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Post by black379 on Jun 20, 2018 9:36:45 GMT -8
Adeney assisted Silvant to the table and helped her into a chair. The girl was ghostly, with pale skin and fatal scars, stuck in the moment she had died, yet she breathed. He stood behind her seat, hovering dauntingly behind to attend to her. His eyes lingered on her, searching for something as though trying to recognize a person he hadn't seen in years.
But as Tilly intruded, and the silence was broken, he watched the hatted woman descend and the cloaked fellow move to greet her. Florence mentioned them both, her subjects, but Adeney was still toiling to understand their undertaking. To restore life, to restore a soul was beyond him. The woman doctor had spoiled the solution before he knew the mechanics, or even the question.
"Is this everyone?" He murmured to Florence. Their work, and this correspondence, were meant to be secret after all. Even with so few, there was much at stake if they were discovered.
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Post by Vanitypirate on Jun 21, 2018 15:23:56 GMT -8
"I believe so."
Florence watched, satisfied, from where she stood, beside the table, as Tilly entered into the basement. They were all together; for once everything joined seamlessly together, as easily as though it were clockwork.
It was rare that anything went to plan, and Florence liked to appreciate it when it came.
She gestured to a chair.
"Have a seat, and we can begin."
---
They stared as intensely as hunters, those doctors; they observed her every move and recorded it and seemingly nothing, no strike or grasp at her, came of it.
It was strange to walk by the stray animals outside, cats and dogs and the like, and have them run from her for once. Though it was doubly a shame that the members of her own family would fly away and shout indecipherably on their night-black wings.
She knew it was no use to talk to them; she had exchanged her own language for this other, human one.
Audrey shifted in this black garb of hers. It felt nothing like feathers, but somehow almost as natural.
Another woman approached with hair as yellow and straight as straw. Her grey eyes, bright in the din, watched her.
---
"I wouldn't know it if I was." Tilly answered, somewhat sullenly, tilting her cheek to lean into his hand.
With a sigh, she fought the urge to throw a paranoid look back over her shoulder. Instead she looked over Lekalis's.
There was Florence, naturally. But then there was the Red Doctor-- one she hadn't seen in years. He was accompanied by a woman with bright eyes that shone in the dim.
Clearly that was less than natural.
"Who's this, then...?"
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Jun 21, 2018 15:36:34 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
He supposed this was where one of his own specialties might come in handy, if he'd the means to exercise it... It seemed any and all of his supposed skills had fallen by the wayside in the limbo of Florence's nightly company. He smoothed out the frills of his silken shirt, cocking a brow and clearing his throat as he traced Tilly's sightlines.
"Ah, yes... Right; you know Florence, but she'd taken up a curious experiment as of late, with Adeney... was it?" He squinted at the boyish face of Adeney, pointing at him,
"He's an assistant to our Florence, it seems. Not quite so sure on his credentials, but they must have been excelsior to be involved with our madness." He shot Tilly a hopefully confident and assuring smile.
"And the girl..." He motioned to Audrey now as he pulled out a seat for Tilly,
"... She is the product of that curious experiment. There's a lot to go over so perhaps you should take a seat and then we might proceed with explaining this experiment in full." Lekalis looked to Adeney, then Florence poignantly,
"It is a lot to digest, I'm sure." He hoped she caught onto this queue, before his gaze flicked back to Tilly with a smile, his fingers drummed on the back of the chair.
"I'd only found out about it last night." He explained, in hopes to protect himself; complimenting the haphazard remark a blissfully innocent shrug.
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Post by black379 on Jun 21, 2018 16:26:41 GMT -8
Adeney's hands were set on the back of Audrey's chair. He watched the cursed pair carefully, with a look of deep contemplation. Briefly, he squeezed the girl's shoulder, to comfort her unease as more than a 'product'.
"Adeney, yes." The man confirmed with a nod as he claimed a seat for himself, beside Audrey. "And her name is Silvant."
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Post by Vanitypirate on Jun 22, 2018 0:23:45 GMT -8
"A product...?"
Tilly cocked her head as her eyes lingered on this Silvant, taking her seat. She had never heard of an entire person being the 'product' of some experiment. That was a lie. She had, partially, when she was the unwilling observer of one particular experiment. The product died. She overall didn't enjoy it.
