Closed Books RPG

[The Assassin of Chaos]

"Better than you," Jay pointed out, quickly sterilizing her wounds - if he even could, he guessed - with some high precision heat powah.
"Drug lady?"

"I've just talked to a horse in Latin and now a dragon burst out of the castle," Noire noted. She stood up, dropped the cigarette and stomped it out.
"... I think I've had enough of this for today," she decided firmly, trying not to lose her collective sh*t.

"Remind me never to trap you in a mineshaft? That sounds like it'd just be pure torture for both of us," Jay replied to Abeline. "How's your noggin doing? And also your you."

Noire just shrugged then went over to the lady who was Olive and sat down next to her.
"... I think I've had enough of this today," she repeated. She wasn't even sure if that was the drugs talking or not now.  

[BhelliomBlue-Rose]

Being incompletely buried, it wouldn't take too long to free him.
Still, the weight of the building leaning slightly in his direction required some care.
It was with a bit of on-the-spot coordination by Glory and Kaliyah that the Rider was excavated without bringing the rest down.
The first thing they'd notice, apart from his arm being a bloody mess, was that their rescuee was laughing again.
No hound-baying, no roar or explosion, just the deep laughter of the satisfied.

"Aaahaahhahahahaaa...
Y'ain't wrong."
As the horse hoisted his partner telekinetically to his feet, the rich mirth continued.
It paid little attention to its' host's pain, though there was a stutter as his weight was returned.
The leg that had been trapped bent unnaturally at the joint, prompting a return to being lifted.
It could have been endorphins and sheer adrenalin, but for now, he didn't feel much, physically.

"I could feel her pain, her terror. Close your eyes and you can still hear the scream lingering around you.
Wasn't really sure it would work, but damn if it wasn't a rush.
Bliss got her taste of vengeance. Gotta get moving so we can stuff more down her throat.
Lemme just get back on my feet and I'll-"
No.
Not allowing him time for the momentary bewilderment to clear, a few pairs of eyes swept the Nyllednian into a waiting saddle.
"I'm sorry, what?"
Your leg's ******** right now, not to mention the arm.
The hole in your chest was one thing, but this?
Bandages don't heal everything, moron. You get to a healer. You do what the healer says.

The good hand attempted to stroke the silvery mane, something to placate the being.
Conquest's appendage was firmly shoved away.
"Glory. Come on. I can't just sit on my a** for a week while it mends."
Unless you wanna sit on your a** for a month, you get to do just that.
You just survived a direct meeting with a god hostile to you by default.
You did that without me there. With just one out of your three pieces.
Pull something like that again, and so help me I will put you back under a rock until this is over!
Turning his face, and thus the normal eyes upon the ice dragon, the Mount regarded Kaliyah.
Somehow, the blue gaze was much warmer going from his burden to his helper.
Thank you for helping, now and in the ether.
If it'd amuse you, do you wanna help me bully him into letting a healer work?  

[cosmos_rose]

Heck, why not?
As of yet there were no established boundries of Jay's power.
So nobody could stop him from sterilizing his lil' demi-gods head.
"Squee!"

Changing her form back into a tuxedo cat, the creature would then tend er burnt-to-crisp wound by licking her paw and then proceeding to rub it against her head.
"I guess...
I've...Do-...ne
my...job...
...
then." She would say inbetween her grooming licks.


Abeline nodded and lightly smiled at Jay.
"Or any small spaces for that matter.
I'm glad to see you weren't badly hurt...
But noggin's fine, doesn't hurt any more.
And I've always been me Jay."


Olive was in an immense amount of pain.
But she really tried to hold it together as the druggy laid so calmly sat down next to her.
"That's good Noire.
Ween y-yourself off.
Not sure that being sober is going to stop weird stuff from happening though.
You should get used to this stuff."

