The gunshot cracked out, deafening the room. Collectively, everyone flinched or threw themselves down, save the one woman who had actually been shot. It took several long seconds as she stood motionless before her head swiveled smoothly to regard the hole that had just been punched into her. Her head quirked slightly as she reached up, no discernable expression actually crossing her face as she stuck one dainty finger through the hole in her dress.

Distressingly, to those who actually could tell, there was as much blood as there was reaction from the victim. Most distressed in the entire affair, was the gunman. His swagger and bravado had crumpled about as quickly and fantastically as a train slamming engine first into a cliff. Yet, somehow, it all got worse as Lady Victoria’s gaze slowly swept up and locked onto him.

He swallowed hard, possibly to keep from crying.

Lady Victoria was a slight thing, the shortest human in the room and only saved the title of shortest altogether by the presence of the foxfolk there to discuss banking with her. Her features had something of the djinn about them, but while they were almost always overly expressive, her features remained flat and unaffected, and even her voice rarely broke into anything that demonstrated that much emotion. In those rare moments, it was like watching someone that knew they should react a certain way, but otherwise had forgotten how.

Which… considering she’d just been shot and was demonstrating little concern about the fact, was enough to make Kain wish like hell that he hadn't been in the same town as her scrutiny, much less pinned directly beneath it. Her henchmen, a little late by all accounts, tackled him and slammed him onto the ground hard enough that he thought the sky cracked for a second. That was a bit excessive, he thought. It wasn't like he was going anywhere. He was so terrified he wasn’t sure his legs recalled how to run away. That was mostly an assumption on his part, because if they could have and hadn’t, he’d have some choice words for the traitorous stumps that hadn’t gotten him out of this mess.

“You shall have to forgive this momentary intermission in our business, another appointment has apparently become impatient in its need to speak with me.” She addressed the pair of foxfolk that were staring in shock at her. Her gaze landed on them before her head was done turning and the vixen of the pair fainted. It was an understandable reaction given the hole that was still smoking in the woman’s dress. Lady Victoria cleared her throat and frowned at that. “So very rude…”

~~~~~~~~~~~

Kain smelled like cheap beer and looked like he’d been fished out of a bottle. His clothes were disheveled, his hair unwashed, and the missing jewelry was pretty evident where it had once sat before being pawned off. To his credit, it hadn’t been to buy booze. It had been to buy his gun back.

Of course, he’d pawned the gun off to buy booze, but… nobody ever accused Kain of being that smart. His brother had usually had the better plans, Kain was only ever as longsighted as the barrel of his gun. Which was really Kain’s problem, when you got right down to it. He'd only ever shot his way out of problems, but they were usually ones he’d shot his way into in the first place. He didn’t have his gun anymore, so he wasn’t that confident about his odds with his current predicament.

Kain looked like he’d been roughed up, but despite the two heavies standing to either side, a minotaur on one and a vash on the other, they hadn’t actually done much to him that Life hadn’t beaten them to. It had been a rough few years, everything considered. So, as Kain sat there, not even tied to the chair, he counted down the seconds until he probably caught a bullet for his trouble.

The door creaked open and he flinched. The slight woman he’d tried to kill came in, footsteps barely audible despite the hard wooden floor. The bullet hole had stopped smoldering, but as she looked at him, her eyes moved to look at the damage. The rest of her head didn’t budge and it gave Kain the willy’s something fierce. The bow of her lips curled into a moue of distaste and she stepped further in, letting the door close on its own.

“Mr. Rasp, if you would please.” She raised her arms and the Vash to Kain’s side stepped forward and began uncinching the dress she was wearing. She stood absolutely still, as if the big lizard folk were undressing a mannequin. To Kain’s further discomfort, her underthings started to join the ruined dress and he got an eyeful that made his skin crawl for reasons he couldn’t put to words.

She was pale, though not as pale as the white of her hair, but it wasn’t a healthy pallor. Even less so was the way her body sat beneath her skin. It looked as if she’d starved growing up and never quite recovered. That would explain the reason for her delicate size, but despite how small she was, there was… something deeper beneath, as if such a small frame couldn’t contain something even larger, that he was looking at the surface of something that scared him as much as the empty night did.

