C*** Drunk Love (Closed)

[Aurelianus Drak'shal]

Aurelius silently considered Ruby's amendments, not really caring for her tone. But, his dark smile never left his face once.

Aye, I'll show 'er another world. Bitch never said nothin' about bringin' 'er back, he thought with an inward chuckle. His mohawk rattled quietly as an icy breeze stirred the bloody-red quills, and carried away another stream of smoke from the tiefling's mouth.

He looked around the debris-riddled square, completely oblivious to the beauty of the moonlight shimmering gently on the waves in the small fountain. He was keeping his ears parked for any sign of pursuing guards, his senses picking up sounds of the riot he had started spilling out onto the streets. He could also hear the guards trying to instill order, and the clash of improvised weapons hammering against their shields.

Time to get the 'ell out of 'ere, he surmised. The warlock shooed the familiar from his shoulder with a small wave of his hand, sheathing the knife at the small of his back again - if the chit tried to play dirty, Aurelius knew he was quick enough to get his blade back out in a heartbeat. Junior kept close, lazy flaps of his crow wings holding him aloft with barely any effort; the little monster kept its sutured eyes on the woman, not liking the way she smelled. She meant its master harm, the foetus could tell. The half-demon turned his eyes down to his attire though, realising his anarchist garb was not exactly suited to a fight with the spellsinger before him.

"Tell you what, luv," he said cheerily, clapping his hands before him, "I'll do you a good turn, seein' as I'm in a good mood."

He nodded back towards the shadows he'd first lurked in when he realised Ruby was chasing him. "You let me get my proper gear on, and I'll show you another world for free. After that, we'll go with your deal, if only to indulge my curiosity."

His smile could cut glass.

Ruby, while clearly only barely managing to hold back her impulses to gut the fiend, would not risk her victory being diminished by the tiefling claiming she hadn't played fair.

"Get on with it!" she snapped, pointing her sword at him yet again.

"tsk tsk," Aurelius smirked, strolling away to the hidey-hole where he'd stashed his gear, "anyone'd think you didn't like me, luv."

***

Ten minutes later, Aurelius was back in his trademark attire; his battered leather coat trailed down to his knees, the dozens of straps and buckles jingling in the breeze stirring the Salvaran night; under this was his unique, bladed and barbed leather armour, every black plate and strap covered in a dizzying array of hooks, blades, and spikes. His weapons, too, were back in their usual places - Baatorian blades at the small of his back, Herzaa's blade hanging from a leather cord at his waist, his heavy cleaver strapped to the warlock's right shin and under his left arm sat the holster of serrated shurikens.

In short, he was as ready as he was ever going to be.

The half-breed stretched his neck, eliciting audible cracks as he loosened up for the fight to come. He nodded to Ruby as he re-emerged from where he'd changed (though he hadn't hidden himself away when he changed, really - the guttersnipe had never been shy about his body), and waved her toward a fallen archway leading out of the small crossroads they currently inhabited. Junior flapped behind them, the tiny, winged foetus snapping malevolently at the back of Ruby.

All the while, the planewalker was flipping through a small, leather-bound book (at least, it looked like leather), muttering away to himself as he pored over page after page of his spidery hand-writing. The malcontent stopped before the crumbling stone arch, looking up from his book finally with a small grunt of triumph.

"Alrighty then," he said quietly, glancing to the slender chit next to him. She was practically vibrating with the need to hurt her opponent. Ain't she the little flatterer, he thought with a chuckle to himself. With one last check, Drak'shal tucked the notebook away inside his coat and turned his attention fully to the arch. With as much concentration as he could bring to bear, the warlock whistled an odd, lilting tune.

Almost instantly, an ethereal blue glow swirled to life inside the confines of the stone, moving slowly like a whirlpool in treacle. He raised his eyebrow at Ruby, the obsidian rings glinting in the sharp moonlight. He waved her towards the now active astral conduit.

"As if," she sneered, glaring at Aurelius. "You go first."

