I don't own anything except for my OC.
Author's Note: Thank you AGAIN all for your patience again with this update!
xxx
"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.
"My dear, you were awfully close to death yourself back in Twilight Oasis", Joko remarked with a raised brow as his head quizzically turned to the side while he addressed his companion. "Had that lovely little scarab in your arm not been accidentally hacked at, I am quite sure we would have stumbled upon your corpse. The insect's death was an indication to me that you had either foolishly tried removing it, or something far worse had happened. It was that last second of the scarab's untimely death that made me immediately summon that Awakened Candid upon your attacker."
"But... even if I had been cut down before you got to me, you still could have Awakened me into another of your zombie-like followers", Julianna quickly retorted back while staring at the deep red color of the wine inside her cup and inwardly wincing at the concept of being brought back to life after death. She had many sleepless nights back in her pitiful excuse of a room where she had mulled that very possible idea over time and time again. Her brain simply couldn't come to terms with it though after working on her Awakened patients on a near daily basis.
The weathered and intricately dressed lich only laughed at the comment, the corners of his eyes crinkling with amusement. "Now where's the fun in that? It's far more fun when my favorite source of entertainment is still alive, warm and well."
The fluffy haired woman looked to one of the bookshelves lining the nearby wall as she felt her face burn at the statement and filled her cheeks with warm air. As like many of his previous sultry comments, this once was laced with an obvious suggestive tone given the remark to warmer body temperature. She sat further back in her chair and pulled her legs up and towards her chest while continuing to cradle her alcoholic drink.
"My entire reasoning for bringing up my dutiful adviser's prolonged life however, is because I am willing to extend that same olive branch to you, tart", the undead ruler said after a long pause once he realized his suggestion wasn't going anywhere at least for now. He drummed a clawed hand against the surface of the table in a bored manner while he went on with his explanations.
"To what purpose?" she asked, still keeping her eyes trained on some random book spine on the bookshelf while the cup was brought back to her mouth.
"Well, it would be with favorable reason that you get to hang around the likes of me for as long as I determined. We could continue on with our merry little game, and you could continue working as a healer for my ever-growing Awakened army as I continue with my unstoppable takeover of Elona."
"And would I eventually start to look like the great, grumpy bag of bones?" she asked, still hardly being careful of her word choice as the comment simply rolled out of her mouth without much second thought.
"At least not for an incredibly long time. I mean, let's just look at my doting Utumishi for an example. His physical state is not in much of a decline, at least not yet. But even besides that, he hardly contests with the amount of years I have surpassed on him ", Joko boasted, waving an exaggerated hand down to himself for visual purpose. He was still carefully watching for the change of facial expression in the person across from him, as he was trying to get a read on what she was thinking about the whole matter. Though it was proving to be difficult with her continual bullheadedness. He knew he was going to need to prod a bit deeper to incite some kind of reaction.
He then continued with a smile and an upbeat tone which was deceivingly opposite for where he was going next. "The effects would start to show with time, of course. And I imagine the effects of decomposition would slowly begin creep in after a prolonged amount of years have passed. Usually that would start with organs beginning to shut down and then-"
"Doylak spit, okay. I can understand where you're going with this", Julianna interrupted as she shot a glare to the lich across the table from just behind her knees as she still had them up like a shield. Her face turned into a grimace as she absorbed the reality of the spoken words. Her own medical background made her all too familiar with the effects of a body after death, and she currently didn't want a reminder of what could potentially happen.
She finished off the remnants of her drink, placing her feet back on the floor and putting the intricate looking goblet back down upon the desk before continuing with her own questions. "I imagine it's a... necromantic spell of some sort then. Would it be irreversible?"
"No", Joko said simply, quickly finishing the contents of his nearly full cup so that he could begin pouring another round to the both of them again. Even though he was on his third cup of the supposed strongly brewed beverage, it still had hardly an effect on him due to his undead tolerance. "If anything, it's a small percentage of my own power extended to you. Because of that, it's efficiency is also diminished, as the both of you would not share the same power of immortality as I possess."
"Which means?..." the healer asked, dark eyes watching the cups being filled up once more. She was hesitant on a second glass already, since she was all too familiar with the irresponsibility of indulging in one-too many cups of the specially concocted brews for the undead type. The last thing she needed right now was another drunken escapade while within the presence of someone she had an unusual interest within.
"You certainly don't get to raise the dead or consume the life force of others, as I do. Like I mentioned earlier, you'll get an extension of life which is under my own charitable management and that is simply all. You yourself though, are still very much in a... fragile and squishy state", the lich stated, as he placed the now empty bottle down somewhere on the floor next to him and grabbed his re-filled cup.
