Counter Proposal

[Kender Bard]

Rajani sipped her tea in her outer-sanctum of the temple. It was actually mostly a hallway but she'd had a chair dragged out there. She'd never bring Daniel into the inner sanctum.

She waited, calmly, as the Mind she'd sent to go fetch him teleported back.

"Hello, Daniel," she purred. "Wondering where Raist is I suppose?"

[Northen Light36]

Daniel tried to conceal his shock, but it was visible for a few moments before he got control of his emotions again. "Yes," he rasps. "Where is he?"

In the years since he'd lead the Thieves' Guild and since his brush with Tead at Echo's hands, Daniel's changed hugely. The handsome and charming man who'd lured so many troubled children and teenagers into the guild is gone. Replacing him is a scarred and unable to speak in anything more then a rasping whisper madman, intent only on seeing the death of the women who betrayed him and the guild shattered under his heal.

[Kender Bard]

"He is indisposed at the moment," she replied archly. "I have found a better use for him. But before I sent him away on said useful purpose, I gleaned considerable information from him. Including a deal he made with you." Tilting her head, she went on, "I can offer you far, far better than he, poor wretch. I know you burn for vengeance, and wish to slake the thirst of your hate. But consider this." She leaned back, holding up a solitary finger for emphasis. "What is time to the immortal? If I offer you immortality, truly the ability to rule the thieves however you wish without peer or fear of death, would you be willing to stay your vengeful hand long enough for me to get what use I can out of the bunch of petty lowlives?"

[Northen Light36]

Daniel's eyes gleam with madness and greed. "Truly," he hisses. "I would give much to see that furred whore dead at my feet... But your offer has merit..." Daniel smiles, as much as his scarred and ruined face allows. "Death could come so very slowly for the deserving if time held no hold on me..."

Daniel nods. "What is required of me... my lady?"

[Kender Bard]

Rajani smiled widely at his assent. "You must follow me," she ordered, still smiling as she rose up. "And you must trust me as a servant trusts his master. You will be rewarded - oh yes. If you serve me well, Daniel, I will see to it that you not only have the revenge you burn so deeply for but that you will also be well tended to here during your wait. You could lounge in the lap of luxury once more. Does this please you?"

[Northen Light36]

Daniel's eyes lit up at the promise of not only revenge, but of a life of luxury once more. "I serve you and you alone until bid otherwise," he replied as smoothly as his rasping voice would allow, bowing deeply before Rajani.

[Kender Bard]

Rajani paused at that. Her. And her alone.

Did she want that?

She felt as though this very second balanced on a crucial line between one possibility and the next. Independence and not. Herself and Nissar.

Love and Evil.

She let out a breath in a slight shudder. Her mouth was very dry but she managed to get the words out. "No. Not just me. You will also serve Nissar, my husband. ... MY master."

[Northen Light36]

"Very well," Daniel replied without any hesitation. He gave Rajani a long, considering look, silently pondering the implications of that hesitation, but he said nothing.

[Kender Bard]

Some tension eased out of her but not much. Without a word more, she turned and strode away, beckoning that he should follow. She headed for the altar room. There were no people there, no sermons being given, but the altar was always kept pristine and ready for the next individual to lie upon it. She grabbed a priest along the way and roughly ordered him to fetch the Black Swan, nearly shoving the poor man down the stairs. The priest scrambled to obey.

"What is about to occur will be painful," she warned him. "And perhaps frightening though I doubt you have much fear left within you. If you endure it, though, all will be as I have promised. I give you immortality and all I ask in return is your service when I need someone to be killed. You alone may sometimes have the power to bring that death about. And in return you will have some of the finest quarters, the richest foods, the softest clothing." She laughed softly. "The most comely of girls."

[Northen Light36]

Daniel gives Rajani his twisted version of a smile. "You ask so little in return for so much, my lady," he replies. "It is my pleasure to serve, in whatever you ask of me." Daniel smirks. "And you are correct. I bring fear to others, I do not feel it myself."

