Difference between revisions of "GoldenCat/AClashofBirds"

Revision as of 18:11, 29 December 2005

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A CLash of Birds, A Hunt in Fallen Roses

The winds blow cold.
Morning dew vanishes.
No sun. Gray, all gray. The clouds going dark overhead.

Throughout the last day, Selina saw them hunting - the war parties after her. From high above, on the cloudy day. Rain threatened, yesterday, but it did not fall.

Pehaps it would today.

Yesterday was the day to see the hunters looking hopelessly for them, spread, disorganized. Yesterday. Today, it is colder. Another day on enemy territory. No word from Cael. Yet.

Seventh Moon: Another cold damp day. Another day of travel. He had no idea where they were going, mostly because he just hadn't asked. By this point, one place seemed as good as another.

He was a gray shadow on the ground, like a bit of the sky had broken off and fled from tree to tree to avoid the eyes of it's watchful sire above. Relying on skill to keep him hidden and the trackers enchantments he knew to keep anyone from following him, Seventh Moon moved quickly and kept ahead of his companion. He make sure to keep just close enough to remain in sight for her, but didn't make any undue effort to slow down while she moved through the underbrush behind him. She could fly, so he never worried about leaving her behind.

Selina de Windia: She didn't bother cloaking herself, or trying to hide, unless she sensed something coming up on them. Moon had to be able to follow her somehow.

Do I have any real idea where I am?

She kind of did. Besides leading the Bishop's deathknights all over the countryside, she was heading closer to Whiteshield, past Spire by now. If needed, she could always move back to link up with the rest of them when they came down south.

Taking to the air suddenly, she moves ahead with a burst of speed not seen previously, not even bothering to find Moon, and lands after gaining some twenty meters on her previous rate of movement. Time to change direction. Again.

Kiri: Far away. The azure bird had led them far, far away. Smoke fire is it, leading them... to those who brutalized your mistress. Atop a mount, they look down... and see the Lunar and the Abyssal. The Blue Bird wants to come closer, but Fiona stops it, willing it to come to her... “Black wings... it is her alright. With a man, no mistake.” She says, her voice calm, wondering which spells to prepare...

Kiri draws the blade of a thousand petals from a sheath that unfurled like a rose, the thorns that are its hilt opaque on the gray daylight. “It should rain. This is... too bland, for us. Not a clear daylight, not a sparkling sunset. It should...”

As if hearing her words, thunder booms, not on the horizon, but close, falling behind another mount. The skies begin to darken.

”Yes! Even the machien smiles upon this! Glory, this shall be glorious!” mounted on the deer that guided the carriage, her fey beast, a deer of emerald antlers and the body that is a tree trunk, she eyes them... and grins.

Kanti: There they are. The ones who hurt her. The ones who must pay.

She steps back from the edge of the mountain, hiding herself from their view.

She concentrates on her magics, brilliant ribbons dancing around her breifly, her skin glowing with an inner flame, caged behind a mesh of scars that drink up the light, the rain steaming as it hits her skin.

"We will catch them as they leave the valley."

As she starts to move down the hill, still hidden from their view.

Kiri: "Yes, let us." She exhales, excited. Riding the fey beast down, to the mouth of the Valley. To fight the lady of black feathers and the hound of the moon. To delicious battle.

"Alright!" Fiona nods, reciting the incantation of Obsidian Butterflies again and again on her mind, readying herself...

And they get to the mouth of the valley, it begins to rain. Slowly, steadily. Still just a few drioplets, as a wet, not moist, simply cold and wet wind blows... howling in the valley.... opening it.

Seventh Moon: Stopping for a moment under the shade of a large tree, Seventh Moon looks back over his shoulder make sure Selina hasn't fallen too far behind or waving him into another direction and finds only empty forest to greet him. The Lunar sighs, loudly, and twitches his nose, willing her scent to come to him out of the dank morning air, then following it again until the backs of her black feathered wings popped into view.

Catching up with the black winged assassin, Moon steps up beside her and walks in silence for a moment. "You been quite."

Selina de Windia: "I've been thinking." She looks around for a moment, then continues. "I haven't seen anymore trying to come after us for awhile. Maybe you should go behind me, and keep whatever it is you have working up, so if someone tries to hit me, you can get them from behind. Also, we need to change direction."

