Bastion (Open)

[Ruby]

Bastion (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nlCNVewMjA)


Closed to Rehtul Orlougne


1935


Ruby’s scouring gaze settled on the door opposite her and remained there for a great deal of time. The twirling Autumnal leaves that drifted down from the canopy overhead and the gentle breeze which flourished through the dense blanket of colour beneath her feet, the very beauty of nature itself could not draw it away. She set her hands on her hips after a few minutes and kept glaring.

She was not accustomed to waiting; waiting was something other people did. Waiting for anyone except the most devilishly handsome of nobleman was utterly inexcusable. Without Lilith at her side to make casual remarks to, she had nothing to say and nobody to occupy her time with. She was furious at whoever made preparations to enter the arena from the bastion of iron and oak. “All this way,” she finally muttered, her sharp Scara Brae twang scattering the idyllic birds nesting in the branches above. She glanced up at them, her patience finally worn and sighed, “And not the slightest bit of reward for my blisters.” She tapped her heel sternly and smiled as it echoed around the rickety arena.

There were few things certain in life for the Crimson Mistress. One, most importantly, was that wherever she went people stared. Even the druids of the infamous Dansdel had ‘eyed up her talent’ with eager and pious eyes, she dreaded to think what sort of cavalcade of whistling she would get if she ventured into Underwood proper. The second was that wherever she went, trouble followed unquestionably. It fell upon her to abate the constant tide of mortal peril she found herself or another member of the troupe in. If it was not one thing, it was most certainly another. This time, the various underhand dealings between the Thieves’ Guild and the Scourge had caused a certain reciprocal shift in focus amongst the city guard. They stopped looking at the troupe, but in return, the Thieves’ Guild had started looking with great scrutiny for the whereabouts of the Tantalum.

All her life she had stood as testament to a rising pauper on the social ladder. Now, Ruby had to stand as testament to the pious nature of her opinions, she had to stand defiantly before those that would hurt her children, those that would shear her flock from its tether and scream divinity until they burnt in the fires of her anger. She was the Phoenix in legendary song and she would fight, and die, and rise to fight again in searching for the strength and courage to stand against their enemies. She had fought many times before in the Citadel, but here she hoped she would found nature’s reverence compounded into a true test of her will. She had to learn, she had to love, she had to fight.

She wore her typical red dress and wore Wainwright's Heart around her neck. It felt heavier than it's components would lead her to believe and the enchantment that had awakened following her theft from Lucian hummed with dark power and warmth on her ample bosom. She fingered it silently and thought of the songs that spiralled in The Aria in her mind. With them she would be the Bastion in the war against ignorance, and whoever came through that door would be scorched from existence in a melody like no other.

[Rehtul Orlouge]

Rehtul hadn’t been in Underwood for very long, but still he heard about the Dansdel. It seemed to be the biggest attraction in the entire city for people who liked fighting. Rehtul was more of a pacifist, but he was a member of the Ixian Knights. He wanted to prove that his powers could be made useful in combat, if the need came for it. He walked in and was greeted by one of the Druids that ran the Dansdel. When he was told that there was a combatant waiting for him if he wished to fight, he hid his nervousness behind a mask of indifference and nodded. The druid led him to the area he would be required to fight in. A part of him screamed at him to run, but the other part of him, the part that wanted him to prove himself, forced him to keep following. When he entered the doorway, he breathed in the scent of fresh air and felt his body relax just a little.

He looked across the ground and into the sky. He was outside again, but the entire surrounding countryside was empty, devoid of the city that he could have sworn was nearby. There was only one explanation for this. “Magic…” the young man muttered under his breath. He drew the blue-white dagger at his side and held it in his hand uncertainly. It was at that moment that he noticed a woman standing opposite of him. A part of him wanted to laugh, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

He walked a little closer to the woman, unsure if he should introduce himself first. He wanted a closer look before he did anything else. He hid his emotions and stopped about 15 feet away from the woman. He was close enough to talk to her, should he need to, but far enough away that he wouldn’t be in any danger should he be suddenly attacked. He looked the woman up and down. She was attractive, with crimson hair and a stunning body, and she seemed not more than a year older than he himself was. He smirked slightly, knowing that most men would act like total idiots at the very sight of her. Then, he chuckled outright.

