"Hello," Nil waves awkwardly, "I understand you're upset, but I'm not who-" "I know who you are. The one who slumbered deep below while that thing-" Melinoe points to her sword, "- wore your face and caused all kinds of misery." Meeting the gaze of the sword, Nil draws her own, "You serve it then?" "Nah, just using it," Melinoe takes a step to the right and Nil matches her, assuming a defensive stance. "See it [b][i]hates[/b][/i] you, but not as much as it hates me." Melinoe continues as the women circle each other, "It doesn't want me to kill you, which tells me I'm on the right track to killing it." "Please, we share an enemy," Nil lowers her sword, "I don't want to fight you." "Well that's a shame, hopefully your daughters don't go down so eas-" A flurry of snow rises in her wake as Nil lunges, becoming a blur of strikes and slashes and rising snow. Melinoe backsteps, dodging and deflecting with her bracers. Then she grabs the blade and kicks Nil in the gut, sending her stumbling into the snow. "You rely too heavily upon your unnatural strength and agility," Melinoe snaps the sword over her knee and tosses the pieces aside, "But you lack any training or skill to back it up." Nil hisses and extends her hands, but nothing happens. The red eye of Melinoe's sword glows as it glares at her. "Falling back on your magic?" Her lip curls in disgust as she picks Nil up by the throat, "How did one as weak as you command such power in the past?" Before she was laid to rest it had been centuries since Nil had felt pain, but Melinoe reminded her. Every blow felt like a pelted rock, her skin bruised, her bones broke, and her vampiric healing could not mitigate the damage. Nil tried to fight back, but she was too slow, too weak, too thirsty... [i]...Blood...[/i] Nil feels it within Melinoe's palms as she clutches her, and Nil clutches back before sinking her fangs into Melinoe's neck. "Go ahead, drink up," Melinoe let's go as Nil feeds, but she finds no sustenance. Falling to her knees, Nil coughs up a thick black ichor that mingles in the snow with her own red blood. "Sorry, [i]darling[/i]," the bite wounds on her neck already healing, Melinoe extends a hand and her sword flies to it, "in the end, Death always wins." Before Melinoe can deliver the killing blow, Gorlok leaps onto her back and stabs her. She stumbles, then grabs and tosses him aside as Nil uses the distraction to retreat a few meters away. Melinoe begins to give chase, then pauses as something beeps behind her. She reaches back, but cannot remove the small metallic device he had stuck to her armor. Shoulders slumped, Melinoe turns to Gorlok and sighs, then she is engulfed in bright light. A small crater replaces the ground where Melinoe once stood and a crack of thunder echoes off the mountains. Gorlok stands, yellow eyes narrowed, and the other two emerge from the mansion behind him. The girl raises an eyebrow, "Who's this then?" While the knight falls to a knee and bows, "My Queen! We serve, as ever your most loyal servants!" "Please don't..." Nil responds, barely a whisper on the wind. The knight looks up, "My Queen?" Then rises to his feet as Gorlok approaches, slowly. "It is you in there, yes?" He asks, still braced for combat. "Yes," Nil takes a step closer to the cliffs edge and summons her sword, which appears in her hand as if it were never broken. At the sight of the sword Gorloks posture shifts and his eyes soften, "We mean you no harm, my lady. Threats gather around us and an army marches from the west, lead by a member of the Draug." Memories from Blaze's blood flash before her eyes of fur clad warriors and witches. "A war is coming and we need you." "I-" More memories, this time her own, of undead legions marching through snow, enemies impaled upon pillars of ice, piles of burning bodies, sickened villagers weeping tears of blood. A chorus of moans and screams drown Gorlok out, and a voice whispers in her ear [i]Monster[/i] "I can't, not again. Never again." Nil takes another step back, a bloody tear running down her cheek, then she falls. Gorlok lunges forward as a thousand white bats fly off towards the city, into the rising sun. The girl walks up and pats him on the back, "So what now bossman?"