Duel:Quintessa-Khitti v Zuveus
Part of the Lies Within Us Arc
This is a Mage's Guild RP.
Location: The Student Commons (Floor 3) Duelists: Zuveus (Ossian Order, NPCed by Lanlan), Quintessa & Khitti (Mages Guild) Judges: Kasyr and Magik Stakes: If Quintessa and Khitti win: Spared from a traitor’s end by the skin of his teeth, Xinliu reveals he has been hiding the bodies of soul-taken mages in cryostasis, to be revived after the war. Thanks to his efforts, there is hope that the Ossian's rituals can be undone and many more saved from an eternity bound as living weapons. If Zuveus wins: With his dying breath, Xinliu reaches out to Khitti and Quintessa. "The soul-taken, their bodies are…" He dies before he can share his secret, and the bodies of the soul-taken shall remain lost. Forever?
The Student Commons
A vast room of glossy, speckled, white and black marble, with stone columns reaching sixteen feet from the ground to the ceiling creating a grid between the staircase channeling MG members, and the one leading higher up into the tower. Slumped against one wall, is the unconscious body of Xinliu, her Ossian robe billowing at the whim of a mystical wind in this windowless room.
Pre-Duel RP
Lanlan || Xinliu, the Ossian defector, slips away from her former colleagues and slides her back against a column. Her breath catches as the sounds of battle echo up the stone steps. Who's winning? She slowly exhales her breath and it comes out frosty, solidifying into a tiny rectangle of ice. Reflected on its surface are the stairs leading from the fight. It's a pair of mages she doesn't recognize! Her former enemies and hopefully new allies, if they'd take her. Luckily she has something to offer. She slides off her mask and lets her human face shine for the first time publicly in months. "Hello!" She calls to Khitti and Quintessa as they arrive. "There's not much time, but the prisoners...I can help you find them. I've hidden them--" Her breath is suddenly sucked from her lungs by a vortex of wind as she grasps desperately at her throat. From above, her stalker. A devoted member of the Ossian order descends on a gust of wind. He waves his hand with all the passion of a beaurocrat and a twist of air grabs hold of Xinliu and flings her suffocating body to a far wall. "You're trespassing," he says curtly. "Go back the way you came. You will not interrupt the Master's Opus.
Quintessa || It was perhaps by luck (if not their skills in the Black Tides) that Quintessa and Khitti were able to break off and infiltrate further up the tower together, a dangerous pair to encounter should one deem them enemies. Quintessa’s soldiers had their orders and did not require their lord to babysit them for the entire battle; They would fight and perhaps even die wherever they were most needed. This gave her the freedom to secure the student commons with Khitti, perhaps the only other person in the whole attacking force that could bypass the Ossian forces in secret alongside her.
Quintessa || As the duo skip past the atrium and the entrance hall, they are spotted by Xinliu, an unlikely ally in this endeavor. With her weapon already drawn, Quintessa nearly sneers at the Ossian defector, her mistrust in them still painfully fresh in her memories. Believing them had caused her suffering before, but when Xinliu speaks of prisoners, an obvious bargain, the opportunistic warlock cannot help but stay her blade long enough to see if she couldn’t possibly benefit from this situation.
Quintessa || Saving prisoners? It was a worthy endeavor, but she could easily be lying. There would be no way Quintessa could know for sure unless- The changeling’s introspection comes to a sudden halt as the breath is stolen from the defector, and her mismatched eyes turn upward to stare daggers into Zuveus. “Trespassing?” The young magician scoffs, a smug smile tugging at the corner of her pale lips as she brings both hands to grip her katana. “No, we’re just here to kick out a few squatters.”
Quintessa gives a quick glance at the unconscious mage on the floor beside her. She was suffocating slowly and would not survive unless they could defeat this new foe swiftly. According to her research on the subject, a humanoid creature could easily survive three minutes without air, but after that the brain starts to shrivel. If they wanted the defector to be able to recollect where she hid the prisoners they were working within a time frame not much longer than that. With a serious glimpse offered to Khitti, the changeling hopes she could silently convey the grave nature of this situation. They needed to act fast.
