Snippet #2427102

Lucius drank to Gwen's offer, then blinked as his eyes flashed azure.
"Well, Gwen, I'd love to stick around for longer, but my Yngve's-trying-to-do-things-without-me sense is tingling, and so are the wards I put up whenever she tries promoting people without me. It was a pleasure meeting you off the battlefield, but I do hope you remember that I leave as an enemy, and nothing more. However, I WILL leave you a second gift past the fairy-apple, as thanks for your oath." As he spoke, Lucius pulled an ornate golden ring from his index finger and placed it into the palm of his hand. From there, he made a twisting movement with his other hand, pulling the metal into a new shape, stretching the ring until it was a necklace, with Lucius' family crest of two herons crossing their necks resting on a small medal on the chain. Lucius continued as he handed the jewelry to Gwen. "A gift not of tradition, but of my free choice. Give it a kiss if you ever need my help. You have one use, though. Take care, and may our final meeting be at crossed blades!" he smiled, then took two steps back and became a unicorn again, the sense of doom reappearing as he galloped towards the window and leapt, disappearing into the night with a puff of hellfire once again, his laughter the only thing left as it echoed in the hall.

Yngve had barely appointed the guard to Logistics when Lucius poked his head in, human-looking again. "Whatever she just promoted you for, Aloysius, don't start celebrating yet. The position?" he said, now entering with straight posture and jovial expression. The soldier relaxed, Lucius tended to have that effect on the soldiers of the army, who he took the time to know by their names and drink with them, as he'd been taught by the first General. It is one thing to rule and command with terror. It is another entirely to win your army's devotion.

"Sir, the General has promoted me to Logistics Officer." Lucius smiled at that.

"Perfect, we needed one of those. And I always tell you, sir is for the battlefield, call me anything but that here. I take it you haven't lost your knack for numbers, the way you always beat me at Nine Kings?" he said, his air of doom and despair actually making him seem like a beacon of light in the gloom with his tone and actions. Aloysius shook his head, letting his own posture relax a bit in Lucius' prescence.

"I'm sure this will be a bit easier than Nine Kings. At least I won't have to worry about you as an opponent. You're getting too good at that game, Luce. Also, I always wondered, how do you play if you're blind?" Lucius just smiled and waved a finger in the air.

"Come now, Aloysius, if I gave that away, it'd take all the fun out of you guessing! But we're being rude to the General. You get to work on that Logistics stuff, I'll talk with her." As the soldier walked off, Lucius turned to Yngve, his voice too saccharine for it to even think of sounding nice. "Yngve, what do you think you're doing? I spent six hours today going through soldiers for that position, ON TOP OF my usual work. You think I do less around here? I have over eight centuries on you in the forms and files department. I can do all my paperwork in time it take you to do five pages!" Lucius stopped himself, took a deep breath, and laughed, the warmth in his voice back. "I'm actually surprised you haven't made yourself a spell for organization and signing yet. Took me about an hour to make one, and I'm pretty sure it's saved me a century's worth of time! Also, before I forget and you ask where I was, tonight was my 1000th anniversary with Cecilia, you know her, green eyes, red hair, unicorn from the waist-down, and so I went to visit Gwen and mock her before I came back to spend the rest of the night off somewhere private with Cecilia. All in all, a pretty productive night, seeing as I found out I can teleport past their castle defenses. Pretty sure anyone else would die, though. Those wards are hell to break past, pun intended. Plus, they'll have to change castles now, meaning resources wasted and time spent doing things other than leading. Well, that was my night, how'd yours go?"