Re: Azazel's Stone
Calista was frustrated.
The young blonde had been minding her own business, playing her violin softly to herself in her own room when a harried knocking had disrupted her mid-verse. By the time she'd managed to reach the door and open it, no one stood there and she shrugged, assuming it was a child playing a prank.
She would have closed the door then and there had a stray wind not blown and a spark of tan swirls on the ground indicated a paper was rustling in the slight breeze. A paper she was certain hadn't been there before. Bending down, she picked it up and turned it over in her hands, noting its ragged texture and the indentations left by a hand writing hard and swiftly upon it. Too bad it wasn't so deep that she could read it by passing her fingers across; the message would have to remain a mystery to her.
About to return to her room, she paused. The sounds she had been blocking out from down below reached her now, boisterous and loud. Perhaps it would be a good time to earn some money by playing a few jigs. She returned to her room to retrieve her violin and cap should people wish to donate to her funds, then proceeded down into the tavern's main room.
Almost instantly she realized the error in her judgment. The room was too loud, the people to rowdy and drunk to pay any heed to her. If anything, drawing attention to herself amidst a crowd of drunken men was not high on her list of things to do. Already, by her meer presence she could already hear a few drunken slurs aimed towards her, the words a muddy yellow indicating the how far gone the men were. It painted the air a sickly tinge with all their noise.
Scanning the room swiftly, she sidled over to an empty table near the corner of the room, noting there was already someone sitting in the corner. They were being spoken to by a female, and Calista didn't care much - this was the cleanest bit of the room, untainted by the men who were yelling with such fervor.
"...anything about the Eye of the Serpent?” the voice was smooth and polite and seemed to rise above the other noise as water over mud. The musician raised an eyebrow; that kind of voice was rare indeed and brought to mind some sort of nobility.
Even as the question was asked, a man had seated himself with them, his voice causing Calista's eyes to widen at the hidden nuances within it. Shivers broke across her body and she shook her head slightly to clear it, clutching her violin harder and missing what he said.
Just to distract herself from him, she looked across the room and noted the noise aided her in seeing how many people were inside and where all the table were. It was rare for her to see with such clarity...
Then the frustration welled up again. She was sitting here in a loud bar, not earning any money and still grasping a note she couldn't read. It was practically mocking her inability to decipher it.
Cursing, feeling the vibe of the room entangling with her own frustration and warping her feelings she impulsively spun her chair around to face the table near her, the one with the two women and the man with the disturbing voice.
"I'm sorry, but I was wondering if one of you would be able to read this for me? It's most... annoying to receive a note when you're blind as it prevents you from reading the message," she inserted an apologetic smile for the interruption to what sounded to be an important discussion.
Either way she saw it, they were the lesser of evils in this room. After all, they weren't drunken idiots and what songs Calista could hear of their hearts seemed... trustworthy; except for the male - his song was a persistent tug on her senses that continually unbalanced her, causing her to lean away from him in hopes it would stop.
~~~
Joker sat outside the noisy tavern, slouching against it's walls as he contemplated the note in his hand. He held it in the air, the silvery moonlight shining through a few of the holes left by a pen scratching through in it's haste.
if you would seek eternal glory and boundless power, find the artifact known as Azazel’s Stone which the Ancients hid before the breaking and rebirthing of humanity
find the Eye of the Serpent
kill anyone who gets in your way
you must not let the Sun Rod f
He didn't care what the rest of the message was, the only parts he was interested in were the boundless power, the Azazel's stone and the Eye of the Serpent. If it came down to killing... he'd work his way around it. He wasn't the strongest but when it came to trickery who would do well. If killing turned out to be necessary...
A bitter laugh escaped him. How far he had come from his old self. Who would have thought that one change, one person lost to the world would cause so much havoc in his life? Really, it was laughable. What made it worse was the lengths he was going through to get that person back.
The tavern door slammed in the still night air and he leaned over to peer over the edge of the wall he leaned against. The tavern was doing brisk business today. That was the second time it had let in customers, and it was already pushing 2:30 am.
His old curiosity pricking him, he got to his feet and sauntered to the entry. The warm lights from inside made his skin appear even more golden and his hair a sharper ice blue against his dark vest. Pushing open the door, he was assaulted by the noise but ignored it, instead focusing on the group in a corner.
The two newcomers were also making their way to that table, as though they had been summoned. Already sitting were two females and a male, with a blonde at another table asking a question as she held out a familiar looking piece of paper. Even as he watched, another pair were making their way through the tables, one determined and the other somewhat reluctant.
Smirking, he walked towards the group, fixing his old smile on his face as he pounced upon them.
"Greetings!" he called, eyes widening theatrically as he saw the paper the blonde was holding, "Ara, Joker sees you also have the same note as him!" Grinning, he brandished his note then looked around at them, "Be this some secret cult gathering Joker has stumbled upon? Has Joker been included in this shady business? Joker has always wanted to try a ritual sacrifice to a pagan god that doesn't exist~!"