Roddy: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Lesaya?

**[Content Warnings: General really shady behavior. Non-consensual drugging. References to being pressured into sex. Also a torture scene! Whoo!]**

Neal heard the shrieking first. Sounded like two boys having a fight. While headed this way.

“Fuck,” he hissed, pulling back.

“That was the idea,” Lesaya said, grinning. “Hey— hey where are you going? C’mooon. I’m cold.”

Neal did not look up. Nope. He could just see her batting her big blue eyes at him, arching her spine just so… nope. He needed *pants*. “Just need a minute, aright?” he said, finding and then discarding a frilly pair of drawers. “Just some, uh, business to take care of.” Ah-ha! Pants! Neal hobbled around, attempting to get them on as fast as possible. “I’ll be right back. Okay? Promise.” Finally he got them buckled, and looked back at the woman in his bed. Made him want to take them right back off. “Don’t you move,” he said lowly, bending down to give her a kiss just before the knock sounded outside his door.

“Neal! You in there? Got the kids!” As if that needed announcing. Neal could already hear their bickering through the door.

He opened the door and squeezed out as fast as possible. “Heya Zan, Ari” he said, grinning. “Let’s uh, let’s walk a bit?” he suggested, glancing over his shoulder.

Esran shrugged, gently steering Arynis along as Neal led them a few paces from the wagon. The boys, of course, were already running around like the hooligans they were. “Amren if you ruin my new paint job I’m gonna feed you to a tarrasque!” Neal yelled. Little shit just flipped him off, and promptly had to run before Roddy caught up to him.

“Roddy! Don’t hurt Amren! Amren! That was rude, come here and apologize!” Ari yelled after them.

“Aw leave him be. He’s nine. And Neal wanted to talk to us, remember?” Zan said, gently turning her away from the boys.

Neal grimaced, running his hand through his hair. “So. Listen, I know I said I’d watch the boys while you had your date night and all but… see the thing is…”

“Neal!” Lesaya called. He jerked around— she was leaning out of the wagon, pouting. “You said you’d be right back.”

Oh Helm. “Uh, one second,” Neal said to the two dragonborne and ran back to his wagon. “Lesaya. For the love of all that’s holy. Please. Put a shirt on.”

“Aw. I thought you liked me like this,” Lesaya said.

Neal pulled her hands away from his neck. “There are *kids* Lesaya— ah. Hey uh. Hey Roddy.”

The tortle looked up from where he was hugging Neal’s leg. “You’re a lady!” he observed.

As if this could not get more awkward. “Yep that’s a lady, now why don’t you run along and go pull Amren’s tail a few times for me?”

Roddy lit up at this idea. “Okay!” And there he went. If only everyone was so distracted with the idea of violence.

A big scaly hand clapped down on his shoulder and Neal jumped. Ah, right, Zan. “Well now. Seems like I’m not the only one having a date night, eh?” he said, shaking Neal lightly and chuckling. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll find someone else to watch the boys. You go have fun now.” And with that, he walked off, calling for the boys.

Oh gods on the Ethereal Plain what a mess. Neal hurriedly urged Lesaya back inside, shutting the door behind them and burying his face in his hands with a groan. “Lesaya. Please don’t do that again.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. Not sounding all that regretful. “Let me make it up to you.”

Neal looked up, took in the view, the little inviting grin she had. He grinned back. What the hell, didn’t have any other plans any more.

~\*~\*~\*~

Lesaya Valerievna. A good name, suited to her current shape. Beautiful and Elvish. She always liked being an elf. They were just so… classy. Above many of the places ‘Lesaya’ found herself in. But that was all right. She had a purpose here, after all.

Curled up under her current boytoy’s arm, she watched the two boys bickering. One of them, Amren, already was showing signs of a most delightful paranoid streak. So desperate to keep his parent’s affection. Alas, she could already tell, it wouldn’t work out. Every time he called, Arynis would answer. Esran laughed off his concerns, but he still listened. The other one though, the tortle, now there was potential. Always the second one tended to after the inevitable scuffle broke out, always brushed aside and ignored. Already isolated, it wouldn’t take much begin tipping him over the edge.

