Private Tales Nine Lives

[LaylaMoreno]

Normal people would have run away multiple times by now. Teekle and Isaac were clearly more than just simple magicians and they were both a little scary. Layla, of course, was not normal. She opened her mouth, looked at Isaac, and then closed it again. She could not even form what the fuck at the moment. She was going insane if she was about to take this mans hand and walk into very weird, very magical tunnel with him.

Apparently Layla was insane.

The shapeshifter looked down at Isaac's hand and placed hers into it. She stepped into the whatever the fuck it was that he had summoned. They were definitely going to have a talk when they got back to his room.

 

[Isaac]

The portal that Isaac had rent into the wall did not instantly take them to some far away place. That would have been teleportation, and such things were very frowned upon by the forces of nature.

That fact was one that Isaac understood well, mostly because it had been drilled into him during his years in Elbion. There were certainly rules that you just didn't break, no matter how much you might have wanted to. The consequences were too dire.

With that said. There were ways to step around those rules.

Teekle had taught him that.

As they stepped through the portal Layla and Isaac found themselves within a vast array of nothingness. A single platform of stone lingered beneath them, sitting in place as the three companion stepped upon it. The moment they were through Isaac turned.

He watched as some of the guards rushed forward, his fingers snapping and the portal closing out behind them. The Warlock mused, then motioned to the left. "This way, please."

Isaac said, and as his hand moved the tablet beneath their feet suddenly seemed to stretch and bend. It extended for what seemed like nearly half a mile until eventually reaching another door. It's light barely visible in the darkness.

 

[LaylaMoreno]

What the actual fuck?!

That is what repeating in Layla's mind as she just watched Isaac in silence. Her mind screamed at her that this was weird and wrong. She did not have a choice though. The guards were coming and Isaac closed the portal with a snap of his fingers. She was caught. If he secretly wanted to kill her, this would be the time.

Then the stone started to move and Layla started to breath a little faster. She had experienced too many new forms of magic and this was the one that was going to give her a panic attack. The no-nonsense former assassin who stared death in the face for breakfast was scared of this nothing.

She looked at Isaac and shook her head. There was no way she was walking on this weird stone platform to the tiny dot of light on the other side. She hated bridges and this was like a huge unknown bridge. She was going to die.

"I can't, Isaac..."

 

[Isaac]

Isaac stopped, still half holding Layla's hand. "What?"

The Warlock said with a frown, glancing at Layla's face. She had gone as pale as a ghost, her feet bound to the floor, her body holding a gentle shake.

He frowned for a moment, glancing around in the dark Abyss around them. Lips thinned for a brief moment, and he looked down at Teekle who was already a few feet onto the bridge.

"It's fine." Isaac said. "It's perfectly safe."

It wasn't. "I'll walk right besides you."

The warlock said with a smile.

"Just think of the end goal. Look down at your feet." He tutored. "And walk."

 

[LaylaMoreno]

Layla held Isaac's hand in a death grip as he reassured her. She did not believe him for a millisecond but she nodded and started to walk anyways. He was here. If he let her fall then she would take him with her. That brought a small amount of comfort.

She looked down at her feet like he had told her and walked. Think of the end, look at feet, walk, and repeat. Layla knew she could do this. She was strong. She was an assassin. She killed people for money. A dark scary bridge portal thingy was not going to get the best of her!

 

[Isaac]

They walked, and walked, and walked.

It must have felt like something of an age to Layla. The creeping fear that had settled over her, the small gnawing that sat at the base of her spine. Isaac knew that feeling, he had felt it the first time he had ever met Teekle.

One of the only times he had ever felt it. "There we are."

He said as they finally reached the source of light.

It was another portal, though this one already open and staring out into a room. It was not the hotel that they had started their day in, but instead a wide open almost foyer. Stone floors and highly decorated walls greeted them, the doorway simply hanging open behind as the two stepped out from the abyss.

"Not so bad." He commented.

 

[LaylaMoreno]

It felt like forever.

As soon as Layla's feet hit the stone floor, she doubled over with her hands on her knees. She was breathing so hard that it looked like she had just been running for hours. She stayed like that for several minutes until her breath steadied and she stopped shaking. She had made it to wherever they were.

She finally looked at Isaac and narrowed her eyes. "Not so bad? That was literally the worst thing I have ever experienced and I have experienced a lot of shit!" She wasn't mad at him, of course. It was necessary for them to escape. She was just trying to calm down now.

 

[Isaac]

Isaac waited patiently while Layla recovered herself, watching in silence with no small amount of amusement. He wondered briefly why this was such a problem for her, but decided that now was probably not the best time to ask.

"Well." The Warlock offered, his gaze flicking away from her and beginning to search the room. "This is an experience that probably only a dozen people alive today have had."

