Pretty Things & Evil Deeds

@ katahdin

A little almost noiseless sigh left Azana once Elliot announced who he was. Her head turned a bit more so her face was pressed against his chest and a hand lightly laid against his side. Instead of speaking back to Elliot, she let out a small whimper back to him as a response before quickly drifting back to asleep again. Azana was already knocked out again before they even made it to her bedroom.

(I am thinking we should skip two days ahead so Kendric can put his plan into place?)

@ Sweet.Persephone

(skipping)

It had been a few days since Elliot had told Azana that her defenses had been lowered, and she seemed to be doing well with recovering, although it was clear that she still wasn't at one hundred percent. It probably didn't help that Kendric was likely still trying to lower her defenses even more, but at least she had prepared and consumed a few tonics to boost her defenses, which at the very least must be negating whatever he was doing.

The past few days had been pretty uneventful, with a decent amount of customers and work for the both of them, and they were finally having a slow day. Azana had requested a cup of his tea when he'd arrived at the shop, and after taking care of the till and helping her with a few other things he headed to the back to prepare the cup, mumbling short charms to himself in order to boost the defense boosting effects of the tea.

@ katahdin

The last couple of days had been better for Azana. She felt better and had been sleeping less. The woman felt like she could make it through the full day of work without almost falling asleep or needing three cups of tea. Though she still couldn't completely shake the feeling, despite the tonics she had been drinking. Something wasn't right but Azana could not put her finger on it. Though it had become clear to the woman that whatever was causing this was here. Either she kept running into whatever was making her ill or it was being done on purpose, but she had no clue what it was.

She was working away in the back, drying up some herbs when Kendric walked in and wrapped his arms around her waist. He leaned in and pressed a kiss against her cheek. "I thought you headed off to work already?" Azana said softly as she looked up at him.

Kendric smiled down before leaning down further and pressing a few little kisses along her neck, sucking gently at Azana's skin. "I will... but I got you something and I want to show you." His hands slid along her sides and under her shirt. It took little convincing from there for Azana to follow up Kendric upstairs. She headed up first, Kendric basically attached to her back as he was now playing with her hair and one hand pressed against her to keep her heading up the stairs.

Though as she opened the door to her apartment, her eyes fell to Elliot, who was now seemingly leaning over the tea she had asked him for. Her eyes furrowed together as she could see the little specks of magic along the teacup before it started to dissipate. "What are you doing?"

Kendric moved out from behind Azana and was quick to grab the tea that Elliot had been working on. "He's enchanting your tea!" The man growled before heading back to Azana, standing in front of her as though he was going to protect her.

@ Sweet.Persephone

Elliot had been humming to himself as he worked on steeping her tea while he mixed up the various herbs he needed for it in order to make her more since she was running low and seemed to like it. He was a bit startled when he heard the door open, turning to look at Azana with slightly widened eyes, although they quickly widened more as she asked what he was doing and Kendric stepped forward to accuse him of enchanting her tea, before his eyes narrowed at the man.

"I'm only enchanting it to undo the work you've been doing." Elliot snapped at the man before looking at Azana with a frown, his eyes softening a bit as he looked at her. "I've just been charming it to help boost your defenses. I did it once the first time to try to see if it helped you, and when you responded so well to it I just continued to do so whenever I made it.. I know I should have told you sooner, and I'm sorry, but I only wanted to help you get better." He explained, stepping aside to gesture to the tea. "You can test it, inspect the enchantment if you want. There's nothing malicious about it at all."

@ katahdin

"I am not the one getting caught actually enchanting her tea! Don't think you can turn this around on me." Kendric snapped back. "Azana, I told you that you shouldn't have trusted a necromancer. They are always up to no good!"

Worry was written all over Azana's face as she watched the two of them. Though she looked up at Kendric and shook her head a bit. "I don't thi-"

"Azana, just test it," Kendric urged, interrupting her. "If he helping you like he says, then the tea should be what he claims it to be."

Azana let out a sigh though she set the tea down on the counter and proceeded to mumble a spell over it. Though it took a few moments, the tea slowly started to turn a deep black, indicating that it was truly poisoned. Her head shifted up and she looked to Elliot, a deep frown on her lips as pure confusion moved over her face. "It's malicious."

"He is probably the one who has been making you sick this whole time! Who knows what for but get him out of here before he can do anything else!" Kendric yelled as he headed over to Elliot and grabbed him by the collar.

"Kendric! St-" Azana started to snap, but once again Kendric interrupted.

