GoldenCat/AmberHunt06
- - Back to Seventh Movement
- - Back to A Dance of Angels
Generations
The Dark Angel and the Butterfly fell as lovers, tangled on one another as they fell into the Guild office after the chase, office papers falling in disarray all around the Exalts, the bureaucrats of the guild running as fast as they can... calling for the guards, who rush in, mercenaries in bronze armor, pure steel glinting on their hands, faces hardened, grizzled veterans who take on the sights within the room...
... and freeze.
"Oh... my... god..."
"It is... two scantily-dressed ladies with color-coded whorish dresses, weird hair and shining scythes..."
"And we are... two normal guards in interchangeable bronze armor..."
"We are screwed!!" they scream, running back from whence they came.
And Butterfly flared in anger, wings of essence blooming on her back, the glint of Bronze shining on her scythe as she flickers in the air, the scythe coming down on the Dark Angel... "Only the right hand? Yeah? The fame really got to your head, eh? You think you are as invincible as your reputation?!? Shut up, you stuck-up..."
Selina de Windia: Selina fades back into shadows as the Butterfly's scythe arcs toward her, her own coming up to parry the blow in a lazy, non-chalant movement. The wind of her parry barely ruffles the strewn papers as Angeldust's flat black blade meets with the shining one trying to bite into Selina.
That little smile never leaves her lips even as she blocks the other woman. After deflecting the other woman's attack, Selina replies in a smug tone, "Power only a cut above a small god. I thought so."
Then she attacks, flowing from her loose stance into something more serious for that instant, ramming the butt of her scythe into Bronze Butterfly's stomach, wings folding behind her finally. With the strike, finally her anima begins to show: a corona of dark light about her, caste mark a black brand on her forehead, beginning to weep blood.
Bronze Butterfly: The butt of Selina's scythe strikes Butterfly's stomach, sending her through the desks and the wooden walls, falling on the other side, grasping for her wepon and hunching over to hold at her stomach... "I... give... you are as good as... the legend .... says."
"But... I am still... not... done!"
In her hand, she gathers the image of butterflies... until they begin to shine....
And she sends a blast of freezing bronze light towards the Dark Angel!
Selina de Windia: "Oh, I'm sorry." Selina says as she watches the Butterfly get back to her feet, faint smile still on her lips. "It would be best if you stay down." She changes her stance from the somewhat more serious one she made for the attack, back to her loose one. "I suggest you stop before I kill you."
Then the blast of elemental energy comes at her, and she steps back and to the side, into the shadows, sidestepping the lance of bronze with the speed that she had demonstrated before. The scythe doesn't even come up. "You've wasted alot of energy. There's no way that attack could work against me!"
Bronze Butterfly: The blast explodes behind the Dark Angel, and the Bronze Butterfly growls.
"You...? Kill ... me? I am the Bronze Butterfly! I may not have all of your legend... but you will see I I am deserving of those contracts!"
"Not you!"
She snarls as she gets up, painfully, rushing towards the Dark Angel with her scythe, striking three times....
Selina de Windia: "Silly girl, you want to continue after that? I just don't understand." She purrs, walking toward the Bronze Butterfly's charge, turning to shadow and wafting past her almost faster than the other woman can react.
Reforming behind Butterfly, Selina is already in the process of lashing out with the scythe, though not to kill. Moving it in front of the Terrestrial, she attempts to pin the girl between herself and her weapon with the Dragon-Blooded's own hands caught. At the same time, she wraps her legs around Butterfly's to trip her, and begins applying pressure for the grapple.
Bronze Butterfly: She slides away, calling upon the help of the winds, wings of bronze lighting shining on her back, as she steps back, tripping, trying to hold her ground... "Damn you, damn you, damn you! I told you, stop being so condescending with me!!" she says, as she blazes more, and more, her scythe coming towards Selina in a flare, a burst....
