Louis Lapointe had always made his living in the margins - a quiet hand in a locked room, a shadow where there shouldn’t be one. He worked out of Ville des Marie, running with the Sneak’s Guild and keeping the kind of company that didn’t ask questions unless something went wrong. Guarin Félix counted him as a friend, which meant something in their world. Louis wasn’t reckless - but on the night everything fell apart, he got just unlucky enough.
The job itself looked ordinary. A house with no lights, no guards, no signs of trouble - the sort of place a careful thief could slip into and out of without leaving so much as a whisper behind. What Louis didn’t know - couldn’t have known - was that the place belonged to Papa Abélard Delacroix. Worse than that, it wasn’t just a home. It was part of something darker, one of the bokor’s quiet little designs.
He never even saw the mistake until it was too late. Delacroix’s people found him inside, and the punishment wasn’t quick or clean. Louis was killed - deliberately, methodically - and then brought back wrong. Not alive, not dead, but something in between. A puppet, meant to serve.
Only he didn’t.
Something held. Whether it was stubbornness, luck, or some deeper quirk of whatever magic stitched him back together, Louis came back with himself intact - his mind, his memories, his will. He slipped free before Delacroix could tighten the leash, vanishing into the bayou with nothing but instinct and a ring he’d once stolen - a small, enchanted thing that bent light and color just enough to let him disappear if he stood still. It kept him alive - if that word still applied.
Now he lingers in the swamps southwest of Ville des Marie, drifting between long stretches of stillness and the occasional quiet trip back into the city. The ring lets him pass when he needs supplies, or when the silence starts pressing in too hard. He’s patient - more patient than he ever was in life - but the thought never leaves him. Papa Delacroix made him into this. And sooner or later, Louis is going to decide how to return the favor.
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| Louis Lapointe's home in the bayou. |
