Completed The Cost of Closure

[VigiloConfido]

Murrick, in a near panic, said in a quiet, frantic, alarmed hiss, "What do you want me to say?? She paid me to report she was here, doing her mission! I-I can give you the dates!"

And Murrick quickly, with a stutter beginning to match Zinnia's own, rattled off the calendar dates in question for Soleil's bogus mission. Dates which, as it so happened, provided enough time for travel to and from the Academy from Vel Anir, dates in which the Dance neatly fell, and, like Murrick had said, the final day of which being the day Caeso's body was found hanging above the gates to the Elven Quarter. It was so neat as to be perfectly arranged.

"Whatever she was doing during that time, I don't know! I don't know! I can't tell you what I don't know! She never said anything about it, and I never asked! She seemed just as surprised as I was about the news of Lord Diemut that day. She said it was the elves, and that's what it...what it was, right? It was the elves."

It sounded more like wishful thinking than an affirmative statement, that last bit.

 

[Zinnia]

Zinnia let a long sigh loose. The dates and times were better than nothing, she supposed. Soleil was certainly implied by the time frame, and that was something. Zinnia really didn't want to extend her dealings with this slime of a man, but an idea began to spark in her head. One she didn't much care for, but one she was going to be forced into nonetheless. It was the only way she saw to go forward.

"That's en-nough. Seems l-like you already know the truth, d-don't you? Soleil Verdane killed C-Caeso Diemut. And you enabled her. That m-makes you an accessory, Murrick."
The words she'd overheard Soleil say the other day played through Zinnia's head.
"But us? Get someone to help. Lie for us too. Alibi. See?"
"...him? Have weakness. Us? Exploit weakness. Make Murrick do what we want."
Zinnia had gotten this far by eavesdropping. She'd reach the home stretch by doing the same.

"The way I s-see it, there's only one way you g-get out of this with your present lifes-style intact. Verdane is c-coming back here soon; you're good with d-dates, you can tell me when. She intends to blackm-mail you into getting her another alibi. I want you to g-get her to say out l-loud what she did. Tell her y-you know about the m-murder. Tell her you w-won't cooperate, that you'll squeal. I'll be n-nearby, w-waiting to pounce," she explained quietly, her tone as even and serious as her stutter would allow. "Do that, and I c-can guarantee your safety, and your j-job security. Refuse and, well..."

Zinnia flattened the blade of her knife and gently slid it up the side of Murrick's neck before jutting the edge against the base of the captain's jaw.

"The t-two of you can burn together. I d-don't mind."

 

[VigiloConfido]

For a man of Murrick's character, given the choice between a problem today and a worse problem tomorrow, his decision came quickly and easily.

"I'll do it!" he hissed in that low, desperate, even somewhat thankful whisper. So relieved was he to be offered a way out of his present predicament that he spared not a moment of thought for the coming task he was dedicating himself to. "She's due to report in two days, before noon. Two days. I'll do exactly what you say! I'll do it!"

A couple beads of sweat ran down from his brow, down over the curve of his jaw, and came to rest on the blade whose steel proved a powerful force of persuasion for the slovenly captain.

 

[Zinnia]

A grin that Murrick would never see crept across Zinnia's lips. Self-satisfaction wasn't usually her style, but this-- finally--had gone her way too well for her to not feel some smug pride in her work.

The girl's hands departed from the good captain's throat.
"Good," she said flatly. She had no stomach for his groveling, no want to thank him for his compliance. If he'd been a better man, perhaps Caeso would have lived. Murrick's only place in the Guard now was to provide Zinnia a means to an end.

Zinnia stood and wrapped a piece of loose cloth from her bag around Murrick's eyes.
"C-count to one hundred, then you can t-take that off and go back to your n-nap."

As quietly as she'd entered, Zinnia began to make her way out. She paused as her fingers wrapped around the handle of the office door, only to make Murrick one last promise, a hint of venom dripping from her final word.
"See you in t-two days...Captain."

With that, she was gone.

 

[Soleil Verdane]

VERDANE ARRIVES​

Captain Murrick sat in his office. He wore his best uniform, his mind as a means of escape consumed over those past few days ensuring that it looked pristine. On his desk rested a bottle of whiskey and a small glass. With a trembling hand he poured some of the spirits into the glass. Set the bottle down. Lifted the glass, spilling just a bit on the edge of his desk.

And he drank.

And waited.

* * * * *​

Soleil walked through the halls of the garrison complex as though she were its commanding officer, and Initiate Carter followed grudgingly behind her. With her chin held high, hands clasped behind her back, did Soleil confidently stride toward Captain Murrick's office.

This was supposed to be one of those new, stupid Republic missions. Not like the missions of old. Not like the mission to Alyr'Sylina. This? Waste of time. Learning new political system. Learning useless civil things. All things not weapon? All things not war? Waste. So use Captain Murrick. Have him make excuse. Meanwhile? Visit Elven Quarter again. Claim more ears.

But Carter? Problem.

