To Rule In Shadow

Adrian opened the door to the office, and started making demands immediately. "Hey, Miranda. Do me a favor, and run a bath."

She glared at him. "What? Am I supposed to be your servant now, too? And since when did we have a bath tub in the office?"

By this point, he'd finally gotten his awkward bundle into the room. It was the size of a small human, and wrapped in what looked like a plastic tarp. Miranda wasn't quite sure, but knowing Adrian, it might very well be a body.

[I really wish he could think through these things a little better. Dragging a body here will only cause us trouble in the long run.]

"Its down the hall and through the old torture room. I had Vance install it during the initial renovations, mainly because I though it might be handy. If you don't mind, its something of an emergency." He replied calmly, while resting the body on the ground, and pulling back a piece of the tarp to reveal the corpse's face.

Something not exactly human laid underneath, and as she watched, the creature's eyes flickered feverishly and it gasped in a desperate manner.

The Miranda of a week ago would have been floored by the revelation, but days spent with a terrifying eldritch creature had largely inured her to the worst of such shocks. Once it was clear that Adrian had something serious in mind, she sighed, stood up from behind her desk, and complied with his request.

The bathroom turned out to be a small, and shabby affair, seemingly converted from a janitor's closest. She started the faucet in the cheap fiberglass tub, before shouting over her shoulder. "What temperature do you want it at?"

Adrian was in the process of bringing the creature over, but was having some trouble with it. She knew from experience that he was strong enough to carry something that size without problem, but for some reason he was struggling.

"Room temperature will be fine. I believe that she just needs to be submerged for a period of time, but I am hardly an expert on her biology." He answered while unceremoniously dumping the thing on the floor of the bathroom. "True be told, I am not certain if this will fix the problem. Give me a hand, will you?"

[Her?]

Miranda helped him unroll the tarp, revealing a slender woman with grayish-blue skin and green hair. A tattered blanket was the only thing keeping her from full nudity, but enough of her was visible to show that she had a remarkably human anatomy, right down to the modest proof of her mammalian nature.

Adrian signaled that she should grab the creature's feet, and together, the two of them lifted her into the tub. By this point the water was high enough to completely cover the blue woman, and Miranda was surprised to see her desperate gasping slow and then ease. A gentle rippling motion occurred around her neck, revealing two sets of gills that had previously gone unnoticed.

Now that the danger had passed, Miranda turned towards Adrian. "What is she?"

"I haven't the foggiest. I literal just ran into her by chance, but she's quite interesting, right?" He answered with a fascinated smile on his face, gaze still locked on the creature under water.

[Well...it's not that interesting.] She thought to herself, feeling a twinge of what could only be jealousy. The sensation made her pause, as she ruthlessly located the source of the emotion and then expunged it. Adrian held her life in his hands. She could not afford to become emotional and make a mistake that would cost her. Besides, she refused to allow herself to fall victim to whatever supernaturally induced Stockholm Syndrome that this stemmed from.

Gaze dispassionate once more, she turned back to the creature. "What are you planning to do with it?"

"Why, I plan to save her. After all, I was just saying how we needed more customers. I can only imagine what a creature like her is capable of offering." He answered with a predatory smile.

One that gave her chills.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

It took nearly an hour for the woman to wake up. Adrian was still sitting next to the tub, idly reading a report on the Ortegas executives that Vance had compiled, and Miranda had long ago returned to her station, mainly on the off chance that someone called despite the late hours.

A sudden surge of motion broke the stillness of the room, as the woman frantically exploded from the water before backing herself into a corner eyes darting and c.h.e.s.t heaving in panic.

[Well, waking up in a strange place has that effect on someone. At least we can surmise from this that she has at least a few of the same emotional responses.]

"Calm down. You are safe." He droned in a soothing voice while taking his distance, and placing himself in front of the only door. "Do you understand me?"

The woman fixed her large black eyes on him, a glare from the overhead light reflecting off some kind of membrane covering them. Although clearly still terrified, she had the wherewithal to nod her understanding.

"Good. I found you dying in an alley, so I brought you back here. Thankfully, it looks like you've regained some measure of health thanks to the water." He motioned down to the tub, where the tattered blanket was crumpled on the bottom.

[Now that I have a chance to look at her, she's not too different from a human in terms of appearance alone. She even has a bit of sea-green body hair, so she can't be a fully aquatic creature.]