Once he had that out of his system, he straightened up a little. “Sorry about that. My name is Rehtul Orlouge. I think I’m your opponent.” With that, he bowed, careful to keep the pointy end of his dagger pointed away from his own chest. When he lifted his body back up, he smiled slightly. This was going to be interesting. He had rarely ever fought in his whole life, and never against a woman. He knew that there were plenty of women out there who could rip the spine right out of him if they wished it, but he’d still had very little experience with them outside of his family.

He brought his dagger up to what he could only assume was a ready stance and looked at the woman before him carefully, his ice-blue eyes focused and reserved. He wasn’t sure he was going to win this fight by any measure, but he was determined to at least try. With a victory under his belt, he’d be able to more willingly call himself a member in good standing of the Ixian Knights. He waited for his opponent to speak or make the first move. Though he hid it as well as he could, there was no question that a perceptive person would pick up on the fact that he was not at all sure of himself in this fight.

[Ruby]

Ruby watched her opponent enter the arena with a certain disposition on the tip of her tongue. His snide behaviour and chuckle only served to steel her resolve against what she presumed would be another chauvinistic pig. They seemed to be everywhere she went, following her like obedient little lap dogs.

"Cute," she muttered, dropping her hands to her sides like dead-weighted iron rods and stomping her heels to judder the laziness from her lungs. At the back of her mind she mused about the potential in this 'man,' but did not see anything violent or torturous in his eyes.

Her conflict with Avery in the Citadel not a week before had settled her mind onto one course of action. She, like Duffy, would learn to defend herself and others against the ignorance of the world. She would prove herself to be strong, and show her 'betters' in society and the men that thought her weak by the virtue of her birth just how strong a woman could truly be.

Sardony and wit lined her tongue and she pursed her lips to hydrate them under the sun's rays that pierced the canopy overhead. Like bolts of lightning burning away the earth the light pillars wavered left and right and the dust of stagnant ages and dying wood drifted between them like dancing fae concubines.

"Orlougne?" She questioned following his introduction. Fate was being humorous once more, it seemed wherever she or Duffy went in recent months, so did that blasted family. Whilst they had succeeded in persuading the Hero of Radasanth himself to join their cause and in turn, aid his 'Knights,' they did not expect to keep bumping into his extended entourage of siblings for the rest of eternity.

She sighed reluctantly and crossed her hands over her chest with fingers stretched wide and back arced tightly. It was an operatic stance that accented the high pitch in one's voice, freshly learnt from her acquisition in the book bazaar of Numarr.

"My name is Ruby La Roux, Miss Delacrouix to you. Whatever occurs between these oaken walls and between out mutual selves, I do solemnly hope you are more worthy of my time than that wretched Orlougne who proffers himself lord and master of your line." She spread her legs and pulled a single lyric from her memories to ready for his opening move. "I'd hate to be disappointed in the male of the species...again..." She let poison drip out with her words and hoped her shredding of ego and gender strengths would allow her some room to breathe.

She rather enjoyed her nickname after all, and thought it appropriate to act the part.

The Ball-crusher.

"Show me your riposte, and let us beset upon one another!" A flash of fire sparked in her eyes and the feathers in her hair caught the sun as she shook her fringe from her eyes. She was ready.

