A Sun With A Darkened Glow (Cass)

[Aello]

"So are you. We all are," Aello replied rather simply. Not at all phased by the nature of Cassandra's words. Not at all surprised by the fact that they now hung between each of them. She watched as the woman's chest rose and fell. She seemed to be breathing all the more heavily, denoting her anger, her fear, and perhaps, a bit of her frustration. If she bothered to look, Aello thought she could see her heart beating through her chest. It caused her to run her tongue over the roof of her mouth, producing a low clicking noise. Other people, after all, could be rather pathetic when they surrendered to what they feared most. Just as Cassandra was doing now. After a moment she stopped. "Is what I am doing all that different from what they do to us every day?" Aello asked. "For they go where no one wishes them to. They poke their noses into everyone's business, not caring at all who they offend, as long as it serves their needs." Aello paused, watching the woman turn to go. "It's what they do with you, isn't it? Force themselves into your business?" Aello grinned playfully as her eyes flashed. She was watching the gentle rock of Cassandra's hips as she moved, the slight bounce of her step. The way her hair swished across the length of her back as her shoulder blades rippled beneath her flesh. "Tell me love, just where do you think you're running to? You can't escape them. You can't escape me. You can't hide from your past, what you have done. Whatever it is that weighs so heavily on your heart..." Aello took a few steps forward, allowing herself to trail behind Cassandra, but keep a few steps between them still. "We both know you didn't want to do it. That you were made to. That you're dying to tell someone about what it is you have done. So you might as well tell me." Aello paused, as she quickened her pace. She couldn't be more than three steps behind Cassandra now. She was listening intently to the woman's steps. Allowing her eyes to bore into the back of the woman's head. Then lower, towards her neck. "Share your secret with me," Aello whispered, as she crept forward, and raised the tip of her cursed blade to the space where the back of her neck met the gentle curve of her collar bone. She was waiting. OOCFeel free to take your time replying to this. I am in no rush, and will not mind a bit. P.S. I said Aello raised her blade to meet with the back of Cass' neck. Feel free to have her quicken the pace if she like, senses Aello behind her or something, if you don't want a dagger pushing against skin.

[Cassandra Coven]

Cassandra tried her best to ignore everything Aello was saying. The other woman's words were an insidious attempt in turning her against the city's government and guardians by making her question their methods and means of maintaining the peace and order in Ravok. Anyone else hearing them would have probably turned Aello in to the authorities - for incitement of treasonous thoughts, or something like that! Cassandra thought. The woman was trouble and while she would no doubt deserve getting locked up for bothering law-abiding citizens like her, Cassandra wanted no part in the trouble Aello brought. And so she concentrated in walking to reach the end of the alley. Perhaps she could lose her in the morning crowd in the more populated streets or, even better, she might find a guard to charm into accompanying her back to the tavern. That should deter the crazy woman! Aello's mention of her past almost made the dark-haired woman stumble in her steps. What did she know? Did this woman know of the blood in her hands? Cassandra could not know that Aello might just be guessing, but her words certainly hit painfully close to home this time. Cassandra's footsteps slowed, her hands shaking imperceptively in agitation. She almost whirled about, to demand what this presumptuous, insane woman knew of her, but by then it was too late. She felt the familiar kiss of a blade's edge lightly brushing the skin of her nape. She realized that Aello had no intention of allowing her to reach the alley's end. Cassandra stiffened, feeling the menace emanating from the woman through the coldness of the steel held against her neck. Her own dagger sat useless in her hand, too far to be of any use to her. It might as well have been out of her reach for all the good it would do in protecting her from Aello. "I have no secrets!" she pleaded in a terse whisper. "I was merely paid to do a...a task! For the Black Sun! Please...Ae...Aello - we have met before, I remember now - you know I...I'm just a barmaid! I'm innocent! You're right, I'm...I'm being forced into this. Please, let me go!" A lie. A blatant lie, but one Aello would not know. Cassandra had willingly accepted Trevinus' offer of torturing prisoners. But it was a deal accepted in order to survive, It was an outlet, a need, for her if she wanted to live from her condition. Aello would not understand. The woman would only see her as a monster if she tried to explain, and would probably kill her. She wasn't even sure if she wouldn't kill her now even after all she had admitted to. Vague details, but she was afraid of the Black Sun too if they found out she had been telling others of her activities in their headquarters. Cassandra wasn't exactly sure if Trevinus would allow her to speak of such things outside the Vitrax. Goddess! she cried silently in fear. Save me from this mad woman! She wasn't exactly sure to which goddess she was supplicating to.

