Behind Those Golden Eyes

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Tal managed to restrain himself enough that he didn't eat the sandwiches in one bite each, but it was a close one. He had a feeling that he was a bit of a disadvantage in the recovery aspect as Aisha had no idea how to deal with a demonic body and had spent most of the time doing her best to not go insane from all the sensations rather than maintaining the body as needed. Speaking of body switches... He though to himself before glancing over at Archer. He wondered if his time in that body had had any unintended side effects. He figured it would show up eventually if there was something to see.

The mention of their next task resulted in a soft sigh. "At least there is the both of us so we can commiserate later?" He was definitely of the opinion that Aisha was going to owe him big time after this.


Jeremy beamed at Sheila, unperturbed by the specks of blood he had picked up during his little session. "A fair amount. She already seemed half dead when I got there but she still put up quite the resistance." He rolled his eyes. "You'd think she enjoyed pain or something." He chuckled softly and slipped into the seat that the guard had just vacated. "And don't worry, I was quite careful to stop the bleeding of everything of note." The design he had carved lightly into her neck and head was not something he was too concerned about. It had been clotting while he had finished up the rest of his fun.

At her question about Tal, his expression became quite torn. Ideally, he wanted to see the demon suffer as much as possible before his death. However, he also wanted to ensure that his desire for revenge did not end up backfiring on them. "I think painful but relatively quick would be the best way." He said finally. "I want to give him no chances to somehow recover from this."
 
Archer grinned at Tal's comment. "Hopefully there won't be any old men disturbing us then." He said, remembering way too well his masters rude abruption, and Xerxes habit of walking in on people through the shadows. "By the way, will your father be able to find us now when we've changed position?" The assassin then asked. He didn't know the extent to the man's abilities, but he could imagine it might be harder to find them when he didn't even know they had moved.

Shiela chuckled. It wasn't a very nice spell she had used on the girl. She had to remember to send someone over to make her drink some water, or else she would definitely not make it for very long. Dehydration was probably already kicking. It was important to get liquid into the body, especially when the stomach is emptying itself too much.

But that could wait for a little while longer. The girl wasn't dying yet, and Shiela made sure to keep track of the health of her aura. There was a lot of pain which went up and down. Either she was moving around a lot or it was worse than she thought. Oh well, she wouldn't get anywhere, and it weren't a rush so far.

"Should we get to Archer first? He were a great hindrance for Kellen. Better not underestimate him." She proposed. The question was how to get to him without Taliesin getting in the way.
 
"We need to get him back into the city before we worry about whether he can find us." Tal muttered with no small amount of irritation. The timing on his father's departure had been 10 kinds of inconvenient leaning towards really bad. "That being said, I would not underestimate my father's ability to track us down. I've muted my own aura but he is familiar with yours and seems to have a ridiculous range." He never had quite figured out how Xerxes was quite so good at finding people. Xerxes had an extensive network sure but even when you took that out of the equation he still seemed to have some extra sense to track down his target.

"If it is possible, definitely." Jeremy agreed musingly. "Had it not been for him and the father Taliesin would have been dead for sure." He let out a soft regretful sigh. Kellen had been so close but had suffered from lack of information and underestimating how his speech would be received by Archer. "Speaking of, has there been any sign of the father?" Xerxes was a big unknown factor even for Jeremy and it made him quite nervous. It was evident that the father was a demon as well but they did not know much more than that. He felt like he should know who it was from the brief glimpses he had gotten and that itself was even more frustrating.

He put it in the back of his mind though and focused more on how the other demon might effect their plans if he did show up again at some point.
 
"That's good then. It would have been a pain if we couldn't move around somewhat freely between hideouts if necessary, for fear that he might not find us." Archer said before stretching himself. "Well, now when we're rested and full, let's ask reason number 4 for help." He proposed, not showing any signs of telling him what the number four thing was about. Instead he walked out casually to the main part of the shop.

What followed was a strange conversation where Archer at first tried to get a price set in gold, but eventually had to give up as he knew he would, and ended up taking her proposal. They got their gem, and once the shop would close for the night, she would get her payment. If she hadn't been such a good recourse for information, Archer might just have killed her before that. He had thought that reason number 4 would be the only one he could escape sharing a bed with. Though he had to confess, reason 6 hadn't been such a disaster.

Once back on the room, Archer threw the gem towards Tal. "Want to do it right away? The faster the better I would say." He suggested.

Shiela frowned at the mention of the father. He was good at hiding. Every time he entered the shadows, she lost complete track of him. She hadn't been able to find him since he left town. "He's completely gone at the moment. If they were to meet up with him I would notice, but before that we should watch out. He might start acting on his own." She said warningly.

