Hale Cress

Burned

It had been a while since Hale returned to her room and she had already changed out of the mud and muck only to have found something a little more suitable for lounging. Her style never seemed to change. Leather pants, linen shirt and a belt decked to the teeth with sundries that most would be afraid to tamper with. It is said that poison is a woman’s weapon and they weren’t wrong. Many of Hale’s private clients were actually women looking to rid themselves of nuptials or that they fancied themselves a better prize than their familiars. Whichever were their affairs, Hale never tampered with them, she only supplied them.

She was a long away from her business back in Stormwind and even more so her snakes which aided in her concoctions. She had to make due with the supplies she had for the time being. Where poisons failed to down a man, daggers pulled through.

Reaching back to remover her choker, hale studied her bag along the top of the dresser. Within was the old book she found in Drustvar, one that stayed with her after her hallucinations ceased to exist. After all this time her heritage was deeply seeded with the Harvest Witches and those who were wayward in to the Heartsbane.

There was uncertainty if Ottavia knew of any of it or what she would think of it all. It all made sense to some degree as to why Ottavia was so good with rituals that eventually the Ritualist made it a life’s profession.

Just thinking about her sister caused the Priest to place her hand over the necklace on the dresser. Even apart she didn’t forget her kin, time was of nothing to her.

Twas far past the evening and well into the beginning of night when the lock to her room began jiggling lightly. A soft click later, and the picks left the mechanism with a scrape so the knob could softly turn. Funnily, he cared less for the creaking of the door as it opened under gentle push by gloved hand as he already achieved the difficult part without much fuss. Hakan’s demeanor changed somewhat of course as he entered the room, the glow of his eyes peeking out beneath the brim of a hat tipped low on head upon seeing Hale at work. Totally ordinary, behind a desk. 

Stepping inside, he revealed himself by the tap of leather soles, at least somewhat dressed in a different pair of trousers alongside buttoned up jacket for his upper half. “I was hoping to see steam, the tricking sounds of water, and catching you within a bath. Ah well,” he expressed in minor disappointment, shoulders bumping. Unlike a normal person, he closed the door by pressing his back to the boards and practically falling into it.

His legs gradually gave out beneath him, and he slid all the way down to the floor. Taking the hat by the brim, he lifted it up to reveal sallow, and as of yet still dirt, features. Blinking slowly at her, he tossed it away like a sauce to land with a whumpf and proceeded to stare at her while retrieving pipe from belt to go about packing the bowl. 

Sniffing, he broke contact to glance down at the pipe. “Thought about the window for thematic purposes, bu-ut, t’would have been too nostalgic. And involved work,” he finished with a certain flair and vigor, the acting the word were a taboo thing.

“Such is reserved for different company.” she didn’t hesitate in her words and they came like pin-pricks. Slowly her eyes pulled from the book in hand and she regarded the door. She might have been surprised if it weren’t for Creature ruining all the fun. It was hard to get anything past her when the apparition was hard at work.

Lifting her glass to her lips, Hale watched him take ceremony with the door and floor though it might have been a place of respite for him considering the day and adventure he had, “Far too soon to be smashing out other windows. Sorry about your friends back there by the by. I’m sure they’re getting out just fine but the place was on it’s last leg anyways.” a second ticked but and she smirked having just caught the joke without truly intending it.

“So what have you been up to all these years? You look a little more scruffy and tired than I remember you.”

“Remember I used to be that company,” he laughed, though it was a hollow sound. The amusement never reaching his eyes. Inside the room, the threat of exposure not so prevalent, he allowed his breathing to become labored and weariness to show. Trying to mask it with heart pounding against rib cage was a bit too arduous. 

Her joke caught him a bit off-guard though, and he squinted at her. Was the joke directed at him for the limp earlier or because he was on the ground now? He supposed either way it wouldn’t hurt to humour her with a pity laugh and fake smile.

“Ha-ha,” it went, bursting from lips. Sniffing, he turned the pipe around in his hand and wagged the stem at her. “S'funny you ask that, because I’m not answering,” he responded with some real mirth. Teeth flashed and a scoff followed. “The whole twenty questions back and forth doesn’t just happen because you show up and ask, not anymore. Least–” he waved about the room “-not without something else first.”(edited)

Hale tapped the feathered pen along the notebook that was laid out in front of her, beside that had been the book she found in Drustvar written in dozens of symbols coupled with sketches of various plants and animals. She noted his reply but aimed not to draw attention to it, instead the pen was laid flat along the book and she took a long haul from the glass in hand.

