[center][h1]Graveyard Dealings [/h1]

[h2][b]Characters:[/b] James & Afua

[b]Location:[/b] Loom’s Public Cemetery, Loom 
[b]Time:[/b] Earlier that morning[/h2]

Contributors:[@Rtron]  and [@Fallenreaper] [/center]


Rains were heavy in the air all around her. Moisture stuck around  and weighed it down within the stone corridors, there was little escaping the wetness left behind in the wake of the erratic patterns since spring. Outside, though she couldn’t see it, clouds seemed to tumble and gathered overhead where they loomed over [url=http://viewfinder.historicengland.org.uk/gallery/450/AA0/AA074068.jpg] Loom’s Public Cemetery[/url] . Their swirling, grey masses seemed to to have a mind of their own hovering over the little cemetery. Waiting and watching, the seconds crawling forward when the time it due to happen drew closer. It seemed fate intended to hide it from the very prying eyes of  Heaven’s ruins above which made the necromancer muse briefly, her dread lock head rested against the nearest wall and leaned harder. Mist had started to form and create a chill. Any creature, human or beyond it, could tell it wasn’t natural. To most, it added in casting an eerie sensation throughout her territory. It made spying quite difficult when the mistress in this world didn’t allow it. Even the shadows would only hear what she wanted them to and to the outside world, this graveyard was completely empty. 

Things were changing, her mind knowing deep inside, as it seemed the change in weather pattern proved it. Loom had been without a weather angel for a long time and now, the city was paying the price since there wasn’t anything to regulate the rains or detour the harsher weather. [url=http://mr-and-mrs.ru/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Unknown-12.jpeg]Afua[/url] took a moment to listen to the scritching and scratching noises made by hidden beasts in dark corners, her mind enjoying the fear flooding her human instinct to run and flee. Rarely had things that went bump in the night ever scared since she became involved. Still, it was fun to indulge in the human emotion she had long forgotten and glanced to the side on seeing a figure emerge from the eerie fog. His steps echoed through the stone architecture and shattered the serenity of the place, betraying his presence to her. Afua had crossed her arms over her middle, dressed in a low cut, form fitting shirt and low rider jeans, her head turned to his direction. 

A light, sickly green glowed from a wand at his hand as his pace neither changed or was influenced by the increasing sounds of movement all around the pair. On exiting the thickest area of the fog, she studied his image quickly. Man in his late twenties or early thirties with white hair, dark circles under his steel grey eyes, and lanky in figure. He was dressed in older fashion clothes compared to Kenan style which likely would’ve made Macros and Ames feel a little homesick for the old days. At the thought of the pair, she let her smile deepen then pushed off the wall to stand upright for the transaction. 

Her boots not affected by her illusion, she started to meet the [url=http://m1.behance.net/rendition/modules/35448583/disp/bf485f33a2a0d62a98b9e2721a730498.jpg] man[/url] halfway and stopped just within conversation distance, “It be lovely weather, don’t you think?” 

When she spoke, everything went still. 
   
James smiled and glanced about. “A tad too wet for my tastes, but it has its appeals. Madame Sane, I presume. I am James and I’ll be Sir’s representative in this meeting.” He bowed in her direction. “Given your reputation, I’m not surprised we’re here. I am surprised that it’s abandoned however. Did you evict the previous owners or did you find it like this?” As he spoke his eyes scanned the area around them, looking for signs of betrayal. It wasn’t fear that made him do this, simply prudence. He had been alive long enough to realize not everyone had his manners, eloquence, and decency. The tip of his wand made small, circular motions in the air. He was excited. [i]Ashley has failed, but she had always been too trusting of children. Too easily able to assume they were her long dead students she had failed to protect. Now though, with the necromancer’s help, getting Olivia from the grasp of the Musician College should be fairly easy. And then, Mary will come out of guilt and Sir will have two subjects. All in a nice little package.[/i] He thought.

“I be like my privacy, James. Namely because it makes creating my little...pets easier. As for the state, this place be assumed haunted after all and I be tend to keep it that,” Her eyes studied his head swirling about and seeming to seek something, making her smile curl more. She put her lips together then let out a soft, inaudible whistle. 

In the hazy background, thousands of bright yellow eye pairs emerged and shadows shifted enough to turn to the human’s direction. “Like yourself, I am over cautious. So… unless you aim in harming my impressions of you and end this deal, you need not be so nervous.” 

Her voice was sweet in her reply as she bent down, her hand reached to level with the ground where something fat and ugly scurried quickly into her grasp. It was a rat. The fur worn away and revealed the muscles, tendons, and intestines under the partly rotted outside. An eye looked to have been ripped from its socket showing the interior of the white skull and rancid stank emitting from it. Turning its head, it seemed to give James a toothy smirk while Afua held it and gently stroked its disfigured back while lifting it upright. The spine made the once smooth back squish with each movement across the ridge bone sticking out. 

“So, I take it Sir be agreeing with my terms?” She said sweetly, still petting the filthy pet.   

James chuckled, glancing at the hordes of eyes and Afua’s disgusting pet. [i]Yes, she’ll do nicely.[/i] “I’m not nervous, my dear. I’m simply prudent. You and I both know that these meetings have a nasty habit of suddenly turning violent due to one thing or another. While I highly doubt you will be so crass as to actually do that, it never hurts to be safe. And yes, Sir agreed to your original terms. Then things…changed.”

