(no subject)

[bloodandflowers]

Kell almost expects it when they come.

He keeps to himself in Darrow, but even he's heard murmurs of people disappearing, and every name he recognizes is someone from whom he's felt power. Now, woundless yet bleeding in an alley, Kell thinks he ought to have been better prepared.

He doesn't fear fighting another being with magic, but this is something else, some perversion of science or birth, something more than simple human or magician. The first person to attempt to grab him had been able to summon storms in the air, not the individual elements of air and fire and wind as Kell can, but the very tempest itself. The next had seeming skin of solid metal, a material Kell is more than capable of manipulating, but the third seems to have power over blood itself, drawing it from Kell without a wound, as neatly as Holland ever had with the stone.

His own fault, no doubt. Kell doesn't hide that his power is best used when channeled by his own spilled blood, but his enemies now know it, too. It's clever of them to attempt to drain him, though Kell has no intention of letting them. He could place his bloody hand on the wall and travel safely home, but they might be waiting for him there, and regardless - Kell wants to fight.

Thankfully, his attacker's power seems to require that they meet eyes, and hidden as he is, the seep of blood from Kell's palms and mouth has slowed. He places a red hand on the ground and murmurs, "As Osoro," Darken, filling the air with an unnatural shadow that grows to fill the alley. "As Athera," he continues, Grow, standing as the darkness fills the alley's opening and beyond. "As Enose," Kell snarls, and steps into the growing black.

Find.

He dearly hopes this bloodletter isn't wise enough to run.

[this is an open post but i felt weird putting it in the comm, tag if you like. i don't know why i'm like this either 8D]

Comments

[someones_monster]

Matthias remains unmoved. He isn't afraid, and for all he knows the Antari is pushing him toward whoever this assailant is.

"I'm not going to leave you here," he snaps, keeping his voice as low as he can in hopes it will be for the Antari's ears only. "I'm a warrior. I can fight."

A man who can make someone bleed simply by looking at them? It sounds like a Heartrender, only by using their eyes instead of their hands. It is close enough.

[bloodandflowers]

Kell curses beneath his breath. He can handle himself, but if he must look out for two in a fight his chances at coming out unscathed rapidly dwindle, but Matthias will not be moved.

"As Illumae," he murmurs to the darkness, and it fades to mere shadows. "Take him if you can, but do not look in his eyes," Kell cautions. "I will try to draw him out."

Kell steps towards his attacker, summoning chunks of earth that batter at him, forcing him to choose to flee or redouble his efforts to incapacitate Kell.

[someones_monster]

The Antari's power is beyond what Matthias has seen. He seems able to master light and dark, and the earth. Grisha's powers usually focus in one area, one element.

Matthias thinks the Antari himself is a perfect distraction, and he murmurs, "I'll come from behind." Hoping the shadows don't extend endlessly, he slips deeper into them, away from the Antari, and, he hopes, out of sight of the man the Antari is fighting. The Antari has created his own shadowy zone, Matthias realizes as he slips back into twilight. It's still dark, but the street lights and the moon are enough to see by. He skirts the edge of the impromptu battlezone, dodging a few rocks that fly past him when he gets too close.

He can just see movement, and when he sees an opening, he takes it, tackling the man from behind and slamming him to the ground.

[bloodandflowers]

The man drops, and Kell rushes forward, tearing a piece of cloth from his own shirt to wrap around his eyes. He realizes as he ties it off that perhaps he needn't have bothered - the blindfolded man struck the ground so hard beneath Matthias' weight that he is quite unconscious.

"As Anasae," Kell breathes out, dispelling the darkness. He blinks at Matthias, offering him his non-bloodied hand to help him rise. "Thank you."

[someones_monster]

Matthias takes the Antari's hand without thinking, climbing off his opponent's back and getting to his feet. "You're welcome," he says, thrown off for a moment by the entire strange situation he's found himself in. Helping Nina had been part of getting that pardon. And it had been Nina. This, he had no stakes in; but the Antari had tried to warn him and keep him from danger.

Matthias stays.

