[ He knew all along that Somnus probably wouldn’t follow behind. And that’s why he looks back just in time to see that barrier between fully form. ]
Somnus—!
[ He’s distraught and angry at being lied to, that Somnus has decided to make this grand stand on his own but then the other’s words forcibly remind him of the currently dying Hubert in his arms and well… there was never any choice here.
He grits his teeth so hard they could crack and then he looks at the barrier one last time: ]
You better return, you… you idiot!!
[ And then he turns and runs without looking back again ]
[ In she stumbles. She doesn't even know what instinct she's following anymore – isn't thinking at all, when the din in her head is drowning out most of her other thoughts. Somnus is the one easiest to follow, so it's him she staggers after. And then the room is alight with noise and light again and she lets out a little cry of surprise. The smell of hot, gushing blood cuts off like a switch has been flipped and a wave of dissatisfaction washes over her. She'd followed that scent and come here to...
What had she come here to do...?
Not that it mattered anymore. Somnus was blocking the way and she had to... she had to...
She takes a few tentative steps forward. Wobbly, but growing surer with each step. A noise bubbles up from her throat. Not words, but– not dragonsong, either. ]
[Despite everything he was and everything he resolved to do, for perhaps the first time in his life Somnus hesitated. She wasn't attacking--was she really as berserk as Hubert had said? She had to be, else he would still have both arms.]
[...It didn't matter. If Hubert died--more likely than he wanted to think--or if she met anyone else in this state, Bryn would potentially hurt another, and if she could be brought back she would face execution.]
[It wasn't the same. But he watched her and for just an instant saw someone else entirely.]
...It will be over soon.
[The greatsword was thrown to land at her feet, Somnus following in a flash and swinging in a wide arc of silver the second he touched it.]
[ The gleam of the greatsword feels like it throws her eye out of focus again – the realization that she's being attacked sending a jolt of anxiety through her that makes the pressure throbbing in her skull triple in intensity. She can't think. It hurts to try and fight against the din still rattling around in her head and even that admission of weakness is enough for that violent rage to reassert control.
The strangled noises she's making warp into a snarl as she staggers back, just barely avoiding the blow but rushing forward all in the same movement even so. She doesn't have a weapon, but she claws at him anyway – and after seeing the state Hubert was in, it's clear she might not even need a weapon. ]
[Gods above, she was a little more than he’d thought. Obviously she was fast, but deflecting those claws off the flat edge of his sword sent reverberations halfway up his arm.]
[But Somnus himself was a lot more than he looked on first glance as well; at a gesture from his free hand he sent down another wave of blades, hoping to at least force her back for the half second he would need to cast something stronger.]
[ Quick as she might be in this state, even she is quick enough to avoid a flurry of blades this thick. She dances back, stumbling over her own feet and as the blades skim past, they slice away chunks of hair, thin cuts of skin. She turns as if hoping to avoid them, but all that does is expose her side for one of the blades to slam into her, cutting deep and hitting with such and then one of them hits at such an angle that it buries itself deep into her side and sends her staggering back.
She teeters and it looks for a moment like it might have been enough to deter her. But then she takes a huge, wheezing breath, embers dancing around her mouth and wraps her hand around the blade itself. She wrenches it loose with a horrible squelch of blood and with a swing of her arm, sends it sailing back at Somnus. ]
[The phantom sword vanished before it ever reached its master, shattering into flickers of light that evaporated into nothing.]
[In truth, Somnus was no longer thinking in terms of mercy or cruelty; there was just defeat her screaming in his head. It had to be done. For her sake, for everyone’s sake, the monster before him had to be slain. No matter who they were, no matter the emotional weight borne for millennia, he had to do what was right.]
[There was no thought given to remembering what Bryn had feared, only reflex and his favored elemancy. That which banished the dark and cold of the night, which scoured a plague from the earth wherever it could be found.]
[Somnus threw his hand forward, and Firaga raged through the solarium in a bursting conflagration.]
[ Heat doesn't just bloom around her – it erupts, with so much kindling to feed it. She feels it pressing in from all sides, licking at her face and it's so familiar she could just vomit. Unlike the previous times she's been faced with the stuff, though, she doesn't quail. She stands there with her head tilted in careful consideration.
Ah. Fire. If they're playing with fire, she knows just what to do.
Again, she sucks in one of those deep, rattling breaths and from her mouth comes a plume of violently bright purple flame, bursting through the solarium as if in challenge to the flames that came before.
