The Messenger-Dagger

[Piper]

The chill in the air had been growing more bold lately as autumn began to set in. Piper rolled the sleeves of her loose-fitting white shirt down over her wrists and gripped her arms tightly, rubbing them rapidly for warmth. The green ivy-print vest she wore did little to help in the way of keeping out the cold, even when buttoned. She briefly surveyed her meticulously-manicured garden, squinting in the lantern-lit darkness before turning around and pushing open the wooden door to her home. The chimes that were fastened to the door clanged together lightly as she entered, breaking the silence of the otherwise quiet house. She wasted no time in locking and bolting the doors shut, looking around anxiously as though not even the iron bolts could ease her worries.

She awkwardly kicked off one boot and stumbled while trying to remove the other, leaning against the wall for support to keep from falling over. Piper walked toward the warm fireplace, in front of which was a large collection of pillows tossed together in a messy pile on the hardwood floor. She eased her way into a crouching position and winced, placing a hand on the small of her aching back before finally lowering herself down onto the cushioned pile. She stretched and wiggled her clawed toes in front of the crackling fire, then drew her legs up close to her body as she lay back onto the pillows, pulling a small cinnamon-red one up under her head.

Piper cautiously reached into her pants-pocket and produced the dagger her "friend" had so lovingly hurled at her earlier that evening at Galehaven Tavern. She nervously flipped it around in her hands, the flickering firelight reflecting off the polished metal in varying warm hues of yellow and orange. Pinching the tip of the blade between her thumb and first two fingers, she raised the small weapon above her and carelessly allowed it to dangle there, lightly swinging it back and forth as she stared up at the bottom of the pommel, which now hovered directly over her face. Suddenly, something fell loose and hit her square between the eyes.

"Ahg! Damn it!" she exclaimed in pain as she threw the dagger aside, instinctively sitting erect and rubbing the bridge of her sore nose. She intently scoured the lit radius around the fireplace in search of the blunt object that had fallen on her. Cocking her head to the left inquisitively, she picked up a small dark object from between two pillows - the entire handle of the dagger. She ran her clawed fingers over it, tilting it every which way until she noticed something peculiar; it was hollowed out on the inside. She lifted it to eye level and peered in, seeing what appeared to be a small scrap of parchment flattened against the inner wall of the handle where the blade would normally be inserted. She gingerly plucked it out with the tip of one claw and unfolded it, straining to read the handwriting in the dim light.

"Located the last Eriskyne. Eliminate, plant Royal Guard regalia."

The young woman's brow furrowed in thought, and her intelligent green eyes quickly darted from side to side, barely noticeably, as she began to make connections in her mind. She touched a finger to her chin, tapping it there until a wry half-smile crept across her lips.

"That clever little imp!" she declared aloud, sounding half-amused. She shook her head a few times in disbelief and pushed herself up off the pillows, her gaze still fixed on the note as she walked back toward the doorway. She deftly unlocked the doors and pulled back the bolts before returning to the fireplace. Sitting back down on the pillows, Piper set the note aside and stuck a hand between her shirt and her vest, digging around until she found a small bag of herbs that had been hidden there. She then pulled a small wooden pipe from her pants-pocket and set about packing it with the herbs. She sprinkled generous pinches of it into the pipe's bowl and gently patted it down with a finger, then raised it to her mouth and held it there with her teeth. Picking up the note and leaning forward with her arm outstretched, she held the parchment above the fire until it barely caught flame. She held it up to her pipe until it lit, gave a few test puffs, then tossed the burning message into the fire. She watched, mesmerized, as the embers seared the parchment. Small holes would appear from black blotches and open steadily wider until flames slithered up through them, dancing and crackling, sending a winding stream of smoke swirling upward. She watched until the note was completely consumed by the fire, leaving only a few unassuming ashes in its stead.

Her bright eyes mirrored the flickering fire as she casually inhaled from the pipe that hung loosely from her lips. Smoke escaped her nose and mouth, clouding her face as she mused aloud, "At least no one can accuse me of keeping dull company!"

Edited October 7, 2007 by Piper

[kodoz]

...She wondered if she had figured it out. It was risky, but it was the only way to convey it without everyone knowing. She'd not even believed she would have encountered her there, but luck takes strange twists. Stumbling half blinded by the blood streaking through her matted hair, she'd hardly even recognized the one person she actually trusted in those wierd clothes. Her wounds hurt, but it was nothing compared to her rage at their audacity...

She'd been contacted by one of her informants around the lands that something big was going down. She had better stay away, or at least not be seen. Of course, that was her specialty, wasn't it? It was supposed to be a huge information swap between several of the shadow organizations, and it was something she had to find out about, so she could help bring them down. She had snuck into the old dungeon in Ilshenar, and had been successful at evading the denizens of the area, and had come upon it.

"These things have to be dealt with. If not..." A loud, boisterous voice.

"Yes, Mikhail, we all know your tired old rant..." An exasperated, weary voice. Call him one for now.

"What I'm trying to say is if we don't do something..." The yelling again. Obviously, Mikhail, she thought.

"Then it will all fall apart." A calm, strong voice. Hm...Call him Leader.

"But...you agree with him?" One said.

"Of course. Mikhail, though a bit paranoid, is indeed at this point correct. Unless the proper people are silenced and records destroyed, many things we have done could come out into the light. And of course...speaking of such things coming out to the light, we have another guest, don't we?" Leader said.

She snapped upright as she felt the cold steel of a blade pressed against her bare face, and a hand grabbed her kryss from her. She wisely let it go. DAMN! How had she let someone sneak up on her?!

"Bring her here." Leader said.

The person who she still hadn't seen nudged her towards the room with the blade. She followed quickly, waiting for an opening.

The Leader took a look at her. "Who are you with, little spy?" She answered with silence. "I asked you a question. Who sent you?" Once again, her answer was silence. The man reared back and hit her, causing her hood to fall completely off now. The man stared at her for a moment, and then began to laugh. The one who had snuck up on her kept his weapon trained on her.

