“I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to keep you waiting but I had to make sure the table was properly set and…such.” She muttered, removing the hat that was pinned to those inked locks of hers. Leaning in to kiss the cheek of the man that sat before her, she smiled warmly and set the hat upon a nearby table and when she turned to face him a cold stare of silence was all she got in return.
She went to remove her gloves next, thinking and nodding as she replayed the evenings events in silent jubilee. How easy he was to find, how intelligent he was, and how completely and utterly helpless he was rendered.
The shadows danced about the walls, laughing like children in the night who where up to no good as they eyed their matron intensely begging for the mania within the mans fading mind. Cutting them a glance she nodded and they dissipated into the ether from whence they came with another blood churning chuckle.
“Forgive me once more…they are not always so well behaved. Horrid creatures, naughty darlings feeding on the fears and emotions of people. Tsks. However, I’m very pleased they where able to guide you safely to me. Wouldn’t you agree? Well…I guess you would if you had a tongue to do so.” Lips curling into a venomous smile, she walked and sat upon the mans dismembered lap. The audible squish of the blood soaked trousers sounding off as she rested there and the first sound the made had truly made all night was heard.
A death rattle…
“I love having guest for dinner, I really do. It’s not very often, nor is it often wished, but it is dangerously exciting for both myself and my guest.” Rusty chuckled as he began to carve the freshly butchered meat that was laid upon the cutting block. Elise assisting her husband, well endowed with her pregnancy and face covered in a mask to keep the smell from bothering her so as she watched her husband work, not taking her eyes of the women as she held the pan that would hold the meat once retrieved from the bone.
“I’m normally not as kind to those who work for The Order. I send my shadows to them, their minds are wrecked, and I let them wander the world as tangled messes until their insanity drives them to their demise, however.“ She began caressing the mans face with her nose and leaning into a whisper continued, “When you had mentioned you figured out how to resurrect the colossus I simply had to get to know you better… However, them, like you, just couldn’t let things die with Mondrago, especially her legends.” she placed an elbow on the mans shoulder and perched her head upon the hand that was connected to it.
“Then here you come, asking me question about boxes with electrical shielding…devices that allowed you to breath easily in sandstorms…schematics of the old empires…and even down to more personal questions that a lady of my esteemed caliber would not of answered to a man she just -barely- met! Cad!” she pinched the mans cheek and shook her head. “Fool! Now here you are…silent as the grave with no more questions to bother me with? I’m hurt…”
“An’ thing ya wantin’ Miss Namori before it goes a bit off? The tendons where tough, a little gamey but the bones pretty soft! Not enough milk in ‘im!,” Rusty said laughing a bit, wiping the blood from his cleaver and watching the woman who employed him rise he took a step to stand beside his wife who was wrapping the meat in the butcher paper they brought, fidgeting slightly.
“No…that is all…consider the rest my gift to you and your lovely wife for your kindness in assisting me. However, when you burn the bones please give me the ashes. I promised Jokisha that I would give them to her for her soap.” They nodded and finished their work, watching Bianca picking up the brown wrapped book that the unrecognizable man within the chair was carrying and heading into the night.
Idoly reading the book and inspecting the mark of “The Order” she stopped for a moment to eye the closed Bucket for seconds before pressing on. She smirked a bit, recalling the dramatic plunge Mr. Underby took, compliments of her tailored ankles, into the canal. She allowed herself to smile more innocently, her thoughts continuing into ventures before her legs took her home with haste.
What caught her attentions was more than she had expected upon seeing the defined figure Phaedra Berithos stalking from the evenings mists towards her home. A slightly satisfied look on her face, Bianca eyed her curiously and stopped to give her a respectable nod. Receiving a nod in return, she decided best for her to turn in, moving on dancing with grace up the flight of stairs that lead to her gutted apartment. There she was greeted by her butler, bath towels in hand, and head tilted in respect of her.
“Your bath is ready…” he said plainly and nodded his head.
“The temperature?”
“98.7 degrees Fahrenheit…as you need it Sultana…” he bowed lowly and even smirked a bit as she walked past him. She sighed heavily, placing the book upon the buffet and sauntering behind the divider to undress.
“Did he scream?”
“Oh yes, very much so…then again anyone who was drained as he was had no choice but to scream.”
She stepped from behind the divider and headed towards the other room, a satin half wrapped sari about her frame as she sauntered into the humidity.
“What did you use?”
“The scarabs…though they where rusted from the water when we had to escape into the bay, so when they burrowed into the skin it was probably more torture than necessary. I know how merciful you are Sultana and I think it is best they undergo some sort of…maintenance.”
“Perhaps we should find someone who is skilled with micro mechanics now that Erehwon has moved on to Caledon coast.?”
The man thought intently for a moment, running over the options in his turban wrapped mind before speaking, “The Church of the Builder?”
A silence that could be cut with a knife was all that was uttered for a few moments.
“Too risky…because they are too nosey. They would try and disassemble it completely and when they open up the center valves and see the dried blood within their bellies. Well…they would know they where more to these creatures than simple clockwork scavengers.”
Letting the silk fall to the floor, she stepped into the liquid with an appreciative sigh, her butler emerging with a small book which he opened and began to read in their native tongue. She allowed the pungent smell of iron and lavender to caress her sun kissed skin into the hours of the night as a faint whisper escaped in a breath upon her drawn tight lips, “One down…six to go.”
wonder if there’s any organs left over
Pay a girl a visit…won’t you?
Rusty took a seat beside his wife with a contented sigh after having washed up some, wrapping an arm around Elise. His cap looked somehow a richer red after the morning’s work, the light coming in the front windows most likely. “Ya know, Darlin’, I love my work.”
*shook her head and looked at her husband as she dried the tools of the evening upon her lap. Eyes crossing from exhuastion she kept her woes to herself, but wanted to tell her husband that this business, was risky business.*
Akidami cracked his knuckles as he sat upon the small apartment in Porthead, drinking in the smell of the sea and evening sun. He knew she was up to something…she was always up to something.
The thought of what hornets nest she was swinging at this time only sent a chill up his hunched spine. What poor soul had crossed her tonight?
“Ghan….” he muttered pulling the scarf about his neck tightly and laying back he tried to imagine the stars of the home he missed so dear. Hands behind his head, he engulfed himself in shadow and sleep, whispering a small prayer for the soul that would have to endure the nightmarish woman he protected…and loved.
“The Order”? Anyone I know…?
Power hungry men who don’t know when to stop, and will stop at nothing to get what they want short of slaughtering half a village and destroying a country?