A5G

Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

"Oh, thanksies!" Verdant had almost forgotten the bone dagger amidst all that commotion. She couldn't afford to lose it, it's quite likely that she'll never again find herself in the circumstances that produced the single weapon that attuned so perfectly to her own power.

The serpent deftly tested the bleached-ivory weapon, flicking and spinning it with well-practiced ease as her tail swished with excitement behind her. The enchantment didn't seems like it changed the physical aspect of it, but she could feel the concept now embedded into its existence. A patient yet lethal aspect, its purpose steadily resonating into her whole being.

"Shrive. Sunder. Sever. Ooh yes, we'll achieve great things together, you and I."

Whoops, she's whispering all insidiously evil. Hope no one listened in too closely.

"Ugh. Well, guess that's the only exit the curator doesn't outright control. Between evil cursed room and murderous djinn... bleh, cursed room it is." Verdant said rather plainly, not even bothering to hide her distaste. So what if Arcan possibly overheard? She had made her opinion clear enough. "So, let's get moving? The sooner the better, yep."

Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

Forked tongue tasted the air, finding that Arcan's very presence had faded from the room like hoarfrost under the sun. The animalistic part of the mind wanted to relax, to deflate now that the immediate threat had disappeared. But the more human part of Verdant forced the tension to remain, knowing that presence meant jack shit when they're still remaining in the djinn's seat of power. Just as easily as he disappeared he could return, and if they separated or merely lowered their guard it could lead to some deaths right off the bat.

She hissed, hating how the other side held all the initiative.

"Overstaying our welcome." The serpent spat, with perhaps a bit more venom than intended. She paused, breathing deeply as some of the more overt transformation receded. She's still scalier than the usual form and the tail uneasily flicked left and right, but at least the teeth was normally blunted rather than needle-sharp now. "Uh, sorry bossman. A bit high-strung. The curator... find offense at Jazdia's existence." Another pause, Verdant intently turning to look at Jazdia in a gesture that asked for elaboration should the elf felt like it. "And we find offense at the ensuing murder attempt! Hence, we should leave. As fast as possible, yes yes, please and thank you."

Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

For a tense moment, it seemed like it would come to blow.

Then it passed, the elder djinn instead deciding to unload the venom from his heart. Verdant didn't relax though, for a mere lapse of moment had lost her the initiative just a minute ago. Hand still clutching the mage-breaker in a vial, the serpent inched to stand by Jazdia's side. As much as support as to surround the curator, emerald eyes finding Rezello across the room.

She wasn't sure how much can be conveyed with only a gaze, but if it still comes to a blow she'd like to coordinate their attacks.

The story that followed was... Screams and weeping. Acrid, sickly-sweet tang of ashes and burnt flesh. Desolation as far as the eyes can see, travelling to the faraway horizon. The serpent blinked quickly, once and then twice, chasing away the memories. Parallel should not be drawn carelessly, not with a story told so one-sidedly.

"Nothing is set in stone until the final line is crossed." Verdant hissed with malice, obstinately digging in and refusing to budge. "You've failed to settle your issue in seventeen-hundred years, ancient one. You dont get to talk about being short sighted."

As if on cue, the rest of the party arrived. Verdant spared one last flicker of a glance to the elf, who mouthed back with blades in hands to an entity that probably could've dismantled any of them with a thought and Sich'al bite her that's hot. Chasing away the errant thought, her observation fell upon Vesemir and the others now. The extra swords she doubt could do much, but the sorceress that gave her the goosebumps should be able to tilt the battle in their favor. If there's one. And if Arcan didn't recognize the threat and snapped Fia in half first thing.

Avoiding open confrontation, much to her displeasure, was still the prudent thing.

"Our host is regretting his hospitality, unfortunately." The words came out as snidely as it could, for no other reason than to be extra petty.

Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

The tension was taut enough to cut, yet as Arcan's words echoed with grim severity it was interrupted by a full-bellied laughter that came from the serpent herself. She cackled and wheezed, clutching her stomach with all the tact of a brick through a stained glass window, bending over like she had heard the funniest joke in the world.

"Well, look at that." She said, not even hiding the venom in her words. The elder djinn hadn't been an endearing host. In fact, all this was breaking the unsaid rules of hospitality and such a knife cuts both ways. The itch to knock him down a peg wasn't something Verdant resisted. "It came back to haunt you at the least opportune moment."

A feral grin split her visage like a gaping scar, filled with too many needle-sharp teeth for a human. Posture low and muscles tense, Verdant was more a serpent ready to spring than the little glutton that was her usual mask.

"None here are yours to claim, old thing." She hissed harshly, scales sprouting across her face and the back of her arm, spreading down until a sinuous tail grew behind. "She'll not be a sacrifice to pay for your mistake."

Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

The hostility was felt before any sign of it, a pinprick sensation that raised her hackles and instinctively coiled the muscles in anticipation of a coming blow. Only, it wasn't Verdant that was the object of the roiling ire, was she?

"Curator." She started, a hand reaching for her bag while another palmed the pommel of a knife. "What-"

Then the blur of motion had Verdant sliding back, hissing in alarm. The curator struck with an all too familiar venomous hate coloring his every word. That was the sole silver lining that stayed her hand - the dripping black hatred was an uncomfortable mirror of a mistake that blighted an entire land.

"Curator. Arcan. She repeated, having gotten closer in the tirade that blinded the elder djinn to his surroundings. A nondescript glass vial was tapped right to his back, the glimmer of pale white flickering within the crimson blood. A threat and a warning in one. "You are cracking the vault. Contain yourself, before your anger force our hand."

