So. Elevator 7-b, floor twelve.
After wrapping up her considerable meal and coming to terms with the long-forgotten sensations of gas, Elise eventually wandered over to the discreet employee elevators at the far end of the lobby vestibule. It was a simple, sliding, brass panel in the wall that opened up as she approached; no buttons in sight.
As she entered, another Syntech stooge was waiting for her. She was a mousy looking girl with round, wireframe glasses and a physique that suggested ambitions of fitness. Elise habitually sized her up as a prey item, then blew out a short sigh.
“Floor twelve?” she muttered. The purple-skirted clerk nodded and beckoned Elise forwards before tapping on the doors with an actual magic wand. Elise suppressed another grimace as she stood next to the Lady and stared at her reflection on the inner door. Who used magic wands these days? They'd been out of wizardly vogue for like six years now.
Eventually, blessedly, the stoic elevator ride came to an end. Elise strode confidently out of the lift and into a plush, carpeted hallway. If not for the rooms clearly marked as ‘copy center’ and ‘wireless hub’, she would have assumed she was in a swanky hotel. The skirted clerk from the elevator swept past her, and beckoned the vamp to follow, without looking back.
“This way. Karl is waiting.”
Elise hesitated for a moment, then grit her fangs and followed. This was all starting to get a bit weird for her tastes…but then again, her curiosity had always gotten the better of her. Why change up the game now?
“You're Karl's assistant now? Isn't that usually the other guy's job?”
“Oh, Kevin has a long list of people to get punched by, not just you dear. Call me a…pinch hitter.” the clerk shrugged. They reached the end of the hallway at a set of gold-framed double doors, emblazoned with a mosaic of the Syntech logo, and the initials ‘K J’.
Elise nearly went cross-eyed from the ostentatious vanity on display here. But as the doors creaked open, she was suddenly hit by a familiar feeling she hadn't processed in a long…long time. A sense of yearning familiarity. The sensation that a missing puzzle piece to your heart is just out of reach.
“...Strazio?”
The vampire scanned the room carefully. Karl Jak's office (or at least this particular office) was nothing less than you'd expect. Leather armchairs, a mahogany fireplace, crystal goblets and a wine library that occupied an entire vaulted wall. The purple suited pomp sat behind a polished teak and marble desk, covered in an array of expensive looking knickknacks and view monitors.
For some reason he looked shorter than she had expected.
“Strazio? No such luck, I'm afraid. Believe me, I'd love to book him for our final show but…he's hard to lock down, as you know.” Karl mused. He gestured at the wizardly assistant to leave, and smoothed back his glossy hair in the same motion.
“Thank you Charlie, please go perform a Reality Check, if you would.”
The clerk puffed up slightly, and donned a pained expression.
“But that'll take an hour and we just did one-”
“Now, please.”
With that, the girl huffed softly and closed the door behind her with a wave of her wand, leaving Elise and Syntech's actual CEO alone in the room together. He pointed an open hand at one of the seats, but Elise frowned and shook her head. The strange, resonant feeling was still clawing at her mind, and she didn't feel like letting her guard down.
“...can we get to the point?” she snapped. Karl chuckled, rolled his eyes, and began fishing for something under his desk.
“Oh come on Elise, where's your sense of drama?” he tutted, before producing a smallish, black, glassy orb. The producer placed it down on the marble desktop and began to roll it from one manicured hand to another. The vampire's eyes fixed on the sphere; it screamed with an overpowering allure of…something undefinable.
“...what is that?” Elise whispered, pointing at it with a shaking claw.
“Your inheritance. The letter said so-”
“WHAT. IS IT.” Elise said. Was she crying? Why was she crying? What the fuck was happening? It felt like her chest was going to beat out of her heart. Or. The other way around. Whatever. Thinking was difficult when every thought seemed to be fixated on that black glass.
“Easy there, overbite. Took a lot of work to get this thing out of that sun goddess's basement…dimensional fractals, alternate timelines…the works.” Karl said. If he was trying to rizz her, his exhausted expression indicated otherwise.
“It belonged to your dad. Well. You could say it was your dad. Certain parts of him at least.”
Elise…took a step back. Not necessarily out of fear, but she hadn't been prepared to deal with whatever the fuck was happening right now.
“You knew my…real dad?” she choked.
“Eh.” Karl waved his hand in a so-so manner.
Between the pounding sensation of fanatic desire that gripped her head, the anger of Karl Jak treating her unknown, orphan origins like a triviality, and the sincere wish to keep her damn cool, Elise was just about paralyzed with mental effort.
“...why…now?” she seethed through bared teeth.
“Might be my last chance to give it, but, I'm not really sure he'd want you to have it…” Karl continued. He hefted the sphere in one hand and stood up, approaching her in the middle of the floor. Elise took another step back, like he was approaching her with a hot iron, and she didn't know why.
