ic Enchanted Species [IC]

[trollthumper]

The old lady looked like she'd been slapped. "Well, I'm most sorry indeed," she said in a tone that indicated anything but. "I was just admiring the breed. The pedigree is amazing, and --"

"I agree, it is," said Nick. "But she's much more than the sum of her parts - or parents, as it were. I take it you know your dragons?"

"Indeed! Mind you, mine tend towards the Eastern lines - Gregory set me up with my little Ao Qin. They say that he descends from the original."

"Gregory, or the dragon?"

The old lady let out a chuckle that reminded Nick of a dozen Merchant Ivory films. "Now, now. I'm not sure where Gregory's blood lies. I know his blood's strong when it comes to our little trade. His family's always been one of the blessed. They tend to dabble in mundane fortunes and fates, however; Gregory seems to have struck out on his own --"

The conversation was cut off by the ringing of a brass gong. Once the reverberations had cleared, a man stood at the head of the stairs. Nick had had the stairs in the corner of his eye the entire time, and even he couldn't recall if the man had walked out of the doors or simply appeared. Wherever he appeared from, he looked like it had roots in the 19th century. His outfit was a mix of rider's gear and great white hunter, all tailored for maximum pomp and dollar value, and his hair was long enough to be roguish without being long enough to be considered disrespectful. Nick had to admit he was a handsome bastard - but reminded himself about the "bastard" part.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" The voice was pure Victoriana, too, another part of the image. "Glad you could all come to my humble home! For the old, you know who I am. For the new... I am Gregory Milliner. Purveyor of horrors and wonders from all parts of this Terra Obscura. And to all of you... best of luck. The auction is about to begin. If you will just follow my assistants..."

[Fox]

Wraith settled a bit as the old woman's attention was skillfully redirected, making a mental note to try to learn that kind of social skill - it could be pretty useful.

She cocked her head at Gregory's little speech, trying to study in him in what little time she had: he seemed very full of show, but with a house and group of people like this it couldn't all be talk. She supposed that he was probably good-looking, if you went for that kind of thing.

As soon as he was done she looked curiously up to Nick and Kimber, set on following their lead like an obedient young lizard. It might be a good time to slip away, but if there were too many assistants around....

[Gizmo]

"Hey, he's kinda cute," Kimber noted under her breath, echoing the thoughts of the others before narrowing her eyes, raising one fist to shake angrily and adding, "Cute with evil! What's the plan, 'bro'?" Turning to Nick expectantly, she waited for instruction. There were a lot of people around so slipping off long enough to turn invisible unnoticed or sneak away with Indira so they could get a better look behind the scenes was going to be tricky, but the poltergeist was confident the more experienced necromancer would have a crackerjack strategy up his sleeve.

[trollthumper]

Nick studied Gregory. There were a few active spells hanging over him, but they seemed woven deep into trinkets and talismans - some seemed woven into his tailored clothes. "We should keep to the auction," Nick said. "Once we get a better look, we can see what path to take."

Soon enough, Gregory led the various party goers from the main hall into the ballroom. Elegant yet simple chairs were laid out on a floor of polished woods, all seats directed towards a theater-style stage with a drawn red curtain. Nick took a seat, trying not to be overwhelmed by the sheer weight of the pomp. A few minutes later, after giving the newbies plenty of time to chatter and the veterans plenty of time to stew, Gregory took the stage, bowing to the applauding crowd before he took the podium.

"Greetings, friends," he said. "We all know that there is a world out there, hidden beyond the borders of civilization. Beyond the bastion of modernity. In the true, wild places of the world, there exists magic made flesh. I have wandered the lost quarters of Earth, and faced down some of the most fearsome magical beasts of lore - and some history has forgot. And I have bested a good many of them, and brought them back to more... tame quarters. For your perusal, and, if you care to invest, your personal enjoyment."

Gregory gave a nod, and the curtain drew back as if by magic. A single cage stood behind him, made of bars of engraved silver. A young gryphon roared majestically inside of it, pacing the confines of its cage as if seeking a way out. The effect was electrical, sending gossip through the crowd. Gregory raised his arms high. "Let the bidding begin!"

Nick turned to Kimber. "I'm not seeing any tracking glyphs or eyes of true seeing or stuff like that, so I'd recommend going unseen and intangible and trying to track the path the beasts are taking to get to the stage. Either there's a portal enscribed on the back of the stage, or they're doing it by elevator or something."

