How To Hire A Villain

[Stare]

Bunny away in this thread I think. I bunnied you here, let me know what you think.

In all honesty, the kenku had no idea what to do.

As she held the leather bound book, her thumb claw raking over the binding, she felt her heart beat thunderously. Quite casually, as seemingly normal as it had been to step into the pub and tell the dark man words enough to still him, the gorgeous woman sashayed from the building. Blue hair spiralled around her like a second sky, and she was but a beautiful hiccup in the dimness of the dusk. The door closed behind her and silence remained in the pub, unknowing, unusual, unsteady.

In little time at all, comments began once more. Murmurs, as those who apparently saw this type of behaviour every day turned back to their own boastful conversations. Leaving Stare to look between the masked man and the tiny book in her hands, listening to the whispers that repeated around her head, again and again.

"Use this document to control him. He's already under a contract and you can lay claim to him in that matter of speaking. I have been waiting for a long time for the change he is going to bring."

Control him? This man? Contract? Who the damnation was he and who the blazes was she?

Though some were going back to their own conversations, Stare saw the glances from the corners of eyes. Clicking her tongue behind her beak she realised that having a masked man standing there, seemingly stunned and the interaction that had issued between him, the blue haired elf, and the only kenku in Beinost ... well. Curiousity was a natural thing. At least it possibly meant that she had found someone to carry out this contract now.

Without consulting the celestial at the back of her mind, Stare went forwards and grabbed the hand of the strange man. A brief look into the aura that everyone had, but only she could see, and she saw his chaotic heart, his desire to lie, his dark intentions. Pulsating around a deep violet core - the core that she knew belonged to a demon. Possibly what she might need right now. Her claws that were not around that of the book closed around his wrist and with a grunt she tugged, causing him to stumble into her. Not having time to look at the odd book - whatever it was - and wanting to be out of that room before anything else bizarre happened, Stare half-dragged the man through a back door that led to a passageway and then the outside privy. Once there she found a good enough storeroom, decided that she had permission to use it and strode in anyway, pulling the contractor with her.

She dumped him unceremoniously on the floor. Then pushed the door behind her closed. Moving a box she used the last of her normal strength to drag it enough to use as a temporary door stop, and then she sank down on it.

And breathed out. Took a moment for herself to steadily inhale and exhale. Meditate. Fixate. Breate.

Well. He might just do.

Sighing, she looked over at the man she had placed there. He was rigid and still, like he had been in the pub when the elf-woman - whoever she was - had whispered the initial words into his ear. Precisely what she had done, and why she had chosen Stare was beyond the kenku, but at least for now that could be placed aside and more important things could be settled upon.

Perhaps it was because the woman knew that Vitruvion lay beyond Stare?

No, concentrate.

The elf woman said that there was some sort of code ... word. 'Speaking' she said, Stare looked down to the book. There was no lettering on the front cover and it was thin. Opening it she found fifty or so pages, naturally blank. A quick flip through told her it was all handwritten. And in some weird, foreign language that she knew not. Her eyes pierced the words, and they were descernible runes, but in some sort of language that was not common, not elvish, not even kenku as far as she could tell.

So she went to the front. And saw a single word calligraphically scribed there. She thought over their syllables.

Her throat formed the word, aching to slip past her beak.

Be careful, Vitruvion murmured in the back of her mind, watching every move, If this really is a contracted demon then he may be dangerous.

I will be careful, but do you want him or not? she retorted back.

The god thought for a moment, then nodded. Miles away, across the other side of the city. Yes, we can use him.

And Stare sat up straighter - and spoke the word.