RP:No Sweeter Innocence
Part of the You Must Have Been Human Arc
Part of the Lies Within Us Arc
This is a Mage's Guild RP.
Summary: Having raided Veneficus Azakhaer's office for information on the chaos erupting in Xalious, Karasu finds a tool to tamper with and improve upon for her own use. Quintessa begins to tell Karasu what she understands to be happening, but finally breaks down, confessing the sins crawling on her back. Karasu briefly mourns what she believes to be the death of an old and very brief boyfriend at Quintessa's hands, but chooses to forgive her. She confides her own secret in the hexblade, along with a theory of what else has taken place within the Tower's walls.
The Syndicate Grand Council Hall
Karasu sits at the deep blue velvet chair with the emblazoned Xalious Tree on the back. An array of papers litter the table, along with a pair of opalescent green crystals, not unlike the teleportation crystal the spellblade once used. At the seat of the Vailkrin table is a jar with human eyeballs, topped with a bright green ribbon tied in a bow. At the seat of the Kelay-Sage table is a bottle of Chartsendian rum. To anyone familiar with the contents of the offices in the Mage's Guild, one might recognize Karasu's workspace as being almost entirely pilfered from a certain Veneficius' office. When the hatch above opens, the half-feline does not even bother to turn her head to the source of the sound. She had gotten quite accustomed to members of the Unseen Hand coming and going to either take or add to the armory in the back of the Syndicate headquarters in her time living here. "If you're here to take food, take the pork buns before they go bad, I already ate." She calls out as she turns a crystal over in her hands. Looking from it to a thick tome splayed open, she carefully etches a runic marking into one of the crystal's flat surfaces.
Quintessa's cloaked form slowly descends the ladder, soft little clicks along the way each time her boots hit the next row of bars. There is a gloomy air about the woman, even as Karasu calls out to her, and as she turns her mismatched eyes upon her lover, the tiredness in her eyes shows. “Pork buns?” Quintessa moves to take on, turning it over in her hand with curiosity before she sunk her pointed teeth into it. She hums with approval, nodding her head as her gaze returns to Karasu, staring at her longingly from benefit black lashes. “Are you working on something?” she asks after swallowing, crossing the distance to take her seat as Vailkrin’s representative. When she finally spots the jar of eyeballs, the gloom around her lifts, cast away like storm clouds breaking up. “Hey, did you get these for me?” Lithe fingers slide the jar closer for inspection. “Aww,” she had never received a gift like this before, “I didn’t bring you anything- but I promise to next time. Thank you!” Quintessa is delighted with this surprise, enough that she doesn’t even notice that Karasu’s project is apparently centered around runology.
Karasu snaps her head up at the sound of the hex-blade's voice, her eyes almost sparkling in the lantern light. A quiet clearing of her throat, then she looks back down to her crystal. "Ah, crap, I messed up." She whispers, widening the etching to make the rune a bit bigger. When her girlfriend is seated next to her, she sets the crystal down and uses the pointed tool to point at the jar. "That ribbon is enchanted too. You should tie it around your earring, or neck, or something. It operates like the one I lost in the desert; if it senses malicious intent towards you in your immediate vicinity, it'll start ringing." Rhodolite eyes flicker from the jar to Quintessa's face, and she finds herself leaning in as if to kiss the changeling. Instead, she stops just a few inches away and brushes the raven hair from her face. "You look like you haven't slept." Karasu says softly, her brows furrowing with concern. "Is it that bitch from the tavern again? Do I need to go beat her?"
