forum Branwen the Ninth (OxO closed)

Started Jul 06 by @lavender_ladybug group

tune

Branwen cursed as she felt the life fall away from her creature.

The snake crumbled back into pathetic beads on the ground, at least until they were whisked away back to their master's hand across the muddy street. Ezra was sharp today; this fight wouldn't be quick or easy. Branwen couldn't say she expected anything else. A new tactic, then, one that required a more direct approach. Unfortuantwly, now she didn't have the advantage of surprise.

Bran sent out more bones into the sea of people, more this time, enough to construct a child-sized skeleton wielding a bone dagger. With her hand outstretched to control her champion, she had the bony thing lunge at Ezra with its weapon.

Ezra was surprised, but slightly unfazed, walking up to it, alongside her Shadow guardian.. the Shadow Guardian slightly got wounded by the dagger.. but it fazed through the shadows and went behind it, picking it up and slamming it on the ground, making the bone slightly crack, as Ezra didn't do anything.. just look at what was going on with a sadistic smile on her face, before looking back at Branwen, walking up to her.. now face to face.

"Hello, Bran. That wasn't quite a warm welcome, now was it?" She'd say in a sarcastic way as her Shadow Creation kept beating up Bran's Skeleton, but it got a few slashes in.. wounding the Shadow Creation a bit more.. they just battled it out.

"It seems like you got better at creations, hm? That'll be a pain in my arse.." She mumbled that last sentence under his breath quietly, looking away with an annoyed expression.. before looking back at Bran, annoyed.

"Why are you even here? And what did I do to deserve being attacked in the first place, Bran?"

Some of the skeleton's bones jostled loose as it was sent the ground, but with Bran's help, put its shoulder back in its socket and clambered back up to keep fighting. Ducking, stabbing, slashing, stumbling, both taking and dealing blows like a champ.

Bran stiffened as Ezra approached. She clutched a small bone dagger of her own made with leftover beads, just in case. Her eyes darted back and forth from their conversation and their creatures' fight, distracted. "You're a thief, Pheonix. That's enough to arrest you," she said flatly. After a moment of comsideration she added, "And you're awfully close to committing an act of treason on top of that." That is if Ezra took her bait and attacked her. Branwen's fingers curled tighter around the dagger. "Our pets are preoccupied. You could attack me yourself. Or you could come with me peacefully back to the temple to stand trial."

Ezra's expression went from annoyance to stotic, her eyelids low and she was quite unamused. She knew what kind of game Bran was playing, and she wasn't stupid.. far from it, actually. Who the hell did she think she was ordering her around like she's the boss of her? Hell no.. she's not standing for that.

"Who do you think you are, Bran? I would never hurt you, but you're pushing my goddamn limits over here.. you were trying to kill me by sending a fucking Bone Skeleton to try and kill me, what the hell was that?.." Ezra would say, quite annoyed and disappointed at how much she changed over the years.. they used to be quite good friends.

Ezra rolled her eyes, making direct eye contact with Bran still, putting her hand on her hip, towering over her.. Bran was always the taller person around, but she most likely felt quite intimidated by being the shortest one in this interrogating situation.

"We used to be friends.. why do you hate me so much?.. I know you don't wanna fight me." She'd say, quite annoyed and disappointed in a way.. but she feigned violence.. she was quite manipulative, but Bran could see right through her innocent Façade.

Bran was no stranger to the art of making herself appear taller. Compensating for her short stature, she relied on heeled boots and a raised dais to exert power over her subjects. The one person she could never tower over, however, was Ezra. Now she had to lift her chin to maintain eye contact. Humiliating.

Her face puckered like she bit into one of the sour fruits that were imported from the fourth house on special occasions. She shoved a finger into Ezra's chest. "Who the hell do you think you are? Sneaking around with goddamned demons." She scoffed. "You're practically spitting on everything my parents brought you into. You're practically spitting on me."

Ezra scoffed at Bran's words, and rolled her eyes.. putting her hands in her pockets, she was annoyed.. really annoyed.. and it didn't help that she poked her in the chest either.. she then sighed, her tone becoming slightly manipulative and soft.

"As I said before, I know you don't wanna fight me.. Bran. We used to be friends, we used to pull pranks on the townsfolk.. but you changed. Something changed. Why the fuck do you hate me so much?! I don't get it." Ezra said, her tone is soft and manipulative.. but something else was in there.. hurt? Betrayal? It didn't feel right and made Ezra feel uneasy.. the hurt and betrayal were genuine.. Bran could see that.

Bran was no stranger to the art of making herself appear taller. Compensating for her short stature, she relied on heeled boots and a raised dais to exert power over her subjects. The one person she could never tower over, however, was Ezra. Now she had to lift her chin to maintain eye contact. Humiliating.

