in collaboration with @SillyGoy and @agentmanatee
Genoveve's eyelids slowly began lilting open sleepily from her time spent unconcious after Reyna's poltergeist assaulted her through her callers link. She felt flaring pain in her chest, she guessed a rib or two may be fractured or cracked, and her left shin was extremely sore and felt cracked. Slowly she regained true conciousness, and surveyed her surroundings... and was horrified at what she saw. It was as if a scene had been wrenched from her nightmares.
First of all was Mistress Lorelai, leaned against a tree and unmoving, soaked in gore and viscera. Not far from her lay Vespa's body... completely still and unmoving. And, just next to her, was Elina, who's leg was gone as blood poured from her gruesome wound. Genoveve quickly crawled to Elina, removing a vial filled with a thick black liquid. Saying nothing she tilted the ripped wound up into the air, pouring the viscous liquid all over the terrible wound. It would burn quite terribly as bad as the wound was, but would cause it to quickly form sabs and scar tissue. After this Genoveve dropped the vial and stood to her feet, grimacing at the pain in her left shin before quickly limping to Vespa, who was the closest. She dropped to her knees, gasping in painn before flipping Vespa over.
Her chin, mouth and nose were stained with thick blood, her eyes empty and vacant... Genoveve frantically felt for her pulse. Nothing... Vespa Ruvina was dead... truly dead and Genoveve moreosely looked at her corpse and then to Lorelai... this would crush her mistress. She layed Vespa back down, placing her hands over her chest, and closing her dead eyes and mouth, then pushed herself up with another grimace.
She hopped her way to Lorelai, and again fell with a wincing pain to her knees before her mistress... terrified the two had met the same fate. She felt for, and found her Mistresses still had one and sighed with releif. She removed a small vial, filled with a bright yellow liquid which she shook causing it to glow. She poured it down Lorelais throat and massaged it to swallow, the bright liquid meant to wake her up. She spoke softly to her mistress,
"Lorelai? Lorelai? Wake up Lorelai, the land of the dead shall have to claim you yeet."The first thing that greeted Lorelai in waking was pain, a small comfort, at least it confirmed her suspicions that she'd survived. The second was the stench of rotted flesh, as she still layed in the courtyard surrounded by the wreckage of the undead the Ruvina whore had set on them. The third was Genoveve's faced, framed by her red hair.
"Genoveve..." Lorelai smiled weakly as she pulled herself unto a sitting position.
"I'm glad to see you made it, are you alright?"Genoveve smiled, intentionally placing herself between Lorelai and Vespa's corpse, she would know in due time,
"Mistress I am fine, may have a couple broken ribs and a cracked shin but... largely Reyna was unable to summon the force she needed to hurt me seriously... what are you injuries mistress? Elina has been attended to.""I should be fine, mostly spiritual damage I believe. My shoulder's got a cut I think." Lorelai laughed weakly.
"Elina's fine? Good good. Vespa will be pleased." She began looking around from her perch for her sweet.
Genoveve smiled meekly at Lorelai, "It is good to hear my mistress is... uninjured...", she gulped loudly as Lorelai mentioned Vespa. She inhaled deeply, before looking Lorelai in the eyes,
"Mistress... I-...", she began to tear up slightly from thinking about what she was about to do,
"V-vespa is... she has succumbed to her wounds... I believe she expired from internal bleeding and possibly punctured lungs... I do not know for how long she has been dead but...", Genoveve embraced Lorelai as she spoke, trying to comfort her,
"Her soul is beyond my reach...""D-dead...?" Lorelai didn't notice Genoveve's embrace, or even her own tears pouring down her cheeks. She'd lost her entire faimily when she was but a girl. She'd traveled the world both above and below, slayed dragons, tamed demons, and slew hunters. All the while with a hollow hole in her heart, a hole that Vespa filled. Her love had made her whole in a way that Lorelai never imagined possible, and now... she was gone. Leaving her alone in the dark again.
