Becoming
Ashon sauntered over to where Dory and Lunara stood, their captive yasoi bandit held at knife point. With a theatrical flourish, he clapped his hands together and spread them in a welcoming gesture.
"Ersandenisers!" he exclaimed, gesturing towards the shiny weapons gripped tightly in their hands.
"Are these rewards from your trials? Expensive, shiny, toduul. Eager to use such toys. Want to do your good deeds for House points, luuca?" He gave a wide mocking smile to the crowd,
“Five points each to Hunghorasz!” He reached into his pocket and pulled out two coin purses, pressing one into each of their hands. Then, with a casual pat on the head of the yasoi bandit and a clip around his ear hole, he addressed them once more.
"This is my jexoff moila, and he will help me find my Hyc'oilan. Leave this matter to Belle'soi." He politely indicated them to run along now.
He clicked his fingers loudly as he summoned his man servant.
“He may be suffering from amnesia, we might have to prompt his memory.” He dangled a coin purse by his eye, and on the other side, is the imposing skull mask of Xiuyang.
Xiuyang watched Seviin's interrogation of the eeaiko with a blend of shock and genuine interest, which the masque just managed to cover up as, perhaps, some form of imposing, predatory look one might give to a weakling.
Impressive. If it were me, I would probably cry. She should get straight to the point like this more often. With him stabilized, she turned her attention to the agitated onlookers.
"Oh, please," she drawled.
"You would have walked over their well-dressed corpses while going about your business—but don't worry, the criminal who would just as easily prey on you will live," she assured them.
"Why then are you angry? Because there are no dead to rob here? This circus is over. Begone," she spat at the hypocrites.
After digging up the money box and re-securing it to her medicine box, she walked over to their captive audience and abruptly dropped into a squat, bringing her eye level to his. Her neck cracked as she perched her chin on her free hand. A moment had passed since Ashon had used her as some form of threat, leaving the eeaiko wondering what the masked woman might do.
"Yeah. I know how it is, to be desperate for work, and no one wants you. Like you've been denied the right to exist," she said, half-truthfully. Usually, she was on the other side of that equation.
"Makes you hate people who have it all. Makes you forget that they're even people," she said coolly.
"I think someone like that is targeting the Doridax family. They've lost more than just a good friend recently. Know anything about it? If it's work that interests you, I have connections that will pay more reliably than the odd coin purse." The eeaiko looked at her with wary, evaluative eyes, but he had learned to outright
fear Seviin. It was as if one could
hear the wheels turning inside of his head. Then, he laughed bitterly.
"Yoo theenk Eye cen joost taulk end nautheng weell heppen too mee?" He arched an eyebrow.
"Aur yoo soore yoo knauw es mauch ebaut te woorld es yoo theenk?" Xiuyang cocked her head, considering his reply.
"I think I know quite a bit—but suppose I know nothing at all. You know how unfair the world is. It's not really 'what' you know, but 'who' you know, y'know? Unless an actual Zeno is involved with the alley cat shits who think they run 'Belleville,' I doubt they have a chance against me and mine. Even so, if my people don't want to be found... they won't. So why not be one of them? Better than clinging to this filthy town. It'll be a while yet before they get their shit together, even with us helping them along." The masked girl's demeanor was friendly, but down-to-earth and not in a saccharine way. She didn't moralize any further about 'honest work' or claim that she'd clean up Belleville like some kind of hero. At best, she tried to discreetly project the kind of character who did good through dishonest means—someone who could be more benevolent than the street gangs, but no less savvy and with powerful connections of her own. She also implied that with her help, he could leave Belleville entirely, if that suited him.
He pursed his lips - funny eeaiko lips.
"End yoo joost auffer mee thees aut oof te goodness auf yoor haurt?" He regarded her skeptically, but perhaps there was a hint of hope there - unless it was Xiuyang's wishful thinking.
"Whaut ees te cetch? There ees aulweys e cetch." Seviin scowled, unimpressed, and addressed her partner before any more was said.
"Already looking for a way out." She shook her head.
"You're wasting your breath with this sort." She narrowed her eyes.
"He'd just as soon stick a knife in your kidneys." "Ovviamente cerca una via d'uscita. La sua vita è una prigione senza sbarre," Xiuyang mumbled to herself in irritation as Seviin interrupted. Shaking it off, she continued.
"Nah. I'm not some goody-goody. You tell us everything you know, and do exactly what I tell you—which will work out well for you, since the first thing I want you to do is get the fuck out of here and talk to one of my contacts. You'll be safe with him anyway." She stood up and leaned on her staff again.
"The catch is that if you stick a knife in my kidney, she'll replace it with one of yours," she japed, pointing back with her thumb at Seviin.
"It seems I have more patience than a clergywoman, though, which should tell you something." Behind the mask, a cheeky grin could be felt, if not entirely seen.
These were smalltime crooks and not the sort of people to risk their necks being defiant or threatening. The people who they were currently tangled up with were rich and powerful and appeared to possibly have support from Ersand'Enise. Much as they might resent those who dwelled behind the white walls, they craved their acceptance, wanted to join them, and feared them all at once. If the yasoi hoodlum currently before Ashon had thought to mock Lunara or rally support, he'd lost that notion at Seviin's casual display of power, Ashon's offer of generous monetary support, and Lunara's and Dory's apparent willingness to kill.
Meanwhile, the eeaiko who Xiuyang and the priestess had cornered shrugged.
"Eye doon't see thet Eye heve mauch choice," he admitted,
"Baut yoo aur sentenceeng yoorselves end praubebly mee too deth oor saumtheng lyke eet." he pursed his lips.
"Eye waus paurt oof te Broosers. Wee cauntroolled thees paurt auf tauwn oonteel te Colas mooved een aun aus." He shook his head.
"Yoo send mee elone too taulk too yoor peepel, Eye praubebly die aun te wey." His eyes flicked Seviin's way momentarily.
"There's always a choice," the Rettanese replied sternly.
"To be beholden to the people who taught you to be this helpless, or to take your life back from them. It's yours. I won't take it from you. I for one think you can make it if you swim." She backed off, giving the eeaiko some space. If he was going to chicken out and be useless, she'd rather he run away front of her where she could see it.
"I know the water is filthy," she allowed.
"Believe me, I won't soon forget it." The eeaiko man, still unnamed, shook his head.
"Eef Eye jaump, Eye need prootectioon, naut kynd woords." He glanced over his shoulder at the rest of the scene. He scrunched his face up bitterly.
"Baut Eye'll go. Where end to whoo?" Seviin narrowed her eyes, but he made to stand.
"A boy's life is on the line. I don't have the time to gather my grunts for you," she replied.
"Tell me everything you know, and I'll tell you who and where. Or you can crawl back to your old masters, though I doubt they'll take you back after talking to me, if they're as omniscient as you seem to think," she said coolly.
"Good lauck too heem," the eeaiko replied coldly and that was it. If they wanted him to betray the powers that governed his life here for nothing more than vague assurances that he would be able to make it and they would help him at some point in the future, they clearly either knew nothing about how this place worked or the assurances were false, likely both.
It had become clear that he would not talk and be a stoolie for free. Seviin and Xiuyang would either have to beat the answers out of him if he had any, or let him go and that was that.
Xiuyang would waste no time personally dirtying her hands with such a task, however. She made a dismissive hand gesture, as though she were discarding trash. She would not prevent him walking away from the best offer he'd get.
With that, a potential lead tried to walk away, but he found that he couldn't. Seviin had destroyed his sense of balance. He stumbled and fell, eyes wide. The priestess smiled smugly.
"Damy demands balance," she remarked coolly.
"You have done much harm and now do nothing to provide restitution when given the opportunity, so I have seen to its rectification." "Eye geve my caundeetioons!" He shouted back.
