The open streets

The open streets were the perfect place for Leviath to get a feeling for the city. The markets of a settlement were sometimes said to be the beating heart, but the hectic activity and crowds drew a primal behaviour from nearly all creatures - a subconscious reversion to tribalism that was only an act, yet an act that almost none were aware of. It was the streets, taverns, shops and other places that truly let you learn a city; the establishments were like organs, the streets veins where citizens would walk with private purpose and their own thoughts and feelings. Why hide your emotions from those who pass you with just as thin a veil and just as little reason to care? You will likely never see them again, nor remember if you do.

In the darkness of the quieter streets, where the light barely reached the ground and the sources of light were not sufficient enough to provide adequate vision, Leviath walked like a dark mist that melted into shadow and rendered him near invisible. And as he passed through an alley, the fur of his cloak, the metal of his armour and the flesh of his body all broke away into the silently squeaking forms of dozens of black bats; a shroud that was raised and lifted into the air as if a balloon on the wind and took to the sky above the rooftops so that hundreds of pairs of eyes could see in many multiple more places than one pair alone.

They began to spread out, each taking in a new particular detail of a rather peculiar city.

Leviath had not expected to be so quickly noticed, nor so suddenly acted against in a manner so aggressive. As the white bat tore through denser swarms and passed currents of electricity through them, those slain began to drop from flight and let gravity take hold. Yet as they fell, their forms began to twist and tear themselves apart until suddenly all that remained to rain upon the streets were blood and bones.

In response to the assault, most of the bats began to separate and spread in order to avoid it, with many of those choosing to swoop down under ledges and come to a passive roost. By that point, all of them had ceased following their original goal of exploring the city and instead focused their attention now on what could well be further hostility.

Those that didn't roost began to home in on a singular spot upon a rooftop, colliding and merging with the fluttering of wings and chiropterian squeaks. As more joined, they took on a growing shape of darkness that then rescinded to reveal Leviath standing there like a calm at the centre of a storm. 

He did not move, instead choosing to follow with his eyes and await explanation.

A cold, frigid air crept along the rooftop as Leviath watched Frederica stand there and question him. No explanation, no apology, just inquiries as though he was some sort of common or criminal. "I forgive you," he replied. "For you know not what you do."

He took several steps forward then, his fur cloak blowing in the night wind and boots hitting the rooftop with successive thuds. As he shortened the distance between Frederica and came to a halt, he spoke again. "Do you knowingly declare war against me? Is that your intention here, to harm or destroy me? Or do you act out of misguidance, ignorance or both?" He asked, his head slowly turning to watch the spectral horseman line the road. He examined them for a moment, then paid them no more mind as he turned back to the lady on the rooftop.

As his eyes passed her face, she might feel something most peculiar; a tough against her back, as soft and as real on her skin as though she stood upon that rooftop completely devoid of any clothing and modesty that her attire might provide her. The touch grew a little in intensity, then rose up along her spine and across her back to where her neck became her right shoulder. It lingered there for a moment, then became like a tickle, then a scratch; like the tips of a pair of knives were lightly probing her skin.

Yet Leviath stood in front of her, and if she turned there would be no-one to her rear. The chill grew, until the breaths that Leviath didn't take could be visible in the air.

"And thus do I forgive your own disrespect," Leviath told her, taking in a breath through his nose to smell the strangely manipulated air around the High Lady's body. He had expected her next show of power, but his reaction to it was apathetic at best; the change in her eyes and the sudden growth of energy in the air made him raise his left hand and open his palm towards her so that her electrical bolts could pass through his hand.

As she released it, the electricity did so. It crackled, burning the skin of his palm and flowing through his arm and into his body with no such open resistance to speak of. It was hard to know what effect it truly had on him, what pains and torments he may have felt within his cold cadaver as a result of the woman's attack, but Leviath was never one to let any such weakness be shown.

Thin wisps of smoke rose from the back of his fur cloak and his raised hand when finally it ceased, at which point he brought his hand back towards himself and watched the damaged skin heal with a most supernatural efficiency.

