Ahtziri flew forth on curved wings, drawing closer to the boy and becoming fully visable in detail. There was no mistaking it - Ahtziri was not simply batkin, though she clearly was at one point.
Violet skin, a pair of horns, and a swaying tail give the full truth of her nature away - she was a cambion.
"Ahtziri Nacayo, then. I am the twin-hearted scion of Agramon, and moon-kin of Nyt'hjem. Name yourself, if you would speak as kin."
(Ahtziri Nacayo)
Fear brushed against the boy's skin- from a glance she was just like him- one of the few batkin he'd seen, but as she came closer.. Her visage became foreign.. The comfort of seeing another was quickly removed as it had came..
"I-I'm Robel Bechaffet.. I don't have any names like you though.. Are.. Are you really from Nyt'hjem? I thought Dimi showed me everyone who lived there.."
He looked over her once more- He.. he really hoped that it just happened that one of her parents was a Drakonite..
(Robel Béchaffet)
She nods affirmatively, "I've a house there, and I've lived there for over a decade - I'm quite sure, yes. Though I'll grant there have been stints where I have been... Unfortunately away elsewhere, and I'm perhaps not the most... Tight-knit. I'd felt myself a foreigner before I'd undergone metamorphosis, and no less so now. But I digress - are you yourself of such a place, or do you call elsewhere home?"
(Ahtziri Nacayo)
He felt a lump in his throat- the word metamorphosis stuck out in his mind, so she wasn't born this way..? He swallowed before speaking, "Um.. Metamorphosis? And.. yes I live there now- with Dimi, she took me in when I asked to join the tribe."
But she spoke of a house- perhaps.. this was something of.. a natural change? He'd seen giants change.. and Drakonite shift.. Maybe.. she was just a little different.
(Robel Béchaffet)
Ahtziri slightly cants her head, as she gases down to her own palm, peering at the hue of her skin. "...I suppose that is a blasé manner of referring to it, isn't it? Sort of... Dispassionate. A dispassion that stands as discordant to the passions of Hel, I will accept - you have issued fair critique."
She sighs to herself, tuttering gently, before responding to him. "Mh... The fear in your eyes, child, it emboldens that primal nature within me - but it is misplaced. I assure you, if you are of Nyt'hjem, then you are of a like-wing, despite..."
She glances out of the corner of her eye at the other two that drew close.
Thump-thump
Her hearts beat.
Thump-thump
He sees her.
Thump-thump
Ahtziri looses all focus on the matter at hand, turning from Robel and refocusing her attention towards Dimitri, her eyes scanning the pink-haired woman with ruthless curiosity.
"Dimitri... "
Thump-thump
(Ahtziri Nacayo)
The way Ahtziri spoke.. it was odd..
"Oh- I didn't mean to criticize you.."
He fidgets in place- she said he didn't have to be afraid but the words didn't land..
Robel is on edge until he sees Dimi-
"Oh- um.. I was meeting Ahtziri here.. you didn't mention her.."
He quickly goes by her side- wanting some kind of confirmation from her.
(Robel Béchaffet)
Dimitri Óir-Serafino says, "It's often rare that I see Ziri. Wasn't sure what she was up to now a days "
Tony Serafino says, "I knew I meant to ask you about her."
Dimitri Óir-Serafino says, "Well she is Kin, but I do not know a whole lot about her myself. Not very familiarized with her. "
Dimitri Óir-Serafino says, "Hard to introduce you to someone you rarely converse with."
Ahtziri gazed from side to side at the children seemingly under Dimitri's wing. What a fond thing, for a mother to care for her young. To care for those not-yet fully formed, not yet able to strive for greater things on their own.
The Irony is choking.
"Oh, that may be so, Dimitri... Yet I know so terribly much about you. More-so than I'd ever willed to learn, more feelings than I'd ever willed to feel. For long days have a harbored someone else's hatred of you, Dimitri. Do you know the strain it imposes on the soul to silence such a will day-in, day-out?!"
Her blood visibly churns under her skin as her eyes pierce the pink-topped bat. She pauses, as if she was giving the batkin a chance to defend herself against some sort of accusation, as if it were perfectly clear what Ahtziri was speaking of.
