For just a moment a dark gleam flashes within the depths of his eyes, as he glances down at the mysterious woman, pressing her head close to his body. Lifting his hand slowly, he gently grasps her chin, tilting her head upwards as he leans close to her. Her smoke parts around his face, his lips an inch away as he finally speaks. "I am so very sorry Miss, and despite just how tempting your offer is, I still must decline. Everything in my life has been given to me, I have never had to work for anything. And I hated it. I actually have to put effort into getting what I want now, why in the world would I change that, simply because a beautiful woman offers three wishes?" Keeping his face near hers, he **** his head to the side slightly, eyes locking with hers.

In a fluid series of movements, he rises off of the bench, twists to face the woman again, and bend's at the waist, his chin almost on top of the pipe. A delighted smile spreads across his lips, his eyes eagerly consuming the now much more fascinating woman. "Wish granting aye? I suppose that would make you a Djinn, possibly a Genie, depending on where you are from. It certainly explains shifting your form in the manner that you do." As he speaks, voice just as eager as his eyes, he **** his head to the side, smile still upon his lips. "You are fascinating."

A few moments pass by uninterrupted, his eyes slowly roving over her entire form. Finally it clicks in his head that she had offered him three wishes. The smile that had been on his lips soon vanishes, body slowly lifting so that he is no longer bent. "Of course, the first decent company I have found in weeks is a Djinn. Just my luck. I have no need for your wish granting Miss, everything I want I will get on my own. I appreciate the offer though, not something you get asked everyday." A bit of a smile appears, the corner of his lips twitching up.

His eyes flicker to the side, gazing at the shifting form of shadow that seems to be speaking to him just out of the corner of his vision. Returning his eyes to the heaven's a slight chuckle parts his peach lips, head shaking ever so slightly. "Now a normal person would freak out right around this point. Mysterious smoke coming from nowhere and speaking, it really is quite off-putting. Heck prior to this past year I would have been one of them." Rolling his head to the side, his brilliant yellow eyes begin tracing the smoke as it shifts and settles, beginning to take shape.

As the woman fully forms, a smile of amusement dances upon his face, fascination shinning in his eyes. "I must confess that I have never seen something quite like that before. It is truly interesting. But you have made me crave my own pipe. For shame miss." The frown that plays along his lips is artificial, quickly dissipating into a playful smile once more. "Sadly I no longer have it, quite a shame really."

Taking a moment to allow her final words to sink in, a sly smirk appears on his face. "My fair lady I am quite sure I would enjoy you, and your help as well. However I am not looking for something, rather someone. A man that I am supposed to be traveling with has been having me run from nation to nation looking for him."

"What the hell? He said he would arrive at this exact location. How difficult can it be for that blasted kid when he can just teleport where ever the hell he wants." Running his hand through his hair, Articus darts his eyes around the center of the small town, confirming that his friend was indeed nowhere to be seen. Shaking his head, he turns his back to the town square, making his way back down the paved pathway, back in the direction he had started from. Occasionally his eyes flicker back and fourth amongst the simple brick houses, frustration rising as his friend remains absent. Quickening his pace, Articus plops down on one of the wooden benches that appear sporadically along the road. Throwing his head back, he allows his eyes to slowly shut, blocking out the world as thoughts slowly roll through his mind.

'Things were so much simpler before this task was given to me. I had a perfect life back in Antivos. Everything was the way it is meant to be.' Even as these thoughts dance through his mind, a burst of laughter bubbles up through his lips. 'Oh who am I kidding, life was incredibly dull back then. All the rules, and regulations. I was bound by politics, now that is no longer true.' Opening his sunlit eyes, he stares up into the sky, a light smile upon his lips.

