Fate - First Reply The Adventurous Seven

[Kalia Oro Khastan]

Never before had bandits or raiders ever been so bold, and never before had the local lord been so helpless to do anything about them, indeed it was all he could do to keep himself safe that he didn't have the men to spare to provide protection to the village. Raids were regular, they stole food, supplies, gold, women, and anything else of value to such a large army of men who lived in the forest.
These were no mere bandits, but a whole contingent of deserters, soldiers that once served their lord but have now rebelled to do as they please, leaving the lord diminished with only barest few that were sufficient to protect his keep.

Eventually the villagers couldn't take it anymore. Where lords and soldiers failed, adventurers were always there to get the job done. So the word went out to the nearest guild, who in turn spread the word in a contract. Any who could come and deal with these bandits will be richly rewarded! since the village has had all means of payment stripped from them, the guild has agreed to pay the reward and make this a guild mission. In return, once the contract is complete the village will pay back the guild directly once their affairs have been returned to normal.

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Kalia Oro Khastan answered the call. He rode into the village on the back of a wagon that came from another village sending relief supplies. The adventurer that came with the much needed tools and food was an added bonus.
The midday sun glinted off the golden plating of his armor, ancient relics of a bygone age that might bring a fortune if sold to a museum. His golden face mask gazed at the village and took in its features.
The village had no walls to speak of, it sat in the middle of a clearing with no natural features to be made use of besides a trampled and ruined crop field.

The village elder caught sight of the golden adventurer and rushed to meet him. It was as if prayers were finally answered! Someone had finally come to help them be rid of the raiding deserters and bring them some hope for a bright future. He ran toward the man, but his footsteps slowed as he drew near and his eyes began to comprehend the sheer size of this adventurer, who loomed taller and taller as the elder drew closer.
The adventurer stood, like a golden statue depicting a god. His face only a mask which held the likeness of a face, who knows whose face it was. But the fact that this adventurer worse such magnificent armor gave him hope that he was a quality adventurer!

"Welcome to Dunderstahd village stranger. You're an adventurer, correct? It's such a relief to see you, sir! You have no idea how much we have suffered at the hands of these raiders. They made up nearly the entire garrison of the lords private fighting force, and since any of our men capable of fighting were killed nearly immediately, we've had no way to deal with this threat!"
Kalia looked down at the village elder, and would have smiled if such a gesture would have been seen behind his mask, so he did the next best thing and gave a heartwarming laugh followed by some grand boasting that might be expected of an adventurer.
"Ha Ha Ha! Do not worry about your little bandit problem. Kalia Khastan is here to protect you!"

If he was being honest, he didn't see much hope for defending the village. Had he been in charge he would never have allowed a village to be so poorly fortified, especially when monsters and bandits are a common threat. Though he could understand if the lord were too greedy or too poor to be able to fortify the village properly. His rule ensured that money was no issue when it came to anything. Just by himself he posed a very small threat to the reported army of a hundred or more that made camp in an abandoned ruin within the forest.
The villagers were not fighters, and even if he trained them up he doubted they would survive those odds.

 

[Heike Eisen]

There was a myth that vampires did not have reflections. Heike did not know if there was a grain of truth in the myth, if some other 'strain' of vampirism through some means robbed those afflicted of their reflection in both water and glass. It was not so for Heike; like the twisting of a knife, it was an additional cruelty that she should be made to see what she had become, how her condition had so warped her.

Heike stood inside a long housing quarters in a small, abandoned camp outside a salt mine. Doors and shutters creaked in the wind, the buildings of the camp few in number. Tents had been erected outside the quarters, such was the influx of men either looking for work or sent to it in the newly discovered mine. But something happened, a sizable desertion of the local lord's army. The miners had perhaps fled or joined with these soldiers turned raiders; whatever happened, there were no bodies nor blood nor signs of fighting. These things Heike did not know, nor did she yet know of Dunderstahd and the contract put out by them.

As she walked through the rows of cots in the quarters, she saw the ghost of her reflection in the glass of a window. The light of the waning sun was just so, filtering in through another window behind her, and there on the glass she faced she saw herself.

There was nobody here; she would have heard them. A small diversion was fine. She casually walked to the window. Leaned forward. Carefully pulled down her mask with a claw--a change brought on by her affliction that she needed no reflection to see. If not for the yellow eyes staring back, it could have been her. Herr Heike Eisen, Knight-Valiant of Reikhurst. The pallor of her skin seemed lessened in the faint reflection, as was the graying of her hair.

Her hair.

She touched the lock of it she had cut almost two weeks ago. It had grown back. Back to the length it had been before she cut it.

Her hair was the same length it as when she had been afflicted. It grew no further, and if cut, always grew back to that prescribed length, as if it demanded to be frozen in time, perfectly capturing that point of violent transition between Heike having that which she loved held tight to her bosom and the sudden bleeding away of all such things.

* * * * *​

Along the road she walked.

The oppressive sun of the new day showered Arethil in its deadly gaze from the sky above. Heike had the small hood of her coat up, her head bowed, her shawl draped from her shoulders and her arms and claws hidden inside. There was a slight chill today. Good. Many people bundled up and walked like monks in such weather. It would raise less suspicion.

A small sign with the name of the village she approached: Dunderstahd. There was no shade of the trees, the meager comfort of it gone in the clearing and the tilled field which surrounded the village. Heike had come to loath open landscapes during the day, especially if the sun shined without any interruption from clouds. Nothing to block the direct sunlight if she walked into a set of bad circumstances that exposed even the smallest portion of her flesh to it; having to fight, flee, her hood could fall down or her clothes could be ripped, and there would be no island of welcoming shadow to aid her before the paralysis became complete.

She walked along the road through the village, aware of the collection of glances from the villagers coming her way. Most were simply curious at the presence of a newly arrived stranger, a few were the looks of politely-hidden wariness she'd grown used to, another few were the looks of open suspicion she'd grown used to far more, and some, oddly, were looks of blossoming hope. Peculiar.

Heike listened as she walked. Idle conversations were a good place to start when canvassing a town for information. Little investment, little risk, taverns after that. Someone here likely knew something about the abandoned salt mining camp. If it was abandoned for reasons political or monetary or practical, so on, then it was none of Heike's concern. But if bandits were involved, raiders, thugs, any variety of the guilty, then Heike would see to it that justice found them.

She could feel the encroaching thirst. That scratching, mild now, at the back of her throat. She did not want to prey upon the villagers of Dunderstahd if she did not have to.

And she would not. Heike heard as she approached the opposite end of the small village a conversation which first captured her curiosity, and then her attention.

...had no way to deal with this threat!

Ha Ha Ha! Do not worry about your little bandit problem. Kalia Khastan is here to protect you!

Heike stopped for a moment. Carefully raised her head to look up and at who was talking: An elderly man, and an absolute mountain of a warrior. Kalia Khastan, he had said. He had a...surprisingly jolly demeanor for a man of such immense height. If he was a man, it was difficult to tell with the (much more ornate) mask of his own, but such heights seemed to Heike rare even for other races. The races she knew of, at least.

She didn't want to approach either of them. Not here, not in the middle of a settlement while outside during daylight hours--far too much risk. But she didn't need to. This Kalia had come to aid Dunderstahd with its bandit problem. He would be told where he ought to go, or he would set out on his own. She could follow him. Speak to him, perhaps, in a more private or secluded circumstance.

So Heike didn't let her glance at him and the village elder linger long. She glanced about, turning this way, looking, turning that way, looking. Just another traveler, a little lost in a new town.

 

[Kalia Oro Khastan]

Even through the elders skeptical chuckle it seemed Kalia's show of bravado put the elder a bit more at ease. Optimism was a good start, no good strategy was made in hopelessness. Desperation, perhaps, but a broken people were never able to carry out any effective plan. Being in an undead state allowed him little in the way of feeling true emotion... Actually, it allowed him nothing at all. But he endeavored to not let this effect the kind of man he was, and now worked to immitate.

