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[mogget_cat]

The Yrael that staggers heavily through the door is almost too bright to look at, flickering like a faulty florescent light. What is left of his usually spotless clothes is ragged, stained with weeks of dormant existence in a New Orleans alleyway

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[walksindeath]

See, the thing about stretching your sense to get past the buzz of the everyday sense of Death in Milliways is that you notice when there's a fluctuation in the normal levels of the magic in this place.

Sabriel turns around in her seat, frowning and rubbing the back of her neck at the sudden presence of jarring, irritating free magic, searching for the source, and tesing in sudden worry...

[mogget_cat]

The source is that bright thing burning up the floorboards nearest the door: the big, bright, half-flame and half-human-shaped thing trying to pull itself to its feet.

It seems to be hurt badly, having just fallen through the doorway into the bar.

[walksindeath]

Sabriel can see that it isn't quite right, isn't full strength from years of training, and yet...

She also knows, deep down, that it isn't something she's trained to fight against, something quite beyond her in it's shining power and...

"Mogget?"

The terror that is purely a girl just out of school and facing something unknown and impossibly powerful is rising, blanking out Charter spells and Bell combinations and even the few, perilous Free Magic techniques she knows, leaving her frozen on her seat and searching for a solution that just isn't coming...

[mogget_cat]

That name hasn't been spoken in this bar for years.

It gets his attention. Boy does it ever.

She's something to focus on, a reason to try just that much harder to get to his feet. He knew she was here, of course.

What bad timing.

"Abhorsen," it rasps, the voice crackling like static on the radio.

[walksindeath]

It's like a nightmare, in a place full of innocent people and no way to blanket the bells - if they would even affect him like this - the Mogget freed and, she can only assume, gaining in strength.

She jumps down from her stool, numb and panicking, one hand rising to form the basis of defensive marks, and the other...

The other wears the ring. If she can just loosen it before he attacks...

[mogget_cat]

She's younger than the Sabriel he encountered last, after that great battle.

That just makes this circumstance less appealing to him.

"What are your intentions, Abhorsen?" That's what is important, here. Other than him focusing. He doesn't approach or make any move towards her.

Or that ring.

[walksindeath]

She tenses as he speaks, thenfrowns fiercely in her confusion.

"...What? What are your intentions?"

He's that one who wants to kill her with extreme prejudice!

...Right?

"I mean... stay back?"

[mogget_cat]

"I asked first," he hisses.

Because the Eighth Bright Shiner can be totally childish, sometimes.

"This is myyy place," Yrael growls. "And if you mean no harm to me and mine, then I may not decide to affirm your assumptions regarding my intentions."

When he does move, it's towards the door to the lake area, at an angle to her.

Maybe he's circling her. Maybe not.

[walksindeath]

Childish? Yes, but Sabriel has a bit of a blind spot there, and doesn't notice.

She steps in time with his movement, paler than is normal even for a necromancer and gaze slightly averted from his brightness, but her voice is steady, keeping the terror at bay for now.

"Yours?" she asks, swallowing her fear and trying to buy time to think. "You know I only hunt those that would hurt the living, Mogget. The rest... well, I'll defend myself, from you or any attackers. I'll defend any of the Dead here that don't hurt others, even from you."

[mogget_cat]

He just needs to get past her. He has seen the movements of her left hand, and would rather not linger too long. "I have been here for years, Abhorsen," he says. "This has become my home. Do you see them running in terror from me? Do you see them? Do you see me threatening them? Or am I doing so, in your opinion, just because I am here?"

He is tired. He has been worn down from events and is not at his best and brightest, so to speak. He is frustrated by having his sanctuary invaded by his former... mistress, and her (logical) reaction to him is not making this any easier.

"I have friends here, Abhorsen. Surprising, I know, but there are some people in the worlds who are crazy enough to do even that. Unlike you, they don't assume I'm going to rip out their throats and drink their blood to gain power."

Though, it's terribly tempting. The Abhorsen has children by now... she's not exactly needed any more to carry on the bloodline... The blood of one of the Great Charters...

[walksindeath]

"You don't need theirs," she finishes softly.

And... possibly not helpfully.

"Nobody said. They would have if you attacked patrons here. I had no idea..."

[mogget_cat]

"Yeah, you didn't. Because I have smart friends." That does get a very bright, very toothy grin. It's not exactly friendly.

"I need... time..." And the blood of a few hundred Charter Mages or one Abhorsen, but he's not about to say that.

[walksindeath]

Sabriel's eyes narrow, but she makes no move to do anything, because of a few factors. One, there are rules in this place. She may not be happy to be stuck here, but she can respect the necessity for the few restrictions there are. Secondly, the couple of times she has dealt with an unbound Mogget, she has only defeated him by chance or circumstance - say, him forgetting that she carries the ring, or an insane member of the Greater Dead being handy. And thirdly... this isn't how she remembers an insane unbound Mogget acting when after her blood.

All the talking that had done had been focused on taunting her about her imminent death, secure in his power. This is different. And the ring, although resonating with his presence against her hand, seems... indefinite.

"...Time," she says, voice shaky. "I could live with that, if you'll let me live."

She needs to think. And she can't do that with his power vibrating through her mind, obliterating all other senses. Or, you know, if he kills her.

[mogget_cat]

"I will kill you," he growls out, "Only if that ring leaves your finger, or if you threaten my friends."

It's been a long time since he's thought of himself as Mogget, though he is still more Mogget than he is the Yrael of long ago. He's changed a lot. Not being in forced servitude, and having a place that one can call one's own, friends one can call one's own... it changes one.

[walksindeath]

And that certainly answers the question of whether he remembers the ring or not.

"Do not give me reason to remove it, and I will not," Sabriel says, still tensed to fight if need be. "And I will not hurt anyone here unless thy threaten me first. Will that suffice for now?"

[mogget_cat]

"For now, perhaps," he says, still moving slowly towards the door. "Shall we continue to circle one another like cats who feel that their territory has been invaded, or do you also tire of it?"