Now He Knows

"Now He Knows" is a BOTGD Act 1 thread written on June 15, 2019.
==Summary==
Milae goes to talk to Rhenco now that he knows about the goat's time-traveling powers. The second Warden takes over and jeers at Rhenco, who is disappointed that she is not the correct demon that he needed to see.
==Full Text==
Yun Milae: Milae appeared in Haligan Jail, lowering his forearms and looking up from under his hood, surveying the dim lighting. After a moment, he took off to his left, trotting down the hallway until he came to the cell he was searching for. He peered through the bars, his figure casting an enormous shadow over the small confines. He folded his arms. 
“Hello, Rhenco.”
Rhenco: “Hello Milae…” The man replied, and then squinted curiously. “Is the demon here too? That would be wonderful.”
Milae: His stomach grew a little cold at hearing his name. His ear twitched under his hood, and his nose did, as well. “The Warden is occupied at the present.”
He did this?
He tried to.
Rhenco: “Oh well…I’ll need to talk to her sometime. In the meantime…what you want my pet?”
Milae: “You won’t get the chance to.” Milae smoothly lowered himself down to his hocks and crossed his hind legs on the floor of the jail, resting his hands on either of his knees. “I thought you and I might have something of an interesting discussion, now that things have…changed.”
Rhenco: “I’ll talk with you all day long Milae…but I will need my time with the demon at some point. Otherwise I wont speak as freely.”
His dead eyes gleamed. “I’ll even take your word for it…what should we talk about first?”
Milae: He sighed. The gambit was up, anyhow. “Perhaps. I want to know how much you know about me…seeing as you have never met me before.”
Rhenco: Rhenco regarded him, and then bit the tip of his finger. Hunching over, he began to smear cyclical patterns in blood on the cold stone. It was if he was drawing out the story he told.
“All my abilities are based on the laws of equivalent exchange…and the cruel irony of a balanced universe. The price to regenerate myself…was myself. Every time I die, a me from another timeline will die forever. This made me uniquely connected to my other lives, even more so than a normal person.”
He glanced up to meet Milae’s eyes. “And so when you played and toyed with them…and learned oh so much more than you were supposed to…that same law, that same irony, kicked in. And as a result I learned something I never should have…which was you, and how, intimently, we knew one another.”
“Of course the price for this in turn was the lives of all the Rhenco’s you encountered. The knowledge of how hopeless it would be to fight you…and, as a positive note, how I could save myself.”
Milae: Milae’s eyes tracked Rhenco’s finger on the ground. Loops. Threads. Patterns. Seidr. Sacrifice.
“Is this why you turned yourself in? Because of me?”
Rhenco: “Yes…” He breathed. “You cant best an enemy that knows the future. I caught up in that moment, but you will sprint ahead again.”
He rubbed his hands and folded his fingers. “I will stay here, and I’ll survive. I’m used to bideing my time for that sake.”
Milae: “So that’s it, then? No more struggle?” His right hoof was jittering with an urge that didn’t belong to him to pick up his staff. “He will sit here and come up with another plan?” His pupils thinned slightly.
Rhenco: “Not at the moment…” Rhenco seemed resigned at this idea. “And when I do think of something…it likely wont include a Rebellion full of fire breathing dragons.”
Milae: Milae couldn’t resist a small sniff of amusement. “Well, in that case–”
He choked and stiffened.
There was silence for a moment, and then, with a spin of his staff, he got to his feet and slammed it horizontally against the bars of the cell. There was a low whump along with a loud ring of metal, and a nearly-invisible wave of force shuddered through Haligan Jail and extinguished every light source in the structure, sending a light veil of smoke across the darkness. Milae stood still for a moment, and then he lifted his head and slowly opened his eyes. They were glowing red, with razor thin pupils.
“I heard this absolute fucking waste of skin and breath wishes to speak with a demon,” he intoned, his normal voice backed with a whispering echo.
Rhenco: Rhenco inhaled deeply, the sound almost like a gasp as he stood to his feet. “Demon…” he breathed, and laced his long fingers around the bars. “I’m so glad I get to see you.”
Milae: “I cannot say nearly anything the same for you.” The bars of the jail creaked slightly as Milae leaned his weight on the staff. “I have protected the Rebellion, and I have held up my end of the deal. Now, I get to watch you waste.” He bared his teeth in a grin.
Rhenco: Rhenco got in his face, his forehead nearly touching the goats. “Your rebellion…I’ll make it your dungeon. Congratulations demon…I’m your warden now.”
Milae: Milae cackled.
“This rebellion is not mine. Where I go, it does not matter to me. Anything is better than the life I was abandoned with.” Milae yanked the weapon away from the bars and held it at the ready. “Now you are powerless and alone. I hope the taste of defeat stings you as much as it has myself.”
Rhenco: Rhenco frowned. This development seemed to bother him more than his hotel burning down. “Ah…you’re not my demon…I have no words for you then.”
Milae: Baring his teeth in a fiercer growl, Milae’s hoof shot out and grabbed a fistful of Rhenco’s clothes, pulling him up against the bars with a bang and glaring at him.
What the Hel are you doing!? Do not get that close to him! 
“Don’t ignore me!” he snarled, the Warden’s infamous temper beginning to steep. “I have ruined you! Fight back, you damn stalking coward! I WISH you were even able to hurt me the way I have been tortured in the past!! Vandal! Spawn of the void!!”
Rhenco: Rhenco grabbed the hoof firmly, and re met his gaze. “I am your opposite. I am everything you fear. A problem you just cant kill! A problem that can make you afraid. I’ll always come after you demon, and you’ll be scared, cause you are everything I want.”
He leaned away. “Just be sure that my demon knowns that as well.”
Milae: “She is afraid of you. I have watched gods tear away everything I love. I have lived months without a single spark of life in sight.” Milae viciously twisted his hoof out of Rhenco’s grip but left it clutching the prison bar, nostrils flaring. He was quite a bit shorter than the older man, but he looked down on Rhenco as if the goat–and the demon–considered him but a worm. “Let these half-breeds and soldiers and dragons play their games with you. I am not afraid. And now you are contracted with me. You have lost.”
Rhenco: “I never lose.” Rhenco murmured with the ghost of a smirk. “And you’re right…you’re not afraid, yet. But you are fearful demon, its who you are.”
He backed up to settled in the cell. “You will be…you and very other one of you when it comes to me. Gods tore away everything you love? Well…I’ll make whatever love you gain scream like a bleeding child, while you’re forced to watch, helpless to do anything.”
Milae: “Do it, as if I cared about anything else in this world.” Milae gripped the bars of the cell, struggling not to rip the door from its hinges. “I have seen what this Warden is like. She is weak and soft. Perhaps she needs a good fight to grow a gods-forsaken spine. But you are her enemy, so you are mine as well.” He knocked the staff firmly against the stone, the clack of timbered wood echoing through the darkness and sending up sparks where the iron-bound pommel struck the ground. “I hope you rot.”
Rhenco: “Maybe she will get a backbone…or maybe I’ll break yours…” Rhenco circled his thumbs over one another. “I look at you…I see something…but what is it?”
Milae: She squinted at him, Milae’s round red eyes turning from glowing orbs to narrow slits. “What nonsense are you letting drool from your foul mouth?”
Rhenco: “Hmmm…I see… something disinteresting. What could I ever do with a detached demon like you?” Rhenco chuckled. “Your fire burns like a candle compared to the valley of smoldering, but unseen coals of the other… perhaps I am just.. the wind… or the fuel to start a blaze. ”
Milae: Milae’s throat flexed and he twitched sharply. The control between them was wavering again. “Then count yourself lucky that you face me instead of her,” he growled.
Rhenco: “A disappointment…for now.” Rhenco mused. “Well…if there’s nothing else…I’d like to say bye to Milae.”
Milae: “I don’t–!”
Milae’s body jerked like he was going to vomit, and he wearily shook his head, blinking his eyes, which were now dim and hazel once more. “I hope you were satisfied,” he said quietly, but his tone clearly read that he knew Rhenco didn’t get what he was looking for.
Rhenco: “Satisified…” Rhenco sighed, rolling the word over in his mouth as if to taste it. He met Milae’s eyes. “Not in the slightest.” He said with a small smile, and then kissed the air between him once. “Bye bye…”
Milae: Milae lifted his chin slightly, boldly, at Rhenco’s gesture, and met his gaze just as evenly. His nostrils flared, and he rested his staff lightly by his side, pulling his hood up over his head.
“Farewell.” And he was gone.
Category:BOTGD 2
Category:Act I
Category:Events
Category:Rhenco
Category:Yun Milae
Category:The Pariah