Atticus flint. High mage to king Constantine of the city state of Ukravia grimaced at his 20 year old niece as he finished tying her to his sacrificial stone table. A large pentagram surrounded the table and sigils festooned the walls of the candle lit room. There was a rich cloying odor from the candles and a light smoky haze filled the chamber.
His niece was spread eagled, naked and gagged with a wild frenzied looked in her eyes as she feebly tried to escape her bonds. With the soporifics in her blood he was surprised she was even awake. He dismissed her struggles and went back to his grimoire. His body trembled slightly with excitement at the thought of what he was about to do. Be the first mage in a millennia to steal the life essence of a sacrifice to heal his own soul and extend his life.
The thought of immortality fluttered through his mind and his pulse quickened further. If this worked? What would stop him from doing again and again when he started to feel the strains of time on his body? He could live forever.
He'd tried to make sure everything was in his favor this the first time. He could maybe experiment a little more when thing weren't quite so desperate, but he already felt the debilitating effects on his body from the experiments into necromancy and ritual magic.
Sometimes you had to risk all to get more power but he'd slipped up once to often and knew his time on this plane of existence was limited. That was why he had used his niece as the sacrifice. She was his blood and therefore a more powerful link to his soul.
Atticus took a deep breath then grabbed his sacrificial knife and stepped towards his niece. This was it. The moment he had been waiting all these years, all that digging around and searching in dry stuffy libraries and dank dark catacombs for a way to save himself. The time was now, he could finally be healed. His voice rang out in the stone walls of his chamber, the highest room in the tower of mages. He could see his nieces eyes widen and her breathing heaving in gasps of desperation behind her gag as she attempted to escape her fate. To no avail.
“COR AD COR CORPORIS ANIMADVERTIMUS ANIMAM TUAM ANIMAE MEAE DUO UNUS VITA TUA VITA MEA EST!”
The dagger struck home as Atticus shouted out the last of the ritual and Amora spasmed, every muscle grew taught with the agony of the cold dagger entering her heart as her soul was ripped out of her body. Then she shuddered and grew still.
Atticus eyes widened in amazement as a dark cloud slowly drew from his nieces slowly dying form and he opened his arms as if in welcome as he tried to incorporate her soul into his.
Suddenly there was a thud and a splintering of wood as two mages and a dozen guardsmen blasted into his chambers.
They all blinked in shock as their eyes drank in the sight before them, then the head mage suddenly shouted.
“Halt in the name of the king!”
A blast of wind power hit Atticus and he was blown back against the wall. He shrieked in fury as he let loose a blast of mind magic forcing the guards to collapse and the mages to stagger back but in that instant Amora's soul seemed to dissipate through the outer wall of the chamber and disappear.
- - -
Lucas Flint or Luke to his friends....his online friends that was. slowly eased his way out of the back seat of the taxi whilst trying not to knock his hip and looked up at the enormous edifice before him.
PROCTOR SMITHE & POTHLESWAITE
LAWYERS est 1854
The fifteen story monument of glass and steel made him shudder inside. Not because of what it looked like, but for what it held inside.
He grimaced at the thought. P.S.&P. Were among other things, lawyers to his great uncle. Multi, multi millionaire and now deceased Atticus Flint. This was to be the reading of his will and not for the first time Luke wondered why he had been summoned.
His mind stretched back to the last time he had seen the mean old bastard. It was before his mom had past, before...the “accident” that had left him a cripple. If memory served him correct he was somewhere around ten and his mum was on one of her regular begging runs hoping to score a few quid off of the old git so she could replace her old rundown car for a new one. (or more truthfully cash for drink and drugs. Yay party time!) They had come away empty handed and his mum had never gone back swearing she'd spit on his grave.
Unfortunately that was never to be as she had died from a drug over dose while trying to find herself in a religious commune in India a decade later. Luke shook his head and brought himself back to the here and now. He grabbed his cane and limped slowly towards the entrance.
Cayson Flint looked up and sneered distastefully as he saw his fat crippled pauper of a cousin.
“Jeans? You gotta be shitting me, couldn't even be bothered to put on a suit? Jesus man show some respect.” He shook his head disdainfully. “Pitiful.”
Luke grimaced as he limped into the what he imagined a boardroom of the rich and infamous would look like, all dark wood and a massive oak table around which were members of his family. He looked down at his denim jeans and white shirt and shrugged, if he'd had a suit he'd be wearing it but he was damned if he was buying one especially for the occasion, he just couldn't justify the cost.
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“They're clean. I changed special just for you cuz.” Cayson's sneer grew even fiercer as he spat out. “What are you even doing here?” Luke shrugged and shook his head. “I've been asking the same question myself, but.” He waved the invite at his cousin. “They summoned me so I came running...well not running but you get the picture.”
Cayson continued to sneer as he looked down at Luke's malformed side. The impact of the car that had hit him had shattered Luke's left hip and broken his leg in multiple places. The doc's had sewn him up as best they could and he would never be able to go through a metal detector without it going crazy again but at least he was alive. Memories of the awful day flowed over him again just as they did in his nightmares. He shuddered internally but did his best to push it down as he grinned at his cousin, Cayson looked at him piteously. He was about to respond to Luke but turned as an elderly man walked into the room. Everyone looked to the man with bated breath. There was hunger in their eyes and Luke shook his head as he slowly edged himself into an over stuffed chair.
“Ladies, gentlemen. I'm sorry if I kept you waiting but there's never enough hours in the day. Please be seated. Right! My name is Mr Proctor and we are gathered here for the reading of the will of Mr Atticus Julius Flint. As some clients are wont to do he has left a video recording to go with the read out, so without further ado.”
