Alpha Wolf

[Coyote]

"Well, this is unexpected." Timothy said.

Coyote blinked a few times to clear his eyes of watery tears that had welled up as soon as the door into the estate had cracked open. He didn't need to see to tell who, or at least what, was standing on the other side of the door's threshold.

When his vision focused again after the allergic reaction, he saw a slim and pretty young girl of probably less than two dozen winters standing before the group. She wore a dress that had once certainly been very fetching on her frame, but was now little more than expensive rags that clung to her shapely curves. Her hair was black like moist dirt and her skin had the golden brown color of sunlight reflected through honey comb. Her eyes were slightly canted and shaped like a cat's, the irises a bright silver like two fresh coins.

Coyote didn't need to look twice to spot a Faerie when he saw one.
"Can I help you?" the fey asked in a quite voice.

Coyote was about the reply when he saw a thin band of silvery chain wrapped around the girl's slender neck. At first it appeared to be nothing more than a decorative choker, but the tiny locket hanging from it was actually a tiny lock and the etchings on it's precious surface were obviously magical in nature.
Coyote recognized the salve collar for what it was and he couldn't hide a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"We're here to speak to Varcadia, former apprentice to Amstralabus, deceased member of the Twenty."

The girl nodded and bowed in deference, stepping aside on her bare feet to allow the group to enter. "Please, my Master will see you. He has been expecting visitors."

Elsa flashed a look over at Timothy and the two of them exchanged worried glances.

The group entered into the fortress like mansion. While the interior was no less austere than the outside, the halls within were more comfortable and seemed to be as much for the purpose of impressing power as they were of a detachment to worldly needs. The floors were stone, not expensive marble, but the tiles were cut in a manner which suggested complex geometry and angles important in the use of magical study. The walls had no paintings, but held framed pictures of all manner of diagrams and formula including detailed anatomical charts of several creatures Coyote did not recognize in mid-dissection. The mansion was as much a living space as it was one huge laboratory.

"If you will please follow me." The girl said, leading the group down the hall.
"How did Varcadia know we would be here?" Elsa asked.

After a moment of hesitation, the girl responded. "My Master has been keeping tabs on the activity of the Twenty after the place held by Amstralabus, as well as the one who took it."

"Alpha." Timothy snarled.

The girl nodded and continued. "After recent events began to unfold in Albalon, my Master expected someone to come investigating Alpha's activity. He watched the only airport and prepared for your arrival when you docked."

Coyote didn't like it when someone followed his movements, but it couldn't be helped now. It was expected that Varcadia would want to find a way to kill Alpha and take the position that rightfully belonged to him back from the interloper. Still, it meant that he had more information about Coyote than he had of him.

[Coyote]

The group was led to a large hall set us for to entertain guests. A large table dominated the center of the room and was polished to a high shine, reflecting the modest but multiple chandeliers that hung from the ceiling above. The table was bare except for a few centerpieces of carved crystals and a gathering of plates and platters at the far end, gathered around a man sitting in a high back chair a little too big for his frame. Coyote and the other were led to the opposite end of the table as the man was seated by the slave girl.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Saint Coyote, you and your esteemed companions." The man who Coyote assumed was Varcadia, former apprentice of a member of the Twenty and misplaced heir to that same position. "I've been waiting for someone of your caliber to arrive and handle this little Alpha problem for me."

The man was small and too thin to be healthy, His skin was pale and was the color of dust, a gray cast that made him look ill all the time. His hair was slicked back with too much pomade, so much so that Coyote could smell the noxious stench from across the room. He wore robes that, like the chair, were too big for him, though they were of the finest quality. Obviously, while Varcadia has not inherited his former Master's position, he had taken hold of his hand me downs.

"Don't flatter yourself." Coyote said, sharply. "The only reason we're talking to you is because it will save us time finding Alpha. We're not here to get friendly with you."

"That's unfortunate, because I only deal with people who I like." The upstart Wizard replied, his own voice growing sharp as well. "Take care, Saint. You need me more than I need you."

"I doubt that." Elsa said. "You need us to clear Alpha out or you'll never become a member of the Twenty."

Varcadia looked at her with narrowed eyes. "Such a tongue. I prefer my woman silent and complacent, as you can see." He said as he gestured towards the dark haired girl and her magical slave collar.

"Present your offer, Wizard," Timothy said, "otherwise our business is concluded with you."

