Vengeance is due

Game Master Darkness Rising

Benedicte pauses briefly to collect his thoughts before knocking on the door of his little sister's room and letting himself in. He's annoyed at being dragged away from his own studies to deal with whatever new mischief she has cooked up, but taking that out on her achieves nothing - she's eight years old, he reminds himself. Which is still probably old enough to know better.

But he's not here to punish her - someone else will have done that already - he's here to work out what's going on and try and stop it, before their family decides that she is too much of a nuisance to keep around. Breathing in deeply, and then out again, he pushes the door open and gives her a smile.

"Hello, Elo." It's a very bad (non-)joke, the sort of dad-joke that their own father would never make; but it tells of the sort of quasi-parental role he has been forced into ever since their mother died in childbirth. It's a very bad joke, but it's a very good way of gauging Elodie's mood: on a good day she'll just roll her eyes, and if it's bad, she'll snarl at him instead. Knowing what mood she's in lets him know how best to approach her.

"Hello, Elo." His voice is still in the process of breaking; it cracks and warbles slightly.

She was laying on her bed, on her front. The strap., Benedictes mind notified him. Elodie had very pale skin, almost alabaster-like in tone, also because she avoided being in the sun if at all possible. But Benedicte was sure that if he were to lift her dress now, her back and buttocks would show a variety of colours that resulted from the punishment she had received earlier.

She probably neither felt like standing, nor wanted anything to touch on her sore parts, leaving her to lay down on the softest place in her room. Which she had done, now softly crying into her pillow.

Benedicte gives a quiet sigh as he sees what has happened. There is a time and a place for beatings, but you don't normally inflict that level of punishment on a child. But then, he knows there are some in their family who see her as a monster rather than a kid.

He sits down on the bed near her, careful not to disturb where she's bruised - he was going to give her a pat on the shoulder, but he settles for softly squeezing her foot instead, a gesture that puts into words what he doesn't need to say: I'm on your side. "We both know I'm not going anywhere, Elodie." He shakes his head, aware with every minute that passes that he is falling further and further behind in his studies.

Still. This is important. "So, what did you do this time? Have you been kicking the boys in - between their legs again?" He carefully changes what he was going to say: he doesn't know how much she knows about anatomy, and he does not want to be the one who has to explain it to her. "I thought we'd agreed you weren't going to do that any more."

Elodie kicks at Benedictes hand, but then makes sure her leg touches on him. She did not want to be comforted, but she did want the assurance that he was there. Emotions were...a complicated thing.

The quiet sobbing stops for a bit, and some words are mumbled into a pillow. Lifting her head a bit, she tries again:"I kicked no one. The boys were fighting. With stick swords. Pretending to be mighty warriors. And Arthur, he stumbled and got scratched by Elwoods stick. He was bleeding a bit, and shouting at Elwood and saying he didn't want to play any more. Then he came and sat down in the shade."
Some more sobs, then she continued:"The blood smelled so...good. He sat right next to me. I asked him if I could lick it off. He looked at me and told me that I was a stupid freak and I should get lost. So...so I bit him. If I was a freak anyway I figured I could as well. He hit me but I did not even feel it, that blood was soooo good. Much tastier than anythink that stupid cook makes. Then the teacher pulled me away from Arthur and slapped me. So I tried to bite him too but he was too strong. But I kicked nobody."

Yeah, this is Cheliax so I figured they're not shy about punishing kids - it's more that if it had been one of our cousins, they would have got a couple of hits for doing what you did; but because it's you, they pretty much carried on until their arm got tired. Sort of reinforces that the rest of the family is against her, except for him.

"Well..." Benedicte puffs out his cheeks and wishes - yet again - there was a grown up to handle this. He's only five years older than she is, this shouldn't be on his shoulders. And yet.

"Well, you didn't kick anyone. So there's that. Thank you for sticking to our agreement." He lets her put her feet on his lap while he thinks about what to say next. "Biting people, though... that's not ideal. It's new, though, I mean you're finding new ways to get into trouble rather than doing the same old same old." He smiles at her, but it's not really funny.

"So... how do we make it so this doesn't happen again? Do we just need to start serving your meat extra rare?"

He sighs as the silence draws out - she doesn't seem to appreciate his humour. Valuable lesson time is being lost, but that isn't on her, he reminds himself. "They shouldn't have called you a freak. I will go down there and remind them of that myself, if I have to. But work with me here, Elle. How do we stop this happening again? What do you need? Was it the blood that set you off?"