He clicked on a large LCD TV and an image appeared of a grizzled old man grimacing from the screen as if frozen in time. Luke startled back a little as the gnarled old face suddenly came alive. The face grimaced even more if that were possible, then he growled into the mic.
“Right....so I guess if you're watching this I'm dead then.” He looked away from the camera and snorted, then shooed away a figure out of the camera's sight. “Right, right I know, it's my will surely I should have some say.” He looked back into the camera. “OK I Atticus Julius Flint am of sound mind.” He looked up at the figure behind the camera. “Right? Sound mind?”
An old man almost as old as Atticus walked into view.
“Yes sound mind, just as cantankerous and anti social as always but apparently that doesn't count.”
Atticus snorted and momentarily a shadow of a smile appeared before he focused back on the camera and all sense of levity was instantly gone.
“So the will.” He leaned forwards towards the camera. “Debs! My heart, my sweet money grabbing wife.” Luke espied a young woman not more than twenty five weeping quietly at the front of the table. Her face appeared inconsolable but hers eyes were cold as ice as she held her breath. “The pre-nup we signed gives you 50% of my personal wealth.” He looked down at a piece of paper and murmured almost to himself as he raised his eyebrows.
“￡150.000.000. hmm... quite a chunk of change.”
“Deb's.” Inhaled sharply with eyes for nothing but the screen. All attempts to feign loss completely gone. Cayson snorted in derision and muttered to himself. “Jesus what a whore.” But Atticus shook his head. “Buuuut....in order for the pre-nup to be fulfilled two main things needed to be upheld on your side my sweet. First!” He held up one finger. “You needed to be faithful to me. Utterly faithful.”
A looked of horror blossomed on Deb's face as all color drain from her flesh and suddenly she looked years older.
“I'm guessing you remember Spain a couple years ago and especially Pedro?”
Atticus held up a picture of a naked Deb's in a passionate embrace with said Pedro.
“Or Rodriguez when we took a trip to Mexico last year?”
He held up another picture this one clearly showing Deb's, again naked but this time sucking on Rodriguez's pretty impressive manhood.
Atticus nodded. “Looks like you have a type I see. I do hope they were good, I mean what that, ￡75.000.000. a pop? I do hope you got your money's worth.” Deb's shrieked in fury and spat at the screen as Cayson chuckled to himself.
“You fucking monster! You treat me like a whore, force me to wear what ever you to tell me too and do whatever you want and I get nothing!?”
She looked down with rage in her eyes and grabbed the nearest thing to her. (A glass of whiskey) and hurled it at the screen. It smashed against the monitor. a seemingly unperturbed Atticus continued. “Oh the second thing was no stealing right? You remember that? So that ￡2.500.000. you have stashed in your account in the Cayman's? The cash I didn't give you? The cash you didn't ask for? Yeah that's stealing sweetheart so I've taken that back.”
A big man dressed in black had swiftly entered the room and was containing Deb's in a tight hug as she furiously screamed and wriggled trying to break free as she was dragged out of the room.
Mr Proctor meanwhile was wiping down the monitor. the screen seemingly undamaged. Luke looked a little closer and noticed an additional layer of glass in front of the screen and smirked, clearly not the first temper tantrum they'd had to weather.
With everything settled and the hubbub quietened down Mr Proctor pressed play and the paused video continued.
“Franky! You sniveling suck up. I hate weak willed people but that's not news to you, never stopped you from hoovering up any spare cash you could get your hands on though did it?” Atticus shook his head.
I never did like you but you stayed, waited till the end in hopes of a pay out.” he shook his head.
“I really don't want to give you anything but I guess you do deserve something so you get ￡100.000.
don't whine! I know you boy, just suck it up, it's better than what Deb's got.”
Franky rubbed his face with his hands and shook his head and muttered to miserably to himself.
Cayson grinned and gave his brother a mock pat on the back.
“Don't worry bro, you've still got the job at the firm. I won't sack you, so you got that right?”
Franky growled under his breath as Cayson beamed at the screen expectantly.
“Cayson my boy! Chip off the old block am I right!?”
Cayson grinned back at his departed father.
“Single minded, brash, stubborn, vindictive and an utter, utter bastard.” Atticus shook his head.
“I know it was difficult with no mother for the majority of your youth but don't blame Franky, child birth is a tricky thing I guess these thing happen.” Franky grimaced and looked down at the table as Cayson's grin faded.
“Still you've worked damn hard crushing all beneath you to get where you are, so the firms yours. Do with it as you will, just try not to go bankrupt too quickly. Oh the house is in the firms name so you get that too. Enjoy!”
Cayson looked at the screen with bewilderment. “What about the cash?”
“Lastly Lucas! Out of the entire family the only one who didn't send me a birthday or Christmas card with insidious and cringe worthy attempts of extracting cash or outlandish business deals that “Just need a little start up money, a few million and it's guaranteed to work!” No sniveling little begging letters of ill luck or treacherous business partners. Nothing, nothing at all despite being the only one that deserved the help, needed the help. Nothing. I've seen the hospital reports. Heard how the driver pretty much got off with a warning even though the damage he caused was life altering and not in a good way.
With your father long gone and my sister, my poor weak sister lost to the whims of drink and drugs and still nothing. I tried to find out why you unlike anyone else in the family didn't reach out with a begging bowl and apparently your only response was that. “It wasn't his money, that he didn't earn it.”
Atticus shook his head. “You could learn a thing or two from him Cayson.” Cayson looked back at Luke and snarled at him.
“So with all that said and done and with no one better to give it to I bequeath my personal fortune to Lucas Flint in it's entirety. Spend it wisely boy and watch your back.” Lucas sat back and inhaled slowly.
“Fuck me.”
Cayson turned fist clenched and spitting blood.
“You have got to be shitting me! Him!? Him of all people!? That fucking cripple!?”