Things seemed normal enough at this time of day, though evidence of their dire situation was everywhere. The main road cutting through the middle of the village appeared to be lined with market stalls that once sold many wares to travelers and merchants, but now stood empty except for the few that were able to exchange supplies for supplies with what little they had left.
Food was now more valuable than gold in this village, and a quick look around told Kalia that either they were out trying to provide for the village, or the hunters were now dead.

The sick, elderly, and the women and children seemed to be the only surviving inhabitants of this village, men and women that were barely able to tend their fields. Livestock pens stood empty already, probably among the first things to be forcefully taken. He had seen such situations during his life, non of his holdings suffered like this of course, but he had seen more than his share of pillage infected villages from neighboring and allied kingdoms.

While an unwalled village like this may have been used to fighting off monsters on a regular basis, and might even have had a militia prepared, they stood no chance against a trained force of armed soldiers. Kalia wanted to walk around the village, get a better read of the situation and exactly what he had to work with besides a few sickly farmers.

Food was still an issue, even with the wagon of fresh supplies. He doubted that wagon would make it back home in one piece, they must have gotten lucky to have reached the village unharmed, though his presence might have prevented the wagon from being openly molested... Though if that were the case, then it was entirely possible that his presence in the village had been detected which could provoke a response. If he were the leader of the deserters he would pay this village a visit, probably tonight even, and remove the threat before it had time to cause any damage.

He hated that he might very well have proven to be a liability to the village, but not all hope was lost.

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Kalia excused himself from the village elder and began to wander through the village, taking in any meaningful detail. The houses were well built and sturdy, so they had that going for them. The walls were thick and built to last, reinforced with a stone foundation and sturdy roofs, as well as solid doors to close off the windows. If a goblin raiding party came through and the village was at full strength, the people will be secure in their houses.
Less effective against an intelligent army however.

He made his way to the outskirts of the village and began walking the whole circuit around the boarder. His mind going through scenario after scenario, trying to find an ideal solution to this predicament. Though in his thoughts he failed to be distracted from his surroundings, still taking in every detail that might be used to their advantage.

 

[Heike Eisen]

Heike waited until he had gone by. Waited for a moment to let him get some distance. That's how it worked, stalking. It was a game of appearing inconspicuous, of managing suspicion, of making coincidence seem to be the case. A point of shame that she knew, that she had come to figure it out even by necessity, but knew it she did.

She followed after Kalia, a considerable gap between them. She walked at a very slight angle off from his path, so as not to be perfectly following in his wake. Glances, every now and then, checking on his course, seeing if he was about to turn a corner and where. Odd. If she wasn't mistaken, he seemed to be assessing the buildings of the village, like a Captain of the Guard or some such. Prior experience, maybe? Military or mercenary company or guard force?

And, more pressingly, why? Did this bandit problem mean that they were planning a raid on the village? They couldn't be. The village elder hired one man, Kalia. That was it. There was no one else on that wagon. If others had been hired and a raid was supposedly coming they'd be here, and they weren't, not as far as Heike could tell. Just how large was this bandit problem then?

There was a way to find out. Heike hadn't caught all of the conversation between Kalia and the elder. She might have missed that part. Guesses based on the sole presence of Kalia were only so useful, and likely to be dangerously incorrect.

Perhaps it was best to talk to him. See if she could hide or at least convince him to overlook the stigma of her affliction and accept her aid.

Kalia had finished walking the interior of the village, and now patrolled around the perimeter. Now or never. Get it over with.

Heike, careful to stay mindful of the sun and to keep her head bowed, picked up the pace. She moved with a practiced silence, but that discipline waned as she moved to catch up.

And when she got within a comfortable speaking distance, she said, "Kalia. My name is Heike Eisen. I overheard what you and the village elder spoke of. I want to help."

She tried looking up all the way; the man was tall. No. Don't. It would be a little awkward, looking up only so far as his back/chest, but it was better than her hood slipping or some other mishap.

 

[Kalia Oro Khastan]

The feeling that he was being followed was not present. He lacked the physical ability to feel such things as the hairs standing up on his neck or chills running down his spine. Rather, instead he had a sense which was far more accurate in assessing presences. Similar to how a zombie would be attracted to the presence of the living but altered somehow to be a more passive sense of moving entities around him.

Even so, all he could determine was that he was not alone. It was not so precise that it could tell him direction or movement, only the basic sense of something there.
So he was taken by surprise when he heard a voice behind him. Even lowering the mask of stealth her footsteps were quiet enough to evade his own sharpened senses.

He stopped and turned abruptly, his baleful mask looking sideways at her, the eyes of the mask painted in such a way as to follow people, much how a haunted painting would act, though a mere trick of the light.

He looked the girl up and down, though his head hardly moved to reveal this. Again, the mask didn't reveal any feature of his face, there weren't even holes for him to see through, though he obviously had no trouble seeing. She was looking up at him, at least as much as she could without upsetting the hood she wore, though what features he could make out quickly explained this. He had seen that pallid skin before, back when he was alive, though he had rarely seen it on someone who's skin wasn't of a child of the desert.

He's had encounters with vampires in his past, had dealings with organized groups, and been awoken on several occasions from his sleep to one being slain by his bodyguards on his bedroom floor. In the deserts of Amol-Kalit the vampires had to be truly cunning to survive the blistering sun of the desert lands, and thusly there were no finer assassins to be hired.

And this one, a girl, opened conversation with him by offering to help with the bandits. He didn't think she was from the adventurers guild, he doubted they would allow 'monsters' to join their ranks, and he had heard they carry identifying badges of various precious metals. She might have one around her neck under her shawl, but again doubted it.
He was a freelancing adventurer himself, avoiding the guild for now incase they had measures in place for identifying monsters that might try to infiltrate their ranks.

Completing his assessment of her he turned his body to face her fully. His voice slightly echoed metallically behind his mask, but still maintained a slightly boisterous or 'heroic' tone, it made him sound like a tavern liar/story teller but he didn't mind that so much. The truth isn't decided by words alone.
"I am familiar with the eyes of your kind, even if the ethnicity is slightly different in this region. What would a being such as yourself hope to gain by aiding me? Mind you I am not judging, only curious as to your intentions and what it is you know exactly of this predicament."

He crossed his arms over his armored chest, not aggressively but maintaining a posture of interest while conveying an undertone of defensiveness. Once he knew more he could relax more.
If indeed she could help, then that gave him much more to work with than he could have hoped for.

 

[Heike Eisen]

The eyes of her kind.

Yes, the equating of Heike to other vampires--even in this small, trivial matter of eye color--was correct, but still she loathed how it sounded to her ear. She liked to think of herself as being in a sort of middle ground. Not human, clearly that wasn't true anymore; not as much as it once was, if indeed one's humanity could somehow be parceled out in degrees. But not kin to vampires either. She hated the sound of it, that word, vampire. It was the truth, and she was oathbound to speak it when such was appropriate, but more often she preferred to say things like "her affliction" or "her condition."

Worrisome, though, that Kalia had in so quick an assessment deduced that she was (the truth, Heike) a vampire. Yellow eyes and pale skin weren't unique to vampires, but patterns were patterns. Even if the sun wasn't a deadly eye gazing down at her all the day long, even if she didn't have her claws, there was a reason Heike would still bundle up in a cloak or--barring that--her hood and shawl that she wore now. She simply fit a common picture. A picture well-read, well-traveled, and/or well-storied people like Kalia were often familiar with.

But he didn't immediately attack her. He knew about her affliction, and yet he stayed his hand. Didn't even sound apprehensive. That was good. Promising, at least.

And Heike became very aware that this giant of a man could just reach out if he so chose and yank her hood down. Let the sun claim her, let the weight of its direct rays crush her body and her mind leave her helpless. He could do that. A tiny jewel of gratitude crystallized in her mind, and she was thankful that it had not immediately gone that way once Kalia knew of her condition.

"I do not need coin," she said. "Keep it all."

She hazarded looking up just a little bit more. And she was struck by how odd it was going to be to talk to Kalia's mask. Yes, there was a face behind that mask, but all she could see right now was the metal mask. Heike knew she'd little room herself in this regard, but the shame of exposing her fangs inadvertently bid her to wear her own. Practice in speaking with minimal movement of her lips did little to assuage this fear.

