The air crackled with tension, the heat of the conversation flaring up with each passing second. "Mom! Can you calm down first?" Kaelin stated with a furrow to her brows. She understood why her mother would make such a decision. 'I should've known that something was off when she told me to try my best in his game.'
Hesta, behind Nysa, urged the same as he tried to place his hands on her shoulders. Nysa looked at the pair as if betrayed by what she heard. "How could you, Hesta, let our child be allowed to mingle with a despicable man like Jarren?!" Hesta, who was about to speak, was cut off once more by Nysa.
"And you!" Her finger aimed at Kaelin, who watched her mother akin to a crazed hag. "Have you heard what I said to you?! Because if not, then you might as well go to him. No daughter of mine will have any form of relations with such a man!" Kaelin found it absurd the way her mother talked about her safety as if she hadn't been blackmailing her with her safety.
The two watched her as if studying her rant before Hesta broke the silence. "Darling! As much as I don't want our daughter to be affiliated with such a person, we can't ignore all logic and run off with emotions! That would only bring us to our end faster." Nysa, however, didn't bother listening as she made her way to Kaelin.
"Give me the bow now. And make sure that you never use it ever again!" Kaelin didn't bother protesting as she brought the bow out and handed it to her mother. "That goes for you meeting with him in that game-like place you stated! You won't be sleeping during the day with no logical explanation." Kaelin glanced at her father for help.
"Okay darling, that's a bit too much, don't you think?! Even if we were to do those things, Jarren has already placed his sights on our daughter, and we can't change that! If he were to walk up to our home, then what?! We'd have no other choice but to open the door."
Nysa, rather than taking this as a moment to pause and reason with her decisions, went on. "Then we'll move!" Hesta and Kaelin covered their faces in disbelief. "What do you mean move?! Move and go where? The entirety of Arcania is swarmed with abominations, not to mention the reaching power of Redfall; we would be delaying the inevitable."
Kaelin mused as her father added on. "Besides, I'm sure that a person like Jarren would easily track us down regardless. Just let Kaelin have her bow and go to that place she said." Nysa by now was making her way to the exit, her mind already made up. "I've already made up my mind, so don't bother changing it."
And with that, she slammed the door behind her. Hesta looked at Kaelin, a frown forming on his face. "I can't control every second that you spend. Just make sure that you don't aggravate him." He said before he followed after Nysa. Now alone in her room, Kaelin was baffled by what had happened.
Her mind both amused and taken aback before recalling on her mother's nature. 'You won't always be there to watch over me mom. Not that I don't appreciate your efforts.' With a thought, her bow appeared back in her hand. A yell echoed through the manor, one that she didn't bother addressing as she shut her door and locking it.
...
Two figures glanced at each other, one with a look of hatred and the other playfulness. "It's been a while since we lash chatted." Callista broke the silence as she took a seat opposite to Guinevere, a playful smile plastered on her lips. "He'll replace you just as he is about to with me." Callista using her hand for support let out a small laugh.
"The reason he's replacing you is because of your failure to appreciate what you have. Eternity and all the power one could think of and yet you have the gall to refuse it. Truly a fool would do what you have." Guinevere let her remark pass her as she rose to her feet. "I take it that you are here to kill me."
"It's nice to know that he can't be one to do it. A coward still." A smile of ridicule forming on her face. "A coward, maybe, but don't you think that it would be fitting for me to put you to rest. You've suffered for long enough dear." Clomere was in the room, watching the two go at it with a look of indifference.
"Frankly, it would be fitting if the two of you would come to pass. I don't like sharing my dear with the two of you." Her words granting her gazes of playfulness and apathy from the two ladies. "He's blinded the both of you with power and I can see it. I wonder when you'll step out of your lie and see it as well." Guinevere's remark met with a light scoff.
"Power? I beg to differ but what use would a corpse be to me. I thought of making you an artifact but now, it would be best to completely forget." Guinevere didn't bother with the two as she waited for her agonizing existence to come to an end. "Will you do it or will I have to do it?" Clomere asked flatly as she shot out her hand showing a single spore dancing at her palm.
"Don't bother, I'll do it." Callista said as a multitude of obsidian strings filled the room and wrapping around Guinevere's neck drawing golden blood. "So far you two only play games. I've yet to see affections you delude yourself that you share." Guinevere shot at Callista, her vision beginning to dim.
"Don't worry dear, I'll take care of that." Clomere chimed in as Callista with a tug of her fingers completely severed Guinevere's head clean off her body.
*Whoosh*
Space began to crack like glass revealing another world and with a thought Guinevere's soul was siphoned, wrapped in hands of obsidian and hellfire before the screaming ceased to be in the room. "What do you mean you'll take care of it?" Callista asked with a gaze of skepticism. "It's just as Guinevere has said it. You play a lot of games with Jarren but how about the two of you were the ones to play the game as the pawns."