Outside of the Captain Murrick's office, Carter tapped her on the shoulder. The big Initiate shyly looked away when Soleil, all smiles, didn't turn around in the normal way a human should but simply inverted the direction she was facing via her Sandform. "Carter," she said.

He shook his head, waiting for a small troop of Guardsmen to walk by them in the hallway, and then said in a low whisper, "We shouldn't do this."

"Already agreed," Soleil said, even though no such agreement had ever been made between them. "Remember?"

The big Initiate, such a hulking form on par with the likes of Edric or Sable, looked diminutive as he stood there, staring down at the ground, nervously washing his hands one over the other.

"Scared?" Soleil said, taking pleasure in the obvious sight of his fear and reluctance.

"N-No," Carter said.

Soleil trilled her tongue, fissures of flesh rippled down her cheeks, and she reached over and patted his arm—copying a gesture of camaraderie and reassurance she had seen others perform before. "No worry. Me? I do it. Stay here. Very easy. Back soon."

Soleil knocked on Captain Murrick's door. Opened it after the captain called for her to enter. And she shut the door behind herself.

Up to his desk she walked. Her smile seemed broader than it should naturally be, as though her imitation body at the corners of her mouth were allowing it just a touch more breadth than what was seemly. Those very same eyes which had by now seen the extinguishing of scores and scores of lives held in their view Captain Murrick. She regarded him as she regarded everyone. Not as a person. As a tool.

"Initiate Verdane. Reporting," Soleil said with a tone ostensibly cheerful. To the carefully attuned ear, the flippancy, the mocking derision, lay just beneath.

To her, this was nothing more than a mere impediment to what she truly wanted to do while here in Vel Anir. Here she had to wear her mask. Here she had to blend in.

But in the Elven Quarter...she didn't.

She could be her true self.

 

[Zinnia]

Two days had come and gone in a flash, and Zinnia had made the fullest use she could of that time. Turned out that there was an old attic just above Murrick's office--a running convenience among Anirian Guard buildings, it seemed. While it had been cordoned off due to disuse some time ago, that didn't stop the gold-eyed girl from making it her own little nest. Cracks in the attic's floorboards were sufficient to keep tabs on what was going on in Murrick's office while staying out of sight. This would all be enough...

Before too long, the hour had arrived as well. Zinnia placed herself above Soleil, in a weak spot she'd created in the wood. She leaned in and listened close. All she needed was that little affirmative, that certainty that Soleil was at fault. There would be no need for evidence she could present later...today Zinnia would be her judge, jury, and executioner. Caeso would have justice. Whatever the cost.

Gods, if only her heart would stop pounding so hard! Silence was such a necessity. If Soleil caught wind of what was happening before the plan came to fruition it was all over. That simply could not happen! Zinnia had fumbled so many things at the finish line before. She had failed to appeal to Caeso, failed to keep her secret from Kristen, failed to be the cold-blooded monster the Academy had tried to forge her into. She could not fail now, no matter what.

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Captain Murrick didn't follow through with the usual military formalities. He just continued to sit there, looking up at her, his hand clutching the empty glass as it sat on his desk. Soleil could almost smell the pungent fear radiating off of him. It excited her.

Since Murrick did not complete the reporting procedure, and since he did not speak, and since Soleil couldn't care less about respecting military bearing, she began casually, "Whiskey," she said, gesturing with her chin toward the bottle. "Good?"

"Soleil," Murrick said, not even addressing her as Initiate.

"Want more?" she asked. "Many coins. Loot from battle." She reached into the inside pocket of her new fur-lined coat and there came the jingle of gold. "Soooo~ heavyyyy~. Money? Needs hands that will spend. Your hands. You put to good use. More whiskey. Yum!"

Captain Murrick at last managed to let go of the empty glass, and he sat up straighter in his chair, trying his best to assume a more dignified posture. "I know what you did, Soleil."

Soleil cocked her head in a deliberately puzzled fashion. "What do?"

"Don't play dumb," Captain Murrick retorted, this with some actual anger, frustration, stemming from the godsawful position in which he found himself, much of which could be blamed on the very girl who stood before him now. "You have no idea what the hell you've done, what the hell you've gotten yourself—gotten us—into."

The game stalemated for a couple of minutes there, Soleil continuing to feign ignorance, Murrick pressing her but as of yet unwilling to outright make the accusation. Their back-and-forth continued until Murrick's own mounting trepidation started getting the better of him, and boldness conjured forth by desperation enabled him to start tossing out lies of his own to bait her in.

"Me? Lazy. Did nothing. Those days? Used to relax."

Murrick slammed his hands down on his desk and rose up furiously from his seat. "Then where the hell were you!? Because I can tell you now, the Vigilite already damn well knows you weren't in Vel Anir! At least...not until the night before the unrest began. The noose is tightening, Soleil, and you don't even know they've got it around your neck."

Soleil blinked slowly. Her expression, smiling and blissful, didn't change...even if under the surface, her mind was racing with calculations. She said simply, dismissively, "Vigilite wrong."

