Harry Dresden (Wizard) (thewinterknight) wrote in knowhereic, @ 2017-08-29 22:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | diablo: canon: li-ming, the dresden files: canon: harry dresden |
Who: Harry Dresden & Li Ming
What: Wizard Sass Battle
Where: The former residence of Sir Integra Hellsing and Alucard
When: Way backdated to after this
Warnings | Status: None | PG | Log - Complete
If Li-Ming knew anything, it was magic.Her mentors had always chastised her for using it without thinking, for trivial purposes, but she always thought they were just too focused on being too tied to their rules. She also knew she rather enjoyed riling up her fellow wizard. He considered himself just human, while he wasn't, and she knew there was a potential there was denying himself. So maybe, once she got a feel for it and understood the lab he'd invited her too she'd remove the things he tied himself too. He didn't need any of it.
That such a thing might cause conflict wasn't something she considered. She dealt with consequences as they came. She always jumped before looking, assured she'd land on her feet. so far, except a few stumbles, that had held true.
So there was the potential to needle the truth into Harry's mind, and the chance to study different magics. It was a win win in her book.
Thanks to the sigil she'd left finding the lab was easy. She'd worn her armor because...well she had nothing else yet and the place was just dangerous enough where she might need it. She smiled as she approached. "Hello Harry Dresden," she offered cheerfully. It could be mocking, but it wasn't. Not really. She meant the friendliness at least. "Shall we poke at some magic?" She gave with a grin.
---
Harry was always eager to find other wizards; magic was the one thing in the world that Harry would without a doubt talk to other people about, above anything else. Li-Ming wasn’t any sort of exception, being a wizard of another sort. She was just as much of an anomaly as anything however, and Harry found himself both confused and troubled by her declarations every time he talked to her. And why? Because she challenged his way of thinking and he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it because she was right. Because her words touched on the thoughts harbored by Harry’s evil twin. His subconscious wasn’t a place Harry liked to delve, and that guy had a lot of thoughts and ideas about what he could do with the world. It wasn’t a very nice place to go, so Harry held onto the strict teachings of his mentor and denied the impulses that said reach beyond into the power he knew he was capable of taking.
He had stood on that precipice before and turned away.
The wizard closed up shop behind him, tucking the key inside his jacket. He was prepped for war, by all accounts, his duster on, staff in hand, and the magical tools he thought might be necessary hanging in a black nylon bag from his shoulder. Harry turned to look at the woman, eying her suspiciously.
But really, if he didn’t want to hear the things she had to say he wouldn’t have invited her to hang around. His subconscious was a manipulative dick.
“Hey, Li-Ming, “ he replied, “Haven’t decided to fight with any dragons yet?” He asked, taking his staff and stepping up, then gallantly gesturing onward. “Come on, it’s one of the mini mansions in the place.”
He was, admittedly, quite excited. Say what you would of Alucard and Sir Integra Hellsing, but they were really freaking neat.
***
Mentally she noted what he was wearing, and carrying. compared to her, dressed in armor with a wand and focus, it would be easy to assume which one of them was more prepared. And to Li-Ming's thinking, they'd be wrong. He carried all these things, and she made a guess at least half of them were unnecessary. Leah told her she pushed, but she pushed so others could achieve what she knew they could. He wasn't Nephalem, like her, but that didn't mean he didn't have boundaries he could break, heights he could achieve.
She meant it when she said the only thing holding him back was himself.
So she smiled to his look. "I have yet to find any dragons. I'll let you know if I do." Dragons. Now that would be a thing. There were only two in her world, and one she'd already defeated. The other was a neutral balance, a necessary thing for the world to function. She had no desire to tackle that creature, not until it became a threat. "Such a fight would be...interesting. If a fight is needed. the knowledge of one alone. Well" she smiled and shrugged. "It would be a good day."
Confidently she walked alongside him. He had reach, she had the speed. She wasn’t even running to keep up. “There are those? How interesting. I will hope this one does not lead to a cave of a giant spider with a taste for the flesh of man. I really did not like her and her children.”
There was a pause before she added. “I am working on something new. I disliked getting run into,” despite it probably also being her fault, “so I’m thinking illusion laced with a bit of coercion. Enough to make people step aside. The trick is not to use too much coercion. I hardly want them running away from me. I think I almost have it. How are your skills in that?”
---
“Good luck with that, I’ll be running the other way and taking cover like normal people,” Harry said grimly. No he wouldn’t. He’d go out there and die trying to kill it if it his sense of responsibility demanded it, because he was generally too stupid to know when to give up. No one said Harry was particularly intelligent, the wizard himself included.