Benedicte gives a heavy sigh. "You're not cursed, Elodie. You're just... different." He gives a silent prayer of thanks that she has talked through her idea with him before putting it into action.

"Biting the servants is a terrible idea. If they panic, or you lose control, I just... it could go so badly wrong." All they need is a blood-caked servant running through the hallways screaming, and the rest of the family will decide she's too much of a liability.

He sees the shape of an idea, and he doesn't like it. But it beats the alternatives. "Alright, here's what we're going to do. If I let you feed on me, do you promise to leave everyone else alone? No biting at school, no more animals, no servants."

She lifts her head again and rolls slightly to the side. It is clear there is some pain involved, but she doesn't flinch: "If I lose control, we can simply get other servants, can't we? But if they panic...maybe only the younger ones that are weaker than me...", she muses as Benedicte has his idea and brings up his suggestion.

Her eyes widen a bit, but Elodie quickly regains her composure as she considers it:"But you are not here every day, when you are off studying. And if I feed only from you, won't you, like, have too little blood left?"

It is clear she had considered drinking from servants whenever she felt like it, and translated that 1:1 to Benedictes suggestion.

His little sister's plan to feed off the servants is as horrifying and badly thought out as he had feared, and he hurries to try and set her straight in language she will understand. Right and wrong don't come into it. "Good servants are hard to find, Elodie. They have to be competent, loyal, and discreet. The rest of the family values having good servants much more than they value having you. So please don't do anything that will make the good servants leave. Or the rest of our family will... will not be happy with you. And you will be punished." It's hard to tell an eight-year-old that the rest of their family will put her down without a second thought and Benedicte can't bring himself to tell her that directly.

"But you're right: I can't feed you every day. Once a week or so will have to do. Which I would point out is a lot better than you're getting right now." He looks her straight in the eyes. "So do we have a deal? No more biting or trying to feed from anyone else?"

Benedicte carefully hides a smile at his little sister's pleading, which has reached the 'I'm not tired can I stay up a bit longer' stage. "First, you've no idea how much blood you need - and I seriously doubt you need it in place of food. If I come down to breakfast tomorrow and you're not eating toast and eggs and everything else in sight, then I'll be surprised. Second, you got those teeth ages ago - if blood was vital to you then you'd have gone for someone before now."

He gives her a stern look. "No servants, no beggars, no orphans, no animals. I'll give you some of my blood from time to time and we'll see how we go. If it really does turn out that you need it in order to survive, we'll reconsider. But I think you'll be just fine."

With all that said, he does believe her when she says that the few sips from Arthur have made her thirsty for more. "I'm not about to let you bite me - I'd have trouble explaining the wounds to our apothecary. So..."

Drawing a knife from his belt, he presses the blade to his wrist with a slight gasp of pain as it cuts his flesh. The blood starts to well up, and flow out in a steady trickle. "Here you go, Elle." He holds out his arm for her to feed from. "No biting, remember."

But all that suddenly became irrelevant when Benedicte pulled out a blade and cut his wrist. The world turned black and white, with the pulsing liquid being the only thing that retained color. A vibrant crimson full of life.

The souvenirs of her beating - all the pain - forgotten, she fluidly sits up and rushes towards him with the unnatural dexterity and agility that was typical for her kind.
Licking along his arm, she latches on his wrist, suckling on his wound like a babe on a teat. Cautiously keeping her teeth from scratching his skin, she has her eyes closed and softly hums, reminiscent of a cat purring, while drinking as much as she can for as long as she is allowed.

The feel of her warm tongue on his wrist, lapping up his blood, feels both strange and at the same time, strangely familiar; he finds himself, almost without realising it, reaching out and gently running his fingers through her long (tangled and messy) black hair. He gives a grateful nod when she is careful not to catch his skin with her teeth. "Good girl. That's my good girl." He carries on like this for several long minutes, letting her feed; before wrapping his hand around her hair and (gently but firmly) pulling her head back, away from his wrist.

"That's enough for now, Kittykat." It's said with a smile: the lapping of her tongue and the slight noise she made, like a cat's purr, made him think of it. But it's an affectionate nickname that will stick; although he'll never call her that in front of anyone else.

He gives her a smile and a critical look as he sees traces of blood still on her lips and the middle of her chin. "Hold still." He uses his thumb and forefinger, like the quasi-parent he almost is, to wipe the red away.

