Private Tales Something Amiss

[Kaska]

The ghouls dropped limp to the ground around them, swinging swords following their inertia before clashing down to the ground as well.

Kaska's ears rung dimly, her fingers numb and tingling as she slowly lowered her own weapon and looked around in confusion.

Oh.

The realization followed almost too slowly. The liche. She tore off almost clumsily from the group, hands and feet clamoring over bodies as she went for the tower door. Up and up she went, her breath leaving her at the effort. She spilled in through the antichamber, taking one look at the crumpled remains of the liche's clothing before running to Lia's side.

"Lia? Lia!" She grabbed at the woman's armor, forcing her to sit up and expose her face.

 

[Lia]

Lia began to blink rapidly, her head was spinning, her ears were ringing. It seemed like the entire tower had fallen down onto her head and knocked her twice.

As she managed to fully open her eyes she looked around, vision blurred even at the slightest movement of her head. Lips thinned, and she looked at Kaska as she spoke. The words were lost within the ringing in her ears, a distant echo that might have been something long ago. "WHAT!?"

She yelled at the top of her lungs, though in truth she didn't mean to.

A hand came up, though half of her wasn't entire sure if it was actually her own. She touched her forehead, feeling the slight trail of blood from a cut on top of her head.

She frowned, vision still blurred as she glanced at her fingers.

"IS IT DEAD?" Lia called out, still not entirely clear.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska grimaced, helping Lia sit herself back against the wall before releasing her and crumbling to her rear in a wave of relief. She glanced backwards, catching sight of Leane tending to Saul, then the sparse remains of the liche. There was only scraps of clothing, its sword, and a crown to identify it, but it was enough.

"Yes," she told Lia, nodding softly as she turned back to her comrade. She dropped her sword and tore off her neck guard, relieving herself of its uncomfortable bite. "Careful, I think you have a concussion." She took Lia's hand, not wanting her to mess with the wound and get it dirty.

"Is he okay?" She called over her shoulder to Leane.

 

[Lia]

The Templar woman nodded, though the Commander seemed to be no better off than Lia.

Both of them had been standing practically right next to the Lich when it had exploded. For the Sergeants part though she seemed to at least be aware of the fact that the creature was dead, though any word that Kaska had spoken were still lost to the ringing.

A frown touched her lips. "THE GHOULS?"

She was still yelling.

Both of her hands came to the side of her head, pressing her ears in a desperate attempt to get rid of the ringing that seemed to be knocking down on her skull.

It was hard to think, though in truth the ringing in her head was the only source of her pain. Her head shook again, and she watched as Saul stood up from the floor and asked Leane something.

 

[Kaska]

"Dead," Kaska told her, releasing Lia's wrists and turning to the other rangers. "You alright?" She asked the one that was already up on their own. He nodded, to which she responded with a wordless gesture that he help the other one still down.

Kaska reached into her waistband and pulled out a charcoal pencil. Wordlessly, she pulled away Lia's hands, licked the end of the nib and drew out a ruin on the woman's forehead.

Heal.

It wasn't in the Ranger training, it wasn't a spell that responded so easily to the disinclined. At least with the tracking ruin, Lia had a chance at pulling magic into a reaction. Kaska, however, found she always had better luck with that stuff. And so once again, her extra studying paid off. The basic heal ruin kicked up, giving Lia a boost of ... basic healing.

"Don't rub it off." She said firmly, speaking slow so Lia could understand.

Kaska stood, leaving Lia to recover as she did the same to their other two men. She knelt before before Saul last, expression very stern as she prepared for resistance again.

"Don't be stupid again," she grumbled, her attempt at asking for permission as she raised it slowly to his head.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul waved her away. "It won't work."

He insisted simply, notably speaking at a lower volume.

"Plus, I'm not as bad off as her." The Templar Commander pointed towards Lia. The explosion from the Lich had been a surprise, but not one he hadn't exactly been unprepared for. It was after all magical, and unlike Lia he had the gift of anti-magic.

As Leane had already made sure, the only hurt that Saul had endured was the cut on his side and being thrown back against the wall. For the latter he needed no medical attention, and the former...a basic healing rune wouldn't do much of anything for it.

He frowned, glancing at the black blade which now lay on the floor.

"I need to check on my men." He said gruffly. No doubt some of the bandits will have sensed their Masters death, but they still outnumbered those who had pulled them away. "I need some of your archers."

