Borrowing, not Stealing

[Tarot]

"Zeltiva," the other Nuit mused, with a dreamy voice that was anything but sincere. Aelobius wore his bodies longer than most on the Citadel. This one, too, was pretty much used up, an old human male with drooping flesh, thinning limbs and bulging eyes. "I am told it is very romantic this time of year. I am all for taking a vacation every once in a while, you know? A nice, long vacation some place where nobody can ever find you…" his eyes widened suggestively as he finished the sentence "… like Zeltiva!"

Aelobius' hands were laced behind his back as he walked leisurely towards Jilitse. He smiled grandfatherly, paying no heed to her backstopping away from him. If she expected him to insult her, she would be mistaken. The Voider merely pursed his wizened mouth at her excuses. "Oh my, it must be urgent indeed, if you even forgot to return several books to the restricted library. Never mind that you were not supposed to take any of them out in the first place. Apprentices these days, ever so forgetful. No wonder they all vanish on me like that."

The wizard stopped, mock shock on his face as Jilitse mentioned telling him a story. "Now, now," he said, "you are sounding like my second wife. She always had a story to tell me - the story of how she'd spent my hard-earned money, the story of what she did when I wasn't around and the story of who were the younger men who visited our house. There was a story for everything, my dear Jilitse. She was quite impressive as a storyteller, I must admit. But in the end, I did not like her last one."

His hand sank in the folds of his decay-stained robe and he pulled out what looked like a long bead necklace. Each bead was a slightly different color and most of them were marked in some way so as to be easily distinguished. Interestingly enough, some of the beads were unmarked, as if still unused. Aelobius quickly found the bead he needed and held it between his fingers as he extended his arm to the side. Suddenly, a Void portal opened up slightly behind him, to his right. It had no suction force, though; while a wave of freezing cold slapped across Jilitse's face, she did not feel pulled towards the portal. Instead, something slowly slid out of the swirling black hole.

It was a rectangular slab of marble. A frozen corpse - a mummy - was strapped upon its surface. It was a woman, emerging head first from the portal. "Jilitse, meet my second wife Therea. Therea, this is Jilitse." After this proper introduction, the portal sucked the frozen mummy back in and shut itself closed. "So, let us hear this story, Jilitse," Aelobius smiled, "but it better tell me where you hid the damn books, or I might get bored, you know. My attention span is fleeting…"

[Jilitse]

"Oh," she said, as airily as she could, "I would not take out any book from the library unless, you know, it wanted to go with me." Ha ha. A slightly nervous laugh rippled in her lips. She quickly changed the topic. "I am very honored that you will be the first to hear about it, Master Aelobius." She motioned as if she was clearing her throat, to buy herself some time to think. Jil talked as she walked backwards, "Mistress Maid worked for a man with an spoiled-brat daughter who ran away from home. He ordered his... maid." Oh this was a self-insert, wasn't it? Like Marie Suzanne and Bianca, could it be? "He ordered his maid to go, go, go," She was sounding like a broken recorder golem now, "go find his daughter. The maid, who was never fond of her master's daughter, was confused! Why would the master want to find the black sheep?!" The despair in her voice reflected despair of another kind, "The daughter, she found out, interloped with... with the greatest magician in the whooole wiiide wooorld! Who happened to be... Mistress Maid's Master's old boss." It was getting ridiculous, but easier to tell the story, "His master's friends laughed at him and called him names and refused to invite him for dinner. The maid decided to redeem her master. She will destroy this daughter who caused him so much dishonor. So the maid snooped into the study where she accidentally found the daughter's diary. And she opened it to read it, discovering that... there was a story within a story." She stole a glance behind her back. Was the exit any nearer? How much farther?! "The story within a story, hem hem." Realization lit her face. "Haven't thought out that part yet. You see, Master, I'm still writing this story. Making it up as I go. So, I'll have to continue writing in order to finish it. I really need to leave immediately as I might miss my boat, but, if you want I can write to you to keep you posted with the story's progress." The last word was almost a croak. She stared at him straight in the eye, ready to jump out of the way in case he attacked. As if she would survive any of the Voider's attacks.

