A Drop of White [open]

[Queen Annette]

Her eyes widened at the gory sight. Arrows reigned down and immediately all who were not wounded were thrown into a frenzied chaos, some fae engaging in battle and others were fleeing. She had no weapons, but she did not need them. She stood her expression aflame with something that bordered excitement yet lacked the necessary delight. A slender finger pointed to a shadowy figure in the crowd and as if an invisible blade had slashed across its torso, its chest exploded in a ribbon of blood. She pointed to another creature with the same affect.

She heard the words of Haley and without glancing in the nimbus’s direction she spoke loudly enough for the girl to hear, ”Keep your wits about you. These creatures are not fae.” If Haley had any sense she would pick up on what Annette was saying. Without knowing what these creatures were capable of, charging head first into battle with the intent of slaughtering them was unwise. Haley could find herself in trouble, and in this chaos it was unlikely anyone would come to her aid.

Annette jumped down from the stage, landing in her shoes with a practiced grace that very few would likely expect. Though her garb was not made for battle she did not need to be fast, strong or flexible in this type of situation. She only needed to be aware; her magic was powerful enough that no one would get within ten feet of her if she was aware.

She took up arms alongside of Nymeth, ”Cut us a path towards the center, I will watch for arrows.” Her gaze flashed to Haley and Murdoch, ”Follow!”

[Nymeth]

No lord, general, king or god had ever so quickly took up arms with her before; it was a new experience that propelled Nym to swell with the tiniest spoonful of pride. She did not savor it, however. There was killing to be done.

With a grunt and an intimidating, golden roar, Nymeth pushed forward, brandishing her spear like a starving man with a fork. Her electric eyes were alight with lightning, her armor glittered like aurora, and she burst forward. A group of creatures enveloped her but she quickly spun her spear about, jabbing and stabbing, and they all fell to the floor. With a flourish of expertise, she spun again to take two additional, oncoming foes.

Nymeth watched her step, moving quickly enough so that the others were not caught up in the battle, but slowly enough that her fresh pathway did not close behind her and cut the party away. It was a difficult estimation.

Left, right, spin to the back, spin forward again, pivot right, spin round -- Nym was throwing her spear in every direction, occasionally moving it alone to hit someone behind her when it was more convenient to keep her position. She found herself breathing hard and, in her momentary distraction, an arrow took her in the upper right arm. Instinctively, she clutched her spear tighter in pain, rather than drop it in surprise.

With a curse and a twist, she ripped the arrow out -- a small spray of blood as she pulled -- and screamed in rage. Her spear spun faster than a weather vane in a storm as she stabbed at the nearby enemies.

[Haley]

"I figured out that much by myself, thank you." Haley snapped back at the Queen before she could help herself. The fact that Akuji had been injured was still weighing heavily on her mind and thus her tone was entirely nastier than she intended it to be. "Would you prefer I act like that?" She gestured idly towards Nymeth, the screaming barbaric in the front, as Haley fell in step behind the Queen. Unlike the armor-clad woman, who appeared to be over-exerting herself to the extent of insanity, Haley was collected, breathing normally without a spec of sweat dotting her brow.

It wasn't to say she hadn't been active. Even as she spoke she reached a hand up to block an incoming blade, snatching the bearer by the hand, forcing the arm to stay upright as she drove her switchblade into the soft under tissue of the bearer's armpit and simultaneously sent him reeling back with a bone shattering side-kick to the underside of his ribs. Akuji, now faithfully at her side, snarled through a mouth full of bloody foam, his ears pinned back against his skull. Despite Haley's obvious enthusiasm, her moves were collected and performed to avoid unnecessary exertion, as always. Yes, there was that gleam in her eye, that fire that rose every time she was faced with a battle. It was the acceptance of a challenge, the desire to best her opponent in the most humiliating way possible. It was also an inherent bloodlust, unknown to herself but completely insatiable.

Haley took the Queen's words an an affront to her skills, an insult to her as a warrior. In that split moment two conflicting emotions arose in Haley: blatant hate for the bitch that underestimated her merely by appearance, and a firm desire to prove the Queen wrong. Still, all of this was quickly overridden as Haley's mind adjusted to the task at hand. Her face faded into her normal apathetic mask as she picked up the tail of their little party, her eyes scanning the area quickly to assess their surroundings. To the side she could see a vast majority of the faerie gathering close to the fiercely burning bonfire, their pursuers subsequently failing to follow them.

