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Realistic or Modern BEING HUMAN

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Roland Fairchild
Flooded Street

"Impossible..." Arryn muttered from his position over by the three women and Lucrezia's corpse. Outwardly, he betrayed no signs of agitation, but his voice was tense and there was a tightness to the corners of his mouth that anyone who knew him well would recognize. As he spoke, he moved subtly to put himself between Elena and Lucien's spell. "We beheaded you. I thrust aside your lifeless body myself."

Roland paid no more attention to the dark angel nor his spell. He narrowed his eyes instead at the High Sentinel. You were to stay out of sight? What was that supposed to mean? Staxos had always been inflexible and intolerable, as incapable of bending as old, brittle iron and in many ways just as prone to cracks and shatters, but Roland never would have pegged him for a traitor. Too hungry for power, perhaps, but not a traitor.

"Explain yourself, High Sentinel," Roland said grimly. "What is the meaning of this?" He had a feeling he already knew the answer, and it was not one he liked.

He wondered, not for the first time since regaining Shadowsbane, if his sister was still alright.

Avari Avari
 
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Juniper Arc
???? Street

Juniper paused, the glass shard drawing a thin line of blood as it broke the skin. Someone...someone was saying something. Her name, someone was trying to tell her something. She turned, eyes still blank and red with tears, to Raijin and spoke in a strained yet eerily calm voice "Her death is on me. My failure caused this. I have no right to continue living while she does not." Something grabbed her clenched hand, something warm that slowly forced the shard away from her neck. She turned to look at the woman, a small echo of her mind recognizing her as Morgana before she tried to lift the shard again. Morgana's hand kept it away however as she weakly struggled against her. "No. I-i failed her. She's dead because of me. Because she trusted me to protect her, to keep her safe. Her hand was shaking as she began heaving "I couldn't protect her. I couldn't....." Juniper stopped, choked up on her own words as a small flash of light returned to her eyes.

"Why?" She sobbed, releasing her grip on the glass shard, "What right did I have to live?" She clenched her free hand as she looked Morgana in her eyes. "I'm weak. I couldn't even hold a fraction of her power. So why," She clenched her eyes shut and gritted her teeth "Why do I get to live while she dies!" She threw her arms around Morgana's shoulders, burying her face into her shoulder as she sobbed. "Why? Why?" she repeated as her tears soaked the woman's shoulder. "I'm scared Morgan. I don't know what to do." her voice came out like a whisper as she slowly put more of her weight onto Morgan. It was getting hard to keep her eyes open, her eyelids felt like they each weighted a ton and her body felt like it was surrounded by ice. "I feel so tired Morgan. everything is starting to blur. You need to get the others out of here while you still can. I would only slow you all down."

A crack of thunder and a flash of jagged lighting struck the street sending chunks of rock and stone flying everywhere. Juniper managed to close her eyes to prevent any of the smaller pieces from damaging her eyes. When the dust settled a lean looking man was in the middle of it with two large black wings jutting out from behind him. No, it wasn't possible. Lucien, one of her queens generals, was standing right below the man who killed her and was laughing. Did he betray her queen and allied with the church of light? He rose into the air alongside the priest and black energy flowed from his hand. Struggling to stand she shakily got to her feet. "Lucien, why have you've betrayed us?" She yelled as she threw her arm to the side "How can you side with them after everything that the queen has done for us?!"

Interacting: Avari Avari , koala koala , QizPizza QizPizza
 
The High Sentinel bowed his head, his golden mask and spear glittering in the light of the smoldering fires below.

"Forgive me Lord Fairchild. I take no pleasure in this...most morbid of necessities. The Church is grateful to you for your years of exceptional service; Indeed! though you have been burdened with a terrible duty at such a young age you pursued your goals with ruthless efficiency. Thanks to the influence of that holy relic you wield, the might of the Church has increased tenfold and our light - our beautiful, blinding light - has reached every corner of Aether. The story of the Hero making his last stand against the mad-queen will be told for time immemorial! And with Shadowbane in hand there will no longer be a power that can stand against us - The unclean shall be purged and Aether will become our paradise and a monument to our creator, the blessed Meyneth!"

"He's saying that you're far too dangerous to live and he's gonna make you a martyr." Lucien added unnecessarily.

"Your noble sacrifice will be sung of for generations!" Staxos continued, spreading his arms wide out in prayer. "You should rejoice."

Juniper struggled to her feet and yelled at Lucien, who blinked in annoyance.

"How can you side with them after everything that the queen has done for us?!"

"Lucrezia was the one to betray me!" he snarled back and the Dark Magic that was growing ever gave a ominous pulse. "I loved her more than your feeble human mind could possibly comprehend and I did more for her than you will ever know! And yet, she left me to die despite centuries of devotion. She never listened to my counsel or advice - she could have ended the war in a day if she had wished it, and she did not! All she did was surround herself with inferiors and fools! She refused to listen to me when I said I had found a way for us to infiltrate Alcamoth and wipe out our enemy! Even when I took the initiative and attacked that miserable city without her permission; it was out of love for her! I just wanted her to see me! But she never did and she sent me to die without a second thought!"

-

MagicPenguin MagicPenguin
Shotgunpenguin Shotgunpenguin
 
Roland Fairchild
Flooded Street

"I always knew you were delusional, but I never thought you were stupid." Roland responded. "You say you betray me--your sovereign lord that you are sworn to serve--for the sake of the Light, for the sake of 'purging the unclean,' while at the same time you ally yourself with a worthless toad like Lucien? What a sick joke. The crime of treason against Alcamoth can only be met with death."

Roland planted his feet and raised his sword, preparing himself to fight with everything he had. There was little hope he could prevail with Staxos as overpowered as he was, but there was no hope of escape and hell if Roland was going to give in without a fight. If Staxos wanted Shadowsbane so badly, he was going to have to work for it; maybe Roland could give it to him right through his stupid, glowing chest. "As Alcamoth's Prince, it falls to me to carry out your execution. I'm going to mount your hypocritical head on a spike, Staxos, as only befits one who would betray everything he is supposed to stand for. Since you seem so enamored with him, I'll mount Lucien's head right next to yours when I display them both over Alcamoth's walls so no one who sees them can deny that your only true loyalty in life lay in the deepest depths of the Shadow. If you have final words, I would hear them now, snake."

Avari Avari
 

Loading ELENA & MORGANA. . .

A jumbled mess escaped Elena's lips as she tried to stop Ana from leaving. The spider-like female only disappeared as quickly as she spoke her stance, saying something along the lines of "see you soon" and "stay safe", which translated to "I'm going to do something dangerous" in the blonde's head. Elena believed her flatmate her flatmate would be alright though--she had to. From everything she'd learned over the last month, through the confusion and repeated denial and all, Ana was more than capable of taking care of herself.

Instead of pondering about, however, Elena nodded at Arryn's words and followed him towards the group of females and well... a dead, supposedly former Shadow Queen, Lucrezia. She attempted to shield her eyes from the sight for fear of sparking the shock she'd felt only moments ago, but her idiot human tendency was to obviously stare until a brunette with amber orbs practically glared at her to death.

Coughing, Elena shuffled closer to Arryn's side while masking a portion of her body behind his. She only stepped up at the mention of helping the injured away before a lack and crackle of thunder shook the earth beneath her. A man made his appearance under Staxos, whose were nearly longer than she was in height. Her first instinct was to once again, move close to her male friend and grab onto his arm, eyes wide with confusion.

What a plot twist... The woman thought as she felt her knees begin to shake. She'd looked from Arryn's face to the dark stranger, only to be surprised by her friend's expression. It wasn't anything she'd recognized before and it honestly frightened her.

"Lucien, why have you've betrayed us? How can you side with them after everything that the queen has done for us?!" The red-headed woman had cried, her neck slightly read from the place she'd cut herself.

"I should've ripped your wings off long ago." The brunette woman that had glared at Elena snarled, eyes still the epitome of death. The woman let go of Lucrezia's body and gently laid her head on the waitress's lap before standing up.

Elena watched as the spectator she was, observing everyone interacting with each other. The writer in her began playing out many scenarios in her head--many of them less than appealing.
Location: Streets of Covent Garden

Date: --

Time: Too crazy to tell

Mentions: Everyone

Interacting: Arryn MagicPenguin MagicPenguin , Everyone let's be honest
 
Tannur - The place where yet more s**t is going down

Turning his stare on Raijin as he declared he was now in charge and joined the hero in beseeching him to surrender, as much as he wanted to see the hero bleed out in the gutter he wasn't going to get the chance to do it in a fair(ish) fight today and without something to distract Staxos escape would off the table even if they were all uninjured but with Silver only just having managed to stand for a moment before falling again and having an emotional breakdown. "Fine..." It wasn't like he hadn't escaped from prisons before, he went to toss his weapon at the hero's feet but froze when someone decided the entire thing was one big joke.

Once the newcomer revealed himself it took Tannur a moment to recognise him as Lucien, he had seen the dark angel a few times back when he was still acting as a mercenary but Lucien had been pretty much absent once Tannur finally joined the inner circle. "So is there anyone that isn't getting double-crossed right now? Yet another bastard in power who can't handle not being on top and you Lucien, you're just here to kill everyone over your childish infatuation and you allowed Lucrezia to die because of it?" His voice held a cold fury as he spoke to the dark angel.

Avari Avari
 
"I always knew you were delusional, but I never thought you were stupid." Roland responded. "You say you betray me--your sovereign lord that you are sworn to serve--for the sake of the Light, for the sake of 'purging the unclean,' while at the same time you ally yourself with a worthless toad like Lucien? What a sick joke. The crime of treason against Alcamoth can only be met with death."

Staxos did not immediately respond. He effortlessly and dexterously twirled his staff around in his right hand, the golden weapon leaving a trail of light behind it which lingered in the air for several seconds. There was a notable hum of energy emanating from it - the sound of repressed magical power preparing to be unleashed. He glanced down at Roland one final time.

"You know nothing of betrayal."

--

"So is there anyone that isn't getting double-crossed right now? Yet another bastard in power who can't handle not being on top and you Lucien, you're just here to kill everyone over your childish infatuation and you allowed Lucrezia to die because of it?" Tannur shouted, his tone war with fury.

Lucien rose a perfect eyebrow at the boy, then shrugged as he rose his hand - the powerful dark spell had reached its peak, and his entire fist was consumed in a shadowy darkness. It crackled and hummed with terrible power like Staxos's own magic. Between them they had enough power to destroy the entire group and half of the district along with them, and they all knew it. Lucien smirked as he stretched out his wings.

"Hey... nobody's perfect."

The dark magic flashed. And there was nothing anyone could do but stand and wait for the inevitable.
 
Anastasia Kochenkov
Street

Ana saw it all. The bloodshed, the angry words, the challenges. She'd usually rather a brave last stand, If Death wasn't instant. But this was just drawn out... Staxos had brutally killed what was supposedly Lucrezia, and the forced of dark were on their last legs. It should have been easy, finishing them. No hesitation was necessary, to pause showed weakness.

And that pause easily turned the tide.

A man hit the ground, will inhuman arms, no... Wings. They were wings. It was him. She had been one of the ones who she watched for months on end, whenever he wasn't in Blackrock Castle. The man she helped get excecuted. But here he stood, laughing as if the deck were stacked in his favor. Perhaps it was, he had not only his powers, but it appeared the good High Sentinel as well. She grimaced, all that talk of good and light, only to work with one of the worst of Lucrezia's men, for what? She needed to end this.

She watched Lucien's hand glow purple with energy, threatening all nearby. She wouldn't allow it. She stripped her jacket off, flexing her grip on the blade she held before dashing at her target, coming up on his right and raking the blade across his wing. There was a scratching sound, almost like dragging a knife across glass as the blade went across, then she went to stab his back, the blade snapping then. Lucien was caught in total surprise, flinching and the fatal blast careening off into the previously burning building and beyond. "I won't let you hurt them. Any of them."

The bolt of energy exploded with the force of a bomb, incinerating the entire top floor of the building. The force of the explosion threw tons of stone and dust into the sky, as pulses of dark energy blew out in all directions - blasting the group back in all directions. The deafening crack was followed by the sound of screams and cries from the nearby streets as those still caught in the area became aware of what was happening.

The sky was filled with dust and smoke. Staxos and Lucien had been blasted high into the sky - both of them forced to erect barriers to shrug off the worst of the shrapnel and heat from the explosion. Lucien looked absolutely livid, his handsome face contorting impossibly into a nightmarish ghoul of rage.

"The fuck was that bitch??"

He snarled in anger as his hands pulsed with dark light again - as he prepared to begin firing blind into the smoke in an attempt to blast the group through the fog before they could escape, only for Staxos to grab his hand and squeeze it with a vice like grip.

"Save your power fool! That medallion I gave you can only render so much mana at one time!" He snapped, before glancing back down at the chaos below. The fog was already clearing. "They cannot escape this area. Hunt down and destroy them all - but leave the Prince to me!"

Lucien pulled his arm out of Staxos's grip and pushed himself away with the use of his wings. For the first time, A small medallion hanging from a chain around his neck fell out from the hem of his shirt. It was a white-gold stone, held by two angel like figures and was glowing with a dim light. He stuffed it back inside his shirt and turned his attention back down to the city below.

"With pleasure."

Ana was knocked to the ground behind him, bathed in shadow but listening to most of it. She didn't see the medallion, and it confused her. They brought items of magical power to destroy them? Pathetic...
 
Roland Fairchild
Flooded streets

Staxos and Lucien were blind now, obscured behind a smokescreen in the aftermath of Lucien's botched blast. "Everyone run!" shouted Roland to the small gathering. He wasted no time himself; his feet were moving before he'd even finished his shout. He made a dash for a nearby alleyway, a left turn a little ways before the intersection some small distance southwest of where he was,, while he had the chance. He was no coward, but he also was not suicudal; he'd take the opportunity to escape while he had it rather than choose to fight a meaningless battle to the death. Everyone else seemed to have the same thought, but all were fleeing in different directions. It was a desperate, uncoordinated mess. All Roland could think now was that Ana had given him an opportunity and he had to find some way to use it to turn things around. First things first, though: escape, then come up with a plan.