"Eye weel naut dye foor yoo!" He staggered a few more steps.
"Fauck -" There was a small kinetic shove.
"Then you will crawl through this town that is so dangerous," Seviin declared,
"all of the way to a skilled binder, if you can make it there." With that, she turned and walked away towards the others, inclining her head in the masked woman's direction as if to say, 'coming?'
The woman followed, a satisfied look in her eyes. It didn't need to be said that letting him get away could have been a problem, and the yasoi's solution suited her just fine.
It was right then that the answer seemed to present itself, at least from the other end of things. Whatever other leads they'd gotten, the one pointing to the Cola Brothers had seemed the strongest and they were on their way. Drawing close, Abdel had reached out with his tethered range and picked up what he was pretty sure were the rest of the group. They'd just finished beating up some hoods and were not far from the warehouse that they'd been told to bring the money to.
Xiuyang felt a pinch behind her ears that could only have been the group's lone tethered: <Close. 400. There soon. Learn? Danger?>
The reply came in the form of subtle binding magic. Xiuyang tattooed it temporarily across her shoulders where only Abdel could see.
Learned much. Didn't catch it, yasoi. Colas, big threat. We go in with money, you ambush? <Big Enemy. Big Enemy. Big Enemy. Careful. Distance. Will ambush.>
"So, he said a lot of words, but did we learn anything?" Xiuyang asked Ashon as she approached him. Then, suddenly, she erected a sonic bubble.
"Hm. Abdel is advising that we should keep our distance. There's a 'big enemy' at the warehouse, whatever that might mean." Meanwhile, she replied to Abdel as she dropped the bubble.
Big enemy, inside warehouse? What else? <Doors danger. Mystery. Three bads. One BIG. Two not BIG. One man down.>
Seviin had noticed Ashon and Xiuyang speak beneath a sonic bubble.
"Something has changed?" she inquired, trying not to look hurried as she caught up.
Xiuyang snorted at "not BIG." She wasn't sure why she found it funny. Nerves, maybe? Then came her reply.
Jaxan? she asked simply.
< Not Know. >
She put up the bubble again, this time making sure to include Seviin.
"Only that our enemies have two tricks up their sleeves. A 'big enemy' inside the warehouse, and a mystery door trap. That's a bit of a pissoff. I wanted at least the appearance of a negotiation, but it seems we're in for a fight as soon as we're there." Ashon rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "The Yasoi mentioned that Jaxan is part of the resistance," he recounted, "and that they, along with the Colas, have a conflict as big as a Snowsweeper-sized beef."
They spoke as they moved and, before long, were within sight of what they assumed was their destination: A long, low warehouse poked out from the gap between buildings down a winding a street. There were few houses around it. This area appeared to be mainly industrial.
Jaxan, resistance. Enemy of Colas, Xiuyang quickly relayed to Abdel.
Negotiations likely futile. "Hm." The Rettanese mercenary cocked her head as she observed the unremarkable warehouse.
"Think I should give the door a firm knock or two?" She asked the others. There was no response; perhaps there was no need? They were all surely eager to see these criminals fed a taste of their own medicine.
Xiuyang focused on the door, to see what the beanie could show her of what lied beyond it.
"That's a funny little coincidence," she remarked jovially, appearing to approach the door.
"Stay here," she said, insisting her allies keep a safe distance. Only, her voice seemed to be coming from behind them...
As the false image of the masked woman approached the door, money in hand, an invisible Xiuyang prepared to pelt the door with a kinetic spell.
"Boom," she whispered as she drew. If anyone was to stop her, now was the moment.
< Chimney. Maybe. Possible. Safe not sure. Door. Trap. >
Xiuyang, shaken from her giddiness, takes a second to reconsider.
Far away from door. Further than enemies. Blow it? she proposes to Abdel.
Spring trap, know their numbers. In position to flee if needed. < Knock. Distance. Or distraction. Draw out. Confirm Yasoi boy. >
Acknowledged, she replied. And with that, she fired her kinetic spell right at the door, timed with the movements of the illusion.
The doors blew in with stunning force, exploding into splinters. The urns shattered and... there was nothing to see but a gust barreling in and then blowing violently back out. The fox-masked woman stood there amid the debris, her cloak flapping in the wind. She stalked forward confidently and it was perfect work, almost enough to make the
true Xiuyang proud.
Two hoodlums - a yasoi man with red hair and a woman with short dark hair - coughed and reeled, but the great hulking figure who stood behind them was unbowed. There was a
Gargantuan surge of energy, but not much happened aside from a few weak gusts of wind in the area of the apparent Xiuyang. Then, a couple more in the area behind her.
"Right in through the front door, not even an attempt to negotiate," she chided, collecting herself.
"I had hoped to be working with professionals." "Fantas, they're not here to negotiate. They probably don't even have the money." She nodded.
"Kill the kid and let's split." "Oh, you have the boy?" the masked woman pleasantly but quickly replied as she approached the door, for real this time.
"Don't worry, we have your money. You can even have it, if you behave yourselves. I'll even overlook the pathetic attempt at murder before the negotiations even began." The skull masque's unmoving smile turned eerie.
"In case you hadn't noticed, we are the professionals here. Not you. No more games, hm?" Dorothea summoned forth her rifle once more and slowly entered.
"Knock. . . Knock." She knocked on the wall with her free hand before she readied her weapon. The anticipation of combat, it excited her. . . but little did she know that she fell upon the ground, knocked out.
As she spoke with such confidence, however, the people behind her began to waver and collapse. Miray dragged a half-conscious Lunara away. Ashon staggered and fell to his knees. Dory fainted and Ashon managed a few more steps before collapsing on top of her. The hulking goon grinned malevolently.
"Look behind you, little professional," he mocked.
"Easier than usual, to be honest," the woman remarked, striding forward.
"But thank you for telling us about the money. Hand it over now and we let you live." Meanwhile, the red-haired yasoi had flung the semi-conscious youth up to near the ceiling, ready to let him drop. It would've been a good thirty to forty foot fall and he was likely to land head first.
"Generally, unwise to turn your back to an enemy," she fired back without missing a beat, giving the man some cheeky finger-guns. Though she could hear the bodies falling behind her, she continued to feign impressive confidence with her masque.
"Say, does something stink or is it just me?" she japed, letting out the tiniest, most pathetic mocking cough she could.
"Anyways, unless you're unafraid of the full wrath of Ersand'Enise falling upon this little shack of yours, I wouldn't threaten us if I were you. But hey, I'm easy enough to please. Free the boy of his ropes, hand him over, and it's yours, nice and easy. I'll even make a special exception and look the other way while you make your escape. Sound good?" Lunara started to walk with the others, suddenly out of no where Miray started to act odd. Miray started to aggressively pull on Lunara's skirt, to get her to more.
"Miray, What are you..." Lunara started to feel sluggish.
"Crap, good girl Miray, thank you." Lunara then fell to her knees and collapsed, but Miray was able to move her far enough away.
Seviin, however, found herself utterly unaffected by the poison. She knew the scent. It came from Sparknettles, which grew close to her home, and she simply held her breath with the help of the Gift. With a mighty kinetic blast, she cleared much of the poison and took stock. Xiuyang was unaffected. Either she'd figured it out on time as well or she had some sort of resistance. Lunara had collapsed, but her goma cat had pulled her free of danger. Not so for Ashon and Dory, and the priestess rushed into action, setting up a bubble of wind around them to counter the gases.
Running to their side and kneeling, she reached down and murmured an apology before slapping Ashon across the cheek.
"I am sorry, Moila. You need to wake up." She tried to clear the bad air from his lungs and his blood and, in a moment, he was sputtering, blinking, and rubbing at his cheek. Seviin turned next to Dory, and the Feskan was unmoving. This one proved a good deal harder to revive, and Seviin had to settle for dragging her away with kinetic magic and setting her near the still-groggy Lunara.