"It's just..." She mumbled quietly, breaking her sentence off as he caught her and assisted her with a slight ascent, as wobbly as it was. It was a bit saddening that she couldn't inhale as easily as she had in her confinement. Then again...she technically WAS smoke at that time so of course it would be as easy as breathing. While he helped her up, she felt the strength slightly returning to her and she was slightly happy to look down and find herself with a lower half. Experimentally, she ran her hands across her hips, indeed confirming to herself that they were there. She gripped the parting of her dress and lifted it enough to see the shiny violet stockings that didn't seem to end. "It's just weird having legs again, I suppose...You don't have much need to walk when you're a cloud of smoke." She laughed quietly, though with a bit of control upon the matter. Being human, or whatever she was this point, made her susceptible to feeling what all these people around her were feeling while confronted with such a being. She was...scared but, it was over-ridden with that strange feeling of respect. He was powerful but, unlike the men of power she'd seen before, he wasn't completely and entirely out of control. Maria still flinched as his hand touched upon her skin but, the relief it brought was much easier and made her sigh just faintly. "It's different, something that will take some getting used to...I guess it's a good thing it's been so long since I was 'alive'. Anyone who knew me is long dead."

"This world sure has changed...When I was last present, 'Gods' were just now appearing. I think that's what added to the race for power that my masters and mistresses desired. I've learned that people don't quite enjoy feeling powerless." What she spoke was perhaps more true to her than any of her past owners. In a past life, she had been powerful. In the life she was now, she still held power, just didn't control what happened with it...but at least she was safe. This being was certainly powerful, as she'd thought before but perhaps it was more than just power he held...what he was was something much more raw. Maria could feel it! It made the air around them quiver and the people around obviously frightened as they made their way as far around them as possible. Needless to say, she was becoming increasingly wary and uncomfortable.

Puffing upon the pipe at a more deeper and frequent pace, her eyes looked upon him sparingly to attempt and fend off the strange tremor he made vibrate within her in some strange mixture of respect and fear. It reminded her of kingdom leaders she'd met in her past before they fell to their feet but, in this man's case, she believed he had most likely rarely, if ever, fallen. Before the thought could even fully elaborate to try and untangle the strange thoughts and considerations, there was a strange pull and a sharp pain directly in the center of her chest, making her cringe and her fingers slip upon the pipe while she coughed out a sputtered breath of smoke that made water form in the corners of her eyes. In one instance she was smoke and the next, she was fallen upon her knees and coughing in a mixture of pain and painfully inhaled smoke while her cape-like garment covered her form. Through the tears she blinked and tried to glance at the pipe as he offered her the option of crushing its container. It was odd holding it and not being...bound. But as if her chest pain hadn't been enough, her head suddenly spiked with the pain of images and she let out a sound similar to pain but made more of confusion. Perhaps it was the centuries of servitude or the subconscious understanding but Maria didn't move from her position, if anything she seemed to shrink down lower while she coughed out in a small breath. "I..I owe you."

The village was back. Though centuries ago this had happened, not that she was aware of that passing time, this period of imprisonment was one she remembered freshly. As a matter of fact...her vessel had been bought right in this area. "I remember this place..." She murmured in a strange fit of nostalgia. Turning her head, she glanced towards the small market stall that had housed where she'd been placed for sale, had it not been for the slippery fingers of a young child who'd stolen her as gift towards their parents. The father had adored the pipe and Maria could barely remember what he'd even looked like, only that when he'd smoked of her he'd summoned her and her wishes. As history had dictated for her time and time again, the man wished for the normal things men of his stature wished for. Money, power, fame. It didn't take long for this village to be destroyed in a war between themselves and the neighbors as the peasant who rose from poverty to riches allowed power to rise too high inside of his head. Men of war never ended well and she was only left to watch as she'd been forgotten and sealed back within her eternal home for the next unwitting wisher.

When Maria made an attempt to move towards the old stand, her form halted per usual in any attempt to move and she slumped against her throne of smoke, sighing just slightly as she lay her cheek in her palm and absently pressed the pipe back between her lips, speaking through the object while smoke drifted aimlessly in strands around, leaving behind the smell of singed lavender. "I do not know if deserve freedom, sir. I was sealed here for a reason, you see. Divine punishment is what the witch called it." She remarked slightly sourly while her gaze drifted to the side. "I was not benevolent before I ended up in this state and I still am not. To be free and to be human once more, my ability to cope with that might not be preferred..."