Olive's broken arm was already severely bitten, such was the sacrifice necessary to harden her blood.
So that left her with her good arm, which was perfectly healthy and while the witch was sad to let it go she really had to heal herself.
Lifting it up to her mouth she winced and squealed as she bit it hard enough to draw some blood.
If her other hand wasn't broken, she'd probably be using it to pound against the clay.

When enough blood and pain coursed through Olive to use some more of her blood magic, she began to heal her more serious wounds.
Slowly the cartilage in her broken bones began to break down and then reform themselves in acceleration.
It was gross and uncomfortable process, this was obvious by the disgusted look on Olive's face as she let go of her now wounded arm.

"You know, blood magic is super awesome and really powerful.
But it SUCKS to freaking use most of the time.
I wonder if that Rudi fellah has to sacrifice something every time he uses it like me.
Probably not if he's dating a goddess..."



"Happy to help." She replied warmly.
"But I do not bully Glory.
I command."

Shifting her gaze steadily to the injured rider, a hint of a smirk barley touched her lips.
"You are going to see a healer. Now.
Nobody here has the time to take care of a hatchling right now and if you proceed to rave about untreated, that's just what you'll be to us. A useless baby."

Her eyes began to scan the surrounding area, searching for an idea on where they could find a suitable healer for a Nyllednian.
"Arthur." She thought aloud.
"He is likely the only good candidate for this sort of thing and perhaps Noire can make you any medication you require."

She looked back at the horse.
"Take him to Noire for now.
In the meantime I will search for Arthur.
Hopefully he's survived this mess."

Kaliyah would then spread her wings, jump upwards and then take off in flight in search of the Nyllednian demi-god.


P.S.
I forgot about Alai.
She under some rubble I guess.
She doesn't have any powers to save her or anything.

The Assassin of Chaos

 

[The Assassin of Chaos]

"I have a surprising knack for not getting injured," Jay lamented. "Someday karma's just gonna break every bone in my body, I can tell.
"As long as you is still you, then we gucci. I guess."

"... Oh God."
Noire buried her head in her hands. She could handle an apocalypse of the world. This was gonna take a bit more of a stretch.
"Well, at least we've still got something to use against this lady we're killing... Can't heal you, Olive, but I guess I could clean and wrap up those wounds. Why even bite them anyway? That's disgusting. You'll make yourself ill if you keep doing that.
"After that, we need to do a head count I think."  

[BhelliomBlue-Rose]

Bully, command, coerce; different terms, same thing.
You're telling people to do something and threatening 'em with something.
Glory had seldom ever taken this tone with him.
Worry made him angry. Not the amusing kind, where he just started trying to blister a mind with words.
Giving ground was the correct course here, in main part because both could bury the Horseman until later, the shape he was in.
"Uh-huh. Yeah. I see exactly where you're both coming from.
Let's get everybody together, then."
It helped that this was a sensible plan.

As the dragon took off, the horse turned and started towards where the other had been.
It didn't take long, due in part to his habit of ignoring difficult areas.
Striding across the sky had advantages sometimes.
Abeline was sound and relatively whole.
The others, of somewhat lesser priority to Conquest, were dinged up but mostly in working order.
Olive would be the worst one, the way her limbs were mangled.
We can lay you in the same ward. Aren't you lucky.
I suppose I am, at that.
...Hang on a sec. Someone's missing.

The white steed would notice the missing part of their party, but he didn't much care.
His other part, the one that shared his mind, held a differing opinion.
There wasn't much worry, yet, mostly a light confusion.
"Where's Alai?"
While he'd been caught up in the moment, the discussion with the Scathian had been on the backburner in his mind.
Now that the moment was passed and Abeline well enough, it shuffled forward in line.  

[cosmos_rose]

The Assassin of Chaos

"I HaVe A SUrpRisInG KnAcK fOr NoT GeTtInG InJuReD." Nerien mocked under her breathe.
"Yeah okay, it's not like I didn't just save yo blue butt just now.
You're welcome numnuts. heart "

The angry cat would tenderly rub her head against Jay's leg.

