Fable - Ask The Scent of Lost Magic

[Neith]

Neith was on her hands and knees, happily scrubbing and muttering some cheeky remark to herself about the last time this place was cleaned.. When she emerged from the cupboard she wiped at her brow and stood "I do, but not like that.. I can't do the sorts of things that you can." she rolled her shoulders and moved onto the next cupboard.

"I can only sense magic, and steal and store it.." she told him, omitting that she could also share just as she omitted her talent for producing Lyrum, for the same reason. Cyrus had been using her for such things for quite some time, and she'd learned the hard way to keep certain things to herself.

 

[Kyril]

He narrowed his eyes for a few moments, watching her, but then eventually nodding. "I will teach you what I can."

That knowledge was not something he would keep to himself. If she wanted to learn Rune Magic, then he would show her. Though, he somewhat doubted his ability to do so while in the midst of Lyrum Withdrawals. Especially on a ship.

"Rune Magic is easy to begin, but complex to master." He told her, knowing full well he felt short of any sort of mastery of the art.

For a few seconds he continued to watch her scrub the floors, not entirely sure what he was supposed to be doing in that moment.

"I will begin creating what I need for tomorrow." He told her eventually, feeling a strange sort of awkwardness just standing there and watching her clean. "Just..."

Ky paused. "Call if you need something."

 

[Neith]

"Mhmm.." she answered, fully engrossed in scrubbing as he spoke. For a place as grand as it was, it was filthy.

Hours passed before she found him at that desk again, and there wasn't a room she'd left untouched. Tattered or not, it was clean and everything that should have shone, shone.

"If I go for a bath now.." she spoke from the doorway. "I won't drown again, will I?.." she asked, a little nervous of stepping into the tub in case he'd hexed it or something.

"How's it goin'?.." she asked, craning her neck to look at whatever he was doing.

 

[Kyril]

"No." He answered her, his voice distant in a strange sort of way. Most of Ky's attention was focused on the paper beneath his palm. One already sat besides him, marked with hundreds, if not thousands of intricate lines.

"You will not drown." His hand slowly drew another line on the parchment he was working on, adding a second later. "It was a spell by my hand, not a curse."

A frown touched his lips. "I have never liked curses."

They did not sit well with him.

"I am done with the first, the Illusion. Now I have to finish the other two." It had taken him longer than he'd thought it would, but he was confident that he'd gotten it right.

Once activated the Rune would project an image of whatever he took from the Vault. A perfect replica that would last for three days if left undisturbed.

When Neith looked over his shoulder she would see more of the lines being drawn, his hand surprisingly steady. It was as if the focus of drawing the runes took his mind off the Lyrum, the practice almost therapeutic in a way.

 

[Neith]

She leaned against the door frame as he spoke, nodding slowly as she listened. After some hesitance she wandered into the room and approached his desk to get a closer look at the illusion he'd been working on. "So this will make him think whatever you take is still there?.." she asked, tilting her head. It made no sense to her what-so-ever and in truth, she hadn't really realised the amount of time that had to go into creating a spell like this..

Neith leaned on the desk beside him. She hadn't really wanted to broach the subject of his second attack on her, the one that had quite literally stopped her breathing, but her curiosity was never an easy thing to manage..

"When you brought me back you said it wasn't supposed to happen.. What did you mean?..What was supposed to happen?.." she arched a brow.

 

[Kyril]

"Yes, as long as no one touches it." Which was a bet he was willing to take. The illusion would only stand up to sight, the moment someone tried to actually interact with the treasure it would all come crumbling down.

His fingers tightened for a moment, and he said a small prayer to whatever spirit watched over him that his gamble would hold true.

A breath filled his lungs, and then slowly he continued to draw the rune upon the paper. This one was more intricate, exact. It would be the one to render him transparent, and if he got it wrong...well it had the possibility to instead turn him inside out.

Not something he wanted.

When she asked her question his quill stopped suddenly, lips thinning. "The Spell is a trap."

Ky said with a frown.

