• PM To Join • The Music of the Night (Noth)

[Sephira]

The Element’s breathing came in hurried inhales and exhales as she sought to catch her breath following the battle. Sephira had been forced to move swiftly in order to end the confrontation and the exertion showed, if only slightly beneath her disciplined visage. She found the Avriel’s words a little less than comforting. While he had been attempting to end the foolish necromancer he obviously had a skewed sense of morality, at least from the norm.

“So you didn’t care about the deaths, only that he made them in your name.” she uttered vehemently.

The woman took the proffered scrap of cloth without comment, taking a brief moment to clean the slick crimson liquid from her left hand before wiping down the dagger at her wrist. With a hissing of metal she triggered the cleaned blade to return back into its hidden housing on her arm. While she did this the Avriel half-blood attempted to explain his reasons for staying out of the confrontation. Sephira’s brow knitted together in disgust before her eyes noticeably darkened.

“Men like him can never be trusted, no matter how well suited they are to a purpose. Especially mages.” The Rupturer uttered with a thread of bitterness woven throughout her words. Mages were often far more deadly than the Sparkless, and those plagued with insanity were just disasters waiting to happen.

“He would have killed again and again; I do not believe anyone could have broken him of that compulsion.” She sighed heavily.

“The Spark drives us all; no matter how we fight it. He clearly didn't have the strength to resist that urge.” The woman said dismissively. This was not her first time dealing with a necromancer. The first had been an elderly man who had been killing and reanimating animals simply to satisfy his appetite for death. The pull of the Spark was an inescapable compulsion, even Sephira fell prey to her own from time to time.

“Far better that he is dead.” Sephira spoke coldly before turning to glance back at the bloodied corpse that lay sprawled across the lawn. She didn’t revel in killing her own kind, mages were rare enough as it was but she had little issue in putting down those that she saw little hope for.

She turned back to the Avriel, arcing a single brow when he mentioned the case of Skinny Jim. It had been a rather infamous case concerning a serial killer. The criminal had been found and strung up by someone claiming to be the Prince of Eternal Mercies.
“That was you? “She remarked, giving the subtle impression that she was impressed.

Sephira sheathed her saber after flicking whatever undead ichor that she could with a single brief swipe.

“Officially I can’t condone a civilian taking the law into their own hands, however.” She paused, looking at him with the faint twitch of a frown.

“As I said before, some men are better off dead.” There was an umbral glint to her gaze that spoke to her obvious propensity for violence. Sephira Blackwood was a peacekeeper but she was just as much a dealer of death and judgement.

She moved to walk past the avriel, wiping away a smear of blood from her face with her back of her gloved hand as she headed toward the broken window.
“I’ll be fine.” She replied somberly whilst walking away from him when he mentioned her wounds. The woman had to get this mess cleaned up which also meant untying the senior of the Ebonhounds who was still bound to the chair inside the manor. She would also need to inform him of his son’s fate.

The Element turned just as she stepped over a ridge of broken glass, and looked back toward the dark feathered shadow.

“I’d advise you leave before more Elements arrive.” It was the only peace offering that she would give him. He had only committed the crime of breaking and entering. The man could have attacked her during her fight with the necromancer but he had stayed his hand; so this was her repayment of that gesture. However that was where her good will ended and her voice grew dangerous in tone.

“If you ever return to Scalvoris, and you come looking for trouble...know that I’ll be waiting for you.” The soldier didn’t blink or avert her gaze when she spoke. The warning was clear, as Sephira Blackwood never minced words. She knew a threat when she saw one. Perhaps they weren’t enemies to-trial but that didn’t mean that such a time would not come in the future. If the Prince of Eternal Mercies ever returned to the island looking to threaten its inhabitants then she would be there to stand in his way.

Off Topic

Wanna do a wrap up post? Then I'll submit for xp. Let me know if you want to do another sometime ^_^

Dialogue|Thoughts

[Noth]

The Avriel tittered briefly at the venomous accusation spat forth from the woman’s lips. Of course, any indication that he might have sided with a murderer was met with the assumption that he condoned any and all of his behavior, however vile and unwarranted it had been. The avian simply shook his head, an exasperated sigh breaking the temporary silence. “I cared as much as any person would, but you must understand that my focus was primarily upon the apparent culpability being associated with my name. After all, I’m certain you wouldn’t appreciate it if someone committed heinous acts in yours.”

