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The scream echoed through the forest. But Auriëlle’s men, all sitting around the campfire, were well used to it by now. A man was bound to a tree. His body was limp, bruised and beaten. There wasn’t much life left in his body but there was a fire in his eyes. A fire Auriëlle hated. “Just tell me what I want to know and we finish this.” She said, seated on a fallen log in front of the beaten prisoner.

He just spat out blood towards her. There was not enough strength left in him to spit that far though. Instead, it looked more like red drool flowed down to his own feet. She let out an exasperated sigh as she gave a signal to the man beside her. With the tip of the oaken branch, he touched the man’s chest. He groaned as the bruises faded and the lacerations healed. When the wounds was gone, the prisoner was only severely out of breath. “The Light protects.” He said.

Earning him another deep sigh from Auriëlle, who got up and grabbed him by the cheeks with one hand and squeezed his mouth. “I’m getting tired of this play. You know what that means? It means that if you don’t start talking soon, I will forge a fate for you worse than death.”

The man just groaned, but she saw the answer in his eyes. ‘The Light protects.’ He had repeated it all night now. She pushed him back up against the tree and gave the signal to the two men beside her. With heavy clubs they began beating him up again. They were pretty good. Broken bones took much longer to heal with the staff. Instead they kept it to bruises and cuts. According to his frequent involuntary screams, that was painful enough.

“Ready to talk?” She asked in between fists hitting his once again deeply bruised face.

He just stared at her. With that same, zealous fire in his eyes.

“You know, I cannot imagine what makes you so fervent.” Auriëlle said, with a wave of her hand her brutalizers took a step back. Allowing the man to take a breath and recover his thoughts. “Have you ever talked to your god?” It wasn’t Oraelia, he made sure to make that clear when he was caught and first questioned. “Shown favor by your god? I’d ask if you were given any power but that’s out of the question. Your god didn’t particularly look down upon you and smile three days ago. When I beat  you and your army.”

“The Light… speaks through the saints. It favors us with grain and luck.” He managed to get out between violent coughing fits. “The Light protects.”

“You’re sure about that? Even when I burn you here, you’re certain that your Light will protect you?” She raised her hand. Fire formed in her palm. It was a small flame. Only slightly bigger than a candleflame.

“It protects my soul. It will protect Teperia.” The man managed to get out.

Auriëlle just returned to her place and gave the signal. The two guards continued the beating but Auriëlle herself had long since lost interest. Instead her attention turned to the disk hanging off her neck. It was a strange object, with an eye at its center. Its weighted less than it should, or so Auriëlle thought. There was a weight to it she just couldn’t explain. She even checked it with scales. Aside from the weight it also felt like the air was constantly moving towards it, in a light breeze. Another thing that was utterly impossible in the windless night.

The man never gave in. His conviction, his faith, it was just too strong. Countless times she had him beaten up. Countless times she had him healed up again. In the Auriëlle was pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration as he was healed again and the sun was peeking up from beyond the horizon. “Alright. I’m done. Get him up. Let’s go.”

“You’re just going to give up like that?” One soldier asked.

Auriëlle stopped dead in her tracks. “What did you just ask?” She said, as she turned around. “You think I’m giving up?” She stared down the offending soldier, who took a step back and didn’t dare to speak. “He had a choice!” She continued as she pointed at the chief. “He breaks or else.”

“Or else what!?” The bound chieftain spat out with all the disrespecting strength he had. “You are nothing, Auriëlle. I heard your story. You think those bards you send made any difference? None of us were afraid! None! You think you’ve won but you’ve lost. I’ll never bend to Nalla. Nor will my people. You’ve lost, Auriëlle.”

She threw him a vile grin. “You’ll never bend the knee?” She asked.

“Not in a thousand years! If Nalla wants to rule us, she’ll have to come to us. She’ll have to pray like us.” The chieftain said.

