RP:Pissing Contest

Summary: Drawn by the sound of destruction in Vailkrin, Emrith arrives after Jarith's escape in search of Larewen, only to find the unconscious necromancer in Shishi's care. A dispute over the woman's well-being erupts.

Vailkrin City Road

House Dragana's sentinels returned in the wake of the destruction, many dragging themselves through the abyssal forest. In Vailkrin, the debris had settled but smoke still hung heavy in the air. buildings, aside from The Hanging Corpse, were demolished along the main thoroughfare, and the fountain, no longer frozen by Leralynn's magic, spilled carelessly out onto the rough, its walls shattered and the pool no longer able to contain that sanguine fluid. Listless, unmanned puppets stood, staring around absently, others twitched as they lay around the road in pieces. With their master unconscious, there was no way for them to return to whence they came, for there was no direction. Some of those undead bodies, the ones torn to shreds, might prove familiar to those that frequented the Dark Forest, and yet the air was oddly void of the familiar tingle of the necromancer's magic.

When such calamity strikes so close by, only the deaf, the heartless or the hopeless coward might possess a viable excuse to stand by. Emrith, being none of those things, hesitates long enough only to be sure of the general direction of the exodus before donning his cloak, checking his shortswords to ensure that their enchantments are at peak efficiency and setting out through the forest. Wishing to avoid the carnage, the elf is forced to take a circumspect route through the tainted woods, moving to and fro amid the trees and not going near at the pace he would wish to adopt. At last he breaks free of the treeline and comes to the city itself, where his eyes behold the destruction so recently wrought upon it. Emrith is fairly adept at tracking, by both normal and magical means, and he has the distinct impression that Larewen has been this way, or been a part of things somehow...but there is something wrong. The magical resonance he should be able to sense, as nothing more than a familiar little tingle in most cases, is no longer present. Either the vampiress has fled from this place and gone far away, or-- "Larewen!" the elf shouts, for the moment heedless of any nearby who might mean him harm. He undoes his cloak to dispel its light-bending enchantment and breaks into a graceful run, dodging rubble or vaulting it as need dictates. "Larewen! Where are you?"

Shishi carries the unconscious, wounded Larewen in his bloodied arms down the ruins of the main street. Orange and Yellow are a few paces ahead of their father and the elf, the boy dragging his left arm at his side while he brags to his sister, “Did you see when I did this thing?” Arius flails his right arm in some ill-conceived pantomime of the action he is trying to have Leralynn recall to which she gives a hard “No.” The Thorne Estate looks to have taken a few licks. Parts of the face of the building cracked, a window broken, the black gate flattened, and the garden all but unearthed. “Ehh…”The Blue Demon exhales exhaustedly at the sight and at the sound of someone calling for Green. He's had enough for one night… enough for two nights really.

Emrith comes up short when he sees the children. Ranging out in front of Shishi as they are, it is they who first catch the elf's eye. The sight of children in such a torn place halts the breath in his throat for a moment, before recognition lets him breathe again. A moment later, he sees Shishi with someone cradled in his arms, and he raises a hand. "You." His voice carries in the relative quiet, but it is flat, declamatory, almost dead. "You did this?" Although it is a question, there is more than a hint of accusation in it. "Is she dead?"

Shishi hasn't realized it until this moment, but he is the only one of the family members to not have his eyes change back to their normal shade of oceanic blue after the calamity that has obviously taken place here. An ominous pulse moves through the darkness of the city that has finally been allowed to return to its natural eternal night, free of electrical discharges, wild explosions, and a legendary blazing blade. Orange and Yellow watch closely as their father turns glowing crimson eyes Emirth’s way for a brief moment, not stopping on his was towards the mansion, “Aye. This was me.” he half lies, “‘course she's dead. Killed ‘er years ago. You know?”

This time, when Emrith begins to move, he almost seems to blur, using all of his natural speed and agility to best advantage. One moment he is far enough away that raised voices might be needed to bridge the gap between himself and Shishi; in the next, the elf is a few paces out of touching distance. The spell-blade reaches up and back, and Heleg is suddenly in his hand, spitting blue light in fitful bursts as it whips forward. He is not near close enough to cut the demon, and does not try, but having the weapon in his hand in these closer quarters is...right, somehow, a comfort. "She has a home, Shishi," Emrith says, and his voice is much lower now, more threatening. "A home of her own. I will take her from here. Unless you can convince me that her livelihood depends on your custody of her, that is. If this city has recently been the site of catastrophe, I want her nowhere near it if she is thus helpless." Emrith's eyes are turning from their natural colour to a deep and stormy grey.

Shishi allows his own shadow to peel up from the ground, coil around itself and stare Emirth down like a giant black cobra poised to strike. They've been in a similar standoff to this with Green in the center already, but The Blue Demon is in no mood to back down this time after the night he's had. Shishi spits out the word, “Helpless…” while eyeing the unconscious elf, “Right…“ the vampire shakes his head, “She's hurt and I've got a healer right here ready to go.” he nods towards his daughter. “Even if I didn't though… You're going to fight me? For what? No…” the assassin sneers, “Like you said. I did this. I'll see it through. We didn't need your help earlier and we don't need it now. She's safer here than anywhere.” another lie for sure, but maybe he believes it.

