Fable - Ask War is the Father of All Things

[Alistair Krixus]

The dance of battle was so complex, but so simple when you knew what you were doing. A cut here and a dodge there, and then repeating those moves in slightly complicated fashions was all one needed. It was something addicting, and easy to lose yourself in. Alistair was dangerously close to that exact thing happening to him before he heard his name being called...That was Kristen. Time to go.

Alistair spotted her standing at the door of the tower. She had made it all the way through. He dodged one axe aimed for his neck before he rushed for the door and dove through.

"Nice job with the spikes Kristen."

Brenna wasn't here yet, so he needed to help Kristen stall. Bolts of arcane energy shot out at any orc that dared try and get to close to the door.

Kristen Pirian Brenna

 

[Brenna]

Brenna wasn't far behind Alistair but she was distracted briefly by a group of orcs who were attempting to form some sort of resistance to the attack by her brethren on their other flank. Catching them from the back she was able to puncture a hole large enough that the Nordenfiir could swarm through and take over whilst she went back to join the others. As she skidded to a stop before the two initiates the exploding kaleidoscope broke out across her fur and then in the bears place stood Brenna.

"What do you find?" she panted slightly, rubbing a bit of blood off her face.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"It was all novel to me," Kristen said quickly.

Brenna came charging in. Alistair's bolts flew through the doorway, dissuading Blue Orcs from trying immediately to rush for the door. Kristen threw her whole body into the ajar iron door and with a cry of effort and the scraping of her sabatons on the tower floor she pushed the door shut. She slammed down the barricade bar, locking the Blues out of the very place they were trying to guard.

Kristen pressed her back to the door for a moment, catching her own breath. She heard and felt the savage pounding on the iron from the orcs outside.

She looked to Brenna, waiting until the other girl had a good sight of her lips before speaking in brief. "We go up the tower and disable the Greenflame." Out came a little laugh, one peppered with a touch of disbelief for the word: "Easy."

Kristen pushed off of the door. Looked up to the wide, spiraling stairs which led to the top.

"Getting back down might be the more difficult part."

Fighting through all of those Blue Orcs to break back out of the tower she thought would be much too time-consuming. Kristen had an alternative way of getting down from the tower herself, that of her Chains, and, while she might have the strength to carry one of them, Alistair and Brenna were looking at finding creative ways for an alternative exit themselves.

A problem to be dealt with after the Greenflame.

Alistair Krixus Brenna

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair motioned for Brenna to follow up after Kristen. She would need to be at the front to fight, while Alistair could still provide support from the back. He put away the runesaber and moved up with them. A part of him hoped that Brenna and Kristen could handle the top of this tower, as Alistair had to be careful where his magic was used.

He was already aware that he would have to think of a way to get himself down. It should not be too hard with a couple of well-timed runes, but there was always room for unknown factors.

"Do we have any idea where they might be keeping our targets?" He asked it to both of them but was hoping that Brenna might have an idea since Kristen would have already told him if she did.

Kristen Pirian Brenna

 

[Brenna]

Brenna's heart pounded in her chest from the rush of adrenaline caused by the fighting and her shift between forms. It always got her blood heated. It was like the other part of her sensed that there was an enemy to kill and it clawed at her from within to finish the job. Her eyes flickered over Kristen's lips as she spoke, nodding and flashing a grin when she recognised the other woman's laugh. It was good to see the Southerners could laugh to in the face of possible death.

"They will sing songs of us and welcome us in the Halls of Vhella," she reassured the other woman, clapping her on the shoulder, before starting up the stairs.

At the front of the little party she would not hear any conversation so she turned every now and then to see if they had something to say as she all but jogged up the stairs. Her brows furrowed at the question Alistair had to repeat for her benefit.

"What targets?"

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"In the underground, I presume," Kristen said to Alistair as she stepped off after Brenna up the stairs. Godendrung was a mining encampment (and some refining, as a few smoke stacks seeping up from deeper within encampment attested). Jarl Yngvir was focused on the plunder of rare metals and gems, but for Kristen and Alistair it was the liberation of two countrywomen.