"Fine," he chirped, his lips turned up in a wry grin. "'ave it your way, luv. It's perfectly safe," he added, strolling toward the portal. He decided not to mention the first time he'd stumbled across this gate, he'd been blind drunk and accidentally whistled the tune that acted as its key, and he deigned to leave out where the portal would take them...

Without a backward glance, the planewalker stepped through the arch, instantly disappearing from the Salvar, and Althanas itself--

[Aurelianus Drak'shal]

And stepped out onto a small plateau overlooking what was about to be the battlefield.

His boots kicked up small clouds of hot ash as he turned to watch Ruby emerge from the portal a moment after him, ignoring the scouring heat of the wind and the sulphurous reek it carried with it. He was pleased to see she wasn't suffering too badly from her first trip through a conduit. He spread his arms wide, charms and talismans tinkling softly against the omnipresent background roar, pacing back a few steps as he gestured to their surroundings.

"Welcome," he proclaimed proudly, "to Gehenna!"

[Ruby]

Ruby Winchester was born of fire, and tempered by hatred. When she set eyes on the other world, she was surprised the tiefling could be so oblivious, stupid, and dumb. She smirked, and stared him dead on.

“Feels like home,” she rasped.

Before he could register the lack of horror, disgust, and amazement on his hunter’s face, Ruby lurched. Her body, taught beneath draconic fabric, rippled and pulsed. The muscles even Ruby did not know she had worked to connect the tip of her blade with the tip of the tiefling’s knife.

“Don’t you know,” she grunted. She ducked, tapped the knife up, and trusted at his groin. He stepped to the side out of harm’s way. “It’s polite to offer your guest some tea?”

Somehow, Ruby doubted Aurelianus was going to break out the china. He bore down on her with a fist. His glove tightened over blackened skin as it struck her collarbone. Ruby fell to her knees, winded and defenceless.

"I've got your drink right ‘ere," he retorted, grabbing his crotch lewdly.

The thought alone made her hurl. The pain down her right side acted as a distraction.

“I’ll politely,” she snarled, “decline.” His cackle danced out across the acrid wasteland. Where words met warping hellfire, new languages formed gibbering arias.

Gehenna welcomed the duo with another thunderous explosion. To the east, the jagged peaks, needles of stone, shuddered. To the west, ash continued to fall in roiling waterfalls from sulphur clouds.

“Shame,” he clucked. He made to strike downwards with his blade, but found the woman quicker than he gave her credit.

Ever the survivor, Ruby Winchester melted to her left. She picked up Lucrezia, the only other woman in her life save her sister, and stood upright with quicksilver speed.

“How about biscuits?” she half-sang.

Aurelianus wheeled about. They stared at one another for an awkward moment.

“Err, what the pikin' hells is a biscuit?” he erred.

As volcanic eruptions rocked the plane, a tremor of another sort rose through the tiefling. The excitement of the unknown, and a new conquest for his bedpost. He had lost count of the races he had bedded.

“What are you luv’?” he roared. They clashed blades.

Ruby leant in over their crossed blades. She stared, eyes ablaze, into the tiefling’s umbrae pupils.

“Before you invite an enemy to your home…,” she clucked. Her feet began to skid over the volcanic rock, her strength lacklustre against his resisting push. “Check she’s not a Phoenix, ready to roost in its blasted hearth.”

She stepped back. She burst into fire, song, and melody. Lapping up the ambiance, Ruby channelled it into a single, calamitous downward arc. Aurelianus would finally know what it felt like to feel split in two by a woman, and not the other way around.

[Aurelianus Drak'shal]

The ever-present roar of Gehenna's unstable volcanic islands drummed inside the tiefling's skull, making the back of his eyes itch with the constant vibrations of seismic activity. His ears rang with the roars and cracking of magma forming new rock as it cooled, only for it to be melted by the next flow of lava to storm down the sides of the myriad volcanoes.

