Uriel

Perhaps he should visit parks more often Uriel thought as he observed the teaming playgrounds and busy trails. The heat of a southern sun had left little skin covered and there was an ironic sort of beauty to watching muutes wasting what little life they had on strangers as he, with more than they would ever comprehend, starved. He supposed it was the justice he deserved by most people's accounts but the need to care had been beaten out of him a long time ago.

And really, who cared about justice when survival was at stake?

He'd become acquainted with hunger well before the beast ever emerged. The nights of sleepless hours listening to the growling stomachs, his and those of all he'd claimed as his, as they huddled together to ward off the cold of frozen streets were carved into his soul as deep as they were cut into the beasts. Sometimes he wondered if that was why it had come to him when it had not spared the others in its lust for gluttony.

No, he decided, he would not stay long in the park; waiting left too much time to think and he would not tempt the beast any more than he had to.

It was more excited than that irrevocable night after tasting the primordial power of an Ancient and he wondered how someone so young could survive even holding it. He had considered that she could be one of the mythical beings of old, but no; she was too fractured.

Unpracticed as a newly created mage and as carless as a muute, she was like a sitting duck just waiting for someone to snatch her up. The lady serpent should have found her ages ago. Even the charm he'd spelled would do little to mask the essence of an Ancient so someone had to have kept her well-hidden if no one had stumbled across her yet. Which begged the question; why was an Ancient creating mage? And why leave her on her own?

He wondered if Python knew what she was getting into hunting the girl.

The Ancients were not ones you wished to disturb if you believed they even existed. There were reasons they'd left this world, and those that slumbered would not take kindly to being woken. But the new mage did not often take heed of the old mage warnings. Like rebellious children, they flaunted their corruption and paid no mind to the consequence of their impertinence.

If the lady serpent had taken fairytales to heart and truly believed the girl was capable of prophecy, surely she must realize what kind of legends she might antagonize in attempting to claim one of theirs for her own master. But perhaps it wasn't her who believed; there was one Lord after all who was insane enough to believe in and still deify such beings.

Cobra.

Distaste coiled in Uriel's belly at just the thought of the name and the beast, already on edge, stretched at his skin.

A spoiled pizduk whose insanity was excused by a wealthy muute family that paid others to do the same, he lured in mage and muute alike with the promise of the power he'd spent his family's fortune to gorge himself with. Was he the one Python called master? It would certainly fit with what he knew of "the king of serpents". He was far from the only mage who thought they were somehow entitled to what others had, but at least the other lords didn't send their vassals to steal someone else's.

Pulling a move like that would start a war.

Or reignite an old one.

Irritation and excitement roiled inside Uriel as he watched a flock of geese huddle around an old woman and the child in her lap, picking at the crumbs tossed their way. It was already inconvenient having to babysit squabbling mage, keeping a full-out war covered up would be a pain in his backside.

But a feast worth waiting for.

The thought was an insidious one sparked by the beast's hunger and fed by his own addiction and he shook his head to be rid of it; it wasn't a thought he could afford to entertain.

War among the mage would mean chaos. The Muutes might have their weapons of mass destruction, but the mage carried in them the very essence of corruption. Every one of them was a blight on the earth that could spread their sickness to anything they touched. Death lived inside them all, hungry for the souls they denied it, and the muutes would be helpless against them. And when all the muutes were gone the mage would turn on themselves in their greed, until all that was left was a baren rock in a starless galaxy.

So, if Python wanted to destroy the tentative peace Uriel had killed armies for, she was in for a big disappointment.

The blinding bright sun gleaming off the polished surface of her crown and her impeccable three-piece suit, the subject of his mussing came striding around the corner as if on cue.

She wore white today and the snowy contrast to her skin made an appealing sight that, in a different life, he might have enjoyed. But all he saw was the sweet sickness that flowed through her veins. It was enticing poison. Not nearly as seductive as the ageless power he'd tasted the day before, but the beast wasn't picky.

