Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Diablo or any content thereof. All lore is either researched or assumed. All character names are of my own invention.

Chapter 1

Thelina looked out over the small encampment, eyeing each of the four other tents that her own stood apart from. It was not out of conflict that she chose to pitch her tent apart from the others, quite the opposite. As the most senior member of their party, she felt it her duty to watch over her apprentices and observe their actions. Soon they would be ready to follow their own paths and fulfil their duties alone. Until then, Thelina would make sure they were capable and safe.

The slim woman pulled her cloak tighter around her otherwise bare shoulders. The clothing of the order of the Viz-Jaq'taar was often kept minimal for added manoeuvrability, with the price of braving the elements. While senior in rank to her charges, Thelina was only five years the senior of the eldest by age. Even so, she chided herself for succumbing so easily to the warmth of her cloak. With her training in mental discipline, she should have been able to ignore the cold night wind. The thought of her students leaving were distracting her. Neither emotionless nor cold-hearted, the assassin still knew better than to feel so emotional over what she knew was the inevitable.

The sound of clashing steel brought her attention to the centre of the camp. Two of her apprentices had begun sparring. Predictably, it was the two boys. Pyem and Beck were far from muscle-headed, but like so many men were more attracted to the idea of combat than meditation.

Beck lunged forward with the katar blade strapped to his right wrist, the blow caught and deflected by the three-fingered claw attached to Pyem's left. The latter spun with the claw on his other hand, only to have it clang off the buckler Beck raised in defence. The claws and wrist blades were generally more common and traditional amongst the Viz-Jaq'taar, but the Order did not overlook the use of swords and small shields to meet the situation.

One such sword, with a flat hilt and long, straight blade lay in the lap of Ora, who ran a smooth whetstone down the edge with practised ease. She was awfully fond of her sword, which she had forged herself, and was often reprimanded for spending too much time focusing on maintaining it instead of training. So adept was she at sharpening the blade, Ora kept her hands in motion while still watching the boys, occasionally throwing out a playful rebuke against one or the other.

Although she would not openly show favouritism towards any one of her students, it was the youngest of them, Rathi, that Thelina cared the most for. The girl with red hair, rare in their part of the world, was always off to the side, meditating and focusing her inner energies. Each of the Viz-Jaq'taar was trained in such techniques, but Rathi took them more seriously than her fellows. She would even forgo all manner of weapons in favour of using only her skill in unarmed combat. It was her commitment and discipline that made her instructor care about her, almost as a younger sister. Thelina noted with approval that the sound of Pyem and Beck's weapons, as well as Ora's friendly mockery of them, did nothing to waver Rathi's concentration.

The lead assassin shrugged herself back into the situation at hand. Despite her normally proverbial patience, Thelina was growing sick of waiting. Their contact should have arrived two nights ago. Generally the Viz-Jaq'taar wandered individually from place to place, searching for sources of demonic corruption, the separation keeping them dependant on their own skills as well as strategically placed throughout the world. Only the teachers among the assassins would travel in groups with their students. However, there were rare occasions when they would be specifically requested by one of the few people that knew of the order's existence. Unfortunately, the majority of these few belonged to the Vizjerei mage clans. Therlina hated the idea of being a "hired assassin", especially to one of those Light-forsaken magi. The Viz-Jaq'taar were not tools to be used by the Vizjerei on a whim simply because they knew the order existed. Thelina supposed that the Vizjerei liked the idea of controlling the assassins; the magi had been the ones who had begun the Order so as to police their clans. Directing the assassins to his own ends would be a great satisfaction to a Vizjerei mage, primarily as he would thereby take a large target off of his own back. The main reason the assassins were kept as rumours was to inspire fear of retribution in the magi, so that they would not be tempted into using demonic forces. Knowing that he controlled a member of the Viz-Jaq'taar would be enough to lessen the fear of death in any member of the clan.

'Greetings to thee, Thelina of the Viz-Jaq'taar,' came a soft but powerful voice from behind her.

To her credit, Thelina did not even flinch. The mage had obviously teleported himself to her location so as to avoid being heard, and not just by her. The beasts of the forest stalked their prey at night, and with the world as it were these days, not all of them were of the mortal world. Thelina allowed herself a smirk. Cowardly mage, she thought. Scared of a little hike in the woods. Turning to the newcomer, the plates of armour encasing her legs clinking slightly, she barely inclined her head. The Vizjerei may be employing her, but she didn't have to respect him.

'Greetings, Karam of the Vizjerei,' she said. 'I was beginning to think that you had become lost.'

