The camp had been torn down and packed up, with goods carried on men’s backs or in carts drawn by quillats. The only thing that would be left behind was Titania, on her metal table. Some had objected to leaving her, while others had wanted to stay behind, but Carn overruled them, and they obeyed. Even Lothar had been swayed. The cloak at work, once again.

Now, it was time to continue down the road, with Carn taking his place at the head of the column. But he had not taken five steps before something else happened.

From across the crest of the hill came Auriëlle’s raiding party. Gone for about eleven days with little warning ahead of time. They left on foot, but came back with two carts filled with food and some riches. At the head of the warband walked Auriëlle. Confident. Bordering on cocky even. Behind her she dragged the Ketrefian nobleman. The man looked haggard, but mostly untouched. “Hail Carnelian.” She shouted almost as a taunt. “I bring you a gift.” She pulled the nobleman’s ropes so he’d come forward. Then pushed him on his knees. “The gift of information. This man’s a noble from Ketrefa. Could be useful to hear him out.”

For a moment, Carn only looked at her. Then, he shook his head. “It’s just Carn,” he corrected her, before stepping forward. “So what do you have to say to me?” he asked the nobleman.

It would appear the sudden appearance before the nemesis of Ketrefa gave the nobleman a moment of courage. “The city will never fall to the likes of you!” He shouted, before spitting at Carn. A moment later he was kicked in the side, hard, by Auriëlle. After which she pulled him up and put him on his knees again while this time holding him by his neck. “Again, what’s happening in Ketrefa?” She ordered, her voice ice cold.

The nobleman looked up, his courage instantly broken. “The city… You can never take it. The walls are god-made! They’ve stood for 2000 years. Cadien has even sent us his own champion! You can never win. Never!”

“A competent attempt at a bluff,” Carn nodded. “But the thing is,” he drew his sword, and rested it against the nobleman’s throat. “I’m Cadien’s champion. He forged this blade himself. And I have more than him on my side too - this cloak was woven by Neiya.” He flicked his wrist and drew a small trickle of blood. “Now then, do you have anything useful to tell me or is your actual goal here just to waste my time?”

“It’s impossible.” The wide eyed noble said. “The champion wields the hammer. He brought peace to Ketrefa. United even the vile cultists sullying the name of Neiya in defense of the city. You… You cannot be. You cannot be!” Auriëlle knocked him out right then, before looking up at Carn to say: “He was getting frantic. You can negotiate himself further after he wakes up.” Several of her own warband pulled up the limp body of the nobleman and carried it away.

“So marching already huh?” She asked. “A shame. I wanted some more fun. I heard about a few more farmsteads.”

“Time is short,” Carn told her. “We should have started marching much earlier than this, but there was a… delay.” Then he frowned. “What exactly have you been doing?”

“Having fun.” She teased with a smile while pointing back at the two carts. “So what’s with the delay? Any of the chieftains got in a fight?”

He shook his head. “No, I have that under control now. The problem was something else. I had to leave Titania behind.”

Auriëlle quite visibly frowned. “Why?” Did they have a falling out? Did she break them apart? That was wonderful! Oh she would have to visit that piece of clearly holier-than-thee armor now!

“She wanted me to kill you. I said no. She wanted me to burn this cloak. I said no. She kept second-guessing my decisions, and I said no. Gave us some armour before I left her, but for some of us it didn’t even fit.” He shook his head in frustration. “I suppose you were right.”

The sorceress through her head back before doubling over from laughing. She couldn’t believe it. She was gone for eleven days and in that time it all went to hell with Titania. That was amazing! For a second she wondered if she should mention she too got a little gift from Neiya. But then refrained from it. Carn didn’t need to know, yet. “Alright, been a pleasure talking to you but I’ve got a lump of cold metal to have a chat with! I’ll catch up!” She said as she started to pass Carn and head back to where the camp first was.

Carn turned and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Aurielle, wait.”

