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Umbra of Chaos:
Mai

Generosity? Her eyes narrow for a moment at the offer. Was this some sort of trap? But she saw the strength in his limbs, and the frost of his spirit still sent chills through her soul. No, there was no trick here. He was mighty enough to simply kill her or kidnap her now. And she will not cling to her poverty out of pride. So Mai stands and looks at the stranger she nearly tried to butcher just a few breathes ago. Then she bows.

Her back bends with a grace that disguises how long it has been since her last exchange in formalities. Mai's hands come together to show she cannot reach her blade. Her face looks only at the ground, leaving her neck bare for a sudden execution. No one will ever say that Mai has forgotten humility.

"Thank you for your kindness, my lord. This vagabond is called Mai. If you wish to provide, then I will follow." Then she straightens, and quicker than most can see her sword and bowl are both in her hands once more.

YOLF:
Lubei

He crosses his arms in lieu of any other salute, nodding firmly. The scowl above his eyes doesn't look any less like it belongs there, but it nearly shakes itself off for an instant, before settling. It is inquisitory but his response is even and clear.

"Think nothing of it. I am Lubei. I've come on behalf of the Seraph of the Fourth Rome, along with her handpicked subordinates. Her wish is to recover this devastated town, and place it under her watchful dominion."

He thinks to mention what precipipated it, the recent event that bled this already withered area further. But if she has been here, she would have noticed already. What comfort can he offer?

"If you have questions, the others will help answer them," Lubei says, turning to the direction he came. He looks to make sure there is space left between them. Her movements are decisive, honed, but strangely careful. Restrained.


The greeting that was waiting for him feels knitted with thorns, and Lubei takes it like a boar running through a hedge.

"I was starting to consider getting a group ready and tracking you down. Where have you been?" The severe-faced woman stares at him with eyes more like a dead fish than ones that belong in a living human. Red, like her hair, but betraying little on their own. Clawed nailguards tap against her forearm impatiently, and they make her more resemble a student of the dark arts than a nun.

Her name is Raisa. Derived after a certain kind of flower, as provided by a single friendly face who spoke out from her entourage earlier. Lubei holds back a scoff.

"Performing the task I was assigned, as agreed," he responds."There wasn't any trace of the creatures. Physical or spiritual. It took longer because I was surveying for survivors willing to come now."

Lubei tries to move past her, to lead the girl to the building the other nuns have commandeered, a tall-windowed, gray-walled community center of some description, which has acquired a thin stream of population headed in, and a handful of female guards around every cardinal direction. But a clammy hand clamps around his upper arm, tugging him back with more than mortal strength towards an untrusting face.

"Hold it. What about her? Is she human?" The nun asks. Flakes of snow fall from the bridge of Lubei's nose and his furrowing brows when he rumbles his answer back. "Why does that matter?"

This time, she flashes her teeth in a sneer. "Because some demons eat humans."

Umbra of Chaos:
Mai

Mai's brow furrows at the question. Would she hurt anyone here? She looks back towards the procession of victims. Some carry weapons, it is true. But her heart does not itch. Her hands do not ache. She breathes, but not even the mildest excitement rises to the surface. These people are empty already. It will not pursue them. It would not even think to pursue them. Such a thing would be like a river flowing uphill. Try as she might, even the image of it slaughtering these stragglers is alien to her.

It reminds her of the faces of a decimated clan, its best warriors freshly slaughtered and the ground red with their blood. She remembers, oh so clearly, how the Demon saw the trembling survivors hidden in their homes. She knows how easily it could have killed each of them. But it could not, and that makes her glad. For no matter how monstrous her obsession, she was at least not cruel.

So Mai shakes her head. "I do not partake of human flesh, and I am no danger to any of the people here. If they will not raise a sword to me, they have nothing to fear."

Although these protectors... yes, her sword feels close to her when she looks at them. They are strong, and they have the will to fight if necessary. But for now, she faces her unexpected benefactor with a raised brow. What was he expecting, bringing her here?

YOLF:
Lubei

"You heard her. She's not lying." Lubei can tell there's something fragile and hazardous there, but it is not ill-intent. He rips his arm free, and the nun doesn't protest. "Are you done scrutinizing me instead of performing your tasks?"

