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Monsters and Shadows [M]

Started by DragonSong, July 15, 2017, 07:47:38 PM

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DragonSong

Lily felt her knees shake as the assassin climbed through the window, and once he was gone she collapsed beside her bed, a powerful relief pounded through her.

"In- in here!"

The guard burst into her room, probably alerted by the panic in her voice. He saw her kneeling beside her bed, clutching at it for support, and his eyes widened. "My lady, what-"

She pointed to the window and he looked. His eyes widened when he saw the spike still lodged in the wall.

A very tiny flash of vindictive satisfaction pulsed through her. "Do you believe me now?




The contact who'd been sent to hire the assassin was waiting, pacing anxiously around the tiny room where he'd been told to meet with the man once the job was done. What was taking so long? One defenseless girl shouldn't be that hard to kill, surely?

Skwint

Black Skull burst into the room where he was to meet his contact and immediately zeroed in on him.

"You have some explaining to do," Black Skull growled. "You sent me to kill a monster. That's not what I found. What did that woman do that she is to be killed?"

DragonSong

Vareth was a seedy little man quite used to angry, larger men bearing down on him. But Black Skull was...something else. Even he was unsettled.

"Hey, I didn't send you to kill anyone," he protested, raising his hands. "People tell me who they want dead, and I find people like you to get the job done. You have a problem, you have to take it up with the guy that ordered the hit!"

Skwint

"Then tell me who ordered the hit," Black Skull demanded taking a step towards the man.

This man better have a damn good answer, because Black Skull had already made up his mind on killing him where he stood.

DragonSong

Vareth took a few steps back. "Look, I don't take names! You do stuff like that in my business, you wind up dead! B-but I can set up a meeting- you just have to promise I walk out of here alive."




"Mother, truly, I'm alright."

Lily had been moved to her parents room- despite her protests that she didn't need to be babied, she just needed someone to actually try to figure out why an assassin had been sent into her room! Still, she was a little shaky, but she didn't like showing it now that the fear had somewhat abated.

"Oh, my darling, I'm so sorry," Lydia was whispering, continuously petting her hair as she sat on the bed beside her. "We all thought- with your condition, it just seemed that-"

Lily side and resisted the urge to brush her mother's hand away. "I know, Mother, I understand. It's alright, I'm safe. Father's talking to the guards, that- that man won't get in again."

There was a quiet knock at the door, then Jorris poked his head in. His mouth was drawn in a tight line, brow furrowed with worry. "It's nearly dawn. Have you two not slept at all?"

Both women shook their heads and he sighed, coming into the room. "Mother, Father is nearly finished giving his orders; if you rest here, I'll send him up to you." He smiled softly and touched Lily's shoulder almost hesitantly. "I can take Lily to my room to rest. She'll be safe there, I'll even post an extra guard."

It took some convincing, but eventually Lydia agreed and Lily followed her brother back to his quarters.  "I just wish I understood why," she whispered as she slipped into the room after him. She started to move toward the chaise, but he stopped her and nodded toward the bed.

"I can sleep on the chaise, you need a real bed." He smiled and kissed her forehead. "I don't know why this is happening to you, sister, but I promise I'll watch over you, alright?"

She offered a small, rather wan smile and hugged him. "Thank you."

Skwint

"Well, you're going to have to be alive to set up a meeting," Black Skull replied. "Get back to me with a place and time, and it better be legit. I don't think I need to tell you what will happen if I need to find you again."

DragonSong

He nodded quickly as he backed up another step. "I understand, believe me. I'll contact you when I've got something."




The next few days were tense. No amount of questioning or threatening any of the likely suspects yielded information as to who may have put a hit out on Lily. And her family was more hyper protective than ever- she wasn't even allowed to leave the manor, let alone the estate grounds!

As terrified as she had been during the experience, she was starting to get very tired of their fussing, very quickly. She wanted to know what exactly had happened more than any of them, but she didn't want one night to control the rest of her life! They already treated her like some fragile little doll due to the fainting spells, this was just...overkill.

Not to mention she couldn't get the man's words from that night out of her head. He'd talked like she'd...done something. Like something had happened when she lost consciousness that actually prevented him from killing her. But she had no idea what.

It was a rather terrifying thought.

To her surprise, Jorris was the clingiest of her family. Her older brother had begun to sort of pull away from her in recent months, and where once they had been close she had felt a growing distance. But now there was hardly a moment when she didn't turn to find him right behind or beside her, constantly hovering and...watching.

It was starting to get unsettling, actually.

So when one day almost a week after the attempted assassination he seemed to just disappear from the manor, she noticed immediately. It was early, barely dawn, but she had been up for an hour or so, retrieving a cup of tea from the kitchen and considering sitting in the library with a favorite book until her family woke.