She almost walked right past him but paused when the right angle showed her the same glamor of an arrogant fool, she'd seen him in before. He lounged on a wooden bench, ankle resting on a knee and both arms slung over the back as he watched her approach. He didn't move to make room for her and she didn't attempt to sit, only eyed him with carefully disguised impatience.

"I take it you found them." She inquired.

"Does it matter?" Uriel asked in response. "It seems you have others hunting for your prize. I'm sure you'll have it soon enough with or without me."

"But you wouldn't be here if you hadn't already." Python pointed out.

"Wouldn't I?" He countered.

"Why else would you seek me out?" she asked with irritation, growing tired of his game. But her doubt was a delicious morsel and Uriel could feel the beast's wild need twisting his inhibitions.

Grinning up at her, he let his gaze rove her body. "You're a beautiful woman, maybe I want a good roll in the hay."

"don't flatter yourself. Even if you had the right equipment to satisfy my tastes, you're useless to me as long as you're bound to that brat. So speak your purpose in coming here are this conversation is over."

"I take it, it wasn't your idea to hire me," he said with great amusement, which only seemed to irritate her more. "Makes me wonder what has Cobra so desperate he would send his mistress after me."

"I'm no mistress" she snapped.

But she was one of the snake's pets.

"Yes, I'm sure he told you that," Uriel goaded her with just a bit too much enjoyment. "but the man is mad, I wouldn't trust a word out of his mouth."

"He may be mad," she said her irritation turning to something darker "but don't underestimate his intelligence. He knows not to waste a useful piece when he has one."

"Mm perhaps," Uriel hummed, idly observing a group of teens gathered around the skating rink. "But don't overestimate your usefulness."

She bristled at that. "Did you come here just to insult me?"

Her words were a cold reminder that he was too close to the edge. A wild sort of recklessness had pledged him all day and with the beast egging him on coming here had been a risk. But he needed information and Python was the most likely to have what he wanted to know.

"No, I'm more interested in why the other lords are after the fortune teller."

"I already told you, there's more to the old stories than just fairy tales."

"Don't bother giving me some bullshit bedtime story." He sighed "The gracious lords would never waste their time and resources on some Ancient myth."

"Why not? If they were ever here, they have no more interest in us. This is our world now to with as we please. No one can fault us for removing any obstacles in the way of that."

The lines sound like a script fed to her by someone crazy enough to believe them and Uriel gave her a disappointed look "Bull shit, you're no more of a believer than I am. Tell me the real reason they want them."

He was delighted to see her eye twitch and the beast reveled in how much she hated this version of him. Of all his necessary facades, this one really was more fun than it should be to play.

"We think she's a born mage."

Everything stilled inside Uriel at her words.

Unlike the made mage, born mage were not created by death and the power they breathed was as a part of nature as the mountains of his mother's land. But born mage were rare. Too rare. One had not been birthed since...

his mind squirted around the thought but it was an unavoidable truth.

Not since he'd fought his twin for their first breath.

His first kill, but far from the last.

"What proof do you have?" the question felt like lead falling from his lips.

"Their mother was a mage," Python answered.

"how do you know?"

She gave him a cynical look.

"We've been looking for a long time, give us some credit. A few decades ago we found someone with a talent for prediction and were sure she was what we'd been looking for. The girl was Made but her family was descendants of Born mage. A vassal was sent to collect her but she managed to convince him to help her instead and they disappeared for over fifteen years."

Is that how the girl at the diner had stayed hidden for so long? One's will was its own sort of power and there were few things stronger than a mother's when protecting their child. But then when had an Ancient gotten their claws on her?

"How were they found?"

"An accident," Python said dryly. "A group of low levels looking for talismans stumbled across them. Our best guess is the mage weren't looking for them and that's how they were able to slip through whatever protections were in place. They had no idea what they'd found when killed her but it brought her child to our attention. If we're correct it'll be a far bigger prize than she ever was."

