The Prison Of Ushar

Ray'ven's eyes narrowed slightly at that. Another stop? She was unaware of such a thing planned and from the smile that curled on Bynx's lip, it would not be pleasant.

Instead of dwelling on it, Ray'ven let go of the tight control of her magick, allowing it to blanket the area in a cold dark mist, frost forming on the bars of the cells and walls.

Inhaling deeply, she tasted the magick in the air, brows furrowing at the sour bit of Magick that lingered there, only faint in its presence. Someone used dark Magick; a Magick she was unfamiliar with and it left no trail behind.

She hummed low, pulling her magick back in, shuddering as the sour bit clung to it before she forced it away. "Nasty bit of Magick there." She said to herself before turning to Bynx.

"Whoever was responsible used dark magick. Tainted Magick if you would. It clings to the air here, but leaves no trail." She supplied. "Whoever it was is very skilled."

There was shouting coming down the hall, sounding like a huge break out. So soon, Bynx had thought. He had been informed that th3 person he was searching for walked down these halls around this time, guided by guards. Oh well. He guessed his plans would change. The surprise was coming to them sooner than them coming to it. Stuffing his hands in the wool pockets of his coat, Bynx stepped out into the hall with his gaze landed straight on the commotion. "Would you look at that Ray'ven."

There in the middle of the hall was someone beating a dark haired man, though it seemed his hair was far longer than it usually was kept since it looked stringy and unwashed. He was even growing a beard. Despite how skinny the man was, he fought them back before they threw him on the floor. He blocked the strikes by twisting at the waist and having his arm cushion the sides of his face, deflecting it with the occasional thrust of an elbow. But someone else grabbed him by the hair while another tasered him in the exposed stomach.

The man's entire body shook, stringy hair flinging into his face and sticking to the sticky blood that was nearly tied around his nose where he had a gash across the bridge. Coming forth, the person holding his hair in a fisted hand, stuck him with a needle. He groaned, tilting his head back so his silver gaze was locked on the ceiling—empty and emotionless, but now laced with a kind of high-like appearance as they rolled around tiredly.

"And to think the head of The Dark Valors became this. A scraggly drugged rat." The person nudged Valen with a shoe harshly. He rolled over onto his stomach like a shoved rag doll. They pulled his arms behind his back and yanked him up.

"When I get out of here," He said, dazed. "There will be rivers of your blood and I'll be sure to take my first bath in-" A knee to the stomach had a gasped, raspy exhaled leaving him. "It." He finished after a moment.

Flinging his hair from his face, Valen raised his chin even though his head kinda rolled around a bit.

"And this is Valen Pardonis, is it not?" Bynx said a little louder purposely. The guide kept his mouth closed but the guards and Valen glimpsed over at him.

"Not that the God of war's son is so mighty anymore. But yes, that is him." Replied his retainers.

Bynx clapped his hands together. "Good, good. I wanted a one on one with him. Me and my not blood sister. Ray'ven."

Valens brows lifted, and a shadow flickered across his face and deep in those silver eyes.

Ray'ven froze where she stood, eyes glued to the unmistakable figure of her father, beaten and battered. The very air around them seemed to freeze as all the air was sucked from her lungs. She didn't even register Bynx's taunting words. Her heart thudded in her ears painfully, feeling like a hammer against her ribs.

No one saw her move, one minute she was there frozen and the next, the guard who had dared to spit on her father was lying on the floor, his head separate from his body, rolling down the halls.

"You dare?" Her words came out hissed as she turned to the others. "You dare to disrespect the house of Valor in such a manner?" She felt numb, barely registering the tears that slid down her cheeks. Another guard fell with a gurgled scream as her blade stabbed through his throat.

Shadows that danced around the room seemed to grow darker and the air became frosted as her magick seeped from her. "You dare do this to my papa?" The other guard tried to scramble backward only for him to trip as skeletal hands grabbed him, burning through his trousers and into his flesh, dragging him into a puddle of shadows that ate away at him as he sunk into it.

Ray'ven watched with wide empty eyes, unblinking as the sound of bones cracking and flesh tearing echoed through the halls as her magick literally consumed the bodies of those she'd killed, leaving behind only blood splatters as evidence that they had existed at all. Those hollow eyes turned to Bynx, staring at him, through him. "Now do you see how cruel this monster can truly be?" She took a step towards him.

"To think...I could have made her suffer. To think of the agony I could have caused her…" Ray'ven let out a humorless laugh. Another step forward.

This wasn't quite what he expected would come after the tears. Bynx watched in sheer horror as each guard had met their morbid end because he allowed Ray'ven to see something that sent her mind spiraling over the edge. Somewhere in the fear that arose within him, he still reviled in the fact she knew pain that was close to his own. But seeing her father like this wasn't the same as losing a lover or a loved one. Valen, although treated like an animal in Ushar, was still alive and breathing. Better than not at all like Tamara.

This was proof that there was no limit to her chaos. These men, however vile, were simply doing their jobs and she slaughtered them for it. Day after day, week after week, and months to years, they both had taken lives to those who were loved and would leave family behind.

Karma was a strange thing. And perhaps maybe it was why he lost her too. You could only commit so many sins before the piper came dancing down your lane with a magical flute in hand.

"And," Through the terror that rooted him, he still sneered at her. "That you still are, a monster. Proving it or hiding it. You will alway be a creature looking for love and never have it returned. There's nothing you won't do for acceptance or appraisal. You think this," He waved a hand around the mess she'd left behind; his bottom lip trembling. "After all these years of your father not seeing you, would make him love you anymore?"

The clanking of chains arose, and Valen walked right past Ray'ven, his long dark raven locks shielding his face from view as he put himself in the cell two doors down, and sat silently. Bynx knew it was probably because he didn't want Ray'ven to save him. To abandon him. And the only way to do that was to make her believe his words were true.

He looked back at her. "Go ahead and kill me. What's one more body to your count?" Bynx closed his eyes, nose flared, breathing ragged.

Her hand twitched, wanting to snap his neck underneath those icy palms, but she didn't. Instead, she stood before him, and slowly ever so slowly did her rage bleed away. Her mask slipped back into place, even as her father trudged by her towards an empty cell.

"That is where you are wrong." She started. "I do not seek love from any one, not even you. I am well aware that I am unloved, that I am a monster." Her voice was once again even, as she wiped away the blood that splattered on her face with a handkerchief.

"I do what I do because I am a tool to be used. I kill for the sake of my master, and I follow his will. Despite your words, you still mistake me for that young girl so eager to call you big brother. Well she is dead, because I killed her as I tend to do many people." Straightening her waist coat, she brushed away any wrinkles left behind.

"As for that man, I do apologize for my actions. Seeing him again seemed to have resurfaced something I thought dead. Rest assured it will not happen again. I will take full responsibility for my actions here, young master. State your punishment and I will adhere to it. I have brought shame to your house with my horrid display." She bowed at the waist, awaiting his order.

Liar, Bynx thought. He saw the pain and the want in her eyes before whatever darkness arose in her and took over every thought and muscle in her body with the thirst for death. But before he could really open his mouth to say anything else, he saw a bullet tear through Ray'ven's shoulder and struck his own as the sound of a thousand stamping feet arose. They were running up the stairs, bows and guns raised at them. An alarm blared, red magick lights flickering.

Bynx immediately started running for an escape. "Let's move. You're good, but not good enough to dodge that many bullets. Look what you did idiot." He snapped.

The bullet that tore through her shoulder alerted her of the rampaging footsteps of the rest of the security and she cursed herself. Leave it to Bynx to make her lose control in a place like this. There was no doubt, Raganr would see it as an attempt to disrupt his power.

She hurried behind Bynx, scoffing silently as they were chased. Upping her speed, she scooped the blonde up before tossing him over her shoulder before her magick opened up underneath them, a puddle of shadows similar to the one that consumed the guard from before.

Ray'ven did not hesitate to leap into the puddle, the magick swallowing them, leaving behind the sensation of slick oil before they were spat out in front of the carriage, Ray'ven quickly dropping the prince back on his feet and shoving him into it.

Bynx didn't have time to protest when Ray'ven had scooped him up and leaped into a puddle of darkness that felt slick and slimy. It almost felt like the air in his lungs were being devoured until they were spat out and she'd set him down, only to push him towards the carriage. The prince stumbled, a hand clutching against his chest. "Quick, pull the bloody hell off unless you want a bullet in your head."

The carriageman didn't need any other sentence. He started the wagon carriage and had them speeding off faster than they arrived. In the distance patrol guards were chasing after them, but they were left behind in the clouds of dust that filled the road. "Father will be disappointed in the both of us. Me for," He patted his jacket down, pulling out a silver flask. "Egging you on, and you, the bastard monster for losing control." Taking a long swig, he hissed and snarled at the burn, tilting his head back to take a breath.

"You started this first. Can't you just keep your petty bloody comments to yourself and maybe, just maybe I won't explode to come back and bite you in the ass." He snapped, bracing a hand on the window sill of the carriage so he wouldn't fling forward when the coachmen took a sharp turn down the street. His blonde locks splayed across his forehead and he flung them from his face.

Ray'ven said nothing as she reached over to tear open his shirt where the hole from the bullet was, noting that it had torn clean through and was bleeding sluggishly. She plucked the flask from his hands, pouring it over the wound to clean it, before reaching into the compartment under the seat for bandages they usually kept on hand.

A grumble ripped out his mouth when she poured the rest of the alcohol on his wound, and his gaze immediately snapped over towards her. "And as always you don't listen." He smacked her hand away. "I don't need your bloody help."

Ray'ven moved away slightly, giving him a long look. "And as always you are stubborn. You and I both know you can't tie that bandage yourself young master and despite what you may think, I'd rather you not bleed out." She stated, before continuing her task of wrapping the wound. If she tied it a bit too tight, well…

The carriage stopped abruptly, leaving them both hurling forward and then backwards against the cushioned seat. When they glimpsed up, Ja'ule Aldain was standing in front with his hardened gaze beaming through the windshield where the coachman once blocked the view.

Had Ray'ven been anyone else, she would have gulped and shrank down in her seat at the sight of the imposing figure. She was not that same ten years old child anymore, yet, even still did she tense nervously, fighting the urge to start chewing her lip because of it. Her eyes briefly flickered to Bynx and then back to Ja'ule.

"It seems, Master has come to greet us early." She said evenly.

Bynx cursed beneath his breath and his gaze snapped toward Ray'ven. "Well go greet him then. If he doesn't pommel you then I'm sure it'll be safe for me to get out." The prince nudged her with an elbow sharply before sinking down in his seat and trying to drink out his flask. It was bloody empty. Blood great, he rolled his eyes, waiting for the assassin to make her move.

Ja'ule remained there like an unmoving statue. The kinda man that didn't move for anyone. They'd come to him. He hardly blinked, and at times it seemed he wasn't even breathing through the angriness that seemed palpable in the air.

Ray'ven would have cast him a dirty look had they still been children. Instead, she slid out of the carriage, the soft click of her booted heels sounding too loud as she made her way over to where Ja'ule stood as still as a statue. The closer she got, the more erratic her feelings became. Had he known that her father had been locked away there?

Of course he had. He was Ja'ule and Valen had been his right hand man. Of course he knew. So that meant that he had kept it from her for all these years. Had allowed her to think that Valen had simply abandoned her with no visits, no letter. Nothing. Had he simply watched on in amusement as she broke at the thoughts that neither of her parents loved her enough to want her?

Did that really matter, though? He had abandoned Ray'ven before his imprisonment after all. Did it really matter now that she was such a monster? Her brows scrunched together as she came to a stop, not looking Ja'ule in the eyes. "Master." She greeted quietly with a bow.