"God Damn it Azana! He is trying to KILL YOU!" Kendric yelled back, his voice thick with worry. "I am not going to just stand here and let you let this man keep hurting you! Babe, just let me do this for you."

Azana's eyes started to well up with tears and she slowly nodded to Kendric before turning away from the door. A little sob escaped her. Kendric, however, was quick to start roughly pushing and pulling Elliot out of the building once he was given the go ahead.

@ Sweet.Persephone

Elliot glared at Kendric as he said Azana shouldn't trust him because he was a necromancer, wishing he could tell Azana the truth about her boyfriend, although he kept silent because of his duty to the small community. "Azana, I swear I'd never hurt you." He promised, looking at her with a frown as Elliot continued to interrupt him, stepping to the side as she stepped over to test the tea, although his eyes went wide as the tea turned black, brows furrowing in confusion as he moved back over to lift it up, sniffing at the ingredients as he shook his head.

"No no no, that's not right. Something's wrong, someone's tampered with the tea mix. Az, I'd never-" he started, looking at her desperately, but before he could finish Kendric had come forward to grab his collar and shove him away, stumbling back with a frown. He looked at Azana with a frown, shaking his head. "Az, please. It wasn't me, I swear." He attempted to plea, although Kendric was quick to roughly push him toward the stairs, and he had no choice but to go if he didn't want to fall down. After grabbing his jacket he left, giving Kendric a glare before he hurried off. Something wasn't right. Kendric must have something planned, but with him in the shop he wouldn't be able to talk to Azana about it.

@ katahdin

What had just happened in front of her was swirling around in Azana's mind. Nothing about this was adding up. It simply did not make sense to her that Elliot would have done this. After all, he was the first one to notice that she was unwell... and she didn't start taking the tea until after, it was the one thing that made her feel better. And why would Elliot even want to hurt her when all he did was try to help? She had let Kendric kick Elliot out, because Azana had crumbled under his pressure. But she wasn't sure that she believed it. Hell, Elliot seemed as surprised as she was when the tea turned back.

The young woman was rubbing her forehead by the time that Kendric walked back into the room. He moved around her, wrapping his arms around her body gently. "At least you know who it is. Now everything is going to be okay," Kendric whispered into her ear. Though Azana started to shake her head.

"I don't know... it just doesn't feel right." Azana pulled away slightly and looked up at Kendric. She lightly took his hand into hers with a little sigh. "What did you want to show me?"

A grin moved along Kendric's face as he laid a hand on her cheek. "Just this," He murmured to her. Before Azana knew it, a black almost fog-like substance started to fill up her nose and lungs. All she had time to do was widen her eyes in fear before passing out and crumbling to the floor.

---

-Hours Later-

When Azana finally woke up, she had found herself tied up tightly and brought down to the basement of the house. It was an area that she never really went down to as it wasn't renovated yet, and in truth, a little gross. Though she was left to lay against the cold concrete floor. Her arms tied together. Her knees and ankles as well. And he had gagged as well. That was two hours ago.

Throughout that time, Kendric had just been making batch after batch of some potion, trying to get Azana to drink as much as he could. Though it had been a struggle for him as Azana wasn't really willing to cooperate. But some had gotten into her system. Azana felt weak. Both from the potion but also from Kendric's cruel ideas to make her drink. Suffice to say, she was now had bruises and cuts scattering her skin. And her brain was swimming, feeling fog like after one particular spell to force her to fight a bit less. Though Kendric had revealed, perhaps by accident, that he wasn't going to 'break her'. Appartently it would temporarily ruin whatever he was trying to do. Wooo, lucky her...it meant no broken bones? At least that was what it seemed.

@ Sweet.Persephone

Elliot had paced anxiously around his apartment for an hour, trying to figure out what he should do and in general panicking quite a bit before he decided to text Azana. She was usually good about responding to his messages, so when he didn't get a response he sent another message just in case, before he really started to panic. Something was wrong, and it was Kendric's fault. After downing a potion to boost his defenses he hurried back to the shop, thankful that he still had his key, but also worrying even more when he found the shop closed up in the middle of the day.

Once inside he tried to be as quiet as possible, listening for any signs of life, and when he didn't hear anyone upstairs figured the next place Kendric would hide her would be the basement. He snuck down as quietly as possible, his eyes widening when he spotted Azana, hurrying over to her side when he didn't immediately see Kendric.

