Fantasy The MPC Rushes Story, Cont.

[Lisbeth Walpurgis]

Lisbeth looked at the stone in her hands, the soft glow of the gas-lamps glistening over its highly polished surface. It was an irregular shape, with many smooth, worn edges, and as deep a red as its moniker. As she turned it over and over, worrying the stone between her fingers, she imagined another pair of hands doing the same across the years. It wasn't just a jeweler who had polished the stone so bright.


Now it lay intert. There was no comforting warmth, no soft, pulsing glow; just a cold, dead piece of rock. Pretty enough, but serving no purpose.


"Now you fit your owner," she grumbled.


She sighed as she collapsed to the bed. Wallowing in self-pity would serve no purpose either, but what else could she do? Then she set her jaw and sat up, swinging her legs off the enormous bed as she clasped the silk robe she wore tighter about her. She strode across the room and rummaged through her things before returning to the bed, sitting cross-legged atop it while she laid three objects before her:


A worn journal procured from Sherlock Holmes.


A pocket watch with a spiderweb crack across the face.


And... the now-inert Blood Stone.


For a moment she stared at the objects before her. There was one thing they all had in common: Arkadious Grimoire.


"What the hell happened to you?" she asked the empty room, the irony of her choice of words lost on her in her focus.


She ignored the touch of color to her cheeks. He'd been tall too...


With a determined nod she flipped open the book and started to read. She doubted she'd be able to get much sleep tonight anyway.

 

[Arkadious]

-As Lisbeth read through the journal, fingers occasionally tracing the numerous scratchy lines of ink, in some places crammed into the margins to make it almost illegible, more questions than answers rose about Arkadious Grimoire. The span of time he had chronicled stretched what looked to be eons. He saw the fall of empires, some multiple times. The Great War, The War to End All Wars, both the same and yet entirely different, depicting a myriad of alternate realities. One event that he appeared to have experienced more than any others was the Crucifixion. Within those passages, he included several bits of ciphered notes, much like the one on the inside cover...


-Even though she gleaned nothing new about the man, that same feeling of nostalgia, of familiarity, bubbled up inside of Lisbeth while she poured over his Journal. Absentmindedly, she picked up the pocket watch and idly played with it, when her thumb accidentally pressed a tiny button, hidden in the engraving. With a barely audible click, the back of the watch popped open...

 

[Lisbeth Walpurgis]

[Warning: long post]


Lisbeth's eyebrows shot up as the hidden compartment on the watch revealed itself. She felt a surge of excitement as she gripped the rear panel in her fingers and flipped it open to find-


Nothing.


Her heart sank.


It was empty.


She placed a hand on her chest. That's right, her heart couldn't sink because she didn't have one right now. Nothing moved within her breast, and yet she still lived. All because she had become fused with a fictional character, an inhuman construct made of snow. Was that what was inside her now? Snow?


"Sorry," said the voice in her head, "but at least Thanatos can't rip your heart out now, right?"


Lisbeth had to chuckle at that.


"Frostine," she said aloud, "What would you do if you were me?"


"Well, I kind of am you right now, but, putting the obvious aside... I don't know. You're the one who Made me, so you know that I'm simply a warrior."


"That's not true. You're very intelligent."


"I'm also a part of you. I always have been, even before we were fused like this. Therein lies your answer."


Lisbeth smiled.


"Anything you can do I can do better, is that it?"


"Pretty much."


Lisbeth sighed and shook her head, but still she smiled.


"Some help you are."


"I guess I could point out that that gem stone you have would fit into the compartment in the watch."


Lisbeth looked down at the watch in her hands, then at the Blood Stone that sat on the bed. Frostine was right, the stone would just barely fit within the watch. She picked up the stone in her right hand, the watch still in her left. She swallowed. Her hands began to tremble.


Be careful of that watch...





She placed the stone inside the watch and closed it.

 

[slee77]

Altamonte wakes up and rolls over throwing his arm over Genevieves waist.


He brushes her hair out away from her neck and looks down at her naked back the curves each gently sliding into another he places a hand on her neck and kisses it gently. " Wake, Up." "Rise and shine"


Fitzgerald begins to wake this time to his reality....staring at the dank darkly lit ceiling and remembers that his life is actually in hell and not the heaven of his dreams. He takes in a deep breath. His chest expanding only to be cut sharp by the sulfer in the air.


"Ugggggg" he lay there waiting for a moment to digest everything.

