Ask Breaker Of Chains

[The Storyteller]

City Streets
[B]Ryssa Kalayli[/B]
The Ninja

Spoiler: Music OOC

I am not a man.
I am the wind.
I am its silence.
I am the breeze.
I am the air when it breathes.
I am not a man.
I am every man.

A man tells himself in the street.
He lies—he’s a liar—but he goes unseen.

“GO! EVERYONE GO!”
He shouts across the road.

He’s yelling just like everyone else.
Unlike everyone else, a man is not quite himself.

He sees her.
He seeks her.

He’s pretending.
Acting.
All an act to this man.

Others rush beside him, everyone fleeing.
They’re frightened, running away from the bleeding.
It would happen soon, one man knew, behind him, as blade bites blade.
But his is a different blade—a dagger—and he carries it like a shade.

He seeks her.
He sees her.

“This way!”
He pleads to her.
After all, the man is in the uniform of a police officer.
“Please, Governor Kalayli! Our own needs you right away! Only a foreign official can interrupt a Karazakan duel!”

And if she didn’t believe the man?
Well, she could consult her datapad and find her a better match.

@Sicadorito

 

[Mazeryl Xiron]

City Streets
Mazeryl Xiron
Hur

Spoiler: Music OOC

Terels.
They called themselves.
That was swell.
They’d die feral.
Wild and helpless!

For them to do this, as powerful as House Terel was, was beyond traitorous.
Karazak could turn its turrets, its blasters, against these barbarians.
Karazak could kill itself too and, if it did, it would be for breaking taboo.

The Terels had come in the form of their son, whether by blood, a cur called Hur.
He rallied his weeds, weeds that were dry, weeds that would burn.
Like that fire in the background, all that smoke in the blaze.
Mine are the vines woven in between…vines in a maze!

Then it came.

Hur of House Terel had presented the terms of the duel.
Simply put: Kill. You.
Maze would have it no other way.

“I accept.”
A lady states, simply put.
“Your death.”
Foot follows foot.

A lady walks, hilt in right hand, sword of nights, blade of days.
A lady walks...
A lady in a maze…

@Sicadorito

 

[The Storyteller]

City Streets
Mazeryl Xiron vs. Hur
​

The woman was confident. Had the fighting spirit fit for a Terel. But she was on the wrong side, and she refused to accept the fact that she was burning the future of Karazak as much as the Terels had burned her flag.

“This ends today.” Hur walked forward to meet Maze, keeping his chin up and his back straight. “Your life, not mine. Long live Karazak!”

It echoed behind him from the voices of his warriors, and Hur’s sword pointed forward.

“You’re going to die today, traitor. Painfully.” It was a whisper too quiet for anyone else to hear. The woman didn’t deserve an honorable death if she had given up her honor, and even though the members of his own house might disagree, they would never hear about it anyway.

So, he wouldn’t wait for her reaction before slicing downwards at her right shoulder with his sword, aiming to cleave her in two.

@Die Shize

 

[Ryssa Kalayli]

A police officer approached her just then, and Ryssa could hear the chants and the ringing of blades in the crowd. This is a lot more than a fire. She had no idea what was going on, why they were fighting, but things were bad either way.

“Are you sure? I thought you had some sort of honor system in your duels. I have the feeling that an outsider would be the last person you’d want to stop them,” she said hesitantly, before her guard came up to her again. Though instead of snapping at him again, at the thought of all the fighting going on, she was glad that there was someone here who knew a thing or two about it. Maybe if he came along?

“Alright. I’ll see what I can do. You coming?” she finally agreed, flashing her guard a glance. He gave her a look of mild frustration before finally letting up.

“I’m not going to be able to stop you from going, so yes. Lead the way, officer, but don’t try anything funny.” Paranoid as usual, I see.

@Die Shize

 

[The Storyteller]

City Streets
Ryssa Kalayli
The Ninja

Spoiler: Music OOC [Recurring]

I am not a man.
I am every man.
A man with a fist.
A man with a kiss.

Sometimes, a man would admit, the fist was a kiss, the kiss was a fist.

The Governor of Ryloth listened.
Then let’s get this over with.