"On the other hand, he was gone during the body swap, and the raid. He's probably not aware of the situation. No human would be able to find him without him wanting them to, and Taliesin hasn't gone out after him. We're probably safe at the moment." They could only guess with such an unpredictable man, and that did annoy her. If only she had gotten a piece of his hair, or his blood. But she had found nothing of the sort when they searched the mansion.
 
Tal snatched the gem out of the air and nodded reluctantly. "No time like the present." He moved over to the bed and picked up the book once again. He quickly found the page and refreshed himself with what it said. He had a pretty good memory but this was not the time to take any risks. It was as simple as he remembered, which made him nervous but he supposed not all spells had to be big and flashy, especially in an age where magic users were hunted down. "Make sure I'm not disturbed." He finally said as he put the book down. He dropped to the floor in one smooth motion, crossing his legs as he went. With no further warning he blocked everything out and attempted to put himself into a trance. Initially, he found himself running into a lot of problems. The mental exercise he had been doing lately was more related to the hyper focus that was required to pull his aura in to that of a normal human. Going into a trance was different, he had to let go and that was not something he was good at.

After a frustrating half hour he finally had a moment of inspiration to combine the first two steps of instructions. He would go into a trance while focusing on the crystal. It worked like a charm. Several minutes later the gemstone, which had been normal and dull up until now, started to glow and pulse. Tal didn't notice, he was within it now, bouncing his thoughts along the facets and letting them be amplified until they reached out and touched their target. Very faintly, Tal felt his father's surprise, or a jump, at the connection. It was very hard to tell since Xerxes did not have a stone to amplify his own thoughts. Either way, Tal quickly explained the situation to him, trying to ignore his own frustration at not being able to hear a response. Even the faint emotions he could feel did not help as his father had become very focused once he started explaining. As a final thought, he sent the impression of how to use the gemstones in this manner to his father and then broke the connection.

Tal slowly found his vision focusing on the world outside his mind. "ugh..." He felt a little...drained. Or something. Generally not well. He would recover but it was a bit taxing to work the spell as the only energy user, and as someone not used to using their power in such a way.

"Hmm..." Jeremy didn't much like the sound of that either. "We will just have to plan some contingencies for if he does show up." He sighed lightly. "I think for now we should wait to see what the other two do and seek for a moment of weakness to exploit. We have Aisha so they will not stay idle for long."
 
Archer did as told and made sure no one came into the room while Tal concentrated. Or disturb him by just being Archer. Luckily for Tal, Archer had learnt some self restraint throughout the years, and even before that he at the very least had known how to keep himself in check if it was really important. This situation was probably one of the few he would consider that important. Mainly because his sex life was being threatened by a stupid witch.

He waited and waited. Eventually Tal moved, and so did Archer. He put an arm around his companion to help him up from the floor and back to the bed. "You okay?" He asked, hoping for a yes. He did not want to be the only one paying the prize for the gem in the evening. "Do you think it worked?" He also asked. At least Xerxes could help them hurry with the saving and killing process, so they fast could continue with their normal every day lives filled with no curses that keeps his lover sleeping or him in the wrong body.

The sorceress smiled sweetly. "A moment of weakness hmm..." She purred as an idea entered her mind. "He would probably love to get his little girlfriend back. I wonder what kind of expression he would get if she suddenly stabbed him in the back." Shiela spoke cryptically. It was all up to Jeremy if he felt intrigued by what he heard, otherwise she would keep the spells she thought of to herself.

It would take some days to fix, but as long as those two didn't attack them for the next three days, then she could send a doll disguised as the girl to them. With her blood and hair she could even copy the girl's aura for a while. She was sure she could keep the facade up for at least 24 hours. A doll wouldn't be able to send out its intentions from the aura, that aura would stay with Shiela in safety in their hideout. Even if it tore out his heart, the aura of the doll as his childhood friend wouldn't change.

"It would probably break his heart in more than one way. Don't you think?"
 
Tal reluctantly accepted the help, mostly because he didn't take not feeling well, well. It wasn't particularly bad, it was just a feeling he was mostly unfamiliar with. After a few moments of resting on the bed he started to feel a little more like his usual self. "I'll be alright." Whatever the reason for his current issue it was not taking long to recover from, as could be expected for a demon. "More importantly, I did make contact. As I feared father could not respond so I have no way of knowing what he intends to do about this, but he is aware. I also conveyed to him how to use the spell so hopefully he will contact me in the near future."

