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Lareth clenched harder on Malphas's neck and several snaps could be heard before he pulled him away from the wall, and slammed Malphas several times into it.

"Don't be snark 'Boy'. Who sent you on the assassination? Or is this simply payback because you lost that piece of scum you call master?"

Lareth pulled the dagger away from Malphas's stomach, but he held onto it.

"Don't you dare speak Cynthia's name. You are not even worthy enough to utter her name you piece of s**t.

As for what she knows about me and what I 'like' to do, she's still with me and will be with me until I am gone. So don't think you can play with my mind wretch."

Lareth's eyes lit up in anger as Malphas spoke of what 'urge' he had to do with Cynthia. As Malphas glared at him, Lareth raised the dark blade and slammed it into Malphas's right eye socket and twisted the blade. With a quick flick of his wrist, he pulled the dagger back out and there was a sickening pop as he pulled out Malphas's eye. As it fell to the floor, without even looking, Lareth stomped the eye apart and turned it to ash.

Lareth laughed as the blood from the empty eye socket came out.

He sent flames into the tip of the dagger blade and sealed the empty eye socket shut.

"Now what I did was for fun Malphas.....you irritate the hell out of me and I do not like how you look at me.

What I did to Ilea here, was retribution and punishment for all the wrong she has done. I did not do it for fun, I did it to teach her a lesson. Punishment before her end."

Lareth made the blade vanish and he smiled at Malphas.

"But if you are still confused about the difference of my 'fun' time, and 'punishment' time....I can show you, how I really have 'fun'."

He leaned in and whispered.
"I will do onto you all that you say I would like to do to my beloved....when I am done with you, you will be the broken bloody doll with a broken a**."

(Crap post but it will free people)

Lareth eventually threw a beaten and now broken limbed Malphas into his own cel,l before he chained him to the wall.

Ilea was healed as much as possible and placed into a peaceful rest via spell. He would have her new master come and give her energy. With that all done, lareth left the pit.

Ilea heard the voice but it came to her as if from a large distance, a bit faint, with the words barely understandable. All she knew was the pain, the exhaustion, the desire to simply sleep...

She gave a small groan, a soft sound that indicated that she was still alive but about as weak as she looked. She started to shift but gave a small pained noise when her body protested the movement.

Another sound came to her. One that was very familiar to her, though. The thick sound of blood dripping onto stone. She knew that sound very well. She'd heard it often enough during her time with her creator to know its unique sound now.

Part of her wanted to simply go to sleep and stay that way. She could feel her body reacting to that desire by relaxing where she was, allowing her heartbeat to slow down along with her breathing.

While she knew she should react to the voice that had called out to her, it felt like too much to her right now.

She felt her mind starting to drift, allowing the sounds around her to move further away while her body began to feel like it was floating.

Familiar sensations again. She knew this was what blood loss felt like. She didn't think she could die down here, thanks to her master/servant bond with... What was his name? The name was important. Something she should remember...

But the face that came to her mind wasn't that of her new master, it was of the one who had come to visit her here, the stranger. She couldn't remember his name either but there was something else she knew she was supposed to be noticing but couldn't quite wrap her mind around it yet.

Thanks to the sensations she was experiencing thanks to the blood loss, she was able to move again without consciously feeling it. She wanted to say something but only a weak moan came out.

For some reason, she wanted to assure someone that she wouldn't die but she couldn't form the words. At least, she didn't think she would die...

Malphas strained his ears to hear her response... Well someone clearly couldn't talk. His breathing was starting to even out as he became acclimated to the pain. Not that it really mattered, everything still hurt like a b***h. Another breath, another thought. He had to get out of here. As soon as possible. Who knew when someone would come back, and assuming they did, what were the chances of them administering medical attention to him? Zilch. He didn't want to think about what would happen if Lareth came back, all he knew was that more pain was in store for him is he didn't quickly make himself scarce.

Experimentally he lifted a hand, a heavy chain rattling behind it. Then he lifted the other, receiving a similar response. Heh. The fool didn't think to completely immobilize his hands, or break them. Thank goodness Malphas had managed to rile him up to the point where he forgot that Malphas could do a few magical tricks of his own. A pointed fingernail screeched against the metal of a cuff, a string of runes this time, and then he waited.

The reaction of the enchanted cuff was nothing short of spectacular, is was as if acid ate it away, but it was not without it's consequences. The backlash of him tampering with the supposedly fool-proof restraints caused him to briefly double over in pain, a new burn seared into the skin where the metal once touched his wrist. Malphas paused a moment, to recover enough to do the same to his other hand, but then a sound was heard that made his stomach drop.

The door opened.

His nail furiously scribbled on his remaining cuff, if he was going to die, then he may as well die fighting. But the tread was different from Lareth's... And notably, this person didn't shut the door behind them. A slow grin crept across his face. Freedom was literally a few feet away.

