Difference between revisions of "DKDragons/SessionFour"

Revision as of 05:24, 10 May 2009

17:34 [ST] The sun has not yet peeked above the pentagonal walls of Kushan when the Wyld Hunt begins to move. In Shatterspear Manse, servants dart to and fro, packing away weapons, armor, and supplies, while soldiers put the finishing touches on weapons and armor, mending straps and sharpening edges.

17:35 [ST] Cynis Avaku and V'neef Jorj leave early, riding with a small group of mounted men south and east along the shoreline road which eventually angles inward to Ghan. Cynis Matara lies silent in a stateroom, breathing heavily and slowly, her life saved but body broken and slow-mending.

17:36 [ST] Ragara Garm oversees preparations for the trip to investigate the farming village of Higara. And as for its members...

17:42 [Talek] Talek stands in Cynis Matara's room with a pail of dirt, a pail of water, and a few imperishable trinkets. A pack of mortal surgeon's tools sits nearby, scorned, along with the glowering mortal surgeon

17:43 [Talek] Talek has one foot in either bucket. Occasionally, a burst of green energy runs down his leg, and he will pluck some medicinal plant which has sprouted rapidly. He seems to be favoring several varieties of seaweed at present. He is pushing the foul smelling wweeds into Matar's body.

17:44 [Talek] The shapeof the weeds is sometimes visible underneath her skin. She's out cold thanks to another plant, but a servant, less lucky, looks ready to retch.

17:45 [Talek] Finally, he breaks his concentration. "There" he says, and with a burst of green light the seaweed dissolves into blood, intestine, muscle, all the other things that Matara is missing.

17:47 [Talek] "Done!" "She might be a little sore for a while though." The servant feints.

17:47 [Talek] talek looks over at the doctor "And you wanted to cut her up! god, whoever heard of such a thing?"

17:49 [ST] And so it is the next day that Cynis Matara is among those gathering before the tower, her wounds mostly healed though a few green and purple discolorations still twine around her neck, visible above the collar of her green jade armor.

17:51 [Kalan] Kalan is dressed smartly in his soldier's uniform of orange and red jade. He gives her a sharp nod in greeting, but his glances her way are almost uneasy. A thought strikes, prickly and dangerous in its newness; �she is hardly older than my daughter.�

17:53 [Kalan] "Matara," he says abruptly. "If you are well enough, I would like you to accompany me to the palace. I think we should allow the Maiden to join us....subject to your reaction."

17:54 [ST] "I-" She does not precisely bite her lip, but the gesture is close. "I do not think that would be advantageous." Her eyes are frantic, wild.

17:55 [Talek] "I concur. For Matara to see the Maiden so soon might cause her additional trauma. So much of our bodies functions are controlled by our spirits."

17:57 [Talek] "Particularly, those of us of the wood aspect are naturally given to being more sensitive, our spirits control life functions of all creatures, but are own doubly."

17:57 [Talek] "Besides, what do you want with an Abyssal?"

17:59 [Kalan] "Little as I would admire the Maiden, I like still less the idea of leaving her at our backs making mischief. The prince is already her slave; so will be half the court, if we leave her." Kalan's eyes are cold, boring into Matara. "It seems to me we have a duty."

18:00 [Talek] "And who will be her slaves if we take her?"

18:00 [ST] "A... duty," Matara says quietly. "That's what brought us here, I suppose. V-very well." Her eyes narrow at Kalan. "Remember what I asked of you."

18:04 [Kalan] "I remember," he says, without inflection to indicate agreement or disagreement. He turns to Talek. "We are Dragonblooded; we have a certain immunity, and our troops are disciplinned legionairres. They are not so vulnerable as this decadent...." his lower lip curls contemptuously. "..city of mortals."

18:08 [Talek] "This is foolish, Kalan. But I will not stand againist you."

18:10 [Kalan] Kalan nods sharply, and looks to Matara again. "Let's go," he says quietly enough that it's almost gentle.

18:13 [ST] The ride to the palace is uneventful - the city continues to awaken around the group, and the earliest of the market stalls are already opened, inferior Threshold wares and fruit bare to the sun and flies. Shortly, the palace looms up before them.

18:13 [ST] A guard steps forward perfunctorily, nodding his head. "Greetings, Princes of Earth. What brings you-"

18:15 [ST] "That would be me, I think," the Maiden says, stepping out from behind a low hedge. She wears a dress as mournful black as the one from last night, the sleeves cut short to bare her long, pale arms. She wears gloves of black lace and carries a bone-handled parasol, but the fire that burns in her eyes is anything but ladylike.

18:17 [Kalan] Zip, hovering at Kalan's ear, flares up and then vanishes, dematerialized. Kalan's eyes widen briefly; he prevents himself from reaching for his spear only with an effort. "Yes. To discuss your proposal of last night."

18:17 [ST] Matara doesn't draw back, but does flinch visibly. Her expression is stony, unreadable.

18:18 [ST] "Oh, certainly," the Maiden says. "But I am being rude. How good to see you again, Kalan... Matara." She flashes her pointed canines in a smile, then turns to Talek. "I haven't met you before. I would remember."

18:20 [Talek] "Mnemnon Talek" he supplies, amused. This was the maiden who stole Matara's head?

18:22 [ST] "So..." she resumes, twirling the handle of the parasol in mock-coquettishness. "You mean to accept my offer? It looks as if you're all dressed for travel. I suppose I should pack my things... get my horse from the stable... unless one of you would prefer me to ride with you."

18:24 [Kalan] "That would be wise," Kalan answers. His horse stirs restlessly beneath him, tossing her head and snorting uneasily at the Maiden. He lays a hand on her neck to calm her. "Our colors don't suit you, generally. Rendevous at the North gate; we ride out at noon."

18:26 [ST] "Very well." She turns to go in a whirl of skirts, pale hair streaming out behind her.

18:35 [ST] The Maiden appears promptly at noon, her midnight-black stallion snorting angrily beneath her. A long, curved daiklave rests in a sheath alongside her saddle, and she wears a plain black-painted breastplate over her silken blouse. Her long, bone-pale hair fans across the flank of her mount.

18:40 [Talek] Taleks mount is a chestnut who looks eager to carry such an Exalted burden. Talek seems less sure.

18:41 [Kalan] "You're punctual," Kalan greets her. His soldiers stand ready in marching columns, and three yeddims loaded with gear and supplies bring up the rear behind; one has already gifted the municipal sanitation crew with a fragrant pile. Kalan himself is still mounted on his blood bay mare.

18:43 [ST] "Yes. It pays, considering my master." She cocks her head at the yeddim. "With those slowing us down, we won't be."

18:44 [Kalan] "They're fast enough; they've got the stamina to march alongside the legionarres for a full day, and time we lose to them would be lost to foraging."

18:47 [ST] "No need to justify it, Kalan. I'm sure it will just give us all more time to get to know each other." She edges the mount forward, slipping into place between Talek and Matara, who shoots one frenzied look at Kalan before hardening her gaze and staring determinedly into her horse's mane.

18:47 [ST] "In any case, I have made preparations for departure. Your Prince Sajet was very sorry to see me go."

18:50 [Kalan] Kalan gaze is cold. "I'm sure he was devestated to lose your...charming company."

18:51 [ST] "Most people are." She chuckles softly. "How fortunate you all are to enjoy it."

