[Chapter 7] The Deep Throne

[Storyteller]

==========AUTOMATED POST==========

Ariadne has initiated a battle against Freyja. Awaiting outcome.

[Ariadne]

"Drink."


Her words had been completely ignored by the blond. Every had spoken what felt like seconds ago of Freyja's willingness to listen to others, but all of that was washed away by the other woman's actions. Freyja herself had stated before that she had her mind made up to open the rift before entering this room. Willingness to listen? Her posturing and covetous actions would hardly allow any but a fool to believe that woman had anything aside from her own motives and advancement in mind.


"Drink."


The words resonated over and over again in her head and she watched the scene in front of her play out in slow motion. One moment, Llangort was threatening to blow up the place, which in retrospect sounded rather lovely. The next, Freyja has summoned some sort of... what was that even? A spirit, but not a wraith. Here one second, gone the next, and back in an instant with... blood packs? That power was unheard of. She hardly registered Freyja's speech prior to her ripping open the blood pack and placing it near Theodosia's mouth.


"There’s only one way this ends."


Ari pulled out both guns now, and aimed them squarely at Freyja where she stood, not caring if any of the bullets missed and hit the mummy or her shield. There was only one way this would end now. One of them would die.

Ari was pretty sure it was going to be her.

[Amalea]

Leaving was certainly appealing; even more so if everyone would follow suit which she was an impossibility at this point. Freyja, at least, was rather set in her course of action which was disappointing though she had to admire the woman’s conviction to sticking to her guns. She could understand wanting power, but this decision wasn’t going to affect one person, one group, or even one city. Perhaps not even one country depending on how wide the rift was sundered. They very well could be deciding the fate of the planet without knowing it. It reminded her of a debate from her ethics class in college about power and she couldn’t help but see parallels here.

”She may,” the red-head acknowledged quietly to Every, ”but will she willingly share that information with us once she’s gotten what she wanted? Particularly anything that might be detrimental to her survival.” She wasn’t too convinced that Theodosia planned to keep her promise that they would be able to talk to her. Really, even if she did, would they get real answers or just more riddles and half-truths? ”We’d be crazy if we dismissed her as not being dangerous. She was able to compel us here even in her weakened state. I certainly can’t argue that she’s been more forth-coming than that blasted Administrator, but I really can’t speak to Crow.” She chuckled softly at Every’s comment about being tracked, ”Not really, but she might not be playing with a full deck of cards.

She glanced around at the others as Every spoke her piece about not knowing what their hostess was capable of and acting without thought. There really wasn’t a counter to the argument that things blew up every time the community rushed into action on impulse without information or with only partial information. ”The lack of information, despite the bit we have, is really the sticking point of this whole thing, I think. There’s a lot of ‘We don’t know’s and not enough ‘We know’s to counterbalance. We’re essentially blind leading blind going on gut instinct and feelings, which as you said, hasn’t tended to work out in our favor.”

She shook her head lightly at Every’s quiet comment, before quietly replying, ”It’s seeming inevitable at this point, sadly.”

To say she was more than a bit surprised by the vampire’s comments directed at Theo would be an understatement. The statement about there being another vampire weaker than their hostess but stronger than those from above was interesting and she had to wonder if Every was referring to the Administrator. The mention of the cure being out and working wasn’t really news to the red-head; she’d been at the party and seen it for herself. Her attention was kept fully on the mummy as Every continued as she watched for signs that the woman was setting up to attack. All in all it was a pretty good speech; she just hoped the reply wasn’t to make a vampire pancake.

The pink bubbled shield had been an unexpected response to Ari’s shot though it really shouldn’t have been given the level of power that Theodosia had shown thus far. It just led credence to Every’s statement about her being stronger than the other vampire. It also proved that she was still also very dangerous even in her current dilapidated state.

The awakening of the guardians caught the red-heads attention as they waited on Theo’s answer to Every, if such was forthcoming. Uh, guys, we got company coming. Slow, at the moment, but definitely on the move. The message was sent to the minds of her companions as she watched the knights’ movements. They probably should have foreseen this but now they’d have to make a decision quickly before they were fighting on multiple fronts.

She bit back the snort that threatened to release itself at the sound of Theodosia’s reply. She wasn’t entirely convinced that was a true statement given her past human sacrifices, unless that had been her only interest in them. It didn’t need to motivate her, but it certainly could be a means to an end.