He mused. "So really..."

Isaac decided not to finish the sentence. "Anyway. Maybe we should get you something to drink? Celebrate a job well done?"

 

[LaylaMoreno]

Layla glared at Isaac. She could tell he was amused by her plight and she wanted to punch him in the face. Not really, she liked the way his looked. She'd punch him in the stomach...yep...that would work.

"Listen, I am claustrophobic and that was one big tunnel of you are going to die!" Yes, the assassin was claustrophobic. She hid in all sorts of things throughout her life. Luckily, she also had the choice to shift most of the time too.

"Drink, yes, please. Are you also going to tell me what you two are and the significance of the ring?" Her voice was low. She did not need anyone overhearing them.

 

[Isaac]

Isaac was about to point out that the vast abyss they had just walked through hadn't given her a reason to be claustrophobic, after all it had been a wide endless open space. But years of study in Elbion had told him that likely wouldn't really have mattered in her mind.

There had been no light, no sound, nothing save for what they brought with and what stood at the other end of the bridge. That had been enough.

Isaac's lips snapped shut for a moment, and he decided not to make the argument. "Me?"

He asked.

"I'm just Isaac Moreau. Son of Constantine Moreau." His father was not a famous man, at least not to those outside of Alven. But he had been wealthy, incredibly so."Teekle is...well Teekle is harder to explain."

The Warlock said with a frown. "How much do you know about magic?"

As Isaac spoke he lead them to a pair of double doors, pushing them open to reveal a comfortable study. Two hairs, seemingly endless bookshelves, and a warm hearth.

 

[LaylaMoreno]

Layla followed Isaac through the double doors. This was her kind of room. So many books to read, comfortable chairs, and fire. This is where she could disappear for days and no one would find her. Reading was one of her secret pleasures that not many knew about.

"I am a shapeshifter and recovering assassin," she couldn't say former because she would definitely still take a job if she needed to. She also figured that they were far past being secretive. "I know my type of magic, obviously, but beyond that I use poisons...which aren't magic so much as science," she finished as she touched the spines of the books on the bookshelves.

"I have seen magic but nothing like you two before," she turned to look at the duo of whatever they were.

 

[Isaac]

"Yes." Isaac said with a nod as he went over to a strange sort of globe in the corner of the room, opening it up to reveal a few bottles of liquors and crystal glasses.

"There are many kinds of magic in this world." The dropout began to explain as he he poured each of them a glass. "Shapeshifting, like yourself."

He picked up the two glasses, walking towards her. "Wizards, like those in Elbion who study their whole lives to learn spells."

Isaac had never been good at that.

"Sorcerers, like the Dreadlords of Vel Anir whose magic is innately a part of them." He clicked his tongue as he stepped in front of her. "Blood Mages, like the Er'enthi of the Drow."

Horrifying things. One couldn't even call them people. "Then there are those like me. Warlocks most would call us, though some take the title of Priest or Cleric or whatever else."

He mused for a moment, offering her the glass.

"We get our power from others. The Gods, Divines, Fae..." Isaac trailed off with a shrug. "A shortcut to power, so might argue."

It was what the Maestar's had always said.

 

[LaylaMoreno]

Layla listened to Isaac with great interest. He was already providing her with a wealth of information that she was tucking away. She accepted the glass from him with a smile and took a sip as he continued.

She let out a hmmm once he had finished speaking. "I always thought sorcerer, magician, warlock, mage, and wizard were just interchangable with one another. I did not realize they all did different things or had different skill sets. It makes sense though."

She took another sip as she walked over to one of the comfortable chairs and sat down, crossing one leg very unladylike over the other. Stupid dresses, she thought.

"So you get your power from," Layla's free hand fluttered in the air. "Whoever. Do they use you? I find it hard to believe that a God or whatever would give someone power just because."

 

[Isaac]

Isaac followed along with Layla, though didn't take the seat opposite her. Teekle was already lounging upon it, and he wasn't about to disturb the cat. "Terminology is just that. I learned mine from the College, but in Alliria they might call it something different."

He knew that the Dreadlord's never referred to themselves as sorcerers, but in his mind that was all they were. Isaac supposed if he had more interest in such matters he might have ventured around and asked more magical colleges, but such things didn't matter much to him.

Briefly the Warlock glanced at Teekle.

"Of course." He said with a shrug. "Magic always has a price."

One of the most important rules. "The Fae are famed for the contracts they sign. The tricks that lurk within them. Gods claim your soul, in a matter of speaking. Spreading their word and worship, and bringing you to their afterlife."

He shrugged.

"Me?" A wry chuckle escaped him. "My price has yet to be determined."

A gambit he was still in the midst of.