She hadn't seen Jorris almost all day, so when she caught sight of him slipping down the hall toward the back door to the manor, it certainly caught her attention. She started to call out to him, then saw the way he glanced furtively over his shoulder and realized he was...sneaking.

Instinctively she tucked herself into an alcove, watching him. She didn't know why, but something was urging her not to make her presence known, to see what he was up to. Perhaps it would explain some of his strange behavior...




Slipping out of the manor after Jorris unnoticed was difficult, but not impossible. Though she did wish she'd had the chance to change into something a little more practical than her walking gown before she'd left- the skirt rustled annoyingly, and she was constantly pausing to catch her breath as the corset constricted her ribs.

Still, years of sneaking off after her brothers to watch them practice swordplay or arching and learning from observation had paid off. Jorris headed northeast, off of the estate grounds and into the rather ramshackle part of town, where most of the building seemed to be deserted, if not entirely unlivable.

What in God's name was he doing here, of all places? When her brother paused again to check for pursuit- truly, he was one of the least observant people she'd ever known, it's not like she was particularly stealthy and he still hadn't noticed her- she tucked herself into a small alley between two houses and watched as he slipped inside what might have once been some sort of cottage.

Skwint

As soon as Jorris entered the cottage the door shut behind him revealing Black Skull.

"I've killed a lot of people for a lot of different reasons," he began. "But I don't commit hate crimes. I don't kill to satisfy anyone's petty bigotry."

Black Skull took a step towards Jorris, his fist clenching.

"You want her dead just because she's a mage, don't you?"

In all actuality, this was one big bluff. Black Skull had no idea if he was right, but this man's reaction would reveal the truth. Black Skull lost everything to people like him. People who hated mages for no good reason. They were some of the worst kinds of people, and that was coming from someone who killed for a living.

DragonSong

Jorris started violently as the man sort of appeared from no where- at least it seemed that way, to one who wasn't very observant.

At Black Skull's words, he paled. Rage burned in his eyes for a moment, flaring bright, then suddenly faded. He shook his head, but it wasn't so much a denial as a sign of helplessness.

"She's dangerous," he said softly, clenching his hands into fists as he stared down at his feet. "I don't know what happened in that room, but you must have seen it for yourself- she doesn't even know what she is, she had no control."

His voice rose steadily as he spoke, anger and something like grief lacing his tone. "I tried so hard to ignore it, but I knew what she was becoming. I knew if someone didn't act, one day that unholy power would be more than she could handle. She would kill someone, it was inevitable!"

He took a sharp breath, eye over bright. "If I- if I hadn't- the choice was you, or the mage camps. They'd collar her, break her." He shook his head again. "I couldn't watch that happen. No matter what you think, she's my sister. And I love her. I love her too much to see what they would turn her into. She'd be better off dead." A shaky sigh escaped him. "At least then our parents would never know this shame. They could grieve her as they should."




Without thinking, Lily had moved forward as she heard her brother speaking. She didn't quite make out what the man he was speaking to said at first, but she was close enough by the time Jorris started speaking that she heard every word.

Jorris. It had been Jorris, her own brother. How could he? Why? Why?!

She wasn't a mage, she wasn't! She would have known, she would have...

A choked, whimpering sound caught in her throat and Jorris whirled around at the noise to see her standing in the doorway. She wasn't even entirely sure when she'd gotten there.

His eyes widened. "Lily..." He took a step toward her, reaching out, and she staggered back.

"St-stay away from me!"

Skwint

Black Skull stepped forward and punched Jorris square in the face.

"Bastard," Black Skull roared. "You narrow-minded piece of shit! It's people like you that started this damn war! It's people like you that created those mage camps! It's people like you that took everything from me!"

Black Skull was usually pretty good at keeping it cool, but he had lost it now.

"You think mages are dangerous? I'll show you dangerous!"

Black Skull extended his armblade.

"It won't be her your parents will be mourning. "

DragonSong

Jorris reeled back, his hand flying to his hip where he must have sheathed a dagger, but even in her pain and confusion Lily could see that he would be too slow.

"Wait. Wait! Stop!"

Without thinking, she threw herself forward into the path of the blade, her slight form a pitiful shield between the assassin and her brother.

Because he was her brother, and even after this she couldn't just watch him die.

"Please don't hurt him, please," she gasped, holding her hands out to Black Skull in supplication. Jorris was frozen behind her, eyes wide.

Skwint

Black Skull froze when Lily jumped in front of him. Even after he tried to have her killed she jumped to his rescue. Black Skull's eyes locked onto Jorris.

