Willow
Escrêi Hospitality (Resort and Recreation)
Throbbing, aching, pounding pain. Did Whitney convince me to chug tequila again? Urgh, I hope not, last time it took like a week to piece together everything that happened.
With trepidation, Willow slowly cracked her eyes. To her shock, her head didn’t protest at the light streaming gloriously into the room and directly onto her face. The skylight above her was interesting, shaped like a crescent moon, with a stylized bite taken out of the inner edge near the bottom.
“Ahhh, the fierce champion wakes at last!” A scratchy voice came from her right, prompting Willow to snap her head in the direction. She winced even as she moved, expecting the extreme motion to hurt. It didn’t. This is the weirdest headache I’ve ever had. When she saw Madrick and his fancy getup everything came back to her in an instant.
She rapidly sat up and shuffled awkwardly against the solid headboard behind her. What in God’s good name is this weirdo doing in the room while I’m sleeping in an unfamiliar bed?! Panicked, her eyes rapidly took in the room.
It was a simply, but beautifully, decorated space. Each piece of furniture appeared to be hand made. A desk and chair which somehow gave the impression of being one part of the same whole, thousands of delicate chisel grooves placed with perfect precision to turn the ‘rough’ appearance into a gorgeous work of art. A wardrobe which had what appeared be literal vines growing along its edges in a manner that appeared natural, but with such perfect symmetry it could only have been planned. The bed itself was similar, the comforter she was laying atop looked as if it was woven from long grass, the pattern reminding her of woven baskets she’d seen on sale at certain festivals. Despite its appearance, her hands, which were still resting on the blanket’s surface after shoving herself upright, told her every ‘blade of grass’ was luxuriously silky and soft.
Seeing she was laying atop the otherwise undisturbed blankets, and still entirely dressed, allowed her to calm marginally. Seeing Naomi rush in through the door behind Madrick with a worried expression helped more. After her initial reaction had been soothed, an odd detail demanded her attention and she looked down at herself, then back and Naomi, Have I been wearing this the whole time?
She wasn’t sure how she hadn’t noticed she was in a jumpsuit of an uninspired grey color. It was the same Naomi and Kent wore, and she’d presumably had it on all day, so she wasn’t sure why it was surprising. Or important, for that matter. Oh look, a distraction. Nice try, subconscious, you’re gonna have to do better than that. As she did with most problems in her life, she opted to face it head on.
She turned her narrowed eyes on Madrick, who for some reason looked significantly less intimidating. She wasn’t sure why she remembered his name when she usually had trouble with names. Maybe it had to do with the indescribable fear he’d inspired. Either way, she had no trouble meeting his eyes now as she asked, “What happened? Where’d you bring me?”
Offhanded, she noticed Kai and Kent both file into the room. Kent was wearing a deep frown, seeming troubled and worried. Madrick answered with a grin that wrenched her attention back to him. It was that same awful smile he’d been wearing when she first saw him. She braced herself for the unnatural fear, but it didn’t come.
Instead, he answered, “You exhausted yourself. You used all of your mana and exhausted your Will. You may have strained your mana channels, too, though I’m not sure. I gave you a recovery draft, so you’ll be back to normal in an hour or so. You’ve been asleep for about three hours. An unfortunately long time, but I suppose you can’t be entirely perfect.”
Uh ho… Let’s count the red flags. Showed up out of nowhere, knowing my name? One. Creepily smiled while demanding I touch, well punch but same thing, him? Two. After causing me to pass out, directly or indirectly, he took my unconscious body to an unknown bedroom? Three. Having brought me to, presumably his, bedroom, he forced my sleeping self to drink something. Four. He just implied I was nearly perfect. Five. That’s a lot of red flags.
She stared at him for a long few seconds, trying to decide how to reply. Finally, she decided letting him down easy would be best. He was clearly bigger and stronger than her, more powerful, fully in control of this situation. She didn’t have much leverage, but she’d heard that obsessive stalkers could sometimes be reasoned with if the subject of their attention presented their arguments right.
“Look,” She started nervously as she slowly got out of the bed on the left side, the furthest side from him. He’d only have to take a couple steps to his right and the bed wouldn’t be between them anymore. There was nothing on the nightstand now directly behind her that she could use in a confrontation. Not that it would matter. She instinctively knew she wouldn’t be able to find her focus, not to mention her moment.
“You seem ah… Nice… You have that winning smile and uh… Just look at that goatte, I’m sure it takes a lot of work to maintain and keep it so smooth and ah, nice, looking.” Yep, yep, you’re doing great. Butter him up. Now make it seem like I’m more trouble than I’m worth. “The thing is, I’m reeeally new to this world. You’re obviously really strong, so ah, being around me would probably slow you down. I couldn’t even give you a challenge in our little spar earlier so ah… Well what I’m saying is…” Now make sure he can’t misinterpret, “I think maybe we should just be friends. Y’know? You seem great but uhm, well, I don’t want to hold you back or anything like that.” Her words sped up as she saw realization dawning on his face, “Not that you aren’t great! You’re good. You’re probably awesome! It’s just me, I’m not really in a good position to be a good partner to anyone right now, much less someone as clearly overqualified as you and -”
“BAH HA HA HAHAHA,” Madrick’s laugh literally shook the room. Willow stumbled out of her semi-crouched position. She’d been standing like he was an escaped zoo animal she was trying to sooth. Her right hand was even raised ever-so-slightly. The laugh continued for a good ten seconds. Seconds Willow mostly used by staring at him in slack jawed confusion. This certainly wasn’t what she’d expected. Her eyes flicked behind Madrick to Kai and Kent.
