“The Sword Of Khaine is a relic beyond any other. A Weapon of the God that sits at the apex of existence. Mere descendence does not entitle one to wield the blade without paying the pride. Grasp every day beyond this with pride, and thank every being that will listen that you are more than a mere descendant”
The booming voice in Estaria’s head filled her entire being when she put on the gauntlets, and she was taken in front of a beiny of fire and fury, a dripping red hand clenched around a massive blade of terrible potency. And then, she was back in the real world, the Blighted Isle, specifically. Filnon stood over her, watching and waiting for any sign.
“Ahh...what happened?” Estaria asked, her head still ringing with the booming voice of the huge guy she had just seen.
“You just collapsed after putting the gauntlets on. It’s been less than a minute, but it was still somewhat worrying” Filnon replied, helping Estaria to her feet. Getting her balance and sight back, there were a few notifications waiting for her in her tray, where they went when she was doing something or wasn’t able to have a popup in her face. She had a debuff called Curse Of Khaine but with the "Right to Wield" perk, it was reduced to nothing. Fortunate tht she picked that one up. Or divine provodence, she did feel drawn to it after all.
Exalted Blade Art - Call Of Blood: The sword of Khaine calls to his portfolio and it answers with abloom. The use of this Exalted Blade Art causes the blood of the surrounding dead to condense around the user, becoming slashing blades to slaughter all who would come against the wielder.
Exalted Blade Art - God-Smiter: The Sword Of Khaine has tasted the blood of Gods, and remembers the flavour intimately, always eager for a second helping. Negate Divine Protection
The Red Tide - An Enlightened Ritual that can be used with the Sword Of Khaine. Expending your Resource creates a ritual zone, the more resource spent, the larger the zone. Every being killed within this zone is added to the altar at the center, and once the altar is kicked over by the one who started the ritual, a massive tide of boiling blood surges in the direction of the kick, traveling ten feet and being 3ftx3ft for every ten beings killed within the zone. This tide can be halted by large objects like houses and walls, but flows over ditches and moats without issue.
Those were certainly impressive...The Red Tide would really add to her ability to fight the hordes of the Undead...if she needed to fight the hordes of the undead. This wasn’t going to be used in some sudden crusade against them just because she had Khaine’s weaponry.
“Thank you, for being here, Filnon. I…….I can’t come back yet, there is something I need to finish. Something personal to me, but I will be back once it is done. I promise you this” Estaria took FIlnon’s hands and kissed her lips passionately, lovingly, before turning to Mattrim and leaving the Isle before Filnon could say anything to convince her to stay. Because she would, and most probably succeed if Estaria let her say anything. These past two years had been a horrible blur, and now she was woken from that stupor, it was hard to focus on the duty she needed to do.
The Vampires were a problem, however much she tried to claim they were not. Leave them and FIlnon would eventually find them coming to kill or turn Estaria. So she had to go make a deal with Vlad to ensure that didn’t happen. And make it a deal that he listened to rather than one he broke at his convenience. Maybe show him she wasn’t to be messed with? Threaten him with the Sword of Khaine? Sicc a no doubt angry Filnon at him and let her burn off her stress of having Filnon basically run away from her. That last one was doubtful, Filnon was no fool. She knew why Estaria departed so quickly.
And on the topic of departing, Estaria needed to return to Miragliano, and get her stuff and her wolf who she departed without. GIve Tatiana some money to tide her over for the rest of her life. She was close with that one, found her struggle to be beautiful. Same circumstances as Estaria, but with two sisters to support as well. So it was there they returned first, and Estaria tried to sneak back into the brothel like nothing had happened. Fat chance of that though, as Bloodwolf came bounding up and took her off her feet, licking frantically as he did.
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“Damn mutt had been nothing but trouble since you left. Whining about the place, not raising so much as a growl to the troublemakers, and barely even eating his food. Where did that pomp man take you, anyway?” Barkeep asked, coming over. Estaria recovered to a sitting position and petted the wolf gently.
