Who were these people before an imperial princess to tell her to shut up, as her face contorted in agony as she painfully was trying to regain control and as she did. They chastised the mortalborn as if to shame the sun for being bright, or water for being wet. Lavana was a creation of the wickedness what dwelled in mortal souls and honed into a magnificent weapon, her portfolio was not death for she knew not of finality but was rather the cause of it as its shepard. A divine gift and it was hers on command as her ambition lay ever forward towards the pantheons, even immortals die and when they did the diri of her nightmare hellscape rejoiced for nothing was truly eternal and everything eventually one way or another met its demise. Her sister Valtharn insignificant a false idol in comparison as Lavana reigned supreme of that domain as even murder and the fount of power that dwelled within was but a facet of her all encompassing purview. Torture? Pain and suffering was but just a bump on the wagon wheel before arriving at your intended destination.
You know what the real joke is? Your face you burly bitch!As the mortalborn tempted him with a second passing as he turned around.
As she leaned back in her chair this fit of laughter had all but faded as she smiled smugly regaining her composure with this malicious shit eating grin as her fingers freed a loose match and started cooking the bug berry before consuming its vapor and exhaling,. Lavanas nose crinkled in displeasure of this brazen man that held a courtesan in his clutches as he was back on his way to table? Would Raskalarn approve of her daughter slinking in her seat cowering before some drunkard like her greatest failure? Would she just be pushed and shoved around at her expense, to hide in filth like Tolly It would only ever truly end when would Lavana finally stood up for herself? And why was Maxine not partaking and indulging like she so often had, perhaps this drunkard had soured the mood and ruined there evening. It was a volatile mix of things stirring in Lavana, the thirst the liquor the bug berries or her anger and resentment it was hard to put an exact finger on it internally but they were creating a storm from within.
The mortalborn would not grip her steel for such insolence as her guest had wished it so. Instead she would be a gracious host and invite Maxine in with nothing short of pure honesty which she wished for. A front row seat, to know of her portfolio was one thing but now Lavana would give her the gift to lay witness and experience her domains glory. Maxine could revel or revile it made no difference, for the mortalborn was not the architect of its grand design merely its benefactor thrust upon its throne of corpses. Lavana would allow an experience like no other for her treasured friend and companion, a sweet taste of her domain. Lavana had decided she would give Maxine the pleasure of being her herald, to tell those in ignorance to remind those that had forgotten that Lavana Tharn Mortalborn of Bloodlust, Massacres, and Demise was not be trifled with.
All the same, even when its all different its still all just the same thats the real punchline to the joke. As the mans bottle whisked past Maxines head and burst on Lavanas steel cuiress, glass and alcohol smeared across her form extinguishing the newly found embers of her pipes chamber all the while she used her free hand to wipe off the fragments.
Something was changing in the atmosphere around them as the mortal born began tapping into her divinity, the hatred the rage the fury it was an overwhelming wave of emotional resonation that was radiating from Lavana consuming all within the tavern now abattoir. The domain of Lavanas choosing was Massacres, and its ability she called Brutal Crown. These feelings were thrust upon Maxine, every time the hamfisted man slammed his fist on the table screaming profanities at the mortal born. It was an overwhelming urge a want a desire that burned within like wildfire to snuff that man where he stood for harassing Lavana to protect the imperial princess at all costs. But it was up to Maxine to resist the urges, to fight it with everything she had less she be consumed by it. It was the hatred the loathing she felt that shed disciplined herself to channel as she championed it as perhaps her most devastating smite.
But it would seem that Maxine was not alone as another man got up knife hand at the hilt as he confronted the plump patron, the arguing started like it always did and escalation came as it always had. One shove led to another back and forth like roiling waves in the ocean as a crowd began forming around the two fighting patrons as an uproar of emotional turbulence was pitting one against the another. And in time a fist was thrown, as were stools until finally a knife hand broke free as Lavanas would be savior meant to drive his steel into chest of the princesses aggressor. But tragedy struck which was inevitable within the brewing violence for the portly man either having flinched in reaction or moved in desperation had taken hold of the courtesan to shield the blow. And within that beautiful blissful moment of succulent emotion there was pause a calm before the storm, as a grief stricken man was coming to terms with the act he had committed. And as he staggered back the heavy set man broke loose his short sword plunging it into the white knights gullet where it stirred in his gizzards. And thats when it exploded into a frenzy as others leapt into the fray there better reasoning lost within plentiful smoke and drink. Just meat being processed for slaughter as livestock turned afoul old grudges harbored resentment feuds jealously rivalry all fuel for this fire and it was this burning hatred laid bare for Maxine to witness as those within it were consumed if she herself had not. All of there own free will committing atrocities amongst themselves as they had all but forgotten about the girl that had been laughing at a table while blood and alcohol lacquered the floors in a shimmering sheen. Pitted against one another as patron goers fought for reasons all there own blinded by hatred and rage, the struggles were all to real as steel rang out and the squeals and squelches of victims becoming casualties caught within the cogs of an ancient machination. While those of a meeker nature took refuge in hiding, but sometimes scorn would find them too as the catastrophic carnage unfurled the true nature of things.
Do you not see that its all the same? Whether its my steel or your fist, whether you choose to partake or not its all the same. It does not matter what road you take, this will always be the final result a sacrifice in my name look into the many faces that have met death this darkening and remember well that not by my hand but there own they fulfill the obligation of my birthright. Were there kernals of truth in Lavanas drunk words?:
As Lavana gestured to this tavern turned abattoir, a savage landscape a battlefield in its own right. And even despite what Lavana set in motion in some back alley bar that catered to the lowest of the low in Almund, it was inconsequential compared to the calamity that had transpired in Faldrun, a handful of souls in comparison to thousands that met there demise in no way short thanks to Max herself.
And even then that was still inconsequential in the grand design.
Its what Max had wished for to be let in and understand, had it not?
