TRINITY}}{{Shadow

[{{Roxï-kun-+]

I set fire to the rain~

Reno sighed into the cold night, pulling her scarf over her mouth and nose. She had snuck out of the Palace once more, having felt too restless in her room to sleep. Her shadows had pulsed around her, keeping her busy. But it hadn't been enough and here she found herself, walking in one of the dark back streets of Obscur. Not as if she had anything much better to do though, and a large part of her loved the fact that the cold winter air cleared her head. Her old daggers were still lost to her maid, but she didn't need them anymore. Across her back was a wooden staff with metal in it's core, a full height of four feet. The princess had practiced endlessly with the new weapon with the knights and had concluded it was good enough to set out with. Someone walked by, a woman in skimpy clothing followed by a male with their face masked by shadows and darkness. Reno grimaced as she thought about what some girls her age did and instead of trying to do anything, kept walking. That was what separated her from Levi. Her younger brother would have mindless gotten inbetween the two. But she wasn't Levi. And this certainly didn't concern her. So the eldest of the Carlingtons kept walking, fixing her hood. She hadn't put on a male disguise, instead having some of her shadows encase each strand of her hair in their inky blackness. The end result had been pure black hair, making her already pale skin seem porcelain. That coupled with the fact that no one thought royalty would walk these streets were enough to Reno tonight. She had to have gotten out of the Palace for a bit. Besides, she was only going to Aerith's shop. Aerith was a very close friend, knowing of Reno's lineage and not trying to do anything about it. They knew each other since the princess had started to sneak out, around three or four years. As if speaking of a devil, the shop's backside quickly revealed itself around a turned corner. The princess fixed her hood once more and opened the back door only to feel as if slamming it shut. Something was wrong. A strange smell filled the store and every magic light was out. The eldest Carlington licked her lips, peering into the dim shop, before stepping in and closing the door. The smell grew stronger as she moved around, stepping over shattered glass of the broken potion vials. After deciding her friend wasn't anywhere in the shop area, Reno swallowed thickly before going back towards the back door. On the way, she stepped into some sort of liquid and froze. What kind of potion had she stepped in? She shook her head, deciding it was too important to figure out what happened. So Reno went out the back door, starting to walk away before smelling something much more familiar. She froze once more, eyes wide, as she looked down and lifted her boot. The bottom was tinted a maroon color against the green color and Reno had to put a hand out to the wall of the building so she wouldn't collapse. The smell of blood filled her nose and, once her brain made the connection, she hurried back into the store. And what was there left her speechless.

[Shadow]

Two emerald eyes gazed up at Reno from beyond the body of her now deceased friend. What had only recently been a curious wolf retracing the steps of a mysterious figure, turned very quickly into a wolf who was framed for killing Aerith.

The grey furred wolf had awoken an hour ago, not too far from the shop. Unfortunately, his waking timed up perfectly with the murderer's escape. He had watched the hooded man run past the alley he had lain in and had decided to trace the man's steps back. If he had known what he was going to find there...and who was going to find him there... He would have never taken that path. He would have just gone back to sleep and dreamed on.

Instead, he had found the shop, the back door slightly ajar. It didn't take too much effort to force his muzzle in and to open the door for himself and slip inside. The wind and the door's hinges survived to seal his fate as he padded forward, hypersensitive nose already catching scent of the metallic tinge of blood on the air.

Quiet. the silence of the dead sleeping, and the sound of his own heart racing as he eased his way into the main shop. When he found the body... He didn't know what possessed him. Maybe he thought the shopkeeper would still be alive, he only needed to be roused. With a nudge to his chest from the wolf's muzzle, his hopes were crushed and his chances of getting away alive himself were also lost.

Aerith's blood stained the sides of the grey wolf's muzzle and his nose, and his paws had already seen fit to lead him through the pool of blood gathering space on the floor.

He looked to leave then, but it was already too late. The back door open and closed, and he quickly hid in a corner behind the body, muzzle low, eyes nervously glowing from the dark behind Reno's old friend.

He had tried to leave then. Reno had moved toward the back door again, and it looked like he was going to be abel to get away...but even as he moved toward the body to move around it and out, Reno showed herself again...and this time, he was standing right over the body, and the blood marking his fur would be enough in her eyes to make him guilty.