(Ahtziri Nacayo)
Dimitri was rather confused.
"Ziri, I don't know much about you. Yet, you claim to know all about me."
The girls eyes pierced Dimitri like daggers.
"Tell me. What are you going on about? Why are you harboring someone else's hatred towards me?"
The girl would think back on her usual routine of life. She'd work tirelessly day in and day out serving her kin, serving the mooney family, servicing the Oir-Clan, protecting and providing to those of the reality makers guild.
"What could I possibly do to cause such hatred to brew? Other than those who are trying to impose harm to my loved ones of course"
(Dimitri Óir-Serafino)
His voice was clear to her now, speaking to her, counseling her on the crimes of Dimitri's past.
She is a hunter of the weak.
She is a slaughter of the lesser.
She is a tyrant towards those who were not yet ready.
Ahtziri cants her head in an unsettling manner as bones within her bend and twist, their magic-infused tips not yet bursting through the surface of her skin, but clearly at-ready, some part of the batkin aching to pounce upon the woman her heart hated so.
"I am told I ought to slay you, Dimitiri. I am told I ought to rend flesh from bone, to let my marrow break yours. I am told to extract that vengeance which he could not. This is the bidding that I am given.
Yet there is more, Dimitri. My Fel-heart begs for me to engage in long-fated battle with you, to fight as passionately as I can, but after? Should I be victorious, it bidsthat I leave your children alone."
"For I do not hunt the weak."
Having taken a step closer, tears are visible in the bat-kin's eyes, the strain this is having upon her clear in the light of the sun. But... She blinks several times, willing away the tears, her bones receding in her body as she forces herself off the path of violence she appears to be traveling down. As Ahtziri forces herself to stand down, to let her inner survivor outrun her inner beast this day, she speaks.
"It is good fortune, then..."
"That this is not what I want."
"But merely the will of the one inside me."
It was visible now.
He was visible now.
Where the sun's light had before struck Ahtziri and cast her reflection in shadow along the floor no longer conformed to her shape. It grew two vast, demonic hands outstretching along the floor as it tripled in size, trailing through shadow towards the batkin.
As it shifted long the floor, it was clear that the shadow cast by Ahtziri was not her own.
It was Agramon's.
(Ahtziri Nacayo)
The girl had no clue what she would speak of, so she would simply apologize still trying to not let ziri get to her. Perhaps it was that time of the week for her and Dimitri was getting all her rage.
"Well, I apologize though I don't wish to harm you at all. I have to reason to. Did you eat something you weren't supposed to with all this rage?"
She attempted to change the topic paying no mind to what the girl was saying.
She doesn't recall any enemy other than demons.
(Dimitri Óir-Serafino)
As Liviana corssed the bridge, she found herself faced with a difficult confrontation. On one hand, her kin had been engaged in some aggressive talk. On the other, her friend had ran off to do battle with an Undead. For the moment, the young bat-kin decided to stay within an arm's reach of her fellow bats.
There was talk of slaying. Of hunting. It was obviously an intrigue to her. Sienna eyes sailed across the distance between them, landing firmly on Ahtziri. She looked vaguely familiar, perhaps a figure she'd come across in her childhood.
For the moment, Liviana merely watched and listened, getting a full grasp on the situation.
After hearing Dimitri speak, however, it became clear that things may have been diffusing. At the very least, the party of bat-kin did not seem keen on attacking one another.
"What is the meaning of this?" She questioned from a distance. The words and actions of Ahtziri still raisedsome concern.
(Liviana Na'hrem)
Robel's eyes dart between Dimi and Ahtziri..
First- the reminder of his lack of strength, the he would not be hunted because he was weak.
His hand went to his staff- would Dimi be forced to fight because he wasn't strong enough? Was he such a non-threat that Ahtziri's eyes would not even look to him..?
Then the talk of her Fel heart.. That was the feeling he felt. What made his skin crawl as she approached him.. She said that his fear was misplaced- did she earnestly believe that he wouldn't be afraid of something fel in nature?
His eyes then went to Liviana- Of course she wasn't scared, she was the moon chosen..
