The Scarlet Bandits
The dark woods were perfectly quiet as Vevian stood in a small clearing and waited for Mordinea to arrive. They had spoken last night of her plan and Mordinea seemed to be in full agreement with her proposal, though one could never be certain. The moons cast long shadows in the trees and seemed to make the night somehow even more surreal to Vevian than it already was. Her glowing eyes seemed more at home in the dark than in the light and she saw everything with a perfect clarity impossible at this time of night in her former existence.
She had set the traps several hours earlier, pulling in her spells and storing them in the powders she had taken from the supply store. It was tricky business getting the spells to stay fresh over long periods while stored, but she only needed them to stay strong for a couple hours, just until the scarlets tripped the wires and were frozen solid. She had used her magic to kill before, but never in mass. She wondered if it would kill them or just leave their legs frozen while their icy nerves told their minds that their legs were on fire. Vevian's brow furrowed slightly, not a pleasant way to go.
Mordinea should have been there by now and Vevian began to pace lightly around the clearing. She wasn't nervous, just excited to see if her magic would work. Her feet scuffed the forest floor lightly as she padded about and she couldn't help but have the feeling she was being watched. She turned to look over her shoulder and saw nothing even with her new eyes. She shrugged and turned back around to find Mordinea perched lightly on a tree across the clearing her hands gripping the branch between her feet. Her face widened with a gruesome smile as she saw Vevian notice her.
"Took you long enough," she said lightly jumping down soundlessly and making her way towards Vevian.
"Long enough for what? I've been here nearly an hour waiting for you," Vevian said tightly. Mordinea was unreliable and extremely unbalanced. Not someone she wanted to be working with, in any task.
"Oh, aren't you punctual," said Mordinea her voice lofty as she slipped uncomfortably close to Vevian examining her features. "I've been here for 2 hours watching you pace about. You're very pretty, pretty little girl." she crooned softly.
"You should have said something, I want to be done with this so I can move on to the Undercity," Vevian said hotly putting her hand on Mordinea's shoulder and pushing her back. She had been sitting there waiting for Vevian to notice her presence, how creepy was that?
"There's no fun in announcing yourself," Mordinea said flippantly, backing away from Vevian to start bouncing lightly from foot to foot, her glowing eyes darting from tree to tree.
"Not everything needs to be fun," Vevian said tightly "You'll need to calm down if we're to do this and walk away clean."
"Calm down? Calm Down?!" Mordinea said "Why should we calm down? The fun's just about to begin! I can feel it, can't you?" she giggled, jumping in ernest now, landing silently only to leap upward again.
"I'm sure we have very different definitions of the word 'fun'," Vevian said drawing her arms around herself. This woman was starting to bother her.
"Fun," Mordinea said, her eyes dryly staring off into nothing "You can't spell fun without murder my dear." she said, her pulsing eyes snapping back to Vevian.
"I'm not going to start with you." Vevian said dryly, her eyes growing narrow as she bent to pick up her things.
"Once again m'lady you've managed to suck all the joy out of the situation," Mordinea said, stopping her bouncing and skipping up to Vevian. She leaned in close and Vevian leaned back in disgust. "We're going to have to change your attitude missy." Mordinea whispered lightly into her ear. "We're going to make things oh so very exciting for you, and then you'll see how much fun there is to be had." she giggled and ran off ahead of Vevian into the woods.
Vevian started and went to follow her. They needed to stick together lest they be killed by the scarlet bandits when they sprung her trap. She clambered into the woods trying to follow Mordinea in the direction of the scarlet camp, but to no avail. The damned woman was completely silent as she made her way unseen through the trees and Vevian didn't have a hope of catching her if she didn't want to be found.
Vevian slowed her pace as she neared the camp and bent to conceal herself better. The camp was very close now and she could hear the clatter of swords and the voices of men. "Just great," she thought, Mordinea was going to alert them before the majority were drawn off by the Deathguards to the west. She didn't think that her traps could take all of them out, there was only so much a couple of bottled spells could do.
Vevian's pace grew slow as the brush thinned and she saw the camp. There were about twenty men around a fire all clad in plate armor and bright red tabards to clearly identify themselves. Despite their bandit activities these men believed themselves to be doing the work of the Light by killing innocents. The majority were in the center of the camp around the fire talking lightly and eating while a few stood guard outside the tents. Two she saw were out by a stacking of crates that were obviously what they had stolen. Overall not a very impressive group, but enough to cause harm to a small settlement like Deathknell.
