the old me can't come to the phone right now... why? ... 'cause

EILONWY

 Eilonwy had been on edge all evening. Despite her best efforts, so many of the people she cared about were still here at the party, and there was no way for her to keep an eye on all of them. She did her best to fake a smile and a laugh whenever necessary, but the waiting only ratcheted the tension higher and higher. She knew something was going to happen. It would be soon. 

 But when people started to collapse around her, she froze. She watched as person after person crumbled to the ground, in the wrong position to get to any of them. But worse? She watched the Blackwells begin to move. And they were fast. 

 But so was she. 

 Twirling her right wrist, the bracelet transformed into the shimmering Elven blade, barely paying attention to the woman who took one look at her and began to scream as she ran away. Letting out a guttural scream, she rushed forward, trying desperately to get in between Vitani and the collapsed Errol on the ground before anything worse could happen to him.

 VITANI

 Vitani made a show of playing scared before laughing at the silly girl.

 “Ooooh, like I’ve never seen a sword before!” She cackled, deftly dodging out of the way and grabbing the blonde by the wrist. She had half a mind to snap it in two but now wasn’t the time to let her little power trip get the best of her.

 Mother gave them one mission and it was to be completed tonight. Tomorrow, Vitani could kill anybody who dared challenge her. Tonight, she was a loyal foot soldier.

 Vitani threw the blonde aside like a ragdoll, sending her skidding across the ballroom tile.

 EILONWY

 Eilonwy was pulling back for her first swing when the woman darted forward and tossed her aside. She could feel something in her arm twinge as she slammed into the ground, but she ignored the pain as she had so often before. There were more important things to consider. 

 She was back on her feet in a moment, coming up behind and slashing the woman’s arm right as she turned away from Errol towards whoever her next victim would be.

 Later, she would apologize to Errol for still not being fast enough. For now, she didn’t devote the brain power to it. 

 As the vampire turned to face her again, Eilonwy grinned. “You’ve never seen my sword.” She lunged forward again, striking towards her heart. 

 VITANI:

 Vitani rolled her eyes and would’ve sighed had her lungs held breath. What a cheesy line. Did blondie think she was in some epic drama? This was real life sweaty! Puny humans weren’t heroes, they were pillbugs.

 Vitani dodged her blade again, though she only managed to keep her dead heart from being stabbed. The Elven blade sliced her arm and she was loath to admit it, but that? That did hurt.

 “We will not be thwarted by the likes of you!” Vitani spat, roundhouse kicking the girl square in the gut.

 EILONWY

 Eilonwy stumbled backwards, gasping for air but managing to keep her feet through sheer force of will. 

 “Hundreds of years to plan, and you’re going to fail anyway. How does that feel?” Because Eilonwy had no doubt they would succeed. Too many people were counting on them, so it was impossible for them to fail. 

 With her left hand, she grabbed hold of the flickering candlelight, brightening it and flinging the light up in Vitani’s face in an attempt to blind her as she rushed forward to send her sword biting into Vitani’s side. 

 VITANI

 She was resourceful, Vitani would give her that.

 But she was under the impression that vampires were just like humans. Slow, stupid, easily fooled. Vitani was able to see before more than a beat passed, sure, but she wasn’t quick enough to avoid the full force of the blade.

 “Not sure, because we’re not going to. Look around, princess. We’re winning.” Vitani growled.

 As much as she loved a good homoerotic battle, she was getting bored of this girl.

 “Go back to the playground you crawled out of!” Vitani said, grabbing her arm and throwing her down onto the ground on top of her other arm. Hard.

 A pleasant snap reached the vampire’s ears and she hid a giggle behind one hand. “Ta-ta, little girl.”

 EILONWY

 Eilonwy felt a dark glow of satisfaction at the blood beginning to slick the end of her blade, although the otherworldly silver shimmer could still be seen through it. Whatever Vitani had thought would happen, they weren’t going to go down easily. 

 It was the ‘princess’ comment that distracted her at the wrong moment. She couldn’t help that frozen wonder of how the woman had known that when she had worked so hard to keep it a secret?

 In that flash, she could feel the cold claw, wrapping around the sword arm that was still close to her as Eilonwy had prepared to attack her again on the sword’s rebound, and then she was flying through the air again. 

 As she hit the ground, Eilonwy felt the sickeningly familiar feeling of bone breaking. Despite her best efforts, despite the training, that bright flash of pain overwhelmed her. 

 She screamed. 

 TOD

 Tod was busy helping others, or doing what he could to find out how to do just that. He had his sword in hand, dashing to the bodies that dropped but what could he do? He was in a panic. But then that scream rang out. It shook him to his very core. He knew that voice. He knew that voice too well.

 “Eilonwy?” He called, turning to find her on the ground, writhing in pain while her arm contorted in some strange direction. Broken. It was definitely broken. But he couldn’t even reason with what that meant as he ran in the direction of her, her scream, and the vampire that did it. 

