Post by Niamh-Flinn Trayvold on Aug 8, 2014 6:07:21 GMT -5
"Answers, child of my child. Explanations.. A reason to let you continue to exist on this planet."
Niamh enjoyed the cold, but the tingle that went up her spine at that moment was shuddering.
“And why do I need your reason?” She asked
Once more the woman was before her and speaking of family and of ancestor. Niamh watched the woman, the daemoness and did no move as the woman turned that shattering voice onto her. There was a momentary stubborn gaze about the girl, whose hand clenched and unclenched into fists.
“I am an assassin.” She agreed, bold in her words but once more stiller than the breeze. “That is what my parents made me as you made them.”
“You... are a Trayvold, even though you do not serve the family."
The daemoness turned her ruby eyes down for a moment, looking at her bare feet on the ground, then she glanced back at the house where a man lay ‘ravished by a beast’. Then her eyes came back to the woman. “Nor do I want to. I do enough, I am enveloped in the darkness enough without being dragged in with the muck you created.”
She liked things to be neat and tidy. Her darkness was pure, purity was neat and tidy and well placed. Mess, Niamh had no liking for mess.
“I am the next generation of your creations. But you cannot command me as you did to them.”
Post by Rennia Trayvold on Aug 8, 2014 6:28:46 GMT -5
Jinx shook her head at Niamh. "I am not providing you a reason. I am asking it. Why should I let you continue to exist on this planet? Do you think me so old, so decrepit that I am incapable of putting weight behind those words? Do not be absurd child."
It seemed then that Niamh had finally had enough and began to spit back violently at her verbal attacker. The woman would not show a hint of surprise however. Her head simply continued to shake as that ice forming chuckle continued to fill the night time air with it's deathly embrace.
"Please. You are a petulant girl. The fact you believe yourself to be the next generation of my creations is laughable at best. To think that you could hold a candle to them? You are nothing but a shadow within their wake. You're even more of a failure than they are... and you are so sure of yourself. For all that power you have coursing through you... You do not know how to use it.. and you think you can contend with the power of a family nearly as old as the gods themselves? Laughable."
"You show how little you know of this world with every word you utter. Is there any bliss to your ignorance? How does it feel to be told that even my failures are far better than you could ever hope to become on your own? Perhaps I was write in coming her to snuff out the abomination my children have conceived. You are nothing more than a distraction to their cause. A weakness that blinds them. In their imperfection they have allowed you to get in their way. But they are still useful to me... You... "
Jinx simply shook her head, not finishing her sentence. Truth be told she was laying down a heavy gamble. Not so much in terms of going toe to toe with the woman, but as per the norm Jinx preferred to use words to achieve her ends, rather than show of brute strength. This time she was pressuring the girl just to see how far she'd bend... and to see what drove the girl forward. Jinx wondered curiously if the woman would rise to the bait.. and if she did... which one would she nibble at first...
Post by Niamh-Flinn Trayvold on Aug 8, 2014 7:00:13 GMT -5
Retaliation was a necessity here.
Niamh was being goaded into it by the other, by the woman who she was almost certain was Jinx. The daemoness that stood before her clearly wanted Niamh to react in some fashion. Whether that reaction would deem Niamh forever weak and childish in the other’s eyes she wasn’t sure. Maybe the other was trying to make her angry, to react out of instinct, to prove that she was not as The Eight here, in their cold and calculated measures. Maybe she simply wanted to see a display of power, to truly know what she was up against.
But a lack of reaction was not an option either. To walk away would show frailty, to laugh in this woman’s face would only bring about another round of verbal assault. Could she justify each point? Quantify each turn? Should she have too? What was Niamh trying to prove? That she had the right to walk in her parents footsteps- did she even want to admit that she wanted that? More overly, did she actually want that?
Varos had mentored her on inner calm and balance, but right then all Niamh felt was disappointment and frustration.
The words seemed to echo in her ears for a moment;
"… To think that you could hold a candle to them? You are nothing but a shadow within their wake. You're even more of a failure than they are... and you are so sure of yourself."
No, that wasn’t true. Not in the twisted way it was dedicated here. She held a candle to her parents, what child didn’t? She was in owe of what they could do and what mayhem they could cause with just a turn of their gaze. But she did not compare herself to them, to any of them. Niamh knew she was young, she knew she had a lot to learn- she had asked Rennia to teach her- she had already admitted that failure to herself.