"Rose!" A desperate, panicked shout went up behind him. Roland stopped his dash and turned to look and see what was happening. He saw Arryn, the source of the shout, and Elena still standing beneath the building that had served as the impact site for the blast. The entire structure was unstable, particularly the top floor that was now falling down toward the spot where the two stood. Elena stood stock still staring at the massive husk of the building rushing toward her like a deer in a car's headlights. Before it could crush her, however, Arryn pushed her out of the way, toward Roland and away from himself. She fell to the floor, mostly uninjured, while the huge building smashed into the ground where Arryn had been standing when he pushed Elena out of harm's way. Roland could not tell if Arryn had gotten crushed or was merely separated from them by the fallen structure; in any case, Elena remained on the ground, eyes fixated on what had nearly been her doom.

Muttering a curse, Roland ran back. He grabbed Elena by the arm and hoisted her roughly to her feet. "We have to go," he shouted at her. "C'mon!" Whether Arryn was alive or dead, he would want him to make sure Elena remained safe, of that Roland was certain. All but dragging her along behind him, Roland again made for the alleyway he started for earlier. He turned into it and ran partway down it, roughly south, until the two were halfway between the streets it connected. There, they stopped for breath.

"Elena, I'm sorry you got caught up in this. It isn't your fight and it isn't fair, but you must be strong now. This is what you must do. I am going to go back that way and lure Staxos and Lucien away from here. You will run in the opposite direction and get as far from this place as you can or, if you can't, then find someplace to hide until this is over. That is what Arryn would have wanted you to do. Do you understand me? Go!"

Having said that, Roland ran back to the mouth of they alley by which he came. Once he saw Staxos and Lucien, he'd lead them further north, hiding behind buildings and around corners as necessary and giving Elena the chance to escape south. He wished he had a better plan, some way to deal with them permanently, but...well, he'd have to think of something while he was busy running for his life.

koala koala
 
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Juniper Arc
Flooded streets > Back alley

"So this is it" Juniper thought as the duo above them prepared to unleash enough energy to probably level the entire block. There was nothing any of them could do, stripped of any magic or powers that could have turned this situation around. With a final resigned sigh she closed her eyes before violently thrusting her arm out, her middle finger protruding from her hand as she flipped her killers the bird. A last act of spite to the men who were about to take everything from her.

She waited for the blast, the telltale heat of certain death, but was unprepared for the cry of metal on metal coming from Lucien. She opened her eyes just in time to see the energy bolt sail across from them into the still burning husk of the apartment building. The result was almost instantaneous, chunks of brick and wood flying out as the force blew Juniper off of her feet further down the street. Her head hit something hard, and everything went black.

When she awoke the street was in complete chaos. A thick heavy screen of dust blocked most of her vision. She could just barely make out a figure dragging someone into a nearby alley but was unable to tell who the people were. "Doesn't matter, need to get out of here." Getting up from the ground she quickly made her way over to the alley, dodging past the debris along her way. As she got closer to the figures she was able to identify the sole living woman as Hannah dragging the not so living Lucrezia further into the alley.

"Hannah, we need to flee. Those two are going to tear apart this entire area looking for us."

The girl didn't respond, but looked around wildly at the source of the voice. Her expression was hollow and haunted before she turned back and continued her attempts to slowly - painfully - drag Lucrezia's Human body further into the alley. A trail of blood snaking away into the street.

Dammit she wasn't responding. Hannah seemed dazed, as if her body was acting purely on instinct with no reason. Walking up to the girl Juniper grabbed her shoulders and stared into her eyes. "Hannah, you need to listen to me. Please." Juniper knew those eyes all to well; they were the same eyes she had moments before attempting to take her own life. "I know that you're scared. I know that you don't know what to do. But please, listen. If we don't get out of here we will die." She slowly moved her hands down ontop of Hannah's, wrapping around them the best she could with her holding Lucerzia's body. "Please, don't throw your life away."

"I-I can't just leave her." Hannah whispered quietly, but she gently loosened her grip on Lucrezia's body - allowing the corpse to rest on the wet ground. She glanced at Juniper.

"Who...who are you people?"

So, her queen hadn't told her the truth. Damn it, why was all of this happening? Where did everything start going to shit? "Are you sure that you want to know? Who am I kidding, you at least deserve to know the truth." With a sigh Juniper braced herself for what was about to come.

"Me, Lucrezia and the others are not from here. Not from this world. Our world is called Aether, a place where beings can channel magic at will. We were locked in a long and brutal war against the Church of Light. They opposed my master, the Lord of Darkness, or as you know her, Lisa. We fled here to escape the Church, but lost all of our powers in the process. Somehow they followed us here, with that traitor who tried to kill us, and somehow they retained their powers. I do not know how, but right now it doesn't matter. If we survive this I can tell you more, but right now we need to go. At any moment they could decide to scorch this place to ash."

"O...okay."

Juniper spared a look at the body of her queen, her skin pale as blood slowly leaked from her wound. It didn't feel right, Lucrezia shouldn't be left in some dark alley for the rats. "Come, we can move her body together. I at least owe her that." As she said this Juniper moved down and grabbed her queens legs, now cold as ice. "It's funny, she always said that she was incapable of death, that it was too tedious for her." Juniper paused as she said that, a look of concentration forming on her face.

Why did that sentence seem so important to her? Juniper couldn't ignore the gnawing feeling that she was missing something, something big. Thinking back to when she heard her queen speak those words it was early in her service to her. It was during her first few weeks at the castle, her queen had called her into her Study to discuss something.

--

Lucrezia's study was the picture of elegant sophistication. The circular room within the highest tower of Blackrock was lined in bookshelves, laden with tomes and occasionally a well placed instrument of artifact. There was only a large wooden office desk, a few comfortable looking sitting chairs, a chaise, and a impressive looking golden telescope by the window by way of furniture, and a ancient looking Elven tapestry depciting several long-forgotten historical events.

Lucrezia herself was sitting on one of the chairs and was dressed in an elegant black robe, though she still looked effortlessly regal, even in such casual attire. A well worn book was open on her lap, and a glass of red wine was by her side resting on a small table. She glanced over at Juniper as she was escorted inside by a red-headed Dark Elf maid, who elegantly bowed as she presented the Human.

"Juniper Lazuli Arc, my queen."

"Thank you Violet. Have a seat, Miss Arc."

Lucrezia's voice was smooth and confident, and though her yellow eyes were not exactly friendly, they were bright with a sort of curiosity. The maid named Violet bowed again as Lucrezia pardoned her with a wave and she slipped out the office, quietly closing the door behind her.

Juniper nodded and quickly sat herself down in the chair opposite of the queen. She sat stiff and rigid with her knees close together and her arms resting on top of her legs. She wore a simple brown tunic and grey pants, a far cry from the elegant outfit of the queen, bringing forth the picture of a peasant before their ruler.

"You wished to see me my queen?"

Juniper attempted to keep her voice calm and level, however the lack of information beforehand of why she had been called caused her voice to briefly crack.

If Lucrezia had noticed her nervousness, she didn't comment on it - though a shadow of a smirk crossed her face before being hidden behind her glass of wine.

"I did." She said, after taking a sip from her glass. "I was curious to hear how you were settling into Blackrock. You are the first Human to walk its halls since I became its master."

The idea that the queen had called her to simply ask how she was adjusting to her new life caught her off guard. She never really considered the possibility that the queen would want to know something as trivial as that.

"Oh, uhh good I guess." She paused for a moment before continuing. "The food is a far sight better than I am used to and having a room to myself is new, but good. Thank you once again for your kindness." She made sure to bow her head as well as she could in her current position as she thanked her.

"The others..." Juniper trailed off as she bit her bottom lip. What could she say that the queen hadn't already stated. She was the only human in the place, an oddity to be seen when she passed by someone three times her size on her way back to her room. "They seem nice I suppose. I've mainly just kept to myself as much as I can."

Lucrezia chuckled coolly into glass. "A very diplomatic response. I am aware of the difficulties you are currently facing with acclimatizing yourself. Indeed, Lord Develcus has been petitioning me quite enthusiastically for you to be fed to his hatchlings."

Juniper could not help but swallow nervously at the mention of being fed to someone else's spawn. Sweat formed at her brow as she tried to remain calm in front of the queen. "A-and did he mention why he would like to do that? I'm sure that there are better sources of nutrients than me."

"He said it's rather difficult to find fresh meat these days."

"F-fresh meat?!" Somewhere in the back of her mind she remembered to be offended as being referred to as just meat, but the idea of being fed to somethings babies at a whim was deemed more important. "B-but I-

"Relax," The Dark Lord smirked. "I'm hardly going to allow my latest follower to be turned into pet food. But nevertheless - you should be cautious. There are many individuals within Blackrock who see Humanity as its enemy; more still would do you harm, should you give them opportunity. Do you understand?"

"Y-yes my queen." Juniper looked down at her legs, fidgeting with her hands as she frowned.

Lucrezia sighed at her response, and decided to throw the Human a proverbial bone. "I am not disappointed in your progress."

Juniper looked up, almost surprised to hear that she wasn't disappointed in her yet. "T-thank you my queen." She paused, seeming like she wanted to say more before sighing. "If I may ask you a question my queen. Why did you accept me?" She attempted to meet the queens eyes, but shied away and settled on looking past her. "You have beings stronger than ten men, faster than horses and smarter than scholars. Why would you accept a lowly human who couldn't hold a candle to them?"

As a response to her question, Lucrezia snorted and turned away, irritated.

"If you continue to speak of yourself in such a way, you won't survive a month here. You must be more confident - even if you do not yet feel it. Your question however, has merit; though you phrased it in an asinine fashion."

The Shadow Queen threaded her fingers together, and turned her attention back to the Human.

"I want you to help me prove to everyone that Humans have a place to exist in my new world. The Church has been quite effective in its framing of me as a remorseless and evil creature, and there are many that spit on my name - even in subjugated settlements under my control. But if they see you - a Human woman of no exceptional power, who stood against me but was not only shown mercy, but given a place to begin anew and climb to a position of influence and respect...well."

Lucrezia's eyes glimmered evilly. "It's enough to plant a seed of doubt in the minds of many who would not hesistate to fight against me until their dying breath. They are presented with another way to survive. You will become the bridge between them and myself."

Juniper was genuinely surprised at the queens words. She would be a bridge? Someone like her, a brigand who's entire life was dictated by her chief, bridging humans together under her queen. "I-i do not know what to say. You would have me as a symbol to these people?" It was almost too much for her brain to take in at once, as she starred wide eyed at the woman sitting across from her. When she realized how rude it would appear to continue to stare she blurted out "Thank you my queen. It would be an honor to represent you to the humans."

"Survive your first month here before you get too excited." Lucrezia replied smartly, though she didn't look too displeased. "I cannot show you favoritism - nor would I wish to. Prove your value to the world and to your Queen. Survive, adapt and overcome. Understood? And no more stammering. If I hear that again, I'll reconsider Develcus's request."

"Understood my Queen, I will work hard to not betray your trust." She paused before adding "And not to become pet food. I believe that I might have a few words with this Develcus."

"Oh?" Lucrezia purred as she drained her glass and gazed at the ceiling thoughtfully. "I look forward to hearing about that."

For the first time since entering her queens study a smile formed on Junipers face. "I will be sure that you will." She let out a slight chuckle before she bowed her head "If you will, I should be getting to that. Thank you my queen." Rising from her chair she bowed her head once again before proceeding to the door. As she placed her hand on it she paused as if contemplating something. Well, her queen had said to be more confident. Why not start now.

"My queen, pardon if this sounds ignorant, but you are nearly immortal yes? Why do you need others to assist and protect you?" She asked, still staring at the door with her back to the queen.

Lucrezia mentally sighed. It was a rather daft question, but she supposed she should reward the human for her first notable showing of self-assurance.

"While it's true I do not require protection - I assure you, I am quite incapable of something as tedious as death - it's always immensely useful to have someone around to carry your luggage."

The Dark Queen waved her hand lazily, and the door to her office swung open.

"Good Night Miss Arc. I look forward to hearing about your progress."

Juniper smirked as she walked out of the queens office, the doors closing on her after she left. "Should have known, someone capable of leading the new world wouldn't let something like death bother her." As she walked down the hall she made a note to begin training tomorrow, she would need a lot of it if she were to live up to her queens expectations. Also to stop by the armory and requesite a hammer for her talk with this Develcus.

--

"No, it couldn't be..." Juniper looked down at her queen, all signs of life gone from her body. But a small part of her clung to her queens words. She said that she was incapable of death, even when it seemed that the Church would overrun their castle she remained calm. But that was back when she had access to her magic, now that she was withou- Juniper gasped as the wheels in her mind began turning. Her queen had no magic, none of them did, but what if her queen did have magic? It was a long shot, first she would have to find a way to even acquire magic to test her theory and even then there was no guarantee that it would work. But she had to try, if it would bring her queen back she would find a way. "Hannah," She turned her attention to the woman, still trying to grasp the information she has been given. "Take Lucerzia's body and get it out of sight. I might have a way to get her back." Gently lowering her queen's legs to the ground Juniper looked around before her eyes settled on a discarded pipe by a metal trash bin. Walking over to it she lifted the pipe in one hand before removing the top of the bin and holding it as a shield in the other.

It wasn't perfect by any means, it was about as useless as a fly trying to strike at a hawk, but it made her feel slightly better now that she was armed. "I'm going to go find someone, Morgana. She might be able to help bring her back."

Interacting: Avari Avari
Mentioned: koala koala
 
Tannur - Running away from the place where s**t went down

As Lucien prepared to unleash his spell Tannur readied another throwing knife if only for the sake of defiance but a young woman he didn't recognise beat him to it with her own attack that knocked the spell off target into nearby building and exploded knocking him off his feet. Picking himself up with a string of Aetherian curses Tannur looked around futilely trying to get his bearings in the cloud the explosion had kicked up before deciding that anywhere would be better than staying where he was.

"Everyone! Scatter!" He yelled to any friendlies in earshot. Picking a direction at random he dashed forward but quickly tripped over a body. Getting up with yet more swearing he felt around for whoever he had run into and grabbed their arm, if they were friendly he wasn't going to leave them behind, if they weren't...well he could slit their throat when he could see them.

Pulling his new companion to their feet he dragged them out of the cloud and risked a quick glance that revealed that he had ended up with the lady that had taken the shot at Lucien not that that told him much, deciding that they looked mostly unharmed he released her arm. "Come on!" Sprinting down the street he turned a couple of corners and ducked into a large structure labelled 'Covent Garden Market' before pausing for breath. "Phew, nice cheap shot." He said to the woman between pants. "So...who the hell are you supposed to be?"