How had they even ended up here, in so far flung and bitterly cold a place as the Blightlands? No demands had been forwarded by their kidnappers, but what motive other than ransom to do this? It was baffling. But this was not a concern for the present.

"Two Anirians, captured and taken here," Kristen said to Brenna when again she turned back her gaze. "Their names are Mina Pirian and Jiya Luana. Above all else, we are to see them returned to Vel Anir."

Alistair Krixus Brenna

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair frowned at the thought. The underground could be bigger than the city itself. If they did not find some clues soon, then they could spend days trying to find the nobles.

"Once we get to the top of the tower then maybe we can get a read of the city and figure out where they might be hiding them."

As they neared the top, Alistair took out a dueling dagger. He would rather use this than the runesaber, at the moment, since it did not require any energy to use.

Kristen Pirian Brenna

 

[Brenna]

Naturally the names meant nothing to Brenna and she shrugged at the pairs determination to find those captured. If they were anything like the Nordenfiir then those captured were already plotting their escape - perhaps they even had in the chaos their attack had caused. Either way it did not seem of high importance to her to search out for these two; the safety and survival of her own people was a far more pressing matter. Hopefully with the tower dismantled that would be the case.

"Orcs tend to keep prisoners in the pantry," Brenna said in a conversationalist tone. Pantry, if Brenna had known what it had meant in the Common Tongue translated into Anirian, would probably not be the word she would have chosen. However there was not a word in Common to describe the Orcs love of keeping live meat - or prisoners - close to the kitchen pots.

"Kitchens are easy to find, I will take you. After the tower."

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"Agreed," Kristen said to Alistair.

Only it was a moment too soon. Brenna noted a rather disturbing practice among Orcish kind (though, when Kristen considered it, such a thing was quite befitting of them and their savagery). Blessed Aionus! She could only hope that anything was the case other than Mina and Jiya becoming...

The thought was simply too gruesome to finish, and what was left unsaid in her mind instead made its way in a little shiver down her shoulders.

"Very well, 'tis the best idea thus far proposed."

Up the stairs.

Up the stairs.

Orcish voices from above. The first shimmers of green light splashing against the inside wall of the tower's staircase.

And when they emerged up from the circular stairs and onto the platform of the tower's apex, the Greenflame hovered over a huge brazier, and it was swirling faster and faster, preparing for another strike. The Shaman was chanting in Orcish and tapping the butt of his staff to the floor in the rhythm of his words. A dozen Sacrifices, all puny, runty orcs (which made them more the size of the average human), were awaiting in line their chance to hurl themselves into the Greenflame. The Sacrifices toward the end of the line were still having their bodies painted by a Orcish Wisewoman.

One of the Sacrifices turned and saw them and pointed and called out in fierce alarm.

Alistair Krixus Brenna

 

[Alistair Krixus]

The sacrifice has barely managed to utter a word before Alistair had thrown his dagger, its tumbling end over end right for the shaman who was in the middle of chanting. Cut the spell off and hopefully there would be backlash on the caster. Of course, that also just meant that Alistair had just thrown his dueling knife.

That left him only with the runesaber. He did not rush in, letting both of the ladies take the lead. Hopefully, he could grab a dagger from one of the fallen orcs.

He sidestepped an orc that rushed at him, aiming to tackle him. As he dodged, he left his leg out and tripped the runt sending him falling down the stairs. Good luck with that.

Kristen Pirian Brenna

 

[Brenna]

Brenna made herself let go of her axe. There was a desperate desire to throw it at the sacrifices lining up along the pit-edge but it did not take a genius to work out that death was exactly what they wanted. If it was by her hand or the priests did it matter? Did it still fuel their warped God? She eyed the pit warily as she walked around it. With the Shaman dead the orb had begun to slow but she could feel something still coming off of it. Magic. It had to be. What else would make the hairs on the back of her neck raise and give her such gooseflesh in the midst of battle?