"I seek only the guilty. I do not know anything of this particular problem plaguing Dunderstahd, but I do know this: justice will find these men, these bandits. There is always an accounting of one's misdeeds, an appropriate retribution, and I wish simply to help enact it."

 

[Kalia Oro Khastan]

He nodded slowly as she explained herself. A noble quest if ever there was one, and the only explanation he needed to trust her. Just as he could identify what she was, he knew that she could just as easily reveal his true nature as well if she so chose. There were things a vampire could do that normal humans could not, and those skills will be absolutely volatile to the plan now forming in his mind. The last thing he wanted was to give her an excuse to use her skills on him.
"I see. In that case I gratefully accept your aid and will fill you in on the details. Walk with me?"
He motioned in the direction he was walking previously, assuming she followed he would walk and continue talking cordially, is if they were merely discussing the technicalities of rotating crops.

"A few weeks ago a contract was sent out in desperation to the adventurers guild, this contract was then taken by the guild and circulated throughout the noticeboards at all the villages and towns in a thousand mile radius. Deserters have rebelled against their lord and taken to regularly harvesting the hard labor of this village"
He clasped his hands behind his back, which pulled his ornate shoulder cape back as well, revealing the bronze breastplate and gilded robes underneath.
"I had hoped I wouldn't be the only adventurer to take on this guild contract, but it appears others of my profession weren't counting on the aid of others in this mission and chose not to make the noble attempt, as I naively did."

After turning down an alley that would take them back to the interior of the village he turned to face her once more, this time in the shadows to spare her any discomfort.
"I have good reason to believe that at least my own presence has been detected already by our quarry. This can prompt an unfortunate but very likely even where the soldiers may attack as soon as tonight in order to deal with me and keep their source of food properly cowed."

He knelt down to be more on level with her, "There is no time to train the survivors to fight, there is no time to build proper fortifications. What is required is a preemptive strike tonight to knock our enemy off balance. Once they are properly cautious then we can focus our attention on bolstering the village."
He offered one gloved fist in the space between them, "Will you still aid me, Nosvertth?" He spoke the Kalitian word for Nosferatu, a term of endearment that to him denoted a noble creature of the night, tested time and time again by a harsh land but never conquered.

 

[Heike Eisen]

It was utterly strange. Utterly strange. Heike had never before been so quickly and easily received, not since she had become afflicted. She approached Kalia with a cold introduction, no one even to vouch for her (a rare luxury in and of itself), said her piece, and was believed. Believed, just like that. No undertone of hatred nor malice nor distrust. A peculiar shift in her grasp upon reality, intense but ephemeral, wherein she thought herself alive again, clad in her armor of the Golden Blade, with a heartbeat and warm blood, and everything since the burning of Reikhurst nothing but a horrid yet vivid nightmare. But it was not so.

The pleasant surprise of Kalia's acceptance had so taken her aback that Heike gave a start when she noticed him moving and walked briskly at first to catch up.

She walked with him, and listened.

The Adventurers Guild. Heike knew that they once had a local office in Reikhurst, but otherwise did not know much else about them. She could not speak to their efficacy, if this poor showing here in Dunderstahd was but a fluke or if it was a disheartening pattern.

Down into the alley, the shade welcome. The warmth of the sun upon her clothes had a sinister quality to it these recent years, like the breath of a beast bearing down on her, held at bay only through the grace of a thin veneer of protection.

And the situation, the euphemistically-stated "bandit problem," was far worse than Heike herself had thought. Deserters. Former soldiers. Betrayers, they who would turn on the people they were meant to protect. It sickened her.

The plan she liked. Active, instead of reactive. And she felt far more comfortable with a strike at night, such was her lot now. Many things had been inverted in her new cold-blooded 'life.'

Nosvertth? The meaning of the word escaped her.

Heike glanced at the offered fist. Withdrew a clawed hand from her shawl. Puzzlement stayed her for a second, this gesture unfamiliar to her. It wasn't a shaking of hands; perhaps Kalia hailed from a faraway place on Arethil where such a custom was normal. She made a fist of her own, touched hers to his, and hoped she'd done it right.

"Yes. If it is merely the two of us, then so be it. Ours is a shared path."

 

[Kalia Oro Khastan]

The pact was made, the deal struck. They were allies now. He returned to his full height and continued walking, "We have plans to make, and there are things we need to learn about our foe before nightfall. I suggest I remain the sole adventurer that has come to aid the village and its people. So long as nobody knows you are involved then we have the advantage. I will speak with the elder once more and see if he knows where the bandits are making their lair."
They came out of the alley and made their way through the village once more to find its center.

"I have a suspicion that the deserters are watching the comings and goings of the village. If the reports are to be believed then they have enough forces to completely isolate the village, watching both the roads and the forests and dealing with anyone coming or going."
The blockade may not be up yet, or it may have just now closed with the realization that a cry for help has gotten out. Speed and information were the elements of their victory in this stage of the battle.
Without stopping he looked at her with his mask again.
"I know it is still daylight, but are you able to discern whether this is the case without being detected? I hate to put that burden on you at this hour, but we should know the position of our enemy before we attempt to sneak through the woods to work our sabotage."

 

[Heike Eisen]

Heike listened and followed. That baleful warmth of the sun upon her clothes, upon the top of her hood, as they left the wonderful shade.

They must have hidden themselves well, these deserters. It made sense. These were their lands, and they knew them intuitively; what was foreign to Heike and Kalia was native to them. In this they had an advantage.

The deserters had to be watching. Waiting, presumably, for something or some specific time. Heike had come into Dunderstahd without being accosted, and so had Kalia and that wagon he had been standing by as he conversed with the village elder earlier. And this was far from the good fortune it seemed to be. Yes, they'd stopped raiding the roads, but that meant they were up to something else. Evidence of a planned raid against the town itself. Kalia had said as early as tonight, and that seemed the inevitable truth.

And Kalia had suggestion for her.

Heike shook her head. "Not without being seen. They've the cover of the woods, and there's nothing but flat grassland and field surrounding this village."

She thought for a moment. Smiled wryly under her mask and let out a soft, throaty hmmm. "I look like a convent sister, bowed head and hood and arms bundled up, do I not? Perhaps I can play into it. Intentionally walk out the other side of Dunderstahd and continue down the road, as if I were merely passing through. Get into the forest. Get some distance. Go until I'm sure no one is watching me. Double back with the cover of the trees on my side. I will most certainly be seen leaving, but perhaps not detected as I scout."

Heike couldn't raise her head anymore. Not with the sun looming at this angle. But she turned her head and looked at Kalia's side; it was the best she could do.

"I could try this," she said. "I came into town this way and encountered no trouble. But it may not be the same again. And if that is so, I may be forced to defend myself. This...will likely have ramifications."

She walked. Thought. But she couldn't see any other way. The clearing about the village had effectively trapped them in.

"Risky." Her voice firm now. "But I am willing."

 

[Kalia Oro Khastan]

He nodded to her, he respected her willingness even though she herself admitted it would be difficult for her during the day, he admired her for not giving in to her weakness in general.
"Good luck then. Their attention should still be on me so they shouldn't be suspicious of you if they were to see you walking to the forest. Even if you vanish as soon as you enter I doubt they would raise a fuss over it, as unassuming as you look."

"I will do my part and garner whatever more information I can from the village elder. I'm hard to miss from the center of the village, so hopefully I will have their attention no matter where they hide themselves. Though I do ask that if they do give you trouble to not fight them, run away if you can and wait for nightfall to come and find me. It's wise to let them think only one villager escaped than to report that a second person has killed their men."
Confident that she could handle herself he turned to the task laid out for him. Diplomacy, honestly one of his strengths when he was alive. He knew people, could read them, he would even go so far as to say that he was a student of people.
It made him a king that gained power through bonds and trust, not mere conquest and prowess though he lacked nothing in that regard either. Conquest was the most viable response when people in power refused to listen, for this reason he became adept at conquest as well as diplomacy, peace as well as war.

