Amber gaze upon the Crimson Stray

[Mari]

Amari looked, well, dumbfounded.

Madison asked question after question, clearly sparked from the odd glow that she had just witnessed. Everyone but Hyperion seemed bothered by the light. Hyperion? She seemed utterly delighted. “I uh-” How the hell was she to explain this? She didn’t even know what this was.

Amari glanced toward Hyperion, looking toward where she assumed the womans’ eyes would be. She offered the strange, exuberant woman a small smile. “For what it’s worth, Hype - I didn’t mind it either.” She held up her hand, signalling that maybe, just maybe Hyperion should squeeze her a little less next time. “Just not so tight next time.”

The ‘ultra glowing what the fuckery’ hug seemed to have put Amari in a slightly better mood. Less sour and Lye-like.

Amari pulled the furs tighter around her body. Carefully ensuring that it covered as much as possible. A part of her felt she should put all the leathers back on for Madisons’ sake of sanity, but they were so damn uncomfortable.

Right, enough dilly dallying. Time to give Madison some half assed answers.

“I’ve never glowed like that, not whilst hugging someone. So I don’t know what that was. I’m fuckin’ tired though.” Amari paushed. “I think there is a similar glow when I’m being revived.” Amari muttered. She glanced up at Madison and quickly answered the question for her. “I’ve died. Multiple times. Aurelianus figured out that the sigil, aka my birthmark on my back can well…” Amari shrugged, “Bring me back to life? More so...heal my body.”

Amari shifted uncomfortably. It was difficult to explain this, and she never had the chance to talk about it with her Master. “I don’t know what I am. I’m beginning to realize, its not human. When I die, I find myself chained to my body, I'm some sort of glowing person but - I don’t think it’s death.” She patted herself with a hearty thump. “I suppose you could call this some sort of meat prison.” She added with a small smirk.

It quickly dissipated as more questions spurred forth, ones she wasn't able to answer.

“Even Aurelianus couldn’t tell me exactly what I am. Although he’d probably know the most. As for Master.” Amari tilted her head to the side. “Not this. Not yet. He knows how to bring me back from ‘death’ and how I am able to heal others.” She traced a finger in the air. “With a touch, I’m able to heal their wounds, but for some time after, I experience the pain from said wounds.”

Amari paused, having to lean back in her chair. Still visibly drained. “He made it painfully clear, if it weren’t for my glowing eyes, and my personality. He would have handed me over to Aurelianus to join his…” Amari groaned. “House of Sin.”

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

I felt a headache coming on. A pounding, pulsating spike of pain that was growing and growing in my temples.

As Red told me what she could about her true nature, it was becoming more and more clear that my year-long effort to correct Lichensith's darker tendencies was a failure. What was an effort to re-educate him and build him up as a more effective, level-headed leader for the Crimson Hands only made him a bigger monster than he was at the time we imprisoned him.

I should have killed him.

I should have sent his maggot-infested corpse to the Ixian Knights alongside the body of Kyla Orlouge.

I should have ignored his invitation to return to the Seventh Sanctum.

Everything would have been alright if I had only shooed away the raven he sent weeks ago.

I would be back in Concordia, enjoying a good book and glass of whiskey in the high tower of my compound. I would be spending my time puttering around with my experiments and adding rare texts and artifacts to my archives.

But here I am instead, dealing with the petulant demands of a broken assassin and scrambling to figure out exactly what it was he dragged in from the cold and what he plans on doing with her. And now, I learned that Aurelianus was involved, and may actually know something about this. I considered him a friend, but I wasn't exactly sure he'd loosen his tongue on the matter unless I paid a steep price.

I took a deep breath as Red finished speaking. "Show me this birthmark, please."

The young woman nodded, and rose from her chair. She made an effort to lower the furs just enough to expose the porcelain skin of her lower back.

To say that it was anything other than blatantly obvious would be wrong. It looked more like an intricate tribal tattoo than a birthmark. An eldritch arrangement of squares and circles in different sizes that were vaguely in a cross-shaped mass marked her flesh. Even after looking at it for several seconds, I was drawing blanks as to where it might have originated.

Without a word, I moved to find a scrap of paper and a writing utensil. "Hold still for a second," I said as I began to copy the curious pattern on her back.

I called for Hype after I finished up. "Yes, Madison?"

"Can you go find Diggs in the lab and show him this?" I handed her the drawing. "He has some experience with runes and symbols. I haven't seen anything like this in my studies, but perhaps he might have."

The briarbane nodded and was out the door in a flash of purple and royal blue. I turned back to Red as she was adjusting the furs to cover herself and keep warm. I put on the best and brightest smile I could, considering the simmering anger that was coursing through my vines.

"We'll see what we can turn up on that mark of yours," I reassured her. "But in the meantime, let's get you vaccinated so you survive long enough to learn something, yes?"

[Mari]

Amari felt a little disappointed. Madison seemed quite well read. She was the smartest person...plant...she was the smartest sentient being Amari knew and even she was baffled at what the symbol could possibly mean - or even its origins. She sighed softly as she covered herself back up.

