Raue vs. Coyote, It begins...

[Raue Drakenheart]

The crumbling walls and broken flagstones that lay fallen and dormant cried out in silent discord and agony as boots scraped to a halt in the middle of what could once have been called a courtyard. Grass and weeds mingled with the flower beds, slowly choking the last vestige of beauty and colour from the area. Several yards to the west, three misshapen saplings grew at odd angles, having shot up through the cracks in the flagstones, exacerbating the sense of decomposition and disrepair.

"It would have been a lovely place, it's a shame," Raue said aloud, his voice echoing oddly on the half-standing stones that made up the south-west of the courtyard. He hadn't known what had brought him here. It was entirely foolish, anyone could have sent the letter, and Raue knew his weaknesses all to well. Something about the scrawl on the paper, something about the character of the writer. It hadn't been a scribe, it was an invitation that was intended as a challenge, without being stated as such blatantly.

"Perhaps I'm reading into it too much," he mused under his breath.

Minutes passed, Raue still in contemplation of whether or not this was a stand up. Just as he turned to walk out the way he came, there was a gravelly crunch from the other end of the courtyard. Knowing better than to look, Raue drew Stormcaller and turned towards the noise. He saw nothing, heard nothing. But in the back of his mind, Raue knew better than to be fooled. Dropping his guard and turning around slowly, he heard the hiss of air being rent by a blade. Quickly bringing his magical blade to bear, Raue watched sparks fly and arcs of electricity run across both swords. The man wore a hood, but the device upon the man's chest was more than adequate for Raue to know exactly who this man was.

"Guildmaster. I would bow, but in reverence to your skill with a blade, I'm sure you'd remove my head before I could finish the act. You'll understand my hesitation, of course."

The man didn't answer, but merely smirked and let out a short bark of laughter.

"Your letter was superb, Guildmaster. You truly have a gift with words." Raue remarked, realizing that the letter had been enchanted, magically compelling one to act in a way the enchanter so desired without being detected easily. "I would have expected one of your position to have much more... Honour, though."

[Coyote]

"Honor?" Coyote said.
"There are too many definitions of the word to claim that one knows what it means."

Coyote stood several long meters away from Raue, nearly on the other side of the desecrated courtyard. Between them, a few dead flower beds, knee high stone walls on the verge of collapse and a dried up creek bed of smooth and parched dirt stood between the two, offering enough of an obstacle to make closing the distance a difficult affair.

"Who's more honorable, Raue? The man who stays and defends his home or the man who leaves his loved ones to protect his nation? Who has more honor, the man who dies for his beliefs or the one who kills to preserve those of others? The man of peace or the man of war? If anyone thinks honor is an important virtue, they are only fooling themselves. One honorable man is a coward to another. The only thing that comes close to honor is the respect one can have for life, but a person like me?"

Coyote shook his head, the bells and sacred strips of blessed paper along his kasa rustling in the breeze.
"There is no honor for someone like me. That ideal died a long time ago. I'm glad to be rid of it. It would not serve me well in the coming days. Ideas like honor and peace, civility and gentleness, these things are going to die soon. The only way to preserve the thing that matter most, life itself, is to cast aside those old ideas. They will not be forgotten, though when the killing times end, they will return and I will be glad of their arrival. But the coming years will have no use for them."

Coyote pulled his black cloak aside, the red thunder runes rippling with silken grace. In his hand was a glowing weapon, a sword of some kind made of twisted metal, two blades forced unwillingly into one shape. One was golden and solid, beautiful and perfect in shape and form, the other was ugly and black, wickedly keen and shifting in aspect and honed edge.

"War is coming, Raue. The worst war ever. That should frighten me since the man I am now was born into the World War. This coming battle will make that War look like a minor skirmish. A war unlike any other. The WAR, The War to end, not all wars, but life itself."

Coyote gripped the blade harshly and it shook with light, as if in pain from his grasp.
"I need to know where everyone stands, Raue. I need to know who I can trust, who I can stand beside in the coming conflict. I need to know who will be left alive, who will endure and who will be cast on the wayside by the forces coming to this world. Your one of many I still have too test."

He drew the blade Tantamount and it blazed to life, Law and Chaos bound within it's mixed alloy.
"I have too see what you have to offer the world after this one, Raue. I'm sorry, but I'm not even sure I'll survive. It'd be better for you to die here than later. If you live though, maybe you'll have a chance in the coming conflict."

Coyote held the blade evenly with his shoulders, waiting for Raue's attack.