GoldenCat/ObsidianAftermath15
- - Back to Sixth Movement
- - Back to A Dance of Angels
Magic and Shadow
Alexander: A moment of tranquility.
That was a rare thing, these days...
After the fighting the day before, after nearly dying... now he could be calm. Quiet.
Trying not to think he could be on Moon's place on the bed....
He had to almost drag Kanti out of there. She had been so worried... but she had stabilized him. It was the same, now - all the wounds made by the assassin gone, healed by the Dragoness, but the venom, the rests of the Eidolon, all open into him now... soon, with some hope, Ryshassa would come. Cael told them they won... but just that. What had happened, who had lived or died...
Alex tried not to think of that, himself, as he opened his soul, his light, to the life around him... hoping birds would flock to him, like before, but this was the Boil. A stray cat that stalked the roof did jump down, however, to be petted by the Prince... as he watched Kanti dance on the stone garden at the center of the manse. Dancing relaxed her... and watching her relaxed him.
It was a way to enjoy their calm, one of the few they had....
Kanti: Kanti smoothly flows through the motions of her dance, almost forgetting that the prince, her prince, was watching her, slow and graceful motions as befit the mood of the place and of the city, the fans Days had gifted her with tracing out elegant arcs on the air as she spun and moved, dark hair following her in a shimmering cloud...
Tasya: The ground rumbled ominously, shivering bellow the princes feet. Shaking Kanti in her dance. A pause, as if the earth stopped to take a breath, then another shake, more violent than the first. The stray cat on the Prince's lap startled to it's feet, then bounded away as the scraping grate of stone on stone filled the air. A shaft of light burst from the paving stones at Alexes feet, cutting a path through the lines of the mortar, throwing a beam up far enough to reflect the heavy clouds overhead. A rough square traced in light, the earth let out another groan as it suddenly upheaved, the paving stones swinging upwards in perfect symmetrical form with a blast of warm, dry air that swept across the Exalts in the garden. And from the depths of the shimmering void beyond, a shape slowly began to rise...
The shape of a head covered with pale blond hair and a pair of blue eyes as wide around as saucers blinking up at Alex from between his feet. Tasya stared silently at the prince from her glowing hole in the ground for several drawn out moments before she suddenly remember she had come there for a reason. She turned around a few times, taking a lay of the land and notice of Kanti's presence with a furiously self-conscious blush. Grabbing at the ground beside her, she heaved herself up out of the portal in an awkward tangle of her heavy black coat. Scrambling up to her feet as the hole in the ground swing itself closed with a final hiss of warm, stale air, the young girl dusted herself off a moment before facing Alex again.
Sort of.
She more faced his feet, both hands clutching to the long blond braid that dangled over her shoulder and tugging it against her cheek and over her mouth, as if trying to hide behind it. "U-um Office of Unusual Occurrences Investigator 1st Class T-T-Tasya reporting, um sir." She attempted an awkward bow that nearly unbalanced her, then quickly shrunk embarrassed into her coat.
Alexander: Wow.
Was all that he could have said...
His mouth hanging open...
Watching the light on the ground... watching Tasya climb out of the hole on the ground... Alexander moved foward to try and steady her, but she done it already, and he just shrugged to try and hide his attempt, smiling at Tasya. It felt good when people acted as if he was a prince... he missed that.
"Nice to see you, Tasya. That was... quite an entrance. I'm impressed!"
"Iron Tears was certainly right about you... oh, and Kanti, you can stop now!"
Kanti: Kanti stops her dance, the fans flicking closed as she drops into a curtsey, studying the girl, Taysa who stands before her prince, blushing and studying his feet.
She rises, slowly moving over to her prince, careful to make at least some noise for the benefit of the hair-tugging girl.
Tasya: Her face turned a crimson bright enough to nearly match Kanti's as the prince's hand brushed her and he gave her his compliment. Her eyes peeked up for a moment and, seeing his smile, quickly dropped again. Her lips moved, muttering something half-formed under her breath that might have been a denial as likely as it was a thanks. Her hands, not settled enough to just hold her braid, began to stroke it as she spoke up, hand over hand like a climber seeking purchase.
"W-we are honored by your highnesses interest, your highness." She said, sounding almost well rehearsed. As if sensing Kanti's eyes upon her, she took a glance back over her shoulder at the Terrestrial, but nearly as quickly dropped her gaze again, sinking a little more in her coat and only compounding the contrast between them. "I-I am ready to report when you are... ready... too."
Alexander: He sits down on the earthy benches once again, calling for the cat that will not come... and shrugs.
"Relax, Tasya. I may be an Exalted, I may be royalty, but not reason to be so nervous. I am not like the Angels, I do not bite." He flashes a smile, touching the back of his neck a bit. He liked to be respected, but this was a bit too much... "You can begin.... how are things on my city?"
Tasya: His reassurances... don't really do terribly much to reassure her. If anything, the fact that he so clearly noticed her awkwardness makes her bite her bottom lip and hang her head in an even more embarrassed fashion. But after a few quick breaths to prepare herself, Tasya managed to launch into a rapidfire report of the goings on in the city, speaking nearly without taking another stop for breath.
The Spookies had been very busy. Ancestor cults to break up, ghosts running around where they don't belong, negotiating with Bloody Hands to get them off the streets, zombie infestations to clean up. And that was on top of their usual work. As she lists off event after even, it starts to become clear that she's holding off on something. Every occurrence she brings up ends with the proclamation "But we dealt with it and it's fine now."
That is until she reaches the summery of the Spookies current cases. "T-Team A is currently investigating reports of another ancestor cult b-building up in the mines. They should be reporting o-on that soon. Team B-B has been recalled t-to rest and provide back up. Team C, m-my team, has the most important case r-right now though..." Tasya nearly seems to bloom out of her overlarge coat when she says that, a moment of pride drawing her back up a little straighter and her eyes risk a glance at the prince to see what he thinks about that. "W-we're investigating the murders at the Saffron Sonnet. The skin-cleaner case."
Alexander: He listens, interested or disinterested, depending... so many interesting things!