"But not a deadly one." He told her quietly. "The Drowning isn't real...at least not in a sense we might think of actual drowning. The water would have left your lungs the moment you were unconscious, drawn back into the bubble. Then it would have held you until I released the spell. It is not designed to kill."

Kyril looked up at her. "Something...went wrong, and not of my doing."

 

[Neith]

Neith frowned. She shouldn't have asked. It only made her realise how angry she felt about it and conjured the memory of how agonising it'd been.

"Right.." she answered dryly. 'Not of his doing'.. "That makes it alright then.." she muttered to herself as she turned back toward the door.

"I left some food on the kitchen table for you. You should take a break.. I'm going to get some sleep..." Suddenly taking a bath didn't feel like such a comforting idea..

 

[Kyril]

"I didn't say it made it alright." Ky said, his head turning back towards the paper. His ears seeming to ring as she stepped away. "You asked me a question, I answered."

He could feel the symptoms start now. His senses being more acute to the point of being painful, and ache in his stomach, his veins hurting.

The moment the quill had lifted his hand had begun to shake again, a tremor that rushed through his whole body. Lips thinned, recognizing the sign of the cravings within him. He knew that it would set in soon, that aching hurt in his body. Just a little while more.

He silently begged.

"Thank you." He said as he heard her begin to climb the first marble step.

 

[Neith]

Neith didn't respond to his comments, but she paused at his thanks and glanced back at him with a short nod. "You're welcome." she answered quietly and wandered upstairs.

She assumed that the bed she'd been let rest in earlier had been his. It was the grandest of the rooms and so obviously the master bedroom. She chose the spare room with the hearth and lit herself a small fire. She'd dusted and polished and cleared it of cobwebs and so it was now cosy and habitable. The bed wasn't as comfortable, but it was far better than the cold, hard ground and a delight to her aching muscles.

Sleep came with dreams of drowning in a bath of Lyrum, of Cyrus and her father, of a room full of runes that trapped her inside. She gave up trying before the sun had breached the horizon, and she got up to open the window to allow the tapping raven inside.

"Breakfast?" she asked the bird who clicked at her in agreement.

 

[Kyril]

Kyril hadn't moved from where she had left him the night before.

It was impossible to tell if he had even gotten up to get any of the food that she had made, but when she and her Raven landed on the last of the marble steps they would find Ky still in the same place as the night before. Another of the papers was now sitting beside him, with the final one still in front of him.

This one was still more intricate than the last, and instead of being drawn in black ink, it seemed to be made of some strange crimson.

As Neith found her way into the living room Ky did not stir. He did not welcome her or say hello, he simply sat at his desk and continued to draw. His concentration was complete, as though the whole world around him did not exist.

He was a corpse sitting at a desk.

 

[Neith]

Neith dug the heel of her hand into her eye to rub the sleep from it as she made her way down the steps, Rok swooping down behind her. She paused at the foot of it, her gaze narrowed sleepily as she saw him sitting there. By the looks of it, he hadn't moved..

"Have you slept?...Eaten even?.." she asked, her voice firm and bare feet slapping on the floor as she strode toward the desk.

"You won't be much use if you keel over." she added abruptly.

 

[Kyril]

Ky seemed to jump slightly as she spoke, his head whipping around as though he were in the middle of being attacked.

When he saw her his face softened slightly, though only slightly before he quickly looked back at the page to make sure he had made no mistakes. A small sigh of relief escaped him as he saw the parchment in the same state he'd left it. "No."

He told her.

"Haven't eaten, or slept." Ky said quickly. "Need to finish this, get the gold."

His voice was faster, shaky, something pulling through it. "Finish this before it-it gets worse."

He could already feel the ache, the hurt. It was starting now, really starting.

 

[Neith]

Neith frowned in concern at his answer, her teeth latching onto her lower lip to chew gently in consternation. Her hand hesitantly reached to his shoulder and carefully settled before gripping a little more firmly.

"Kyril.. I think you've done enough for one night. If you don't eat or sleep you might, make mistakes." she frowned. "I'm going to make you some tea, and get you some food. Then you can get a few hours sleep...Alright?.." she asked in a tone foreign to that which she'd used with him before, one that she was apparently very well practised in using with someone else.