In the commotion, she takes the opportunity to charge him again. If the only way out is through Somnus, then that's where she has to go, isn't it? ]
[It was not in him to back down. No retreat, no surrender, only commitment. People needed a firm and just hand to keep the foul cruelties of humanity in check, and it fell to the king to be so ironclad and unbending. This he knew, and never once did he entertain the idea that the king was no less flawed than those he led.]
[No matter how unpopular his methods, no matter how people had once spoken of their then-prince in hushed and fearful tones, his actions were all for their benefit. Every daemon put to the flame was one less prowling the night to slaughter the innocent.]
[Without hesitation he warped to meet Bryn, sword already swinging for her arm the second his hand grasped it in midair.]
[No matter the blood Somnus knew stained his hands, he would never ask forgiveness.]
[ Her mouth is open, flames still sputtering and teeth bared. Like this, she looks every inch the beast she'd acted all those weeks ago when they'd first been handed their motive envelopes. She's stronger now than she was then – but that doesn't make her invincible. The blade sings through the air and though there's the faintest snick of resistance – the sword wielded to kill daemons does just as it should and cuts her arm from her body.
And the pain... is familiar, in some odd way. Not her pain but – oh, this is ironic, isn't it? For her to lose an arm when she'd done the same to– when she'd come here to–
Oh, this is all wrong, isn't it?
For a fraction of a second, everything seems to still. Fire rages all around them, but there's an odd quiet in her head. The slitted red eye flutters and clears and for a moment, barely even long enough for a breath or a pause between breaths–
It's Bryn looking at him. ]
S–
[ And then that traitorous, ravenous part of her mind realizes, maybe even before Somnus does – like this, he's wide open. Take her arm, then. That's fine.
She has two.
Everything slams back into motion. Curled fingers made clawlike by bloodlust and raw strength thrust forward under his guard to his chest and
through it
her fingers breech the other side and her arm sinks into him up to the elbow, wet with blood and viscera. This time when she meets his gaze, it's with the cold satisfaction of a predator looming over a kill. ]
[A choked sound of surprise left him as the force shattered flesh and bone, blood splattering across smoldering flowers and Bryn alike.]
Br-…
[He had been certain Brynhilde was not a match for him. Had hesitated to transform because of damnable worthless sentiment—Somnus could practically hear the voice of a man long dead saying checkmate with infuriating satisfaction. Always too focused on the larger pictures to see the details right before his eyes.]
[From the door came the terrible crack of ice threatening to break underfoot with only certain death on the other side. Spiderweb fissures began to form in crackling lines from the center, where a phantom impact almost seemed to have struck it. But it did not yet shatter—not yet, not so long as the Mystic whose life fueled it desperately clung to consciousness. Every second he could buy them was another that they might reach the others.]
[Surely…surely he had at least given them enough time. Nuadha and Felix could prevail where Somnus could not alone, even if it meant one of them executed instead. Surely there would still be a chance, as faint and flickering as it may have been, that this ritual could yet be stopped before their souls could be used up for some nefarious purpose.]
[The Blade of the Mystic—the very sword that had long ago been driven through his brother’s chest—fell from its wielder’s hand and vanished into light. He staggered, back hitting a wall as he sank to the floor leaving a streak of blood behind. Of course…this was what he had deserved, on some level. What he had done could not be forgiven, but it could be repaid in kind.]
[Had there been anything of Ardyn left in the monster he had named Adagium? Had he ever bothered to wonder? Had his attempt to protect Bryn from execution only made the situation worse?]
[Would things have been better for them all, if Ardyn Lucis Caelum had been the one to awake in this hellish tower instead?]
I-…I-
[There was no breath in half-destroyed lungs to speak, yet he tried all the same. His words came out in a harsh choking sound, blood spilling from his mouth and staining black clothes. There was something he had to say, something he had never once conceded in all his life or afterlife.]
[His head dropped as though he had abruptly fallen asleep, the faintest traces of something bitter and pained remaining on his face. The shield blocking the door made one final creak and broke apart like shattering glass, shards coming apart in crystalline light. Vanishing and fading like the last traces of light in the sky.]
[ It's so quiet, suddenly. Even the flames that seemed to be on the verge of swallowing the solarium seem fit to sputter out, dying down under the heavy weight of the silence that settles.
Blink. Like coming awake from one of those fever bed dreams, Bryn feels herself swimming to the surface. The physicality of the last few seconds – pain, blood, yielding flesh and heat and more blood, more blood – play out in her mind again but she can't – or refuses – to reconcile them with what she can see in front of her.