Harry stepped into place beside the woman, leading them along. “I don’t really wanna throw down with Shelob either right now,” he commented on giant spiders. “Besides, I don’t know if that makes me Gollum and you Frodo or vice versa.” She didn’t know what he was talking about, but Harry chuckled at his own jokes. So he was leading a hobbit to potential death, so what. He wasn’t intending to betray her. Or get eaten by giant spiders.
“I have very little skill with illusions,” Harry replied and then paused to think about her question. It was a good one. How would he do it? Harry furrowed his brows and frowned. “Well for one, I have zero talents when it comes to neuromancy. Legitimately. It’s too delicate and I’m much more capable of ramming my fist into your face than whispering in your ear,” he said by way of metaphor. “So if I had to do it it would be a veil, or a glamour, and just a slight ‘stay away.’ Not a warning for something dangerous. With a slightly larger diameter.” He extended his hand in a half motion to indicate the space he meant, “than you’d usually get in a crowd. That way they wouldn’t look at my face and it’d use their own distraction to manipulate them into moving away.” He shrugged slightly.
***
She gave an amused snort. "I doubt you even believe that." She sighed as he went on, "you know. You toss out names of things I don't know whenever you think it'll unbalance me. Or just because you think you're funny. I haven't decided which one of it it really is." She added thoughtfully before listening to him. "Hm." she gave. "I think that's what you tell yourself. It's much easier being the mace that rams into the door then the key that opens it to many. However, you can be both." Which was ironic, really. She was as much a large maul then anything Kormac could ever hope to lift. If there was a door, she opened it with enough force to blow it off it's hinges. Why be subtle when you could cast Disintegrate?
"You make it a lot more complicated than it needs to be too. But look." she took out her focus and let it float over her hand. She barely looked at it and just walked with it floating. She didn't do anything to it, and it cost her no power to do it. To her mentors, it would have been a waste of magic, doing something trivial just because it made it easier. Like magic couldn’t be used to make life somewhat easier. “Shockingly you can be both the key and the maul. Summon Hydra’s and meteors of incredible force, and have a spell that makes it so you don’t sweat your clothes off in the middle of a desert. You don’t have skill because you don’t practice. Talent can be unlocked. Stretch your limits.”
She shrugged, “keep doing the same thing you do all your life, and soon enough someone will get under your defenses. Change your habits, and you live longer. I have a friend, well she’s more like a sister to me, who could really teach us both something. Eirena is an Enchantress in all sense of that word. She does her magic like I do my magic, like breathing. She entrances without thinking about it, and in combat she’s even more so. She’s been teaching me, and before my own skill in enchantment and coercion was minimal at best. Stop learning and you might as well put that staff aside.” she added with a smirk. She meant that in all the ways. She had to make Lyndon proud, even here. Which meant making the dirty jokes. “She can coerce minds. I have seen her take demons to her will, so they fight for her, and ther creatures. I have yet to reach that level. I just need to practice I think. This spell will help.”
---
“No, it’s because I don’t have control,” Harry replied. “Because I ram so much power into my spells it doesn’t matter half of it is slopping out the sides.” Harry eyed Li-Ming, a sour expression on his face. “Because I’m the equivalent of a magical thug and I don’t have patience or the touch for the delicate shit. My apprentice, Molly--” Now his boss, but Harry only twinged a little at the thought, ignoring the lurch in his heart. “She was the master of illusions, she doesn’t have the same kind of raw power I do but she could work wonders with the power of suggestion.” Basically, she was a creepy mind witch who would, one day, quite possibly be the scariest thing Harry had ever seen on the planet. Especially because she didn’t always know why she should or shouldn’t do a thing.
But he was stopped midway when she revealed her focus, Harry’s eyes instantly locking onto it out of curiosity. He stared, reaching out his senses to touch it. Interesting. He wanted to play with it, to figure out how she’d made it. But that was rude, it was like asking to touch someone’s naked body without their permission, so Harry kept his hands to himself. How would he make something float?
“I do practice. I practice with combat wizardry all the time,” He said. “I don’t have time to focus on my research, well I didn’t until I got here.. “ Which was the cool part about Knowhere. Nothing was trying to kill him so for the first time in his life he had the time to do exactly what he wanted. “The last people who got under my defenses didn’t live long after,” Harry said coldly. “I think it sent a good message.”
