[Dazadi]

Piper's Boutique : Mini Anden : Full Credit

Dazadi rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, weaving slightly on her path to the training grounds. Dante gave a muted rumble as he padded along beside her, shaking himself bodily and flicking rainwater everywhere. It had only been a brief shower, but it was enough to give Daz the grumps - mostly because, if she'd had the patience to wait just a couple of minutes, she wouldn't have gotten wet at all. Humph.

It was too early to be out of bed, too, but this was the only time of the day Olly would entertain her any more. He said it was his way of making sure she didn't slump back into old habits, chiefly moping in bed for weeks on end and forgetting to eat. The fact that he was teaching the rest of the day, and not quite up to the task any more, probably had something to do with it, too.

In all honesty, he probably ought to retire. People had been telling them that for years, but Daz had ignored them and always made sure he had a job as long as she was Archangel. It was hard to accept that her lifelong mentor and surrogate father was past his prime, but she had to admit she was kind of surprised he was still teaching even after she was removed from office.

Dante stepped on her foot. He was bigger now, his head at knee height when he walked along with her like this, and the feathers on his wings had really set in with a healthy black sheen. He was eating so much more, though, and was onto solid meat, most of which cost a fortune - although she was always happy when she was on a job because, eight times out of ten, it meant a free meal for him.

Daz couldn't tell if his foot-stomp was by accident or design, but it had the desired effect, pulling her out of her brainless meandering to realise she'd stopped dead almost mid-stride. The training grounds - what people affectionately, or not so affectionately, referred to as "the Pit" because it was essentially a large square filled with sand - stretched out before her, the wooden fence bordering it only a couple of feet away.

Thankfully, this was a bit early for most students, so the area was fairly quiet. Less people to annoy her, and less noise to put off a conversation if she or Olly wanted to talk instead of sitting there silently.

“Styx?” Calling his name, even if it was the one he used to scare his trainees, was about the only time her voice held any affection.

It probably said something for their relationship, and Dazadi's personality, that her relationship with him had out-lasted her marriage and any relationship she'd had with her son.

“Styx, you better be out here!” Reverting to muttering and grumbling, most of what she was saying not even real words - she usually couldn't be bothered to use actual words when muttering, since the purpose wasn't for others to understand what she was actually saying, only the grumpiness behind it - she schlomped forward, scanning the Pit for sight of him. She didn't want him to be in the armoury, even though she knew that's where he probably was; it was all the way on the other side of the training grounds, and she really didn't want to have to trek all the way over there, even knowing he'd make her.

“Styx!”

[Leon]

Early mornings kept an aspiring Anyeli sharp. By waking up just as the sun broke the horizon, one could circumvent any dastardly attempts by certain underhanded factions. Leon Diostrophes rarely resorted to something as subverted as pre-emption, but when it came to sharpening his senses, there were few lengths to which the supposedly young warrior would not go. Today, as Leon dragged his rolling hammer case along, he intended to meet a friend of his on the training grounds.

Technically, Leon had known this man for thirty years, up until recently, at which point Adrian had to re-introduce himself. Out of a desire to keep Leon’s mind from rattling, Adrian refrained from reminding him about any of the events that had occurred during the lapse, and had managed to use the threat of Skotadi propaganda to keep Leon from discovering something on his own.

Therefore, when Leon “Hammer” Diostrophes scouted the grounds, the stranger calling out to some man named “Styx” took him somewhat off guard. Rarely did others move about so early, and rarer still was a man named Styx. Instinctively, Leon flared his wings and spun to face the source of the voice; though the sun hadn’t completely risen, it was easy to spot the black wings of the Skotadi coming out of the voice’s back.

Forgetting what he’d been told about subtlety and “choosing your words”, Leon swung his case back around and quickly approached the Skotadi spy. Obviously she was calling to an agent that was to meet her there, so that they might conspire with one another and devise some dastardly device, sure to bring th Apali’s house crumbling down. Not today; not on Leon’s watch.

“Stop there, Skotadi villain! You’ll not be bringing chaos upon innocents, not today!”

[Dazadi]

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Daz turned, already grouchy; she could just see Styx deliberately waiting out of sight, knowing she was standing here refusing to go look for him, getting a kick out of annoying her.

And what the hell was this?

Both eyebrows disappeared into her hairline as she copped her first glance at the idiot calling her out. Her gaze skipped right past him to the cart he pulled, pausing on the hammer he was apparently too weak to wield. She was utterly bewildered by it, not quite knowing whether to burst out laughing or to punch him in the mouth for his disrespectful tone.

