Fable - Ask Oddities

[Heike Eisen]

Morri's Oddities.​

A secluded mansion and shop, north of Elbion and close to the Gulf of Liad. A store for things one wants. A store for things one doesn't. Behold the menagarie of things you never knew you always wanted, things you never knew you would shy from. There's a bit of yourself in here, you know. Waiting. Hm. Just waiting. For you. Discover what draws your eye, and discover what repulses it. Oh yes. You'll know before you leave. Some things in life are free.

Isn't that sweet?

Hm.

* * * * *​

Heike Eisen was referred. Apparently, many people were referred to this shop--not a lot who simply wandered in--and she could see why. The mansion, inexplicably, was in the middle of nowhere. A stretch of land uninhabited for miles around. The mansion was nestled among a patch of hardy, sparse trees, with the foothills of the Seret mountains to the south and the sheer cliff face and the Gulf of Liad some hundred yards to the mansion's north.

She approached. Noting the strangeness of the grass around the mansion being meticulously trimmed. Noting the sign above the mansion's front doors, the words written in elegantly stylish script: Morri's Oddities.

And the door was unlocked.

Quite inviting.

* * * * *​

It was quiet on the inside. Heike's footsteps, normally verging on completely silent themselves, sounded like a troll's lumbering stomps.

She stood by the front doors in the mansion's foyer, glancing about warily. The interior of the mansion was awash in warm shades of endless red: faded pinks and muted cranberries, brilliant rose and subtle sanguine. Though the walls were packed with decorations and shelves and paintings and cabinets and all manner of smaller items neatly arrayed, not one speck of dust could be seen anywhere. Not even in the soft white glow that seemed to be an ambient light, coming from nowhere but permeating gently through the whole of the mansion.

"Wel~come~," said a voice from nearby.

Heike looked. Across from the staircase leading up, there on the opposite wall of the foyer was some manner of counter, flanked by thick crimson curtains on either side and adorned with a soft red and tasseled cloth on its surface.

Beyond the counter, sitting in a chair fit for nobility and with an elbow resting on the counter, Morri. The sorceress, the proprietor. She, oddly, appeared both child-like and adolescent, both adolescent and adult. Her presence both sinister and soothing. Her smirk made of both friendly playfulness and sly cunning. Her orange, half-closed eyes tired and energetic. The red, hooded shawl she wore innocent like a little girl's and wicked like a callous assassin's. The twin locks of her blonde hair draping down on either side of her face both purposefully disheveled and accidentally orderly. Her bare feet both endearing and repulsing.

Oh, and she wore a big bow on her shawl. Just a bow. At the base of her neck. Nothing special. Hm.

"Come closer," Morri said, her voice nasal in quality. Her consonants drawn out and enunciated in unorthodox ways and in sporadic fashion. Her inhalations a touch hollow and raspy, as if she had some trouble breathing.

Heike, with no shortage of heightened vigilance, walked across the foyer and to the counter and stood before the sitting--girl? woman?--sorceress.

"You must be Morri," she said.

"That...I am."

Heike expected her to say more. She didn't. Just kept sitting there with her elbow on the counter, gazing at and through her.

So Heike prompted, "I was referred."

"By one of my friends~~....in El~bion." Morri rocked her dangling leg back and forth lazily. "I know."

Heike, more than slightly frustrated, broke from her purpose in being here and diverted into saying, "Can I ask you something?"

A spark of interest in Morri's eyes. "You can ask me...hmmmm..." A pause. Longer enough for Heike to almost speak, and then Morri finished: "...anything~."

"Are you a girl? A woman?"

"Both. And neither."

"Are you," Heike's head turned a little askew, "intentionally contradicting yourself?"

"We all have our natures."

"What the hell are you?"

"Certainly not...what you might thin--k~~"

Heike shook her head. Let it go. So wasn't here for the sorceress, but rather for something she heard the sorceress had. And so she asked, "Do you know what I have come here for?"

"There is something you want. And there are...plen~~ty of things you don't know you want."

"I'd rather keep this to one transaction at a time."

Morri just giggled. A nasally sound, like her voice.

Heike said, "The Ocular Vampiris. Do you have it?"

"'Have' is an in~~teresting word."

"Will you sell it to me or not?"

"So is 'sell.'"

Heike closed her eyes. Touched her forehead with the side of her closed fist. Gathering the resolve to get through this interaction.

"Can you please...simply tell me...what I must do to acquire this item from you."

"Answer me thisssss: why do you seek it?"

Heike, without hesitation, said, "To destroy it."

Morri's eyelids bounced upward suggestively. "Ooooohh..."

"So what must I do?"

"First~~..."

And Morri didn't finish her sentence. Just sat there. Elbow on the counter and smirking and looking up at Heike.

"First what?"

"Say hello to Malphias."

"Who?"

"Malphias."

"You said that. Who is he?"

"That's not importan~~t."

"Alright. Fine. What is important about him?"

"Say hello. He's right behind you."

Malphias

 

[Malphias]

Malphias was lavishly draped over a grand velvet chair, bathed both in shadow and soft beams of the rosey hues that cut through the array of drooping voile fabrics that dressed the room's window. His irritability had been tested by the sorceress when he'd arrived hours earlier too, and so if he had suffered it, he'd stay silent and allow the woman he'd been waiting on to suffer the same exasperated headache as he had.

The tiefling had been in his human form today, he had tried every charm and trick in the book with the sorceress, but she had seen through his illusions and flirtations and had laughed the efforts aside much to the detriment of his pride. She had something he needed too badly to have caused a scene about it, he was at her bidding and had been told to wait for this woman to arrive for their quest to be revealed.

His head bobbed side to side, to the right when Morri responded in riddles, and to the left when the woman asked another question she'd never get a straight answer to. It had played out in a similar fashion before, he'd already watched the rehearsals. And now, he was being introduced to the charade, and he made sure his collar was straight and his hair in place despite his lounged position.

Enter stage right. Malphias had been dangling a large crystal in front of him, being childishly amused by the rainbow diamonds they'd cast on Morri's face, but the woman's patience had been iron. Now he had a new face, a new canvas to let the prisms dance upon, and they did as the woman turned to face him. "Good evening.. I'll forgive the lateness of the hour if this head case will finally tell us what she wants from us and I can be on my merry way.". he spoke with a honeyed voice, a row of perfectly alined teeth flashed at the two with a smile that failed to reach his eyes that were mostly blue but had darkened to grey in correspondence with his current mood.

He set the crystal down and stood, stretching off the hours he'd spent sprawled in waiting, brushing the wrinkles out of his sleeves, lifting his chin and fastening his silken jacket. When he was sure he was perfect, he approached, giving the woman an exaggerated bow with a hand pressed to his chest "Malphias, a pleasure my lady." he straightened, his eyes wandering the female with silent curiosity and a slight curl at the corner of his lips for a brief moment, before turning to rest his hands impatiently onto Morri's counter once again. "Now.. Can we get this over with? I am rather pressed for time." he asked in a tone much colder than he'd afforded Heike.

 

[Heike Eisen]

Heike turned around.

And would have flinched. Normally that was the appropriate reaction for someone with adequate reflexes having come to see something or someone that until an abrupt second ago had escaped notice. But the man, Malphias, was handsome. Strikingly so. Exceedingly so, it could be said. And Heike found herself momentarily taken aback, and pleasantly fond of his attention.

