Hunting the Hunter Ch. 03

"Don't you ever stop flirting?" They both turned to the tall mer who had never looked up from his shuffling.

"My dear Faves, surely you've figured that out by now. It's what I Do." She placed her tea cup back on its saucer and slid it onto the precariously cluttered bench.

He didn't look up but walked over and dropped half the pile in her lap.

"Make yourself useful and tell me if there's anything in these I need to care about." He turned and paced back toward the door.

The Breton lady lifted the pile with the air of the hard put upon and stood smoothing her ivory damasked silk dress out with a soft rustle. She looked at the first address and screwed up her face, tarnishing the effect of her elegant movements.

"I gave you the mundane ones." He murmured, as if sensing her expression without seeing it. The seneschal's angle allowed him to catch the hint of a smile that briefly graced his features.

"You're sure? This one is from your sister in law. She was more than put out that you didn't show up to her daughters coming out party last month. I wouldn't want her ire accidentally spilling out on me. Whatever form it takes. That woman's a right harpy when she wants to be."

"I don't see why, I sent that ring."

"Which ring?"

"The conjurer's ring... someone told me she was studying that at some point."

"I told you that...and wrong niece. That was your sister's daughter. And you gave it to her on her birthday...which you also missed." The servant bowed his head to hide a smile as Master Andes rolled his eyes.

"If I went to all these things I'd never get any work done."

"You don't have to go to all of them...just a few, once in a while. Speaking of which it's your darling little brother's 550th this year, and you have to go."

"Say's whom?"

"You're unhappy sister in law." He looked up from the letter he was reading and cocked a brow at her from across the room as she waved the letter at him.

"I thought I said to tell me anything I need to care about. Dar'Basha, would you find something to send my niece...whichever one is supposed to be getting things..."

"Llaearah" The Breton supplied.

"Llaearah." He echoed. "Get her..." he looked around searching for inspiration and paused on the lady who had reoccupied herself by flipping through the letters, "Desdemona? "

"Hmm?"

"Is that a new dress?"

"No...you bought it for me last year."

"Ah. Is that sort of thing still in style?"

"Akaviri silk never goes out of style, darling."

"Then I must have good taste."

"The best."

"Get her one of those..." he made a vague gesture to the dress, "things."

Dar'Basha bowed.

Faves flicked his eyes up to his attendant.

"Someday soon would be nice."

"Don't go quite yet Dar'Basha, you'll also need something for a funeral. It seems Aunt Noreema has finally succumb." the Breton murmured from her side of the room.

"To what?" Lord Andes asked, looking finally interested.

"The Morag Tong."

"Ah. Good."

"Why good? What self respecting Telvanni hires assassins? It's in bad taste. It's so...House Hlaalu."

"Who's to say it was a Telvanni and not a Hlaalu? Regardless, to answer your question, it is good news as my mother convinced her to entail her fortune away in the case of foul play. So now that idiotic s'wit son of hers will get nothing."

"That doesn't seem terribly fair."

He shrugged.

"It's standard practice. Besides if the foolish Altmer can't protect what is his, he doesn't deserve to keep it. You should have seen how my brother dotted on mother. She was not a stupid woman. She lived to see nearly 13 centuries you know."

"Who gets it instead?"

"It will be dispersed to the rest of the family."

"So I assume you're going to this then?"

"Absolutely not."

"Oh, for the love of Mara, why not?" She asked rolling her eyes, though her tone was far less surprised than her expression indicated.

"It will be a public ceremony, and the Nerothren family still wants my blood, if you'll recall. I'd be a pretty target indeed. And they've become rather insistent, particularly after that incident at Shishi."

Desdemona tapped the letter against her lips in a playful way.

"Incident? Don't you mean massacre?"

He shrugged.

"It's no fault of mine they chose to go charging head long into the fray with those Redoran barbarians while I was in the middle of a very sensitive experiment. Honestly, do I look like a baby-sitter?"

"Regardless, it might do you good to get out and get some practice. Theoretical studies are one thing, but nothing works the old magica muscles like a little practical application."

He merely glanced at her with a small smile, which she returned before continuing with another thought.