“Not in a thousand years.” Auriëlle pretended like she pondered the words. “Very well then. If you won’t bend then you are useless to us.”

“What?” The man said in surprise.

“I said you will be useless. It means you will burn. You and your people and your city. I send the bards to warn you. I’ve beaten you in battle.  I’ve been beating you throughout the night. My patience is not endless.”

“You would murder a city!? Even by your own faith that must be a great sin!”

“Maybe.” She said. “But I’ll live with that.” Her official command soon followed. They marched upon Teperia, after they had so brutally destroyed the opposing army before. Between the healing capabilities of the staff, Auriëlle’s ever increasing power and Teperia’s lack of any hero, the battle had been a very, almost boring victory. Now though, her army marched upon a city. The army was marked well. Behind her various Leon-pelt banners were held high. As proof of the stories. When she arrived at Teperia, she had a crude battering fashioned in a day.

The citizens of Teperia sat huddled together in their houses. Their windows were boarded up and the doors barred. The militia was compromised of some veteran warriors who managed to flee the first battle combined with those too young or too old to fight before. They were armed with kitchen knives and pitchforks. It wasn’t quiet. There was too much yelling, crying and shouting going around inside the walled city for that. Yet somehow all that noise was drowned out by the rhythmic thumping of the battering ram upon the gate. Every hit reverberated along the walls. Shaking off dust and dirt from it. The wooden beam holding the gate closed began to crack slowly. But the splinters became more and more pronounced the more hits went through the wall.

Then it happened. The beam broke. The gate swung open. The defenders held their weapons ready. Some had whipped themselves into a frenzy. Ready to charge. To take the fight to the enemy. They were stopped in their tracks. A strong gust of wind traveled with the opening gate. Billowing up smoke, dust, sand and dirt into a thick cloud around the entrance of the city. None could see through it. The defenders took a step back. Those with polearms held them in front of them. There was no shouting. No yelling. The world was quiet. Then she appeared.

Auriëlle marched from dust with her hands beside her. Between her fingers they could see the distortion of light. As if there was an invisible fire burning in her palms. At the sight of her, the most frenzied defenders charged. They shouted and screamed in primal tones with axe or knife held high. A crooked smile formed on the sorceress’ lips as she put her hands closed together, and then unleashed her power.

The translucent wave of power ripped through the first three attackers. It flung them up into the air as it turned their bodies into ashes. The distortion lost its absolute destructive abilities after it floored and disintegrated the third guy. After him, it turned into a wave of fire. The wave finally broke upon a house. Lighting its wall on fire. Some of the defenders turned pale, dropped their weapon and ran. Others managed to stave off fear as they readied for their assault. From behind her troops walked up from within the billowing dust. Each took a moment to observe the scene, then charged. Auriëlle stayed behind and watched. Watched as her soldiers cut down the supposed militia. The people of Teperia fought harder than she thought. Much harder. None the less, after half an hour of fighting, the defenders began to break. Several of Nallan’s veterans turned back to look at Auriëlle, who sat atop the plinth of a statue of Cadien. She knew the looks. It were the looks of hungry hounds begging for their leash to be taken off.

She simply raised her hands and let them go. The veterans almost howled as they broke their line. Suddenly half her army turned wild-eyed. There was no stopping them now. Soon the screams echoed through the streets. Doors were hacked down. Mothers and daughters were pulled out into the street, while the men were butchered. Torches were tossed upon houses. Everything that could be carried in someone’s arms was taken out and gathered at the square in front of the broken gate. That which was too heavy served as fuel for the fire that was growing within Teperia. 

