Lord of Azure Flame Chapter 27: War

[-Cynthia-]

"I fail to see what is amusing about Esphyr being dead and the possibility of the Crimson Sword being useless. It is important to note that we need all the weapons to break the seal, which means the sword must have a wielder. I suggest beginning the binding process on someone suitable sooner rather than later," Morgan said, furrowing her brow at Miranda.

[Phoenix]

Succession Issues

"Oh come now," Miranda replied to Tiria, ceasing her laughter for the moment. "I've been dead before. If you ask me, she's better off. No more worries or troubles~ ... I just find the way in which it happened hilarious, heheheheh. It's hard to really care about the lives of people who aren't close to me. I'd feel so damn hypocritical taking some random deaths to heart and not others, so if I'm not too familiar with someone, no sale~" Glancing back to Morgan, she said, "So you need this bound to someone else? We really should have captured Shanice then, because I don't know how to bind the weapons. Not with a hundred percent certainty anyway. The tomes I just sort of figured out--Proxima specifically--but I'll end up killing someone if I do this 'incorrectly' and that's assuming the weapon doesn't kill them all on its own. We could end up going through a lot of people with no viable results .... Is that still alright, Morgan?"

"The binding process isn't as dangerous as the severing process. It's a chance you should take." Ixion chimed in.

[-Cynthia-]

"If you try and bind the weapons and fail, some may die. If you do not try to bind the weapon at all, we all likely die. I see no choice here," Morgan responded to Miranda, offering the sword to her.

[Mercakete]

Raemond nodded, continuing to keep his attention on direction he could sense the demons from. "There's another one." A few moments later, though, two of the demons faded away. "Two of the demons left. ... I...believe they went underground," he reported, "They aren't coming this way, though. There is only one I can sense now. If I'm sensing this correctly...there are three crimson weapons near the demon."

[Phoenix]

Sword of Selective Wrath

Miranda sighed lightly, taking the crimson blade and examining it for a moment. "Well it'd be funny, but I don't think stabbing someone with this would work. Pretty symbolic of a crimson though if you think about it. Especially this one. 'Sword of Bloody Wrath'~ So ... who should I bind this to, hm? Who's ready to risk their life on the off chance that I actually get this right the first time?"

[Script]

Luc Altair

Raemond gave a report on the demon condition on Heinz's request. One was left, next to Crimsons, but the second had escaped with a third. It was most likely that Miranda was the one left, and whatever target she had fled with the third. Damnation. But, even if it was the most likely course. "The one left is probably the one we were seeking," Luc said. "But there's no guarantee, we must not drop our guards until the leavers rejoin."

[scorri]

Tiria stared at Miranda for a few seconds and then took a few steps forward. "That sword. That will allow me to fight demons like that rock one that just left and actually do damage? It will allow me to avenge my uncle? If so... I will do what I must to have that chance. I cannot allow my uncle to have been killed without my seeking revenge."

[-Cynthia-]

Well at least she has resolve, though her affiliation with the templars could make things...complicated. Still, I do not like the alternatives... Morgan thought to herself, looking at those around her. "An acceptable choice. You may wish to pray to whatever deities you worship- this will not be an easy process," Morgan warned Tiria.

[scorri]

Tiria closed her eyes for a second. A magic sword. I swore to never touch magic. But for Uncle... I must do this. She opened her eyes and nodded. "I am as ready as I will ever be."

[Phoenix]

Binding Attempt #1

"Heh. Just don't get your hopes up, alright? I peg your chances at fifty fifty," Miranda warned. Sighing she added, "Then again ... take whatever hope you can get in the end. Here we go." Miranda began by slowly bringing the tip of the crimson blade to Tiria's chest. Once she was sure she was merging the two together and not just impaling Tiria slowly and agonizingly, she began to push the blade into the woman. "Stand still," she quickly warned as the blade began to slowly enter her body. A few red sparks began to leap across the blade and over Miranda's arms causing her to wince several times as the blade went in deeper and deeper. Nothing came out the other side of Tiria's torso. (Dammit, this hurts ...) Once she got the blade inside up to the hilt, she stumbled back, taking some of the leaping sparks with her. They jumped around her palms and fingers for several more seconds before disappearing, and the sword of bloody wrath slowly vanished into Tiria.

Miranda fell to her knees and kept her ailing hands close to her. "Safer with Proxima since I only had to push it in a few inches ... once a crimson is bound to someone, it's not really a good idea for demons to get too close, heheh," she laughed with a pained look on her face as she explained to Morgan and anyone else listening. "You might want to cover your mouths. You don't want to stand there with your jaws hanging open if this doesn't pan out for her. Just a hunch," she warned.

