Arachne Basilisk: Another Nail In The Coffin

She sat in her room with a book on symbols in her lap, trying to find one of the symbols Anemophobia described to her. She would have one hell of a job with this. She found the first one, one she was to put in Serpine's room. She scrawled it on a piece of paper, trying ever so carefully to get all the measures correct. She had the message that what she wanted would be with her soon, now she just had to hold up her end of the bargain, no matter how much she hated it. This part, she was certain, was for Daemon's benefit. She didn't see how it would benefit the Necromancer directly. There was a knock at the door. "Come." Arachne called, closing the book and putting it on her bedside table. Lilia White walked in, grinning from ear to ear.
"Remember me?"
"I thought we agreed you would stay a distance away. Mevolent knows your face."
"I've helped him now. He doesn't trust me, but he's letting me stay. I've acted directly against the Sanctuary and for Mevolent."
"You're stupid."
"I know what's going on."
Arachne gave her the sort of smile one might give when telling a child fairies and Father Christmas exist as a way of explaining things they were deemed to young to know about. "Of course you do, honey."
"I know what I'm doing."
"Knowing what I know about you, I doubt it."
Lilia gave a patient smile, similar to Arachne's. "Suit yourself. When it all blows up in your face, don't bother coming after me. I'll be long gone."
"Sure you will. Get out. I want to be alone."
Lilia bowed mockingly and carefully walked out backwards, wobbling slightly on her heels. "Yes, master."
One the door closed, Arachne rolled her eyes. "Such a child."

-----

It took a while for 'Helix' to find Ravel in his cell while concious with no guards around. Esra Sunshine was on duty right now, but he was not in the corridor. She brought all the clothes she had bought down to the cells and unlocked the door. Dexter Vex wasn't there either. Just her and Ravel. She could tell he was concious because he was covering his head with his arms and shivering. "Cold?" She asked as she unlocked the cell door. He ignored her. He was covered in sweat and fresh blood. Dumping her clothes bags beside him, she went back to her room and grabbed a towel.

He was sitting up when she got back, only hunched over, clutching his sides. She draped the towel over his shoulders and helped him sit up properly. There was a large gash across the right side of his head and blood was smeared down his face. She looked at the welts and bruises and cuts and looked away again. He was glaring at her. "Who are you and what do you want?"
"You don't recognise me."
"Obviously not. Who are you?"
"You seem to be in a bad mood." She offered him the shirt.
"They killed a friend of mine." He looked at it for a long while.
"I'm walking you out of here."
"I can't walk."
"Put the shirt on."
"Help." She sighed and helped him get the shirt on. He was moving stiffly, awkwardly, clearly in a great deal of pain. She could still see the nub of broken rib jutting out beneath the shirt and gave him the thick coat next, leaving him to get that on himself as she forced one leg round so that she could put on the shoes. She reached for the other foot, but he used his hands to pull himself away. She raised an eyebrow.
"They...my knee." He shook his head and she gave him the other shoe, leaving it to him. She had just noticed that foot was chained up to the wall anyway.

Finally he was dressed. She managed to get him to stand, leaning heavily against one wall, so that she could unlock his ankle, then supported him down the hall. The scarf muffled any noise he made out of pain or discomfort until he dug his heels in at the end of the next corridor. He used his free hand to pull the scarf down. "You still haven't told me who you are or why I should trust you."
She sighed. "Madame Mist. You should trust me because I went to a lot of trouble to get here to get you out."
He brushed his hand against her cheek, taking away some of the make-up she was using to disguise herself and smiled. "You came to save me..."
"I think we should get out of here."
"I want my robes."
"I thought you hated them."
"Yes, but I need them! The pockets-" He stopped himself and looked away, pulling down the brim of the hat to further hide his face.
"What is in the pockets?"
"Just...just money...and something personal...I...I need it..."
"Where?"
"I...I don't know..." She leant him against the wall, helping him pull the hat brim down as far as it would go and went to ask someone.
"Excuse me, do you know where I can find prisoner belongings if they don't get thrown away?"
The man gave her an odd look. "I think they were moved to Sunshine's office...who's he?" He pointed to Erskine, who had now pulled the scarf back over his face.
"My boyfriend. Nemo Penguin." The man pulled a face and pointed down a hall they had been hoping to avoid.
"His office is down there. It's been quiet all day, no disturbing noises for once, so you should be okay."
"Thank you."
She went to help Erskine down the hall. "So you're calling me your boyfriend now?"
"I'm sorry, Grand Mage, I cannot understand a word you are saying through that scarf. You're very muffled. Very faint."
Despite the pain, he laughed. They reached Esra's room and knocked. There was no response, so Mist nudged the door open.

Esra Sunshine was fast asleep on the floor. It was clear he had been crying. Mist moved to the filing cabinet, leaving Ravel leaning against the door. She searched through the items and quickly found the Grand Mage's robes. The first thing he did when she gave it to him was search the pockets. "They took some of my money..."
"Oh well. Come on."