Her gaze flitted to Adeney, another one who held her soul in his hands. She started to smile.
"Adeney, then? Don't you remember me? I'd be surprised if you did." She propped an elbow on the edge of the table and leaned on it. "You helped save a friend of mine-- Courcy, remember? She was beaten half to death when you and another fellow pulled her from the Warrens. I was there with a healer friend of mine."
Mercifully, she omitted the part where he vomited all over the abbey foyer and unintentionally insulted her healer friend. "That Courcy's still alive, by-the-by. She'll be glad to know the same of you. I oughta tell her when I get the chance."
Shifting in her seat, she turned to Silvant again.
Her eyes were bright in the dark, she noted; seemingly absorbing the light in spite of the dim, but illuminating nothing back. It was unsettling.
"'Ello, Silvant the Product. I'm Tilly." She smiled again and extended a hand to the girl, but she eyed the scar under the woman's neck.
"So what of this experiment?"
---
Audrey watched the hand and hesitated, almost fearfully, before tapping again into that latent instinct of hers that told her to shake this grimy woman's hands. She was rather thin; this woman was an inept hunter, Audrey observed. Carrion was not difficult to find.
"Hello, Tilly..." She extended a porcelain-white hand and exchanged a flimsy handshake with Tilly.
'Experiment.' Another word with a meaning she could not name. That her very life came from such a concept unsettled her to the core.
She let her hand fall limp in her lap as she listened to her Kidnapper explain her own existence.
---
The Crow-gazer had been waiting for this moment with, for her, an alien amount of anticipation. The discovery was a joy that she wished to share with the people who needed it the most.
"This woman," Florence began, gesturing stiffly to Audrey, "Is evidence of a successful transfer of a soul into a human vessel. This body, formerly deceased, contains a crow's soul. It performs at full capacity, as though she had never died. But, more importantly..."
She tapped the pads of her fingers together.
"It is evidence that we may move your souls out from the amulet and into your own corpus. We have uncovered the bulk of the solution to your Curse. Now, what remains is the finer details and nuances of this particular affliction."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Jun 22, 2018 11:08:09 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
He'd presumed as much of Audrey/Silvant from the garish wounds, but the fact the soul wasn't of Audrey's own was... curious indeed. It certainly explained her aloofness; her sudden change of name made much more sense now, at least.
Though, as biting as the curiosity was, Lekalis found himself looking to the much more... regimented mindset of Tilly. He held a breath in fear of what she might say at this prospect of pseudo-necromancy.
Perhaps a bit preemptively, he squeezed Tilly's shoulder in assurance, rubbing it gently as he nodded.
"I imagine there aren't any other known alternatives to this, then?" Lekalis surmised, hoping to clarify the need for this grisly process.
Lekalis didn't rightly let the query sit, he imagined the fact went unsaid... These dark-arts were hardly something one casually dabbled with. Sans, Florence perhaps.
"Do you have notes on this process..? I'd like to look them over, if you may?" Lekalis shifted from one foot to the other, looking to Tilly worriedly, then to Florence,
"... A-and you've seen... Audrey fed? And bathed, I hope?" Lekalis poised, motioning to Audrey with a quick smile as he let out a heavy, relieved, sigh.
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Post by black379 on Jun 22, 2018 16:34:40 GMT -8
Adeney squinted at the woman, but scarcely recalled her. If anything her tall pointed hat seemed vaguely familiar. He was flattered, however, to be remembered by her - especially for his deed saving a life. As she approached Silvant, and shook her hand, a smile formed on his face. The girl may still have been meek, but returning from the dead was likely to be discombobulating.
"Alternatives? No. I had never heard of even such as we had done." The maroon doctor answered promptly as he tilted his nose up to Lekalis. His green eyes tightened again, spotting the amulet hanging about the man's neck. It looked rather small and ordinary, to be harboring many souls.
"Doctor Silvant," Adeney corrected astutely "has been cleaned. And fed, yes."
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Post by Vanitypirate on Jun 22, 2018 18:47:58 GMT -8
A new, repulsed light came to Tilly's expression. She gaped in disbelief at Audrey, gaze fixed on that fatal scar in her neck, sewn up tidy and tight like any manipulated fabric. As though she had never died.
Tilly was no stranger to corpses, but this girl could, disturbingly have passed as any living creature.