18:54 [Kalan] Kalan lifts an eyebrow. "Indeed." He spurs his horse forward, shhouting. "First Talon. Bring 'em out!" The senior legionairre salutes, fist to the heart, and bellows order; the twin scales sets out at a brisk march. The cattledrivers flex they're whips, and, groaning, the yeddim follow.

18:54 [Kalan] "I recommend riding at the head of the column," Kalan calls to the others, and takes his place upwind of the beasts.

18:57 [ST] Matara hastens to join him, glad to draw away from the Maiden.

18:57 [Talek] "Seems like the party is moving up" Talek joins them

19:01 [ST] The Maiden smirks after them for a while, then spurs her own mount forward.

19:03 [ST] Travel is slow, but uneventful. The Inward Road is broad enough for ten men to ride abreast, and reasonably flat, large portions of it still retaining the First Age stone that went into its construction. Perhaps it was to incorporate these segments that the road was build with exacting straightness, cutting a straight line inland through rolling hills and bridging narrow gulches.

19:05 [ST] It is dull country, but fertile, and the column passes through several agricultural hubs on the first day. Few turn out to watch - a handful of rustic Honored Ones with tortoiseshell beads hanging around their necks on leather thongs, agricultural slaves too pregnant or too young to work. They stand at windows or along dusty streets, watching with a kind of stupefied wonder.

19:07 [ST] More slaves toil in the fields that the party passes, stripped to the waist, cutting ripened wheat or laboring in sunken paddies. This is the bread basket of Kushan, the hinterlands that feed its two great cities. The soil is not good, the crops not particularly plentiful, but their yield is enough to feed the slaves. The free citizens of Kushan import food from elsewhere.

19:08 [ST] Nightfall of the first day finds the procession at the bank of the narrow, swiftly-running Tadan river. It seems as good a place to strike camp as any. Even in the tame parts of the Threshold, it doesn't pay to travel after dark.

19:10 [Kalan] Kalan sees first to the disposition of his men; tents are slung up, fireplaces kindled and latrines dug with the easy competence of long experience.

19:12 [Kalan] He asks the Maiden, in a tone which is almost civil, whether she has gear and supplies sufficient to her needs.

19:15 [ST] "I do," she says. She mills about the troops as they begin to unwind, and is drawing a fair share of attention. "It is kind of you to ask."

19:18 [Kalan] "Think nothing of it," Kalan says. He doesn't like the curiosity in his legionaire's eyes, so he adds, "A place has been prepared for you in a grove a couple hundred feet upriver, where you may have some surprise."

19:19 [ST] "Sending me to dine alone? Are you so frightened of me?" She smiles warmly, as if she finds the idea ridiculous but charming.

19:21 [Kalan] "You are welcome to our own hearth for supper, of course, if you wish," Kalan says, with obvious reluctance.

19:22 [ST] "I do. Dragon-Blooded have always fascinated me." Her grin does not falter. "I wonder if all your companions will be so welcoming. The girl reacts to me like a scared rabbit."

19:25 [Kalan] "Well. You are a wolf, are you not?" He waves his hand to the largest of the tents. Men are bustling about with dishes. "It seems the cooks are done."

19:27 [ST] "A wolf? I am far more dangerous than a wolf, little dragon... but far more friendly, as well. I wonder which scares her... or you, for that matter, more." She gestures to the tent. "After you."

19:30 [Kalan] Kalan leads the way and sees her seated with all the ironic courtesy, pouring her a glass of Chiarascuro red. The commander's tent is not particularly grand or luxurious, but there are carpets laid across the dirt, and a polished wooden table set up in the center of it. Plates of steaming skewers, bread, and cold sauces are piled on the table.

19:32 [Kalan] An small man serves the Dragonbloods and guest gracefully, with delicate twists of the wrist. His stare at the Maiden is a little more interested than allowed by courtesy.

19:32 [ST] The Maiden takes a skewer and nibbles at it with almost exaggerated daintiness, looking across the table at the two Dragonbloods who have joined them. Matara fights not to blanch.

19:33 [ST] "So," she says. "Have I convinced you of my master's intentions yet? Surely you can't still think he means this place any harm."

19:35 [Kalan] "Why not?" Kalan says indifferently. "We have only the word of one of his agents, after all. Little seems out of the reach of his ambition." He takes a sip of his wine. "790 was a good year for red."

19:37 [ST] "His ambition?" She sips at the wine between bites. "You have seen this place with your own eyes now. Chattel slaves, sparse fields. Why would the Mask want such things when he nurtures the splendor of Thorns... and sups on finer red than this." A toothy smile is meant to take the sting out of her words.

19:38 [ST] Matara eats quietly and determinedly at Kalan's side.

19:41 [Kalan] He passes her a red apple, amused. 'Why does he care enough to send you, my lady? Why does he war with the Horselords for their feeble pastures and herds? You forget I am Dragonblooded. We know all about...appetite.. without satiation."

19:44 [ST] "Do you?" She asks, leaning across the table. "Well... I suppose Matara does." The Dragonblood yanks her hand out of the way before the Maiden can touch it. "But you must surely know that some appetites are not worth the price of their indulgence... and that my master has no desire to anger the Realm. That is why I am here."

19:46 [Kalan] "Perhaps." Kalan bites off a hunk of meat, chewing it well before swallowing. His eyes gleam in the candlelight. "We'll see why you have come."

19:49 [ST] "So we will. I suppose nothing can convince you regarding the Mask. He has been villified all across Creation... made the symbol of all the evils the other Deathlords represent."

19:54 [Kalan] Kalan shrugs, and his smile freezes, taking on the aspect of a snarl. "We know nothing of the other Deathlords; indeed, as we knew nothing of the Mask of Winters...until he conquered Thorns with his army of monsters and dead slaves. I remember the wine of Thorns as well, if it is �wine� your master drinks."

19:56 [ST] "Have you not heard about how the Mask of Winters struck down the vile Walker in Darkness? How he hunts his servants even now? Thorns... was a city of great wine, but small men. Tyrants. Abusers. A worn, exhausted, broken place. The coming of the Mask of Winters gave it a new chance. Me a new chance. I lived there, you know. Before."

19:57 [ST] "I couldn't even read. But the Mask was there. He knew. He saw the potential, and now... am I not improved?"

19:58 [ST] Suddenly, the air around her seems to grow heated. A smell comes off her, unrecognizable, alluring, and her very outline seems to smolder.

20:00 [Talek] Elsewhere, Talek dines on spinach and looks over some of his colleague's notes on Necromancy. It seems like such a strange and useless art.

20:02 [Kalan] Kalan's breath catches. "Oh yes," he breaths. His skin flushes red, heating with internal flame. She smiles at him, and he almost dies for wanting then and there. He licks his parched lips.

20:04 [ST] Matara glares at Kalan possessively, looking as if she wants to throttle him. "He doesn't understand," she snaps. "He rebuffed you last night. He dared to-"

20:05 [ST] "I'm sure he has seen the error of his ways," the Maiden purrs.

20:06 [ST] Three-Fingered Dalla, the stout cook, looks over at the table as if all of them have lost their mind. No making sense of Dragon-blooded at all, but Kalan had never seemed the type to act like this... still, best to keep quiet about it.

20:08 [Kalan] Kalan gestures to the servants to leave with a flick of his fingers, glaring at the infant Cynis. He stammers like a boy, "I didn't understand...before...My lady." The mocking courtesy turns enraptured. He stands and makes his way to her side with measured grace, reaching down to bring her hand to his lips.

