GoldenCat/Tails03
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- - Back to A Dance of Angels
Old Enemies
Vorpal: The corridors behind the arena are dark and narrow. It is quite a contrast to the sun shining over the fighting circle, to the broad expanse of sky overhead and to the cheers and boos rolling down from the spectators like waves of heady wine.
The contest has gone on for less than an hour, and already Vorpal's head is aching. Her mien is stern and displeased as she makes her way down the corridor, towards the set of cells she and the Dark Angel had asked to be set apart for the contestants recovering from their "deaths". Selina is busy dealing with the next battle, so the Pale Angel should have just enough time to...
...well.
To strangle a weasel.
"Oi", she snaps, opening the door at the end of the corridor and walking through without announcement.
Kalevi: Kalevi is not particularly surprised at her entrance. Leaning back in a chair, his big booted feet are propped up on a near by stand as the nest of chains from his coat busy themselves around the room. Several has speared through pieces of fruit from a near by bowl, another gripping a tankard sloshing over with water, while the rest scrape across the wall and floor to help keep him balanced.
"It's boring waiting in here. I should have come back out there to watch the rest of the idiots get slapped around. You'd really think that lot of southern pansies would know better, wouldn't you Iranorian? Just goes to show what dreams of grandeur will get you. A lot of bruises and missing teeth." He chuckled dryly to himself. One of the chains bobbed to his face, offering a bright red apple that he took a bite out of. Juice dribbled down his chin as he spoke. "So dreadlady, what's the job?"
Vorpal: "I take great delight", the Pale Angel hisses, marching across the room. Her boot steps onto one of the chains, stomping it into the floor as she goes. "from knowing that you will be spending the next winter garrisoning the stinkiest city in North."
She hurls herself down on a chair opposite to the barbarian chieftain, wood protesting in vain at her move. "Now, you have fifteen seconds to convince me you are worth my time. Start speaking."
Kalevi: The chair tilts back dangerously a moment as Vorpal's foot stomps down, Kalevi's face vanishing bellow the table top. But as she takes her seat, the barbarian has already pushed himself back up. His feet part so he can meet her eye to eye, casting her a doubtful and almost hurt look. "Do I really need to convince you of that?"
Two of the chains swerved off from the rest, deftly picking up a pitcher and a mug, pouring a second cup of water and depositing it in front of Vorpal. "I'm no Pale Angel, but my reputation should count for something."
Vorpal: Vorpal's eyes hurl bolts of imaginary fire over the table. She does not make a move to pick the mug into her hands.
"Do not play games with me", she says, ominously. "I want to know why I should take an enemy into my payroll. You are very good at what you do, but you are my enemy and I don't like you. That's two against one in the balance."
Chibi Selina (Hyrokkin): (MY payroll, you mean :D)
Chibi-Vorpy: ((Hush.))
Kalevi: There is a moment, the briefest of instances, where the look on the mercenaries face was simply... confused. And then surprised. And finally bemused. He smiled a tiny smile, wicked on his cruel face, and held his arms out to his side to shrug, setting off a noisy rattle as the chains of his coat all shifted to account for the motion.
"What is that saying again? 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?' You would rather I was out there, out of sight, plotting against you instead of on your pay sheet and under your thumb?" He paused to drink from his own tankard, then wiped his mouth on the back of his sleeve. "I've never betrayed an employer, though heaven knows some of those half-wits deserved it. You should know that, seeing as how you killed quite a few of the ones who hired me."
Vorpal: "Under my thumb?" It has to be admitted, the Pale Angel actually pauses at that. The mention about keeping your enemies close she seems to brush aside, but this one openly catches her attention. The dawning of a very wicked idea is apparent on her face. Slowly, ever so slowly does the thin, eerie smile stretch her lips.
"Under my thumb?" she repeats, her voice purring. "I shall enjoy this."
Something about her makes it very clear that she does not mean it quite the same way as what Kalevi might have intended.
"Do you have any men with you?
Kalevi: And the smile on his face wilted. His chair creaked as he leaned forward. Just a fraction of an inch, but a significant fraction. He could not be said to sweat under that evil look, but he seemed to take the situation with far less brevity than before. "I'm sure you will." He agreed with a small nod.
