Open Chronicles Hellsfeld

[Trajan Meng]

Trajan slept.

And it was not a good sleep.

For he was tormented by the nightmarish reincarnations of his failures. Of his dream of a united humanity becoming ash in his hands, and Mankind thus crushed under the foot of history.

 

[Kara Orin]

Kara and her crew reached the lonely tree. After how they found the catalyst, their eyes looked upon the ground. They looked for any signs of disturbance.

As their horses slowly trotted around, Callard’s horse stepped over something that made a hollow

KAKLUNK

Obviously not the sound one would expect of dirt.

“What’s that?” Callard exclaimed as he turned the horse around to look at what was just stepped on.

Since Ferelith recently opened the hatch, its camouflage was disturbed. Outlines in the dirt and grass made an obvious square shape in the ground. It drew the trio’s eyes to it fairly quickly…

---

A couple minutes would pass after the loud KAKLUNK would ring out from the hatch. After that, three loud…

BANG
BANG
BANG

… knocks echoed from the hatch.

“Hello!?” a man’s voice spoke from beyond the hatch, “Anyone there?!”

Ferelith Scathach Heike Eisen Szesh

 

[Ferelith Scathach]

“Hey! Sel de mon loka!” She hissed at the dragon as she saw him arm himself. She blinked realizing she hadn’t spoken common. “D-dont touch my stuff.” She spat finally though she made no move to remove them from his possession.

“N-no there..” She stared at the ground with a sigh as a knock came to their hatch. A mans voice questioned them.

“Fine..” She grumbled shoving the vampire out of the way she kicked aside her dirty cot. A large hole even big enough for the dragon sat under it.

“Had to make it big so we could fit crates through it. It leads out the back. Grab what you need and go.” She said reaching for a sword herself in front of Heike. Taking this chance of concussion Ferelith wouldn’t mind taking the chance to arm herself.

 

[Szesh]

Szesh did not turn his head to Ferelith as she spoke, but his eyes did glance over to her invisibly. Considering how much trouble she'd given them thus far, and the violence that certainly awaited them outside, he would almost have dared her to try and take the weapons from him. Of course, he remembered her new affliction, and realized that, unfortunately, she probably could have.

The knock was startling, and his heavy head whipped up in alarm. Luckily the hatch held. He grumbled lowly to himself.

As much as it unsettled him, they would need to take the catalysts with them. He picked up the two satchels (which had quieted their rumbling) and affixed one to his belt and gave the other to Heike. "Best to keep apart," he said quietly. He scooped Trajan's body back over his shoulder with one hand and stood ready.

"You two go, I will follow." He looked back up at the hatch, feeling the embers rekindling in his chest should the need arise.

 

[Heike Eisen]

Ferelith (with a noted and concerning roughness) pushed Heike aside such that she could expose the hole underneath the cot.

So there was a secondary way out. Good--it had stood to reason. Most such refuges of outlaws (this, of course, making Ferelith's comment about "her stuff" laughable) had these covert exits and tunnels and the like; especially so if said outlaws had been entrenched for a considerable while, and Ferelith seemed to have been entrenched for a considerable while indeed.

A man's voice from the ground level, coming down through the hatch of the refuge. Strange, that he (and however many fellows he might have at his back) deigned to even knock and speak. Though it was not completely unheard of for bandits and raiders to try tactics which on the surface appeared to be genial. And if it was another bounty hunter, it was likewise not unheard of for them to...acquire the object of their pursued bounty from other hunters by force.

It was best that a fight be avoided. Heike herself was not completely healed (her left hand and her burned back the most pressing weaknesses), and the sun outside had not yet set entirely.

Heike went to her clothes and crouched and wrapped her shirt and shawl inside her coat and balled them all up into a bundle and pinched it between her right arm and her right side. Szesh had the bald man secured, handed the second bagged Catalyst to Heike, and prompted for them to go.

Heike turned to Ferelith. Whispered simply, yet it retained the air of a command, "You go first. You know the way."