20:10 [Kalan] He carresses the back of her knuckles with his thumb, sitll holding her hand. "I will make it up to you," he vows, eyes avid and greedy. He feels too hot, somehow, as if fevered.

20:11 [ST] She laughs archly. "I suppose you can be forgiven... but devotion should be rewarded as well, don't you think, Matara?" She reaches out to cup the woman's cheek with her other hand. "Perhaps the two of you could come visit me in Thorns. We could walk the galleries, sample the pleasures of the night..." At Kalan's vow, she smiles. "I know you will. I simply hope that this might allay

20:11 [ST] your suspicions."

20:15 [Kalan] "Oh yes," he says again. "I would give much to walk in Thorns again." There is no bitterness to the thought now. Not with such beauty and lust before him. He draws closer to kiss her.

20:16 [ST] Her hand slips up to press at Kalan's chest, forcing him back lightly, firmly. She giggles as Matara kisses the back of her hand before pulling it out of reach, but when she speaks again, her voice is heavy, serious. What she is about to say is doubtless the most important thing in the world.

20:18 [ST] "I want the two of you to listen closely. I want to remember the way you feel, right now. Kalan, last night, when you pulled Matara away, I let you. If I had called for her, she would have torn her arm off to be free of you. If I had allowed that fat Prince to bed me, I believe the experience would have killed him. And if I so asked, the two of you would kill each other for the right to have me."

20:20 [ST] "I am not going to ask. I am going to leave, and the two of you are going to stay here, and I don't care what you do, but I want you to remember." She rises and walks to the edge of the tent, looking back over her shoulder. "Remember all the things I could have done, and didn't. And then, maybe, you will understand what you are dealing with. Maybe you will see the wisdom in the offers I

20:20 [ST] bring." She smiles. "I'm going to my grove now. Do not follow."

20:20 [ST] And she is gone, a wraith in the night.

20:25 [Kalan] Kalan stares longingly after her, long after she had departed and the food grows cold. He shivers, though whether it is with revulsion or desperate wanting he couldn't decide. His breath is pained and laborous. She was horrifying. Desirable. She reminded him of a corpse, still, as she had the night before; but there is less instinctive distate to the idea now. He turns and gives Matara an ugly look.

20:26 [ST] Matara stares at the table, white-faced and all but trembling.

20:27 [ST] "I told you what I wanted you to do," she says bitterly.

20:29 [Kalan] "Do it yourself, if you want it so much," he tells her contemptuously. A smile hovers at the corners of his mouth. "It is not so terrible."

20:30 [ST] "This is all your fault," she says, rising unsteadily, swaying a little as if drunk. "You wanted to bring her. I told you not to. I told you what she was."

20:34 [Kalan] He grins. It's cruel and ugly. "Well, I know now, don't I?" He laughs, a little mad. "Still. Better us than those mortal sheep or drooling Cynis." He grabs her arm. "Come with me," he says, pulling her outside.

20:35 [ST] She staggers after, the anger flowing out of her.

20:38 [Kalan] He grabs a pair of spears from the weapons rack and drags her to a small clearing a few hundred feet downstream. The cold night air seems to calm his blood, and he is stern and controlled when he lets her go, tossing her a spear.

20:39 [ST] She catches it easily, reflexes kicking in before she has time to think about the motion.

20:41 [Kalan] "Hold it lower, level," Kalan says, watching her. "Spread your feet further apart, toes pointed outward..."

20:44 [ST] She does so, face set in confusion. Though she favors the daiklave, she's obviously had some training.

20:45 [Kalan] "The foundation of Five-Dragon Style is defense; the pinacle is wrath. Hold your rage, guard your anger, and keep your guard strong...until you unleash it." He attacks with a lazy motion, wielding his spear as if it were a staff.

20:49 [ST] Matara moves to block cautiously, batting the blow aside.

20:51 [Kalan] "Fiercer," Kalen says impatiently. "You'll never learn to fight like a dragon thinking like a mouse." He knocks her spear out of her grasp with one hard swing, sending it flying into the mud. His eyes are hard. "Now pick it up."

20:53 [Kalan] As she moves to get it, he moves like lightning, reversing his grip on his spear to snap her fingers with the spearbutt and sending her flinching back. He smiles, showing his teeth. "You think this is going to be easy? Try again. Hand flat and hard; turn the blow, don't break it..."

20:54 [ST] Her dark eyebrows draw down over her face and she lets out a grunt of frustration, lunging forward to grab the spear then darting back out of Kalan's reach.

21:00 [Kalan] "Better," he concedes. "Five-Dragon Blocking is an investment of essence and attention; feel it like fire, burning in your hands; attack is enraged, and defense is automatic." He attacks with a dizzing array of attacks, sending his spear flicking at her face and her hands.

21:02 [ST] Some of the attacks come dangerously close to doing harm, but she bats the majority away cleaning, breathing heavily now. Seems like she's catching on.

21:06 [Kalan] "You're coming close to adequacy," Kalan says coldly, as she manages to catch his spear against a tree branch and almost send it flying from his grip. "We will be here, every night, until you've mastered the basics of defense." His breath is coming a little faster now himself, but he was damned if he was going to show this puppy she was wearing him out.

21:08 [ST] She grunts in affirmation, putting the spear back in its weapons rack before she turns to him. "Why are you teaching me this?"

21:10 [Kalan] "Because you need it; you don't have the training or experience for this kind of mission. You nearly died fighting two poxing demons. As you are my comrade, it is my duty to repair the gap, as much as I am able."

21:12 [ST] "You're too kind." She seems too weary for further argument, sitting down heavily on a barrel. "I don't think either of us have the power to deal with...�her.� What is she?"

21:18 [Kalan] Kalan stares into the gloom of the forest. "I didn't see the fall of Thorns, but I heard the reports of the survivors. The Mask has a new kind of pet Anathema, fouler than the rest, with devilmarks black as coal or red as blood." There is a silence, and then he adds, "Perhaps neither of us can beat her alone, but we are Dragonblooded." He looks down at her, fire kindling in his eyes. "Together we can destroy her."

21:19 [ST] "I've never felt like one of you," she says quietly. "But I'll try."

21:22 [Kalan] A faint, vulgur curiosity stirs. "What were you, before you Exalted?"

21:26 [ST] She is silent for a long moment, staring down at the ground. "I don't have to tell you that," she says, softly. "I shouldn't. They told me I should never tell, that as long as I didn't mention it, it had never happened."

21:26 [ST] "I was a slave. A Cynis slave. Along with the rest of my family."

21:31 [Kalan] It made sense. He'd never seen a Cynis so immune to indulgence. A lost egg, discovered by �that� House...He almost didn't blame her for being more rabbit than dragon."Where are they now?" he asks.

21:32 [ST] "I don't know. Sold, probably. We were separated. They were happy for me." She says it all flatly, quietly.

21:36 [Kalan] "They were protecting you from inappropriate attachments," Kalan says cooly. From some perverse desire to be cruel, he adds, "I suppose the Cynis kept them for breeding. If your parents popped out one Dragonblooded brat, they might be useful for another."

21:38 [ST] "I guess they were," she says, her voice brittle. "I guess they might. Are you done? Does this make you feel better?"

21:44 [Kalan] He wonders that himself. He felt no particular joy from his malice; he felt calm, empty of everything. What did she matter, this Cynis puppy? He remembers his daughter turning away from him disdainfully with a rush of rage.

21:45 [Kalan] "Yes," he says at last. "Yes, it does." She still had her honor; her dignity. He hated her for that. He stands. "We should be getting back."

