RP:Dancing with a Devil

From HollowWiki

Part of the The Ice Plague Cometh Arc



As the snow queen sleeps her dream begins to shift and change, from chasing down some young victims, their blood so close, to that feeling something is behind her. The shift from hunter to hunted is subtle, slight; a shimmering of perception that has the ice magus looking over her shoulder. And slowly, so slowly, all around her the frozen ranges of Frostmaw begin to change: The pristine, virgin snow grows darker, the howling wind becomes a cry of forsaken damnation, before a mass of twisting blackness dissolves into existence. From it rises the wraith Bozrah; dressed as ever in ragged clothes that twist around his body, mixing with the tendrils of ebon darkness which dance about his pallid form. When he speaks his voice resounds from everywhere and nowhere, "Satoshi... I told you I would make you scream..." He doesn't move, but all of a sudden he is right in front of her, his face mere inches from her own. "You have failed Frostmaw, queen." He snakes to the side, the landscape having changed to an image of the Frostmaw Giants being devoured in black fire and brimstone, hurled from the wicked armies of the Time Lord. The two mighty golems lay broken on the ice and beside their remains is a series of rotting gallows. On them hangs Satie's lifeless friends: Kasyr, with Requiem shattered at his feet. Kirien, his bright eye a faded husk that screams of defeat. Svilfon, his hat gone, his robes in tatters. A helpless feeling would overcome her as she realizes she cannot move, and the putrid laughter of the wraith rings out, "Watch them dance, Satoshi..." With a gesture an odious portal opens beneath the bodies, ebon flames burning into sentient life. They ravage the dead bodies as the hellacious opening draws them ever closer, forcing them to dance on the ropes like forsaken marionettes. With antagonizing slowness the corpses are consumed, until finally the tattered remnants are sucked into the twisted opening in the snow, devoured by the blasphemous magicks. As the last one body vanishes, Bozrah whispers in Satoshi's ear as his cracked and broken fingernail tracing a slow pattern on her cheek, his breath hot and rank against her flesh. "You failed, Satoshi... It is over...." Before his last word has died out, she'd find herself now upon the gallows, a tight noose around her neck. "Dance for me, Satoshi..." The wooden platform below snaps open and all she can see is the limitless depths of Hell coming to consume her flesh as the forsaken cries of her slain comrades echo in her ears, blaming her for their deaths... Only then would she wake, the lingering feeling of the burning fires fresh upon her skin, the tight feeling of the rope still around her neck, the helplessness lingering in her mind, and just in that moment of half awake and half asleep would she hear the hollow voice of Bozrah, "Scream for me... Satoshi..."

-Hmail from Bozrah


Svilfon 's whistling would reach Satoshi before he did, the sound cherry and altogether contrasting to the icy mountains and howling winds. When he spots the snow queen standing there like a frozen sentinel his whistle dies and he calls out, "Lady icicle?"


Satoshi's ears are all that move in acknowledgement of the wizard's presence, twitching back slightly while the rest of the kit remains seemingly frozen in that determined staring off toward Frostmaw's hunting grounds. Tension pulses off the magus in near palpable waves and even the ice around her seems on edge, frosting into hard ridges and spikes at her feet. Perched upon her shoulder is an ermine, the small animal turning beady black eyes on Svilfon in an unnaturally calculating gaze as Satoshi half-murmurs, "Svilfon?"


Svilfon stops for just a moment as his feet begin to crunch into ice so cold it shatters beneath his feet. He eyes Aeron for a long time, the ermine's calculating look replied with a crooked grin that shows his gaps and fangs, before the wizard, with a little tip of his hat to Satoshi's protector, walks up to stand beside the snow queen. "Aye, lady icicle, it's me." He stares off into the distance, following her gaze with his own. Before, after a long time, he shrugs and gives a quiet snicker. "I give up. What are we looking at, snow queen? Dinner?" Her tension was noted by the wizard, not just because of the frigid cold coming from her. But he would not ask about it directly, she would speak of it if she wanted.


Satoshi remains silent and unblinking for a long moment, seeming unwilling to answer until slowly she turns to look at the wizard beside her, a feral grin of fangs and malice dominating her expression. A cold fire smolders in the amber specks of her eyes. "Not dinner. Prey," is her short answer, eyes narrowing to near slits before she returns her gaze to the snowy horizon. After a time, and a light nudge of the ermine's snout to her neck, Satoshi elaborates for her curious covenmate. "One of the Leech's pets is out there. I can feel him. The snows sing dirges of his foul passing, and my nights are haunted by his whispers."