Vevian peered harder at the camp trying to find Mordinea, but to no avail. Gods damn her, she was gone. Then she saw a lone guard drop down face first into the grass with the small glimmer of a knife in the back in his neck. "This is going to get messy," Vevian thought bitterly as she went to pull herself up and begin her assault as well. Just then a hand dropped down on her shoulder and familiar voice spoke softly into her ear, "Easy love. Wouldn't want you to get hurt now would we?" Vevian batted away the hand and turned to find Mordinea crouched behind her, a wide smile showing her glistening teeth.
"How the hell did you get back here so fast?" Vevian asked, her voice a harsh whisper.
"I'm everywhere sweetness," she said simply, her voice a lonesome drawl.
Vevian really didn't want to know what she meant by that and simply accepted that somehow Mordinea was faster than she thought possible. "We need to wait for the distraction first, unless you'd rather be torn to ribbons," she said matter of factly.
"What color?" Mordinea asked seriously.
"What color of what?" Vevian asked startled.
"Of ribbons," Mordinea said wistfully staring at her hands.
Vevian sighed heavily and turned back around to the camp. No one had noticed the guard since he had been far from the others and was now merely a darker splotch of black among the grass. That was good. Their cover hadn't been compromised.
"I really don't care what games you play with your own life," Vevian said angrily, turning to Mordinea who still appeared to be fancying the idea of becoming a pile of ribbons. "But I'm not going to die because you are out of your mind," Vevian said pointing at Mordinea.
Mordinea snapped back to reality, her face blank of expression. "I'm not crazy," she said flatly.
"You are the very last person on the face of this entire world who can say that honestly," Vevian spat.
Mordinea's mood darkened as she eyed Vevian without any expression on her face. Vevian wasn't sure if it was the realization of mortal danger or her insult that had an effect on her, but she seemed more docile and for that Vevian was thankful.
"We need to wait here," Vevian said quietly sitting down from her crouch. Mordinea followed suit and hung her head. Vevian wasn't sure if she liked this quiet Mordinea more or less than the rude fidgeting woman she had met last night.
They waited on the edge of the camp for almost half an hour until there was any sign of a disturbance from the camp. One of the men was shouting at the others and they all ran to grab their shields and swords. A few stayed behind while the shouting man led the rest off the west undoubtedly to counter the Deathguard's half hearted assault unmindful of their missing companion. The seven that were left looked nervous as they rummaged about the camp seemingly unsure of what to do.
Vevian tapped Mordinea on the shoulder lightly and her empty face came up to meet Vevian's eyes. She was totally gone. Not a trace of consciousness lay on her once smiling face. Vevian shook her lightly and said, "Hey, Mordinea. We have to go now." Still Mordinea just sat there with that blank look on her face her hands laying limp in her lap.
Vevian thought for a moment and got an idea. "Mordinea, are you ready to play?" she said lightly.
"Play?" Mordinea mumbled.
"Yea, we have to go over there and play with those guards. Are you ready?"
"I... I want to play," said Mordinea seeming to become more aware as she began to get up.
"Good, because they want to play too, but we have to make them play where we were before in the woods, do you remember?" Vevian asked.
"With your baubles and your wires?" Mordinea asked her eyebrows going high.
"Yes, back there. Do you think you can get them there?"
"Oh yes," she said simply.
"Alright, then go get them there," Vevian said pulling her the rest of the way up. Mordinea's face lit up with a demonic smile.
"I'm ready to play!" Mordinea shouted and Vevian swore, the guards would have heard that.
Vevian guessed it served their purpose and broke away from Mordinea to run deeper into the woods as to not be seen by the guards that rushed by. Soon enough she heard the harsh tongues and boots of the men as they trampled through the woods towards her trap, perfect.
Vevian waited for what she hoped was the last man to run past her and followed at a light pace. She would hear it when they reached her trap she was sure of it. As if summoned by her thought she heard a gargled scream. It was too soon for them to have gotten to the clearing, something had gone wrong. She slowed her pace and tried to see through the trees. She padded forward for several minutes and then she saw them. The group of guards had stopped shy of her clearing and were gathered in a protective circle around what appeared to be one of their fallen comrades. Mordinea had obviously forgotten the plan and killed one of them.
