make me, break me

[Sanctuary]

Chapter One:

“I tell you this. I want it all to hurt.”
― Dante Alighieri, Inferno

“And this is the course that you are committed to?”

“I do not relish it…”

“But you will proceed just the same.”

“I will.”

“And you are willing to pay the price?”

“It isn’t as though I have any choice in the matter.”

“There are always choices.”

“Not this time there isn’t.”

“...Very well then. I will make the arrangements.”

“Thank you.”

“...Just…”

“Just what?”

“Just… make sure you are making the right choice.”

“As I said, there are no choices. There simply is the reality of my position and the reality of hers.”

[Strawberry]

Chapter Two:

“The path to paradise begins in hell.”
― Dante Alighieri

Endless indulgence, Paradise II in a nutshell. Anything a person could possibly want? It could and would be found onboard. Bottomless alcohol, enough food to feed several third world planets, every thinkable illicit substance and then some. Want company? Take your pick from an entire armada of companions. Sins of the flesh not do it for you? Check out the virtual reality holosuites, where every carnal possibility was at your fingertips and with no one but you any the wiser. Mainstream entertainment was in no short supply either, with the ship offering numerous casinos, theaters both movie and stage, dueling exhibitions, shops, restaurants, and even a track for racing of exotic creatures from far flung worlds and galaxies. All of it was packaged in blinding lights and flashy colors, a beautiful distraction from life's ails.

While Karma didn't quite need the whole shebang the massive cruiser provided, there was a subtle gratitude for the opportunity to get away from the mounting worry welling in her stomach every time she thought of what awaited back home. The assassin was, as always, the best of distractions. Her fiance, what a weird word that made her stomach do odd things. But not in a bad way which is what made all the difference.

Click-click.

As another day on the ship transitioned from day to night, as denoted by a shift the ambient lighting and a distant glow of orange if one peered out one of the many windows on the ship, the pair strolled along a busy corridor at an easy pace helped by the automated moving walkways underfoot. Talk of dinner constituted a wardrobe change, as had been the norm for the duration of their trip, a shift from daytime white to nighttime black (it was a thing, okay?) and it was back toward the suite that they were heading.

Click-click.

"Ooh, it looks like they're doing a comedy cabaret show later tonight. What the hell is comedy cabaret even?"

With the access that he had made sure they had, you would have thought that they owned the ship. But it wasn't quite that far.

He had made sure that there would be nothing denied her if she wanted it. As far as he was concerned, she was with him, and they were together. They could have been in the bowels of the ship, in a cabin that faced the engine room, and he would have been happy.

Besides, she deserved it all, and more. At least, that is how he saw things.

Click-click.

He blinked as she asked the question. "I'm going to guess it's where dancers can't get it right? Perhaps more slapstick." He shrugged.

She tipped a glance over the plane of her shoulder to survey the space behind them then looked back to him with a quiet laugh that she felt no need to stifle. High rollers were nothing new on a ship like this, but there were high rollers and then there was Caleb Feren and the extravagant experience he had set up. Most looks they got were those of envy or perhaps curiosity. Karma was no stranger to the feeling of eyes upon them so she shook the feeling and gave him a smile.

"I like that version much better than what I was thinking. I just figured it would be cabaret with jokes. But here's hoping we get a little slapstick too."

Turning a corner, they were ushered through a seemingly secure archway that led to the VIP suite sector and into an elevator that sent them up several stories. They were the only ones to exit the elevator on their floor, leaving just the two of them in a mostly empty hallway. She paused when they made it to the door. The biometric scanner would do all the work, giving her time to lean up and steal a kiss now that they were away from prying eyes. The door smoothly swung open, allowing them passage. She let herself get distracted with him for the few moments it took to step inside but the moment she did, she realized something was terribly wrong. The opulent suite had been turned nearly upside down, clothing and bedding and other belongings scattered about.

"...What the... fuck..." More appalled by the mess than the slight shimmer of air in the far corner of the room.

As soon as the door opened, he felt the difference in the air. There had been someone here, and someone that shouldn't have been. Of course, that was made evident to her as soon as she saw the tossed room.

Even here, he was never far from a blade. Yes, he was supposed to be on vacation, and yes, he shouldn't have to worry about things like this, but there were some teachings that were too ingrained, too rooted to the core. With the left hand, he wrapped her up and slid her behind him as he moved away from the door along the right wall, that arm staying back so that he knew where she was. That right hand slid back and pulled one of the sickles from along his back.

Keeping them there at the wall, he surveyed the entire room, passing over the entire room three times before he settled on that shimmering space, though he kept that periphery sharp.

"Housekeeping had a heyday." She muttered just as Caleb whirled her about to put her behind him. Even in heels, she couldn't quite see over his shoulder to see what had him on such high alert. Truthfully, she should have been herself, but there was something about the Paradise that had her letting her guard down. Maybe she thought they were untouchable here. Who ever thought of demonic entities in space, you know?

What she wasn't surprised about was the blade being freed from his back. It had assuredly been much to the chagrin of the security on the ship, but with how much money he had spent, they weren't exactly going to tell a high profile guest like that no. With his sickle free, she touched her fingertips to his back to let him know she was there nearby.

Click-click.

It was then that it registered, the soft sound that had seemed to follow them all day. Metallic, a soft tip-tap that seemed innocuous enough, but vaguely familiar. She shook her head and grasped at the back of his shirt to try and jerk him backwards but it wasn't quite enough. All at once, the shimmer became a solidified thing made of metal and claws, vaguely humanoid in shape but innately wrong. It had a humanoid head but no face, just a blank canvas where eyes and nose and a mouth should have been. The clicking seemed to be coming from that. Maybe? Karma couldn't be sure because she was trying to pull Caleb away from the beam of forceful energy that burst from the metallic creature's chest.

Upon seeing that faceless... face, he actually paused. Had one of Droods come after him? But no... there were differences to it and the ones that had no face.

That pause cost him, however, and even with Karma pulling, he wasn't quick enough. The beam slammed into him and he grunted with the force of it. Still, he kept himself off of Karma, refusing to be slammed back into her. Perhaps that caused a bit more damage as he pushed forward into that beam, but he'd be damned if he would let her be hurt.

Click-click.

As it phased into being, it moved toward them with an unnerving gait, as if it weren't built for this time, this space (both literally and metaphorically), the jerking motions of its limbs coming off less humanoid and more arachnid. Though it had no eyes, it seemed to be "looking" past Caleb to Karma, who refused to shrink. But with Caleb between her and it, she couldn't rightly go swinging at it, so rocked further up onto her toes to get a better line of sight on the thing. It had been invisible only moments before so with a murmur of a world, a burst of violet light filled the far side of the room, bathing the thing in fey flame. She followed with a single point of a finger over Caleb's shoulder at it for a quick burst of forceful energy much the same as had been thrown at the assassin. Unlike the faerie fire, the blast splashed against its metallic chest without so much as making it stumble.

"Retriever... watch its hands..."

Retriever... If Caleb wasn't focused before, he was now. No one would be coming to retrieve him. But Karma, that was a different story. That second blade came out and he darted in quickly. Both blades came around and he went to slicing at those hands. It couldn't take what it couldn't grab, so long as he could remove them.

The retriever let out a sound that could only be described as metal nails on a tin chalkboard. Quite the feat considering it didn't have a mouth and all. Caleb's blades bit into spindly hands and arms, rending metal but mostly irritating it more than anything. It countered by turning its focus back to the assassin to bring down both of its “arms” upon him, the metal shifting and twisting into blade like appendages. The first glanced off the backswing of his sickle but the second came down hard.

It gave Karma an opening though, and though she was worried about Caleb, she knew the faster they dispatched this thing and sent it back to whatever hell it had crawled out of, the sooner she could help him. The bolt that she fired off had about as much luck as the first she had sent, so she followed by reaching out to press a hand to Caleb's back before fading back three steps. The outline of her hand remained like a print, offering a little more resistance to whatever may come down on him next.

He didn't stop. As long as the.. whatever the hell it was was focused on him, it would bother with Karma. He didn't relent in his attack and continued the onslaught of blades, the speed of his attacks increasing.

In much the same mirror as when it had tried to attack him, just one of the two sickle-blows managed to connect solidly. Metal on metal screeched through the room and it let out another shrill yell. Unfortunately for them, the VIP suites were the closest you could get to sound proof in the entire ship. Pitfalls of paying for the best, it seemed. The center of its chest began to glow again but rather than the unadulterated force that had come forth from it before, this time, the echo of crackling electricity came with it, the paralyzing beam intent upon Caleb if only because he had been such an annoyance so far. At first, the insidious beam seemed like it might lock up the assassin's muscles but the print on his back seemed to spread like radiant warmth around him, pushing back against the paralytic until the beam abruptly bounced upward toward the ceiling to shower all three of them with debris.

"Leave. Him. Alone!" Karma shouted. The purple fey flame faded around them, leaving just vague glimmers of it as her concentration upon the spell faded. Instead, she drew a sigil in the air, her lips moving as quick as she could spit the incantation out. With it, a flurry of smaller blades formed, whirling around the retriever's head like a swarm of angry bees. It let out a series of metallic click-click-clicks and tried to swing at the blades to no avail. It gave Karma scant seconds to glance Caleb's way, gesturing to cast a sanctuary like spell to ward him. Not quite a bubble, but more like a thin sheen of mirror like energy around him. He would likely get mad at her for that one later, but hey, whatever.

That halo she cast around its head gave him just enough breathing room to go reckless.. that and her spell. As he felt it settle over him, he called back. "Get off the ground." Trusting her to understand, he threw the right blade up past the creature towards the in-room fire suppression system. With the same movement, he reached back and slid a third blade free. This one immediately started to crackle with electrical power.

When that thrown blade struck the suppression system, it started to send propellant downward to everything below it. With the crackling sickle, he swung around and slammed it into the creature and the suppressant.

To call it chaos would be too kind.

This was pandemonium. A swarm of blades, a shimmer of spellwork, flailing metal, and soon enough some surprisingly fresh suppressant falling from the sprinkler system. Something within the creature began to chatter, perhaps alarmed. It didn't even notice the way Karma climbed, heels and all, up onto a chair and then onto the counter where the mini-bar was. A thin layer of watery suppressant had begun to coat the floor and everything that had been tossed there. Lucky for her, it was mostly stuff she had already worn, but oh that was a mournful look at her poor clothes.

The storm sickle connected heartily, gouging a massive hole in the retriever's metal side to spill what looked like black viscous oil and something that smelled acrid like the void. The electricity ran through it, momentarily short circuiting the thing. It shuddered and made a pitiful sound but still stood tall over them both, even with Karma on the counter and the blades flying around its head, the latter of which were making such progress that it finally sagged like it was losing steam. Its chest flickered like it was readying another crackling beam but really it could only manage the earlier force beam. It looked as though it was going to fire it toward Caleb but as the beam burst forth, it caught the edge of the sanctuary spell and rebounded toward the original caster of the protective spell.

Karma let out a surprised yelp and tried to duck it. What she failed to account for was her higher ground and it caught her just as she ducked, knocking her backward and right off the bar to space behind it.

"...Ow." She groaned, grasping at the edge of the counter to pull herself up. That was going to leave a nice bruise but it also doubled her resolve when it came to ruining this thing even if had wrecked her concentration enough that the blades around its head had faded away. One and then two brilliant bolts of radiant energy came from her fingertips, the first narrowly glancing off the retriever. The second though, the second enveloped it in brilliance, sizzling like acid through parts of its metal carapace. Flipping her hair over her shoulder, she less than gracefully hopped over the counter, sliding across its top amidst shattered and spilled bottles of liquor (travesty!). She shook her hand out and called to her grasp a flaming blade that seemed unaffected by the falling suppressant. The dark look upon her face was a markedly un-Karma-like thing. "Ahem. You good babe?" She asked without looking Caleb's way.

He sent the sickle once more into the bowels of the creature, and instead of a clean swipe through, he stirred it like it was a large pot of gumbo. It wasn't until the insides actually looked like gumbo before he pulled that storm sickle out and gave it a quick fling of the wrist, sending anything still on it flying off.

He turned his attention then to Karma. "Next time, duck." There was a twist to his lips. He was the one who told her to climb to begin with. He slid the storm blade and off-hand sickle home, then went to retrieve the other one. Then he stood and offered his hand to Karma.

One more true strike by way of an already sundered torso made it all too easy for Caleb to twist its guts into something only remotely resembling its original machinations, an odd amalgamation of flesh and metal, the former corrupted and rotting, the latter still sizzling with errant wisps of radiant and lightning energy. It rocked and then toppled backwards beneath a rain of suppressant and the weight of a hefty glare from Karma. As Caleb gathered his blades, she took the opportunity to add a little more insult to injury (and to take out some of her frustration upon it) by wielding the flaming blade and driving it down over and over and over again into its torso, singing and searing the underlying flesh within the construct until smelled like cooked (disgusting) meat. As she stabbed in one more time, she let go of the blade to leave it there for as long as it took for the focused spell to fade, leaving only curling wisps behind.

For good measure, she kicked it before huffing and turning to look to Caleb, her hand slipping into his. "I think next time I need to jump, ducked my ass right into it." Her gaze swept over him to see how he fared. "Are you hurt?"

"Nothing some stitches won't fix. We can take care of that later. Come on. Lets get cleaned up." He was still holding that blade in his right hand, leaving his left free for her to take.

When they approached the door, it opened seamlessly to find the Captain himself on the other side. The look on the Captain's face was first concern, thinking that there was a fire in the room. Then worry, seeing that he still had his blade out. Those eyes were only partially steel grey, but his voice was all business.

"Captain, you have an infestation problem. I expect it to be fixed. And a new room. And new clothes, liquor, food, and whatever else we decide on when we decide on it."

He pushed past the Captain, and the incoming crew, giving none of them a second glance.

"So, what do you want to do for dinner?" Giving a glance to Karma, that grin cutting towards her.

The room looked like a tornado, hurricane, earthquake, and wildfire had all hit the room at once. There was broken glass and furniture, singed and smoldering cloth, and an ever growing layer of suppressant foam and water growing around their ankles. It left a nice blanket over the retriever which had gone rather still thankfully. Briefly, Karma had the sense to look guilty and then worried they would be in trouble when they found the Captain on the other side.

"Shit." She swore under her breath, winding her arm around Caleb's like he was her savior. Well, in a sense he was. There was no way she could have handled that thing on her own. But she followed along with him as he asserted himself to the Captain of all people, stepping out into the corridor with him to add her own two bits. "Watch the sharp bits, you don't wanna get tetanus."

They stared after them like they were insane but soon after entered the room cautiously to see just what the fuss was about. With her free hand, Karma rubbed her face and sighed. They were both a bit of a mess and let it be known that white clothes do not hold up well in a fight like that. A glance down at herself then up at him. "That was probably my fill of excitement for the day. Let's find one of the little cozy cafe restaurants and hide there for a bit til we get a new room, eh?"

"As you wish." He leaned over, and set a kiss to her as they kept walking.

And many an eyes stared as he kissed her while still carrying a blade, as they walked down the hall towards the main thorough-faire.

Were they staring at the kissing or the blade or the overall mess that they were? Probably all of it. What could she say, they were hot.

As they walked, she tried not to think too hard about it... but eventually she spoke quietly but clearly. "I'm going to have to address that when we get home."

"As will I." It was simple. Someone had threatened her. He didn't give a rats ass who it was.

The further they got from the room, the more she relaxed. Well at least as much as one could after getting attacked by a construct meant to retrieve something or someone, that is. She was quiet for a few minutes as they walked before offering out. "How do you feel about time paradoxes?"

"If you're talking about the fact that you are from a different time than the one here... makes no damn difference to me. I love you and that's all that matters." He answered without thought. It was also perhaps the first time he showed his hand that he had done some research. Of course he had. He was building a fortress and wanted to know what he was defending against.

"If you're talking about anything else. I'm not smart enough to be able to talk quantum physics. I've dealt with them before in the Long Night, and what they can spit out."

"No, I already decided a long time ago that that first part didn't matter... so many people in Rhy'Din fuck with time that anyone who tries to preach about it is a goddamned hypocrite." She shook her head, teeth worrying at her bottom lip. "There have been six pivotal moments since I came here that have resulted in alterations to my timeline. Where mine originally aligned with this one... it no longer does. Every time she tries to interfere only runs the risk of deviating it further. Which... I'm not opposed to..."

There was a but. Of course there always was. "But if it comes down to it, it may mean going there. Which... I have no problem doing... but I wasn't sure how you would feel about it, all things considered."

He stopped suddenly, and the hand that held her spun her so that she was facing him. He finally slid the blade home and only then did he reach out to take hold of her other hand. "You already know the answer to that."

She spun and let out a laugh just because the sudden motion caught her off guard. When she came to a stop, she did so looking up at him, hot messes that they were. His words should have been a reassurance but there was a vulnerable hesitation in the way her breath caught in her chest. "I... I know. I know! But... hear me out... this isn't some... trip through a portal to take the quick way home. It's not even the Way that Angela opened to the Void when you came to find me. I am quite literally made of magic and when I do it, it makes me throw up. It's... not something to take lightly."

"Then I'll make sure not to eat before we go." He stepped in closer to her. Be damned that he was a mess, or she was. What mattered was that she was there to him. "It doesn't matter one lick where I have to go for you. I will go."

"I'm torn between knowing that I'm safer with you near me... and knowing I can't think straight if I know you could get hurt." She admitted, almost sheepishly. He always stayed so calm and collected even in the face of the worst beasties and she, well, she had a temper that was nowhere near controlled. "If something happens to you, I will quite honestly loose my shit. So... just... promise me nothing is gonna happen, okay?"

He leaned his head against hers, and the smile that tugged there was a gentle one. Something that wasn't seen on him much out in public. "I cannot promise that nothing is going to happen. It quite likely will. However, I can promise that it will take more than Hell to stop me from being with you. I will always be there. I will always be your shield. I will always be with you."

"Okay, well," she looked like she wanted to argue. In truth, she did. Their little slice of paradise, so to speak, had been woefully interrupted by her baggage and it wasn't likely to be the last time that happened. It was selfish to hold on to him when doing so put him at such risk but she had never really been known as the selfless type. So maybe just maybe she could get away with it a bit longer. "Well no getting hurt then. And at least be a little quicker on your feet so you don't get force-blasted into oblivion right in front of me, okay?"

Maybe if she teased him, it would cover how much she worried.

He leaned in and kissed her. He didn't bother with words, for he knew where she was coming from. The most he could do was be here, with her. And let her be selfish. Because as long as he could help it, and even if he couldn't, he would always be there with her. He, too, was selfish.

As he kissed her, her hand found his, intentionally curling her pinky around his. A promise whether he liked it or not. There was a reckoning on the horizon and she would be damned if those responsible went unpunished. For all that he asserted his place as her shield, those that had the audacity to test said shield would come to regret it if she had her way.

But now, here. This place. Him. Amorous exchanges in public locales were commonplace on a ship like this, people barely even batted an eye. When at last the moment broke, she curled her hand into his and turned to fall back in at his side. "Not going to think about it til we get home then. Not going to let them ruin this for us. Right?"

“Who? The ones who got us an upgrade in rooms and everything free from now on?” He grinned. “I’ve no idea who you’re talking about.”

"...Touche. Think that card will work in the casino? We'd make out like bandits..."

“I’m sure we’ve got some credit there.” He smiled that rare smile. But this one has more of a bite to it. Woe be the one who told him otherwise.

"Just remember, the house always wins." She would never believe such a thing about him. He was a teddy bear after all and hadn't just eviscerated a hellish metal construct or any nonsense like that. Nope. Total bear. A ride down the elevator took them back to the main thoroughfare with its bright lights and quick moving walkways and though they garnered a few scrutinizing looks, she was ever the picture of blissful composure, more often than not touching him in some way or another. To most it would look like any other couple but for her, it was security. The quiet cafe they eventually settled in made for a solid base to recenter, eat, drink, and do exactly as Karma had said; she wasn't going to let anyone ruin this. Not for him, not after all he had done.

[Strawberry]

Chapter Three:

“Remember tonight... for it is the beginning of always”
― Dante Alighieri

Time to wake up, Kitten.

But Mama, I don't wanna... it hurts...

Now, now, stop resisting and get up.

No...

What did I tell you about telling me no?

I said no!

Resistance.

A common thread in a life long lived with a mother too intent on control. From the moment she was made and handed like a spiteful judgement down to her mother and in every moment since. But you can't exactly be a child of hers without learning a few tricks and thus Karma's mind had become an iron clad thing. Resistance, because fuck bending to another's will.