She stopped, almost let out a groan of annoyance but did roll her eyes. What’s next? A lecture? A plea? She didn’t believe Carn was back to how Carn should be. There was still something soft about him. Maybe it was the whole deal with his brother. She turned around none the less. “What is it?”

“Just forget about her. There’s no sense in antagonizing an avatar.”

“I’m not going to antagonize her.” She exclaimed, sounding almost innocent as she did. “I’m just going to have a lovely chat with her.” If you didn’t know Auriëlle, you’d think she’s sincere.

“Your last lovely chat with her nearly burned down the camp,” he said drily. “You can’t kill her and you can’t change her views. Taunting her will only provoke her, and I don’t want to lose you. Not again.”

“Oh please.” She said she pulled her shoulder free. “I’ll be fine.” Of course it was sweet of Carn to worry about her. Of course she wished he would do it more. It was cute. Just… not in front of everyone. “If she wanted me dead she would’ve killed me twelve days ago. She didn’t then and she won’t do it now.” She turned around to walk away again.

All she heard was a resigned sigh. And a few moments later, a signal was given for the column to resume marching. She received various looks as she passed by the hundreds of men. Those who recognized her glared. But most did not, instead giving her looks of curiosity, attraction, or simple boredom. Many did not even notice her at all.

She waited a little until the camp was actually cleared. Overlooking the plains where they had resided. It was still scarred from the camp. With a strange, lonely table in the middle of it all. Looking rather like an abandoned altar than anything else. Unafraid Auriëlle walked closer. “We’re finally alone.” She said with a smirk.

The armour was silent. Then, in the blink of an eye, the earth surrounding Auriëlle erupted. The stone morphed and warped into bricks, and coiled around her with lightning speed like a giant snake seeking to constrict its prey. It spun around her like a whirlpool, no doubt with enough momentum and coarseness to grind her into goo.

For a second it appeared as if Auriëlle had been consumed. Then a humanoid figure made of stone shot through the coiling whirlwind of stone. Once through, the stone crumbled off, revealing Auriëlle once more. Not untouched though. The stone had scraped her left arm, which was bleeding quite heavily. Though it looked worse than it was. Small nubs of horns were sprouting in between her hair. “So you can hurt me without someone wearing you. That’s good to know.” She said rather casually. Though her heart was beating inside her chest. It made her excited! It had been so long since she was actually challenged. “You’re not going to listen to me, are you?”

A stone tendril twisted itself around her leg, stopping her dead in the air. The tendril then hammered her against the ground with crackling force. Two stone towers then sprouted up on either side of her, before crumbling into tonnes upon tonnes of rock, raining down over her mercilessly. [colour=deepskyblue]”Not only do you come to me, demoness, but you also carry with you your haughty, taunting demeanour! It’s almost as though you are glutton for extermination!”[/colour]

Shock went through Auriëlle when the tendrils grabbed her. The force with which they threw her to the ground knocked more than just the wind out of her. With a nasty crack several of her bones broke. For a second her entire mind was overtaken by pain. Allowing her only to scream before the adrenaline made everything feel numb and distance. Then the shadows rose. She didn’t think but just embedded her fingers into the ground. Right before the first bricks fell roots broke through the earth. Wrapping themselves around the sorceress. Moments after the last brick fell, the cocoon of roots pushed the stone off of itself to reveal the red-headed girl with larger horns cat-like eyes as if she was a flower. Roots were supporting her as her body was too battered to let her stand on her own. Wisps of smoldering cloth floated away into the air as she held the oaken branch against her chest. Healing the wounds while forcing: “Truce?” Out of her throat.

The weight on the roots intensified. Another set of towers had collapsed over her. Auriëlle was still healing herself. The roots carried her some distance away from Titania and harm's way as well. Before they were crushed with a wet splat by the two new towers. The sorceress collapsed on her knees. Wounds were healing, but not fast enough. The growing horns on her head were beginning to curl now. “Could you stop!? I just want to talk! I’m not even fighting back.” She yelled, at the top of her lungs. Before coughing up blood.

