Ian blinked his eyes open and stretched as he awoke late on the afternoon of the day he'd been captured. He frowned as he heard Ember shouting from the living room of his apartment. 'Their' apartment, he corrected himself with a smile. Getting up and slipping on a pair of sweats, he made his way out of the bedroom. He chuckled at the sight that met him and leaned against the doorjamb with his arms crossed.
Ember was standing in the middle of the living room with a controller in her hands yelling into her headset, "OWNED bitches! Your head was like splat. What's that? I can't hear your whining over the ass whooping you're getting..." He smiled as he saw her enjoying the shooting game they'd gotten for the console she'd forced him to buy during their little shopping spree the day before.
"Fuck these noobs," another voice said. "Oh shit, watch me knife this sniper in the back." Ian wasn't surprised to see the revenant sitting on the couch holding the other controller. What did surprise him was Grim's voice coming from beneath the hood. When had he learned to do that? Just then, a knock on the door sounded and he moved to answer it.
Opening the front door, he was surprised to see Val, red-faced and giddy with excitement. Her face flushed an even deeper shade of red as she caught sight of his shirtless, lightly toned body. Then whatever had her so energized must have overwhelmed her because, before he could ask what she was doing here and how she'd managed to arrive, she shouted delightedly, "We've got new sponsors!" and chucked something at him as she dashed past.
Ian gave an amused snort and looked down at what she had tossed his way. His mouth dried up as he saw the engraved bull on the back of the car key. "Damn..." he muttered. "I'm going to have to ward the shit out of this one before I decide to risk parking it anywhere near the Industrial District."
Val shivered in remembrance. "The drive over was pretty awesome," she commented. "Some dude actually came by the warehouse to drop it off and there were a bunch of papers we had to sign before taking it. He said something about it being one-of-a-kind and there was a lot of legal shit involved I couldn't follow." Ian hummed in response.
As he was about to close the door, he recognized a spirit he was becoming quite familiar with waving to get his attention and pointing down the hallway. Her ghostly presence was the same one that had warned him back in his hometown that the Inquisition goons were coming. She was by far the most coherent and agreeable spirit he'd ever met and she'd taken to staying close to him. He sometimes wondered if she wasn't just an echo or shadow of something left behind, but a soul that had chosen to remain.
Val glanced curiously his way as he continued to hold the door open. Finally, Ian called out in a loud voice, "You might as well come in. I'm not going to stand here forever..." Tentatively, a hooded figure moved from behind the corner of the hallway and walked towards him. He noted with a raised eyebrow that she carried a pretty impressive gear bag over her shoulder
As she came into view, Val exclaimed, "It's you!" Ember glanced over and gave a neutral grunt before going back to her game. Grim on the other hand wanted to see who their cute visitor was and left the revenant to float over and get a better look. Her dirty blonde hair came out of her hood in spiky locks to cover her face and she pulled the sweatshirt she was wearing around her tighter in response to their scrutiny.
"How'd you know I was there?" she asked Ian with a wary expression, ignoring Val's outburst.
Ian chuckled. "It's hard to hide from the dead," he remarked furtively. He allowed the spirit of the young girl to appear beside her, making her jump in fright.
"Y- you- you're a..." she sputtered nonsensically.
Ian frowned and looked towards the others. "I thought she was at the clearing," he asked, confused."
"She left before you lost it and raised an army of spirits," Ember commented without taking her eyes off the screen.
"Way to keep a low profile, slick," Grim laughed.
Ian made a face before figuring there was nothing for it now. Turning back to the newcomer and observing her closely, he said, "Let me guess, you're the Church-sanctioned assassin Ember told me about."
Her eyes blazed as she retorted, "The Church has nothing to do with that!"
Ember glanced over, surprised at the Demon Slayer's changed outlook. Val suddenly exclaimed, "You bitch! You followed me here, didn't you?"