The dojo at the ranch would have been a suiting place to call the assassin to, but it felt too deeply entrenched in the physical arts they so often studied. Which, honestly, wasn't even an innuendo. So instead, a note was left for her fiance, requesting he make the trek to a stone tower at the base of a lonely mountain just after sunset. Once upon a time, it had been a watchpost, but the duchy over which it stood sentinel was long since lost to time and now it had been redecorated in rich jewel tones, plush furniture, and plenty of space in which to create. Tonight would be less about creation though, as evidenced by the way all of her art supplies had been moved to the outer edge of the topmost room, leaving the center open save for a black sigil painted onto the stone floor.

He moved into the dojo for his evening workout.

The ranch house was quiet, at least now that the construction had finished. With all that had been done to the proximity, as well as the wards on the house itself... it would take Heaven and Hell both to penetrate the defenses, and even then, they would give it a hard second thought.

He caught sight of the note as he stepped in and took it up. A glance over it had a crease to his brow. He wasn't sure what he could do with her art, so he wasn't sure what she would want him there for. But she was the artist, so perhaps he could do something. Throw paint-filled balloons in a strategic manner or something.

Turning, he slipped out of the dojo via the side garden there, and made his way through the property until he came upon the river that cut through and would lead to the tower.

With the sun setting, this far from the ranch house, it was near dark. The tower was too, save for the pale glow of a solar powered light near the door and then higher up in the tower, the flicker of what seemed to be candle light judging by the dancing of the orange tint in the upper window. It proved to be just that, a dozen candles set at random intervals around the circular room, melted to varying lengths that seemed to hold no rhyme or reason. Briefly, the window darkened with the shape of a familiar silhouette and if he could see in the dwindling light, she was giving him an anxious but soft smile.

When at last he got close, she called out from the window, "Door's unlocked. Come on up?"

He stood there a moment, looking up to her at the window. Shakespeare briefly entered his mind, but he didn't voice the words. Instead, he kept moving, until he reached the door and pushed it open. It was but a brief glance around before he was climbing the narrow tone stairs that encircled the outer wall until he reached the top.

He didn't voice a question, the glance he cast around had him taking in all that was there, and it was obvious he was trying to put a few things together.

The damsel in the tower, the Capulet on the balcony, so many metaphors to be found in the dying of the day. But she vacated the window's frame as soon as he went for the door and just as she said, it was unlocked. The lower levels of the tower were dark and truthfully not often used save for storage or snacks. The top most floor though, that was where all the action was. The door at the top of the steps was also open, welcoming him with the same orange candlelight glow that had served as a beacon in the window.

Karma stood in the midst of it all, a hand on her hip, her bare feet set to either side of the painted sigil on the floor. Everything else was moved out of the way, almost haphazardly. She crossed the distance between them when he at last arrived, greeting him with a kiss before walking backwards three steps to fix him with that same tentative smile.

"So you found my note." Her smile grew by degrees, mostly a distraction while she figured out just how to frame things. "Glad you came though. I was hoping maybe I might be able to steal you for some training stuff."

He returned the kiss and watched as she slid backwards. He watched as she moved, swayed.. watched as that smile grew and he listened to the beauty that was her voice.

Distraction. She's distracting you. Look around, you fucking moron. The voice of his training screamed in his head.

I know. I'm enjoying it. Shut up, let her distract me. It was a futile argument. She held sway when it came to him, but his training was too ingrained into who he was. He looked around again and then looked up as his brain caught on the last three words.

"Some training stuff..." It wasn't so much a question as a statement that bared explanation. He had an idea, and he, oddly, found himself enjoying the idea. She would be there, after all.

To her credit, there seemed to be no overt threats within the tower itself. The candlelight was soft and pleasant, almost romantic even, and other than the space made in the center of the room, really nothing was out of place. A half finished painting set upon an easel, half turned toward them, half away. A cart of brushes and paints and unconventional tools was shoved off to the side. The windows were open and unblocked, letting a balmy summer breeze waft through gauzy curtains put up mostly just to filter the day's light while she worked. Above them, the pitched roof tapered off to a peak, a frayed rope hanging from a trap door on one side to allow access onto the roof itself. That was closed though, untouched it seemed.

She turned her hands palm up toward him in offering to take them with his own. "Excellent, c'mere?"

He lifted those hands and set them gently into hers as he took a step forward.

She hummed quietly as he took her hands and stepped closer. It put him directly over the sigil she had painted upon the floor but didn't seem to overtly react when he came near. Her teeth raked her bottom lip as she peered up at him, candlelight flickering across her features. Even in the dim light, her eyes were exceptionally bright, a miasma of what most would have assumed to be hellish energy. She took a breath, then exhaled.

"I want to try something." She began. "But I'm not sure how good I'll be at it. Normally I've always been on the receiving end so it'll be... mmm, different to be on the other side."

Which... out of context sounded really inappropriate until she clarified. "After everything that happened on vacation, I just wanna make sure that we're prepared for anything that might be thrown our way. Will you follow my lead on it?"

He almost made a comment, but her clarification sobered that up quickly. However, that half-smile still remained as his eyes stayed on hers, watching the fire that danced within them. "What do we have in mind?" While not a direct answer, it did convey that he had already committed to what she had in mind.

"Our duel the other night. You did really well with it but there were a few times that if I had wanted to... I think I could have really got my claws into you mentally." She said softly, as serious as a heart attack. "You are... in peak physical condition, you're quick, agile, and have an uncanny knack for predicting what may come your way in a fight. A lot of the latter comes from how sharp your mind is. So... if someone wanted to put the kibosh on that, what do you think would be the quickest way to do so without engaging you physically?"

He didn't answer immediately. Though his eyes stayed locked to hers, they lost focus as he thought about the question. He had the kibosh put on him when she was taken, and he had worked hard (perhaps harder than he needed to) to make sure he didn't lose focus again. But the question was still there... and he didn't like the answer.

"Truthfully, taking you."

"Maybe. But you have a way to find me now," she countered, her right hand squeezing his left for emphasis. "It might not be something you have considered, or if it has, maybe it hasn't seemed like a big deal. But me? Almost everything I know... the endless amounts of history and art and literature and languages... all of that was put into my head. Most of it against my will."

She gave him just a moment before letting the other shoe drop. "And all of it by her."

Know your target. Get to know their patterns, their habits, their ways. Don't go after where they are weak, because they will be protected and watched. Go after their normal... their everyday.

He stood there a moment more, quiet as he watched her. He wasn't sure anymore where this was going, but the line of thought shifted. But still, he was quiet as he listened to her, learned from her.

Not as though she knew what he was thinking, she still seemed to sense some quiet contemplation on his part. So rather than dance around the subject, she spoke plainly.

"She knows better than to try it with me. But you? If she wants another way to hurt you that isn't me, all she has to do is get into your head."

His gaze sharpened then and came back into focus on her. He wanted to quip about how it was already a mess in there. That it was crowded. That she might leave crying. But she was right. No matter what had happened over the years to him, he had never had to worry about his mind being something he had to watch out for. Sure, pure stubbornness might save him from some of it... but that only went so far.

"What do you need me to do?"

"I swore once upon a time that I would never do such a thing without someone's express consent. Getting into someone's head otherwise is..." She grasped for the word before finding it. "Violating."

"So, what I need is your permission to try. And in turn, I'll show you how to combat it."

So it was training after all, just a more mental sort.

His hands squeezed hers gently, and there was softness that touched the edge of his eyes. "You have my permission, but I feel I must warn you. What you find... what you see.. it may not.." He trailed off, shaking his yes. "You may not like it."

"We'll start with good things. The concepts for shielding the good translate one-to-one for shielding the bad."

She knew her own mind was a mess, she would never fault him for his own. "If I can help it, we won't delve too far into the dark. And no matter what, I love you and I'm not going anywhere. I promise, okay?"

He gave a soft chuckle. It wasn't meant to sound dark, but there was still an edge to it. "Until you, there was little good. The dark is always there."

"Alright, settle down before you cut someone on all that edge." She teased him lightly. But after a moment, she sank into a cross legged sit on the floor, her hands pulling him to get him to join her there. "But surely there is some good thing in your head. So I want you to focus on that. Preferably something not involving me because it'll always be easier for me to find those. Instead... focus on a moment you hold dear, don't tell me what it is, but get a clear picture of it in your head. Tell me when you've got it."

He followed her down and settled in next to her. He listened to her words and tried to let himself relax his mind to something that wasn’t her. Something that was happy, but wasn’t her.

There was a long… long pause. Then he found something. It had been a long time ago, but there it was. Almost 30 years ago. It was after a four hour marathon of hell, but he had earned his first black belt. He had been so proud of that moment. He went through the entire four hours again in his mind, feeling every high and low, and in the end… that was something no one could take away from him.

He nodded as he set the memory in place.

As she had told him before, she was used to be on the defending side of this rather than the one trying to get into someone's head. So it was with that knowledge that she fixed her gaze on his, waiting for him to summon up whatever dear memory he had. Her hands relaxed around his, her shoulders sinking with her next exhale as he nodded.

Here goes nothing.

First came the static, the everpresent buzz of a person's general consciousness. Most people operated on roughly the same wavelength which made for a vague hum that resonated from humanity as a whole. Then came the resistance of a less than pliable mind. Tapping into someone's psyche had a number of factors to account for and Will was the most prominent. Few people were as Willful as Caleb. Still, she sought the vulnerabilities in his countenance just as she had during their duel. Where were the ways in?

It felt like it took an eternity, all the while staring into his eyes, unblinking. But at last... aha. Like watercolors on a canvas, the image filled her mind like a looping reel of aged film. Her head tilted a little and she smiled in spite of the seriousness of what they were doing.

"You know... you never told me you were a black belt. Do they really make you go through all of that for it?"

“It depends on who’s training you. My instructor was intent on making me… well, I’m not sure what he was intent on, but he was paid well to push me to the limits. I don’t think there were many others who had to go through all that.. especially having to fight thirty black belts at the end of the night.” His eyes focused a little on her, though his mind drifted to first the five mile run, then the thousand pushes and sit ups. Then the test that started, going through all the katas, the one-steps, the various board and brick breaks.. then finally the round after round after round of fighting, that just didn’t seem to end.

He drifted and she moved with it, her gaze unfocusing as her mind slid with his through each step of the process. It made her head hurt but if she could stick with it, maybe she could find where best to shore up his defenses. The sigil beneath them would at least help her in that, amplifying her natural and practiced abilities alike.

"That's... brutal." She admitted, though distantly. Rather she was trying to see just what she could do. When at last it clicked though, the faces of those in the memory began to distort becoming blank, faceless beings. "This should feel like a nagging feeling at the edge of your consciousness... like you're aware that something is there in the periphery of your vision, but every time you look at it directly, it's gone.... Do you feel it?"

For a moment, he didn’t. Then things started to shift in his mind. His mind locked down and started to focus harder. Those nuances that were different.. wrong. Here came that stubbornness as he drew on that mental training, working to recall that night, in minute detail.

"Ah." She exhaled the word when she felt him push back on it. "Don't buckle down... the first instinct is to hold on to it as tightly as possible, to cement it..."

Karma pushed harder, warping the memory to something else entirely. Nothing negative, but nothing specific to a moment he held so close. A vague, mundane, everyday sort of moment where rather than fight each of those more experienced fighters, he was going down a line shaking their hand before sitting down around a big table to do tea.

"What you need to do is focus on that feeling, that pulling feeling in your head... push against it. Don't reinforce the memory, shield it, they can't fuck with what they can't see..."

Shield it He wasn’t sure what she was asking. All he knew when it came to shielding was to throw himself in front of the danger and deal with it. But he wasn’t sure that would work here. However, there was someone who knew. “How?” The question would only be allowed once. After that,.. there would be pain.

"You've meditated before, right?" She was looking at him, well, sort of. More accurately, she was looking through him, focused on his voice and the image in his mind. "It's easiest to defend against when you're actively focusing on something like you are. You just... well, the best thing that worked for me was envisioning a dark room. I put the memory or the moment into the dark room where it can't be seen or touched. I close the room... I lock the door. Like... a... step by step fortification, only it's something you envision instead. Harder will be when someone picks at things you aren't actively focusing on..."

That she did just then, plucking at a recent memory of the pair of them at Seaside Beach, sparking a brief flash in his mind before letting it go. "Those you have to be a little more vigilant for... you have to recognize that pulling feeling as soon as it first starts to tickle your consciousness and then you close the door on it."

He listened to her instructions. Meditation.. shut it out…. He thought about that a long moment, then he let it all go. Thoughts, emotions, memories…everything. He shut them all off, falling into a business mindset. There was nothing there. You couldn’t feel when the job called. Assassins who felt didn’t last. So, he went cold.

That was a vaguely unsettling feeling that she wasn't quite used to.

She faltered briefly and in turn, the pressure upon his psyche likely lessened immensely. But only for a moment. She sucked in a quiet breath and held it, reforging her connection with him by searching his mind for any signs of tenable ways in.

"A bit like Jedi training... I like to think..." She said softly, her voice a whisper. Within his hands, her fingers twitched, a physical tell of the coordination it took for her to even get this far into his head.

"That was good though..." Still whispering, he would need to really listen to even hear the quiet words. Easing some of the pressure, or so it seemed, it was as though the exercise was coming to a close. "How's it feeling?"

He didn’t let go of the cold that enveloped his mind, even as he felt the pressure slowly easing. “It is different.’ His voice was even, flat. “I’m not use to having to shut down that quickly.”

"But you did... which is good..." Her voice was still incredibly quiet. She almost sounded distracted still, which was likely the only tell that he would get before the sudden resurgence of pressure assailing his mind. Unlike before, she was not gentle in the way she shoved hard against his defenses, seeking to snap up brief flickers and flashes of any errant strands that she could get her metaphysical fingers on. They weren't manipulated but they were assuredly brought to the forefront of both of their minds in acute clarity. Most were good, ones that she had experienced herself if only because they were the easiest to find beneath layers of defense. Others were less fun, distant past moments seldom thought about. She wasn't dedicating any of them to her memory or even really paying attention to what they were, too busy focusing the entirety of her energy into prying them into consciousness just to force him into a position of needing to push back against her.

He grunted as if he was gut-punched when the onslaught came. But she had told him what to do. Asking again, or failing to do it… Well, that was one of the memories that bubbled up. A bat came swinging down and slammed into his back as he failed to break it with a kick. A thrown bowl of something foul smelling and likely poisonous came flying towards his head. A broken arm..

He slowly felt it and realizing what was going on, he shut it down. The past made him, but it didn’t define him. He used those lessons, used those failures and became more.

Karma wasn't quite sure how her mother managed this. It made her own head hurt like someone had taken a pickaxe to it. But for him, she had to keep pushing, even if it hurt. Because whatever her mother would throw at them would be infinitely worse. Her lashes fluttered as the worst of it flickered through her mind, all he had been through, the things that had shaped him. Her fingers twitched, curling against his until her neatly manicured nails threatened to leave crescent indentations upon his skin.

"You're almost there... just keep going..." She nodded her encouragement, ignoring the warm trickle of red tickling one of her nostrils. "All of it. You gotta be able to shut all of it out."

He felt her hands claw into his and he wrapped his hands around her. Physical pain was nothing to him. He had been through it all, and grown from it. He would give his strength to her, no matter the damage it might cause him. He would always keep her safe.

Perhaps he caught the whiff of blood, unbeknownst to him, for the next image that bubbled up was a red one. He couldn’t see anything but red, for the blood that poured out of multiple cuts that were being delivered to his face. His hand was up and was protecting his eyes from the onslaught, but that was about all it was doing… saving his vision. He stood there as the rain of blows continued from the old man. That was his lesson…. To protect the vulnerable area’s of the face. Everything else could be stitched up, but you couldn’t replace an eye. So, he stood there, a single arm up as it kept the flying metal from slicing into his eyes.

One thing was different with this memory, though. He seemed to embrace it, infusing it with his Will. Protect what is vulnerable. Protect. I will protect her, and I don’t give a damn what happens to me.

"Okay... enough..." She said weakly and just like that, it all... stopped. The pressure, the unwanted memories, all of it. Gone. She broke eye contact and let out a shuddering exhale, shaking her head.

To his credit, he had warned her. To her lacking credit, she hadn't listened.

Her mother made it look so easy. Bowing her head, she raised a hand to wipe her nose with the back of her hand. Her gaze lifted to seek his out, looking him over with intense scrutiny. "Are you.... are you okay?"

It took a few moments for his eyes to focus again. He was reliving those memories, even though she had stopped. But he was reliving them now for a different reason. He was changing their meaning. Yes, the root was still there, but a new branch grew.

As she spoke, he snapped his attention to her. The frown that came wasn’t for what was going on within his own head, but what he saw coming out of hers. He lifted the hand she released and set a gentle hand against her cheek, using a thumb to help wipe what she left behind.

“The better question is, are you?”

She mimicked the gesture, only she set both of her hands to either side of his face. While she had some inkling of things he had gone through, she had never overtly considered just how intense it would be to see it all through his eyes. It took her a moment to find her words so she settled for a bobbling head nod at first.

"We'll... we'll need to practice again but... you... yeah... you can do this... what you managed took me... honestly, years to figure out. But I'm not going to let her get a chance to do that to you. I promise..."

He leaned in and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her. He wasn’t sure if he was comforting her, or if he was using her for comfort, knowing that she was there. But either way, he held her close. “I wouldn’t be here if I failed a lesson. And the punishment was often worse than that lesson.”

She set her forehead to his shoulder, tucking her elbows so that he could wrap his arms around her but she could keep her hands touching his face. A shuddering exhale answered his words. "Fire tempers gold." She said softly. "But Caleb... I'm never going to let anyone hurt you like that. Ever. Never."

“They already have. And that is what made me who I am. Who you love. If I have to relive those lessons, I will do so, willingly.” He leaned back just enough to set a kiss to the top of her head, then he lifted her chin so that he could look into those eyes he so often fell into. “I love you. And I’ll be damned if anything will get to you again. I’m not saying I’m all knowing or all powerful. I’m not that conceited, and I’m not that stupid. I know I’m just a man. I know there are things which I can’t deal with. However, I know who I am, which not everyone can say. I know my abilities and my limits. I know that I have much to learn when it comes to.. this.” He smiled gently, lowering his head a little. “But what I also know is that there is nothing that we can’t face, together, and overcome.”

"We are each an amalgamation of the things we've seen and of all the ways in which we respond to those events." She said softly, repeating something once told to her. When he lifted her gaze, it left him with a wet shoulder and a wide eyed Karma looking back at him. "We can. We will. I know it... you're... you're a force... you can do quite literally anything. I love you for that and so much more. But I mean it when I say if anyone ever tries to do anything to you, I will kill them. I swear it."

Odd words for a once self-proclaimed pacifist but the steady tone and the lock of her eyes on his said she was dead serious. After a moment, she shook her head. "I don't think I can manage anymore tonight... but soon. Soon we'll try that again until it's like second nature." She looked him over. "How's your head feel?"

That smile grew a little and the tension around him continued to bleed out. He leaned in and kissed the wetness off the side of her cheeks. “Nothing a night with you won’t fix.”

"And maybe some ice cream." She added, leaning in to meet him. "I can clean all of this up tomorrow."

“Ice cream…. I’m second to ice cream.” He was teasing her. “I bet you have ice cream here, don’t you?”

"Maybe third. Bandit might be second." She countered, slipping her hands into his with a shake of his head. "No... back at the house though."

He stood then, still holding her hand and pulled her up. “Then lets get you to number one and number two so that number three can have his turn.”

"...Out of context that sounds really bad." She chuckled softly, not quite to the point of laughing yet. But close. It was a start. Once on her feet, she scuffed a foot through the paint on the floor, scraping away part of the sigil to break it. "Quick way or scenic way?"

“Scenic. The moon promised to be hiding just enough that the stars are taking the stage tonight.”

"I was hoping you'd say that." The candles snuffed themselves, leaving them a dark tower from which to depart, lit only by the fading lamp outside and the distant twinkle of the stars.

[Sanctuary]

Chapter Four:

“The devil is not as black as he is painted.”
― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy

“Surely there’s something I can do. I’m nothing if not open to negotiations.”

“I think we both know that you have exhausted your bargaining chips here, my lady.”

“That’s never stopped me before.”

“And that is precisely why you are where you are now.”

“I don’t think you underst--”

“No, my dear, I think it is you who doesn’t understand. Long, long ago when you first requested leave to look after this… mortal woman, I granted your whims because you swore that you weren’t trying to save her like you did the wizard magician or the orphaned boy.”

“I…”

“You swore. On your Name, mind you.”

“Things change, my lord.”

“That they do. But what doesn’t change is that you are my most prized possession as well as my most costly. So you say you wish to bargain, what have you left to bargain with?”

“I…”

“Your offspring?”

“No…”

“Those are my terms.”

“They’re just children…”

“Then I will offer you a kindness and make you pick but one.”

One she had no right to gamble with. The other was the only piece of her that she shared with her wife. That left…

“Karma.”

“The abomination.”

“She’s not an abomination.”