His attention, which, notably, did not contain any of the adversarial qualities she had come to expect on account of her affliction: fear, hatred, disgust, among others. Of the sorceress Morri, Heike had been assured that she would not care in the slightest about her affliction. Which, while true, came with its own immediately apparent caveats. She had no such assurances for anyone else who may have been in the mansion, hence the welcome surprise of Malphias's warm reception. She even took no notice and therefore exception to being called "lady." It simply didn't register as it usually might.

Oh. He bowed. Given that a salute would have been inappropriate, Heike felt an urge to curtsy in return. Decided against it. She only ever curtsied in very formal occasions, from a lost time before her affliction.

"Heike Eisen," she said in a cordial tone. She had her mask down, and so offered a smile in greeting. Her title of knighthood, her rank, and her allegiance she left out, keeping her introduction simple and personable.

Heike turned back to the counter now, Malphias beside her.

Now.. Can we get this over with? I am rather pressed for time.

Morri looked to Malphias with a flick of her eyes and said, "Would I make you wai~t?"

"I've greeted Malphias," Heike said. "Tell us what we need to do."

"...There'ssss...a basemen~t."

Heike waited. Morri didn't elaborate. Just sat and smirked ceaselessly and breathed in those tiny, hollow breaths through her nose.

Heike made a twirling motion with her finger, Get on with it. Said, "And?"

"Did you ask Malphias why he's im~~por-tan-t?"

"I thought you liked being the one asked questions."

Morri's gaze lit up again and her eyelids flexed upward for a fleeting second. The very tip of her tongue peeked out from her lips at the corner of her mouth, much like a rodent testing the surroundings outside its den, then retreated back inside. She said, "He's a tiefling."

Heike blinked. Looked at Malphias briefly, as if for clarification. Then, back to Morri, she said, "What's a teethling?"

Morri giggled. Drew in a raspy breath of air through her mouth and let out a whimsical sigh.

Heike, confused, asked, "Did you mean thiefling? I, uh, I don't...I'm not familiar with..."

Lost for words, grasping at what the sorceress even meant by tiefling (a term Heike had never heard before), she looked back to Malphias. Surely he would be more forthcoming than Morri. For all Heike knew, this was some kind of joke or foolery being played at Heike's expense.

 

[Malphias]

Malphias's arms locked as he gripped onto the counter, his gaze downcast and his head fell below his shoulders as his knuckles grew white, obviously losing patience with the woman's crypticness. "Tiefling." he corrected Heike firmly and shook his head, wishing Morri would simply get to the point. He let out a sharp exhale and gathered what diluted manner he had left and stood straight again, turning on his heels to regard Heike again, a brow risen in surprise that she hadn't a clue what a Tiefling was.

Rather than explain, he let go of his illusion. His skin colour was the first to change, and although the handsome contours of his face remained the same, the pale skin that stretched across them darkened to a deep shade of violet. Dark grey eyes blinked, and at once they were solid red and much more sinister. Still, he smiled, and the teeth that had been so perfectly straight were armed with sharp points that he ran his tongue across. Two, smooth, rune-decorated horns appeared as though from a fine mist on his head, as did the long tail that swept irritably behind him. "I always find things go a little more..smoothly when I hide certain parts of myself for introduction's sake.. I am sure you understand pretty one.." he winked at her, a boyish grin twisting at his lips for a short moment, allowing the woman to admire him of course, before he once again turned back to face Morri.

"Right. Now that's out of the way , will you get ON with it?.." his knuckles paling again as his fist tightened, but his jaw clenched and he refrained from grabbing hold of the woman and shaking it out of her.

 

[Heike Eisen]

Tiefling. Oh. It didn't help much, knowing the correction pronunciation, but it was a step closer--however minute--to understanding what the sorceress was even talking about with regard to Malphias.

Then Heike found out for herself.

The changing color of his skin didn't bother her. But after Malphias blinked and his eyes (weren't they blue to begin with? how...when did they become grey?) changed to solid red, Heike jumped back from him. Cleared a good distance. Brought up her claws in a fighting stance as Morri just giggled further at her reaction. The horns and the tail and the sharpened teeth weren't very endearing to Heike either, but she hardly had warrant to judge and she knew it: were not her own claws, pale skin, and yellow eyes off-putting to (as much as it pained her to think of it this way) regular humans?

I always find things go a little more..smoothly when I hide certain parts of myself for introduction's sake.

"No kidding," Heike said.

I am sure you understand pretty one.

"And I do. Believe me, I do."

As much as the red eyes and the new overall appearance of Malphias had shocked her, in that notion they found some common ground. She couldn't speak to the general level of acceptance of Tieflings in the societies of Arethil, but, if her own personal reaction was anything to gauge, it likely was not very welcoming--at least initially. Perhaps it was very much the sort of reception vampires (rightfully) were shown.

Heike, retaining a bit of carefulness in her approach, nonetheless walked back across the distance she had jumped back and stood before Morri's counter and beside Malphias once again.

...will you get ON with it?

Morri's eyes slid over to him. And she said, "Get on with...wha~t."

Heike briefly closed her eyes and pursed her lips. Then said, "The basement, Morri. There's that and Malphias is important for it and for what you want...presumably."

"He'sssssss...a Tiefling~~. He can open the door, you know. I had a Tiefling once. Misplaced him. Oops." And she blinked, her smirk constant.

"So," Heike, based solely on the contortions of her quizzical expression, was trying to piece all of this together, "he can open the door. Because he's a Tiefling. Why do you even need me then?"

Morri's eyes gleamed for a fleeting moment at being asked a question. She said, "I wouldn't want to be rude."

"To...Malphias?"

"Toooo~~ myself."

Heike's eyes narrowed. "I'm not going to ask."

"Aww." Morri's tone had within it just the tiniest touch of derision.

"Tell us what you want from the basement."

Morri just stared at her. Smirking and staring and lazily rocking her dangling leg as she sat in her luxurious chair behind the counter.

Heike glanced to Malphias and then back to Morri, "What do you want from the basement?"

Morri swayed her head slightly. Said, "The basement doesn't have anything for me. It has something for you. There's a bit of yourself in there, you know."

"I didn't, and I don't want to."

"You'll know it when you see it."

Heike, hoping this one would at least be answered with some semblance of sense, asked, "And where is this basement? Which way?"

Morri grinned. Actually showed a flash of her teeth. And said, "Right behind you."

Heike turned her head--not entirely all the way at first, a brief pause halting her--to look back over her shoulder.

That staircase in the foyer, opposite Morri's counter, that had been leading up...was now leading down. No sound or light of anything precipitated this change. It simply was, having happened at some indeterminate moment when Heike and Malphias had their backs turned.

Malphias

 

[Malphias]

Malphias was very particular about his appearance, not a hair was ever out of place for long and he rarely looked dishevelled. And so because they didn't know him, they wouldn't have known just how irritated he was as his hands physically gripped hold of his hair and pulled it from it's slick neatness. Anger was such a boring emotion, at least when it was radiating from him. He found other people's anger interesting enough but he was growing so tired of the irritation of the woman that he'd considered reaching for her throat and ripping it out of her and being done with the whole thing.

No. He'd come here looking for something that might help him. He had a bond to sever, and she had something locked away in a basement that would allow him to do so. It wouldn't be long before he was called for, and the one calling for him would soon find that he'd betrayed her, and he wouldn't live another day if he didn't get what he needed.

