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 Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 1:32 pm
Awat was a tiny little settlement in the east that was protected on all sides by ravines. The only way in or out was through a single path that backtracked through the capital; making it the perfect place for a traitor to hide.
Finding her hadn't been easy, but there weren't enough alkidike in Oba for their presence to go unnoticed, especially when they tended to settle. She'd come across a few, heard stories of several more, but the similarities ended there. Some were here on their own, others had settled with spouses, but none had markings like hers.
Save for one.
A traveling merchant had been the one to point it out. He'd made a remark about Ai's markings and said that an alkidike in Awat shared a similar look. When she'd pressed for more information he said she'd been there since she was small and everything started to line up. If she'd stayed in Oba since the war then Ai's sister would have had to hide somewhere....
So, when the fire in her gut had been reignited, Ai set out like a woman possessed for her pound of flesh.
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Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2021 9:48 am
[1/10]
It was a journey months in the making, and yet Lucijah had... somehow put out of mind the goal of their trek. The shifter had worried more and more about WHEN it would come to an end, and not the HOW of it ... because she'd been told from day one that the goal was to find, and murder, Ai's sister. Over time, here and there, she'd needled and prodded - can't you talk with her? Maybe you both could agree to disagree, perhaps... perhaps the past could be left in the past?
But everytime, she only served to earn a sharp, sneering look from Ai, and the assertion that she'd been betrayed, that her sister DESERVED whatever she was getting.
Lucijah hadn't been there when Ai heard the news of her sister's whereabouts - she could only be distantly relieved that the alkidike had deigned to come fetch her before they left, instead of taking off in the night without her. Still, as they traveled, she couldn't deny the mounting sense of unease.
"How young were you two, exactly, when all this happened?" She ventured, half expecting the woman to not respond.
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scarlett arbuckle Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2021 10:24 am
"Fourteen." Ai could barely contain the excitement thrumming through her blood. After all this time she was so close to everything she'd been dreaming of. They were already on the outskirts of the settlement now and because of the nature of the settlement so many were out at work, leaving no witnesses in sight...
"She had her chance to redeem herself." Years had gone by with several alkidikes finding their way to Zinris, begging forgiveness for not going the cause initially. Not once had Ai seen her sister on those shores; not a letter, a visit or even word of her. She hid out to save her own hide, and now Ai was going to take it.
"You didn't have to come." She murmured bluntly, moving forward with as much purpose as ever. Homes dotted the landscape, but Ai had no way of knowing which of these were hers.
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Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2021 10:55 am
[2/10] Lucijah grimaced, but didn't respond at first. The bloodlust was clear on Ai's face, a sort of giddiness that felt strange to the normally sharp woman. No, Lucijah didn't have to come, but ... if she'd enabled the woman to come this far, she felt she should be there. For what reasons, she couldn't say... to keep Ai safe? Hardly, she'd recovered enough to stand on her own, even with her injuries.
Then to save the woman they were here to kill? Perhaps, at the beginning, that had been her intention, but now... Lucijah wasn't sure. Should she meddle in the familial affairs of these Alkidike any more than she already had?
"Well, I've already come this far." She retorted with a sigh, turning to look at the sleepy settlement.
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scarlett arbuckle Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2021 2:54 pm
"Then I expect you'll keep to your place." The warning was as plain as ever. Lucijah could be there at the moment, but if she tried to prevent anything then Ai wouldn't be as merciful as she'd been up til now. Their 'relationship' had always been conditional; Ai was using her to get to her sister, plain and simple. Once that pack was done being around her came at the risk of being at the end of her blade.
The alkidike caught sounds coming from the northern most point of the settlement and followed the noise. The further she walked the more the keldari in her gut squirmed.
For there, at the bottom of a valley was a small cozy home. A string of laundry hung from a stone and the corner of the house drying in the desert heat while several quhar moved around a small paddock. And there, flipping the wrinkles out of a shirt, was an alkidike. From behind she could have been anyone, but the closer Ai got the more her markings became visible. And when she made a half turn to speak with a hidden figure in the house Ai knew it was her.
"Iona." She snarled.
The alkidike in question turned around with a confused, possibly even quizzical turn until she saw Ai and her smile disintegrated. "Ai?" Her eyes flitted over to Lucijah and her confusion only seemed to mount. For a half second she even seemed to be comforted to see an earthling with her sister, until Ai started to draw her blade. "Wait, wait!"
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Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 9:59 am
[3/10] Ah... and so easily, their alliance fell apart. Lucijah felt a tug in her chest, one that made her feel equal parts desperate and angry, but she quelled it for the moment and instead breathed in deeply through her nose, following. If she'd somehow held hopes of stumbling across a war-minded Alkidike, they were shattered when she saw the domestic scene before her. That guilt only mounted when, instead of leaping to a ready defense, the woman startled upon Ai drawing her blades.
"You're not gonna end it that fast, are you?" Lucijah murmured, quiet enough she felt only Ai would hear, unless 'Iona' was listening very keenly. "Not even gonna say your piece?"