Murrick jabbed a pointing finger at her. "I swear to Kress, Initiate. I swear to..." He inhaled through his nose, and then, as the crucial moment dawned, some of Captain Murrick's older days, better days, came upon him and gave him the force of will. "You better start telling me the truth. Because I will sell you out if you don't. I would prefer to get out of this clean, our stories lining up perfectly for when they come, but if you refuse to play the game with me then I... will... fucking... sell-you-out, Soleil. Because this is your fault. Your fault. They'll cut me a deal, and you'll burn. This is your last chance. Talk. Or get the hell out of my office."

For a long moment, the two of them stood their ground, each looking at the other. The air itself tensed and stilled.

Soleil's blissful smile slowly changed into a smirk.

She took one step forward. Put her own hands on the captain's desk, fingers spread like the wings of a raptor in flight. She couldn't resist. She simply could not resist. Because to tell him, right before she killed him, right before she took everything from him, was power. It took the control he thought he had and turned it back around onto him. The noose was around his neck. Not hers. And he didn't even know it.

But he would.

"I... killed... Caeso Diemut," Soleil said in a low growl of exultant glee.

Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

For all the miserable waste of resources that Murrick represented, the captain played his part perfectly. Zinnia couldn't help but wonder if he'd concocted that story entirely on his own or if he truly believed that she had been a Vigilite working to crack the case. If only the Vigilites had been so thorough, it would not have led Zinnia here.

Golden eyes watched through the cracks in the boards as the brief conversation unfolded, Zinnia's heart racing ever faster with each passing moment.

Say it. Say it.

It was all she wanted; she was so close now she could practically taste it. Hells, Soleil could even give her reply solely in the form of Murrick's untimely death and that would have been enough proof to Zinnia. Perhaps with some degree of fortune, however, Soleil had one glaring weakness: her pride.

"I... killed... Caeso Diemut,"

Zinnia's pupils sharpened down to razors as a rage she'd never felt boiled in her chest. In an instant she smashed the weakened wood beneath her feet with her hammer and dropped down to the floor below, striking the ground behind Soleil boots-first.

She rose, hammer hoisted and a wicked look in her blazing, draconic eyes.
"Got you."

With any luck, Murrick would be smart enough to get himself and any of his men in the building out. Things were about to get messy.

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Though he knew in a vague sense that Zinnia would be nearby, even Murrick did not expect her to come crashing down from the very ceiling above his head. Added to this was the near complete envelopment his anger had cast about him, as though he were a hapless fish caught in its net, and so swept away by the force of his own emotion that Zinnia's sudden appearance crashed through more than just the ceiling.

Now Murrick was very aware of his own mortality. Two Dreadlords, be they Initiates or not, were primed to fight and it was his misfortune to be in the vicinity. His authority as a captain of the Anirian Guard might be able to see him avenged, but it certainly would not save him. So, before he was even consciously aware of it, he was slowly backing away from his desk, away from the window behind him, shrinking indeed toward the furthest corner of his office.

Soleil, meanwhile, shared one thing in common with the captain: she was surprised. Though this lasted but a moment.

Soleil's head in an owl-like motion twisted about on her shoulders until it had spun around entirely. Her body still faced forward, her hands still on Murrick's desk, yet her head faced Zinnia, her regard scorching with an excited intensity. She knew what this meant. What it meant in the moment and what it meant for her future.

But first things first. Enjoy the killing, the victim who served herself up to be slaughtered before Graduation.

"Old ways best."

She flashed her teeth in a grin.

"Caeso knows."

Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

Good. Murrick knew to at least get out of the way, though not nearly far enough for Zinnia's preferences. She caught his movement in her peripherals. The majority of her focus was on the girl--no, the creature in front of her. That was what Soleil was. Inhuman, more monster than person, exactly what her precious "old ways" wanted her to be. The way she twisted about beyond the limits of anatomy was proof enough of that.

Killing Soleil wouldn't just be a service in the name of justice for Caeso. It was a service to all Vel Anir. Much as she hated to admit it, however, Zinnia was certain she was about to enjoy what was to follow just as much as Soleil thought she was. The difference was that Zinnia would take no joy in the killing, only in the death.

"Then I'm sure he'll smile on me from the afterlife," Zinnia snarled before lightning began to course through the handle of her hammer, its volatile energies coalescing and crackling within the glassy sphere at its head. "When I turn you to glass, you wretch!"

Zinnia unleashed huge, overhead slam at Soleil. Would it hit? Likely not; Zinnia knew well that Soleil was slippery. But that was fine; the killing blow could never be in the opening, not on Soleil. This she knew. If there was anything the events that transpired at Bluecott taught Zinnia, it was how to kill monsters properly.

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Soleil's Sandform was as surreal as it was horrific.

Zinnia's hammer collided with nothing that felt like bone; with all the ease of a shovel plunging into the loose sand sitting atop a desert dune did her weapon so cleave straight through Soleil. Her imitation body parted in two beneath the force of the hammer, plumes of airborne sand flying about, and easily did it come back together, the sand reconstituting itself as ostensible flesh once more.