“He took me to see his parents. Wanted to impress me with gold and jewels and the talk of marriage. But, I ain’t no trophy” Estaria replied, finally getting free of the fluff to stand up and get her uniform back on.
“Well, good. Migel has been in the stocks every day since you left, fighting any man who tried to decry you. There’s another I can see trying to marry you, though for much different reasons” Barkeep told Estaria, and then returned to the bar and poured some ales for a table of dwarven mercenaries. Estaria liked dwarves, and her ability to speak Kazalid didn’t hurt relations either, so the day ended with merriment and drunk dwarves taking two whole casks of ale before leaving satiated and happy. Though the night was less of merriment, as Estaria was assigned to be the personal waitress of this noblewoman who had come in the other day. The Noblewoman had business to take care of during the day but needed someone to cater to her in the night, as was the want of these noble women.
The problem was not the job, Estaria got a really cute silk uniform, long skirt and apron as that was apparently the required outfit for all the woman’s servants. The problem was who she was serving. Entering into the room with a tray of tea and dinner, she immediately froze for a few seconds as she saw some vampire countess drinking from Tatiana. Her brain froze and whirred at the same time as she watched the scene, and eventually one of them won the war for motion and she sprung across the room, her fist brained the creature and splattered it across the nearby wall. Tatiana slumped from her grasp but then suddenly jolted and looked at Estaria.
“Wha..?” She looked very confused and, understandably for someone who had just had a lot of blood sucked out, very weak.
“It’s ok. A pest got in, but I dealt with it” Estaria replied, looking to the shriveled corpse of the vampire. They dissolved into mush pretty quickly, and then from mush to ash. Morr was not to be denied, and he took everything from you once you had died a second time. It also helped prevent Vampires from just constantly resurrecting the undead.
“No..Well, yes but, no. Who are you?” Tatiana asked, staring at Estaria. The question was a strange one, but she came to an idea quickly as to why it was said.
“Hmm, what’s the last thing you remember?” Estaria asked gently, supporting her and gathering the surviving tea and food from the tray to give her something.
“I...me and my sisters were heading to Miragliano. Some, old family friend lives here and was going to get us a job. We…...we got here, and this handsome man came to meet us and then….nothing” Tatiana stared into the distance, trying to remember and failing.
“Sounds like you were a Thrall. Well, you got a job, at least. Working at a tavern. It’s decent, supports your sisters” Estaria explained, letting her get up and brush her skirt off.
“Well, th-thank you. I, need to go see my sisters now” Tatiana then turned to the door, and paused for a moment. “Umm………...where do I live?”
“Follow me, I’ll take you there” Estaria replied, standing up and heading out.
Sorting out that fiasco and making sure to get Tatiana off sick tomorrow so she could recover from the blood loss, Es retreated to her room. First of all, she buggered with her workshop. Sure, Sword of Khaine was a God Weapon, but what would happen if she tried to work with it? Setting the “Sword” as the item to be worked with, she then dragged in her Killer Heels as a reagent. It autoset a few others in her inventory, which helped keep the cost down - for a relative degree of down, at least - and the end result was her heels were now added into the Khaine weapon, making it sword and heels. A bit of madness then took over, as she threw in the Bride of A Thousand Witches dress as well. That one wiped out her money entirely, but created an Item Set. Equipping all three items with one and giving good boons to boot.
Item Set - Khaine’s Regalia: Stride With Style. This Item Set is the collection of Khaine’s effects that glow with prominence even in the halls of the Gods, looking down on even the most opulent of dresses with a haughty sense of pity for their inferiority.
With that done - and happy, because new items were always good - Estaria quit her job and gave Barkeep some compensation for quitting without notice, and turned her eyes to the Eternal Empire. Tatiana being a thrall meant they already knew she was here, and that meant the vampire was most purposefully sent to her specifically. Vlad was, for whatever reason, calling her out. And she would oblige.