Julianna was currently torn between what to think of all this newly proposed information of elongating her life to some degree. It wasn't quite the same effect as being Awakened, but it still came with its own bundle of consequences as well. Not only that, but she was torn with reason as to why she would actually go through with it. The glaring issue was that she would be having her life quite literally within someone else's palm. But even so, at any point she knew that the undead ruler had more than enough opportunities to eliminate her to a pile of steaming slag, and yet he still hadn't after all this time. Which meant there really wasn't much being held above her head other than her own reasoning.
Joko meanwhile was brooding upon his own reasons for extending the generous offer. It would be with good reason that he could continue fueling his further selfish reasons of wanting to prod at the lashing out flame of a person he had come to know. While he had been able to break some of those walls down, she had still proven herself to be incredibly stubborn around him at times. And while he wouldn't want to completely tear that down to a point of no return when it was no longer fun, he still wanted some time to experiment more around it and push buttons to the farthest extent he could go.
While he wouldn't outwardly ever admit it to anyone, the tiny flame of a mortal had come to grow on him.
"Can I at least have some time to think it over before I make a decision on it?" she finally answered with a tired sounding sigh. She knew this wasn't a decision that could be made on a whim's notice, at least not for her.
"I suppose that I, The Great and oh-so Generous, Palawa Ignacious Joko, could comply with that", the undead ruler replied back after a long pause between the two. It wasn't as though the woman was on death's door quite yet anyway, and precautions such as the scarab and imbued magic had long since been set in place in case of unpredictable and troubling situations. With that conversation out of the way for now, his thoughts wandered back to other pressing situations that were still hovering around.
"Tell me then, whose turn is it then?" he suddenly asked, keeping the question as vague as possible though he was very much aware of what he was getting into.
The sound of someone nearly choking on their drink could be heard within the macabre-decorated office space as they were completely caught off-guard from the question. "What?" the distraught-looking woman asked between coughs.
"No need to act so coy about it all of a sudden, since I'm sure you're just as curious about as I am", Joko continued, leaning forward atop the desk just enough so that he knew it would break the woman's personal bubble of space. The sound of clattering ornaments hanging from his headdress resonated loudly with the movement. His sunken eyes watched curiously as he could see dozens of thoughts suddenly pass through the fluffy haired woman's mind at once. Finally, he had gotten through again where visible emotion was easy to read once more.
Julianna ignored her burning face for the time being as she thought back their previous encounter on the boat trip back to the mainland and her brows tightly drew inward together. The woman was paying even less attention to the other person across from her suddenly standing up from their chair again. Focused on thinking about those recent experiences, she knew having found some kind of sly workaround to their game was going to eventually come back and bite her in the rear. At the time back when it had been her turn to initiate a move, she had decided that a peck on the cheek had been a sufficient enough counter to call it a fair play. Much to the lich's obvious disappointment towards her ploy, he had counted it if only so that it could work within his favor again.
Which, was bringing back the realization that it currently meant it still was Joko's turn to enact something within their on-going game that she had been mostly been entirely responsible for starting. She certainly wasn't regretful of it at this point considering her feelings towards the charismatic lich, but it also begged the question of what exactly kind of relationship she had with the undead ruler at this point.
The frazzled-looking healer had still been so caught up within her obsessing thoughts about the matter, that she hadn't even noticed the sudden smell of decay assaulting her sense of smell. As usual, she had been less than aware of her immediate surroundings. Joko had already walked around the side of the desk and was standing just at the side of her, still grinning from ear to ear at her showcase of realizing she was in neck deep water now.
"By the Mists, you know it was technically you that-", she had tried, but lightly jolted backwards when her peripheral vision was suddenly obstructed by a familiar grinning undead one. She had zero-time to react when a pair of leathery, tar-stained hands had cupped each side of her face, keeping her rooted to the seated spot. Before she could allow any more premature words to spill out without much second thought, an icy mouth was melding itself upon her own.
Julianna could hear her own rapidly increasing heartbeart within her ears now, as it seemed the rest of the world had been drowned out and put on momentary pause.
Although the angle for the duo was less than practical, the lich was still surprisngly gentle with his caress as he had to lean down considerably to reach her shortened height in the seat. He indulged against the feeling of a much warmer mouth against his own cold one, and he revelled in the similiar feeling warming his palms as he held the flushed, freckled skin. He almost had to hold back a cunning smile the second the woman's mouth finally began moving against his own.
Just before she could reach up to mirror his own hands with the gesture and deepen the kiss, he had already begun to pull away, the hidden smile now coming forward in all its glory.