If only it hadn't all ended so suddenly...
He shook himself, now was not the time to dwell on crimes of the past. He approached the elder who was speaking with some of the other men of the village, all of them old or crippled in some way. To build a militia out of these elderly and middle aged men would be a true test of his martial skill.
He approached the group and soon loomed over them.
"Elder, I have more questions regarding your situation. Have you any idea where the deserters may be making their lair?"

 

[Heike Eisen]

Don't try and fight them. Run away.

Now that would be a challenge. One whose difficulty lay in the absence of accomplishment in besting it. There were challenges in abundance throughout her training and initiation into the Order of the Golden Blade, but the satisfaction, the small, mounting victories inherent in their overcoming, pushed her through. It was encouragement for the soul. This, of course, was the most potent example, but there were other challenges aplenty throughout her life she could name, and within each a unique treasure of accomplishment to add to her collection.

There would be no such thing here. It was hard enough to let the guilty walk free on account of her honor, if she'd struck a deal with one of them for information. This here was a matter of strategy, yes, and it was analogous in some sense to deal-making, certainly, but the inherent wrongness she felt in doing it troubled her moreso than the aforementioned striking of a deal.

Kalia turned to set about questioning the village elder once more. And Heike stood there for a moment in the village center. A hard consideration giving her pause. At last she reached a conclusion.

She was mistaken. There was an accomplishment to be had here. Discipline, and the maintenance thereof. Her knight-superiors constantly warned about the dangers of complacency, the slipping of standards, even the smallest failure to accord oneself in line with one's values: these were the roads which led to the ruin of one's honorable character. Discipline was the tree from which the branches of virtuous traits grew.

Heike looked down. The small insignia of the Golden Blade, hanging from her belt, resting on her thigh.

She had been asked not to fight the bandits, if so waylaid. And she resolved to honor Kalia's request of her. It mattered not how she felt about the guilty, just the same as when she herself made deals with them in service to some grander pursuit of justice and gave her word that they would not be harmed. She could not allow her fervor for justice nor the damnable thirst of her affliction to wither that tree and ruin her character.

Heike got her bearings in the village and walked along the road. Walked until she left the side of Dunderstahd opposite to where she had come. Stared out into that open grassland, the treeline in the distance.

Sun mostly to her back, she started walking out.

Long and quiet, the road. The fading of the voices and sounds of village life behind her. The light breezes which swept the grass and billowed the back of her shawl which her hands did not hold the only sound to break the peace of the day.

And she approached the treeline after some time. Head bowed, arms hidden. Demure-looking, as was her intent.

She did not know and could not tell if, indeed, she was being watched.

 

[Kalia Oro Khastan]

"An old ruin you say? How convenient, tell me about this ruin."

"Of course Mister Khastan, the ruin was the fortress of a past lord of Dunderstahd, but more recent lords built the castle the current lord lives in today. It's dangerous but no doubt the soldiers have driven out the monsters and such that lived there."

Kalia plied the elder with questions about the surrounding area, the topography and layout of the land. Evidently everything was just the way it seemed, the clearing that was designed to give the people fair warning of any monster attack was now their prison. Anything hidden in the trees could see a traveler crossing the grassy plain and deal with them.
But once in the forest anything could happen.

He found himself fearing for the vampire, again not a physical emotion but a spiritual feeling. He hoped she would escaped into the forest unharmed.
In life he rarely trusted vampires, though he had many dealings with them. They were shrewd and cunning creatures that could be trusted to look after themselves and their survival above all else. But like any race they were diverse, and she was somebody before she was a vampire.
As an undead himself he knew better than most that what they are now does not change who they were then.

He turned his attention back to the elder, "So you are saying that's the most likely refuge the deserters would move into out of the entire area?"

"That is correct Mister Khastan. If they want to be protected from the elements they would hide behind the walls there, especially if they are holding our livestock, they need a defensible position should any monsters take notice."

He rubbed the chin of his mask thoughtfully, "Hmm, I see. Thank you very much for the valuable information, Elder. You and your people can rest easy, I'm not going to stand idly by while degenerate scoundrels terrorize a defenseless village. Come tomorrow morning I'll take the fight right to their doorstep!"

More bravado, but also spreading a little false information. He didn't know how resourceful these deserters would be, but just in case he thought he would feed some false information to any spy they might have among the villagers.

 

[Heike Eisen]

"Afternoon, stranger."

It happened almost as soon as Heike crossed from the clearing into the treeline. The wind was to her back, and she smelled nothing on her approach. The man stepped out from behind a tree and a small gathering of bushes, the slight rustle of which announcing his presence. Heike had stopped, and the man stepped into the middle of the road a number of paces from her. He wore a dark gambeson, had a sheathed sword on his hip and his thumbs hooked into his belt. A reed hung from his mouth, and he casually chewed on something as he greeted her.

"Name's Piker." He chewed. Smiled a little. Watched her with half-closed, relaxed eyes.

Heike said nothing. Simply stood and kept her head bowed and her arms hidden in her shawl.

The wind blew, and the branches above swayed. The soft song of the rustling bushes. And Heike knew instinctively that there was more than just Piker.

"Whatcha doin, stranger?" His voice calm. Oddly neighborly.

Another spell of silence.

And Heike said, "I am a traveler."

"Uh huh." Piker chewed. And chewed. "Where ya travelin to?"

Heike felt the glare of the sun over her left shoulder. The warmth on her clothes. Noted the angle in which she could go to keep the daylight directly behind her.

"I don't have any coin on my person," she said. Low and quiet, her voice. Intended to sound demure and timid. Intended to be disarming. To perhaps stir a certain impression of her in him. Her Oath of Truth dictated what she could say, not how she could say it.

"Ain't that a shame."

"I live an austere life."

"Hmm." Piker grinned a little. "Priestess? Nun? Ascetic? Somethin like that?"

"No."

"Well damn. If you were, it'd be a winnin man's bet to say you were a virgin." Piker chewed. And chewed. "Are you a virgin?"

The truth, Heike. You are sworn, and damn him to hell.

"No." A disdainful sniff in Heike's nose. "How rude of you to ask."

"My pleasure." Piker took a nonchalant step forward. And another. Enough to get within arm's reach of Heike, and vice versa. She stood her ground.

Don't do it. You want to do it, but Kalia asked you not to. Discipline, Heike. Keep that tree strong.

"Let's have a look at ya, hm?" Piker reached slowly over and placed his finger softly beneath her chin. Tilted her head up just so. Just enough to see her face--her nose and her eyes, at least--under her hood.

It would be so easy. To kill him. To just do it. Rid the world of more scum. Here. Now.

Piker cocked his head. Chewed. Looked at her with his laidback gaze. Said, "You know, good buddy of mine, Erland, he used to say this thing. Said he liked his women dark and crazy. I can see why he said it."

Heike's clawed hands tightened into hard fists under the cover of her shawl.

"He used to say." Her voice little more than a whisper. Anything more would reveal the simmering rage within. "What happened to him?"

"Got killed."

"Ain't that a shame."

Piker grinned again, a little wider this time. Chewed. Said, "You're a sassy cunt, aren't'cha?"

"Only around other cunts."

"I'm flattered."

"Don't be. I can smell yours from here."

Piker whistled, a quiet sound gliding along on the breeze, this accompanied by a brief and small arching of his back. "Damn, I had you figured all wrong."

There was no shortage of admiration in his tone. Admiration, Heike thought, she could perhaps use to her advantage. It was crazy. Pure madness, the idea that manifested in her mind. But she didn't know if she could do it, if she could do as Kalia had asked and simply run away. And that was the honest truth. Her festering rage often poisoned the roots of that tree of discipline, this only more pronounced after Ella's death. But it had always been a problem for her, even before Reikhurst burned.

Heike did not know if her resolve could best her rage. But she could keep talking. Keep talking to this filthy degenerate and make the promise to herself that in so doing she would, in time, kill him. Not run from him. Kill him.

But not before she allowed him to take her to his hideout. Wait for nightfall and come find me, Kalia had said. That would have to be the way, unless Kalia showed with a small army at the hideout before then.

Heike smiled. A gesture of many meanings in this moment. Piker saw the slight rise of her cheekbones and traced his finger up to the top of her mask and slowly pulled it down, revealing the smile underneath.

