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| − | By MunificentPerception
| + | #REDIRECT [[SaltLotus/SaltLotus]] |
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| − | '''Later that same night…'''
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| − | Wendai and her six sisters followed the river highway as they rode towards the city of Great Forks. Even though the sun had set hours ago, the former captain and her companions pushed onwards. They did not stop to enjoy the summer night's restful air, nor did they fear the robbers and highwaymen who occasionally preyed on the road's traffic.
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| − | Around the seven women’s shoulders, over breastplates of bronze-gilded steel, were draped the red, tasseled cloaks of the virgin brides of Ahlat. Each garment was embroidered with Fire Tongue script down the right edge, proclaiming the sworn sisters to be veterans, discharged after ten years faithful service. The former soldiers' skin colors ranged from bronze to black, and their hair was either long and straight, worn pulled back in tails, or short and woolly, woven tightly in cap-like coifs. Each former Guardswoman carried a spear and a long oval shield. Six were also armed with bows, slung across their saddles, while a long quiver buckled to the saddle of Wendai’s mount held ten javelins of superior quality.
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| − | Born to a wealthy family, and raised among a people who saw the world divided into warriors and slaves, Wendai had become enraptured with her tribe's songs of militant glory at an early age. On her 17th birthday, she had tested for the honor of serving in the Brides. Her extraordinary natural endurance was only exceeded by her near-legendary ability to confound her age fellows by thinking quickly on her feet, so it had been no great surprise that she managed to best her competitors in trials of stamina and problem solving. Afterwards, when the divinations of the Leopard Seat's priests had confirmed that Wendai had never known congress with a man, she had been granted a place in the year’s cohort. Thus she had become a Guardswoman and heard the thundering whispers of a war god speaking marriage vows in her ear. The Brides comprised the nation of Harborhead's royal guard, and the members of its all-female corps were ritualistically married to Creation’s southern god of warfare. They were sworn to war without fear at their king's behest, and violently devoted to their divine husband.
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| − | After being initiated into the unit’s battle drills and mysteries, Wendai had served with blood-spattered distinction. She was a fearless assault fighter and had often succeeded in breaking through enemy lines with her ferocity. She had taken spoils and slaves, but it was her exploits under the dark mystery of night that had won her renown among the People. Whenever the call had gone out for a volunteer to scout the way or for a heroine to assay to enter the enemy’s camp, it was Wendai who had pushed forward. At first there had been few who had dared to accompany her, but over time, a small cohort of fellow night friends had formed around her. Those who had survived their tumultuous service had left the Guard together at age 27, bound in vows of sisterhood. Seeking adventure and wealth, they had traveled northwards for two years until they found themselves among the wealthy, fractured kingdoms of the Scavenger Land.
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| − | Now, they were embroiled in times far more interesting than they had sought.
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| − | Alongside Wendai rode her mentor of just over a week, the wandering woman. The rake-like mendicant had a proper name, which Wendai promptly forgot whenever the traveler was not around. The woman did not design to accompany the former Guardswoman and her companions with any regularity, but came and went, finding her charge and hirelings without error when she needed them.
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| − | “Are you sure we will arrive before your enemies?” Wendai asked, measuring the height of the waning moon above the horizon. She was both alarmed and pleased by the good time they were making, by how their mounts, which should be either lame or drooping with exhaustion, held their pace easily, as if carrying panniers full of supplies and women in armor was of no consequence to their endurance.
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| − | “No, I’m not the least sure,” the wandering woman replied brightly. “In fact, I’m certain that my rival and the Dragon-Blooded must already be in Great Forks.” The traveler appeared disheveled, dirty and very much in love with the open road. With her constant dogged humor, she seemed as if she could not be bothered with the cares or troubles of the world, nor the comforts of civilized life. Now, however, Wendai could at last detect a sense of purpose lurking behind the cheerful vagabond's demeanor.
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| − | “If they’ve arrived before us, why continue and invite an encounter with a superior force?” Wendai asked warily. At this close range, she could see that the wandering woman’s tawny-colored eyes shone with bright points of white that reminded her of nothing so much as stars. Wendai’s own eyes were a dark scarlet brown, and her red glossy hair stood in strong contrast to her mahogany skin. She was fair of face, and there were many who would have called her beautiful but for her unflinching gaze — her fierce eyes saw far too much for anyone to be overly comfortable in her presence.
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| − | Behind Wendai, her six sworn sisters and two slaves rode in the nervous silence that had become characteristic for them since Wendai’s Exaltation. The Sun’s blessing had come upon her eight nights ago, when they had been stalking the trail of a great wolf of the forests that had menaced their camp. They each had been straining to see into shadows made all the blacker by dappled splashes of Luna’s silver light, when Wendai had realized that the old dire wolf had flanked her. Standing as still as silence, she had glanced slowly to the side and looked upon the huge creature. Its eyes had been illuminated by an inner light as it crouched, ready for the spring that would take Wendai's life.
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| − | Her intended prey, she had realized, was a God-Blooded beast of the forest. This was the offspring of a nature divinity and an ancient wolf, and it was he who had been stalking Wendai and her companions all along. The warrior had smiled her terrible smile as her heart accelerated its beating, and a fierce joy filled her. She had been a soldier, courier, assassin and heroine of the battlefield. If she should die in the jaws of this half-divine beast under the black sky, it would be a fitting end to the story of her life.
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| − | Only she had not yet been prepared to concede who was prey and who was predator here.
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| − | The massive creature had sprung, and Wendai ducked beneath its lunge with impossible, Essence-fueled speed. When she had come to her feet with a javelin in hand, her opponent had twisted, landed and jumped again at her, as nimble as any great cat and as massive as any prize bull.
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| − | Heat and light had filled Wendai as she leaped backwards and sailed between stout branches, just beyond the great wolf’s reaching jaws. She made her cast mid air, the javelin wrapped in a blaze of shimmering purple light. The shaft pierced the creatures’ breast and passed through its heart before the radiant steel point erupted from its hindquarters. The beast was dead before either of them had touched the ground. As Wendai had stood before the sprawled brute, the ghostly green and purple fires of the night sky had enveloped her, and aurora borealis burned in the black sky above her — a sign of the Sun’s blessing on the world, even during the hours of darkness.
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| − | Wendai shivered in her saddle as she recalled the ecstasy that had accompanied the voice; of how its words had released her from old allegiances and granted a calling to police Creation’s dark hours. Beside her, the wandering woman continued to speak, answering Wendai as to why they should proceed towards Great Forks.
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| − | “We continue onwards because there is much chance and uncertainty at work,” the Wandering Woman said, though she sounded puzzled that this should be the case. “Even if we do not reach your fellow Chosen first, the Dragon-Blooded may not succeed in their mission of extermination...And there is one thing more,” the wanderer continued after a weighted pause, “I have called in a favor from hell to see our charge safely through.”
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| − | Next: [[/Eclipse]]
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| − | Back to: [[/Twilight]]
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| − | Back to: [[Salt Lotus]]
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| − | ''This is a work of fan fiction set in White Wolf’s Exalted fantasy setting and is no way meant to challenge White Wolf’s copy rights or trademarks. The characters Joyous Gift, Mirror Flag, Ribbons of Sorrow, Shield of a Different Day, Spinner of Glorious Tales and Weaver of Dreams of Victory, as well as the city Great Forks are trademarked White Wolf Property.''
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