His knuckled were more pale than usual from the grip he held on his staff.
"If this isn't what you want.. Then don't do it.. We're kin. We shouldn't.. fight- or hunt eachother.."
Was there any use talking to someone who was fel touched? the words Ahtziri spoke when it was just her and Robel didn't seem unreasonable- yet she was overcome with some sort of rage when Dimi appeared.. Regardless- Robel felt the need to say something- anything. He wouldn't hide behind Dimi forever, and speaking out to one of his own seemed like the right thing to do.
(Robel Béchaffet)
Tony absolutely had no idea what had been going on. He just seen the clear one-way tension exuding from Ahtziri's Demonic aura. His gaze panned between his mother and the Cambion bat.
As she spoke, he only went on to be more confused. When they first met, she said they were friends. Now she wishes to have a battle to the death with them?
A nerve was definitely was stricken upon being called weak.
"Hey! I'm not weak, you're weak, for lying! That's weak in every meaning of the sense!"
Suddenly, he watched as Ahtziri stood down. There were tears in her eyes, her mood taking a whole turn for the better, surprisingly. Seeing that she had managed to control whatever it was causing her to have such a foul mood. They weren't like this- they weren't COMPLETELY like this when he had met them.
He gulped and took a few steps back upon seeing the strange shadows.
"N-Nevermind… Not weak."
(Tony Serafino)
Ahtziri went white-knuckled as she clenched her fists, gazing at the batkin. All she had endured? All she had felt of his influence inside of her? That Ahtziri would have been consumed so by thought of Dimitri, and that even when confronting her, she would dismiss the Cambion out of hand, not even able to place the source of her given-loathing?
"Fine, then. I forgive you your ignorance. I forgive that you have not been through what I have, and that for you... These are nought but faded memories."
"And so I shall show you."
Her hands raised to her chest, as she unbuttoned the top biding of her dress, revealing her upper-chest before her magics welled up within her, her flesh and bone dancing to her will. While at first-blush her actions might have been confused for commencing an assault with flesh magics, the truth was simply as she had said.
She would show them.
Violet flesh unstitched itself like writhing worms, as her chest peeled itself back, revealing her exposed ribcage - such a potent asset to her in battle, now serving a mundane, protective role over her twin hearts.
Hers.
And Agramon's.
"Two hearts drive sanguine ichor through my veins, Dimitri. The first, I was born with. The second was given to me when Agramon tore his own from his chest, still-beating, and drove it within me.
Lessons taught. Fel-Strength bequeathed. Hatred Imparted."
Suddenly, the flesh of her chest nearly snaps back into place, as she hears another call out to them. Glancing towards the bridge, she watches...
Liviana comes.
"I am speaking to my kin, our kin, of past grievances. I assure I do not intend to strike down, or be stricken down by, those who are not my enemy. My enemy, not the enemy of those who's burdens I carry."
Though her reply is to-the-point, She can't help but let a faint smile creep across her lips.
It was good to see Liviana enduring.
(Ahtziri Nacayo)
It was a rather grotesque display put on by her fellow bat-kin, the way she manipulated her body as such. Even so, it seemed to have hardly phased the young girl. She had seen many macabre things working alongside and shadowing her mother.
"Ensure that those grievances are left where they belong, then. In the past. It may be that you don't wish to harm your kin, but neither should we be at one another's throats."
Liviana couldn't help but to feel there was still much tension there. Especially given the words past between them just moments before upon her arrival.
Her head tilted to the side, gauging the woman before her.
"I don't know what that is inside of you, but keep it in check around our kin." Beyond that, Liviana seemed to have no qualms about it.
(Liviana Na'hrem)
"OH, I see so you are apart of agramon now then. Seems you perhaps ate his flesh. He was quite formidable. Though truth be told I appreciate the hunger towards me."
The girl was not sure what to day. She stood there rather shocked that ziri was part cambion. But, surely she met cambions in the past that did not act this way.
"Why is it that you ate this demons flesh? I don't understand what motive one would have in eating a demons flesh." The bookworm was curious as one of her own kin had this menacing lure. Rather dark.
