Fable - Ask Rebirth

[Harlowe]

Harlowe groaned as she began to move the debris of an entire wall off of her. She hadn't felt bruised since she was human and Saints was it worse than when she had been. It might have taken a lot to hurt her but it bloody well packed a punch when it did. As she sat up coughing the dust and debris fell off and she was able to stand, albeit shakily.

Through bleary eyes she could make out the rest of the room; Matias focused on what she could smell had been a human and the two remaining mages lining up for an attack of fire and lightning. Harlowe was there a second before, sending Matias crashing to the floor just as the twin streams flew over their bodies missing them by inches.

"I hate magic," she growled and then was gone a second later, another mages neck snapping like a branch.

 

[Matias]

Matias pushed himself off the floor.

That odd hazy blue blood splattered and steamed from his body. His fingers were tired and gnarled, and a white haze and flooded slowly over his eyes. Lips thinned as he glanced at the remaining mage. His hand curled inward.

There was another sudden crack and then the remaining man simply began to freeze in place. His eyes bulged, and he began to scream.

"No! No! Stop! I can he-"​

"Break him." Matias told Harlowe, urging her to smash the now frozen man into a thousand different pieces.

 

[Harlowe]

Harlowe obliged. It didn't seem to take much effort on her part, barely even a half hearted punch to shatter the body. With his head still unfrozen it was quite a spectacle watching bits of his body fly in different directions whilst his lips still moved with the echoes of his last word "help".

"He went this way," Harlowe stepped over the head and made her way towards the bedchamber where she could hear the sound of the Duke's fearful heart. She flung open the doors to reveal him huddled in the corner.

"P-please! I'll double what my brother has paid you!"

 

[Matias]

Matias stepped inside, looking more worse for wear than he had before.

His head was practically swimming, the cuts in his flesh having sealed up with a strange ice like substance. He glanced down at the Duke who was half sprawled on the floor as if their very presence had somehow thrown him against the ground. "What do you say?"

The Frost Giant spoke in a rasp.

"Do we think he can pay?" Fingers curled slightly into a fist, his breath labored as he slowly continued a trot towards the other man. There was an icy death in his eyes, fist closing as he peered towards the man.

His gaze flickered towards Harlowe. "Or is he just filled with those same lies we've heard again and again?"

Matias said, inventing a story.

 

[Harlowe]

Harlowe cocked her head to the side as if considering it.

"N-no lie! My wealth is far superior to my brothers! I have jewels, gold, palaces, women - men," his eyes flickered between the pair of them anxiously, sweat dripping down his clammy jowls. The vampire quirked an eyebrow and the Duke stammered again. "Whatever you desire I can make it come true."

What Harlowe desired more than anything was for this job to be over with.

"Enough," she stepped forward as the man soiled himself and with a snarl of disgust her blade took the man's head clean off. The little tug in the back of her mind finally eased.

 

[Matias]

Matias raised an eyebrow as the Dukes head went tumbling onto the ground with a series of muted thuds. He watched the blood drip out for a moment, the man's body falling forward like a rag doll. "Well."

The Frost Giant said.

"So much for gold and jewels." Matias chuckled for a few moments, running a hand through his hair and pulling free a few of the stands that had been knotted by his frozen blood. "What now?"

He asked witha frown. "Do we just...leave?"

That seemed rather anticlimactic.

The Frost Giant slowly looked around the room, pattering over to the desk in the corner and pulling free some of the paper that had been scattered there. He thumbed through them absently, not really searching for one thing or another in particular.

 

[Harlowe]

Harlowe glanced at the bedsheets and then fashioned them into a sort of sack in which she placed the head. Princes always wanted proof that they had killed the right person, a head was usually the best thing to put to bed any doubts.

"I suppose so. We can probably find some of those jewels and gold if you want them," she imagined the palace would be in chaos soon with the Duke dead and the brotherhood... well at least this group was disposed of and she doubted those that remained would be around for long.

Grabbing a goblet off the side she tipped the wine out and instead held it under the river that still flowed from the body's stump. It still disgusted her but even she had to admit it helped her heal quicker and she wasn't feeling on top form after the whole wall on top of her thing.

 

[Matias]

Matias waved her off.

He had never really been one for gold and jewels even in life. Perhaps that came from the fact that he'd been rich from the beginning, but the prospect didn't really interest him. He continued to thumb through the papers, stopping when he plucked one out.

The writing upon it was confusing, unfamiliar, but arcane. "Look at that."

Matias mused.

"Seems I find something important." He turned towards Harlowe. "How many contracts do you think are sealed in blood?"

No doubt this had been written by the 'Brotherhood'.

 

[Harlowe]

Harlowe wandered over to look at the parchment curiously. She couldn't read it either but the smell of blood she did know.

"That guy," she pointed to the mage who had blown them both into the wall and was now a pile of different exploded body parts. Taking another pile off the desk she took out the pages that corresponded to the other dead makes and was left with a pile of 10 contracts still alive.

"Should we go mage hunting?"