[colour=deepskyblue]”I have nothing to talk to you about, and you have no business talking to me, you fiend! You spawn of evil! You wicked witch!”[/colour] The line along the ground between them sprouted a wave of stone spears, shooting up like the jabs of a phalanx.

Some of the spears missed, others would’ve hit her if they didn’t crumble by Auriëlle magic. One though. One looked as if it would’ve hit her square in the stomach. But then it veered off. Pushed away by some invisible power to only cut her tight. The wound was nasty but not life threatening. “Why--!” The ground beneath her exploded into a cloud of shrapnel, just barely mitigated by a quick-witted shield spell. “... Am I the evil one!?” The shrapnel she dodged melted into stone darts, swarming her like rabid hornets. She screamed out, finally fed up by the self-righteousness of Titania. “I freed slaves!” The darts that didn’t hit her melted back into the earth, and rose back up as more spears, stabbing upwards from the soil at the positions she stood at just milliseconds earlier. “I broke their chains while you lay on your metal altar. Too--” Nearby trees fell over, and their trunks were sliced into bucklers, which were thrown after the sorceress like disks. “-- Too pure to even try and understand us mortals. What do you even know about me other than what you told yourself!?”

[colour=deepskyblue]”You selfishly follow your own desires and commit atrocities as easily as you breathe. When we first met, you attempted to destroy me for no reason other than that you felt like it. That alone tells me what sort of person you are.”[/colour] The armour glared at her from its table. [colour=deepskyblue]”If you have freed slaves, you did it not for the freedom of those people; you did it because you enjoyed killing the slavers…”[/colour] The ground quaked again as though new stone towers began to form. [colour=deepskyblue]”Have you any last words, fiend? Or will you simply gloat until the very end, like you do so well?”[/colour]

She didn’t gloat. Nor did she speak her last words. The second she saw those towers rise, lose stone flew towards her. Encasing her into what looked like a tomb before she was pulled away through the air. Far, far from Titania. Within the air Auriëlle did her best to slow herself down with the wind, trying to aim where Carn’s army would be. But there was only so much she could do before the stone around her crumbled away again. She finally fell to the ground, breaking her bones again and making the fractures she had even worse. Yet perhaps whatever god there was of luck or fate would not see her perish just yet. The Oaken Branch touched her face. Slowly but surely healing the sorceress’ unconscious body.

[hr]
She awoke hours later, in a lumpy bed on a rickety cart meant to carry wounded. The sun was high in the sky, but once her eyes adjusted, she saw that Carn himself was sitting nearby. He had not noticed her awakening, instead sitting on the back edge of the cart with a dagger drawn. Every now and then he would jab the blade into one of his fingers, and watch the flesh knit back together.

“That was by far the stupidest thing I’ve done.” She said with a groan. Her body ached. The Oaken Branch, laying on her arm, was still doing its work. The blanket was stained with blood spots all over. Yet there was a little smile on her face. A smile of satisfaction.

Carn turned, and looked at her with a sigh of relief. Then the relief quickly faded, and he smirked. “Now you remember why it’s a good idea to trust my judgement.”

“We had fun.” She managed to say before uttering an ow from some stiff muscle. Then her tone grew a little somber. “You used to be that, you know. Fun.”

The smirk faded, and he fell into a long silence.

There was only one way really to interpret that silence. She laid back down, content to stare up at the blue sky. Clutching the Oaken Branch closer to her and checking if the necklace and disk she got were still with her.

Even though Auriëlle was used – sometimes even preferred – silence, she hated it now. She hated it when it happened between her and Carn. They used to talk for entire nights. Now it felt like there was nothing to say. It was unbearable. “Where’s Esiré?” She finally asked with a neutral, if not bit icy, tone.

