Private Tales Keeping One’s Promises

[Volker]

Volker had waited patiently beyond the thirty day mark. He’d given the warning, which had upset the entire household, but he wouldn’t have felt right without. He was not an unsporting man. He gave his prey warnings. It was up to them to flee or fortify themselves for what was coming. He hoped, for Shucks sake, she’d taken his lessons to heart and begun preparing.

Oor was furious Volker had dared make a warning, much less one that was so painfully obvious. The spirit had given him dreadful headaches for the past two days, and when he slept he was down there in that hellish, swirling well, fragments of his ancestors above him. It was to remind Volker of his place. He may have been Oor’s physical arbiter, but they both knew who held the leash.

With the family uncertain about coming outside, Volker could prepare properly. He began with the horses. He sabotaged three areas of fence, and spread his scent around the pasture. When he opened up the barns, the terrified animals fled his scent through the fences and into the trees. He avoided the barn at the top of the hill near the house; those he’d get rid of last, so any fleeing would be on foot. The barns were open and soon freezing, giving no shelter to anyone running from the house. Volker watched as the family burned the corpses of the horses he’d killed...and watched the warlock and cripple leave. That took away two more major concerns. Trahaearn he did not want to face in combat, and a shapeshifter allowed to run wild was a dangerous thing.

Now all he had to do was keep them inside. That wouldn’t be difficult. They’d start finding dead foals and yearlings on their porch, dressed and displayed with their heads in their laps. It also gave him a chance to properly evaluate who he’d have to deal with. There were two large males he couldn’t afford to grapple with. He was strong, but he’d lose a lot of blood gambling with those two. The wives he dismissed outright. They bawled and cried at the dead foals like he’d expected. They had no stomach for blood.

Inside the Meier household things were getting tense. Only Holden and Gerard went outside to get wood. The family had enough food in the cellar to last months, but Elda was becoming increasingly worried. Shuck had something on her trail, and the dead horses from this springs breedings stank of black magic. She cared for Shuck as well as she could, butchering chickens for their blood just as Joseph had told her and preparing her tea religiously.

She brought up a cup to Joseph’s room, knocking gently. “How are you holding up, dear?” She asked Shuck gently.

 

[Shuck]

Shuck was tired. The last two weeks had been challenging, both physically and mentally. As her strength waned and her body began to wither, her little one seemed hellbent on growing by leaps and bounds. Walking alone was becoming a task that drained a great deal of her energy, and her balance seemed to change as quickly as her body -- daily. It was wearing on her, almost as much as Volker's harassment. She braced herself constantly before looking out of a window. She dreaded waking up in the morning to the sounds of wailing when yet another macabre display had been erected near the house. Dealing with all of it without Joseph to lean on was taking its toll. She was constantly falling asleep but had difficulty staying asleep without the weight of him beside her. There was no one to talk to about what was happening without divulging more than she felt comfortable with to his relatives.

She was tired.

But another day began, yet another foal had been found, and once more she had stood on the common room balcony looking down at its butchered body. Her hands had shaken and she'd hung on to the railing, from a mix of fear and exhaustion. She'd said nothing, her protests born and dying in her mind before they ever reached her mouth. On that first day she'd tried to march outside, intending to call Volker out, but she'd been yanked back in the moment her angry foot hit the porch. The Meiers had refused to let her leave the house since, and their daily denial culminated into a screaming fit on the eighth day.

She'd kicked and spat as Gerard had held her, hurling every nasty curse she knew in common and Faerie. It was quite a lot, thanks to Joseph. She'd flailed weakly in his big arms until her energy and anger were both spent, and had hung limply in his arms panting while he carried her upstairs. Listening to them was not easy, mostly because they were right and she hadn't even thought enough to realize why they were waiting it out in the shelter of their home. Attempting to apologize for her behavior was even more difficult. It underlined how alone and lost she felt without Joseph. She'd not hesitated to apologize to him or thank him for so long she wasn't sure when they'd thrown away the formalities of how much one owed the other.

What remained from the fit was simply her exhaustion and readiness for it to be over. Joseph's family didn't deserve to be tortured like this, cordoned to the house like a bunch of chickens afraid of a fox. Their lives, as much as their livelihoods, were at risk. For what?

When Elda knocked, Shuck was wrapped in a blanket and sitting on the floor in front of the great window. She'd not slept much the last few days, too worried and anxious in spite of her utter lassitude, and there were heavy dark rings under her eyes when she turned to see the woman gently opening the door.

The woman had been unbearably patient with her -- a true sign of her fierce resolve and the years of tempering from raising so many strong-willed sons. She'd consistently brought her blood and Yaste's tea with a regularity that would give Joseph a run for his money. Though she'd been stern, she'd not been unkind.

"I'm here," she replied, unable to even tell them she was fine anymore. Her eyes dropped to the cup in her hands, and she began untangling her legs to stand.

// Volker //

 

[Volker]

Elda sat next to her on the floor, folding her legs underneath her with a grace that belied her age. She offered her the tea. "My dear, I think you need to know what this is before you break." she said softly. "You think I haven't angered fae before, in all my years living here? I learned what I could from my mother, and her mother before her, and her mother before her who lived in the faelands for years. This family knows fae. It's grown up with fae." She took Shuck's hands and wrapped them around the cup. "You have something dark coming after you, but if it really was able to destroy you it would come in this house and do it already. Something is staying it's hand. Without knowing what it is, offending it further could tip that hand and destroy us all."

Elda smiled softly and put her hand to Shuck's cheek. "I know you're having a hard time without my boy here. Your body aches for your heart and your name, and you have neither to give you fire. My Joseph has been your fire. What I want you to do is drink this tea. Brathe deep, and feel the wind pass through your body. Come." She waited for Shuck to take a sip, and breathed in deeply with her. "Out through the mouth. Slowly." She exhaled, showing Shuck how.

"This is a war, my dear. It may not have a lot of soldiers, but it is a war great and terrible. I can't help but think it's not only you, but Thomas that has brought this upon us. The fae are angry with this family, and rightly so. For too long I've kept my head down and let him do as he pleased. This is only what I deserve, for not guarding the knowledge my ancestors gifted to me so long ago. The rules of hospitality stand. It cannot set foot in this house. Horses we can replace, and they have better sense than most. We cannot replace you, or that baby, or anyone else in this house."

Elda took her hand. "We can breed more horses. It's a show of power, but it's not a threat yet. He fears something in this house, can't you feel it? Fear and respect is what is borne out of those foals. They are offerings to you. He is showing you his fear, and his respect, before he attempts to kill you. Deer bow to one another after bloodying each other. This is only the fae equivalent of that." Elda said softly. "Shed your guilt. It does you no good here and none of us are angry with you. Meier means 'stand against', and we will do that to the upmost. We'll put out an offering to try and calm the spirit's rage."

Volker was out in the pasture, camping. He had cooked one of the foals he'd killed, and had made a burrow in the snow to sleep in. Oor would watch over him while he slept, he wasn't afraid of being caught unaware. His threats had upset Malice but that was all according to plan. She was emotional with child. She wasn't thinking clearly. That would make her easy prey. Panicked deer stumbled at critical moments. The warlock and the cripple were gone, but for how long? They'd been gone nearly two weeks. There were only fifteen days left. Volker intended to wait them out. Slowly. Carefully. He sharpened his blades until they were razors. Killing a black shuck wasn't just a job, it was reverence. It was power. Oor hummed with it, eager for blood. He wanted to fulfill their contract, but as they hadn't been paid to the spirit's satisfaction...he wanted the babe.