“And that’s why only an outsider can interrupt without breaking the rules,” the officer sought to overrule.
A governor with no voice in the duel.

Eyes shift toward a guardian—the woman’s.
Just a woman. Just a guardian.
A man had no time for this.

“Follow me!”
The police officer pleads.
Follow me.
A man needs.

“This way!”
A man leads.
But the crowd is here to stay.
Like weeds!

“Damn! Lady Xiron will be dead by the time we get through! There! The alley! Move!”
A police officer is emotional, the actor much less.
He plays the fool but a man is emotionless.

@Sicadorito

 

[Mazeryl Xiron]

City Streets
Mazeryl Xiron
Hur

Spoiler: Music OOC

There she goes…
A woman walks.
…Alone…
A woman does not talk.

The woman was confident.
Had the fighting spirit fit for a Karazakan.
Terel, Xiron, this house or that one.
Didn’t matter at the end of the day.
Right now, the woman was simply Maze.
A woman walks…a woman in a maze…

Her opponent had his chin up, back straight.
That’s good, buttercup.
Thinks a maze.
A woman won’t make you wait…

‘This ends today’, spoke Hur.
No one would disagree, not even her.

Big mistake.
Hur had to do it, huh?
Had to rile his force like a hungry horde.
Okay.

“Who owns the world!?”
A Protector asks her people.

“WE DO!”
They would echo, beaks full.

A woman lifts a blade; a kind of shrug, one might say.
“That, Hur of Terel, is the true voice of Karazak.”

A man tells a woman she’s going to die today—painfully, he adds.
A woman walked the world to stay, though, and this one never ran.

He whispers.
She whispers.
His are words, and words are wind.
Hers are echoes, of the past and of her sin.

Fine…then by the blade let me die!

Hur hurls himself forward toward the woman.
The blade comes down like a whisper in the wind.
And a woman hears it.

She steps forward toward her right, lets her foe’s blade swing by to her left.
Twists herself the same way, her own blade horizontal before chest.

Hands on hilt, honing in on the kill, Maze swings her blade with intent to harm.
Deadly metal would tear through either Hur’s back or the back of his left arm.

@Sicadorito

 

[Ryssa Kalayli]

“Alright, alright! I’m coming!” The sooner this was all over, the better. And if she could get Maze out of this duel, why not hurry? Ryssa grabbed her guard’s arm and dragged him toward the alley. It was nice to reverse the roles for a change.

“Ma’am, this is really not a good idea.” He had his comm in his free hand. “Let me call for backup.” That would have been the best thing to do, except a panicked civilian ran straight into him and knocked it out of his grip. The human who followed behind him stepped on it and cracked it open, and that was that. “Kark!” That’s not good.

She paused, debating on whether or not she was going to turn back. It would be easier to leave, maybe pull some strings, clear everything up with the press. But the man looked worried, and they’d already come this far. If Ryssa couldn’t stop the duel in time and Maze really did end up getting hurt… she didn’t know if she would be able to escape the blame on a personal level even if the media did find out.

So she pushed forward, followed the man into the alley with her guard still behind her.

“Is this a shortcut? Where’s the duel?” she demanded.

@Die Shize

 

[The Storyteller]

City Streets
Mazeryl Xiron vs. Hur Terel
​

Xiron dodged the swing as he brought his sword down, moving to the side, but Terel had expected it. When her blade came horizontal, he lifted his own up to block it, metal screeching against metal as they clashed.

“That won’t be enough,” he snarled, using his back and arms to add in a bit of extra strength to push her back. The two being apart again, he reset, both hands around the hilt of his blade and his knees bent just slightly like a Jedi or a Sith holding a lightsaber. But Hur was stronger than either. Real Karazakans were too. Xiron would soon learn it.

In a second attempt, Hur would swing his sword in a horizontal arc at her neck as he aimed to cut off the woman’s head. It would be a quick death, but it would show everyone here today just what kind of weakling they had been following. By right, he would have claim to her seat, and he was confident that Karazakans would choose to follow him should that be the case. For who would dare stand against House Terel again once she was gone?

