I don't own anything except for my OC.
Author's Note: Thank you all for your patience again with this update.
xxx
Her hands returned back to the messy curls of her hair as she let them get tangled in another fit of pouts upon realizing she had circled completely around from her previous dilemma and was right back to that familiar question once again.
The army of shambling Awakened, along with their wretched undead ruler and an incredibly unsure mortal healer, had eventually made headway back into the familiarity of the dangerous environment of the Desolation. The group made immediate headway back towards the Bone Palace once their ship had made port upon cragged-looking land again.
The wounds Julianna had recently obtained from the attacking rebel Sunspear back in Twilight Oasis had only been healed temporarily with the lich king's necromantic healing magic, which left them at a temporary standstill until something more proper was done to resolve the issue. Joko and his weary-looking asset had quickly retired back into the seclusion of his private quarters upon reaching the familiarity of the bone-laden fortress. The unusual duo were now situated within the confines of the undead ruler's private study that was located underneath the tar-decorated hole of Bitumen Reserve.
The other Awakened within their group had split off into their own, respective groups as they either returned to their never-ending training, or they instead left to go patrol the dangers of the surrounding sulfurous wastes in hopes of catching some shifty Order of Shadows agent.
Within Joko's macabre-looking office, the brooding lich was currently standing in front of one of the two large cabinets that had been standing against the farthest wall of the room. The cases were chock full of an assortment of magical objects and weapons of the varying kind that he had picked up over the ruling years of his undeath. Sunken-looking eyes scanned the few heavily occupied shelves before landing on the object in question that he had been searching so fervently for. He was now working on the task of renewing the scarab scout in the woman's recently wounded arm, as the previous one had been caught and exterminated prematurely within the crossfire. And he didn't quite trust the person to be without one given he less than reputable track record of escaping his clutches.
Julianna meanwhile was languidly sitting in the all-too familiar seat across from the owner's desk. It had been the very same one since the last encounter she had spent in the room. Her knees were pulled up to her chest, as she was still struggling to comprehend the events that had occurred over the last twenty four hours. She had been hoping that the conversation she had shared with the unpredictable being aboard the ship would have helped ease her mind, but it seemed to have only made things worse. Her brows were drawn tightly together in deep thought, as her eyes remained trained on the roll of bandages she had brought back from her room.
Since arriving back to the mainland and beginning the journey back to the Bone Palace on foot, she had remained unusually quiet as she was still entirely conflicted with her own thoughts. Joko of course, had tried to entice some kind of reaction through his usual charades of teasing, but he had visually remained looking disappointingly unsuccessful on his end of things. After too many failed attempts, he decided to leave the woman alone as she remained lingering about near the back of their merry group of reanimated cadavers. Of the few times he had actually been bothered to look back to check on her progress, she had been caught red-handed as she was staring at his back or was instead focused on the black sinewy mass of necromantic magic that was still coating her arm.
Back in the present once more, Joko walked back across the room to where his guest was seated after finding what he had been looking for. The occasional sound of his clawed feet making noise whenever they crossed across an area of the floor that hadn't been obscured with some ornate looking rug of the finest fibers. He sat down upon the bone-laden and extravagantly decorated desk chair that was made with a questionable amount of Centaur spines. He deposited the small ornate-looking box upon the desk with a surprising gentleness as he knew the contents inside were quite delicate.
"My dear, you look stressed", he began once he was situated within his chair. He crossed his ring decorated hands across his lap before he looked to see the impassive face of his guest. "You know, there are ways to relieve that quite easily, right?"
Julianna's mouth was a near-invisible line as she glared at the intricately dressed person across from her. She kept the lower half of her face nearly shoved into her arms which were still crossed above her knees.
"What are you getting at?" she asked slowly, the inescapable red color blotching the entirety of her face as she realized she knew exactly what he was referring to only seconds later. She was kicking herself again for deciding to peruse a medical-related background as her brain was immediately thinking back to reading anatomy books that discussed the release of endorphins during certain physical activities.
He chuckled lowly, reaching down and fishing around for something in the desk's lower cabinet drawers before procuring a bottle of wine atop his desk. The bottle made a loud thudded echo throughout the room as it caused his already-flighty guest to nearly jump in her seat.
"I was merely hinting at the consumption of alcohol, nothing more", he continued, sounding completely guilty of what he had just previously suggested. "Though I digress... it certainly sounds like you were thinking of something entirely else? Which sounds... unusually provocative, coming from the tart."
The woman looked nearly to that of a red beacon upon hearing the all-too suggestive words that she had foolishly walked straight into. It was even worse off knowing that she was the only other person in the room and was directly in the line of fire from the conversation. She stared at the corner of the desk in front of her, not even daring to make front eye contact with the lich anymore.