Quintessa || “I’m afraid that your master’s magnum opus will have to remain unfinished.” Quintessa can’t help but throw in a cheap verbal jab when she can, casting her gaze back upon the Ossian loyalist. She is ready to fight, it’s obvious from the luster in her blue and hazel eyes. "Now get out."
Khitti, with her own weapons drawn, watched silently as Xinliu and Quintessa, and then Zuveus and Tessa, exchanged words. For the moment, she had no words of her own; the bloodlust from her masculine self, Khitt, filtered over into Khitti’s part of their shared mind and the lofty silence that had emanated from her during Odhranos’ speech lingered even now. Her features aren’t void of emotion, however, as Xinliu is left to suffocate on the ground, Khitti’s irritation with the Order’s loyal mage evident.
Khitti || She caught the changeling’s glance and merely nodded. Oh, she knew full well how bad things were now, and how much worse they might get. That didn’t seem to deter her though. “Do you know what it’s like in the Void? There’s no words to describe the loneliness, the darkness, and the numbness you feel there. I’m eager to show you what it’s like, however.” Her harpe was soon consumed with light magic, and likewise with her gladius, albeit with all three of the black tides’ shadowy elements, both blades nearly engulfed by their respective magicks. “You should be happy, you know. It’s been a long while since I delivered someone’s soul on a silver platter to Vakmatharas.” It was a “polite” way of telling him that she and Tessa were about ready to yeet him straight to hell.
Lanlan || Zuveus stepped down to the stone floor, descending on a staircase made of thin air and his own will. “I’m unable to oblige. I will remain, and now...” As he made his way before them, he dusted himself off poshly, disposing of his earlier offer to let the leave. “And now so will you. You’ll each make for a passable soulcage.” He allowed himself the slightest smirk. “And I assure you the void isn’t lonely, because soon it will be filled with all of your friends.” He was done talking.
Round 1
Lanlan || Zuveus crouches down, bending his knees and coiling his arms toward his core. Massive currents of power and wind funnel into him as his bright white robes begin to billow violently, heralding the coming storm. As the forces gather around him, the air lifts him off his feet, and he hovers serenely over the cold stone floor. Around his torso, rings of dust, dirt, and small pieces of forgotten debris spin rapidly, caught up with the wind. As the storm gathers in strength, the matter spinning around him begins to obscure him from view. A tunnel burgeons below and above him, and as is his will, the violent twister begins to bend. The gaping maw arcs and curls like an angry snake toward Khitti and Quintessa, roaring with deafening intensity in this echo chamber. But that is the least of their worries. This room is made of hard, unforgiving stone. Should they fail to keep themselves rooted, the manmade tornado would smash skulls into the ceiling, break their bodies against the pillars, and splatter their remains across the floor. All while Zuveus remains safe in the eye of his storm.
Quintessa squints her mismatched eyes in reaction to the furious winds that assault them, frantically pulling her tinted goggles down over her face to protect them as booted heels retreat in slow steps away from the growing cyclone. Putting her education on wind magic to good use, the changeling quickly studies the expected area of effect of the evocation, identifying the thin cylinder of calm space that Zuveus stood in the center of. The changeling’s lips twist into a cruel grin, her rising bloodlust fueling the maleficent energy that flows through her. “Drws y Cysgod.” Quintessa speaks, her voice reverberating through the howling wind of her foe’s spell as a dark pool of black ichor forms under her feet.
Quintessa || Forging a connection to the realm of shadow with her sinister incantation, Quintessa falls backwards into her simple portal, letting the powerful waves of dark magic wash over her and carry her like the current of a raging river. Traversing the Shadow Plane’s dark reflection of the student commons with ease, the changeling warlock opens a second portal, one on the heels of Zuveus before slowly rising like a silent assassin with her katana poised to skewer the Ossian champion.
