Note: Follow-up to The Seventh Vice
Ignominious
"Reckoning time, boys."
The office of the Banker of the Seventh Vice had seemed grandiose, almost monumental, far too large for the solitary man behind the desk and filled with unnecessary lavishness. Gold and silver and even copper accents adorned everything. Now that Mensarius was standing on his feet, the massive beast of a velen towering over even Guadriar, with blood running down Culm's chin, the room suddenly felt very small indeed.
The black double doors flew open, the guards from outside rushing in with knives drawn. "Out!" Mensarius ordered, the golden glow in his eyes flaring. "Seal the doors! Let no one leave!"
Culm was already making his break for it, springing for the open doorway. The enlil of the pair, with bushy green feathers, snapped a hand out and grabbed Culm by the wrist, his talons latching tight on the man. Halted in his tracks, Culm's eyes went wide as the other guard hooked an arm around his middle, lifting him and bodily throwing him back into the room. The two men obediently ducked outside and slammed the doors shut behind them, leaving Guadriar and Culm alone with the Banker.
"I've had my eyes on you boys," Mensarius growled, walking around the table. He cracked his neck left, then right. His fingers trailed over some of the many shiny silver and gold trinkets on his desk. His skin was deep green but his scales were yellow-gold. Razor-sharp teeth glinted, tipped in silver. It was the eyes that seemed most threatening, though, glowing with golden light, almost blazing around the velen's pupils. "Think I haven't noticed your ambitions? Your appetite?" As he spoke, a diamond-shaped golden symbol materialized in the air in front of him, with streaks of black lightning. A rumbling sound filled the room and Culm could feel all the hairs on the backs of his arms tingling.
Guadriar's eyes were wide as he took several steps back, an arcane verse spilling from his lips. "The first vagrant used wit and bitter words did reflect," he chanted. Magic coiled around him, bursting into a flurry of white cloth, white robes that draped over and around his body, tingling with the power of Aquila.
No sooner than the vagrant's armor materialized, Mensarius slapped a many-ringed hand to the back of the portal, and the ominous rumbling transformed into deafening thunder! The room winked out, consumed by searing golden lightning. There was no chance to dodge, no hope to escape.
With a sound like shattering glass, though, the white armor of Manchu caught the lightning and sent it right back before bursting apart and flashing away into nothing. The lightning burst through the wall at the rear of the room, sending glass and stone flying to the streets below.
Guadriar stood there as he had before, in his black suit. Culm was on the floor to one side, wide-eyed but unharmed. The desk and the wall were in flames, coins and trophies melted by the powerful lightning.
Both men were left blinking rapidly to restore their vision, only to discover Mensarius stood unharmed. The lightning had passed straight through him.
"Quick wits, Guadriar. Too quick to be content with your lot, right?" Mensarius charged forward and slammed a meaty fist into the red-skinned velen's head. There was a heavy thunk as his head bounced off the doors behind him.
Culm lunged from the floor, stabbing with the silver pin he had smuggled in. The bigatium weapon passed through the Banker like smoke before he grabbed Culm by the throat and threw him back against the wall. The fixer had a surprise in store for him, though: he clicked his heels together, releasing a blade from one heel. This one was tipped in gold, a small auritium blade. He kicked his leg in a hook, trying to catch Mensarius behind the knee with the hidden knife.
It, too, passed right through the man.
"Yes, I've had to keep you boys in check. You borrowed money, and you'll pay back every dime. It's no matter of mine if you can't protect your investments! If you have setbacks, if you struggle with saboteurs, if you can't learn your place and pay your dues!" Mensarius slammed his fists into the two men, one after the other, seemingly uncaring of the fire continuing to spread in the room.
Finally, he stepped away, laughing heartily. Both men slumped to the floor, backs against the door. Mensarius walked over to the wall, looking at more of his wealth and trophies, pointing at a hanging display with a single x-shaped coin, sapphire blue, the rare caelitium. Such coins were mostly ceremonial, too valuable for regular circulation. "You want to rise up in Lupanar? You better pay your dues! I own this city! The Nefastus commissioned the Lucky Sevens to make this bank, and paid up-front. We've been in charge since day one!"
Guadriar was groaning and shared a look with Culm, who looked even worse for wear. "I've heard the rumors. Up to nine, is it? You and your fixer, your little metal assassin, the haughty enlil whore. You've been talking. Making plans. Plotting for Nine to overthrow the Sevens, perhaps?