“Call her whatever helps you sleep at night, the girl’s existence goes against… well, everything. And not just here.”

“Just… what are you going to do to her.”

“I’ve not yet decided. Her time will come. Eventually. And when it does, she will be mine to do with as I please. Understood?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Her souldebt in exchange for relief of your wife’s suffering. We have struck a bargain?”

“A bargain is struck on Name and Power.”

“So it is. So it will be. I will see you again soon.”

“I look forward to it.”

And then she was alone.

Alone to consider all the ways she had to prepare her daughter for what was to come.

All the ways to fight it.

Though they had years, it would never likely be enough.

“I’m so sorry, Kitten.”

[Sanctuary]

Chapter Five:

“I love to doubt as well as know.”
― Dante Alighieri

"I'm gonna go for a swim. You wanna go or you wanna hang here?" She looked back up to Caleb.

He turned his gaze to her, and lifted a brow. It was a silent question.

She shrugged lightly, no preference.

Caleb thought about it a moment, then nodded. Her words last night had him more on edge (if that was possible) and he wasn't going to let her go alone.

Yuzuki too raised a hand to give a parting v for victory to Xander. Then she leaned over a bit to surreptitiously ask Ettyn. "What's a registrar?"

"A man at a desk who won't bother me again if he knows what's good for him," Ettyn rumbled her explanation to Yuzuki. Her gaze drifted over to Karma and Caleb, watching them curiously -- her concern was clear enough.

Fae watched as he picked his direction. "He seemed nice. But that isn't the way back to town is it." Idly said. Like he might be lost.

A shift Ettyn made had Anya opening an eye to look at Karma as well, then a check on Caleb. "No it is not," she agreed with Fae.

Conversely, Karma didn't seem all too concerned. They were surrounded by enough solid company that she didn't really worry. She gave him a smile and held a hand up to him so he could help her to her feet. "Water might be cold." She told him, shimmying out of the strappy dress. Underneath, she wore a nondescript black two piece.

Yuzuki chuckled as she heard Ettyn's explanation of what a registrar was. She settled back and rested her elbow on the back of the cushion, beach sandals flopping a bit from her dangling feet.

Karma flashed a little smile to Ettyn and Anya, feeling their gaze cast that way.

"He had a nice face too." Like picking the wrong direction had doomed him somewhat. Fae’s coffee was being finished with a slurp of sound. Sorry, she had used all her manners up for the moment.

"--Maybe not as good a read on him as I thought," the slayer rumbled, and the noise turned to a frustrated sigh. "...Fuck, I don't know. Could want anything."

"He did have a nice face." Karma confirmed. "So I don't trust him."

That made sense, right?

Fae flopped over onto her back to smile at Karma. "Exactly!"

"All right. I'll go." Anya pulled her feet back from Ettyn's lap. With one last gulp she finished her coffee. It took a moment for her to swing her feet out of the cabana. There was a protest flail in there at one point.

"I can do it if you want. You seem super comfy...or did.." Fae offered. Too late. Anya was moving.

Puzzling over that cheered Ettyn, and humorously, she offered to Karma, "You've got a nice face. And well know you're trouble." She looked between Anya and Fae at that.

When her feet hit the sand Anya stood up. "I'll be right back." She disappeared from where she was standing.

Ettyn’s comment prompted a brilliant grin and a sudden laugh from Karma. "Exactly!"

"Nice face, trouble." Karma pointed at herself. "Nice face, trouble." A point at Fae. "Nice face, trouble." A point after Anya. "Nice face, trouble." Yuzuki was next. "And nice face, big trouble." Two points at Ettyn.

"Nice face, super trouble." That for Caleb.

Since she had seen Anya at work, the imp wasn't at all worried. The lass had skills! So Fae rolled back onto her tummy. At least she was dry now. Low rumble of laughter. She wasn't even gonna bother to deny that Karma had it right.

"Big trouble," she rumbled, grinning slowly. Ettyn seemed to like that nickname. And as if to make that point (ha), she simply moved her hand through her own shadow in a strange way, and Dawn's Strife was there. She balanced the wailing blade in her lap. If she had to be dropped through a gate, then she'd be ready to kill in an instant. Her eyelids drifted down, eyes nearly shut, and she focused.

With a little grin for Caleb, Karma gave him a pat on the backside and set off at a jog for the water.

Yuzuki hummed thoughtfully, giving it the due consideration as she got up. "Have a good rest of the day you all!" she wished, tossing the paper boats that her breakfast had been delivered in into the bin.

Pulling out any weapon was going to gain Fae’s attention. Doing it via some sort of magic or power. Was going to gain it fully. Eyed the sword. Then was smiling up at Yuzuki. "Merry travels!"

There was a flicker of Ettyn’s gaze, and a rumble after Yuzuki, but no break in her focus. Just in case.

Fae, meanwhile, had plenty of opportunity to inspect the weapon in question. It had a golden hilt, like sunlight, but with several black streaks around it; and the blade itself was wreathed in little flickers and flares of both light and shadow; and just the act of being out meant that the steel wailed mournfully, albeit quietly, like a whisper.

It was a pretty immaculately made blade, if Karma said so herself.

Just saying.

It was! Both strongly enchanted and master-crafted, a sword with a perfect edge and incredible durability.

Caleb had helped her up, and when she took off, he shrugged out of the shirt, laying it down there next to her dress. He didn't have the sickles strapped to his back, but that's not to say he wasn't carrying. There were a few things he had acquired lately from the goblin market that he had started to use more and more.

Well since it was set there and begging to be admired, that was what Fae was doing. Dark eyes set on the sword. No doubt she was watching the energy that flowed around it. Listening to the wail, like it was singing a song.

Anya popped back where she had been standing and sat down immediately. "No Alexia at the cabin. I didn't see him either. Maybe he got lost."

The song was one of hope and grief in equal measure, in constant conflict. Ettyn’s eyes were darker. She was ready. And then, Anya had returned. “Mm. Last I spoke to her, said it wasn’t home anymore… but, still might use it. And good to know he didn’t come.”
She caught Fae’s look, and gave her a small smile, giving her another moment to study the blade before it vanished into her shadow.

Caleb stood there a moment, watching Dawn's Strife. He knew the blade. But when Ettyn put it away, he turned to look out over the water to where Karma had gone in. She was already a fair bit out into the surf, a spot of black bobbing amidst white capped waves of blue. He started towards the waters and where she entered.

Back in the shade of the cabana, Anya leaned back and shut her eyes. Until they snapped open again and she checked her phone. "Shit. I have to get to work." She wrinkled her nose and thought. "Yes, I left clothes there."

“Stay and nap,” Ettyn rumbled her counterproposal to Anya. Worth a shot. She wanted a nap buddy!

A song of life, no wonder it was wailing. Fae blinked out of the study as it was put back away. No longer needed, now Anya was back safe. Even if that meant leaving for work soon after. "A nap does sound better than working."

"Fiend! Rapscallion!" Came a raucous cry of righteous fury. Like a meteor from the skies above, a black and gold blur crashed into the sand just feet from Caleb. It was a total superhero landing, mind you, complete with a knee taken before the being rose. Take the finest forms of heaven and twist them within the confines of hell to get what stood before him, clad in intermittent armor on a body built for sin and bearing a scythe-like blade that she had half pointed at him. Char-black wings spread from her back. It wasn't Aria, but this being had a similar energy to the woman Caleb had met the week prior; fiendish, corrupted. "Beast, your time has come."

Dramatic, wasn't it.

"I can't. I have a bachelorette to book in and if they like it they might come back to use us on the wedding day. We need more of a reputation for that." She stood up. "And uh, I think someone about building the meditation sp--- oh." Her eyes narrowed at the newest beach goer. "Hey, Caleb? You need help?"

Ettyn went from nap mode to leaning forward. Her eyes narrowed. Her nostrils flared.

Fae was just about to stretch out in a nice contented way, when sand was flung about in a dramatic fashion. Making her roll over, sit up and stare. "What the frek is that?"

Caleb didn't hesitate. He kicked. Male, female... that foot went towards the place where all kicks eventually go.

"Pretty face. Equals trouble." Fae remarked.

A beat of the wings dragged the woman out of kicking range. She looked almost offended. "Darest you really try that? I was told you were a fighter so fight me properly, fiend. Ne'er more will the lady's honor be besmirched by the likes of you."

"Honor... what honor? What the fuck?" Karma called while working on paddling back in toward shore.

"--Wait, I fucking... hold on..." Ettyn rumbled to herself, brows furrowing. She sniffed the air again and started to climb out of the cabana.

The cloak of business seemed to wrap around Caleb. There was a distinct difference between the aura around him in the rings... and now.

He stalked toward her, his hands sliding into the pockets of those cargo shorts.

The scythe was swung with abandon as he approached, seeking to cleave him with its curved blade.

Fae curled her legs up. Getting in a better position to watch. "Is it a love triangle? Ooo a rejected lover...or wannabe love." Because this was better than a soap opera. Not even offering help. The imp was a pretty good judge of critters. Whatever it was. Was out matched.

Anya circled around to get a clear shot, but she was learning. She waited.

He dropped just enough to let the blade slice along the hairs that were not as quick to get under it. He didn't raise after, but the hands withdrew, pulling free a set of spiked brass knuckles.

"Hey! Hey, stop that!" Karma got a mouthful of water for her troubles.

Ettyn called Dawn's Strife to her hand and began a slow approach. She didn't need to change her angle, though. No, she recognized her from behind, too. The weapon that had been raised in a two-handed grasp lowered, and she frowned and called out, "--Mirror?!"

Two battles, in the space of a few hours. It really was turning into a wonderful morning. But this one was better. It had a soap opera angle to it. Drama. People in swimwear.

"Never fear, Lady Duchess, you are safe with me!" The woman called out to the floundering Karma, ready to take another swing at Caleb when... "... Ettykins?"
Using the distraction that Ettyn provided, he darted forward, the right hand coming back and then slamming forward into the woman's sternum.

"Mirror, what the fuck," Ettyn laughed. "No, Caleb, I know her. I thought you died! When the portal-- and those angels--!"

That punch still caught her wholly flat footed and not even her wings could save her from ending up on her ass in the sand, coughing as she tumbled back. The armor absorbed some of the kinetic force but not all of it. She scrambled to get up while contending with the mindfuckery of hearing a familiar voice nearby. "I did!" She called, her laugh ragged and her gaze on Caleb rather than Ettyn. He was still a danger, and her target, after all. "But I was saved by a patron most generous."

Anya threw her hands up with an exaggerated sigh and rolled her eyes.

He didn't press. It was odd for him not to. But he held his ground, having put himself between her and Karma.. and between him and Ettyn.

"...Did I drop acid before we came here?" Karma made it to the shore finally and hurried to Caleb's side.

Ettyn shouldered her longsword, balancing the flat against her skin, and closed the distance. If there was still a fight to be had, the slayer didn't seem interested in it. "Patron? Who-- Mm... Tell me it wasn't Steve. The bulbous one, with all the eyes -- that Steve?" His name probably wasn't Steve.

"No, you didn't." Caleb said. Because that would mean he did too, and he didn't.

"I'm going to work. Stop by if you want a massage," Anya called to Mirror. "Dying takes a lot out of you!"

"Eugh, nae... thank the Nine." Mirror made a disgusted face at the mere suggestion. The scythe was lowered when Ettyn came closer. "The Archlord of the Second deemed me worthy of her patronage, she sent me to rescue her daughter from this... this... scoundrel!" She pointed a finger tipped in a curved claw at Caleb.

"She's right. Own a bath-house now. Me and my wife... Long story." Bit of a grin. Something Ettyn maybe would want to circle back to.

He didn't quite grin. But there was almost the curl of a lip.. almost.

One more wave to the others and Anya shouldered her bag. "Very long story," she muttered in the seconds before she vanished again.

"Archlord of the Second, hmm? What's she want with Caleb? He's a friend -- good killer, good at what he does... Helped save Karma from the Void. Was there -- how I got this beautiful blade," she added, lifting the sword from her shoulder slightly.

It was so funny. The imp was going to be giggling about this for some time. Pulled herself to her feet, brushing off sand and fluffing out the now dry beach dress. It was time to go find something to eat. Slipping away as quickly as Anya.

"Wife?!" Mirror looked shocked, pleased, and disappointed all in one. "That's wondrous!" She clapped a hand against her chest piece. Her gaze, a hellfire red not wholly different from Karma's own, traced after Anya as she departed. "He has bewitched the girl," she looked upon Karma as if she were lacking in mental faculties or perhaps charmed or something. "Stolen her away from her own and will not let her return."

"I'm... standing literally right here, you know." Karma huffed.

"Nah, she's here freely. Only bewitching was when she got snatched to the Void. Was some asshole who kept setting us on fire, but we stabbed him until he died." Ettyn snorted, as if to say, Typical for an asshole, right? "She goes where she wants. See her out without him plenty. Mm... like the bar-crawl--" She stepped closer, looked at Karma with a squint, and confided in Mhyriana: "She offer you anything like veggie snacks, ever -- don't eat them. Trust me. Gone bad or something."

"As you do in cases like that." Mirror nodded along. Her gaze went between Ettyn, Karma, and Caleb a few times, narrowing a bit as it lingered on the man. The scythe lowered further until its curved blade touched the sand. "Mmm. Are we certain she hasn't been charmed?" Her chin lifted and she sniffed at the air.

Karma made a flippant gesture. "I haven't been charmed! Pinch me or something, seriously. I'm here of my own volition and if my mother sent you, it's because she's a," she went off into a tirade full of expletives and rude names before ending with a huff. "I don't wish to go back. This is my home now. These people are my people now."

He snorted then, and stood, though the muscles along his legs and back where piano wire taught. He looked over his shoulder to Karma as she went into that colorful description. Then he turned and moved to the cabana, though the knuckle dusters were still wrapped in his hands.

"Also you weren't supposed to eat the weed, Ettyn." Karma huffed again.

"Karma! Never mind your bad vegetables -- come here! Gonna make sure for her." She waved her over. She gestured to Mirror then: "You remember the royal guards, mm? Had everyone fooled. Sat down for cards. But I smelled the magic in their brains."

Karma hesitantly neared Ettyn. "Please don't yeet me."

As the cabana neared, his voice called out. "Vodka, 2 bourbon's, Shirley Temple." Because what else would an agent of Karma's mother drink?

"They were positively marinating in it." Mirror wrinkled her nose at Ettyn's recollection.

"Nah, not this time," but Ettyn chuckled at the memory. Then leaned forward, until their faces were level, and -- sniffed Karma. She smelled like iced coffee, sea salt, and faintly of a violet tinged perfume. A tiny bit of glamour, if such a thing had a smell, but it was illusory more than anything.

As the drinks appeared, he took his vodka and her bourbon and went back to where they were sitting. He left Ettyn's bourbon and Mirror's Shirley Temple there.

Ettyn looked back at Mirror and shrugged, shifting the sword slightly on her shoulder. "Sniff for yourself. She's clean." A beat. "Ish."

Karma scoffed.

Mirror looked to Caleb briefly before leaning forward on her toes to inhale deeply in Karma's direction. "Hm." She furrowed her brow, trying to reconcile what she had been told with the blatant evidence before her. The scythe was planted in the sand fully. "And the man, he is but a man? He is nae sorcerer nor enchanter?"

The Great Sorcerer and Enchanter of Karma (snort!) settled himself down and had a loooong pull of the vodka.

Ettyn chuckled. "Unless slitting throats, drinking vodka, and asking the same question, word for word, eight times in the Void are spells? No." She shook her head at Mhyriana, her expression more sympathetic now. "Sorry... think someone lied to you on your contract. Know how that can go."

Karma thought Caleb was rather enchanting, but she didn't give voice to that right now for fear of it being taken improperly.

"Aye... with minimal recompense for such a thing." Mirror exhaled heavily through her nostrils. "And you, you live here now as well?"

Ettyn frowned at that, the recompense. Again, she knew how that could be, with dishonest and difficult employers. "Mm. Like I said, married now... to my best friend... by accident." She shifted the sword from her shoulder, it simply vanishing into the shadows of her hand. "But, staying that way. Not lovers, but friends. Family. Got a house here, and another on the beach at Twilight Isle... and the bath-house. Whitedown Retreat. Should see it." She raised her chin slightly, curious. "What about you, Mirror?" She heard Caleb, faintly, and saw Karma in her periphery. But her gaze seemed to be entirely on Mhyriana. This was important.

"Nae, nothing like that for me." Mirror shook her head, a thrumming rumbling in the back of her throat. "I've a debt to fulfill before I consider anything else. I should like to catch up with you further though, it has been... so very long."

Karma looked to Caleb and the drinks he had. Her expression though was more a question for him. Something akin to You good?

Ettyn considered her for a moment... and smiled. "Has been a while. If you want to see it... like to show you what we've built. Spend that time catching up," she said, and offered her hand to her.

He gave the slightest of nods, though it still looked as if he was ready to kill at a half heartbeat’s notice. His attention wasn't leaving Mirror, waiting to see which way the pendulum would swing.

"I should like that." Mirror nodded, taking Ettyn's hand with her half-gloved own. "I will... need to report back at some point soon..." A furtive look passed between Caleb, Karma, and Ettyn. "I fear the truth will not be well received."

"Don't deliver it then." Caleb gave a shrug, then took a drink.

"Mm, that'd probably be worse." Karma murmured aside to Caleb.

"Mm... say the... situation," that word took Ettyn a moment, "on the ground wasn't what was said... and so, gathered intelligence instead." She squeezed her hand, and looked to Caleb and Karma as she murmured something in her ear. Then back to them. "You two all right?"

"She's sending people after me. Let them come. Why send them back if they don't want to?" Caleb said.

"While a lie of omission is still a deception, tis better than an outright mistruth." Mirror nodded a little, canting her head to listen. A little smile formed, her glance tipping back to Ettyn. "Aye, indeed."

"Because debts are debts and collectors find a way to collect." Karma said again to Caleb.

"She has the right of it." Mhyriana confirmed.

Caleb almost commented, but held his tongue. He knew the price had to be paid.

Ettyn was starting to drift up the beach, though she maintained her grasp of Mhyriana's hand as long as she followed along, looking back at one point and mirroring (ha) her little smile. She detoured to the cabana to pick up her beach bag. "Know a shortcut. Couple of portals, one in the ruins -- can show you the beach house on the way to Whitedown." She looked then to Tass and Karma: "Help yourselves to snacks, drinks, a nap in the cabana. Welcome to it all."

Mirror wasn't going to let go. The matter of future reports was a problem for future Mhyriana, she could deal with it then. Her gaze lingered briefly on Caleb and Karma before inclining her head to them both. "My apologies for the mix up..." Not quite diffident, but still vaguely embarrassed by such a thing, she was intent on continuing with Ettyn rather than staying to second guess herself further.

"Thanks for helping clear that up, Ettyn." Karma said with a tired smile. "And lady," that for Mirror, "if there's anything you say to my mother, implore her to stop this pointless endeavor. It's only going to end up with people killed and nobody needs that."

Ettyn thought of something that made her have to hold back a laugh, and she murmured to Mhyriana again.

Was that rose in her cheeks? Perhaps it was! Mirror coughed quietly and quickened her steps, the scythe following after her as if carried by its own bearer.

"Maybe we go for a swim in the pond instead." Karma told Caleb with a soft sigh.

Ettyn chuckled and quickened her pace to keep up, steering them west towards the ruins, and the portal to the Isle's beach somewhere around there.

He lifted the glass and drained it, then looked to Karma. "No. With the exception of the Ranch, it won't matter where we are. And I will not let us be held captive."

"Okay, well, let's go get lunch at least and then maybe we'll go for a swim after that, eh?"

He stood and nodded. "Lunch sounds good."

She went back to retrieve her dress, shimmying back into it and untwisting the straps a bit. A hand given in kind, she tightly wound her fingers into his. "Lovely pizza place on the boardwalk." She offered before leading the way to do just that.


((Adapted from live play on Seaside Beach, 8/17/21. Thank you to Caleb Feren, Death Knell, Anya de la Rose, Yuzuki Kuwabara, and Fae Pendragon for their additions!))

[Strawberry]

Chapter Six

“A mighty flame follows a tiny spark.”
― Dante Alighieri

Caleb didn't bother with going to the Armory. Truth was, with each barony he had, he didn't bother with going there more than was needed. He left that to those who actually ran the place. They knew what they were doing, as they were the ones taking care of it before, during, and long after whatever baron held the seat at the time.

But he had made his way there this time. He had received a notice that a letter had been left for him and the staff was reluctant to touch it. He stepped back out of the Armory with the note in hand, still folded up, and turned to look over his shoulder.

"Make sure you put those fliers up around the district." That was about as much as an order as he had made, at any time, with regards to his 'title'. As he stepped out of the gate, he turned and moved back towards where he had left Karma.

Why oh why had she decided a run for governor was a smart idea?

