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 Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2017 10:09 pm
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The Spinel Lady didn't blow open the doors. They simply opened at her approach. Her champagne-colored skirts swirled around the pointy black toes of her shoes. "How rude," she said. Her voice was quiet. In the Court, she never had to work to be heard. "To hold a discussion about my fate when I am not present. What is it you youths say? Nothing about me without me?"
She was a demanding presence. Behind her, Temperance's double stood as a faithful servant, despite belonging to Rabbit and Ezra before him. Every fetch was hers, in essence, and the change in atmosphere was palpable.
Ezra had gone white as a sheet.
"I am here now," she said. With a snap of her fingers, a throne--it couldn't be called a chair--of grey-veined marble sprung from the floor of Shiloh's domain. She seated herself, spreading her skirts expertly. There was a small stool for Temperance's double. "You may continue. Where were we? Preventing the deaths of my enslavers?" She made a circling gesture with one hand. Please, continue.
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Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2017 10:52 pm
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Shiloh too had gone white as a sheet, his eyes wide and unblinking, knuckles pale as he curled his fingers into tight, tight fists. The document sat beneath them safely.
Beel seemed overjoyed, though cautious. Still it didn't stop him from clasping his hands together (followed by composing himself from the gesture). He dropped to one knee without any hesitation. "Lady Melany." He said reverently. He only stood again when Shiloh gently lifted his hand as a cue.
"Madame." He greeted her, though he did not bow or dip his head from his position in the seat. It's less preventing their deaths and more or less keeping the magic stable, he wanted to say, but declaring a 'Pax can die, sure' to the rest of the Court might not roll over so well. Still, between him and Pride and Minerva, they were all guilty as ******** charged in his eyes. "I... I'm sorry...." He was at a very obviously startled lack of words.
"It's less preventing their deaths," He said quietly, "And more preserving the well being of..." He sighed, seemingly frustrated, "I wouldn't do anything to harm you more." And finally his head did bow, the movement fluid and languid and tired all in one. He seemed reluctant to give up the charter, and so it lay in his lap without any sort of mention.
His head was still bowed as he spoke more. "Would a principal have the sort of qualifications or talents needed, Silk?" He lifted his head, "Or suppose I know where to find such a schema." It was Jamie's, but... "What then?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 6:45 am
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The Spinel Lady entered, and the water in the ponds thrummed, like anything stepping into it would rebound with considerable force -- Alexis' shoulders were set. They looked at Melany coolly, taking one step to place themself between her and Shiloh, and then they looked back to Silk. "My priorities are doing what needs to be done. Forgive me if Alois taught me nothing except that blood calls to blood." Their voice had gone crisp, clear; it could have been someone else's.
They did not look at Temperance's fetch. She might as well have been somewhere else, too.
"People will suffer. Sometimes you have to kill someone else to get what you want, or to prevent more death."
They kept their chin high, eyes half-lidded and looking down, and kept their sight back on the Spinel Lady. Their dislike of her didn't need to come into play; only that she was dangerous, and she'd hurt people here, like Shiloh. They liked Shiloh. Maybe not hell-and-back for Shiloh, but purgatory-and-back; it was close enough.
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Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 4:28 pm
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Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 7:58 pm
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Jeremiah did not go white as a sheet, though for his husband and anyone else that was close, the temperature dropped when the Spinel Lady stepped through the open doors. Fell, of course, smiled towards her and, as she had done earlier, curtsied in acknowledgement as her head bowed.
The silver-haired Noble himself merely bowed his head briefly, an acknowledgement of her and her status. It would do no one any good to not do so. There was also the matter of the confusion he was dealing with. His own preternatural senses told him there was no danger despite the fact that she was right there and quite capable of stripping anyone present of their powers.
It was why it was best to be on good behavior.
"I don't believe it is specifically something just a Principal capable of, simply something that requires time, patience, and appropriate magical talent." Jeremiah had been wanting to look into such a thing after speaking to Ezra about them. The mention, however, of knowing where to find one had him thinking of Jamie- Not what he had in mind.
His gaze shifted to Alexis a moment later, eyes gone hard and cold. "It is also cutting corners." Yet what he wanted to say was what he had stated earlier. "One for many does not work. It is ridiculous. It is the words of someone making an atrocious act alright because they are saving others in the process."
It was unacceptable. It was also avoiding responsibility.
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Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 11:33 pm
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 9:01 am
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Temperance did look at her fetch and at the other fetches. If there was one thing they all appeared to have in common, it was some sort of loyalty to the Spinel Lady. Blue eyes stared into blue - one seated, and one standing at the back of the Lady. Her double smirked, just a bit.
"Chief Mercer, please have the admin ban this fetch from accessing the listserv in the future," she said clearly. "Once I am back, my email can be unbanned." Temperance doubted that her double was who had brought Melany here, though there was definitely some connection. Perhaps it had been stupid to set up a noble's meeting over an unsecured email.
"I apologize for your exclusion." It only seemed appropriate, although she was not sorry for it. Temperance shifted in her seat, looked towards Shiloh. "Should we continue or reconvene later? My only remaining thoughts are that there is no acceptable solution that involves a death." She felt very rigid, solid. Temperance recognized she could feel this way only because she had not been in the hand of the Lady before. If they needed time to research, perhaps someone could search the library in this place for answers. Doing magic without knowledge would just lead to more of the same.
