The Bard and His Demons

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The sound from the violin was soft, mellow. Almost mournful as Jade played. He swayed and moved as if a sorrowful dance as he pulled the bow across the strings. An eerie silence fell over the crowd as they listened. The music gave the sense of failure, depression, and then anger. The feeling of deceit and the need for revenge. It was all the moods that Agabiro was placing into the heart of the lawyer. Much to the relief of Jade this was an uneventful 'mission'. So far it wasn't taking much will power or energy for Jade to sustain the doll.

Jade couldn't right out see or hear what Agabiro was doing with the doll. Merely the emotions or feeling. Which naturally flowed through him in the form of music. His own heart raced with the thoughts what was being said to the lawyer. He was constantly amazed at the demonic ability to sway someone's mind with just a mere word. He couldn't wait to see the result of this plotting. The thought made him smile, which was offsetting considering the emotions he was playing with the violin.

The event in whole was a wonderful success. The crowd was pleased, which was all Jade needed. The Asralie himself was quite please. not with his performance but with the little amount of energy he needed tonight. It was a pleasant relief.

In the hover car Ben and Jade drove to the place where Agabiro had been dropped off, waiting for the demon to come to them. Not in the doll, Jade hoped. Sadly this was something he worried abut since when Xigxar was in the doll he often forgot to leave it in which ever hidden place it was. Always resulting in an annoyed Jade.
 
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Agabiro returned to the hiding place in a good mood. A job well done, as far as he was concerned, as well as a successful test run, and even aside from that, an unexpected secret of Jade learnt - was this why he had insisted that the doll not be destroyed? More than likely, yes; that could be lethal to him. Yet Agabiro also knew that this stipulation didn't protect Jade anymore now that he knew of this. If he destroys the doll and thus fails to hold up his end of the agreement, he would only end up a thrall until Jade's death, which would immediately occur.
Nonetheless, he didn't expect a need to use this piece of information, at least not for now. He just set it aside in his mind, beside the other secrets he knew of Jade and the other ways he could think of to kill him. One day they might come in handy, but hopefully not before Whitehill is satisfactorily dead.
In fact he rather liked the Maestro. He was much better to work with than his earlier summoners; unlike them, he truly enjoyed doing this, not just for what he was hoping to get out of it, but because he wanted to do it. He didn't just summon a demon to do something he himself would rather not even think about; he revelled in his own evilness and was fascinated by the process. That was rare. It was also rare that someone should be so open about his nature. Normally his summoners liked to pretend that they were somehow superior and could force him - he never met one who really could - and even that they had God on their side, due to nothing but the fact that they had read some dusty goetic tome and could repeat an ill-pronounced sentence in some foreign language that was usually mangled beyond recognition. (Yes, that was something he liked too: Jade was at least clearly an accomplished summoner who did what he did well. That his symbols weren't perfectly symmetric, as much as he liked to mock that fact inwardly, was to be expected, it was nearly unheard of that a mortal could draw - without the aid of rulers, protractor and compasses, and sometimes even with the aid of these - perfectly symmetric symbols. Still, at least he respected his field enough to study it well.) Others almost never admitted to what they really were doing, what they really were like. Why, with Jade, he could even discuss the subject. Normally, summoners liked to stop the discussion after the command itself. The demon considered himself fortunate in this.
He slid out of the doll and took up his own shape again. Comfortable as the doll was, he still intended to spend most of his time looking like himself. He put it back into the coffin and closed it neatly; no reason for it to gather cobwebs, that wouldn't make it more pleasant for the next use.
Soon enough, he heard the quiet sound of a hovercar stopping; this would be Jade. He slithered out to meet him and got inside, offering the smaller Asralie a smile.
"I expect the performance went to your liking, Maestro. You look like the proverbial cat that got the cream."
 
The Asralie looked even more pleased when Agabiro was actually waiting for them. Not the other way around. For someone who rarely smiled, he was doing quite a bit of it as of late. "The performance went... better than expected." He said, not wanting to hint to the doll holding his soul. Although little did Jade know this was something Agabiro already knew. Normally a performance would take him out for the night but always was the doll's actions more tiring than tonight. Jade was mildly weary but he still had lots of energy and was far from sleepy.