The biggest problem? Her boytoy. Neal, was this one’s name. Somehow he’d ended up the tortle’s confidant. No matter though. She was already putting wedges in between him, his friends, and therefore— the tortle.

“MOOOOOOOOM!” Two voices suddenly broke out in unison, as if on cue. What it was about— didn’t matter. Perfect excuse.

Lesaya winced and covered her ears. She turned to Neal. “Neal, can we go home? The boys are just so *noisy*.”

“Aw, c’mon Lesaya, I haven’t gotten to hang out with Zan for a week,” Neal complained. “I know the kids are a handful but their quiet now, see?”

And again, as if on cue: “But *Moooooom*!” Just the tortle this time. Protesting whatever ruling Arynis had laid down.

“Roddy!” the dragonborne snapped, pinching her snout. “First of all, stop whining, second, I am not your mother. I told you that’s…”

Lesaya tuned her out and instead turned pleading eyes on Neal. “C’mon, Neal, please?” He wavered.

“Oh go on Neal,” Esran said from where he was lounging. “If I had a gal like that wanting to get me alone you can bet I’d hit that in a heartbeat.”

“Esran!” Arynis whirled on him, planting her hands on her hips. “I cannot believe you! I’m standing right here!”

Esran said something defensive, Arynis started yelling, the boys started squabbling again— it was beautiful, beautiful chaos. Lesaya hid her face against Neal’s arm, forcing out a whimper, and struggling to hide her grin.

“Okay, yeah sure, let’s head back,” Neal said, helping Lesaya to her feet. “Sorry. Wish I could say that it’s usually better than this but…”

“It’s okay. Thank you for introducing me to them.” *After all, it’s not every day such a mess of dysfunction lands right in my lap…*

~\*~\*~\*~

Oh gods. Oh Helm it hurt. It *hurt.*

It felt like Roddy’d been split open. Each breath sent wracking agony up his spine. He wanted to hide- pull back into his shell- but it hurt. It *hurt*.

A boot kicked into his side and knocked him over. He screamed. “That’s what you get for stealing my stuff you little shit,” Moggie hissed.

Roddy sobbed something. An apology, blaming Amren, he didn’t know. He just wanted it to stop. But it didn’t. Through his tears he could see Moggie’s blurred shape staggering off. Amren scurried back, tried to help him sit up- *make it stop no please*. That attempt was quickly dropped.

More people, more talking, no one touched Roddy. It was getting hard to breathe. Someone touched his head and- it was like a fog descended. The pain was still there, but Roddy couldn’t react to it. Huh. His limbs felt numb. This was weird.

“Look at this mess you’ve gotten yourself into,” said a familiar voice. Lesaya. That’s right, she was a cleric. “Poor boy,” she sighed, running her hand over his head, down his shell- over the crack. Roddy shuddered under the touch. “Aww,” she cooed. “Looks like you’re pretty hurt huh.” Tap, tap, tap. Each brush of her finger sent a spike through Roddy’s body. “Guess it’s a good thing I’m here then.”

She began to pray, a long, drawn out prayer. Roddy could feel his shell knitting back together. Slowly, agonizingly so. But bit by bit, he was healed. The fog remained, clouding up his ability to care.

“Hey kid,” Lesaya said when she was done. “Do me a favor? Don’t let that clown kill you. I’ve got other plans for later.” She winked, carelessly brushing Roddy’s blood off on her robes. When it didn’t all come off, she started licking off her hand. “Seeya.”

As Lesaya left, she took the fog with her. Roddy gasped and shuddered. He’d been dying. Amren came creeping up again, from wherever he’d been hiding. Wordlessly he wrapped his arms around Roddy, and Roddy hugged him back. Couldn’t bring himself to care it was Amren’s fault in the first place. Just clutched his brother close and bawled.

“I gotcha, I gotcha,” Amren whispered, rocking him back and forth. “It’s, it’s okay. You’re fine. Lucky Lesaya was there, huh?”

Roddy nodded. Yeah. Real lucky.

