Death Dances

[Skie and Avery]

She lay, somewhere between life and death, hinging on one heart that would always beat just in time with hers. The grasses of Concordia were both cool and stinging against her cheek. The wind tossed them back and forth, a soothing caress. The bloody mess of her back was throbbing now, the pain dulling into a manifestation of the beat of the earth in her mind. Finally, Skie reached out before her and let her fingertips dig into cold soil. She could feel it backing up underneath her nails, one thing that she could depend on to be real. The world was dark, the tall trees of Concordia fading away. Blind, weeping and mewling as a newborn, she began to crawl.

Far beyond where his sister struggled through the wilderness, the King of the Moontae was barreling through the sky. His back was graced with new power - the trophy that he had claimed from his sister. Two wings, black and terrible, spread from his shoulder blades, glittering with malicious intent. He wore nothing but his mother’s steel fingertip blades. Now and then his hands balled into fists as his anger bubbled over and droplets of his blood fell over the fields of Corone.

He should have finished her there and then, he knew. Avery had stood atop the Bitch that had taken from him everything, and had nearly dug out her heart. He could imagine himself ripping it from between her ribs, and crushing the organ between his fingers. He should have done it, mauled her and ripped her open, raping her of her life until every last drop of blood had soaked into Concordia. He should have branded the forest with his conquest, to have forced her to know death, the way his soul had known death. Somehow, he couldn’t.

Now he made his way to the Citadel. Memories were flooding him, of giant toys and two children. Skie with her filched sword, and he given a small blade by a kind stranger. Had they known the Starslayer was their father, Avery might have turned the blade against him then, and Skie would have been untouched by the taint of their mortal father. Regrets of the past had no place with him now. If he couldn’t destroy Skie, someone else would have to take her place. He would dance in destruction and bathe in blood, until the demons took him over. Just as she had embraced it, he would shed his humanity and return to his twin.

In the end, Althanas would have only one of Natamrael’s children.

{{Open to one challenger, the arena is your choice and design.}}

[Ruby]

A song sung slightly is sumptuously solidly subtle. Ruby La Roux bounced around alliteration in her mind to prepare her linguistic talent for the trials ahead. So much pressure was being levelled at this single moment and she did not want to crumble beneath the salty talons of the ocean’s waves at the first drop of a hat. The sky glimmered, jewels cascaded down in a perfect moment, and the rolling waves about the rickety wooden platform at its epicentre spiralled and bobbed to and fro.

The gang walk that allowed her to travel across the sea from her entrance was long gone; leaving only its mirror twin on the far side. It ominously faded into what would soon be another door and she smiled at the beauty of the falsehood environment. This fabled place was the Citadel, and these waves were only ripples in the ether. They were illusions conjured by arcane hands with millennia of experience beneath their lacklustre robes.

For this odd occasion Ruby had chosen to wear her usual crimson dress with leather underlay and heavy strapping. It was a piece she was comfortable in, and of course, one she could move in without inflicting upon herself a concussion or queasiness. Her neck was exposed; with the absence of the necklace she often adorned herself with, so in its place she had wrapped a delicate silk scarf of an equal blood shade to that of her dress. She hid her hands in her bosoms to keep warm whilst she waited for the dance of death and the cantor of chaos that would no doubt follow.

She thought of her environment for a moment, the sea and the sauntering aura she tried to sell, and considered turning back to the place where the great oaken doors had been. With a glance over her shoulder she crushed any hope of escape, for her, this was it, her trial had begun. She would fight this fight as she had intended, and see if the plan she had hatched with her sister Lilith would have any impact on the machinations of her progression. Songs were mightily sung indeed in her lungs, and in the past year, she had seen the Phoenix rise and the Empires of Sand fall beneath the chords she had wrought. She would no doubt see the fire bird again, someday. Hate and death and burning agony were hers to proclaim in a note and flourish. “Today,” she clasped her belt buckle and adjusted her corset so that it sat loosely above her diaphragm, “Today we shall see.”

“Today we shall see what we shall see,
Across the waves of anarchy,
Love this wave of revelation,
Hate the movements of the nation.”

The song verse lifted into the atmosphere and caused the falling rain to turn into droplets of wine and liquor and liquids more associated with love than hate, or perhaps in some relationships, both. Silence descended with the weather and Ruby felt the tingle in her stomach and the flocculating beat of her heart form a song of its own.

Today, she would sing a song of war, and war for once would reply with vigour.

[Skie and Avery]

The doors to the arena exploded open. Droplets of whiskey and wine were sprinkling his feet, and beginning to run into the hallway. He peered through the rain and saw a maiden standing afar, adrift at sea. As the waves tossed the lass upon the great oceans, now he would toss her into despair. One foot slid in front of the other, and Avery was standing in the light of the gentle storm. His tanned skin gleamed as the water cascaded down it, muscles contracting in his legs as he kept balance along the rocking platform. His hair had come unbound in his rush to get to this place, the finest palace to throne Pain and Struggle. It now hung in long, loose brown tresses. He used a clawed hand to sweep the wet locks from his face back, exposing his chiseled, cold features. A bit of a sting, and blood ran down his face, cut by his own hand.