She'd cross her arms looking at the girl. "I don't see you as an enemy. Though it would be wise to state not to let that demon over take your thoughts."
(Dimitri Óir-Serafino)
Robel's eyes looked between each that spoke- was.. he the only one disturbed by this? He was sweating bullets- maybe it was the two run ins with the Fel kind that clouded his judgement- but he could barely see her as kin at this point.. Yet he held his tongue- both from fear and the words of the two that were of greater standing than himself..
(Robel Béchaffet)
Ahtziri turns around towards Dimitri and glowers. "Why would I have taken the heart of the demon within me? What reason would I have had to make such a thing my will?" It is clearly preposterous to her to even need to ask such a thing.
"Because at the battle of Ragnarok, when I fell before Agramon, it was in his will. My own was not questioned on the matter. Such is the hand fate has dealt me, and so such is the life I have lived from then-on."
She turns towards Livinia with forlorn eyes. "Your mother threatened to kill me over what I had become, when I first returned to Nyt'hjem... Changed. She said that if it needs be, that she would kill me herself, and morn the girl she had known as kin."
She takes a step closer, adding "Your mother embraced me. Drew me close, before the hour which would see which of us had the greater master of flesh. As she pulled me close, she begged of me to give her cause to do other thanthe violence that lay on the path before us.
We made our agreements on that day, Liviana, and I swore that my path, however different it may be from my fellow kin, would too lead me to siege the gates of Deep Hold, and that that would suffice as a path of penitence in the eyes of your mother.
This is not a promise I intend to recant upon."
(Ahtziri Nacayo)
Liviana had been intending to leave, the apparent discomfort of Lorian made known to her. It had taken a few moments to fully grasp onto the picture that was being painted here.
The woman's words were heard, and Liviana put to a halt before she completely made a departure.
"Demon kind were responsible for driving our people out of the Shadowlands. They destroyed my father's home. And you, have taken a piece of them unto your own flesh."
There was a pregnant pause between her previous words and the next.
"My mother was wrong for have granted you penance for this. She was everything to me. I learned under her. But make no mistake, I am neither my mother nor father.
They taught me to be better than them both.
That was their greatest lesson to me.
Make penance for yourself if you must, but mark my words, this is not something I will tolerate. There will come a time in the near future where I will be responsible for the safety for our people. Allowing others to think this is okay?
That is not keeping them safe. It will only draw the ire of others towards us."
Having no more to say on the matter, Liviana would make her departure unless stopped.
(Liviana Na'hrem)
Dimitri would just stand there hearing the two talk about what malvesta said or done. She was still not quite sure what to say in this event.
"I do not intend in causing harm to you just because you ate demon flesh. You are kin and kin is kin after all."
Dimitri thought of what would happen if she were to be discriminatory against her kin especially since she was forced to take on the embodiment of another demon whom Dimitri interacted with. She brushes off the additional conversation happening on the side.
"Sorry to hear that happened to you."
(Dimitri Óir-Serafino)
Ahtziri speaks with guarded words. "I sacrificed so deeply at the battle of Ragnarok, for our people, a nation I have given my life to build. Yet the nature of this sacrifice is the very thing that wills kin to turn their back on kin.
I did not want this.
I did not ask for this.
This was not a bargain I struck nor a pact I signed.
I can do not but accept myself, and if Nyt'hjem cannot do the same, then our ways shall part. If this is the path you have chosen, then we shall meet together once more at the gates of Deep Hold, when the deed is done.
Til Flagermuskongen, Liviana."
In the wake of her departure, she felt only one truth crushing down upon her. Though she had fought it, though she had resisted it, on this day, Agramon had won. It only took the death of those who had known her before to let it happen.
His will was to watch as those she cared for turned their back on her, and they had given him exactly the show he'd longed for.
Over her shoulder, a single teary-eyed smile is offered to Dimitri, much against Agramon's will. A sign of appreciation, despite all of this.
(Ahtziri Nacayo)
Liviana Na'hrem says, "Find a way to fix it."
Ahtziri Nacayo says, "...The survivor must outrun the beast. The beast is not killed, only outran. You misunderstand, Liviana. May wisdom and temperance come to you with age."