"I have about one hundred and thirty soldiers under me, as well as my captains. Mountain fighters, small handful of cavalry but thats damn expensive to maintain. Good troops. Good fighters. You should know that, too. You fought against most of them. I've only ever had to bring in a few replacements since then." He cast her a meaningful look, a frown creasing his face. "I'd like to keep it that way."
Vorpal: The Pale Angel rewards Kalevi with a nasty look. It lasts for about a second before vanishing from her alabaster face.
"Yes, yes", Vorpal responds evenly and gives a dismissive wave of hand. "Frankly, we are hiring individual warriors here, but arrangements can be done. It spares me the trouble of having to blacken about one hundred and thirty eyes, eh?"
Cavalry is no good for garrison duty, however, and Vorpal doubts that mountain fighters would be on their best atop palisades of civilization on its dirtiest, either. This will need to be worked out.
"Speaking of which", she adds and arches one eyebrow idly. "I still have to blacken yours at some point. I have an... urge for it."
Kalevi: "Help yourself!" he laughed, swinging his feet from the table top and dropping the chair back in place. The chains whipped into a whirlwind around him, dropping bits of half-eaten fruit onto the table top and reeling back into the sleeves of his coat. Leaning onto his arms, he thrust his face out for her across the table... and waited.
Chibi-Vorpy: (( {A few seconds later, the chibi-Angel walks up to the wall and peers into a hole in the perfect shape of Kalevi's silhouette} Thanks. ))
Chibi-Kalevi: (( *Stumbles out of the hole, a hand over hald his face* No problem. Could you help me find my eye now? I think it shot out of the back of my skull. ))
Vorpal: Vorpal lifts her hands, matter of factly, and presses them together. Her knuckles crackle and snap loudly. She rises up from her chair and leans across the table towards the barbarian chieftain.
Moving as if she had all the time in the world, she touches Kalevi's chin. Frowning, she shifts his head a little, leaning back and craning her neck in order to view it from many different angles - just to make certain everything is just right.
Just... about... there.
Some matters simply forbid you to hurry about them. They have to be done carefully, spending as much time for the task as is necessary. There is only one chance, so it has to be made to count.
For Vorpal deFay, clenching her hand into a fist and winding her arm back for the strike is a task just like that. She does it... slowly. Something under the white skin of that arm shifts, a hint of tightening. Terrible forces are amassing there, cold and unstoppable. Like a catapult's spoon being winched to the position, immense potential piling up in rope and tendon and wood, all of it awaiting for the single command...
Slowly. Slowly...
And, in a sudden flash of movement. Vorpal kicks at the table, sending it towards the spot under Kalevi's belt.
Kalevi: There are many laws that rule Creation. What goes up typically comes down. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. And there isn't a man alive, no matter how big, slow, or awkward, who cannot and will not react with viper-quick reflexes when their man-bits come under threat of assault. As if some guiding instrument of heaven heightens their speed in that moment, they will do nearly anything to keep their root of valor safe. Fat men who have never so much as jumped more than a few inches off ground in their lives have been known to perform backflips to escape the threat of enforced castration.
Kalevi is absolutely no different. Patiently waiting without apparent concern for the Pale Angel to finish savoring the moment and get about the business of clobbering him in the face, he is not even looking down when the table suddenly jerked forward. But he knew, that male instinct kicking in the moment the table screeched across the floor. Chains burst from the sleeves of his coat and whipped around the table legs; too slow to stop it by far. Even as that attempt failed, the big man tried to twist away, nearly made it too, but not quite. His thigh took most of the impact. Most, was not all.
A biting, strangled shout burst from his throat as the table edge crashed into him. He sprang up to his feet, then stumbled and fell back down, both hands clutching between his legs, both protective and painful at once. "That," he informed her through teeth clenched in agony, his voice nearly breaking. "Was not my eye."
He saved his breath for gasping after that, but lightening crackled angrily across his back and storm clouds twisted in his eyes.
Vorpal: Vorpal lets out a long, shuddering sigh of pleasure.
"Irrelevant", she says with a smirk. "I have long wanted to do that, too."
Selina de Windia: "Wrong." Comes a voice from just outside the doorway. Selina walks into the room, just past the portal. Her expression is the height of un-laughing amusement at the situation. "That was your third eye. You'll notice that she didn't specify which one she wanted to blacken. And I know from experience that that eye blackens as well as the other two."