The man at the end of the table scowled again, a disgusting expression, and shrugged his shoulder. "How can I? How can I know you are capable of defeating Alpha in the first place? Perhaps a little test to see if you are worthy of my trust. Then I will feel confident in giving you Alpha's location."

"What kind of test?" Arrakis hissed, smoke fuming from between his teeth.

"A simple one for you vaunted skills. Retrieve for me a simple item and I will give you Alpha's location."

"And the item?" Coyote asked, becoming annoyed.

"A bauble, really. A thorny crown held in a forest far from here."
"A forest?" Elsa asked, surprised. "In Demos?"

"Yes!" Varcadia said, a little lagh in his voice. "The last of it's kind in this dead land. The crown is protected heavily, so you will have to retrieve it under duress, but I don't think it will be a difficult matter for your group."

Coyote stared hard at Varcadia for a while before speaking. "That simple, huh?"
"Indeed." The Wizard replied.

Coyote didn't hesitate in answering.
"No."

Varcadia looked like he was about to pass his lunch.
"No?"

Coyote repeated himself.
"No."

"Then you will never learn where to find your Alpha!"

"Maybe, but I have a feeling that even if we were to retrive this thorny crown, we wouldn't want you too end up with it. Besides, I'm not an ideot. I know how this works. You give us this little task, we complete it and then return here, only to have you try to kill us so you don't have to follow through with your promise, right?"

Varcadia coughed as something, probably his pride, caught in his throat.

"Thought so. Something tells me your not all your cracked up to be, Varcadia. In fact, I highly doubt you even match up with an Apprentice of a Wizard of the Twenty. So here's what's going to happen. Your going to tell us right now where Alpha is," Coyote said, drawing Tantamount from his side, "or I kill you."

[Coyote]

From the look on Varcadia's face, everything he had been planning up to this point had suddenly and disastrously crashed all around him, leaving him standing in the middle of a ground zero of his shattered hopes. He swallowed a lump in his throat several times, trying to choke a few words that came out as a few stuttering syllables before his mouth clamped shut.

Timothy scoffed and shook his head. "You're no Apprentice of The Twenty."

Coyote smiled, placing his palms down on the table before him. "That much is clear. Who are you?"

Varcadia, if that was who he was, nervously shifted in his seat, his eyes darting towards a large, red curtain hanging against the wall. Elsa calmly moved over towards it and pulled it aside, revealing a hidden hallway that ended in a iron door. "Nice escape plan. Too bad you won't be using it."
The Countess stood in front of the curtain with a smile on her face.

"So," Coyote said, "how about you start at the beginning."

From the side of the room, the Faerie servant girl spoke. "I can fill you in, if you'd like."

The group looked towards her and Varcadia sneered in a hateful grimace, his hand reaching towards a string around his neck.

With a flick of his hand and a spoken prayer, a flesh of white light burst from Timothy's hand, sending a sphere of white light hurtling across the length of the hall's table, striking Varcadia in the chest, throwing him from his chair and knocking him too the ground, skidding along the floor several feet before coming to a stop. Elsa walked over towards him and roughly picked the man up, ripping and snapping the string from around his neck. Looped around the course string was a small black key of some strange, dull metal. She threw it across the room and Coyote caught it one handed. He turned towards the slave girl, holding the string wrapped around his fingers.

"I take it this unlocks that nasty doo-hicky around your neck?"

The girl smiled and nodded. "Yes. Varcadia caught me unaware and was able to place the slave collar on me, binding me to the will of whoever holds that key."

"Yea, you don't have to call him Varcadia anymore, Varcadia."

The real apprentice smiled more, showing pearly white teeth between her red lips. "Thank you. He ordered me to call him by my name and never refer to myself as such. It has been an extreme annoyance."

"Who is he?"
"Nothing more than a glorified house servant." She said, looking over at the crumpled wreck that the former Varcadia had become. "Gardner, butler and nothing more. His name is Garan. My Master, Garan and myself were the only ones living in this house. When Alpha killed my former mentor, Garen put this collar while I was in the middle of reclaiming my Master's lost power, when I was at my weakest. He's been enjoying my name and station ever since then."

"What is the crown of thorns he wanted us to retrieve."

Varcadia laughed. "A story, nothing more. He tried to force me to tell him how he would be able to fully take my power and that of our former Master and make it his own. There is no way to do such, he does not possess the force of personality or strength to do so. I told him a story to satisfy him, of a thorny crown that would allow him to siphon my life into his own. Like the idiot he is, he believed me."