The big man began gathering energy again for something else
huge and it was clear that he was a real danger. Just as he seemed about to unleash it, however, the second yasoi man - the lanky ginger - froze and contorted. For a second, the youth in his kinetic grasp bobbled and began to fall. Then, he stabilized. Perhaps the others didn't know what had caused it or what it was, but it was Abdel and he had bloodwarped his enemy.
"Money first," the woman demanded,
"Or at least let me see it. I've no reason to trust you." It was right about then that her minion lost control over the mark.
The big man who had gathered all his energy did not unleash it on his original intended target: that pesky healer. Instead, the full brunt of it came down upon Abdel in a massive corrosive attack. The very air around him turned into an acid mist and whirled with tornado-force winds, all this backed up by a RAS level approaching nine.
An immense pillar of lightning blasted clean through the building's roof and struck the hulking figure in the middle. He spasmed and jerked, roaring in annoyance.
"Oh ho hooo! Someone big wants to play!" he exclaimed, but Abdel remained in control of the man who remained in control of the hostage as the two giants tussled.
Ashon, after almost hacking up a lung, thanked Seviin for the assist and gave her a raised hand signal to indicate he was now okay, then turned to the attacker.
"That was some terrible body odour, Moila. You're surrounded by water now, no excuse not to bathe." "We've got that in common," she replied casually. Opening up the decorated box attached to her medicine box, she dug a gloved hand into the rice and pulled out a handful of the magus, rolling her eyes as the big man walked away.
"Good grief, can we not agree to control our animals? Counting money is so much more fun than smashing heads." "How do I know it isn't all rice?" she demanded.
"You show it all and we have a deal. We trade on five. You don't, we change things up a bit." "So demanding~ There's a couple hundred of these things, you know?" she replied in a conversational tone as she dug more and more out of the rice.
"I was going to stay until you counted it all, but if you don't want to, then sure. Count to five when you're satisfied." The red-haired yasoi straightened and, seemingly from nowhere, pulled out a pair of odd but wicked looking blades.
"For the record, he's a sweet boy and I didn't enjoy any of it." She sighed and drew... and drew... and
drew: a classic yasoi intimidation tactic.
Then, however, it was a two-on-one. The woman glanced between her two adversaries, taking stock of matters, and... while Oksana had been up there long enough to sense her massive energy draw, Lunara had not. A huge fiery blast came straight for the Palaparese, catching her cold.
Meanwhile, Niallus would've done anything to be cold, though in a different way. Arduously, pulling in and expelling massive amounts of thermal energy, he carved through the thick ghulthite. He could feel his hair burn away and his skin start to shrivel and peel. At first the pain was incredible, and then it began to fade as nerves died. Yet... bit by bit, he completed his circle and then it wobbled. With a blast of kinetic force, it came flying free. It hurtled across the warehouse and slammed into the opposite wall with such force that it punched a hole clean through. A burned, raging figure emerged, smoke and steam rolling off of his grotesque figure. The outside world beckoned.
"Very well," the manly yasoi woman was replying in another part of the warehouse She ignored Ashon at first before being unable to resist a jibe.
"You shall have your... 'son' returned to you safely in five." Meanwhile, Abdel, maintaining his concentration and slowly retreating out of range, soon found himself more or less out of the fight. It was a lot to maintain his lock on the ginger yasoi, however, and it taxed him to his very limit. Jerking his puppet on invisible chains, he began forcing the man to lower his hostage. Qadira and Dayanara stood guard to either side of him but, then...
Dayanara let out a loud gurgling growl and turned her massive head. Qadira hissed and lowered herself into a ready position. So occupied was Abdel that he could not take the focus necessary to sense what was coming until it was nearly there. Dayanara sprung into action, leaping at the coldfire wyvern while Qadira barreled for the dreadmaw halassa.
"Four..." Dorothea began to stir, the dread power of Levidan the Accursed dragging her from the depths of unconsciousness and demanding that she take action, that she
crush these subhuman nothings that had dared lay her low.
It was at this moment, as the youth was being gently lowered from close to the ceiling, as Johann blasted the huge yasoi through a wall and was, in turn, himself, driven into the ground, that the ground opened up into a thousand needles and a gravitational slam to drive Abdel towards his death.
"Three..." Seviin rose and gathered her power, filling Ashon and Dory with it. These criminals were not to be trusted. They had wronged Mother Oirase and now they were Lord Exiran's playthings if there was any justice in the world.
It was then that Oksana felt another presence off to the far side of the roof. A tall, elegant man stood there with a thin black rapier in his hand. He flourished it and began walking toward her.
"Two..." Xiuyang closed the box and latched it, with all of the coins inside. While she stood ready to toss it, she didn't neglect to pay attention to her surroundings. She also reached out to sense underground, for any convenient escape routes. If the trade actually went through, she would probably still need to escape and quickly deliver Jaxan to his family. Then, there was also the other plan she needed to enact, preferably before these criminals could escape. It all hinged on this moment, with her eyes locked on the boy, held helpless in the air. Various scenarios played out in her mind: one in where the boy was thrown straight at her, another where he was sent straight into the ground and turned into paste. His life hung on her ability to see, if only for a short distance, into the future, and to use her budding Temporal ability to guide it to an outcome where a son could be reunited with his father. All the while, as Xiuyang's sweat turned cold, she betrayed not a single hint of emotion on her face.
Dorothea leaned on her rifle for a second to compose herself. A face that was on the verge of turning into a snarl. She tried to be friendly, to let the others take the lead and just act as the muscle. The way she fell to the ground was unbefitting for someone of her stature and ability, someone had a debt to pay. She felt her own gift heightened further than even her communing had granted her and it would be put to good use.
A knife ear that could barely be considered a woman was counting down about something? . . Not that it mattered. The Feskan aimed it towards the knife ear that was ever so smug about it. One breath in. One firm grip. One kinetic enhancement and a little extra gift was all it shall take. As the trigger was pulled the bullet was barely visible as it exited the barrel. The only thing that became visible was small disruptive bits of the air that rippled. That dirty baummensch might not even be affected with how little they have into going around within that head.
As the hit was confirmed Dory loosened up once more.
"Sleep tight, filthy messerohr" Dory's purpose was clear and her aim was true. In, she breathed, and out, and there a bullet flew.
And yet, beyond her bubble, where a roiling calm prevailed, on past the perfect focus through which her bullet sailed...
Things were happening. Unbeknownst to Dory, some three hundred yards away, Abdel, for his survival, had been forced to free his prey.
A momentary lapse seized that ginger-haired yasoi. He tremored and wobbled and then released the boy...
Who fell from the sky. It happened so fast the Gods must've desired it. He fell into the path of the bullet: she'd fired it.
Dory had sworn to leave one of them dead. She'd aimed her gun straight for the lesbian's head.
But the shot struck the boy. For a moment, nobody believed it. For a moment, the shot had surely struck its intended target. Reshta did not play such cruel jokes upon any but those who had earned her personal ire.
"One." Ashon, Seviin, and Xiuyang were caught off-guard by the shot, for Dory had acted solo. The woman who'd been counting froze, just about to take a step forward. No sooner had the ginger-haired yasoi regained himself than he crumpled.
"Moila!" he screamed.
"Dii! Oh Exi, dii!" His hands snapped the sides of his head, ripping at his hair. His sister's eyes widened like dinner plates and she stood there for a moment, frozen.
Then, there came a cold rage.
Niallus, having emerged from his deathtrap panting and snarling and still thinking that he had hair, did a whole lot of nothing but look angry, but he soon had cause to do more. He'd missed the exact details of what had happen, but all watched the boy hit the floor, his impact lessened by the red-haired man's intervention, but would it be any good? Had the bullet intended for his apparent captor done him in?