Yes, the words unspoken were a deference to Herr Elias's wisdom regarding charges in custody. Though Ferelith had not pounced upon the opportunity to fight for her freedom while Heike and Szesh were sleeping, it was a stark truth that Ferelith herself also needed rest. Now that she was rejuvenated--likely even more so than Heike--the danger returned, evidenced to some degree by Ferelith's insubordinate shove to move Heike away from the cot. Tender moments shared or not, this danger remained real.

So there was no way Heike was going to go down into the tunnel first, her back exposed to her dangerous and only ostensibly submitted charge. It was the height of foolishness to allow for such a vulnerability, despite the situation bearing down on them from the other side of the refuge's main hatch.

Szesh Ferelith Scathach Kara Orin

 

[Kara Orin]

No answer came from beneath the hatch.

“No one’s home?” questioned Shamih.

“That or someone’s prepping for an ambush,” Callard answered.

With that, Kara dismounted from her horse. She handed the reigns to Shamih.

“I’ll just go, then,” Kara told her partners.

With a raised eyebrow, Callard asked, “I… what? We’d be skinned alive if anything happens to you!”

Kara tapped her right shoulder to enhance some sort of spell upon her body. She pulled the hatch open and looked down the dark hole.

Callard was almost helpless to do anything as his horse grew anxious over Kara’s sudden movement.

“Heyheyheyhey,” Callard panicked.

Announcing herself in case anyone was in the hole, Kara said, “If anyone’s there, I’m a Maester from Elbion. I want to talk. Coming down.”

A lie about being a Maester. Yet one easier to maintain when well beyond Elbion lands. The Elbion flare in her voice would help. Though, she could not hide the youthfulness in her voice when the youngest of conventional Maesters are almost a decade older than her.

And having said that, Kara dropped into the hole…

Heike Eisen Szesh Ferelith Scathach

 

[Ferelith Scathach]

“Look until we’re out of here can the commanding crap and go. I’ll have the dragon follow you and I’ll be in the rear. Your hurt, he’s hurt and having to carry someone. Take the first left and the next right. You’ll come out at a water fall.” She hissed.

Shoving the vampire into the hole by her tender back and turned to the dragon. “Go. Your hurt and in no shape to fight. Wait for me at the tunnels end and if it’s not me coming out pull the red cord of rope directly to the right of the exit. It’ll collapse the tunnel and buy you more time. Now go!” She would demand.

Hopefully the dragon seeing sense in the most capable as well as expendable staying behind she would kick open a chest next to her and draw a large claymore almost a duplicate of her last but it’s blade was untarnished from lack of exposure.

Kyla has made a back up for her just in case.

In that small moment she was grateful to her sister.

She was thrown from her thoughts as she turned and heard the hatch open.

The young voice call to her.

A maester? From the college? Which one? Ferelith had met...well been examined by more like by two. Either way the grip on her blade tightened. The college involving itself with her was something she wanted to desperately avoid.

“Nothing much to talk about.” She said with a slight smirk taking in the girl and seeming to be mentally weighing her chances and sizing her up.

“Thought maesters were older? Your either a prodigy or a liar...” She sank into a ready stance. Not aggressive and more defensive. It seemed she wanted this girl to speak her piece and either fight or leave.

The possibility of her being a maester was too curious and enticing, but also made her all the more tense. People didn’t fight maesters of the college for the same reason no one fought dreadlords. The truth was plenty of people fought them. But no one knew they existed. Because none walked away.

Her tattoo pulsed a slight black as her yellow eyes glowed in the darkness of the cave.

A tattoo on her left fore arm would glow slightly to Kara and Karas vision alone as opposed to the group at large and even Ferelith herself not knowing of its existence.

A filing number.
More importantly a filing number for a system used by the college to keep track of things owned by it. Items of power and interest in possession of the college were usually marked in this way.

Unseen by thieves and the like any stolen item was always easy to identify to a person that could easily then re secure it into college custody.

But that system was for things...not people and this mark on the short blonde girl was different in both its lay out and color.

While most glowed faintly blue to be plainly seen..This marking glowed a deep blue.

“Well? Out with it you little creep.” Ferelith spat. Talking down to her though she doubted from her appearance that she was much older than Ferelith herself.

