GoldenCat/LordofAgony
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Lord of Agony
Iron Tears: Chains came around the Dark Angel. Chains and ropes. She hears his voice, and how much he desires her. She can feel his touch through the Iron – in her arms, through the leather and soulsteel, through her bosom, through her skin...
And presented, like this, in the main hall of the Snow Owl Resting. When the Undead come, they are dry, unlike they had been – they resisted the lure of the fountains. In front of them, there is a woman with a black tear under her eyes and long auburn hair – wearing an armor black as the night, with two long staves of ornate soulsteel on her hands, a long cloak on her... so like another’s... so like Void Puppeteer’s.
Markings on her face make it clear as well. She is a child of the Dragons. Behind her are six figures in black cloaks, only a little flesh showing through, walking with incense in their hands... and yet, each and every hand lined with writing. And at their sides, two creatures, corpse-bodies with four arachnoid legs and four arms, and clad in heavy armor.
They walk foward, meeting Selina bounded with chains, gagged, the Vestal’s essence-dampening collar around her neck. And with her, sat in a throne, Iron Tears, as the Faceless God, imposing, hard, and strong as the Boil.
She is Marika, the Ashen Butterfly, and she claims for the Dark Angel – the one who killed her master, Void Puppeteer, the master those like her followed, angry. And threatening Iron Tears, openly displaying that she is a god-killer. Iron Tears refuses, of course. He calls for a bargain. He says how much he enjoys the Dark Angel being so close. How wonderful it was to tame her. And asks why the General has not come himself to bargain.
A simple reason – the General has gone already. Problems at the front. It seems enemies are attacking... but the General of the Army of Blood and Fire can deal with them. It was never his intention to stay – simply to deliver prisioners and part of his army as a garrisson to the Boil, to help the Parishioner, their torture and spymaster, track them down.
The demands got more heated then – they wanted the Dark Angel, Marika wanted the Dark Angel, murderer of her master, and she wanted her now! She asked about Seventh Moon as well... if Iron Tears was sure she had not come with him.
The Boil god simply changed it so he left her there, and he decided to be with the winning side. And that he would surely hold Moon if he dared to come back, not that he would now... and gave his exigences. To end the death cults flourishing around, and to change the control of the city from the Sheriff to one of his relentless gears. And of course, he wanted a Terrestrial such as her as a love-slave. ‘To replace such a great pleasure and prize of one such as the Dark Angel’ he said.
They haggled for a great long time, she threatened and pushed him, and he pushed back the little he could... and then she went away, unhappy, to tell her superiors.
The Hall is silent for a long time after they are gone, until he is sure they are well away, the renewed ghostly wards working at full power, salt and thaumathurgy keeping the ghosts away.
Only after a long, long silence did the chains come out of Selina, and he waited for the others, who had been listening in the shadows, to come in.
Iron Tears did not approach Selina then. He simply walked to the middle of the great hall, head hung low. His voice was like a hammer breaking through ice.
“This is horrible.”
- Seventh Moon stepped out of the shadows of the hall. Frown perplexed at the Forge God, the Lunar approached Selina gave her a questioning look. From where he stood, shit seemed to go fine. The undead had gained nothing and they'd earned themselves time to breath. "What's so horrible 'bout it?" he demanded. "Armies mostly gone, according ta her.."
Selina de Windia: "Hum." Selina muses, thinking over that meeting. It'd been awhile since she was trussed up -- truly trussed up -- in that manner. Although the last time, they hadn't secured a collar like that, they'd merely drained her. "So he's gone then. We'll have to deal with this problem quickly."
Kanti: Kanti steps forward timidly behind Fiona, approaching the god in the centre of the hall, and her mistress.
"If the General has gone, who is in his place?" Kanti asks softly.
Iron Tears: "The Parishioner of Maladies." The voice rangs hollow through the hall.
"Seventh Moon... everything changed, now. We have to change everything. We have to go to the offensive. Fast."
Seventh Moon: "Pari-who?" Moon frowned. The name wasn't as familiar to him as it apparently was to Iron Tears. Maybe if he'd had more time to chat Kadel up about what had been going on while he was away. He looked around at the other two Exalts, then back to the god before finally simply shrugging. "A'ite, so we go fuck 'um up sooner."
Selina de Windia: "So they don't fuck up the invasion." Selina adds, brushing herself off, wrapping her greatcoat about herself again -- but not buttoning it yet.