 “Don’t touch her!” He said, standing right in front of her. She’d get up. She’d get up soon, he just had to fight alone until she did. “You and me. I won’t let you get away with this.” His sword was gripped right in his hands, pointed at Vitani. “Let’s go, coward!” His hands were shaking. But Galahad felt strong with him.

 VITANI:

 “You’ll be wise to sheath your puny sword, human!” Vitani snapped, gliding over to her final sacrifice, the unknowable knight, and drawing a thin line of blood from his arm. Mm, it did smell good. Perhaps a little taste-- she licked the point of her dagger, wrapping her tongue around it. So that’s what sweet victory tasted like. She’d have to call Shania and feed from her after this, perhaps she’d be kind enough to bed her first.

 “Before you end up like your little girlfriend, I suggest you scurry off. Go find a rock to hide under or whatever worms like you do.”

 TOD:

 “Make me,” Tod began, but before he knew it, a sharp pain split his arm before the warmth of blood rolled down his bicep. He looked up in just enough time to watch her lick her blade clean and his stomach sank at the sight of it. She was fast. Almost too fast. He’d have to think ahead.

 He chuckled, twirling his blade in his hand. “Is that really all you’ve got?” With that, he charged forward, acting as though he was going in for a swipe, but instead, attempting to hook her ankle with his foot and knock her down, then strike off her hand or at least damage her arm when she went down. “Come on, Eilonwy! Fight through the pain! I need you!”

 VITANI:

 “Aw, now I wanna get kinky.” Vitani whined at his ‘make me.’

 How frustrating it’s a do-gooder man saying it to her.

 His kick was successful, tripping her off her feet, and his blade caught her hand-- what? She was faster than this! He shouldn’t have gotten within two meters of her let alone caught her. Mother...why wasn’t Mother coming to help her, to put a stop to these humans?

 Ugh, there was no well in hell, heaven, or earth she was going to let these mortals best her! They must die. Now.

 “Apologize.” Vitani deadpanned. “Say sorry, and I’ll let you keep your head.”

 EILONWY

 Eilonwy knew she needed to get up, knew that any amount of time on the ground equalled her death, which she only cared about because she hadn’t taken down Vitani first which meant that more people would get hurt. 

 But just as she was trying to force herself up, taking a deep breath to push down the pain and compartmentalize until later, Tod was there. “Attaboy,” she said quietly, wheezing softly. 

 But she knew it wouldn’t be enough alone, so with a push, she was back on her feet, picking up her blade from the ground and tucking the broken arm in against her side out of the way. Tod had moved Vitani so she was facing away from Eilonwy, which gave her the perfect opening. 

 Lunging forward, she stabbed Vitani in the shoulder. “Pity. You won’t get the same offer from us.” 

 VITANI: At the same time the blonde’s Elven blade sank into her arm, Vitani realized why Zira wasn’t coming to put an end to all of this.

 The younger vampire made the mistake of looking toward where her mother had been dueling with Arthur and found her form lying still on the ground. No. No, impossible. There was no way that  King could’ve struck down Zira Blackwell, the most powerful vampire to have walked this sorry earth!

 No trick could foil her mother!

 Alas, when Vitani cried out in pain, Zira did not turn her head to her. She did not come to check on her loyal daughter. The footsoldier was without a commander, and thus without a handle on her rage.

 “You killed her! You killed her! You will DIE!” Vitani shrieked, launching herself at the blonde and tackling her to the ballroom floor. Vitani’s hands wrapped around her neck to squeeze the life out of her. It was what she deserved. It was what they all deserved.

 EILONWY

 Eilonwy wasn’t ready for Vitani to turn abruptly and launch herself at her, and as they hit the ground, Eilonwy saw painful stars as her broken arm slammed into the ground at the same time. 

 Her sword was too long to be used here, she couldn’t make it to any of her other weapons, and she could feel Vitani’s hands tightening around her throat and stealing the last few seconds of air. 

 It wasn’t how she thought she’d go. She refused to go afraid. 

 She clawed viciously at the hands clutching at her, kicking furiously, anything to make this harder on the woman on top of her, but she knew her human strength was no match for the vampire. So when she saw Tod over her shoulder, she nodded. Whatever he needed to do. As long as this was over. 

 As she could feel the darkness closing in from lack of air, she gasped out, “Maybe. But you’ll die first.” And she spat at her. 

 TOD

 The smile of pride that had been on Tod’s lips when Eilonwy stood and fought with him was quickly swiped away as she was tackled to the floor, Vitani’s hands around her neck. His blade was covered in the blood of her hand as he was forced back, watching his friend become choked to death. If he didn’t stop this soon, she’d die. Eilonwy. What was he supposed to do? 

 Then he watched her nod and he knew. He knew completely. Grasping his sword with both hands, he stood above her, behind her back, and aimed his sword right for her heart. “I told you not to touch her!” And with that, he thrusted his sword down, right through her heart, the blood rushing down onto Eilonwy and even himself before he shoved Vitani off her. Let her lay on her back with his sword pointed down for good measure.