"She saved you even though you tried to kill her," Black Skull told him as he lowere his arm. "Remember that."

Black Skull turned and began making his way towards the door. Let him live with that burden on his conscience.

DragonSong

Jorris gave a choked sound and Lily turned to watch the masked man go, letting out a long breath.

She started to turn to her brother, to shout, to cry, to demand an explanation, to do something- but as she did an icy pain pierced her side and she gasped, eyes going wide.

Jorris was crying, one arm circling her waist as she turned into him, the other hand sliding his dagger between her ribs. "I'm sorry," he whispered, kissing her brow the way he had since she was a little girl, as though she was that same child chasing after him and scuffing her knee. "I'm so sorry, Lily. I love you."

He pulled away from her and ran. She didn't see where. Her vision swam and pain took over, cold creeping up her fingers as her knees buckled and she dropped to the ground. Magic crackled in her veins, searching desperately for some sort of anchor to save her, but she was quickly losing consciousness and her power was not one of healing.

Skwint

Black Skull hadn't gotten very far when he heard somebody leave in a hurry. He turned and saw Jorries making a run for it, in his hand was unmistakable glint of steel in the moonlight. Black Skull was about to run him down when he remembered Lily. He ran back inside the cottage and found her bleeding out on the floor. A flashback from his past arose from the depths of his mind where it had long been suppressed. This was how he had found his mother.

Black Skull went to her side. What could he do? Everything that needed to be done required two hands, and he only had one. Then he remembered that he knew where she lived.

Looping his arm under one arm, across her chest, and then under her other arm. He picked her up as best he could like that and began taking her back to her house. Hopefully he would make it in time.

DragonSong

Pain seemed to have become the center of her world and Lily groaned as she felt someone lifting her. "Who...what-?"

She coughed, tasting blood on her tongue and forced herself to keep her eyes opened. She was fairly sure she had her brother's nerves and shaky hands to thank for being alive; the wound wasn't as deep as it could have been, and it slid along between her ribs rather than cutting straight through to her lungs.

She hoped.

Still, consciousness was difficult to maintain, and her magic pulsed through the air around her as she hovered between sleeping and waking.

Skwint

This was all too familiar. First, finding her on the floor and now carrying her through the woods just liked he had dragged his mother through the woods. He was being bombarded by flashbacks and bad memories. He would not fail this time.

After what seemed like forever he finally came upon the estate at which she lived. There was no time for subtlety. He approached the front door, gently laid Lily down, and kicked the door in. Then he ran. He just turned and ran to the treeline until he was certain he wouldn't be spotted and then watched to make sure she was found.

DragonSong

People were shouting, someone was crying, pain like ice stabbed at her ribs with every breath. Someone was lifting her up, holding her in her lap, the scent of lavender and rosewater- her mother's favorite perfume.

Voices. So many voices. She could hardly make sense of them.

"I did what I had to do! They would have killed her anyway!"

"Your sister is dying on our doorstep!"

"Lydia, hush! I don't- he was rash, but we cannot ignore what she-"

"I don't care what she is! She's my daughter!"


The world went black.




When she woke, the walls around her were unfamiliar. Lily blinked, staring at a wooden ceiling lit with cheery candlelight, then tried to sit up.

She fell back onto the rather hard cot with a groan and closed her eyes. "What- where am I?" Her side ached, but the wound had been stitched and bandaged, she realized when she checked it.

"Safe." The unfamiliar voice had her eyes snapping open and she turned her head to stare at the woman who had entered the small room. She approached the bed and knelt by Lily's side. "Here, you should drink this." She pressed a glass of water into the younger woman's hand she Lily took it cautiously.

"What...happened?" she asked slowly.

"I can't say I rightly know," the healer- at least Lily assumed she was a healer- replied. "I was given some coin to patch you up and keep my mouth shut about it. There's a letter there, on the bedside. The man who brought you here left it." She stood. "I'll be back in a few moments to change your bandages."

Lily blinked as she watched her go, desperately trying to process what was happening. Carefully, wincing all the while, she twisted and reached for the letter the healer had mentioned.

Skwint

"It's not from me," Black Skull told her suddenly appearing in the window after the healer had left. "It looks like your brother's lack of a spine worked in your favor. He didn't have the guts to finish the job."

DragonSong

"My God!" Lily flinched back from the window, wide eyed as she stared at her almost-assassin. "You- how did you- when did you? What the hell are you doing here?!"

She winced as her shouting and attempting to scramble back pulled at her wound painfully.

Skwint

"I'm very good at what I do," Black Skull replied. "I was just checking up on you. I wasn't sure if I had gotten you home in time."

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