Her face puckered like she bit into one of the sour fruits that were imported from the fourth house on special occasions. She shoved a finger into Ezra's chest. "Who the hell do you think you are? Sneaking around with goddamned demons." She scoffed. "You're practically spitting on everything my parents brought you into. You're practically spitting on me."

(Sorry for responding late, I had a rough sleep.)

(No worries!)

Branwen was quiet for a long moment as she searched her old friend's expression for any weakness. There she found irritation—unsurprising—and some insincerity in those familiar eyes. As much as Bran knew how manipulative Ezra could be, the softness in those words pressed at her heart's scars.

In their youth it had been fun to plot together. To run around the temple's halls, planting trip wire connected to buckets of bone slurry that tipped over onto unsuspecting priests' heads. Bran always got in trouble for that.

"We're not kids anymore, Nix," she said lower, almost sad, and planted her bone dagger into Ezra's abdomen.

A victim of nostalgia, Bran hoped in the back of her mind that she could trust her knowledge of human anatomy and avoid the most fatal places. She was a specialist of bone and not flesh, after all.

As Ezra got stabbed in the abdomen.. it wasn't too deep to fatally and quickly kill her. It honestly and really hurt a lot.. coughing blood out of her mouth and spitting it on the ground as she looked Bran straight in the eyes and smiled sadistically.. what a deranged individual.

Ezra chuckled dryly and raspily continued to look at Bran, smiling sadistically.. before spitting and coughing out a little bit of blood.. feeling betrayed.. she never knew Bran had the amount of guts to even stab her.

"You're right, we aren't kids anymore.." She'd say, a demented tone and manipulative one in her voice as the Shadow figure came behind Ezra, picking her up and running off, leaping in a disclosed location quickly.. the small dagger is still in her abdomen.. it slightly poured out blood like tears streaming down a person's cheek.

"Ezra!" She leapt forward as if she could catch the thief's hand before the demon whisked her away to safety, but the two were gone before Branwen even finished her name. She was left standing alone and bereft in the alley. Well, apart from the skeleton limping back towards its master. The thing looked a mess with several bones out of place, hardly a human skeleton at all.

Branwen stretched out her hand to catch it, dismantle it into beads, and store them in her pocket. Her pockets were notably lighter with the rest of the bones lodged in Ezra's belly. A failed mission and lost ammo. "Shit," she muttered, and straightened the cloak around her shoulders. Time to head home.

Ezra was.. long gone. The Shadow Figure brought Ezra to a nearby Alleyway.. she was bleeding out a bit, but it was alright so far.. She coughed slightly. Ezra couldn't really move that well, it felt like a punch in the gut. The dagger was still implanted in her abdomen, she didn't pull it out because she didn't want blood loss.

"God dammit-.." She'd mutter, breathing slightly and heavily as she got up.. trembling a bit.

Her adrenaline rushed as she thought of how she was gonna get out of this.. she got out of things worse than this usually.. but this is different. This was the REVERAND DAUGTER. The one she used to play pranks on people with.. but this isn't that. It was a battle between broken friends.

"Didn't see that coming.." She'd say, sighing and annoyed.

It was a long walk home for Branwen, not for the distance, but the world around her seemed to move forward in slow motion. She arrived at the entrance to the temple with a flock of worried guards crowding around her. They asked her questions, most of them she couldn't hear over the blood rushing through her ears, but she made out: Reverand Daughter, are you hurt? …Reverand Daughter, where did you go? …Reverand Daughter why didn't you take one of us with you? Her only reply was to hand one of them her cloak.

When she made it to her rooms, Bran took comfort in her evening routine. Undress. Brush sweat and dirt from her hair. Rinse her mouth with water. After, she slipped into bed and pulled the covers over her ears. Alone.

"Good god, what happened to you?" Someone from the market, a customer or merchant—it was hard to tell—approached Ezra. She wore a tunic made from several swatches of fabric; the colors clashed. "Can I help?"

Ezra slightly chuckled at the person, each chuckle made the pain feel sharp and worse.. as she coughed out a bit more blood.. looking up at them, she looked quite roughed up.. her hair was messy and ruffled.. and her mouth was stained with dry blood.

"N-No.. I'm fine, I'll be okay.. really." Ezra would say, holding her wound, limping as she would walk away from the person slowly because the wound affected the way she walked a bit, but she was mostly fine.. I just needed to go somewhere discreet.. like the woods, so she could conduct a bit of Dark Magic and heal her wound and THEN she could remove the Bone Dagger.. that would be a good piece to study.. mostly because she wanted to use Bran's bones against her.

The woman didn't look very convinced. Her posture wilted a bit with concern as she watched Ezra limp away. If she had any medical knowledge, or was even skilled in first aid more advanced than a simple scrape, she would have ran after the wounded stranger. But without any of that she could only helplessly observe. She called out, "Well…if you say so. If you change your mind my shop is just around the corner."