If it was female, the blood of a black shuck running through the Volker bloodline would bring Oor to unimaginable power. A human he could repair, he could manipulate, but a shuck could be his equal. Volker did not like the prospect or the way the spirit's mind was turning. He didn't want to die, or go along with this plan. He knew exactly what Oor would do. He'd have him lobotomize her as soon as the babe was strong enough to heal from it, and use her body as a womb the moment she was blooded. Then the drooling idiot would be put out of her mercy the second she birthed....as would Volker.

His breeding was being planned out just as carefully as the foal he was eating, and he had to find a way out. He'd hoped scaring Shuck would force her to run. If she was smart and stuck to the woods, and listened to sense, she'd be able to outlast him long enough to frustrate Oor into doing something stupid. But no. She had buckled down, which turned this into a war no one wanted to win but Oor.

'Brighten up. You get to raise a foundling and I get what I want. You'll be useful for another ten years...thirteen if she blooms late.' Oor mocked him. 'Sorry, Rheinhard. You're only the latest in a long line of men who have all had the same ideas about killing me. Let me give you a hint. In five thousand years no one has succeeded. You know why? I've planned everything from your height to your eye color to the length of what sits between your legs. You're not going to outsmart me.'

 

[Shuck]

Shuck paused as Elda approached, and settled back into a comfortable position when she sat down beside her. Accepting the tea, she pulled her blanket closer around her shoulders before she took a tentative sip. She was chilly -- a very bad sign -- and the tea began to warm her from within. She listened quietly, only looking up when Elda put her hands over Shucks around the warm cup. Her eyes were so much like Joseph's, dark as buckeyes but with a hint of green at their center if she looked close enough.

There was nothing she could say. Elda's hand was gentle and warm, even if her words cracked her like a pick to ice. Just hearing Joseph's name made her whole body ache for him. Tears immediately began to shimmer in her eyes. The mother's words were struck true, and Shuck struggled to sip the tea and breathe evenly, but she did as she was told.

When Elda began to question where the fault lay for bringing such misfortune upon their family, Shuck could remain silent no longer.

"This has nothing to do with your family or Thomas," she said bitterly. "You don't deserve any of this. I brought this here. It's cornered us all here because of me. It's killing your horses because of me." She was belligerent in her guilt, and she stubbornly shook her head when Elda began again. They could breed more horses, but would they be able to recover from the damage Volker had done to their herd?

But the fear and respect... Shuck looked up at her with glassy eyes.

"We can't give it what it wants," she admitted. "I knew I couldn't pay the price when I made the deal, even if I'd been given sixty years." That guilt washed over her like new once more. Trahaearn's eyes as he'd resigned his progeny to this fate, the staggering realization that she'd have given it tenfold, keeping it from Joseph... No. This had nothing to do with their family paying penance for their past crimes; it was the innocence she'd refused to take being taken elsewhere.

// Volker //

 

[Volker]

Elda looked at her seriously. "You made a deal with it? And sealed it with a promise?" she asked quietly, looking at Shuck seriously. "You know as well as I do a promise to a fae is very difficult to break. It was a very foolish thing you did, but it can't be helped now. What's done is done. We will have to see if we cant negotiate. If we can't negotiate, then there's nothing for it. We'll have to kill it. As much as I am ashamed of what my son has done, Thomas has amassed weaponry effective against fae. We can fight this. We will fight this. No one hurts my family. And you, my dear, are my newest daughter."

She stood up. "Rest. We'll see if we can't open a line of communication...but in the meantime we have to prepare." she said quietly. "I'll make the offering. Do you happen to know what it is? I've never encountered something with such an advanced sense of artistry as well as the touch of the macabre. It's certainly not a draugr or troll."

Booker quietly stood out in the snow. He was...curious. He was upset about the horses as much as the rest of his family, but curiosity had driven him to wrap himself up, put on a pair of boots, and head out into the pasture in search of the thing killing thier horses. He found Volker's camp easily; the man wasn't trying to hide it. Volker looked up at him and bared his teeth. His shoulders stiffened in warning. Booker sat down. He wasn't threatening, and didn't appear to be armed. Instead he simply...sat, there in the snow, looking at him. Volker snorted at him and continued his sharpening. When he looked up, Booker was settling right by his fire. The boy had been so quiet he'd barely heard him through the snow.

He didn't speak. He touched some of the discarded bones, no doubt knowing they came from one of their colts. Volker watched him intently for a moment. The albino wasn't...threatening at all. He wasn't yelling, or shifting nervously, or hiding a weapon. His submissive attitude and willingness to sit down and let Volker evaluate him was...calming. Volker hissed at him, opening his mouth wide and showing off his teeth. He went back to caring for his blades....and felt a weight settle against his side. The albino curled up with him in his tiny snow cave, watching the fire. Oor was quiet; the fae still needed to sleep. Volker examined Booker closely. The albino looked up at him, and they tentatively touched noses. Volker inhaled Booker's smell, and the other imitated him. They turned back to the fire, and Booker curled up against him in companionable silence.

By morning, Elda was panicking. The back door had been left open....and both Booker and Ellis were missing. She was calling for them all over the house. "They couldn't have gotten in..." She shut the back door and sealed it with beeswax and brick dust, hanging herbs from the door. Her unshakable demeanor was panicked, her face pale. She ran upstairs and gently shook Shuck awake. "Have you seen Ellis or Booker this morning?" she asked in a panic. "Does this fae know sleep magic? I woke up and neither of them came to breakfast....their room is empty!"

 

[Shuck]

Her serious surprise gave Shuck pause. Hadn't Joseph told her? Shuck nodded hesitantly. "They came for me and took Joseph. If I didn't make a deal, he would have died. I bought us time -- sixty days -- but I knew I wouldn't be able to keep my promise." And it was a price she was going to pay now.

Negotiate. A memory tickled the back of her mind. Something Trahaearn had said. What was it? It danced, just outside of her reach. But Shuck was yanked from her attempts to pin down the thought when Elda said family. She was family. All too quickly, Elda stood -- as if she hadn't just thrown the Shuck still sitting on the floor for a loop.

Her final words, however, shook the moment of joy. Shuck looked out the window, her silver eyes almost white in the snow's reflection.

"It's not a faerie at all," she said softly. "It's a man."

---

Sleep was her only reprieve. She drifted, carefree and mindless through that darkness until it consumed her and she ceased to exist for a few hours of bliss. Like the cradle of shadows she'd known for centuries, she laid down and closed her eyes, letting herself dissolved bit by bit until pieces of her curled away, becoming a part of that emptiness. It was peaceful. She wasn't sad, but rather yearned toward that end.

Somebody was shaking her, and she blinked her eyes open and started. She sat up but had to throw a hand over her eyes as her powerful sight absorbed the bright lights. Yaste must have drawn back the curtain to the bed and opened the little window. How was that one window letting in so much light?

But Yaste was speaking nonsense in her distress. "Who's Ellis and Booker?" she asked, still blinking against the light. "What fae? Yaste, what are you talking about? Where's Trahaearn and Joseph?" She sat up further, finally lowering her hand and--

Shuck started. With a sharp gasp, she scrambled back from the strange woman before her, and her eyes were wild as they turned to look at the room around her. That wasn't Yaste. This wasn't Yaste's cabin. Where was she? Pressing herself as far from the woman as she could, Shuck frantically looked around for Joseph. Where was he? Where was she?

"Joseph?" she called, her voice afraid and frantic. Nothing made sense. Where was he? She was breathing hard, pressing herself into the corner of the bed to get as far away from--

Her eyes finally met the other woman's, and she froze. Those eyes; they were Joseph's eyes.

It all rushed back like a tombstone had fallen on her chest. Shuck sucked in a breath, paralyzed for a full moment as months of memories raced back to fill her mind.

"Elda?" she whispered. She was still breathing hard and panic still coursed through her limbs. "Elda, what happened? What's wrong?" There was a dull ache between Shuck's eyes as her body began to relax.