"How ignominious." Mensarius laughed and moved to kick Guadriar in the teeth. Culm threw himself in front of the velen, taking the golden slipper in the throat. He gasped and wheezed, clutching at his throat as he struggled to breathe. "You know, you could have gone far. Could have learned your place, stayed with the Sevens, worked your way up instead of trying to go your own way. For what? This trash?"
"Worked my way up to what?" Guadriar demanded, gnashing his teeth. "Your errand boy? Another suit behind a desk? The Lucky Sevens are pitiful, greedy, and uninspiring. Whatever lofty aspirations you once had disappeared the moment you decided holding other people's riches was good enough for you. A loan shark in a gaudy office. Why not move to the Dioecesis?"
Mensarius glowered and then flashed a dark smile, reaching down to grab Guadriar by the throat. "Of the two of us, which one is bleeding, bruised, and about to spend the next seven years asking, begging, for a straw to eat with? That, boys, is what is truly pitiful." Eyes narrowing, the golden glow flaring brighter, Mensarius growled, "Your little power grab was destined to fail. You thought you could come into my house and disrespect me? You thought your little gathering of misfits could stand in the same room as the Nefastus? Think again."
"Don't insult my partners! You have no idea what..!"
"Just... stop... talking!" Culm snarled, voice raspy. He kicked with his boot knife, then stabbed with his pin. Again and again he sliced and kicked, every attack passing through Mensarius like smoke. The big velen laughed arrogantly before finally grabbing Culm and slamming a knee into his stomach. Culm fell to his knees and vomited all over the marble floors. The Banker was a vistra. Did that really make him invincible?
Culm's eyes flitted desperately around the office while Mensarius sauntered over to open a drawer on the desk. So much gold, so much silver, everything unnecessarily gaudy.
But no green? Mensarius was perhaps the richest man in Lupanar, but even this travesty of an office held nothing of the emerald-colored vitatium. The only caelitium was that solitary coin.
Understanding sparked, but before he could act, Mensarius was already returning, with a golden-barreled, break-action handgun. He cracked open the barrel and slid a bullet inside, clicking it shut and pointing at Culm. His eyes were on Guadriar. "Maybe it's time you get a lesson in why you need to stay in your place."
Nothing to lose. Culm shoved himself off the floor and cocked his fist back, throwing a punch in the Banker's direction. As expected, the velen laughed as the attack, and Culm, phased right through him. Glass shattered as his fist took down the display case, blood splashing the walls as the glass lacerated his hands. Mensarius casually turned around, cocking the hammer back.
He lifted an eyebrow at seeing Culm going for another punch. "Will you never lear..? Ulk?!" His golden eyes went wide and Mensarius dropped the handgun. Big meaty palms grabbed onto Culm, lifting the man off his feet and throwing him across the room. There was a white-hot jolt of pain and Mensarius clutched at his throat, a terrified, wet sound bubbling from his throat. He lifted his hands up to his eyes, realizing they were covered in thick, hot blood.
Blood poured down his front, soaking into the expensive threads of his suit. Eyes wide, he goggled at Culm, lying on the floor trying to regain his bearings. In his fist, he clutched the Banker's caelitium exa. Two spikes of the cross protruded between his fingers, dripping with velen blood. No mist this time.
Guadriar rose to his feet, clutching an arm across his ribs. He looked at Culm, struggling to figure out what just happened. As the Banker clutched his throat, trying to stem the bleeding, Guadriar laughed. "How ignominious," he said, throwing the Banker's own words back at him.
The word felt right.
Mensarius made one last desperate lunge at Culm, who was rising to his feet, but the bruised and battered fixer easily side-stepped the sluggish attack, looking right into the big velen's eyes while he bled out, caelitium coin clutched tightly in his fist.
Guadriar threw open the black doors. The two guards looked surprised to see him standing, one reaching for a knife while the other looked past them into the room. "Our dues are paid up," Guadriar declared, confident they wouldn't try anything. "Let's go, Culm." As he turned around, his eyebrows raised.
The golden glow had left the eyes of Mensarius, although his body still twitched.
Culm was staring off into the distance, seemingly unaware of the room around them.
His eyes were glowing blue.
