Chapter 2: Chapter 1
Talia stood on the balcony just outside her chambers as she watched the large flakes of snow raining down from hazy dark clouds. It marked the first heavy snow of winter. She gazed up at the clouds as a sense of unease settled deep into her stomach. Only a few months had passed since her ascension to the throne and her power was hardly established. Now the people would be retreating to their homes for a long and difficult winter to come.
She leaned over the carved stone to look downwards. The market below was still bustling despite the bad weather, splashes of color weaving through the streets in a hurried fashion. Even from high above she could hear the calls of vendors hastily selling their warm fresh goods before the cold ruined their day. They were just now able to put the crops to use, a single harvest was all they managed before the turning of the seasons. Would it be enough to see them through? She chewed on her lip at the thought of running low.
"Hey." Nico's voice cut through her muddled thoughts with the skill and efficiency of one of her personal daggers. He was always able to pull her away from herself in that way. She turned from the scene below and leaned back on the stone railing to flash him a soft smile.
"Yes?" Her smile faded after a moment as he stepped forward. He made his way towards her from the door only to stop at the crackling fireplace. There he stopped and turned to face the crackling flames, tilting his head back with a delighted sigh. His hair was longer than he usually kept it, and just as messy as he usually kept it. Tufts of raven black shot out at all angles and on all sides. She had the sudden urge to walk forward and comb it all back into some semblance of tame but that would sort of ruin his boyish look and that would just be a tragedy.
"I just wanted to see what you were doing. Usually you get weird this time of year, especially with the first snow." His voice was soft, barely echoing off the stone walls that surrounded them. His dark eyes closed as he basked in the fire's warmth. She sighed and walked back into her room before closing the glass doors behind her.
"I can't say I'm not feeling what I usually feel this time of year. There's just something with the cold I guess that gets me... Messed up." She wasn't sure how to describe it and gods knew she'd tried a thousand times before to make it make sense. Her skin always felt hotter, her very blood and nerves thrumming with barely repressed energy. It was like she was more alive in the winter, more connected to something she could never put a name to. Even Reezara had noticed the felling and asked her about it, but as usual she had no answers to offer.
"Are you feeling the usual seasonal urge for bloodletting?" He asked. He turned and looked at her, dark black eyes meeting a single emerald one in heavy silence. She wanted to tell him no, that she'd long since grown past that after everything had happened. But change never happened in a day and she was a creature of old habits.
"Bloodletting would be putting it mildly. I feel like absolutely slaughtering." She admitted quietly. Usually Nazir would send them on a mission far away from home involving a large population of folks. It was like a seasonal message a lot of times, and that message would be to not fuck with their little organization. Of course it was also his way of keeping her in line and under control. He smiled at her, the whites of his teeth showing as a small laugh slipped past his lips.
"Lucky for you I've been keeping my eyes on the horizon and my ear to the ground. I've got some people who could definitely be a threat to the kingdom and to us. They'd do well to be put in the ground." He leaned back on the wall behind him as he awaited her response, thin lips pulled back to match his expression of wary leeriness. Of course he'd fear his proposition was a miss, Talia had been doing her best to act more human of late.
"So you're telling me we have work to do? Work that suits my skillset a lot more..." She mused with a small smile. It had been a while since she put on her work clothes. She almost worried the rich blueblood diet had gone straight to her chest and her ass.
"Certainly. There's a few disgruntled ex Dukes and Lords looking to start a coup. They're not happy with being stripped of their titles and lands. In fact there's a meeting going on right about.... Now." Nico turned and walked to the balcony, his soft shoes barely scraping on the stone floor. If he truly tried he'd have been silent.
"Oh? Right under my nose... How brazen of them." She snarled. Nothing pissed her off more than corrupt bluebloods trying to consolidate power and stomp on the people below them to gain even the slightest bit of status. Nico smiled and shot her a look from beneath his lashes.
"My thoughts exactly. What better way to greet this turning of the season than with a little bloodbath? I also had a little something made for myself." He reached under his heavy cloak and pulled an intricate ebony mask from a hidden pocket within. The mask was a fascinatingly beautiful raven's head, complete with etched feathers, eyes, and a beak. He slipped it onto his face and the eyes started to glow gray. She was sure in the darkness it would look absolutely eerie. Perhaps not quite as evil as her own looked with the glowing red, but it fit him just fine.
"I take it you plan to join me in human form this time?" She stood from her spot on her bed and started to dig underneath it for her trunk of work supplies. It held all her favorite daggers, poisons, clothing, and other various tools used for killing.
"Oh yes. I can't fly in this setting and I'd rather have your back than just leave you to have all the fun alone. I invited Midnight but she has her own thing going on tonight. Not sure what, but she said to have a good time anyway." He pulled the mask back off his face and tucked it away securely.
