Uriel

Someone was pulling on their binding, and it wasn't making the beast happy.

Not that it was ever happy, but right now Uriel wasn't in the best of moods either and that just made it more irritable.

Their visitor had made another appearance. Like before the beast was first to notice the other presence. Then he had seen the faded silhouette. when it began to dissipate and the beast howled at the broken connection, he reached out meaning to find its source only to slam into a barrier even he could not pass through. The beast snarled in fury and tried to follow past it but Uriel could still feel the pull of a binding calling him and so he had kept it chained.

For now

A Binding was not something the mage took lightly. Not only did it involve giving up a piece of the soul to another, and in giving created a connection between the two, but unlike a Bond, it only went one way and could be used to compel the giver to do whatever was asked of them. The bindings themselves were made visible by a mark inscribed on the wrist that belonged to one who now owned that piece of the other's soul. The ones Uriel placed on those indebted to him were insurance that they would fulfill their end of a bargain whenever he called on them. So, it wasn't often that others used them to call on him.

The one that beckoned him now was one of the oldest he held, and it led him to a charming little coffee shop nestled between a bookstore and a privately run veterinary hospital. His sensitive hearing could pick up several animals already inside despite the early hour and they quieted as he drew closer, no doubt sensing what he was and what he carried with him.

The beast was still hissing at him when he entered the shop and scanned it for the one calling him. A man sat at a corner table facing the window. His messy blond hair was just a bit too long to be fashionable and the man himself hadn't bothered to wear any form of glamor over a solid mas of knobby joints and smooth flesh that made up his right forearm.

Tarren had been a powerful ally when they worked together but now was too weak to even maintain a constant glamor and if his scent was anything to go by, he was dying. Uriel remembered the day the mutation had flared into existence. He didn't know what had driven the desperate act that had used too much power and resulted in the fingers fussed together to Incasing the talisman inside but after the accident that had taken his hand, Tarren had changed. Realizing the true danger of the power the talisman gave him, he had given up using it and returned to the old ways of the mage. Still, Uriel could sense the ancient coin forever gripped by Tarren's ruined hand though it was rendered dormant by strong barriers and years of disuse.

As he approached Uriel could see there were dark circles under his eyes, and that he had in fact aged since the last time they met. Uriel could have called him a friend once and would have continued to had they not taken such different paths. Now they were two men who stood on different sides of a line drawn in the sand a long time ago.

"You look like shit."

Tarren looked up to see who had disturbed him and a smile broke out across his face when he saw Uriel's un-glamoured face.

"Uri." He grinned "It's good to see you too."

Uriel sild into the seat across from him and sat back to study the other man. He could have kept his glamor but Tarren knew his true face and so any mask would have been rendered useless. And besides, there was a certain freedom that came from being just himself for once. Auburn red hair, tall frame, and narrow features, he was his mother's son but the cold green eyes that bore into Tarren were all his fathers. Of course, no glamor also meant his accent was much thicker than usual but again Tarren had heard his true voice and could easily understand his Russian-tinted words.

"Wish I could say the same, but you always seem to bring me bad luck."

"I'd say sorry but uh, you deserve it so...." Tarren shrugged, and Uriel let out a snort of laughter.

"I see you're still an honest bastard" Tarren grinned unapologetically and Uriel school his head but he quickly sobered. "How are you?"

"I'm alright. Yourself?

Uriel shrugged "I keep busy. You still doing odd jobs for Thomas?"

"Not anymore. Haven't done anything for him since the one we did with that Ronan asshole actually."

"That was almost twenty years ago" Uriel raised a brow in disbelief "What on earth have you been doing all this time?"

"Wards, charms, a little of everything here and there at first. Basically, whatever work I could find but nobody wanted to hire a cripple in those days, so I started my own business. Now I help others get out while they can. It doesn't pay much but I scrap by so it's alright."

"What about bounty hunting?" Uriel asked "You were good at that. Why not come back?

Tarren was shaking his head before Uriel even finished.