Auriëlle herself walked through the streets. All around her men were conducting the sweetest symphonies of primal growls. Mixed with screams and crying pleas or bitter curses. The flames were growing and roaring towards their crescendo. Filling the roads with a heat most would’ve found unbearable. She thrived in it though. With joyful moves of her hands she wove the flames together. Creating even greater infernos. Just like her famed ancestor had done. Unlike Simain though, she had long since lost any semblance of control over the fires. Instead she had released the reigns completely and just whipped the flames on. She let it all happen with a bright smile on her face. And so she walked through the city, weaving destruction as she ushered on her own men to soak the streets with blood. Eventually fate seemed to have guided her to a large plaza, at the center of which stood a sort of blocky temple and her men chopping down the door. “What’s happening?” She asked.

One of her men approached her. “People are holed up in this temple-thing.” He said, pointing with his spear at the big, solid building. “We want in.” The temple looked like it was built like a fortress. There were no windows and the walls were made of clay. The door was really the best possible way in.

“Stand back.” Auriëlle ordered. To her own surprise, most of the soldiers obeyed immediately. Some more fervent looters needed a second or five but even they got in line. Auriëlle approached the wooden gate and put the palm of her hand on it. Now she could feel the strange weight of the disk shifting. The weight moved from the eye to her hand, empowering her own magic. Smoldering veins carved through the wood. Slowly but surely. Weakening its already considerably weakened structure. It took some time and a lot of focus. But when the veins reached the outer edges of the doorway, Auriëlle took a step back and channeled a rush of wind into the door.

It broke in a hundred places. Pieces of smoldering wood were thrown inside the very dark temple. Women screamed for a moment, then huddled together in fear. Auriëlle walked through the archway where once a door was. She stopped inside, bathing in light coming through the entryway. At the far end was the reliquary. There was a chalice made of silver with a single emerald laid in it on the altar. Next to a disk the size of her hand, made of gold. “Ah.” She said, stepping out of the light and into the shadows of the temple. Inside only four torches affixed upon the temple’s central pillars and a few candles offered the only semblance of light. The people were huddled as far away from the entrance as they could. One man, dressed in brown robes approached her.

“Begone, fiend!” He snarled. “This place is holy. Protected by our God! Begone before I call upon the Light to smite you!”

“Do it.” Auriëlle calmly answered as she slowly walked closer to him. Behind her, the warriors were coming inside as well. They walked along the walls of the temple.

“You do not know what you call upon yourself. The Light will punish you all for what you did here today! Even your own gods must frown upon such display of cruelty and barbarism!” The shouted. He stopped in front of her, as if his body was enough to stop the slow but unrelenting approach of Auriëlle.

She pushed him away with ease. In fact, he didn’t particularly fight her. Instead she made her way towards the altar. It was a massive slab of some pristine stone Auriëlle didn’t bother to identify, drapped with fine-red painted cloth. She let her fingers trail upon the cold stone. “This altar is made for your god?” She asked.

“Yes.” The priest answered as he remained standing up amongst his people. Who were watching him with desperate eyes.

She walked up behind the altar and rested her hand on it. “It’s beautiful.” She remarked, as she took the silver chalice and tossed it away towards the priest. Then with the back of her hand she pushed away the disk of gold. “Faith as strong as stone.” The murmured. Then she closed her eyes and once more channeled her power into the stone. At first none could see the effect. Not really. Not until the first crack appeared on its surface. People began to gasp as more cracks appeared. Most of them looked on in shock. Even the priest’s brave facade began to crack now. 

Then Auriëlle began her own prayer to the patron goddess of Nallan: “Oh Neiya. Hear these words I speak now to you. See as I desecrate this altar in the name of your love. Accept these sacrifices, whose blood will flow upon this broken edifice.” When she was finished, the altar broke. The stone just crumbled to gravel under her hand. She managed to stop ever the broken altar and pulled her copper knife. The priest began to walk backwards, but her own troops had gotten the signal. They smiled as they closed in on the terrified population as well, mumbling their own prayers to Neiya’s eternal love as they grabbed their victims. Auriëlle managed to grab the priest by his collar.

“You cannot do this! This is desecration! Sacrilege! Even your own gods must frown upon this! It is madness!” He exclaimed.

