The group was standing there in relative silence for the moment, they were each silently deliberating whether this expedition is worth it, each of them for vastly different reasons. Inari was about to speak up when Marke and Marce pitched in unexpectedly, “I think we’ve decided to head back to Thëlos, I’m sure this crypt is interesting but it’s not worth giving our lives to search it, we won’t speak about you two to anyone but we’re leaving… now” Marke looked from Inari to Yera slowly, trying to gauge their reactions and see if either would object, Inari couldn’t care less of course, but Yera tensed slightly, and Inari noticed. Yera seemed to have a frustrated expression for one moment before relaxing visibly and sighing, “Fine, go for it, we’re gonna get rich in the meantime” was all she said before turning and walking into a shadowy corridor off to the side, Inari took that opportunity to start backing into the corridor he’d just come from, as he was about to turn, he noticed something that made his heart stutter in his chest.
Inari’s skin crawled as he watched her form shift ever so slightly upon contact with the shadows, he was about to call out a warning when Yera's figure became one with the shadows and sunk into darkness, halting Inari in his tracks and choking the words of warning in his throat. ‘Oh’ Inari thought. His exceptional vision had just revealed that the instigator of each attack thus far was Yera herself, and he had no time to even consider that his friend was trying to kill them before a spear of light slammed into the back of Marce and he crumpled to the ground without a sound. Marke turned and looked down at his son with a shocked expression, confusion briefly painted the old man’s expression before his eyes widened and moved to the spear of pure light that vibrated while firmly lodged into his son’s lifeless corpse, a small pool of blood already touching his shoes.
The next ten seconds were a blur, even to Inari’s relatively heightened senses. In the first second, Inari thought he heard a curse from the shadows of a pillar near the grandhall exit, ‘she must have been aiming for the father, he’s more of a threat after all’ Inari thought with a wave of calm consideration that surprised even him, panicking wouldn’t do him any good, he could still live through this, maybe she was just removing the potential hazards because they tried to leave? In the next few seconds the grief stricken wail of a father who’d lost his son reverberated through the massive grandhall and seemed to hit Inari’s very existence, all he felt was sorrow. Marke took all of four seconds to turn from pure shock and grief, to cold burning rage. The next five seconds were a blur of spells as Marke drew from the arcane magic that seemed to manifest at the whims of his will, fueled by his rage and sadness.
Yera was hit by a slash of invisible force that mimicked a blade strike from a glaive warrior, Marke was nicked by a thrown dagger of light which he promptly ignored, blinded by his rage. Yera cried out as the shadows she was meant to command wrapped around her ankle and twisted, a blood chilling crunch sounded out as her bones ground against one another and snapped under the pressure. Yera mastered her pain and summoned a spear of light directly through the ground, impaling Marke on an altar of tangible light. Deep crimson blood dribbled down the shaft of the spear that protruded through his torso, even still, he tried to reach toward her again. This time, she would not take chances. Inari blinked. When his eyes opened again, Marke had been impaled by a divine armoury of spears, pinning his arms to the side, his legs were barely held together, and his torso held the tips of five separate weapons of light.
Inari could barely remember to breathe as he stared at the grotesque sight, an innocent father, pinned in the air by spears of light, like a cruel joke, a sickening altar to the celestials, his final moments, held in stasis by the dazzling weapons that reaped him of his child. Eventually he tore his gaze from the harrowing puddle of sorrow that was forming around the corpses of father and son alike, just to witness Yera stumble out of the shadows with a pained expression plastered across her usually laidback features. Inari also stepped out of the shadows of the pillar he’d been lurking behind since the beginning of the altercation. Why he stepped out into the dim light once more? He had no idea, but his gut told him that if he played this correctly, he’d be able to live and get what he needed from this situation, no matter how tragic it seemed.
Yera coughed up flecks of blood onto the pristine floor beneath her as she lay there, struggling to breathe and slowly repairing her broken body with her innate healing magic. Subconsciously she registered the steps of the hesitantly approaching form of Inari, but consciously she focused on healing herself quicker, she was ready to kill him if needed. Inari slowly walked around her prone form until she could see him from her downed state, he was trying to put her at ease and dissolve any potential for her to assume he’s going to finish her off, ‘I have no idea why i’m so calm right now, but this clarity is the path to getting the best out of this situation’ Inari thought was a sigh.
“All good?” Inari asked tentatively. “Fuck no, that hurt, ow” Yera replied through gritted teeth and a pained grimace as her ankle realigned itself with a squelch and a pop shortly after that made Inari visibly shiver, that brief uncontrollable reaction made Yera relax a little more than anything before that point had. Inari opened his mouth to ask the question on his mind, ‘why?’ but the look on Yera's face grew dark and her eyes grew colder as if she could anticipate his question, and he decided to change tracks slightly. “Ready to get rich?” Inari hedged with a smirk. Yera returned the smirk and shifted her arms underneath her and pushed herself up into a standing position in a single push, that little movement was all that Inari needed to confirm his previous doubts about being able to finish Yera off, she was too strong, he’d have to do this the way only a street urchin like him could.