"Well if that doesn't beat everything."

...She clutched her kryss tightly in her hand, perched atop the castle parapet. Her left arm, still useless. Blood slowly running down her face from what felt like huge gashes on her head. Her one good eye trained intently, watching over one person. She wouldn't let it happen. Her head began to spin a bit, as she felt dizzy. She'd lost a lot of blood last night, and she'd barely managed to get away from the tavern. It was a wonder she hadn't broken anything on her less than graceful landing. All those wounds...

"Can you believe this? Here we are after her, and she comes right to us."

She felt her eye starting to swell already, on the floor as she was. She turned her leg deftly to appear broken. "Get up." She made no move, and remained in silence. "I said get up!" The leader motioned to the man with her kryss, and he tucked it under one arm and grabbed her left arm and started to heft her up, and she yanked as hard as she could and kicked off as well. The momentum allowed her to use his grip like a pendulum, smash into his leg, and break his kneecap. She grabbed her kryss from his hand with her right as she followed through, and the man didnt let go, and she felt something pop. She slashed down once, putting a gurgling bloody end to his life. Something slammed into her hard, pinning her against the wall for a moment.

"Did you really think you were going to leave alive? This dungeon and all that live in it are ours."

She looked over to see her left arm dangling uselessly, and she quickly bit into the executioner's arm, then whipped her hair at his arm, causing the poison crystals to come in touch with his blood, and he began to spasm. She leapt back, but not before a solid cut hit her limp arm, causing it to start bleeding profusely. She looked up to see the important people already gone or fleeing, and she heard them shouting orders. Damn. She quickly started to head out of the dungeon, and by the time she got to the entrance she grimaced. This wouldn't be easy.

..Her arm had stopped throbbing. Good. She wondered idly if she was going to die. Probably. She snapped to alert as someone quietly and quickly made their way along the castle perimeter. She looked down to make sure she wasn't dripping blood over the edge, and then observed. She saw the man draw a blade, painted black as night, and could tell from the sheen it was poisoned. She quietly moved to just above him, and positioned herself, and leapt...

She charged past the skeletons, not even bothering to break them to pieces. She felt their brittle bones snap, cutting into her shroud and her flesh more than once as she broke through them without a glance back. She ran and she ran, not paying heed to if she was seen. She made her way for the gate, hoping and praying she could elude them and get to safety, or something, when she stopped dead in her tracks. The gate, lying directly ahead of her. The shambling corpses and skeletons behind her. And two armed men and a woman in front of her. "Welcome. This is where you die." She gritted her teeth, grasped her kryss, and ran full force straight for them.

...She flew through the air, hurtling towards the target from above when her shroud caught on the castle wall, tearing and causing him to look up. He raised his weapon and blocked hers barely, as her kryss impacted hard with the steel of her opponent. He moved up and turned into a round house kick, hitting her into the wall. She quickly positioned her feet, and dodged the next six strikes with the barest of minimum clearances, and she turned and went for a piercing attack meant to gut him, and he blocked it with his bare hand, her kryss impaling his hand on it. She looked up in time to see a wide grin on his face as the sword came hurtling down at her...

She tensed as if to leap, and then quickly pivoted and dove towards the one on the right, the woman. They all turned and instead of striking the woman, she brought her kryss up to block, and used a devastating kick to shatter the farthest mans ankle. She sprung back away, taking a slight cut from the second man, and she stood quickly, blood streaming down her face. So the woman had been able to read most of her block, and still add enough force to make a cut. She faced the woman head on, and started to swing at her, then let her legs go out from under her on purpose. The woman casually dodged, but that wasn't Lily's target. Lily slashed the downed man across the throat, killing him, and brought the slash back up to cleave off the other mans leg. The man blocked the kryss, but not the blowdart she shot into his face. He immediately hit the ground, spasming in his death throes. She spit the now useless blowgun out of her mouth, and grinned ferally at the woman. She'd long since realized the most effective intimidation is never saying a word. She hurled the kryss towards the woman, and the woman blocked it with her sword, and Lily had just enough time to smirk as the dagger she'd thrown immediately after found it's mark in the targets sternum. With a slight little 'Oh.' The woman hit the ground, and began to spasm from the same poison. Adrenaline making her heart hammer in her ears. and with only one good eye now that the other was completely swollen, she stumbled towards the gate after gathering her kryss. She noticed something odd about the man's dagger, and she went over and picked it up, and the handle came off with a note on it. She read it, and she furiously resealed it and tucked it into her shroud. This had to be dealt with. She vanished through the gate.

...The sword sang as it parted the air, but before he could even follow through, she'd already let go of her kryss and drawn her dagger. With a quick flick of her wrist, his throat was eviscerated. She had thought she was dead there for a minute. He had her dead to rights, but obviously she still...She went to put the dagger back in it's sheath in her sash, and her hand came away warm and sticky. She grabbed her kryss and she quickly started to stumble off, as her entire body felt numb. Was this death? Could this be it? She felt nothing but the slickness of blood, and heard nothing but her own ragged breathing. Pain was no longer even there; she looked down to her hand as it clenched tighter, and she held onto the castle wall for support, leaving a trail of blood from the gaping wound. It wasn't fair...She was better...She was....she pondered idly for but a moment why the ground had decided to leap up and hit her in the face, but it didn't last long. Then it was all black.