 

[Arkadious]

-Nothing. Puzzled, she looked at the watch and the Stone and separated them them re-inserted the stone into the back of the watch. Still, nothing. Frustrated, she reared back and prepared to hurl the watch across the room when all of a sudden it started to radiate with an blinding light and heat, the hands of the watch starting up, first ticking forward then suddenly and rapidly spinning backwards and in opposite directions, the minute hand whirling clockwise and the hour hand spinning counter-clockwise. Startled, Lisbeth tossed the watch away suddenly, where it paused mid-fall and floated in midair, revolving slowly as the pulsing from the Stone grew brighter and faster...


-From deep within her breast, Lisbeth felt a familiar ache, sharp at first and then dulling as it increased to match the pulsing of the watch, much the the steady but quick pace of...a beating heart...from within the back of her head, a familiar voice, smooth as silk but with a roughness to it, speaks out, "I told you to be careful, Writer. Glad to see you have stayed alive so far. There's still much to do, Thanatos is still a problem and new ones are soon the present themselves in the near future, following from the distant past. Watch over Genevieve and trust your gut...

 

[ArtBlott]

Blott picked up a small platter as she passed the food cart, it seemed to be some sort of cheese platter, complete with an assortment of crackers, apple slices, and sliced meats. It was only missing- ah, there we go! With her free hand, she grabbed a random beer from the bottom of the cart, then hurried to catch up with the patiently waiting maids.


Next stop was the guest room's en-suite bathroom, a large basin set into the floor. She imagined the water could easily cover her head if she stood at the bottom. The maids filled it with water, and it was a battle after that to get them to leave. Yes, she could wash herself. No, she was sure, she could take her pants off by herself. Blott ended up forcibly pushing them to wait outside the door to hand off her clothes to be washed. She sunk low into the hot water, the heat easing the pains in her...basically everything. Her Crow pecked and poked at the cheese platter, taking regular sips of the beer she had poured into a smallish puddle on the tile.


Eventually though, she had to leave the warmth of the tub. At some point, even her crow had grown tired of splashing around on the top of the water. She toweled off, avoiding the mirror, and opened the door to find her clothes, clean and pressed, as well as a set of pajamas lain out for her on the bed. As kind as the gesture was, she changed back into her old clothes. Something in her pocket crunched. Curious, she pulled out a bit of scrap paper.


'Call me 666-5551'





Ah, from one of the maids. She turned a little green and sat on the bed. It was going to be a long night.

 

[Lisbeth Walpurgis]

"Arkadious?!" Lisbeth called out, desperation clear in her voice, "Is that you?! Where are you? When are you? Are you all right?! Please, you have to tell me that you're all right!"


Tears were beginning to prick her eyes. Why? She'd barely know the man before all of them had disappeared, so why this urgent need for assurance of his safety? Was it something to do with the ache in her chest?

 

[Arkadious]

-Barely perceptible but she definitely felt the soft caress of a hand along the back of her neck and the voice echo in her head again, "Don't worry, I'm close, should you need me. Till then, stay strong and stay safe..."


-The same gentle touch she felt at the nap of her neck gingerly wiped away her tears and as suddenly as it had all started, the rotating glowing watch slowly dropped to the floor with a soft clink against the stone, the glowing subsiding and the hands coming to a stop, but the beating in her breast still there, slowing to a much normal level...

 

[Lisbeth Walpurgis]

Her feet touched the cold stone floor as she took the few steps to where the watch lay. She bent down, reached out a hand, and hesitated. Instead she reached out a finger and gingerly touched the watch. Nothing. After a moment she picked it up, and it lay quite still in her hand.


A heartbeat... She had a heartbeat. How did so familiar a sensation now feel so alien? She felt a thrill of panic and stood bolt upright.


"Frostine? Frostine, are you still there?!" she called into the empty room


A few moments of silence, and then-


"-ere, can you hear me?"


Lisbeth blew out a sigh of relief. Frostine's voice came to her, though it sounded far away.


"Yes, I can hear you," Lisbeth replied, "What happened?"


"I don't know. It was like... something hit me and knocked me away from you. I'm not sure how else to describe it. We're still connected, but it's not as strong."


"Damn."


"I'm sorry. I don't know how well you'll be able to use my abilities now, but... You know, we probably shouldn't stay fused like this forever anyway."


Lisbeth started pacing.


"That's not what I mean," she said, frowning, "I don't know what will happen to you if we get separated outside of your world. You could end up Erased, for all I know, and I can't let that happen."


"Oh."


"Damn it," Lisbeth swore again, "What if our link continues to deteriorate? I have my heart back, so that must mean that we're partially separated already."


