IC 2137 BC – The Maw of Apophis
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IC 2137 BC – The Maw of Apophis
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Sian felt the low mana pull at her very essence. It felt like she was torn apart by millions of ants. Returning to her flesh form aleviates the pain a bit, but only the unwavering focus on the task at hand prevents her from screaming out loud. Even so she is panting before she has finished binding the knots. Black spots are dancing before her eyes as the exhaustion brought on by this monumental task reaches her.
Hunger. Undiluted, raw hunger like she hasn’t felt in years stirrs in her. Using her vampiric power in this low mana environment has depleted all reserves of essence she so carefully accumulated.
The girl – likely no older than 15 looks delicious and full of life. One-Eye on the other hand she can already taste has something about his aura that repulses her, as if his essence has gone sour.
The need to feed grows stronger by the second, already her vision is going blurry and narrows itself down.Spoiler: -
Sian
Early Morning, October 1st, 2137 BC; Slum District, ThebesSian pushes through the pain and the distracting presence of the naked girl near her. In the state Sian is in, she can smell the blood of the girl and hear the beats of the young heart. She will need to feed soon or there will be heavy consequences to pay. Focusing on her mission is the only way to keep from killing the innocent girl. Sian has not taken an innocent for a very long time and does not want to go that route here, if she can avoid it.
She carefully carries the unconscious body of the one-eyed man to the edge of the roof and lowers him by rope to where Kaleb and Ryl are waiting. They untie the man and she pulls the rope back up to the roof. With a last glance at the very desirable girl, the naked vampire slips down the stairs. Feeling that to invoke her true form again would be a bad choice to make, Sian carefully steps past the sleeping men and joins her master on the ground. She notes the appreciative looks from both Kaleb and Ryl as she pulls her clothing and armor back on. Her eyes are cast down as she stands in front of her master. “Master, you probably know far too much about me now, but this had greatly taken from my stores of energy and I must feed. Please turn me loose to seek that which I need. I can promise to rejoin you at the palace when I have finished. For now, you are my master and I must obey you as much as I can.”
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Ryl
Very Early, October 1st, 2137 BC; Slum, ThebesRyl snorted “He is not your master no matter what pretence you offer. No mere man could master one such as you. It has been many many years but I recognise you now…we can talk later once you have slaked your thirst on some unfortunate…”
#13
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Sian
Early Morning, October 1st, 2137 BC; Slum District, ThebesSian shifts her gaze to Ryl as the noblewoman talks. Her eyes give no indication that her mind is trying to piece together when she might have met the woman in the past, but nothing really comes to her at this time. As befits her current social station, Sian turns her eyes back to her master, Kaleb, who listens to Ryl then nods at Sian, giving her permission to go.
Sian smiles as she turns and walks off into the shadows, heading for the darker alleys. Playing the role of potential victim has held her in good stead in the past, and so it does now. In the space of two hours, she is accosted two times by a pair of thugs looking to make an easy score of a lone woman. By the time Sian makes it back to the palatial villa, she has drained the life and essence from the four men, leaving headless corpses for the rats to gnaw on. Temporarily sated and her energy levels restored, the vampire returns to the palace, stopping at a tavern to purchase some food that will conceal the smell of blood on her breath.
The guards at the gate must have been told that she would be returning later and let her pass. Inside the villa, Sian walks softly down the corridors to the rooms of her master, where she quietly strips and slips beneath the fine sheets, curling her body next to Kaleb’s.
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Ryl
Mid-Morning, October 1st, 2137 BC; Ryl’s Villa, ThebesRyl had had the one eyed man spirited away to the wine cellar where he wouldn’t bother anyone and ensured that he was well guarded, against himself as well as outside agents. Despite Mariamme’s disapproval she had settled herself in to the kitchens and watched the bustle while she awaited for the vampyre’s return and her supposed master. When she was informed that the woman had returned and immediately hidden herself away from the sun she wryly acknowledged that it might be a long wait but asked for a messenger to be stationed outside Kaleb’s rooms so that should they surface before dark they would be able to join her for a nice chat with their unfortunate prisoner…
#14
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Late-Morning, October 1st, 2137 BC; Ryl’s Villa, Thebes
After a few hours one of the guards approached Ryl, bowing slightly: “Your worship, the prisoner is awake and has demanded to be let go. On your command I’ll have my men give him a little seeing to, so he’ll be more receptive to your questions later.”
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Sian
Mid-Morning, October 1st, 2137 BC; Ryl’s Villa, ThebesSian wakes from her slumber, feeling the warm body of her master spooned behind her, his hand cupping her breast. She can feel his hardness against her butt and wriggles just a bit to get a better feel for him. He murmurs a bit and his grip on her breast tightens a bit before his hand begins to wander lower on her body. She turns in his arm to face him and begins to show him some of the more advanced techniques she has learned, most of them gained from experience and far greater in effect than anything the training brothels had thought to teach her. She is not silent in her appreciation of his prowess in bed and the man is left practically in a coma, but then so is Sian. She is very pleasantly surprised at the sexual talents and skill displayed by her new master and the pair drift back off to sleep in the same position they had awakened in.
