Blood Memoir: Emerald Eyes of the King

OoC: *smiles* And so it begins.

EDIT: For those of you who haven't read Blood Red Summer, you should do so before attempting to read this. You can find BRS here.

IC:

Mariana swam in a world of blackness, only vaguely aware she was even still breathing. The shadows smothered her mind, swirling around her in a befuddling haze. Something urged her to awaken; it tugged at her very soul, though she knew not what it was. A voice, faint and distant, yet all too familiar, floated to her as if propelled by the darkness sliding against her brain.

Mariana…

Outside, in the physical realm, her body tensed involuntarily. But she found she was unable to offer any response, as if her unconscious state itself restrained her ability to communicate.

You must wake up, my angel…please…

Urgency greater than any she’d ever heard from her lover laced his barely-detectable words. There was almost…a sense of panic, and that frightened her to no end. Struggling against her shadowy prison, Mariana attempted to comply with Max’s command but in vain. The concern in his voice heightened as the seconds ticked by.

If you don’t—

And then suddenly, he was gone, silenced. A deep sense of loss permeated Mariana as she frantically searched for any trace of his presence. But there was nothing. With a jerk, she finally broke free of her temporary coma, sitting up almost immediately. Taking precious little time to actually register her new surroundings, the vampiric angel flicked her violet eyes over the nearby foliage, only interested in finding the one she loved most. Upon discovering he was nowhere to be found, she stood slowly to her feet, trembling as fear began to squeeze her heart. Something had happened to him, of that she was certain. Out of reflex, she began praying desperately that he was still alive. Or rather, still conscious. And then, the fear worsened when she realized she had absolutely no idea where she was.

Trees filled her immediate vision, a wall of greens and browns and black seemingly impenetrable even to her enhanced sense of sight. Only small trickles of sunlight were able to pierce the leafy canopy overhead to sparsely dapple the forest floor. It wasn’t until after she had been eyeing the branches for a few moments that she came to the realization she heard no animal life. It was quiet—deathly quiet—almost as if the entire forest was hushed in fear of attracting some predator lurking within the tree trunks. It made the hair on the back of her neck prickle.

The sound of what seemed to be giant footsteps echoed in the distance, but it was much too far away to be of any concern to her at the moment. In fact, she was given no time to ponder what it could have been before a familiar sinister snickering reached her ears, flowing into them like oily poison.

Now, she was terrified.

Changing fingers, armed with long nails that were melding with the flesh, tore into rough soil. Glinting blue, a tell-tale reaping blade rose, held like a frozen flag at the end of the dark rod he held it by. The wardrobe Arimas had supplied morphed as well. A loose and flapping cloak. The hands that had held Mariana were now the hands of a monster. Those eyes that she had adored, practically worshipped, were still bright.

But they had lost all warmth.

At first, the clothing, which supplied it's owner with whatever it desired, tried to fashion him a mask. He tore the forming material from his face, screeching in disgust. It wasn't the same. It would never be the same.

"Why am I here, again?" He put a clawed hand to his pale face, his arctic blue eyes glinting through the spaces between his fingers. Suddenly, those eye grew wide in sudden realization; all of the memories of hours earlier caught up with him. Those were the HIS fingers he was using. Without thinking about it, he begin to stare at his scythe's blade, grinning like a demon.

The cold color shifted, and two pinpricks of red, not blood, stared back at him, as well as a familiar face sculpted in the same frosted blue of Orion's eyes.

****

It was the scenario Max himself never would have dreamed of happening once more, but then again, this was more a nightmare than a dream. Orion was out there with her, with the most precious thing he had, the only thing he cared about. And he could do nothing. Suspended in this prison of vision and sound once more. He was nothing now, nothing but a soul again. Feeling helpless, he called for her, called for Mariana, because one of the things he could see in his mind's eye, which seemed to be boundless here, was Mariana's form lying in the same woods where Orion lurked.

****

"WHY...HELLO! FINDING IT COMFORTABLE IN THERE?!" Max's brow furrowed as his face melted into a scowl, and no doubt hateful curses were the only things coming from his moving lips. How delightful. Oh, Orion, you cad!You sick puppy! You madman! The entity snickered, and he began to run through the forest, testing these new legs. The trees here were thick and flourishing, just as he remembered. He had taken many a life behind these very trees, leaving them as food for the Rep'tal. The lizards never minded if their meal was left out for a while.

