Sigil: City of Doors

((Under Normal Circumstances I never involve my characters together in the same situation unless with very damn good reason to progress an RP forwards.

I think this is one of those times I have a damn good reason.

Without further adoo, enjoy the scene, for those interested.

Just to explain when this takes place:

It happens immediatley after Amaku gives in her warning about Danielle, one of Ashen's new recruits.))



As Amaku turned in the paper she walked away into the ladies ward... there, she saw a robed figure.

She gave persuit, as she halted the figure the two standing upon the gantry where the workforce were off duty and all was quiet, today.

"The Armoury cant be far away, and given t'description "T'Dark Lady." Ye must be t'infamous Ashen ive 'eard all about...."

The Dark Robed figure turned over to the Samurai Armoured Woman...

"Ah, I believe then, I am at a disadvantage, for I do not know your name, though I do know quite likley who you are..."

Amaku stared her down.

"You dont need me name, only a promise... If ye even tink of touchin tat girl ye will be in real trouble wit my superiours."

Ashen cackled in her unnerving gutteral-whisper tone.

"Funny, you think you can reason with me. She is already going to die miss Harmonium, and there is nothing you can do about it."

Amaku drew her bar handle weapon. Pressing her thumb against a trigger on the handle, a Scythe was drawn.

"We'll see about that, Ashen."

The robed figure flipped her hands down swiftly, exposing a curved knife and a sharp blade.

"Shall we dance then? Heroine?"

The robed figure tilted her head, then lunged herself flying towards Amaku. The former woman gasped and leaned backwards, narrowly evading a strike from Ashen's void blade.

She flipped her Scythe hilt side and slammed it towards the womans foot. Ashen was tripped as Amaku thrust the edge of the blade down towards her chest. Ashen stopped the blade with both her swords and kicked Amaku straight in the stomach, knocking her rolling down the stairway.

Amaku coughed as she hit the floor, Ashen immediatly leaping off the balcony to persue her. The Ashen swung her blades straight towards her opponents spine, Amaku reached forwards, grasping her Scythe and held both blades with the middle of her Scythe's handle.

"Yer not 'alf bad fer a barmy psycopath, ill give ye that." Her eyes narrowed as she thrust forwards and knocked the blades backwards, getting to her feet.

"You know, if we were on the same side of the board I might have said the same thing. To bad for you, were not."

With that, Ashen began to shimmer and fade, untill she vanished compleatly from sight. Amaku's eyes widened as she looked around panicedly, her breathe slowing, listening.

At the barest edge of her thought she imagined a blade comming straight towards her from behind. She parried it with her Scythe butt and swung the blade down towards Ashen's mask.

The scythe struck true, cutting across the mask with a sharp creeking noise, despite that, it failed to break it, only crack it, leaving a small gap where the womans left eye was exposed, staring endlessly at Amaku.

Amaku shuddered, as Ashen screamed and hurled herself flying into Amaku, knocking her onto her feet, as Amaku tried to get up, the dagger went straight into the leathery parts of her Mechanus Armour. Amaku roared in pain as her thigh was sliced. Ashen immediatly jammed the voidblade straight into her shoulderpad. Amaku's eyes widened.

Ashen leaned forwards and headbutted her exposed forehead. Amaku smacked the ground with a grunt and looked up.

Her right arm numb, her left thigh crippled, she limped to her feet and spat blood.

"What do ye hope to accomplish from all tis?" The tone of her voice had a desperation to it while she held her scythe with only one hand, shoddily.

"What do you intend to accomplish by holding people back, officer? People change, you must understand this."

Unfortunatley Amaku did understand it, but she strongly frowned. She gripped the handle of her Scythe with her left hand fericley tight.

"Not everyone is ready for change." She braced it against her chest defencivly.

"Pity..." Ashen stated coldly. "If you had been, maybe this wouldnt need to happen."

"What?"

"This." With that, she thrust herself forwards and slashed both blades towards Amaku's chest. The woman parried them with her scythe but only enough to misdirect them into her stomach instead.

Her eyes widened, she coughed, her hand shaking.

She leaned limply on the smaller, more agile woman.

Ashen's eye narrowed delightedly, as she twisted both blades, Amaku twitched and let go of her Scythe as it crashed to the ground.

Ashen yanked the blades outwards as Amaku fell to her knees infront of her.

"I sealed my fate the moment I picked a fight with you Harmonium officer... but you made one fatal mistake when you thought picking a fight with me would make even the slightest difference..."

Amaku breathed stressed breathes as she felt her eyes shaking and her vision swimming.

"You though it was me, it was my goal, my ambition, my dream, my future. But you think to narrow, chaos is simply what I help create... I am a harbinger of someone elses future. I am but the begining of an even greater era. And you, and your kind... ...are not needed, in that age."

Amaku's eyes narrowed.

