abraxaslogs | I want to live, not be afraid and forsaken [open]

Lucifer rolls his eyes. He should just let him go but needling Kyle feels good. Almost the first normal thing since he's woken up.

"Please," he drawls, "don't act like a child who had his feelings squashed."

Except then that brings him back to other problems--

He sighs.

Kyle's a resource that he'd like to keep in a back pocket. Seemingly another seeker of information, and perhaps less likely to get distracted by any and every bit of knowledge like Istredd.

"It's more than I can do right now," he offers evenly. It's a cost to reveal, but he thinks it might come back around to being necessary, because if he talks himself up too much and then gets in another bad situation, he's in trouble.

The war has already had its kick-off. He doesn't need to be powerful right now, he just needs to be smart.

He can weather the cost to his pride.

Don't act like a child. He scowls to himself and lingers by the counter, eyeing the odd assortment of treats along with the menu of herbal teas. Though his body is angled toward the glass display he keeps him within his peripheral vision.

"Anyone can learn... what did you call it? The drivel they call the basics of magic?" he asks, half-distractedly. He glances over his shoulder "What's stopping you, besides your pride?"

He thinks Lucifer's bluffing, playing down the strength he's already seen him display.

Alternatively, something did actually happen in the Hunting Grounds after he had seen the speed and strength of his divine power. But he doubts he'll get that information out of him, if at all the truth.

"Sheer absolute annoyance," he starts blandly, "boredom." One would think he's not taking this seriously. "The understanding that my time is infinite and all this is just a meaningless struggle of a counterfeit reality."

He stares up at the ceiling.

Ah.

That last one might be too close to the truth.

God help him. He rolls his eyes at that last part, it sounds like it could have come out of Jack's mouth.

Of course he won't mention that.

He opens a glass jar from the counter and lightly sniffs the floral contents. This one he might like to drink, but he doubts it's part of the free menu. Replacing it on the counter he frowns at Lucifer again.

"Might've saved you some trouble in the woods," he says bluntly. "I'd been wondering about protection spells, but after recent events..."

He's wondering more about their exploits than actually learning to use them on himself. Aside from his sudden ability to conjure strange berries, he's still wary about Thorne's magic - but it's the same conclusion he came to with Horizon: to remain ignorant of how it works and functions is dangerous, leaves him open to attack.

If Kyle ever wanted to get under Lucifer's skin instead of vis versa, all he'd have to do is compare him to Jack. Easy done deal.

But then, it's not a good idea to get under the devil's skin.

"I kind of doubt it, I'll be honest," he says, sniffing and feigning disinterest. He runs a finger along the edge of his teacup. "All protections have a breaking point and anything new I could have learned for those woods would have been shattered in moments."

He understands that much.

He turns in his seating towards Kyle, hands lacing together loosely between his legs. He lowers his voice in case anyone walks in. "Thorne thinks itself impenetrable with its wards." He stands then, hands at his side, and walks right up to Kyle. What he's saying could be construed as treasonous talk, after all. He knows how to be careful. There's a cold-calculation to his words. "All it takes is problem-solving intelligence. Never attack the same place twice. Test for weaknesses systematically."

Kahlil prefers to keep Jack far, far away from Lucifer's thoughts.

Anything new I could have learned for those woods would have been shattered in moments. Well, that is an interesting admission, if true. He's toying with pressing again, asking what it was exactly that the devil had met in the wood that left him recovering for three days. But in his momentary distraction he finds Lucifer suddenly approaching him, stopping alarmingly close.

A rabbit's heartbeat would seem slow compared to his own.

"You're not wrong," his reply is quiet and neutral. "Their enemies must be doing the same."

Thorne is making a mistake keeping men like Lucifer in a gilded cage, so certain they can nullify any threat from within. But he's not wrong, only that work like that takes patience.

Enemies, and not just Cadens. He still doesn't believe there's enough proof to definitively blame the other nation, or that it even makes sense. He doesn't know enough about the people involved in these nations, the ones pulling the strings. Or those who might be working beneath cover, like himself.

He's not sure that it matters to Lucifer either way.

Except -

"Have there been any updates on Lady Yennifer's condition?"

He ducks away, dismissive of the topic he brought up, internally buzzing with satisfaction. He heads back towards his table, but the pace is slow, precise. He only looks back over at the mention of Yennefer's name.

"Terrible patient, that one." Says the hypocrite. "She was up a bit, but back in bed. Istredd will tell me when she's no longer bedridden."

Istredd?

"That's good to hear," he replies, brow furrowing. "Istredd must've been worried, having two friends laid up at the same time."

He hadn't known about that connection.