After all, she was the only thing standing between Karazak and greatness.

@Die Shize

 

[The Storyteller]

City Streets
Ryssa Kalayli
The Ninja

Spoiler: Music OOC [Recurring]

A man is patient.
But a man can also be impatient.
Because a man is not a man.
A man is every man.

Another man moved to call for backup.
A man would not get his back up at that.
That panicked civilian?
What was it that a man had said about actors again?

There he goes again.
Here she comes again.
That woman who called herself a governor.
To this man, one governor was the same as another.

“Don’t worry! The alley cuts right back to the street!”
A man does not panic.
To a man, panic is just an act.

There was yet one act that could not be gone back on.
Life was just a show but death was the end credits’ song.

“Let me use the beacon to get reinf—HCCKKHHHH!”

A blade slides across the throat, takes a life before the man can choke.
Another shade would clean up that mess.
Dagger in right hand, blaster in left, this one levels it with a Governor’s head.

“Turn around.”
Middle of the alley, door behind the woman.
Steps lead away from the street—no, beneath it.
Blaster shifts like shifty eyes, motions for the woman to come on—move along.
“Go down.”

@Sicadorito

 

[Mazeryl Xiron]

City Streets
Mazeryl Xiron vs. Hur Terel

Spoiler: Music OOC

“Your opponent is bigger,” a man had once told a girl.
“So you must be quicker!”
The sparring sword came as father fell upon daughter.
He won that day, as he had every day.
But the day would end with Johteuge Xiron saying: “Well done, Maze.”

‘That won’t be enough’, Hur spoke.
Men. Men were such talk.
Men.
This woman, though, was one to walk all over them.
No. We’ve only just begun.

A man pushes a woman back.
But a woman does not get pushed without pushing back.

Guard against guard, sword toward sword.
Arm to arm, warrior to warrior.
Hur might have been a whore of a man but his sword was a good match for her.

Hilt in two hands, mimic your enemy, mirror the man.
Make him bleed...

His blade swings for her neck from his right to left.
She steps a sidestep to her left, pulls back her neck.
His blade swings empty and away to her right.
Her blade suddenly thrusts for his exposed throat meanwhile.

@Sicadorito

 

[Ryssa Kalayli]

He said it’s a shortcut… Ryssa tried to tell herself that, but something was seriously wrong here. An officer shouldn’t be alone. No one would just lead a diplomat into an unknown alley, even if it was a shortcut, unless…

Her guard spoke again, this time about to call for reinforcements, but right as she turned back to express her agreement she saw that he was already dead on the ground, his life seeping out of him through the cut on his neck.

Her hands flew up to her mouth, barely containing a choked-up gasp of horror as a blaster suddenly pointed at her head and the police officer ordered her to turn around and go down. Whatever was behind that door, she was certain she didn’t want to be there to see it, but what choice did she have? Swallowing and barely daring to breathe, she could only break her gaze away and follow his instructions, her mind spinning and her heart racing. Oh my god—

The door opened to receive her, but the interior was so dark that she wasn’t able to see a thing. Despite the blaster at her head, she stopped, refusing to go any further.

“What do you want?” Her voice shook with the slightest tremor. Years of experience in politics had never prepared her for this. “Whatever it is you can have it. Just- just let me go.”

@Die Shize

 

[The Storyteller]

City Streets
Mazeryl Xiron vs. Hur Terel
​

Instead of Xiron’s neck, his blade sliced through only air as she sidestepped and pulled back, and Hur growled. Blasted fool. She’s playing with me! That was anything but honorable. How dare she call herself a Karazakan if she wasn’t going to fight properly?

Just then, her blade flew at his neck just as he had done with her, and he was barely able to lean back in time to avoid it. It was only after a moment that he felt the stinging pain on the left side of his throat, felt a warm drop of blood welling up where it shouldn’t. His left hand went to wipe it away, leaving the tips of his fingers red when he looked at it and looked back at the governor.

“You’ll pay for that.”

This time he went for her knees, using his right leg to try and sweep Maze’s out from underneath her. Then, if she fell, he would stab downwards at her chest, aiming to skewer her. If she was going to fight dirty, so would he.