He suppressed a shiver and stopped in his tracks, dark brown eyes locking onto her face. “That’s illegal, in my world. I can bind shit to my will all fucking day--I know some really, really dangerous demon names--and all it’s gonna do is bring the Wardens down on my head. No, thank you. Keep your creepy mind shit to yourself.” Not to mention he had a personal issue with it, in the form of Justin DuMorne, adopted father and would be master if he’d succeeded in enthralling Harry.
The wizard shook his head and fell into silence, leading them onward toward the block of fancy houses.
***
She sighed, she seemed to do that a lot. Why was it he was so obtuse about things? How could you touch magic and be this stubborn about it? "All men say they ram power into things, that hardly makes it true." She offered teasingly. "You've seen what I can do, you know my capabilities. I have power. Enough to go toe to toe with a Prime Evil and an archangel and come out on top, and the angel had taken on the Aspect of Death. I have touched Death, held it in my hands and let it infuse me. I can touch stars and summon meteors. And I know a spell that cools you when you're in the desert. I know the subtle whispers of the gentlest touch. You don't have control because you don't want control."
"There's a joke there," she added with a pause, "and I can't find it. Lyndon would be so disappointed in me. And who said anything about patience." She added with a shrug, "all that ever stops anyone is themselves. Can't is just a word people use to stop themselves. I can't this or I can't that. It's nonsense. Remove can't, and you open doors you didn't even know about." She smiled as he looked at the focus and extended her hand to let him take it. "It's called Firebird's Eye. Beautiful, isn't it?" She chuckled, "Oh don't try and get all intimidating Harry Dresden. You aren't the scariest thing I've had to face," she said with a smile. "Look yes kill those who try and kill you I'm well aboard that caravan but the point is to practice more then you have. Being good at one thing makes it so enemies know how you fight. What if one day someone comes at you and has the perfect defense for your fighting style, because they've watched you? You do what you do best, and you are powerless against them. The point is then, to take out something new."
She raised her eyebrows at his sudden anger. “I never said I could do it. Eirena can.” Sighing she followed and rolled her eyes. She’d never liked rules. Half her own magics were forbidden to the mage clans because they were too powerful. Time wasn’t supposed to be something mages used, nor was the black hole she summoned meant for mages either. All these ‘don’t’ and she’d gone ‘why not?’ and used them. And she’d killed Diablo and an Archangel. To her, people could shove ‘don’t’ where the sun didn’t shine. “I think I don’t like your world and am glad I do not live there. Sanctuary may have it’s problems but no Warden, whatever that is, will ever come down on my head for my magic.”
“And you weren’t listening. I did say she does it to demons. They aren’t exactly the type of creatures to feel any sort of pity for.” She looked to the houses and gave a thoughtful sound. Nothing like Leoric’s, but still very nice. “Well. This is how the wealthy live.”
---
Harry listened, questioning himself not for the first time, why he continued engaging with her. Oh, right, of course because his subconscious was an asshole and she appealed to the parts of him that knew she was right. "It'll take another hundred years at least for me to reach even half that level, Li-Ming," Harry said. "Sure, I range in the top 50 on my planet in terms of brute strength, but I'm young for a wizard and I've seen the difference between what I can do... and what you can do. And clearly. I've got a lot to learn," he agreed. Which, if he were honest, was all the seed she'd freaking need. Man, he really was an idiot.
"I've met a couple archangels, I held that power, and you know what I did with it? I set out to ruin the world." And that was the crux of it. Harry was afraid. "It's better for everyone if I don't." As for what came at him? Well, everyone that had had regretted it. By all means, make the wizard angry. The Red Court was a good tale on what happened if you did. Harry said nothing though, just hunkered down in his coat and turned his eyes up to the house as they came upon it. He eyed it for a moment.
This was how the rich lived. Harry shook his head and sighed, gripping his staff tighter in his hand. "How about this, we sweep the grounds, give each other a chance to look at what we find, then we'll take the house and do the same thing before we start taking anything down." Because he could already feel the thrum of power against his senses, the urgency in the wards. Danger. Stay away. He had a feeling if he walked through them with the intent to cause harm he wouldn’t like what would happen. It made his skin crawl and his teeth to bare in a terrible smile.
He liked magic.