"Fuck woman just tell us where the fucking basement is and what we're looking for already!!" he snapped and looked up at her, hair askew and his breathing picking up a new pace. It was out of character. Self control, at least in that regard, was not something he lacked.

Malphias followed Heike's gaze and spun on his heels to see that the foyer had changed. He looked at her, a look that said he was just as confused about the matter as she was, but he cast a scowl over the woman behind the counter and strode forward to the door, and reached hesitantly for the handle. He was edgy around women like Morri. He had his own little tricks but women like her were dangerous and he'd been caught in his share of traps.

"Are you coming?..If it's anything like this midden we'll be searching for a while. Not like she'll make it easy for us at this point." he growled at Heike without turning back, and gripped hold of the handle to pull the door open.

 

[Heike Eisen]

Thank you!

Heike, not one particularly inclined to use profanity, nevertheless harbored the exact sentiment Malphias burst out with aloud. Yes, it was true that Heike wanted to destroy the Ocular Vampiris before some other vampire--or, worse, a vampire lord--could get their filthy hands on it, but Morri's mannerisms were testing her patience. Straining her patience. Cheap and vulgar as it was, it felt good to hear Malphias berate the sorceress in the manner that he did.

Then Morri told them where the basement was.

And Heike turned her head to see.

What was it with Morri and her announcing that things were, in fact, right behind you? Wait. No. Don't ask, don't worry about it, just be happy that the sorceress at last got to the point. Heike still wasn't entirely clear on what, exactly, Morri wanted her and Malphias to retrieve from the basement for her--whether it actually was the Ocular Vampiris (in her case) or something else. A related matter: what was it that Malphias wanted? Heike knew that he was necessary--for some arcane reason--for the door to even be opened, but surely he wanted something from the sorceress as well.

It would be seen. Just needed to keep her wits about her, and she could get this done.

Heike turned and approached the newly inverted staircase leading down to the--rather plain and unimpressive--wooden door. Malphias descended down the stairs first. Asked if she was coming. Some amount of healthy suspicion had stayed her own descent (and why wouldn't it, given the trickster Morri had proven herself to be), but she started down the stairs, albeit with that small delay.

Malphias put his hand on the door handle. It hummed softly in response, and it opened for him.

A deep blackness through the doorway. Even the ambient light of the foyer behind them didn't penetrate in. Even Heike's nightvision couldn't see what was inside. It was as if there were nothing. No walls, no floor, no ceiling, no reality.

Heike glanced to Malphias.

Do what you came here to do, Heike.

Then stepped first through the doorway into the basement. An odd feeling, crossing the threshold between the rest of the mansion and the basement: it felt akin to briefly being submerged in water.

* * * * *​

At first, nothing.

Heike could glance back and see back through the doorway to the stairs and look at Malphias and all of that seemed alright. But the interior of the basement remained solid midnight. She was standing on something, obviously, because she wasn't falling. But otherwise there was nothing but black inside the basement.

"I can't see anything," Heike said, after looking away from the doorway (the one tangible thing that remained to be seen) and into the inky nothing of the basement.

This, for a time. Just blackness.

Then, after a substantial delay caused by Heike's resistance to magic, the blackness started to gain form. Shape. The blackness itself slowly brightening and morphing into different colors. A whole world was coming to life inside the basement.

Only, once it was done, it was clear that Heike and Malphias weren't "inside" a basement anymore.

Spoiler: The scene

(Florent Llamas)

The scene of a quiet, brick-laid street--they were currently alone. Timber-framed houses of white and brown, constructed of wattle and daub or brick, with steeply pitched roofs made of slate or clay tiles. The occasional shop dotted in-between these homes along the street. Prominently, trees and bushes and flowers adorned the buildings, hanging from their outer walls in pots or allowed to grow by their facades or along their sides. Trees, indications of a larger garden or park, beyond the roofs of the houses. And, farther in the distance, a Citadel rose high. The sun was shining in its morning ascent and wisps of white clouds streaked across the blue sky above.

Heike froze. Utterly shocked. But pleasantly so. She knew exactly where this was.

"This...this is Reikhurst," Heike said breathlessly. "My home is just down this street."

Indeed, Heike once lived on Vale street, near the Garden District in Reikhurst. The very same Reikhurst that was sacked and burned by a host of vampires five years ago.

"This isn't real. But..."

She wished it was. She wished the previous five years had been left at the door.

The door which, curiously, was freestanding in the middle of the street they were now on. Like some kind of surreal monolith.

Malphias

 

[Malphias]

The darkness seemed to engulf him, like he had stepped into a vertical pool of shadow, all light snuffed out by the thickness of it. Malphias did not enjoy the black nothingness that he'd stepped into, and his tail flicked anxiously from one side to another, betraying his uneasiness. He reached a hand out in front of him, clutching at the air with a sharp huff before turning back to Heike, obviously reconsidering. He didn't like it at all, that much was clear by the look on his face, though the growl that rattled forth from his throat emphasised the point. "There's nothing here. Physically, nothing." he muttered in response to her and stopped in his tracks, too worried about falling into a trap to move any further forward..

"I don't have time for this.." he spoke quietly to himself and clenched his jaw. He would not leave the sorceress alive before he left if the woman had indeed wasted his very precious time.

But then, a mist of colours was forming, structures becoming more visible, cobbles underfoot. The tiefling's brows lifted, quite clearly impressed by the illusion ~ he was himself a self proclaimed artist, but this was intriguing. Was this Morri's work, or had this been why she had needed him, the illusionist?

He took in the street, and confusion quickly returned as he realised that things were still lacking clarity. Why couldn't the woman simply have sold him what he needed and been done with it? He was on the verge of lashing out as his patience had come to an abrupt end, but Heike spoke and he spun on his heels to fix his glassy red gaze on her, his head tilting. "What?"

Malphias stepped into her personal space, lifting a clawed fingertip to the underside of her chin to tilt her gaze to meet his "You lived here?.." he frowned "It's either an illusion, or a memory.." he narrowed his gaze. "Take us to your home, little bat. We should start there." he smirked, but the movement failed to meet his eyes. Now he was relying on her to navigate this place, he could only assume whatever she needed would be some place that she knew well, hidden away. This whole thing was a mystery to him, and he was in a hurry ~ it was up to her to keep his rising temper from spilling over right now.

"Let's go."

 

[Heike Eisen]

It wasn't real. It may have looked and sounded and seemed in almost every sense to be real, but it was not. Like the sparse dreams of being in Reikhurst before her affliction and before the city had been brought to ruin, this too would flee from her. But Heike could bask in it. Drink it in. This small indulgence of irresistible fantasy.

And that fantasy was interrupted abruptly when Malphias stepped quite close to her and lifted her chin. She was a touch irritated by the gesture, even while at the same time she enjoyed the contact of other--perceived to be patronizing or not.

You lived here? It's either an illusion, or a memory.

"Yes. This is,"--a small realization gave a slight lift to her brow--"like a dream I've had before."

It made sense. How all of the details were as Heike remembered them. She doubted severely that Morri had ever visited Reikhurst, but her magic--or whatever magic infested this basement--had patiently coaxed its way past Heike's magic dampening and constructed this separate little world, this little pocket of Reikhurst pulled from Heike's wishful thinking and wistful dreams.

Take us to your home, little bat.

Heike's face scrunched up in visible objection. "Did you just...?"

