Private Tales The First Masque

[Amelie]

"I agree, I don't see him mixing with someone who's," Amelie paused and sneered, "malformed."

Although if she did have magic it could make the endeavor that much more complicated. Not that she was worried about any great danger, Gilram was a brute. While he had enough self respect not to marry a magicless harlot he also wasn't going to lay his head down beside someone who could pose a threat to him.

At least, Amelie was pretty certain that was the case. "I suppose we should pick up our pace."

Before long the sun was setting and the pair could spot the coastal town that Venour operated out of. A short march away sat the large opulent manor of House Venour. An ancient design with large swooping arches that seemed to press out towards the ocean itself. While many of the more prominent houses had undergone renovations the Venour's seemingly only lifted a finger when parts of their ancestral began to succumb to the salty air.

"A gaudy, terrible, place," venom seeping from her lips, "after you, my dear."

The sooner they could slip into the manor and let Amelie slip into Lady Venour's brain the sooner they could ruin the harbor and get out of this backwater township.

 

[Erodin]

The manor house was a gaudy and ostentatious thing, but then that was no surprise. Erodin and Amelie sat crouched just beyond the field of light that erupted from the burning lanterns set along the wall. No doubt meant to aid whatever lookout was standing on the upper levels of the mansion.

A frown pulled at Erodin's lips as he surveyed the estate ahead of them.

They had done this a thousand times before. In fact one of the first missions they'd ever been sent on together has been rather similar. The consternation on the rogue Dreadlords lips turned, and he glanced over at Amelie. "Do you remember the Telmir estate?"

Though only in their early twenties then, Erodin had already known that Amelie would be his wife. A fact which she had plucked from his mind and used to endlessly tease him with. Stringing him along with jests and teases as they broke Into the Manor of what had been at the time one of Alliria's merchant councilors.

His early devotion was not why he conjured the memory though.

"I think we can do the same thing here." During the mission Erodin and Amelie had initially infiltrated the Manor through his magics, him taking on the aspect of a Spine Raven to grow wings. Launching the both of them high into the sky before coming down atop the Manors tallest peak. "I doubt they'll be watching that tower."

He said, gesturing to the end of the building where a tall spire crawled into the sky. "What do you say, love, would you like to fly in my arms again?"

Erodin asked with a smirk. Remembering the 'indignant' argument she'd put up last time.

 

[Amelie]

Ah. The Telmir Estate.

Was he trying to pull at her heartstrings? Bringing up a memory like that just before a job. No, he was focused on the task at hand and proposing a plot. She wasn't certain if she should've been disappointed or impressed.
It was a good plan though, Amelie surveyed the various spires and the high tower made the most sense from a strategic point of view. As Erodin had pointed out it was unlikely there were many eyes watching the tower and from such a high vantage point not only could they visibly see any sentries but it would be easier for Amelie to detect sentient minds on the upper floors.

And, if House Venour's holding was like most of the nobility the odds were good that Lady Venour's room would be closer to the top of the manor.

"Always." She finally responded to her beloved's offer of flight. "I think we shall have a great time tonight, my love."

 

[Erodin]

Erodin smiled. ”We always do, my darling.”

As he spoke his eyes began to glow. A subtle wisp of blue drawing over them and then slowly slipping across his form. Ghostly wings sprung from his bask, the center of them a deep back, the outside feathers turning to a dull gray before they faded into that odd wraith-like smoke.

The Rogue Dreadlord reached out, sweeping Amelie into his arms.

Legs half curled, and then with a jump Erodin sprang into the air. The wings spread from his back, and with three powerful beats the two Dreadlords found themselves practically thrown into the sky.

Wind sweeping around them as they burst through the clouds above. Cold air snapping at their skin. Erodin looked down at the woman of his heart, the smile on his face growing wide as they lulled within the air for just a brief moment.

Then, slowly they began to fall.

In a descent that would have made a feather jealous with it’s gentless, Erodin and Amelie fell back down towards the ground. Ghostly wings shifting ever so slightly, barely noticeable in the black of night. With a quiet thud that someone even directly below would struggle to hear they touched down on the towers roof-top. Erodin’s wings snapping out of existence almost immediately.

 

[Amelie]

It was exhilarating the first time you flew.

Wind whipping away at your face, hair billowing in a rush of velocity, and the part of your brain that naturally went into freakout mode about the distance between the ground and your toes. All of that was multiplied when the only lifeline you had, the one thing keeping you from a messy death, was the person at the center of your private little universe.

