what's he worth to you?

who: eris and math
where: babylon
when: morning

Eris was upstairs in her office, going over some of the books, and files regarding both her bodyguard and her pet, both of which she had out on assignment. She was still healing up from her own brush with the shadows, which were thankfully now gone. She was leaning back in her chair, bare feet propped up on her desk as she flipped through the files, smirking faintly at some of the behavioral observances that were noted down. Yes, she'd be enjoying this.

She paused, eyeing small red globe on her desk that lit up just a little. She was going to be having company. So, when her door burst open (she made sure it was unlocked, just so he could be dramatic), she smiled, looking wholly unsurprised. She did look pleased, though. "Hello, sweetheart." she greeted. "What is it I can do for you today?"

Mathias wasn't in the mood for fucking around. He was focused, amazingly so. He'd come here with a purpose, already aware of what it might cost him, but balanced against that was the fact that the world was a big place and his brother was only one guy. He'd called Billy as he was leaving the house, but there'd been no answer and with the whole shadows thing, fuck, the guy could be dead or in the hospital. And he didn't have time to fuck around with finding another white witch to do a location spell. He didn't have time to fuck around with anything at all. So, he'd headed straight for the one other person he knew could find people. He just knew that it was going to cost him.

"I need to find my brother," he told her. "Not the one from before, my other brother - I don't know where he is, don't have a start on that. What can you do for me and what do you want for it?" he asked, knowing he was playing it stupid here. Dealing with people like Eris, the first rule was never let them know up front how important something was, but to play games right now was just wasting time he didn't want to have to waste.

"Oh my." Eris purred. "Aren't you delightfully attractive when you're desperate?" she asked rhetorically. "What are you willing to part with?" she asked, stretching lazily, before she put her feet down on the floor, crossed her legs, and clasped her hands on her knee demurely. "There are several spells I can think of that can accomplish your goal, but depending on what you're offering, it might be a little less...pinpointed. Of course if you want that, you'd probably have to offer me more than you're willing to part with. But if you, say, wanted a direction...it's negotiable."

Mathias' jaw tightened and he had to fight not to roll his eyes - he didn't have time for this 'offer me something' shit. "Me," he told her, already having decided on the way over what price he would be willing to pay. For him, it was a high one. For her... Well, he didn't know how she'd feel about it. "Not now - I have to leave town. But, I'll come back. And I'll work for you. For a year. But - front of house or outside work only. I don't do the back rooms," he clarified. He'd sell himself to her, but he wasn't going to whore for her.

Eris sighed, tsking. "Honey, you used to be fun. What happened to you?" she asked, sounding like she was oh so terribly regretful. She also leaned back in her chair, eyeing him at his offer. "While you're aesthetically pleasing, my love, I don't need you for upstairs, nor would I want you for it." she told him. "And I have quite a lot of employees, why would I need you exactly? I'm not out of bartenders, you know. So what would you be looking to do?" she asked. Then she smiled at him, and it was nothing short of predatory. "I mean, it isn't as if you don't have another brother just lying around town. So...tell me. What's he worth to you?"

Mathias maintained eye contact, not backing down a moment in the face of her expression. He crossed the room towards her, looking down at her. "He's worth enough for me to be here right now. What you chose to do with me, if you accept my deal, that's up to you. You know I could be useful to you and I think you know that my offer's worth a lot to me - that in itself should be attractive to someone of your type. It's not like you need a lot of what you have," he pointed out, coming to a stop in front of her.

She looked up at him, considering. "You said up front or outside. I need you for neither. However, I happen to have a bodyguard who's out on assignment at current." What she didn't say was what that would entail. "Recently I had to deal with that nasty little bit of business that were the shadows...I even got hurt. So, clearly, I'm in need of one." she said. "And that's my only offer." she added. "So, would he be worth it? It'll get you a direction."

"It wouldn't be immediate," Mathias told her, not willing to agree to something where the terms weren't absolutely clear. "If we agree this, I get to leave town and I don't have to come back until I've found my brother and I've made sure that everything's okay and I'm happy to leave him again."

Eris thought about it, then smiled sweetly at him. "Just because I like you so much, I accept." she said. Then she promptly snatched his wrist. "I'm going to need a little something from you." she purred, standing. Leaning over her desk, she pulled a black feather quill from a pot on the blotter, though it didn't look like there was any ink in there. Looking back at Mathias, she kept her eyes on his, before she jammed the sharp end of the quill into his wrist.

Mathias winced and hissed through his teeth, but he didn't back away, or try and take his hand back. "You could have just asked," he growled at her.

Eris continued smiling at him. "Where would be the fun in that?" she asked, almost seeming like she was going to lean in to kiss him, but at the last moment, she abruptly let him go, and walked around her desk to the standing globe in the corner. She reached out to spin it. "Pick two points." she said. "I would suggest one is here, the other...wherever you wish. What the spell will do will be to draw a line on the globe, and your brother, or anyone sharing your DNA, technically, will be somewhere on that line." she explained.

"Before we do this, answer me this - that line, it's gonna be long. Am I meant to just, what, remember every single place it goes through once I leave here, or can you give me something to take with me?" he asked her, not wanting to lock himself into something that was going to be pretty fucking useless - if wasn't like he had an eidetic memory or anything.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of you." Eris said, in a 'silly boy' tone. "I'll give you what you need to take with you. You won't get the globe, but you'll get what you require." She arched a brow at him, and tapped her foot once or twice. "I'm waiting. Aren't you in a hurry, sweetheart?"