She simply watched the stem wag in her direction. It was odd watching Hakan partake in something someone 40 years senior to his age would have done while lecturing his younglings. He looked less than thrilled and even more so less than humored.

“Is it better to have shown up and not cared? You never use to require compensation before.” her brow rose and she reached down to the floor behind the desk lifting up a bottle of whiskey which looked quite fresh considering she had already had a couple of drinks, “You could be decent company with a fair talk over drinks or act like a rat performing for scraps. I’d wager the former is more appealing.”

“Oh but its rats who escape sinking ships, and you are what you to become,” he retorted breathy, the volume and strength of his words fluctuating. Exhaustion fled not a moment later as yet more laughed spilled forth, the efforts he was making to ready the pipe more than a little clumsy. “And I do look the part so-” Giving up, Hakan lifted his hands to make a what can you do gesture.

“Of course no rat would go back onto the ship, and you of course had to choose the one place I really shouldn’t be.”

Tongue pressing against the back of his lip, he exhaled mutely and dropped his hands into lap. Tapping a finger against the ivory, he watched Hale with a gaze at once feverish and disconcerting with how hawkish it was. Gold that caught fire with the light, appearing molten. He let the pregnant silence carry on for a handful of heartbeats longer before breaking it.

“No one finds me without a want, the wants are always bad, and I’m tired of fulfilling wants. So, knowing what you know whether you want to or not…what’s yours?”

“You think they have far to go in the middle of an ocean? They’ll swim to live but its not long before a wave catches up.” her look was a bit of a tender nagging one as she gazed up past her bangs to him with the bottle in hand, “Is this quarter an issue?” and the heavy weight of the bottle was placed along the desk between them.

“I ask nothing of you. Color me curious to how your life has been since Lordaeron. I thought for sure you died after the attack as much of the people my family knew, did, some of our extended family included. Call me sentimental but my bonds with people aren’t so easily broken. You were a friend once, a teacher even in some aspects. It might be hard to believe in comparison to some but my want is to see you well and safe which I can already see you are but one of the two and a little worse for where.” she rose her glass before taking another drink to that very notion she offered him. 

“You’re also not kept here against your will.” she reminded him with a flick of her index finger in his direction while also keeping it low to her mouth, “If you walk I won’t pursue. Just heard some guys bring up your name at a bar and I had to check it out. Seems they were looking for you for a bit, the Kul Tiran are a little bit of brutes, must of been here long enough to piss someone off to the point of potential murder.”

“Well as evident were it not obvious, some get ’lucky,” he snickered. “But ah, yes-” And he adopted a faraway look as ’reminisced’ on the times “– Lordaeron.” Dropping his sight back to her, he continued almost cheerily were it not for the sharpness of tongue. “I taught you how to fight, you taught me how to fuck.” Lips curling, he offered his brightest most petulant smile as. “One of us being more successful in the training than the other.” Snorting, he waved the pipe at the door he was currently laid out against, tapping its frame once for good measure. Then he motioned to himself. “As you can see, walking isn’t really in the cards for the moment. Which means if you’re true, I needn’t worry about all the things that might be done by your hand in this depressing state. S'too bad I’m not in that reserved company for then I really wouldn’t need to worry.” Allowing his humor to linger a while more, it then became cut by the serious expression that replaced the pixie-like attitude. “I’ve not used my name in this parts, not even when first I arrived. If they knew it, twas because they weren’t Kul Tiran or someone stirred a nest elsewhere first.” Pulling a face of mock offense, he pressed fingers to chest. 

 "And I never cause a stir.“

Her face deadpanned and she stared at him while he spoke. She was pretty close to removing his own leg and then beating him to death with it. A click of her tongue came soon after wetting her lips, it was true, one of them excelled while the other seemed to – well… “Still pretty good at it.” she admitted. And she sat back in the chair crossing her legs. It was evident that she got exactly what she wanted. 

He claimed no 20 questions but she got a conversation without even having to interrogate him. Women really were smarter than men when it came to mind fucking. She still had it. “Imagine what could happen if information traveled fast. Even more so if it was bought.” she casually added and reached for her glass for another heady stir from the amber within, “Mm either way, not my business. Imagine my surprise though that a follow would have lead me right in to the past and memory lane. Kids are idiots, we were even more so.” reaching out she pushed the bottle to the end of the desk to offer him the pleasure of being able to partake in a casual drink with her. 