Edited October 7, 2007 by kodoz

[kodoz]

Pain. The rough, scratchy feel of the wool underneath her. The ruffling of robes, and the sounds of mortar and pestle clinking together. The smell of burning herbs. The coppery taste of blood in her mouth. From her one eye, harsh torchlight illuminating the mostly quiet healers room. She closed her eye and began to take a deep breath to concentrate, and it felt as if she was going to pass out from the pain. Red spots appeared behind her lids from the force of it, but she took a completely deep breath and let it out silently and slowly. She carefully began to test what she could move. Her limbs functioned properly, though both her arms hurt; the right, tingling and somewhat numb, while the left was throbbing intensely from her shoulder. She opened her eye once more, and surveyed the room. A few sleeping figures. A few watching the door. One of the healers mixing something up. She looked down to see her tunic and shroud had been ripped open, baring her chest; lightly bloodstained bandages wrapping her from shoulder to waist, preserving what little modesty there was to be had. She saw where her sash lay, and she quietly and slowly moved her left hand down, and took hold of her dagger. She carefully passed it to her right hand, and tucked it into her sleeve where she could let it fall to her hand if necessary. She took another deep breath, and she mentally willed it away. Pain was manageable enough, as long as she refused to let it bother her. Mind over matter. She opened her eye once more, and she tried to focus. It looked like two guards were stationed there, along with the healer. Her vision blurred but she could make out two other figures in the room. She wondered how many she'd have to kill if she had to get out of here. She wished that would be as manageable as the pain from her wounds...

He swore as he made out the letter. He should've burned it as soon as he saw it. The symbol was unmistakable, and obviously this wounded woman had been a target. It was a problem, though, because he didn't know if blowing his cover was worth the cost. Not to mention the presence of the guards and those other interlopers. It'd still be easy enough, but there's no way he would be able to maintain his cover if he dealt with her. It would be difficult to sneak it past the real healer, but he believed he could do it...

It still hurt with every breath, but it wasn't incapacitating. She needed to rest, but at the same time she knew she was going to die if she did. This place was by no means safe. She remained as still and normal as she could, feigning sleep, while listening to every sound around her. If anyone here figured out how she got her wounds, the information would get out to them. And she knew they weren't going to give up. She just hoped that she could end up killing them before they got her...

[kodoz]

She hadn't slept at all. The cycling in and out of people kept her alert and paranoid. A praetorian and a templar centurion were there at one point. Then it was just the two guards hired for the door. Of course, the two healers, Enoch and Burgess, kept wandering in and out. They were the ones that worried her. But was it both of them, or just the one? She didn't know. She normally could've figured it out in seconds, but with all the pain she was having to work on blocking out, it was impossible to concentrate hard on anything else.

It wouldn't take long to end her. A simple potion, claim it to be a miscalculation, and there goes that problem. He'd be handsomely rewarded for his work with whatever he wanted. And the best part was, he could always blame the other healer for the fault.

She had no idea what time it was. All she knew was they were going to make their move now, or not at all. The elder healer had left with the guards to go eat, and she knew it was going to happen. They'd missed their only good chance, when she was unconscious. She'd already narrowed it down to a very few things they could even try to use, if they weren't bold enough to just slash her throat. Of course, they couldn't do that, unless they thought they could evade the Guardians forever. They were going to have to make it look like a mistake. Which meant that the potion that the healer at the desk was making would be it. She heard the door open, and her hand twitched just the slightest bit. It was going to take every ounce of her energy to kill him when he tried to give her the potion, and any outsiders would only get in the way. She heard a ridiculous sounding fake accent, pinpointing the real voice behind it and had to suppress a smile. She never would learn to stay in her own business. How she got along with her, she'd never figure out; all she knew was that the one person she trusted was here. She might actually make it out of this alive. Piper carried on a conversation with the healer who was mixing the potion...make that poison, rather. She then came over and touched her a bit, trying to rouse her. She opened her one good eye once, but Piper wasn't looking. She waited, and they spoke very quietly for a moment.

"....hades....ridiculous....clothes..." Her head swam in and out as they spoke, because she was focusing her concentration on that healer. Then she heard the door open again, and heard a few snippets of the two healers arguing with each other, a familiar sound. But one line of dialog caught her ear.

"Have you finished that potion yet? You must be the slowest healer on the planet."

"Sir, I was interrupted, sir. And also, some of the ingredients..."

"What have I told you about questioning me?!"

Her entire body shivered in pain, but she now knew who she had to kill. She saw Piper's gaze move over to the healers, then back.

"What are they about to give you?"

"......poison....." she replied in a whisper that was barely audible, without moving her lips.

"Are you sure?"

"....yes...Do Nothing." She gave as good a serious glare as she could with her one eye.

"Can you get out of here?"

"...this is how...it has to be..." And then she closed her eye. She went completely still, as if still unconscious. She mentally willed with every fiber of herself to ignore the pain she was about to have to endure. And she hoped against hope that the one friend she had didn't try to interfere.

Burgess, Assistant to Master Enoch, walked over to the patient's bed and sighed. "Unconscious. Great. It's so much easier when they can do it on their own..." He lifted her head up, and moved the bottle to her lips. She sprang into action quickly forming a fist in her left hand, ignoring the pain shooting through her body, and hit him square in the right eye. He dropped the bottle and it shattered, and she almost screamed from the pain exploding across her like an immolating furnace. Master Enoch rushed over and quickly knelt next to his assistant, who was clutching his eye. This whole time, she'd heard no reaction from Piper, likely stunned at how quickly things were moving along.

"What happened, Burgess?"

Lily tensed up, braced herself mentally and physically, and kicked off just as she said two words. "I happened." Her dagger falling from her sleeve into her hand, finding it's place so perfectly in her grip, the dagger that was as much a part of her as her own two legs, and it cleaved the air as easily as it did the elder healer's neck. Blood sprayed out as he collapsed with a gurgle, clutching his throat, and Lily felt her feet hit the floor, and it was an exhilirating moment to be able to stand again. Everything stopped for a few seconds in time, Burgess on the floor in disbelief, Piper stunned and staring at what had just happened, and Lily standing over the dying healer, her dagger gleaming. Then time came back to life as she felt her legs buckle, heard the frantic kicking of Burgess, and Piper rushing over to her, and Enoch gave out his last noise. She gave one harsh glare at Burgess, and the man pleaded with her to spare him. She'd already planned on it, or he would've died with her still in the bed. She asked Piper to get her kryss, and Burgess was practically trying to bury himself in the corner of the wall, he was pressed so tightly against it. Lily thought of all the things she should be doing. Searching Enoch for information. Trying to find out just who else knew where she was, or who had come and watched her at the healers. But right now, it was all she could do not to pass out. She weakly asked Piper if she could carry her, and Piper lifted Lily's seemingly frail form and carried her outside to her Cu, laying her gently on it's back. Lily stared up at the blue sky, and the pain from her wounds was now impossible to contain. She'd used every last bit of energy in that final attack. They heard the call for guards, and Piper quickly opened a gate, breaking several laws and safety codes in the city by doing so. They vanished through the gate.