“That’s how everyone reacts.” Amari mused, clearly frustrated. “I don’t think I’m all that special. Rather, I just wind up in the wrong place, at the wrong time - mostly.” She offered Madison a wry smile as she held out her arm, ready for whatever vaccinations Madison had for her. “Although, can’t be all bad. Met you, didn’t I?”

The Briarheart didn’t look too thrilled with Amari’s attempted compliment. She prepped the needles and one by one, started injecting Amari with the vaccinations. Amari made no complaint. Again, she tried to make light of the situation. “I suppose I should thank Master, this is nothing compared to what I normally go through.”

Madison stilled her movements and muttered words Amari didn’t quite catch. But she caught the anger. Madison put the needles back into the metal box and set it on the counter.

“You must hate him, huh?” Amari said, rubbing her arm. Madison didn’t reply with words, but her actions spoke far louder than anything she could have said. “I don’t blame you…” She mused. Amari lowered her eyes, picking at the fur overcoat she had wrapped around her shoulders. “He may be my Master, but you’d be an idiot to not see he has…” She paused. “ Issues. He seems to throw a tantrum if the smallest thing doesn’t go his way. He’s far too controlling, and he has the notion that fear grants subordination.” Amari laughed softly and shook her head. “I was never afraid of him. I think that’s another reason I caught his attention.” Amari fell silent again. She didn’t feel right talking ill of him, but her words were naught but truth.

“I could leave here. Anytime. But I don’t want to.” Her words were whispered. “I don’t want to leave a man who is as hurt as he is.” Amari glanced back up at Madison, with newfound resolve. “I want to help him. I want to bring the Crimson Hand back to whatever former glory it once had. I’ll help him. Not with fear, but by gaining the respect of others. I’ll ensure he won’t have traitors in his ranks. I just haven’t figured out how yet.”

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

“Although, can’t be all bad. Met you, didn’t I?”

Red, you've known me for all of twenty minutes.

No wonder Lichensith was able to get his rusty hooks into her so easily. The poor thing was probably starved for attention and affection. That would explain why, after all the shit she's been through, she chose to stay with that bastard. Somewhere in her broken mind, she was scrambling to justify the horrible events of the past couple weeks of her life in order to have a reason to stick around. Red can claim that she wasn't afraid of him as much as she wants; but there was no way in hell she wasn't.

That's how the assassin worked. Loyalty through fear. And if that didn't go his way, he opted for loyalty through pain.

And now he's garnered her pity, and there's no way she will leave him.

I need a drink.

I should have never come back.

I should have killed him when I had the chance, rather than thinking that I could fix him.

I'm suddenly not so sure that I can fix Red.

I really need that drink. Now.

I placed all the needles and vials containing the vaccines back in the Box, and clasped shut the lid. I pulled up a spare chair across from the girl and sat down in it. I took a deep breath before I spoke. "I'm going to speak plainly right now. The man you call master isn't worthy of your pity or your loyalty, no matter what you may think. He is a horrible creature who uses and abuses those under his command and casts them aside when they've outlived their usefulness."

Amari shot me an incredulous look. "If you hate him so much, then why are you here?"

A sad smile inched across my face. "Babysitting duties, mostly. I'm here making sure that his temper doesn't get too out of hand... seeing whether or not some of the lessons Aurelianus and I tried to teach him in his year under the mountain stuck."

I shook my head. "Doesn't seem like they have," I muttered quietly. "In fact, it looks like he hasn't changed his ways at all. He's been acting the same way he was during the war."

The girl clad in furs cocked her head slightly. "What war?"

"The war in Eiskalt," I said flatly. "This shitty little island off the eastern coast of Salvar. We all went over there under some false pretenses. Something about establishing these vague trade agreements between the Hand and the merchant guilds there. But, the Ixian Knights stuck their noses where they didn't belong and ignited a conflict between our two clans."

I hated retelling this next part, but I felt it was necessary to let Red know what kind of person she was pledging her allegiance to. "Lye gave me orders to develop and unleash a plague that would strain the Knights' resources and spread them thin by forcing them to care for both the sick within their ranks and the Eiskaltans who were infected during the war. And I did."

The smile disappeared from my face.

"Oh, sure, I enjoyed it at the time, and the scant research I was able to glean from the spreading disease was incredibly valuable to me; but it was around that time that things went to hell. During one of the battles for some important choke point, Lichensith abandoned the Hand to chase after one of the Knights--someone named Jensen Ambrose, you wouldn't have heard of him. It wasn't long after that he disappeared entirely, leaving the Hands to fend for themselves and scramble to salvage the mission."

"We failed, of course," I said with a shrug of the shoulders.

"Only two others from my initial group of twenty-one survived to return to the Sanctum. Once I arrived, I found that Lichensith had hightailed it back here without a word to the rest of us." I leaned closer to Red, an angry flash of amber light erupting from my eyes. "He left us all to die on that forsaken hunk of ice. People who trusted him with their lives. And he would waste them to ease his bruised ego after he lost Jensen's trail."