Feet landed upon the rough stone of the roof, a hand whisked through raven-black hair to set it back in place. "We should do that again sometime," even as she spoke her magic was reaching outwards to survey any minds within their immediate radius.

"Two servants," their names were Gretchen and Sergio. They'd been sweet on one another for a year while working the estate and snuck off to little corners that were rarely monitored. Amelie held up a finger to Erodin, signaling that she needed another few moments as she read through them.

Sergio had his mind on more than just talking, Gretchen was thinking of what to cook for the Lady Venour the next day, and both of them had the same thought when it came to the manor's security.

"Dear, the estate only has a half dozen guards." A grin formed upon her face, "seems the Venour's truly are struggling for coin." That, or Lady Venour was more powerful than most had assumed.

 

[Erodin]

There was a gamble to be had here.

Erodin had never much liked gambling.

He had always preferred to play when knowing he would win. Perhaps that was part of why he loved Amelie so very dearly. Not only was she brilliant, beautiful, and cunning in her own way, but she fed into his penchant for wanting to know.

Always wanting to win.

Yet here they had to gamble anyway. Did Lady Venour truly not have the coin for a few more guards, or was her alleged power more than enough. "It's a trick."

Erodin said, deciding then and there where he fell upon the line.

"Gilly wouldn't let her have this few." He said looking at his beloved. "He left her behind, but he would never let her be unsafe."

His tongue clicked. "It's a trick."

Erodin repeated.

 

[Amelie]

"A trick?"

She kept probing the two servant's minds, digging deeper, seeing if she could uncover something more. Then she used the logical part of her brain. These servants knew nothing of what was going on within the estate. They were fools and stooges.

"Oh," a finger pressed to her chin as she exited the minds of the servers.

What could the trap possibly be?

"Are you thinking the manor outside Vel Lacazi?" A job they'd done a few years ago. Virak had needed a noble family to... stop breathing for awhile. They'd been dispatched to handle it and learned the lack of security was a facade as the minor nobles had somehow secured an elven sorceress with a dizzying array of magics. Amelie had nearly lost an arm and Erodin had come close to losing more than that.

She turned towards her husband and grimaced. "Or do you think it's more likely a situation like the one at the Cortosi ramparts after we joined up with Gilly?" A Cortosi base with supplies that Gilram needed. One of the first jobs they'd done for the disgraced archon. They'd somehow tamed a mountain troll and kept it chained in the basement.

Once the assault had begun a large, angry, troll added a sizeable dose of chaos to their mission.

 

[Erodin]

Erodin considered for a moment. "The former."

He very much doubted that the Lady Venour would be keeping a troll, or any other sort of monster in her basement. From what he knew of her it simply did not seem her style.

Though in the same breath, he thought it unlikely she had an elven sorcerers either. There was something wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on what. His gut whispered that it was her. That she was her own protection. It made the most sense, but he had little evidence and even less of an idea of what that power might be.

"Tch." Erodin said, shaking his head and letting the frustration melt away.

He hated walking into a trap, but at least they knew it was a trap.

"Nothing for it, my love." Erodin said to Amelie. "We will have to test her."

A ghostly blue light flickered over his eyes. "Let's see what happens when the Servants start screaming of northmen."

 

[Amelie]

Pandemonium had erupted in the estate. Ghastly figures went room-to-room, serving staff lie dead, walls painted a fresh shade of red.

And further ahead of the soldiers? Screams of those fortunate enough to get away (for now). Just behind the apparitions? Amelie and Erodin stalked the halls.

They'd cleared the upper most floor easily enough, no sign of Lady Venour, though the two servers whose minds she'd invaded earlier had been slain. Their first victims of the day. As they progressed down stair cases they found plenty of new victims to replenish Erodin's repertoire of souls - although few of them seemed all that worthwhile.

"She must prefer a room on the ground floor." Amelie mused in a bored tone, "peculiar."

In their experience with nobles they often favored domiciles on the upper floors.

A better view, and for most invaders, several floors of security and multiple exit routes. "Hopefully she doesn't flee before we can catch her."

 

[Erodin]

Erodin stood already splattered in small speckles of blood.

One of the servants had been faster than anticipated, and once spotting Amelie and Erodin had decided fleeing towards two humans would be safer than staying with the ghosts. He had, of course, been wrong about that fact. A quick swipe of the blade had seen to the problem. "You think she'll run?"

The Rogue Dreadlord asked.