She was raised well enough to know that not sharing was just in poor taste. Hale’s tongue found the corner of her lips in a dab once more as she thought, a mused hum escaped her as she looked from Hakan to her glass. His humor always made her smile though she didn’t outwardly express it, it was at least nice to see a piece of that never left him, “Pretty fucking good with daggers now and more. So I guess, thanks for that?”

"Oh aye, that they are. Heads easily filled with flights of fancy, taking leaps off the edge heedless of whats below." 

He dragged out the last syllable, making a face for the ‘o’ exaggeratedly. Then he continued the tangent, mind too aflutter from all the shite flooding his system to remain steely eyed and alert for more than a handful of seconds. "Trying to prove themselves, make reasons for why they had what they already did instead of just accepting it…" 

 Lips pursed, he blinked a few times as his vision was filled by how curious one whorl in the floorboard looked. Then blinked more and looked to Hale. The bottle after. Oh how tempting it was, the liquor within when his throat was so parched and kidneys silently screaming at the abuse. But he would have to pick himself up, get up, and walk to it. And it was comfy being on the floor in the mess of clothes he wore, feeling like dirt. "I’d say the ladies would thank you for your part as well, but you practically dropped a roof on them along with everyone else, probably trapped with thugs now too." 

Swallowing thickly, he leaned his head back to thump against the door and closed his eyes. Reaching up, he began pulling at the buttons of the jacket to expose throat and reveal still bare chest. By hell Hakan felt hot, sweat beading on his skin. "Ah this was a mistake,” was the half whispered half truth he didn’t realize was given form and passed lips. To listen was to hear pain, pain and defeat. A frayed nerve, raw and exposed to the air given form. “Didn’t have enough, apparently…” 

The serpent beauty merely watched him as he spoke, giving him whatever air he needed to feel better in his mild ranting though it wasn’t overtly boring. With her elbow to the armrest her teeth lightly nipped at her pinky nail. 

It wasn’t hard to tell he was completely out of reality and that something was dragging along in his system, she had seen it a dozen times, even with her own sister during times of her unceremonious visits to check in, “I’m thinking I might have done them a favor. It’s not my problem.” she swiftly added and her lips pulled from the tip of her nail. “You okay there slick or are you dying? You should really try to sort that out you know. It’ll kill you some day.” another click came from her tongue and she went about pouring herself another drink. 

She seemed fairly sober but she wasn’t stupid enough to put herself in a position she couldn’t ever get out of. A lofty scoff escaped her and she looked over her shoulder while settling the bottle down, “Nah, he’s just pumped full of drugs.” she lowly murmured to the entity within her presence. “Creature wants to know if you feel like you’re dying yet.” she raised her brows regarding Hakan once more.

“Oh I’ve felt like I was dying from the moment I was born,” he confessed with a puff of laughter. And then he continued though his voice was a thinner than a reed. “Even when-” Sucking in a breath, he snapped his head forward and let the sound die. With a slow grunt, he began to push off the ground, one hand firm on the door while the other scrabbled for purchase with how the pipe occupied much of its space. He strode towards the table when he finally had his footing, jacket removed and tossed aside midway to leave his upper half bare, save for the shoddy mess of dark bandages wound about right forearm. Snatching at the bottle from the side by its neck, sloshing the contents, he added “Might’ve been a favor doing it with me in there too.”

 Glancing sidelong, ignoring the surely attractive sight of throat and tits from above, he focused on her eyes. “Twas really curiosity alone? Not a need for something,  a thought that I might be a good fix for it for how wound about your finger I was?” 

She exhaled watching him knowing better than to offer her aid to the man a third time since the first two times her favors were shoved away. Whether she was in more questionable business or not she always cared for those that had a place in her life by some small sliver or another. Leaning to the side she placed her jaw in the curved heel of her palm, “You’re welcome to have the room if you’re in need of a safe place to lay low. I have other means upon the Dreadful Howl if necessary.” she took note of his wounds, “If you need some first-aid –” she rose her free hand as if to indicate she was able to help. “Just curiosity.” she assured him and her hand placed casually to her lap, “It still gets the better of me, even now.” her foot bounced slightly as she sat there still with her legs crossed at the knees just shy of the den under the desk. She ignored his comment to save him further embarrassment at her hand, “Are your brothers well? How did your family fair?” 

