Pt. 2: 

Luc laughs, hearing the Olden Language, Allani. Oh, how lovely it sounds from her. It makes him want to rip her throat out. Or hear her scream. “Oh, lanai hama. Quò tenisis?” he asks, stepping closer. He grabs hold of the man and pulls him towards him. He grins at Khail, who looks a bit shocked that he is speaking perfect Allani.

Khail is trying to analyze the situation. He was not made aware of the fact that Luc knew Allani. In fact, he suddenly looks a bit more ghastly than normal. His grey skin has dark veins sowing through and his red eyes are starting to glow, which is not normal for a fairborne.

Khail already has a basic understanding of Allani, but he can’t hold a conversation very with it. It is almost a dead language anyway, with most of the Elder Clans gone and dispersed. But this man. He seems fluent. A bit too fluent. “Sir, we have this handled. If you just leave her to us, we will secure the Eliarin child and turn her over to your care.”

His wariness turns to dread as he watches Luc smirk,” Oh, centurion. How dumb you faireborne are.” With that statement, he thrusts his claws into the back of the hostage soldier, shocking everyone in the hall. The soldier gasps, coughing up blood. Luc wrenches his even deeper, twisting until he can see his claws come out through his chest. The other soldiers, terrified, turn their weapons to him while Khail is in a stupor. He shouldn’t be able to do that. He shouldn’t. It’s not possible for a faireborne to have that feat. And he hasn’t been to Amaeus, so there is not chance that he is an ajin.  

“What are you?” he asks, his voice trembling.

Luc grins, his blood red eyes glowing with malice. “Ask the Eliarin. She can tell you.” He taunts her, moving forward in the crowd of soldiers, leaving a path of death.  

Aria can only stare as he confirms her fears. They should not be here. The gates should not have allowed them to enter Allanus! “I Naisirè!” he snaps, impatient.

Aria gulps,” Umbra.”

~

Khail takes a double take. He’s heard stories of them. Umbra. Ruthless, and terrifying, they had spread terror everywhere they went. They tried to rule all of Allanus. They broke the pact between the Elder Clans, but were defeated by the first guardian, the first lanai. They were forced into the dark realms, never to be seen again.

That doesn’t explain how they are back, though. Aria takes a step back, fear attacking her whole being. She can’t possibly win against this man. She glares at Khail,” You faireborne quite possibly may have doomed all of Allanus.” Aria runs, leaving the man with the Umbra.

Khail gulps, having no choice but to watch as Luc begins to massacre his soldiers. Luc grins, evilly,” Don’t worry, centurion. I won’t kill you. Yet.”

Aria leaps off the wall, to save time. She has to get out before that man catches up to her. He’s a bigger danger than any of this salgri soldiers. She dodges all of the attacks at her. The goal is to escape. Escape, escape.

“Niàn?” she screams, searching around fervently. She can feel his presence move closer. It’s setting her on edge.

Bursting through a set of doors. She enters a room that is all windows. She hasn’t seen a window in years. The light from the sun beams inward, giving a false sense of beauty into the room. She glances around. There’s a desk and a long table. Interesting.

Aria walks up to the window and peers out, to see that she is so far off the ground. “Kuo eri monsim?” she asks aloud, her grey eyes widening at the few trees around the building. She remembers her prison being underground, so she though she would be able to find the ground level floor. Coughing, she stumbles forward. Oh, no. the gas is hitting her even worse now since she has moved a lot. It circulated through her system. She’s got to get out before she gets any worse.

“We know you’re around here, little girl!” a voice shouts. Aria stiffens and turns to the door. They’re coming. She doesn’t have time for this! She can’t maneuver her way through this place. With no other choice, Aria swipes her foot across the ground, creating a wall of fire to protect her and give her the space to figure out a plan. Because she does not want to jump out of a window.

She looks around. There’s got to be some alternative! The frustration is starting to eat at her. She just wants to leave! Is there anything wrong with that? Aria groans before taking a deep breath. She begins pacing, trying to conjure up a plan in this madness.

Unfortunately, her thinking process is interrupted by a loud scream. It sounds so… inhuman. So pained that it causes her to jump further back away from the fire wall.

“A wall of fire? Really, lanai hama? You’re underestimating me.” Luc’s voice sneers as he calmly saunters towards the wall. Aria glances back, seeing his glowing eyes through the haze of the fire. From then everything seems to move in slow motion.

She blinks, taking a staggering breath, then suddenly he’s right in front of her, standing tall and menacing. “Likai,” she swears, raising her hands up to defend herself. If she’s going down, she won’t go down without fight.

Rolling his eyes, Luc shoots his arm out to grab her by the neck and lifts her in the air. She’s still so naïve. How sad. “lanai, bastirè,” Luc snickers,” It’s quite impossible for you to beat me at your current level.” His hands glow as he begins draining her energy.