"Az? Oh gods, are you alright?" He asked worriedly, helping to sit her up and take off her restraints as quickly as possible, looking over her injuries worriedly. He could tell her defenses were low, too, and before he could think twice about it he began to murmur a charm that would give his defenses to her, giving her hand a little squeeze after a moment. "It'll be alright, Az."

@ katahdin

Once Azana heard Elliot's voice, she started to sob again. Her eyes and cheeks were already puffy but she had forced herself to stop the sobbing when Kendric threatened her. As he helped her sit up, she leaned against him, laying her head on his chest. Azana felt so weak and her mind still felt so lost in the fog. Though as she started to feel defenses get seeped into her, she at least started to feel protected again. But it couldn't help more than that unless she were to get attacked again.

Before Elliot was able to completely undo the ties around her wrists, a foot slammed into his face. Kendric was standing over him, a sick scowl hard along his face. "I tried to get rid of you in a more peaceful way... it seems it's time for things to get violent."

Kendric pushed Azana hard with his foot so that she would roll a few feet away from them. The man's hands started to glow red, now preparing to put Elliot down for good. Though one quick spell was congured, slashing it at Elliot in a hope to get a deep cut somewhere on his body. Kendric was done playing around. He needed all of this done by tonight and no one was going to hold him back.

@ Sweet.Persephone

"Shh, it's alright. You're alright." Elliot soothed softly as he helped Azana up, pressing a small reassuring kiss to her forehead, although he was clearly nervous about getting her out unharmed. He was completely blindsided by the kick to the face, sending him tumbling back onto the ground with a thud, his vision swimming as he surely had a concussion, and his nose bleeding quite a bit.

Elliot groaned as he forced himself to sit up, glaring up at Kendric before glancing over at Azana briefly. Her hands were still tied, but her ankles had been undone, so if she were quick and he distracted him she'd be able to get away, find help or hide. Looking back at Kendric as the man quickly sent a spell his way, he was quick to dodge, rolling out of the way and sending a spell toward Kendric. "Fuck you." He knew with his defenses weakened he wouldn't be able to do much other than distract him while Azana got away, and even though he knew it would be a death sentence he knew it would be worth it if Azana got away safely

@ katahdin

Azana let out a whimper as she felt herself getting pushed, causing her to roll around the floor. It took a few turns before she stopped. The young woman took in a deep breath, trying her best to clear her mind. She blinked her eyes hard as the tears kept flowing, trying to see what was happening. Though the fog was too thick in her mind and now her back was turned to what was happening. All she could hear was some kind of rumble. "E-El..iot?" Azana cried out. The fear that had already settled in her was beginning to rise again. She needed to get out. Just out. And find Elliot.

Her hands started to shift behind her, feeling that the rope around her had been loosened. Although her maneuvers weren't very...strategic or delicate, she was trying her best to figure out the puzzle of the rope to free herself the rest of the way.

The spell that Elliot sent flying hit Kendric, causing the man to huff out and take a step back. But it only took him a moment to recover as he currently had his defenses up. "Fuck you" Kendric growled back at him. "I have tried to keep you out of my business from the beginning. I had no issue with you until you had to start helping her! Getting in my way, causing problems! And now this has to be so much worse for the both of you!"

Kendric threw another three spells at Elliot, though this time the aim was a bit wild as he was really just hoping that one of them would hit.

@ Sweet.Persephone

"You're trying to kill her! You're the reason necromancers are feared, because you abuse our power!" Elliot shouted in return, glancing over to see Azana struggling to get her hands untied. His magic was pretty drained, he only had enough in him for one more decent spell, and he knew he had to make it count.

He did his best to dodge the spells Kendric threw at him, although one of them did hit his leg, causing him to stumble and collapse with a groan. After taking a minute or two to consider his next move, he threw a spell in Kendric's direction, although he missed deliberately. He hoped he'd managed to make it just seem like his aim was off, rather than that he was actually aiming at Azana, the spell slicing through the rope around her wrists. "Fuck you, Kendric. You're the one in the wrong, you're the one causing problems and ruining people's lives. I hope you rot in hell." The man seemed pretty focused on him, and he hoped that if he continued to piss the man off, Azana would have a long enough window to escape and hide.

@ katahdin

A little gasp left Azana as the rope around her wrists finally gave way. The woman was able to push herself up onto her into a sitting position to work on the remaining rope around her knees. Luckily, her ankles were already free. Though it took her longer than it normally would have to take them off, accidentally getting tangled up once or twice as she had forgotten momentarily which way it was going.