He sighed lightly before shaking off the slight mood and flashing Archer a sly grin. "You need not worry, I will be more than able to perform when the time comes." Though he was no more excited than the other man about it.

Jeremy tilted his head slightly but did not immediately respond to her bait, which was obviously what it was. He almost wanted to ignore it purely because of that, but it did sound like an intriguing idea and perhaps a good way to get close to the demon without such a pesky hostage like Aisha around to do to them what she did to Kellen. He set his arms on the table and leaned forward with a slight smile. "An intriguing idea. What did you have in mind?"
 
"Oops, busted." Archer chuckled. It seemed like he couldn't hide his intentions at all. Good to know for a possible future job change.

"Well, if he doesn't contact us soon, then we can probably assume that his on his way back and doesn't want to pause to inform us of that. The problem is that it has been days since he left, so it might be days before he returns. What should we do until then?" There wasn't much they could do. Attacking was far too risky with one demon and one human, one of them might be caught in the first trap while the second might be ambushed by thirty soldiers. Staying in the same place was also risky, but leaving was too. They couldn't melt into the shadows like Xerxes could... Well, Archer couldn't at least. He weren't too sure of Tal.

Shiela waited patiently as she picked up her tarot cards and started to lay them out. The card themselves couldn't actually read the future as people often thought, but a good witch could sense which cards was which and just pick the ones that fitted into the future they saw. The cards was purely for show. But they were always fun to mess around with.

"I could simply take over her mind, but her aura would be a dead give away. With some days time though I can make a fake body and temporarily make a copy of her aura. It might be slightly off, but auras doesn't go back to normal that easily after a traumatic event, so he shouldn't be suspicious." She tapped the table a few times while thinking about something. "The question is... How to get it to them without suspicions? That girl wouldn't be able to escape a fish bowl."
 
Tal sighed heavily at the question and leaned back on the bed, not entirely sure how to answer the question. There weren't any passable options, let alone good ones at this point. "Well, first, how about you share all your information with me about the person helping Jeremy? Perhaps we can have some contacts watch them..." He frowned. Though they would be picked up immediately unless it was Tal or Xerxes or another Aura user. "Tch...this is incredibly inconvenient." His eyes flashed with his irritation and as if completely recovered he jumped to his feet and started pacing. "We might as well stay here, as it's equally dangerous as any option and we don't have to worry about being ambushed in transit. We can set a limit of say...5 days, and if my father hasn't appeared by then we will consider making a move with the resources immediately available."

Jeremy raised an eyebrow as she pulled out the cards, never quite sure what to think of the results she pulled up. The answer to her question was obvious though and it pulled his attention away from the act he had watched many times. "We create our own moment of weakness. Tal will probably hold back for a few days but inevitably he will have to make a move and in the meantime we set up a situation where they can take the copy. It would be a challenge to create just enough resistance but if we find a good reason both of us are gone..." He shrugged, looking towards a wall musingly.
 
"All I know.. hmm.." Archer thought about that for a moment as Tal kept speaking. What did he know about her? She tried to act nice and seem like no threat, but it was clear, at least to him, that she was playing a part so that she would not get into trouble, or maybe to trick people to trust her.

"She's one of the best doctors in town.. Maybe the country. Which is no surprise if she is the witch." He started. They still hadn't seen her. They only went on his contacts information and what they had experienced for the last few days. It was most certainly her, but he wouldn't be too surprised if he found someone else being the witch once the attacked. Never let the enemy surprise you. "All I know is that she hides from attention, and tries to keep everyone on her good side. She sells herbs and does home visits occasionally." He paused for a second.

"I only buy herbs and medicine from her when I happen to get poisoned or the wounds are out of control. Even those who claim to meet her on a daily basis doesn't know her all that well. There just isn't much information to go on in this case." He said almost apologetic. "Though there is one thing I've heard. Usually she only closes the shop once a year, and it's always the same month and the same day every time. The winter solstice." The darkest day of the year. Perfect for a ritual of black magic.

Shiela smiled. It seemed like she would get to try out her new trick after all. "Well, I would leave to somewhere safer if my powers failed me." She mused, considering a new idea. "A silly rumor has it that witches looses their powers during a new moon. But it has gotten so widespread it's even written in tons of books explaining witchcraft. If we can get that rumor to them, they will most likely see their chance. Though I do wonder if they dare to wait a full week even if they believe it."
 
