Ardent Ninazu. The lioness still failed to feel as though that title belonged in front of her name – but Stryker granted her that power when he stepped down, and she started to believe she deserved it. Oh, she’d no doubt that she put in the work and knew how to rule. But there remained a lingering doubt that she failed in some regard; perhaps because of her previous death at the hands of the Rosebloods, maybe because she was the first female leader of the warbound group, or even that she slept in the wrong fucking room of her temple. Irrational and rational reasons slid through her head, but even the most sensible strikes against her started to fall away.

The former medic thought of leading as though each move was a chess game. And she was very good at those stupid little games, but she always hated that they were turn-based. It always gave the opponent – and herself – far too much time to think between moves. So, as she wizened, she deviated away from playing stupid games to raising the stakes. Leadership, now that she grew accustomed to its weight upon her shoulders, was no different than raising the stakes again. And hadn’t she always craved that?

And this was just the latest little move she thought of playing. She stood on the Ascendant’s border, the fire of her mane alight – drawing attention with its light and crackling flames, but that was her intended purpose, of course. Usually, she only came to other group’s territory to fuck with them in some capacity… and today was no different. In fact, she planned on fucking with them in the most vile, disturbing way: by telling them the truth of a horrific crime. This was just the latest of her small tests of setting up her webs.

“Ascendants, I am Ardent Ninazu of the Pitt. I’m here in peace – simply to tell you something that I think you would appreciate knowing,” she spoke, letting her voice cary for any hiding members in the grassland terrain. Her paws were carefully on the correct side of the border, posture relaxed and neutral; she’d no intention of starting a brawl. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t ready to beat the shit out of anyone that attacked her first.

WRITTEN BY AXIOM * TAGS

Recognizing the man as Atticus by his description – though the Pitt tended to stay out of the other groups’ business, it nevertheless paid to know information about one’s potential enemies – the lioness tilted her head a tad to the left in acknowledgement. His coldly polite greeting pleased her well enough, as she hardly expected a warm welcome from a peaceful group. If their roles were reversed… well, she’d sooner consider taking advantage of the moment to capture him and hang his skin in her temple. But she would happily take advantage of his weakness for subscribing to limiting morals.

“You’re allies with the Rosebloods, correct? Are you aware that they sacrifice sentient animals to their gods?” she asked him, choosing to start her ‘piece’ with the assumption that the group and its leader remained ignorant to the Rosebloods’ practices. Her claws tapped the grasslands irritably for a moment, golden eyes narrowing before she elaborated, “One of their members captured, tortured, and killed me. Recently I have… acquired one of their members for revenge, and imagine my surprise when I peer into his mind and see his leader ordering the members to capture, torture, and kill in the name of some bloodthirsty gods.” She did not mind admitting that she held one of their members captive – as, currently, the Pitt actually held two Rosebloods captive – and it made little sense to cover up a crime that they would expect from the Pitt, anyway.

“Now, I’m not asking for your assistance or anything of the sort. I simply thought that you might consider that interesting. It’s one of the little reasons why the Pitt would never consider allies – you never can quite anticipate what skeletons others have in their closet,” she added, making sure that he didn’t mistake her point. Ninazu didn’t come here for an alliance request or ask for assistance in the Pitt’s war effort against the Rosebloods. She simply believed that this message served them both: weakening the Rosebloods’ alliances helped her and Atticus could learn about this before it hit him on the nose someday. “Ask one of them if you don’t believe me. Their leader’s insanity is an open secret,” she said with a slight snort, thinking back on the various memories she saw from Bai Shi.

WRITTEN BY AXIOM * TAGS