Dreadlords The First Domino

[Chasmine]

"Their souls ... spirits?" Chasmine echoed gently, turning to look at him, her ghostly hair slowly billowing about her, "As I am now, I exist among them, I see them as plainly as you see the living. You did not claim that guard's soul and..."

Her brows furrowed slightly as she looked Edric up and down once. She frowned.

"...I can see the spirit energy of the living. Each one has its own unique aura and color. Except for you. You do not have one. Curious, isn't it?"

 

[Mae Heilig]

Mae rolled her eyes at Jinx as the younger woman down half her glass. "This is not a vacation."

No one who became a Dreadlord indulged themselves in vacations and while this sort of atmosphere may seem akin to one for Jinx there was a truth the younger woman did not know. Back in the old days events like this required one to keep on their toes. Someone was always eyeing you, judging you, waiting for you to slip up.

But no... there was no time for her to squabble with the girl. If she wished to drink champagne and dine on finger cakes then Mae would allow it so long as they got their prize. They were here for the Chalice of Aubert, as per Gilram's orders.

"Just make sure you," she stopped whispering to Jinx and wore a large beaming smile as a young aristocrat approached them. He had coppery hair and was dressed in a dazzlingly bright silver suit.

"I apologize, but I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting you," the man gave a bow and awaited a response.

 

[Jinx]

Well, of course, this wasn't a vacation. Vacations had a lot of sun, a beach, sweet drinks, and no one bothering her. This place had none of those.

Jinx stiffened slightly as she looked down to see if she looked proper in her dress. What was she supposed to do next? Right, what was it? Dornoch. She performed her best attempt at a bow.

"Ah, hello. My name is Elizabeth...A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Elizabeth had been one of the girls she had killed when she first tried to run away. Either way, it was a pretty name so she would borrow it.

She put on her best smile but then turned to Mae hoping that she would handle this. Jinx was not built for this. Just point her to who needed to be decapitated and she would do that, but this was to much pressure.

 

[Edric]

Edric stood perfectly still, the rain beating on his stolen armor. "What?"

For a second he forgot what he had asked Chasmine. He forgot the pain and anguish he had caused. He forgot the lost souls that haunted him. All he could focus on was what she had said last, the words that rang in his head.

"Are..." He choked slightly. "Are you saying."

Confusion, fear, flickered over his face. "Are you saying I don't have a soul?"

The words seemed utterly impossible. He had no idea what it even meant. She couldn't be serious, she couldn't be...it had to be a joke. A jest. Some way to get back at him for what he had done at the Gala all those months ago.

It had to be.

 

[Chasmine]

She recognized the delicacy of the subject matter, and a year ago she may have felt more compelled to express compassion about the news. Yet the trials and tribulations of the last year of her life had done more to effect her ways than all the years she'd spent at the Academy. Even if she felt deep homesickness for the place that had been her home for so long ... being away from it and her tormentors and peers had given Chasmine's mind the opportunity to clear.

The fog of oppression and the haze of her medicated mental state now gone, Chas discovered she did not feel any pity for Edric at all. It occurred to her very briefly that she probably should have.

"Yes," she stated plainly, her voice remained gentle and airy but lacked the inflection of concern or care - a ghastly reflection of how Edric treated his fellow Initiates for so long, "that is what I am saying."

"Curious... but not surprising."

Chasmine waited there for a moment longer before turning to continue her way into the castle.

 

[Mae Heilig]

Elizabeth? It wasn't a name she would've chosen but it sufficed. At least the girl was proving she could think on her feet.

"And I am Juliette, m'lord," Mae's introduction was accompanied by a curtsy. A noble tradition that Jinx was likely unaware of. A proper lady did not simply speak her name and stand upright towards a noble young man. There were rules, traditions, and...

"Elizabeth, eh? You look quite ravishing tonight, if you don't mind me saying so," the nobleman said while completely ignoring Mae (or Juliette for the evening).

Somehow Jinx's complete disregard for the rules was actually causing this noble to take an interest in her. Fascinating. And useful.

He cleared his throat and gave a customary bow towards Jinx, "I am Felix Aubert. A pleasure to meet you."

Fuck. Felix Aubert was the second son of House Aubert. The very estate they were crashing this evening. Mae froze for a split second while wearing her faux smile. While her face retained the same happy, cheerful, veneer she'd worn since they walked out upon the ballroom inside she was beginning to panic. There were simply so many ways that Jinx could blow this. That Mae could blow this by interrupting.