"You know...it makes sense to make the stipulation that the children have to keep their parents alive, as you pointed out, but entailing it to the rest of the family doesn't make any sense whatsoever."

"Oh?" He cocked a brow and gave her a very intense look, one that raised most people's hair on end. She returned the expression with a sceptically amused one of her own.

"It seems odd of your mother to suggest such a thing when it would only encourage the rest of the family to do their best to knock the poor lady off, or as you so eloquently put it the other day, 'taking the last word'."

He said nothing, but his eyes took on a slight glow and his lips twitched again.

"Tell me darling, did your mother add such a stipulation to her will?"

"No...she did not." His twitch became a full blown hint of a smile.

"Ah."

"Indeed."

She grinned evilly.

"I see where you're family gets it from. Dangerous fetchers...the lot of you. Especially your sister-in-law." She added with a grimace. He did chuckle at that.

"It certainly wasn't father."

"Oh, be nice, I've heard he was an absolute miracle worker with alchemicals...he's still a bit of a legend. It's not his fault he was an Altmer. And he was rich..." her smile turned sly again. "You know how we ladies get around a fat purse. Your mother couldn't help but be enamored, I'm sure."

"I'll be sure to tell that ancient bat, Lord Haelo, you said so." He turned and finally waved the servant off, who in turn bowed and backed out of the room, his ears twitching as he attended the conversation as long as he could.

He caught light feminine laughter, "Be my guest, he's not fool enough to believe my attentions are born from anything else...even if they are."

"Oh? Do tell."

"Honestly, Sera, you know me, I'm like a moth to the flame. Why do think I put up with all this Telvanni insanity you people call existence? The man oozes power, even at his age...especially at his age, just standing next to that sort of raw force gives me a little tingle."

The servant heard another chuckle, this one much deeper, and the question, "Just a little tingle?" At which he let out his own little chuckle as he serenely floated downward, nearly colliding with a young and frazzled looking lord.

"Gads! Excuse me!" the young man bit out, surprised and angry at the impediment. The two hovered a moment before the Servant, well mannered as he was, made a half bow and asked how he might be of service to the man whom he finally recognized as the young Lord Peridir Andelor. To which the young lord responded with the demand, and very loudly, that he see the servant's master immediately.

The servant's master, having ears himself, heard the very noisome young cad from where he stood several floors above and left his charming companion to look down at the two of them.

"For Pity's sake Andelor, why are you shouting in my hallway?"

"You!" the young man started and flew rapidly upward nearly knocking the Khajiit again in his haste. "You stole her. You have absconded with the very light of my being, and have holed her up in this wretched prison. I demand you quit your acquaintance this instant or I shall be forced to make terms!"

The servant, knowing his master's supply of patience was minimal entered the nearest side corridor, putting himself well out of blast range.

"What on earth are you babbling on about?" the much older mer asked with a weary air.

"I am in love!" The young lord declared vehemently, landing with force to accentuate the declaration and shaking an irate fist.

Faves Andes stared blankly at the boy a moment before turning on his heel and walking away with a tossed out wave.

"Muthsera, I believe this mess is for you." He called as he left the central chamber. He was replaced in the door way by the lovely lady in question, who blinked in surprise at the red, or rather purple, faced young man in front of her.

"Per, Mon Chere, what on earth are you doing here?" She whisked forth with a brilliant smile and took his hand, kissing him lightly on both cheeks in the Breton fashion. She ran a hand over his shoulder and arm as if to pet him into order, disguising her light charm spells. Not that she needed it, she would likely insist, but practicality calls for thoroughness.

"Why you seem in such a flurry? Whatever is the matter?"

He seemed instantly mollified by the spell and the warmth of her greeting. He returned her smile and clasped her hands as she gave him an innocent and bemused look.

"Come away with me. Come away this instant. I can offer you so much more Desdemona, he can't love you the way I do." He clasped at her arms and gazed at her feelingly. "You must know how absolutely and ardently I adore you!"

It should be noted here that it took real strength of purpose for the heroine of the scene not to wince at such extraordinary use of alliteration. She certainly had.

She smiled sweetly and took his hands again.

"I think you're quite wonderful, darling, you know that. We are such excellent, excellent friends. But it would be very unladylike to simply walk out on my host...certainly this discussion could wait until I'm back in Sadrith Mora?