Crimson eyes focused upon the fascinating bladed-tool as she returned it to its hidden sheath. It was somewhat difficult to discern that it was even present, and if he had not so astutely watched as it was reloaded, he would likely have ignored it entirely. It was a brilliant idea, really, and he made a mental note to acquire a similar device for himself, knowing full and well that the advantage of being able to subtly hurtle a blade at range was rather great.

Noth listened as she spoke with a tone of… was it remorse? Disgust, certainly, but he wondered whether or not he could perceive some far deeper semblance of emotion. Regardless of her own reasons for perceiving mages in so negative a light, it was evident enough by her words that she thought of them as the absolute worst. That seemed incredibly contrary to her own talents, he noted, questioning whether or not she would attempt to assert her own position of supposed invulnerability to the corruptive elements of the Spark. The Avriel merely nodded along in acceptance of her short speech over the dangers of trusting such an individual, highlighting that he would have continued slaying, such a statement met only with the most smug of flickers across the visage of the hybrid. Of course, she was entirely correct… but he didn’t want to stop him from killing, he wanted to direct him. So often, enforcers of the law, and government officials perceived that the only answer to the awful and vile things that one person would do to another was to outlaw them completely, but Noth knew it was far more effective simply to re-direct the ambitions of a person towards accomplishing one’s own goals.

There was something about the strangely and disturbing hypocrisy that surrounded those who had convinced themselves of their own self-righteousness that kept the hybrid from contradicting anything she spoke. She had rather bluntly asserted that it was better that the necromancer had met his violent end, because she spoke of how he would have continued slaying others, and yet, wasn’t killing him simply subscribing to the same violence? Had her disposition towards mages and necromancers in particular been drawn from past experience? After all, she was quite proficient with her weapons, and she had clearly had to clean blood from in the past, because without a single word to that effect, she had taken the cloth and swiped away the crimson from her implements.

When he had revealed himself as the slayer of Skinny Jim, he thought that he could pick up on a sense of appreciation for his acts, though she was bound by legal obligation to make note of the fact that civilians weren’t meant to interfere in the enforcement of the law. The hybrid chuckled mirthlessly, shaking his head, “Ah. The notion of separating the practice of enforcing the law from the denizens is almost entirely in place to convince the petty and weak that they’re being protected so well that they never have to risk their own fetid lives. You’d have far better results if each of them fought for their state, if each of them held some measure of obligated service towards protecting the peace, enforcing the law, bringing security. People shouldn’t have to rely on vigilante foreigners and teleporting duelists to bring them some semblance of peace.”

She refused any assistance that he might have offered, noting that she was in peak enough physical performance that she would not require any assistance, and the hybrid dropped any notion of assisting her beyond that, fully convinced that she would require none from his ilk. She advised that he abandon the premises before the remainder of the Elements arrived at the scene, and briefly he wondered how they would know to come in the first place… surely there had been some measure of commotion, but had it really been so loud as to alert the policing forces? He shrugged in acceptance, beginning the short jaunt towards the back door, intent on slipping through the house and leaving through the front, though he paused as her voice once again rang out.

The Avriel laughed with a sort of dark humor, a fragment of his true personality and the cruelty it entailed with its own self-righteous vigor. “My dear, with the entirety of a force of Elements and the resources that they provide, your enforcers could not even prevent the death of three women over a rather grand timescale. Let’s keep the threats to ourselves, and simply hope that we remain on good terms.” He smiled, the emotion showing in his predatory eyes. She… was weak, he considered, exhausted after her bout with the necromancer, he assumed, and whilst he had no desire to confront her, he didn’t believe she was much of a threat, even with her teleporting abilities.

And so, he went his way.

[Mads]

Sephira Blackwood

Knowledge.........

None

Loot....................

None

Consequence......

None

Renown..............

None

Experience...........

15

Noth, the Prince of Eternal Mercies

Knowledge.........

None

Loot....................

None

Consequence......

None

Renown..............

None

Experience...........

10 15

That read very much like a "dark lord" and "gritty hero" interaction. Sephira is such a pracmagtic protagonist, and with Noth in the background maintaining his commentary, it paints her as far darker than I think she sees herself. The combat was nice and had a forward, steady pace to it, which made it easy to follow. Also, Noth being a snide little animal at the end was pretty cute. Also, crashing through a giant window? I think Sephira needs a couple lessons on how to be discreet, haha.

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