Selina de Windia: Selina moves toward her again, dodging past the scythe with shadow-blurred speed, her own turning it as she does...and then she is inside Butterfly's reach again. Her expression full in the Terrestrial's face, Selina gives her a quick peck on the tip of her nose, then slips aside in a flurry of wind and static. "Last warning, dear." Comes the amused reply, words themselves almost slipping away in the wind.
Bronze Butterfly: The tingle of metal... again, again, and again.
And the Bronze Butterfly explodes in elemental fury, blasting everything away from her.....
And panting.
"Just... what... it... takes...?"
Selina de Windia: "That," Selina says flatly, bringing up her scythe to whack the Terrestrial with the head of the weapon instead of the blade once more, enhancing the damage she will do with the weapon. "Is a secret!"
Bronze Butterfly: She slids away, places her scythe in front of the Dark Angel... and her eyes widen, herself covered in sweat.... and then she jumps through a window, her anima taking it out of her, falling in a collumn in the inner patium, a slave auction happening right under her....
Selina de Windia: Selina leaps after her in a blur of essence shadowed movement, right behind the woman as she tries to get away. "You aren't done till I say you're done, little butterfly!" She calls, almost siren-like, attempting to catch the other assassin from behind like she did before, wings spread behind her so even if she does, she won't fall given the weight of both of them.
Holding the Terrestrial with her scythe as she tried to before, Selina dips just a bit as she flies up into the air, toward a roof of the building. Her grip suddenly strengthens as she applies her magic in a way she has never done so before, holding the slippery woman firm with an iron grip. "I caught a butterfly in my net." She whispers into the woman's ear.
Bronze Butterfly: She tries to get away, but fails, held by Selina's scythe, by only one of her hands, held, humilliated... and Selina can see it happening, slowly. She can see an overcomfident personality crumbling. If she could see into Bronze Butterfly's mind, she is certain, she would see a monologue with the ire and ouitrage the dragon itself would display... trapped, as she is. "... damn you..."
- Under them, all the merchant princes and the slaves look up, in fear and awe, as the elemental anima rages, and the butterfliy's wings lets pieces of the pillar fall like a rain....
Selina de Windia: Poor girl.
Well, she did attack me.
Still holding her left hand behind her back, Selina wings back to the office, diving upside down through the window as she lands there. Laying on the ground, the Terrestrial atop her, prevented from escaping with her legs caught by Selina's and both her arms caught, Selina asks her the question. "Now, I will likely have to pay for this. You know, with money. Perhaps you would like to join me, Butterfly? You don't have to be one of the common mercenaries we hire, oh no! I've never had a protege before."
Bronze Butterfly: She looks up, the storm calming down, diminished by the shadows around her, her ephemeral wings still flapping...
"You..."
"You are... not going to kill me?"
Selina de Windia: "Why should I?" Selina asks as if the question is a silly one, her tone surprised and exasperated. "Did I not say you are a cut above the rest? Besides, you're a spitfire."
The left hand finally emerges from behind Selina's back, not between two bodies and the floor now. She shakes it out with an 'oww', then pats the Terrestrial's midsection, since reaching up to pat her head past the tangle of weapons and limbs would be too much trouble. Her tone gets lower, more husky. "And as such, quite deliciously fiesty." She walks the fingers down Butterfly's skirt, moving it up just a little bit, caressing lightly over her undergarment. Selina chuckles softly, halting her molestation, pulling the other woman's skirt back down. "But let's save that for later. I may kill you if you don't accept, and come at me again. This bounty is quite irritating, and dangerous."
Bronze Butterfly: "You.... you bitch.... yooouuu...."
She grits her teeth, angrily... but then...
She is a legend...
Competition...
But not if I am with her...
... as good as they say....
... as legendary as they say...
And if I am... together with her...
Pehaps, pehaps...
... I can learn... I can do....
Even more fame than...
But she...
Bitch...
Powerful bitch...
Teacher...?
She does not hang her head low. "... alright. I... I can learn alot from you." She says, almost grudgingly.
Selina de Windia: "And also, you will have some of my reputation associated with you." Selina adds, as if reading her mind. But then, in this business, it's not so hard to figure out what one's rivals want. "Of course, some of my enemies too...but I'm sure you'll be careful. Besides, some of the more dangerous ones will likely be dead after this war. Some."