They were such working figures. So capable! He is amazed he never read books about their like. How come?
They are so very romantic figures...
And then she stops. And he is getting used to the stuttering.
It is... oddly cute!
"Skin-cleaner? Saffron Sonnet?"
Tasya: "T-that's what Eciarde called it... he likes giving names to things... Saffron Sonnet is a... it's a... it's a house. One in the R-Red Lantern..." She looked up to make certain that he understood her meaning, then blushed and resumed giving his feet her report. "P-people were going missing from there recently. Blood but no bodies. T-they only ever found one and her skin had been... it was gone. V-very neatly taken off. We've been investigating since last week. T-think we've managed to follow it. Eciarde and Noel are out t-tracking it right now..."
Alexander: "That is... horrible." He says, totally completely missing what she meant by house. Moon told him about the Red Lantern district, but he did not notice... "... we should help. If this monster can be stopped... I can burn it. If it is undead... Kanti, can you pick your spear? We are going out with her!" He nods with surety... and then realises what the red lantern is. A little blush comes to his face. "... oh. Are we checking the crime scenes...?"
Tasya: For the first time since the moment she had appeared, Tasya's face turns up to Alex and stays there, her eyes growing wide again. She twists back to look at Kanti when he calls for her, then back to him, broken sounds stuttering out of her mouth for a few moments before real words start to come out.
"Wh-... I... th-that is... we... no, we're d-done with that, b-but... !" Tasya clamps her moth closed, fingers tightening around her braid. "I-I... we appreciate the offer y-your highness, but you don't have to come..."
Alexander: He gets up, motes of golden light about him and a caste mark glowing on his forehead...
"Tasya, I told you to relax. We are not that busy, of course we can lend a hand. The more the merrier, right?" He asks with a sweet, shining smile.
Kanti: "My spear is always at hand, my Prince." she says softly. "I am ready to leave when you are."
Tasya: "B-but that's not..." she started plaintively, looking back and forth between the two Exalts. Neither seemed particularly inclined to listen however. Or at least she didn't quiet have it in her to speak up against the prince. So her head bowed again, fingers wringing together on her braid. "A-as you wish, y-your highness... I-I will take you both there..."
Alexander: "Good. You know, I have been wondering how it is like to be in your trip so far. I am really looking foward to it!" He says, walking closer to her, taking Kanti's hand and bringing her closer... "Is there a limit of how far we need to be?" He asks, so close she can feel the warmth on his breath...
Tasya: A little shiver passed through her and she at once managed to shy away from Alex into her coat and lean closer to him as well. "N-no... it just h-has to be somewhere I-I've been before..."
Tasya peered around the stone garden in silence, then stepped purposefully towards the wall bellow the roof where Alex's stray had jumped down from. She took a breath and closed her eyes, a line of strain wrinkling on her brow. Hands out, palms flat on the stone, she leaned close to the wall. Her lips pursed almost as if she were about to kiss it, but she stopped scant inches away, her mouth moving, breathing out something too low to be heard.
The wall shivered. Light throbbed out of a thin crack in the wall beside her hand, a bright beam glaring out and shinning almost by providence onto Alex's caste mark. It rolled down to the ground at first, like a droplet of water down a windowpane, then seemed to bounce back upwards, following the uneven network of tiny cracks time had worn into the wall until it had arched above Tasya's head and come back down to the ground once more.
The girl in the big black coat took a broad step backwards as the wall swung open grandly into a blinding nothing. Warm, stale wind washed over the Exalts once again as whistling streamers of color danced out of the white emptiness beyond the wall. They spun playfully around Tasya, tossing her long hair about, plucking at her coat with windy hands. And, for a few seconds, she smiled and glowed, without a hint of self-consciences about her.
The color had gone back out of her when she turned back to Alex and Kanti, droplets of sweat dotting her brow. "P-Please take my hand..." she said softly, holding out a palm to each. "Y-you might get lost..."
Alexander: ... and that was simply awesome!
"Tasya, you are grand!" He says, nearly jumping to take her hand, warmly holding it... it was rare, that. That he got to see such tricks without the hint of deathly abyssal energy making them wrong and threatening. Cael had done wonders with Kanji, but few others... "Let us go!" He says as he holds Kanti's hand, walking towards the blinding nothing....
Kanti: Kanti smiles delightedly. This was real magic, true magic, heavenly magic.
It felt somehow just like home, and that warmed her, especially with the Prince at her side.
Tasya: Her hands trembled as they closed around Kanti's and Alexes, but she held on tight as she led them through the portal and into the light. And as they stepped through the opening, the world as they understood it vanished.
There was no up. There was no down. No ground to walk on or sky to stand under. There was the sensation of moving, yet each step felt as though it sent them spinning off through the nebulous white world around them, buffeted about like feathers by the warm, dry wind. Tasya walked before them, her hand holding theirs, but she seemed to flicker in and out of existence without rhyme or reason. There was no scent to the place and it was strange for it, but there was sound. A constant whispering rustle; a soft crackling like dry leaves crushed underfoot that consumed all other noise into it.
The streamers of color were slower here, not racing on the wind but nearly crawling past. Slow enough to reveal they were not just colored light at all, but tongues of pastel flames flickering out of the white. And the white was not white at all. Their eyes strained of their own accord to comprehend the glare for what it was an eternity of pale fire stretching out before them, painted in nearly every shade but the crimson it should have been, the light from each so constantly stirred together to create a sense of absolute empty pale.
And then, suddenly, there was ground. There was up and there was down. Shining blue tiles manifested out of the light and fixed themselves underfoot. A room without walls stood before them, hazy white pillars holding up a doming blue roof. And at the center of the room floated a window, it's cheap smoky glass and splintering dirt-smudged frame painfully out of place.
"H-here." Tasya said, letting go of their hands once both stood upon the tiled floor. "T-this is where we want to be..."
Kanti: Wrong ... fire....
Kanti looked about her as they traversed the scentless, rustle filled ... space, with the wrong, so wrong flames all around them and she pressed closer to the prince as they walked further and further, growing agitated next to him, though she doesn't protest outloud....
Alexander: He had never been to Heaven. He had never been to the Wyld. His feet never touched the Underworld. At most, he had been to a God's Home once. It had been a glorious experience. And this... this is new. Strange. Different. Utterly unique in all of his life... and it was fire...
This... this... this...
He had no words.
Frightened.
Awed.
Thrilled.
Tasya saw him with his eyes wide, his mouth open, shaking and simply....
Completely...
"L..."
"L..."
"Let us go, then!" He shouts!
All was gone? Then now he is excited before he even stops shaking!
Tasya: Tasya smiled a little at the princes shivering excitement and a little more at Kanti's nervousness as well, drawing up a little more confident to see the elegant Terrestrial so shaken up at something she scarcely considered any different than a stroll through the park.
"Just open the window and c-climb through, highness..." she said to Alex, stepping as close to him as Kanti had, her hands closing around his arm to help guide him forward. Stronger as her voice sounded, her cheeks still flushed when she took the daring step of claiming Alexes arm as Kanti had and her eyes stayed down cast at her feet. "I-it leads to the street where I left Eciarde and Noel."
Alexander: "Right. You hold Kanti's hand, then..." He moves Kanti in front of him, almost making the two women embrace, noticing she is a little shaken, his hand tightening behind her a moment, as if to reassure her... holding in front of the chain now, only to Tasya's hand he pushed the window open, and pushed them all through like a boy pushing his friends into a place of adventure...!
Tasya: Starting in surprise as Alex suddenly pushes Kanti onto her, Tasya blushes furiously and tries not to look jealous of the Terrestrial when Alex holds her hand that few seconds longer. She does as she is told though, holding Kanti's hand between her own gently and attempts not to think about how sickly pale her skin looks next to the Terrestrials bright tones.
"O-oh!" Tasya spoke up suddenly as Alex started to open the window. "B-but be careful! There might be a-"
Too late, the energetic prince was already heaving all three of them through the open window. The pale gray sunlight of the Boil was practically absolute darkness after the brightness of the world behind them and the sudden stench of the city slapped them across the face with a fury. Which was why the last word of Tasya's warning did not come until all three found themselves looking down at a dirty street some four stories bellow the building whose window they emerged from. "... drop."
Kanti: As they find themselves tumbling from the window, down onto the streets below, Kanti acts on instinct, hugging the young girl to her tightly, pressing her up to her chest as her legs twist under her, falling down feet first to absorb the shock of landing, a burst of fire as she hits the ground with perfect poise, setting the blonde down on the muddy street.
Alexander: As they begin to fall, the prince spreads his wings...
And Kanti makes her acrobatics, striking them without realizing it...
For a moment, the prince soars up... but loses the balance, falling after the ladies...
... and over them, tumbling all the three of them to the ground!
"... sorry...."
Tasya: Squeaking in surprise as Kanti suddenly grabs her tightly, Tasya actually tries to fight her way free of the Terrestrials grasp for the first few seconds, until she has no real choice but to hold on as well and pray Kanti would hit the ground bellow her instead. Her coat whips up as the fall and the drab black skirt bellow it as well, bare legs tipped with soft boots kicking through the air as they plummet downwards.
She barely even notices as they hit the ground safely. Certainly doesn't notice when Kanti tries to place her on the ground, only to find Tasya's grip like iron around her, clinging on tightly to the Terrestrial with both eyes glued shut and her lips shivering. But that all comes to a stop as Alex gracefully crashes into both of them and sends them sprawling in a heap. Se blinks her eye open, shocked at first to realize they're actually on the ground. It's not until a cold northern draft caresses the backs of her legs that she notices that her skirts had flipped themselves up a ways and that Alexs face had nearly planted itself in her black underwear clad behind...
And that her own face was half-buried into the bountiful chest of a certain Terrestrial.
And then, in that moment, Tasya's skin turned every bit as red as Kantis.
Narrator: An awkward moment later....
The red-lantern stretches before them, burnt, muddy. Not too far from where they fought Niremar, before the fire was dispelled around them. When all was fire, and each blow brought houses down... now, walls half-stood, the broken ground filled with still water and earth, and broken pieces of wood littered the landscape. A few blocks to every direction, things were less messier, of course - the new House of Heavenly Pleasures, in the Manse Opal had helped bring about, was a particularly bright part of the landscape even in its current makeshift situation.
And there, we find Alexander, Kanti and Tasya... after a particularly embarassing moment...
Alexander: The prince tried not to look at her, his face crimson, his voice pretty much gone. For a moment, there, he was not sure where he was, and it all felt so... soft. For a shorter moment, he believed it was Kanti, somehow, and begun to rub his face... and then, when it came to him, he had jumped back, blushing, a rapidfire of excuses, hitting his back against the wall, and his head, and nearly bringing said wall down. She was a professional, one of the Spookies, someone he should be dignified and commanding before of... and he had shown to be a klutz... and had... and had...
He kept trying not to look at her, embarassed, trying his best to be polite, as he wondered how little she must think of him now...
And it had begun so well... what will she tell the others...?
He winces, trying to find his voice...
"S.. s... so... wh.. what now...?"
Tasya: She hadn't dared move when they had lay clumped together, save to make a girlishly humiliated squeak when the prince actually rubbed his face against... on her... down there, squeezing herself a little more tightly against Kanti as if trying to bury herself into the Terrestrial and escape.
Untangled and her skirts pushed back down, there was little of Tasya left to speak to. The Spookie had retreated so far into her coat that neither hands nor face were visible; only a pair of eyes set in a brow that looked to have been carved out of red jade and a blond pony tail dangling out the back of her now upturned lapels. She did not answer Alex's question for a very long moment, then finally spoke up in a hushed voice that carried easily in the strangely silent district. "N-now we find Eciarde... o-or he finds us."
Kanti: Kanti picked herself, looking at the young girl with pity as she retreated into the coat, looking about the space around them as she gathers herself up, careful not to complain of the pain Alex had caused with his clumsyness.
Alexander: She is taking so long to reply... she must be so embarassed.
And mad. She must be very mad at me.