@Die Shize

 

[The Storyteller]

City Streets
Ryssa Kalayli
The Ninja

Spoiler: Music OOC

A man knows what he wants from a woman.
It’s not what most men might want from women.
A man wants something that only one woman can give him.
Even if it means keeping a blade pressed to her bosom.

A woman is afraid.
A man can hear a woman’s fear.
There in the darkness.
In a cold, dark place.

A governor, on the other hand, had never expected this.
Fascinating, a man thinks, what fire a storm can bring.
What storm fire brings.
With lightning in one hand, and thunder in the other, a man can kiss.

Behind them, beyond them, a city street.
Cameras at the corners had scrambled feeds.
Anyone who knew a woman was missing in this alley was already dead meat.

“What I want, Governor of Ryloth…”
A man steps closer, into the dark, closes the door behind him, so cold of heart.
“...Is your cooperation…”
Closer.
“For, if you do not…”
Scant lamp on the walls, makes a face glow, naked, faceless.
A man has no face.
“Then I will be wroth.”

A man is emotionless but, when a man has emotions, they are not his best.

"Now..."
Handgun points past Ryloth's commander.
"...Move along..."
Holds out a hand.
"But first give me your blaster.

@Sicadorito

 

[Mazeryl Xiron]

City Streets
Mazeryl Xiron vs. Hur Terel

Spoiler: Music OOC [Recurring]

Blood.
See it.
Smell it.
Taste it?
No.
Maze would settle for simply drawing it.

“Your sword is your honor,” a father taught his daughter.
“Yes, Father.”
“Do you fancy yourself a warrior, daughter?”
“Soon, Father.”
“Good. First, you must become an artist—a painter, and your sword is the paintbrush.”

Yes, Father!

A gash was no slash.
A sore throat was no severed heartbeat.
A woman needed more!
A warrior needed war!

“AGAIN!”
YES, FATHER!

Hur recoiled.
Her blood boiled.

They fought on crete, in the street.
They fought as combatants armed with swords.
And a father had taught a daughter much and more.

When your opponent swings a sword to remove your head.
Well, you generally try to evade it and bounce back for their neck.

This time he went for her knees.
Please.

A woman was a maze…
A woman is a leaf!

They were within sword’s reach.
For a leg to sweep a knee a man had to first move his feet.

Closer, come in.
Come, close in.

A woman stands, takes a stance.
Her blade is her guardian once again.
A man comes toward a woman, sends forth his right leg.
And a woman springs forth, seeing red.

She steps diagonally forward to her left.
Skips away from his right leg.
Arcs a two-handed blade toward her right.
Endeavors to sever his right leg from the rest of him around the thigh.

@Sicadorito

 

[Ryssa Kalayli]

The man shut the door behind her, and what little natural light was left faded away. The lamp wasn’t comforting, and his tone was so eerily calm that she would have felt less nervous had he been screaming at her. Her heart thumping, her breathing ragged, she slowly pulled out her blaster and offered it to the man, not having the courage to even look at his face in case he would shoot.

How did he know I had one? It was only her guards that knew, and the only person she’d told today was Maze. Maze… That was strange. Wild thoughts coursed through her mind. Had she set this up? Had she known Ryssa would go back after her? Was this her plan all along? Politicians were a dirty crowd, politics a dirty game, yet today she’d let her guard down— literally. She thought Xiron would be above doing such a thing.

“The consortium will find out who you are,” she said, swallowing as she continued forward. “You won’t get away with this.” Although, the threat was empty and her tone showed it. Who knew how long it would be until someone found her? Would it be too late by then? At the thought, panic began to set in once more.

I don’t want to die!

@Die Shize

 

[The Storyteller]

City Streets
Mazeryl Xiron vs. Hur Terel
​

There she was again, dodging, evading as if this were a dance, and his sword arced through empty air once more. That’s it. No more playing, no more teasing, he would give it his all.

When Xiron’s sword came at his right leg, Hur quickly turned around and switched to a single-bladed grip to parry it. The metal clashed, and blade against blade, and he put a little extra strength into his own to push her arm back. Twisting it, he aimed to disarm the woman and send her sword to the ground.