She kept her hands plastered to where they were, continuing to stare at the dated piece of wooden furniture. "Very funny... but no. That wasn't what I was thinking of at all."
"Your face says otherwise", Joko replied without even skipping a beat. He couldn't hide the all-knowing smile on his face when she dropped her legs to the floor and her dark eyes snapped back up at him and were ablaze with something to that of embarrassed rage.
"Anyway, we do have have pressing matters to attend to with your arm", he continued, reaching back down and grabbing two goblets as he decided a bit of wine wasn't going to actually hurt for the upcoming situation. Given what procedure was about to be done, he figured the woman was going to need it. "How ironic that I'll be getting to play the role of doctor again while you get to be the patient."
"Once again, very funny...", Julianna mumbled again, as her hand moved to massage the wounded area of her arm. She figured that the sooner this was all said and done, then the sooner she could return back to her room for much needed sleep.
xxx
The curly haired doctor was unusually quiet once again as she kept her forearm extended out atop the table and was mindlessly watching the work being done on her arm. Her dark circle laden eyes looked incredibly tired, and the woman was struggling to stay awake as her head kept snapping up back into consciousness. The filled goblet of red wine in front of her had hardly been touched, as she hadn't been very interested in the alcoholic drink this second time around. Her fatigued thoughts had still been replaying back to all of the events that occurred back in Palawadan and Twilight Harbor, as she was still struggling to come to terms with how easily she could have been killed had Joko not stepped in to intervene at the last possible second.
The wound she had received from the sword slice hadn't been properly healed quite yet, as the Scourge had used some type of twisted-looking cauterizing spell to simply halt the bleeding process for the time being. The area of skin was surrounding by a sinewy looking mass of dark coloring as the corresponding tendrils twisted and raveled themselves around the entirety of her forearm. It had looked exactly the same as when he had used the same magic to heal the dagger wound in her upper shoulder.
A small scarab was scuttering around in the intricate gilded box that had been deposited atop the desk just nearby. The insect was a twin to replace the one that had been unintentionally killed in the crossfire of battle.
Joko leaned forward in his chair, carefully grabbing hold of the beetle between his two digits as he held it up to inspect more closely. Throughout his prolonged life, he had always had an affiliation towards the little creatures, and he had even made sure to include them within his decorated banners and wardrobe. His eyes looked past the insect to see his healer was hardly paying any attention to the situation at hand. She appeared to be lost within her own world once again, as she had been staring at the same corner of the desk for the past few minutes now.
"A shame you'll be conscious for the insertion of this oh-so, lively scarab", he said aloud, finally breaking the silence between the two. He watched as she finally blinked and slightly turned to face him, her mouth turning to the side before she returned to look at the exact same spot as before.
He ignored her lack of enthusiasm for the time being and proceeded with the process. His other hand moved to grab her injured limb as he tightly held it down in place, though she held little objections as the arm was like dead weight. His scarab occupied hand moved down to hover above the open wound, as he gently deposited the insect onto the exposed flesh. A smile graced his face as he watched the scout excitedly dig itself into its new home.
His head excitedly snapped back up, the jingling or ornaments on his headdress making noise with the action. He was hopeful to see even at least a glimmer of disgust upon the woman's face, but it seemed she was living up to her stubborn nature as she wasn't exhibiting even an ounce of it. The split second of excitement that had been on the decrepit-looking lich had vanished as quickly as it had come.
"You know, this isn't quite as fun when you're not experiencing the pain I had been so graciously expecting", he mulled aloud with an exaggerated sigh, tone now sounding bored as he was disappointed in the lack of visible cues from the woman.
Julianna instinctively wanted to pull her arm away when she could feel the scarab shoving itself into her flesh, but she had a vice-like grip keeping her limb still pinned down to the table. The muscles in her limb anxiously twitched, and she struggled to keep a straight face as she could feel the insect make a new home into the muscles of her flesh. She had been so preoccupied by focusing on not making a fuss from the procedure, that she hadn't noticed her temporary doctor move forward to lightly pat her on the cheek.
"All done, which means my incredibly impressive work here is complete", Joko boasted with finality as he drew back into his seat again and grabbed his goblet that had now been twice filled with the potent alcohol. "Nothing that the Eternal Monarch of All cannot fix."
The healer merely blinked, looking down into the still open laceration on her arm. She frowned, realizing then that the work was still left incomplete. "What about closing it back up?"
"Bah, you can do that on your own now", the lich said as he brought the cup to his lips and took a generous swig.
"Except that I can't", Julianna replied simply, as she moved her arm to better showcase the dark remnants of sinewy-looking tendrils still staining her skin. "It's impossible for me to heal over your magic when you've used it on someone. Trust me, I tried pretty quickly after back when I got that nasty shoulder blade wound in Vabbi that you also healed."
