The First Age

Of course Elias had to blurt it out exactly as it was. Sierra could feel the blood rushing to her ears as she tried not to look at Mrs. Marveet. Sierra caught Elias' gaze at her and wanted to stick out her tongue at him but decided to ignore it - at least for now.

However Sierra thought the woman would take to her son being found naked in the frozen tundra that was a winter in Moscow, Sierra hadn't expected her to laugh. The woman seemed to expect outrageous from her son. Which made Sierra wonder about the man they'd found.

Sierra was cautious about what she should tell Jaxen's mother, after all it was his story to spin. But really there was nothing to hide. She could only tell her what Jaxen had told him. "He claims to have been kidnapped."


Sierra really didn't want to think of any reason someone would capture the son of the rich and powerful and keep him naked in the middle of the winter. And then there was the fact that he smelled too clean to have been kept in poverty in the woods. There had been nothing for miles in the wilderness that Jaxen Marveet had walked out of, yet he was not frostbitten, merely blue from the cold. His feet likely could have a touch of frostbite, but everything had happened quick enough he would likely recover from everything.

It made Sierra wonder why Elias has been at the river, or even Elyse. She knew why she was - she'd been stalling. And now she was in Moscow in some fancy house, sipping at tea with a bunch of complete strangers with no idea of where she was going to next. There was no way she was going back to the room she'd rented with Snow. Too many sad memories.... too many.

Slab marble made the bathroom where Jaxen showered. He longed to soak in the oversized tub and savor the stream of water pouring across the back of his neck like a waterfall, but the shower was a fine substitution. Body jets power-washed the snake voodoo off him. The trickle of rain streaming from above streamed rivulets of water along the lines of his face. He wasn't particularly hurrying, but he did take a minute to close his eyes, lean his head back and let the droplets prickle his face and soften the stubble lining his jaw. It was a shame to leave the shower, but there was a subtle haste his to doing so. Even if it was just to go stand in front of the mirror and take a long look at himself.

When he left in search of something to wear, other than the towel wrapped snug around his waist, he was feeling quite a bit more like himself again. Damp footprints marked the path he made from the bathroom back to the hall. He probably should have taken greater care before stumbling out into the open, but the consequences of running into someone he wasn't too interested in meeting didn't seem to be worth the trouble.

Of course, the odds of walking straight into sight of his oldest brother hadn't seemed that plausible. Matvei had about twelve years on Jaxen and therefore was looking older and older, though Mat was likely to describe himself as dignified.

Dressed in a suit, plum dress-shirt and blue-gray tie, Mat was at least looking rather professional. Jaxen recognized the label with a glance, but despite the designer's value, the ensemble was just too damn boring. Matvei, in return, paused in mid-stride upon catching sight of his youngest brother dripping all over the runner down the middle of the hall, and having come out of his room no less.

"I guess it is true after all. You are alive. I guess everyone overreacted for nothing then."
He said as he strolled forward, ignoring the smirk contorting Jax's lips into plausible deniability.

"I heard I was missing for three months,"
Jax replied as Mat came to stand in front of him.

Matvei snorted some sort of amused laugh. "It's easy to lose track of time when you're pissing away your life."


Jaxen shrugged. "Well this has been pleasant catching up. I am off to find clothes."
Mat grabbed his arm as he moved by. Jax looked down at the grip and back up to the face of his brother. A warning might have narrowed his eyes if Jaxen hadn't been alone with his thoughts. He had something new with him now. Thanks to Tarin.

"Our father came home from the city in the middle of the day to see you. Not to mention mother begging me to bring her over so she could see you for herself. You've kept everyone waiting long enough."


Having circled around, Stanislav approached from the other direction, arms crossed and exchanging dark looks with Matvei.

"First of all, I've already seen our mother. And what are the two of you going to do, punch me in the stomach, drag me down by my arm and throw me in front of our father like I owe him money?"
Mat started to answer, but Jaxen lifted his hand in surrender. He was more than capable of wriggling his way out of his stouter brother's grasp, although it would require twists of light to stop Stanislav in his tracks. But there was no point making a scene. "Calm down. I'm going. Can I get dressed first?"
Mat shoved him along, and Jaxen frowned. Guess that was a no.