Svilfon turns his ever-jovial gaze to Satoshi's face, and it's met with a feral grin of malice and bestial hunger. He resists the urge to take a step away from her, as any sane person would to such a look, and instead merely nods at her half-explanation. He doesn't press at her, but he doesn't need to. Aeron is all the nudge she needs to elobarate, and to her words the wizard nods, "I had... felt something... off..." He shakes his head a little, "It is dangerous, Satoshi. This much I know." He runs his hand over his hat, absently brushing off flecks of snow. "You are not alone, lady icicle." Hardly really comforting, but it is all he can offer as his gaze returns to the white horizons of Frostmaw's snowy planes.


Satoshi's predatory gaze flicks away from the snowscape and softens considerably when it falls upon the wizard. For the briefest of moments a hint of vulnerability creeps across her features, but it's hastily overpowered by a lopsided smile. "I know. It's why I won't fail. It's why -we- won't fail. And it's why Frostmaw won't fail. -I will not fail-." The last statement is said to the distant hills and trees in a voice of pure defiance and open challenge, and while the words aren't shouted, they still echo with Lady Frostmaw's determination--and just a touch of arcana, to send it rippling through the frozen lands.


Satoshi shouted, "Your days are numbered, Wraith!"


Svilfon flashes Satoshi a bright, and altogether crooked grin her expression briefly softens. If he notices the brief hints of vulnerability that whispere across her face he makes no mention of it, nor would he. The only response he would give is to move a touch closer to her; letting her know he is there. As she makes her proclamation to him, he grins again; he knew she was speaking more to herself and that odious terror lurking in the snowbut his grin is one of agreement. "The TimeLord has nothing on you, lady queen. Never forget that." It is the words he used in his letter to her, when he was off to fight his own devil. A rather unsubtle reminder if he could survive Tiphareth, she could survive any of Vuryal's lackeys. "I will not let it be any other way."


Satoshi responds to the vampire's proximity by leaning near enough to briefly press her shoulder to his, withdrawing after the nudge and taking a considerable degree of reassurance from the fleeting contact. Aeron, his presence no longer needed, disappears within the confines of Satoshi's coat with a touch of his nose to her cheek as parting, eliciting a smile from the vulpine. To Svilfon she eventually replies, "I haven't forgotten that, but I mean to remind him. If you're fool enough to start an avalanche, be prepared to be buried, because nothing in this world can stop that force once it's begun~."


Svilfon tips his hat to the departing Aeron, before nodding his head to the snow queen. He took his own degree of comfort from her icy words, not that he ever had doubt in her. As far as he's concerned she could win the war herself. Anyone who chops the throat of a dragon into shreds, after running along its back, stabbing its neck... well, she was clearly a little deranged in all the right ways. That was enough for the odd wizard. "Frostmaw is beyond him. Here you have fire, earth, lightning and snow; all of us, your family of sorts, here to watch it... And then there's our friends we made, all before you'd have to deal with the frost giants.. And I tell you what," he looks at her again, "I've been in a few fisti-cuffs with those frost giants and they hit.. hard." He snickers at himself, the sound full of light self-mockery. "He makes a lot of noise, does the bug. The avalanche it triggers will bury him and his wraiths. Then you and I can go back to trying to kill each other! I mean, giving each other lessons." He grins, before giving her a nudge like she had done him.


Satoshi rolls her eyes at those words, the expression one of amusement rather than exasperation. "They hit -very- hard, pointy hat, so imagine just how hard their queen is going to hit the Leech when he rears his ugly mug in her territory. I'll shred all his precious shadows first~. And then," she chuckles, the sound full of mirth, "we'll go back to our lessons, and see if we can't find a dragon we owe a thrashing to, eh?"


Svilfon claps Satoshi on the back, before leaning over and dropping a quick kiss on the side of her forehead. "Damn straight, lady icicle! We will not let it be any other way." He turns his eyes back to the frozen landscape, "I can leave you, if you like, Satoshi queen. But if you need me, now or during the coming conflict, just call." He gives her hat a light tug, "I'll hear it now."


Satoshi says to the cloud-laden sky, "I'm never far from -anyone- anymore, am I?" Although she voices it as a complaint, the foxkin cannot truly complain about the ties that bind her once solitary soul to so many others, others that had become as much a part of her as herself. Family is apparently the next frontier for Satoshi to conquer, now that she's faced and defied Death.


Svilfon answers on behalf of the cloud-laden sky in a deep voice, "It's better than having to corrupt all your people just to have 'friends' like a certain bug...."


Satoshi chuckles, shaking her head at the talking sky, "I'll take my chances with the links I've made." Still smirking, she glances at Svilfon and winks, not needing words to express her gratitude for his constant presence.


Svilfon chuckles at the snow queen as he returns her wink with one of is own, "If you can survive being married to Kasyr, fighting with me, having a brother like Kirien..." He snickers, "I don't think there is much else to worry about. You sure can pick 'em, lady icicle. Us oddities you surround yourself with." He chuckles again, his joviality not too bothered by Satoshi's coming ordeal. "We will be fine."