She turned instead to put herself between the sacrifices and the pit just in case one should try and leap towards glorified death and set the thing going again.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

The Shaman fell dead, gargling briefly as he clutched at his chest.

The Orcish Wisewoman shouted shrill threats (or perhaps orders), and produced a hatchet from her belt and wheeled around to make a charge at Brenna.

Alistair dealt with one rushing Sacrifice.

And Kristen dealt with another. She shot out her artificial hand and a Chain flew from her palm and wrapped around the Sacrifice's neck. With a hard fling of her arm as if swinging a heavy sack from over her shoulder, and aided by the magic, she threw the Sacrifice cleanly out of the tower. The small orc's angry, protesting cries faded as he plummeted to the ground below.

The ten Sacrifices that remained were rushing to attack her, Alistair, Brenna. Fanatical, yearning to prove their strength in battle by whatever means necessary.

Improvising, without knowing if it would be particularly effective, Kristen brought the Chain back around like a whip and lashed three of the Sacrifices who were close to pouncing on her. It was momentarily disorienting, causing them to stumble slightly, but with no lasting weakness if the Chain had stayed coiled around their bodies.

She raised her sword and prepared to defend herself.

Alistair Krixus Brenna

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair still needed a weapon, and the answer was his dagger which was still lodged in the shaman's head. The only problem was the assortment of orcs in between him and the dagger. If it would have been a normal orc, Alistair would have hesitated more, but these were the runts. They were just meant to be sacrifices, not to mention Alistair had Kristen and Brenna on his side.

"Uh, you guys got this."

Alistair took off running for the shaman, dodging past one orc runt that made the worst attempt at a tackle he had ever seen. He vaulted over one of them that Kristen had sent to the ground before they could get up.

He was starting to feel confident, maybe a little too confident. He had nearly reached the dagger when he felt a sharp pain on the back of his left shoulder. An orc had managed to stab him in the back, dangerously close to where his heart would have been. Panic flared followed quickly by glowing runes that hardened his skin and began the healing process on his body.

Alistair mumbled a curse worse as he grabbed his dagger and reached out driving the dagger into his opponent's throat while stumbling to the ground. Fuck that hurt.

Kristen Pirian Brenna

 

[Brenna]

Brenna watched the chaos heading towards them with an air of serene calm. She glanced to Kristen briefly whose magic still made her involuntarily flinch every time it was wielded, probably made worse by the fact she had now seen what exactly that magic could do, then over to Alistair who was... gone. She blinked at the empty space but there was not much else she could do with a hatchet arcing towards the joint between her shoulder and neck. Grabbing a hold of the wisewoman's wrist she yanked it sharply to right, bending it back the wrong way and making the woman cry out. Her other hand raised the axe and she brought it down harshly to take the orcs arm.

Wailing, the woman stumbled back and away from the fire pit.

"Try not to kill!" she shouted over the screaming. "It is dark magic!" she was not sure how it worked but her skin still prickled.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Kristen heard Brenna's shouted warning, and clenched her teeth in a grimace as she stared down the three incoming Sacrifices. It was one thing to say not to kill. Another, as three zealous foes bore down on her, to do it.

But this was what all of her training had been working toward. Though it went heavily against her nature, the fires of battle were not the place to make deliberate plans, checking, re-checking. The drills of training were meant to let her body move as it needed to move, without thought, with only that purpose which had been so honed.

So Kristen let conscious thought drop from her mind. She just let herself act.

She tossed her sword away and backed up to the edge of the tower, her back touching the bannister. The first among of the Sacrifices was all too eager for his charge. He tackled her, and she let him. The thin wooden bannister broke and down they fell.

Don't hold back. Words from Noel.

Kristen slammed her head into the Sacrifice's own, bewildering him as much as it hurt her. She twisted in the air so that she was above him, pushing and kicking herself off and away. She flung her right hand up and a Chain shot out and pierced through the overhanging roof of the tower. Kristen jerked to a stop and changed directions, soaring back up as her Chain retracted rapidly into her palm. The Sacrifice plummeted, shouting obscenities.

