Vedek

Vedek’s vision faded in and out. He was aware that a fight was happening in the throne room, but he didn’t know why. Everything looked like a watery smudge. His body wasn’t responding. It wanted to sleep.

There was a scream. A death rattle. His eyes shot open. Consciousness was forced back into his body.

His cheek pressed against coarse stone. His limbs splayed like a rag doll. He was no longer on the balcony. Someone must have thrown him to the lower level. He tried to vocalize but all he could make were gasping shouts. Waking himself came with a detriment. There was a horrible pain in his right leg that would have lingered on the edge of awareness otherwise. This pain was the source of his immobility. His right leg had experienced a fracture.

He dragged his face along the rubble dusted floor towards the direction of the conflict he was hearing. His eyes briefly glanced at his bow and quiver scattered across the ground too far from his reach. Also in his sight line was the collapsed body of Ghetsis Reballo. The veteran stared skyward with dead eyes. Vedek’s arrow still lodged in his neck.

He pushed himself to look beyond that. The Keep was theirs, why was there still conflict?

An elden body fell adjacent to Ghetsis. She was one of the Sráid soldiers who arrived to secure the throne room. Her green eyes stared back at Vedek, devoid of life and explanation. Blood trailed from the corners of her slack mouth. A boot stomped her abdomen so that her killer could remove the falchion sheathed in her stomach.

Vedek didn’t recognize the killer. She took the falchion like it was the only tool she had ever known. With it she pirouetted to slash the throat of the elden attempting to flank her. From there she locked in a brief duel with another soldier, but it ended just the same. Her hair shone like raven’s feathers in the midday light. Her face was unreadable. She neither took joy nor fury from the acts of violence she was committing. She simply did them.

The woman moved like a quiet storm. Her movements were exact, almost mechanical, but always devastating. Her left hand was cast in iron. The only metal armor on her body. She used the large gauntlet like a buckler shield for deflecting attacks.

Vedek’s vision was filled by a spiked goatee.

“He’s alive, but he can’t move.” Dirk confirmed to Azeroth.

Vedek had had time to adjust to his pain and shock. In so many words he rambled out the condition of his leg. Such a wound wouldn’t mend fast, even with magic. Dirk and Azeroth snapped their attention to the mystery woman. A member of their strike team had managed to sink a sword’s edge into her left arm. The woman didn’t wince or cry aloud. She didn’t react in any way except for killing the one who had hurt her.

“What is she?” Azeroth asked.

Vedek had never heard concern or fear in Azeroth’s voice until now. He lifted himself on his elbows to get a better view. He found himself focusing on the woman’s face. On her emotionless eyes. All Fae knew about such eyes.

“She’s been Severed. A dark procedure of medicine and magic that voids one’s mind of free will and sense of pain. She doesn’t even know about that cut on her arm.”

“There’s nothing in her mind other than her orders and a name.” Azeroth frowned. “I think she’s called Billis.”

“If it’s harm to her brain that makes her this way, could she be healed?” Dirk cast his eyes hopefully to the sun. “Today is a day for miracles, perhaps Sahn will oblige me.”

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They moved Vedek out of harm’s way. Under the throne table, Legion rested unaware of what was occurring.

“Give me your knife.” Azeroth demanded of Vedek.

Vedek expected that Azeroth would take it into battle, but the orc cut his left palm. It was an X-shaped mark that oozed crimson.

He jabbed the bleeding hand into Dirk’s chest. “Heal me.”

Dirk obliged, not knowing what Azeroth’s intent was, but trusting him all the same. In a brief flash of light the bleeding had stopped, and only a white, calcified scar remained. Azeroth flexed his hand, working out the stiffness of his new scab. Without a second word he sprinted at Billis. Vedek felt he should call after Azeroth. Beg him not to face her.

Billis had finished her current opponent. Pushed them against the wall with her hand over their mouth. When she turned to Azeroth it was casual. She saw him as no lesser or greater a threat than any of the others. Her body and blade were stained with blood.

Azeroth ducked low to avoid her horizontal slash. His right hook uppercutted her chin. Pain wouldn’t make her stumble, but force would. Billis adjusted her stance to fight this new opponent and his unorthodox methods. She jabbed light and fast with her falchion. Azeroth weaved around the blade. The minor lacerations he suffered made his green skin shine in the sunlight. He was covered in scars, not just from this battle, but from all his life. Each one hardened into armor that Billis’ blade could crack, but not pierce.

Azeroth was fighting defensively. Outside of his opening strike, he had not landed a single blow that wasn’t intentionally glancing. His eyes were wide, focused, and unblinking. The medallion on his chest jerked with every bold movement of his body.

It was an expression Billis dispassionately mirrored. With a great sweeping motion she raised her falchion high, then dropped it with the force of a guillotine. Azeroth’s grey eyes sparked with lightning. He stuck his left palm skyward, the scarred X on it exposed for all to see, and caught her blade unharmed. A swift kick to her chest separated Billis from her sword.

Azeroth tossed the weapon aside so that he could take the offensive. He skipped towards Billis, catching her neck in the crook of his elbow. He spun around her, restraining her left arm as he did. Though he was strong, it was clear the struggle he was having to keep her like this. Severed soldiers were often enhanced in strength and stamina.

“Heal her!” He commanded.

Dirk didn’t need to be told twice. He cleared the gap between them in record time. His ungloved hand slapped hard against Billis’ forehead.

"Sahn, make this lost mind see the light. I beg you!”

The sunlight they stood in grew harsh. Sparks of divine energy exploded outward of Dirk’s hand. Vedek would swear he could hear a distant choir. He held his breath. He had never been a fully religious man, but in this moment he prayed for the power of the Sun God.

Something change in Billis’ expression. Her eyes shut with pain. When they reopened they were no longer blank, but what replaced it was no more disquieting. Her pupils were pinpoints. Tears ran down her face. She opened her mouth, and a scream came out. Despite his pain, Vedek had to cover his ears to shield them from the piercing cry. This was a primal shriek of trauma.

She broke free of Azeroth’s hold. The healing magic ceased. With a lunge she snapped Dirk’s hammer from his hand. Three hard blows to the head caused the dwarf to collapse. Billis pounced on him, striking him further and harder. She was still crying. Her scream turned to sobs. Dirk’s hand raised, trying to push her away. That hand went limp when the hammer finally broke his skull.

It had all occurred so fast. Azeroth kicked Billis off of Dirk’s body. She rose quickly, attacking him with the hammer. She was no longer the silent terminator from before. Her movements were feral, powerful, and unrestrained. She grabbed Azeroth by the wrist so that she may break his arm at the elbow. The crack could be heard around the throne room.

Vedek looked to his own shattered limb, hating that he couldn’t rescue his friend. Azeroth kicked Billis hard enough to force her off of him. She scrambled on all fours, discarding the hammer and reclaiming her falchion. Vedek shouted, tried to catch her attention before she reached Azeroth. Nothing worked. She was only responding to violence now.

A red ball of arcana struck her from the side. Legion had propped himself up with the Ruaidrí throne. Vedek didn’t know when he had woken, but he was prepared to do his part. Legion gritted his teeth and fired another spell. The ball did nothing other than singe Billis’ clothing. The diablan’s energy was utterly gone. Billis turned from Azeroth, forgetting his very existence. She had a new target, one that was helpless to stop her.