Satoshi quietly agrees. "We will be fine."




Satoshi waits. Unbudging since the false-dreams had awoken her and the snow songs had guided her to this location over a day ago. Frostmaw's constant snowfall has gathered heavily around the kit, yet none has the audacity to claim a perch upon herself, leaving her as a solitary figure in a sea of snow. Her essence has been intricately woven into the very fibers of the permafrost during her vigil, an elaborate nervous system that alerts her to the land's every shift, its inhabitants' every movement, and its intruders' every step. For the most part, the flood of information is allowed to simply wash over Satoshi while her heightened concentration seeks out the inconsistencies, searching for the Leech's shadow daring to mar her lands with his presence. He'll be here, this much she knows. And he'll learn how fatal an error it is, to allow a Magus to prepare. Every snowy hillock around her has been transformed into a deathtrap eager for the blood of a wraith, bent to her unwavering will.


Bozrah 's mocking laughter can be heard for just a moment on the howling winds, before a large patch of white snow before Satoshi begins to grow putrid and disgusting; like a rotting piece of fruit it degrades into filth and decay, and from its center rises the wraith, Bozrah. The ice magus may have sensed him coming, he traveled beneath the snow on the wings of his desecrated darkness. He is dressed as ever in ragged clothes which dance around his corrupted body, mingling with the tendrils of ebon blackness which snap at the air like a ravening beast, consuming the light. His grey eyes, devoid of anything other than sadistic anger, lock onto Satoshi and an ugly smile twists his lips upwards, displaying rotting black teeth and ebon fangs, the legacy of his life before wraithdom as a vampire. When he speaks his voice comes from everywhere and it is laced with mockery, "Foolish Satoshi, how easily you dance for me." Laughter comes then, colder than the winds of Frostmaw, "You are mine!" The last word hangs in the air, dripping with malice, before Bozrah raises a clawed finger and points it directly at the ice magus, "Come to me, Satoshi... Beg at my feet and your city will be spared..."


Satoshi meets the wraith's mockery with her own chiming laughter. None of the kit's usually flippant retorts follow the sound, however, as a gaze of frosty azure and seething amber is leveled at the shadow tainting the snows before her. He will not touch Frostmaw. Her essence woven into the surrounding lands, Satoshi has no current need to speak or sing her magics into existence, and thus Bozrah will have no warning before the snows around them erupt in a violent upheaval of jagged ice and shattered permafrost pulsing outward from Satoshi, stationed at the epicenter. Although the explosion is dangerous enough, it's what lurks beneath and is being unearthed that should tell the wraith just why you never grant a mage -time-, or threaten a queen's territory. For beneath the uprooted snow lies a behemoth magic circle, Satoshi serving as the core and fuel to the patterns that flow outward in etched branches of runes and sigils, weaving into a complex snowflake motif--a design matching perfectly the tattoo upon her shoulder. As Satoshi's personal Mage Mark flares into life, it promptly becomes a deathtrap to all magical beings save its creator--for the kit, with a fate long interwoven with Cuki the anti-mage, has laced her circle with runes of a similar nature to the monk's. Any magic created shall be leapt upon by the design's entity, drawing it away like a black hole to fuel the attack that's been awakened with a spark of Satoshi's essence: sheets of ice, as thin and keen as blades, rapidly descend upon the circle in a torrent of guillotines, mapping out the engraved design with deadly accuracy. Should the wraith evade this bladed downpour and decide to break any of the embedded ice or alter the pattern, he'll face the secondary offensive function of Satoshi's Mark, as the gathered ice shatters explosively and is drawn into a razory, high-speed whirlwind set to decimate any foolish enough to mar the design. Satoshi is not playing games today.