Tal stopped abruptly as Archer finished, looking less than pleased though at least he was not directing his displeasure towards Archer. "That is strongly indicative that she is the witch we are looking for." Xerxes had told him stories of the kind of rituals that happened at times like that. The sorceress who had tried to kill his father had warned him to always keep an eye out for such activities once she was convinced of his relative harmlessness. "It is not helpful towards defeating her, aside from the fact we most definitely do not want to let this issue drag out that long." They were a few weeks into fall, but hardly properly into winter like that. "That being said...waiting it is. With the information we have making any sort of move would be foolhardy." Hopefully they would not have to indulge their host more than the one time tonight.

"They may make a move in the hope that you are at least weakening as the time approaches." Jeremy nodded as he mused to himself. "Still, getting the information to them without implicating ourselves and making it seem believable will be somewhat more challenging. It's obvious they have some sort of source of information but we don't know what and if it can be manipulated."
 
"Then the question is." Archer began before a slight grin formed. "How should we entertain ourselves while we wait?" It might have been slightly inappropriate while Tal probably were worried for, or angry at, his childhood friend. But when had Archer ever been appropriate? It wasn't like they had anything important to do before Xerxes came or until they couldn't wait any longer. So why not entertain themselves for a bit?

Shiela thought about it for a little while as she tapped a finger on top of one of her cards. How to make sure the information get to them without it seeming suspicious. It wasn't an easy task. most people didn't take witchcraft seriously. "They know that they won't get much information about witches from normal humans. It would be a miracle if they were able to find someone whom didn't think it was a myth. If they would want information about witches, they would have to search after it in books, or from other witches. The latter would be incredibly hard to get by." She said, letting him know her thought process.

"If they were to search for a weakness in my powers, they would search for it in books. And if we change the books they are most likely to come across, then we can make them believe anything we want." There was a fatal flaw in that plan though. "Of course it will only work if they decide to get the information. Otherwise it will be useless. But considering he has a human with him, I might be able to give Archie directions while he's asleep. He will think he simply got the idea when he woke up."

She turned her head, curiously listening after something. "The puppy seems to be on her way out." She mentioned, wondering how Jeremy would react. The girl hadn't gotten far. She had collapsed halfway to the door. But she was still trying to crawl forward.
 
Tal raised an eyebrow but the grin on his face indicated he was hardly disagreeable to the proposition. His main way of coping was having sex, Archer's inappropriateness was lost on someone like Tal. "I'm sure we can figure out something to keep ourselves busy." It would be an enjoyable event to help give them the fortitude they were going to need for the activities later tonight anyway.

Jeremy nodded to himself as she spoke, marveling at how lucky he was to have stumbled across a witch in his moment of greatest need. A witch who was willing to help him past the point of getting him healed especially. "Eh?" He pulled himself out of his thoughts to give Sheila a bemused look. "Honestly...that girl." He leaned back in his chair and thought for a few moments. He doubted Aisha was moving very quickly so he had all the time to consider how to deal with her latest bout of foolishness. "How easy would it be for you to take control of her?" He pondered out loud as an idea occurred to him. He had always been more of a fan of mental torture. Physical was just incidental.
 
Bait caught. Archer was having a slight victory dance in his mind. Even though it shouldn't be too incredible that Tal said yes, it was still many variables that could have gone wrong. He might still be exhausted after the body change, he might be more interesting in saving Aisha, he might wish to do some planning. But all was going Archer's way.

"I know a fun game we can play." He smirked and moved closer to his lover. He didn't care much that the door was unlocked and the hag could walk in on them at any time. Let her come in and get jealous. Let her jump in for all he cared, he probably wouldn't notice. A deep kiss connected them and started their lustful journey. Then he started to pull Tal towards the bed. The fact that the bed weren't made for two people only made it more fun to try and do their actions on the small piece they had to move around on. They had gotten enough training on the couch those few times Aisha hadn't forced them to leave it.

Shiela raised an eyebrow at his question. She had believed the question would come eventually, but not this early. Oh well. "Depends on how you want to take control of her." She told him. "One way is to actually going into their minds and make them experience their worst fears, making them believe their real life and everything they love is being destroyed. Eventually after days, weeks or months, depending on the person, they'll break and you can form them a new personality to your liking. Of course the outcome might not be what one would expect or want, but at the very least they tend to take orders much better."

Such a long time plan was probably not to his liking though, so she continued on. "The second way is to take over her body. Her mind will be fully conscious, but she won't be able to control her physical body. It only takes a few hours to get it done. Though only using magic is quite dangerous. If they decide to fight the spell, they might break loose. So it's best to take some help from drugs that weakens both body and mind." The witch explained.
 
Tal laughed softly and let Archer lead for the moment. They both knew it would only be a matter of time before Tal took over or decided to satisfy some of his more unusual desires. The fact that Archer was completely unbothered by this made him an excellent lover.

