"Well... just like you guys have your mysterious assassins we have legends of our own in the North. Legends like the Children of the Forest, Giants, Mammoths, Direwolves, Ice Spiders, Ice Eagles, and much more. And... I am also someone from those Legends," Jon finished with a straight face.
Darrio looked sceptically at the Northerner, wondering if the madman was going to tell him that he was a half-giant or if he was a descendant of the Children of the Forest and had magical blood.
"That's right. Similar to those red priests of R'hllor who got powers from their Lord of light, I have also been given powers by the Old Gods..." Jon said spouting bullshit without flinching, but inside he was cringing at himself fiercely. He felt that his performance wouldn't lose to those cult leaders of MLM schemes from his previous lives, "What powers you ask?" he continued luring in the banker, "Basically, I am someone who's been given complete control and command over all creatures of this world, whether they be a four-legged beast, a bird or even an insect. I can make them do anything I want, from mundane things like delivering letters for me to fetching a fruit for me to spy for me and even... kill for me. You don't believe me, do you?"
"No, I do," Darrio quickly nodded his head with a forced smile. He would agree to anything... even accept the man as a god as long as he wasn't killed today.
"Hmm... Looks like I need to give you some live demonstration," Jon said with an understanding expression, "I know! How about I introduce you to one of my friends, I am sure you'll be convinced then," Jon said before pointing his finger towards the only window in the room, "You just need to turn your head and look there..." banker looked sceptically at the man before complying with his request.
Darrio silently looked at the blue sky while pessimistically wondering if enough time had passed for someone to notice something wrong or if the guard was finally done with his business and was coming to rescue him.
He was absentmindedly scouting when he saw something suddenly flash by, something that made his eyes widen in disbelief. He immediately rubbed his eyes in doubt while thinking, 'There's no way what I saw was real...'
"Did you see it?" Jon asked while looking expectantly at Darrio but the banker just shook his head speechlessly, "Oh, was it too fast?"
"I-I just saw some b-blue flash outside the window..." Darrio answered hesitatingly as he felt that his mind was just playing tricks on him before and he refused to believe that any creature could be that big.
"Let's try that again then... I'll ask my friend to slow down this time."
And this time Darrio had his eyes completely peeled open, which meant that he was able to see the horrifying huge blue eagle-like bird in full clarity as it slowed down. His face immediately paled as he saw the icy creature pass by the window. The ethereal creature had crystal-like sharp feathers, fierce yet gentle blue eyes and gleaming claws, it was something straight out of legend—a fairy tale.
"She's called Frost..." Jon said quietly to the deathly scared banker, "One of the rare legendary creatures that I mentioned... Don't you think she's quite beautiful?"
Beautiful wasn't exactly the word that Darrio had in mind while looking at that otherworldly eagle, instead all that stayed in his head were those knife-like claws that he was sure could easily twist his neck and pluck his eyes out and with the speed that he had seen he was sure that she could do much more... And to think a creature like that was under this man's control...
"And she's not the only friend I have nearby," Jon said cheerfully, breaking Darrio out of his reverie, "I've got another smaller one here who's dying to meet you," he said before turning his face towards the empty room, "Come out, Gan."
Almost immediately squeaky sounds echoed through the floor and before Darrio could recover from the shock of what he had seen out the window, he saw another "friend" of the Northerner.
A small brown mouse quickly and skillfully climbed the table and scampered across to a stop right beside Jon and started rubbing the man's clothes as if it was a pet dog or a cat, and what was even more unbelievable was that he actually saw the little thing look straight towards him with a human gleam in its eyes and wave its small claws at him as if greeting him.
"He's a very cute little critter isn't he," Jon whispered with an indulgent smile while gently rubbing his finger on the mouse's back, "He's quite intelligent, you know. The perfect little spy."
He didn't want to but Darrio had no choice but to start believing what the Northerner had been telling him from the start. He still didn't think that he was a god or anything like that but... it was getting harder and harder for him to deny that the man had magical powers probably given by those heretic Old Gods.
Still even with the little spy mouse, and massive killer eagle, there was a small bit of resistance left inside of him that told him that he could still find a way out of this situation as long as he was somehow able to get away from him for a while...
Unfortunately for him what happened next utterly destroyed his last bit of defiance...
"And last but not least, I want you to meet my newest little friend," Jon said looking up from the harmless-looking mouse that seemed to have relaxed the tense nerves in Darrio, "She's quite a unique one, as in there's not a lot of her species left in the world. At least not in any places inhabited by humans. I found her in a very remote forest in Westeros, a place where all kinds of creatures thrived without interference from humans but that's not the most unique thing about her." Jon said with a sneaky smile, "The most special thing about her is her lethality, her ability to kill. Even though she's quite small, no bigger than my finger, she has the ability to bring down any creature a hundred times bigger than her in a matter of minutes with just a small bite... Yep, you guessed it right, she's a spider."
Darrio involuntarily gulped and his eyes started frantically looking all over the room in search of the spider wondering where it would jump out from.
As he was looking around the corners of the room, he suddenly caught a mischievous smile from the corner of his eyes and when he turned towards Jon he saw him staring at his right hand which was placed on the arm-chair. And almost instantly a shiver of revulsion ran through Darrio's spine as he understood the implication of his gaze.
Just as Darrio was about to fling his arm out and hopefully dislodge wherever the abomination was hiding in his sleeves, Jon's hand clamped upon his wrist like a pair of steel forceps rendering his right hand immobile.
"Uh! Uh! Uh!" Jon shook his head while clicking his tongue, "You can't make sudden moves like that. What if you scare my friend into biting you, she's quite shy, you know." he said in a light admonishing tone before he ignored the banker and looked down, "Come out, Widow."
