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The Deserving; [Do Not Reply]
Topic Started: Wed Nov 6, 2013 3:30 am (233 Views)
Lady Eko
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Eko took a long, ragged breath inward. Pain stabbed her lungs. She doubled over and vomited blood onto well-polished shoes. Her eyes flashed a message to Arden: 'Don't even think about asking me if I'm okay.' He countered her glare with his own scowl. "You're too slow." The girl shut her eyes tightly for a second or two, trying to refocus. He grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her up so she was stumbling after him. The sound of their steps made her head throb.

"I don't get it," she grumbled. "After all this time..."

"For normal people, there's a difference between hating someone and not wanting them to die in the waterworks," Arden spat. "You always told me, 'you should only help people who deserve it.' Over and over. Couldn't stand it. Well-- you don't deserve this, but I'm helping you anyway." Eko brimmed with anger and couldn't respond.

The boy had really changed. Well, he couldn't be called a boy anymore just as much as Eko couldn't be called a girl. They were childhood friends. He'd been a street kid since birth, though he had something sort of like, but not quite parental supervision back then. Eko didn't. They wanted different things in life. Grew apart. He grew to hate her. Eko looked at him in the darkness. He kept his hair longer now. He'd gotten a stubble. His eyes looked more dead than mean, and he never made eye contact. She wondered what he was doing with his life now that he wasn't young enough to stick with the Orphan Prince's crew.

She'd woken up slung over his shoulder, unable to breathe properly. Apparently he'd found her knocked out at the bottom of an old storm drain, half-submerged. Arden hadn't recognized her -- a combination of the dark and the nice armor she was wearing -- until she woke up and violently freed herself. What resulted was a strange half-fight, half-shouting-match as they mutually demanded to know what was going on. Eko was the better fighter, but Arden was faster and uninjured. He also wasn't poisoned: a fact that Eko certainly couldn't share at the moment. Once their fight was done, they argued about where they were headed. Arden had been taking her the underground way to a public hospital similar to Medica Ochoa's Aguilar Infirmary, knowing that she'd be okay if she got some antidote or healing magic in her system. Eko argued that she didn't have time for herself. She desperately needed to get to Sokolovsburg now, and she vaguely knew the way there even in her sorry state. He'd asked her why and she was forced to explain the situation. Everything. Even the older stuff she'd experienced since their last meeting years ago.

"Look. You're clearly just running yourself into a trap. Kas knows exactly how to make you so angry that you just snap and lose all sense."

Kas. Kasih. Her little sister, death evaded, plain evil. Even the mentioning of what had happened made Eko burn with anger. It kept her going. She didn't need Arden to steady herself anymore, and stepped through the waterworks with stubborn zeal even though the world was gently swaying around her. "There's no way you can make me sit in some cramped infirmary waiting for tending. I am on a time limit. Trap or not, if I don't get to the top of the Beehive soon, Ansha will die."

"What good will it do if you go barging in there in the state you're in now? Poetic suicide? Weren't you supposed to be the one who made decent plans? And, you know, cared about living and making changes?" The look on his face reflected all the same disgust that dripped from what he said. "I don't believe you'd change that much. Just calm down for two seconds and think." More silence. Except for the footsteps, overbearing in Eko's currently sensitive hearing. The poison, according to Arden, was a back alley concoction known by many names including Stained Glass Window. It sapped the body's natural mana stores and converted it to boosts in the senses, but not in any useful way -- far from it. Seeing was painful, hearing was painful, everything smelled nauseatingly bad, and Eko felt like she was going to cough up the shredded remains of her insides. That last part was probably some side effect of the poison's poor quality and shoddy brewing: a plus for Eko's enemies, though.

On the bright side, if she did fail to rescue her best friend, she'd soon join Ansha in the afterlife because this Stained Glass Window crap would almost invariably kill her in 24 hours or less.

Eko broke the silence with a question. "What do you do for a living now?"

Arden glanced sidelong at her like he was viewing a particularly disgusting heap of trash. "What's it to you?"

"I was just curious. I kind of wanted to catch up," she slurred. "I know it was a while ago, but we used to be friends... why were you wandering down here, anyway?"

He exhaled sharply through his nose, but answered. "I'm an emergency courier. I feed my family by running urgent messages from scumbag to scumbag, faster than anyone else. Waterworks are some of the best shortcuts. I was just on my way home."

