Estylwen

Iris Ascendis

Very much excited.

Iris Ascendis

Ciara Ventura

Wingram Academy, Auditorium
@Nanaya @ERode @Psyker Landshark @Sifr @AThousandCurses

---

"Begging is beneath you. All of you."

Cira's face turned towards the knight, a mesmerized, Hungry glimmer in her eye.

"It's all the more tasty when it speaks like that." said a Voice.

Her eyes burned, still aflame from her feast on near-empty Mannekin. Everything was tastier now, her Hunger pangs were stronger from the lack of satisfaction, causing the knight to burn and glow temptingly in Ciara's eyes.

Her lips pursed. "We aren't going there."

"We'll see." Was all the Voice replied.

Ciara's gaze turned Otis, cataloging the students so, then to the hunter and the analyst, locked in an intense stare with each other. Then, the analyst walked away, shaking off the shadow gripping his wrist. Ciara sighed and gave Davil a once-over. He seemed fine, no worse for wear. Good.

Her attention turned to the hunter, who was now standing on her other side without the analyst blocking the view, and gave a friendly nod. "You're quite admirable. I'm Ciara."

"You have truly brought the best of us forward with this request, chaff."

Valen mocked her as he sat on his throne. She knew exactly why. The swarm of students that crowded around her area of the stage... were not the virtuous souls they claimed to be. She looked at them with disgust, watching the lies spew from their lips as dark, sludge-like auras and ashy grey lights greeted her. Totally inedible. Entirely unappetizing. Completely unacceptable.

Briefly, in the back of her mind, she considered the possibility that Valen's eyes might be as good as hers. However, judging from their actions, shoving one another to be the closest to her made it obvious.

Yes, the truth was obvious.

"All of you are a disgrace. None of you... not a single one of you holds a candle to the virtue of my companion. Your lies... make me sick."

"I can only wonder how this resolves. Go on." Valen's mutterings behind her. She turned, taking in his bored expression. The symbols he was drawing were similar to what Otis had once drawn. She was no expert when it came to the arcane-

"He's gonna kill them." The Voices informed matter-of-factly.

Her eyes narrowed, staring a bit harder at the noble. Just how dark was his aura to do something like that?

"Better for us."

A tip-tap of coldness crawled up her shoulders, her spine.

"What's a little less darkness and ash in the world? Not enough Light is here anyway."

She could feel cold hands pressing around her neck.

"It's better like-"

Maybe it really was better like-

"-this. It's... It's..." Ciara snapped into focus, feeling her apparition's hands around her throat. Quickly, she snarled, locking eyes with it before her shadow vanished from sight. The Voices almost had her, almost convinced her of something so dark, so awful, to even consider it-

Her eyes snapped onto Valen.

She almost stood by and let this boy kill a bunch of students just because of her passing disgust.

She vanished, reappearing in the shadow behind Valen's throne. Her hand was gripped around a gleaming silver dagger, the sharp point pressed lightly against the jugular of Valen's throat.

"Cancel the magic. Now." There was a hard edge in her voice.

She had to... She had to prove to herself she wasn't what they wanted her to be.

Iris Ascendis

He can't fight-

Iris Ascendis

"A future is not given to you. It is something you must take for yourself."

Ciara Ventura

Wingram Academy, Auditorium
@Nanaya @ERode @Psyker Landshark @Sifr @AThousandCurses

---

The light and elegant flourish from the stage was snatched by a dark red fire.

He called himself Valen Leuvalt. She wondered where in her mind that name felt familiar.

Regardless, as he approached the stage, she instinctively drew defensive. Her shadow morphed, dark mist rising up, taking the form of a ghoulish, vaguely shaped demon. It simply stared, watching along with Ciara as a striking golden throne was summoned.

She made a mental note. Another noble, same attitude as Gulliver. Has a manifesting Ethos. Perhaps a net zero creation ethos.

They had one extra soul on this stage that stole their seat instead of earning it. It made Ciara quietly seethe inside. Her red eyes glanced at the knight and the analyst. The knight was still out of breath and wanted to collapse right there, and the boy who had shot daggers at her for taking his seat still brandished his bandage.

Her eyes then glanced to the sharpshooter, who had struggled to fend off the last wave of Mannekin.

She sighed. The shadowy demon stared daggers at Valen before focusing its gaze on the swarming crowd. She couldn't afford a fight. They couldn't afford a fight. Not now. Now, all they needed... all they could afford, was presentation.

Even with her shadow glaring at the crowds, no one seemed to challenge Otis' authority. Except Valen, of course. This was good. Better than what she had hoped. They could do a bit of crowd control until the appointed ti-

Wait.

She counted the number of students. She was the one who threw the chairs away, her mind recounted how many the shadows had tossed in. To her dismay, even by a rough estimate, there were not enough chairs to go around. She was certain of this.

How would they solve this conundrum?

Her thoughts got sidetracked as she noticed movement in her peripherals. The analyst with glasses had walked around her and discreetly 'held' onto Davil, who was standing on her other side.

Almost as quickly, a shadowy hand from her manifested apparition held onto the boy with glasses. Its grip was gentle yet firm, without the intention to hurt, but to drive a point home.