Women are always scary like that...
The Angels, Reina, his mother, his sister Elizabeth, Iria... Kanti and Fiona were some of the few women he had ever met who would not make him feel very, but very scared at times. Much as he liked to imagie them more like Fiona, to be saved, protected, even when they had to, like the in the Pale Angel's case, they could be scary. And now he braced himself for Tasya to attack... at any moment... as soon as the embarassment wore off...
... wishing to move on before that happens, he takes a step foward, "I... I see.... l... let us hope he does soon, right?" Especially since he was so busy trying not to look at her he did not actually notice much of anything around them.
A few steps foward, over the mood, hoping it was not too much for Kanti... "H.. hey... Ta... Tasya?"
... sorry?
... it was an accident?
... hey, look, it's a monster!
Nah, not that lucky...
Tasya: "W-we should go..." she answers, hunching down and trodding off down the street at a hurried pace, though it could easily be assumed as much to leave one place as to get to another.
Alexander: ... and he does not get to ask.
Damn...
Hurrying behind her, but making very, very sure he knows where he makes each and every step, the prince walks after her, down the street, into the most unharmed sections of the Red-Lantern... where the houses still stood, and the soot had already been washed off.... that did make him happy. You did manage to save a good chunk of this, Moon... He thought with a smile, his mind getting to relax a little bit... especially seeing all the... art on the buildings, moving towards Tasya, his hand landing on her shoulder, "Wait up!"
"Is it much farther? This..."
"Doesn't seem like the right place for a lady like you..."
Kanti: Kanti walks alongside Alex, looking about her for threats and danger to him, Taysa or herself, easily keeping pace with the mortal girl and the young prince, wondering what the Prince had done to make him quite so ... unsettled.
Tasya: Tasya froze as the prince's hand came down on her shoulder, standing stone still until she answered him. "I-it's not so bad..."
"There isn't any slime here..."
"O-or tentacles..."
"E-except the ones crawling up y-your leg, I mean..."
And certain enough, a mass of slithering black crawlers were sprouting out of the prince's shadow, slithering over his pant legs. Pitch black and nearly weightless, they'd crept up easily, hidden by the feel of the faint wind running through the barren streets. Tasya looked back, her blue eyes peeking out of shadow, and watched seemingly unconcerned as the dark mass crept higher...
Alexander: He giggled.
He relaxed.
Just a joke...
"Ah, right... like those woul.... AaaaH!!!!!"
Taken by surprise, feeling it creeping up to him, blade in hand, channeling sunlight, making himself explode in light, "Stay away!! " yelping, jumping fowards... hoping the show of light is enough for him to catch his breath and be able to react properly, and holding Tasya, to keep her out of danger... hoping, breath not yet caught from surprise, cold sweat running down his face....
Tasya: And as the Prince's golden light burst into the street and his blade appeared like magic in his hand, Tasya...
... was laughing.
Still hidden deep in her coat, a softly bell-like fit of girlish giggling escaped her. The writhing tentacles at Alex's fear suddenly deflated into his shadow and a spot of condensed darkness broke away from the prince's feet and streaked across the ground. It practically splattered itself across a near-by wall, stretching outward into the likeness of a man, opening space in the darkness for eyes and a mouth. A mouth that was clearly, if silently, laughing as well.
Alexander: Panting, shining.... he looks around, seeing the shadow, trying to find out where it goes, who it belongs to, feeling surrounded, imagining undead would jump over him from many places at once, as they did before, would Kanti help him, would be able to protect Tasya, would would would....
Laughing.
She begins to laugh, disarming him, making him look at her, wide-eyed...
"Wha...?"
Pieces of awareness drifted into the borders of the prince's consciousness. And they brought even more embarassment with them!
Tasya: She did not answer Alex's baffled expression exactly, but a little more of her face emerged from the darkness and it was considerably less red than before. Now the flush of enthusiasm than the deeply rooted scarlet of humiliation. They were even, now.
"Second Shadow." She called softly. The dark figure on the wall had turned it's attention away from them to wave at Kanti in cheerful greeting, but looked back at her voice, it's body distorting into a question mark. "Where is Eciarde, Second Shadow?"
Eciarde: "Closer than you think." A voice answered before the shadow-man could. Looking as worn as he had in their first meeting, Eciarde moseyed unhurriedly around the corner of the building ahead. The shadow-man on the wall dashed to his feet, stretching up behind him and hanging it's arms over his shoulders like a child riding piggy-back. The Spooky took no apparent notice, peering up through the frame of his bangs at the trio. Chewing on a toothpitch thoughtfully, he passed a hard stare over Alex and Kanti, before finally settling his gaze on Tasya, who shrunk again under his gaze. "Didn't tell me you were going to be bringing back company on this." There was a subtle scolding in his voice, but he carried it no further than that. Nor, from the blond girls reaction, did he really need to.
Leaving her to stew, the older Spooky turned back to the other two. "Your highness. Ma'am." he nodded his head to the prince and the Terrestrial. "What brings you out here? You know it's a bit of dangerous situation at the moment, I hope."
Alexander: She was laughing....
... it was one of them! The shadow!
Silly!
Damn.
Silly.
Damn them!
Silly!
And then, the prince looked even more like a boy than he had in any moment so far, as he banished the sword, crossed his arms, and looked away, trying to hide his face from the girls, from Eciarde... and from the rest of the Red Lantern. "This is not funny!"
Eciarde: Watching the prince, the Spooky smiled from the side of his mouth while Alex couldn't see him, then cocked back his head, looking over his shoulder at the shadow. It was the first time he had ever openly acknowledged it.
"You, I don't really expect any better out of..." he told it and the shadow shrunk a little, darkening visibly as it drew in on itself. If it were possible for a shadow to blush, it would have well looked something like that. Eciarde left it like that, sweeping his gaze back to Tasya. "But you... honestly Tas. You're a senior agent. You can't go around embarrassing public officials, royalty of all things, like some cadet fresh out of the Underwing."
He sighed, shaking his head ruefully, and looked back to the prince. "Your highness, if she's offended you too greatly, I can have her sent back and someone from Team B sent up to help out instead."