Evident of that, was the fact that her skin was perfectly unblemished underneath the dress where there should have been a gaping wound. As he stared he realized that it wasn’t just the lack of a wound, it was that her skin was completely flawless, yet another minute thing to add to the heap of things that made her seem inhuman despite her shape.

Mr. Rasp finished his task and slipped a robe around her, her gaze coming back to the foreground from where it had been staring off into the empty distance. For all intents and purposes, she had been a mannequin and it creeped Kain out when she started moving again.

“Thank you, Mr. Rasp. You may go now.” The Vash nodded and made his way to the door, his inner eyelids blinking before turning to stare at Kain.

“I’ll be down the hall. Just in case some vermin manages to get loose.” With that, the lizard folk left, though his footsteps made it about as far as the other side of the door before they stopped.

“I believe you felt that you had pressing business with me, but I do not recall having ever met you or doing anything that warranted such an interruption to my day.” She calmly recounted having been shot. Her remaining henchman seemed about as unconcerned as she did, the minotaur actually pouring tea and setting the tiny porcelain cup onto the desk next to his employer with a delicacy that belied his hulking frame.

“You ruined my life, so I’d say it was warranted.”

“That does little to clarify the matter.”

Kain sputtered at her nonchalance. She hadn’t even given a moment’s thought, and despite the terror of being in the room with this woman, his anger got the better of him.

“You killed my brother! All his obligations ended up on me and I ended up having to sell everything just to dig my way out of that hole!”

“That, once again, does little to narrow down my supposed transgression.”

The emptiness in her voice finally did him in and Kain deflated, shaking his head, trying to think of how little he mattered to this woman.

“You killed Bill.” He said sadly, his voice laden with an old grief that spoke to him like his only friend. “William Abel Hours. He made guns…”

“And it was with one of his guns that he ultimately found his end.” She finally responded after a few tense seconds. The woman reached out and the minotaur placed Kain’s gun in the small woman’s hand. She opened the cylinder pin and studied the revolver with a dispassionate eye. “This is one of his as well. Built for sangrite, if I'm not mistaken, etched to conduct electricity when properly loaded.”

“It was a gift. I gave him the money to open his first shop. He gave me the first gun he built there….”

“Such a sentimental trade. You have a great deal of faith in your sidearm, then?”

“It hasn’t gotten me killed so far.” Kain coughed slightly at that, uncomfortably aware that might change in short order.

"As you have interrupted my day and ruined my garment, there has to be some degree of recompense to even the scales. As you clearly have no money to address the matter, you will instead offer me a moment of brief amusement. Your sentimentality for your brother is, despite my circumstance, something that I find mildly admirable. Therefore, I shall put that faith in your brother's handiwork to the test." With deft and mechanical precision, Lady Victoria emptied the spent shell of the bullet Kain had fired earlier and then spun the cylinder without looking. With nary a flourish, she snapped her wrist and the cylinder closed into place before she passed the spellshot to Kain. He took it in numb fingers, mind already working out where she was going with this.

"You have spent one round out of the six."

"Yeah, I don't think you have to spell it out anymore." Kain mumbled morosely, staring at the gun in his hand. “That just ain’t fair.”

“They are likely worse odds than your brother fared with, I will grant you.”

Kain laughed at that and shook his head. “What do I get if I win?”

“You get to walk out of here.”

“Would it help if I apologized about the dress?”

“Manners dictate that I accept your apology, however, I find it doubtful to be of any use to you at the moment.”

Kain swallowed again and stared down at the gun. He loved his brother, but in that moment, he prayed to the angels that they get to meet again in the afterlife. Because he was going to kick his ass for putting him in this mess to start. Taking a steadying breath, Kain Hours pulled back the hammer and counted as he raised the gun to his head.

The fall of the hammer was deafening.

At least... Kain thought he'd gone deaf. He remembered how to breathe and lowered the gun, still stunned at the silence in the room, amazed that there had been no thunder as the bullet ripped through him. The gun slipped from his fingers and he began to shake, profoundly glad that he hadn't been reunited with his brother.

For her part, Lady Victoria had tilted her head at him, a barely perceptible smile curving her lips a fraction more than normal. She made a noise not unlike a pleased cat and
sipped her tea, Kain Hours having simply stopped being of interest to her as her gaze turned distant once more. Her henchman took several heavy steps towards Kain and lifted him unceremoniously from his seat. Despite the brusque handling, it wasn't done with any malice or cruelty, merely a professional efficiency that quickly guided Kain from the room.

