Flight From Ironheart IC

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Archpaladin Zousha

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Neither side seemed particularly interested in calling off the fight, however temporarily, but eventually the blond-haired woman managed to convince the others to back off. The lone woman for her part, sneered at them and stood her ground, pausing to suck on a wound in the palm of her hand.

At your words, the red head sneers.

“We don’t need to answer to his lot – let’s just get this over with!”

The raven haired woman steps forward, lying a hand on the fiery woman’s shoulder, causing her to wince as frost spreads across her shoulder.

“Peace, sister. There is no harm in educating others in our ways.”

Stepping out from around her (apparently) sister, the raven-haired woman comes to stand beside the blond woman. She greets you with a low bow.

“Forgive my sister’s fiery temper and sharp tongue. The rage of battle tends to go to her head. To answer your questions, we all come from the Monastery of Five Pillars. It is a very . . . isolated community, so I am not surprised if you have not heard of us. I am Yukiko, Mistress of Water. These are my sisters, Sorako, Mistress of Air – “

Yukiko nods to the blond-haired woman beside her, and then turns to gesture to the fiery redhead.

“- and Natsuko, Mistress of Fire. The men are monks from our monastery, sent to help us bring our renegade sister, Katashiko, Mistress of Earth back to us.”

The tall brown-haired woman identified as Katashiko snorts.

“You could have come back for me at any time, dear sisters. I was right where you left me, bound and helpless, and completely, totally bored.”

“Actually, we were already on our way. Imagine our surprise when we learned we were three days too late.” Natsuko growled back in response, causing Yukiko to raise her hand for silence.

“To answer your last question, stranger, our sister violated our laws by leaving the monastery without permission. This was after she committed the graver crime of murdering our sister, Tomoko, Mistress of the Void. Since then she’s gone on to murder a number of other people. Including these unfortunate monks you see here lying dead before you.”

“You call it murder, I call it self-defense.” Katashiko retorts.

“I don’t care what you call it. You’re going to be brought to justice this time!” Natsuko hisses, prompting Katashiko to laugh and beckon her forward. The hot-tempered woman takes a single step forward before being stopped by Sorako, who shakes her head. Meanwhile, Yukiko continues to explain.

“Please understand, crime is rare in our monastery, and this was the first recorded incident of this magnitude. We did not have the facilities to contain her, and so we sent her to Ironheart for temporary confinement. We have since decided on a course of action that will ensure she is no longer a threat to anyone else.”

“The aforementioned rape!” Katashiko crows, shooting you a glance but keeping one eye always on her sisters. “Listen holy man, the whole monastery revolves around us Mistresses of the Elements. But even if we are important to them, they keep us in gilded cages to “protect” us. I got sick of their stuffy, mysticism bull****, and all of my sisters swallowing it with a smile, so I left. Now it seems they’ve decided they’d rather start over than try to break me to fit their mold.”

Katashiko waves her hand with an irritated sigh.

“As a Mistress of the Elements, each of us gets special powers. The boon is passed down from mother to daughter, so they need me to have a daughter. Once I’ve popped out my replacement, however long that takes, they’ll have no further use for me, and will probably snap my neck.”

“No worse than you deserve after what you’ve done.” Natsuko mutters darkly. Sorako, on the other hand, lightly laughs.

“Clever, sister. But you left out the part where you murdered Tomoko in cold blood before fleeing.”

Katashiko smiles.

“Oh yeah, I forgot that part. Man, I hated that little goody two-shoes bitch. Killing her was supposed to be the exclamation point to what I thought about the monks’ whole system. Would you like me to go into detail about her death, then? Every little sigh, her squeals for mercy?”

Katashiko’s smile grew wider as her commentary seemed to push Natsuko past the breaking point. She storms forward, shoving past both of her sisters to stand directly in front of you.

“Enough! Stand aside, stranger, or I will see you dead before I end this!”

Hondshioh

Hondshioh is visibly disgusted by the conversation, especially when Katashiko begins trying to goad her sisters into battle, but he turns to face Natsuko.

"You are right that you do not have to answer to my lot. But at the same time I need not answer to yours. Is there truth to your sister's words? There is no justice in allowing you to have her raped. Besides, you're just playing into her hands. Look at her sneering at you, deliberately mentioning your deceased sister. She is goading you. She wants to rouse your anger so that you will kill her. She is a dead woman already. You would kill her for her crimes, but you're trying to spare her because you want the child she may bear. She's hoping that you'll become angry enough to simply kill her here and now, denying yourselves what you came for. And if you would attack me to get to her before hearing me out, know that you stand against one who not only bears the light of the Heavens in his soul, but the unyeilding stone withing his flesh and blood."

Hondshioh's skin hardens and takes on the appearance of granite once again.