The amethyst shade of her gaze seemed to glow just barely beneath the  smoke that wafted around the frame of her face. They narrowed just slightly, seeming brighter beneath the dark eye-shadow that forever remained upon her eyes in testament to her never-fading beauty and age. Maria had seen and experienced extremely strange things but he was definitely something of an entirely different breed all on its own. When he stopped in front of her to question, she couldn't help but smirk just the slightest bit around the warm metal mouthpiece, the deep purple of her lips turning upwards just slightly in the corners. "My dear sir, it is not a matter of will I'm afraid..." She was subject again to a possible display of his power, maybe his own special way of showing off for she could already understand that he was most definitely and completely more powerful than any other person she'd ever met in her life but, power and position didn't mean much to the smoky woman anymore. Maybe a long time ago but no longer... "Your offers of help are both flattering and indefinitely sweet." She nodded her head just barely, the headdress tinkling the small metals against each other once more while she pulled the pipe from her mouth to exhale slowly, the purple smoke heavy as it rotated around her body while she smiled in a mixture of both sadness and momentary indifference. "I cannot move for I am bound to this object I hold here." To emphasize, she gently trailed the spout of her pipe throughout the heavy smoke fluttering before her. "This pipe is both home and prison, I suppose you could say. A container, if you wish. I'm what people call a...well, I don't know if it's changed or not in the years but, they used to call me a wish-granter. A thing of legends and story-books. A being trapped forever and bound to grant the desires of man if they could find our vessels. Unless this is carried by someone other than myself, I am incapable of moving from this current position. A wish-granter isn't fun if it can run away."

"A man of war, I've met a few just like that before. Though their efforts seemed to go over a little less...preferred than what they'd desired." She enigmatically spoke and sat back against her small cloud that billowed and turned in small rivulets before she reached downwards just enough to scoop up the detailed pipe, her fingers running over the mud that covered it with distaste as she realized that was what her abode had been covered in for perhaps years. When she'd looked up, she was met with a sight that could have been labeled as 'pleasant' if her ability to be romantically or physically attracted existed more but, years of her so called 'curse' made such things die slowly along with her once been humanity. "I'd say I sympathize with the need to reprieve but sadly, my reprieve's been much too long." She sighed out as she flicked the pipe towards the ground enough to spatter some of the mud off, frowning just slightly as the mess covered her fingers just for a moment before she gave up and, with a small snap of her fingers, cleared the mud instantaneously from her pipe.

Maria sat now at the edge of the water, pipe in hand and mouthpiece pressed firmly between her lips before she inhaled long and slow, carefully wording her response as smoke poured slowly from her nostrils in violet streams that faltered and disappeared inside of her lower body made of smoke. "How lovely a dip would be but, I'd say I wouldn't fair well underwater...as for my age, don't you know it's rude to try and pry a lady's age from her?" Her last words were spoken in a lighter tone while she smiled just barely around the form of her pipe that billowed smoke. "In all honesty, Sir Urdroxa, I'm afraid I cannot move even if I wished to."

The light violet cloud began to thicken and billow just slightly as the strange aura of power filtered into her. With its power, her form did take shape, revealing a woman who appeared to at once come from a vast amount of wealth. The woman, or what could be seen of her due to her form being obscured from the waist down, wore an elegant, strapless dress that shimmered just barely within the cloud. Around her shoulders was a strange, cape-like garment covered in fur just around the top, framing her exposed shoulders with its strange, tan-like color. Her hair was as black as a raven's wing with small, purple strands appearing just every now and then and all was pinned up by an intricate headdress that tinkled just slightly with the movements of her head. True to her appearance, she acted with a strange sense of regalia; the woman perched upon the clouds of her obscured form which seemed to make her a type of 'seat' that hovered above the pipe and held her hands gently against her lap as she eyed the strange figure in front of her with a rather piqued entrance. He was something definitely...different but, she wasn't exactly normal now too, was she? With his hand outstretched, hers was quick to meet his with a slide of her fingers just barely over his palm. "Urdroxa Dominae...quite an interesting namesake. As for your apologies of time, fear not for that; it matters very little in truth. As for my name...you may call me Maria, that's the name I was given upon my last summons." With the radiations of his power, she became slightly...wary with the energy that practically vibrated through the smoke of her less-solid form. Her fingers retracted while she gave a small bow of her head in silent respect before speaking again, her voice  a bit more curious than last. "Strange place for a lone man of your power to be, is it not? I wouldn't think of someone with such power to simply keep to themselves in the middle of nowhere...though I suppose it is a nice view. It most certainly was years ago."