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| − | [Avir] The blood is red on his hands. Stern Determination lies on the forest floor. His entrails gleam wetly in the moonlight. He still breathes, but faintly- unconscious still. Avir continues his chant, raising his bloody knife and stabbing down again. The Red Star on his ear burns.
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| − | [Avir] "Claws rending!"
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| − | [Avir] "Teeth-Tearing!"
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| − | [Avir] "Come!"
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| − | [Avir] He places a bit of cat's fur at Stoic Determination's throat and stabs down once more with the silver knife, pinning the fur to the sacrifice's throat. He leaves the knife there.
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| − | [Avir] "I give you willing sacrifice!"
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| − | [Avir] He grasps each side of the long slimy cut in the man, grits his teeth against the nausea- and pulls. A portal to hell burns in the man's stomach, glowing brighter as a clawed paw grasps the edge of it. Through some strange alchemy of the ritual, it starts small, growing larger as it claws its way up through the corpse.
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| − | [Avir] It's ugly squashed-in face sits too small atop a muscular ape's body. It bars its fangs at Avir, its roar splitting its face. Spittle and foam flies from its mouth. The wood is thick with the stench of bile and blood. Avir's heart leaps in his chest as the Red Star whispers reassuringly in his ear.
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| − | [ST] The creature gives a low, bestial hiss. A boil on its lip pops, and some strange malfean grub with the face of a man falls from its mouth to writhe in the snow.
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| − | [ST] "Summoned." It growls, its stench rolling over him in a cloud. "Hungry."
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| − | [Avir] "I have called you here," Avir says in a stately voice. Always best to start with the uncontrovertible. He gestures to Stern Determination's corpse. "I give you a willing sacrifice."
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| − | [ST] "Willing matters not. Heh." It begins to reach down, tearing pieces wetly off the corpse and stuffing them into its maw without ever breaking eye contact with him. "Why should I not eat you?"
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| − | [Avir] He clapses his hands behind his back. His palms are sweaty. "Fight under my command, and I will bring you to the heat of mortal battlefields and the warmth of flesh and blood. Even cats." Cats had been rather a delicacy for Stomp. Gods did he miss Stomp. "Rebel against me or resist me, and I will banish you back to hell. Mortal battlefields will be barred to you." The Red Star winks in his ear.
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| − | [ST] "Banish? Me?" the demon growls what might be laughter. Determination's femur snaps in its mouth with a loud crack, and it begins to suck at the marrow.
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| − | [ST] "Maybe. Or else you are a bigger fool than you look. Very well. For now."
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| − | [ST] "What do you require... Master?"
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| − | [Avir] Avir nods as if that was the only result possible. He feels a bit weak in the knees. The sessulia quivers uneasily and slides across Avir's skin. To the sessulia, too, it seemed a lucky escape. "Very well. Follow me dematerialized until I give the signal to attack. Then, destroy the ones in the black cloaks and tattered armor. They are the only ones it is joy to battle. Leave the others unharmed, or I will banish
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| − | [Avir] you and there will be no more blood spilled in Creation for you. Is that clear?"
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| − | [ST] It growls, nodding it what might be assent. "Begin with that one? Its cloak is not dark." It extends a bloody, ragged nail to point behind Avir. Helgara stands white faced at the rim of the clearing, trembling, the wineskin in her outstretched hand splashing red wine like blood across the snow as she shakes.
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| − | [ST] Determination's bones crack and splinter in the thing's mouth.
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| − | [Avir] "No," Avir says, turning. He is fairly white-faced himself. He could only hope she would die in the coming battle. If she did not...if she did not, he did not know what he would do. Miruna and Elk had been- persuaded- to look the other way. But they had not seen the ritual, any part of it.
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| − | [ST] "What... what is... what... is this?" Her mouth works weakly. "I... couldn't sleep..."
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| − | [Avir] "No, she is not an enemy." There is a darkness in his voice, and in his eyes.
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| − | [Avir] "Dematerialize now."
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| − | [ST] "Hrrmph." The ape vanishes, though its heavy, primal stink still lingers in the clearing.
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| − | [ST] "I l-left Wheel asleep. What... what are you?"
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| − | [ST] Helgara's spear lies in the snow beside her, quite forgotten.
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| − | [Avir] He steps closer to Helgara. "It's an ally. It will slaughter the Dogs for us."