She closed her eyes and shook her head. Let it go. Malphias seemed one of those types: people who had a pet name or nickname of some description for everyone they met. Fine. Endure it. This was for the greater good of all Arethil, the destruction of a dangerous vampiric artifact, and if she needed Malphias to see it done, then it would have to be so.

A brief pause in her thoughts.

Vampires didn't turn into bats, did they? No, that'd be ridiculous. She couldn't. And she wouldn't if she could--it'd be an awful experience. That had to be one of the taller tales about vampires, no matter how many diverse strains were out there. A bat. For the love of home and hearth, a bat.

"This way," Heike said, walking down the street at a pace brisk enough to be one level below a jog.

A curious thing. There were people, available to be noticed, as Heike and Malphias went down the cozy morning street. Reikhurstan citizens in their houses or by their windows or even crossing the street in front of them. Heike even tried to say, "Hello!" to one of them. None reacted. The people seemed to shy away from coming in direct contact with them, but other than that, it was as if Heike and Malphias were ghosts.

And another curious thing, Heike was slowly becoming cognizant of.

"I...I know this day," she said aloud as she walked. "This day. This particular day. I...wasn't a knight yet. I was..."

Was what?

Heike didn't think too much about voicing pieces of her past, herself, in Malphias's presence. It seemed to her that whatever the sorceress wanted out of the basement had to do with this illusion, this memory, this dream. Maybe what she wanted was not even something tangible. Maybe Morri just wanted something to happen, to see something happen.

Heike saw her house. Ahead. And upon seeing it her still heart swelled with excitement and joy and she ran. Ran to the door and grabbed the handle and pushed the door open to reveal:

Not what she expected. Not what she desperately wanted to see. Something entirely different; much in the same manner as the basement door itself operated, the door to Heike's home led elsewhere. This elsewhere a construct based solely on a willingness not from her, but from Malphias. A place formed of conscious want, or perhaps unconscious need.

Spoiler: If Malphias is willing

The door to Heike's home would lead instead to this place from Malphias's past. To a place he desired to be for one reason or another. Perhaps for a reason as simple as saying something which he did not say at the time. Perhaps for a reason as grand as making a different, life-altering choice.

Spoiler: If Malphias is unwilling

Blackness. The same blackness as when they had first entered the basement. Only with another door some indeterminable distance away, waiting for their arrival and their opening of it.

Malphias

 

[Malphias]

As irate as he was, he couldn't help but allow a bemused grin tug at the corners of his lips as she seemed irritated by his choice of words.. "I did just..." he whispered to her, the sound one that would carry past her ears and into her mind if her mind allowed it. A small trick, but one that he normally took delight in watching as it unnerved people and caused many a spine to shudder.

He followed after her, steady strides speeding up every now and then to keep up with her as she led him down the cobbled street. His eyes rolled as she attempted to greet one of the ghosts of the memory and he shook his head, he'd dragged so many people through their own memories and dreams and they always tried to change it, but only he could do that when he'd taken hold of a mind. And something had hold of Heike's, it wasn't hers to control. Or his, it seemed.

"Yes, alright, what about it?.." he coaxed impatiently as she seemed to have some sort of epiphany, and he huffed an irritable sound at her as she ran and he had no choice but to pick up the pace behind her..

"You know there's a sense of civility in walking, you don't n--" he reached the door, and it opened into a place he'd tried his hardest to forget. A bedroom, extravagantly decorated, quite obviously matching his own luxurious tastes. On the dark mahogany four poster bed lay a golden haired beauty, wrapped in dark silken sheets, the contours of her naked body quite clear under the fabric.

She was alone, sleeping, just as she had been when he'd left the room and his home years previous, as though she remained there waiting for him. He never returned. He couldn't return, but his mind returned to this place every evening and he walked in to move absently to the side of the bed and stare down at the sleeping woman who would never again remember him. A clawed hand reached out with intent of sweeping the few strands of hair from the woman's face, but he hesitated and frowned, his attention snapping back to Heike with a new expression. Fury.

He stormed back to the woman and reached to wrap his hand around her throat and pin her to the wall, hard. "The fuck are you doing in my head?!" he sneered at her, his jaw clenching tightly.

 

[Heike Eisen]

Not only one of those types that nicknamed, but one those whispery, touchy, gets-too-close types, to phrase it in more lay parlance. Malphias was almost exactly the kind of person that irritated Heike to no end: they who lacked proper respect. They who held a disdain for and dispensed with the right order of things. And there was a sinister quality to his voice, at least when he whispered. Were all tieflings like this?

He was impatient; of course he was, he'd probably shrivel and die if he actually revealed that he harbored one admirable trait. But Heike had trouble remembering, like an elusive word on the tip of her tongue. There were many days like this one, but...this one was of some significance. She knew it.

When they got inside. Inside home (home!). There would be some clue, some spark for the kindling of her vagrant memory of this particular day and what she had done--or had not done.

But the door opened to...mostly certainly not the main room of the house she had lived in for seventeen years of her life.

Heike's tone was hollow, short of the air needed to sound the words, as if a mastercrafted sword and broken after a single swing in her hands. "What...how did...where...?"

Heike stood close to the door, only having taken a few dreary steps within this strange and unfamiliar room, her crushing disappointment beyond measure. Malphias, then, came storming back to her. Became violent.

He had her against the wall and his hand constricted about her neck, but she pressed her claws into his abdomen, threatening the soft guts therein. The tips of the razor-sharp claws barely gracing his clothing and poking ever so slightly against the skin beneath, but her warning thus issued.

Heike scowled. Said, "I'm..." She let out a sound that was part growl, part wince, "...not in your head!"

A flick of her eyes to the bed and the woman covered upon it.

"And even if I was, the last thing I would want to witness is your 'bedsheet technique!'" A scathing perk of her eyes when she uttered the word bedsheet.

* * * * *​

And, unbeknownst currently to Heike and perhaps to Malphias as well, another door awaited. Perhaps a door that was an intrusion on an otherwise perfect recreation of Malphias's memory, perhaps one that was naturally a part of it.

The door waited. Its lock ready to be unlocked and to continue through this interweaving of Heike's and Malphias's pasts.

And it would unlock.

Once Malphias did what he had come here to do. His unfulfilled want, need.

Once he perhaps carried out the motions or simply witnessed a ghostly version of himself doing so in this memory again. A desire to relive a better time, likewise fulfilled.

For Heike had ran home, as was her want, her fulfillment. And thus her door had unlocked. It was the same for Malphias. And, once done, that unlocking would be known, and the door once opened would lead back to Heike's memories of a bygone time and the interweaving would continue.

There was a bit of themselves in the basement. Only what they offered. What they wanted. What they needed.

They'd know before they left.

Because some things in life were free.

Wasn't that sweet?

Hm.

Malphias

 

[Malphias]

Malphias could feel those claws through his shirt, and he pressed himself against them and tightened his grip on the woman's throat with a sneer. This was his mind, his memory, and nobody else was supposed to be here and live his shame but him. His jaw clenched and he released her, his chest rising and falling from his outburst of rage, and a few spots of blood seeping into his shirt. He needed a moment to calm, straightening himself, shoulders squared and jacket fastening over the sullied shirt and fingers running into his hair, a few unruly locks falling forward onto his face.

He turned back to find the scene had changed, the blonde woman sat awake in bed, and another Malphias, a human Malphias was climbing into bed next to her.. "I suggest you hide your eyes.." he hissed at Heike, but not because he expected anything intimate, but because he knew that this is where his happiness ended.