Before some new thought could cross his mind, a smell passed his nose that brought him to a stop. His flight through the trees ceased. Whatever it is...I know it....THE WENCH! THAT WHORE'S STENCH! I'D KNOW IT ANYWHERE!As he had just proved. Feeling rather spirited as he did so, he called upon her as Maximilian did, using him like a wolf would a sheepskin.

"Mariana! My darling! I'm here!"

For good measure, he summoned a few tears for effect, which spilled down his cheeks like melting gemstones of the deepest red.

That voice.

Turning her eyes in the direction from which she’d heard it issue, Mariana fingered the perfectly-shaped crystal dangling from her neck. Yes, it had sounded like him, but there was something nudging the back of her mind, insisting everything wasn’t as it seemed. And yet…that had been his voice. Longing swelled up within her immediately, longing to feel his arms around her again, longing to hear him say everything would be fine.

“Mariana? Where are you, dearest?”

A twinge ran through her as his voice floated on the lilting breezes slipping among the trees. There was pain in that voice, and it made her heart start breaking. With a sapphire tear running down her cheek, she began moving in the direction of the sound. “Max, just hold on! I’m coming!”

Shifting carefully around the thick trunks, her feet disturbing the sparse leaves littering the ground, Mariana ran her eyes worriedly over her surroundings. But she could find no sign of him anywhere. As if to aid her in her search, he spoke again, the sound of his voice laden with an almost pleading tone.

“Please hurry, love…”

Panic started to fill her. Max was in some sort of danger, and she couldn’t even find him! Grinding her fangs, she briefly had the thought that her task would be so much easier if only she could sense him. But she was unable to feel even an iota of his presence anywhere, and confusion gripped her. Why could she hear him speak when she couldn’t feel him?

“I don’t think I can hold on for much longer…”

Shutting her eyes tightly, Mariana forced the urge to cry back down. The desire to save him from whatever had him this distressed consumed her. Locking onto the sound, she wove through the forest as if being pulled along on a string. Before long, she had broken into a flat-out run, no longer heeding where she was going or even what surrounded her. Her only thoughts were devoted to protecting the love of her life.

As she hurtled through a section of brush, she collided with someone, and the two of them tumbled to the ground in a heap. Stunned for a few precious moments, Mariana lay there as arms encircled her waist. She knew instantly it was him, and relief covered her like a soothing balm.

“Oh, Max… I—”

She had raised her head to look at him. Her breath caught in her throat. It was his face but not his…

The realization hit her nearly too late. The last thing she saw before vanishing was the cold glint of blue she so clearly remembered seeing in Orion’s eyes just hours ago in Ryiel. Reappearing a good few yards away from him, Mariana watched in horror as those hands she had found so gentle before now malevolently grasped Dredgius, that cursed scythe. Trembling in fear for her existence, she wavered, unsure of what she should do. Her common sense told her she should call Ashriel to her hand and defend herself. But that piece of her soul she had given to Maximilian asserted quite strongly that there was no way possible she could bring herself to harm him, no matter what controlled his body. And so, the only option left to her was to declare her disbelief in an audible whisper.

“No…this can’t be happening…”

All around the two figures stood trees, like pillars, grown from the Earth to support the sky. Also, the foliage that grew from them served a grim purpose: light was left at a minimum. Perfect for the art of thievery...or murder. Oh, the murder. This was not the first time, not at all. The face that once belonged to Max blossomed into a grin that was like a diseased madness. One look, and it was bound to catch. Without anything to reflect from it, Dredgius gave off only the electric blue glow that haunted the wielder's eyes. His lips pulled back to reveal teeth the thickness and sharpness of needles.

"Hello, dear. How does it feel to have the only OTHER one you truly cared about turn against you?"

With that sickening smile, he basked in the essence of another assured mental victory over the hunted. The scythe felt better than ever in his old hands. It was like going back in time. Again. Without sympathy, he gauged his prey. She prantically reeked of fear. It was about time. Every instance that had ever been, his plans had been torn asunder by the efforts of his impudent *****, whoever it happened to be at that point in the annals of unwritten history. No more. This one didn't look as strong as the others.