Kanti: Kanti holds her spear, as the rain falls on her and around her, hissing softly as it steams off her.

The bird had calmed, which Fiona had said meant they were not moving....

Start to move again. Come a little closer.

Seventh Moon: Thinking for a moment, he shakes his head. "Won't make a difference. Just makin' sure no one can follow me if I don't want 'um to. They'll still see me just fine, if they're really lookin'."

Like you weren't.

The irritable thought is quickly subdued. He promised not to fight with her. With a faint shrug, he begins to fall behind her again. "But whatever ya want, darlin'. I'm easy."

Selina de Windia: Tracks. She'd forgotten that. Well, anyone with supernatural tracking would probably find them if they were good enough. Scent worked as well as anything else.

"It's just, if you're going to do that, we may as well." Unless they were really smart about it and hit him first. "Let's go." She finishes, trotting off with a sigh, to the southwest.

Kanti: Closer. Closer.

The bird of smoke and flame dances with increased urgancy, the rain sluicing through it.

...and now.

She starts to move then, somewhere between a dance and run, brilliant white irises blooming beneath her feet, rain steaming off her skin as she does, the Fragrant Incense Spear trailing it's seductive smoke.

She drops into a fighting pose infront of the dark winged woman, spear held ready to strike or parry, the robes she's wearing seeming a dark, dark red in rain, an elaborate mockery of the immaculate faith.

"You hurt her, Dark Angel, and for that you must pay. But, in her mercy, she has asked me to bring you to her that you might know her love and forgiveness, not for me to kill you."

Then she waits for the Angel's reply.
As Fiona and Kiri move to either side of her.

Kiri: The blade of a thousand petals pointing foward. Sekhe eyes the enemies, behind her. Roses unfurl in her eyelids. The thrill.

"Dark Angel."

"Seventh Moon."

"She wants you not to fight and to yield. Please do not heed."

"Let us dance!"

Selina de Windia: Jerking to a stop, heels skidding in the dirt and sparse turf and underbrush, Selina looks at the woman with a bit of confusion.

"...what?" Drawing her own sword and whipping it up, Selina narrows her eyes at the women as her hearthstone suddenly glows. "Me, submit to her?" Slipping out of her greatcoat, tossing it against the trunk of a tree, she shakes her head. "I'm going to hurt her some more before I'm done!"

Kanti:...hurt her..hurt her more?
No. That could not be allowed to happen

Kanti shifts into a more ready pose.

But..she was so beautiful...so beautiful it hur to look at her....like the mistress.

How could she think about inflicting pain on her? Injuring her?

She must, for the Mistress.

"Then we shall have to dance in the rain."

The water steams off the red rade of the spear.

Seventh Moon: Yeah. This was a great fuckin' plan.

At least ten steps behind the Windian, the moment the first woman steps from out of her cover, the Lunar was already moving to get to her side, but no more than that before the other two emerged. He curses himself as his hands snake into the deep pockets of the long coat Father of Crows gave him, the gauntlets within melting onto his seeking hands. He should have been paying more attention.

Too late now. Everyone was saying their piece and he listened passively as the Fae-creature spoke. Dull in tone, bored in expression, he shrugs just a little in response.

"A'ite. Throw down, bitch."

"I'm on the loud one." Moon tells Selina, gaze locked with the fey-girl, stepping sidewise slowly. Foot over foot, careful on the soft ground. He held her gaze and waited, watched, burned.

It was going to be different this time. No holding back.

She smiled. Or did she blink? Perhaps it was just a blur in the corner of his eyes. The flash of the sun on her skin. But it was the motion that broke him. Hands pulling free from his pockets, he dives through the air towards Kiri. Towards her, but deceptively not at her. Moon's body twists in the air, sending him careening past the Raksha. Twisting and twisting even more, arms and legs bending and shifting as his clothing seems to dissolve into a layer of white gray fur. A hound. A wolf. Monster larger than either has the right to be.

And more. Konshu boils on his chest, bubbling and flaring into limbs of liquid metal that entwine around the Moon-hound, coating every inch of fur, his body melting into a flawlessly smooth statue of silver.

