Room 223, Friday Night

[life_inshadow]

The spellbooks from Tara's shelves -- and more than a few that she'd borrowed from the shop -- were scattered around her bed, the result of what felt like weeks trying to get something useful out of them. She'd heard the announcement about auditors, which sent her back to the beginning for any reference.

Conclusion: Nothing, though there was a kind of "accounting demon" that Tara would really prefer not to have balance her checkbook.

She sighed and flopped back on the floor, then flicked a cat toy toward Mr. Moxy, mildly pleased she could at least make him happy.

It was that kind of exciting Friday night.

[OOC: Door open, post open!]

Comments

[holy-daughter.livejournal.com]

Lucrezia's letters from Cesare had become increasingly odd. Requests to send her love to la bella Farnese were met with a polite inquiry: with which fair lady she was implying him to be consorting? Nonsense. Giulia Farnese was their father's mistress, and had replaced their mother by their father's side at most Papal events. Cesare could not misunderstand her meaning.

As worrisome as the letters were, it was far worse when they ceased. Her dove, St. Cecilia, did not return. Had she been devoured by the aching void? Had all of Rome? Papa, Mama, Cesare?

She could not stand this torment any longer. The doors were closing, and she needed to make a choice.

"I beg your pardon," she said, standing in the doorway of the other girl's room, looking lost. "I believe I may be in need of assistance?"

Presumptuous to ask a stranger, but she was low on alternatives.

[life_inshadow]

Two near-strangers in a night. Tara was popular.

"I can try," she said, stepping up and away from the cat with a slightly surprised look on her face. "Is everything okay?"

[holy-daughter.livejournal.com]

Lucrezia flushed. "No," she said. "But I fear the malady to be a common one. I have heard nothing from Cesare in days, and it is said that the gateways are to be closing. How does one request a portal?"

[life_inshadow]

"Normally you go to the Portalocity website or call them and book it," Tara said cautiously. "Or else you talk to this girl Raven. But, uh ... are you sure that's what you want to do?"

She would not go within a thousand yards of a portal, thanks much.

[holy-daughter.livejournal.com]

"I must," Lucrezia said, closing her eyes. "Cesare may be ... gone already. I need to be with them. If the Apocalypse has come, I should be in their arms when it happens."

She could hardly force her voice to say the rest. "I will die more surely if I stay, here, while all whom I have ever loved are destroyed, than if I am with them for the end."

[life_inshadow]

"If you really have to go, I can help you," Tara said, swayed by the girl's passion. "Just ... you're okay with the risk? You might not find him at all."

[holy-daughter.livejournal.com]

"I will owe you a debt I can never repay," Lucrezia said, swallowing past a lump in her throat. "Unless you should like a favor from a Pope who m-may no longer exist."

Papa, gone. Who would sit on his throne if he had been taken? She could not bear the thought of it.

"I take full responsibility," she said, steeling herself to sound as though she knew her own mind. She was a Borgia, after all. "I know that that this is a decision I am unlikely to be able to reverse. But should the end come here or there, I choose there."

[life_inshadow]

"I think we can just call it a favor," Tara said, and dialed Portalocity on her phone. She doubted the website would be any faster, and Raven had looked wrecked all week. Best to call in. "You don't owe me anything."

"Where are you going? I mean, what place and what year?"

[holy-daughter.livejournal.com]

"The Holy See," Lucrezia said, quickly, "Rome. 1494. Is it very hard, setting up a portal? I've money to pay for it, if they accept ducats."

And if the price was not astronomical. She had never tried to order buy a portal before. Surely a portal couldn't cost as much as a dowry?

[life_inshadow]

Tara shook her head quickly. Normally it wasn't hard.

This wasn't normal.

A few minutes into trying, and after a lot of, "No, R-O-M-E" and "No, I'm not the passenger" and "no, f-five transfers in hell dimensions is not okay," she handed the phone up to Lucrezia.

"You might get a better result," she said, wincing.