Ring of Blood

Well, this was certainly going to be new territory for her.

Not the illegal pit fighting, of course. That was a scene she was intimately familiar with, so to speak. Truth be told, it was like this job had been made for her. No, it was the rescuing thing that was new. Typically she was used to killing or torturing people, not saving them. Still, a job was a job and she had made a commitment to Janet. The guildmaster had quite the vision for the future, one that the Avatar of Ataxia was quite curious to see how it would play out. If that vision required her to play the part of the hero for a job, then so be it. She was sure she would find a way to make the experience exciting.

Thana basked in the heat of the sun where she stood on the deck of the ship that had taken them across the thin strip of sea that separated Sin from Desierto. She was dressed for the hot weather in a short skirted red dress whose sleeves hung off her shoulders, and a pair of black heels. Her long raven colored hair hung loose behind her back. Salt water tickled her nose pleasantly, and she breathed the scent of it in deep before letting out a satisfied little hum.

“This is actually insane. You do fucking realize that, right?” As usual, Aeron was not happy with her. In fact, this time the brunette was utterly infuriated. She was pacing the deck behind Thana like a cornered animal, her eyes jumping wildly at every little movement, every tiny creak in the ship as it sailed toward the oncoming shore. Aeron was practically screaming at Thana, despite her whispered tone. “We’re going to get caught! We’re going to be dragged back to Bellum and--”

“Relax, darling,” Thana cooed in a calm voice, drawing the wary stares of a number of other people on deck. It wasn’t their fault, of course. They couldn’t see Aeron. After all, Aeron and Thana were two thirds of a whole that made up the woman of Trinity. Only one of them possessed control of Trinity’s body at a time, but that didn’t stop Aeron and Thana from interacting with one another quite often. The problem was that Aeron was currently little more than a figment of Thana’s imagination, which meant that to those around her she was quite literally talking to no one.

As one would usually assume, telling someone to relax usually had the opposite effect. Aeron’s face turned even more red with anger. “No, don’t you dare tell me to relax! First you get the Rune Knights and Dies Irae hunting for us, then you go and sign us up for some guild. Now you’re taking us right back to the exact life that we barely escaped not even two years ago, and you expect me to relax?!” Aeron was nearly shrieking by the time she was done.

Amber colored eyes that seemed to flicker like a burning fire turned toward the other woman with an amused glint. “It’s going to be exciting, don’t you think? Maybe we’ll get to fight again, just like old times.”

“I don’t want to fight! You’re insane!”

“Of course I am. That doesn’t mean I’ve ever led you astray.”

“But you have lead me astray.”

Electing not to reply to that particular comment, Thana walked away to go find her other companion for the day while Aeron continued to growl her frustrations behind her. For this job she had elected to take another member of Elysium with her. After all, if she was to be Janet’s right hand Ace of Destruction, it was ideal that she should get to know her new guildmates. She had seen the young man by the name of Odhran at the first official gathering for the guild, but hadn’t really gotten to interact with him too much. Still, he had fascinated her with his claim to be a celestial god of some sort, who seemed to enjoy keeping an entourage of summoned spirits about him. He seemed like the type of person that would find a way to keep things interesting, so she was quite looking forward to seeing how he performed in the field today.

“We’re almost there,” she told him with a light smirk, leaning back against a wall or railing so she could make sure no one was eavesdropping on them. “The client only provided us one ticket to get inside and said these people are pretty strict about access. One of us will have to sneak in somehow. I can do so fairly easily myself, but I’m open to hearing if you have any other ideas. We don’t want to do anything too suspicious before we’ve located this poor, wayward nephew...”

Odhran’s spirits truly were a delightful bunch. They were animated and unpredictable, all qualities that Thana thoroughly enjoyed. She hadn’t quite caught on to all their names yet, but there were very few names that Thana ever chose to recollect.

Once she approached the group, one of the male spirits immediately began to chat her up. Thana eyed the purple haired individual with a curious expression that grew into a teasing grin as he flirted with her, turning to give him her full attention. “Well, aren’t you quite the gentleman…” she told him, giving him a shameless look over. She didn’t get the chance to say much of anything else before a few of the other spirits chimed in, and soon enough Thana was giggling at the sight of all the spirits bickering with one another about creamy insides.

The woman that the others referred to as Arnaluuk approached her and explained that convincing Odhran to go in without the rest of them was probably a no go. However, she did offer a rather enticing alternative. Thana listened with interest as the other woman suggested that perhaps everyone be offered up as slaves for the fight in order to secure passage, with the caveat that Odhran himself not be the one to act as the slave owner as he was liable to blow their cover. Apparently, the mage insisted on treating his spirits with respect, and refused to even pretend otherwise.

“Hmm…” Thana thought to herself, tapping a finger against her cheek. “I do like the idea of posing as slaves. It’s definitely a sure fire way to get in. Events like these usually accept last minute submissions as long as the slave owner seems legit.” To emphasize what she meant by that, she lifted a hand and rubbed her fingers together to emulate the gesture of rubbing coins against one another. Money was always the biggest factor in this industry, and that was easy enough to handle.

