!! NOT CANON. ALSO VIOLENCE. !!
Despite the veil of darkness, light still drifted from the Golden Willow. Its warm glow illuminating entrances to alleyways, gleaming in the eyes of rodents and stray cats alike that took turns appearing in corners, and disappearing behind crates. Chatter from the tavern faded into the darkness like a gradient, just as the light did into the shadowy maze of the in-betweens of Regalia.
Gently, the sound of footsteps disrupting the water pooling atop the cobblestone streets. Accompanied by the quiet conversation and comfortable laughter of partners.
"Amrynn! This way, it's faster."
With a small tug, the Avanthar moved towards an alley; a building blocking the view of where it ended, if it even did. He stood tall, smiling confidently, in hopes to quell the obvious hesitation on the other's face.
"Faster and safer are far different, Taegen. It's late and dark, let's–"
"You worry too much."
"You worry too much."
Not allowing the Cielothar to finish their protest, he tugged again. Making his way into the alley with Amrynn in reluctant tow. A series of splashes sounding in time with their quick footsteps to walk closer, disrupted the eerie silence that fell between them. Such unease the cause of Amrynn tightening their grip on the hand that was guiding them.
"It's quiet."
They stated, the obviousness of the words answered with a hearty chuckle. The typically sharp blue eyes they knew to be so many things carrying only one in them, reassurance. Wordlessly coaxing the relaxation of the skittish Nelfin's posture.
"So I was thinking. Instead of calling the little red heads oranges, maybe I should call them carrots. Since they are always covered in dir–"
It was the jerking, the violent jerking backwards of his hand that cut the Avanthar's words short. But the sight of his partner, barely balanced on their feet with a hand over their mouth and a blade at their throat that silenced him. Though delayed, a heated expression rose on Taegen's face. Three steps in quick succession, holding all the confidence in the world he could rip out the silent attacker's heart with ease.
Both Amrynn's hands rose, slowly. Pleading for Taegen to freeze as they were drug back the same distance the Avanthar approached. The cool blade drawing enough blood from the pacifist's throat to serve as a warning, if their wince and muffled exclamation had not been enough.
"Let them–"
"Go?"
They mused. Rocking the Cielothar roughly to the side to show the warning more clearly. A second voice, unfamiliar and intolerable, interrupting the heartfelt laugh of the stranger that held Amrynn hostage. Uncomfortably close, the Avanthar felt. Too close, he confirmed, when a hand lifted a larger blade to his own throat."Go?"
"That isn't part of the plan."
Regardless of how muffled, Amrynn tried, desperately to ask for reconsideration. To be taken and Taegen spared from whatever the plan was. Though just as the blade at their throat silenced Taegen, it forced upon the peaceful being the same fate. Elaborately so; but not after the dampened shriek of pain pulled from the same vocal chords the blade severed in two.
The start of the end for his partner willed the Avanthar's feet to move, eyes wide as Amrynn's body was gracefully allowed to slump to its knees, kicked forwards to mingle crimson into the silver reflection of filtering moonlight. Taegen's throat abruptly meeting the cool touch of the blade threatening his own life.
"Why...?"
Helplessly the word fell from his lips. Shock quickly melting away into furry, refusing to look down, unable to process the still form that had given him reason. Repeating it, with anger tenfold bursting at the seams.
"Why?!"
"Because–"
"We're broke, and someone did not like the two of you."
"Because–"
"We're broke, and someone did not like the two of you."
Such an admission left Taegen speechless. His gaze falling to Amrynn at last, the reality causing a breath to catch in his chest. Alas, death was waiting, and her minions were impatient for their reward. In the moment he stood there, frozen in disconnection, the curve of the blade holding his fate moved to graze along his throat. Quickly, as the skirts of noble ladies' gowns would graze the floor in waltz.
An eerie calmness swiftly reclaimed its control over the night, as another pool of crimson mixed with the dirty pools of rain that swallowed the stone road; the two delivering unfortunate fate disappeared as quickly as they came. The panicked hyperventilation muted by the steady downfall of heavy rain, dying out into few– faint gasps.
But the pair's ending act wasn't to be concluded so quietly, no. A scurry of nails scraping against stone approached as a deformed figure stood between them, demanding the last moments of awareness with a mischievous laugh. The being's words lost to the fading senses.
Leaving only the image of a hundred eyes, blinking, the last thing they saw.
@KrombopulousNari @NoRezForYou