Tasya: Tasya looked up a moment, her eyes widening and hand lifting as if she were about to protest, but them seemed to think better of it and silently, sullenly, dropped her gaze to her feet once more.
Kanti: Kanti suddenly giggles.
"It is my prince." She says, her voice bright, lightened by the antics of the shadow and the young girl she really didn't think would do such a thing.
She looks faintly guilty, but mostly quite pleased.
Alexander: "A... ah, it is you." What was his name again? What was, what was...? trying to organize his mind from embarassment, it rushes, looking for the name... and finding it. "... Elciarde, is it not? It is... good to see you, officer. And, and..."
Kanti was giggling. And... "... no, it is fine. It was her right!" He almost giggles, himself, admitting grudgingly "... and, I give, it was funny."
"......................................... kinda."
Tasya: Face emerging from the depths of her coat, she smiles, almost beaming at Alex. It's a transformation of her face almost as striking as the one that overcame her when she led them through the door to the fire-realm, bright and glowing, unashamed to look at him. She gave the same look to Kanti, though one filled with more gratefulness for the Terrestrial girls intervention.
And the look she gave Eciarde, when she finally gave him a look, was pure smugness, though her cheeks crackled a little at her own daring for the act.
Eciarde: Second Shadow was standing up on Eciarde's back, waving arms through the air in celebration and drumming on his head.
"Alright, alright..." he groaned, waving off the shadow's enthusiasm and Tasya's grin with a thoroughly disgusted smirk. "But if we're all settled in about that, we do have a job to do..."
"Some of us, anyway..." he said, looking meaningfully at the prince. "Was there something you needed, your highness? Gotta confess, we don't usually get too many observes when we work."
Alexander: "Needed? No, I have come to help on your needs!" He nods proudly, shifting into the royal routine and hoping it would close the last moment... "Tasya told me you are chasing a monster. So, me and Kanti came to help you. You will probably need some help with this!"
"And it is not a problem at all, we were not doing anything important before."
Eciarde: "Oh." he said.
And then. "Well..."
Eciarde rubbed the back of his neck, while Second Shadow stretched out into the shape of a merchant's scales behind his head, wobbling back and forth between each side.
Tasya: "I-it can't hurt to have them..." Tasya said boldly, stepping closer to the older Spooky and wrapping her hands around the sleeve of his coat, giving it a pleading tug. "The prince and lady Kanti s-saved the city! A-and Noel said we probably couldn't negotiate with this one anyway!"
Alexander: "We have. We fought besides legendary assassins and Captain Iria, Elciarde. You are not just looking at a spoiled boy!" He nods, proud, smiling at man and shadow. "Trust us. Kanti, in particular..." He holds her arm, presenting her to Elciarde... "Has fought the Dead Hand nearly alone. She is the best."
Eciarde: Despite the prince's assurances, Eciarde still looked uncertain on the matter. But Tasya was staring up at him with huge shinning eyes and Second Shadow was beating a rapid tattoo against the top of his head. Under such duel assaults, no man could stand, and he finally caved with a wearisome sigh. "As you wish," he said, as much to the young girl dangling from his sleeve and the shadow at his back as to the prince himself. "Just try not to make too much of a racket, if you can your highness. The less people who know something is going on, the better."
Tasya: Tasya spun back to Alex and Kanti with a tiny but triumphant grin and a pair of blushing cheeks, though a loudly cleared throat from over her shoulder made her tone back the enthusiasm a little and at least attempt to put on a professional face. It was not a very good attempt.
Alexander: "Would it not be better to be transparent and get their help?" He asks, a smile answering Tasya's grin.
He had not stepped nto Tasya's professionalism, thankfully!
Eciarde: "No," he answered bluntly, a tone that brooked no argument. "It wouldn't."
Second Shadow explained why for him, slipping off his back and throwing itself against the wall again. For a few seconds, what could have been the most elaborate shadow play ever devised played out for their enjoyment and enlightenment. A large cluster of people, a mob, storming up to a snarling, many-fanged beast. They swarmed over it casually, but then a second sprung up behind them. Then a third before them. Then a fourth. A fifth. So many that the shadow was stretched to almost transparent thinness as the mob began to scramble back and forth in panic, waving their tiny arms above their heads until the monsters merged together into one huge beastly head and gulped the mob down in one chomp.
Alexander: The prince watches, shaking as if desiring to help the little shadow-people, to save them....
But he could not, and they all died...
"I... guess, if it is for the best... we have to protect them." He nods. "I hope you do not know that from experience."
Eciarde: Second Shadow slouched off the wall like spilling paint, but took up position on Tasya's shoulder rather than Eciardes. The nearly insubstantial being rolled into an amorphic blob of black that soon refined itself into the shape of a stark black cat, it's tail a long thin thread of darkness that wove around the girls pony tail and dangled into her shadow.
He only shrugged, waving the prince and the others to follow as he turned and started padding down the street he'd emerged from. "What it comes down to, your highness, is that they could handle one or two of these things easy enough. They might even find it fun, in a perverse way. But if they ever really realized just how much comes slithering out of the underground and wandering out of the hills..."
He paused as he turned the corner and checked down the street ahead. Several blocks down the empty road, a single figure in black stood, messing with something on the ground. "... well, the city riots enough over lesser worries. No need to panic them thinking that monsters are going to come scudding up the outhouse floor on them."
Kanti: Kanti only blushes slightly at the prince's enthusiastic endorsement of her fight with the dead hand, watching the interplays of the group as Eciarde decided whether or not to accept them, near freezing at the shadowplay, wanting to help, like the prince, promising to protect him and them.
Tasya: Letting the prince and the older man walk a few steps ahead and talk, Tasya closed the distance between herself and Kanti cautiously, stroking finger tips across Second Shadow's now feline head. It butted against her hand in perfect mimicry of feline relish and visibly shivered, visually purring as it could not express the sound otherwise.
"S-so..." she said softly as she fell in step beside Kanti as unobtrusively as she could. "You're the prince's... his... 'um... body... person?"