"I've yet to see you at any balls. Might I ask where you've been hiding from my watchful gaze?" The young nobleman was utterly entranced by 'Elizabeth.' Failing to take his eyes off her even once.

 

[Jinx]

Jinx giggled under Felix's attention, and...was that a blush? She may not be the best when it came to noble etiquette, but Jinx knew how to flirt with the best of them. The girl smiled as she absentmindedly played with her hair.

"A pleasure to meet you Felix. It has been difficult to find true gentlemen since my return."

Return...where did Mae say she was from again? Doorknob? What type of dumb name was that? She could think of a better city name.

"Ah, I've been studying...in Dornoch."

She shot Mae the quickest of glances to see if she had gotten that right. There was no groaning, so she took that as a yes.

Mae Heilig

 

[Edric]

Edric stood stunned.

His eyes lingered where Chasmine had been floating just seconds ago. Most would have expected him to be angry. To rage, to throw the ghost's 'accusation' back in her face. Yet Edric felt nothing of the sort. Instead of wrath he felt...nothing at all. No sadness. No despair. Nothing.

An empty hollowness rung through the whole of him.

Because he knew that she was right.

He felt bile rise in his throat, and suddenly Edric whirled around. His hand gripped at the wall, and he hunched over as the contents of his stomach were unceremoniously emptied onto the floor. Body shaking violently as fingers pressed against the stone wall.

For a moment everything around him seemed dull. The sounds of the rain were distant, the colors seemed to dim, and the very world seemed to slip away.

Then a breath filled him.

Fingers clenched against the stone, curling slowly into fists as he forced his body to steady itself. Drawing from that reserve of life he had taken, pulling himself together with slow steady breaths. His head slowly turned, eyes falling on Chasmine who was disappearing down the corridor.

For a moment more he lingered, and then he pulled himself away from the wall. Slowly walking into the castle.

 

[Chasmine]

Chasmine's ghostly figure shifted forward through the corridor, fading in and out of visual sight along the way. The further inside they moved, the more Chasmine came to the conclusion that Mae was likely right. They'd need to entrench themselves into the festivities if they had any hope of finding Gilram's target item. The chalice might've been kept in storage while the castle was empty, but her geistly-gut-instincts were telling her it probably wasn't there anymore.

A prized chalice didn't just stay hidden for a party. It got taken out, used, flaunted. She knew this because she came from minor Allirian nobility, and in her 12 short years before being taken to the Academy Chasmine had lived that life.

"Edric," she said gently as she neared a set of back doors, "I need a body."

 

[Mae Heilig]

Mae had been well versed in the ways of Anirian courts. She'd learned how to expertly craft her face with blaunchet, how to paint the lines of her eyes and lips as perfectly as any noblewoman. And yet here was Jinx, simply 'winging it' to a degree that Mae had to invent a cover story for the woman and...

"My, my," Felix Aubert purred, "Dornoch? How utterly exotic. I hear they allow minotaurs and goblins to waltz around with humans there."

...the young Aubert was practically smitten. Jinx was just lucky she wasn't actually a member of the noble circles, had she been with anyone other than Mae she'd find the other noble ladies to be quite envious of this situation. Of course, the rogue Dreadlord didn't mind the attention. It gave her an opportunity to observe more easily. Yes, this was a good thing.

The blonde woman glanced towards her junior, "I've heard that as well." Perhaps that bit of reassurance would let her know that Felix wasn't trying to trip her up.

 

[Jinx]

Yeah, Jinx had no idea. She had never been to Dornoch, but goblins and minotaurs sounded amazing. She giggled as twirled a strand of hair around her finger with a big smile across her face.

"Yes, it's...amazing, but also terrifying in a way. So much excitement."

That made sense right? Fancy princess girls would be afraid of goblins and stuff. Yeah, they would need a big strong man to help them, like this Felix fellow.

Absentmindedly, an image passed through Jinx's mind of her touching him and making the blood vessel in his body pop and then watching the blood leak from his eyes...so pretty.

Mae Heilig

 

[Edric]

Edric barely heard Chasmine's voice as she spoke to him. The word's floating to his ears but not quite touching the reaches of conscious thought.

No.

He was consumed with what she had told him earlier. The wracking hollowness that seemed to claw at the very core at him. It stripped away what little humanity he had felt, what small piece others had built up within him after the Proctor's had torn it all away. He stalked forward, moving through the halls with a stark determination.

His steps echoed, the door ahead of them casting light from beneath it's breath. Edric's stride did not slow as he neared the wooden barrier. Instead his foot raised, and with a swift kick his boot lanced into the door. A loud crack rang out from just to the right of the party, a small balcony with a stairway leading down to the central hall laying beyond.