 

[Szesh]

They were out of time, and Szesh did not contradict Ferelith's words. At least he would be between her and Heike, and while the opposite arrangement would likely have been better, he was more comfortable under the illusion that he could protect the vampire he trusted from the one he did not. Ferelith shoved the woman and Szesh followed up with a much gentler but firm hand. He did not wish to hurt Heike's burned back, but time was of the essence, and he knew she could handle pain. "Go," he beckoned in an attempt to quell any resistance to this change of plans.

The tunnel was cramped, but he fit even with the extra armaments and the limp body over his shoulder. His eyes opened wide in the darkness and desperately soaked up any light they could salvage from the opening behind them. It twisted and curved upwards to the surface. Three times he scraped his horns on tree roots.

He heard voices behind them, but did not slow. If Ferelith wanted to slow down their attackers he was more than happy to let her. If she was trying to betray them to these new enemies then he wanted to get even further away.

The tunnel bent upwards more steeply until they were met by another trap door. Szesh inhaled deeply, but all he could smell was dirt. He hoped the tunnel had gone far enough to get them beyond the sight of Kara's party, and he waited for Heike to decide to open it.

He looked behind them to check for followers.

 

[Heike Eisen]

Insubordination.

Insubordination, threatening to dissolve the binding of Ferelith's yield to Heike. For while the acceptor had honorable duties to their charge, so to did the yielder--in turn--have duties to whom they have yielded. That was the proper way of things. A surrender was not a surrender without a submission to authority. And while it was regrettable that their situation was so incredibly tenuous (such that Heike did not even mind Ferelith temporarily arming herself) and even noting Ferelith's obviously inherent rebelliousness toward order, it still stood that said order must. Be. Maintained.

So Heike planted her foot hard when, once again, Ferelith challenged her authority by putting hands on her. Shoving her--a blaze of pain in the burns of her back. Her intent be damned, it went against the proper conduct of the yielded. Heike snapped her upper body around, partially raising her right hand aggressively--Herr Elias would have done the same. He would have already annulled the yield the first time Ferelith had acted out. Yes, the problem of the man outside the hatch remained, but Ferelith was the much closer threat.

It was only Szesh's hand and stable presence that made Heike disregard Herr Elias's--ironically enough--more draconian approach.

Go.

Heike's enraged eyes shifted from Ferelith to Szesh. Calmed. She had come within a hair's breadth of declaring Ferelith a combatant once more, despite her horrific negligence with her affliction and the small moment of bonding they had shared.

But with a nod to Szesh and deference to his wishes--for she owed him more for his grace and his help than she did to the maintenance of a strained yield--she hopped down into the hole and into the escape tunnel. Brief voices up and behind them--Heike and Szesh--as they started through the tunnel and left the refuge proper in their wake. Everything about this situation felt wrong, but it was their fate to be in such miserable circumstances.

The tunnel was not so long. Much to her chagrin, Heike followed Ferelith's directions, resolving only that if they proved wrong in some capacity that she would--if some trap did not decapitate her--go charging back to execute Ferelith herself. But the directions were sound.

Another trap door. Hard to tell how much distance they'd truly gained from the refuge's main entrance.

Heike put her right hand up to the door. Turned to Szesh. Said, "Can you fly, if it comes to it? We will abandon the bald man and Ferelith if we must; the loss of the third Catalyst as well would be regrettable, but...our deaths would not serve any just cause."

And, with that, Heike lowered her head to ensure the hood of her newly-acquired tunic would block the rays of the setting sun and pushed the trap door up and open. Reached and pulled herself up and out and back onto the surface of the forest floor, beside another thick tree and a gaggle of small bushes.

She surveyed her surroundings. Listened.

Kara Orin Szesh Ferelith Scathach

 

[Kara Orin]

Kara landed on the ground – knees bending sharply to absorb the impact. She just missed seeing Szesh and Heike disappear into the tunnel. However, she saw a figure wielding a claymore within the cave. Immediately upon seeing that, Kara drew her longsword. Runes on the blade shined with a blue light. She took a fighting stance and held the blade in Ferelith’s direction.

Since Ferelith seemed to entertain Kara’s wish for parley, Kara simply stood at the spot she landed. Callard and Shamih called for her – their combined voices sounding like a panicking couple crying for their child.

The tattoo on Ferelith’s arm reflected upon Kara’s eyes for a moment. A blink. Her sight did not dwell long on it, though.

