Jaina / Fifth Tome
Who: Jaina, Cornelia, Raven, Noctaere (????????????)
Where: Ghost Ship & Ruins
Style: Third
Status: Closed
The ship had started to slow as it had approached the strange-looking ruins, and so naturally Jaina had gone to look for Cornelia and Raven - they'd boarded the ship together, and should leave it together, especially when they didn't know what ( Read more... )
Where: Ghost Ship & Ruins
Style: Third
Status: Closed
The ship had started to slow as it had approached the strange-looking ruins, and so naturally Jaina had gone to look for Cornelia and Raven - they'd boarded the ship together, and should leave it together, especially when they didn't know what ( Read more... )
Jaina kept her eyes peeled as she walked through the ruins for anything that particularly jumped out at her, or anything that radiated magic to her... but nothing came to her.
She was so lost in concentration that she almost didn't hear the voices around the corner - but then she started, stopping in her tracks. Those were definitely Raven and Cornelia's voices ahead of her, and she breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that the two of them hadn't gotten lost or anything. She'd have to ask them if they'd found any clues here in the ruins -
- and then she stopped very very still as she rounded the corner, seeing the man and women together in a rather suggestive embrace, her lips up near his ear, her hands on his waist.
Jaina knew she really ought to duck back out before they noticed her - she was intruding, after all - but for some reason her legs wouldn't obey her commands. So she stood and stared, though she didn't make a sound.
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"Who needs tellin'?" was all he said before he turned his face and kissed her on the lips, pulling her closer to him as he did.
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A moment later, her hands had moved from his waist and they were entangling themselves in the back of his hair as she deepened the kiss.
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There was an uncomfortable tightening in her chest, though she chalked it up to just normal surprise - and finally she got her feet to obey her. Jaina slipped back around the corner, though not as quickly (or as stealthily) as she'd have liked.
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He stepped away from Cornelia, a hand reaching back to where his bow was compacted in its blade form in case it might be some random creature.
"Someone over there?"
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Besides, she could explore the ruins more easily on her own, right? Jaina hurried down the halls, turning a corner before slowing down, satisfied that they wouldn't be following her.
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"I..." She began, but Cornelia saw a motion that she found strangely familiar even before Schwann had turned around. And like him, she had an uneasy feeling forming in the pit of her stomach as well. However, it was not for the same reason he did. "I... think it was Jaina," she said quietly. Cornelia had only known the girl for a short while, but there was no mistaking the blond hair and cloak.
She couldn't explain it, but knowing that Jaina might have seen them caused an uncomfortable lump to form in her throat. She recalled the relaxed exchange between the two, where Jaina had leaned on Schwann after his battle and vice versa, and it was at that moment that she had begun to feel slightly guilty for allowing herself to have any sort of sentimental attachment to the man. She didn't understand why, but she couldn't exactly control her instincts.
Cornelia had compared herself many times to Jaina and had already decided that she was, by a landslide, the better woman. Especially in a world of magic. She was many things that the Britannian princess was not, all of which were positive qualities and attributes that Cornelia could both admire and respect. Putting her arms around herself, she shivered as a cold wind blew up the back of her legs.
"I'm going to go find her," she told him, lavender eyes raising up to look up at him.
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Was that why he suddenly had this weird feeling of guilt? Like a kid who got caught trying to steal from the cookie jar?
Raven looked down at Cornelia, noticed her shiver and considered giving her his jacket...but if she was going to see Jaina, it probably wouldn't be the best idea.
"...All right," he finally said, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Want my jacket?" he asked, more out of courtesy though he wouldn't be surprised if she refused for the same reason he didn't just put it around her already.
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And after seeing him again, outside of that room and in the open air, she was terrified of how much she actually cared for him. Cornelia suddenly felt a bit nauseous and panicked over what she had gotten herself into. What if Jaina really did like him... what would she do?
The answer was pretty clear. She would just walk away from the situation. There was no way she could continue caring for a person that her friend did. Jaina had known him first and she had seen all of the wonderful qualities in him while Cornelia had stubbornly denied everything about him that she'd secretly grown fond of.
She swallowed, her hand reaching out to take his in a loose grasp for a moment before letting it fall away. "No thank you," she said in a very controlled voice. "I'll be going now." Turning away from him, she walked a couple of steps before she broke out into a run.
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It would be easier if her thoughts wouldn't keep returning to what she'd seen earlier. Cornelia and Raven - they'd looked so happy in each other's arms, so romantic, so intimate...
No, no, no. She wasn't going to think about it, and she wasn't going to think about why something was vaguely starting to ache within her chest every time she returned to that very recent memory. There was... absolutely no reason for her to be upset, after all. They were two of her close friends, and Jaina would be happy at their fortune.
She would be. Anything else would just be... well, it wouldn't make sense, now would it?!
Jaina thought she saw a book with the title written in what almost looked like Gnomish... she leaned in closer, frowning to get a better look in the dim halls, grateful for anything to take her mind off the matter at hand.
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It was one of the shadow monsters that she'd encountered the night she'd first met Cornelia - and at the mental association, her eyes widened. There might be more of them... and in that case, people could be in danger!
Other shadows moved in the dark, and Jaina almost breathed a sigh of relief. There were more of them, yes... but they were in here with her. Maybe not the best scenario, but the Archmage was quite confident in her abilities to handle the monsters. She'd... done it before, hadn't she?
There looked like there were three or four of them, hissing in a pitch Jaina felt more than heard, and crowding around her, loping through the darkness so the only way that she could keep track of them was by the glowing embers of their eyes. But that was fine by her.