Her vision cut short by the appearance of another creature, one she dispatched with boot blade to the genitalia area, followed by a switchblade stab to an exposed eye, Haley leaned towards the Queen. Her voice lacked its previous biting tone, and instead came out quite apathetic, "I've got your back covered, Red One." Haley was sure the Queen had something planned, so she'd simply follow for now.

[Murdoch]

Yeah, I have an exam at 7:15 tomorrow morning, but...

At the first sign of attack, Murdoch had drawn his blade. The daggers, one in each hand, were his only weapons, but his expression remained unconcerned. He did not leap into the fray, but allowed others to engage the creatures nearest to him, taking note of how these strange beings moved gracefully without once touching the ground. They appeared to be neither human nor fae -- nor infallible, judging from the carnage around them.

At Haley's comments, his gaze paused briefly on Nymeth. After a moment, however, he simply shrugged. "The wench fulfills her purpose," he said, and turned to meet the attack of a sword-wielding creature, slipping one of his daggers back into its sheath as he did so.

He feinted once, twice, waiting for an opening. Then, as the creature overextended, he sidestepped and pushed forward, belying his earlier stillness with an unexpectedly fluid motion that took him right inside of his attacker's defenses. Before it could react, Murdoch grasped its sword arm and activated his hand of power, feeling rather than seeing his opponent's sudden fatigue. Shifting his grip, he angled the tip of his dagger toward the punctured ceiling of the tent and drove it into the creature's gut. He ripped the blade upwards until it met with bone, then shoved the body to the side as it fell.

Though Murdoch made no reply to Annette's command, he acknowledged it with a smile -- the most genuine one so far, even as he stood surrounded by wounded fae -- and an ironic salute. He would follow.

[Queen Annette]

Annette’s talents were with her Hands of Power. As Nymeth slashes at opponents the Queen of the Seelie used her hand of Blood to bleed them dry. Their bodies open liked barrels of ale slashed with an axe, spilling out onto the forest floor in the thickest concentration. Annette used her second hand to severe any arrows that were fired at them. The wooden shafts and razor tipped arrows separated from one another in midair and falling to ground without presenting the slightest bit of a threat. Witnessing Annette’s power was enough to convince anyone that she did not need a blade, even one made of the precious Goblin steel.

Had this been any other time Annette would have reacted to Haley’s brashness. The nimbus should have known better to hold her tongue but Annette realized that in the heat of battle there was more instinct involved than levelheaded thought. For now she would let the comment go, but instinct was no excuse; being as volatile as Haley would quickly find any faerie, nimbus or sidhe, at the queen’s mercy.

It did not take them long to make their way to the center of the chaos. With two nimbus and two sidhe, one of whom was the Fae of Reticent Fury, it was not a tough task to clear a path. Faerie not wishing to get in the Queen’s way moving aside and cowardly attackers not wishing to confront such an imposing group also flee; the Queen soon found herself standing amidst the warriors surveying the festival.

The place was wrecked. Every bit of decorum was torn asunder, tables were overturned and the faerie that remained were bloodied and broken. Most of the fighting had taken to the outskirts of the party and she could hear shouts echoing from the forest. The creatures had surrounded them, she thought, cursing herself for not being wiser to such a plot.

A group of faerie had assembled near the fire and seemed to be doing a good job at warding off any more of the creatures that pursued them. Annette would let that group handle themselves. She looked wildly around, noting that all who stood with her were of her own court. The idea pleased her.

Her eyes passed over Haley, the nimbus had called her “Red One”. Annette could let some insubordinate behavior go, but not all of it. With lightning fast reflexes that the nimbus could not contend with Annette reached for Haley’s throat. Her strong merely seeking to squeeze her throat shut for a moment. Annette also allowed the slightest bit of her magic leak out, the sound of something scraping against her weapons reminding Haley that if she tried anything Annette could cut her and her blades into dozens of pieces. ”My name is Queen Annette or Reticent Fury.” Her gaze was fierce as she looked into Haley’s eyes, not waiting for a verbal response but a look of understanding.

[caelum]

Ishbel was lost. She knew it as well as anyone who might have laid eyes on her through this fog, yet this small fact did not bother her much. Most of her life she had been lost. If she was not lost, one could assume Ishbel had found her destination, but that never happened. Until then there were more and more venues to explore, more nooks and crannies to seek out and many more adventures to be had. Another step forward meant another step away from her past, although it seemed like her past was also her destination.