Callista tilted her head at Clomere's proposal. "You want to make him the prize, what game do you wish to play?" A devilish grin forming on her face. "It would be best to worry about it after we take care about the power vacuum." Clomere stated as she waved the spore in her hand off. "To hell with this world, what game are you suggesting?"
Clomere watched Callista's smile, her gray eyes that dared her for a challenge. "A game of affections. Mortals, simple yet effective." Callista paused for a second before reaching her judgment. "Please, don't make me laugh however how about some stakes." Clomere didn't bother protesting. "Sure, I don't mind. If you lose then you get to leave the picture with your death."
Callista didn't back down. "The same with you." Jarren's figure appeared in the room, a smile forming on his lips as he sat on Guinevere's throne. "You two dare to make me your prize? It would seem that the two of you are getting a little too comfortable." Still, he didn't comment about the deal. "However don't you think that it would be best to lower the stakes?"
His attention shifting towards Clomere who clicked her tongue. "How about this, if you manage to win then I'll be yours, all yours however if Callista wins then the same applies. Your death aspect doesn't fancy me." The girls let out frustrated sighs before coming to a conclusion. "Fine, how about our of the picture or lesser than."
Callista let out a hum of acknowledgement agreeing to Clomere's terms. "I don't mind, death or your far less interesting version." With her taste of the top, she had nothing else to sink her teeth into other than Guinevere, Clomere and Jarren. "What about that girl Kaelin?" Clomere eyed Jarren who wore his signature serpentine smirk.
"Her? I would be lying saying that she was nothing more than a test project given that the two of you have already read by words. Consider her as... something for me to work on when the two of you are lacking. After all with the death of Guinevere, there's a hole to fill." His words making the temperature of the room to drop.
What the two ladies wanted last was another competitor for his attention. "Worry not, she won't be as crazed as the two of you." He joked as he rose to his feet stealing a kiss from Callista and Clomere. "Or do you wish to have her gone?" The two immediately nodded eliciting a chuckle from Jarren. "Don't be so selfish ladies. After all she won't be on the spotlight like the two of you."
He waited for either of them to protest, his words met with silence that affirmed his exit. Now with the two of them alone, Callista was the first to break the silence. "The silence between the two of us." She muttered, making her way to the door. "Maybe you could learn something about that." Clomere taunted as she made her way to the throne.
Adjusting to the seat, she got out of it. "I don't have the time to waste on trivial matters like this." She concluded as she reached for her exit as well. "Excuse me but I'm not the sadistic butcher here. There's grace to my dances, you're nothing more than blood and anguish." The two made their way down the hall, devoid of any staff.
"Please, unlike you I don't like to delude myself with whimsical fantasies." Her remark eliciting a small chuckle from Callista. "Okay Clomere, what even will be the setting of this game that you want me to play." The two of them went on with their detailed staging of the next play. "Let's just say that it'll be more engaging for all of us. Especially for you when the attention will be all about you."
The two arrived at the court, the myriads of flowers failing to catch a glance from the two. "Just tell me already other than the boring stuff already!" Clomere didn't bother divulging as she began to make her way back to the palace. "I'm busy, with the rise o such a kingdom then it's fitting to have a ruler over it."
Callista however seemed apathetic about the matter. "What about Kaelin, do you think I should end her?" Clomere paused, her silence overbearing. She looked over her shoulder, her words strangely calm. "It's nothing more than a distraction for him, it's only a matter of time before he grows bored."
And with that she took her leave. As for Callista, she put more thought into it before figure left the plane.
...
"Are you going to bother avenging Guinevere?" Crimson stared at the miss seated opposite to her, silence the only melody in the blank expanse of void. " She told me that death would have been the best fate she could have faced. You were doing her a favor." Crimson stated before her attention shifted to the side where a god appeared.
"Miss Crimson, I have an urgent matter waiting for your presence." The god mused on one knee, Callista indifferent as she toyed with her fingers. "Is this what you do all the way here? Isn't it quite boring?" Her question met with a sigh. "Yes, it is however what other purpose do I serve? After all Jarren wants me to take over as the ruler of the plane above reality."
*Tap-Tap-Tap*
Callista's gaze sharpened as she stared at the god kneeling, her index tapping on the ivory table. "You sound a lot like Clomere. Besides you don't have to do any of this. There's nothing wrong with taking a break every now and then." Crimson remained unfazed with the deal Callista reached out for her. "It's peaceful here, after all I have other plans with Jarren."
The feral miss's brows furrowed hearing his. "What do you mean you have plans?"