Link to article: fragment:The Deathless Merchant of London 2.
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[[include :scp-wiki:theme:mcd]] [[include :scp-wiki:info:start]] [[=]] **[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/ralliston-s-authorpage More by this author]** [[/=]] For translators, here is a direct link to each iteration: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/fragment:the-deathless-merchant-of-london-1 https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/fragment:the-deathless-merchant-of-london-2 [[include :scp-wiki:info:end]] [[==]] In his final moments, the only thoughts running through Osvendor Sarrian Enzan Jr.'s mind were those of confusion. By all means he could think of, she shouldn't be there. She should have never been there. They checked so, so many times before the attack itself that it just could not be happening. The only people that were meant to be on that yacht were Amos Marshall, Ruprecht Carter, and Percival Darke, surrounded by their trusted security. Not //her//. And yet, Iris Dark stood there before him all the same. "What's the matter?" She smiled with the most awful smile he'd ever seen in his life, the eyes of the devil drilling into Enzan's skull. "Not what you expected, little snake?" The woman's voice was cold, even colder than the stormy air and ocean water engulfing the pearl-white yacht from every direction. Her grip on his throat was so tight he couldn't even think straight anymore. The only thing he could focus on was just how strong those paratech gloves she had worn were and the fact he'd failed. Not even the rain pouring from the heavens above could clear his head enough for him to be able to formulate a coherent plan. All he had to do was blend in with the rich, use the incredible occasion of all three MC&D supervisors being in one place, and let their trap loose on them. It was that easy. It //should// have been that easy. Being honest with himself, the worst part about the situation he'd found himself in wasn't the fact he was sure he was going to die, but the fact he didn't do anything wrong to deserve it. He'd done everything according to plan. He'd done everything //perfectly//. He didn't deserve to be here. He didn't deserve to die like this. But Iris Dark didn't care about what he thought was fair. Enzan blinked, starting to feel death birth itself down his empty lungs. His brain felt it, too, and within a second, it went into overdrive, trying so desperately to somehow save itself from its inevitable demise. Even if he knew it was of no use now, he let his eyes wander around the wet deck of the yacht regardless. It was the best he could do. Just as he suspected, nothing that was still in his decreasing sight could help him. Not even the unmoving corpses of Marshall and Carter seniors, lying just outside his reach. Noticing what he was looking at, Dark raised an eyebrow, only to replace it with cold laughter a second later. "I guess I should be thanking you, in some sense," she began to whisper, tightening her grip once more. Enzan let out a long gasp as he frantically tried to inhale something -- //anything// -- that would let him survive for just a minute longer, only to fail miserably. "[[[money-game|I've wanted these two old husks out of the picture for some time now, you know]]]. Nothing personal, I just don't really like how they get into my business. And nobody could have given me a better opportunity to go through with it than you, little snake." She spat those words out so harshly as if they were a slur. In his final moments, Osvendor Sarrian Enzan couldn't even afford to try. With nothing but exhaustion filling every single part of his body, he just limply hung from the gripped arm of a woman he barely knew anything about. Unable to move, unable to think, unable to resist, he gave in to that awful, awful cold that started to seep into his mind, and within just a moment, he grew silent. And then all the lights went out. "Ewhg," Iris Dark groaned a moment later as she threw the body of that stupid Hand at the floor below her. She couldn't quite tell what she hated more -- the fact she had to touch him or the fact he out of all people was the person that allowed her to put her plan into motion. Cleaning the souped-up hand against her long, black dress, she shrugged, realizing she didn't quite care either way. Making her way towards the entry to the deck below, she corrected her long, wet hair. She didn't mind the ongoing storm, not really; it provided a cover good enough for nobody but her and Enzan to see what had happened a few seconds before. And it so happened her being the only witness of tonight's massacre was more than beneficial for everyone involved. Putting her hand on the handle to the doors leading below, she suddenly heard a sound. Her head snapping in a moment to see what that creak was, she felt a frightened whimper coming from just outside the light's reach. She blinked twice, making her contact lenses see in infrared. Ah. There he was. A human shape, curled up in a fetal position. She smiled gently, putting on that warm masquerade of a caring person, and moved down, leveling her head with the man's. "Is everything alright?" She asked in a mother's tone, calming the man's sulking. "What's going on?" "I... I..." He stuttered, pointing with a trembling finger first at the bodies of the two old men she had disposed of a few minutes before. He then pointed at her. She frowned. "What did you see?" Her voice chained in an instant, that more-than-familiar cold overtaking it in just a moment. "Please..." "What. Did. You. See?" She repeated, this time even harder than before. He swallowed. "M-Miss Dark, I-I saw... I saw //you// k-k-ki--" He didn't find it in him to finish the sentence. She sighed. "No, you did not," she said, that warm tone re-entering her vocabulary. "Let me tell you what you saw, okay?" She skewed her head. He nodded eagerly. "What you saw is that man right there" she pointed at Enzan's corpse. "murdering both Misters Marshall and Carter using magic, right?" He repeated the gesture, albeit slightly hesitantly. "You see, that man was a Serpent's Hand member. You know what the Hand is, I'm sure of that, you're a smart kid. And he was dangerous. So dangerous, in fact, that they didn't expect his glamour or his attack before it was too late. Am I correct?" This time, there was no delay in his movement. "Excellent. Now, some people might come to question you after that. Maybe even good old Mr. Darke. They'll want to ask you questions -- quite a few of them -- but all you'll say is that you don't remember anything other than this. Do you understand what I'm saying?" He swallowed again. "They'll say many, //many// things, but throughout all of it, you have to remember: you only saw the Hand member here. Just him. They'll try to question whether that is the case -- after all, why would he just do something as blatantly stupid and suicidal as this? -- but you'll have to tell them the truth, alright? Just the truth. Once you do, they'll know you are right. They'll realize that some Hand members are just silly little goofs that don't always do the smartest things." "Besides," she chuckled, a cold shiver going down the servant's spine. "The Serpent of Ouroboros always eats itself in the end, does it not?" [[/==]]