Once she was finally free from her restraints, she started to crawl away in a hurry. Only two words were ringing over and over again in her maze of a mind. Out. Elliot. Out. Elliot. Out. Elliot. Azana disappeared behind some of the storage down there, no longer in view of Elliot as she made her way towards the window. It was up high but there was a possibility of getting out. At the wall, Azana used it to pull herself up into her feet. Her legs shaking under her. Her fingers reached out, touching the bottom of the window frame. Though she turned back, hearing the battle that was raging through the basement. Her eyes landed on Kendric for a moment before she looked at Elliot. Azana’s mind rang louder. Elliot. Elliot. ELLIOT. ELLIOT. ELLIOT.

Kendric’s complete attention was on the man that had been his biggest obstacle in his attempts. The rage in his eyes were burning with an intense ferocity and his hands were glowing ever hotter now. He had hit Elliot once but that wasn’t enough. He wanted him dead. “I abuse nothing. This is our power!” Kendric growled at him. “And so what if some flower witch dies? She is nothing compared to us!” Kendric held up his hands, sowing the pure energy that was circling around them. “Look at what we can do. People fear us because they should,”

The magic that was growing around Kendric’s hand was strong and pulsing. A liquid like ball was around his left, black as night was almost to completion. It was something Kendric had been casting since the start of the fight. And he knew that once it hit Elliot, it should be the end of this battle. “But it is too late for you to learn these lessons. As for Hell, I’ll send you and the girl down first to prepare them for me,” with a sick look on his face, Kendric chucked the black ball of energy at Elliot, hoping to hit him square in the chest.

@ Sweet.Persephone

When Elliot glanced behind Kendric to see Azana gone he almost wanted to cry, so incredibly relieved to see that she had gotten out of her restraints and had at least hidden if not found some way out of this hellhole of a basement. He glared up at Kendric, knowing that he still couldn't give up just yet, knowing Azana would need all the time he could give her finish escaping. That was the least he could do for her, given he was the reason she'd been dragged down here today.

"She is so much more than you'll ever be." Elliot spat, throwing a few spells at him, although they were weak and could easily be dodged, although he was mostly trying to distract him, and the spells were ones that would create smoke or sparkles or crackles of noise, which would hopefully give Azana some cover if she still needed time to escape. "You need more than just raw power to be a good sorcerer, and you will never be able to achieve half of what she has."

As he spoke he was doing his best to move away from Kendric and find somewhere that would provide him some sort of cover, but when Kendric hurled his spell at him he barely had enough energy to dodge, the ball of energy hitting him in the shoulder and sending him flying back. For a moment it appeared as though he'd lost consciousness, although after a moment he slowly rolled over onto his stomach and pushed himself up with a groan, coughing up a good bit of blood as he did. "Fuck you.."

@ katahdin

An animalistic growl left Kendric when Elliot managed to push himself back up after getting hit by the powerful spell. Kendric really thought that would be the end of it. Though now he was beginning to get low on his magic, which was going to be a serious issue. After all, dealing with Azana had taken some out of him, and now that this fight was taking longer than he had expected. Everything was beginning to drag him down and Kendric needed this to end. Especially as he would need some power left to finish off the job with the girl. So he stomped forward towards Elliot, punching the man right across the face. He then got on top of him and wrapped his hands around his neck, trying to choke Elliot to death. "FUCK YOU!"

His hands tightened against Elliot, even slamming his head down into the ground. Kendric was doing anything that he could to stop Elliot from moving or being able to stop him. This needed to end and it needed to end now. Elliot was going to die. No matter what. "Just die!" He growled at him, trying to tighten his hands as much as he possibly could.

The young woman stood frozen for a long moment as she watched the fight between Elliot and Kendric. Panic was setting in but she didn't know what do to. It felt like she couldn't do anything. Gods, her mind was so messy and dizzing. Thinking too hard gave her a headache. But she couldn't just stand there and watch Elliot get hurt, or worse. It took for Elliot to be on the ground with Kendric on top of him for some kind of natural instinct to just kick into Azana. She tried to run over, but with the state her body was in, quickly fell to the ground on her hands and knees. Though as she looked back up at the two, magic finally started to flow from her fingers. A poisonous green fog emited from her and flowed through the air to Kendric. It wrapped around his face and chest. And only a few seconds later did thick boils and a red rash cover parts of his skin. Kendric started to cough, having a difficult time breathing it in.

The coughing grew louder until Kendric finally threw himself off, wrapping his hands around his face and neck as he tried desperately to breathe and make the pain stop.