// Volker //

 

[Volker]

Joseph had warned her this would happen, but it still didn’t prepare her any better. Elda’s heartbhurt at the sight of the poor woman before her, cowering and fleeing from her like she’d hurt her or kidnapped her. She met her eyes, and it seemed like something flickered inside of Shuck. Elda approached her and took her hands. “You forgot us for a moment. Joseph warned me about this. It’s alright. You’re here with me, I’m Joseph’s mother Elda.” She said softly.

“Ellis and Booker are missing. Do you remember the last time you saw them? Think. I saw Booker yesterday but they’re both shy and keep to themselves. Do you think they went after your friends to get help?” She was scared. For the first time in a long time Elda was scared. If this was a man the laws of the fae didn’t apply to him. That meant he could violate the hospitality laws any time he pleased, and they were no longer safe in the house. Men were harder to negotiate with. Also easier to kill.

She squeezed her hand. “We have to speak to him,” she said. “We have to come to some sort of peace with this man. Is there a way we can speak with him? Holden has identified a camp out in the east pasture.”

Booker woke up in the morning. He was curled up against the stranger’s chest, his head just under Volker’s collarbone. It was quiet and peaceful in the little ice cave, and strangely warm. Volker had covered them in furs, and one arm was protectively around Booker. He’d been unsure at first but...the cuddle had gone well. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the house. His mother would be so angry...

He didn’t quite know why he’d headed out to find the horse killer. He just had wanted to see him. Volker hasn’t seemed unreasonable, and they’d had a good silent conversation. Much like himself, Volker communicated more with body language than with words. Booker sat up. Volker stirred and put his arm around Booker’s waist. He didn’t want him to leave...and Booker didn’t want to face his family. He laid back down and cuddled up, watching the snow pile up outside their little cave.

 

[Shuck]

She had forgotten. Shuck trembled, a bit of that panic returning as Elda gently took her hands and reminded her who she was and where she was. No. She couldn't start forgetting things again. It was a bad sign, worse than her fatigue or her sensitivity the cold. She could rest and she could pile on furs and blankets, but once she forgot something, there was no way for her to get them back.

Trying to quell one panic only gave rise to another. Who were Ellis and Booker? Reaching into the convoluted and foggy recesses of her mind, it took her a full moment to remember Joseph's quiet brothers.

"Missing?" she repeated. Her head was throbbing as she attempted to recall either of them. What did they even look like? Shuck's hand went to her pinched brow. "I don't know. I can't remember..."

Elda gently squeezed her hand, and Shuck looked up at her once more.

Negotiate. Trahaearn's words, Volker's patient lessons, Oor's cruel remarks -- they all snapped into place. Offerings. Respect. Waiting. She needed to talk to Volker... and she needed to talk to Elda.

"I need to talk to him," she said quietly, still trying to sort out what it all meant. She knew that she likely couldn't make a deal with Oor again, but Volker...

It was a risk, and Trahaearn wasn't there to back up her ideas with his prior knowledge of the pair. All that she knew was from a single conversation with her warlock, but it would have to be enough. Oor possessed the male heirs of Volker's family line, and when the next generation took up the mantle, he destroyed his previous host. She'd made a deal with the shade to provide a female that would produce a strong heir, not realizing it had meant Volker's death. Now that she knew, however...

"I need to talk to Holden and Gerard. And Thomas." She dropped Elda's hand and threw her legs over the edge of the bed. Going to the cabinet and pulling out one of the dresses the family had provided for her, she began to dress as she spoke. "Volker is tied to Oor, but the two are still separate. I can't negotiate with Oor again, but Volker... Volker doesn't want to be replaced. If I can get to him, then maybe I can convince him to turn on Oor. But I have to do it soon, before I lose any more ground." She looked to those familiar dark eyes. The same as Joseph's, they steadied her. Shuck gently took the mother's hands and held her gaze.

"I can't let anything happen to this family. To our family," she said softly. "It has to be me. He's not here for you, or Thomas, or anyone else in this house. It's me he wants, and I have to do what I can to protect you now. If he's taken Ellis and Booker..." Darkness flashed across her features. She couldn't continue, couldn't even voice the fears. There were things she'd never be able to tell Joseph about Volker's camp, and she could no more tell Elda. But if Volker had hurt Joseph's brothers... She felt the coals of anger raked in her spirit, lighting once more, and the words the spirit had spoken to her at the river echoed in her mind.

You are not a dog, sitting and begging to some human master. Stand up, or he will drown.

"Did he bring a foal today?" she asked suddenly, her voice lowered and serious. If she was going to be attempting to take a stand against the pair, she needed all the strength she could get. With each passing day, she lost more ground to a fate that was racing up to meet her. They couldn't afford to play this waiting game any longer.

"The next one he brings, don't let Holden or Gerard get rid of it. I..." She hesitated. Elda had been good to her and had never once shown any hesitation at providing for Shuck in any way, but this was entirely different. Taking a long, steadying breath, she braced herself.

"I need it. You were right; he's been bringing me offerings, but I was too overcome with fear and anger to recognize it. I've been stupid, but if I'm going to confront him, I need my strength -- and chickens won't do any longer."

It was a lot. She knew what she was asking. But if Joseph got his strength from someone, Shuck would have bet a great deal that it was from this very woman. Shuck wasn't human. Joseph knew what lay beneath the veil of this form, the darkness that she kept hidden away. It was time they learned, and it was time she reminded Oor. No matter how hard she tried to belong to this family, no matter what guises she put on in the light of day, there were parts of her that she would never be able to change. She wished she could, but wishing wouldn't change her. No, she was a harbinger of death, a scourge upon mankind, the teeth and claws of the night itself. She was a black shuck, and it was time she acted like it.

// Volker //

 

[Volker]

Elda shook her head. “He didn’t bring one today. I knew this would come.” She wasn’t ready for this, but it was no longer a question of her readiness. She was the strength of this family, and now she had to give just a little more. “They’re downstairs, arguing as usual.” Elda told her, touching her arm. “Wait. I can’t give you much, but I’ll do what I can.”

She left her then briefly, going downstairs and fetching a bottle and a small blade. She wished Ellis was there. It would be difficult without him. She came back upstairs and sat at the small desk in Joseph’s room, laying her arm out. The paring blade cut deep into her elbow, into the thick veins that ran there. She pursed her lips and held the wound over the bottle. Dark blood trickled into it, more as she flexed her hand. Elda breathed slowly and carefully, watching the bottle fill. There wasn’t much there, about enough to fill a coffee cup, but she hoped it would be enough. She put pressure on the wound and wrapped a thick length of gauze around it. Elda picked up the bottle and offered it to Shuck. “I knew chickens weren’t going to hold you much longer. Drink that quickly, and meet me downstairs.”

The hedge witch moved slowly, woozily down the stairs, going to sit in front of the fire. Gods, the arguing was going to be the death of her! She rubbed her temples.

“This is all because of our courting with the fae! You see, you all think of them as good creatures but you see the evil they wrought?” Thomas demanded. “I’ve purged this evil from my blood and it’s time this family did the same!”
“You’d best settle down or I’m going to come talk to ya.” Gerard growled at Thomas.
“It’s that demon Joseph brought home that’s doing this. The fae have been known to destroy human families like this for nothing other than their own amusement! We’re chaff in the wind to them.” Thomas snapped. “You’ve toyed with things beyond your understanding and now we have to arm ourselves and kill that thing.”
“Might make things worse, like that eastern half of the forest that’s gone fallow without a dryad. Figure it out, we don’t know what we’re dealing with.” Holden grunted. He seemed to be deep in thought, only interjecting occasionally with the other two.

“I’m telling you, we kill it and all this ends.”
“Give your balls a tug.” Gerard clearly had enough of the rhetoric and so had Elda.