Joko seemed momentarily at a loss for words that something so simple had eluded his own grand pool of knowledge. Though yet again, he figured there was never a time he had willingly chosen to heal another person who just happened to be the near opposite field of expertise as him. He hummed aloud in thought, sitting forward again and relinquishing the cup atop the desk before he grabbed the extended arm again and pushed a swell of necromantic healing magic into the open wound.
There was a silent pause between the duo, as neither said a word while the dark magic worked its spell to mend torn skin back together once more.
"Tell me, how old do you think Utumishi is?" the Scourge suddenly asked, while he quickly finished healing up the exposed muscle on the woman's arm. It was of little magic use for him to complete, and the skin mended up together with that familiar grotesque looking mass.
"I've never been bothered to care much about the leech of a man. So... Skritt hair... I don't know, middle-aged maybe?" Julianna replied, looking confused as to why the question was randomly brought up. She gave her arm a quick once over as she determined the work to have been sufficient enough. She reached over to grab the roll of bandages once he was done and began to wrap her arm up again.
"Oh, but he's far more older than that", the lich continued, voice now sounding quite serious as he languidly sat back into his chair and moved an exaggerated clawed hand around as he spoke. "I would dare to say even a couple of centuries old at this point."
The woman had immediately paused in her task as the unbelievable sounding words hit her like a rampaging Minotaur. She frowned, looking up to address the undead ruler's face to see if he was sporting a smile and obviously pulling her leg, but she was taken aback to see his stoic facial expression hadn't changed.
"What? You're actually being serious for once? But...how can he be that old?" she asked the obvious question. "I mean, he's not exactly a walking cadaver, like some others I know."
Joko leaned forward in his chair again, lacing his tar stained hands underneath his chin as he ignored that last jab. "I found it rather amusing you back when you had noticed that little tattoo on his hand right before the assault on Twilight Oasis. I never said anything about it at the time during your hungover state of mind, but it may entirely have to do with me."
Julianna frowned at the memory of her irresponsible alcohol intake and only nodded as she went back to her work of re-bandaging, presenting him the physical cue to continue with the conversation.
"He's an Awakened, and yet he isn't really", the undead ruler replied as he continued to closely watch his guest for any cue of expression change. "I granted him an extension of his life. Which, might I add was an oh-so, wonderful gift he is quite thankful for."
The freckled woman frowned as she held eye contact, not believing the gilded words so easily as she finished her own work of covering up her grotesque-looking limb. "Look, I can believe the extended life thing given... well... you. But I don't believe such a thing on another person would come without any kind of consequence, so what's the repercussion in all of this?" she asked.
"His life is literally within my own hands, as my magic is already well imbued within his blood", Joko said, motioning to his guest with his head. "Much like how some of mine is already within you as well. Though I will admit, back when I had first healed your shoulder, it was somewhat unintentional.
"You still haven't answered my question", Julianna stubbornly shot back quickly as her hand unconsciously moved up to ghost around the area of where there was still a faded scar on her shoulder, not liking the sound of where things were going.
Joko clicked his tongue and removed a hand from underneath his chin as he spoke with the extended limb conducting around through the air again. "If it at any moment, I decided that I wanted to exterminate his life, I could choose to do so with just the mere ease of just a snap of my fingers."
The bewildered-looking healer could feel her entire frame freeze up and her blood run cold as he snapped his fingers together for dramatic effect. Half of her conscious had been expecting that Utumishi had just dropped dead somewhere within the Bone Palace, but she figured that probability was incredibly unlikely. Though with an unpredictable and temperamental person like Joko, she was having second thoughts.
"But of course, that's only if I choose to do so", he added with finality while grabbing his filled goblet and leaning back in his chair again.
"Why?" she simply asked with a raised brow.
"Continuing to parade around and find an adviser that I can somewhat tolerate becomes awfully tedious", he remarked, now sounding bored with the conversation as he looked past the woman to stare at some random portrait of himself on the wall. "I grow irritated with the need of constantly finding new ones whenever I prematurely eradicate one."
"And... did he choose that, willingly?" she asked with a hushed tone as she finally reached forward to indulge in her own drink. She was still in slight disbelief over everything that she was being told.
"Of course he did, do you really think that ill of me?" he asked, attention snapping back towards his guest while mocking an exaggeration of sounding genuinely upset. "It's not something I grant very often to the still-living, if ever at all. Turning my minions into brainwashed servants is far more effective and much less of a strain on my own abilities."
There was an incredibly long pause between the two of them as the words slowly sunk in.
"So, why are you telling me this?" she asked, her own dark eyes meeting a pair of blue ones that were watching her with the utmost splendor of mischief.
As always for the wayward healer, it had become quite apparent from her dealings with Palawa Joko that things never went too right for too long.