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| − | [Avir] He leans down and plucks up her spear. "The Art is...similar...to that I used to heal Astrid."
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| − | [ST] "An ally...?" She looks at him. "You mean, a demon? You healed Astrid with... with a demon?"
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| − | [Avir] Demon. Such an ugly word. He didn't like that she knew at once what it was. "A summoned creature, yes." He glances the direction she had travelled. "Do you wish it undone?"
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| − | [ST] "Do I wish wh-what undone?" She blinks, licking her lips. "Astrid? N-no, of course not. But is this not... the worship of the Demon-lords?" She takes a step back from him, unheeding. "Are you- you are a dangerous man."
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| − | [Avir] "I do not worship the Demon-lords." Avir raises one hands pacifyingly. The other still holds her spear. He takes a step forward. "I do, sometimes, make certain arrangments- but only for the greater good of the Haslanti." He stops before she sees his advance as a threat.
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| − | [Avir] "Is this going to be a problem, Helgara? It's the only way we can kill these Dogs." He spits to the side at the name. "I wouldn't have done it otherwise." He keeps his voice warm and friendly.
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| − | [ST] "I..." She licks her lips again, looking down. The looming presence of the thing is still obvious. "I.. I suppose. Yes. I suppose I must be."
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| − | [Avir] "What?"
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| − | [ST] "Brave. I suppose I must be. It will not. Not be. A problem."
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| − | [Avir] He steps forward and squeezes her shoulder. "Good girl." He hands her back her spear. "Lets wake up Wheel."
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| − | [ST] "Yes." She turns around, tears of horror glimmering unshed in her eyes. "Let's."
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| − | [ST] -----
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| − | [Avir] Avir emerges from the trees, Helgara in tow. "I made a deal," he says without preamble. "Stoic Determination volunteered to seal it. He had to stay behind- he's among the dead, now." Truth, all truth, so far. "We'll have help in the battle."
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| − | [Wheel] Wheel blinks muzzily as he wakes. "What? A deal with who?"
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| − | [Avir] "The Dead," he lies baldly. "I went back to negotiate with them."
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| − | [ST] Helgara says nothing, quickly turning to her equipment, sorting through her things for the thousandth time. Testing a throwing knife, she flips it up and bungles the catch, slicing the edge of her palm out of sight of the others. Hurriedly, she sheaths the blade.
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| − | [Avir] "They said they'd send muscle. They wouldn't say what, but they promised it would kill our enemies efficiently."
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| − | [Wheel] He glowers "something unknown from those bastards and we're meant to fight with it at our backs? If it wasn't with them when we talked, it isn't bound not to hurt us. Besides, they said they didn't care. What'd you promise them?" Maybe the same thing he'd done to him and Astrid? Could he give them a taste of life again the same way he'd brought them both back from a sure death?
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| − | [Avir] "Stoic Determination." Avir sighes impatiently. "I told you."
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| − | [Avir] He realizes, belatedly, that he did not quite sound the right note. "He volunteered, if it means anything. The deal keeps his hands clean. It matters, to the Quiet."
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| − | [Wheel] "They didn't want human slaves. Did he volunteer to be a dead one then?" Grisly, but a man could choose his own death. A fool of a man if he'd chosen that afterlife, after he'd seen what it meant.
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| − | [Avir] "He's dead, yes. I didn't see his ghost- he may have slipped the chains. We only promised a death."
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| − | [Avir] The man was buying it. He hoped the man was buying it.
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| − | [Wheel] He spits. "We do all this t buy a body off them and then we give them one back. Was one of them still in the shadowland at dawn? I thought they were long gone."
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| − | [Wheel] He asks it idly though, more concerned that he might have missed something. He pulls a plate of armor away from his body, scrathing underneath, as he gets to his feet.
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| − | [Avir] "They were there. I think they intend to return to 'visit' the Quiet- they don't think I can fix the wards." Avir smiles coldly. "They will be proven wrong."
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| − | [Avir] "We'll get some useful help. They swore a binding oath. Now, you said earlier you'd thought of a plan..."
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| − | [Wheel] He shrugs. "The obvious one. They won't be expecting anyone to know they're there yet. Or to be able to get here for days yet when they do know. So they'll be holed up having their fun. You saw what discipline they had." None. "We'll take them from the edges of town, kill as many as we can before they notice, keep a count, and leave if there are too many living when they do notice. Start again later. A bunch like this can't keep a good watch."