The footsteps didn't stop at his cell, they stopped at the woman's. The beautiful, broken, woman's.
He wondered what face she was making now, was she holding in screams of pain, or had her sleep smoothed over her features? Judging by the sounds she had been making last time he called to her. Despite himself, he could not help but feel more than a simple pang of pity for her. He could not leave her here. Not completely. He had no idea still who she was, but there was something about her that made him want to find out more. Perhaps this curiosity would kill him, perhaps it would be his saving grace.

His final restraint fell to the floor with a heavy thunk, it was now or never. He rose on a pair of shaky legs, it wasn't broken after all... But something was certainly screwed up. He could take care of this later, right now he just had to get out of the castle, get to his little stash of gear, and hole up somewhere until he could move regularly, then make plans to strike again. Words tumbled, hissing, and thick on his tongue as his magic forcefully bent the bars of his cell just long enough for him to step through, almost smoothly, out of his cell. He could see the person now, it was the one Lareth had been speaking to earlier... And the woman.

She was in no condition to be moved, although she certainly looked better. Now, Malphas was going to do something very, very stupid. In the beat of silence while the "Baron" was still processing that a prisoner was escaping, Malpas muttered a short syllable and performed a gesture akin to blowing a kiss. A small tongue of black fire shot through the bars and landed neatly on Illea's chest, burning a rune no larger than a fingertip. It quickly scarred over, another pink mark on her fair skin, although this one wasn't so easily removed with kisses.

She would always be able to find him now, always be able to feel his heart beating faintly next to his own. His hope was that someday, she would. And perhaps... Perhaps something would happen. He had no idea what, just that an event would occur, one that he should not miss.

Then Malphas did as any fugitive would do, and began running. A much larger sprout of black fire briefly rose as a wall behind him, and by the time one could see through to the other side, the demon was already gone, dashing up out of the dungeons, to a main floor, gaining several guards in pursuit. Around twists and turns he led him, his footsteps leaving black fire in their wake. Few knew the castle like a servant, and Malphas had been an excellent servant. Finally he came to his destination, a window. He slammed into it, shattering the glass, and disappearing into the air. In a few moments, he was nothing more than a black silhouette (admittedly flying lopsidedly due to his injuries) against the sky. He had gotten away. He had lost an eye, but who knew what he was going to gain.

Shale continued to focus most of his attention on the blood bond. Through it he gained fractured glimpses of the other who had been in the chamber. Unfortunately, he only realized that fast enough to witness the fading of the black fire in the wake of the agent's escape. He knew that the King would be displeased at the loss of a prisoner. However, he had other priorities in the King's service. He wove a small spell to carry a whisper message to the King.

"He fled by air, three shadows follow. The bond is weak and must be reinforced for the trap to be completed. Two to dwell in the spire that is not." While Shale could not pursue in time, his ravens were already outside. Through the open door he was able to command three of them to follow Malphas. One followed from high above, one from below on a meandering course, and the third followed in his shadow. The first two mimicked the behavior of real birds. The third made no sound at all and never failed to maintain its distance exactly where instructed.

He knew of Ilea's confusion, worry and fright even as he was impressed at her coherence of thought under these conditions. However, the most important thing was that he would have to change the structure of the shaping spell for the spire. He could not be seperated from Ilea for a significant ammount of time or the bond would weaken too much. He would need her beside him during the entirety of the long casting. That could not happen if it occurred on the palace grounds. He would have to craft the spire from the inside with her contained with him.

"We're moving." His voice was soft and distracted as he spoke.

He moved his staff to stand in the blood exactly half-way between them. Then he began to chant through the blood bond, the magic singing through the pool and Ilea's body as well as his own. They had to move, there was much to do and an impatient King was growing desperately frustrated with the failures of his subordinates. The spell wove a body suit from strands of her blood, as fine as silk to the touch and seamless from top to bottom covering everything from the neck down. It would do for now. There were plans for it already forming in Shale's mind but for this it would do. It's lines were extremely flattering and sensual but it left everything to the imagination. Ironically, that made its appeal far more magnetic than before. It glittered and shimmered with the slightest movement but also kept any of the injuries from opening and kept the wounds still and undisturbed, even from normal movement. Only the internal pains that remained would pose any difficulty during their walk.

Shale was flushed again. His control of the blood bond slipped enough for his own pain and weakness to slip through. His blood replaced itself quickly so its loss was not important, however, the searing of every bloodvessel in his body twice was proving to be a significant drain on his energy and attention. It would take days for that pain to heal. Casting spells quickly required a heavy price from him. The demands of his King's wishes were becoming extremely dangerous for him.

He leaned on his staff for support and opened the cell as he had before. This time, however, he extended his free hand to Ilea. "You have done well. Rise and follow." With her hand in his, his gaunt frame led her at a moderate pace out of the chamber and up the stairs. He ensured that the Void sealed behind them and maintained his best speed, which was not impressive at the moment, to where the spire was to be. There was no time to lose.

((Exit directly to Spire))