The demon lord closed his eyes and lifted his chin. Alcohol against his face was different, biting his wounds. This is what he needed, to set apart Concordia. The heady scent of the wine, berries and spice, only infused his anger with thoughts of his dear wife. With their child gone, so too Elena had been lost. Bile formed in his throat and threatened to rise up, but he took a deep breath, and began to walk along the planks. The boards were rough under his bare feet, cool and comforting in their give and creak. His wings flicked water back into the roiling sea, and his pace quickened. An errant wind whipped against his naked form, and as he focused on the woman before him, he couldn’t help but give a feral gin.

She was clothed in red. What courage! Standing upon the bobbing platform, tempting the beast within. All, he could see, however, was the brightness of her skin, glowing through all that sanguine perfection. He longed to rip that away, exposing the meat of this woman. He would drink of her blood, taste the muscles of her every scream and struggle. He stumbled as he strode, seeing in the billows of her clothes the form of Elena. With a roar, he took to the sky. Hovering only but a moment, he extended his hand to the woman.

“What mockery of this sacred place do you mean to make?!” his voice rose above the steady song of waves, wind and rain. “If you’ve come in search of mercy, there is none left to this world!”

Beneath his feet, the walkway disappeared. Somehow, within himself, he knew that the door behind him was also gone. It was time, and the great hand of fate would no longer hold anyone back. Green eyes were pinned upon Ruby now, staring her down as if he knew the very core of her. Behind his gritted teeth and long canines, his mouth began to water. It was as if he were staring down an angel, a fruit too sweet not to bite.

[Ruby]

Ruby drew her right heel up and smiled. The creature that entered the arena was frightening for sure, but the fact that she could not die here made the sight bearable. Her heel dropped and rang out a deft clamour on the salt hardened wood; she used the movement to keen her determination and settle her gaze on her opponent. At the back of her mind she let the fear pirouette around in her stomach like a pre-performance storm of butterflies; a little minuet on the strings of her consciousness.

As the rain transmuted back to simple water, the thing held out its hand and Ruby shook it deftly before taking several overly cautious steps back. They were alone now on the platform, disconnected from the world to vent their rage and sing a sonata to the stars and the gods of battle. The spell singer took a deep breath, and let the salty air sedate her trembling muscles and ease her growing sense of expectation into something palpable and controllable; into something that would not betray the fear. She repeated to herself that it would be nothing more than a particularly difficult casting, one that would test her acting ability to the frayed and tattered edges of the closing curtain.

What are you doing, Ruby? The non-existent sun glowed brightly overhead, casting its blistering wave down across the settling sea. It shone like a sheet of imperfect glass, reflecting their transgressions up to the Thayne and daemons in the stars. It mimicked the movements of The Aria that shone in Ruby’s head. What do you hope to prove? She had not considered her vulnerability, until now, and already she felt as if she had placed too much hope in her ability to sing her way through confrontation. In the grand scheme of things it was a lesson she had to learn, even if it came with intolerable, if only fleeting pain. With a seductive movement she ran her fingers along the edge of one of the phoenix feathers in her hair and nodded to Avery. Too late to question yourself now…

She listened as he opened his mouth and uttered a meaningless taunt. Mercy? How silly, she thought, mocking him in her mind with her sister’s sardonic and ever patronising tone. “I may not profess much talent in the arts of war, but I hope you will give me no mercy” she answered, somewhat high brow in her tone but meaning well, “I can inflict upon you the same hatred I see in your masque sir.” She spread her legs to give her a stronger sense of balance, hoiked* her bosoms up from the bottom of her brassiere, and gestured at the winged man to deliver his opening line. “I came here in search of answers, in search of conflict – is that not why all men and beasts flock to Radasanth?”


*Hoiked - to lift up wildly, usually one's undergarments.

[Skie and Avery]

After letting spiritless, beryl eyes watch her expression carefully, Avery threw back his head and laughed. The sound was deep, resonating around them. His baritone was without mirth, the tone of wind and waves only adding to a cold cacophony. The burst of bewildered amusement he felt didn’t calm the rage that had been building inside of him, and all evidence of his laugh and smile were gone when he gazed upon Ruby once more.

“This woman seeks merciless man, malicious monsters!” He cried out, throwing up his hands. The light gleamed on the blades that lined his fingertips and caressed his nude form. For a moment, glittering black wings flung out behind him, he was the dark avenging angel of death. He allowed a moment for her to take in the visage of him and as his blood pumped, a heady scent of pine and amber filled the air. He dropped down on the platform a several feet before her, and chuckled again.

“You part your legs and display your breasts? What gives you the right to make this sacred place a whorehouse?” He spoke with an authority of ill-meant virtue, as if his hair were not several inches too short to cover what he proudly displayed before her. It was hardly hidden that if it had been a battle of stamina she had come for, he was more than ready to accommodate her. With a grin, wretched images flooding his mind of forcing his way into her soul and ripping it from her core, he sprang forward.

Swiping as he came at her, the tiny razors were singing her death, the beat of his heart counting out the pieces that he would scatter to the sea.

[Ruby]

“Part my…?” She trailed off, gasping for shock through a grimace of sheer indignity. Never in all her life had she been insulted so, at least not so brazenly, or so openly and bluntly. “I will have you know that I part my legs and ample bosoms for one man, and one man alone – you…whatever you are, are not he!” She snapped her fingers and embraced a long drawn out breath of seaweed and rotten wood.