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| − | [Avir] "Then lets start killing."
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| − | [ST] Helgara nods silently, her head still full of the demon's awful stink.
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| − | [ST] -----
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| − | [ST] The silver chair is on its way to the horizon as the Once Dead move towards the Emerald. Following the forest north, they peek out from its rim. In the distance, the watchtower rises high into the air like a finger of stone, silent and still. Hills cluster around the Emerald in a tight circle, crowned with conifers to serve as a windbreak. Nothing stirs in the dark.
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| − | [Avir] Avir crouches low to the earth, his sword still sheathed to conceal any flashes of tell-tail silver.Wheel's plan was good. He almost hoped it wouldn't work. Then he need have no second thoughts about summoning the demon.
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| − | [Avir] But no cry of alarm is raised as the three of them scuttle towards the village (and one follows, only a shadow now, and a foulness in the wind)
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| − | [ST] Helgara almost sprints the last few feet, leaning heavily back against one of the trees. A few crows give half-sleepy calls, then fall silent. The trees above seem laden with them.
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| − | [Avir] Avir glances at Wheel.
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| − | [Wheel] Wheel leads the small party, trusting his eye more than theirs to sly through the folds of the land. He expected the Dogs not to keep a proper watch, but he didn't trust them to do even that.
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| − | [Wheel] "Lets start in the north, keep Determination's house between us and the barn. House to house, kill what we find." He keeps his voice down, but the wind in the trees would catch it before it went far, so there was no need to whisper.
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| − | [Avir] Avir nods, and follows silently.
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| − | [Wheel] He waits for Avir's nod, not the others, and leaves when he sees it, leading them again.
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| − | [ST] As the group circles around towards the barn, they notice that a human figure has been nailed cruciform to the side. The figure looks quite small, and withered in death, its head lolling to one side, streamers of tacky, dried blood staining the barn's side where it flowed from each of its pinioned limbs. The Mother. Before it, on a flat space that probably serves as a vegetable garden in
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| − | [ST] warmer weather, stand ten of the Dogs in silent ranks.
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| − | [ST] Their helmets conceal their faces, but their cloaks billow in the breeze.
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| − | [ST] Helgara turns aside at the sight, gagging softly.
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| − | [Avir] Avir's gut churns. They would never have been able to rescue her, he tells himself.
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| − | [Avir] Uneasily, he sniffs the wind. Not that it would tell him much.
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| − | [Wheel] "They're dead. Something else is in here. Think your slavers are having a last laugh? Or did they promise you this?" He stops behind a corner, watching the bodies stand swaying in the wind.
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| − | [Avir] "A diversion. They dressed up Quiet in their armor." They should have attacked earlier. They should have...
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| − | [ST] "They..." Helgara bites her lip. "D-do we move on, then?"
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| − | [Avir] "Yes." He looks at Wheel for confirmation.
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| − | [Wheel] "Someone's up in the barn. Moving behind that boarded up window." His blood was pumping now. This was the game he'd missed. It was good to be back, be where he could see and hear everything, and where he needed to.
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| − | [Avir] "A watch? We should take them."
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| − | [Wheel] "Keeping a light shielded up there. They do expect something. We should try a house, but I'll bet that it's empty. Second in. They might be paying attention to the outermost houses."
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| − | [Wheel] "If they're all in the barn, we can block the door and burn it."
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| − | [Avir] "If they don't have someone to rape in there, they don't live up their reputation." Avir's tone is light enough, but his face is deadly serious.
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| − | [Avir] "Are you willing to burn that person alive? I don't think I am." He lets out a long shuddering sigh. "We do it your way. For now. Pick the house."
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| − | [Wheel] "If they're all in there and we attack directly, I doubt they'll survive then either. And they'll die if we wait till morning too. But we'll see if they're in the houses." He leads them into the second layer of houses, to one he remembered a pretty woman lived in with her husband. A good chance some'd be in here if they were in any of the houses.
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| − | [Wheel] He ducked through the fence and approached the houses side door connecting it to the reindeer pen, keeping ,ow and glancing at the windows to see what he could.