She was surprised his hammer hadn't been taken from him, the way hers had been, although it figured. Morality tended to take a back seat in favour of an "all that is yours is ours" mentality during outbreaks of war, and her father's sword had been forfeit the second it fell from his hand.

Her gaze skipped back to the moron's face, then, and up to his hair where it stalled, stuck like glue to the weirdest hair style she'd ever seen. He looked a lot like he'd had a run-in with a lightning bolt.

Actually, she'd have thought it cool and considered getting one of her own if he hadn't opened his mouth.

Eyes narrowing, she glanced left and right in search of these "innocents". Dante yowled, but Daz somehow doubted the greywing meant him.

“Villain? Skotadi villain?” She'd been called many things, but it was a while since she'd been called that. Even before this most recent peace treaty, she'd been considered, for the most part, above the normal faction politics. As long as she'd shown no favour for either faction - and the Council had always ensured that, equal in number as they were - the colour of her wings had no lasting effect on her role as Archangel.

Of course, that could also be because she'd spent a huge portion of her time in office curled up in a corner muttering to herself, but that was neither here nor there. People just didn't walk up to an Aide - whose primary purpose was to protect - and call them villain, no matter what faction they belonged to.

Dante, completely uninterested, yawned and flopped into the sand just inside the Pit fence. Daz cocked a hip, arms akimbo. It was a shame she didn't wear gloves or gauntlets; she'd have loved to do this the old-fashioned way.

“I accept your challenge, boy!”

[Leon]

This Skotadi had fire in her, a quality that Leon appreciated in an opponent. Even if she was part of a faction of liars and scoundrels, the instant lunge into battle was an overt and honest response, the likes of which Leon knew to be unique to the Apali. As with all Skotadi, Leon conjectured that this woman had made a mistake in her selection, and that there was still time for her to make a move over to the right faction.

If every Skotadi that Leon met could present such tendencies, then the civil war could be put to rest within months! An errant thought pondered the chance of a peace treaty being signed, but Leon waved off the thought with an inward snort.

“I’ll have you seeing the error of your ways yet!”

With such conversion in mind, Leon was faced with the chance to literally smack sense into the dastardly Skotadi. Setting the wooden case upright, Leon unbuckled his hammer and removed it, only to place it upside-down on the ground.

If skull-shattering was necessary, then Leon would use his weapon, but until then the job was assigned to his fists. Wings flared outward, Leon made a controlled dash at Dazadi with both hands locked together.

Leon’s overt attack intended itself for the Skotadi’s head, and he felt just cocky enough that there was no expectation for a speedy reaction. Never had Leon seen this woman before, and there had always been an ally nearby to prevent him from doing battle with his sworn enemies.

Come to think of it, Adrian had always been quite adept at keeping Leon from many altercations recently. This battle actually came as sort of a therapeutic session, and so long as Leon could continue on without being stopped by his over-protective friend, he’d come one step closer to ending the civil war.

[Dazadi]

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Dazadi was slightly surprised - not to mention quite miffed - that he didn't turn tail. Frankly, she wasn't used to having people stand up to her, and yet in the past few months she'd been called out more times than in probably the last decade. It was both invigorating and annoying, and she was starting to feel like all her bad-assery had somehow poofed into non-existence.

It occurred to her, as the boy fiddled with his hammer and she stepped forward to drop into a fighting stance, that this was something else Kade had messed up for her. Until she'd gotten married and had a son, people had feared her. Now, they seemed to think she was soft, and she laid the blame squarely at her husband's feet.

Dante growled as the fledgling darted forward. Dazadi's eyebrows lifted as she stepped nimbly to one side, pivoting and lifting her foot to kick his backside on his way past her. It was high time she reminded these idiots that she wasn't a person to be messed with, and this guy was the perfect patsy.

“Too slow!”

[Leon]

As if Dazadi had read his intentions from the get-go, she'd managed to not only avoid his perfected attack, but the stinging pain in his backside would become a reminder that this particular vagrant was no pushover. Although Leon may have failed to strike his opponent this time, such was the rhythm of battle. A defeat would surely bring about a paradigm shift in the Skotadi’s mentality, and because of that, Leon could not fail. Making a u-turn, Leon made the oblivious mistake of taking himself off his feet in an attempt to shoulder-tackle the Skotadi to the ground.