"Close your eyes.." the ghostly image of himself whispered by the woman's ear, a thumb affectionately caressing her porcelain skin. The woman smiled and obliged with a musical laugh that caused Malphias' throat to ache. It was torture, pure and simple, making him relive this. He looked away..

But there was more laughter, and the tiefling frowned and looked back to the scene in confusion. The two were kissing happily, he was pulling the woman on top of her and they tumbled.. "It's not right.. This, isn't what happened." Malphias stepped forward to grip the edge of the bed, looking between the two, there was no sign of stopping as the couple continued to fool around, entangled in sheets. He was supposed to have taken her memories by now, he'd left her there, he'd been ordered to.

"Go." he dropped his gaze in a side glance to the floor where Heike stood. This alternate reality was choking him, and he masked it with anger instead. "Now." he snapped before giving her a chance to move.

He'd follow, pausing in the doorway to glance back at the happy pair with a scowl.

 

[Heike Eisen]

Malphias relented. It was unclear whether or not he actually believed her, but he relented. This had to be the sorceress's doing. Briefly, Heike had thought it to be Malphias who was primarily responsible for the reconstruction of Reikhurst that greeted them upon entering the basement; he was, for one reason or another, needed (according to Morri, reliable as she was) to open the door after all. But judging by his unmistakable reaction to this room and its associated memory, Morri's magic stood out as the more reasonable culprit.

A remark, floating around in her head: of how that crazy bastard actually leaned into her claws.

Another Malphias. There in the room now, climbing into the bed with the woman. Though human; a part of the memory? Would Heike have seen herself, if the door to her home indeed led to her home?

I suggest you hide your eyes.

"Your suggestion is disregarded," Heike said flatly. First, in the wake of very recent moments, she in no way extended even a slight amount of trust to Malphias. And second, though she believed in dignified modesty, she was no child. If something important needed to happen here, or if alertness were required in some capacity, she wanted to be ready.

This, unfortunately, led directly to her witnessing the thing she didn't want to witness: said "bedsheet technique," as Gunther playfully used to refer to it when they were together. Heike just watched, with a reserved, narrow brow'ed "I'd rather not, yet I have to" quality to her gaze. Strangely, Malphias seemed...confused. Didn't he know this was going to happen? Hence the suggestion to look away?

Did this truly happen? This way? Or was there some alteration to this memory?

After a certain amount of fooling around witnessed, an awareness. Something like hearing the telltale unlocking of a door, of a deadbolt sliding out of a jamb, yet there was no tangible sound. Heike glanced toward this phantom not-noise, and noticed another door in the room--very much like the original door to the basement. Home? Could home be through there?

Go. Now.

"Don't stay too long," Heike said with a mildly disdainful smirk. "You wouldn't to suffer from--oh, what do you men call it?"

Heike started toward the door.

Then, pretending to remember, she said, "Ah! Blue balls, as it is said in the uncouth parlance."

And Heike pulled up the next door.

* * * * *​

Home.

Yes, the main room of her home in Reikhurst. Just as she remembered it, with the morning light spilling in through the windows. The door she had come through was the front door of the home, but Reikhurst and Vale Street were not to her back--only the room which had caused Malphias his disquieting.

Ahead, though. In the kitchen area. Heike's Mother...arguing...with Heike's seventeen-year-old self. She could hardly believe it, how much she now no longer looked like her then. Gone was the sandy-blonde hair, the healthy skin, the bronze eyes. She had grown to her full height--just shy of six feet, taller than her Mother--but in all other aspects it was as if her younger self was an entirely different person.

Mother and Seventeen Heike argued. And Present Heike knew what it was about: Mother's final protests against Heike's initiation trials into the Order of the Golden Blade. This...this was the first day of her squiring. At noon this day, Heike would leave behind her old life, and through the most arduous process she had endured to date at this period in her life, she would...she would...

Seventeen Heike threw up her hands and turned to leave. Mother crossed her arms furiously.

Heike felt the words bubbling in her throat. The words she wanted to say to Mother then. The words she failed to build the resolve to utter.

Now, finally, said: "When next I return, I will be a Citizen and Warrior of Reikhurst."

As Present Heike said them, so too did Seventeen Heike--in defiance of what truly happened--turn and say these words to her Mother before storming out through the "front door" and disappearing as soon as she crossed the threshold.

And then again, that knowing, the sound that was not a sound of a door unlocking--the door to one of the bedrooms down the hall of Heike's home. The door that would not lead to this bedroom, but instead to another manifestation from Malphias's memory, should he remain willing.

Heike, glancing to him then, said, "That didn't happen. Not like that. It was different. It was something I wanted to say in that moment, but...never did."

Comparing notes, as it were. Figuring this out.

Malphias

 

[Malphias]

Malphias offered no retort, but his scowl strengthened and his jaw clenched. He wasn’t in the mood for taunts. He wanted to get out of here..He closed the door firmly behind him, and pressed his back against it, and in some part of his mind he hoped the memory would continue to live and grow here, whatever this place was. It was clear that it’s shaken him, he was broody and miserable and so far removed from his usual pestering self, and he hated that fucking bitch Morri now more than ever.

The tiefling’s arms folded across his chest as he leaned back to watch the mother-daughter argument, his brow arching as it had taken him a moment to realise that the pretty teen had been Heike. His gaze narrowed, wondering what it was she needed from this place. He hadn’t asked..but it wasn’t his business.

As the confrontation came to an end he cast his red orbs over the woman with a quirked brow. “Mine was different too. As you say, it was how I wish that memory had gone... one of my many deep regrets. I fail to understand how these fucking games are necessary.” He growled and turned to the next door. As soon as they were inside, his mind clicked and he turned abruptly to the door they’d just entered through but it was gone, nothing but the wall of a dimly lit and lavishly furnished lounge. His pulse was racing, and he made a run toward the next door and slammed his fists into it when it wouldn’t open.

“Where have you been?..” a woman spoke from a grand chair in the shadowy corner of of the room. Malphias glanced behind him, looking for the Malphias that belonged to this memory, but there were none.

The woman rose from her throne and stepped into the dim, flickering light, her green eyes fixed on him. The woman was quite simply stunning. Her fiery red hair fell in perfect waves over her milky white shoulders and she wore a shimmering dress of emerald that knotted in the centre of her chest, long and sleek against her tall and slender frame. Her hips were hypnotic as she walked toward him. He said nothing, his words caught in his throat and he stepped back. Exactly as he had done when she had asked him before.

“You were with her.. after I specifically told you not to be. I warned you Malphias, I told you exactly what I would do if you didn’t lissssten to me.” Her head bowed slightly but her eyes remained on him, sheer rage radiating from her venomously green stare.

He knew exactly what was coming and yet he seemed to have no control over altering anything, and he tried to answer before the woman’s hand shot out and gripped his throat with far more strength than should have been possible. Her nails tore at his skin. It hurt. It was real. She was real. How did she get here? A fucking trap?!

His mind raced and he panicked, croaking out words of plea but the woman tutted at him with a look of disappointment and shook her head.

“You’re mine.. And now we’re going to make that a little more official.” She sneered at him and threw him down hard.

“I am already yours, Adelaide, I swear it my-“. His words were cut off and he let out a cry of agony and clutched at his head, pain searing in his mind and keeping him on his knees.