Bronze Butterfly: "Enemies...?" She grins, a razored grin. "Bring them on. I will kill them. And be on your chronicles."
"Heck..." She stares into space, eyes slitting...
"...I already work for one... right, Melmoth?"
- The presence Selina had felt hanging around Butterfly before... skitting at the edges, beyond Selina's perception. Like salt dripped at the edges of the room... and nothing more. Just salt. Like his trade, like what he is... a Salt God, in league with an Underguild... one to whom Selina had been disgrace, years earlier....
Melmoth: "... turning coat?" Comes a self-assured, spiteful voice. "Just what I would EXPECT of a DIRTY ASSASSIN such as you."
A 'pfah', and the salt slithers into Selina's vision...
"There, I went and picked the spitted image of you to destroy you with irony..."
"But not even that, eh? Sluts. Nobody you can trust those days, much less those scantily-dressed-assassins!"
Selina de Windia: "Who?" Selina asks...then remembers the name. "Oh. Bloody salt god. He never learned his lesson, did he?" She looks up, at him.
"You got a lot of nerve showing up here, darling." Selina's voice is razored. "I have a hand free, don't forget."
Bronze Butterfly: "Least... aaah... now I can say you are a spiteful little shit, Melmoth. Did I ever say I always thought that?" She grins, loooking up with the Dark Angel... "'Cause, I do. You are a spiteful little shit, beneath even pronouncing our names. You are before the greatest team of assassins in Creation, you dirty little has-been."
Melmoth: "Even more nerve, Angel! I have interests in this.... you will see. The Prophet promised..."
"You will not leave Amber Post alive!!!! " He swears, vanishing behind a wall, gone Incarna knows where....
Selina de Windia: "I'll leave it with the Prophet's bones, which I'll use to cast augeries on how many days it'll take before I decide to come down and use you as ingrediants for the stew I'll make of him." Selina snarls, then lets the other woman go, finally, wary still, in case this is a ruse.
Bronze Butterfly: She finally appears as one who spent it all on the Dark Angel... panting, letting the sweat trickle down her face...
"Is he gone...? I cannot see Essence, I know you can... is he gone?"
Selina de Windia: "Yeah, he's gone." Selina responds, getting to her feet at last. "As far as I can tell, anyway." She dusts herself off -- the greatcoat mostly -- and rubs one of her boots against the other slightly. "Little shits like him can't stand me impacting the profits they do no work to get. As if it would tarnish his relationship in some gossip circle of little gods in Heaven that only he could care about."
Bronze Butterfly: "Good~..."
... is all she says before finally passing out.
Selina de Windia: "Damnit." Selina mutters under her breath. She shrinks her weapon, putting it away under her coat, at her side opposite the rapier-daiklave.
Then she looks at the woman. "Now how am I going to lug her around along with her weapon..."
Narrator: It was over all too quick.
Melmoth gone, her apprentice fallen, the Dark Angel takes her and the scythe, and walks out of the destroyed office, the scattered papers quite a handful of scriptures of money and properties that will probably go into her account later on... the Guild always had someone pay for the loss. And they were vicious at it.
Selina walks out of the room and down the stairs...
... and she hears movement, just behind her... on the corner of her eyes, she can see a figure, the same figure as before, who flooded the inn with smoke... black skin, black hair, both glistening unnaturally, stalking her up the stairs....
Selina de Windia: Her fight with Bronze Butterfly -- who now lies slung over Selina's left shoulder, her skirt pulled down enough to keep her unmentionables from being seen -- was fun. But seeing yet another one of those killers makes Selina sigh.
In irritation.
She growls at the person, deep, beastially, eyes beginning to glow a vibrant and shining turquoise. "Get out, nameless mercenary, unless you have decided to stop trying for my bounty. My patience is exhausted." She holds up her right hand, index finger pointed at the sky, a tiny point of virulent blackness shining not an inch from the fingertip. "Get out, before I send you to the Underworld."
