#every time i draw kory she gets more saturated

[mysterycitrus]

i love your art sm!! have you ever drawn raven?

the 80s girlfriends of all time

[serenitylost]

I’ll Be the Death of You (I Promise) Chapter 1: Flirt with a Countess

So I'm starting a new thing. Gonna be a longer fic, this is just the intro bit.

Summary: AU in which Julian never returns to Vesuvia of his own accord. Instead, the apprentice accepts Nadia's request to find him, catch him, and return him to the hangman's noose. Or at least, that was her plan...

(Read it here or on AO3)

"I still don't understand. Why now? What's changed?" Kori looked up at the regal woman seated before her on the balcony. She struggled to get a proper read on her - her gaze was cool, her expression composed, and yet…

"It's true, it has been years. Perhaps much of the city has already forgotten." The countess tugged her lips into a small frown. "But I have not forgotten."

Kori worked her jaw briefly, searching for something in those red eyes, before huffing and turning back to the task at hand. The woman had not answered her question. But if she was determined to be inscrutable, so be it.

Fumbling through her pack, Kori drew out a small pouch and pulled at the drawstring, releasing the strong scent of camphor. She took a generous pinch of the powdered herb and scattered it into the small basin that rested between them. She pursed her lips for a moment, studying the basin and the mixture of potent magical reagents that rested within it, before adding one more pinch for good measure.

She returned her gaze to the countess. The woman was watching her carefully, features as placid as ever, but there was a clear glint of interest in her eye.

"Perhaps you believe I am simply chasing ghosts? That there is, in fact, no justice to be found for my dear departed husband?" She raised an elegant eyebrow, questioning.

Kori rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I never said that. But it would help if I actually had something - anything - to go on. I've never done this before, you know," she gestured vaguely to the basin between them. "It could very well blow up in our faces. And I wouldn't want to ruin that pretty dress."

Kori smirked at the countess. As always, her fashion was exquisite. This evening she was clad in soft red silks which hung delicately off her shoulders.

"Kori." The countess's voice was firm. Patient. "I have faith in your abilities. My dreams-"

"Yes, yes, you've told me of your dreams, Nadia - ah, milady."

"Nadia is fine." She graced Kori with a gentle smile. "Regardless, I do believe that this will work. Perhaps you could stand to believe it yourself."

Kori hummed noncommittally in response. Her magic had a nasty habit of being rather unpredictable - especially when she was trying something new. She figured there was some small chance it would work, a strong chance it would simply fizzle out, and a not-insignificant chance that it would fail in a much more spectacular fashion.

Ah, well. It was the risk that made it interesting, after all.

Kori placed her hands over the basin and took a deep breath, drawing in magical energy and focusing it down. She felt the brief snap of heat in her fingers, and the herbs began to smolder.

She looked to Nadia. "You have the letter?"

The countess produced a tightly-rolled scroll and handed it across the small space between them.

Kori gently unfurled the letter, holding it above the basin where pungent smoke was already beginning to bloom thickly. The messy scrawl that marked the page was almost entirely indecipherable.

"Dear Sister…"

The smoke enveloped the letter, making the spidery writing swim. Kori closed her eyes and focused on the feel of the paper in her hands.

The first thing that hit her was loneliness. It swept over her in a sudden gust: that empty, sickening void. She recoiled, her hands jerking reflexively, and heard the soft tear of paper as she moved.

"Kori?" Nadia's voice was measured but concerned. "Is everything alright?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Kori assured her, shaking her head as she worked to compose herself. She looked at the letter. It was torn, but only slightly. She took a breath and closed her eyes again, bracing herself.

This time when the loneliness came, she bore it with gritted teeth, allowing the feeling to wash over and through her. The emotion was strong, but she couldn't get caught up in it. She needed more. She needed the man behind it.

The herbs in the basin hissed and spat as flames began to spark to life among them, violet and red and mired in heavy smoke. Their complex, heady smell saturated the air and filled Kori's lungs, making her eyes water with its intensity.

She sought it out, and it grew in her senses: the barest wisp of him. Not quite a scent, not quite a feeling - the afterimage of his aura as it lingered in emotions past.

She trained her energy on that wisp, listening to it, memorizing it. It grew stronger in her mind as she focused, clearer and brighter until it seemed almost as though she knew him already, knew him deeply, like an old friend.

She let out a slow breath through pursed lips. That would be enough. Now…

Kori let her attention soften and spread, no longer fixed on the scroll in her hand, moving gently outward around her. It brushed over Nadia where she sat, composed as always, with an intense curiosity buzzing through her, hidden beneath the surface. It passed through the palace: over the guards in the hallway, standing alert but relaxed. Past the servants who scattered the grounds, bustling and chatting with busy energy.