Even as he ducked back from the crossing of blades with Ruby, Aurelianus had to side-step a spurt of sulphurous steam from a fumarole, throwing his arm before his face to protect from the scalding spray. He shook the hissing droplets from the sleeve of his coat as he watched his opponent, circling slowly to and fro; partially to keep Ms. Winchester on her toes, but also to prevent the soles of his boots burning too badly on the scorching rock of their little plateau. They were somewhere, he surmised, about halfway up one of the slightly less active volcanoes. He tumbled to this conclusion simply because they had not yet been consumed by incessant streams of lava and pyroclastic clouds. This plane was definitely not friendly to Clueless rubes like Ruby Winchester.

Then again, it was not particularly pleasant even for an experienced planewalker familiar with the land.

It had been a while since he had been brave or stupid enough to traverse the flaming slopes of the Fourfold Fires, but he was dismayed to see the chit before him seemed more than comfortable here. He cursed himself for a berk as she burst into song, remembering the brief demonstration he'd had of her magic back on Lornius - fire magic. The warlock's face dropped a fraction as he realised his own mistake. Aye, bring the fire-witch dollymop to pikin' Gehenna of all places! You're a canny sod, ain't you? He silenced the niggling voice with another shake of his quilled head. The movement unleashed a small shower of sweat from his brow. The omnipresent heat of the plane was making itself known, and his body was slick beneath the leather covering it. Even the plane-touched's piercings were itchy as the temperature rose.

He saw Ruby's attack coming a moment before the woman launched herself at him, her movements betraying her intent too much for someone who'd spent his life killing to avoid being killed. Even so, he barely had time to throw himself to one side, hitting the smoking, heat-blasted ground and rolling back to his feet. The half-demon spat, clearing his lips of the clinging ash and soot that drifted through the air and dusted the ground like foul snow, his serpentine eyes locked on Ruby as she slid her sword clear of the furrow it had cleaved in the rocky ground.

Bet you're bloody glad that didn't get you, the voice needled, but Aurelius ignored it. He was too preoccupied on figuring out how best to deal with this new spin on things, without being impaled or melted.

The tiefling didn't give the cocky spellsinger the chance to follow up on her offensive. With a snarl, the plane-touched warlock hurled himself at the chit, his twin blades dancing out in a vicious double-swipe; his right hand blade came down at an angle to rake across her ample chest, followed almost instantly by a gutting swipe from the serrated blade in his left.

The Baatorian green-steel shone with reflected light as they sped to rend the bitch's flesh.

[Ruby]

The first cut through Ruby’s guard, but not her dress. The second pierced her hauberk, skin, and gullet with ease. She had designed her attire for comfort, beauty, and adaptability, not outright defence. She whelped.

“I…,” she whispered. Blood spluttered through her porcelain white teeth, and she stumbled backwards.

Pleasure formed on Aurelianus’ face. Displeasure formed on Ruby’s, a stark contrast mirrored in mutually angered expressions. The torrent of fire that rushed up behind the spell singer was as symbolical as it was pathetic, fallacy bridling the woman’s pain with dramatics and damnation.

“Is that…,” she stumbled back, black heels jabbing black rock. “All you’ve got?”

Apparently, Ruby was not inclined to hang about and find out. She spread out her hands, dispelled Lucrezia, and looked skyward. Her eyes, saddened by the rising pain in her gullet, and dimmed by the dying of the light, traced the swathes of colour above. Red, gold, and blasted bronze swirled in the clouds. The distant eruptions became pallid, monotonous tones.

“Disappointing…”

She fell over the edge of the cliff and vanished from Aurelianus’ view. A thin stream of blood trailed after her, and a solitary, minor key chord.

[Aurelianus Drak'shal]

The harsh, mocking laughter was drowned out by the roaring of the elemental fury of Gehenna.

Aurelius, sweat cutting clear channels through the ash and soot marring his skin, relaxed a fraction as he wandered closer to the edge of the rocky plateau, idly wiping his knife clean against the side of his coat. The blood was already starting to burn a little in the heat and the half-demon's senses swam with the heady scent of copper and flames. There was a nagging sensation at the back of his skull; it was warning him that the girl had went down too easy, that he better keep a peery eye on his back no matter how assured he was of victory.