Niallus didn't get the chance to ruminate on it. Two more thugs appeared from opposite directions. While one was at the other end of the warehouse, and made Dory his direct target, the second sent a wave of hyperdense slicing wind at the Eskandishman from less than a dozen meters away.
The woman let out a shrill kinetically-enhanced whistle that carried through the whole building and even up onto the roof. Then, she and her brother barreled towards Ashon, Xiuyang, and Seviin with everything that they had. If the deal had looked about to go through, it was 'off' now, and the escape was on.
All of Xiuyang's negotiations had seemingly come to naught. The boy was dropped out of the air, finally within her line of sight from the doorway, ready to be caught, even by a bed of blood magic to soften his fall if need be—but she had not been prepared for his captor to step in to catch him, or to stop a bullet of all things. In the moment, ten seconds of warning had only provided her enough time to process what in all the hells had just happened, and the aftermath.
"Well," she remarked, momentarily breaking character.
"I had thought I was working with professionals." As she quickly approached Jaxan to inspect his body, a faint echo of a [Loon's Call] rang out, and Xiuyang's image began to visibly distort, as if her body were vibrating. It wasn't just Xiuyang, either: any who looked at her could hear the loon's call grow louder, feel their eyes begin to vibrate, and an unnatural fear slowly gripped their hearts. As the Colas and their goons charged, they nearly stumbled, ran off course, and their attacks missed, the disorientation appearing to get even worse the closer they drew to her. Their desired fortune was hopelessly out of reach and securely in Rettanese hands, or so it appeared.
In reality, Xiuyang was taking a big risk, and she knew it. Just as the Colas had disempowered the locals by convincing them that they were untouchable, she continued to bluff, trying to show the Colas that they were beneath her—no, she was
untouchable to them. The power of this divine blessing she'd received from the Old Mother was an exotic and unfathomable power, one she hoped to use to inflict more terror on the Colas than even the forbidden magics could on the citizens of "Belleville."
But if it didn't work, she'd be surrounded, cornered in a warehouse full of traps, forced to defend herself and show her true, meager strength, of which the Colas could almost certainly match. Xiuyang could not be seen or heard properly, hidden beneath the masque and beyond the veil; perhaps her mediated urgency as she approached the body could be construed as confident, but her breathing was ragged, and sweat ran down her face.
Why was she going so far for one drug-dealing yasoi? She didn't need this money. She had her family, its legacy, and if things continued to go well, she had Ciro. It was the faces of her parents that haunted her: those hopeless, despairing faces that she'd seen for only a split second before they gave way to joy and hope. No parent deserved to feel the loss of a child, even if that child was a street-slumming ne'er-do-well like Jaxan... or like herself.
She was a Solari, she reminded herself—and the Solaris always came out on top in the end. It was the Colas who would pay the "cost of doing business."
Ashon watched as Xiuyang appeared to speak her native language and secured Jaxan for the group. He shook his head toward Dorothea's direction, muttering some profanity about Ersandenisers, especially as she hit the rescue target. Instructing Seviin to help tend to Jaxan, he recommended they avoid further agonizing the situation.
"We are here for the boy, and we have him. Now kindly yash duul spax joi Yanii'jexoff," he gestured toward them dismissively.
"You Ersandenisers are all the same!" the woman with the short hair shouted.
"Wasn't it supposed to be: 'we hand you the kid, you hand us the cash' or are you White-wall dwellers exempt from holding up your end of the bargain?" She let out an exasperated noise.
"You've shot him anyways. Great job!" She glanced over at Xiuyang.
"I had thought I'd be working with professionals." Dorothea looked rather flabbergasted. The lady of Fortune must be playing the cruelest joke on her. To think their target would fall in that split second to catch the lesbian’s sentence. However the boy did not disappear into nothingness was a sense of relief.
”Oi, taca!” She shouted towards the Yasoi that was meant to be the target.
”They’ll be fine, if it actually hit there would be nothing left.” She spat on the floor with utter distaste for the dyke.
”But if I were you, you should thank him. That little gift would’ve been your one way trip to whatever one of the five hells wants you the most.” A sigh left the girl.
”Lucky for you, I don’t leave business unsettled. So let me ask you, do you want to be shot… or” her free hand would go across her throat.
”Maybe a quick slash to send a suuthi down under.” "Well?" Coca offered,
"Are you going to try to run away with the money and kill us all because you can?" She shook her head, already knowing this type.
"Or can we stop and act like adults." She paused.
"Except for that one." She jerked a thumb at Dory.
"You were aiming for me, bitch, weren't you?" She let out a low whistle.
"My oh my, you're gratuitously bloodthirsty!" It was so fast that Dory didn't sense it on time. A rush of air hit her and then a sound: a
noise, right in her ears. It was overwhelming. It bent her over and ruptured her right ear drum.
"You were saying, about my imminent death?" She was rushign forward now, brimming with energy, though whether she was headed for Dory or
past her wasn't clear yet.
Dory flinched from the sudden painful sensation followed by a ring in her head. What a utterly annoying sound given to her by an even more disgusting person.
"You bitch! You fucking peasant whore. How fucking dare you?!" A wall of invisible flames was cast between her and the broad that rushed towards her. She looked scared? Her rifle fell as a shakey hand laid on her chest.
"Please don't come any closer! I... I..." It was at about that moment that Johann came hurtling through a wall between the Eskandr and his four allies, slamming into a pillar and going limp. For all of his mighty RAS, the big man was not much of a fighter and made no pretense at being one. The colossal yasoi he'd been fighting trudged through the gap, bloody and battered but still on his feet.
"Aww shit, boss. These guys are a lot tougher than they was s'posed to be." He shook his neck and grimaced at the pain it caused.
"That guy damned near took off my head." Coca did not engage with Dory and paid her little heed now that she seemed to be temporarily neutralized. The ringleader raced for the doorway, barely acknowledging her hulking brother.
"Less talk, Daiyet, more getting the fuck outta here!" "How 'bout the cash?" he prodded, puzzled.
The orange-haired yasoi was also making a break for it.
"We tried!" he shouted.
"Fucking... Ching Chong there has him in some kind of fucked up bubble!" "We run, brothers!" the woman shouted.
"Live to fight until the next crime they blame us for. This was a resistance setup! It has to be!" The girl clicked her tongue.
"And here I made myself extra vulnerable for you only to have you ignore me." She grabbed her rifle and stowed it away, only for a handle of some sorts to appear within the hand that disappeared.
"I'm actually quite hurt, you know? Were my acting capabilities not adequate for your standards?" As her hand moved away from her chest it would seem as if she was a blade of some kind. It was straight, slender and the point turned towards the Lesbian that dared to not pay
her no mind.
"Won't you entertain me with this little squabble instead of being a sneaky, little, sound bitch." Coca stumbled to her feet, shaking off the shove and glancing over at Daiyet as he 'took care' of Seviin and Johann.
"Fuck! You really like me," the yasoi taunted.
"Why else would you be paying so much attention?" With that, she shot up into the air, trying to race past Dory.
"Not interested,!" she called, making a break for it.
"What a shame, such a shame. I wanted to have fun and all you want to do is sour my mood." The girl slashed the air a couple times as weird disruptive crescent-shaped energy bolted towards her new 'friend'.
"Guess I do really like you. You've been truly fun to play with, little criminal." "Oopsie, does that sting?" She looked at the other get hit by it with a long smirk. A couple more slashes were flung her way aimed at her leg. Might as well make this criminal a Lady of Misfortune.
The yasoi tried to deflect the sword, but it wasn't enough. The blade sliced clean through her leg and, when it wasn't there on her next step, she fell roughly, screaming, and tumbled some ways.