Already his caste mark burns as a hollow circle on his brow and already the eyes of the hound open above him, but Moon moves too fast for either to register. The flash of silver and the rattling of tree branches mark his passage as he rebounds from trunk to trunk and comes pouncing back down on the fey girl from behind, his heavy paws thrust out to knock her the ground.

Kiri: She sees him... change. All she expected, yesss...

A Lunar Anathema!
A worthy foe!
A battle worhy of songs!
Juchuun moved quickly on her hand then, the thousand-petal sword opening its thorns as the beast races towards her, to swat it aside, and prepare to begin the duel!

Selina de Windia: "Servant of the Vestal, are you?" Selina calls as her dark anima banner begins to grow, lightning coursing around her form, ripping up the ground about her with sharp winds. Her free hand glows more and more with the same inverse light, the energy quickly collecting in her palm, building into a miniture storm of night and decay.

Then she springs, wings unfurling to their full spans and beating quickly as the assassin gains a few meters of altitude to angle her attack down at Kanti so it will not have as great a chance at hitting Moon while he's busy with the other. By now the ball of energy is a tight point of negative light surrounded by crackling lightning and a faint miasma of shadow. The Windian points her hand at her challenger, palm thrust outwards.

"Dance with this!" Selina cries, and the point of energy expands suddenly into a beam of crackling death with a roar and blast of accompanying wind that shakes the branches of trees all about them as it streaks toward Kanti.

Kanti: As the Dark Angel gathers herself to strike, Kanti draws of her power, and lets the essence flow, the tendrils wrapping round Selina's black heart ... filling even that with guilt at the destruction she will cause to the lonely dancer before her.

Then as the bolt is let loose, the Fragrant Incense Spear moves in a lazy, fragrance laden arc, obscuring her as it moves to parry the bolt.

Kanti continues the motion from her dodge, and starts into a quick sprint, incense trailing from the spear, white irises blooming where her feet fall, each footstep timed to the song in her head.

Ten beats later and she is at the base of a tree, iris blossoms blooming up it's trunk as she runs ... then she pushes off with a leap, a red and black blur in the air, the robe of her screams tailing out behind her as she stabs at the dark angel on her way past, landing in another pool of iris blooms behind her, spinning to face her.

16 beats.

"Yes, I hunt you for her."

Selina de Windia: And she does dance with it. Selina feels a bit of remorse in having to attack her, but manages to resist of some it, surprised at the ability of this servant of Charmaine to evade her blows at the same time.

It's been awhile since one like this. Selina thinks, then focuses on following the other woman's trail up the tree and strike at her. She nearly loses sight of her attacker, dipping and weaving in a sudden maneuver to put her off, and bringing Dreamshard's shining blade around with supernatural speed to parry the spear-strike. The Dragon growls inside her.

Kiri: Juchun fails her. The beast falls all over Kiri, tackling the Xia to the ground, the great silver hound placing its lumbering weight over her, crushing.... she lets out a curse, the thousand-petal-blade falling away....

Fiona steps back, fearful of it... hounds of silver light, blasts of darkness... like the one that hurt her, that made her kneel, so long ago... she steps back, wanting to be far enough away before trusting in one of her spells...

And Sekhre, the wood deer moves tendons of bark, its Antlers falling down over Moon's silverly, almost liquid skin, to hurt the hound, to take the best away from its owner, from its mistress...

Sharp Emerald against Liquid Silver.

Seventh Moon: Stomping, flailing; the great hound lashes with silvery paws and snaps at the small figure bellow it. Seventh Moon lets the hound free to rule his actions here and on instinct alone it seeks to force an opening through to the girls neck and keep her from making use of her blade. Pinning at her shoulders with his feet and snapping at her hands to clear the path to the perfect, pale stretch of neck his bared fangs drip in hunger for.

Konshu works to refine his flesh at every moment, smoothing and reshaping his hounds body, pulling curves and crevasses into elaborate patterns along his sleek flanks. And it's Konshu, not Moon, who sense the oncoming blow and wills his body the softness to accept the Wyld-Creatures attack. Something moves against him.Through him, gliding easily through the liquid silver of his flesh.