"I'm quite stunned you came all this way Per dearest. I'm very flattered of course, but I don't think you need be quite so overcome, now do you? It really is quite shocking."

Of course he was overcome, and told her so, and she was forced to gently pry herself from his arms several times before she sensed he was beginning to listen to reason. It was tricky work using charm and calm spells on Telvanni, even the lesser ones, though luck was with her in that he wasn't as quick on the uptake as the quality of persons she normally rubbed shoulders with.

Of course her clever work was all undone when the youth suddenly went stiff as a board, his fingers still gripping her arms, his mouth hanging open mid word, making him look remarkably like a plaque-mounted slaughter fish.

She sighed and looked over her shoulder giving the stony-faced mer, who stood cross-armed in the portal behind her, an arched and exasperated look. She turned a much sweeter countenance back to Andelor and peeled his finger off her arms before patting his.

"You took too long. Another minute of listening to that simpering and my ears would have started bleeding." quipped the cool voice behind her. She gave the boy a pitying look.

"Oh dear. Well, Per darling, you know, sometimes the wanting is better than the having." He made an odd sort of choking noise which caused her to wince. "We'll talk later...alright?" She gave him a dainty peck on the cheek and vanished, literally, from sight.

A moment later the paralyzed lord found himself hefted into the air and, rather cruelly, suspended by insubstantial fingers over the four story drop below. The other Telvanni only then condescended to step out from the doorway.

The young lord struggled against his magical bonds, a light sheen of sweat beginning to coat his forehead, and his eyes flickering nervously. The spell that held him was too strong, too well constructed and by too experienced a wizard to be broken so easily.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you." The Telvanni murmured taking another step forward. "It's a long way down."

There was the softest of laughs at his shoulder, hardly audible, even to his mer ears. Faves felt, but did not react to the light telekinesis spell that ran up the center of his back like the teasing caress of slender fingers. His expression remained contained, as did the instinctive shiver that threatened to accompany the sensation. He did, however, lean imperceptibly into the actual fingers which followed in the wake of the ghostly touch along the small of his back.

Pointing a hand in the direction of the young lord --who still gasped and gaped and struggled, his face, normally a handsome bluish black, turning a somewhat purplish color from the exertion-- Lord Andes narrowed his eyes in concentration and twitched his fingers ever so slightly, turning the young man a truer shade of violet.

"Now, I will put you down, and forgive the trespass and go back to my work, and send you on your merry way with the expectation that you will never come back without formal invitation, because if you do I will squeeze you until you're minuscule brain explodes out of your ears."

He eased the burden and telekinesis until the young man could manage a nod of assent.

"Excellent."

He flung the body to the floor and out of harm's way with the flick of a wrist. Andelor drew himself to his feet, pulling himself together with a glare and a sharp tug of his tightly fitted blue silk waist coat. He shuddered, his expression dark.

"And what of the lady?" He began, more embarrassed than phased. "Am I not to see her?" He tipped up his chin in coltish defiance.

As he spoke the delicate invisible fingers worked their way across Faves's back, becoming two arms which snaked unseen about his waist to rest lightly on his stomach just above his heavy braided belt as a soft body pressed against his hip.

"I could care less what you do...or who you do it to, so long as it's not done in my house. Muthsera Doucet comes and goes as she pleases. Where she goes, and what she does, is her business. Not mine...and not yours."

The two small hands slid slowly along the belt.

"Now, if you please?" He gestured to the vertical hall and cast upon him the withering gaze he was so well known for. The gaze increased in intensity the lower the two little hands slid. Andelor bowed stiffly and exited with an angry huff.

"Enjoying yourself?" Faves asked the invisible someone, his voice tinged with more than a small dose of sarcasm.

"I can see that you are." a soft voice murmured from his left shoulder. "See what I mean about practical application? There's nothing like it."

There was a long pause.

"You didn't actually bed THAT did you?"

"Ugh. No, thankfully. Can you imagine what he would have been like if I had?"

"Then why even entertain his nonsense?"

The hands ceased their movement and rested on his belt, the body behind him pressing in with a soft sigh.