[Piper]

(See, told you I'd put something up. This one was written mostly because it makes me chuckle. They've been doing a lot of joking around while hiding out, so I wanted to show some of that in addition to the serious stuff.)

Piper sat on the wooden floor beside Lily at their makeshift underground sanctuary, leaning back against the old staircase. She looked over at her friend, who was wrapped from shoulder to waist in bandages stained with blood - both her own and that of at least one other person, most likely. "I'd offer you another shroud," she said, "but it's in my house, and that's all locked and boarded up."

"It probably isn't anymore," Lily reminded her.

"Well... true... but the point is, I don't want to go there." Piper stopped and thought for a moment, then grinned broadly, remembering the terribly gaudy, lacy abomination she had worn as a disguise a few days prior. "I could give you my lovely dress!"

"Hades no!" Lily said, horrified.

"But it suits you!"

"Great, now I'm half wishing they had finished me off."

"What! You'd be adorably frilly. Then no one could bear to hurt you. In fact, it would probably melt them where they stand," Piper concluded with a smirk.

Lily stared blankly for a moment. "I can't kill it with my brain fast enough."

Piper frowned. "You never like my ideas."

"Well, to be blunt, that's because you think like a girl," Lily admitted, grinning.

"But no, see, the cute would destroy them. Destruction is manly, right?"

"Not by cuteness."

"Oh, well, drat. Perhaps you could call down lightning from the heavens and smite them down in one massive strike," Piper said, wiggling her fingers in the air for effect.

"If I were a mage, that'd be nice," Lily speculated.

"Well, no, you'd have to find favor with the gods first... which... well..." Piper eyed Lily up and down, indicating that there was a clear problem with this.

"Which one of them likes killing?" the spy inquired. "I'm pretty sure he likes me."

"I don't know. I don't even think I know all of the ones there are," Piper hummed to herself, touching a finger to her mouth in thought. "Surely one likes to kill things... with lightning... and manliness." She paused, then muttered softly, "...and puppies."

"I doubt that there's a god that smites with puppies."

Piper snapped her fingers, feigning disappointment with a serious expression on her face. "Then you, my friend, are out of luck."

"Oh, of course, indeed," Lily concurred in jest.

Piper had been trying to keep conversation lighthearted as best as she could, but she had to ask, "Are you still doing alright?"

"I wouldn't say alright. I'm still alive, obviously, and not going down the other path."

"That's what I meant, I guess."

Lily chuckled dryly at that. "I think," she stopped for a second, stumbling over her words. "I think I may need to take a nap."

Piper nodded. "Alright." She turned to find Lily already fast asleep. She shook her head, giving the slightest crooked smile. She knew Lily must have been tired after the trip they'd made earlier. Her friend's condition worried her; she had to be weak, and she knew all the walking must have taken a toll on her body. At least she was doing relatively well, Piper thought. Ever since Lily had first been wounded, Piper had been terrified that she might not recover. She tried her best to push the thought from her mind, but couldn't seem to shake it.

She wondered from time to time what the Guardians would do to her if they found out she had been secretive in assisting Lily. She had broken laws in the process, deliberately lied to a praetorian, and helped in the mutilation of a corpse, even if she didn't take a direct part in it. However, she decided it didn't matter in the end anyway. If her purpose was to uphold honor, she had done so according to her own standards and morals. To her, it was far more honorable to help a person she cared for than to watch her die from the sidelines for the sake of upholding the law. Laws were trivial; she knew she couldn't live with herself if Lily had died and she didn't at least try to do what she could to help. The legal way would be dangerous for several people, she judged. At least this way, only she and Lily were involved, as far as she could tell. The consequences of her actions were of little concern to Piper. Years of isolation had made her incredibly loyal to those few people she deeply cared for - and indeed she did consider Lily to be her best and only true friend, aside from Thom.

As she thought to herself, she watched the unassuming espionage agent sleep and wondered why she even liked Lily at all in the first place. Aside from the fact that she was a spy and an assassin, Lily was also mentally unstable, unapproachable, condescending, and frustrating in general, but she had gone out of her way to help Piper on more than one occasion. Piper found her interesting and strangely likeable, in a way. She appreciated Lily's brutal honesty, even if she could be harsh at times, and found her to be a welcome break from the monotony she often saw in other people. She imagined Lily liked her too, at least to a certain extent; otherwise she wouldn't tolerate her for such extended periods of time - not of her own volition, anyway. Well, at least she didn't dislike her, Piper thought. That was better than nothing.

She grumbled quietly in frustration as she stood with some effort, brushing dirt from her hooded robe. She turned and looked down at Lily as she slept, giving an exasperated sigh as she pulled the robe off over her head. It was night now, and dark outside; she could get around without it for the time being. She quietly flapped the robe in the air and it billowed out, lightly falling over Lily like a blanket as Piper knelt down beside her. She tried to tuck it as close to Lily's body as she could without actually touching her, afraid that waking her would mean a swift punch to her nose. Once she was satisfied that the cool air would be kept out, Piper inched away as silently as possible, her eyes fixed on Lily's face for any hint that she had been disturbed. Piper could very clearly imagine the feeling of her friend's fist impacting her face, and she grimaced anxiously, teeth bared, until she was safely out of the feisty spy's reach. She breathed a sigh of relief as she picked up the staff she had set on the floor earlier that night, using it to help pull herself to her feet. She took a step toward the door, then turned back.

