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 Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 2:48 pm
"There is a skinwalker who has been lurking near our general area of operations lately," explained Rezo to one of his subordinates, Xelloss. They were not in the jungle on that brisk winter day. They were north, past the hotsprings and the Western Swamp. Rezo had business there and had taken with Xelloss and some of his brood. Thus far, Rezo had them attacking various herds in the area. There was a greater purpose to all this, but not one that Rezo had yet seen fit to inform Xelloss of. As far as he was concerned, the less the trickster knew, the better. He did not doubt Xelloss' loyalty, but he found that Xelloss operated more according to orders when he didn't know enough to do things his own way.
"Ordinarily, such a trivial thing wouldn't matter." Rezo smiled with amusement, as if a skinwalker in the area was no more troubling than a rain shower. "But this time is different. You see... she is a skinwalker elder." He paused to let the meaning of his words sink in. "One that you are acquainted with, I believe. A panther walker named Samsara."
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 2:57 pm
"Samsara is an elder now?" Xelloss' eyes widened in surprise. The last he had seen of Samsara she had been fighting her father to the death. Her father was an elder himself. A father and a daughter, one an elder serving the light, the other an elder serving the darkness. Xelloss had never heard of such a thing happening in all the years of history that soquilikind still remembered.
"So... she is an elder," he paused to gather his thoughts while still processing the shocking new information. "And you want me too, what? Drive her off?" He stared at Ruby Eyes Rezo incredulously. While he had a lot of faith in his abilities, he was not arrogant enough to think he could defeat a skinwalker elder in battle.
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:08 pm
"Quite the opposite, actually." Rezo kept his usual soft smile and softer voice. For a dark lord, he could be surprisingly charismatic to those willing to look past his glowing red eyes. "I would like you to use your charming personality." If Rezo spoke ironically, he gave no indication of doing so. "Go to her. Bring her to our side. It is the leadership of an elder that first made the mazoku great. The possibilities should we recruit another... are simply limitless."
"Use whatever tactics you need to convince her. You know the sorts of payments and services we can offer."
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:13 pm
"Recruit her for the mazoku." Xelloss mused over this idea and gave it some thought. He had been able to talk Samsara into something once. She was a fairly sane skinwalker, unlike the ones who could barely string two words together. If she was capable of listening to reason, he thought he would be able to convince her. They had a lot in common. Both the mazoku and her enjoyed a bit of carnage and destruction every once in a while. Maybe they could find a mutually satisfying partnership.
"It will be done, my lord." Xelloss bowed to low to Rezo. There were often times that he had his doubts about serving a unicorn, but he still acted like the obedient servant whenever under scrutiny. There were times for doubts, and now was not one of those times.
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:15 pm
"Good," said Rezo. "Hurry off then and return swiftly with word." His mind worked with calculations. If Samsara could be brought to their cause, there was no way for his plan to fail...
With these dark thoughts filling his head, Rezo watched Xelloss fly away. It was time to check on his work, before the kalona returned.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:25 pm
NOW is the time for doubts.
Xelloss was doubting a lot about Rezo at that precise moment. He was doubting that Rezo really was Ruby Eyes reborn. He had the burn and the red eyes, but there were a lot of soquili with red eyes out there. He assumed someone had chosen to try to seal their lord into Rezo because of his red eyes to begin with. How could the red eyes be a sign of Shabranigdu if Rezo had red eyes before any mazoku had done anything to him? And besides, if Rezo really was Ruby Eyes, then he ought to have the spirit and some of the memories of an elder purewalker.
If Rezo had the spirit of an elder skinwalker, he should have known what a stupidly idiotic idea it was to try to bargain with elder skinwalkers.
Presently, Xelloss was sprinting through the forest. He could barely see out of one eye, a result of a bleeding wound right above it. Samsara only had one eye herself so maybe was trying to take one of his too? It was a fun gesture, but not one he could appreciate now. He was too busy trying not to get turned into meat by one of the most dangerous creatures he had ever seen.
A beam of sunlight hit him. Finally he had come to a hole in the canopy! Xelloss flapped into motion, pulling himself above the trees and into the open sky. He had been using his black magic to drain her energy ever since things started going sour. She would have no hope of keeping pace with him while she was weakened and only had weak flutter wings... or so he hoped.
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:31 pm
Samsara seethed with fury and unsatisfied blood lust. She could hazily remember taking advice from the dark kalona once before she was reborn into her elder life. She had been a different mare then, one that could sometimes accept assistance or suggestions. Not anymore. It was already an insult that Xelloss had thought she might want to join forces with him and his pathetic bunch of kalonas, or whatever they were. The even greater insult was that he thought he could change her mind when she had already told him no.
"For that, your life is mine," she had told him. She had managed a few good strikes but not enough. The kalona turned tail and was soon running like a rabbit away from her. She chased after him but could feel herself a little more sluggish than usual. She didn't know much about the draining magic that kalonas possessed, but the thought that it might be being used on her brought her to an even greater fury.
She arrived at the open patch of forest just an instant after Xelloss did. As he flew up and away, she just had to smile. What a fool he was, thinking that the skies did not belong to her.
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:37 pm
Xelloss, a kalona hardened by countless battles, felt his heart lurch as Samsara erupted out of the forest. She was much faster than he expected, impossibly fast for a normal flutter. He concentrated on her even as he pushed his wings to beat faster and faster. The weakening magic wasn't going to work fast, but the smallest edge on her was all he needed to escape. He looked over his shoulder and saw her behind him, gaining swiftly. The next time he looked back, she was above him.
Once Xelloss had killed a soquili mid-flight. Now, he thought he knew a little of what she must have felt. He didn't have time to maneuver. He tried to dip his wings into a dive but she suddenly had one between her terrible jaws. He cried out in pain as they both fell, tumbling through the sky and connected by his flesh.