LoneSniper87 LoneSniper87
 



Rai looked with quite a bit of surprise as Lucien came in alongside Staxos ranting about his devotion and infatuation to Lucrezia. It was no wonder she never loved him. The fallen angel was far to clingy for the queen to like him. A delusion being that was pushing so hard that their love interest ran away rather than embracing them. Or so Rai believed. His conception of romantic love never grew much. He loved Lucrezia, and Tannur, and Silver, but he loved them like family. They were like his brother and sisters, with all their lovable quirks and annoying habits. This was the love that drove him to let go of his pride for just a moment and surrender. Rai can't selfishly allow Tannur and Silver to die.

Lucien's obsession with Lucrezia and her subsequent, and completely justified, rejection no doubt made him turn sides. A petty and cowardly decision on his part, characteristic of a fallen angel, but still surprising. Perhaps after the rejection, he wanted revenge. Revenge is perfectly fine, but letting someone else perform the act for him only showed weakness. And now, Lucien wanted to destroy them all and cooperate with the High Sentinel. No doubt so that he could take over a consider region of the Aether and lead his own rebellion.

The dark angel raised his arm and aimed a blast of dark straight at the group of the forces of Light and Shadow alike. There was no running from such an attack. Was letting go of his pride a mistake? Perhaps. But regardless, he was going to die and at the very least he was going to die proud and not trying to run and fail like a coward. Before he could accept his fate, one brown haired girl drew a knife and rushed at Lucian, slashing at the wings and stabbing the fallen angel's back. The attack, though incapable of causing any damage to the former general, caused him to miss his powerful attack an strike a building instead. As dust and debris rained down on the people, Rai hoped Tannur and Silver were able to pick up the hint and run away before they become decimated by Staxos and Lucien.

Rai made a break for it and ran past Lucien and down the street. He needed time to prepare and strategize a way to defeat a dark angel with access to magic. Limited by the lack of magic on Earth, but still infinitely more than what Rai had his disposal. As he ran, he passed by a fallen building and spotted a shaggy, brown haired young man pick himself up off the ground not far from it; he was covered in dirt and debris and it seemed as if he'd just narrowly avoided being crushed to death by the ruin in front of him. On shaky legs and with a look of desperate determination, he studied the massive fallen structure in front of him, as if looking in vain for a way to get on the other side of it. A single glance was enough for anyone see that that would be impossible to do quickly, certainly not before Lucien and Staxos fell on him again. "Rose!" he shouted. "Roland! Ana! I'm here! Damn it! Daniel! Hogan!" It might have been terrible idea, but Rai dashed towards the man to pull him away. If this was one of Roland's allies, they would be hopefully competent enough to cooperate.

When he was close enough, Rai's hand reached out to grab the man's arm and began to yank, as the former Oni shouted above the man's voice, "Don't worry about Roland. He is a capable fighter and can handle himself. For now, we must escape before Lucien has a chance to recover!"

He looked at Rai first with surprise when his arm was suddenly grasped and then with an odd, quizzical expression. The man turned his gaze skyward, where the smoke from the blast that separated them from their attackers was still clearing. There was not much time before it was completely gone. "Damn it! You better take care of her and Daniel, Roland! And yourself!" With gritted teeth and an apparent reluctance to do so, the man turned from the intersection and began to run as Rai suggested. To Rai, it appeared that this man was definitely knowledgeable of the situation, though confused at why Rai was the one who spoke to him about it. As soon as the man began to run, the former Oni let go of his arm any began to run himself. This wasn't running away, this was a planned retreat...to regain one's strength and better prepare for another assault. There were so many things the Oni had done foolishly now that Rai had knowledge of human military conflicts. And even if this was running away, it was only another small part of his pride broken off.

Three blocks worth of running and a hiding spot inside some sort of film museum later, Rai and this friend of Roland's were breathing heavily as they sat behind a counter. Rai made the first attempt at conversation. "So...you are one of Roland's friends right? I didn't just pick some random civilian off the streets? I assume you have some inkling of what just happened?"

The man gave a grunt in response, but was silent for a moment afterward, looking at Rai with narrow eyes filled with suspicion and indecision. He slowly began to speak, "I suppose there's no point denying it now. Once the iron's cooled and the fire's out, there's no use lamenting its shape. Yes, I'm one of Roland's friends. I have less inkling about what just happened than I'd like, though. There are too many questions and too few answers about what's going on here. How is Lucien even alive, for one? He was short a head last I saw him. And why would Staxos bother to work with him at all? The high sentinel could easily have dispatched all of us by himself and I doubt he has any affection for a fallen angel beyond his utility as a tool. But a tool for what?" He scratched his head in frustration and let out a sigh.

Though Rai was no blacksmith, the analogy was no lost on him. This was most definitely the blacksmith Rai had fought back at Blackrock. He had hoped that he and Arryn would've been far better prepared the second time they met, but working together was no less of an honor. The man was able to match Rai in combat for an impressive amount of time, and now, they had the opportunity to work together against a foe stronger than either of them. "Arryn the Blacksmith. It's a shame to meet each other again in such a sorry state. We'll have to postpone our rematch to a better time. Perhaps after we kill Lucien for being the Church's former foe and a traitor to Lucrezia."

"Raijin. You look...very different since our previous meeting." He winced. "That blasted portal was not kind to either of us."

"Indeed..." Rai took a few breaths before continuing. "Lucien is a fallen angel. A simple beheading would hardly be enough to slay a being like him, and he most likely wanted revenge against Lucrezia for all his failed romantic advances. An absurd reason, but that's what I gather. We will have answers later. For now, we need a plan to kill the fallen angel."

"Easier said than done. You just said not even a beheading could kill Lucien, so how can we hope to beat him as we are now?" Arryn wrinkled his brow in thought. "Even if he was weakened when he came to Earth, he and Staxos still retained their magic. We are powerless."

"Maybe in the Aether, a beheading would not stop him, but here on Earth, he is mortal like everyone else. That means we have a chance. Aside from that, I heard Staxos mentioning a medallion that allows Lucien to cast. If we are able to remove that medallion from his body, he might revert to our current state, and on top of that, we might be able harness the medallion to make to grant ourselves a portion of out magic back again."

Arryn nodded. "That makes sense. It might work. Ana already sneaked up behind him once; why shouldn't we be able to do it again to take the medallion? Even if we can't do that...well, I'm no mage. My understanding of such things is limited at best, but maybe if that magical artifact really is the source of his power, it has a limit; all tools, no matter how well-made, have some sort of vulnerability. So, even if we can't take it from him, we might be able to exploit its weakness if we knew what it was."

"We might be able to force Lucien to over extend the capabilities of the medallion. It would either simply fizzle out, or the more preferable option would be that it explodes in the angel's face."

Arryn shook his head. "To make him 'overextend,' as you say, it sounds like we would need him to unleash more magic than the medallion is capable of channeling. That's incredibly risky. If we aren't able to evade his attacks--if we take even a single glancing blow--he'd burn us to cinders without even flexing a muscle long before he ever came close to using too much magic. On top of that, we also run the risk of being double teamed; Staxos might take us out even if we did manage to get Lucien's medallion away from him."

Rai threw his head back in frustration. Right when it seemed that they had a plan going for them, a massive rock was thrown straight into it. "Any ideas or contraptions you can create to remedy this issue. Your skill with the forge must have some use without a forge. I only have my physique and little in terms of applicable abilities."

Arryn snorted derisively and held up his skinny arms. They were about average for a human, but much smaller than they had been on Aether. "Do I look like a blacksmith anymore to you, Raijin? If I had my hammer, and if it still had any of its enchanted properties, I might be able to negate Lucien's and Staxos's magic no matter how powerful it was. Wishful thinking. I left it at home, anyway. I didn't think my five minute dog walk would turn into a life or death battle." He sighed again and looked around as if just noticing his surroundings. "What is this place, anyway? Some sort of museum for cars? So many of them...I don't know about contraptions, but maybe if we can figure out how to turn them on, we could ram someone with them. That'd be pretty dangerous for the ones driving them too, though..."

"Perhaps so...However...I've seen this one video where a man places a brick on the gas pedal to make the car drive on its own. I counted at least a dozen cars coming in. We could launch all of them at Staxos and Lucien. One of them is bound to strike. Even if they don't, it would cost a great deal of magic to destroy them all."

"As well as distract them for the time being, perhaps give us enough time to snatch a medallion or two...if we had a way to make them go all at once, I suppose it could work. A slim chance, but I haven't got any better ideas. I suggest we look around for anything that might help us get these things moving. While we're at it, I can look for any other materials that might be useful. We could set a few other traps in the area, something to hold them still long enough to grab their medallions. Then we could lure one of them to this museum and into the traps.

"And so, we now have the homefield advantage. We will know this location better than Lucien will when he comes," Rai stood up and began to survey the museum. "We have quite a bit of work ahead of us if we wish to stand a chance against the fallen angel."



Rai Kaminari​
07445a28a47d3c17098002cdde6208b4.jpg

Physical Status: Soaked/Slightly Tired
Emotional/Mental Status: Frustrated/Slightly Hopeful
Location: London Streets - London Film Museum
Interacting With: MagicPenguin MagicPenguin (Arryn)
Mentioned: Avari Avari (Staxos/Lucien) IG42 IG42 (Tannur) WillfulWren WillfulWren (Silver) LoneSniper87 LoneSniper87 (Ana)​


 
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Anastasia Kochenkov
Running/Covent Garden Mall

Ana was ready for death. She had temporarily postponed the inevitable. Was she really to die for them? For her brother, always. But none of them were her brother. They never would be. She closes her eyes, waiting for death to come, or for the hellish reality to fade away, and for once in her life she wished she wasn't cast out. And then she was pulled up, both from the ground and her thoughts, and sent running. Her eyes flung open as a panicked scream escaped for a moment, but she quickly composed herself. She didn't even repsond to him, just focusing in the pounding of their feet and the slight beat it formed just off the pace of her heart. When they finally stopped she felt good and truly winded.

"Tannur, right?" She asked, looking up at him and catching her breath. "Before I say anything, don't kill me. It'd be a most unwise decision. Call me Ana. And before you ask, I hold no allegiance to one side or the other. The Church just came to me first." She said, before turning away and looking around. "We need to find somewhere to regroup... There has to be something we can do besides run."
 

Loading ELENA. . .

It happened so quickly. Elena watched with horror as Ana dashed out from the shadows while chaos erupted in every direction. The blade she held didn't seem to even scratch the surface of Lucien's angelic wings, and the act only enraged him even further. Suddenly, a tall building began to tumble downwards and she looked up frozen. The only thing she could recall was the sound of her friend's voice calling her name, his hands pushing her away from the danger zone.

Falling onto her side and scraping up her hands even further, she clumsily got onto her knees and towards the rubble. "Arryn?" Elena called as she blinked furiously through the dust storm, eyes watering from both physical and emotional. "Arryn? Arryn!" The woman screamed, her cry mimicking that of a banshee. She didn't have time to dig through the debris and look for the man that saved her, however, as another pair of rough hands pulled her to her feet.

"No... no!" Elena argued as she weakly fought against Roland's pull. "We can't leave Arryn!"

They finally stopped around an alleyway, his hand letting go of her arm. The blonde rubbed at her limb, the pain all but faint compared to the sting she felt from her hands. She was jittery with fear and adrenaline as she listened to Roland's word carefully. He was right. Arryn would want her out and away from the danger. Why else would he have shoved her away from the collapsing building?

"O-okay." She said sternly, her composure more controlled and less shaken. She watched Roland speed off with uncertainty, her breathing somewhat ragged. After gaining her breath and a bit of energy, Elena began running in no general direction. A decent ten minutes had passed before she suddenly ran face first into a wall of sorts. It was invisible to anyone who didn't pay attention to it--like she hadn't.

Rubbing her nose, the woman let out a jumbled mess of pained sounds. She looked around and noticed a handful of civilians around the border in despair or attempting to break through it with useless objects. There was no getting out of whatever barrier those Aetherian protagonists had created, but she couldn't just stand there and do nothing. It didn't sit right for her.

I have to go back. Elena thought as she bit her lower lip, turning around and laying her eyes on the eerie clouds in the sky.
Location: Streets of Covent Garden [group 3]

Date: --

Time: Too crazy to tell

Mentions: Ana, Arryn

Interacting: Roland MagicPenguin MagicPenguin
 
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Loading world for MORGANA. . .

The hatred in the air. The foreboding skies above. The poor, pitiful civilians that screamed for their lives as they attempted to flee the scene. It all would’ve been enough for the Banshee to go over the wall and unleash her wrath—if she were back home, that is. While “home” was a loose word for Aether, she was at least familiar with the world and its oddities. She was also stronger, faster, and wielded magic that most banshees could only ever wish to survive long enough to master. She wasn’t a feeble human like she was on Earth. The only thing she had going for her was brain and seemingly perfect memory.

There was no way she could fight hand-to-hand in the state she was in.

As Lucien spoke, the corners of Morgana’s pale lips would twitch every so often, as if she couldn’t believe the blasphemy that left his mouth. She’d opened her own and was about to comment on his disgusting obsession with Lucrezia, but an unfamiliar head of brown hair materialized from the shadows, blade firmly in hand. Morgana watched almost surprised as the stealthy woman managed to knick an onyx wing, the echo of metal scratching glass filling in the air.

Morgana winced slightly, the sound being less than pleasing. Lucien had said something foul and the way Staxos’ lips moved prompted the woman to to focus more on the fallen angel. She couldn’t hear their conversation, but she faintly made out the words “medallion” and “mana”, her mind soon becoming blurred with thoughts after her amber orbs were set on the chain hanging from Lucien’s neck. Her stare-down was cut short, however, after she’d noticed ricks and other debris beginning to tumble downwards.

During the attempt to escape, Morgana managed to grab Silver, who was nearest to her, away from the possible death. On her side, arms scraped and possibly bruised, her eyes were blinded by dust and the impact of head to concrete. Her mind was still hazy, but she gradually began piecing together the knowledge she’d collected thus far.