 

[Matias]

Three left. "I don't know."

Matias truly didn't.

"I don't feel...pulled towards it?" It was hard to tell really. The tugging in the back of his mind was never really as strong as others said it would be. It had been a few days ago, but now it seemed to be barely anywhere at all.

Almost like he was being given time off. Fingers tightened for a moment and then a shrug rolled over his shoulders.

"Might as well." He said. "I am rather...curious."

He wanted to know more about this Brotherhood. What they could do.

 

[Harlowe]

Harlowe sipped at her goblet and rolled one shoulder in a shrug.

"I don't mind," she couldn't feel a tug either now they had killed the Duke. Perhaps a dull need to go back and get paid but nothing beyond that. They had time and the Regiment wasn't a prisoner type deal. Nazara and Orin had both told her she could go whenever she wanted.

"Magic is more your thing but I can probably scent them out for you," she glanced to the pieces of paper again. One smelt familiar and she wondered if it belonged to the mage they had back at the gnome's house, the other two she could smell in the palace.

 

[Matias]

Was it magic? Matias was still not entirely sure that what he did was actually magic. He could summon the storms, pull a blizzard from nothing, but it did not feel the same as what he might have called magic when he was still...ordinary.

His lips thinned for a moment. "Let's sate my curiosity."

Matias said with a frown.

"I want to know what the Brotherhood was up to." Ten men, three remaining. Had they simply been out for blood? Power? The reasoning seemed so...pedestrian. Matias couldn't help but wonder if there was more to it.

He stepped away from the desk.

"But." Matias said with a frown. "Lets burn this fucking place to the ground on the way out."

 

[Harlowe]

Men.

Harlowe didn't fight the impulse to roll her eyes as she followed him out of the room. It seemed even death didn't sate that seemingly primal need in males to destroy everything they could when they could get away with it. Though she did find the amusement in the irony a frost giant seemed to have a particular inclination for pyro-antics.

"Here," she plucked the papers from his hand and took a better sniff of the blood on the top contract. It took a second or two for her to pick out the scent - rich chocolate with a hint of bitter lemon - but it was coming from the floor above. She didn't bother to say anything as she set off for the nearest staircase and led them in a seemingly random direction until they came to a door at the far end of the palace.

"In here, he's with someone but... not a mage."

 

[Matias]

Matias nodded, raised his leg, and then kicked in the door.

When he'd awoken from his rebirth, there had been many changes. His body had been twisted, and with that had come heights that he had never thought possible. He was tougher, stronger. Not as fast as he once was, but each blow he struck came with far more weight.

The door cave way with a loud crack, thundering open and flying onto the ground with a crash. A scream echoed from the room beyond, followed by a startled cry offered by a man half dressed. He spotted Matias and Harlowe, moving to jump off the bed.

"Don't!" Matias warned.

"I already killedyour friends." The Frost Giant hissed. "I don't mind addingone more to the list.

 

[Harlowe]

The woman in the bed hastily covered herself. Harlowe's nose wrinkled at the smell of fear and their earlier leisurely activities. She strolled casually over to one of the fresh doors that led out onto a little balcony and threw open the doors to let in some fresh air. The woman looked among the group now stood in the room and stumbled to her feet, eyeing the door.

"Go," the vampire recommended and the woman didn't need any more encouragement, fleeing with her sheets clutched against her.

Then she casually leaned against the doorframe and inspected her nails, letting Matias ask his questions.

 

[Matias]

"Mercy, cute." Matias supposed there was something to be said about honor. It seemed that Harlowe still clung to that ideal.

In Cortos such things were important, had been important. For him though it had slipped away the moment his throat was torn out by the teeth of a wolf three times his size. The second that his life had been snubbed out all of that simply went away.

He had a new life now.

One as a monster. "Now, lets you and me talk."

The next thirty minutes was spent with questions, torture, broken bones, and screams. By the end of it the made was a bloody pulp with half his body frozen, and Matias stood over him with a frown on his face.

It seemed that the 'Brotherhood' was not an organization, not really. They were a loose collection of blood mages who had come up with a way to create blood contracts, ones that bestowed power unto them through the sacrifice of cities and people.

It also seemed as though their leader, the last mage Harlowe and Matias had not yet met, had left the city days ago after having a 'vision' of some sort.

"Well." Matias said as he squatted besides the now unconscious man. "I think that's about all the answers he'll give."

 

[Harlowe]

Harlowe had never liked torture. She had participated in it a few times but each had made her stomach turn. Sometimes it was necessary, but in this case... well it was just to sate Matias' curiosity. She wasn't sure she agreed with it but the memory of how it has felt not to have control over her body stayed her tongue. If they could rid these people of a band who tore out women's hearts and Saints only knew what else, then she could put up with the greasy feel torture gave her.

"No," she agreed and pushed off the window seat she had taken up. "I think it's time to go."

Nobody had come to stop them yet but she didn't fancy being around when they had figured out who led them now.

 

[Matias]

Right.