Coyote nodded, playing with the black key, passing it between his fingers. "So what do we do now, Varcadia?"

"That is entirely up too you, Saint Coyote." Varcadia said with a purr. "You hold the key to my slave collar. You could make me do anything you want. I am literally your obedient slave. You could tell me to leap from the tallest tower and I would be forced to do so. You could do anything you want with me." Her thin eyebrows arched slowly.

"Tell me where Alpha is."

"To business first, I see. Alpha is hiding in a a series of ruins called the Magcropolis, an ancient crypt used by members of the Twenty and Twelve in ages past, before the practice of Master and Apprentice was created."

"What is he doing there?"

"I honestly do not know, but if I were him, I would be trying to harness the power of the old Twenty and Twelve in the use of some magical ritual."

From nearby, Timothy hissed sharply. "The Codex Gigas."

Varcadia laughed, a little color showing in her cheeks. "The Dark God's book? Alpha does have it? I thought the rumors were true. Does he really think he can become God's shell on the mortal plane?"

"My brother is misguided. There is no force in this world that can contain God's power."

Varcadia cooed. "I'm afraid you are as misguided as your freak of a brother. With the Codex Gigas, he could do just that. He would embody God's dark half with the proper power and ritual."

Timothy scoffed at the girl. "God has no 'dark side' to embody. The Gigas is a false tome. Full of nothing but lies."

"Then your not only misguided but also stupid."

"Quite." Coyote ordered her sharply. "No one talks to Timothy like that."

Varcadia nodded towards Coyote. "I apologize."
"And?" Coyote asked.
Varcadia curled her lush lips. "Oh, I see. I apologize, Master."

"Remember that." Coyote said.

[Coyote]

"Why do you insist on bringing every pathetic life form along with us?"
"What's wrong, Timothy, were you hoping more for a 'blessed crusade' vibe over the 'ragtag band of uncertain morality figures' we've got going? Because if so, I think I might be offended."

The five of them, Varcadia having joined the following, had made quick time overland towards Alpha's location, the site of the Magcropolis, the ancient burial grounds of the Twenty and Twelve. No longer in use by the secret society, the mass graveyard had sat unused and lost for thousands of years until Alpha set up shop there. With all that untapped magical power just simmering in the moldering and rotting corpses of several hundred generations of the most powerful Wizards in the history of the world, just waiting for someone to snatch it up, there was no time to lose.

"I never was under any delusion that you or the others saw this as God's work, Coyote. Even if I did, it wouldn't have mattered to any of you. My main concern is that we cannot trust Varcadia to ally with us against Alpha. She is the former apprentice of a member of the Twenty, which makes her very nearly irredeemably evil. She cannot be trusted even if our goals are aligned against Alpha."

"Of course she can't, Timothy, I'm not stupid. That why I have this little trinket." Coyote said, holding up the tiny black key to Varcadia's slave collar. "She'll have to do everything I tell her too. And she knows she only get this back when Alpha is dead and we're on our way home."

"Which brings me to my other point of concern," Timothy said, "using this foul magic to control her. Even if she is evil, to use such dark magic against her is just as bad as she is."

Coyote laughed and slipped the key around his neck. "What is it ou say, Timothy? 'God works in mysterious ways?" What if I was meant to come into possession of this key and use Varcadia against Alpha? What is this is all according to 'His' plan?"

Timothy glowered at Coyote, his eyes turning dark. "Only a fool or madman tries claims to know God's unknowable meaning, Coyote. That is why we are trying to stop Alpha in the first place."

"So you don't trust me?" Coyote asked.
"No," the Priest replied, "I trust you totally, Coyote, with my secret and my life. Obviously! I worry about the temptation of that power and what it could do too you."

"Well, thank you for the concern, Father, but I'll be the one to worry about my immortal soul and what temptations I put in front of it. If it does worry you, though, I'll give the key to you if you think it's best."

"No! No, I won't have it. I know better than to tempt myself. I just hope you do the same."

Coyote looked back at the rest of the group. "Oh, believe me, Timothy. I know what temptation is. I've been tested. You don't need to worry about me."

Timothy narrowed his eyes, concern and worry clear.

Coyote had to admit, the old Priest was right; Varcadia was a sure temptation. Just knowing he had full control over her was a thrill in itself, but seeing who and what she was took it to another level entirely. A Wizard, one strong enough to be among the Twenty, at his command. The idea was enough to over-encumber even the most modest of Ego's.
Not to mention she was gorgeous!