Who knew. But the point was, she was doing it. Which meant a slew of things to do and they needed to be done in as little time as possible. Perhaps it was because running for Governor wasn't conducive with sitting cooped up at the ranch. Call it a subconscious need to get out and to buck against whatever it was trying to keep them there. She came back to him, meeting him midway up the footpath that led to the barony's armory from the gates leading to New Haven. Somehow she was managing an effortless balancing act of coffee cups, a thick binder, and the strap of a backpack over a shoulder.

"Did you know Rhybux has been serving pumpkin spice lattes since the middle of August and I'm only just now getting one?"

A true travesty right there.

"What? Three weeks and you're just now getting one? My barista skills have taken a hit." There was a mock hurt there in his voice, but it was belied by the half-grin that slid up the opposite side of her.

He lifted the note, and gave the outside a cursory glance. There was more to it, but he wouldn't open it here in the public's eye. He tucked the note into a pocket then reached over, taking the binder out of her hands so that all she had to worry about was the coffee. The backpack would take care of itself.

"Considering you live almost exclusively on vodka, I'm really not holding you accountable." She said with a laugh that cut through the late summer, early fall air. This late in the season, the woods of Battlefield Park were fast cooling, the leaves already turning shades of burgeoning bronze and a deep scarlet red. Still she held fast to the last slivers of warmth, wishful thinking coming in the form of tattered jeans and a low dipping top. Heels weren't practical for hoofing it around the city, so the whole ensemble had been rounded out with high top sneakers, the heel of which she dug into the dirt beneath her foot.

"You know, it's a wonder your inside bits aren't pickled by now." More teasing coming with an easy smile as he helped offload her proverbial baggage. "How'd the stop at the ghost house go?"

"Someone left a note about a possible job. Didn't read deep into it, but the cover said something about babysitting." It was rare that he talked about jobs, but this one was different. And he had seen enough to see Karma was privy to know the info about it. "We can look at it further when we are home."

He was in his usual, though with the weather changing, it wasn't so odd that he was in the duster, her duster. At least, not as odd as it had been during the summer. He looked to her and gave that crooked grin. "And they might be."

"Babysitting?" She said, half skeptical, half surprised. Maybe it was a code word for something. Still, she could poke at him about it. "Are you even CPR certified?"

Not quite wanting to stand in one place but still content to take their time considering how nice it was outside, she turned to fall in at his side so they could walk together. The meswen grove, with the silver trunks and blue leaves was off to the right, offering a tinge of fragrance on the air in contrast to the more crisp smells of the rest of the forest even though the fruit had long since been harvested for the season.

"I think I got everything I needed for the day. Runners are handling the fliers and advertisements, by morning it should be everywhere... papers, radios, TVs. What do you think about a billboard?"

"Would it surprise you if I said I was?" He glanced her way as they started walking again. He watched her for a moment as she went on about the various advertisements she had taken care of, and he couldn't help the answer that came with her question.

"Can't say I think about them at all."

"Very little surprises me about you, Caleb, save for the fact that you're full of surprises." So yes. Maybe. A little bit. The exasperation that followed came with a bump of her hip into his. "I meeeeean for the campaign. Is that overkill? I wanna be thorough but I don't wanna be like... overwhelming, you know?"

He actually laughed! It wasn't a full belly roll, but there was nothing dark about it either.

He kept walking with her for a few moments, giving the question serious thought. "I don't think they would be necessary. In all honesty, most in this city don't look up."

"That seems like a lovely way to walk into signs." She replied blithely. "There's so much to see in this city, I never understood why people keep their heads down. Fear, maybe?"

It made sense. Best way to survive in a city of gods and monsters was to either become a monster yourself or make yourself so small the monsters didn't notice you.

Though it was still early afternoon, the chirping of the birds and distant sounds of other forest creatures seemed to fade little by little as they walked closer to the meswen grove, prompting Karma to tilt her head a bit to listen.

"People do what they will to survive. If you find someone who doesn't... run."

"Mm." She hummed a noncommittal sound but said nothing more than that as she tipped her coffee cup back to drink its entire contents in one continuous series of gulps. It burned like hell, but it was better than wasting it. As she swallowed, her nostrils flared and her voice dropped a little as her feet slowed to a stop, her hand catching at his forearm. In the quietest breath of a whisper, she asked, "You hear that?"

He didn't stop, but as she grabbed his hand, he tugged her along. His voice was barely above a whisper. "Keep moving." There was no urgency in his steps, nor in his voice. It was simply a command, and he didn't like giving her commands like that. To cover her pause, he paused too, after a few moments of pulling her along.

"I don't know why you insist on carrying all that campaign stuff in that backpack. You know it's a pain to carry around." His voice was casual, much like it had been earlier. Even his movements didn't alter. He reached up and pulled the bag a little, taking the weight off of her and started to slide it away from her. "I'm just a beast of burden, having to lug around all this weight." There was that teasing tone again.

She gave the faintest jerk of her head, a barely there nod that said she understood. Her feet shuffled back into motion, no more than a brief misstep masked beneath the adjustment of the backpack. She twisted slightly so that he could take it off her shoulders.

"You're a beast, but not of burden." She looked vaguely smug at that quip even if every sense was on high alert. Somewhere to the side, just beneath the faint scent of meswen came the faint scent of decay. Not wholly unusual in the forest, all things considered, but it seemed particularly acrid, tinged with an all too familiar whiff of the void itself. Her gaze seemed to dart occasionally toward a patch of unnatural darkness just beyond the grove's treeline.

"Who makes horrible coffee, apparently." There was that smirk that tugged on the edge of his lips as he stood there waiting for her. "So where are we going next?" He kept his left hand tugged under the single strap of the bag as it settled on his shoulder, looking every part of a school kid with a backpack. The right pulled the duster back and a thumb hooked into the front pocket of the leather pants. Completely at ease.. completely ready for whatever may come.

"Not horrible, just not R-bux pumpkin spice. Look, somewhere deep within my fucked up and convoluted genetic code, there is a baseline of basic white bitch there. You're lucky I didn't get the Uggs gene." She snorted, slightly regretting chugging it down as fast as she had. "But I figure it's better to have everything I need and not need it, than to need something and have to go home for it."

The darkness seemed to be spreading. The forest had gone still and silent.

"I'll hire an R-bux barista to personally come in and make sure you have your fix of anything and everything you like, since my skills are not up to par for basic white bitch life." There was almost laughter in his voice as he waited there for her to decide where they were headed to next. Come on, darkness, my old friend.

"Orrrrr you have them teach you the secrets. Then you get to be the supreme barista beast of burden whatever." She fluttered a hand idly, though this close he might be able to feel the first tinge of arcane energy accumulating in her fingertips. It came just in time for the sudden beating of wings behind them. She let go of his hand, whirling to push a hand upward to pump the energy into a reflexive shield. A split second later, a cloud of darkness crashed into it and rebounded into the dirt, kicking up a cloud of dust that was eaten by the blackness soon enough. The scratching of claws and the fluttering of leathery wings within the shade gave little indication as to what it was.

"Wxudt zdxuqxy*," The abyssal was thick on her tongue, the guttural language unwieldy and inelegant. Then like a flip of a switch, she shifted almost easily into another unwieldy tongue that Caleb was far more likely to recognize.

"Sen, toeo beben't kolen blind."

When the attack came, he twisted and pulled the strap that his hand was entangled in. The backpack came whipping around, but as soon as he saw her shield that bag was yanked back. He didn't know if it would penetrate from this side and still leave the shield integrity in place, and he wasn't going to take that chance. That was something he would remember to ask about later.. and work with her on.

Instead, he dropped the bag and quickly withdrew the two blades that he was known for, and stepped in front of her, though not so much as to block her line of sight, or the aim of her outstretched hand. There was that tightness around him, like a coiled snake, ready to strike.

He didn't pay attention to her first words, but the second caught his ear, and there was a smile that slid upon his lips. Be it from her ability to quickly use it, or his soon to be answer.. well..

"To beben. Beben to slip ily and hibne disturb the hantak?"

The beating of wings on their left and right stole her answer before she could spit out more Thieves Cant. Like some sort of Tai Chi master, she swung her arms out to the sides and brought one foot up just along the outside of his nearest knee, the pose serving to anchor the shielding on three sides of them instead of just one. Pointedly, she was looking at him, up, back, anywhere but at the darkness.

"Caleb, if it's what I think it is, you cannot make eye contact with any of them... even in the dark." Wham, just as she spoke, their flanks were assailed by two seemingly separate clouds of inky black from the one she had knocked into the dirt. "Your blades can pass through but not you."

Again, the creatures on the other side crashed into the shielding, prompting a warbling echo of white-gold light to burst back at them like divine retribution. A trio of hisses cut through the air. Karma exhaled.

"Fuck you, Mother."

A cluck of a tongue to the back of her teeth and with it, pitch black bled around her, engulfing them both and spreading through the waning afternoon light that had steadily dwindled around them under the pressure of their assailants' magic. The difference though was that this darkness was stifling to all but those she deemed worthy and she could see plainly as if it were high noon. Caleb would find he could too. Their friends on the other side of the shield however let out cacophonous screeches of rage when their quarry disappeared into the patch of midnight there in the clearing. It was as good of a signal as any for Caleb to do what Caleb does.

He didn't let the sudden shift phase him as he might have once. He had long sense trained his mind to accept it, and it was already working in a different direction anyways. A quick slice of a blade along his shirt, and a moment or two in securing, and he had a double wrap around his eyes, essentially blinding him. There was a quick smile and he shifted over and set a kiss to her, knowing where she was without even a hesitation. A quick whisper after and he stepped away, out into the darkness. "Soon bina to kaltan baker, drop the resa. Nau ii focus ka to, oe salan oe."

"Aye." A single word, all they needed. With that, as soon as he stepped out, she shifted the shield to drop the left flank's cover. The hellish creature beyond scrabbled to make the most of the opening and soon it's friends on the other side took notice as well and began shifting around the shield's convex plane to try and get to the opening gap. Though she could see fine in the arcane darkness, she knew she too had to avoid any errant gazes from the creatures coming their way, as they moved through the shadows and confirmed her worst fears.

Death stealers. Demons loathed even by the foulest of the abyssals thanks to their penchant for devouring their prey's very soul. What was nasty on its own but three? Karma groaned and tried not to focus on the gargoyle like beings nor their beady glowing yellow eyes. "Three coming. Nine o'clock." She warned him and dropped the entire shield at once to save herself the concentration for what would come next.

As soon as he was out, he was moving. They were making enough noise that even a rock knew where they were. Which made it easy for him to shift quickly to the closest. He twisted and sliced the right blade along it's flank, but when the left came around, there was no purchase found. But he had hit it, which meant it knew where he was.. as likely did the others. Good. Let them focus on the assassin.

It quickly became readily evident that they were here for him, not her. Even with the shield gone, in the darkness, as best as they could orient, they seemed intent upon the assassin rather than the woman with him. They were still a deadly whirlwind of claws and teeth even with the darkness rendering their gaze next to useless. Karma pointed and with it came a burst of malevolent energy in a vibrant burst that exploded just inches from Caleb's head upon impact with one of the leathery gargoyle like creatures. She followed it with two more, searing the thing, although not nearly enough to slow it down.

The closest to Caleb took a swipe at him, the black claws curled as if it was trying to gouge out the heart. Even blind, the assassin heard the rustle of the wing as the arm was pulled back, and he stepped in, rather than stepping back. The sickles seeming more like claws as he brought them up and quick down again into the opened chest of the one attacking him.

In a blink, it was as if the assassin had been surrounded by night, the trio of fiends circling him for a better vantage point. While it put Caleb at quite the disadvantage, it gave Karma a clear shot at the back of another one and she unleashed another bolt, this time of radiant light. It crashed into the back of the beast and burned a hole right through its shoulder, leaving the entire thing shrouded in a dimly glittering mystical light. It screeched and turned away from Caleb and toward Karma, who grinned in the darkness.

"C'mon then, what're you waiting for." Her fingers curled as she beckoned without looking the thing in the eye, much as she wanted to. After all, could it steal a soul that didn't exist? What she didn't expect, however, was the echoing of an unfamiliar voice within her head answering her question.

"Abomination, ssssssweet flesh... musssst needs resissssst. What these onesssss would not give to tear thisssss one asssssunder."

To Caleb, it probably sounded like a whole lot of guttural garbage. To Karma, she looked mildly disgusted. Having no answer, she conjured a radiantly glowing blade to her hand and raised it to point at the fiend. "I think that's enough of that. Call it off before I tear all three of you apart."

The faint rumbling under foot said that might be harder than she thought.

With one pulled away, he kept his attention on the one that was in front of him. That wasn’t to say he didn’t feel the press of the other, or the attacks that it was intent on landing. Not that he could see them, mind you.

He dropped as he felt the air pressure shift, and then came the wind from where the one in front of him swung where his head had been. Then he stepped to the left, moving.. always moving.. to dodge what he felt was coming from behind. The first swung by, but the second caught his shoulder and there was a grunt as he felt the claws tear a line along the right shoulder blade.

He didn’t shift his focus, as much as he wanted to, to that one behind him. Instead, he kept at the one that was in front.

The sickles, the more and more he used them, seemed to be true claws.. extensions of his hands, as he first swiped the right along the abdomen, then tore the left down one of the creatures arms, then the right came swinging back, stabbing into the one that was in front.

Much as she wanted to assist Caleb in his uneven battle against two of the nasties, she knew better than to get in the way of his sickles or of the claws. But when one gouged a chunk out of his shoulder, she narrowed her eyes and quickly drew a sigil in the air before her. It appeared like in a soft pink light and with a gesture, she urged it Caleb's way at which point it zipped over and popped against his cheek like a sweet peck of a kiss. With that, he was shrouded in a similar light to help ward and protect him from whatever might come his way. It left her with just enough time to raise the radiant blade for a single upward cleave through the nearest death stealer. Mortally wounded, it crashed to the ground and let out a mournful howl of rage.

Karma was ready with a cheeky quip but her moment of glory was stolen a moment later by a booming voice behind them all.

"Now, now. Do we not tire of this charade? Enough children."

Karma whirled about to find a massive armor clad figure walking their way at a casual pace as if he wasn't approaching a melee of blades in the darkness. This one... this one she wasn't familiar with. And that sent a bolt of fear down her spine. Perhaps the two fighting Caleb felt something much the same for they too froze, disengaging from the assassin to fly back and up, out of reach, their yellow eyes turned toward the now looming warrior. Karma moved to put herself between him and Caleb only to find her feet wouldn't move, no matter how she tried.

"Who are you? What do you want?" She asked, her voice holding steady, at least for the time being.

"Shh, child. You'll know soon enough." He unsheathed a sword that had to be as long as Karma was tall. Perhaps longer. But he didn't level it her way. Instead he pointed to Caleb. "Come, face me."

He had learned long ago to split his attention. During her... kidnapping, he had been so focused on her that he had forgotten that. It could have easily cost him. This time, he didn't forget. He kept his attention on the one that was in front of him.

That is, until both it and the one behind him shifted. He felt them move before they did. There was tension in the air around them. Something bigger.. badder, had come. The air shifted as they flew back, but he didn’t follow. He wouldn’t extend himself like that. No, instead, he turned towards the new threat.

He turned and moved towards the new threat, though he kept part of his attention on the two that had fled, as well as on Karma. He wasn't sure what was going on (still blindfolded), but he knew enough that there was something wrong with her, and this new threat was the cause of it.

He didn’t bother with responding, but his steps moved towards him, setting himself between Karma and the new threat. Caleb's answer to the challenge was simply to stand there, blades in hand, waiting.

As Caleb turned to face the armored fiend, the creature let out a great booming laugh. The sort that made the changing leaves tremble on their branches. In the distance, birds scattered. Karma felt a ripple of goosebumps break out down her arms and up her neck. Still, her feet wouldn't move and not even the divinity in her veins could push her to fight that feeling.

"Caleb..." She spoke his name but trailed off there, unsure of what to do or say.

"Fighting blind. It is almost as if someone has prepared you." The fiend chuffed, his gaze burning into Karma for the briefest of instants, unconcerned by the magical darkness that surrounded them. He towered over them and even made the gargoyles look small. Easily close to ten feet tall and clad in stygian armor plate mail, he wore a horned helmet, the tips of which shimmered with what looked to be dried blood. Behind the helm, cruel ember like eyes peered out at them. Malevolent amusement rolled off of him like palpable waves. "Look me in the eye, boy. Face your absolution."

"Worried what others will say when they find out you lost to a blind man?" There was a smirk to his voice. Was he goading the creature? Yep. Another tactic was to put someone off their game, and what better way than to get into their mind?

He began to move then, but not towards the thing. No, instead, he started to move the left, almost as if he was circling the thing.

This one, however, seemed more intelligent than the other things that had been sent their way so far. The helm canted to one side almost quizzically.

"Covering your eyes does not make you blind any more than it makes the nightmares disappear in the dark of night." He chortled, terribly amused. The massive sword was whirled with dexterous ease as if it were no more than a toothpick. "But if you wish to be, I will assuredly pluck the eyes from your skull, dear boy."

He then struck out, once, twice, coming with a pacing gait that matched Caleb's. Water testing blows, more than anything, he wanted to test the man's mettle.

As he moved, he slid away from the first blow. Though he couldn’t see it, the blade seemed to scream through the air. At least, to his ears.

The second blow that came across his chest, however, cut a line along the shirt as he didn’t step far enough back to avoid it entirely. A fraction of a inch closer and there would be blood. But only the shirt suffered the damage this time.

Still, those blades.. his fists.. were up and at the ready. Relaxed for the moment, until he had to use them.

He was at a disadvantage being blind. Distances were harder to calculate, but he had done it before. It would just have to take time. Besides, he trusted Karma and she had told him to not look them in the eyes.

"Caleb!" Karma cried out when the blade shredded through her fiance's shirt. But he seemed otherwise unscathed.

"Ah, good. Good. There's fight in you yet." He rumbled and took another lazy but crushing swing for the assassin.

"The gargoyles, Caleb, they're the ones you can't look--" She found herself abruptly cut off by a motion of the fiend's hand, the charm hitting her hard enough to sap not just her words but her breath too.

Instead of stepping aside from this swing, he stepped in, the left coming up like he was protecting his head from a blow. But the length of the sickle claw was laid along his forearm and he used it, along with an angled step, to deflect the swing that came downward and away. With that same hand, a thumb caught under the blindfold, yanking it free.

The right? He swing it around in a tight hook, as he kept moving forward, the serrations that edged the curve leading the way. However, he twisted his wrist out just enough that the blade came off his forearm like a flared wing, slicing out past the serrated hook.

Upon removal of the blindfold, Caleb would be treated to the same view Karma had, the monstrosity before them towering over even the gargoyles, who had long since fled for the shadows out of view. Even they were not intent on getting in the master's way. Karma's feet, still rooted to the spot, seemed cemented to the ground, leaving her paces away while Caleb and the armored creature clashed. Despondent, she focused her energy into remedying that at the least so she could help.

Caleb, meanwhile, landed one solid blow, in part due to the magical nature of his blade. Had it been a normal weapon, it seemed as though he wouldn't have had nearly the luck. But rather than back off with the connection, the fiend let out another booming laugh and tried to bring the blade down upon the much smaller man, followed by a hammer handed throw of the blade's pommel toward the assassin's head.

It was all about conservation of energy for Caleb. Smaller.. faster.. that didn't mean jack shit if you wore yourself out, and being smaller, you had to move to keep from having your head bashed in by someone bigger. Fighting with Runt had helped him in this kind of training.

That left hand was still up, and he kept it there, using it to once more parry the strike that came downward, sending it veering off. He knew he wouldn't be able to go all day like this, but for right now, it was better to deflect than to try and stop that massive blade.

But when the pommel came swinging back around, he didn't move in time. The left was already up, fortunately, and it absorbed the majority of that impact. The right came around quickly, trying to help absorb some of the impact, or perhaps lessen it, as he slammed the bladed forearm into the giant's wrist.

That was enough to jar his blade but not enough to disarm him. This time around, he let out a massive roar that seemed to shake the very ground beneath their feet. He took another swing at Caleb, spinning a full circle as he cleaved the autumn air around them. When the whirl came to a stop, he raised his palm not toward Caleb but toward Karma instead.

A breath of a whisper, a female's voice, two words; "Now fall."

The barrage of much smaller blades that formed were too quick to stop, a veritable storm of them sent toward the immobile sorceress. She raised her arms up as if to protect herself, but it wasn't enough. One, two, three, a dozen, a dozen and a half, more... unstoppable, rending flesh and eliciting a tormented scream from her that echoed through the trees as if it were amplified until it was bouncing back upon them. The echoes wail was all that could be heard as Karma sank to her knees, clutching at her stomach and chest as if it would make a difference. She slumped over a moment later, unmoving.

The massive fiend laughed a cruel laugh and brought his blade down upon Caleb once more.