VITANI:

 The last thing Vitani felt wasn’t the man’s blade, but her hatred for Arthur for killing her mother. Fine, then. She’d just make sure to kill one of his precious knights in turn. As far as Vitani knew, she succeeded in claiming her final kill because by the time she was on her back on the ballroom floor even her undead second life was over.

 Judith Lyons, Vitani Blackwell, and Victoria Boyce and all of the suffering the three women who wore the same face caused lay motionless, harmless, like a kitten declawed or a piranha without its teeth. She wasn’t like a jellyfish who could still sting in death.

 Her final act was one of malice, it was an attempted murder to avenge her creator. 

 Vitani Blackwell died as she had lived -- her mother’s loyal servant, fulfilling her mission until the end.

 Zira would have been so disappointed.

 EILONWY

 Air rushed back into her lungs as Vitani’s grip suddenly loosened and she was shoved off to the side. She gasped and then started to cough hard, curling up slightly at the way this felt against her abused throat and her starved lungs. 

 When she could breathe a little more easily, she looked up at Tod standing above her. “Thank you. I was trying, but - she was too much for me on my own.”

 She glanced over to where the vampire was laying with the sword buried in her. She should probably feel bad. That was a life that had belonged to someone that Zira had stolen, and then she had helped to end the rest of it. But she didn’t. All Eilonwy cared about was that the harm she had caused had ended. 

 She pushed herself to her feet, swaying slightly as she did so before grabbing Tod’s hand and giving it a squeeze. 

 TOD:

 For a moment, Tod was gone. Transported back to when he was a little boy, watching red grow near the heart of his grandmother. How she’d reached for him and begged him to take her closer to the flowers so she could die in peace. Only this time, he’d been the one that took a life. An immortal life, a dangerous one, but a life all the same. He reached up to his face, touching the blood on his cheek then staring at his fingertips. Blood on his hands. He would always have blood on his hands.

 The only thing that had snapped him out of it was the small grip of Eilonwy on his hand. She was alive. He’d saved her. “Don’t ever do that again,” he said, pulling her into his embrace. And already he could feel the tears beginning in his eyes. The pain of it all. The memories. They were so heavy on his shoulders. “I told you, I’m not going to let— let you die.”

 EILONWY

 She gasped sharply as she was pulled in against him, pain flashing through her system as her arm banged into him. But that was fine. Pain meant she was alive, and she would always take pain over feeling nothing at all. 

 With her good arm, she wrapped him tightly in the hug and squeezed him back. “Yeah. You showed me. I’m ok being wrong this time.”

 There was a part of her that wanted to stay here. Right here in this hug, in this moment, with this person who meant so much to her. She wanted to take a moment to process what it meant to be alive when moments ago, she had been so ready to die. 

 But she couldn’t. All around them were people who had collapsed, people who had been injured by the vampires, and scared people who didn’t know what was going on. There were the other knights to check on, the spell to foil, and Arthur to see. For some reason, she couldn’t see him, and she needed to know that he was ok too. That all of them were, and they had won. 

 “You’re going to be ok. We did what we had to do, and people are safe because of it. When this is all over, we can hang out and just talk, and it’ll be fine. Now, it’s time to go check on the others, ok?”

 Even though it hurt, she pulled back out of the hug, reaching down to grab her sword. She would need to clean it soon. But she would need to make sure it wasn’t still necessary first. 

 “Do you want to take your sword? Or - I have a spare. If you’d rather not.”

 TOD:

 Tod nodded. He nodded because he knew just hanging out and talking would mean more lies he would have to say, more false trauma like he had never seen a dead body before or even been the one that caused that death. He wasn’t innocent and even now, knowing he saved Eilonwy and maybe many others, he didn’t feel all that proud. 

 “I’ll take it. I can take it,” he said, unsteady as he stepped forward and pulled his sword from Vitani’s back. “Go ahead. If Zira is really dead then Arthur had something to do with it.” He needed to process this guilt a little longer. To forgive himself and know she would make it. Hopefully many others would too. “I’ll be okay. Stay safe.” 

@nuka-blackwell @zira-blackwell

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Find something valuable. Heh. Easy. Vitani had been around enough sorcerers in her very long life to know how to spot a rare, valuable item. That, and when sorcerers felt safe they tended to label their bottled reagents.

Vitani pranced around Selina Mug’s home like she owned the place and her eyes settled on a bottle labeled ‘Regrets of a Dying Man.’ Oh, boy.

“Wow, how’d you get your hands in this one, Miss Mug?” She said, deftly tossing the bottle in the air with one hand and catching it in the other over and over. “Can’t imagine every dying man’s got a sorcerer nearby to collect his regrets. Sure would be a shame if-” her hand ‘slipped’ and the bottle shattered. “Oops.”

She scanned the house for anything of personal value and her eyes landed on the photograph of a younger woman and a small girl.

“Oh, who’s this?”  Vitani yanked it off the wall and shoved it in Selina’s face. “Mother mentioned you didn’t have children.”

She shattered the picture frame and wiggled the photograph out. Katrina and the first grandniece. Ah, so she must have a sibling who had a child and grandchild.

“Mother, do you think her niece would be easier to work with?”