"How did you have me figured?" she asked. Tiny, practiced movements of her lips to hide her fangs.

Piker regarded her with a casual joviality. Said, "You weren't that special when I first saw you. Now, I see something I like."

"And that is."

Piker grinned. "You're a woman who could kick my ass. And I fucking love a woman who could kick my ass."

 

[Kalia Oro Khastan]

An army of any size would have been a luxury at this point. Among the questions he asked the elder he asked him how they handled the consecration of their dead.
As he suspected, due to a general knowledge of the existence of undead and necromancers they have taken to cremating their dead instead of burying them, a detail he could have guessed by looking at the central firepit in the middle of the town square.

There were ways to raise zombies from the dust of the dead, but it was a lengthy ritual and he would not be able to hide his actions from the villagers. And revealing that he had such powers over the dead to the villagers would be a huge risk on his part given the measures they had taken to lay their dead to rest to spite powers such as his.

Even with the new information he has been given the current plan is still the only plan. He would have to rely on whatever information and skill Heike Eisen would bring back in order to sneak them both into the forest unseen. Once in the forest he knew where to find the hideout and he had a plan to dramatically scare the deserters and set them back a bit, giving them time to muster the forces available here and mount as effective a defense as they could.

At the conclusion of his plan he predicted the deserters would be angry but confident. They will take their time in preparing their forces in confidence that their pray will remain as such. In the mean time the villagers would be preparing as well, and they will have a bit more to reckon with than a single giant adventurer.

 

[Heike Eisen]

They stepped off the open road and into the wilderness of the forest. Piker had his arm around Heike's shoulders, guiding her along, very much to her chagrin. A few of the other deserter bandits had emerged from their hiding spots and walked along behind them.

And Piker chewed. The reed hanging from his mouth flopped up and down as he talked, asked her questions. Some of which being of no consequence to her, others that necessitated some care in answering. While it did not technically break her sworn Oath of Truth, answering with a willful intent to mislead with half-truths and things left unspoken, doing so did violate the spirit of it. Other knights of the Golden Blade, friends and rivals and superiors, adhered to that spirit far more rigidly than Heike. It was admirable. Something to aspire toward...even if she knew it would forever elude her grasp. Especially now, afflicted as she was, the core circumstance of her life irrevocably changed.

"So you took a stroll through Dunderstahd," Piker said.

"Yes."

"Had no idea what was going on."

"Not before I arrived in town."

"Good...Good..." He seemed to take a bit of pride in that. "Did you see that wagon? Fully loaded. Mighta been sittin there where ya left."

Heike didn't like where this was going. But, damn it, she was sworn. "Yes. I saw it."

"You see that big guy? Wearin some funny mask?"

It wasn't anything the bandits didn't already know. "Yes."

Piker let out an interested hmmm from his throat. "Overhear anythin he said? Bout bandits or raiders or such like that?"

They already know. Don't let it trouble you, Heike.

She laughed a little, a quiet sound through closed lips. "He told the village elder to not worry about 'your little bandit problem.'"

"Ain't that somethin. One fuckin guy. Brass balls, but some nerve."

"Some nerve."

They walked along. And all the while Heike kept track of her course and direction. She had grown quite accustomed to reckoning her position in relation to a fixed point, in this case Dunderstahd instead of the sun.

Piker asked, "Were ya lookin to feed in Dunderstahd?"

Heike went rigid for a moment, but Piker kept her moving forward and through the woods with the arm on her shoulders.

He chewed. "It was the coldness. Didnt think much of the color of skin or eyes, but the coldness. That was it, if you were curious."

Heike didn't say anything. But she also didn't feel any tensing of Piker's muscles, nor any discordant tinge in the air that often precipitated sudden violence. Which...was odd.

"Dont get shy on me now," Piker said, amused. "I get it. I do. It's why you wrap yourself up like that, sun or no sun, right? Cause you're not one of them. We're not either. I'm not. Dont get too excited, I ain't sayin we're vampires. We're not. Just outsiders, like you. They say you're a monster, so what. You're in good company, you'll fit right in. You can be our monster. Have all the blood you like, cause we're fuckin raiding that town. That and then some."

She hated everything he was saying. Hated it. But some small part of her loved it too. Yearned for it. That tiny portion of mind that tirelessly tracked her loneliness, the ceaseless pain of total ostracization, the miserable state of being spurned. Piker had accepted her just as easily as Kalia had, and between these two rarities this day was unlike any other Heike had experienced in a long, long time.

It was a fantasy she quietly wished to lose herself in, knowing full well that such wishing would amount to nothing.

* * * * *​

Piker did not take her immediately to the hideout. They spent the rest of the daylight hours hunting, him and her and the few men. Piker had mentioned something about livestock, but also bragged a bit about the venison jerky he could make. Family secret. He loved it, and the men loved it. So they killed a big buck in the forest and cut the animal into pieces and each took a piece to carry back.

The sun had lost its daily battle against the encroaching night when they arrived at the hideout, a rearguard of shrinking color in the sky marking the retreat.

The stone walls of the fortress amidst the forest still stood; worn, but strong still. A few sentries keeping watch, eyeing Piker's party as he made for the gate. Gate, however, was a strong word. It was no proper gate, but an ad hoc construction of pointed wooden stakes arrayed in a fence in the archway where once said proper gate presumably stood.

Heike walked through the palisade, behind Piker but in front of the few other men.

It was clear to see that Kalia had not overestimated the deserters' numbers. The courtyard of the fort bustled with activity: men preparing, sharpening swords, drinking, practicing on targets with bows and arrows, cleaning their armor. Crude pens had been set up for the livestock Piker had mentioned. A few different fires roasted cuts of meat and heated pots of stew. There was a large pile near the center with all manner of ill-gotten goods, contained in crates or barrels or simply strewn about. A row of tents lined one of the defensive walls, boots sticking out as men napped inside.

Then there were the cages. The horrific cages. Women inside them, all clothed in scant and dirty rags. They didn't look directly at anyone, and their eyes...devoid of hope, each and every one of them. It sickened and enraged Heike to see it, and she turned her gaze away. Lingering too long would bring her rage to an irrepressible boil, and it would spill over into wanton and foolish violence. She could only resolve that the women would be liberated soon, very soon; once she returned to Dunderstahd and shared with Kalia all the information she had gathered.

Heike took keen notice of all the hostile looks she was getting. More of those than ones merely apprehensive or dubious. One man even came up and shoved her shoulder and demanded to know who the fuck she was. Piker stepped in, and said loudly but in that same level and nonchalant tone and with that wry smile that Heike was with him. The looks stopped after that. Piker didn't seem to be the leader of these men, but he had an undeniable degree of clout.

Piker and Heike and the men with Piker on the ambush set the large pieces of the buck on a wooden table next to a man Piker called "The Chef." He already had a fire going, some cuts of meat near done on a spit above it. The Chef clapped his hands together and thanked Piker when he saw the sections of deer, and he gave Piker a knowing nod as he led Heike off to the Keep.

Orange firelight danced along the rundown stone walls of the Keep's interior. More men had made their homes on the first floor in all the various rooms, big sheets of cloth and linen dividing up these into personal spaces for each man. Piker went to the tight, circular staircase and went up. Second floor. Third floor. Far less men up here. Quieter.

Piker led her into a room that was all his own apparently and shut the door. Meager light of the evening through the open air window.

Before Heike could even say anything, Piker had a hand behind her head and he kissed her roughly. Shock and revulsion crackled like lightning through her muscles, just beneath the skin. But, like before, there was that same small part of her that loved it. A complex mixture of emotion: the sheer hatred and disgust stemmed from who was doing the desiring, not the quality of being desired itself. In light of everything, past and present, it seemed so frivolous to want to be desired. But the stark absence of it set kindling which only accrued more and more as the years went on, begging for a spark to rebirth that flame. In that small portion of mind which loved it so, which cradled that flame, the facet of her being a knight and the facet of her being a vampire collapsed and were made subservient to this: her undeniable womanhood, the femininity which could be suppressed by those facets but never erased by them.

Don't forget. Don't you dare forget why you're here.