The sorceress wandered slowly toward her hearth and removed a red hot branding iron from the embers whilst releasing him from his torture.

“Addy please...”

“Don’t... It will be easier for all of us if you’re kept on a tighter leash..” she sighed, almost sweetly. The iron hissed as she dipped it into a mortar of blood, both his and hers, she’d already prepared, there was little point in fighting her.. he already knew what happened.

With only a wave of her hand, Malphias was lifted from his feet and slammed into a bookcase, a few of the volumes clattering to the floor. His jacket and shirt tore open, revealing the old rune scar he had on the left side of his chest, and without further delay the woman pressed the iron hard against it.

Malphias roared a sound that was way more than just pain. It was rage, grief, the terror of inevitability. It felt like his soul was being torn in two as the magic done it’s work...

Why wasn’t anything different? Why was he being forced to relive this truth?

His body continued to writhe against the bookcase, held up only by the branding iron she held against him with a satisfied smile on her face. He looked down at her, exhausted, but noticed something that was different. A pendant hung from her neck, a vial of crimson that hadn’t been there before. He’d have remembered it.

With what waning strength he had left, he reached toward her, fingers curling around the silver chain that held it, and he pulled.

The very second the trinket came free in his hand he fell. The pain stopped, and the sorceress disappeared, leaving him on all fours panting for breath and pressing his hand to the old scar on his chest that seemed to ache.


Malphias looked up at Heike, exhaustion etched on his face. Even if she’d tried to intervene it would’ve been pointless, there was no changing it.. He stared down at the vial in his tremulous hand and clasped his fingers around it... Well played Morri.

 

[Heike Eisen]

Heike failed to understand as well. She would have vastly preferred some tangible task, something she could have quite literally sunk her claws into. Even something as mundane as fetching some item or another for Morri, gathering up esoteric reagents perhaps, something that might well have left herself and Malphias drooling with boredom--even that would be better than the mind games (trials?) played upon them.

For while it was a joy to see Reikhurst again, deep down Heike knew the truth: that it was mere fantasy, and the real Reikhurst lay in ruin.

And more concerning was Malphias's latest memory. He wasn't merely watching it this time. He didn't speak some wistful words alongside his younger self, as Heike had. No.

He was reliving it.

Heike stood by--it was all she could do. An illusion was an illusion after all, despite the potency of this one in Morri's basement. There was no helping Malphias, no changing what was already done, what this reenactment was a mere shadow of.

(An uneasy thought: Would Heike...relive her turning?)

She watched the confrontation between Adelaide and Malphias unfold in the strange lounge. Instinctively, she took a step toward the woman--intent on stopping her by force--when she brandished the hot iron. Heike had to remind herself that it was of no use. Even so, her nose scrunched up in restrained anger as the memory of Adelaide brought cruel pain onto the (memory? real?) Malphias. Branded him with that iron that had been quenched--tainted--by blood.

Before Heike went charging through any more doors in this trickster's basement, she rushed over to Malphias. Crouched down beside him. Concerned. Yes, he was as ingratiating as a splinter wedged between her finger and nail (when she had nails instead of claws), but she didn't wish such suffering as he had endured upon him.

"Are you alright, Malphias?" Then, with a brief glance to the vial which--curiously--didn't appear to be an illusion, even though he had procured it from one. "And what is that? Is it...real?"

Malphias

 

[Malphias]

Malphias wiped at his brow with the back of his wrist and nodded, pulling himself to his feet with a slight stagger, his bare chest heaving as he tried to control his pitched breaths, and he stared down at the vial. It looked like blood.. "I'm not sure, perhaps it's what I need." he huffed deeply and lifted his eyes to her.

He realised then how disheveled he was and quickly fastened his shirt back together and secured his jacket over it, smoothing out the creases and straightening himself up, fingers running into his hair to smooth it back. He was quite clearly flustered, the scene dented his pride as much as it had the night it happened, branded like cattle, an object owned. He stared at her, willing her to keep quiet about it, he didn't wish to discuss it further.

"Lets go." his brow rose, and his eyes moved toward the next door that clicked open..

"And good luck.." he grumbled, absently rubbing at his chest.

 

[Heike Eisen]

What he needed.

An almost imperceptible furrowing of Heike's brow. She wouldn't put it past the trickster sorceress Morri to do something like that, to have them stumbling through illusions and memories of their pasts in order to get what they each needed in the present--for her amusement or some such. Or, just as well, Heike could see the vial of red being a phantom item, disappearing the moment they left the basement--again, for her amusement.

Heike couldn't help but to steal another couple of glances at the heinous brand on Malphias's chest; this, before he covered it up. A noting, as well, that he did not say one way or the other about being alright.

Lets go.

Heike nodded. Let it be, that gruesome business with the brand. She stood, and saw across the lounge constructed from Malphias's willing memory the next door. And it would be her turn. She took a step.

And good luck..

She stopped momentarily. A slight glance back. And she said, "Thanks."

Then she stepped to the door and put her clawed hand on the knob and twisted and pulled it open and crossed into--

* * * * *​

The outdoors. A dirt path. A forest--a familiar forest, these particular arrangement of trees. A light rain was falling, and little spears of sunlight were peeking out from the edge of the blanket of gray clouds, the sun itself hidden just behind the fold.

Heike was running. Like Malphias in his previous memory, she was no mere spectator. She was her seventeen-year-old self again. And she had on her drab squire's tunic and her boots splashed in this puddle and that puddle along the path. On her back she had a heavy pack, weighted to forty pounds, and she ran with both her hands on the shoulder straps. Ahead of her--a good deal ahead of her--were her fellow squires, all running in a formation. A formation that was clearly missing a person out of its back rank.

Behind her, an impressive man in the plate armor of the Golden Blade, riding his horse at a quick trot. And beside her, to her left and right and also running with weighted packs, her knight-superiors: Herr Dieter Roth, and Herr Elias Schulze.

Heike was panting heavily. Gasping and struggling for air. Her head lowered.

And Herr Dieter and Herr Elias were each taking turns shouting at her.

Herr Dieter: "Let's go, Hei-KUH! Hurry up, Hei-KUH!"

Herr Elias: "What are you waiting on, Hei-KUH! Your fellow knights are up there, Hei-KUH!"

Both them putting intentionally hard emphasis on the second syllable of her name. Like the heel of a boot smashing down on her ears.

Herr Dieter: "The battle's going to be over by the time we get there, Hei-KUH!"

Herr Elias: "Are you just going to allow your fellow knights to die, Hei-KUH!"

Her legs felt like they would snap. Like the muscle was going to melt away and the bones would break. And Heike gasped and grimaced as if stabbed through the chest and kept running.

Herr Dieter: "Seems to me like you think you got all day, Hei-KUH!"

Herr Elias: "The Lord Commander doesn't have all day, Hei-KUH!"

Herr Dieter: "I think we have another candidate for the Guard here, Herr Elias."

Herr Elias: "I think we do, Herr Dieter. Go on, Hei-KUH. Quit! Quit, Hei-KUH. You're already half-way quitted, so have some conviction and quit in full, Hei-KUH."

She was glad that it was raining. Glad that they couldn't make out the tears. And she wanted to. Wanted to quit. Wanted it more than she wanted anything else in her entire life. Her body had gone through hell in the past few weeks, and she had foolishly thought herself ready for the ordeals of initiation into the Order of the Golden Blade. Yet she ran. Continued. One foot in front of the other. Ran.