Pain!

But small pain. A scratch to be ignored. The prey comes first.

It ends!

Seventh Moon snaps at Kiri's arm as it flails up towards him, driving it back. A paw lifts and stomps down onto her shoulder. Rumbling in thunderous barratone, Moon lunges in for her neck with silver fangs bared to rend sweet fey flesh.

Kiri: Beast...

The lady of Thorns grits her teeth. the earth explodes below her, roots touching her skin, mingling with the petals that are her hair and steam of her skin, giving her strength, giving her power

"Great Beast of the Machine..."

Teeth gritted, but almost in a smile. He is powerful, yes... and that makes it all the better! With a maniacal smile, teeth gritted and the power of wood flowing inside her, she yells,

"...UNHAND ME!"

Selina de Windia: No!

The feeling rises within her. Her opponent had evaded one of her better shots. She is outnumbered. No, she shall not fail.

I will not be hindered again!

Heartbeat

Anima banner suddenly erupting to its full strength, iconic dragon coalescing around her with a storm of furious energy, Selina peers down at her opponent as her eyes cast the forest in front of her in partial shadow. Flickering shapes dance inside her pupils, deeper holes on the black of those windows to her soul. Images half-remembered from her visit to her Malfean as she fixes Kanti in a glare, strangled noises coming from her throat. Protests? Or something coming free?

'is a living...'

It flows into her mind as Dreamshard becomes litten with fell energies, crackling dangerously.

'warm with blood'

The anima banner flares again, and she lunges. Wings arcing to either side like a diving bird of prey, rapier poised forward and trailing a thick stream of death essence.

'kill it...'

'Kill it.'

Every muscle in her body is focused at achieving the death of that Exalt who dared to face the wrath of her. Her, a swordbearer of Oblivion! In the back of her mind comes a flurry of image-shards, spurring her onward, just as the blade is about to pierce the soft warm flesh...

'Kill! It!

Kanti: She looks up in terror as the swift winged death dives at her, black against the rain clouds.

So fast...

So so fast...

She wills again, the essence once again seeking that black heart, twisting it, brightening it, filling it with a warm fire, on that kindles feelings of pity, feelings of sorrow, feelings of regret.

Even as she sees the momentary flicker of hesitation, she throws herself aside with charm-borne grace and brings the Spear round in a steaming arc to knock the thrust aside.

The cut, it wasnt deep, but cold...so so cold...

Kanti felt the rapier try to suck the life from her, drawing it's essence out and feeding it to the cruel, cold woman with wings of night and eyes of steel, whose heart didn't seem swayed in the slightest by the entreaties of her essence.

Kanti danced back several steps before raising the spear and dancing past her again, stabbing at the darkly winged angel only once she was beyond her, trying to stay clear of the small storm of ice and hail that was brewing now.

Selina de Windia: The fact that she missed only increases the cold, dead fury in Selina's eyes. In a series of blurred movements, she bends her alluring body, twisting to avoid the spear-stabs as her rapier flashes out in a brilliant clash of corascanting energies from the magical weapons meeting. The cold images dancing in her pupils cast their own shadows upon where her gaze falls, holes in existance projected into the world of the living. But faint, faint compared to their true terror and majesty. Selina's ruby lips curl into a sneer, bringing her weapon up again, a madwoman's deathly gaze upon Kanti now.

Kiri: Kiri screams. The poison goes inside her vein like molten metal. She screams, thrashing as she is poisoned, the beast, so large, weighing down her form, so much stronger....

Fiona takes the last step. Now, she prepares to cast her spell... but now, Selina is together with Kanti. If she uses her spell, it will hit both... and she cannot... hurt her mistress.

And Sekhe keeps its charge, reacting to its knight's pain, the antlers coming down on Moon's flesh once again!

Seventh Moon: His fangs sunk deep and bits of bitter, wood like flesh tore from the fey girls next. Wood sap blood spread across his silver muzzle, seeping into the liquid softness of his flesh, swirling into tainted color across his face. But he had her color alone and it was her flesh that was bubbling and blistering around where his fangs had found their mark.