"No." She answers, skeptical and dry. Instead of continuing to give him a headache by questioning the mission, she marches up to the girl and accuses her, as though her word was equal to evidence. "You're possessed by something. Is that what it means when you imply that you will be a danger if anyone raises arms?

A murmur spreads through the nuns outside, the ones close enough to listen in. One or other among their number nodding to their sisters. Raisa coldly acknowledges them at the edge of her vision before twisting with a frown at the demon king, as her claws gesture at the girl in question.

"You're too easy to convince. Didn't you feel anything when you saw her? You should have questioned her first. Not much of a demon king if you're easy to dupe. Understand? Put people in danger instead of helping them, or threaten Her Holiness's vision... and I'll make sure she reconsiders your usefulness."

Lubei grinds his teeth together, but the calm of his voice the next moment is surprising. Fractal blooms of ice spread beneath his boots in lieu of the pressure he expects to hear. "Look for whatever reasons you wish to criticize me, but I am not careless. Did Ivanna not send you with me precisely for these reasons? Then anyone who looks to be in need, until decisively marked otherwise, is to receive."

Raisa shakes her head, but primly steps out of the space between him and Mai. "Hmph. Indeed. Carry on then," she says through a grunt for his troubles.

His shoulders slump in release, and Lubei walks forward, shaking his head for the girl to follow. Raisa marks them both with her eyes, and barks out one last thing to her. "You, ask for Sister Lana after you've settled in. Perhaps she can do something about that thing inside you."

Umbra of Chaos:
Mai

This ends up with them sitting across from each other at a table, bowls of vaguely greyish soup serving as their meals for the day. Mai's hands come together and she utters a basic prayer in thanks to the gods. She has food, she has shelter, she has pleasant company. In this place, all three things are luxuries. So if her words are more genuine now then they have been for the last few weeks, she feels no great guilt over it. After a few mouthfuls of surprisingly filling food, she looks at her unlikely benefactor again.

"That holy woman called you a demon king, but you don't seem obsessed enough to me." She absentmindedly stirs the leftovers of her meal with her spoon, turning her gaze to the ever-present vigil of the nuns for an instant. Some were human. But the others had a familiar intensity to them.

Mai sees it in their faces. Human skin stretched taut over obsession. Like fire enclosed in a shell of wax, it shines brightly through them, and at the slightest shift everything but that fire would melt away. Or maybe she was simply seeing someone else in them. A bitter smile stretches its way across her features. Trust this strange this place to almost normalize her condition. Yet her eyes are soon back upon her benefactor. She had simply left him in awkward silence after that remark, hadn't she?

So she feels the discipline rooted in her soul school her features, her face a perfect image of pleasant neutrality. "My lord," she begins, "why did you bring me here?"

Yes, it was a good question. Even as she eats, the eyes of this place's protectors never leave her. Mai does not truly blame them. Death hangs over her as a shroud. The unpleasant smell of corpses and blood seeps from her body. Her sword is stained with flaking, dried blood. She knows she should have cleaned it long ago, but she could not rouse the effort to do so. Now it is simply another indicator. Yes, death clings to her. It is on her hands, under her fingernails, behind her eyelids, almost seeping from her like sweat in the sun. Even the ashen-faced citizens can see it. They look anywhere else, they play little games, but their eyes are drawn in morbid fascination. Mai has killed, and she will kill again. She knows this even as she defies it.

But for all that Mai sees herself, she is still so very blind.

She defaults to unkindness because she feels it is deserved. She cannot see the pity in the eyes of one of the nuns that watch her, her features just a tad softer and kinder than her sisters'. She fails to understand the meaning behind the chef's frown as he looks at her, his kindly features angry not at lithe limbs that promise violence but arms that are too thin. She is not just coated in death, it hangs over her already like a specter awaiting its due.

All these things that Mai will never know. Still, her gaze is sharp. Her eyes sees through Lubei's skin, peering at the pulse of blood through veins and the twitching of muscle. The things she can see are not few. An unyielding sternness keeps her back straighter than a rod of iron. It focuses fingers that would otherwise fidget and maintains an almost meditative stillness.

Mai would not accept, or be fooled by, any petty lie.

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