Unfortunately, Leon’s wings couldn’t pick him back up if he were to miss, and it was clear that the Skotadi had the prowess to do just that. Nonetheless, Leon’s resolution remained strong, for he was fighting for a cause and under a banner that could not lose.

“Villain! See the error of your ways! Be grounded under the Apali’s might!”

Despite the conviction behind the Anyeli’s words, Leon had no way to control his course, and realized that he had made a tactical error. As if it could have cropped up at a worse time, Leon’s conscience deployed and began nagging at the back of his mind, noting down everything that was wrong with the tussle.

Although, it was hardly powerful enough to knock Leon off of his high-horse. As far as he was concerned, the Anyeli race was still in the throes of civil war. Dazadi was an enemy, even despite the odds that she could be over-turned, she was still an enemy.

Something in Leon’s mind suggested that he should have brought the hammer, for the fight was soon to take a downward tumble. Breaking an enemy’s bones was one thing, but losing to a Skotadi was totally unacceptable, no matter what the cost of winning was.

[Dazadi]

Piper's Boutique : Mini Anden : Full Credit

Dazadi wasn't a patient person and wasn't much of a talker, so it never failed to annoy her when a person raved during a fight. Trash talking was one thing, but what was this guy trying to do? Reform her? Like five hundred years of black wings was going to change overnight? Moron.

He seemed pretty delusional, actually, if he thought that attacking someone would induce an epiphany. Well, a shot upside the head might, but she'd have to question the authenticity of an epiphany brought on by concussion. And he was so serious about this. She wasn't surprised that he thought the Apali were better than the Skotadi - those stuck-up morons always had looked down their noses at Skotadi - but that he seemed to honestly believe he could "save" her. What the hell.

He didn't even have his wings yet, and a sudden thought occurred to her as he tackled her. She scanned the courtyard suspiciously as she leaped into the air, her wings snapping out so she could hover, and the leap making his tackle hit her legs instead.

“If this is some kind of initiation test, you picked the wrong Skotadi to mess with.” Drawing back her fist, Daz lashed out and down to punch him straight in the face, wanting to bring this fight to an immediate finish.

[Leon]

In a daze, Leon struggled to recall the size of the brick that had crashed into his head, putting the would-be Apali flat on his back. There was another voice in Leon’s head just then, one that spoke of foolish decisions and a massive difference in strength between the Skotadi and himself.

Regardless, Leon shambled to his feet, all the while rubbing his bruised cranium. The Skotadi mentioned something about initiation, and here Leon found himself speechless in his embarrassment. For one reason, and one reason alone, Leon had to drop the extended speech that his “hero” persona brought to the table.

“No, no, this isn’t some kind of test. I’m…well…just a fledgling, and I’m not even qualified to ask to join the Apali just yet.”

As Leon finished, his head drooped in embarrassment, and folded his wings back. Here, the young Anyeli’s pride had taken the biggest blow. Even if he were to pick back up and kick-start the fight, Leon was still actively thinking of his failure to join the illustrious ranks of the Apali, and such a terrible thought would prevent the Fledgling from injecting his entire mentality into any kind of altercation.

On the other hand, Leon knew that he was soon to take the path of purity and righteousness. Even IF he had yet to join any kind of faction, the Skotadi had chosen a darker path, and what did that say? She was still a black Skotadi, and by that token, a villain.

There was a pointed purpose for Leon’s continued silence, as he had immediately stored a rebuttal for whatever argument the Skotadi was about to propose. Sitting just feet away was Leon’s trusty hammer, and if violence was brought up yet again, the greywing wagered that he’d not have a great deal of trouble grabbing it quickly.

[Dazadi]

Piper's Boutique : Mini Anden : Full Credit

Dazadi gawked at the kid as he fell back, his wings drooping like she'd just kicked his puppy in the teeth instead of him. If this was some kind of new ploy to get her sympathy, then he was barking up the wrong tree, and Daz snorted scornfully to prove it.

Wait, what? He wasn't an initiate, but he was still trying to prove himself. Dazadi could only stare at the zealot, wondering if he realised how ridiculous he looked just then. Were all initiates this stupid? Had she been? Gods, this whole thing was stupid.

Dante yowled as if in agreement.