Then it struck again and it struck hard. Sliver goblets of flesh tore out of his body completely as the dears anlters tore into him, spraying across the ground like scattered coins. Agony tore into him, his mind shattering into a an animal squeal of pain.

He leapt off Kiri and spun around to face the Wyld-beast, his body shivering and rippling. Diamond eyes stared at the wood dear in fear and rage and desperation.Not again. Not fucking again! Not again, notagainnotagainNOT AGAIN!

His feet clenched. The scattered flesh of his form snaked through the dirt to find him again. His trembling body grew still as his eyes widened and his smooth jaw opened. The air stirred and light exploded around him, his Caste Mark circle flaring into a third eye on his brow. Two hounds stood together, one a statue of silver, the other a ghost of moonlight and mist. And Moon ran. Towards it. At it.

The prey does not hunt the hound!

He dove towards the hated creature with fangs bared. He struck it full on and dissolved. Moon's body splashed like so much silver paint, washing over and around the wood dear, crawling across it's fur in a million tiny droplets, then snapping back into a whole behind it. It's back was it's exposed. It's wooden lets likes sticks. Light blossoming from the Lunars mouth, he snapped his jaws towards the Wyld-Beast and willed it to die with every ounce of will in his being.

Selina de Windia: If she will not be felled by a single strike, let her deal with a flurry. Turquoise eyes casting darkness over Kanti, deeper shadows playing over her features as the void-black images burn in her pupils, Selina advances steadily toward the other woman, menacing, slashes with a weapon that suddenly seems unnaturally sharp. And slashes again as she tries for an opening, anima billowing out in a storm of lightning, wind, and shadow as the dragon coils back, waiting for something.

The final attack is a lunge, and the dragon image in her anima follows, roaring in terrible fury as she presses Kanti's defense. Trying to wear her down.

Kanti: That look in her eyes...
Kanti quivered.
She will kill me and she will not even blink.
Kanti trembled.
I must beat her for the mistress!
And to beat her I must make her feel!
Kanti shook as she reached out once more, desperately seeking shreads of pity in the cold heart.

Then the fragrant incense spear swings round from the right, cutting through the rain, as she throws herself to the left, trying to evade the hail of blows.

Kanti is wreathed in flames as she twists and dives desperately, the rapidly falling rain turning to steam as she readies herself for a counter attack, leaping up into a cloud of steam and smoke before she plunges down on the grounded angel, trying to pin her wing.

Kiri: Sekhe parries the strike, desperately placing its Antlers in front of the coming blow, stepping back.... and its Xia mistress gets up, the roots letting go of her frame... picking her weapon from the ground. Her movements are slow.... she could not get to where her mount and the Lunar are. Not yet, not with having to stand up, to take her blade, to shake the roots... she can simply do the one thing she can, and try to help her steed... "Come, Anathema!" She says, rising her weapon, trying not to stumble. "This is between us!"

Selina de Windia: The whispers in her mind become a bit louder...and she heeded them. She had faced them years ago, when she swore on her name, and now they called again. Beyond the Deathlords, beyond her peers, beyond every petty ghost in the blighted Underworld, they embodied the Void to her. The End. The one part of the pact she had made that didn't fill her with loathing and contempt.

They -- it -- whispers, and she follows. For once, surrendering to the desire to follow the command of he whom she had sworn to five years ago. Her feathers seem to flicker with an energy of their own, the Dragon in her anima rearing up, uttering one long, low growl.

And then she spoke. Her own voice, and a modulated, discordant tone which mirrored her words. Deeper than the endless depths of the uttermost West, rumbling through Kanti's mind -- and everyone else's. Selina's pupils glitter as if they were hard obsidian, wings of night loom behind her.

It could have her use that weapon. It had not objected centuries ago, when the Deathlords trucked with the infinite. And it does not object now.

"You have come too close to Us, Kanti."

Dreamshard whips up, glowing with ambient energy of its own, wyld-shards, fighting with Selina's shadowy anima banner. The Wyld gutters and is sucked back inside the sword -- the Abyssal levels it at the Terrestrial.

"From here, We can touch you."

And then the sword flares violently, remnents of the hundred fae screaming all at once as they are forced to rend Kanti's body by Selina's will...and are silent.

