1 Nightingale

Kirin felt like shit. She had drunk herself into unconsciousness the night before and was now strongly regretting her choice to stay alive...well, it wasn't her choice. Every movement was cranial agony. Every thought felt like it was moving through a mental molasses. Kirin couldn't believe she could go through so much discomfort as old as she was.

Kirin dragged her lithe, regretful self out of bed. She summoned her raiment, an ability that she thanked the lords above for daily, and continued to try to look awake. Kirin was a tall, slender woman, deceivingly thin when one witnessed the power she could put out. She had long black hair, curling at the ends, red eyes, and strong features. her looks gave her an air of nobility, which was good until that air of nobility left after the third pint, she knew from experience. Her red-violet eyes spoke to something predatory, which was something that was not a front. If not noble, Kirin was very much a predator, there was no denying it.

Very few things in this world could threaten her and her kin. Though, she guessed this was by design. It had been so long since the time she was last genuinely excited to fight another being, the joy leaves when your opponent's body has the consistency of aged cheese.

Her raiment was a red and black kimono over black tights and a white tunic. She had no need for armor because....well, anything fast enough to hit her body wasn't going to be stopped by a thin layer of metal. Instead, she had a magical 'armor', a ward that drained the energy of anything that reached an inch of her being, it wasn't enough to stop a blow, but it could severely weaken it...maybe...no one had ever made it that far.

With a stretch and a sigh, Kirin grabbed the purpose of her being from its stand on her dresser, Nightingale. Nightingale was a beautiful black odachi shaped blade, only a little wider, with an inch thick, blood-red stripe against the edge. The blade was a masterpiece, allowing Kirin to cut through anything with enough effort, often the subject of this cutting were nobles that decided they were worth a damn. The back of the blade showed a crimson, crystalline structure, this was the core of the blade, the blood nexus. Anyone cut down by Nightingale was drained of all their vital essence, forever contained within the blade's core. This also gave Kirin a powerful source of magic, as anytime she wished, she could call upon this essence to shape the seemingly infinite amount of blood in her environment at all times. This was another thing she had never tried, as she imagined people wouldn't react well to watching her pull the blood from the still-breathing body of a fellow human.

Grabbing Nightingale, Kirin walked out of her luxurious chambers into the private hallway providing access to the Royal chambers and those of the sovereign's advisors and guards. Kirin was an anomaly, she was kept close to the Royal family to deal with the ⁷excuse to challenge the princes, yet she wasn't exactly part of the court. Kirin walked to the main doors opening to the court and entered, taking her seat next to the queen.

As she entered the court, her senses flooded her mind with information. She could smell what every person in the room was eating, and what they had been doing the night before. She could see every imperfection in the faces of the nobles that they desperately tried to hide, down to every follicle of hair. She could taste the emotions and intent in the air, feeling the brief contact of their eyes against their skin. But clearest of all, she could sense the blood coursing through their veins, feeling the magic call to her. Her instincts compelled her to hunt, to kill, to bathe in their blood. She was alpha, needing them to know their place below her.

Closing her eyes, she scanned the room with her senses, she was always much better at visualizing spaces when feeling out with her domain. Even without opening the lids of her eyes, she knew everything happening within the great room, every movement, every twitch, every particle of dust in the air. Nothing could challenge her and she wanted these fools to know that.

"You're late.", the queen said in a, decidedly, flat tone. "I had some... difficulty getting up." At that, the queen just ignored Kirin and continued observing the court assembling for breakfast in the great hall. The hall had many purposes, one of which was breakfast and dinner for the court, one was the assembly hall for the members of the empire to voice their complaints to the queen, and the purpose involving Kirin, the dueling floor. Many people had joined in Nightingale's ever-increasing reserves in this dreadfully ornate room.

The hall was gorgeous, made of quartz floors, limestone pillars, and accented with orichalcum and adamantine, the kingdom's main export. The room was truly gargantuan, with ceilings nearly 150 meters high, it felt like you had entered the hall of the gods. It was a shame so few understood how the room was made, the kingdom would likely no longer exist from the outrage. The hall was built within the skeleton of an ancient dragon, one old enough to have grown multiple kilometers in length. Dragons that large rarely existed anymore, the new Kahn eliminating any who could challenge him.

The reason she was called upon to duel so often is that she had yet to be defeated, meaning the queen and princes could call upon her as their champion and avoid having to genuinely get up and do something.

Kirin sat through the Court's frivolousness and the people's baseless complaints until one rather boisterous Lord was told he could not have an alleviated tax on whatever good. The Lord, Lord Redfinch, decided to challenge the Queen's honor to...a...duel. Kirin sighed deeply and rose from her chair in a quick, graceful movement. Kirin stretched her arms back and, while stretching, calmly stated, "Time to deal with another piece of shit."

Redfinch was not pleased with her statement and went red in the face." YOU CHOSE THIS WOMAN TO DEFEND YOUR HONOR!?", the burly man said in an incredulous tone. The queen placidly replied, "Yup."

Queen Anne Deleparte IV wasn't originally supposed to be queen, but her mother ended up inadvertently killing all of her brothers, so now Mesonia had a queen.... and queens will never be allowed to have access to the kitchens again, no matter how sweet their intentions, it could only end in a tragic masterpiece of a fuckup. Due to her unexpected heirdom, and a rather unfortunate coronation, the marvelous queen couldn't give two shits about the Noble's 'honor'. She had only ever been treated with disrespect. In her mind, having a better fighter was worth the rather indecent display.

Kirin leaped over the table and walked towards the rather red-looking man. Pulling out Nightingale from an invisible sheath, she prepared to fight.