A battle inside will only hasten the gallery's destruction, after all. Damnations, why was this elder so unstable?

Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

The conversation at an end, both djinns shifted their attention back to the elf - completely by coincidence, of course. Verdant could almost smell it, the all too familiar air of despair and resignation. It dredged memories unpleasant enough to elicit a frown.

"When you stumble, lost and at your last gasp, a help can make a world's difference." The serpent carefully hedged, knowing that this sort of decision wasn't one to be made under other's influence. She can only help make it clear what the options entails, and let Jazdia choose her own path. "But you will need to be wary of whose hand should be grasped, yes? Salvation and ruin are sometimes hard to distinguish." Emerald eye flickered to the curator, measuring the odds of treachery. Unlikely, but she knew well how deep of an abyss the mind could be. "Do you trust Theriadore's legacy?"

Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

"It matters when it leaves unfinished business, no?" Verdant inquired, mostly rhetorical. A hand rose, drawing a thumb across her throat, the implication quite obvious. "Kill it, be done with it. Or it'll come back to haunt you at the least opportune moment."

Even humans with their short lifespan could be troublesome, inheriting the toxin that was hate down the generations. But for a long-lived elf? No containment was perfect. She'll break free sooner or later, and the serpent can only hope to be far away from this place when it happen.

"Guess we'll have to respect each other's boundary, then." That much can be acquiesced. They'll depart the gallery soon enough anyway. "To be free is to be unbound and limitless. I could say more of our difference, but I suspect that will go nowhere. Changing our nature is not happening in a single conversation, yes?"

Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

Verdant mulled for once, picking her words even as the conversation moved on to other things. Dark things, of a scale of loss that nudged the Desolation of Askaria into a stir. She... understood, in a way. The collective pain of an entire people robbed of their roots, for even originating from an entirely different continent those odd folks had accepted her as one of their own.

"At some point desire for justice warps into thirst for vengeance, I think." A slender finger ran across the surface of the crystal, the stinging pain familiar in a rather intimate manner. Bloodthorn orchids had the same underlying principle, though much more destructive. The crystal, it was insidious in the way that no destruction would be reached. "But repaying an atrocity with another is just that, vengeance - calling it pennance is simply making yourself feel better about the whole thing."

Someone had told her something similar, at one point. The same conversation that snapped her from her grief just long enough to take another ship, letting fate once again grasp the rein so that the past can be buried behind.

"And earlier you asked about purpose, yes? My purpose is freedom itself. To experience the full breadth of what the world had to offer. Questioning my drive is no different than asking how could you live imprisoned in this... tomb all this years." This she stated bluntly, perhaps more than a bit annoyed at how rude the curator had come across. A hand went up to the skull, tenderly caressing it as two pairs of eyes gazed right back at the elder djinn. For creatures such as them age played a large part in determining might, but that didn't mean it'll be an entirely one-sided affairs if it come to blows. Few things were, when one or both parties had the means to strike at the soul itself. Her voice hardened, in a way alien to her behavior from the first moment she stepped into the gallery. "And this is Viridian, my sister. Taken from this world before our baser nature could've been overcome. Insult her again and you and I will have a problem, yes?"

Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

Avoiding the larger issue, huh? How very... humane. Verdant shrugged, not pursuing the issue as the djinn curator reappeared. A hand went in to check if she hadn't somehow misplaced the vial of exotic venom. She hadn't.

"You'll need to talk about it eventually." She left it at that, leaning into the surprise pat from the oddly familiar foreigner. For a moment ahe looked like a small cat, pressing into the gesture with a somewhat loopy grin.

The book room she mostly skimmed past, eyes lingering at the painting longer than the others. It's well-cared for, even after so long, not a speck of dust even at the most ornate corner of the frame. Someone's been taking care of it thoroughly. An emerald eye flicked toward the aloof curator, but kept her peace otherwise.

Well, at least until the ancient thing deigned to address her directly.

"I'm not brewing anything okay!!" She huffed with a hint of childish indignation, bristling at the constant reminder. A more spiteful side of the serpent was sorely tempted to test the boundaries... but she managed to get it under control at the last moment. "And I know what I'm doing. It's not going to explode or anything."

What kind of amateur did he took her for?

Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

Verdant looked at the dark corridor the curator pointed at, turning a bit woodenly at Jazdia, and then back at the dark corrior. Something felt off. Nothing raised her hackles from the dark path, but instead... emerald eyes flickered to the elf, two pairs of inquisitive gleams bearing down with concern as predatory instinct caught the whiff of a weakness.

It's not an unfamiliar feeling, this. Like watching a wounded beast picking a spot to lie down and slowly perish.

"What's your stake in this, wayfarer? You acts like death awaits ahead." She cut to the heart of the matter, standing to her full height (which wasnt much, to be fair) with a tilt of the head. It wasn't the repository ahead she referred to, no. Unlike herself, the elf before her had a personal stake in the quest. And while a more selfish part of the serpent was concerned over how said goal may impact her own well-being, the beast once known as Desolation of Askaria had grown a bit fond of her current batch of travel-acquaintances. Enough to put some effort to maintain the status quo. "It's not safe to be alone, yes? I know that better than most. Doing everything by yourself makes a brittle kind of strength."

The offer for company was unsaid, yet implied nonetheless. Verdant knew well the limits of solitary sufficiency. She had came to rely on her sister, at first, and others much later. There's strength in the unity of community, one that a lone predator couldn't quite match. She felt that, for all the jolly cooperation of the group, Jazdia remained a sole island separate from others of the group. That alone draw her in. After all, she used to be much the same type of woman. Snake. Whatever. Thin difference anyway.