Saul addressed Kaska, not the recovering Lia who was clearly still trying to work the ringing out of her ear.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska sighed, shoving the nib away. Wasn't likely to really do much, anyway. But with a faceless injury like a head wound, it was all that could be done. She glanced back at Lia, trying to bite back her concern and focus. They were still in a battle here. She clipped her neck guard back into place, ignoring her own aches as she strode across the room.

"Well lets go get them then. Pias, stay with these two. Don't let Lia up yet." She knelt before the woman, cusping her face and neck to bring the woman's attention to her.

"Listen, I know in a moment or two you're gonna want to get up and help, but you hit your head hard and there's magical shit out there. Just lay low and I'll get our people back, okay?" She asked, trying for just a moment to catch her eyes and help steady her.

 

[Saul Talith]

Lia stared up at Kaska for a moment with a face full of determination, but after a moment she simply nodded her head in affirmation. Saul couldn't help but smile, then pointed at the black sword which now lay on the floor. "Don't touch that until I get back."

The Commander did not quite yet understand what that was, but he could feel something...off with the weapon.

When it had been into his side there had been an attempt to do something, some foul magic that only his training had prevented. He was afraid that if any of them picked it up they would fall to whatever effect had tried to take him. Best not to toy with those sorts of thing.

"Come on." He motioned to Kaska and Leane, practically running out of the broken down door.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska didn't peel of for another moment, holding Lia's gaze until she was absolutely sure that reason had found the woman inside her disorientation.

She grabbed at her sword and nodded to Pias, running after the Templar to assist with the bandits.

"You know you can bleed out in the head," she grumbled at Saul, clearly not over his stubborn refusal.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul rolled his eyes. "You can also die from beating your head against a wall."

It was more a comment on her own stubbornness than anything else. Though he insisted that her runes would not work on him, it was of course deeper than that.

The fact of the matter was that Saul didn't want magic used on him.

Any sort of magic. There was reason for it, reason beyond having grown up within the Templar. He would not go into them here, not when they were about to charge into battle. So he stayed tight lipped, leading Kaska out of the gates of the Fortress and down the main road.

Just ahead he heard echoing shouts, the sounds of battle calling to them.

 

[Kaska]

"You would know," came the grumbling rebuttal, and then it was dropped, the sounds of the battle ahead sobering her.

She drew her sword, her arm's weariness shaking away. A biting pain nipped at her shoulder, a flickering suspicion that she knocked something out of place during the fall hit her thoughts before it too faded to the distance. On the wall she saw her men. "Hoy!" A wave of her sword brought their attention round about to her. She spoke sideways to Saul. "From their positions, or down with swords," she asked briskly.

 

[Saul Talith]

"With us." He answered curtly.

The Bandits would be outnumbering his men almost two to one. The criminals would not yet know that they had lost their Master, but that would be a driving force.

They weren't going to attempt to kill every single Bandit, in fact they weren't even going to try to fight. Not really. That would have been foolish.

"We just need to break them." He explained quickly. "Run into their backline and route them."

Then let them run.

As he spoke Saul began to pick up speed, his armor beginning to softly clink as he began to run down the road.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska briskly called them down, barking her orders as a walk turned into a sprint, then a run as the eight rangers fell into place behind her. The hiss of drawing swords filled the air, and they charged.

The group flooded in from the side, taking the bandits by surprise and flattening the first line they crashed into.

The bandits cried out, for a moment fightening valiantly back. But then no reinforcements came in. No ghouls and no master to save their hide against the trained warriors that suddenly matched them in number.

The first mercenary noticed this ... and he fled, turning heel and fleeing for his life as Kaska charged on him.

 

[Saul Talith]

The fighting, if it could even be called that, was swift.

Bandits were not soldiers. They were not men who trained in the art of war, who stuck with each other through thick and thin, who knew how to fight. They were bandits, cowards who only went after the weakest prey.

The Templar that had lured them away had been a smaller force, small enough to take on, but the moment someone attacked form the rear? It was the only sign that they had, the only sign that they could take. Immediately the mercenaries broke, some scattering, others attempting to surrender.

There was no fight.

Just one swift victory as Saul and the other Rangers cut through the backline of the Bandits and they broke.

 

[Kaska]

The moment it was over, control gained upon the area, Kaska barked an order for Thren and one other to go up to the tower and retrieve the injured. Best not leave Lia stewing for too long, she knew... dangerous game, that would be.

For her part, she sheathed her sword and fell to her knees besides a bleeding Templar, her tunic ripped to provide bandages for a large gash across their leg. "The rest alright?" She howled to Saul, almost manic in a desperate need for it to be so.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul stepped up, two of the Templar that had commanded the bait force were with him, one whispering something in his ear. A large frown appeared on his face. "It's over."