A fat droplet of blood rolls down her cheek and plips from her chin.
Somnus's blood.
Somnus's–
Something ruptures deep inside her head. Her heart. This high up the tower and so far away from the others, there's nobody around to hear the scream that erupts from her. Nobody around to hear when the scream turns into a choked sob, or when the next inhalation comes out in a long howl of dragonsong.
Bryn shuts her eyes. She didn't want this. She didn't want any of this, not even for a moment. The Pact had never been willingly made, knowingly made and if this is the price she has to pay for that foolishness, then she'll surrender. She can't fight this anymore. She can't.
Bryn slumps over, face buried in her bloodied hands and chokes out one last babble of dragonsong before falling silent at last.
Breath in.
Breathe out.
Wagner lifts its face from its hands and slowly, easily rises to its feet. The first few steps are tottering and uncertain but all too soon, the body cooperates. Each one becomes easier.
It lifts its face again and sniffs at the air once or twice. Eyes are unreliable, but from a distance away, it can pick up the scent of a dying man being dragged fruitlessly away. With the king taken care of, there's nothing to stop it from finishing the rest of its job.
Violet flames sputter and die as Wagner sets out to track what's left of its prey. ]
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no subject
Somnus—!
[ He’s distraught and angry at being lied to, that Somnus has decided to make this grand stand on his own but then the other’s words forcibly remind him of the currently dying Hubert in his arms and well… there was never any choice here.
He grits his teeth so hard they could crack and then he looks at the barrier one last time: ]
You better return, you… you idiot!!
[ And then he turns and runs without looking back again ]
no subject
What had she come here to do...?
Not that it mattered anymore. Somnus was blocking the way and she had to... she had to...
She takes a few tentative steps forward. Wobbly, but growing surer with each step. A noise bubbles up from her throat. Not words, but– not dragonsong, either. ]
Ah... ggh...
[ Help. ]
no subject
[...It didn't matter. If Hubert died--more likely than he wanted to think--or if she met anyone else in this state, Bryn would potentially hurt another, and if she could be brought back she would face execution.]
[It wasn't the same. But he watched her and for just an instant saw someone else entirely.]
...It will be over soon.
[The greatsword was thrown to land at her feet, Somnus following in a flash and swinging in a wide arc of silver the second he touched it.]
no subject
The strangled noises she's making warp into a snarl as she staggers back, just barely avoiding the blow but rushing forward all in the same movement even so. She doesn't have a weapon, but she claws at him anyway – and after seeing the state Hubert was in, it's clear she might not even need a weapon. ]
no subject
[But Somnus himself was a lot more than he looked on first glance as well; at a gesture from his free hand he sent down another wave of blades, hoping to at least force her back for the half second he would need to cast something stronger.]
impalement cw
She teeters and it looks for a moment like it might have been enough to deter her. But then she takes a huge, wheezing breath, embers dancing around her mouth and wraps her hand around the blade itself. She wrenches it loose with a horrible squelch of blood and with a swing of her arm, sends it sailing back at Somnus. ]
no subject
[In truth, Somnus was no longer thinking in terms of mercy or cruelty; there was just defeat her screaming in his head. It had to be done. For her sake, for everyone’s sake, the monster before him had to be slain. No matter who they were, no matter the emotional weight borne for millennia, he had to do what was right.]
[There was no thought given to remembering what Bryn had feared, only reflex and his favored elemancy. That which banished the dark and cold of the night, which scoured a plague from the earth wherever it could be found.]
[Somnus threw his hand forward, and Firaga raged through the solarium in a bursting conflagration.]
no subject
Ah. Fire. If they're playing with fire, she knows just what to do.
Again, she sucks in one of those deep, rattling breaths and from her mouth comes a plume of violently bright purple flame, bursting through the solarium as if in challenge to the flames that came before.
In the commotion, she takes the opportunity to charge him again. If the only way out is through Somnus, then that's where she has to go, isn't it? ]
no subject
[No matter how unpopular his methods, no matter how people had once spoken of their then-prince in hushed and fearful tones, his actions were all for their benefit. Every daemon put to the flame was one less prowling the night to slaughter the innocent.]
[Without hesitation he warped to meet Bryn, sword already swinging for her arm the second his hand grasped it in midair.]
[No matter the blood Somnus knew stained his hands, he would never ask forgiveness.]
[Neither would he expect to deserve it.]
wow! more impalement!
