Part One
Like the five nights before this one, Rory was barely visible in the far booth along the back wall of the Red Dragon Inn. Piles upon piles of papers were littered all across the table in front of him. Blueprints, topographical maps, newspaper clippings, and various other important-looking documents were strewn every which way. There seemed to be no discernible method to the Irishman's madness, but whenever he looked for a companion to whatever he was reading, it took him only a few seconds of digging to find it.
He had his most concentrated face on, his eyebrows scrunched up every now and then, squinting at some very small print on a newspaper article. All around him people were talking and laughing and having a good time, but Rory was busy. Busy planning how he was going to kill Ahriman. How he was going to settle things once and for all between this man who dared to try and take his love from him.
It had been years before Rory had met Charna, that Ahriman had first come into her life. Set up as the winner of a bidding war for her hand in marriage,if you could call it that. Ahriman had come to collect, only to find that on the night prior, Charna had slipped poison into her father's drink, repaying him for the years of prostitution he had forced her to participate in as an adolescent.
Then, some considerable time after that, Rory and Charna had met. With one fateful trip down the notoriously crafty Red Dragon Inn stairs, the Gypsy Rogue had met what was arguably the love of his life. A resetting of her nose led to conversation, which led to even more conversation, flirting, and eventually the two were madly in love.
Months later, Ahriman had re-entered the life of Charna, through the manipulating mind-witch known as Calypso. Under the guise of helping Charna control the demons from her past (whom Calypso had actually been bringing to the forefront of Charna's mind), Calypso slowly started to unravel the already precariously healthy Charna.
In an even more under-handed trick, Calypso had tricked Rory, who was most easily fooled by Magick, possessing none himself and having never been taught any of its chicanery. Rory was under the impression that Ahriman had kidnapped Charna, and a three month search for her began.
Through mountains, forests, and scorching deserts, Rory had searched for the only woman he'd ever loved the way he loved Charna. He lost an obscene amount of weight, his muscles dwindling away to taut, stringy, elongated versions of themselves. He neither slept nor ate, not really. Only enough of both to keep himself alive, to keep searching.
After three months of this, however, he was no closer to finding Charna than he had been at the start. A fourth month of mourning involved more drinking than is healthy, even for an O'Corr, and even less eating than before.
Rory O'Corr seemed to be a man beaten by the thoughts put into his head by the mind-witch. Beaten by the plot of a wicked and awful man named Ahriman.
Like the five nights before this one, Rory was barely visible in the far booth along the back wall of the Red Dragon Inn. Piles upon piles of papers were littered all across the table in front of him. Blueprints, topographical maps, newspaper clippings, and various other important-looking documents were strewn every which way. There seemed to be no discernible method to the Irishman's madness, but whenever he looked for a companion to whatever he was reading, it took him only a few seconds of digging to find it.
He had his most concentrated face on, his eyebrows scrunched up every now and then, squinting at some very small print on a newspaper article. All around him people were talking and laughing and having a good time, but Rory was busy. Busy planning how he was going to kill Ahriman. How he was going to settle things once and for all between this man who dared to try and take his love from him.
It had been years before Rory had met Charna, that Ahriman had first come into her life. Set up as the winner of a bidding war for her hand in marriage,if you could call it that. Ahriman had come to collect, only to find that on the night prior, Charna had slipped poison into her father's drink, repaying him for the years of prostitution he had forced her to participate in as an adolescent.
Then, some considerable time after that, Rory and Charna had met. With one fateful trip down the notoriously crafty Red Dragon Inn stairs, the Gypsy Rogue had met what was arguably the love of his life. A resetting of her nose led to conversation, which led to even more conversation, flirting, and eventually the two were madly in love.
Months later, Ahriman had re-entered the life of Charna, through the manipulating mind-witch known as Calypso. Under the guise of helping Charna control the demons from her past (whom Calypso had actually been bringing to the forefront of Charna's mind), Calypso slowly started to unravel the already precariously healthy Charna.
In an even more under-handed trick, Calypso had tricked Rory, who was most easily fooled by Magick, possessing none himself and having never been taught any of its chicanery. Rory was under the impression that Ahriman had kidnapped Charna, and a three month search for her began.
Through mountains, forests, and scorching deserts, Rory had searched for the only woman he'd ever loved the way he loved Charna. He lost an obscene amount of weight, his muscles dwindling away to taut, stringy, elongated versions of themselves. He neither slept nor ate, not really. Only enough of both to keep himself alive, to keep searching.
After three months of this, however, he was no closer to finding Charna than he had been at the start. A fourth month of mourning involved more drinking than is healthy, even for an O'Corr, and even less eating than before.
Rory O'Corr seemed to be a man beaten by the thoughts put into his head by the mind-witch. Beaten by the plot of a wicked and awful man named Ahriman.