No one truly knew everything. Not even the Gods were truly Omni. That’s why there were so many of them, with their own realms and strengths.
"… Perhaps I was right in coming her to snuff out the abomination my children have conceived. You are nothing more than a distraction to their cause. A weakness that blinds them. In their imperfection they have allowed you to get in their way. But they are still useful to me... You... "
“Me.” She said as the woman shook her head and did not finish her sentence. “Me- call me what names you want, berate me in the only way you are brave enough too, but I am me and your words will bounce off me, they will trickle into the world and become dust at my feet. I- I exist and I have existed for sixteen years on this miserable little planet. So tell me, why the sudden interest? Why did it take you list long to find me, old woman?”
She didn’t like being referred to as an abomination.
“I don’t want to be useful to you.” Her words rose as her temper began to flare, the beginnings of an evil anger twisted in the wind that built around them. “I want nothing to do with you- do you understand? Crawl back to whatever rock you dragged yourself from under and leave me, and my family, the hell alone.”
Post by Rennia Trayvold on Aug 8, 2014 15:09:58 GMT -5
Jinx let the words continue to flow out, watching Niamh for any subtle sign of reaction.
At first Niamh held up resolutely under the verbal barrage, though Jinx could tell she was taking the time to choose her reaction wisely. Was she afraid of the possible outcome of a poorly chosen response? Maybe there was some hope for the woman after all. Slim though it may have been.
Jinx could just about smell the mounting objection Niamh may have been harboring as line after line rang out, carefully aimed to chisel away at the woman's exterior in every way possible.
Finally the woman broke through, and got a response. Jinx would only stop to grin almost knowingly at the girl. "Do you think you are the most important thing I have to deal with? Curious. You may think I'm a control freak. I probably am, but I don't babysit my creations. They were made to function independently. It just seems that they are failing in that function.. But no matter."
Jinx waved her hand in a dismissive motion. "You think I care what you want girl? Clearly you missed the part where I said I don't care about the petulant rebellion of youth. You think you can just tell me to get lost and I'll run away and hide? Truly they were selective in what they told you about me then. I am a nightmare that cannot simply be banished, by you.. by anyone. And you seem to fail to understand something... It is not your family. Your parents are part of mine and I will not let them destroy a name that has existed for generations. But I suppose I should take pity and be lenient on you. You truly do know nothing of such things."
Jinx looked away, back towards the city. "You were born into a world that never truly knew conflict. They never truly understood the lengths we had to go to, to make sure they had a future. To make sure we all.. had a future." The woman turned back to Niamh as she said the last three words. "We went to those lengths so that creatures like you could be born into this privileged world. What would you know of that world?"
Jinx chuckled softly once again and watched Niamh silently for a moment. A level of hollow amusement was written on her face as she thought her next words over. "Even if you do not wish to be useful to me.. even if you want me away from the family which is not yours to claim... Who do you think they will side with when push comes to shove?"
Post by Niamh-Flinn Trayvold on Aug 8, 2014 15:36:04 GMT -5
This was infuriating and it was Niamh’s turn to lose her patience.
“My name’s Niamh.” She said, sharply, “Not girl or abomination or child, but Niamh.”
“Niamh Trayvold. Because that is who I am. I might not manage your standards, I might not live up to your expectations but I am her, she is me. Now lay off!”
She didn’t like these thoughts that Jinx put in her head. She didn’t want to think about her parents choosing to side with- with the old woman. But the truth was they would, they’d go crawling back they always would. Because they’d given her up to Varos hadn’t they? They’d already abandoned her once; called her back to do a little job here and there but never really treated her like a kid.
“You won’t tell me what you want, you just keep lecturing me about your stupid past about your stupid expectations, well, you know what, I don’t care alright? I don’t care?!”
The rage flew out of her, like daggers.
She didn’t know when she’d ever been this angry. Usually she was so calm, so collected, usually she was so prim and tidy. Rage was messy, it was dirty and uncontrolled and against everything Niamh liked and enjoyed, but right then it filled up the blood and bile inside her and consumed her in its hot flames. She was angry, but she didn’t know why and she was disgusted with herself for being so full of wroth, that she was even angrier at that too.
The fury just opened the hole inside her. The emptiness that she had allowed the darkness to fill.
The daggers weren’t just a metaphor either. They seemed to come from the darkness, from the looming shadows on the ground and in the vines around them. Like silver needles that seeped into being, the plunged for the older daemoness.
She knew it was a stupid move. But Niamh was blinded.