You have to think about yourself as a whole. Words from Kalix.

The two other Sacrifices were looking over the edge, each wanting to witness the death of the human and the ascension of their comrade. Kristen's armored knee plowed into the face of the Sacrifice on the right. Teeth and tusks broke upon impact. He fell shuddering to the floor, clutching at his face and writhing, as Kristen's sabatons landed with a clank back onto the top level of the tower, the last length of her Chain slithering back into her palm.

...the hand should be able to knock out a charging warhorse. Words from Alistair.

The last Sacrifice, who had taken up Kristen's discarded sword, now swung her own weapon at her. She reached out. Grabbed the blade with her false hand, porcelain fingers tightening. A moment of stunned awe from the orc allowed her to shove the blade toward him, the edge of the crossguard poking him through his eye. He howled, and Kristen kneed him squarely in the soft basin of the solar plexus, violently quieting him. The blade fell from his grasp and Kristen seized full control of it and sliced through the tendons at the back of his knees. The Sacrifice collapsed, silently wailing in breathless anger over his eye and his legs.

Kristen stood. Breathing heavy. A trickle of blood from her headbutt ran down the bridge of her nose.

She did not yet realize how fluidly she had done it all.

Alistair Krixus Brenna

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair ground his teeth together in pain as he pushed himself up to his feet. He could tell that the wound would not be life-threatening, only by a few inches, but that still did not mean it did not hurt like hell.

"Maybe tell them that."

He might have responded with a smart-ass comment, but Brenna was right. He focused on the two sacrifices coming towards him, but his eyes trailed over to the magic ritual the Shaman had been working with. If they could get rid of the rest of them, he could probably turn off the ritual with a few well-placed scratch marks.

It would have been easier to focus, if he had not just partially watched Kristen do one of the coolest things he had seen her do, yet. The jump, the sword catch, all of it. She looked like an actual dreadlord.

"I won't be that cool." He said to the sacrifices with a shrug.

They both charged him, and he smoothly stepped forward between the two. His dagger snaked out as he used the butt of the weapon to knock one orc into the back of the club. He was out like a light.

He turned to the female orc and asked "Don't suppose you surrender?" By now, she was one of the last few sacrifices left standing. Alistair got his answer as he charged wildly. This was not a challenge at all. He moved to the side and tripped her to the ground.

No mercy. Send a message.

Alistair raised his foot up and brought it down hard on her leg, causing a loud crack followed by the sound of the orc's screaming.

Brenna Kristen Pirian

 

[Brenna]

Brenna let the sacrifice she had been holding drop as their body went limp. She hadn't strangled her enough to kill her but she would be sore when she woke from this deep slumber. Truthfully, she hadn't intended to strangle her that far, she had merely got caught up watching Kristen with her mouth slightly agape. The stories of Summerlanders were that they were soft and relied too much on their magic, but what Kristen had done came from nothing less than song-worthy skill. It challenged the whole concept she had of the South and respect and curiosity about them was born in that moment.

"That was amazing!" Brenna cried as she stepped towards the other girl. Another sacrifice ran screaming towards them but the Nordenfiir barely looked in her direction as she brought her round shield up and hit the man square on the nose causing him to topple backwards. "You must teach, me," she said with a firm nod.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

The last of the Sacrifices went down, incapacitated, courtesy of the boss of Brenna's round shield.

"I—...what?"

A delayed reaction as the unexpected words, You must teach me, registered. Absently, she wiped with the tips of her fingers that blood from the gash in her forehead before it could touch her upper lip.

She didn't know quite what to make of the other girl's praise. Kristen never imagined herself actually being in such a position, for it was always she who was the learner. Overshadowed so often by the shining stars of her peers, those with decades more training and refinement of their magic under their belts, it was easy to assume the role of forever second-best.