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Kent was looking at Madrick, and around at the shaking room, with concern. Kai’s nostrils were slightly flared, eyes wide and both sides of his mouth turned upward in a smile. Having spent the last couple hours with Kai she could say with near certainty that the expression was Kai’s version of the full-body laugh Madrick was calming down from.
The big man in front of her wiped an imagined tear from under his right eye, then he let out one laugh bark of laughter as he looked at her, “HAH! You thought I was romantically interested in you?”
Not romantically, per se, more like creepy stalker interest but okay - this makes it seem like maybe I was wrong. Good. Great, actually! She carefully moved to confirm her hypothesis, “Sooo… You’re not? Interested in me, I mean?”
He shook his head, a purer version of his signature smile on his face still after his bout of laughter, “Oh, I’m quite interested in you.” Shoot. “But not your body or emotions or anything like that.” Good? Maybe?
He stood there and just smiled at her, apparently waiting for her to reply. She probed a bit, “Sooo…” Her nerves caused her Texan heritage to come out to play, drawing her “So” out into a long drawl. She pushed on, ignoring the uncontrolled accent for the moment, “Yer interested in me in some other way? ‘Nd yer not plannin’ to do anythin’…. Weird?”
Oh shoot, the creepy smile is back. “Depends on what you consider weird, I suppose. I’m interested in you because you’re positively dripping with potential. I’m taking you as my disciple.” Having said that, her UICI unfurled a scroll dramatically in front of her. It was lined in gold and silver, gems apparently inset into the top and bottom hand-bar things.
DISCIPLESHIP INITIATED
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Madrick Lark, the Dominator, has taken you as his protégé and disciple.
No. No! No no no!
She pushed her denial at the prompt over and over, but nothing happened. It didn’t tell her it was denied or canceled or anything else.
Either reading her mind, or her increasingly panicked expression, Madrick grinned, “Sorry little tree, you can’t decline this particular invite.”
Seeing her horror, he threw back his head and laughed again. Shaking the world.
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Ki’ai’en
Escrêi Hospitality (Resort and Recreation)
After waking, Willow’s assumption that Madrick was planning to take her as some kind of slave-lover had been frankly amusing. Her expression upon learning she was Madrick’s disciple, was both pitiable and hilarious.
He could understand her reaction. After all, their introduction had been nothing short of traumatizing. Yet, had she known more, had the chance to know more, she would likely have been excited. Then her excitement would have been tempered by what came next, but even so. Madrick had once been at the peak. He was one of the so-called “fallen gods.” Having stood as a rank one hundred, and above, existence. Then he’d been killed, lost all his power, and fallen back to mortality. After less than a decade since his fall, he was already back at rank twelve.
There were quite literally millions, possibly trillions, of people who had put formal requests in to become his apprentice. While Madrick did enjoy some benefits from his prior achievements, it also left him isolated unless he wanted to be surrounded by hangers-on. Ki’ai’en himself was probably one of the closest things to a friend the man had, and that was an exaggeration at best. Ki’ai’en had been working for a different faction, one which Madrick himself had destroyed, when Madrick had arrived from his tutorial.
They had become acquainted as Ki’ai’en showed him how things worked. Unlike most, Ki’ai’en felt very little desire to continue rising through the ranks of power. He derived pleasure and achievement from helping others reach their goals - he had little ambition to become a ranker, legend, god, or anything else himself. He did enjoy helping others find their own paths in life, though.
In this case, he couldn’t help Willow. She somehow seemed to already have taken a step along her own path, and Madrick was interested enough in it to claim his right to take a personal disciple. Being his disciple did come with a large number of benefits. Many of which she would not see for a very long time, if he didn’t miss his guess.
Knowing he didn’t have much time, and that Madrick was unlikely to explain anything at all, Ki’ai’en had spent the majority of the time she’d been unconscious splitting his focus. He’d been spoken quietly with Naomi and Jonah, doing his best to prepare them for what would come next. He’d used his authority as a faction administrator to release them both from their contracts, replacing it with a new one.
The new contract was much less predatory, though he would admit it still managed to provide more benefit to his faction than to them. This was an unfortunately necessity, as any “unworthy” contract might bring scrutiny - which would lead to higher powers looking into them more directly. That would do them no favors. Even so, he’d done his best for them. This “behavior” was also why he was not permitted to act as a recruiter himself, and never had been, despite his willingness and his exemplary track record. That record also included notes about his, “unfortunate character flaw” of wishing the best for those he was responsible for.
Madrick’s final laugh finally stopped, which brought Ki’ai’en back to the present. He only had enough time to accelerate quickly to tap Jonah and, stepping quickly across the room, Naomi, investing them with come along. The same spell he had used to help them see Willow and Madrick’s “spar.” He gave Naomi a small push, she’d been standing frozen on the right side of the bed since Willow and Madrick had started talking. She was absolutely terrified of Madrick, understandably, but she needed to move if she was to join Madrick’s new disciple in her trials; which incidentally was a requirement of her new contract as well.
He made it just in time, as less than a second after Naomi started climbing over the bed to join Willow, the space underneath her let out a horrifying “screeeeaaa” and a sharp snap, the maw of a jagged portal opening directly below her. Willow let out her own scream as she suddenly fell through it. Kent had already been moving toward her and dove head first after her. Naomi, despite her obvious fear, didn’t hesitate to hop from the bed and down into the maw herself.
The portal closed with the snap of a thousand breaking chains.
Ki’ai’en turned to look at Madrick, “You didn’t explain anything. She won’t know what to do.”
He shrugged, “Eh, then she’ll die a bit. I don’t babysit.”
Sighing deeply Ki’ai’en calmed himself and asked, “Then given you apparently have no other obligations, would you like to join myself and Mav for dinner?”