Quintessa || A second pulse of mana shimmers down her sword, necrotic energies burning as a black flame carrying Quintessa’s cursed strike, a spell that would eat away at Zuveus’ very lifeforce if it was successful. In the blink of an eye the hexblade takes aim and thrusts the tip of her blade forward, favoring the right side of her enemy’s torso so she could pierce directly through his abdomen and liver, a potentially mortal blow. Following through with her attack, the hexblade sweeps her weapon out to the right after her thrust, a movement that would rip through his side if he was unable to avoid the initial strike. Preserving the momentum from the outward slice, Quintessa loops the blade around and performs an overhead chop, the weight of the Jubaku no Kijo’s groundium core aiding in the force of the downward cleave, enough to carve the Ossian in twain if he failed to evade.
Quintessa || Meanwhile Quintessa’s original pool of dark mana lingers next to Khitti, an offering to the Mistress of Shadows to use however she pleases while the changeling takes the fight directly to Aeromancer. Tessa knows Khitti can utilize the Black Tides far more effectively than she could ever.
Khitti || Wind magic was not something Khitti was wholly familiar with. In fact, air magic in general was mostly foreign to her, beyond the black lightning she wielded years ago and was attempting to regain control of. She knew not how to fight against it, for she didn’t even have the ability to manipulate stone as Odhranos did. There had been tornadoes in her homeland, of course, but with magic having been banned hundreds of years before she was even born, there’d naught be a mage to temper the winds during the rainy seasons and they’d been forced to deal with the storm as any non-magic user had: by hiding from it in cellars. She scrunched up her nose in dismay as the tornado grew and grew, and Quintessa left her side to take up arms against the Order’s henchman.
Khitti || Well, first thing’s first: shadowy tendrils snaked up from the ground, slithering their way up Khitti’s boots, binding her to that spot on the floor for now to keep her from getting sucked up into the tornado and thrown elsewhere. And if she had to move? They moved with her to keep her grounded. Her swords sheathed so that she could more fully utilize her magic, the Mistress of Shadows drew upon the well of dark magic left behind by the changeling, her hands outstretched and pointed towards the ceiling above Zuveus.
Khitti || As Quintessa hopefully kept him busy enough, Khitti crafted a stalactite of grey-ish shadow-ice, wisps of dark magic swirling within the frozen water. It grew and grew until it was large enough to take up most of the inside of the tornado, and only then did it shatter. Shards of ice rained down upon Zuveus and Quintessa, the bits dissipating before it hit the half-fae girl thanks to her connection to dark magic. Zuveus though? He wouldn’t be so lucky. In fact, it’d be far worse if the shards actually hit him: if they pierced his skin or clothing, Khitti’s shadow magic’s acidic properties would kick in, aiming to melt flesh and cloth and anything else it might touch, should some of the ice get swept up into the cyclone.
Round Two
Lanlan || Zuveus couldn’t see through the vortex well enough to know if his sudden storm was successful. Luckily, Quintessa’s incantation pierced the turbulence. “Only a fool announces their attack,” he mutters. Behind him, the void whispered something back. He couldn’t make out its ominous threats, but he got the gist. Doom. He turns as Quintessa emerges. Quick as he can, he crushes a small sapphire secured to a bracelet and a geyser bursts from the floor creating a nearly solid wall of water between himself and Quintessa. Not solid enough, the blade cuts through the water, and his arm, slicing a sickly black gash at the elbow. Before she can connect with her second slice, he spins himself into the twister, disappearing into a veil of winds.
