❛power isn't everything. it's the only thing.❜
[complete]
wattys 2018 winner ❧
Lin is a hunter, one of the magically enhanced witch slayers that roam a flooded world. Under the laws of four Kings and Greymark, who rules them all, Lin is unto...
"If it's darkness we're having, let it be extravagant."
―Jane Kenyon
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"Hold my hand," Lin said with her most vapid smile. "Or I'll rip your balls off."
Cortez, predictably, held her hand.
They'd been entrenched in Mara's party for around twenty minutes, sticking out like a pair of dislocated thumbs the whole while.
Lin wrestled her impending scowl into neutrality as Cortez's warm, big hand tentatively slid into hers. She grabbed his fingers and leaned into his side. The crowd ignored them. That was their only saving grace. This wasn't a social party or a political one, there was no sniping or information gathering, backstabbing or scheming. Well -- maybe there was. Everyone was simply too distracted to notice.
Massive art pieces filled the room. The pale light washing down from above softened their shadows into lovely suggestions of bodies.
Lin's eyes slid past the sculpted figure of a nude man to land on one of her many targets. Rafe. One of Mara's advisors. Incidentally, he was also the man who had produced most of the art. Lin took a moment to glance out at the sculptures and decided that she'd kill him tonight. She wrinkled her nose and tugged Cortez over to one of the massive engineered quartz pillars. It had been hollowed out and carved into something akin to filigree. As she got closer, Lin picked out the patterns in the carving.
Flowers. Pretty flowers and vines. Candles lit this one from the inside, showering the curves and angles in golden light.
"It's nice," Cortez said.
"What?" Lin looked up at him, blinking lazily.
He looked down at her for a moment, eyes flickering from her face to the art like he wasn't sure where to look. "The --"
"Oh." She looked it up and down, wrinkling her nose and frowning. "It's nice."
He sighed. "Can't you try and blend in?"
She pursed her lips, electing not to answer. The room was filled with a low din of whispers. She pulled Cortez along, catching snippets of conversation as they went.
"-- and his previous phase was -- "
Boring.
"Oh, the colors --"
More boring.
"-- I'd compare Rafe's --"
If there were any dieties left, she wished they'd strike her dead along with everyone else in the room. It would certainly make her job easier.
Lin's irritation won out and seeped into her face, tugging her features into a tense frown. Mara hadn't deigned to arrive yet. Lin couldn't even tell if she'd already come and gone or not because the only conversations she could catch were intellectual commentary on Rafe's art.
