#shydeerwolf

shortly after the founding of the gladiolus kingdom, cyrene and her husband, gabriel, had heard tell of villages within their borders being destroyed overnight. they had managed to narrow down where the next attack might show up by looking over the pattern of where the attacks had already taken place. it seemed as though they had started outside the kingdom borders, and moved their way in over the course of several decades -- way before the kingdom had even existed.

they had begun an expedition to beat the destruction of the next village that was in the path of the movement by about a week, but when they arrive...

they're too late.

cyrene had begun to suspect as much when they found themselves passing by a fairly sizeable group of people who seemed to be on their way to the capital -- a group that she made sure to send gabriel -- one of the strongest men she knew -- and some of their soldiers with to ensure their safety.

she turns to her remaining soldiers and shouts, "search the houses!"

they move without question, and so cyrene turns and enters the village to conduct a search of her own. some of the houses are still on fire -- that means that the destruction took place recently, and so there is a chance that whoever is responsible for all of these attacks is still in the vicinity.

as she approaches the center of the village, the sound of sharp, ragged breaths reaches her ears, and cyrene immediately stops moving, one of her hands moving to hover just above the hilt of her sword. then, making sure to move slowly and carefully, so as to make as little noise as possible, she makes her way towards the source of the noise.

there, near the crumbled form of the fountain that she remembered being at the very heart of the village, is what appears to be a boy in his teenage years, knelt on the ground and curled in on himself, bloodied hands over his face as he wheezes. he has a broken chain attached to a shackle that is clamped around one of his ankles.

after a moment, he lowers his hands and slowly turns his head, looking at her with piercing yellow eyes.

it's then that cyrene realizes that she's not looking at a boy, but a deity. she's heard that they look similar to mortals, but... different. not of this world. ethereal. powerful.

suddenly, he lifts his head in a manner that suggests that a chain around his neck has been tugged, and he turns his gaze to a figure who almost seems to float through the smoke of the fires around them towards him and cyrene.

"there are more people here," a woman's voice says. it has an inhuman quality to it, humming as though it seeks to get underneath its listeners' skin and rob them of their autonomy. "why don't you finish the job?"

the boy lets out a low, feral growl and looks once more at cyrene, stumbling to his feet as he bears bloody teeth at her. danger rings clear in the air, and cyrene knows that she will die if she doesn't fight with everything she has.

but her target isn't the boy.

it's the goddess behind him.

she draws her sword with one hand, and lifts the other to the skies, sending off soaring lights with her magic that will serve as a distress signal to gabriel. she won't be able to do this without him.

the boy races towards cyrene, and she jumps to the side and swings her blade at his neck.

regardless of whether she wants him alive or not, she needs to fight like she's going to kill him, or else he will kill her.

as though he has absolutely no survival instinct, he merely turns his shoulder towards her strike, and his flesh is sliced cleanly open, sending golden blood gushing down his arm.

unperturbed, he lunges for cyrene again, and his claws scrape noisily against her armor. this draws a frustrated noise from him, and she watches as his gaze flits nervously towards the goddess.

he's afraid.

and then, gabriel is rushing into the vicinity, his magic reaching out to touch cyrene's in a reassurance of his presence.

"gabriel!" she shouts, immediately pulling him to the heart of the village with his sword drawn. "i will disarm this one." her gaze flits towards the goddess. "we need to kill her."

his gaze hardens, and he nods.

then, he's drawing her attention to himself and striking directly at her with his dark magic -- something he doesn't often do to their opponents due to the devastating destructive capabilities of his magic. he's taking this seriously, and cyrene would expect no less from her partner.

before she can continue her battle with the boy, the goddess pulls him back to her and places him in between herself and gabriel, and cyrene watches in horror as his blade bites into the boy's chest and cuts him open in a manner that would kill anyone else.

unfazed, the goddess clicks her tongue and tosses him aside.

...the silver lining is that cyrene and gabriel can fight her together.

this is the best case scenario.

cyrene rushes towards the goddess, and -- like what gabriel did earlier -- sends her light magic directly into the goddess's body. their magic will work together to destroy her from the inside, while the two of them use their swords and a familiar dance to physically strike at her body.

they have been fighting side by side since childhood -- no goddess will fell them. and indeed, she doesn't. without her pawn, she has to fight them herself -- and while she does her fair share of damage to them, she still falls in the end.

with cyrene still alive and kicking after their battle, she turns her attention to herself and gabriel, using her magic to heal their wounds.

then, she looks down at the boy, intent on doing the same for him, and finds him looking up at her with wary, wild eyes.

"don't," he grits out. "you will die if you heal me."

"then allow us to nurse your wounds," gabriel says, drawing the boy's attention to him. "we will ensure that you're healthy, and then you may leave of your own volition."

"you won't... keep me?" he asks in a small voice, but the air around him remains nervous and charged.

"no, we won't," cyrene says, kneeling down in front of him. "once you're healed, you will be free to do as you please."

the boy's jaw tightens, and he looks afraid as he thinks. his gaze flits about as he carefully considers his options. then, he lets out a slow, careful sigh and nods. "fine. i... owe you for saving me, and i'll die without this, so... fine."

"you owe us nothing," gabriel says. "we only did what was right, after all."

"your human morals don't mean anything to us." the boy turns his face to the side.

cyrene merely lets out a soft hum to acknowledge his words as she disinfects her hands and gets to work on tending to his wounds.