From the Clan

Tiisha trudged up the mountain. Snow piled up to her knees. Every step was a struggle. Perhaps wearing a small skirt was a bad idea. Turashi shivered as he climbed the mountain beside his sister. "Couldn't we have flown up the mountain? We're dragons, aren't we? Besides, I'm freezing. We could have gotten some coats." Tii turned to glare at her brother. The other redhead was clothed in leather pants and nothing else. It was the standard wear for masculine beings in their clan. "You know why we can't! And I have just as much right to complain. Don't make me come after you." Tura cowered away from his sister. She immediately regretted threatening him. Tura had suffered enough at the hands of the feminine dragons of their clan.

The female gestured to the nearby structure. "We're almost there, ya big baby." Tura gave the fortress a dubious look. He forced his way towards his sister. "And why is this a good idea again? They're dark mages. Outcasts from the nearby country, Fiore." Tii put her hands on her hips. Sometimes, Tura could be really stupid for the smart twin. "Attara ripped our essence to shreds. Legals would hand us over to our clan. Independents could go either way. The only ones we can trust are Dark mages. Besides, dark mages don't care if we kill to refill our essence." Tura grimaced. He didn't like the way they had to 'eat'. He understood his sister's reasoning though.

The twins continued their journey toward the fortress. It took them a little longer to reach it. Water and sweat covered Tura's torso. Tii's skirt and shirt were frozen solid, icicles hanging from both. Tura openly shivered. Tii was cold as well but she put up a front as if she wasn't. The twins looked from the door to each other. They nodded and opened it together.

"Hello?"
"Hello?"

As the door opened to the castle a sudden wave of magical energy would came over the area before white flames encircled the area around both of the dragonlings covering the area around them and above them like some sort of cage. "I have them trapped. It was a bit too easy. Keep your eyes open for any other movement nearby." A man with long white hair, wearing a black coat and matching other clothes would speak out in front of the holy flame prison he had just cast the duo into. "So what exactly are you two doing here? Are you here for some sort of revenge?" His tone was a serious one as he spoke but his voice was more cheerful and playful as he continued speaking.. "Or did you come here to join in on the fun we have here? It has been pretty boring here so it would be nice to have some fun over just fighting the same old demons or training with others with a handicap."

---------------------------------------Some Time Before---------------------------

The snow in the mountains was a bright white color that threatened to freeze any who did not come prepared but to those who lived in the area it was like a summer day on a beach. The Detergers were some of those people who were able to adapt to the weather around them which allowed them to scout the area around the castle at any time and make sure that no one who was unknown would make their way to the castle without ample resistance. If you made it to the castle it was because you were allowed to with eyes on you from multiple angles. A woman with a ethernano sniper laid in the snow wearing matching clothing for camouflage. The sniper matched the snow also keeping them from being seen while their magical energy was also suppressed greatly. ""Cirven, we have two unidentified making their way up the mountain towards the castle."" Laniiar's voice spoke from out of her position and into the rest Detergers and Devil King's mind just as he clashed with a sword over and over wielded by the seer of the Detergers, Ves. The two sparring stopped and a grin came over Cirven's face. He and Ves's bodies were covered in cuts and bruises from their sparring but as soon as they stopped his body healed from the damage it had suffered while Ves did not heal. "Finally something more to do than this! I was getting tired of having to spar against Ves because he is the only one who can keep up with me while sparring." Cirven childishly spoke out with excitement. "I'd be dead if I couldn't see his next moves..." Ves spoke out under his breath as Cirven replied back to Laniiar. "Everyone keep an eye on the surroundings and allow them to move.
i will handle them myself."

--------------------------------The Present Time----------------------------------

He then put both his hands up with a shocked look on his face. "whoa, sorry! I almost forgot to introduce myself! I am Cirven Mizune, the leader of the assassination group, The Detergers, an Ace of the guild that resides here and the Devil King of Fiore. Now answer my questions along with your own introductions before I send your heads rolling off your shoulders before you burn away to ashes inside of that play pen of flames." His voice went from carefree and goofy to cold and dark as he spoke. A grin curved its way onto his face as he waited. He knew that with how easily he imprisoned the two that they either were tired, meant  no harm or were just that weak. Either way he wanted to find out what they were there for before continuing any further.

"Must we greet people who want to join the guild this way?" Birch's low, tired voice echoed off the stone walls within the main room, eyes the colors of a warring blue sky and storm clouds glancing from Cirven to the presumably twin siblings caught in cages. The antics of most of his guildmates grated on his nerves so much he avoided contact altogether, but he was just on his way out on a job when the scene before him unfolded. "So brutish. I would think Saraphina would want the guild to be more open to growing her numbers," he tossed the mindful comment off-hand, approaching the trio. While he wasn't dressed for traversing the mountain, he did have a duffle bag with him, indicating he'd be a while. Birch was again missing his butler clothes, instead opting for tan slacks with a matching vest over a long-sleeved dress shirt the color of onyx. His golden hair was free to fall in loose waves around his shoulders.