Avery flew up and scrabbled, something Ruby had been expecting but was still woefully unprepared for. Thinking of only one thing to do in such a circumstance, she riled her wits about her in a flourishing vocal and leapt back in a pathetic attempt to evade the winged fiend’s clutches. The first strike caught the hem of her dress and shredded through it like paper – heaven forbid one should touch her flesh. The second swiped through her belts webbed across the part in her gown; they were stripped of their tension without a second thought, like a blunt blade through the tide water, an oar through the sea.

"I had guards like watchdogs
Dogs in a manger
I could feel the protection
Possession and anger!"

She bounced back half skipping, half running. As she fled she called on a combination of adrenaline and fear and determination to channel into her arrangement. With gusto, bravado and blind hope, she pelted out the second verse with caustic notes that rocked her senses. She did not care for pitch, control or harmony with the voice in her head, she only cared for living; she sung as if it were her last.

"And I drove you out of there
With no one behind me
Feeling funny and free
All you pretty pretenders!"

She let the last word rattle, watching it shake through the air and spring to life in slowly materialising colours and visualised pain. With every step and raucous line of her performance, sweat pearled down her brown and plastered the lengths of her hair to neck, forehead and shoulder with bestial indifference. This perspiration was a mark that she had come to discover if she could do something productive, something worthwhile with the gift the gods themselves had given her. She hoped she could help Duffy, beyond telling tall tales and sending unlikely customers to a swift and wealthy sleep; she hoped her sacrifice was respected, not taken for granted.

"Negligent vendors
Aren’t you precious inside?"

The Requiem Rampant burst into existence, springing forth from the emotion Ruby drove into the song with a hammer and a nail. The shreds in her dress and the veracious nature of her opponent made the danger in her mind as real as could be, so real she forgot that they were in the Citadel, that death was not permanent or part of the proceedings. “I need not justify mysen’ to you!” She belted between lines, defying her challenger's satisfaction with a slip back to her grass roots.

As the last note of the verse fell away bright lights appeared around the spell singer, swirling and spiralling, life-giving illuminations. They skipped along the planks of the platform like sprites, arcing between rows of wood, bouncing off the metallic nails which held them in place. It creaked and groaned under the pressure, ricocheting in time to the crowing storm overhead and the beat of their mutual hearts. Sweat continued to drip from her brow and her lips cracked under pressure, under the duress of exposure.

Avery approached and the lights leapt, smashing into the platform towards the incubus with rolling blows like the feet advance of an elephant. Ruby smiled, hoping that it would phase her attacker from his current advance…casting aside the thoughts of what images might be in his mind, of what revenge his skewed morality would take on her so called whoreish form. She had little control over the requiem but hoped that they would strike against the daemon with gusto, to wind his arrogance, to give the closing line of the song she held dear to her chest a poignant meaning.

"I have no need for anger!
With intimate strangers,
And I got nothing to hide…"*



* Lyrics by the Indigo Girls.

[Skie and Avery]

The Whore began to sing. Avery felt his disgust rise as her lips parted, and out fluttered the song. His eyes, as green and dark as the bits of seaweed that were being tossed upon the waves beside them, began to water. Tears were streaming from them, a sobbing roar tearing from his throat. His mind was flooded with Elena, his heart tightening in his chest, as surely as his body was trying to end itself. His beautiful Songbird, forever lost. His child, his love, his everything. How many nights had he lain his head in her lap, drifting between bliss and ecstasy while he had listened to that beautiful voice? Now, bleeding and fleeing from his rage, there was this mockery of a woman before him. She was a twisted, ugly version of the perfect angel that had held his hand and brought him into manhood, and now she dare try and lull him with her voice.

He sprung forward to strike at her, to take her down. However, it would seem that this witchy wench would have other plans. Far too late, he saw a light shimmer before him. It caught him in the chest, and he felt an explosion of pain. It was if he’d been hit by an unseen bodyguard, some silent stalker that wished to protect this tramp. His footing faltered, and dark aileron flailing, he fell. The deck beneath his feet slipped away and Avery hit the water with a stinging force upon his back. Momentum carried him under, sea water rushing into his nose and burning as it choked him. He could taste the salt in the back of his throat as he struggled to right himself against the bobbing current.

In Concordia, Skie had stopped at a stream. Her face plunged into the cool water, lapping and drinking greedily as the taste of salt filled her mouth. She was sure it was blood, from the fight and the pain, but she couldn’t explain away why her mouth was suddenly so dry. Her throat and lungs burned, and she choked as she drank. The dark haired swordswoman was shaking now, as the day seemed to grow cold around here. Survival was screaming in her mind, ordering her to continue and leave the water for later. Despair, however, was always there. It sat in the back of her mind, lulling her with a pretty offer of rest and peace, if only she would give in. She was drowning in it, and as the metal ring around her neck began to glow blue, she knew it was all her fault.

The water of the arena silent for but a moment before Avery exploded from the surface. In his struggle to emerge, he’d lost most of the blades from his fingertips, but they were of little importance to him now. They had been made for fingers smaller than his, in any case, ill-fitting. However, he wore them to remember the best parts of his mother. He remembered never seeing her in sorrow. He remembered her smile, cherry lips always parted with a look of mischievous cunning. She lived for herself, and now her son would do the same. He would rape and destroy everything in this world that reminded him of the breath of humanity that Elena had given him. He would prove himself worthy of the dark wings upon his back, and Natamrael’s devilish green gaze.