“Everyone quiet!” Elda bellowed from her spot on the couch. “Sit down. All of you. Listen to what Shuck has to say.”

 

[Shuck]

She saw Elda steel herself, aw the moment she understood. Shuck nodded when she requested that she wait, and she obliged. Sitting patiently at the desk, she stared out at the snow-covered pastures and began to make a plan. It wasn't her strong suit, and she was going to need the input of Joseph's brothers, but a loose idea was forming.

When Elda returned with a bottle and a knife, she sat staring at her in confusion until she cut into her arm.

"Elda, what--?" But there was nothing she could say to argue because her blood was already flowing down her arm into the bottle. She watched with a strange mix of horror and need until she put pressure on the wound and began wrapping her wound. When she held out the bottle toward her, Shuck finally pried her eyes away from it.

"Elda..." What was she supposed to say? But the mother's admission that she'd already known the chickens wouldn't do forever made it easier to accept the bottle. It was warm to the touch. She nodded, but caught her hand to stop her as she departed.

"Thank you," she said, knowing the power of the thanks she gave. "Please... Please don't tell Joseph." Her voice was small and humbled as she turned her eyes upward, pleading.

She waited for Elda to leave before she lifted the bottle. The hair on her shoulders prickled as she raised it to her lips, the tang filling her mouth and nose as she inhaled. She'd made this much human blood last days after leaving Volker's camp, and as the heavy, thick warmth poured down the back of her throat, she could already feel its power coursing through her veins. A gift, freely given, was a powerful thing. Her eyes flutter closed and she eagerly downed it. She held it aloft, tipped until the very last drop fell onto her tongue.

Donning a shawl and slipping into some socks to ward off the chill, she listened to the family's argument from the top of the stair. The brothers didn't seem to notice her, for which she was grateful. When Elda indicated that they were to listen to her, however, they turned, and Shuck paled slightly before descending the step in silence. She took up a place where she might look at all of them, standing near where Elda was seated, and took a deep breath.

"I've brought something terrible to this family," she began, her eyes looking between them. "It is here for me, and me alone, but that has not and will not spare any of you from its wrath. It is a mistake that I must shoulder and atone for... But I need your help.

"I know I'm asking a great deal -- that you've all paid dearly already for something that doesn't concern you, and I'm grateful. But what's out there isn't just a fae, it's a man. When my time is up in a few days, the laws of hospitality won't stop him. Silver and iron won't harm him any more than it hurts you to hold it."

Her eyes lingered only momentarily Thomas. She hated him -- despised everything about him and what he stood for -- but he might be a valuable aspect should she get a foothold in Volker.

"There may have been a time that I could have dealt with them myself, but as I am now I don't stand a chance. The man is powerful, and the shade he's bound to even more so. But there's no love between them, and if we can get the man on our side, we may be able to sway the odds in our favor. I think he can be reasoned with, but if he has Ellis and Booker we have to try." She turned to Holden and Gerard. "I need to talk to him."

// Volker //

 

[Volker]

Thomas scowled. "Then the poor sinner is bewitched just like you've bewitched my brother." he said coldly. Gerard slapped him over the back of the head. Hard. Thomas winced at the blow, his skull ringing with the force of it. "A man we can kill, but those who consort with the fae for too long are forever tainted. There might be nothing human left in him to save. His soul might already be rotted."

Elda nodded. "As much as I hate to agree with Thomas, he has a point, dear. Humans who have spent too long as pets don't tend to come out of it easily. Are you sure you can turn him against his benefactor? Moreover, are you sure he'll survive the process? Fae don't tolerate their pets misbehaving..." she said softly. She had faith in Shuck, but she was doubtful a human could help them. She was more frightened of the creature behind the pet than the pet himself. She touched Shuck's arm reassuringly. "We will do whatever you think is necessary. You know more about these two than we do."

"What would he want Booker and Ellis for?" Holden wondered aloud. "They've been gone. I haven't seen them and they know damn well not to leave the property."
"Ellis got a gift for sniffin out ley lines, figure it out." Gerard grunted.
"Reckon he's after a ley line? What use're ley lines right now?"
"Ley lines is key to magic."
"And Booker?"
"Followed Ellis, figure it out."

Holden pursed his lips and nodded out the window. "Fucker's in a hole out there like a fox. Clever actually, makin a hole like that what's dogs do to survive in the snow. What you wanna do, tap on it and see who's in?" he asked Shuck. "Me'n'Gerard will guard ya."

Volker was laying on his side in his den, watching the albino man curled up against his chest. He toyed with Booker's hair, leaning down to inhale his scent. It was....peaceful. Nice. Oor wasn't awake yet. Booker yawned and peeked a little closer at his chest, touching Oor's mark. It was a gigantic rift in the middle of Volker's chest, barely hidden by his shirt. The sides of the wound were black, and the center of it was Volker's breastbone, exposed to the air. Booker touched it gingerly, and looked up at Volker with questioning pink eyes. Volker shook his head slightly. It didn't hurt. It was merely his collar, nothing else.

Booker planted an affectionate kiss on the bone and cuddled back up, tracing the edges of it curiously. He could feel the magic there. It was like an umbilicus, tying the man he curled up with to some creature. He was fascinated by it. Volker was awash in scars. Knife scars, claw marks rending deep into his throat, clear bite marks along his jaw and neck where someone had tried to get ahold of his throat. Booker's slender white fingers touched them all.

 

[Shuck]

Bewitched him? If anything, it had been Joseph who had bewitched her. She'd been oblivious to any such notions until he'd made those first advances, and even then had balked at the idea of intimacy. Shuck opened her mouth to bite back, but her teeth shut with an audible snap. Now wasn't the time for this! Ellis and Booker were out there, somewhere, and a cannibal was trying to kill them. Gerard seemed to agree, and the sound of his hand connecting with the back if his brother's head eased a considerable deal of her anger.

But he had a point, and Elda seemed to agree. If she wanted then to have any faith in her plan, she needed to give them a little more.

"He helped us before," she offered with a slight hesitance to her voice. She had to word this carefully. "When Joseph was hurt, he showed me how to survive in the winter. He didn't have to, but he did. He said--"

She paused, frowning sharply. What had he said? He had said something, and it had stuck with her. But what was it?? Shuck grit her teeth and pressed the heels of her hands to her temples, as if she could force the thoughts out. When it came to her, she gasped.

Sixty days. I will delay it where I can. Use what I've taught you, and think about what you leave behind as much as what you take. Do not make it easy.

"'I will delay it where I can.' He has given us time to figure this out. That's not indicative of a man who's beyond helping us -- who's beyond our help if he wants to break ties with it."

She owed him. As fae, she was bound to return his kindness in equal measure. His tutelage may have been the difference between survival and death on the road to Alliria. If she could repay that by helping to free him...

The mention of ley lines made her perk up. "Are there ley lines nearby?" It was a dumb question. She was fae; she could tell that for herself. Shuck was already feeling the strength from Elda's offering, she needed to be outside with her bare feet on the ground to reliably detect them, but standing in the common room she could get an idea.

She turned north, her eyes flickering red for a moment as she reached mentally for that current of magic. It was an ability all fae possessed, but one she'd no use for. But she felt it, not too far north of the house. It couldn't help her, since she couldn't use magic right now anyway.

When she returned to the conversation, Holden was commenting on Volker's den and asking what her plan was. She paused, considering.

"It would be better to talk to Volker alone, but I don't know if the shade is always present or if he goes elsewhere sometimes." If Oor was there... She made a note to prepare the men for what they might hear, but not here -- not in front of everyone.

"Fuck it," she sighed. "He may not be expecting us to make a stand now. It's as good a time as any."