Heike pulled back and planted her palms on Piker's shoulders; the man had hardly made any fuss about her claws when first he saw them. He had actually seemed more enticed by her, seeing that she had them.

"We're going to play a fun game," Heike said.

"That so," Piker said, interest piqued.

"That is so. We're going to have a little fight, and here are the stakes. If you win...you can take me whenever and however you choose." Heike leaned in close to his ear, channeling that small portion of mind wreathed in flame and femininity, and she whispered in an alluring tone she hadn't used in years and at times doubted she still had, saying, "And if I win, I can take you...whenever...and however...I choose..."

Silence between them as she pulled back again and they looked at one another. Deviant lust in Piker's half-closed eyes. A coy smirk on Heike's face.

"Deal," he said.

"Deal."

Simple rules. No weapons (which meant no claws), knockout or yielding loses it. Heike couldn't make fists the way a normal human could, with the tips of one's fingers touching the palm; her claws by necessity made her fists more open to accommodate their length and sharpness. An acquired and practiced form.

And they fought, hand-to-hand. Heike allowed for the fight to go on longer than she otherwise would, allowed for Piker to land a few punches; admittedly, as the fight went on, there were some she didn't mean to let connect but still they did, a good solid fist to the cheek that sent her off-balance being one. Full dark of night came, noticeable from the window, and it was then that she finished it. A small burst of exertion, an expenditure of blood, to slide fast and graceful around and behind Piker and lock in her arm around his neck. He struggled, gagged, pressed his body back up against hers and tried for a meager backward headbutt. His protests failed.

"Looks like you're losing," she said as he squirmed in her chokehold. And, just before he passed out, she whispered, "I will be back when you wake...to make good on our deal."

She dropped him. Piker, flat and unconscious, there on the floor.

Heike left his room. Closed the door. Caught the attention of another man in the hall on the third floor of the Keep as soon as she did. He stared at her with rising suspicion, but she gestured her head back at the door and spoke coolly, saying, "Come find me when he wakes up. He'll be eager to try again. He knows what that means."

The man stared for a moment longer. Then snorted and went about his business.

And that was how Heike walked out of the deserters' fortress, by keeping her head held high and carrying herself as if she belonged. And she did. She was with Piker, after all. Everyone out in the fortress courtyard heard it. The Chef even chuckled and grinned and gave her a little nod when he saw her walking by alone.

She walked calmly out through the palisade. Calmly out into the embrace of the nighttime dark, beyond the reach of the light of the fires. And, once the cloak of darkness had swallowed her whole, she took off running. Minor exertion, in running faster than any normal human could, Heike seeming to glide across the forest floor with the grace of a low-flying bird.

She ran through the gray and white world afforded by her nightvision. She could see the trees and the bushes and the branches and the wrinkles in the land and the leaves on the ground all with incredible clarity. Clouds as dark as the night sky had come to hide the moon, but such was no impediment to Heike; the absence of light to her meant merely that loss of vivid color, the aforementioned world in grayscale.

And she ran. Ran and reckoned the way back toward the village.

She saw it. Dunderstahd, through the edge of the approaching treeline and across the span of the open clearing, a tiny island of color ahead, lit by a number of fires in the early night.

Heike sprinted and spent more blood in her haste, but it should not matter. The guilty awaited her justice, there back in the fortress. Yes, she would have all the blood her damnable thirst liked, but not in the manner Piker had suggested. She felt her throat becoming a touch parched, but it was of little concern in light of this.

Finally, Heike crossed the threshold into Dunderstahd, ran up and through some alleys and spaces between houses, and arrived at the village center. Had she required breath still, she would have been gasping and panting, but she did neither.

She looked left and right, eyes searching for Kalia. He would be hard to miss.

 

[Kalia Oro Khastan]

Kalia was not idle. Before night fell he decided there was some time to go ahead and get started on his plans of fortifying the village, changing his mind didn't happen often but in this case he saw that it was more advantageous to get started as soon as possible.
They would have to start small, making it appear to any sentries or spies that subjugated life was going on like usual.

He had the elder gather up those he knew he could trust and had them in turn work through people they could trust. They began by slowly gathering wood and lumber from their lumberyard, since it was one of the few supplies the deserters couldn't take with any sort of speed. And in the privacy of their homes they divided up the wood and began slowly building the parts for a palisade wall.

Unfortunately that was all they were able to organize before night fell. They would be able to do more once their rebellion had begun in earnest. Kalia stood in the shadows of the small pub in the town square, awaiting word from Heike.
He had begun to worry when she didn't return before sunset, which if she had been able to escape and pick out the sentries he reasoned she would be back by then at the latest, so he decided that something must have gone wrong.

Relief filled his soul when she ran into the town square, looking well and unharmed for the most part.
Now their preemptive attack can begin.
He motioned her into the shadows. It wouldn't due to have any sentries see them talking in the town square.
"Lady Eisen, thank the gods you've returned. I was beginning to fear the worst had happened. What did you learn? We must be quick now if we are to catch them off guard."

 

[Heike Eisen]

"Kalia!"

Her excitement a degree above even what she herself anticipated. The past several hours had weighed heavily upon her, the repressed emotions in Piker's presence--those nauseating and those simmering and even those enjoyable--had all seemed to bang against her ribcage, fighting for release. A friendly presence, a true friendly presence, was the relief and outlet she needed. All of it contained within the name.

She composed herself, as a proper knight should be, and followed his prompt to come into the shadows, away from the torch posts in the center of town and into the clutch of angled shadows.

Lady Eisen. Her hood and mask were down, and her brow and eyes and mouth all scrunched tightly in objection to that. This for but a fleeting moment, and she relaxed. He didn't know, and she didn't tell him, her proper address. The fault lay with her, not him. But formalities could wait.

She nodded, and said, "I'll be brief. I ingratiated myself with the deserters, with one of their number named Piker. Their hideout is in an abandoned fort, north by northwest out of Dunderstahd. I counted seventy-six of them, but I by no means saw everyone in the fort's keep nor did I scout the entirety of the perimeter treeline around the village. They were preparing for battle when I slipped away. And..." Heike drew in a sharp breath through her nose, a gesture spurred by disgust and festering anger, "...they have captives. Women, all women. Whom they have kept in cages like animals."

Heike looked out from their spot in the shadows to the village road, to the town center. The boys and girls just shy of adulthood, the sick and the feeble, the old men, the women, that small and insignificant group of them, armed with makeshift weapons and wearing no armor to speak of and each looking pale with fright.

"I don't know if it'll be enough. Them. Us. Up against such a vast force."

A burning conviction as she looked back up at Kalia's mask.

"But I am prepared to give everything in this fight. I will see those vile men punished. As many as I possibly can, if not all."

 

[Kalia Oro Khastan]

There was a moments pause after her impassionate vow, the painted eyes stared down at her from their lofty height, arms folded as the silence drew on.
Suddenly he put his arms out and threw his head back as deep laughter bellowed out from the giant and echoed behind the mask.
"Excellent, Lady Eisen! You've done and learned more than I could have hoped when I first sent you out!"
He looked down at her again and his voice had the resonance of an overjoyed father that beamed with pride at his child.
"With this information we can move out immediately with you guiding us through the woods, we can move without error straight to their camp and confront the evil deserters in their home!"

As he lowered his arms back to his side his voice lowered as well, its boisterous tone changing to that of malice and quiet rage.
"They are preparing to come here and kill me, and possibly the village elder and anyone else they deem might have helped me, for this we will dash their bones to the earth and return their corpses to the dust they spawned from!
They have and continue to rape women for their own pleasure and use them like cattle, for this we will castrate them and burn out their eyes for their vile lust!
They dared to rebel against their lord and kill the very people they were charged to protect, for this the very people of this village they torment will cut them down and take justice for themselves!
Do not be shocked by my passion for it is your own passion and words that has inflamed me so!"

After his outburst his own undead nature retook control of his emotions and his tone changed again, but only slightly.
"We will not kill them all on this night, that privilege belongs to the survivors here at a later time. But we will put the fear of the gods in them this night so that they dare not underestimate us again."
He knelt down to her level and put out his fist once more to her.
"I will explain more about my plan on the way there, but for now just know that your stealth will be needed in order for my plan to work. Remember the layout of the courtyard that you saw the first time you were there and keep it in mind, your swift work will be essential while I hold their attention."