When Benedicte finally manages to push her away from his wrist, she lets herself fall backward on the bed, no longer feeling any pain(or no longer caring about it) from the beatings she received earlier.

She lets her brother clean her without complaint, seeming to be in a happy trance. The tears streaming down her cheeks before are forgotten, her hands idly to her side:"I'm warm all over. Thank you, Ben."

Chelaxian prisons are not nice places, and there's very little in the way of daylight, so Elodie's probably not clear on how much time has passed since she has been here. But when the guards come into her cell and drag her upstairs to where Benedicte is waiting, she can see from the light that it's early in the morning.

Benedicte's fury at her actions has lasted him all the journey back from Egorian and through the meetings he has had with their family, but ultimately he still loves his sister - the sight of her bedraggled and bruised and chained is enough to make him relent... slightly. Whatever she's done, I'm glad she's out of here. He knows next to nothing of the mysterious patron who has arranged this, beyond the name Razelago, but he is glad she won't be ending her days here.

"Hello, Elo." It was never a good joke, even at the best of times, but it was always a good gauge of her mood.

She coughs, then speaks up"Tried to predict, what time you'd picked, dear Benedicte, to visit me. I attempted to use Convict in there, but that didn't sound like fun."
She giggles to herself for a moment, then raises her head:"You are the first to check in on me. I appreciate it. So, how will this work? How long do we have? Do these morons stay? Wh...."
A backhand-slap from one of the guards interrupts her momentarily, but she quickly recovers, speaking in a mocking fake-bedroom voice:"Hey, be gentle, it's my first time. I have no idea how any of this works."

"Believe me, I'm not here because I want to be, Eloise. I'm supposed to be doing my exams in Egorian, remember? Instead, I'm..." he trails off, and looks at her silently for a moment or two before he trusts himself to speak again.

I'm cleaning up your mess. Again.

He clears his throat and starts over. "The good news is, you're getting out of here today. But I need you to drink this, before we do anything else." He hands her a potion; it's clear from his tone that she can drink it of her own free will, or he will have the guards hold her down and force her to drink it. It's the final component of a ritual their family put together: the price of letting her go free is a safeguard to ensure that in an emergency she will do exactly as he commands.

But she doesn't need to know that, so he doesn't tell her. "It will help you feel a bit better." Which is true enough: it has a negative energy component, so it will heal the various bruises and cuts she has suffered during her captivity.

When he mentions getting out, she perks up, but is cautious. This was still Cheliax:"What is that? Poison? Am I getting out in a casket?", her eyes stare right at Benedicte, waiting for him to deny that.
Of course, he would not willingly poison Elodie, not after all those years - but if the family would send someone to do it, they would have sent him.

Not quite dropping her guard, she presents her hands with chains attached:"Afraid they don't let me play with glass any more. You'll have to hold it for me." She shuffles closer on her bare knees, taking a sniff at the vial before raising her head and opening her mouth for Ben to pour the potion in.

She glances at the guards, her lips twitching a moment as she thinks of a biting remark, but decides not to make them more angry while still chained, not with the promise of freedom in front of her. She looks at Ben while holding the potion in her mouth, waiting to see if there is any reaction from him, any hint of danger. Then she closes her mouth and swallows it in a big gulp, her gaze not moving from her brother.

But the moment passes.

"It's not poison, no. If our family wanted to kill you, they would have to get through me first." Although right now I'm wondering why. He doesn't say it out loud, but the thought is practically in a speech bubble over his head.

He pours the potion into her mouth, holding her gaze while she drinks it. There's a momentary paralysis when nothing works, she can't even breathe, and then it's over as though nothing happened. She's probably about to ask her brother what it's all about when he says a command word that she doesn't quite hear and everything fades out...

...and she's sitting up on her bed, back in her room at home (although it won't be her home for much longer). From the light coming through the window, it's early afternoon. Her chains are gone, she's clean and dressed, and one of the maids has just finished brushing her hair; Benedicte gestures at her and she curtsies and leaves the room.

Benedicte nods at his sister. "I realised you didn't need to be awake for them to bathe and dress you, so I left them to get on with it. But now you need to pack. Our coach leaves this evening." He's clearly not in a mood to explain himself.

Benedicte had 2 different people scour the room for hidden weaponry - and there was no guarantee they found everything. Not because he was afraid, but to deprive his sister of any arnaments that might boost her cockyness.
It was about showing who was in control.