---

Irina wasn't immune to Sierra's quizzical look. She offered an explanation. "My oldest used to bet Jaxen on how long they could stand with their feet in the snow without running inside. He won for a few years, but when Jaxen was seven when he outlasted fifteen year old brother in ice-swimming. That boy was a rebel to begin with. Walking around in the snow doesn't seem that odd to me. But you said he claimed to be kidnapped. What are you not telling me dear? You don't think its true?"
Irina lifted her hands thoughtfully. The light shimmered off long, painted nails.

Her eyes flickered toward Elias to study his expression. He'd revealed more details than the shy girl had been willing to offer. Perhaps he would again.

"You might be on to something if so. We certainly received no demand of ransom. If anyone was dumb enough to kidnap Scion Marveet's child, they should have made some contact."




Edited by Jaxen Marveet, Sep 25 2015, 08:19 PM.

Sierra sighed. She'd said too much. She gave herself away more than Jaxen's secrets. Not that she knew what had happened, he could have been kidnapped. She really didn't know.

Mrs. Marveet looked to her then to Elias, she'd already seen Elias handing out more information but Sierra was unsure if Elias even knew what was beyond the river, his concern only seemed for the river itself.

But there had been nothing for miles. Nothing... Sierra shrugged. Sierra shifted the camera that was slung around her neck before she spoke, it was the only excuse she had for being out in the wilderness. And in reality it was her job - she was a wildlife photographer, even National Geographic paid her money for her photos. "I'd been in those woods for weeks. I saw no one, or nothing to indicate there were others around."
The nearest road was kilometers away. The nearest settlement was Moscow but that was still unseen from where he'd popped up. It was like he'd popped out of thin air. The visions the wolf pup had been sending kept flashing in Sierra's mind but she couldn't make any sense of it. She shook her head. "I really don't know what happened to your son. I'm just glad we found him. He wouldn't have lasted much longer with no clothes."

Elias shot Sierra a bewildered look. She was being so secretive. Dancing around giving a straight answer. Maybe she was overly nosy, but Elias never considered Jaxen's story to be anything but what it was. The man had power, and while Eli was not interested in hiding his, he understood if others didn't want to disclose theirs to the world. Tony was one such man, for instance, cautioning discretion all the guys every chance he had. So Elias wouldn't say anything about their shared power, but if directly asked, he had no reason to lie.

Sierra, on the other hand, owed Jaxen nothing. They weren't talking to reporters, they were speaking with a concerned mother. "What's with you? Just because we didn't see where he came from doesn't mean he was lying."
Elias shifted darkly sparkling eyes from her confusing answer back to Irina, whom seemed to demand forthrightness by her mere presence. Elias respected such a demanding aura. Few women in his experience possessed it. "He said he was kidnapped and had just gotten away."
Eli shrugged, "but he didn't say who had him. He was very surprised by the date. So where ever he was, he was off the grid."


Let Sierra glare all she wanted. Elias owed no loyalty to Jaxen, but still, there was no reason to be vague.

Sierra stared at Elias nearly opened mouth. How dare he... She opened her mouth several times before she was actually able to get the words out. "I never said he lied. I said that there was no one around when I had been out there."
Now she had proof that there were no people around, but she wasn't about tell Elias or this woman and her body guards that she could speak to wolves. That was one hell of a way to wind up in the looney bin.

Sierra wanted to yell at Elias but she lifted the tea cup her lips and sipped at the hot liquid. Stupid man! How dare he call her a liar! Sierra missed the comforting images that Snow would send. She missed her friend. The fury inside was not lost in the images of snow playing in the wild flowers to calm her. She was angry and a tear slide down her cheek in hot fury. Stupid stupid man!

Half way down the hall and a finger poked his back. Jaxen looked over his shoulder and found Stanislav pointing at a door. "Hurry it up," he said. Jax glanced at his brother, but although he was standing nearby, Matvei was occupied with a Wallet screen glowing around his face. Jaxen shrugged and slipped into the room.

He was much more comfortable in his own clothes when he emerged a few minutes later. He'd only changed shirts twice, finding that the first one fit oddly around his arms and he changed his mind about buttons on the second one. He ended up in an asymmetric black suede jacket zipped closed across his chest and slick-fitted jacquard pants in jewel blue and ankle boots. They weren't the best options in the world, but it was better than a towel and fit a hell of a lot better.

