#rel. emmrich

[dicethrow]

@charmingthebones

Head in hands, hunched over from a pain that he couldn't describe as it wasn't real. His heart ached, chest tight and stomach feeling like it's been kicked several times over. Grief, as Emmrich would describe it. Something the mage was pretty wise about. They felt liked two sides of the same coin, Lucanis bringing death and Emmrich easing it, adding a new life to the demise.

Though, the Crow felt that he should be used to grief. Death was his life, causing it, witnessing it, living on the cusp of it daily. Yet, there was just something so difficult some evenings with the loss of Caterina. She had been gone several weeks now, the funeral was held, he attended, and now... now he felt empty.

She was dead and gone, he needed to move past it. But, her last wish was to bring him back from the Ossuary, give him the greatest and most impossible contract of his life. Her last words to him, essentially, through the mouth of someone else.

A Crow was only as good as their contracts.

And he failed this one.

Weisshaupt was a disaster, a complete and utter failure. Yes, they defeated an archdemon, and he made a god bleed but that wasn't the contract. Ghilan'nain lived while many, many wardens died. He was an assassin, he was supposed to kill people, not make them bleed.

Spite seemed to share his distraught, having a tantrum earlier in the day, shouting at Lucanis and then to the air about being stuck. Shouting that he's not completed the contract yet and Lucanis sat silently, listening to his demon's verbal torment until he just receded into his mind.

By the time he left, returned to the present, Spite was gone and he was truly alone. It was then when the tears burned his eyes, a couple spilling over as he finally felt the weight of grief and failure crush him.

Caterina would have been so disappointed.

Then, came a knock, and the sound of a sophisticated Nevarran accent rang through a crack in the door causing Lucanis with hastily wipe away the stray tears with his sleeve and sit up.

"Sorry, Emmrich. Is it dinner time already? I can figure out something quick to make."

[dicethrow]

@charmingthebones | starter call

Adrenaline was a funny thing – it gave you more strength, endurance, and, occasionally, the inability to feel what ought to be a searing pain. But, oh boy, it was a bitch when it wore off.

It had been a small skirmish against some mercenaries out in Rivain. Finn had been tasked with showing Emmrich the best route to a cave where the Mourn Watch suspected "sinister spectral events" – as Vorgoth had put it. Finn translated that to "some demon shit".

The mercenaries had been easy enough to fend off, especially with Emmrich's terrifyingly impressive mage skills. The mercenaries either fled or were disposed of. But before Finn could question why they had been targeted of all people, a step closer to Emmrich sent a sharp pain shooting through him – muscle tightening from his hamstring to his back.

As he gasped and stumbled, he began to notice the source of the pain. What had started as a dull, warm ache was now burning hotter, sharpening into something more severe.

When he turned to look, he could see an arrow protruding from his right buttock.

"Ah, fuck."

[dicethrow]

@charmingthebones

It has certainly been years since Gale visited the Necropolis and he recalled his first visit as he walked through the sandy corridors. He was only a young student back then, in his early twenties, and encouraged by his mentor to broaden his horizons — to experience other forms of magic. Even so, he remembered being very unnerved by the concept of necromancy and being surrounded by academics who dabbled in such arts.

It took meeting the very professor that accompanied him to sooth such nerves. Emmrich was kind and understanding from the moment they had met, it only took a few minutes before Gale had forgotten all of his anxieties of being in a city of the undead as they engrossed themselves into discussions of the Fade.

Now, over a decade later, Gale was walking the very same wing as to where they first met, and the younger mage couldn't help but wonder if Emmrich recalled this was near their first encounter. Though this time Gale held a very different perspective of the necromantic arts, mostly due to Emmrich's influence. He was utterly fascinated by the connection this place held with the Fade, the thinning of the Veil here and a balance between spirits and mortals perfectly held.

Amongst a few mischievous wisps whirling around his head and only causing Gale to shake his head and chuckle while waving them off.

"This place seems familiar," he teased, casting a side glance to Emmrich as they paused before a statue of an skeleton donned in full armour, arm raised with the words that Gale could loosely translate from Nevarran to say 'dragon slayer'.

The stone step that ran around the base of the statue was in fact the spot where Gale — all those years ago — had fled to when overwhelmed by the sheer presence of spirits and undead, where Emmrich found him sitting with head in hands and trying to block out the world around him.

[crowstrikes]

@charmingthebones // plotted starter

It started in Arlathan. Emmrich had been asked to aid Bellara with some ancient elven artefact, supposedly something to do with the elves and the Fade, and very important to her. However, once Lucanis heard there were Venatori nearby, he was swift to strap on his daggers and join the small excursion to the forest.

The artefact seemed to be a dud in the end. No matter how many times they poked at it or tried certain spells, the strange golden sphere remained motionless. Yet it wasn't safe to just leave lying around, so they agreed to take it back to the Lighthouse. Lucanis presumed it would be stored in Bellara's quarters, where she could test it to her heart's content.