He sheathed one of the serrated blades under his coat, at the small of his back, before wiping his hand across his brow. He saw the amount of moisture on the leather of his glove before it too sizzled away. The temperature was rising. That meant only one thing.

It was time to leave.

The tiefling leaned out over the edge of the sheer drop before dropping to a knee, letting his eyes wander for any sign of Ruby - not that he expected anything, of course. The drop led straight down to the deceptively slow-looking streams of molten rock worming their way down to the base of the volcano, where they dropped off into the complete nothingness that floated between each of the four monumental and volatile mountains. If there had been any trace of the chit's body, it was less than ash now. Too bad, he mused, flicking the sweat from his eyes with a shake of his head. Can't claim my prize from a deader. Turning his eyes away from the painful glare of the lava and the fruitless attempts to see where the witch's corpse had landed, he let his gaze roam over the plane. Each of the other mountains floated out there, visible to the naked eye as they spewed their impotent rage into an eternal void. It was primal, raw.. beautiful.

The tiefling shook himself out of his reverie as his many piercings started to sting faintly. There was only so long one could wander unprotected in the harsh environment before it claimed you. And he had already banged around there too long. C'mon, arse in gear and back through the conduit, he chastised himself, standing back up and making his way over to the small obsidian archway that marked the exit. Again he had to side-step a venting of scalding steam through a crack in the rock underfoot, the rotten egg reek of sulphur stinging his nose. No, this place was certainly not for tourists.

His ears were ringing with the sheer volume of the land, and his skin was prickling in a none-too-pleasant manner. All in all, Aurelius was about ready to be done with the place, and get back to Knife's Edge for a cold bloody drink.

Beads of sweat trickled down his back leaving itchy trails down his tattooed spine, and after a few moments, the prickly sensation became unbearable; muttering to himself, the tiefling yanked his coat off in a vain attempt to cool himself down. It was useless, however, and if anything, the heat touching his bare skin was worse. But, he wasn't intending to stick around any longer than he had to. Slinging the heavy leather duster over one shoulder, the plane-touched pursed his dry lips and tried to whistle the tune that unlocked the way back to Althanas. It took three attempts and a lot of licking his lips before he even managed to start.

[Ruby]

“Stop, collaborate and listen, this is my world so stop and…,” Ruby’s song trailed off, its magic fulfilled, her purpose clear.

The second she had fallen, she opened her lips. The words sung softly, inaudible in the riotous climate, but held all their usual temperate power. Each note gave her levity. Each chorus gave her grace. Each beat of her heart gave it rhetoric.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she spat.

Ruby had plummeted into the lava flow. The death was quick, painful, and sudden. It had been her intention. It had given her power. It had restored her ageing body to a past life. The moment Aurelianus turned; he let down his guard.

“Oh…it’s a shame you’re married luv,” he trilled.

“I think it’s a shame you’re not.” Her voice held otherworldly sway, as though five people talked, and not one.

Aurelianus cocked his head. He spiralled his blades in his hands and danced from toe to toe. He was disappointed by her fall, but now, he was back in the mood for a fight.

Ruby Winchester, the late Mrs Winchester, was more youthful and threatening in her current state. Her hair returned to its hazel colour, cut to the shoulder, with a cute bob. Her ageing body replaced with the very same form she took five centuries ago. Her dress, leather and red silk, bound in care and hirsute trim, symbolised her place in the pantheon of characters that made up the Forgotten One Oblivion’s memories.

“Now…where were we?” he mused. He made to step forwards.

Ruby, tired of her own games, held up a finger to her supple lips. She hushed him to silence, the lingering magic of her providence still potent enough to command his weak willed mind. She stood legs apart, unarmed, and unarmoured. Despite that, she was holding all the swords, and bound in armour hard as black iron.

“I promised you I would agree to your terms, but you are beat. The punishment, as promised, is press-ganging into our worthy endeavour.”

The mention of the word punishment brought a smile to the tiefling’s face, who only continued to grin, not worry, in the face of her chastisement. He rolled his neck.