Emrith squares his shoulders and takes a pace forward, undaunted by Shishi's shadow, immense though it may be. "I will fight you only if I must. See sense when it is presented. Surely your healer can come back to Larewen's home with me and perform the same as she would in this wretched place. I would not harm her or impede her, if doing so meant I was lessening Larewen's chances of continued existence." He makes a little gesture with his sword. "You did not need me before, it would seem, but that bears nothing on whether or not you need me now. I care little for what you need. I care for Larewen, and what I feel she needs is the sanctity of her own home, the comforts that her own domicile provide. And to be under the eye of someone who truly has her best interest at heart. That, too." He stares icily at Shishi, lets a beat of silence spin out. "This woman risked her very existence for me once, was badly wounded in the process but does not regret it. She has given over all-mastering ambition at least in part because of me. Can you say the same, Shishi? Larewen's mastering quality is self-interest, I think we could both agree to that. And yet, twice she has forsaken that self-interest on my behalf. For this, and for half a hundred other things, I owe her much more than I can ever repay her. If you were party to the destruction here, I would consider it a betrayal in my own heart were I to leave Larewen in your care. So the choice is yours. If you care for her safety and have no other reasons for keeping her here, then you will release her to me, and I and the healer there--" He indicates the aforementioned child. "We will return to Larewen's own home, whereupon all efforts will be made to restore the vampiress to health. I have far more precedent now than you. Speak further reason now, if you have it, but you hold to your course at great risk. A man who believes he owes his life in protection of a woman has few limits. Take it from me." Another beat of silence, this one marked by Emrith reaching slowly back over his left shoulder. Nahr comes to bear a second or two later, red where Heleg is blue. Another step forward. "Choose. You can be done with this, and should, if you truly have Larewen's best interest at heart."

Shishi is still in no mood for any of this. Crimson eyes glaze over when the elf goes on about what his first wife sacrificed for him. What the hell was he talking about? What does it have to do with a monster carrying an unconscious vampire down a destroyed street to his house. The Blue Demon can't make sense of any of it and can't wait to cut Emirth off the first chance he gets, this comes with the suggestion of sending Leralynn to House Dragana with him. The coiled shadow splits into the form of a massive, fanged, gaping maw. One can see straight through the open mouth of the shadow while Shishi bellows through it, “You'll leave without your god damn head before you leave with my daughter!” he's moving again with the shadow laughing and standing guard behind him. The family will reach the door to the Thorne Estate, “Whatever she's sacrificed for you won't mean anything when I tear your legs off and toss them into the sewers. There's nothing to fight for here. I'm not kidnapping her. She's free to run back to you as soon as she's able. No get the hell away from my house.“

"Someone," Emrith notes quietly, "has a serious problem with trust. You address none of my points about the sanctity of Larewen's own home, and respond to my reasonable offer with threats. Either you are blind to logic, or you are protecting something. Either way lies weakness." The elf seems unperturbed by the shadowy maw before him, speaking to it, responding to Shishi's bellowing voice in a tone quite calm by contrast. "I will remember that you denied Larewen her own home. I will remember that you threatened me harm for nothing more than the attempt to keep the love of my heart safe. I will remember how you took the offer of safety for your daughter, the healer, as threat to her person. And I will be sure to let Larewen know of all of this when she wakes. She deserves to have your full measure, I think. So, I will go. Peculiar though you are, I do believe that you will try to revive her. You will not attempt any harm upon her person, I trust." Emrith suddenly lifts one hand, shifting Heleg awkwardly in his fingers, and taps the little jade clasp at his throat. Channelling a brief burst of mana into his boots, the elf rises an inch or two, then shifts soundlessly to the right. He speaks again, his voice coming from thin air. "Because I will be near. I will be watching. I will be waiting. and if any further harm befalls Larewen..." He shifts again, this time coming a little closer to that shadowy construct. "I will know. And I will react. Strongly." Another shift. "You have a shred of my trust. Do not throw it away." Yet another shift, this one putting him at a greater distance. There is a faint rasp, a click, a rustle, and then something hits the stones with sound of rock on rock. Crack! A huge burst of light explodes into the air; it is nothing more or less than luminosity, but with such a surfeit of radiance, shadows may be driven back. "I am Emrith of house Kohl!" the elf shouts. "You frighten me not!"

Shishi and Orange exchange glances while the girl pushes open the door to the home and Emirth accuses the assassin of weakness. The girl gets a crimson wink from her father and shoots back a sweet smile. The family let's him have his time, Arius and Lynn watching as the elf hops back and forth behind Shishi. The light trick annoys the trio, causing them to shield their eyes from the flash, but accomplishes little more than that The Blue Demon demonstrating this time that he can hold the form of his animated shadows through that light. Once he's finished the vampire and the twins step through the door, Blue and Yellow offering “Aye.” and “Goodnight” to the elf before Orange shuts the door abruptly. Inside Shishi lets his eyes finally fade back to that oceanic shade of blue and stares at Larewen bewildered, “Really, Lar? I'm going to get tattled on…”