[center][img]http://txt-dynamic.static.1001fonts.net/txt/b3RmLjEyOC5lN2ViZTYuUVcxaGNuVERyV0UsLjA,/old-type-personal-use.regular.png[/img]

[color=gray][i][b]Sin, The 7 Sins, The Sinner, Pride, Gluttony, Wrath, Envy, Sloth, Lust, Greed[/b][/i][/color]
2 MP, Level 4

[img]http://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/253784f7-b755-41ef-b248-616664056bb6.png[/img]
[colour=antiquewhite]5 Khookies[/colour][/center]

Silence.

Silence caressed Sin's skin like a cool summer breeze, smoothing his soul, taking away his jagged edges. All that could be hard was the constant [i]whomp....whomp....whomp....whomp....[/i] of the Victors cadence on stone. All that could be seen, was the hundreds of eyes at scrutinized Amartía and his army. 

Sin walked confidently in front of the Victors, his head held high. He was clad in [url= http://www.ancientmilitary.com/images/egyptian-weapons.jpg  ]silk armor[/url], sleeveless, compact, free, plain and short in design, just like that of his followers. Amartía wore armor similar to that of his former captors. He found it perfect, and nearly extremely effective, made by the silk of the spider who he took from Chronos. By taking one of the Victors silken masterpieces, he was able to recreate the beauty with the same, raw bundle of silk. Amartía was slowly beginning to truly understand the Sanguine Stone's power.

Every movement was calculated, measured, fluid and executed. His eyes were hard and filled with disdain. Unlike the pristine cleanliness of his Xerxes had grown dirty.  The streets spat up dust that clung to his clothes. Big beams crossed and recrossed the white facades of its buildings, and its roofs were made of wooden shingles or thatch. Carts creaked as their drivers watching him wide eyed. The city shimmered in the heat, but it did not stink like as he had expected it to.

Much to his surprise, its people were not gaunt and foul smelling. Militiamen, uniformed and orderly began to organize themselves at the end of the street, sword belts ready for a fight. Amartía smiled. The mere thought of going up against the army that took him out must have scared them. The their newly transmuted [url= https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTeXHR4opFyiS5-mFEJNt3XRPqRokBw1qsYQNL0NK9_Mgcd4Lpj] iOuroboros[/url] symbol glinting on thier backs. But the hulking mass of walking stone must have filled them with dread. 

Sin raised his hand for his entourage to halt, only a few good yards away from the Militia.

A faint breeze whispered, rippling the ties of the bandannas and masks that left only eyes to look back across the street. The moment was surreal. Different day, different street, and a different army, but deja vu set in all too easily. Blink, and you could see the City as it was, when Amartia was Énas.

In the distance, a violin hum slowly increased its pitch.

From the fore, a man with a tarnished wire badge dotted with garnets stepped up. Closing in, he could hear his own pulse, tension teetering on the edge of seeing everything he'd worked and been worked for unravel. With deliberate will stifling the trembles he had last felt as a soldier under the King, Sen raised a hand. "No further. Explain yourselves."

[I]Explain yourselves?[/i] She'ma's eyes narrowed. Hadn't Sin said something about this being his city. The former priestess gazed at Amartía's broadened back, which seemed to straighten like a wooden board. 

[color=Crimson]"So my augur rings true,"[/color] Sin cooed, smiling at the badged official.

[color=Crimson]"What exactly do you want me to say boy? That I'm a king, parading his army through enemy territory? Or do you wish for me to tell you that I wish to speak to your leader to draft a term for surrender?"[/color]

"The truth. Whatever that is. You'll answer to the Blowfly either way." Behind him, a soldier to the rear of his party turned her back and lifted her sickle-sword, glinting reflected sunlight towards the rising sound of ophanim, signalling. Four orbs had appeared on the horizon. "And don't play games. Be quick about it."

Amartía turned his head to the sky, squinting at the rotating vehicles that gyrated towards them in the distance. Jvanic entities? He couldn't tell. 

Sin turned back to the official and grinned. [colorCrimson]"Your threats mean little to me, and I would refrain from doing so again. This Blowfly, it leads you? I want to meet it."[/color ]

Behind him, the Victors stood unmoving, but their spears sat comfortably in their hands, ready for a fight.

[i]And still no answer,[/i] thought Sen, looking over the army that stared down his meagre squad. Well, he had warned them to be quick. "Alright. You will." Then, raising his voice only slightly, "Scatter."

In a moment long trained for, the troop split into pairs and fours and dissolved at a sprint into the alleys, leaping roofs where they had to. Only the rotfly at the back remained, and then only for long enough to raise both arms, shout, bolt the other way before she threw herself to the ground.

An ophan shadowed the sun.

Careening into the street, the titan of a creature flattened the front half of houses on both sides of the open road, crossing its entire length in some two seconds before forcing a wave of dirt and rubble over the Victor army as it abruptly came to a complete halt. Within an instant, the far end of the road was blocked in the exact same way. The remaining two hovered like raised hammers over the army.

Tauga slipped down from above and crouched on the top of the first ophan, looked, then drew her scalpel. From behind her mask, she spoke without tone or tension. [colour=antiquewhite]"What is this? Why. Who."[/colour]

She'ma's heart pounded as the unusual mechanisms whriled and shrieked. Destroying and maneuvering. It was beyond her, but she remained ready. As the first mechanism appeared, She'ma had ripped a bottle of sheep blood from her belt, attempting to start a summoning ritual. 

It was Amartía posture that stopped her in her tracks. Sin stood stoicly, a deadpan expression on his face. He didn't even flinch as a plume of dirt and dust washed over them. He simply dusted himself off before turning to the unusual being that appeared before them.