"I believe I did it for you Serjo."

"Oh?"

The voice chuckled, and the invisible body shifted.

"Well, I lent myself to your sister in law when she first complained to me about your distinct lack of interest in her family affairs, and she in turn lent me to Lady Andes who tasked me with getting rid of a grasping potential daughter in law." She sighed. "Now I'm stuck with the silly fop."

"Tell me again how that was for my benefit?"

"Well if I placate your family for you, then they'll overlook your oh-so callus nature and continue with your funding for your experiments, giving you more time to spend on all those wonderful toys you come up with."

He chuckled at that and found one of her wrists with his hand.

"Which I can then give to you to play with?"

"Well, if you wanted to..."

He whirled around, the wrist still caught in his grip, and drew her closer to him. He looked down where he knew her face was looking back up at him.

"Either way, I do not want your pet projects turning up here."

"Oh, but you so enjoyed it."

"It was a waste of precious time."

She scoffed.

"You waste oodles of time as it is. I've been here distracting you for months now."

He leaned in toward the epicenter of the invisibility spell.

"I find your input...constructive. Besides which....some few things are worthy of wasting time on."

"Am I one of those things, Faves?"

"You are occasionally amusing."

She pulled her hand gently from his.

"Flatterer."

He smirked, and she removed herself from the hall. He cast a detect life and was surprised to see nothing. His smirk widened and he headed to the work room, spelling the door locked behind him and taking a few steps into the room.

He cast again and watched with sharpened eyes for the flux of one spell repelling another. He didn't see it, but felt the familiar signature of it, like a silken ribbon drawn languidly over his skin. He whirled suddenly, hurtling a spell from his fingertips, simultaneously breaking the illusory invisibility and pinning the little Breton to the wall.

"You're no fun."

She was smiling as he sauntered up to her with his set unreadable expression. He lifted his fingers and she slid up the wall accordingly until she hovered at eye level with him.

"Do you recall the last time I dangled someone over that drop?"

She pursed her lips and arched a brow.

"Markedly. I seem to recall you rather enjoyed That as well."

He frowned.

"I was livid."

"And rock hard."

He smirked.

"You were naked."

"So were you."

She squirmed a little to test the strength of the spell, finding it every bit as effective as young Andelor had a moment earlier.

"If you want to dig that amulet out I can give you a repeat performance."

His eyes darkened and the spell tightened around her, pressing her harder into the wall.

"If you ever even think about trying to slip that thing on me again I'll do a lot worse than threaten to drop you down the Tel."

She laughed at that. A low sound, like rich, dark chocolate.

"What's wrong Faves, didn't you like being at my tender mercy?" she drawled out. "Mmmm, I could have killed you, you know. It would have been sooo easy. You were as weak and pliant as a little lamb."

She watched with unrestrained excitement as his eyes flashed in remembrance.

"Drained...totally powerless. Tell me you didn't like it...not even a tiny little bit."

"I didn't like it." He breathed out tightly in a dangerous whisper, closing in so that her face was only inches from his.

"Liar."

The word came out in a gasp as she reacted to a second spell which was running in rather alarming patterns up the insides of the calves and thighs. She continued to squirm.

"You still haven't told me where you found that evil device."

She smiled through another gasp and turned into the finger that was tracing down along her ear and jaw. She took a moment to steady herself as the ribbons of sensation moved higher, as if somehow under her skin, electrifying her from the inside out.

"I can't tell you all my secrets Faves, or I'll cease to be so very amusing to you."

"I'm sure you'd think of something."

"Well, I can be very creative when I want to be. Why don't you put me down and find out?"

He tilted his head and ran his eyes up and down the length of her body.

"I think...not quite yet." A small smile reappeared on his face as the ties of her dress began to slowly unravel themselves.

"I think someone has a new favorite spell." She teased breathlessly.

"Oh? Who would that be?"

"I'm not telling."

"Oh no?"

"You'll just have to make me."

His small smile turned wicked and he snapped his fingers. A stout, fully armored Dremora appeared beside him.

"Yes Master." it rasped, clearly not pleased at having been summoned. Dremora never were.

"Zoreth, I need information extracted from this young lady. Do you have any suggestions?"