The ominous, minacious, portentous tale of the Bloody Baron and the Silver Knight

"'Twas a dark midsommer's eve, wrought with storm and hail,
An ill omen, some said, and strange to see in this district of the sub-Saharan
Many took to their huts and hamlets, mortality rendering them frail,
They shivered with cold and they hid, fearing the cruel bite of the Bloody Baron."

The 'Bloody Baron' floated onto the impromptu stage, arms hanging by her sides.

"Raise your claws!" Arthur whispered loudly. Nasarya sighed and raised her hands - gloved fingertips glittering with silvered talons.

"Grr," she said in a deadened voice. "I'm..." She frowned. "Wait, why am I a Baron? Why not a Baroness?"

"I'm curious too," a distinguished member of the audience asked. Or, well, the only member of the audience; she was distinguished because she'd actually answered the invitation. That and she was, in Arthur's own words, 'cool'.

"Baron is gender-neutral in this context," Arthur impatiently explained. "Keep going."

"Keep... wha-? Oh, yeah. Uh, you have to-"

"'Ere, 'ere, 'ere comes the Baron, her fangs bared to the moon
A hero we need, one to bear our hopes and release us from nightmare!
Who? Who? Who will save us, deliver us this one merciful boon?
Great Machine! Send unto us a child who holds dear our own mortal welfare!
Travesty, look! Hanging from ceiling!
The Bloody Baron cometh, all good left reeling!"

Nasarya frowned. "Laying in on a little thick," she muttered. Fine, uh..."

"'No, no no no, there is nothing to save you, o ripe ones mine!
For tonight, tonight, tonight upon your innocent blood I shall dine!'"

"Ooooh, that's a good one!" Nasarya's Ghost bobbed up and down, then turned to his companion. "Write that down, write that down!"

"I am!" Eido hissed, exasperated. She was hunched low over her datapad, claws darting across the screen. Grayris glanced at them with a bewildered frown, sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room. Arthur cleared his throat; the Baroness's head snapped around, all four eyes wide and begging for answers.

He wasn't in a mood to give any.

Not yet.

"But not all hope was lost! The cries of mortals faced with evil, it was heard!
A Knight had wandered by, in search of righteous challenge and terrible foes,
The moment he received the call, he flew to them as fast as a bird!"

"Sweet Traveler above..." Nasarya groaned.

Arthur splayed out his hand. "Sunny, I choose you!"

His Ghost appeared above his open palm, slowly swiveled around and fixed him with a dark look. "I hate you. I genuinely hate you. You idiot, I'm yellow! In what kind of backwards reality am I a silv-"

"The Silver Knight, with rage he bristled and with challenge he bellowed
He knew the Bloody Baron's kind, always thirsty for another's sweet desire.
At the sight of the glimmer-clad warrior, the wish-eater quietened and mellowed,
She knew his kind too, full of righteous power and vengeance most dire."

Nasarya lifted into the air, the trailing edges of her stylized robes fluttering below. Her arms shot forward, clawed fingers splaying out - just like the purported monsters of old.

"'Knight garbed in silver, this is not your fight,
To feed upon these mortals, it is my divine right!'"

Sunny shook his shell irritably, pinions and fins twitching and whirling.

"'Here, Bloody Baron, here your wicked reign shall end!
For years now I have followed the path you rip and rend!
No more, I say, upon blood no more shall you feed!
Here I shall stop you, and give these people the freedom they need!'"

"And so Baron and Knight did battle, clashing with a display of Dark and Light,
For eons on, the people of the sub-Saharan would sing of this brutal fight!
Ho, evil was to lose that day, and so the Bloody Baron fatefully fell,
And the Silver Knight, victorious, decreed 'Never here shall you dwell!'"

"Are we done?" Sunny grumbled.

Arthur brought a finger to his lips. "Shhhh!"

"Freedom, at long last, the people could rejoice when the Bloody Baron fled!
The Silver Knight's solemn duty was not done, alas. Not until she. Lay. Dead.'"

Arthur bowed. Nasarya's Ghost cheered. Eido furiously tapped at her datapad, inscribing everything she'd heard to digital page. Nasarya floated back to the ground, slouching - but her Light was woven through with thin amusement. Grayris looked at them all, still bewildered, and said, "I... am here for Misraakskel. Why..."

"Mithrax is out," Sunny helpfully groaned. "He went to visit Namrask."

"But..." The Baroness climbed to her feet, shook her head and donned her helmet. "Humans," she grunted on her way out.

Athur frowned, then decided to hell with it, and gave in to the grin just waiting to lay claim to his face. Good real estate, that. "So...?"

Eido shrugged, still at her datapad, while Nasarya offered him a hesitant thumbs up. "A+ for innovation. But... why an Ahamkara?"

"A vampire," Arthur corrected. "You're a vampire."

"Yeah, no, you wrote my part as a dragon."

"Same thing, really."

Nasarya made a face. "No. No, I don't think they are."