Dani looked a little abashed at that and muttered self-righteously, "I had questions that needed answering. When I found out the warlock- necromancer..." she corrected with a shudder, "wasn't at the complex and then saw you leaving, I decided to follow you." A small smile slid passed her mask. "You were pretty hard to lose. Where'd you learn to drive?"
Val, incensed, made to rush her, but was stopped by a look from Ian. He sighed heavily and turned towards Dani with a sour gaze. As the girl squirmed under his attention, he finally said, "The problem is there's a tracking spell on you that almost certainly stopped transmitting when you came through my wards."
The girl's eyes widened and she sputtered out, "T- that's not possible. How? Who?"
Grim scoffed and said, "Who do you think, sunshine? Your esteemed order isn't about to just let you walk off after all they've invested so much into you."
She shook her head furiously. "N- no way! There are no mages in the Church. There are priests that can heal and crusaders that receive other boons, but no one that can cast actual spells. There's just no..." Her breathing picked up and she heard Ember give a humorless snort. 'No,' she silently denied. The revelation hit her like a thunderbolt and she slowly sunk down onto a chair as her legs gave out. The 9th Order, sworn enemy of mages, actually used them to keep track of her. 'Those hypocritical sons of bitches,' she roared into the depths of her consciousness.
She bowed her head and rested it in her hands as tears threatened to break out for what felt like the hundredth time since the night before. Everything she'd given over to the Order... All she'd done for them... So many lies and so many sins to atone for. Val saw the distressed girl, plagued by her own demons, and felt a tinge of sympathy. Dani's head shot up as she felt a slight tingle.
"There," Ian responded to her curious look. "The tracking spell is removed. I doubt they can actually trace the exact route you took, but it would've looked suspicious if it stopped and then started transmitting again. At least this way it's conceivable that they might think you've died." She looked up at him astonished, wondering how he could have done it so quickly and why he would chose to help someone who, by all accounts, had nearly gotten him killed.
He shrugged at her curious, conflicted expression and left her alone to her thoughts, dropping down on the couch next to Ember. From what he'd gathered from his lover's account and what he saw in the girl, he imagined she was at a crossroads in life (not too unlike how he'd felt quite recently), wondering what to do next. She didn't 'appear' to be a threat, so he figured her sticking around to do some soul searching wouldn't hurt anyone.
Scraps, now himself, got up and walked over to the window to read. Val dropped into his vacant spot and began describing the events of last night since they'd parted from her perspective. This included a dramatic telling of Ember valiantly ferrying children wrapped in her wings past walls of flame that had even the coldhearted succubus with ice in her veins blushing like a schoolgirl on her prom night.
Apparently there was quite the buzz in Central surrounding the feats they'd performed, particularly since everyone had considered their group weak and on borrowed time. There was a flood of new sponsors that, coupled with their cut of the payment from the jobs, would easily pay for a new, larger shelter to be built. Forrester and Bobby were also talking about new housing arrangements and weapons shipments.
She cleared her throat. "Anyway, I didn't just come for a social call. There is a meeting in Central tonight that will include most of the main powers in Seattle. The factions that will be represented include all the gangs and the Were clan, as well as the Church and Inquisition in advising positions, with the crafting guilds observing. It's important that all the gangs are represented equally so the established etiquette is that two people are sent for each group: the leader and their chosen champion."
"Until you came along," she continued, "we didn't have a proper champion and had to pretty much fold on all issues that were raised. Otherwise, another gang could've challenged us openly and we would have been taken over outright following a defeat."
Ian interrupted, "I thought the whole point of me being over here was to keep a low profile. Won't people pay attention if I suddenly show up out of the blue to a major gathering like this?"
She smiled at him. "After last night, people have already noticed you." She paused. "You made... quite an impression. I think the only thing we can do now is run with it. The Were haven't made it known that you're a necromancer, but if- when it comes out, we'll just have to bear the heat. You are our champion and Forrester will likely use that fact mercilessly to his advantage when voting on issues. Most will probably back off because you are an unknown, but there's a strong chance you'll be... tested."