21:45 [ST] "I guess so." She rises as well. "Don't tell anyone."

21:49 [Kalan] They looked alike, his daughter and this Cynis, in some way which went deeper than cooincidence of feature or coloring; there was something in the tilt of her jaw, her self-possession. He feels himself smile; it looks ugly. He reaches out and caresses her shoulder, laughing as she flinches away. "Oh, I won't," he promises.

21:50 [ST] "Don't," she says again, starting back to the tent.

20:54 [Talek] Talek sits in his tent, looking over samples of intersting local plants he has picked during the day. He is interrogating a wise looking slave man about their potential uses.

20:55 [Talek] "God damn it, are they ALL for constipation? can't you people take a shit by yourselves?"

20:57 [ST] The picket lines should have raised a warning. Even the guards around the interior of the camp, who were usually more busy dicing than actually watching anything, would have been able to raise a cry. But they weren't there. All of them had drifted off, first to Kalan's tent, then after a retreating figure into a shadowed grove. They were still standing there, staring into its depths,

20:57 [ST] talking amongst themselves, when the figure crashed into Talek's tent, snapping two of the poles, falling to the ground in a tangle of cloth and limbs.

20:59 [Talek] "Dammit! What?"

21:00 [Talek] He grabs his bow and kicks a table in between him and what he fully expects to be - I don't know an ape flung from a fucking catapult. Dragons, what was wrong with this country

21:00 [Talek] "Who are you!"

21:01 [ST] The figure gives a grunt and pushes itself up, slipping free of the tangle of fabric. It's a young woman, her clothes tattered, face and short, dark hair caked with dust.

21:01 [ST] "Damn it," she swears. "Who are YOU?"

21:06 [Talek] "TALEK!"

21:06 [Talek] "Who're you?"

21:07 [ST] "The hell kind of name is-" She stops, coughing once. "Never mind. I'm... er... Raven. Is this-? I mean, are you a Dragon-Blood?"

21:09 [Talek] "Well what kind of name is Raven! And what are you doing in my tent, and how did you land so nicely?"

21:10 [ST] "I was running," she explains, sitting back. "Looking for someone. I saw the tents from a distance, but there were no guards. I kinda... ran into the tent, I guess."

21:10 [ST] She shrugs apologetically.

21:13 [Talek] "Well, WHY were you running into my tent?"

21:13 [Talek] Henry cackles. He wants to know too

21:17 [ST] "I didn't-" She exhales heavily. "Okay, I did, but I didn't know it was your tent. I didn't know it was anybody's tent. I've been on the run for a few days now and I'm not- I'm not exactly thinking clearly, okay? Why else would a fisherman's daughter talk to one of the Exalted like this?"

21:22 [Talek] "I was wondering."

21:24 [Talek] "Well, sit down anyway. I'd say you're pretty well caught now? Here, have some tea and spinach? Are you constipated? No, nevermind."

21:24 [Talek] "You're dismissed." he says to the elder, who is digging his way out from a table.

21:25 [ST] "Caught? I'm not running from you... I'm running from �them.� The ones from Higara."

21:25 [ST] She stands up, sways for a second, and sinks down onto a chair.

21:26 [Talek] "Well sit down anyway. This is the most exciting thing that's happened to me in the last several hours."

21:26 [Talek] "There we go. So who is chasing you?"

21:27 [ST] "The people from Higara. The ones that aren't dead, anyway." She wipes the back of her hand across a sweaty forehead. "The ones who read that book."

21:28 [Talek] "The anathema book?!"

21:29 [ST] She shrugs. "I don't know, if I'd read the damn thing I wouldn't be here."

21:35 [ST] "People were passing it around in town, looking at it. I can't even read, I didn't want to see the pictures. Then people started acting strange. Lighting candles at the wrong time of night, kind of staring at you when you walked by. Then... they started killing each other. And the whole time, that book was going around."

21:35 [ST] "The place was overrun with 'em when I left."

21:36 [Talek] "They started killing each other? Did they say anything?"

21:38 [ST] "I didn't stick around to talk... most of the time they didn't even make sense. They kept talking about ghosts, and ancestors, and spreading shadows... none of it made much sense to me."

21:39 [Talek] "What's your name, girl? How old are you?"

21:41 [ST] "Raven, I said," she says, sounding a bit forceful. "And I don't know. Twenty? Twenty one? Nineteen?" She doesn't even look that old. "I didn't learn to count it till a few years in. It doesn't matter. I'm just running away from that mess back there."

21:43 [Talek] "Raven, oh yeah. Sorry, I have a lot on my mind" he gestures to the ruined paperwork. "Well, had."

21:44 [Talek] "Let's go meet my friends." He takes her in arm and strolls out. The guards, who have been waiting ackward and terrified, jump to attention

21:44 [ST] "So are you... I mean..." She follows him outside hesitantly.

21:45 [Talek] "My name is Mnemnon Talek. You've heard of Mnemnon?"

21:45 [Talek] "Hey Kalan!" he bellows. "Where did Kalan go?" he asks one of the guards trailing behind him

21:46 [ST] "One of the er.. Houses, right?"

21:46 [ST] The guard seems glassy-eyed. "He was in his tent... dining with the Maiden. He and Matara left... they shouldn't be far..."

21:47 [Talek] "What's the matter with you man? hey!"

21:47 [Talek] He slaps him

21:47 [Talek] "what's going on in your head! where are they?"

21:48 [ST] That doesn't seem to have affected the man much. "Sorry, Master Talek... they're... I don't know, they should be close. Have you met the Maiden? She is striking..."

21:49 [Talek] "Oh, Dragons. One pretty girl in town and now this."

21:50 [Talek] "Yes, I succeded in riding next to the Maiden for most of the day without once getting Wood. Isn't that striking. Pardon me raven, we'll have to look on our own. Kalan! Kalan! Matara! Where are you!"

21:53 [ST] The guard bows his head in deference and staggers off, still seeming a bit drugged.

21:53 [Talek] "Kalan! Matara! there you are!"

21:54 [Kalan] Kalan lifts his head in puzzlement. "Some new disaster?" he asks without inflection.

21:54 [Talek] "We had to find you ourselves, like mortals! Well, raven is a mortal I suppose, but she is quite striking, and she has fascinating information."

21:55 [Talek] "Seems she's just come from - Hetara, was it - where they were all killing each other afterhaving read the book."

21:55 [Talek] "Isn't that interesting? "

21:55 [ST] "Higara."

21:57 [Kalan] "Everyone? Really?"

21:58 [Talek] "Everyone, right?"

21:58 [ST] "I don't know if it was everyone... I ran. It was a lot of people. Those who'd read the book killing those who hadn't... and each other. Didn't make any sense."

21:59 [Kalan] "Death." He feels a prickly uneasy. "Deaths make shadowlands, don't they?"

21:59 [ST] She nods shortly. "So they say."

22:01 [Talek] "Now, I had thought it was a Solar book"

22:01 [Talek] "But from what I'm reading, a Solar's Modus Operandi is to convert an area and use it as a powerbase for further excursions"

22:01 [Talek] "Senseless murder - I'd say that's Abyssal. Perhaps we should be having a little chat with the new town slut, eh?"

22:04 [Kalan] "I don't think she has anything to do with this," Kalan says, staring at the shadowed grove where she slept. "I think she's sincere." His face is a little bit redder than it should be.

22:05 [Talek] "Sincere about what?"

22:05 [Talek] "Look-"

22:06 [Talek] "You two should get used to the idea of having to kill her at some point."