[Aello]

"Everybody has their secrets," Aello whispered, as she pressed her blade a little more forcefully into the back of Cassandra's neck. "No one is free from that," she added, her voice cold as her nostrils flared. Her muscles tensed as her magic came to life, casting Cassandra in its warm glow. She was a light blue shade now. A blue which seemed to fan out about her like a mist. She could hear mice squeaking in the aura, verifying what she already knew: the woman was afraid. Very afraid. So much so, that Aello could convince her to do just about anything she wanted, because she had her just where she wanted her. "A task for the Suns?" Aello whispered, as she reached for Cassandra's dagger free hand with her left hand. She wanted to twist it behind her back. She wanted to make the woman ache before she spilled a bit of her blood. She wanted to know the truth. Every last piece of it, for she knew, what she heard now, was not all of it. Not the truth. If she could, she'd twist the woman's fingers as she brought the arm further behind her back. "That part has become apparent. That we know each other also, has become apparent as well. I remember you clearly enough, from that day many moons ago, when you asked us to dump a body for you." If she could, Aello would twist the arm upwards, inflicting a greater level of pain, "you have admitted to being something more than a barmaid. You have admitted to serving the Black Sun. That is the simple truth of things. You have lied then, in pretending you are innocent in all of this, that there isn't at least a part of you who values your work. Enjoys it even. Who knows that something is achieved by its completion." Aello pressed her dagger against the woman's flesh, allowing it to sink beneath the metal. One more tap, and she knew she would draw a line of blood. "You are a disgusting, pathetic excuse for a human being maid," Aello hissed. "And I should spill your blood right now, for serving them. For so much as considering it. But, that can't yet be done, for you still have yet to share your story. Your secrets." If she could, Aello would twist the woman's fingers a little more, as she pushed her body forward, so that Cassandra would hunch down a bit. "You will speak the truth and only the truth, for each of us will know when you are lying, as you have just done." Aello paused. "I don't need to see your face to know. I don't need to see you avert your gaze, or roll your eyes, or bite your bottom lip nervously." Aello would give another sudden, violent twist of the woman's arm if she was able, before finishing, "because I know precisely what you are, and so do you." Her voice was stone cold; chilling. She thought she could see a tremor shoot up the length of Cassandra's spine. It made her eyes sparkle. A smile appear on her lips. She was going to get precisely what she wanted. OOCSorry the wording is a bit strange. I didn't want to simply assume I could do something.

[Cassandra Coven]

Cassandra stood stiffly even as Aello dug the tip of her blade just a little bit deeper against her nape. She could feel the sharp end pierce her skin, a single droplet of her blood sliding slowly down the contours of her back. She wanted to flee, to run to the end of the alley - desperately so! - but like a doe caught within the sights of a hunter she was frozen. The opportunity passed as the woman behind her deprived her of her dagger, before twisting her arm up in a painful hold. Just the least bit of pressure and upward motion sent pinpricks of agony flashing up her shoulder and neck, making her cry out. "I didn't have a choice!" Cassandra sobbed through the pain. "How do you...how do you say no to them? I don't want to end up dead and dumped in some...in some dark alley one night for defying them! I don't want to - AAAGGGHHHH!!" Aello had increased the torque on her twisted arm, forcing the dark-haired barmaid to fall on her knees just to alleviate the pain. It didn't help however, for it only gave Aello more leverage to twist it further upwards. Cassandra was already in tears. She was being punished for being associated with the likes of Trevinus Nitrozian. Suffering even though she was just a pawn for the Black Sun. "Why...why are you doing this? I'm not even one of them! If you're...if you hate them so much, why don't you go after them instead of me? I'm just someone who's trying to survive in this city! I'm...I'm not lying!" Cassandra was holding her shoulder now with her free hand, as if holding her body together for fear that her arm might pop out of its socket if Aello applied any more pressure. It wouldn't help her any if the other woman did, but such was the usual reaction of anyone in a similar situation as hers. With the blade against her neck and her arm twisted behind her leaving her paralyzed, she was at the mercy of her oppressor. "Please...don't kill me. I've already told you everything!" She did not know if Aello would recognize this as untruth, but even under the woman's torturous hold, Cassandra was still unwilling to divulge her cursed condition - the reason why she had accepted to work for the Black Sun. It was a secret that, for her, was too horrible to reveal to anyone. It had led her to commit too many dark deeds. Bloody and dark deeds. In a moment of epiphany, Cassandra realized that no matter how much she denied Krysus, she always found herself in situations that revolved around one of the domains in which the goddess ruled over: Pain. Such as now. Was it the goddess' hand that led her into these? Cassandra was afraid to find out.

