The Talamasca Motherhouse

[XCandy and LunacyX]

The only response Antha gave to Singe's actions were a quiet tilt of her head and eventually a vague smile. "Merci, monsieur," she said softly, touching her healed fingers to his cold, hard cheek. Invoking Singe's jealousy was such a difficult thing not to do---she didn't even bother trying to avoid it anymore. "He won't have me," she assured him, her lips whispering at his ear as she pressed her cheek to his, "And my affections for Khayman are never as you fear. Even so, I would not spoil him in such a manner." That said, she withdrew back to Khayman and bid Singe go forward to do his part.
She couldn't help but cast her gaze on Vikteren for a few solid moments to look for some reaction, grinning wildly. It was a damnable practice to some, signing one's soul away to a spell. When everything was said and done, they would live of course. But should problems arise, the damage could never completely be undone. It was a risk they had no choice but to take, though; the umbra were not about to assist without something to go on, and many would sign away their very essence indefinitely for the chance to seize Antha Evelyn Mayfair's soul.
Needless to say, these were not umbra she kept at her side.

 

[.David Talbot.]

He had to take a deep breath to force himself to go forward and cross the room to the last star, the cuts he made in his hand very deep so that it took only a second for the blood to make an imprint. Singe had done this only once before, though he had seen Antha do it several times, and he had never been able to shake that mild fear. His hand trembled when he spelled out 'Mikael Hawkins' beneath the hand print and he couldn't get back to Antha fast enough. He gave the knife back to Aaron, his eyes cast down, and stood at Antha's side until she was prepared to spread out, each of them next to their star.
Khayman watched with fascination, a very different kind than David and Aaron's. He scourged the minds of the three who signed themselves away and gathered what he could of the procedure. Instantly he was frightened for frail little Antha.

 

[Vikteren]

Vikteren watched the events with mistrust in his eyes. He'd seen enough of Cyrus's workings--and participated in enough--that he knew what they were signing away. And part of him wanted to slide his hand through Rynn's chest right now and rip his heart out, because of what he brought with him.
But he wouldn't. Because now her blood was spotting the floor, and it was Atticus and Singe and Antha who would pay if the ritual was disrupted.
So the vampire held his silence, and stood at the door, and summoned the wards and evocations he knew to the front of his mind.
So that when the time came, he would be ready.  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

Though she lingered beside Khayman for several more moments and gently touched Singe's shoulder to calm him, Antha's eyes did not leave Vikteren. The concern in them was hard to deny. "Every spell has its price. It's not unusual for it to be so very high," she said softly after she had gone to him, standing perhaps a foot away and looking up at him with a faint glimmer in her eyes, "And Rynn can't pay such a price all by himself. Besides, if the worst happens, how much more insane can I really become?" She grinned wickedly at her own joke for a moment before turning around and skipping over to her star, beckoning for Atticus and Singe to do so as well and for Rynn to come forward and take his place in the middle of the web of runes. "Come out, come out wherever you are," she called into the air, mentally ushering in every entity within the confines of Osiris City that was not held in her network and would cooperate for the chance they were being presented with. "Call it, Rynn," she said carefully to him, flashing an encouraging smile as she came up beside him to hand him the knife and appeared again beside her star, "Cut something---anything that will bleed, really---and use the blood to trace the circle around you. Then, find the umbra through your sister's mind and draw it in, beckon to it with every bit of power you can muster. If you can get it here successfully, Atticus and I can handle the rest."

 

[Rynn Calais]

+Rotting Lunacy+

Though she lingered beside Khayman for several more moments and gently touched Singe's shoulder to calm him, Antha's eyes did not leave Vikteren. The concern in them was hard to deny. "Every spell has its price. It's not unusual for it to be so very high," she said softly after she had gone to him, standing perhaps a foot away and looking up at him with a faint glimmer in her eyes, "And Rynn can't pay such a price all by himself. Besides, if the worst happens, how much more insane can I really become?" She grinned wickedly at her own joke for a moment before turning around and skipping over to her star, beckoning for Atticus and Singe to do so as well and for Rynn to come forward and take his place in the middle of the web of runes. "Come out, come out wherever you are," she called into the air, mentally ushering in every entity within the confines of Osiris City that was not held in her network and would cooperate for the chance they were being presented with. "Call it, Rynn," she said carefully to him, flashing an encouraging smile as she came up beside him to hand him the knife and appeared again beside her star, "Cut something---anything that will bleed, really---and use the blood to trace the circle around you. Then, find the umbra through your sister's mind and draw it in, beckon to it with every bit of power you can muster. If you can get it here successfully, Atticus and I can handle the rest."