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:44 pm
Samsara dug her teeth in and didn't let go. She instinctively made her decision to fall to the ground with her prey so that she could better kill him after impact. The world was a blur of flapping wings and a lashing tail but she held tight. She held tight even as the first twigs began to buffet her, but a certain large branch was more than she had bargained for.
The branch hit Samsara squarely in the stomach. She gasped in pain and immediately let go of the kalona. She wasn't sure what happened next but somehow she ended up in a heap on the ground, winded and gasping. She tried to scramble to her feet but had a hard time figuring out which way was up in those first dazed moments. Growling between wheezing, Samsara fought to recover herself before her prey could escape.
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:50 pm
Xelloss ran. He couldn't see Samsara after he first crashed into the ground but could still hear her. She hadn't gotten magically skewered on a sharp bit of rock or a waiting unicorn's horn. Luck had abandoned him this day, it seemed. He got to his feet much faster than she did and didn't stick around to see if she was going to follow. She could be injured and an easier target now, but the same could certainly be said for him. Xelloss ran for his life and asked his dark gods not to let him hear her yowling after him in pursuit again.
He didn't have time to survey his injuries but knew they were serious. He was battered and bleeding from several new places after that fall and the things he had collided with during it. He was even more worried about his wing. He had folded it as best as he could against himself but could tell it wasn't sitting right. He cried out again whenever he knocked his wounded wing against anything and could feel the blood pulsing steadily from Samsara's bite wound on the wing arm. The first thing he had to do was survive. After that, he could go about seeing whether he would ever fly again.
With the roars of the skinwalker elder fading behind him, Xelloss finally disappeared into the gathering darkness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 4:13 pm
Weeks passed and Xelloss was back in the jungle again. It was Rezo's condescending idea for him getting rest and relaxation after his brush with death. Rezo hadn't hidden his scorn for Xelloss when he had returned bleeding to his master and Xelloss still burned with resentment whenever he thought back to that prim little sneer.
After the help of a few mostly willing unicorns Xelloss was generally healed. He suspected that his injuries would immediately reopen if he gave himself any strenuous activity and he had yet to test that theory. His wing... still troubled him. He could fully extend it with only minor discomfort, but he didn't dare trust it to bear his weight in flight. If he just let it rest a while longer he hoped that it might be restored to full use, but he was by no means certain of that result.
Xelloss scowled at a nearby flower before grinding it into the ground. He couldn't tolerate something so bright and cheerful when he was in such a bad mood. He expected Zelcion to drop by shortly and would have to entertain himself by destroying the local plant life until he arrived.
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 4:24 pm
Not one to let his father down, at least no intentionally, Zelcion was en route to meet Xelloss. He bore important information and he trusted that his father would have an idea of what to do with it. Sure he could have gone to Lord Beastmaster or Lord Hellmaster but why trouble them? His father was likely better suited for such things and it seemed probable that he would be tolerant. When Xelloss came into view he was crushing a flower under his hoof, Zelcion found he might need to rethink his father's tolerance.
"Father." Zelcion said announcing his presence before giving a polite bow of his head. After that he wasted no time in getting to the point, his father was definitely not in the best of moods, and he looked like he'd been through hell. "We're being spied on. Yseult is hunting two and I do not know if there are more. They've been speaking to someone named Lorenna." Zelcion paused wondering if perhaps this was too much information all at once. He wanted to make sure everything was understood but time seemed to be an issue. It was only a matter of time before suspicions rose whether Yseult killed the spies or not.
"I...I believe they had something to do with our failure with the Padmapani." Zelcion set his jaw. It sounded like he was making excuses and he couldn't imagine that going over well. At the same time he spoke the truth.
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 4:49 pm
Xelloss didn't have patience for paternal smalltalk right now so was glad when Zelcion skipped it. At first he was only vaguely interested, but the mention of Lorenna brought him to full attention. Xelloss wondered if it might be the same Lorenna he had encountered years ago but he immediately banished that questioning. Of course it was her. Who else had the cold resolve to hold a grudge for that long? If Zelcion was right and she had sabotaged his children during their Padmapani attack, she was wielding her grudge very effectively.
"Tell me all you know," he immediately demanded. He was already more animated than he had been in the weeks after his injury. Something about the memory about that frigid mare woke him up again and made him want to do mischief.
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 4:57 pm
Zelcion nodded his head grateful that his last comment hadn't brought a scolding upon him. The severity of the business at hand seemed to be sparing him. "Yseult and I stumbled upon a pair of her spies. They ran off but not before I heard them mentioning sending word to a Lorenna using birds. Yseult is on their trail and may have killed them by now." Zelcion frowned. When he put it so simply it all sounded like it wasn't terribly important. Not wanting to let his father down he decided to make a leap. "I believe we could find their birds quite easily and rid ourselves of them. What is a spy without messengers?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 5:43 pm
Xelloss didn't feel the need to bring up Zelcion and Tythoss' dismal failure at the hooves of the Padmapani again. He had already made himself very clear about where he stood on that and what he thought of them for failing at so straightforward a mission. That was the past, just like his near-mauling from Samsara. Now was the time to move on and look to the future.
"I think that killing the birds... might be a bit premature." It was an ingenious set-up. Birds were everywhere. They were the perfect spies because you would never think that one was out of place. They could hide almost anywhere and were excellent at long-distance travel. Xelloss had a hefty dislike for Lorenna, but he admired her cleverness. He was wondering if it would be possible to set up such network for the mazoku when he came to a sudden realization. They didn't need a new network, they could just take hers.
"I think we both have reasons to dislike Lorenna," said Xelloss. "What would you say to a chance to use her own weapons against her?"
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