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scarlett arbuckle Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 2:13 pm
"Be quiet." Ai snarled, shifting her gaze from her sister to the shifter with a feral glare. What was it to Lucijah how she ended this? "I never planned on letting her go that easily. Just a little n** first-" She fully unsheathed a sword and leveled it toward Iona's knee. "-so you can't run away."
She would have to listen then. Especially once Ai cut out her tongue and prevented her from crying for help. She could gurgle as long as she wanted, but no one would come to her aid.
"I know how to get my point across without letting you die. You'll suffer; just as you should." Ai made to take a half step forward, but a sound from the doorway gave her pause. Ah, yes, she had been talking to someone, but who-
"Mommy? What's going on?" A little chubby figure stepped into the sun and rubbed the skin around her eyes. The child's hair was mussed from sleep, her dress slack on one shoulder, but her antennae were as straight as an arrow.
The sight only caused Ai to grip her swords tighter.
"Ai, please, your quarrel is with me, isn't it? Not her." Iona tried her best to take a half step toward her daughter, but was rightfully scared to move. Instead, she turned her fear stricken eyes to Lucijah, "Listen, I don't know who you are or what she's done to you, but I'm sorry. Please, if you just help us we can get out of this!"
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Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 2:32 pm
Ever since they met, and Ai told her about this goal of hers... Lucijah had been conflicted. And her growing feelings for her companion had only made it more difficult to make a choice. Lucijah... wasn't necessarily an honorable figure. When the war between her people and the Obans came, she'd eagerly lain with her enemy, content to play a game of 'prisoner' that, eventually, she realized she'd lost. She didn't think herself morally superior either, not like Ai seemed to think - she didn't care if they stole, but rather didn't want to handle with aftermath of getting caught.
Ai had admitted, easily enough, that hybrids were scum to her, but Lucijah had a hybrid brother - albeit one she barely knew, and hated for her own reasons, but not the ones Ai would probably assume.
If Ai was ready to slay Iona because she'd sided with her 'enemies' during the war, then really Lucijah had been no better. But ... for as 'strong' as Ai liked to claim Lucijah was, she really wasn't - because she had clung on to Ai almost as soon as they met, too afraid of being alone again to truly cross her.
The growing unease in her breast only told her what she'd pretended not to know - that deep down, she knew it would only take one wrong move, one wrong word for Ai to turn on her for good. She'd stayed in her good graces so far, but only by pure luck and stupidity that Ai interpreted as bravery.
And that unease turned to pure horror when a child stepped out, sleepy and growing more and more scared by the moment.
So. She could obey Ai's warnings, stand back and let her do what she would to this little family - at best, leave the child orphaned, at worst... erase them from the world completely. It meant Ai wouldn't cast her off today, but Lucijah would know that the strength Ai seemed to appreciate in her was fake, that she'd had the strength to defend them and had turned away for something was frivolous as affection.
... Or, she could...
Lucijah closed her eyes, brows furrowed for a moment, and it seemed for the moment, she was ignoring the alkidike's pleas. But then she breathed out deeply, and adjusted the bracers against her hands, stepping between Ai and the child, specifically.
"I brought you here for her. The kid isn't part of our deal."
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scarlett arbuckle Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 2:44 pm
Somewhere inside of her Ai had always known Lucijah was just like the rest of them.
So then, why did it surprise her so much that she would stand in the way?
Why did it feel like a betrayal? Why did it make her heart murmur and her rage burn that much hotter? Ai's eyes burned with the same aggression that colored the skin around her collarbone and cheeks. It wasn't just the fact that Lucijah had blocked her; it was the fact that she'd adjusted her bracers as well, a clear physical declaration of defiance. "I thought you were smarter than this. Clearly I was wrong."
Each word was barely syllables slung together and hissed through clenched teeth. She took full steps forward then until she was chest to chest with Lucijah, glowering down at the earthling just as she should have from the start.
"I'll break your spine and you won't move anymore, but you'll watch. You'll watch it all. I'll finish what I should have from the start."
"But you didn't." Even though Ai wasn't backing down from Lucijah she could see Iona moving in her peripheral closer to her daughter. "And...why is that? I've seen what you're capable of, what you've done...so why is she alive?"
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Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 3:02 pm
It hurt, to see Ai so... affected by it. Maybe, in a horrible way, she should have felt gratified, but how could she? There was no way Ai would forgive this, she'd made it clear enough in her threats. It felt... like an ending, and one that made her want to weep. How foolish was she, to think- but no.
She swallowed past the sudden knot in her throat, and though Ai advanced on her, towering over her in a way that was definitely intimidating, Lucijah forced herself not to strike at her, or push her back. It felt... impossible. How could she marry the two images together- Ai's back, moments before, blades drawn against a little one, and the image of her tenderly holding the earthling babe she'd found and rescued?
"Oh come on. You know I'm not smart." Lucijah responded with a weak grin, one that faltered after a moment when Iona spoke. "You're really not helping." She sighed, feeling the urge to pinch at the bridge of her nose. But she didn't - any motion, and Ai would pounce and cut her belly out as she'd threatened to for months now.