With Ferelith asking for Kara to speak, the mage swiftly turned her own sword to the ground. She placed both hands on the pommel as if it was a cane. The runes on the sword continued to glow. She stood tall and tilted her chin up slightly.

“I’ve come for a glowing magic orb,” Kara informed Ferelith in plain terms.

No words in response to Ferelith's accusations of Kara being too young to be as she claimed. Though would a Maester of magic even care?

Lifting one hand off her sword, Kara pinched her fingers to give the money gesture.

“I’ve gold to trade, if you have it,” Kara proposed as the two catalysts grew further from her.

Meanwhile as Heike and Szesh would emerge from the tunnel into the forest, Kara’s companions would still be by the one, lonesome tree in the grasslands. With the sun slowly setting, Callard and Shamih’s non-vampiric eyes would be unable to see far, if at all, into the forest…

Ferelith Scathach Heike Eisen Szesh

 

[Szesh]

No one followed, at least none that he could see. Heike's tension was palpable, and the anger in her eyes at his touch had been frightening. It had faded almost immediately, though, and Szesh did not dwell on it.

He nodded at her question. "Yes, but not far." Carrying two bodies was possible, Heike was quite light, but it would be very difficult. They would also be very slow and clumsy, especially on takeoff. If at all possible, the need to flee quickly should be prevented.

He hoped that the sun had set low enough when Heike opened the door, and was glad that she did not succumb to this paralysis she had described. As quietly as possible, he emerged from the trap door. He passed Trajan out first, and followed behind, pulling his tail out and back behind himself as he shut the wood latch as quietly as he could.

They were luckily in deep shadows, but Szesh could see what they were up against. Two figures, one larger than the other, and both of them seemed fixated on the doorway to where Heike and Szesh had just been.

He tried to stay low and quiet. How long could they wait for Ferelith?

 

[Ferelith Scathach]

“Can’t say I’ve seen it. Don’t know much about magic. My apologies.” Ferelith said.

Her yellow eyes glowed in the darkness of the cave as they watched her foe for any movement even if her stance stayed relaxed in the face of the girls lack of showing signs of immensely threat even if she didn’t like the look of her foes glowing sword.

She held the girls gaze as a silent battle of wills took place only to be the first to break it. Her stance faltering nervously before she slightly regained her composure.

The girl before hers gaze was as intense as it was calculating. Much like her sisters she seemed to handle problems with words but seeing as she was armed it seemed she was neither foolish enough to believe her words or coin would always work or afraid of defending herself.

 

[Heike Eisen]

Heike helped pulled Trajan out when Szesh passed his unconscious body along, careful not to sink her claws inadvertently into the man's clothes and flesh. His appropriate justice would be served at the discretion of Captain Bronmarch and by the authority of the city of Alliria.

Heike stood close to the tree by the escape tunnel's trap door, her right shoulder pressing into the bark as she peeked her head around to take a glance back in the direction of the refuge's main hatch. Seeing with the clarity of her nightvision a few people gathered there.

To Szesh, she asked quietly, "What do you reckon they are? They don't quite have the disheveled appearance of bandits or raiders to my eye."

Then, something caught her interest. She squinted, even leaned her head forward some. Then said with a slight air of wonder, "Is that...an orc?"

A moment of registering seeing--for the first time--one of their kind passed.

"Hm."

Heike awaited Szesh's opinion. Such would help them collaboratively determine if they should stay, flee, or rush straight into combat against them--this, with the favorable element of surprise.

Kara Orin Szesh Ferelith Scathach

 

[Kara Orin]

“I’m coming down!” Callard yelled.

On the surface, Callard tied his horse to the tree and placed his spear on a strap on his back. Shamih, who as a female orc and was the larger of the two, remained on the surface as Callard got on the ladder to slowly descend.

Grassland separated Shamih and the dragon-vampire duo. The orc kept her eyes on the hatch. The chest with the untampered catalyst remained hidden somewhere…

Back underground, the brightness of the runes on Kara’s sword intensified.

“If not, then you must have heard its rattling a second ago,” Kara told Ferelith as her eyes narrowed.