Make no mistake, none of his words were out of kindness for the two new people. Now that he was closer, it was clear how annoyed he was with the whole thing. His brows hung moodily over his narrowed eyes, and his mouth had an even deeper scowl carved into it. "Release them before they mess all over the floor," Birch stated, eyeing the dripping pair, one of which shivered like a dog tied outside in a blizzard. "If they were here to attack us, they'd have come much more prepared than this, and definitely wouldn't lead with a 'hello'. Surely The Devil King can sense their weakness." What was it with the members of this guild and calling themselves Kings and Queens. Ridiculous. "And you better not behead them. I don't have time to clean that sort of idiocy up today."

"Aaaah! so loud!" Jen walked up in her usual attire, after waking up on a couch with a bottle of whiskey in hand. "And really, do you have to be so threatening? I'm pretty sure Sanguine wouldn't like the idea of you making a mess of the castle. I mean, someone has to clean that stuff up, you know."

She was essentially repeating Birch's griping, but she was doing so while also dealing with a headache from being hungover. "Hi, you two, name's Jen. Nice to meet you! I'm one of the folks they send on raids and such. Please, come in, have a drink."

She could smell something on these two, something familiar, something that smelled kind of like her. She felt as though these two would be good people to make friends with. For some reason, she felt like giving her wings a bit of a stretch, so she unfurled them before flying over to where Cirven held them. "Really, I mean, Cirv's alright, I've worked with him before. Again, it really is nice to meet the two of you."

She smiled as she kept herself afloat next to the "Devil King". She found him to be a curious sort. She didn't know Birch much, but assumed that he was looking out for the two newcomers in his own way. "From what I was told, the guild takes in all types, so long as you don't have any issue with ridding the world of it's laws."

Tura struggled against his natural inclinations as a fireball cage appeared around them. He had just escaped from a cage. Now, where hope lay, he was in another one. The only thing keeping Tura from collapsing into a pile of useless protoplasm was his sister. Tii's lips were peeled back. Her skin was pulsing with the energy of change - not that it was possible at the moment. Tura could feel her desire to protect him. There was a bit of alpha dominance assertion but mostly it was protecting him. The masculine twin felt the need to step up. It wouldn't be easy. He'd been pushed down all his life. Feminine lifeforms were the dominant gender of their clan.

A brightening of Tii's arm forced Tii's hand. The design appearing upon her arm was that of their lineage. An ability that would drain both their energy and their lifeforce - each of which they had little of. Tura laid a hand on his sister's arm. "My lord Mizune! The answers to your questions are not simple!" The tremble Tura had forced down returned with the appearance of a female. It took all his willpower to ignore her. There was a male but he seemed more irritated with the situation. Not someone to look to for help here. "We come for refuge, fun and eventually, revenge. I am Turashi, former male consort of her majesty, Saphira Brightscale, fourth of her name, third heir to the title of the quintessential matriarch of the dark stars, slayer of Gourand the Bloodfist, builder of the sapphire peaks, and granddaughter of Dark Star Matriarch Akarui Sukēru, long may she reign!" He bowed as was proper.

Having taken enough time for himself, Tura stepped aside to present his sister. His adherence to the proper way of conduct seemed to have calmed his sister. She stood regally as presented - as regally as one might being soaked and barely clothed. "This is my sister, Tiisha, first of her name, Matriarch of the First Moon, twenty-third heir to the Empress, defeater of the Honoured Champion, slayer of Matriarch Kasai, Breaker of Chains, Widow of consort two four six oh one, and Leader of the Imperial Artillery Battalion. Tii inclined her head as she was announced. She stepped toward the flame, holding her hand out to it. Despite the blistering of her skin, Tii smiled.

"You'll find we're much harder to kill than you think, darling. Oh, and don't worry about the mess, dear. There won't be any." Tii wrinkled her nose playfully at the man with the duffle bag. Tura raised an eyebrow but didn't comment on his sister's antics. Who she flirted or slept with was her business. "We'd be glad to rid the world of law as well. Provided there is one law, one organization, one beast of a country we can eventually get our revenge on." Tii's eyes had hardened from a soft twinkle to gems. "Our clan has stood for too long, atop its archaic rules and outdated laws. So long as it is brought crashing to the ground, I don't care what measures we must take to ensure it is so." Tii stuck her hand into the fire. The skin burnt off quickly. The muscle soon followed. Tura glanced at his sister. What did she hope to accomplish?

