Oracle

Chapter 16

Uriel

Someone was pulling on their binding, and it wasn't making the beast happy.

Not that it was ever happy, but right now Uriel wasn't in the best of moods either and that just made it more irritable.

Their visitor had made another appearance. Like before the beast was first to notice the other presence. Then he had seen the faded silhouette. when it began to dissipate and the beast howled at the broken connection, he reached out meaning to find its source only to slam into a barrier even he could not pass through. The beast snarled in fury and tried to follow past it but Uriel could still feel the pull of a binding calling him and so he had kept it chained.

For now

A Binding was not something the mage took lightly. Not only did it involve giving up a piece of the soul to another, and in giving created a connection between the two, but unlike a Bond, it only went one way and could be used to compel the giver to do whatever was asked of them. The bindings themselves were made visible by a mark inscribed on the wrist that belonged to one who now owned that piece of the other's soul. The ones Uriel placed on those indebted to him were insurance that they would fulfill their end of a bargain whenever he called on them. So, it wasn't often that others used them to call on him.

The one that beckoned him now was one of the oldest he held, and it led him to a charming little coffee shop nestled between a bookstore and a privately run veterinary hospital. His sensitive hearing could pick up several animals already inside despite the early hour and they quieted as he drew closer, no doubt sensing what he was and what he carried with him.

The beast was still hissing at him when he entered the shop and scanned it for the one calling him. A man sat at a corner table facing the window. His messy blond hair was just a bit too long to be fashionable and the man himself hadn't bothered to wear any form of glamor over a solid mas of knobby joints and smooth flesh that made up his right forearm.

Tarren had been a powerful ally when they worked together but now was too weak to even maintain a constant glamor and if his scent was anything to go by, he was dying. Uriel remembered the day the mutation had flared into existence. He didn't know what had driven the desperate act that had used too much power and resulted in the fingers fussed together to Incasing the talisman inside but after the accident that had taken his hand, Tarren had changed. Realizing the true danger of the power the talisman gave him, he had given up using it and returned to the old ways of the mage. Still, Uriel could sense the ancient coin forever gripped by Tarren's ruined hand though it was rendered dormant by strong barriers and years of disuse.

As he approached Uriel could see there were dark circles under his eyes, and that he had in fact aged since the last time they met. Uriel could have called him a friend once and would have continued to had they not taken such different paths. Now they were two men who stood on different sides of a line drawn in the sand a long time ago.

"You look like shit."

Tarren looked up to see who had disturbed him and a smile broke out across his face when he saw Uriel's un-glamoured face.

"Uri." He grinned "It's good to see you too."

Uriel sild into the seat across from him and sat back to study the other man. He could have kept his glamor but Tarren knew his true face and so any mask would have been rendered useless. And besides, there was a certain freedom that came from being just himself for once. Auburn red hair, tall frame, and narrow features, he was his mother's son but the cold green eyes that bore into Tarren were all his fathers. Of course, no glamor also meant his accent was much thicker than usual but again Tarren had heard his true voice and could easily understand his Russian-tinted words.