Not finding what she is looking for, she stands up instead, but remains tense - ready to spring like a cornered animal: "How did I get here. Did you use magic on me?"
Benedicte may not be in a mood to explain himself, but he does take note that there is a dangerous undercurrent in his sisters voice.

The simplest way to find all the weapons Elodie had concealed in her room was for Benedicte to order her to retrieve them and give them to him, before he woke her up. He was slightly surprised by just how many there were.

It's clear that she has no memory at all of doing this, which is something he'd wanted to check. Better to find out how this ritual works now, rather than when he needs it. That said, the experience of turning her into some mindless thing was unnerving, to say the least. It's not something he particularly wants to do again.

He understands her confusion - and her anger - and he holds his arms up peacefully. "Yes, there was magic involved. How much more I tell you depends on whether I can still trust you. So. Answer me this - that student you killed." Benedicte doesn't know or care what his name was. "Everyone else is assuming that you just lost control, that you didn't mean to kill him. Is that right? Or was it deliberate?"

His time away from her has been difficult, for both of them. They're not as close right now as they were 12 months ago. But he needs to know if that underlying bond is still there. Will she tell him the truth, or not?

His question makes her alert again, the anger taking a backseat. More trickery? Was she even home? Or was it all some elaborate set-up to get a confession out from her?
She raises her right arm and bites into it, hard.
Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 4
Noting that the pain felt very real, she decides that it likely was no trickery: "It...you don't know how it is. Both. I lost control, yes. But I let myself drift out there. I did not stop when I knew I was at the limit. I did not PLAN to kill him. But I enjoyed it. Does that satisfy you? Are you happy with that answer?", she swiftly returns to a more hostile tone again.

Benedicte lets some of the tension he's been feeling relax as Elodie tells him the truth, rather than what he might want to hear, and the relief on his face is obvious. "Thank you. You dummy." This is said with a mixture of affection and exasperation as he looks at where she bit herself on the arm. "Come here." Taking her arm in his hands, he carefully wraps bandaging around the wound.

In one sense this is completely unnecessary: both of them have enough magical ability to be able to heal a minor injury like that without any difficulty. But the time, and the focus, lets some of the hostility in the room dissipate a bit.

"To answer your question, there was some magic in the potion you drank, enough to give me control of you if it's ever needed. I wanted to know if it worked, and now I know that it does I hopefully won't have to use it again. It was... let's just say it was one of the conditions for getting you out of jail. There are others, but you really do need to start packing."

"I took it with me, partly to make sure you didn't have it, partly for good luck, but also as something to remember you by. You can have it back now." He hands it to her. "I'm still not happy with what you did, but you've earned some trust after that answer."

He gives her a warning look. "Don't do anything to make me regret giving it back, ok?"

"And as for where we're going, the short answer is Longacre. No, I'd never heard of it either. It's a small town in the middle of nowhere but it's going to be our home for a bit." Thanks to you, he doesn't add. He's trying not to be bitter - he knows his sister's nature and it's not entirely her fault what she did - but even so, his whole life has been turned upside down and blaming her is the easy choice.

I know I'm handing out information in bits - if you just want an info-dump where he talks non-stop for like 10 minutes then I can do that if you prefer :)

"And if I have no idea where we are going, or why, how could I decide what I want to take? I assume you are not taking me on a vacation?"
She grabs the blade, gripping it tightly until her knuckles turn white.
"That, I will take."
To his warning look, she responds with sarcasm:"Aye, no regrets - I'll make sure not to leave witnesses." It was not a good joke and less so with her recent stay in prison, but it was typical for her.

"So, why will this middle-of-nowhere place be our home?"

That's fair, this scene is in-depth just to help me establish our characters a bit, we will fast-forward from this scene to their arrival in Longacre

Benedicte shakes his head. "It's not a holiday, no. You - we - aren't welcome in this house right now and I think it's a good idea to put some distance between us and our beloved family." The sarcasm is biting. "It seems that someone is looking for people to do work for them, and they have heard about your... talents. They pulled some strings to get you out of prison, and I'm coming too as part of the deal." That's actually a separate deal, one made with their family to make sure he keeps an eye on her. Never mind that it effectively ends his training as a wizard, costing him his career. The alternative was that the guards would snap her neck in prison.

"As for what they want us to do, I don't know. I don't know anything about them apart from their name: Razelago. And I don't even know if that's real. They've given us an address in Longacre, Moragatalli Manor. We go there, find out what they want us to do, and do it. I'm not sure how long we'll be working for them." He pauses to let that sink in. "Our family is aware of the local ruler, Archbaron Fex. They've made some overtures to him but he's ignored them. They'd be happy if we can get an audience with him."