Gucci?
Abeline pondered.
Isn't that a brand of...
Oh wait, I see what he means.

"Well let's hope that day doesn't come anytime soon.
And yes Jay, yes indeed."

The princess's silver eyes flickered to her dearest friends.
"Alai?"
She looked around, turning her head to see if the Scathian was perhaps sitting or laying somewhere.
As she scanned around and found no sight of her other old friends brown hair or freckled face, her heart skipped a beat.
This was in both fear and of anger.
Her father, of course, had completely disregarded the lives of her friends and teammates.
Easily he could've killed all of them and destroyed the entire effort to save the universe. There were perhaps a thousand better ways that he could've freed her, but of course he chose one of the most reckless and grand cures to her plight.
But this was to be expected, Sansara was the dragon of strength and not mind.
It was the Oravian mother Caelum who gave dragons the ability to think and flee.


"She must be under the rubble somewhere." Abeline gasped.
"She could be...she could be dead!"

(sigh) Again.
Thought nobody.

Her immediate thought was Conquest.
"Can you find her?" She asked.
"Is there some kind of power that you have that can find her?!?"

---------------------------------------------------

"Sorry." Olive whimpered a little as she placed down her arm.
"I-I'm just a leftie, I can't use my right arm for s**t."
The witch closed her eyes tightly as her bones continued to shift around in her leg in their accelerated healing.
It was becoming both increasingly uncomfortable and even more painful as the rest of her body began to recognize the absolute pain she was in.

"Yeah p-please wrap it up." She squeeled.
"D-don't wanna have to bite it again if it infects.
Oh shiiiiittt."


The blood girl looked at the others.
She could hear the commotion about Alai, but could currently not doing a damn thing about it.
If she took too much focus off of her shifting, healing bones right now...
Well she'd end up a permanent cripple most likely.  

[The Assassin of Chaos]

"Congrats, how about the hundred times before I became a priest, you shekel-hoarding shapeshifter?" Jay countered back in a whisper. He shot a double thumbs up at Abeline... and stood there awkwardly.
"... Sooo, find Alai?"

"Jeez," Noire sighed, pulling out some cloth she had to bandage stuff up. Even she had to do that since she often got stuck by herself and injured.
She also made sure she was pulling out some water and not the two bottles of death which had thankfully not been crushed. This was something she could put her mind to.
"Just... try using something that's clean. Like a knife. Or a needle," she recommended as she cleaned the areas blood lady kept biting before she wrapped them up.  

[BhelliomBlue-Rose]

As Abeline grew distraught, the plain-faced invalid atop the horse mirrored those feelings.
He wasn't quite losing his cool yet, as pain was a wonderful focus.
A crushed arm was doing the job there.
"s**t, s**t. The light wouldn't be much good here; not if she's buried...
I can mix a couple cantrips, but you'll have to have someone guide you.
Your eyes'll be closed, see?"

Rocking back his weight with his hips to keep balanced, the good hand let go Glory's mane.
In a moment, it had produced a knife from the sheath on his thigh.
"Never done this to somebody else, so it might take me a sec.
Come here, and hold out your hand and close your eyes."
Abeline, if she could still think clearly, would likely know what he meant.
It was a minor Dark spell that Sca'than had often used during the Deathless period.
Something to open the third eye, and see the spirit world at the temporary cost of the subject's temporal vision.

Should she comply, he would shallowly slice her palm, letting the blood pool in her hand.
Dipping two fingers, he'd paint a two lines across her forehead, and make an opening gesture with the free digits.
They would separate along her skin, forming the picture of an eye.
"There. If she's alive, you'll be able to see her.
She'll be the one without a network of roots attached belowground.
Try a little ways east; that's where I landed and I was in a similar boat."
Conquest's weary stare turned to the other professional in the party.
"Could'ja go along, make sure she doesn't run into anything?
Princess here won't be able to see anything what ain't alive."  