She had said it to her sister, afterall.
You think someone's going to fuck with me if I can do this?
Doubt it.
????: "Nameless? Now, now you wound me. So deeply." He nods, and begins to whistle. Whistle a melody that makes Selina imagine the shadowy depths of her own soul... so cold, so dark... "My name is Sullivan. And this..." He says... and Selina feels it. Her vision loses focus. Her blood becomes as fire!
"Is the poison you ate on breakfast. A pity you didn't stay to listen to the melody then..."
Selina resists a mostly lethal poison... but even those who resist feels its paralysing properties!
She feels her muscles atrophying.... her limbs heavy...
Selina de Windia: Selina's growl is interrupted by a yelping sort of gasp as the poison suddenly flows through her veins...and although she manages to partially counteract its effects with the innate magic of her body, the effects of it remain. "I will...kill you...no name." She snarls, the pinpoint of light suddenly growing by several sizes.
She feints with her energy -- has feinted -- and moves to draw her sword and strike 'Sullivan' down as quickly as she can. Once the weapon is out, it glitters with the fell energies of Oblivion -- energies he cannot hope to match -- as she stabs it at him with enough forced speed to make the air Dreamshard cuts through whistle in pain.
Sullivan: Black knives appear on his hands, both blades flashing a powerful kiss as he tries to hold off her strike... and manages to, leaping backwards, impressed, as his knife literally drips poison from touching Dreamshard. "You... are truly very, very good if that is what you can do after having Spiral Shadow burning on your veins..." He says...
... before another eggshell hits, but between them, losing Sullivan in the smoke...
Ellena: And a snake coils around Selina's arm, from down the stairs. A snake that leads to the green-clothed, one-eyed poisoner... "You crazy... you are fighting poisoned? Come here, let me help!"
Selina de Windia: Hot with fury as well as poison, Selina is about to leap into the smoke after him, preparing to summon forth a gust of wind from her anima to blow it out of her way, when Elenna grabs her.
She takes the opprotunity to jump down off the stairs, toward the poisoner. But not too close. In case the mercenary or whatever he is decides to try for her again. It wouldn't do to get her poisoner in the way of that. "Of course I'm crazy. That's why only the crazy ones dare to touch me."
Ellena: Ellena rushes to one work room, like a janitor's closing the door. "Saw Sullivan about, walking in the direction you were flying like crazy. Didn't take me too much to put two and two together. We go way back..." She lets the snake return to her, checking Selina... "How did he poison you?"
Selina de Windia: "My food." Selina says laboredly, wishing now she didn't have to carry Bronze Butterfly all over the place.
First lesson to her: Don't spend all your goddamn essence like that.
She looks around, keeping as watchful as she can to make sure the man doesn't try to sneak in, or shoot through the walls or anything else. People like that, you never know. "He got something in the food I ate this morning."
Ellena: The poisoner sighs. ".. You are kidding me. He said it was Spiral Shadow. Gee, I have the antidote here, but this will be... harsh... are you ready for it?" She asks, patting the behind of the lady over her shoulder before running her hand into her kimono to find the antidote in one of the hidden pockets. She did swing that way... "Who's she, by the way? Pretty little dragonness..."
Selina de Windia: "Bronze Butterfly. She wanted to be my rival." Selina says with a little shrug, moving the girl's unconscious body on her shoulder a bit. She keeps her sword out, just in case. "Why is this antidote harsh?"
Ellena: "Because I can't have it out of your system like something to inject and purge out. You ate it. I'm gonna have to go and have you, um.... throw up. And take the antidote. Not very glamourous at all, is it?" She finally gets around finding it... three little vials. "Gulp them down in order. The first will ease your resistance for the next two to work well on you..."
"Rival? Yours?" She giggles. "... and why are you keeping her alive?"
Selina de Windia: Something in Selina screams a warning at the 'ease your resistance for the next two to work well on you', but she quells it without even thinking much. She's known Elenna for years, and there have been bounties on her for years. Why would the woman want to collect now?
