Chapter 6 - To Be The Second

The Game had been a part of the Creed for time immoral. And no matter what its name suggested....the Game was not to be taken lightly.

The way Ann had always seen it, the Game was a sort of challenge issued between the Place holders in the Brotherhood and the Alchmists who wanted to take their spot. The Game was a short hand way of expressing a challenge to the Ascendancy of a Sister or Brother. And the Game was as good as two Alchmists taking up blades and charging at each other from across two sides of a room. Or if one Alchmists was widely disliked, a hundred Alchmists could set upon one alone and utterly devour them.

Ann knew that most Games were verbal in nature, but no less violent and dangerous for it. Many a Mana user had had their entire reputations destroyed when they failed to prevail against a challenger in a game of wit or they were found wanting in a Game of prestige building within the ranks.

The Game could be silent, or loud. Bloody or verbal. The ‘game’ was no Game at all, but in the Mana Users dark culture, it was a high risks, high reward, way of putting top dog ahead of the lesser dogs.

The Brotherhood worked on a scale of power and sovernty most often. The Mana Users who held power always looked for others just as strong, because it was taught that they were the literal Children of the Sun. So it’s naturally believed that the Alchmist who can channel the most Mana and project the strongest Auroras were the closest in connection to the Bane.

Ann did not have a phenomenally strong Aurora. So she had never been as powerful as Eric or Hovel when it came to defense or attack. And she knew she never would be. But she was one of the strongest Sisters in that Base....

She could channel and hold ungodly amount of Mana. Which in essence meant that in a longer battle she had the Alchemic ‘stamina’ to go the distance. Creating Portals, or holding an attack for long period of time is what set her apart from the rest of her Brothers and Sister...even Hovel. The Grand Master was capable of preforming acts of such almighty unrestricted might that many saw him as having transcended all mortal bounds, but after just a few minutes or a few portals Hovel was dangerously fatigued.

Other Alchmists could only get off a few attacks before they had to stop and recuperate for days at a time.

Not Ann. She was like the energizer bunny. Small but built to last. It was what had made Hovel consider placing her as the Second. Her diligence and sharp mind had convinced him the rest of the way.

She was not the most powerful, and Ann knew that David and possibly a few others, could easily hold that title of the strongest, now that Eric was gone, but she had never backed down from a stronger enemy and she never world.

They would all discover soon that too Ann everything was a meaningless game...and more often than not she was in check mate before most of them could shift their pawns.

She had once taken to the “Game” with gusto as a child. She had always come out on top....but then she met Eric and had been content with standing in his shadow. Content to be number three. Number three didn’t have a target on her back. But number two did. Eric had participated and won more Games than she cared to remember. Now she was Second.

Well, let them challenge her. Let them play the Game against her. Let them fall upon her in waves. She did not fear it. She did not fear her Brothers and Sisters.

In fact she felt nothing but anticipation. She wondered briefly if she died in a few more weeks from this...would she go with Eric into the darkness?

Smirking at the dark idea, Ann tilted her head and brought her left hand into her right sleeve.

David seemed confused by the expression on her face, something dark flashed in his brown eyes, but then he dipped his head and it was gone. “Sister Ann? Are you okay?”

She wasted no time with a reply as she moved her legs out of a cross. “I am fine...but you shouldn’t play with words David. Trust me. It is not your strong suit.” Ann tapped her slipper’s toe on the mat as she spoke.

David’s eye brow shot up and he cut his eyes at her sharply.

“Let me say what you feared to say to my face a moment ago...okay?” She purred sweetly. “I am to play the Game with you Brother David. I’m to sit here and let you maneuver me in your poorly conceived web of lies. Do you think I am a child? That I would fall into your arms perhaps and beg you to protect me once you spoke of the Game? Once you hinted at the numbers against me?” Ann laughed.

“Perhaps you wanted me to concede my Mantel to you? Seeing as you’re my big strong White Knight!? We both know, that if there was anyone who would wish to play the Game with me? It is you, David. You have always coveted a place at the Saviors table.”

David smirked, a baring of large white teeth as he spoke back. “Ha, it is true that I myself want the Mantel you hold. The place you have taken at the Saviors side is something I assure you belongs in more capable hands.” David leaned back. “But as you have already stated, I am also trying to give you a chance to run into my arms, and quietly conceded the Mantle to me without a fight. I don’t wish you any harm, Ann. Truly I do not.”

Ann bared her teeth back. “No you offer me something worse. You offer me weakness. I accept your challenge David. But I do not concede my Mantle!! I am Second!”

I wont throw away another part of my connection with him....

David crossed his large arms, and put a hand to his chin, his brown eyes gleamed as they beheld her as one would behold a child. “Sweet Ann, be aware that I am offering you the chance to lay that burden at my feet. I know you do not want this new responsibility. You were content to scrape at Eric’s backside for decades.” David’s voice went from gentle to malicious as he continued. “Besides you know of the influence I have been gaining in the Brotherhood. I have countless men and Women who would stand with me in this Game...and you will fall. You had no one but Eric, and even he is gone.”

Ann glossed over his words, ignoring them like the meaningless threats that they were, with a flat tone she slowly started to rise up to her feet, her hands still clasped inside of her sleeves, as she rose.

“Play your Game David. But if I had been you? Well, I would have kept pretending to be my White Knight. I would have pretended to be my friend...Then I would have bided my time and taken me out slowly and methodically.” Ann wet her lips.

“You gave your enemy a head start. You have outed yourself. You have given me a warning. And you have made me aware that I have more than your blade to watch out for. You have even brought me into a room alone where I could conceive to kill you for challenging me. It would have been better for you to confront me in that Sanctum....because I will have blood if you hope to make me do anything I don’t want to!”

Silence turned heavy with the threat. And Ann waited for the Alchemists to speak. David watched her, his eyes traveled up her length and captured her eyes, the darkness of his thoughts made something in her head pound a louder alarm.

David stood up, and steeped into her, his body bladed as he snarled. His breath hot on her face, and his size dwarfing her a full foot. “No Ann, I brought you to this room, so that I would not be forced to take your life if you tried to challenge me in front of the others. In here we can play the Game...and your defeat will not be the only price. Humiliation will be my reward to you.”

Ann smirked as she felt the air all around her begin to vibrate, like live wires falling across her senses.

David’s robes billowed and fluctuated. She watched in bemused nonchalance as thick, whip like coils of Mana began to stretch and rise up of his arms and the air became dense with the smell of burning and clashing metals.