[color=Crimson]"Im assuming you're Blowfly."[/color] She nodded. Amartía sighed as he gazed at the rotating vehicles that now surrounded his army. Contingencies could be made.

[color=Crimson]"Why you ask? I'm talking back whats mine. Who? I am an Emperor."[/color]

[colour=antiquewhite]"What's yours,"[/colour] copied Tauga, chewing on the words without swallowing. She let her ghostly tendrils trace the faces of the warriors before her, tasting many things foreign and one thing familiar. [colour=antiquewhite]"You're an..."[/colour] Implications began to resolve themselves in her head.

[colour=antiquewhite]"No. No you aren't."[/colour] The words were coming faster now, defensive against her own thoughts. [colour=antiquewhite]"You're a Whitemask with a Whitemask army. Only the Énas had a claim to the City and the Énas Amartia is dead with all his heirs. You're just a thief. You're just here to steal what I've earned. Admit that and go."[/colour]

For a moment Amartía was silent. Astounded by the words of the Blowfly. That silence was quickly broken by the sound of his maniacal laughter. Tears flowed from his eyes as his bellows began to ease and soon silence became the only medium between them.

[color=Crimson]"Who told you I was dead? Did you investigate? Did you find my skewered body rotting in The Cipher? Or perhaps the gods told you of my death?"[/color] Amartía jibbed, shaking his head at the young ruler. 

[colour=antiquewhite]"I- Just-"[/colour] Tongue too numb to move.

[color=Crimson]"I vex you no longer, I am not dead, far from it. We may be soon enough if events continue along as I predicted. But as of now no."[/color]

Sin glanced at the rotating mechanisms one more before returning his gaze back to Blowfly. [color=Crimson]"I am no thief, I come for what I have created, what has always been mine. What will you do?"[/color]

[colour=antiquewhite]"What will I do,"[/colour] whispered Tauga. She was still holding her sword. Not gripping, just letting it rest in her fingers, as if she'd forgotten it was there. She had. What threat of bloodshed was vested in the tactical advantage she still held evaporated. The will to fight had gone.

Giving up much of the intimidation she'd set into her stance, Tauga shuffled vacantly into a cross-legged position, hugging her shins and resting her head on her knee. What would she do? What had she been [i]planning[/i] to do? Just keep on working, keep on being the Blowfly? That was what she assumed, and there hadn't been any reason not to. Now, there... Was.

Bits and pieces of empty future fell down around her head and she could hear them crash. Her eyes weren't focused any more, and the immediate reason Tauga was here went fuzzy in her head.

[colour=antiquewhite]"I don't know,"[/colour] she said plainly, answering a question far broader than what Amartia had perhaps intended to ask. [colour=antiquewhite]"I'll figure something out."[/colour] She rested her head on her other knee, panning her view of the City with her other set of eyes and wondering if things would go back to the way they were. [colour=antiquewhite]"Again."[/colour]

Pity cut through Amartía like a knife. He had respect for the child, respect for ambition, respect for what would be left of her life.

Sin let out a ragged breath, gazing past the Blowfly and looked towards the crowd that gathered behind her. They respected her, feared, even revered her. If Sin wasn't so preoccupied with preparing for war, he would have felt Envy and most likely killed the upstart leader. But Amartía knew his limits. The preparation war Amartía prepared for, involved no mortal army, they were incapable of fighting gods. 

He knew that he could not lead, and create such an army. Sin smiled, this is were the Blowfly came in.

[color=Crimson]"Blowfly. I only return to protect what is mine, my creation. In order to do that, I must do what is beyond your capacity to understand. I cannot rule, and create the impossible at the same time. My daughter, do not fret, for your role as Blowfly is not over, far from it. You will be my right hand, my second in command. My White Officer,"[/color] Sin proclaimed, raising his voice higher and higher as he spoke.

[color=Crimson]"Now what will you do?"[/color]

A question without a choice, indeed. The figuring out had been done for her. Tauga breathed and turned a page, her feelings as limpid as ever, and let the chapter of the last few months die and be left behind. Her thoughts, meanwhile, were turning back to the pragmatic. All that really mattered. 

She sheathed her blade. [colour=antiquewhite]"I'll do what I can."[/colour] As always. Something flicked in the air, and the Bludgeons blocking both ends of the road rose suddenly into the sky, flinging her up with them, and, in a moment, she let herself back down. Without her mount, Tauga was startlingly small before the Victors, or at least those that weren't hain. It occurred to her that she should bow, but she didn't know how to do so, and just rested a hand on her neck.

[colour=antiquewhite]"I'm Tauga. Things have changed,"[/colour] came a simple verdict. [colour=antiquewhite]"I guess there's a lot to say."[/colour] Tauga didn't know where to start, though.

Amartía remained silent as his mind drove elsewhere, planning and creating, working and testing. So much to do.

Sin returned his gaze to the Blowfly, his eyes hard for reasons even unknown to him. [color=Crimson]"Tauga. Your right, there is not much to say. There is only work."[/color] He huffed as he started past her, but stopped at her shoulder. [color=Crimson]"And we start now."[/color]

A nod. Tauga flicked her wrist towards the reappearing figures of the Rotflies, signalling them to come, then whistled for Pumps. The Ophanim returned to their circling perch in the heavens. [colour=antiquewhite][i]No rest for the dead.[/i][/colour]

[hider=Welcome-back party]Amartia marches the Victors back into Xerxes. His army is briefly addressed by Sen and a few Rotflies, who do not immediately recognise him, only to receive no guarantee of peaceful conduct. At a signal, they are more aggressively met by Tauga. After some brief discussion of reclamation, Tauga cedes authority back to Amartia and feels lost as to what she'll do next. Amartia nominates her as his officer and she duly accepts.[/hider]