 

[Kyril]

For a brief few seconds it didn't appear that he would move at all. Another line was drawn, another segment of that strange red ink linking to another. The closer she got the easier it would be able to tell what it was. A strange metallic scent clung to it, and upon his arm she would notice the small nick in his flesh that he had used to take his crimson ink.

He seemed to shake, jerk with surprise as though he hadn't expected her hand to actually touch him.

"Not a hallucination." Ky murmured quietly, looking up at her for a moment in confusion as he looked over her hand, and then to her face. He listened to her words, though almost seemed to flinch as they came.

After a brief moment he nodded, though didn't move.

His gaze flickered back to the paper. "Almost finished."

The mage lamented, as though pulling himself away was more weight than he could actually bare in that moment. As if standing was impossibly difficult.

 

[Neith]

Neith's brown eyes narrowed at the confusion on his face and wondered if he'd been seeing things. It was pretty common, but if he had it meant he was already on that road to hell and she chewed on her lip. They'd never get the coin if he was in the depths of his withdrawals.

She gave a tight lipped smile as he looked at her, and followed his gaze back to the page, and the wound in his hand. A huff escaped her nose and she nodded at his words.. "Alright.." she answered quietly as she lifted her hand and turned away.

She fussed around the kitchen, boiling water and rummaging around for herbs. Something to relax him and make him rest easy. Some dried meat and bread were plated along side an apple, and she breathed in the soothing scent of camomile as she stared down into the tea. Neith rubbed her brow and tapped her fingers on the counter as she considered before slipping the little vial of blue powder into her palm and staring at it.

Just a little.. Just a little would get him through this without severing his magic entirely. She hoped. Regardless, she needed that money and right now he was withering and risking it all. She bit down hard on her lip as her morals clashed against her fears in her mind, but fear won, and she uncorked the vial and tipped a small amount into the tea, and stirred. It wasn't much, but it was enough to give him the strength that he needed, that she needed.

She stared at the cup as she sat it down next to the pile of parchment along side the plate, and cleared her throat. "Alright. Have something to eat and drink your tea now." she frowned with a sigh.

 

[Kyril]

As she set down the food and drink beside him Ky seemed to flicker his gaze towards it for a moment.

Briefly a moment flashed before his eyes. It was a memory, a quick glance into the past. Him crouched over a desk not too different from where he sat now, his hands occupied with a strange metallic contraption, his focus entirely drawn. Then the clink of a spoon, one of the maids bringing him food, urging him to eat.

The memory was eerily similar.

Lips thinned for a moment, and the small flash seemed to pull him from his stupor. Kyril swallowed hard, then slowly nodded his head. "Okay."

He agreed.

A breath filled his lungs, and slowly he placed the quill back where it belonged. His head turned away from the parchment, forced to focus on something else if only for a few moments. He took another slow, shaking breath, then picked up some of the food and slowly began to eat.

Every now and again he would take a small sip of tea, washing down the meager meal.

 

[Neith]

Neith watched him intently for a long moment as he drank the tea. He hadn't seemed to notice straight away at least, and so she let out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding. Perhaps he wouldn't even notice at all, maybe he was so far gone that he'd barely even feel it.

She patted his shoulder again before taking a step backward. "I've lit the hearth in your room and turned down the bed.." she told him. "I'm going out for a bit, get some rest.." she frowned and turned on her heels to leave him in peace.

 

[Kyril]

The lyrum's effect weren't instant, not when it was such a little amount.

It took time for the drug to hit his system, particularly given the fact that it was ingested and his tolerance was so high. Yet as she patted his shoulder and told him about the bed he could feel it's effects, though did not recognize them as lyrum.

Some of the aches in his stomach went away, the pain in his joints, and the small whispers that he had thought echoed in his ears disappeared. "Yes..."

He said quietly, looking down at the now clean plate.

"I think that's a good idea." Ky nodded his head as she began to leave the room. Perhaps sleep was the right thing.