Vevian's thoughts scrambled as she tried to figure a way around this kink in her plan. She'd have to lure them herself and she was no where near as fast or agile as Mordinea. This was getting way too risky.
Vevian bit back a scream as she was almost toppled over and she hit the soft earth with a small exhale of breath. Mordinea peered down at her. Her mouth and neck was covered in slowly dribbling blood and some it fell onto Vevian's face. Vevian pushed up and bumped Mordinea out of her way. This was getting gross as well.
"What the fuck was that?" Vevian said. Her words so harsh and low as to be almost indistinguishable from a growl.
Mordinea's smile only widened as she leaned in and gave Vevian a soft kiss on the lips. She pulled back and startled Vevian sat there in the dirt with blood all over her lips and wet patches on her dark purple robes. The blood tasted good, too good. Then Vevian noticed that she could taste the blood, it was the only thing she had tasted since she had died and it tasted wonderful, like liquid fire. Vevian stared at Mordinea fought the urge to spell the twisted woman into a pile of bones. As if sensing her thought Mordinea chuckled and slipped off deeper into the forest. Vevian guessed the woman had snapped. "So much for backup," Vevian thought dismally and got up quietly into a crouch. She wiped at her face with the back of her palm and only succeeded in smearing the blood around. Great, now she would look just like what they expected, a flesh eating monster.
The guards still stood in a circle around their fallen friend and seemed unsure of what to do. "I'll give them something to focus on," Vevian thought bitterly as she snuck around them to the side facing her clearing. She stood abruptly and shouted at them. All six turned and charged at her, their need for vengeance evident in their burning eyes.
Vevian turned and sprinted into the clearing jumping over the wire at it's edge. She kept going to the other side of the clearing and turned when she reached it's edge, she wanted to see this. The men breached the clearing and Vevian heard the sharp twang as the wire was pulled from it's catch activating the stored spell. But nothing happened. The men had heard it and were looking behind them to see looking scared. "I'm done for," Vevian thought with finality. They turned their attention back to her when a sudden crack of energy emanated from the bushes surrounding the men at the opposite edge of the clearing.
The swirl of magical frost poured over the legs of the men and they screamed. Several fell as their legs were flash frozen and their lungs turned to ice. Only two remained standing. They were clawing and pulling at their legs as if trying to remove them. Their anguished faces turned to her and she brought her hands up to summon another spell. This was mercy she though as she pulled in the magic around to freeze the air around her hand. They were in too much pain to just leave here. She let the bolt of sharpened ice loose with a shout of invocation to speed it on its way. The lance shot through one of the men's head and stuck half way, freezing itself in the man's skull. The other screamed something at her as his comrade's upper body slumped backwards bending at the knee above his frozen legs. He was holding his hands up as if pleading. Vevian couldn't understand him, but the terrified look told her all she needed to know. She would let this one live. Legless, this man would not pose a threat to anyone and to kill him would be cruel.
Just then the man cried out and fell forward, his legs breaking off where they had frozen. Vevian gasped as Mordinea rode the man down on his back stabbing and cutting all the way down, her hands moving too fast to see. Blood poured from the man and his cries fell blessedly silent as Mordinea drove her draggers in the man's spine just below the skull, separating his brain from the rest of his body. She cackled wildly and cut loose the man's shoulder blade. She tore it away and buried her face into the man's shoulder tearing away a huge chunk of flesh. She smacked her jaw up and down grinding the meat loud enough for Vevian to hear from across the clearing.
"Oh god," Vevian whispered. Is this was it was to be Forsaken? To kill without conscience and feast on your former brothers? This wasn't what she wanted, she didn't want to see this. She took one last look at the sickly satisfied smile on Mordinea's face and ran from the clearing. Gods help us, gods help us all.
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Author's Note: Guess who updated when they said they would? Did you say me? Oh god! You're so right it hurts. I'm not going to promise anything but I think one chapter every two or three days is a reasonable assumption at this point. Unless I decided to cram my head into my ass for six months again, which is always a possibility. (It's so warm in there.)