Ran.

Ran until she thought she was going to die, and ran some more.

And eventually, she caught back up with her formation of fellow squires. Crossed the finish line with them before the Lord Commander did and passed her trial. And she trailed off to the side of the path and vomited. Vomited and convulsed and doubled over with her hands on her knees and gasped raggedly for breath and vomited until nothing but greenish bile spilled out of her mouth and nose. Small strings of saliva and mucus dangled from her lips and nostrils, an unflattering sight.

But she had made it. Made it, because she did not quit. Because, even in her lowest and most hopelessly desperate moment to date in her life, she didn't give up.

Then Heike blinked.

She wasn't her seventeen-year-old self, but again the monstrous vampire of twenty-nine. All the apparitions of her fellow squires, Herr Dieter and Herr Elias, and the Lord Commander of the Golden Blade were gone. The forest and the path remained.

And, in the middle of the path, a freestanding door. The click of it unlocking.

* * * * *​

Two for Malphias. Two for Heike.

Two little things for each, free of charge.

But three was a nice number, wasn't it? A number of power.

One more for the tiefling, one more for the vampire.

And payment for Morri's services would thus be considered rendered.

What a joy.

Hm.

Malphias

 

[Malphias]

Running. He didn't do running. Malphias was a man of class and dignification and such forms of expenditure were beneath him. He was of course, inside an illusion, the track wasn't really there, and neither was he. He appeared and dissolved again at various points along the road as he watched, arms folded across his chest as he paced before again evaporating in a violet haze only to reappear a little further along, and so it went until Heike crossed the finish line. He leaned himself against a tree and watched the girl heave and eject her stomach onto the road with a grimace on his face. But he had to admire her drive.

"Well, that was pleasant to behold..." Malphias commented as the apparitions faded and she looked like her beautifully monstrous self again. He'd been about to throw in another quip when he noticed the door, and the words caught in his throat. It might have been the door out of here, but somehow he knew there was more to come, and the tiefling fulminated with absolute fury. "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!" he roared out, looking up at the darkening sky as though Morri was up there staring down at them in amusement.

"I'm going to enjoy killing her..." he huffed with no sign of flippancy in his tone as he strode toward the door and hesitantly reached out to open it.

When he stepped through they were indoors again, an empty room aside for one flickering candle on a table in the corner and a circular rune drawn in wax on the splintered floor. When his eyes adjusted to the low light he recognised the mirror image of himself, and that of Heike as she was right now, both standing inside the circle..

"Do it.." the Malphias in the circle told her and clenched his jaw before drinking down the vial of red liquid. The one he currently felt as he patted against the breast of his jacket.

Heike's illusionary self pushed the tiefling's shirt to one side, and carefully sliced around the brand on his chest with her claw. ignoring the groan that might have been either pain or pleasure. Malphias knew it was both.. The branded piece of flesh fell to the ground with a quiet slap, and blood flowed from the wound..

"Now say and do what I told you to do.. Please."

Malphias watched the scene in utter befuddlement and looked down at Heike as he realised what was going on. He paled slightly, staring over the woman as though for the first time, suddenly he knew why Morri had sent them both here, why he had needed someone else in the first place. He couldn't break his bond with Adelaide, unless someone else took it over. He'd have to quite literally give a piece of his soul away to this woman if he wanted to see out the remainder of the day. Of course, she'd have to agree, and he wondered if the vision they now watched was a vision that would come to pass, or another trick.

The pair in the circle each took the other's wrist, forming a link between them both as they spoke a brief, synchronised incantation of a language so old Malphias hadn't even know what it'd meant, but he'd remembered the words and Adelaide's voice had replayed them in his mind every day for the past twenty years. When the words had been spoken, a nervous look was shared, and they each bit into the other's wrist, and drank..

The sound of Adelaide's anguished screams filled his mind with a suddenness that took him to his knees and his hands slammed against his ears at the searing pain that the pitch of it inflicted.

Slowly, the illusion faded and the two were left in the room alone, but Malphias didn't get up even as the screaming stopped, he remained on his knees, pulling in shuddered breaths, and shaking.

 

[Heike Eisen]

Malphias was none too happy, and--truth be told--neither was Heike. How many more illusions must they be made to wallow through? It was clear that Morri wanted no tangible thing retrieved from her basement, but rather to seemingly watch Heike and Malphias trek through certain (planned? random?) points in their pasts. For her enjoyment, maybe, like someone watching a play upon a stage.

Heike shot Malphias a disapproving look when he, with a worrisome sincerity, remarked that he was going to enjoy killing the sorceress. She wasn't entirely sure if it was a remark made in exasperation, a tasteless joke, or in fact a bold statement of his true intent. If the very latter was so, then that was nothing less than murder. Heike certainly didn't like Morri's mannerisms or her games either, but that did not warrant the sorceress's execution.

It would be seen. In time. Once they found their way through the whole of the memory-filled basement.

Heike followed after Malphias. Said, "Your turn, I presume." The pattern had emerged and become apparent enough, this staggered sharing of their memories.

Only...through this particular, it didn't seem to be a memory. Oh no. Not at all. Because Heike was in it. There in the bland room with the candle and the wax circle on the floor.

Heike snapped her gaze to Malphias, to the scene playing out before them, back to Malphias, back to the scene, all with a look as if the tiefling had said or done something highly inappropriate and out-of-line. Where did this imagery come from? Morri's basement had drawn from their memories obviously, their minds...was this something that Malphias was THINKING OF?

When Heike turned her head in disgust when they--the Heike and Malphias of the scene--drank of each other's blood, she saw the actual Malphias drop to his knees. Seemingly...wracked by pain. Breathing hard. Shaking. Covering his ears. Perhaps it would be prudent to give him the benefit of the doubt; Morri was a trickster of a kind, and it was not out of the realm of possibility that Malphias, for all his other flaws, was innocent of this.

Heike crouched down in front of him. Waited for his attention to focus on her. And said, "Malphias. I am going to need you to explain to me what it was that we just witnessed."

Malphias

 

[Malphias]

The screaming had stopped and yet his panic remained and cold sweat glistened like crushed diamonds across his pale, periwinkle skin. Heike's voice was a muffle under the weight of his palms against his ears but he opened his eyes and stared past her at the wax drawn circle in the middle of the room. The illusion still hadn't entirely disappeared. His brow knit forward at the thought of the spectacle he was making of himself and he inwardly groaned and ran his fingers into his hair to smooth it back.

A deep breath later and he attempted to speak, but his words were lacklustre and void of his usual confidence or attempt at charm. "The demon half of my soul.." he cleared his throat. "It doesn't belong to me. It belongs to her." he answered, assuming she'd understand who he was talking about from his last vision.

"She knows, that I've been trying to sever the bond. I feel her pulling and pulling.. She'll destroy me, If I don't break it soon. I was told Morri could do it, somehow... That's how." he told her, still staring at the circle behind her.

 

[Heike Eisen]

The demon half of his soul.

The demon half.

Heike drew her head back some at the mention of this. Intensely apprehensive. She was by no means a religious fanatic, but she need not be--the Pandemonium Crisis had proved that demons were very much real entities, a vindication of all the sinister accounts of them on Arethil. To Heike, demons were not quite as bad as vampires, by the sole virtue of her own personal experiences and hence vested hatred in the latter, but they were still monstrous beings as told by all credible sources.