Lanlan || Streaks of blood stripe the storm. He travels up the towering funnel, until inevitably, he sees the stalactite growing. On principle, he ejects himself from the situation, leaving his tornado to spin on its own and he hovers across the floor, creating space between it and himself. Then it exploded. He fuels more of his will into the winds to take the shrapnel into their currents. He was successful! Much of them were spun into the maelstrom. Only several fragments of ice come his way, and only three would hit him. With an imperious gaze, he points at them. A pressurized jet of water burst from his finger with laser precision, knocking one off course. The next one he was better, drilling into its core and shattering it. The last one... slams into his thigh, spiking his muscle and spilling acid into him.
Lanlan || Two against one is too much. Time to even the odds. He is done controlling the tornado. He gives control of it away...to itself! A blood sacrifice served as an offering. He breathes life with a howling incantation and summons a wind spirit to take over. An orange light flickers dimly in the center of the still spinning twister, and Zuveus’ blood flows into it riding wind streams. There’s a twinkle. Zuveus’ blood is consumed and the shimmering topaz spreads to the entirety of the storm, taking over its every aspect. The dust, debris, even the icicles of shadow are commandeered for its body.
Lanlan || “Do your duty, Gale,” commands Zuveus. She roars. Two smaller tornadoes explode from Gale’s core, wearing gyrating rings of menacing spikes, pulsing with the vibrant orange of Gale’s soul. The funnel-tips of each limb open as wide as swimming pools as they careen madly toward the trespassers, employing a massive vacuum force as they attempt to suck the trespassers into the blenders. If they can’t evade, their blood will paint the walls red.
Quintessa hisses in disapproval as her katana slices into the torrent of water, the force of the gesier knocking her strike off course and foiling her planned combo. With a flick of her blade and a step back away from the wall of water, the changeling takes a new defensive stance as she scans the battlefield. Her foe was swift like the wind he commanded, and keeping her eyes on him proved difficult as he rode the funnel of wind away from her, but when he landed Khitti was ready to assault him with acidic shadow-ice, giving her ample time to regain her barings.
Quintessa || Holding her stance, Quintessa inhales slowly, channeling her dark-fae magic in preparation for her next assault- only Zuveus is too quick to respond. As her aura grows into a foreboding black haze, Gale follows her master’s command, targeting Quintessa and pulling her closer. Despite the warlock’s sure footing, she slides along the floor, pulling her close to the cyclone of death made especially for her and Khitti. “Nononono!” Quintessa clenches her teeth as she holds her stance despite being dragged forward, milking her channeled energy for every second she could.
Quintessa || Only when she was lifted into the air did Quintessa panic, the stoic expression on her face replaced with one of anger and shock. She had very little time to react, and even less time to think, so she did the first thing that came to her mind that would stop her from being sucked into the blender. “Piler creigiau!” Borrowing a slice of power from her channeled energy, Quintessa wields the small bits of terrarmancy she knows, conjuring a pillar five feet in diameter to slam into the changeling from the ceiling and pin her to the floor.
Quintessa || The impact knocks the breath from her, only allowing her to let out a grunt as she is pancaked between pillar and floor, pinned but safe from being cut into pieces. Sucking in a ragged breath, Quintessa places a palm to the floor and pours her mana into it. “Come, my pets…” she whispers, barely able to speak, “I need your help…” Reaching into the Shadow Realm, Quintessa manipulates the vermin of that plane, opening a second portal right behind Zuveus and causing thousands of thumb-sized spiders to spill out all around him, trying to swarm him and deliver a thousand painful bites. “Khitti, now!” Hoping their shared enemy would be distracted by her deadly spiders, Quintessa points out the opening she had created for her ally.
Khitti too was dragged across the floor despite her shadows trying to tether her to one spot, a growl issued to Zuveus’ winds. Where Quintessa would reject the cyclone that tried to swallow her whole, Khitti would embrace it. As she jumped headlong into doom and nearly went through the magical blender, Khitti shadowstepped away from the spikes, long braids of shadows unfurling from her hands and latching themselves onto the nearest wall. The shadows dug themselves deep into the material that made up the dorm room, just as they had in the past with living flesh. She was not without injury though as she pressed on, watching as Tessa attempted to distract the Order’s aeromancer, while Khitti tried to stay out of his line of sight by swinging from shadowy rope to shadowy rope like some sort of spider-guy. Debris and her own shadow-icicles carved a path through her as they were flung about the room, leaving cuts and bruises on various parts of her body.