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| − | [ST] The house lies still and silent, the windows dark. No movement comes from the barn as Wheel makes his way across the snowy ground.
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| − | [ST] Peeking through, Wheel sees only darkness. If there's anyone inside, they're not using any lights.
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| − | [Wheel] He checks the door carefully. Was it locked? Breaking a lock wasn't an option.
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| − | [Avir] Avir watches, his hand on his sword, ready to draw.
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| − | [ST] The door swings open rather easily, perhaps more so than Wheel intended. Weak starlight illuminates the threshold of the house. A dead dog lies there in a pool of blood, missing all four of its legs. A human hand extends out of the shadows, pale and still.
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| − | [Wheel] Damned thing about having one hand, you couldn't do two things. The hammer stayed on his back, heavy and reassuring, but less so than if he'd been able to wield the thing.
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| − | [Avir] Avir forms his hand into a thumb and jerks it at the loft.
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| − | [ST] No sound filters down from the loft. Even the reindeer is silent. As his eyes adjust, Avir notes that the corpse is a young man. Blood stains the back of his tunic from what look like dozens of stab wounds. The head is missing.
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| − | [Wheel] He nods, pointing at Avir, then the ladder. the man's small sword was better for that work. Halfway up a ladder he wouldn't be able to swing his hammer at all. Hell, neither of them were good for much, but even two handed someone like Helgara wasn't better than a raven.
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| − | [ST] Helgara instead keeps a close watch on the street, pale and frightened. The Kneelers were worms but... but this was... this was wrong.
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| − | [Avir] Avir grimaces and flows silently to the ladder and up. He doesn't draw his sword- he'd jump off the damn ladder before he fought on it.
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| − | [ST] Avir's hand gropes into the pile of straw up in the later and touches something that shifts. Something both cold and sticky. Another corpse.
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| − | [ST] The home isn't empty, but no one in it besides them is breathing.
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| − | [Avir] He wondered how much outrage the slaughter were stir among the Haslanti. Surely some would be angry? It was one thing to bully these people. This - this was something else entirely. No one could deserve it less. It was like torturing a fucking puppy.
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| − | [Avir] He returns and shakes his head. 'Kill them all,' he mouthes. Even in the starlight, the murderous look on his face is obvious.
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| − | [Wheel] He nods. He'd expected as much, known most everyone would be dead if they waited for night. But they couldn't ahve done any good before. Now they could be revenge, tearing through the town in the dark.
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| − | [Wheel] He'd hoped the bastards would have kept some alive for sport, though. That would have been better than nothing.
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| − | [ST] "Are they all dead th-then?" Helgara says. "Everyone?"
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| − | [Wheel] "Everyone here. Means nothing." Implied eveything, though. He ignored his own statement and continued assuming the knowledge they all did - that the hostages were all dead except possibly for some in the barn. "Lets have a look at their trap, then."
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| − | [Avir] "Right."
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| − | [ST] The barn looks new, its timber fresh and unrotted, the paint on its sides still bright. It was probably raised only a few years ago. It stands silent now as the three move closer. Helgara swears softly as she nearly turns her ankle on a stretch of uneven ground. Ahead, the structure's massive doors stand closed. A smaller door in the side is also firmly closed. The windows are shuttered and dark.
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| − | [Wheel] His plate started rubbing slightly when they were in the middle of the street. No time to stop and adjust the padding to eliminate the faint scraping. Just had to keep on and hope. No one seemed to have noticed.
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| − | [Avir] Avir slides to the smaller door. He quirks an eyebrow at Wheel as he puts his hand to the handle.
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| − | [Wheel] He fixed his armor when they were in the shadow of the barn. He draws the hammer, finally, and nods to Avir, moving to the otehr side of the door. He'd be first in, if Avir saw what he wanted and threw it open. If opening it the first crack showed him something he didn't want to see he could just try to close it unnoticed instead. But then being ready to jump through wouldn't hurt anything.
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| − | [Avir] Avir nudges the door slightly open.
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| − | [ST] As the door cracks open, Wheel spots a number of corpses lying on the ground. Animals. A single cow, a few reindeer, many with limbs severed, eyes gouged out, bodies disemboweled. The Dogs are pointlessly destructive.
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| − | [ST] At one end of the bar, a ladder rises to a small loft, where a light flickers. After a moment, voices begin to filter down from above.