***
She sighed, and knew she'd regret saying more. In their first encounter, she'd alluded she was only pretending at youth. The truth was she wasn't. But, he had said he had a lot to learn. That made her smile. He'd baited her, but she was willing to take the hook. "You do, which is exactly my point. Look I'm maybe twenty one summers which yes makes me young make all the jokes you like there and no I don't know the exact age I am but that part isn't the point. But I have maybe half, or more considering how you act, the age you do. By that reasoning, your logic falls flat. It won't take you that long, you only think it does. Stop thinking in can't Harry Dresden. One day you will regret exactly that." She knew that much. Can't had cost her friend her life. She'd never again make that mistake. "If you're young for a wizard, I'm practically a mewling babe. You should be able to do all I do, and more besides. Don't you want to learn? How can you look at magic, all that's glorious, and say 'I can't'?"
She shook her head, "unbelievable. Keep telling yourself these lies. You will see my point one day Harry Dresden, even if I have to make you." She meant it a lot less threatening as it sounded. "I can be equally stubborn when I know I'm right." She had no intentions of stopping now. If he wanted her gone, he had to try harder to achieve that part. But, he had at least some sense. The building was big. she nodded and noted the smile. "Proving my point you know," she added with a smile of her own. "You look at this like it's a woman you'd very much like to undress. No one does that without the desire to know more." Smiling she held out her hand. "I will tell you this much before I start. Whoever lived here very much liked being left alone."
With that she turned and walked along the edge of the ground, her fingers tracing an unseen path. She held them just inches before where she guessed the edges of the wards were and hummed an idle tune as she moved. At one point she stopped and tested the air before her and hummed again. She noted the distance to the next house and smiled. "Polite wards." She retraced her steps near the edges and looked for a long moment. There was nothing physical, except a sense of convergence, a line meeting another. Thoughtfully she kneeled down and touched the edges of the pavement. What she was looking for was small, well hidden, obscured by grime and muck and not she thought something someone who wasn't magically inclined would be able to find. "Well. Now I know what I'm looking for." She traced the outside of the delicately carved sigil before rising and continuing her path. When she crossed Harry she smiled. "Carved sigils. Delicate. Small. Well hidden and well done. What would this be?" Smiling she tapped her lip with her finger. "Not the undressing part, no the before. I think Lyndon would call this getting drinks, and learning how someone works, and what they like." She'd started this metaphor she might as well finish it. Mostly to see the reactions. It was mostly why Lyndon did half the things he did but in his case he tried to get a rise out of Kormac. She understood that friendship a bit more now. “Want to see what’s under her dress?” There was a laugh in her voice.
---
"Yeah, you sound young," Harry said, justified in having guessed at her age. "You sound like you know everything in the world already, it's a pretty big indication you don't." She was ignoring the differences in timelines, in ability, and the sheer fact she wasn't human. Of course she outclassed the wizard! She was born with capabilities far beyond the reach of man. No amount of Harry wishing he were more powerful or believing he was would give him the kind of strength she had. But that's what it felt like she was trying to convince him of. He knew better. In his almost 50 years on the planet he'd learned the hard way what it meant to be strong and talented or weak and afraid. He'd grown, that was for sure, and maybe in three hundred years he'd reach a level worth telling angels about, but right now? Well, he wasn't there yet. But she was right, he could and would learn whatever he may.
Harry eyed Li-Ming, askance, when she suggested this was like undressing a woman. "If that's the case, she's gonna kick us in the teeth if we aren't polite." He watched Li-Ming wander away, talking to herself with her fingers trailing along invisible sources of energy. Probably easier to do, honestly, but Harry wasn't that smart. He looked at the house, sighed, and did something entirely stupid. Harry opened his third eye and Looked at the house. His sight was a piece of himself that let Harry see things as they truly were. Masks off, no surface images, just brutal spiritual truth.
The House before him was a wrecking ball of dark energies (remnants of Alucard's presence) mixed with the strong will of Integra. There were lines of bright lights, blue for defense, and purple for royalty, and green for whatever--you got the point. Multiples for the multiple layers of lives lived and experiences gone on within. The wards were easy to spot, each of them about the size of Harry's fists and connected to the strong lines of light. He could see the patterns, where they existed, what they did, and what he'd need to do to make them disappear safely.
Turning, the man walked briskly down the way and then back again, surveying the house and its surroundings front and back before he closed his sight and rubbed his eyes. Hit or miss, man. That shit could drive a man insane.
"So what do you think?" Harry asked Li-Ming once he'd found his voice again. The images would never leave him, but he felt like having saw them he understood Integra and Alucard a little more. Weird.