He understood intellectually, that the world had a supernatural element to it. The Hall alone was proof of that, but this was the first time he really experienced something completely foreign to what his knowledge and experience taught him. As such, he had every intention of learning what he could from her.

The woman continued to regard him in a manner that seemed suspicious, perhaps noting that she was trapped here with him.

"I am Adrian. Can you tell me your name?" He asked gently, hoping that he could coax her to respond in some manner.

She frowned at him in a manner that was distinctly human, although the alien quality of the eyes made the expression somewhat unnatural. Finally, she pointed at herself and said in a surprisingly low, gravely voice. "Byush'itella."

[I guess that's a name.]

"Right...well, are you feeling hungry?"

She stiffened slightly, looking recalcitrant, however a low growl emitted from her midsection that spoke for itself.

He laughed. "Come on. I can't let a guest go hungry. One of my subordinates brought a few things back. Let's go to the kitchen."

Although he had made the offer in a casual, off-handed sort of way, he had been watching her closely since she'd woken up, and noticed that she reacted to the word 'guest' by relaxing slightly. She nodded her acquiescence soon afterwards.

[So she has a command of the English language, and seems to understand some aspects of the concept of guest-rights. I guess mythology must have been based on something after all. As disturbing of a thought as that is.]

The office had a small kitchenette that had once served as a sort of break room. Vance's renovations had largely left it alone, save for the inclusion of a few appliances, such as a toaster oven and a microwave. As they arrived, he indicated that the woman should sit at the table while he prepared the food.

"Alright, what would you like to eat? We don't have much of a selection, but I'm sure we can whip something up." He made sure to keep his tone lighthearted throughout the appeal.

After a few moments of silence while the woman regarded him, she answered quietly. "Fish..."

[Seems a bit cannibalistic, but whatever. I'm pretty sure there were some trout fillets in the freezer...]

Adrian quickly threw together a rough meal using the electric range, serving it to her on a paper plate since no one had gotten proper dishes yet. The woman didn't waste any time in devouring it, and the entirety of a family sized bag of ch.i.p.s that he'd scrounged up to tide her over during the cooking process.

Once she was finished, she returned to watching him suspiciously. Adrian began to feel slightly annoyed after a few minutes of such silence.

"Now that you are fed and rested, do you perhaps want to talk about what happened to you? While I am uncertain of your circ.u.mstances, I can promise you that there is much I, and my organization, can offer to help rectify any issues you might have." He gave his best reassuring smile.

She stared at him again, evaluating him with those large eyes, before finally the dam broke and she began talking. "I was kidnapped from my home, and forced into a contract with a cruel practitioner. I spent years in his...service, but finally managed to escape when he let his guard down. I found myself in this city and did the best I could to hide."

[There is a lot to investigate here, but let's start with the basics and move to the complex.]

"You were near death when I found you, what exactly happened?"

"My kind require regular submersion in water. We can breathe both air and water, but staying on land for too long causes us to weaken and eventually die."

Adrian nodded, "And what exactly is your kind?"

She hesitated for a moment, uncertainty flickering across her features only to be replaced by resignation as she started speaking once more. "Although we have a name for ourselves, it is not known in this realm. However, I believe humans refer to us the Fae, and my kind specifically as Nokken.

[It seems my suspicion was accurate.]

"Interesting. Alright, Byush'itella, was it? I believe there is more to the story than you are telling me, but I will not press you on the issue at the moment. However, I think we have another issue to worry about. From the sounds of it, your former captor will be looking for you. Have you given any thought to what you will do next?"

She looked down pensively, "So long as the contract remains, I am bound to this realm. Since my captor will have means of tracking me down, I have little recourse but to continue to flee."

Her voice trailed off into near silence a she idly played with the plastic fork she'd used for her meal.

"Well then, perhaps I can offer an alternative."

"Can you?" The woman asked, a hint of hope in her tone.

"While I don't know for certain, I can safely say that there are many things that I can accomplish given sufficient motivation. There are at least four or five different ways I can think of solving your problem, all of which can be done without too much effort. However, I am not a saint. I do not work for free."

Adrian felt the Hall stir hungrily in the back of his mind, as the lights flickered and dimmed. "So, my dear, the question remains, what are you willing to pay for your freedom?"