He hung in the air for a moment, catching his breath as he focused on Ruby again. His chest was red where her spell had connected. The monster fully unleashed, he put aside his memories. Melting away was a woman with beautiful chocolate eyes, a face kissed by the Moon. He cackled, his fangs seemingly more terrifying as his lips pulled back from his teeth. No longer half human, but Moontae, he was erect before Ruby. A husky voice issued from his throat, his words distorted by an empty laugh.

“You’ll die in more pleasure than you deserve, little whore. For your little games, I’ll make sure to explore and taste every inch inside of you, if I have to rip you to shreds to do it.”

He rushed her again, this time his hands reaching to grab her wrists. He would bear her down, any way he could, and crush her body against the docks while he claimed her.

[Ruby]

The weight of Avery bore down on Ruby like a tumultuous storm crashing down onto the bow of a rocking ship, lost to the waves and the midnight blanket. She felt the wind rush from her body as they crashed backwards onto the rickety wooden platform, and felt fear rising from her stomach like a clash of thunder churning water to the boil. The Aria churned out the metaphors of the ocean as if they were dependant on Ruby and Avery's conflict to stay alive in the quagmire of creative intellect, thrown down around them like unwanted gifts.

“Get-” she began, pushing upwards with her feeble arms at the deadweight on top of her, “-off of me!” She protested, reluctant to simply lay down and die. As he tore into her thigh and sent a sharp twang of pain up her side, she knew that first blood was a vestment in her interest in war. All the hopes she carried on success here did not seem as important as to have to endure this sudden agony.

She searched at the back of her mind as she reeled in a tri-partite hell of pain, sea-salt and nausea, hoping to find something useful to sing for her supper. She closed her eyes as the claws struck again, and the ferocious nature of her sexually vengeful attacker took her in its stride, so to speak.


---

Duffy swung his boots over the edge of the pier and let them swing on their own momentum for a while, thinking about the day ahead. Everyone seemed to be busy all of a sudden, and whilst he did not have any trouble with personal space; he realised how lonely he was in a short space of time and longed to be with the troupe once more. The laughter and jovialities were part of him now, and no amount of halcyon glaze over the red brick monstrosity that was the Prima Vista could seclude him from the fact. He looked up at the sky and traced the movements of the seagulls as they drifted over the docks and went slowly on their way out to sea.


---

“Grah!” The image of the thing’s genitals moved back and forth and Ruby pushed harder still, trying to dislodge the incubus from atop her ample mounds. “I am no whore, and you will do naught to me that cannot be brought for more gold than you or I desire!” She was too distracted to realise the contradiction in her diction.

She opened her mouth once more, urged on by the adrenaline and last moments she would have craved to avoid if she were anywhere else but this sanctuary of carnage. She started at the chorus, and pushed up the last of the air in her lungs to rocket it out in a simple peal to salvation; she called for someone, or something to save her from the horrors she would suffer.

"When your down and troubled
And you need a helping hand
And nothing, whoa nothing is going right.
Close your eyes and think of me
And soon I will be there
To brighten up even your darkest nights!"*



* Lyrics by Carole King.

[Skie and Avery]

Avery had never felt so powerful, staring into Ruby’s eyes. He couldn’t comprehend their color, for everything was awash in brilliant red. As she parted her lips, he wanted to see blood bubble from between them, staining her teeth as it trickled down her cheek. His face moved down, his eyes on the throbbing of her heartbeat on the side of her throat. He could clench his teeth there now, the elongated canines digging deep through flesh. The popping and ripping of her skin would echo, and she would die with her body engulfed in all his pain. This exorcism would rid him of the ghosts of Elena, of spirits haunting the deep and dark in Concordia. Her throat torn open, he could sleep and dream in images free of mortal connection.

However, as he moved to strike, a voice bubbled out. Her words were strained, shaking. Her voice held fear, but the song was hope. Within him, conflict reigned. The ethereal presence of his wife was still there, begging to be let go, but enticing him with memories of her wondrous songs. The words of his people, of elders full of knowledge were also whispering, telling stories of the long ago when the Moontae had been hunted by paladins who wrought fire with their songs. His love and fear of music were at war, just as everything good was being attacked by an overwhelming urge to cease his care.

Face contorting into monstrosity, Avery released Ruby’s wrists, rearing back over her with his fists held high. All his strength went into bringing them down, his mind numb and without intent of stopping until she was as unrecognizable as the shapes that flowed in the dark, boding clouds.

In Concordia, Skie gasped. Pain ripped through her chest, her heart going cold for a moment. She’d gone far, moving past the pain to stand and hobble down a faded path. Shaking, pale hands clutched trees for support from the dizzying bouts of weakness that moved through her body. Her senses, however, overloaded by adrenaline, could catch the faint scent of smoke. Someone was nearby and as she raised her voice in a ragged attempt to hail help, she could feel a screaming deep within her. It was angry and pained, filled with torturous murder. She let her voice rip from her body, a plea for herself, and a lament for her brother, who would die this day in Radasanth.