[Rehtul Orlouge]

Rehtul could see that the woman had taken his little chuckle the wrong way, but it did not matter too much to him. He watched with a certain disheartening boredom as she postured in front of him and made pointed attempts to demean his manhood. This woman was attractive, and was probably pretty seductive when she wanted to be, but he wasn’t quite sure why she despised men as she did. His head tilted to the side as she mentioned the “lord and master” of his family. While he wasn’t sure she quite understood his family, he could only guess that she was referring to his uncle, Sei Orlouge. He sighed and let his guard drop for a moment. This woman was interesting, even he had to admit, but was she really the kind of person that he wanted to fight? He doubted it very seriously. She was haughty and disinteresting in a way that didn’t at all spark his curiosity. He wasn’t called Rehtul “Frost” Orlouge for nothing. The nickname “Frost” had followed him since before he had even started using Ice-based spells. The reason for this name was because he often seemed bored, disinterested, and altogether cold in his demeanor. Often, even the most beautiful of women who he had seen in his life barely affected them.

He looked at the woman, his eyes meeting hers for a long second. “This fight doesn’t really interest me. Indeed, most fights are disinteresting to me at best, but as you seem intent on beating me, I guess I have no real choice in the matter.” At those words, Rehtul’s eyes seemed to shine for a moment. He was certain that this battle would be no better for his reputation than it would be for hers, but he had committed himself when he crossed the threshold.

He felt the age of this place, another effect of the magic surrounding them. He could feel the air around him shivering with it. The dust that filled the air, the trees, the birds, the animals, and the smells were all fake. He could smell the aroma of the rotted wood of the old fortress, and hear the falling and pitter-pattering of little rocks in the background. Even though this was an illusion, it was well constructed and very much physical. This wasn’t going to be very fun at all.

He walked toward her slowly, his dagger on the defensive. He wasn’t going to use his magic unless he had to, and had no intention of making many mistakes in this battle. However, considering that his only physical weapon was a dagger, he had little choice but to get closer to the woman in front of him. He took slow, careful steps, calculating each possible maneuver he could use against this person. His eyes never left her, and as he got within five feet of her, he launched himself forward at a surprising speed, even to him. He sliced with his dagger as hard and fast as he could, and brought it back in front of his chest in a vain effort to defend his own body from a riposte or counterattack.

He really wasn’t much of a fighter, and as the dust settled around him, he could only wonder, through the sheer curiosity of his mind, what the hell he had just gotten himself into.

[Ruby]

Ruby smiled brightly and wildly as the dagger sliced the front of her dress and nicked her skin. The pain brought the same rush of adrenaline and satisfaction as it always did, and she took two haughty steps back to retreat from a follow through. Within seconds her head span as her body's defences caught up with the realisation and through the thin sliver in her beautiful bodice work, a trickle of blood as crimson as the most embarrassed youth flowed down her gusset and waist.

"If this is not interesting," she chided, "then why do you seem to enjoy hurting me so?" She brought her arms up high as if she were conducting an orchestra and let lose the first line of her Requiem, a silent song at first, it grew into a sudden rush of blood to the head and a spirituous melody.

"After all ya put me through
You'd think I'd despise you
But in the end I wanna thank you
Caus' you made me that much stronger!"

As she embraced the euphoria of the Aria in her mind, the silver sea rocked her metaphorical boat and welled up passion in the pit of her stomach. The dagger strike was the first blood and her song would be it's reprise, it's answer in vocal adrenaline.

When the gap between them had increase to thirty or so feet, she continued into the second verse and pushed forwards with both palms flat to the horizontal form of Rehtul.

"Well I thought I knew you
Thinking that you were true
Guess I couldn't just call your bluff
Time is up!"

She cut the last line short and stomped her black heel into the autumnal foliage that covered the Dansdel floor. A deep thud filled the arena as the energy in her heart spilled out, taking the meaning and drive behind her words and giving it life.

"Caus' I've had enough!"*

Three spiralling and almost invisible ruptures sprang out like fae sparks and bounced across the gap between them. As each arced along the floor the leaves burst into flames beneath the eldritch power until they gathered into one rampant energy ball and launched at the silent and harrowing Orlougne.

Ruby snapped her fingers and felt her strength drain. She hoped that the uncontrollable and somewhat sporadic nature of her spell-singing delivered enough of an opening scene to drive some passion and rise in her opponent.

