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Lucent strides into the White Room to confront Fierce Red Star! He is dressed in red. Red flowing robes, the ones of the office of Ruler of Kadomony in the Golden Age, walking more like Helios than he had ever done since entering the Second Age.
zahara enters behind Lucent on a waft of tantalizing essence before coolly sealing the door behind her. Her face is impassive, though her eyes glitter keenly. Ice to Lucent's Fire.
FierceRedStar remains, as before, bolted to a table in the White Room, unable to move and bereft of Essence. At the moment, his head is leaning backwards a little, and he's quietly -- and a little off-rhythm -- singing a strange song to himself, in an unfamiliar language.
Lucent "So, Rannath the Spear. You know, for someone who was with the first Circle of Solars on the Second Age, you seem quite forgotten! Nothing is written of you, really. It is like you did not exist, at all!" He shakes his head. "Sad, that. Do you know who I am?"
FierceRedStar goes on to finish his song, moving upwards into a higher register and slowly portioning out the last notes, before -- again, slowly -- turning his head to look at Luc, his eyes wider than one might expect on a sane individual. "There's no one by that name, you know," he says.
Lucent "Indeed. He never existed." Lucent nods. "So, Fierce Red Star. Do you know who I am?"
zahara walks to his side, after pausing to select a serrated blade from a neatly organized rack, and runs the blade down the skin of his cheek lightly, scraping the stubble from his cheeks but otherwise leaving him unharmed. "Think carefully before you answer."
FierceRedStar "I do," he says. "The boy-king. The little prince. I've seen your kind around before," he says, and one half of his mouth pulls up sharply into a grin.
Lucent appears nonplussed as he looks into his disturbing eyes. ::For the record, this man is insane.:: "Is that all you know about me, Fierce Red Star? Is it that the Five Who Are Fallen know so little?"
zahara :: Indeed. Quite a nuisance too. ::
FierceRedStar "We're not of one mind, junior," he says, his eyes looking down at Zahara's blade but his demeanor otherwise not betraying its presence. "Just being victims of the same cosmic joke doesn't mean we spend our time gossiping together and having pillowfights."
zahara "But you have the same master, do you not?" The blade dips a little, drawing blood.
Lucent "But you retain all your memories. Which means you would know wether or not you have met me before, right? In he time of the First Age." He walks around, looking askance at him, "Are you telling me the Five have never acted as a Sphere?"
FierceRedStar "Never," he says, and spits, rather ineffectually. "Qian Mian was teamed up with that idiot Herons. I don't even remember what Sphere Remembrance was in, she was such a frigid bitch."
Lucent ::Is that true, Zahara?::
zahara :: He is not lying. :: "What of the other two?"
Lucent "Yes. What about your Joybringer and your Oracle?"
FierceRedStar "The last place I saw Maril was when she was pretending to be one of the scions of the Scarlet Dynasty. I have no fucking idea who the Secrets is."
Lucent "Would she not happen to be a lady with green lips? Paramour of the First Necromancer?"
FierceRedStar "How exactly would I know?, he says. "Dead people give me the willies." And he grins a little wider. Zahara notes, however, that he does not appear to be lying.
zahara stabs the knife quite suddenly into his shoulder joint, "Mind your manners when you speak with us." She twists it cruelly.
FierceRedStar "FUCK!," he shouts. "You fucking bitch!" he shouts at Zahara, and spits again.
Lucent winces, and makes a mental note to fix it later
Lucent ammends that note; he insulted Zahara. "And who is that scion of the Dynasty, Most Uncooperative Star?"
zahara The blade rips from his wound in time to deflect the spit and now his blood, back into his face with a contemptuous flick. "That's not how you mind your manners, Fierce Red Star."
FierceRedStar blinks as the fluid spatters across his face. "Do you even know anything about the Dynasty, boy? You slept through it." He turns to Zahara, blood spots gleaming on his bright smile. "You're the one who's led a huge government here, you at least probably know enough to get it. Who's the kid whose story never quite made sense, the baby of the Dynasty, already with her own house to show for it?"
zahara considers this, sorting through her Realm knowledge and then raises a brow. "Ah, yes. V'neef, of course."
