[center][h3]Invidia, the Liaison[/h3][/center]

Truly, it seemed that at every opportunity, Vestec could not help but burst out giggling like a human child.  Did he truly find everything so amusing, Invidia wondered, or could he think of no other physical action to inject into his blathering?  The outsider held its hands behind its back, as if it were attending a sermon.  [i]“Fear is a phenomenon my kind do not share.  We were not given the capacity, and we are the stronger for it.  All I have is observation and probability, and it is upon those that I rely.  I am simply more careful around mortals because I have the power to react against them and influence them, which I do not have against the High Ones.  For your ilk, the only say I have is whether or not I submit to yours.  The other High Ones may not fear you, but more than a few already despise you.  Should you attempt something radical, it would take very little to rally them against you.”[/i]

For a moment, the outsider seemed incredulous.  [i]“Kill the communion?  But the communion is overbearingly human.  If your Anju will murder men as well as outsiders, then they're petty murderers, and not the poetic hunters you paint them as.”[/i]  To his knowledge, Invidia knew little of the slaying of Communion monks.  Well-armed, never alone, and extraordinarily tough for mortals kill due to their lifeblood consumption and constitution, they fell far less easily than lonely outsiders.  

Upon hearing Vestec's offer, Invidia would have smirked, had it a face.  [i]“Your perception of my Communion seems rather obtuse, for a being gifted with magical knowledge.  Through consumption of lifeblood, the monks have become different from normal humans.  Huge, predatory, or disfigured...many possibilities.  I will reveal myself to them, and none will bat an eye, for we are all monsters now.  But you will have to worry me for a good deal longer, Execrable One, before I'm pliable enough to make a deal with the devil.  I do not fear those with whom I am bonded by blood, but I will not humor your fetishes.  The Anju and outsiders have reached a balance, evidently, one that I can live with.  We do not need your meddling to continue taking six eyes for an eye.”[/i]