Tangled Webs (closed to Locrian)

[Luca]

((closed to Locrian))

The Baroness of Snowdale did not typically handle assassinations, or any services which had anything to do with the intentional end of any of her associates. But Sevran, the Marquis of Ashhaven, had quite literally gotten on his hands and knees and begged her to take care of this for him. Besides, the man his wife was diddling was an obnoxious fob who had tried to ingratiate himself right into Luca’s bedroom a few times too many. It wouldn’t hurt her sensibilities in the least to see that horny little goat to his grave.

“Mistress, there is a… gentleman here to see you,” Clive said knocking briefly at the door to her sitting room. He was a good butler, and had served her father well, so she kept him around.

“Well, let’s not keep him waiting then shall we, Clive? Show him in,” Luca replied absently, straightening her rather crumpled pink gown and smoothing a perfectly curled lock of mahogany hair into the jeweled hairpin at her crown.

Moments later, the door swept open and Clive ushered her old business acquaintance, Feldmar, into the room and then left, closing the door soundly behind him. Of course the good man waited just outside, with his ear to the door, just in case she needed him.

“Feldmar,” she greeted the thug brightly, her feigned smile the picture of friendly joviality, “Do have a seat, would you like some tea? Or perhaps brandy would do you a bit better, no?”

“I’ll have nothing, Baroness, what do you want to see me for?” the man asked shortly, leaning stiffly against a high backed armchair of deep gold brocade.

“Come now Feldmar, as long as we’ve known each other, you should be more relaxed around me,” Luca laughed lightly, then dropped her façade. “Let me put it simply. I need something taken care of. You aren’t to do it yourself, but only to assure that it gets done.”

“Anything for you Baroness,” Feldmar oozed sweetly, grinning widely with half-rotted teeth.

“Clive will give you an envelope containing the necessary information as you leave, be sure that this is done properly and with all due haste. And be sure that no one sees you here again until this whole mess is finished, understand?”

“Money?” Feldmar asked pointedly, straightening a bit.

“Of course there’s money, how much for you and whomever you hire is entailed within that special envelope. Now go on, and quit bothering me, Feldmar, I’ve got a headache.”

Feldmar nodded sharply, and turned to leave, the door opening before him and an envelope appearing in Clive’s hand as the criminal exited Luca’s sitting room. With a happy little sigh, the Baroness picked up her book and returned to the lurid romance within.

[Locrian]

I normally don't do this kind of work. I told Feldmar this at least a half-dozen times as he explained the job to me over a bit of pasta and artichoke that some chicken had been waved at. "I mean, really. It's not my thing, and there are tons of others who do this kind of thing. Why not ask them?"

We sat in a stereotypical dingy tavern in a stereotypically dingy part of town. I liked it, though. They actually had decent wine of vintage, thanks to the dingy people who made up their dingy clientele only buying their dingy beers and ales. And brandies. I moved my arm a bit further back away from a small pool on the rough tabletop, courtesy Feldmar. I continued to survey the room, a poorly-lit place with low, heavy beams that creaked alarmingly in the silences of the murmured conversation. The smells of stale beer, sweat, and rotting straw stormed their way to my nose, forcing me to lift my wine glass yet again and inhale deeply before sipping the slightly sweet white. I looked at Feldmar, waiting for him to formulate an answer.

"My employer doesn't have that kind of money, Locrian. Besides, it's a simple job. The idiot is drunk in public all the time; I'm surprised he hasn't been knifed yet."

"And I'm a skill-less tough who you can throw a few pennies at to do your master's work?"

"No, no!" The ugly man began to cringe, "I've just been given a very short budget to work with! You understand that, don't you?" He flashed a gross impersonation of a grin at me, full of jagged teeth that looked like dirty, broken icicles.

I sighed, pushing a bit of garlic around my plate and wishing I had some more bread. "Who?"

Feldmar placed a once-sealed envelope on the table with another grin. I wondered why his breath wasn't visible. It should have been, a little green-gray cloud. With another sigh, I picked up the envelope, wiping a bit of brandy off of it with my napkin, and slid out the paper inside just a little.

I knew the target, a fool of a noble who kept what little mind he had in his pants. This would be fun. Besides, Luca would owe me then, too. It's always nice to help family, especially when someone else is paying you to do it.

