"You absolute idiot boy!" Dante threw her arms around Ketil and he winced as she hugged her slight body to his. "I should skin you alive for all this trouble!"
"Dante, my ribs. I broke my ribs." He whispered and she took a step back, hitting the doorframe of the Spire. She grabbed her lantern there illuminating them in soft red light.
She punched his arm hard and he winced again. "It serves you right! Coming home half-broken and with an… escort! Ketil Østberg, I thought I taught you better!"
Vasco raised his hand, "excuse me, may I have a moment to speak? I saved his life."
Dante put her free hand on her hip. "Well, what are you then, escort?"
"He's one of us. Dante's riesun too." Ketil took a shaky breath. "Where's Raziel?"
"Raziel was shot in the leg, trying to escape the panic that you caused." Anubis appeared on the internal stone steps of the Spire, her head lifted with a slight frown pulling at her lips. "You killed the Mistress Weeping, but you almost got all of us killed in the process. If I had to guess, they will be giving every escort a thorough interrogation. You really have no sense of self-preservation, do you Ketil? It's really a shot in the dark with you, isn't it?"
He slipped his hand into his pocket, "but I got these." He came up with the Mistress' rings, each shimmering in the light. "Put it in your treasury, or your trophy case." He tossed a gold band in her direction but she simply kicked it away with a sigh. He pocketed the sapphire ring he worked so hard to steal and threw the rest of them at Anubis.
"Let them both in." She stepped away from the door and shook her head. She had changed her masquerade dress into something dark blue and simple that hugged the curves of her body but gave her no real shape. Ketil had made it for her three years ago for what he said was a Polarian holiday. His careful stitch-work at the bottom was gone because in a moment of panic where the edge caught on something during a heist, she ripped the entire bottom off. It now only reached slightly below mid-calf. It was still a thing of beauty, if he did say so himself.
Vasco helped Ketil inside as he stared up at the clock tower in wonder. "You people live here? It's beautiful. And to live so close to the Inquisition?"
"The Town of Kantloe," Ketil muttered, "is very loose on their laws. As long as we supply the goods."
"We're just one happy family of freaks and curios." Dante replaced the lamp on a peg in the wall and turned to Anubis. "See," she gestured to Ketil, "you should've let me come! I could've been a crucial part of the team."
"Dante," Anubis warned.
"No, I'm not saying you're wrong, but I could've help—"
"Dante, you are not strong enough to assassinate anyone," Anubis said with a certain finality. "You have more morals and ethics than the majority of us and you could not kill a man who held a knife to your throat. Shut the door, we have things to discuss. First of all, what is this escort doing inside of the Spire? We have rules."
Vasco pulled off his mask to reveal a soft face with carefully drawn cheeks and an aquiline nose. His dark hair was pulled into a low ponytail that defined the edges of his forehead. "My name is Vasco Dracon. Servant of the night for eight years."
"He's riesun," Ketil muttered. "Saved my life, I think."
"There's no think about it, he definitely saved your life." Anubis muttered, stepping down to stare into Vasco's dark eyes. "Curious thing what you did back there."
He extended his hand, "curious is what I do."
Anubis shook her head, "if I take your hand, I kill you. I'd prefer to know if I should kill you first before proceeding."
Vasco drew his hand back with a hint of a smile. "Doesn't that give away the surprise."
Anubis smiled back, hers more of a snarl. "Don't worry, I could kill you in twice over before you could even try to stop me. Besides, my associates are well trained as well."
"Are you just going to ignore me?" Ketil muttered with a grimace. "I'm in pain."
"Serves you right for pulling this type of thing." Anubis looked to him with a disapproving glare. She didn't help him, just left him struggling in the pain. Typical Anubis, but she was right. It was a terrible idea to kill the Mistress like that, but he didn't have an option. It was fate and fate was a tricky bastard.
Dante stepped beside Anubis, the small woman dwarfed by Anubis' height and smoldering glower. "What are we supposed to do with your friend now?"