"How do you know its mage," Uriel asked, " or that it has the abilities you want so badly?"

"The talismans," Python said with absolute certainty. "Only Born mage have ever been able to create tokens so easily and there were hundreds of them. That's why the mage chose the location for a hit."

"and the Fortune telling?" he prompted.

She shrugged "I needed something to catch your attention."

"And you couldn't come up with anything better." He shook his head in disbelief. "Even the mage can't fuck with time."

"It worked didn't it?"

She had a good point; It had worked and Uriel didn't like that.

"So you want to kill the kid too?"

"What we want" Python corrected "is to use them."

"If they're so important, why shouldn't I hand them over to our king when I do find them?"

"Because he is a simpering fool." Her annoyance returned in full force "And he will never reward your loyalty with anything more than the freedom he already allows."

"So they say, but I don't see any lords offering anything better."

A calculating glint entered her eyes.

"You might be surprised. My lord has always catered to the needs of his Vassals."

"Really?" he snorted, "And what do you think he could give me that I couldn't take for myself?"

"Come to Samhain and find out."

"So, you can parade me around as your new toy. Thanks, but no thanks."

Revulsion had him resisting the need to bash her head in for mentioning the ball the mage indulged in every year on hollows eve. An enormous waste of money and food it was more a gaudy contest of the macabre than any sort of party but Samhain was the one night when muutes thought nothing of the rich somebodies having a few extra limbs or missing body pieces. It was also the one-time Mage could display their mutations with no questions asked if they chose to do so. Meanwhile, those who kept a glamor could craft them to be truly glorious nightmares brought to life. But the worst part was the opportunity it gave them to flaunt the rules.

Well, rule; there was really only one.

Don't let the muutes know.

He thought it was a simple enough command, but he supposed it was too much for the King to ask all the crime lords to do one thing. As long as they kept the ruse going, He let them do, buy, steal, and fight over what every they wanted. But like rebellious children they just had to test the boundaries and for the ageless mage, the Samhain ball was their way of flirting with death.

"To negotiate." Python offered, bringing him back to the present.

"Are you so fond of me already?"

"I don't have to like you," She said pragmatically "...to appreciate what you can do for whichever lord you choose to serve. He might call himself a king while pandering to those weak-willed muutes, but everyone knows you're the only thing that allows him to hold that title."

"The way you say that makes me think I should just create my own house and keep the fortune teller for myself. Together we'd be unstoppable." He added the last bit with a dramatic flair of his hands.

"Ha." She scoffed "I doubt it, you lack the ambition."

He gave her a mocking pout. "I'm hurt you would say such a thing. Am I really that transparent?"

"No, but I've heard enough to know you're like me; you like getting your hands dirty too much to ever sit on the throne yourself."

He tilted his head at her offhand admonition and studied her a little closer.

So, she liked playing the man behind the current did she.

"Your hands seem awfully clean to me," Uriel remarked.

She gave him a forced smile "Appearances are important." She reminded him, tugging at the ends of her sleeves "which speaking of...Unless you have something else you want to chat about, I have places to be."

"You have nothing else I want; do as you please." He shrugged carelessly, dismissing her with all the entitlement of someone with the right to do so and she folded her hands to keep from striking him when he stood. He might be the king's pet but that didn't make him her better. She was ready to spit some biting remark but he spoke first. "Do you think people around here are the type to notice a few missing pieces? I think I might enjoy some of nature's bounty while I'm out and about."

She frowned at the crowded playground that he eyed with interest.

"I thought your king didn't approve of his vassals drawing from Muutes?"

Uriel grinned at her.

"Oh, he doesn't. but what he doesn't know can't hurt him."

And what you think you know keeps everyone guessing, he added silently, leaving her to consider all his statement might imply while he pondered the developing problem of medaling Ancients, interfering Lords, and the return of Born mage.