Talim stood in the middle of the Cathedral, letting the wind whip her braided hair around. She closed her eyes, letting peace overcome her. Her grip on the blades tightened and she prepared herself, making everything feel like one move could end her life.
As soon as she felt the wind within her, she spun around and jabbed the air with her daggers, but she knew it wasn't enough. Nobody would go down with one stab. She kicked, and then slashed with both her knives. She continued jumping, kicking, stabbing, slashing and flipping.
Talim jumped up, pulling both her legs from under her body and kicking the air in the 'face.' While she was still in the air, she flipped her legs over her head and landed square on the ground with her back turned to her 'opponent.'
As a finishing touch, Talim turned to slice, but her daggers met with the middle of a wooden pole. She looked up and noticed her opponent had on a vest that covered his shoulders, but exposed his chest. He had shaggy red hair that hung into his beautiful brown eyes. A leather chord hung around his neck with a crystal attached to the end. Underneath one of his eyes, which were studying her, was a small scar.
Talim was speechless. He was beautiful in his own rough way. Even his voice matched his looks. It was coarse. "Hey. I'm Kilik."
Ivy hid under the cloak of night, watching the large mansion in which her victim lay sleeping quietly. Spawn was across from her watching with curious green eyes, but Ivy only twirled her fingers around her white hair.
Spawn, bored out of his wits, sighed. "Can we just go and get him now?" He asked, exasperated. Ivy rolled her eyes, leaning deeper into the tree behind her. She wanted this moment to be perfect and she did not want to fail.
At the thoughts of failing, an image of her father, Cervantes, flashed into her mind. By now, he probably thought that she had not completed the mission and had sent her sister to find it, but she knew her sister did not only have her mind set on finding Soul Edge. She also wanted to kill Ivy.
Tears burned Ivy's eyes and threatened to pour down her face. She turned away, even though it was shadow, hiding her sadness from Spawn. The thought of her sister, her sister whom she had loved and cherished all these years, wanted to kill her, was just unbearable to Ivy.
Her red rimmed eyes trailed back to Maxi's house. Tonight she would get her revenge. She would get the man who had taken Soul Edge right from under her nose and he would tell her where it was.
Ready, physically and mentally, Ivy pushed off the tree and began making her way down the grassy hill. Behind her, Spawn readily jogged after her.
The sound of glass shattering on the marble floor made Xianghua sit straight up from her bed. Her eyes were wide and her hand automatically moved for her sword beside her bed, but oddly enough, her sword was not there.
Taking her eyes away from the shadows closing in on her, Xianghua rolled off the bed and groped the darkness below her bed for her hidden sword. It was no where that she could feel. So instead, she pulled herself back onto the bed and grabbed the knife under Maxi's pillow.
After Xianghua reached the door, her fingers tightened around the handle and yanked it open. There was no movement in the darkness in front of her. Her eyes searched, but she saw nothing.
As Xianghua stepped forward, the sound of cracking glass made her lift her foot up. A vase was lying in various pieces on the floor. Knitting her eyebrows together, Xianghua proceeded into the dark house.
When Xianghua reached the other door, she knew immediately that she was walking out into her and Maxi's training arena. She swung the door open and walked carefully out into the large room, calling Maxi's name.
The sound of rustling fabric made Xianghua swiftly turn around. What looked like a black cape drew into the shadows. Tightening her grip on the dagger, she walked towards it.
As quick as a snake catching its prey, a hand slid around Xianghua's mouth and her back her scream. Thick and calloused hands reached around her wrist and bent it back, making her let the dagger slip from her fingers.
After the knife clattered on the ground, the hand reached around Xianghua's throat and hit her pressure points quickly and painfully. She chocked on an intake of breath, but everything around her was swiftly tinted with black as her body went limp.
"Will you hurry up, already?" Tira asked impatiently. Setsuka's hand was swiftly floating over a piece of paper, leaving a note for Taki that she could not continue her training and was going after Soul Edge herself, for the glory.
After signing it, Setsuka set it on Taki's sword and crept out of her room. She nodded at Tira who whispered a quiet, "Thank you!" The two partners made their way out of the double doors, into the sakura courtyard, and out towards the stables. Where they threw a saddle on two horses and rode off into the night, in search of Soul Edge.
Amy sat up so quickly in her bed that pain shot through her back and leg. She winced and reached towards her thigh. Her fishnets were taken off, as well as her shoes, and a couple layers of fabric wrapped around her leg. Softly, and slowly, she leaned back into her bed.
Wait… bed? Amy again shot up and looked around. She was lying in a small hut. There were shelves with herbs and other dried planets winding around the room. In a corner, a fire crackled over burnt logs.
"You're up. Good." A voice purred from a corner beside the fire. Amy's head snapped towards it. The beautiful man from the village was watching her with soft brown eyes. Amy was speechless as she caught on a gasp of breath. He was even more beautiful than Amy remembered in her dreams. "I'm Raphael." He purred again. Amy quietly mumbled, "Amy." He nodded.
After realizing her quietness, Amy cleared her throat and said, "Amy," a little bit more loudly. Raphael chuckled. In one of his hands was a smoking pipe, its aroma wafting over towards Amy's head. It circled around her and made her feel dizzy.