Flashback Start

It had been near sunset when Lucrezia had returned from the Werewolf colony hidden in Hollowvale. The creation of such a complex project had taken up a great deal of her time over the last few weeks, but she was content with the progress that had been made. The haunted marshes of Hollowvale were not exactly natural habitat for lycanthorpes (nor the most comfortable) but it was reasonably safe and more importantly far away from any notable settlements. Honestly, she had enjoyed her time among the wolves, it was one of the rare times she didn't have to care about appearences: she had slept late, hadn't bothered brushing her hair, ate with her fingers and drank far too much. She had walked barefoot and flirted with everyone - in general, she had acted as young as she looked. But while It had been enjoyable to bathe in her baser instincts for a time (and learn more about the fascinating - if bloody - ins and outs of Werewolf society) Lucrezia had to return her attention to other more civilized affairs before long.

An hour later, after bathing to wash the smell of swamp out of her hair, she sat quietly in her private library enjoying the sounds of crackling from the fireplace and the gentle creaking of the wooden bookcases. A small square board sat in front of her at knee height, several dozen stone pieces posed against each other as if poised to charge. The walls were covered in books of all shapes and sizes - many of which were priceless and irreplacable, and there was a little bit of everything. Many came from the previous owner of the Fortress, who had also had an infatuation with the Dark Arts, while many more had been retreived by her servants from dark corners of the world or from her own wanderings. She lent back in her chair, a glass of red wine in her hand and waited for a guest to arrive. It wasn't long before she felt the magical wards around the Library temporaily fade as someone approached. Only those who had been personally invited within could disable the wards, those foolish enough to enter without an invitation were quickly (and painfully) reminded of that.

The door to Lucrezia’s study opened with a faint creak. Morgana, clad in her handcrafted elven armor stepped in, the sound of metal clinking against wood filling the room with each step. Her white locks were tied up into a neat, high ponytail, and her face was masked with her usual disregard for life.

"My queen, you look well. I assume the project went as planned," said the banshee, her ghostly eyes low. She never dared to make eye contact with Lucrezia without permission. It felt immoral to even gaze at her from afar.

"It was educational," Lucrezia replied, gesturing Morgana to take a seat.

Morgana immediately sat in one of the seats across from the Dark Queen, her armor rustling with each movement. Relaxing a bit, she finally noticed the board that was laying across Lucrezia’s desk. She recognized it as “chess” and it was a game her queen had been teaching her after every assignment or mission. As much of an antifan Morgana was for activities that involved tiny details, she rather enjoyed the past time and all its calculating.

"How were the lycanthropes? Are they as beastly as the tales?" Morgana inquired, genuinely curious about Lucrezia's experience. While the warrior had spent must of her "childhood" roaming the lands, she never came across a werewolf, or any were-creature, in their natural habitat.

"They are," Lucrezia said, her tone oddly fond as she lazily waved her hand and the chess board sitting between them quickly organized itself. "The selection of a new Alpha to lead the pack was the highlight. It was incredibly...stimulating. It took them a week to clean all the blood afterwards. No doubt you will meet him at some point."

A hint of a smile graced Morgana's lips as she listened, noting the modest tonal change in Lucrezia's voice. Her hand went to move a chess piece but her ears were still tuned in on the conversation and even allowed herself a quiet chuckle--something only the Dark Queen could hear. "Perhaps this new Alpha would be interested in sparring when we do face one another." Challenging newcomers was an activity Morgana tended to do as a way of testing their abilities and ensuring they were worthy of serving Lucrezia. She couldn't really remember when that started, only that she'd built up the reputation of being a rather harsh critic.

Lucrezia took a sip of her wine, a small frown crossing her perfect features as she glanced down at the chessboard and eyed the only piece that had been moved so far.

"You don't have a plan."

"Plan?" Morgana's voice rose in uncertainty at the end. "I'm not quite sure what you are referring to, my queen."

The Elven woman smirked. "You're not planning your moves. You should be thinking at least two or three moves ahead if you hope to out manoeuvre me - try to consider what my response would be to your movements on the board, and prepare to counter that. Many games of chess are over before the third or fourth move has even been made. Now-"

Lucrezia gently waved her hand again, and the pawn Morgana had moved forward obediently jumped back to its original position.

"Again."

Morgana's lips parted slightly in understanding. She forgot chess was identical to a physical battle itself. After thinking more carefully, the woman moved a different piece and waited patiently for approval.

The Dark Queen nodded encouragingly, and the game began in earnest with pieces moving quickly.

"Tell me about your latest assignment." she said, as her knight promptly took Morgana's rook out of nowhere.

The banshee didn't allow Lucrezia's sudden take down to shake her. She continued to play strategically while minding her words as she spoke. "It was successful. Our suspicions were correct. The bard in the nearby Erie Village was indeed an undercover Church Agent. Less than compliant, but an easy capture nonetheless." A quiet thump filled the room as Morgana collected one of Lucrezia's chess pieces. "I personally escorted him to the dungeon and to... Develcus for interregation." Morgana's face seemed to almost contort at the name. As if the very mention of the him was too powerful to handle.

Lucrezia nodded, looking pleased. "Good work. Hopefully this will deter the Church from further foolish attempts in the future, but I doubt it. I'll summon the village elder here to discuss the matter. It's check-mate by the way."

"Ah, I left an opening." Morgana stated, making a mental note to herself.

A few moments of silence passed as the warrior attempted to form coherent words. She watched Lucrezia reset the board, unsure of how to make her next game move or how to lead the last topic into the next. "There was something else about this agent I found puzzling."

"Oh?"

Nodding, Morgana took a second to reach into her metal chest plate and pull out a medallion. A golden-white stone was held in place by two angelic figures. She'd never seen anything like it and thought it'd be best to seek Lucrezia's insight. "He had this around his neck and appeared rather perturbed when I took it. Do you know what it is?"

Lucrezia reached out and took the small medallion out of Morgana's hand. She spent the next full minute inspecting it thoroughly, her cat like pupils narrowing significantly as she did so. She gently stroked the stone with a finger, and it pulsed suddenly with a golden light before reverting back to its original pearl white color. Eventually she smirked.

"My my. Quite a powerful little artifact this is. It's a mana stone, designed to store and release magical energy as needed. It can either be used by one with magical talents to fuel spells or increase their mana pool for magic that would usually be beyond their capabilities - or even give someone with no Arcane talent the ability to wield magic. Quite a useful tool indeed. I haven't seen one of such quality for quite a long time...If I recall correctly, the Church calls these Meyneth's Tears, though no doubt one of this size probably has some unique name."

Lucrezia's smile widened as she reset the chessboard with a wave of her hand. "You must have taken its user by surprise? It's still full of mana."

The banshee's gray eyes almost twinkled as she recollected the events of a couple weeks before. She'd arrived in Erie while the sun was laying low, a mixture of deep purple and pink painted in the skies. Due to her noticeable appearance, she'd spent a majority of her time investigating the village at night, collecting information and clues from unsuspecting villagers. It only took her a week to confirm the drunken bard was a Church agent.

"Yes," Morgana said coolly, the corners of her lips curving upwards slightly in a devilish fashion, "I believe he was a bit too enveloped in his role when I approached him, or maybe he was confident no one would suspect him."

Lucrezia didn't reply, but continued to toy with the medallion as another chess game started. The two women spent over an hour playing almost a dozen games, the conversation turning from other magical artifacts Lucrezia had encountered in her long life to telling Morgana more about the lives of Werewolves and their customs. Lucrezia was an excellent storyteller and educator - and was clearly passionate about all the subjects they discussed. While Lucrezia had pretty much won every game without much effort, the Banshee had caught her unawares in the final game and captured Lucrezia's Queen in an impressive maneuver with two pawns. The immortal Elf had laughed at that, looking oddly pleased. - Before her yellow eyes glittered evilly and she promptly devastated the rest of Morgana's pieces.

"You're improving," she said finally. Her tone one that suggested this rare and privileged alone time with the Queen was coming to an end. She rose to her feet, the Meyneth's Tear still clutched in her hand.

"Forgive me, Morgana - would you mind if I held on to this?"

Morgana immediately got to her feet as Lucrezia began to rise. She kept her head low and placed her right fist diagonally across her chest. "Of course, my Queen. It is yours."

Lucrezia smiled again. "Thank you. I will see to it you are rewarded for your performance."

Taking the Dark Queen's words as her cue to leave, the white-haired woman nodded and quietly made her way toward the library doors. As her hand reached for the handle, she paused for a moment as if in thought, but shook her head and exited the room.

Flashback End

“Meyneth’s Tear,” she said aloud, loud enough for anyone remotely near her to hear, rare tears forming in the corners of her eyes as the memory burned brightly. “The medallion,” Morgana said, exclaimed, assuming that her voice was heard over all the ruckus and chaos. “He is nothing without it!”

“What?” came Lucien’s chilling voice.

Morgana froze in her spot, trying to note what direction the male’s voice was coming from. She looked down at Silver, who was clearly in no shape to run, and attempted to put together a plan.

There’s no time. She thought bitterly, clenching her jaws as the drive to survive coursed through her veins. Assisting Silver onto her feet, Morgana let out words that characterized her as the strong fighter she was. “Ignore whatever fatigue you feel until we get you out of harm’s way. Dying here and without a fight would tarnish our queen’s name.”

With those words, Morgana began to run as fast she could with an arm around Silver’s waist. She ushered the shapeshifter to keep moving and she only looked back to see how far Lucien was. He was tailing them, quite closely, and shooting almost aimlessly at the pair. With the chaos surrounding them and dust particles still floating about, Morgana couldn’t tell if he just couldn’t see or if he had little to no control.

Perhaps she could use that to her advantage. She could maneuver through the alleyways, leave Silver in a dark spot, and continue using the the buildings as cushion. Lucien was high up, so she was positive she was but a small figure from his perspective. He’d continue to shoot at her and use up all the mana. That meant she, or someone who may have heard her, would be able to extract the medallion from him. The retriever could even use the medallion themselves if there was mana left. The only problem would be avoiding the debris falling from the buildings.

She’d need to find an open place.

“This way, Silver,” Morgana hissed through her teeth, shoving people out of the way as she dragged Silver through the streets. She found a darker spot and laid her daughter figure against the wall carefully. “Stay here. Only leave if you’re facing death.”

Quickly, Morgana got up and continued to run, for who knows how long. It came to the point that all she could see was a canal, forcing her to turn left to avoid a large fire and towards a courtyard of sorts--all while dodging Lucien’s weak blasts. She’d remembered the area was called “Somerset” something after Garrett was keen on giving her a first-class tour of the city. It was open enough that any falling rubbish could be skillfully avoided, but compact enough that a decent battle could take place.

Death is inevitable for everyone, she thought to herself as she clenched her fists, breath harsh and uneven. Even her queen could not escape its grasp and she was believed to be on the same stage as the gods.
Location: Streets of Covent Garden > Somerset House [group 2]

Date: --

Time: Too crazy to tell

Mentions: Lucrezia, Everyone

Interacting: Silver WillfulWren WillfulWren , Lucien


The hatred in the air. The foreboding skies above. The poor, pitiful civilians that screamed for their lives as they attempted to flee the scene. It all would’ve been enough for the Banshee to go over the wall and unleash her wrath—if she were back home, that is. While “home” was a loose word for Aether, she was at least familiar with the world and its oddities. She was also stronger, faster, and wielded magic that most banshees could only ever wish to survive long enough to master. She wasn’t a feeble human like she was on Earth. The only thing she had going for her was brain and seemingly perfect memory.

There was no way she could fight hand-to-hand in the state she was in.

As Lucien spoke, the corners of Morgana’s pale lips would twitch every so often, as if she couldn’t believe the blasphemy that left his mouth. She’d opened her own and was about to comment on his disgusting obsession with Lucrezia, but an unfamiliar head of brown hair materialized from the shadows, blade firmly in hand. Morgana watched almost surprised as the stealthy woman managed to knick an onyx wing, the echo of metal scratching glass filling in the air.

Morgana winced slightly, the sound being less than pleasing. Lucien had said something foul and the way Staxos’ lips moved prompted the woman to to focus more on the fallen angel. She couldn’t hear their conversation, but she faintly made out the words “medallion” and “mana”, her mind soon becoming blurred with thoughts after her amber orbs were set on the chain hanging from Lucien’s neck. Her stare-down was cut short, however, after she’d noticed ricks and other debris beginning to tumble downwards.

During the attempt to escape, Morgana managed to grab Silver, who was nearest to her, away from the possible death. On her side, arms scraped and possibly bruised, her eyes were blinded by dust and the impact of head to concrete. Her mind was still hazy, but she gradually began piecing together the knowledge she’d collected thus far.

Flashback Start

It had been near sunset when Lucrezia had returned from the Werewolf colony hidden in Hollowvale. The creation of such a complex project had taken up a great deal of her time over the last few weeks, but she was content with the progress that had been made. The haunted marshes of Hollowvale were not exactly natural habitat for lycanthorpes (nor the most comfortable) but it was reasonably safe and more importantly far away from any notable settlements. Honestly, she had enjoyed her time among the wolves, it was one of the rare times she didn't have to care about appearences: she had slept late, hadn't bothered brushing her hair, ate with her fingers and drank far too much. She had walked barefoot and flirted with everyone - in general, she had acted as young as she looked. But while It had been enjoyable to bathe in her baser instincts for a time (and learn more about the fascinating - if bloody - ins and outs of Werewolf society) Lucrezia had to return her attention to other more civilized affairs before long.

An hour later, after bathing to wash the smell of swamp out of her hair, she sat quietly in her private library enjoying the sounds of crackling from the fireplace and the gentle creaking of the wooden bookcases. A small square board sat in front of her at knee height, several dozen stone pieces posed against each other as if poised to charge. The walls were covered in books of all shapes and sizes - many of which were priceless and irreplacable, and there was a little bit of everything. Many came from the previous owner of the Fortress, who had also had an infatuation with the Dark Arts, while many more had been retreived by her servants from dark corners of the world or from her own wanderings. She lent back in her chair, a glass of red wine in her hand and waited for a guest to arrive. It wasn't long before she felt the magical wards around the Library temporaily fade as someone approached. Only those who had been personally invited within could disable the wards, those foolish enough to enter without an invitation were quickly (and painfully) reminded of that.

