Rent And Other Things

The morning after the pub celebration of Matches' vows, Henri finds him sticking his head out of a window with a cigar in hand. He peers over the street below and runs the fingers of his other hand idly along his newly formed obsidian horns, clearly still getting used to them. His new Obsidian Gauntlets sit together against the wall next to him.

"Remind me," comes Henri's voice, groggy and unsteady, "to never try to keep up with an Archwyrm." He slumps against the wall next to Cain. "How're you feeling."

Cain reels his head back in from the window and looks at Henri. His eyes, only yesterday newly burning with orange flame, look instead like the last pitiful embers resting on coals. He puts his cigar in his mouth and sticks his head back out the window.
"Just about worth it."

Henri chuckles, clapping Cain on the shoulder. "Well, let's get that fire lit in you again." He takes his hand back quickly, shaking it with a start. "Right. I forgot about that part."

"Oh, shit. Sorry lad, hang on, let me.." Cain tips most of his torso out of the window and exhales deeply. As he does so, steam ejects from his body out into the street. "It's easier to regulate when I'm.. Not hanging out my arse."

Tentatively, Henri reaches out with a finger to poke Cain's shoulder, ready to pull it away at a moment's notice. Noticeably cooler, he sighs. "I knew from the others that taking your vows involved a bit of a glow-up, but I didn't expect you'd end up so literally hot. You'll get the hang of it, I'm sure."

Cain chuckles softly as he returns back into the room. "Absolutely. Gets me curious about what'll happen to you when you take your vows. You don't need to look any younger, greedy little bugger. I would've liked that one."

"Maybe I'll grow wings," Henri says quietly, his gaze passing out the window to the morning sky beyond. With a slight shake of his head he turns back to Cain. "Or maybe my eyes will shine as bright as rubies! Or maybe I'll just get even more aggravating."

"So long as you're not as aggravating as your archwyrm I think you'll be alright." Cain shoots a wink at his brother and chuckles a little. "Do you think you could help me with a little something? It's on my mind after having taken my vows."

"For you, brother, anything."

"Explain to me, as if I were a child, The Infinite Staircase and your involvement with it." He takes a long drag of his cigar before blowing the smoke out of the window. "I hear.. bits and pieces here and there. But no one's sat me down and given it to me straight."

"Ah." Henri turns, placing his back on the wall so that he faces away from Cain. With a flick of his wrist, he beckons his scarf over from a nearby chair.

"The Staircase is many things but you may think of it as a means of travel. Stairs that lead between doorways that lead to other places." He gestures with a finger and the scarf begins to unfurl, the threads bending and twisting to form steps and balconies and half open doorways.

"If your resolve is strong enough, it can take you nearly anywhere you like, though some are certainly easier than others. The moon, where Andromeda and Copernicus reside, is one of this places that is a bit more accepting to travel." One of the doors opens to reveal a twirling orb of silver.

He turns his head to look at Cain. "Following so far?"

Cain nods slowly, focusing as hard as he can on what's being said and the visual aid.
"Keep going."

"Now think of those doorways less as places and more as possibilities. It is not planar travel, not as we are used to," he continues, as one of those staircases splits, leading to two nearly identical doors. Behind one is a red orb; behind the other is a blue one. "It is the power to go to what is, what could have been, and what might be. The latter two, of course, requiring far more power, far more will. The Infinite are the only ones who can do so reliably."

Finally the scene Henri conjures changes once more, to a grey threaded figure climbing the silver stairs step by step. "Will and power are how the Staircase works and how it lives. It is powered by the ones who walk it," he says, and with each step the figure becomes more and more silver. "You give up some of yourself, and you slowly become more and more part of it. Until you and the Staircase are the same."

"So.. Travel through this reality and alternate realities? I see where we get the 'Infinite' part.. And how much travelling have you done? How much of you is the Staircase?" Cain looks at Henri straight on, attempting to convey a genuine desire to understand without judgement for or against.

Henri shrugs. "Less than I was? And not as much as I wish to be." The threaded figure splits in two, one wrapped in fabric that begins to glow silver from within, one bare that begins to glow silver from their eyes.

"It takes many steps and many journeys to reach the end. Just look at Gerhard. He travels much more than I do and he's still him."

"And what does it do for us exactly? Your magic, you pull.. Beings, forces from the Staircase? Like you did on the island with that fella in the glasses?"

"Malroth, the Observer, is their name. And I don't exactly pull them through. I ask, and they answer. You could think of my magic as being the power to... ask better."

"And what happens when something you ask says no? Or gets pissed that you even asked?"

Henri's brow furrows. "Then I suppose nothing happens. But just as I answer their call, I trust they will answer mine."

Cain puts his hands up defensively. "Alright. Look, I'm not trying to get on you about this for the sake of it.. Vulcanax told me I need to protect this family, and I don't know the extent of The Staircase and what it can do. I trust you to be the authority on that, but that doesn't mean I want to be completely out of the loop."