Vorpal: "Hmm?" Vorpal places her hands to her hips and turns her head slightly, to look at her dark counterpart. Wicked glee draining away from her features, she seems to switch for a slightly more matter-of-fact mode once again. "I agree, but let's not worry about the details. The chieftain here was just showing his goodwill. What are you doing here? Is it half-time already?"
Kalevi: Thunder rumbled back in response to Selina, a sound as bestial as it was elemental, shivering the stones of the small room and sending flakes of mortar spilling down around their heads. He gave the new comer a sharp look, irritated at someone's obvious amusement to a deep and personal pain, but something more primal and territorial built in the static discharge that hissed in the air around him. Blue arcs of lightening thrashed from his back twice as furiously as before and crackled down his arms and legs and scrapping like claws against the floor, leaving blackened streaks of burnt stone.
Kalevi though let his gaze drop the moment irritation cleared enough to let him realize just who it was, hardly willing to challenge that one after what he had just witnessed in the arena. Slowly, the glowing display dispersed into the air, flooding the room with the scent of ozone.
"I'll take being made an example, but I don't care for the idea of being made an eunuch without being asked first." Bracing himself on his chair, he tenderly got back to his feet. He unashamedly wiped tears from the corners of his eyes and ground his jaw together as he looked back at Vorpal, unable to fully repress the anger that still flowed through him. "Thats out of the way now, yes?"
Vorpal: "Yes", Vorpal responds simply and wipes bits of crumbled mortar from her hair. "It should cover what you did up on the arena."
Selina de Windia: "You could say that. Either way, I took a break, and felt like coming down here and seeing how our lucky hirelings were doing. The crowd has stared at my arse enough to stand a couple minutes of its absence." Selina replies to Vorpal, then focusing her gaze on the man. Her pupils slit to thin lines, and her intake and exhalation of breath seems to have a certain rumble of its own for a moment, then Selina pushes the Dragon back down. The fact that she wants him to keep away from the other deathknight only magifies her Dragon's own territorial impulses.
"Quite interesting. Another wyrm." Her voice is no longer amused, but somewhat annoyed. "Maybe too interesting. You will keep your eyes off of my counterpart and your wyrm buried deep, mercenary."
Vorpal: Vorpal raises an eyebrow at this. Though distinctly aloof through Kalevi's display of power, Selina's words catch her attention.
A dragon, is he?
The barbarian had boasted with his uncanny ability to summon storms out of thin air before. It is one of the reasons why he is such a troublesome opponent on battlefield. The Pale Angel Brigade had been first class heavy cavalry. Thunder and stinging rain has a bad habit of ruining horseplay.
Folding her arms, Vorpal takes a quick look at the Dark Angel. Her dragon is familiar to the Pale Angel, of course. Should the two clash, she has no doubt about which of the beasts would come out on top.
Kalevi: "I will do my best about either, dreadlady, but I'll take no oath I cannot be sure to keep. The wyrm and I have... and understanding, at best," he told her with a rough smile, one not the least bit cheerful. "And her virtue is in little danger of defilement at my hands anyway..."
"Even if I'd have the capacity to defile virtue for the next few days..." he added under his breath irately, casting dark looks Vorpals way.
Vorpal: Vorpal's face breaks into a sweet smile in response.
Selina de Windia: "Glad to hear it." Selina replies dryly, crossing her arms, more serene now. "The question remains on what we're going to do with you. Most of you are not earmarked for our personal service."
Kalevi: "And I am, is that it?" he asked, addressing the question to Vorpal rather than Selina, his gaze turned calculating and considerate. "Or do my boys and I simply get stuffed into a block house and spend the rest of the year roughing up drunkards and staring from a wall at the beautiful desolation of the southern marches?"
Vorpal: "I haven't yet decided", the Pale Angel admits. She unravels one hand and strokes the tip of her chin. "A very small part of me wants to see you like that. But, it would be wasted potential, I think."
Spreading her arms, she sighs and moves her shoulders in a shrug. The lamenting gesture is rather exaggeraged. "Decisions, decisions..."
Selina de Windia: "I have to admit it would be amusing to see Lilith get a new unit -- composed of her old enemies." Selina says with some entertainment evident in her tone. "In fact, perhaps I ought to track down a few others and force them to join."