The door to Lucrezia’s study opened with a faint creak. Morgana, clad in her handcrafted elven armor stepped in, the sound of metal clinking against wood filling the room with each step. Her white locks were tied up into a neat, high ponytail, and her face was masked with her usual disregard for life.

"My queen, you look well. I assume the project went as planned," said the banshee, her ghostly eyes low. She never dared to make eye contact with Lucrezia without permission. It felt immoral to even gaze at her from afar.

"It was educational," Lucrezia replied, gesturing Morgana to take a seat.

Morgana immediately sat in one of the seats across from the Dark Queen, her armor rustling with each movement. Relaxing a bit, she finally noticed the board that was laying across Lucrezia’s desk. She recognized it as “chess” and it was a game her queen had been teaching her after every assignment or mission. As much of an antifan Morgana was for activities that involved tiny details, she rather enjoyed the past time and all its calculating.

"How were the lycanthropes? Are they as beastly as the tales?" Morgana inquired, genuinely curious about Lucrezia's experience. While the warrior had spent must of her "childhood" roaming the lands, she never came across a werewolf, or any were-creature, in their natural habitat.

"They are," Lucrezia said, her tone oddly fond as she lazily waved her hand and the chess board sitting between them quickly organized itself. "The selection of a new Alpha to lead the pack was the highlight. It was incredibly...stimulating. It took them a week to clean all the blood afterwards. No doubt you will meet him at some point."

A hint of a smile graced Morgana's lips as she listened, noting the modest tonal change in Lucrezia's voice. Her hand went to move a chess piece but her ears were still tuned in on the conversation and even allowed herself a quiet chuckle--something only the Dark Queen could hear. "Perhaps this new Alpha would be interested in sparring when we do face one another." Challenging newcomers was an activity Morgana tended to do as a way of testing their abilities and ensuring they were worthy of serving Lucrezia. She couldn't really remember when that started, only that she'd built up the reputation of being a rather harsh critic.

Lucrezia took a sip of her wine, a small frown crossing her perfect features as she glanced down at the chessboard and eyed the only piece that had been moved so far.

"You don't have a plan."

"Plan?" Morgana's voice rose in uncertainty at the end. "I'm not quite sure what you are referring to, my queen."

The Elven woman smirked. "You're not planning your moves. You should be thinking at least two or three moves ahead if you hope to out manoeuvre me - try to consider what my response would be to your movements on the board, and prepare to counter that. Many games of chess are over before the third or fourth move has even been made. Now-"

Lucrezia gently waved her hand again, and the pawn Morgana had moved forward obediently jumped back to its original position.

"Again."

Morgana's lips parted slightly in understanding. She forgot chess was identical to a physical battle itself. After thinking more carefully, the woman moved a different piece and waited patiently for approval.

The Dark Queen nodded encouragingly, and the game began in earnest with pieces moving quickly.

"Tell me about your latest assignment." she said, as her knight promptly took Morgana's rook out of nowhere.

The banshee didn't allow Lucrezia's sudden take down to shake her. She continued to play strategically while minding her words as she spoke. "It was successful. Our suspicions were correct. The bard in the nearby Erie Village was indeed an undercover Church Agent. Less than compliant, but an easy capture nonetheless." A quiet thump filled the room as Morgana collected one of Lucrezia's chess pieces. "I personally escorted him to the dungeon and to... Develcus for interregation." Morgana's face seemed to almost contort at the name. As if the very mention of the him was too powerful to handle.

Lucrezia nodded, looking pleased. "Good work. Hopefully this will deter the Church from further foolish attempts in the future, but I doubt it. I'll summon the village elder here to discuss the matter. It's check-mate by the way."

"Ah, I left an opening." Morgana stated, making a mental note to herself.

A few moments of silence passed as the warrior attempted to form coherent words. She watched Lucrezia reset the board, unsure of how to make her next game move or how to lead the last topic into the next. "There was something else about this agent I found puzzling."

"Oh?"

Nodding, Morgana took a second to reach into her metal chest plate and pull out a medallion. A golden-white stone was held in place by two angelic figures. She'd never seen anything like it and thought it'd be best to seek Lucrezia's insight. "He had this around his neck and appeared rather perturbed when I took it. Do you know what it is?"

Lucrezia reached out and took the small medallion out of Morgana's hand. She spent the next full minute inspecting it thoroughly, her cat like pupils narrowing significantly as she did so. She gently stroked the stone with a finger, and it pulsed suddenly with a golden light before reverting back to its original pearl white color. Eventually she smirked.

"My my. Quite a powerful little artifact this is. It's a mana stone, designed to store and release magical energy as needed. It can either be used by one with magical talents to fuel spells or increase their mana pool for magic that would usually be beyond their capabilities - or even give someone with no Arcane talent the ability to wield magic. Quite a useful tool indeed. I haven't seen one of such quality for quite a long time...If I recall correctly, the Church calls these Meyneth's Tears, though no doubt one of this size probably has some unique name."

Lucrezia's smile widened as she reset the chessboard with a wave of her hand. "You must have taken its user by surprise? It's still full of mana."

The banshee's gray eyes almost twinkled as she recollected the events of a couple weeks before. She'd arrived in Erie while the sun was laying low, a mixture of deep purple and pink painted in the skies. Due to her noticeable appearance, she'd spent a majority of her time investigating the village at night, collecting information and clues from unsuspecting villagers. It only took her a week to confirm the drunken bard was a Church agent.

"Yes," Morgana said coolly, the corners of her lips curving upwards slightly in a devilish fashion, "I believe he was a bit too enveloped in his role when I approached him, or maybe he was confident no one would suspect him."

Lucrezia didn't reply, but continued to toy with the medallion as another chess game started. The two women spent over an hour playing almost a dozen games, the conversation turning from other magical artifacts Lucrezia had encountered in her long life to telling Morgana more about the lives of Werewolves and their customs. Lucrezia was an excellent storyteller and educator - and was clearly passionate about all the subjects they discussed. While Lucrezia had pretty much won every game without much effort, the Banshee had caught her unawares in the final game and captured Lucrezia's Queen in an impressive maneuver with two pawns. The immortal Elf had laughed at that, looking oddly pleased. - Before her yellow eyes glittered evilly and she promptly devastated the rest of Morgana's pieces.

"You're improving," she said finally. Her tone one that suggested this rare and privileged alone time with the Queen was coming to an end. She rose to her feet, the Meyneth's Tear still clutched in her hand.

"Forgive me, Morgana - would you mind if I held on to this?"

Morgana immediately got to her feet as Lucrezia began to rise. She kept her head low and placed her right fist diagonally across her chest. "Of course, my Queen. It is yours."

Lucrezia smiled again. "Thank you. I will see to it you are rewarded for your performance."

Taking the Dark Queen's words as her cue to leave, the white-haired woman nodded and quietly made her way toward the library doors. As her hand reached for the handle, she paused for a moment as if in thought, but shook her head and exited the room.

Flashback End

“Meyneth’s Tear,” she said aloud, loud enough for anyone remotely near her to hear, rare tears forming in the corners of her eyes as the memory burned brightly. “The medallion,” Morgana said, exclaimed, assuming that her voice was heard over all the ruckus and chaos. “He is nothing without it!”

“What?” came Lucien’s chilling voice.

Morgana froze in her spot, trying to note what direction the male’s voice was coming from. She looked down at Silver, who was clearly in no shape to run, and attempted to put together a plan.

There’s no time. She thought bitterly, clenching her jaws as the drive to survive coursed through her veins. Assisting Silver onto her feet, Morgana let out words that characterized her as the strong fighter she was. “Ignore whatever fatigue you feel until we get you out of harm’s way. Dying here and without a fight would tarnish our queen’s name.”

With those words, Morgana began to run as fast she could with an arm around Silver’s waist. She ushered the shapeshifter to keep moving and she only looked back to see how far Lucien was. He was tailing them, quite closely, and shooting almost aimlessly at the pair. With the chaos surrounding them and dust particles still floating about, Morgana couldn’t tell if he just couldn’t see or if he had little to no control.

Perhaps she could use that to her advantage. She could maneuver through the alleyways, leave Silver in a dark spot, and continue using the the buildings as cushion. Lucien was high up, so she was positive she was but a small figure from his perspective. He’d continue to shoot at her and use up all the mana. That meant she, or someone who may have heard her, would be able to extract the medallion from him. The retriever could even use the medallion themselves if there was mana left. The only problem would be avoiding the debris falling from the buildings.

She’d need to find an open place.

“This way, Silver,” Morgana hissed through her teeth, shoving people out of the way as she dragged Silver through the streets. She found a darker spot and laid her daughter figure against the wall carefully. “Stay here. Only leave if you’re facing death.”

Quickly, Morgana got up and continued to run, for who knows how long. It came to the point that all she could see was a canal, forcing her to turn left to avoid a large fire and towards a courtyard of sorts--all while dodging Lucien’s weak blasts. She’d remembered the area was called “Somerset” something after Garrett was keen on giving her a first-class tour of the city. It was open enough that any falling rubbish could be skillfully avoided, but compact enough that a decent battle could take place.

Death is inevitable for everyone, she thought to herself as she clenched her fists, breath harsh and uneven. Even her queen could not escape its grasp and she was believed to be on the same stage as the gods.
 
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Roland Fairchild
Flooded Streets

On his way north, Roland stopped in the mouth of the alleyway into which he originally ran with Elena, put his back to the wall closest to the intersection where the building had collapsed from Lucien's blast, and carefully peeked his head around the corner next to him to see if the coast was clear. The smoke in the sky from earlier had all but cleared, but of Staxos and Lucien there was currently no sign; the only thing up there now was an angry red storm cloud, an image that would not have looked out of place in the deepest depths of hell itself. That wasn't good. Where had those two gotten to? The only person left in the area was a slumped over figure beneath a pavillion more or less just across the street from where he was and some distance away from the rubble of the fallen building. Everyone else had been smart enough to get away. Puzzled, Roland wondered what the man was still doing there. Was he injured? He was in grave danger just hanging around a place like this. The man shifted his position, allowing Roland a better look at him from his vantage point. The prince's jaw dropped as recognition dawned on him. The hunched over man was Daniel Payne. What was he doing here, and why had he not helped earlier or run away from the chaos? The two were roomates, so he must've come with Arryn, but come to think of it, Roland had no idea why Arryn was there either. It could not be a simple coincidence that everyone had somehow managed to find their way here, could it? In any case, now that he got a better look, the werewolf looked to be in a great deal of pain; he shifted his position slightly and groaned, holding himself in a way that suggested to Roland he was trying to nurse a set of broken ribs. He was going to need help moving. Roland gritted his teeth, steeling himself for what he knew he must do. He'd have to get the old timer out of here before Staxos or Lucien returned. Tall order, but there was no way Roland could just leave him there. Maybe he could get him inside a building, lay him down somewhere he wouldn't be at risk of getting caught in the crossfire.

Seeing that the coast was clear and that there would be no better time to make the attempt, Roland dashed quickly across the street. His head darted backward and forward the whole time, keeping a sharp eye out for either Staxos or Lucien. "Daniel," he called at a whisper when he got to the set of steps upon which he rested. "Daniel, c'mon. We have to get out of here. I'll help you. Just hold on to me, alright?"

"Prince Roland...?" He sounded hoarse, tense with pain, and confused, perhaps from drifting in and out of consciousness. When his eyes landed on Roland's face, though, they were as sharp and full of intelligence as they always were. "Fool," he chastised. "What in the name of the Light possessed you to come back here?! Get away from here and hide before you get your idiot head cut off of your idiot shoulders!"

Ah, Roland had missed that plain, direct speech of his. Ever since he was a boy, few dared talk to Roland as acerbically as Payne did, especially when he thought his liege was doing something particularly idiotic. Which was quite often, to hear him tell it. "Not a chance, old man. I'm not leaving without you. We're getting out of this together, alive. Now, are you going to take my hand or will we wait here together for Staxos to come and impale us on the same spear?"

"Bah, stubborn brat." Despite his harsh words, he took Roland's hand and leaned on his shoulder to remain standing.

"Let's move a little north," Roland said. "We'll get you inside somewhere and then--"

Roland silenced himself abruptly. Something he couldn't explain, a sudden chill running down his spine that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, caused him to stop moving. Everything around him seemed to slow down and suddenly it was as if the only thing he could hear was the sound of his own beating heart. He knew he had to keep moving, knew that Daniel's life depended on him taking that first step forward, but for some reason, he felt utterly frozen with a sick feeling of foreboding. It was Daniel who gave him the push he needed, quite literally.

"ROLAND, DOWN!" Instead of leaning on him, Payne was now shoving him with a great deal more force than Roland would have thought it possible for a man with broken ribs to produce. Roland fell back down the steps and landed hard on his side, the impact of the fall taking the breath out of him. When he looked behind him to see what had happened, the gruesome scene he witnessed left him numb with horror. Daniel lay in two halves in a pool of his own blood, cut cleanly between legs and torso at the waist. The legs kicked convulsively, uselessly, detached from the brain that once gave them commands and tumbled themselves to the bottom of the stairs beside Roland as a result. The rest of Daniel lay on his stomach at the top, his mouth working wordlessly in between coughs that brought up gobs of blood, his eyes rapidly losing the light of consciousness. His last act was to look down at Roland and mouth a single word: run. That said, the old werewolf stopped moving completely. Roland was so transfixed at the scene, so wrought with emotion, he hardly noticed the small puppy jump out from behind where Daniel had been sitting and run yelping in terror down the street back toward the building that probably crushed Arryn.

It was almost too bright for Roland to have seen Daniel's broken body or his last word thanks to the sheer brilliance of the luminescent figure of his murderer standing above him. The blinding golden glow was as bright as the sun and as difficult to look at; it made the glow of Shadowsbane in Roland's hand seem a dim candle beside a roaring bonfire. Daniel forgotten, High Sentinel Staxos's masked face turned in Roland's direction. He said not a word, but merely began to walk casually down the steps to finish the job he'd started. Daniel's blood mingled alongside Lucrezia's on the blade of his staff, shining red in Staxos's light.