"Your family? So you're...?"

"Married." Arden's tone carried a hint of challenge. "She's expecting."

"Wow. Congratulations." That was all she could really say. It felt so unreal. How many years had it been? Eko somehow felt too young and too old at the same time. Only now had her age really struck her. She was 20 years old, and Arden was around the same. It felt like just last night that she and her three best friends were eating lunch on the rooftop corner, watching Lord Kelok raid Mohdu's Inn and Tavern on the street below. She remembered that feeling, the moment when everything kind of clicked and she realized an opportunity that ended up changing not only her own life, but those of everyone close to her. At the same time, she had been through enough murder, hatred, betrayal, risk, and intrigue to stuff a lifetime. She felt exhausted on a deep level, unparalleled. As her political strength grew, she wore down her body to the bone and pushed it far beyond its limits. All the while, Arden was trying to start a life for himself that he might even be proud of. Hell, while she was planning executions, he was getting ready to start a family. There was simply no contest as to who was leading the more admirable life.

Every torturous minute finally led to a crossroads in the waterworks. "Well?"

Slightly hunched over and gripping her upset stomach, Eko tried to smile at him. "I think I have a plan. But can I ask you another question first? Trust me, it's relevant."

"Uh? Okay."

"Do you like this city, Arden?"

He paused before answering, even though she could see his answer on his face. Maybe he didn't know her angle. It took him a bit, but he decided to be honest. "No." He gave a really tired sort of smile, matching Eko's own expression. "Not one bit."

"I know we haven't always... agreed on ideology, but I want you to know that you really are a good person. You deserve--" she broke into a coughing fit, splattered blood on her leather armor and cloak, "You deserve freedom from this city, if you want it. Arden, I'm willing to give you a job. It could even be your last job as a Balefire emergency courier. No one else could pull it off. If you do, I'll give you enough money to move anywhere you want."

Something changed in the way he looked at her. She wasn't sure if he was suddenly suspicious, or his opinion of her was changing.

"I know you're probably suspicious. I give you my word that this will be free of caveats. And besides, this isn't about you anymore, right? It's about your kid. You should swallow your pride if it means giving your child the opportunity to grow up somewhere quiet and safe, and raised by a loving family, like none of us ever had."

"Why would I accept if you're just going to run to your death? Promise to visit a healer before you go to Sokolovsburg."

"Fine. I promise."

Arden took a deep breath, steeling himself. "Tell me what you need me to do."



Just because they were ready didn't mean that they were idle. Lady Nochesce rattled off orders like an auctioneer, making sure everything was in its proper place. In moments of downtime, she was reviewing sales reports and dictating correspondence to her pet lyrebird. Kasih just watched her like some freakshow. The top chamber of Sokolovsburg was an open area that used to be under construction for future development; now it was just a place for squatters and ne'er-do-wells to congregate. They all scrambled like rats when Lady Nochesce came strutting in, all mink and silk and ego.

"Ah, but it would not be imprudent to consider--" the Lady was interrupted by a huge, demonic bark that startled her and made her lyrebird flap awkwardly off her shoulder. Ansha was stuffed in a cage that was a little too small for her, which in turn was stuffed backwards into an alcove partially hidden. The dire dog had her hackles raised, lips pulled back to reveal two rows of sharp jagged teeth. Kasih sat with her back to the cage because, if she had to be honest with herself, that animal scared her too much. She glanced down at the double-row bite scar on her hand and remembered. "Kasih!" Nochesce snapped. "Why have you not killed this filth yet?! Obviously Eko is en route, so holding it is no longer of any use to us."

"There are some things you can do to a person that hit them harder than anything else. Instead of totally breaking them, it makes them completely unpredictable, maybe even so strong that you don't know how to deal with them anymore. Killing Ansha is one of those things." Kasih looked up at the pompous Lady of Balefire, taking a moment to revel in their contrast. While Nochesce had locks of silky golden hair in done-up curls, Kasih glared through a shaggy mop of black. The Lady wore a coat lined in the fur of a mink or ermine, at Kas' behest. She knew her sister would go feral at the sight of some dead furry creature draped tastefully around Nochesce's shoulders. On the flipside, Kasih wore a linen long-sleeved shirt that was too big on her, repaired endlessly, and trousers with loose hems, ash stains, and frayed slashes.