[cosmos_rose]

The Assassin of Chaos

"WHAT THE HECK IS A SHECKEL?! The cat harshly whispered.
"I don't hoard shekels.
You're a shekel!

But uhm yeah, you've got a point.
Sheez."

At last the witches bones were coming to a still from their rather sickly healing process. While the bites on her arm were prominent and painful, this was considerably preferred over the broken legs and arm.
The Witch was not only going to be soar for a while, but she was also going to need to avoid using blood magic for a bit. At least until she was feeling better anyways.

"Yeah fine...but biting's easier...
It's like drinking out of a milk carton. It's gross but heck, it's faster and more convenient than getting the cup."

When Noire would finish patching up her arm the Witch smiled.
"Thanks Noire. I owe you one."


The princess seemed to be having extreme difficulty in focusing.
Her own mind for whatever reason felt foreign to her.
Or perhaps more well put, she was feeling like she was visiting her childhood home.
Everything was familiar but yet somehow different.
The worry she was having over Alai wasn't helping her get used to this either.

It took her moment, but she would eventually understand what Conquest was asking of her.
"Right...
Sorry. No point in freaking out, it doesn't help anyone."

Taking a deep breathe, she walked over to the rider and laid her hand out to him and let him do his work.
Once her light vision faded and her new one arose, the princess already began to look around.
"I...might see something in the rubble to the left there." She said trying to point.
"But yes Jay, if you could help me not trip I would greatly appreciate it."



In good timing, Kaliyah would return with Arthur who seemed unharmed somehow. Likely this was in relation to him being a sort of demi-god...maybe.
Looking upon Abeline, his brows raised.
"It seems the Oravian Princess has recovered.
I suppose that makes what just happened worth it."
The Nyllednian would then look at Conquest.
"But you don't look so good yourself."  

[The Assassin of Chaos]

Jay just grinned back at the shapeshifter. He didn't know what it was either, it just sounded stupid to him.
Shekel.
"Sure. I guess finishing off the castle is outta the question?" he asked, holding the dragon princess' hand rather tentatively. He couldn't exactly pull an Olive.

"If you drink out the cup, you don't end up getting a disease from chewing the top off," Noire replied to Blood Lady, thinking for a minute before adding, "I think."  

[BhelliomBlue-Rose]

The humanoid abomination looked both of his twisted limbs up and down.
"I've been better, yeah."
Even with this new channel, the adrenaline was starting to wear thin.
It mostly hurt when he had to move, anyway.
Even minor shifts were making his broken arm and leg stab his nerves.
Upon reflection, that probably wasn't a good sign.
"If it makes you feel any better, we got Bliss one back.
Bet she ain't been on the receiving end of a beating like that in ages."

I'm sure we're all overjoyed.
Hey, even a taste of payback is pretty tasty stuff.
Point or no point, get to askin'. Thank ya Kali.
Alright, alright, chill.
By habit, Conquest started to swing out of the saddle, but was firmly held in place by a cold blue gaze.
Wincing a bit, he desisted, and looked back to Arthur.

"Y'mind straightening me out?
I'll heal well enough on my own, but it's gotta set right or I'll have to re-break my limbs.
Adds a week each time."
And?
And what?
And thank him for taking such good care of Abeline.
I was gonna get to that later. Anything else, your heinie?
Not too much. Anything, Kaliyah?  

[cosmos_rose]

The Assassin of Chaos

"I've never heard of that.
But I know what you're trying to say."
The witch sighed and then shakily, pushed herself upwards.
At first it resulted in failure, her bottom plummeting to the ground with a plop.
The second was more successful however and she managed to stand.
"The power of BLOOD!" She shouted, her fist raised in the air.
"HELL YEAH."

Stretching her arm out to Noire, she smiled.
"You gonna be okay lil' lady?
You sure you're done with drugs?"
Olive wasn't one to advocate drugs usually, but for whatever reason she kind of felt like maybe Noire needed it.


