The Tale of Amaretto

Thirty-Fourth Grain

In Which the Fighting Finally Begins...

The entirety of the room was tense and Amaretto was not sure what was going to happen next. The queen sat on the bed, old body and the Stone of Communication clutched within the hands and arms of the new body. A frown creased her lips and the furrow in her forehead spoke volumes more of her fright than of her concern. Even still, Amaretto was sure that the queen was more concerned about her new body than the older one. The gleaming metallic floors seemed to have no effect on the woman who had only a few minutes ago, been crowing about cheating death.

Amaretto took a charge for the door, but stopped as she saw the IronMen were all standing ready to attack as Mother Chime had ordered them. Their capes should have gotten in the way of where they were standing, with Mother Chime off to their left hand side pointing at the interlopers in her kingdom.

Amaretto wanted to move towards the others who were there, but she was blocked off by Johanna and Alice, who were both standing in front of her. Johanna had a murderous look in her eyes. There was no way around it; Amaretto was more than sure that they would not make it out of here without at least some casualty. Alice took another step forwards and then shrugged her coat off of her shoulders. It fell to the floor with a thunk that Amaretto thought made it sound weighted. She looked up and noticed that Alice had on a thin blouse that was mostly see-through, but something seemed to writhe underneath the surface of the thin translucent cotton; something that seemed to be made of blue and trace itself all over her skin.

Katherine hissed in anticipation. "Those are brands! They are considered illegal here in the Empire."

"What are those?" Amaretto asked looking perplexed

"They are magical sigils that are tattooed into the skin to hold power and keep them there until used. They can be charged up to be used multiple times. They are basically the weapon of an assassin!"

Amaretto's eyes widened and she looked back at Alice with a whole new level of clarity. Johanna reached forward to the center of Alice's back and there was a sort of chime sound that seemed to light up the entire area and Amaretto looked around to see if she could determine where it was coming from. At that moment, all hell broke loose.

An IronMan jerked his body forward towards the small group while the Queen screamed out in fright. Mother Chime jerked her whole body backwards, not fluidly and gracefully like she had shown before, but almost like a puppet that had its strings pulled too hard. She stood in front of the bed; her arms outspread as if to protect the queen. The IronMan had no such compunction however. His left arm was thrust forwards towards Alice. Amaretto saw that instead of a hand he had a rather large, two pronged metal attachment that spit sparks. Amaretto was almost reminded of a rather large stun gun.

Amaretto screamed as the arm lashed upwards towards Alice who seemed to just be standing there with her guns at the ready, with Johanna still standing behind her. Johanna's right hand rose just a little bit from her waist line and Alice's skin seemed to glow. There was a jagged sparking in the air almost like a bolt of lightning that seemed to leap off of Alice's skin and there was a blur in the air just in front of the IronMan. Amaretto blinked and the next thing she saw as her eyes opened up once more was the IronMan flinging itself across the room.

He flew in the opposite direction. Alice had a grimace on her face and Johanna seemed to be a little amused. Amaretto allowed for her mouth to drop open in shock, and even Katherine allowed her mouth to drop open just slightly. Amaretto took a moment to take a breath and then said, "Was that the Brand at work?"

Ketherine nodded her head slowly and said, "I've never seen one so powerful. I guess that it requires two people to activate and use..." She trailed off almost as if she was too in shock to say anything else.