March of The Dreadlord: Crenel

Eris-Tam was afraid; it would be foolish not to be. This woman terrified her. She seemed almost exactly opposite to Tam in every way, and Tam was no fighter. Mental battles were about as far as her skills extended, as she had lost many of the skills she had gained in the Early Wars. Compared to someone like this, who seemed like she would be able to best Tam in every way possible... of course Tam was scared.

But not for her life, at least. At this point there was no point in fearing death, which in some ways made Tam invulnerable to Ellowy's thoughts, mind, aura, words... Tam knew that Ellowy would not be the one responsible for her death. And so the only ones that she feared for was... everyone else. Tam stared defiantly up into the woman's eyes with unparalleled passion, bordering on hatred but not quite there, and spat up into the dragon skull helmet, "And no one hurts my brother. It seems we are at an impasse."

Mentally, however, Tam said much more than that. Her mind shoved against Ellowy's, knowing she would gain no ground in the exchange but challenging, egging her on, almost. She said silently that Ellowy can't defeat someone who knows how they're going to die. You can't make that person afraid of you... not someone like Eris-Tam. Tam's fear for her own life and her own pain extended only into how it could hurt the people she cared about. Though Ellowy could see that, Tam didn't worry.

Ellowy was physically capable of killing Tam, right then, right there, and yet Tam did not fear. It was hard to fear anyone when your greatest fears had been exploited ten thousand times over already by something you had no chance of fighting.

But now that Ellowy knew Tam was not afraid, she glanced over at her brother. She did fear for him. "You won't touch him. Not if I have anything to say about it. He's my family; I don't care how much I happen to like Verax--if he himself had tried to kill Cassus just now I would have reacted exactly the same way. Now..." Tam glared up at the Dreadknight, "The way I see it you only have a few options. I doubt you'll go against Verax and try to kill me. But if you touch him, try to hurt him at all... then there is hardly anything in this universe that could stop me from trying to kill you, no matter the consequences. So... this is the best offer you're going to get: I come with you. You don't touch my brother, and I escort him to Verax's ship so I know he won't be harmed. That's my final offer." Tam grinned up at Ellowy fiercely.

Though passion and death were not quite opposites, the two forces in direct conflict was often an explosive combination; Tam and Ellowy were no different. Even now, where Tam's strength was so much less than Ellowy's, passion triumphed over fear and left Ellowy with only one real option--and that option was one Tam could live with.

Ellowy laughed. "Really? Did you forget? I don't care what Lavernius wants. If you try fighting me, you try defying me, you try to force one of MY Dreadknights again, and I'll try to remember to apologize for not leaving enough of you to be identified." She laughed even harder. "And we don't even need your dear, sweet, brother. Our orders were to capture Commander Robless alive, and we have succeeded. We aren't supposed to harm you, but Verax said if anyone got in our way, to kill them, and you and your brother were both just stupid enough to do exactly that. I guess idiocy runs in your veins, huh?"

She threw Tam into the air and kicked her across the hall as she fell, but Ellowy was already standing across the hall and caught Tam. "And do you think you're in any position to make suggestions? We won. The Somnis fleet is gone. The Alteriian allies are dead. Nearly all of the NSI is destroyed, and Robless surrendered. Sure, the Cataclysm caught the Leviathan leaving with some stragglers, but they're nothing to us. So what? They know what the Voyager and Cataclysm can do, they know about the Dragonriders, they're still some people we didn't finish off? None of that matters. We wanted Crenel and Robless. We got both. We aren't aimed at killing everyone, but you all made the choice to stand against us, and we'll gladly douse all the souls we need to until the point gets across, your universe belongs to us. You can't stop us."

She dropped Tam to the ground and before she could react, stretched the fabric of space all around her, so while she could move and talk and see, and the room looked unchanged, no matter how Tam tried to move, it looked like she was simply running around in place. Ellowy smirked and sauntered over to Cassus, and he seemed to float into the air.

Ellowy's particular Idoa to compress and stretch spacetime allowed for near endless possibilities, such as manipulating gravity, as all gravity is, is warped spacetime. By stretching spacetime above Cassus, and compressing it below, she altered his gravity and made him rise into the air.

"Interesting, a Kh'vir blade. I haven't seen one of these in a very, very long time." She reached over, and yanked the sword from his hand, how he managed to maintain a death grip on it while unconscious, Ellowy didn't know, nor did she care really. She slid the blade into her belt, and a sheath for it materialized. "I think I'll keep this. And as for you," She whirled around to face Tam, and with a wave of her arm, Cassus's body was tossed somewhere to the side, tumbling like a ragdoll across the ground.

"Remember whose really in charge, Aurora. You may find yourself realizing all the things you think you know are lies. I know how you're going to die. And you know, I could change it. Being able to manipulate time, I can see what to do to find the perfect future. Your death is all It needs. The despair that event will cause will awaken Shade. You are the key to it's infernal lock." Her eyes became hidden behind opaque sapphires again, hiding whatever she might have been feeling.

"I used to respect the Kazequi and Alteriians. It was you Nega realm species that first created the seal that binds Shade, but if it hadn't been for the Plutonians, you all would have died off long long ago. But now look at you. Archelaus, the weakest... what is it they call themselves now? Oh that's right, High Druids. Whatever. I come out of the our home realm to find that HE was the best the Alteriians had spawned in the eons we had vanished? And you. You disgust me. The last of the Kazequi, aside from Caz, who we were informed by our spies has just, awoken, and living out his romantic fantasies, and you're pathetic children. All you're good for is heartmelting and mediating. You're no warrior, you're no strategist, you're a housewife with an attitude and a broken mind. You're nothing." Her lips thinned and twisted into a thoughtful frown after that. "Though Zyria I can respect. Unlike the rest of you, the Plutonians are just as great as I remember them. Their minds are far better weapons than even the Alteriia. She's actually blood-related to the Plutonian who helped seal Shade away, you know? But I'm done gossiping." She laughed and waved her hand dismissively.

"I think I've given you too much. Too much time, too many words, I've wasted enough of my life on this floating space scrap heap. Perhaps, we'll talk, another time." She laughed as she vanished.

Tam smiled.

Ellowy's words were useless against her. She knew what she was. She knew she wasn't strong. She knew she was essentially helpless, that she was good for little. Her mind was broken. She was basically worthless other than the care that others showed for her. But that wasn't nothing. Powerful people cared about her. And right now, the most powerful of them was Verax. That gave her a significant amount of protection... maybe from everyone except Ellowy. She had already seen that Ellowy could best Verax in combat, so even if Ellowy was to kill her... Verax wouldn't be able to do anything. But Ellowy was right about Shade. Somehow Tam got the inkling that Ellowy wasn't planning to do anything to stop Tam from dying when she was supposed to. Her reasons for that... Tam wasn't sure of.

In any case... Cassus was safe. Tam rushed to her brother's side as soon as Ellowy disappeared, touching his face and scanning it for a moment to see if Cassus might come to consciousness... but when she got nothing she stood, holding him close, and then disappearing with him in tow, abandoning the empty metal husk that Crenel had become.