He returned and walked right by Stanislav and Mat without looking at either.
"Hurry it up will you?"
He said as he left them in the dust and spilled gracefully downstairs. Apparently dad was waiting in the office, or else he was working in an office that happened to be in the same physical location at the moment.

He still lacked a plausible story to explain himself. Jax could spin a story when necessary, but conjuring a sane explanation for appearing in the middle of no where was going to be difficult. His first instinct was to go with the kidnapped and escaped story. Maybe his assailants left him abandoned in the middle of the woods to find his own way home. Some sort of extreme competition? Themed by three months surviving in captivity? That sounded like the kind of thing he'd do. Probably should check into that. Later, though.

Stanislav and Matvei followed him into the office.

+++

Irina's fingers tapped slowly, thoughtfully as she witnessed the mini argument spat between her guests. Sierra was more timid than she originally judged, carefully choosing her words politely. She was a quiet observer, but both had a point. There was little to no logical reason for Jaxen to have been where he was. Then again, she was rarely surprised by her son's antics.

She let the argument go without comment. "What about you both? What were you doing? If I may ask, of course."
The tone of her voice was conversational rather than investigative.

((ooc: ??))

(( was waiting on Elias to respond but here ya go.))

"What about you both? What were you doing? If I may ask, of course."


A question she didn't have to dodge. It was logical, it was true and there was proof she was who she said she was. Sierra smiled and looked their hostess in the eyes despite the desire to turn them down because she didn't have her contacts in.

Sierra lifted the camera around her neck. "I had been in the country taking winter photographs of the local flora and fauna outside of Moscow. I was on my way back to Moscow when your son stumbled upon us. It's hard to take pictures when your storage has been all used up. I need a nice warm place to keep my laptop dry and plugged in while I sort through the shots."
Sierra was proud of her work, she lived in the wilderness the creatures accepted her and the shots she could produce were rarely seen by other photographers who just went out to shoot for a day or so.

There were plenty of pictures she was sure National Geographic would buy and probably even a few other local places to showcase tourism and such. She was sure she would even get a few bad eggs looking to see her work for poaching purposes. Sierra fought the memories of what had happened to Snow. She couldn't and wouldn't break down in a strangers house and particularly not those that would look down upon her.


Edited by Sierra, Oct 22 2015, 04:34 PM.

Eli didn't rise to Sierra's bait despite the stirring in his gut to defend what he'd meant. Irina's question dispelled the urge anyway. Should he answer truthfully? That he was seeking a sign from the river to explain dead americans on the bank and answer to a mystery that spanned the globe? Tempting, but what advantage would there be in sharing the secret with Irina? Maybe something in between the full truth and obscurity.

"I was camping and hiking up the river,"
he said, tone flat and without explanation. He did pat the bag at his feet to indicate the purpose of the large pack. "A while back I heard a story from a local farmer about a legendary river guardian that haunted the waters. Ghosts and such are fascinating to me. I hoped to find and coax it out."
A gleam in his eyes suggested the seriousness of the claim. "Ever hear of anything like that?"

Jaxen stepped confidently into the office even as his eyes subconsciously scanned the layout of the room as he did. Of all the places in his childhood home, this hovel of responsibility was the least frequented despite the fact it was the best place to actually spend time with his father. As he recalled, the walls still gleamed with strips of warm wood panels and alabaster carvings. The ceiling was painted with antique, restored murals trimmed with gold leaf. The furnishings hadn't moved from their spots either. But it was the figure in a suit sitting behind the desk that most firmly drew Jaxen's eyes. Although Jaxen's entrance was quiet, the dark pits of Scion's eyes lifted to greet him. Jaxen suppressed a shudder, sensing that unlike his mother's elation at seeing him alive, his father was pissed. That cold anger meant the situation was serious in a way such that he hadn't seen for ten years, but unlike when he was a teenager, Scion couldn't banish him to military school or the edge of the modern world. So Jaxen strolled in and draped himself into one of the cushioned chairs positioned around the room. Matvei and Stanislav joined him, but with more decorum. Mat also sat down, but Stanislav remained standing like some ever-watchful sentinel ready to do his master's bidding.

