Elendra walked through the grounds around the looted elven temple that was Marla’s base of operations. Although the ancient stone structure had been taken and its occupants slaughtered long before her mentor arrived in the forest, she knew the temple’s desecration would have greatly pleased Nergal. Like Gloria before her, Elendra had received a vision from the death god of the desolation that would befall Mythra, and knew that it was her duty—and her pleasure—to exterminate the elves wherever they may be found. Elendra’s only regret was that, due to Gloria’s untimely demise, it had been so long since her god had received a proper sacrifice.
Beneath a great oak tree on the edge of the grounds, the cleric spotted a thin young woman with a crossbow slung over her back. She knelt before a decaying corpse, the remains of one of the temple’s defender’s. As Elendra drew close, the woman turned her sunken eyes upon her and narrowed them in suspicion. “What are you doing?” Elendra asked.
The other woman scowled. As Elendra watched, she dipped her fingers in a small, recent incision in the corpse’s stomach. Her fingers came away dripping with elvish blood, which the woman used to mark some occult symbol on the bark of the tree. “I am dedicating this worm’s pathetic life to Hel—a true goddess of death. As well as any other lives that may be snuffed out nearby.” The archer picked up one of her crossbow bolts, one tipped with a bit of coagulated elvish blood, and held it loosely as she glared up at Elendra. “You will not interfere.”
Elendra frowned. As a rule, she was not a fan of thinly veiled threats, especially ones directed at her. However, she had no quarrel with the archer. If Hel wished to nibble on a few decaying, empty husks, it mattered not to her or her god; Nergal required sacrifices with a little more… vitality. Elendra bowed politely and continued on her way, conscious of the archer’s eyes on her back.
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On a flat, hard-packed patch of ground not far from the battalion’s barracks, a few training dummies were set up, part of the exercises Amanda had the battalion running in preparation for the invasion of Azelea. Here, Elendra is disappointed to find the newest disciple of Nergal. Cernya is practicing her overhead swing on one of the dummies when she sees Elendra approach. “Morning,” she grunts.
“Good morning, Cernya,” Elendra returns her greeting. “I trust you have been studying the sacred texts I shared with you, like I asked?”
“Course I have,” Cernya grunts, as her iron longsword thuds into the dummy. “For a little while.” Thud. “Then I came here.” Thud. “Reading always—” Thud. “Gives me headaches.” Cernya pants with exertion, her body glistening with sweat. Cernya sheathes her sword and, to Elendra’s relief, picks her shirt up off the ground and slips it back on. “I was hoping to blow off a little steam, give that whiny bitch Millie something to cry about. But when I saw her, she had a couple others with’er. Arastine and that elf, what’s-her-name. I bet they were gettin’ ready to make a Millie sandwich, heh.”
“Right, forget about that,” Elendra said. “At least tell me you managed to duplicate the spell I showed you.”
Cernya gave her only a half-abashed scowl in response. Elendra sighed. “Dammit, I was afraid this might happen.” She grabbed Cernya by the arm. “Come with me.”
“Whoa, hold up! Where we going?” Cernya asked.
“To teach you magic,” Elendra said. “You have passion, Cernya, and I admire that, but Nergal demands more from us than mere bloodlust.”
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From her perch on the roof, Anko studied the group of women huddled together in the shadow of the building. In an out-of-the-way alcove, Astrid, Tyris, Mireilla, Arastine, and Millie were having an animated discussion. And although the exact details were not yet clear, Anko had seen Astrid’s mouth form the word “Marla” several times. When fighters of any kind, let alone fighters from a nasty outfit like this, meet in private to discuss their commander, exciting things were bound to happen. The outcast ninja grinned and prepared to rise to her feet, when a woman’s voice spoke less than a foot from her ear: “No, Anko.”
Anko jumped out of her skin and nearly went plummeting off the edge of the temple. Once she had regained her balance, she shot her little sister a dirty look. “You do that just to irritate me, don’t you?”