[Duffy]

Looking down into the waters below Duffy contemplated how simpler things would be living as a fish. The worries of troubles of the worlds all replaced with simple instinctual notions of food, intercourse and occasionally fleeing from something bigger than you. He guessed it would not be that much different after-all, but it was nice to dream. He began to feel strange, more sensual and distant than the normal preponderance of sun might cause. Something at the back of his mind called for him, like a siren in the shadows.

Help...

Bolting upright he looked left and right, but found himself almost along on the pier except for one or two casual walkers who did not show signs of distress. He watched their footsteps for a moment, listening to the sounds of the docklands through the haze and late afternoon lull.

Help me...

"Hello? Is n'one there?"

Vomiting was something the young thief was altogether familiar with, but doing so when sober was not; it sprayed out and splashed into the ocean as something knocked his senses for six and dragged him into the ether beyond the worlds.

The fish bobbed to the surface and thought about how exciting it would be to live their lives as humans.


---

"Arghhh!" Pain and screaming usually signified some sort of danger, and the flash of light in the sky above the arena was both a message of arrival and one of agony. For a moment he remained suspended, slowly becoming aware that it was raining, and that he was no longer in Scara Brae.

"Where in the world?" Tossing his head to one side he craned down to see the wooden platform and two figures...one strikingly familiar and crimson, one strikingly abhorrent and... anticipation of further pain welled and he flailed wildly, as if to free himself from invisible chains.


---

Ruby's eyes glazed over once-more, her strength drained to the point of non-existence. She contemplated what life would be like if she had paid greater attention to her abilities, or perhaps if she had spurned them altogether and remained chastise and innocent in the arms of her husband. She felt the grain of the wood graze her wrists under the forceful duress of the incubus and dared not think of the consequences and trials to come.

Then she saw the light and a writhing figure descending at speed like a plumetting and somewhat lack-lustre angel of salvation. She whispered one final word before turning her head to one side to dream of the better days, "Duffy."

[Skie and Avery]

At her voice, Avery ripped his head to look at what the maiden might be seeing. A man was descending upon them as a vengeful angel. The protector of this woman had come when she called, and Avery sneered as he stood quickly, backpedaling from where he had been poised to rape the woman. His muscles tensed and he crouched low before bounding upwards to meet Duffy in midair. His wings were spread like a terrible plague, his eyes glinting murderously. His arms were spread, daring the man to strike in his chest, to kill the twisted and darkened organ that barely beat within.

Within his mind, time had stopped, his thoughts with the woman he left on the ground. He once had someone to protect like this... someone whom he would have fallen from the sky like a star of retribution if anything had ever happened to her. She, however, was dead and gone, a part of his soul that had been cast away and would never return.

The door to the cottage came to Skie, and she grabbed it as she heaved her weight onto it. She could hear voices, coming and going like a low tide, but she was too exhausted to think anymore. She wanted to fall asleep and never wake up, locked sweetly in her dreams where none of this had ever happened. "Get a doctor!" was the last whisper she remembered of the mortal coil as her mind took her to a place where the only touch from Avery's fingers were gentle, and the love between them had never been poisoned by a terrible accident under mysterious powers, or an innocent child left dead in the grass of Concordia.

[Ruby]

I’m not the girl I was,
But what have I become?
I’m not so willing anymore to bend,
Still pleasing and conceding,
But I’m not going to lose myself again!

The words slipped from Ruby’s lips as the weight of the incubus dredged itself from her prone body and flew into the air with a thunderous ascent. She felt so relieved, so ecstatically filled with rapture that her voice carried itself with joy and relief and revelation. She was not helpless, she was not weak!

The Aria filled her, taking over every inch of her body with a wild and passionate drive to survive. Despite the blood and the bruises and the rape of her dignity, Ruby stood slowly but surely and stared upwards as the angel and devil rushed at one another. A single tear formed in the corner of her eye and rolled down her cheek, washing a line of silver into the salt stained grime of her hastily applied make-up. She held her hands together and prayed for Duffy, prayed that her faith in him was well placed.

It’s you…who released me,
It’s you who gave me fire…
Oh no It’s impossible to dream,
Without breaking stride…

The thief plummeted through the sky in a flurry of white cloth and flapping scabbards. Shock and bewilderment had finally subsided and he set his eyes on the winged daemon which rose to meet him through the air. Rage filled him, ploughing through sense and sensibility and knocking common thought aside. Images of Aelva flashed at the back of his mind, images of daemons and dread and all the evil in the world purged his idyllic afternoon daydreaming and left him with nothing but fear and hatred.

With the wind whistling in his ears and his eyes set on his target he unsheathed Tooth and Wainwright’s Riposte and levelled vertically like a falling spear. He spiralled his weapons into a pincer, ready to collide and tear into that which threatened to take everything from him. He gritted his teeth and took aim.

Ruby tensed, Duffy tensed, and the Aria burst forth from both their minds to project a song across the arena of illusions (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTmMKbBoc7Q). It echoed the emotions and magic of the Citadel itself, springing from the rickety salt spires of the platform and the ocean waves that swirled and bobbed beneath them. Ruby continued to sing despite her nerves and channelled her lyrics into one last wave of vocal adrenaline. One last cantor in a sea of dreams.


*Lyrics by Sarah McLachlan.

