A visiting professor

[Tan Li]

Li thought about it as he walked down the hall towards the lobby entrance. Did he know the man. He was never one to forget a face he'd met. But he hadn't stayed in Moscow much. He chuckled to himself at the autograph, recognition always came with the gig. "Anything for a fan."
There was a story about a missing son, that tickled his memory. But he didn't remember what had happened. He smiled at his new brother and wondered if in a former life if they'd known each other.

"You wouldn't be the missing Marveet son?"
Li found his bodyguard looking frantically for him outside the building. He rolled his eyes and waved. The man held the umbrella for him and then walked Li to the car.

The driver took Marveet's bag from him. "If you will sir." He ushered the man to the car door to join Li inside the town car he'd rented. He could have driven himself but his agent hated when he did. Dangerous he said.

Once alone in the back seat Li leaned back and rested his head against the headrest. "I appreciate your assistance back there. Dranaika are bitches to kill. They can see the near future."

[Jaxen Marveet]

"The missing Marveet son. I tell you Li, they might as well tattoo it on my arm."
He grinned, kicking a foot across one knee. The towncar was pretty comfortable. Or maybe he was too used to slumming it in taxis. Wouldn't that be a shame? To lose his fine sense of the good life.

The patter of rain hit the windshield by the time they reached the airport. Jaxen was more than happy to accept the offer of a ride home. He hadn't intended to go home just yet, not having completed Manix's quest. But as he had a tendency to attract the kinds of monsters that wanted to eat him, he wasn't too keen to keep going. Not until he had the kind of control over the ancient power that he needed. Or at the very least, the kind that Li had.

Somewhere over Europe, Jaxen roused himself from a nap, cleaned up and sweet-talked his way into a vodka and lime from a stewardess and found his host home.

Sipping the drink, "Alright Li. How did you learn about your Ancient power? Better yet, how does someone like yourself walk around planet Earth and not be discovered that he's an Ancient one?"

[Tan Li]

The plane ride was tiresome and there were reports to file and interviews to take before he found himself back in Moscow. There was a never ending stream of things to do and Li was more than happy to speak with his companion. He had never truly met someone such as himself before. He knew they existed. Knew they were hunted. But he'd never actually spoken to another like him.

Jaxen spoke of Ancient powers and ancient ones. Li wondered where he'd heard the terms. Gods, reborn gods, reborn powers those were the terms of the Atharim. Ancient while they might be were not used. Ancient was almost revered where as the gods were despised for what they'd done to humanity so many moons ago. The Atharim were the balance. Li was proud of that fact, but how did one navigate the treacherous waters when your life was balanced and your calling said otherwise. It was a difficult situation.

Li smiled at the other man. "Very carefully."


Li took a sip of his water with lemon and continued. "I learned of it like I'm sure you did. Weird occurrences, sickness and then some epiphany later it just works. I had the distinct advantage of knowing what I was when I understood what I had done. I fled to learn all I could. And in learning about myself I learned to keep it a secret. If the wrong eyes see , or the wrong ears hear, you lose yourself and those you love. The Atharim do not take kindly to our kind."


(( You had to choose this one - had to reread the bio ))


Edited by Tan Li, Oct 10 2017, 12:24 PM.

[Jaxen Marveet]

"And how did you get so strong? I felt it from you, back there."
The notion intrigued him, but strength wasn't clearly everything. If jaxen was 10 times stronger than now it wouldn't do any good. He had to get better at using the ancient power first.

[Tan Li]

Li wasn't sure how to say it. The Strength was always there. Was it practice, meditation. He knew so little about it. No one really understood it. Maybe not even Ascendancy. Li shrugged. [color=#1ce"]Honestly, it just is. Practice and meditation. Pulling a little more than yesterday."[/color] Li smiled. "Like working any other muscle."


He wasn't sure that was the truth, but it was all he really had. "But strength is nothing if you can only do simple things."
He was speaking of himself. He'd learned how to do a few things but balance had to be maintained and Li saught balance above all else. He balanced his career with is personal life. The power with the fighting. His anger with the calm.


Edited by Tan Li, Oct 11 2017, 04:56 AM.

[Jaxen Marveet]

It made sense. And was almost word for word what he had been told by others of their kind. Well, if working the power was like any other muscle, then Jaxen was going to do exactly that. He finished his drink and returned to his portion of the jet, walled himself off and eventually went back to sleep until they landed in Moscow. Before leaving his famous host, he was rather cordial. They swapped numbers because it was always handy to have a celebrity in his back pocket. He shook hands, bid him adieu, and arranged his own ride home.