Khitti || She positioned herself somewhat above and behind Zuveus, removing her harpe from it’s sheathe. When Quintessa made the call, Khitti pushed herself away from the wall and ceiling as the shadowy ropes she’d made released her and faded away, shadowstepped halfway through her fall, and attempted to dropkick the hell out of him. And if she managed to miss the kick, she’d attempt to use the harpe’s sickle-like side to grab him and take her with her as she summoned up another braided rope of shadows, attached to both her free hand and a wall, to keep her from getting sucked up into the blender.
Round 3
Lanlan || Zuveus was mostly pleased with how everything was proceeding. Though he hoped they’d be in shreds right now, he silently congratulated himself for the magical prowess he was demonstrating. That it wasn’t his magical prowess hardly occurred to him. He’s confident he can finish them off momentarily, when another portal opens behind him. “Same old tricks,” he says condescendingly, and he spins around quick to face Quintessa and blast through her with an ultra-pressurized jet of water no wider than his finger. Only she doesn’t appear. It’s a thousand tiny spiders who, all but soaking, solitary few, fall into him. They slowly envelop him like a black ooze seeking to consume, and all he can do is stumble and falter. But he maintains his faculties after stealing them back from surprise. He acts. Flailing his one healthy arm, he sheds a colony of spiders. Though they quickly rejoin the smothering horde, he’s able to scrape many more off his face, and especially from his mouth. Or what’s left of it. The swollen, lumpy, oozing mess that is, manages to gasp out the words of a spell, and only a few jiffies before Khitti crashes into him.
Lanlan || Instead, she crashes through him. On the other side, she’d find herself drenched. In part of what Zuveus had become. Within him, the spiders were tossed about as if in a whirlpool, for that is essentially what Zuveus is right now. In desperation, he transmuted himself into a magical elemental of pure water, powered seemingly, by the ornate, glowing blue sphere by which all that he was flowed. His soulcage. The experimental spell saved his life, which meant it was worth it. Worth becoming a creature of almost entirely will, and energy, and of course water. But one very lacking in focus and control. Control is something Gale needs, and without it, she quickly loses purpose. Soon she becomes no more than a breeze, if anything at all. But Zuveus has become a fountain! A torrent! A raging river with sentience! He flows, becoming tall, almost formless, his shape everchanging. And then he crashes! From a central hub, he splits, two vast frothing currents arching up to smash down into his enemies. Khitti and Quintessa would each have a waterfall all their own. And like a waterfall, he would cascade endlessly on them. To erode them. Flatten them out. Crush them. Drown them. Khitti, he might have to chase, and he would. But Quintessa had turned herself into an easy target for him. Or so he hoped.
Quintessa is bloodied, mostly from her own pillar that had crushed her midsection against the floor, making it impossible to raise from a prone position. Worse yet her enemy had taken a form that would fill her with legitimate terror; Water. The warlock slaps the ground where she reached into the shadow realm prior, snapping the portal closed and reabsorbing what mana she could. “Dwrn carreg!” The spell comes out with blood and spitle, the pain from her shattered ribs almost nothing in the presence of the fear that seized her mind. Once the words pass she makes a circular motion with her fingers and presses on the pillar that holds her, a spark of magic bringing the stone to life once more.
Quintessa || With a risky bit of transmutation magic Quintessa commands the beam of rock to take the form of a fist gripped around her waist and whisks herself into the air, the stone pillar sinking back into the ceiling it protruded from like a long arm retracting from the room. From the ceiling Quintessa is safe from the drowning waves that threaten to batter her, to trap her under an endless sea and steal the life from inside her, but better yet from up above she could see everything, a tiny bit of security that allows her mind to reset from her panicked state.