Immediately, Seviin broke off from her attempts to break through Xiuyang's strange barrier and made for Johann, but she paused and her eyes widened. She turned to the fleeing Coca and hit her with a powerful kinetic shove, that sent the Constantian yasoi crashing into a stack of crates.
"You savage!" she screamed, though whether her words had been directed at Coca or Dory was up for debate. She whirled and glared at the latter, still on the move, and drew near to Johann.
It was at that moment that the colossal Daiyet lifted the ground up from all around her and slammed it shut like a trap with Seviin the rat caught in the middle. This, he hurled at the fallen student.
"Two down," he crowed.
"Two more to go!" he turned his attention to Xiuyang.
"Fantas, you distract the other ginger, huh?" he commanded, sicking his younger brother on Ashon.
"If Coca's gonna puss out, that's more for us!" The yasoi tried to dodge, but she was too slow. Instead, she was caught across the side by the energetic slashes.
Inside the warehouse, Ashon had pointedly removed himself from the fight, watching with dispassionate eyes as Johann was mercilessly driven into a support beam and broken, Niallus split a man open and tore his arm off, Dory attempted to use an insidious weapon on a fleeing target, Coca was slammed into crates with bonebreaking force, and Seviin was lifted up like a toy and crushed inside of a massive ball of dirt, rocks and debris.
Then, however, there was another man looking at him: a ginger who was almost his mirror image, though not quite so heroically tall, buff, and handsome. It was Fantas.
"You uh... you're the peaceful type, right, big fella?" He grinned nervously, eyes flicking between Ashon and Daiyet, who was busy hurling the ball with Seviin inside of it at Johann in what would only be a finishing attack.
"Heh yeah. You just stay there and maybe walk out if you like, okay? No trouble, no worries. This ain't your fight, moila." The money secured to her waist, Xiuyang approached the downed yasoi, her pace urgent but cautious.
"Do you still draw breath, Moila?" Leaning on her staff, she knelt down to check his pulse. By the time Xiuyang noticed the wig, or heard Dorothea explain that the bullet must have been stopped, the bloodchild had already reached out and placed a blood mark on her, and began sapping her energy.
"Sleep," he responded calmly. Perhaps he hadn't expected a "white-wall dweller" to be familiar with the school.
He would be proven wrong.
In an instant, Xiuyang was fighting back, her staff placed across his neck. The energy drain became weaker, until Xiuyang dissolved the blood mark. Her opponent placed another, stronger one that could stick, but for all the yasoi's skill in blood magic, the privileged schoolgirl, decorated with enviable enchanted treasures, was just that much stronger in the Gift. He could hardly make any reasonable progress this way.
"Open your eyes, you little shit," Xiuyang growled, seizing his hand. For a moment, he did—and for a moment, he saw beyond the veil.
"You're at my mercy—" she seethed, struggling. Taking a breath, she continued.
"—and your allies are about to flee straight into my trap. I'll make you a deal: tell me where the real Jaxan is, and I'll declare you dead and walk away. How's that? You can be the sole survivor of this; if you lay low for a few days after their execution, you might just be able to start a new life. Lie to me, however, and I'll dedicate all of my Family's resources to hunting you down," she threatened.
"So many words," Vani'la replied.
"But it not matter. No deal." In response, Xiuyang brought her weapon close to his neck, and it began to bleed—a lot. It bled and bled, and there was no stopping it.
"My apologies. Am I speaking your language now?" she said, her eyes wide and crazed as she drew upon the hatred she'd felt during that time in Yarsoc.
"It's real simple. Tell me, where to find Jaxan." The echo of the loon's call began to fade slightly, but it was still difficult for Vani'la to see or hear anything but the illusionist pinning him down.
"You can die now, if you'd prefer," she offered.
It was chaos outside of their little bubble but, inside of it, the boy seethed and glared.
"You cunt," he snarled.
"We don't have him. Never did, but we knew everyone was just gonna blame us, so we figured we'd make some money off of it if we were gonna be cooked anyway." He was scared, though, beneath the show and through the indelible hatred that had been birthed here.
"Said he was headed for the resistance, those fucking crooks." He shook his head as much as the blade would allow.
"Spawning darklings every fucking step of the way without a care of heed. Oh, they're gonna love him." He breathed tightly, glaring.
"I dunno if he reached them. If he did, he's fucking gone. Last one who saw him was Arsii, with some one-legged hooker. They were arguing." He seemed to be gathering energy subtly as he spoke. Who
wouldn't in such a situation?
"That good enough for you before you murder my family?" "You complain of being blamed for kidnapping, but this is a reputation you've done well to earn. Stupid games, stupid prizes as the huusoi say. Should I pity you? Stroke your cheek and tell you I'm sorry for the misunderstanding? It's also rather convenient that you'd blame your enemies, you know?" Indeed, why should she believe a single word this scumbag said? The door trap said all that needed to be said: the Colas were prepared to kill them and take the money without any negotiation whatsoever. Every single word they'd said afterwards was deception, trickery, gaslighting—and now, this worm was drawing energy. It would be his final error. Subtly, Xiuyang resolved herself to finish the job, drawing the blade across his throat. Her enemies had not retreated as she'd thought they would, and further attempts to negotiate from both sides had fallen on deaf ears. Her friends were in danger, injured, and in one case, burned alive, and she couldn't afford to let Vani'la live, even though it had been her original intent. Not an ounce of trust could be afforded to these maggots.
You're becoming more like him, came the voice in the back of her mind. Was it praise? A warning? A threat?
Regardless, she ignored it. The yasoi would die.
The moment that she took his life, the protection of the call faded and Fantas came for her with everything he had and no words. A colossal pillar of fire erupted around Xiuyang, but there was more. From his palms leapt beams of heat by the dozens, feeding the inferno,
growing it.
"You murderous fucking bitch! You think doing it sneaky lets you get away with it?" "Shall I dumb this down for you fucking parasites?" Xiuyang said as the bubble faded.
"No Jaxan, no deal!" she shouted as she twirled her staff, meeting Fantas' Marhazannet with all she could muster. As it became clear that it was not going to be enough, she chemically raised her pain tolerance to stop herself from screaming uncontrollably.
"Jaxan was never here! Every word they say is a lie! Every deal is a trap! Kill them all!!" Ashon scratched his head.
“The goal was to return the Boyo to his father. Why do people keep making this more complicated?” He stuck his arm around Fanta’s shoulder and pointed toward the others.
“I mean, clearly being scrunched like that has got to hurt.” Then he pointed toward Niallus.
“Though it looked like he got more handsome.” He shook his head, then gestured toward Xiuyang, who decapitated Jaxen in front of everyone. His jaw slackened, then closed.
“And that is the girls’ first blood right there. Poca.” He smacked Fanta hard against the back of his head, pushing him onto the floor.
“Go to sleep, yaya.” There seemed to be no stopping Johann however. He drew in half of the roof and turned it into a million or so gossamer metallic threads, each sharp and slicing. This, he drew from a thousand directions onto Daiyet, but the big yasoi blasted them away with a roiling inferno. In return, he launched a massive arcane lance at the Kerreman. Johann sucked in still more energy and and launched back a solid beam of metal as if it were a laser leaping from his hands. They met and the metal splattered, congealed into shards, and hammered Daiyet, impaling and slashing at him.
Bloodied and beaten, he staggered back, but there was rage such as nobody had ever seen in the normally gentle Johann's eyes.
"I'll tear you limb from fucking limb!" he roared, standing in place. As the others watched, he began to change. Massive amounts of heat and energy rolled off of him, distorting the air and turning the sany soil into a glassy crater. Smoke and steam filled the air and, when they cleared, the young man who stood there looked totally different. Where he had always been huge, it was now loads of lean muscle as opposed to fat that covered his hulking form. He pushed off and, in less than a second, he had covered the distance between them.