It seemed two could play the psychological mind games.

As that blade came around this time, he dropped under it.

He watched as that hand was raised towards her, and he stepped to try and put himself between it and her, but he couldn't. Not in time. He didn't look. He kept his gaze on the massive one that was in front of him. To avert his gaze was death. He knew that. But that didn't mean that he wasn't acutely aware of what happened, nor the red that threatened to override his thoughts.

His eyes started to flatten, turning a bit gray around the edges. But they stopped that change just on the edge. A breath was taken. Then another... and still his attention was on the one in front of him.

"I doubt her mother would appreciate you hurting her, let alone killing her. I'm your target, after all." His voice was soft. He was not above using any trick needed in order to get the advantage. He assumed that this.. thing.. was here on her request, and he would use that if he could.

And that was the only thing he said before he launched forward, sidestepping to the right the blade that came down and running his left blade up along the giant's arm as he went.

"Eh," the giant looked unconcerned by Caleb's soft reprimand. Though it couldn't be seen behind his steel helm, he was assuredly smirking if not grinning fully. "If anything, call it expediting her return to her mother. I'll be thanked and you'll be dead, it all works out."

The pair played out the back and forth clash, seldom making major headway in one direction or another. For each blow landed by the assassin (the human one at least), the seemed the fiend managed one in trade. Perplexed, and perhaps a little annoyed, by the lack of progress, the fiend elected to resort to dirtier tactics than before. Images, dozens of them, all recreating horrible horrible instances of Karma dying, all around them. Audibly, Caleb was treated to cacophonous screams of pain and terror, a cruel ploy meant to unnerve and exploit Caleb's seeming one weakness; her.

"What was the line? 'Even the strongest of shields cannot defend the weakest of wills,' I think it was?" Karma's words, only from the fiend's lips.

He stood there, watching the creature as his peripheral took in the.. well, the nightmare. His eyes started to lose focus as they delved deeper into the gray.

With each death dealt (as such), he folded deeper within. Darkness, in its way, started to engulf him.

Then a flash of red caught his eye and he looked to his hand. It was her ring, and it was the beacon in the darkness... a lighthouse in a raging sea.

His focus quickly came back on the creature and there was a smile as he remembered her teachings. He hardened his mind to what was playing around him and he looked the creature in the eyes for the first time.

"You underestimate her will and mine."

Caleb.

A quiet tickle at the edge of his consciousness. Familiar, benevolent, but insistent.

Caleb, he wants you to lose your cool. But I'm here. I'm okay. Don't let him get to you.

The fiend brought his blade down at just that time.

Remember what I taught you... end it here.

As he heard her words, the smile that came to his lips hardened. It was no longer a thing worth looking at. Instead, it seemed to have death's smile written on it.

He shut his mind down. He shut it all down. This creature questioned their will? He was about to find out what will really was. He put his trust into her... into her training. His mind hardened as he sidestepped that blade and moved to put himself in front of Karma.

The shield was a shield once more. However this time, the shield grew claws. Defense.. offense.. there was a saying somewhere in there, but it didn't matter. The assassin had slipped into the mental void. He would trust her to take care of herself. He would trust in her and her teaching.

He attacked with the cold calculation of one who was intent to kill.

Silenced, unable to move, it was all Karma could do to break through the illusions around them, including that of her unmoving body on the ground. If all she could do was mentally encourage him, then it would have to be enough.

He uses the shadows better than you do.

Thanks ShadoWeaver.

Just speaking bluntly.

As if you speak any other way, right?

ShadoWeaver was quiet after that, leaving Karma to her helpless observation of the clash before her. It was killer versus killer, assassin versus assassin, a clash of David and Goliath of sorts, if the biblical story were shrouded in shadows and surrounded by the echoes of nightmares. After a brief give and take, the slip of Caleb's blade hit a joint in the giant's plate armor, sliding into the minute gap between layers to rend the flesh beneath. The echoing roar said he struck true, prompting a series of reflexive, wild swings to try and fend off the smaller fighter. The sticky black ichor that spilled from the wound offered satisfaction of a precise jab and even as he swung out, a leg buckled and the giant sank to his knee in the dirt.

There was no hesitation when the giant dropped. Caleb moved, slid in and around the blade and brought his own up, flipping both around so that the blades were outward and no longer along his forearms. They came up and laid along the neck of the creature, much like a pair of scissors, and Caleb, in a smooth motion, sliced in both directions, bring the blades together, and then past each other.

"Ah, a worthy de--" The fiend's words were cut off, quite literally, with the severing of his helmed head. The slash of dual blades spilled a fresh spray of ichor as his head went tumbling. With the cruel creature's demise, so too ended the illusions, including that of Karma's body on the ground. Her feet were freed and she was able to launch herself toward Caleb, his name a cry on her lips as she went to him.

"Fuck..." She exhaled, breathless and pale. "We gotta go now though..." Her hands reaching for him, seeking a hold so that she could get them out of there before the gargoyles returned.

He stood there a moment, but as soon as her hand reached him, he turned and looked her over, very quickly. It was almost as if he was making sure she was there, rather that just in his mind. But he felt her... really felt her. And he nodded.

"I'm here, I'm here." She said, hopefully to reassure him and maybe to convince herself a little bit. Taking his hand into hers, she wound her other arm around his, sucked in a deep breath and ripped reality around them. It wasn't a clean escape, but the beating of wings in the treeline said it didn't need to be clean if it meant they were safe. A whipped whirl through the aether spat them through a corresponding tear at Paradiso Ranch, spilling them both into the entryway of the house, their safe haven. The warm trickle of red from her right nostril was quickly wiped away from an ungraceful sprawl on the marble floor, as she looked up to find they were safe and sound.

And being stared at by a guilty looking raccoon wearing a mask over its eyes while carrying what looked to be a small, gilded sculpture... that definitely hadn't been in their home before.





((*Wxudt zdxuqxy = Death stealer

Sen, toeo beben't kolen blind = Run, we can't fight blind.

To beben. Beben to slip ily and hibne disturb the hantak = I can. Can I slip through and not disturb the shield?

Soon bina to kaltan baker, drop the resa. Nau ii focus ka to, oe salan oe = Soon as I step out, drop the left. When they focus on me, you do you.))

[Sanctuary]

Chapter Seven

“The more a thing is perfect, the more it feels pleasure and pain.”
― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy

Battlefield Park Armory - Monday Morning

In the dead of winter, the Armory's halls were drafty and chilled. Hardly insulated against a Rhydinian winter, it was all the staff could do to keep the fires lit and the frost scrubbed from the windows. Though Battlefield Park held no tactical advantage when it came to her time in the city, there was something charming about its stone and mortar walls, polished suits of armor, and visiting specters. Karma had spent only sparing time there when Caleb had held it but now that it was hers, it felt like an obligation to pour something into the barony. Some barons used their baronial manors as homes, primary, secondary, or even tertiary. Others used it for business while some left them to sit unused for the tenure of their reign.

As it was Karma's first barony, she wanted to make it count.

First came the meswen saplings, taken from seeds of the park's meswen grove along with some investment from contacts in Adenna. That would in turn help fund the literacy programs so near and dear to her heart, a cornerstone of her campaign as Governor. She thought about transitioning from there into finding a way to record and catalogue the stories of the ghosts that frequented the park and the armory. The battleground where so much blood had been shed and the subsequent graves that littered the grounds were stories writ in sacrifice and so often were lost to time, but there was a blessing in the unrest of the spirits. Some could communicate, others could find other ways to communicate. What if she could find a way to record their stories, to give them a way to be remembered?

It was these thoughts that accompanied her as she strolled the old halls of the armory early in the morning, well before she needed to be to the Governor's office for her open door hours.

Well, that and a fresh cup of coffee. Needed something to keep the chill away.

"So... we could utilize mediums..." Though in a place like this, it would be easy enough to pass off her words as idle chit-chat with a specter, she was quite alone and simply talking to herself. "There's plenty of people around that can speak freely with the other side... but what about the ones that can't talk?"

"Hmm." Quiet reverie won out as she turned down the next hall, the scuffed soles of faux-fur lined slippers shuffled along, the only sound to announce her progress. This early, the staff wasn't even up and running, leaving the armory perfect for reflection and thinking all alone. This kept up, taking her from one end of the armory to the other until the slow creep of the sun on the eastern horizon began to weave threads of gold and pink through the layers of curtains that adorned the sparing windows. Armories aren't meant to be houses, but whoever had refurbished this place so long ago when it was first acquired by the Arena had done a stellar job of doing just that.

Though Battlefield Park could use a nice soaking tub.

Add it to the list.

As she moved down a hall flanked on both sides by recently polished suits of armor, a ripple of goosebumps spread across her skin, making the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. And then... a voice, an urgent whisper in her right ear that sounded like an old woman.

"Duck!"

Though it wasn't a voice she had ever heard, she had the feeling she needed to listen so listen she did, dropping to the floor just as the glass of the window she was passing shattered inwards, showering her with frosted glass and a flurry of snow. A quick look aside to the sound of metal on metal couldn't quite pin down what had caught the calamity but Karma wasn't intent on lingering to find out what it had been so one her forearms and knees, she crawled toward the end of the hallway as quickly as she could.

Splinters of broken glass punished her with every inch of moment but she paid little heed to the sting of the shards as she scrambled forward. What sounded like a metal clad fist punched out the remaining glass from the frame and a moment after, the crunch of boots on glass confirmed her fears. Rather than glance back to look, she threw herself onto her back, pushing her hands out to cup against the force of a blast of celestial touched energy. The radiant light burst from her hands and plowed into the intruder like a freight train, blowing them back into a suit of armor that went toppling to the floor in a cacophonous clattering.

"Get the FUCK out!" She shouted, pushing herself up to a sitting position as she blinked away the stars from her eyes while the light cleared. A sizzling hiss answered her call at first but soon, the figure that had been bowled into the armor extracted itself, shoving aside errant pieces of metal. Both Karma and the intruder got to their feet at the same time and down the hallway she set eyes upon a tall armored woman with curling horns, abyss red eyes, and unfairly pretty features. Strapped to her back she bore a massive blade made of twisted metal. Stygian iron, Karma recognized it immediately. A little singed on the edges, the wickedly lovely woman sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Oh yes, sure. Let me just see myself out." The fiend spoke in a lilting tone that toed the line between the elegance of elvish and the guttural savagery of abyssal. "Come now, you know why I'm here."

"I know it but that doesn't change that you're unwelcome." Karma shot back, one hand still raised. She had no blades immediately accessible, no weapons other than her own hands. But that didn't mean she was without defense. "Also, you could have used any one of the numerous doors around here, you know."

"I'm sure you would have been so much more receptive to that." The woman said with a crooked smirk. Though Karma didn't recognize her, the aura she gave off told her everything she needed to know.

"You know, civility really isn't as overrated as you lot seem to think it is." Karma countered.

"Well, what can I say, I like dramatic entrances. And you haven't exactly been particularly cooperative in all of this, have you?" The woman turned a gauntlet clad hand palm up and shrugged.

"With good reason. Do you even know why you're here?" She asked the woman. "What's your name anyways?"

"What's in a name. Mm. Well, you can call me Aria." The newly named Aria said, her smile coy. "And I am here to speak with you."

"You mean to kidnap me and strong-arm me into going back with you." Karma spat the words as if they contained all the venom she felt in her heart toward the woman.

"If I have to, yes." Aria nodded. How the pointy eared woman made armor look so elegant, Karma didn't know. In truth, she was a little envious.

"That seems unnecessarily reckless on your part. You have a death wish?" Karma asked.

"Once upon a time. But your mother showed me a kindness, it's the least I can do since she cannot be here herself." Aria's smile was still coy, still infuriating.

"Speak your piece then. I'll allow you that much before I holy your ass to the pearly gates just for them to throw you back down to the pits you crawled out of." Karma's palm glowed with the selfsame radiant energy she had blasted the woman with upon entering. Aria's shoulders shook as she broke into laughter.

"Cute. We both know I wouldn't be here if I truly thought you could do such a thing." Aria said.

"Then clearly you don't know anything about me beyond what my mother told you." Karma answered. "You're blind as fuck and it's not a pretty look on you."

"Ah, to be concerned about such things." Aria sighed and took a step toward her mark. Karma took a matching step backwards. "Look, little one. You know this is a losing battle and you're only pissing off a whole lot of people immensely more powerful than you in the process. You're only making it harder on yourself than it has to be."

"Look whose daughter I am. Of course I like things hard." Karma said through her teeth. Aria laughed again. It was a lovely sound, if it weren't for the fact it came out just the tiniest bit off, like a song meant for the major key played in a minor one.

"I know your story, Karma. I know that you aren't happy with your mother's plan. I know you have someone you think you love here. Someone you have repeatedly put in danger because of your petulance and non-cooperation." Aria was beginning to poke at just the right buttons. Karma felt her blood warm in her veins, inching toward a boiling point. "He's just a human, Karma. A fragile, breakable human who will leave you in due time. Perhaps not today or tomorrow or even next year. But if he never figures out how bad for him you are, then he will leave you the day he dies... and in a profession like his? That may not even be a day when his rather impressive physique is shriveled and old."

"Fuck you." Karma spat. From her hand came another burst of radiant energy. Unlike the first, Aria dodged this one, diving to one side and away from the concussive force of the holy blast. Despite the cumbersome armor she wore, she did so gracefully and was on her feet a moment later.

"I'm here trying to appeal to reason, girl. Because if it's not you, it'll be him. He will die for your temper tantrum." She said, brushing a hand across her opposite arm to dust it off then added. "If he isn't already."

"That you'd say such a thing tells me you're in way over your head and know absolutely nothing about what you're doing. A shame, I thought after watching us for months that you would be better educated." Karma adjusted her footing, nearing the woman rather than backing off. It wasn't her best gamble. The woman had half a foot and a good amount of weight on her. Add in her weaponry and her armor, and well... it wasn't exactly a fair fight.

"Child, if I wanted to be stealthy, do you think I would have broken that window like I did? Would I have stepped into a ring for a dance of ring around the rosie with your beloved for shits and giggles? No. I simply revel in pushing your buttons. I thought I would get more of a fight out of him than I did but you know, for using two blades, he couldn't fight for shit either. Maybe tell him to focus on getting good with a single weapon before introducing a second." Aria paced to one side rather than forward or back, watching Karma like a cat might watch a mouse.

But Aria had never met a mouse like this before.

"That's your mistake then, bitch." A sudden adjustment of her hand's aim burst force energy upon the wall nearest the infernal elf, crashing into armor and weaponry alike so that it rained down upon her, burying her in a shower of steel and wood. Before she could juke or climb her way out of it, Karma advanced, twisting her wrist and bending her fingers to form the sigils to breathe life into the fiery incantation. The entire pile burned red like coals and the wood within caught fire, staves and spears catching aflame like kindling. Heat distortion waves rolled from the entire mess, paint from the ceiling as it nearly reached a flashpoint.

Laughter spilled from the woman caught under it all. "You imbecile, you really think--"

"Nope." Karma said with a snap of her fingers. Red turned blue, polarizing the heat to a subzero cold in a blink, freezing the entire pile whole.

The laughter stopped but Karma didn't relax her guard. Instead, she shuffled over broken glass to pick up a two handed morningstar with wicked spikes. Hefting it up, she raised it above her head and then brought it crashing down as hard as she and gravity could manage. It bowled through metal like it was nothing more than glass, shattering it into shrapnel that scattered throughout the entire hallway, including Karma's legs.

Worth it.

A pain cry echoed as the morningstar found its mark deep in the mess of broken armor and weaponry. Karma jerked back on the handle only for it to break off, leaving her with splintered wood, three hands in length.

"Ah fuck." She muttered, just as an armored leg shot out from the pile and swept her clean off her feet. "At least fucking buy me dinner first."

She groaned as she hit the ground and tried to roll away. A hand closed on her wrist, jerking her back. Karma rolled with it, twisting about to bring a hammerfist down on the grasping hand. Pain radiated through her fist with the connection, flesh to metal, but she didn't relent, hammering it down three more times until the grasp broke. Rather than try to make another escape, Karma shoved through shattered metal and burnt wood until she found Aria curled on her side, the morningstar having jabbed multiple holes into the steel of her armor. She was bleeding a viscous black fluid but this seemed to do little to keep her from kicking out at Karma again.

Missed by inches, Karma climbed over the woman until she could shove her onto her back and straddle her supine form. She brought her aching fist down against the woman's pretty face once, twice, thrice... four, five, six... seven and eight times before she was satisfied and the woman was sufficiently bloody. Midway through, Aria had stopped trying to throw her off.

"Wake up, you coward." Karma hissed as she leaned over the woman. One hand felt around the woman's side until she found one of the holes made by the spikes. Two fingers wriggled into the gap and pressed, twisting into the wound until Aria stirred with a pained snarl. Her hips bucked, throwing Karma forward into her and in a moment, the two rolled over the floor across glass and shrapnel alike, a flurry of thrown elbows and fists and claws and twisting legs seeking some sort of high ground. At one point, Aria ended up over top of Karma, pinning her to the floor, her hands grasping at the front of Karma's shirt to pick her up and slam her back against the debris strewn floor over and over.

Talk about a brain rattler.

Karma's vision blurred but no so much that she couldn't make out the burning gaze glaring angrily down at her. She reached up, her hands trying to pushed against Aria's face.

"It's time to come home." Aria said through gritted teeth, pulling Karma's torso up from the floor once more.

It allowed Karma's hands to touch the fiend's face for the three heartbeats it took to speak the words, "Let light rise out of the darkness."

White flame enveloped them both, spreading from Karma's fingertips down her arms, over her body and Aria's alike to shroud them in the blinding brilliance of a spell seldom used but known like the back of her hand. Or the palm of her hand, more specifically. The enochian sigils that so often sat inert etched into her palms were a blinding gold, spreading the cleansing flame of the heavens across them both. It stung for Karma, an unfortunate side effect of any non-celestial blood or influence within her, but it was nothing compared to that which Aria felt.

The infernal elf screeched and let Karma go, violently flailing away from the flame like a vampire might from the sun. Karma advanced, her hands lifted, face bloodied, gait uneven. But she didn't have to be strong or balanced here, all she had to do was pour the brilliance of the heavens into the room around them, filling the hallway with golden light and white flame that licked at anything with even a hint of the infernal. Light poured from the windows, lighting up the early morning of Battlefield Park's otherwise serene winter landscape. A few of the specters outside shied away from the cleansing light but others seemed drawn to it like moths to flame.

Karma paid them little heed, reveling in Aria's screams until the screams became hisses and gurgles, and soon, an echo of what was as the fiend was banished back to the pits of Hell. Hopefully for awhile, at that.

"Send my mother my regards." Karma exhaled the words and dropped her hands. The light died, the flames sputtered out, and the gold sigils in her hands turned red and then white as they too died down. Bleeding and likely concussed, she was alone once more, left to survey the damage to the hall. Armor shattered and broken, glass like new fallen snow all over the floor, bubbled and peeling paint on the walls and ceiling. It would take hours to clean it up.

"Aren't you glad I said to duck?" Came the spectral whisper in her ear.

"For once... yes." Karma sighed and went to get a broom.

[Strawberry]

Chapter Eight

“O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall?”
― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, the Purgatorio and the Paradiso

Preparations made, backups to backups to backups, all in place and waiting on the pull of a single metaphorical trigger. It would be so very easy to go into Hell with guns blazing in a bid to cause as much chaos as she could manage in as little time as heavenly possible. Shock and awe, tactics torn from the book of a love long gone. No. It wouldn't do. For this, this most important of meetings with the Archlord Prince of the Second Circle of Hell, nothing short of cats paws and the pinnacle of diplomacy would do. A slip of word or blade in the wrong direction would spell not just her downfall but that of anyone dumb enough to align with her on this fool's errand. To think that anyone would have the audacity to march into the second layer of Hell to demand an audience with its warden was... audacious.

Read also: Nobody does such a thing.

But not just anyone could claim bond by blood to the overseer. Duchess, they called her, both derisively and with envy. Karma had ventured into the infernal realm so often as she grew up that anyone who was someone knew who she was. Would you believe that even Hell has socialites? But just as Karma had reached an acceptable age to join the circuit of hedonistic decadence, she simply... disappeared. Rumor spoke of an extended sabbatical, a trip to an outer realm, and even a falling out with her mother. But with the announcement of a betrothal between the Duchess and the eldest son of one of the most eminent families in the upper circles, it seemed all was well.

A triumph, the wayward daughter of the Second would return at last to grace the abyssal realms with her beauty, her body, her power.

It was perfect. Not a soulless soul would suspect this level of treachery. They were too entrenched in what this unholy union would mean for the power structure of the Nine Hells. Leave it to a former warlord of the Seventh to orchestrate such a thing. Purgatory through the Second, joined by marriage and eventually offspring. Brilliant.

