She had elegant hands. It was an odd thought, but for the briefest of moments, she retained the awareness that this wasn’t her body. She couldn’t see herself properly, though the cleavage told her she was a woman, probably. What stood out were the hands; they were elegant and soft looking, with long black nails that seemed to shimmer in the light. Her white dress was more wrapped around her than worn, and the smell coming from the glass of wine in her hand spoke of expensive, but good taste.
In the second or so she had left of lucid thought before the vision took over, she kept coming back to those hands. They were not hands that had ever seen labor, or cooking mishaps, or the general wear and tear of life. Her mother’s hands looked like these. Privilege. These hands spoke of privilege. There was something else, though. Power, maybe? She couldn’t latch onto it before her sense of self melted away.
The man she was expecting was late. Oh, she could sense him, just outside the door, waiting until his arrival would be fashionable, she was sure. Well, let him wait, then. She didn’t care, she had more bottles of wine where this one came from.
He didn’t wait too much longer. The sound of her chamber doors opening were unmistakable, as was the sound of his feet against the stone floor. She loved stone; it felt alive to her. And it was an assassin’s worst nightmare; it was always so vocal. For her, these were the perfect qualities for her bedroom.
“Late as usual, I see.”
He walked past her, headed straight for the decanter of wine and the empty glass her girl had left for him. “Council business. Turns out we’ve got a major operation underway. All hands on deck kind of thing.”
She could feel the corners of her mouth turn up slightly. “All hands? Gideon, that might just be overkill.”
He turned towards her, resting his hands on the marble topped counter, and leaning back slightly. “You were the one who told me about the Rogues Gallery she’s collected. Your daughter, the bookstore owner, her brother, and the rest. Someone even started a rumor that there's a Nephilim in the attic.”
She took a sip of the wine, letting its taste linger on her tongue. “Wonder who did that?”
He laughed. “Is it true?”
She shrugged. “Does it matter?”
That seemed to give him pause. “I guess it doesn’t. I’ve got my pet occupying your daughter; I suspect she’s been taken into custody already.”
She felt a surge of rage boil up at him, but she forced it back down almost as quickly. “I don’t like her, Gideon.”
“You’re daughter?” He laughed.
“Your pet. There’s a deep darkness in her, and she keeps it bottled up so tight she’s going to explode one day, and take the rest of us with her.” Not to mention that darkness made her fall under her domain, not his. But he didn’t need to know she had designs on the poor girl. Not yet.
He shrugged. “Probably. At this point, I just want to see how far she can go before she realizes what she really is. Or how many people she’s killed with that darkness and doesn’t know it. Or that her sister’s been covering for her since they were kids. Not sure what makes someone protect the person who killed their own mother, but I was an only child. Maybe it’s a sibling thing. Still, though, you dark magic users are something else; able to kill a parent like that and not even feel enough remorse to remember you’d done it.”
She ignored the obvious bait. “I’m serious, Gideon. Your current scheme, in general, is fine because you’re only really risking yourself. But that girl… she’s the first dual wielder we’ve ever even heard of. We need to understand her, help her, nurture both natures. I don’t understand why you’ve been so focused on pushing her toward her own destruction.”
He drained the glass and pushed off from the counter. He slid his arm around her waist and kissed her deeply. She didn’t mind the taste. “Enough, Hekate. My reasons are my own, and I don’t want to explain them to you.”
She gave him a coy smile and slipped out from under his arms, making for the wine counter herself. “Were you this insufferable when you were dating my daughter?”
He feigned being hurt. “I was nothing but a gentleman.”
She shook her head. “Ah. That’s why it didn’t work out.”
“No, it didn’t work out because I was fucking you on the side. Turns out, your daughter had a lot to learn. Just not from me… too much effort.”
She didn’t turn to face him. More to herself, she said, “Apparently not for the bookstore owner.”
“What?”
She turned and smiled. “I asked, what are you going to do with the bookstore owner?”
He shrugged. “Depends on if the rumors are true. Once I’ve got Liz’s immortality, it doesn’t matter how much she or the book protest. It’s tried to kill Liz before, so I’ll be fine. Which means, I give the book a choice; unbind from the little wizard, or I kill her. I don’t know if it’s sentient, but it’s worth the shot.”
She suppressed a shiver. She used people, but this man was on another level. “So, you’re going to kill her? I’ve known a magic item or two, Gideon. It might not be just you it kills. It could take out hundreds. Millions. That might put a damper on my vacation plans. I’d hate to have to cancel a trip because Paris didn’t exist anymore.”
His expression worried her. “Don’t worry. It won’t affect you.” He came over and pushed her back against the counter in an attempt at dominance. “Why the concern? You go in for the hot librarian type? Wanted to make her one of your girls?”
She held the wine up to his lips, and he tilted his head back to drink. She obliged him. “No. But my daughter’s friends with her, so I was curious. She might even be protective over her… consider that a warning.”
He took the wine glass from her hand, and pressed against her rather crudely. “I’m not worried about that. We’ll blame Liz. There will be enough evidence to convince her.”
She started nibbling his neck. “How? She was a detective, after all.”
He stopped her and stepped away. “If I can manage it, Liz’s body will be there, dead, on the ground. Even if not, the remains of the spell will be there. I can claim she was trying to use it to unbind the book from Fhadiana and take it for herself, but the book reflected the spell, killing her, but not before it was too late for Fhadiana. That should be plausible enough.”
“Why do you have Liz’s powers, then? She’ll ask as soon as she finds out.”
He considered. “Caught in the backlash of a reflection spell? I didn’t ask for these, but it’s what happened when the Tome went nuts? Look, no offense, but I don’t think your daughter’s going to be too focused on asking many questions.”