"You're kidding." Tilly's eyes flashed as she gave a short, incredulous laugh. "This is a crow, not a doctor-- she's not even a person!"
She leaned away from the girl, but squinted and stared, as though unsure whether to shift away or investigate closer. Her eyes were on the scar in Silvant's
From the corner of her eye she spied the Crowgazer shift and reach for her notes. The woman's arms extended to Lekalis as she exchanged the papers and spoke with that monotonous voice, made acoustic by the doctor's mask.
"The notes are here. But they are written in both Italian and English. I would be glad to translate." Tilly listened with a sour squint as the woman-doctor explained.
Audrey stared back at Tilly with her lantern-eyes. Tilly averted her gaze, turning in full to face Florence accusingly.
"It's necromancy." Tilly informed testily, straightening up in her chair, doubly straightening out her coat lapels.
This was wrong.
"You killed her, didn't you, Crow-gazer? What with that scar in her neck."
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Post by relentless on Jun 23, 2018 3:33:06 GMT -8
/Braund/
-Abandoned hovel far along the old road-
Along the old road where the crossroad began to Rampshire, a small regiment of halberdiers rested on the road. They tilted their kettle hats up, putting their halberds against stocky trees. They conversed quietly, chuckling on occasion and whittling their thin moustaches and thumbing the end of their stogies as they did so. A soft, makeshift fire was formed out of twigs of varying size, twinkling through the weald as they sat on the left side of the crossroad to the path to rampshire.
Though eventually they would grow silent, and a series of rustles stemmed from the area behind them. Scurrying to their feet, they picked up their halters and poised them forward, looking to one another as they scuffled away. One of the more senior soldiers shook his halberd menacingly at the bushes.
"Who goes there?! Speak!"
He yelled at the bushes, his chain gloves tightening on the shaft. Though soon enough, and rather clumsily would a brute of a man bedecked in a dark black linen hood, and armour similar to that of a brigand fusilier emerge, carrying a deer which looked like a young adult. A crossbow bolt had pierced it's gut, and a cut was made across its throat.
He carried a crossbow, which appeared light variant, whilst on his belt a blunted sword was kept, which Coul be mistaken for a longsword. It's hilt was rusted and grip torn, whilst the hand guard was simple and plain.
He eyed the men from beneath his hood as they watched him in return, a few uneasy seconds passed, before he would set the deer down.
"A moment, please."
Braund requested with a somber yet cold voice, as he withdrew his blade. The men shuffled forward, but Braund held out a hand to stop them, and they seemingly did just that. Once they settled, he looked down to the limp corpse of the deer once more, before he took the blade in both hands, and performed a chop to its hind thigh. He split it open halfway to the bone, blood caressing the blade that was chipped and weathered.
Rolling his shoulder, he grunted again and took another swing, separating the thigh and the hind leg from the deers corpse. Blood would drip from its wound, and he sheathed the blade seconds later, watching the blood drip.
"Take the leg, I'm sure you lads need it more than me."
Braund nodded at them, shouldering the game back onto his shoulders, and nodding at them.
"Be safe."
Braund said in a simple manner, remaining in eye contact with them for a few more seconds, before he took steps to the other side of the halberdiers. They let down their guard, if only for the moment, and looked at each other, the leg, then back at Braund with a puzzled look.
"Who are ye? Some Mercenary for the heir or... what?"
One of the younger soldiers posed the question, dirty blonde locks rested on his forehead whilst he chewed his lip nervously, eyeing the others as Braund stopped, then turned to glance at him.
"Just Braund."
Braund replied, a weak smile quivered, before he turned with a snap and moved onward back down the old road.
//Half hour later//
His hovel remained a fair bit down the old road, climbing up a steep hill which gave sight to the hamlet overhead. The man had broke a sweat getting that deer up there, the hood unable to hide the glistening sweat that lined the mans forehead. With pained grunts and shaky legs, he eventually stumbled back onto the grounds of his hovel.
The land held the same gloomy tint that remained in the darkest estate, except the leaves were more fair, the grass held a healthier green and the wildlife surrounding it were more calm and carefree than the ones that hid themselves away constantly.
His hands trembled on the carcass as he moved forward, taking it to a shack which was dark, and stunk of game. Braunds feet carried themselves out, only to step into a puddle of vomit,that receded into the mud. Strange bits of offal and meat clumps were held in the puddle of vomit, and he simply grimaced, and dusted himself down as he went back into the hovel to change.