The entrance of an older man, a bit heavy in the waist, interrupted their exchange. He had porcelain skin, but his face sagged and gave his eyes a constant glowering look. A helm was kept tucked under his elbow and his neck fat spilled over a poorly fitted breastplate. "Word travels quickly, my Lady. She's ascending the Beehive as we speak."

"Good. She was almost late."

Kasih found it best not to interject. She knew she wouldn't have killed Ansha even if Eko had run out of time. Too risky.

Nochesce looked around as something occurred to her. "Where is Mr. Ironjaw? I haven't even seen any of his filthy gang about. The Broken Corner is downstairs, but no one ever reported--"

That was when a corpse fell from some location above. It landed unceremoniously between Nochesce and her armored lieutenant. Neither flinched, but the Lady kicked the corpse onto its back to identify it. The bloody, broken face of the man was still distinct -- a section of his lower jaw was plated with iron. Nochesce looked up. Here, at the very top of Sokolovsburg, the tower was partially open. The adobe came up in large, slightly rounded columns, forever unfinished and open to the night air. The ground they walked on was slotted endlessly with ventilation chambers.

She narrowed her eyes as she saw the last lights of a flare dim from the sky. "Get down." While everyone else was still trying to make sense of what was going on, to look for the perpetrator sneaking around above them, Nochesce snapped some sense into them. "Get down!"

Everyone threw themselves to the edges as fire and arrows rained down from the sky. Kasih protected her head and neck with her arms, but chanced to look up. An unmarked merchant airship drifted overhead, circled once. Ansha went berserk in her cage. The Lady found a suitable alcove to hide, but Kasih was still a little exposed. An arrow stuck her in the forearm. She yowled in pain and pressed her back further into the wall, wrapping her fingers around the wound to stem the bleeding.

But then, in the midst of all this chaos, she heard a sound that was very distinct. A rolling, mechanical process that ended in an almost satisfying click. Kasih's eyes followed her ears. She saw Nochesce's contact, his eyes fixated on the sky, become surrounded by tendrils of pure darkness rising from the ground around him. Before she could warn him, he was screaming and being dragged into a nearby hallway.

The Lady spotted it. Her eyes took on a dark cast Kasih had never seen before. She up and broke into a sprint across the room, darting around falling arrows and billowing fire. Her hands raised and all kinds of light-emanating glyphs broke into the hallway walls. Her elbow-length gloves burned off from the palm, revealing tattoos of light imprinted on her hands. The tendrils of darkness broke apart just enough for the man to break free. He scrambled to her side, thanking her for saving his life. She kept focused on the battle.

"Everyone -- stand your ground! She's trying to lure us into the Beehive. In fact..." Nochesce strolled up to the mouth of the passageway where her friend had almost met his doom. She focused for a couple seconds, until her lips curled into a smirk. A beam of pure light shot from one of the glyphs, bounced off the wall and around the corner. There was no sound. "Direct hit."

"Is she dead?" Kasih asked, coming to rejoin them as the intensity of the airstrike subsided. She broke the end of the arrow off, but left the main shaft embedded so she wouldn't bleed so much.

"Probably not. Kinslayer! Kinslayer? I know you can hear me. Eko, dear, if you want to become a Lady of Balefire, you must be willing to face your problems head-on. This cowardly skulking is damaging your reputation."

"I know what'll bring her out," Kasih said, ripping her knife from her belt. She walked over to the alcove where Ansha's cage was. The dog growled as she approached, then burst into a fit of deafening barks that froze the girl in place for several seconds. She kept eye contact with the beast, forcing herself to take steps forward. This is the only way. If she couldn't do this, she would never get the satisfaction of making her evil sister's life a living hell. It can't hurt me from this cage.

She braced herself and stabbed the dog hilt-deep once, twice, three times fast. Ansha gave a pained yelp so compelling that Eko came flying out of the shadows, tackled Kasih, pinned her to the ground with her knees and started bashing and bashing and bashing with her metal-plated fists, and screaming, and Kasih knew that she had just made a terrible mistake-- But the air soon filled with a bright light. Eko was struck head-on by another beam, this one even brighter and wider. The upstart's little body went rolling across the arrow-ridden floor, steam rising from the region of her eyes. A bad burn snaked across her torso, having penetrated her armor, but Nochesce's newest attack sent angry red down patches of her face and neck. Eko's limp body tensed a moment after she stopped rolling. Eyes open but staring into nothingness, she pushed herself back up to her feet.