Henri smiles, shaking his head. "No, Cain, I'm not upset. I just don't know. But suffice to say when you all need me, I will be there." He turns his head, hanging it back to look Cain in the eye as best he can. "We all have our roles. Yours is wiping the slate. I think mine might be choosing the right slate."

Cain furrows his brow this time, but only briefly before he has to shut his eyes from the headache of thinking too hard.

"Yeah, thought so. What you do is a bit beyond me. But I trust you in your role. I just need to know that if things go poorly, if they do, that I can throw a fireball at an inter dimensional being if I need to. I'm not having anything nasty come out of there and hurt my little brother."

He reaches over and runs a clawed hand through Henri's hair to mess it up.

Henri ducks, not fast enough to escape the worst of it, and steps out of arms reach. "Tsk and I'd just gotten it.." he mutters, his hands flying to his head to protect his vanity.

Content, he turns back to Cain. "You're welcome to. Though depending on who comes through it might be like flicking a toothpick at Elarris." His face contorts a bit, as though unsure what to display and settling on a shaky resolve. "I know you'll protect them. I wouldn't want anyone else to do it. And besides, if we're lucky Calla can help me with the Staircase, too. Gerhard is still around. I think anything out there knows better by now than to come after us."

"Alright, sounds good.. The more of you clever lot handling it the better." Cain sits in the quiet for a moment, looking out of the window, contemplating. Before he shrugs a little and opens his mouth again.

"By the way, I crossed paths with that Lord Jaezred the other week. Right royal prick that he is."

"Oh. You did?" Henri's voice has shrunk, no matter how nonchalant he tries to sound. "As did I, in fact. It's all water under the bridge between us now." For Henri this is clearly a sore spot - not necessarily one of regret for where things ended, but the path they took to get there.

Cain looks his brother up and down, reading the body language in that response and his own softens up. "Look, mate, I didn't really like the feller. So I can't say I'm not glad he won't be coming to any family gatherings anytime soon.. But for the record, he seemed concerned for your safety after he heard we'll be going to war with Arcravine soon. He seems like the kind of tough nut who wouldn't let that slip in front of you. But I saw him."

Henri scoffs in response, but his brow softens some at Cain's admission. "Probably just concerned he'll lose one more spider," he says, softly.

"Like I said, I'm the last person who's gonna try and convince you to change anything. Good riddance to him, wipe the slate clean. But it's good to have everything out on the table before it goes. No good to think you got everything and find one stubborn thing survived."

Henri looks up, a determination in his eye that wasn't there before. "You're right. We'll wipe it clean and start again."

Cain smiles and nods. "Right you are. And starting again first of all, my young mucker, means looking for a place to rent that can fit both of our egos." His smile turns into a cheeky grin.

"Hah!" Henri returns the grin, a hand to his cheekbones as he thinks. "Where do we want to go, though? It would be nice to be nearby."

"Oh definitely. Just because I'm moving out of Orianna's doesn't mean I wanna stop coming over. If we're not too far we can still pop over for breakfast every now and then." His grin is permanently plastered and he gestures for Henri to follow his lead and he sticks his head out of the window. "Any of these look good to you?"

Henri looks out, sticking his head out the window so far Cain fears for a moment he might fall. He twists himself, checking each side equally. "Which ones did Mal destroy? They'd be newly repaired. Probably a good deal, too."

"Gotta be one of those.." As Cain guides Henri's eyeline out further out on the street with one pointed, clawed finger, he uses the other hand to give Henri's back a light push to startle him into nearly tipping out of the window.

Henri places a hand on the window to steady himself. "So that's how it is, hmm?" he says, turning to look at Cain. "Fratricide, dear brother? And if I had slipped?" His grin turns wicked, his eyes shining in the morning light.

With a snap of his fingers Henri leaps forward, out the window, and above the street below. Silver threads pull at his elbows and knees, hands and ankles, suspending him in midair.

He places a hand on his chin, looking at the neighbouring houses. "You're right. One of those."

Cain chuckles and slowly claps out of the window. "Oh alright, well played you bastard. While you're out there you can have a closer look at one you like and I'll start inquiring, how's that sound?" He takes a long drag of his cigar and blows it in Henri's direction, the smoke forming into an arrow that strikes his chest before dissipating.

Henri had just gotten his legs crossed and himself seated when the arrow strikes him, turning him head over heels in midair. After a full rotation, he catches Cain's eye again, his jaw clearly clenched to stop from smiling and to keep indignant. A battle he loses. "Fine, fine. I'll check for possibilities. Just focus on destroying how much we must pay to rent, yes?" He's just able to finish speaking before he rotates away.

Cain let's put a hearty belly laugh and slaps his knee. Then fires off a salute out the window. "Go forth, great Herald of Possibilities! And good luck getting down!"

The silver around his joints bends and twists as he orients himself, upside down, one leg crooked over the other. He places his hands behind his back, winking at Cain. "You forget, I can go anywhere I like."

And in a flash of silver he is gone, standing on the street below, and then gone once more.