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 10:23 am
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trigger warning: mentions of self-harm
The Lady's eyes on them, dismissive, made bile rise in Alexis' throat; it reminded them of their mother scolding them for poor grades, hands tight on their shoulders. It was a different look, but the memories were there all the same - they swallowed and straightened their hands out, their fingers loose, staying between Shiloh and the Lady in some poorly-thought attempt at protection.
"I am no girl, my lady, and no boy either," they said, even-voiced, their scorn swallowed down and down and down - they would make their fingers bleed later, run fingernails down the meat of their arms until their skin went white, out of disgust for how politely they would speak here. "If I don't remember past attempts, I can't learn from them." The only sign of tension was their gills flaring, ever-so-slightly; their smile was ever-so-polite. "Would you not teach?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 11:48 am
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Shiloh swallowed, his throat dry. Things were quickly falling apart, and he counted his blessings that at least a few of the Nobles present were doing their best to keep the meeting on the right track. Others—he picked out Ezra and Julian and Rabbit—looked absolutely shell shocked, which was to be expected. The Spinel Lady's presence was no joke. To Temperance's question he shook his head, opened his mouth, but closed it with some hesitation. He had other things to diffuse.
"Alexis..." His tone was firm, perhaps a little panicked, but mostly tense. He waved his hand, the roots of his demesne obeying quickly as a chair was conjured up out of the earth next to his own. "It's alright, have a seat. You don't have to put yourself between me like this." Something was strained about his tone too, like a silent please keep everything civil. "One for the good of many isn't anything I ever believed in. If there's a way to do this and no one dies in the process, then it's ideal."
To that end, he met the Spinel Lady's harsh gaze, "I'd do whatever it took." Even though no, time was not something they had on their side. "If a principal was the one who started this entire cycle of torture, then I want to end it. I kinda feel like I need to." He huffed softly to himself, "I'm the key. I need to be that in more than just name."
He was silent for a moment.
"What would you want, Madam?" She was a Noble too after all; Noeh said they couldn't change anything without the consent of everyone. "Do you not want us to find a way to undo what was done to you?" His head tilted, tone polite, tone tired. "You could be free."
It was hopeless at this point, because he knew the Madam only wanted people to suffer the way she suffered. There wasn't any pathos to appeal to, high school English be damned.
"I would do whatever it took to ease that, my Lady." Perhaps not for her, but for Melany.
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 12:42 pm
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"Myself," said the Spinel Lady. "And the fetch has a name." She gestured to Temperance's fetch. "Dear Hart. You should be honored your replacement is so talented and loyal, tithe. Not all of them are." Her glance cut to Ezra, whose tithe had tried to kill her.
Ezra roused, then. "Renard," he said. "It would have to be Renard. He's the only one who knows what he's doing with a schema."
The Spinel Lady arched her brows. She looked hawkish, like a predator among the lesser birds of the Court. Like she was ready to go to war, sitting there in her cascading ruffles. "I could teach you, little girl, but would you learn? I doubt it. I sense the touch of one of Ezra's tithes upon you. I could do better, if I cared to. But you are not worth my time."
Shiloh had been worth her time. Her attention seemed to return to him again and again, when it wasn't drifting to those approaching her more directly. "I want them to die," she said, "I want each of them to die for what they did to me." There was an awful intensity to her face. Her features no longer seemed so alien, so incomprehensibly beautiful. She looked human. She looked... delicate, the way that a ceramic grenade was delicate, the way the sharp curves of cut glass were delicate. "I want them to die in torments. I want them to bleed, Shiloh, my pretty darling, I want to see their blood run across the floors of my domain. I want to blood a new sigil with their hearts. I know what I lost."
I know what I lost.
I know what I lost.
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 1:15 pm
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"Thank you," she directed at Jeremiah. "The fetch may have a name, but I never knew it. Whether I am to be replaced remains to be seen, Lady Melany." Temperance shrugged. There had been no opportunity for her to know her double and she really didn't think it mattered. It mattered most what Hart did under her name. She'd had a lot of time to think about the sort of 'final showdown' they might have, but it was truly unnerving to see someone with her face. Although, ugh, her nose really was a disaster.
Hart, however, was content to watch and try not to overtly bask in being called talented. She would have had a nasty retort to Temperance, but it wasn't her place to speak. But once she was free... She settled for cracking her knuckles loudly, relishing in the pop and release of tension.
Temperance made a face. "Very few are worth your time it seems, and it is not an enviable position. You became what they did to you, became like their ill-informed, cruel choice." She looked sad, for a moment. Shiloh had said that, for now, the Spinel Lady was sleeping within Melany and she was as she once was - innocent, mostly. Normal. Temperance addressed the others. "So, Renard, with his ulterior motives, or Melany with hers." Death remained not an option. Now, if Alexis could stop throwing themselves towards death simply because they had low self-esteem, among other things, that would be great.
She glanced towards Lady, remembering that tear-streaked face as The Spinel Lady was struck down at the ball.
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