"Perhaps there's more than one group seeking to destroy this thin veil of peace and she's going to go have fun all by herself. Wouldn't surprise me." Talia looked at her leather suit with a twinge of excitement. The dark black leather was practically shining under the dim candlelight. She pulled it free from the trunk and turned to the bathroom where she'd change.
From there she could hear Nico pacing as he mulled over her idea. It would be no surprise to them of course that people were upset with her newfound hold over the city. While most had accepted her with open arms, there were a fair few more unwilling to yield to a non-human.
"By my count nearly all of the previous hierarchy are meeting to plan a way to overthrow you. They've decided to meet underground in one of the only establishments with a stone basement. The place is called Horatio's Wine Cellar, it's a sort of upscale type bar that serves only the previous Duke's wine." Talia finished changing while Nico filled her in on the details. While she was buttoning up the last parts of her suit she contemplated Horatio's. She had helped rebuild it in the hopes that the new selected dukedom would take advantage of the business but so far wine was not on anyone's priority list.
"So they dare to bare their teeth at me within that wretched place? Perhaps I'll give that Duke of wine a harsh lesson on why it's unwise to cross me." She smiled as she returned to toss her more respectable clothes onto the bed. With this latest betrayal she saw no need for the wine bar to remain open. Nor did she see a reason for it to remain standing.
"I think the first lesson will stick well enough." Nico sniggered, hiding his toothy grin behind a pale hand. She shrugged,
"Perhaps, but death isn't always the end for worms like these. Their rot sinks into every corner dark enough to harbor it. I'll make sure there's no shadows for that mentality to hide away." She grabbed a heavy cloak from a hook on the wall and threw it over herself making sure the hood covered her horns enough so that they wouldn't be easily seen. Ever since her loss of control those several months ago the twin black horns refused to retreat back into her head no matter her attempts to force them back.
Once she stepped out Nico followed her quickly, not once straying more than five steps from her left hip. His own hood covered him so much so that he looked like a vengeful wraith floating across the gray and white stonework of the castle. Luckily for them Talia stood a good two heads taller than even the tallest man in the castle. Not a single guard questioned who they were despite their bundled and shady figures. That would change once they were outside however, Talia knew that well. The guards were well trained to try and quell violence, she only hoped they'd keep their noses out of it long enough for her to sate her thirst for violence. No one needed to see that side of her even though the whole city knew what she was capable of.
"Anything for a plan?" She asked quietly enough as not to disturb the people bustling around them. Nico slid a little closer to her before answering,
"My plan was pretty much smash in the front door and catch them all red handed. From there administer the maximum punishment. Lock all the exits with magic and cut them up like the little sausages they are." If Talia didn't know him any better she would have guessed that Nico was about as bloodthirsty as she was for once.
"That's about what I was thinking." She nodded as if she had formed a plan at all. Truth be told she was letting him steer their little ship, all she was doing was sticking around for the horrific violence soon to ensue.
"It's close to the castle so we'll have to be very careful about alerting the guards. You can put up the lock and I'll shield the sound. For time I'd say ten minutes to mete out punishment tops, then we leave. While you carry the legal right to do this it doesn't mean the people will greet it with welcoming smiles." He warned lightly as they exited the castle and struck out across the courtyard. Already the snow was starting to build up on the road and the crowds were starting to disperse. It was almost perfect to keep their little plan a secret.
Nico was true to his words, the winery was not far down the main street. Talia took in the polished shine to it, the dark wood shining under the moisture of the new snow. It even had expertly cleaned windows which looked in to a beautiful interior. She almost felt bad for the imminent destruction. Almost.
"They should be in the basement. No one at the counter..." Nico noted as the stepped up to the double doorway entrance. She looked over the heavy dark wood and the shiny metal handles which curled in intricate designs. It screamed of wealth and blue-blood clientele. But old world clientele.
She tried the doors only to find them locked. She raised a brow and smiled, it was nothing at all to use a little magic to break the locking mechanisms and force the doors open. They slammed into the walls, a fitting announcement of their arrival. Already she could hear the scrambling of chairs and slurry of hushed voices from below.
"Who the hell dares to break into my establishment?" an older voice burst forth from the stairway before a wizened man popped his head up. Talia recognized the owner as a prominent man at the daily court sessions. He had a long graying beard and dark brown eyes which were hidden beneath a brow of bushy eyebrows.
"Hello Horatio." She purred as she stepped into the entryway. His eyes grew wide as he scrambled back down the stairway. She was almost laughing as he screamed at all his little cohorts about their presence. How the queen had come to kill them all. She pulled her dagger from the sheath at her hip and slowly lead Nico down the stairs.