At least for now. Though they had no telling just what else there was laying on the horizon. He still had his doubts about the Lich working for itself, particularly given where it was located and what had brought it here. There was doubt, something he couldn't quite bring right in his mind.

"We lost seven." Not a bad number, all things considered.

Seven men for a Lich and a host of undead.

"We'll need to investigate the fortress." And he would have to get that sword.

 

[Kaska]

The number struck Kaska across the face, blatant shock rippling through her features. "Wha-wha-I'm so sorry," was all that could fall from her mouth, her fingers forgetting their task on the man's leg as her heart fell heavily into her stomach.

 

[Saul Talith]

"It's alright." The fact was not a pleasant one, but it could not be avoided.

Those seven men had known what they were in for, had known that they might die doing their duty. It was part of being a Templar, part of working for a greater good within this world.

"We were lucky." He mused quietly. "That Lich could have killed ten more."

Not to mention all the damage it could have done down the road. "It was a good trade."

Perhaps that sounded callous, but for the Templar? It was only another day in their war.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska couldn't see it that way. She had brought those men in. She had been the reason why they were called on. Numbers like that did not fall often for Rangers. Not in groups, and not before Kaska.

She abruptly understood why Templars had often held her people in contempt. And what was worse-- they faced a chance to share a grave threat together, and still, it was the Templars that paid in blood. Not the rangers.

Her shock did not dissipate. And maybe Saul would consider her green for it, at the moment she had no space for an ego to care. 7 dead. That was near the size of her whole group.

She shook her head, letting it hang respectful remorse. "May their gods receive them warmly," she breathed, speaking past the knot in her throat.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul only smiled at that, finding that he had nothing to say to her.

The Templar had not been a religious order for many Millenia now, though some still clung to the old gods or the new. Saul wasn't one of them, but those that had died would have their wishes respected. Always would.

"They will be remembered." The Commander side finally.

After a few more seconds he took a breath.

"Come on." Saul motioned to her, offering her a hand up as one of the other Templar came for his injured brethren. "Lets head back to your boss."

 

[Kaska]

Kaska took the hand, grunting at the title he gave Lia. "Don't remiiiind her of that, will you?" She huffed, taking a slower walk back the way they had first come. She was aching now and favoring her left arm. She had her own gashes, all four that had fought down at the courtyard did. But she was alive and moving, so for the first time yet she didn't level a complaint.

"She's gonna get prooomoted from this." Her nose crinkled, her lips pulled back at a realization. "Fuck. We both are."

 

[Saul Talith]

He chuckled. "Is that so objectionable?"

Most people would have craved that.

Saul might have at one point in time, though now that he was a Commander that ambition no longer plagued him. The only way that he could be promoted now was...well unpleasant to him. The Lord Captain was not someone he wanted gone. The Old Man had always been good to him.

"Take it as opportunity." Saul said quietly. "Maybe stop some of the animosity between our Orders with your new found power."

It was a small wish, but one he had nonetheless.

 

[Kaska]

The words did not fail to shock and humble her altogether. She looked up at him with furrowed brows. Of all the types of character she expected from a man like him, this was not it.

She was stuck silent for a moment before simply nodding in a silent vow to do exactly that. Her mouth opened to say something just as Thren's tall head appeared around the curve of the road, Lia's shorter frame with it. Kaska kicked up into a run without thought, clanking to their side in a huff. "It's done. The bandits have fled." Are you alright?

The question didn't leave her mouth, but the way her eyes sharply looked over Lia spoke volumes.

 

[Lia]

"Dizzy." She answered quietly, though frowned for a moment after she spoke.

The blast had been powerful, though not strong enough to make her feel this bad. She had been knocked around before, but she felt as though every bit of her was aching and then some. Her lips thinned for a brief moment and she glanced over towards the Templar Commander.

"It's the Lich's magic. You'll feel weak for a day or so."
​

She frowned. "As long as it's dead."

The Commander didn't answer directly, but he took off his helmet and slowly nodded. It was all the confirmation that Lia needed, allowing a breathing to fall through her lips.

"Thank fuck." The Sergeant said quietly.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska reached out, frowning as she saw the ruin was already smudged from sweat over Lia's brow. Concern for her blossomed in Kaska's gut, causing a sharp whiplash of emotions. Coulda died. Seriously, coulda died.

She wiped it off with her thumb and fussed with her pockets for a moment before huffing in a realization. "Wait, it's magic? You can stop it then. Get it out of her," she ordered sharply.