 

[LaylaMoreno]

"I feel like knowing the price you are going to pay is probably the very first thing you should find out..." Layla may have sounded like she was being facetious but she was not. Magic was no joke. She was born a shapeshifter but it took her a long time to control and learn her magic. It took her a long time to stop shifting into a kitten every time she sneezed or was scared.

"So we have established that you are a not so bright Warlock who doesn't read fine print," she said this with a smile. "What the actual fuck is Teekle? Besides the most adorable, good boy kitty I have ever met," her voice definitely changed to an almost sweet tone when she spoke of the cat. She really liked him. Maybe it was a cat thing since that had always been her main animal when shifting.

 

[Isaac]

Isaac looked down at the cat, then up at Layla with a smile. "Oh. He's a daemon."

 

[LaylaMoreno]

Layla had been mid drink of her alcohol when Isaac spoke. She swallowed half, spit out half, and then proceeded to cough for what felt like ever.

Once she had regained her breath and she was sure that she would die by choking, she spoke again.

"A fucking demon?! A demon?! How the fuck does someone get a demon?!" Her voice had definitely gone up a few octaves and she had rose from her seat again. These two were insane. Absolutely bloody insane. And she was insane for liking them.

 

[Isaac]

"No no no." Isaac said, waving a hand. "Not a demon."

He didn't really blame her for thinking that, after all she hadn't gone to the College for half her life. Academia was so mindlessly relenting that even with such an education it was hard to sift through everything. A lesson he'd learned...and then rejected.

"He's a Daemon." There was a difference.

"Well..." Isaac took a sip of his drink. "A part of one, anyway."

He mused for a moment. "He's sort of like an anchor, a connection."

Teekle let out a long purring noise as Isaac reached down and began to stroke him behind the ears. The cat seeming to sit there rather smugly.

 

[LaylaMoreno]

Layla felt herself calm down...slightly. Not a demon. Okay. Not a demon.

She took a long, slow breath before retaking her seat. "Sorry, the two words sounded very similar..."

The shapeshifter looked from Isaac to Teekle and then back to Isaac. "So he is your connection to your magic? That was gifted to you by a God or whatever?"

Poor Isaac was probably starting to think she was on the slow side at this point.

 

[Isaac]

"Close enough." He was sort of a god, but judging from Layla's reaction to the word 'demon' she would not enjoy knowing the exact details.

Teekle was an anchor, a connection, a power source, and a half dozen other things.

"I made a bargain." He said, drawing his attention back towards Layla. "For power, for knowledge, for myself."

A shrug rolled over his shoulders. "A shortcut, the Maester's at the college called it."

He mused, his finger still scratching Teekle's ear. "But I supposed we can't all be visionaries."

 

[LaylaMoreno]

"And I thought my magic could be complicated," she chuckled and took a sip from her drink. This time it went down the right way and she did not die from coughing.

"So...I now know what you and Teekle are. What do you do and why did you need the ring?" Layla was way to invested to walk away now. Even if Isaac didn't pay her another gold, she wanted to stick around.

 

[Isaac]

Isaac pulled the ring out from his pocket. "This is a piece of a puzzle."

The Warlock answered.

"One that I am attempting to assemble." He frowned for a moment, his thumb running gently over the set ruby within the ring. Lips thinned for a brief moment, and then he finished off his drink in a quick gulp. "But, I'm still missing a few pieces."

That was a bit of an understatement. "Like I told you before."

Isaac shrugged. "I'm opening doors."

 

[LaylaMoreno]

"You are very cryptic, very irritating, and only a little helpful..."

"But I like you both and I will admit this is the most fun I have had in a while...so..." She kind of hated herself for asking him if she could join them but she hadn't been lying. This had been fun.

"Can I join you both as you assemble this puzzle of yours?" Yep. She had lost her mind.

 

[Isaac]

Isaac considered for a brief moment.

He was not a good man, not by any stretch of the imagination. He never would, and never wanted to be. Isaac had done this, was doing this for power. For a gift that most humans would crave in their very heart of hearts. He wondered if Layla realized that already, or if it was a lesson she would come to learn. "Sure."

The Warlock said with a shrug.

"Though, I warn you there's going to be a lot of waiting." That was always the game with this sort of thing. The Arcane was never very clear about...anything. "It took me months to figure out where to find this damned thing."

He waggled the ring. "And even then they hid it from Teekle."

Isaac had actually needed a spell to guide him.

 

[LaylaMoreno]

"Assassin," Layla said as she pointed to herself. "My life is basically waiting around."

She also finished her drink. "Also, where are we now?"

It had not been lost on her that they had not returned to the hotel and she wondered if she would be able to retrieve her bag at some point. As a rule, she didn't own much but a good chunk of change and some poisons where in there. Also, her favorite dagger was there too.

"I need to get my bag at some point," she told Isaac.