Inoadar
The poisoner was somewhat surprised that there had been no contact since his visit the season before. It was not even at the end of the season. Nearly a full season had passed without any indication that the offer was still open.
The season before, he had initiated a treatment for a morpher named Daegron. It had resulted favorably, though at terrible cost in suffering for his patient. At one point, he decided to try, not only complete immobility of the patient, but actual encasement in a fused and immoveable suit of plate armor.
He'd come to the conclusion, from a series of tests, that Daegron had inflicted a semi-permanent state of over given psychosis, that triggered an insanely aggressive alter ego whenever he initiated a morph. But he also suffered severe pains from his body trying to return to its normal form when he didn't morph. Inoadar guessed he had over given his djed and over stretched his body at some point.
He had to create a way to make morphing more painful and difficult than NOT morphing. With the assistance of both Doctor Mazetti and Thorin Valdinox, of Thorin's Forge, he'd put Daegron into the plate suit. But not before wrapping him in bandages to restrict even the little bit of leeway inside the suit. As well, the bandages had been treated with Phantom Shell toxin, and interspersed with lacerating shards.
The toxin made the body far more sensitive to pain. The bindings would leave no room for any real morphing. But any that Daegron attempted would only drive the lacerating shards into skin made more sensitive to pain than normal. The idea had apparently captured the imagination of a highly placed member of Thorin's family, The Valdinox. A woman's voice had come from the shadows beyond the glare of the forges, asking Inoadar to elaborate on his reasons for requesting a fused plate suit.
She was the one who'd instructed Thorin to aid him with inserting the sleeping morpher into the suit. Further discussion had resulted in her recognizing that Inoadar was not averse to entering into a contract of mutual gain and service. She knew a lot of people would run from such an offer, figuring that they would somehow end up trapped. She liked the poisoner's adventurousness, as well as the fact that it was based on his desire to discover something as yet undiscovered. And the fact that he did not hesitate to put a man through torture to do it, did not dissuade her from her belief that the poisoner could be an asset to her family.
No deal had been struck then, only the agreement to discuss it at some future time. It was now a good sixty or seventy days into that future. Clearly the Valdinox could cite patience as one of their virtues. Inoadar considered it to be one of his as well. He'd been a Nitrozian affiliate for some time now, and could have gone to them for the mizas long ago. But somehow he had soured on their "merchant-first" philosophy. It was his own patience that had enable him to hold off for a more like-minded backer.
And now, he had found them...Or, they had found him.
x