Would she try to fight back? At first, he considered it a possibility, but this was just too much. She turned and ran further into the shaded depths of a forest called Panterran. Orion knew it very well. Summoning the spiritual strength of himself combined with that of Maximilian's, supernatural energy, pure occult power pulsed through him. Unable to contain his personage any further, he hurled his mutating body through the branches, eager to rip her open, snarling and hissing in a feral manner. His ability to hover proved much more useful than Mariana's wings, and it amused him when he saw himself soaring beside her running body as they passed yet more trees, and she looked at him as if he were a mere figment of her hurried mind. There was no evading it.

That head is mine,he noted, thriving in her misfortune. Maximilian would never have another lover, there was no question of that in his stolen mind. According to his plans, the soul of the vampire Mariana loved so much would slowly fade away in time, if it remained.

The sudden interruption that tore Orion's mind from such a pertinent subject was none other than a giant cube of enchanted water, which swallowed him whole. Standing a good distance away, Mariana couldn't help but feel like laughing at him a little before she turned and ran once more. It had felt like forever since she had last used her angelic powers. Once the seal-bearer was no longer in his sight, another one of those titanic footsteps caught her offguard; this was closer than the rest. She twitched, and began to walk again, until the sound of snapping metal clamped it's jaws into her ankle. A low, almost passionate moan of pain drifted from her lips, and she reached down, gritting her fangs in agony as tears formed in her eyes, to free herself.

Water splattered in all directions as the vampire with the frosty eyes bursted from the distraction she had so cleverly created. His leather cloak now sopping wet and heavy, his urge to kill intensified. In his fury, his shoulder bumped the side of a tree, and he screamed in frustration, lopping it in half without a bit of effort. A shiver went through his newly-acquired skin. His fingers ran over the fresh stump, over the rings that indicated it's growth.

"I'll do her neck just like this..."

And with a swift movement, he was gone. The Hunter was at home once more; the predator and the prey were now joined in a covenant of fear and desire. Love and hate. Life and death.

The outcome, however, remains to be seen.

Pain shot straight up Mariana’s leg, searing her nerve endings with pulsing agony. But no matter how much she struggled, no matter how hard she tried to pry herself free from those steel jaws, she remained a captive to their inexorable grip. From the sounds of a crashing tree trunk nearby coupled with the distinguishable shing of a scythe blade, the angel knew Orion had escaped his watery prison. Truth be told, she hadn’t expected it to hold him for long. But it would have been nice for the solution to be so simple.

A midnight tear involuntarily slid down her cheek. The second it had left her eye, however, she regretted the action. The flutter of a cloak off somewhere to her left alerted her to that nightmare’s close proximity. Orion had latched onto the scent of her tears like a bloodhound to fox tracks. Knowing she had precious little time to escape her predicament, Mariana cried out desperately inside her head to the only one she could think of who could help her right now.

Arimas! I don’t know what to do!

A sensation against her ankle caught her attention, and she glanced down. Glinting faintly in the sparse sunlight she laid beneath, beads of her sapphire life welled up between the ravenous teeth of the trap. Eye widening, the vampiric angel was suddenly struck with an idea. Concentrating, she watched in satisfaction as her blood crystallized, molding itself into a small, rounded shield around her ankle. The pressure exerted by the blue crystal was enough to force her steel confinement open, and she hastily slid her leg out. With a small murmur of relief, Mariana touched two fingers to the wound as it sealed.

She had hardly straightened to her full height when Dredgius nearly decapitated her. With a cry of surprise, she dove to one side, narrowly avoiding certain destruction. Leaping to her feet once more, she mechanically summoned Ashriel in time to block another fell swing of Orion’s ghostly blade. As if it were a mere twig in his way, he batted the angelic weapon aside and sent pain burning through her chest with a blow from the scythe’s haft. The strength of the strike sent Mariana careening into a tree, and stars danced before her eyes for a moment. Shaking her head, she had barely recovered herself when her adversary’s blade angled for her neck again. Hurling herself away from the trunk, she locked Ashriel with Dredgius, blue and silver speckles of light flying from the engaged weapons. As her eyes met his, she nearly faltered in her defense, the screech of metal on metal belying her sudden shift in position. Sensing an opportunity to finally steal the life of Maximilian’s wench, Orion cackled and shoved his scythe harder against Ashriel, accompanying the action with an unexpected burst of invisible vampiric energy that sent Mari hurtling backward, agony etched on her pale features.