Could it be the end of the chapter? The tiny voice of reason and courage told her, no, it wasn't the end. The 1:99 odds of escaping Sahova alive was still a probability, even if it was such a slim margin of possibility. Mashaen's quest for her, after all, was never without a gamble. It was a risk that she willingly took. No, it wasn't the end of the chapter. "Let me continue the story." She was not telling this to Aelobius anymore. "Let me continue the story. Even if, even if it will never be published, never written down." Who would heed her call, who would throw a smile upon this soul that having overstayed in this world, decided to do something so... far out. Who would be ever so kind to let a lost cause have a chance? Aelobius, Jil thought, be crazy and have a change of heart. Let me leave. Okay, so long, and thank you for the...

[Tarot]

Aelobius blinked. The undead did not do that normally: they had to consciously bring themselves to blink. And he blinked, as if to make sure the reality he was presented with would not go away with a bat of his pasty eyelids. He let Jilitse go on and on, if only to see what she was getting at, and how pathetic an excuse she could forge. Very, he concluded with a shake of his head. Here was someone, Aelobius thought to himself, who could not draw the distinction between an insane wizard and a stupid one.

"You know," the Master began, placing a finger on his wizened lips while Jilitse backtracked closer and closer to the Vestibule. "When Qiao told me to eliminate you, I was going to do it out of obedience. Can't anger the big boss, after all. Now, though, after hearing that story of yours, I think I have changed my mind."

His eyes became impossibly wide. "I actually think I am making the world a better place by ridding it of an idiot like you, Jilitse. You were never worthy of entering the project in the first place. That and there's not enough sex and violence in your story to make it sell. Do allow me to provide the violence." Aelobius grinned broadly and extended his hand towards the other Nuit. As a portal grew in front of said hand, Jilitse knew that it was finally time to shuffle off her mortal coil. Nothing would remain of her, except a frozen mummy in Aelobius' little magic closet of nightmares. A life lived in mediocrity, an insignificant death with her joining a stash of well-ordered frosty remains.

But wasn't the portal a bit too small and too close to Aelobius' hand? The Master's head turned in surprise as the only thing pulled into the portal was his own hand. This portal wasn't his! "What the petch!?" he exclaimed as his hand was absorbed into the tiny portal up to the wrist. This couldn't be! There was no way Jilitse could have known Voiding. She was one of those wizards called "one-sided" in polite circles, or "half-baked" in less polite ones: those who practiced personal or world magic, but not both. Then who had created this small portal that was trying to suck his arm in?

The folds of Jilitse's robes rustled, and Aelobius saw a book standing upright and peering through. The wizard would have sworn, if books had a face, this book would have an extremely smug look on it right now. It did not last long, though. Less than three seconds later, the book collapsed on the floor, as if exhausted from the exertion. Aelobius tugged at the portal with all his might, but he couldn't get his hand back. "What travesty is this, bitch?" All his efforts were just getting his hand stuck deeper and deeper into the cold Void.

Aelobius growled and opened his jaws, biting off his own rotting hand like a wild beast would. His ichor sprayed out and into the portal. Three bites and the hand came off, freeing the wizard from the grip of the Void. He staggered back, quickly fastening his bead necklace around the stump in an improvised tourniquet with the experienced efficiency of a Master. Soul Vector still dripped from his body, and Aelobius knew he had to get a replacement body as fast as he could, or he would eventually ichor out. He had no time for Jilitse. The small portal was folding onto itself and collapsing into a point-sized singularity, thus vanishing forever.

"This… this is not over. You will join my collection, Jilitse. Mark my words! Mark my words!" And, in a very ironic twist of Lhex, Aelobius was now the one backstepping away from Jilitse. Thanks to Marie Suzanne, her time had not come yet.

