N. Triaria paused in the hallway as she heard before she saw the clash of metals - twin swords, perhaps, and arrows. Her long blonde hair, pulled back into a pony-tail, trailed behind her as she paused by the pillars some distance away, breath in her throat with anticipation. The sounds of battle grew louder as did the voices. N. Triaria closed her eyes briefly before opening them to the scene below her.
Kasra Kadri was battling both her guards at the same time. She did not use her fire but her large, ancient bow cut through the air as both a long and short distance weapon, though rarely the latter as her opponents had trouble enough closing any distance between them. The arrows flashed and Kasra Kadri's face was one of utter savagery. Her eyes burned like flames, red and dark with concentrated restraint, the edges of her Martian rage that boils her blood to half-madness in battle, held back by years of discipline.
She seemed almost at home there in the arena below.
"Deimos, how dare you come onto sacred battle grounds unprepared?" the rich melodious voice demanded as one dark-haired guardian barely dodged a quick silver-flash of arrow. It cut through several obstacles, and was only stopped by the thick, marble wall several hundred feet behind the panting Deimos who righted herself.
The magick-enforced wall cracked ever so slightly.
Kasra Kadri barely blinked as she advanced towards her weakened opponent, her guard never let down, even for a moment - even if victory seemed certain. If N. Triaria did not know her soldiers as well as she did, she might have been puzzled by Deimos' fall and Phobos' stoic distance. But, even she had fallen victim a few times when she had been careless of Kasra Kadri's arrows. The Martian warrior's mighty arm sent out arrows that could not only penetrate marble but it's flying force through the air would send many opponents to their knees, ears ringing and muscles weakened by the very force of the air. Had Mars used her burning fire to light the pathway, Deimos would have been badly injured, if not dead if she wasn't lucky.
Most of her enemies were far from lucky and Kasra Kadri remained one of the three Queens of Mars despite her absence because of her might on the battlefield.
"Dare to call yourself my guard and not be able to stand on equal grounds with me?" Kasra Kadri asked coldly. "How dare you bring such impertinence--"
"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Another voice suddenly cut in, stilling Kasra Kadri during mid-step.
N. Triaria rolled her eyes. She knew exactly who that voice belonged to, and apparently so did Kasra Kadri. "Folami of the Jovians," Kasra Kadri spoke at last, voice flat and humorless. There was a spark in those ruby eyes, and it made N. Triaria burn with jealousy.
"You always were a bully," Folami observed casually as she strode onto the battlefield, a shield in one hand and a spear in the other. At her hip a gladiator's sword hung, the Jovian’s Sword of Champions that only those who have won all battles in the arena could wear. It was Folami's most prized possession, even if she was always more comfortable with the spear and far more talented with it.
"You were always a show-off and now a cad, as well?" Kasra Kadri replied back with her voice full of mocking disdain. There was, however, a slight smile on those lips that hardly ever showed any knowledge of amusement. "Cads like you need to be taught a lesson in dealing with those above their stations," she added pointedly. Of them all, it was rare that Folami let anyone get away with daring to mention the fact that she was a bastard child, even if she was the bastard child of a great King. Folami shrugged, for despite the barbs and the very society that Kasra Kadri stood for and ruled over, not many have ever treated her as an equal with so much gravity - when they weren’t sparring that is.
"Should you than entertain me and our guests with a bit of blood-letting?" Folami asked with a spreading dark grin on her darker face. Both of them then looked up to N. Triaria's pillar, though neither needed the permission.
"I will have to refuse your invitation though," N. Triaria said after a moment's pause as she stepped into view. "But must you display such might when the real guests of honor may soon be arriving any day now?"
"Any day is your way of saying any hour," Folami answered with a casual flash of teeth. "And what better way to welcome such guests than by showing them that we are not so frail and pristine as they must speak of us on Earth."
"By your methods they would be scared off, and forewarned of how ready we are to make war over their primitive, little world." Kasra Kadri noted, but raised her bow arm and aimed before she was finished with her observation. There was no further warning but Folami needed none. They were two trained warriors on two very different training grounds. Jovians used battles mostly for sports, their arenas famous for it, gathering crowds from all over. Martians viewed battles more like death-matches, restrained only because of their long agreement to diplomacy. There were still quite a bit of civil wars on Mars, but so long the tradition of leadership remained of the three Queens of Mars, and so long as they could prove themselves the strongest, the order was stable.