Bozrah doesn't move his body at all as the vicious spears of ice snap out, tearing into his diseased flesh with sickening ease and pouring his ebon-blood onto the ground beneath them. He stands there unable to move, made whore by the shards that impale his body, until those many razor-sharp sheets of ice arc down and begin to tear into his flesh, chopping him into small pieces that drop to the ebon snow beneath him. All the while the look on his face never changes, even as it is viciously sliced apart. It takes a long, long time, until all that's left of the wraith is a rotting pile of flesh and bone. For a while it remains still, the stench like a stagnant pool which permeates the air, before his body parts begin to sink down back into the pile of his corrupted snow, leaving in their wake nothing but a large pool of blackened ice. Beneath the surface of the magus' arcane mark the desecrated essence of the wraith travels. He feels part of his dark power being siphoned off, but soon enough he is clear from the insidious weavings of her potent power, and there he is reborn: He rises up from the snow again, outside the confines of her mighty web, his body a wicked tapestry of horrific wounds, held together only by his black ice. For just a moment he stares at Satoshi through his empty grey eyes, before he drops to a knee, shards of his frozen blood pouring from him as he moves. With a disjointed movement he slams his fist into the icy ground beneath him. The wraith opens his mouth without moving his body and screams out words in the language of the wraiths; a vowel-heavy and faintly guttural tongue that is both disgusting and offensive to the ears of anyone who has not been so damned. His empty grey eyes never leave her as his body begins to shimmer from sight; dark shadows giving way to the bleak, cold landscape behind him. But he does not entirely fade from view. With his true intentions on the power he casts, it is more by reflex he disguises desecrated his body from sight. More and more of the words come, each one darker than the last, until with a final screaming sound which rings out with forsaken joy, he releases his power into the frosted ground. Like twisting snakes, tendrils of darkness travel beneath the surface, soaking into the icy mountain and corrupting it with their odious power. They would travel quickly until they were beneath the snow queen, then, one by one, spears of black ice begin to erupt from the ground, seeking to impale her on their vicious tips. At the end five would be given dark birth, tearing up through her circle with hopefully enough power left in them to rip into her body and end her long unlife once and for all...


Satoshi has seen this particular wraith crushed by colliding mountains, and she'd be a fool if she believes her icy barrage has completely done away with him now. That's not to say she didn't take a certain degree of pleasure in seeing his form shredded, but there is no lack of surprise when he reforms himself outside the circle a short time later. Stubborn bastard. A shiver runs through her upon hearing those vile words, the sensation traveling down into the snowscape she's bound to, and promptly returning with frantic warning of the darkness approaching. There is little time to act, but when the corrupted spears of ice rear their foul heads, Satoshi is as prepared as one can hope to be when the land is your guardian. The first two miss, narrowly, as she hurls herself backwards and falls, the third drives itself into a rock hard slab of ice flashfrozen where the fallen kit's back rests, jostling her. Her right leg is not so fortunate to have that hastily conjured wall protecting it however, as becomes evident when one of the spears carves a massive wound out of her thigh. Strangely enough, Satoshi voices no cry of pain, for she is equally as stubborn as the wraith and refuses to let him take pleasure in her cries--instead, her teeth slice into her lip to keep such sounds from escaping, and she rolls aside, away from the blood-covered spear... and right into the final one as it plunges straight through the ice of her left arm, separating limb from body in a clean cut. Or as clean a cut as can be made by such a corrupted object, its foul essence already seeping into her veins, leaden and insidious. While no pain or blood comes from this wound, the sight is still disconcerting and the wraith's taint revolting, and with a hiss Satoshi retaliates. Malicious rage is flooded into the snows then, Satoshi's magic, emotions, and blood fueling the sudden transformation of a frosty landscape into a writhing pit of scorpions, spiders, and vipers. The countless eyes of the transmuted creatures flare with azure light as they seek out the wraith, stingers and fangs yearning to impale his ragged flesh and flood it with Satoshi's venom: Azure Flames, the pure essence of Ice, an element blessed not by deities but nature itself, that seeks to burn through Bozrah's veins and rip his befouled self asunder before he can dare to corrupt Ice once more.


Bozrah seems to take no real pleasure in his spears tearing into Satoshi's flesh; perhaps it was her denying him the scream he so craves. He can feel his darkness seeping into her body, even at such a distance, but with her powers so recently bared he hardly believes it will be enough to turn her into the mewling slave he desires. So he remains on his knee even as her icy creatures erupt into life. He feeds more and more of himself beneath her circle, through the ground and up that spear of ice that so easily carved through her arm. It proves somewhat foolish, for within moments his black-ice laden body begins to burn with her own insidious power as her small creatures begin to impale his torn flesh and pollute it with her magicks; the venom of her Azure Flames burning within his corrupted being; damnation and desecration mixing with pure elemental power. The struggle within him would be akin to her own; their respective powers fighting inner battles to corrupt and destroy. Bozrah's might comes from polluting ice with his own damnation, feeding it with the malicious magicks that bind him to Vuryal; the fiend's blood the fuel that empowers him. For as long as he can he remains still, before he tears himself to his feet and once again emits a putrid scream. Shards of black ice explode from his body, carving into the small icy creatures Satoshi summoned. He begins to almost fall apart as his magic is so abused, the black ice he uses to hold himself together failing as its cleaned by her pure elemental power. He struggles within himself, before lifting a finger that drips with melting blood and cries out, "Time... to... die..." His mouth tears open causing shards of black ice to fall to the ground in the wake of his jaw-bone dropping off his body and striking the earth. Bozrah's torn apart mouth expels a pool of black liquid; throwing it up onto clean ice before him. It sizzles and crackles with the might of forsaken slavery, before from it rises an ugly beast. Small black wings adorn the back of a gargoyle like creature. It spits abuse at the world, before its wings flap and the creature, born of black ice, takes to the air. With all his might Bozrah directs the beast at Satoshi, before he drops to his knees and attempts to free his body of her poisonous power. The creature flies high above the circle she created, before folding in its wings an diving straight down towards the ice-magus. At the last minute its mouth would open and from it comes a mass of vile, acid liquid much like Bozrah used to summon it, before the creature tries to tear the queen apart with tooth and claw before the might of her magic circle steals its strength and destroys it...