Her stumbling response wasn't particularly impressive to her ears (though perhaps the movement of her lips was better than the sounds they formed) as she said in response, "F-First, we must persevere through the night."

She looked to her fellow Initiate. Approached him. "Alistair." And then after a short glance to the brazier which held the Greenflame above it. "College Magic may serve, if you've nothing better. A round of Minor Dispels will take some time, but mayhap it shall be enough?"

And another short glance, this one toward Brenna, thinking of her bear form. What if...merely pushing the brazier off the tower, letting gravity take it and destroy it, was enough to shatter the magic of the Greenflame?

Alistair Krixus Brenna

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair watched his bashful friend fluster about at Brenna's compliment. He chuckled but turned back to green flame. As much as he wanted to watch Kristen be awkward, he had a job to do right now.

The flame was shaman magic which tended to be passed down orally which meant it was not as formulaic and therefore hard to read, but all magic had certain similar properties.

He walked around the ball of flame with a curious look as Kristen came over and he nodded. He still wasn't exactly sure what the spell had been crafted to do, but he was confident enough that he could disrupt it enough to have the spell fall in on itself.

"Agreed...just drop one minor dispel, and I'm going to hang some other spells around it. That should work."

While Kristen worked on that, Alistair continued his walk around the flame, while tracing glowing runes into the air. One for water, opposite of fire. One for life, counteracting death. Finally, one for an instant. It forced the magic to resolve in an instant rather than over time, it went against the basis of most ritual magics that required time and patience.

He stepped back to watch Kristen's own magic.

Kristen Pirian Brenna

 

[Kristen Pirian]

College Magic was something that Kristen initially stumbled with (though this was true of quite a number of things), but now on the cusp of her third year in the Academy and with her seventeenth birthday nigh she had been getting more of a knack for it. Such academic learning she took to readily once she had sloughed off the terrible nervousness and trepidations of her first year. Bookishness, reading ahead about something, mentally preparing herself, and practicing repeatedly before trying it were all essential parts of her nature—hence her own surprise at the improvised volley of attacks she had only just assailed the Sacrifices with.

Her improvisation was improving. But this here, a simple College Magic spell she had read about and practiced? A comfortable setting.

Ashes would have been an impediment, for they were a necessary reagent, but it was the misfortune of the orcs to already have a great pile of ashes within the brazier itself. Perfect.

"Perfect. Perfect, perfect, perfect," she said aloud, circling around the Greenflame. She stopped at cardinal points on the compass, the north, south, east, and west sides around that which she intended to dispel. Arcane words and motions combined at these points, faint tethers of mana connecting the ashes inside the brazier to the four cardinal points.

When she was ready, and Alistair was ready, she gave him a firm nod and spoke the activating magical word, "Rozviyaty!"

The Minor Dispel interacted with the runes, and in an instant the Greenflame imploded in on itself, sucking in all of the air around it and then blowing it back out, a pull which stole one's breath and then a push which might stagger one back.

Kristen gasped, indeed staggered back a step, but then smiled. The Greenflame was gone, their work here done.

She glanced to Alistair and Brenna, harkening back to Alistair's idea then, "We ought to survey Godendrung from this vantage, and let our eyes discover the best route underground."

She shivered a little at the thought of an orcish kitchen intruding into her mind once again.

Alistair Krixus Brenna

 

[Alistair Krixus]

The dispelling of the green flame had worked just as planned with no unforeseen occurrences. One problem was solved and a whole bucket full left to solve.

He nodded at Kristen's suggestion as he turned to survey the city. It was clear from just a cursory look that the attack was going well, but Godendrung was filled with orcs. It would take time for the Nordenfir to slug through the mass of bodies, no matter how strong they were.

The bigger issue was figuring out where the prisoners would be kept. Alistair was silent while his eyes moved from point to point in the city, some shakes of his head indicate what his thoughts were on certain areas while others he seemed to look closer at.