This isn’t good. He’s too strong for me, considerably more experienced than I am. I’ve never had to face something like this before, and now I’m forced to fight the one nightwalker who claimed my heart?

Orion was merely toying with her, savoring the frightened scent her entire body exuded. He lived on that as much as he did blood, and he couldn’t survive fully without it. That much she knew to be true. And she was terrified of what he could do when he had tired of playing cat and mouse with her. Even now, as she knelt, breathing laboriously, in the soft mosses of the forest floor, he just stood there grinning mockingly at her with the stolen countenance of Max. Frustration welled up within her, and she screamed her anguish at him.

“I’m just a child! I don’t know anything!”

Her fingers brushed something then. Wire. And instinct told her to duck. Air whooshed overhead, and the cry of pain from Orion that followed soon thereafter swiftly brought her head up, worry radiating off her for the safety of Max’s body. He lay sprawled out on the ground, his cloak in a ruffled clump on one side, but Dredgius was still ever firmly gripped in his hand. With a growl of disgust, he used the scythe to pull himself to his feet and angrily sliced the spiked log that had collided with him in twain. The puncture wounds had already sealed themselves. Mariana stood to her feet as well. She now realized the full truth of her earlier confession of ignorance. She knew hardly anything at all about her new, second nature, and the one entity that could help her understand was prisoner to his doppelgänger. She would have to rely on the nature she was already well-acquainted with. The holy one.

Closing her eyes, she summoned a trickle of pure holy power to her fingertips, sending it at Orion but changing its direction at the last moment, spreading it out into a thin box of purity to surround the maniacal vampire, hoping against hope it would be enough to contain him. And then…she started praying her lover wouldn’t feel anything at all.

Flickering shapes and hues. Fragments of sound, light, and shadow. A living illusion, a manifestation of the mind. The identity who called itself Max would have weeped, had it any eyes. What it thought it saw here was nothing more than thoughts and images that entered it's brain. Or rather, was it's brain. No, he wasn't an it. Even without the body to establish gender, who someone has grown to be remains their truth. At least that was something he could hold on to. Because now, that was all he had. How comforting. Commanding the spirit half of his existence, he dared to move forward. Although he may have had a chance, stripes of black, like paper, ensnared him as would chains. This wasn't the same as last time.


______________


Wordlessly, Orion expressed his glee to his winged prey with a grin (STUPID STUPID GIRL, his lips read), But more than likely, she didn't see it over the gleam of her glory, her holy light. How she maintained her sacred power as a blood brood was a mystery. Oh, well, he mused. I'll know soon enough. I haven't attempted a dissection in a while, perhaps I'll learn something. Now, for curiosity's sake, let's see how strong her will is.

"AHHHHH! OH-OH-OH, so painful...For bunny-boy, perhaps." Orion's laugh became a hyena's as he moved into the energy that was meant to quarantine him. The smell of burning flesh and an accompanying sizzle reached Mariana's soft ears and graceful nose under her battle-tousled hair. She began to tremble before his cold blue beacons, just like the child she claimed to be. "Mmmm...hehehehe...Smells inviting, doesn't it? LOVE IS A TREAT, EVEN MORESO TO EAT! MORE! MORE! Char him, wench. Fry him, destroy him. He's probably screaming right now, you just can't hear it!"

____________

"I understand. Though, with all respects due, it takes a mass amount of both effort and time to construct them. The numbers we've released have uncovered nothing so far, Lady Yuné. I hold Sek with all of them, as you taught me. If they were to discover either one, I would be the first to know."

An otherworldy whisper, thick, like venom, replies from all around; bodiless, terrible, and as ambient as an echo. Translating the sounds into words took merely a moment for the figure in the tightly buckled green robes. That same fabric wrinkled as he bowed before the presence, placing two fingers to his forehead as he did so.

"Yes, yes. I will keep in mind your words. The omens never lie." He turned his head elegantly to exit, not so much of a strand of his strange hair falling out of place. Red, so red it looked like candlewax sculpted into follicles. With a smile of his face, the man in royal robes and emerald eyes left the dismal sanctuary of The Voice, into a grandiose architecture that Mariana would have recognized immediately as a church.

"Praise be, Praise be." Licking his smile-drawn lips with a forked tongue that was far, far too long, he passed through yet another door, out of sight.

