Of Jesters and Orcs 12

[CENTER][u]Of Jesters and Orcs[/u]

Chapter 12: Buildup

<<<Mopsa>>>[/CENTER]

As an elegant elf of refinement and splendor, she wasn’t prone to letting her emotions run wild. This was especially true given her patron specifically, as the results tended to be… messy. Amusing, but messy. But seeing Karaka, that old surly yet oddly charming greenskin, being impaled through the heart if she wasn’t mistaken?

She may have… lost her calm for a little bit.

Why? She couldn’t exactly put her finger on it, it wasn’t the first time she saw an ally die, if anything his death was much cleaner than any she’d seen before, apart from mere allies of convenience anyway. And from what little of orc culture (such as it is) she knew, Karaka had likely craved this sort of death. Most orcs seemed to have a preference for dying in battle, regardless of plane. But it didn’t explain why she reacted so rashly, even as the League of Assassins vanished, Mopsa found herself running to his kneeling form.

“Karaka!” She knew he was gone and yet she still called for him, a part of her was expecting to hear a grumpy “Heal me, elf.”

Not that anyone could have blamed her, he was one seriously stubborn orc!

“Mopsa!” Nightwing hurried over, “Help me push the lug into the pool below!” He said as he started shoving the orc over.

But that was three hundred some pounds of solid muscle, sinew, and bone. And dead weight was even worse, though still she barely stopped herself from hitting the human with a hex.

“You’re not just trying to disrespect the dead are you?” Mospa was pretty sure Nightwing picked up the unspoken threat in her words.

“No, that pit should revive him!” He replied, at which Mopsa shrugged and started helping him. Worst case it didn’t work, best case it did. “If he’s dead longer than five minutes he’ll come back crazy because of his brain having started to rot, but if we get him there faster it should be fine.”

Mopsa vaguely understood, not entirely but she was going to, and instead of straining herself she used a quick spell to just teleport the body over the pit of sludge. Dimensional Door was a useful thing, and she couldn’t deny the amusement she felt when the splash covered Nightwing in mud as well.

He glared at her, which admittedly made her giggle a bit, before they both ran to the side of the pit. In many ways, the artifact was akin to Revivification, just being anchored to a location and having different limitations. It could, apparently, bring the dead back after a longer period of time than that spell could, but it wasn’t a good idea, and instead of needing a diamond to use it was locked to a single location. Interesting bit of magic.

“I wonder if I could snag a sample? Will it dry up and lose its magical properties?” She wondered as the sludge started to bubble rather ominously.

Then Karaka burst through, coughing and sputtering and that was forgotten in light of the tale he spun.

Talking with Death, honestly? Not really that unexpected, while she couldn’t make claims of the status of things on the Otherside she did know that such encounters had happened back home. Meeting Gods in dreams was, while certainly not common, also weren’t unheard of. Never mind recorded encounters between Champions and their Gods.

Never mind the more… unpleasant meetings with Demons, Devils, and creatures from Beyond the plane.

Karaka, after sharing his tale, seemed to focus on stretching with a faint sense of amazement. Which wasn’t hard to understand, as it looked like he had twenty to thirty years knocked off his age. The speckles of gray in his hair were gone, and the faint wrinkles around his eyes had smoothed over.

It was rather amusing to Mopsa, but unless orcs actually advertised their age they honestly looked like they were in their twenties for the most part.

Still, the things that ‘Dee’ had told him were worrying. Enough so that Nightwing was going to bring them to the League’s headquarters for planning and discussion.

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“That’s an impressive view…” Mopsa thought as she glanced down at the blue planet they’d just been on.

She hadn’t been able to appreciate the view last time, what with having to fight off invaders and all. So while Batman and the others brought together the core members, it left Mopsa and Karaka to overlook the planet they were going to be calling home for the foreseeable future.

Well that, and she was keeping a subtle eye on Karaka. While she’s absolutely certain they gave Karaka the dip before his brain started to rot, Batman himself told her to keep an eye on the now young orc on the off chance that the ‘Lazarus Pit’ left any lingering effects.

Chiefly potential megalomania and perhaps poor impulse control. Though as far as she could tell Karaka was the same as ever, though he did have a vigor he didn’t have before… but the elf was fairly sure that’s more due to being younger and not having a foot in the grave.