"Why...?" Lorelai sobbed into Genoveve's shoulder.
"I'm alone again... please, no..." Lorelai continued to wail feebly. She trembled in Genoveve's arms.
"I... I can't..."Genoveve pressed Lorelai closer to her, holding her tightly,
"No Mistress, your not alone! Please Mistress I am here... I will always be here with you.", she stroked the others hair slowly, and began to sing. It was a very old tune, and Genoveve had once sung the soothing lullaby often, and it seemed to have that peculiar magic music seemed to have, it was calming. The singing was smoothe and quiet, but sunng directly into Lorelais ear as she stroked her hair lovingly.
Lorelai calmed slightly.
"She... was everything to me Gen. How will anything ever be the same?" She pressed her forehead to the younger witch's shoulder.
"How will I continue? Who will I fight for now?"Lorelai was beside herself as she layed her head on Genoveve's shoulder. Genoveve pulled her off her shoulder, looking into her eyes, her own filled with tears as well,
"Mistre- Lorelai! Continue for us and her! She would not want you to stop! Fight for the coven, for your sisters... Medu-""Medusa..." Lorelai snarled as her eyes regained a grim focus.
"She sent us here... AND SHE KNEW!!!" Lorelai screamed.
"She knew that Reyna would not accept us gracefully, but she sent us anyway. Didn't let me finish my research, easier instead to send us to our deaths isn't it!?" Lorelai's eyes met Genoveve's, her eyes smoldered with malevolence. The corners of her mouth curled into a grim smirk.
"I do suppose I have at least one thing left to do... Hector took my family from me and paid in blood. What do you think I'll take from Medusa for this?"Genoveve looked into Lorelai's eyes, and saw the coals of vengeance re-igniting,
"Lorelai, I-", and then Yeris cut in,
"Stoke her fires Genoveve. This is the ultimate opportunity. She is blinded to see my interference in this, now you can rid us of Medusa and gain a far more powerful companion heh heh", Genoveve could not fight Yeris... and gave in. She sobbed more, and put her head ot Lorelais shoulder for a few moments as she spoke,
"She-She-caused everything Lorelai! Your riht I-I-I... don't know what... we could take... *sniff* I want to h-help Lorelai... please!", she sobbed and pulled back, looking into Lorelais smoldering eyes of hate, Yeris making her own appear to mirror Lorelai's, along with an extra twinge of sadness and love... Yeris had never been more delighted.
Lorelai grinned oblivious, in this moment at least, to Yeris interference.
"Good, there will be much work to do." One of her hands came up to cup the girl's cheek.
"But mostly I want you to keep your head down, can't have you dying on me too can I?"Genoveve, Yeris helping her form the the correct looks and expressions, smiled as she cried looking into Lorelai's eyes,
"I-I will Mistress, I will do whatever you say, I won't let you lose me Lorelai.", she seemed to smile happily as Lorelai cupped her cheek with her hand,
"I will... remain by your side, forever and always mistress.", she said looking deep into Lorelais eyes, Yeris adding an extra twinge of desire to her lavender blue eyes.
Lorelai became suddenly aware of Genoveve's lust, and pulled away gently.
"For now, let's see to... my love's..." She trailed off. Groaning she tried - and failed - to pull herself to her feet.
"It seems you'll have to find the others, or at least keep me company whilst we wait."Yeris was just happy it was clear the in-road had been made. She saw fit to let Genoveve handle the rest. Genoveve nodded at Lorelai and spoke,
"I will stay with you mistress, and help you... deal with all of this...", she sat down next to Lorelai smiling,
"I will always be happy to be by your side Mistress... now and forever...", and so she waited by her mistress Lorelai, knowing now that she was the one to stoke the fires of her vengeance.