[Fox]

Wraith was fairly sure Kimber could take care of herself - and if there was too much trouble, she was fairly sure that she could take most of the room in a fair fight. She had a hard time telling what humans were more dangerous than others if they used intangible things like magic, but presumably anybody who was a real threat would go out and hunt their own mythological creatures.

Kimber's ghostly invisibility was better-suited to the task anyway; the not-a-real-dragon was patient enough to sit down and cock her head at the creature in the cage.

[Gizmo]

"Got it! Super-sneaky mode is a go!" Picking up the protesting manticore cub from her shoulders, she placed him atop Wraith's faux-dragon back with a calming scratch behind the ears. "Keep an eye on the cutie for me, okay? Back soon!" Skipping off toward the hors d'oeuvre table, she made a show of perusing the offerings as she maneuvered to the opposite side, putting it between herself and most of the guests. "Oh, say, what's that?" she asked a little loudly to no one in particular before bending over as if to pick something up off of the floor. If anyone had cared enough to check when she didn't pop back up, they would have found nothing but empty space where she had been standing.

Floating invisibly and immaterially over the heads of the auction bidders, the phantom resisted the urge to get too close for a better look at any of the various practitioners. Nick had said there wasn't anything in place to automatically detect her but who knew what sort of special senses their spells could whip up? Setting her jaw in determination, she surged forward a little more quickly and slid through the curtain on the stage to the other side.

[trollthumper]

No one bothered to check as Kimber vanished; their eyes were, for the most part, on the gryphon up on the stage. Gregory had wheeled the cage forward, so that everyone could get a closer look at the creature. Its brown feathers blended almost imperceptibly with its golden fur, and the feathers seemed very fresh, as if the gryphon had recently left its chick phase behind. "The bidding shall start at $50,000," said Gregory, "a small price for the trouble of getting this beauty in from the Altai Mountains."

Hands instantly shot up - Nick's was one of them. He wanted to keep the bidding prolonged for enough time that Kimber could easily get in and out with a report. Of course, he had to make sure he didn't actually buy anything - his student loans were bad enough...

Kimber, meanwhile, had managed to pass by the gryphon - whose gaze darted towards her for half a second, before turning back to look out over the audience - and onto the backstage area. There weren't any other cages present, but there was a slight depression in the floor, with wood of a slightly lighter shade than the other paneling. Maybe a trap door...?

[Gizmo]

Kimber brought a spectral finger up to her lips in a plea for silence from the gryphon. She didn't know much about the creature's abilities or biology but it seemed awfully young at first glance and the suggestion that Milliner was traveling the world snatching baby beasties from their homes turned the poltergeist's eyes cold and vaguely predatory for a moment. Part of her, somewhere stirring in the back of her mind, wanted very badly to scare the auctioneer as badly as his abductees must have been.

Shaking the urge off reluctantly, she continued on her way to find the discoloured wooden flooring. The teenage ghost took a moment to consider, frowning invisibly to herself. A simple trapdoor seemed a little anticlimactic but she recalled what she'd found when she went poking around the basement of Dunwich Prep. Not knowing what sort of protections the trapdoor itself might have, she dove headfirst into the regular wood beside it, traveling downward a ways before trying to find a tunnel of some kind.

[Fox]

Wraith-the-dragon settled a bit, remaining where she could see the auction but giving the little manticore a more level surface to sit on and shifting her wings up and out a bit to make sure he stayed on her back. Goodness knows she'd never able to fly with them - using them for something kept her from accidentally letting them melt back into the rest of her body.

<$50,000 dollars is a great deal of money,> she privately mused.

[trollthumper]

As Kimber slid down into the floor, she looked up to see a strange half-light forming around the trap door. She'd had the right idea; whatever ward was up there must have dropped to let the gryphon up, but was now starting to reform. The thick stone eventually gave way to a small hallway that looked more like a hotel's service ways than part of any manor. It led to a pair of double doors that certainly looked like they didn't belong - old and oaken, carved with intricate designs. She couldn't feel anything popping up off of it, though - it just seemed to be decoration. Decoration she could easily walk through.