The arrival of the banshee was unexpected. She had never heard of such a thing in her years in the city and therefore was even more surprised by the blond forking over a sack and demanding something from it. She didn’t get a chance to see the items as Llangort chose that moment to reappear out of the shadows; that certainly explained why she hadn’t seen him in the past few minutes but not why he was currently holding his cellphone in such a way. She groaned under her breath as she recognized the move from several movies she had seen in the past. Christ, he was pulling this **** and he was calling Ariadne impulsive? Pot meet kettle. Like seriously, wtf here people?

Amalea resisted the urge to glare at the only male member of their party. No offense her ***; that was the second time she’d been threatened for no good reason. It was getting annoying and she filed away a reminder to pay her brother and his lover a visit as soon as she could if she made it out of here alive. Eyeing Llangort warily, she sent off quick telepathic messages to her three favorite males giving them an update on her situation careful to stress she would stay as safe as possible. Last thing she needed was for one of them to try to haul her *** out of here.

Christ it was really tempting to pull out her gun and shoot him for pulling this stunt but that would be counterproductive. Threatening was bad enough, but the ‘human in the room’ comment was pretty off-putting. She was used to being the black-sheep at various gatherings throughout the city but the blase manner in which he spoke of ‘kinda’ needing to allow her time to get out of dodge was unusual. She wasn’t a damsel in distress nor was she made of porcelain; a fact he should know from fighting alongside her both in turf wars and seeing her fight in the gauntlet. Sure she could die, but the way he had phrased it struck a deep nerve.

Wisely, she kept her mouth shut as she inched a wee bit closer to Every and Ariadne as a plan formed in her mind. It wasn’t foolproof by any means, but it was what she had at the moment. As he kept talking, she had to wonder where all this had come from given he had hardly spoken up during the course of their visit. That plus his recent comment on blowing the place from the get go had her curious if she even knew the man. This was not something she would have expected from him but here they were essentially being held hostage. ‘Negotiation’ her ***, this was more a case of ‘my way or the highway’ where the highway in this case was an one-way ticket to the room being blown to bits.

The red-head had to resist rolling her eyes at his long-windedness particularly since he seemed to using a lot of words to say very little. Yes, most of what he said was true, but it was again how it was worded that was an issue. She hadn’t missed the subtle change of ‘kind’ to ‘kinds’. That coupled with his earlier comment had her wondering what his real thoughts on humans were; at this moment, she wasn’t getting the vibe that they were entirely positive. On a different note, what the heck was ‘put out angst’? She’d never heard that phrase before.

That he referred to his idea was a suggestion was laughable. It was hardly a suggestion when backed by the threat of the place being blown up. The idea he presented was rather decent; it was the method of delivery that was quite objectionable. Slow and steady did tend to win the race if the fable of the tortoise and the hare was accurate. There were a lot of questions though like how slow was slow given he talked about new generations of humans accepting each small change. Though the real question that the idea even hinged on was if Theodosia was even willing to accept such a condition. His last statement caused her to frown; his way or the highway indeed.

”I believe our hostess is the only one who can answer if such a graduated opening is possible. Any discussion is moot without that key bit of information.” There really was no reason to discuss hypotheticals until they knew if it was even an option. She had to wonder if the woman would answer or if she’d flatten the male for threatening her. If Amalea thought Every was crazy for questioning the mummy, it seemed Llangort had a wish to become a vampire pancake. Though better him as a vampire pancake than her as a human one; as he said, one could come back from it, the other couldn’t.

Ari’s comment about vampires returning to their bodies where they had died caused her to frown for a moment. That didn’t fit with what she had been told in her early days. ”Forgive my potential ignorance here, but it was explained to me, ages ago, that most vampires ashed when killed and when they returned from the Realm, they did so in the Morgue closest to the Quarantine Zone. Is that no longer the case? Or was I perhaps misinformed?” If what the red-head believed wasn’t true, then it did make killing Theodosia a viable solution but it was a double-edged sword that would mean any of the others would return here as well. Would they be able to leave this place in such a case?

She gave Ariadne a strange look as she continued having figured the throne was evidence enough. Amalea was fairly sure none of them truly believed the woman was any type of royalty. She was, though, an ancient with a decent amount of power based on what they had seen thus far so it was only normal to use titles to gain some small measure of favor and perhaps put the mummified woman at ease.