Wasn't he a tiefling? What did that mean, specifically? Half demon, half something else?

The woman from the previous memory--Adelaide--somehow owned half of Malphias's soul. Heike had limited knowledge of demons, but that sounded congruent with the scant scraps that she did know--that demons were not native to Arethil and required "summoning," "binding." And this Adelaide had apparently found a means by which to bind a half-demon who was already here.

This, presumably, led to the illusion now that both Malphias and Heike had witnessed: Morri's solution to Malphias's problem. Breaking that bond that Adelaide had over him. And this required Heike's help.

Which she was not entirely keen on offering to this man, this half-demon, who by all appearances seemed someone of--to speak of it charitably--disreputable character.

She resolved to question him. To gather as much information as she could and perhaps detect any lies.

"And what will happen to you when this bond is severed? Will you be free? Will you die? Do you have any reasonable notion at all?"

Malphias

 

[Malphias]

Malphias laughed but there was no real amusement in it.. "Free?" his head shook and he raked his clammy hand back out of his hair. He looked dishevelled, weak and pathetic, all of the things Malphias hated to look.. "Is anyone free?.." he asked rhetorically under his breath and tried to push himself back to his feet with a stagger.

“My body would die.. But I am far more worried about my soul. Do you know where the souls of demons go when they’re torn out?..” he asked, another question he didn’t want or expect an answer to. He knew. And it terrified him. “I’d much prefer to live.” He stared at her, stared into her soul itself with a mute plea in his eyes. He didn’t know her, he’d known only of what he’d saw in the pages of her life that they’d stopped on in this gods forsaken basement. And he knew she had to be better than Adelaide, the woman who’d torn his life apart and had tortured him for what seemed like an eternity.

“I would be..forever in your debt..” he told her with a hint of disdain at his own pathetic words of begging. He hated being in anyone’s debt, at anyone’s command, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. If he wanted to live, he simply had to be.

“Heike please.” his stomach turned over.

 

[Heike Eisen]

Heike took in what Malphias had to say. And remained as yet unconvinced.

Before her lay two simple choices: help him, or not. And helping him entailed a certain number of unknown qualities. Could she trust that this ritual he wanted her to take part in would do what he said it would do? Would it even work to its intended effect, resistant to magic as Heike was? And what about Malphias? Was he merely an abrasive but ultimately innocent person, despite his demonic blood? Or was he apt to carry out some wicked whims, like his alleged intention of killing the sorceress, perhaps even things whose evil Heike could scarcely imagine? What then, if she were to enter into this contract of sorts with him? Would that not make her responsible, for allowing a demon (even if half) to continue its existence and carry out its atrocities and depredations upon Arethil?

He looked like someone teetering on the edge of desperation...but he also wanted something. Something he could not get on his own. Demons were supposed to be beguiling; perhaps even to the point that further questions would be a worthless endeavor, for he was possibly apt to simply tell her what he thought she wanted to hear.

But she would ask him anyway, in the slim chance that he was more man than demon. Heike gave him a hard regarding, and said, "Tell me of your character. What do you do. What do you stand for?"

Malphias

 

[Malphias]

What...Sort of a question was that?

Malphias stood for himself, his own personal gain, his own greed and lust and everything in between. He was a Tiefling. Half mortal half infernal. He tormented. Hunted, killed, tortured and consumed until his black heart was content.

These answers wouldn't win him any favour with her and with a stuttered "I..My character..." he frowned deeply and thought of a better answer, without lying outright. His knuckles paled as he gripped at tension the back of his neck..

He looked down at her.. "I've never stood for anything except myself. Right now is no exception. Adelaide found a way to bind half of my soul to her. I'm nothing more than a slave to do her bidding, I don't do good things, but what chance have I had?.." he spat bitterly.

"Why do you deserve the right to that second chance but not me?." he reached to gently grip at her upper arms if she'd allow, and tried his best to keep his tone as gentle as he could despite the raging inferno of urgency he felt.

"Heike...My life and soul is entirely in your hands. And I'm sorry for you that it was you who showed up here today.".. His form slowly bled back to that of the handsome, human man with disarming blue eyes, hoping that the more innocent looking version of himself would sway her opinion.. "Are you going to let me die?.." he asked, and without moving his lips his voice echoed as though from a thousand invisible clones surrounding her, each whispering their own pleas..

Please..
Don't let me die..
Please Heike..
Save my soul..
Help me Heike..
..........Please.

 

[Heike Eisen]

Heike listened. Keeping a stolid edge to her expression and her heart, trying her best to keep emotion from swaying her decision--emotions both positive and negative.

His mention of standing for nothing save himself irked her, reminded her of Gunther and his own vehement reaction to her announcing her intention to become a Knight of the Golden Blade, to become a Citizen and Warrior. The manner of arguments that he used to try and dissuade her--it was like he had morphed into an impostor of the man she once loved. Yet this lack of compulsion to duty and service she would not hold against Malphias. It was his life, and so long as he did not violate the well-being of innocents then he could live as he saw fit.

A slave. This pulled at Heike's heartstrings, and offended her Reikhurstan sensibilities. No man should be bound in unwilling servitude to another: such an act destroyed the concept of personal responsibility, self-determination, independence, and one's right to choose, all things held in high regard by the (once) citizenry of Reikhurst. Only Knights accepting their Accolade knelt before the King, for they had chosen to swear unwavering loyalty to him. And this woman, Adelaide, had bound Malphias's half-demon self to her in such a servile manner. From what she had seen, Adelaide appeared to be almost as unpleasant as Malphias himself, but...what if she was keeping him in check, with him having blood of such infernal character coursing through his veins? The stark fact remained that Heike simply did not have the whole story. Would Malphias actually go on to "do good things" if he was freed from this woman with Heike's help?

Heike allowed herself to be gripped by the arms, but resented his petulant plea of second chances. No one granted her anything of the sort. And if by "second chance" he meant her affliction, then that would definitively be the most insulting thing anyone had ever said to her. But such remained unclear, so she reserved judgment until if and when it became explicit.

His life and soul. Entirely in her hands. That had been true, at least in regard to the former, of many men. Foes of Reikhurst. Guilty men whom she had hunted down now in her vigilantism.

Malphias shifted back. To an untrue form. He had exhibited some honesty and candor before in admitting certain unsavory facts about himself, so why did he decide now to change his appearance to something that he was not? His false face was more pleasing to her eye, and perhaps that was the intent.

But while this could potentially be excused, the abrupt...chorus (she had no better word to describe it) of voices that came to surround Heike and make their pleas could not. It immediately struck her as trying too hard, in the manner of a stage performance wherein the actor in his great efforts came across as overbearing, artificial, and unnatural. Worse still, and the damning quality: it felt incredibly disingenuous. Gave credence to the possibility that this was all a charade in service to making Heike accomplice to some unspeakable sin.

And she would have none of it.

Her eyebrows narrowed harshly. She stood, shedding Malphias's hands from her shoulders. Stared down at him with a iron regarding. And said, "You seem to me hardly a soul who shows benevolence to others, and inspires the same for himself."

In deference to the slim possibility that Malphias's vices exceeded nothing more than whoring around, for that was the extent of what of little she knew of the man (half-demon, in truth), she resolved to give him a final allowance.

"Give me your best reason why I should not simply leave you to your miserable state of being."

Demon.

Malphias