A woman on the steps let out a scream, her voice faultering as Edric stalked through his new opening. Fingers lancing out like a viper as he grabbed her by the throat and unceremoniously smashed her head against the wall.

Her body crumpled to the floor, dead. Perfect for Chasmine's use.

Heads turned, screams wracked, and the musicians suddenly fell silent as the Rogue Dreadlord stepped over the woman's corpse. A dozen men reaching for swords they had never so much as touched before.

 

[Chasmine]

Chasmine drifted after him, listlessly watching as the spool of Edric's humanity unfurled invisibly upon the floor behind him. If she recognized anything amiss, it dare not show itself on her face now. For what had he done when her own sanity tumbled from its fraying edges? He'd stared, uncaring and devoid of remorse. Freeing in a way, but heavy.

So very, very heavy.

Like the body - ney, the corpse that crumpled to the floor.

This was not what Chasmine needed. A body was alive, a corpse was ... well, useless to her.

That glassy, ghostly gaze shifted from the prone woman upward to the sound of steel and screams. So much for their cover. Mae was going to be furious, no doubt. Chas pressed forward, moving through the fallen corpse to trail Edric into the view of the crowds. There she paused at his side, baleful gaze looking over the faces before them for a host and finding a young woman at the middle, just behind her date as he pushed forward to draw his own sword.

Chas lifted a hand and pointed at her, breathily uttering to Ed: "Leave that one alive. I need her."

 

[Mae Heilig]

"Yes," Felix agreed with a smug look, "very exciting. You weren't ever scared? Given how different those savages live?"

Mae held her stature admirably, dismissing the fact that the girl who'd put no effort in was getting the attention of a proper nobleman, and instead trying to refocus herself on the reason they'd came. To find the chalice and then get it out. Ideally without killing anyone.

A commotion began. Mae turned her head in apprehension, afraid of what she'd see.

"What in the actual fuck," Mae could barely bring herself to believe what was happening. A noblewoman lay dead, a group of noblemen drew blades to intercept the man in guard's gear who'd just interrupted the ball.

Edric.

She could tell from this far away. The one that Gilram insisted would behave, the one that Gilram said she had to bring in case they needed muscle, the one that was supposedly in control of himself and could be relied upon. That same Dreadlord was murdering random nobles, apparently.

The blonde wishgiver ran forwards, her arms flailing, "stop this!" It was a shout that could be heard throughout the auditorium though she had no idea if her actions were too late.

 

[Jinx]

Oh, it was definitely too late. Jinx looked across the room to see the body fall and instantly her eyes lit up in delight. It was time for the fun part.

Felix stepped in front of her in a protective posture...Oh, the poor idiot had no idea. She gripped his arms as mock worry crossed her face.

"Oh no! What's going on Felix?"

He never got out a reply, because almost as soon as the words fell from his lips, so too did blood begin to leak from Felix's eyes. It was quickly followed up by him grasping for his throat as he seemed to be choking. He was dead on the floor within seconds.

Jinx released a faux scream that she thought was pretty good as she scrambled back from the dead body moving deeper into the crowd of party guests.

She would be sure to let Edric have his fun so that she would not be bothered by Mae

Edric Mae Heilig Chasmine

 

[Edric]

Edric moved out of pure instinct.

He heard the shouts, the screams, the call for him to stop. It was all just noise. None of it mattered, none of it had any sway. The rogue Dreadlord stepped forward towards the crowd of armed men. They darted forward, the brave one first, and he was quick to die.

His blade left it's scabbard, flickering forward and slashing Edric's across the chest. The steel caught on the stolen guardsmen's mail, it's tip scratching over the banded chain until caught in Edric's palm. Almost immediately the boy jerked back to try and take back his blade, crimson forming over shallow cuts as the Dreadlord hung on.

A wicked grin spread over his face, and then he yanked the man forward.

His foot came down, a loud crunch echoing as the boys leg snapped, another muted shout calling out to Edric as he twisted the blade in the hand. Catching the sword hilt and flicking it forward towards one of the men charging him. The blade buried itself within the man's chest, sending him sprawling back as two others rushed forward.

Their steps seemed to slow before either could get far, skin growing tight, a bone weariness drawing through them both before Edric ever touched him. Both his hands coming upon their throats. Within seconds their forms shriveled, bodies turning to little more than dusts

Steel clattered to the floor as men threw away their swords in a cheap attempt to beg for mercy. Women and men both now screamed, scrambling towards door, window, or any other exit they could find. Desperate to get away from the mad man who had stepped into their lives.

