A Seeker's Trial

[Nagi]

His face was blank void of any emotion or expression. He shook her hand. "Jaqu...just Jaqu." he replied. Trying to figure out what she was

She smiled warmly in return, but he would notice that any investigation on his part into her aura, or magical abilities would stop at her skin, almost as if he had hit a brick wall. "Well, they did warn me that you were professional to the point of being a little cold, but that doesn't bother me. Work is work, right?" She let go of his hand and continued to stand in front of him. "You are my first Seeker...I'm kinda new at this whole gig... but I promise to try my best. Other promises can come later once you feel you can trust me." She smiled again, running her hands through her hair to pull it back from her face, he didn't look bad. She thought to herself, strong, capable... a little distant, but much better than what she could have gotten out of this deal.

"Sorry there is a lot of history i carry with me so i apologize if i seem distant, Skinwalker." he said a slight smile appearing on his face of stone. He had met many of them a very long time ago and recognized the barrier protection that stopped at the skin. "Is this your given suit or a barrowed one?" he asked motioning towards her body

"Oh this?" she asked. "One hundred percent all nat-ur-al!" she said with a grin, turning in a circle. "Thank God I don't have to explain my barrier again to some lunatic or novice. I think we will get along just fine...Jaqu..? Right? So boss, what is the first order of business?" She wasted no time it seemed, and still stood next to him, waiting for him to reply.

"A test." he said turning to walk of the room and down the hall towards the training fields. "I wish to see what you can do." he didn’t have to look behind him to know she was following, he could feel her. "What do you know about me?" he asked as they walked

"About you? Absolutely nothing. The never tell us anything about our new Seekers... that way we can't complain or feel fear, or excitement. They want us to be blank slates when we meet for the first time, no expectations or hopes." After a pause as they approached the training room she smiled again. "But... something tells me you are going to be quite the badass, so I best bring out everything I got."

"I see." he smiled slightly. "My name is Jaqu Axel. I'm over 2 thousand years old and have been there and done just about everything. I used to work for the Japan branch called Nightworld." it was short and only the things he thought important she know at all. "Yes you should." he teased. He was starting to feel comfortable around her for some reason but he refused to let his guard down as she could be a plant by Tobias or someone else in the org

She listened attentively, nodding every once in a while. "Hmm... previous Nightworld huh? Well," she continued, entering the training room and tying her hair up. "Good to know I am going up against an old man, lots to teach me I am sure... I am only just nineteen as of this summer. But, don't go easy on me just because I am a whipper snapper and a girl. I want to see what you got too." She grinned even wider, dropping into a defensive stance.

He smiled and dropped down into a defensive stance. "All right child let’s see what ya got. And don’t call me old man ever again." he smiled. He lunged at her at lightning speed and appeared behind her before taking her knees out bringing her to the ground

Maleigha rolled immediately back to her feet, and spun to meet him, a smile still on her face, though her eyes were boring into him. "Mmmm fast to be sure...” She moved to the opposite side of the room and began to chant softly, from beneath him, tree roots would wrap around Jaqu's ankles, and begin pulling him into the floor.

At first Jaqu was caught off guard then crossed his arms over his chest and smiled as he disappeared with the roots under the floor. 'Bright girl' he thought to himself. He was gone for a few minutes before she felt hands wrap around her ankles from in the floor and in an instance shoot up into the air holding her upside down from her ankles. He held her there till she was comfortable and then dropped her

Maleigha raised an eyebrow as he went into the floor, then felt him grab her ankles. She jerked in surprise as she felt herself lifted into the air, upon being dropped, she waved a hand and a large patch of grass grew up from the floor, making her landing much more easy. She spun back to face him and moved her hands quickly, it was then that Jaqu felt a cold chill run up his spine, and hands begin to creep along his skin, before they suddenly yanked him back to the ground, pressing him on his back until she climbed atop him, pinning him down while holding her fingers over a pressure point for pain. "Gods you move fast," she commented, just waiting for him to either react or say they were finished.