"Teehee." Abeline giggled.
"There will always be more time to destroy ancient castles Jay.
Always."

The princess would uneasily take steps forward as she searched for the life of her friend. Everything felt dark though. The only sources of light were coming from all her nearby friends, but there was no real sign of Alai. No sure sign anyways.
She was still seeing something to the left in all that rubble.

Depending heavily on Jay to help her not trip over things, she would try to guide them both towards what she saw.
She lead them to a rather large pile of rubble and castle bits.
"I see something under there. It might be her.
Are you strong enough to dig through and find her Jay?" The dragon questioned.



The other ice dragon, Kaliyah, would simply nod at the horse in response to his thanks. The equine was being a lot nicer for a change, it was almost coming to her as a surprise.
It was nice.
But she wasn't fond of being called Kali...

Arthur perked up a little.
It'd been a while since he'd done medical care on a fellow Nyllednian.
Actually now that he thought of it, he wasn't even sure if he remembered HOW to. It'd been almost a couple hundred years since he'd even seen anyone of his kind...

"Ah I see that Conquest.
Yup I can most certainly help you out there.
If you can manage to get off your horse and lay down I can wrap you up neatly."

No. Nothing.
The ice dragon quietly spoke.

Kaliyah suddenly began to scan the surrounding area as she started looking for something.
Her dracolisk.
She suddenly realized that it might've been injured in this whole mess.
Oh if her poor little baby had been injured, she was going to give her father a real battle!

"Errr...You'll have to excuse me." She nearly whispered.
"My keekie.
Has anyone seen her?"  

[The Assassin of Chaos]

Noire sighed and pinched her nose.
"I dunno. Maybe when everything isn't so... weird," she replied mournfully. "Still gotta get used to this."

"There never seems to be enough at the time though," Jay replied mournfully.
He just pointed at the rocks then flicked up, causing everything to turn rather cold whilst the rocks soared straight up into the air rather high. Like, way too high.
"... I have no idea if they're coming down. Let's not find out too late."  

[BhelliomBlue-Rose]

"Um. Down. Right."
Apprehensive eyes looked down from their perch, trying to puzzle how best to do as instructed.
Doing so improperly would likely land him either on the ill-jointed leg, or the shattered arm.
He was quiet for nearly two minutes while this was worked out.
The irate equine was left with no alternative but to lift his invalid partner up and set him down against a flat stretch of toppled wall.
Sit! Stay!
I'mm'a go help Kali, 'cos she's been playing nice.
...Even if her 'keekie' is a nippy lil' s**t.

The spellweave would hold well enough under Abeline's refreshed will.
It was a bit of a jerry-rigging though a reflective Light magic, but so long as the blood was there, it could stay active.
The more she looked, the more she would be able to see.
Gabriel and Vaseiya's immense root systems would outline everything belowground, should she look down.
Silhouetted against those, smaller lattices would come into focus, indicating younger Conna.
As he'd said, though, she wasn't looking for those.
What the last Ice Queen sought was someone aboveground.
That, at least, would make things rather easier as the spirit sight gained leverage.
The dead also, she could perceive, but filmier, less distinct.

"Ah. The ol' 'bandages fix everything' trick, then?
I can get behind that."
Of course, Conquest had something of an advantage in this.
Death did not come as easily for those that were further from alive to begin with.
Didn't change that he was mostly talking out of his a**.

Glory, meanwhile, would trot over to Sansara's eldest child.
Kinda been avoiding that one, so I wouldn't know.
Where'd you last leave her?  

[cosmos_rose]

The Assassin of Chaos

"I don't know Noire..." Olive warned, "Things may never stop being weird.
I mean time and space itself are literally flipping their s**t right now.
Not to mention a good portion of the people that you're traveling with are supposed to be dead right now, me included.
I think a couple stogies might help your sanity even.
I mean I'd have one too if I didn't need to keep my wits about me.
That fact that I got really flippin drunk-o with Jay was probably not a good idea whatsoever, though it was fun."