Kanti: Kanti looked up as the angel spread her wings and took on the aspect of the void, cold, hard eyes looking down at her, preparing herself for another series of cutting blows ... but instead the blade simply started to glow.

What....is....she...doing?

Then the voice, filled with all the chill cruelty of the void, scythed through her. Kanti reacted like a puppet whose strings had been cut, collapsing uncermoniously to her knees, weapon forgotten, shaking in abject terror as the words flowed through her flesh, wrapped themselves around her heart, crushing, ripping, tearing.

...I...
...She....
..what...
...how...
..Mistress?...
...Mistress!!!....

Then she screamed, a wordless, nameless scream as the fae ripped through her, her flesh torn and bleeding, the tattered fringes of the wounds still glowing as she tries to back further away from the void monstrosity before her, stumbling and tripping... Mistress....Mistress...I tried...but...how...can...I...prevail against her?
Mistress....I tried...
Mistress...?!?

"Mistress." she whimpers softly as she lies in the mud, looking up at the angel above her.

Seventh Moon: Nothing. He fangs closed on nothing. The hound fell back in startled disarray as the Wyld-beast somehow twisted around completely to shove it's antlers in the way of his jaws.

The prey was not supposed to eat the hound. But the prey was untouched and the hound bled silver teardrops onto the ground. How? Why? An animal did not ask that question. An animal did not feel the hopelessness welling up in his breast or know that an oath had been shattered. An animal only knew when it felt pain and hunger and need.

"And are you a beast or are you a man?"

Moon began to circle warily, hunched and baring his fangs towards the fey girl in answer to her challenged. Beast or man Which was it? Fuck, but he couldn't remember any more. Maybe both.

"Now you're starting to understand"

Both. And a beast did not fret. Both. And a man did not give himself to instinct alone. Seventh Moon lifted his head as a new clarity washed over his diamond eyes, a clarity which bled into his tarnished silver flesh and swept it clean of the blood and the dirty. A clarity which blossomed into tendrils of moonlight that clung to his skin and whipped through the air. His flesh, struggling for form so long now, achieved it in sinuous ripple that sealed the shallow gashes in his flanks. Platemail carved with the symbol of the moon rolled out of his liquid flesh and gems blossomed from his pores. Once gleaming, he sparkled. Once a half-shaped statue of silver, he found a form and held it. A hound still, but a hound armored for war.

Hard, so hard they could have crushed her bones to dust, his eyes bore into Kiris again and Seventh Moon spoke in two voice at once - the rumble of a wounded hound and the deathly whisper of a desperate man."I ain't gonna fuckin' let it happen again you ain't gonna be the one ta do it, bitch."

He stalked forward slowly.

"Again."

He began to run.

"Everything. Again!"

The hound of his anima stood in full relief, a titan of nature soaring into the air, and it threw back it's head and howled as he dredged up the last of the strength it could give him. His muscles tightened in his jaw, hardening to tear through muscle and armor and whatever else the little fey would put in his path.

"EVERYTHING! AGAIN!"

Moon lunged towards Kiri and began to sail past her. Same trick as before. Only a dog would use the same trick twice. And he was no beast. He waited until she began to move to react, moved to cut through the path of his flight with her blade. Then he twisted and his jaws opened wide to tear the arm that held her sword from her body whole.

"For my father, who is your mother, who is lord of us all! FOR THE GLORY OF LUNA!"

Kiri: The beast...

Becoming something else.

Glorious.
Grand.
Powerful.

A glory that could burn her existence... silver light, and not the formless light of the Wyld... silver, with form. A shape that is not a shape. Coming for her... Juchun in front of her protectively...

A good way to die...

"COME, LUNAR!"

And he comes.

Juchun breaks.

A thousand rose petals fill the air. They bleed.

They weep their tears of blood upon the land.

Essence of the Wyld explodes from her, and all the roses bleed.
For the Rose lady is dead.
For the Rose Lady is no more.

A blade of a thousand petals shatters, its thorns falling to the ground. Silver poison spills from her mouth. Her eyes go wide.

The princess of roses is no more.

And her last thought... is a hope...
That this will be made song.
That this will be made History.

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