Late Morning, October 1st, 2137 BC; Ryl’s Villa, Thebes
Sian wakes later and stretches, first supine in the bed next to Kaleb then sitting up to let the exquisite sheet drop from her torso to lay at her waist. Sliding from the bed, she moves to the small attached bathroom is and relieves herself before cleaning up from the night’s activities………….and those of the morning as well. She turns from the wash basin to find Kaleb standing in the open doorway, looking at her. No words are said, but none need to be said and Sian walks past him into the bedroom as the man steps into the bathroom for his own morning ablutions. She walks to the bedside and dresses in the soft, filmy clothes provided to her by her hostess before stepping to where she had placed the armor she had been loaned for the previous night’s activities in the city. She inspects the armor closely, using water from the bowl on the nearby table to wipe at the few new bloodstains she sees. Frowning that some of it will not come off she sighs at the waste of the few drops of life-giving essence.
Sian bundles the armor together and places it on the bed before moving to gather her master’s clothing to make it ready for him when he returns to the bedroom. She is waiting for him as he emerges from the bathroom and helps him dress. Once ready, she follows him from the room, where they are told that the Princess would like to speak with them. One of the guards takes the armor Sian is carrying and the other leads them to where Ryl is waiting.
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So he had found her again. The monster, blood sucking amoral creature, and formidable lover. There was no denial she could provide the best sex he could remember. But Kaleb was feeling like he was making a pact with the Devil. One that somehow he could not resist. Maybe this was what he was meant to embrace; death and pain were after all and ironically the common lot of an immortal.
These were hard times for Idhrenohtar. Yes. Difficult years, or maybe decades? He had had a hard time acclimating to the loss of potency of his magical skills. His illusions were amateurish at most; is attack spells inefficient and should he unleash his still powerful fire spells, he would become once more a pariah of society in many lands. It was even the first few years that he had started carrying weapons; his throwing blades and javelins allowing him to discreetly perform telekinetic attacks.
Times were changing. Maybe he was too.He looked at Sian’s naked body. He had wondered if he should have killed her. Instead they have made love. In less than half a day, the creature has had him ran to a full gamut of emotions, from curiosity to amazement, from pity to deception, from despise to passion. He had wanted to free her when he won her over, but for some reason he was more hesitant this morning. Attachment? Control? Who knew.
The night had been short. She had made sure of it. Kaleb cleaned up after Sian and upon getting dressed made his way to Ryl’s parlor.
On their way, he and Sian finally exchanged a few words. What you did was reckless. I may not have your abilities, but one thing I am good at his understanding how the life in these cities goes. Walls have ears and words travel with the winds. By dusk, many rumors will have emerged. While most of the time they are exaggerated, the ones pertaining to your actions will spread fear and superstitions. -
Ryl
Mid-Afternoon, October 1st, 2137 BC; Ryl’s Villa, ThebesRyl greeted her guests in the parlour. Thick heavy drapes had been set across the windows which made the place somewhat stuffy but also served to keep the bright sunlight at bay, all bar the last window which flooded the end of the room where Ryl sat with glorious illuminance. It wasn’t that she distrusted the vampire, she was confident enough in her own gifts to feel as secure as one could around fellow immortals, but she couldn’t bear to shut off from the outside world completely.
She rose gracefully when they entered and gestured for them to be seated
“I trust you slept well?” and the unconcealed amusement in her voice suggested that she knew they hadn’t done much sleeping, “our guest downstairs is getting restless and demanding that we release him at once. I have refrained from roughing him up, there are after all subtler ways of extracting what we want to know, and I thought you might prefer to question him together…?”
#15
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Sian
Mid-Afternoon, October 1st, 2137 BC; Ryl’s Villa, ThebesSian has taken a seat just behind and to the left of her master. She keeps her gaze focused on his neck until the noblewoman speaks, then transfers her attention to the woman. After last night, there is little doubt that these two know what she is, but they may not know who she is and that is still important to her. Sian acknowledges Ryl’s comment with a slight bowing of the head, but waits for Kaleb to speak.
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Ryl
Mid-Afternoon, October 1st, 2137 BC; Ryl’s Villa, ThebesAfter a brief chat, carefully skirting around anything of real consequence Ryl commanded her guards to bring forth the scruffy individual they had apprehended. If he was cowed he showed no sign of it, perhaps he was emboldened by the fact that he hadn’t been beaten… he leered at Sian and Ryl and contemptuously dismissed Kaleb as unimportant… and then Ryl transfixed him, her eyes took on the scintillating gleam of her natural form as she bent whatever scrapings of mana she could in to her Gift. Her voice was light and pleasant but it was laced with both subtle threat and promises of great pleasure, something that seemed to bypass the ears and speak directly to the animal centres of the man’s brain
“Tell us why you set the fire at the tavern!”