She just gave him a doubtful look. “My daughter’s far more capable than you’ve ever given her credit for. So, just be prepared. She’ll find you out in about three seconds flat, I’ll bet.”
“The spell produces the spells to reproduce whatever you cast it on. It’s pretty easy to claim that it casts the spell on the nearest valid target. She’ll have to look really hard to disprove that, and I’ll just have to distract her, if that happens.”
“Really? The seduction angle? You dropped her and broke her heart. Or did you forget?”
He laughed. “Oh, I didn’t. But I still think I can win her over again. I have some plans. Regardless, worst case scenario, she’s locked up on trumped up charges, and neither of us have to worry about her. Small price to pay for effective immortality, no?”
She shook her head, knowing he’d misunderstand. “No.”
“Anyway. Enough speculating. It’ll all be happening soon. I’m just—” He paused as his bracer started blinking. “—there it is. One second, I need to make a call.”
She shrugged, retrieved her wine glass and started to refill it, her back to him. She didn’t like his plan —in fact she hated it— but it was hard to say no to someone so powerful. And he’d agreed to protect her daughter, that was all she really wanted. Still, though, the end game was what bothered her. So far Lizbeth Locke hadn’t proven enough of a thorn in her side to need to be dealt with, but she didn’t know how she even would. Not magically, that was for sure. Probably send a skilled prostitute to keep the woman’s attentions. But Gideon was a whole other problem. She could trust him to be the asshat he’d been since she first met him, and that was the entire problem.
No, she knew she’d been right to meddle as she’d done. Her daughter was brilliant, she’d find the clues, and collect the right people to stop Gideon. She knew without a single doubt in her mind that Gideon would never possess the abilities of Lizbeth Locke. If he ever did… it would be a disaster that even she, the Goddess of Magic herself couldn’t fix.
She was about to turn around when she felt an explosion of light magic behind her. Too late, she couldn’t get any defenses up. She felt a sickening white hot sensation, and she looked down to see a glowing white blade sticking out of her chest. Her consciousness was fading, but suddenly something seemed to bolster her, right at the edge of passing out. She couldn’t move, all she could feel was the pain. It was like torture.
Above her, the man was smiling. “You knew too much, Hekate. As good in bed as you are, I think your daughter’s had some time to ripen. I’ll mold the Heir of Hekate how I please, meanwhile I’ll be immortal. I can take that bitch’s book, or half the things in the Restricted section of the Enclave. I wonder how powerful I’ll be once I bind myself to all those things. But anyway. I mainly killed you because you were getting on my nerves. And I like the rush. Now, I guess I’m committed. Anyway, don’t worry, I’ll leave you with one final memory. I need that body of yours preserved, so I’m not letting you die yet. I can’t put you in stasis, like you could yourself, but I can keep healing you just enough you don’t die. But just keeping you alive feels like such a waste. So I’m going to get one last fuck in, before you really expire. You’re welcome.”
She was helpless to stop him.
—
Liz woke up in a cold sweat, ripping her covers off. She looked around the room for Gideon, ready to blast him with everything she had. Slowly, her breathing returned to normal and she remembered who she was. This was the fourth time she’d had this dream in the last year. So it was soon, but not that soon. She could work with that. She still had time.
Gideon Alrik doesn't want to rule the world. At least, not explicitly, though even he has to admit it'll probably happen eventually. His wants are simple: He wants to be the most powerful creature in existence. And not for power's sake; he just doesn't believe he actually has any limits. He thinks there's no way he could ever fail, not permanently. So he wants to see where his limites actually are. Is he right? What would happen if he bound the most powerful magic items in existence? Could he handle it? If not, what would let him handle it? More training? Other artifacts? Is there a combination, a path forward for him to do it?
While this goal isn't inherently villainous, he honestly believes that the only life with an intrinsic value is his own. He gives value to those around him, those he cares about, but value always flows from him. He believes all life is prescious, but he believes that the same way a soldier sees ammunition as precious; it's still an expendable resource to be used. Carefully, but it exists only for a single purpose, and that isn't preservation.
For Gideon, the ends always justify the means. He won't be careless with his resources, but he also won't be stingy with them when the time comes either. And, as a Master of the Enclave, he has more resources than most.
In order for Gideon to answer his questions and find his true limits, he has to be able to experiment and push himself without risking everything. He's done it the other way before and came very near his end. So, the answer is simple: steal the special ability of Lizbeth Locke to become immortal, and then he has all the time he needs to figure the rest out. After all, once he's immortal, there's nothing holding him back anymore.
Note: The thing that gave him the idea was the gloves Mir made for him. If those simple objects could suddenly allow him to trivially bed the world's most powerful Dark Magic user (Hekate) without ill effects, then why can't other items or spells let him tackle other challeneges that conventional wisdom say are impossible. He started researching more items and spells, and found (and used) some very frightening things along the way.
Gideon was planning to simply help some of Liz's enemys to capture her. Then he was going to use a special spell he's discovered, that can strip any object (or person) into spells to recreate the effects they had on them. Since Liz is a special, the spell for her brand of immortality would be produced. It does destroy/kill the thing that it's used on. Unless it doesn't kill Liz, and then great for her. He doesn't really care.
Except, she suddenly "retired" and fell off the map for a few years. When she resurfaced, it was in Horizon City with her brother and an increasing number of high-profile badasses that confound his plans. Almost like she was tipped off some how.
What's even more complicated is that his former lover, Miranda (and daughter of his current lover, Hekate) is living there. So, he has to get her out of the way (for sentimental reasons, if nothing else). Once she's out of the way she can either be compliant, or he'll have one of his Knights kill her.
So, his current plan is this: