10-23-2018, 02:16 PM
It did not last long. Perhaps the pair were mismatched, or the man simply too exhausted from his fight with the wolfkin. Blood oozed from wounds, the snarl on his face vicious. Pain throttled the words, not just from the obvious, and she wondered what had driven him to the pits in the first place. Like Li he did not belong here. The tarnish on such gentle souls drew her like moth to flame.
The woman blazed, though. Reckless or foolish. She unfurled to the outer reaches of power, more than Nhysa had sensed from any other, though the task of destruction hardly warranted the effort. When the threads finally dropped loose she watched with a curious light in her eye to see what might happen, but the man retreated, and shortly after the handlers descended with Ilya.
It was truly over.
Nhysa felt the dark nudge around her ankles like a slinking cat, bumping her footsteps toward the pit. She enjoyed broken things, and was more inclined to follow the man's departure, shadows thrown like spindly monsters by the glowing light in his wake, than stay to watch the clean up. But she also knew when to listen. A short sigh burned in her lungs, dark gaze moving for a moment to Li, like he might be moved to support her case. But arguments with creatures that lived in shadows seemed a burden too far on shoulders that only recently admitted to reevaluating the things that should be allowed to live from the things that should die.
She stopped the woman by grabbing her wrist, undeterred by the look on her face or the volatile shift of power beneath her skin. Though Nhysa would defend herself if she needed to, she did not reach out into the darkness in retaliation, caught instead on some faint resonance of familiarity she assumed must be the hum of a channeler’s power. Her thumbs grazed the ragged edges of healing wounds inside the woman's forearms.
The woman's expression flickered, but she did not immediately pull away.
“War with who?” It was more curiosity than demand; Nhysa's loyalties to the Custody were enduring as stone, but she did not necessarily seek to snuff conspiracy. Peace did not suit her. But she rarely reacted without instruction.
A cruel smile lifted the woman's lips, vacant from the coldness in her eyes. Her arm slithered free. She did not answer, just began to walk away.
The woman blazed, though. Reckless or foolish. She unfurled to the outer reaches of power, more than Nhysa had sensed from any other, though the task of destruction hardly warranted the effort. When the threads finally dropped loose she watched with a curious light in her eye to see what might happen, but the man retreated, and shortly after the handlers descended with Ilya.
It was truly over.
Nhysa felt the dark nudge around her ankles like a slinking cat, bumping her footsteps toward the pit. She enjoyed broken things, and was more inclined to follow the man's departure, shadows thrown like spindly monsters by the glowing light in his wake, than stay to watch the clean up. But she also knew when to listen. A short sigh burned in her lungs, dark gaze moving for a moment to Li, like he might be moved to support her case. But arguments with creatures that lived in shadows seemed a burden too far on shoulders that only recently admitted to reevaluating the things that should be allowed to live from the things that should die.
She stopped the woman by grabbing her wrist, undeterred by the look on her face or the volatile shift of power beneath her skin. Though Nhysa would defend herself if she needed to, she did not reach out into the darkness in retaliation, caught instead on some faint resonance of familiarity she assumed must be the hum of a channeler’s power. Her thumbs grazed the ragged edges of healing wounds inside the woman's forearms.
The woman's expression flickered, but she did not immediately pull away.
“War with who?” It was more curiosity than demand; Nhysa's loyalties to the Custody were enduring as stone, but she did not necessarily seek to snuff conspiracy. Peace did not suit her. But she rarely reacted without instruction.
A cruel smile lifted the woman's lips, vacant from the coldness in her eyes. Her arm slithered free. She did not answer, just began to walk away.