“I don’t care.” Auriëlle whispered at him, as she began to drag him towards the altar. He slumped down on the floor, but soon one of her soldiers was upon him and helped him be dragged to the altar. “The gods don’t care and nor do I.” She said, as she pulled him in front of her, pushed him down on his knees and held him by his hair. “Say your last prayer.” She said as she pushed him down, with his face into the gravel. Her sharp, cold copper knife touched his throat. She could hear him mumble something. But halfway through what she assumed was a plea of vengeance she slit his throat. He began to gurgle and grasp at his throat as the blood sprayed out. Then the crimson slowly flowered across the gravel. It didn’t take long before he was completely motionless. Behind her, the soldiers were already busying themselves in doing the same.

After everyone was sacrificed in the temple, its walls were clad with blood. The dust of the broken altar, mixed with the blood had turned into a vile mud. Bodies were piled high. Auriëlle had set fire to the place herself. When she and her group got out of the city, many of them suffered burns. What did it matter? They had a way of healing back in the camp. Auriëlle had entrusted healing staff to some guards who were enthralled by Nalla herself. They wouldn’t run away with such a valuable item. Luckily she herself wasn’t in such a bad shape. She had a small cut under her left eye. Blood smeared her cheek slightly. The other half of her face was black with soot, hiding some burns under her cheek. It tinged but that was about it. The staff would take care of it in time. As she marched out the broken gate she saw people impaled upon stakes. Some still moved. She could only smile at the sight as she moved towards the imprisoned chieftain.

“You like the view?” She asked. He was bound to the tree. Forced to watch his city burn. He had trashed, cried, trashed some more and cried some more. Now he looked like a hollow husk of a man. 

“You’re a monster.” He managed to get out in between sobs. “A monster. All the Emissaries will cast you down. The Light beyond all! You are an adversaries’ pawn.”

She grabbed him by the hair and pulled his head back. “I am no-one’s pawn. Nor am I a monster.” She then looked on at the city itself. There was a strange beauty to the pillar. It was her own monument. Even though she had said a prayer and given Neiya a sacrifice, she claimed the pillar of smoke as her own. Because she had taken the city. She had released her hounds that gathered gold, blood and silver. She had woven the city’s fires. The burning city, the black pillar of smoke, they were a testament of her own power. “I did that.” She finally said a she sat down next to the chieftain with a big smile on her face. 

“Not a god.” She continued. For a second she wondered if the gods in their high heavens could see it as well. Maybe not. Maybe something bigger needed to burn. ”Not some supernatural beast. Just me and my men. We laid waste to a city. Gutted it like it was an animal.” Then she let silence reign as she took in the view. If she had been an artist, this is what she would’ve painted. If she was a poet, this is what she would’ve written about. But she was neither of those things. She was a sorceress and she wove magic that sundered cities. “I’m going to make the bards sing about this for a hundred years.”

[hider=Summary]
Auriëlle has crushed another allied army. This time of the city of Teperia. She is forcing its leader to surrender and bend the knee to Nalla by torturing him and then healing him with the Oaken Branch. But his faith in the Light keeps him from breaking. Finally she has enough and decides that if Teperia won’t break, she will destroy it.

As promised, she arrived at Teperia and besieges it. The city’s defences are weakened from the battle and she quickly breaks through. After a short skirmish at the broken gate, she is once again victorious. But this time she lets her army lose upon the city. The plunder begins, as Auriëlle weaves fires together in an inferno. She comes upon a temple which her men try to break into. With the help of Auriëlle the manage to get through. Inside, Auriëlle decides to desecrate the temple by breaking the altar and sacrificing it to Nallan’s patron goddess, Neiya. After the razing, she goes to the captured chieftain and ruminates over her achievement.[/hider]

[hider=Prestige]
[b]Post Length:[/b] 10K+ characters
+5 Prestige >> Auriëlle
-3 Prestige >> Auriëlle, for using the disintegration wave
[/hider]