Satoshi does not remain idle while the beast is born, despite the crippling pain in her leg and the foulness creeping through her veins. In a struggling moment she drags herself onto her feet, off-balance with the arm lost and the leg near useless, but standing nonetheless as she turns a defiant gaze upon Bozrah. Time to die is right. Lady Frostmaw's sheer will is what calls the gathered ice to life once more in that moment, drawing it up and around her as it begins to writhe and bulge, building into a new shape. When the wraith's hellion vomits forth its acid, ice and magus alike are enveloped as a huge cloud of steam issues forth, obscuring all from view for a lingering moment. ...until the mists are blown away by a sweep of behemoth wings, revealing in its midst a crystalline gryphon caked in smoking black ooze. With a challenging screech to the diving monstrosity, the conjured beast gives a powerful surge of its muscles and shatters the coat of acid that's been flashfrozen to its skin as writhing blue flames flicker to life along its form. It's then that Satoshi's location can be seen, as the kit rests coiled within the gryphon's torso, suspended by frigid, blood-stained waters that strive to purge the darkness flooding her veins and heal the acidic burns she's taken, while her creation rises to meet Bozrah's in a colossal mid-air collision. The gryphon screeches again as its talons lock with the hellion's claws and with a heave it twists in the air, intending upon putting the wraith's 'pet' beneath it as they come crashing back to earth and the waiting magic-eater circle.


Bozrah had remained on his knees as the snow queen adopts her new shape, forged of the ice she so easily commands within her magic sigil. The creature is no match for the gryphon; as the two collide with the earth it shatters into black shards which begin to fade as they're cleansed of their potent taint by the ice-magus' circle. Bozrah can feel his body fading beneath the onslought of her insidious magic; the Azure Flames he was polluted with fighting the waves of corruption that fuel his deceased body. More and more of the ice that holds him together fades; its liquid clear as it falls to the snow beneath him, cleaned of the TimeLord's taint. In vain the wraith tries to hurl his essence into the ground beneath him, to flee to the castle Vuryal has hidden and be reborn within its dark dungeons. But he cannot. A scream of pure hatred comes from everywhere at once; it rings through the mountainous regions with purtrid strength; a grotesque noise that drowns in forsaken damnation, before the wraith's body erupts in a pool of ebon darkness and falls onto the snow where once he kneeled. With the remnants of his fading life he hurls all his vicious power at Satoshi; thin ebon tendrils snake through the air and would seek to enter the frozen gryphon shield she has created for herself, to weave through the ice and enter her mouth, her ears, her eyes... To corrupt her as he was corrupted; to damn her to a hell much like he was damned so long ago. He cannot flee, he cannot fight; so his final spiting act would be to devour the queen of frost and snow; to insinuate himself into her magic, to fuel her with darkness and damnation... He would never know how successful he was in this, for by the time the power reached her the wraith Bozrah, one of Vuryal's first and most powerful, was destroyed.. Killed in this battle between Ice Magus and Dark Mage; her preperations too strong, her will too much... and all that would be left was a pile of his rotting body parts, resting on a frozen pool of ebon ice that no matter what was done, could never fully be removed. The last taint of Bozrah, left in the wake of his forsaken life finally ending...


Satoshi's gryphon grants Bozrah's obsessive wish at last, the icy construct screaming in outraged defiance as it's ripped to pieces by the torrent of darkness assaulting it, leaving the kit to fall the short distance to earth with a wet thud. Azure Flames flicker along her form, still working to chase away the wraithen poison, but before they can, and before she can even open her eyes, Satoshi is engulfed in the ebon corruption. Back arching, the magus writhes upon the ground in utter agony as pure Ice and frozen Shadow wage war within her, each seeking to destroy the other and not caring for the vessel they occupy in the process. Tears stream from eyes gone inky black and although her mouth opens to voice her torture, no sound escapes. Instead, her silent cries of anguish are sent shuddering through those strange links she carries with the few souls she holds near and dear--to Kirien through their Kindred Spirits, to Emiur through his feather, to Svilfon through hat and magic alike, to Aeron through her very soul, and Kasyr through their frozen wedding bands, blood, body, and heart. It's a veritable barrage of agony, suffering, corruption, and fear that's sent to each, while Satoshi struggles upon her beloved snow to rid the wraithen darkness devouring her body.