 

[Heike Eisen]

Kalia's laughter, in that very first instant she heard it, seemed somehow negative to Heike. As if he were mocking her, she having fallen unwittingly into some deception or trap that should have been obvious to see. But it was not so, her immediate impression. Kalia spoke, and his tone mended the misgivings her mind was so acclimated to assume in any interaction. This was just a mannerism of Kalia's, how he presented himself; he'd laughed in the same good-natured way when talking to the village elder and Heike had been overhearing. A smile tugged at a corner of her mouth.

Kalia was eager. Of that Heike had no doubt. And that tinge of rage in his new tone, that Heike was more than passingly familiar with. She knew why she wore her own mask but she did not know why Kalia wore his, and there perhaps resting behind it the story and the origin of that rage. For her it was the crushing defeat at Reikhurst, her home, the Golden Blade's utter failure--her failure--to protect it. Those knights who valiantly died in Reikhurst's defense had upheld their sworn oaths, but Heike, in living--if this could properly be called living--had failed to uphold her own. She could only wonder as to the story, the mementos, Kalia himself carried and what likenesses his story and hers shared.

He knelt down, Kalia did, and Heike once again with a discernible awkwardness (and not from the manner in which she had to make her clawed hand form a fist) touched her fist to his with a firm but not hard thrust. He...well, he didn't make mention of her performing this custom wrong before, so perhaps she hadn't. Then again, she herself hadn't corrected him on her proper title yet. Perhaps there would be a time for these things later, a time in which curiosities and clarifications could occur without the threat of a bandit raid--like the sword in a popular mythological story--dangling over their heads.

Heike nodded as Kalia said he would explain more on the way. She turned without hesitation and started walking briskly for the edge of Dunderstahd, passing by the poorly-equipped villagers in the center square. Off came her shawl, and she folded it up dexterously as she walked, wrapping it back around her neck as one would a scarf.

"I didn't happen to see any sentries from the direction I followed back to Dunderstahd. Easy to see why."

Heike stopped at the edge of the village, between a house and a portion of the small makeshift palisade wall Kalia and the villagers had been building. Before them, the clearing was a sea of utter dark, clouds still obscuring the moon and denying even its meager light.

"Pneria is on our side," Heike said, assuredness plain in her voice. She gestured a clawed finger toward her eyes, adding, "If some have come back around, they won't be able to see us, but I will be see them perfectly well."

And, with that, she stepped off from Dunderstahd again and into the concealing black of the night smothering the open field. This, to her, that relatively bright world of grays and whites.

 

[Kalia Oro Khastan]

He followed Heike across the field and into the forest. They passed into the tree line without being detected, Kalia was surprisingly stealthy himself in spite of his heavy armor, even so he made the only noise out of the two of them, so anyone looking for them had a chance of detecting him at least.

When they finally came in sight of the fortress he could see the light of their camp fires glowing above the walls. From their vantage point he could see the front "gate" and a few sentries on the wall.
He knelt down and pulled something out of his pocket.

"Alright, here is the plan. I have a spool of string here, I need you to go over the eastern wall while I hold their attention at the front, take the string and secure it to the gates of their livestock pens so that with one pull you can open all the doors at once. If their horses are kept in any stables or pens rig those to fly open as well, the animals will be disturbed enough by my magic to stampede as soon as they are free."

He handed her the spool, "I'm afraid, and sorry to admit, that it will be too dangerous to free the hostages at this point. If they are released and seen running they may very well be cut down before the chaos reaches its climax. Rest assured whatever further suffering they receive will be repaid ten-fold, but they need to survive until then."
He stared directly into her eyes with his own painted gaze, "Do you Completely understand?"

They were at the very precipice for their declaration of war. It had to go off exactly according to plan and even though they were both running on high spirits they had to temper themselves with the seriousness of their undertaking. Strategically the women were safer in captivity right now, even if they did manage to free them all safely they will only be thrown into the uncertain circumstances of their village, and possibly slain there.

"The animals diving into a frenzy will be your signal to pull the string. Kill anyone you have to both going in and out to reach your objective, but do NOT be detected."
He stood up to his full height and looked at the fortress once more. The sounds of preparation were still under way, they were taking no chances, they would squash any resistance tonight once and for all, but they won't get the chance.
"Are you ready?"

 

[Heike Eisen]

Heike listened. Took the spool when handed to her, moreso in her palm than with the tips of her claws. And Kalia said something she didn't like, her objection quite evident in her expression.

Too dangerous to the free the hostages now. The core of her objection based in the immediate recoiling from such a notion, the implication that the captives would be left as they were to suffer longer. The broiling kettle of emotion, her rage and her hatred and her sympathies for what she had seen, bubbling up and igniting like a flashfire behind her eyes. It was as if Kalia had suggested that the captives were never going to be freed, that he and Heike ought to leave them to their woes for some callous or outright nefarious purpose. Such fallacies were well within the purview of spur-of-the-moment thoughts of the heart, untempered by the thoughts of the head.

Do you Completely understand?

It quelled the bubbling kettle, his stern question. Brought about the aforementioned tempering. Yes, he was right. Freeing the women would be to recklessly endanger them, for Heike and Kalia were vastly outnumbered and couldn't possibly protect them all. Control of the situation--total victory over the deserters--needed to be obtained first, lest the captives be abandoned to the hazards of chaos and battle. Their cages, in a crooked irony, would serve to protect as well as imprison at this small and crucial step in their liberation.

Heike didn't like it, no. But she would accept the severity of the situation and the measures it called for.

Heike straightened up near imperceptibly, as if she were standing at attention before one of her knight-superiors, and said, "I give you my word, Kalia. I shall not free the captives until it is safe to do so."

The last little piece of the plan. The animals driven to frenzy by Kalia's magic, releasing them, and not being detected as she infiltrated and exfiltrated. She already knew the layout of the courtyard, the particular bend of shadows with the low-hanging sun of the earlier evening, those shadows birthed by the flames likely to not be so different--perhaps even more generous.

Heike nodded. "Ready." She took a step to go, paused, then looked to him again and added, "For those who've suffered."

A moment's worth of her firm, determined gaze aimed at his mask. Then she went on her way. Circling around to the eastern wall with a wide berth, staying well out of the grasp of the orange firelights and the watchful eyes of the few sentries patrolling behind the old parapets.

She once feared the dark when she was a little girl. Now, she made others fear it. They who deserved to know such fear...however briefly.

 

[Kalia Oro Khastan]

"For those who have suffered." He repeated as she disappeared into the darkness. He understood her anger, he had felt it many times himself once upon a time. But he grew to know what had to be done not as a soldier or paladin, but as a king. As a king he sometimes had to make his people wait, to suffer just a little longer before victory could be achieved.

He swore that those women won't have to wait much longer.

He waited a full five minutes after she left before he made his move towards the sentry lights of the front gate.
He stood at his full height as he walked towards the gate, not concealing himself in any way shape or form. He drew a double bladed scepter from a sheath at his back concealed by his cloak.
As he approached the light the sentries on the wall and by the gate sounded the alarm, and soon the majority of sentries as well as most of the deserters on stand-by had gathered at the front. Some aimed bows or crossbows at him while others held swords or spears menacingly as he came into full view.

Even at the distance he stood his height was apparent, the men had only heard the reports of his size but to finally see it made them look on with awe, wondering how such a large person could exist without being an actual giant.
Once he was satisfied with the number of bandits present he called out.
"Where is you leader? I've come to challenge him, let him come forth if he isn't a coward!"
With that he held up the scepter, and with the press of a button the staff extended into a spear, with a halberd blade on the bottom and a spear tip on the top. It stood about as tall as himself and he stabbed the sword end into the dirt with a loud ring.