[Skie and Avery]

Two blades, iron and steel, were flying at him faster than he could comprehend. He had been prepared for this, however, from the first moment he'd splayed his arms open. The King of the Concordian Beauty was begging for a funeral. His mouth opened in a roar, the sharpened canines of his people glistening with fury and rage. His green eyes were glowing with fiendish delight, even as Duffy met him with all the force of their deadly intentions. The blades crashed into him, slicing through flesh and sinking into his chest.

Skie screamed in her sleep, her back arching as she clawed the air. Feverish, her dreams were taking over. Two children, light and dark, were standing at a crossroads. Their hands locked, the two looked at each other, then let go and went separate ways.

They were spinning and falling, Avery's hands grabbing the blades in his chest. As they hit the edge of the pier, the incubus ripped the blades from his body. One hand on Tooth, the other on Wainwright, he flung them separate ways before rolling into the water. Salt into the wound, he twisted and writhed, sloshing the water as red took over the deep navy hues. Pain and death, wasn't this what he'd been wishing for? Imagery and stories were rushing through his mind, dark and vicious. There in the water, he thought that he could feel something coming for him. His eyes opened, but could only see the darkness and murk of the tumultuous sea. Then, glimmering and twisting like the waves themselves, something shining with light appeared. A hand reached towards him, an ethereal face staring at him with so much hurt and pain. He recognized those features and anger was borne again. He would kill this face within himself, and he would rise as something darker, twisted.

Moontae magic was living within him, and as it's king he called to it. Letting the water take him further down, the bobbing bottom of the deck disappearing to darkness, Avery began to craft his greatest spell.

[Ruby]

Ruby screamed as Duffy and Avery hit the pier with a tumultuous thud. In the blur of motion the incubus fell from sight, leaving the thief prone on the wood with limbs dangling precariously between the ravines that had been knocked into being with his descent. She snapped her jaw shut and let the song fade into nothing, too concerned to play harlot with the winds. It tingled in the air and bided it's time.

"Duffy!" She whimpered as she strode across the arena floor, her heels clipping the rotting wood with an ominous clip clop, clip clop. "Oh what have I done..." she reached him in short order and knelt at his side with the edge of the pier before her. With a gentle hand she caressed his cheek and bade him to be alright. In her fear, and her circumvention of rational thought she forgot all about the null reality of the Citadel. To her, Duffy's pain was her doing, and all the wrongs in the world rested on her shoulders.

The enrapturing melody of the Narrator continued to play as the thief stirred and Ruby smiled. She shed tears, but took little time to revel in their short lived victory. In her gut, she knew that the beast was not yet finished and that like her or he in the moment of glory, it would rise from the depths to continue it's harrowing assault.

"Ru-ruby?" Duffy croaked, coughing and spluttering and pushing himself into a seated position. "What in teh blazes is goin' on? Where are we?"

"No time to explain young one, draw the Katarhna, stand fast...this is the Citadel, but we are not safe yet..." She wiped her eyes with the hem of her dress and stood.

The arena's salty air seemed to clear as the magic of Ruby's spell finally came into power. Lights danced over the wood and drifted into the aether, bidding the magical rain to cease and faint glimmers of sun to peal through the cracks in the heavens. The song of wine and iron she had sung, the cantor of war at the beginning of her debut in the Citadel ended at last, and instead, the angels sang a song of calamity and fear.

With defiant steps Ruby approached the edge of the pier and gazed down at the ripples in the water.

Duffy shook his head and carefully removed himself from the crash sight in a torrent of splinters, grime and bruised bones. Without questioning his elder's motives he withdrew the Katarhna with a shing and stepped up to her right side to glare into the waters.

"What was that thing?" He asked wearily, a trickle of blood running down his forehead and one eye squinting from the shock of his fall.

"I do not know, but it took something from me..." the sound of the waves and a gentle breeze filled the silence between one thought and another. "You must help me take it back..." she frowned, gave Duffy a cautionary glance and fondled the scarf around her neck.

"We must be ready for him..." The Crimson Mistress prepared a song in her mind just right to show the incubus that she was still whole, and no matter what he took from her, she would be no less a woman than she was when she strode into the arena. Duffy shrugged, injured, tired and bewildered, but ready to defend her to the last.

[Skie and Avery]

Oh gods! What could have attacked her? This wasn't a bear, nor cat.

In the safety of the water, far from blade and shield, Avery felt himself slip into the meditative state of illusion. Here, he was lifted from any need, and the magic itself kept him alive. He was unbound from earthly form, the words that his sister heard filling his ears.

She's going to die if it doesn't stop bleeding....it's too deep!

Satisfaction stole over him, the idea of the beast in Skie's form falling from this world the ultimate dream for him. His victory was fashioning the spell now. The water churned, currents meeting and creating a calamity by the power of his thought. What should rise from the waters to meet the two? A new King, with a great maw to devour everything in it's path.

Above, steam began to rise from the water before Duffy and Ruby. The sunlight streaming on the water cast insight about what was beneath those depths. A dark figure was rushing upwards, bubbles flowing ahead of time as ambassador of the monster. The water moved, and then it surfaced.

Water poured from a great head. Two eyes glowed sanguine, a beak as sharp as the greatest of swords opening to let an ear-piercing scream go. The phoenix was dark, feathers glittering as the Moontae King's had been. It's claws were like steel, death radiating from it as wings flung water and air around. It erupted from the sea, rising to the sky like a great and terrible beacon of death. The phoenix watched the two for a moment, hovering above the water and then swooped.