"Not interested in playing games with the mage. Too many people end up dead, and honestly, I'm happy where I am. I can help the ones who want an out that doesn't include being six feet under first."

"Don't waste your time, you can't save the dammed."

"But that's just it. They're not dammed, and they don't have to die" Tarren leaned forward, intense on making his point. "Most Mage are just innocent people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nobody gives a shit about what happens after they start using Skyglass, but I want to at least try helping. If I can get to them before it's too late, I can give them a place to stay during withdrawal and get them a real job if they want it after."

"And how's that working out?"

"Most end up going back after a couple years, but a few of them stick it out and they make it worth it."

"And what happens to the ones who can't get past the initial shock of withdrawal?"

"They die." There was a pained regret in Tarren's words, and it shrouded his expression in a dark cloud.

"I guess every war has its casualties."

"Damn it, Uri, it's an addiction, not a war!" Tarren slammed his club of a hand down on the table startling the other patrons and there was a tense silence for several long seconds before conversations picked up where they'd left off.

"If you really believe that," Uriel said in a low voice "then you're more of an idiot than I thought"

Tarren was no fool, but optimism could be a dangerous thing. While Uriel had to respect the mental strength of Tarren's choice to stop using Skyglass to boost his strength, he thought him hopelessly naive for making it when that choice left him weak in a very brutal world.

"What do you want Tarren?"

The other man let out a heavy sigh.

Pulling something out of his pocket he set it on the table between them and Uriel flicked a glance at the item. It was a simple necklace; just a single pearl hung on a thin chain, but he could taste the sorrow that saturated it.

"I need you to construct a spell."

"Spells are easy enough to come by. Why come to me?"

"You're the best." He said simply. "And need someone I can trust to do it right."

"It'll cost you."

"I know."

"You still owe me from last time."

"...I know."

"And you still want to risk another favor?"

Tarren held out his good hand in offering, palm up to expose the binding mark inscribed inside his wrist that glowed faintly with proximity to its owner making the beast itched to use it.

"it's for a friend."

Coming to a decision Uriel placed his hand over Tarren's, letting it hover as he sealed their bargain. Delighted to be let out for a little while the beast took immense joy in carving new lines out of Tarren's soul and another binding formed just below the other, searing into the skin and making Tarren wince. Quickly reining in the beast, Uriel put it back in its cage and let go of the connection created between them and the other man. Hand drifting from Tarren's he picked up the charm to study it.

"What's kind of spell?"

"Protection. It needs to hide its wearer."

"who's it for?" Uriel asked, drawing on the beast's power.

He could sense a bitter loss imbued into the charm along with something else, something familiar. Whoever this necklace had belonged to, they had been loved and the soul they left behind was lost without them. All that kept it going was a father's desperation that had seeped into the metal of the necklace, staining the beauty of what it symbolized. The anguish was so strong it made the beast want to below its own sorrow, but Uriel drew in the emotion, weaving it into the foundation as he began constructing a spell.

"I told you. It is for a friend."

"Names Tarren, I need names."

"That's not part of the deal," Tarren said through clenched teeth. "You help me, and I give you a favor, nothing else."

"I can't help you if I don't know who's going to use it."

"As I said, it's for a friend. His family ran into trouble, and they need to disappear, but he wants insurance that his daughter will be safe."

"What kind of trouble?"

Tarren shook his head.

"I can't tell you that. All you need to know is that the people looking for them are very powerful and they don't mind leaving bodies in their wake."

Leaning on his elbows Uriel interlaced his fingers and pointed them at Tarren. Head tilted ever so slightly; he gave Tarren a placating smile.

"You've been out of the game a long time and maybe you've forgotten how this works so let me remind you. You come to me and ask for a charm. Now I can spell it to hide your 'friend' but we both know that won't last long. If the people after them are hunting someone specific, the spell needs to know to hide a specific person. So, stop bullshitting me and tell me who the charm is for."

Tarren didn't respond, only looked Uriel in the eye with a tight-lipped frown.

"Fine." Uriel huffed "but don't come crying when this doesn't work the way you want it to."