Great bony protrusions sprouted from his fist as he drove it into Daiyet's ample gut. The yasoi tried to block, but his arms were snapped by the sheer force of the blow.
He healed them almost instantly and drove a powerful kick into Johann's flank, but the Kerreman's body seemed to almost
bend as it absorbed the strike. He spun away and then, somehow, he landed a hammer fist from above. It should've been impossible It should've.... Johann had grown a third temporary arm! It was drawn away to nothing in no time at all and the energy put into a colossal lightning beam that leapt from one giant's hands and plowed into the chest of the other. Daiyet smoked and twitched, stumbling backwards, but there was no mercy here, only pain.
Johann's foot connected with his head and snapped it back, spraying blood, sweat, and teeth everywhere. A slicing wind dissipated against Johann's swirling barrier of heat and cold and he emerged from it almost enritrely unscathed.
"You!" shouted Daiyet.
"What the fuck are you!?" The Kerreman said nothing. He merely stalked forward. A desperate arc lightning was absorbed and he swelled further with energy. He grabbed the giant by the shirt, reared back, and then his mouth opened. It widened. It grew impossibly wide.
Pure
D E A T H leapt from it and, when the smoke, dust, and rubble from the blast cleared, Daiyet's headless body slumped to the ground.
The colossal fireball faded and, burnt and battered, Xiuyang still stood. Then, came the sneak attack from behind: Ashon knocking him out with a single application of chemical and kinetic magic.
This was it then: a fight to the finish, in the long tradition of Ersand'Enise's relationship with Mudville. Change a name and maybe all you've changed is a name after all.
Ashon picked up the temporarily indisposed Fantas and handed him over to Pepsii to carry.
“Take him and get out of here.” Pepsii nodded, his eyes searching the ruins of the warehouse as more of these Ersandenisers poured in. For a moment, something built behind those eyes. Was it rage? Was it regret? Was it something that words could not adequately give name to? This was impossible to say, but then he nodded painfully, held out his arms, and took the unconscious boy.
Heart heavy, he was about to turn and leave, but that was when it happened.
Dory whistled, making her way toward the fallen knife-ear.
"You were blessed it seems! You resemble the Lady of Misfortune now, aren't you happy?" The sword ticked against the flooring.
Tick "Now, do you want me to kill you or perhaps we can strike a deal." Tick "I do like you, you know?" Tick But the look that she got in return was one that basically told her to fuck off.
"No, That's a shame. Guess we'll just have to part ways." The disturbance that slashed her leg off started to tear open further, the yasoi that was Coca became enveloped within it. The recently one-legged yasoi's screams and struggles were for naught, no matter what she did she ended up the same way.
"At least part ways with the you that makes you... well, you." And soon the disturbance faded back into the VOID, along with the knife-ear that she oh, so adored.
"Take pride in this, little knife-ear. I don't usually do this for anyone." The girl smiled warmly as an entity emerged from the VOID. It looked familiar to the people who were around it but it wasn't quite what they remembered. A vile creature born from another, a mere shadow of what Coca the person was.
The Void that had swallowed Coca opened back up and, from it, issued a
monstrosity: a gnarled and twisted version of something like his sister and some mockery of the Lady Vyshta, all in the form of a hideous demon. It let out a mindless screech of pain and rage, but kowtowed to its master's bidding.
That was the first thing that Seviin - freshly emerged from her deadly cocoon and gasping desperately for breath - saw. Her eyes widened in horror just as Dorothea's had widened in glee. She looked up at Niallus and over at Ashon and Xiuyang, numb and stunned. Did they support this? Had they been part of it? If they did, they were no better than the Colas and possibly worse. She staggered to her feet and began to draw energy.
Pepsii set his brother gently on the ground. He breathed in and out and nodded apologetically in Ashon's direction.
"I had hoped for a happier ending," he intoned sadly, and then he began to cast.
It started with grass that raced across the floor, and vines that snaked up the pillars. Trees and great flowers sprouted and flourished from the bodies of his fallen family and they grew. They became huge and colourful and full, but then they began to change. Where they had once represented the beauty he had seen in his siblings and friends - imagined or real - they now represented his sadness, his bitterness, his regret at lives dishonestly lived, his murderous
rage at Dorothea, who had gone only after fleeing targets and always in the most reprehensible way possible. They grew up around the monster that had once been his sister, ready to consume her.
Ashon’s expression wasn't one of disappointment; it was something worse.
“That twisted abomination is not of this world,” he declared, drawing his blades.
“I’ll help you put her to rest.” He nodded toward Pepsii, then called out to Seviin.
“Get the boy out of here,” he instructed, indicating to Fantas.
Dorothea saw another damned Yasoi prepare to engage her, this truly became tiresome. Then the betrayal of one that she would've considered rational.
"You're really going to align with the person that tried to kill us?! Have you gone mad, monkey boy!?" "Don't you remember what our task even is? We are here to find a missing boy, not being virtuous little students!" She began to cast a defensive tear in front of the monstrosity.
"We can kill it when it stops proving useful." She signalled for Zabarchazad and Arisztaxa to be ready when her supposed ally can't be reasoned with.
"Be smart about it, please." Pepsii turned to Ashon.
"Reason with this yanii," he said in Hyparish.
"Do not ruin this family of yours on account of mine." He shook his head.
"We were bad people anyhow, even if we weren't always." He strode forward.
"Come now, warlock, do your worst." Ashon looked at Dorothea grimly.
“Then dismiss her, let her soul rest. That abomination is a terror beyond death. These petty thieves are defeated; there is no need for further blood to be shed,” he urged, crossing his arms.
“There is no honor in what you have done. Cease your actions.” "Can you guarantee this one to actually stop?" She pointed towards Pepsii before something that she could not stomach.
"Honor? You care about honor around these evil people?" Whilst she talked Zabarchazad closed in towards the unconscious Fantas only to drag them down into the VOID, keeping them safe from any other person.
She shot a look towards her 'countryman'
"Johann, at least you could see the worth in having it stay until all matters are resolved, right? I am trying to have them see the light." Ashon raised an eyebrow.
“We outnumber him,” he said, thumbing toward Pepsii.
“He was about to leave when you decided to do that to his family,” he gestured toward the abomination.
“So kindly stop being a taca and return that thing from where it came, and put an end to this.” This was the sort of person who made all unconventional thaumaturges look bad, but -
oh - how powerful she was! Johann considered.
"Strategically, you are as astute as ever," he agreed,
"but this is a moral and religious matter as well. She has a soul that needs to be released to wherever it will go." He glanced over at the massive, headless corpse of Daiyet.
"Don't we honour our fallen enemies back home?" This was an undesirable situation to be in and he worked to suppress a scowl.
For Dami's sake, read the room! You can always summon another less publicly later. That was not the reaction she hoped for from the only rational person in the group.
"You are right with that, I suppose." There was no way out of this it seemed. Her blade readied. Her hand caressed her recently made companion's cheek.
"You truly deserved better, but these people do not wish for you to live." "Your soul is strong, may it prosper." After one final
swipe across the other's cheek her hand left. One swing and the beast was without it's head. Dory looked... saddened? . . She let out a displeased glare at the monkey boy before moving onto the only one that made some lick of sense.
"You owe me an entire night of beer if we end up in a situation where she would've been helpful, got it?" And the body would fade back into the VOID, soulless and away from this world.
"Does this please you, mister high morality?" If the standoff between Ashon and Dory had been brought to an abrupt close, the situation was far from over. Fantas had been stolen through the void while they weren't looking. This witch's evil truly knew no end and she would care not in the slightest for any moral or even practical argument. There was only the threat of death remaining. The eldest of the siblings teleported in beside her.
"Let my brother free from that prison unharmed," he said simply,
"or I will blow this entire place up, with you, your demons, and your friends. We were bad, but I've seen the face of true evil today." He let out a snort of ironic laughter and began to glow.