Quintessa || The changeling inhales sharply, suddenly aware of how tightly the stone vice wrapped around her body and how strong the coppery taste was in her mouth. She had to end this fight. Now. Summoning the last of the mana she had channeled into her aura, Quintessa prepares for one last desperate attack, ignoring the pain as she grips her katana with both hands. She shifts to imitate a Kirioroshi stance, the blade brought to a 45 degree angle as her aura swirls around her like a thunderstorm, electricity crackling before she even has to speak the magic words. "Mellt." Quintessa begins, the enchantment forming at the tip of her katana as a chaotic sphere of warbling, raw magic. "Uwchgwyrfai!" Bringing her blade down as hard as she can her evocation finally takes form, a deafening crack of thunder echoing throughout the windowless room as pale green lightning sinks into the extremely conductive pool of water that was Zuveus being, searching for the object that served as his stolecage to overload it with electrical energy.
Khitti || Everything was going great! Fine! Wunderbar! Until Zuveus did his thing and turned into a damn whirlpool-y water elemental while she was trying to clothesline him. Around and around and around she went with those spiders like a washing machine on the spin cycle. During that time, things sort of seemed like they slowed down a bit. She eyed all the arachnids, wondering if she was their grandmother via Francis. Or their great grandmother. Or… You get the picture. That went on for a few moments until she was eventually yeeted right the hell into the nearest wall. “Shiiiii----” With a sickening thud. Don’t ask me why she’s not dead; she’s still got a few more of her nine lives, I guess. But not many. As Zuveus split and headed towards both Khitti and Tessa, Khitti did her best to recover from splatting like a bug against the wall, with much groaning and angry curse words in Common, Dhavislaavian, -and- Catalian. She finally peeled herself up off the floor long enough to spot the water freak and roll her eyes at him. “Why can’t this ever be easy? Can my bad luck not come into play for at least -one- fight? I’m sick of this and I’m sick of -you-,” she said, the last of her words for Zuveus.
Khitti || As the half going after Khitti got closer, she summoned up a huge path of ice beneath her feet, using one hand pointed at the ground in front of her, while the other hand was behind her, shadowfire flaring from it to give her a bit of propulsion to push her along around the room. “Come on then! Come get me!” Once she got enough momentum going, the fire shooting from her palm changed to shadow-ice to match the other hand, though this one was pointed towards Zuveus. Occasionally, the magicks would switch back and forth, making sure she was both continuously on the move on the ice as well as attacking him--it seemed to her that she’d fare much better mana-wise if she went this route than just shadowstepping around.
Final Defense
Lanlan || Zuveus flowed without mercy or concern for life, even his own. Heedless of danger, the elemental pursued Khitti unabated by the freezing dismemberment of his own body. Torrents of water freeze into chunks of ice, and are discarded from the cascading body of Zuveus. Almost as quickly as they crack and shatter against the ground, they are replaced. Almost as quickly. In the time before he is restored, the twisting magical wellspring that feeds his form is bare. The battery. A weakness. The rapids coursed hopelessly to throttle Khitti, blind to the storm about to split the waves. When Quintessa’s electrical current passes through Zuveus’s soulcage, just for a second, the energy animating the water went away. The ripping tides grew soft and collapsed, lazily casting shallow waves that gently splash the corners of the room. Like tiny icebergs, Zuveus’s frozen and forgotten tendrils teeter in the puddle. Just for a second.
Lanlan || And then? A pulse, a ripple. The hint of an instinct; the first and most important one, even before destruction. The will to live. The ripple expands to touch all of the water filling the room, and then all at once, there’s a sudden lack of cohesion among the infinite drops of water dampening the floor. A great exodus off the ground and into the air, the sudden evaporation resulting in a dense mist of churning particles, bleaching everything in sight. To protect his heart, soul, and body, he would hide. Aggressively, it would hide. A mist approaching sentience, and it was so thick, it would be hard to find one’s hand inches from their face! A low hissing, emanating from every inch of the room, drowned the place in white noise. Zuveus meant to hide the cloudy white cage protecting his soul here, in a cloudy white mist. If he could survive in this condensed part of its cycle, he would precipitously return, and surely rain doom upon Khitti and Quintessa once more.