OOCLet's wrap this thread up, okay? Feel free to embark on the ship in your next post. I'll award XP in the next.

[Jilitse]

Okay, so sometimes things happened for a reason. Sometimes they happened for reasons one could barely understand. Jilitse was speeding through her thoughts at the instant the void portal was created. Something was going to happen, but she felt - quite righteously so - that everything was gonna be alright. Jilitse remembered every moment of it, freezing each chime in her memory. Her confidence did not waver even when the portal appeared, for the most part she was ready to make a run for it. The Vestibule was only a few strides away, and she could pull away. She must and she will.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Jilitse cried as she jumped backwards. The shout was nearly soundless, the shock of it all stealing her voice. A hissing sound vibrated from her throat as Aelobius got sucked into - wait, what?

The book - no mistake about it - saved her. Jilitse already knew that Marie Suzanne was a mystical tome, but she had not contemplated its significance in her quest until now. The book was magic! Duh. But, the Nuit didn't have enough time to think about it deeply. The astonishment from seeing the Master Voider getting sucked into the void, biting off his arm, and running away from her had her mouth gaping wide. Alarmed, she gave a horrified stare at the book lying on the floor. She took a step away from it, awed by what had just transpired. Was it possible that she could communicate with it? Was it possible that Marie Suzanne heard her cries for help? Before Qiao could send another Master to kill her, Jilitse scooped Marie Suzanne, clutching it to her chest with one hand, pulling the cart with another. She took long sprinting strides as she left the Citadel. Finally, she took a ride on one of the animated wagons heading for the harbor.

Granting herself one final look at the Citadel, watching it disappear from the horizon, Jilitse recalled Aelobius' words. "You were never worthy of entering the project in the first place." She marked these as important, something with more than just face value. It was not time to mull over spite and bitterness. Jil thought she should send Aelobius a postcard when she arrives at Zeltiva. The Nuit was certain that word of her escape will reach the Archwizard. A postcard, indeed. After allowing herself a bit of humor, she met up with the merchant ship at the harbor. Her eyes scanned the horizon as if there was a monster about to jump at her.

The sailors were reluctant to carry a wizard into the ship at first. Jilitse insisted a double standard most Sahovan wizards enforce during the rare occasions when they left the island: She would take the ride without letting them inspect her cart. This was met with groans and angry mumbling - why should we trust the Nuit, Captain? - which Jilitse quickly quieted by staring down at them. Wise enough for his own good, and foolish enough for Jilitse's benefit, the Captain acquiesced. After all, there was no saying what Jilitse had for her arsenal. A few crew members were allergic to magic as if it was the undead plague. Stories of human torches and the Void were always enough to make a hardy sailor shit his pants. Jilitse might be one of those badass wizards, you can never tell.

As her ride left Port Silence, she willed herself to look away from Sahova. The beginning is the end. The hand clutching Marie Suzanne felt the cold metal that hung around Jilitse's neck and one of her fingers found the dog tag that bore Mashaen's name. If you were truly loyal to somebody, would it not be logical that to do something to his benefit? For Jilitse, a Nuit with a newly-found purpose, this was one of her many acts of devotion for Zarik Mashaen. To Jilitse, the Archwizard's will was the only thing that mattered. Her search for meaning will probably come along somewhere in her quest, anyway.

She whispered a word of gratitude to Marie Suzanne and allowed herself to recognize tranquility. Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye!

[Tarot]

Skills: +4 Animation +3 Larceny +3 Escape Artist +2 Interrogation +2 Acting +2 Stealth +1 Drawing +1 Cryptography +1 Storytelling [one drop after another, that's how a sea is born] Lore: Begging for one's life Borrowing and stealing Dealing with a psychopath Dealing with a schizophrenic Dealing with a sentient book Making plans for the future Master Lucrece Master Aelobius Painful farewells Other: Marie Suzanne, your cart golem, Mashaen's dog tags, the books and the Nostalgia pill. Storyteller Secrets: added, link here Comments: One of my favorite threads in a long time.