***
"I think a lot," she added wryly and sarcastically before studying the house. "Mostly, like before this was to be left alone. Safety in a place that is so foreign to all of us. I think if someone was home, we'd have been noticed and that depending on mood we'd either be told to leave or made to. But, if we were invited? We wouldn't find any trouble passing through. People like us, we'd notice the defenses, but as the door would be open they wouldn't cause harm." She crossed her arms. "And polite wards too. They stop somewhere near the next house. So a circle."
She shrugged, "the easy part is that they're physical things. They could have been wards without physical presences, which are harder to take down. But I think, considering we all know this isn't a permanent whoever lived here expected this to be taken down eventually. Either by choice or circumstance." She looked over the grounds and the house and then set her hands on her hips. "I'd love to see what they did to what they call home. It is impressive however."
She then looked to Harry. "I know more then you think. Age isn't experience. And that I have in spades." she looked back to the house. "I know my power like I know me. And I don't believe in impossible. I never told myself 'can't' because I do not think that should be something anyone tells themselves. You are strong, capable. You hold yourself back because you would destroy the world." She smiled, "so can I. Someone told me that angels and demons fear me, mostly because I can kill them. That I protect innocents, fight for Sanctuary's inhabitants." she grew more serious then, "but I have a mortal heart. I can be corrupted by my power. I can be the end of my world, for who could stop me? Certainly not the angels. Certainly not the Lords of Hell." She gave a soft laugh, "I am the death of my world in many eyes and you say the same."
She looked at him, honestly. "I'd kill you if you tried, but that isn't the point of it. You seem to fear power, grow hesitant to use it. You fear yourself, it seems. I might be young, I might be told I am the death of all things good if my demonic heritage wins out in the end. I disprove that thought in all I do, in all I am. I do not fear myself. I do not spend my waking hours fearing that one day I would destroy all I know. I know myself. I know my power. And I see you Harry Dresden. Stop fearing yourself. Stop holding yourself back."
In her own way, she was trying to help. She turned back to the house and stepped a few paces closer, looking for the sigil. "Here," she gave after some searching. "Remove these, the defenses fall. Let's buy this woman a drink shall we?"
---
Harry listened. He agreed with her assessment of the wards, more or less. Polite, well designed, with the intent to warn away and protect the home. He'd felt them on their approach, seen their intent and design with his mind's eye, knew that if he took down the one the rest would fall. It wasn't so easy as smudging a line though, the trick was to do it without threatening the system as a whole. He wasn't bringing danger here, but they may not see their removal that way.
As for the rest? He just eyed Li-Ming askance. How did she do that? How did she decide she didn't care and just went ahead and did whatever she wanted? Was that insanity or was she in perfect control? Harry didn't believe in perfection or perfect control, for that matter. And certainly not with himself. He'd seen his evil twin personally, he'd held power in his hands, he'd chosen Mab's offer to become her pet monster and some part of him liked that power and influence. And even without Winter's Mantle there was something dark inside him that said do terrible things. If he let go? If he let go he might very well become the thing the entire Council feared he was.
He didn't want that.
So how did she do that?
Harry stared at her for a moment longer then shook his head. "I know myself too, that's the part that scares me." He'd stood on the edge of dark power and turned away, but some part of him didn't want to. Some part of him was tired of being weak and afraid. "I'm me right now, I intend to keep it that way." He feared more power would change him.
Harry looked back at the house, reached for his power, drawing it up inside himself and then sent it toward the wards she'd indicated, carefully dismantling them. He felt the wash of power over his senses when they crumbled, it sent a chill down his spine.
Drawing himself up again, Harry smiled and gestured a hand. "After you," and then he followed Li-Ming into the house of a vampire Lord and his Master. Harry hated vampires; he felt the phantom pain in his left hand, making him grip his staff tighter.
***
"Do you?" She gave in return to his question. "Or do you know the fear?" She'd looked into Fear's eyes, seen the Burning Hells. Regular fear held very little compared to those horrors. And she trusted herself. She was perhaps the only person, not counting Leah, to do so. Everyone else saw the what if. "You are always you. Fear is a tricky poison. It can take away everything. Stop thinking what if, and trust. Perhaps not yourself, perhaps not yet. But trust is important."
"That," she offered with a smile, "or keep being shown up by a girl half your age. Men tend to be finicky about such matters. Always in such a rush to prove themselves. There's two ways of teaching. One's nicer than the other." She gave with a laugh before walking toward the house once the wards were undone. She walked confidently but for a moment she kept her guard up. When nothing happened she tilted her head. "We knocked, in a sense, and no answer. They did leave." she gave to herself before walking to the door. It was locked, as she'd expected and without really waiting to see if Harry had a key she set her fingers against the keyhole.