22:06 [Talek] "She may not be behind this, but she's killed millions, I promise you that."

22:07 [Talek] "Their barbarian Sorcery knows no other purpose, and they gain essence by drinking it from the blood of the living, a few motes per mortal. Think of that - how many would you have killed in your life, if every charm were a life?"

22:07 [ST] "I want to kill her," Matara says quietly.

22:09 [Kalan] "Millions?" Kalan smiles. "Surely not. Not alone at least. Some other Deathlord may be responsible for this; if there is another Anathema, I'd rather she fought with us." He grins at Matara. "And after all, she is an ambassador."

22:14 [Talek] "Still, we are taking an Abyssal with us to fight an Abyssal incursion into Higara"

22:14 [Talek] Does this make no one else nervous?

22:16 [Kalan] "It's a gamble," Kalan shrugs.

22:17 [ST] "Listen, are you guys actually going TO Higara?" Raven pipes up. "It's a couple of days ahead, but they could be on their way here right now."

22:18 [Talek] "Yes, why?"

22:18 [ST] "I just- I... er... I'm not really eager to go back..."

22:18 [Talek] "But we need a guide!"

22:19 [Talek] "You'll be safe. They're not going to murder the Dragon Blooded guide!"

22:19 [Talek] "If you keep running on your own they'll catch you and or you'll end up as a whore in Lookshy. Stick with us, kid!"

22:20 [ST] "Well, gee, when you put it that way." She sighs. "Fine. But you have to feed me."

22:21 [Kalan] "Fine," Kalan agrees with little patience. "There's plenty of food."

22:22 [ST] "Then I'll show you the way."

22:24 [Talek] "Oh good, it will be a party"

22:29 [ST] The strange journey to Higara resumes. Talek spends his time grilling the young Raven with questions, to which she replies almost boredly. She grew up in Higara as the daughter of a fisherman, poor but free (the tortoise shell disk she possesses attests to this fact), and her life was fairly uneventful until the uproar. From what he can tell, her story checks out. She claims to have never seen a Dragon-Blooded before, which perhaps explains her lack of decorum and fear.

22:30 [ST] Matara maintains her usual sullen silence, except during her late-night training with Kalan, where she shows the anger and frustration she has been keeping bottled up inside.

22:31 [ST] The Maiden is on her best behavior. She does not attempt to utilize her powers of seduction again (though many of the soldiers don't require them to be fascinated) and accepts Kalan's gifts of flowers and thorns with quiet good graces.

22:32 [ST] The soldiers whisper about these actions, but not loudly. The Maiden listens to them and smiles, tucking the thorned stem of the flower behind her ear, seeming not to notice the ribbon of blood that snakes down her pale cheek.

22:32 [ST] And, several days later, Higara comes into view.

22:33 [ST] It has been a quiet few days, passing through a country that seems empty if not desolate. A few empty huts by the side of the road, and once an entirely abandoned village, but no bodies, no sign of violence.

22:33 [ST] Then Higara appears off one side of the road, nestled at the bottom of a broad, shallow valley, a thin road twisting off the main one and down into the town. Some of the buildings are burned out skeletons, but most seem intact. The streets lie empty under a slate gray sky.

22:34 [ST] The only motion is the rooster weathervane atop the village's stout drum-shaped defensive tower, turning this way and that in the gusting wind.

22:38 [Kalan] Kalan orders the legionaires in tight fang-formations, each with sword and spear at the ready. They have standing orders not to read or glance at any books, and each soldiers has a stopper of wax to plug their ears with should an Anathema begin speaking; standard precautions. "Talek," Kalan says quietly. "Matara. We should investigate ahead of the soldiers."

22:39 [Talek] "Lead the way"

22:40 [ST] Matara nods, looking down into the wooded valley for signs of movement. "What about her?" She cocks a head back towards the Maiden. Her white hair is studded with blossoms, most in states of dehydration and wither.

22:40 [Kalan] "Maiden," Kalan calls to her. "We are heading down to investigate; will you accompany us?"

22:41 [ST] "Of course." She urges her black horse forward to meet them, her hand on the pommel of her daiklave. "Lead the way."

22:42 [ST] Raven squints down at the city. "Looks empty."

22:47 [Kalan] Kalan takes the lead, spurring his mare down the slope at a trot, his spear held loosely in one hand. The wind plays with his hair, turning it disheveled and wild as a schoolboy's.

22:49 [ST] Nothing stirs on the trip down to the valley floor aside from the occasional bird - even they seem to be avoiding this place for one reason or another, though. In no time at all the Dragonbloods and the others have reached the valley floor and the outskirts of the town.

22:50 [ST] A single street stretches before them. There are no bodies, but dry, black stains that could only be dried blood spread across the street here and there. A short distance ahead, a gust of wind blows something across the street. A book.

22:52 * Kalan doesn't even slow his horse down. He reaches out his spear, and a ribbon of flame ignites around it, gathering into a ball of fire at the tip.

22:53 [Talek] "No"

22:54 [Kalan] Kalan glances at him. "Are you mad?"

22:54 [Talek] "We learn Sorcery from Demons, Kalan. My Grandmother wants this book. Will you defy her?"

22:57 [Kalan] "Your grandmother may keep her entire house wet from fear of her, but I come from sturdier stock," Kalan says coldy.

22:58 [Talek] "Ambition, not fear, Kalan."

22:58 [ST] The Maiden spurs on ahead as the other two argue. The wind seems to blow it directly into her questing fingers, and she flips through it slowly.

22:58 [Talek] "Well, damn."

22:59 [ST] "Necromancy," she announces. "A compulsion. Instructions for how and why one should kill. Logical inconsistencies designed to drive a mortal mad. And the scribe's name is Rao Ling, whatever that might mean."

22:59 [ST] She holds the book up. "Shall I dispose of it?"

23:00 [Kalan] "At once," Kalan says, looking at Talek with cold dislike.

23:00 [Kalan] The fire at the tip of his spear flickers and dies.

23:03 [ST] She tosses the book upwards slowly, idly. It seems to hang suspended in midair for a moment as her other hand darts down, drawing her daiklave in a blur of slashes. Tatters of the book drift to earth, so small as to be powerless, now.

23:03 [ST] "Done. Shall we press on?"

23:05 [Kalan] "Yes." Kalan urges his horse foward, eyes darting across the empty, shadowed houses.

23:05 * Talek sighs loudly

23:07 [ST] More bloodstains dot the street. Talek's horse steps over a broken doll. A pitcher with a shattered neck rolls back and forth with the touch of the wind, and the houses stare with empty windows like eyes. Raven leads the way toward the town square, looking about herself with nervous glances.

23:08 [Kalan] "I wonder what they've done with the bodies," Kalan says idly. He had a few ideas; none of them pleasant. He saw monsters marching through Thorns in his dreams, sometimes.

23:09 [ST] The group pulls up short at the square. A fire has burned here; a heap of crates and other refuse were piled at the center of the square and have mostly been reduced to ash. More lines of the stuff, like spokes on a wheel, extend across the square as if something were dragged.

23:17 [Kalan] Kalan urges his horse over the piles of refuse. Someone had had the right idea, at least, in burning it. "Does necromancy often use fire?" he asks the Maiden across the empty, lifeless square.

23:18 [ST] "Pyreflame, perhaps," she says, dismounting to walk the square. "But it is the cold fire of the Underworld. No... fire usually destroys the necromancer's creation rather than aiding it..."