She would not raise her walls until all else failed, until silence fell, and there was nothing left to do but hide in her worries.


* Lyrics from Fighter, by Christina Aguilera.

[Rehtul Orlouge]

Rehtul watched as Ruby seemed to float away from him. He looked down at his dagger, seeing the blood dripping off the point. He smiled slightly, but this battle was far from finished. He looked up and wondered why in the hell she’d be singing. The song seemed to be angry and rather forthright, but he knew for a fact that what she had up her sleeve was going to be far more poignant than he would be ready for. He held his dagger to his chest and watched carefully as she continued to sing. “This isn’t going to be good.” He said to himself silently.

When she hit the climax of the song, he felt the energy surrounding her filter into a single location. Spell-singing. I can’t believe this. She uses magic. The area surrounding the effect of the magic shimmered and glistened to his eyes. He could almost see the magic, but it was almost like a mirage. What is she planning? He asked himself. Then he felt it, the power of her spell was coming right toward him.

“Dammit!” he screamed as he called up the only defense he could think of. His Mystic Protection glowed around him, a perfect dome protecting him from all outer forces. As Ruby’s spell rammed into the unexpected resistance, it dissipated and shattered the Protection. Glowing blue shards, like magical glass, started to fall to the ground as Rehtul kept his eyes trained upon the woman. He reached out with all of his will and the shards suspended themselves in mid-air. Some of them immediately began to fade back into nothingness, but about half of them stayed.

He had little enough experience using this particular ability, but he was not going to let this go so easily. The shards around him shook in the air, and he held up his hands and pointed at the woman who had broken his Protection so easily. The shards circled his body for a moment before they trained in on and flew at her, their sharpened edges seeking to draw blood as payment. As the shards flew towards her, Rehtul let himself begin to relax slightly. Her attack was more powerful than he thought it would be, but he was not prepared to let himself lose so easily. He would at least put up a fight. He gripped the hilt of his dagger desperately and walked forward a few steps, assuring himself that all was well. He had no clue that battles could be this unpredictable.

Then, he had an idea. Sure, it was a low-down, dirty trick, but he figured it couldn’t hurt to try. He concentrated on what little Light Magic he had in possession and drew it from deep within his soul. His aura became visible during that time, glowing with a bright, golden light. He smiled as a ball of light appeared in his hand. He threw it at his opponent while the shards still sought her out. If nothing else, the light ball would prove as a distraction while he went about the business of pulling together one of the only real attack abilities he had at his disposal.

He put on a mask of calm and waited, all the while using his will to channel the Ice magic he was so proud of from within his soul. He wasn’t going to just let himself lose. He was an Orlouge. He had to prove himself, and now, more than ever, he understood the truth. “This battle is turning out to be much more interesting than I had originally thought it would be.”

He reached up and tucked his hair behind his ear as he watched and waited.

[Ruby]

The tri-partite nature of Rehtul's response took Ruby by surprise. She saw the dome form around him and instinctively knew that he too possessed the same strange ability as Sei, and it gave her the fortune of pre-empting it. She had witnessed it too many times watching the combatants fight to the death in the Cell, and then again when they had sent Arden as the troupe's hound to harass the 'Hero' in the Citadel.

Still, such knowledge did not lend itself to a stoic defence. Even with the image of a desolate bastion blazing in her mind, all she could do to stave off the shards as the dome shattered was rush backwards and cover her face with her arms. She fell to her knees seconds after the first needle thin projectile punctured her thigh and gritted her teeth in the darkness as a second and third struck her shoulder and chest respectively. The pain was like no other, but less than she had imagined. The needles had pinioned her to the ground and she could not move her leg; the application of the pressure had done damage, and she could not feel it - she was helpless.

She cast her gaze over the young man and smiled weakly, a trickle of blood running down her elbow, the cut across her stomach sticky and turgid with the clotting iron and blood wine. As he threw the light orb at her, she simply closed her eyes, expecting her end to come and to wake up within minutes with nothing more than a bruised ego and a painful regret to live with forever more.

