Burning Corpses

**Users Involved:** User:KontonMan, User:Great Achlus
**Date Started:** December 23, X943
**Setting:** Unknown Location
**Characters Involved**: Markus Bourbon, Jezebel Houdini

## Late Ride

The midnight moon was brighter that it normally was. Its silver rays shone down onto the dirt path, covered with flecks of gravel and the occasional broken dagger from highwaymen.

Markus’ task that night was simple. He was being paid a hefty amount to keep the nobleman safe. However, Markus did not want the rest of the payment once this job was complete. He had a different plan, a plan to acquire the unique fire magic spell that the noble possessed on a scroll, hidden amongst spells for darker mages.

He had spent some money of his own just to find the location of this scroll, something to crave his thirst for arcane knowledge. The mage quickly glanced out of the carriage window, up at the moon before turning back to see the sleeping noble, his fat gut on the verge of tearing through his outfit. A sigh. There was more to his plan, other information that an old friend provided. He just had to wait.

She hummed as she strove through the times, keeping time as she silently leapt from branch to branch. It had was good that another contract had come in. With her research hitting an impasse, she was in need of some new cadavers. Nothing like a fresh face to liven up her experiments, right?

As she closed in on the location, the woman slowed. According the mission, a certain nobleman needed to bite the bullet; while the request had been anonymous, anyone with half a brain knew it was probably another aristocrat. They loved sending each other to untimely ends. She was sure there would be someone to guard the nobleman, especially if he was unpopular enough to require assassination.

Jezebel brightened at this thought. That would be two cadavers!! For the price of one no less. Though...the nobleman was the priority. Oh well; accidents happen.

With that, she blinked out of existence, covering the last bit before her destination.

The chariot came to a stop, the nobleman groggily awakening. "Gruh..." he murmured. He tried sitting up straight, although difficult due to his stature. "Right, right..." the fat man began. "Help me down now, yeah?"

Markus instead bringing his hands together, rubbing the palms together. The skin around his hand began to black with ash, and he slid the top palm off aggressively. A beam of fire shot out, piercing the fat man's neck, beginning to set him ablaze.

While the noble screamed in agony, Markus grabbed the satchel of the noble and grabbed the scroll he had wanted. "I'm sorry." Markus said. "But I'm sure you understand. For this kind of research, I'd do anything."

The mage leaped out of the cart as the man burned down to cinders, alongside the rest of the cart. He yanked open the scroll, and began to read. He was a fast learner, and it had taken him years to decipher the cypher in which the scroll was written. He would be one of few that could read it.

He began walking away from the estate, doing his best to absorb the information within the scroll.

Bel would arrive to the now burning carriage. The screaming coming from it subsided into whimpers. With a skip and a jump, she was inside then out again, a still burning figure in her grasp. She dumped him on the ground, realizing the damage was done. With a quick snap, whatever bits of life the rotund noble had were gone.

"Ew...what...and I supposed to do with this?" She ignored the still burning carriage, peeved that her pristine test subject was ruined. Whatever person driving the carriage was a goner too. Two cadavers ruined.

She popped back into existence, her magic destabilized as her mood deteriorated. Who did this? Where were they? Jezebel surveyed the space, before moonlight fell on a retreating figure. Her temper flared as she tailed him.

Markus had gotten through some of the scroll when he heard the footsteps. He quickly sheathed the scroll away, turning to face this new figure. He spread his arms, a nervous smile on his face. "A fine evening to you, stranger!" he exclaimed. He kept his eyes focused on her. "You lost?"

Jez could almost smell the perspiration on the person as she closed in: guilty. Not to mention the movement he made; putting something away?

"Not lost, but lost something. I absolutely hate when my research is interrupted. You wouldn't happen to know about a carriage would you?" Jezebel stopped just short of him, her eyes glowing like rubies in the night.

"Ah, yes." Markus replied. "I think there was some sort of unfortunate fire. Smoking really does kill, no?"

"Unfortunate...and..why are you in such a hurry?" Jez focused on biting down her surging fury as she took a step forward.

"Not a fan of the cold." Markus answered, lifting his shoulders and then dropping them.

"Uh huh....let me know when you decide to stop lying," Jezebel responded, taking another step forward.

"Very well. One day, perhaps." he said.

At this, she threw caution to the wind, her flaring temper now combustible as she surged forward, blade at the ready.

"DO YOU KNOW HOW FAR BACK YOU SET MY RESEARCH?"

Markus stepped back, taken aback by the sudden outburst. His brows knit together, his hands raised. "Are you looking for ze scroll too?" he asked. "I don't know why you'd want it. It's primarily necromantic magic, it's not worth anything."

She instantly paused. Necromantic magic?? Scroll? It clicked; so that's what he had been hiding when she appeared. As irritating as the loss of a cadaver was...this necromancy scroll could make up for it. Just thinking of what she could do with necromancy filled Jezebel's mind with glee.

"I'll be the judge of that. Hand it over."

Markus gingerly took the scroll out of his back pocket, flicking it open so he could look at it one more time. He had memorized the basics behind the spell at this point. He'd miss out on learning more about it, but he was sure he could research into it now that he understood it.

The mage rolled the scroll back up, and threw it towards Jezebel. Yet as he did, the scroll ignited, burning into nothingness. A sprinkle of ashes would rain down onto the woman. "Sorry, but I'm ze only one allowed to see that fire spell." he said, a smile on his face.