"If I may," Vasco opened his palms, a blue smoke curling on his fingertips. "I don't know you people, but I believe I may be of assistance. I came to kill the Mistress Weeping tonight. Your friend seems to have beat me to it."
Anubis bit her lip, "what is that?"
"It's an incense of sorts, I'm sure you can all smell it. Normals can't smell or see it, they just pass out. If given in the right quantity, I have killed a man with it before. It's useful for someone in my uh… field."
"Field?" Dante raised an eyebrow. "More like bed."
Vasco's eyes darkened and the smoke dissipated on his fingers. He set his jaw, the joyful face paint seeming to grow darker. "You obviously have never seen the streets. There are three places for riesun. In the manors of people like the Weeping family, on the Inquisitor's scaffold, or in a brothel. I have had this ability for ten years, I can wield it like a knife, I have had practice at night for eight years. This is the safest thing for me. I get them drunk, then they're unconscious within minutes, they can imagine whatever they want. I am paid, I get a place to sleep, and protection from Inquisitors. My sister chose the other life—to be a servant. She was weak, a simple earth mover. The Weeping family found out what she was. You know what they did to her? Do you know, little girl?"
His eyes stared into Dante's, unwavering. He laughed a little. "Little girl, when's the last time you were outside? Have you seen how our kind is treated?"
"Don't call me that." Dante rushed forward but Anubis grabbed her by the back of her shirt.
Vasco's nose gushed blood as he laughed again. "Dante!" Ketil and Anubis yelled at the same time. She sagged her shoulders in anger.
He grinned, blood on his white teeth. All the careful paint was now smeared and discolored but Vasco didn't seem to care. "The Weeping family discovered her. The Master bound her up where she couldn't use her abilities, took her into the cellar." Vasco spit his blood onto the floor by Dante's bare feet. "The Mistress chained her to a wall, drained her of blood. Because riesun blood will keep you young and beautiful. They starved her to death, taking the blood from her veins every day until she could no longer stand. When that happened, they let her hang from her arms until they got tired of her. The Master took an axe, severed her head. Collected the blood, then sent her body to the Inquisition for disposal."
They were silent as Vasco wiped his mouth off. "The servants told me, they were forced to help kill her. That was three years ago. She was twelve."
There was silence in which Ketil barely contained his utterings of pain.
"What are your limits?" Anubis nodded to Dante and she rolled her eyes. Vasco's nose stopped bleeding.
He sniffed, wiping his sleeve against his nose. "I can only use it when there is no sun."
"Day is your weakness," Anubis nodded. "Then you'll work for night missions. Ketil, show him to his quarters. Mr. Dracon, I will quarter you and supply all your needs as long as you perform for me. If you don't show your muster, I will kill you or have you turned into the Inquisition. All depending on how you have wronged the Order."
"Anubis, please," Ketil moaned. "I have suffered, enough, don't you think?"
"No excuses. You want to make the moves, you pay the price. I told you to play it safe, I told you to wait for me. Now Raziel is healing because he has a bullet in his thigh. So you've got a broken rib or two, haven't we all at one point? Now hobble up the steps and go to your chambers. Dante, curry those horses and make sure they aren't branded."
"I made sure to get ones free of any distinctive markings," Vasco said, still wiping at his nose. "What is this?"
"Dante's a blood worker," Anubis answered as the slight girl slipped out of the Spire and into the night. "She can pull on a persons blood like the moon pulls on Earth's tides. She can also stop bleeding both internally and externally. Don't worry about her, she's not always like this. What about you? How will this impact your family?"
"My mother was killed after it was revealed she bore two riesun children and my father sold us for three hundred kips a piece. I went to the darkness, Marita went to the light. You can see where it got her. Vasco Dracon is a fake name. You didn't expect me to give out my real name?"
Anubis' eyes shot up, obviously impressed. "I've underestimated you Mr. Dracon." She looked to Ketil. "Go on then, Prince."