Quintessa takes another bite of her pork bun as the half-feline explains the ribbon’s purpose, and the changeling sets aside her food to unwrap the jar and tie it around her neck instead. “How’s it look?” she asks with a smile, holding her hair up to show it off. A small giggle escapes her soft lips before she leans over to place a kiss on Karasu’s cheek. “You’re so thoughtful… I really don’t deserve you.” Quintessa’s sapphire and topaz eyes gleam with curiosity as she looks at Karasu’s rune work, and she fishes around in the satchel at her side before pulling out a mithral tool- a needle-like implement that makes carving into crystals much easier. “Here, this is from my laboratory in Vailkrin. Y’know, if you need a space to work my home is always open to you, you know that, right?” At the mention of Quintessa’s lack of sleep, she sinks back into her chair and sighs. “You mean Joan? No, that half-baked taco-merchant doesn’t even pop up on my radar- but you can handle my light work, I won’t mind.” The hex blade snickers at Joan’s expense before reaching for her bun again. “I’m just worried about the Mage’s Guild. Things have gotten really complicated for me there…”
Karasu smiles at the kiss, a low purr rumbling from her throat at the display of affection. The smile fades as soon as Quintessa brings up her home in Vailkrin, the flush disappearing from her cheeks as a strange expression flashes across her features. "I... I can't go there while she's living there. Not yet." She changes the subject quickly by holding up the crystal and taking the tool with a word of thanks. Lately, all Karasu seems to do is try to avoid talking about meeting her sister or going to Vailkrin, despite having once been willing to tear down House Dragana to save her. The markings she made are at least legible. "Say the word and I'll decapitate the minor noble. Anyways, Magik left the note from Provost Grace, but he just said I should ask you about it because he had to go somewhere." Karasu sighs deeply and sets the crystal down again before looking Quintessa square in the eyes. "When I intercepted King Macon's march, I heard the villagers talking about a kidnapped kid. I was there at the pass too, and it seems that whether he was kidnapped by you and Odie or not was like half the argument." She takes a deep breath, and for a hair of a second, it seems as though she might condemn Quintessa for her actions. Instead, she asks, "Did the Council put you up to it?"
Quintessa cocks her head to the side at Karasu’s apprehension to seeing her sister at Dragana Manor but she doesn’t push the issue, instead allowing her lover the comfort of changing the subject without argument. Immediately Quintessa regrets letting the conversation deviate to the guild issues she mentioned. “Of course the Guild put me up to it. Counselor Melisende and Administrator Brenwyn personally came to us and promised us a reward for bringing the kid back- And it wasn’t a kidnapping. The kid came willingly… as a runaway. Odhranos and I simply gave him a ride back to Xalious. He didn’t become a political prisoner until Larket stuck their nose in things, but I had nothing to do with that.” Speaking about Peter seems to stir up some guilt, because Quintessa’s mismatched eyes cannot remain fixed on Karasu’s own. “The council tricked me, even blocked my promotion. I should be a Provost now…”
Karasu watches the changeling's face as she speaks, studying her with heavy intensity. "The Guild tricking you could have been predicted, though. Kaaname has more allies on the Guild than not; I assume one of them is holding the missing reports that I was going to drop in Odhranos' office now that he's a Magister." Karasu reaches forward and takes the hex blade's hand with both of her own. "You're going to make an excellent Provost, but rank there is meaningless right now. You're the -leader- of the Spellblade Corps. There's nothing higher than that." She gives a half-smile, trying to cheer Quintessa up. Satisfied with the answer, she lets her hands go. "I knew you had nothing to do with it. I don't get why they don't just let the dad have supervised visits if he's so scared of being killed, though. Now, there's two runic symbols for light, which one makes more sense in this formula?" Karasu starts to change the subject.
Quintessa trembles a little when Karasu takes her hand and her pale blue and warm hazel eyes flicker up with concern that the next words that passed her lips would condemn her somehow, but she couldn’t keep it inside anymore. “There probably won't be a Guild when they find out…” Quintessa grinds her teeth, holding back tears. “Peter’s dead, Karasu. He’s dead and it’s my fault. I should have never accepted that damn mission…” Quintessa’s grip tightens around Karasu’s hand. “Thank you for trusting me… The only thing I want now is to protect the men and women in the Spellblade Corps. and the younger mages awaiting apprenticeship. The Counsel can save themselves.” The changeling leans forward to view Karasu’s work before she makes a suggestion. “Well, as long as the arcane incantation up to that point is written out correctly either should work fine, but you want to use this symbol.” A long finger points at the book in front of the spellblade. “Since it’s in the same alphabet. You -could- technically mix dragonic and dwarven runes, but elven runes are more particular.”
Karasu stills at the revelation of the child's death. Her mind races with scenarios against all the safeguards that had been implemented into the tower, many of which because there had never been a small child running around the Tower until Kaaname had Karasu. If the child had died on the premises, then some kind of risk was taken. Her mind briefly flashes to the corpses she herself created in the Trist'oth arena. "I see." She says quietly. There was little use giving her false reassurances. "Well, what's done is done. Brenwyn is going to crap himself when he finds out. I cut my head on his desk once looking for a walking mandrake and he screamed at me until I cried because of 'the safety of the future generations' and 'personal responsibility' and how he couldn't believe humans could raise such a reckless children." She etches the suggested rune marking in as she recalls a vastly different Administrator than the one Quintessa knows. Karasu swallows thickly. She knew this was a very different circumstance than death, though. The mithral tool is tapped against the table with a few quick raps as she thinks. "Any way to frame it as suicide? Draft a letter saying the boy saw Macon's entourage from the Tower and say he'd rather die than go home?"
