Casting it all Away (Hadrian)

[Aello]

Aello's eyes narrowed as she listened to the stream of words that trickled out of Hadrian's mouth. How could one with so little magic at his disposal know so much? Aello wondered. Unless he is merely guessing at the nature of the blade, or trying to scare me with his words. Perhaps attain the blade for himself? Aello shook her head, but only slightly, so as not to make the movement apparent. There was nothing lurking in the inner reaches of his aura to signify an intent such as that; or the nature she had suspected. Reluctantly, the girl's eyes returned to normal; for she still felt as though something were a bit off. That there was more to this encounter than what met the eye. "Death magic?" Aello asked, her tone rather neutral. "Do you mean spiritism Andry, or something... else?" she inquired. There was only a slight pause, "and you are referring to Rhysol having had something to do with this blade," she added, as she glanced warily down at it, as she turned it over and over in her hand, slowly. "For he runs this place... but how could one so dark, and something... less dark, perhaps even pure, have had anything to do with a blade as simple as this?" she asked as she raised her eyes from the dagger to Hadrian's own. "Why tamper with a mortal object? Something surely crafted by man? With all of its blemishes and impurities, how could it be anything more than that?" Aello whispered. "Weak? Simple? Imperfect?" Aello paused again, before continuing, "and the last of what you said is rather apparent, don't you think? When it always comes back? When it never seems to let go?" When it always finds its way back into my hand? the girl added, although she did not speak the words. "And yes, it has been used on a ghost; and a fair amount of the living... killed a few, injured others, just like any other blade it seems." There was a slight pause before Aello posed one, final question, "why do you ask?"

[Hadrian]

"You asked me," he snapped, "and I answered." As soon as the whipcrack retort was out of his mouth, he had his eyes closed and was rubbing his temples. He could sense it there like a dark ink blot blooming at her side, obfuscating her own aura, a blackness so deep that it took time to let his Sense grow accustomed enough to so much dark on dark that he could differentiate between them. "Spiritism and something else I don't recognize," he said, though he did, but the niggling clues would not put themselves together for him even though he was sure it was all so very obvious if he wasn't shunning some sort of epiphany. "It's a blade for the living against the dead. He must want it. They can keep track of people and things with marks, it's said. Perhaps it's not marked, but it's touched. And for that reason alone I think it's not something to keep a hold of. But I'm not a curse-breaker. I don't know how to help you with that."

[Aello]

"Testy, testy," Aello muttered as she slowly inched her thumb up and down the hilt of the blade. "No need to be so," the girl went on as she considered Hadrian's words. What sort of death magic, other than spiritism is there? Aello wondered, as she glanced down at the blade again. Concentrating on a dried, crusty, speck of dark brown blood towards the center of it. Unless he is simply referring to some sort of magic that can cause death? There was a slight pause, but what sort of magic could that be, when everything one wields can be used to harm others? Or when used in excess, may harm the self? Aello bit her bottom lip as the gears within her mind continued to turn, considering all the possibilities. Unless it is an unearthly magic. A magic of those more than man, a magic of the gods... is it possible that Dira had something to do with this blade? Or perhaps even Rhysol? Or one of the others... the darker gods that rule this realm. Gods with faces, and names; names unknown to us. "You mean a gnosis? Something that has never been assigned to me?" Aello asked. "Or the dagger itself, a sort of signal... it calls to the ghosts. It draws them near..." her voice trailed off, a whisper. "Surely it doesn't call anything else here, dead or otherwise." There was a slight pause, "and if it really is cursed, I wouldn't know what to in order to get rid of it either. Which means that were stuck with it for just a bit longer, now aren't we?" the girl asked, before she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Which is alright you know, it really does come in handy sometimes."

[Hadrian]

No, no reason at all to be testy other than he was in an otherwise unoccupied stretch of canal with a strange woman whose dagger was likely cursed, and in avoiding it, he had been forced to reveal more of himself than he wanted to do in Ravok to anyone. She was demanding answers, information about her blade and he wasn't even given a real opportunity to examine it, not that he had any wish to touch it despite the amount of information he might gather. Would he want to reverse-engineer such a thing? "Not gnosis. Well, I don't know but I don't think it has gnosis, just... something like gnosis... attention. A touch that leaves less than a mark." She kept talking, but he didn't have enough information to put what she said in context, so he just stared at her with his chlorine blue eyes, trying to understand his predicament, the better to survive it.

[Aello]

Aello went back to rubbing the hilt of the blade somewhat affectionately with her thumb, finding the movement only somewhat soothing. "You know Andry, if one didn't know any better, I'd say you're lying," Aello commented, as his aura swayed from side to side around him, as though it were trying to avoid something. "For you're either truly gifted when it comes to guessing, or making up elaborate and rather interesting stories, which seems doubtful, or you are far more magical than your aura would suggest," the girl went on as she glanced down at the blade and then back up at him. "I know you can read them much as I can, it's just, your apparent knowledge of the blade doesn't seem to fit unless you know something you're not mentioning- perhaps you read something in one of those books you so seem to enjoy, or perhaps you've seen something... know something? A sort of skill that is not showing up with the rest of them." Aello fell silent for a few moments, her eyes raking over nothing in particular, settling on nothing. She was considering every word that had just left her lips, trying to piece everything together; wondering if she was being far too bold. Wondering if she was simply imagining things again. "Unless, although it does not show... you have been made uncomfortable. Nervous about the blade, myself, this place," Aello went on. "Not a bad thing to be in a city such as this- guarded, a little too careful, even a bit nervous. It keeps you alive a bit longer you know, although, it makes it difficult to make friends, to maintain any friendships. And Dira only knows how easy it is to make enemies like that..." There was a slight pause. "If you are afraid of what you've found here, you may wish to run sooner rather than later. Wouldn't want the darkness to catch up to you," the girl finished, with an uneasy glance up at the sky. OOCSorry about the annoyingly inquisitive nature of my pc.