"It'll be nice to be the hero for once." Dory smirked.
"Not so fast, friend." She turned around slowly to not cause any aggression from the other.
"There is no need to blow everything up, for if you kill me here... Your brother will face the same fate as your sister and then there will be no one to save them from said fate." Her hand extended towards him.
"But I can just return your brother to you, so how about we make a deal for it?" Pepsii's glow intensified.
"You speak and say nothing," he replied.
"I'm waiting." There was absolutely no way he would shake the witch's hand. She could either choose to return the yasoi or die. That was it.
Xiuyang backed away, severely battered and burned, frightened by the power that reminded her of the dragons in ReTan. She would not stop the behemoth of a man from burying his sister. She had the money, and had been attacked and tricked multiple times. Feeling like a target, she moved to the outer edge of the conflict. She rushed to Abdel's side and whispered to him in hushed tone. She didn't bother to play up the accent—he knew who she was.
"The hostage was another Cola brother. Before he tried to kill me, he confessed strange things to me. We might be able to find Jaxan, but I don't want her with us. How do we lose her?" She gestured towards Dorothea as she slowly patched what she could of her burns.
Seviin stood there listlessly for a moment. She breathed gratefully. Then, she twisted about and laid her hands upon Niallus.
"Oirase Aloi, Seviin siin joi juu wast p'oilan." She closed her eyes and a soothing feeling raced through him. Burnt and damaged skin, an angry, bleeding red, gave way as fresh new skin, pure and pale, raced to cover his wounds.
"Be healed, friend." She drew back, and he was. She turned and walked over to Johann. He, too, she laid her hands upon.
"Stay your anger, moila. You are safe now. Exiran has taken him." Abdel was still healing his lacerated flank and arm when Xiuyang had joined him. Ever the vigilant Tethered, once the big distraction named Pepsii was gone, he could piece together the current mess his senses gathered. Most notably the wicked and dense magic, one he had learned or at least a year now to be dark magic, was sicked upon one of the hooligans.
“The eldest pinned it on the resistance.” answered Abdel without the trouble of hushing up. They were very much at the edge of the battlefield, and the sounds of war caught most outliers' attentions.
“Did you hear something similar?” once his wound healed and his plain apparel knitted back together, he peered the Rettanese-Revidian's way.
“If so, we could gather those we need and leave while this bordello solves itself.” he figured, nonchalant to the chaos unfolding.
But then he let a half-hearted chuckle escape him.
“What troubles you so much about her?” he did not seem amused, but instead pensive - a true pokerface barring the force smile when speaking.
“A monster might be what we need to deal with other unsavory creatures.” once again, his eyes were made to meet Salomé's.
“Would you save this woman that caused you grief if you could?” The Skuggvars were there, Abdel was ready, they could leave right now if they so wished. But he seemed more interested in knowing Xiuyang's position in all of this.
Seviin could not bear to look at what had become of the criminal woman.
Bad deeds, bad ends. Yet, she also saw Dorothea, beyond a doubt, for the creature that she truly was. This was not the heat of battle, this was a deep illness of the soul and there was no cure for it in this life. It was Seviin who interrupted Abdel.
"I would. It is not ours to decide who lives and who dies, merely to respond as we are treated." Her hands found his side and sped up his healing until the wounds were gone.
"She was a bad a person, but nobody deserves this fate, ever." There was still Xiuyang left, and Seviin hesitated for a moment, uncertainty in her eyes. Then, she reached for the Retanese as she had the others.
"I will answer your question, Xiuyang Solari," she replied beatifically, but her hands trembled as she spoke.
"The only way is death." Soothing energies worked their way through Xiuyang's body after those words. Did they feel any different than they should have?
"Yes, he said the same thing to me," Xiuyang replied to Abdel.
"From the sound of things... in the worst case, they may be... keeping him as an aberration generator." She squirmed at the notion.
"We may need monsters, perhaps, but dark magic? ...I hate it," she confessed.
"I've seen the VOID. Its secrets should be buried," she insisted, as one who had been swallowed by it during the Trials surely would.
She turned to look at what was left of the girl who, like her, had tried to play ringleader and paid the price.
"She dealt dishonestly at every turn. I was going to give her the money, forge an escape route for them if that wasn't enough of a bargaining chip. I had a ship ready and everything. I showed her far more kindness than she deserved... but even she doesn't deserve this fate, Abdel. All of us are good people, some with a few issues... but that woman is different. Can you not feel it? How she hates the yasoi, and takes shots at the vulnerable and fleeing." Then, there was Seviin, healing what Xiuyang could not herself. From the beginning, the preachy girl had been more useful than the pragmatic Rettanese expected her to be. Rather, had she been even the slightest bit preachy since this whole ordeal had started? Her presence had become almost soothing, even... ...and then, there was what she
said. Xiuyang's blood turned a bit cold. She glanced at Abdel to see his reaction.
"We... It's not that simple a matter. What are you suggesting?" she replied, still whispering. Her eyes were locked on to Seviin's, inquisitive, but not judging.
Seviin shook her head sadly.
"Mother Oirase brings us all into the world with love." The burned faded from Xiuyang's skin. Surely, she'd have been able to heal these wounds herself, but the act of having another do it - another
care for you - was somehow a better thing.
"I am not saying that we should kill her, but for the way that she is, death is the only cure." She pulled her hands back and wiped a single small tear from her cheek, straightening.
"That is the Gods-honest truth." She tilted her head in consideration.
"For now, we must be a united front, not violent, but drawing a line against such abomination." She looked meaningfully at Abdel.
"...Right," she offered, unnerved all the same. Perhaps it was her own family's legacy, her own darker nature at play, but she could have sworn that it seemed as if Seviin wanted her to arrange for Dorothea's "accidental" death, somehow. Perhaps she was fishing for some trick Xiuyang may have had up her sleeve... and in truth, she had two more cards to play, but now didn't seem to be the time to lay them on the table. This entire venture with the Colas appeared to be a waste of time and effort, and it was time to end it.
"Thank you," she hastily added.
"I mean it." "But your assurances do not reach your eyes," Seviin replied sadly.
"I am sorry." Xiuyang's eyes widened, taken aback.
"No, really! I know you care, and I trust your judgment. It's just... showing sincerity is hard, for me. No one trusts a Revidian, or a Rettanese." As if to prove her point, her eyes involuntarily averted themselves.
"...Jamboi needs my help," she said hastily, taking off.
Many appeals to emotion, some reasonable, some Abdel took issue with. Seviin's intervention was sweetened with her thoughtful assistance in the healing process, but sentimentality wasn't something this young man was going to afford.
That said, the binary nature of their options didn't sit well with him.
“She is a problem, but not one we should necessarily direct toward us. If anything, despite the alienation, this has been to our benefit.” he looked at the carnage that was happening, and chaos and destruction.
“Well, sort of. Still, I'm of the mind that we finish this job and don't get on her bad side. Keep her as a boon.” very utilitarian of him, but the concern in his expression he tried hard, and failed, to keep cool sold out his own anxieties.
“As for the Cola woman ...” she sighed, annoyed at the fact that what he was going to propose may very well complicate everything. But, alas, Seviin's approach to thing left him feeling as though he owed some humanity to the moment.
“We do have experts on the subject in our current cohort, do we not? The short ones from the desert. If anyone can rectify VOID-bound issues, it could be them.” “... Nevermind.” "As you say, Abdel Varga." Xiuyang had darted off, afraid of Shiin's truth, and it was the two of them alone. She watched him for an extended moment as Dory sliced the beast's head off, before turning to regard the developing situation there. She had no further words for him.
Xiuyang stalked up to Ashon and grabbed him by the arm.
"He's giving us time to get away," she hissed.