If they're smart, they'll have reconnitered the defenses, or probed them.
But they would not know of the General arriving to stiffen the line.
"The Boil must be clensed. Quickly." She looks to Moon and Iron Tears, a flicker of her turquoise gaze to Kanti as she runs a hand through her long pale blonde hair, straightening it. "Then we can take the General from behind."
Kanti: Kanti suddenly looks so very small and cold and vulnerable as she stands there, perhaps only looking more vulnerable as she looked up at the Dark Angel in the rain, her hands unconciously tracing out patterns on her skin as she wraps her arms around her.
She murmurs as she does, what the Parishioner had said to her as her fingers move over the scars. "...nice fine cut here. See, my blades are sharp for such a beauty as you..." and other, similar phrases ...
he is here....!
With his cruel knives and crueler fingers...
he will take me back to her ... but first he will punish me for all I have done...
I can't bear his punishment
not after his compassion.
Kanti looks like she wants to bolt again, and like she has no idea which way to run.
Iron Tears: "Yes. But we have to move fast. The Parishioner.... he is a spy master. An eye of darkness. A sorcerer of Sapphire. I know of him - he was one of the few Solars out a few decades back. A sadist. A monster. The Dark Angel might know him as well, he was close to Void's Puppeteer. Did you see the people tortured, Moon? With a blank stare? You saw what he did?" He turns around, looking at Kanti, "You see his signature here?"
"Before, we had the General - we needed strength to pour through his army. Now, much of this army is still here. But worse. Any of your people who fall into his hands will tell him everything. He has an organization that is doubtlessly trying to trickle inside the city and know everything they can. And of course... whatever horrors he might bring to bear."
"We will not stay hidden, and if he is on the offensive, we lose. We need to move soon... or we are dead. It is that simple."
Selina de Windia: The Windian starts, wings twitching as she looks at Kanti, interestedly gazing at her now. "I...met him once, then. Suppose I should have killed him as well. His men nearly killed me as I escaped."
And I do not forget that.
"So..." Selina looks to Iron Tears, index finger coming up to tap her lower lip. "the Parishioner must fall."
"I wonder if he will come to us, or wait in a camp."
Seventh Moon: "Yeah, I saw them" Moon answered softly, his stare distant.
He'd seen them and more. Blank eyes. Dead souls. And worse. He peered back at Kanti as Iron Tears gestured towards her.
He did that he scarred her like that
Whatever the fucker had done, she was still bleeding for. Scared her, hurt her, broke her. All of the ladies in his life were broken now. Sarah's tormenter he couldn't reach yet. Selina's he might not ever. But this one was here, now, and eminently reachable.
Moon's hands curled into fists, his brows furrowing as the silver rage of the moon crackled across his eyes. "Then we go break him. We fuckin' break him hard. Gimme someone ta send to Kadel. He needs ta pass word shits gonna go down a lot sooner'n we thought."
Kanti: Kanti continues to murmur as she stands there
"See? I twist the blade .... ohhh that hurt you ... don't worry, there will be more."
"A slightly broader knife now, for the longer cuts..."
"Ah, now we're onto to the very fine work. For this, I will use my fingers... feel it?"
As she speaks, anyone listening closely can hear the robes about her body echoing with her responses to the calm, measured things she is murmuring. They are not calm, nor measured, nor murmurs.
Fiona: She looks at Kanti wide-eyed... she wants to hug Kanti, to soothe her... but she does not seem to be... there.
The girl comes closer, touches her... and hears it. And hears it. And hear every word he said. And hears as Kanti screamed screamed so much while he was so calm, so calm...
And hears Mistress' amused voice beneath all that....
"No...."
Selina de Windia: She walks over to Kanti, coat hanging open, and pats her head, the hand settling down on it, stroking down her raven hair. A somewhat sympathic expression on her face. "Dear, don't worry. When I catch up to him, he will never be able to hurt you again."
Iron Tears: The Forge God looks at Kanti... then walks towards her, his cold iron hand falling above her head... the shining eye on his faceless mask burning white-hot. And when his voice sounds, it is not like the forge noise it usually is. No. It is slow. It is slow, a single hammer. But a great one. It is snow, and heavy. "Yes. As soon as Opal finishes her contraption. His assassins are much better than the General's for sure, the risk to our Raven will be even greater."