A crackle of fire ran across her face as she stumbled over finding the proper word, her hands going for her braid in nervous habit. Shadow Shadow, a bit annoyed that the petting had stopped, rose on insubstantial kitty legs and strode across her shoulders, offering it's head out to Kanti demandingly.
Kanti: Kanti smiles encouragingly at the young girl, doing her best to look accepting and not scary, welcoming her close.
"I am the prince's companion and protector, yes." She says, eyes trying to follow the fire as it crackles over her face, the slightly odd appearance leaving her feeling disquietened again.
She leans, and kisses the top of Shadow Shadow's head, then watches his reaction.
Alexander: "It will not riot anymore if I can help it." He says, certain, hopeful, and completely ignoring most real concerns, especially after the war. "Kanti is my companion, yes. And my protector. She saved my life against the Dead Hand, Tasya..." He watches the shadow flicker... "How can you do it, Elciarde? It is not any sort of creature I have ever heard about..."
Tasya: She looks up in a bit of shock as the prince answers the question as well, then skulks down lower into her coat and lets her voice fall to a bit more private whisper. "C-companion like... u-um... I mean, y-you... ?" she bit her lip, hunching a bit as her tugging hands drew her braid protectively across her mouth. "You... y-you know..."
Second Shadow reeled back at Kanti's kiss, losing it's feline shape as it swung upwards like a serpent rearing to strike. But there were no fangs at the end of the stalk, which inflated into a bulbous black heart before swooping down and coiling around the Terrestrial's neck. The curving top of the heart deepened into a pair of lips that peppered her face with tiny, insubstantial kisses before the shadow slouched down lazily around her neck and draped itself across her shoulders like a fat black snake.
Eciarde: "Mmm..." Eciarde nodded to the prince, raising a hand to wave at the distant figure at the end of the street, who looked up to wave back in turn. "Neither have I. Neither has anyone living, I imagine. We honestly don't know what half the things we run into are. We've got catalogs of encounters back in the offices, dating almost back to the city founding."
He smiled around his toothpick at the prince, a grim smile that had a humor to it just the same. "We figure the underground has to run out of new things to throw at us sooner or later. Just when we think it has, it just goes and shows it there are still a few more surprises down there. We're just lucky that most of them don't have a fetish for collecting skin."
Kanti: Kanti just nods in response to the girl's not exactly asked question, before the shadow interrupted her with it's hail of kisses, smiling a little and stroking it gentlely.
Alexander: "And you are another one of those strange things, right? I see..."
He watches the shadow become a serpent... "Your shadow is very cute when she wants to, apparently."
"Wish all things were like that. Would make things easier if all we had to worry was shadows trying to kiss us or scare us, right?" He sighs, "What about you, Tasya? How did you get that... you know!" He makes a opening/closing door gesture.
Eciarde: "Me?" he leaned away from the prince a little, staring down at him incredulously a moment, then laughed a thick, raspy chuckle. "Oh hell no, your highness. No. I'm about as normal as it comes. I just have strange friends."
He cast a look back over his shoulder at the shadow, which answered the glance by bulging out fingers from the heart-shaped head and waving a broad hand at him. Eciarde grinned.
Tasya: Still holding her braid in a death-grip and looking a little dazed at Kanti's unspoken confirmation (though she would never admit that she wouldn't have even asked if she didn't already suspect), Tasya looked up at the prince with an unblinking gaze as he question her. There was little comprehension from her at first, as she stared at him now in a new, somewhat more threatening light, but finally swallowed hard and looked down.
"I... I am o-one of the strange things..." she looked flustered, though as she almost always looked flustered it was hard to tell if it was the question that effected her so or the prince.
Alexander: "I have friends among the dead and cursed, Tasya." He says on a calming tone, the halo twisting a little over his hair, making a slight crystalline sound. "I am not going to be judgemental, believe me. I am just curious.... so many things, so many things around me I had no idea about." He replies, before looking at Eciarde, and more specifically, at his shadow. "... riiigght."
Noel: Any further discussion on the topic was cut off as the finally drew close to the figure waiting for them at the end of the block. Noel, the third of the 'Team C' Spookies, was busy cranking the handle on a decidedly oversized crossbow as the group approached and looked up only after he'd finally gotten the string pulled back and secured. There was an assortment of peculiar bolts arrayed on a leather tarp behind him, most of them tipped with glowing crystal heads, and several smaller crossbows already cocked and loaded. Several more tarps laid near by, neatly arranged piles still covered by oil skins to keep the moister off whatever lay bellow. The street behind him had been blocked off carefully by debrees and the one in front of him covered in chalk scrawlings of arcane patterns and narrow rivulets of thick scarlet liquid between the lines of the paving stones.
"So, we have guests!" he said, smiling unlike the other two had at the prospect. The young man was a bit more frazzled than he had been last time, slicked back hair in disarray, clothes spotted with dirt, and face flushed with exertion. He mopped sweat off his brow with a kerchief and adjusting his glasses before giving the prince a formal bow. "Welcome, your highness. It's an unexpected honor."
Alexander: Now, that was an impressive sight. So many weapons! So many bolts! Shiny crystal ones at that!
Truth be told, the prince is a boy. One who clearly sees love in a panoply of shiny weapons. He watches, impressed... even more, by the minute, awed and intrigused by those spookies. Each moment, Iron Tear's words about them seemed more real.
His white, loose clothing whirling in the air as much as his hair - and stained by the dirt and mud in the ground, and the air, quite a bit - he walked towards Noel, not even noticing the dirtyness in his pristine white clothing. He carried himself as if he was in the greatest of divine armors already. "Thank you... Noel, was it? We have come to aid you in what we can... Tasya's account of the disappearances seemed too horrific for me to sit idly."
His tongue was sweet, and even in this cold, cloudy, windy day after rain, he seemed to be a sliver of sunlight. "Elciarde can give a vouch for us, he seems fine with our help. So, what have you found so far?"
And do you really need all those crossobows? His eyes seem to ask with incredulous looks to all the... arsenal.
