In the Case of Lethargy [Private Katherine]

Through the numerous serfs that still served Basilisk Fang, word came to Katherine today that her presence was called for. Famine wanted her to meet with her at the room on the top floor, which the solitary guild master kept as a personal den. A place to plan practically, to talk business and to make her plans. The scenario of Katherine was the equivalent of a naive middle schooler being called up to the principal's office, that was without a doubt. Only, all the much more unsettling on the nerves.

The door was the grey of unburnished silver, dull and spotted with years of weathering. Where there should have been some fancy matching handle was only a square shaft of dark cold metal. Now that Famine was expecting company, the gate was left to hang open and askew which cast a dark shadow into the hall. While inside, Famine was standing in front of a wide bay window which dumped the light of snow-covered mountains inside the otherwise tremendously macabre interior.

On the ceiling were cobwebs in every neglected corner. Walls were lined by pages and several cork boards, many large enough to cover one entire side of the room which were littered with newsprint, hung by red tacks and strings. It depicted her clear obsession with keeping tabs on those that nudged her the wrong way.  Upon closer inspection, a person could follow the map to it’s endgame: black X’s where ink dripped down the papers.It suggested she’d finished most of these jobs.

Above this board was a shelf of personal trophies, beakers of the manufactured poisons, animal fangs ranging from garden snakes to dragon-sized teeth. There were jewelry boxes that held fingers of those that had stolen from her guild and tongues of people who had lied to her instead of gems. A jar that may have been used to contain fireflies was full of a clear fluid and held a foggy blue eye that had been ripped out of Kanix Laspors head after she abandoned Basilisk Fang. Easily some of her fondest memories sat on this shelf. She wasn’t here to show of her trophies, yet. Instead, while she waited for Katherine she’d tend to her other pet in a glass box beside her, a long bone-white python that sat in some sand under the warmth of a heat lamp.

And at the very end of that trophy shelf was a shoe box filled with straw where the very mute tone of squeaking in the room emitted. Mice. Famine who still had her back to the door fished one out by the tail and tossed it up into the bed of her palm. She clenched her fingers and the rodent's neck snapped around her closed hand. Afterwards, the witch promptly dropped the fuzzy lump of meat into the container.

The snake was now fed for the next few days, and Famine, who didn’t make so much as a sound in her motions, stepped away from the clear box whilst not closing the snake-pen lid. An action not out of her own forgetfulness, but because she hardly cared whether her python chose to remain in the heated bed or to slither about. Pets should have the incentive to wander about and be productive. Famine could sense the warmth of Katherine’s body in the room now. Her gaze snapped over to the ruby-haired mage in her presence. Productivity… The same expectations applied to her Basilisks. Or did that brand mean nothing to a perfectly capable fire mage who’d failed to do nothing but mope around?

Famine crossed her inked arms behind her back. Ahote was the one that dragged Ms. Neel into the Guildhall, yes, but Famine had heard from him that Katherine was here seeking out Famine. The mage’s initial reaction had been that she was another assassin or bounty hunter...Whatever the damned Magic Council had up their robes these days. However, The girl had been far too ill-equipped for that task… or she had tremendously underestimated Basilisk Fang.

She was here, she was alive. The ultimate decision was Ahote’s to make. While Famine wasn’t particularly pleased he chose the merciful of the two options Famine wasn’t sated with letting just anyone walk around wearing her[i/] crest either. Protection here was something Famine insisted had to be earned many times-- The guild had been betrayed many more times recently. Who knew… Maybe little Katherine could be useful. The bounty hunter she needed to send out to get rid of all the loose ends. She knew Katherine was here now, even without turning around.

“Why’d you come up this mountain, and why did you think it was a good idea?”