Digging for answers

[Nora Saint-Clair]

Nora managed a tight, practiced smile as Eliot spoke, attempting to be polite. Her heart was still ticking too fast, but she eased her shoulders a fraction, enough to appear calm. Appearances mattered. Especially among the Atharim.

Not my job to police the brethren.

She didn't believe him. Not entirely. Nobody dropped a line like that without intention. Especially not in the dark, waiting for them to come home. Still, she let herself breathe again, slowly, and moved back toward the kitchen.

The water had already started to boil. She poured it out, her hands moving automatically as she busied herself with something that let her think. The scent of mint and something earthier rose from the steam as she added a second bag, letting it steep longer than necessary.

She brought the mug into the room with both hands, the warmth of it seeping into her palms as she crossed the threshold and approached him. Not too close. Close enough.

“Tea?” she offered, voice low, careful. Not cold. But not soft, either. It was a small gesture of hospitality.

She set the cup down on the nearest table, and finally took a seat herself. Her fingers tapped once, lightly, against her knee before stilling.

“Nobody wants to be policed,” she said quietly, watching the steam curl from the cup. “But if you know something… I’m all ears.”

She didn't flinch and her voice didn’t crack, but the question was there, beneath the surface tension of her tone: What do you know? And what are you going to do about it?

[Claude Saint-Clair]

Claude sat up more, trying not to think of the pounding in his head. Something was up. Eliot was trying to put them at ease, and that just made Claude all the more suspicious, but he kept it behind a mask. It was easier to do with the pounding head. At least he could say that he wasn't feeling well, but still. Eliot had been waiting here...in the dark...like some sort of movie villain. Things weren't adding up. Unless he knew about Nora. But he was not here to police. Maybe he was trying to lower their guard.

Pieces started to come together. His strange headache, and even stranger, Nora's reaction. The way she moved to protect him from Laguex. Could it be? Had he used the god powers too. His mind went back to Artskaf. He wondered if Nora had done that. What if he had. Was his headache a symptom of touching the power.

Nora changed her tactics to something more reserved, even offering Eliot tea, but there was an unspoken question in her statement. She was figuring out where Eliot was coming from and what he was doing here. Claude took a drink of his water and pinched the bridge of his nose. He had tried to ignore it, but it was getting worse. Hopefully the painkillers would start to take effect soon. For now, he kept silent, the conversation was between Nora and Eliot. He would listen and be ready in case things went bad.

[Eliot]

"Tea would be great." He gave Ms. St. Clair a bright smile.

They were both very suspcious of him. He wasn't surprised. He had been sitting in the dark waiting for them. "As I understand it you have an interest in the brotherhood? And have a few other secrets. I'm looking for allies." Eliot leaned forward and seized the power inside and wove a ball of light.

[Nora Saint-Clair]

She'd been rarely in the presence of such things, and to see what could only be explained as god power in front of her, she gasped. Of all the things to expect, in a million years she never would have expected this. 

"So then, that means you're, a..." she stammered at the end, not quite able to say it out loud. She grew up with an image in her head of the gods of mythology, and they were always larger than life, immortal, and magnificent beings, and Eliot was, well, just Eliot. 

"And you are here because you know..."  It was about this time that words failed her and she looked to Claude, hoping he would pick up the rest.

[Claude Saint-Clair]

Claude felt it a moment before the bright light made the pounding in his head get stronger. He saw the light come together even as he shielded his eyes from the brightness. He grimaced and let out a pained gasp. Claude wasn't unaware of what was happening with that. Eliot was like Nora - a reborn god. And he realized then, that he probably was one too. He had revealed his own secret and asked for allies. Was that the purpose of his visit.

"That Nora is one too," he finished Nora's sentence, but he didn't put his hand down. The light hurt to look at. "And...maybe I am too..."

He had felt the meancing power come from Eliot right before he had conjured the light from thin air. "If you're looking for allies, then why the villian in the dark routine." It was perhaps more blunt than Claude would have been sans headache. Claude really didn't want to dance around the issue. He hoped that his demonstration was over that Eliot would put the light away.

[Eliot]

Eliot smile polietly he knew that she was, though they confirmed it rather readily. He was surprised. Most people did not give up their secrets so easily. "Is this not an Atharim safe house? I was just sitting and relaxing, and I didn't feel like turning the lights on." It wasn't the whole truth. But he hadn't intended to be too creepy. But he wanted them to know he had his resources and knew his way around things.

"I suspected the line is strong in the family. It is good to know that Durante's family line isn't the only one to produce more than one godling. It does add weight to my other projects." Helena's project mostly -- to produce an heir with godling powers. "We keep each others secrets, we open doors were there are none for each other. I think the Brotherhood warrants investigation. And your brother could use with a teacher if he's just come into his power. We need to get him to seize the source before the sickness sets in. And while I may be able to show you, I cannot teach you. But I know someone who can."

[Claude Saint-Clair]

The light was still there and it made the pounding in his head grow. ”I’d much prefer is we could stay in the dark.” he said to Eliot, still covering his face from the light.

Thankfully, Eliot obliged. Claude moved his hand down and sat back, rubbing his temples. He didn’t speak more, but he listened. So there seemed to be a coalition for people in the Atharim who could channel the god powers: a secret society within a secret a secret society. A coalition for people like him and Nora.

He could channel too, and Claude wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Claude would much rather he or Nora couldn’t. Nora was really struggling with this, and she deserved so much better than the fear and guilt she seemed to be feeling. Apparently Eliot knew someone who could teach him. He’d have to learn to control it, or he would die. Claude like learning new skills, but this - he found it hard to get any excitement for it. He would do what he had to do to survive and then leave it alone.

[Nora Saint-Clair]

She didn’t flinch, but her gaze flicked to Claude when he winced, shielding his face. Her instinct screamed to do something, but Eliot had already proven what she suspected, and Claude… Claude had just confirmed the rest. So. Her gut had been right.

She looked between them. First Eliot, then Claude, rubbing his temples, pale beneath the strain, his voice subdued under the weight of what he’d just said.

Her stomach knotted, but she didn’t let it show. So this was it. The other shoe. She leaned back slightly, absorbing Eliot’s words. Allies. Family line. A teacher. And… the Brotherhood. Her mind spun for a moment, reordering everything. Her fear was still there, but something else had slid in alongside it. Opportunity.

She wondered if there were others within the Atharim itself. She’d spent so long thinking of her divinity as something she had to hide or fight, never as something that might be useful to them.

It didn’t make Eliot less dangerous. But danger didn’t always mean enemy. She folded her arms, not out of defiance this time, but to ground herself.

“You’re right. Claude’s going to need help,” she said, voice quieter now. The fight was still in her, but it had shifted. “He didn’t ask for this any more than I did.”

She exhaled, slow and controlled, glancing down at her hand where the warmth from the tea cup had already begun to fade. “I know all about the sickness. We’re not waiting for that to happen. Not to him.”

Her gaze flicked once more to her brother. Then, back to Eliot. Her voice steadied further.

She unfolded her arms, fingers flexing once against her thigh as if loosening a symbolic grip. “You said you knew someone. Someone who can teach me. I … I do want to learn.” A pause. It felt so wrong to say it out loud. She half expected the guillotine to fall then and there. “Who are they?” She wasn’t agreeing blindly. But she was agreeing. Because Claude was in danger. Because she was in danger. And for once, someone was offering her a door instead of a wall. She intended to walk through it with eyes wide open.

“But the Brotherhood…” That frightened her. She was there once, and she had no desire to return to those nut jobs worshiping a man like he was the maker of the universe. She set her stance, ready to hush Claude in case he protested.

“What do you want me to do?”