"I will go to Kadel. You said we had to talk, did you not? Go to Shadow Eyes and get what you had to. And be ready... on the first alarm sign from Kadel, we begin even if Opal has not finished. We cannot afford to have all our companions wake up dead, and the Snow Owl Resting crawling with assassins."
Fiona: Shut up...
She holds her hand again, tries to touch the robes... but the voice comes, and she takes the hand off.
Shut up, shut up, shut up!
She tries again... touching it... cringing inside her very soul with the voice, so calm, so calm...
SHUT UP!
She holds part of the dress, twsting it on her hand....
And looking at the Dark Angel, her hazel eyes harder than any had ever seen before. "We have to talk later, Dark Angel. I have a favor to ask."
Seventh Moon: After a moments hesitation, the burning light in Moon's eyes fade and joins the others around Kanti. It was getting crowded above her, but... he eases up beside Selina rests his hand on Kanti's arm.
"She's right," he smiled bravely for her, then clucked her chin fondly. "We ain't gonna let anything happen ta ya, darlin'."
They couldn't let her go out there. They needed her, but they couldn't. Everything she'd been through, asking her to fight against the people who had broken her so badly they might make the kid shattered even worse.
Moon looked back at Iron Tears and nodded once. "Gonna have the Pack stay here though, help keep an eye on the place. Have those Gearheads'a yours show 'um what ta do with that shit downstairs."
"What about you, hun?" he asked, looking at the Windian beside him. He gave her a wan smile. "Wanna come with me and molest toad-boy some more?"
Kanti: Kanti is only peripherally aware of the people now surrounding her, of the hands on her hair and clutching at her clothes.
The words she doesn't hear either, still murmuring, still living out some of her darkest times, though the presence and the tone slowly seeps into her inner world, and the murmuring stops, and she starts to come back to Creation.
She leans into the Dark Angel and the comforting feeling of her hand in her hair.
Selina de Windia: Selina continues to stroke her hair, slowly, comfortingly. She looks to Fiona, at the girl's question, somewhat surprised at her sudden determination. "Oh? Very well then."
She was tortured too, is this it?
And then her glance turns to Moon, expression dry. "I could say something, but I won't. Suffice to say, if he wants more, he can buy it from someone else. You going to ask someone else about something again?"
Iron Tears: "The Pack will be trained as much as we can do so while leaving them some time to sleep. Be sure of it. My children will make sure of that."
His hand leaves Kanti's head, turning around... and picking the heavy hammer on the ground, slinging it over his shoulder with the heavy ringing of Iron on Iron.
"Time to go to work."
And then he begins to walk out, his footsteps ringing loudly on the hall of iron....
Kanti: Kanti makes small, warm noises as the Dark Angel strokes her hair, glad of the physical comfort from someone like her.
Inside, she regathers herself, recovering from the ...news.
I....I have to face him again...
I...I cannot hurt him.
...but I do not have to hurt him to kill him.
Seventh Moon: The look that she answers him with forces a grin onto his face. "Yeah, I suppose I am. Like Rusty said, time ta work..."
Moon held the grin a little longer, then softened. "Keep an eye out, darlin' whateva' it is you're gonna do..."
Looking over at Kanti and Fiona, he smiled as cheerfully as he could. Between Kanti's distance and Fiona's intensity though, it wasn't easy. "And you two keep an eye on her, a'ite?"
He patted Kanti's arm before letting go and ruffled Fiona's hair. The gestures felt hollow. Habitual. He had no idea what the fuck was going on between the three of them anymore. He was an outsider, here. So, Moon backed away and waved briefly before he turned on his heels and made a dash for the door.
Time to see if he could pry one more favor out of the old crazy before the whole world went mad with him.
Fiona: Fiona saw him leave... leaving them alone, there. It was time, then.
She holds Kanti to her, her fists going red around the dress, trying to squeeze the Parishioner's voice out of it, holding the screams and choking the life out of them...
"You are like me. You use sorcery, like me. But not quite, right? You went a totally different way than I did."
"You can hurt people. You can kill them."
She closes her eyes, thinking in what she will ask... how...
"When I fought Mistress, she defeated me in a moment. There was no contest. She took me, she did... all she did to me. That will change. When I meet her again... when I meet the Parishioner again... I want to do to them like you do. I want to hurt them."
"Please, teach me how."
Selina de Windia: "I'd better get some messages off, to warn the Pale Angel and the rest about the General, too." Selina replies, still stroking the Terrestrial's hair. "And you make sure not to get caught." She adds, calling after him as he leaves.
