EliteCommander

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

Ssarak Dyreackthanose

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In her current state, Meirin's thoughts could easily be heard in Ssarak's mind. Not that he needed them to confirm what he could see plainly with his eyes. She was hurt, weakened by both her exertion on the bridge and the fall. Ssarak was hardly in perfect condition himself, but he had not been trying to hold up the bridge alone for any amount of time as she had. Beyond Meirin, he also heard another set of thoughts, farther away, quieter, but more panicked. It seemed that Lyn did not see him dive after Meirin, so she thought she caused her death. Fortunately, Ssarak was in a position to calm her worries.

"Do not worry, little one. Meirin and I are alive, we merely need to find a way back up." He reassured her telepathically.

Ssarak stood up as well, his body sore from the impact. The joints in his wings cracked painfully as he folded them back into position. He had managed to cut down the damage they received, but they did not escape unharmed. Parts of the membranes were torn closer to his body, and the muscles which controlled the wings were very sore. He didn't believe it would damage his aerodynamics enough that he could not fly entirely, but it would make it more difficult. He doubted that they would be able to carry both himself and Meirin, which meant they would need to find another way up. First, however, he needed to calm Meirin and check the extent of her injuries.

"Hold, Meirin. Listen to me." Ssarak began as he approached her. She didn't seem to be entirely in her right mind, so he placed a hand on both of her shoulders to stop her, then stood directly in front of her. He moved his hands up to either side of her face and slowly brought up her eyes to look directly into his. "Be calm, and focus on me. You are hurt; Alaira can wait. Right now, I worry for your health. How badly are you hurt? And please, do not tell me that you are fine. I need to know where and how severely you are injured. Please, be honest; after all you have done for me, I am not going to let you bring harm to yourself."

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

I have to finish working on this paper, but then I'll get to work on a post.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Time to go to bed for me now, goodnight.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ahnasha sat down on the bed beside Fendros, placed a hand on each of his shoulders, and began to rub them. She understood his objections, but in her mind, it would all be worth it. The mercenaries they would be fighting were not innocents, or at least that was how she was justifying it. For the possibility of extending her life tenfold, she could find ways to ignore the moral implications of dooming some souls to whatever Orskan had planned for them. "Fendros, don't worry about it. We're not slaughtering innocents here; these mercenaries are kind of like the hunters that were after us. They're just trying to kill because a lot of these cultists are vampires. I don't feel guilty about killing someone who would do the same to someone else for just being what they are. Besides, think about what this could mean for us. Without this, I could realistically live, what another sixty years? Seventy if I'm being generous? If I learn to extend my life, though, I could live a thousand years like you. That long of a life isn't so strange for Elves like you, but for me...I can't even imagine that much time. Who knows, if I get good at it, I might even be able to teach you, and we could extend both of our lives. This is something that is just too good to give up."

Kaleeth took a deep breath, then gave Janius a nod. "Okay, we can do that. I haven't used a shield before, but I just have to keep it between me and the enemy, right? They're big and protect a lot of space in front of me; that should make it easy. Do you think we can get a shield from the cult? And a mace? I think I need one with a metal handle, since the wooden ones keep breaking. I don't want to have to hide when it is time to fight...and I don't think the cultists would like that anyway. We are supposed to be impressing the cult, and it wouldn't be impressive if I ran away."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Orskan took the dagger from a pouch and handed it to Fendros. "Here you go. Oh, and whether you end up filling those things or not, I need all of them back. They are a pain to make, and quite valuable. Make no mistake, I will make you regret it if you try to take what is mine. Beyond that, good luck. If you succeed and get that tome, you may very well be on your way to eternal life...or at least a very long one. Now, I am sure Vinaremo is going to bring me along for this venture tomorrow, so I need to go find him. I will see you two tomorrow."

After Orskan took his leave, Ahnasha continued on with Fendros back to their rooms. "I think I remember how to cast soul trap. I'll need to practice it once or twice to be sure, but I think you can hold on to the dagger. Hopefully, we can get all four souls during the fight tomorrow." She suggested. Her tone was surprisingly casual; even if the people they were going to be fighting were not outstanding individuals, she seemed to have a disturbing indifference to what they were planning on doing to them.

