Soldiers and Serpents //Scorbus

67 Beginning

Aries moved faster than Scorpius could lift the wand. She didn't have her wand to use magic, so the girl launched her entire body onto the man- and a flash of fire reflecting off metal sent Scorpius's- Michael's- heart pounding in his chest. The beat roared in his ears as he watched. It was almost hard to tell what had happened, as she was so swift. One minute the man was about to speak- about to ask Aries what she was doing with the prisoner. And the next, Aries was lowering his body to the ground, having severed his vocal chords and coratid artery all in one swift movement of a knife.

She wiped the dagger off on her sleeve, and turns back to Scorpius. He aimed the wand at her now, feeling just a twinge of fear that she could just as easily do the same thing to him. Especially in this thin body with hardly any muscle. Aries shook her head and walked towards him. "You think magic is the only combat I'm trained in?"

"Combat? You mean assassination?"

"Anything I told him he would've told Selwyn. There would've been no way to get you out." Aries growled at him. "Who cares anyways? Selwyn has two more followers to take this guy's place. A dead body is easier to excuse than breaking you out."

Scorpius was just a little bit in shock. She just murdered this guy right in front of him. And he actually understood her explanation? He wasn't even in shock because of the murder. He was in shock that he was okay with it. Perhaps he even expected it. "Okay." He tells Aries instead of fighting from the moral ground he didn't have anyways.

"Okay?" She echoes.

"I didn't know him." He shrugged, lowering the wand and looking at the body a few feet away. Aries looked down at the body.

"I did." Her voice ached. "He may be a pig, but he didn't deserve this." Aries looked haunted, those empty eyes stared at them lifelessly. She turned back to him, putting her dagger back where it had been sheathed in her coat. "Let's go."

Scorpius was quiet, even though all he could think about was the way Aries looked back at that body. She recognized him. Knew him from being here with Selwyn. Perhaps someone she worked with closely. Did they eat lunch together? Swap stories? Or maybe she didn't like him at all, calling him a pig like that. Maybe they constantly argued over whatever Selwyn told them to do. Maybe the man hated her chaos and constantly looked for her weaknesses, a reason to take her place at Selwyn's side.

Aries didn't say anything other than leading them this way and that, avoiding large rooms, tucking them into uncomfortably close crevices of the castle as people walked by. All to save Michael- to save Scorpius. Aries drew them to a stop in the opening into a courtyard. There were at least four Zealots there, chatting amongst themselves.

The two of them hovered, unseen, in the opening. Aries turned to him. "Use your instinctual magic to get past them." She points across the courtyard to the doors. "Your wandless magic can blast those front doors open. After that, all you have to do is find your boyfriend and body. Then get the hell out of here." She faces him. They used hushed voices. But between the crashing waves and the loud talking of the zealots, it was unlikely anyone would hear them anyways.

"How can I do instinctual magic in Michael's body?" Scorpius gestures to himself, offering her wand back. He trusted she wasn't going to curse him- and considering they were clearly about to part ways, he had no other opportunity.

Aries took her wand, and her shoulders seemed to ease with tension. "Instinctual magic is the soul. It's not the physical. That barrier I took down was only on your conscience."

"Fine. Say I can do it." Scorpius looked over at the Zealots. "How is a rainstorm going to-"

"For a genius you can be real thick." Aries cut him off. "Create fog." He just looked at her like she'd grown antlers.