[RPG] [BT] Phoebe ~ Power Play

[Timothy Collett]

(Meta: This chapter begins 4 days ago, as Phoebe gets out of a Caras  
Galadhon prison...)

Phoebe sighs with relief as she steps into Athol Margos once again.   
"Well, that was a near thing and no mistake!" she mutters to  
herself.  "I'm not sure if that Judge of theirs believed me or not,  
but I got out with my hide, my dagger, and even my legal status  
intact.  Now, I want a nice long rest in a real bed..."

The next morning, she hears the town criers announcing that a man  
named JeanOlivier has overthrown the government of the land just to  
the north of Riombara.  She grins.  "Now that sounds like the perfect  
opportunity for my dagger to drink deep...time for a trip north!"

Within a few hours, she is on the road north.  The new King seems  
interested in her offer of aid, and she can feel her dagger humming  
at her side as it thirsts for the blood it knows will come soon.

The trip north takes longer than she expected, though, and on the  
way, she receives bad news: the man JeanOlivier wants her to stab is  
the new Judge of his kingdom, one of the loyalists to the old King,  
elected in the confusion after the rebellion, before JeanOlivier had  
a chance to properly consolidate his power.

"So he wants me to try to stab the Judge—who's the one in charge of  
the prisons—and if I survive and succeed, he'll have my ban lifted  
when his own guy is in position, huh?"  She sighs.  "A King would be  
a useful man to have as a friend, and a dangerous enemy...I'll have  
to think about this."

She puts her hand on the dagger, which pulses impatiently, filling  
her vision with red, and her mind with the lust to kill.   
"Soon...soon, you'll have blood, one way or another..." she hisses  
through clenched teeth, fighting down the urge to draw the dagger and  
plunge it into the breast of the nearest passerby.  After a few  
minutes, the urge passes, and she is able to return to the road and  
continue on her way.

By the time she reaches Melegra, though, the dagger's thirst for  
blood has become unbearable.  Every time she touches it, Phoebe's  
head swims with the urge to kill.  Unable to think straight, she  
stumbles into a temple and collapses in a dark corner, the dagger  
unsheathed next to her, to rest for a few minutes and clear her head.

"Gods..." she murmurs, "this is harder than I expected.  This dagger  
wants blood so badly, I'm almost afraid it'll jump out and stab  
someone of its own accord soon..."

There is a noise from her right.  "My daughter, are you--"

Reflexively, she springs to her feet, dagger in hand, in a defensive  
posture.  The priest stumbles backwards in surprise—but then the red  
mist comes over Phoebe's vision again, and she leaps forward with an  
animal snarl.  The priest raises his hands in a futile gesture of  
defense, and Phoebe tries to regain control at the last second, but  
only succeeds in turning the dagger enough to stab him in the gut,  
rather than the heart.

But then the knife drinks his blood, and all she can feel for several  
minutes is a wash of euphoria.  When she comes back to herself, she  
curses roundly.  "Unconscious, but not dead.  If I stick around, he  
might be able to identify me...time to move on to the main event."

As she leaves the church, she can feel a new surge of energy from the  
dagger flowing through her...

* * *

Phoebe studies the map of Villriil, with the locations of several  
people, gleaned through bribery and quiet words in the corner, marked  
on it.  "Neither of them will be easy to hit..." she murmurs.  She  
sighs and sits back, looking at the whole map together.

"Well," she says at last, "a King might be a good friend to have in  
the future—but right now a good friend would be a Judge..."  A wicked  
grin flashes across her face.  "So the next blood I spill will be the  
blood of a King..."

Within a few minutes, she has packed everything away, and is quietly  
moving through the mist behind King JeanOlivier's encampment.  His  
small unit seems somewhat disorganized, and the sentries are no  
trouble to avoid in the fog.  The dagger thrums with bloodlust in her  
hand, but it no longer clouds her mind, and she quickly enters the  
King's tent before anyone notices.  He is bending over a table,  
examining something, but before she can stab him, he whirls, a letter- 
opener in his hand blocking her blow.  The fight is short, though:  
she knocks the letter opener aside, and the stool he picks up to  
defend himself with, and her dagger sinks into his side and drinks  
deeply of his blood.

As his eyes glaze, she pulls the dagger out and shows it to him.  The  
last words he hears before the darkness closes over him are a low  
whisper of, "For chaos!"

Then Phoebe hears the cry of a guard, alerted by the commotion.  She  
quickly cuts a slit in one side of the tent, but slips out underneath  
the tent edge on the opposite side.  Before the guard has even  
entered the tent, she is gone, vanishing into the mist.

O Mighty One, she says silently to the Daimon who gave her the blade,  
this day the dagger has drunk the blood of a King!

--

Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
~haiku~

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