Ch. 21 Need's Tale
Disclaimer: I do not own a whole lot in this chapter, Tani alone is mine. And then well……
pixie-dust2525: I haven't forgotten them, I just need to get one more chapter done and then I'll be connecting things better, the chapters should
Vestan looked over to Tani and said, "Care to take over?"
"Allright. Miss Granger, would you draw Need please."
Hermione did as told and read the flaring script out loud, "Woman's Need calls me/ as Woman's Need made me/ Her Need must I answer/As my maker bade me."
Tani nodded and said, "Needs Geas is simple, Her bearers must aid women in need of help and they cannot seriously harm another woman. Basically, you can brain a woman in self-defense, but not kill her. She will not, however, interfere with the other two if they are fighting with a female. She gives sword skill to a witch and magical protection to fighters. The only time she will help a witch magically is in pitched battle by absorbing any spells thrown at her.
Need too was a mage-smith at one point. She worked as a smith in a temple devoted to twin deities of blade and magic. She made swords with spells of healing, luck, warding, or a spell for calm in each one. No one blade that she sold had more than one spell in it. Once every four years she would forge one with all four and gave it to one of the young women who were ready to leave the temple. She had gone to the fair to sell her blades. When she returned it was to find carnage. The bodies had been looted and the buildings of the temple had been destroyed to the point of cinders. Her apprentice had survived the massacre by fleeing up a tree. The girl did not come down until Need returned. The young witches had been rounded up and carted off by a powerful wizard. When Need learned this she bound herself to one of the special swords just as the others did. She knew what her apprentice did not; that the wizard had captured the girls to augment his own power. He needed to be stopped not only for the girls sake, but for everyone. If he had been allowed that kind of power it would have been near impossible to stop him. Her apprentice took up the sword and freed her captured sisters. The girls were fostered out to farmers until they were older and could better control their magics. The apprentice wandered after that as a mercenary until it was time for Need to be passed on.
Any questions?"
"One, how can she give me sword skill?"
"She will soul bind to you and in a battle situation take over your body."
"Oh."
Tani concluded her quarter of the tale by turning it over to the next person, "Dharniel?"