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Post by Nadir on Dec 17, 2008 18:28:51 GMT -5
*Nadir wondered if there was anything else in his life he could possibly screw up more than he'd already done. Georgiana...well, he could only hope and pray she was dead. Shadi...hell, he preferred not to think about the circumstances, though perhaps his only child was also his only hope, and he couldn't help but wonder if someday they might be something more like a normal family. Susanna...didn't love him, and was gone. Xandros...was just plain gone. He could never have expected the conqueror's lust to die completely, not while there were lands as yet not under his control. They had made no promises to each other...
Not that it made it hurt any less.*
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Post by The Persian on Dec 17, 2008 18:31:08 GMT -5
"Excuse me, sir," came a softly accented voice at his elbow. "Forgive the intrusion, but it seems to me you are very familiar."
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Post by Nadir on Dec 17, 2008 18:37:35 GMT -5
*Nadir turned towards the other man.*
"Indeed? Have we met?" *he asked. There was something...eerie about the other gentleman, even if that very eeriness was borne out of a startling kind of symmetry he couldn't quite put his finger on.*
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Post by The Persian on Dec 17, 2008 18:41:27 GMT -5
They did not look alike except to those Westerners who could not tell men of a certain complexion apart. But there was something eerie about looking at him.
"I do not think so," he said slowly, searching his memory. "If we have, it was in passing. But I do not recall you, only..." He trailed off, trying to grasp the elusive thread that would tie them together.
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Post by Nadir on Dec 17, 2008 18:47:44 GMT -5
*Nadir nodded slowly, seeing a reflection of his own feeling in the expression of the man opposite him.*
"Yes."
*He slowly extended his hand, in the manner of these Europeans, as he had learned, years ago.*
"Nadir Khan, at your service."
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Post by The Persian on Dec 17, 2008 18:56:46 GMT -5
The Persian extended his hand as well. "Khan" spoke of royal blood, but he was not familiar with the name. "I thought you were Persian as well," he said. "But I do not know you. But I spent so much time in Mazenderan, and so much time since then traveling, it is no wonder."
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Post by Nadir on Dec 17, 2008 19:03:59 GMT -5
"So far from our motherland, we may as well be considered brothers, by all accounts, in this foreign place," *said Nadir, shaking the other man's hand and vaguely noting that there was no name offered in return; but he knew better than most that some men had a great deal to hide, and good reason to hide it, and so he did not press him any more than he himself should like to be pressed. ((...sounds dirtier than I meant it to.)) Then something else occurred to him, pushing all titular concerns from his mind.*
"Mazenderan? Are you here for Erik?"
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Post by The Persian on Dec 17, 2008 19:12:35 GMT -5
His hand rested in the other man's, entirely forgotten at the sound of that one word.
"Erik?" he echoed. "What do you know of Erik, and his secrets?"
His voice was neither accusatory nor loud, but his jade eyes seemed sharper as they searched Nadir Khan's face.
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Post by Nadir on Dec 17, 2008 19:19:13 GMT -5
"Probably more than I want to," *replied Nadir, reflecting on all the shenanigans.*
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Post by The Persian on Dec 19, 2008 12:07:00 GMT -5
"Then he is here," the Persian said, almost to himself. "I had not thought..."
The mix of emotions within him would take some sorting out. Fear, not for himself but for others. A betrayal of pleasure at the idea. And, oddly... jealousy. That this man should know Erik's name and be able to speak about him in this intimate fashion. Was he only one of many? As tenuous as their friendship had been, as much trouble as it had been to him, the Persian felt oddly proprietary about Erik's secrets. Privileged.
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Post by Nadir on Dec 19, 2008 12:09:46 GMT -5
*Nadir leaned in, his tone conspiratorial.* "He had my baby. ZING!"
"...would you have come looking for him here but doubted his presence, then?" *asked Nadir with some vague, bewildered amusement.*
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Post by The Persian on Dec 19, 2008 12:34:49 GMT -5
The Persian's face mirrored Nadir's bewilderment, but not his amusement.
"I did not come looking for him at all," he confessed. "I came to Paris for itself. And no sooner had I done so did the man impose himself upon my every interaction, like a shadow."
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Post by Nadir on Dec 19, 2008 17:29:26 GMT -5
"Ah, so you are his obsession of the month?" *Nadir's smirk was wry, with a hint of distaste. Though he himself had never been undyingly faithful to any of his lovers, he had not pursued each with Erik's level of enthusiasm, nor had he had so many as Erik's whims had consumed.*
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Post by The Persian on Dec 19, 2008 20:38:47 GMT -5
The Persian stared at him with open astonishment, which was rather bold of him. "I doubt he knows I am here," he said. His eyes narrowed. Something about the man's smirk... it did not sit well with him. "Perhaps we are speaking of a different man," he said slowly.
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Post by Nadir on Dec 20, 2008 5:35:49 GMT -5
"Erik?" *Nadir's eyebrows shot up.* "As if there could be two in this world, monsieur."
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