<span style="text-decoration: underline">Alais</span><br/><br/>He embraced her, wrapping his arms around her.  Alais relaxed into that hold, feeling like she belonged here, with him.  She would have been content to stay there, like this, for ages more, but she caught a whisper of a message in her mind.<span style="font-style: italic">â€˜Under siegeâ€¦â€™</span>Before she could do anything, Zane summoned lightning, crackling and fierce, around them, and they were moving.  She gripped his robes tightly, fear threading through her veins, as they landed somewhere, somewhere with the smell of death and serpentiles, and burning.<br/><br/>Itâ€™s like hellâ€¦she thought, releasing Zane, as he apologized.<span style="font-style: italic">For bringing me here?  Must be. </span><span style="font-style: italic">"Their reapers...." </span>he said.  Oh, no.  She stood slowly, reaching to grasp the hilt of her sword.  The metal and leather felt familiar in her grip, an old friend, though relatively new to her.  For a second she wondered if Zane had her old sword, or knew where it was, before she shook the thought off and turned her attention to the battle.<br/><br/>Zane entered the fight, quickly becoming soaked in the stench of blood.<span style="font-style: italic"> Itâ€™s going to be hard, separating friend from foe, </span>Alais thought.  Oh, fighting had been so much easier before the final fight!  She had struggled for years to get back to her previous level of abilities, but she had always known that fights where she was alone would be easiest, part of why she hadnâ€™t returned.  And knowing that some of her opponents would be reapersâ€¦<span style="font-style: italic">Concentrate on the serpentiles.  Theyâ€™ll be easier to identify. </span>Releasing her sword from its sheath with a downward tug- it had snaps, to open the sheath, it was too long to draw out in the traditional manner- she plunged into the fray, praying she wouldnâ€™t accidentally attack an ally, or they her- how would new reapers, once who had come to power after the war- be able to identify her as an ally?  Especially in this living hell.<br/><br/>Wielding her sword, Alais was like a shadow herself, a black swirl of night whirling through the fiery city, with silver sword flashing.  She wrinkled her nose at the stench of serpentile in her nose as she engaged her first foe, a serpentile.  Blade met claws with a clang of metal, before she smoothly spun her sword up and around, flashing through her opponentâ€™s stomach like an knife through butter.  There was no time to rejoice, however, just turn to the next enemy and begin the dance anew.