She waited.

She opened her eyes.

"Interesting?" She muttered in response to his cocksure assertion, "hardly...but since mercy besets mercy in the civilised world, I assure you now, I am no more civilised than the serfs of the docks in Scara Brae."

She knew what to do.

Slowly and surely she took hold of the first shard and pulled it in one motion from her thigh. Now it hurt, and with a steeling rush of agony she dropped it to one side. It shone in the sunlight, a poignant reminder of beauty hiding danger. She pulled the other shards out with equal difficulty until she was free at last. The draining sensation of blood loss and fatigue brought bile into her mouth and her head span like a carousel, but she remained resolute at the heart of the silver waves in her mind.

With a calm sigh, she visualised herself above the Aria with her eyes closed. This was her only method of survival, her only chance at victory, her only glimmer of hope...she would have to unveil her true self as she understood it, and pray that the rush of strength she would regain from her sacrifice was enough to find herself in the Dansdel.

Her words were soft and melodic, more poetic than song but carrying rhythm and verse behind them all the same. Her image in her mind grew in heat and intensity, and she felt her own skin begin to crawl with passion and fire.

"Out of my ashes
will rise a new phoenix."

Embers appeared from nothing behind her back and she opened her eyes to settle them resolutely onto Rehtul.

"A soaring being
returning from death
proving once again
that life is eternal."

Peeling away reality, the embers rushed together and formed two great roaring wings of magical fire. They cast an azure glow across the wall and caused the autumnal leaves to dance with the regret of the seasons turning. Fire coruscated from her wings over all of her body and spiralling dragons and serpents formed in the moving conflagration. Despite the heat imagined, the flames did not scorch the earth beneath her knees.

"I live forever
because the spirit
never dies."

The heat lifted her from her slump and she levitated a few feet from the ground, her boots pointing downwards and her arms slung wide. Her eyes burst into flames, an intense orange as hot as the sun itself. She sung deeper and harder and stronger as the feathers in her hair multiplied and her hair lengthened to below the shoulder and down to her waist. It danced in oranges and golds and wavered in the storm of fire.

"I will return
in another body
in another time,
but it is me."

The aura of fire grew stronger and burnt with such intensity that Ruby's red dress began to fall away in ash and flickering remnants. Two spiralling arms of fire sprang from the ground beneath her and rushed around her feet, legs, torso and then spread to each arm and ripped the clothing from her.

"The me who is me now
will always be."

Silence.

The fire diminished and rushed into a single ball before Ruby's head. It span for a moment, before erupting and blanching her wounds and reviving her heart. The impact wounds from the Mystic Protection healed over and clotted, she felt relieved. The cut to her torso was too deep even for the Paean of Phoenix Fire, and remained dark and clotted and congealed; a scar and reminder of her failings as a woman and protector.

"As long as I live,
I learn.
And I live

F o r e v e r!"*

Scintillating in the remnant aura of flickering fire, Ruby landed on the leaves and dropped her arms to her side. Her hair and feathers parted either side of her face and dropped over her naked form, covering her breasts. It wrapped around her chest and concealed the womanly form from the youth's innocent eyes, a cloak of crimson nature. She smiled wearily, the sickness in her stomach still swirling and the injury to her chest still pinging with pain.

"I am Ruby La Roux, the Phoenix in the Flames - I am Mother, Singer, Lover, Daughter, Failure and Foe," she clicked her fingers and neck. The aura of fire ran across her delicate skin like a torch burning in the night. She wore nothing except her necklace now, and she touched it's central gem to activate it's power.

Her eyes turned from green to brown and her hair from simple red to an array of autumnal colours.

"Come as you are, as you were, as you always should be!" Naked and invigorated the spell singer waited.



* Poem by Carmen Colombo.