She can't find an answer, in the short time she thinks of it. "Because, I've never had a protoge before. I'm going to have to put her down somewhere where she won't get any of that on her then."
Ellena: Ellena picks Butterfly up, raising her, admiring Bronze Butterfly's face... "Not as pretty as you, of course..." She smiles in a sultry way, before turning around and easing Butterfly in the opposite wall. "Oh ho? Teaching? You an old lady now, Aine?"
Selina de Windia: "Oh yes. Ancient." Selina replies lightly, more flippantly. "Maybe it's time I gave something back to the profession, as it were."
Ellena: "And give another the proud marks of the Dark Angel, eh? Well, good luck. It is a noble ideal."
She nods, then eyes the vials. "So?"
Selina de Windia: She sighs, sheathing her sword, taking off her greatcoat and tossing it off into a corner so she doesn't get anything on it. The poison's influence makes her wobble a bit. "Shouldn't I have a bucket to do this in?"
Ellena: "Oh, of course! Well, at least, we have the benefit of being in a janitor's place." She rumages though a few things, then picks up a bucket, placing it in front of the Dark Angel. "Would you like some tissue and pehaps some dessert, ma'am?"
Selina de Windia: Selina glares sullenly at Elenna as the other woman gets a bucket. "I hate vomiting, you know." She says in a low voice. "Alright, give me the first vial so we can get this mess over with."
- Ellena moves it in her hand in a stunt that might have seen slightly amusing if not in this situation. It is... a very dull and viscous white.
Selina de Windia: "Urgh..." Selina mutters, looking at it as she squats down near the bucket, throwing a glance about to make sure that reprehensible little man wasn't lurking about somehow, then taking the vial. "This'll make me sick enough to throw up just by swallowing it."
Then she takes it, and does so.
Ellena: She takes it... the taste is awful. It tastes like something rotten, cold and squishy, and leaving a sour feel in her mouth. Hard not to throw up... and it seems to do exactly what it was meant to - Selina feels her body relaxing, her vision blurring... drowsy.
"Alright. Nowww... this one. Trust me." It is a vial of an almost /shining/ orange color...
Selina de Windia: "...could just throw up now..." Selina slurs, trying not to yet. She hates being sick, so much. Especially this kind of sick!
She takes the next vial, trying not to think of the digusting things she is doubtlessly swallowing.
Ellena: And she feels it... not that she is about to throw up. She feels even more drowsy, not fainting, but unable to move anything, either. It feels like being a prisioner inside her own body. Unable to move. Unable to act. And then Ellena shakes her head. "Sorry, sorry, Aine... but the reward is too great this time..."
She walks back, opening the door... and Sullivan walks through it.
"... and I did say we went a way back. But I would never do it if they did not want you alive!"
Sullivan, on the other hand, walks up to the Dark Angel, undoing her belt, beggining to get a rope to tie her up...
"A... after they are done with you, we will laugh about this! Really..."
Selina de Windia: Selina falls to the floor, half sprawling in a pool of her own pale blonde hair. She looks up at Elenna with periphal vision, not able to glare, not able to make a threat, not even able to touch her power with any real effectiveness.
There won't be any laughing after the Bishop grinds you all into Soulsteel and bone dust.
Sullivan: Sullivan moved behind her, then, pushing her arms behind her wings, taking a rope and tightening it, tightening her arms together "Hmmm, she does look nice... I wonder if they count sex as touched." Ellena shakes her head in disgust as he holds Selina's face, starting to cascade his hand down her hair, and in front of her... coming down to touch her between her legs... "A pity I will not be able to do any of this right now... but we need you properly sedated first, you understand. And I would hate to fuck someone unconscious. Maybe after you are properly harmless..."
"If you continue this, I will poison you myself. She is no touching, Sullivan."
"Oh, come on," He sneers. "Like you are not every bit as - -" He stops in the middle of the sentence as something blurs from the shadows and hits dead on his eye. A knife, thrown with perfect precision.