True to his word, Mr. Rasp was waiting in the hallway, claw already on his sidearm before the minotaur made an appearance behind Kain. Suddenly remembering how to run, Kain bolted from the room and down the hallway without looking back. Mr. Rasp's tongue darted out to taste the air, confirming that he had fled.

"Wasn't expecting that... What happened in there?" the Vash asked in his characteristic hiss.

A deep rumble came from the minotaur's chest as he laughed.

"He apologized for ruining her dress."

(is it weird for anyone else that the hover-preview of threads reads through spoiler tags? Doesn't it kinda defeat their purpose?)

From reading the title, I honestly thought this would be the introduction of a certain undead minotaur or, failing that, something related to Fisco (title is a synonym of Paid in Full, where Beryloise - close to memory bc of Raven's latest story - also star). But this neat Jakkard scene wasn't a disappointment at all There were, however, a few turn of phrases that threw me off a bit, though that might be just because I'm not familiar with them.

The first sentence made me first think of two women, to be fair - the other was Jackie. The second, however, puts any doubt to rest already without describing a single physical detail about her, which is one of the greatest assets of the piece - the Duchess' spotless skin characterization.


This was one of the line that I had to reread a bit. The first part is straightforward, although I was expecting it to end with "about her", as I'm used for that phrase to be used about an entire person/item rather than specific details. The second compounded my confusion because "they" might apply to either the djinn or the feature, but you last use "them" for the latter, so while the meaning is fairly obvious given the overall context I had some mind-stuttering around here. Again, given the context and the following words isn't hard to quickly piece together the intended meaning, but given how short and tidy this piece is I think it's fair to point out relatively small issues like these.

I love Kain as the shooter's name. Gunsmith Hours being called Abel was very funny - I don't think that tidbit was revealed before? Anyway, I loved Kain a lot, especially in the official introduction to his PoV at the beginning of the second section. The pawned gun story was great, and his overall feel serves as a hilarious counterpoint to Victoria's (lack of) expressiveness.

(wouldn't the plural be "willies", not "willy's"?)

The description of her body is also interesting, as most people who meet the Duchess are... distracted by things other than the shapes behind her dresses. If a down-on-their-luck Jakk speaks of starvation, they probably know what they're talking about, so I'm curious as to how that came to be, especially since I long had this niggling feeling Victoria's is not the original body of the Duchess: if my hunch is right, why would she choose a body carrying the signs of starvation? If it's not, is that a hint to her true backstory, or just an effect of either her mistreatment of or disconnection from her physical body?


This is one of my favorite lines of the piece, probably THE favorite on Victoria's side. It nicely opens the section where she explains how unremarkable Kain's story was to her until he decided to step in her way... I wonder if she brain-wiped the other witnesses of the shooting or let the legend of her immortality circulate, btw. Drawing widespread attention to herself isn't really her style, right?

The poetic punishment is, of course, very fitting. Raiker himself would approve, methinks, if he could be bothered to be anywhere near a Chessmaster


Another great line, just saying Another reminder Kain isn't the best at thinking ahead.


Oh, rereading this I really appreciate the first sentence, her bringing up the ruined dress out loud in addition to rubbing it in by changing in front of him. It hints at some faint attachment to it, and better justifies the ending. The repayment in "brief amusement" is also hella ominous as intended.


Another beautiful line, the certainty Kain is headed straight for hell unsaid but clear as day.


I wonder... does the weapon being a spellgun affect in any way Victoria's ability to meddle with it? Just a passing thought.


Very nice closing line, hinting at some personal feelings beneath the inhumanly emotionless facade.

Yeah, this was a good one. I like the expansion on Bill Hours' story. I never pictured him having a brother, although I like the development, and Kain is a fun character. He feels just a little like Mel Odrum, if Mel Odrum were to be played seriously instead of as a joke. The line about him "never thinking further than the barrel of his gun" is both a nice turn of phrase and a great little bit of character description.

The "Kain and Abel" thing is interesting, as these two brothers seemed to have had a better relationship than the Biblical pair. I do like the inversion of expectation when Kain's issue is revealed. The reader is led to believe that that "All Debts Settled" title is a reference to him, but it turns out that it's about Lady Victoria's dress.

