isaac stopped in his tracks, letting out a loud sigh of exasperation as Anais stopped before she ever got going. Teekle looked back towards him, letting out a frustrated meow, the sort an ordinary cat might make while waiting for it's dinner.

The dropouts shoulder sagged. "I put him to sleep."

He said, turning on his heel back towards Anais.

"He is going through a daemon apotheosis. Transformation. The corruption has set into his skin, but will eventually shift to his muscles and bones." Which was when the pain would really start. "I can stop it, but I need the right mark...which I don't have off the top of my head."

That wasn't exactly true, he could make a guess...but then he wouldn't get what he wanted. "Luckily though, I know where we can get it; the Lorraine Estate."

House Lorraine has controlled this city for centuries, a position that made them fabulously wealthy. During the revolution they had remained neutral, and thus their power had gone unchanged. The wealth they had famously lead to them owning a massive gallery of art and rare scrolls.

One of which would help the boy, and another of which Isaac wanted.

"You were pretty enough to get us through the door already, but the fact that you're a noble." Isaac kissed his fingers. "Should be easy to get in, especially since they're throwing a gala of some sort today."

At least that was what Teekle said.

 

[Anais]

Her gaze narrowed in scrutiny, not bothering to hide her distrust, but what choice did she have but to believe him and do as he asked? She looked over the sleeping boy and her lips pursed in thought for a moment before she growled, stomping her feet as she strut to lift a warm blanket to throw over him, a kiss pressed to his brow before she turned to leave him, snatching her cloak from a hook on the wall before strutting outside. She decided not to comment on his apparent compliment with anything other than a roll of her eyes.

"What the bloody hell is a daemon apa.. apoth..theosis? What sort of.. transformation?" she huffed with a glare at him and his cat as she hurried up the steps and onto the alley, lifting her hood over her blonde hair.

 

[Isaac]

"Apotheosis." Isaac repeated as he opened the door, Teekle quickly rushing out into the alleyway ahead of him.

He half turned back as he stepped outside.

"To put it into simpler terms." As he moved outside Isaac held the door open for Anais, waiting for her to pass before closing it. His fingers flickered over the door, and there was a brief flash of red between the rickety planks. "He's going to turn into a demon, or...well a warped picture of one anyway."

Isaac corrected himself before Teekle could object to the words. "He'll lose most of his memories, his body will tear itself apart and transform, and if he can do magic…"

The dropout trailed off.

"Anyway, I think the Estate is this way." Isaac said, casually slipping a hand onto the small of Anais' back and urging her out of the alleyway and towards the inner-city.

 

[Anais]

"A demon?!" Her voice rattled on the damp brick walls at either side of her as she stopped to look at him in disbelief. Another glare shot at his cat.

"What sort of cat is that exactly?!" she demanded. "And what about if he can do magic?" she asked, her tone lowering but even in a whisper she still managed to shout at him.

 

[Isaac]

Isaac glanced over towards Teekle, the cat having stopped at the entrance of the alleyway when Anais had shouted her question.

Brady yellow eyes seemed to stare at the two humans. The moment Anais caught them she would feel something, a depth. Gazing into the cat's eyes goosebumps would rush up her flesh, and an odd...peace, would find the very heart of her. Yet the second Teekle turned away that feeling would be ripped away, and in its place an emptiness so vast Anais might wonder if she'd ever felt anything else at all.

A feeling that would pass a moment later. "A very good one."

Isaac chimed in, as though completely unaware of what had just happened.

The dropout offered her a happy, and rather warm smile. His features softening slightly as he motioned the girl once again towards the exit of the alleyway.

"Then you better pray we find the scroll we need." Isaac commented. "Else that boy is going to tear this city apart brick by brick."

And nobody wanted that.