Lucent blinks. "Who is that?"
zahara "I'll introduce you later," she smiles.
FierceRedStar grins. "You do not disappoint me, Zahara," he says, and then, a moment later: "...OW. Dammit!"
Lucent smiles in return, touching Fierce Red Star's shoulder and healing the damage completely. "So you are saying you do not know the lady with the green lips, is that it? You have never met her, or me, in the Golden Age?"
zahara sketches an ironic bow to him.
FierceRedStar "Oh, thank you," he says. "I probably saw you around town, I don't know. Solars are all jerks anyway." He stops to think for a moment. "Green lips, huh? That's not exactly a compelling clue, is it?"
Lucent "There are only twenty Chosen of Secrets and all worked with you in the Golden Chrysanthemum. You must have seen all of them, at least in passing. I am told you are able to see through each other's astrological disguises."
FierceRedStar "It's not like we were rationing lipstick in the First Age," he says. Zahara can tell that the victim is intentionally being difficult at this stage.
zahara "She was also the consort of the First Necromancer as noted earlier." She rocks back on her heels, contemplating, then returns to the rack of knives, dropping the used one onto a white towel, which stains red in a pleasing pattern. She returns with what looks to be only an engraved hilt. "I suspect that you can do better than that," she says mildly, holding the knife up to Lucent. "One of my newer creations, this blade is made of a s
zahara "One of my newer creations, this blade is made of a single breath. One of his, actually, from when he inhaled to scream last time I visited. You remember, don't you, Fierce? The way you choked as I stole the air from your lungs, so you could not even cry out your agony?"
FierceRedStar grits his teeth. "Don't remind me."
Lucent winces again, in quite an expressive manner, not just to show sympathy, but in a way to show Fierce Red Star that he knew what it was like... and, with a momentaneous gaze to Zahara, to suggest that is the beggining of things SO MUCH WORSE! It would be better for him to talk instead!
zahara "Alas," she leans down to whisper in his ear as Lucent directs his dark gaze at her, "If you do not become significantly more cooperative within approximately ten seconds, you will be extremely vividly reminded."
FierceRedStar "I've cooperated... quite well with two people who come in and stab me for not answering questions I've told you I don't know," he says. The blood on his face slowly drips down his cheeks, making him look even wilder. "You might..." he says, and pauses for a long, long moment. (...)
FierceRedStar "...you might be thinking of Zinobia," he says. "Do you have some reason to think she's like me, or are you just grasping at straws from people you happen to know?"
zahara looks rather disappointed as she withdraws, his terrified breath whispering in his ear as she pulls it away. "Now now, I stabbed you for your foul manners, not your reluctance to answer earlier."
Lucent "Many reasons. Wei Dan found her to be evil, and placed her on a chart that involves Qian Mian, and Lilith who burnt the remains of the Chrysanthemum. That is the name of the woman he connected with Larquen Quen AND Qian Mian... and it was her who was there, at every turn, pushing him into darker secrets of Necromancy. Corrupting him. Changing him into something he was NOT."
Lucent is closer to Fierce Red Star than he should. "As I imagine 'Rannath' was supposed to do."
FierceRedStar shrugs. "Like I told you before, Zahara, I don't work for Qian," he says; "I work for myself." And Zahara knows he's telling the truth.
zahara "And who holds your soul?"
FierceRedStar "No one but me. I am a rock. I am an island," he says, and starts humming another tune.
Lucent "I had never heard her name before. But you should know, Fierce Red Star, that it added to the mystique in days gone by. To know she was a Green Lady was enough." He smiles. "As Lucent Copper Haze is. But now all falls into place. Be happy -- you know now who your last companion is."
FierceRedStar grins with deep, visible falsity and condescension. "Are we done here?," he says. "I was just starting to enjoy my time alone."
zahara glances at Lucent, "I think he's done, but I believe I have some work to do on your attitude tonight."
Lucent "We are done, Fierce Red Star. May fortune smile upon you, and your island break free from the rock of evil and sail forth on the winds of righteousness." He promptly exits the White Room
zahara smiles gently down at the fallen sidereal shackled to the table, leaning over him so that her deep blue hair brushes against his skin. "Tonight will be unforgettable."
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