The witch shrugged.
"Just keep your chin up."

"Touche." The princess mused.
"But if Gaia has a castle we shall absolutely trash that one."

The root system of the elder tree's was miraculous and something larger than she had ever seen before. Their life force stretched for miles, farther than her grey eyes could see. Even the little tree's were something to marvel at, the way that they moved and slid through the dirt...
And even nearby her, the light of her friends, made her awe a little.
Each seemed to have their own wavelength, their own kin of shimmer.
It was almost like souls but not quite.

"Yeah I'd like to not find out myself as well.
Just barely got my body back, would rather not lose it in some freakish accident."

To her fortune, there were no dimmer lights in any direction..
And the one light that her and Jay were digging at had no roots either, she was sure this was Alai.
In a quiet thoughts to herself, the princess thanked her god for sparing the Scathian's life. To lose a friend that she had just barely found again, it would devastate her and she was unsure if she would be strong enough to keep going if such a thing happened.

As Jay flicked the rocks it would be revealed that they had landed in just the perfect way in that they had created a sort of dome. It was small, cramped and unpleasant but it was space and in this space, Alai had landed.
She was unconcious and there were large chunks of clay that had her legs trapped.
But she was alive and that was all Abeline could've asked for.

"Jay..." Abeline nearly whispered as her heart began to flutter.
"See if you can get her out.
Don't worry about me, Conquest will return my sight in a moment.
Just see if you can get her out of there."

Speaking of the rider, Arthur was getting to work on him.
He wasn't really doing much, just bandaging and wrapping up whatever had been broken.
"Well yeah for the most part just bandaging." Arthur smiled.
"I'm not really much of a doctor so personally I can't do much more than this.
Lucky for us though, I've got something rather special."

Reaching in his pocket the Nyllednian pulled out to what appeared to be a seed. A seed to what, the rider would not be able to tell, but it was a most curious thing.
"Pop this in your mouth." He said, raising his open palm up to the rider.
"This won't necessarily help you heal faster or anything, but it'll make sure your bones set up right and it'll help with any pains you're having.
And before you become wary, no, it is not a Conna seed and nor does it have anything to do with Conna.
My sister sent a handful of these to me and shortly put they work like miracles."



The snow from Abeline's previous act was still falling gently from the sky and the chill that it brought was soft and for some, soothing.
More specifically it felt this way for Kaliyah.
She was feeling anxious but the crisp air was comforting enough to level her.

The eldest and the youngest ice dragons were known to be the most compassionate compared to their siblings. Obviously Abeline far more so than Kaliyah in most, if not all ways.
The youngest was naturally very empathetic and good with people. In her reign as Oravian Queen, the masses adored her and she was always surrounded by loved ones and friends.
Her sister however, while she was a magnificent conqueror, could barely make friends and she made for a rather terrible politician due to her tendencies to be brutally honest.
But Kaliyah did have a soft heart for certain things and one of those things was her dracolisk.

Keekie had accompanied her on some of her greatest, most memorable adventures and in all of her life, this particular dracolisk had been the only thing to consistently stay with her. They were partners and Kaliyah would mount no other creature.

She glanced at Glory as he trotted up beside her.
"You know she isn't really all that bad.
She's got a bit of an attitude, I'll admit, but once you get to know her she's a fiercely loyal companion and a good friend."

She began to pace herself and walk past the rubble of the palace.
"I left her outside the doors of the clay stronghold.
Hopefully she wandered off as she always does when I leave her in boring places."

As they neared where the entrance once stood, Kaliyah felt relieved as there appeared to be nothing there.
"Good." She whispered to herself.
She looked towards the town.
"If she's not here then she's probably in a shady spot somewhere.
You know any places like that here?"