"You won't get away with this, Staxos. I'll see you pay. Mark my words, traitor. You will pay." His words rang with cold anger, though Staxos had no visible reaction. Despite his bold claim, Roland knew to stay and fight was to die. He honored Daniel's last request, scrambled inelegantly to his feet, and he ran for his life. He headed to the first intersection west of him and made a right, heading north in the hopes of drawing Staxos away from Elena as he'd promised her. In the dash between the pavilion-covered staircase and the right turn, he was mindful that Staxos could probably have blown him away with a blast of light at any time he wanted. It wasn't like Roland had much chance of dodging at that distance with his back turned to the man. But he did not. Curious.

In any event, Roland ran another block until he was standing on another street corner. Behind him, there was no sign of Staxos following, which was worrying. To his right, another city block down which he could run. He knew he should keep running, but Roland had to stop and catch his breath for a moment. Additionally, his attention was drawn to the oddity in front of him: there seemed to be some sort of time distortion, raindrops frozen in midair just a few feet in front of his face. He would have kept moving north, but when he reached out his hand and found the sensation of a physical wall between himself and the raindrops frozen in time, he realized that would not be possible. He was standing in a pocket of frozen time, Roland guessed, or perhaps everything else was frozen and he was standing in the only part of London that hadn't been. Time manipulation was one of Staxos's specialties. This was surely his work. As long as he had enough magic to be capable of such feats, Roland had little hope of defeating him. He'd have to run to his right, he decided; no where else to go from where he was but that way or backward. He made the right turn and started jogging.

About halfway down the next street, the brick wall of the building a short distance ahead of him exploded outwards, knocking Roland off of his feet. When he looked up, Staxos was twirling his shiny, bloody staff, striding out of the hole he'd sliced in the building's wall as if it were an ordinary doorway. Striding right toward Roland, who was now on his back. The building out of which Staxos had appeared, Roland noted, was in roughly the same location on this street as the building in front of which Daniel was killed had been in on its own. Instead of following Roland on his circuitous route around the block to get here, Staxos had taken a more direct path, going inside the place with the pavilion and carving his way through who knew how many walls, obstacles, and other buildings before he finally emerged here. Was there more blood on his staff now than earlier? Had he even cut his way through people to take his improvised shortcut, Roland thought incredulously? In any case, he now stood between Roland and the direction in which he'd been jogging, so that way was no longer an option. Roland had no choice but to run backward, the same way he'd come. He got to his feet and proceeded to do so, but Staxos still neglected to run after him. He pursued at his own leisurely pace, the very picture of a man taking a pleasant stroll through the park. Roland had no idea what his game was. The man had him dead to rights if he'd jumped at him just then or if he ran after him now or he just fired a single blast of magic, but he did not do any of these things. Was he just that supremely arrogant, playing with his food before he devoured it like a cat with a mouse, or did he have another reason for his restraint? Conserving energy for something, perhaps?

Instead of going all the way back to the corner with the invisible wall, Roland ducked instead into the gap between two buildings, moving south again. He ran down the narrow alleyway, hoping to save some time and emerge more quickly back near the alleyway down which he'd left Elena. He was making good progress before he came to a huge chain link fence, at least ten feet high, separating one backyard from another. Turning back, he saw Staxos still striding toward him, this time choosing to follow him into the alley rather than cut himself a direct path through the walls of stores and houses. Roland had no time to spare. He jumped and grabbed the top of the fence, using the gaps in the chain links as footholds, hoisting himself over the top, and eventually landing on his feet on the other side. He ran onward and looked back just in time to see Staxos slice through the same fence vertically in one clean motion. The fence collapsed like an ill constructed house of cards. He walked right on through as if it had never been there.

When Roland made it back to the street on the other side, he found another fence, this one taller and topped with barbed wire. There'd be no climbing over this one, not fast enough to get away before Staxos was in striking range. On the other side of it, he could see a tree on the sidewalk and the mouth of the alleyway across the road that he ran into with Elena earlier. He could see it all plain as day right in front of him, but it all might as well have been a hundred miles away for all the good it did him. This was checkmate, Roland thought desperately; his goose was cooked. He turned to see Staxos still rapidly approaching at his inexorably steady pace; if the man sensed the inevitability of his victory, he gave no outward sign of it, but inevitable it was at this rate. Roland's eyes darted left and right wildly, looking for any options. He saw a fire escape set in the wall above him. Too high up to do him any good. A dumpster. Useless; Staxos'd slice right through it. There was a door in the wall leading inside the building next to the dumpster, but Staxos was close enough now that he blocked the way to it; if only he had noticed that earlier, Roland thought bitterly. Seeing no other options, he began to scramble up the fence as he'd done with the other less than two minutes before. There was no way he'd make it to the top before Staxos reached him, but he would not just sit and wait to die. He climbed the fence, knowing full well he'd be impaled long before he ever got close to the top.

Interacting: Avari Avari
Mentioned: koala koala
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Arryn Bennett
Film Museum

Arryn and Raijin proceeded to take a closer look around the dark, cavernous room in which they found themselves. It was a massive chamber held up by evenly spaced, large circular pillars. It was filled with little but expensive looking cars on full display. There were easily dozens of them all spread out across the room and encircled by red velvet rope fences to keep onlookers from approaching. Reading some of the plaques in front of the displays, Arryn discovered they were cars used in old James Bond movies. He wondered if cars so old, and essentially movie props at that, could even be turned on, let alone used as rams the way he initially suggested. In the back of the display chamber were two bathrooms and the entrance to a hallway blocked off by a sign saying "staff only." After some poking around, satisfied there was little of any use but the cars themselves in the main hall, the two Aetherians decided to see what was back in the hallway.

There, they found three closed rooms on either side of the hall and one at the very end marked with an exit sign that seemed to lead outside. "Okay," Arryn said. "I'll search the rooms on the left. You take the ones on the right. Let's look for anything we can use. The keys to those cars, perhaps." Keys aside, Arryn had no idea what they could possibly find that would be of any use against a fully powered and fully enraged Staxos, but it was better than sitting around worrying and waiting. It was also better, if not much moreso, than rushing out to face him and Lucien with no strategy at all.

"Very well," Raijin replied, and the two went to their respective searches.

The first room on Arryn's side was a tiny office. He dug through drawers and found nothing but writing implements, scissors, paperclips, rubberbands, and post it notes. Important as the search was, Arryn's mind was being pulled in so many directions by so many different worries that he could hardly keep his focus on the task in front of him. Foremost in his mind were his separated friends. Ana and Roland would probably be alright one way or another, but he was really worried about Rose: he felt bad about it now, but he had had no choice but to push her so roughly to get her out of the way of the building. He hoped she was not hurt; he hoped Roland or Ana had seen her and turned back to help her up before they ran off. He wished he could have gone with her himself, seen her to safety. Then again, what could Arryn really have done for her that Roland can't? Roland had Shadowsbane, which, while not much of a defense in its stunted form, was still leagues more than anyone else had. She could be no safer with any other. Even that was little help to Daniel, though. The man was badly injured. There was no way he could have run. How was he going to get away before their enemies fell on him? There was small chance that little Hogan could protect him from the likes of those two. Perhaps, if he just stayed hunkered down and looked as pathetic as possible, the two wouldn't even bother with him. Maybe they'd mistake him for one of the other beleaguered earth people scattered throughout the area trying to find some shelter.

Not much in the first room. He took the scissors and gathered some of the paperclips and rubber bands, placed them in his hoodie pocket, and moved on to the next.

A janitor's closet. Some brown trash bags, a big circular garbage can, a mop, a broom, a dustpan. How could he use any of this? Aside from his worries about his friends, Arryn was also still busy trying to puzzle out just what was happening here. Even if betrayal had always been his goal, what did Staxos have to gain by working with Lucien, a foul creature so steeped in the Shadow he probably couldn't remember what the Light was even like? How did the High Sentinel know Roland would have Shadowsbane here and now when not even Roland himself knew that? Was it just a coincidence? And if Shadowsbane was here, now, did that mean something had happened to Queen Ophelia? Just too many questions and virtually no answers. Arryn liked to think things through properly, look at them from every angle, just sit and puzzle at them until he came up with the right answer. It was like one of those blacksmith tavern puzzles old Hogan used to make with a bunch of twisted, connected metal pieces you had to find a way to disentangle one piece at a time. Yet this puzzle eluded him, as if there were too many pieces he could not see for him to properly solve it.

After a brief look around, Arryn took the broom and mop. Something to swing at their attackers? On to the next room.

This one was a storage room of some kind. Lots of heavy boxes full of documents, extra packages of paper and other office supplies, some stuff for cleaning and maintaining the cars outside, a roll of duct tape, and, oddly, a collection of clothes hangers hanging from a metal bar on one wall. A third factor weighing heavy on Arryn's mind was his new companion. Raijin seemed amiable enough for now, but he had vivid memories of his near death experience at the creature's hands back in Blackrock. He was no one Arryn had ever wanted to encounter again, especially not without his hammer for self-defense. He had little choice but to work with him now, but he was anxious at the prospect that the oni might decide to ultimately betray him and work with Lucien, presumably his old ally, instead. He did not think he actually had any reason to do that, but...Arryn would put nothing past any Shadowspawn and he would trust them only as far as he could throw them. Which, in his current form, was even significantly less than it would have been on Aether. At the thought of possible betrayal, Arryn unconsciously patted the right pocket in his trousers and took comfort from the feeling of the hard, flat object that lay within. He'd taken a page out of Daniel's book when he fell on the floor of the flooded street earlier to dodge that falling building. If worst came to worst...

"Blacksmith! Over here."

Shaken from his thoughts Arryn exited from the supply closet and moved over to the third room on the opposite side of the small hallway. Rai was standing outside of it, arms crossed casually on his chest, looking in with a somewhat grim expression. "What is it? Did you find something," he asked hopefully. A conveniently hidden, illegal stash of deadly, deadly weapons, maybe?

"Yes, you could say that, though I am not sure it will be of any use to us in its current form. Look." He gestured inside the room in front of which he was standing.

Arryn peeked in to see what Raijin was gawking at. Then, unprepared for what he saw, he took a startled step backward, losing his grip on the broom and mop from the janitor's closet and allowing them to fall to the floor with a loud clatter. It was another office, this one larger and, Arryn would have said, more opulently decorated than the one he searched on his side. For the head honcho, probably. On the floor, sprawled on his stomach in a pool of blood, was the corpse of a short, slim, middle aged man in a suit with dark, unkempt hair flying in all directions not unlike Arryn's own. He had a massive, bloody wound on the back of his head and there was a big, heavy bust carved in the likeness of James Bond's head on the floor beside him that told the story of what had happened. The bust had fallen from a shelf high up and landed squarely on the back of the poor guy's head when he was standing in an unlucky spot just beneath it. Perhaps the bust fell because of the violence of the storm outside, or perhaps it was just an unrelated accident. Either way, it was obvious at a glance that he was very much dead.

"You know," Raijin said with a hint of amusement in his voice, "he kind of looks like you with that shaggy head of his. What do you think of that, Sir Blacksmith?" Arryn shot the oni-turned-human an angry glare. "Not funny, man." A dead body that looked like him? That was a bit of ominous foreshadowing Arryn did NOT need to think about right now, especially not in the presence of a beast that had already nearly killed him once not so long ago.

Rai cracked a small grin as he continued. "You're right. He is a bit too short and handsome to be you, but...I think the item of interest is on the other side of the room." The man strode easily into the office--stepping over the body as he went with hardly a glance, seemingly not even close to fazed by its presence--and over to a glass display case on the wall beside the shelf from which the murderous bust had fallen. Inside the glass case were dozens of small, well-polished, individual keys. Next to each key was a shiny brass placard noting the car that the key corresponded to. Arryn hadn't even noticed the glass case there; his attention had been completely absorbed by the body when he first looked in the room. "I assume these would start the cars displayed in the exhibition," said Raijin, "given the...car names written on their placards."

"Seems like it. Who knows if they'll even turn on, though? It's likely been years since they've been really driven and they might not even have any gas."

"Only one way to find out." The tall red-headed man grabbed a stapler off the ornate, hardwood desk nearby and slammed it hard into the glass case. The case shattered into a million pieces. He started gathering all the keys and placed them into his pocket. "How about you? Find anything helpful besides a broom and a mop?"

Arryn dug in his pocket for the scissors, paperclips and rubber bands he got from the other office.

"And just what are we supposed to do with those?"

Silently, Arryn did a bit of quick re-engineering. He hooked several of the paperclips together, about ten of them into a Y shape. He wrapped several rubber bands around the whole paperclip structure, several times each, so that the whole thing became rigid and somewhat inflexible. He used the scissors to cut another rubber band into a single string instead of a loop and then tied either end to one of the branches of the Y. He presented the finished product to Raijin.

"Slingshot!" he declared proudly. He pulled the rubber band in the middle of the Y, the part used to launch the projectile. He let it go and it bounced back with a sharp, satisfying boing.

Raijin arched an eyebrow. "Rather small, isn't it?"

Arryn shrugged. "You asked for a contraption, right? Well, here it is. Any projectile is better than none, especially if we have to hit and run and we can't get too close to them."

Raijin didn't seem to know what to say to that. "...There's ambush tactics, and then there's suicide..."

"Hey, if you find a bow and some arrows lying around, or maybe one of James Bond's pistols and some ammo, be sure to let me know and we can use those instead. Smart-ass."

Rai shook his head in apparent wonder. "I'm going to go see if I can get those cars started with these keys. Why don't you look for something else more useful?" He pointed to the door at the hall's end below the exit sign.

Curiously, Arryn moved to open it. "Here? Isn't this just the back exit leading outside?" When it opened, Arryn realized the door actually led to a garage and not outside as he originally believed. Probably where they did any necessary, extensive maintenance on the cars, he thought. There were all kinds of tools lined up on nearly every wall. Hammers, wrenches, ratchets, tires, nails and nuts and bolts, tons of rope, some bricks lined up in a corner, big, empty gas containers...anything this building might need for fixing the cars or really anything else that could possibly break. "Woah," was all Arryn could say. "Jackpot."

He wandered over to one wall where he found planks of wood in a variety of lengths and widths and another shelf of metal rods arranged in a bundle with plastic zip ties. He looked at it all and let the gears turn furiously in his head. He recalled the layout of the main room where the cars were displayed, measured distances from memory, inventoried materials in his mind. An idea came to him. He started picking through the wood and metal rods, the hammers and the nails, gathering what he would need to execute his scheme. He realized at that point that Raijin was still with him, standing not far behind. Apparently, he had decided to see what was in the garage instead of going out to test the cars as he said he would. Or maybe he'd already done that and Arryn had not even noticed the time go by while he was thinking. Either way, the oni was staring at Arryn quizzically as the blacksmith gathered objects in what must have seemed a random, haphazard fashion. Arryn addressed his unasked question with a question of his own.

