"You're too soft, soldier." "Hardly." The female charr bristled at the comment. She grabbed the charr's shoulder and hauled him into the wall. The Black Citadel was bustling and charr were almost always fighting someone. This was normal for charr to be aggressive towards each other but this one seemed arrogant. "That sounds like a lot of disrespect." "I don't owe anything to you. Especially my time which you stole from me with your useless jabber. Get out of my sight." Her eyes grew with rage. Drawing her sword, she tilted it to his chin. "Normally, I would sever your head for talking to me like that. But I'll be generous. You will address me as your superior. I am Glycia Pyrefang, legionnaire of the Pyre warband of the Blood Legion and I don't take kindly to trash like you." The charr rolled his eyes and pulled out his scepter. "There's one problem with your statement." He gripped around his scepter and made a slamming motion down towards the ground. A murky green and brown sludge seeped up from the base of the iron paved walkways of the Black Citadel. The female charr lurched back, stammering. "W-what is t-this?" Skeletal hands reached through and grabbed onto her ankles. He stood, slipping his scepter back into his loop. "My name is Torre Deathblood, centurion of the Iron Legion, and you have officially wasted my time."
It was easy to forget Torre was a centurion. The female wasn't wrong – he was lazy, to a point. He didn't like spending too much time in one place, which was why he didn't stay stationed in the Black Citadel. Paperwork was boring and tedious. His warband was on active duty near the Brand and it was a lot of effort to trek out there. He was a great inventor but that was only if he was motivated to create anything. He wasn't worried about his position. Smodur had dealt with Torre before and gotten the results he wanted. As long as Torre produced the results he expected, Smodur had more important things to deal with than a lazy centurion. He grunted as he walked up the path. It was also uncommon to see a necromancer in the Iron Legion. Torre had a tendency to stick out among his fellow charr as the Iron Legion was filled with engineers and rangers.
"Centurion Deathblood."
He turned at the sound of his name and the charr, probably an errand runner, looked slightly startled when he looked over. Torre stood as one of the tallest charr in the Black Citadel. He had a sleek mess of black fur shooting through his ridged horns and down his neck. Smoke gray fur with wild black stripes covered his body. But the real standout feature of Torre was his eyes. Bright green, like a peridot in direct sunlight. "Speak."
"The Imperator wishes to speak with you, sir. Something about a mission."
Torre felt his eyes roll slightly. Missions meant leaving the citadel, dealing with angry people who were too loud, and someone almost always died.
"Does he actually need me or can it wait."
"He said to, um, report to him right away…sir!"
"Don't call me sir."
Torre walked off towards the center of the citadel. Charr brushed past him as he lumbered into the main hub and went up towards to the top. It had to be a pretty important mission if the Imperator was calling on him personally. Torre debated on pushing for a tribune to do the work but that would mean convincing a tribune and then not only would he owe the tribune a favor, he would have to do double the work to work off the mission he traded off. The imperator would have his hide for that. The imperator was speaking to two non-charr when Torre arrived. One was human and the other was sylvari, both female. Torre grunted. Great, not only are they not charr but they're both women, he thought. "I think that Centurion Deathblood will be an excellent addition to your excursion. He's familiar enough with the terrain that he can act as a guide. Ah, here he is now!" Torre walked forward, with a bored look in his eye. "The only guiding I'll do is guiding myself out of here." The tribune walked towards him with a forced laugh and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck like he was a cub. "Oh this one is always cracking jokes which is funny because I like cracking skulls!" Torre kept his mouth shut. He was annoyed but he wasn't that annoyed. "I apologize for his behavior, commander." "Oh that's fine! He's funny!" Commander?
Sure enough, the imperator would already have his hide for speaking like that in front of the Commander of the Pact. Torre had only heard of her but she was supposedly one of the most powerful people in Tyria. The Marshal's second-in-command, the Commander was sort of his hand throughout Tyria. She oversaw missions while he was away and often held control of certain fortresses. But he wasn't expecting someone so…bubbly. Her hair was the color of hot melted mithril – hot enough that it almost glowed white but you could still see the blue sheen of the ore. Her eyes were a soft and vibrant lilac and thickly lined with a cosmetic kohl. For someone who wielded massive amounts of power in Tyria, she was also incredibly short. "You're Torre, correct?" she said. "My name is Brulent, but please call me Bru. The commander title nonsense is for the higher ups but we're friends!" Torre raised a brow. "Not to be rude, but we just met and you're already classifying us as friends?" Smodur slightly tightened his grip on Torre's neck and whispered quickly in his ears. "I don't care if she wants the two of you to have a damn tea party, if she wants you as her friend then you're her friend." "Oh Imperator you're so fussy with him! There's no need to hold him like that." Smodur let go when he heard the sylvari speak.
The sylvari with Bru stepped forward. She was roughly the same height as the commander but she was purple. Most sylvari were various colors of the rainbow so that was no surprise. Her eyes were a bright verdant green, like a proud willow tree. Both the commander and her companion had pieces of Carapace armor on them. So they saw action in the Silverwastes, he thought. He knew the commander was active in fighting Mordremoth but he wasn't aware of who the plant was. "Oh where are my manners, let me introduce her. This is Torreyace, my best friend and partner." The sylvari smiled brightly and did a soft bow. "Partner…so you two are…?" Torre asked. The two looked at each other and Bru gave Torre a confused and vague smile. "What? Us? Oh that's impossible, right Torrey?" "Oh yes, impossible. Quite!" The two giggled with each other and Torre rolled his eyes. They were those kind of friends. "I met Torrey when I was working with the Durmand Priory a few years ago. She's a scholar there and we partnered up to work on studying dragon essences. We've been inseparable ever since."
Torre loosened himself away from the imperator, using the casual dialogue as his getaway. "So what is this mission that I was volunteered for," he said flatly. Bru's soft look held as she began speaking. "As you may know, Tribune Brimstone and Captain Logan Thackeray raided the Citadel of Flame and took down Imperator Baelfire. We have reason to believe that they are trying to revive him and are using destroyer magic to do so. The Pact had Whispers agents obtain Flame Legion plans and if what we've found is true, they intend to imbue Baelfire with the essence of Primordus." Torre became slightly more alert. The Flame Legion were already scum and now they wanted to mix with destroyer magic? They were all too desperate for more power.
"So where do I come in with all of this," he asked. Torreyace was the one to speak next. "Your job is to guide us through Fireheart Rise and breach Provatum Castrum and Senecus Castrum. Those two strongholds contain both their ritual space and their destroyer energy. If they complete the ritual, Baelfire will be able to hold ground in the Citadel of Flame once more. Torre Deathblood, will you take this mission?" She looked into his eyes, her light scorching upon his dark. Torre glanced at the imperator, who stared him down and searched him for any signs of defiance. "If I don't take this mission, the imperator will beat me down. I'm in." Smodur let out a light grunt of approval and Bru cheered. "Excellent! We leave tomorrow morning!" The commander and her companion bolted over to give Torre a large hug, startling him. "This is…uncomfortable."