Blood and Consequences

Ciara and Darruk spent the day watching Sagacious' villa, Darruk waiting impassively and Ciara pacing like a caged tigress. The half-ogre was unusually thoughtful as he watched Sagacious fly onto the balcony, carrying the devilkin they'd met a few days earlier, she seemed to be dead weight as he landed somewhat roughly and began to carry her inside as his wings vanished.

"Hmmmm. Pretty birdy." He rumbled as he pointed at the balcony.

Ciara looked up sharply and her eyes narrowed upon her prey. She exulted as she watched him struggle, excitement bubbling up inside her, she could almost taste his blood. She closed her eyes and murmured an incantation which let her see the magical wards the boy had placed around his home. Ah, she thought, there they were, just as she'd predicted. Calmly she began to pick at them, taking them apart. She growled towards her companion as she worked.

"Go light some fires, Darruk. We'll smoke them out. Wait for me at the main entrance, I'll join you when it's time to attack." He grunted his understanding and stood up, shambling towards the street. Again passing Ciara, he didn't look at her with his good eye, keeping it instead cast down at the ground.

Ciara's pale eyes blazed black for a second and a small hiss of pleasure escaped her thin lips as she released her dispelling spell, empowered by divine rage. As her vision showed her several sigils all placed around the perimeter of the home, each of them glowing royal blue and twinkling with platinum energy, they began to blink out of existence, one at a time like dominoes. "You may proceed, Darruk." Her voice sounded strange, echoing with power.

Darruk grunted his acknowledgement and hurried towards the front entrance. Once there, he began to pile flammable objects like wooden patio furniture and cloth awnings. They caught easily enough once he put a nearby torch to them, flames licking at the sides of the home. He next hurled his torch through a window, noting with some pleasure that it ignited the drapes within as it struck. Thick, black smoke soon began to roil from within, nearby alarms sounded as neighbors began to form a fire brigade. None of them dared to approach Darruk as she snarled and roared his approval at the glowing red flames that began to pulse within the building.

Ciara stepped from an alley behind him and tied a piece of silk over her face to protect her from the smoke. Darruk shrank away from her visibly, but raised an arm to his face to perform as best it could as a barrier. Ciara extended a slender hand holding a black metallic wand towards the door and spoke an arcane word of command. Black bolts of energy crashed from its tip and the door exploded, sending a shockwave down the streets, reverberating from myriad walls and alleys.

Ciara strode through the smoke and wreckage seeming to to notice it, unleashing several more bolts into the smoke filled room. Satisfying crashes and smaller explosions erupted wherever they struck. She aimed the wand skyward and turned to Darruk, speaking coldly, "Go. I need the devilkin girl, kill anyone else."

Suffused with a strange power, his mistress' words carried magical weight, and Darruk roared with pleasure as he crashed into the wreckage of the room, his giant head swinging around so he could see with his singular eye. Gigantic fists smashed a couch out of the way and sent it slamming into the kitchen. It was already getting hot in here and the smoke was so thick it began to choke him. He watched it billow and flow up a set of stairs, following the airflow.

A silver flash of light appeared at the top of the stairs and Darruk felt something hit him in his broad chest. His eye danced wildly in its socket, his limbs twitched and flailed uncontrolled for a moment as the silver lightning coursed through him. Growling in pain, Darruk's massive frame tensed tree trunk legs and coiled like a spring; He leapt up, crashing through the floor above and landing beside the hole he'd just created in the floor. He snarled, looking around, and saw the angelkin staring at him in shock at the top of the stairs. The devilkin girl was nowhere to be seen.

Ciara smiled as she watched Darruk demolish the place, saw a glimmer of silver in the smoke at the top of the stairs. She calmly raised her own wand and fired three concussive blasts of dark necrotic energy into the smoke blindly. She smiled grimly as she heard a grunt of pain from above and began to walk up the stairs, her weapon held in front of her.

Only one of Ciara's attacks had struck home, a single charred and smoke hole in Sagacious' right side. He grimaced and held his hand on the wound and drew a hand crossbow from his hip with his other hand. He aimed at the behemoth who had just crashed into the room and muttered under his breath calmly. "We have to get to the balcony, Izzy cover the stairs. Scarlett, stay with me. Ready? Go!"

He spun clockwise and leapt into the air as he did, keeping his weapon aimed at the huge threat that was currently grasping towards him. He pulled the trigger and the small bow made a slight twanging sound as a tiny silver bolt that glowed with radiant energy streaked towards it, striking its hip with a meaty thwack. Blinding silver light filled the room as Darruk howled in pain, his vision destroyed momentarily. A streak of red appeared in his vision as something shaped like a cat darted between Darruk's legs and towards the freedom of the balcony. Sagacious landed in front of the balcony's glass doors which had up until now somehow avoided destruction, and obliterated them with a wave of his hand, sending a wave of thunder and shattered glass into the night sky of Memnon.