Carn shrugged. “She kept clinging to you, so I told her to give us some space. I reckon she’s still nearby.”

She hated that answer. She hated what it meant. Esiré wouldn’t come close till Carn left. She kept silent for some time. Until she asked: “Why are you here?”

“Because…” Carn began, but then his voice trailed off. “I think you know why,” he finally said, after a few moments of thought.

Suddenly an entirely different thought shot through her head. She set up to look at Carn. “Say it.” She said in a weird mixture of both plea and command.

“Because I love you,” he confessed, almost too quickly.

Auriëlle reached over to him, not caring that her body was in pain as she grabbed him by the collar and pulled him close for a kiss.

He returned it, and held it, as he wrapped his arms around her. But then, after a few moments past, he suddenly became conscious of several sets of eyes on them - soldiers walking behind the cart - and he reluctantly pulled away. “Come to my tent later tonight,” he whispered.

“Not afraid I’ll burn it down?” She teased, though she did release him. If it was up to her, she wouldn’t have cared they were in a cart but well… he was the commander. So slowly she laid down again. With several ouchs and ows, realizing her body still wasn’t in good shape. “You should’ve come with me you know.” She then said once down. “It was really fun!”

Carn shrugged. “I [i]did[/i] go back for you, but it was too late. Probably for the best, being honest. I spent months listening to that armour preach. Any more and I might have been driven mad.”

“Ha!” Auriëlle loudly proclaimed, before having a coughing fit. Still, she had a big smile on her face. “She’s going to have the best time on this planet. Preaching against the goddess of love while only letting those who are apparently selfless wear her. Selfless? Here!? What does she want, a child?” The sorceress laughed out loud. “We’re better off without her.” She then followed up as she calmed down a little.

Carn nodded slightly, as he looked ahead. “I’m expected to be at the front of the column,” he told her. “Are you able to join me, or do you still need to rest?”

“I should be able-“ Auriëlle tried to say as she tried to get up. Only for her body to sternly protest against any type of movement. Quite quickly she fell back down. “Nope. I’m going to be smart for once and not push it.” She admitted. “Go lead your army, Carn.”

[hider=Summary]Carn’s camp is being torn down, leaving behind the Avatar Titania. But right as they leave, Auriëlle returns from her raid. Bringing with her riches but also a Ketrefian noble. Whom she offers up to Carn for questioning. The noble, in a fit of courage, says Carn can never break the city. It has stood for 2000 years and is protected by the champion of Cadien. At which point Carn says he too is a champion of Cadien. Much to the shock of the noble who grows near frantic and has to be knocked unconscious by Auriëlle.

The sorceress then proceeds towards the Avatar of Gibbou, hoping to have a little chat. Except Titania wants nothing of the sorts and begins to batter Auriëlle with divine might. Bringing about 6 towers crumbling over her. Auriëlle manages to survive the onslaught through the combined force of Thaa’s Focus, her own power and the Oaken Branch. But soon realizes that sticking around the armor would mean certain death. She throws herself out of harms way and towards Carn. Though as she falls down upon the ground she is broken and badly wounded. Surviving only by the grace of fate which allowed her to land on the Oaken Branch.

When she wakes up she’s in a cart together with Carn. They share a few terse moments and words until Auriëlle, in an effort to break the silence, asks him why he’s here. After which the warlord finally admits he loves her as well. The two share a tender moment before Carn leaves Auriëlle to rest.[/hider]

[hider=MP Sums!]
Titania: 1MP/5DP
-1MP Godly feat: Beat the ever-living shit out of Auriëlle.
End: 0MP/5DP
[/hider]

[hider=Prestige]
[b]Post Length:[/b] +10K Characters
+5 Prestige >> Auriëlle
-9 Prestige >> Auriëlle for fighting off Titania’s onslaught for long enough to flee and survive
+5 Prestige >> Carn
[/hider]