Aleksei: Lynchpin

Aleks really fucking hated the orc. Hated his idiotic drawl. And he hated the way Mishka fucking looked at him. Didn’t feel fucking fair. He kept going through the half-elf’s memories in his head, analyzing them again and again. He kept simmering.

Mishka was spoiled goods now. But, to be fair, he only fucked the half-orc and the half-elf because Aleksei was dead and gone.

He kept thinking about the goldfinch he used to keep in his room. How it… flew away from him, and he had to lure it back again by pretending to be nice. Regain its trust. It was a flighty creature. High-strung.

He needed to be gentle. He needed to be… welcoming.

Maybe, Aleksei though, he could hire an assassin to shoot him, then ‘accidentally’ run into Mishka and ask for his help. Then let Mishka escort him home, limping and wounded.

Hmm. He liked that idea, but-- eh, he didn’t want to get shot. Maybe he’d file that one away for later.

Eventually, he settled on a much better idea. He could just kill the fucking orc, sure, or try to get Mishka to pity him and take him back, but-- what if he could make them hate each other?

What if he could get Hansel to attack Mishka?

It was worth a shot. Just to see what happened. Hansel, Aleksei thought to himself, was the lynchpin of the group. He was Raef's best friend, and Goro's fiance, and Roddy's father, and Larkin's crewmate. Turn Hansel against Mishka, and-- well, nobody was going to take Mishka's fucking side. Every single person that liked Mishka liked Hansel better.

##

He scryed Mishka and found him nearby, at a local inn just outside the city. Aleksei disguised himself as a cleric-- no magic or illusions, which might be difficult to keep up, just cloth and makeup and a holy symbol.

Once he was suitably disguised, Aleksei made his way to the inn.

He scryed on Mishka again. Mishka sat in an orchard, lounging affectionately in his husband’s arms.

Aleksei motioned over two nearby children. “Hey,” he said, crouching down at look at them. “I need you to do me a favor, kids.” He held out a shiny coin. “There’s two men back behind that inn sitting against a tree. One of them’s an orc and the other’s an elf…”

The kids seemed nonplussed by this. They nodded, seeing no problem with it. Ah, the younger generation. So much simpler. “And?” the older one said.

“I need you to go be very nice to them. They’re both magic. Spellcasters. See if you can get them to cast spells for you,” Aleksei said. “The bigger spells, the better.” He gave them both a coin. “I’ll give you more later depending on how good you do.”

Both kids grinned and took off.

##

Aleksei waited a while, checking on Hansel and Mishka occasionally with his scrying spell. Finally, they separated, briefly, and Aleksei saw his chance. Hansel left and came around to the side of the inn to fetch some water.

He stepped loudly around the corner. “Excuse me,” he called softly, trying to sound like… whatever clerics sounded like. Soft and patient, right?

“Eh?” The half-orc eyed him suspiciously.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but-- ah, I’m a traveling fortune-teller. Are you… Hansel Bell? Or is it-- ah, it was something else, recently. Some other name. You’ve gone by several titles, I believe. Terror of the Calish Seas, Demon Pirate…”

Hansel’s eyes stayed narrow.

This, it seemed, was the wrong tack to take. Hansel seemed pissed and suspicious instead of awed and impressed Aleksei knew who he was. “Nah,” Hansel said.

“I’ve come to give you a warning,” Aleksei lied. “Someone cast a terrible curse on you. I can feel it.”

“Yeah, sure.” Hansel snorted.

“No, no,” Aleksei said. “Please, listen to me. I know you have no reason to believe me, but… I think someone’s been tampering with your memories. Your spirit calls to me like it’s in terrible pain. Someone covered something up. Someone did something terrible to you. Someone you love.”

Hansel froze at that.

Aleksei could see the gears turning in his head. Thinking that surely this random cleric was lying, but… what if he wasn’t? What if there was a tiny, one-percent chance that Hansel was wrong, and someone had betrayed him, and he didn’t know, or…

“Go fuck yourself,” Hansel said gruffly.

Aleksei hummed the bars to a song, and he focused on reaching out to Hansel and modifying his memories.

The spell took hold. Hansel’s eyes went wide, and soft, and blank, and he swayed a little. He collapsed onto a nearby bench. “There, there,” Aleksei said softly, patting his arm. He needed to work fast. “Listen to me. I want to help you. Understand?”

Hansel made a faint, confused sound.

“Someone did something very bad to you,” Aleksei said. He put his strongest magic into it, layering his voice with all the power he had. “Mishka cast a spell on your. He did something horrible to you, and then he cast a memory charm to cover it up. You didn’t know he could cast memory modification magic. He’s kept it hidden from you. He’s very, very clever like that. Understand?”

Another faint, distressed noise.

“I am a traveling cleric,” Aleksei said patiently. “And I am purifying you. I’m removing the curse and clearing your mind for you. Mishka did something terrible to you, and then he made you forget. The worst possible thing. And I’m removing the curse, so now you remember what it is. Yes?”

“Mm.” Another soft groan.

“Think about the worst thing Mishka could do,” Aleksei said. “Think about the very worst thing he could possibly do to you.”

“Hurt somebody,” Hansel said faintly.

“Hurt you?”

“No. Not… me.” Hansel swayed a little. “Kids. Or… Goro. Someone-- someone else.”

“Mishka hurt one of your kids, didn’t he?” Aleksei said. He remembered that from Goro’s memories. “Jonn. He poisoned Jonn.”

“Yes. But… he wouldn’t. He wasn’t gonna hurt Jonn,” Hansel whispered. “If… I hadn’t gotten the antidote, Mishka would’ve… cured him. He promised. He said so.”

Aleksei was pretty fucking sure he’d struck gold. “Mishka lied,” Aleksei said. “He confessed to you he meant to hurt Jonn. Meant to kill him. And then, when you got upset, he covered it all up. Modified your memory so you’d forget and forgive him.”

It was a small change. Believable. It was believable that Mishka genuinely loved Hansel, but might’ve done something bad and then changed it to get Hansel to stay with him. It was believable Mishka was manipulative, and he was a liar.

The spell faded. Aleksei gently rested a hand on Hansel’s shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I think someone cast memory modification magic on you to play a cruel trick on you, my friend. I removed the curse. Good luck to you.”

He patted Hansel’s shoulder, and he left while Hansel’s head was still in his hands.

That should do it, Aleksei thought, satisfied. It probably wouldn’t end their fucking marriage, but Hansel would probably be angry, and the fight would probably crack their relationship a bit. He’d wait and see where this got him.