After searching Chicago, Isbhel began the long trek to Wisconsin. By a stroke of luck, Ishbel found the snow banks around her melting and much of what was left around her was a salt-specked mountain left behind from the winter plows. Soon this too would melt away and leave room for the spring-time buds to emerge once more. Ishbel loved the spring, mainly because she could don lighter attire and get rid of the bulky mess that held her back and limited her movement. The clothing made exploration through tight spaces much more difficult. Now she was able to wear her faded blue-jeans, form fitted to her legs, a white shirt, simple yet elegant, and her beloved leather vest. Simple, but warm and very accessible.

A light fog had developed as she moved northward. The warmer weather in the air mixed with the half-frozen ground to create a misty cloud-like feeling the more north she went. Looking back, she couldn’t even see the Chicago skyline any longer. The fog grew thicker as if wraiths were trying to suffocate her, and without view of either the city she left behind or the stars above, Ishbel became lost.

What seemed like weeks later, Ishbel finally stepped through to a clearing. Below her feet was no longer a road, but a well-tread path through a forest. She didn’t remember leaving the road, but the fog warped her perception and created a dreamlike feeling to the waking hours. Perhaps she had even dozed off to sleep, exhausted by her constant movement and search for something rarer than the Holy Grail. She was looking for magic.

As Ishbel continued forward, she lost more and more faith in her own consciousness; she felt she must be asleep. She had encountered hummingbirds and foxes, honeybees and cobras. Nothing she saw was native to the area or even the season. A honeybee even followed her, trailing behind like a shadow, giving an even more surreal feel to the whole experience.

In the distance, Ishbel heard music. A haunting melody that warped into a merry jig the closer she arrived. She decided to follow the music. The snow still crunched beneath her feet; patches had formerly been few and far between but a blanket of diamonds currently was underfoot. Light glowing in the distance grew and patchwork camps were set up surrounding a field. Clearly a festivity of some sort was going on, perhaps a celebration of the spring equinox. A sense of serenity overwhelmed Ishbel and she felt lost no longer.

Then a shriek was heard, relatively close by. Within seconds a chorus of voices erupts as both shouts of fear and battle cries filled the air. An arrow darted past her left ear, nicking a lock of hair as it passes, but leaving her virtually unharmed. Immediately she jumped down to the ground, ignoring the cold as black shadow-figures flew overhead towards the celebration. Ishbel cried out joining the other voices, and her brain shut off as she jumped into flight mode. She had been here a few times in the past when cornered by gangs wondering what she was doing in their territory. Her hand flies to the leather vest she is wearing, rips out a dagger and charges forward in hopes of aiding some of the screamers. People flee in the opposite direction, but Ishbel pushes forward.

When she reached the clearing, it was clear a battle had been fought. The decorations set a macabre stage, in the middle of which stood a motley crew of strange beings, some illuminating light from their skins, some not. She decides to join them in their battle. One held another by the throat, and Ishbel wondered for a moment which was the enemy, although neither seems to be the stuff of shadows she saw before. A black thing reaches for her, and she stabs where its heart should be and sends it flying with a quick kick, pushing it off her blade. What a dream, what a dream she thinks as she approaches the fighters not questioning who was enemy or hero, and throwing her trust in with the people dressed in white.

[Lucia]

[OOC. Feel free to ignore Lucia. She is probably a little ways off from the rest of you and is a little wrapped up in trying to take home another present at the moment 8<]

Lucia had been wringing her dress of blood when the attack came. She had sent Tok ahead and made her own detour to the Imbolc festival, as curious as a cat, truly intending only a brief stay. What had once been a pristine white dress was now stained with blood from the time she and Tok had procured several presents--who had not liked being procured, but that was neither here nor there. The attack, on the other hand, that had been a surprise.

Arrows sliced through the air, one snapping against the head of her halberd as Lucia stared, lips pursing. Then all of the fae were set upon by dark creatures that the queen (oh! the Seelie Queen! Under other circumstances Lucia might have introduced herself though... no, how could she even think to introduce herself to the Seelie Queen before her own king? Perish the thought) proclaimed were not fae and that was enough for Lucia, who whirled around and thrust her halberd into the throat of one enemy, half decapitating him. She whipped up the end of the halberd to deflected a blade and danced within arms reach, a vicious smile on her face as she twirled the halberd around herself and shoved the point through the creature's side.