Such was the defensive capability of Soleil's Sandform, something she had grown very accustomed to. Formidable against strikes of a physical nature and many forms of magic, still it came at a cost, draining her arcane reserves until such a point was reached that no further reconstitution was possible, her Sandform no longer able to sustain itself, and her flesh and blood body, with all its vulnerability, coming back. Soleil had lost a number of spars at the Academy by relying too much on her Sandform's defense, by being worn down by a persistent opponent. Her ego prevented her from truly acknowledging these losses.

Just as her ego made her think that this fight with Zinnia would be over quickly; that it was nothing more than a little hindrance, a pleasurable detour, to her now inevitable flight from Vel Anir.

"Come!" Soleil said.

Her body flashed into Sand and the pile slithered underneath Murrick's desk and she reformed by his window, her Pendant in hand, spinning it rapidly.

"Fresh air!"

Soleil casually whipped the Pendant behind her and shattered the office window. Then, without looking back, keeping her eyes on Zinnia all the while, she tossed herself out from the window, her body tumbling over heels over head, her legs and dress the last thing available to be seen.

As she plummeted down toward the training ground, full of practicing Guardsmen, outside.

Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

Of course Soleil avoided Zinnia's first swing. That much was expected. That body of hers was difficult to pin down, but not impossible to damage. Zinnia had the key to breaking her, even in that accursed form, but she had to get Soleil feeling overconfident.

What Zinnia hadn't expected was for Soleil to immediately make for, and toss herself from, the nearest window. She turned on her heel to watch her foe crash through, and grit her teeth in frustration. This was going to be much more difficult if she couldn't keep Soleil in close quarters.
"Damn it!"

Her gold eyes fell on the cowering Murrick only long enough for her to issue an order to him:
"Evacuate your men, Murrick. NOW!"

Zinnia then rushed for the window and vaulted over the sill, making certain not to let her hand leave the surface. As she slid over and down the wall, Zinnia channeled the elements within her through her fingers and heels. A wave of ice was produced as she clung and slid down the wall, slowing her descent enough that she'd be able to land stably and without injury. She hit the ground with a somersault and kept moving, eyes wildly looking for Soleil.

What was her next move?!

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Soleil fell.

And her body, upon impact with the ground, burst into sand like a fragile ornament shattering into innumerable pieces, and the grains of sand each and all filtered down beneath the dirt of the training ground and thus were the whole lot of them disappeared. The Guardsmen who saw it all happen where in equal measures confused and alarmed and to a man they halted in their martial drills. Others still saw Zinnia with her display of magic come sliding down from the command building's window and to the ground, they as well bemused by what was going on.

An answer, at least the form of one, would quickly present itself.

Soleil emerged from the ground some distance away from Zinnia and the command building, the grains of sand rebuilding her from the feet up to her head in the merest of moments. She stood among many of the Guardsmen. And she snapped an accusatory finger directly at Zinnia and yelled, "MURDERER!"

To the Guardsmen all about the training ground she beseeched, "Killer of Caeso Diemut! Killed him! Attacked me! Wants to kill me!"

These were the crucial seconds, the constituent parts of a moment that could sway one way or the other. To the Guardsmen, they who had no true notion of what was happening and who was right and who was wrong, a malleability presented itself—which Soleil sought to capitalize on. These were not to her the lives of men and women either serving their year-term or advancing in their military career; they were tools littering the grounds, circumstances of the environment, to be used to her advantage if possible and dispensed with the moment she no longer could leverage them.

Wary eyes shifted between the two Dreadlord Initiates. They held their weapons and held their ground, none yet making a move. Even the sergeants were stunned by the suddenness of it all. But some manner of disturbance was afoot, that was for certain, and bound by duty were they to quell it. The stillness would not last forever. A decision would in these coming seconds be reached, ordered by the sergeants among the Guardsmen.

And the one man who could have set them into proper motion, who could have told them the truth of the matter and issued the appropriate orders...was cowering in the corner of his office.

Captain Murrick held a fist to his mouth and bit his teeth into the flesh of his finger. His expression was taut, eyes wide with fright. For his mind and spirit now in these days saddled with drink and slothful leisure, from the hole he had dug ever deeper for himself since his divorce, he had become a soft man, given to such fright. He worried not about the evacuation of his ill-prepared men, about rushing to the window to proclaim the truth of who had killed Caeso Diemut, he worried in that terribly weak moment selfishly of his own skin.

He heard clearly Soleil's yelling from outside. He had a good notion of what she was doing, and of the position it uniquely placed him in. His consuming worry was this: if he backed Zinnia and Soleil won, she would return and kill him; but if he backed Soleil and Zinnia won, she would return and kill him. This decision paralysis is what kept him huddled in the corner of his office.

"Oh Kress...Kress..."

He bit into his finger until he broke the skin and tasted blood.