Kasra Kadri never talked of her battles, but sometimes, N. Triaria wondered how different their worlds really were. Folami, though her battles were never quite as savage, was not a stranger to killing. Jovian tribal rituals were brutal, and though royalty rarely participated in the gladiator trials that got violent enough for death to be the objective, Folami’s uncertain status had forced her into the arena since a very young age. She was no stranger to murder either, or the deadly intrigues of royal life - even if she had never spent a day in her life within a palace before the Moon became a permanent post.
Venus was different. Battle honed and time honored, N. Triaria had to prove herself not only to her citizens but had been sent to both Mercury and Jupiter before to train. She had participated in the Jovian’s gladiator challenges. She had not always won and she did not bear the gladiator's sword badge, but she was cunning, and the best swordsman of the Inner Planetary warrior-cast; they had simply made her a general because she bore the mark of Venus. Because she had fought the same battles as her Jovian counterpart, she knew how Folami thought and understood the battle philosophies that the other fought under because of it. In the art of war, however, only the royalty of Mars, the future Queens of that planet on the edge of savagery, may engage in the sport of elimination by death alone.
It lessened palace violence, as the philosophy went, but the secrecy, for many years, gave Kasra Kadri an advantage in the training halls. It made fighting the Martian Queen the most exciting event. In all her years, N. Triaria loved fighting Kasra Kadri best, and they were even in skill enough to warrant victories of proportion on both sides. Kasra Kadri, however, was not used to losing to anyone and never took any losses well. It was engrained in her that a loss meant death, and though there was truth in her philosophies, her companions were too lax to take it as seriously as she did. Sometimes subduing her without blood being spilt was difficult enough of a task to teach N. Triaria more than any victories she may have gotten off of the others.
Folami must have felt the same way.
The clash of arrows against the battered shield, a protection only because of the magick that kept it from being pierced, even knowing this made those who watched catch their breath. The cold calculation in Kasra Kadri's caution and the sinuous grace of Folami Adaeze Ekundayo, flowed like a dark dance. Than, with lightening quick movements, Folami struck out with her spear, her long limbs unfurling. No one would know from looking that her shield arm was probably numb from the impact of the arrow, but N. Triaria did not doubt that it was. Kasra Kadri launched herself forward into a roll, the spear-head whispering past the strands of hair that flowed behind her like a shadow before imbedding itself into the stony grounds. Another silver arrow was knocked and aimed at Folami's heart even before Kasra Kadri was completely out of her crouch, but the Jovian had advanced without waiting to see if her spear had struck. The taller woman was already there to meet her opponent and her long, rough fingers, a warrior's hand, was wrapped around Kasra Kadri's equally long neck. In her right hand the gladiator’s sword was drawn and only a hair's breadth next to Kasra Kadri's temple.
They froze in that moment and were as still as statues.
"Another draw," N. Triaria observed from the pillars, breaking the sudden hush, "and so quickly, too. How disappointing."
Folami blinked and only when she saw the slight snarl on Kasra Kadri’s face relax into that familiar look of neutrality did she dare to move again. Ever so slowly, she released Kasra Kadri from her choke hold and it was only when she was more than an arm’s length too far to do any sudden harm did Kasra Kadri lower her bow. The fire in her opponent’s eyes, the catch in Kasra Kadri’s breath, those things took a bit longer to settle completely.
"Stop looking like I just gave you an orgasm," Folami taunted with an easy grin, brushing passed Kasra Kadri to get her spear. The heavy atmosphere of anticipation dissipated.
"If you didn't look so smug, I doubt anyone else would think there's any truth in that statement," Kasra Kadri answered drily. Her guardians came, silver chained anklets visible once more to dangle on their legs, a symbol of their status.
