V.
"Please finish him".
Its wielder not being the one to be asked twice, within a couple of seconds the Valkyrie's faintly glowing spear impaled the chest of the apparently still breathing Nihlathak. The corrupt barbarian's eyes bulged, as blood streamed out of his mouth and he twitched for the final time before becoming still – mercifully having neither the time nor strength left to utter even one final curse. The spirit warrior extracted the weapon from the now dead body and drew the shaft back, prepared to strike again if needed.
No sooner than she did that, the corpse of the treacherous elder was engulfed in sickly greenish light. Both of the mortal warriors hastily scrambled into readiness, waiting for some unexpected – but undoubtedly unpleasant – turn of events, while the Valkyrie remained outwardly dignified and unperturbed (yet prepared for combat all the same). The cadaver, now manifestly lifeless, rose into the air, all the while being seemingly consumed by the hellish radiance – and then, as the evil light faded, dropped to the ground, shriveled and blackened to the point of being unrecognizable.
In their line of work, it was nothing really extraordinary.
"Conspiring with Baal, what a tragic mistake", Jacqueline noted acidly, approaching the corpse with her crossbow at the ready and prodding the dead man with her boot. No reaction of any kind followed, and she sighed, relaxing visibly.
"Time to pillage and plunder, then. Fiona, come over, let's sack this place and get out. Fiona?"
The rogue archer did not seem to react. She leaned against the wall as if her knees had become weak, letting tension and fear drain from her and reliving the recent horrible minutes that nearly became her last.
That battle was not going smoothly for the intruders, as pretty soon the demons called forth through Nihlathak's portals started pushing back the first assault... and his spells made the situation even more difficult. Very soon the first boar demon directly rushed Fiona, who was positioned toward the rear; she shot it dead right where it was, but then Nihlathak, cackling madly, raised his hand and intoned a dark spell that caused the creature's body to explode. Only Fiona's heightened reflexes – and the finest hard leathers she was wearing, procured in Jacqueline's unrelenting quest for better battlegear – saved her from getting killed on the spot, as she rolled aside in the nick of time, her armor stopping the majority of the shrapnel and almost saving her from harm.
Almost because a sharpened piece of rock, sent flying by the force of the explosion, glanced the redheaded girl's unprotected forearm, leaving a deep bloody gash. She gasped involuntarily, and the sound somehow reached Jacqueline over the din of the battle – or did she feel it somehow? The Amazon fleetingly turned her head to look at Fiona, and the sight of her dearest companion bleeding from a wound that, while not fatal, was certainly unpleasant, apparently sent the Askari warrior into a higher degree of battle rage. She yelled a word the Sister did not understand – probably an invective in her native tongue – and then the very air around her started to darken.
By then, all three warriors were familiar with this effect, even though none of them found it very appealing, for the combination of runes that Jacqueline inserted into her diadem – following, as she called it, an "old runeweaver's tale" – had a rather unexpected side property, at times smothering swaths of terrain before the wielder with grisly necromantic curses. At the same time, these spells were triggering at totally random times, even though it was always in combat. The diadem was seemingly reacting to the Amazon's emotional state and battle reactions, but Fiona half-jokingly demanded that Jacqueline was always to take it off before coming to bed, even though it was the one piece of apparel that would not be getting in the way of lovemaking.
The cohesive lines of boar demons that have been steadily hemming the female warriors in broke into chaos. Each of the spiny creatures was instead frantically slashing at the next one, unable to tell friend from foe. Nihlathak could no longer direct his minions, and became visibly agitated, even though it was difficult to read his expression behind the shroud of darkness and his own protective auras that rendered the arrows fired by Jacqueline and Fiona mostly ineffective. Jacqueline and her Valkyrie exchanged glances – and understood each other, despite the veil of their different existences. Both agreed that it was the time to attack, a "now or never" moment.
The Amazon uttered a ferocious battlecry and charged forward. In midstride she tossed her crossbow aside, letting it dangle by the leather straps, and drew her rarely used backup weapon, an enchanted spear, from her back. Despite the fact that she was running across uneven floors, dodging the still crazed felboars, she succeeded – which was a testament to her skills and coordination. As she was letting her fury carry her to the target, the momentum was enough to ram through Nihlathak's mystic shield. Two spears – one forged in a human smithy, though carrying potent rune enchantments, and one of mystic heavenly origin – struck as one, impaling the traitorous elder and all but pinning him to the craggy wall. He was very obviously done for. Seeing their master defeated, the surviving felboars started to scatter, Fiona's arrows chasing the slower ones away.
Jacqueline, pure hate distorting her beautiful features, shrieked with exertion, pulled her spear out of their adversary's body and became poised to strike again, but saw no need for that. A momentary change washed over her, as her expression abruptly changed to one of compassion – but not for the man she had just dealt the fatal blow to. She left the dying Nihlathak to the Valkyrie's attention and, hastily stowing away her weapon, ran up to Fiona, checking her for other injuries and quickly drawing clean bandages and healing salve from her side pouch. The Rogue archer smiled wanly but gratefully, and let her companion treat and bandage her wound. When it was done – and only then, a testament to the Amazon's professionalism unshaken not only by hatred, but even by love – the fair-haired woman embraced her companion, reaching to caress her hair, but finding the cold steel of the helmet instead. She chuckled briefly before pulling Fiona even closer and kissing her firmly on the lips, as if to affirm that they were both alive. Unlike their enemy...
"I'd hate to turn you over to Malah. I'd rather... take good care of you myself", Jacqueline drawled, apparently trying to cheer up her companion. She was successful, as the Sister of the Sightless eye grinned widely, despite the lingering pain, and melted into the embrace.
The Valkyrie was watching this, seemingly impassive. She noted that it was the first time when Jacqueline expressed her affection for the other girl in public, even if that public was just her spirit companion. Before that, there was nothing that could have given away her feelings to outsiders. The soldier of Athulua could notice only barest of hints (and even those were really evident to her because she knew what to look for), like a warm glance then and now, a coy smile and slightly more swing in the Amazon's hips when she knew Fiona – and nobody else, save maybe the celestial emissary – was watching. The two women understood that the Valkyrie was on to their little secret, but they probably did not know how much exactly she had learned. Again, they did not see fit to share anything of what they felt or experienced with her. The people of Harrogath were certainly kept in the dark, unless one of them would have been spying on the warband – but the Valkyrie would have definitely found that out, and dealt with the perpetrator accordingly.
Yet then, looking at the two battlemaidens sharing an outwardly chaste embrace after having survived a terrible battle, the Valkyrie realized that her mission in this world was not only to defend and serve her champion in the latter's endeavors. Her second – in order, not in significance – task, the one she charged herself with out of her own volition, was to protect their blossoming romance from the horrors of this war, with her life if needed. Even if it had started as the attraction of flesh, it has apparently evolved so far beyond by now, and she would not bear to see this precious bloom of happiness nipped in the bud as hers had been, in her time as a mortal.
With that thought, the spirit warrior felt another piece of the puzzle fall into place. She knew then that she had come from great tragedy and bereavement... but the details eluded her still.