“Promise, it better be a promise cutter!” he snarled. He started to doubt they applied the same meaning to the word punishment.

“Shut. Up,” she roared. Flames lingering around her form glowed, erupted, and faded. Her rebirth was complete. Born anew, the Old God named Phoenix stood before her quarry, entirely unafraid anymore. “You will atone for your deeds by servicing a ‘greater good’ - Chronicle.”

Aurelianus frowned. He had heard whispers of that name in the ether, on chit’s lips and braggarts dying moans. Somehow, he was not altogether surprised that she, and he, the limping oath were behind it.

“I will?” he clucked. Quills shuffled, eyes narrowed.

Ruby smiled. She clicked her fingers. Gehenna vanished and they were back in the bitter cold of Knife’s Edge. Duffy appeared behind her, gasping for breath, as though they had been apart seconds, not hours.

“You can count on it,” she said, without reservation.

Duffy set his cane before his frail form, and leant on it for comfort. With sweaty palms, and a beading brow, he glared at the tiefling.

“Whatever happened before, Aurelianus, it has to stop…,” he wheezed. Ruby rolled her eyes.

“Work for us, or we’ll see just how long you can last.” She glared. “I can go all fucking night.”

[Aurelianus Drak'shal]

"Aye, so the lads all tell me, luv," he sniggered.

Just like that, the infernal heat was gone and once again Aurelianus found himself standing in Salvar's icy embrace. He snapped his gaze around him, trying to mark what had just happened, but when he recognised the surroundings, he relaxed a fraction. The sweat beading his brow instantly cooled, almost freezing on his glossy horns. Shivering slightly as the cold worked up his spine, the tiefling shrugged his heavy coat back on, letting his eyes flicker between Duffy and the rejuvenated Ms. Winchester.

Bitch 'as a few tricks up her sleeves, he mused, running his tongue across his fangs repeatedly, trying to put some order to the storm of thoughts screaming through his brain-box. But tryin' to pass judgement on me? Well, that just shows she ain't the brightest. He wasn't going to let her display of power unsettle him.

The malcontent half-breed turned his attention away from the witch and looked over the pitiful form of Duffy, trying to catch his breath, a scarlet stain blooming from his shin. He wasn't surprised to see the bard here, but he wasn't happy about it either. His presence meant only one thing; he had turned stag on Aurelius, despite the fact the tiefling had risked his own life to save the bard's. Well, that's not strictly true, is it mate? You killed the chit to save yourself. The berk 'ere just 'appened to be collateral. The warlock ignored the voice, too busy trying to keep his fury at being betrayed under control.

"You were there, cutter. You saw what that little chit turned into." He paused, sliding his remaining knife away again, freeing up his hands to summon his invocations should it become necessary. But neither had moved to attack him yet, so he stayed his hand for the moment, idly curling and uncurling his fingers to ward off the biting chill. "Tell me, 'onestly mate, if I 'adn't penned 'er in the dead-book, you think we'd 'ave killed that spawn without without one of us joinin' 'er?"

There was a still moment as Aurelius awaited an answer, only disturbed by the gentle lapping of the water in the fountain, stirred by the chilly breeze. A cloud passed in front of the luminous moon above, casting the small square into shadow; the only lights were the shining yellow of the plane-touched's eyes, and the slight warping heat-haze clinging to Ruby.

A small, pale shape flittered out of the shadows, swooping over Ruby's head with the clapping of fast-working wings, to land softly on the half-demon's shoulder. Junior, getting better purchase by digging its steel talons into the coat, hissed in his ear and nuzzled its malformed little features against the heat still radiating from Aurelius' skin. He returned the gesture affectionately, before he allowed his attention to return to the pair of arrogant bastards before him, keeping his ears parked for signs of anyone else in the area - he hadn't forgotten the riot he'd started, and the Anarchist still fully expected the guards to come down on him at any moment. But any thought of the law-dogs was burned from his head instantly as the bitch opened her mouth again, destroying any possible chance of the Anarchist's acquiescence.

