Alright… bank account is done, money is legal and traceable… his credit is still garbage, can’t fix that no matter who I charm…. Maybe falsify past charitable donations of some form to compliment the active ones? Are there any more orphanages in good standing nearby? Hm…
She had spent no small amount of time looking for someone to launder the money she had left over, and while the act itself had taken less than an hour once she had found the right ‘business partner’ it had still left a bad taste in her mouth. She had gone through four different organizations before she found one that didn’t plan on blackmailing her in the future, weren’t secretly informants for the city’s guards, or planning some other hair-brained scheme in some bid to stab her in the back down the line.
I guess I should have expected it on some level, they are criminals after all.
Once she had finished cleaning the money she had immediately opened a bank account and had it legally deposited after charming the manager into believing that her ‘fiance’ was simply unbelieving of the integrity of banking institutions after a recent incident she didn’t specify, she had managed to get the money safely deposited without drawing the ire of the bank or the city’s taxation bureau.
She had thought that the end of it, until she was immediately forced into a meeting with several men in cheap suits demanding to know how the funds were acquired and whether or not she had any proof of legal work. They were also very unhappy that Mark himself had not come, even after she had explained it away as him being outside of the city due to work. They had demanded even more after that, proof of current income, proof he was under employment of any company that would send its employees into the wilderness alone, irritating things of little importance.
Most questions were able to be answered with ease, but the ones about ‘current employment’ nearly made her pop the head off of the man who had spent most of the meeting gazing at her breasts, without any attempts to hide the fact he was doing it either. Utterly classless behavior.
Thank Virasuta she had the ability to use magic, or she may very well have been ‘detained’ on suspicions of criminal behavior, or murder.
After several minutes of good old fashion lying, altering memories, and no small amount of subtle threats between both sides she had managed to get out without any issues or anyone assuming she was some lowly criminal, as if they’d be foolish enough to deposit their illicit gains in a federal institution… actually I have met a few fools who would do that.
The process had further cemented the fact into her mind that the people here may view therights of their people as a low concern, but the source of their income was another story entirely.
Once she had ‘legalized’ most of, if not all of Mark’s assets she had turned towards building a ‘face’ for him. It was well known that Guardians who were charged with taking worlds on their lonesome were seldom welcomed with open arms by their own kind. Most species reacted poorly to subjugation, even if it was for their own protection.
By creating a history for him that painted him in the light of a good man, a hero, or simply someone with good intentions she could do the very least of allowing the children of the world to look towards the Guardian as a true protector, instead of a powerful tyrant demanding their fealty.
A tyrannical coward who stumbles upon true power could never be trusted, but a gentle being who wishes to use their power to protect their people was a being worth following. Even ignoring the many cases of Ascending beings who ruled their world’s being worshiped as deity’s due to their gentle nature and tendency to focus their efforts towards creating a paradise, most mortals responded better to kindness than cruelty, even if they were less likely to follow a leader they viewed as ‘weak’ due to that kind nature.
Humans especially were guilty of this, they would ignore the powerful members of their species that attempted to persuade them to their cause using words or works, but if they used their strength they’d fall in line before punishments were even threatened.
Fear was a powerful motivator after all.
She had spent a good amount of time donating, promoting, and evaluating varying charity organizations, old world church institutions - which she hoped the boy would replace with Virasuta’s - and differing cases of ‘public funding’ projects that she had found through the ‘internet’.
While she hadn’t been comfortable with using his assets without his approval in case he had genuine use for it, she had decided to fix this by supplementing his ‘donation based’ income with a few… winnings she had acquired from a nearby game-house. Cards, games of chance or luck, even games rigged against her were incredibly easy with the ability to mask her use of magic and the ability to charm anyone ‘suspicious’ of her.
It was funny that the only time she was accused of using magic was when she was winning more than she was losing.
But, fair was fair, she did cheat and she left once she was no longer welcome.
At the very least, this whole ordeal taught me that donations to charitable institutions allowed one to claim said donations on one's taxes. That’ll be useful for next… wait what am I saying, I am not doing his taxes again!
Thankfully the winnings from gambling were entirely legal, so she could forgo the entire laundering process, she just had to make sure Mark claimed them on his taxes for the next year.
The irony of using illicit means to provide charity for others wasn’t lost on her, but as long as the job was done she was happy.
Once the charitable acts are done, with a few reputable places receiving regular donations every month to establish a reputation, we can start on territory. This apartment is far too small for any sort of operation, it’s too small to even house the two of us.
With practically every base covered that she could conceive of she rose from the small table she had laid the documents on and walked towards the large metal coffin she had ordered from her palace vaults back home.
The coffin itself was one of mortal beauty, if not halfway decent in Ascendant standards as well. While most of the box was covered in mere diamonds and pearls, there was an underlay of Starforged Iron and Hellforged Steel serving to properly protect its contents. While it was rather gaudy, shining even in the darkened room, the paths of white and gold made for a lovely presentation for one such as her charge who had been raised on a world that revered mortal jewels.