Vasco slipped an arm around Ketil as they both began the trek upward, towards the ticking clock parts.
"Interesting place, isn't it?" Vasco muttered, letting out a little grunt as Ketil slipped and he took the full brunt of his weight.
"Yeah," Ketil grimaced. "Anubis is the leader here. You don't want to get on her wrong side. I've seen her kill men before in a multitude of ways. Kantloe is rather understanding of us as long as they are paid their monthly commission. Besides, Anubis has enough blackmail on the town's merchants to have half of them placed on the scaffold."
"Ah, yes," Vasco's mouth turned upward into a smile. "She seems rather powerful. It's beautiful isn't it?"
"All power is," Ketil struggled up three final steps and turned into a narrow corridor. "But Anubis' power isn't something you want to find yourself infatuated with."
Vasco laughed a little, one hand pressed against the tower's walls. "She is not my type. All people are beautiful but some have something different… I can't describe it."
"Don't try to, I don't care. Love is a fool's game." Ketil slipped into a doorway, blindly stumbling into his bed. "And Vasco Dracon, I am no fool."
"You jumped from a window and broke your ribs all because you wanted a sapphire ring." Vasco stood in the doorway, silhouetted by the outside lanterns. He stepped into the darkness, quickly fetching and lighting a kerosene lantern. "Excuse me Riesun Prince, but I believe that might be perceived as a bit foolish."
Ketil froze as the lines of Vasco's painted face curled up into a smile. He sat the lantern down on a small nightstand. Ketil grabbed his knife, hands shaking from pain and anticipation. "You know who I am?"
"You didn't exactly hide it, but yes. My—" he struggled for the word "—clients have a particular interest in you. If not for your supposed Polarian beauty—which their infatuation has become quite clear upon meeting you—your contaminated blood. Polarian elder laws mandate that—"
"Yes, I know." Ketil sat up a little, his hand pressed tight against his ribs. "They mandate that Emperor's children with batræ blood must be killed upon the death of the ruler." Ketil's hands found the buttons of his jacket, tearing them away. He then found the buttons of his shirt, slowly unclasping them.
"Well, how are you still alive?" Vasco crossed his arms. "What did you do to stay alive when I heard that Empress Aslaug stabbed you in the heart?"
"She did," Ketil whispered, revealing the scar over his heart. The raised black skin contrasted starkly to his pale skin. "Aslaug stabbed me in the heart, left me to die in the snow. And I did die. At that point, the royal guards had already ran me through with a sword and pushed me deeper into the winter day. The blood loss alone from that wound would have killed me, along with the hypothermia."
"Well, you're not dead, are you? You seem to have a fully functioning heart." Vasco uncrossed his arms, head tilted as he examined Ketil's scar. "Strange scaring though, it's black."
"Anubis' touch doesn't just kill, it brings the dead back to life."
"Necromancy?"
"Yes, to an extent."
Vasco's eyes widened a considerable amount. "No wonder she has this town wrapped around her finger."
"She has brought at least three merchant's children back from the dead. When the healers don't work, they call her. Kantloe depends on us, no matter what they actually think of us."
"That's how the Riesun Wars started, wasn't it? Too much dependence on riesun and a new persecution?"
Ketil shifted uncomfortably. "Polaria believes that we are blessed, batræ. We have the blood of creation rushing through our veins. But here we're a curse brought upon by forefathers who mistreated the earth and practiced—well I don't know what they did but that's what they say. And the War… that cemented our position as the cursed."
Vasco nodded, "must be nice to be considered blessed. For once, I'd like to be something more than a rat, something more than an escort or an object—cursed or not." He opened his palms, allowing a bit of purple smoke to weave around the corners of the room. "Wouldn't it be nice to wield this against the lot who put us here? Wouldn't it be nice to see their faces blue and eyes bulging? I think about that a lot. But wouldn't it be nice to have the power for once?"
"Our day will come," Ketil whispered, a hand pressed against his heart. "One day."
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