[Aello]

OOCWarning: this thread is going to get much darker it seems... if you're even remotely squeamish, you may want to check out now. As Cassandra struggled against her, Aello forced her body to curl over hers. Alongside hers, as she kept her arm back. As she kept her blade against her neck. Her head made its way alongside the maid's, turning to face her. To look at her profile. Into her eyes. She could feel her hot breath bouncing off the maid's neck, and buffeting her own. Her lips passed by the woman's ear. Brushing against it momentarily, almost tenderly, before they pulled back a bit. So that they ran directly alongside. "You always have a choice. You may always say no. It's just as simple as saying it to anyone else- a patron at the Silver Silver, a stranger on the street, me, your family, them." Aello paused as she tightened her hold, as her eyes flashed all the more dangerously. "You simply chose not to say no, because you gave into your fear. If you don't want to be dumped into an alley love, and you don't want to do whatever it is you're doing, then you should run them through. It's not too hard. Most of them being weak, considering how their name alone does so much work." Aello chuckled. "But you already knew that, didn't you?" With that, Aello pulled her lips away. Bringing her head back so she could look at the blood she had drawn across the woman's neck. It was a sickeningly alluring, ruby red necklace. Or if would be, if she let it circle all the way around. For now, it was little more than a clasp. Or perhaps the gem itself. With how the droplet fell. Drooping. An elongated line, before the soft curve of the droplet's point. The aurist sighed, as the maid kept on speaking. Wasn't it obvious? She wanted a few answers, and perhaps, revenge. But she wasn't about to state that outright. Not when she had the upper hand, and didn't have to put any of the cards she carried upon the table. Not yet. "What you don't get love, is that you, by associating with them, may as well be one of them. You may not be one by name, but you are one by nature. By the very deeds you choose to commit," Aello explained, cooly. "By letting them have you." Aello paused, as she gave Cassandra's arm another light twist, just to show that she could create more pain whenever she felt like it, simply for the sake of it. "Now, with that being the case, you have become quite valuable to them, and to people like me. Because you know things, a great many things. Things which may be used against them." Aello chuckled. "Don't you see maid? You're just the thing we need in order to acquire slightly more leverage over those wretched beings. With the secrets you spill... well, we may just be able to turn the tides." The young spiritist licked her lips then, somewhat hungrily. Whetting them, for the feast she knew was about to come. She was waiting for the barmaid, to divulge more. She could hear her crying. Feel her weakening. It was only a matter of moments before she squeezed everything she wanted out of her, like a sponge. She heard her speaking, but not the words. Dishonesty, its colors, its very scent, flooded the aura. Instantly, Aello's gaze hardened on the back of the woman's neck as she gave her arm a sudden, forceful jerk. "We both know that's far from the truth," Aello growled. "Now, you have a choice, share what you know, and get this whole ordeal over with, all this pain, or... I can start getting inventive. Using this dagger all the more artfully than I am now, and don't you dare, so much as for an instant, think the only thing that's going to be scarred is this arm of yours, when there's a much greater canvas to work with. A whole canvas to paint." Aello's eyes glimmered as she considered what the woman would miss most. "We can start with your face... or perhaps your breasts, someone just as pretty as you must value those above all else." Aello chuckled, as she drew her dagger along the length of Cassandra's neck, pressing into it lightly. Her hand brushed away her mass of long, black hair, sending it cascading down the length of her right shoulder, down her front. Aello stared at the newly exposed flesh. It seemed so pale. Especially now... OOCHockay, so I am not going to get too too graphic, but... good luck Cass, is all I have to say.