~\*~\*~\*~

Lesaya’d seemed bothered the last few days. Ever since Moggie’d finally snapped and tried to kill Roddy. Least the kid would stay away from the strongman now. Hopefully. “Hey,” Neal said, easing down beside her as she stared off into space. “What’s eating at you?”

“Hm? Oh, nothing,” she said, giving a light laugh and brushing some dust off her dress. “Just thinking.”

“Thinking about what?”

Lesaya shot a look at him out of the corner of her eye. The firelight flickered and seemed to twist her expression into something cold, dangerous. But then she smiled, and she was just Lesaya again. “Someone misunderstood me. I’m just trying to think of how to fix it.”

“You wanna talk about it?” Neal offered.

“Mm, not really. You know what I’d rather talk about instead?” Lesaya hugged his arm, propping her chin on his shoulder. “Tell me how you joined the circus.”

Neal winced. “You sure? It’s not a happy story.”

“Oh who does have a happy story that ends up in this dump?” Lesaya said dismissively, flicking her hand at the wagons, the tents, the people. “C’mon now. How does a guy like you end up in a place like this?”

Despite himself, Neal chuckled. “All right, storytime,” he agreed easily. “So I grew up in this city, Skyport. You heard of it?”

“Oh, I have!” Lesaya beamed, eyes bright and shining. “It sounds wonderful. So many different types of people. I’d love to go there someday.”

“Yeah, there uh, there sure is,” Neal said. Not that it was entirely a good thing. “All right well, when I was young— about sixteen or so— I ah, I met this girl. I asked her out on a date. She sold me a bunch of White Sky.” He rubbed his arm, and the needle-scars running up it. “Anyway, I started running favors in exchange for drugs. My dad taught me a lot of carpentry, managed to get good enough that even high I could do better than those fuckheads. So they had me over at their gang hideout one time, fixing a leak in the roof, when a gang fight broke out.”

Lesaya gasped, clasping her hands over her mouth. But there was delight in her eyes. Neal didn’t consider himself that great a storyteller, but it still made him grin to see her getting so into it. “So anyway, I managed to wedge myself in a corner and not get in the fight. But it wasn’t my gang that won. And you know the Basha found me and drug me out.” He’d never been so scared in his life.

“Well I tried to convince them I was just a carpenter, wrong place wrong time, that sort of deal. While high off my ass. Guess I wasn’t enough of a threat to kill though. Just held me down and broke my hands, but didn’t kill me.” Neal stared down at his hands, running his thumb over the bend in his middle finger. He was lucky. He could still use them. “And then gave me till sundown to get out of Skyport. So I staggered home, my sister did what she could for my hands—brand-new cleric, lucky for me— and I happened to stumble across this circus. And well, been here ever since.”

“Good story,” Lesaya said, bringing his hands up to her mouth and kissing them. “Maybe I can give you a reason to be glad for it,” she said, eyes dancing impishly.

Neal grinned a little and leaned to kiss her. It was times like these that he thought maybe it hadn’t been so bad after all.

~\*~\*~\*~

Lesaya grinned, shifting so Roddy could get a better view. “D’ya like it? It’s the symbol of my god. Bane.”

"It’s something,” he said slowly.

Lesaya shrugged, murmuring the command word again. The black handprint vanished from her skin. She left her shirt hanging loosely. “D’you know about Bane?” she asked.

“No,” Roddy said. “I thought you were gonna help me get kindling?”

“Changed my mind,” she said. Which— hey!

“You’re supposed to be *nice*!” Roddy complained, scowling.

She just laughed. Something about it made the scar on Roddy’s shell prickle. “Oh I’m not nice. You wanna know why?” She tapped her chest, where the mark had been. “See, Bane likes it when we sacrifice people to him.” And in her other hand— there was a knife.

Roddy dropped his sticks. She couldn’t be- this was- Roddy started edging around, back towards the camp. “That’s um. That’s kinda scary.”

“Oh yeah totally,” she agreed, giving a sharp grin. “Hey do me a favor? *Hold*.” Roddy felt something seize his limbs. Panicked he fought against it. Felt something start to give. “*Hold!*” Lesaya repeated. This time he felt it take, rooting him to the ground.