”No, we don’t know what her work is nor what force destroyed her village and drove her down here. We didn’t exactly have enough questions to work with.” The red-head sighed, ”Hindsight is always 20/20 and perhaps we could have asked different questions or whatnot, but now we have to work with what we know as much as we really want more information. Believe me, there’s a lot I’d love to know before making a decision and alas, that’s for naught.” She shook her head as she eyed Llangort with a side glance, ”I’m not saying be hasty in a decision, but that we have to go off what we know as much as we hate the idea unless our hostess wishes to provide some further information. However, given the current circumstances, I’m assuming that’s a fairly unlikely scenario.”

At least, if she was in the mummified woman’s place, she’d be less inclined to be more forthcoming after being threatened by at least two different persons. However, the woman had surprised her a couple times, so while it was a snowball’s chance, it was possible.

”I don’t think anyone’s dismissing the idea that she was potentially imprisoned down here; at least I’m not. I’m honestly a bit surprised no one flat out asked her if this was meant as a prison, but I think we all had other things on the mind. If it helps, I don’t think she’s likely the type to destroy her own kind; they weren’t the ones that turned on her best I’ve been able to gather from what we’ve seen.”

She shook her head quietly, ”I can appraise if people feel it’s needed, but that’s a secondary issue at the moment. I would like to hear if it’s possible to gradually open the rift was Lllangort has mentioned since, if not, we’re back to square one again. I’ll admit I’m not entirely sold on opening it, but I’d be a fool for not considering all options in an effort to make the best decision I can with the information we have.

The blond’s commentary refocused Amalea’s attention on her. A soft groan escaped her lips as she recognized the items the woman had procured from the strange creature and her likely intended direction. She could certainly agree they’d likely gotten the majority of the information they could unless Theodosia quickly offered up some pearls of wisdom that would aid them in their quest. In reality, though, if the mummy was to answer anything, it would the feasibility of Llangort’s idea and nothing more. She held her breath as Freyja addressed Llangort directly. She couldn’t help but smile at the blond’s comment on endangering the human. She could at least forgive being called ‘the human’ in this case as introductions hadn’t exactly been high on anyone’s priority list.

It was almost a slow-motion picture as she watched Freyja offer one of the open blood packs to their hostess; her brain a few seconds behind. Just as she was going to shout for the woman to wait, she saw Ari move, weapons in both hands and pointed straight at the blond.

Fucks sake. There was a man with a bomb and people wanted to be shooting? She groaned at how rapidly this entire situation had descended into a fiasco. Did she help Ari, who was a capable fighter in her own right? Did she keep an eye on their madman or on the mummy vampire? The only thing she was entirely positive on at the moment was that Every wasn’t about to shoot her or feed her to Theodosia. She was fairly certain the same could be said of Ariadne, but given they didn’t seem to precisely see eye to eye, she was less certain of that. In the end, she chose to keep an eye on the battle with her main focus on Lllangort lest he decide to say the hell with it and release his hold on the button. It was a shitty decision to have to have made, but the reality was that he posed the greater threat at the moment.

[Every]

"My interest has never been in the living. The destruction of humanity has never motivated me."

The words of the ancient vampire echoed through Every’s mind. She was surprised, to say the least, that it had worked. Needless to say, it seemed there was more that showed when it came to the woman that sat upon the throne. She hadn’t expected to get a response, really, but she kept a straight face and gave a forward tilt of her head to show she’d acknowledged what had been spoken. It wasn’t a surprise, however, that it seemed was the time to make decisions. She didn’t miss the movement from the knights in the room, the urge to draw her weapon almost becoming an insufferable itch. Was it a response to the fact Theodosia had been fired upon, or a tactic to get them to move faster and make a decision?

”As Mordechai put it with his assumptions, as incorrect as he was with my motives -, ’you wish for the sirens to succeed. I fight to save our race, you fought to stop me.’ She couldn’t help but roll her eyes as she deepened her voice to mimic her delusional faction mate, as well as show that she thought he was off his nut. “Combining that knowledge with knowing the fact they seemed to know - somehow past the Administrator, I doubt there isn’t a plan in place to open up the rift anyway. Nor do we know if the next way will not be sudden and violent killing millions. If I were acting upon instinct, without consideration, I would have ran right out that door without looking back.”

Honesty, Every would admit, was a blessing and a curse, but at least she didn’t have to worry about filtering. She’d put some thought into her words, even if she didn’t particularly like the outcomes of any of the options. Open the rift, people die. Kill the vampire on the throne, people could still potentially die. There was no win, short term. Long term, it was more of a wavering question. The subtle sound of movement once more had her gaze drifting from the throne as she fell out of her thoughts to the lone male in the room, her hazel eyes flashing in mild annoyance once the recognition of what he was about to do sank in.