He took a step back and another, but it was a dead end he was retreating into, and each step he took was closing the door of his life just a little more.

[{{Roxï-kun-+]

I set fire to the rain~

Reno didn't know what to do. There stood a wolf, muzzle and paws covered in the scarlet liquid who's scent made her sick, over Aerith's body. The princess stopped breathing for a few pregnant moments, eyes slowly widening while her pupils shrank. She hadn't even seen the body until then and now the light from outside lit it up to her, mocking her. Reno's orbs were stuck on the body at this point, making her feel sick to her stomach. But part of her mind made her look at it, to see how she had died. The shopkeeper's neck was slit like a pig's at the slaughter and then the shadow controller knew she would be ill in a few moments. What happened next wasn't, by any sort of means, pretty. The eighteen year old doubled over as if punched in the stomach and a large rigid breath was draw in before her eyes unfocused as she saw red at her feet. Not red of angry, but of the shopkeeper. Of her friend. Of Aerith. She threw up her dinner and lunch and whatever else was still in her stomach. Even stomach acid came up as she choked, unfocused eyes flooded with tears and nose clogged with sick as well. The princess fell to her knees and hands, feeling the warm liquid below her, as she was sick one last time, dry heaving. How had this happened? Only yesterday she had seen the woman. Aerith had smiled, laughed, spoke to her in hushed tones about the news of the town so costumers wouldn't hear of the gangs. And now. Reno was stuck on the thought and she dry heaved once more as she realized again why her hands were so warm. There was so much blood, was there even this much blood in a body? Shakily the Dakian princess stood, using the wall to support herself and leaving a handprint of red on it. Then her eyes focused and all she could think was that there was someone, something else in here with her. Had the wolf done it? No, it didn't matter then. Reno was furious and saddened and so many other things it pulled her in multiple directions. She wanted to kill, to mourn, to just cry, or maybe to leave and forget this all. But instead the eldest Carlington took her staff from her back, blood on her palms leaving stains that would be there for quite some time. She held it in the form of the offense and looked past the body, anywhere but the body, and spoke with a cold voice. "Come out, wolf. Now."

[Shadow]

The grey wolf's emerald eyes widened at what he saw next. He hadn't expected it in the least. He had had his own moments in the past...but things changed as a wolf. He wasn't as mortally afraid of blood anymore. It was almost natural when you had to kill for food; to survive. This wasn't natural though... A slit throat... The whole place reeked of murder. Of the fowl deed that the stranger had done.

And when Reno vomitted...

The wolf wrinkled his nose, his back against the shop wall behind him, and his eyes cast off to a nearby shelf, and the wares that were displayed there. Something about it still unnerved him, and no amount of instinct could shield him from all of his human tendencies.

Nor could he stop his ears from lowering, laying flat against his skull as Reno heaved again. He did his best to block it out, but the corner of his eye still registered what she was doing. Hands against the ground, on her knees in the pool of the blood growing in size on the ground.

Now would have been the best time to run, but he couldn't bring himself to. Not with a body bleeding in front of him and a distraught woman beyond it. Even as she rose, eyes unfocused, he didn't move away from his corner. She could still ignore him. She had to know that, as a wolf, he couldn't have caused that neck wound...if he had done it... Well...wolf's teeth weren't made for a steel blade's precision. Her friend would be missing most of her throat, not just that small slit.

Even so, relying on her to not hold him accountable, he waited too long. She drew her staff and she spoke the words...and in them, he could sense what she felt for him. There was no love there. Murderous desire, maybe not directed at him, but still there all the same. As a wolf, he could scent it just as easily as the vomit threatening to block off his ability to breathe for the next century. Anger. Hatred. And her voice... Ice cold.

No.

He didn't doubt he could get past her, but his exits were sealed unless he broke some glass or shifted. He didn't have the time or agility for either. Hell, he had just been asleep an hour ago.

He growled, brief, quiet, a warning. He moved forward, but stopped a foot behind her friend's body. He didn't get into an assault stance himself, just a weary one. His teeth were barely bared, and his growl was half-enforced, no real ferocity behind it.