Svilfon was sitting the library in Frostmaw; having left the queen to her frozen vigil last night to search through her books in the vain hope of finding something to help her fight. He is reading through an ancient book when he feels coursing through his body a disgusting feeling of pain and corruption; a putrid filth that feels as if it's coating his flesh with damnation and fear. He recognizes it instantly, and without his usual precautions, and despite his word to Satoshi about no fire-spells in the library, he wraps himself in fire and tears through Hollow, using his shared bond with Satoshi to find her. In his wake the book he was reading is a little singed, but the vigilant little helpers who secretly watch for stuff like this soon have it put out and returned to the shelf. This is all lost on Svil, though, when he snaps into existence within her circle and has his own fiery magic devoured by it. He staggers for a moment, disorientated and confused, before he sees the snow queen writhing in agony on the ground, ebon tears falling from her eyes, her face a mask of agony. Within moments he is on his knees beside her, and screaming, "Lady Icicle?" He cannot yet bring himself to touch her, the tangible fight within her almost visible to the magically attuned vampire, but he remains close, ready to aid her if he can.


Satoshi's ermine, of all things, appears seconds behind Svilfon, seemingly manifesting from a patch of snow at the foxkin's shoulder. With an enraged chitter he leaps upon the magus and sinks tiny fangs into her neck like a miniature vampire. Satoshi makes no reaction to the minuscule pain, overwhelmed as she is by the vile entity coursing through her, and so without intrusion Aeron clings to the magus and turns fiery black eyes upon the kneeling wizard. A faint nudge is given to Svilfon's mind then, a delicate but earnest probe that he'd recognize as Emiur as the couatl attempts to make contact despite the great distance between them. ::Hold her down,:: is the brusque statement, Emiur having neither time nor strength to waste on detail or formality, for as soon the words are spoken--and hopefully the wizard heeds them--the rainbow colored feather adorning Satoshi's hat becomes illuminated, the colors flooding out to wash over the anguished vulpine and cocoon her in a protective multi-hued light, trying to guard her mind against the contamination. It's then that the ermine releases his hold, whirling around to face Svilfon and baring teeth stained by black blood. 'Your fire. Through her veins, now. Use me to channel! Burn him out of her!' It's the first time Aeron has spoken to any soul aside from Satoshi, but the tiny guardian has little choice at the moment, and so he rears up on hind legs then, prepared for Svilfon to take hold of him and put his volatile magic to use.


Svilfon heeds the words Emiur spoke into his mind immediately. He doesn't waste any time trying to reply, though. Instead he's leaps upon Satoshi, holding her down as tightly as he can while the multi-hued light erupts around them. For a long time he struggles against the woman's strength; the vileness within her makes her icy flesh feel filthy and disgusting. But the wizard doesn't care; his normally jovial face is a mask of worry. He would not let her lose this fight, not after all they'd gone through. And then Aeron turns and bares his teeth. Svilfon is about to tell the little creature he is here to help, before it speaks to him first. The wizard would usually find this more than a little fascinating, but in the light of his friend's plight he merely nods his head before wrapping one of his hands around the small creature. "Prepare yourself!" Svilfon pulls from within himself his fiery magic; he can feel the arcane circle around them trying to siphon off his power, but with his friend's life resting in the balance he ignores it. He draws more and more of his magic, before the pair of coterie mates are coated in a sphere of living flames, much like the lichdrow was. But the ice queen would not be harmed by them. Svilfon draws as much as he can, until he feels his flesh beginning to burn, before he locks his gaze on the ermine's and after a moment of silent communication he pulls all the fire into himself, then purges it through Aeron, into Satoshi. The wizard has no idea what will happen, but he focuses as much as he can on his lady icicle, hoping against hope his power would burn out the malevolent power and not devour Satoshi as well...


Satoshi, within her shadow-enveloped mind, fights with all her might to throw off the fiery demon holding her down, claws yearning to rend through that wide, toothy smirk it wears while it leers down at her helpless, unclothed form. Nothing, nothing, she can do -nothing-. Bozrah's corruption floods her with feelings she's never known, a veritable torture chamber of guilt, sorrow, shame, helplessness, and regret that leaves her caught between screaming and crying, and desiring nothing more than to recoil into the shelter of darkness, where pain will be cooled, guilt and regret forgotten, sorrow drowned, and shame covered. Her battered soul wavers toward that enticing offer, the fight flickering out of it and the azure flames fading, when the demon above her suddenly burns brighter and a smaller one rears up wreathed in flames with eyes as black as coals. "No!" the magus cries out as Aeron, encircled in Svilfon's fire, lunges forward to latch once more upon her throat. Satoshi can't help but resume the fight then, writhing against the force holding her down as her veins are set aflame, the fire's damnable light sending her precious darkness fleeing. No, come back, she wants to cry, but only a strangled sob escapes her. As it courses through her, the arcane fire begins to warm Satoshi, and with that warmth comes memories, memories that had been devoured by the darkness now are returning to life. As the flames wash through her, her own icy ones flicker back into existence and send their cooling essence flooding after Svilfon's heated own, joining in the banishing of shadows. With a shudder Satoshi goes still suddenly and Aeron chirps a weak sound before dropping limp into the snow. For a drawn out moment the wintry pair remain unmoving until a barely audible, "Nn. Svilfon? You came..?" escapes Satoshi's lips, a sliver of azure visible from beneath an eyelid faintly cracked open.