"I told you to get better already, you terrible little woman," she scolded under her breath, not meaning to verbalize her thoughts. Her ears dropped low in an instant as she covered her mouth in terror, hoping she wasn't too loud. She watched Lily for a minute and when she didn't move, Piper backed through the huge gap in the wall so slowly that she barely seemed to move. When her boot slipped over a rock and made the smallest muffled sound, Piper's ears perked up and she frantically scrambled away to her mount, cursing in her head all the while about the drawbacks of having a paranoid assassin for a friend...

Edited October 13, 2007 by Piper

[kodoz]

After she’d said she had to take a nap, she feigned sleep. She didn’t want to lie to Piper, but at the same time she knew she couldn’t have done what was necessary with her there. She had to concentrate very hard on not immediately reacting at the touch of something being put over her, and to not laugh at Piper’s attempts at being stealthy. It was even harder not to react to Piper’s last missive before she left the small enclosure that housed the wounded assassin. She waited several minutes later, mentally counting out the seconds.

Once she was sure that Piper was gone, she let out the ear shattering scream of pain she’d been holding in all day. Her scream echoed in the cavernous underground, sending several small rats and insects scurrying for safety. Both her hands had flown to the wound in her chest, grasping it to try and dull the pain by focusing it all in one or two spots. It wasn’t healing well. No doubt the poison had severely wounded the flesh before it was counteracted. There was only so much the potions Lily kept drinking could do to keep her energy up, and it didn’t do a huge amount. She was being forced to drink a strength potion and refresh potion at regular intervals just to stay mobile at this point. At the moment, she knew she couldn’t show this kind of weakness to anyone, friend or foe. She breathed slowly, letting the spikes of pain slow to a dull fire all over her chest, and she slowly rose to her feet. She grabbed the kryss that she’d come to rely on, and looked once more at the engraving on it. Heaven’s Rebuke. She smiled a bit on the inside, and wondered if this really was some sort of karmic justice for all the things she’d done. She supposed if she was to die, it wouldn’t be a quick death, and this certainly qualified. She went to the wall and pulled the loose brick out, feeling her arm send a sharp stabbing pain through her. She took out some more of the potions from her stash, drinking them, and feeling the energy return to her a little. Then she recalled out of the underground.

She stumbled back into the underground slowly. Her breathing was harsh, and her body ached all over. She was ruing the fact that she’d had to make that trip twice, but there were still things that even Piper would have objected to if she had seen Lily doing them. Especially since some kinds of messages aren’t always received by those who they are intended to be received by. She’d had trouble making it back, but she hadn’t incurred any new wounds. And it was easier to go at her own pace, without having to try and keep up with that false one she set for Piper to think she wasn’t as wounded as she was. But it was worth it, because now at least if the right people did find her message, it would convey a lot more than a few words would have. She collapsed in the enclosure and with the last of her energy she positioned herself exactly as she had been when Piper had left. Then she finally did slip off into a dreamless sleep borne of exhaustion.

There are some things that are too gruesome to be properly described in detail before others. For the men who came into Rock Dungeon, Ilshenar, to their previous meeting place, one such thing stood directly before them. To say that the corpse had been desecrated would be like saying a flame strike is a bit warm. Strung up in a manner that could only be reminiscent of some of the worst killers in Brittania’s history, there hung the body of the man whom had dislocated Lily’s shoulder a few days earlier. The message was quite clear from the letters scrawled along the only item left in the room. ‘You’re Next’.

“Do you see?! Why didn’t you kill her the moment you had her! Now we’re all going to end up like this!” screeched Mikhail.

“If you do not be quiet, I will have you end up the same right now.” The leader said calmly, despite how grotesque what lay before them was. “It’s a bluff. If she knew where we were, she’d already have come for us. It’s meant to unnerve us. Besides, it’s just a corpse. She’s not a necromancer, and even if she was, after doing that to the corpse, I highly doubt it’d be useful if it were reanimated. And even aside from all of that, according to the report from our former operative, her wounds were vast and debilitating. She won’t be coming for us anytime soon. We have bigger things to worry about. His possessions are missing. Which means she has them, and amongst them is what could be our undoing. Anatoly, take the body down.”

“Yes Sir.” Anatoly replied quickly, and he moved over to the table and began to undo the horrific desecration that Lily had performed, when his eyes went wide. With a bit of a gasp, everyone else in the rooms eyes suddenly focused on what Anatoly had just realized, as the body started it’s fall to the table.

The chest cavity, which should have been empty after what Lily did, was filled with explosion potions. The Leader was the only one able to act in the time it took for the body to hit the table, and he flung himself quickly behind a stone chair. With the slightest cracking of glass, the very walls shook with the force of the shockwave. There was a single muffled scream before it cut to silence, and then there was nothing but a ringing noise left in Mikhail and the leader’s ears. Anatoly hadn’t been vaporized, but there wasn’t enough of him left to put back together, either. Mikhail had suffered several shrapnel wounds, and the leader had emerged dirtied but unscathed. There was now no way to tell where Anatoly ended and the previous corpse began. Mikhail was pale, but the leader was furious.

“Six.”

Mikhail looked up confused. “What?”

“This makes six. She has cost us six skilled individuals in less than a week.”

“Maybe we should just lie low. I hear that there’s an investigation…”

“Mikhail, if I wanted your opinion, I’d have tortured it out of you. This humiliation has gone too far. Do what must be done to find her. I don’t care what it takes. Offer enough, threaten enough, or bluff enough so that even her dear departed mother would be tempted to come back from the grave to rat her out. There must be someone in the Guardians who can be bought. Find them.”