Noel: "It is a wild dog, your highness," Noel said, adjusting his glasses again as he cast a look down at the assortment of crossbows as well. Frowning to himself, he leaned down and used his coat sleeve at the brass-plated panel bolted to the side of the extremely large crossbow he had been loading when they approached, rubbing off some miniscule speck of dirt. The brightly shinning metal panel was engraved 'Alice.' Noel gave it a dear and reassuring pat. "And I suspect we won't be talking this one back into whatever hole it crawled out of."
The younger Spooky smiled at Alex "It means a lot that we'll have your help, sire. This sort of thing should just be a small stretch of the legs for you."
Eciarde: "We're fairly certain we've already got it cornered," Eciarde cut in, using his seniority to muscle into the report. Noel looked somewhat abashed, but said nothing, turning away instead to give the assorted crossbows a through inspection. Tapping the prince lightly on the arm, Eciarde motioned him closer to the mouth of the street beside them. He pointed between the buildings to a decrepit looking structure, the abandoned remains of a whore house slowly succumbing to time and weather without anyone left to maintain. The earth rolled strangely here, creating a depression that all but hid the bottom floor from view. "Between the fresh bone fragments and witness reports from this area, we've got reason enough to believe that it's using that place as it's lair. We've got this area quarantined off."
"We were a bit worried at first about what we might be dealing with," the elder Spooky said thoughtfully, rolling his toothpick between his lips and casting a glance at the prince from the corner of his eye. "We're not far from where Kodak and his pet lizard fell. Hell knows what kind of residuals are hanging about from that."
Kanti: Kanti stands by Taysa, looking over the selection of weapons and wardings arrayed before the young man in front of her, watching the preperations he makes, before watching Eciarde as he leads Alex away for a short time...
Alexander: "We are...?" Alex looks north... and remembers them falling. Iria the Iron Angel facing down Kodak, beating him down to earth, the streets breaking, earth in the crater around them moving almost like liquid... was Kodak back? The thing that had been together with his uncle... was he...?
"A dog...."
He put his fiercest face, looking at the path as a fearless knight would look at an elemental dragon...
"Shall we?"
Narrator: The path north led through crooked, narrow alleyways... as usual for the Boil.
However, the earthquake was showing its signs. Walls broken, the terrain was uneven, and they had to move up little hills of fallen buildings to walk into it... so many little huts and abandoned buildings on their way... and even broken ground. So many spots for something to hide....
Eciarde: "Wild dog," he corrected, his unshaven jaw not set in anywhere near as heroic an angle as the the prince's as he stared at the tilted structure. After a moment examining the building with narrowed eyes, Eciarde tapped Alex's arm again and started back towards Noel, explaining as he went. "We've got two types who pop out of the underground. Stray dogs and wild dogs. Strays don't mean any harm, though heaven knows they can cause it."
He walked past the younger Spooky and made his way towards one of the other equipment piles, pulling off the tarp draped over it. Bellow was a mismatched looking assortment of metal plate and leather harness straps and chain swathing armor, though far from the best Alex had ever laid eyes on, it was never the less in impeccable condition, free from rust or tarnish.
Eciarde pulled off his long black coat and folded it carefully before laying it on the discarded tarp. He began to pull a heavy chain shirt on over his head. Second Shadow perked up at the sound and twisted about to give Kanti one last peck on the cheek before slithering down her body and rushing to Eciarde's side. Black hands reached up from the man's feet and helped him pull the heavy shirt on. "Strays can be reasoned with though. Or at least are docile enough that some prodding will send them back down."
Tasya: "W-we even bring them home, sometimes..." Tasya said as she nervously began to unbutton her own coat and inch her way over to another of the equipment piles. Her cheeks were flushed and her head down as she wriggled free of her too large coat and almost immediately wrapped an arm over her chest and crouched into a huddle as she pulled the tarp off another pile of armored pieces, this one far more leather than steal but oiled black and shinning brightly. Her voice dropped somewhat as she began to pick at the armored pieces like a listless child with an unwanted meal. "Like... like Sarbaba..."
Eciarde: "Like Sarbaba, yeah..." Eciarde agreed in a low tone, pausing with an armored sleeve only half on. Second Shadow stopped as well, but tightened itself around his arm into a hugging back of black, and even Noel looked up from his inspections, pushing his glasses up higher on his nose and frowning at the older man until Eciarde suddenly animated again and all four went on as if the moment had never passed.
"Wild dogs are different. They're violent, dangerous. Sometimes they're just like wild animals, too panicked and nervous to really know what they're doing. And sometimes, they're just... bad."
Alexander: He waited for them, wind blowing his shining hair, silver and amethyst dust flashing on it as he heard... and watched. Even though he was possessive of Kanti, he could not help but giggling at Second Shadow's play with Kanti. It was just too cute. For now. But he still kept one eyed in it even when another was elsewhere! "You are well-equipped. How do you do it? I have heard you get nearly no fund whatsoever. Where do all the weapons and armor come from?"
"... Sarbaba?"
Noel: "Another Spooky," Noel offered, when neither Eciarde or Tasya seemed inclined to answer the prince's question. He was still frowning as he spoke, eyes down cast. "The one I'm replacing."
Kanti: Kanti giggles as the strange shadow creature kissed her then scuttled down her body and over to his friend and master, looking slightly guilty as she caught Alex's eye on her and turning away, approaching Taysa.
"..Would you like some help?" she asks, quietly.
Alexander: "... oh."
He does not prod further. He had lost so much...
Later, on private, he would ask each and every one. In public, briefly, it might just make the dam of sorrow break for them too....
And this was, put simply, not the time.
The prince just downcasted his eyes, his shine now so subdued... his hair almost dull, covering his eyes. "... oh. I am sure you are more than able to fill his shoes, Noel." You are certainly equipped for it
Tasya: Tasya looked up with a start as Kanti's voice came from so close, so distracted by her own thoughts to even notice the Terrestrials approach. She blushes again at being surprised and huddles down a little more, hugging her knees to her chest and pushing her face into her skirt until her voice is almost incomprehensible. "I-I... um... y-yes... please... its hard to get on without my clothes... without... showing things..."