A petite fist clenched, nails threatening to draw blood. Inside her head, Mariana started imagining the tortured screams of Max. The sound, though it was not actually audible, was terrible to her, threatening to summon a flood of tears from her violet eyes. And the smell of burning flesh, his wonderful flesh, wafted to her on the gentle breeze. She was killing him. Bowing her head, her silver bangs now obscuring the upper half of her face, the angel struggled to keep the quiver from invading her voice.

“Stop it…”

Orion’s laugh pervaded the atmosphere like some obscene, wrong note in the midst of an otherwise beautiful and harmonious chord. He threw himself against the holy barrier for, what seemed to Mariana, the thousandth time, grinning like an insane asylum patient.

“Me? Stop doing what? I believe it is YOU, my dear, who needs to be doing some stopping!” He then ceased moving for a moment and stood as if listening to something. Cupping a hand to his ear, he openly mocked the entire situation. “Oh? What’s that, Maxy? You say it hurts, do you? Can’t take much more of it, eh?” His grin widening, if that were even possible, the doppelgänger turned his full attention back upon the trembling Mariana. “Hehehehe…I think I can feel him slipping away as the seconds pass. And you’re only speeding the process by searing him with your shiny, little, faerie light. Who knew something so seemingly docile could do so much damage?” He ended in a cackle.

Clenching her teeth together, Mariana fought the two halves of her inner self that began to emerge.

I can’t release him. If I don’t keep him inside, he’ll just come at me relentlessly until either my head is off my shoulders or until I’ve destroyed him myself.

But if he stays in there, he’ll continue to burn until his entire body is no more. Ugh. The second voice seemed to wince at the very thought.

Orion’s taken him over, now. And I can’t do anything to save him. I have to destroy him to destroy Orion. The first voice was filled with grim determination, a cold sort of unfeeling piercing it.

Complete erasure like that is horrible. And how could you live with yourself, knowing you had not only murdered one of your own kind but your lover, as well?

Forget him. You have to survive to protect the Argentsigna. That is your most important duty.

You’ve made so many sacrifices and changes for him already. What’s one more? Don’t you love him?

Love is ephemeral, something you don’t have the time to indulge yourself in. You have more pressing things to occupy your time with. Just finish both him and his doppelgänger and be done with it.

He loves you.

With a cry of torment, Mariana fell to her knees, blood pouring in rivulets from her tear ducts. Her entire body was shaking now, pieces of the conversation between her two halves still reverberating inside her mind. She couldn’t stand it any longer. With a feeble flick of a finger, she dissipated that glorious light surrounding the one thing she knew she would never be able to survive without, and she knew, as a result, that she was practically giving her life away. But a numb feeling had crept over her, and she didn't care. Bringing her head up slowly to look at him, she breathed in short, gasping bursts as her sobs still lingered. She wanted more than anything for him to hold her right now. But as things were, it seemed she would never experience that luxury again. And if that truly were the case, she really did have nothing left to live for.

As if the effects of Orion's influence had sapped him of his eternal youth, Maximilian's face seemed tighter to his skull now. Aside from the burning patches of flesh which lingered like tumors on his neck, cheek, and forehead, however, his complexion was as pale as ever, contrasting with stark sharpness the darkness of his lengthy mane. His tinged lips, which were the faint color of blueberry, thinned as he bared his fangs in a most enthused manner, enjoying the fruits of his manipulative tactic. "I know you desire him with something that is beyond reason, dear girl." There was almost a trace of compassion in this tone, and Mariana twitched. A revelation was quickly forming in her mind, something which contradicted what she had once heard before. His words had been very plain: that he was Orion, that he was a part of who Maximilian. Yet, if he could show any sort of compassion at all, and still be so malignant, what could that mean? Was he really who he claimed?

"Perhaps, in time, we can arrange something...?" The vampire held out a clawed hand, a perversion of the one that had held Mariana from what seemed to be the beginning of all that had ever been. Neither of them could truly remember anymore what it felt like not to have the other, but as of now, they said nothing. The intruder, the snatcher had returned and split them apart, leaving the masculine speechless and the feminine in tears. Was he truly inviting a compromise amongst them all? That couldn't be possible. It brought to her that other question, just what exactly was this ghost derivative of?