“What was difficult to understand about the fact she has a ******* shield?” Every couldn’t help the hiss at Lea that escaped from her lips. A bomb. He planned to use a damn bomb to make demands. In some ways, she applauded the idea - or at least, she would if it weren’t for the human woman standing directly beside her. Her fingers itched for her gun at her side, but instead, she focused in on the device in his hand. “Well, that should be moderately a pain in the *** to hack.” She glanced to Amalea, speaking into her mind, “On the off chance I fail disabling that thing, I really hope you’re a quick draw.”

She listened to Ariadne. There were things she could have said, particularly pointing out that the fact the woman had shot at the individual in the throne, and therefore, the knights moving in their direction was considerably her fault. Instead, Every checked to position herself better to protect Amalea. Even if the woman could properly defend herself, she didn’t want her friend hurt - Freyja, truly, seemed safe enough.

However, it wasn’t until the mystic mentioned the chance of what path Theodosia could potentially fell under and how the paths returned, she wondered what the woman was on about. Her eyebrow lifted as she said, ”Given the nature of the way that she brought us here, as well as her main source of communication, it’s a good enough guess that she’s potentially of the allurist or telepath nature. Not to mention, killers also tend to grow physically - it’s fair to say that particular path can be ruled out.” Amalea spoke about it, afterwards, and Every gave a nod while that same strange look remained upon her features, “You are correct, Lea. Killers are the only ones who may return to their original bodies. Mystics come back and possess human hosts typically. With that being said, the odds are way too slim and highly unlikely for her to return to where she sits currently.”

Turning her attention from the mystic, resisting the urge that she had to roll her eyes, Every glanced back to the male of the group before she reached out to Amalea telepathically once more, ”I’m going to ask that she bring my thrall here, because I do not want anyone thinking that you are her next meal. If we go that route, she’ll have another option.” To Theodosia, reaching out hesitantly to the ancient vampire’s mind, she said, ”If you do not mind, would you please beckon my thrall, Locryn, here? I do not believe I can bring her here myself.” Once the words were spoken, her mind immediately linked to Locryn’s. There was brief confusion registered in the young woman’s mind as Every said without hesitance to her thrall, ”Collect yourself and the weapons I gave you. Do not stop if you are beckoned by someone other than me.”

When she finished, Every severed the link before Locryn could answer any further questions as she looked over the device. She’d already been in a cave in and she hated tight spaces. There was also the concept that if the bomb didn’t kill every vampire in the room, they’d be trapped underneath a ridiculous amount of rock for whoever knew how long. That, too, wasn’t appealing, and she wondered if he’d even taken that into consideration. As the thought crossed her mind, she debated about grabbing her tome before she connected to the internet. From there, she began to steadily hack as her surroundings lost her attention and she looked through file upon file so that nothing drastic from the man could take place.

It was as she focused, the gunfire went unnoticed.

Powers: Technokinesis.

[Storyteller]

==========AUTOMATED POST==========

Every attempted to hack a tough target, and was successful!

[Llangort (DELETED 6420)]

Llangort attempted to listen to all that was said, he really did, but with the gunfight and the ambulatory knights he really didn't think he had a chance to figure if his point got heard, yet alone have a chance to consider what all they had said, actually meant.

“I just came back to get my over dramatic, I mean my coat” he said casually tossing the cellphone over his shoulder, it wasn't turned on, yet alone connected to anything. Picking up his coat, he turns and briefly bows as he slips into the shadows once again, only one fake direction before heading to the exit.

[Storyteller]

==========AUTOMATED POST==========

Every has initiated a battle against Ariadne. Awaiting outcome.

[Storyteller]

=========AUTOMATED POST=========

The battle is over. Ariadne's team are the victors!

[Amalea]

She groaned lightly as Every reminded her of the delusional male’s words. How she had forgotten that after their long discussion on the matter was beyond her. The only defense at the moment was that the situation was more than a bit stressful and he was currently the least of her concerns. ”I don’t doubt the Administrator would find another way. Though I’m not convinced that the Sirens were looking to destroy vampires, but really that’s a moot point at this time.” She paused a moment as a thought came to mind; one she was surprised hadn’t come to mind earlier. It was worth exploring later as now wasn’t really the time. ”I can’t deny that we have no idea what other ways there are of opening the rift. It’s all the unknowns in this case that are blockades. In reality, this entire situation feels like a no-win one.”