Matias glanced around for a moment, frowning, and then walked over towards the window. He motioned to Harlowe as he tore down the thick silk curtain that had been hanging in front of the window. He bundled it up and then threw it into the fire place.

There was a slight simmer, a smoulder of flames and then a wisp of smoke. A second later the curtain burst into flame, quickly rolling out across it's tapestry and onto the carpet it half lay sprawled upon. "Let's go."

The Frost Giant said, crawling out the window and extending his arm.

In an instant a slide of ice formed beneath him, rolling in a slow curve towards the Courtyard of the Keep.

 

[Harlowe]

Harlowe followed hefting the bloody makeshift sack containing the Duke's head over her shoulder. Despite the situation she felt a little thrill at the idea of going on an ice slide. Matias would no doubt go down in style on his feet but she had already struggled walking on ice and had no intentions of surfing it down to the ground. Instead she scooted out on her backside and then pushed off.

She picked up a surprising amount of speed as she whizzed round one bend then another and gave a sharp cry of exhilaration. It was all over way too quickly.

"We need to do that again," she grinned, scrambling to her feet.

 

[Matias]

Matias hopped on after Harlowe, standing on his feet as he flew down the reaches of the slide.

He was only a second behind his Vampiric companion as she scrambled onto her feet, nearly going barreling into her back. The Frost Giant took three quick steps to the left, rolling smoothly on the ball of his feet so he didn't go crashing into her.

A smile touched his face. "Not a bad way to travel really."

His fingers snapped a second later, and then the ice slide shattered into a million pieces. They sprinkled down like snow, falling onto the warm ground where they would likely melt within the hour.

"Lets go see that weirdo in his shack, then get out of this city." He was sick of this place.

 

[Harlowe]

"Urgh," she had forgotten about the gnome. "I wonder if that mage is still alive or if he's eaten him," there was a 70:30 chance in her mind; definitely more probably that he had already peeled off his skin to hang in the wardrobe with his others. Harlowe shuddered.

"Maybe you should go in and tell him we're leaving, he didn't fancy wearing you," too cold had been the gnome's words.

Behind them the fire was spreading and the people inside were flooding outside. The growing crowds and chaos created the perfect distraction for their silent escape. What were two more people trying to get away from the flames? Even if one of those people carried a bag dripping with what looked like blood...

 

[Matias]

Matias didn't pay much attention to the flame. "Probably a good choice."

The Frost Giant contended.

"Don't want you ending up as a flesh suit." There were few people in the Regiment that he would call a friend, and even now he wasn't entirely sure if Harlowe qualified under that particular branch...but she was the closest thing. "I'll take of the little freak."

Though he very well couldn't speak to him.

"I have one more question for our prisoner anyway." The Frost Giant mused.

This 'Brotherhood' had proved far more interesting than he'd thought it would.

 

[Harlowe]

Harlowe nodded and then came to a stop in the square which was abuzz with the news the palace was on fire. Some stallholders that made up the little market were beginning to hastily pack away their wares and load them into carts. She stared at one thoughtfully and ensured the hood of her cloak was pulled up to keep her face in the shade.

"You go ahead then and talk to our friends, say your goodbyes. I'll see if I can get us a ride out of here so we don't have to walk the whole time," not that either of them would necessarily get tired from walking but it would be far quicker than if she had to keep going at Matias' pace.

"Meet you back here in an hour," and with that she vanished into the crowd.

 

[Matias]

Matias nodded, though in truth he was still none too eager to leave Harlowe.

It wasn't that she couldn't handle herself. He knew that the Vampire could tear the head off a dozen ordinary men before they could even draw their bows. What he was afraid of was that last member of the Brotherhood, the one that had left the city.

He was gone now, but even through his torture he had not been able to tell when he was scheduled to return, or even if he would.

The Frost Giant shook his head and moved back towards the shack with the changeling.

There he would find a terse conversation, a corpse, and a 'new' man that greeted him at the door. All of it brought a rather grim expression to his face. Thinned lips and a few raised words that saw the changeling admonished and with no small amount of guilt.

Eventually Matias wandered back into the square where he had left Harlowe, a pack on his shoulder and a grim expression on his face. "Bloody fucking thing."

He grumbled.

"Couldn't even keep the mage alive for a night." A hand rubbed at his face. Even he had more control than that.

 

[Harlowe]

"Urgh," Harlowe scrunched her nose up at the mental image that produced. She couldn't conjure up an ounce of surprise though. Not after she had seen his wardrobe. As soon as she had smelt Matias' striding back towards the square she had grabbed the horses reins and headed to intercept him. It hadn't taken much to find the bloke making good of a bad situation by selling carts and sorry looking horses for those trying to escape.

At least her horse still had all four legs unlike the one he had tried to sell her. In fact, despite her apparent chubbiness, Harlowe thought the sturdy looking cob was a good stamp of a horse. It would certainly make their trip quicker.

"I got us a ride," she motioned to the cart and horse which whickered nervously at the scent of the two monsters. "Ready to go?"