Preparing herself for attitude, Shuck turned to Thomas. "Do you have anything your brothers can arm themselves with?" She kept the sneer out of her voice and the scowl from her expression. Hopefully it didn't come to a fight today, but if it did... She didn't rightly know what would happen if it came to a fight, but she would rather they be as ready as they could be. Even if that meant arming then with whatever awful fae-killing shit Thomas had.

// Volker //

 

[Volker]

Elda nodded. "That sounds like a man who is trying to help you. Especially if he taught you how to survive. That's probably the only reason you arrived in as good a condition as you were in. My boy is a smart man, but he always had this hearth to come home to at the end of a day out in the snow." she nodded sagely. "There is a ley line, north of the house. Ellis has always had a sensitivity to it. He's been drawn to the place, I caught him out there several times when he was a child. He claims the earth sings there. I've not felt it." She sounded almost sad at the prospect.

Thomas gave her a look at the idea of weaponry and headed into the cellar. He came back up with a small armory. Three silver pikes reinforced with iron wrapped around the wooden shafts. Silver knives hilted in iron. Elda stood up when he dropped the last thing on the table. Two cuirasses made from thrall leather.
"You dare bring that in this house?!" Elda demanded. She couldn't look at it. She looked away, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Fuck's sake..." Holden said in disgust. "...this must be why the brownies haven't visited Booker in weeks."
"Give your balls a tug, we can bury this shit after." Gerard grunted, picking up one of the pikes and throwing another to Holden. Thomas had the troll tusk in his hand, and took several of the knives for himself.
Elda walked straight up to Thomas. She decked him, with a strength that knocked the other man flat to the floor. "We are going to have a serious discussion about your disrespect for your own blood." she snapped at him. "Gerard, when this is all over I want you to search this house and bring anything you find to the blacksmith in Alliria."

Gerard chuckled and stepped over Thomas. "That's a troll-sized ten-four ma'am." he said with a wide grin.
Holden sighed. "Pitter patter, let's get at 'er." he looked at Shuck. "We'll hang back. I know this makes you sick. Careful now, with the babe and all."

Volker sighed. He'd have to get up soon. Oor would be back at any moment. The fae enjoyed his long lie-ins, and generally if Volker was still and lazy, Oor checked up on him and went back to sleep. He looked down at the boy in his arms, and brushed Booker's hair back from his forehead. This beautiful little creature had given him a gift; no one had ever shown him such kindness, without saying a word or subjecting him to conversations. He put his head to Booker's and inhaled his scent. He'd miss this, but he had to get up. He didn't have to hunt, but he did have to break camp and move if he wasn't going to be discovered.

He slowly began to untangle himself, and felt Oor uncoil within him. 'What the hell is this? I send you out to sleep and you find...what the hell is that? A human?' Oor demanded. Volker was feeling the slight burn behind his eyes. Oor was using his sight. 'Get rid of it. If it's from that family, I want it dead.'
Volker bared his teeth. He did not want to hurt the little thing in his arms.
''You did not just say no to me.' Oor's voice was low, and dangerous.
"Go." Volker barked at Booker. The albino startled in his arms and looked up at him with wide eyes. There wasn't fear there, only questions. He touched Volker's chest worriedly.
A loud pop resounded in Volker's head, and it went dark for a few seconds. When he woke up, he knew where he was. Blackness all around him, a swirling mass of broken glass above him. Shards of memory, from a thousand men before himself. He had been shoved into the back seat of his own skull, the place where he and Oor were tied together. The burned corpse came at him from the blackness, glaring at him dangerously.
"Honestly. You don't say no to me, you little shit. I made you, I can destroy you. I can end you." Oor growled. "You are mine. You are my arbiter. That is all you do. If I say kill the bastard, you kill. I say jump, you jump. Hell I say shit on the lawn you'll fucking do it. I did not raise you to think, I raised you to kill. Malice owes me, and she's shafted me on the deal to go hide and play house with a bunch of humans! Did she think I was fucking stupid? No. If she cares about them, we're going to pick them off. One by one. Starting with the drooling moron who crawled in here with you."

Volker lowered his head on his shoulders, teeth bared and shoulders tense. Oor stared at him in disbelief. "You're lucky I still need you to breed the next host. If the one in your arms was female hell I might have indulged you for a little while. But he's not, so he's useless to me, and you're going to send Malice a message. Right. Now." the spirit seized him by the chin. "Do it."

Volker had been able to push back on their bond a few times in their relationship. Mostly when he was a young boy and had his own ideas about what he should be doing. It was possible to invoke his own will on Oor, just as Oor did on him. The fae was stronger, but Volker still had a small measure of power granted by the bond. It was the risk Oor took; the bond was a two way street. Volker pushed. Hard. The well broke, and when he opened his eyes again he was back in the snow. The albino was shaking him, and he could taste blood. He blinked it out of his eyes, out of his nose, and felt it bubbling in the back of his throat. That two way street came with consequences, and Oor would be back.

He spat and let Booker wipe away the blood in his eyes, nose and mouth. Volker was able to breathe a little easier, and he looked up at Booker leaning down over him. "Booker." the albino smiled and tapped his lips.
"Rheinhard." Volker muttered.
Booker nodded. It was a good name. He washed Volker's face with snow, and helped him clean up.

 

[Shuck]

While Thomas went to fetch whatever he'd stowed away, and Shuck took the few moments to sit down. She was already feeling better than she had all week, that fire of determination returning. She'd found her strength for Joseph on their journey, and now she was finding it for this family that had welcomed her so freely.

When Thomas returned, she felt more than saw what he had brought. She recoiled from them initially, their presence alone a powerful deterrent. The silver and iron affected the currents of magick, shifting away what sustained fae. It was why it wounded them so grievously. Standing in the same room with so much concentrated iron and silver... Her teeth were humming. She was honestly relieved when Elda socked her son in the face.

Shuck nodded to Holden when he assured her that they'd hang back, but... "If I could speak to you two? Outside." She gestured to the door as she slipped into her boots. Reaching for her coat, however, she hesitated and looked down at her silver hands. They dropped away, and she glanced nervously at the women of the house. If it came to a fight, the coat would restrict her movements. Her dark clawed hands and the strange unhinging of her face were the only natural defenses she had, and limiting them was probably not the wisest of choices.

So, wrapped in her shawl alone, Shuck stepped out onto the porch. She waited for both Holden and Gerard to join her and shut the door. Stepping closer to them made her teeth ache, her senses alerting her to the elements on their person.

"If the shade is there..." She hesitated for a moment but didn't lower her eyes from theirs. "I made a deal that I knew I couldn't keep buying time for Joseph. I'm not proud of it, and if it changes how you feel about me, fine. But... All I ask is that you please not tell Joseph what you may hear today."

Whether or not they agreed was up to them. She had no power to hold them to it. He was their brother, after all, and if they ultimately decided to tell him then it was their prerogative.

With a sigh, she oriented herself toward the east pasture. "Well then. Shall we? I'll do the talking. I'm sure you'll know if things go south." And with that, Shuck took the steps and set her feet onto a course toward Volker's den for better or for worse. She marched toward the pasture, her senses open and alert for any sign of danger. Not daring to get too close to the den Holden had pointed out, she stood a fair distance away and drew a long, steadying breath.

"Volker!" she called, her hands loose at her sides. "We need to talk."

// Volker //

 

[Volker]

Holden sighed and grabbed Shuck’s coat for her. He put it over her shoulders, uncomfortable with the idea of her wandering around in the freezing weather without it. He patted her awkwardly and followed her outside. Gerard looked just as uncomfortable, hanging back a little further from Shuck. They knew the silver hurt her. It would also be a shining beacon to whatever fae they were about to confront. The weapons were slightly heavier than what either man was used to, and they kept shifting them in their hands. They were capable hand to hand fighters but much like Joseph had no formal training.

