I Dare Say that the Color of Stars are Blue[Star Piece Quest]

[Ezrihel]

"Does being a secondary really change that much about how you feel about yourself?"

This question caused Ezzy to stop and think for a moment before drawing a conclusion. Yes. Yes it did bother her, and it bothered her deeply. She felt absolutely weak and frail, like a newborn. She felt defenseless in this vast new universe. At least, before being over come by Ezrihel, she felt like she had held some semblance of power and control over her surroundings. Now she was nothing more than a machine to fit the needs of others.

She glanced up at her thief companion, deciding it was best not to answer his rhetorical question. She had a lot of differing things to think about and over at the current time. From the little bit she did know on Demetri's history, to coming to grips with her new lot in life.

She studied his face for a moment, thinking over how to best respond to his answers about his history.

"I'm sorry that you lost your family. I'm... Not quite sure what that feels like, but I assume that it was deeply unpleasant. However, I am glad you are here with me now. I've always found you interesting, but maybe that's just due to your roguishly dashing looks and reserved nature." She jested, giving a soft laugh as punctuation.

"But no, the life of an urchin is always a tragic one. Hopefully within the omniverse, with this new chance, we can make a change and make a difference. I miss what I considered to be my home, I guess I share those memories with Ezrihel. Whether or not he misses it, I have not a clue. The world was a strange place, magic and science had just come together, and finally we had built large machines that put out a great deal of smoke. Machines that took up entire buildings and turned the air black with soot."

She made a gesture with her hand, the theater of her mind playing out a Victorian scene from memory. "Coal and steam. Alchemy. We were the blessed people and we raced along as if touched by the grace of God. ... I'm not sure what your world was like, but I was from a strange new world, a new continent that we called The Americas. Spain had pioneered our push to this new world, looking for gold and an undiscovered trade route to India." She gave a pause to chortle. "Instead of sailing smooth across an ocean, they instead found a whole new landmass with primitive people and everything. Sometimes I wish I had been there to explore New Spain with the Spaniards. I've always wondered what it would be like to be swept off my feet by a Conquistador~"

She looked down, smiling and blushing bashfully before fluttering her lashes. "Ah, but I guess that's just a girlish day dream that men wouldn't understand... After all, it's my job to be exquisitely dreamy in my wishes. Real ladies don't concern themselves with the world of Man."

"And maybe you can teach me those oh so unladylike skills in our downtime in the capital. Seems like it would be a big enough place, easy to blend in, even easier to get lost on the old winding streets and crowds."

She listened as Demetri gave a response to some question or another that Ezrihel had asked. She blinked a few times, looking at Demetri with big curious eyes. A question coming to her mind. "How... How did you come onto summoning your machination if you don't understand it? Did it come to you in a dream or vision by God?"

Upon hearing this, Ezrihel gave a snort. People don't get visions from 'God'. He thought to himself before speaking to his new 'parrot'. "Tell me, missus IRIS, more about the details of your blueprint, of your system. It would be of vital importance once I begin to conceptualize a new housing vessel for your main processor. After all, it would be quite a shame for me to make you a cute and flashy new body only for it to be incompatible with your core." He gave a playful and flirty chuckle.

His sharp emerald green eyes made sure to keep track of the time as the day passed them over. The pale green light of morning fading into that beautiful and familiarly earthly blue before giving away to the rosette pastels of the setting sun. Time seemed to dial forward for Ezrihel in this place, days passing so quickly compared to the long summer days of Old Charleston.

Soon, with Ezzy and Demetri caught up, they came upon the capital city. It laid sprawling up the side of a black mountain, its stark white walls a mimicry of peace and order. The designer of the impressive capital city obviously knew their way around architecture and city planning from what could be seen at this distance. The buildings appeared to be stacked in order to compensate for the limited amounts of flat ground the place undoubtedly housed. Just from the outside walls and visible looming white stone buildings Ezrihel could safely say that this place reminded him of his own city's, Aufsteigen Stadt's, rival. In fact, this place looked almost like a carbon copy of Shinkai Shigai, so much so that Ez almost wanted to puke over the repulsiveness he felt from its visage.

A city so repulsive in its back asswards hypocrisy that even he, a seducer of mankind, recoiled from. Yes, he certainly had always liked how twisted humans could be, but Shinkai Shigai was not a place he ventured to in order to have fun. Everything was always looming, always watching him as if he were a dying animal ready to become carrion for the vultures.