Almost immediately Darrio started to shiver and shake in terror as he felt something crawl up his arm. If Jon wasn't holding his arm in a vice grip the banker would have already been jumping and screaming like a little girl.
His mind was completely overwhelmed with fear as he closed his eyes and started praying with tears hoping that he didn't piss himself. It took a while, but thankfully for him the crawling finally stopped when the creature reached his wrist.
Breathing heavily, Darrio slowly opened his eyes to see a grotesque arachnid sitting on the back of his palm. Its body was a sickly combination of mottled black and deep crimson, and its dark abyss-coloured beady eyes stared unblinkingly towards him. Its long sinewy legs were covered with tiny hairs arising a deep sense of disgust and terror in him.
The spider jumped from his wrist to Jon's and almost immediately Darrio snatched his wrist from Jon's hand, cradled it in his left hand and started rubbing it fiercely, hoping to somehow get rid of the goosebumps.
"Ah! Are you perhaps afraid that she bit you," Jon asked with an innocent tilt of his head, "You don't need to worry, because she won't do something like that unless I ask—Eh? What? What are you saying?" Jon suddenly stopped mid-sentence and looked down towards the spider with a shocked expression on his face, "But why would you—Oh! Are you saying that he shook too much and you accidentally bit him... That makes sense," he said with an understanding expression towards the arachnid.
"W-What?" Darrio suddenly interrupted with a hysterical look in his eyes, hi stomach dropped at hearing the words "accident" and "bit", "What is spider talking about!!"
"Well... It seems there's been an accident," Jon said with a sheepish expression on his face, "My little friend here got scared when you shook too much a few minutes ago and unintentionally bit you...But don't blame her too much you know, she's still a bit young—"
"DON'T BLAME HER!!! Are you out of... you..r...mi..nd..." Darrio's outburst was cut short as his tongue suddenly started going numb and before he could make sense of things his other bodily organs followed soon after.
His arms and legs got locked, his neck went stiff and he started shaking as if he was experiencing seizures. His face started going purple as almost everything in his body stopped responding to his brain's command. His senses started to dull and everything seemed foggy as if he was looking out of a thin screen of water. His veins were burning with fire as if a swarm of ants were moving inside him.
"Oh, my...It seems the poison's already started to affect you," Jon said with a troubled expression that didn't seem too sincere to the banker, "It's so sad... You didn't even get a chance to say if you agreed to my proposal..."
"S..av..e...me...pl..ea..se..."
"What? Are you asking me to save you," Jon asked with a tilt of his head, "I mean, I guess I could... I do always keep an antidote in here," he said while pulling out a small vial from the same bag he got the knife out of, "But this thing is quite expensive, you know and I only got this single vial with me. So it would be such a waste... of course, if you had agreed to be my subordinate I would have used it unhesitatingly... But—"
"I...ag..r..ee...so...pl..ea..se...I...be..g y..ou..."
"What? What did you say? Hey...I...didn't...hear...you..." Darrio's hearing suddenly turned down and warbly and his mind slowly started going numb as his consciousness started to sink.
He regretted ever getting involved with this northerner... it was such an absurd way to die... he wanted to live more than anything... and if he was just given one more chance, he would do anything... he wanted to live even if it was as someone's puppet.
...
The first thing he felt when he regained consciousness was pain... his neck and his back were stiff and hurting something fierce. His eyes gradually opened to find that he was still sitting in the chair in his office and for a moment he was ecstatic to find that there was no one sitting at the table in front of him, but before he could fantasize that everything had just been a dream, he heard the most dreaded voice again...
"Oh! You're finally awake... I was almost bored to death waiting for you," Jon had vacated his seat on the table and was sitting in the chair on the other side with his legs placed on the desk and was leisurely going through the last of the fruits in the fruit basket.
The position of the sun outside the window showed that not more than an hour had passed for Darrio... but that hour had been the most agonising of his entire life and he never wanted to go through something like that again.
"Well now that you've finally back to living, can we get back to the topic at hand... because I don't have much time now," Jon said while taking his legs off the table and sitting properly to face Darrio, "I don't know if you remember but just before you went to sleep you finally agreed to accept my proposal..." he stopped before he suddenly looked at the banker with a playful smile and asked, "You're not going to take it back, are you?"
Darrio looked down with a struggling expression on his face while Jon continued, "I mean not like you have many other options. I guess you could try snitching on me the moment I am out of here but then you could never be fully sure that I am not spying on you using any nearby rat, cat or dog, and you know what'll happen to you the moment I find out..." Jon said in a completely tranquil tone, "So unless you plan to spend the rest of your life in a completely isolated room with no windows and no holes from which any creatures enter—Ah! you would also have to abstain from eating and drinking because I am sure you know that since I can control all kinds of animals, it's not very hard for me to get my friends to slip something uncomfortable into your food without your knowledge—"
Darrio immediately shivered and quickly shook his head, "No! No, please... I am never going to tell anyone anything. I'll do everything you say... so please don't..."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes!"
"That's perfect then," Jon exclaimed in a cheerful tone while getting up from his chair, "I am so glad that we could come to an agreement... I knew that I would be able to persuade you," he said with a cheeky smile while moving towards the door, "Now, I need to go but don't worry you'll soon get my letter with your first instructions, so be sure to do a good job."
"Y-Yes, I will."
"Have a good day then,"
Darrio's body turned into jelly the moment the door closed, his eyes and pants started leaking simultaneously as his taut nerves relaxed. The banker had never imagined that what was supposed to be the best day of his life would end like this...
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