"Let go of my pet." She said in a low voice, her eyes two simmering red orbs.

Her shadows had enough force to knock over a horse-drawn carriage. It was more than enough strength to pull the boy's hand away, which she proceeded to do. Gentle enough to not harm but strong enough not to leave room for debate.

She sighed. Davil had been through enough today. He appeared distressed by the swarms of students. Looking at the faces of the students, kids just like her, she had an idea where his anxiety came from.

By all intents and purposes, every student in front of them deserved to be there. However, without enough seats, not all of them would be able to call themselves a student of Wingram by the end of the day. Ciara's head tilted in thought, a bit pained with the dilemma in front of her. What constituted as a 'good' student? Who would stay? Did she have the right to choose?

Then, a wicked thought crossed her mind. A smile that wasn't her own curled her lips. The shadow behind her seemed to chuckle silently.

"Good idea! It's a good idea!" The Voices cackled. She had to admit, she was in agreeance with them. It was only to her ultimate destruction, but no other plan would serve her so delectably.

She was so Hungry, after all.

It would help to narrow down their options, at least.

Her red eyes gleamed as she spoke. "Those with a virtuous heart, step forward."

Iris Ascendis

Super excited for this round. Post should be up in 1-3 hours.

Iris Ascendis

I don't think I have any additions I would add to Ciara, just go ham.

Iris Ascendis

Yaaay!

Iris Ascendis

Will @Sifr be joining us this round? :>

Iris Ascendis

Ciara Ventura

Wingram Academy, Auditorium
@Nanaya @ERode @Psyker Landshark @Sifr @AThousandCurses

---

A brief flash of lightning, striking the side of Gulliver's barrier like a plasma globe. In it, she saw Gullivar staring agape into the face of Davil. Davil's expression was... off.

The bolt faded out, and darkness shrouded the stage again. Moments later, the shattering of glass. Her shadowy hands immediately confirmed Gulliver on the ground. The crack of a few well-placed blows, and all fell silent.

The knight, she presumed, had dealt the final blow.

Finally.

The telepathic connection shook. “Take all the chairs and toss them into my Door. The others don’t have enough strength to fight for twenty minutes over these chairs, especially if Ethos are introduced."

Her mind briefly thought of the frantic screams she heard outside when she ran through the hallways of the campus building. The other students, the slower ones, she didn't know what they were capable of. It went without saying, however, that she didn't want to tempt fate by having too many students, and too few seats. Gulliver was a prime example of students feeling comfortable in their Ethos.

Otis was right.

Many in their company were not in a position to fight more, not if it could be avoided. If they could exact dominance, they might sway the students to act peacefully. Dominance in this situation didn't necessarily mean who had the strongest Ethos. It could be as simple as... who had the most seats.

Ciara worked quickly, shadowy hands ripping the remaining seats up, row by row. She avoided the ones that were splintered into smithereens, instead focusing on the aisle and back row seats.

"Still so Hungry..." A Voice whimpered in the back of her mind.

Her red eyes narrowed. "I'm trying to concentrate-"

"The Light is weak, why not take it now?"

"Will you shut. up."

She paused briefly as shadowy hands around the auditorium tossed seat after seat into the open Door. One student was sitting in a seat she needed. She sighed, merging with shadows and reappearing in front of the boy. It was the one from before, the analyst.

"I need your seat." She said flatly in the darkness. Shadowy tendrils gently pulled the boy to a standing position while other appendages snapped the seat's base, carting it off to the Door.

She disappeared, reappearing on the stage as the last seat was chucked into the dark void of the Door. Otis mentioned something about opening the windows. She could do that in seconds, making everyone's lives easier. Shadowy tendrils gripped the shutters along the walls of the auditorium and, with a single breath, flew open.

Instantly, Ciara's shadows vaporized, reducing her to working with her own singular shadow.

The auditorium, bathed in sunlight, was a sight for sore eyes. The ruins of the mechanical giant, still steaming a bit as it lay crumpled. Wood chips and splintered chairs in the center front of the auditorium. Not a single place to sit in the rows surrounding the stage. Each chair hastily torn up and taken away. Any passerby would say the seats mysteriously disappeared.

The light caused Ciara's red eyes to blink rapidly, and her nose wrinkled. What caught her gaze next, however, was the knight, out of breath as she lay against the foot of the stage.

"It's. Just. Sitting there." The child-like Voice in her head whined impatiently. "Now's our chance!"

Ciara remained silent, eyeing the knight stoically, before hopping off the stage. She hesitated, staring at the half-elf, before extending out a hand. The knight looked like they could use a bit of assistance in getting seated comfortably on the stage. Whether or not the knight accepted Ciara's assistance, Ciara's next move was to follow Otis' lead. Following darkness always proved to be entertaining, if not more fortuitous, in her line of experience.

A smile that wasn't hers briefly flashed across her face as she stared at the knight, before Ciara's lips pursed.

Her Hunger wouldn't get the best of her today. Even if it killed her.

Iris Ascendis

I'll wait for @ERode to go before I post, I'll have something up tomorrow.

Congrats, folks. Looks like we may have finally completed the first objective: Get to the auditorium.