He shook his head as he came up to the gates of the city. He gave a glance at each of the guards posted there before one of the two, the one to Ezrihel's left to be exact, approached them.

"State your business Travelers." He commanded.

Giving a soft roll of his eyes, he waved his hand and spoke, "Well, our feet are quite sore and tired from the long trip, and we wish to enjoy the many delights of your city's renowned taverns, fill our bellies with drink and mayhaps even tip the wenches."

"And the missus, what do you expect her to do?"

"Ah, you see, I travel with my sister and her Fiance-"

Ezzy spoke up, cutting Ezrihel off, "We're simply trying to relocate after being heckled by bandits on the roads. Please, allow us sanctuary my good sirs."

The guard nodded and turned around, shouting to the top of the wall for the gate to be opened. After they stepped through the gates Ezrihel cut his eyes at Ezzy. "Never. Again." He whispered to her.

Making short time, they found themselves at one of the various taverns known within the walls of Minas Tirith. The Immoral Raven. Huh, what a name to be chosen. He thought to himself as he pulled the heavy iron handle out. Immediately his senses were overcome with the all the delights and dislikes of a tavern. The mouth watering aroma of fresh hot spiced meads, various beers and wines followed the smell of wonderfully greasy tavern food. The general scent of the place bespoke of an old building, mold, mildew creeped into the wooden framework of the establishment; the earth directly beneath the floorboards gave off a pungent odor of many years of split drink and dried blood from long forgotten bar fights gone bad.

And yet, through all of the wonderful and interesting smells this place gave off, the stench of too many hot and sweaty bodies crammed into a single building mingled in the air with the muted scent of burning candle wax like an oppressive fog. From the doorway Ezrihel could tell that this was not like the neon-blacklight hideouts he enjoyed back in Aufsteigen Stadt. This place housed the working man. A sort of concept he wasn't completely familiar with. And while he wasn't openly repulsed by this all, he knew he wasn't going to exactly enjoy his time here.

Stepping into the tavern, he quickly found himself and the group a booth like table towards the back of The Immoral Raven, in a quieter corner. As they made themselves at home, Ezrihel went to work conjuring coins into a tangible existence from his reserves. After a good deal had been made, he cast a look to his guild master. Looking towards Demetri, he spoke telepathically, so he could be heard over the sounds of rolling intoxicated banter and heated arguments that threatened to boil over at the tip of a hat. A room? I'm going to get a room so we can remove ourselves from this tomfoolery and discuss our plans. If you wish to come down here and party with the raffle later, then be my guest, I myself plan to gather information before resting tonight. Shouldn't be hard with a crowd like this.

Demetri gave a nod and Ezrihel beckoned a rather busty white haired wench to them. She wore much too much make-up, her blue eyes framed by dark kohl raccoon eyes and her overdrawn lips a shade of red that bespoke emergency. Poor thing looks like she needs to escape. He thought in a desultory tone before speaking. "A room for three, please?"

The dolled up woman nodded, "Thirty gold pieces please my good sire. Is tha'  'nythin' I can get for ya handsome group 'fore I show ya's to ya's room?"

Ezrihel glanced to Demetri, who asked for a pint of Mead, then to Ezzy who asked for, "A dry red wine of some sort, if you'd be so kind ma'am."

"Oh, there ain't no needs in callin' me ma'am dear. You can jus' call me Josie. Now sire, is there 'nythin' you'd want?" She asked Ezrihel.

"Oh, for me? Simply a glass of whole milk, if you have it in stock." His answer made Josie raise a darkened eyebrow before she nodded and grabbed at her key ring and motioned for them to follow her up a flight of creaky dark wooden stairs across from their booth.

She lead them down a small dark hallway that smelled of musty wood and drunken shames before pointing them to a heavy wooden door with the number three etched into it's front. "An' 'ere's ya room dearies. Tha drink's'll be up in jus' a minute." She pushed the key into Ezrihel's hand before turning around and going back downstairs.

Ezrihel and Ezzy exchanged looks before they both glance to the Prince Thief. "Well. Ain't this quite a..." Ezzy paused to inspect the old sheets, "Quaint place."