And then there was Karma. The seconds, minutes, hours dragged, but the days were stolen from her just the same, ripped from her grasp with unceremonious abandon. Each one served as equal parts nail in the coffin and sand grain through a countdown hourglass, closing the door upon a chapter of uncertainty and sounding the war drum cadence for a march to freedom.

Or doom.

It could go either way to be honest.

Either way, Karma was prepared. Her dealings on the Isle were managed, the event planning business was put on auto-pilot with direction to refer to Jaycy if things went south. Beyond that, what did she have?

Oh, she said goodbye to the brownies in the closet and assured them that she would return in due time. From there it was just a matter of waiting and once waiting filled, a further delve into the abyss would follow. So, far in the corner of Paradiso's property, she set the stage. Thin obsidian pillars, polished to a glossy shine, were placed at equal intervals in an octagon around a circle burned into the dirt. Pig's blood (sourced from a butcher's shop rather than directly, it unfortunately had to be real just the same), filled shallow divots in the blackened dirt, staining it with red rivers no more than a fingertip deep to form channels of three separate layers of runes and arcane marks. One to open the door. One to keep things from coming through. And one as a failsafe that would implode the whole damn thing if the second layer failed.

Call it an insurance policy.

Some part of her felt guilty for constructing such an infernal abomination on the property that was supposed to be her and Caleb's slice of peace. Bringing this so close to home was unsettling but an unfortunate necessity. Few places were as secure as Paradiso and even fewer would be okay with her blowing a crater the size of a truck into their land. So here she was, at daybreak with a cup of coffee and a bucket of pig blood like it was any other day at the office. Heavily wooded as the land was, only the barest cracks of rose gold had spread the first fingers of light through the forest, making the morning mist shimmer like faerie dust. It would have been peaceful if it weren't for the threads of black that seemed to web outwards directly overhead, inky tendrils of coalescing energy that could easily be seen from any point on the property and likely even further than that.

Time was running out.

Or more precisely, the time she was waiting for was fast approaching. The perfect alignment of space and time to make the jump between realms near flawless, a simple pass through the veil between the here and the there. It also meant it would be the moment least likely to be detected by the sentries that monitored the edges of the abyss. Few people got in. Fewer people got out. By birth-rite, she could have just as easily strolled right through the grand gates of Purgatorio with little issue. But taking Caleb was another story and she knew that this of all things was not an endeavor he would stand back and let her do on her own.

You don't have to do this alone. You could take others too, you know.

Some of ShadoWeaver's last words to her, limned with concern. Karma rubbed at her sternum, missing the comforting weight of the opal that had been suspended there. A month now it had been gone, but its absence was no less felt than the day she lost it.

'It wouldn't do to endanger others. This isn't their fight to fight and I have no right to ask them to risk their lives for me to plead my case. Hell, if I had it my way, Caleb would stay here too.'

ShadoWeaver had little to say to that, but the weighty silence spoke volumes more than words ever could have. Craning her neck, Karma peered up at the sky, watching the spread of midnight across the morning twilight canopy overhead. An hour, give or take, she estimated, nodding as she looked down at her handiwork. It was as close to pristine as possible but she warded it just in case to prevent any passing creatures, wind, or other disturbances from ruining it before she got back. Then with a soft sigh and a look toward the direction of the ranch house, she stepped through the break in reality to return home and make her last preparations.

The thrum of power vibrated around her as she crossed the threshold. No matter what may come, the house would always be a sanctuary. It was a small comfort in the grand scheme of things, especially in the wake of an ominous painting she had received from her mother depicting the entire place up in flames. Since then, they had fortified and reinforced every inch of the place. It was practically a fortress when all was said and done.

Her first stop was the office, a place seldom used save for sparing Governor business and as a cozy place to read. It was neat and tidy, the laptop on the desk closed and squared to the edge. A lamp on the desk glowed with a soft, warm light, illuminating a quartet of envelopes. In looping, feminine handwriting, each bore a different name.

Angela.

Morgan.

Max.

Caleb.

Karma eyed them for a long moment, caught in the reverie of what each one meant. Pieces of herself, apologies, bequeathing of property or business. Loose ends tied into neat bows.

A soft squeak behind her broke her moment and with a curl of her lips and a tilt of her head, she looked over a shoulder to the raccoon in the hallway. Standing on his back legs, Bandit carried a red, yellow, and blue speak-and-spell in his hands. Tiny raccoon digits poked buttons before holding the toy up as it announced; "Leaving?"

"Just for now, lil one. Don't you worry, I'll be back before you know it." She turned and knelt down in front of her fuzzy boy, her fingers curling to scratch him under his lifted chin. He nuzzled her hand as she bent further to peck a kiss to the top of his head. "You be good while I'm gone and keep the rest of the menagerie in line, okay?"

Bandit squeaked again, something she could only hope was an affirmative. While remarkably intelligent, as far as she could tell, he was still just a common mundane raccoon.

She gave him another squeeze then rose up, inhaling deeply and starting up the stairs to the upper level. Between Karma and Caleb, the Paradiso armory was... impressive and surprisingly practical. While there was an assortment of weapons meant more for show, the vast majority were one hundred percent functional. She assumed Caleb likely knew how to use more of them than she even realized, a fact she appreciated in the moment as she donned armor made of stygian iron chainmail. It fit like a glove, perfectly formed to the curves of her body. The real touch though was the press of her hands against her torso. Glamour twisted and curled around the mail until it seemed to be nothing more than a plain black long sleeved shirt without so much as a bulge or crease to indicate the armor beneath.

A similar process was completed for leggings and shoes and when it was said and done, she stretched and twisted to ensure everything had fallen into its proper place. Her claw gauntlets were stashed away from view along with no small number of blades and precisely one fully loaded firearm, specially crafted to work properly within the abyssal realms. Beyond that, she looked as if she were going on a run through Old Temple or something. Casual. Nothing to worry about.

Fingertips slipped between the blinds of the nearest window. In the distance, the black in the sky was spreading in defiance of the rising sun.

"I suppose that's my cue..." She turned away from the window and went to find Caleb.

Caleb wasn't that hard to find. He was in the dojo, which seemed to be his sanctuary.

When Karma had slipped out, Caleb had gotten up and moved to the dojo. There was something about her presence that calmed him, and when she wasn't around, there was an almost edge to his nerves. Like he knew something was going to happen soon, and was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Minutes passed into hours and Caleb just kept the pace up, if not increased it. Going first through katas of various styles. Starting first with the unarmed: Karate, Taekwondo, Jeet kune do, Jujitsu, Aikido. Then moving on to the weapon styles: Philippine Cane, Kendo, 5-style, then finally into his own. A style which seemed to mesh different others martial arts, but blended more to the blades he was seen using; the sickle claws.

He wasn't sure what pulled him out of the trance he had worked himself into through the hours.. a feeling, a smell, a sound. But Caleb knew when Karma was back and the weight lifted a little from him. He slowed the paces until he found himself kneeling before the opened doors, as if welcoming in the new day with respect and peace.

Then that weight fell heavy on his shoulders once more as he stood and saw the spreading of a black sky.

Karma looked almost apologetic as she stepped into the sanctum of the dojo. It was a place of quiet solace for him and that peace had been so hard fought that she was loath to steal even a fraction of it. Her fingers curled against the bottom hem of her armored shirt, worrying away her anxiety so that when she finally made it to him, she wasn't overly fidgety. Her gaze followed his before coming back to his face with a tight smile.

"Don't mind that... just sort of an inevitability with the wards I placed." She sheepishly rubbed at the back of her neck before invading his personal space to steal a hug and a kiss. Leaning back, she looked up at him, serious but determined. "How long might it take you to get ready? I think our window to leave will be opening in the next thirty minutes and will remain that way for... eight? Nine tops."

As Karma came close, he turned to give her his attention, returning the hug and kiss, even if he was soaked in sweat. Caleb watched her with a critical eye, and noted how the clothes she wore didn’t move as normal fabric would. It laid heavy. That crooked grin came and he set another kiss to her.

“Give me ten minutes to shower and dress. I’d ask if you would want to join…” he left the statement lingering, almost like a question.

A smile caught her lips to go with the shade of ruddy pink that caught the crests of her cheeks but she shook her head just the same.

"I should've come to steal you away earlier if that was the case. I've got a few things to take care of before we go though but I'll walk with ya back to the house?" She offered, turning a hand palm up to him. Sometimes it was the little things that made the difference.

There was that tugging smile that she always seemed to got and he set his hand into hers. Caleb moved with Karma back to the house and they approached the hall that would lead to the shower, he leaned over and gave another kiss and let her go. It wasn't that he was being over affectionate. At least, that isn't how Caleb saw it. But there was still a feeling, and he wanted to make sure she knew how much she was loved.

The shower was a quick one, though with the steam that poured from it, one would think he had stepped into a sauna. But he had already worked the muscles out and he didn't want them to lock up with a cold shower. Not with him going to be needing them soon. So the shower came and went, and then Caleb was dressing in business attire... black on black on black. The duster that came out was the one she had provided. Caleb had it worked on and modified, not to just hold more than it should, but it also had some protections woven into it, and placed upon it. He had tested some of those protections out while fighting those magic fights, and they seemed to have worked out.

The sickle claws were already on and settled into place. Daggers were drawn and sharpened quickly before they, too, were placed around his body. Potions and salves were next, and found their way into various pockets sewn into the inner lining of the duster. Then, finally, Caleb stepped to the two swords that he had been working with, though he hadn't taken to the fights. They were not meant for the fights. They were meant for war. Pieces of the opals had gone into making these, and he was still unsure of how they would react around their whole parts. So he had kept them away, even from that black rock when Karma had held it. Picking the two blades up, he slid them into slots that were made for them into the duster, leaving the handles sticking just above his shoulders, one on each side.

With a shrug to make sure everything was settled, he turned and moved to find Karma.

Of all places, she was in the library. Well one of them at least. She seemed to be flipping through page after page of a thick leather bound tome but with the way her eyes traced seemingly every line and every diagram, it was quite possible it was more than just a skim. Though she heard him come to find her, she didn't call to him immediately, instead standing in the middle of the main aisle turning page after page after page after page, flip, scan, flip, scan, flip, scan, flip. Most pages were endless text. Others seem to bear runes and elaborate markings that bore an eerie resemblance to the inert white markings she bore on the palms of both hands. Her foot, clad in a sturdy soled boot with a minimal heel, tapped out a cadence that matched the pace at which she worked through the tome.

It wasn't until she reached the last page and snapped the rear cover shut that she looked up his way, her smile serene. "Ready for this?"

Caleb had found the isle she had claimed, but he didn't intrude. Books were something he didn't intrude on when they were in her hands, and this one in particular seemed to be of importance.

When she looked his way and closed the book, there was that crooked grin. "Always."

Having taken everything she needed from it, the book was left behind in favor of taking Caleb by the hand to lead him out. The house was re-warded, doors locked, grounds secured. Even the tower in the distance was locked tight against any sort of intrusion. The walk back to the rune circle was an introspective one during which Karma didn't say much. She didn't seem to be spacing out or lost in thought either though, rather she kept a firm hold on his hand and seemed to take in every detail of the lay of the land as it passed.

Like it was the first time seeing it.

Or perhaps the last.

When at last they reached the edge of the octagonal clearing, she slowed to a stop just outside of the perimeter formed by the obsidian pillars. It put them twenty feet from the circle itself but the iron laden tang of blood in the air was easy to catch even from afar. She licked her lips and took a deep breath.

"I'm likely drastically over-prepared and this will go off without a hitch, but just in case it doesn't, everything should be set on this side to prevent anything except you and I from returning through the gate. Mind your step as we go in though. You can follow my footsteps exactly and be just fine if you want. On the other side, we shouldn't need to be on immediate guard but, uh, it's sorta literally Hell, so better safe than sorry. I'll need nine seconds to shield the gate behind us during which it will take the entirety of my focus to properly hide it. Just keep that eagle eye sharp during that time, okay?"

Caleb stood there at the edge of the clearing with her, letting his gaze move over it.

Yep, it didn't mean anything to him, but he still studied it. But when she started to speak, his attention was drawn to her. "There is no such thing as being over prepared. And I am your shield." It was simply said, but the meaning in those words were anything but.

"This entry point will be best for going unnoticed. We'll avoid whatever engagement may come our way since I can clear us to the next space pretty quickly once we're in. Goal is to avoid direct interaction until then." So diversionary tactics until she said otherwise. Karma took a slow, deep breath, her hand tightening on his for the three heartbeats it took, before letting go to step forward. She fell into the space in front of him and led with careful steps first across the clearing and then gingerly over the circle's edge. As she did, the pooled blood in the divots began to hum, buzzing with stirring power but unlike more benevolent connections that felt like electricity, this was the buzz of angry hornets on a hot day, swelling to a din around them as they entered the ring. An otherworldly glow began to emanate from the charging runes until the door opened before them. Circular save for where it cut into the earth at the bottom, it was a hellfire red and glowed like an ember. Beyond, smothering heat rolled in foul smelling waves. Karma stood back by two to three feet and looked back to him with a wry smile. "Smells like home."

He followed her steps, without even looking where she stepped. His attention was going all around. From the moment they left the clearing, he had set every muscle in his body ready to react if and when it was needed. Then as she stopped, he turned his gaze to the door and that which was beyond. "Let's welcome ourselves in then."

And welcome they did. Karma held her breath and took the first step, the second, and then the third, crossing the threshold in one fell swoop. From the nipping bite of Rhydin in the dead of winter to the sweltering heat of the under layers of the abyss. They were in the In Between, a gap between circles where sentries patrolled but otherwise was not touched by the powers that be. She ushered Caleb through and then with one scanning glance, turned back to the portal so that she could ward it and hide it from the view of prying eyes.

Nine seconds.

Hold your breath.

[Strawberry]

Chapter Nine

“Thus you may understand that love alone
is the true seed of every merit in you,
and of all acts for which you must atone.”
― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Volume 2: Purgatorio

Caleb didn’t hold his breath, but it did slow as she turned his back to Karma, softly and silently moving back a few steps so that his back was almost touching hers. Those eyes of his were constantly moving, scanning everything he could see. But it wasn't just the eyes that were looking.

He had learned long ago that not everything would come at you seen. Sound, taste, touch... even feeling. All were on display and were working as he sought to make sure Karma's back was covered during the time she was working.

One... two... three…

A pin could have dropped and it would have been louder than her quiet ministrations.

Four... five... six…

The hellscape that sprawled before him was a twisted echo of what was and what could be. A million possibilities ready to be plied to an individual sinners' worst nightmares. Sometimes Karma wondered what it looked like for each person as they came, but few saw the spaces between. This wasn't quite limbo or purgatory, it was simply... dead space.

No pun intended.

Seven... eight... nine…

Karma's meticulous planning and research had paid off. Without incident or notice, the gate to the clearing dimmed and then seemed to melt away. Only the most astute eye would be able to see the seam in the veil, the tiniest hint that all was not solid. But only she and Caleb would be able to pass through. As it did, she turned around to face him, pressing her index finger in a quiet motion over her lips before gesturing to their right; the path of least resistance through which they should be able to proceed to the second circle without ever touching the first.

For Caleb, it was a testament to Karma's teachings, or perhaps what he had already lived through, but the scene that played before him was just razed buildings. A war either come and gone, or a war to come. Smoke still rolled from some of them and there might have been echoes of screams off in the distance. Whatever it was, Caleb didn't let it touch him or disturb the quiet that settled in and around him.

When Karma turned, he gave the slightest of nods and turned to the right, moving towards what was to come, or what had already been.

Much as she wanted to hold his hand as they proceeded, she knew she couldn't, pushing the urge out of her mind in favor of keeping both his hands and her hands free in the event of emergency. The gap between was traversed with minimal incident but the gate to the place where no thing gleams was blocked.

"Oh ho ho, what have we here?" A booming baritone answered Karma's arrival at the front of their procession.

"Minos." Karma spoke with some minor amount of affection for the serpentine King. "How are you this morning?"

"Ahhh, wee Duchess!" Minos uncurled from a neat pose of coiled tail and chiseled limbs seemingly made of marble. The tail moved of its own accord, slithering down and around the pair with abject curiosity until it came to rest behind them, blocking the way from where they had come. Minos leaned to peer around Karma at Caleb. "And a fresh soul for confession."

"Not today, Minos. We are here to speak with my mother and this mortal is my ward. There will be no confession today." She said, doing her very best to ensure her voice didn't shake.

"No confession? Are you certain?" Eyes as dead as night, and blacker still than that, bore into Caleb as if weighing the merits of what she had said. "Would you like to confess your sins?"

Caleb stood there quietly as he looked upon the creature. He knew the tail was behind them, but didn't make a move in one direction or another. Instead, silence was his answer, and a quiet mind.

"See, I told you, silly." Karma affected all the careful lackadaisical nature of a girl bringing her boyfriend to meet the parents. She even threw her hair over her shoulder for effect.

Minos continued to study Caleb for a long moment before letting out a disappointed chuff that rattled the scales of his tail. "Very well. Give your mother my best."

The tail retracted and the doors behind Minos opened. He didn't move, but it gave them a wide berth around which to traverse the entry.

Karma looked back to Caleb as they crossed the threshold. "So far so good, yeah?"

He moved when she did, stepping past the guardian of the door. He didn't look Minos' way, nor did he look back. It was as if Caleb had already dismissed him... but that didn't mean he didn't keep his senses in full throttle. He didn't trust anyone or anything here, with the exception of Karma.

When she spoke, Caleb looked to her and gave her that crooked grin and a nod. "Like walking into a club in the Dark Night."

"That sounds like fun. Maybe we should do that sometime." She reached for his arm to give it a squeeze before letting her hand far away before she gave in to the need to hold on to him. The gates to the Second Circle closed behind them and immediately they were assailed by a burning wind whipping across the plain and over the cliffs upon which they stood. The souls below were blown back and forth, to and fro in an endless dance of tempestuous contempt, doomed to never indulge their carnal desires again. Karma was just about to make a comment on it when she turned back to the edge only to feel the kiss of cold steel against her throat just beneath her chin.

"To walk so brazenly through the front door..." A masculine voice tutted, prompting Karma to snort.

"On your nine, Caleb." Rather than answer the one pointing a rather wickedly sharp blade, she instead pointed out where the man's inevitable counterpart would have been. Sure enough, from the smooth stone of the cliff appeared a horned fiend wearing heavy armor. He bore two blades, one of which was raised but not close enough to Caleb to do anything. Yet. "Seth'tach, this is no way to greet guests."

"Implies there's a guest list. Whatcha think this is, a Pit club?" The one Karma called Seth'tach spoke, grinning, the blade still raised to her throat. Her hands raised slowly, as if to show she was unarmed.

"Too dusty for a Pit club. I've come to speak with my mother." She said firmly.

"She's not in." Seth answered.

"And you just happened to be sitting here waiting for me to show. In that case, you can be our escorts to the Gilded Lily where we can wait for her return, aye?" Karma suggested, tilting her head in just such a way it forced the blade to shift slightly, pressing harder against her flesh. "If I walk in there wearing my own blood, there will be the Ninth to pay, you know that."

Caleb took his lead from Karma. She knew the place. She knew the people. But when that blade came to her neck, those muscles tightened and were ready to move. If it were not for the tone in which she was using, he might have moved.

Instead, Caleb turned his too calm of a gaze from the one who was speaking with Karma to the one on their left, watching quietly... waiting to see how this would play out.

As Karma leaned forward, Seth'tach pulled back, just enough to keep his blade at the ready but not enough to injure her. She was right, even an errant nick would draw their lady's ire no matter how she felt about her daughter presently. Silence reigned for a long period, a staredown ensuing as it seemed each side tried to see if the other was bluffing. Finally, Karma smiled.

"Kirzu, how's the husband and spawn?" She asked without looking toward the dual bladed demon to Caleb's left. He answered in a guttural tongue, the words rumbling like rocks in a tumbler. Karma huffed a little snicker. "Yeah... they have a way of doing that. Now would the two of you escort us to the Lily?"

"Not with the mortal in tow." Seth'tach shook his head, his blade steady.

"I think you forget I too am a mortal." Karma corrected.

"Not in the same sense. He can't enter this realm." Seth again barred the way, shifting his broad body to stand between her and the path leading down to the windy valley.

"He is my charge and under my protection. By the Accords, he is to stay with me until we both leave and you are to grant us passage. If you will not escort us, you will step aside and allow us to proceed unhindered." It was here that it was evident how Karma had come to be Governor. Though she had campaigned on a platform of parties and fun, her early diplomacy lessons had not gone ignored and she held herself with a regal sense of importance that refused to wither in the face of fire and steel.