"We were pissed. We were angry. We were hurt. And all we got in thanks was accusations of dissent and forgetting that he was our master." The words were like venom on my tongue. "In his twisted mind, he thought that the only way to quash it was to call us all into a combat, where we would fight each other in some sick tournament. I'm not entirely sure how it make sense to instill loyalty in others by making them fight the very people they survived a long and drawn-out war with, but that's Lichensith for you."

I shook my head again. "That's what ultimately led to his downfall. We overthrew him. Locked him away in his own prison for a year. Tortured and rehabilitated him."

Or, at least we tried to.

"And now that he's out and back in charge of the Hands, I'm here to see that he doesn't repeat the mistakes of his past." My face darkened. "But I'm not entirely confident that he won't."

And if he tried, I'd be sure to kill him before he could cause any more harm.

[Mari]

Amari thought she would be well on her way at that point. She felt that she was overstaying her welcome, but as Madison drew her chair forward Amari realized that her little tit for tat with Madison was far from over. Not that she minded. Amari quite enjoyed the Briarhearts company.

She outlined why she hated the man. Amari was not pleased. Why would someone who worked under him talk so ill of him? "If you hate him so much, then why are you here?"


Madison’s reply threw Amari for a loop. “Babysitting….” She repeated, confused. Madison gave a nod, then referred to a war in Eiskalt that Amari was oblivious to. “So he doomed an entire nation to further his own gain.” Amari sighed, and wrapped her arms around herself. “It saddens me to say, that doesn’t surprise me, to have such power - is a scary thought.” She paused. “Although, that was you. Not him. Not that I can blame you…”

Her gaze shifted to the various equipment around Madison. “To you, it’d just be another experiment? A chance to test things? In a sense - you two are similar that way…” Amari mused, not realising the major insults she was throwing toward Madison. “You both see an opportunity to test something, and take it.”


Amari’s brows furrowed at the news; of the war, Lye abandoning his men and the torture. She knew Aurelianus had a part in his torture, but only now realized that Madison had too. She was slowly putting the pieces together. It appeared that the strongest of the Crimson Hand were her Master, Aurelianus and Madison. The Tiefling and plant woman seemed strong in their own right, and Amari still questioned why they would follow a man they were not amicable toward. Still, it was not her place to know their life story.

“You keep saying it didn’t work-your conditioning.” Amari glanced to the side. Tugging at her hair. “Aurelianus seems to think he’s developed a soft spot. I wonder if that were possible before the conditioning.” Amari pondered out loud. “I think it worked - just not in the way you were hoping. Nor to your expectations.”

Madison spoke again, detailing her concerns for him. Amari had to agree with her. She didn’t want to see her Master fall that far down into his bloodlust and insanity. Amari had seem him admit to his old ways, she had heard him admit that he didn’t wish to pointlessly kill someone. She’d even felt his tender touches and worried gazes. Such things would be impossible to relay to Madison. Much like it was impossible for Madison to relay the sheer horror of his past to Amari.


“I see.” Amari said quietly. “So as part of your atonement for past mistakes...you’re ensuring that another Eiskart phenomenon doesn’t happen again, right?” Amari asked. Not quite getting the name right. “How about this…” She leaned forward, “I’m not blind Madison. I know he isn’t a good person, and I can’t promise that he won’t fuck something up again. No doubt. He will. He’s a stubborn and foolish man.” She offered her hand out toward Madison. Seemingly confident in her own abilities. “But I want to help. For better or worse, we’re both part of the Crimson Hand. Let’s both make sure Mas-” She paused and cleared her throat. “Ulroke..Let’s ensure Ulroke doesn’t fuck things up too badly.”

She offered Madison a smile. “I’ll even sock him one, square in the head for what he did. Small consolation, right?”

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

The thought of Red waltzing up to Lye and loosening a couple of his teeth brought a wry smile to my face.

"Yeah," I mused, "that'll work."

Standing up, I moved over to the counter and picked up the Box. I turned back to face the girl and nodded towards the door.

"Gonna' have to kick you out now; Lichensith's got me on a special project for him, and I need to get back to it. Now, you're going to feel a little soreness in your arm over the next couple of days, and maybe some side effects as well--headaches, fatigue, a bit of nausea and the like while the vaccines do their work."

I made to leave the room, but my hand hovered over the doorknob for a brief moment.

"Also, just between the two of us..."

I lowered my voice to just above a whisper, enough for the girl to hear me.

"As soon as I hear back from my scholar about your birthmark, I'll come see you. And if there is anything you ever need, just let me know."

The door opened with a loud creak that echoed down the stone hallway.

"And stay out of the mountain caverns, okay?"

And with that, I was gone.

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

Mari receives 765 EXP and 90 GP!

BlackandBlueEyes receives 1295 EXP and 90 GP!

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

All rewards added!