Once Tii's hand was completely burnt off, she withdrew her arm. A blue wisp hovered at the end of her stump. In seconds, the hand reappeared. Tii wriggled her fingers in Cirven's direction. "Is that acceptable to you, Devil King?" She snapped her fingers at Tura. He furrowed his brow but did as she asked. His body transformed, swirling about itself to reconfigure. When he was finished, Tura appeared to be an exact replica of Cirven. Snap! The man with the duffle bag. Snap! The blonde female standing outside the cage. Snap, Snap! Tura transformed into a long blue coloured dragon, curled within the interior of the cage. His head rested near his sister. Tii gently stroked his mane. Her eyes never left Cirven. "Besides, I'm sure there are a few of our skills that might prove useful in tearing down the establishments of the world."

As the twins were had their short time of deciding how to respond to his questions two more members appeared with opinions on how Cirven was handling things. Birch, who seemed to be some sort of lackey more than anything to Saraphina but at the same time walked around as though he had more authority than all those around him and Jennifer, who Cirven had recently had a fun job with as they found their way to a target and killed him. Birch had ordered Cirven to let the duo out like he had the right to do so and Jen had more or less asked for it to happen for the sake of another of the guild's aces. Both did not understand just how much thought went into the devil's actions with how it did not matter how strong someone was at all. There could always be sheep being guided by someone much stronger who waited in the background to strike; a tactic he used many times before to trick his targets.

"Birch, right? Jen, you will want to listen also. Anyone can be more than a threat than they seem to be and because of that I will go about handling anyone who comes to this castle as such. If you have any problems with that then-" His eyes darted between Jen and Birch causing a red aura to form over the ground near them and be completely destroyed into ethernano particles. "-I will make sure you are dealt with accordingly because you will be security risks to everyone's safety in this castle. Our Queen agrees with my actions also as the Canary Ace of Errings Rising. Also, you forget that I have servants to clean up any mess we could have, especially that of members who could seem to be suddenly against us." He knew that they were probably not thinking hard enough on the situation but also knew that he could not just brush off their ignorance to their security. "Now if you both are done trying to order around your superior, I will go back to my little interrogation." He turned his attention back to the duo inside of the flaming sphere.

He listened and watched as the two inside of their fire cage spoke to him. He could see the anger welling up in the woman while the man spoke about just who they were exactly. The woman surprised him with how she put out her arm through the flames as it melted away her flesh and she snapped changing the form of the male over and over with each snap of her fingers.He could not help but grin at the sight after he had taken in all of their information. Cirven's eyes would widen as he stared towards the duo causing he flames that held them to stop hurting them and healing them instead as well as everything it had touched before it dispersed completely. "That is all I needed to hear. Welcome to our castle, Tiisha and Turashi." He bowed to them after welcoming them and then stood back up straight. They may not have known it but you did a quick scan of their surface thoughts as they replied to him which told him everything he needed to know about how trustworthy they would be to the guild. "Like I said, I am an Ace of this guild so I can give you your guild marks so that we don't run into this issue with anyone else. Anywhere specific where you want them? And any color?" A white flame formed over his hand. "Don't worry. This will 'burn' the symbol into your flesh painlessly. Benefits to being a holy flame." He shot the duo a grin and waited for their responses.

Birch watched Cirven with bland indifference as if he was watching nothing more than a common canary (as he so-called himself) bristling its yellow feathers to try and look bigger. Sure, the threats were no doubt real, and he knew that the unhinged man's power currently exceeded his own recovering ones, but the foreigner wasn't the type to fear retaliation or death. There was no point in it. "Canary Ace, hm. So if you ever stop singing, that's the sign we should leave, right? That seems to be all the security we need," quipped the celestial bird, not taking kindly to being talked down to. In fact, little enraged him more than haughty, self-proclaimed powermongers who knew not to whom they spoke. Granted, he wouldn't reveal his secrets as to who and what he was, but it didn't diminish his prideful and high-statured nature. He was really a good deal more pissed than he was letting on, but perhaps the fact that he still lingered nearby instead of leaving the noise behind to begin his mission was indication enough that his nerve had been struck. No one would be his superior. Even Saraphina spoke to him in a less abrasive manner, and she was the only one with any right to true power here. This was her guild.

Birch stood back to observe once he let them out of their cages, hoping the ace wouldn't pull any more stunts on the newbies. All they needed was stamped and allowed to adjust to the guild's version of normal. The regal blond might not act it, and certainly tried not to be obvious, but he did have instincts when it came to dealing with people in any semblance of an organization. True power and authority were earned, not demanded and taken. It was probable he had more experience than anyone here with effectively leading others and fostering the right attitudes to get favorable results. "You need not refer to him with any title. This is a guild that has no rules and thrives on chaos, so he can kiss our security risk a**es," he told the new two, more than happy to see them rise to his antics with some guts earlier. Maybe they would make it here after all. Members of Errings Rising had to have a good set of balls to thrive in these conditions. "I'm Birch. Do your best to mind your sanity."