Raphael dropped the pipe into the fire next to him, its wooden body sizzling and crackling. Smoothly, he walked towards her and Amy could feel her arms begin to feel weak. He put his hand on her forehead, checking her temperature, which only made Amy blush more heatedly. Raphael seemed to notice, but kept it to himself.
"You feel better. Less hot." He chuckled at his own joke, but Amy quickly thought of her appearance. Her fingers flickered to her ponytails and made sure, they were still in. They were, but her hair had become obnoxiously frizzy in the rain.
"Now rest. You have had a long day." Raphael smiled a warm smile at her. Amy leaned slowly into the pillows, sighing with relief as their comfort soothed her. Her eyelids became heavy and her body even more. Without meaning too, her eyes shut and the last thing she saw was the beautiful Raphael leaning over her with worrying and warm eyes.
Hilde jumped from her horse as they galloped into the Mansion courtyard. Worry was etched into her face and eyes. The doors in the front of their house were hanging from their hinges, the glass in them shattered to pieces.
Olcadan rode up behind her and stared at the house with just as much worry. Before he could stop her, Hilde ran into the darkness swallowing up the house. Her metal armor clanked every step she took. Glass cracked under her feet while Olcadan winced every time he stepped on the sparkling shards.
"Hilde?" He called out as soon as he walked into the destroyed house. He glanced around in the darkness, but saw nothing. Again, he called out, but she still did not answer. Glancing around, he saw a torch hanging from the wall. After grabbing a match from his vest, he scrapped it against his foot and set the torch alight, pulling it from it's holder.
"Hilde?" He asked again, waving the torch out in front of him. Everything in Maxi and Xianghua's mansion was destroyed. The tapestries hanging off the walls had slashes in them. Pots had fallen to the ground and shattered. Flowers had dropped from their vases, sitting in pool of water and when Olcadan looked closer, blood.
"Olcadan!" Hilde yelled. His head snapped up to look around the chaotic mansion and ran forward, ignoring the searing pain of glass in his feet. When he rounded a corner, he saw Hilde holding a piece of paper and a sword in her hands. Her eyes skimmed over the paper and as tears built in her eyes, the sword clattered to the ground.
Olcadan leaned forward and grabbed the sword in his hands. A blue tassel hung from the end of it. Sighing and shaking his head, Olcadan whispered, "Xianghua." He glanced up at Hilde. "What does it say?" He asked her.
Hilde cleared her throat and read over the note. "You shall not find your friend, Xianghua. She has been taken in the darkness of the night and is riding away with me as you read this. Her husband, Maxi, on the other hand, has been taken prisoner by two criminals, Spawn and Ivy.
"You must choose wisely as too who you come to save. If you come after Xianghua, Maxi shall pay the price, and vise-versa. You must decide who of your friends is to die and who of your friends is to live. But hurry; time is running out for them both."
Olcadan looked back down at the sword in his hands. "Do you know who?" Hilde shook her head in the darkness. "Damn it." She said quietly, dropping the paper. "Damn it!" She said more loudly, throwing her fist against the wall in an outrage. Olcadan only stood back and watched as she erupted.
"I had only wished to come here for them, hoping they might know something on our little friend." Olcadan knew she spoke of Seong Mina. "But now he's gone." Hilde's head dropped sadly. "If I had arrived sooner than—." Olcadan dropped the sword and grabbed Hilde's shoulder, spinning her around to face him.
"This was not your fault." He told her firmly. "This was not. Your. Fault." Hilde nodded at him. "Now, we shall stay here tomorrow and at first sign of morning, we shall separate into two; one after Xianghua and one after Maxi. Alright?" Hilde nodded again, sniffing and blinking back tears.
Olcadan looked around the room, searching for another holder for his torch. After locating one, he shoved it into the wall and pulled Hilde against him in a hug. She sobbed into his white feathers, tears dripping down onto him shoulder. Olcadan's feathered hand ran down Hilde's back, petting down her long red hair.
Sophitia glanced over at her sleeping sister, over her shoulder and watched her figure roll over. Swallowing past the lump in her throat, Sophitia lowered the rope out of the window. Her legs shivered against the cold breeze that blew in and her skirt fluttered in it.
After securing the shield and sword on her back, Sophitia positioned her feet on the window seal, grabbed the rope, and lowered herself down the tall building. Below, the grass was green and the smell of salt was blown in from the nearby sea.
She landed her feet firmly on the ground after slowly climbing down. Quickly, Sophitia glanced around the mansion grounds. When she did not see anybody, she jogged silently to the gate and heaved herself over it.
By morning, she was miles away. When Cassandra awoke, she was surprised not to see her sister lying by her side. "Sophitia?" She had called out. Her sister did not answer though.
Cassandra pushed back the covers and stepped off the bed. A shiver ran up her leg as the cold air nipped at her bare legs. She reached for the green robe and tightened it around her freezing body.
What is making this room so cold? She wondered to herself as she turned around. The first thing she noticed was the window open. Sighing, she walked over to it, her feet slapping against the marble floors.
When she reached the window, she gasped and her hands dropped from her robe. A rope was hanging from the window, dangling down to the ground. "Father!" She shouted, turning around and running from the room.