The story of the coffin was one that brought her some amusement as well. It was apparently stolen from some long dead Lord after the Asura had decimated most of their territory. Some menial and his brother had come across the coffin and when they failed to open it, they made off with it in the confusion of the war.
When preparing a gift, one must show their sincerity with every detail and thought. It doesn’t matter if you are preparing a gift for a king or a peasant, equal thought must be put into it - even if equal value is not invested into it.
The contents were worth far more than the ornate box holding it however, and the shock and wonder that would appear on his f-
An alert arrived in front of her. A pixie she had summoned to follow her charge had spotted something she thought was of enough importance to interrupt her work.
What has he done now?
A shimmer appeared before her eyes with a simple command, showing a small mirror that reflected her own visage to her. With a simple command the mirror rippled, before the image it contained shifted to show a small dilapidated town filled with broken corpses.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Well well well, I didn’t know the boy had it in… him… wait.
The mirror changed its focus until it was directly on Mark, before it magnified until she could see him as if she were standing directly next to him. With this she was able to see the mutated black carapace that had spread from just his arm, to covering most of his shoulder and a portion of his face. Small black tendrils, almost invisible to the naked eye, were protruding from the shoulder blade connected to the beast to the back of his skull, most likely connected to his brain or central nervous system.
That fucking idiot!
The question was, did he give control or was it taken? When did this happen? How long has he been under? The creature was far too young to have begun to see Mark as more of a hindrance than a benefit. It was far too weak to not understand that by consuming its host it was signing its own death warrant.
Mark hadn’t abused it, if anything he treated it more like a pet than anything else, he had even fed it some of his kills - something that many refused to do out of fear of the beast growing powerful enough to consume them in turn.
He has been kind to it, has fed it, and it’s too weak to think it would survive. It wouldn’t have taken control forcibly. The beasts are closer to hounds in mentality than felines, they don’t bite the hand that feeds unless they feel forced to or have lost respect for their Master’s for one reason or another.
Unless the beast was defective, which was incredibly unlikely as it was one of the few raised by Virasuta herself, there were only a few reasons why it would have taken control. Either control was given, which knowing the boy’s distaste for losing control of himself this was highly unlikely, or it had assumed control in an attempt to ‘protect’ him.
The Void Spawn created directly from their ‘Mother’ were incredibly powerful, and were on their own priceless artifacts and companions to anyone who had the knowhow and ability to tame and grow with them. Of course this also shifted the opposite direction if someone was unfamiliar with them and attempted to bond ignorantly to them in an attempt at easy power.
But to combine that with the personal care, modifications, training, and cultivation of Virasuta… to say they were the same species would almost be a lie.
So some form of defect was out, a response to abuse or hunger was out, so he had been injured badly enough for the beast to decide to take control in an attempt to save his life.
A life threatening injury would certainly force a young Spawn to act like this… which begs the question….
“Why in all of the realms WAS. I. NOT. TOLD?!”
The fucking pixie would be lucky if she didn’t eviscerate her for this, permanently, let alone ever form a contract with her again.
Stupid damn summons, this is why you don’t leave important work to the damn Fae!
She dispelled the mirror before turning towards the door. With a wave of her hand the doorframe morphed and twisted before forming a small purple portal.
I was a fool to rely on a damn pixie for something even as simple as ‘observation’... maybe latrine duty would be a better alternative from now on?
Without breaking stride she entered the portal, transporting herself directly above the boy and his rampaging Spawn.
Every day is more irritating than the last out here.
-----------------------------
What do I do?
Whatever had overtaken Mark didn’t seem hostile towards her, but it was still dangerous. It had torn through the entirety of the Ginte tribe with ease, it could do the same to her with far less effort if it wanted.
With it, him, being so close to her she could smell the blood on him, and was practically touching the eye that had overtaken an increasingly large portion of his body.
It called me a friend right? Is he trapped in there somewhere? If he is somewhat still in control maybe we can still fix this?
She was worried, for herself and for him. It wasn’t like they’d known each other for long, but the only reason they’d gotten into this situation was because of her. They would have been fine - outside of the Ginte’s focus at the very least - if she had listened to her sister instead of going out alone.
Instead she had wandered out, lying to her sister about just wanting to see the sun for a short amount of time, and in the process she was caught by one of the Ginte and had to be saved by Mark. If she had stayed home, would they have never met? Would he still be wandering the wilds as his Mentor had commanded?
If she hadn’t been attacked, he wouldn’t have been involved, and he wouldn’t have been turned into… this.
Did they attack him and cause this? If he was ill with something… if he was infected by some beast then did the attack cause him to succumb? ‘It’ said I was his ‘Master’s friend’, does that mean it was subservient? Is… is he already dead?
The thought was horrible, and she immediately discarded it. As long as he was up and moving, even if he was being controlled, there was a chance - right? He was still breathing, or at least she could feel his breath from how close they were, and if the beast was just hijacking a corpse it wouldn’t bother with making it breathe.