The doors gave way to a large cavern, one that might have been older than the mansion itself. All around her were cages, close to a hundred of them. Some looked like cat carriers; others could hold things larger than elephants. There were clutches of eggs all over, lying in heavily-locked incubators. And in the cages themselves were animals she'd only seen in Daniel's instruction manuals. Unicorns, drakes, chimera, manticores, qirin, gryphons - and, in the movement in the natural lake at the far end of the cavern was any indicator, perhaps a few baby krakens. What stood out amongst all else was the din, however. Some animals were batting at the bars of their cages, trying to get loose. And others were letting out plaintive cries, as if begging for release.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Nick watched with relief as he was swiftly outbid. He kept his eyes on the stage, watching as Gregory handed the gryphon kit off to some guy who looked exactly like Nick's stereotype of an oil baron. Gregory turned back to the audience after the transaction was over. "Another satisfied customer," he said. "The next lot will be with us shortly. But in the meantime, let us talk about the Congo River Basin and the steps of the Mokele-mbembe..."

Beneath, in the chamber, one of the cages started moving. Kimber watched as the cage - and its startled occupant, an eaglet the size of a full-grown golden eagle - started making its way towards the double doors of its own accord.

[Gizmo]

Kimber gaped invisibly for a moment at the sheer number and variety of creatures in the cavern, overwhelmed by their cries and wails. Then her jaw set and the phantom placed her hands on her hips resolutely. "Uh, no. Not gonna fly, not today." The waves of fear coming off of the assembled beasts was palpable; the fact that they were all practically babies just made it all the more abominable. When the giant eaglet's cage began to move apparently all on its own, she reached out with her telekinesis and pulled back. Fine control came easily to her but with the work she'd been doing with Eve a little brute force wasn't out of the question either.

[trollthumper]

The cage wrestled against Kimbe'rs attempts to halt its progress; whatever magics animated it were strong, and put up something of a fight. But in time, she was able to bring the cage to a stand still - to the confusion of the eaglet inside.

Upstairs, Nick was taking advantage of another long spiel from Gregory about travails in the nether regions of the world to scan the room. He kept his eyes on the guards at the corners of the room - none of them had any major enchantments hanging over them or seemed to be carrying anything powerful, but they still looked like they had years of experience and the builds of shaved gorillas. He was drawn back towards the stage when Gregory's story started to trail off.

"...but back to the main event. From the skies above Iran - and it was quite something evading radar - I bring you one of the great fliers. The elusive birds who dance in the heights of the heavens. The roc."

The curtains drew back again, to reveal... nothing. Gregory frowned for half a second, but it turned back into that same dirt-eating grin. "Nothing to worry about, folks," he said. "It appears the roc has decided to take the scenic route." He gestured towards the guards, who began to file out as he launched into another anecdote.

"Looks like trouble coming your way. Four guards."

[Fox]

Wraith hissed in satisfaction, craning her head up as much as she could without either betraying her boneless neck or unsettling the newborn manticore. she silently congratulated her roommate, looking at the empty stage and the foiled auctioneer with pleased and curious reptilian eyes.

She was reasonably certain her friend would be okay - four meaty humans didn't seem like much of a threat for the cheerful ghost. And besides, fewer guards up here meant that if things really went sour, she and Nick would have significantly less trouble.

[trollthumper]

Kimber heard the footsteps drumming down the hallway - the guards were making no attempt to be stealthy. They entered the room in diamond formation, with one in front, one at rear, and two at the sides. Their eyes fell upon the cage quickly, and the baby roc flapping against the bars. One approached it gingerly, his finger raised towards an earpiece - no. An earring.

"The cage is here, Mr. Milliner," he said. He paused, as if in silent communication. "No, sir. Appears to have been a slight pause in the enchantment." A pause. "Yes, sir. We'll make sure." He nodded to the rest of the group. They reached to their sides, and while Kimber saw no scabbards, she did see the swords they seemingly drew from thin air. That distinct eerie light that spoke of magic clung to the edge of the blades, casting a faint glow over the darkened loom.

"We may be looking for a glamour caster, boys. Put your eyes on..."

[Gizmo]

"And see you shall!" a voice swept through the cavern like winter winds though a cabin door abruptly flung open. The guards and the captive animals alike were washed in the cold, blue-tinged light coming from the luminous figure who flared into being just high enough off the ground to force them to crane their necks to look up. "Behold! Despair! Exalt!" The being was willowy and feminine but defied description in crude words, her ethereal radiance freezing open eyelids that couldn't bear to blink. "You have done much wickedness," she told them in a whisper that reverberated in their bones, "but I shall give you a chance to make amends. Is this not joyous?" The part of Kimber not subsumed by the release of her preternatural essence watched as the guards' wills gave way in the face of what they were seeing. "You'll remove those earrings, won't you?"

