A Court Of Shadow and Blood

☆ Hymn for the Dead ☆

Eblis couldn't spend long staring after the blue Queen, her figure disappearing around a corner as if she had never been there. She was surrounded on all sides, the clink of armor a constant echo in the halls, and the time to kill Reneau was drawing short.

The Loyal Daemati seemed to think the same thing, as they pushed forward towards her in a synchronized movement, their blades pointed at her heart.

She searched their faces, these ones who she had never seen because they were the spies who doled out information, and hid in the rafters of the throne room. They were the ones who-

Requeza held eye contact with her for a few beats too long. Her chin dipped in an almost imperceptible nod. Eblis cleared her mind, knowing the other two daemati would be listening closely. It gave them an upper hand, she knew, for her to be unable to use her own abilities against them.

She chewed the inside of her cheek for a moment. Armor shifted behind her, and she stiffened. "Why don't you call off these hounds and fight me yourselves." The daemati closest to her narrowed their eyes, the kohl around them shifting the gaze into something darker without even changing their expression. Eblis jutted her chin out in challenge.

Before they could react, their was a war cry that echoed through her ears and pierced her. She twisted, facing the oncoming attacker.

Blood filled the air, and her gaze was filled with the white-gold of feathers. Many fell with one sweep of a sword. She cursed, turning back around as Imillion unleashed himself on the poor shoulders with growls befit a beast. Requeza ran her blade through one of the other daemati immediately in the chaos, and Eblis drove herself forward with her smaller blades to attack the final Loyal Guard. The male blocked just in time with a hiss. His body was fluid and twisting to avoid both her and Requeza's attacks, his steps quick and as even as his breaths. He was well trained, she realized. Just as much as they were.

He sensed them as soon as they knew what they were doing, and he moved faster than an asp. His weapons struck out and reeled back into the defense almost immediately after, his sharp teeth gritting together.

Imillion handled the simple guards behind them brutally, their cries rising to the fore in her ears. There was no shortage of blood spatter on the ground, the hall absolutely bathed in it. Her feet splashed it around as if kicking up dust with the speed she forced herself to move, hoping that she could simply move so quickly the daemati would not be able to keep up. Requeza picked up on her plan, dark eyes flashing with feral delight at the battle. The male panted, sword remaining true to its mark no matter their speed. His hand flexed on the handle of his blade, and he winnowed behind them to strike.

Requeza followed after him every time he winnowed doggedly, leaving Eblis behind as she kept up a fury of movements. The female's sword clanked on the ground and she withdrew her knives. The speed increased ten-fold. Eblis picked up her sword again, catching her breath in the brief reprieve. She'd been going non-stop since she'd entered the castle, the wake of dead bodies never ending.

But she had anger to fuel her, and, a dagger in the other hand, she joined Imillion on his attack of the grunt soldiers a split second later. Their numbers dwindled quickly, all Loyal Daemati too busy to call more, and the piles of dead became a weave of limbs to not trip over. All of Eblis's senses were active; her pointed ears tracking the clank of faebane armor, her nose stuffed with that of blood and the faint whirling scents of her spies; her feet were swift, knees driving high to avoid tripping. Her opponents were not so lucky.

Her eyes tracked the flashes of white that were Imillion, and the dark blur of the daemati and Requeza. Anytime the female managed to push near to their own battle, Eblis would split off, land a blow or two, and then the male would be winnowing away in a puff of smoke and a growl. She drew close enough to him, at some point, that her blade just barely bit into his throat, and his eyes flared with surprise. He disappeared a second later, but it was enough to recognize he'd been the one to take Reneau away. So he would know where the male was hiding.