Lesaya grinned, coming over to crouch down in front of him. “Yeah. I don’t know how many times I’ve had someone pinned down, cutting them up, listening to the screams. That’s not really nice is it? You wanna know something else?” She leaned in, tapping the tip of the knife against his shell. “Nobody who’s seen my tattoo is still alive,” she whispered in his ear.

Roddy felt a high, keening wail gathering at the back of his throat. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t *move* and there was a crazy lady with a *knife* and nobody was gonna come looking for a while yet and it would be too *late*—

Lesaya sat back on her heels, studying Roddy like he was an interesting bug she was about to squish. “Well I guess maybe you’ll get to be the first. Go on, run along then.”

Roddy felt the magic keeping him trapped loose. He wasn’t waiting. He bolted for the camp, screeching at the top of his lungs.

Of course, nobody listened.

~\*~\*~\*~

“Lesaya, please,” Neal ran his hand down his face, groaning. “Can’t you just go apologize to Roddy? You freaked him out pretty bad.”

“It’s not my fault. I was just joking. The kid needs to learn to take a joke.” Lesaya folded her arms, scowling.

“Lesaya he’s *eight*. Cut him some slack.”

“If I cut him some slack how is he supposed to learn?” Lesaya’s expression shifted, getting more coy, sashaying closer. “C’mon. You know I don’t like kids. So why don’t we talk about something more pleasant?” She slid her arms up and around Neal’s neck. He knew she did that to distract him. It was starting to grate on him.

He settled his hands on her waist and didn’t push her away when she kissed him. Thought about it, sure. For a second let himself get caught up in a daydream. Neal’d push her away, they’d have a nice talk, she’d back off a bit and everything would be perfect.

Hell if that didn’t sound like a lot of work though. So for now, Neal kissed back. Wasn’t that bad anyway.

~\*~\*~\*~

Now Lesaya was great in bed. Utterly unashamed of the fact she was plenty experienced. But tonight, Neal’s heart just wasn’t in it. He still went along, because it was easier than putting up with Lesaya asking ‘why not’ and touching him till he gave in. She was curled up in his arms, dozing off, and Neal almost didn’t say anything. Always easier to just go with the flow. Except the ‘flow’ was starting to drive him up the wall. “Lesaya?” he said, jostling her. “Hey c’mon wake up.”

Lesaya groaned and buried her face in Neal’s chest. She was always slow to wake up. Neal was determined though, and soon enough she was sitting up, rubbing her eyes blearily. “Neal. I was trying to sleep,” she said petulantly.

“Yeah I know but listen. I gotta talk to you.” Aw dammit. Now Neal had to figure out what he was gonna say. “Look. We’ve been going out for a while now yeah? Got us figured out well enough.” More like Lesaya knew how to twist Neal around her little finger. She was trying it now. Looking all attentive and innocent, like she’d done nothing wrong. Neal was starting to see how much of an act that was. “But the thing is Lesaya— we’re so wrapped up in each other I ain’t been able to talk to my friends in a long time.” Last conversation— *real* conversation— he’d had was… huh. Before Lesaya even showed up. “I’m getting fucking lonely over here.”

“Aw but I’m here!” Completely missing the fucking point. Probably on purpose. Lesaya tried to wrap her arms around Neal’s neck but he caught her hands and pulled them down.

“Lesaya!” he said sharply. Now that gave her pause— Neal never spoke sharply to anybody. Too much of a fucking coward. “Look I know you mean well,” hah, as if, “but I need to get out of this wagon and out of *you* at least sometimes. So tomorrow I’m gonna go hang out with Zan again, all right?” Firm. Set. This was the way it was gonna happen.

 She wavered. Neal could see the calculation flickering in her eyes. *Please don’t let her argue.* Neal wasn’t sure if it was a prayer or not, but it worked. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll come with you.”

And by Helm did Neal want to argue with that. For a second he even thought about it. But she was staring him down, challenging, and well— Neal gave up. “Wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said. Kissed her forehead and started settling back in. “Now let’s go to sleep, I’m fucking exhausted.”

