I don't own anything except for my OC, Julianna Fyre and any of my original ideas that are incorporated into the story.

Author's Note: Kinda short and sweet. I've still been incredibly torn this time around on where to split chapters.

Also, idea for a not very-lich looking Joko comes from my friend DiesVitae (KarmicBlackHole on Tumblr), who made her own version of the character in the game and I think it looks fantastic.

xxx

"But I always come though with an answer, don't I?" she said with a raised brow, looking down to her right palm for a brief moment to see a dark line of a mark staining her skin.

xxx

"Wait, My Most Elegant Highness, you want me to what?" High Judge Ejele asked, his tone sounding extremely skeptical of what his King was requesting from him at this very moment in time. The tall judge was dressed in tints of gold and purples, the two royal colors practically oozing royalty and an important rank among the Awakened society. His outfit almost mirrored that of what his King wore, as though the ensemble was crafted to carefully resemble the lich's own megalomaniac self-image.

Though of course, it hardly compared to the more grandiose looking attire his undead ruler wore. Only a fool would dare to match an outfit too close to their unpredictable God-King who was prone to be callously jealous of such a thing. One would simply be asking for an immediate and painful death-wish if anyone dared come even close to the undead ruler's proud gaudiness of his own tarnished gold attire.

Palawa Joko stood just before the Judge, his two accompanying associates sitting some distance away on the stone steps leading into the hallway towards the Court of the Dead.

Julianna was seated with an almost comical amount of large separation placed between her and Grand Vizier Utumishi. The adviser willingly placed as much space as physically possible between the two for a grand visual showcase of how much he truly detested the woman.

Though the duo both disliked each other greatly, they at least shared the same looks of boredom on their faces. Utumishi was trying to feign his utmost attention to the current matter at hand, but it was obvious his thoughts were divided elsewhere in the moment. His cohort did little to hide her disinterested-looking features as her head was being kept up by her hands to prevent it from slumping forward too far forward in the case she accidentally began dozing off.

The group of unusual three had departed not long after the fiascoes at the Bone Palace from earlier that morning, and they had left on the back of two raptors to make quicker haste to the bustling location of The Necropolis. The building was considered a place of great importance, seeing how it was the location in which the dead were judged whether or not they would be given the great honor to be granted life through un-death. There were three designated judges who oversaw most of the processions, and it was by their word that they deemed a person to be worthy enough to serve their beloved God-King through the glorious and macabre process of Awakening.

The hall itself resided just above The Crypts, where aisles of decorated coffins lined the candle-ridden walls descending deeper and deeper into the earth.

The Court of the Dead, where the group was currently standing within, was a massive circular room of impressive-looking architecture. The intricately tiled ceiling seemed to stretch endlessly upward, the patterns all meeting in the center towards an ornate looking chandelier of stained glass hanging just above. A grand staircase littered with bones and skulls on its steps led towards the doors of The Crypts, the two of which were encompassed by two large braziers on each side that gave the room a bright, warm glow among its sea of color. The largest structures of the room were the ever-vigilant Joko statues that stood guard over each and every procession and beneath their feet, lay a field of candles that varied in life given their well-used wicks and pools of melted wax.

Among a beautifully decorated room though, it still reeked horribly of death and decay. Even a field of overly pungent candles did little to hide the all-encompassing stench of the horrors that lay beneath its floor.

"I came all the way here because I require an illusion-spell to hide my wonderful, lich-like self. Unfortunately, I do not believe the sensitive fools residing in Amnoon will very much appreciate my more splendid undead-looking form when I arrive there", Joko answered with a greasy salesman-like smile. There were few Mesmers within his Awakened forces, and the judge was one of the very few that had any sort of considerable skill for the task needed. It wasn't that he detested the form of deception-like magic, but he found the form of necromantic magic relating to the dead far more effective and worth his time.

"I don't mean to question your plans My King, but this seems a rather excessive and unnecessary detail", the Mesmer replied, the volume of his statement tapering off in volume as he realized in very real time what the consequences could be for disagreeing with his ruler. His fingers were orderly laced in front of him, his thumbs anxiously fighting against one another behind the wall of composure.

"Oh-ho, but do you think I would doubt your prowess, Ejele? Why, I came all the way across the Desolation just to seek out your magical abilities", the lich said with an incline of his head, applying a heavy amount of compliment through the silver-lined words. He watched as the man predictably stumbled over his words and he blatantly failed to hide the red coloring staining his cheeks. The fool had been entirely too easy to sway with just a few generous spoonfuls of honeyed words.

Such high praise from his ruler had caught the still-mortal man entirely off guard, and he nervously shifted from foot to foot. "B-but of course King Joko. I am quite flattered you would think so highly of me."

"Then do get on with this ensemble, would you? I may be a patient person given my ability to cheat death itself, but I very much would like to move ahead with this entire deed as soon as possible" Joko replied hastily, his previous light tone now sounding quite devoid of any coquettish volumes.

The purple and gold armor clad man nodded quickly, biting his lower lip before raising his hands to cast the illusion spell. "This cover should last for at least twenty-four hours, give or take. And of course that is unless another Mesmer catches on to your charade and uses a spell of their own to dispel it."

"Unlikely", the lich said with a shake of his head, impatiently rolling his eyes while he awaited the incantation. "You'd better hope the deception looks good enough that everyone remains none the wiser then, yes?"