And Selina, held still as she is, sees a very familiar figure meld out from the shadows...
"No, you will not."
"You will not touch this shadow."
"You are without grace, without class. Little poisoners."
"You would end if you truly saw her. Conduit to the skill she is."
Tall.
Powerful.
The black leotard covering her form.
The white fur covering her body.
Sheeana, Goddess of Assassins.
Selina de Windia: She seethes inwardly. If only the stuff would wear off soon, she could burn those ropes off of her body, and turn and kill that man. The Dragon screams to kill the man, to rend and eat him. His poisons will not affect it. Not stop it. A dead dragon may eat the most disgusting things, poison and carrion, and be fine.
Then the man dies. And Selina sees her.
My teacher.
One of them. The foremost, perhaps.
Why do you save me now?
When I've fallen so pathetically.
Ellena: Ellena is held still.... if by some power of Sheena's or her own fear is debatable, but she stumbles backwards, watching her in fear....
Sheeana: ... as Sheena moves to Selina's arms.
"Poison."
"A skill of our trade. It is ours" She says, as her claws sink into her veins... and venom begins to pour out.
"It has to obey our whims!"
A low rumble comes from her throat, as Selina begins to feel her sensation again, and her remaining eye - the other lost, covered by a thick black eyepatch - stares at the Dark Angel, into the Dark Angel. "You are Darkness, child. Trust wears us all. Is why we do not trust."
Her free hand touches her missing eye, Selina's voice and movement returning, the venom spilling out of her...
"Remember my lessons! "
Selina de Windia: The Windian's wings flutter weakly behind her, as she begins to recover from the poison...so fast, so fast. "Ah...yes, I remember..." She says feebly, waiting for enough strength to return that she can turn and devour that disgusting man...if he is still alive. The Dragon, unaffected by her physical and mental state, roars for his blood. How dare he!
Sullivan: Sullivan is still alive, gurgling, holding the eye for the blood not to pour out, not daring to remove the knife... his remaining eye open wide and looking at the rising Dark Angel... "N... no.. wait... it was only for the money!"
Selina de Windia: Selina turns, stronger now, getting more to her normal ability with every second. Her turquoise eyes glow with a black fury now, not their normal color. "No-name. " She growls. "It's always about the money." Quick as lightning, she grabs him, lifting him up in the air before her. "But I'll give you something better then money."
And a gate to her inner self, that hungry place where the souls of her defeated go, yawns open. In his mind's eye, he can see it. In her's, she doesn't even have to look. Her voice is clear and untinged by bestial growl or rumble now, as she looks him straight in the eye with those burning pits to nothing of her's.
"The River of Death. "
Sullivan: A punch to Selina's face.
Raised high.
Looking at the river in despair.
Screaming.
No... no... noooo...
"Take that Away! " He yells as he struggles, "Take that away from me! "
"Get away from me, you monster! "
The pain in the eye almost forgotten as it bleeds out over his face.
Only one eye to see the depair.
Selina de Windia: "I get that alot." She says in the same voice. There's a depth to it that doesn't seem to be bestial, but it is very faint. On the edges. "It's your own fault. "
The air about her turns to a gentle corona of her energy. Wafting up her arms, into the man's mouth. Burning slowly, not enough to really damage anything about her, but doing its work regardless. In his mind's eye, that pit comes closer, and he is drawn in, slowly, then faster, held tight in Selina's iron grip. Those eyes never entertain any hint of joy...or pity. They simply watch.
Sullivan: "N... nooo..." Fear was taking hold. Sweat ran down his face with the blood from the eye. He squirmed, still trying to punch her, to kick her. "No! Get away! Get the hell away! Don't... don't kill me..."
Terror runs down the remaining eye as his voice mellows... "We were not going to hurt you..."
"I was not even going to fuck you..."
Selina de Windia: Pitiful. Why did they always have to be so pitiful when she killed them? It made that part of her that didn't like it want to say something. A little voice, after all these years, but it is still there. Disgust, at herself and that no-name killer, wells up inside Selina.