As Scion examined him, he must have found Jaxen in sound shape because his snort was derisive rather than welcoming. "You seem to be healthy enough for a man kidnapped in captivity for three months."


Jaxen's grin was condescending, "Well thank you."
But Scion wasn't amused. A swipe of one hand minimized the work screens hovering around his face, and the air felt heavier in their absence.

"You told Stanislav you'd been kidnapped. No contact, no ransom. I've moved heaven and earth to find out what happened to you, and while plenty of people have reason to wound our family, there wasn't a trace of your whereabouts. So who took you?"


Jaxen felt Matvei shift in his seat nearby. Neither his brother nor father believed the story, but it was the best Jaxen had. He swung his legs off the arm of the chair where they were draped and leaned forward, resting his hands on the edge of Scion's desk. There was no obvious reason to lie, and he greatly anticipated seeing the look on his father's face. "It was a woman - kind of - named Sora. But rather than nefarious reasoning, she kidnapped me to save my life. Given that another one, Rune I think she said her name was, was on the verge of executing me point blank. Sora showed up like a ninja, kicked Rune's ass, and next thing I know I wake up on another planet. Her planet."
Jaxen held his father's gaze but the usual gleam of playful anticipation remained in his own. Scion's lips flattened into pancakes, his eyes into crevices of the black abyss. He had his own gambit in mind, and the longer the silence stretched, the more uncomfortable Jaxen grew.

"While you were concocting that story, I sent Stanislav to investigate your apartment. He came back with this..."
Scion waved a hand and the digital image of a devilishly plain avatar appeared. Jaxen's chest tightened in fear, but Scion went on. "This Voxel identity of yours has his own enemies, and plenty of reasons to disappear. You've endangered yourself and your family, Jaxen, and clearly have far too much time on your hands. I'm cutting you off. If you want to continue to live in your extravagant home, I suggest you get a job and pay for it. Thieving will no longer be an option for you."
Another swipe of the hand and video of the raiding of his vault of stolen artifacts appeared. "CCPD recently had an anonymous donation of priceless goods. The media coverage was quite extensive, particularly given the reappearance of Emperor Maximilian's sword, taken from Vienna's Imperial Treasury years ago."


Jaxen's mouth had dropped open. His lungs so tight he barely drew a breath. How had Stanislav found all this. Jaxen's care was meticulous. Even if someone hacked his own servers, this information should have been impossible to find. Yet his father, of all people, knew his every last secret. Anger flashed behind his dark eyes. This wasn't over. "Since you were digging around in my private life, I trust you found my hack into Baccarat and learned of a little organization called the Atharim?"
White had been the one to give him that name. The bastard.

"They were the ones that sent Rune and tried to kill me."
Jaxen found himself standing, glaring over the table at his father's impassivity. "They use Baccarat as a front for hunting down people like me and executing us."


Scion was unimpressed. "People like you?"


Jaxen's lips parted into a smile, "yes,"
and the light filled him.

++++

A photographer and a hiker. Irina saw Sierra as the type, but Elias was not the picture of a woodsman. With his pale skin and drawn frame, he did not seem capable of keeping warm walking from the house to a car let alone survive a week in the winter weather. But he did seem to be the type drawn to hauntings and fairy tales.

Such as the tale of the river guardian. Irina's grandmother used to share that story to the children. It was local legend, that was all. But yes, she'd heard of it. "In fact, I have. The upper reaches of the Volga river unite some of the most ancient towns in the land. There is one particular bend in the river and on the high right bank was one town, built a thousand years ago, on an ideal point to survey the river and many great distances. The landscape surrounding is of remarkable beauty as well-high forested bluffs marked by ravines that descend into the main part of where the town once was centered. Legend has that a prince of this town, Prince Vsevolod, while camping at this site, had a miraculous vision of a sacred icon, St. George, battling great evil on the river. When the mongols invaded a decade later, they slaughtered the prince and decimated the town. His vision was deemed to have come to life and history passed into legend."


Irina looked to Sierra. "You happen to see any remnants of Prince Vsevolod's ghost or his great evil of vision?"



Edited by Jaxen Marveet, Feb 3 2018, 10:00 PM.