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Jun 23, 2018 17:36:48 GMT -8
A new, repulsed light came to Tilly's expression. She gaped in disbelief at Audrey, gaze fixed on that fatal scar in her neck, sewn up tidy and tight like any manipulated fabric. As though she had never died. Tilly was no stranger to corpses, but this girl could, disturbingly have passed as any living creature. "You're kidding." Tilly's eyes flashed as she gave a short, incredulous laugh. "This is a crow, not a doctor-- she's not even a person!" She leaned away from the girl, but squinted and stared, as though unsure whether to shift away or investigate closer. Her eyes were on the scar in Silvant's From the corner of her eye she spied the Crowgazer shift and reach for her notes. The woman's arms extended to Lekalis as she exchanged the papers and spoke with that monotonous voice, made acoustic by the doctor's mask. "The notes are here. But they are written in both Italian and English. I would be glad to translate." Tilly listened with a sour squint as the woman-doctor explained. Audrey stared back at Tilly with her lantern-eyes. Tilly averted her gaze, turning in full to face Florence accusingly. "It's necromancy." Tilly informed testily, straightening up in her chair, doubly straightening out her coat lapels. This was wrong. "You killed her, didn't you, Crow-gazer? What with that scar in her neck." /Lekalis/
The Ex-Lord squinted at Adeney for a moment, before he shrugged his brows; "Alright, I guess she's called Silvant now." He huffed a bit in slight exhasperation, before his tone and demeanour were reined in by Tilly's curt tone. He expected it, but he still felt his heart rise in his throat out of sheer anxiety.
"It's a necessary measure, Tilly." Lekalis shrugged his shoulders now and noted her stiffened nature. Amusingly, all the more like a plank. Though he shook the humor aside and made to massage the back of her shoulder with his palm, "This experiment necessitated a bit of it; but the focus was on transferring a soul." Lekalis nodded, looking to Florence.
He hoped he was right, "I doubt Florence killed the poor girl. She wouldn't--" He paused, remembering how the good Crowgazer had rather brutally cut the late Roderick's neck to pieces. He swallowed hard and continued, bowing his brow as he reconsidered his words and spoke more carefully, kindly, "-- we'll have to make sacrifices Tilly, to get out of this bind. You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs."
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Post by black379 on Jun 23, 2018 18:36:02 GMT -8
Rather offended by the both of them, Adeney understood why Tilly and Lekalis were kept out of the loop, while he and Florence conducted the 'operation'. It was as though the straw-haired woman nor the red cloaked man saw anything of Silvant's person, her present and true life. They still saw a corpse, just a broken body, but wouldn't see that she breathed and talked and thought.
"Regrettably, I took her life." He spoke up and cleared his throat before resuming sternly. "I'm sure she could recall being attacked in the sewers. She was cut and bruised and strung up on a hook, left to starve or succumb to grotesque infection..." Adeney offered the girl a contrite look for reminding her.
"She couldn't be helped, so I ended her suffering. Florence corrected that error. This process saved a life even after it was lost. The fact it could help you to replace your souls should be a secondary consideration."
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Post by Vanitypirate on Jun 23, 2018 22:30:47 GMT -8
Audrey held her hands clasped together as she slowly pieced together what information was spoken in front of her.
It was true, though, undeniably. When she was brought into that laboratory, even through the fabric of the bag she could taste the savory-sweet scent of carrion in the air. This new body of hers was repurposed.
She watched this hatted woman, admired the subtle plays of emotion on her face that she had once been unable to detect. The simple fact alone of Audrey's own consciousness disturbed this woman, evidently. But she couldn't understand why; any new life at all should be cherished, especially after such grievous wounds she had apparently acquired. But they still ached.
The hatted woman's jaw set in indignation, Audrey saw. The woman spoke, all in her quiet outrage and indignation.
"Our immortal-sodding-souls aren't a secondary consideration." Retorted Tilly; Audrey watched her lean forward, like a fox sulking in the ferns. "What gives you the right to torture a poor girl and dabble with her soul and bring her back to torture her again? Do you honestly believe anyone can wholly recover from being strung up and left to die?"