"Um, about that..." Frostine said hesitantly, her voice trailing off in Lisbeth's mind.


"What?" Lisbeth asked, her feet frozen in place as a knot of worry formed a lead weight in her stomach.


"This heart you have inside you... Well... It isn't yours."

 

[Lisbeth Walpurgis]

-Being in the Underworld, there was no sure way to know the time, so when a sudden knock on the door interrupted her thoughts, Lisbeth gasped but replied enter. The door opened ajar and the servant from the previous night poked his head inside-


"The Lord wishes your presence in the dining hall for a mid-day brunch. While he is not needing of such trite things, he insists that you and your comrades make your way there so that everyone may decide the next step of your adventure."


Lisbeth unconsciously hid the watch from the demon servant's view, pretending to hold her robe tighter about her.


"Ah, yes, thank you..." she trailed off as she tried to remember the demon's name, but she couldn't so she bulled forward, "I deeply appreciate your master's hospitality and accept his invitation to dine."


The demon bowed his acknowledgement and closed the door. Once the echoes of his clacking footsteps (hoofsteps?) faded she flung herself back on the plush bed.


"Not my heart?" Lisbeth asked the air in a harsh whisper, "What do you mean, it's not mine?"


"I can't really say it any plainer. This isn't your heart."


"Then whose is it?!"


"You think I know?"


"But if it's not my heart, then..."


Was that where those intense feelings had come from? If that were true, then... She couldn't trust any of her own emotions, not if some stranger's heart were the source. She placed a hand on her chest, felt the pulse gently flutter beneath her fingertips. Whose heart had Arkadious placed in her chest, and to what purpose? Was he trying to manipulate her? Could she trust him? Damn it, could she trust anyone? Including, no, especially herself.

 

[Arkadious]

-As Lisbeth was visited by the servant, Samiel, other such imps and succubi were rousing the other members of the group, biding them all to gather in the dining hall for brunch. Shortly after, two demon escorts came and guided everyone to the large hall, wherein a giant, no, massive table sat in the center, with a spread of the finest foods of all the world. Blott hopped and skipped up to Lisbeth and gave her a playful poke in the ribs, then pointed to the other end of the hall, where they saw Genevieve and Flitz walking in together, rather closely. At the head of the table, sitting upon a chair so large it appeared to be a throne, was Alaster Von Grim...

 

[ArtBlott]

Blott stretched as she settled down midway at the table. She felt...really good, actually. After a full night of not running, or talking, or jumping, or moving, if she could help it, she was ready to do, well, whatever it was that was coming next. Even the Crow seemed more active, hopping from chair to chair to check out the room.

 

[Lisbeth Walpurgis]

Dark circles shadowed the hollows beneath Lisbeth's eyes. She certainly didn't look well-rested.


"I... had some trouble sleeping," she admitted.


"Not that there was anything wrong with the accommodations!" she added quickly, "You're home is quite lovely. I just... had a lot to think about."


She picked up a toasted English muffin, still warm, and slathered it generously with butter and strawberry jam. She bit into it, the salty, creamy flavor of melted butter washing across her tongue and blending with the sweetness of the jam. It was perfectly toasted, too: lightly crisp on the outside, yet pillowy soft within. Lisbeth let out an involuntary moan of delight.


"Oh my," she said, "That is sinfully good."

 

[slee77]

Fitzgerald coughs loudly then says " Not to break the lovely Contanintial breakfast in Hell but I think it's time we all discuss a few things. I think we should start laying our business out on the table and then start to come up with a plan. There doesn't need to be seeds of mistrust planted amongst us if we plan on walking away from this... And I bloody well plan on walking away from this!So if anyone has beef now is the time."

 

[Lisbeth Walpurgis]

Lisbeth raised a hand.


"Hold up," she said, "I'm not simply suiting up and marching to war without a plan. Fitz is right: we need to make sure we're sharing as much information as we can. We don't even know where Thanatos is right now. We may not know what to do about him yet, but we can at least compile what we know."

 

[Lisbeth Walpurgis]

"Thanatos isn't unlike a Reaper," she continued, "He's an embodiment of Death. If we want to truly destroy Thanatos, then we need a weapon that's capable of killing a god."

 

[slee77]

Yes but more than that! I don't really know all of you? I get the sense that we are all holding back.....not to turn this into a therapy session but if we are to trust one another than we need to lay it out there"

 

[Lisbeth Walpurgis]

She laid Arkadious's journal on the table.


