A medical emergency

[fadingworld]

A deep navy cloak hides his features and the more ornate tunic the courtesan usually wears to greet his clients. Mal hunches his shoulders and slides through the crowds hoping to avoid notice. He keeps his head down until he reaches the home of the doctor and wraps smartly on the door. "Open up," he calls in a voice that expects to be listened to.

How much time did he have? He could not have a client bleeding out. Not this one. Not one who had come to him for help, to be treated privately.

Comments

[fadingworld]

"Yes but," Mal's eyes widen. "No, no, I didn't mean for you to break your house apart. Honestly, I am happy to have them put somewhere else."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"And I very much want you to be in charge of your own possessions," Regis easily explains. "I could hide them for you, yes, but as I don't want you to go into the laboratory unsupervised or have to ask me for them, they shall stay in your hands. Now, pick a floorboard."

[fadingworld]

There is good logic to it. Mal points to a floorboard, just off centre in his room. "I got told once, that will people will check under the bed area and around the edges of the room for a loose floorboard. They don't have time to search every bit out in the open."

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis nods his agreement. That Mal puts reason behind his decisions is a good sign in his mind.

Going down to one knee he easily digs the crowbar in under the board and with one heave pries it loose.

[fadingworld]

Regis has plenty of strength. Mal's hand squeezes his shoulder in thanks before he kneels and places the jewels in their new hidey-hole. The earring he's put in, he hopes is subtle enough that he can keep it in.

"Thank you," he says softly as he rises. "I was thinking on the way back that there will be gossip until people get used to it. I am sorry if that will make you awkward."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"Ah, yes, people will talk," Regis says with a small exasperated sigh. "An older man snatching away a young courtesan from his establishment to have for an apprentice? Of course they will talk." In other words, it isn't something that Regis hasn't already thought of.

"It should die away eventually." Or not. Such rumors could be surprisingly stubborn, where any little thing could cause them to flare up again.

[fadingworld]

Mal watches Regis face, "Will the rumours bother you?" he asks softly. If they did, he would work hard to be worthy of another person to apprentice himself too.

"I don't want you to feel discomforted."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"Oh, not for any personal reasons," Regis says easily, getting up and dusting off his trousers after having replaced the board. "Though there will surely be the odd comment about it. Slurs, gossip, perhaps some aggression. But then I have found that people will never run out of reasons for stupidity, so if not this then it would be something else. Really, Mal, I know what I am getting myself into."

[fadingworld]

"Oh good," Mal says with some relief. "Sometimes, I forgot people care about age and silly things like that." He smiles, "I can handle the slurs myself if it comes to that."

He steps closer to Regis, "If you ever find you feel you have gotten in too deep, say, and I will walk away."

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis raises an eyebrow at that, making the lines across his forehead deepen. "Age and other silly things are often times not so silly but rather valid concerns. Still, not to worry." He smiles and puts a hand to Mal's shoulder, giving it a brief squeeze. "If things become bad here there is always the option of relocating. This is not the first city I have lived in and I doubt it will be the last."

[fadingworld]

Mal frowns to himself, puzzled. "But the clients I have liked best are those...." Never mind. He sighs, every polite he shies away from what looks like a sensitive topic.

"You will not relocate for me," he says firmly. "I really don't want to be a cause for trouble."

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis cocks his head a bit to the side, studying the young man before him. With the profession Mal had had until this very day, and having seen at least one of his clients, Regis is well aware that Mal has been intimate with not only older people but older men. For Regis this isn't really an issue, with over four centuries behind him things like time and age looks very different to him.

But now free to chose for himself, it would be a shame if such a thing as a rumor would be in Mal's way.

"Ponder this, then. If a rumor takes off, as we both suspect that it will and I then send you on your way to avoid trouble. Do you really think that my reputation would improve. Personally, I suspect not. No, Mal, let us just be about our work and let teh gossips have their fun."

[fadingworld]

"They would settle," Mal murmurs. He tilts his head up, "Could you please answer me this. I am distasteful, or is it simply the profession. If ...I found my tastes aligned to what I experienced, could you keep me in the same house as you?"

[mandragoraspiritus]

A moment them where Regis quietly studies Mal, pondering his words and what it is the young man is trying to say. "If you truly do enjoy the company and touch of men, you mean?" His expression softens and turns more kindly. "Human sexuality is a fascinating and often complex subject. Even though attraction to ones own sex is in our world more often seen as - indeed - distasteful or even abominable, it is far from as black and white as our society would have us believe. But, to answer your question simply, yes, I could and would still have you under my roof. It would not bother me in the slightest. You are deserving of happiness and I wish you all the best with whomever you eventually set you heart on, be they man or woman."

[fadingworld]

Mal sighs in relief. The answer also tells him a ltitle about Regis whether he meant it or not. The human comment plays on his mind.

"Now will you tell me how you got Madame to agree?"

[mandragoraspiritus]

"Do you still think there was some trick to it?" He smiles in good humor, lips as closed as ever. "Perhaps she simply have a weakness for persuasive, older men?"

[fadingworld]

Mal's expression says it all. "She's seen many older men come through the door and lay gold at their feet. I have never seen anyone do that, even at there most persuasive. You did something."

[mandragoraspiritus]

No, Mal is obviously not buying it. He isn't stupid, after all. How then to handle this?

"You were there, Mal. Just what do you think I could have done?"

[fadingworld]

"I'm not sure..." Mal says. He pauses, "You have a sense of power I have only seen people play at. It made my hair stand out on an end. And then there was the mirror...."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"The mirror?" Careless! He had been so focused on the Madame and to get Mal out and free that he hadn't paid attention. Still he keeps his expression mild and perhaps lightly confused. "What about the mirror?"

[fadingworld]

"You weren't there," Mal looks puzzled. "I could swear to that. I could see the back of Madame's head but I couldn't see any of you." He shakes his head as if clearing it of the memory.
"I don't mind what the reason is, as long as I am not going mad!"

[mandragoraspiritus]

It would only be a matter of time, wouldn't it? Mal would soon figure it out. Regis couldn't hope to have him around without him understanding. IF this were to ever work, there had to be trust. No lies. Honesty.

Until now he's been holding the crowbar. Now he slowly and silently holds it out for Mal to take. Once he has taken it, Regis folds his hands around the strap of his satchel as is his habit.

The change is imperceptible yet somehow profound. The oh so dark eyes, black on black, or are they solid black? The pale complexion, the long and sharp nails. The smell of petrichor under herbs. Bits and pieces that marks Regis as something altogether different.

"You asked me a question, Mal. If I would keep you under my roof if you were something others would find distasteful. Let me ask you a question in return. If I was not as ordinary as I make myself out to be, if I was not so... Human. Would you still stay in my house?"

[fadingworld]

In reply Mal lets the crowbar fall to the floor. Power, there in front of his eyes. A deep blackness that seems to draw his eyes in.


His lips part into an 'o''. He takes a steadying breath. "Why would I mind what you are? I don't believe you would hurt me, even if I asked for it." His heart is beating a little faster. "What are you?" he whispers.

[mandragoraspiritus]

"I would not hurt you. I have no wish to. I do not wish to harm anyone." Regis speaks softly, almost gently, remaining standing still right in front of Mal.

"I am a descendant of a few beings that came through to this world during The Conjunction of the Spheres. A Higher Vampire."

[fadingworld]

Mal blinks, and of all things he blushes. "Forget my fantasy," he says lightly. He bows and holds out his hand towards Regis to shake it. "Well...it is an honour to know your secret."

There are so many questions. "I am glad you do not sparkle in the sunlight. Do you mind if I ask questions occasionally?"