Planting her fists on her hips, Dazadi grimaced at the ground, not quite sure what to do with the Apali wannabe. She knew what she wanted to do to him, and if she'd been purely Skotadi she most likely would have even during a time of peace. But she wasn't purely Skotadi and hadn't been for a long time. She still should just flatten him, just to prove she was still someone that shouldn't be messed with, but what was the point? If anything, pummelling on a youngling would just show she couldn't take down tougher opponents. It would have entirely the wrong effect.

“Get lost, kid. I can't be bothered to fight you.”

Scowling at him, she turned and hopped up to jump clean over the fence, her boots kicking up sand as she landed in the pit. “STYX!!! Where the hell are you?!”

[Leon]

“It doesn’t end here, Skotadi. I’ll have my eye on you and your kin.”

Defeat wasn’t foreign to the Apali-hopeful, but it certainly wasn’t acceptable, either. If not today, or even tomorrow, then in the coming days Leon would earn his colors and give the Skotadi something to run away from—starting with this one. The quiet area accommodated Leon’s introspection, and though he went to put his hammer away something in the back of his mind suggested that the fight wasn’t over just yet. A cowardly Skotadi was no reason for the day to go down the drain, especially considering the sheer ineptitude Leon was still showing in combat.

Just as Leon lifted his rolling case to leave, however, a dangerous question reared its head: was he obeying a Skotadi’s orders?

There was only danger lying in the pit, and perhaps an untimely death, that much Leon vaguely feared. On the other hand, it was early in the day, and starting it with a crushing defeat would be a mistake! To Xanth with weakness and mortal peril! It’d be a cold day in Hel when Leon absentmindedly did as a Skotadi commanded, and he’d certainly not let her get the satisfaction of ignoring him so easily. No, Leon was stronger than that, this much the hammer-wielding warrior became determined to prove!

All the noise Leon would make was that of buckles coming undone, and heavy footsteps: for he was leaping over the edge and coming down into the pit, hammer-in-hand. If Leon was going to be defeated today, it’d have to leave him seriously wounded—a mere tap on the head was a childish way to go down!

“Don’t you make another step, coward! We Apali don’t flee as quickly as your kind does!”

[NPC]

((Iolus Calliston, played by Emma))

Styx heaved a put-upon sigh as he lowered his butt cheeks onto a wooden box, deliberately ignoring the surly woman's calls. Around him, the walls of the training armoury were covered by weapons of various shapes, sizes and levels of lethality, although for safety's sake most of them were at the lower end of the deadly spectrum. He eyed one of the flails introspectively, remembering all too clearly a time when he'd have been sitting in a real armoury with real weapons and real soldiers beside him.

He'd become much more nostalgic of late and Dazadi's visits weren't helping. With her husband gone, Styx had expected her to sink back into her own little world or even to find her body crushed at the base of her tower one day. Instead, she'd found a way to survive and was back to making a nuisance of herself, questioning his authority and wisdom with that cocky know-it-all attitude of hers.

She could stand to wait a few minutes, no matter how loudly she yelled, but the second voice made him curious enough to peer through the cracks in the boarded windows. He wasn't surprised to see her being accosted, but almost worried for the lad. "Almost" was the operative word, however; Styx had trained too many cocky punks convinced they were better than everyone else to really give a damn any more if they bit off more than they could chew.

No. He was going to sit right here and watch the pair through the cracks. For one thing, it would annoy Dazadi. For another, well. It would do the both of them some good to be taught a new lesson or two.

[Dazadi]

Piper's Boutique : Mini Anden : Full Credit

Dazadi froze, her whole body tensing. His threat struck a chord, forcing her to think about her missing son and husband. She wanted to laugh scornfully and tell him that she had no kin any more, even if she considered him a threat in the first place. Instead, her knuckles cracked as her hands fisted at her sides.

Dante mewled, probably sensing the well of bitter anger Leon had stirred in her. She didn't care any more how young he was, how helpless he might be. She wasn't the Archangel any more, she had no need or desire to straddle the threshold between factions. It didn't matter to her if this little spat caused another wave of fighting or if she was accused of attacking him first.

She was tired of being seen as the villain. At one point in her life, sure: assassin was all she was, even as Xanth's Sword. But she'd done more than that. She was more than that. And this kid thought that just because her wings were black, she needed correcting? That she needed saving?

That she was a coward?

Her expression darkened considerably, and with it the air around her as her anger got the better of her. Dazadi reached back for the hilt of her father's great sword and she slowly pulled it from its sheathe as she turned around to face the moron. She stepped backwards further into the pit, her arms and wings spread to beckon him into the arena.

There'd be no second chances for this guy.