Private Tales An Enticing Song

[Camille]

A narrowing of her eyes on Tal before her features smoothed. "Well Mister Talmanese," she breathed. "Do you currently have Jareth in your possession? If so, perhaps you could ask him on how to get into his vault?" One delicate hand fell to her cocked hip as she turned her attention toward the crates lining the room and began walking around.

One extended finger trailing along the wood.

As if she were inspecting for dust.

 

[Tal]

Tal smiled. "It's not the how that's the problem, Sweetheart."

He already knew that.

It had taken him years to fit all the pieces of his plans into place. Months to align things, and weeks to ensure that everything would work out just how he had wanted. This was something half a decade in the making. A plot that he had known had slim chance.

Yet here he was.

"It's the where." He admitted. "I know how I can get into the vault. I just don't know where it is."

Not yet anyway.

 

[Camille]

“Why don't you ask Jareth where it is?” Her fingers rubbed together. Her back turned to Tal and the imposter as she continued slowly around the room.

 

[Tal]

"Fish swim. Birds fly." He made a motion with his hand.

Tal seemed almost dejected that he had to point this whole thing out. To him it was simple logic. "Liars lie."

A shrug rolled over his shoulders as he wandered over towards one of the crates and perched himself upon it.

"Jareth will lie, even when he knows he lost. That's who he is." There were ways of getting men to tell the truth, but it would come at a price. "But if I find no other way to get to it."

He shrugged. "Then I'll resort to other measures."

Despite the cost.

 

[Camille]

“Hmmm,” beautiful voice hummed and she finally turned to look at him. Finger tapped thoughtfully against her lower lip. “If I knew where it was and took you to it. That’s it? You and I are done?”

A quick glance to Eckheart before her light lavender eyes drifted back to Tal. A casual lean back against the crates at her back as she studied her nails and waited for the fox’s answer.

 

[Tal]

Tal tipped his head in a nod. "We are done."

Of course he would have to have Jareth first. That was the only way to get the vault open, but that was being accomplished right as they sat in this room. Every little niche of this plan had been thought and set out. Put into motion the very moment that he had stolen Camille away.

He was close now, so close.

"Everyone walks away happy." Tal said, motioning a little walk with his index and middle finger.

Eckheart stood in the corner of the room, arms crossed. His gaze flickered between the two humans, face an unreadable mask as though he were considering something.

 

[Camille]

"And," she breathed. "You share what you needed from Jareth in the first place." She pushed off the crates and walked toward the exit. Taking her sweet time. Elegant legs moving as if she was walking on air.

A quarter turn over her slender shoulder. A raise of silky brows. One would argue one of her best assets was on display as her back was turned toward Tal.

"Deal?"

 

[Tal]

Tal watched.

Quiet.

Silent. Never saying a single word as Camille began to wander out of the room. He waited for her to half turn towards him, waited for her to offer the final word. The smile on his face was an expression he'd worn a thousand times before. "Nope."

A shrug rolled over his shoulders.

"I'll just take a few extra days." The Tyrian said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Rip what I want from his mind."

No one would know what he wanted. No one.

Eckheart. Viktor. Even those closest to him in this city would never know.

"Bye bye, Camille." He said with a wave. "It was nice doing business with you."

He'd get what he wanted. No matter what.

 

[Camille]

"Good luck," she was completely unphased as he said it. Didn't he know she'd realize what he took if she showed him where the vault was anyway? "But perhaps you don't need it."

The luck.

But he did.

As he said, liars lied. And if Jareth knew he was beaten. Which by now, he probably did. He'd never tell Tal what he really wanted to hear, gladly taking it with his grave. "You know where to find me if...circumstances change your brilliant, cunning mind." With a smoothing of hair over one shoulder, she began to leave, offering Eckheart a wink on the way out.

And if he found her again, it would cost him.

 

[Tal]

"Will be difficult without her."

It was Eckheart who said the words, his voice a mellow as he looked over towards Tal. The Tyrian slowly glanced towards the Tiefling. "I do wish you were mute like your brother."

The only answer that he received was a quick, flickering smile.

"We already have him." He said witha wave of his hand. Perhaps things would not go quite as smoothly, perhaps it would take a little bit more time...but it was not the end of the earth. The vault was all that he needed.

Everything else?

Tal didn't much care if he left chaos beyond.

Jareth's territory could run wild. His people could rapture in their insanity. Tal didn't much care. He already had the man in his clutches, and that was all he ever wanted. Everything else had been simple jest, a gift to be left on the table. "Take his place long enough to make others look, but leave first sign of trouble."

All he needed was that bit of time. That gap.

And that was what he got.

It took a week. Perhaps a day more. Perhaps a day less, it was difficult to tell.

Jareth was dragged into a warehouse, an empty pit. There he begged, pleaded. Not for his life, not for anything of worth. He spat, shouted, and insulted, but none of it mattered in the end. Tal did what he had to do, what he intended to do.

A rune.

A mark of magic.

That was all it took. Drawn into the flesh, coated with speckles of a basilisk's skin.

It burned through the crimelords skull, torched through his mind and rooted through memory and mind until finally what he desired was brought to the front. It was what mattered in the end, what he desired, and the Tyrian plucked the information from the Crimelords skull. "Thank you."

He said with an easy smack to the man's face.

"I'll put it to good use." Those were the final words the man heard. The echoing tone he would listen to as Tal stepped away from his wilting body.

What happened to all he once held didn't matter. His territory, his wealth, everything that lay within his vault but one thing. It didn't matter to Tal. He took his prize, and with it his victory.

 

[Camille]

As Camille left the club, she was greeted by a sleek carriage pulled by two horses which only screamed of gold. The door cracked open, revealing one of the merchant leaders of Alliria. A voice from the darkness of the carriage rumbled out.

"Got your message. Hope I wasn't too late." Two fingers gripped the folded swan-note from earlier.

Camille smiled and slipped inside, lavender eyes glinting in the darkness. "Right on time. The timetable has moved up. Is everything prepared?"

"Yes, followed your instructions exactly."

Leaning forward, she let her fingers slide gently down the side of the elf's face. "Good."

"Crimson dusk is ours?" Surprise in his voice.

"Yes," she breathed against him. "Soon. But more importantly your fellow merchants are lined up."

He pulled away slightly as if it took all his will to resist her touch and who Camille was.

"But that means, gods Camille," his voice trailed off. A gentle caress as she slid away from him and tapped the driver of the carriage to move onward. Away from the swamps.

"Yes," she sat back. Voice quiet and silky as ever. "That means we hold the heart of Alliria in our palm." Alliria was her stage and right now she was commanding it with only more room to grow.

"And what of Talmanese?" He asked.

"Just keep an eye on him but I don't think he'll bother us anymore."