~\*~\*~\*~

Lesaya hummed a little tune to herself, fingering the small vial in her pocket. Neal’d been getting a little rebellious lately. Kept ditching her to go visit his friends, coming back with stories from the little tortle what she’d been up to. It was annoying. Well she’d be taking care of that. “Hey Neal? Lie down and close your eyes?”

He huffed, rolling his eyes, but was already tugging his shirt off to do exactly that. So complaint. Even if the sex wasn’t as great, that put him up there as one of Lesaya’s better flings. Maybe she’d even let him live for it. “What kinda game you playing tonight?” he grumbled.

Lesaya giggled and kissed him briefly. “A good one,” she promised. “Give me a second.” She took the vial out of her pocket, and the needle too. Screwed the cap on to make it a syringe. There. Ready. “Do me a favor? *Hold.*” She infused the word with power, watched Neal twitch briefly before submitting to her magic. And then she added another mark of White Sky to the rest scattered up his arms.

She had time to step back before the spell wore off and Neal bucked up, a strangled yell coming out of his throat. “Lesaya!” Oh, he was *mad*. “What did you fucking… nnnnggghh.” He flopped bonelessly back against the floor. “I told you I was clean.”

“Yeah but Neal, I’m a cleric remember? I can fix it.” She made no move to. Not for a few minutes anyway. That had been some potent stuff, Neal managed to sit up, managed to get a weak grip on her arm, but it had hit fast. She waited until he relaxed, settled into it. And then murmured a prayer and removed the drug from his body.

He jolted. Sudden soberness was never pleasant, but that’s what made it fun! Lesaya smiled and reached out to feel his forehead, like she’d seen some mothers do. He batted her away the first time. Didn’t bother the second. “Lesaya— don’t do that again.” It wasn’t a demand, but a desperate plea. Excellent.

“I won’t,” she promised. They both knew that was a lie.

~\*~\*~\*~

Neal had given up on going to visit the Firnashes after Lesaya’s latest stunt. But then when it was about the time he usually left, and she reminded him about it. Had a little tilt to her chin, a look in her eye. She wasn’t letting him go. She was *making* him.

Neal got the message. Still, it was nice to have a break. Even only had to threaten Amren with bodily harm once before the brat stayed out of Neal’s stuff, Zan of course had some repairs to do on the wagon and promptly got Neal to do them, while he started bitching about married life, circus life, parenthood, the weather— anything and everything that came to mind. Used to be listening to Zan bitch would lift Neal’s spirits. At least Neal wasn’t living Zan’s life.

Now he’d give anything to trade.

Roddy’d been no where to be seen for a while though, and Neal was starting to get worried. Till the kid trudged up, looking a little scuffed up. “Roddy!” Neal called, setting his tools down and cutting Zan off mid-bitch (something about one of the newbies stealing something). “Hey kid, how ya doing?”

Roddy started to say something— and Zan moved faster than Neal’d ever seen him before. Just about flew down and clamped his hand over Roddy’s mouth. “C’mon Neal don’t encourage him. Who knows what’s gonna happen?”

Neal had a feeling he was missing something. Missing something big. “Uh, what’s the big deal, Zan?” Sure Zan liked to bitch about Roddy being annoying, but usually he didn’t shut the kid up like that.

Zan rolled his eyes and huffed. “You know. The kid’s magic. You been living under or a rock or somethin’ lately?”

“Or something,” Neal muttered. “No I don’t know— Roddy’s magic now? Hey, congratulations!” Neal turned and offered a high-five. Lost count of how many times Roddy had come to hang out with him, crying over getting kicked out of ‘magic practice’ with Ari and the brat. “Bet that’s exciting huh?”

Roddy didn’t return the high five. Just crossed his arms and looked sad, resentful. What the hell was going on here…?

“Yeah well. Not so exciting when it’s outta control and unpredictable,” Zan grumbled. “He knocked Amren off the wagon first off— poor kid’s lucky he didn’t break his arm. Pulled some shit on Jasmine— she was complaining about being cold for days after. Mostly we’ve been keeping him quiet, less accidents that way. Hey Lesaya.”