23:20 [Kalan] "Someone else was here, perhaps," Kalan says, glancing at Raven. "Someone disposed of the corpses."

23:22 [ST] "The fire was used to construct a circle," the Maiden says, kneeling by one of the spokes of ash. "Such a thing might be used to channel necromancy, especially if those attempting it were less skilled. There's no telling where the bodies may be now. They might have walked out of here themselves."

23:25 [Kalan] Kalan purses his lips, and waves over the fangleader who had reluctantly followed them. He was a lean, weathered man, perhaps too accustomed to the ease of assignment on the Blessed Isle. "I want scouts looking for tracks leading out; send them out in threes, and tell them to run like hell back if they find anything."

23:26 [ST] "Yes, sir," he answers sharply. "Aside from this valley, the ground's flat. Grass is high too, that should make it easier to track-"

23:27 [ST] A burst of cries suddenly erupts from the lip of the valley, where the troops are stationed.

23:28 [Kalan] "Nevermind," Kalan growls, swinging the startled man behind him on his horse. He kicks its flanks, spurring it back up the hill at a gallop.

23:30 [Talek] Talek gallops after him, as Henry nervously watches the Maiden over his shoulder

23:31 [ST] Raven stares after them, goggling, with no hope of keeping up without a horse. The Maiden places a fingertip to her lips and hums curiously, walking around the edge of the burned circle.

23:32 [ST] Kalan and Talek press upwards with reckless speed, and were they mortals or their horses less trained, it's likely that the low-hanging branches on the winding path up the valley would knock them out of the saddle and cause serious injury.

23:33 [ST] As it is, they pass through them effortlessly, pushing the horses on, and round the final corner, crossing the lip of the valley and its screening trees.

23:35 [ST] Combat has been joined on the plains nearby, Matara and Kalan's forces drawn into a tight defensive formation. They are surrounded by a horde of screeching creatures it takes a moment to recognize as human, gaunt figures. Some wear tattered clothing, others are naked. Some have torn furrows in their faces with their own fingernails, some bleed from the eyes they have plucked out, others are burned and scarred in strange patterns. One man seems to have upended a tub of red paint on himself.

23:36 [ST] All of them carry some kind of crude weapon - pitchforks, cleavers, sticks and bricks. They mill savagely, tearing at the edges of the ordered ranks, and are far more numerous.

23:38 [Kalan] Kalan's horse screams as he ignites his spear Tongue of Flame, and a ball of concentrated flame bursts from its tip, exploding outward with concussive force.

23:46 [Kalan] The fireball streaks outwards towards the tightest-packed group of savages, and they shriek, sob, and giggle as flames consume them. A little girl laughs and cries as her flesh boils away from her bone, and a man in the dirty and torn Immaculate robes of a monk bears his teeth and hollars imprecations and blasphemy as they burn.

23:47 [Kalan] A woman screams madly, ripping through her own brethren in a mad dash to escape. Her allies beat her back, and she dies more from the long bloody rents they cut in her then the burns.

23:48 [Kalan] The soldier's orderly lines shudder a little as a the flames burn mere feet away from them, but it heartens them too. This is their commander.

23:48 [ST] Matara spurs her horse forward, springing from the saddle like a bent bough straightening. As she falls, her daiklave whispers from its sheath and a burst of green light surrounds her, wreathing her weapon in thorns. She strikes with all the grace of a dragon, hammering away again and again.

23:49 [ST] Tattered bodies fly around her like shrapnel, severed limbs and broken forms raining from the sky around her in a gruesome tsunami.

23:49 [ST] Heartened by Kalan and Matara's assault, the beleaguered troops push back, lowering spears and stepping forward to skewer their enemies.

23:50 [ST] They do damage, but not enough. For all their milling disorder, the former residents of Higara do not break. They no longer have the presence of mind to do so.

23:55 [Talek] Talek slides off his mount, removes his boot, and gingerly places one foot in the soil. He holds one arm straight ahead and starts to sing. Green essence flows from the ground, angry at the pain inflicted by all the death

23:57 [ST] The mob of screaming mortals has been wounded, but not fatally. When they move to attack, they fall silent, focused in deadly intensity. They make look like tattered remnants of flesh, but their skill with their makeshift weapons is unmistakable.

23:59 [ST] The troops stand fast; a few more fall in the rush - one woman to a gruesome harpooning with a pitchfork, but do not waver or break.

00:00 [ST] Matara is borne down by a screaming horde of grasping limbs and slashing knives. She fights her way free a moment later, blood coursing down her forehead.

00:04 [Kalan] Kalan keeps the press of peasants-turned-monsters back with the butt of his spear and occasionally a kick in the face from a steel-toed boot. His horse's flanks are slick with sweat and blood, some it her's, and her eyes roll in panic.

00:08 [Kalan] As the crowd of crazed peasants hems him in, Kalan loses room to maneuvar, and with a snarl he kicks free of his horse, leaving the bloody bay to be hacked apart, screaming. A gibbering man in a butcher's smock hurtles himself at Kalan, screaming, and he takes the man's head off with the tip of his spear. Fire ignites around Tongue of Spear, turning it into a lance of burning flame.

00:10 [Kalan] Kalan raises it high in the air, and it light everything in flickering orange and yellow; then, with a roar, he brings it down again, torrents of flame washing down into the crowd. He spins the blazing incandescent spear above his head and does it again, four time, sending vast sheets of fire slicing apart the madmen.

00:16 [ST] Kalan's attacks tear through the massed ranks of the enemy as if they aren't even there, sheets of flame cutting through the gibbering masses with brutal efficiency. Some are crisped to ash, others burn, and more still, hurled aloft by the impact wave, don't fall to earth for long seconds.

00:25 [Talek] Talek laughs. Four green tentacles rip through his body, forming four branches which sway in the wind. One branch reaches down to grasp his bow, a second draws an arrow. Another branch hefts a large stone. A third sways behind him menacingly, like a tail. Talek laughs.

00:28 [ST] Matara is still smothered beneath a moving tide of humanity - the curved blade of her Reaper daiklave can be seen rising above them, slashing ferociously.

00:30 [ST] The tattered remants of the attacking army wheel about, hesitating not at all, throwing themselves recklessly at the Dragonbloods.

00:34 [Kalan] Kalan throws them off with the haft of his spear, whirling to kick another way. A woman with bloody sockets for eyes, and beautiful red hair buries her teeth in his ankle. Gritting his teeth, he shoots a bolt of fire at her head to force her away.

00:42 [ST] Talek is swarmed by a horde of enraged peasants. He bats the first attack, by a woman with a rusted sword, aside with ease, and slips under the thrust of the skinny man with the pitchfork, and blocks the immaculate wielding a chair, knocking him away.

00:43 [ST] It is then that the boy, no older than five, stands up from the grass behind him, slipping an awl between the plates of his armor and into his kidney.

00:43 [Talek] Talek bleeds sap as he howls in shock

00:43 [ST] What's left of Matara and Kalan's troops form into a wedge, charging at the main body of Higarans still fighting.

00:45 [ST] With sheer force, they punch through the last knot of stragglers, and the enemy begins to collapse, falling back raggedly, the fight gone out of them. Even the boy who stabbed Talek retreats, leaving his awl sticking in the Dragonblood's body.

00:45 [ST] Raven runs up, holding her side, clearly out of breath.

00:46 [ST] "That woman... the Maiden... said this was just a diversion... it was just supposed to slow us down..."