"It's always a possibility I suppose, but by now she must kno-" The words died on his tongue as one of his wraiths noticed something. Off in the distant hallfs, on the floor below, the room itself seemed to shift and quake.

It happened within an instant, and at Erodin almost immediately recognized what was going on. The room itself seemed to shift, and then bend in on itself as though alive. Breaking in and crushing the wraith before it had even a moment to understand what was happening.

"We have to get out." He said, grabbing his beloved and quickly sprinting as the hall around them began to buck and move. "Go go go!"

He called, as all around them the villa seemed to come to life.

 

[Amelie]

She should've been panicking. Walls were bending, tiles were cracking, and the floor seemed as if it were made of gelatin.

Instead, her mind raced with curiosity as Erodin's arm flung around her and rushed them forwards. Was the manor itself hexed? Or was Lady Venour's magic an ability to manipulate the estate or all kinds of structures? There was also the possibility it was simply an offshoot of geomancy that focused on the particular kind of stone the Venour's used in construction.

A fascinating magic, one that must've been downright painful to keep secretive.

"Shit," she exclaimed as a loosening brick collided with her shoulder, "a window?"

A finger gestured towards an empty room which had a large glass window. She wasn't certain if her lover still had any flying creatures in his repertoire but it was also impossible to know how much longer they'd be spared from getting squished.

 

[Erodin]

"Window!" Erodin confirmed, his leg kicking off to suddenly break right towards the room that Amelie had pointed out.

Both of them turned as the hallway behind them continued to crash together. The very walls seeming to bend, warp, and then snap. Clearly moving in such a way as to try and catch out the two Rogue Dreadlords, the floors themselves beginning to shift as they ran.

Around them magics swirled, suffusing every little thing around them. As though some veil had been pulled back, and the true power of this place finally showed. As Erodin and Amelie rushed forward, a plush chair in the corner of the room suddenly seemed to snap to life. It jumped from it's position in the corner, leaping directly towards Eroin.

His eyes shot open, and one of his Wights appeared before them.

A quick slice of a ghostly blade saw the chair bisected, sending the recliner toppling in two pieces to the ground. "Did that just?!"

Erodin demanded, but Amelie didn't allow him the moment of indignation. Her hand grasped quickly at his lapel, and with a sudden jerk she pulled him towards the large window. It's frame seeming to grow teeth as the two moved forward. The pane shifted, as if it was about to bite down, but Erodin jumped and sent himself crashing through.

Falling onto the back of another ghostly wight, this time a sky-ray.

As they came crashing onto the back of the summoned wraith, the building behind them continued to shift. Every cobblestone, every brick, even the foliage clinging to the ancient estate seemed to move and meld together, growing as it began to stand.

 

[Amelie]

Amelie had seen a lot of crazy shit in her time as a Dreadlord.

Both within Vel Anir and on various missions to the far flung reaches of Arethil. From summoners who could conjure swarms of flies to mages who crafted runes that would multiply a person's abilities tenfold. But never, in her entire life, had Amelie seen anything as crazy as this shit.

An entire estate come to life. An entire estate that seemed very, very, angry.

"We need to burn the entire thing down," she said with venom coursing from her lips. Even if her better judgement was telling her to run and come back when they had say, a pyromancer. Or maybe that feisty redhead who manipulated lava. "I'm going to try and find his damn wife."

Amelie wrapped her arms tightly around Erodin as she let her mind expand outwards. Her husband would likely know precisely what she was up to and while it had it's risks there didn't seem to be any other choice in the matter. If they just ran away Lady Venour would report the incident to Gilram and there was no way she didn't know who had come to her estate.

But tapping into all consciousness in the vicinity was a desperate gambit. Amelie's mind was just one in an ocean of thoughts and personalities. Hearing every voice and isolating it just to the Venour woman's would take some time, it would be taxing, and it's possible that Amelie could even faint from the exertion.

Less than ideal as they sailed high above the ground.

The manor tried to throw a clump of shingles at them, and to Erodin's credit he navigated the sky-ray to narrowly avoid the attack.

 

[Erodin]

"This is ridiculous." Erodin noted with objection as the Sky-Ray shifted. Its ethereal wings suddenly tipping left as the building's massive 'hand' came swinging down. Swooshing through the air where they had been just seconds before and thundering into the ground. The very earth itself seeming to ripple like water as the shockwave rushed out from the powerful impact.

A curse left his lips as they narrowly avoided another strike.