Miranda had finished the bonding process and had wound up on the floor by the time Iso and Irina arrived, and the two siblings got down from Nikita and quickly approached to investigate. "What's going on?!" Iso quickly asked once he was close enough.

Farther away but still approaching on foot like a pair of badasses, one with an enormous wyvern in tow, were Harold and Percival. Despite the implied urgency, they were taking their time getting there.

[scorri]

Tiria closed her eyes as Miranda brought the sword towards her chest. She is going to stab me! But, as the sword started to enter, she gasped and her eyes flew open. Pain. So much pain. And... evil. So much evil. As the blade continued to enter, she locked her knees so that she wouldn't fall over. Not sure how much more of this I can take. But then suddenly the pain lessened. There was still a lingering ache, but the stabbing pain was over. She looked down and the sword was gone. She sighed and started to face the others when a sudden blaze of mental pain hit her. Crying out, she collapsed.

You. What are you? I can sense you.

Yes, anger. Plenty of it too. Sadness, hmm. This is good. I can work with this~

What? No. What are you doing?

Oh, just showing you some things. Remember how your family kicked you out? Forced you to live on your own, fighting for your meals? Remember the anger that you felt towards them? Mmm, yes. That's it. And the death of your uncle. So tragic. So much pain and anger and sadness in your life. I can get rid of that for you. If you wish...

You can?

Oh yes, my dear. It's simple. Just hand them over to me. You don't really want to be remembering that stuff, do you? Like how you're stuck serving a child because you're not welcome anywhere else? Doesn't that just infuriate you? Just hand it all over. Let me take control. I promise, you won't have to deal with that again~

Never again... All this pain... gone.

That's right.

I... I cannot. You will not control me.

But the pain! The anger! Do you really wish to be reminded of that every time you use me? Would it not be better to just let me have control?

NO! You will not own me. The anger, the pain. They are who I am. I will not let you take away that. I will not give up.

Very well then. But just remember. I'm always here if you change your mind~

Panting, Tiria slowly opened her eyes. Slowly standing up, she grabbed a nearby piece of rubble to support herself. Taking a breath, she concentrated. As she started to see a blade form in her hand, she winced in pain, but refused to cry out. I am done being weak. I am done giving up. I will do this. I have to do this. Standing up straight, with the Sword of Bloody Wrath fully formed in her hand, she turned to the onlookers. "It is done. The sword is mine. I am in control."

In the back of her mind, a small voice chuckled. For now...

[Phoenix]

Success

"Oh thank goodness; I thought she was going to explode like that lab experiment that took out Esphyr and we'd be back to square one," Miranda said before sighing in relief and standing back up to examine her hands. "Okay, Morgan, your favor's done. Enjoy your new crimson wielder, I've got an ice demon to track."

"Miranda, I would advise you to stay put for now," Ixion chimed in.

"Dammit, would you get out of my dog's head, already?! I can't even look in your general direction without ... eeesh," she explained, shivering a bit toward the end.

"They're likely going to regroup with the other demons. Even with my help, you'll be horribly outnumbered and overpowered. In the end, Shanice will likely be the victor."

"I said I was going to track him. I didn't say anything about taking him and the others on all at once," she clarified.

"You don't have to say it, Miranda. Please, just stay here for the time being. I may have need of you in all of this."

"... fine," she finally conceded.

[-Cynthia-]

"How are you feeling?" Morgan asked Tiria, sizing her up with her eyes. Well if she were to die, I would think she would die immediately....Flemeth was rather hazy on that part though. Better to have a wielder at the very least, despite any deficiencies.

[scorri]

Tiria took a second to assess and then smiled. "I am good. There is some pain, but it is nothing that I cannot handle. What now?"

Revenge time. Yes, that's what's now.

Yes, time to go chase after those demons and... wait, what? No. Stop that.

[-Cynthia-]

"We should rejoin the others and you should likely get some rest. From what I know, the time after obtaining a Crimson Weapon can be rather harrowing. I will be questioning Heinz on the matter of Esphyr's death and then likely discussing strategy with the military leaders," Morgan outlined.

[scorri]

Tiria nodded and concentrated on letting the sword disappear. "I suppose I will need to pick up another sword as well for times when I am not using that one. It is... draining to say the least. Some rest would do me well I think."

[Phoenix]

Regroup

"Pfff, like you people know anything about strategy," Miranda lightly scoffed at Morgan's little announcement.

"What? The crisis has passed already? Where are the two demons that were heading our way?" Harold inquired as he and Percy arrived, only catching Morgan's suggestion to regroup and anything later.

