d'enanigans: is calling it "the climax" too on point?

[nothing_to_fear]

This house has a very pleasant room for receiving honored guests.

In the fashion of House Shahrizai, the walls are richly tapestried (though not in identifying colors) and the couches are soft, finely upholstered. He has ordered the servants to stand ready with wine and light refreshment, and readier still to act should negotiations sour.

Jonathan sent a man to wait for Brix; he himself went upstairs to check on Matthieu. Finding him asleep, but well enough and in no danger, he returned to this room to wait.

He is reading a book of plants and their uses as they come in to light the torches.

Comments

[gothamsheiress]

"I'll do what I can."

She gives Grue de Agen a hard look.

"Find out who paid him, if you please."

[nothing_to_fear]

As Brix exits, Jonathan takes a moment to scan the room.

Three armed men against one armed and two unarmed; of the three, none need come within range of Jonathan's knife to be effective.

Pity.

He watches Havelock nó Mandrake with careful attention.

[oneman_onevote]

Havelock is still watching him as he assesses the room.

(It would be nice, perhaps, to think that Havelock had never seen anyone searching for ways out before.

But people come to Mandrake for all kinds of reasons.)

"So you're someone else's hand in this," he says conversationally. "I'm really not sure if that's better or worse. Who are they?"

[nothing_to_fear]

Jonathan smiles faintly.

"House Shahrizai," he replies.

"Or some of its illustrious members, at any rate. I was never privy to the complete list."

[oneman_onevote]

Oh, Brix will not be happy.

Not surprised, either.

"What you have will be fine to start with."

[nothing_to_fear]

"Then were I you, I'd speak with Iva Shahrizai."

He thinks briefly of what she would do to him if he ever planned on meeting her again.

"She will be disappointed, I'm sure, by her cousin's broken engagement. And the loss of a Servant of Naamah."

[oneman_onevote]

Deadpan;

"I'm sure."

Havelock steps in idly, scrutinising Jonathan's face.

"Who else?"

[nothing_to_fear]

This time Jonathan pauses.





"Henri Shahrizai de Brest."

[oneman_onevote]

"Why target Brix and Matthieu?"

He continues drawing slowly closer, frowning slightly.

[nothing_to_fear]

Jonathan smiles.

"Matthieu was an accident. A casualty, as it were."

[oneman_onevote]

Havelock does not react.

Visibly.

"A casualty in the cause of what?"

[nothing_to_fear]

"He sees quite a bit, does he not."

[oneman_onevote]

"That is not what I asked you."

(Consider this a warning, Grue de Agen.)

[nothing_to_fear]

Jonathan pauses.

"There was cause to believe he might learn my methods," he says. "Or my intentions. My benefactors thought it better if he were removed from the City of Elua."

[oneman_onevote]

Well, that plan blew up in their faces, didn't it?

"What intentions were these?"

We'll get to the methods in a moment.

[nothing_to_fear]

Well, there are intentions and intentions.

But yes.

Quite.

"To wed the lady Brix," he replies, mild, "and gain access to her resources."

[oneman_onevote]

Havelock raises one eyebrow.

"Truly a goal worth risking execution for."

(Sorry for the sarcasm, Brix! But given that Jonathan clearly doesn't care about her in the slightest, Havelock doesn't feel guilty.)

"In order to do what?"

[nothing_to_fear]

His lips press into a thin line.

"Eventually, my task was to poison her."

[oneman_onevote]

Very even,

"With what?"


And for love of Elua, why?

[nothing_to_fear]

"My own special brew," he replies.

"Matthieu has tasted it for himself. Are the ingredients of interest to you, or merely the effects?"

[oneman_onevote]

"Oh, both. But the effects will do for now."

[nothing_to_fear]

Jonathan's lips curl.

"Terror, dread, strained nerves. Bad dreams. Fever and confusion. It varies, with dosage and individual."

[oneman_onevote]

"Lethargy?"

Since Matthieu had trouble staying awake.

He can think about a poison that deliberately induces terror later.

When he isn't holding a whip within reach of the man's unprotected face.

[nothing_to_fear]

Jonathan's gaze flicks once, deliberately, to the whip, then back to Havelock's face.

Fear is natural.

He likes to think it makes him sharper.

"Perhaps," he allows.

"Though I would call it exhaustion."

[oneman_onevote]

"Is it intended to be fatal?"

And if so... why use something so specific?

Apart from Grue de Agen's apparently partiality for such suffering.