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Post by Briar on Jan 25, 2022 22:29:58 GMT -6
But he remembered the terrified faces of the Harachiu, some of them children still, and steeled himself. This was the hand he had been dealt. He had little enough else to lose if he could do them any good.
-Please,- he signed. -Let them go.-
Noa inclined his head. “No,” was his immediate reply. Briar was caught a little off guard after all; he hadn’t expected the refusal to be so abrupt, so total. There was nothing drawn out or teasing or theatrical about it.
Briar’s mind scrambled for another angle of appeal. -They have no magic,- he signed. -They… They’re no use to you.-
“Oh? And what do you know of what I have use for, my dear gardener?” Now Noa was smiling, though Briar didn’t know whether that was an improvement or not. At least he was engaging now, which had to mean something.
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Post by Briar on Jan 25, 2022 22:30:09 GMT -6
The rest of the room was silent. Even the brown-haired Harachiu, for all her earlier bravado, didn’t make a sound. Briar felt the way he felt every time he spoke with Noa -- like a man facing a snake.
“You think I don’t know that they have no magic?” Noa was saying. “They don’t have anything. But it’s fun, sometimes, to watch them scurry.”
Briar thought back to what Noa had said when he had offered Briar the choice: enter Noa’s employ, or die. Things have been a little dull around here. He thought of the dried blood on the brown-haired girl’s dress, the tattered clothes and wary eyes of the blond boy who had flown off at the first opportunity. He recalled, too, the games and caprices of his first master, when she had been very young. He had to swallow down the bile that threatened to rise in his throat.
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Post by Briar on Jan 25, 2022 22:31:11 GMT -6
“What are they to you? Friends? A lover? Not her, surely.” Noa’s words came quickly now, a slightly manic edge to them, and his gaze shifted to the Issen, whose face had gone very pale. In the sickly light from the pods, it made her look washed out, as if she was half a ghost already. “You’ve been so stoic. Not very much fun at all. But I’m sure you’ll make an interesting face if I plucked out her wings.”
-No!- Briar signed. He had risen to his feet before he could think better of it. He stood, tense and uneasy, between Noa and the Harachiu, for all the good it would do; he had seen Noa move things from a distance, knew that Noa didn’t need to touch things with his own hands to seize them.
But Noa was smiling again. “Ah, yes. Like that.”
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Post by Briar on Jan 25, 2022 22:31:25 GMT -6
For a moment, Briar thought that the imminent danger had passed -- that his own stricken reaction had appeased Noa enough to make him let the matter go, and return to whatever strained negotiations they had been conducting before. But then there was a shriek from behind him, and he turned to see the dark-haired boy rising into the air, struggling against some unseen force. Noa’s eyes were bright with power, fixated upon that point in space.
-Don’t hurt them,- Briar signed. -Please. I’ll-- -
“You’ll do anything. Is that what you’re going to say?” Noa’s voice was whisper soft. “You could at least make it more interesting. They all beg the same way. It gets pretty old after the first few times.” The dark-haired Harachiu boy made a strangled noise, a cry of pain bitten off at the end. “What if I asked for that Tat-lung friend of yours? If you bring me his heart, I’ll let them go. Would you do it?”
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Post by Briar on Jan 25, 2022 22:32:29 GMT -6
Briar felt himself go cold. Despite the horror of the dark-haired Harachiu’s plight playing out before him, he couldn’t bring himself to sign over Yeo-reum’s life.
“See,” said Noa’s soft, insidious voice. “It was a lie. No one ever really means it when they say ‘anything you want’.”
He had to do something. Briar knew he had to do something. He tried to think, but he couldn’t; his mind was empty but for the thought that he had to act. Behind him someone had begun to cry. -I’ll take their place,- he signed. It was a gamble, a bid of desperation. It was the only thing he could think of, the only thing he had left to give.
The corners of Noa’s mouth turned upward. “Take their place?” he said. “You already work for me. Or is that not what you’re proposing?”
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Post by Briar on Jan 25, 2022 22:32:41 GMT -6
Briar’s heart was in his throat. The Harachiu boy was still suspended in the air. But he had Noa’s interest; all he had to do was to keep it, to make it interesting enough to please whatever sick sense of amusement governed Noa’s cruelty. -I’ll take their place,- Briar signed carefully. -Not as a gardener, but as…- Here the words failed him. What had the Harachiu been to Noa? He had spoken of them as things to amuse himself with, nothing more. -Whatever you did to them, you can do to me.-
Noa’s eyes widened, then thinned with interest; he hadn’t been expecting that. The smile widened. “Finally, a proposal with merit,” he said.
“No,” said a stricken voice from behind him. “No, you can’t. Vera, stop him. He can’t--”
“You’ll let me break your arm? Cut off your wings? Do it yourself, if I ask?” said Noa.
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Post by Briar on Jan 25, 2022 22:32:58 GMT -6
Briar closed his eyes, and let the weary finality of it wash over him. He nodded, once.
“No!” It was the brown-haired girl that had cried out. He recognized her voice now, strangled with tears. “He’ll kill you!”
“Oh, not all at once,” Noa said. “That would be a waste. If we’re going to make a deal, I want to get as much out of it as I can.” The glow faded from Noa’s eyes, and the Harachiu boy dropped to the ground. The brown-haired girl with the bloody dress ran over to kneel at his side. “You have a deal,” Noa said to Briar. Then, to the Harachiu, he said, “Go. Before I change my mind.”
“We can’t leave him here, he’ll die,” said the brown-haired girl, but already the boy was rising, pulling her away. The Issen ushered the children on, sparing Briar one last guilty look before she, too, flitted into the shadows above.
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Post by Briar on Jan 25, 2022 22:33:29 GMT -6
And then it was just the two of them.
“You know your word means nothing to me,” said Noa. “I instructed you not to come in here, and yet here you are.”
Briar could say nothing to that. In the heat of the moment, he had forgotten this -- that there was this breach to reckon with too, if he survived.
“If you’re to serve me properly, I’ll need insurance. You understand.” Noa drew a knife from one of his sleeves, a slender thing that might have been a letter opener, but for the wicked edge. He held out his other hand, inclining his head, as if daring Briar to refuse.
Briar placed his hand in Noa’s. The cut came quickly, without warning. Briar couldn’t stifle a sharp intake of breath as the pain bloomed white-hot along his skin.
“You’re really no fun,” Noa said. “You could at least scream a little.” But he was already catching the blood that welled up with a small glass vial.
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Post by Briar on Jan 25, 2022 22:33:59 GMT -6
When it was nearly full, he let Briar go, putting a tiny stopper in it. Runes appeared briefly over the glass, then vanished. “I don’t suppose you’re familiar with the concept of a phylactery? No, I didn’t think so. Well, the next time you disobey a direct order, the consequences will be much more severe. I’ve always wondered what it felt like to experience your own blood boiling in your veins.” -I’ll do as you say,- Briar signed. The blood was still running down his arm, his left hand slick with it as he formed the gestures. ““I know you will,” said Noa. “I’m not nice enough to give you the luxury of choice, after all that fuss. And if you’re not concerned about your own life, there’s always that charming Tat-lung friend of yours. Now, get out of my sight, and don’t come here again. I’ll decide what to do with you in the morning.” -----
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