Ciara got to the top of the stairs just in time to be blinded by Sagacious' dart exploding. She closed her eyes briefly, which turned out to be costly. She felt suddenly very cold as something entered her right side, severing her spine. Isobel emerged from the smoke behind her, delicate three edged blade leading the way. Ciara wilted for a moment, felt her legs go numb and begin to buckle. Isobel looked at her and murmured into her ear, "So that the garden may grow.", she then twisted the blade.

Rage boiled within Ciara, infused as she was by the dark energies of her God. She reached out with her mind and picked the blinded Darruk bodily from the ground. She snarled at her would-be murderer, one of the Merciful, "I will burn your garden, whore." She hurled the entirety of Darruk at her foe, catching her by surprise. She did not manage to evade at all, and was slammed against the wall by Darruk's flailing bulk. Ciara calmly reached down and removed the blade with a wet, sucking noise it came free. Crimson blood began to flow through her fingers and pulse onto the floorboards, hissing as it spattered in the heat. Ciara's vision dimmed, but she felt the power of her God flow into the ghastly wound and begin to heal her. She saw the flash of red by the balcony as the angelkin landed, his face one of horror as he watched Darruk fly. The devilkin apprentice shifted back into her normal form behind him, she appeared to be shouting at him.

"Sagacious! She's dead! We have to go!" Scarlett was indeed yelling, but the smoke had made her voice raw. Around them, unnoticed, the wind had begun to howl, drowning out the sounds of combat and fire bells.

Sagacious' face was twisted into a mask of rage, he raised his hand towards Ciara and plunged it downward as he did so, his will latching onto the roof above her. It obligingly crashed down on Isobel's apparent murderer, sending sparks and a mighty plume of flame into the night sky. Sagacious ran to the wreckage where Darruk had crashed as Scarlett called out after him again in vain. "The whole place is coming down! Sagacious! You stupid, feathered FUCK, come on!!!!"

He began to toss beams of wood and chunks of wall aside, calling for Isobel. Around them, the storm grew more and more intense, and rather than the sound of wind, a terrible supernatural wail had begun to surround the carnage. Sagacious could smell decaying flesh and gagged as he worked, screaming Isobel's name once more. Scarlett came to his side and screamed in terror as if she recognized what was happening.

His eyes focused on a single bloody hand that twitched weakly. He darted forward and began to hurl wreckage aside, screaming as he did so, "Scarlett! Help me! Please!" With a terrified look on her face, she tried her best to help him, in fact likely adrenaline did more than muscles as painstakingly Sagacious lifted a smoking roof support and uncovered the broken but still breathing form of Isobel. Her legs were bent at strange angles and blood covered her face. With a cry of anguish, Sagacious hurled the beam aside and rushed to her side, cradling her broken body as the villa began to creak and pop beneath them. Scarlett watched them huddled together and felt a preternatural calm come over her. The plants on the balcony had begun to blacken and wither as the storm raged around them. She'd seen this twice before, and was sick and tired of running. All it did was get people killed.

She stood resolutely and walked to Sagacious and Isobel, speaking calmly as he wept, pouring all of his healing magics into her. "Go, get out of here, it isn't here for either of you." He looked up at her in anguish.

"I… can't carry you both." He looked down at Isobel who was coughing and twitching feebly. "I won't leave her, Scarlett. I can't." She understood what he was really saying, if he left her here she was dead, and he could only save one of them. Despite the dislike she had for him, she admired his nobility in this moment. She wouldn't have hesitated to do what was best for her, but he did. He wanted to do what was right, and he was begging her forgiveness for wanting to be selfish. She smiled warmly at him even as the floor began to collapse beneath them, removing his ability to choose by stepping into the open and calling out to distract the storm. As she walked away, she felt Sagacious' magic and heard him manifest his wings, leaping into the sky carrying Isobel.

Scarlett thought of Mae, closed her eyes and leapt into the great river as the smoke and wind howled about her. A green glow spread brightly into the cloud of sand and smoke, and a strong scent of fresh grass and water began to balance the scent of death that had been carried by the wind. Scarlett laughed as her power radiated out from her, feeling her markings glow warmly, almost pleasurably. From high above, Sagacious watched the patch of verdant power spread out from Scarlett's glowing form and pulse a single time. A scream of rage and pain reverberated out from the pulse and the wind immediately stopped. The fire had been extinguished by a sudden growth of plant life which had snuffed it all out, and a light rain had begun to fall from the smoke laden clouds. Moss and vines covered the wreckage of his former villa as Sagacious landed with Isobel in his arms beside Scarlett. He looked around in stunned silence as the young devilkin shook and curled up beside him on the ground. He shook his head in wonder, murmuring, "Well kid, I think we'd best get a ship heading to Caer Ashwynn as soon as possible. Because this is way bigger than anything I've dealt with before." He gently set Isobel down on tender legs and helped Scarlett into a standing position beside him. "Come on up, can you walk?"

She blinked at him slowly as she struggled to remain standing. "Thanks f'r helping," she mumbled, "Still dun' like you…" He laughed softly as he helped her stumble towards the docks, and hopefully towards a ship.