[Luca]

Thank the gods it was her brother she awaited and not someone else. It at least meant that Luca could dress more comfortably, rather than in the stiff dresses and infinite pins and jewelry that she normally found it necessary to wear. Sighing, the Baroness propped her bare feet up on an antique cocktail table of burled walnut, leaning her head back in her favorite chair.

"Has Locrian ever shown up on time, Clive?" Luca asked irritably, taking a drink of her wine and closing her eyes on the dimness of her bedroom. It was the only room in the house she could relax in, and the only room not overflowing with expensive furniture and brocaded fabrics.

"I don't believe so, madam," Clive answered, hiding a smile from his mistress as he pulled the heavy blue silk curtains away from the tall windows, "Perhaps we should tell him to arrive half an hour before you actually want him here."

"Yes perhaps we should," Luca said, glancing at the clock on the mantlepiece of her ornate fireplace across the room, "Although maybe it should be forty five minutes. Between him and this maddening assassin I've made the mistake of letting Feldmar hire, I'm going to lose my mind."

Clive nodded, slipping quietly from the room with a smile that surely hinted he didn't think it would take much for the Baroness to lose her mind. He was fond of the girl, but she did take herself much too seriously for her own good sometimes.

The butler busied himself dusting the furniture in the foyer, as he waited patiently for the expected knock at the door. Locrian would be arriving any moment.

KNOCK KNOCK

And there he was. Clive swung the door open ceremoniously, smiling warmly at Locrian. The boy always had been his favorite of the children.

"Master Locrian," the butler greeted the fallen noble.

[Locrian]

I felt a twinge as I stopped in front of the manor, hand poised to knock. I had already bathed and used some cologne to cover the smell of the streets, but still. I felt so…dirty. No amount of water or perfume could wash out the stench of what I had become these past few years—a commoner, a no one. Of course whenever I came to visit my sister or attended her masquerade balls I could wrap myself in my comfortable silks and expensive fabrics, but it remained a personal masquerade—not just masking who I am for the simple joy and excitement of pseudo anonymity but pretending again to be an actual human and not common scum. At least my sister didn’t care. The silly thing actually enjoyed rough clothing and took an almost masochistic pleasure in dirt.

I stopped myself then and let the smile that had crept onto my lips fade away as I lifted my hand again to the door. I was late again, and she would probably be irritated as usual. She always contacted me when I was busy. Why couldn’t she give me an extra half hour—or better yet, forty-five minutes? I sighed and knocked.

After just a moment the door swung open majestically, and I saw the lined, reliable face of Clive there, smiling. I gave him a good-natured smirk as I briskly entered and pretended to barely notice my barefooted sister lounging in that big, ugly chair of hers wearing common clothes and a decidedly irked expression.

“I’ll be right back, sis. You know I can’t stand these rags.” I moved on to an adjoining room where I opened the huge wardrobe that kept my manor clothes and paused a moment, looking over the silks with an almost palpable longing. Smiling, I began to pull out bits of emerald and ebony that I then pulled on with hedonistic pleasure, pausing only to nudge the door half-closed for a semblance of modesty. “You know, sis,” I called, “It’s a good thing I have these here. There’s an impatient bitch I’m doing a job for now that doesn’t seem to understand the concept of pay; I wouldn’t be able to afford any of this.” I finished puffing the sleeves and straightening my collar in a mirror before pushing the door to her room open again and pausing in the door frame with an (almost) unconscious pose.

I looked at her, hiding a grin. “And why are you wearing that hideous thing?”

[Luca]

Luca barely glanced up at Locrian as he swaggered into her room and right on through, muttering something about wanting to change clothes. The arrogant bastard seemed to think that changing his clothes made him noble again or something she supposed. As he came back in the room, she arched a brow at him.

"You're late," she said flatly, "Of course, I suppose it's to be expected."

Setting down her calendar on the table beside her, she stood up and stretched, then crossed the room to a counter where a decanter and glasses stood.

"And you know I wear these clothes because they're more comfortable," she said, pouring her brother a glass of wine out of a dusty bottle she'd had Clive retrieve for the occasion, "So not another word about it from you."

Handing the glass off to Locrian, Luca poured herself a glass of sherry and returned to her chair, slouching sullenly against the well-worn cushions. Sipping demurely from her glass, Luca watched her brother over the rim with her eerily penetrating hazel gaze. It drove most people to admitting their dirtiest deeds for fear that she already knew. Her brother never seemed to notice though.

"Well, brother, I hope life is better in the slums than it is in the ivory tower," Luca said poutily, "Although your fellow employees are driving me insane."