"He was insufferable, you have no idea!" Or rather, Lucifer's never the need for anyone to check over or bandage his injuries, so the bare minimum of care and worry was Too Much.

He throws himself back down in his chair and rolls his eyes with a quiet huff. "I think he just didn't want the room to smell of blood." Because a selfish reason makes far more sense to Lucifer.

There's some breathing room now with Lucifer back in his seat, leaving him again with that feeling of being released from a snake's coil.

"I doubt that," he says, eyeing Lucifer. "He seems like a good man."

Kahlil wonders if Istredd is aware of what kind of creature he's sharing a room with. The information shifts his view of the mage slightly, for better or worse he can't tell yet. But he'll know to be more cautious about what he shares with him now.

"He does," he replies, almost sounding petulant about it.

Well, good man but... Lucifer's certain there's some gray morals there. Workable.

"If he doesn't get easily distracted by his research any given day."

He pours himself another cup of tea. Just because he doesn't like it doesn't mean he won't finish it.

"But then a common thread I've noticed with Thorne's Summoned is that we're all avid readers." He raises a brow. "And no passing notes in class, though perhaps Big Brother would discourage that. The government likes curating our knowledge."

Sometimes Lucifer's childlike petulance is almost endearing, like now. Almost.

Everyone has a pressure point. There are no purely good or purely evil men. There is belief and choice.

"I've noticed," he says. Of both. But there's a flicker of confusion -

"You have a brother here?"

Unfortunate Nayeshi reference that goes over his head. He's usually better at catching and reading around them.

It's a fifty-fifty split on whether or not Lucifer makes references knowing most people around him won't get them on purpose, or if he simply doesn't care. Can't help it and all that.

But Lucifer walked himself into this one and whatever guises he goes between when he's around people--different for every person--slips. It's barely a millisecond, but for Kyle, accustomed enough to reading people, it's there.

Fear.

There and gone.

Lucifer's easy tone doesn't change. "Sorry, it's an expression from my Earth. Government's always watching and trying to control things."

It's so fast that he almost misses it. Isn't sure what to make of that split second shift - but as good as an actor he is, it was too quick of a reaction to have been feigned.

A brother.

Had he mentioned something about a family before?

He own features remain impassive, he gives a nod to the explanation and then a frown as he continues, feigning that the blip went unnoticed.

"This country has a long, bloody history. Maybe some wish to forget it."

Bury it, more like. But with the attack on Libertas they're about to enter another blood soaked chapter.

Edited (ah forget nocwich) 2022-09-13 07:13 (UTC)

"'Forget it.' Right. Because that alwaaaays goes well for everyone. Lock your skeletons up in your closet."

He scoffs and waves his hands. He grins deviously and says in a conspicuous tone, brows raised, "Maybe we should start knocking open some doors and see what falls out." As though Kyle would willingly play Conspiracy Theorist with Lucifer.

"As fun as that sounds, I think I'd like to avoid the dungeons," he answers, as though it were a serious question. It's hard to tell with Lucifer.

Also, you know, this isn't the conversation to be having in public.

But there is a quick look of clear interest at the notion. Assuming he's not toying with him.

"Anyway, I better be off to the book store..." as if he didn't already visit once today already. It's the best excuse he can come up with to escape for now. But as he nods and starts heading toward the door, he sends a message:

Which doors would you start with?

It's an open invitation to continue talking.

Lucifer went from enjoying needling Kyle, to seeing some spark of worth, to never really knowing where to stand with him on a regular basis. For as much as he's unnerved Kyle, it's bounced back at him for different reasons entirely.

Still, the scrawl of sparkly words across the placemat below his teapot causes the faintest tilt to his head. Interesting.

He doesn't have an exact estimate for Kyle, more of... a feeling.

The ones hidden in plain view. There, but something you always ignore.

I'm sure if they really wanted to hide something they could avoid doors entirely. But how much, I wonder, do we pass every day with no thought--no desire to look?

The door closes behind him and he's out on the street again as he mulls over that.

It wouldn't surprise me, given how old the place is. A seam in a stone wall should still give off a draft, though. Any spell cast as an illusion to obscure or to force your eyes to drift when you might be curious... the entire castle is so saturated in magic it might just be possible to obscure it behind the larger framework of spells and wards.

It is something to think about.

That's a good point.

He'll leave it at that; he almost wasn't going to follow up with a response at all, but credit where it's due. It is a good point, bringing up how saturated in magic the castle is. Lucifer hadn't thought about it.

But for now, he settles into the pure determination of finishing his tea and shuts his mind off to the odd mental messages that the Singularity and its whole mess provides.

I want to live, not be afraid and forsaken [open]

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