Kaleeth rubbed her hands together nervously, thinking about the coming fight. "Well, um, I don't know. I know I don't want to leave all of you to fight alone, but...I also don't know if I am ready. I can stay with you, but, well, you know I can't defend myself as easy as you can. If we can get a good mace that won't break when I use it, I can hit really hard with it, but it is even slower than the sword. I tried to learn to block with it, but you still kept hitting me yesterday, and we were just practicing. If we are fighting real people with real swords...I will get hurt. Can...can you think of anything to help me protect myself better? My armor is strong, but it is not like the metal armor Lorag has."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Vinaremo, inform your group that you will be leaving tomorrow morning. You may bring some of the thralls as well, but be sure your group is not too large, or our prey will flee on sight. You are dismissed." Hal-Neesa ordered. The pack was quick to leave, as they did not wish to risk angering either of the cult's leaders. Based on the impressions they gave during the meeting, Llarvan was merely accepting the possibility of a truce, instead of advocating for it. Neesa, of all people, seemed to be the one who had argued in favor of their deal. It was difficult to tell from their brief interaction, but Meesei hoped that Neesa held just as much influence as her husband, as she seemed to be their closest ally in the cult, which was not saying much, in all honesty.

On the way back to their rooms, Orskan-Tan parted ways from Vinaremo, then stopped Ahnasha and Fendros in one of the halls. As promised, he intended to explain the terms of his deal. "Now that we have a moment, I can give you my terms. It is a fairly low price, actually, as I will be providing the supplies you need. Mostly, you will just be giving me the convenience of not having to do it myself. You see, I have used my allotted share of souls for this month in my experiments and require more. I could go out and gather more myself, but that is time I could be spending on my experiments. I could also take the souls in our upcoming fight tomorrow, but I prefer to focus on the fight itself, instead of filling soul gems. That is why I am passing off the task to you. I require four black souls; I care not where from. I will give you the gems, you just need to fill them. If you do not know a spell of soul trap, I can give you a dagger with that enchantment."

"Deal, do you have the gems on you?" Ahnasha answered without hesitation. Orskan nodded and unslung a small pouch from his shoulder that contained the gems. He handed it to Ahnasha, to which she glanced to Fendros. "Could you take that, Fendros? My hands are full."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Hal-Neesa picked up after Llarvan's introduction. "After a brief discussion, we have come to a decision on what to do about your request. We have a task we are going to set you to in order to prove your usefulness. If you succeed, we will discuss a more formal truce."

"Be grateful for this opportunity." Llarvan added. "We do not often offer such leniency to outsiders. Being lycans, your souls are strong, and valuable to us, but my wife believes you will be more useful alive. I would advise you not to disappoint us."

Meesei nodded affirmatively, hiding any emotions she might have been feeling. "Of course. What task are we to perform?"

"Your arrival here has came at an opportune time." Hal-Neesa began. "For the past few months, we have been dealing with an annoyance in the form of the son of a local noble. He fancies himself a vampire hunter, and while he has little skill in that regard, he has the coin to hire people who do. He has a small army of mercenaries at his command that have been annoying us under the blessing of the Gideon city guard. We seek to eliminate this threat. In his little crusade, he has managed to capture a few members of our coven, as we have of his mercenaries. As such, he has arranged for a hostage exchange tomorrow afternoon in the ruins of an old village nearby. Of course, this will obviously be a trap. He has likely already executed his hostages, as we have for his. What we want from you is to help turn this trap against those setting it. They are expecting to fight necromancers and vampires, not lycanthropes. If you are there to fight them, it will be marginally easier to kill them. I want every one of you there, alongside a group led by Vinaremo. Even if the noble himself does not arrive, it will likely be possible to capture one for interrogation, or search their bodies for reference to where they are hiding."

"One of us will need to stay here to watch Rhazii." Ahnasha objected, immediately regretting speaking up without thinking first. She had brought Rhazii with her, as she did not trust the cult enough to leave him alone.

"You need not worry about your child. He will be staying here while you are away." Llarvan explained.

"No..." Ahnasha blurted out quickly before quickly trying to backtrack and add something more. "I mean, I need to make sure all of his needs are met. He is a Khajiit child and..."