"Call the guards!" Horatio screamed to the other ex-nobles. Of course no one could, there was no way out from the basement. They were all well and truly fucked, especially when she reached the bottom of the stairs.
Talia stopped with both feet flat on the stone floor as she looked around the room. The cellar was full of racks holding what she assumed had to be very expensive bottles of aged grape juice. It was also full to the brim with angry faced people in basically rags. They no longer looked the part of their blue blooded heritage but they did act it well enough. She should have known better really, that they wouldn't just give up their titles and possessions without a fight. Hell in the end they were willing to die for their old titles.
"You!" One of the more built men spat, he had messy brown hair and a face that hadn't seen a good razor in a long time. She recalled him being a Duke that sat outside the castle walls overseeing valuable farmland he squandered, instead he had turned towards unlawful trading to build his fortune and monopolizing on rare imports.
"Aye, it's me." She slipped her mask onto her face with the familiar tug of magic. She could hear Nico donning his own mask as well behind her. Once they had done that the traitors started to creep backwards instead of forwards, their faces twisting in fear and horror at the realization of who they truly faced.
"You... You're the Hound?!" Horatio stammered, his thickly accented voice barely understandable when it was so saturated in fear. She looked to him first, perhaps he should learn why it was unwise to host a traitorous event within her kingdom.
Instead of answering him she flipped her dagger expertly in the air with a sickening smile they were all lucky to be unable to see. The moment the tip landed on her finger she flung it forward with as much force as she could muster. The dagger blew through Horatio's head like a cannon ball and into the man behind him where it embedded itself firmly into the chest cavity of its second victim. Horatio fell dead in an instant while the other man fell to his knees much more slowly, a sick sucking noise grating from his teeth as he took every dying breath his waning strength could muster.
"Well now you have no weapon!" Another man screamed. That man pulled a large knife from his own hip and lunged at her. She did laugh at this as she slammed the man aside with a fist. He didn't have even a moment to scream out in pain as he crashed through the wine racks and into the stone wall on the other side. She could feel his blood dripping even through the leather of her gloves.
"Who ever said I needed a knife to kill anybody? Raven, make sure none escape." She ordered lightly as she stepped forward. The women tried to run past her like rats but Nico took his orders seriously. Two daggers appeared from beneath his black robes and before anyone could blink two women lay at his feet dead, throats cut down to bone.
"Monsters!" An older voice howled. That was all she needed to spur her forward in an explosion of killing violence. Of course the humans tried their hardest to evade her but it was nigh on impossible to escape when she was like a bull in a tiny shop. She snatched her knife from the dead man's chest and started rending limbs from bodies, usually arms or even legs. Heads were too easy of course, and she wanted their souls to recall the lesson she was teaching far beyond the gates of death.
In the end her killing spree was all too short, it ended before she could even revel in the sounds of dying pleas. Her victims passed on to the next world without so much as a cry for pity or mercy. In fact all had died spitting their hatred at her. How could she feel anything but sheer contempt for humans unwilling to see the error of their ways. She stood in the center of the now decimated room and looked downwards at the blood and gore that spread into every corner and orifice. She could smell the acrid metallic tones of blood but it was quickly becoming overcome with the scent of wine.
"Well, this did a little for me but I'm still pissed." She murmured irately; sliding the knife blade across her thigh she looked around and pondered what else she could do to assuage the embers of rage slowly burning within.
'Burn down the place, do not let the people give them a proper burial.' Reezara's voice was a surprising yet welcome intrusion into her mind. Even more welcome was the advice.
'That's quite smart, perhaps I'll do just that.' There was no perhaps about it of course, she was going to burn it down. Already her left hand flickered with angry and red flames.
"Excuse me, it may come as a surprise to you but I'm still quite human and susceptible to fire. Perhaps you can do that upstairs where I am safely outside, rather than over this growing pool of very flammable liquid." Nico stepped up the stairs carefully while watching her stand ominously over the pile of dead. Talia laughed and turned to follow him back upstairs.
"Alright, alright. No need to be so anxious, I'd never let anything happen to my favorite human." She used her other hand to urge him up the stairs a little faster. It wouldn't be long before guards came to sniff about and she wanted to be safely in her room before the excitement started.
Nico took no prodding to slip out the front door and upwards towards the castle while she paused and took stock of her options. The upper room was also full of alcohol, all the bottles acting as future bombs with the heat of her fire. But she wanted things to start slowly before she could be caught committing arson. So with a final smile she threw a small ball of fire onto the floor in front of an elegant wine rack. It would devour its fuel slowly giving them plenty of time to retire to the castle once more. Perhaps she'd bought them an hour, she couldn't be sure, but it was enough for her to follow Nico with no worry.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone