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In Russian folklore we have a tale of a being known as Koschei the Deathless. [ Such a strong name requires a dramatic pause before she continues on. ]

One particular tale, Tsarevich Petr and the Wizard, goes as such: once upon a time the beloved wife of Tsar Bel-Belianin was abducted by the vile Koschei. This wizard was known as a terribly frightening foe as he had cast a spell upon himself that prevented himself from being killed. You see, he had the brilliant idea to separate his soul from his body and hide in nested objects. In this particular tale his soul was in an egg, in a duck, in a hare, nested in a hollowed log.

Seems like a needlessly complicated path to immortality if you ask me. One with some very obvious flaws. [ She thinks this story is stupid. ]

Well, the sons of Tsar Bel-Belianin went to rescue their beloved mother. Only one was able to trick him into tell him of this nested soul and he ventured out find the egg. Once in his possession he found the wizard and then smashed the egg in front of him, kill him instantly.

[ And thus ended his reign of terror. ]

There are many variations of the story, he's something of an archetypal villain where I'm from. Generic if you ask me. He's always on the search for an eternal bride.

[ But there it is, her story that she was forced to tell. ]

Strange...well, if I disappear you'll know what happened. [ She sighs. She better not though. ] Should we all play truth or dare next?

[ ooc: Not too long after posting this she'll be kidnapped and talking from there. ]

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I think they're fine to ignore. [ Says the person just ignoring them right now. ]

I'd tell you if I knew. [ Well, probably not, but that doesn't change the fact that she doesn't actually know. ]

I can tell you after spending nearly a week in the woods and defending my workshop against robots that they really aren’t, Illyana. [ He sighed, how could she be so infuriatingly-!

… Ah… Yeah, he couldn’t write it off as jumping to conclusions now. He doubted Illyana got lost easily, considering she could just teleport to where she needed to go. So if she couldn’t do that now, and she didn’t know where she was… His voice was firm, hoping for no further nonsense as he continued. ] He’s already got you, hasn’t he?

I spent half my life fighting giant humanoid robots. [ Small tiny ones don't seem to bad compared to that.

Damn, he finally guessed it. She cursed under her breath, something in her native language and then sighed. ]

Took you long enough to guess.

Great, I’ll remember there’s an expert on speed-dial next time it happens. [ He responded dryly, because it had been awful!

Then she confirmed his suspicion, and he got very quiet. It was both a bit worrying to know she was already taken, and frustrating to be right… Letting out a sigh, he grabbed his jacket and slipped it on to head for the door. ] I suspected it before, but I’m not in the habit of jumping to conclusions immediately without feeling more certain about a theory.

[ And he’d really hoped he was wrong… ]

What can you tell me about where you are? What do you see?

[ This is going to be such a long day. This month was officially the worst. ]

Only if they're humanoid. [ Not that she'd ignore him if he called for tiny robots. She'd just make a big production out of it. But what would be different about that really? ]

It's dark and there's a lot of brick walls around me.

Fine, only if they’re humanoid… [ He responded with a roll of his eyes. It wasn’t like anyone could rule out humanoid robots making an appearance in this world with everything else that happened.

The mage listened to what she could see around her and considered the options. ]

So just brick walls, no windows? Even boarded up to keep light out? [ He patted down his coat pockets, looking for a lighter while he tried to think of other things. ] Is there anything else that strikes you as off? Like the smell, or if the air is very stale, that kind of thing.

There's no light either. I made some of my own. [ So at least she's being allowed to use magic. That's something at least. ] The bricks look old. [ What doesn't look old in this place though? ] It's damp and smells musty. Maybe that's just him though. [ It's not. ]

So you can use some of your magic, that’s something. [ Better than nothing, and he considered the description thoughtfully. ] Maybe a cellar in one of the old buildings? Hm… Based on your story, it probably can’t be too far from where he hid his soul, at least for his own peace of mind, I’d imagine. So somewhere closer to a forest…

[ Easier to defend if you thought it was in danger, right? Doesn’t narrow it down much, unfortunately. ] Where were you specifically when he grabbed you? If he left any residual mana traces, I can try to follow that, since it would be fresh.

[ He still had some of the powder he kept for just that, at least.