A click later she grinned. She'd watched Lyndon pick at locks for hours on end before she'd decided to just make a spell for it. And in a way, she was proving her point. Mace and subtlety could co-exist. She walked into the house and made a thoughtful noise. With it, the focus floated over her free hand and cast a dull light until she set her fingers over its bottom and the light expanded. She looked around and tilted her head.
"Oh, now. Whoever dwelled here was interesting." She looked back to Harry. "Which room do you want?" With that she let the focus float in the main room. Yes, she was showing off now. Plus, light. "And all this reminds me I need wards of my own. That boring skinwalker of yours still plans to make good on his threat I think. He'll regret it, but I'll have no interruptions when I rest." Which wasn't often. Her blood had advantages. But the point needed to be made regardless.
---
Harry laughed at her.
"Believe me," he said, entering the house behind Li-Ming, "I don't care that you're a girl. I know plenty of fantastic women." Plenty of women that were stronger, smarter, and better at things than he was. Like he said, Harry was young for a wizard. Experienced for someone his age, but definitely not the leading authority on anything to do with magic. He had a lot to learn, even if he didn't like the idea of learning from Li-Ming.
"I saw a seven year old work two spells at the same time, one in each hand. In a binding circle with limited energy. While multiple monsters raged around her and tried to take her out. You and I? We're nothing in comparison to that."
Harry had a giant ego, sure, but he could also be humbled and that experience with the Archive had been one the most humbling moments of his life back then.
The two wizards entered the main house, Harry pulled his necklace from under his shirt and raised it up, the glowing blue-white light joining the woman's while they looked around. Man, he'd have to get Lara Raith in contact with whoever did Integra Hellsing's decorating. This was some classy shit. Chateau Raith could use some upgrades. Shaking his head to himself, Harry offered the woman a faint smile and then pointed upstairs.
"We'll find the vampire's room together." Would it be in the basement? Who knew?
"Don't get dead," he said cheerfully, then stepped toward the creepy staircase that would take him to his own corner of this neat little adventure. Thus, the wizards would work their way around the house, investigating, removing, and otherwise making safe the home so that its new tenants, whoever they may be in the future, wouldn't come to harm by virtue of things magical.
It was an interesting experience. Integra Hellsing knew her work, she'd designed her wards well for what she could do and she'd done them with the knowledge that eventually they'd need to be removed.
***
She raised an eyebrow. "You, maybe. When I was seven I stopped a drought." she gave with an innocent smile. "All that does is make me curious if she is Nephalem too. Our power comes early, and bright." For her, the mage clans always knew they had power and magic. In that, she hadn't been too different. It was what she could do with it that mattered. She also conveniently left out how she'd miscalculated. The point was she could go back and do it again, now ensuring the drought was broken. And considering the last one had been influenced by Belial, his death would make that easier. But the mage clan of her youth would not let her come back, she knew that. The feared wizards too much.
Their loss, really.
She smiled. "I wouldn't die here. However if this is your end do know that all your ghost will get is laughter from me." With that she moved onto the staircase. The decor held very little interest to her. She'd seen similar in Leoric's mansion. This place held the same sort of stillness. Less skeletons though, that was nice. She walked and removed wards as she went. Near the bedrooms they were somewhat less. As if less worried about whoever might get near them. Probably with the knowledge that anyone who did would get a rather different sort of surprise. One held a door that showed signs of repair and she stepped into it, catching her breath when she did.
Old. Powerful. And very, very patient in it's own way. Like something on a very loose chain, just waiting to be unleashed. She frowned and conjured up a familiar in the shape of a firefly that would find Harry and circle around him in a simple 'follow me' gesture. She stepped out of the room, still frowning and waited. When she saw her companion again she glaced to him. "I don't know what a vampire is, but I think I found where it rested. Do you have faith Harry Dresden?" She did not. Her gods had never bothered with her people, and she knew for a fact the angels would much rather see humanity destroyed then raise a finger to help them. Neither of them deserved her faith.
"Because everything else can be removed with magic. This needs faith. Or happiness. Pure happiness, something untainted by life and the world. A child's joy, really." A child would break the oppressive sort of darkness that clung to the room.