Kara twisted her wrists. Her blade jerked just slightly. At that moment, a crack echoed within the cave. Before Ferelith would be a rune that appeared to have just materialized before her – as if someone took a chisel and carved it into the floor.

“Are you sure nothing of the sort is here?” Kara asked.

Ferelith Scathach Szesh Heike Eisen

 

[Szesh]

Szesh peered at the strange pair with Heike, squinting against the darkness. He could not hope to hide himself behind a tree, so he simply moved low and quiet, leaving Trajan's body on the ground behind them. The man had been unconscious, and Szesh was confident he wasn't going anywhere.

Heike was right, they did not appear to be common bandits, and his jaw grew tense as she revealed that one of them was an orc. That sealed it. "Likely other bounty hunters," he said in a hissing whisper. The horses seemed well cared for, from what he could make out, but something was off.

No bounty hunters would take their eyes off their surroundings. Not good ones, anyway. The pair both peered into the hole, into which Szesh assumed the rider of the third horse had gone. At least one of them should be a look out.

The smaller one descended with a shout, and the orc remained. Still they looked at the trap door and not at the pair above ground.

"But... stupid." He added. His vocabulary in the common tongue was not sophisticated enough to describe the myriad of flaws he had seen in the pair. The failure of observation, the loud shouting and plunging into a dark and unknown pit, these suggested that there would be further errors made by the trio.

The situation was difficult. Szesh did not have a problem with leaving Ferelith to these people... or at least, he hadn't thought that he would, but the idea gnawed at him. She could give the pair of them away, as she knew where they were going with the catalysts. Also, he could not help but feel a tiny bit of pity for the woman given her new curse. Heike's unbreakable sense of duty had started to remind him of the soldier's code he once followed. It was... inconvenient.

 

[Ferelith Scathach]

“Um..I..might have seen it...” Ferelith said stepping back slightly moving from a passive stance to a ready one. “She handed it to me before they fled.” Ferelith said dropping her stance for a moment as she held her sword hand forward signing for her to wait for a moment.

Her left hand not clutching the claymore dug around in the side pocket of the small bag she wore on her back with her bow and quiver.

“Ah! Here it is.” She said producing no glowing orb but her quite empty hand making quite a rude gesture. “I think I may have two more if your willing to pay extra, but after that I think I may be all out of em to give.” Ferelith said sinking back into a ready stance.

Her tone light and sarcastic if not slightly friendly. However as she sank into her ready stance once more her eyes narrowed and her tone was cold.

“I’m no more a snitch than you are a maester. I’ll tell someone of the college nothing. Now common.” Ferelith spat. “Your first shot better be a..” Ferelith continued until another dropped into the chamber as well. “..good ones?” Ferelith faltered only to steel herself once more.

She knew that shape the college brat had summoned..

were had she seen it.

She tried to step back from it slightly without compromising her stance on both the symbol and the two foes she now faced.

 

[Heike Eisen]

Other bounty hunters. Anyone's guess, then, if they were the sort who retained some degree of honor or the sort that would kill their fellows for their own gain. Such was murder, of course, not a mercenary act of battle. If the bounty hunters did indeed have a legitimate bounty in which to pursue, that changed the matter.

And if these bounty hunters did have such a bounty on Ferelith? It was entirely possible, if far removed from likelihood; it seemed more plausible to be the case that these bounty hunters were after the Catalysts alone, rather than after the Catalysts and coincidentally also having a bounty notice with Ferelith's description on it in their back pockets.

The situation was a labyrinth of complications. First, the bounty hunter conclusion was little more than an educated assumption. Then, if the assumption proved correct, were they honorable or dishonorable. Did they have a legitimate bounty on Ferelith (which Heike would defer to, and allow them custody of her). But what about Heike's Oath of Honor and the duty of care to those in her custody, if in the case of dishonorable bounty hunters or bandits or open hostility of some stripe? What trumped what, her Oath of Honor in that regard or her Oath of Justice with regard to the bald man, who--other than the wizard himself--was the only (seemingly) non-mercenary left alive who potentially had knowledge about the whole theft of the Catalysts to begin with. Could Heike even try to uphold her Oath of Honor with regard to Ferelith, given her embattled state? Could Ferelith even still be considered yielded, given how she was now armed, on her own, and had blatantly forgone her own duties of surrender? And all this did not even touch upon the broiling core of guilt Heike suffered in the pit of her chest for having allowed for Ferelith to become afflicted.