-----

Daemon woke up with a pounding headache. Austin smiled at her. It was a nice smile. Reassuring. "Hi."
She sat up and regarded him with wary, reproachful eyes. "Hello."
"I've never been to Scotland." He commented out of nowhere, probably picking up on Daemon's accent. "Is it nice?"
"Depends on who's judging."
"Fair enough. I'm Austin."
"I know."
"You are...?"
"Daemon."
"You know me...you know my sister too."
"Belinda?"
"Yeah, her. What's her phone number?"
"Not telling."
His face fell. "I've missed her. I've wanted to talk to her. She's my sister. Please tell me."
"She told me she wants nothing to do with her freaky family."
"Ouch..." He turned away. Minutes passed and died. She swung herself off of what she realised was a park bench, but Austin's shadows pushed her back. She tried to retaliate, but then Baritone reached into his pocket and showed her what had been her object of power. It was a septum piercing. He laughed good-naturedly as she lunged to try and get it but he held her back with his shadows. "You're an amateur at best. Belinda should have faced us off, she's more experienced than me." He slipped the nose ring back into his trouser pocket. "As for you, Daemon, you've just gotten yourself captured. We want to know where Belinda and Jack are taking the little girl, that's all."
"Back to her mother, and you'll never find her!"
"Yes, she's moved. But she was taken for a reason. Her mother was deemed unfit to care for her."
"Yeah, by a kidnapper."
Austin sighed. "I don't deny that."
"He should'a left it to the authorities."
"What's in it for you?" she was taken aback by this question. Austin could see her confusion. "What do you get out of giving Arachne back her kid?"
"She's doing a favour for me and my friends."
He nodded slowly. "I see. What sort of favour?"
"None of your business."
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Daemon."
She spat at him.
"Okay. Charming." He got up. "Can I at least have my sister's phone number? Cay and I really want to talk to her sometime."
She presented her middle finger.
"Again, charming."

-----

Arachne carefully drew the first sigil into the floor of the doorway. She hoped she was doing it right. One little slip-up and all hell would break loose. She wasn't entirely sure what this was supposed to do, but it did something Daemon and her friends wanted done, and she was certain it was liable to kill Serpine. If that happened, at least he would be happy with his stupid wimpy younger daughter. If it didn't, she didn't really care what did happen. Whatever would happen would happen.

Lilia's warning was beginning to bother her, though. Lilia was going to do something. Lilia hardly knew her though. Did she know about Faine, or Reckless as she called herself now? Probably not. Lilia was an airhead only concerned with quenching her thirst for violence. The threat was probably just that. Just her usual violent self. Ugh, how Arachne hated girls like her. Finishing the sigils, Arachne got up and hurried away, hiding the chalk in her sleeve. She was hearing a white blouse and so it would make no mark.

-----

They were outside. Erskine stopped again, hurled off his jacket, scarf and hat, complaining he was too hot. Mist picked them back up and put them in the plastic bag they originally came in. The Elders Robes were in the shoebox. He stood there for a moment, head down, breathing hard, then finally looked back up. "Thank you."
"No problem. I couldn't let you rot in there." She checked her handbag. "I have a bit of money left. Enough to buy some lunch and pay for a taxi if you're hungry."
He considered it for a moment. "Lunch and a taxi sounds good to me." He tried to stretch without hurting himself, grimacing as he failed, and followed her off to a cheap cafe where one of the first things she did was make him to to the toilets to wash some of the blood off his face.

"What do you think of me?" Erskine asked out of the blue as he remembered Dexter's conversation.
"In what context?"
"You think we could be friends? Just colleagues? Something more?"
"...Are you coming on to me?"
"I was just wondering...I mean..."
"You're coming on to me."
"Okay...maybe I am..."
She frowned. She had also gone to the bathroom to wipe away the make-up, and she had dumped the blue coloured contact lenses in the bin. "So that means you like me...in a relationship sort of context..."
"What about you? What do you think of me?"
"I think...you have a certain charm to you..." She didn't say any more or even what she actually meant by that. Erskine felt more than a little disappointment.

Mist hailed down a taxi and as it started moving an awkward silence fell over them. They both turned to each other at the same time and almost bumped heads. "Why do you like me?"
Erskine gave a shrug before pulling a face at the shot of pain. "You're pretty, you aren't easily fazed and you're able to do things most people I know would give up trying to do pretty quickly..." he looked at her again. "You are really really pretty. Originally I was just going by your eyes, but now I can actually see your whole face and you're beautiful..."
"I..." She averted her own gaze. "Thank you."
The lack of interest from her made him feel stupid. Stupid and torn. He looked away as well.
"I don't know how to put it, how to describe you." She mumbled. She was looking at him again. "I think I have a way though..."
He looked at her, but didn't turn his head.
"Look at me. Please, you have to be facing me for this to work."
With a sigh, he obliged. She leant forward, eyes closing. Something clicked in his mind and he did the same, and then they were kissing in the back of the taxi...

((And lo! Rist!..so...much...Rist...And I never do much for the person named in the title...my imagination takes over and writes for the others more...hope you liked it :) ))