Shooting the Messenger

Lorcan smiled briefly as Katrina reminded her that betting against a mercenary was often not productive. Lorcan, though, didn't see the danger, as he had felt the deck was stacked deliberately in his favor. He could hardly betray a slight glint of mischief from his eyes, as he remembered substituting the birth control potion with a fertility potion that looked every bit the part of the potion she believed she had taken. It was merely a harmless prank, after all. And had Zada been on her game, she'd have caught the switch. And when it came to romance, Lorcan was well practiced at being persuasive and charismatic. That part had been simple.

"As I see it," Lorcan mused, "the burden lays with her. She's very skilled at potions herself. If she chose to chance my potions, then that burden was on her. And, one of the perks of being male is that procreation is rather pleasurable for us, and we don't have to make any investment, necessarily, in the unpleasantness of pregnancy or certainly in the delivery room.

"She seems to be under the impression I'll be a part of that process, but that remains to be seen," he said casually. That entire process, if Zada had her way, would prove to be a first for Lorcan, and he honestly just wasn't sure he was interested in that part of it.

"She does, does she?" Lorcan mused at the news of Dyllan's niece. "By all means, you could consider the child as a possible messenger. Do try not to kill the child. There are many ways to wound a Gryffindor, and the suffering of one's child might seem endless to them. Consider too, her friends. Innocents. Or anything she feels responsible for. I will leave the creativity to you. I trust you can deal with this."

The dark witch took a moment to shake her head with a slight smile. It took a man of a very certain caliber to say something like that with such casual honesty. Lorcan was one of them. "You know," the witch said slowly after a moment, "as a woman I almost feel the need to curse you for that." It really was a good thing that the woman had never experienced childbirth, or Lorcan may have just found himself unable to do any more reproducing. She'd heard the most horrific pregnancy stories from other females, and Katrina-Carlotta was positive she wouldn't be able to stand carrying a child.

"I find myself slightly tempted to help Zada trick you into helping somehow. After all, if you are inattentive enough to fall for it, the burden would lay with you, no?" the European stated with a wry grin. The woman felt oddly like a teenager again; plotting cute and cunning little schemes, whilst using her mentors as sounding boards.  

"I won't kill the child," Katrina-Carlotta admitted reluctantly. She knew better than that, but children did have a rather annoying tendency to die for the stupidest reasons. A young boy had died of fear before her once before. That aside, she'd never been overly fond of killing children. After all, what if she murdered a child whom would one day become a great dark practitioner? Or what if she slaughtered the wizard whom would invent a most useful spell? While the woman had never been one to get lost within the realm of what-if's, she also tried to avoid the destruction of possible power whenever possible. Much like how blood purists wished to avoid the spilling of pure blood, the dark witch tried to avoid removing the powerful from the world. She respected power. She ever respected the Order, despite their foolish beliefs and practices, in the slightly twisted way that one respects a decent enemy.

He looked at her, amused.

"You do realize that my other wives were more...domesticated. Or money hungry, or position hungry. One of the three. They were far more interested in trying to change me, to make me fit whatever it was they thought I should be. The predominant theory was that if they got pregnant as soon as possible and as often as possible, and used every traditional womanly wile that it would lure me to love them for the rest of their lives.

"Unfortunately, it always struck me as trickery. It was debasing for them and insulting to me. The sex is easy. Its rather mindless after a point. The devotion, not so much. Not with someone that thinks so little of themselves. They got what they wanted. They got their babies and a good piece of my cash. But I refuse to give them me," he said.

"I suppose that's what makes Zada a bit out of the mold. She wants nothing, she expects nothing. She needs nothing. It's business. This baby business is making her a bit weird, but, meh, its not like I haven't seen that before.

"But," he flashed a quick smile, "I enjoy a prank as much as the next person. If you think you have it in you, then by all means, let's see what you've got," he said, never one to back away from competition.

"Then it's hardly a wonder that all your previous wives didn't last all that long," Katrina-Carlotta stated dryly. Really, what had Lorcan been thinking, allowing himself to be tied to multiple domesticated woman? One would have thought that the man would have at least learnt something from the first time.

"A man like yourself needs someone that will be able to keep up with you, not one of those simpering housewives," the witch informed Lorcan with a definite sneer in her tone. Katrina-Carlotta had always looked down upon those woman, the ones whom allowed their entire lives to be based upon something as simple as the gender they were born with. It was, frankly, pathetic.

"Which is why you will find your current wife more than willing to prank you as soon as I mention the idea," the assassin stated in an attempt to make her point. She had no idea what Zada and herself would end up doing, but they'd think of something.

Taking another sip of her now-cool tea, Katrina-Carlotta made to stand. "If that is all, I feel it may be time for me to go. I have a brunch meeting that I should be off to, no matter how much I would prefer to procrastinate it," the dark witch admitted. She was to be dining with a French politician, and was positive that the next few hours would do quite a number on her patience.