A Growing List

[Legione Sumus]

Eliot Lagueux

The inquisitor had been doing his job. He'd made some progress on finding information on the others. And now it was time for the inquisitor to meet his bride to be and discuss the future of their union. They would meet at the Almaz it was the best place to meet with unsavory folks under the guise of the unsavory fights below them.

Eliot ranked among those who got in without a fee, he was marrying the owner after all. It wasn't his place and he'd never assume anything of anyone especially Lena. And it added to their quick rollercoaster of a marriage, even if it was just a means to an end for both of them, it had to look real, and she was a beautiful if not odd woman. And he was not a handsome man, thin, gaunt. He'd never fully recovered since he was a kid, always looked the same -- sickly. But he was not on the verge of dying and fully virle which is all that mattered in the end.

[Jerry]

He wasn't exactly welcome back into the Atharim with open arms. No one looked at him differently -- no one knew he was a traitor. It had been on the books, but now his record was classified at the highest levels. Or wiped clean, Jer wasn't exactly sure. But he avoided anything Atharim like the plague and he had not need for their resources he had his own now. While Lagueux was a traitor he had connections and money and it wasn't like he didn't enjoy finding out all the dirt on people. it was partially what made him a good inquisitor.

They were meeting at the Almaz. A hidden underground place that would have any Atharim on the edge. As he walked the place the day before the meeting he found more than a handful of creatures that should be dead. But they sat in cages waiting for people to fight them and ultimately die. It was in some cases a fate worse than death, but still they fought too stupid to know how dead they were.

Jer bet they were here to see the Durante boy fight, his viral videos left no doubt that he was a fighter here, but there was no schedule for which to check. At least none that he knew. The betting screens were all over showing the statistics much like a horse betting track he'd been to with is father once. This was much the same, except it was man v man or man v beast. And death was likely in either case. A stupid past time on both ends. But if that's how people wanted to waste their money at least someone was getting rich off of it.

Lagueux sat in a plush booth waiting. The perks of dating the owner he supposed. He had done his due dilligence on his new employer as well. His new wife to be would also fall under that scrutiny but he had yet to look into her as she was not a threat as of yet to his well being.

Lagueux waved him up to the booth and he joined the man who was doing dangerous things in a very dangerous world. The entire thought of changing the Atharim made his skin crawl, but what was he to do? Kill himself? While that was their orders, Jer was not going to follow it. He loved his life far too much to waste it on stupid rules -- which is why he was here. To live. To survive because there was nothing the Atharim could do against a unified front of godlings.

[Helena]

Deconstruction was integral to understanding how best to put something back together. The Almaz, for all its distasteful violence, was the perfect grounds for experimentation. That was the reason she had purchased it. Helena spent many long hours in its depths these days, learning. The injuries were fascinating and varied, and no one asked questions. Cadavers were plentiful, and often preferable to the moans and screams of living patients. Money talked when it needed to. The prestige and power of the Asquith name did the rest.

Illya and his girls, for all their miracles, did not prove to be a great source of knowledge despite being the rumoured lure that brought her to Moscow. Their understanding of healing was crude, instinctual. As such, they sought to preserve life but their efforts did not always come with a preservation of function. For negligible cases they were serviceable, so she did not dismiss them. The interesting cases she often saw to herself now. Not always to save life, though it was sometimes the consequence, but to learn to perform the impossible. Once the threads of her power had only reacted to her judgement on life and death, and she felt that still – some intangible knowledge, concerning which souls were more important than others – but it no longer dictated to her. It came at will.

It was sometimes a wrench to leave in order to attend other duties, but only because she became so entrenched in her own determination to supersede modern medicine. Today she finished cleaning the blood and changed into something appropriate in her office at the club. Eliot took care of almost all the details of their courtship deal, and regrettably that sometimes included an effort or appearance on her part to ensure believability. Tonight’s meeting was less offensive, though still required the pretence to be maintained. For tonight Elliott brought the Inquisitor to them.

She scratched Baphomet behind the ear as she left, but instructed him and the girls to stay in the office. Most did not care for the dobermanns, though they were impeccably trained. When she arrived at the plush booth reserved for her fiance, she paused to allow him to stand and kiss her cheek. Helena was dismissive of such affectionate signs of devotion, but they were to be expected.