“Hard no.” Gerard told her in regards to keeping things from Joseph.
“We can’t keep it quiet ourselves. Shouldn’t want to keep it quiet besides; shouldn’t keep things from people you love. Even things like this. He can handle it, trust us.” Holden reassured her. Gerard nodded in agreement. They weren’t going to lie about something this serious, no doubt Joseph would ask about it. They marched toward the den, keeping a healthy distance from Shuck. Far enough to keep the silver affecting her to a minimum but near enough to jump into action.

Volker lifted his head. Booker had cleaned up a lot of the blood on his cheeks and under his nose, but there was only so much snow could do. The albino was clearly concerned about him, and there wasn’t a way to explain why he’d suddenly started bleeding. He heard Malice outside the den and Booker lowered his head to peek out of the hole. The boy pushed back against the back wall of their tiny, fur-lined den. He was frightened he’d be punished. Volker snorted and gave himself a once-over with another handful of snow. He came out of the den, looking at Malice.

“You cheated him. He holds long grudges.” Volker told her. He eyed the pair behind her. Nothing he couldn’t take in a fight. Though he was much shorter and older by far, their sizes made them telegraph moves before they made it. It was near impossible to make something of that size and muscle that didn’t. He nodded to them. “He is angry you decided to go and play house, rather than keep a promise.”

 

[Shuck]

They were rough, coarse people but, just like Joseph, they were good. She had half expected their refusal and her demeanor was unchanged by it. At least, until their advice struck a painful chord. She didn't love him -- not really. It underscored the fact, and she cringed against the hard truth.

On their walk towards Volker's camp, however, her demeanor shifted. She had been quiet and submissive in their home, had only really fought Gerard in her fit of temper. But as they came near to the snow den, Shuck's shoulders fell back, her gait shifted to a steady stalk, and her hands hung loosely at her sides. It was a confidence born out of necessity.

Volker emerged, slightly bloodied, and she felt a moment of panic that (thankfully) didn't reach her expression. Ellis and Booker. If he had hurt them, any chance at making this deal was off.

"We all knew this was a promise I couldn't keep from the moment I made it. I couldn't have gotten my name back in that timeline, let alone paid up," she replied calmly. The wind whipped at her long dark braid. She refused to shiver in front of Volker.

"But I'm not here to talk to Oor. I'm here to talk to you." She spoke evenly, choosing her words carefully. "I can't stop him on my own, and I know you're not keen in dying, so I'm here to ask for your help."

There was no point in beating around the bush. She couldn't see Oor, but that likely meant little.

// Volker //

 

[Volker]

“Then you should have negotiated better.” Volker told her. In his mind blindly accepting the terms had been foolishness. Even if she’d hurried to court from where he met her, it would have taken far longer than sixty days to collect the girl and bring her. Oor had purposefully set her up for failure, and he’d done it to negotiate a better deal with the fae who had wanted her dead. He was bartering with Malice’s life and Volker’s. It would have been angering if he hadn’t been watching him try to do the same thing for forty years.

Then she was here asking for his help. “You know everything I hear, he will hear, whether it is now or he has to dig through my skull. If you are proposing my freedom, it would be impossible in your current condition.” Volker pulled down the collar of his shirt to show her the wound. “To kill him would destroy me. I would need a fae to take over my contract, and bind themselves body and soul. He withholds immortality from me, but I have still lived long past what a normal human would. I have only been at court a year. Oor has been at court for far longer. The solution is not as easy as killing him. If it were, I would have long ago.” He tucked his shirt back up over his collarbone.

 

[Shuck]

She fought back the indignant urge to argue when he chastised her poor negotiations. She'd not been in a very good position to compromise, and she'd learned a very important lesson in making deals.

He showed her the wicked dark rift in his chest, revealing a detail of their connection that she had suspected but needed to confirm. Their lives were linked, in life and in death. It was a deal not unlike what she (as Malice) shared with Trahaearn. And it was that realization, paired with his words, that made something click in her mind.

"Is it immortality you want?" Shuck took a single step forward. "If one were to offer to take up that contract, amending the terms to give you your freedom, would you accept it?"

Streaks of crimson shimmered in her irises and she took another step, shortening the distance between them. Very little protected her from him -- a few words that would buy her another week at best. Gerard and Holden could not have laid end to end between them. It was a wild show of faith, one that she did not give lightly.

// Volker //

 

[Volker]

Volker knee he stood on a precipice. To do this was to knife Oor in the back forever and sever their bond. It would grant him his freedom, but he hesitated like an animal in a cage who has grown far too accustomed to it. As lonely as he was, Oor had been his only parent. He wasn’t just sacrificing an enemy who held his leash. He was sacrificing memory. He was sacrificing a legacy and a reputation. Everything at court would dissipate for him.

Spidery hands snaked around Malice’s throat from behind her. Oor looked so much more like a shadowy liquid than any creature, winding himself around her. His jaws closed over her eyes, gently grasping her like some macabre blindfold. In that darkness, she was flung down the well. It was a strange sensation of falling. Things flickered by her in the darkness like shards of glass, though they had no sharp edges to cut her. She struck one, and fell into it.

A boy, perhaps seven years old stood with a shard of glass in his hand, bloodied, watching a man writhe on the ground. He looked terrified and scared. Oor praised him, settling hands on his shoulders, and Shuck was tipped out of the memory like water out of a glass. She struck another. Volker, barely a teenager, standing in the middle of a darkened hall. Full of fae, and lights that glittered dully in the darkness.

She was again poured out, and struck the bottom. It wasn’t a hard fall, more like she’d hit a swell of air that refused to let her through. Oor was waiting for her there, arms crossed. ‘You are really starting to annoy me now.’ He told her coldly. ‘Proposing stealing him wasn’t a bad idea, but honestly. What would you do with an old human who wouldn’t know what to do with freedom if he had it? Take him back to Court with you?’ He snorted. ‘Well, I like to be entertained as much as the next fae: What were you planning on doing with my castaway?’

Volker could feel things had changed. Oor was shutting him out of the conversation, which made him feel...muddyheaded. It always felt like someone had wrapped his brain in cotton, and was usually reserved for when Oor was making deals he didn’t want Volker to be a part of. As he’d said, he didn’t raise Volker to think.

“Don’t.” Volker growled when one of the humans approached Malice with one of the spears. “She is dreaming. She must come out of it alone.” The only one who had permission to come in and out of that dark place by himself was Volker.

 

[Shuck]

She saw the moment he hesitated. Shuck had watched humans for decades but had never fully understood them. Their mannerisms were awkward and foreign to her at times, put upon by abstract cultural concepts that she had no context for. Alienated and alone, she was animal and base. And she knew fear when she saw it.

Her eyes softened and her mouth slackened. She began to raise her hand, palm up, and drew a breath to speak to him, but the shadow curled around her, his nightmarish maw clamping down on her face.

She had expected him to be hiding, watching from the shadows as she knew she damn well would have if she'd been able to. Unflinching, she fell into that strange abyss of broken mirrors. Unable to control her descent, she fell into one of them, and found herself standing in front of a child. His eyes, a familiar shocking blue, were wide with terror, and dark skeletal hands fell upon his shoulders from behind. A voice curled between them, distant and muffled, and though she couldnt make outthe words it was plainly Oor's.

Slung from the memory as its shard turned, she fell into another -- this time plunged into a darkness that her eyes, seen through the memory, could not pierce. Shapes writhed and glittered in the darkness. He simply stood firm, his face shadowed from her sight but the figure still familiar.

Just as easily as she fell into it, once more she fell out. She landed with an oof, a rush of air from her lungs as she pillowed into the invisible floor. Shuck pushed herself into a sitting position with a groan, he hand sliding to her belly. It was gone, she realized with confusion before she heard a familiar voice.