"You were." Comes her voice, without that faint tinge of darkness and unknowable depth, a solid point in the storm. "Why do you have to beg like this, make me feel like I'm killing an innocent like this? Disgusting!"
Sullivan: He looks at her in confusion, mind racing, racing to think of something...
"I..."
"I... but... I am... I am not a bad person! I am not! I don't deserve this!"
Sheeana: Sheeana holds shining claws to Ellena's face as she tries to open the door, a razored smile on her lips. "No, sweet little green poisoner. No, betrayer. You will not set a foot out of here. Your fate is on the hands of my pupil... and hers' alone. You will watch."
"Watch, and maybe you will learn."
Selina de Windia: "You aren't sorry at all." Comes a flat, disappointed statement, Selina reading the hasty attempt to save his skin in it. No regret for what might've happened to her. None at all.
The energy about her flares, and she sucks his soul dry with it, taking in the hun and po. Quicker than he can scream -- she doesn't want pitiful screams to haunt her.
Ellena: The void races through him, and truly, he has no chance to scream, and a lifeless body is left on Selina's hands.
Ellena watches it wide-eyed, her lips voicing nothing.
And within herself, the Dark Angel feels the blackness of his souls, and sees he had no regrets.
And great a person he was in good memories and feelings that raced through her, the bad ones showed he did deserve, at least, his desmise.
Selina de Windia: Selina brings that gaze to Elenna, eyes so black the pupils cannot be identified within them. She merely looks. Gauging.
As she does so, she lets the now lifeless body drop to the floor to one side of her.
Ellena: Ellena stands still as if Selina was a great black predator in the jungles of the Southeast, the sort that will not see you if you do not move. She keeps her composure. She does not cry. Two women and two eyes stare at her, each wondering what she will do next.
And then, Ellena lowers her face.
"Do what you will..."
"I deserve it, Aine."
Selina de Windia: Selina studies her some more, silent, then she blinks, and her eyes stay closed for over a second. When they open...no blackness is visible. "She will not betray me again Sheeana, I think. My punishment has been rendered."
Sheeana: The Goddess of Assassins watches Selina with a blank expression, before the tips of her claws touch Ellena's chin... "You may live then, little poisoner. Pehaps in time I will smile upon you as I have before, when you put your gift to use again, or for those you supply you poison. Pehaps." Her tail swishes slowly, back and forth, back and forth... and yet, for the feline goddess of death, that simply showed how she was playing with prey, with food.
Ellena: Ellena lets out so much air, Selina feels a breeze. She was ready for death... completely ready. And then... it does not come, and her face goes through emotions fast as a hummingbird's wingbeat... shock, relief, confusion, regret.... and then, she almost cries, half-falling, half-hugging Selina... "Aine!"
The name was thanks.
The name was relief.
The name was fear.
The name was all.
Selina de Windia: Selina doesn't return the embrace, though part of her wants to. But the other part must speak for now. "The next time, my punishment will be different. No ally -- not Anathema of sun or moon, nor deathknight, nor god, nor demon-prince -- will be able to shield you from it. But I do not think there will willingly be a next time."
She looks to Sheeana. "You disapprove of my action? She is my best poisoner, think of it that way."
Sheeana: "So, you do still hold to your emotions."
Is it because you have other uses for her?
Is it so she can spread your legend?
Is it because the Dark Angel has gone soft?
Even a goddess can wonder. And she does, watching Selina...
"Your actions are yours alone. I do hope you are right. Today is simply a coincidence; I am here to seek my wayward spawn."
"If you are wrong, I will not be here next time."
Ellena: Ellena takes a step back, looking up at the Dark Angel...
"A... and I will still be. I can help you now, Aine!"
She clutches her snake to herself. Glad Selina did not fry poor Sait just to make a point....
Selina de Windia: "I had plans, and hidden powers." Selina responds with a shrug. "But I thank you for your help nonetheless, my mentor." She ends that with a grateful nod.
"Yes, I believe you will. But you are not much of a soldier, alas." She says to Elenna.