[Coyote]

The group set up camp for the night, quickly taking a meal before turning into bed. Coyote lingered on, watching the fire burn out as if he hoped to catch some secret within the embers that could lead them to Alpha's defeat. He saw no such sign and fitfully threw a small rock into the pit, scattering ash in a small cloud.

"Trying to read the future?"

Coyote didn't have to turn to know it was Varcadia. He had been expecting this from her the moment she joined, so he wasn't surprised by her appearance.

"No, just wishing I had a better idea of what I was going up against."

Varcadia joined him in the circle around the dead fire. The glowing embers gave Coyote just a hint of where she sat next to him, but he could smell her above the burning wood and smoke. She smelled like honey and flowers like all her kind did, but Coyote could detect a sickly sweet smell about her, the kind you either were repulsed by or couldn't help but breathe in deeply. When they had brought her along, she had changed out of her rags, with Coyote's permission, and into something more appropriate for the travel ahead, rough leathers and a cloak which would serve on the trail fine. Coyote was impressed by the foresight she had, but now her clothes served a very different purpose. Now she was clad in a robe of black which against her dark skin made her almost invisible in the fading light expect where the embers glistened off her legs and bare shoulders. He could imagine how soft that skin would be, almost as soft as the robe which barely concealed her body.

"Do you always sleep in something like that or is it only for when your roughing it in the wilderness?"

She must have appreciated his frankness because she smiled and laughed, enough to make anyone buckle at the knees. Coyote braced himself not to show any reaction, only tightening his hand around the key to the collar which held her in check.

"Let me guess, now that everyone is asleep, your here to seduce me into giving you the key while at the same time promising to continue to aid us against Alpha, am I right?"

She nodded, a strand of hair falling in front of her eyes like it wasn't planned.

"When really, you plan on waiting till Alpha is dead, then seizing the Codex Gigas and the power of the Magcropolis for yourself. Am I on the right track?"

She un-tucked her legs from beneath her and got on her hands and knees, crawling towards Coyote from around the fire, every inch of her illuminated. "That's right."

Coyote couldn't help but reply to her hungry smile with one of his own. "What makes you think I'll go along with that?"

Varcadia slithered up next to him, close enough to let her lips brush up against Coyote's ear, either gently blowing wind or letting her tongue crawl along his lobe, he wasn't sure.
"Because it'll feel good."

[Coyote]

Varcadia was close enough that Coyote wouldn't have needed his highly sensitive nose to smell the perfume she was wearing to mask her fairy aroma. Even with the strong cover up, Coyote could feel the tickling in the back of his throat that he got every time he was around one of the fey folk. Not too mention any other bodily reactions that were taking place because of her close presence.
One of her hands reached out towards him, taking his own and lacing her fingers between his. Her skin was unbelievably soft. He suddenly remembered how long it had been since he had been intimate with anyone. Not since Nigrify several years ago. Lust had never been something he dealt with before, it had been a non-issue for him until he had met her. She had ignited something within him and it had never died away.
But it burned for Nigrify and no one else. Coyote suspected it always would. In his mind he wailed in loneliness.

"You want to know what would feel real good to me?"
Varcadia smiled, drawing closer like a snake about to strike. "What's that? Tell me and I'll do it for you."
As innocently and in the sweetest voice he could manage, Coyote whispered, letting his lips just barely touch the tips of her pointed ears, "If you couldn't scream and were in horrific pain."

Varcadia's eyes went wide and her mouth clamped shut. Her back arched in pain, not in seduction like it was a moment before and she writhed on the ground, which Coyote admitted to himself, did interesting things to her long limbs and revealed skin.
Her eyes blazed in agony. There was too much pain for her to glare in hate and her pupils rolled back into her head and her body went limp suddenly as she mercifully passed out.

Coyote looked down at her for a few moment before putting her back in order, slipping her slinky clothes back down over her legs to secure what modesty she may still have. He took a tin of cold water at his side and dashed the contents across her face. She came too, sputtering and coughing, and Coyote had to tear his eyes away from the wet fabric that clung to her chest.

When she had recovered, she looked at Coyote with genuine surprise and confusion.
"You're not used to people turning you down, are you?"
She nodded, her hair falling around her face. "I have never have been before. You surprise me, Saint Coyote. I did not think you could be as cruel as that."