Because he remembered that moment, that small moment, that small and fleeting and proud moment, just before, when he for the first time in years reclaimed the courage of his older and better days, that wonderful force of will and sense of purpose he used to have before his whole life crumbled around him.

Could he summon that back? Could he toss aside his selfish worry and go to that window and proclaim the truth and issue the rightful orders? Could he become the man he needed to be for the good of all Vel Anir?

Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

Restraint was not what Zinnia had expected to have to use here. She was brimming with near unbridled rage and fervor, so bloody ready to finally avenge Caeso and put this all to rest. Of course it couldn't be that simple. Nothing Zinnia was involved in was ever that simple. This was Soleil Verdane she was dealing with as well, and "exasperating" may as well have been her middle name.

Yet aside from that, beyond the mounting frustration and desperation that plagued Zinnia's heart, was the now unravelling core of her ideals. The inner voices that had always told her that her fellow initiates were Zinnia's extended family, that each and every one of them was a sibling to her, no matter how they might butt heads at times...those thoughts were quickly dying. Disgust and despair took their place.

What a fool she'd been. Even beyond such a sickening example as the monster that was Soleil, there were so many others that were simply vile thugs and cretins, not fit to wear the title of "Dreadlord." People like Jaxan, Leander, Charon, Ignatius, Calvin, Liliana, and so many others. Such dishonor and treachery and vileness about them all. How could Zinnia have ever possibly seen them as family?!

Zinnia didn't want to have to care about the guardsmen. She'd wished they weren't here at all. But she'd be damned if she let this come to having to hurt them to get at Soleil.
"LIAR! MANIPULATOR!" she screamed back at the monster standing among the guardsmen, the razors in her eyes burning with all the anguish of what it had done. "It's all you've EVER been! I should have known from the start that no one could trust you!"

Murmurs rolled like gentle waves across the crowd of soldiers, their uncertainty amplified ten-fold by Zinnia's retort. They looked to each other for answers that none of them could produce. Heads turned between their sergeants, to Soleil, back to Zinnia, and some, perhaps with a bewildered sense of hope, upwards. To Murrick. To their commander's office, where the two girls had fallen from.

And that was the key. Her only solution. The fates of the two warring initiates lay in the hands of the burned out captain. Zinnia called to him.

"Captain Murrick! Tell them the truth! If you don't do this, Soleil will continue to kill unchecked! She's sick, a monster who will never know anything else. But not you! You were a good man, and you can be again, Murrick, so please!" she inhaled, pouring all her heart into one final plea:

"Help me do the right thing!"​

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Soleil weathered the accusations effortlessly, but Zinnia's call for Captain Murrick gave her some pause. Hm. Mistake. Should have killed. Then only Zinnia's word against hers. For long term? Not good. But there was no long term. Her time in Vel Anir, in the Republic, in the Academy, was done. After killing Zinnia, what left? Escape. Go to Erodin. And prepare.

There came a silence after Zinnia's final plea. The window up on that high floor in the command building had perhaps in one moment, perhaps in two, the eyes of all whose feet touched the dirt of the training ground.

Yet Captain Murrick did not show.

Soleil had to suppress a smirk, to keep a face congruent with what was perceived as fear and apprehension. "Zinnia threaten Captain," she said. "Captain smart. Won't help her. Because Zinnia? Murderer."

One of the sergeants at this moment took charge. Without Captain Murrick, someone needed to, for order needed to be reestablished. He cast aside both accusations from either party and said, "Initiates, you are both hereby ordered to cease your magic and lay down your arms. The Academy will be notified. Until then, you will be placed under—"

"GUARDSMEN!"

All eyes again returned to the window, and there, standing encased by its frame, was Captain Murrick. He whipped a pointing finger out through the window, leveling it squarely...

"YOUR ENEMY IS SOLEIL VERDANE! SEIZE HER! DEAD OR ALIVE!"

Soleil wasted no time.

Before the eyes of the Guardsmen could even return to her, before less still could even make a hostile move toward her, she slammed her palm down onto the dirt.

And the very ground around her fractured and broke apart, this like a terrible localized earthquake, and so rent was the earth that a pit fell open. Soleil descended easily down into it, and unfortunate Guardsmen, those too close to escape the suddenness of it all, plummeted and tumbled with hollers of alarm down over a dozen feet, all in their hard falls and harder landings suffering awful injuries.

Down in that pit, that makeshift arena, Soleil awaited.

Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

No answer. Zinnia first felt her heart sink. So that was it, then? Soleil would have her way? Zinnia's golden eyes began to glaze over as the sergeant began to shout his orders. Orders with which Zinnia could not comply. Her grip tightened around the handle of her hammer--so be it.

"GUARDSMEN!"

Suddenly, hope flared back to life as Murrick gave his own order, at last breaking his indecision. Never had Zinnia suffered such rapid emotional whiplash. "Dead or alive." Soleil's death was now sanctioned. Zinnia had taken only a single, zealous step forward when the rapid sway of fate's winds continued to toss her about.