As for the recently-woken Elina, who hadn't even screamed at the searing pain from Genoveve's unguent, she continued to lay there on her side almost completely numb. She heard the conversation nearby, but pretended not to listen. Instead, she weakly rolled over on her back, awkwardly from the lack of her leg and the wound's dull pain - although she knew none of that yet. Her normally fine tresses were chaotic and caked in blood, sweat and dirt as she craned her shivering neck around. And over there was her sister, Vespa, in the distance. She too was prone, but in a stranger manner, with her hands over her chest and her eyes deeply closed. She looked stiff.
Her lips were dry and cracked.
"S-Sister?" she weakly called out.
The two women nearby continued to whisper things to each other. Elina did not know exactly what, but Genoveve's tone of obviously restrained passion and Lorelai's apparent nonchalance of it served to fuel her rare ire. What were they discussing? She could not remember what exactly had happened, but it seemed that everyone was hurt, and Vespa especially so. Why talk, when you could act? Perhaps it would be up to her to heal her sister. Although, she didn't exactly find pleasure in the prospect of kissing another woman for a third time.
So she tried to stand up, and failed miserably. All she managed to do was prop herself on her two dirty hands before immediately dropping on her hip. Elina gasped, and felt a small pain at her waist and a larger one in the core of her left thigh. She was confused, and again rolled herself onto her back, before sitting up. Her eyes traveled down to examine her lower half, and found that her dress had been torn to literal pieces, and that she, indeed, was lacking most of a limb. It was not a clean wound, and the cut was grossly uneven and jagged. Coalugated blood covered most of the stump, but she could see the stark white of bone jutting out from the center. She saw all of this, and her pupils dilated.
Elina did not scream. Instead, she fell back down from a sudden, pounding headache. She slammed her eyes shut. It was too insane to be real. She shook her head. These things only happened to heroes and villains in scriptures and in stories - but never to someone as meek as her, she reasoned. No, she told herself, it simply could not be real.
Genoveve saw Elina, as she sat there next to Lorelai, and she could not simply sit and watch any longer. She told Lorelai what she was doing and again painfully pushed herself to her feet, grimacing on her injured leg and she hobbled towards the mutilated girl. That was when she saw Elina realize she was missing a leg. She shook her head, and appeared to be in complete disbelief.
She eventually reached Elina and with a sharp pain she dropped just behind her, putting her hands on the girl's shoulders and speaking softly to her, "Elina? Elina can you hear me? Its Genoveve, please say you can hear me." She rubbed her shoulders gently in an attempt to calm her down. "You're alright Elina, I have stopped the bleeding in your leg... what do you remember?" She needed to know if Elina had truly severely injured her mind as well.
Elina opened her eyes - yet the red of her irises were literally aglow.
"Fool," she spat out.
"S-see to my sister. I - am fine!"Again it was Genoveve who would be forced to break the heart of one of her sisters... she hated this, but lying would serve no one any good. "Elina Vespa... Vespa is gone Elina, your mothers servant killed her... I'm... there was nothing I could do when I regained consciousness her soul was-was already beyond my reach.", she felt worthless again, knowing there was nothing she could have done to save Vespa, the last blood family Elina had.
"What?" Elina scowled - another rarity - and did completely away with noble decorum.
"What the fuck are you talking about?"Genoveve gulped before she continued, "Vespa is dead Elina. I think her lungs were -"
"Shut up! Shut up! I don't want to hear about it. You think - what the hell do you think? You know - you know nothing, you God-forsaken-" Elina's voice choked. Between the pain, the dirt, the chill of the night and her sister's stubbornly unmoving form, it was all too much for the sheltered witch. She trembled, utterly confused, and looked towards Vespa. Her shaken mind frantically searched for thoughts and immeidately grasped for the most comforting ones.
"She is just sleeping," Elina said.