"Gone," Miranda immediately answered. If they didn't know she was a demon yet, they didn't need to now as far as she was concerned. Though it was curious. How did they know two demons were coming? Was there someone else who could sense demons around? If so, couldn't that person tell there were three? Then again, timing might have had something to do with it. Petros was in and out in record time.

"Well I'm glad everyone is unharmed. Especially you, young miss," Harold said, winking at Miranda. "No demons will be harming anyone else today, I'll see to it."

"Thank you~" Miranda smiled back.

"So wait ... she's actually the new crimson sword wielder?" Iso asked. He had seen it but was more concerned about Miranda at the time. Tiria's initial mastery of the blade hadn't yet sunken in fully. He didn't really need an answer; it was obvious enough. Though her connection to Raemond had him worried a little. These people were never going to get away from each other, it seemed. He wasn't sure how Beau was going to handle this either.

"Looks that way ..." Lev noted, not answering Iso directly. He then turned to mount up on Krinkov and waited for Morgan to join him.

[scorri]

Tiria overheard the fire mage and turned to him. "Yes, I am the new wielder. Got a problem with that? Am I not good enough for you?"

Yes, yes. He's clearly doubting me. He thinks that I'm not good enough. That...

Wait. Those are not my thoughts. I said stop that!

She shook her head. "Sorry, I overreacted there. Still... getting used to this thing. It seems to like it when I am angry. But yes. I am the wielder. Someone needed to do it and, well, I was here."

[spoiler=OOC] For future reference, if the italicized parts use contractions, it's the sword influencing Tiria's thoughts. Yay for the sword getting more subtle~

[Inactive Account]

Arrin had watched uneasily as the sword had been bound, and now was looking on in concern: Tiria seemed much more upset than before, and he wasn't sure if it was just the stress of the quick decision to become a Crimson wielder, or the influence of the sword itself. Other than Proxima and Daranau, he had never found out how much influence each of the weapons had, though if he had to guess that someone had been having problems with control, Esphyr would probably have been it.

He thought back to his own training; his teacher had frantically worked to seal Daranau, and then spent the next eight years training him not only in the ways of magic, but in the ways of keeping his emotions under control. The journey so far had tested him thoroughly, and he'd slipped a few times, but never been taken over, so Ilony must have done something right. If Tiria was going to have difficulties with the sword, perhaps he could help by passing on a few of his teacher's techniques...

On the other hand, there were plenty of people around, and he didn't want to upset her by outright asking her if the sword was taking control. He decided to go for a slightly less blatant route. "The weapons take some getting used to," he told Tiria, trying to avoid any tone that could sound even the slightest bit like condescension in order to prevent another outburst. "My teacher gave me extra training for dealing with the side effects. If you want, I could try to pass some of it on to you when things have calmed down a bit..."

[scorri]

Tiria turned to Arrin and started to respond and then paused. She smiled slightly and nodded. "Yes. Thank you. That would be much appreciated."

[Inactive Account]

Arrin nodded. He would have to think up where to start, but he'd have a little time to do so; everyone was tired, and there would be no starting immediately. He waited for the others to start back towards TISME.

-----

Kelas completed her circuit of side streets, finding nobody, and arrived back at the gates of TISME to find that Arrin was not there. "Where did Arrin go?" she asked the group at large, not worried quite yet but not far from beginning to worry.

[-Cynthia-]

Morgan got up on Krinkov behind Lev. "Let us regroup at TISME then. There is still much to do," she said simply.

[Mercakete]

"Ah, Kelas," Beau greeted the nomad after she asked everyone at once where her brother was, "Arrin went off to find the demon. Not to worry, though, he is with the captain of my personal guard. Even then, if you had asked a short while earlier, I would have been somewhat concerned for him, but the danger has passed, it seems. Hasn't it, Brother?" He shifted his attention to Raemond.

"The demon isn't moving and is alone, but I wouldn't say that any sort of danger has passed. It's more like a lull," Raemond corrected.

[Inactive Account]

Dimly Tobe became aware of someone calling his name, however improbable that was. Cautiously he edged out from under Shadow and looked around, finding Viveka as the source. "Lady!" he yelled back, and ran over to meet her. "Is you awright? What happened t' everyone else?"

-------

"What, has there been a demon confirmed in the area?" Kelas asked, concern growing. "How long ago did he leave? I thought he was going to stay here."

-------

Arrin started walking with a sigh. Doubtless Morgan would try to push for more talk than anyone had the energy left for when they reached TISME, but it was time to go back anyway.

[scorri]

Tiria slowly followed Arrin, starting to feel the energy drain that had come from binding and summoning the sword.