“Sucicide…” Quintessa mumble weakly, the light in her eyes dulling at Karasu’s suggestion. “He… died trying to climb out of the window… I helped him tie the sheets… I could have saved him but I didn’t… He just… Slipped away.” The changeling lowers her head into her girlfriend’s shoulder, resting her forehead against the feline. “I made a deal with Queen Josleen while I was captured,” Quintessa admits in a whisper. “Kasyr for the child- but I could let her know… And what’s more, she implied that I would have to assassinate Brenwyn as well.” The hex blade’s fingers curl around Karasu’s clothes as she pulls herself closer, almost into her lover’s chair. “He already knows about Peter. I confronted him, but I wasn’t able to bring myself to strike him down… I’m pathetic… if I wrote a letter like that I’d probably make matters worse I-” her voice cracks as a tear streams down her scarred cheek. “I feel like I’m losing my mind…”
Karasu tenses at Quintessa's confession. "Tessa... Tessa, hey...!" She starts, but then that damn lump in her throat rises up again. A shuddering breath is made before she rises carefully, moving into Quintessa's chair and onto her lap like an oversized lap cat. The halfling wraps her arms around her neck, listening as the hex blade's composure fails. Just as she knew there was no words to truly fix her own fears, there was little that could be said to comfort Quintessa. She rests her cheek on Quinessa's head and runs her clawed fingers through her hair. "You know, you don't have to pretend to be strong in front of me. It's alright if you want to cry. I think anyone would seeing what you saw." Karasu says quietly. Her eyes flicker to the crystals on the table at the mention of Kasyr.
Quintessa shudders at Karasu’s touch as her fingers stroke through her hair, a comfort she had never known before. This small act is enough to shatter any walls the odd girl still holds up, giving way to a shower of tears when Karasu tells her that it’s okay to cry. Quintessa begins to sob loudly into the spellblade’s shoulder, another string of confessions escaping between them. “Who am I anymore?” she asks, her voice pleading for an answer that only existed in herself. “I’m not the same girl that I was a year ago. I’ve seen and done too much… I’m ruined. First I killed those poor Cenril Razurath families and tortured the ones that Lanlan and I captured. Gevurah and I performed horrific experiments on them until they were mush… And then I poisoned Laharl because I was envious of him… I-I-I seduced Kasyr- slept with him in Larewen’s bed on the night of Samhain instead of going to that party… I could have protected your sister… And then I make some deal with a giant bug to curse the Three Holy Trees… I’m an idiot. I’ve killed so many people, Karasu. There’s no hope for me anymore…”
The spellblade is silent through the entirety of Quintessa’s confession. She stares vacantly at the empty chairs around the table as her fingers continue their ministrations and her arm pulls the changeling closer. Her mind races with the revelation this brings. At one point while following Kanna to Frostmaw, Karasu had gone to the cabin Laharl had resided in, only to find it bare. She had assumed he had run away, but the idea of him having died at Quintessa’s hands is something else entirely. The half-feline sheds a single tear for him, and for the unknown fate of the fugitive dragon that he had been harboring. “Somehow, the idea of you killing Laharl isn’t nearly as terrible as the thought that my father had killed him.” She admits, wiping the stray tear away. “You know… I couldn’t have saved Kanna either. When I got to the party, it was too late. From what I understand, the trigger for her undeath was so subtle, you likely wouldn’t have known it was even happening until it was too late too.” She lets out a long exhale as she presses her face into Quintessa’s hair. Part of her was shaken by this news, but more than that was the overwhelming need to protect the innocent girl at the Golden Saavre that she had begged to join the Mage’s Guild last year. “Quintessa. Look at me.” Her hands cup her lover’s face, and she gazes down at her with a serious expression. “The Razurath are not my only victims. Despite us having never spoken to one another, Kanna and I had an unspoken agreement. I killed people who got too close to Kanna’s meal if she had to feast out in the open between villages.” Her hands shake as she says this. “Kanna would eat away the flesh where my sword struck, as if she knew why they had been cut down.” Hot tears roll down her face. “I can’t take back my crimes either. But there is still hope in this world. In the books I read, good always triumphed over evil. Even if we’ve done horrible things, even if we’re horrible people for what we’ve done, we can still do good things.”