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“There’s a library a little further in by the way” Inari mentioned offhandedly as Yera cracked her neck and pushed her shoulder back into position as it had somehow dislocated during the fight, possibly from the force of the invisible slashing strike. As soon as Inari had spoken the words he’d cursed his own greed and lack of foresight, Yera’s eyes that were previously unfocused due to pain and likely preoccupied with thoughts immediately sharpened to a terrifying degree, her pupils contracted and Inari found himself staring into the vertical slits that only a predator could possess. “Show me” Yera demanded. Inari shivered and nodded in a pathetic manner, like a cowed animal.
The two of them walked slowly down the dimly lit corridor once more, far quicker than when Inari had come through the first time, he was confident in where the library was, remembering exactly the two turns he’d taken to get there previously. Inari was thankful that this clarity of mind was keeping him from panicking, but it also made him acutely aware of the cold eyes that seemed to be cutting into his back with the calculating attention of a predator. Inari felt that each step down this hallway was a step closer towards his death, and Yera couldn’t help but agree, although she hadn’t voiced it, he could feel it.
He considered his words carefully before attempting to reason with an air of nonchalance “You don’t need to kill me, I literally only want this single book that called to me, it wouldn’t work for you anyway, right?” He said with as much confidence as he could muster through the hammering of his heart in his chest, he wasn’t panicking but his body was all too aware of his situation currently, and it would not let him forget. “Of course not, I wasn’t going to either way, we’re friends, they weren’t, they hired me and I agreed on the condition that they’d stay quiet, when they were no longer accomplices to our crime, I could no longer trust them not to turn us in. You know how it is, caverners stick together, they wouldn’t understand, right?” Yera said with a lilting laugh that made Inari’s skin crawl. He couldn’t believe he’d been interested in her before this, it was such an otherworldly thought to come to him in that moment but he thought of how he’d found her so attractive but a few days ago, and now he found her no less threatening that an enraged elder wyrm, it made him sad in a odd disconnected sense.
They arrived at the library and Inari barely caused a sharp inhale from Yera as she laid eyes on what they’d found, “I had the same reaction, it’s insane” Inari placated with as much cheerfulness as he could manage at the time. Yera walked forward into the library, briefly forgetting Inari entirely, in that moment Inari had a thought, it was fleeting and it screamed of danger, but he couldn’t ignore his urge, all the calm calculation and clarity of mind that had preceded this came crashing down in an instant as his instincts, fae or otherwise, screamed at him to ‘Run’. Inari stared at Yera’s back, and as soon as she turned her attention to a book on a shelf and went to grab it, he turned to slink into the corridor.
Red, all he saw was red as his chest seemed to explode outwards and a fine mist of blood sprayed out in front of him. In that moment of shock and disconnection, Inari thought only one thing, ‘It’s beautiful’. Inari stumbled forward, a large gash had opened his torso from hip to collarbone, and his body felt as if it were on fire, but he couldn’t even spare his attention to scream, because as he looked down his eyes widened in disbelief. From the gash in his torso, shadow materialised in the air slowly forming the shape of a creature, the same creature that Inari had seen the first time, it’s claws were still attached to his body and he weakly reached an arm around to swipe them away but his hand simply passed through the shadows and the arm fell limply to his side once more.
Eventually the claws retracted from his chest and he was allowed to fall forward, landing heavily on the floor, a pool of crimson permeating the ground he now lay on, soaking into the clothes he wore, he felt cold despite the warmth of the blood he now lay in. His blood. Inari coughed once, and looked down the corridor, the way he’d intended to escape, the direction he’d desperately tried to run. He reach an arm forward and clawed a hand across the ground, dragging himself forward slightly, pulling himself along, dragging his bleeding chest across the ground, painting the floor in a brilliant hue of red. He managed to move for but a few seconds before he heard her footsteps behind him. Yera silently but confidently walked up behind Inari’s prone form, a twist on their previous situation, he was now the bleeding form, forced to the ground as the other stared down with ill-concealed… apathy? Yera didn’t seem to have an expression on her face as she reached down and pulled Inari towards the wall, propping him up against it gently.
Inari sat there, slouched forwards, back to the corridor wall, dim light bleeding over his shivering figure. He dragged ragged breaths through his chest, though he felt no air coming to his lungs, if they were still even there, he should not have been alive, he likely wouldn’t be for much longer. “I genuinely didn’t want to do this you know, if you stayed I would have left you be, what book is this even? Ah fuck, the preface note is covered in blood, silly Inari” she mused while prying the book from Inari’s fingers with a slight tug. “‘A Guide To The Mystic, Curses and The Arcane’ huh… I’m sorry, for what it’s worth” Yera said with a sigh. Those were the last words before darkness encroached onto Inari’s fragile consciousness.
Darkness was all that seemed to permeate the place Inari now stood, he wasn’t even sure if he was standing even, he just… existed here. After what felt like a short eternity the darkness rippled, Inari stirred briefly to look around, but nothing happened after that. Another eternity seemed to pass, longer this time, at least he thought. A ripple. Inari stirred once more, numb and unfeeling, looking around yet again, being met with darkness, yet again, unchanging, unmoving. A ripple permeated the space once more, but this ripple did not fade, and Inari resonated with it, he would not fade. Blinding light. Inari closed his eyes to avoid the scorching luminosity of whatever entity now permeated this space, it didn’t help. The space that had seemed infinitely large now felt all too small as Inari was slowly crushed under the pressure of whatever had come into existence before him, it seemed to exist in every increment of space that was available, save the space that Inari occupied.