Re: Castle Iwaku
CASTLE IWAKU, MORNING...
Asmodeus hovered in the doorway, looking to the other seats in the office but making no approach. The gentle sunlight from the lattice windows caught on his mask, making him more like a porcelain statue, a marble artifice carved from the palace walls and left to reside in timeless solitude.
"It all went wrong..." he answered, a bare whisper. "I tried to protect Jack, but the others..." His head lowered, moving from side to side as he struggled with the reflections. "It was my fault. I spent so long rehearsing what I would say and... and I didn't think about him. But how can I... I..."
He faltered, and Sozrosse took a sip of her herbal drink. "So, you've wasted another eighteen years. Did you boys have a Plan B? No, let me guess - you chased after Jack and tried to hit him with your swords."
Asmodeus's blue eyes lifted to her, silvered by the harrowing birth of tears. "The others aren't like you... the other survivors. They've been waiting so long... you have to underst..."
"I understand perfectly well," remarked the young redhead, rising from her seat to return a book to one of the high shelves of warded oak. "My old friends from the Legacy have endured untold suffering whilst battling across time and space at the furthest edges of a disintegrating universe, and now they can't even summon up the simple discipline to handle a teenager who wants to keep his little toy."
"There's no time to..."
Sozrosse turned from the shelf. "Either take off the mask or speak up, would you?"
Asmodeus stepped a little further into the room, his body hunched, eyes downcast once more. "We don't have time to mourn our actions. This is the year... the year King Rory prophecised the return of certain things. The Sheathe... the hero who was banished... the new villain... the raging unknowns... the guardians. All the things we need to protect... to prevent the Anomaly recurring."
"Well, that's the thing about Anomalies..." replied Sozrosse, brushing dust from her blue-green tunic as she picked up her tea from the table, "...they take many forms." She sipped, almost standing to attention as she gazed through the window at the crystal lakes. "We only saw one manifestation of the Fault in the Cycle. And though the Rift Storms were abominations to behold, I'm sure the Anomaly can take many more subtle and insidious forms than them."
"That's why we need to gather the artefacts," said Asmodeus, stepping closer to her, his hand almost rising to touch her. But for very different reasons, neither of them could stand to be touched anymore. So he lowered his hand again. "And the heroes. There are things in Iwaku, powerful things more connected to the Cycle than others. We must protect them... keep them from despair and corruption."
He lifted his head suddenly, moist eyes glimmering with a flicker of hope. "Perhaps if you contacted your..."
Sozrosse turned, slamming her teacup down on the saucer. The clink echoed around the room and cut Asmodeus's words short. "Don't even try it," she said, her amber eyes burning into his mask, "You know as well as I do that you can sooner turn the tides as pin down Coffeecakesadist."
"Just once..."
"He's NOT going to see you, Asmodeus. He comes and goes as he pleases."
Silence settled in the room, and Asmodeus seemed to sink lower under Sozrosse's gaze. A flight of ravens streamed past the window, breaking to swerve around the sleak forms of passing airships.
In time, Sozrosse's pale features softened and she placed down her teacup. "But I can at least get you an audience with the King. I hear he's been having visions about Jack Shade. Go wait outside and I'll see what I can do."
"Thankyou," whispered Asmodeus, before turning quickly and moving back into the corridor.
Slowly, like a funeral mourner, the masked angel retracted his steps to the waiting chamber, passing the desk where the secretary sat. A sigh escaped his lips and he lifted his head, adjusting his purple robes as he looked ahead to his meeting with the king.
... No...
Like an electric shock, the picture of the ninja sitting on the chair etched itself onto his mind, seeping through to the very core of his nerves. Then deepest pain erupted, arching from his brain and down to his ribs, running along the lines of the old wound that had pierced his lungs 18 years ago.
... Palonis...
Asmodeus leapt into motion, almost flying across the chamber as if forgetting for a moment that his wings were gone. His feet pounded the black and white marble squares, and he had barely moved a foot before shimmering columns of eldritch light appeared in front of him.
The two Battle Mages teleported between Asmodeus and Palonis, sensing the flare of violence, the threat to the royal chambers. They materialised in combat stance, lifting their staffs to deliver bolts of disabling magic.
And in the next instant the staffs faltered, the golden light that once wreathed their shafts fading to dull metal in the presence of Asmodeus's Confluence Aura. The two guards hesitated, feeling the symbols of warding and enchancement drain from their robes.
Asmodeus slammed into the first of them, knocking him aside and tackling the second one. The angel spun, drawing the short sword from the man's belt and flinging him after his companion.
The two mages stumbled to the ground, and Asmodeus finished his spin, one arm coming around Turd's throat, the tip of the shortsword pressed against his eye-socket. He dangled the servant off his feet, barely a foot from the standing Palonis.
More Mages arrived, appearing in a semi-circle behind the angel and his hostage. A virtual armoury of staffs levelled at the masked figure, new energies flowing through them to counteract his Confluence.
Only a second had passed.
"RELEASE HIM!" bellowed the sergeant of the Battle Mages.
Asmodeus tensed, the sword slipping further into Turd's eye-socket and pressing against his pupil. The secretary's scream sounded from the corner of the chamber.
"HOLD IT!" shouted the sergeant, trying to keep his men from opening fire. "EVERYONE, STAY CALM. LET HIM GO!"
The angel ignored the mages, peering over Turd's trembling shoulder at Palonis. The eyes of the old adversaries were locked on each other, carrying the weight of history... the weight of mutual slaughter.
"I can't let you kill me again," whispered Asmodeus above the whimpers of Palonis's servant. "There's too much at stake. I can't let you stop me..."
[SUMMARY: Asmodeus talks with Sozrosse, hoping she can grant him access to Coffeecakesadist. But Sozrosse reminds him that the old mentor comes and goes as he pleases. She does, however, offer him an audience with the King. Asmodeus returns to the waiting room, but when he sees Palonis he snaps and assumes he has come to kill him. Overcoming two of the guards, Asmodeus steals a weapon and takes Palonis's servant hostage.]