Where you belong.

Then he led with his right elbow, jabbing once hard at her torso and hoping to get her off balance. Immediately afterwards, he would aim for a punch on her temple with his left fist. Maybe it would knock some sense into her— he was not to be challenged.

@Die Shize

 

[The Storyteller]

City Streets
Ryssa Kalayli
The Ninja

Spoiler: Music OOC [Recurring]

A man cannot die.
A man is already dead.
A man is like the night.
Like the day when it has bled.

A woman had a blaster.
A man might have known.
A man might have not.
She told him so by handing one over.
And for that she might keep her jaw.

“Spoke the sparrow to the wolf.”
A man is voiceless.
He speaks, his teeth part, tongue caresses gum, but the voice is empty.
Pale as a pearl moon, at whose back was sunlight strewn.

“While resting in its jaws.”
Beneath them, claws, ready to shred, feed the maw.

He said no more, they moved along.
The corridor was long.

A blanket of black, glum, silent as dead embers.
Hard metal on the flanks, hums, violent dread lamenters.

Souls in catacombs…
That is what a man saw, that is what a man heard.

A door dead ahead.
Above it is a bar of pale light that might die.
Tiny things flicker, wings spread.
Flies flying quicker, shadows in the light.

“Open it.”
A woman is a governor.
Doesn’t have to do it.
But a man is a monster.
He would make her rue it.

@Sicadorito

 

[Mazeryl Xiron]

City Streets
Mazeryl Xiron vs. Hur Terel

Spoiler: Music OOC [Recurring]

Having evaded his leg, his sword never swung for her chest.
Yet, the man proved agile enough despite his fragile tongue.
Of which, a woman was grateful that a man had finally decided to shut up.

He evaded her, would make her chase him, like a maze chasing the wind, making it sing.
Blade of -clang!-, blade of -cling!-

So the painters continued to dance, the dancers continued to paint.
The song and dance would end only when one of them was slain.

Blade bit blade in a bind.
His sword pushed her sword down toward his right.
So she quickly shifted her blade out from beneath his, banking on the binding.
His blade would suddenly shift further downwards, like a bolt of lightning.

Meanwhile, her sword free, Maze swung horizontally from her left to right above her opponent’s weapon.
This time her sword would soar across his chest, beneath the collarbone, make him bleed again.

@Sicadorito

 

[Ryssa Kalayli]

As Ryssa made her way down the corridor, the man behind her, she was torn on what to do next. Part of her wanted to do what he said, to go forward, open the door, and therefore stay alive. The other part wanted to fight back. This wasn’t Ruusan, where the representatives had been vastly outnumbered— here, there was one of her and one of him. While she wasn’t trained to fight, she could at least hurt him, and if she was lucky enough she would be able to get out of here.

Either way, she was growing tired of this. Being ordered around like she was nothing, by a man who was nothing. If he was planning on killing her, she wasn’t going to make it easy.

“Fine.” She would acquiesce for now. Her hand gripped the handle of the door and opened it, just like he asked. Happy now?

She walked in, straightening up her back despite the fear making her head pound. What was left was slowly starting to turn to anger, however— she would find a way out of this. If she hadn’t lost to the Killiks, she certainly wouldn’t give in to him.

@Die Shize

 

[The Storyteller]

City Streets
Mazeryl Xiron vs. Hur Terel
​

Xiron took her blade out from underneath, leaving him going down again. But before he knew it she’d already lifted her sword up again, aiming for another strike.

Hur saw that the sword’s path would go across his chest, but it was already too late to avoid it entirely. His sword still not fully up to parry, he had no choice but to lean back, moving one foot backwards. The edge of Maze’s sword would slice across the upper part of his chest, ripping through his clothing and a little bit of his skin. Once again it drew blood, a thin line of red appearing through the cut. However, it was by no means a debilitating wound, and it only served to make Hur even more furious.

Sword still in his right hand, he thrust it straight forward, aiming for Xiron’s stomach. He would make her bleed in front of him, in front of all of those gathered to see.

@Die Shize