Kalevi: "Ha!" he gawffed loudly at Selina's suggestion, shaking his head with a rueful humor. "You won't have much luck, dark one. She did not leave most of them alive."
"Amusing that it was your allies who proved to be the biggest threat in the end, eh?" he asked Vorpal, a malicious twinkle in his eye. "Hope history doesn't repeat itself."
Vorpal: Selina's comment is meant to be wickedly humorous, of course, but something about it does not quite seem to reach the Pale Angel. Quite the opposite: it sobers her.
"Don't go touching my old enemies", she says. "I don't touch yours."
There is a twich in Vorpal's eyebrow at Kalevi's words. Crossing her arms once again, she leans against the wall. "Do you want to be kicked into the eye again?"
"Choose carefully what you say", she adds, quickly. "Every wrong word increases the chances that you and your lads will spend a long winter in a very stinky city."
Kalevi: "Just a stating a piece of relevant history, dreadlady." he said, physically backing down with a step away from her, pointedly keeping the chair between his groin and her foot.
"It's always wise to remember the past, if we're ever going to learn from it," Kalevi craned his neck to one side, a barbed chain snaking out of his coat sleeve to scratch an itch on the side of his neck. He spoke to Vorpal with a muted tone; of... of what? Invitation? Challenge? Something close to either, without truly being one or the other. "You can usually see more, when you're looking back at it, instead of watching it happen around you."
Selina de Windia: "I would never do so -- without your permission." Selina says levelly. "Unless they got you." She leaves what she would then do with them unspoken. "But I find that highly unlikely. You are as beyond most of them now as you were beyond a drunken militiaman then."
Vorpal: Vorpal acknowledges Selina's response with a wave of her hand. "Appreciated."
Then she shakes her head and sighs, more deeply this time. "Some people simply do not know when to stop, do they? History happened less than five minutes ago yet you learned not a thing, Kalevi. Lesson of the day:"
She takes a sudden, threatening step towards the barbarian. "My leg gets twitchy when I am irked."
Kalevi: "Apologies, pale one," he offered before she could come closer, the chain vanishing back into his coat as he thumped a big fist into his chest and tipped his head to her. It was not a formal bow by Winlandian standards, but it was a respectful gesture akin to one further north. "No offense was intended. It was just a suggestion. 'A good captain is one who is not afraid to suggestions to his commander and a good commander is one who is not so secure in their superiority as to dismiss them off-hand.'"
The quote, abridged on the fly an entry in the Thousand Correct Actions of the Upright Soldier, flows easily off his tongue and the gravelly strain of his voice, for the moment, has an almost soothingly intellectual tone to it.
"Anyway Iranorian," he grunted, all traces of eloquence vanishing instantly from his voice. "Busting my balls more would only be a waste of time. I'm as good as hired already. You should be saving the blows for those you're still... convincing over to your side of things. Unless you plan to make her do all the work for you." He said, nodding his head towards Selina.
Vorpal: "Hrm." Vorpal nods, gravely. "The officer is thinking. Keep it that way, Kalevi, and we will get along just fine." Turning her gaze over to Selina, she adds: "He has a point, you know. Time to return to the arena and wiggle backsides... and bust some more balls. I will take the next one."
Selina de Windia: Selina raises one eyebrow at that. "I had a few in a row before...perhaps you'll want some? Though taking more than one at once is such a bother."
Then she throws a glance at Kalevi. "I don't need to do her work for her. Perhaps you missed what I told that great oaf when he thought he had me."
Kalevi: "Must have," he agreed with a slanted smirk. "The action was so distracting that I wasn't paying too terribly much to the conversation anyway, dark one."
"Anyway, I'll come too," Kalevi said, strapping the front of his coat closed. "There was shit piled up to my ankles down in that slave pen, most of it waiting for it's chance to take a turn staring at the bottom of your foot. I'll go clear out the ones who aren't worth much as even wall squatters and start sending out the ones who are actually worth your time."
"Unless you just enjoy killing idiots, like the last two."
Vorpal: "Aye, but after what you did with the demon-worshippers, I wonder if they believe your words anymore", the Pale Angel shrugs with a mild smile.