High Judge Ejele nodded and gulped, raising his shaking hands to cast the sneaky illusion. A colorful stream of purples and pinks exploded from his palms towards his awaiting King. He watched apprehensively as a cloud of dazzling butterflies and smoke completely enveloped his target and blocked anyone from seeing the immediate outcome. The man was now greatly having second thoughts about this entire matter, and he wondered about the future of his fate if the illusion was not within the desired standards.

Joko coughed, waving a hand to shoo away the remnants of the glittery and glamorous spell effects that drifted around through the space around him. He grimaced at the unnecessarily splashy illusioned butterflies floating around, and he reached out to flick and shatter the few that had stuck to his arm.

Before where a decomposing-looking immortal stood, now instead was a mortal-looking man that looked to be of Elonian descent. Rather than the decaying leathery hide of a living corpse, was instead brown healthy skin no longer obstructed by dried layers of clumpy tar.

His attire had drastically changed, though it still held a striking similarity to his previous garment. However it was not exactly the same as before so as to not arouse suspicion to any keen eyes. A gilded hood replaced his former crowned headdress, his iconic facial jewelry still hanging underneath his eyes and the ring below his lower lip remaining behind as well. His outfit was still mostly composed of white, gold and turquoise though most of the colors now look less tarnished and more bold.

He now wore an open and adorned sleeveless shirt littered with still a questionable amount of ornaments and necklaces hanging from his neck. Leggings and extravagantly pointed shoes restored the once-gnarly looking legs and feet of the lich.

One of the few similarities from his cadaver-like state was that his eye color had not shifted through the illusion, and their striking dark blue color remained. The features on his face also remained nearly as strikingly prominent as before, with high cheekbones and a defined jaw and chin that were no longer as gaunt from lack of defined muscles covering a skull.

From a stranger's point of view, he held the appearance of someone positioned within very high ranks of the Awakened, though his real lich-like identity was hidden well enough through the spell.

Joko looked down and smiled to observe his now more lively-looking palm while flexing his digits and watching the muscles beneath the skin work with the movement. He had become far too used to seeing nearly exposed tendons and bones working against one another without the stretchy canvas of lifeless skin to hide it. His head moved back up, looking past the quivering Judge Ejele in front of him still to instead see the reaction of his other two underlings back near the front entrance of the room.

Although both were separated by a sizable amount of space between one another on the steps, each held a shared face of complete awe and disbelief upon seeing the new look of their leader.

"Tart, you look nearly at a loss of words for once, do you like what you see?" Joko asked with an incredibly lively and smug looking face upon seeing the woman's obvious gawking. He held his arms outward for even further emphasis.

Julianna merely blinked at the man, seemingly coming out of some daze she had just been in. Her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as she realized she had just been blatantly staring at the now-disguised lich without any sort of realization on her end. Her face brightened considerably, and she reached up to grab the hood of her outfit to pull over her head in an attempt to hide her embarrassment. She was in disbelief she had gotten too easily caught at her ogling, and it was made even worse off because she hadn't even realized she had been doing it in the first place.

The now human Joko laughed hardheartedly at the woman's current dilemma, continuing to watch as she instead buried her face behind her hands while still sputtering off some nonsensical rambling about not actually staring at him. "As always, you truly know how to flatter a lich."

"Yes, well. These charades have all been very exciting, but may we continue with our journey to the Crystal Desert at the utmost convenience?" Grand Vizier Utumishi finally spoke, interrupting his two cohort's blatant flirting. He stood up, brushing off his pants hurriedly before exiting the room promptly before anyone had a chance to see the light blush staining his own face. He would have dropped dead right there in the middle of the Court if anyone had noticed his own admiration for his now much more lively-looking ruler.

Utumishi continued as he passed under the large archway of the room. "We must be off to Amnoon before that illusion of yours wears off then."

Joko watched impassively, cocking his head to the side as he watched his wormy little adviser hastily leave the room at a much faster pace than he was used to ever seeing. He breathed in loudly through his nostrils before exhaling, stalking off to follow where the man had scurried off to and bidding a chaste farewell to High Judge Ejele. Just before passing his still-rambling healer who remained on the steps, he paused, stopping to see she still had her reddened face hiding behind her palms and had been none the wiser that everyone was now in the process of leaving.

The disguised-lich crossed the distance and moved a hand forward to seize both of her wrists with ease in just one of his own, prying them away to see a very red faced freckled person hiding behind them. Her eyes expanded considerably in size again when she realized how close the person responsible for her embarrassment now was. She had been so caught up in her mumbling to herself that she hadn't even heard him walk over.

"Skale toes... I said I was staring at the wall and not looking at you-" she tried but was interrupted when the person in front of her used his other un-occupied hand to lightly flick the end of her nose. She figured she should have expected as much the second her hands had been taken hostage like that but she still hadn't seen it coming so soon.

"I must say, teasing you is going to be quite the treat while in an illusion like this", Joko said, watching the person in front of him manage to become about three shades more red and now unable to hide anymore given he kept the tools of the trade from her in his own palm. "I trust this little diplomatic trip of ours is going to prove a greater entertainment value than what I originally thought."

"Not funny", Julianna quickly replied back without skipping a beat.