[Rehtul Orlouge]

It was quite a surprise that the woman had been hit by his Protection spell. His eyes didn’t move away from her form as he continued to call upon his only destructive power. He felt his aura extending out from his body again, a stark white blue coming out from within his soul. His clothing billowed around him as he continued pulling the Ice Energy out from within his soul. “Yes, this battle is interesting. Exhilarating, if you want the truth of the matter.” Then, the woman started singing.

The young Mystic was, for lack of any better word, entranced by her song. The woman was an accomplished Spell Singer, he had to admit. Despite her obvious power, he knew that he could indeed win this if he kept focused on his own goals. He wanted to impress his family, his uncles, his father, his cousins, and his grandparents. They knew he was intelligent, but they also knew he was not the combative type. Ruby’s clothes began to disappear from her body, and that stopped his mind dead in its tracks. This is such a transparent trick. He thought to himself.

His mask cracked slightly for a mere moment as the song continued. Then, he grasped the mask again and pulled it back together, smiling as he did so. He was not as easily distracted as all that. His ice cold eyes surveyed her naked form for a moment longer before he concentrated on the surrounding area. She was shrouded in fire, but he had also noticed that the fire didn’t burn the ground beneath her. That meant that the form of the fire could only be an illusion, or something similar. If she thought I would be distracted by her body enough to not notice that, she has another thing coming.

Then, it hit him. He knew what his next move was going to be. He would have to pour himself into his fight to make this work. His mind flew back to a page he’d remembered in his father’s book, Elemental Ice. It read, “In the power of Ice, very few spells are as common as the power known as Diamond Storm, a power that creates shards of ice that can be controlled by the caster as they fly through the air. This power has been used as both an offensive and as a defensive ability in the past. It all depends on the way in which it is used. This basic spell can be learned by any fledgling elementalist.”

Rehtul knew that this was going to be one of his last chances to make this battle tip in his favor. He positioned his feet to provide him with the best possible balance as he called upon the power of Ice. The air began to shimmer around him as the water in the air began to freeze. A few of the autumnal leaves that had been falling from the trees in front of the ancient stone structure got caught in the freezing air, frosting over before falling to the ground and breaking into pieces, making light jingling sound as they broke.

The Mystic kept his concentration turned within himself. If he slipped up, the attack wouldn’t work as he wanted it to. His eyes were closed, and his face was frozen in a slight smile. “Two spellcasters come together in one place. I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to prove myself Miss Delacrouix. You’ve shown me spells that I will probably never be able to learn, and an opportunity to learn from a Spell Singer is hard to come by.”

As he spoke, long needles of ice appeared around him, about 16 total, and he stepped forward, careful to keep his balance in the dirt. He silently took his dagger and placed it carefully back into its sheath. His eyes opened and he surveyed the ground in front of him and he held his hands before him in a defensive stance. As he closed his eyes once more, he threw his hands out, open-palmed, and willed the ice shards forward. They rushed toward the woman. If the Mystic’s guess was correct, the flaming aura around the woman would not be enough to stop his ice shards. If he was wrong, he’d have to pay for it dearly, perhaps with his life. He took his hands and parted them, watching with a small amount of pride as the ice shards parted in half and continued to fly toward the woman. As they flew in an arc and came near her, he slapped his hands together and the shards came together on her from either side.

This was probably going to be his last attack, either way it went.

[Ruby]

For all the indemonstrable fury and fiery rage seething below the surface of her scowl, Ruby could see no way of avoiding the cold lancing pain that flew across the Dansdel to retaliate against her flames. The young Orlougne was a brash and calm individual and had clearly seen through the spell song's ruse. Against more weak willed opponents the flaming aura would have proven a powerful portent and a shield of psychological fear, but it was nothing more than an illusion, a trinket relic dedicated to Ruby's true nature.

Her songs spanned centuries, her fury millennia, but her revenge and her life would go no further than three metaphorical decades. She closed her eyes and cut the chords to the Aria; as the needles spiralled around her and pointed inward, she felt the same nausea and sense of foreboding she had beneath the cold vice like grip of Avery; she had been nearly raped of her dignity then, but this time, Rehtul was successful in claiming her only valuable possession.