Afua nodded  her head, her braids bobbed in her gesture and her finger continued to trance the rat’s spine. Gently she transferred the beastie to her shoulder where her eyebrow raised on mention of change. She didn’t seem to like that notion at all as it meant complications and things often become sticky after that, harder to detangle when needed. Patiently she waited for the man to finish, letting her arms cross over her front while her right hand idly toyed with a dragon pendant on her neck base. “I be listening.” 

James’ wand began to glow brighter. “Sir is willing to offer you unlimited access to one of his burial pits. The dumping grounds for all of his victims and pieces of them. There are quite a lot of them, I must say. Human parts, dead animals, whatever materials you need, you can probably get. In return, Sir wants you to help me and several of my companions recover a girl that has escaped his grasp. There is one slight problem, however. The girl is being kept in the Musician College and appears to have endeared herself to several of the more powerful inhabitants there. The Kasio siblings in particular.” James clapped his hands together, keeping a careful grip on his wand. “So! Do you accept our offer for one simple pick up?”

The woman was quiet. Her mind absorbing the details and seemed lost in thought, recollecting any information she knew about the Kasio siblings. Or at least what [i]he[/i] had told her. It was clear she didn’t like where this addition was heading and her lips frowned, inwardly debating on the risk. It was hard enough to gain new materials without exposing herself, even harder were graveyards with a wide range of corpses from animal to human to piece together. Most the pet cemeteries were picked clean by her midnight raids that her little pets had been forced to bring back fresher corpses. She bit her lip a little longer before her reply came.

“Musicians be quite dangerous, James. Especially those sent to police the world after all and if this child has managed to befriend them, be the risk really worth it? Who be this girl that’s so important to Sir to attempt a dangerous venture?” Afua’s eyes narrowed on his clasped together hands and continued, “My forte be not direct combat, but illusion and sending my little ones to the task. I won’t be risking my life, even for an over generous offer. Though the best I be willing to do be setting the stage and aid from the sidelines. Acceptable enough? To even the deal, I’ll take a cut in access to the grave in exchange for less involvement.”  


James watched Afua weigh the risks. She was a cautious one, something he could appreciate. “Everyone in this world is dangerous nowadays Afua, you must know that. Musicians are simply the most dangerous humans. Sir’s mind is his own. All I know is that he wants this Olivia badly, and we will get her for him.” James grinned. “Our offer still stands, however. We never expected you to fight the Musicians toe to toe. That will be our job. All we request is your help in distracting her guards and delaying them if necessary. One of ours will be fast enough to get Olivia and get out in time, especially with our help. It should be a quick operation, provided nothing goes horribly wrong. Something will go wrong, I expect. These are the Kasio siblings and musicians we’re talking about. But as long as we delay them just long enough, a few minutes at most, we should be able to then leave as quickly as possible.”

He held out his hand, the one without the wand. “So, do we have a deal?”

“Olivia Matthews… interesting,” Afua said gently, almost seductively in tone, as she gently patted the undead rat on her shoulder. It nuzzled her and scrambled across, moving to the other side. The beady, red eyes glared at the man when he held out his hand, making it hiss. Afua chuckled kindly and added more something to her rider, her eyes hiding something. “I wonder, pet… is this a happy accident?” 

It screeched and backed up on hind legs, what was left of the rat’s nose and whiskers twitching then edged to her ear, seeming to whisper. “I agree, my pet, it seems so.” 

Her head turned to the man and let her smile return, her hand edged to reach out, “One thing I might add is if you see the brother, don’t underestimate him. He won’t allow his little sister to be taken easily should he show up. So with that in mind, I might suggest you give a location where I can set the field in our favor. Than my pets and your companions can lead Olivia there. After all, we can’t have the Sanguine tracking the pair back to your master’s lair, do we? At least not before he’s gotten what he wants.” 

Her hand raised to shake and paused, just a bit out of reach, to endure her words were included, “If you agree to that, we’ve got a deal.” 

James kept his grin in place and didn’t show any reaction to Afua’s use of Olivia’s last name. On the outside. [i]This, this might be a problem. We’ll have to keep an eye on her, make sure Sir doesn’t lose his test subject before he’s good and ready.[/i] “I can promise our location to be set in our favor, but only one person will be taking Olivia to Sir in Loom. She’s very fast you see, and more than capable of taking the girl to Sir in under a day. Sir wants Mairyell to follow. He wants both Kasios and others to follow, in fact. Some grand plan he hasn’t informed me of yet. If you’re worried about the brother tracking Sir down, don’t. Mairyell won’t find Sir until he wants to be found. Sir has been watching Mairyell for these last two hundred years, and Loom is smothered in Sir’s magical stench. Kasio trying to find where Sir resides would be like trying to find a magical needle in a magical haystack. Not to mention the harassment that would happen when they enter [i]our[/i] territory.  Enough of an Agreement?”

Afua eyes sharpened slightly, she could guess James had noted the little ‘mistake’ though it wasn’t his reaction that betrayed him. Rather it was the total opposite and it meant he misunderstood something, on a grave level. She chuckled some to let the man finish, slightly amused by his reaction, then took his hand. “Very well. It matters little to what happens to Darius’... pet. So don’t be misunderstanding it’s her I be caring about. Besides, you can’t expect you’re the only one that does his research, can you? Considering you’ve already mentioned a fail attempt, not to mention what my sources tell… It’s not hard to put the dots together.” 

She lingered her hand in the shake a bit, her nails biting into his flesh, as she locked their eyes. It wasn’t hard to see there was more to this but she wasn’t telling. Finally she released her grip and retracted to pet the corpse sitting on her shoulder, watching his reaction. Her arms returned to fold across her middle in a casual stance. “Now, if you be want me be useful then you might want to show me where be setting up my illusions, shouldn’t you?”