genessia | (no subject)

Let it never be said that Harry Dresden was not a forgiving, kind boss, especially around the holidays. For instance, even though he had his newest employee working all day on Christmas Eve he had no problem with adding an extra coal to the fire to keep warm.

You know, if there was a fireplace in the office. Or if the heating worked right half the time.

Harry had set his newest deputy Guardian to work on the task that nobody ever wanted to do but what every new guy in history had managed to pull: inventory, taking stock of all the various supernatural objects and spells he had locked up in the office's evidence room. He had given him a clipboard, a pen and a set of specific instructions such as "don't read anything outloud, ignore any voices whispering to you, and for God's sake, leave the glass case with the doll alone."

Harry, meanwhile, was up front at his desk looking over charts and maps of the town and scribbling down a few eldritch calculations. Even in this town, an invasion by giant zombies was not business as usual and when things weren't business as usual he got suspicious and started poking at things.

Finally, he sat back, scrubbing a hand over his face thoughtfully and stood up, heading to the door to the evidence room and calling inside.

"Hey, kid, grab your coat. It's time for some legwork."

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"We meet again," Lust smiled, closing her eyes and inclining her head slightly at Jaune.

If she was annoyed at the snark, or at the long wait while the two paranoid adventurers tip-toe'd into the old mausoleum, it sure didn't show.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to come up here. Judging by the looks on your faces, I'd say you were expecting somebody else."

They didn't really think the necromancer would be somewhere so cliched and obvious, did they? ........Oh, they did. How foolish. Lust shook her head, never budging from where she perched on the stone still with her long legs crossed. She turned her head to gaze out across the town and surrounding woods, blanketed by a thick fog. "Come here, wizard. I have a task for you."

"Erf." Harry grunted when Jaune bumped into him, and he slowly shot a look back over his shoulder. Okay, okay. They could work on the subtle cues.

Wait, meet again? He turned back to the mysterious woman with the question already loaded before he realized just who it was directed at. And Jaune got another, questioning look, You two know each other?

That would have to wait though, as the mystery strumpet speaks up again.

"Oh yeah? Well, I can hear you just fine from over here so howsabout we all stay where we are before we start talking about tasks?"

He never met this woman before, but mysterious beautiful woman in a slinky black dress waiting at the top of a scary tower? Yeah, that was setting off almost all of the alarm bells up in Harry's head.

Jaune could hardly believe his eyes... it was HER. He nudged Harry with his shield somewhat, speechless to Lust, but he leaned aside and quietly whispered to his new wizard mentor. "Harry, this lady isn't normal," He said in as hushed a tone as he could, "I saw her when I got attacked by some troll zombies in Everglade. She took two of them out. Cut them right in two."

Poor Jaune was almost shaking, but he took a deep breath and settled down as best he can in such a situation. If this lady wanted to talk to Harry, then that was fine - but the guy had better be careful.

Lust sighed, brushing an ebony lock of hair away from her face. "If I wanted to speak with you, I wouldn't bother asking you to change your location. I want to show you something, and you can hardly see it from there."

Folding her arms again, and ignoring Jaune's rude hushed comments, she gazed out over the fog-enshrouded landscape before. "You are a wizard, from what I understand. If you are able to clear the fog for a few moments, I think we'll both find what we're looking for."

Harry turned his head slightly, listening to Jaune's hushed report without letting Lust leave his line of sight. Cut two of the roid-zombies in half, huh? Those things weren't exactly pushovers, and anybody who could take them down like that had to be pretty bad news.

He took a second to consider his next move.

"Aw, hell, since you asked so nicely and all." He walked forward, keeping an eye on the woman the whole time until he was at the window. "Ventus Cyclis."

His staff cracked against the ground as he unleashed the spell and immediately the air inside the room whipped up into a strong, biting cold wind. But it was nothing compared to the howling that sprang up outside, whipping up the fog and pushing it away from the tower and lifting a swirling vortex of fallen leaves and debris into the air and clearing the line of sight for several dozen feet in all directions. Then, with one final effort of will, he pushed the spell outward, the winds building on each other and carrying throughout the graveyard, driving a wall of mist ahead of them.

"That oughta give us a little while."

Edited (These people are never happy.) 2014-01-16 03:24 (UTC)

Jaune stepped in after Harry, following along like the ever-dutiful sidekick he now was. He kept an eye on Lust, because the woman freaked the ever-living heck out of him, and he let Harry have his space to perform his spell while Jaune just watched and waited.

... Oh, right, Harry could perform magic spells. The wind that kicked up surprised Jaune, and he shielded his face from the wind with his sword arm, more or less using his elbow to cover him. He stepped closer and stood on his toes to curiously watch out the window as Harry pushed the spell outwards - which sounded much less impressive than it was. Poomph! Just wind in all directions!

"Whoa..."

Edited 2014-01-16 07:06 (UTC)

Lust wasn't watching Harry watch her. All of her attention was fixed on the landscape spread out below. Honestly, this would have been far less suspicious if she just told them flat out what she wanted and why, but she wasn't about to let them ditch her when she wanted to find this necromancer as well.

But still, the spell was impressive, and just what she'd hoped for.

"Watch the forest," she instructed. "With the fog cleared, he should be easy enough to find. Just look for barren trees and rotten vegetation." That was her theory, anyway. Any person who exercised so much unnatural death-related magic couldn't possibly be healthy for the environment.

She crooked a finger at Jaune as well. "You too. Come and tell us what you see."