A vicious snarl tore across his face at Ruby's demands, ripping through any attempts at concealing his thoughts from the rubes.

"Slavery? Slavery!? You think I'll willingly sign my pikin' life away to serve you wankers as a good little whippin' boy? And for what? Doin' what was necessary? Doin' what 'e didn't have the balls to do" he spat at the red-haired chit's feet, and stabbed a finger in Duffy's direction. "Aye, you're both so moral and bloody righteous, ain't you? Well, bollocks t'you both! 'Conscience' is just another word for 'cowardice' as far as I'm concerned, so take your petty judgements, take your soddin' morality, and get out of my pikin' sight."

As his choler had risen, tongues of black Hellfire could be seen building at the back of his throat, aching to be unleashed in an unholy conflagration.

"Or do you really think you can threaten and force me?"

The tiefling curled his hands into fists with more force than was strictly necessary, audible cracks barking out from his knuckles, his quilled head whipping back and forth between the pair before him. The hydras inked across his scalp glared at them as much as Drak'shal himself did, his inhuman eyes narrowed bitterly. Junior opened its dead mouth wide, shrieking at the two bodies enraging its master so, stitched eye-sockets managing to throw daggers at them.

"We 'ad a deal, bitch. And you ain't beat me yet," he hissed, fangs gritted, tongues of Hellfire licking from between them.

[Ruby]

“I think it’s fair to say presuming that is your second mistake,” Ruby said stolidly. She did not flinch. She did not falter. She did not stray from her path. She had gambled following Aurelianus, but it paid off.

“Second?”

“The first was assuming this is about morals.”

The scorching rises and lava flows burnt brighter for a few moments. The tiefling stared at Ruby, her own eyes as radiant as Gehenna, and then at Duffy. His pupils were sorrow filled, grey, and cold. The dynamism and cohesion between the two did not match their appearance.

“What’s it pikin’ about, then?” he asked. He grow increasingly unsure about the outcome of his good will hunting.

“You still don’t see?” Duffy cried. He moved a few steps forwards.

“All I see is you wankers.”

“It’s about grace, form, and function,” the bard shouted.

“They’re three things I ain’t got, or don’t need to waste my spit on.”

“We need you, Aurelianus Drak’Shal. That’s the cut and thrust of it.”

“Oh, finally, a woman admits it,” he grinned.

“We need your particularskill set,” Duffy corrected seething. He was becoming very frustrated, and his skittish emotions began to show.

“You can get those in any backstreet brothel!”

“To the courthouse with you,” Ruby barked. This, naturally, would result in death. “Or, the alternative; work with us. Put your anarchism to use, and maybe…” She trailed off.

“Even people like Luned might start to like you,” Duffy continued. His voice was full of whimper.

“Any other alternatives?” Aurelianus chirped. He flickered away his flame and let Junior scramble beneath his coat tails.

Ruby answered with a flick of the wrist. In a wreath of white light, Lucrezia appeared in her palm, blade aimed for the neck. She held it at arm’s length and bent at the knees.

“You get to test just how immortal I really am,” she snarled.

Her hair burst into flame. Blood red feathers formed amidst the lengths. A single, crowning plume adorned her brow. Duffy unsheathed the sword from his cane, its ring harmonised with her singular, preparatory falsetto note.

[Aurelianus Drak'shal]

"I like that offer, luv, and you do know 'ow to sweet-talk me," he chuckled sarcastically, "but temptin' as it is to spend the rest of my natural span pennin' you in the dead-book every day, I'll 'ave to decline."

The tiefling shook his head softly, quilled crest swaying slightly in the breeze, and coils of steam rose as the former heat of Gehenna boiled away in the icy air of Salvar. These two just weren't getting it. Pay for my crime by Salvar's laws? Aye, that'll be the pikin' day, he thought with a barely contained growl, taking his cigarette case out from within his coat. It always irked Aurelius; whenever he did someone a good turn, they were either too bloody ignorant to notice it, or were too bogged down by blind obedience to "The Law" to appreciate it. Stupidity and willful slavery. The very concepts were anathema to him. A sardonic sneer twisted the corner of his lip as he regarded the sorry sods.