Heike had to make a decision.

And she made one.

"If we hear the sounds of combat," she said, looking to Szesh with the firmness of cold iron, "then we abandon the girl. It will by necessity have to be done. She made her choice, and we will have to make ours. And I cannot risk combat, wounded as I am, out in even the waning glare of the sun. It is a damnable situation, but we must secure what we have in this case, instead of to foolishly risk losing it all."

The deciding factor: Heike owed more to Captain Bronmarch and Szesh than she did to Ferelith. Period. And with Ferelith's yield in reasonable question (seeing as how she was no longer dependent upon Heike for her own defense), the best course of action leaned in favor of her Oath of Justice.

And never had Heike faced such an astounding conundrum in her knighthood before this.

Szesh Kara Orin Ferelith Scathach

 

[Kara Orin]

As Ferelith went digging in her pouch, the runes on Kara’s sword slightly faded. She stood still as she watched the girl pull a prank and taunt.

Just after that, Callard made it to the bottom. He stepped off the ladder to see Kara and Ferelith. Spotting the claymore, Callard awkwardly tried to pull out his spear. The cave walls made wielding long weapons an effort – at least where Callard was.

In response to Ferelith’s gesture, Kara just said, “Okay.”

Ferelith’s actions and words made it clear she either did not possess a Catalyst or that she would not part from it for wealth. That and the markings that Kara saw left the mage with one course of action…

As Kara glanced behind Ferelith, she asked, “Have you been to Elbion?”

CRACK​

kaPOW​

Kara possessed no interest in hearing Ferelith’s answer. She spoke only to distract Ferelith.

In the moment just after Kara spoke, the runes on her sword flashed. A second rune materialized on the cave wall behind Ferelith. It was positioned so that the bandit stood between it and the first rune in a line. Once the second one fully carved itself, both runes activated. A bolt of blue lightning thundered between the two runes.

If Ferelith failed to defend herself or leap out of the way, the lightning could do no more than stun her. There was a moment of time for her to attempt something.

On the surface, Shamih heard the thunderous spell via the hatch. Depending on Szesh’s and Heike’s hearing, they might hear thunder as well even with the ground acting as a sound insulator. The horses stirred.

“What’s going on?!” Shamih yelled loudly into the hole.

Ferelith Scathach Heike Eisen Szesh

 

[Szesh]

Szesh turned his heavy head to look at Heike as she made her decision. He had no qualms about this plan, as guilt was a feeling he had grown quite used to. Was it right of them to leave the girl after she had provided them with shelter? Who was to say? Szesh had not had to think much about right and wrong in recent decades, and there was no small comfort in slipping away from such judgements now. "Agreed," he answered, and stretched the fingers of his wings in unconscious preparation.

He still did not fully understand Heike. He knew enough of soldiers and their codes of ethics, but to stand by them so fiercely in undeath was strange to him. Szesh had been decidedly discharged of his duties in shame, but did not death remove Heike from her vows? Her resolved was admirable, but he did not envy the effort involved nor the pitfalls of rigid morals in flexible sitations.

There was a loud crack and a flash of blue light from the underground room. Was this the sounds of combat that they were waiting for? It had only been a moment since the noise, but it felt endless. The wind seemed to stop and hold the leaves it had been carrying motionless in the air. Background noises faded away, and uncertain silence filled Szesh's ears as he waited for the next sound. His eyes were trained on the orc, stationary, over the trap door and in his periphery stood Heike, shrouded in dark cloth, unmoving beside him.

After half a second that stretched for ages, the orc broke the silence by calling out into the hole. Szesh stood tall and rushed back to Trajan. Unless that light and thunder had been a very aggressive greeting, they would be leaving shortly.

 

[Ferelith Scathach]

Ferelith was many things.

A skilled combatant, a fierce fighter, and extremely easily distracted. She couldn’t help herself. Thus when the girl spoke Ferelith have her far too much attention.

Her sister was the one that watched her back while she foucused in combat. Her skills a mere blade of a set pair being used separately with much less effective results.