Her eyes widen as she quickly realizes what he’s doing, and she begins struggling in earnest. She may be able to fight off the faireborne soldiers, but how can she hope to fight and escape a well-trained Umbram? “Sae laogè, daemin.” she snaps, her grey eyes glowing. Using her hands, she grabs ahold of his wrist and heats up her hands. As her hands heat up, Luc feels the fire burn his hands a little bit and jumps a bit. She’s a bit stronger than expected.

Luc winces, a grin on his face and he glares at her,” You… little gurka.” He bares his fangs at her,” You think because you are the lanai, that you would be unstoppable? Hah! Marò!” He sighs, before the scent floods his nose again. It’s familiar and he knows it very vividly. He racks his brain staring at her before he starts seeing it. The glare, the wide nose, the smell. Why didn’t he notice it before? “Anasi, this is funny,” he gasps.

“Quò?” Aria snaps, trying to keep herself together. What is this man finding so funny? “Sae naesirè!” she yells, kicking her feet at him. As she kicks at him, she kicks huge bursts of air at him. These slam into his chest, causing him to stumble backwards. He loosens his hold and she moves to drop out of his grip.

Only, he growls and tightens it back, his nails digging into her skin. “Gah,” she screams, tears pooling in her eyes. She does not want to let him see her cry, but that hurt so much!

“Ah, lanai, this is just grand. You don’t even know, do you?” he asks, a wide sneer on his face.

Aria gasps, trying to stay conscious. “Know what?” she wheezes. He laughs even louder, her question amusing him so much, for some reason.

Luc shakes his head,” You, lanai mae, are of Umbra sane.” Her eyes widen. Shock flits across her face, before settling in disbelief. This can’t be true. No way.

“You’re… lying,” she grits out, her grey eyes glowing even brighter as the fire surrounding them burns brighter with each passing minute. It starts to spread out further into the room.

She will not believe him. She refuses to believe him. Her? Umbra? Impossible!

Luc chuckles, beginning to speak, when something hits his back. He pauses, a bit puzzled. Another hits his back, bouncing off. He hears a soft klink on the ground. He turns his head to look over his shoulder and standing there is Khail, in all his faireborne glory. His weapon trained on Luc, but fear wafting off of him heavily.

“L-listen. I don’t know how you got here, or if you are truly what you say you are, but you are out of line here.” He swears, his eyes narrowed at the man. He just thought that story about the Umbra was just a folktale. Used to scare little children. But, if they’re anything like the Eliari then they are easy to kill. “Try me, dog.”

Luc’s eyes flash with anger and he drops the girl, momentarily forgetting his objective. The desire to kill this man is overwhelming. He just wants to spill his blood all over this nice burning floor.

Aria can feel the bloodlust from her place on the ground and wants no part of it. She glances at the window, resigning herself to this decision. This is going to be the only way that she escapes? So be it. Using Khail’s interference as a distraction, she runs and throws herself through the glass, surprising both Khail and the Umbram. Everything passes by in slow motion for her. She can see herself falling from the building, the air rushing around her. She turns seeing the ground approach and begin circling the air around her so it can carry her and keep her from faceplanting into the ground. That would not be pretty.

Luc pauses his counterattack on Khail as he hears the glass break and feels the wind from outside enter the room, dispelling some of the fire. He looks over to see her gone, and his heartbeat races slightly. She really jumped out a window from this high up. He wouldn’t even do that unless he was hype on energy. “Well, well…”

Khail gapes, in shock. His laser has been destroyed, crushed in Luc’s bare hands.

A chuckle escapes Luc’s lips as he watches his target get away. No point in following her now. She seems to be injured and her movements are a bit sloppy. The civics can catch up to her in no time. He taps his ear,” Contact General.”

“What.”

Luc sighs,” She’s escaped. Jumped out of the window. Most likely still in Irion though. But I have just discovered the funniest thing here.”

“So, you know?” the voice asks.

Luc raises an eyebrow. Of course the man knows. He seems to be all knowing for some reason. “Well, how do you want to handle this?”

“I have a mercenary in mind. For now, damage control. No witnesses.” That order makes Luc smile evilly.

He glances at Khail,” You are in luck, salgri. You are being relieved of duty. Permanently.” Before Khail can even react, Luc grabs him by the throat and lifts him in the air.

“You savage. Always trying to fit yourself into a place you don’t belong,” Khail gasps out. Swiftly, he yanks the knife he was hiding and stabs it through Luc’s chest. Unamused, Luc looks down at the knife. No blood. No pain. He snickers before looking back at Khail.

He pulls the knife out effortlessly and tosses it. The wound closes cleanly and quickly, scaring Khail even more. “Savage? How hurtful. Maybe it is because you think you were chosen to live here when in reality you are the weakest link in this world.” Luc takes his claws and shoves them into Khail’s chest, easily finding his heart. He pulls it out, ripping it from his veins and smiles at the gaping bloody hole in is chest,” My boss said no witnesses.”