---
Harry would satisfy himself with his exploration of the mini mansion, only pausing when that little firefly came into sight, the presence of it making him shiver because it was so like the things the Summer faeries used to communicate. Just another reminder that he was extremely ambivalent about Li-Ming on the whole. But the wizard did finish what he was doing, tucking the newfound weapon into his duster pocket, before he followed after the little light.
He felt the presence well before he reached the hall. That ancient, deep running power that hit his senses like a sledge hammer. That sheer ugliness he associated it with. Demonic, dark, hungry. Harry looked at Li-Ming then through the doorway she'd indicated.
Did he have faith?
"No," He said, "Not like that, I try to stay out of God's sight and He doesn't seem to mind, but faith works in different ways." He had faith in himself and his ability to work magic. He had faith in the energies at his disposal and that they would do what he designed them to. He had faith that they’d serve him well. But, still, the wizard wasn't that smart, so he looked at Li-Ming, stepped into the room, raised his light and then pulled the veil off his Sight and looked around the interior.
What he saw could stop a man's heart.
Harry stopped dead in his tracks and inhaled a sharp breath, taken off guard, his heart pounded a rhythm in his chest and somewhere inside he heard screaming. Was he screaming out loud? He didn’t know, but the sound was horrible. The sight before him was worse. Red, monstrous, dangerous, ancient. Harry’s gaze didn’t sweep the room before he dropped his Sight and found himself crouched on his knees with his head in his hands and a strange noise coming from his throat. Holy shit.
The red flashed before his eyes, vibrant, terrifying, and awful. So awful.
The wizard’s shoulders shook. He didn’t even care that Li-Ming was watching. He couldn’t.
Harry closed his eyes tightly, the image didn’t fade at all. His heart waged war inside his chest. Come on, wizard, get a hold of yourself. Harry forced himself to accept what he’d seen, image by image, he exposed himself to it until it stopped hurting so much.
Oh, God.
Slowly, ever so slowly he raised his head again and called light to his hand, clutching his necklace and the comfort found there and the blue-white wash of light.
“Get Carlos,” Harry said roughly, barely hearing himself speak. It was desperate. “He has faith - he has a sword that’s designed to cut through anything magic.”
Harry slowly pushed himself to his feet, looking around the interior with a mind now tained by the horrors within the room.
***
She didn't know if it did. Li-Ming put stock in prophecy and fate. Having had her own, seeing it completed did that to someone. She had faith in herself, that she'd see things through. But beyond that? Everything was knowing. And that was different then believing. When he'd entered she'd leaned against the doorframe, curious to see if she could see what he was doing.
That all left when he started screaming.
And Li-Ming was a lot of things. Confident bordering on arrogant, occasionally too argumentative, enjoyed sniping at others, did not like authority one bit and would defy the heavens all day but she also cared. And however irritating Harry might find Li-Ming, she considered him her friend. Ad she'd cross boundaries after rules for her friends. For them, she'd tear apart heavens and hells alike. Despite it all, she had a good heart.
So she ran into the room and when he was getting up had went to set her hand on his arm. Infinitely gentle, not anything like the girl she gave off. "Oh no you don't." Her tone was gentle as she went to help him up and out of the room. She didn't even say anything about what he did. "Come on." She found a place to sit and directed him to it. "Sit." While direct, she was also gentle. Like she understood.
Li-Ming had seen her own horrors.
"Breathe first, everything else later." She didn't ask him what he'd seen, didn't comment on it. The offer, silent as it was, was open. Or not. Instead she went to set her hands on his shoulders and looked him direct in the eyes. Li-Ming didn't know to be wary of soulgazes, but even so being not human nothing would happen. "Look at me for a minute. And breathe. Focus on that. Touch, sight, sound, sensation. Nothing else." She'd learned this from Eirena. Li-Ming had seen horrors and it didn't always sit well. This was how Eirena pulled her out of those things. For that she spoke of meaningless things, in a calm and even voice.
She hoped it would help.
---
She was there suddenly, gentle and kind, helping the giant of a man to his feet with a commensurate strength of her character, wielded with perfect control as in everything she did. Harry allowed it. He moved mechanically, when she told him to sit, he sat. He didn't have the will to define her just then, still shaky from the horrors he'd seen.
Then Li-Ming's eyes met Harry's own and the wizard jerked his gaze away violently, ducking his head down. No, no, no. He wasn't going to look anyone in the eyes with his mind so vulnerable, so exposed. He had to stop opening himself to the things on Knowhere, because none of them had ever been good. Harry ducked his head. He heard her words, of course. Look at her.
No.
Just breathe.
Okay.
