Who The Fire Favours (ONC2023) gxg

Chapter 3: Rider

"Y'know I really should be insulted it took you so long to recognise me, my Lady."

Rider's voice was smooth and calm despite her vitriol towards her dance partner. With every change in tempo, her legs strained to keep up, but she couldn't drop her pace, forcing herself to ignore her dwindling fatigue and chronic pain.

"Well, the last time I checked you were exiled from Opalis. I shouldn't have to look for someone who shouldn't be here."

Aria's arms rested rigidly against hers despite the earlier false bravado, the fraction of surprise that showed on her face was hidden by a mask. Rider couldn't hide her relief. She was still easy to read after so long apart.

"So, you thought that would stop me? Please. You don't know me well enough."

The Throneholder's eyes were fixated on hers, far too prideful to let go or call attention to her predicament. Rider closed the gap between them as much as she dared just to gauge how far Aria would go to keep that perfect image. She matched her inch for inch. Even as her voice went quiet.

"I don't know you at all. The Rider I knew wasn't...this. She was quiet, kind, caring, considerate..."

"All perfectly acceptable for a scapegoat, don't you think?"

Aria flinched.

Her footwork stumbled.

Rider did not.

She held her form and spun in the opposite direction, taking Aria's mistake and turning into an opportunity even as she stepped back on her left foot. The pain spiked up her leg, but Rider breathed through it with gritted teeth, the anger in her eyes almost overtaking everything she had worked for. Not now. Not yet.

"Why are you here?"

Rider smiled.

"Well, Hellgrind is empty and all the demons are here. It would be a shame if I was the only one uninvited."

A brief jerk of a nod from a nearby server signalled Rider to change direction, allowing another to slip away from the crowd with a flick of her blonde hair. The violinists followed suit by changing the music in an attempt to keep the crowds distracted. All to use their Trait and draw the attention to a single point. Her.

"The only demon I see here is you." Aria bit back with gritted teeth, her voice a low growl despite the irony.

Rider couldn't help but chuckle, that comparison to her being demonic sticking around even after she hid every scar she had. Even after she jumped through every single hoop Opalis demanded of her. Even after she stuck by Aria through everything, she was still thrown by the wayside when it suited them. She wouldn't deny it anymore.

"Then it's no wonder you're planning a war against them." Rider added casually, knowing full well that it hadn't been announced publicly yet.

Aria hissed.

"You always seem to get the last word, don't you?"

She couldn't meet her gaze. A stray hair unravelled from her intricately tied braid, her eyes fixated on the blonde strand instead of the fancy party or the person she was dancing with. Rider could have laughed. The untouchable Throneholder was tongue tied.

"I loved you, once. Before all of this."

Aria's hand brushed against Rider's shoulder, the Shadow Traited struggling to keep to the facade she had carefully crafted. Fighting the urge to halt for a fraction of a second just to rest, Rider gently rested her hand against her cheek.

"I..."

Aria gave her a genuine smile for the first time that night. The almighty presence of the Throneholder gave the demon of Hellgrind a shy nod and allowed her to push her long hair away from her face. Once, her approval would've turned Rider into a spluttering mess, but here it was and it felt...hollow.

"We grew up together. We became apprentices together. I even became your Regent just to stay together." Rider reminded her, trying to keep the pain out of her voice.

Aria blinked. Nothing. She said nothing. Rider's scars burned in indignation. She had spent so long crawling her way back up to a passable resemblance of who she was that she never stopped to consider what might happen next. What might happen if she denied herself the answers she so desperately clung to.

"That was a long time ago..."

Aria turned her head away. Rider's stomach lurched, her form swaying as she dug into Aria a little harder than she expected. She couldn't leave. She couldn't end the night like this. Not without answers. Not without an answer to all her pain.

"Not to me." Rider hissed, barely able to keep her voice lowered.

The stiflingly hot room masked the blazing aura around them, prickling at the edge of her vision. The violinists had lulled them into a false sense of security planned out by hers truly but without it, Rider wouldn't have noticed the cloying feeling of dread settling within her gut.

The music stopped.

A flash of fire caught her vision.

Rider took a step back, daring the assassin to follow her lead but the orange hue of the bowstring continued to bob about aimlessly. She clicked her teeth, annoyed at the game but incredibly intrigued by the lack of breath in her lungs. Attempting to take another step back, she found herself locked in hold with a Light Traited who caused more pain than even she could handle.

"I don't like being interrupted, Fire Traited."

Her threat fell on deaf ears.

Rider would have laughed at the sight of such a familiar Trait.

Her shadows dipped in the cracks of her burning wick of energy, recalling how much she had guided her to mould her Trait into a weapon. The very weapon she now used to execute her without even realising who had stood beside her for so many years. Rider could see the concentration in her eyes, the unruly mop of ginger hair that came from a place no longer on any map but always in her thoughts.

"Ah. Hello, little Timekeeper."

Amused at how her voice carried within the expanse of the strange layer of Fire Trait, she was half tempted to take a poke at it with her cane but she relented at the sight of Aria's expression. Gone was the look of false content on a face no longer shrouded by rose tinted glasses or the admiration of her people. It was twisted into sheer and utter malice. She hated the people here. She hated her. She hated everything and most importantly, she didn't care about the innocents preparing to be hit by an assassin oblivious to what they were about to partake in.

"Interesting."

Rider surprised herself with how calm she was being while faced with her own assassination. Despite holding her life in the palm of her hand for so many years, the Throneholder of Opalis had a knife to her throat, well...an arrow to her neck, and all she could think about was the Traited on the opposite end of the war. Exactly as she had been.

"Dammit all to Hellgrind."

Rider cursed. She couldn't just leave it be. Clearly, Aria couldn't either. She could handle an assassination attempt. She could handle a time stopping powerhouse of a Regent. But what she couldn't handle, was a reckless, oblivious Traited using a power she didn't understand. A power Aria clearly wanted to use to start a war.

Rider caught eyes with the Timekeeper, unable to see her expression even as she winked in response.

She could feel the burning sensation reaching her neck, the countless scars from her volatile shadows searing in response as the pocket of frozen time began to recoil at her Trait. She huffed, half tempted to leave them all to their own fiery doom but the reminder of such a young face hardening into the warrior-like Regent kept her tempered into a single moment. Not again. Never again.

Her shadows defended them all.