“Will you stop being so damn cryptic!” Elise snapped.
“Look.” Karl said, sounding almost sincere, “I know what it's like to feel out of place, to have questions that no one can answer about your past. It's all in here…” he said, shaking the sphere. “...but I don't know what else it'll do to you.”
Elise reached out compulsively to grab the sphere as he walked towards her, then stopped herself. She was a wizard, for fuck sake. She was smarter than this. The vampire swallowed hard and fought to keep it together.
“...this is why I was pre-approved. This plays into your show somehow, doesn't it. What's your angle?” Elise hissed. Something was off about this, for sure, but Karl's claim that this thing had something to do with her personally was hard to dispute. It called to her on a fundamental level, like that ghost inside of Strazio's head. Fuck. Fuck.
“You've been off the grid on Cevanti for like a year. Where was I supposed to mail it? Call it…a cosmic coincidence.”
“I call it bullshit.”
Karl grinned softly.
“No-one's making you do anything, here. Hell, you're free to walk off the comet if you want. Take it and go, please.” Karl said. He dropped the orb, which fell for just a second, before hanging in the air in the exact way that a glass ball should not. As it did so, three, green specks of light began to gleam outward from the sphere…like acidic eyes…but with a third eye below the right.
“...gives me the willies.” he murmured.
Elise stared at it now; all thoughts of Karl or cash or TV were far gone from her mind as she fixated on this artifact which was, quite literally, calling to her. And something deep inside the spongy, dark recesses of her nethermost psyche was calling back.
She was suddenly aware that she was holding the orb.
Her eyes had just a second to flicker upwards, to meet Karl's studious gaze before she crumpled into a heap, writhing and foaming with all the terrible shrieks of a gutted animal. Black, spidery veins of crackling crystal oozed across her skin as her facial features smoothed away and dissipated. A shockwave of baleful power thudded across the room, upsetting several nice vases and lamps as a bloom of shadow emanated from the hybrid's undulating form. A chorus of whispers offered a hymn from every crack and corner as it rose to its feet, unsteady, but surely rising with all the gravitas of apotheosis.
Karl made a face and looked down at the puddle of black ichor it had left on the rug. He hadn't expected it to be quite so gruesome, but oh well.
Rarely am I at a loss for words, Interloper…but you have single handedly redefined hubris with this act.
Karl pressed a hand to his chest, and actually blushed a little bit.
“That is the nicest thing-”
Do you think a mere five years of imprisonment at the hands of my counterpart would make me desperate enough to willingly cooperate with this circus of yours?
“Good to see you too Neal…” Karl grumbled, picking at his already perfect nails. He glanced at the figure standing before him, and tilted his head. Elise's existing cloak had been drawn up over a glassy, smooth, featureless face. This rendition of the Shadow was a little more stocky and shorter than the original, but it still had those three, asymmetrical green eyes that were the hallmark of the Godmind brand. Yeah, it would do.
“No, I expect you to cooperate because you love attention and if you survive, have a chance to start one of those cults you enjoy. I mean, that was the reason you tried to hijack my airtime during season twelve, right?” Karl snorted. He sauntered back to his desk and began to pour himself a particularly deep glass of pinot noire.
You are conflating the actions of my inferior predecessor with what I am. Tearen died to try and keep both myself and Diablo sealed away. Predictably, he failed at both aims…and now has failed even to protect his diseased progeny.
Nealaphh inserted a glassy, black talon between its flesh and the cold metal of the explosive collar.
Perhaps I should simply cut to the chase. From what I understand, your gladiatorial clout is at an end. Why should I waste my time on a has-been?
“Well. For one. I'm pretty sure if you blow yourself up, Elise dies and you go back to being a Christmas ornament.” Karl said. He stared, bored, at the dark wine swirling around in his glass. He didn't even like this stupid label.
“Two…” he said, taking a sip, wincing, “...you know how the only person you hated worse than the Smiling One was Diablo? Well. Beatrix and Gilgamesh are both here. They might not be quite the same as before but…do you really want to chance it?”
The wine glass shattered, and Nealaphh began to levitate from the floor.
“Hey, I was enjoying disliking that.” Karl breathed, looking mournfully at his stained vest. He glanced up to see the Godmind floating an inch from his face. Somehow. It was surprisingly flexible.
I know you fancy yourself a deity, Karl Jak, but that does not make it wise to meddle with other sovereign powers.
“Yeah well, maybe once I hang this up I'll finally wise up. For now though-”
You are retiring because no matter what you do, it is lonely at the top.
“Oh-Kay, that's enough out of the spooky Burton doll. Off you go.”
Karl reached a hand into his jacket and produced a fairly stupid looking ray gun, and fired it point-blank into the Godmind's face. A shimmering, green, wobbly portal ripped open in the air, sucking the leering Specter away back to the preshow crazy town where it belonged…