He was alive, she just had to find a way to get the beast off of him.
Which was made more difficult by the fact that she only had a half-way understanding of English, and judging by how fast and broken the beast spoke before she may not be able to hold a proper conversation with it, if it is even willing to hold a conversation outside of “where sister” and “kill”.
Taking a step back she watched it - him - as he watched her. She couldn’t feel any malice, not like the Ginte had obviously felt when it was coming towards them, but she didn’t know if that was because she was mortal, or because it wasn’t malicious towards her.
It didn’t move towards her, it didn’t even really react besides watching her with that… odd pale eye.
No reaction yet, that’s… good?
It was perfectly still and watching her carefully, or was it waiting for a response?
‘Where sister’ and ‘Where going’ was all I could make out.
“I… Going away from Ginte.” Her skill in English was failing her at the worst moment as she grasped for the words. “I was scared, didn’t know… who you were… until now.”
The beast seemed to think on the words, looking from her to the closed gate behind her, before looking over her shoulder.
“Smart. Climb thing. Run from strong prey. Good instincts. Intelligent prey can hunt a thousand times. Even if only feast once.”
Is it complimenting me for running?
“Yes. I… I am mortal, no Warrior, can’t fight them, or you, had to run so not die.”
With that it nodded with Mark’s head before continuing to speak.
“Where sister? Fire burnt den. Sister gone.”
Juli escaped, he didn’t search for her first? Why didn’t he try to get her first so they’d stand a better chance… unless it never thought that the Ginte would stand a chance either way. It knew Juli could survive on her own from what it, or Mark, had seen and had prioritized me since it knew I was weak. Or does it just like me better?
“My sister, she was… Hunting. Gone for food.” And hopefully she hadn’t become food for the Ginte. The sick animals may have been incapable of capturing her, but they may have been capable of killing her if they sent enough Warriors, or ambushed her at the perfect time. At the very least Miracle didn’t know where she was, which meant that they had hopefully lost her.
Only Juli could lose a Ginte tracking team, she might just be the only person I know that could escape Miracle… well before Miracle died that is.
Her greatest hope was that with Miracle and most of the powerful Warriors dead the tribe would scatter, or be picked off by the surrounding communities, but she also knew that if the Warriors here were only half, or even less, of the overall count due to parties looking for Juli or harassing the other tribes than there may very well be an open war between all of the communities and the GInte.
There was no guarantee either way as it was, she wasn’t exactly certain about how many Warriors each group had, let alone the Ginte who had been kidnapping promising Warriors as children for decades. They could have another dozen, or another hundred Warriors still outside unaware of what had just happened. She just had to have hope that they had been decimated enough to leave them as a none-threat to the rest of the area.
It may be a good idea to leave once they found Juli, just in case.
The thing seemed as lost in thought as she was. Except where her thoughts were full of panic and worry, it seemed to be thinking about the town around it. It looked towards a few of the houses, most likely the ones where the few remaining Warrior’s had hidden with their families, if they hadn’t already fled while the ‘monster’ was distracted. It spent only a few moments glancing towards the area where the bodies used to be, before it had absorbed them.
“We will find sister. We will. Master would be unhappy if she was left lost. All the den-mates must be found.”
That’s… good?
She was at least happy it seemed concerned for their safety, and the fact that it kept referring to Mark as its ‘Master’ helped solidify the idea that it was a beast, or some form of Warrior spell, meant to keep him alive in case of emergency. Mark was one of the few she’d ever met who could react, let alone stand up to her sister. Mark had mentioned on several occasions his home, and his ‘Mentor’, so it made sense in a way that if she were to send him out that she would at the very least prepare some form of protection, but she’d always assumed it was a fellow Warrior that shadowed him, or some charm that protected him.
A black beast of carapace and tendrils was different, but they were from a different place, possibly far more powerful than she’d ever known, and had left someone of great importance to fend for themselves.
It sounded like a group of fighters, of Warriors who valued strength. And unlike the Ginte, they didn’t seem to eat people.
Or at least, Mark himself didn’t eat people.
Alright, we’re good, we’re good. Everything’s good, right?
“So, do you have… idea of location? We had second dens, hiding holes in case we were… divided? Separated? Yes, separated.”
It looked at her for a moment, before looking around itself before settling towards the gateway it had shattered. “We could not track. She is of earth. If We were more familiar with her then yes.”
Well at least he found me. Juli can hopefully take care of herself until we find each other again.
It looked towards her again, before speaking. “You lead. We follow. We protect. No prey will harm den-mate.”
The fact it was so willing and eager to protect her, even after having saved her, was endearing. But any ideas she had of ‘warming up’ to it were quashed when the monster’s pale iris expanded, until it was almost the same shape as a human’s.
She was worried for a horrifying moment that it had changed its mind, decided that serving its master was less important than eating her, until she heard a voice that was all too similar to the beasts, but far more terrifying.
“LITTLE SPAWN, YOU SHALL ANSWER FOR THY CRIMES!”
Crap.