Mikhail just nodded, taking one last glance at the now even worse off room. Mikhail was beginning to have second thoughts about following this man’s leadership…

Edited October 16, 2007 by kodoz

[kodoz]

"Just what in the names of the virtues have you all been doing?!" roared the leader. "That little harlot came out in the open and had a confrontation with those guardians and we didn't even track her afterwards?! How in the hades can you all be so incompetent!"

"She is, as you have seen, a professional. She knew that if she was surrounded by them, we obviously could not make our move. However, if she does so again, we have a contingency. Some of our operatives hold fairly key positions, it shouldn't be difficult." Mikhail replied calmly.

"And just where is the fear in your voice now, Mikhail? A few weeks ago you were practically cowering in terror at the mere thought of the girl."

"Let's just say a few things have changed. We have found out her priorities now. It should be a simple enough matter. Either we shall have her, or we shall have the means to get her to come to us. After all, all we need to do after a few...arrangements are made is wait for her to reestablish contact. Then our adversaries will do the work for us. Even if they disagree, they won't be able to dismiss the orders; after all, we have the connections." Mikhail replied quite calmly.

The leader didn't like it; Mikhail had something up his sleeve. But he was so close to being able to finally deal with little Eriskyne, and once that was done, the final piece would fall in place. Mikhail quietly left the leaders chambers, and left him alone to ponder his thoughts.

Mikhail exhaled sharply once he was out of earshot. The fool was going to get them all killed if he continued this mad quest, and for what? Personal Vengeance? This was no time to be concerned with past grievances and petty feuds, not when their organization had already been wiped of several useful operatives. It was time to cut their losses, but the fool would hear nothing of it. No, all his thoughts were on his sister. Everyone knew it, and morale was suffering. If something didn't change, the organization as a whole would break down soon. Mikhail knew how hard it was to change the leaders mind, but he had to do something...

Lily cursed for the thousandth time that day. She was down to using her most remote and least stocked hideouts, ones that she had never been to other than the one time to leave things there. Two had caved in, one had flooded, and several of the others were now home to raiders and monsters. Well, to be correct, they were home to raiders and monsters. Even at the same time that it worried her, she still got the thrill from combat, the exhiliration of knowing that every instant of life longer is only extended by her own hand, and none other. This was her element, and she loved it. There was far too much time of waiting, of thinking, and being alone with her thoughts. She still fought with the demons inside her head, and she continued to ponder over Piper's fate. This last incident had been far too public, and Lily would have to distance herself, she thought. Otherwise the Senator would easily become a target, if she had not already. She worried a bit about the Guardians coming after her, but she knew she could evade or wound one of them and run. They were a tenacious enemy, but they did not have the vast intelligence networks of the shadow organization. Lily had managed to stay a step ahead of them, but she wondered just how far their resources went...

[kodoz]

"An exhilarating excursion, a scintillating scenario, what fun, it's done, and there is only one..." Lily softly sang to herself in the corner of the hiding place she'd chosen. The Praetorian had apparently gotten much more competent since they had last crossed weapons, and had caused Lily some amount of consternation. Of course, their laughable code had allowed little Lily to escape reasonably easy; That and the unexpected intrusion of that squire. It had been quite difficult getting through his armor, but there are always joints. Lily was quite angry with Zora, realizing that the silly wench had prevented her from using the more potent ingredients. Apparently, there was some form of control left. The Royal Guard thought she was such a clever little girl, figuring out a hundred and sixty seven of her victims. Of course, that was less than ten percent of the ones she'd actually committed. It was quite amusing to have watched the back and forth between them, and of course the poor little Senator Piper's frustration with her less than shrewd comrades. Every time they gave up any information on Lily, of course, Lily was able to wrest more control over from little Zora, who had believed they would all stand by her. Every tiny betrayal was one more nail out of the boards holding Lily back, and one more nail into ickle Zora's coffin. But Zora was not going to go down easily, apparently. Lily had fully intended to kill both the Praetorian and the Squire...but Zora had kept her blade from their throats. Nick still might have died, but Lily was forced to use an antidote as leverage enough to get away. Although luck was not with her when her random recall took her to an area that could not have been less ideal.

Lily examined herself again; whatever the Praetorian had done or had used, she didn't know. She did know her reflexes were shot. She'd tried to run when she got done with the spell and stumbled into a wall; after trying to climb to a roof and falling down a dozen times, she gave up and crawled to the nearest hidey hole. "Hidey, Widey, Slidey now; will they spoil the milk or slaughter the cow? All the ducks, all in a row, Lily is stuck, and dealt a deathblow! Away, away, away she must go; To find a new home, and people that don't know. Don't know? Don't know what, you say? Why don't know any better about staying away!" She sang as she cleaned her dagger and applied the last of her already made lethal poison bottles. It would be problematic...she needed to get back to one of her supply houses. But in her current condition, that would be at least a day's travel.

"The rat has a hat, on our side she had once been, but now, oh how? Where has she gone again? Should we kill her, Lily says yes, Zora refuses, what a mess! A weakness she is, our secrets she knows, Best do something about her, before it all goes..." Lily snapped to attention and went silent hearing footsteps, heavily armored ones. A feral grin spread about her face. Her voice dropped to the level where only she could hear it.

"A guard, how hard! To kill, no, but to kill quietly, yes! Oh, what to do, when it will all leave a mess, but their place they need to be, put in right now you see, not their world, no it isn't, it belongs to a peasant! Vengeance cries out for, let slip the dogs of war, but Zora tries to ignore, that stupid little whore!" She waited until the footsteps vanished then slunk back into her corner.

The Senator of Genesis, Piper. Oh no, that wasn't her real name of course, not that it mattered. She was their biggest liability. Lily just had to convince Zora...but is that the best? "Oh what a plan, You see it, yes you can! The perfect way to continue this play, the next act will become a fact, the curtains will raise and the numbers will too, Go away, you sunlight ray, bring the night, it is just right, like the days of old, sneaking in the cold, time to hunt, time to kill, and nothing to stop us...noone that will. A pesky Praetorian stands in our way, stands in our way refusing to let us slay, but Lily say, oh does Lily say, that she too will become just another name on a headstone where she lay..." A soft, chilling laugh escapes her mouth as she drags herself out of the corner, and slowly makes her way out of her hiding place. A devious plan already forming in her jumbled mind...

