Within a heartbeat, the shadows about him writhed, and suddenly he was hovering before her, hand gripped around her throat. She choked past his claws, fighting both for breath and to stay lucid. Under his talons, her skin was growing cold and clammy as her tortured body began to slip into shock, an unfortunate weakness of her mortal parentage. Even as darkness prickled at the edge of her vision, threatening to drag her into the abyss, she managed a weak growl of defiance.<b> "Don't...<i>fucking</i> call me that," </b>she rattled through gritted teeth. She served<i>nobody.<br/>
</i><br/>When he called a halt, however, Aryel seemed to go limp again, head lolling. Her breaths were coming fast and shallow, each inhale making her face twist with pain. The cross's span was nearly enough to tear the muscles of her chest, and each breath only stretched them more, making it nearly unbearable just to stay conscious. Death would have been a welcome relief, and had there not been lives at stake, she would have let herself slip past the veil just to escape this agony.<br/><br/>His grip relaxed, allowing her to pull in a wheezing breath, but for a moment she had no words to follow it. What<i>did</i>she have? What was there to stop him from hunting down the rest of her followers, from burning down the very forests they took refuge in? Maybe some of them could survive if they went even deeper into hiding, creeping about the edges of the world like vermin, but what kind of life was that?<br/><br/>Dradiro had his armies, his might. He had the entire continent in the palm of his hand. She had<i>nothing</i>. Nothing but--<br/><br/><b>"Myself."<br/>
</b><br/>The word was forced out through bitter, bloodstained lips, almost too quiet to hear. She would have sooner died before she submitted herself to a tyrant, but it wasn't just her own life on the line here. If the price for their souls was her freedom, then she could see no other option.<b>"You let them go," </b>she choked, agonized blue eyes searching his cold gaze for any shred of empathy,<b> "you leave the rest alone, and we'll surrender. <i>I'll</i> surrender."</b>Maybe she couldn't hope to go toe-to-toe with him in combat, but she still had her uses. She was a formidable warrior in her own right, and the people of Aetus knew her. If she could convince any others to stand down, to end future rebellions before they started, then maybe she could put an end to the slaughter.<br/><br/><b>"But if you hurt them,"</b>she rasped, voice steadily growing in venom,<b>"then I <i>swear</i>, I'll fight you until the breath is torn from my body." </b>He could end this now and solidify his reign, or she could drag it out to the bitter end.