Mathias thought quickly. His parents would be on that line - they were in Europe. Sure, Dorian could be in Europe as well, but he'd been nowhere near last time they'd spoken. Okay, so that had been a few weeks now, but still... "Here, point one. Indonesia, point two," he told her. "Do you need a specific town?" he added.

Eris shook her head. "No." she said. "Anywhere you point can be the second location. Up to you." she said, stepping back to offer him the globe so he could choose wherever he wanted.

Mathias took a breath and pointed to the two spots on the globe, wondering if anything would happen straight away, almost disappointed when it didn't. He looked at her, raising an eyebrow as he took a step back.

She stepped forward again, and started to scrawl a little along the surface of the globe, the writing quite clearly not in English, and it looked more like Chinese--even if it wasn't that either. Then she blew softly across the words that were glowing lightly blue, and the glowing blood seeped into the surface of the globe. After a few moments, a glowing blue line started to spark up on the globe, connecting the points he'd chosen. "There you go." she said, standing back entirely so he could take a good look. She also crossed to a cabinet on the other side of the room, and took out an ancient looking camera.

Mathias watched the line develop, wondering if this had been worth it. There was a whole lot of line there, and Dorian could be anywhere on it. It meant they'd definitely not be catching a flight - they'd be driving that line and hoping for the best. He told himself that it was more than he'd had half an hour ago and the deal he'd made was only for a year.

"Move." she told Mathias, walking back over. She made a shooing motion and everything, and then held up the camera, snapping off a photograph. There was a strange chemical scent after the flash went off, and light smoke emitted from the thing. But she pulled a Polaroid out of the back of it anyhow, and looked down at it as it started to develop. When the globe appeared, it was actually spinning, and she tapped the image to make it stop. She handed it over to him. "Here. Your evidence to take with you. And, I added a little present for you, too. The line'll start drifting to red the closer you get." she informed him. "If you need to get a closer look...tilt the photograph forward, back for farther back, swipe your finger across the image to spin it..."

Mathias took the photograph and experimented with it for a moment. "Impressive," he allowed, raising an eyebrow. "Red? Is that just for Dorian, or for any of my family? Because I'll be traveling with my other brother, plus my parents are out there as well - will they contaminate the results?" he asked her. He didn't trust this woman as far as he could throw her - he wanted to know exactly what he was dealing with.

Eris sighed. "You know, if you had wanted a line specifically for him, I could have done one..." she said, shaking her head. She took the quill up once more, then the photograph from him, and she paused. "What's his full name?" she asked. Technically, all of this was theatrics. She didn't need that much to perform her brand of magic, she could just do it. But, the fewer people who knew that the better, so she always put the effort into the theatrics of it. Playing herself off more as a witch.

"You know, considering what I asked for, I would have thought that was obvious," he replied, matching her tone and biting back a few of his more choice comments toward her. He wanted to keep her sweet, after all. "Dorian Judas Lockwood," he told her, pausing just a tiny second. There was importance in a name, he didn't like giving out a full name just like that - especially not to someone who seemed so well equipped to use it.

"I was unaware you still had parents, dear." Eris said to him. "I don't know everything, I do have better things to do than to trace your family line to its ends." she added. She wrote down the name as he said it, and the words seemed to burn into the white part of the photograph, light smoke drifting up from it and she waved it in the air away from herself. "There. It'll track him specifically." she stated. "Run along. Have fun. If you die in your travels and are unable to hold up your end of the deal, I'll extract it from one of your brothers." she said, tone sugary sweet and she patted his cheek.

Mathias batted her hand away, his face darkening. "You stay away from my brothers. That wasn't part of the deal and you know it," he told her, his voice low. He had a price, it in no way involved them. It would never involve them.

"If you can't hold up your end, then I'm out, aren't I?" she asked. "Which isn't going to cut it, sweetiepie. So, you'll just make damn sure you can come back here to fill your end, now won't you?" She sat on the edge of her desk, and crossed her legs. "Surely someone like you knows if you make deals with my kind, you're going to pay, one way or another. Even if you aren't around to pay for it yourself."

"Darling, I've made more deals with your kind than I can count - and the first thing you learn is to be specific on terms. You wanted an alt? You should have specified ahead of time. Now, I have no intention of dying on you, so don't worry about that. So far, I've proved particularly hard to kill - and many, many people have tried. But if the worst happens? Then, Precious? You're shit outta luck. You try and touch my brothers and you'll have shit on your ass so hard you won't see it coming. I promise you that," he told her sweetly.

She smiled at him. "We'll see, won't we?" she asked, just as sweetly as he had. She liked playing around with people who showed no fear of her, and she wasn't afraid of anyone either. So, the games were actually entertaining. It would be fun to see where this one went. And even if it went nowhere and he came back fine--which in reality was what she expected--then it would still be fun to have him around. It would fuck with her wayward bodyguard's head, of course. Which was her actual goal in all of this. Mathias just seemed more entertaining a choice now than when he'd walked in. "Have a nice trip, Mathias." she said, and waved at him.

Mathias held her gaze for a moment, then inclined his head, his brain already on exactly who he'd have to call to set that up - his threat to Eris hadn't been an empty one. He didn't make empty threats. "I'll be seeing you," he told her. Tucking the photo inside his jacket, he turned on his heel and headed out of the room, pulling the door closed behind him.