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Mikhail sighed loudly. Their spy had reported an engagement between the target and her own comrades, and the target was actually wounded, and still managed to escape. Unfortunately there was no way of knowing to where, other than it was a rune from one of the Praetorian's books. That didn't make things any easier, since this particular Praetorian was not one to be easily manipulated. Some of the others, such as the cat, or the former mercenary, could've been cut a deal with, but not this one. Stubbornness was a quality which she seemed to be the paragon of. Their leader had been growing more and more restless, and had continued to demand that Mikhail step things up, even after they already took a great risk tipping their hand and turning so much information over to the Royal Guard.

Something in the spies report had caught his eye, however, and that was that the target had not been acting in her usual manner; she had devolved into some odd rhyming sing song tone, and had initiated a fight between her comrades, and provoked them and then even tried to murder one. While this was an interesting development, it added yet another unpredictable aspect to the entire equation. Mikhail was quickly growing tired of the trouble this was putting them through, and he wanted it done with. Had it been up to him, he would have called it off after Anatoly's death. Anatoly...he'd been a good friend, but he knew the risks. They all did. Mikhail took a moment to think about him, then returned to his work. Their leader was obsessed; insane, and focused on nothing else. Mikhail was the only one who knew why, and even that had taken an extraordinary amount of background research to find. It had been quite the interesting piece of information though.

He wondered about many things, and finally realized he was going to have to come to a proper decision soon. The organization was going to rip apart at the seams if this mad crusade against a single target continued, and it had to end one way or another. Mikhail just hoped that it didn't end up happening the way that that wandering fortune teller had told him weeks ago.

"In a sea of atrocity, your path leads to calamity; Let go of it all, or be drowned by it's gravity." Her cackle had been unnerving, to say the least...

[Piper]

After the RP last night, and in light of recent events...

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As she went about straightening the house, Piper found herself returning to the covered windows more frequently. Barely peeling back the curtains with one finger, she would peer out into the yard, into the apple and peach trees, into the surrounding woods, looking for something. Each time, she found nothing. Inside the house, she searched for any barely detectable sign that something might be amiss, out of place, or otherwise disturbed from the way she usually kept things. She took note of such trivial observations in daily life, being somewhat paranoid, but her suspicions were apparently unfounded. Everything looked to be in order. Either no one had broken in, or if they did, the intruders were at least as attentive as she was to small details, which she knew was entirely possible.

She walked out of the study and to the front doors, making sure they were safely locked, not that it would make much difference if someone were intent on getting inside. However, that didn't mean she had to make the process any easier for prospective intruders. Her sense of hearing was the one she relied on most often, and she hoped her ever-listening ears would pick up any sounds a person might make while trying to break in or sneaking around the house. Piper took hold of the banister and plodded up the wooden staircase as it creaked and groaned beneath her leather boots, providing further assurance that it would be difficult for a person to enter unnoticed.

At the top of the stairs, she reached the kitchen and dining area. She bustled about the pantry for a moment, seeming displeased with whatever food she found, until she pulled a bunch of fresh white grapes from a bowl on the counter. She popped one into her mouth and, from the corner of her eye, noticed the moody parrot named Miss Violet eyeing the fruit hungrily from atop her perch by the stairs. Never caring much for birds, Piper had acquired Miss Violet from an elderly lady who could no longer care for the grumpy parrot; creatures in need were Piper's weakness. She plucked one grape from the bunch and cautiously extended her hand to Miss Violet, who snatched the morsel away with a low squawk. The bird held the grape in the dextrous claws of her right foot, rending its juicy flesh with her strong, curved beak. She made quiet, grumbly sounds of approval as she went to work on it, keeping her dilated grey eyes fixed on Piper all the while.

"Damn bird," Piper muttered as she rounded the corner and headed up another flight of squeaky stairs, her words muffled by a mouthful of grapes.

She opened the door to the bedroom, then closed and locked it behind her. All the windows in here were covered, too; she had made sure of that. She looked around, taking note of the little wooden stool that stood in front of the vanity across the room. Picking it up under one arm, she carried it in front of the window and set it down, taking a seat where she could see outside. The view from here was nearly perfect. If she were careful enough, she could peek out to survey her surroundings without being easily seen by anyone who might be lurking outside. She pulled the curtain back a bit and looked out with worried eyes, finding nothing ususual but still feeling the residual ache of anxiety in her stomach.

She finished the last of the grapes and carelessly tossed the collective stem onto the wooden floor. Fidgeting nervously, she checked the window a second and third time, seeming dissatisfied despite having no apparent reason to worry. In truth, she was terribly distressed. Lily's candid discussion of death the previous night had left Piper unsettled and fearful of losing her best and only friend. Lately, it seemed as though everything were closing in entirely too fast, leaving few options for escape. She expected this to happen eventually, but one can never be completely ready for such a thing. She felt pulled in several different directions, unsure of which path would be the best to take. She wanted to follow after Lily, though she wasn't sure what good that would do other than to alleviate her own worries, and it wasn't worth the risk. If they were both found by Lily's opponents, there would be little hope left for them. Not only that, but if the Guardians found Piper running with her, she would likely have to face severe consequences that would make her unable to help Lily. Then Charlie wanted Piper to try to convince Lily to turn herself in to the Guardians for her own sake. Piper saw this as the best option, except that the Royal Guard would want her turned over to them, and her execution would soon follow. However, if Lily continued to run on her own, any number of things could happen to her. Her enemies or the Royal Guard could find and kill her, or she could die from her wounds.