The ground shook and tore open, taking Soleil and several guardsmen down. Zinnia hadn't the foggiest that her mark was even capable of that. Shivers of doubt ran through her. Soleil had admitted to killing Caeso. Caeso, who was a more capable warrior and mage than Zinnia. Had she really done so alone? Had the granular girl kept more tricks up her sleeve than Zinnia had realized? No. This was Soleil. She could never win fighting fair.

Zinnia dashed to the edge of the pit, pushing through shock-frozen guardsmen still reeling from the rapidly unfolding scene before them.
"Get back!" she warned. No one else needed to die today. No one besides Soleil, but...that was up to her, not Zinnia.

She came to a sliding halt at the pit's edge, chunks of loose dirt and pebbles scattering down to the dimly lit space below. She stood, hammer hefted, eyes locked upon the smug face of her mortal enemy. And at least half a dozen innocent men and women in her peripherals.
"So what's your plan now, wretch? Taking hostages?" she practically hissed, grip tightening on her weapon, anxiety ever building. Maybe Zinnia could shake her spirit. Soleil loved to taunt her foes, but just how much could that alien mind of hers take in return?
"You? Cornered like a rat," Zinnia mocked. She'd had enough people make fun of her stutter to know how much that could sting. "Will you hide behind them like a coward? Or are you ready to fight me like a warrior?"

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Taking hostages?

"Yes," Soleil said, even with a little dash of cheer.

The provocation which followed had upon her no effect, for she placed no value on the ideas of bravery and honor—could not even truly understand them. To Soleil there was only advantage and disadvantage, and this gave her the patience to wait all the time she needed to kill Caeso when she did instead of immediately when he refused her. Here now, it was to her disadvantage that Captain Murrick had gathered his wits, that his order had been issued, that the alarm was officially raised and Soleil made its target. She would kill Zinnia...but it didn't have to be today.

Hence, the hostages.

Soleil's fingers curled harshly as she channeled. The walls of the pit shook with a tremor. A Guardsman from above leveled a crossbow on her and loosed the bolt and it pierced straight through her head and her head reformed, her channeling uninterrupted.

Then the pit, slowly but with a terribly conspicuousness, started to close.

"Zinnia leave," Soleil said. Her eyes flicked to the Guardsmen struck by misfortune so grievously as to have fallen into the pit with her; shock proceeded a mounting panic for many of them. "Or I kill them all."

Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

A grimace of abject disgust curled its way across Zinnia's mien, as though someone had just forced her to inhale the scent of centuries old milk. Soleil was truly a creature of pure, vile selfishness, unapologetic in her disregard and disrespect for her fellow man. In that moment--and the irony was not lost on her--Soleil had lost all her humanity in Zinnia's eyes.

Adrenaline and anger continued to course her veins, fueling her determination to bring this all to an end. Yet she still had no way of knowing just what Soleil was capable of.
"Do you think I'm stupid? I leave and you kill them anyway. And then what? You wait until I'm asleep and violate me like you did Caeso? Cut me apart and string my body up like a trophy? I don't think so."

Time was finite. The hole was closing. The guardsmen below were helpless, and the ones above were powerless to help them. Zinnia was just one girl, and she couldn't possibly save them all. Unless...

"You know Soleil, I used to watch Caeso a lot. Weird, maybe, but I liked him and I knew he would never notice me. Most people didn't. But that has its advantages," she regaled Soleil, hoping to distract her with words as she tried to subtly unbuckle one of her gadgets from the belt on her back. "For example, I saw him pick on you when you'd annoy him, dip his fingers in a glass and flick the contents at you like you were a cat. I thought he was a jerk for that, you know. Nobles should be above that kind of thing. But it also made me realize something."

*Click!*

Zinnia pulled one of her mortars from her back and aimed it into the hole, directly at Soleil. The gadget glowed with a deep blue.

"You hate water," Zinnia menaced, flashing a snarl that revealed sharp and pointed teeth, not unlike those of the Galleus boy that had once terrorized the Academy. "This thing is meant for riots. It fires water. I can flood that hole of yours, quick. You can race me to kill those innocent people and have that sand body of yours melted, or you can let them out and fight me, one-on-one."

This was it. Her final gambit. The only option forward she saw. It was a guess and nothing more, but she wore the threat with all the confidence of a gambler with a royal flush. If it didn't work, then she would have to fight Soleil on her terms...and she hoped the gods would forgive her for the lives lost.

 

[Soleil Verdane]

In a mind where fear stood as alien, there was one exception. A flaw, Soleil herself would say should ever she have faced it and considered it. And it was this flaw, this one source of fear, which inextricably brought to Soleil what otherwise she did not truly know: the experience of a normal human being.

Fear, that ancient thing, gripped Soleil's heart in its terrible clutch, banishing her smirk, once Zinnia mentioned that the device in her hand shot water. Unlike the fear which had left Captain Murrick paralyzed, this fear was akin to that of a cornered animal.

And so too did Soleil lash out. With fury, with blindness.