“Aye I have and I won’t be going back for a-.” The lightening struck her as she fell to her knees.

Her magic suppression gifted by her newly found vampirism keeping her less mentally stunned, but the electrical charge locked her muscles effectively as it would naturally.

Magic fire burned her wether it was natural or summoned. Lightening shocked, fire burnt, and earth crushed whether a wizard brought it out or nature.

“And here I was thinking you had a sense of humor.” Ferelith struggled out from her knees as she tried to bide time for feeling to come back to her limbs. Small arcs of blueish lightening would run up random parts of her body for moments before it finally seemed to subside.

Using all the willpower she had to keep from slumping forward she continued.

“Maybe it was the icy glare, or the creepy tone, but what can I say? I just feel like you have a load of friends, and I say to myself. Ferelith. This is a girl that knows how to laugh.”

She continued to gasp out maintaining a sarcastic tone should Kara stay where she was, or a sarcastic tone that would begin to become more nervous and desperate as the girl grew closer.

 

[Heike Eisen]

And there it was. Ferelith had not been able to talk her way out of the clearly hostile intentions of the bounty hunters. Was it possible that Ferelith had struck first? Yes, and it was all the more reason to slip away. For if Ferelith felled the hunters and then turned her ire to Heike and Szesh in a bid to win her freedom, such would be perilous for them, given the terrible strength and tenacity Ferelith possessed. Could she be paralyzed by the sun? Yes. But so could Heike.

Duty might well call for the sacrifice of one's life, but this was not such an occasion. Owing to an old saying, this was an occasion which required discretion. It was the best Heike could do to remember Ferelith, remember those two bounty hunters, and dispense appropriate justice if and when she was truly able.

Szesh was already collecting up the bald man's unconscious body. And Heike followed after him, keeping the tree between herself and the line of the sight of the bounty hunter who still stood by the hatch of the refuge.

"We'll stay low and quiet until we've gone far enough away," Heike said, taking her own advice and slightly crouch-walking. "Back through the trees. And Szesh, if anything happens."

She took a moment to stop, look back at him, and say with conviction, "I will not leave you behind. You have my word."

Heike gave a small nod, a hidden perk of a smile beneath her mask, and then started deeper into the forest. Farther away from the beaten path and the secret hatch.

Szesh Kara Orin Ferelith Scathach

 

[Kara Orin]

Callard watched what happened. He replied to Shamih with, “Uh, Kara’s doing a thing. Just keep an eye out…”

“Right,” Shamih responded as she looked around.

The sun continued to dip under the horizon. From where Shamih stood, the forest seemed to be covered in total darkness. Unless Heike or Szesh made loud noises or sudden movements, Shamih would fail to notice them.

Back underground, Kara lifted her sword up with her right hand. The runes continued to give off a blue glow. Kara sighed. The fact that Ferelith remained conscious indicated to Kara that the bandit possessed a hardier constitution than the normal human.

Taking a step forward, Kara pointed her sword at the ground near Ferelith. Another crack rang out as a rune formed. This time, Kara activated it immediately and the rock shot out toward Ferelith.

The spell’s purpose was to pin Ferelith at the waist to the nearest wall and thus immobilize her. With Ferelith having received a shock, Kara could assume it would be more difficult for Ferelith to dodge this spell than normally.

The temperature of the cave fell slightly with the activation of the rune. The stone itself would feel as cold as ice to the touch.

If Ferelith got caught, Kara would say, “If you have something to offer, I’ll give you your freedom.”

Just as the most persistent merchants in Elbion, if a potential customer did not have a need for her services then Kara sought to create one…

 

[Szesh]

Szesh nodded at Heike’s plan. Low and quiet would do well. Difficult for sure, being as he was nearly eight feet tall and carrying another sizeable person, but he would do his best. He tucked his wings as much as he could and crouched, keeping his tail close to the ground. The catalyst and hammer at his belt beat against his legs with soft thuds.

She assured him that she would not leave him behind, and he appreciated this. He had not considered that she would, but he was also carrying the cargo that was precious to her. It was nice to hear an affirmation of comradery, and it drew up long forgotten feelings within him. ”I know,” he answered, which in his own way told her that he would not be abandoning her, either.

