If you’re new to the Great Game, please have a quick look at the blurb to your left, where you’ll find a short catch-up introduction!
A click from the corridor outside brings me to my senses. A door is being opened. I immediately retreat to the wall next to the door, wishing I had something to hide behind, and that my clothes weren’t so garish. A couple of seconds later, I can definitely make out someone coming towards the room.
The somebody comes in. He’s a tall guy, strong, somberly dressed, dark skin. Power beats off him in waves; he’s the one I’ve been feeling in the area. He walks into the room, then turns to where I’m standing. A moment of surprise flickers across his face, leaving me an instant to act.
I immediately decide to try bluffing. I pull my face into something resembling a cold smile, and make my voice as neutral as I can. “It looks like you have a problem here, friend.”
His eyes narrow. “Is that so?” He sounds composed, relaxed, and deadly dangerous.
“You’ve called up something from the space between spaces, anti-life, and now it’s roaming the hotel, hunting for meat. Hunting for you, bokor.”
He smiles, and I realise my arms and legs are frozen in place. “You have sharp eyes. Interesting eyes. I wonder what I could see if I took them from you, friend.”
I grin as nastily as I can. “If you could see through my eyes right now, you’d be looking a fool with 5 hours and 33 minutes to live.”
“Easy words to say,” he says, but he doesn’t sound quite so certain as he did before.
For some reason, David Sinclair comes to mind. “Your monster got into Sinclair’s nest. The morosos learnt things it should never have learnt…”
He stares at me in horror. “It entered the Sinclair soul bank?”
Soul bank? I nod, gravely. “In the husk of a Tulpa.”
“That is not good. Really not good. Sinclair is unharmed? Yes, of course, otherwise you would not be here. So be it. We will recapture it. Tell Sinclair he can drain his precious toys back out once we have it bound. All will be well.”
“You will not find the girl.”
He flinches. “The girl?”
“She has hidden herself well.”
He sighs. “Very well. What is the price?”
I remember that the Macandal generally deal in sorcerous favours. “Seven spirits, bound.” That feels like a high price.
The bokor grimaces. “That is ridiculous.”
I smile pleasantly. “5 hours and 31 minutes.”
“Alright, seer. You make your point. Seven spirits, bound, when Sinclair wants them. Now where is the girl?”
Good question.
It needs to be somewhere away from where Alice and Massinisa are hiding. What will take him in a different direction?
- ... "She is in the hotel's ancient warrens, from the time before Sumeria arose." (56%)
- ... "Sinclair is holding her. You can get her there." (31%)
- ... "Edward Maldon's wolf is protecting her." (13%)
- ... "She's hiding amongst the crowd in reception, guarded by mercenaries." (0%)
- ... "Amongst the stacks of the library." (0%)
Voting Closes at: October 26, 2009 @ 2:00 pm
Loading ...Today’s photo is Fractal 433 by Lynn.
I don’t like the name alternatives. Too much chance that he says something like “Wait! Sinclair would not be holding her without telling us already…”, after which the conversation is apt to go downhill fairly rapidly.
Of course the other choices allow… “She can’t be there. That is our base!” Well, I’ll still go with the one that seems to send him on the longest wild goose chase.
Dangerous but not particularly smart, that’s how the bokor comes across. I bet he will accept the fib as gospel truth.