[Cassandra Coven]

If Aello's every action was meant to intimidate the more timid Cassandra, it was certainly working. Aside from the painful hold the smaller woman had on her and the threat of the blood-stained dagger looming over her neck, the dark-haired barmaid had thought before that she could still talk her way out of her predicament. Aello had helped her before after all, and she had even served her in the Silver Sliver. But the woman seemed to be the merciless sort, as Cassandra was beginning to find out. The answers she squeaked out did not seem to be enough for Aello, who seemed to be able to tell if she was lying or was holding something back. Cassandra was starting to fear that Aello had some strange power that allowed her glimpses in her mind, or her words, or intentions - like Trevinus did. It wasn't just the men who were dangerous in Ravok it seemed. Even their fairer halves could inflict pain and terror the likes of which one would never want to experience again. Cassandra was truly afraid of Aello now. More so because, unlike the abusive men in her life whom she expected such acts of violence from, Aello was a woman. "I'm just...I'm just doing what I'm told! Please! How can I say no to them when doing so would be taken against me? I - AAAAGGGHHHH!" Cassandra screamed through her sobs again as Aello tightened the hold she had on her arm even more. "Please stop! Please! You'll break my arm!" But Aello did not relent, lecturing her about the choices she's done, about choosing to side with the Black Sun. The woman pressed further, insisting that she reveal more of what she knew about Rhysol's secretive organization - as if she was privy of any sensitive information. Aello followed up with threats of mutilation and punctuated it with a painful twist of Cassandra's arm, forcing it in a direction it could go no further. It bent the poor barmaid so far forward that the side of her head slammed against the cold pavement. But the force that Aello applied did not relent even when her victim had hit the ground and Cassandra's arm popped out of its socket, eliciting a ragged scream from her. Aello continued to hold the limp limb in her hands. Fear, frustration and helplessness all flooded out of the dark-haired woman and, unable to hold it back any more, Cassandra completely broke down and cried now. It wasn't like the feminine sobs that escaped her lips from time to time from earlier, but a full-scale sniveling that was akin to a bullied child. She felt that she would die in this empty alley, killed and mutilated by Aello the Heartless. And the only way for her to save herself was to reveal her deepest and darkest secrets or Aello would make her fear a reality. "I don't know anything! I swear I don't know anything!" Cassandra cried, her breath blowing up dust and dirt from the ground. "I was just p-paid to...to cut pris...criminals! Make criminals feel the pain they inflicted on their victims." She was still loathe to use the word 'torture', perhaps thinking to make herself look less of an accomplice in Aello's eyes, or perhaps because she truly found the word and the act of it abhorrent. "That's...that' what Lord Trevinus told me, because of my...because of my..." She gulped. There was no turning back. "Of my condition. I am cursed!" She had screamed out the last part but, realizing her error, thinking that her goddess might punish her further through Aello for considering her blessing of gnosis as a curse, Cassandra took back her words. "I am...'gifted' with inflicting pain to others but there is a...a need to hurt people or else I...I will die. The Black Sun just decided to use me because of it. "Please...that's everything. I know nothing else. Please let me go...I can't take it any more." Cassandra continued crying, quietly this time, as she awaited her fate.

[Aello]

"You know something," Aello hissed, as she eased her body down a little bit, allowing it to curl alongside Cassandra's, but not so much so as to give her any real sort of disadvantage should the woman decide to try and do anything stupid. "You just don't want to share, because the truth terrifies you. Hearing the words out loud, makes the actions you commit stronger, and you hate that. How such a simple thing can give something so meaningless an even greater hold over you. Your heart." Aello paused as the woman kept on screaming, offering her another morsel of information. A scrap from her table. "You mean you torture people for them. Most of them more than likely deserving, but a few must be good at heart. Just evil in the sense of this city..." The aurist's voice trailed off as she kept on listening. Her brow furrowed as she thought deeply about the woman's words. "You're saying that one of the gods marked you?" Aello whispered in her ear after a time. Her voice far more neutral than it had been before. "That your mark brings a need to your heart, your soul, and yet you loathe it? Every moment you spend inflicting pain. Attempting to wield a weapon you don't understand." Aello paused, "why would a god gift you with something you hate? Something you seem largely incapable of upholding?" Again the woman paused, "what's the benefit to you? If what you say is true, how did you acquire something that doesn't fit your character in the least? You're just a barmaid, and a very foolish one at that." Aello sighed, as she gave time for the woman to reply. She didn't care much what she said, just that it rang true in her aura. Indicating that she was beginning to get somewhere. Indicating that she was just beginning to break the sobbing woman. "Now show me, I want to see it for myself," Aello whispered, as her eyes settled on her dagger. The back of the woman's neck. She thought she could see beads of sweat gathering there. It made her feel strong.