Suddenly, Piper winced in pain and looked down at her upper arms. While pondering the options and possible outcomes, she had unconsciously clawed them to the point that they now bled slightly in places. She cursed under her breath and held up her claws, examining the blood caked under them and smeared on her fingertips. She paused, and in an instant, her pupils shrank to tiny dots in her green eyes that now focused on an invisible point before her. A hundred broken images flooded her mind like shards of glass crashing upon the ground, shattered and disjointed, barely recognizable even to her - innumerable pieces of an unsolved puzzle. Indiscernible fragments of words, screams, laughter, and other sounds assailed her ears, piercing them until it felt as though they drilled into the innermost parts of her brain.

"Turn it down!" she screamed, grabbing the sides of her head. She slammed herself up against the wall beside her, throwing the stool off-balance and tumbling to the floor in a heap. A loud, anguished groan escaped her as she sat up, drawing her legs up close to her torso.

Presently, she took the note Lily had dropped in her pocket and looked at it, examining the writing style at length. "It must get rid of this, orTheywillfindit - Theywillknow!" With that, she tore the paper with her teeth, swallowing it in ripped sections. "Now for some preparations, precautions to be made," her voice trailed off as she jumped up and hurried down both flights of stairs to the study on the first floor. She rummaged through a few things until she found what she was looking for. With a wry half-smile, she tucked it away down her shirt, concealing it in the cloth wrappings she often bound her chest with.

"Just in case," she reassured herself, now speaking in a normal voice. Her tone turned to an unusually gleeful one, and she smiled as she headed outside for the stable. "No snow? Perfect! It shall have Its ride after all!"

Edited March 16, 2009 by Piper

[kodoz]

Mikhail wondered exactly what was going on. Obviously, the target was ailing tremendously. She continually vanished for long periods of time, and seemed to be getting closer and closer to capture. That was good news for the ArkDaemons, because it meant this mistake of a mission would be over soon. Mikhail in the past week had grown thoroughly more and more concerned about the state of the Leaders sanity. He'd never been the most stable person, but he had always been cold, calculating, and cruelly efficient. Since the incident in Rock Dungeon, his concentration had slipped; his cool demeanor replaced with a fiery hatred and impatience that had cost them several skilled agents and on top of that, at this rate, the Leader would end up killing a messenger out of fury. It was time something had to be done, but he didn't have what he needed to succeed. Perhaps, he thought, It would be as easy as...

_______________________________________________________________________

It was time to end it. There was too much collateral damage. She'd nearly had to harm her own friend, and she'd already been forced to attack her allies on several occasions. Was survival truly her only goal? She was haunted by dozens of questions. Not the least of which stemmed from a single thought she'd had that scared her to her core, and convinced her she was losing herself...

If they had found me again, I wouldn't have hesitated to go through with hurting Piper to get away alive.

She wasn't sure if the thought was hers, or a thought of one of the voices in her head. It was becoming harder and harder to distinguish them.

Why did she have the voices? Why was she more than one person? What was it that drove her to do these things, and made her do everything in her power to survive, whatever the cost? Would they go away? Did she need them? More importantly...Did she really, truly, think she could get by without them?

Was surviving really worth it with nothing else to look forward to? Was it really worth any sacrifice of anything else, or rather anyone else, as long as she was still alive? Were there really such things as a friend, or was it as she had said in the tavern...That all things are merely assets, and when they become liabilities they must be cast aside? "Yes. There is nothing more important than our survival."

She whirled suddenly, dagger drawn and her breath caught in her throat. She'd always heard the voices in her head before, but this one came from beside her. She staggered backwards at the sight before her. Her dagger slipped through her suddenly clumsy fingers, and the figure before her gathered it up with a familiarity that shook her to her core. She fell to her rump and scurried backwards with her hands, shaking her head back and forth.

"This isn't real, this can't be real, you're dead, you've been dead for a long long time, there's no way this is real..."

The person...the creature before her cackled softly. The dagger being slowly twirled in her hand. As she walked slowly into the light, she grinned as she watched the girls back hit the wall. She gave a soft, mockingly concerned sounding "Oh dear", as she cornered her prey. "It seems this might be the end of the line for the little girl, doesn't it?"

Her face was exactly as she had last seen it. A contorted grimace, but still a haunting smile. Despite obviously deadly wounds all over her, far more than could have possibly been necessary, the specter before her continued her slow, but steady approach. Up against the wall, she closed her eyes and then opened them, hoping to find it all a lie, but nothing had changed but the distance. She trembled as her assailants approach brought them face to face, the bloody baroness mere inches from her as she kneeled to bring them to the same level. "W-why aren't you dead..."

"Oh, but I am quite dead. You killed me, remember? Not that I blame you; I was planning to kill you all the same. Of course, you were nothing but a pissant little thief at the time, and you happened to stumble upon what you thought was an abandoned castle. And then, luck of the draw, you killed me. But honestly, did you truly think that someone as...clever as myself would ever go without a contingency plan?" She lightly, almost caringly caressed the terrified womans cheek with the pink dagger that bore her initials.

Her eyes slowly widened, as understanding dawned upon her. In an instant, so many things that were fuzzy had become clear. In an instant, the situation had changed as well. The mortally wounded individual had drawn her weapon arm back.

"Ah, So you finally remember...A little too late, perhaps. A few years past, perchance you could've stopped it. But now, to do so would mean one thing." Her hand clenched happily on the dagger. "This." Her arm struck forward.

The last thing she saw was the tip of the glistening, poisoned dagger striking forward, as it pierced her eye and she fell to the ground.A scream shattered the calm of day in the forest, a scream muffled by it's distance underground, but even so animals fled from the entrance to the cave. Her breath came in short gasps as she struggled to strike the hideous imagery from her mind, as the last vestiges of the dream were swept from her.

Soon, she thought to herself, this would be finished. She was going to have to have her confrontation with the Praetorian. Maybe she'd get lucky and be killed by her sword. She wouldn't be making it easy, though.