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| − | [ST] "I don't understand why we couldn't bring none of them up here. For fun."
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| − | [ST] There is the sharp sound of a slap. "Cause we ain't supposed to be having fun! Ain't you got anything between your ears but shit? We're supposed to be watching for them, whaddyacallems, Deadmen."
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| − | [ST] "They ain't gonna come, Farkas."
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| − | [ST] "That pale bitch said they was. Said we just hadda wait."
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| − | [ST] "Farkas, after twelve hours of that shit, she would tell you yore daddy was Sol Invictus hisself."
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| − | [ST] "Yeah, probably. Maybe you're right, Gemmy. Maybe they shoulda let us bring one of them kneelers up here. Tell you what." He laughs roughly. "I'll turn my back and you can fuck this dead one."
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| − | [ST] There is a long silence, and then Gemmy speaks up again. "She is pretty. I wonder why they killed one that pretty."
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| − | [ST] "Musta been the one that gave ol' Shek one in the balls."
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| − | [ST] "I would've treated her nice. She coulda come back to the camp an' been my private whore. Cook for me, like."
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| − | [ST] The sound of a slap, again. "Don't be thick. Don't you remember what Wyald did when Shek brought that Shanari whore back to the camp? Popped her head off like THAT."
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| − | [ST] "Yeah..."
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| − | [Avir] Poor Morta, if she was the 'pale one.' They were really going to have to do something about these creatures. He turns his head to look at Wheel. His lips are just visible. 'Burn?' It would draw the others out. They'd be alerted...
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| − | [Wheel] He nods. 'Thought more. Dangerous leaving watch.' Dangerous to kill them, too, but there was danger and danger. Counting on their skill to kill quietly seemed safer than counting on luck that the watch up here wouldn't notice them in the town.
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| − | [ST] "They say them Deadmen are made of crooks and scum, just like us." Gemmy says. Farkas just scoffs.
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| − | [Avir] Avir nods and gestures to the door. Wheel had positioned himself to be first.
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| − | [ST] "Ain't nothing like us, or these Kneelers would've been pissing themselfs already. Did you see when Wyald met with the, whaddyacallems, 'Colonel' of that Shanari Army? He looked like he was gonna piss hisself."
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| − | [Wheel] He eases the door open and creeps in. He tried to place the voices above him by direction. Both by the window, hopefully watching that way? He moves step by step accross the dirt, thankful for silent dirt rather than something that could creak, to the ladder upwards.
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| − | [Avir] Avir follows close at his heels.
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| − | [ST] The two men continue to speak as the two Once Dead scale the ladder. Soon, the pair come into view. One, tall and red-haired, gazes out the window, while the other, a short, buck-toothed lad of perhaps seventeen, is kneeling over the corpse of a dead Quiet woman, idly stabbing it here and there with a knife. Both continue their conversation.
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| − | [Wheel] He gestured with his hand before retrieving the hammer. The one at the window was his. Bigger, in a better position to be noticed if something went wrong.
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| − | [Wheel] He watched Avir as much as them. They had to move fast, to do it before one turned by chance, but they had to move at near the same time so that one didn't have time to react to the death of the other.
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| − | [ST] Helgara stays down on the ground, watching to make sure no others sneak up on the trio as the two Once Dead do their work.
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| − | [ST] "This has gotta be the easiest job we've ever had," the one by the window - Farkas - continues. "So easy it almost ain't fun. They ain't got enough fight in 'em."
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| − | [Avir] Avir creeps up on the smaller one stabbing at the corpse. He glances at Wheel, raises three fingers, and leaps forward, sword chopping, on the last second.
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| − | [Wheel] Wheel had to stay farther from his target, as Avir's was the closer to them and he couldn't step into the defiler's view. But one long stride and the man at the was within the length of his hammer. He brought it down as he stepped, trying to catch the man on the head or shoulder and smash him to the floor and out of view through the window.
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| − | [Wheel] He caught him at the base of his neck, plowing the man to the ground. There was a crunch as his spine and collar bone splintered, spearing through his lungs and heart, and a thud as he struck the floor hard enough to dislocate his elbow. It felt horribly loud, but the sound probably wouldn't carry even to the bodies outside. He half hoped it would, so that they could hear revenge being exacted, even if it was too cleanly.
