The Moonlight Eclipse

Maelik stood at ease before the duo, his smile widening ever so slightly at Naoki's humorous response. But that teeny smirk had nothing on the face swallowing grin that graced his face as Poros rambled on. The way the little man yammered was sort of adorable.

"Turn around? Well if you insist..." the demon twirled about face and turned his back to the nervous fellow, amused by the entire affair. Flattery was always a great tool when dealing with creatures of his stature, but even so Maelik was hardly stupid. What did this guy take him for? Lavish? Pfft, that peacock could barely look away from his mirrors long enough to attend a meeting let along contribute to one in a meaningful manner!

"There's no need to be frightened," he sighed, his back still turned but his arms now resting on his hips.

"And no need to apologize either, I know I can come on a bit strong at times. No need to worry at all."

He twisted his torso around to once again face Poros head on and walked backwards (kinda) to extend a hand towards him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you then Poros, I do hope you don't mind if I address you by your first name... I am Maelik Hellflame Rekjar, former Lord of The Fifth Circle and current head chef of the Midnight franchise."

Assuming that his motion for a handshake was recognized and a nice firm clasp was established Maelik would grip the man's hand tight and give it a vigorous shake.

"And I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'weird' but no problems! The Madame can speak for herself, she's a responsible adult! Anyways..." The sound of bones snapping back into place would accompany the motions his legs made to right themselves and bring them back in line with how a spine should function.

"Greetings aside what can I get for you two today?"

As Maelik turned around, Poros tried to remember every little detail of the nightmare standing before him. He hadn't expected it to work but was glad it had. He now had a new weapon in his arsenal.

"I - I meant no disrespect, sir, never. Glad to hear you found your passion somewhere else than your birthright." He extended his hand to Hellflame.

If there is one thing Poros would always favor, it would be those that were happy with themselves outside what was expected. For this draconic to become a chef, he must've followed his dreams, Poros thought. As their hands met, Poros braced himself. However, no amount of bracing could've prepared him for the way he got shaken up. Poros wasn't all that strong but, as expected, Hellflame was.

Welchion smiled as honest as he could and sat back down. He expected a good meal before he entered here, but with the owner of the establishment and the head chef helping their table he was positive this would indeed be the best meal he had ever eaten.

"Excuse me, sir Maelik, if there is any kind of hare or rabbit, I would like that, grilled until the outside layer of meat is slightly crispy. That would be perfect." His first reaction might have been a little too much, Poros realized. So he decided to go about it like his sister would, 'everybody is equal until they wrong another.' He had a very genuine smile on his face when thinking about his little sister. She was so stupid, yet so much smarter than himself in some ways.

He just waited for Maelik The Fellblade to respond or Artemis to order.

As Maelik retreats to the kitchen, Madame Naoki shifts her gaze back to Poros, sitting across the table. Maelik surely has added an interesting component to her ‘get-to-know-people-dinners’. In addition to seeing what sorts of things her guests prefer to eat, how they handle themselves and behave in semi-informal settings, and having an excellent excuse to interrogate them, Naoki now also gets to see how they react to a fourteen foot tall demon serving them dinner.

All very telling, she muses; an excellent unwitting contribution on Maelik's part. Onto the interrogation.

Deliberately not addressing what had just transpired, Naoki forges ahead with conversation, “So, Poros. You mentioned another question for me, earlier. We’ll have a few moments here; it takes a short while to craft masterpieces. I’d be pleased to answer whatever inquiry you had in mind now, or if you’d prefer to save it, I suggest you choose another topic for us to discuss. I’m afraid I don’t have anything in particular to talk about just now.”

Resting her chin in the palm of one hand, Naoki’s gaze wanders about leisurely; her expression calm, but otherwise unremarkable. In her other hand, the emerald remains in constant motion, occasionally glinting in the reflected orange light of the small chandelier hanging above their table.

“The emerald…?”

Madame Naoki glances around for a moment bemusedly, before locating the mentioned emerald in her own hand.


“Ohh, the emerald. This emerald of mine.”

Without any further explanation, Naoki channels a bit of energy into the emerald, and sets it delicately on the tabletop. Immediately, it begins to move, shaking, trembling, vibrating its way across the tabletop. She allows it to bounce around for a few moments, before picking it up and bringing it below the table, presumably to place it back into the pouch on her hip.

Naoki flashes Poros another of her terribly implicative and mischievous smirks. It lasts only a moment before she clears her expression, leans back, and begins to answer his first question.

