Thinslayer

Condemned

I just realized Eru forgot two things: to answer Lanik's question, and to start the lingering healing spell. Next post. :P

Condemned

@BellBottomBlues Like the bit of poetry? I'll be developing fictional songs later on, because it's one of the tools Erudessa uses to help people.

Condemned

The human surprisingly agreed, and lowered his bow. "Who are you?" he asked, still suspicious, as he should be. Just then, his companion grunted and writhed. The man immediately turned to examine his wounded friend and slid a cloak over his legs.

"I am...Erudessa," the elf replied, watching them. She craned her neck to get a glimpse of the wounded soldier's legs before the cloak covered them. "His injury looks bad."
"I've done what I can, but I'm no healer," came the reply. "Will he be able to walk again?"

Erudessa could hear the desperation in his words. Humans didn't heal as rapidly or completely as elves did, so getting injured was a bigger deal for them than it was for elves. Still, she found herself a little surprised that this man would care so much. The humans of the Imperium were reputed to be ruthless and uncaring of other lives, a reputation reinforced by inside reports of genocide and wanton bloodshed. Or, perhaps the reputation was well-founded and she just stumbled on the exception. Maybe this human was a bit like her - a trained killer, but sensitive to the suffering of others.

And the wounded soldier was suffering. The way his breath hitched, fists clenched, and teeth gritted spoke of profound misery, the kind even elves would kill themselves over. She imagined herself in his place, her legs broken as his were. Living with that for a thousand years would be hell, and though human lives were considerably shorter, the thought of living one's entire life thus maimed was unbearable. The pain would be deeper than any salve could alleviate, being born from the deepest core of one's being. But perhaps there was hope for him; if the fractures were simple enough, oral pain relievers and some time would be all he needed to recover.

Unable to hold back any longer, Erudessa flew to the man's side. She removed the blanket, then carefully cut the pants away so she could get a clear view of the legs. Gingerly, she felt up his legs to assess the extent of his injuries. The feet and lower legs were fine. The upper legs were broken in several places, and the kneecaps were shattered. Bone fractures took a long time to heal, even with magic, so she would have to prioritize her time. She managed to find all the pieces of his kneecap, and with a little delicate telekinesis, stuck them together. The upper legs were easier to put together. The main problem would be keeping everything intact afterwards.

What he needed was to avoid moving them or putting any weight on them while maintaining high mobility. Crutches were usually the go-to solution, but those tended to tie up one's arms. Human lives were already difficult even with arms, and his friends would sooner kill the soldier than support him for several years while he healed. What he needed was a way to move without using his legs or tying up his arms. A wheelchair might do it, one in which all the weight was on his hindquarters and which moved by shifting his weight. The latter would require a bit of magic. With the plans already drawn up in her mind, she telekinetically tore apart a nearby tree and fashioned from it two wheels, a seat with leg supports underneath (instead of out in front like a regular wheelchair), and frames to lift the seat high enough for the wheels. A wooden bar would keep him in the seat while moving forward. Once everything was attached, she put her hands together and closed her eyes.

"By the light of my soul
I hereby command thee
To bear up thy ward
Thy conditions are thusly:
Hold him upright
When the ward sits but still.
To change thy direction,
Roll, tilt without spill.
Maintain with adjustments
Soft, gradually.
Cast now this spell,
All finished completely."

With that, the wheelchair turned upright and stayed that way. Erudessa attached splints to Finnigan's legs and moved to put him in the seat. Her trained ears picked up the sounds of Imperial soldiers drawing closer, so she would need to move quickly. "Can you help me move him?" she asked Lanik.

Condemned

@BellBottomBlues What are the exact parameters of Finnigan's leg injuries? Like, how much of the legs were destroyed, and if partially, which parts?

Condemned

@BellBottomBlues
Lore Update
Limiter
Designed by one of the few mages in the Imperium, the Limiter was created to restrain magic-capable slaves. The Master need only verbally specify whether and how the slave can use magic, and the slave will be limited to casting only the magic specified. What the manual doesn't tell you is that if the slave tries to counteract the order conveyed to the Limiter, he or she gets a violent shock that can kill weaker slaves. The Limiter is a bit pricey, but well worth the cash on untrustworthy slaves.

Condemned

If Erudessa's feelings about killing seem contradictory, there's a reason for that. It boils down to whether she can see it properly. In an ideal battle, people die when you attack them. That she can deal with. But in reality, people tend to get injured and die later, which she can't stomach. As long as she doesn't notice that they're getting injured instead of killed, she can handle killing.