Before him, shaking and tears streaming down her face stood the girl Chasmine had pointed out.

A quiet whimper escaped her throat as Edric stepped up to her, blood dripping from his wounded palm even as the skin began to sow itself back together.

 

[Chasmine]

Camilla Shaw had never been a brave girl but she was quite lovely and well-bred. An intelligent conversationalist, her interests and hobbies included: singing; piano; painting; reading; writing; the occasional ride across her family's country estate; and being a charming party guest to fellow nobles. Tonight was to have been a most wonderful fete where she, for the first time, was given the freedom to attend unaccompanied by her father or older brother. A Shaw family guard stood watch for the evening while she danced with Tomlin Faraday, a young Lord that stood to inherit his father's fortune and estate as his eldest child.

It was to be a perfect evening.

Tomlin spent the better part of the spring courting her and much to her delight, her father appreciated such a smart match. Tom was handsome, strong, well-dressed, and fashioned himself a wine connoisseur; he was already helping his father expand their wine business into neighboring cities. Having spent the evening drunk on the dream life she foresaw for them both, it all shattered to pieces the moment Tomlin went after this crazed guard.

Camilla Shaw stood, fixed in beautifully-coiffed horror, as she watched her beau shrivel into a husk right before her very eyes and drop lifeless to the ground. His adversary having trounced over the ashes of promise with nary a thought for what he'd done, she meekly swallowed a sob as he approached her to stare with that horrid reptilian gaze of dread into her eyes.

He was going to propose... were her final conscious thoughts of the evening.

The girl took a wayward step back from Edric, her brown eyes rolling under their lids, and caught herself in a sudden transitional wooz.

"How sad," she said in a voice that was strangely similar to a-once-living Chasmine Grey, but just not quite the same. Camilla then looked back up at Edric, her brown eyes clouded by a lucid and ghostly grey, "you've ruined her betrothal."

With a hazy calm she shifted a glance over her shoulder to Mae Heilig "I don't suppose wishing this was all just a bad dream for the party guests would work?"

 

[Mae Heilig]

”STOP!”

Mae kept screaming while rushing at the Dreadlord that was supposed to be under her charge. Completely oblivious to the fact that Jinx had killed yet another noble behind her back.

Panic rose up her chest and through her bones as she saw Edric moving towards his next victim.

Camilla Shaw, the daughter to a rather powerful minor house, who looked like a timid mouse being stalked by a ruthless hawk. Mae watched in horror as Ed slaughtered Camilla’s romantic interest, the tension and fright growing upwards, until the chaperone of this rendezvous threw herself between Edric and Camilla.

To her shock the girl behind spoke in the ghastly voice of Chasmine, even if it were slightly less ghastly now.

Pupils twisted to the side though she didn’t dare transition her head away from the boy before her. Her magic would undo the past, although if the psychotic pupil pressed into her care continued slaughtered nobles indiscriminately she hoped either of her other team members had the good sense to wish that Edric took a long, uninterrupted, nap.

”Edric,” she paused, realizing she had no idea what his last name was, ”Edric, it’s me. It’s Mae. I need you to stop. I need you to stop right the hell now!”

Her heart thundered away in her chest, realizing that this kid likely could’ve killed her, Jinx, and Chas just as easily as he’d killed the half dozen or so humans who laid in the floor in puddles of blood.

 

[Jinx]

A beautiful melody filled the ballroom, the sound of screams followed shortly by the thumps of bodies hitting the floor. Ah yes, let the bodies hit the floor. Another scream cut through the room, as Jinx continued dancing through the crowd.

Most of the bodies were thanks to Edric's incredible work, but a select few were thanks to Jinx, as could be seen by the bleeding from the eye sockets.

She stopped in her tracks to watch Mae yell at Edric and then beg him to stop. Why should he stop? He was carving through this room like a butcher. It was like a master craftsman painting a picture...It was hot.

Jinx sighed dreamily before she went back to her own merry slaughtering, although far more silent and unnoticed compared to her acquaintances.

Mae Heilig Edric Chasmine

 

[Edric]

Words carried over his consciousness.

They were dull, quiet.

Someone shouting. Someone else whispering of a betrothal. It all seemed so very distant, so very far away. Edric blinked slowly, the wolfish grin on his face fading ever so slightly as he worked through the haze. Lips thinning.

Suddenly his head turned.

"I need you to stop. I need you to stop right the hell now!”​

The words carried through the haze, splintering through a wall of glass and reaching him. Slowly his eyes flickered shut, head shaking as a hand came to run over his face. He peeked through his sprawled fingers, seeing Mae standing before him.