"Tere w-w...w...will always..... be a need... ....for order..., and no matter what... you do... ....you cant.. ....change... ...everything. T-tere.. has... to be.... a stop... ...somewhere. Y-ye... ...cannot... ..win and.... and ye wont... scare, me, or any, of the others. W-weather I... stop ye... or they do, ye, will, fail."

Amaku stared at her defiantly, and spat on her robe a throb of blood. Ashen stared at the robe, and then looked to Amaku calmly.

"Perhaps I cant reach people like you, or your friends, Hildmor, Chari. But I can promise you this...
...I can reach those you love most...

...In ways you didnt think, possible."

With that, Ashen raised her blades and swung an X-slash straight into Amaku's chest, The Mechanus Armour Cracked as the womans eyes went wide, then narrow.

Amaku crashed to the floor with a thud. Blood pooling upon it.

Left to die with but a bare thread of her life. She fell into unconsiousness, the last thing she saw, Ashen's boots, walking away in victory.

Chari arrives at the barracks with a full satchel and bulging backpack. Immediately requesting to be lead to the injured Amaku, she gasps when she sees her condition, then scowls upon seeing the haphazardly applied bandages and the medics are arguing over the best course of treatment.

Chari issues commands to the physicians attending Amaku, sending them scurrying out the room for hot water, towels, and some herbs. Then she takes her time to remove all bandages as well as Amaku's clothes. Once the medics return with her requested items, Chari soaks the sponge in the hot water treated with a few herbs, and washes her body down tenderly and carefully. After several hours and a clean body later, Chari inspects the wounds and knows that magical healing is not best suited. Wounds like these will require the body to heal naturally for now..

She stitches the wounds close then mixes various poultices together and gently applies them to the many cuts. This mixture will accelerate the healing as well as help with the pain. Then she unwraps her own bandages and wraps up the worse of the wounds, checking Amaku's breathing and temperate.

After about 6 hours of attention, Chari looks over Amaku's deeply sleeping body. Alone in the room as she had sent the medics away.. She felt they knew less than they lead on.. She unrolls her sleeping bag.. takes out a pillow and falls asleep..

Amaku raised herself up in bed, weakly. She would need time to recover, but for now, she at least had time to think.

She took a moment to see who was responsible for such miraculas healing, then smiled to Chari.

Without waking her, she sat by her side a moment and pulled the blanchette of her bedding further up, and added an extra pillow for additional comfort.

Then she snuck back into bed, managing a cheeky, weak grin, before laying back down again.

[Event] The Conclusion:

Some weeks later, Amaku had finally recovered from the attack. Even more surpisingly, she had heard news that the others had captured Ashen and imprisoned her.

She had to investigate, and so she did, she advanced upon the prison quaters.

There she was, wearing a makeshift prisoner outfit, with a bag to cover her horridly warped face.

"Well now... back for round two?" She taunted Amaku for her failure, as the woman stepped inside, leaving her weapons and nodding to the guard as he left the two alone. She stepped before the seat laying next to the cell.

"Why?" She asked back, not even dignifying Ashens answer as she sat down, Ashen sat upon the seat on the inside of the cell, tilting her head.

"Sometimes officer, you have to send a clear message. Sometimes the city needs to know someone isnt going to bow down to the pressure of a social code or a principal of law."

"Ye tried t'kill, several very good people I know... y'tried to kill me, and failed. Is this supposed t'be part of yer message? That no matter what ye do, yer gonnae fail?"

Ashen leaned back at the response, bemused. "I havent failed anything, the reason no one is dead 'yet' put lightly, is because no one needs to die, yet. But, thats going to change soon."

Amaku raised a brow and placed her hands together, resting her elbows against her own knee's. She stared at Ashen with a deep unyielding gaze.

"What d'ye mean... yet?"

Ashen snickered under that black cowl as little strands of negative essense poured out of her makeshift attire, the woman was literally falling apart. She looked to Amaku calmly and leaned forwards mimicing the woman.

"I mean, yet, officer. See... you think that you can tame this city, you think the moment you put a criminal behind bars, everythings over. You think that its all about justice and that sooner or later, people will conform."
Ashen paused and leaned backwards again, looking at the roof. "But all this time people were planning, are, planning, to end you. Even your friends, even your close friends. You cant trust anyone, because everyone is capable of being your enemy in a city filled with liars."

Amaku closed her eyes, and brushed it off ignorantly. "Y'know ive met folks like ye befer... folks tat tink they're makin t'world a better place by ruinin it. But yer wrong Ashen, yer wrong in so many ways. Chari, Maelfina, Huntress, Mir... Everyone. They all have a strength ye never will, its called friendship. Its a bond tat runs deeper tan any big term plans fer t'world or some fancy attempt t'control or destroy it, like yers. Ye will never appriciate what its like t'have a friend, will ye?" She looked to Ashen who went quiet for an eeire minuate and smiled under the hood.

"Why would I need a friend when I have no use for one? You think I need someone to pat me on the back when the going gets tough? Im not like you, I dont suffer a weakness of moral emotion. My existance, was to leave ruin where ever I went, and you know something Officer, Im pretty good at that."
Ashen looked at her darkly as she stood and rested her hands against the bars.
"You can maim me, taunt me, you can even try to stop me. But its not even me your supposed to be fighting, you just dont get it do you. This isnt a battle, its a war. And im just another pawn in the game between Anarchy and Axiom. My role, is to leave the stepping stones for greater monsters to come. And ive succeeded, both in my own organisation and in Sigil as a whole."

Amaku laughed and shook her head. "Ye really think everyones just like ye... ruthless, monsterous, cruel. But ye know, now yer behind bars, yer just a caged beast with no way t'escape. Granted, ye might have alternative ways t'do damage to t'city of doors, but t'lady will intervene sooner or later and all yer little works will have meant, nothing. Ye, mean nothing, to yer peers. Yer just as much expendable to t'Sinkers as ye are to what little colleagues ye have. And their plans, they aint gonnae go far. We have enough numbers, enough good people in tis city, to stop what ever neferius plan ye have for it. Ye cannae win tis war Ashen, ye can only fail to sucseed at t'greatness ye crave."

Ashen went silent for a long while. She stepped away from the bars and turned around slowly, her head lowered as she went into a deep sense of thoughtfulness. But then she sighed, dissapointedly, more than upset.
"People like you will never understand freedom because your bound to a chain like a dog on a leesh. The moment your superiours bark "go" you go, you dont ask why, you dont question orders. You know, one day you'll do the wrong thing, because you followed the rules. And then you'll realise I was right. You'll realise the city really 'is' full of cruel men and women, ready, to destroy it from inside. If it isnt me, someone else will. You cant stop chaos Officer, you can only progress it, directly, or not. No matter what action you take to halt the path of destruction, your only leading it one step closer, to success."

Ashen paused, then continued, bemused tone in her voice. "You know, its kind of like this recent scandal with your little lawyer friend. I have proof of several things he tried to do and proof of things he is "capable" of doing." The hint of guile in her voice wasnt unnoticed by Amaku as she looked back at her troubled.

"What lawyer friend, what are ye talkin about?" She looked modestly confused.

"Dont play dumb with me, you know him, that Hildmor, soon to be my prosecutor, im sure you've heard of him anyway. Hes going to try and put me in the deadbook, legally, but im going to ruin his little plan with one of my own. And theres no way, you can stop me."

Amaku stood and stared at her darkly. "What are ye talkin about?"

"Your going to have to make the choice you and your little... organisation, cant. You see, I was offered a little pact with Hildmor a while ago, he offered to be my defence lawyer instead, to guarentee me a possition of freedom as long as I became his little lapdog. I turned it down, spat in his face and laughed as his little plan crumbled to dust. And now, im going to do it again."

"Spit it out, yer speakin in riddles." Amaku glared at her coldly as she met eye to eye with the void orbs, she shuddered, and looked away.

Ashen snickered darkly and spoke. "So be it... your friend... Chari.... is aware, like Mover Cratten. Maybe you should speak with them about this... whole... ...conspiracy.... im sure you'll be highly enlightened by the information I have to provide. But im not going to tell you, hmhm... I find my possition quite disadvantagious, and the more I hold back, the more danger to the city, I am."

Amaku narrowed her eyes and grasped the bars of the cage, Ashen recoiled backwards and giggled out of tone. "What are ye talkin about, TELL ME!"

"HAHAH..... HAH, who thought it'd be that easy to get you off your feet after all this. Hah.... no no no... you cant pry it out of me and even if you did, by the time you realise whats going on, its already too late to prevent the inevitable. You see? I win, one way or another. And soon im going to bring down your little wall of willpower and crumble it to dust."

Amaku shook the cage bars violently, alerting the guard as they burst through, she stopped and let go, looking to the floor.

"Alright, visiting times over, pike off Officer, we can handle this one." The Guard said warningly, she looked to Ashen and glared at her.

Ashen laughed tauntingly and said: "See, this isnt a prison for me Officer, its a Fortress. Im now more capable of anything than I was ever capable of before. And the information I know.... you'll never find out. So tell me... when everything that I know happens... how many people do you think will die, because of you?"

Amaku glared over to her a moment as the guard barked at Amaku remindingly to leave. She winced and turned back to the guard.

"Tell me how many children, and how many of your friends, wont be around to see your 'victory' Officer. Hmhmhmhmhahahahaaaa..."

Amaku narrowed her eyes and replied only one sentance: "So long as I live, nae one will die. No matter what yer plans are, ye cannae be allowed to win. And I wont let ye... Not now, nae ever."

With that, she stormed off out of the room as it was shut behind her, the last thing she would hear is Ashens taunting laughter as she covered her half-drow ears, tormented by the cryptic hints of the future.