Jeremy nodded with a satisfied smile. That was just what he was hoping for. "I think we should implement the second option." He stood up and stretched carefully, testing the wound which got better with each passing day. He would be fully healed soon and he couldn't wait. "I think there is little quite so horrific as not being in control of your own self and being aware of it yes?" Even better, Aisha would be conscious when her clone turned on Tal and with any luck killed the demon. It would be a beautiful dual revenge if he was so lucky.
 
"You're quite sadistic." Shiela mused as she put aside her cards and stood up. "What are you thinking of doing with her once the demon is gone and the baby's born?" She asked quite curious about it. He seemed to enjoy playing around with the girl, but at the same time he also seemed quite annoyed with her. It wouldn't surprise her whichever course he would take. If he killed her or if he let her live just to see her suffer. The only thing that would surprise her would be if he said that he'd let her go.

Now she would have to prepare the drugs, and in a couple of hours she could start the process of taking over the poor girls body. The nice thing about drugs were that even if they were able to escape, the addiction might actually lead them back, or at the very least make them suffer greatly until they got over it. It would be a miracle if Aisha actually were able to get out, but Shiela always made sure that there were a few extra plans for unexpected events.
 
Jeremy tilted his head and smiled darkly. "You said it yourself. I will wring as much pain as possible from the girl before I perhaps finally grant her release." He had to live with what her demon had done, it was only fair she endure a similar suffering until she was so broken and numb she felt no more. And even then he might keep her around for the fun of it, the ultimate sign of his victory over the demon. She would be a great example for the baby once it grew older.

He watched her go, lost in her dark thoughts. He would eager anticipate hearing how the procedure went and seeing the results himself. In the meantime he decided he should find some appropriate books for them to doctor to lure in their prey.
 
Shiela left the room, not the slightest surprised over his answer. During the next couple of hours she prepared Aisha's drug mix before giving it to the girl. By that time they had still not stopped her from her failed escape plan. Mainly because the witch had sensed how the girl passed out while reaching for the door handle an hour earlier. She clearly didn't know when the give up.

It was hard to tell if the drugs worked or not considering the girl already seemed half dead after the sickness, dehydration and torture session. But she didn't doubt her skills and continued on with the spell. Soon she was certain it had worked, but they wouldn't know for sure before the girl started to wake up. Once it happened, Shiela could sense that all control was gone from the poor female. Aisha tried many times to scream, run, walk, rise, talk, move. But nothing happened. If Shiela didn't allow it, then it was impossible.

During the upcoming days, Shiela and Jeremy executed their plan of changing some book content and putting it out. Meanwhile Archer and Tal became slightly impatient with the old man. In the end they thought they should try to look up more about magic and witches, as that was their enemy. If they could find a weakness, then they might be able to create a better plan.

Archer sneaked out in the middle of the night and told one of his contacts to get every book he could about magic, witches, the black arts, and anything similar. The very next day they had a ton of it waiting on their doorstep.

"I guess it's just to get to work." Archer mumbled, not happy with the amount. It would be a shore to figure out what was myth and what was fact, but somehow they would have to do it. He picked up a book and started to go through it.
 
Tal wasn't very excited to see the pile either. He had no illusions that his rather limited knowledge of the supernatural would help him much in this instance. The way he had come to be precluded either him or his father from having much knowledge, though he suspected his father might hold more than he let on. Xerxes didn't share this information though so it might as well not be there as far as Tal was concerned. So he took a few books himself and laid down on their tiny bed before slowly turning the pages, already in danger of not understanding a word in front of him. "I guess we have to look for what are the common factors amongst all these..." He muttered doubtfully to himself. "Then we can try and see what seems remotely reasonable." Though when it came to magic and the supernatural, that was almost a joke.
 
For hours the two men kept searching through the books. Archer wrote down notes of what seemed to be helpful, but many of them only appeared in one or two books, so it was hard to know if they were real or not. Others appeared in every book, making it even more suspicious. Actually everything seemed suspicious. It would have been much easier if they had a witch with them.

"This one sounds promising if it's true. Witches looses most of their power during a new moon. It appears quite often, might be something to look into." Archer mumbled while he continued to read. There were also a lot of circles that was said to take witches powers away, but for those spells to work not only did one have to offer parts of their life span, they also needed to actually catch the witch first and put her inside the circle. That wouldn't help much when they tried to get to her.

"Do you think it's far fetched that a witch can't cross a stream?" He asked, since that one also had come up a lot. Either way they weren't close enough to a stream to actually use that. In that case it would have to be once they left the city if they hadn't killed her already.
 
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