Quoth the Raven

Asserted Cooperation

I feel the lashing bite of the whip tear into my shins, entangling. I extend my talons and turn in mid-dive, angling to slash at the restraining hold of the weapon. The Governess yanks upon the whip, tightening the grip and sending me off balance. "Caught you again!", she cackles menacingly, her arm swinging the weapon like a sling in a wide arc above her head. Nausiously, I withstand the dizzying ride, until the whip slips and I find myself careening across the compound, crashing into one of the high buttressed walls.

I slide to the ground, in a daze, literally seeing stars. The ground shudders as the titaness crosses to finish me off. "Not so confident now, are we?", she booms from above me. The moonlight again falls to shadow as her immense form steals the light. "Enough games, you are done." I hear the creak of her leather body suit as she lifts her titanic boot and brings the heal crashing down upon my supine form.

My body melds with the earth, the immense pressure of the Governess' weight threatening to burst me like a squashed bug. "Just like that succulent grape, Nemesis.", she laughs tauntingly. The rage mounts, the power builds, arcing lightning spills from my orbless eyes. I squirm my arms and legs beneath me, and push with all my might, the wrath of the energy lending power to the desperate, self-preserving maneuver.

"Wha?!", the Governess screams as she is thrown off balance, and falls with a seismic quake to the ground. I leap into the air, waves of loose dirt billow like a cloud about her prone form. Her hand raises to her face, her head shaking away the cobwebs of the befuddling fall. Her eyes alight upon me and glare with hate.

"Enough.", I intone, devoid of emotion. My hands sweep about me in an energy trailing arc, the casting of a spell limning my body with an azure aura. My wrists gauntlets meet with a concussive blast as I speak the word of power, releasing the incantation. Not at the Governess, but at the earth under her.

Her face contorts fearfully as the ground liquifies into a viscuous gripping quicksand. The titan's massive weight pulls her down like a stone in a pond, sinking her immense body to just above the neck, her thrashing making her sink all the faster. I halt the incantation, allowing the ground to return to its original state, leaving the giantess quite restrained and embedded in several feet of solid rock.

"This won't hold me forever! You will pay!", she screams, thrashing her head back and forth, chipping away at the rock with the blunt bludgeoning of her thick cranium. "Long enough, child, long enough.", I respond deprecatingly, my hand coming to my mouth and wiping a trail of blood away.

Ignoring the now helpless Governess, I alight on the far side of the compound, and walk to the black steel gates. Wrought into patterns of tortured souls, dripping with crimson blood, the gate to Tower is quite imposing to behold, but I'm not here to sightsee and gawk. With but a word and gesture, the gates rise, leaving several sentries staring gape mouthed at my entrance. I peer at them ominously, seeing into the depths of their being. Creatures of abomination, undead beings animated to the Undead Lord's purposes. A feral growl escapes my lips as I extend a taloned fist in their direction, "Stand down, vermin, I have business with thy master. Declare my presence unto him. Tell him the Herald has arrived." They fumble with their weapons for a moment, then coolly advance, seeking to bar my passage. "I can see we require some convincing." My taloned fist, still outstretched toward them, clenches and pulls. The foremost vampire sentinels wither to dust, their dark essence drawn toward me, and devoured in the space of an instant. "Need there be more displays?", I glare pointedly at the now halted survivors. "Take me to thy master, now." They fall into formation, leading the way.