"I see three that are the most plausible. The first, and most obvious, is the fortress, it's easiest to hold them and the center of their operations. Second, that area over there with the tower. A lot of orcs in that area but no clear sign where they are coming from, likely coming from underground. Finally, the large building with all the smoke coming from it...likely the kitchen."

Kristen Pirian Brenna

 

[Brenna]

Brenna watched what her comrades called a simple 'college' type of magic with the awe and fear of a person who had been taught such things were evil but who had secretly harboured a fascination with it. Her mother had been unsurprised to find her daughter reading about the world of magic in the years following her loss of hearing; it was only natural that one would seek to restore that which was lost. Especially when it changed the path they had believed their life would take. Her mother had always warned her to keep her curiosities quiet amongst her kin, but the summerlanders flaunted it as much as Jarg might flaunt his ability to throw an axe with precision. There could be no danger in asking a few questions right?

Her musings almost led her to miss the conversation passing between the two has they considered their options.

"Forts are where they will keep their young, their women, their commanders. Not prisoners, orcs do not care if prisoners die in war," Brenna pointed out. Though, if these were special prisoners perhaps they might though it would be very out of character for them.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Alistair had his astute observational skill, Brenna her experience with these Blight Orcs. Kristen listened to their respective counsel in turn. Deeply, beneath her decision-making, Kristen fretted over Brenna's latter comment, that the orcs did not care if their prisoners died in war. Blessed Aionus...what if they were too late?

No. Stop that. Woeful thoughts helped no one. Every Anirian in Godendrung was coming home. All four of them.

"Then I suppose it is settled," Kristen said, looking to Brenna to show the motion of her lips but speaking to both of them. "We must make for the kitchen—or rather, what is presumably the kitchen."

And hopefully Brenna's prior experience proved salient, for the idea of breaking into the Fort or plowing through the mass of orcs in the Underground each seemed a foolhardy proposition. Foolhardy, at least, without the backing of the rest of the Nordenfiir raiding force. Yet at the same time, they couldn't afford to wait for the battle to advance that far. Who knew if the orcs, if the battle looked grim for them, might turn on their prisoners and slay them all to spite their would-be liberators? Woeful thoughts yes, but realistic ones, however ghastly.

Kristen held up her porcelain hand, and a Chain shot out from it and wrapped around the overhanging roof of the former Greenflame tower.

"I have a way down myself. Will you be alright? Alistair? Brenna?"

Alistair Krixus Brenna

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair looked between himself and Brenna before nodding to Kristen. "Yeah, I'll handle it." He began to trace a rune in the air that flew down to hang sideways in the air looking like a perfect circle.

He turned to look at Brenna, "Listen carefully here. When you jump, you have to make sure you fall through that circle got it? Otherwise, it will be a very rough landing."

Alistair did not wait for an answer and jumped off the side of the tower and fell straight through the rune. As he did, his falling momentum nearly stopped and his descent became a slow fall to one of the roofs. As soon as he did he turned back to look up at Brenna and Kristen.

Did he have a way of catching her if she missed? Not completely, he could probably make sure she did not shatter any bones, but it would hurt like hell if she missed.

Brenna Kristen Pirian

 

[Brenna]

Brenna didn't make some witty comment about how she would 'try her hardest to listen'. The use of magic preoccupied her too much and she stared with wide eyes as Alistair simply leapt off the side of the tower with wild abandon. She leant over the side to watch him go and eyed up the circle that shimmered with a wary eye. If anyone else had told her to leap she probably would not have thought much of it but magic was not something she could easily trust. Not the way she could trust an axe or a strong arm.

She stood up and took a breath, raised her eyes to the sky and made a prayer to her Gods, kissing the small wooden figure that hung about her neck. Then, without a glance to Kristen, Brenna let herself slowly fall forward and off the edge of the tower.

Nordenfiir were not known for their elegance but Brenna had always been smaller and slimmer than most of her kin. She hadn't been able to keep up with them in terms of strength so had learned instead to be quick and flexible. Such feats paid off now as she went into a swan dive directly through the very centre of the circle.