“No, I do it to keep you from becoming complacent,” Yoshiko responded. “We’re not joining them.”
“Who said ‘we’ were doing anything? Or that there’s even a ‘them’ to join? For all you know, they could be down there discussing cookie recipes.”
The blue-haired woman gave Anko an even look. “Brigands do not collude to learn new cookie recipes. And that jumped-up little aristocrat is too spoiled to know how to cook anything.”
“Aww, c’mon. You’re not still mad at Astrid for showing you up in the exercises, are ya? It’s not your fault your weapon isn’t the best in tight spaces. Unlike these babies.” Anko wiggled her fingers in her little sister’s face.
Yoshiko refused to dignify that with a response. “Whatever they’re plotting down there, it’s going to be dangerous at best, suicidal at worst. We haven’t made any enemies here so far; now is not the time to start.”
“But I’m so bored!” The redhead whined. Yoshiko rolled her eyes.
“Then find some other way to entertain yourself,” she said as she stood to leave. “I’m sure your ‘little babies’ could help in that department.”
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When Elendra found her sitting next to the small campfire outside what were known as the ‘greenskin girls’ tents—those belonging to Oola, Zatrilla, and Morella—Moira was chatting with the battalion’s only goblin regarding the latter’s alchemical options. “If you want my advice, I’d suggest brewing up something devious, something subtle… I love a good fireball as much as the next gal, of course, but when it comes to raw power, you and I both have that in spades. Perhaps a cloud of poison that affects the brain and causes our foes to turn on each other, or blindness, or shuts down hostile magic? Really darling, the sky’s the—” Moira broke off as Elendra approached, dragging Cernya behind her. “Oh. Good evening. Can I… help you?”
“Yes,” Elendra stated bluntly. “I need you to help me tutor this one.”
Moira nodded. “I see. And why, exactly, would I want to do that?”
“Because in a few days, the battalion is going to walk into a meat grinder. And when we do, I assume you would prefer to have a cleric with you who can heal you, as opposed to one who cannot?”
“Oh, that’s right, just spread that around the whole camp,” Cernya grumbled. “Write it in the sky in 50-foot letters with yer fancy cleric spells, why don’t ya?”
Moira blinked, slowly. “She… can’t cast healing spells? I’m sorry, I… I thought that’s what you had to be able to do to be a cleric?”
Zatrilla let out a giggle that was cut short by a venomous look from Cernya. Elendra sighed. “Look, Cernya is… new to the faith. And I cannot find McKayla anywhere. Are you willing to help or not?”
Moira let out a long-suffering sigh and stood. “Oh, very well. I suppose, for the good of the battalion, I must lend my expertise. I warn you though: ‘Willing’ in this case does not necessarily translate into ‘able.’ To tell the truth, I’m a little fuzzy on exactly how clerical magic works myself.”
“I don’t know any more about it than you do,” Zatrilla piped up, “but I’d be willing to give it a shot if you need me.” Elendra was about to accept the goblin's offer, but Moira cut her off.
“No, darling, thank you. You are very kind, but you also have your own preparations to make for the battle ahead, and I wouldn’t want to distract you from them.” Moira turned back to the two disciples of Nergal and gave them her best inscrutable smirk. “Well ladies… after you.”
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So, if it’s okay with Severity and Mentos, I’d like for Elendra and Moira to spend the time before the battle tutoring Cernya, so that she can learn at least one spell (Healing or otherwise) before the big upcoming battle? If it was just an oversight and Cernya actually already does know how to heal, then you can ignore all this I guess, lol.
Also, if Moira dies I would like her shiny snake necklace to go to Zatrilla.
Also, I'm sorry if I'm using anyone's characters in a way that they don't want them to be used. I'm new to the whole roleplaying thing and I'm not sure if I'm doing it right.
**Edited to fix a few things**