"Ben I'm starving. To Antonio's please. I feel like having Italian tonight." He said looking over at Agabiro. "I assume you don't eat food so it's not necessary for you to accompany me... Though... Eating alone is dull... And I an interested to know how things went tonight." Jade finish as he looked forward again. His mind was alive with what could have been said. What actions the demon took to push the man over the edge. Did he simply suggest dark thoughts? Was it a treat? No couldn't be that. Agabiro had shown himself to be cool calm and collected. Oh but no doubt he could do violence but Jade guess that was not how he liked to operate.
 
Agabiro nodded. "If you want to hear about it, you shall. After all, it is your kill too." But inwardly, he smiled. Interesting to know that Jade didn't in fact see what all happened to the doll. But he had to have some awareness of it, surely? He noted this question as one that would necessitate further investigation, and, for the time being, he simply settled in the car. He had nothing at all against talking where Ben could hear it, in fact it was rather amusing to see how it disturbed him, but this time he preferred to only reveal the nature of the night's deeds to Jade, simply because - as he had truthfully said - he considered it partly Jade's kill, even if it wasn't quite a kill yet. He hoped that in their talk he would also glean further details about how Jade worked. It payed to be prepared.
"And you are correct, I don't eat food. My physical from is not equipped for digestion, it would have nowhere to go." This was very credible, looking at him. His hollow abdomen suggested little space for an actual stomach or intestines; it had muscles, but little else. "I suppose I could inhale it into my lungs temporarily if I had to, but then I would have difficulty speaking, and that is what you would have me do, isn't it?" His lungs, of course, were for speaking solely, not for breathing; any kind of gas sufficed. To him, respiration fell in the same cathegory as eating: needing materials for one's body, which he didn't. It wasn't really a body - it was what he had said: a physical form.
 
Jade nodded softly as Agabiro explained that he did not eat the way mortals did. This would explain why Xigxar simply chewed on his 'kittens'. And the Asralie thought the imp simply liked to eat messy. He recalled Zuricka eating food once or twice but she always did so lustily. It became clearer to him now that she was only eating to try and seduce Jade. The more the young Asralie spoke with Agabiro, the more he learned about the puppets of his craft. That was how he looked at Zuricka and Xigxar, puppets to do his bidding. And what did he think about Agabiro? That remained to be seen.

"My aim is to have someone to converse with, yes. So I suppose you eating would defeat the purpose of having company." It wasn't much longer before Ben arrived at the high class restaurant, pulling the car up so that Jade and Agabiro could exit to the front of the building. Jade got out, waiting a moment for Agabiro to come beside him before walking forward, and entered the building. To the male human host at the podium he requested a secluded table.

This was mainly for his own purpose. He didn't being around noble rich snobs anymore than he had to. And if at all possible he'd like to be as far away as possible, even though they were the ones that attended his events. A quiet table near a corner is where the host led them. Jade sat down and looked over the other patrons. The place wasn't full but it wasn't busy either. Just enough people to make the place feel alive. The human female waitress came to them. "One menu please. I am the only one dining." Jade promptly said. After ordering a glass of red wine the waitress nodded to him and left the table.

Jade paused a moment, eyes narrowing ever so slightly at the pompous higher class with filled the restaurant. "Is it so strange that I despise the very blood I come from?" Jade was referring to the nobles.
 
Agabiro arched his eyebrow and glanced first at Jade, then towards the other patrons. "No," he said slowly. "That's called pride. I expected you to have it, the question was only what form it would take. Besides, they adore you, they flock to you to be dazzled by your art, and on the other side they keep hiring you to kill each other. I see no reason why you shouldn't feel superior. And at least you are open about your sins, I respect that. You are what you are, and you are proud of it, aren't you?" Not that it didn't amuse him, the way so many mortals tried to seem different, better, more moral than what they were. It did, but being amused by something meant looking down on it. Jade was worth talking to exactly because for now it seemed that he wasn't amusingly below him. His eyes, already narrow, narrowed further in an inspective look, but he was smiling. "Or is there something else, another reason, I wonder?"
 
