Well Documented

“it’s okay if you need to take a se-”

“No … no, it’s fine. I just, wow. Haven’t seen anything like this in years,”  Kesi interrupted, slumping down into a purple mageweave couch at the far end of her flat’s living room. She held her head in her hands and sighed before speaking once more.

“I’m not going to be able to stop him.”

The gentle thuds of Janice pacing around the room came to an abrupt halt as the SI:7 agent came to stop, turning on a heel to look directly at Kesi.

“Ford told me-”

“Ford says a lot of things, Janice.”

Neither one moved, each one’s eyes locked onto the other, battling for dominance. The silence in the room was suffocating, the magenta glow of the null magic orb around them, oppressive. It was a good, long while before either one moved, or even blinked.

“What do you mean, ‘I can’t stop him?'”  Jan said, almost through clenched teeth. She wasn’t one to anger easily, but over the course of the past week, she had lost over a dozen SI:7 operatives to the revenant. This had to end, and it had to end now.

“I’m a mage, and I fancy myself a rather good one at that, but what you’re dealing with, I have no power over. I can counterspell, interrupt, and silence hi- it all day long, but none of that is going to stop it for good – hell, even a priest isn’t going to be able to just dispel it, or even nullify it,” Kesi said in a deflated tone, frustrated at the situation, but unable to ignore the facts.

“You’re more than just a mage ma’am. Ford’s told me as much,” Jan pressed, a wry smile creeping across her face. She knew Kesi was holding out. She was just approaching her from the wrong angle, and suddenly, she knew how to corner her.

“How much?” Kesi inquired, as she sat up from her mageweave couch, her eyes narrowing at Janice. Her voice was twinged with hints of concern.

“Enough to know you were at Icecrown with Highord Fordring when the Lich King fell,” Jan began, her arms behind her back as she paced around Kesi, the mage’s eyes following her every motion with intent. She glanced sidelong at Kesi as she continued “Enough to know that you’re technically a member of the Silver Hand; Enough to know that you were among the instructors at Lord Fordring’s Fortress,” Jan prodded, hovering over Kesi. She leaned down, her own face mere inches from the imposing mage.

“And enough to know you had personal connections to the target,” Jan practically blew the words right into her face, smiling ever so slightly as she capped off her barrage of speech with a final blow ” isn’t that right, Ms. Final Dawn?”

Jan retracted herself, standing back to her full height, and glaring down at the paling Kesi, who could only glare back with just as much wry vitriol. Suddenly, the amazonian woman rose to her feet, towering over the much smaller Jan, and again, they both stood there in silence, staring at each other for a good while, sizing each other up, attempting to see who would have the guts to break the silence first.

A haughty, but brief chuckle filled the room.

“You SI:7 bastards do your research, that much is true,” Kesi said, coming down from her laughter.

Jan nodded in agreement, before turning to face away from her, and speaking over her shoulder.

” What can I say? You’re a well documented person. I know you’re more than just a mage, Kesi. I know you can stop this. Ford and the SI:7 archives told me everything I needed to know, there’s no use denying anything, you’re just making yourself look like an idiot.”

“Wha-” Kesi began, but was cut short as Jan whirled around, her black cloak fluttering with her step as she strode right up to Kesi, glaring daggers at her.

“I know who you are, paladin.”