(If there is something you want to do with Kendric, go ahead. Otherwise you can have him run out in your post if you want ^_^)

@ Sweet.Persephone
(I'll just have him run off, and then I'll skip ahead a few hours to when Elliot wakes up in Azana's apartment!)

Elliot probably shouldn't have laughed as he saw the look on Kendric's face as he sat up after being hit by his spell. Truth be told it had taken all of his energy to block it, and he wouldn't have been able to dodge or block another attack. The spell had weakened him though, so he could barely put up a fight when Kendic lunged at him and began to strangle him, weakly trying to pull his hands from his neck as he choked, eyes wide. It wasn't long before he blacked out, especially with Kendric slamming his head into the concrete floor underneath him, but before he fully lost consciousness he did see the beginnings of a nasty looking green cloud surrounding Kendric before blacking out for good.

---

It was about two hours before Elliot regained consciousness, surprised to not only be awake at all but also be in the living room of Azana's apartment, laid out on the couch with her fuzzy blanket draped over him. He felt incredibly weak and his head absolutely killed, and he groaned as he attempted to sit up before collapsing back onto the couch, much too weak to move. "Az...?" He called, his voice raspy from the attempted strangling. He could only assume it was Azana who had saved him, and that she was alive if he was upstairs in her apartment.

@ katahdin

Azana had been sleeping on the floor of the living room. Once she had managed to get Elliot upstairs, with much difficulty, it had been too difficult a task to make it to her own room. So when Elliot was finally laid down onto the couch, Azana naturally just laid down beside it and fell asleep. Her magic had been depleted, her body tired and in pain and her mind still lost in the fog. Though when she heard the rasp voice and movement of the couch next to her, Azana woke up. She slowly sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she did so. Her mind was almost back to normal. Most of the dazeness was gone but she still woke with a little confusion stuck at the back of her head.

"Elliot," Azana whispered softly as she met his gaze. A little smile came along her face once she realized that the man was actually up and that he looked to be an okay condition.... well, relative to being dead that is. "You're awake," She whispered as she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him, trying to be mindful of both his and her injuries as she hugged him. Her head laid down against his chest. "I'm so glad you're up. I was so scared." She started to hold Elliot tighter to her. "I didn't think we were going to make it up the stairs."

@ Sweet.Persephone

Elliot let out another groan as he heard Azana's voice, almost wanting to cry in relief. He'd been so worried about her, scared of what would happen to her if he'd failed. As she moved to sit up he managed to use what little strength he had left to tug her up onto the couch with him, letting out a little sigh as he hugged her close, not caring if it hurt

"Thank the gods you're alright.." He murmured, closing his eyes as he weakly ran his fingers through her hair. "I wasn't planning on making it out of that basement, if I'm honest. I just knew I had to give you time to get out..." He murmured, squeezing his arms around her a bit tighter.

@ katahdin

While Elliot pulled her up onto the couch, Azana winced into his chest. Her body hurt like Hell. Though she tried to keep that to herself, not wanting Elliot to pull away from her. As he started to run his fingers through her hair, Azana started to cry into his chest. That little soft touch had been enough to send her overboard after everything that had happened. "I couldn't leave without you," Azana whispered into him, trying to hold onto Elliot tighter. Though her muscles wouldn't let her. So instead, she shifted slightly so half of her body was on top of Elliot and the other half pressing into the couch.

As Azana really started to think about what had happened to her, her fingers wrapped around the back of his shirt, gripping onto him. Her throat started to tighten a bit as well, causing her to let out a whimper against him. "Kendric is such a-a monster." She revealed, her breath shaking as she spoke. "He was the one who made me sick. A-And dragged me down there. He lied. About being a necromancer. About you," Azana's voice hitched up and she started to really sob into Elliot, now losing her ability to talk.

@ Sweet.Persephone

Elliot hushed her as she began to whimper, rubbing her back soothingly with one hand while use the other to stroke her hair. "Shh, it's alright, Az.. You're alright, you're safe. I won't let him hurt you ever again." He promised, pressing a small kiss to the top of her head. He didn't want her to be scared anymore, didn't want her to worry anymore. Didn't want her to be scared ever again.

He held her close as her grip on him tightened, letting out a shaky sigh as she spoke. "I should have just told you... I-I tried to warn you, I tried to reverse what he was doing, but it wasn't enough.. I'm so, so, sorry, Azana.." he murmured into her hair, closing her eyes as a few tears leaked down his cheeks. "Necromancers are forbidden from revealing the identity of other necromancers.. It helps keep us safe.. But I should have told you. If I had told you sooner none of this would have happened."