Karam looked mildly offended, which only pleased Thelina more. 'I can assure you my unpunctuality was not without good reason.'

'I and my students have had to walk for several days through the Ensteig foothills as well as wait an additional three days before you arrived. It had better be one hell of a reason to make us waste such time.'

Karam's eyes narrowed, and several runes on his turinash robe began to glow. The lights faded has he regained his composure. 'Then rather let us not waste further time with pointless bickering. We have more important matters to discuss.'

'Indeed.' Thelina was glad to see that this Vizjerei, unlike most she had encountered was more readily able to put his pride aside to keep good favour.

Karam looked past her towards the encampment. 'You mentioned students. You should summon them. I would rather explain this only once.'

Thelina smiled. 'I don't have to summon them.' To the surrounding bushes she called, 'Stand down!' and four dark-clothed shapes materialised out of the shadows. Karam started in surprise.

'My students are trained to act upon the first indication of magic in the area,' explained Thelina. 'Luckily for you, you possessed enough foresight to appear so close to us. If you had approached from a further distance, they may have killed you before you reached the camp.'

Karam eyed the four younger assassins with a mixture of curiosity and disdain. To have so many Mage-Slayers so close was unnerving. 'Well, I admire your enthusiasm,' he said with a sniff. 'You'll need it for the mission I have in mind.'

'Enough exposition, mage,' Beck said evenly. 'What do you want with us?' Had he been an initiate, Thelina would have likely punished him for speaking out of turn, but given that they were near equals, Thelina was more lenient with her students than she would have been years ago.

'There is a corrupt sorcerer that has come to these lands,' Karam began. 'He arrived here a fortnight ago, and has been particularly disruptive of Vizjerei rituals since. He is cunning, however, and we have failed to capture him. His dark minions keep us at bay and cover his tracks. His magicks keep us from finding him through scrying, and he never remains in the same place for long.'

'Disrupting your rituals?' Thelina said quizzically. 'Why should that be of any concern to us?'

'It is not merely the fact that he disrupts us,' Karam replied. 'It is his abominable methods that mark him as corrupt. It would be in all our interests to dispose of him. You would not want his threat to grow any higher than his interference with the Vizjerei.'

Thelina mused on it for a moment. Karam had a point. If there was a chance that this corrupted one could grow in power, better to deal with him now rather than run the risk of unnecessary loss.

'The payment?' she said.

'Payment?' snorted Karam. 'What about your supposed code of honour? Since when do you charge any kind of payment for your services?'

'Our duty is not to perform any kind of assassination at the behest of the highest bidder,' Thelina said. 'We do what we do because it is our duty, not because we seek rewards for it. If you wish to hire our services for your own ends, you had best give us ample compensation for using us like common mercenaries.'

Karam grumbled, but had not come unprepared for such an eventuality. With a wave of his hand, he produced a large sack from nowhere. The rattle from within hinted at the contents being metal.

'Enchanted armour and weapons for your order,' Karam said shortly. 'Use whatever you need to catch the corrupt one.'

Pyem stepped forward and took the sack. The gifts would be greatly appreciated. The Viz-Jaq'taar was forbidden from using magic of any kind in order to avoid any chance of demonic corruption. However, enchanted equipment was allowed, which was a great assistance against foes that wielded sorcery. The Viz-Jaq'taar smiths were incapable of crafting the items themselves without using magic, and such equipment did not come cheap. What the Vizjerei offered now could probably feed a family for years.

'The payment is fair,' Thelina said, keeping her face neutral. 'We shall deal with this sorcerer.'

'Good,' Karam grunted. 'He was last seen some miles south of here. Give him no quarter, he must not be allowed to interfere again.' With that, the Vizjerei disappeared into thin air.

Thelina immediately turned to Ora. 'Did you notice anything?'

Ora, an expert on reading people's faces, nodded. 'He was telling the truth. There is definitely someone that he would have eliminated. He was hiding something though. I think there's more to this mark than he was letting on.'

Thelina nodded in response and turned to Rathi. 'Could you sense what it was?' While Ora could read people physically, it was Rathi's constant meditation and focus that allowed her to read them psychically.

'I couldn't dig in too deep, or he would have felt my intrusion,' the young woman replied. 'There was something else that he was hiding, but I was able to discern the nature of the one we seek.'

'Is he some sort of cultist?' Thelina had heard recent activities of a new cult arising that clung to the memory of the Prime Evils' invasion of Sanctuary.

'No,' Rathi replied. 'He is a Priest of Rathma.'

Thelina's eyes narrowed at the final word. 'A necromancer…'