Jaqu started to laugh while she held down the pressure point. He broke his own shoulder to break away from the hands as he hit 5 pressure points used to paralyze a victim temporarily with lightning speed again

Maleigha remained on the ground, unable to move, but seemed calm nonetheless. From beneath her, vines began to grow and wrapped their way up her limbs, pushing down on the pressure points he had pressed. She stood up and faced him again, smiling wide
"Nice try, old man."

"Are you going to keep calling me 'old man'?" he asked looking her in the eye. He crossed his arms casually watching her mentally complementing her

She kept smiling, and she spun around in a circle, after a brief moment of silence, the room would go dark and cold, he would lose track of her visually, and suddenly feel the point of a knife at his neck. "Hello again, old man."

He smiled. A little theatrical but effective. He disappeared from the tip of the blade and in an instant he had her own blade pressed against her neck and once again was unable to move. "You are gifted Maleigha. But there will be things you can’t keep up with me on." with that he disappeared again out of her range of senses


She smiled wide at this statement, and waved a hand, causing the darkness to disappear. "Thanks for the compliment" she replied, dropping her blade. "Had your fill?” she asked, dropping into a defensive stance. He was powerful, powerful enough to beat her she knew, this was only a test. "Do I pass?"

"Yes" was all he said as he phased out of a wall walking towards her. "Whoever set you up with me did well." he extended a hand to her to shake

She took it and shook it energetically. "Glad to hear it," she replied. She looked at him admirably; glad to be partnered with him. "Sorry if you were unhappy to be thrown someone, but I won’t pull you back, I promise"

"It’s the way it is. So no worries. We can make this work." he said and actually smiled at her. He didn’t know how things worked with the seekers but he was going to try and make it work

She nodded and turned to lean against the wall. "Well... what should we do then..?" she kept looking at him. "We going home then?"

"Home?" he asked. Was there something he was missing he thought

"Yeah... partners live together... didn't they tell you that?" She trailed off... realizing that he was not aware of that fact

"No they didn’t." his smile faded and then felt that things were a set up

She sighed and shook her head. "NO worries then," she said with a smile. "I'll um... I'll just... figure something out." With that she turned and started to walk past him to the door

"Where are you going?"

"Just around. I'm not such a damsel in distress that I need to whine to find food and shelter. SO don't worry about me."
She bowed to him. "Besides, you are the boss, if you don't want me to live with me... then don't worry."

"No that is not acceptable. You will stay with me. If you refuse it would be very rude." he eyed her closely

She stood there looking thoughtful. "Well, if you say so old man, I will stay with you. I promise I don't bite... hard." she added, smiling broadly

He shook his head chuckling. "Alright come on." he turned and made his way out of the building walking towards his home

She followed behind him, a few steps behind. "I won't be imposing..? Really?" she asked. She walked proudly, with confidence, showing no signs of nervousness at following a strange man into his home

"No, none at all. There is plenty of room." he smiled at her

She nodded and followed him to his home, entering behind him. "...I bet you think this is a set up don't you?"

"Why do you say that?" he waived his hand and the door shut and led her into the kitchen. He started to pull out food and started to cook

"You just seem ... weary of me now." She he sat down on the couch, lounging. She glanced around, seeing some of the pictures of Lark. "Who is that..? She is very pretty," she asked, picking up a photo

"My girlfriend." he continued cooking but watched her carefully

"AH...” she replied. “What happened to her?"

"It’s a long story. Maybe I’ll tell you later." he sighed bringing out 2 plates of food. He handed her one and sat down digging into his food with chopsticks

She sat down, taking a plate of food from him. "Mmmm this mood is down, want to go out ?" she asked, meaning to patrol but not realizing it may have been insinuated as going dancing

"What did you have in mind?" he asked cleaning up dinner

She turned to smile at him form the couch, "well... we could work or have fun. Which one do you want to do old man? I understand if your joints are in pain... we can take it easy...” she joked, trying to get a rouse out of him

He shook his head. "What do you want to do?