And the pain... is familiar, in some odd way. Not her pain but – oh, this is ironic, isn't it? For her to lose an arm when she'd done the same to– when she'd come here to–
Oh, this is all wrong, isn't it?
For a fraction of a second, everything seems to still. Fire rages all around them, but there's an odd quiet in her head. The slitted red eye flutters and clears and for a moment, barely even long enough for a breath or a pause between breaths–
It's Bryn looking at him. ]
S–
[ And then that traitorous, ravenous part of her mind realizes, maybe even before Somnus does – like this, he's wide open. Take her arm, then. That's fine.
She has two.
Everything slams back into motion. Curled fingers made clawlike by bloodlust and raw strength thrust forward under his guard to his chest and
through it
her fingers breech the other side and her arm sinks into him up to the elbow, wet with blood and viscera. This time when she meets his gaze, it's with the cold satisfaction of a predator looming over a kill. ]
1/2 cw: so much blood and impalement
Br-…
[He had been certain Brynhilde was not a match for him. Had hesitated to transform because of damnable worthless sentiment—Somnus could practically hear the voice of a man long dead saying checkmate with infuriating satisfaction. Always too focused on the larger pictures to see the details right before his eyes.]
[From the door came the terrible crack of ice threatening to break underfoot with only certain death on the other side. Spiderweb fissures began to form in crackling lines from the center, where a phantom impact almost seemed to have struck it. But it did not yet shatter—not yet, not so long as the Mystic whose life fueled it desperately clung to consciousness. Every second he could buy them was another that they might reach the others.]
[Surely…surely he had at least given them enough time. Nuadha and Felix could prevail where Somnus could not alone, even if it meant one of them executed instead. Surely there would still be a chance, as faint and flickering as it may have been, that this ritual could yet be stopped before their souls could be used up for some nefarious purpose.]
2/2 second verse messy as the first
[The Blade of the Mystic—the very sword that had long ago been driven through his brother’s chest—fell from its wielder’s hand and vanished into light. He staggered, back hitting a wall as he sank to the floor leaving a streak of blood behind. Of course…this was what he had deserved, on some level. What he had done could not be forgiven, but it could be repaid in kind.]
[Had there been anything of Ardyn left in the monster he had named Adagium? Had he ever bothered to wonder? Had his attempt to protect Bryn from execution only made the situation worse?]
[Would things have been better for them all, if Ardyn Lucis Caelum had been the one to awake in this hellish tower instead?]
I-…I-
[There was no breath in half-destroyed lungs to speak, yet he tried all the same. His words came out in a harsh choking sound, blood spilling from his mouth and staining black clothes. There was something he had to say, something he had never once conceded in all his life or afterlife.]
[His head dropped as though he had abruptly fallen asleep, the faintest traces of something bitter and pained remaining on his face. The shield blocking the door made one final creak and broke apart like shattering glass, shards coming apart in crystalline light. Vanishing and fading like the last traces of light in the sky.]
[I’m sorry I failed you.]
no subject
Blink. Like coming awake from one of those fever bed dreams, Bryn feels herself swimming to the surface. The physicality of the last few seconds – pain, blood, yielding flesh and heat and more blood, more blood – play out in her mind again but she can't – or refuses – to reconcile them with what she can see in front of her.
A fat droplet of blood rolls down her cheek and plips from her chin.
Somnus's blood.
Somnus's–
Something ruptures deep inside her head. Her heart. This high up the tower and so far away from the others, there's nobody around to hear the scream that erupts from her. Nobody around to hear when the scream turns into a choked sob, or when the next inhalation comes out in a long howl of dragonsong.
Bryn shuts her eyes. She didn't want this. She didn't want any of this, not even for a moment. The Pact had never been willingly made, knowingly made and if this is the price she has to pay for that foolishness, then she'll surrender. She can't fight this anymore. She can't.
Bryn slumps over, face buried in her bloodied hands and chokes out one last babble of dragonsong before falling silent at last.
Breath in.
Breathe out.
Wagner lifts its face from its hands and slowly, easily rises to its feet. The first few steps are tottering and uncertain but all too soon, the body cooperates. Each one becomes easier.
It lifts its face again and sniffs at the air once or twice. Eyes are unreliable, but from a distance away, it can pick up the scent of a dying man being dragged fruitlessly away. With the king taken care of, there's nothing to stop it from finishing the rest of its job.
Violet flames sputter and die as Wagner sets out to track what's left of its prey. ]