"She's insane. Let's just leave." But did that boy, before you killed him? Seviin wondered
or was it self-defense? It took unusual restraint to hold herself back from saying it. The priestess would never deny the gift of Mother Oirase to a living, sentient being, but she could not remain with these people in good conscience.
Perhaps the masked woman who had proven to be Xiuyang was not inevitably bound for hell. She had shown some capacity for doing right at the eleventh hour but she had also taken that boy hostage in some sort of spatial bubble and, while Seviin had not
witnessed the act, he now lay there dead with a slice across his neck. Unless the Retanese had a very good explanation...
This was not somebody who Seviin would choose to work with.
Abdel's response to Dory's brazen acts of evil had been eye-opening as well. He had wanted to keep the Feskan as an unpunished ally and wished for the monstrosity to persist. He had to have known very well that there was no curing such a condition and, if he did not, he was foolish in addition to his cruelty. Either way...
This was not somebody who Seviin would choose to work with.
Lunara had proven amply willing to spill blood over trivial matters and Johann had killed, though in the heat of battle, as Niallus had maimed. Of Oksana, she knew next to nothing. Healing was her priority, so she had done it, but she remembered Ashon's words as well.
Fantas was nowhere to be found and, as she listened to the drama playing out a short ways away, the reason became horrifyingly clear. It was not the first time that such an anger had built up in Seviin, but she had always managed to find Mother Oirase and Lady Ypti.
I am sorry, Ashon. I am sorry, Fantas. I should have been better. I should have acted quicker. She closed her eyes tightly for a moment.
"Mother Oirase, forgive me. I have failed you," she whispered to herself but, truly, to them.
There was yet one more to save, however, and she rushed over to heal this final target: the thug who Niallus had nearly torn apart. When she reached the desperately wounded man, he was in a sorry state. He had tried to sneak up on Niallus for some final act of revenge, but he had failed. He lay on the ground, his side burnt and blasted and carved open, his left arm gone.
"You stay away, Tarlonese bitch!" he rasped, but there was nothing he could do. She simply knelt.
"You will live," She said.
"Fuck you," he spat.
"Exiran has me already. Do not take me from his -" His words cut off in a choked gasp of pain. Behind her, the situation was worsening. People would die and she did not have any time to waste. She began to heal.
"You will live," she insisted, hands shaking.
He tried to swat at her head as his strength returned.
"No! Fuck you!" he howled.
"What kind of life is this? One arm, a record nobody will trust, and everyone I know dead in this fucking shithole? Take your mercy and shove it up your holy snatch." "Father Damy gives us the right to act hurtfully." She swallowed.
"Stop!" he screamed, and then Seviin was out of time. There was a greater need. She stumbled back listlessly and began drawing with every
ounce of her capacity. Mostly healed to the extent that he
could be, the one-armed man began racing for Niallus, doing his best to kill the Eskandr or die trying.
"Niallus!" Seviin shouted,
"On guard!" Still, she drew, as Dory smiled with a beatific smugness and continued to hold out her hand, as Daiyet lay dead on the ground, Pepsii glowed brighter and brighter and his energy became unbearable, as Mentos hurtled towards the scene bent on a glorious death. Great walls of stone and debris began to form all around the scene, and between her friends and the now-inevitable blast.
Dory did not return Fantas. Vani'la'cola and the
thing that had been Coca'cola lay there dead. The walls grew higher and firmer. Pepsii looked Dory right in the eyes. He turned both of his hands up and raised his middle fingers.
"Eat shit, Yanii bitch." He erupted.
Xiuyang saw it before it happened. Ten seconds was not enough time to get away. Nothing needed to be said: Seviin was already working on a barrier, and Xiuyang sprang into action to support it with her own magic. She ran to Seviin's side, leaving Niallus in the hands of Eshiran.
There's the Seviin I know, saving someone worthless, she thought. It was always when faced with death that she found the oddest thoughts crossing her mind.
Sweat poured down her face as she struggled with the immense power. Then, horror: Ashon's skull was obliterated in front of her eyes. Xiuyang froze. How could this—
"NO!!" She let out a primal shriek, reaching out in front of him to do... something. Anything! He couldn't die here, not now, not before he had the chance to hold his own child in his arms—
It was a brick. A loathsome, stray brick from the street, as wholly mundane as any brick could be, as if it had been picked up by one of the Cola brothers themselves and thrown at them out of spite. In reaching out with her hand, Xiuyang found it broken—but a broken hand had just saved Ashon's stupid face. His stupid, handsome, lovable face.
Then, it was over, and Xiuyang collapsed onto the ground, practically convulsing from the pain and the general strain on her body. Remarkably, almost nothing around them had been destroyed: the others must have directed their Gifts toward deflecting the energy of the blast into the sky.
But not Xiuyang. She needed to live, and Ashon needed to live, and Seviin, and Abdel, and Johann... This dump of a neighborhood, the biggest hotbed of crime nestled within Mudville like some kind of tumor, could burn along with the Colas if that was what it took to save the ones she cared about. The others were fools to prioritize the locals... but perhaps their foolishness was what made them endearing, in the end.
Darkness had coated the girl except for her face which she tried to keep up to potentially reason with him, but alas it seemed like he was determined to throw his life away. The weight of desperation and urgency hung in the air. She could feel the oppressive heat of the Yasoi's imminent eruption.
“You suicidal oaf! You’ll die for-” Her voice, a blend of anger and fear, cut through the tension. Her words, however, fell on deaf ears. He didn’t hear her out, not too different from what everyone else did.
The last bit of what people could see of Dory’s form became shrouded as the Yasoi erupted. In that split second. The energy released was fierce and uncontrollable, begun to be sucked into the darkness as a cocoon of VOID energy. However, it could only suck up so much. The sheer force and magnitude of the explosion pushed her barrier to its limit.
Her mind raced, accommodating for any imperfections in her ‘coating.’ Any tiny flaw, any moment of weakness, and she’d be turned to dust. It made her heart pound like a war drum. The energy battered her shield relentlessly. The thoughts around feeling that heat was unbearable. When the explosion finally subsided, the silence that followed was deafening. Her body trembled, a weak smile plastered on her face for her survival. She looked around, eyes wide with the realization of how little destruction there actually was.
The entire ordeal felt like an eternity even if it barely lasted a couple seconds.
”Nothing. . .” Dory began to be fully visible once more. She stared at her hands, before touching her face. The shock dissipated and her weak smile turned into pure elation.
”Heh. . . Hahahaha, I told you!” She kicked in front of her as if she kicked the lingering spirit of Pepsii.
”Not a scratch! I told you, but you didn’t want to listen.” She embraced herself, took in the air and laughed at her own survival.
Slowly, Xiuyang healed her broken fingers and shattered wrist. No longer was she shaking from the pain, but rather, pure rage. If the Colas hadn't been stopped from fleeing, it all could have gone off without a hitch. Her plan had been perfect, and not only did this bitch ruin it, she'd nearly got Ashon killed. She waited for some sign of unity from the others against Dory. She waited, and not only did that sign never come, she found a few side-eyes cast her way as well.
Of course. Let the wealthy and powerful noble who ruined everything get off scot-free, blame the conveniently-placed nameless mercenary. Cowards. Her rage, rational or not, boiled over until she could barely contain it. Rather than speak, she wisely reached for her medicine of choice: alcohol. She took a long chug from her gourd, then poured one out for the Colas.
You know what. Fuck this. She walked over to Abdel and unceremoniously dropped the money box at his feet.
"You want to work with her? Well, I don't. I'll see myself out," she said plainly, unwilling to speak further as she was obviously holding back some complicated feelings.
"Well, there's no Jaxan here. You kids do whatever it is you do after beating the bad guys," she said, raising her voice so the others could hear.
"Goodbye." With a curt wave, she left without even looking at them.