Her channeling immediately stopped, and the walls of the pit ceased their movement. Her body burst into a cloud of sand, churning about like a swarm of wasps enraged. The cloud rushed straight toward Zinnia, seeking to envelop her, to abrate away the very flesh from her muscles, her muscles from her bones.

Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

For all the confidence that Soleil had shown until now, Zinnia had never expected to banish it quite so instantly. She should have felt some satisfaction in watching the smug drain from the monster's face, but she would not have the luxury of time. Finally provoked enough to attack, Zinnia steeled her resolve as the cloud of Soleil swarmed towards her.

Zinnia would need to act quickly. The days of certainty that Soleil had been the killer had afforded Zinnia the time she needed to strategize. The water mortar would be ineffective against Soleil as she was now, as her particles could just part around the concentrated jet and continue rushing onwards. Zinnia had considered this, too.

"Everyone, get back!" she called out to the guardsmen still brave enough to be standing by, and thankfully they were smart enough to listen.

Of all the elements she could store in her battery, the two she had the most issues with were earth and wind. Earth was (obviously) heavy. Not just in the literal sense, but in terms of storing it. It took up a huge amount of space in Zinnia's battery for very little material stored. And even if she did, there wasn't anything useful she could do with it.

Wind on the other hand had a near opposite problem. It took up almost no space in her battery, but it took forever to store a good amount of it, and she needed a positively huge quantity to get any significant punch from it. And once she had used it, that was usually all of it gone in one shot, then right back to collecting again.

Now was that time. The mortar was quickly clipped right back into her belt as Zinnia instead took up her hammer. She braced herself as Soleil surged forward, charging the translucent orb in the hammer's head with what looked like a spherical cyclone. Not one second too soon. Soleil was on her in an instant, the leading granules of her aggregate form trying to rip at her slowly changing skin like tiny, gnawing insects. Zinnia wound back, hammer lofted high.

"I don't..." she began before slamming the hammer's head into the ground. "Think so!"

With a sound like a whip crack, suddenly a burst of wild, galeforce wind would ravage the area in a sphere around Zinnia for just a few, precious seconds. Time that Zinnia hoped would force Soleil back into a more solid form.

 

[Soleil Verdane]

"Move! MOVE!" said the sergeant from earlier, again taking command and backing up Zinnia's warning for the Guardsmen to evacuate the area.

"What about them??" said a Guardsman to the sergeant's side, speaking of their fellows trapped in the pit.

With a hardened visage, pained by the collective inability to help their brothers-in-arms, the sergeant replied, "They're in her hands now!" Zinnia's hands. "Now go! No one else is getting taken hostage!"

It was all they could do to retreat from the training ground. Retreat, regroup, establish a cordon and wait for reinforcements, particularly of the Dreadlord or Anirian Stalker kind, and then attempt a move on Soleil Verdane again. Until such time as that, there was only one person who could oppose the murderous Verdane with any level of effectiveness, and her name was Zinnia St. Kolbe.

Meanwhile.

The cloud of sand that was Soleil was thrown into disorganization. Where once it had moved with a cohesive purpose, each grain all maintaining formation with relation to each other, now with the powerful wind all was in disarray and its purpose gone awry. To be scattered was to be weakened, and her Sandform was easy to scatter when it was loose.

Desperately, and with great expenditure of magic for each grain to push against the force of Zinnia's gale wind, Soleil reformed into her imitation body across the training ground, some fair distance from her opponent. She was down on one knee, bracing herself against the wind.

"You!" Soleil exclaimed angrily. "Kill you!"

The rage of being made to feel fear coursed through her relentlessly, as it did all the times in the past when deliberately threatened with water. Soleil, more and more, was coming to have more in common with an enraged animal than anything resembling a human being.

Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

Good. Good! The guardsmen were evacuating, and those down in the pit were sheltered from the coming storm. Not a moment too soon, either. Zinnia could feel her self-control slipping by the moment. What was happening now was something that she'd dealt with before only rarely, and each time it happened it became harder to hide. She hated it, hated that it was a part of her, but it did give her strength. And she had a feeling she was going to need every drop of it she could get.

The tempest she'd conjured with her hammer blow had worked well, but she was now solidly tapped on wind power. The amount of lightning left in her battery was also pitiable, perhaps good for a few sparks. Her reserves were getting dangerously low, mostly consisting of fire at this point...and Soleil wasn't likely to be too bothered by fire, Zinnia thought.

The best strategy now was likely to keep provoking her. "A sloppy enemy is a dead enemy." Zinnia remembered hearing something like that at some point, maybe from Caeso. She couldn't recall. It was getting more difficult to focus by the second as her freckles began to blossom into bronze, the heat of her righteous indignation ever building.

"You can't even stand out in the rain, let alone kill anyone in a real fight! You're pathetic!" Zinnia shouted back, her hammer's head igniting in flame. Just as it had been when their clash had started, Zinnia now closed the gap, hammer swinging in a brutal arc.