Winner: Quintessa and Khitti!
Auto-hit Round
Quintessa || As Quintessa’s transmuted rock arm begins to crumble, the changeling slipping from its grip, she braces herself from impact with the floor, barely managing to land on her feet before the intense pain in her midsection causes her to double over to her knees, blood spilling from her mouth as she coughs up blood. “Khitti?” Quintessa croaks out, her hand weakly waving away the steam in her face as she looks for the silhouette of her companion. “This is our only chance- we have to find the cage befor- ughhh- Her pleas are cut short by another heave of bloody vomit, the splash echoing throughout the room as she hugs her midsection. There was some sort of internal hermoging that she had to address, feeling on her belt for a simple curative potion before quaffing the liquid and holding her hand over her mouth to keep from vomiting it up again. After a couple of seconds she feels strong enough to get onto her feet once more and peer through the mist, mismatched eyes squinting as she stumbles forward. “Khitti?” she asks again, “Any luck? We have to find and destroy it before this cultist recorporealizes and we have to fight him all over again…”
Khitti skidded to a stop and almost ran into a wall as she realized Zuveus was far too misty for her magic to really take hold anymore and let her own fade away to conserve what was left. She shadowstepped about, trying to find that adopted daughter of hers as she listened to Tessa’s warning. Finally, popping up behind her, Khitti put her hands on Tessa’s back lightly, creating a sort of dark magic bandage--like the ones she made from her light magic. She stretched out the sticky shadows to span the length of her back, then let it hover against the changeling’s clothing for her to feed off of, like a much needed boost of adrenaline. “I have an idea. I wish to hell I’d brought my violin though. But, I’ve heard my singing works too… Help me. Please.” The redhead reached out for Tessa’s hand, waiting for the changeling to take hold. Soon what was left of Khitti’s dark magic would radiate from not only her hand, but the rest of her as well.
Khitti || The shadows from around the room drew themselves to their mistress and her daughter, then branched outward from the two of them, seeking out Zuveus’ soul cage from within the mist. ♫ ”Come, little children, I'll take thee away… Into a land of enchantment. Come, little children, the time's come to play, here in my garden of shadows…” ♫ The song was simple enough for Tessa to follow along and hopefully use what little of her fae magic she had left for the time being. In the same manner that Khitti’s violin, paired with the dark magic that had once belonged to an umbrawisp (a race of spirit-herders) of the Shadow Plane, had called upon Brenwyn, her magic now did the same again, calling out for Zuveus’ soul, like a siren luring a ship to its demise. As she continued to sing and channeled her magic, her irises shifted from its usual olive-green to the same shade of purple as her shadowfire, something that had not happened for years.
Khitti || Once Tessa joined in, the shadows’ movements became more and more erratic, lashing out like bolts of lightning here and there and everywhere until it finally struck home. First one tendril latched onto the soul cage, then another, and soon more and more. “Do you think Odhranos would be upset if you kept it?” She meant the cage, of course, and the soul within. “If he should be apprehensive about it later on, it could always be destroyed.” Khitti’s voice sounded distorted, ethereal. “Or would you rather we rip this one to shreds for helping in attempting to take everything from you? That you’ve worked so hard for?” She paused again, as if considering her own choices given to the changeling. “You must decide quickly. My magic is waning and I must preserve some to help you.”