"P-perhaps...What is your full name?" She almost lacked the capability to string this sentence together, and it was quite apparent to the daemonic will that found some sick justification in her demise. The reason she asked was for some clue of who this sentient existence was, in all definite fact. For all she knew, it might be something altogether new to Max's knowing; a vital (and possibly fatal) chunk of misinformation.

"My name is Orion Antiochus, most celebrated of the Night. Blood for money, or blood for nothing at all. Let's not be greedy. Oh, my. Been a while since I had to recite that," he announced, making an elaborately formal gesture that was a mockery of sophistication and grace, two traits that proved scarce in the villain, time and time again. Mariana felt a sincere meaning hidden under that brutally deceptive, whimsical tone of voice. He spoke again, but this was an illusion: she was reciting it in her mind, commiting it to memory, on the offchance it would serve her later, somehow. With this, the avian vampire came to the realization she had become incredibly desperate, and was now grasping at straws. She had somewhat managed to regain composure from that sudden breakdown of mental divide that had wracked her to tears, but only for the sake of her own essenital survival, and in turn, the silver seal.

"Antiochus? So you have a family line?" Violet eyes blinked slowly; shaking, delicate hands are drawn into nerve-ridden fists. The spirit within her lover closed his hand, aside from the pointer finger, which swayed like an upturned pendulum, then retreated to point back to the body he had so cleverly stolen.

"My only kin is in my skin, and the ghosts who lurk below, in the afterglow."

"Must you speak in riddles, just to confuse the poor woman?" From the corner of the Orion's eye approached some new presence, a man with hazel eyes, holding something with a polished, metal protrusion that tapered almost abruptly to a point. Experience told the killer that it was a dagger. The aura it gave off hinted at some sort of enchantment, and if he had stared hard enough, he might have seen the emblem of a white ring divided by a diagonal stripe of indentical color at the base of the steel that gave it whatever preturnatural traits it owned.

Mariana nearly let down her guard when she heard the reassuring voice of the stranger deflate the tension that had all but strangled her. However, she caught herself when she began to look away, potentially saving her own life. The thought of the weapon sweeping just below her field of vision...passing through...letting her vision go skyward for a moment before fading out, while her body pathetically collapses...She pushed the ideal from her mind. Somehow, the presence of this new fellow brought her a bit of comfort, made it seem less realistic of a fate.

"Who're you supposed to be?" Orion drew back his lips and exhaled through his pointed teeth. The stranger, who was dressed oddly with no shirt and what looked to be baggy, black woolen pants that ended just below his ankles, leaving knitted black moccasins to shelter his feet from becoming raw and then callused by sharp rocks and thorns that lay about the forest floor or along the rough roads of this ancient land.

A heartbeat. Her own, Mariana surmised. It filled her inner senses with a pounding that punctuated the tension that hung thick in the air. She was no longer alone with Orion, true. But that didn't mean the situation was any less desperate for her. If only there were something she could think of to do. If only...Max were here with her. To her eyes, his body was here, yes. And perhaps his soul was, too. But he was still absent in a way. Terribly and heart-wrenchingly absent.

Turning her head slightly so that at least part of her gaze was still on Orion, Mariana took stock of the newcomer. He seemed benevolent enough towards her, but something about that knife of his made her a little uncomfortable. She was glad of his appearance from among the trees, but she wasn't entirely sure just what he could do to help her.

Orion shifted his weight back and forth between his feet, obviously losing whatever sort of patience he possessed. But before he could speak, the man answered the malicious spirit's previous inquiry, although not exactly in the way he probably would have liked. "Who I am is no concern of yours. You should be concentrating much more on where you should run to avoid having my blade impaled in your throat."

Immediately, Mariana ran in front of the man, grasping his arms, a pleading look in her violet eyes. "No, please don't kill him. Please."

The look of shock that crossed the man's face was outdone only by the triumphant gleam that glowed blue in Orion's eyes. "But...why not? Clearly, that creature means to do you severe harm."

Mariana hesitated for a moment. Would it be wise to tell everything to this complete stranger just because he seemed to offer her protection and safety? For all she knew, he could merely be putting on an act. Before she could say another word in response, however, Orion's gleeful cackle filled the oppressive silence.

"Oh, she has her reasons, certainly. I wonder if she wishes you to know them, though? Hehehehe... Shall I tell him, my dear, sweet angel?"