The woods only grew thicker as they moved on. It was dark and tangled, and very reminiscent of the grove in which he had first seen the vampire. They had come a long was from interrogating thieves strung up by their wrists, although the bloodshed had magnified tenfold.

The usual host of mortal wants plagued Szesh as they moved. Hunger, thirst, fatigue. He did not wish to share Heike and Ferelith’s curse, but needing only one source of sustenance must have perks. He wondered how his life would be if it were free from hunger or tiredness. He wasn’t sure he’d know what to do with himself without these simple motivators.

He followed behind Heike, her vision infinitely superior to his in the steadily darkening night. He heard another loud crack in the distance and wondered how Ferelith was doing. At the very least she was keeping their trackers busy.

 

[Ferelith Scathach]

Ferelith had barely risen when the rock came for her. Her legs still to weak to react she was pinned effectively to the wall.

“C-cold?” Was all she could manage to struggle out in her surprise. “Stupid mages..” She said snort of frustration a glare cutting into Karas eyes. “Ha! Someone from the college offering me freedom?” She said with a raised eyebrow.

“You can forget it. I’m not letting you know a damn thing just so you can haul me off back to her..” Ferelith snarled using her massive amounts of strength gifted by her condition as a vampire and an arcane enhanced human. Bringing both her hands down in a hammer fisted blow she shattered the rock.

Heike had to be out of the tunnel now but rather than lead them down to directly where her friends (so to speak.) were she decided to take the direct exit.

She didn’t know what other tricks this mage had under her sleeve but she wasn’t about to find out.

Should she remain with the upper hand...

She would utilize her strength to aid her speed she would launch from the wall like a sprinter from blocks as she shot past Kara and her friend sliding under his spear as he awkwardly tried to swing it to block her path.

“Good luck with your search though you little creep!” Ferelith said pausing to stick her tongue at the girl before darting up the ladder. The orc waiting for her up top would be shoved aside as Ferelith shot from the entrance like a bullet.

“Stupid idiots! You’ll..” She called back as she left the shade of the tree and direct sunlight hit her uncovered body like an anvil from the heavens.

“What’s going on..” Ferelith said as she stumbled and face planted into the ground leaving a decent sized trench her entire body seeming to lock up like unoiled gears. The thought flashed to her brain.

“Total paralysis in direct sunlight..” Heikes words ran through her mind.

She was helpless now.

 

[Heike Eisen]

Evening would be giving way to night soon, but even now it seemed sufficient enough. The trees of the forest and the brush and the sparse rays of the waning sun made their escape clean. And soon the lazy hills would provide defilade to perfectly conceal their movements.

They went along, the only heralds of their departure the soft crunches and snaps of leaves and twigs under their feet. Yet these were hardly cause for concern, given their significant distance from the hunters and the hatch.

Heike stayed close to Szesh, careful not to go too far. The lowness of the sun provided a dim level of light that was perhaps just a few small steps removed from night's darkness, but still, she did not wish for a careless separation. To Heike's eyes the whole of the forest was revealed in mostly grayscale, with only a faint touch of color to indicate the dimness of the dying day.

"Here," Heike said. Her voice an octave above a whisper. "Down this slope."

And she went off to her left, more directly toward the downward slope she had mentioned. Went down into what may once have been a riverbed at some distant point in the past. She stopped crouch-walking, stood up straight, now that the slope helped block sight of them. The trench of the old riverbed meandered in a generally westward direction, which was fortunate as well. They could follow it for a while, and emerge once they'd put sufficient distance between themselves and the hunters.

Heike walked through the shallow trench, aware now of the scratching of the thirst in her throat. More rest would be good for her injuries to further heal, of course, but she would awaken bloodstarved and weak. She knew instinctively that she would need to feed before she rested. And she could not do so from the bald man--such might kill him, given the horrific quality of his wounds and the associated bloodloss.

Perhaps they would come across a small village in the night. It absolutely pained Heike to think in these terms, to think as a predator--a vile creature of the dark--would.

But such was her lot. It was a terrible thought, but...if Ferelith succumbed to the hunters, then at least she would not be made to suffer the same.

Szesh Kara Orin Ferelith Scathach