Regardless, Illyana probably would get the impression by now that he intends to do something about all this. ]

Nothing useful. [ Aka nothing that will get her out. ] Oh I'm sure it's close to wherever his soul is. He's arrogant. He'll think that nobody will be able find it. [ And maybe....she was a bit worried he was right. ] It has to be a cellar with how damp and gross it smells.

I was on my way to the Gullwings, not too far from it.

Arrogance is usually the downfall of the powerful. [ And Waver would like to count on that being true here and now. He wasn’t keen on getting lost in the middle of nowhere again this week.

A cellar then, probably old and leaky… Maybe one of the unrenovated, abandoned buildings near the edge of the city, closer to the gullwings office side? He hummed, turning in the direction of the market where the office was located. He hadn’t been in to it before, but he knew where it was. ] Gullwings, hm? I know where that is. I’ll see if I can pick up a trail and work my way to where he went. Then it shouldn’t be too hard to do a search of the area for his soul and be done with it.

[ In theory!! At least this seemed like something in his wheelhouse, minimal chance of combat if he just had to find and destroy the egg, right? As long as the enemy didn’t realize he was at risk… ]

Usually. [ There was a pause for a long moment where she made a strange clicking sound with her tongue. A sound that indicated she was thinking about something. Her first thought was he'd gone to the cemetery, but that had seemed so cliché. The more she thought about it the more she was convinced that had to be where she was. In some crypt deep in the cemetery, maybe it was something that had previously been used for storage. Or maybe a cell? She'd have to look around more in the tiny room to figure it out. It'd explain the smell, damp feeling, and lack of windows though.

But it was so damn cliché...]

You shouldn't come. He's dangerous.

Probably. [ Said in a tone that conveys that he’s obviously still going to try, though. Because he’s not just going to leave Illyana to deal with this on her own. It was pretty clear that it was already beyond her control if she couldn’t teleport out of the creep’s secret dungeon. ] But if I play my cards right, I can probably resolve this without it coming down to a confrontation beyond destroying the egg in front of him.

[ Not that he hadn’t considered that this could get out of hand, but he was prepared to deal with it if it came to it. It wasn’t like he was just going to forget this happened and go on with his day. ]

How often do you really play your cards right? [ Because from where she stood that didn't seem too likely. ] It'd be stupid to put yourself in danger for me. We talked about that. [ Her voice took on a slight edge there as she remembered that fateful conversation where she'd let herself say way more than she should have. ]

Well, I’m still alive, aren’t I? [ He responded, though with a tone that was a bit… lacking. So he was pushing forward and banking on her, not noticing. Because he thinks he just lied to his friend. ] Good thing I’m not doing it ‘for you.’ So just shut up and let me figure this out.

[ He ended in a huff, falling silent as he came up to the gullwings office and glanced at it. Tugging out a vial from his pocket, and ignored the weird looks he was getting from people as he crouched and spread some dust on the ground. Humming to himself as he watched for any kind of reaction… When tracks lit up, he sighed in relief. It was like the beast. ]

I’ve got a trail, I’m on the way.

This is stupid and you know it. Even if I wasn't used to dying, people don't stay dead here. [ Not that it's a really fun experience. But she'd died back home and she'd died here, it wouldn't really be that big of a deal. She'd rather it be her than him. Did that make her a hypocrite? Kinda. Probably. Not that she really cared. ]

If he kills you don't get mad at me.

Yes, I’m acutely aware of the nature of this world and how it handles the dead. [ He frowned deeply as he started following the path of the feet. It was funny how they both had the same thoughts about who they’d rather deal with dying right now… They were both hypocrites at the end of the day, but Waver didn’t care either. He wasn’t just going to stand by and watch another friend die if he could do something about it. ] Noted. No doubt you’ll give me another reason to be mad at you, anyway.

[ What, he knows she likes to push his buttons and keeping up their usual schtick made it easier to not think about the whole one of them possibly dying thing. ]

But you've never had the first hand experience. Why push that luck? [ Unless he'd died and not told her. In which case she might be a tiny bit irritated. Not that she felt entitled to know every detail of his life but...

okay, no just that. She felt entitled to know. At least with a topic like that! ]

You need to find his soul before coming here. If you free me and we don't have it he'll just keep coming back. I've found enough zombies. [ Why was her life so weird? ]

[ That was the problem with Waver, though. As much as he liked to talk sometimes… He kept the important details, the ones specifically about his life, under wraps until he was cornered and confronted by someone directly about the truth. So, he brushed off the question in favour of going over the plan.