She just needed one opening, to get Soleil's guard down for one moment...if she could do that, Zinnia believed she could end the whole fight with a touch.

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Something of a vicious circle had come to consume the usually steady, usually calculating mind of Soleil Verdane: her ego telling her that Zinnia was nothing, that Zinnia could be killed easily, that—at a disadvantage or not—she could wipe away Zinnia before making good on her flight from Vel Anir; then, like a wound that had been torn open and salt continuously poured into it, Zinnia kept goading her with her one weakness, thus inflaming Soleil's ego even more, further locking her into the fight. Thoughts and plans of escape kept shrinking ever more, and the rabid thirst for victory over Zinnia grew more and more potent.

This had never happened to her before, not even with Caeso's provocations, and thus was she defenseless against it. Her delusions of grandeur had her believe that everything would go her way, no matter what. The possibility of defeat, any notion of prudence at all, had vacated her mind.

So when Zinnia's hammer struck her imitation body, when it carved Sand out of her in a neat arc across her torso, Soleil did not notice the minute slowness that it now took for the dislocated Sand to return and reform. The expenditures of magic were beginning to take their toll.

All the while, Soleil had her Pendant in hand, spinning it rapidly, building up momentum in the trick weapon.

"You! Never graduate! Worthless Dreadlord!"

And she swung the Pendant at Zinnia's head.

Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

Damn it!

Zinnia had miscalculated. She'd gotten too close, allowed her footing to slip. Worst of all, in her anger, she'd shirked her shield in favor of two handing her hammer. There was no time nor ability for her to block Soleil's counterblow.

The sound of tearing fabric could be heard as the pendant made contact with the side of Zinnia's head, the force of the impact sending her skidding back and to the side. Surely this was it; with such a weighty blow, Zinnia's brain would be rattled inside her skull to the point she'd lose consciousness, and then Soleil would be able to do whatever she wanted. The monster would kill Zinnia in her sleep and slip away, victorious after all.

Yet in the aftermath of the blow, in those crucial few seconds as Zinnia awaited the warmth of blood dripping down the side of her skull and the embrace of black in her vision, it did not come. Her ears rung and she felt a soreness in the side of her head where she was struck, but she did not go down.

Instead, where her hood had been ripped away by the force of Soleil's pendant, prominent horns jutted out from her head. The trick weapon had struck the sturdy structure of one of the horns, shaking Zinnia but not outright knocking her out.

All the while, Soleil's words echoed in her ears alongside the ringing. "Worthless." That was what she had been. She'd been of no use to Caeso at the Black Fortress. No use to him at the dance. No use to him at the end of his life. All she'd ever wanted was to prove that she could be, that she was worth something. And now she'd never be able to. Because he was gone. Because of her.

Rage boiled inside of Zinnia, the likes of which she'd not felt since Bluecott, but this time with a focus. A clarity. Zinnia's grip tightened on her hammer, her gloves shredded apart by the blossoming claws at her fingertips, and the entire weapon engulfed itself in flames.

"I will graduate," the gold-eyed girl snarled. "And YOU won't live to SEE IT!"

Once more into the breach. Zinnia charged with preternatural speed, hammer in a single hand, ready to strike. Singular in focus: swing, distract, then grab Soleil with her free hand the moment she had the chance.

 

[Soleil Verdane]

A cruel grin crossed Soleil's visage as she felt the small backlash come through her Pendant's necklace as it made contact against her foe. Her grin spread further as Zinnia went stumbling back, fissures peeling open momentarily at either corner of her mouth to give this spread an unnatural and grotesque width.

Soon. She had planned on killing Captain Murrick once he threatened her; planned on making Carter help her set the scene up and fabricate a story. But now Zinnia was here, and her death would be very satisfying. Soleil had to rely on the tool of Quinctus to kill Caeso...but here she could do it all herself.

Soleil took a step forward, spinning up her Pendant again, readying herself to—

Soleil stopped. Paused. Not unlike an animal encountering something it did not know and did not understand. Even at her best, with all of her cunning intact, Soleil would not have expected this.

Those horns. The sight of them, the arresting surprise at seeing something which, to Soleil, should not be, had her rooted in place and vulnerable.

I will graduate. And YOU won't live to SEE IT!

Soleil's moment of vulnerability left her entirely open, and so was it capitalized on. Zinnia's flaming hammer struck her Sandform with such a force that the greater portion of her body exploded apart, plumes of sand flying in a large spray. Soleil's disconnected arms, her head, her feet, all these fell down and fell over, and they lost their cohesion too and disintegrated into loose sand. After a moment all the sand scattered about rushed back together and Soleil was rebuilt from the bottom up—more of her magic drained in the effort.

Yet Zinnia was relentless. Her free hand was upon Soleil, gripping her imitation body, before the latter could work some hostile geomancy, could use the tricks of her Sandform, could swing her Pendant, could do anything at all. There was a second of time available, precious and critical.

"Horns!" Soleil exclaimed in a manner that was wholly involuntary, wholly reflex.

Zinnia