"I have done what you ordered." The large-horned, winged troll named the Summoner bowed in front of his boss, the ruler of the land-dwellers, the Grand Highblood. It's not a bow of royalty, however, but a bow of duty because after all, this is just a job. It's complicated, but he doesn't like to think on it too much. His armor weighs heavy on him, shielding his wings from attacks from said boss. He'd much rather be in his normal leather and minimal shielding like a normal troll Viking, but he has seen many of them be slaughtered mercilessly by the man sitting in the huge ass chair in front of him.
"GOOD!" the Grand Highblood bellowed. The voice echoes around the room, which is basically the carved out part of a dormant volcano. The Grand Highblood then muttered, "What of her Imperious?"
"She knows nothing, but—" The Summoner wanted to explain that he hit a snag in controlling the beastly lusus known as "Gl'bgolyb," but he was interrupted.
"ALSO GOOD!" He didn't say anything else, so this was a golden opportunity.
The Summoner straightened himself up for this. He needed to be as delicate as possible for what was bound to happen. "There is one anomaly."
"Oh?"
"At this point in time, it will only obey my orders."
"HA! I expected nothing less." Wait, he did? "YOU WILL HAVE TO TEACH ME, THEN!" There was something about the tone of his voice that said he had been already. The Summoner swallows some bile down, again trying not to think about it too much. His boss stepped off of the throne and pushes past the Summoner. The Grand Highblood's crazy hair works wonders on his general ominousness. It grew long down his back in thick braids and hasn't been washed in many sweeps. The leather he wore is almost always new, and it had a gray tint, not the usual lusus-white. The Summoner's own leather is very old and matted with dirt and dried blood he didn't bother to wash off after hunting, not a single white spot in sight. He doesn't ask and his boss doesn't elaborate.
Every time he is in the Grand Highblood's presence, The Summoner is reminded of why he took the job in the first place: he's glad he is on the winning side. As much as the situation gives him moral pause, he witnesses the result of following those morals, which is usually a death of some sort.
"WHERE IS SHE?!"
"YOU LOOKIN' FER ME?!" an angry woman yells. Even though she had lived for so long already, she still had the voice of a 7-sweep-old, and by the look of her hair and apparel, she didn't spend too much time fixing herself before charging off like a grub having a tantrum. She had her regular gold earrings and arm bands, but not nearly as much gold as she usually wears. Her Imperious Condescension is furious with what he and the Grand Highblood has planned so far. The goal was to undermine her using her own lusus. It's time the land-dwellers had a say. She held up her trident, ready to strike.
The Summoner took off his armor, then spread out his wings. It felt good to have them out every once in a while. He flew straight up, taunting the seadweller. It looks like she came without her secret army of threshecutioners today. She must have figured she could take two lowly trolls on her own.
"Yer a fuckin' traitor, GHB," she snarls. "But'cha slow in the head so I'll give ya one last time ta surrenda my lusus." Condy here gave a lease to The Grand highblood for those times when lowbloods got together and revolted. She must think they have her lusus chained up someplace. As if. The ocean is the only place that thing will even fit.
The Grand Highblood laughed long and loud. "Give me your best shot, sea bitch." He then looked up and gave the Summoner the signal. He saluted and flew to the ocean, easily assuming control again. The Glbgolyb's mind was surprisingly simple, not nearly as complex as a troll's, but it does have disturbing thoughts nonetheless. The Summoner can only dip into the parts that control consciousness. He has the enormous lusus pull part of itself ashore, the mouth part and some tentacles, which is more than enough to reach the entrance to the volcano. The Summoner followed its reach to a confused Condesce, who looked into the beast's eyes, briefly petrified.
"What in the fu—!"
Before she could finish, the lusus snatched her up and shoved her into its mouth. It spat out her trident, landing with a clang on the hard ground.
"SUMMONER!" He landed next to the Grand Highblood, who picked up the trident. "Dispose of this." And at that, he left. Such a thankless job.
The Summoner did what he was told, and followed the lusus back to the water, promptly dropping the trident offshore. He felt an odd feeling of joy as it plunked into the water. Maybe there was hope in this job after all.
