[wm] 89.2.G - Elizabeth I quote
Takes place some time after this.
"Those who touch the sceptres of princes deserve no pity."
====================
You have accepted power. With it, you must accept the consequences.
The sound makes him cringe, but he finds that it doesn't weaken him the way it once did. His stomach knots harder, he feels dizzier, less powerful...but not weak. He can stand tall before it, he can at least pretend that he's not about to die. It's a lie, but a comforting one. At the moment, he'll take what he can get.
“These aren't consequences, you son of a bitch. This is a blatant attack on me and mine.”
And your little visit wasn't? Don't test me, Titan. You walked into my sanctuary. You thought to frighten Fear itself and you had no grounds. Since you left us, we have been preparing for this.
It has been, too. He can tell by how many have come to this meeting. In all his life, all of his lives, he's never seen a nightclub so full of people and yet so still, so quiet. Every dancer, every customer is a faceless shade lost in the power that corrupted whoever the souls had been before they sold their souls.
This isn't a negotiation, this is an ambush. He let Zee's death make him careless and stupid, and now Carbone was paying for it.
“What'd you do to him?” He doesn't recognize his own voice, doesn't want to recognize the thing he hears in it. He'll give them no power, no sign of surrender...
We took his life. Only you can give it back by acquiescing.
They cut him off from the source of power, it had to be. Why else would Aunt Zephyr be unable to hear Carbone? She was powerful enough to pick him out anywhere in the city. Why else would he feel that loss, that nagging sense that something was missing? He was so used to sensing his cousin's presence...
We will take others. We will take her.
His head snapped up, his energy fading as bloodlust rose in him, simple and perfect. “You won't touch her.”
She will be last. We will take others, every one permitted us. Every avatar, old and young...and we will end with her. Your marriage will make her ours. Her life will bind to you and she will be fair game. Isolation will destroy you long before we do.
“I could just walk outta here.”
You will be killed. Then they will all die. The only way you will spare lives is to cooperate.
“Yeah, like you're so fucking trustworthy.”
The Darkness stirred somewhere beyond his sight, its message moving through its servants and into his being through a filter of corruption. Still, it was enough to keep from killing him.
Honesty will end you. It serves us now...a business arrangement. You will relive your awakening. You will fail. You will die.
The images filled his mind one by one, pale shadows of stark, black and white truth. The note in his voice was filling him, blossoming into something dangerous and, in the presence of his enemies, deadly on a literal level. Handcuffs, locks, a massive crowd with nothing to give him and a certainty that everything would fall apart around him...
You have no choice. This is the only one that gives you any hope.
It was an escape of Evil's design, one that would have killed him if not for unseen angels...angels he would not have this time.
Shutting his eyes, his head bowed as he drew a shaky sigh.
“Deal.”
Swear it.
“By the shackles that bind me in service to the power...I swear.”
The oath would take him to his grave, permanently...but if he could save her life this time, it was a death worth facing.
He had accepted his power...and now he was accepting the consequences.
Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 636
"Those who touch the sceptres of princes deserve no pity."
====================
You have accepted power. With it, you must accept the consequences.
The sound makes him cringe, but he finds that it doesn't weaken him the way it once did. His stomach knots harder, he feels dizzier, less powerful...but not weak. He can stand tall before it, he can at least pretend that he's not about to die. It's a lie, but a comforting one. At the moment, he'll take what he can get.
“These aren't consequences, you son of a bitch. This is a blatant attack on me and mine.”
And your little visit wasn't? Don't test me, Titan. You walked into my sanctuary. You thought to frighten Fear itself and you had no grounds. Since you left us, we have been preparing for this.
It has been, too. He can tell by how many have come to this meeting. In all his life, all of his lives, he's never seen a nightclub so full of people and yet so still, so quiet. Every dancer, every customer is a faceless shade lost in the power that corrupted whoever the souls had been before they sold their souls.
This isn't a negotiation, this is an ambush. He let Zee's death make him careless and stupid, and now Carbone was paying for it.
“What'd you do to him?” He doesn't recognize his own voice, doesn't want to recognize the thing he hears in it. He'll give them no power, no sign of surrender...
We took his life. Only you can give it back by acquiescing.
They cut him off from the source of power, it had to be. Why else would Aunt Zephyr be unable to hear Carbone? She was powerful enough to pick him out anywhere in the city. Why else would he feel that loss, that nagging sense that something was missing? He was so used to sensing his cousin's presence...
We will take others. We will take her.
His head snapped up, his energy fading as bloodlust rose in him, simple and perfect. “You won't touch her.”
She will be last. We will take others, every one permitted us. Every avatar, old and young...and we will end with her. Your marriage will make her ours. Her life will bind to you and she will be fair game. Isolation will destroy you long before we do.
“I could just walk outta here.”
You will be killed. Then they will all die. The only way you will spare lives is to cooperate.
“Yeah, like you're so fucking trustworthy.”
The Darkness stirred somewhere beyond his sight, its message moving through its servants and into his being through a filter of corruption. Still, it was enough to keep from killing him.
Honesty will end you. It serves us now...a business arrangement. You will relive your awakening. You will fail. You will die.
The images filled his mind one by one, pale shadows of stark, black and white truth. The note in his voice was filling him, blossoming into something dangerous and, in the presence of his enemies, deadly on a literal level. Handcuffs, locks, a massive crowd with nothing to give him and a certainty that everything would fall apart around him...
You have no choice. This is the only one that gives you any hope.
It was an escape of Evil's design, one that would have killed him if not for unseen angels...angels he would not have this time.
Shutting his eyes, his head bowed as he drew a shaky sigh.
“Deal.”
Swear it.
“By the shackles that bind me in service to the power...I swear.”
The oath would take him to his grave, permanently...but if he could save her life this time, it was a death worth facing.
He had accepted his power...and now he was accepting the consequences.
Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 636