"You will see. She is too strong. The knight is gone, isn't he? We defeated him, and we're hurt, but we're fine.""But if Vespa," she coughed,
"but if Vespa is asleep, then she must be really hurt. You make potions, right? Go and give her something."She was in denial, a stage of grief Genoveve knew. She had to be broken from it lest she do something foolish, she hardened her voice only slightly in an attempt to make Elina understand "No Elina, Vespa is not asleep. She id dead Elina. The knight killed her I'm... I didn't see it-"
"Will you shut up, already?!" Elina yelled. Her voice was fierce. Her hands were balled into fists as she lay there, sitting up but lacking a limb.
"Give her one of your potions, now!""I did Elina! It didn't help! It can't help she's... I can't... I don't have anything that can help her now I-I just-", she interrupted herself as she began to cry again, clamping a hhand over her mouth. She lifted it off and continued, "W-We have to leave soon Elina. The other Witches will come to get us and Vespa and..."
A thunderclap cut off Genoveve then and there. Elina had brought her fist down with magic flooding her veins there. Dust rose and settled around the rim of the small crater she had made.
"Shut up," she said again.
"You're making my head hurt even more. Just shut up. Just... why...? Whu... what happened to my..."Genoveve remained silent then. There was nothing else she could say to Elina. She would have to come to terms with Vespa's death on her own, but Genoveve could try to help. For now though, it seemed silence was the most appropriate response.
"Elina...dear." Lorelai's voice was small.
"Vespa... She didn't make it. She has fallen." Tears poured down her cheeks once again.
"I'm so sorry, but she's dead Elina... there's nothing anyone can do now."Elina turned to the demon binder.
"How- how the hell do you know she's dead? Go to her," she said, in a commanding tone much detached from her usual self. She shook her head.
"You accept these things so quickly... it really, really disgusts me..."Lorelai's eyes narrowed as she forced herself to her feet. Moving over to Vespa a quick check of her lover's pulse confirmed what Genoveve had claimed.
"There, no pulse. My sweetheart's life had fled. Are you satisfied Mi'lady?" Her voice dripped venom.
"Perhaps you'd like to check yourself?"She wanted to, oh how badly she wanted to - but one look to the front and it was clear she wouldn't be able to. Elina looked towards Lorelai, who'd always been arrogant, and then to Genoveve, who'd always been so clueless - and then to her sister's prone form. Then, she cast her eyes down.
Her voice was low, almost a whisper.
"This life... these people... I hate it."Shuffling over Lorelai took a seat near the silver-haired Ruvina, the last of her dynasty. Staying angry at Elina had been difficult under normal circumstances, but now? Lorelai was not so lost as to be unaware of the magnitude of the girl's loss. When she spoke again her voice was gentle.
"I'm not that fond of them either, but what choice do we have?"There was a pause. Elina appeared to be deep in thought, and her red eyes swiveled slowly to look into Lorelai's.
"I can... think of a few," she said, before turning away and towards her sister.
"Is she... is she really dead?"Lorelai nodded slowly.
"...Yes, and my heart with her I'm afraid..."The realization of grim truth came belatedly, but it came nonetheless. Her denial was surpassed only slightly, before reality came like a deluge from a broken dam. Elina had been weeping for too much in the last few hours, and so she sobbed anew without tears.
"W-What? Why? H-How did this even happen?"Elina, amid her wailing, found enough clarity to say to Lorelai.
"No, she can't be dead! I don't believe it. Help me to her."The demon-binder promptly did so, carrying Elina as she found her legs to be too numb. Lorelai was laying her gently down beside her sister and when those pretty red irises examined Vespa's mutilated form, Elina immediately recoiled and looked away. Lorelai stood straight up, and the silver-haired witch sobbed heavily into her shoulder.
"It's just us now Elina...I'm sorry, but we'll have to be stronger now." Lorelai's tears fought to join Elina's, but she'd had enough of crying. Now Elina needed her, and soon vengeance would require strength she couldn't lose here.
"I... I wish it had been me, but I wasn't so lucky." 
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AvaP
