Markov Manor was torn apart, opened up and laid out to view like a dissected animal pinned to a board. Spires, halls, buttresses, and turrets were ripped from their moorings and left to hang at odd angles around the sundered core of the manor building.
Jace and Ignis stood at the end of a long arched bridge that jutted out from the mountainside. Below them was a sheer drop disappearing into mist. Ahead, what was once the rest of the bridge had become a scattering of steppingstones across the void, leading to the entryway of the manor.
"I guess Sorin probably isn't here," Jace muttered to to his companion.
Suddenly, he saw the place as it must have once been—an awe-inspiring structure of intricately decorated spires and balustrades, perched like a vulture at the edge of a lofty promontory. His breath caught in his chest as he took in the scale of the...not a manor, no, but a castle. A palace.
And the vision was gone, like an illusion. Scowling, he reached out with his mind, looking for some other intelligence that had forced the image into his mind. No one but Ignis was nearby, at least not anyone with thoughts he could detect. And he didn't think that had been a trick from the other man. Their relationship wasn't exactly chummy, but he'd seemed sincere in his desire to find Sorin with Jace. Sincere enough to risk infuriating Liliana. Jace had been on the wrong side of Liliana's wrath more than once and 'unpleasant' was a vast understatement. Still, he reinforced the wards he habitually kept around his mind and surveyed the castle as it actually was.
"Did Sorin do this, you think?" he wondered aloud. Liliana had suggested that he wasn't particularly welcome in his ancestral home. Either way, the sheer scale of the devastation gave him pause. "It's possible I should have taken Liliana's warnings more seriously." This was not the first time he'd thought that this journey and he was pretty sure it wasn't going to be the last.
( Ignis was incredibly tempted... )
[[ a follow-up from here, and beaten, wrangled, modified, and cribbed from "The Mystery of Markov Manor" by James Wyatt, by the truly remarkable![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
deathsmajesty and me! NFB, NFI, and OOC welcome! And do we really need the LENGTH warning? ]]
Jace and Ignis stood at the end of a long arched bridge that jutted out from the mountainside. Below them was a sheer drop disappearing into mist. Ahead, what was once the rest of the bridge had become a scattering of steppingstones across the void, leading to the entryway of the manor.
"I guess Sorin probably isn't here," Jace muttered to to his companion.
Suddenly, he saw the place as it must have once been—an awe-inspiring structure of intricately decorated spires and balustrades, perched like a vulture at the edge of a lofty promontory. His breath caught in his chest as he took in the scale of the...not a manor, no, but a castle. A palace.
And the vision was gone, like an illusion. Scowling, he reached out with his mind, looking for some other intelligence that had forced the image into his mind. No one but Ignis was nearby, at least not anyone with thoughts he could detect. And he didn't think that had been a trick from the other man. Their relationship wasn't exactly chummy, but he'd seemed sincere in his desire to find Sorin with Jace. Sincere enough to risk infuriating Liliana. Jace had been on the wrong side of Liliana's wrath more than once and 'unpleasant' was a vast understatement. Still, he reinforced the wards he habitually kept around his mind and surveyed the castle as it actually was.
"Did Sorin do this, you think?" he wondered aloud. Liliana had suggested that he wasn't particularly welcome in his ancestral home. Either way, the sheer scale of the devastation gave him pause. "It's possible I should have taken Liliana's warnings more seriously." This was not the first time he'd thought that this journey and he was pretty sure it wasn't going to be the last.
( Ignis was incredibly tempted... )
[[ a follow-up from here, and beaten, wrangled, modified, and cribbed from "The Mystery of Markov Manor" by James Wyatt, by the truly remarkable
deathsmajesty and me! NFB, NFI, and OOC welcome! And do we really need the LENGTH warning? ]]