"I..." Slowly his hand dragged away, eyes flickering to Camilla standing behind the Rogue Dreadlord.

His gaze flickered to her for a moment, then dragged to the bodies sprawled around them.

For a moment a roil of emotions shot through Edric. Carrying in every nerve and joint within his body. His face seemed to twitch, and his lips pressed together in a thin line. His jaw set as he spoke. "Whe-Where's the chalice?"

Edric's breath seemed to shudder as he spoke, as if he wasn't quite sure what had happened.

 

[Chasmine]

Where is the chalice, indeed.

Their very reason for being here. Strange to think people died for it this evening.

"Someone was showing off a chalice earlier in the evening..." Chasmine's untuned voice slipped from Camilla's mouth, "at the dinner reception before the festivities began. A young man in green." She looked to the far end of the grand chamber and began to walk that way, filtering through Camilla's most recent memories of the evening - though not without a great deal of trouble.

The girl's subconscious kept slipping to the death of her dearly betrothed.

She stepped through the frightened onlookers, but was snatched at the last moment by another woman.

"Camilla! Camilla what's he done to you? We have to get out of here!"

"The end of the long table!" Chasmine shouted to her companions before Camilla came-to in shock and began to hysterically yell and cry.

 

[Mae Heilig]

Mae continued to be oblivious towards the far quieter commotion that Jinx was causing, although if word got back to her that folks like Felix Aubert were slain she'd likely connect the dots later.

Chaos followed as she narrowed the gap between herself and Edric.

The madman had apparently come out of some sort of fugue. A rather murderous, unhelpful, and difficult to explain fugue. She already could see the frustration in Gilram's brilliant face when she gave the de-briefing report on how this job went. The shock and anger he'd likely have when he learned that Ed had slain several nobles.

At least he was adorned in guard clothing, perhaps the rumors would just talk of some psychopathic mercenary the Auberts had hired. A few whispers could even paint it as the dangers of not allowing the nobility to have their own Dreadlords.

"The end of a long table, a young man in green," she repeated slowly to Edric while chancing a glance back in the general direction of Jinx, "find it."

They couldn't afford to waste time now. They needed to get the prize they came for, get out of the manor, and then they could assess why the young man they'd accompanied here was a bloodthirsty monster.

 

[Jinx]

Jinx froze in her tracks as she felt Mae's gaze on her if only for a second. She nodded to her orders without saying a thing before skipping off through the crowd.

"Come here, little green man. I don't want to get yelled at."

She sang softly to herself. There were only a few that had worn green to the party, which was a good thing, because it was such a dull color, not like blue or red. One of them was a beautiful woman that she would admit looked great in green. Another was an old man that looked like he would puff away to dust if Jinx gave a good blow.

And there he was. Huddled near the back of the crowd like a coward, she should have suspected that since he wasn't dead yet, having not chosen to fight with the others.

Jinx called out, "Found him." As a whip of water appeared from a puddle of water on the floor and wrapped around his ankle, pulling him towards Mae.

Edric Mae Heilig Chasmine

 

[Edric]

He heard the girl's call, brow furrowing for just a brief moment as she then collapsed and began to scream. Her voice echoed in the chamber, nearly drowning out Mae as the elder Dreadlord directed the rest of their party.

Edric's eyes snapped up to the man in green.

His thoughts went a mile a minute, lips thinning as he once again noticed the blood still staining his palms. "QUIET!"

The word boomed out, and almost instantly those that remained within the hall went quiet. Camilla's caterwauling choking into a quiet sob. The young noble forcing herself to quiet down as the woman who had reached for her pulled her into a quick embrace.

Guardsmen's boots clicked thudded against the ground as Edric followed behind Jinx. Moving around Mae as though addressing her now, addressing what had happened, would throw him back into the same state as before.

He pushed those thoughts down. Forgetting them.

"Where's the chalice?" Edric asked as he walked along the length of the table to the fallen man.

"I-I-I don't know, the-my father, I don't know!"​

The man in the green shirt began to blubber and cry as Edric stalked towards him.

"Please, please, you don't have to-PLEASE! HELP ME! DON'T LET HIM NEAR ME!"​

He shouted, desperately looking at Jinx, Mae, anyone else who might help him.

 

[Chasmine]

Chasmine did not reappear.

Camilla continued to lose her shit, sparking further unrest and fear among the remaining party guests.

Guards began to arrive from outside the hall and soon were pointed to Mae and Edric.