His emerald eyes gazed up at her, ears standing straight up. What was she going to do with her staff?

He was about to find out...

[{{Roxï-kun-+]

I set fire to the rain~

The princess felt detached as she looked down at her friend for a few moments. She spit down at her feet, ridding her mouth of the sick that had been left over. Tears had stopped running from her black eyes, though salt tracks were left behind. There wasn't any vomit on her face or person, an amazing feat in itself. But her hands, between the fingers and on the palms, were red and would smell of blood for days. Her knees and fronts of her lower legs, along with a great deal of the cloak, were also covered with the redness. But she didn't think of any of this, instead feeling almost calm. The hatred and sadness belonged to someone, some stranger that she didn't know. The wolf growled and she couldn't tell whether it was her or not that tensed at the sound. The princess wasn't stupid and knew that the wolf couldn't have made the clean slit that had spilled so much lifeblood. But he was there. He had to know something and he would tell her, whether he wished to or not. And if he didn't? Then things would go the hard way. Her knuckles were white with how hard she gripped the staff and she stared back at the wolf, meeting it's gemstone green hues with her own coal colored ones. Her eyes were clear of tears that were still to be shed. But not now, later. First Reno needed to know why. Why this had happened, why who had done it had did it, why she found it, why. She also needed to find out who had done this. Maybe the wolf had, after all. There were people, she knew, that could change their shape. Perhaps this was one of them. But why would he remain here, right with the dead body that he had killed. The blood was warm, she remembered, and then wondered distantly when Aerith could have been killed. All she knew, as the eldest of the Carlington family stood there with her boots soaking in the blood, that it had to be recently. Blood cooled quickly, she thought. Or did it? Her mind was a jumbled mess and she didn't know how to fix it. And in that moment all the shadow controller wanted to was to sit down and put her head inbetween her knees until everything went away. And maybe she would have, but the wolf still stood there in front of her awaiting something. Why wasn't it running? Parts of herself began to struggle with the other parts and the princess put a hand up to her temple, swiping blood onto her forehead and part of her hair. She didn't notice this however as the roar of her head continued to get loader. The Carlington just wanted to sleep, to rest. But this was no place to do such a thing, and no time to do it either. So instead she met the eyes of the wolf once more, her face a mask she used in court meetings and social gatherings. "I want to you tell me, in some shape or form, what has happened. And -- more importantly for you -- I want a reason to not spill more..." Reno trailed off, not being able to bring herself to say the word blood. She put her hand that had held her temple back onto the staff, ensuring the wolf wouldn't get past her if it chose to run away.

[Shadow]

What she was asking he couldn't give. She wanted the murderer, to avenged her friend, but even he was short-handed in that department. He had watched the murderer walk away...and that was the only time he could have done a thing about her friend. He had lost his chance when he came here. And he had lost all chances of reasoning with her by staying here long enough for him to be discovered at the scene.

His emerald eyes met her dark orbs without blinking, eyes narrowing at the chill in her voice and the aggression in her stance. She threatened him. Threatened that if he wouldn't help her, she would hurt him, it didn't matter how. The wolf's growl fired up in power and volume, no longer a warning, but a threat itself.

He would not be intimidated by this demon woman, nor her dead friend. He wanted to help, he did, but he had nothing to offer, and according to her, silence would be paid with blood. His eyes flickered to the back door, to the body, and to the ground. His emerald eyes closed then, the growl fading to rumble deep down in his chest, more of a sigh than a willingness to fight for his life.
There was only one thing he could do. He wanted no part of this, but he had made the choice.

The wolf dropped the growl, took a deep breath... And walked toward Reno.

As he got closer to her, he watched her eyes and staff, his tail down, his body weary. He didn't wait for her to take a move toward him, aggressively or otherwise. His paws took him past her and to the door they both had used to enter, stopping before it before gazing back at Reno. The look he gave her then, over his shoulder, couldn't be called hostile, but it definitely wasn't friendly.

He had only one way he could help her, and if she wanted that help, she'd have to open the door herself. His gray fur was tinged with blood, his canine teeth barely concealed. It all started with a choice... and now it was Reno's to make.