He closed his eyes, going inward where safety and comfort lay, where calm resided. Ease the sea, the storm of his heart and his mind. Just breathe. Slowly his pulse eased, his heart calmed, and his mind settled. He could accept what he'd seen. Vivid, right there in his mind clear as day, the image of the powers that were Alucard would never leave him. That bastard. Even gone, Harry wouldn't be free of the asshole's influence. Harry rubbed his face with both hands, exhaling a breath.
He was okay.
"Sorry," he said, "I wasn't expecting that to happen."
***
She raised an eyebrow when he wouldn't look at her, but she let it go. Not the time to really get into that. At least he was doing everything else. He was at least grounding himself, finding his way back. When he did she smiled, gentler then usual. "There are no need for apologies." No telling him he was an idiot, no telling him she could have done it better. This was the Wizard who saved innocents, not the one who bragged.
She removed her hands and sat down beside him. "I threw up the first time I saw the Burning Hells. I do not recommend that plane to anyone. There are sight there..."she sighed and shook her head. "They linger. They always will. Reminding myself of here and now tends to work. Sight, sound, sensation. Those things always pull me out of wherever I go." She wasn't judging, merely offering help from her own perspective.
"Such creatures that dwell here." She said and looked to the room. She folded her hands in her lap, a counterpoint to how she usually was. Before he'd been all brightness and movement. Now she was quiet and still. She had a lot to grow, and in these moments it showed what she could be.
"I don't know this Carlos or how to get a hold of him." She said after a while. "If he is a contact of yours, feel free to do so. I will take these upper rooms. But it isn't magic." She said and glanced to the room. "It's just remnants of what slept there." Almost awkwardly she went to pat his shoulders. "Things will be alright."
In the end, her curiosity came to bite her because as she rose she glanced to him. “You looked away. I’m not taking offence, but I am curious.”
---
Harry felt nauseous when she spoke, her words reminding himself of what he’d just witnessed. The Burning Hells sounded about as pleasant as rolling naked through a bunch of razor blades, while horny, then getting dipped in lemon juice and doused in salt. He shivered.
“Sounds like fun,” He said dryly. If he could joke that had to mean he was alive and well, right? Right. He sighed softly. “I opened my Sight,” he said. “The images stay forever, too.” Then he looked sideways at her, in the dim lighting of their foci, listening to her. Harry always went deeper instead of outward. He denied sensation, focused on his breathing, blocked life out of his senses and settled the wars inside his soul through good old meditation. Interesting to think she grounded herself in the world around her instead. It was so… chaotic, how did anyone think through that?
Harry glanced back at the room he’d almost lost his mind in, shivered again, and shook his head. He’d come up with something to wash away the remnants of the vampire lord’s presence. It may take a day or two, but he had nothing but time these days.
“It’s a soulgaze,” Harry said calmly, without looking at her, “When a wizard in my world makes contact with other sentient creatures with a soul, we see inside them. A glimpse of their soul, their heart. Who they are at the base of themselves. And in turn, the person being soulgazed sees inside us.” He finally looked at her. “It’s permanent, no matter what you do the image will never fade. Period.” He cracked a thin, false smile. “Good way to go insane.”
The wizard pushed himself to his feet, looked around the interior of the house and scrubbed at his face again. “I’ll figure this mess out in my lab. If you wanna take care of the rest of the house?” he asked.
***
She merely shrugged. "t had to be done. Or Azmodan would have burned his way through Sanctuary. I wasn't going to allow that." To this day she wasn't sure what was worse. The Maiden of Lust's realm or the Burning Hells as a whole. Even the High Heavens hadn't really cleansed those images. Plus it had been full of asshole Angels. Those kind of took a lot out of the decor.
She nodded at his explanation, "ah. Neither Angels nor Demons have them. Souls. They are what they are, creations of their respective realms." She took hold of her focus and let it settle over the palm of her hand. "I wonder what that translates, through the blood." she looked at the Focus for a moment then shrugged. "I don't need an answer to that. It is a curiosity. I have no references of my kind, all I have is assumptions. I do wish they'd left me some sort of knowledge." She didn't think much about her parents except in the very vague sense of which one the angel or demon might have been. She had an assumption her angelic parent had left her with the mage clans, as any demon would use a Nephalem as a weapon. Nor did she feel much about them. She didn't resent them or long for them.
It was hard to miss what you never had.
She nodded. "I will be glad to." She gave a vague motion of her hand, "go on. I have this. If I find anything of note I will bring it by your lab."