Gasping, she looked up at Oor with wide silver eyes. She visibly swallowed and quickly stood, though she swayed gently.

"What does it matter to you?" she spat. But her eyes peered into the darkness around her, upward toward the slowly revolving shards suspended overhead.

"Where am I? What have you done to me?" Her voice was still sharp and demanding, but there was a note of fear.

// Volker //

 

[Volker]

Oor feigned a look of hurt. ‘Oh come now Malice.’ He said. ‘You’ve been here several times before. How else do I prove how I’ve fulfilled my contracts, or show off an impressive resume? I keep the shards that please me. Every body I inhabit, every place they have ever walked. Even meeting you for the first time.’ The ghoulish figure chuckled and pulled down a small shard from the air, flinging it into the void around them.

The black void faded, and the shards disappeared. Like putting on glasses the world came into focus. ‘Where we first met. Of course not Rheinhard, but I think this was...yes, Klaus, he lasted the longest. Completely mad, that one. Actually enjoyed the work.’ Oor cackled. ‘You liked him.’

A large, elegant hallway blossomed above them. The floor was deep and black, reflecting the complex, aged carvings far above their heads. The place was lit with an eye to the nocturnal nature of the Unseelie, but light enough that pets wouldn’t be embarrassments in the dark. It looked perpetually twilight, though there were hundreds of people around them.

Malice was there in the blackness, evaluating Oor’s new model. Klaus looked a lot like Volker, if much taller and slightly less muscular. Like all of Oor’s slaves, he was showing how he felt more in body language, and it was showing discomfort. ‘I figured it was time for the new model to show himself at court functions.’ Oor’s memory chuckled, eyeing Klaus. The boy was maybe thirteen at most, dead-eyed and dressed simply in black leather and linen. Klaus inclined his head submissively to Malice.
‘First contract comes free, as always.’ Oor was telling Malice. ‘Of course I wouldn’t say no to him having a tussle with your Trahaearn to test his skills.’

‘I’ve always liked you. Thought about courting you for a mate. We’ve shared a bed once or twice.’ Oor grinned nastily at Shuck. ‘I can show you those memories if you like...sometimes the contracts weren’t all killing. You liked your revolving door of toys.’

 

[Shuck]

Shuck raised her chin indignantly, her teeth set and her jaw working as Oor spoke. He knew as well as she did that she had no memories, that what had transpired as Malice was as foreign as another life. But he reached up, and drew around them a memory. The darkness was suddenly filled with grotesque and elegant figures, swathed in the veil of twilight. The great hall in which they stood vaulted high above them, but she paid it and the figures no mind.

Because there, turning around a teen not unlike the one she'd seen in a different memory with a predatory grace, was herself.

Her night-dark hair was fashioned with gold combs, half up in the back but the length falling in an oily curtain down her exposed back. A shimmering black silk gown hugged her curves, the neckline hanging precariously off of her shoulders and breasts. Its train formed a half moon around the young man and her long silver leg extended from a slit that angled across her hip -- dangerously close revealing too much. It was impossible to tell where the fitted black sleeves ended and her blackened hand began as she reached slender fingers to brush the boy's jaw.

"A pretty little thing," she purred, her blood red lips parting in a vicious smile before eyes just as vibrant shifted toward Oor. The smile faded and she tsked at his suggestion.

But the memory paused before it could go on any further. Shuck was shaking, and it took a great deal of effort to look back at Oor.

"What do you want, Oor? I already made one deal with you, let me make another."

Her breathing was deep, almost labored, and each trembling word seemed chosen carefully, mindfully.A shaking hand came up to the collar of the dress she wore -- a simple black wool not unlike the one she had outgrown. Her fingers were almost too distraught to undo the buttons.

"I couldn't keep my promise, but you know who I am and what I will become again. You help me now and I won't forget."

Her expression was one of clear disgust, her silver eyes burning red with hatred as she pulled the collar of her dress open, exposing her long neck and the curve of the top of her breasts. Tears shimmered across her vision, and her voice shook.

"Ill give you the silverblood girl... and me."

The link to her body was faint, distant. But as Oor drew the memory, turning his attentions toward the past and torturing her, Shuck's fingers twitched. Her hand, still half raised to Volker, opened. She was breathing hard, channeling a great deal of her energy to make her mouth move in time with her words in the abyss. Her body quaked with slight tremors, and she wasn't sure how much more she could do.

"Let me... help... you," she mouthed, her voice merely a breath upon each word. Her hand remained out, waiting for him to accept or deny her. She knew there was no going back from here. Whether or not he shook her hand, the window of opportunity was closing rapidly.

// Volker //

 

[Volker]

Oor's face showed nothing but greed. He'd wanted her for centuries. Now, with whomever had taken her name, she was reduced to this. This quivering, scared girl who had less power than his own human slave. He came to her as she undid the top of her dress with shaking hands, his face full of greed and lust. He took her head in his hands, smirking, looking down at her. 'You don't know how long I've waited for you to offer me this. The blood of a shuck, in my lines. With that I could unseat the Queen herself.' he purred. 'And you have no idea what you're offering...the same as last time you spat out some ridiculous idea. I love this version of you, Malice. It's so unbearably stupid.'

Volker snorted when she moved. He wasn't expecting it. Both Holden and Gerard aimed their spears at the spirit, tensing. Malice was still in the dream, trapped in that hideous little well Oor had dug out of his soul like a gigantic botfly wound. She was there, but she was reaching out through the bond. She'd...picked it up quicker than he'd anticipated. It had taken him a few months to do what she was now trying. It also meant he had no time to consider it. He seized her hand harshly. "I accept." he said.

Oor was just about to open his mouth and formally accept the deal, when something fell down into the void between them. 'What...' Oor craned his head back and narrowly missed another memory spinning into the black under their feet. 'What the fuck did you do, you evil little bitch?!' Oor demanded. Glass rained down on them, hundreds of thousands of memories disappearing or crashing into one another. A rift opened in the well, cracked open and crumbling. It couldn't exist with both of them in it, and Volker had made a deal with Malice.

The floor dropped under Oor as quickly as a trap door. He fell, and the well seemed to stabilize. The rift sealed up, and if she looked up, the glass had returned. Oor's collection was still there, but the owner was notably missing. She now had Volker's leash, and this was now her realm. She could control it as she pleased, tug down any memory of Volker's or his ancestors. There were thousands of hours of memories there, all floating around in glittering shards. As she stood there, silvery liquid gathered at her wrist, wrapping up her arm and settling in her chest. It anchored both of them together, though not quite as strong as Oor's bond. Oor had been a parasite, a lesser fae weak without the partnership. Malice could exist on her own. She could share Volker's strength, or cut it as she chose. She had complete control of his leash. It was up to her what she did with it.

She could stay as long as she liked in the well. It was hers.

"Oor used this as a place of research." Volker walked to her out of the black. "He is not dead. Not yet. Come back." He offered his hand to her.

She would come back to absolute chaos. She was on the ground, with Gerard and Holden standing over her protectively, both brothers shouting and whirling around with their spears. Burst out of the ground, their den burst into nothing, was Booker. Without silver to protect him, and with Oor so angry, the fae had taken his anger out on the poor albino. He was laying in the snow, sans one arm and a leg, blood splashed out over the snow. Oor was gone. Holden had ripped off his belt and was tying them around Booker's bleeding stumps. It looked like they'd been chewed off, as if he'd stood just to the left of a gigantic blast that had taken off two limbs at the elbow and knee, and had ripped open his side practically down to the muscle. Holden was packing snow on the stumps as quickly as he could, getting them properly tourniquetted.