"Now, now, Cirven, you should know me better than that. I would never directly interfere with your fun without some sort of reason. Honestly, I might not be all there sometimes, but I don't lack basic survival instincts. Besides, I was trying to be nice here, say good things about you. Of course, if you don't want that, I could always be persuaded to go to the other end of that spectrum, though I'd prefer not to. In any event, it is so nice to see some fresh faces. I hope that we can make the two of you feel more than welcome."

Jen had gone from excusing herself from Cirven's judgement to welcoming the new prospective guild members without missing a beat. "I really would like to get to know more about you...Tiisha, was it? In due time, of course. I'm sure that you must be weary or hungry after traveling through this frozen wonderland to get here. Could I get you anything? Some tea? coffee? Maybe some food? Or, if you so desire, perhaps some companionship?"

She winked at the dragoness before her key spirits, Leona and Lucian appeared to either side of her. "Worry not, for I am a woman of many talents, I'm even prepared to assist you with whatever form of training you desire, if it is within my range of talents. I'm particularly partial to combat training, though."

Tura returned to his humanoid form as the cage dropped from around them. Apparently, they'd satisfied whatever requirements the Devil King was looking for. Tiisha ignored the blonde man giving them advice. Turashi winced. Some habits would be difficult to shake. Some attitudes would be even harder to adjust. The redhead bowed to the blonde. "Thank you for the advice. We find referring to people with titles defers respect. Whether they deserve the titles or not isn't the issue." A brief string of numbers appeared on Tura's shoulder. "Better than demeaning them with no name at all. Please, don't let us take up your time, Lord Birch." The male indicated Birch's duffle bag. "May the wind caress your wings and the weather be pleasant on your journies." Tura bowed again before joining his sister.

While Tura talked to Birch, Tii was accosted by Jennifer. The dragonling resisted wrinkling her nose. Who was this female? The redhead bit her tongue before she accidentally unleashing a scathing retort. She didn't have power anymore. This female wielded more power than the dragonling. Tii smiled at the blonde. What was her name again? "I'm fine, miss. Weariness doesn't touch me. Hunger isn't an issue and companionship... well my brother could use some, I'm sure." Tura paled as Tii threw him under the bus. The redhead smiled nervously. His form flickered, rapidly, flipping from male to female - all without a shirt. Tii put a hand on her brother's shoulder. He stopped flickering on his original form. "Of course, he can become a she if that's what you prefer." The dragonling gave the blonde a snarky smile. "Now, if you'll excuse us, Miss."

Tii dragged Tura over to Cirven. The female rolled up her shirt to expose her stomach. "I'd like it right here, Devil King." Tii said tapping the spot she wanted. Tura turned around. "I would like the guild mark on the small of my back, Devil King."

Cirven continued to ignore Birch as he listened to Jennifer explain herself a bit. He did not doubt she meant no harm in what she had said but he was sure she knew that a person in his position had to show some sort of dominance and authority or else those under him would act like Birch who seemed to not get exactly who he was trying to command around. Just the idea of the man acting nonchalant about potential enemies irked the devil, especially with how he lived knowing that he had multiple enemies out in the world just waiting to tear him apart. "Birch, it sounds like we should do a job together at some point so we can get some sort of respect for one another. Keep me posted if that is something you would be interested in, though I know saying that now would mean a no. Think on it." He spoke out to Birch who seemed to be leaving them to deal with the newbies. He turned his attention to Jennifer while he waited for the siblings to speak to him about their guild marks. "Glad to hear you understand where I am coming from, Jen. Would be sort of weird with how we recently wrecked a city and that sorry excuse for a group that opposed us."

He turned his attention back to the pair of siblings and waited for them to present exactly where they wanted their guild marks to be. He would place one of his hands where they wanted their mark, causing a surge of white flame magical power to spike for a quick second and a warm but comforting sensation to be felt by the two. "Any color you want it in?" He would question as he was applying their marks for them. After they answered the warm feeling would intensify a bit but not in a painful way as it continued to be more of a soothing feeling. The feeling would shortly dissolve away as the white flames on each of Cirven's hands would do the same and he would move his hands away from the desired positions. "That should do it. Welcome to Errings Rising." A smirk would form over the devil's face as he finished congratulating them. "I'm curious if both of you would be interested in some training? Maybe I could show you a thing or two. I'd hold back obviously though. I don't want to kill new recruits that have peaked my interest after all."