"Hmmm I'm nineteen... what do you think?" she asked him back, "come on, don't sit around waiting, let’s go out!" she ran to him, grabbing him by the arm and tugging him to the door. It was at that point that a knock was heard on the door

Jaqu paused and slipped his hand out of her hand. He walked over and opened the door

When he opened the door, Lark would be standing there with an armload of books; she would see the girl behind him and raise an eyebrow

Jaqu stared. He had not thought that he would be seeing her any time soon. "Which Lark are you?" he asked ignoring her look at Maleigha

She tossed her hair and smiled. "Which one do you think?" she said sarcastically, pushing past him. "I told you she is not waking up for a while," she then herself continued to ignore Maleigha, tossing books on his couch. In his mind, Maleigha would whisper "THAT is your girlfriend... piece of work that one...”

Like i said long story. He said mentally back to her. "Lark, what are you doing here?" he asked watching her.

"You said I had to keep my promise to you right?" she asked him, "to keep you updated, to protect this body." Maleigha just stared at the two, wondering what in the world was going on.
"Who is this? She asked Jaqu, pointing to the girl behind him

"I appreciate you holding up your side of the bargain." he looked over his shoulder. "This is Maleigha. It’s a work related thing, nothing more." he said calmly and flatly. This could be bad if Lark thought it was something else and convince his Lark of it

She looked at him suspiciously, but said nothing more. "Good. Now that I have shown you this body is ok, stay out of my way for a while." she said, leaving, slamming the door behind her. "Are you... sure it’s ok for me to stay here like this?"
Lark, who had left, stood outside his home, wondering why she felt a sudden pang of jealousy... this was not a man she loved... so why was her body reacting like this...?

"Yes it is fine. The Lark you just saw is a personality of Lark that had been sealed away a very long time ago and was accidently released. She took over the body that was originally hers subduing the Lark i knew." he said feeling a little deflated

Maleigha narrowed her eyes, "so that is lark... I never thought she would be your girlfriend"

"What?" he turned and looked at her suspiciously. He had a look on his face that said she had better start speaking

She looked a little startled but smiled. "Sorry... I have heard about Lark... Btu did not know she knew you... I am sorry if it upset you." she seemed honest

He was still not sure if she had told him everything. He shook his head and opened the door. "What was it you were dragging me off too?" he asked

"Um... a club... but mayeb after that you dont want to go...” She thought she would try to cheer him up, this man who had been a stranger but who she suddenly felt like she wanted to make smile

"Hmmm perhaps a little field work....do we have anything that we need to do?" he asked. For him the most relaxing thing for him actually was work

"That works too; we can go scope out the streets near the clubs, two birds with one stone. Music and work, what do you think?"

"Sounds good." he slipped his hands in his pockets and walked towards the main center of town. As they got closer he phased into his new Circle tactical uniform and pulled himself up into a tree and worked his way silently across the building tops bouncing between the buildings and trees towards the club

She followed him with ease, waving a hand to make a soft black outfit appear; she looked around the area with him, trying to place any type of other worldly night life. "The vampires movements have been strange as of late," she said. "It seems that there has been movement in Japan with the King... but we have not been able to place what has occurred"

Jaqu took in everything she said. He spotted a vampire down in an alley and stopped atop one of the roofs to look down.

in the alley Kayne was using her glamour trying to find out what a human knew about the Circle as he has been caught sneaking around the club and head quarts. "Come on sweetie, you know you can trust me." she cooed at him

Jaqu's lip lifted up in a snarl. Vampires....ugh... he thought. Then paused thinking. Mentally to Jasper. "I need you for a moment please." he said

Jasper upon hearing him stopped what she was doing. "Going out!" she called over her shoulder to Zae, before appearing next to him in the tree. "A tree?" she said, "you have got to be kidding me." Maleigha watched the scene with interest, not moving to attack her as it was obvious her Seeker had summoned her to him. “What’s up?" Jasper asked

“Jasper, I have a few questions for you. Could really use your help with a matter that has been stirring some bad pools as of late.” Jaqu leaned against the tree’s trunk quietly trying not to give their position away to Kayne below. He knew well that she held rank above him and if caught spying on her he could find himself in a bad situation turned worse. He smiled softly at Jasper. A familiar face relaxed him ever so slightly. So many new and unfriendly faces surrounded him now.