Svilfon continues to flood Aeron with his magic; he shares a moment of clarity with the ice queen's demons, feeling the vicious fight between her powerful will and his horrific damnation. But he doesn't relent against the walls of hatred, the fear, the disgust, the shame... He trusts in Emiur's words and in Aeron's... So he floods her with his fires, trying to burn out the corruption that dances so wickedly in her veins. It is not until he feels her Azure Flames burst into cooling life that he finally relents the onslaught. They cool his burning body and with a shudder he lets Aeron go and plants his hand on the snow beside Satoshi's head, the only thing he can do to stop himself collapsing on top of her. He watches through somewhat empty eyes her steadfast companion fall to the snow, and weakly he manages to pick Aeron up and lay him on Satoshi, just beneath her neck. When she speaks, he flashes a tired, but altogether crooked grin at the snow queen, "Of course, lady icicle..." He sags forward a bit, before using his free hand to absently wipe away the ebon trails caused by the tears she cried from her cheeks, "I think I burned a book... Please don't kill me." Why this comes to his mind isn't known, but he manages another grin filled with fangs and gaps in equal measure, "Told you... you'd win."


Satoshi manages a harsh sound that's more cough than laugh as something of a smile ekes its way onto her strained features. "Aha. You burned more than a book, wizard." Is this what it feels like to be a well-done steak? From now on, rare only for this kit. The train of thought falters as she feels Emiur withdraw with a mutual wave of relief sent to both Mage Guildies, and a hint of amusement for the magus' musings. Satoshi frowns then, taking stock of herself now that the couatl's protection has receded. Scratch 'well-done', she's feeling more like a steak that's danced with the devil himself. "By Sven's fiery balls, I'm hungry." A blink. "...those thoughts don't go well together... ugh." Groaning in pain and disgust, Satoshi closes her eyes and makes to reach up to give Svilfon's hat a tug, only to have her hand fall short, too weak to reach higher than his cheek. So instead she gives the man an affectionate pat before her hand falls limp at her side once more. "You told me, yes. And you told me you'd hear me if I called. But," in a show of effort, she turns to look anxiously toward the remains of the wraith, "is it gone for good this time..?"


Svilfon bursts out laughing at the snow queen's horrible misuse of his favorite saying. The sound is a touch strained, though it is rich with geniune good humor. "Still needs practice." He winks at her, before shifting his gaze to the remains of Bozrah, resting there in a rotting pile of disgusting filth. For a moment he is thoughtful, before shifting his gaze back to Satoshi, "Another of our favors returned, lady icicle. Now you know how I feel when you flood me with ice." He grins a crooked smile, and gives a slight nod to her affectionate pat, before he pulls himself off the queen. He staggers to his feet, noting the waves of relief coming from his couatl friend but too tired to attempt to respond. He reaches his hand into his robes, quietly quite happy how the held up against his fires, and from their depths pulls a bottle of blood-wine. He tears out the cork with his teeth, before kneeling back down and offering it to Satoshi. "Drink, lady icicle.." His gaze shifts to Aeron and a flash of worry flicks across his features, "Is he.. alright?" He makes no mention of whether the wraith is truly destroyed, nor does he reply to him hearing her call. The former is a question he doesn't know the answer to, the latter is spoken without the need of words. His hat tip would have said it all...


Satoshi's desire for the blood wine is put on hold as she shifts painfully to stroke Aeron's singed fur. Light of a pale blue plays off the ermine's form briefly, until he dissolves into a silvery mist that slithers into Satoshi's coat sleeve, disappearing from sight. The kit starts suddenly, eyes wide and shocked, but she recovers quickly and gives a shake of her head. "Yes," Satoshi answers softly, "he'll be all right." The kit's eyes are misty and a sad, thoughtful smile plays across her face when she accepts the wine bottle. Raising it to her lips, she gives the bottle a tip to the sky. "To guardians, past and present," the words are spoken in hardly a whisper, swiftly followed by the crimson wine. After a moment, she adds to Svilfon with a squint-eyed look, "I'll be sure not to ice you again, then. Unless necessary."