Lucia made her way to the outer edges of the clearing, lunging and slicing, darting in and out with her weapon, luring the creatures in, feinting, and slicing through. Blood splashed warmly around her and she giggled, feet skirting around another dead body as she parried and flung out her hand, almost carelessly, laying it on a creature's face as its weapon was blocked by her own. Its screams as its skin bubbled, face and eyes burning, was like music to Lucia's ears and she did a half skip, a pretty twirl as she stuck her blade into its leg and wrenched upwards, severing the major artery there. She left the creature to die and moved on, her blade a blur of movement.

Lucia licked at a cut on her arm, gave a bloody smile as a thought struck her, and she laughed as she reached down to her thigh, hiking up her dress's hem, and grasped the handle of the dagger hidden there. She slammed the end of her halberd into the ground, most of the weight off her arm as she swung the blade and let it deflect a slice at her throat. She gave a neat cut on the creature's wrist, slicing across the tendons, causing it to drop its blade, twisting and slamming the point of her dagger into its temple.

She paused. "Wrong end," Lucia muttered, yanking at her dagger that was sunk into the creature's skull, tugging at it when it didn't pull free easily. She had to drop it as another enemy approached and, fed up, she lopped off its arm with her halberd and slammed her foot into its head. This one stayed alive, though the way it was bleeding out...

Consternation flashed across Lucia's face. Third time, however, was a charm and she only broke the creature's arms and sliced off an ear before she managed to hit it into unconsciousness.

[Nymeth]

Nymeth kept what she could at bay, unfazed by the Queen's interactions with Haley -- their tension had been clear from the start. It was none of her concern. She was, however, surprised by Murdoch's little salute; it made her chuckle.

Although she wasn't the valiant warrior type, swinging round to save every innocent around, Nymeth was defensive of her fellow fae to a degree. At the very least, these freakish absurdities that had swept down upon the festival grounds were not exactly welcoming, and did not even give them a chance to understand why they were doing this or what their intentions were. If they had, perhaps Nym would be fighting on their side; it was impossible to know. But their lack of organization and outright barbarity was enough to keep the valkyrie to one side.

The creature's fleshy stomach made a gurgling, sucking sound as Nymeth slid her spear from his dead body. She leaned down and ripped a strip of cloth from his outfit and fastened it to her upper arm while she had the opportunity. Matthias fussed until she finished, then stood strongly on her left shoulder. Nymeth carried her spear by her side, placing its end to the ground with defiance.

The Queen was more than impressive -- Nymeth had little to worry about with her casting her magic about. She couldn't imagine how much deadlier she would be had she been armed. Her Goblin Blade title was more than evident.

"What from here?" She turned to the Queen and glanced at Murdoch, purposefully avoiding contact with Haley. She seemed the type to become more agitated when others recognized her in anything that resembled a state of submission.

[Haley]

There had been no time to react. Haley had been in the process of cleaning her blade during the momentary lull in activity when Annette forcibly grabbed her by the throat. The effect this had on Haley was instantaneous. Had some deep-down distinctly human instinct to live not miraculously stayed her blade, Queen Annette would have been stabbed without a second thought. It was a purely instinctual response from Haley- anyone or anything that touched her without her permission was attacked upon contact. Haley abhorred flesh-to-flesh contact and Annette’s action was not only an intrusion into her personal space, it was also an attack and a challenge. Haley was a predatory animal at heart. She did not bide well with challenges.

Every muscle in her body tensed as her eyes met Queen Annette’s. The pain around her neck was blatantly ignored- Haley was aware of the hand but thought nothing of it. Every bit of her focus was on Annette. Akuji could have been murdered next to her and she wouldn’t have noticed. Her flesh nearly vibrated with compressed energy, akin to that of a fully taut bow string. Though her knife stayed still in her lightly quivering hand, it was not due to the threat of Annette’s magic- Haley had forgotten she even held the blade.

Despite this, there was no anger or defiance in Haley’s eyes as she gazed directly into her Queen’s. Their hazel depths were practically unreadable, apathy mingled with a tint of confusion and even emotional pain. In Haley’s mind she had done nothing wrong. The title she had addressed the Queen by had been her of her own invention, yes, but it had not been spoken to display a lack of respect. It was quite the opposite actually. Haley had been acknowledging the Queen as a leader in their little mission, hence the title of “One.” Not once had she thought that her words would have been misconstrued so easily.