[Cassandra Coven]

"I don't know... I don't know..." Cassandra whispered through her tears. "I never asked for it...I never wanted it...Goddess forgive me, I never wanted it..." She remained in that awkward position, kneeling with her head pressed against the ground as if waiting for some executioner to bring the axe down upon her exposed neck, and Aello still gripping her useless arm in the hold that dislocated it in the first place. The dark-haired woman refused to move even as her oppressor ordered her to show her where she was marked, too afraid to even shift her weight lest she aggravate her injury. Her sobs came out softer now but no less consistent than before. "Sh...show you?" she asked, hiccuping through her weeping. "I-I can't." Her words were a simple denial of Aello's adamant request, but it wasn't so much resistance against the order as her inability to carry it out. While not exactly true, it wasn't a lie either, though Cassandra never intended it to come off as such. Any fight she may have had had been pretty much beaten out of her; she was too much in pain to even think of denying Aello now. But her marks were on the back of her hands, and with one arm all but useless, even if she was released Cassandra couldn't take off the fingerless gloves that covered them. But Aello did not know that. Would the aurist take offense at the fact that the barmaid seemingly found a way to bypass her ability to detect truth from lies? OOCSorry, short reply. But I really could do much in this position. XD

[Aello]

'What do you mean you can't?" Aello asked. "Of course you can. You just don't want to because you're afraid. Because you can't handle the pain it causes, that this arm is causing. That the dagger against your neck is inflicting." The girl paused as she slackened her grip upon Cassandra, but only a little, hardly enough for her to notice any change at all. "Which means that you're going to show me, unless it's buried under a fold of fabric," Aello went on. "Care to tell me just where, so I can help you out of it, and see this for myself?" Aello asked as her eyes darted over Cassandra's trembling form. "Unless all we have to do is uncover something which will reveal a little less of your skin," Aello went on with a small smile. "It's not too cold out, which would leave one to wonder why you are wearing a pair of gloves. If not to keep warm, or to have to keep from looking at the blood which stains your skin, what could be under there, hmm?" Aello tilted her head slightly to the side, "should we have a look then?" she asked. "For you could always pull those things off with your teeth," Aello added, with a small smile. "They don't seem to suit your outfit anyway."

[Cassandra Coven]

"What do you know of fashion? You used to wear leaves on your hair..." Cassandra mumbled helplessly. It wasn't the most tactful thing to say to a woman who could easily end her life with the flick of her dagger, but the abused barmaid was past rational thought at the moment, after being terrorized out of her wits and having her arm torqued out of its socket. She could have tried to resist by pulling her free arm under her body but it would have been a pointless gesture, what with Aello still holding her other arm and she couldn't do much moving that one. Not the pain stemming from her shoulder feeling like her limb had been torn off with the bloody stump gushing bucketloads of blood. In resignation, Cassandra turned her head away from Aello, not wanting to witness the expression on the woman's face as she beheld Cassandra's gnosis mark. Even though the movement made her injury hurt more, the dark-haired barmaid struggled through the pain to hide her face. Revealing her Vexation mark had always been a private thing for Cassandra, for she was rightfully ashamed of having it more than anything, even her tragic past, and this forceful attempt of Aello to uncover her hands felt too much like a violation of her dignity. It was like being stripped in the middle of a room with a crowd watching. Or being raped. Hot tears rolled down Cassandra's dirtied cheeks as she felt the glove she wore on her twisted arm come off. Aello must surely be staring at the red-hued veins at the back of her hand by now. Another sob escaped her. "I hope you're happy now..." OOCI assumed you'll be the one who'll take off the glove so I already RPed it out from Cassandra's perspective. Go ahead and take it off.