[Hadrian]

"I see some," he admitted, "but nothing's what it seems anywhere, whether you're in the city of illusions or this rotting corpse of a city." He shrugged, trying not to let the muscles of his back knot up between his shoulders to encapsulate his fear and loathing. "Do you want me to walk away?" he asked, knowing he would not turn his back on her no matter what he read in her aura. That blade might decide that she needed to plant it between his vertebrae. "Or do you want me to stay and help you understand the thing?" It wasn't often true disgust crept into his voice; he had dissected fish in order to maledict their bones into a breathing apparatus, he had painted with brushes made from the armbones of Konti seeresses, he had come all the way to Ravok to help a friend. But even he felt an atavistic aversion to the touch of Rhysol.

[Aello]

Aello's eyes settled on Hadrian's, simply watching them in silence for several moments, as though they were some sort of book she could read. Something that would provide all the answers as to how she should proceed with a guy like him. "It seems as though you don't want to be here Andry," Aello finally replied, rather cooly. "So you may as well go. Why so much as offer your assistance if you don't honestly want to assist anyone?" she asked, as she tightened her grip around the hilt of the blade. He is more than likely simply afraid. Just like everyone else within this city. Afraid of things they hardly understand, Aello's mind whispered. Afraid of things they've heard whispered about, but don't truly know anything about. Afraid of the petching god that rules this place, of the people that serve him. Afraid of whatever lurks in the shadows. Afraid of the dark... anything the light fails to touch. There was a slight pause, this place makes it too easy to be overcome by fear... too easy to give into it. It turns the most stable people into the crazed, the desperate and the weak. There was another slight pause, everyone here is weak, either in the mind, or in body. Both... "Because you have given into the darkness of this place," Aello whispered. "Let it alter and corrupt your mind. Let it turn you into less than you once were... it's too late for you, too late for all of us. You may as well just run, but your legs will fail to carry you far." There was a slight pause, "the darkness is already upon you." It has touched him too, Aello thought as she held the dagger out towards him, as though by ways of explanation. But then again, what was there to explain? For she couldn't have been making much sense, speaking as cryptically as she was. OOCErm... perhaps we should wrap up, unless you feel like messing with our pc's minds some more.

[Hadrian]

This whole place set his teeth on edge, and she seemed to be playing on that fact, but he tried to keep himself from riling up at her words, which sounded like taunts, but that might just have been Ravok twisting things around. Perhaps she was confused by the closed nature of his aura, how he could fold it in on itself like a day-blooming flower going to sleep. But if she could sense auras, the last thing he wanted to do was open himself to her. There was nothing that gave him any indication he should trust her. Yet he had offered his aid all the same, a Syliran sort of nobility, perhaps. He was tense as a bowstring caught between wanting to be well and far away from that knife and the danger it represented and his curiosity about it and his desire to help her and to learn. Through gritted teeth he said, "It's a cursed thing. No one in their right mind should want to be here, but I did offer my assistance and I meant it. And if I have been polluted by my time in Ravok, I will find a way to cleanse myself after I leave. There is a darkness upon all, and a light as well. There is light even in the heart of Ravok."

[Aello]

Aello lifted her fingers off the hilt one at a time, before lowering them once more, balancing the blade in the palm of her hand. A slender smile crossed her lips as her eyes sparkled, taking in the sight of Hadrian's face; his expressions, how he grit his teeth in anger and frustration. Emotions that were directed towards her, and in part, the situation they had found themselves in. "No you didn't," Aello growled, her tone crossing her expression, "you hate the dagger. The power that touched it, the power it holds. And yet, you seem to be drawn to it because of your... interests. Your inability to keep from studying. Your need to look at everything as though it were beneath a magnifying glass." There was a slight pause. Aello took one small, menacing step closer to Hadrian, her muscles tensing as her eyes flashed. "You think life is like one of your stupid books? Simple, lain out? A pile of information that when properly read, and absorbed, can be used to your advantage?" Her fingers curled more tightly around the hilt as her jaw tightened, her gaze hardening even further. "This isn't a game Andry. Life isn't a game; nor is it like a book. It's not simple. You can't just study us as you wish, or offer assistance when you don't mean it. Unless you want to be hurt for it." There was a slight pause as Aello inched closer, her boots clicking against the ground. "Be thankful that I am not in the mood to deliver any more souls to Dira," she growled. "Be thankful that I chose not to let the darkness settle on you, overcome you." With that, her hand twisted angrily around the hilt, before she put the dagger back in its proper place. "Don't. You. Forget. That," Aello growled as she turned abruptly on her heels and walked over to her things. She picked them up and returned them to their proper place before glancing back at Andry. Her eyes were blazing. "It was nice meeting you Andry," she called, her voice betraying her; that everything she had said was a lie. "May you overcome your fear of the dark," she added, with a small chuckle as she turned back around, and headed across the bridge that led away from where the two of them had once stood. Soon enough, she found herself back on the other side of town; darkness seeping into her skin, her bones. OOCFeel free to wrap up... erm... yeah I don't think she likes you.

[Hadrian]

She looked so serious, so sure, but she misread him while he could observe the flash and fire of her aura. Had he not been able to see through her physical exterior to the soul pulsing within, he might have reacted with a rage to match hers, or even one to swallow her whole. She had a magic knife, it was true; he was not without a bite of his own. He didn't even flinch at her feint. The tension just somehow broke and he began to laugh. She thought she knew him. She thought she knew anything. And people said he could be a know-it-all. All the same, once she was gone, he offered a quiet thought, not even a prayer, to Dira. I hope you get her before he does. END