Shadowplay: Chapter 17 - The Bloodline Part 1

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Chapter 17 – Bloodline (Part1)

Drosselmeyer sat at his table admiring the fresh ink and parchment he had acquired from Autor, he smiled and took a handful of brazilnuts out of his coat pocket, "I don't even like nuts!" he held them in his hand and stared at them for a while as he tried to decide what to do with them. He then snapped his fingers and hurriedly collected all his tea cups from around the area; as they were scattered on the desk, under books, under the table and various other places where one could simply not fathom. He lined them up in a line parallel to the end of the table, and when he was content he sat down.

Sighing he counted the number of brazil nuts in his hand, "five… one for each! Spiffulance!" he relaxed back into his chair and held a nut between his finger and his thumb and closed one eye to aim, he then threw the nut across the table and it landed in a cup, "One for Rue" he continued to throw the nuts into the cups and called a name each time he threw a nut into a cup, " And Mytho and Duck and Fakir and Carabosse!" once he ran out of names he nodded to himself proudly.

A single thought popped into his dusty brain and this excited him greatly, he began to gather the cups; though keeping the brazil nuts snugly separately. He stumbled away from the tea table with great haste into the darkness, until he was completely and utterly lost.

He stopped and turned on the spot as a dog would before sitting down on a comfortable pillow. Scanning the area he squinted, "it seems to me, that I am now completely lost" he smiled at this. As the grin spread across his wrinkled complexion he snapped his fingers and out of nowhere a large brass cog appeared before Drosselmeyer, suspended in mid-air. He cleared his throat and went to place his bottom on the floor when his large velvet throne of a chair, came racing from the tea table behind him, and caught Drosselmeyer's aged ass before it could touch the ground. He then waited a moment, as the small foot rest came bounding from behind the chair and propped his feet up in a most pleasing position.

Drosselmeyer smiled and reached from inside his jacket, "It looks like I 'still got it' as some would say ha!" He produced a steaming teapot. Selecting a random teacup still housing a brazil nut, he squinted as he poured the odd hued liquid into the cup. Once the liquid was poured he stared into the cup and placed the teapot beside him, balancing it rather riskily on the arm of the chair.

The liquid fizzed and swirled with bubbles and miasmas of colour. He then thrust his hand into one of his deep pockets and rustled around before grasping the object he desired. Pulling out a thin glass tube with a cork stopper in the top, he gazed at the purple tinted globules of delight resting at the bottom of the tube, "I have come to believe, Autor was more helpful than I could have fathomed…" he mumbled as he popped open the cork and rolled out a single globule. He inspected the ball before dropping it carelessly into the cup.

The bubbling and fizzing stopped. This piqued Drosselmeyer's interest. He frowned and raised the cup to his face, "how strange… maybe this isn't very concentrated plasma after all…" As soon as he began to speak a large flash of light emanated from the cup and glittering smoke swirled around the cup.

Drosselmeyer screamed like a little girl and threw the cup at the floating cog, as he retreated into the armchair. The china shattered and the face of the cog was splattered with colour and bubbles, "Oh bother… my favourite china…"

The liquid began to bubble and fizz again as it drew in towards the centre of the cog, "oh what have we here?" it formed a small whirlpool of colour as it slowly grew more compact. Suddenly, the liquid washed over the face of the cog at lightning fast speed, and the liquid then began to form a picture, "Hmm I see! This is a new way of doing things, I like it… especially this high definition picture! Now, who's story shall we pick apart today?"

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