"What a show you put on," N. Triaria commented from the side-lines, watching Folami struggle to get her spear out of the ground. Phobos and Deimos quietly moved about the room, retrieving arrows where they could, though not all of it could be pulled from the walls and pillars they were imbedded in. Kasra Kadri looked over to the blonde audience member with a quirked brow, watching the other woman push off from the second floor to land in the arena. "You should spar with me, mea Kadri. I can be so much more fun," N. Triaria purred.
"You're something alright," Folami agreed over her shoulder with a laugh, hiding her wince as she flexed her previously numbed appendage that was now starting to throb at the impact it had to endure.
N. Triaria flicked her eyes contemptuously at the tall Jovian but looked back to Kasra Kadri expectantly. "Is that a command?" the Martian asked.
"No," N. Triaria answered, keeping the annoyance out of her voice. It would not do to convince Kasra Kadri of anything if she wasn't composed.
"Perhaps," the red-haired woman shrugged. "But we must prepare for our guests' arrival. They are our guests, and for a fortnight you must set aside your wants for theirs."
"You best keep your word then," N. Triaria said with an indulgent smile.
"You dare question my word?" Kasra Kadri asked, her clubbed hair flying whip-like in the way the Martian turned her head.
"I guess I don't need to," the Venusian answered innocently with her most neutral face. Her voice was guiltless but no one missed the fact that she had simply been saying those very words to provoke Kasra Kadri further.
"For a fortnight, can you guys not play nice?" Niko-Lysandra seemed to suddenly appear from the great arches that was the entrance to the arena. Her pale skin shimmered slightly as she stood and waited. "We must not let on that we are Senshi or that we can fight," she reminded them. "It would do us little good if they feel threatened."
"It will do us less good to underestimate their intelligence," Folami said pointedly. “In that case it would be doubtless that they would think us a threat.”
Niko-Lysandra smiled a smile that wasn't really a smile at all when she heard this. "Leave the thinking and politics to those who understand it, dear sister," Niko-Lysandra said evenly. "You play the bumbling Jovian, the way they think when they look at you, and should we ever have to quail their rebellious nature, it will be all the easier to stick your spear through their hearts."
"How cold of you," N. Triaria said as Kasra Kadri rolled her eyes and walked passed the Mercurian at the gates. Her guardians trailed her and her commander watched her go, but N. Triaria shifted her gaze back to the amused Niko-Lysandra, who missed nothing, and reflected that amused look back to the woman before her. "But it will be an easy role to play for one who does not really like battles to begin with."
"Ladies," the imperious voice of Queen Selenity's council woman, Luna, cut in. The dark eyes pierced the scene with some disapproval. "Try not to show too much fractures in our diplomacy, especially amongst yourselves. Even if you have your personal quarrels, for a fortnight, I suggest you forget about them. You are representatives of your planets, but most importantly, you are a representative of the Moon herself. Restrain your banter for another time."
"We were simply practicing their Earthian speech," Niko-Lysandra answered nonchalantly. No one spoke up to argue her excuse but Luna did not look the least convinced by it. The Mercurian's blue eyes, however, never did move away from her commander, but finally they seemed to have found whatever she had been looking for. Niko-Lysandra turned to go with a casual goodbye on her lips. "I am sure we can all get along splendidly through pretend," Niko-Lysandra commented with her biting words of departure.
Folami rolled her eyes as Niko-Lysandra walked away, as did Luna. "Thinkers," she muttered to herself, sure that the Mercurian was in another one of her bad moods again to be so acerbic.
"No," N. Triaria said thoughtfully as they watched the two disappear into the gates. "I think our Niko-Lysandra is a very special girl, indeed."
Folami looked to her commander with a brow raised in slight disbelief, but sometimes it was best not to question. After all, Folami only knew one Mercurian intimately enough to have any say of knowing Mercurians at all, and Niko-Lysandra would be a harsh character picked to judge the race against. Sometimes, Folami felt that all she could really do was play pretend at knowing more about her fellow Senshi, anyway - outside of the way they fought on the battle-field that is. Most times, this pretend was all they really had of each other (of anyone, really)...
And as all the stories of Senshi went, sometimes the only thing that could bring them together was the terrible wars they would fight, in the name of Change and Power.
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Theme: sm_monthly 01/2008 Day 9 : Inner Circle