Briefly Erodin wished that he had another creature to bring to bare. Something faster or more agile so they could more swiftly. The ray moved through the air with a grace, but hardly the dexterity of a Giant Hawk or Ixchel Eagle. They needed something better. "Alright!"

He called to his beloved.

"Just hang on!" As Amelie searched, the building behind them stood. It's massive foundation dragged free from where it had stood for centuries, huge arms shifting and moving to crush the Sky-Ray in it's grasp. Erodin's hands wrapped around Amelie's, he took a breath, and just as the Building's hands were about to smash together…the Ray disappeared from underneath them.

In an instant the two Dreadlords dropped. Falling through the air as Erodin held his beloved. Above them the Buildings hands clapped together in a thunderous applause, the sound enough to shatter glass and force a wince even through Erodin.

They tumbled for a heartbeat, two, and then suddenly beneath them would feel something solid. With a gentle impact, the two Dreadlords landed upon another wraith. This time a giant bird, it's wings spanning outward as it quickly ducked beneath the buildings arm and with a single beat launched them high above.

 

[Amelie]

Look at the night sky long enough and you can see every star when you close eyes. The exact position, the way some shine with a brighter luster than others, the specific constellations they make up. Sometimes the position of Lessat or Pneria could throw off your orientation but study the astrological maps long enough and you can even account for that.

Now. Imagine every single star moved constantly. And you'd never even looked at the sky before. And you were soaring through the air trying to avoid being killed by an Anirian estate with anger issues.

That's kind of what searching for Lady Venour's mind was like.

So much noise, so much distraction.

"Damn it," Amelie muttered underneath haggard breaths, "is there any cover we can find?" Even if it were just for a few seconds the ability to concentrate might help her...

"Oh."

There it was for a second, a split second, she heard a wandering thought cursing the name Amelie. Cursing the name Erodin. But then the flying ghost-bird-thing dodged another assault and she lost it. "I almost," her teeth gritted as the grip around Erodin's torso tightened, "I almost have her..."

If she could just find Lady Venour's consciousness amongst the rest of the noise maybe she could debilitate part, or all, of her magic. If it was even her magic to begin with...

 

[Erodin]

Erodin's eyes darted in search of someplace to set down, hide, or even get a momentary reprieve.

Problem was, where did one hide from a fucking building.

The damned thing was at least six or seven stories now, and seemed to hone in on them almost instantly every time they got away. Moving with a swiftness one wouldn't have expected from an animated piece of construction.

He felt Amelie's hands tighten gently around him, her touch clear with it's frustration as she dug and delved for that blasted Lady Venour. "I'm going to take us up!"

Erodin called, it was the only solution that he could think of. The damned thing would keep chasing them, the only solution they had was up.

With a beat of it's wings the falcon shifted, and slowly they began to rise. Weaving through a strike from the buildings fist, and then another, before finally pulling itself out of the monsters reach. A great roar leaving it's monstrous form from it's open front doors.

"There, that should-" Erodin stopped himself from speaking as he watched the building lean down, grabbing what appeared to be a giant boulder and ripping it from the earth. "Oh come on!"

He complained. "My love, please find this incesant bitch so I can put a fucking sword in her throat."

 

[Amelie]

All of the thoughts were like a deluge, the personalities a constant buzzing static, and the emotions were incessant. Exhaustion and anger and fear radiating from inside the manor making it clear that most of Lady Venour's staff had no clue the nature of her magics.

Fredericka, the floor is moving!
I don't want to die, Anirius please spare me. I'll quite the booze tomorrow, I swear it!
It was so much. Too much. Amelie would've fallen off the falcon had Erodin not grasped at her and steadied her body. But she couldn't help but feel that she was closing in once more, despite the boulder that they'd just barely dodged. Despite Erodin's desire to slit the bitch's throat.

"I have her," Amelie cooed, "but you're not going to like what we have to do next."

Amelie shared the vision of what she saw with Erodin. Lady Venour's view of things.

Split vision with one eye seeing from a balcony on the north wing. The other eye at the base of the house facing southward.

"She is the house." And apparently she'd split her essence in two completely different directions of the building.

 

[Erodin]

"Oh fuck Kress in the-" Erodin's curse was interrupted as another boulder was dodged. The wraith's wing shifting just enough to let the stone flicker by their side.

Shaking his head, the rogue Dreadlord glanced back towards his beloved.

"Fuck it." He called. "We have to kill the bitch, and we have to make it look good now."