"Have you ever gone trapping in the woods, Raijin? You know, like catching animals with baited snares?"

"What of it?"

"Let's just say rabbits aren't necessarily the only thing those kinds of traps are good for. With all this, I think I might be able to put something together a little more helpful than a slingshot made out of paperclips." He put an ordinary hammer through the loop in his trousers that would normally hold Mah'alleinir. He hoisted a few metal rods and planks of wood over one shoulder and then a big bundle of coiled rope over the other shoulder. He rustled through drawers until he found a tape measure. He'd come back for more material if he needed it, but he thought this would be enough to build what he had in mind.

"Let's get back out to the main room," Raijin said. "We have plenty to prepare before we lure Staxos and Lucien here and little time to do so."

Powerful as that pair was, Arryn still was not particularly hopeful that they could do much more than irritate the two of them with cars and traps. At least the duo now had all the means at their disposal to try something, though. It was a hell of a lot better than sitting around, waiting docilely for death to come and find them. For some reason, Daniel's last words to him before they parted echoed again softly in his ears.

Always forward, Arryn...

Interacting and written in collaboration with: QizPizza QizPizza
Mentioned: Avari Avari koala koala LoneSniper87 LoneSniper87
 
Last edited:

Loading ELENA. . .

Running back towards the danger was probably a mistake, but that didn't stop the increasingly courageous blonde. Her breath was even and unwavering as she jogged towards the direction she came, excusing herself as she pushed her way passed the very much panicked civilians. A few of them even attempted to keep her from facing the chaos head on, particularly an older man who claimed he'd witnessed the horrors of war and he'd never seen such a scene before.

"No, no! You mustn't go back there, lass!" His Irish accent was thick and his voice was like aged, fine wine. His mop of white hair clung to his forehead with sweat, a look of worry in his eyes while he looked into Elena's eyes. It was as if he were trying to see if she were insane or not, but she quickly dismissed the thought with her reply.

"Please let me go, sir!" She said exasperatingly, shaking his wrinkly hands of her water-logged raincoat. "I have to help my friend!" After saying her own piece, she continued running towards the center.

There was no way she'd be able to effectively search for Roland in the state she was in. Physical exhaustion was an understatement as she began to slow down. As she glanced around, she thought about a better way to look for him. A car would've been nice since she was tired from running and she doubted Staxos could fly as quickly as a vehicle could speed. That was when she saw a silver Nissan Altima with it's driver's seat wide open.

Ah! Elena thought to herself as she strolled over, first checking to see if the keys were present. Thankfully, they were, so she hopped in and slowly wrapped her hands around the wheel. Driving was something she didn't really need to do in London. The streets were small and public transportation was readily made available. That being said, she knew had to drive even though it'd been a while since she took her license test.

Finally starting the engine and beginning the slow transition, she drove around a good five minutes before noticing a familiar body and bloody mess lying on the wet ground. Elena stopped the car and walked over, only to gasp in horror to see it was Daniel, or at least what looked like Daniel. A few seconds were spent contemplating returning to the edge of the dome, but she knew she couldn't. If Daniel were in such a state, what could happen to Roland?

Elena followed her intuition on what direction Roland and Staxos had headed. Deciding it would be better to find them at higher altitude, she carefully climbed up a nearby fire escape and going inside to get a better view of the streets. The blonde roamed throughout the second floor and attempted to get a look from all the windows she could. As if on cue, Roland appeared while being chased by a very persistent high sentinel.

"Oh my god." Elena said as she watched him climb the fence in a fury. "Oh my god. What do I do?" She paced as much as she could, trying to compare the possible outcome to many scenes in books she had read. "Oh my god. Oh my god. I'm going to die." Stopping her tracks she began bouncing on the balls of her feet and shaking her hands to get out the jitters. As soon as Staxos was in front of her, she jumped off the fire escape she stood on and wrapped her arms around the Aetherian's neck.

He was momentarily disabled as they wobbled in the air and slowly got lower to the ground, giving Roland just enough time to finish climbing the fence. Staxos, however, was less than pleased with the situation. "Roland, hurry!"

The sentinel said something under his breath before throwing Elena backwards towards a nearby tree. The breath was knocked out of her as her body flew back, hitting the tree sideways. Upon impact, she felt something sting and puncture the side of her waist before she hit the ground. Laying on her side with one hand where the pain radiated from, she noticed her hand returned red. When she looked down, a thin branch had impaled her from back to front.

Coughing out a bit of blood, she felt tears form in the corners of her eyes from the pain. Elena winced as she attempted to get up, a loud yelp escaping her lips as she was forced to sit and lean against the tree that had injured her. Small price to pay, I guess..." Elena thought to herself as she watched Roland continue running, Staxos close behind.

A quiet bark from the distance soon rang in her ears, a wet looking creature running towards her. Elena squinted her eyes in attempt to make out its shape and she immediately realized it was Hogan trotting over. The wet Golden Retriever barked louder when he was next to her, nudging it's little nose on her limp hand. "Hi, Hogan. I helped your dad's friend..." Elena said quietly, giving the puppy a small pat before a sputter of cough and blood left her mouth.
Location: Tree & Fence

Date: --

Time: Too crazy to tell

Mentions: --

Interacting: Roland MagicPenguin MagicPenguin


Running back towards the danger was probably a mistake, but that didn't stop the increasingly courageous blonde. Her breath was even and unwavering as she jogged towards the direction she came, excusing herself as she pushed her way passed the very much panicked civilians. A few of them even attempted to keep her from facing the chaos head on, particularly an older man who claimed he'd witnessed the horrors of war and he'd never seen such a scene before.

"No, no! You mustn't go back there, lass!" His Irish accent was thick and his voice was like aged, fine wine. His mop of white hair clung to his forehead with sweat, a look of worry in his eyes while he looked into Elena's eyes. It was as if he were trying to see if she were insane or not, but she quickly dismissed the thought with her reply.

"Please let me go, sir!" She said exasperatingly, shaking his wrinkly hands of her water-logged raincoat. "I have to help my friend!" After saying her own piece, she continued running towards the center.

There was no way she'd be able to effectively search for Roland in the state she was in. Physical exhaustion was an understatement as she began to slow down. As she glanced around, she thought about a better way to look for him. A car would've been nice since she was tired from running and she doubted Staxos could fly as quickly as a vehicle could speed. That was when she saw a silver Nissan Altima with it's driver's seat wide open.

Ah! Elena thought to herself as she strolled over, first checking to see if the keys were present. Thankfully, they were, so she hopped in and slowly wrapped her hands around the wheel. Driving was something she didn't really need to do in London. The streets were small and public transportation was readily made available. That being said, she knew had to drive even though it'd been a while since she took her license test.

Finally starting the engine and beginning the slow transition, she drove around a good five minutes before noticing a familiar body and bloody mess lying on the wet ground. Elena stopped the car and walked over, only to gasp in horror to see it was Daniel, or at least what looked like Daniel. A few seconds were spent contemplating returning to the edge of the dome, but she knew she couldn't. If Daniel were in such a state, what could happen to Roland?

Elena followed her intuition on what direction Roland and Staxos had headed. Deciding it would be better to find them at higher altitude, she carefully climbed up a nearby fire escape and going inside to get a better view of the streets. The blonde roamed throughout the second floor and attempted to get a look from all the windows she could. As if on cue, Roland appeared while being chased by a very persistent high sentinel.

"Oh my god." Elena said as she watched him climb the fence in a fury. "Oh my god. What do I do?" She paced as much as she could, trying to compare the possible outcome to many scenes in books she had read. "Oh my god. Oh my god. I'm going to die." Stopping her tracks she began bouncing on the balls of her feet and shaking her hands to get out the jitters. As soon as Staxos was in front of her, she jumped off the fire escape she stood on and wrapped her arms around the Aetherian's neck.

He was momentarily disabled as they wobbled in the air and slowly got lower to the ground, giving Roland just enough time to finish climbing the fence. Staxos, however, was less than pleased with the situation. "Roland, hurry!"

The sentinel said something under his breath before throwing Elena backwards towards a nearby tree. The breath was knocked out of her as her body flew back, hitting the tree sideways. Upon impact, she felt something sting and puncture the side of her waist before she hit the ground. Laying on her side with one hand where the pain radiated from, she noticed her hand returned red. When she looked down, a thin branch had impaled her from back to front.

Coughing out a bit of blood, she felt tears form in the corners of her eyes from the pain. Elena winced as she attempted to get up, a loud yelp escaping her lips as she was forced to sit and lean against the tree that had injured her. Small price to pay, I guess..." Elena thought to herself as she watched Roland continue running, Staxos close behind.

A quiet bark from the distance soon rang in her ears, a wet looking creature running towards her. Elena squinted her eyes in attempt to make out its shape and she immediately realized it was Hogan trotting over. The wet Golden Retriever barked louder when he was next to her, nudging it's little nose on her limp hand. "Hi, Hogan. I helped your dad's friend..." Elena said quietly, giving the puppy a small pat before a sputter of cough and blood left her mouth.
 
Juniper Arc
Alley (Covenant Garden) > Somerset house alley

Juniper kept low to the wet ground, her heartbeat pounding in her ears as she slowly crept her way towards the end of the alley. She had no idea where Staxos or Lucien were, and while she hoped that fact was mutual, it didn't do anything to ease her fear. She paused at the corner, timidly peaking her head around it before pressing against it as she moved. She slowly crept forward and came to a split, one path leading back to the street while the other continued on for a distance. The others wouldn't attempt to move in the open, doing so would be a death wish, so she chose the straightforward path. Her feet splashed in the occasional puddle as she walked, constantly looking around for any signs of life.

The ground shook as a string of explosions rung out. They sounded and felt close enough that she felt the ground around her shake and a few windows rattle in protest. While the idea of running towards those explosions was anything but enticing, the chance that Lucien was possibly chasing Morgana was too much to ignore. If she died her entire plan would fail, and they would all die for nothing. Breaking out into a run her legs burned as she forced herself down the alley and out onto the open street, a small ways down from their original position in front of the cafe. Twisting her head to her left she saw the winged form of Lucien high up in the air firing at someone further down the street.

"What are you planning, Lucien?" Morgana shouted, her body tense and aching as she predicted and dodged each move. The physical fatigue from running was beginning to catch up on her and she didn't know how much longer she could hold out until the dark angel ran out of mana.

The traitor didn't answer. His eyes were only filled with the same venom Morgana saw when they locked gazes. He was extremely determined to kill her--she could tell. From the looks of it, only she knew the details of the medallion. That was why she couldn't die though. The others needed to know.

Movement a few meters away temporarily attracted her attention. Behind Lucien was a woman with fiery red hair. Her silhouette was faint but the banshee could recognize the feeble human anywhere. Her dark eyes hardened, as if to tell Juniper to stay back, but Lucien must've noticed the slight change in stature.

The fallen angel sent a blast in Morgana's direction, forcing her eyes to widened as she quickly jumped. The magical impact pushed her body a few feet further than expected and she let out a pained groan. "You're nothing without that medallion, Lucien." Morgana hissed as she stumbled onto her feet, blood oozing out of the corners of her mouth. "Why don't you take it off and fight me like a real man? Is it because you know you'll lose?" She scoffed she she tried to lead him away from her ally. "What a weak, troubled bastard you are."

Shit, that voice was Morgana's. All it would take was a single blast to kill her, so why was she trying to provoke him? She was too far away for Juniper to make out what she was saying, but it apparently had an effect on Lucien as he prepared another blast. Dammit, she needed to do something, but what could she do? Lucien was too far up to even think of hitting him with her pipe and she lacked any ranged options to attempt to strike at him. If she could draw his attention Morgana might be able to make a run for it, but that would defeat the whole point of attempting to group up with her. Gripping down hard onto her makeshift shield an idea sprung to mind as she held her improv shield in her hands. It would be hard, especially with her fatigue, but it was the best chance she had. Curling the lid against her side Juniper spun once, twice, and on the third spin extended her arm and let the trash can lid fly into the air in an attempt to hit Lucien.

The angel - perhaps surprisingly - didn't attempt to block the lid as it flew at him like a giant frisbee, instead opting to duck. The lid flew past and clanged into the brick wall behind him and fell unceremoniously to the floor.

"This is just getting sad." He said out loud, sounding rather fed up at the entire situation as he readied another blast of magic. There were screams from the other side of the street as a gaggle of panicking people fled down the road in an attempt to escape.

Damn, it didn't work. That guy with the red shield made it look so easy in that book she read. Only one thing she could do now, and it was probably going to kill her. "Almost as sad as your love for Lucrezia." She gripped her pipe in both hands and held it in front of her "Seriously how much sadder can you get?"

With the fallen angel's attention momentarily taken away from her, Morgana used the crowd of panicked people to escape. She nudged her way towards the center of the group and kept her head low to ensure she wouldn't be spotted. Her goal was to get out of sight, make it towards an alleyway near Juniper, and hopefully pull redhead out of the horrible predicament. Getting with her comrade also meant she could share her knowledge in case something happened to her.

Juniper held her stance, legs shaking as she spotted Morgana slipping away with the crowd. Good, that was one less th- Her entire body shuddered as she felt as if the hands of death themself settled on her back. Lucien was glaring at her, and if looks could kill he'd have already level the entire street. "Oh fuck!" Juniper bolted, dropping her pipe as she turned and ran away. She rushed further down the street before making a sharp right and throwing herself down the alley. Scanning for any possible escape routes her eyes settled on a slightly ajar door by a dumpster. Rushing forward she slid in and slammed the door closed, hoping that Lucien lost track of her.

She didn't have much time, just hiding would only cause her to lose track of Morganna once again. The building shook as another blast of energy hit something accompanied by multiple screams. Hopefully that meant Lucien either ignored her or didn't know where she was. Slipping back into the alleyway she poked her head around the corner to see the crowd of survivors scattering like bugs in an attempt to survive. Now that Lucien was seemingly on a rampage getting close to Morgana was all but impossible. She'd have to try and signal her somehow and get her over here. Juniper began waving her arms in the air, hoping that the other woman could both see and somehow make her way over to her.