"I'm under express orders--"

"Fuck your orders. Move." Karma interrupted and made a bid to press by. Seth'tach pulled back on his blade but not before it nipped a thin cut just below Karma's chin. With the pinprick welling of arcane blood, it was all the excuse she needed to act, bringing a foot up between the demon's legs to force him back before ripping free an unseen blade.
High on the cliff overlooking the endless windstorm of the Second, all proverbial Hell broke loose.

Caleb was in motion as soon Karma's foot started it's ascent. Those taught muscles threw him towards the one on the left, and those hands were already pulling the twin sickles from their resting place.

Distance might have been a factor, but he hoped that being a 'mortal' would play to his advantage, in that the two bladed demon wouldn't think him a threat. Typical people didn't train the way he did, and they certainly didn't have the abilities he had honed. That, and Caleb was betting that the demon was concerned over what Karma had just done to his partner.

As those blades came out and he closed the distance, Caleb lowered himself and kept the sickles running along his forearms. If he got there before the demon realized his mistake, Caleb was in line to hamstring the creature. One couldn't move as well if they couldn't walk.

The one Karma had called Kirzu wasn't quite ready for the assassin but it took only one blow for him to lurch into action. Caleb's mistake was in thinking he required his feet for motion, as evidenced by the fact Kirzu flickered from existence and reappeared behind Caleb in a bid to bring down one of his blades toward the man's back. From the fluidity of his motion, it was clear that this was no common pitfiend and not even the worst of the assassins that had been sent their way could compare to the grace and ferocity in both demons' battle styles.

Though Kirzu had no hesitation about clashing with Caleb, Seth'tach seemed more hesitant to engage Karma, most likely for the very reason she had mentioned before. To bleed the Archlord's daughter within her own realm would be a death sentence for even the staunchest of allies and Seth'tach didn't want to count himself amongst the fallen even after she drove a radiant blade into his forearm. Flesh sizzled and hissed as the blade split mail, singing the beast and forcing him back further. She advanced, slashing and fending him backwards until she pressed just an inch too far. Seth'tach lowered a shoulder and drove forward, catching her in the sternum and shoving her back toward the cliff wall leading higher from where they were perched. It sapped her breath and made her see stars but gratefully, he didn't inflict further damage, instead turning toward Caleb to see if he could pincer the man between him and Kirzu.

With the momentum, Caleb wouldn't be able to take a sudden turn, not without a foot fall, or potentially breaking an ankle. His gaze followed the man until he vanished, then on instinct alone, Caleb planted and diverted himself, tucking and rolling to the left. He didn't know where the creature had gone, but an open back was where he expected to be struck.

When he came up, those blades were laid flat along his forearms and he was on his feet, crouched down with those muscles coiled and ready to move as he kept his attention on Kirzu, though through the peripheral , he saw Seth'tach move to join.

"Ohhhh no you don't!" Karma yelled, running after Seth'tach to make a running leap at the demon's back. Something to keep in mind, however, was the fact that humanish Karma stacked up to a whopping five foot three, maybe three and a half with those boots. Seth'tach, on the other hand, towered over them both, his head skimming the seven foot mark while his horns were even higher. While Karma had many a preternatural skill, mad hops was not one of them. What she could do however was koala bear the demon, throwing both her arms and her legs around him to hit him with the full force of her weight without the benefit of having her legs under her to support it. He faltered forward, his blade going for Caleb while his free hand swung up to try and pry Karma's grasp away. She let out a laugh and scrambled up his back, climbing him like a tree until she could loop her arms around his head, covering his eyes with one forearm while the other crossed over his neck.

"Ten, two, six." She called to Caleb, indicating the directions to strike and in what order. Six, of course, would be Seth'tach, but Karma had spent far more time around these former Captains of her mother's, she knew how they fought. Ten and two, so predictable. It was a solid bet.

With Karma's words Caleb was moving again. He didn't take a direct approach, in such that he seemed to lope from right to left, never the same distance so as to not become predictable. When the distance between them was minimal, he jerked forward, sliding to the right, bringing the blade forward to strike at the quad. as the blade started to come down, he pulled it in and went upward, jumping to bring the left blade around to strike where Karma first indicated. As that blade started to come back to guard, the right came around and struck the second place she had called out.

He didn't leave anything to chance, not here. So when he pulled that blade back to guard, he planted a foot at six (or near enough) and started to use it to push himself back.

He connected the moment Kirzu reappeared, the blade digging hard into the demon's flesh between the plates. One, two, Kirzu let out a snarl of pain. The demon countered with a double swipe of his blades, looking to connect with the human man's gut and chest respectively. Meanwhile, Karma jerked back hard on Seth'tach's head, throwing off his balance just enough that when Caleb pushed back, he had a clean shot at Seth'tach's center of gravity and, more importantly, his throat. But before they could capitalize on the moment, Karma felt a sharp jerk on the back of her armor, yanking her clean off of the demon.

"Come now, all of you. This is no way to treat guests." A deep silken masculine voice spoke out. He held Karma in the air by the back of her shirt like a naughty puppy being scruffed by its mother. She could only hang there, feet swinging futilely several feet above stable ground. The two demons both jerked in response, stumbling away from Caleb as quickly as they could disengage. In passing, Karma kicked a foot out for Seth'tach's backside, connecting solidly. Seth snarled but didn't try to strike back. Just the same, the one holding her hoisted her up higher so she wouldn't be able to do it again.

"Cimmy, this isn't comfortable, please put me down." She groaned.

The man, or more properly the demon, holding her sighed and set her back on her feet but didn't let her go. He was statuesque and where the prior two demons had been ugly representations of the Nine Hells, this one was a work of art. He could have been an angel for how his face seemed carved of black marble, his eyes a burning red akin to her own set against voidblack sclera. Tall, as they all seemed to be, he was easily brushing the seven foot mark and was built like the finest of warriors. With his free hand, he lightly dusted Karma's shoulder off then touched beneath her chin to lift it slightly in order to examine the nick of red in her flesh. "Just a shallow one, you'll be alright."

Caleb's hands came up, the blades laid along the forearms. He knew he wouldn't be able to stop the attack, but he could deflect them.

Then there was a new voice and the attack never came. He didn't release the tension that was coiled within him, nor did he put the blades away. But he did lower his arms slightly as he watched first the two back away quickly, and then he turned his attention to the newcomer... who had Karma.

"As for you two, would you like to tell me why you thought this was a good idea?" The regal demon looked to the two other fiends with an arch of a thick, dark brow.

"We were under strict--," Seth'tach began.
"Spare me the diatribe about orders. Tach, you were reprimanded for insubordination more times than I could count. Do your orders supersede the longstanding agreement that this one is not to be touched?" He let go of her back in order to set a gauntlet clad hand atop her head. Karma made a face, but it was clear that the gesture was a familiar and fond one coming from the demon. "And you, little one. Must you always stir up trouble?"

"You always told me Trouble should be my middle name." She huffed back. The demon chortled, a deep belly laugh, nodding.

"I suppose I did. But come. We've no need to stand up here all eve when there is meat and mead to be had in the hall." He said, lifting his hand from atop her head with two pats before dropping his hand entirely. Turning toward Caleb, he studied the man with a cant of his head, brow still perked. He almost looked confused. "I assume... you are Caleb Feren?"

The familiarity she had with the new.. creature.. let Caleb know he wasn't a threat to her. He watched the interaction between the two for a bit, but still kept an eye on the other two, and this one.

Relaxing wouldn't be the right word, but Caleb did ease a little as he stood when he was addressed. Those blades were not put away, but they lowered a bit more. He didn't turn his gaze away when he was addressed. Instead, he held it. "I am."

"Mm. Not the wisest decision to bring him with you, little one." The demon lord spoke down to her with a concerned frown. Unlike the others, he seemed legitimately worried for her and the man with her.

"Not the wisest decision for mommy dearest to send repeated attempts on his life to the mortal realm, but that didn't stop her. So here we are. Call it a diplomatic envoy on a quest for peace." She said, neck craning to peer up at the ebon skinned noble. "Caleb, this is Cimarron. He and my mother go way back."

Cimarron brought a closed right fist up to his left collar in salute but offered no bow or handshake. Behind him, Seth'tach and Kirzu glowered and it was almost as if Cimarron could feel it. "You two, back to post. You needn't breathe a word of this. I will take these two the last leg."

Karma gave the noble a scrutinizing look as the other two slipped past and faded into the rocks near the gate. "I thought you'd be hostile too, all things considered."

Cimarron turned and began to lead the way down a sloping path down from the cliff to the valley below. Along the way, he shrugged. "I've my reasons. But I am also fond of both you and your mother. If I had it my way, you two would resolve your differences without violence, so if it's peace you seek, then I support you."

Caleb gave the slightest of nods when the introductions were made, then he was following as they moved. He listened as they talked, but didn’t offer anything. What could he offer? I’m here to make sure Karma doesn’t die or I’ll kill anyone who stands in Karma’s way seemed like a stretch, especially since this was her turf (so to speak) and she was the one who was maneuvering them through this. Still, he would do all he could to make sure she was safe and she had her choice in what she wanted to do.

Caleb slid the blades back home after a little while, though his attention never seemed to stop roaming. He was looking at every rock now, thanks to those two.

She gestured for Caleb to walk beside her so they could go together and she wouldn't have him out of her sight. The rocky path was narrow but not so much they couldn't walk shoulder to shoulder. Or shoulder to arm, as it were for their height difference. Idle conversation filled the lulls, nothing of substance though as it seemed both were dancing around something at least conversationally. They reached the bottom of the path without incident and it was there that Caleb would be able to see the sweeping plain of torment up close and personal. Souls of the damned were buffeted to and fro by a burning wind, unable to fight the gales and never able to reach one another. To Karma it sort of resembled tall grass on a prairie in a summer breeze. If tall grass let out mournful moans along the way.

They skirted the edge of the plain until they came upon a golden abode reminiscent of Athenian parthenons. If the Parthenon were built with columns made of stacked souls, one upon the shoulders of another until they held up the angular roof over it all. Marble steps greeted them along with a pair of scantily clad servants, one male, one female, both wearing a white loin cloth and a smile, preternaturally beautiful in all the ways something down here shouldn't be. Karma gave them a simple nod as they neared but waved them off when they offered to get them a drink, something to eat, something else to indulge in. Whatever they wanted could be theirs in an instant. The male pouted when she declined while the female arched a well groomed brow but backed off, leaving Karma to lead the way further inside the gilded hall, a grandiose display of lavish excess in contrast with the suffering of those outside.

Most of the hall was empty, ringed by similar columns to those outside and left open for social events. A long table set along the north side of the room and beyond that, a golden throne. Karma made a face and looked to Cimarron. "Do you know when my mother will be back?"

"I couldn't say for certain, she doesn't exactly keep me apprised of her--"

"Hello Kitten." Sultry, venomous, the feminine voice echoed through the hall and set the hair on the back of her neck standing on end. Karma visibly bristled and turned toward the throne, upon which there was someone sitting where there hadn't been before. Beautiful, towering, the picture of sexuality, the woman was a veritable paragon of power, it nearly rolled off of her in waves. Features cut from granite, full lips, sultry fiery red eyes, the sort of curves that could ruin a man. Her nearly black hair fell about her shoulders like spilled ink or undulating eels. Crowning that mass was a structure seemingly made of bones, twisted into intricate horns that curled about her head. Similar bone seemed to make up her armor, painted red and gold and formed to her luscious frame with accents like shoulder pauldrons made of skulls. She was sprawled upon the throne, one leg crossed over the other and an elbow set to the arm of the chair, her exquisite jaw set to the curl of her palm.

Karma audibly swallowed.

"Hello Mother."

Caleb didn't accept anything, and didn't bother with talking with anyone beyond what he already had. He wasn't going to be caught in some ploy, at least, not the verbal kind. There was a moment though when they passed the fields that he wondered how many he had sent here, and where he would be going. But that was quickly mentally shrugged away as something to deal with when it came.

And it might come soon.

With the two words that came from the throne, and the bristling he saw come over Karma, he turned his full attention on the one who was her threat. He didn't step forward (yet!), but he was ready, just behind Karma's shoulder. Like a shield, or a sword, to be used in her defense. All she need do was draw it.

"I see you have come home at last." The Archdemon spoke with a curl of a grin audible even in her tone. She didn't even bother to sit upright fully as she spoke to them.

"Just visiting, actually." Karma spoke, somehow managing to not let her voice shake.

"And you brought a friend, how quaint." The demoness hummed.

"Fiance. The one you keep trying to have killed." Karma scowled. The woman on the throne let out a throaty laugh and sat up little by little, an undulating unfurling of long limbs sporting sharp claws upon her fingers and unguligrade, goat-like feet fashioned with what appeared to be actual stiletto blades in the heels.

"Potato, potahto, really." The woman flapped a hand and leaned forward to study Caleb over Karma's shoulder. "Does it speak or does it just stand there scowling all the time?"

"He does." Caleb's words were simple when he spoke. He didn't offer anything more, nor did he specify which question he was answering.

But Caleb continued to stand there, watching the one who was now unfolding herself upon the gilded throne. While his gaze may have been upon her, he kept focusing on his peripheral, watching not only the one who brought them here, but the two servants as well. He wasn't sure what to expect, so he prepared for anything.

"Oh you've even trained it to talk, how delightful!" The demoness sat upright fully, clapping her hands together. Behind her unfurled leathery wings that bore wicked claw-like tips. The bat-like feature stretched and fluttered casually but did not spread fully beyond that. "I'm so glad to have you home though, how long will you be staying?"

"Long enough to come to an agreement about what the future looks like." Karma said tersely.

"We've already come to an agreement. I've even been so generous as to give you several weeks leeway to tie up loose ends. Now, kitten, you know that if you wish to keep side lovers, you need only ask. I assure you that your betrothed will not mind." Judging by her tone, it was easy to tell she did not mean Caleb.

"Only one problem with that, Mother." Karma countered. The woman on the throne arched a brow, her smile lingering but not quite reaching her eyes.

"And that is?"

"I'm not going to let you stall long enough to call in your backup." She had noticed that Cimarron had taken his leave rather than lingering to see the outcome and Karma could only assume that he was in the process of returning with enough force to punctuate the Archlord's request. "I come as a diplomatic envoy and we will sit at this table as equals to find amenable turns or I will be within my right to demand satisfaction."

It was a bold play, to demand a parlay or a fight. Karma was hinging her hopes on her mother not wanting to fight her own daughter, so as she rose up from her throne, lifted first by her wings then carried by knife ended feet, Karma waited with baited breath to see which way the coin would fall. One step, two step, three step, four, the Archlord made her way down to the bottom of the dais, her gaze burning into her daughter all the while. After a moment, she raised a hand.

And...

Two chairs pulled away from the table.

"Sit."

Caleb watched quietly as the interaction happened. He didn't move. He didn't react. But he did let his senses flow around him farther than he had been. He didn't know where the gentleman was going, but he wasn't going to be surprised again, if he could help it.

When the two chairs were pulled away, Caleb turned with Karma and followed her. Once she was seated, he took his place behind her. Guard, sentinel, whatever it was that he needed to be... he was. For Karma.

This was what she asked for... so why did she hesitate? Maybe it was defiance. Who knew. But it took her three heartbeats to finally set her feet in motion, crossing the remaining distance with a click-click-click of boot heels on marble floors until she reached the table. She wasn't so audacious that she sat in the head chair, but she did slip into the seat to sit at the edge, her hands settled upon the tabletop.

And to her surprise, her mother joined her a moment later.

"Now." The demoness said. "State your case."

"And you are going to play arbiter?" Karma asked, brow arching.

"There are none so qualified as I for such a task unless you prefer I call in the uth Orays or perhaps my Lord himself." The smile she wore was malicious outright, knowing already what Karma's answer would be.

"Fine." Rock, hard place. Here's Karma. "By virtue of reaching the age of majority and having enough mortal genetic makeup to be beholden to the order of Free Will, I believe the one most suited to make decisions for my future is myself. I have never been a resident of the Nine Hells, only a visitor. Thus I am not bound by the whims of any Archlord of any Circle and can say no to being utilized for political plays, social events, or even family dinners."

"I see... I see..." The demoness hummed before fixing her gaze upon Caleb. "And you, Sinner. What say you of why I should relinquish her to you?"

He would be a fool if he didn't have his attention on the biggest threat in the room, and she happened to be sitting at the table with Karma. But, too, Caleb let his senses continue to flow around him. He didn't trust her, nor what she would do, despite what she said. He had dealings with those in the Long Night enough, and if not them, then the old bastard. He knew words meant little enough.

But when she directed her question to him, he held her gaze as he answered. There was no waiver in his voice, nor was there worry. He had always said he would be her shield, and would be there for what she needed... wanted. Even if it cost him.

"Her... Karma's choice." He made sure to clarify who he was speaking of.

"Yes, yes, choice this, free will that." The woman made a show of loosing a long, exaggerated yawn. "Boring. But taking that from the equation, surely by now you have realized the potential within her. She will ever invite danger into your life and hers. How am I to know that you will not hold her back? Persuade me."

By now, the demoness had taken a lazy lean in her chair, propped on an elbow, the show indolent laziness. Still she seemed intent upon the assassin. "What I have here for her is a match that will ensure her safety until the End of Days, one that will never stand in her way and will instead be an asset to her growth. And you?"

"I am not her keeper. Neither are you. By virtue of Karma reaching the age of majority and having enough mortal genetic makeup to be beholden to the order of Free Will... she has the right to choose what she wants." He didn't speak of her potential, or the danger that would come. He was no stranger to danger, and he saw her for who she was, not what she could be.

"I'm not asking for you to rule lawyer for her, she's capable of doing that for herself." The demoness huffed, petulant as she sat up in her seat to bring her elbows down upon the table. She was still laser fixed on Caleb. "I'm asking you, not as the Warden of this realm, but as a mother. Why. Are. You. Here?"

Caleb, perhaps for the first time, showed something across that stone face. Those eyes might have softened. The mouth might have shifted into a smirk. But he didn't turn his gaze from the one who was asking questions. "I would think you would understand that, as her mother. I have walked into Hell and will face it, if I must."

The Archlord stared at him for a long moment in the wake of his answer but rather than say one way or another what she thought of it or ask him another follow up, she smiled slowly and set her hands down flat to the table top. A look slid back to her daughter. "I should have never let you and your sister go on that trip through that rift, you know that?"

"Shoulda coulda woulda, eh Mother?" Karma said with an arch of a brow. "But at this point, what's done is done and you should cut your losses."

"Family is a loss to be cut?" The demoness tipped her head to one side. That one stung Karma in a way she didn't want to admit. "Of all the things I taught you, I had hoped the one lesson that would stick is..."

Karma filled in the blank. "Familia Supra Omnia. See, that's the thing... in just the same way you cobbled together your chosen family, blood and not, I have too. Me, Raz, Beau. Beau's girl and baby. The man that stands behind me and my fuzzy son, Bandit. My friends, everyone that I have come to love so much. While you and Mom and Uncle John are always going to be my family, eventually you have to let me build my own. It doesn't decrease what we had as a family... think of it not as taking away from our family but expanding it. With a badass, handsome son-in-law and maybe even grandkids someday, that kinda family. And it's not perfect, it never is. But what family of misfits ever could be, you know? But it's mine... so mama... please, if there's one thing I ask of you it is to let me have that."

Her mother sat there in silence, her hands upon the table. She didn't look at Caleb but instead held Karma's gaze to search her daughter's eyes for something. "Know now that if you turn your back on me here then it is a one way walk you will be taking. You will have no home, you will have no mother. If you are okay with this, then walk away. That is the beauty of free will, it is your choice."

Karma blinked a few times, feeling as though every stage of grief washed over her like a tsunami. Stacking the choice in such a way... it wasn't what she expected and while she had come in expecting violence, she hadn't expected to be disowned.

"If you wish to make me a villain in your story, then so be it." Karma said finally at last, pushing her chair out from the table to rise, her hands shaking. "The future is my past, I choose now to make my own way... and I will... always love you." She looked at Caleb. "I think we're done here."

[Strawberry]

Chapter Ten

“Into the eternal darkness, into fire and into ice. ”
― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, the Purgatorio and the Paradiso

Caleb stepped back with her words. He didn’t turn his gaze from the one who sat across from her. There was something.. “As you wish.” Three words. Three words that carried so much more than just the face value to them when he said them. He offered his hand to her to help her stand.

"Make certain you are making the correct choice." Her mother said as Karma rose.

"You forced my hand, I'm not sure what else you expected." Karma said, the heartbreak evident in her voice and the way she looked at her mother. The woman was beautiful, she always had been, but it was clear that her time down here had corrupted her past the point of recognition and though she was beautiful, it was a cruel beauty that Karma swore to herself that she would never emulate. It looked like she had more to say but she took Caleb's hand and stepped away from the table, turning them toward the golden hall's entrance.