Avery had been biding his time. The illusion couldn't hurt the two, but what was following it might. As the phoenix dove towards the pair, Avery came from the water, his wings extended, his claws forward. His throat too tight to scream, a hiss is all he could manage as he took aim towards his original quarry. The eradication of Ruby La Roux would be just as bloody and satisfying as the death of Skie dan Sabriel.

[Ruby]

"Or....it..." Ruby dropped her jaw as the Phoenix rose from the waters in a mockery of the ancient fable and glared at them both. Transfixed by it's gaze, her world and dominance and calmness despite all the ills levelled against her faded into nothing.

Duffy blinked too, wondering what strange and illustruous fantasy of Ruby La Roux he had stumbled into. Too tired and injured to distinguish between dream and reality, he stood fast as the Phoenix loomed at them. He took his blade with two hands to strike out at the wing as it swept past, claws raking at the air with deadly finesse and sundering scythe like motions.

Ruby stepped to one side and looked over her shoulder as the bird turned to loop back in on itself and try for their napes once more. She panted heavily and realised that something was afoot, some magic that she could not quell and he could not outwit worked against them.

"This is...wrong." She adjusted the phoenix feathers in her hair and piously checked her bosom, as if inspecting her own being. "I am the Phoenix..." She felt sorry for the bird as it approached once more, blissfully unaware that Avery leapt towards her undefended neck. It's succulent and ripe flesh was open and undefended against the raking talons of the incubus.

Duffy stood fast against the Phoenix once more as it swept down onto him and conjured the persona of Lysander Brandybuck. With a tuck of his leg and a step forwards he brought the Katarhna up with both hands in a horizontal upper cut, hoping to cleave the bird's brain in two as it descended. He would not be defeated until he sent it's smouldering corpse to the oceans below.

Two hopes, two lives, only one of each would remain.

[Skie and Avery]

At the touch of Duffy's sword, the phoenix was gone. No longer the terrible darkness was coming towards them, not a single feather left glittering on the wind. There was just the blade and the release of old magic. The air was scented with Avery, the illusion gone. The Beauty had made it's mark here in the Citadel, pressing it's sensuous presence into the very oxygen that the trio would breathe.

And Avery commanded power. He held Ruby now, one hand covering her mouth even as the other pulled her to his body. His claws were pressed through her dress into her breast. It was true that she had struggled at first, an elbow catching him sharply in the shoulder. That was, however, before he sunk his teeth into the side of her neck, and jerked back. So much blood was pouring down, gushing warm down her back. Her dress was soaking with her blood from in front, his from behind as he bled against her. Avery held her so tight that for a moment he felt that it was one body that watched as the phoenix dissipated before Duffy's assault.

Duffy was turning now, but triumph rose in Avery as he spread his wings joyfully. It was too late for heroics. The darkness had won.

I think she's gone, James....

In Avery's emerald eyes, no light would shine again.

[Duffy]

Duffy turned triumphant but soon felt his victory short lived. The Crimson Mistress had been inflicted with a namesake he did not find amusing anymore. He shuddered and tensed, and brought the Sword of the Western Weald to his front in both hands. His grip was tight, and he let Lysander take over once more.

Before his eyes he witnessed Celia Burton's death a thousand times in the flames of the Empire and let the anger Lysander had felt drive him. With deft skips and a roar that surprised even the thief, he brought the blade over his head and charged.

Ruby was gone, and even though she had muttered that this place was in the Citadel, remorse welled into the Tantalum's throat and a single tear rolled down his cheek. It fell from him and sparkled through the air in memoriam. "Give her BACK!"

The Katarhna dropped just as Duffy dissipated in a flurry of light blue threads, weaving and rolling into a human after glow before dissapearing. He vanished merely seconds before striking Avery. The bond between the members of the Tantalum Troupe compounded their collective talents into a single moment of union, and the thief re-appeared on the opposite side of his opponent, teetering on the edge of the platform long enough to drive his blade backwards.

He fell forwards over the edge towards the sea and shattered into a thousand glass shards that each mimicked a small part of him. He came undone as Ruby's defence had. The sword slipped from his hands as he fell and he turned around mid-air swiftly enough to catch a glimpse of the damage he had done. As Ruby fell into the shadows of death her powerful magic lost it's grip on reality, and sent Duffy speeding back to the dockside and the idyllic sun. A few shards splashed silently into the sea just as Duffy's head bobbed up from the docklands of Scara Brae...in the exact same spot he had vomited into moments before.

Duffy's hope had survived but he had not.

Ruby's head slumped forwards, her dignity unclaimed from the winged thief, her efforts futile and wasted. Her brow was bloodied and her dress crimson, but the brightest red on her form was the shame and embarrassment of her defeat.



Bunnying approved, and Duffy's appearance was discussed and consented to beforehand.

[Skie and Avery]

Avery's satisfaction was short lived. He had accomplished his goal, destroying a flower of beauty and femininity. He had taken life from Ruby in place of his sister. He only clutched Ruby more tightly as Duffy attacked, but the frontal strike he had anticipated never came. Instead, a few brief moments later, there was a pressure on the back of his neck. His breath caught, and at the bottom of his gaze he caught the glittering of a sword suddenly appearing from beneath his jaw. Ruby had slumped forward, the tip of the blade wavering in the space where she had been so shortly before. The Moontae King was staring ahead, already gone. He fell with the maiden, their bodies tumbling to the side. His cheek against the wet wood of the dock, the sun streaming on his face; they were disappearing quickly though no one was alive in the arena to witness.

