"Where have you been?!? I've been trying to contact you for hours!!!" Lexuar was furious. Then again, this was how he normally acted, ruling through fear. He was good at it too.
Gremio didn't show the slightest bit of fear. "Sorry Lex, but I thought you might want to see this." He then turned around, calling back at the doorway. "Bring him in."
Two guards shoved a beaten, ragged human into Lexuar's private chamber, who quickly fell to the ground.
"Ah! So the little solo mission that you didn't have my permission to go on worked. Well done." Lexuar's mood lifted, ever so slightly. "Are you sure this is the same musician that escaped?"
At this, the human looked up, with fire in his eyes. "Oh, I've been here you nasty little low down--" He then proceeded to call Lexuar by every foul and obscene name that he could think of. Lexuar was unchanged.
"Well, now! We can't have one of our musicians talk with that vocabulary. I'll dispose of him myself. Prepare him afterwards."
"Oh, there you go with that musician stuff again. I don't play music, and I've told your guards that ever since I was captured. What does music have to do with anything, anyways?"
Lexuar motioned Gremio and the guards to leave. They did. He stood up from his throne, and towering over the so-called musician, he began to pace around the room.
"You have a lot to learn about this organization, young man. Musicians are people with order. Precision. Talent. A single wrong note can ruin a melody, and most people can pick up on that sort of thing. A musician never wants his mistakes to be known, and practices to perfection. Some people have the unique talents of a musician and never even realize it." At this, Lexuar stopped pacing. "You are one of those people."
Lexuar snickered.
"Well, you were."
Gremio heard a distinct hurk and a thud following afterwards. He entered the chamber, calm and even a little happy. There was the body, lying on the ground, almost unharmed, even, besides a small pool of blood around him. It was, though, a dead body.
"Prepare him. Then hold the funeral in a few days." One guard hauled the body away, the other quickly cleaned the blood away until there was almost no trace of the deed committed tonight. Only Gremio remained.
"I assume you have another surprize for me, Gremio?"
"You read my mind, Lex! Lemme show you."
Gremio led Lexuar out of his chamber, through many hallways and down many flights of steps, until they had reached the place he was looking for. The morgue.
In the morgue, on an autopsy table, the second musician was strapped to the bed. He was much older than the first, and besides his lower torso being completely obliterated, he looked almost like he was peaceful. Next to him was an almost insectlike shaman, and a hooded figure to his other side, most likely a mage of some sort. Around them were dozens of disciples, each holding a single candle in their hands.
Lexuar looked at the situation, and said only one word as he understood what was going on. "Begin."
At this, the shaman began chanting in some ancient language: "Ah, la, mo hinei sa gooma chiece, ee, gumu shiegra..." As he spoke, one by one the candles of the desciples began to burn purple flames, instead of red ones. The shaman's voice grew louder, and louder: "Mi ogi sahna, hijei mokuri ei, niomi lan ikei o gumu si..."
As all this was happening, the mage was performing a different ritual in a very different manner, drawing circles and symbols into the ground and burning strange inscences. The shadows seemed to meld and mix with one another at this, and even seemed to have minds of their own.
As the last candle turned into its demonic hue, the shaman finished with the words "oncala mortici, iff ancala VITALICI!"
Suddenly, each of the purple flames detached themselves from their candles, and rushed into the musician's mouth in a frenzy. At the same time, the mage completed his ritual, and the dancing shadows manifested themselves, racing to replace the lower half of the body. Little by little, it was repairing him, and the rest of the musician's body was experiencing some convulsions.
As the last flames trickled in, and the body was repaired, the once-dead gasped for breath; for life. He was terrified, and the first sight when he opened his eyes was Lexuar, staring him directly in his face.
"My, my, what a foolish little man. Don't you know that dying will do you no good when you're in my domain?"
The man was panting, unable to stop. He could not reply.
"I thought so. Now, if you want to live---or rather, if you don't want to be tortured until I decide to kill you off---and trust me, I won't---you'll do as I say. Is that clear?"
He managed to nod his head, ever so slightly.
"Good. I'll see you tomorrow. You didn't want to miss your original assignment, now did you?"
Lexuar made his exit. Gremio followed.
"Anything else?"
"We found another musucian. One of our own, incidentally. He should pose no threat."
"Good."
"Hey, Lex? Can we go over the plan one more time? You know I don't got the greatest memory."
Lexuar sighed. "Very well. Here's how it's going to work..."
OOC: At this point, Lexuar explains the plan, the day before the Gate. The next post is the execution of that plan, so Thalas can take over that if he wants.
Feel free to give me feedback about what you like, dislike, possible changes, suggestions, etc. through PM, if you want.
EDIT: Replaced "Newsish" with "foolish" due to April Fool's Day. Nothing big.