“We’ve had no contact with Dr. Fate or Zatanna in the last forty-two hours,” Batman began the meeting with bad news, not that she blamed him… “And Lantern is unable to locate them. Superman?”

“If they’re captured, they’re somewhere I can’t hear them,” The walking god said, “They may be trapped in another dimension, hell maybe.”

“... Is that normal?” Karaka asked, genuinely curious.

“No, they’re the two most powerful mages on the planet,” Batman replied before Flash interrupted him.

“Try in the galaxy, they’re forces of their own. I’m not sure I could beat them in a fight, Supes could but it would be close,” The yellow blur said, “If they didn’t know we were coming for them, sure, but otherwise…”

“Which means that anything that captured them had to have surprise on their side,” Batman continued, “Mopsa, you’re the most powerful mage we can contact right now, could you find them?”

That was a hard question to answer… “Maybe, I’d need to be close though. And they’d have to be on the same plane, I have no doubt that whoever took them will have counters to traditional scrying techniques, but I’d be able to find the leftovers from any spell that caught them.” Allies needed to know all of your abilities, enemies though… “If we had the body of a hostile mage, something related to the attack, I could summon a demon into it and command it to do my bidding. Or we could revive them and rip the knowledge out of their head, it’s an unpleasant use of magic either way but they’d work.”

Curious, but Karaka didn’t seem as bothered with the thought when earlier he was? A lingering effect of the pit, possibly? Or maybe he just knew that there was a friendly face on the other side of the veil? She’d have to interrogate him at some point later.

“I’d rather the second than the first,” Batman admitted, “But let’s hope we don’t have to do either. Death of the Endless said that the ritual started in Europe, right? There is a mage over there we know, Constantine. He doesn’t like us,” he gestured to himself and the rest of the league, “but he’s been friendly with Zatanna in the past. He might listen to you, just… tone down the jokes?”

Now that, that offended her! “Never! I will never bow to your will, evil scum! My comedic genius will never be restrained!”

“I’ll gag her if she says something stupid,” Karaka said, betraying her trust to the deepest level she could imagine! “And if she’s good I’ll get her some ice cream after.”

Mopsa paused for a few moments, finger going to Flash’s lips to interrupt him from speaking as she thought. “Will there be sprinkles and fudge?” She asked, squinting at the orc.

“... Yes.” Everyone was staring at her in undisguised shock.

Flash, naturally, was the first one to say anything. “Are you kidding me!?” He asked, “You’re that easy to bribe?”

Feeling a grin split her face, and dread filling his, she asked, “Do you want me to raise the price? Because I can get really petty if I want to…”

“Flash, I will throw you through walls if you open your mouth,” Karaka said bluntly, “Respect be damned.”

“Wasn’t going to say anything,” He replied, hands going up, “I know when I’m beat by a woman.”

“Took you long enough…” Wonder Woman muttered.

“Your love life says otherwise…” Batman noted, face flat but Mopsa knew he was amused.

“... Gonna need a Healing potion for that one,” Karaka quipped with a chuckle.

He sighed, slumping theatrically. “It’s ‘Pick on The Flash’ day again, isn’t it? Knew I should have called out today.”

Mopsa giggled before slipping around and hugging him. “I like you, this is how I show it. You would make a good paladin of Picoperi.”

“... Can I get a refund?” He asked, making her giggle once more and shake her head. “Damn, guess I’m stuck with this.” Oh yes, she did like the snarky man, he was fun. They’d have to compare notes.

By the looks of everyone else’s faces, they dreaded that. Naturally, this meant it was a great idea and she should absolutely do it. Later.

Karaka just chuckled the entire time, but she’d get back at him for his betrayal. Bribe be damned, it just meant she’d have to be subtle about it.

“Right, let’s get you two into the boom tube. We’ll come in when one of you pressed this button on these communicators,” Batman said, handing them metal bracelets with three buttons on them. The red one, naturally, called for help. “This one lets you communicate with each other and us, this one mutes the bracelet for five minutes.”

Slipping them on and teleporting down took only a few moments but…

They were pretty sure the house they were supposed to go into wasn’t meant to be on fire.

“Shit,” Karaka said. Mopsa wasn’t able to disagree with the sentiment.

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