Mason Buchanan & Aurora Parrino ( @saintcrowns ), Aug. 16th 2019 (opening of the second seal)
There’s chaos, screaming and fire all around. Athos burns and the horsemen are here to fulfill war, to aid Ivy in her doings. Mason would follow soon, that much he knew, as the third horsemen he’d bring famine and terror to Athos and once the seventh seal had been opened, Bellamy Delacroix would be freed from his cage hidden among life and death.
Looking at Morrigan, Mason realized she wasn’t really here. Her mind had begun to wander towards the dead - Bellamy, of course, the one she loved most. How terrible to love someone who’d been entrapped for over 500 years, to never be able to touch them. “Yes, we will. We’re not going to stop until you’re freed.” Her eyes were as black as night, moving as if they followed movements on the other side. “Your sister killed the former king, Bellamy says. Gaspard made his way to heaven.” Morrigans voice was monotonous, inexpressive and almost bored. The news did surprise him, so he recoiled, eyes opened wide. “Snap out of it, I can’t believe any lies from them today.”
“The dead never lie,” Morrigan interrupted Mason before kissing the air, probably Bellamy himself on the other side. He’d known about her escapades with the first actually meaningful Delacroix and her next big target, the new king. “They have no reason to.” Huffing at her words, Mason moved closer, “tell him he’s trapped for a reason. If he demands to be let out, he’ll play by our rules.” Their conversation, including Morrigans link to the dead, were suddenly interrupted by Ivy’s maniacal laughter. A horrendous sound of pure terror, Royce sometimes described her laughter as its own weapon. Humans were trapped in her darkness, suffocated, blinded by agony and loneliness, they could barely scream while they were frozen by fear. Following the screams, Mason eventually saw Aurora running among the shadows.
He had to do something, to at least protect that one person who evoked some kind of feeling inside of him. “Get Ivy out of here. The second seal’s almost open, she needs to kill some more.” He yelled towards Royce before running to the right, eventually running past the two closest houses and getting a hold of Aurora. Quickly grabbing her wrist Mason pushed her to the ground, instinctively shielding her from the darkness that was roaming through the streets. A few guards had made their way towards them, however the darkness, paired with his own manipulation of their intestines (leaving them to rot from the inside out) killed them without they could fire all their ammunition. “You’re in my way.”
Darkness spilled like black ink through water, tainting the sky and drowning them in the umbra. But Aurora could not run. She had made an oath, an oath that she would not abandon - an oath that she took just as seriously, if not more so, than the one that she had made to her Banshees. An oath to help. Because the oath to do no harm was something that she could not keep. Aurora Parrino had been a mafia daughter before she’d ever become a doctor. It was why she carried the knives at her side, even as she rushed to the aid of a woman choking on her own blood. The woman’s male company sobbed and screamed, looking around as though he could not see her nor what he’d done to her with his own broken glass bottle. He wasn’t in his right mind, nor was anyone completely surrounded by that tainted darkness. Aurora’s hands warmed within a soft glow. But it was not golden white like sun, blinding luminous, which poured from her best friend, Amanda. It was instead pure white, then almost grey like smoke when it touched another’s skin. It emanated from her fingertips and palm as she clasped the woman’s slit throat, willing the healing energy to spread through her as quickly as it could. But she hadn’t so much as closed the woman’s skin before the man noticed her presense. Through the thick shadows he bellowed and ran towards her. He tried to stab Aurora’s hand but she instinctively pulled away and the glass nearly severed the woman’s head from her neck. There was no saving her now. Aurora abruptly stood and dodged, maneuvering expertly around the man’s mindless hits to knock him out with her elbow to his head. But as he fell, the darkness from him moved on towards her.
Aurora stumbled back back away and ran, dodging screaming citizens to outrun the darkness until she felt a hand clasp at her wrist. She screamed as she tumbled to the ground, the darkness chasing her now continuing on to a woman that had been running directly across from her. But Aurora could not see that, nor anything else as a body covered her own. She only heard the metal shield and swords over the screaming - guards approaching. There was a momentary lapse of relief that the darkness had not taken her before she heard the clanking of their metal clattering to the ground - the gasping of breath and groaning of death following it. She unsheathed the dagger at her side as she prepared to hit the body on top of her and to then slice them if they fought to attack her. But they got up before she could and Aurora turned quickly on the ground to look at them, the knife clenched tightly as she angled her head up. Through the darkness, light illuminated him. The familiarity of those wintery eyes shadowed by a cloak hit like equal relief and fear. Her lips parted, her own eyes dilated, black consuming the sapphire blue as she realized who had tackled her to the ground.
‘You’re in my way.’
Aurora blinked, stunned. "I’m in your way?” She snapped, regaining her wits. She stumbled back to her feet as she looked over Mason’s shoulder, noticing the pile of dead guards. “Oh my God... this is you.” Her gaze shot back to him. How could she be surprised? Aurora had hated Mason, thought him a lunatic for the longest time before they’d been forced to proximity beneath the castle walls. Him, searching for his sister and her, trying to care for the injured Anchor. She learned what he did, what he cared for. Fated encounters within the parties of the capital and the darkened streets of Athos at night had led to this - to Aurora nearly forgetting that she was dealing with someone quite capable of terror, carnage and death. “You’re a part of this, Mason?”















