By the time Shroud had gotten bored of erasing the Grapnel's
memory he decided it was probably about time to leave. He glided down the
hallway towards the servants room, in hopes of finding Neave waiting for him.
He had tried to link to her but either her mind was closed for good reason, or
she was out of range. Unfortunately for him he
laid eyes upon Chloe. Her mumblings under her breath had become more
rampant and her head was twitching left and right as if in a struggle to stay
still. He quickly and quietly pulled her up from her seat and walked her out,
with the guards still belting they were both still inside. The evening light
threw wide shadows across the walkways of the city. The once bright courtyard
outside the Academy was now slowly being lit by lamplight and glowing orbs. From
the far right hand side of the courtyard Neave ran towards Shroud and Chloe.
Her hair was messy, her dress torn. She spoke with breathless urgency. She
needed to know where Valma was and she needed to know fast. Shroud replied that
it was with Lily and she would most likely be out in a moment. Neave tried to
push past Shroud inside, to which he blocked her path. He told her to be
patient, and that whatever was so urgent could wait a few more moments.
His mental link with Eryn was soon reconnected and he
replied that she had safely arrived and he was now late. Eryn did not reply. Shroud
tried to contact him again but to no avail. He then decided to question Neave
on her current state, and how much it was going to cost them to replace. She dodged
the question, occasionally trying to pass him towards the entrance. The lack of
response made him only want to take matters into his own hands, and asked for
the artefact he had given her at the Bank. She calmly replied offhandedly that
she did not have it after they left the bank and had no idea where it could be.
This raised a question in his mind, as he had purposefully checked that she had
the device when she was unconscious. He tried to re-establish the mental link
with her but she was closed to him, he tried again and again until he heard her
scream Do not listen to her Sur. As
her words sharpened his nerves , Lily was thrown out from the servant door of
the Academy, over the fleeing and screaming servants beneath her. She crashed
down onto the walkway and knocked her head against a crate and was knocked out
cold. From the shadows of the doorway inside a shambling corpse lumbered out
carrying two struggling Grapnel under her arms two which in then threw them off
the edge. Shroud recognised her beauty, although her figure was a good seven
feet tall. He spun around only to be lunged upon by the Neave next to him
.
Eryn had finally arrived at the Academy and stopped in his
tracks noticing not one, but two Neaves, the latter being a mutated cadaver. He
scanned the courtyard, noticing Lily knocked out cold and Chloe still rambling
to herself oblivious to the dangers. Guards now flooded from the servant
entrance trying to contain the monstrosity, they were easily flung off the
sides and down into the arena below, or the ten story drop to the bottom. Shroud
was now parrying with Neave, trying to find a way to distract her. Eryn dashed
over to Shroud and shoulder barged Neave into the side the nearest spire. She was
only out of action for a split second but this allowed him a gap to try and
quickly snap Chloe out of whatever was going on inside her mind. A light pinch
with hot fingers brought her back and she instinctively reacted firing off a
shard of amethyst at him, which in her mental state, luckily missed. The hooded
Neave now joined the fight in the courtyard. Shroud was still trying to divert
his Neave, not wanting to cause her harm. Eryn had turned on the creature from
the morgue, and Chloe was ready to have her jealousy fuelled revenge on the always
more beautiful and now hooded Neave.
With the Grapnel's help, Eryn managed to separate them from
her and set alight the wood underneath, in hopes of destabilising it. Unfortunately
the structure did not fall, but it did burn setting his opponent of fire. The
pain was blinding and she soon lost her footing and smacked her head on the brickwork
of the lower spires on the way down to the bottom. In the main courtyard it was
hard to tell whether Chloe either had severe difficulty in aiming, or she was
slowly trying to whittle down Neave, body part by body part. She was unable to
cause any brutal and instant damage due to the constant barrage of attacks and
dodge rolls. By the smile on her face however, when Neave had been wounded enough, it plain to see it was
intentional. She looked at her newly sculpted Neave and fired a shard into her
abdomen.
With two now dispatched it was left to Shroud to finish with
his. However the sadness in her eyes and his own memories clouded his judgement;
not allowing him to harm her, or for either Chloe or Eryn to interfere. He was
soon pinned to a wall between creates and barrels, still refusing to fight. He
heard her voice calling to him, but her lips did not move. Within a blink of an
eye the Neave in front of him was on the floor a few feet away, crumpled at
Eryn's feet. Shroud then felt the touch of a woman's hand on his shoulder and
went for his blade but the voice her heard calmed him down. Eryn and Chloe
poised themselves to fight but the Neave Shroud was with was the Neave they
knew, as she handed over the artefact from the Tangent Bank. Shroud and Neave both
spent a few minutes together without talking which frustrated Chloe's curiosity.
The dishevelled Neave by her feet was
still alive but was hardly moving. Shroud's Neave turned around and smiled at
Chloe and Eryn as she walked over and apologised. Then with a flick of her wrist
she pulled out a knife and grabbed the
hair of the woman on the floor. She pulled her head to waist height and slashed
her throat, instantly decapitating and then kicked her body off the edge of the
walkway.
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