Rynn's family was familiar with blood rituals.
His hand didn't even shake as he accepted the knife and stepped forward. He steadied himself, found his power, and let it ebb forth from the protected center of himself. Then he sliced his palm open.
Blood began to drip almost immediately forth, falling in heavy crimson drops upon the circle, and he led it to completion within a few moments.
He stood there, quietly, for a number of seconds. Then he found the link to his twin, and called upon it in a manner he had not attempted for almost a year.
It flamed into life, jolting Rynn as though he'd been shocked, and suddenly the spirit--the umbra--the malevolent parasite that had infested his sibling--was in the circle, in the shape of his sister.
His other sister.
"Brother," she said, in a soft and lilting voice, holding out her small white hands to him. Her white dress fluttered as though in a breeze.
"Half-bred b***h," he said, in an equally pleasant tone.  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

Antha's head tilted to the side, eyes watching in a curiosity akin to fascination. The umbra had taken hold of her by this time, naturally, chaining her in place and prying forcefully into the fortress she had made of her mind, but she paid them no attention, only casting her eyes at Singe and Atticus on either side of Rynn in the distance. She barely even realized it when they had pierced straight through to a heavily guarded recess of her mind that even Antha herself could not access. Before she knew it she couldn't pay attention to Rynn, to the entire room around her, but only saw the flood of hasty, vivid images. Perhaps most brilliant in her mind's eye was the swirling horror that had been her own painful death, though it had lasted less than two minutes. Somewhere beyond that she was staring down at Lawrence through the bars on her cage, Nicolae had his fangs in her neck with the intention to kill her, and she was collapsed against the attic floor with her father looming over her tiny form.
The leeches swarming about her were very quick to soak this up, closing in around her so tightly that it was beginning to physically hurt.

 

[.David Talbot.]

Singe's eyebrows arched when he saw the form that appeared before Rynn, even more so when he heard the words they uttered to one another. Maybe it was just because Singe found Rynn more favorable than the others did, but it seemed to him that they didn't find this fascinating enough.
He went to look from Atticus, who's black eyebrows were knit in concentration as a few outcasts straggled around him, to Antha and immediately the alarm rose noticeably in him. You could see the panic in his face as he watched the change come over her. "Antha!" he cried in a whisper. As much as he didn't want to interrupt Rynn, he felt the need to call attention to her. Every minute they spent locked in the spell was another minute Antha was reliving every atrocity and misery her agonizing curse of a life had provided her with. His were small and unimportant. He had made peace with the few bad memories he had. Antha had enough stored in her mind to break her in half.

 

[Hell Is Upon Us]

Lawrence was the one to sense Antha's pain first, sitting all alone at his desk at the Mayfair and Mayfair building. Lawrence had always show a favoritism to Antha over his other little cousins. He had a very keen awareness of her as a result. "Anthie," he murmured into his paperwork.
It was a strong belief to Lawrence that peoples abilities developed based on their personality. Often Lawrence needed to be in two places at once. So it was no trouble for him to sit dazed and still at his desk while his mind closed the distance between him and his little cousin. He had trouble thinking of her as his aunt most of the time.
"Anthie," he repeated when he appeared around her. His image was hazy and flawed because he wasn't so good at it but it was enough to put his insubstantial arms around her for comfort. Being an aristocrat in her demented society he knew enough not to meddle and keep them at bay but he wanted to do what he could.
Lawrence had always known the Talamasca would do no good. Not for her.  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

"Leave, Lawrence," was all Antha had to say, her tone pleasant in a sharp and nearly delirious manner and her words very slightly slurred by her complete inability to focus. She had a mental picture for a moment, meshing in haphazardly and painfully with the violent explosions of images, of Hannibal Lecter dissecting his victim's brain. It made her giggle, disoriented and out of her mind quite obviously. The tone of torment coloring every noise she made ended up giving an effect to strike genuine fear for those who worried about her. She knew from observation that some people reacted this way to strong drugs, though never her, and it made her grin crookedly. But never mind that, her breath had become worryingly short. "Atticus," she managed finally, voice soft with distance, her eyes flickering to the ghost presence and penetrating it as well as she could with her lack of concentration, gathering molecules to it to make it visible to Atticus's special eye that did not have his powers. "I'm sorry, Rynn." Every word she spoke seemed to push her a little more over the line of complete dementia in appearance. The inability to make her tone serious or keep her eyes from trailing off or even properly construct her sentences was a real bother. "I'm sorry, but she could take over us now. We have to cut it or she could invade one of the four of us." Her face contorted strangely as she tried her best to keep her eyes focused on him and her tone even, even though she could not bring the images from her eyes forth any longer. "I apologize, but it has to be done now." She was pleased to hear her words come out perfectly clear this time.

 

[Rynn Calais]

+Rotting Lunacy+

"Leave, Lawrence," was all Antha had to say, her tone pleasant in a sharp and nearly delirious manner and her words very slightly slurred by her complete inability to focus. She had a mental picture for a moment, meshing in haphazardly and painfully with the violent explosions of images, of Hannibal Lecter dissecting his victim's brain. It made her giggle, disoriented and out of her mind quite obviously. The tone of torment coloring every noise she made ended up giving an effect to strike genuine fear for those who worried about her. She knew from observation that some people reacted this way to strong drugs, though never her, and it made her grin crookedly. But never mind that, her breath had become worryingly short. "Atticus," she managed finally, voice soft with distance, her eyes flickering to the ghost presence and penetrating it as well as she could with her lack of concentration, gathering molecules to it to make it visible to Atticus's special eye that did not have his powers. "I'm sorry, Rynn." Every word she spoke seemed to push her a little more over the line of complete dementia in appearance. The inability to make her tone serious or keep her eyes from trailing off or even properly construct her sentences was a real bother. "I'm sorry, but she could take over us now. We have to cut it or she could invade one of the four of us." Her face contorted strangely as she tried her best to keep her eyes focused on him and her tone even, even though she could not bring the images from her eyes forth any longer. "I apologize, but it has to be done now." She was pleased to hear her words come out perfectly clear this time.