Haley’s mind raced, her confusion turning to anger, a loathing anger directed at herself and at Annette. It was quite possible that her escalating emotional torment would have turned into disaster had Akuji not taken note of the situation and promptly lunged forward to imbed his teeth in the calf closest presented to him. His bite was deep; blood swelled forth as he dug his teeth in and refused to release.

Despite the ferocity of the attack, Haley did not jerk as a reaction. Instead, almost instantaneously, the tenseness from her body vanished, her frame growing languid and relaxed. She was suddenly aware of the pain in her throat and the pain resulting from Akuji’s bite. The noises of the surrounding combatants returned to her. Her sense of smell was once again flooded with blood. Her body shook ever so slightly as she took in a deep breath of air via her nostrils. Though her facial expression remained relatively blank and her eyes maintained their lock on the Queen, her features softened considerably. Her eyes would not seek forgiveness, but neither did they seek to challenge the Queen’s words. There was acceptance there, acceptance of Queen Annette’s anger and an understanding of what she was obviously demanding of Haley. The little Nimbus would give her what she wanted- there was no reason not to. Still, the response had not come easily.

[Lucia]

Lucia had watched the king and his company with eager eyes, her pants harsh to her ears as she reigned in her breathing, tried to regulate it. The king--oh, but he was just as she hoped, decisive and with fine battle prowess--commanded his throng to go back home and she swayed briefly with delight. Home. Not yet, not quite, but she would surely make sure of it. She hesitated briefly before turning her attention away, downwards towards the wreckage of bodies that lay around her.

Her dress hem was dripping with blood and she absentmindedly wrung it out, the smile on her lips slowly going flat as she nudged several bodies over with her shoe. "Now where did I put it?" she muttered, kicking away half a head and paused. She hadn't moved around nearly as much as she liked, so it should surely be somewhere close by. Lucia turned, eyes critically wandering the ground, before she beamed a bright smile and darted forward towards some legs that were sticking out from underneath another body.

She had nearly forgotten that she had half hidden this one, and Lucia used the end of her halberd to roll the body on top of her unconscious shade off to the side a bit. Then she grabbed a leg and tugged out the unconscious, broken-armed shade completely, gazing down at it in satisfaction--like a cat who had caught a mouse. It was still unconscious--she gave it another firm whack on the head just to make sure, hoping hard she didn't accidentally kill another one--and she sighed in relief, clasping her hands to her chest in delight, the halberd resting easy in the crook of her elbow.

Lucia pressed a kiss on the blade and hunted for her dagger, finally seeing the gleam of metal where it was still lodged in a dead body's head. Now, not so pressed for time, she pressed her foot against the head for leverage and tugged until the blade freed itself with a quiet, squelching sound.

She used it to cut away a portion of her dress, seeing as it was all ruined anyway, and stuffed the rag into the unconscious shade's mouth. Then she sheathed her dagger, grabbed the shade's foot, and started to drag it off, back towards Unseelie, ignoring the way it banged itself around on the ground.

[Haley]

At any other time, Haley would have been grateful for the distraction that caused Annette to release her. This was not one of them. The swarm of creatures had swelled to a near impossible mass, one that forced Haley to divert all of her strength and attention to. In the confusions she saw Murdoch go down, and, as had been trained into her from the military, she lunged to help him only to be blocked by a particularly big and particularly nasty Shade. It was this creature that eventually wounded her severely on her thigh, causing Haley to take a moment to reassess her body in terms of how viable it was for her to continue. With wounds on both legs, Haley’s movement had slowed considerably. Thus, from that moment forth, until the fighting ceased with the arrival of King Cel and Segwyn, Haley’s moves became defensively based in an effort to preserve energy.

The Queen was almost pointedly ignored when she finally addressed them, their previous quarrel still fresh in Haley’s mind despite the distraction the fighting had provided. Instead, Haley shifted her gaze to briefly look over her companions. After she ensured their health, taking a particularly long look at Murdoch, one he no doubt noticed, Haley bent down, curled her arms under Akuji’s body and proceeded to hoist the creature up into her embrace. During the attack he had been wounded quite severely across his back left haunch and was having trouble walking.

Haley hoisted the eighty pound animal over one shoulder, supporting him with one arm – a telling tale of the strength she harbored in her tiny frame – and then started off, not a word spoken to the remaining faerie. As she made her way out of the tent, Haley paused once or twice to offer a helping hand to any faerie that needed help rising, but then she was gone, her figure fading into the woods.

(ooc: out of turn but wanted to end Haley’s involvement)