00:48 [Kalan] Kalan's eyebrows shoot up. "Slow us down from what?"

00:48 [ST] "I don't-"

00:48 [ST] In the valley below, a long, low stone warehouse explodes in a shower of stone and dust.

00:50 [ST] The thing that rises from the ruins is both one and many, a huge, hulking humanoid with a frame of shrieking black metal, shrouded with twitching, writhing flesh. Knots of its skin seem to move independently of each other, and after a moment it becomes clear that its musculature is a shifting carpet of interlocked zombies.

00:51 [ST] The thing stands fifty feet tall, its massive spadelike feet and fists at least ten feet in diameter. When it begins to move forward with massive strikes, the ground itself trembles.

00:51 [Kalan] "Oh," says Kalan.

00:51 [ST] The dead of Higara still work.

00:52 [Kalan] "Turn to your bows," Kalan orders the legionaires, who are standing there stunned.

00:54 [ST] The thing crests the valley with ease, turning briefly to face the gathered legionaires before turning away and moving in the opposite direction, chewing up the ground with its great strides.

00:56 [ST] "I'm okay... didn't use much against them..." Matara says.

00:56 [ST] "What about the Maiden?"

00:57 [Talek] "I am largely spent." he says, as his vines work methodically to fire three arrows at the monster

01:04 [Kalan] "I have enough left in me for one major push," Kalan says. He feels weary, dead to the bone. But this is what it had all been coming to. What his family required of him. In the end, he doesn't feel...anything, in particular. The Realm and the Dynasty had drained it all away from him.

01:04 [Kalan] "Matara. I am placing you in command of the troops; lead them in stinging the beast with archery. I will attempt to bring it down with force of essence; if that fails...." It would certainly fail. "I will distract it to give you and them a chance of escape, recover, and plan another assault."

01:06 [Kalan] He knew his duty. Let the whole bedamned lot of them remember that. "Fangleader Scipio, your horse."

01:07 [ST] Matara nods shortly. "Take care. I... we won't fail." She looks away as Scipio brings forward his horse.

01:08 [Talek] "I will come with you" Talek says, his green eyes twinkling madly "And bring its heart to my family." His limb wraps itself around a building as he springs away, carried by his many branches

01:08 [ST] Talek's arrows connect; this far away the impact is inaudible.

01:09 [ST] After a moment, a single object detaches itself from the war machine and falls to earth - a zombie pinioned by three arrows.

01:09 [Talek] As he springs after the monster, he g rabs the bows from a few startled legionairres

01:10 [Kalan] It hadn't the quality of his dead blood bay, or the white stallion before it; but then, its life expectancy was similarly small. He wraps a strip of cloth from his tunic around its eyes and mouth so it wouldn't see what was coming. "You're a fool," Kalan tells Talek remotely as he spurs his horse after him, making it gallop over treacherous ground.

01:11 [ST] Matara mounts up, leading the men in a parallel line to the creature's path, angling towards a small hillock that will provide a better angle for shooting.

01:11 [Kalan] There was no time to argue, though; he whips the horse brutally as he makes it run blind towards the behemoth. The tip of his spear begins to blaze, and it leaves a trail of fire behind him.

01:14 [Kalan] He makes the horse run parallel to the vast creature, and with much beating and cursing, the poor beast brings to draw slowly ahead, until Kalan whips its head sharply to one side, drawing it in a sharp turn to the left, so the horse runs directly across the behemoth's path.

01:15 [Kalan] He dips his spear into the dry late autumn grass as he gallops, and a line of blazing fire rises up. The horse screams, terribly, as he feels the heat his flanks.

01:17 [ST] The massive creature doesn't slow, stomping contemptuously across the line of flame as if it isn't there. Fire licks at its lower legs, but the corpses there are too fresh, too... juicy to catch fire easily.

01:18 [ST] The surface of the thing is charred and blackened, but otherwise untouched. It continues onward towards a large spur of rock.

01:23 [Talek] Talek touches ground behind the beast, his branches touching the ground lightly. An Aura of angry green light surrounds him and his eyes glow a brilliant emerald. He grasps his powerbow in his hands, and his extra limbs clutch an extra two bows, taken from the legionaires.

01:23 [Talek] They load two arrows each, aim, and fire.

01:26 [Talek] The six missles strike home at where the tail bone ought to be, the spot on the spine just above the buttocks.

01:27 [ST] The carpet of dead flesh writhes and rearranges itself, pulling in the damaged corpses and pushing others to the fore. It stomps on.

01:28 [ST] "Draw!" Matara barks out from the distant hilltop. "Fire! Draw! Fire!"

01:28 [ST] A flight of dark arrows rises from the massed troops. At this distance and with mortal bows, many shots fall short, but some still pepper the creature.

01:30 [ST] The missiles pincushion its surface, but the thing still doesn't slow. As it stomps ahead, it comes to a great spur of jagged stone jutting from the earth, at least as tall as it is. Were any of the Exalted close enough to examine it, they might recognize it as a piece of the Shatterspear tower they departed from.

01:31 [ST] The thing reaches down, chopping one blunt paw across the stone, shattering it at the base. Then, scooping it up with the other, it turns, body twisting, and hurls the enormous projectile at the forces arranged on the distant hilltop.

01:32 [ST] The soldiers gaze up in dismay as the mountain falls from the sky. At the last moment, Matara flares with a burst of burning essence, leaping high off the back of her charger - and then the stone comes smashing down into the ranks, bowling troops aside like toys with the horrible cracking of bone.

01:38 [Kalan] Kalan turns his horse again, by brute force mainly. It is foaming white at the mouth, from terror. It would be useless after this battle even if it survived, nerves shattered.

01:41 [Kalan] He kicks it until they're galloping in front of the creature again, and draws up short at the top of a little grassy hillock past the behemoth. He can smell the ash of his fires clogging the air, he can see the smoldering fires he has left in his wake, the ruin of his soldiers.

01:41 [Kalan] His eyes are level with lumbering thing's knees, and it is fast approaching, filling the horizon with its hideous ugliness.

01:41 [Kalan] Still.

01:41 [Kalan] Above it, the sky is blue, the clouds are puffy and white; the smell of the grass is sweet under smoke and he will miss Creation.

01:41 [Kalan] He raises his spear in a brief, flaming salute to his fallen warriors; then he holds it down and level, and kicks his horse into a charge.

01:44 [Kalan] They leave footprints of fire in their wake, and the horse is for once silent, only running forward across the rustling yellow grass, the smell of it filling its nostrils. He raises his spear, angling it upwards, when the horse has galloped close enough almost to be crushed beneath the thing's strides, he leaps from the saddle, driving his direlance at the thing's vast knee in a wave of fire.

01:46 [Talek] "Agata, come to me!"

01:46 [Kalan] Tongue of Flame glows white-hot, and Kalan is flushed and boiling with essence, so much that the horse couldn't have survived him any longer in any case; a plume of flame rises from him, like a firey dragon raising its wings and embracing the sky; he slices at that thing's knee four times, in flashes of lightning and fire.

01:49 [ST] Kalan's furious attack blows a trench in the creature's knee, sending chunks of crisped flesh and entire zombies flying. The massive war machine staggers, its knee buckling - but rights itself as excess zombies swarm downward to lock themselves into the framework, replacing key ones he destroyed.

01:50 [ST] The creature takes a long, rolling step, smashing Kalan's horse underfoot, the Dragonblood still attached to its shin.

01:53 [Talek] The Jeweled Wasp comes down, to the shock of anyone alive enough to look.