Half of their plan had gone to shit the moment the goddamn house had started moving on its own. Gilram would know whatever threat had come for his beloved had been serious. They could still frame Pollux, but they would have to end this quickly.

Fingers sunk into the ethereal feathers of his ghost. "What do you have to do?"

Erodin called to Amelie.

 

[Amelie]

Time was becoming an issue. The longer they took, the more suspicions would grow, to say nothing of the fact that one wrong move and the manor could kill them both.

”Fire,” she shouted through the rushing wind, ”and a tornado might help too.”

Too much of the Venour estate was made of stone for them to simply start a fire and watch as Gilram’s ex-wife fizzled out. Amelie felt at a loss, she was in the creature’s head but this wasn’t a normal human body. Normally she could sever the cognitive functions that directed muscles to move, or even control those functions to inflict harm on her victim.

But Lady Venour had no bones, she had planks and cobblestone and the mechanisms that triggered parts of the estate to shift were so alien that Amelie had trouble making sense of any of it.

There had to be… ”Ah.”

As Erodin forced their mount to dive in order to dodge another swing from their foe she felt it. The slight tug that the old hag used to move the section of the home which served as it’s ‘arm.’

”Fly closer, towards the center of the estate.”

A risky ploy, but they had to end this quickly. As Erodin aimed the bird towards the epicenter of the Venour mansion she prepared for her magic to fully take root. If this worked according to plan she’d send one of the home’s ‘fists’ forward and upwards, potentially splitting the place in two.

 

[Erodin]

There was no argument, no second word.

Erodin trusted Amelie implicitly, to a point that others might even have called it insanity. If she said that this was necessary, then to his mind there was no other choice.

His eyes flared with a brief glow as the ghast beneath them was twisted by his will. It's wings flickering for a single beat, and then suddenly twisting as it took them in a hard bank right. Erodin clutched the wisps feathers tight, drawing himself and Amelie down close.

Their foe seemed to shift, the huge lumbering hulk moving it's hands and offering yet another swipe.

Silverware and other nonsense flew from one of the windows in the 'arm' of the building, scattering all around them as they suddenly dove down. Wings tucking into the great avians body as they slipped beneath the attack. Folding open an instant later to drag them towards the center of the estate.

"Be quick, love!" Erodin called as he watched the hulk shift again.

This time it's hands drew upward at the same time, one moving left while the other grasped for the flying Dreadlords. There was no avoiding them, no shifting the ghost, nothing. If this did not work, their next move would have to be even more drastic.

 

[Amelie]

Floorboards creaked and walls fractured as the house’s appendage rushed towards Erodin and Amelie. She had no time to think, the rest was performed purely on instinct.

An instinct she’d honed since her days at the academy. Dominating a mind and pressing it smaller and smaller until it’s host complied with whatever action it was she insisted upon. A slight twist here, a gentle nudge there, and suddenly the appendage of wood, insulation, and hard stone whooshed below the pair.

It gained speed. Faster and faster. Amelie could feel the panic in Lady Venour’s mind as her control over the mansion waned.

Then, a crash. It rippled upwards as the mind manipulator willed the house to push more and more of its ‘strength’ further and further into a single strike skyward.

In a second’s notice their bird banked and moved on its side, allowing them to slip through a tiny gap in the now crumbling manor. Dust and splinters and fragments of a centuries old home covered the pair of First Levels as Amelie braced for an impact that never came.

Half a moment later their ride was circling the ruins below as a vulture did the desiccated corpse of some large mammal.

”Lady Venour yet lives,” she could sense the dread, the immense pain, that the ex-wife of Gilram felt. The fear had taken hold of her. A fear that Amelie had felt before from being inside the head of countless prey. A heart pounding out of its chest, sweaty palms, the logical part of Venour’s brain running through options or trying to bargain it’s way out of how dire things truly were.

Amelie reached out Erodin’s shoulder and pointed at a section of debris. ”There. Near were the fourth floor had been.”

 

[Erodin]

Erodin grinned wide as the massive golem began to topple. Massive pieces of the once grand estate toppling down to the ground with thunderous crashes. The earth splintering and breaking beneath the weight of fallen stone and wood.

Their mount shifted one last time, dodging a falling arm and banking to soar high above the rubble which now lay scattered below. "Beautifully done, my Darling."

He complemented as they shifted, wheeling about until Amelie found the wavering mind of Lady Venour.

The grin on his face did not disappear as his eyes once again flashed blue. Commanding the bird beneath them to slowly descend towards the ground. Far more gently this time the creature carried them down, and as it did Erodin's fingers extended. As he did, three huge hulking Ogres appeared, each one marred and decorated with a thousand different scars.

As Erodin and Amelie set down, the Ogre's picked through the debris. Tossing segments of broken walls and furniture away until the bloody and sputtering figure of Lady Venour appeared. Her arms and legs pinned by rubble still, a gash decorating her forehead. Blood spilling from her lips.

With a hand the First Level helped his wife step down from the ghostly bird, the two of them sauntering over to their broken foe. "You'll pay for this, he'll know. He'll have both of your fucking heads for this!"

"Is that so?" Erodin's tongue clicked against the roof of his mouth, head shaking."Well, perhaps when he comes for us, we should provide him with proof."

The Dreadlord said, the chesire grin returning to his face as his eyes flared blue. "What do you think, Sweetheart? Do we allow them a reunion one day?"

He asked, taking a step forward towards Lady Venour as abject terror grew in her eyes.

 

[Amelie]

Amelie circled the Venour noble like a viper. "A wonderful idea, I'm sure Old Gilly would be delighted to see her."

"Do you think I'm afraid of you two?" Their battered prey let out an exaggerated laugh.

On a basic level the former Dreadlord understood why people told such obvious lies. Mindreading, particularly at Amelie's level, was such a rare talent that bluffing was often the best strategy. But it always confused her as to why people who knew what she could do would try those lies against her. "No, Molly Venour, I don't think you're scared at all."

She bent down and placed a caressing hand Molly's cheek. Wiping away some of the dirt and grim.

"I might be able to convince my husband to resist adding your soul to his repertoire but only if we get what we came for," a sly grin plastered her face as her irises glowed with a devilish joy. "The trinkets. Why does he want them?"

It mattered not if Molly Venour answered but getting her to think on the question would make it easier to pry the answers from her mind.

"I... I don't know what you speak of," her voice croaked.

"A ring. A needle. A chalice. And more trinkets than that," her hand seized the noble woman's chin, squeezing at her soft flesh and forcing the fallen matriach to make eye contact, "why? What is their purpose?"

 

[Erodin]

It was and Amelie would know it.

The instant the question was asked, Lady Venour's mind became a steel trap. It was instant, and familiar the way she tried to shut away the thoughts. Erodin could practically tell what was happening from the expression on the woman's face. The consternation, the slight shift as she tried to think about something-anything other than what Amelie had asked her about.

A small scoff escaped him. "Come now, Molly."

There was no need to use her title anymore. The estate was gone, her magics used up, and any semblance of a life she might have left would end within the span of a few beats of the heart. Her wraith would serve him, but only to taunt her former love.

"Don't make your final moments worse than they have to be." She knew she was done, knew there was no escape. Her lips pressed to a thin line, and then pain began to flicker across her features as Amelie drove further into her mind; there, she would find the answer the two first levels were looking for.

Not in clear form, no, credit where it was due Molly Venour was strong enough to resist that. But Amelie would catch a glimpse, a brief sight. Each of the items that she had spoken of, two more in fact. A staff and a coin. The image would flicker through her mind, and then all five of the items together...followed quickly by the opening of a massive door.

Blood trickled from the woman's nose as Amelie clutched her chin. Dripping down over her mouth and chin before staining Dreadlord's hand.

 

[Amelie]

For once in this interaction it was Amelie who felt a shudder of fear.

Gilram's ex-wife was beginning to succumb to her injuries. Consciousness was starting to wane and the silence of death loomed heavy over the fallen noble. Yet still the old crone resisted. Still she tried to defend a man who'd waged war upon Vel Anir and forsaken her.

It might've been romantic had it not been so incredibly frustrating.

"Focus." The grip upon the woman's face became so tight that Amelie's knuckles glowed white. "The trinkets. What is their purpose?"

They had come too far to get nothing more than a consolation prize for their efforts. Sure, having the soul added to Erodin's collection merited some minor value but they needed more. Needed to know what the hell the crazy ex-Archon was up to.

She was about to give it up until the thoughts rushed in. An ornately decorated staff with an intricate design of interlacing metal that served as the handle. A simple, rusted, coin with strange runic symbols around its faded copper edges.

And then... the door. A colossal thing that led to...

"Fuck!" Molly's eyes re-focused, filled with disdain and hatred but a lingering shame that she'd given up anything at all hanging there. "The bitch'll been gone soon, darling. Best take her now."

With that Amelie released her grip upon the woman's chin and turned to walk back through the rubble.