Svilfon shows great relief when she says Aeron will be alright, and as Satoshi takes the bottle the wizard shifts to be sitting cross legged beside her. He takes a quiet moment to collect himself, feeling thoroughly drained after imbuing her with his fire-magic, before, with a slight shrug that may go unnoticed, he speaks again, "I'll be sure to feed Emiur a giant fat cow on your behalf. It was the couatl who protected you, and Aeron whose idea it was. You are lucky with those you surround yourself with, lady icicle." He grins again, before giving a quiet laugh, "As long as you're here to ice me, I don't mind so much. I did think I'd lost you for a moment there... I could feel it..." He shakes his head, "You were too strong for his most potent wraith. You will be too strong for him. Now, if we could kill that feckin' parrot we'd have nothing left to fear!"


Satoshi's expression darkens considerably in recollection, her grip on the bottle tightening until stress cracks begin to form upon the glass. But when Svilfon continues, the tension in her body dissolves with a laugh--despite the pain of such a gesture. "Aha, that bird. He's the true bane of Frostmaw, but I fear I can't stand against him. If only we could harness his power..." Although the kit laughs again, the expression doesn't quite reach her eyes, a heavy dose of the emotions she'd been tortured with still lingering within them. No matter how potent the fire, not all the shadows could be burned away.


Svilfon grins at the snow queen, his natural joviality restored. It'd take more than another brush with eternal damnation to wear this wizard down. He makes no mention of her almost breaking the bottle, instead he replies in light tones, "Putting up with him for long enough to learn his secrets would get us both hauled off to Rowen's luny bin, I think." He tips his hat, before pushing himself to his feet. He offers his hand to the queen, "Do you want to return to your home, lady icicle? I know you like the snow... But..." He flashes his gaze over to the remains of the wraith, "Some.. rest might be better for you."


Satoshi takes a final swig of the wine, sets it in the snow, and accepts the wizard's help to her feet. "Yes..." The wraith remains are stared at for a long number of moments, Satoshi seemingly lost in that look, the lines of pain deepening on her face. Until, with an effort, she pulls herself away from that dark train of thoughts and fixes Svilfon with a tired smile, "Rest would be wise. I haven't slept soundly in... a long time." There's no promise she'll sleep soundly tonight either, with traces of the wraith still lingering within her, but hell if she won't try. Determination on her face, Satoshi calls forth her Xalious staff and employs it as a walking stick as she follows Svilfon toward home. "I swear, if my library is burnt down, you'll wish you were that wraith..."


Svilfon groans as he pulls Satoshi to her feet, and very quietly mutters something about ratios.. being perfect!- he amends under his breath. With a quiet snicker he trudges through the snow, no looks back at the remains of the wraith given, though he would come back at some stage to see... They were disturbing. To her words he merely chuckles, "I am sure I didn't. I see those servants of yours watching me in there. I know you told them to make sure I didn't burn the place down!" He turns his neck to flash her a crooked grin, "You are ever-wise, Satoshi queen." He goes thoughtful for a minute or two, before speaking in quiet tones, "ever wise, indeed."


Satoshi dryly comments as she trudges along, "You sure you're not mixing up 'wise' with 'suicidal'?"


Svilfon said to Satoshi, "Are the two mutually exclusive?"


Satoshi quips, "One usually requires age, the other devours it~."


Svilfon snickers at the queen, "I wonder where I stand in all that."


Satoshi shuffles along, muttering thoughtfully to herself--for all the world looking like the cuddliest, young Yoda ever--before she answers. "There's a term for it. 's called 'Wizard'."


Svilfon chuckles again at the ice magus, "Damn straight, and don't you bloody forget it. They don't hand these hats out to anyone!" To accentuate the point he tips his hat to her, with a wizardly flourish.


Satoshi tips her hat back, with a proper magely flourish, and a wince. "I'm fairly certain my veins are burnt to a crisp. I assure you I won't be forgetting the meaning of 'wizard' any time soon."


Svilfon nods his head solemnly at her hat tip, "Better." He flashes her half a smile and a wink, "At least you showed.. him.. what the worst that could happen is, if you piss off an ice magus!"


Satoshi presses her lips into a thin, grim line. "No one threatens my territory. Or my family." With that, she moves with a hint more vigor and determination in her steps.


Svilfon nods his head again, his face briefly serious. "Loyalty, lady icicle. It is what I admire about you. That and your library." He chuckles before leading them into her house. He would ensure she was alright before he left to see the damage he caused, as well as leaving her with a couple of bottles of his blood wine. He spends a long time afterwards sitting in his favorite library chair; his body more exhausted than he let Satoshi see. But he knows he will be alright, and more importantly he knows she will be. With that on his mind, he falls into a light, easy sleep - ready to awaken if needed...