01:53 [Talek] His limbs flying behind him, Talek scouts the path of the beast.

01:54 [Talek] And for that matter, whereis the maiden of the mirthless smile?

01:59 [ST] The Agata flaps its transparent wings, bearing Talek aloft in a broad, looping circle. He can see down into the valley where Higara rests, and notes no sign of the Maiden or her horse down there. Matara is struggling to tend to the few shattered survivors on the hilltop, and the creature is stomping almost due east - where far in the distance, the dark gray shimmer of a Shadowland can be seen.

02:01 [ST] As Kalan's spear sinks deep into the dead flesh of the creature, the zombies around him stir and begin to move. Lashed to the frame face out, their long arms, studded with grasping hooks, fumble at him.

02:05 [Kalan] Some of the zombies are so clumsy he ignores their feeble blows entirely; he kicks at their claws with his boots, and as one set of hooks dips hungrily for his face, he leaps off the behemoth entirely, hanging on to this direspear with both hands and spinning himself above like an acrobat.

02:06 [Kalan] The hooks tear onto the behemoth's fleshy armor, tearing it up.

02:08 [ST] The giant creature raises a massive, flattened hand, swatting at the buzzing Agata and its rider.

02:08 [Talek] The agata flits behind the behemoth, stinging it with arrows. One arrow, every second, counting precisely, buzzing just out of range

02:09 [ST] ..but the wasp dips low under the strike just as the creature takes a thundering step forward, and its massive fist slams into its own thigh.

02:09 [ST] Sloughed off by blunt trauma, zombies tumble free to smash against the ground. The creature continues to move forward.

02:10 [Kalan] Kalan grits his teeth and tightens his sweaty grip on his daiklaive as the the whole monster-machine shudders under the force of the blow.

02:17 [Kalan] He works his way closer to the monster, moving arm under arm until he is able to plant his feet directly on the creature. A few meagre sparks of fire, almost the last of his essence, fly off his hands. Grasping it with both hands, groaning with effort, he shoves it further into the creature. The direlance flames red and hot, working its way deeper.

02:17 [Kalan] The fires seem to leave it as it digs, until it is mere red jade as the last of Kalan's essence leaves him panting and empty, and he is barely more than mortal.

02:20 [ST] The fire burns deep and relentless into the core of the creature, filling the air with the terrible reek of scorched flesh.

02:28 [Talek] "bend but not break" Talek mumbles irritably, seeing his hot headed colleague surrounded by his own raging inferno.

02:30 [Talek] "Down!" he orders the Agata, and the beautiful creature swoops down, chittering mournful poetry for the beautiful fire in an ugly world. Talek swats it irritably, but his branches sob.

02:31 [Talek] He swoops low, and grabs Kalan with two of his branches, ordering the Agata to rise again

02:33 [Kalan] "NO!" Kalan snarls, hanging on hard to the direspear, until Talek rips him, and it, both unceremoniously out and away from the behemoth.

02:34 [ST] As the wasp rises up and away, the war machine lashes out one last time, blunt fingers tearing a whistling wake through the air at the Agata

02:37 [ST] But the wasp twists at the last minute, slipping between the thing's clutching digits, rising up and away.

02:37 [Talek] "You havn't earned your death yet."

02:41 [Kalan] "Haven't I?" Kalan asks bitterly, looking down at the behemoth as it slips away. He climbs carefully up behind Talek.

02:42 [Talek] "Oh, I suppose you have, but it'd look bad for a doctor to lose an ally so quickly"

02:42 [ST] The war machine moves on, churning up massive clods of earth. It seems unconcerned about turning back.

02:42 [Talek] "Agata, take us far away."

02:43 [Talek] "We'll find a place to hole up and recover our essence, then we can report this travesty and see about getting the gear we need to fight that monstrosity."

02:44 [ST] Matara looks up, waving frantically as the Agata swoops overhead.

02:44 [Talek] "Far away. I don't want the Maiden paying a visit while we're empty"

02:44 [Kalan] "The warstrider" Kalan says, staring down at the shattered remnants of his troops. "Land, damn you. We have survivors below."

02:44 [Talek] "Dammit, do I have to do everything myself."

02:45 [Talek] "You fool, the Maiden will ambush us."

02:45 [Talek] "I will pick Matara up, your mortals are already quite dead."

02:47 [ST] The Agata skims in low for a landing. Matara, Raven, and four of Kalan's men are unhurt. Four more men are on the ground, screaming with broken limbs and grevious internal injuries. The rest are dead.

02:48 [Talek] "What happened to the Maiden? No, tell me later. Let's get out of here."

02:49 [ST] A pair of horses wander as if dazed at the base of the hill. The rest lie broken with the others.

02:49 [Talek] Talek raises his hands and starts to scream. His limbs wave wildly as the Sorceror casts the spell entirely with local, painedperipheral essence.

02:50 [ST] The vibrations in the ground grow less intense as the war machine stomps away, limping slightly in the leg Kalan damaged.

02:50 [Talek] A breeze kicks up, and within moments, a blazing emerald Stormwind Rider is ready

02:50 * Kalan looks into the faces of his men and salutes them gravely. They salute him grimly back.

02:50 [ST] "The wounded..." Matara begins. "I don't know if they can bear the sorcery-"

02:50 [Talek] "Anyone who wants to get out of here hop in"

02:53 [Kalan] He looks at the scattered remains of all the others, and feels the hatred choking him like a hot vise. He hadn't even the essence to burn their bodies properly. "We'll load them on the horses," he says quietly. "Kash, Van- "

02:55 [ST] The two bitter survivors salute tiredly, moving to get on with the job.

02:57 [Talek] Talek tries to soften his manner a little. "Just walk among them. Your anima will burn them."

02:59 [Kalan] "Yes," he agrees, tired. He pulls the mass of corpses into a pile, and loads it with dry grass and dead twigs, and lets them burn from the flames licking off him.

03:00 [Kalan] Zip appears, flickering at his ear, and suddenly the flames climb higher. "Where have you been?" he asks, and Zip darts about apologetically, conveying through interpretive dance that the blackandwhite woman scared him.

03:00 [ST] "Kalan-" Matara draws near, though not too near, beginning uncertainly. "You did what you could..."

03:01 [Talek] Talek sighs a little as his failing limbs maintain the integrity of the emerald sphere. hurry it up already!

03:02 [Kalan] Kalan cuts her off with a sharp gesture, choking down the urge to strangle the child. "But less than I should have." He nods crisply to Talek. "Very well; carry who you can. I'll bring the rest and the wounded on foot."

03:03 [ST] "I'll stay with you," Matara offers, "In case- the Maiden comes back."

03:04 [ST] Raven and the unwounded soldiers step into the zone around Talek, borne aloft by the breezes.

03:04 [Talek] "Agata, follow them. If they scream for you, come down and pick them up."

03:05 [Talek] And with that, he departs, over tree and hills, several miles away, until he finds a truly remote spot

03:06 [Kalan] "Still panting for her?" Kalan says sourly, and begins leading a horse in the direction Talek disappered. It bucks, frightened at his flames, and he drags it along with brute strength.

03:08 [ST] "I meant in case she tried to do something to you!" Matara snaps. "You're in no state to defend yourself."

03:10 [Kalan] "I'm honored," he sneers. He looks at her, about to say something truly cruel; about her susceptibility to the Maiden thus far, perhaps; but he just doesn't have the energy for malice, and he falls silent again.