The girl in the circle was examining all four of them with an exquisitely calm expression on her face. "So you brought help, brother. Did you not think yourself able to end my existence of your own accord?"
Rynn had a look on his face that would have been enough to freeze any living being's blood.
"Ah. I shall take that as a 'yes', then." she said, turning back to him. The white shift she wore fluttered, as though in a breeze that did not affect the rest of the room. She put her hands behind her back.
"You know very well why I cannot," he said, tone full of venom. "It is the reason why you have chosen to torment my twin, instead of one of my more capable brothers."
The girl in the circle arched a brow. "Your brothers, Rynn? They are mine as well."
Rynn's hands clenched, his teeth gritting. Through the deafening roar of cold, tight fury, he heard Antha's words dimly.
Only then did he notice her state.
A muttered curse under his breath, and he nodded.

"Enough of this."  

[.David Talbot.]

His left eye differed a bit from his right. It had the same color and moved in harmony with the other but it was a bit glassier, harder, and sharper. Antha had done a spectacular job though, really she had. When the phantom appeared in the second half of his vision his eyes narrowed at it, straining the image until he could see the very basic make-up of the thing. He drew it in. Like a net invisible to everything but himself and his prisoner the magic extended from the orb Antha had fitted him with and closed firmly around the ghost, dragging it to him and tightening so that the being had to thin out and lengthen. This his eye absorbed, just slurped right up. It worked to mash it out into it's simplest elements and within a few minutes the conscience had faded and only the raw energy was left, feeding his fake eye and making his vision brighter and clearer.
"Antha!" Nicolae had drawn very close to his little sister when he had noticed her state and when he saw the spirit was completely gone and the spell broken he called out to her. He didn't dare touch her in case the magic lingered on her, a fact that kept Singe away too, but his attention was focused completely on her reaction. Khayman too was anxious and he watched her closely.

 

[XCandy and LunacyX]

When Antha was released, she did not fall to the floor---she collapsed. Her head hit stone with a dull crack and her legs crumpled beneath her. Everything in her hazed mind swirled quickly again, only now in reverse, and after a few moments it was chained up within her heavily guarded subconscious again. The dementia gripping her mind seemed to stretch tightly, putting her on edge, highly frantic and muttering something she didn't even know, before it snapped cleanly and she was completely released. Her eyes relayed the patterns of light and color to her again, her mind kept focused, and she knew precisely what she was doing. The only effect of the experience now was the fact that she was on the floor, a very light sheen of cold sweat on her skin and the faintest bit of blood joining her hair in the back of her head. Her fingers reached tiredly behind her head and felt the wound, probing her skull to find it had not cracked at least, and letting her inner eye make certain her brain had sustained no damage. Other than a few bruises and the small, bleeding wound, the fall had done nothing to her. "Very well," she sighed softly, eyes staring up at the dank ceiling, "That should be it." It took her a moment, but she was able to successfully push herself forward so that she sat up within the star, arms outstretched to the floor behind her for support. "Please do come visit us again sometime, Rynn. Singe seems to have found a playmate in you." She flashed her sweet smile, though her expression was tinged with an exhaustion resulting from stress, and cast her glittering eyes at Singe to assure him she was only teasing the childish boy.

 

[.David Talbot.]

Nicolae sighed softly with relief. "C'mon, missy," he said, lifting her from the floor as if she were weightless, "We have a thief to catch. You don't want him to get away do you?" Instantly he had vanished along with his little sister, a good bit faster than the average vampire, tracking the scent and landing in less than 60 seconds in a dark street downtown.

 

[XCandy and LunacyX]

Vikteren. Her thoughts were soft as she directed them over the distance to him, a careful barrier around them. You'll come home, won't you? her voice pleaded. There seemed to be nothing particularly strange to her about calling Satis House Vikteren's home for now.

 

[Vikteren]

+Rotting Lunacy+

Vikteren. Her thoughts were soft as she directed them over the distance to him, a careful barrier around them. You'll come home, won't you? her voice pleaded. There seemed to be nothing particularly strange to her about calling Satis House Vikteren's home for now.

A brush of mental energy flitted against her thoughts reassuringly, light as the flutter of a butterfly's wings. Comforting, somehow, despite its evanescance. Vikteren did not believe such an obvious question demanded a vocal response.
He gave both Aaron and David brief nods, and left the Motherhouse.