"There may be another option as well," she said to Alaster, "And we should make sure we know what all of our options are before we make a decision. I pored over this journal last night. Remember Sherlock's note? "Go back to the beginning?" When Blott took a picture of the note on her phone, it revealed numbers written in a special ink. Each of those numbers references a page number. This journal contains first hand accounts of many, many events, but the most frequent, and the earliest, is the Crucifixion. Those page numbers refer to each instance that the Crucifixion is mentioned. Now, I'm certainly not religious, but I do know that there was a weapon present at the Crucifixion: the Lance of Longinus."


Upon hearing Fitz's request, she sighed.


"You're certainly right about that. We were thrown so haphazardly together that we really don't know much about each other, do we?"

 

[Lisbeth Walpurgis]

"You already know much of my story," said Lisbeth, "Would someone else like to go?"

 

[slee77]

I was more speaking to possible concerns or mistrust.... Any hidden agendas here?

 

[Arkadious]

-The silence that settles on the gathered is deafening, choking almost. No one seems to have anything to say, aside from Alaster stating the blatantly obvious. As the awkward silence stretches into what seems to be eternity, Blott feeds bits of English muffin to her Crow, it too sensing the tension building in the air, like a summer thunderstorm, waiting to let loose on the party...


-Suddenly there came a tapping, as if someone was rapping, rapping at the chamber door. Samiel walks in and strolls up to his Lord and hands him a parcel, presumably the day's mail, but does the Underworld have a conventional parcel system? Altamonte and Gene exchange glances and then look over to Blott and Lisbeth, whom seem equally perplexed, as Grim, acting as if it were perfectly normal, opens the delivery...

 

[ArtBlott]

Blott sought only to sink under the table, though she settled for dipping low in her seat. Sure, she had her secrets, but none of them were particularly malicious, even the worst could be considered only self-serving. But surely none of them could hurt anyone else here. She looked to Lisbeth, receiving only a warm smile in response. As she looked to the others, one of the demons, the one from last night, she thinks, popped in. It seems the mail had arrived.


As she watched the horror bloom over the reapers' face, she asked what she was sure everyone else was thinking. "What's happened?"

 

[Arkadious]

-Scanning and re-scanning the letter confirms the same thing he read the first half a dozen times. The was a figure approaching from the distance, reported his guards stationed at the Eastern Wall. The letter had specks of dried blood on it, which did nothing to lighten Alaster's mood. With a scoff, he tosses the letter onto the table for the others to see and storms off, snapping his fingers and materializing his scythe as he strode towards the East Corridor, which would take him to the Eastern wall. Never in a hundred millennia had one attempted to take his domain, and he wasn't about to let it happen now. Arrogant demons, he thought to himself as he walked...

 

[Arkadious]

-A sudden and eerie calm envelopes the landscape. The normal cacophony of noise the permeates the background of Hell usually, stopping. In a way, the silence is more unnerving than the noise ever was; you eventually got used to the moaning and screaming, but absolute silence was paramount to nothingness. Grim gave an involuntary shudder as the Void crossed his mind. He set his captain down and peered out across the landscape, looking for the one responsible for the abrupt decimation of his Eastern forces. When he first received the letter, he merely assumed it was one of the neighboring Demon Lords, looking to usurp him of his estate and title, but none of them had the power to wipe out and entire regiment of the most skilled demon soldiers unaided. Nothing in the region, save a Titan or a Hydra or...


"Well, it's been quite some time, hasn't it, Alaster Von Grim? Looking...well..."


-And that's when it hits him. That voice, cold, calculating, yet seductive and smooth like silk. That voice was the only thing able to send chills down his spine and stop his hear cold. Because the owner of that Voice was much worse than an army of Demon Lords, much worse than a Titan, than a Hydra. Indeed, Alaster realized he should have known sooner, only one being was capable of slewing his armies, the Lord of Hell herself, Lucien!!!

 

[ArtBlott]

The voice echoed over the entire castle, causing those still sitting, baffled, at the table, to rise in alarm. "So, Lisbeth. Any way to get that spear? Quickly?" Blott asked. The world around them had grown so very quiet, and even if it wasn't Thanatos, the voices owner was clearly very powerful, and mostly likely a Hell-native. Lisbeth shook her head, eyes wide. Blott had guessed as much. A written spear wouldn't do as much damage as the real thing anyway.


"Alright then," Blott stood, pushed in her chair, and started walking to where she had last seem Grim disappear to. "Let's see what we need to run away from this time."