(Do you have a plan for the woods or would you like to skip to the morning?)

A few hours later, the sun slipped through Branwen's curtains in thin rays that landed on her face. She groaned in reply, but sat up despite such a rude intrusion—much to the protest of her sore muscles. That earned another whimper. Confronting Ezra always took every bit of her energy. Her morning routine was just as methodical as her evening, typically all that happened then but in reverse. After a few moments she exited her rooms donned in one of her everyday outfits and bags under her eyes.

She took a seat in her usual place at the dining room table, brushing her robes aside. The place across from her, and the most ornate one at the head of the table, was left set and dusty for her absentee parents. As she ate breakfast, a skeleton servant approached with an envelope resting on a silver platter.

The outside was ridiculously decorated even for her house's standards. The paper was embossed and shiny, closed with a wax seal bearing the emperor's signet. Her eyebrows lifted at that. She opened the letter:

To Whom It May Concern: His Majesty, Emperor John Domini, ruler of the nine houses, invites the Reverand and Reverand Wife, along with thine appointed Cavalier, and every ruler of the nine houses and their cavalier, to his home on the First House one week from the date of this letter, for food and beverage. Entertainment. And general schmoozing. If Who It May Concern is to deny this invitation, dire consequences should follow.

Branwen cursed. There were quite obvious requirements the emperor listed that she would not be able to provide. The Reverand and the Reverand Wife being one. Their cavalier, who went missing at the same time as her parents, being another. Her nails scraped against the wooden table. Perhaps her own presence would placate the emperor. But what of her cavalier? She needed the privacy of her study to think.

After hours of pacing in her study, the answer Branwen ended with left her nerves no less frayed: she needed to find Ezra Pheonix again.

The liklihood of Ezra staying in town after their showdown at market was slim. The liklihood of Ezra returning to her old rooms in the temple was even slimmer. The one last place she could think of where her old friend went was the woods. And so the woods was where Bran headed.

In the distance, Bran could spot smoke going into the air and sky.. It might be Ezra, might not.. the chances were a 50/50 chance.. Ezra was nearby, Cooking a Spotted Sunfish over an open flame.. slightly rolling the skewer to get the Sunfish perfectly cooked.. it was gonna be divine.. not the ideal food that she wanted to eat.. but it was enough for her to get by and survive.

"This is gonna be the best meal I've had in days.." Ezra would say to herself, her mouth practically salivating at the thought of sinking her teeth into the Sunfish.. the crispy, golden brown skin would make a satisfying crunch.

As Ezra continued cooking the Sunfish, it was finally done.. she'd take the perfectly cooked Sunfish off the open flame and sink her teeth into the Sunfish, slightly moaning in satisfaction.. this was so good.

"Oh my god.. this is pleasant." Ezra would say, sighing in satisfaction.

One of the guards had caught Bran before she left the courtyard. He was a stern man with greying hair and rough stubble, one of her parents' most trusted generals. When he implored Bran to let him come along, she refused. After some back and forth between two stubborn forces he insisted that she at least bring a guard dog. To that, she reluctantly agreed.

On her walk towards the woods a scruffy wolfhound named Argus trotted along a few paces ahead of her, a few paces behind her, and everywhere in between. Every once in a while he brushed up against her leg, prying for scratches behind the ears. She obliged.

Sooner than she expected, Bran noticed a tower of smoke drifting above the trees. She weighed the chances. 50/50. It was worth at least checking, especially with a hound at her side for protection if it was a ruffian. Or if it was Ezra.

Eventually, she wandered closer towards the campsite. "Pheonix?"

Her adrenaline was instantly activated by hearing her voice.. she couldn't cast any Shadow Demons or weapons.. but she had a Nessmuk Knife in her utility pouch on her belt. She put her hand on the utility pouch, ready to open it and stab anyone if needed.. her breathing became slightly heavy and guarded.

"What do you want, Bran." She'd say, coldly, her hand still on the utility pouch, ready to strike by any means necessary.. she was ready.

She looked around, waiting for her to come out of the forest.. she couldn't see where she was, but she heard her voice.. and that's all she needed to confirm she was close.

Argus was the first to breach the edge of the trees. He barked once, twice, then cautiously padded over to sniff the sunfish.

"For you to listen to me," Branwen replied as she emerged after the hound. The walk through the woods had pulled down her hood. She tugged at her hair, catching vagrant leaves and twigs and tossing them to the ground. Then she shook out the rest of her robe to dislodge any loose shrubbery that caught on the hem. She added under her breath, "Damn, I never understood why you liked the woods so much. Eugh."

"Anyway," she continued, "We—I have a problem."