Audrey watched the woman's hands, gloved, but with fingers that squirmed and jutted out from the cloth like worms from damp soil. When she looked up, she realized that Tilly was staring at her.
"I reckon the only reason she isn't stark, raving mad is 'cause she can't remember what happened. It's not her."
And then her Kidnapper stirred, too, like leaves would stir in the wind. The papers shifted and the Masked One tidied them and set them down on the desk, seeing that Lekalis refused to accept them. The Mask seemed undeterred, and she spoke in her comparatively bland and unimpressive tone, "It does not matter who she is-- only what she proves."
Audrey wondered why this one covered her eyes.
In finality, Audrey thought she might have detected a trace of terseness in this one's tone. Albeit it could have also been her finding meaning in nothing. The Mask finished,
"I did not intend to discuss the girl's identity in this meeting. It is time to move forward and discuss plans for the future."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Jun 23, 2018 22:49:03 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
He kept himself poised, though his head leant to one side as he listened and observed... Emotionally, he felt a touch dampened all the same. He'd well and forgotten the ease of accepting losses of morality with Florence. How easy it had been to do what was needed to be done.
Then there was Adeney too, being a bit of a thorn... Though it showed some colors beneath the veneer to his persona. Words like regrettably, corrected error, and secondary consideration all danced in a ball, to a tune Lekalis did not like.
He supposed he should have predicted this matter to be difficult to reap allies towards, but to run into so many more issues when many and more still lay ahead..?
With a sigh, Lekalis pinched at his brow for a quick moment before he held a mask of diplomacy as impermeable as Florence's ivory own.
"Silvant's identity and... nature of her soul are topics for another day, I agree." He looked to Florence with a nod, as he leant himself onto the table and pawed over a scattering of the documents to parooze over. Quickly skimming and consuming nuggets of info there with small nods,
"Color me selfish, but we are no better than corpses ourselves without knowledge to transfer our souls." He pointed out to Tilly with a frown held towards himself.
Having a moral compass in Tilly did little to abate his own distaste for the matter. Worse still, to hide his own intrigue on the matter.
He cleared his throat and nodded, looking to the papers again, busying himself with the task at hand;
"Once our immortal souls are back within our corpus; I'll be happy to discuss what rights we have on the measure of poor girls and torture." He held a mirthless smile about his lips as he noted the just-dried ink of the papyrus... a lingering reminder of the fact the deed had been done in barely a day.
It was impressive really.
"So... what are your plans to move forward, Florence? I imagine transferring souls from an amulet will be markedly different from transferring souls betwixt two more... mortal subjects."
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Post by black379 on Jun 24, 2018 17:38:48 GMT -8
Adeney was frustrated, crossing his arms and standing just behind Silvant. He would have liked to console her. Audrey was fragile enough before, but after all of this he could only guess how anxious she was. The doctor set an arm on her shoulder and squeezed it firmly.
He was convinced that Audrey was still there, in that body. If Tilly believed that her possessing a foreign soul made her any less human, then what of Tilly's own? Was she inhuman because the curse had stolen her own spirit? Adeney might have argued the point, but Florence and Lekalis retained a proper focus.
Awaiting the beaked doctor's response, Adeney found himself squinting at the ex-lord's amulet again. They were all grasping at straws to understand more about this curse and some impossibly possible arcane cure. Florence, at least, had some answers in her notes.
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Post by Vanitypirate on Jun 25, 2018 15:30:08 GMT -8
Florence waited kindly for her compatriots to calm; it was not often that she had to consider emotions and feelings and the like in her research. Eyeing Tilly, who had sullenly quieted herself, she supposed that she seemed healthier: there was a fair flush to the woman's face that came when one was not on the brink of starvation.
She made a mental note to examine her again later, perhaps after this meeting.
"We know, now, how to transfer a single soul from one vessel to another." Her mask pointed to the notes in Lekalis's hands. "But we do not know how to transfer a singular, particular soul from a pool of many. For this we must uncover more information, and perhaps recruit another, not only skilled in magic-- but one who has intimate knowledge of the machinations of the soul."
She straightened up, ceasing to lean against the table. Her hands rested at her sides.
"I encourage those of you who are able-bodied to frequent the nomad wagon for books, or perhaps... the heir's abode. The Ruins will most definitely have subjects pertaining to his field, I am certain."
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