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Zen carried Natani on his back in the forest trying to find this mansion that the nurse mentioned in the hospital. A mage that could actually bring back his brother's soul would be the very thing he needed to save him. A few miles up the way, he found the mansion that was spoken of and made his way quickly to the door, speaking to a guard before being let in. He followed the directions to the main study room, looking around at this place with all the trinkets and decoration it had. If we had money we would definitely be living like this.... He found the door and hoisted Natani up again to keep hold while he knocked on the door gently.

There is a pause for a minute, before a voice seems to ring out from the other side, at a distance "Come in, please."

The voice sounds loud enough to be heard, and yet still smooth... but... seedy. With an almost commanding tone. Opening the door, Zen's greeted with the sight of the person he came to see. Is... is he a wolf? Or a fox...? A half-breed perhaps? Probably wouldn't serve him very well to ask, unless he wants to be escorted out the window, which undoubtedly the guards would do, given their appearance. The half-wolf, wrapped in a red cloak open only enough in the front to see his masculine figure beneath it, is sitting at a desk with a tall chair behind it, a scale with weights on one platform, and a coin purse filled with gold on the other, as well as the standard fare of things one would find on a desk like it; ledger book, ink well and quill, a few scrolls of paper, etcetera, all with an open large window looking outwards onto the estate grounds outside behind him. But what really catches Zen's attention about the whole scene is the way the half-breed seems to be looking at him. He's smiling. His eyes have that look as if he's been expecting him this whole time...

"Ah, you require something of me? Oh, where are my manners! Introductions! Ahem... I am Clovis, self-annointed prince of greed. To what do you wish of me to invest my resources?" He gestures to himself with a hand, in an all-too-pleasant-tone, and acting as if the wolf over Zen's shoulder doesn't exist. As if he doesn't care.

The forest wolf tried to keep Natani on his back, him sleeping like it was normal but it wasn't. He didn't like how Clovis looked at him but this was his only chance to get Natani's soul back again. He walked up to the desk slowly, looking around once more before moving back to the half breed.

"I came here because I had heard you could fix my problem. If that's true then I really could use it right now. Natani, my brother, had spell casted on him that caused him to lose his mind and soul by someone named Issac. I had a nurse tell me that you were the only mage around that could actually repair it."

Unflinching at all of what he just herd, Clovis' smile widens behind his clasped-together hands, and he raises an eyebrow, as if intrigued, "Hmm... is that so? This is quite a rare case, but not something I haven't seen before." He then stands up, hands behind his back as he continues to fixate his eyes on Zen and Natani "You have been told correct about what I am capable of doing. But I will inform you that mending a mind and soul is not something that comes easy. Nor cheap~."

Clovis then approaches the two and promptly lifts Natani's head, as if he's inspecting a piece of meat, "I can be... persuaded to offer my assistance, but only if you agree to do something for me in return, especially since you don't exactly look like the type to have enough coin on you to simply pay me."

"I don't care what price it is. I just want Natani back to how he was. I just don't want to lose the only family I have left."

He looked back at his brother and wondered what kind of price it would be to pay for something like mending his mind. Zen looked at the half breed and wondered how powerful his magic was, even wondering if this was all worth it. "Just whatever it takes to mend his mind and soul. Nothing can put a price on my brother. What do you want for this?"

Clovis's smile widens even more in response to his answer, becoming crooked and twisted, "Ohh, I do not require much in the way of payment from you, I just need you to perform a few jobs for me. Unconditionally, to the letter, and without hesitation. Can I expect that from you two, assassin?"

He then steps in front of Zen, with only a foot or two of space between them as he looks into Zen's eyes, that look on his face as if to say "I know you'll do it, you have no other choice."

He gives it some thought and looks at natani, hesitating but knows he really needs this. No other mage existed so closely by and willing to trade work for magic. Zen gave a nod and looked back to the mage, signaling he could do the jobs. "Yea we can do them without hesitation and fail. We're very careful when doing our work. Natani is probably one of the good ones in the assassins guild. We'll do it!"

