[b]Redana...[/b]

looks around her. She has a sword. A fencer's sword, for Olympic fencing. The sort of silly little thing that couldn't possibly stand up to the whole wide universe. It's a weapon for trying to score points. It is not a heat lance. It is the opposite end of a spectrum from a heat lance.

"...yeah, I can win this," she says. And she can't. Of course she can't. But she says it with conviction. With bravado. With a smile on her lips. She salutes in the honorable way, raising her sword to honor Bella in turn. And she steps forward in her black boots, her many-pocketed trousers hugging her legs.

Is she overwhelmed? Or is she allowed to reach the throne?

[b]Ember...[/b]

hasn't roughhoused like this in a bit. But the Silver Divers didn't hold back. They put her through.. well, not Hades, but not too far above it. So that she would be ready for a fight like this. So that she could take a hit and get back up. So that she could adapt and win.

The Plover's head clips her. A little too slow. She spins, lace flutters, and she hits the ground, bounces, bounces again, hits the ground. And she pushes her hands under her and gets back up out of habit, out of sheer refusal to let the pack win, out of her duty as a warrior of Ceron. Out of her duty, always, to keep fighting.

"There's a lot of you," she says, and there's blood on her face, and she wipes it on her lovely glove. "And there's a lot of me. Figured that you might be a little distracted, darling." But underneath that, she refuses to admit: she did it to be clever, she did it because it's what she knows how to do, she did it because she needed to do [i]something[/i] to maintain control. You always have to fight for your position in the pack.

The outfit will, piece by piece, be lost. In a fight like this, a disguise cannot hold up any more than the morning mist can withstand the light of the sun.

[b]Skotia...[/b]

matches Bella Aurelia, because what she wants most is to be seen, and to be responded to in turn.

He moves like a ballerina, even more graceful than Redana. He is within an inch of each blow, and when he reaches in turn, his fingers almost grasp at that cloak, her sleeve, her fingers. But to achieve that would be an insult to Bella, and he is obliging. He is deeply, yearningly obliging. There is a not insignificant part of Redana that has always wanted Bella to take charge, and she is reflected in him.

But his hair shines blonde. Maybe we shall call it, and the shape of him, a consequence of being so close to Desire.

"You meant it then," he says, perhaps a little out of breath. This is an intensity that he can barely maintain. But anything less would be to fail Bella. To let her down. To be unworthy of her. "Have we failed? Were we not enough?"

There- now, finally, he catches her wrist. Not enough to stop her from plunging Desire into his chest, should she choose. But enough that it is a choice. His mask falls cleanly in two, each one becoming half of a perfect mask of a butterfly, and beneath it is the face of Redana Claudius doing her best to hide herself. To hide from the name that she is unworthy of. To serve Bella in a way that Bella will accept.

Does Bella Aurelia strike regardless?

[b]Dany...[/b]

run run runs scampers tumbles throws her body into each turn and corner and is crying, desperate, calling out for Bella to come to her between sobs, soft warm lovely beautiful Bella, but the monster behind her won't let up, and she has to double back around, she needs to double back around, if she doesn't then there's no chance to ever save Bella and that's the most important thing in the whole wide world, but the monster is always there first, smashing through:

walls
doors
end tables
pillars
the chandelier in the dining room that was always too low
interior windows
tennis nets
balustrades

and there's nowhere to hide because she'll [i]find[/i] you and there's no one to protect you because there was never anyone in this yawning empty house except for Mynx and Bella and oh gods what if they run into Mynx what if she hurts Mynx no no no now the very thought of finding someone else in here isn't safety it's terror it's her [i]responsibility[/i] to stay alone and just be cleverer than the monster because otherwise someone will get hurt and it will be her fault her fault her fault her fault forever so the chase just keeps going and going and going and if she gets cornered she won't even wake up screaming it will just be real and awful and

and she needs to find Bella again

no matter what