Quintessa tensed but for a second when Khitti popped up behind her, allowing her adopted mother to aid her however she thought best. It was comforting, the dark cradle that encased her, and the changeling let out a slow, deep breath as the mana seeped into her being. Before Quintessa could thank her however, Khitti made a suggestion, urging her to join her in a song- which the young spellcaster was hesitant about. With a weak nod she took Khitti’s hand, clearing her throat so she could try to follow along. Quintessa didn’t know the words but she could at least provide non-lexical vocals, creating a hollow, eerie wail that was reminiscent of the wind on the moors. Unbeknownst to the warlock, singing like this was tapping into an often unused ability; Her dark fae song, her aura glowing a faint green so long as she continued to sing along. Though Quintessa had no training in singing, her voice was strangely beautiful, adding a hypnotic backdrop to the lyrical content.
Quintessa || Then her mother located it, the soul cage containing Zuveus’s essence, their bitter enemy for the last few moments. Her mouth drawn in a flat line, Quintessa thought carefully about that question, if Odhranos would mind. He said on the beach that these people should be spared, did he not? As their prisoner he could live on- his soul repurposed for something great. Swallowing hard, Quintessa's mismatched eyes locked onto Khitti’s and she nodded her head. “Right,” she began, “As much as I’d love to send this bastard to the void, we can gain much more by keeping him alive. Bubble him- send the soul cage and that which is held inside back to the Necromancer’s Guild for study. And if the Archmage asks?” Quintessa paused to allow a devious smirk to grow on her face. “Well, let’s just hope he doesn’t ask.”
Post Duel RP
A moment later, Xin Liu awakens, after nearly being suffocated a minute ago. Being alive can only mean one thing, and she knows it. Khitti and Quintessa won! She runs up to them sopping wet. Her voice is strained after having her air violently ripped from her lungs, but she speaks optimistically. "You really beat him! Now we can save Gale and Misty and all the others!" She definitely hasn't heard the exchange about keeping the soul cage for their own uses. "I didn't know what else to do...so when they weren't looking I hid their bodies in the columns. They're all frozen in there...the rest of the guild thinks I...got rid of them. That was my job." This confession clearly hurts her, but it also appears to be somewhat relieving. At least she can help reunite the bodies with the caged souls in some small way, and maybe right some of her horrible crimes in the process. Then she asks timidly, "What should I do now?" She aided Haladavar with his atrocities. Does helping undo some of them...undo her crimes?
Khitti smirked somewhat at Quintessa’s answer and proceeded to reel the soulcage in like a sea bass (this bass wasn’t even a C+!). Once it landed in Khitti’s hands, the tendrils twisted and turned and enveloped the cage entirely, bubbling it as Tessa had suggested. “We’ll need to hide it before we head up towards the top, so Hal doesn’t sense it,” she said, quickly shoving it into her satchel just as Xin Liu awoke and approached them. For a moment, Khitti’s shadows didn’t dissipate as they always did. No, she was very much still in ‘I’m going to strangle you’ mode, the shadowy tendrils slithering their way across the floor towards the Ossian defector. They stop just before they reach the woman, once the defector’s deception towards the rest of the Order was made known. For a moment, they lingered there, but eventually faded into nothingness, the magic that radiated from Khitti disappearing as well, and her eyes returning to their normal color. “We must rejoin the others and go after Haladavar. He -must- be destroyed before anyone is brought back. To do so would just be to put them all in danger again.” The redhead dug around in her bag, vials clinking together lightly within as she tried to find the right ones she was looking for. “Drink these. Both of you.” One green vial, one red vial, and one blue vial were plucked out for each of them and handed over. “Health, stamina, and magic restoratives. They’re not the best, since I’m still working on my alchemy, but they’ll do.” For Tessa’s specifically, Khitti allowed a bit of her magic to seep into the vials, giving the changeling another dark magic boost. “You should stay here. If you go with us, they’ll know you betrayed them, and who knows what that might cause. Tessa and I can seal up the room before we leave, but you -must- protect the bodies.” Khitti soon downed her own vials of restoratives, leaving only a few left for whatever they might face as they headed further into the tower.