"She is of potent blood," he spoke to himself. His voice was quiet, but not so quiet that it was silent to ears. "Potent, refined. Clearly she is of no common stock, but to what extent does her purity go? How fine is her lineage?"

It was clear by this point he was not going to retaliate against her outburst, especially when he looked back up and spoke to her directly. "Airedale. I have come to this place seeking something I do not know, yet not even an hour since my arrival I have found the opposite of the common, diseased beasts I had been expecting. To who do you owe your gift? What is the name of the creature who gave you this eternal unlife?"

Despite the fact she hadn't heard his mutterings, he was very much on the money in his assumption. Upon the inquiry of her father, her smile became wider, thinner - but there was something a bit off. Perhaps he had touched on a tender subject? Whatever the case was, her energies were humming in strong, palpable waves that threatened to destroy anything that came into immediate contact with her.

"Again, I will forgive due to your ignorance. To call my father a creature in any capacity is a grave, grave insult."

Almost as if on cue with the mention, something of a solemn wave seemed to fall over the area - and every rider and soldier in the vicinity bowed their heads low with a closed fist pressed over their breasts. The smile on the woman's lips faded just a touch.

"The founder of Airedale, the man who sired me, is the late Lord Viktor Frederica. I am his sole daughter and heir, Lucile - High Lady of Airedale and member of the Helmfirth Aristocracy."

The dark pool at the pair's feet began to grow as Lucile and Leviath continued to have words. The black cloud slowly expanded to take up the bulk of the roof's surface in the darkness, before the edges of it began to rotate clockwise. At first the movement was very slight, and if either of the two were able to see the pool would be hard pressed to catch the movement. After only a few seconds, the outer edge of the cloud, still only a few inches thick at their feet, would be in clear clockwise rotation around them.

Very slowly, the interior of the pool of mysterious mist began to be dragged into the rotation of the outer rim of the heavy smoke. With time, the rotation would slowly creep in towards the center of the mist in perfect silence.

"I am guilty only of exploration," Leviath replied calmly, beginning to wonder if he might not be forced to defend himself after all. Clearly some form of conspiracy was taking place alongside the high lady's lack of effort to resolve the situation, a fact which Leviath was beginning to find slightly irritating. "I cannot be held responsible for what power you sense from me, or if you consider my natural state to be a threat to your kingdom."

He raised his hands outwards to each side, then let his eyes momentarily fall closed. "I stand here proud, but without aggression. I have been attacked, but have not retaliated against you or your people. Even as I wait here patiently, your power surrounds me like a threat against my health you are very willing to carry out," he explained, opening his eyes again when he reached the end of it.

"I would appreciate it greatly if you were to come clean with your intentions so that we might hurry this up. Time spent lingering is time spent wasted, and as it draws on I begin to question why I bother to remain."

As the two discussed their intentions, and Lady Frederica's energy began to subside, so too would the dark swirling cloud that covered the pair's boots.

If there were no further hostilities between the two, the black mist would slowly begin to thin as it continued to rotate, eventually disappearing completely from existence.

Once again, her form would shatter in a number of miniature bats and they would flutter a dense, white cloud down to the road - hovering about the bare back of the second animal as Leviath took the first. Her form would shape again, properly perched with her dress and legs crooked over one side of the beast, seeming it was almost natural even without a proper sidesaddle in place. Yet subtle, gentle gestures along the fiery main and the flanks of the horse would coax it easily to move - a lazy gesture of her hand dismissing her entourage back up the road and to return to the barracks near the mansion.

This would leave only the two of them, and she would lead them along at a more leisurely pace towards a more proper location for discussion that wouldn't require the permissions of the covenant to bring him to the mansion. Perhaps it was a little too leisurely for someone seemingly as impatient as Leviath, but Lucile would continue to beam him that deadly sweet smile. "... you shouldn't make such haste, you know. As you said before, 'eternal life'. We have the endless minutes that tick by the day. You might consider slowing down... enjoy the smaller things, finer things."

<Exit to the Rose Dew Tavern>