Mariana winced and clenched her fists tightly together. Her voice was suddenly low and quite dangerous. That edge of reason was hovering extremely close to her current state of mind. "Don't...even in mockery...call me that. I don't belong to you."

OoC: Uh...yeah... This is crap. Don't even try to tell me otherwise. And...I just...sort of ran out of anything else I wanted to say in this post, so...sorry if it sounds like it just sort of stops. Because it does. I just felt really, really bad about having taken this long to post something...

Mariana’s lilac eyes were clouded with fear. Even if this new man did offer her a small beacon of hope, she feared this wraith would simply take upon him second the task of bringing her demise. What match was a mere dagger against a blade as formidable as one doing the duty of Orion’s murderous will? She feared she did not know. And now, in the thick of this alien nature, one which Jehovah’s great hand had no doing whatsoever, her fear was amplified.

In the distance, another thunderous footstep echoed. And another. Something was drawing closer. The man in the moccasins paid the far off din no notice. His hazel sight was centered on the cloaked, grinning daemon that bore her lover’s face. The one who called her his “little angel,” now not in care, but in scathing mockery. Even when Orion did not laugh, his eyes seemed to persist this expression endlessly. As if the world were a cruel joke, and he was somehow behind the conspiracy. Killer’s eyes.

“Miss…My name is Rando Gynhaal. And if you truly want me to spare this wretched life, I only ask for an explanation. I cannot comply otherwise, because, you see, with all due respect, I value my own life, and I could die keeping filth like this from perishing, while at the same time keeping it at bay.” He held the dagger with the air of a trained thrower, with the blade now clenched between his index and middle fingers.
“I-I…That’s my lover’s body!” She proclaimed this with a consuming sadness that threatened to steal her voice from her. The last word was faint, and she wanted to cry again. She once relished the touch of those pale hands. But by the look of this, she never would again.

“So, you mean he is possessed?...I see. Never encountered anything like this before. But I understand your concern. I shall not let him die. But you’re simply in the way. I need to subdue him alone. Perhaps then I can find the best way to help you. Will you trust me?”

The angel gave a frantic nod, but it seemed she was not content with just that. “But how? Do you even know anything about exorcisms?” He looked back at her, a little alarmed at how he’d neglected to put more weight on the issue. Situations like this made him too tense to hold anything close to memory.

“You’re right. I don’t. But that doesn’t change the fact you—“

“I hope the two of you are as good at screaming as you are chattering…Hehehe…” The phantasm in flesh hurled his body at the two of theirs with a haunting smirk etched across his features. His sweeping blade moved in a deadly crescent, and Rando countered flawlessly, flipping his large dagger onto its right end to he could hold the scythe back. The two metals connected, and reverberated, but this was only the beginning. From the center of Orion’s fanged maw formed a sphere of luminous blue light, holding Rando’s gaze and attempting to lull him into a vulnerable state. He shook himself out of it quickly, and jerked himself away, spiraling backwards to quickly regain his composure and side-step another attack. As tense as it was, he had yet to gain a single scratch.

She felt helpless. So very helpless. Even while Rando appeared to have no trouble remaining out of Dredgius’ reach, Mariana still felt as though she should be able to do something to help. But her love and deep concern for Maximilian held her back. There was no conceivable way she could cause him harm of any kind. The very thought threatened to overthrow the balance of the universe. It was that impossible.

Orion cackled, as though he could sense her dilemma, and took another swipe at Rando’s head. The man skillfully danced backward, avoiding certain death by a hair’s breadth. “You seem quite…uninvolved over there, my darling. You don’t care to join in the festivities?”

Mariana clenched her hands into fists, glaring at the phantom thief of her lover’s body. “I…” She released a defeated sigh and lowered her gaze to the forest floor. “…I can’t…”

“Hehehehe, of course you can’t. There isn’t a way in Hell you could hurt little Maxy-poo’s body. Guess that means you just don’t have the courage to do it!”

An enraged hiss broke the silence of the forest. “Don’t call me a coward when you don’t even have the fortitude to fight without hiding inside someone else’s skin!”

“IT’S MINE, TOO!”

Gleaming steal angled rapidly for Mariana’s neck but was deflected by one of Rando’s well-placed daggers. Ignoring the curses the action elicited from Orion, Rando shouted over the din. “Miss, head deeper into the forest until yo