Neal’s stomach dropped at her name. He didn’t even have time to turn around before he felt Lesaya’s arms resting on his shoulders. “Hey Esran,” she said. Pressed a kiss to Neal’s temple and murmured, “I got lonely without you, so I came over to hang out too.”

Neal wanted to scream. He thought he’d have time *away*. But he didn’t. Instead he shifted so Lesaya could sit down next to him as Zan caught her up on what they’d been talking about.

“Oh maybe I could help,” she said. “I could slit his throat.”

~\*~\*~\*~

“Goddammit Lesaya! I told you! We’ve fucking talked about that!” Neal ran a hand through his hair. He was more worked up than usual. But Lesaya knew how to calm him down.

“C’mon Neal I was just joking. You understand that right?” Lesaya got closer, brushed her hand against Neal’s cheek. He jerked away. Hm, she might have to get the drugs out again. “It’s not my fault he took me seriously.”

“Did you not see Zan’s face? He looked like he was fucking considering it! Of course Roddy freaked out!” And the resulting tantrum had shaken the earth, set a breeze that sent Lesaya stumbling back, and set Moria’s coat on fire when she came to see what the problem was. Neal wasn’t freaking out about any of *that*.

Maybe a change of tactics was in order. “Neal. I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.” Get closer, slide her arms around his neck. Lean up to kiss him and—

Neal grabbed her arms and pulled her away. “Lesaya!” He was still mad. Lesaya hummed a tune, the same one she’d been humming when she’d drugged him. Waited for him to give up. Except he didn’t. He let go of her and stepped back. “I think we need a break,” he mumbled. Rubbing his arm, where the needle had gone in. Not looking at her.

A break. Neal wanted a break. From *her*. Well then. “Fine,” she hissed. “We’ll have a break.” See how much he enjoyed it. She’d make sure he wouldn’t.

~\*~\*~\*~

To Roddy's eyes, Neal was looking worse than usual. He usually was a bit more greasy, Dad gave him a hard time about not bathing but once a week. Neal’d grumble how that was all that was needed. Today though, he really looked scruffy. He looked, and smelled, like he hadn’t bathed for a *month*. All greasy, and ratty-haired. *Gross*.

“Hey Roddy, c’mere kid. C’mere.” He was acting weird too, shifty, and jerky. Like the puppet show Jeong-Ho did.

Roddy hesitated. Neal hadn’t been talking to him much lately— too busy with *Lesaya*. But… Roddy really missed him. And he didn’t see her around at all. So he went. “Hi Neal,” Roddy said, slow and deliberate. He was getting a handle on the magic— he just had to make sure he wasn’t too emotional when he spoke. Which… was hard sometimes but he was learning!

“Hey kid. So hey, uh listen,” Neal glanced around, like he was looking for something. Roddy looked too, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. “Look I’m uh. I think I’m leaving the circus.”

Roddy felt an ice-chill running down his shell. Neal? *Leaving?!* “You— you can’t!” He felt his magic roiling and trying to escape. So he clamped his mouth shut and looked down so he wouldn’t make it worse. Didn’t try to stop the tears though.

“Oh no no no kid— listen. I was, I was gonna ask if…” Neal hesitated, crouched down to be more at Roddy’s level. Glanced around again, tapping his fingers against his leg. “Do you… want to come with me?” he asked slowly. Roddy’s head snapped up. “I can’t… look, Roddy, I’m a mess. I’m not… gonna be a good guardian or whatever. He— heck I might end up worse than what you got right now. But if you wanna risk it, then—”

Roddy cut Neal off by lunging forwards and clinging to him. It sent Neal sprawling backwards, flat on his back. Roddy sniffled and buried his face in Neal’s shirt. “Yes,” he mumbled around the magic lump in his throat. “Please Neal. *Please*.”

Neal’s hand, twisted and calloused, rubbed against Roddy’s head. “All right. You’n me then. Next time we hit town. But Roddy? Do me a favor. Don’t tell anybody about this, okay?”

“Okay,” Roddy agreed. That shouldn’t be too hard. Town wasn’t too far away, just a few days. And then he could have a new life. A better one. No more Lesaya, no more Moggie, or Jasmine, or Moria. (Or Arynis, Esran, or Amren…) Just Roddy and Neal. Roddy couldn’t wait.