Sorry, Illyana. As smart as he is, he’s an idiot sometimes. ]

Yes, I figured that much based on your story. We know he probably hid it nearby enough to protect it if he suspected someone meddling. So, I’ll avoid getting too close to where you are, and focus on searching the general area for something fitting the description of his stupid hiding place within a hiding place. Then we’ll destroy it within his line of sight, right?

[ Which was why, upon coming across the most recent residual traces of magic, he looked for signs of a similar trace that might indicate a clue to the hiding place. ]

You make it sound easier than it'll end up being. [ Everything always was. Everything seemed like it'd just be a few easy steps until you started doing it, then it all went wrong. That was basically the X-Men way.

She sighs. ]

Do you have a way to find where he's hidden it?

Probably, yeah… But it’s still doable.

[ Or he was going to be stubborn about this and see it through, regardless. ]

I might. I’m going to see if I can’t find some more residual traces like the path I’ve been following. Then I’ll narrow it down to checking things that would fit other things of the appropriate size inside them.

[ Logs weren’t that hard to spot, after all. Failing logs, then empty refuse bins and crates, perhaps? Hmm… He turns those ideas over in his head as he begins the search as he tosses another small handful of dust and watches for any faint tracks. ]

[ She heaves a sigh. It's a pretty overdramatic sigh too, clearly something that she was doing on purpose for the drama of it. Not that she isn't irritated at having to rely on someone like this. ]

Good luck I suppose. Hope you don't get eaten somewhere along the way.

[ Waver rolled his eyes at the overdramatic, exaggerated sigh over the line. Illyana could be irritated with him all she liked, but he wasn’t going to just leave her to her fate.]

Thanks for that.

[ He didn’t get eaten by his story last week, so he’s probably due. ]

I’m going to focus on finding that soul, but if your situation changes, tell me. I’ll let you know when I’ve got something.

[ And the mage falls silent, checking whatever seemed like a decent hiding place for something the size of a hare. It takes him longer than he’d have liked for it to… But eventually he nudged a hollow log that seemed recently disturbed and crouched to peer inside. ]

Fine. [ But not fine. She's annoyed. A few seconds later she feels the need to add: ] I hope you get caught so you realize how dumb this was. [ Logic right there. Pure logic. The most logic ever and nobody will ever convince her otherwise.

At least it seems like the log is the correct place to look. Inside there's a large statue of a hare that when smashed will produce a smaller statue of a duck, followed promptly by the egg. Because that's definitely normal. ]

[ To be fair, Waver did realize this endeavor was dumb, in that he probably should have enlisted some help before getting this far. But time was of the essence, and all that. All he could do was huff at the apparent hope. ] You do realize your ‘hope’ directly contradicts your concern earlier about my risking myself by embarking on this endeavor, right?

[ Because of course the man was going to question her logic.

He breathes a small sigh of relief to see the statue. Both because it meant the search was at an end, and because breaking a statue was easier than performing an impromptu necropsy that involved several layers. ]

I think I got something, looks like a statue.

[ Reaching in, he dragged the large hare statue out of the log and turned it over lightly, observing the surface and gauging its thickness. It definitely didn’t seem too solid, but it had enough heft to it that it probably had something inside it. Musing to himself, he considered just dropping it. But they needed to break the egg in front of Koschei so he didn’t want to risk mucking that up before he’d even got there… So he set the statue down and held its base as he aimed a hand to fire a magic bullet at it to crack the surface and break the layer away with his hand afterward to see if the duck was indeed underneath. ]

Right, definitely an absurd nesting doll. Got a hare and a duck inside.

[ Someday he was going to have to think about the fact that he’d said weirder things than that. ]

[ There's some degree of relief in hearing that he'd actually found it. Of course, there was also a tiny smidgen (maybe more than a tiny) bit of frustration. Was she actually going to be rescued by him of all people from a story she'd told? She'd never hear the end of it. It was bad enough being rescued by anyone at all.

Yet she was probably going to have to accept this. ]

Good. Then if you can get down to me and get me out we can smash it when he shows back up to recapture me. Preferably before he beats you back and moves on with a ceremony to make me his trophy wife.

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