He didn't expect to find Emmrich quietly studying it in his own quarters. Lucanis had initially entered the necromancer's space to ask a question regarding Spite, yet the moment he saw the orb, that thought slipped from his mind. He approached the mage quietly.

"Has it done anything?" he asked, reaching out to gently brush his fingers along its side, feeling a faint tingle of energy from it.

Ah. So it wasn't really a dud, just broken. Probably. Most of the stuff from Arlathan needed some mending at first.

The feeling grew, stronger and stronger, until Lucanis tried to pull his fingers away, yet his art didn't respond. Instead, a strange sensation swept over him, like water washing against him by the sea, before the energy finally faded.

"Did you feel that? Is that normal?"

[crowderiva-a]

❛ patch . help my muse patch up a wound . (crow!emmrich)

@charmingthebones // emmrich

Poison, potions, lotions; those Viago could remedy with ease. But blades and arrows, fire and other forms of magic were far more difficult.

The burn across his hand made any form of self-medication near impossible. Hence why he was now scowling on a chair in Emmrich's quarters, his hand, arm, and even shoulder exposed for the mage to tend to.

"They've changed the gaatlok," he stated curtly, only wincing at the sting of air against his burns. "Lucanis mentioned the Venatori might be involved."

He inhaled through gritted teeth before adding, "That's all our city needs... Venatori scum."

[crowstrikes]

“I shouldn't be here, not with you.” (crow!emmrich)

@charmingthebones // Emmrich

Lucanis sighed heavily. It hadn't been his choice to be sent on a mission with Emmrich either. There had been a bit of fun poked at the contract before he even began it, a light tease from fellow Crows about how the mage killer was paired with a mage yet again. Still, he would have been a fool to go against the wishes of his grandmother, so he accepted the contract without hesitation. He even transcribed the important details into his journal the moment he took it on.

Of course, his hesitation had nothing to do with Emmrich per say, at least, not in the way one might think. It was more about what exactly had happened during that previous contract in Minrathous. What happened over there, during those long stakeouts, were in fact some of the best moments of his life. A fragile bubble of peace, free of the burden of being the grand, stoic assassin. During those evenings, he wasn't the Demon of Vyrantium. He was just a man who found comfort in the arms of another.

But it had to end eventually. Since returning to Treviso, Lucanis had struggled to see Emmrich again. Not because he didn't want to, but because he wanted to too much. He had fallen for the mage so hard and fast that it terrified him. He wasn't sure he could keep his mind focused on his Crow duties with the man so close.

Yet fate, or, more accurately, his grandmother, found a way to bring them back together. This time, a contract in Nevarra: a high-ranking Venatori was hiding somewhere in the city, posing as a typical Nevarran. Their job was to find the cultist and eliminate them. Hence why Caterina insisted Emmrich join Lucanis for the job.

And so, he once again found himself in a rented flat in a city far from home... with Emmrich. He wasn't sure how he would keep his mind on task this time.

"Well, when the First Talon gives you a contract..."

[dicethrow]

"I'm going to fix you up, but you have to sit still." (to lucanis)

@writtenmisfits

Still.

He could do that easily. Many contracts required Lucanis to be as silent as a shadow, as still as the void. Yet, he struggled so much in that moment, but not due to a flinching reaction to pain or even just a burst of energy. Not, he shifted out of anger, because he was annoyed at his own foolishness that resulted in the injury.

His determination fed into his pride, his failure leading to shame. He slipped up, the target got away, and Crows did not make mistakes.

Emmrich knew this well too. Whilst the mage assassin expertise laid more in the use of magic while Lucanis spent more time avoiding the arcane, it only added to the embarrassment that he received a fire wound from a mage contract, of all things.

That wasn't to say that he wasn't grateful for Emmrich's help — quite the opposite even. Still, he couldn't shake off the voice in the back of his mind saying he nearly failed a contract. Nearly, the contract still lived but Lucanis had a trace and could use it to sniff out the blood mage and finally kill them.

Turned out, whilst lost in thought (more accurately brooding) he remained quite still for Emmrich to tend to the wound on his shoulder.

"I might.. need a mage's help on this contract.."

[dicethrow]

"I'd want to sit with you beneath our favorite olive tree at the edge of your family's vineyard, sharing a bottle of wine and a plate of cheese and the joy of each other, my dear young prince."

Tell my muse what you want to do to them on anon.

@charmingthebones

There was no surprise at who wrote the letter, as the assassin drew his eyes over the fluid and elegant handwriting of his lover. The then trailed his finger along the ending, his smile only softening further.

"I would like that too, huesos."

And so, with that thought, Lucanis took a detour that would cause him to wander though the Treviso markets where he knew he could buy a nice bottle of wine and a small collection of cheese.