[trollthumper]

The guards all froze, rendered stock still by the glorious vision of Kimber's form. As one, they all reached for their earrings, and though it took some work, they managed to extract them and drop them onto the ground. The swords soon followed, almost as if of the guards' free will. The leader - at least, she assumed it was the leader - stepped forward. "What is it you wish, o mistress?" he asked.

Milliner, meanwhile, was obviously displeased by the lack of word from downstairs. Wraith could pick up what he was saying from the stage. "Ronson, where the hell are you?" he muttered. "Ronson, answer me!" He cleared his throat, then turned back to the audience. "My apologies for the interruption," he said. "While we sort out the matter, feel free to return to the main hall, where refreshments will be served." He swept off behind the curtain, stomping his way to the trap door.

"All right," Nick whispered to Wraith. "Think we might need a private audience with the host."

[Fox]

"It would be very useful if we could catch him downstairs, with no more guards than are already there," Wraith agreed, whispering back without bothering to use her reptilian snout; instead, her voice seemed to come from a patch of skin near Nick. "It is unfortunate that your dragon is too young and stubborn to not misbehave and wander off in the confusion."

She got up, manticore and all, and casually strolled her way toward the trap door like the fearless, curious creature she was supposed to be. She took her time, though: she wanted to follow their host, not alert him to the fact that he was being followed.

[Gizmo]

'Oh mistress'? Maaan, they're making this all weird and stuff, Kimber groaned inwardly, relived though she was to have avoided a fight with all of the various beasts unable to find cover. "Well done, my new friends," she said aloud, still shining like a cold beacon of otherworldly might and beauty. "Redemption is at hand! Won't you tell me how best to return these noble creatures to their homes and stop Milliner's terrible misdeeds?" Accessing the charm Nick had crafted to aid their communication, she thought quickly, --The good news is the guards are taken care of! The bad news is I think I maybe started a cult by accident? You'd think it would be harder!--

[trollthumper]

"Yes, mistress," said the leader. He raised his hand, and the other guards moved to the cages working on the locks. The fauna began pawing or scratching at the bars, sensing freedom. They reached into their pockets, grabbing at collars lined with runes for when the animals might chance breaking free.

"If any of you value your pensions or your lives, you'll put those down now."

Gregory stood at the double doors, gun raised high. He'd foregone his fancy jacket in favor of a heavily-tooled leather vest over his dress shirt, and the rifle - an elephant gun by the looks of it - was pointed directly at Kimber. She could make out sigils in the strange half-glow running along the sides of the barrel.

"That's quite enough," he said. "A ghost, is it? I knew I should have retooled the wards. Let me see if I have it all down. You've entered my home under false pretenses, you've suborned my guards, and now I find you attempting to make off with my property. Tell me why I shouldn't take action."

"Well --"

Gregory turned to find Wraith and Nick standing in the hall. As Wraith had spent her time keeping on Gregory's tail, he'd ducked into the shadows to adopt his work clothes. "--I'm pretty sure there'd be some authorities interested in your basement full of dangerous magical creatures."

The hunter laughed. "Is that a threat? Necromancer, how long have you spent in our corner of the world? There are big laws, and there are little ones, and the little ones are barely guidelines. Do you think the Master Mage would care about my traffic, when he has to deal with such grand odds?"

"I don't know," said Nick. "Why don't we ask him?"

Gregory's grip tightened as the caverns fell silent, save for the growls of stray animals.

[Fox]

Wraith was pretty much done with camouflage - the jig was up, as a human would say, and maintaining her disguise wouldn't do them any further good now. And something about Kimber was...very distracting at the moment; more than that someone was pointing at magic gun at her friend. Her friend!

"I do not know your 'Master Mage'." She flexed, smoothing out: spines and snout disappeared even as a third black eye opened in her forehead. Though she remained on all fours (trying not to dislodge her passenger), her digitigrade hind legs grew more polished and abstract and her wings became a pair of lashing tendrils that ended in hard, studded clubs. "I do know that you are a very bad man, and that I do not like you. I believe that is enough."