"Kasih, I'm going to torture you to death." Her voice always carried that kind of eerie dryness when she was truly angry. Sounded like she was commenting on the weather.

The knife was still in Ansha, a few feet away. Kasih knew that Eko was blinded, but was that going to really slow her down all that much? Lady Nochesce just chuckled, conjuring up more and more of those deadly light-glyphs. "Well. I can certainly tell you've completely lost your mind, now that you're throwing around threats you can't even back up."

Eko didn't respond. She got up, holding out her hands palms-forward. Both of them were affixed with strange apparatuses, goblin in origin, consisting of layered metal stabilizers and hefty mechaniks. The upstart walked past the corner of the alcove and braced the contraption's metal plates against the hard adobe -- and pulled. Using the corner of the wall for leverage, she fixed the rectangular striking plates over her knuckles. Based on the way she moved, it looked like not being able to see hadn't hindered her quite as much as the Lady would have likely hoped. She was more focused, a little sluggish, but not crippled.

The girl disappeared, reappeared directly behind Nochesce, and received an elbow strike to the face as her reward. Eko stumbled back, choked down her body's protest. Blood flowed down from her badly broken nose. The shock of it kept her from pressing the attack. Thin beams of light buffeted her armor, burned the ends off her hair, and forced Eko to retreat again -- or try to. The Lady was having none of that.

Light burst from the outer wall of Sokolovsburg.

Eko was on her knees, slumped over with one hand over her waist, the other arm burned so badly that it slumped at her side. The space just above her hip had been party blown off, then cauterized. She had barely managed to avoid the attack that had managed to break a hole in the Beehive just behind her.

"Need I point out the obvious?" Nochesce mocked. "You can sense all the people around us. They must be delighted to know they won't need to waste their energy on you. I alone am enough." Eko heard her soft footsteps as she approached. She shakily stood, trying to get her stance back into something stable. "It's been great practice. Normally I wouldn't bother in a fight. I might even be the weakest in the House of Lords when it comes to a one-on-one duel. And yet you want to join us? You haven't even landed a single hit on me.

"I have-- allies." Eko spat out the blood that got into her mouth just from speaking.

"Who doesn't? It's the only way to survive. Even so, I'm not impressed. Not even your little airship did much damage. Very flashy, though. I concede that your only skill is flashy, dramatic violence."

Eko tried to suckerpunch the Lady, but she grabbed her by the wrist and twisted her body into a classic hold. Her palms flared white-hot. Eko couldn't hold it in any longer; she screamed and struggled desperately to free herself, kicking and biting and trying to make herself become a shadow again.

"What a mess..."

It was a voice that made Lady Nochesce, and everyone else in the room, freeze. Even if they didn't immediately recognize who it belonged to, there was some quality to it that not only commanded attention, but demanded it. Eko finally managed to get her powers to work and violently teleported about five feet behind the Lady, landing in a long shadow. She immediately collapsed onto her uninjured side, curling up into a ball.

Nochesce turned to face the new arrival, her eyes hardening in both suspicion and mild defiance. Groups of gang members and Nochescen regulars parted to allow the figure ample room. She was a very tall woman, locks of wavy cornsilk hair cascading down her back and shoulders. Her blue eyes had a keen, lupine slant. A slim cut, black dress hugged her form, slitted on one side and exposing an upper back accented with swirling blue tattoos. Her whole bearing radiated confidence, but the small grin on her face really clinched the woman's apparent viewpoint: everything around her was just ever so slightly amusing.

She stopped a healthy distance from Nochesce and Eko, placing one hand on her hip and tilting her head. "Oh, Therese. Was this your doing?"

The Lady's chin lowered, but her gaze remained dead set on the woman. Rather than answering with words, she pointed to Eko's halfway-charred heap of a body. Feeling the eyes now on her, the upstart groaned in protest and weakly pushed herself over so she could bring the new arrival into her view. Looking down on her was someone who brought a chill down her spine and made previously undiscovered willpower bring her back to some semblance of liveliness. She pushed herself up onto her hands, forcing herself to blink and look a second time to confirm that this was really happening. "Marquise Karstoff?"

