#shieldandcrown

The young man had been on his way back from his shift at a nearby sushi bar when a hand wound around his mouth and yanked him into an alley. He was shoved into the wall, hard enough to make him cry out, his old injury flaring up before teeth tore into the soft flesh of his neck. He fought back, of course, but the man was too strong.

In a matter of seconds, the man was torn away from him and turned into a pile of ash, leaving him with what looked like another...well, vampire was the first thing that came to mind, but they weren’t real. It was hard to keep believing that when there was a man standing over him with sharp fangs and dark eyes.

He pressed himself back against the wall, one hand clutching the wound on his neck as his eyes flitted about, looking for an exit. Just because the man had killed the other didn’t mean he was safe. He might just want Noctis as his prey.

Now she could say she knew what hell looked like; it looked like Liberus’ bar on the busiest night of the year.  Three fights over the course of the evening, all broken up and all participants barred from returning, one too many terrible pick-up lines batted back toward drunken patrons, an irritable Libertus lamenting a long night — whatever good humour she had started the evening with had run out long ago.  

Numbers dwindled as one by one, slowly but surely, the night began to wind down.  Finally.  Gaze wandered across the room; a few stragglers sat in one corner talking amongst themselves, Libertus in another with his usual stack of papers, her fellow bartender telling her to go and there, halfway between the bar and the door ( the usual booth ) sat Regis with his work.

Out from behind the bar, she took a detour to collect her things from the break room, a small box from the staff fridge and two small spoons from the cutlery tray.  Weary footsteps carried her toward the booth Regis occupied, bag and coat flung in before she took a seat herself.

“Sorry, know I’m late,” left hand pushed a few of the papers aside to create gap enough to set the box down on the table, one of the spoons sat on top, “Been a hell of a night, couldn’t leave before it all calmed down.”  Settling in where she sat, she cast an apologetic smile in his direction.  “I’m exhausted, think we could change our plans?”

With a little luck, he’d not take it as a slight.

“It has been a long time since anyone but a human stumbled into these tunnels. And you are not that any loner, exactly, are you? You taste of the outer dark, Sir. Of hungers beyond humanity,” Regis murmured from the shadows, slithering  between vast columns, and up them, looking down at the not-quite-a-human intruder.

Not many came this deep into the earth.

With a flick of his hand, he lit torches he’d long left quiet and dark, watched them flare into life.

“Why do you come here?” he asked, voice echoing, not entirely certain that he was actually hidden from his visitor.

Eddie. Above us.

His eyes flicked in that direction, but made no other movement to suggest he knew that there was something else down there with them, not until the person - and he used the term loosely - spoke. Hungers beyond humanity, huh? Boy, they only knew the half of it. 

Lights flared to life around them. Fire. Venom was now paying more attention. Eddie could feel his other’s caution. If this thing could magic up some fire to light the torches, he might be able to produce enough fire to hurt them. They’d have to be cautious. 

The voice came from several different directions, echoing off the high walls of the chamber. 

Above, behind, and to the right. 

Regis smiled down at the young blonde boy, wand flicking to extend the charm that kept muggles from paying any attention to him to the boy as well and he nodded.

He was dressed in a very fine suit, with an equally fine robe open over it, and he pointed towards the platform, starting to walk that way himself.

“But of course. This wold be your first year then, young…?” she asked, leaving his question open ended for the boy’s name.

His eyes widened, glittering with wonder as only a child’s can as Regis preformed the charm. His own street clothes weren’t so crisp but were definitely cut for his scrawny body’s specific proportions. A buttoned up shirt with slightly rumbled cuffs from use and unfamiliar care, a plain black vest whose pattern seemed near too dull for this light, with slacks and shoes to match. 

“Luche,” he responded promptly. He was definitely awkward and perhaps a bit shy, but what first year wouldn’t be? Especially a child all on his own. He was halfblood, but his parents were far too busy and his siblings had left him behind as a “joke.” His cheeks flushed at the thought. 

She looked different than many of the humans that stumbled into their lands, smelled it too. But the territories of Winter had been creeping closer, such things usually came with a shifting of the boundaries.

It wasn’t ever as if the fae lands were perfectly anchored to the human world.

So Clarus stepped out, no arrow drawn, just himself, to bar her path as she set one foot in their world. Preventing her from taking another. Her and her people would be allowed a single warning.

“Wherever you enter from, return to. This way lays not the land of iron. Go, or know yourself in faerie,” Clarus said, voice formal and remote.

Sense of direction wasn’t entirely her strong point, so it was hardly surprising that she’d gotten lost. Woods also weren’t her strong point. It wasn’t like she spent a lot of time outdoors. Somehow, she’d managed to get herself lost on what should have been a straight forward path. She was just beginning to think she might want to try to call someone or check the gps on her phone or something when a man stepped out onto the path in front of her. 

Although, ‘man’ might be a bit of a stretch. He didn’t look normal by any means. Tall and broad, and somewhat goatlike from the waist down. Celene paused and frowned.