"You will not and cannot learn my art, young Orlougne. There are powers behind my voice that rend the stars and change history itself, but even I cannot control the bouncing vibrato behind each kicking blow, and even the greatest of my kind can never hope to contain it's mysteries."

She knew all too well that the song sung to revive her, would be weak in comparison to the realisation and verse that welled from her throat as she spoke. It had taken her to Lucien, and defended her against his shadowy hell and it had summoned Duffy from another realm to her defence. She had come seeking salvation and power to fight her opponents and defend her name, but she realised that she had such a power all along.

"I am forever in your debt Rehtul, thank you."

His rebuking of her voluptuous features and unflinching calculations against her attacks had been the spark she needed. She sung it beautifully, and sung it proud, flickers of flame falling from her tongue and waving arms as she built a defiant last stand against the ominous diamond storm that gathered around her.

"Love is like a fallen castle,
Built from disparate grains of sand.
It holds the form of the majestic stronghold.
But only so long as it stands.

And as the winds tear grain by grain
Off the manufactured walls,
It seems even the impartial rain,
Wants to prove that it can fall.

And as the waves swell with dilution,
Salted soldiers crawling upon their belly toward,
Often merely to steal someone else’s devotion,
Hiding bitter thought behind falsely sweetened words.

I thought I saw the problems that come,
I built my palace high upon life’s beach in sheltered lee,
Lest all my work be riven by fate and undone,
Controlled the tides of damaging perpetuity.

We kept our hearts side by side within the keep
We loved in our cooperative timeshare sanctum,
Yet I did not see you waving from the tower steep
As you charmed another man to kick my castle walls in.

Now I stand upon a pile of tossed sand,
You could never tell what it once was.

I cannot rebuild this with my own hand.....

Imperdible memory..... the only proof of loss...."*

As Rehtul clapped and the diamond shards shot inwards a bright white pearl sphere formed around Ruby and contained both fire & ice in it's impenatrable embrace. A sparkling rush of air flew out across the Dansdel as the shield solidified and sealed the spell singer away from the world and all the worlds beyond.

Unseen, she reached out and touched the barrier and ran her fingers across it's ice like interior. Blood flowed freely down her body and once more she took on the true mantle of the Crimson Mistress - dying eternally for her cause. The needles had pierced her heart, arms, neck and soul; but she smiled even as she fell to her death in a slump.

Her bastion was love.

It would be all she ever needed.



Use of the Aria of Alming approved.

* Poem by Atavist.

Spoils:

The Crescendo: The final part of the spoils required for Ruby to form a new song. *

*Aria Of Arming: Singing a lullaby or vibrant summer melody, Ruby can conjure a pearl white bubble around herself that will only ever encompass her own body. Such a power will not appear if she is in close proximity to anyone else, or to those who disrupt sound. The shield resists all attacks for the duration of one post, but whilst it is summoned, Ruby cannot move, see out of the shield or be seen in return. It cannot be maintained for more than one post and thus, for the duration of one attack at present. Once per thread.

[Rehtul Orlouge]

As he watched his needles closing in on the woman, the young Mystic couldn’t help but feel a little sick. He usually detested violence in any form, but he thought that this was the only way he could prove himself useful to the Ixian Knights. His eyes didn’t move from Ruby’s as she thanked him. He dropped to his knees as he asked himself, “What could she possibly have to be thankful for?” He curled one of his hands into a fist and punched the ground before him, feeling the dirt crunching beneath his fingers. Then, the woman started singing. He looked up and listened to her as she sang, and felt himself getting carried away in the song. He could feel his staunch self control beginning to fade as tears welled up in his eyes.