~\*~\*~\*~

If there was one thing Lesaya could pray thanks for, it was finding out her victim had done half her work for her. She’d been hunting Neal down, the last bit of White Sky in her pocket, when lo and behold it turns out he’d already gotten himself high. Such a good sacrifice, this one. He wasn’t even fighting that hard while Lesaya dragged him off to the woods.

“Les— Lesaaaaaya. I’m s’pposed. S’pposed to be— fixing. Something.” Neal’s wrist twisted in her grip, weakly. “Nggggh. And we’re broke up ‘member? No more sex. M’too high for it any— anyway.”

They were far enough away now. Lesaya stopped and turned, slamming Neal up against a tree. “Aw Neal, you think that’s what this is about?” It was a nice tree. Big and sturdy, strong branches. Strong enough to hold up a man’s weight. Already set up for what she was going to do here. Neal continued to sway, staring fuzzily at her while she tied his wrists together. Made a pained noise when Lesaya jerked on the other side of the rope, pulling him up on his tiptoes. “Don’t worry sweetheart,” Lesaya said, tying it off. “The fun’s just getting started.” She pressed a quick kiss to Neal’s lips, and pulled the toxins out of his body.

He jerked, suddenly stone-cold sober. “Lesaya?” he said warily, testing his bonds. “What’s, uh, what’s all this for?”

“Oh you know.” Lesaya shrugged, sliding her knife out of it’s sheath. Neal’s eyes widened and he jerked to get himself free. But Lesaya knew what she was doing, and he stayed put. The next step was always crying for help— so she put a stop to that. A slash across his throat, severing the vocal cords. A quick bit of healing magic to keep him from bleeding out. Now the sounds he made were muted, harsh whispers. Pity that Lesaya couldn’t afford to let him scream.

“Now now Neal, it’s all right,” she crooned, slowly cutting his clothes off— and if she took some skin off too, so much the better. “For me anyway. Do you want to hear a story?” Lesaya let her blade dig a gash along his bicep. “It’s not a good story.” She stepped back, tugging at her shirt and murmuring her brother's name. The black handprint faded into existence. “Do you recognize this?” she asked, tapping it with the tip of her bloody blade.

Neal shook his head, still trying to scream. He wasn’t listening. “Hey,” she said harshly, using her knife’s edge to force Neal to meet her eyes. “I’m talking to you. Now, do you recognize this?”

Neal kept wheezing, his eyes darting every which way. But slowly he shook his head. “Good boy,” Lesaya crooned, patting his cheek. “It’s the symbol of my god, Bane. Do you know what we do to worship Bane? We take people out, and we kill them.” Neal’s eyes widened and the harsh attempts at screams intensified. “There’s rituals and everything, not that I ever really learned them. But I learned the *important* things. How to cause fear,” she trailed her knife down Neal’s chest, a bright red trail following her blade. “How to cause pain.” And she drove it in, deep. Right into Neal’s stomach. “And how to prolong that pain.” Another murmured prayer, and the wound knit together. Not completely, oh no. But enough that it wouldn’t kill him for a while.

“You see I was born in Skyport too,” Lesaya said casually, tucking the knife away. “Did you know that the Church of Helm is really the Church of Bane?” she asked, reaching up on tiptoe to grab Neal’s hands. “I was little when I learned that.” A quick twist, and a finger snapped. More muted screams, more writhing in pain. Even to the end Neal was just so much fun. “I don’t know if he was really my father— but he was the only one I ever knew so I suppose we’ll call him that. Well,” another finger snapped, “he took the creed of causing fear, and pain, and suffering back home with him.” Another finger. Hm, enough of that for now.

“My mother didn’t do anything about it. Merely sat back and let him call me a monster— ironic, considering he was a tiefling. Oh do you know why I was a monster?” She bared her teeth, and let ‘Lesaya’ fall away. “Because he never knew what face I’d wear next,” she rasped.