Ignominious
Wordcount: 1,659
"Reckoning time, boys."
The office of the Banker of the Seventh Vice had seemed grandiose, almost monumental, far too large for the solitary man behind the desk and filled with unnecessary lavishness. Gold and silver and even copper accents adorned everything. Now that Mensarius was standing on his feet, the massive beast of a velen towering over even Guadriar, with blood running down Culm's chin, the room suddenly felt very small indeed.
The black double doors flew open, the guards from outside rushing in with knives drawn. "Out!" Mensarius ordered, the golden glow in his eyes flaring. "Seal the doors! Let no one leave!"
Culm was already making his break for it, springing for the open doorway. The enlil of the pair, with bushy green feathers, snapped a hand out and grabbed Culm by the wrist, his talons latching tight on the man. Halted in his tracks, Culm's eyes went wide as the other guard hooked an arm around his middle, lifting him and bodily throwing him back into the room. The two men obediently ducked outside and slammed the doors shut behind them, leaving Guadriar and Culm alone with the Banker.
"I've had my eyes on you boys," Mensarius growled, walking around the table. He cracked his neck left, then right. His fingers trailed over some of the many shiny silver and gold trinkets on his desk. His skin was deep green but his scales were yellow-gold. Razor-sharp teeth glinted, tipped in silver. It was the eyes that seemed most threatening, though, glowing with golden light, almost blazing around the velen's pupils. "Think I haven't noticed your ambitions? Your appetite?" As he spoke, a diamond-shaped golden symbol materialized in the air in front of him, with streaks of black lightning. A rumbling sound filled the room and Culm could feel all the hairs on the backs of his arms tingling.
Guadriar's eyes were wide as he took several steps back, an arcane verse spilling from his lips. "The first vagrant used wit and bitter words did reflect," he chanted. Magic coiled around him, bursting into a flurry of white cloth, white robes that draped over and around his body, tingling with the power of Aquila.
No sooner than the vagrant's armor materialized, Mensarius slapped a many-ringed hand to the back of the portal, and the ominous rumbling transformed into deafening thunder! The room winked out, consumed by searing golden lightning. There was no chance to dodge, no hope to escape.
With a sound like shattering glass, though, the white armor of Manchu caught the lightning and sent it right back before bursting apart and flashing away into nothing. The lightning burst through the wall at the rear of the room, sending glass and stone flying to the streets below.
Guadriar stood there as he had before, in his black suit. Culm was on the floor to one side, wide-eyed but unharmed. The desk and the wall were in flames, coins and trophies melted by the powerful lightning.
Both men were left blinking rapidly to restore their vision, only to discover Mensarius stood unharmed. The lightning had passed straight through him.
"Quick wits, Guadriar. Too quick to be content with your lot, right?" Mensarius charged forward and slammed a meaty fist into the red-skinned velen's head. There was a heavy thunk as his head bounced off the doors behind him.
Culm lunged from the floor, stabbing with the silver pin he had smuggled in. The bigatium weapon passed through the Banker like smoke before he grabbed Culm by the throat and threw him back against the wall. The fixer had a surprise in store for him, though: he clicked his heels together, releasing a blade from one heel. This one was tipped in gold, a small auritium blade. He kicked his leg in a hook, trying to catch Mensarius behind the knee with the hidden knife.
It, too, passed right through the man.
"Yes, I've had to keep you boys in check. You borrowed money, and you'll pay back every dime. It's no matter of mine if you can't protect your investments! If you have setbacks, if you struggle with saboteurs, if you can't learn your place and pay your dues!" Mensarius slammed his fists into the two men, one after the other, seemingly uncaring of the fire continuing to spread in the room.
Finally, he stepped away, laughing heartily. Both men slumped to the floor, backs against the door. Mensarius walked over to the wall, looking at more of his wealth and trophies, pointing at a hanging display with a single x-shaped coin, sapphire blue, the rare caelitium. Such coins were mostly ceremonial, too valuable for regular circulation. "You want to rise up in Lupanar? You better pay your dues! I own this city! The Nefastus commissioned the Lucky Sevens to make this bank, and paid up-front. We've been in charge since day one!"
Guadriar was groaning and shared a look with Culm, who looked even worse for wear. "I've heard the rumors. Up to nine, is it? You and your fixer, your little metal assassin, the haughty enlil whore. You've been talking. Making plans. Plotting for Nine to overthrow the Sevens, perhaps?