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| − | [ST] "Farkas! What! Wh- ahhhhh!" Gemmy turns at the last minute, screaming as Avir's blade bites into his thigh. He lurches away so violently that the blade is torn from Avir's grip, and then he lunges for him, a rusty blade darting at Avir's face.
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| − | [Avir] Avir jerks back instinctively. The tip of the blade just skims his nose. He yanks his stump up to swat Gemmy's blade aside, and lunges to draw his sword form Gemmy's leg.
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| − | [Avir] He slashes at the man's leg in passing as he throws himself back again.
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| − | [Avir] It doesn't hit, and he doesn't think the kid even notices.
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| − | [ST] "You- you killed Farkas!" the kid shrieks, his voice actually cracking. An adams apple bobs prominently beneath his dog tattoo.
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| − | [Avir] "A fate richly deserved."
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| − | [Wheel] He wrenches his hammer from the ruin of Farkas, and spins, slashing the hammer across and down, trying to catch the kid in the back as he raged pointlessly at Avir.
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| − | [Wheel] They had to kill him quickly and be away. others would surely have been listening for this as much as they waited for whatever the primary trap had been.
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| − | [Wheel] More scum wiped from life. The body skidded across the room. "I think he can still talk. For a minute or two." The man under the window was still breathing, from the bubbles in the blood at his mouth.
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| − | [Avir] Avir goes to the kid. He kneels beside him, putting one hand to the boy's chest to keep him down. "How of the Quiet are still alive?"
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| − | [Wheel] More scum wiped from life. The body skidded across the room, still breathing, but broke-backed. He was useless now, and would be dead soon enough.
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| − | [ST] "Ahhh... uh...." the kid gathers the energy to spit in Avir's face. "Why... should I t-tell you anything?"
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| − | [Avir] He lowers his voice. "Let me be clear. You answer my questions, or you watch my pet ape you one limb at a fucking time. I can keep you alive for that." He smiles, and just then the sessula's eye pokes curiously out of the collar of Avir's shirt. "Answer the fucking questions."
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| − | [ST] The kid whimpers. "Ahhhh! I don't... I don't know... fifteen, twenny. We did a bunch of 'em."
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| − | [Avir] "Where are they kept?"
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| − | [ST] "M-most of 'em are at the t-temple.... ahhh... there's probably a few other places. People take 'em as they w-want. They're just... just for fun."
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| − | [Avir] "Right. Where are the rest of you dogs?"
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| − | [ST] "I don't... I don't know. Some at the store... storehouse. Some on p-patrol. Some in the guardhouse with your bitch." He finds the strength to laugh raggedly.
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| − | [Avir] Avir restrains himself. "And why are you here? This is the middle of nowhere. That's why a bunch of Quiet have it."
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| − | [Wheel] "What were you planning with the bodies stood outside?"
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| − | [Wheel] Just two as their trap? or was it really a message?
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| − | [ST] "Sha...shanari paid us to scout. An' burn. Said we could do what..whatever we wanted...as payment." He groans in pain as Wheel asks him another question. "You were... supposed to go after 'em. Think they were us. Then we'd sound the alarm."
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| − | [ST] He looks down at the horn at his belt, shattered when he fell, and whimpers.
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| − | [ST] "Please, I ain't do nothing," he pleads. "I ain't cut nobody, I swear. Just a little. Just... j-just. Pl-please don't kill me."
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| − | [Avir] Avir just stares at him, rigid-faced. "Wheel, go outside. I'll be back in a moment."
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| − | [Wheel] He nods, already at the ladderhead. the lad'd die slow if they left them too, but if Avir needed to get his hands wet, he didn't blame him.
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| − | [Avir] When Wheel has left the building, Avir whispers soothingly to the boy until the whimpers stop, and suddenly cuts his tongue out with one swift gesture. The scream is a strangled, quiet thing. "Demon," he says in a hoarse voice. "Materialize and eat this boy. Then dematerialize and follow the orders I gave you in the clearing."
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| − | [Avir] Avir turns and climbs down the ladder. The sound of something large smacking its lips follows him down, and a stench of blood-matted fur.
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| − | [ST] The boy's eyes widen as a vision of murder suddenly appears over Avir's shoulder with a charnelhouse stink. He doesn't even get time to scream through his mutilated mouth before the end comes.
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