#16
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“I… it wasn’t me. I was just… I was just supposed to keep an eye out for… the storytellers. The shadow men, they… paid me to find them all and tell them where to find them – just like the scribe. And then there suddenly where all those soldiers of yours, blocking the exits.”
The halting speech of the man sounds more as if he is vomiting the words out then telling a story, but quite obviously he doesn’t have the werewithal to resist Ryl. -
Ryl
Mid-Afternoon, October 1st, 2137 BC; Ryl’s Villa, ThebesRyl traced a fingernail lightly down the side of the man’s face causing him to shiver
“Why don’t you tell me all about these shadow men and which storytellers you were sent to locate. And I mean all about them, you wouldn’t want to miss the smallest detail now would you?”
#17
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A shudder ran through the man and he continued, compelled to tell everything:
“Saluri, the one legged whore introduced me to them. She said they where powerful sorcerers who could conjure anything they desired. I didn’t believe a word, but their coin was real. They said that an old man had been telling tales about a burned down pyramid and they wanted to know who he had told about it. Only they didn’t care about common folk but other storytellers, scribes and such learned people who have time to think and wonder about such stories. It was hard work to find them all and I actually had to hand out way more bribes than I wanted. But the shadowmen where relentless. So I found out for them about the scribe that had bought the old scroll and the foreign storyteller with his beautiful slave and the old healer woman and the fat trader.
Everytime they called me and my crew to keep watch outside and everytime they left with a bloody dagger. After the first time I didn’t dare to follow them home, but I know they left towards the harbor.
They are two men, tall, with thin, spindly fingers that are as white as chalk and long fingernails. I never saw their faces, for they wear cowls around their head at all times and wore dark grey robes.” -
Sian sits calmly behind her master, or, at least, as calmly as she can. The power of the noblewoman is quite evident, certainly surpassing her own sorceries at this time. By the dragons, even using her transformation powers the previous night had been difficult and must be used sparingly. Still, the information gathered already from the prisoner might have justified the risk she had taken. Still kneeling, Sian reaches out a tentative hand to her master, asking, “Do we hunt again this night, master?”
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Another servant appeared and spoke loud enough to Ryl that the rest of the group could hear: “Your Worship, I think what he says rings true: The guards told us that there were two more deaths tonight: Mama Basa has been found murdered in her hut and Hakon the Trader was poisoned not an hour ago. The whore that was with him was apprehended and is likely going to die at the hands of his crew as soon as the sun rises.”
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Sian
Mid-Afternoon, October 1st, 2137 BC; Ryl’s Villa, ThebesSian feels a bit like a chained hound waiting to be set on a task. Certainly, she is far more than a chained hound, but the analogy is apt. It would seem that there is indeed something to the story the man had told in the tavern; why else would others be trying so hard to keep the story hidden? If possible, she will have to encourage her new master to continue his pursuit of the knowledge of what happened, if that is necessary. Right now, it would appear that he is as interested as she is, which can only work in her advantage.
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Kaleb watched with interest the interrogation, sensing the feint magic irradiating from Ryl. Feeling ignored felt good for the man known as the Unseen, but he couldn’t take out of his mind that the fire in the inn was most likely started at his door… or Sian’s.
He looked at Ravech, then Ryl and the One Eye man, putting pieces of all the stories together.
Ravech, you mentioned the original scroll from the burnt pyramid was purchased by the Merchand Sar, residing at the edge of the Harbor. The fire in the inn was started using potteries from the Sar House. The so called sorcerers, aka Shadowmen, were seen residing or acting from the Harbor. Everyone who have shown interest in these scroll are dead or being targeted. Except, from what I gathered, Merchand Sar.
I strongly suggest we pay a visit at his residence. Like, right now… also it is likely Ravech and those seen in the house of the Scribe will remain targets. -
One-Eye visibly gulped, but replied – still under the influence of Ryl’s gift: “Sar has increased the guards at his villa and warehouse in the last few weeks. It is entirely possible that he could harbor the pale men.”
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Kaleb watched Ryl with his intense light grey eyes. My Lady, even a powerful merchand like Sar would not refuse audience to someone of your status. Maybe myself and Sian can join you as your entourage, along maybe Karl and your strong Nubian guards. I would advise Ravech to remain with Rohn, in this palace which should be relatively safe. If not part of your entourage we can use your arrival at Sar’s house as a distraction to infiltrate it and find him and maybe the Shadowmen.
Kaleb, or rather Idhrenohtar the Unseen, immortal Elf, was an expert in Magical threats. And if the stories of the Maw were right, it would would attract its lot of evil societies, like the Shadowmen, but also possibly more of his kind.
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