â đ
đđ people indeed received the worst of lysandra alighieri, like drawing the venom from a snake-bite; the worst, where â beyond all the opulence she embodied â being above everyone needed to be literal. a fixation, as though the earth itself from which she drew her power were hers. more of a sense of power and control that she had learned from the countless dynasties sheâd lived through.Â
learned from millennia of fine-tuning. of trial and error and delighting in the consequences before she ran from them.
and yoon jinwoo perhaps had drawn it out more so than any other, as though this small taste of victory urged him on ( the reminder that she could be her own monster, her smile â like a baring of teeth â its own warning ) to try again. but the outcome, she had to ensure, would always be the same; for hell unlike any other would be unleashed if that pattern were to be disrupted. no matter how many empires she had seen die, she had never quite seen a force of decimation like jinwoo.Â
so it stood to reason she had never seen hell like that which he would raise if given half the chance, either. and she could not be the best of the world, if it was all ravaged. such are the lessons of empires: to be queen of the ruins is to be no queen at all.
as recognition slotted into place for the donati-chosen, her lips pulled into that smile. she said that this would be no different than the last fifty-seven times over, and the tale of time told her that was enough. but alas, the boy still tries again, and again, and again. perhaps â hopefully â one day he will tire of trying his luck. but for now, she must put him on his back for the fifty-eighth time over.Â
âwhat do i deserve?â her tone dripped with demeaning intent. as though she were merely throwing a disapproving glance over the top of her book, rather than stood in a blood-splattered hallway, faced with this beast of lore. âto define is to limit, darling, and i will not limit that.â
( this time fifteen years ago, lysandra alighieri stands â still laughing â with her boot on his neck. and she doesnât need to, necessarily, he canât move anyway. she blinks down at him. âcome now, who â or what, perhaps â do you think you are? the minotaur?â and then, she leaves him there; to seethe for a while as she goes back to her reading. it would do him well to calm down. )
âalright,â her laughter rung down the hallway once more. but it was less sheer brilliance than the first. more⊠derisive. âdoing this again, are we, leoncino? then letâs play.â
jinwoo sprang, and she was gone. for a moment, she was nowhere at all. she then reappeared in the space he had vacated, and was â for no reason at all other than the sheer delight and amusement of it â holding his shoes.
rage consumed jinwoo, blinding him to reason and empowering his swings with even more deadly force than usual. any slash of his claws or bite of his teeth would have severed a limb, but that was always on the condition he could hit lysandra in the first place. it was often how she won duels without ever casting an offensive spell. they could fight for years, her always dancing gracefully out of his reach, never quite fast or smart enough to catch the lady. eventually, jinwoo would tire, leaving lysandra with the perfect opportunity to send him on his back and prove that she was superior.Â
today was no different so far, it seemed. him consumed in a haze of madness and blind anger, her, always so calm and collected while maintaining that ever-frustrating air of untapped power. when jinwoo landed to the ground of the empty space where she once stood shoeless, an unholy roar tore from his throat, hungry and crazed like a rabid dog. âstop toying with me!â he snarled, the shadows beginning to pour off his form as magic leaked from him. jinwoo had lost control, and the first price he would pay would be his draining reserves. lysandra had once told him ( proved again why she was in the position she was ) that if he could prevent the overflow, he couldâve gone for decades, even a century, rather than years before needed his first rest. he never learned- he didnât want to.Â
âi tire of your petty tricks, woman,â his voice came out guttural and low, the opposite of his usual silky smooth tone. âstop jumping around like a coward and let me tear your throat out.â shadows sharpened into spears rose at once, all aiming for different areas of her body. the last time he had drawn blood from her was half a century ago ( it was just a scratch right along the back of her calf, but how he thirsted to see the red pool on her skin again ) and she had thoroughly defeated him that day, ensuring such never happened again. he dissipated into darkness, reappearing behind her while she seemed to be preoccupied with the spears. âyour legacy ends here, woman,â jinwoo hissed, claws already swinging at her unprotected back.