As the keepers of the Citadel came to take the bodies from the room, Avery continued to stare. His gaze was determined, his irises deeply jade and far from human.

In Concordia, Skie slept. On a small stool by the straw-stuffed mattress where she lay, a man dabbed at her forehead with a cool towel, grimly watching her pale face. There had been a moment where she had died, he was sure. Her chest had lain still. Then, as if it had only been a moment that stretched too long, she took a deep breath, her lips moving as if she were calling to someone. The man's wife had gone to get the doctor, but somehow James knew that the woman before him would survive. Still unconscious, Skie's dark blue eyes fluttered open, staring at James as if he were a ghost. After a moment, the man reached forward, closing her eyes with his fingertips and he moved to let her rest.

Yes, she had survived, he thought to himself as he looked out the window into the thick press of forest outside. There was something unsettling in her gaze, however, as if something had been left behind in her ascent back onto the mortal coil. As Avery was resurrected, the Ai'Brone couldn't help but think the same thing.

[Revenant]

Full rubric, full-to-light commentary requested. Skie and Avery’s score is in red, Ruby/Duffy is in blue.

STORY

Continuity (4/6) – Avery, you start this thread in the middle of a story and you never quite come back around to wrapping it together. I catch enough bits and pieces throughout to piece the story together, but I never get the full picture of exactly what is going on with either Skie or Avery or what is going on between them. Ruby, you benefit here from making this its own story, but you still leave some confusion to people who aren’t familiar with Ruby, Duffy, The Aria, The Tantalum, and how they all relate. Though trying to explain all these correlations in every thread would be absurd, try to envision each thread being read as if people aren’t intimately familiar with your characters and build up from there.

Setting (5/5) – Both of you made only minor notation to what was going on during the battle, but never explored the scene any deeper than that. If you’ve ever been in a storm you would know that there is more to a story sea than drops of rain, waves, and seaweed. There is a riot of sound coming from all directions, there is mist and spray whipped off the waves that fills the air with salty wetness and makes it hard to breathe, the world heaves and bends around you, and the words that you’re screaming are torn away by the wind. Don’t focus too sharply on what your character’s actions are that you isolate yourself in a space bubble.

Pacing (5/6) – Both of you broke this thread up by detailing what was happening somewhere else at one point or another. It worked well in some cases, but not so well in others. Skie, you need to make some form of delineation between your switches in scene. Without it, your posts became confusing and I found that I had to stop and re-read your transitive paragraphs to switch into “we’re talking about someone else” mode. Ruby, thank you for breaking up your “now I’m Ruby, now I’m Duffy” paragraphs. I wondered why you used both Duffy and Ruby under both Duffy and Ruby’s accounts instead of just using Duffy as an NPC for Ruby, but it didn’t break up the flow of your writing too much. Where you did suffer, in my mind, was in Duffy’s final post, where too many things were going on and weren’t clearly explained enough. I had to re-read your post three times before I understood what was going on, not good for pacing.

CHARACTER

Dialogue (7/6) – There was good dialogue from both characters here. It was simple but true to character. Avery calling Ruby a whore and Ruby’s sputtering indignation was the highlight of this thread to me. My only suggestion here would be for Ruby to be careful of her transitions into song, which always came off as just slightly better than awkward.

Action (6/6) – The action here was simple and effective. There was good action/reaction between you two and nothing that was awkward or overly complicated. Still, while your simple actions were done safely, more evocative action would have earned you a better score.

Persona (6/7) – This one is probably my most difficult category to judge. Both of you have some very intense emotional scenes going on here. Avery, your character’s desire to become wholly evil, marred by his internal struggles, was deep and enjoyable character development. But it still felt like you just barely scraped the surface of what you could have done. All of the back-and-forth complimented a troubled character, but it came off in places as bulky and did more to break me out of my flow than to enhance your character’s personality. Ruby, I can’t imagine the horror that is the threat of being raped. You worked eloquently with it, but I never felt the sheer desperation that must exist in a situation like this.

WRITING STYLE

Technique (6/7) – Minor use of alliteration by both of you but Avery didn’t really pull out anything else here. Ruby, you use of lyrics in the thread wasn’t bad, but it never quite seemed to make the impact that it was intended to. Still, it is a nice element to enhance your writing.

Mechanics (7/7) – Minor things here and there that can be cleared up by the ever popular proofreading. Other than that, no glaringly obvious errors or mistakes aside from Ruby’s ridiculous British English, which is just … ugh …

Clarity (6/6) – The flow of this thread was fairly smooth, aside from some bumpy parts where both of you switched from one character to another. I had no real trouble understanding what was going on though.

WILD CARD

Wild Card (5/5)

TOTAL: (57/61)

Ruby/Duffy wins.

Ruby La Roux receives 1300 exp and 170 gp.
Duffy Bracken receives 1300 exp and 170 gp.
Skie and Avery receives 600 exp and 175 gp.

[Silence Sei]

gp-exp added


That redheaded chick leveled.