"Good... excellent. Then we have a deal. Brutus? Please escort our guests to the lower levels. We have a client in need of urgent treatment."

The cloaked half-breed nonchalantly sidesteps the two of them as he makes his own way to where they're going, the large wolf stepping forward and looking down at Zen and Natani. "Follow me. No funny business, or you're dead."

Brutus then leads the two down several corridors of the vast estate, going down several flights of stairs until entering a flight that seems to lead to an expansive basement level, and soon coming upon a large chamber, nearly empty with the exception of a few shelves with books and scrolls, much of the room seeming to be one used for rituals of the archaeic nature. And in the center... stands Clovis, mana staff in hand, his expression none the less twisted than before.

When Zen made it down to the dark ritual chamber he looked around again, potion bottles and spell books. Hell he didn't have access to this level of magic that Clovis did. It was dark in there but a few candles that kept the room dimly lit, shadows casting on the wall. It was even creepier seeing the smile on Clovis' face, hoisting Natani up more so he wouldn't fall off his back. "What should I do now?"

Clovis then closes his eyes as he takes a deep breath "Firstly, it requires the both of you to be present in the ritual circle I am to prepare, and the ritual requires that the both of you be stripped bare first in order for it to work. No weapons, no clothing, nothing at all on the body." He gives a nod to Brutus, and as if on cue, the wolf guard turns and leaves the chamber, sealing the door behind him to leave the three of them alone. Meanwhile, Clovis throws the cloak aside to keep anything other than his tail from dragging on the floor.

"Secondly, the ritual requires a small amount of blood. So when the two of you are done, if you would please lend me both of your hands." He then pulls from his cloak a small knife, and picks up from the edge of the circle what looks like a small bowl filled with some kind of fine, white powder.

This is when Zen got nervous and in order to get what he needed he had to strip Natani down bare. He did as he was told stripping him down to nothing and laying the other on the ground before he stripped out of his own clothes as well. It was embarrassing to reveal his 'brother' as a female but he had no choice if he wanted the ritual done. Zen then held up Natani's hand as well as his so he could give their blood to Clovis.

"A woman? Curious~... But no matter for the moment, let us proceed." The half-breed cocks a brow, before taking Natani's hand to hold it over the bowl, quickly and cleanly slipping the blade across her palm, before clenching it into a fist and letting some of the blood drip into the bowl until a small puddle forms in the powder, before laying it down outside of where the circle will be drawn, then repeating the process with Zen's hand as well. After the powder is thoroughly soaked in both the siblings' blood, Clovis takes a mortar and starts mixing it into the powder, until it has all soaked evenly into it to being unnoticable. Then handing Zen three candles, he takes three himself to set up evenly in a pattern around the ritual area, placing a small mana crystal before each of them. "Set these up, and light them." He then takes the powder, before scooping up a handful of it, then pouring it slowly in a circular pattern, then symbols inbetween a six-pointed star pattern in the middle of the circle, laying crystals in a symetrical pattern between the points. Soon enough, the powder lines begin to glow a fiery orange hue, as the mana starts to take effect on the ritual circle, the lines now seeming to fuse to the stone they were drawn on.

Zen took the candles and began to set them up around the circle, lighting them with a small match so that they looked like the others. The light of the room began to brighten more as the powder began to glow strangely with the mana crystals laid at the points. His hand would be in pain right now for the moment but this would get Natani back guaranteed. He watched Clovis finish the powder around the circle and star but was curious to know what would happen next. "What now? Do I need to lay Natani on the circle?"