Condemned

They're only humans. They live for a few decades, rape, murder, and pillage everything in sight, then die. They breed like rabbits; kill one, and ten more spring up. What's one human for the life of an elf? Their lives are meaningless. Besides, if you help them, they'll just turn around and bite you like the snakes they are.

Let them go.

And let them go she did. Erudessa raced for the Gap and didn't look back. Somehow, the woods seemed darker than they used to. Dead leaves shattered underfoot, and their decomposing smell rose to assault her nostrils. Half-eaten bugs, fly-infested corpses, and trees beset by termites filled her vision. Cries rang out from all corners of the forest, the sounds of lives suddenly and horribly extinguished. Rotted roots sprang up to bury her, and branches reached out like skeletal hands to slap her in the face. Erudessa plodded on, wiping moisture from her eyes and then clawing at them when the dirt invariably corrupted them.

Let them go. Those words seemed like curse to her now. Whenever she uttered those words, whether in her mind or aloud, she always turned into a sobbing mess afterward. Even now, when so many lives depended on her, she could not regain sufficient composure to hear the Imperial army approaching until it was almost on top of her. It was only their war cries that awakened her senses. Realizing she'd lost precious time, she gathered her strength and raced harder for the Gap. Her squad wouldn't last long without her telekinetic magic and potent traps to back them up. "Yanduin, Bethdul, retreat!" Erudessa commanded into the bracelet. No response. She tried again. "Yanduin, Bethdul, acknowledge!" No response. They're dead, and it's all my fault, she thought to herself.

The gray mountains of the Gap sprang into view. Erudessa charged into the clearing and cupped her hands to her mouth. "The enemy is upon us! The enemy is upon us!" she wailed. Frandur, who'd been standing watch with the requested pile of scraps, turned and blew his horn. Erudessa stopped at the scrap pile, stretched out her hands at her sides, and raised them. The scraps floated in mid-air. Time to put my practice to work. She crossed her arms, and the scraps swirled together into an assortment of explosive mines, which she maneuvered underground. Then, she excavated a trench and loaded it with razor-sharp spears before covering it up again. That should hold them. Suddenly, a barrage of arrows shot out of the forest. Erudessa raised her arm. All arrows that flew at her stopped inches from her body. "Henindal!" she called out, adrenaline beginning to replace her grief. The elf stood on the edge of the wall, his palms planted together.

"Make it rain!"

As the Imperial soldiers charged out of the forest, thousands of ice shards rained down on them. Many perished before they had the sense to raise their shields. With their bodies now exposed, Erudessa lifted her hand and summoned the wind. She flipped her palm, and all the soldiers in the front rows lost their shields to the powerful updraft. Seeing this new enemy for the first time, the soldiers leveled their weapons at her and charged. The earth exploded in showers of dirt and dead bodies as they stumbled headlong into her minefield, and those who survived dropped dead into the concealed trench ahead. Undeterred, those behind them used their fallen brethren as bridges to cross over.

Erudessa clicked her tongue. "Mongrels." She snapped her fingers, and great pillars of earth sprang up from the ground to punch the approaching soldiers. Henindal shot off fireballs into the enemy ranks, which Erudessa augmented with sawdust and metal into raging meteors. Hundreds of hapless men died on the spot in the first few minutes of battle.

Commander Cassius Cornell stood back, watching the battle unfold through his spyglass. "Well I'll be dammed..." he murmured to himself as he watched the silver-haired elf decimate his army. He turned to a tall hooded hunter standing behind him. "Watch her. If you get an opportunity, subdue her and bring her to me. I want her alive."

Meanwhile, Frandur raced to her side to bat away a few arrows she'd missed. "Milady! We'll be overwhelmed in a few minutes. We have to leave."
Erudessa glanced around the battlefield. Indeed, more and more Imperial soldiers appeared around the edges of the clearing, and some were already trickling through the Gap into the waiting Aetheri army. "Yes," she concluded at last. "I think the army can handle things here. Where are Yanduin and Bethdul? Any sign of them?"
Frandur's expression darkened. "They were captured, milady."
Her heart stopped cold. "They...what?"
"I'm not sure what happened exactly, but they conveyed to me that they'd been subdued before I lost contact with them."

Erudessa lifted her gaze to the sky. "I'm going after them. Stay here with Henindal and manage our defenses."
"But...milady, I can't let you go alone!" Frandur objected.
She reached out and touched his cheek. The elf closed his eyes.