Ellena: "And a trick like this will only work once, right...?" She sighs... "Well, I can help your pupil there, at least?"
Sheeana: Sheeana's feline ears perk up, and her eye looks sideways to the Dark Angel, her voice a purr as she comes closer... iron wrapped in the fur, as always, of course. "Pupil? So, the great Dark Angel, the loner, is finally working with others? And passing on her lessons?"
"To Bronze Butterfly, no less." She was the Goddess of Assassins - it would follow she knew Butterfly. "That is a great choice. I had actually some faith in her claim to your fame. Not too much, of course. But it would be interesting to see."
Selina de Windia: "If you can, that'd be appreciated." Selina says with a shrug, again. "At least I didn't have to fucking throw up. I hate that."
Then she looks back to Sheeana. "I've been a loner too long. It can get very unbalancing. And some of my lessons need learning by the crop of assassins I see nowadays."
Sheeana: Ellena goes pick Bronze Butterfly up, as Sheeana's remaining eye gaze Selina... and she can be sure she can recognize some... pride in there. "Indeed. So many of them are above street knaves, knifing for the merest poorly-cut coin of jade. Little rabbits who think themselves hunters. With no pride, no honor, and no grace. I am ashamed to be their saint, much of the time. Almost ashamed of their prayers. And alas, not all wish to work with the societies..." She sighs. "A butterfly, however... I know one who can teach her things she ought to know. A fighting style of a butterfly to rival an immaculate. It might fit her."
"It will, of course, need you to teach her the basics first. Those she thinks she knows..."
Selina de Windia: "There is another style, one of the scythe, that she could learn. It is well within her ability, as well." Selina thinks for a moment. "I do not usually work with the societies either, you know."
Sheeana: She giggles then, a razored grin showing on her face "You had me."
"Because you, like few, would be a mistress of death even without their training." "And with my training, you are the Dark Angel."
"And yes. She has to learn such arts from you. She is in dire need of that knowledge, my pupil." "She can also be great."
The tail flickers, and then she is almost contemptuous... a challenge.
"I heard Melmoth is around. No surprise, as I am here to find someone. You let prey survive to come haunt you?"
Selina de Windia: "That is true." Selina admits with a sly grin. "Why learn from the adept, when you can learn from the grandmaster."
Then she sighs, remembering Melmoth again. "He is supposed to be sitting in his little domain, not choking the countryside around him with his salt rate. And making me money by association. Evidentally someone made a sweet enough deal to overcome my 'persuasion'. I doubt the Guild would be too happy with him either, for that."
Sheeana: "Apparently, the current offer is able to break many, many beliefs. And spurred many into action."
"But this one seems to have come all the way up here for revenge."
"Revenge for his humilliation, apparently. Unlike some..." She eyes Ellena, who now has the Butterfly in her arms, trying to balance the scythe without being cut, or cutting someone. "He seems to not be smart enough to learn. Heaven does not need his like."
Selina de Windia: "If he hadn't run so quickly and I hadn't been trying to keep Butterfly from escaping, I'd have destroyed him then and there." Selina says sullenly. "But doing it would mean paying even more money to the Guild for wrecking part of their building. He got away once, and will be emboldened by that fact. The next time should be easier to strike him down."
Sheeana: "And there will be a next time." She says almost breathy, with the thought of him being rent.
A coward who dares to strike at her pupil! A prey pretending to be predator!
A creature worthless of heaven deserves to be rent asunder!
Then she turns, tail flickering as she opens the door, looking at the Dark Angel over her shoulder... "I shall be going now. My little child is not here anymore, unfortunately. But I will find him, soon. And you... good luck at being a teacher, my pupil."
"You better hope she is easier to rein in than you were."
She nearly laughs. A laugh without derision. Instead, full of pride!
Selina de Windia: "Oh..." Selina says with a start, remembering some of her moods.
Not a pleasant thought...though she had tried to behave herself. "I hope she will be..."
- - Back to Seventh Movement
- - Back to A Dance of Angels