To one side of the entrance stood the paired servants and their gilded trays overflowing with fruit and goblets of wine. To the other... Cimarron and a younger man who bore the same ebon skin, though where the elder demon had fiery red eyes, the younger had a deep violet gaze that tracked the couple as they pulled away from the table. Karma faltered but recovered quickly, tightening her hold on Caleb's hand as the distance between them and the men dwindled. As they got closer to the doorway, the younger of the two men stepped just to the side of their path, gesturing for her to wait a moment.

"Lord Oray..." Karma said, words hollow as she slowed still holding onto Caleb like he was her anchor.

"Duchess." The younger man swept a smooth bow that seemed to be not just to Karma but Caleb too. When he straightened, he looked at both of them with a sad smile. "It appears I am too late?"

"Can you be late if you never enter the race?" She asked but there was no venom in her tone. It was almost... apologetic. A small smile crossed the younger demon's mouth, his hand coming up to rub at the back of his neck.

"Alas, that far behind then." He sighed and gave a little shrug. "Then I wish you well, my lady, lord." He offered a hand first to Karma. When she took it, he bowed to bring it for a brief touch to his forehead before releasing it to offer the same hand to Caleb for a shake.

When Karma faltered, Caleb was there to hold her, slowing with her until she found her stride again. Then as she pulled him tighter, he slowed further. There was another threat in the new gentleman who was here, and when he stepped up, Caleb slowed further.

As Karma spoke the name, the piece fit and he understood the threat... Not to Karma, per se, but to himself.

Oray, the one who would be her mother's pick.

He watched as they spoke then when Oray offered his hand to Caleb, Caleb took it. There was no hesitation. He would not show weakness in this place, even knowing full well by taking that hand, he was putting himself directly into the waiting maw of the beast.

Tillianius took the assassin's hand for a firm but remarkably cordial shake. His hands were rough with the sort of calluses afforded by ages of gripping a blade but it wasn't grating when he shook or let go. Instead, he gave the shorter man a wry smile and the roll of a single shoulder. "Do right by her, Sinner. There's Hell to pay if you don't." He took a beat and grinned. "You know, literally. Because it's--"

"I see your jokes are still awful." Karma interrupted with a groan. "But thank you for your well wishes, I do appreciate--"

Crack-bang!

From behind, the thunderous sound split the air with the two shots. The source, a wholly mundane, slightly smoking gun held by the Warden of the Circle herself, leveled precisely for Caleb's back from afar.

Caleb slammed forward, just past Tillianius, as that bullet bore into his back. He had enough mind to both let go of Karma so not to drag her with him, and to twist so not to rush into either of those who were before him.

As the ground rushed to meet him, he tucked and rolled, though there was nothing graceful about it. In fact, there was just enough tuck to not have his face kiss the ground, and the roll was loud and solid. His body didn't want to work and there was no air coming to his lungs. For most people, panic would have set in as soon as they were shot. Caleb came to his feet. It wasn't as quick as one might expect, but he also didn't stay down. The mushroomed bullet fell to the ground with a dull tink as he started to move forward. Those eyes had gone from hazel to steel grey, and his hands moved to the two hilts that peeked over his shoulders.

With Caleb's hand jerked free from her grasp at much the same time the echoing boom registered in her brain, Karma whipped around to raise both hands as if to say stop. The motion brought with it a convex shield in case her mother thought to fire again.

"How dare you." Karma said in a low tone dripping with contempt and righteous indignation. She couldn't turn back to check on Caleb, not with the threat looming so headily over them but she felt him rise and knew he had to be at least mostly okay. "You had your chance to let this end peacefully, but you just can't stand losing, can you?"

Karma took a step toward her mother and then a second, third, fourth. Slow, methodical, a stalking prowl that was almost admirably graceful had it not been so unsettling. "And then you have the audacity as host to attempt to shoot an envoy in the back as he walked away. He was under my protection from the moment we arrived, I declared as much. Is your ego greater than your rules, Mother?"

"You read me so well, Kitten." Her mother's smile was a cruel thing, unapologetic as she shrugged, rolling her eyes. "Drop your shield, pet. You can still spare his life by conceding."

"No." Karma said flatly.

Behind her, Cimarron slipped between Karma and Caleb, an empty hand raised toward the man as if to halt him without threatening him.

The younger woman continued. "In fact, by the Septem Bella compact, you are forfeit in your claim and in trade, I have the right to challenge you for your seat."

At that her mother faltered, blinking, a brow perking slowly as she searched her daughter's expression. "You think so, do you?"

"You ensured I knew the ins and outs and even Hell has its rules. I will give you one last chance to let us go unhindered. What say you?" Karma was still steadily approaching, undaunted. Her mother lifted her chin and spoke a single word that would prove to seal both of their fates.

"No."

It wasn't Cimarron's hand that stopped Caleb. It was Karma's words. He had been around enough fae and denizens of the Long Night. He knew there were consequences of breaking the Laws of Hospitality.

He pulled the two blades anyway and stood there. When it came to these matters, he was sorely at a disadvantage. But he did know that if he had to, if Karma's life was at risk, he would go to war for Karma, and be damned the rules and laws. Standing there, he slowly worked air back into his lungs, forcing them to go through the exercises of pulling air in and pushing it out. It was soothing, in its own way, forcing your body to do something that it should know how to do. It didn't change the eyes, though. Those were still steel grey and focused on the threat before them, and watching for a threat around them.

The two blades in his hands started to.. well, for a back of better words.. bleed. Darkness and shadows coalesced around the one in the right, and started to fall, only to mingle with the watery mist that came from the left. The mixture of the two swirled, almost with a life of their own, around Caleb's feet.

He didn't seem to notice, or at least, didn't care. Not yet at least. He had stayed his hand for now, and the wet darkness didn't ease away from his immediate presence.

"Then I challenge you, Mother. For my family both blood and chosen, I challenge you. To concession or incapacitation, whichever comes first." Karma said, her voice remaining steadfast. In her heart of hearts, she had known it may come to that and it was a statement she had practiced in her head a thousand times. She didn't want to hurt her mother, but if she had to... well... she didn't really have a choice in the matter.

"Such a disappointment you were, Karma." Her mother said with a tut of tongue to teeth to go with the shake of her head. The words bit into Karma's countenance but she kept her head high. Her mother, on the other hand, frowned. "Very well. I accept."

It seemed to be a battle of bluff calling with each side steadily escalating until they stood on a precipice. There was no choosing of weapons, not in a match like this. Where the challenges of Rhydin's dueling circles were so oft restricted to a single discipline, the stakes were much higher here and therefore, it meant the only restriction was lethality, if only by Karma's terms. Death matches were common but for all the pain her mother had caused, some part of her still loved the twisted woman fiercely and wished only for peace and acceptance from her. "Where do you wish to do this?" Karma asked, her shield still raised one handedly while her other sat at the ready for whatever may come. "Where ever the winds take us." Her mother smiled. That... was not a good smile.

Caleb watched quietly as Karma and her mother... discussed things. He wasn't sure what was in mind, but he also didn't want Karma to have to go this alone.

Definitely out gunned and out classed, but that didn't stop him. Caleb took a step forward.

Between Karma and the advancing Caleb slipped a long, exquisitely made blade to bar his way. Cimarron gave the assassin a shake of his head as if to tell him he couldn't continue further but made no move to otherwise engage with him unless he tried to pass the longsword.

At much the same time, a searing gale rolled through the Gilded Lily, whipping Karma's hair into a vibrant maelstrom against a backdrop of opulent gold. She set her feet firmly to keep from being blown over but couldn't help but feel the slight tremoring rumble beneath her feet. Though she knew the rules of engagement when it came to the compacts and agreements that offered some semblance of order and honor to the under-realms, she was still out of her element and untrusting of the woman before her. Even if she was her mother. Outside of the Gilded Lily, the moans of the damned reached a fever pitch as if they knew a storm was coming.

"Go on, Kitten," her mother spoke the moniker with venom. "You wish to stake your claim, then strike!"

Karma hesitated.

That was her first mistake. Beneath her feet, the marble shattered, sending her into a freefall amidst a rain of sand and stone. As she did, she looked up in time to see her mother give Caleb a wink before calling to hand her battle axe. With that, she too jumped into the hole. It felt as though they both fell forever, Karma in an uncontrolled flail and her mother in a graceful plummet until they both crashed into the ground floors below the Lily.

Caleb watched Karma as she fell, and those muscles in his body tightened.

He looked to Cimarron then, ignoring for the first time the larger threat. Caleb did something he wouldn't usually do. He asked a question. "What would you do?"

"In your shoes or in mine?" Cimarron asked, head canted. Tillianius stood behind him by a fair ten to fifteen feet, his hands folded in front of him. Though he was clearly armed, he didn't seem anywhere near poised to grab for his blade. Cimarron, on the other hand, didn't move his blade from Caleb's path. "Regardless of the roles or the rules, my oath has always been to the lady of the circle."

Behind him, Tillianius's mouth twisted into a visible frown before he spoke. "Regardless, father, rules are rules and must be observed."

Down below, Karma was slow to get up after hitting the ground but as she did, she got a look at the place to find that they were in a derelict fighting pit, with steep walls encircling it crowned with a railing over which once upon a time, spectators could have watched. The ground beneath her was stained a red tinged brown. She spat to get the taste of acrid earth out of her mouth. Before she could rise fully, the connection of her mother's boot to her side sent her into a roll. Karma used the motion to twist around and hook a foot for the demoness's knees, connecting hard enough to elicit a sickening crack and unnatural turn of one of her legs. But just as unnaturally, she jerked it back into place and kicked out again for her daughter only to find Karma had scrambled back and away, springing to her feet to shake both hands out. Gunmetal claws extended from her fingertips, a similar metal curling and crawling over her hands and up around her wrists to stop around her forearms. The Phoenix and the Beast, wings and the inferno.

Her mother arched a brow and then let out a laugh. "Oh kitten, you precious thing..."

The clash immediately after could be heard even several floors above in the main hall. A clattering of steel, the impact of metal against flesh, the sound of at least a few broken ribs cracking against the stone wall of the ring.

You know, the usual.

Caleb watched Cimarron for a moment. Tillianius's comment would be a problem, but he would deal with it when it came.

"You understand then." Was Caleb's only answer before that black blade came up, slamming up into Cimarron's blade to deflect it upward before he was darting towards the hole.

As Caleb diverted Cimarron's blade, the larger demon jerked back then spun around, long legs eating up ground toward the hole in the ground to meet the assassin there at the edge. He didn't seem keen on engaging the human in bladed combat, but he was rather deft in how he diverted and played interceptor. Still Tillianius remained behind, hands still folded but keen eyes turned toward the ensuing clash. As the two men came closer to the broken floor, it made dust and debris rain down on the two women below.

In the pit, the rain above coincided with the repeated impact of Karma's fist with her mother's face. Even with their significant height differential, the smaller woman still made a valiant show of each punch, her other gauntlet clad hand tangled in the woman's purple-black hair. Her mistake came when she looked up, hearing a clash of steel above. It gave the demoness the opening she needed and a rising knee caught her in the gut, sending the daughter backwards in an uncontrolled stumble. Like a predator, the fiend pounced, following through with a kick to the chest that sent Karma back into a stone wall. A curl of a talon tipped hand caught her by the throat to pin her against the wall as she leaned in to hiss a sibilant purr into her daughter's ear.

"Concede." A single word, a demand not a request.

"Go fuck yourself." Karma rasped as a burst of pure white light exploded from her fist just as it connected with her mother's diaphragm, sending her flying backwards all the way into the far wall with a crunch of broken stone.

Caleb's steps didn't stop, but neither did they continue forward. For most, it might have broken an ankle with the speed and sharp angle that was forced on the left foot as it slammed down and forced him to the right.

He didn't bring the blades up. Instead, he kept the left close and the right went out just enough to drag an edge to the ground as he turned and began to move around the edge. His pace began to slow as he came around towards the back side.

Above, Cimarron was content to follow the man's lead, pacing him about the jagged edge of the hole in the floor.

Below, Karma wasted no time in advancing on her mother. Claws, fists, boots, and blades, the whirlwind clash was one for the ages. Titan she may not have been, her mother was still a formidable force, so much so that Karma was vastly outgunned. But where Karma lacked in martial prowess, she made up for in pure rage, channeling it into a flare of flame from the fiend-gauntlet to imbue the following punch with an extra kick. It elicited a laugh that echoed all around her and pitched to a twisted warble as it spilled from the maw of the pit. Sucking in a breath, the demoness seemed to breathe in the flame and with an exhale turned it back on her daughter doubly so.

Karma couldn't restrain the cry that spilled from her lips as flame licked flesh, devouring what it could in short order. She threw herself back and away from her mother, rolling to extinguish the fire and keep it from doing more damage than it already had. The scent of burning hair and skin filled her nostrils, overpowering the smell of blood and ichor new and old in the pit. She gagged, swallowing back bile that sought to rise in her throat, and twisted to stand.

By the time she was on her feet, the Archdemon was upon her once more, hammering down blow after blow of the axe. Karma's arms raised to meet the strikes, crossed and braced against the force, for if she didn't the axe would have come down upon her head.

With each, her mother demanded; "Concede!"

And in turn, Karma answered each time; "No!"

The rain of blows intensified and Karma felt the force of them sinking her into the dirt little by little. One knee buckled, forcing her kneel, but still her guard held fast against the onslaught.

Until...

Crack.

The fiend-gauntlet splintered, shattering fragmented metal and flame into the flesh of her arm.

That hurt.

Karma saw only white as pain rippled through her entire arm and into her shoulder. Unbraced, the next blow forced her to drop the phoenix-gauntlet as well. Karma felt light over her shift and closed her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Caleb." She whispered, waiting for the worst to come.

But come, it did not.

Instead, she felt the touch of wickedly sharp claws beneath her chin, forcing her to look up at the woman towering over her.

"Now Kitten, concede and we can laugh about this later." Her mother purred.

"Only thing laughable are your parenting skills." Karma said through her teeth. The claws under her chin snatched at her throat and jerked her to her feet. Karma wheezed as the woman's hand crushed her windpipe and kept her from saying more. Up, up, up, her mother dragged her until her feet were dangling and her mother could see her eye to eye.

"Insolent, ungrateful, brat. I gave you the world and this is how you repay me?" Her mother hissed the words into her face, her breath hot on Karma's face. "You need an attitude adjustment."

Her mother kicked off from the ground and soon both women were airborne as the demoness's leathery wings spread wide and flapped hard to push them up toward the maw of the pit. The Archdemon landed on the opposite side from where the two men played keep-away with their blades, though she still held Karma over the hole by her throat.

"Lay your blades down, Sinner. This is your only opportunity." The woman snarled at Caleb.

Caleb's pace slowed as he watched the two as they ascended.


As Lilith spoke, the shade of his eyes shifted, lightening away from the dark grey towards the more hazel.

I can't lose her. There's no way I can beat this. I'm just a man, and she's... whatever the fuck she is. I fucking hate magic. Fuck.. fuck.. FUCK!

His pace continued. His body was moving on his own as his mind dove down the rabbit-hole of despair.

What can I do? Am I fast enough? Could I do it? I do have.. but no, I don't think even that would work. Then what about the guy following? I still have to deal with him too. One is impossible... two, well, might as well plan to kill all gods while I'm at it.

The grip on both blades didn't loosen, however. Even as he clawed in his mind around worries and questions, his grip didn't give.

Continued he did as he moved around, until he came full circle a final time, then he stopped. As he did so, those hazel eyes sought Karma and there was a smile that found his lips.

"I'm sorry."

Then those eyes turned to find Lilith and they grew stone grey once more, and that smile twisted. To say it was more feral wouldn't be right, nor even to say it was crazy wasn't right either. But it was off.

"No."

No, I won't lay my blades down. No, this isn't my only opportunity. No, I will not give in to you. No, I will not doubt, question, or worry anymore. She has given me more than I could ever ask, and fuck anyone who says otherwise.

His hands shifted just a moment on those blades, finding a better grip with them, and as he did so, fog started to pour from one while the other seemed to start to bleed black mist.

If I die, then I die. But I won't back down, and I won't back away. Fuck it. I've had a better life than I deserve, and she's given me a chance I thought I'd never have again.

Those muscles in his legs started to coil and he started to move again, preparing to jump.

Mist and fog hissed and twisted, mixing and mingling with the roiling heat mirage plumes that curled their way up from the marble floor. Dry winds howled through the gilded hall, the picture of opulence amidst a desolate landscape of despair. It served the chaos well and obscured the crooked teeth of the pit and made for precarious footing anywhere near the hole in the floor. Far below, the distant tink-thunk of falling stone was the only indication for those gathered near just how close they were to a long fall.

Cimarron's towering form cut through, a cleaver breaking the mist in the form of his broad frame and the turn of the longsword as he whirled with a dancer's fluid grace and warrior's precision into place to intercept the human assassin lest he get too close. But even Cimarron, steadfast, loyal Cimarron, with his unerring devotion to the Lady of the Circle could not help but slide the barest of side eyes toward the Archdemon, unsure of just how far she would take her quarrel with her daughter. A daughter she had never asked for, but had devoted herself to just the same, taking every opportunity she could to protect and love and nurture the made child even as she grew and became her own person.

It was all the hesitation needed to let the man slip by, some sort of subconscious desire to not see the demonlord destroy her kin winning out over the need to protect that which needed no protection.

Karma's head swam as she tried to keep track of it all. The crush of too strong fingers around her throat, the unsettling depth beneath her dangling feet. The skidding of boots on marble, the weight of her own armor as it hugged her frame, not quite rising high enough to protect her throat from the vice grip around it. Stygian chainmail, formed of the very elemental metals mined from this realm. Supernaturally strong, unyielding. The inferno gauntlet may have been enough to break links and sear flesh by virtue of the hellfire within and the shattering of the wards, but it should be just enough...

Just enough to get her the moment she needed to break free.

The fall may kill me... But at least it would be on my terms.

With no pact to protect her soul, a misstep ending in fatality was a permanent end this time. There's no coming back, there's only whatever comes next. So I guess we just won't die this time.

Right?

One hand kept hold on her mother's hand, trying to pry fingers from her throat. The other, balled into a fist and swung. Not to connect the fist to her mother's head, but rather the broadside of her forearm in hopes of crashing stygian mail into the demoness's cranium. Against lesser foes, it could have caved their skulls and made mince of soft flesh.

The Archdemon of the Second Circle was no lesser foe.

Akin to swinging into a steel wall, the stygian mail bent and shattered with the connection, fracturing in a way that could have only been influenced by its proximity to its Maker.

"Oh, Kitten." Her mother said, pity and malice twisting words into mockery. "When will you learn..."

Malleable metals worked by masterful hands would always be beholden to the hands that crafted them.

Karma felt her armor tighten, squeezing around her like a python. Not so much as to crush her but more than enough to display just how badly she had fucked up.

"You never have appreciated my gifts..." The Archdemon crooned in soft tones, a lullaby in another time, a funeral dirge in the here and now. The flicker of twin flame gaze to match Karma's own cut away to Caleb's motion.

Cimarron's hesitation, a betrayal in its own right. The once beautiful visage of her mother's face contorted with rage as she looked back to her daughter. Hatred, panic, fear, sorrow, it poured from the woman in palpable waves but the tightening of stygian mail around her rib cage told her the waves of emotion would not bring Karma relief.

Wait, why do I hear the rending of metal?

"My lady, no!" Too far to intervene but close enough to see what was happening, Tillianius could only watch in abject horror as the Lilith struck her blow.

What is this pressure in my chest?

Despite her front row seat, Karma was the last to know.

Like butter, infernal fingers plunged into the metal of her armor, twisting into her torso and pulverizing the bone cage beneath.

Bitter metal, like sucking on a battery. No, that's the taste of blood.

The landscape went white, tunneling Karma's vision and fading out everything except the increasingly distant thud of her heart.

Dissociation is a hell of a coping mechanism…

The pressure was suddenly relieved with an accompanying wet squelch and the sapping of her breath. Like someone had poured cement into her lungs, she found herself unable to gasp, to cry out, to do much save for move her mouth wordlessly over shocked syllables, confusion writ in the knit of her brows and the tug of her lips. Still held by the throat, she couldn't look down at the spasming organ in her mother's clawed hand, spilling vitae through fingers like sand.

The sickening squish of talons piercing and collapsing her heart reached her ears as the last of her consciousness faded, the magmatic light in her eyes dimming, a flame extinguished, the match of her mother's own no more.

Plated boots in motion, Tillianius rushed through the fog and mist. Cimarron stood rooted in place, his blade lowered and his eyes upon the lady of the circle as she cast her daughter's heartless body aside onto the marble, the smallest grace afforded in lieu of dropping her into the pit. The dull thud and lack of movement said it was a hollow grace, lost on unhearing ears.

The wicked winds died down, leaving only fog and black mist to linger, a far cry from instants prior where it seemed a veritable hurricane may take shape within the halcyon halls of the Lily.

Heart in hand, the duel concluded.

The Usurper reigned supreme.