Besides, Jaina was going to feel... oddly good about getting to unleash. ...and she didn't really want to think about why. Because the only image that came to mind when she did was that of Raven and Cornelia in each others ar--right. Okay, none of that. Focus time.
"Frost Nova!"
Waves of azure energy burst out with her at the epicenter, and anything it touched in the room was suddenly encased in a good three or four inches of ice, about as high as Jaina's waist. With the Noctaere immobilized from the waist down like this, she could... deal with them at her leisure.
Jaina's eyes flashed as she moved around the three beasts frozen in place - three? Weren't there four? ... I must have miscounted. - so that she was now between them and the door out of here: if they wanted to get to anyone else, they had to get through her.
She scowled at them, dashing her staff against the ground. "Freezing Field!" It was the spell she'd used on the sand-shark, and by far her most lethal. Little bubbles of ice formed in the air around the Noctaere, suddenly bursting, releasing not only waves of destructive magical energy, but countless little razor-shards of ice that would slice through the flesh of anything unlucky enough to be caught within the blast. Of course, to them, it wouldn't be fatal ... she just hoped that it would hurt.
In fact, Jaina was so consumed in channeling the spell - keeping the barrage going around the trapped monsters - that she didn't notice the fourth Noctaere slide out of the shadows behind her, raising an inky-black blade that didn't glitter in her azure light.
shunk
She froze in place, the torrent of icy power coming to a slow halt - the Frost Nova wouldn't hold for much longer without her maintaining it - to look down at her stomach. There was a dark red stain spreading across her robe, and about an inch or so of something made out of shadow protruding from her body ... which then disappeared as the Noctaere pulled its appendage back.
F-funny... it didn't hurt like she'd... like she'd expected...
But then all Jaina knew was that her vision was blurring and her knees were giving out. And then darkness clouded her eyes, and she didn't know much of anything at all.
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It was so cold out. Cornelia could barely feel her fingers anymore, and she half wondered if she should have just accepted Schwann’s jacket. It had been the furthest thing from her mind at the time, but the winds were very strong and she was having a difficult time keeping her limbs from going numb on her. Stopping to catch her breath, she leaned her hand against a weathered wall, taking a few deep inhales and exhales. The air was so thick with frost that it was burning her throat. Looking around, she wondered if she should take a rest. The notion was quickly thwarted when she recalled that brief glimpse of blond hair.
Cornelia had been in several instances where she could have told Jaina about Schwann. It really wasn’t until they were in the jeep that she had realized how familiar the other woman was with him. Truthfully, it had made her very angry with herself. Angry for constantly pushing him away and angry for her desire to draw him close. She leaned her forehead against the hand still supporting her on the wall. Closing her eyes, she found herself envisioning them together… Schwann pulling several of his ‘too close for comfort’ moves and Jaina smiling and laughing… it was something that had looked so perfect to her. From where she had been crouching behind that crate, she had wondered why the other woman didn’t become coarse with him or yell at him.
She was about to move on when she felt the wall underneath her hand shaking slightly. With a bit of shock registering in her eyes, she took a quick step back, her hand on the hilt of her sword immediately. “What… was…?” And as if the world around her suddenly had sunk to darkness, she felt that foreboding sense from before resurfacing in her heart. “Noctaere?” Her eyes widened. “Jaina…” The word had barely escaped her mouth before she was heading into the building. In a matter of seconds, she was in some sort of dark library and had heard the familiar chanting spells, along with high pitched hissing.
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“NO!” Cornelia screamed, her legs shifting into a more stable footing. The scream was for both of them, however. Her eyes flickered to Jaina briefly to make sure she was still conscious and then they were on that horrible shadow who had just noticed her presence. Around them, the other Noctaere were beginning to break free of their ice enclosures. She can’t form her magic like this. Raising her gun, she pointed it so that it was aimed dead center. “Come on, you fucking coward,” she pronounced coldly, the sound of her bullet leaving the barrel and hitting the Noctaere square in the chest.
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She looked up at the creature that had skewered her, one final thought running through her head - I am going to die - but then the monster turned suddenly... and staggered backwards as something hit its chest.
Even through blurred vision, she could see the woman's fuchsia hair, and despite herself, a weak smile found its way onto her lips. "C-Cornelia..."
Had she said it out loud, or just in her mind? Jaina couldn't tell anymore.
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She swung her up easily, and situated her on her shoulder as best as she could for her size. Grabbing her gun, she hurried from the room as she detected the sound of splintering ice and the heightened pitch of hissing behind her. She didn’t have time to look back, so she aimed over her shoulder, praying that her ears would be good enough to find her targets. It wasn't long before she felt it soaking through, Jaina's life spilling out of her and onto her shoulder. Cornelia's eyes narrowed in determination as she bent her knees a bit more and quickened her pace. One Noctaere appeared by her side. Clenching her teeth and turning her body so that it couldn’t harm Jaina, she continued running while thrusting the blade of her gun upward into the monster’s face.
A deafening scream came from the Noctaere, and as perverse as it might have been, Cornelia found her lips grinning in pleasure. But, she didn’t give it much time for recovery. Pulling out of the place where her blade had sunk into its head, she followed up with a few shots in the same place. That aught to keep that wound from healing for a bit. She saw the doors ahead, and swerving on her heal, she turned her back on the door to face the Shadows that were trailing closely behind. Cornelia fired off several shots, making sure to hit the critical areas in each of them in an effort to slow them down. A moment later, she was bursting through the doors and heading out into the sunlight.
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