 

[Neith]

Neith took the silver from the drawer as he'd told her to, and spent a few hours wandering around the town and market. She returned in the afternoon laden with food, and a few extra coins in her pocket as well as a pretty new bruise under her left eye. It was nothing all together unusual, an uneventful day in town would have been more out of the ordinary for Neith.

Still, she was in a foul mood and determined to better it. She had already cleaned the house from top to bottom, and so she'd content herself with cooking until he woke. Fresh vegetable soup with bacon, fish caught just this morning with pan friend potatoes with rosemary and carrots, and lemon tarts. It wasn't often she had silver with which to shop for supper, but since she did, she wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to make a decent meal.

"If he doesn't eat this, I'll be the one drownin' him.." she muttered to Rok with a smirk as she fed the bird a shred of fish.

 

[Kyril]

By the time Ky dragged himself out of bed hours had passed and the sun was well passed it's zenith.

Sleep never came easily for him, in fact in months passed it had hardly come at all. Lyrum itself did not keep you awake, but the magic one could hold with it did. That was always what Kyril had done, using his magic to stay awake for days on end with no hint of exhaustion.

Now that he couldn't, it was almost as though his body simply wasn't used to sleep. In a strange way, the Lyrum she had slipped him had helped him gain some rest.

Stepping into the living room Kyril held the scent of food in his nose, raising an eyebrow for a moment before slowly walking to his desk. He looked at the pages that he had laid out, all three of them now finished. Tonight then.

He thought to himself before he slowly turned towards the kitchen.

"I didn't realize you could cook." Ky said as he stepped into the doorway.

 

[Neith]

Neith glanced over her shoulder at him, currently sprinkling paprika spice over the potatoes as the fried. She looked him over with a small smirk and laughed under her breath.. "My father was a spice merchant. He taught me to cook a long time ago. Though I don't often get the chance these days." she shrugged and turned back to what she was doing.

She scooped a ladleful of hot soup into a bowl and set it down at the table, bread and butter already there to accompany it. "Sit, eat." she instructed. "I suppose you managed to sleep then?.." she asked as she poured him a cup of fresh wine.

"I thought, we could have a decent meal before we had to leave.." she smirked. Well, he had told her to take the silver..

 

[Kyril]

"For a little while at least." A spice merchant?

Was that how she got involved in the Lyrum? Had her father been a smuggler for Cyrus on the side? It would make sense, particularly given that most cities did not allow for the drug to be traded, much less transported through their ports.

"Thank you." He said as he walked towards the table."I'm not sure when the last time I had a proper meal was."

Food had never mattered much.

Quietly he looked down at the bowl, glancing towards the bread as he felt that pang of nausea slowly run through his stomach. He knew that a day from now eating would once again be the last thing on his mind. "Did you find a ship to take us out?"

Ky asked, narrowing his eyes for a moment as he noticed the mark around her eye.

 

[Neith]

Neith snorted.. "Yah, I could tell.." she commented, given how skinny and gaunt he looked. She poured herself a cup of wine too, and sipped it before nodding at his question.

"I did. Leaves tomorrow evening. Merchant vessel." she nodded.. "Is that long enough?.." her brow quirked.

 

[Kyril]

He nodded his head, taking his first sip of the soup with the proper spoon. It was delicious, and a small smile touched his face for a moment.

Too long, maybe. Ky thought to himself.

The Gold had to be taken tonight, it had to be at night. That meant there would be a whole day where he and Neith would just be...sitting. Things would get bad if the Duke discovered the treachery, worse if he was caught with some of the coin.

He had to be careful. "Yes. It will do."

Ky said with a nod.

"This is very good." He complemented, taking some of the bread.

 

[Neith]

Her cheek dimpled as her lips curled into a lazy smirk at his compliment, a simple half shrug given in humble response.

"Alright. So what's the plan? Will we hide out here or find some place else to lay low until we set sail? I reckon we could board earlier for an extra coin or two, they'll be docked for a while to load their cargo." she mused and turned to flip the potatoes and toss the vegetables in butter whilst he ate his soup.

"Do I come with you?.." she asked with a curious glance, more than a little intrigued about his magic..