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Tenebrae leaned in closer.

"It's entertainment. Nothing more." Chel was now out of earshot and Tenebrae elaborated. "There is a 62.7 percent chance that she will return after healing herself and cooling off, wherein she will attempt to drag me back as a means of imprisonment."

There was a slightly deadly look in his eyes. "It's the 37.3 that interests me. She is so predictably unpredictable." His words were cryptic, and even if Jack found meaning in them it probably wasn't what Tenebrae had intended. Even if Jack put something forth as an explanation, Tenebrae would deny and find a reversal. He and Chel were similar, even if he denied it.

"It's a marvel, truly, how utterly plain her mind is. I filled it with nothing but pictures of me killing you, and she offers herself as payment." He laughed, like he was sharing a joke with an old friend. "Her mind is like a dimming bulb- not even bright enough to recognize that as a golem, I can do nothing." He clenched a fist, remembering the thrill of physical contact. "Whereas mine is a paragon of creation."

"Neither."

Perhaps it had to do with who he was in a previous lifetime. Something with the girl Chel had seen in a vision (which he also found amusing- how could she see something he could not? He was not merely using her eyes, he was her mind). But Tenebrae cared neither where the feeling was coming from, nor where it would take him.

"All is merely evidence to my precedence." Tenebrae's fingers moved idly over the stump he sat on, smooth fingers fitting in the grooves. "As is your failure to comprehend."

A piece of the bark snapped under his fingers. Tenebrae would destroy anything he was allowed to, and that which he was not. "When she dies-" Not if, when. "-Will you lose yourself the way you did with your previous wife-b***h?" Tenebrae did love that word he'd picked up as a weapon. "Or have you succeeded convincing yourself that you are above such things hm?"

Jack was not exempt.

"Attaching yourself to a short-lived b***h seems counter-productive to your survival. But who am I to judge? Perhaps I wish to make her better via entanglement. She could be great." Tenebrae was probably doing it for thay reason too. He had the unfortunate curse of duality; he could neither allow his play-thing to be the best or the worst. Just gilded and destroyed.

"She's picking a fight," Tenebrae said idly. "Though it seems not out of my doing." He seemed displeased momentarily, but then the look alleviated. He gave no further information.

Snap and another section of bark came off. He used it to scratch at a patch of moss, rubbing it free of its anchor. "It will not be long now."

"So insistent you are a lone barghest! You chide Chel for her stubbornness yet here you are." He didn't skip a beat and he certainly didn't allow Jack to direct the conversation anywhere but where the demon commanded. Tenebrae's eyes widened for a moment, an unnatural shape for eyes to take even when his pupils were dilating to a smaller, manic size. It would have been worrying had it not been an easy function for Tenebrae to perform. His eyes were like limbs. "Such stubbornness begets a compliment. I quite like the way you have ripped her up. It makes it so much easier."

Tenebrae stood and stretched himself on the rock, not having broken a sweat. "I should extend an offer to you, out of my generosity. When she dies of idiocy I will try not to laugh as you lose the one thing that cares about you quite deeply." Of course Tenebrae was only going to "try." He would never promise not to. The only thing he would do is plant seeds of Chel's real feelings in Jack's mind. That made it so much funnier- Tenebrae wanted to watch Jack defensively burn what little relationship had formed. "She will make an ugly corpse, don't you think?"

The beholder leaned forward onto his knees, like a commander at his war council. "Do tell me of Owain's shrieks. He must be galavanting to her side, yes?"

Tenebrae's body began to crack slightly. Only tiny lines, hardly noticeable at first.

"Ah, she's being particularly disobedient."

His smile could have killed. It probably had.

"Now she's running. What have you gotten into?"

The lines were increasing now, and Tenebrae somewhat morbidly chipped off a piece of his arm, rotating it slowly. Undoubtedly it hurt as his arm was now bleeding, but either the golem body wasn't allowing him pain, or he truly didn't care.

"Continue keeping her." Tenebrae's order was dual in nature as always. His tone gave away nothing, both encouraging and mocking. "She is going to break soon. Very soon." He was pleased and his smile was that of a cat sitting in a sunbeam. "You are a wonderful assistant."

The place Tenebrae had pried was now completely shattered and his arm fell to the ground, the crumbly metal golem exterior showing itself. "How terribly rude of me," he said through cracked lips, "My connection's fading."

"Not attached," Tenebrae said mirthfully and entirely to himself. He was enjoying his little inside joke at Jack's expense.

But then whatever was holding the golem together decided to give up, and Tenebrae became nothing more than a pile of dust on the ground. It was a very similar reaction to disintegration that the deathsweeper golems had. All that was left was a small metallic, runic frame that his golem had been built around.

It was just like Chel to leave Jack with no help.

"Of course," Jack sighed after the fact. "You both have to be ******** annoying. Made for each other."

He glared at the framework and for a moment shared in Owain's frustration, though their reasons were very different. Eventually he plucked it up from the ground, carefully carrying it back to the labs as the giant grumbled foul and archaic oaths that almost made him snort. There was no explanation given as he returned it to the lab and faced the wrath of the techs from earlier, handling it stoically until, after a brief interjection about helping with the cost if her account didn't have enough, he was allowed to finally leave.

A text was sent as he walked out. Where are you?