Neal stared in horror. Her true face had that affect. She grinned. Leaned in to kiss him again, nipping at his bottom lip, biting it— jerking backwards and tearing it off completely. Neal thrashed and gargled, blood gushing down his face. She spit the chunk of flesh onto the ground. “So I decided to take matters into my own hands. But he was an adult, and I was just a child. So you know what I did? I practiced. My little brother was such a crybaby. Always wailing over this or that. Always tattling on me. So I drowned him.”

Noises, like something running away. Lesaya glanced up, scanning the area. Didn't see anything. Must have just been a stray deer. Back to work, maybe a bit of skinning for now. “My parents were harder,” she said, stepping back and trying to decide where. The chest, that’d do. Flesh peeled off, red like apple skins. “But I managed to get my hands on some poison, and then it was just a matter of slipping it into their meal. Act up a little myself, so once my father was done beating me he would send me to my room without supper. And then,” she shrugged, “I was an orphan.”

“The church took me in after that. Poor little orphan of one of their own. Of course they were happy to train me as a cleric. But this part, this part I taught myself.” An ear lopped off, spattering her in yet more blood. “I went through three of the others before they realized what was happening. Perhaps if the last hadn’t been one of their rising stars they would have been more eager to keep me. Ah well.” She shrugged, taking a moment to relish in the choked, pained sobs tearing from Neal’s mangled throat. “The church hated me, but I didn’t need them. It took a few more before Bane began to heed my calls.” She murmured a prayer, dragging her nails down Neal’s face. Festering wounds erupted across his body. “Just like that, see?”

“It’s a pity though,” she mused. A couple well placed slits to Neal’s legs severed tendons, rendering him unable to run. Cut the rope, and he collapsed and she had Neal’s hands available again. She worked the knife into the knuckle, slowly, taking her time and making it messy as she started removing fingers. “I was going to go after your little tortle boy.” Oh now *that* got his attention. She’d thought he was in too much pain to listen to anything she was saying. She grinned, wide and sharp. “He told me you know. About how you planned to *take him away*.”

She gripped Neal’s throat, cutting off his airflow. Watching as he weakly struggled against her grip. “See, I know what it’s like to be a child, all alone, with no one to protect you,” she crooned. “Their fear is always so *delicious*. Don’t worry though. You won’t be alive to do anything about it.”

~\*~\*~\*~

Roddy sniffled, wiping away his tears. The fire in front of him roared, consuming Neal. Or what was left of him.

He’d known Lesaya was bad news. He’d know it and nobody *listened* and Neal was dead now. Cut… cut into so many pieces they couldn’t even bury him. Lesaya’d done it. Roddy’d seen her. He’d been going to practice magic for a little bit, then to investigate the voice he’d heard, and then…

Seeing her turn into a monster had snapped him out of his shock. Roddy thought for sure she would have heard him, would have ran after him and caught him. But she didn’t. And then Arynis had clamped her hand over his mouth so he wouldn’t scream till he nearly passed out from not being able to *breathe*. By the time Roddy managed to tell anyone what he saw it’d been too late. Lesaya had vanished, and Neal was…

Roddy hugged Amren tighter, and Amren reciprocated. For once he wasn’t saying anything. For once Roddy was glad he had a brother.

They stayed there till the fire burned down. It took a long time. But finally it was sputtering, and there was no signs of… of the body any more, so somebody put it out and people started moving.

Not Amren or Roddy though. They stayed clinging to each other while the chaos of the circus whirled around them. “Don’t worry Roddy,” Amren said quietly. “Moria told her to not come back. We’ll… we’ll be safe.” (Roddy wondered who he was trying to comfort.)

“Hey! C’mon, in the wagon with you two,” Esran said, giving them a not-so-gentle nudge. “Gotta get moving.”

Amren was quick to let go and dart off. Roddy was a little slower. He’d been about to leave these people. This… family. Because it hadn’t been his. Not really. Mom and Dad were… Arynis and Esran. They had one son, and one tacked-on afterthought.

“Roddy!” Esran barked. “C’mon get moving, or are we gonna have to leave you behind?”

“No, sorry Esran,” Roddy muttered, and hurried to get inside.