"Well, at least there aren't rats and various other bugs nibbling on you, my dearest 'Ezzy'." Ezrihel pushed his mind towards his guild master, gently touching his mind before telepathically speaking once more. So, on the topic of-

Suddenly IRIS beeped and alerted Deme to something, a flicker of the sensory knowledge graced Ezrihel in an unintentional side-effect of being mind-linked, but he didn't bother in trying to read into what it could have been. It wasn't worth riling the thief up over. He withdrew from Demetri's mind and IRIS's voice rang out, "Creator, there appears to be another faction that wishes to form an alliance with us and exchange information- Oh, and it may be a good idea to recruit others as well to better spread our name, do you wish for me to search the dataverse for potential thieves and rogues?"

"Well then, I suppose we should reply in favor of such an exchange, after all, its nice having friends everywhere, though we should caution to make sure we don't befriend another's enemy, anything else? Recruiting sounds agreeable, go ahead and reach out whenever you would like, and perhaps we should send someone to greet the SoSV." Came the Prince Thief's response with a smirk. He leaned against a counter and gave a knowing look at Ez. Ezrihel returned with a curious and questioning look.

"Perhaps Ezrihel can do so? As much as I enjoy his company, this journey may not need all four of us, and it may be best if a Prime goes to meet the faction, just in case things don't go well. And I think Ez can handle himself~"

He gave a few blinks, his mind having automatically processed every word muttered and all it's implications. "What are they needing information on? I've hardly had a moment to breathe and find information on the varying subjects of this realm, let alone wherever this 'es-oh-es-vee' thing happens to be."

He paused a moment and ran his left hand through his hair and pushed his bangs out of his face. "But if the guild needs it, then certainly. I would be delighted to go off on that adventure for you."

Thinking over it all for a moment, he held his hand out in front of him with his palm facing up. "I suppose it would be wise to build some form of a communication device, wouldn't it? I'm not really used to having to use such things, but I must make do, as I am uncertain if the physics of the Omniverse would allow me to telepathically reach out across the various gates."

He summoned forth a glob of Omnilium and began to construct a very small chip, lacing the transistors and gates onto the microscopic board. After a moment, he crafted it to contain a small and simple AI to it, a very rudimentary one at best. At the end of the summoning, it sprung up on gossamer thin mechanical legs and crawled up his arm. It appeared no bigger than a flea as it made it's way to behind his ear and let it's wiry frame spread out to his left temple. It's frame was invisible under all but the perfect light and angle with which it would simply reflect the light in a rainbow glare.

Ezrihel gave a smile. "So where exactly are we sending me?"

"To the Pale Moors."

"The- The Pale Moors? Oh goodness me, that seems rather grey, but I'll go after I have my drink. I will be in touch with you later, Mister Malius."

As if knowing, a knock came at the door to the room. Taking three strides across the small room Ezrihel opened the door to see Josie holding three tankards with little effort. She smiled in what would have been a charming way had her makeup choice not still appeared to have taken a beating from a carnival stick. Graciously he accepted the drinks and bid her a goodnight before he closed the door.

With little interest he handed the mead to Demetri and the wine to Ezzy before taking to his own drink with much more enthusiasm. "So." He set his empty tankard down on one of the nightstands and adjusted the strap on his travel pack. He walked to the door and opened it, casting a glance over his shoulder. "If you two lovers don't mind, I'll be heading out."

And with that he was gone.

Ezzy sat down on the edge of the bed gracefully, maintaining the poise of a refined lady. "So, Demetri... Now that Ezrihel has been sent off, what do we do next?" She asked as she cast a look up at the dark haired man. "And do you think that he'll ever be back?"

She paused for a second, the fumbled slightly with her words, "Not that he doesn't have his uses-- but he just... Has always rubbed me the wrong way during my so-far-short existence."

She studied his face, making sure to pay attention to his reactions. She reached her hands up and and ran them through her ebony hair. She always loved how soft the strands felt. Following this, she absentmindedly played with some of the lacy ruffles that spilled from the cleavage-showing scooped collar of her bodice. It had been quite a while since she had gotten the time to play with lace and other frivolous feminine things such as clothes making or idle tea-talk.

Her cheeks flushed when her stomach made a soft noise of hunger. Her hands flew to her tummy and she glanced to her companion with embarrassment. "Oh... How unladylike of me. Might we acquire some hot food? Something downstairs smelled awfully wonderful when we arrived... Maybe we could get some of that."

2849 + 5325 = 8174