"Ai. You wanted to kill me from the moment we met. But something changed, somehow. Is... there really no way the same could happen here? With them? I know you feel she betrayed you, but maybe there's something ... you could learn from each other? Please."
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scarlett arbuckle Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 4:00 pm
"I hoped you were." It was a frank statement, but one that bore more hurt than Ai had ever expressed. How long had she been kept away from the world on that damn island, drowning away in a mire of shame? Surviving on pure spite alone when everyone in her world, both new and old, turned their backs on her? She'd thought...but that was the problem wasn't it. She'd thought instead of acted and was now suffering the consequences of that.
"I don't feel it; I know it!" As she spoke Ai's voice was raising until it was near a bellow with more force than anything a janarim could produce. "You weren't there! You don't know how she stood back and watched as an earthling mage burned our mother alive! Would that make a difference? Is she suddenly exempt because she tries to hide what she's done and I chose to face it?! What is there to learn from that?!"
Ai raised her blade and held the serrated edge to Lucijah's throat. "She's no better than I am and that thing is proof. If she had an ounce of love in her heart she would have smothered it in it's sleep."
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Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 4:26 pm
Another lash, and this one made Lucijah flinch openly, more than the actual blade leveled at her throat. And...yeah, she didn't know. All this time, she'd asked Ai what this woman had done to earn her spite, and Ai hadn't told her much - but she didn't have to, did she? It was her revenge to take, she didn't owe Lucijah an explanation.
The pain in Ai's voice was palpable, and Lucijah... couldn't imagine, seeing her mother go that way. For as much as Lucijah fought with her own mother, she tried to imagine her father turning his back the same way... and yeah. Yeah-- she could see why Ai called for Iona's blood.
It didn't make the taste of Ai, brutal as she was, tearing the woman to shreds any better. ... But. The hybrid - that was the crux of it.
She was a stain to Ai, something to be smothered - she'd said so herself, and even in her mercy to an earthling she'd kept hybrids as an exception.
... But... even if Lucijah had no stake in this kid's survival, no actual feeling as to whether or not hybrids should exist... even if she could somewhat sympathize with Ai's view that it was somehow polluting her mother goddess--
"Have her. I won't stop you. But I can't... let you take the kid." Goddess forgive her, for saying it so coldly in front of the woman and her daughter. Yet, even saying that, she didn't raise her gauntlets - how could she? She'd made the fatal mistake of letting Ai get too close with her blades (the ones she'd given her), and all it would take was a single motion to slit her throat, and it would be over. Her fists trembled against her sides, ready to at least get in a blow or two when it happened, but they both knew that even with the sharpened pieces on her gauntlets, it wouldn't be nearly enough to stop Ai.
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scarlett arbuckle Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 4:41 pm
"The last time I saw her was when my hands were tied behind my back and I was thrown into a boat. If she didn't care about blood then, why now? What does it matter? If she wants another that badly she'll find a way; maggots always do."
Ai pressed the blade against Lucijah's throat to the point a trickle of blood seeped out as a conflict played out in her head. She was being given free reign to do exactly what she'd come to do and yet...there was still so much more to do...
"You're willing to die for that?" She may have motioned with a sharp jerk of her head to the child now clinging helplessly to her mother, but Ai's dark, eternal gaze was locked onto Lucijah.
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Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 4:58 pm
Was that Ai's plan now? Kill the kid as punishment for her sister? Lucijah's lips trembled briefly when the blade pressed further, thinking for a horrible moment that Ai had already slipped the head from her shoulders, and the pain simply hadn't hit yet. Others might take some comfort in Ai's hesitation, but Lucijah didn't - she wasn't cocky enough to think the sentiment of their travels would afford her much more mercy than she'd already been given.
"...Yeah. Yeah- I am. Sorry." For some half-breed kid she didn't even know. "What can I say? Apparently I have a weakness for kids." She laughed, mirthlessly, and without even thinking she reached out - her hand just... resting against Ai's upper arm.
She lowered her tone, quietly. "For what it's worth, I liked traveling with you. Probably some of the best times I can remember... how messed up is that?" She breathed out, then slowly pulled her arms up, defensively - but with Ai so close, it almost felt like she was just... resting her forearms against her, a small barrier between them.
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scarlett arbuckle Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 5:23 pm
Ai reacted on instinct alone and smacked Lucijah's hand away. "You're just giving in?!" There was no logical reason for her heart to ache this much, but it did, all the same. In her own perverse way she'd assumed that Lucijah would at least stand by her. She never expected permission to do what needed to be done, but....Goddess, at least if they were screaming at each other she could understand.
But now Ai was confused, hurt, and the gaping hole inside of her continued to grow.
After a moment of chest heaving fury Ai lowered her blade and stepped back, almost as if the shifter herself were plague ridden. "...Take the child and leave. If I ever see you again after today you won't be shown the same mercy."
"M-m-mommy?" The little one clung tighter to her mother. Despite how utterly terrified Iona was she smoothed down the little one's hair with shaky hands and kissed her forehead.
"I-It's okay, you're gonna be fine..."
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