Gerard was shouting furiously, trying to get Shuck to wake up. Volker staggered to his feet. He was bleeding heavily from his eyes, mouth and nose. He blinked, seeing a haze of movement through the red. It was all he could do to stand, unsteadily like a newborn foal, his breathing labored. Gerard threw Holden his shirt, who packed snow into it and wrapped up Booker's injuries in large strips of hastily torn cloth. The shock was incredible. Booker was just staring at his elbow, watching Holden wrap up the ragged remains in ice and linen.

"Get up." Volker told Shuck raspily. He was barely standing.

 

[Shuck]

Her nostrils flared when he grabbed her face and her jaw clenched, straining against his touch. But her eyes never left his, boring into him with that pure, unfiltered loathing. She hated him. Gods, she swore she'd destroy everything he was.

And then suddenly she felt it -- a hand grasping hers in another world and a tingle like fire through her arm. The moment their hands clasped and Volker spoke the words, black shadows erupted from between their palms. Inky black shadows twisted up her right arm and his, snaking toward their chests. The magick rent through her, and Shuck gasped, both above and within, and the whites of her eyes went black.

It hurt -- gods, it hurt her to use her magic, and this deal bound them together with no small means. Her feet weren't touching the ground, and she had no connection to the ley lines to draw from or siphon off part of the backlash. So she bore it, opened herself to it.

Inside of the abyss, a rift was forming in the well. Shuck stumbled back from Oor, losing her footing and falling to the ground where she narrowly missed one of those falling shards. She watched as the floor opened, swallowing Oor and the memories whole before it sealed again and silence fell over her.

Her body ached, and she didn't know how long she laid on the floor before pushing herself upright. Looking up, the shards remained, glittering and peaceful. Something was coiling around her arm, and she glanced down to see a line of silver tracing her right arm to her chest, where it burned against her sternum. Hissing, she pulled open her gown to see, between her breasts, a long silver line that ran the length of her sternum.

Turning at the sound of Volker's voice, she watched him approach before looking up at the chasm around them once more. He offered his hand, and she took it without hesitating.

The world came back in stages. Her body came first. She was lying in the snow, the cold leeching into her limbs in the absence of her coat. Pushing herself up, everything ached -- mostly her head. Her sight returned second, and she saw the violent spray of red across the snow. Blood? Why was there so much blood? Her eyes focused and she saw Booker and Holden.

The din returned to her last, and hit her like a boot to the face. She started, coming to her senses out of the dreamlike state. Jumping to her feet, she swayed violently and was only steadied by Gerard. There was blood in her mouth, she realized, and she brought up a hand to find her nose had bled profusely. She wiped it away with a blackened hand and pushed away from Gerard, stumbling toward Booker.

She fell to her knees beside him, her eyes wide with horror. Oor had done this. She could taste the scent of him on the air. Anger swelled in her, and she hastily began untying her boots. He was losing too much blood, and the damage to his salvaged limbs would be too great for any hope of reattaching them, no matter how good of a surgeon they found within the hour.

No, this required magick.

Throwing her boots and tearing off her socks, Shuck plunged her knees through the snow until they connected with the frozen earth beneath. Winter's power rippled through her, and she reached out for the ley line again. Like plucking the string of an instrument, she felt its power humming back to her. Shuck gently reached out and took Booker's face in her hands, ignoring everything else as she turned his head so that her red eyes met his.

"Arm or leg, Booker?" she whispered. But he gave no response. Nodding, she let go of his face and looked across his body to Holden.

"Get back," she warned him, but didn't give him a chance to argue further. Shadows bled from her dark hands as she laid them on Booker's chest.

In spite of the swathe of magick she had thrown into the bond between her and Volker, there was still more rippling through her. There wasn't enough to fix all of him, however. She knew she was playing a dangerous game, using magick, but it was a risk she was willing to take. Shuck had wrought Oor upon this family. She refused to let Booker pay this price -- it was too great. The paintings in the home were each signed with his hand. But which hand?

Inky streaks of magick sprawled away from her. It snaked out toward Booker's arm, swallowing up the light and forming a small void around the two of them. It didn't take long, a handful of minutes at most, but when the shadows rippled and dissipated suddenly, Shuck sat back with a sharp hiss. Booker's arm was reattached, a jagged pink line of flesh knitted precariously together. It was delicate, and would injure easily, but it was all she could do.

Magick had a price, and as the ley lines began to withdraw, she felt it pulling, pulling. Too much! Reaching out wildly for her bond with Trahaearn, she silently apologized to her warlock before slamming half of the pain through their connection. He had told her once that she could choose which of them suffered pain between them. She didn't dare take the brunt of this price alone, not when she had already taken so much, so now was as good of a time as any to use it.

He vision swirled, lights and colors blending in a viscous turn and she fell back into the snow.

// Volker //

 

[Volker]

Volker saw her stumble drunkenly toward Booker, and wanted to warn her. He was sure if he took a step he'd be right where she was; on the edge of collapse. It was all he could do to stand there as the albino's brothers desperately tried to stop him from bleeding out. He saw her rip off her shoes and plunger her toes beneath the ice to find the frozen ground beneath. There was a ley line here....so that was where Oor would have gone. He would find the ley line, and siphon the magic off of it to get enough strength back. Unfortunately for Volker, neither he nor Malice had any strength to be chasing the shade. "Get....rid...of the weapons." Volker snarled at the pair of brothers. The silver was making their new bond ache against his sternum, where the exposed bone had turned glittering silver.

Gerard swore and threw his spear away to catch Malice before she tumbled back into the snow, while Holden rushed to grab Booker. His arm had been repaired but he was still at risk of bleeding out from losing a leg. The men hurried back toward the house, Volker staggering after them. Holden pushed through the threshold and shouted for someone, Gerard doing the same with Shuck. Volker moved to step inside...and was met with a silver spearhead. "Not you." a young man growled at him, meeting him with an icy blue gaze. Volker snorted and backed away, in no condition to argue. He curled up on the porch, shivering. Everything was pounding in his skull. Everything hurt.

He desperately wanted to be inside where it was warm, but there was no chance of the family letting him in.

Elda bit back a scream when she saw Booker and Shuck. "Get him on the table! Quickly!" she shouted. Gerard put Shuck on the couch in front of the fire, throwing a thick blanket around her shoulders, while Holden threw everything from the table onto the ground. Dishes broke, decor went spinning across the wood floor. Elda never imagined she'd have to do this with her quiet son...she'd always planned for this day with Joseph, which was a miracle in itself. She had the knowledge. She just never thought she'd ever have to use it. She yanked out the biggest kitchen knife they had, along with a carving blade and needle and thread. Elda fought through tears threatening to strangle her....now was not the time to cry. She unwrapped his leg and let the bloody snow fall to the ground, and began to work. She carved off the ragged edges of what used to be Booker's knee, sobbing as she cut away the useless kneecap. She carved up two U shaped cuts, revealing the bone, and then slowly folded each U cut down over the stump, meeting in the middle for a suture that would cross it bilaterally. She had to use the stiffest cord she had, knitting each half of muscle over the bone and closing it up the best she could. He was pale. So pale, even for him.

She pitched a bottle of alcohol over the wound, cleaning it in one fell swoop. Booker was well and truly passed out at that point, and Elda thanked the gods he hadn't come out of the shock enough to be screaming. She washed her hands, taking time to retch in the sink at the sight of her little boy's knee laying in a clump of ragged muscle on the table. Shuck. She had to help Shuck.

"Blood. She needs blood." Elda washed her mouth out and spat. Holden blinked at her, but Gerard silently grabbed a blade.
A tube was used, much like the one Volker had used to feed Joseph, to get the blood down her. Gerard donated a generous amount, and when he was done, Holden took over.

When Shuck awoke, she would be laying on the floor with blankets piled on her, and healing herbs covering every inch of floorspace a good foot around her body.