"Just remember it." Coyote warned. "I don't care about the Twelve and Twenty, the Magcropolus or whatever you have planned for them. When this is over, I'm leaving with Alpha dead and the Codex Gigas. You can do whatever the hell you want with the rest and I never want to hear from you again, understood?"

She hesitated, still breathing heavily from the adrenaline rush the collar sent through her. "And my freedom?"
"You'll have it." Coyote said. "And not a moment sooner. I don't trust you. I had been expecting this little show of yours and now I've shown you it won't work on me."

"You've shown me much more than that, Saint." She replied in an icy tone. "You've shown me not to underestimate you again. I assure you, I won't."

She picked herself up and headed back towards her tent.
"Coyote?" She said without turning around.
"What?"
"You've shown me something else about yourself that I think you did not want me to know."
Coyote hesitated. "What's that?"
She looked at him over her smooth shoulder. "That you can be very cruel. You would make a good Twelve and Twenty."

Coyote looked down at the fire. "Life is cruel."
Varcadia smiled. "My former Master said that often. I rest my case." She slipped under the tent flap without a sound.

Coyote stared at the fire the rest of the night.

[Coyote]

With several days of good travel behind them, Coyote, Brother Timothy, Countess Elsa and a tightly reigned Varcadia finally arrived at the Magcropolis, ancient burial ground of the Twenty and Twelve. Befitting ancient mages of untold power, their place of resting was on a scale none of the companions had ever seen. Constructed through the use of epic magic and the expenditure of the lives of thousands of slaves, the crypt for the most powerful Wizards in the world was appropriately dark, jarring and macabre.

A huge volcanic crater set into the heart of a mountain was filled with black water, a deep and dark tarry substance that held barely a ripple even when the dry easterly wind ran across it's sheet glass surface. rising up from the water were ascending stones which connected into stairs, leading up too a stone mesa rising from the waters below. Flared at the top, the pillar was dotted with thousands of man sized niches, each one holding a tiny flickering ghost light being held aloft by a dried corpse garbed in funeral robes, tattered and paper thin from the ages. The pillar supported a temple above constructed of pillars and spires, all of which led around a single point, a spur of silver and crystal which reflected light and was the brightest object Coyote had seen in Drahken yet; certainly it's glow outmatched the pale luminescence of the sun that peaked barely through pitch black clouds that lay overhead.

The group stared in wonder at the sheer size and majesty of the monument.
"I didn't expect it to be so...big." Timothy said.
"Leave it to a group of power mad old men to bury themselves in a giant phallic symbol."

Elsa blushed. "I wanted to say something, but I'm glad I wasn't the one."
"Why did they abandon this place? Surely the Twenty and Twelve still need a resting place for their numbers?" Timothy noted.

Varcadaia smiled, her eyes glowing as she looked at the place of power before her. "Are you sure of that, Holy Man? This place was built in the ancient past and the mages of Demos have only become stronger since then. Perhaps they have no need for tombs to hold their remains. Perhaps they have ceased to worry about death and continue on after their time is over."

"Are you suggesting the Twenty and Twelve are immortal?" Timothy asked sceptically.
"Has not Alpha done so? With their combined knowledge and power, I can not think of any thing the Twelve and Twenty cannot do."

"Doesn't matter to me." Coyote said, his eyes locked on the pillar of silver high above. "If Alpha's in there, he'll be dead and joining the corpses in there soon enough."

“Do not be so eager to face him, Coyote.” Timothy warned. “He possesses a power that surpasses all of ours combined. The chances of us actually defeating him in combat are substantially stacked against us. Our best chance at stopping his plans is focusing on halting the ritual as put down in the Gigas Codex. Denying him that power is our best bet of halting his ascension. Otherwise, there is very little we can do against such a creature as he.“

“You say the Codex is his power source, then?” Varcadia asked.
“No, but it is the center of a ritual he is attempting to see through. He believes that it will make him God's vessel on the mortal plane.“
“God's? As in more than one?”
“No. There is only one true God.”

Big 'G' verses little 'g'.“ Elsa said.

“Ah, I see,” Varcadia chuckled.

I'm actually hoping your wrong on that, Timothy.“
“Oh, so you'd rather fight God?” Varcadia asked.

Coyote's hand stroked his blade, forged from twisted metal and blades formed into one. “Let's say I have a equalizer when it comes to the Divine.“