"He isn't dead, you should bind his hands as well. Are there some kind of authorities to alert?" he asks, doubtful. Isn't that what KIRIN is trying to form? The police that already exist in Darrow, they said, are for normal humans. They probably won't know what to do with someone with unnatural powers.

[bloodandflowers]

"I believe he is an authority," Kell replies grimly. He is exhausted after so much magic, his mouth and chin still painted with blood, but he kneels, summoning bits of metal to form chains that encircle the man's hands.

He nearly doesn't make it back to standing. "He came for me in particular, and he knew exactly what I can do."

[someones_monster]

Matthias watches in muted interest, mixed with an uneasy prickling of fear, at how the Antari creates metal chains from nothing.

When the Antari wobbles, Matthias instinctively reaches out a hand to help steady him. Something about his explanation doesn't sit well with Matthias, it sounds too close to KIRIN.

"Had you done something to provoke him? Something that would send him, or others, after you?" he asks.

[bloodandflowers]

"I am different," Kell snaps, pulling his arm away from Matthias despite his help. If they've come after him, they've surely come after those less equipped to save themselves, and he finds his patience thin. "I look different, that is enough for most of their ilk. Apart from healing that boy in the park, I've done nothing else to attract notice."

Kell lifts his chin, meeting Matthias' fair eyes with his own. "They are collecting magicians. I know few in this city, but even I have heard of many going missing."

[someones_monster]

"I'm not blaming you. I'm trying to find logic in this," Matthias says, but it's a lie, and it twists his stomach to tell it. He knows what this must be; what would be the odds of a second force dealing in super powered individuals? But coming after people and using other super powered beings to do so? They hadn't told him that. He hasn't seen anyone being kept for trial.

"I haven't," Matthias says, uneasy. Perhaps he simply doesn't talk to enough people. And of magicians, he knows only one. The man in front of him.

He glances down at the prone man, bound in chains. "What should we do with him?"

[bloodandflowers]

"Let his people come for him," says Kell, watching Matthias shift. It would be wiser to kill him, but even if he thought Matthias would allow, Kell doesn't have the stomach for it. When he was cornered and his blood was up, perhaps, but just now, tired and bleeding, Kell only wants to be away from here.

"He was not the first today. More will come."

[someones_monster]

"Do you have anywhere safe to go?" Matthias asks. "You could come to my apartment." The words are out of his mouth before he has time to think on them. Instinctively he reacts to someone in danger with an offer to safeguard them, but the thought of housing the closest thing to a Grisha he has seen here in Darrow fights against everything he's been taught since childhood.

Still, he doesn't take it back.

The Antari is weak and bleeding, and it doesn't feel right just to leave him if there are others still after him. He hadn't abandoned Nina, and even though she betrayed him, he still isn't convinced, not really, that he made the wrong choice back then.

[bloodandflowers]

Kell looks up, surprised by the sincerity of the offer. Whatever tenuous peace there is between them, Kell is never quite certain when Matthias will break - when his deeply rooted beliefs about Kell and others like him will take precedence over Kell himself.

"I have somewhere," he says, thinking of the small room on Randolph he's newly acquired for his treasures. "But I thank you for the offer." Kell gazes at him. "Do you even know my name?"

[someones_monster]

Matthias nods, and can't help but feel a small amount of relief at the Antari's declination. He would have stood by his offer, however abruptly it came out, but he has to admit that the witch still makes him uneasy. He has powers even the Grisha don't.

"You're welcome," he says, and then his mouth hangs remains parted a moment as he thinks. He realizes he doesn't. "No. I'm Matthias Helvar. And you?"

[bloodandflowers]

"I know," answers Kell with a quirk of his mouth. For a man as suspicious as Matthias, he seems to hold no similar instinct to gather as much information on potential threats as possible.

"I'm called Kell," he offers, unable to bring himself to say that it's his name. It isn't, at least, not the one he was born with. But it's what he has.

[someones_monster]

Matthias doesn't question how he knows. It would be easy enough, to find out from someone else, or maybe from some magical means. It isn't such a big deal, anyway, that the Antari knows his name.

"Kell," he says, wondering about a surname, but perhaps they don't have them. "I'll walk you a ways to wherever your safe place is. You look like you're about to fall over from blood loss."