"How ignominious." Mensarius laughed and moved to kick Guadriar in the teeth. Culm threw himself in front of the velen, taking the golden slipper in the throat. He gasped and wheezed, clutching at his throat as he struggled to breathe. "You know, you could have gone far. Could have learned your place, stayed with the Sevens, worked your way up instead of trying to go your own way. For what? This trash?"
"Worked my way up to what?" Guadriar demanded, gnashing his teeth. "Your errand boy? Another suit behind a desk? The Lucky Sevens are pitiful, greedy, and uninspiring. Whatever lofty aspirations you once had disappeared the moment you decided holding other people's riches was good enough for you. A loan shark in a gaudy office. Why not move to the Dioecesis?"
Mensarius glowered and then flashed a dark smile, reaching down to grab Guadriar by the throat. "Of the two of us, which one is bleeding, bruised, and about to spend the next seven years asking, begging, for a straw to eat with? That, boys, is what is truly pitiful." Eyes narrowing, the golden glow flaring brighter, Mensarius growled, "Your little power grab was destined to fail. You thought you could come into my house and disrespect me? You thought your little gathering of misfits could stand in the same room as the Nefastus? Think again."
"Don't insult my partners! You have no idea what..!"
"Just... stop... talking!" Culm snarled, voice raspy. He kicked with his boot knife, then stabbed with his pin. Again and again he sliced and kicked, every attack passing through Mensarius like smoke. The big velen laughed arrogantly before finally grabbing Culm and slamming a knee into his stomach. Culm fell to his knees and vomited all over the marble floors. The Banker was a vistra. Did that really make him invincible?
Culm's eyes flitted desperately around the office while Mensarius sauntered over to open a drawer on the desk. So much gold, so much silver, everything unnecessarily gaudy.
But no green? Mensarius was perhaps the richest man in Lupanar, but even this travesty of an office held nothing of the emerald-colored vitatium. The only caelitium was that solitary coin.
Understanding sparked, but before he could act, Mensarius was already returning, with a golden-barreled, break-action handgun. He cracked open the barrel and slid a bullet inside, clicking it shut and pointing at Culm. His eyes were on Guadriar. "Maybe it's time you get a lesson in why you need to stay in your place."
Nothing to lose. Culm shoved himself off the floor and cocked his fist back, throwing a punch in the Banker's direction. As expected, the velen laughed as the attack, and Culm, phased right through him. Glass shattered as his fist took down the display case, blood splashing the walls as the glass lacerated his hands. Mensarius casually turned around, cocking the hammer back.
He lifted an eyebrow at seeing Culm going for another punch. "Will you never lear..? Ulk?!" His golden eyes went wide and Mensarius dropped the handgun. Big meaty palms grabbed onto Culm, lifting the man off his feet and throwing him across the room. There was a white-hot jolt of pain and Mensarius clutched at his throat, a terrified, wet sound bubbling from his throat. He lifted his hands up to his eyes, realizing they were covered in thick, hot blood.
Blood poured down his front, soaking into the expensive threads of his suit. Eyes wide, he goggled at Culm, lying on the floor trying to regain his bearings. In his fist, he clutched the Banker's caelitium exa. Two spikes of the cross protruded between his fingers, dripping with velen blood. No mist this time.
Guadriar rose to his feet, clutching an arm across his ribs. He looked at Culm, struggling to figure out what just happened. As the Banker clutched his throat, trying to stem the bleeding, Guadriar laughed. "How ignominious," he said, throwing the Banker's own words back at him.
The word felt right.
Mensarius made one last desperate lunge at Culm, who was rising to his feet, but the bruised and battered fixer easily side-stepped the sluggish attack, looking right into the big velen's eyes while he bled out, caelitium coin clutched tightly in his fist.
Guadriar threw open the black doors. The two guards looked surprised to see him standing, one reaching for a knife while the other looked past them into the room. "Our dues are paid up," Guadriar declared, confident they wouldn't try anything. "Let's go, Culm." As he turned around, his eyebrows raised.
The golden glow had left the eyes of Mensarius, although his body still twitched.
Culm was staring off into the distance, seemingly unaware of the room around them.
His eyes were glowing blue.