Then her eyes finally turn on Fiona. She hears the question, and they get colder, as if icing up to protect something else inside. "It...is not just sorcery and necromancy, Fiona." Her voice lowers, getting softer, her hand still stroking the other girl's hair. Her turquoise stare holds the girl's. "Any Chosen can become superlative. But...my way?"
Kanti: Kanti stands calmly now, in between the two Exalts talking, one of them holding her, the other stroking her gently.
She doesn't want to interrupt their conversation, so she is silent, except for the occasional content sound.
Fiona: Fiona holds Kanti... and lets her essence go to her, shining her caste mark... the golden, pure light of her caste mark. Her essence strokes within Kanti, relaxing her, bringing narcotic joy to the Fire Aspect.
And as she does so she sees the cold eyes of the Dark Angel... and remembers...
The Blood on the mud.
Fire fading as rain fell.
Chaos twisting around Kanti.
Fear.
Pain.
Death.
"I..."
"I..." She gulps. "You do not just... hurt them, right? Not just protect yourself. Not just defeat them... your way..." She looks down to Kanti. As if waiting for an answer, playing with words and memories to know what is right...
Selina de Windia: "No." Her tone is soft but not cold, there is no malice in it at all. Merely a feeling of...warning. The hand on Kanti's hair doesn't stop. "I don't."
"To defeat monsters, you must be intensely human...or another monster. The Dragon-Blooded manage the former quite often in their way -- this is why the Wyld Hunt succeeds."
Fiona: "I need to do something. They need to pay."
She gazes within Selina's eyes... and even shining as she is, she still feels so human looking at the great black-feathered goddess of void. "Do I need to become a monster for it? If so..."
"If so..."
She bites her lip...
"Teach me how."
Selina de Windia: "That, I will not do, Fiona." The hand on Kanti's hair stills, moving back up to her head, rubbing it softly. "I will not present you to a deathlord, and I will not allow you to become such as I. There are however, other ways to get recompense. I was five years a Solar, trust me."
Fiona: "I... I didn't mean to. I did not intend to become dark... but..."
"Solars can destroy as well. I know that. I remember... destroying. I remember manipulating essence to make cities vanish in waves of green light."
She holds Kanti's joy-filled body to herself... "That is why I asked about sorcery... I know sorcery can be used to hurt... but I was always so much more interested in... knowing. In discovery. To see the past, to move from place to place, to hear ancient tongues. Sorcery was just a tool for finding out more and more interesting things for me..."
Her eyes glitter, as she lets out the passion for knowledge, for exploring, which she had not had the chance to sate in this whirlwind of death and lust...
"But it needs to be something more. I have to do something... something, amidst all this. I cannot let her touch me again. I cannot let them touch Kanti again."
Selina de Windia: Her lips purse as she looks at Fiona. So young, but that could have been her, back then. In a way it was. Except Fiona was starting a bit earlier.
"Say that I teach you the arts of the dead." She begins, stroking Kanti's hair again, tone concillerary. "Not how to raise the dead, but how to destroy with their essence. I know a trick or two of sorcery as well, toward that end. The Messengers of Culwyeh are my secret to keep, however."
Fiona: "I would not like to... I don't... I don't want to commit unnatural obscenities if I don't need to... I don't want to raise and desecrate the dead. I don't want to know how to instantly kill without remorse. But... but I... need to know how to survive. How to stop my enemies. How to stop them from hurting any of you... how to help you."
She tries to keep firm, but part of her looks at Selina... and keeps thinking...
That she is selling her soul.
That she is beggining to walk a road for that.
At the same time, impressed she is not receiving an incentive in that... on the contrary...
"So... I would prefer to attain myself to sorcery, yes."
Selina de Windia: "That is good." Selina demures, tangling her fingers a bit in Kanti's hair, then untangling them, smoothing it, and repeating the motion. "The Chosen who become monsters -- those I devour, body and soul. I break the edges of my hunger on them. I consume them whole."
"I will teach you to summon as well as fight. A guardian always helps matters."
Fiona: She smiles. Somehow... dark as she was... she seemed to be on Fiona's side. Selina wanted the same thing she did.
But she had to become a monster for that.
And she... doesn't want me to do the same.
Kinship. Pity. Understanding. Her eyes harden in determination then - this was the right path. She would make them pay as well... but she would not devour them, would not murder them. She would be simply... justice.
"So, shall we go? We can begin tonight!"
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