[Kender Bard]

"I know," she remarked in response to the first part of what he said. "I am a very merciful Mistress, all things considered. But only to those who please me. Make no mistake, Daniel, but I am a terrible woman to those who bring me anger. Terrible." She scowled slightly and thought of Vesperia.

By the time she had finished brooding, the current Black Swan came forward. He wore his perpetual look of boredom, looking only idly at Daniel. Whispering softly, he spoke, "How may I serve, My Mistress?"

Rajani gestured to Daniel and said, "Your final order. Pass on your curse to this man."

The Black Swan's eyes widened. How had she known? Perhaps she was secreting away a Mind sign of her own. He narrowed her eyes at Rajani. It was a stupid request, if he did not wish to comply. He could kill her, kill her and then... what? He'd still be the Black Swan. Nissar would likely have him shut into a dark room with no light, sound, smell, to writhe in agony until someone freed him. Him, Taed, and his thoughts. He shuddered at that, deeply shaken.

Clearing his throat, he now spoke loud and clear, his voice rolling pleasantly with all the cultured smoothness of a bard who has had decades to perfect his voice - when he could, "Very well. Sir, I assume you agree to this. And if not, the passing of the curse will not work. You must want it, badly. Enough to sell your soul to Taed himself. If you feel this way, then lie upon yon altar."

[Northen Light36]

Daniel looks coldly at the current Black Swan, "I would not be here if I did not want this," he rasps, before lying himself down on the altar. He would give his last breath it was required of him, his soul was no price at all. Daniel had long ago let his soul whither into a twisted, multilated shadow of it's self.

[Kender Bard]

The Swan grunted. Whatever. He was going to be free soon. Ruffling his white feathers softly under his cloak, he pulled his sharp, ever-present knife from the sheathe and approached the Altar. "There are rules," he began.

"Hurry up," Rajani snapped.

"Be quiet, you selfish bitch," Black Swan said without missing a beat. That felt good. "You must kill once a month. Failure to do so will bring Taed's displeasure on you and you will be locked in terrible, unending pain until you slake his thirst for blood and life. Secondly, you cannot be killed until you pass on the curse to another. You will die very shortly after that. Third, you will not be able to speak until before you are about to take a life. There's some long boring history as to why. You'll not age or die with time either, so you'll have lots of time to peruse the scrolls I keep in my quarters. Your quarters now I suppose."

He thumbed the knife softly. "Finally, the curse can only be passed to one who is dying." And on that note, he plunged the knife into Daniel's chest and pulled it back out again. "Swear to Taed to serve him for as long as you live in his hands. Swear it on your soul."

[Northen Light36]

Daniel resists the urge to scream. It would waste time. "I... swear to serve... Tead for as long... as I live... I swear it... upon my heart... and soul," he gasps around that unbarable, agonising pain. Determination is the only thing making him speak. He would have this. He would have his revenge.

[Kender Bard]

The Black Swan smiled grimly and calmly wiped off the blade. He had a minute or so while Daniel twisted in pain. While Taed made the exchange. He sheathed the knife and looked at Rajani. "I hope Taed rends your soul in twine as he casts it into the fires of hell. You and your husband deserve nothing less than eternal torture."

Rajani snarled at him but there was nothing she could really do. He had just comitted suicide. So she held her tongue.

The process was not a pretty or easy one for either parties involved. Pain continued to lance Daniel, but it soon affected the Black Swan as well. Terribly, ugly black and purple bruises began to cover his body like grotesque flowers under his skin, from head to toe. Popping and cracking sounds followed and by this time he began to scream as well. Bones began to rebreak themselves, contorting him. He fell to the ground and twitched and writhed as he relived his final moments. With his last breath he cried out, "Nayeli!!" And then grew quiet. And then lay still.

And the moment he did, the wound in Daniel's chest mended itself with dizzying speed. Healing water could not have done much better. The pain was still there but once the flesh had healed it became a merely throbbing ache.

Rajani looked at the former Black Swan dispassionately before eyeing the new one. "How do you feel?"