When he opened them, she was gone.
__________

She ran back into the forest, its uncomfortable stench returning to her. The working theory was that the Wintergate Rangers defeated her boys and captured them. Even the best trackers needed to follow known paths through a forest like this one, so these Rangers would most likely retrace their steps with the captives in tow. Based on this working assumption, Erudessa found the path to the Gap and followed it backwards. She didn't get far before she heard a despairing wail pierce the silence. Could it be them? Erudessa moved in the direction it came from. It sounded a little like Yanduin. "Yanduin? Is that you?" she called out.

It was not. Two humans appeared before her, one slumped against a tree, the other watching over him. It took her a moment to realize that these were the same two humans she'd seen earlier below the cliff side. Both were Wintergate Rangers. She pulled one foot back and assumed a battle stance. Wait, they're in no shape to fight. The one slumped against the tree was wounded in both legs and writhing in agony. The one watching over him looked utterly spent. Once again, her heart melted at the sight of a human in pain. This time, she could not bring herself to run away. The guilt would destroy her. She dropped her stance and made to approach them, hands outstretched in a gesture of peace.

"May I help?" she pleaded in the Common language.

Erudessa could hear more Imperial soldiers moving through the forest. If she was to help the injured human, she would have to be quick about it.

Condemned

@BellBottomBlues Check out the rewritten post!

Condemned

*cracks knuckles* Okay, down to business.

First, I need to figure out who's who and what they can do. Lanik is an Imperial Ranger. There's 7 of them, himself included (if I counted right). At 6'2" and strong, he's about 2 inches shorter than Erudessa and a good 4 inches or so shorter than the average elf male. Being 28 years old, he should likely have about 25 years of military-related practice and about 15 years of combat experience (since the army only accepts teenagers at the front lines), if he lived an average Imperial life. That's all up to you, though. Point is, he's good enough to be a Ranger. That means he's tough, strong, and ought to be reasonably level-headed in battle.

Erudessa is a typical elf female, physically speaking. She takes an active leadership role and travels often, so her stamina is reasonably well built-up. Running with soldiers for extended periods isn't too difficult. Her work as an inventor gives her a solid bit of muscular training, so while she's not as strong as other female elf soldiers who undergo dedicated training, she can survive a fight long enough for backup to arrive. Her primary combat strength is as a battlemage. Casting magic involves, among other things, completely imagining the task desired, and that requires time and focus. Erudessa can cast complex spells with a snap of her fingers or a wave of her hands, and she can cast multiple spells simultaneously. Her forte is Telekinesis, highly versatile remote manipulation magic. While she is innately capable of elemental magic, she can thus far only conjure up Light magic from the silver mana channels in her hair. Special hand signs are used to cast it.

Now for the setting. They are in the mountainous forests surrounding Aetherion. The terrain is highly uneven and densely packed with trees, bushes, and other foliage. Much of the surface stone is broken up by roots, but the denser, continuous stone of the mountains can be found further under the surface. The temperature is chilly at this altitude, but not unbearably so. If I read your post right, Finnigan dropped with the broken rock off a cliff about twenty feet, and Lanik descended to reach him. So by the end of your post, Lanik has Finnigan slung over his shoulders and is standing at the base of the cliff, twenty feet below ground level and possibly out of the denser forested area. He'll have to secure his man over his shoulder(s) before attempting to climb back up.

Erudessa is perched on a tree branch high above ground level, observing the situation unfold. Her current state of mind is Calculating/Observational. She wants to kill the Rangers and/or lead them off course into a trap. She has not yet set the trap, since she only just pinpointed their location. Her squad consists of four elf soldiers: Yanduin, Bethdul, Frandur, and Henindal, all armed with standard army gear. Yanduin is the youngest of the four, about 300 years old or so, but he's still older than Erudessa. Bethdul is slightly older. Both boys are solid swordfighters and deadly shots with the crossbow. Frandur is the oldest elf of the group, about 800 years old, and skilled in nature magic, water magic, air magic, quarterstaff fighting, swordfighting, spearfighting, accounting, finance, metalworking, carpentry, and several other crafts. Henindal is about 600 years old and a lot more focused. He's strong in ice magic, one of the best in the country, and competent enough in fire magic to compete with the professionals. He focused on magic to the detriment of other combat skills, meaning he's a fantastic ranged combatant, but he'd perish pretty quickly in melee. Like Erudessa, he can hold out until backup arrives, but not much more than that.

That should be enough material to get started. Gonna study your post some more and work on ways to write better.

Condemned

I'm studying the above post for the next few days. xD
Thanks man!