Quintessa stares up at Karasu as she speaks of her own crimes with watery eyes, her mascara streaking down her face like the charcoal eyeliner she wore the day she joined the guild. If Karasu, the brightest light she ever knew, could do these things, then perhaps Quintessa wasn’t so bad. Sometimes you had to do bad things to help good people. It was a noble sacrifice to trade your humanity for the safety of others, she could see that now. “Oh, my love,” Quintessa says as she hugs the feline on her lap tightly, “You’re right. We’ve done awful things, but there is so much more good we can still do. This past year doesn’t have to define us- We can be anything we want- Do anything we desire. With our short existence we can make a difference, and now I’m prepared to try.” Quintessa sniffles, reinvigorated from her crying. “People are counting on us. The Spellblade Corp. needs us- both of us. We have to stand up against the corruption of the Mage’s Guild and against the overreaching of Larket. If we don’t make a stand, who will?”
Karasu lets out a single sob and wipes at her own eyes with the back of her hand. "I'm so sorry I made you go through all this alone." She says. With a sniffle to match Quintessa's own, she pulls back, taking a handkerchief out of her pocket and gently dabbing the running makeup from her lover's face. "I've--" She hiccups. "I've already started my own work too." Gesturing to the crystals, she says, "I stole this from Kasyr's office. They had notes written by Lanlan, then by Odhranos near them. Illusion crystals powered by absorbing light and sound from the immediate surrounding area, then projecting them through the sister crystal, which could be distorted by a trained illusionist. With some modification, they can be projected over a greater distance. I..." Her ears flatten as she realizes who shes' pitching this theory to. "I think Kasyr, Kaaname, and Daath got rid of Dyraxdiin." There. She said it.
Quintessa hmms softly as Karasu cleans her face, smiling a bit at the attention. It felt nice to be cared about this way, to have physical contact with someone that didn’t have ulterior motives. The changeling nods her head along with what Karasu was saying, as if she knew about Kasry and Odhranos raiding Lanlan’s office the day she read the testimony that got him ejected from the guild. When the feline’s ear flatten, Quintessa becomes serious… but then cannot contain the giggles that escape from her. “Kasyr?” she laughs even louder. “Daath I believe would do something like that- Kaaname too, but Kasyr? Please, he can’t stay sober long enough to plot something out like that- besides, Kasyr didn’t get on office at the guild until after Dyraxdiin took his little nap.” Quintessa reaches up to wipe Karasu’s cheeks, remembering the crush the feline used to have on him with a smirk. “Diin is fine- There isn’t a poison in the world that could knock a dragon out -this- long.”
The feline feels her stomach jump up into her ribcage when Quintessa laughs. “He didn’t have to necessarily plot it, but the timing was too good! Dyraxdiin inducted me even though I was soft-blacklisted from apprenticeship by everyone else because of my condition, and then he disappears not even two months later!” She flusters, trying to get out the entirety of the conspiracy theory. With a roll of her eyes, she hugs Quintessa’s head again, playfully moving her arms to put her in a fake chokehold. When she does so, she rubs her cheek against her first to wipe away remaining tears that rolled down her face so Quintessa couldn’t see the tears. Well, this was better than letting Quintessa keep in despair too. “Look! The crystals can project from here to Chartsend now. What I was -going- to do was hook you up with one and keep the other on me in case Kasyr tried to kill me for interrogating him and outing anything nefarious.” Oh, the irony. Her arms relax around her girlfriend. “But. If he’s one of the good guys, perhaps they can be used in another way. I’ll drop one off in his dungeon cell so he can chime in at wherever Provost Grace wants you and Magik to be.” She pauses. “You can take a plus one, right?”
Quintessa playfully fights against the fake chokehold, her hands grasping onto Karasu’s arms before she continues to pick apart her conspiracy theory. “Well, let’s say something -did- happen to Dyraxdiin. It would have to be someone who stood to gain power from it. Kas is a Veneficus and not on the council, so we can trust him. Everyone else was probably in on it- Daath, Brenwyn, Kaaname, any of the higher-ups. They are the corruption that must be excised.” When Karasu lets her go, it gives Quintessa a chance to look into her pretty pink eyes and nod up at her. “Well, of course. You’re co-leader of the Spellblade Corps. You should be there. But Karasu, please be careful. I just got out of Larketian custody and they are smarter than they look. They’ve got Kasyr held up in an old house on the outskirts of the Sage with the Kingsgaurd and the headmaster of the Larket Academy. Avoid their mage at all costs; He can sense magic directly in his presence.”
Karasu laces her fingers together as she considers her words. “Aye. I can wait until they leave for the night. Wendell was his name, I believe. He knows my face, so the guards might too. That’s easy enough to do. I only need to get past the anti-magic barriers in place, which I can do easily enough once I get a suit of armor.” Her brows suddenly furrow, and she pulls away from Quintessa with a bewildered expression. “Co-leader?” The arcane steward asks, never having known the original structure of the Spellblade Corps.
Quintessa nods her head, satisfied that Karasu could handle herself. “Yes, co-leader. Not even a week after you left Odhranos stopped by our office and left some paperwork for us to complete. We were meant to work on the curriculum together along with Kasyr, but since neither of you were around I just did it all myself. Everyone knows you in the corp. though, I’m sure they will welcome you back with open arms.”
Karasu purses her lips, lowering her head slightly. “Hm. Nervous breakdowns have such terrible timings, don’t they.” Her cheeks are slightly red as she pulls away and grabs the two crystals, shoving them into the pockets of the runic jaguar pelt that lay discarded in the empty chair for Enchantment’s nonexistent representative. “Well, it's fine. Actually, if you need a break, I’ll tag out for you. The Guild is looking to frame you, but Kaaname would be hard-pressed to lose his personal weapon to a political battle.” With a sigh, she looks at Quintessa, jutting out her lower lip. “So. Kasyr. Gross. I can like, hit him for that or something when I see him, right?” She taunts, nudging her shoulder with her own before getting off her lap to avoid possible retribution.
Quintessa looks like she wants to die when Karasu brings up Kasyr again, her face turning more red than the wine they shared that night. “Elazul’s Bite… “ the changeling pulls up her hood to hide her expression. “Don’t pretend like you didn’t want to too- Miss ‘Who’s cuter? Me or Quintessa?’ He told me about that y’know.” She peeks out from under her hood with a grin. “Hit him for me too- That jerk got what he wanted from me and continued on his ‘lonesome hero’s journey’ or whatever, I guess. He doesn’t even stop at the tower like he used to… Do you think it’s because I kept trying to kill him? I thought he liked that kind of thing…”
Karasu wrinkles her reddened nose. “That’s… I wouldn’t have -done- anything.” She manages to lie with a straight face. “I want to ah…” She waves her hand dismissively. “I wouldn’t do anything with someone I didn’t actually love. Not that I ever have, but that’s besides the point. That’s why I’d rather wait for you.” Karasu clears her throat and starts organizing paperwork to distract from her flushed face. A rumble of thunder shakes the ceiling abovehead. The feline takes both crystal outs of the pockets of her furred coat as she dons it to go up. “If I’m going to go kick Kasyr’s ass, it should be now before the downpour starts.” Karasu recites the incantation according to the paper on the table. One crystal glows, then then the other. In a flash of light, a projection of Quintessa tinted in green appears opposite the table. “Go on and say something. It should echo out since you’re in front of it.”
Quintessa lowers her hood as she snickers at Karasu’s reaction, leaning forward to get a good look at her blushing face. When Karasu hands the crystal over to the changeling, she takes it and positions herself so her image faces the feline. “Karasu Swiftclaw,” she begins, a blush beginning to burn her own cheeks at what she’s about to say, “I love you… And I wanted you to be my first.”
Karasu nearly drops the crystals, sputtering as she tries to keep them from hitting the ground while getting out some kind of retort. Quintessa's sentiment echoes through the crystals and through the Syndicate halls, only further adding to the feline's embarrassment. At first she doesn't answer, pocketing the crystals on either side of her coat. "Keep that up, and you'll be mine." She tries to keep some semblance of nonchalance, despite the crack in her voice betraying the inexperience. Karasu suddenly turns and rests her hands on either side of Quintessa's chair and catches her lips. Pulling away, she gives a wicked grin. "Now, I wanna hear that he's not in on it from his mouth."
Quintessa was about to speak, to respond to Karasu, when she catches her lips and steals her words (and breath) right from her mouth. It only lasts for a moment before she pulls away, but the hex blade is still left in a daze. “That was…” she doesn’t finish, she just grins back at the half-feline. “You better hurry before that storm hits.” she says, tracing her bottom lip with a sharp fingernail. “I’ll be waiting up for you.”