On that note, I love love love that the ruination of her dress is a far more serious offense to her than the attempt on her life. Obviously, as readers knowing how powerful The Duchess is, that makes a degree of sense. After all, there is probably nothing Kain could possibly do to be a threat to The Duchess's existence (and even if he could, I'm not convinced she would care anyway), whereas destruction of her property, especially one she seemed fond of, as Huey points out, is a quantifiable loss for her. It's interesting to think of The Duchess in terms of what she owns, then, and somewhat explains why her game with The Shifter gets to her: he's breaking her things. It's an interesting motivation for someone who, despite wearing a basically human form, is so far from being human.

It's good to see Mr. Rasp again. I always enjoyed him. And seeing the "bull in the China shop," so to speak, was kind of funny, too. Working for Lady Victoria must be a strange job. I bet it's lucrative, though.

I also like that we see The Duchess again, as in her story with Alessa, sort of allowing people the chance to go free on a bit of luck. Granted, I assume from the last line that The Duchess manipulated circumstances to allow it, but if she did, I assume it was through magical means, as she spins the chambers before Kain apologizes for ruining the dress. But I suppose it could have been an extreme bit of luck. Either way, I find this a fascinating element of The Duchess's personality. She's very -aligned in my mind, wanting things to be very neatly ordered, so the fact that she lets certain things come down to luck is an odd intrusion of chaos into her otherwise orderly personality. But hey, maybe that's why she keeps The Shifter around! (I still have my theories about those two, though...)

Anyway, thanks for posting. I enjoyed this one both as a connection piece with "The End of Hours" and as a character piece for The Duchess. Thanks for posting!

Yeah, titles are hard. The fact that it kinda overlaps thematically with a few others was not lost on me, but I was pretty happy with it. The only other title that sprang immediately to mind was "All Accounts Settled" but that one didn't have the same zing.

I was also a little worried that my descriptive language might have edged towards the excessive, but I think it's probably my stronger suit. Just from my own perspective, I tend to let atmosphere and setting do a TON of the lifting rather than all that much actual action.

[/quote] This is a bit of an awkward line, but it's also one heavily dependent on context.
In Jakkard, Djinn have features that are reminiscent of people of chinese descent. It's a Jakkard unique feature, but I was pretty confident it would likely be a bit of a dense reference to assimilate because of the larger associations featured with it.


The fact that Bill Hours middle name is Abel is the entire joke this piece was built around, which consequently informed Kain's own identity.
"Bill Abel Hours" is a pun I just couldn't NOT use once I thought of it. Which, incidentally, popped into my head back when I used William Hours for the Hangman.


It was a very purposeful inclusion, and really does have rather a lot to unpack, doesn't it?


I won't lie, I was channeling some Raul Julio as M.Bison for that entire exchange.
As awful as that movie is, by gods above, I love that man.

The Duchess, yes.
The Shifter happens to think they're besties. Raiker, of course, dissents.



While I don't think she'd ever outright admit to something being her favorite anything, I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that she grows attached to certain things.
Otherwise, I think it's the sheer principle of the matter that irks her.

Yeah, as mentioned above, once the wordplay had settled into my brain, Kain quickly followed by, honestly, path of least resistance.
I have something of a miniature backstory that more or less just settled into place as I wrote him, but most of the details there in weren't terribly relevant so they didn't find a feature here. It wasn't anything terribly complex, but it does show an interesting departure between him and Bill earlier on in their lives, despite their familial relation.


I think that's also one of the interesting turns in how she views the sentimentality of Kain carrying one of Bill's guns too. She recognizes that sort of loyalty, which I think is a virtue that she sees in very stark contrast and values it on a principle level. It's a certain kind of commitment that I think she respects, even if the emotion behind it is a dull shade that she can't recognize anymore.

I have honestly toyed with the idea of what it must be like to deal with an entity like The Duchess on a regular basis, where your life went to get you to that point, and what it must do to you when some probably pretty heinous and bizarre things start to get to be mundane. Like, what on earth does that do to somebody after a while?
Probably a pretty ripe garden to till in.

I'd be fairly interested to hear any general speculation about the Duchess and the Shifter from anybody.
If there's interest, I might fire up an Interview style thread and have the pair answer any questions that come their way.