Morgana had managed to slip out of the crowd and into the alleyways. She was out of Lucien's direct line of sight but still managed to see Juniper go inside a building. Silently cursing to herself, the banshee maneuvered her way over, using the dumpsters and even a few straggling civilians. She then noticed Juniper waving her arms from around one of the alley corners, the woman almost letting out a sigh of relief.

"Juniper!" Morgana hissed lowly, grabbing the redhead by the arms and forcing them both onto the ground, using a dumpster and wall as a backdrop. "What are you doing? What happened to Lucrezia's body?" Before Juniper could answer, the brunette waved her hand to brush out the unnecessary words. "Never mind that. I must tell you about the medallion. I've seen it once before during an assignment--Meyneth's Tear is what it's called. Lucrezia explained to me that it supplies mana to it's user, therefore providing abilities to those that may have none or enhancing those that do. It is what the Earthling's would call a battery. Lucien can only expend so much energy before he is as powerless as us."

Morgana heard another blasting sound, her eyes widening as she looked around alarmed. Lucien was still no where in sight, but she had to double check to make sure. After confirming they were still safe, she continued, "He's smart enough not to use all the mana up, especially after using so much during his chase after me. That should give us enough of an advantage that we can retrieve the medallion from him."

"The medallion, what did you just say?!" Juniper shrugged Morgana's hands off of her "Morgana, we need that medallion. I'm not sure if it'll work but I have a plan that can turn everything around. Do you know where the others are?"

The banshee shook her head in response, posture still stiff and on alert. "No, I imagine that building falling forced us into different directions." The woman closed her eyes for a brief moment, as if she were trying to remember where everyone was standing and the possible areas they may be in. However, she didn't really know where she stood on a map, so that was difficult to picture. Thankfully, a fairly faint silhouette from the corner of her eye caught her attention. "Tannur," she called, hopefully loud enough for the half-elf to hear.

collaborated with: koala koala , Avari Avari
Interacting: IG42 IG42
 
Sizing up his new companion he noted with a touch of annoyance that she was a similar height to 'Margo' and therefore also had a couple of inches of height over him, he'd always relied on being discreet and speedy over being the hulking brute force type but ending up outright small was rather bothersome. After a moment he lowered his weapon but kept it in hand. "A fellow merc then? I can handle that." He waved in the general direction of the ongoing explosions a few streets away. "It's not like we don't have bigger problems." A few locals who had also had the idea to shelter in the large structure watched them fearfully and cowered further in.

Poking his head out from their cover he scanned the area, he could feel the traces of mana in the air and found himself surprised at how quickly he had forgotten how it felt. "Regrouping could be a problem, I don't know if you have one or not but I've got one of those phone things that's gotten water in it and I'm not sure whether it would work even if it wasn't inside this barrier. Any other signal would just draw one of those two dastards down on us." Tannur's spitballing was interrupted by the unexpected sound of his name nearby. "Or someone could just happen to run into us." He smiled with relief at seeing both Morgana and Juniper mostly unharmed and waved them over. "You're alright good! Where's Silver gone?"

LoneSniper87 LoneSniper87 koala koala Shotgunpenguin Shotgunpenguin
 
She nodded, glad they were on the same page. Her pacing didn't cease, and she didn't pull her phone. "No service. A lot of people were calling dead lines back there." She noted. "And I'm no brute merc... I prefer... information gatherer." She noted. The explosions in the distance seemed to slow in pace, or perhaps she got used to them now.

She turned when Tanner was called seeing two newcomers, "Friends of yours?" She asked looming them over.
 

Loading MORGANA. . .

"We're fine," Morgana replied when the half-elf approached the pair. She was definitely scraped and bruises here and there, particularly the knee area, but it was nothing a little human medicine couldn't fix. Of course, it was less convenient than healing magic but it was better than nothing. "I left Silver in an alleyway somewhere. She was too ill to run so I advised she stay hidden until this situation... concludes."

The woman eyed the woman accompanying Tannur, the stranger's height about the same as her own. While Morgana's locks were rather straight, the other's were a bit on the wavy side, or at least from what she could tell. She squinted her eyes slightly, as if asking why her comrade was traveling with a strange woman, but the thought was soon erased. Probably Light.

"Friends of yours?" The woman asked.

"Friends is not the term I would use." Describing her own relationship to Tannur. She waved both Tannur and the woman down to crouch with her and Juniper, telling them that Lucien was still roaming around in search for them. It wouldn't do anyone any good if he found them before she could explain the plan.

"We need to get the medallion away from Lucien," Morgana began, explaining to the two what she had to Juniper. She told them it was called Meyneth's Tear and how it was something church operatives tended to use. She also went into the details on where it got its mana from and that Lucien was as weak as they without it. After explaining the medallion itself, she presumed to go into the specifics of the plan. "Juniper and I will distract him and perhaps you and..." Morgana paused as she looked the brunette woman over. "You and this woman can retrieve the medallion."
Location: Streets around Somerset House [group 2]

Date: --

Time: Too crazy to tell

Mentions: Silver, Lucien

Interacting: Juniper Shotgunpenguin Shotgunpenguin , Tannur IG42 IG42 , Ana LoneSniper87 LoneSniper87

"We're fine," Morgana replied when the half-elf approached the pair. She was definitely scraped and bruises here and there, particularly the knee area, but it was nothing a little human medicine couldn't fix. Of course, it was less convenient than healing magic but it was better than nothing. "I left Silver in an alleyway somewhere. She was too ill to run so I advised she stay hidden until this situation... concludes."

The woman eyed the woman accompanying Tannur, the stranger's height about the same as her own. While Morgana's locks were rather straight, the other's were a bit on the wavy side, or at least from what she could tell. She squinted her eyes slightly, as if asking why her comrade was traveling with a strange woman, but the thought was soon erased. Probably Light.

"Friends of yours?" The woman asked.

"Friends is not the term I would use." Describing her own relationship to Tannur. She waved both Tannur and the woman down to crouch with her and Juniper, telling them that Lucien was still roaming around in search for them. It wouldn't do anyone any good if he found them before she could explain the plan.

"We need to get the medallion away from Lucien," Morgana began, explaining to the two what she had to Juniper. She told them it was called Meyneth's Tear and how it was something church operatives tended to use. She also went into the details on where it got its mana from and that Lucien was as weak as they without it. After explaining the medallion itself, she presumed to go into the specifics of the plan. "Juniper and I will distract him and perhaps you and..." Morgana paused as she looked the brunette woman over. "You and this woman can retrieve the medallion."
 
Hunkering down with his companions Tannur frowned at the thought of Silver being left alone to fend for herself in her condition though he supposed that her condition would also make her less likely to go running around and get spotted. "This is Ana she was working with the light people but don't hold it against her." He said gesturing to his new companion. "So Lucien has to use stored mana in that thing instead of his own? Getting it off him would be a problem with him flying around." He looked around the building they were in. "If you can lure him in here we might be able to jump down from one of the upper levels."

LoneSniper87 LoneSniper87 koala koala Shotgunpenguin Shotgunpenguin
 
Ana nodded, glad this person had vouched for her. "Thank you... I really do appreciate that. Now, Morgana was it?" She paused, remembering the name. "I remember you... never thought we'd meet." She then turns, looking up as well. "Tannur, would you consider yourself the acrobatic type?" She asked, scanning over everything, forming a plan.
 
Roland Fairchild
Flooded Streets

He had to go back, Roland thought in a panic as he resumed running down the street, leaving Elena behind in a crumpled heap up against the tree just outside the mouth of the alleyway. It was not lost on Roland that he had witnessed that scene once before not long ago in the vision Shadowsbane had shown him: Elena, slumped against a tree, his name leaving her lips on her ragged final breath. The fence he only just managed to climb over exploded outward in a shower of broken, twisted metal mere seconds after he landed on his feet and Staxos inserted himself between Roland and Elena at that sickeningly casual pace of his, cutting off Roland's avenue to reach her. He had to help Elena, but staying here now, trying to reach her now, was not an option as long as Staxos was on top of him. He had to throw the man off somehow, give himself enough time to see to Elena. Roland had no clue what had possessed the girl to do as she had, but her daring leap from the fire escape onto Staxos's head had given him an idea about how he could lose the High Sentinel for a few moments. He seemed to remember telling her to run away and hide, just as he told Ana to help Arryn evacuate everyone shortly before everything went crazy. He might normally have felt perturbed at everyone so casually disobeying his commands, but how could he when he was only alive because they both had? In any case, he ran until he reached the next corner, close to the intersection in which the building had fallen, making certain that Staxos saw where he was going before he pushed onward. The high sentinel did not bother to rush. He kept right on with his simple, brisk stride, as if he had all the time in the world.

Around the corner on the next street, past the burnt out restaurant, he found what he was looking for: a balcony on the second floor of a building overlooking the street. The brickwork in the wall around the door and windows was decoratively ornate and, importantly, sticking out of the wall just slightly enough for a hand to grab the protruding bricks or a foot to fit partially on top of them. As a teenager, Roland had often been chided by his father for climbing down the side of the tower in which his chambers resided, climbing over a low section of the outer castle wall when the patrols were not in sight, and sneaking down to the town when he was supposed to be studying. "You're not my son," his old man had proclaimed in exasperation one day after just such a series of climbs, "you're a squirrel!" He still had those old instincts; climbing this wall and reaching that balcony would be no problem. As long as Staxos continued to walk so slowly where Roland had run, he should even be able to do it before the high sentinel turned the same corner Roland just had. Wasting no time and wishing he had a scabbard, he gripped the blade of Shadowsbane in his teeth to free up his hands, ignoring the bright golden glow now shining directly in his eyes. He put his foot in the window sill and hoisted himself up. He grabbed the bricks jutting out of the wall decoratively above the window and used them as hand and foot holds, as though it were a rock climbing wall, and clambered surely and quickly up the side of the building. In seconds, he grabbed the side of the balcony and forced himself over its railing. He landed in a roll and lay flat on his stomach, motionless, watching the corner at the end of the street that he'd come running around, just in time to see Staxos's shining carcass stride purposefully around it. The man stopped for a moment, his head swiveling left and right. His gaze settled on door hanging off of its hinges across the street, the entryway open and faint light coming from within. Just then, somewhere to the north, a series of huge explosions went off; Roland did not know what could have caused that, but it seemed to confirm Staxos's decision for him. The high sentinel walked briskly across the street and entered the building at a slightly faster pace, evidently thinking his quarry had escaped in there. Seeing his chance, Roland again used the building's decorative brickwork to resume his climb and scurried his way to the building's roof. Gripping his sword in his hand once more, he ran across the rooftops, back toward the tree against which Staxos had thrown Elena.

Roland hoped he had time before the sword's vision came true for her as it had for Daniel. As she had not yet called out his name as she had in the vision, he thought there might still be time before she actually died. He leapt across the short gaps from one roof to another where he had to, until he found a gap too big to leap across. Looking down into it, he saw the scene he left just moments earlier: an alleyway with a destroyed fence, the fire escape from which the girl had leapt, and Elena herself sitting weakly against a tree on the sidewalk. Roland dropped carefully the short distance between the roof and the fire escape, then copied Elena's earlier jump from the fire escape to the ground, landing more awkwardly than she had with a splash into the flooded street below. Ignoring the pain in his limbs from the bad landing, he scrambled over to Elena to see if she was still alive. His relief at seeing the slow rise and fall of her chest was quickly replaced with horror when he saw the tree branch sticking out of it and the blood dribbling down her chin. It must not have hit anything too vital, luckily, or she'd be dead already.

"Elena," he said at nearly a whisper in attempt to get her attention. She seemed only semi-conscious. He lightly tapped her cheek several times to bring her back to reality. "Elena, we have to go. Staxos should be occupied for a few moments, but he'll come back. We need to go, now."

Wincing, he grabbed the end of the branch sticking out of the woman's chest and snapped the end off of it. He placed the piece of branch in her hand. "Bite down on this. This is going to hurt and you aren't going to like it, but it has to be done if you want to live."

He grabbed her hands in both of his once she'd placed the piece of wood in her mouth. "On three, I'm going to pull you off of the branch to get it out of you," he said. There was a chance the shock of it would kill her, or perhaps blood loss afterward, but it was a small chance and better than the one hundred percent certainty that she'd die if he just left her there or they lingered long enough for Staxos to come back.

"Ready? One...two..."

He took a deep breath to prepare himself. She seemed to do the same.

"THREE!"

koala koala Avari Avari
 
Silver Ferae, flooded streets - MagicPenguin MagicPenguin koala koala
The wall was cold. The pavement was cold. They were both wet. There was water soaking into her shorts.
Basically, Silver was uncomfortable, cold, damp and annoyed. She tried to stay where she had been put, she really did, despite the explosions and screaming all around. All those interesting noises and she was stuck hiding - hiding, like a coward - in some horrible freezing alleyway where she couldn't even see what was going on.

But Morgana had told her to stay put, and she didn't want to upset the scary banshee...

She was thinking through this complex problem when she heard barking. Human screaming, she could ignore. Explosions, she could ignore. A dog, somewhere in this mess? No, that was too far. She couldn't handle that.

She was on her feet as soon as she could get her numb limbs to work, hurrying towards the origin of the sound - another alleyways. She was really starting to hate alleyways. She should mention to Lucrezia (Because there was no way her queen was dead) that alleyways has to be destroyed. Stricken from Aether, and Earth. No more alleys.

There was a woman who was quite possibly dying, and a vaguely familiar man... With a glowing sword? She dismissed them both as not important, focusing on the small, damp puppy, scooping him up into her arms.
"Hi, puppy! I'll look after you, okay? And then we can find that guy with the bad ribs and he'll know where the other guy is, and then we can find Tannur and go home, 'kay?" She said to the dog, talking to him more sensibly than she normally did to people. Speaking of, she suddenly remembered where she knew the glowing sword man from.


"Oh, hi Ronald!" Silver said, completely uncaring of the impaled woman between them and the urgent state he was in. Silver didn't know her, she had no reason to care about her, and would quite happily watch Elena die without moving a muscle to help. "You know, if someone's stupid enough to get stuck on a tree, you should just leave them as a warning to other idiots, and don't get blood on your shirt. "

Wise words. If a little cruel. Someone get this impressionable teenager away from bad influences. ,
 
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