New Allies

[Oriena]

“Baby gods?” She laughed, dark and throaty. That sounded like snake bullshit, dismissive and terrified of the power her kind wielded. They were better, but fuck if Oriena had ever had any respect for rules even before the power changed her. A channeler could crush Yun and her pretty strings if they chose, for despite the authority the woman had clawed to herself through sweat and blood, she was irrelevant the moment another spied her crown and fancied the fit for themselves.

Ori presently found her interest piqued though. Storm-blue eyes shunned the gathering and her previous preoccupation for this interesting new morsel, with only the barest hint of discomfort for the faint swarm of whispering in the back of her head. The glitter of her attention was like broken glass as the gears turned inside. Some swayed to that mischievous energy and some baulked from it, but fortunately for Yun she was currently under wing. “Nox Durante?”

The man was a sarcastic and overconfident shit, but Oriena did not forget the shield of his back while she snarled and bled on the floor. Unasked for, but still. She’d known what he was on some level since then, and perhaps it had shielded the brunt of her stark hatred for his kind. Or former, apparently. Either way, it was particularly that kind she desired, and talk of the tablet had even spouted first from Nox’s lips. Not why she had sought the distraction of a crowd this night, but Ori never minded when the game changed. A perk of burning the rule book and casting those ashes to the wind.

She stretched comfortable in her seat. Slyness touched her smile, curious to see what might hook on the bait. “He’s playing hard to get? Sounds about right.”