"I am sorry, but I do not recall giving you a choice." Llarvan interrupted in a firm tone. "If you think we are being unfair, I can rescind the offer entirely."

"No...no, that...will not be necessary." Ahnasha answered meekly. She lower her head and looked down at her son with worry. Undoubtedly, the reason they wanted to keep him here was so he could be a hostage, but there was nothing Ahnasha could think of to stop it.

The Depths of Deception

Rareth watched Shuo's feed from her own helmet to observe the layout of the next room, and those in it. It wasn't the greatest setup to be walking into, but it definitely could be worse. There were a lot of hostiles, but they still had some room to move. It looked like there was a group of five nearer the door, on the opposite side of a stack of crates and disabled machines, as well as a group of four on the far side of the room, nearer the entrance to the data center. The remaining three were each alone, and the only ones doing any real patrolling.

"Hmm, we should be able to, but I don't think it will be that easy. That group on the far side of the room is too far away to take out quickly from here, not after engaging the group of five closer to the door. Someone will need to get over there to handle them before we engage. Actually, we need to get a few people out there. The three lone hostiles patrolling are going to be the ones to give us the most trouble. They couldn't win the fight if we took out the other two groups, but all it takes is one to raise the alarm. We need people to get out there and get in position before we attack. Everyone else can charge out and gun down the first group when it is time. Who is up for the task?" Rareth asked.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Kaleeth's training with blunt weapons went notably better than before, if only because she did not attempt to murder Janius in the process. Using blunt weapons required significantly less agility or grace than a sword, so her strength became a more influential factor. When it came time to test the extent of her strength, she ended up breaking both the mannequin and her wooden training club, which hinted at her potential. However, despite the advantages she had, Kaleeth's technique was still clumsy, and she wasn't quick to react to incoming blows. In a fight, she could indeed overpower most foes, but her weaknesses in defending herself would undoubtedly cause her serious injury, or worse.

After another two days, one of the cultists informed the pack early in the morning that Hal-Neesa's husband had arrived and that they were deliberating on how to respond to their offer. For the next hour or so, they were told nothing. They started to prepare for the day and have breakfast as normal, but there was a strong silent tension in the air. Their fate relied on the opinion of a Molag Bal worshiper whom they had never met. If he decided not to go through with the deal, then they would likely have to fight their way out of the catacombs. Not all of the pack had not even finished their breakfast when Vinaremo and Orskan-Tan showed up once more, telling them to follow them...immediately.

The pack proceeded to the throne room wordlessly. Each of them were armed as if they were going into a fight, so it was no doubt obvious that they did not trust that the meeting would end without violence. Vinaremo and Orskan made no comment about it, however, as it seemed they were perfectly confident that the pack could pose no threat. The silence of the walk was only broken when Orskan walked alongside Ahnasha and made a quick, quiet comment just before they reached their destination.

"I have determined the price I want for the tome. Once we are done here, I will explain in detail." Orskan quickly explained. For Ahnasha, it was an encouraging statement, as it meant that their masters had decided to at least give them an opportunity to prove themselves...unless Orskan had not yet been told of their decision, and was merely guessing.

This time, when the pack entered the throne room, there were a group of guards on either side of the two thrones, each in finely embroidered black and violet robes, along with an equal number of reanimated skeletons, each with uniform ebony weapons and armor. Given how rare and expensive ebony was, one could only imagine how long it had taken to acquire suits of armor made from it for skeletons, of all things. Meesei supposed it was for intimidation, a purpose which it was serving rather well.

Now, both thrones were occupied, one by Hal-Neesa, and the other by a pale Dunmer man with piercing red eyes and a fine, almost royal looking crimson red and black set of clothes, consisting of a fine shirt and pants instead of a robe. As before, Vinaremo gave a bow and introduced the pack. "These are the representatives of Hircine, my Lord and Lady." He said. The normal venom in his tone when speaking to or about the pack was completely gone, instead replaced by strict formality.

"Ah, yes, my lovely wife has told me much about you. I am Llarvan Samarys, Lord of this court." The Dunmer said, his tone nonthreatening, but nevertheless commanding.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Goodnight.