Benedicte doesn't particularly like much of his family at the moment - the fact so many of them want to kill his little sister will do that - but they are pretty much all he has in the world right now, apart from her. Keeping them happy seems like a sensible thing to do, which is why he has been careful in what he tells Elodie.

"So. Pack some everyday clothes that you don't mind getting dirty, and pack some nice dresses for if and when we meet the local nobility. And do it quickly please, sis. If Etienne finds out we're here, he'll do his best to make our lives miserable. Again."

She packs swiftly, some everyday clothing and nice dresses, but also sturdy clothing, the kind of stuff people staying outdoor for prolonged periods would wear.
When she is mostly done, she also retrieves a full set of leathers from the back of a wardrobe:"Turn around.", she instructs Ben. "The servants nicely dolled me up with a dress and makeup. But if we are travelling for hours, that will not do."
Facing away from her brother as well, she begins to undress and change into the leathers.
If Etienne chooses this time to show up, she will give him a slap that will leave a red mark on his cheek for a couple hours. Which may give urgency to our departure, but just saying in case you have to narrate that. Also, she will prioritize the slap over covering up, unless he turns around instantly to avoid the aforementioned slap.

Benedicte gives his younger sister a sardonic smile. "I somehow don't think you've been released from prison just to do manual labour. But beyond that, I wouldn't hazard a guess."

As she turns away from him and starts to change, he blinks and reddens slightly, hastily turning his back to her. The days where he was the one who used to help her into and out of her clothes are long-distant. "Right. Of course. I'll leave you to it. See you in the coach downstairs, the servants will carry your luggage down once you're ready."

She hears the door close, and has the room to herself again.

Elodie doesn't have the room to herself for very long; she's still in the middle of changing when the door opens again and her most-hated cousin, Etienne, saunters in. Unlike Elodie and Benedicte, Etienne is blond and handsome and he knows it; his looks and his connections have won him a favourable marriage that rapidly lifted up his status within the family. His golden curls and winning smile are at odds with the malice that lies within his heart, as he gives Elodie an unpleasantly cheerful grin.

"Hey, bloodsucker! Heard you got out and just wanted to say you're not wel-" He doesn't get any further than that as Elodie flies at him, with a ringing slap that rattles his jaw - he steps hastily back as she bares her fangs (and other things) at him, and stares for a moment before retreating, turning his back as he strides to the door and leaves. "You little b!##%! You'll pay for that."

Fortunately, he doesn't have his spell components with him, or any of his lackeys; he came to bandy insults, not brawl with a half-naked hellcat. Of course, components and lackeys can be swiftly retrieved. Definitely best to hurry out of here before he decides to return, although he'll probably wait for the mark on his cheek to disappear first. Admitting he got slapped won't do much for his pride.

She then carries her own luggage, moving swiftly to find Benedicte:"We...should get going. Now."
When he gives her "the look", the one with a raised eyebrow and no blinking, she shrugs:"After you left, when I was in the nude, Etienne decided to enter my room without knocking. He did not turn or leave, instead started to insult me while staring. I had a mind to slit his throat then and there, but I promised you not to cut anybody today. But I HAD to educate him on the unchivalrous nature of his action, so I gave him a slap that you may have heared if you were in the same wing. So, as said, it's probably time to go."
She looks unrepentant about her actions, and if anything, proud that she did not use the recently returned knife to do worse.

Benedicte is about to protest her over-sharing - he really does not need to know about her nakedness - when it's drowned out by the rest of what she's saying. "He did WHAT?!?" Rage, pure and hot, flames through his mind, burning bright. He and Etienne despise one another, they always have, but the thought of that vendetta being extended to his little sister is infuriating.

I'm going to kill him.

He is right on the verge of propelling himself out of the carriage to hunt his cousin down, when he remembers what he said to Elodie a year or so ago - Etienne is currently untouchable, and their own status in the family is even lower now than it was then. It's not in his nature to be rash, so he does manage to calm himself down, although his knuckles are white as his fists remain clenched. He's the older brother, which means he's supposed to be setting her an example, after all.

He lets out his breath in a long, slow hiss, and thumps the roof of the carriage, letting the driver know that they are ready to move. As it lurches into motion, he sits down and looks at Elodie as she sits facing him. "If he ever - I mean if he even thinks - I will - his internal organs will be my spell components." His rage has left him almost inarticulate.