Kanti: Kanti smiles at the girl warmly, a hearth in the cold streets of the boil and nods, helping the strange girl with the wrong flames into her her armour making sure she doesn't show things, and buckling the armour up properly.
Eciarde: "Some of it we buy from our own pocket or just bring with us when we sign on. Most of the equipment is old." Eciarde said, filling in for Noel this time, when the younger man suddenly turned away from the prince's compliment and headed for the last equipment pile to deal with his own armor. Eciarde pretended not to notice the unhappy look on the younger man's face. He took a helmet as Second Shadow held it up for him, a decidedly mismatched conical helm like Realm legionaries wore, and pulled it down onto his head, fastening the chin strap snuggly. "From back when we had better funding. Or at least a City Patrol budget large enough to hide skimming in. It's been hard to keep it maintained, so we try not to use it unless we have to."
Eciarde held his arms out to his sides as Second Shadow coiled around him and gave all the straps good sharp tugs to make sure they were secure. "Seems like we have to use it every day anymore. Not really much choice."
Alexander: "You will get better funding, Elciarde. As soon as this thing is done with... as soon as this is done with."
"But you have done a great job of keeping this mantained. Funding does not always means good maintenance and good use of it, I know that..." Or read and heard, at least He said... as his sight strayed to Kanti and Tasya, his eyes curious on Tasya's armor... she seemed so cute and soft to be so armored.... "You are truly good."
A smile to Kanti. "Great you are helping her, Kanti... that is the way to act."
It made him proud!
But a desire to see it shows lurked under those words somewhere...
Tasya: Tasya seemed to almost supernaturally sense the prince's eyes on her and tried to twist herself away a little, making Kanti's efforts that much more difficult as the younger woman squirmed. But at least there was not a lot of armor to worry about and the most trying pieces were almost certainly the high black boots that Tasya was determined not to lift her skirt to allowed to be tied.
Kanti: Kanti contrives, in her entirely accidental posing as she bends and flexes around the young woman, to draw Alex's eyes from Taysa and onto to her self. The motions are entirely natural of course. Just quite distracting for the young prince, one that makes her task of helping Taysa don the armour that much easier.
"Just the boots now, Taysa." She says as she bends over, so focused on the boots it seems, that she does not the know the pose she strikes for Alex's eyes, and with the prince thus distracted, she ties the boots up quickly and efficiently.
Eciarde: Eciarde only made a vaguely agreeable grunt to the prince's promise, the sound of a man who had heard that particular line too many times to really take it at face value, no matter where it was coming from. Twisting down to the ground, Second Shadow nabbed one of the line of crossbows and tossed it towards him, surging off the ground and following it's arc through the air. As Eciarde snatches the crossbow, Second Shadow splashed onto his arm and wrapped itself around his hand, bulging and stretching until the Spookie's arm was encased in an indistinct black gauntlet, a long fat blade of darkness jutting out from above his wrist. Eciarde barely seemed to notice the shadow's presence on his arm, flicking a nail against the crystalline head of the bolt and listening for a ringing tone to the glass before he nodded.
"Set." He declared in ritual fashion. Second Shadow waggled the blade of his body in an agreeable fashion.
Alexander: And it does so. The Prince's eyes move slowly over the Fire Aspect's eyes, lost to Tasya....
A few moments from then, he would think of how that set a bad example, and image, to the spookies around him.
But not yet!
Tasya: "... set..." Tasya echoes as Kanti finishes with her boots, her eyes wide as she watches the Terrestrial and peeks on the prince watching as well. Her bottom lip quivering a little, she straightens up sharply and marches over to the pile of crossbows, determinedly bending over in front of the prince to grab one. As she rises and strains up onto the balls of her to make herself look taller, her chest pushes out, actually straining against the snug black leather shirt encasing it and she draws her shoulders back a little, intentionally or unintentionally heightening the sight.
"Set!" she repeats a little more vigorously.
Kanti: Kanti smiles up at the girl, and straightens herself elegantly then stepping away from the woman, from everyone and closing her eyes, listening to the sounds of city, the sounds of life even here, and her posture changes subtly, and she adopts the stance of saint, reaching out to touch all those present, making them reluctant to harm her, if they ever were, scriptures of fire burning around her as she starts to move with an understanding of the world, lotuses blooming at her feet, even here on the cobbled streets.
Noel: "Set." Noel concludes as he snaps down a visored face plate on his own helmet, a strip of red glass set into the narrow opening. His armor, mostly chain and bits of heavy brass plate, was arguably the least mismatched of the bunch and actually seemed to be part of a set rather than pieces hobbled together. He moved a bit awkwardly in it though as he shuffled over to grab up 'Alice' and another, less grandiose crossbow, swinging the giant weapon onto his back and cradling the other in his arms.
Almost as one, the three Spookies all stepped into the street and lined up on the edge of the chalk scrawlings. Noel stooped down slowly and flicked one of the sigils a little clearer. "I activated the wards on the north, east, and west approaches. We will have to close the box once we're through."
Eciarde: "Right." Ecirade nodded, his neck stiff with nervousness otherwise unexpressed, looking out at the structure again as Second Shadow raised a black tendril over his brow to shade his eyes. The shadow retreated as he looked back at Alex. "Your highness, if you would care to come with me and have your companion stay close to Tasya, we'll each cover the building from a different direction. Should stop whatever might be in there from running out one way while we're all clustered in another."
Alexander: "And you are warding it all? No chance for it to run and hurt others, then? Very well!" He nods, walking towards Elciarde, watching in amusement and curiosity Second Shadow's motions. He turns to Kanti, then, wishing he could put his hand on her shoulder. But she was taller! "Take care of Tasya, Kanti. Make sure nothing bad happens to anyone, alright?"
Kanti: "Of course, my prince."
she says, calm now that she was in the grip of the saint, half moving, half dancing as she walked back over to Taysa's side, irises blooming in her footsteps then dying away on the hard and cold stones of the road.
But for a brief moment, they are alive and beautiful.
- - Back to Sixth Movement
- - Back to A Dance of Angels