"Pride? Hmph." Was it pride though? True, he despise the nobles, the rich pompous fools that swooned over him at his performances. But Agabiro did say something that Jade agreed with, he was superior. These back stabbing fools didn't know how to deal with the issues they had. Didn't have his intellect or ability to control true power. "Suppose it is pride..." He said softly as he came to the conclusion. A smile playing on his face for a moment. Proud of his work? Oh yes. He was quite proud of his work. He didn't collect headlines of his kills. Never collected trophies but he didn't need to. "I am proud of my... art." He said with amusement.

But something else caught his ears. Agabiro respected him? Was he speaking honestly or was it a ruse to cull him before his did him in? His next question made the Asralie look at the demon more deeply. Another reason he enjoyed reading the headlines, seeing the death of some snobbish noble? He didn't answer right away, instead he picked up the glass of red wine and gently swirled it in his glass before taking a sip. "I enjoy culling the vermin if that's what your asking. Cutting them down a few at a time, sending them to where they were meant to go all along."
 
Agabiro understood pride well himself; he was, after all, a demon. And he too was proud of his kills, not only because of what they achieved, but because he was simply good at it. Not morally speaking, of course. He nodded as he listened; that was what he thought.
"Which makes you a kind of self-appointed harbinger of Hell. You have chosen your side consciously and deliberately. Most of these" - here the demon made a small gesture with the end of his tail towards the rest of the room - "consider themselves good people, don't you know? Each time they cheat on their spouses, each time they backstab someone for money, each time they take joy in the suffering of others, they tell themselves that overall they are good people. But they aren't." He shrugged. "The so-called good deeds they do they only do because they want to consider themselves good. What they call righteous anger is just schadenfreude. What they call charity is trying to look good to other people. What they call concern for their fellow man is morbid curiosity and vicariously enjoying sin without needing the courage to do it. And they can deceive themselves, but not me, or God. Their intentions are impure." He leant back on his chair; contempt was evident around his lips. "They want to avoid Hell so much, they would do anything except repent and stop sinning. It's like you said; they are hellbound, the difference is only in when they get there. But you are different, so I have to wonder. What do you think of going there?"
 
Harbinger of hell? Jade supposed that was an appropriate title for him. Agabiro also posed another good point, Jade was well aware of what he was doing and where his 'morality' lie. He was doing evil deeds, for sure and was sure a special place in hell was being reserved for him. Jade laughed a little, a quiet chuckle. "It amazes me that they still think their good, innocent heaven bound souls." He said shaking his head as he took another sip of wine. "You're right. The difference is I know where I'm ending up." He shrugged after a moment of thought.

"What do I think of going there?" Jade repeated the question. But his answer was momentarily interrupted by the waitress. He looked at the menu a moment and ordered his meal, an authentic Italian pasta dish. Once the human was gone he continued the conversation. "Well to say the truth I never really think about it. Like I said, I know I'm going there..." He thought deeper. Did he care? Most certainly. Eternal pain and suffering didn't sound pleasant but once a dark deed has been done, one as dark as lifting not a finger while someone dies meant there was no turning back.

He clasped his hands on the table looking at Agabiro. "After my father died... I realized... I was not frozen with 'fear' as some said I might have been. Xigxar after all is not a powerful demon by any means. And if I truly cared I could have tried to save his life... I believe the first time I honestly and truly smiled is when Xigxar killed my father. I knew the enjoyment I got from watching him and not helping my father meant I was damned. No amount of repenting could save my soul... Well I suppose I could sacrifice my life for another..." He said with a frown as he sipped his wine. Clearly not liking that option. "But what would be the point? Most likely I'd prolong a life that didn't deserve to live anyways."

"So in short... I'm bound for hell. I know that. No getting around it. Might as well take as many people down before I go." He said with a devious grin on his face.
 
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