It had been but a fleeting moment, but nonetheless still one that was short yet sweet.
The healer opened her eyes, blinking once or twice as she came back down to the planet after what had just occurred. Her head turned to see that Joko was still standing just inches away and observing with a satisfied grin on his sunken-looking face. She squirmed in her seat and flitted about with her hands, playing with the scarab ring on her finger again while looking around at just about anything other than the grinning Scourge standing right next to her. The lich always had some considerable height on her, but she somehow felt smaller than she ever had before in this vulnerable situation.
"Oh, now don't look so glum my little strawberry tart", he began with a teasing voice as he reached forward flicked the end of her already reddened nose. "After all, I'm sure the feeling is quite mutual after seeing how you've reacted to most of our experiences."
Julianna was left to sit stewing in the chair still, though it currently felt more like she was floating. She stammered on her words, struggling to even get a full sentence out since she knew what the bothersome undead ruler had said was entirely true.
Upon seeing he very much had the upper hand on things again, he headed towards the two gilded double doors that led into his office. There were still important ruling matters to attend to, as most of his attention had been diverted to his wounded healer and her dire need of replacing the scarab in her arm upon his return back to his Bone Palace. Other matters had been put on temporary hold while he prioritized making sure the woman was not walking around with a bleeding open wound that was without a living, infused magical beetle living underneath her skin. Although he would have greatly enjoyed continuing with this game, he needed to prioritize his actions.
"Well then, that would make it my turn again on this game", she finally got out, sounding more like a direct statement rather than a question once she regained her composure. She twisted her body around in the chair to watch the retreating back of the lich heading towards the hallway doors with the sound of his clawed feet ticking against the stone floor.
"I disagree, since you actually kissed back" he said with a confident tone, echoing the very same words the woman had once used on him in an all-too familiar situation. He opened one of the large gilded door, wordlessly standing by and awaiting for his favorite source of entertainment to walk through.
He was expecting for the woman to predictably retaliate in some immature manner of her own. But he was a bit taken aback to see when the woman nearly jumped out of her seat, but his surprise was quickly replaced with an all-knowing grin again when he saw her immediately struggle to regain balance as her arms conducted through the air. Though whether that was because she was still flustered about their kiss or because it was of inebriation was entirely unsure on his part.
"Very funny, but I still don't think that's fair of you", Julianna muttered as she crossed the area across the office and stopped just before the undead ruler who was standing there expectingly for her.
"I do find it rather endearing that you think I wouldn't find a way to cheat at this little charade we've been holding onto", Joko replied simply, raising a brow at the woman who was now crossing her newly bandaged arms crossed across her chest. He nearly rolled his eyes when she immediately responded by sticking her tongue up towards him for his comment.
"I think it's rather amusing you've been so honorable throughout all of it as well", Julianna muttered, sticking her nose up and walking through the open doorway with the guarantee that she had come out on top of their verbal jesting.
Though she wasn't able to get very far into the hallway before a gauntlet imbued arm had reached forward to grab her around the waist. Her hands went down to try and pry off the limb with some poor amount of effort while a noise had been lost in her throat as she was brought to sudden attention with how intimate this situation now was once she was pulled back heavily decorated chest plating. She was closely being held by the person who still managed to terrify her more than anyone else, and it was causing all manners of thoughts to traverse through her brain.
Especially after what had just occurred between the two of them just minutes before.
"By all means then tart, enact on your move again", Joko taunted as he leaned down into her ear and spoke ever so slowly and wrapped another arm around the small waist right before him. The large ring on his lower lip tickled the woman's exposed neck, and he could see goose flesh arise on her ivory skin as she shivered involuntarily.
Julianna stubbornly remained standing there comfortably within his hold, deciding through dozens of potential possibilities if she were to go through with the obvious provoke.
"Along with your previous offer about life extension, maybe I'll think about your new suggestion as well", she finally answered with a playful tone, craning her neck around to mirror his own well-worn and sly grin. "Unless of course the grumpy bag of bones would like to intervene on that instead?"
Truer words had never been spoken.
Another Author's Note: I AM DONE! Thank you very much to all that have been keeping up with this. Your support has meant so much to me and words really cannot describe it. I wanted to leave this on a good note at some point rather than keeping this train going, you know? (But that isn't to say I'm completely done. Keep an eyeball out for potential sequel works. ;) )
ᴀʟsᴏ. ᴛʜᴏsᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴀʀᴇ ʟᴏᴏᴋɪɴɢ ғᴏʀ ʟᴇᴍᴏɴs. ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ɪs ᴀ sɪɴʙɪɴ.