"You had better have an excellent reason for this visit, lady Marquise..." Nochesce rumbled in the background as Karstoff wandered over to Eko. The ancient werewolf made a thinking sound, and crouched down to Eko's eye level. The girl stared back, hiding her fear and nerves with jaw-gritting stubbornness and hard stoicism.

Karstoff smiled warmly. "So you're the 'famous' Eko Kinslayer, I see." She glanced back at Nochesce, letting her lips peel back to reveal a wolfish grin for just a moment. "Don't worry, Therese. I believe you. This one's a bit infamous for her messes." She brought her attention back to Eko, even reaching over to tilt the girl's chin up just a bit. "Though I must ask: how in the world did you manage to make this diplomat so violent?"

"I stole her airship tower. And destroyed one of her puppet companies. And killed one of her Foxes."

The Marquise paused for a bare second, then chuckled. "A good start." She stood back up, giving Eko a quick friendly pat on the head, ignoring Lady Nochesce's flabbergasted expression in the background.

"Arden, are you here? Y-you did it, I can't believe..." Eko trailed off, unable to put her gratitude properly to words. She had given him an emergency message that seemed impossible to deliver, but he did it. Eko knew she didn't deserve such a faithful friend. Even if Arden himself didn't admit they still had that kind of relationship, she couldn't help but think of it that way.

"Oh, the boy? Tenacious kid. The Fangs could have been more gentle, though..." The horror that came through in Eko's otherwise stoic expression made Karstoff grin again. "Kidding! I'm kidding. He's fine. Come now, I thought you were stoic? Those little scratches couldn't be affecting you so terribly." Eko nodded. Using all her remaining energy and mental willpower, she rose up on wobbly legs and cranked her head up to keep meeting the Marquise's gaze. This seemed to easily please her, if her expression was anything to go by.

Realization dawned on Lady Nochesce's face. "Wait. The reason you're here... don't tell me you're going to bring her into the House of Lords! And why now? Lady Marquise, just look at her!"

Clearly obliging, Karstoff gave Eko one good long look. "You know, I think I like that look in your eyes. Kind of a spark. Reminds me of someone I knew a long time ago." She touched her chin and nodded. "Yes. Rhett Barlow has a good eye. Have you been sitting in Lord Kelok's sticky little antechamber, kid?"

"Actually, I'm tearing down the mansion. Something else will go there."

"If you say so. Just don't tear down his seat in the House of Lords." She winked.

Eko's eyes widened. "I-- are you-- truly..."

"Karstoff! This is insane! She won't even last a month!" Nochesce's protests became even more forceful. "What is the meaning of this?! Have you gone mad?!"

Despite this, the Marquise never quite lost her jovial, confident carriage. "Must I explain? The girl wants something beyond herself -- something hopeful and positive for once. And she's risen up to take it. Does that satisfy you, or shall I go home and review her dossier? Now, I recommend that you two stop this brawl, let that angry caged dog loose, and donate funds to clean up this mess. Lady Eko, I expect to see you at the House of Lords in three nights for the regular assembly." Karstoff inched around side of Eko, wrapped her arm around the girl's slim shoulders, pulling her catatonic face closer for a muttered addendum. "But if you do anything to make Balefire a worse place, I will make your death painful. Do you understand?"

Eko nodded and added, "Yes, I understand." Karstoff gave a cheery, wolfish grin, gave Eko another friendly but slightly patronizing pat on the head, and departed. Nochesce's heavy-set, armored contact shot the Marquise a defiant glare on her way out, but she just roughly pushed her palm against his face, sending him stumbling back out of her way to the exit. Eko rushed to Ansha's cage to free her, hyper-aware that the Lady was definitely going to try killing her now. Instead, she coordinated her forces' dispersal. Eko looked up just in time to see the look Nochesce was giving over her shoulder.

"You haven't won. The only reason you're alive right now is because that mangey she-wolf would kill me if you died before the assembly. Rest assured that I, and most everyone else in the House for that matter, will make your life as a Lady a fate worse than death." With that, she left.

Eko realized at that point that she was alone. Kasih had managed to slip away during the tense confrontation. Mostly, she was just happy to get her dog back. Everything else would take a little more time to sink in. Eko tore her cloak into strips to bandage Ansha's stab wound and remained there for several minutes, applying pressure to stop the bleeding. The dire dog licked her hands gratefully for most of the process. Eko knew that no matter how tough things were about to get, she at least had her allies to rely on.
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