"Very observant, but that's only half of it. I need you to lay her head on one side, while you lie on the exact opposite side of the pentagram. Both of your heads must be symetrically as close to the center as possible, and your arms likewise spread apart." Clovis then steps out of the circle to put his robe on, placing the mortar and pestle to the side as he picks up a text book with a drawing of the pentagram on the open page, his other hand retrieving the mana staff. "Just close your eyes, relax, and try to feel for Natani with your mind. What I'm going to do here is fuse your soul and mind with hers. It is supposed to fill the gaps left by the curse cast on her, essentially mending the damage and creating a mental bond between the two of you." He then reads through the text some, before slitting his own palm to plant a bloody pawprint in the absolute center of the pentagram between the two. Perfect. Hopefully this will ensure I am able to tap into this link, should it prove successful... He then retrieves the text and reads through the texts, memorizing the spells and incantations in order to proceed.

Zen gets Natani ready to put his head near the pentagram, laying his body as straight as she can with arms apart in a decent length. He went to the other side and laid down as well. His arms were equally apart like his and kept his body straight as he could stay still. Then Zen closed his eyes and tried searching for his brother in his mind, trying to form a connection between Natani and him. His body relaxed and it took a while for him to find him but eventually the forest wolf found Natani's mind and tried to establish a connection.

Clovis then stands over Natani, placing the staff at his feet as he places the book down. Taking a deep breath, he grasps the staff, closing his eyes in concentration and begins to utter the incantation. Continuing to mutter word for word what he had memorized, he kneels down to place a hand on Natani's chest where her heart would be, before his chanting becomes steadily louder and louder, the incantations distinctly sounding like some derivative of latin or some other language, before the crystals slowly begin to dim into black, the mana draining from them into the pentagram which glows a bright orange beneath the two of them. His voice then turns to a commanding tone, and he lifts his hand over Natani, slowly rising as he focuses his magic from the staff into the ritual, the two of them slowly lifting up into the air above the pentagram. Soon Zen can feel a pulling in his body as the magic within the pentagram starts drawing his soul and Natani's together in the center, a dark green haze forming between the two. Clovis's chanting then reaches a fever pitch, before he raises his bloodied palm up high to the mist between the two above the pentagram, it swirling and glowing brighter and brighter, before it finally disperses between the two, swirling around and fusing into the floating bodies surrounding it. Raising the staff above the ground for a moment, Clovis reaches the climactic point of the incantation, before he finally strikes the staff to the ground, the mist fusing into the both of the wolves, both their eyes snapping open to reveal a green aura glowing within them, Natani gasping as he is wrested back to consciousness, before the two fall to the ground with a gust of wind blowing out the flames of the candles, the light within the crystal staff too fading to black, along with the aura in the eyes of the two now spiritually merged wolves, returning to normal. Only Natani's right eye now permanently retains a silver coloration.

Zen falls to the ground on his knees, gasping for breath from the exertion of the ritual, feeling close to hurling right then and there, before giving his head a shake to find he still feels rather woozy from the experience. But soon enough... Natani...?"Natani?" He then turns around to look at her, almost in disbelief to find her kneeling in the same pose as he was earlier, gasping for breath She's alive! But.... Quickly rushing to her side, he holds an arm on her back "Natani? Can you hear me?"

Natani heard Zen say something as he looked up and tried to catch his breath. He looked around in a haze before blinking again to see the half breed standing close by and Zen beside him, looking down to only find he was completely naked. This rose frustration in himbut also confusion as he stood slowly to his feet. "Zen....Where are we.....? Weren't we in the forest not long ago....? Ow my head..." He fell to the floor on his knees and tried to make the dizzy feeling go away, nausea sitting in his stomach a bit. "What's going on....? I felt like I was in a dark place for the longest time...."

Zen, even in his weakened state, is ecstatically relieved to finally hear his voice again after so long "Oh Natani..." Unwilling to wait any longer, he lifts him up and wraps his arms around Natani, hugging him tighter than he ever has before, tears forming in his eyes as he cradles his "brother" in his arms.

"None of that matters right now... I'm just so happy to have you back, I thought I lost you...." He lays his head on his shoulder, suppressing some sniffling as he cries tears of joy for a good solid couple of minutes, before he looks up to him again, gripping his shoulders firmly. "Heheheh... don't - you - ever - go charging in like that again!"