She shrugged as she glanced at Every before her eyes swept over the others. At face value the decision was simple, either open the rift or leave it as is. However, like all things, it was far more complex given all the parameters they were working with. In an ideal world, they’d return to the surface and present the options to the community for a decision, but that was a pipe dream currently. It was their decision for the entirety of the city and perhaps beyond.

Her reply to Every’s hiss was equally low as she kept an eye on the male, ”Either he’s oblivious to the fact she has one or he must think a bomb would shatter it.” He had balls, she would give him that; along with a decent demand. It was the delivery of it that still bothered her. Catching Every’s glance, she frowned as the words tumbled into her mind. What on earth was the woman thinking? Her nose twitched as the proverbial lightbulb in her head went off. I’ll do my best in that case,” she promised. ”You just concentrate on the task.” She would keep an eye on the others to give the woman the time needed.

She was glad that her information on the death and rebirth, for lack of a better term, of vampires was still accurate. She had learned those bits early on after a zombie had gotten loose in the city. Eyeing the mummy on the throne, she had to agree with Every’s assessment. If the ancient was a killer, she’d likely be taller than Mordechai and less withered away than her current state. ”I’d lean towards telepath, personally.” Based on what she had seen and experienced today, coupled with her own experiences with the various powers vampires wielded, she felt that that was the most likely path. If she was wrong, it really wasn’t that big of a deal given it was a mostly academic discussion at this point.

Her glance fell upon Every with a quirk of an eyebrow as the shadow slipped into her mind once again. She wasn’t entirely keen on the idea of offering a thrall up to the mummy if the group decided to expand the rift, but it was certainly better than some of the alternatives. She didn’t fancy becoming a vampire juice box nor did she really want to offer up some poor unsuspecting human innocent. Now, if they could get their hands on a certain paladin pair, she’d be all too happy to offer both up to the mummy. That would certainly kill two birds in one go. ”Thanks… I still reserve the right to shoot the person who dares even suggest a red-headed meal, though. Hopefully she will be amicable to the idea given it’s likely the only way the woman would find it.”

Her eyeball twitched as she heard Llangort essentially give his version of a peace out. An eyebrow raised at Every as if to say ‘what the ****?’ as she watched the man head for the door only to slip into shadows. Lovely, they had a madman on the loose with everything else going on. At least she knew Every had been successful in her venture given the structure was still standing and nothing had gone boom, or rather, at least she hoped the woman had been. With the way this outing was going, she wouldn’t be surprised if it was a delayed reaction or timed device. It’d certainly be their luck.

[Game Master]

The situation accelerated rapidly. One of the key holders, Llangort, attempted to coerce cooperation from the others, a method that was destined to fail from the outset as far as Theodosia was concerned. If the desire was to flex power - then one needed to do so without caveat. This was, of course, hypocritical given the knights who were shambling towards their queen to protect her. At their rate of movement though, it was fairly clear that the only way they would be a threat, was if a decisive move was not made quickly. Frankly, Ariadne was close enough, that if she could get past the guard of the protector, then she could easily do significant damage. Possibly kill the ancient vampire without further assistance.

Theodosia was then offered blood, blood which did not quite hit her senses the right way. The reason vampires drank was to leech life essence from the ichor of humanity. The further it got from its source, and the longer it waited, the less there was. What she was offered could not return to her what she needed to mobilize and begin wedging the rift open wider. Not that she was given a choice, as it seemed the moment she was offered that blood, Ariadne attacked once more. This time, not herself, but Freyja.

Had she the capability, she would have helped, but years drying out under the earth had left her with a limited set of physical resources. Without fresh blood, her knowledge and centuries old power was equivalent to a dull blade, or an expensive sport vehicle with no fuel. The capability was there, but not.

In fact, Theodosia was effectively helpless at that point, which meant that it was entirely up to the key holders. Every spoke into her mind, requesting the assistance of a bewitched human. It didn’t take much effort to borrow the mental signature of the mortal and reach out to her on the surface, implanting directions down into the Throne Room, similar to the way in which the key holders were called. Of course, it would take time for the enthralled human to arrive, and even then, as weak as she was likely to be, chances were that it would be an easy enough move to dispatch her in order to stop the feeding.

Which meant that Ariadne needed to be subdued.

Except that wasn’t what happened. That wasn’t what happened at all.