“An interesting question, though. I suppose… I would have someone assess the child. If the child is bleeding or injured, if they haven’t eaten in awhile, these things can be observed or inferred without much effort. Then I would… probably attempt to assist in some way, I suppose. Most of my decision making process is related to the circumstances at hand, and it’s difficult for me to say with any degree of certainty how I would act in a hypothetical scenario without a lot of detail regarding the situation. I’m not one to stand by and watch anyone - children or not- suffer, if I have the means to remove their suffering without great cost to myself, if that’s your question. I’m not an entirely selfless individual, and there are limits to my generosity before I’ll start to ask for things in return, but I’m willing to pay a few gold to put a smile on the face of a friend, or have one of my associates remedy a minor issue and contribute to a pleasant public atmosphere. Being generous and compassionate in the past has earned me many stalwart allies that stand beside me to this day, so I intend to continue the practice. I hope that’s a suitable answer.”

“What do you think, Artemis? Assuming I am not present, how would you handle that situation?”

Poros followed the emerald around until Naoki picked it up again. His eyes squinting as she smirked at him. Then he smiled, letting both of them continue answering the question.

"Interesting, that was very enlightening. One more before the food gets here?" he tilts his head slightly. "What is the best way to have fun for you?"

Poros' face was more serious than asking the last question, which was weird since last time he was still smiling after a more serious question. Perhaps he was put off by the answers, perhaps fun was more serious to him.

"Let me add that this does not have to be a one way carriage, if you would like to ask me questions, feel free to still do this." his hands finding their way onto the table again.

"Interesting that you find it to be interpreted in different ways." His seriousness slowly folding into a grin.

"Drugs and combat are not my thing either, I could do with some drinks sometimes though... And I'd be delighted to follow some of your more interesting negotiations. After all, isn't helping you with your work why you hired me in the first place?"

Poros had finally caught up. Madame Naoki had been miles ahead of him by surprising him. All the new things she offered and showed were successful in throwing his head off balance. He had calmed down, asking his own questions, he had pierced nothing of the armor Madame Naoki or Artemis wore, yet he had pierced everything.

"The only real way I pass my time nowadays is by dreaming. Which would bring me to my offer unless you have any further inquiries for me?

I will, however, wait with it until the dishes served here in this exquisite establishment have been brought before us. I would not have it any other way, the matter is too delicate to be overheard by your Draconic chef, noble as though he may be." His eyes darted towards the kitchen. He would not cross this woman in any way, many of her so called associates were scary.

Poros chuckled. She could bombard him with all the questions in the world, seeing as how she single - handedly changed his life in one day. He wanted to say something exciting but he had to be honest.

"My first thoughts would have been to relocate, away from my family. Since this apparently had already been remedied by some unknown benefactor..." He stops and smiles to Madame Naoki
"I believe I will spend it fixing up some things in the house, maybe buy a new lute if there is some coin left. I guess I can always do that later, I'll see..." It must have been amusing, Poros almost always talked with his hands, gesturing quite broadly for no real reason.

"The future is my first concern, it would make no sense for me to throw out my first paycheck for fun. There are things I would like in my life, but nothing would be as important as setting my life in order right now. Once that gets taken care of, then I can go back to my old ways. Playing music for beautiful girls, having drinks with beautiful girls, maybe actually fall in love for once. The usual..."

He looked around slowly, this was the establishment that might have provided an opportunity for finding someone suitable. It was classy, sadly he probably had made a fool of himself before. Oh well, in a few years, people must have forgotten about that, right?

He looked at Naoki and Artemis, both fine ladies he thought. Artemis did seem a lot more boyish than her boss but I guess that comes with being a bodyguard.

Saddened, out of the blue this weird feeling in his stomach... He thought he was off to a good start but he felt it now. He had finally caught up. Naoki must have been glad with someone for the job, a treasury in such disarray is bad enough, having to do it alone was even worse. She was happy that someone could take the load off her shoulders.
Outside of that, Poros felt quite uneasy. He had been trying to gauge Naoki for some time and learned some interesting things about her. Both questions he asked were more of a decision making standpoint than anything else. The fact very standard things were answered did not really assure him of anything, it didn't get him closer to Naoki. Nor did he feel she would let him understand her.

There was no romance involved, but Poros really liked understanding whoever he was dealing with. Right now he was unsure if this was a good approach to get to know Madame Naoki. He then asked his second question to make another approach. Yet again, blocked. She never answered either question, but that in itself said enough. Poros knew he had to be careful around her. Not that she would hurt him or even punish him for trying to get too close. He was afraid he might lose himself in trying to find out.

He smiled to both of them, almost a genuine smile but hollow on the inside.

There was no turning back, not now.

"Wha-" Poros didn't really know what they had here. "Umm, is there a triple brew beer or ale here?" Triple brews had some insane alcohol percentages for ale. Poros had been known to enjoy these beers from time to time and he figured the added alcohol could only mean good things tonight.

"Actually, if you have a 'Golden Karl' triple, that would be grand." The same smile again.