He blatantly ignored Duffy and the witch assuming battle-ready postures, and took one of the roll-ups between his fingers before tucking the ornate case away again carefully, to avoid the myriad blades and barbs on his armour. His serpentine eyes flicked up to the tip of Ruby's sword, but it didn't concern him. He was busy thinking, but even with the obvious magicks she was capable of pulling out of her arse, Aurelianus doubted she was fast enough to catch him off guard. Thoughts racing through his head, the warlock let a tiny spark of Hellfire collect on the tip of his forked tongue, touching it to the cigarette to light it. A bloom of blue-grey smoke blossomed in the frigid air alongside the condensing breath of the trio.

"So, you got little Luned in on your game?" he asked, his interest peaked. Setting the hand-rolled smoke between tight lips, the half-demon tucked his hands in his pockets, completely unperturbed by the weapons drawn, or the displays of power he'd been treated to this night.

Still, he was mildly impressed by Ruby's sudden transformation, and his lascivious nature meant he couldn't resist letting his eyes wander over her body. His black tongue slid over his fangs as he allowed him self a moment's fantasy before he placed the cigarette back in his mouth. Twin snakes of smoke slithered from his nostrils, climbing into the air before dissipating in the pale moonlight. But his thoughts turned once more to the mention of Luned: It had been a while now since he had last seen the little scribe, and she had blasted him clean through a brick wall on that occasion. He owed her a world of hurt, of course, but he was more intrigued by where she'd come upon power like that.

Plans formed and reformed behind the guttersnipe's eyes, and a smirk spread slowly over his visage. The grin was an ugly thing - all sharp edges, and dark desires. But not anywhere near as ugly as the little abomination that scampered up from under the coat to glare at Ruby and Duffy again; that in itself was a feat, considering the lack of eyes, but Junior still radiated pure hatred from its pale, malformed body. The hideous little monster slid up around Aurelius' neck, peering round at the two creatures threatening its master. But the tiefling ran a soothing finger over Junior's head, whisper-hissing softly to him in the Infernal tongue, calming the tiny familiar's ire. It chittered a reply and buried its face into the hand, tiny tongue lapping at the scorched, dry leather of the warlock's fingerless gloves.

Sucking in another lungful of smoke, the arrogant half-demon finally brought his attention back to the pair of self-righteous tossers, still waiting for him to make the first move.

Sorry to disappoint you...

"Well, you poor bastards must be pretty bloody desperate to try and enlist me," he smiled viciously. "But, I seem to recall bein' 'ired to 'elp cause some mayhem not far from 'ere, and look where that got me."

He held up a hand to ward off the inevitable witty retort or outburst, exhaling another stream of smoke into the wind as he glared at Duffy.

"What you want, you two-faced whoresons, is a scape-goat - someone to pin things on, and someone to swing from the leafless tree so you can keep your nice, manicured 'ands squeaky clean."

Aurelius' inhuman eyes narrowed, but the nasty grin never left his face.

"But you're offerin' me the chance to cause some 'avoc, so who am I to argue."

Not to mention neither of you addle-coves are canny enough to outsmart me.

The warlock took his hands from his pockets, taking the cigarette between two fingers as he ran his other hand over the shaved sides of his head.

"You 'ave a deal," he said softly, extending his hand toward whichever of them was brave enough to take it. Duffy, wary, stepped forward and shook with the Anarchist as he clamped the smoking roll-up back into his mouth.

"I'll 'elp your 'Chronicle', do what needs to be done, and in return, no more of your preachin' bollocks, no more judgements, an' definitely no more whinin' to me about "laws". Agreed?"

Duffy glanced at Ruby before nodding, "Agreed."

"Good. Oh, and before I forget," Aurelius added.

Duffy never saw the fist coming until it crunched into his nose, staggering the bard back to fall on the snow-dusted cobbles.

"Aaaaah, that made me feel a whole lot better," the tiefling smirked.