He'd find a blade at his throat the moment the ashes sprinkled onto her. Not only had he destroyed her target, but now he burned a scroll right in front of her? He was an offense to researchers everywhere; could thing he was worth more dead than alive.

"I suppose you'll have to do as a cadaver. I can't wait to do all sorts of things to you huhuhu." Jez's laugh could only be described as unhinged.

Markus let his hands ignite, surrounding them in burning flames. Simply being in such close proximity to them would cause blisters and discomfort if it wasn't for the mans natural affinity. However, Jezebel did not possess this affinity. She would definitely feel these effects if she didn't move back. This was Markus' subtle way to create some distance between them so he could move on to his next step.

Jez skipped back slightly, her assumption confirmed by both the destroyed scroll and the fiery hands. She fought down the accompanying anger, taking a steadying breath. "You torched that carriage I see. Don't you know lying is bad for your health?"

"I try not to make a habit of it." Markus retorted. "But you'll have to forgive me. I rarely see attractive women approach in the middle of ze night without them having some ulterior motive. I see my paranoia was correct in this case, no?"

He would be rewarded with a confused expression. "Attractive? What do you mean?" Jezebel asked, cocking her head slightly.

Markus tilted his head. "Do you not realize that you're attra--." he cut himself off. "Don't worry about it. Are we done here?"

Jez squinted at him. "Not even close; you owe me a replacement dearie." She twirled her blade, finding the motion calming.

He scowled. "I really don't want to do this." Markus said. "You want a corpse? Fine. Jam your blade through my stomach!"

Jez continued to squint at the mage, despite closing the gap between the two. "Do I look foolish?" she asked, unimpressed with Markus's chutzpah. At least her fury had died down a bit.

"Why would you offer that?"

"Worth a shot, no?" Markus asked. "Plus, you closed ze gap."

Without warning the mans hands blacked, and he quickly slammed his palms together and slid the top palm right off, releasing the **Scorched Silk** spell. A concentrated flexible beam of pure fire launched out like a bullet towards Jezebel's knee from their close proximity, aiming to pierce straight through.

Really. This is how he would treat someone he's wronged? Disappointment surfaced as the beam seemingly struck true. Yet, she was unfazed, while no blood or shattered bone appeared from the hit location.

It helped that she was calm enough to use that now. At the very least in a partial capacity. While there had been no warning, Jez had expected this time of behavior after he destroyed valuable research material. "Hmm. That almost tickled; if you weren't so rude I would have laughed."

"Ah, you're shittin' me." Markus mumbled, skitting backwards to create distance. He had to admit that was new. Usually that cause people to ignite into flames, reduce them to ash if they didn't possess some way to resist the effects. That meant that this woman had some magic that seemingly neutralized his own completely.

He would've called it Water Magic, but there was no way it was that. There was no steam, nor were there any signs of evaporation. It was something else. As he tried to focus on her knee, he realized he couldn't. So that meant she could somehow mask herself, or at least parts of her from anything. Quite ironic, considering the spell he had burned that scroll for.

Markus had to determine to neutralize this threat. He had an idea, but he had to coral her into doing as he wanted. But he had to test things out first. So with that, Markus charged blindly at her, yelling at the top of his lungs to try and simply punch her.

She frowned. Charging at her blindly? Yelling at the top of his lungs? Had he gone mad? Jez did admit to seeing his confidence waver as he skittered backwards a few moments earlier. Still, she felt almost insulted, electing to dodge his charge, letting him clamor past her as she settled a small distance away. What was he planning?

As he fell forwards, he landed on his palms, kicking his feet back towards her. While they wouldn't reach, columns of flames launched forwards to burn her face. But if his suspicions were correct, they'd do nothing except be a flashy distraction.. So once the columns had fired, he got back up to send a punch towards her face through the flames.

Once again, she would be on the retreat, using the nimbleness earned from her trade to continue evading. She remained focused on deciphering his endgame while evading his column of fire; was he...probing? A fist emerging from the flames answered her question. It would be greeted with the slash of her blade.

There was the blade. Markus ignited the hand that had flown towards her for a punch, opening the fist to clasp onto the blade. If he did, he'd increase the intensity of his flames to reduce the blade down to molten sludge.

Well, that would be a problem. She let go of it, skipping backwards once more as she readjusted. He really did seem to love those flames; maybe he could do without them for a bit. "I see you like running up costs."

The blade was reduced to sludge, and he let it trickle off of his burning hand. "Bill me," he said. "Should I leave now then?"

"I would bill you if I knew where you lived. Though you look like a stray cat; a broke one too." Jezebel considered his question before chuckling a bit.

"That's quite fair," Markus answered. "I'm without a place to stay. Do you have any openings?"

"I don't run a hotel; I'm too busy with research. Which you set back by the way. Go find a warm cave." Looking up, the Jezebel noticed the sky lightening to a rosy pink; it was morning.

"So, I'm allowed to leave?" he asked.

"I don't know, are you?" came the retort. She decided to pick up the remains so she could at least claim the contract money.

"You're confusing me, lady." Markus said.

"You're confusing yourself," Jezebel stated, starting to walk away.

"So, just like that? You're no longer mad that I burned ze corpses?"

Jezebel paused. "Oh I'm mad alright. But this is cutting into my research time; you're not worth wasting that on." With that, she resumed her walk.