Vorpal is already turning towards the doorway, yet she pauses at Kalevi's suggestion. "Heh." Her shoulders begin to shudder as she pushes the door open. "Heh heh heh. Heh-heh-haa-haa-hee..."
After a long and disturbing moment, she leans one hand against the doorway and draws in a wheezing breath. "Aine? Do we enjoy killing idiots?"
Selina de Windia: "Hmf." Selina sniffs, then thinks for a moment. "Not unless I'm in a bad mood, I don't. It's not their fault they're stupid." She gives Vorpal a strange look. "But I can't speak for you."
Vorpal: "True, true..." Vorpal coughs and taps her skull with the palm of her hand once, twice.
Goodness gracious. Her back to the others so that they cannot see it, she squeezes her eyes tightly shut. Fighting the urge down takes a serious effort this time. Get a grip, girl.
"Certainly, Kalevi, that would help us", the Pale Angel finally says and throws a glance over her shoulder. "Do it."
"Ah, speaking of killings", she then turns her gaze over to the Dark Angel once again. "What happened to that pretty one you fought?"
Selina de Windia: "He faked his death." Selina replies with some amount of ruefulness over that fact. "He was very sorry about making me reveal more of my tricks than I wanted to so early."
The Dark Angel's voice takes on a faint tinge of dread, and the crossing of arms under her chest becomes more of hugging herself for the moment. "I think he's infatuated with me."
Vorpal: "True, true..." Vorpal coughs and taps her skull with the palm of her hand once, twice.
Goodness gracious. Her back to the others so that they cannot see it, she squeezes her eyes tightly shut. The sudden bloodlust had snuck up on her like a thief in the night. Fighting the urge down takes a serious effort this time. Get a grip, girl.
"Certainly, Kalevi, that would help us", the Pale Angel finally says and throws a glance over her shoulder. "Do it."
"Ah, speaking of killings", she then turns her gaze over to the Dark Angel once again. "What happened to that pretty one you fought?
Selina de Windia: "He faked his death." Selina replies with some amount of ruefulness over that fact. "He was very sorry about making me reveal more of my tricks than I wanted to so early."
The Dark Angel's voice takes on a faint tinge of dread, and the crossing of arms under her chest becomes more of hugging herself for the moment. "I think he's infatuated with me."
Vorpal: "He should queue like all the others, then", the Pale Angel says. There is perhaps a little trace of sourness in her voice.
Kalevi: "Just kill him too," Kalevi grunts, a look of disgust on his face. "He's fairy, dark one. He doesn't belong out here anyway. My father always said, and I live by it, 'If you need a fuck that bad, settle for someone ugly who won't eat your soul and shit it out later.'"
Selina de Windia: "He should have, yes." She agrees with Vorpal. "But he said he's sorry. Who knows."
Selina directs a withering gaze a Kalevi. "I don't need a fuck." She snaps. "For your information, I can have whoever I want, whenever I want, should I so desire it. But he is the one who wants to get with me. How is that my fault?"
"Besides, we already have a faerie around. On good behavior though. I trust this one will be as well."
Kalevi: The mercenary was clearly not entirely happy with that answer, nor the news of a second fey about, but only sighed in a disquieted fashion and settled into his coat with a nod. "It's your choice, of course."
Vorpal: "Oi, oi, calm down already, both of you", Vorpal puts in, although not in a particularly irritated tone. "If he tries to fuck Aine the wrong away, he will get burned. Let's solve that problem a bit late, shall we?"
One hand still on the doorway, she indicates the portal with a flick of her head. "It's time to continue recruitment."
Selina de Windia: "Ok." Selina says with the remains of her sullenness evaporating into an odd cheer. "It will be fun to see who you fight in the arena."
Vorpal: "Remember to cheer for me", Vorpal adds with a thin smile as she marches through the door and back into the corridor that will lead her back to the arena and the battles waiting there...
Selina de Windia: "Oh, I'll remember." She replies, then tosses a 'get moving' look to the mercenary and exits herself.
Kalevi: "It'll be the first time I've ever seen it without being numbered among the targets," he agreed, his tone growing more cheerful as well. "Try to splash blood on the audience if you get the chance, they love that."
Kalevi strides by Selina, giving her back an irritated 'I'm going, I'm going' wave of his hand as he passes.
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- - Back to A Dance of Angels