Poros looked over to Naoki, he chuckled. "Only one, don't worry, I won't have more than one." he turned back to the waiter.

If that is not available, some nice mead will do, just... Don't get me a non - alcoholic beverage, please." he must've sounded quite desperate. Another mistake.

"Both the ale and mead actually go very well with grilled hare." He was trying to give an explanation for his need for alcohol, and even though he was not wrong, this was more about trying to enjoy a great drink. That and forgetting his flaws.

"It is quite foolish to wait before having a drink, though. Drinking makes the mouth move which facilitates speech and pleasant conversation so much more." He hadn't realized it at the time, but he just quoted his father.

(Sorry for the wait, had some issues to attend to.)

The waiting cooks lined up all of Maelik's ingredients in an orderly line with not a thing even a centimeter off, one of them even used a ruler just to be sure. The demon washed his limbs as he always did and turned his attention to the counter tops, their shining clean surface reflecting his grim business face.

Pristine, just the way he liked it.

He snapped his fingers and the assembled chefs scurried away to return to whatever work they were meant to be doing, allowing for the beastly creature to go about his way without any interruptions or gawking youngsters getting under his feet.

His tail shot out and deftly flicked a knife out of a nearby holder, the flashing silver blade turning end over end only to fly straight into the cutting board that Maelik lifted up from the counter to intercept it. He tore the shining shank free from its prison and resharpened it to a wicked edge before getting busy with peeling all the vegetables.

The skin from the baby carrots went twirling off in spirals to gracefully land in a conveniently placed waste bin as did the skin from the sweet potatoes that shortly followed, although the cauliflower was spared, mostly because one simply did not peel a cauliflower.

Poros's hare was a simple matter for Maelik, it helped that the man knew specifically how he wanted it done, saved the demon from having to make an assumption. That and he welcomed any excuse to use the grill.

So with great care Maelik grabbed a still bleeding rabbit from his hell portal of wonders/horrors and set to skinning it. Forgoing the more comfortable method of cleaning the less-than-lively Thumper the demonic chef chose to employ a set of thin tongs (they may as well have been tweezers) and daintily removed the organs via oral/rectal insertions and foraging.

With the hare in good shape Maelik put it on the back-burner in the metaphorical sense and used his wings to rub in oils and seasoning salts whilst his hands rewashed and moved onto Naoki's center piece.

Given her preferences he chose to go with cockatrice breast, and one that was decidedly not beaten to death to preserve the integrity of the meat... three men and a goat will forever be remembered for their brave sacrifice for the sake of quality.

Maelik buttered up a pan and added in a lemon before laying the breast down smack dab in the middle. He struggled with the decision on what heat setting to leave it on but eventually settled with 'purple' before once again snapping his clawed fingers (a notable feat considering he was wearing gauntlets) and changing the hue of the flickering orange flame to a regal magenta.

Now he turned his attention back to the hare, opening up the grill and spitting out a demonic flame to get the heat going. In this case however he'd have to refrain from going all out with the fires as Poros was very clear with his instructions and Maelik would be damned if he was going to disappoint the man, so he forced his will on the rising wisps and subdued them to a more manageable level. The rabbit itself was already thoroughly seasoned with the appropriate spices for the season and a caramel infused sauce was vigorously massaged into the haunches, something that the demon held supreme faith in in terms of taste.

He placed it down on the wide barred grill evenly and kept a close eye on the level of the fire to make sure that it wasn't going to char anything and cook the meat through and through. However he couldn't just ignore the cockatrice either and changed to stove flames from purple to green before turning the thing over, replacing the lemon as he did such.

Within moments both the cockatrice and the rabbit were ready for serving, the outer layer of the hare crispy just as Poros had requested and the cockatrice breast infused with the slight tang of lemon. He added in the baby carrots (each one individually buttered and pan cooked), some mashed potatoes and of course the ever uncut cauliflower, lightly sprinkled with sea salt and boiled in his patented iron hot box.

He popped back out of the kitchen with platters in hand and with a showboat-y flair he tossed them like throwing discs and guided them down with magic to land perfectly in front of their respective recipients, a third platter floating down to greet Artemis as well, this one of course being a carbon copy of Naoki's meal. One of these days he's going to have to corner her and get the scoop on what exactly she liked for occasions such as this.

"Sorry for the wait ladies and gentleman, I hope that you enjoy," he said before taking a half step back and dipping down into another grandiose bow, the horn at the tip of his snout scratching unpleasantly against the floorboards.

Most would assume that he'd take his leave then but for any who knew the excessively uptight demon they'd know that he was was liable to stick around to witness the newcomer's face upon tasting his food. And that was exactly what he did, merely taking yet another half step back before standing at rigid attention, practically staring a hole straight through the man.

He was absolutely dying to see what the man had to say about his dish!