[Gizmo]

"Oh, stop it! Just stop it!" Ghost Girl demanded, her usual appearance reasserting itself along with her manner. Focusing on Milliner she stomped on foot in the air. "Look at what you're doing! Threatening your own people with a gun? Talking about doing bad things just because you can get away with it?" Placing her fists on her hips in frustration the phantom accused, "Maybe you've done some things you shouldn't have to make money but now you're talking like a villain. A villain!"

Floating closer to the black market trader, heedless of his weapon pointed directly at her, the teenage poltergeist's expression softened. "You must have spent so much time learning about all these animals and finding out where they lived and seeing their homes. I don't think anybody could do that much work if some part of them didn't really love nature and magic and things that were special. So how can you do this?" She indicated the cages full of frightened beasts, many of them no more than infants of their species, confined and alone. She turned back to their captor, looking like she was trying very hard not to cry. "How can this be okay?"

[trollthumper]

Gregory's grip on the mystical elephant gun slackened as Kimber's words hit home... but not quite deep enough. "I know the secret places of the world that hide these creatures," he said, "and I know that they're some of the most vicious bastards this world has known. Have you ever seen the den of a wild manticore? Nothing but blood stains, and many of them. A basilisk's chamber is a statue garden and a charnel house at the same time."

"And yet," Nick said, "stuff like that doesn't keep you from selling such 'dangers to humanity' to those with more cash than sense."

"Would you rather I tried a pet store?" he spat back. "Exotic animals always yield a high price. My family has always upheld the sacred nature of the hunt - we've been recognized for it by the other blessed lines. It's only fair that when it came time to call to market..."

"So it's profit --"

"It's domestication. Do you really think that cavemen turned wolves into dogs without suffering a few bites? The parts of the map that have 'Here Be Dragons' written on them are being charted by satellites as we speak. This is an era where there are few places for the arcane to hide, and those outside of our circle won't be nearly as charitable towards the man eaters. What I'm doing is preservation work - pruning away the unsalvageable while giving their brood a chance to adapt to civilization."

Gregory seemed to be standing his ground... but to Kimber's fear senses, a seed was developing in the depths of his mind. The seed of a fear that's been buried for years under what one thinks is the truth...

[Fox]

"You do not deserve to be called 'hunter'," Wraith grimly noted, casting her three-eyed gaze around the room. "You hunt the young and the weak - you steal infants and eggs nearly unable to defend themselves so that you may lock them in small cages and sell them to the...the irresponsible rich."

She dug one of her clawed feet into the ground, apparently out of frustration. "If you wished for preservation, you would find a safe place for them to live as they are. If you wished for the hunt, you would not steal the young for profit. I believe that you are a terrible person, full of excuses."

[Gizmo]

"'Sacred'? 'Blessed'?" Ghost Girl's hair writhed silently about her head as if caught in gale force winds, her hurt expression turning to indignation. Even in a room full of fantastic creatures and her alien roommate, there was something noticeably inhuman about the look in her eyes, the illusion of life replaced with a glimpse at something else. "You can lie to yourself, Gregory Milliner, but not to me. Not when I can smell the fear on you." Subtly, her ethereal flesh grew gaunt as if stretch across bone and her voice took on an odd echo. "Take it from someone who's crossed over, the ends don't justify the means. They can't." She lifted a hand, the sleeve of her cloak falling back enough to reveal a skeletal finger reaching toward the poacher. "Should I show you the death you've caused? We can relive it all right now, together. Do you think you'll like what we see?"

[trollthumper]

The seeds of doubt seemed to be blossoming in Gregory's mind. "I've seen them enough," he said. "I was there, remember? I've faced down death dozens of times. Do you think I'm afraid of you?"

"Well, that depends..."

The shadows lengthened around Nick, not enough to plunge his part of the room into darkness but enough that it made the white skull makeup around his face stand out against the shadows. "...because we can easily fix that. You may think you're doing right by these creatures. But you're often ripping them from their homes, taking them from their families, and tossing them off to people who view them as nothing more than trophies. You know death the way a guy who plays paintball knows the battlefield. So I recommend you take a good, hard look at where you are, and --"

A bolt of lightning cut through the darkness, striking the ceiling of the chamber. The animals in the cage started shrieking, panicked further by the cacophony. "No," Gregory said. "This is my heritage. My birthright. I will not have you take it from me. And seeing as you refuse to depart..."

The runes on his vest began to glow brightly in the darkness. "...I will simply have to take matters into my own hands."