No, it was maintaining the story that would be the difficult part here, apparently. Pulling herself away from the wall she’d been leaning against, she slowly paced the circle of spirits and Odhran as she talked. “I could easily play the part of slaver. It’s a role that I… well, we’ll just say that I have exposure to it.” Thana told them in a casual tone. She winked at Scorpio, even being so bold as to draw the tip of one of her nails lightly against the spirit’s chest as she passed by him. “However, the importance of the role is to be convincing, and I highly doubt any of you, or your summoner, would be thrilled with the idea of me having to be a bit… firm handed with any of you.”

There would be no misunderstanding what she was suggesting: that the only way to prove herself as a slaver and them as slaves was to quite literally treat them like slaves. To abuse them physically, not just verbally. A devious little smirk pulled on her lips, and Aeron narrowed her eyes at Thana suspiciously, not at all liking the look on her face.

“So how about this,” she told them all as she continued to walk slowly amongst them. “Odhran can be the slaver with you all as his enforcers… and I’ll be the slave.”

“ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Aeron screamed at her, not that anyone but Thana could hear it. She looked utterly panicked by the very notion, and rightfully so.

Thana ignored her. “Odhran wouldn’t even have to really act as a slave owner outside of giving orders. I can easily provide enough money to secure the ploy and let him buy his way into the fight. The only security we would need is that the rest of you could convincingly commit to the part of the enforcers… if you know what I mean.” She stopped once more in front of Arnaluuk, who struck her as the most assertive of the spirits, and looked up at her with the hungry expression of a woman that very much looked like she might enjoy the idea of being beaten around by sea spirit. “Does that sound like an acceptable idea?”

A rather sultry laugh caught Thana’s attention, drawing her amber eyes away from the sea spirit and onto a new one that had just appeared. She carried herself already with a much greater air of superiority than the rest of those gathered so far, and given the way that Scorpio jumped when she spoke up it was clear that she was intimidating to even some of the other spirits. She spoke up to state that she’d asked to be summoned after overhearing Thana’s proposal. By her own opinion, the only one of them that would be any good at acting as a slaver would be herself, as the others didn’t have the heart for it.

Scorpio clearly wasn’t a fan of the idea, practically throwing himself over Thana protectively and burying his face against her chest. The dark haired woman idly reached up with a hand and ran her nails soothingly through his hair even as she continued to eye the new woman with a great amount of interest. “Hush,” she told the man gently, less of a command and more of an attempt to ease his fears. “It’s quite alright. I happen to enjoy a bit of scary…”

Even as she was considering the woman’s offer and sizing her up, Atsuai snapped her fingers and Thana suddenly found a snake around her neck. Rather than jump or express any sort of displease, her smirk merely deepened. If anything, she actually seemed pleased by the spirit’s display of bravado and wanting to prove that she was more than capable of being a firm hand. It was quite… invigorating. Thana reached up with her free hand and casually pet the underside of the snake’s chin as she listened to the woman’s questions and seemed to not even notice that Scorpio was being held back by Amaluuk.

“Well, my dear,” she told the woman innocently, turning down to look at the snake around her neck, continuing to pet and stroke it, “In my experience, slavers are rarely picky about what kind of slaves they take. Perhaps they are only interested in combat ones for the use of the Arena, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be interested in purchasing slaves of other sorts and selling them elsewhere, or keeping them on hand for non-combat related purposes. I have no qualms about assigning other roles to the rest of your companions as you see fit; you know them better than I.”

She continued to lavish the celestial reptile with affection while the spirits squabbled among themselves to varying degrees. Scorpio once again tried to lure Thana into his arms, offering to whisk her away to the Celestial Spirit Realm. Before he could finish, Atsuai shot an arrow at him so closely that it shaved off some of his hair. The dominant woman chastised him, making it very clear he’d been given no permission to leave, not when there was work to be done. Oh yes, Thana liked this woman.

“I find it more than agreeable,” she replied, looking the spirit up and down slowly with a low burning passion in her eyes. “I just hope you are prepared to follow through. Because like any sensible slave, I am not going to make it easy for you to keep me on a leash. So please, do not be afraid to… manhandle me.” If anything, Thana looked as though she were quite looking forward to the idea of Atsuai having to boss her around a little.

Holding up her hand, a briefcase appeared in it. “Here is your buy in,” she told the woman. If any of them checked inside they would find it to be full with an impressive amount of jewel. “We have two objectives once we’re there. One is to take down the arena itself, while the other is to find and liberate the client’s nephew, a young boy by the name of Milo. Do not be surprised if we become separated for a while. Most likely what they will do is usher me down into the pens to await my time to fight and steer you toward the stadium. Feel free to enjoy yourself for a time. I’m sure they’ll have refreshment and other things. Once it’s my turn, I can provide a distraction that should prove more than enough to allow the rest of you to search for the boy.”

It would be curiously obvious, at least to Odhran’s more observant spirits, that this wasn’t the first time Thana had been involved in the slavery scene. She seemed to know an awful lot about how most of these types of events ran and what they could expect, though whether she was telling this from the perspective of one who had been the slaver or the slave in the past was difficult to discern. Either way, Thana seemed quite confident in what she was talking about. Giving Atsuai a devious little smirk, she held out her arms as though submitting to arrest from an officer.

“So why don’t you tie me up and we can get this little party started, hrm..?”