The flames in the basin leapt higher, blazing iridescent in the low light of evening. They licked around Kori's hands and the letter she held, hot and dry, but they didn't burn. The smoke hung heavy around the two women, acrid and oppressive in its weight. Even the gentle breeze that blew in from the gardens did little to stir it.

Kori could feel her magic begin to strain as it spread outward through the city, sweeping over houses and streets and gaggles of people, searching, seeking, tasting the air for any hint of the wanted man. She took a deep breath of the perfumed air, letting the herbal magic steady her as she stretched it farther, farther, until she was pushing the borders of the city itself.

The fire cracked and sputtered loudly, sending colorful sparks cascading across the balcony. Her eyes were shut, but her senses were open: Kori could feel rather than see the way they showered down around the two of them, the barest intake of breath as Nadia tensed and shifted. But the countess made no complaint - the sparks, much like the fire, were harmless.

"He's not in Vesuvia," Kori said. Of that much she was certain. Any trace of his aura in this city was faint and faded from the passage of years.

"No, I don't suppose he would be," Nadia replied simply. "He is, after all, on the run."

Kori opened her eyes to meet the countess's gaze. She did her best to keep her breathing steady as she held the vastness of Vesuvia in her mind's eye. "I don't know how much farther I can look."

Nadia held her eye calmly, her posture impeccable. "You will look exactly as far as it takes. Trust yourself, Kori. You will find him."

Kori watched her for a long moment, her red gaze steady and strong, like a stand of rock in the middle of a raging ocean. Kori held it tightly, stabilizing herself as best she could.

Well, she thought to herself, here goes nothing.

With a burst of effort, she pushed her awareness further, past the edges of Vesuvia, through the countryside beyond. She passed roads and farms and smaller towns, each settlement leaving a brief impression on her vision before she discarded it.

Not there. Not there. Not there.

She could feel her magic wobbling, moving erratically in strong bursts and short crawls. Covering an entire town in one moment, and only a single hut in the next. Her power was well and truly straining now, eking out every bit of support she could draw from the fire and the smoke and the steadfast presence of the woman before her.

There was something strange, too, on the edges of her consciousness. A feeling of strength, but...distant. A promise of power, just beyond her. Or...underneath? Something large and strong and unstoppable, growing alongside her like a tide pulled by the moon. She felt almost as if she could reach it, if she could only break through…

Something else caught her attention. A flicker, to the side. A breath. A heartbeat. She turned towards it as she reached out with her mind, pulling, grasping at the power that surged beside her. She could almost feel it licking at her fingertips, and then-

"Fuck!"

Kori jerked back as a surge of pain bit through her fingers. The fire sizzled and snapped with a crack like thunder, and this time the sparks it hurled at them glowed orange and red and burnt where they landed.

Kori scrambled backward. The scroll she held was smoldering, embers feasting at its edge. She dropped it on the ground and kicked her legs out in front of her to stomp out the fire. She grabbed the front of her own shirt and shook it roughly, dislodging several stray embers, and ran her hands through her hair to remove a few more. Breathless, drained, and disheveled, Kori looked up at the countess.

Nadia had risen and was brushing idly at her clothing; she looked entirely unfazed.

"So." She fixed Kori with that arresting gaze. "Did you find the doctor?"

Kori coughed, ran a hand over her face, and began to climb to her feet. Then she thought better of it and slumped heavily back down.

"I, ah...uhn." She felt sluggish, her mind struggling to function. But there had been something. The heartbeat. She had sensed him, if only for a moment.

"Sort of. Not exactly," she offered dully.

Nadia raised an eyebrow at her.

"He's, uh…" Kori squinted against her growing exhaustion and pointed vaguely in the direction she had sensed that brief flicker. "...he's that way."

"‘That way?'" Nadia's eyebrow crept higher. "Do you perchance have a more specific estimate than…'that way?' Or must I send soldiers to scour every city east of our border?"

"I…" Kori rubbed her temples. "I don't know, exactly. But- but I think I can find him."

As she said the words, she was suddenly certain. She could find him. She knew which way to go; she had his aura in her sights, like a hound with a whiff of their prey. And as she grew closer, the scent would grow stronger.

"Good." Nadia nodded. "Tell me what you need, and I will ensure that you have it."

Kori felt something stir within her. Beneath the exhaustion bubbled a new feeling: satisfaction, in part, that her spell had succeeded. But there was something else, too, mixed in with it - a kind of excitement, an eagerness, a sense of adventure. This would be dangerous, yes. Unpredictable, certainly. And she was willing to bet it would be a hell of a lot of fun.

Kori smiled. She didn't need anything. Just herself, her magic, and the taste of her prey.