As the song continued, he slowly began to stand. He took the sleeve of his white blazer and wiped his eyes off on it. The cloth felt dry and rough to his skin, but it helped dry the tears. He looked up as the song ended, to see Ruby become engulfed in a white shield. At first, he thought that the shield had given her the ability to block his attack, but that turned out not to be the case. Somehow, the shield had captured his own attack within it, along with her. She was going to die. He fought back another sob and turned away from her. Then, he understood. That spell song must have been a new power that he’d helped her attain. He sniffed silently as he slowly walked away.

As he walked up the trail to the door he had entered from, he thought he could still hear the songs she had sung throughout the battle. As he came up to the door, he felt himself growing calm. Finally, he came to accept the fate that had been dealt to his opponent. “Thank you, Ruby. I’ll never forget you, not as long as I live.”

The soul forged in flame had fallen before the soul forged in ice. In the depths of his mind, a part of Rehtul laughed at himself, for he had proven that when it came to fire versus ice, ice could indeed conquer the day. With that silent laughter filling the back of his mind, he opened the door and closed it behind him. Perhaps in the future, he would meet this woman again. For now, he would just have to wait and see. The future held an impossible amount of possibilities, but somehow, he knew he’d cross paths with her one day in the future. He did not know how, or when, but there was something between the two now, a bond forged in ice and flame, a bond that would not be easily broken.

The young Mystic ran his fingers down the grain of the door in front of him. It was a very realistic illusion. Finally, he turned opened the door and left. For in the Dansdel, he had learned a lesson that only experience could teach. However fleeting life could be, there was beauty to be observed in even the most broken and twisted environments.

For clarification purposes, Diamond Storm is the name of the ability that allows Rehtul to gather ice shards and attack his opponent with them. It falls under his Ice Manipulation ability in his Character Profile.

[Taskmienster]

Bastion :: As requested, medium to heavy commentary. Rehtul is going to be in RED and Ruby is going to be in Blue .



Continuity 5 | 5.5

Setting 4 | 4

Pacing 6 | 5.5

Dialogue 5 | 5.5

:: Both of you kinda talked a lot during the battle, but Rehtul’s dialogue made it fit his persona a little bit better.

Action 6 | 5

Persona 5 | 6

Technique 7 | 5

:: While Ruby has the upper hand with technique usage, you seem to really get convoluted at times with it. It’s confusing, hard to follow, and makes things rather unclear most of the time. It’s hard to follow something when the reader is trying to figure out what you wrote as much as how it was written… to the point where it’s almost more difficult to try and read than it is for me to be able to pay attention to what the story was about.

:: Rehtul :: On the other hand, you don’t really vest enough interest into advanced technique. The writing was clear and easy to follow, but rather bland because it was mostly just simple sentences and maybe a clause added to an independent clause sometimes. The flair of the writing simply is lacking, and it’s not difficult to add more but you just have to be careful to remember to put some in here and there.

Mechanics 7.5 | 8

Clarity 5 | 8

:: As I said in other places, try and work on the writing so the reader is looking at story… not superfluous words and sentence structure that makes us read the same thing multiple times before we get confused and have to just stop trying. :p Ruby, the writing is well done, but the clarity is way off.

:: Rethul :: Your clarity is well up there, but it’s really due to the fact that you don’t have a lot of extra technique added in. While clarity is good, pulling in and adding to the writing clearly keeps this score up but also helps in other areas.

Wild Card 5 | 7

:: Ruby :: I lowered your score here a little bit, and here is why. It’s completely personal, and I want to make that clear, but I also feel like I have to make a note of this… You have a character that revolves around song-related spells, and you build that well. However, then you do something that tends to throw me off in the creativity area… you use other people’s lyrics. I know that it’s a personal choice, but I feel like if you are going to have a creative character, so lively and inventive, write with such a dramatic flair, you should be able to come up with the songs used or at the very least find a creative solution to that. Otherwise, it feels like all this originality and creativity is kind of lost.

Score:
Ruby | 55.5
Rehtul | 59.5


Rewards:
Ruby :: 300 exp | 40 gold

Rehtul :: 1050 exp | 75 gold

[Taskmienster]

Exp and GP added.