“Neh-” He stopped the bottle midway from his mouth and held, finger wagging side to side at Hale after she spoke. “Don’t need to think-know-hear-whatever about your means and arrangement,” he reproved. After, he moved it the rest of the way and took a quick pull directly from it. Hopefully it was enough to mask his scowl and assume a measure of control. Doubtless it wouldn’t, but he tried nonetheless. 

 At least the quality of booze was some consolation. “Pity twas only that. I might have decided to listen, decided I was bored enough to do something” he huffed. Laying the pipe on the desk, he turned around and half sat against the edge. The not very well cleaned and wrapped arm was brought up for his own inspection, then he gave a shrug. She could take from that what she would. 

 "My brothers and sister are either alive or dead, I neither know nor overmuch care. A feeling probably mutually held by them across the seas, unless Sylvanas went and dropped a plague bomb on that too.“ 

“Oh by the time I arrived it looked like you’ve done quite enough.” her chest rose the moment a scoff forced from her throat. She couldn’t help it. It was such an awkward position to find him in thought one she wasn’t typically surprised over, “Still looking for me in every woman?” she asked as she fussed with the feathered pen, twisting it in to the parchment of her book she had been using for notes in regards to the tome she had found in Drustvar. Her eyes ticked to the poorly wrapped arm and a soft ‘tch’ left her. It was quite the hack job to his left that she recalled from earlier in the day. Even more so the poor patch job he tried to administer but as previously noted before; her help wasn’t needed. 

 “Last I heard they were doing well for themselves. I spent a lot of time in Dalaran and lost out on a lot of more profitable connections with the inner circles of my family only to chase my own. After my father’s death my mother eventually remarried and the business of House Cress took a bit of a different turn. I’ve since abolished any thought of partaking in it and roam the world now.” Not that he cared which caused her to twist her hand, waving off the notion and her words. 

 “Anyways…” she mused placing her jaw back in to the heel of her palm and her hand playing with the pen placed it back down, “It’s good to see you alive. I can’t say alive and well as you look worse of wear but we are our own demons and devils.” Her brow rose and she gazed towards the corner of the wall, “No Creature you can’t eat his soul when he dies. We won’t be around long enough for it to happen.” 

"If you’d call drowning oneself in oblivion 'looking,” he muttered, eyes rolling hard enough to hurt thus prompting them to close. As if her barb didn’t strike straight through to the core by itself. “Besides, you’re in front of me now so there’s little need to go looking. Though the looking is quite nice. Nicer, actually.” Smirking, he lifted the bottle and purposefully did a once over, gaze lingering on her chest for good measure before they traveled up again. The news she shared was enough to sour the taste of what he supped before however, and so he had to wash it out with another swig.

 "Too bad he couldn’t croak sooner, though by all the mixtures about I wonder if you decided twas time all your own,“ he jested. The vials and bottles and such were all very…well they were things. Placing poisons wans’t in his particular wheelhouse this intoxicated day. Not too much that he missed Hale apparently conversing with herself from this close though. Pressing tongue to the back of his lip, he hiked a brow at the woman. "Have to find it first,” he provided to humor her, dreading what might be asking things only she could hear behind a mask. “Might'a gotten lost if you didn’t hand it back first to begin with…then s'just if you want to share.” He avoided the wall, knowing better than to look backwards in such a hair raising situation. 

“Whatever helps you cope.” she lowly made known and she stared across to the corner of the room again. A solemn expression caught her and she simply stared, thinking for what anyone could have gathered. Hakan wasn’t the first to offer her flattery but she didn’t mind the gawking as oft the eyes did, it was a common occurrence with some she happened upon. 

Her eyes ticked to her company with a foreboding flare and there was an unspoken venom behind the look, “Careful.” she warned though he might have been half joking she knew how damning the murmurs could be all on their own if the wrong sort happened to hear. For all he might have known was the very bottle he was drinking from was laced with something potent, potentially something that could stiffen limbs for hours on end or end up in the quickening of a heart. A widow’s touch was a terrible thing to consider even more so it if flew under the radar. Slowly her lips twisted into crimson amusement at his joke, “I’m not sure what you mean.” she offered in regards of the sharing and lost souls. There was a pause and Hale chuckled looking to the back corner of the wall once more, “He says your skin tastes salty and he says your heart feels battered. Don’t ask me how he knows these things.” Hale then looked back to Hakan as Creature hollowed a chuckle in the darkest part of the room that wasn’t touched by lantern-light.