RP:Chastisement

From HollowWiki

Part of the Rest in Pieces: Vailkrin! Arc


Summary: Larewen arrives home to find Daath in her foyer. He's come to interrogate her regarding recent happenings in Vailkrin.

House Dragana

A cloaked figure approaches House Dragana from the south, magic dampened by her own doing. In the last few days, the elf had honed her ability to disguise herself more convincingly on the magic front, but on the physical front? She still clings to the use of a cloak and more traditional garb, rather than finery. As she draws nearer to the ornate doors that lead into the manse, they fly open of their own accord. It's not until she's crossed the threshold that she removes her hood and turns, peering out behind her. The last thing she needs is another one of Nasar's assassins trailing her. She's suffered enough humiliation, since her own fledgling bested her. The additional slaughter of her forces in Vailkrin only intensified that feeling.

Daath D'Jiv'undus appears within the halls of House Dragana much in the same manner as he always has. He simply appears from out of the shadows like as if he has always been there and you just happen to notice him now. This of course raises a great concern from what guards or otherwise patron a if this house would be so unlucky enough to catch sight of the Magister, whose frame is once more covered by robes of only the finest make. White robes contrast against dark flesh, as eyes of a piercing scarlet hue scan all those gathered before him with untold power emanating from within. He does not move, but simply says to whomever would move first. "Call upon your master, tell her Daath has arrived." And there he'd stand, unfazed by any number of guard or magical wards that may rain down fury upon him. He'd stand and wait for her, Larewen, his expression one that is neigh impossible to read. Is he a threat? A friend? Some of this house recognize him, but given the image of Vailkrin and recent events who knows what to expect these day.

Larewen allows the doors to close once she's certain she's not being followed. Pivoting on booted heal, the elf raised her ungloved hand to brush a few tresses behind a tapered ear. It's at precisely that moment that Daath makes his demand, startling her. Mismatched eyes fall upon the familiar drow and her brow furrows. No doubt he's heard of what happened by now. The elf closes her eyes and inhales deeply before exhaling through her nose. "Daath," she greets, though there's a distinct lack of warmth in her voice, and the obvious weight of fatigue. "To what do I owe this honor?"

Daath turns his head ever so slightly as to look upon Larewen for a moment, taking in just how worn down she looks in both mind and body. The rumors of matters have reached him, naturally, but he had mostly dismissed them until he came upon a bounty supposedly set by Larewen herself. A bounty on all vampire kind, her own house included. " You know why I'm here. Though I do wonder what could have brought you to such a place." Of course he isn't speaking of her own house, but her current situation.

Larewen grunts, unfastening her cloak and casting it over the back of one of her couches. Settling herself into it a moment later, she regards her former master once more. "I can think of three reasons," she begins, pausing briefly to call sharply for Margret. The elderly ghoul knows what's desired of her. "Is it the bounty? Or maybe the fact I was bested by my own fledgling? Or worse yet, that he's wiped the presence of my House from city limits?" She reaches out toward a silver box sitting on one of the end tables and withdraws from it a clove cigarette which she promptly lights. She takes a drag and lowers it, her jaw tensing slightly. "I can't give you an answer to any of those, because I'm still trying to figure out what happened myself." And there it is, a flicker of hurt in her eyes. Elioyahazer is not the first of her sirelings to turn on her, after all. Emrith had nearly killed her. As she speaks, clamoring can be heard in the kitchens and a few moments later, Margret arrives, a tray with a goblet of blood wine upon it. The ghoul gives pause at Daath's appearance, blinking at him and then glancing to Larewen uncertainly. Daath rarely visited the manse, after all. She brings the cup to her mistress and promptly disappears once more.

Daath studies the woman as she goes about unraveling a bit more information for his to digest, like the fact here fledgling attacked her forces. Curious. Then as she settles down he chooses to remain standing, tho he does adjust himself as to better see her. It's here he studies her even more, wondering to himself what has happened to her to allow herself to repeat these cycles. Emrith was one. Now this new fledgling. And before that it was lovers and allies all, with her somehow ending always as the submissive one. " Yes, you've informed me of how things are, but not if how you've allowed it all to get here. This is what? Your second siring that has gone awry?" There is no sarcasm, no slick venom in his words. " Your forces get beaten back, you suffer losses in more ways than one and you lose a fight to an apprentice spellblade who you just sired not a week before?" It was baffling. She had been his apprentice, she had promise and some dare even say had grown in power and skill since they separated and went their own ways. Yet this woman before him just seems so exhausted. "Is there some plot? A ruse within a lie? A trap in which you're really a mastermind that has everything in the palm of your hand? Or is your house of cards truly crumbling around you?" He actually was curious.

The drow knows her so incredibly well and as he speaks, she finds it hard to meet his gaze. For more than one reason. Larewen is too exhausted to play the game of hiding emotions; the last person she expected to arrive home to stands before her now. She brings her goblet to her lips and sips from it, finding the blood wine unsatisfying. "There is none," she says, and her voice is softer, quieter this time. "But there are still cards to be played." Her words are laced with finality. The necromancer isn't done fighting yet, even at this stage. She places her drink back on the end table as she suckles her cigarette. With her free hand, she removes her boots and pulls her feet casually upon onto the couch beside her. "I will die before I admit defeat."

Daath studies the woman he once saw so much potential in, and moves about as his own mind starts to ponder avenues and ways she can bounce back. He first says to her. "Your enemies surround you, most likely planning how best to push their advantage. And, you may even have created yet another enemy with this sirling of yours, for if they don't act against you now it is only a matter of time before other houses seek to sway him one way or another." A typical move in drow society. The enemy of my enemy and all. "And for me to act directly with you is folly. It would undermine your efforts to solidify -why- you should be ruling over all of Vailkrin. Kasyr did so through sheer absolute strength, something that you cannot do and even more so after your recent public defeat." He pauses, tho again his words carry with them no venom or spite. " So, you must out smart them. How you do so is all upon you, but if beating them by force isn't possible then your wit and cleverness is all you have. You've been playing their game, maybe it's time to play by your own rules?"

Larewen listens quietly as Daath speaks, still puffing away on the clove cigarette. She hears every word that leaves his mouth. Finally her gaze lifts to his. "It was the bounty that sparked it. Rather than seeing it as the challenge it was intended to be, Elioyahazer took it personally," the elf laments. Her mind drifts to the nights before she posted the bounty, to the adventure she even took the time to go on with Elioyahazer, and her lips purse into a thin line. He'd shown her what he was capable of, that second night when they slaughtered members of House Nasar. This thought leads to a grimace. She doesn't tell Daath that she watched Elioyahazer and Collete. That she'd seen the Lady Nasar spiking heads of her guards or her fledgling carving a swath through her occupying forces, powerless to do anything less the situation grow worse. It was no secret that her public defeat and Elioyahazer's show of power created a powerful shift in the Vailkrinian political clime; she'd watched the three survivors of the carnage cast aside her crest and pledge their fealty to him. Her eyes hint at something more though, the way they simmer with carefully bridled rage. "It is," she says simply. Time to play by her own rules, that is. She regards Daath for a long, quiet moment, then grabs her glass and drains it in one long gulp. Another call to Margret is made, this time for the entire bottle, before she speaks again. "I will be playing my cards soon enough." But what cards she speaks of, she doesn't elaborate.

Daath simply looks at her for several long moments of silence, before finally saying. "Good." With that said the magus talks a few steps forward, pauses and says. "I hope to see you grow into what I always believed you could be capable of." Without another word he simply vanishes, leaving her alone once more save for what loyal servants she has remaining.