He hugged his brother tightly and gave him loving nuzzles before he shook him firmly, feeling tears form in his eyes as well. "I'm sorry! I didn't want you to get hurt brother....It was a reflex move and I couldn't lose you!" Natani nuzzled the bridge of his nose with his and gripped him firmly, not enough to hurt him but enough to hold him still. His eyes went to the other in the room and retracted a bit into Zen, his different colored eyes searching around the room too.

Zen who is that.....What is he doing here...?

Zen blinks for a second, before looking to him in confusion "Did... you say something...?" Or am I hearing her thoughts?? Brushing that off for later, he looks up to where Natani is looking "Oh. I almost forgot. That's... Clovis." He then looks up to the half-breed "wolf" and gives half a nod of gratitude, still feeling reserved just from the slimey vibes he's been getting from the man from the first minute of meeting him. "He was the only one capable of mending the damage Isaac's spell did to you. I had no choice."

Natani looked up at his brother for a moment thinking he heard him as well and looked back to the one called Clovis. He had heard that name before but didn't recognize it till he looked at the half breed. "Yea.....It did a hell of a number on my mind....What do we owe him....Obviously this wasn't cheap Zen...." He whispered to his brother and clung even closer before continuing. "Mages like this one are powerful. How are we going to pay him back?!"

Before Zen can answer, Clovis interjects with his always-seedy tone and pleased expression. As slimey as ever no less... "Ah, not to interrupt this lovely little family reunion between you two... "brothers," but I believe I have jobs for you that need doing still. When you two are well-rested, of course. Perhaps the first one can be considered a chance for you two to get acquainted with the new link I have formed between you two." He then lifts up his staff to inspect it, before tapping the crystal, which had apparently cracked from heavy usage during the ritual "Starting with finding me a replacement staff. And for further incentive, I will put in a good word for the guild, provided that spell this "Isaac" casted had managed to kill your target. And furthermore, continue to serve me well, and this secret of yours, Zen, regarding your... "brother," shall remain forever between us. Do we have an accord?"

Natani listened carefully to the half breed talk to his brother, knowing his secret was bad enough and that meant it could be trouble if they didn't do what he said. The younger brother began to get his binding wraps back around his chest, sliding on the robes he wore beforehand. His ears listened to the words Clovis said and he thought it all over, from his deal with him and his secret so the guild wouldn't know. It was all risky but he knew they couldn't afford to pay back in coins at the moment. "Fine we have a deal. We can do the jobs you want us to and we won't fail."

Clovis grins twistedly again, before chuckling "Excellent! Then it's settled! You are welcome as my guest for as long as you need, but you have up to a week before you must be on your way. I will be in touch, mind you, so try not to stray too far. And if you do this first job well, and bring me a new staff, I may even throw in a bonus for you two."

Zen nods, unable to deny the prospect of actually getting paid by this man, yet trying not to hold his breath on it, considering his reputation, and surprised by Natani's answer right off the bat! but keeping his composure, he then clears his throat to speak, "Very well. We'll make sure we won't be long to make our leave. Thank you."

Clovis then claps his hands as he turns sharply to the door "Guards?" His tone seems to work perfectly to his intents, as not two seconds later, Brutus and another guard step in through the door to meet their employer, ready for his orders. "Show these two to the guest wing. And make sure they receive proper treatment. And furthermore, see to it that they don't go sneaking around at any time during the night, if you will." The guards nod, and walk towards Zen and Natani, firmly helping the two of them to their feet and leading them out the chamber after they've redressed. Clovis rubs his hands together, chuckling to himself with sadistic glee "Heheheheheh... let us hope they do not disappoint me. And even if they don't... well, it won't be any skin off of my nose." He says to himself before he orders the chamber to be cleaned up, heading back upstairs to his study.