One of the bandits that seemed to be a bit more than a rank and file soldier called out jeeringly, "Can't be bothered with a stupid adventurer fuck like yourself. You just came here to your death ya damned fool! And once we're done with you we'll go to the village and take the elders head for trying to call for help!"
Kalia turned his mask to the speaker, something that should have been simple with no meaning, but the disturbing painted eyes seemed to bore into the mans very soul and he paled considerably.

"So you will all kill me and move on to the village. I pity you, because that village is under the protection of Kalia Oro Khastan, and this name doesn't know defeat."
The captain grit his teeth as rage built up. "You don't scare us you damned fool! you're only one man! you cannot hope to protect yourself let alone an entire village with no defenses! Just lay down and die like the damned dog you are and save yourself the trouble, they aren't worth protecting anyways you damned idiot!"
He was almost screaming now, his indignation at being caught off guard and frightened so easily making him brash.

""Damned" You say? Why funny you should mention it, and so many times too. Yes I am damned. Damned by the gods themselves for daring to reach their heights. They damned me because I dared to follow their example, because I dared to desire more than a human life, they damned me because I actually succeeded. So come, wouldn't you like to share a taste of my damnation!"
The challenge was issued, short and sweet, and the deserters took the bait hook line and sinker. With a fierce war cry they charged him, and as soon as they got within a yard of where he stood he twisted the spear in the dirt, activating the spell.
A green fog exploded from that point and enveloped the ten or so soldiers that came from the main force to rush him, the captain included.
They fell down as the fog cloaked them, and when it had cleared the men lay on the ground as if they were dead.

Those who stayed behind looked in awe and fear, thinking their comrades dead in a single instant. But then hope bloomed in their hearts as one by one the men on the ground began moving, pulling themselves back up to their feet. But there was also confusion, because they all moved so strangely, stilted and jerky with clumsy movements and stumbling steps. The fear rose once more as their comrades picked up their weapons and turned towards the gates, their eyes rolled back and their mouths stretched into inhuman grins across their faces.

Immediately the animals in the pens felt the presence of these terrifying creatures, and the closer they came to the camp the more nervous the animals grew. The men that stood with terror written on their faces had their weapons raised and ready to defend against the ten men now suddenly stricken with some form of bloodthirsty insanity that were charging their formation. When their weapons clashed the animals were thrown into absolute chaos.
The new monsters he created were easy to kill, they fought like animals given blades with no sense of how to use them. The trained unit were able to battle them and fight them off with ease, but still a few died from their unsettling onslaught.

 

[Heike Eisen]

There. The cries of general alarm. Kalia shouting in the distance. The last glances, cursory in nature, from the few sentries walking along her end of the fortress wall. They hurried along toward the front, toward the commotion, their bows made ready and their attention diverted.

Now was the time.

Heike sprinted out from the grasp of the night's darkness. Stone walls were far more difficult to climb than wooden walls, and usually it was far more efficient in the cost of blood to simply leap up and over. These weren't the highest walls she'd ever seen, so leaping stood as the best choice.

She exerted herself, felt the gathering of blood in her legs, and jumped. She went up, but not quite over. Close. Her hands gripped onto the edge of the wall between the gap in the parapets. A quick pull-up, chin level with the edge. Checking left and right. No one unexpected and looking her way, good. She pulled herself the rest of the way up and rolled along the top of the wall, staying low and flat. Rolled right off the inside edge and dropped all the way down to the fort's courtyard, tucked in a dark little corner made by the wall and the end of the stables.

The stables themselves provided a measure of cover, but even so, she saw nothing but backs of men, all across the span of the courtyard and preoccupied with the boisterous scene Kalia was making.

Good. Or, it would have been, if Heike didn't hear a tiny shuffle, the faintest rustle of clothes and shoddy textile armor, right behind her.

Heike looked over her shoulder and back. A man. Secluded in the shadow, just straightening himself from what had previously been a casual lean against the inside wall of the fort, perhaps there out of cowardice or laziness, but there nonetheless. A quick sequence of emotion crossing his face. Surprise and alarm, of course, in the tiny moment between when Heike heard him and when she looked back. Relief, even a little geniality, as he faintly recognized her; the woman Piker had brought in earlier. But then something seemed to click. The commotion at the front, the way Heike had dropped down from the wall, the look she was giving him.

Shit.

"Hel--!" he cried out.

Heike slammed one hand against his mouth, pushing him back into the wall. Claws from her other raked his neck, carving deep red trenches from which blood burst in the manner of a waterskin viciously sliced open from the bottom.

The man, in an unexpected display of resilience, managed to unsheath a boot knife and jam it straight into Heike's left arm, the arm that held his mouth shut. She gasped and let go, but the man's effort had been in vain. Mere gargles escaped in his throat, bubbles of blood from his mouth and the ragged gashes containing what it was he intended to yell, popping feebly and with no further ceremony. The man slid down to a slump against the wall and suffocated well before he bled out.

Heike looked about, eyes wide. The animals in the pens of the stables had started to become anxious, roused to patrol what little space they had with worrisome steps. Yet neither the man's cutoff cry nor the animals' unsteady nervousness drew attention from the front of the fort and all the deserters gathered there. They were all consumed by a problem of far greater import.

No time to count your blessings, Heike. Hurry. This isn't for your sake.

She briefly considered drinking some of the fallen man's blood. Replenishing what she had lost in her exertion to jump up the wall, what she would lose to escape and heal her wound later. No. That might well lead to another unfavorable circumstance. She resolved to do her part and get out.

Heike quickly produced the spool of tough string and tied the end to the first pen of the stable. Aware of the firelights of cooking pits and torch sconces bathing her body as she went, she weaved the string through the handles of every pen down the line. The dull and throbbing pain in her left arm bothered her, but she didn't lose too much function in her hand. The knife--lodged perfectly between the bones of her forearm--she left in for the moment, lest she bleed more by pulling it out.

All done. There at the end of the line of pens and at the other side of the stables, Heike gave the string she'd set up a hard and exerted yank and all at once the pen doors flew open.

No time to waste, chaos of Kalia's distraction and stampeding animals or not. Heike once again exerted herself, that thirsty scratching in the back of her throat becoming a pronounced ache now, and she jumped up with inhuman ability to the top of the wall again. Caught the edge. Tried pulling herself up with both hands, her left hand failing, then having to exert more to pull herself up with a single arm.

Heike rolled across the top of the wall again and dropped down on the outside. Her landing less than graceful this time. A staggered three-point landing on her feet and her right hand. Cradling her injured arm, she dashed toward the welcoming embrace of the darkness at the light's end.

 

[Kalia Oro Khastan]

The fighting went about how he expected it. The men were surprised at first to see their comrades reduced to ravening animals, but they recovered quickly and defended themselves from the onslaught. Soon the ten he had under his control were slain, but they did their job. By the time the doors were opened all the animals were in a frenzy, they bolted out of the gates charging in every direction trying to get away from the evil presence, and the bandits got caught in the stampede.

Not only were they being trampled but their food supply was bolting for the gate as the only exit. They were in total disarray trying to escape and recapture the livestock at the same time. They dropped their swords and did their best while Kalia stood as he had been, spear thrust into the dirt staring straight ahead. Animals charged into the forest rushing past on either side of him, his size making him not viable for trampling. He stood as a tree would in the middle of a stampede.

He should have planned for this, it would be wise to bring back as much of the livestock to the village as he could, their food value aside having strong cattle can make setting up defenses much easier. He trusted that some of the animals would return to their home pens back in the village, but just to be sure he thought it would be wise to bring some back himself.
So in the middle of the stampede he pulled the spear out of the dirt, retracting the staff and sheathing it behind his back.
He turned and began running with the animals, coming up beside a couple choice steers and picking them up around their stomachs. Two was about all he could manage under each arm, so it would have to do.

He made his way to the outside of the running animals, which was a bit easier since they were now slowed down enough to dodge the trees as they ran.
The two bull cows protested loudly to being carried but didn't struggle too much, stealth wasn't a huge concern now. Normally he wouldn't have been able to carry the beasts for any extensive amount of time due to muscle fatigue, but now he didn't have muscles and they were far under the weight limit of his dense bones.

Kalia walked through the forest until he was sure he was a good distance away from the fortress before calling out, "Lady Eisen, are you here?"