Syxanthi
Member
The hunt had been a long hard one, 3 weeks on the trail rarely stopping, catching sleep when they could an hour here or there. The earth elamentalist the Seekers were tracking was, by all accounts, a senior resistance member. Skilled with his chaos and incredibly clever he used his magic only when he had too. Leaving false trails, loosening cliff paths just enough to slow them down but not quite enough to shake his pursuers completely.
At some point during the second week the lead Seeker of the hunt began to suspect a trap. The erratic, instinctive plays for time had been replaced.
Caustic yellow eyes blink out of the darkness, despite it being a moonless night she sees everything from her position. Below her in the bottom of the gulley lying face down a tainted resistance fighter, fatigued and broken from weeks of running. Approaching from the east two Seekers, mage hunters, their mission, to hunt down and eradicate all those not loyal to the Black School and in turn the Consul. It's a battle that's been fought for generations, and will continue for many more.
Ari blinks again, releasing a careful slow breath. She is perched in a tree overhanging the steep banks of slippery wet grass that slide down to the prone Terramentalist, ‘dirt shifters’ the Seekers call them. The two Seekers, her allies, continue to approach, pistols drawn. There is still no movement.
That is until Ari spots the shimmer, like ripples above baked earth in the summers heat. Only this isn't heat it's Chaos, this Elementalist is in fact alive and well, much as Ari had suspected.
She watches unmoving as his fingers spread wide through the wet mud beneath him, the ripple of chaos travels beneath the ground towards the approaching threat. Ari tilts her head slightly waiting for the moment her two unfortunate companions will realise their fate. Perhaps they are tired, or perhaps it was true what they claimed about Ari, that she could follow the threads of chaos where others could not. Whatever the reason, the earth beneath their feet has already begun to roil and turn before they understand their opponent is in fact alive and quite well. Both shout out in surprise, releasing their shots but their enchanted bullets miss striking the ground on either side, of the now grinning mage.
Ari watches calmly as her companions for the last two weeks are pulled down into the earth, struggling and fighting,scrabbling for a hand hold, crying out for air until at last it all goes silent. That was no small feat, and as the mage gets to his feet he begins to wretch violently, his nose begins to bleed, as he continues staggering towards his victims.
Ari finally begins to move, enhanced reflexes allow her to drop from her perch without a sound, she hits the steep bank running, loading a small wrist mounted crossbow as she goes. The mages instincts make him pause, and Ari taking no chances slides pulling the shadows from the ground around her, cloaking her from sight. Shaking his head the mage continues to the patch of disturbed ground, and starts sifting through the top layer, as though looking for something. Ari is back up on her feet, still running she takes careful aim and looses a dart into the unaware adversaries neck.
He goes to cry out and realised he can't, his neck and throat paralysed, the numbing sensation spreading down his shoulder towards his arm. The feeling that his air airways are beginning to close, causes panic giving Ari time to close the distance. His attempts to pull the earth up under her feet are weak and sloppy, his concentration broken. To marshal the earth you must be of it, as immovable, as absolute. It's Ari's turn to grin. She can see the threads of Chaos as clearly as if the were fireflies, it traces beneath the earth, she sees his intentions even before he can execute them. A side step, a skip, a jump a turn, and before he knows it she is upon him. He frowns as he sees no blades, but something glints. He lashes out with weakened blows, she ducks and sways a viper fast strike and her hand grabs his collar, then her foot slams against his, she pulls him and he spins, he is shocked at the ease she manipulates his larger build. For a moment he thinks she is done,then something brushes the skin of his face, she springs up a knee between his shoulder blades then, for him nothing.
The garotte slices quickly and cleanly through the soft tissue. Ari still with knees in his back rides the corpse to the ground, it lands face downs with a thud finding the space between his vertebrae with a quick sawing motion she severs the spinal cord. There is a strange silence as the Chaos connection is lost. Ari watches as the slick iridescent energy bleeds out beneath the body of the mage, collecting itself into a pool it then blinks out of existence.
Pulling a thick canvas sack out from beneath her heavy woollen coat, she places the dead man's head inside, dusting it with preserving powder from the alchemists. She pulls her hood up and fastens her belt snuggly to keep out the persistent autumn chill and so begins the long solitary trek back to the Black School, and the Consul.
2 weeks later.
Ari approached the imposing black stoned building. It's slick black walls stopped at the edge of the sheer cliff faces where they continued down as one almost beyond sight. It was like this on three sides. At the front an ominous winding path also bordered by nothing but sheer plummeting drops on either side lead up to the wrought iron gates. Huge cogs with glowing stones inset in their centers would turn feeding thick horizontal bars across the middle locking the gate in place.
The lone Seeker did not approach from the front however. She had followed the coast for the last day and a half, through what most would consider impenetrable terrain. Dense northern pine woodland that surrounded the base and the lower slopes of the mountain where the Black School stood.
Deep beneath the school, the maze of perfectly crafted, symmetrical corridors and rooms that housed the Consul. From it's mediators and politicians, to the inquisitors and Technomancers. Deeper in the lower levels, the Alchemists and more specialised transmutation experts… perfecting their living experiments, altering the very essence of what it meant to be human, or any other creature that had the misfortune to cross their paths. Then finally below them the dungeons and torture rooms. From there you never came back.
Somewhere between the inquisitors and the alchemists the Seekers made their home. Unnatural creations their very biological structure twisted, mutated and enhanced to create perfect mage hunters. Each one was as individual as their genetic code. Their strengths maximised, their weaknesses crushed, emotional responses muted so as to avoid being swayed by sob stories and bleeding hearts. They did have some things in common though. They could track the use of magic for miles, see where a spell had been cast, where chaos was channelled. They were immune to many forms of magic, but in turn their own connection to the chaos was severely weakened. Some unable to cast at all.
Ari’s journey was nearly at an end, climbing around the steep based of the mountain, she found the narrow crevice amongst cold dark stone, you would never know it was there unless you knew where to look. She slid in behind the rock face then carefully picked her way through the narrow tunnels climbing steadily upwards. After half an hour of climbing she came to a small solid door, what it was made of noone was really sure. As solid as iron but was strangely warm to the touch, and there was only one way to open it. Taking a blade Ari made a small incision on her palm, watching for the blood to well up in the wound, she then pressed it to the door. It hummed softly as the liquid made contact with its surface, then there was a click and it slid back into the wall allowing Ari entrance, before sliding shut behind her.
The next few hours were spent in the company of the inquisitors recounting her expedition casually omitting that she had realised the the mage had laid a trap,and used her companions as bait. Instead claiming they had simply split up in order to flank him. The loss of Seekers on the job wasn’t an unusual occurrence, however they had lost 3 more at the school while she had been away. This would mean hunting would have to only take place only under special circumstances for a while. No scouting trips, only hunts if there was something to be caught.
Even the Consul mages felt uneasy around Ari, there was something about the way she looked at them, the way she looked at all mages, that made them go cold in the pit of their stomachs. Early on in her development they discovered she had a talent for hunting elementalists, something about the way they channelled the chaos called to Ari like a beacon. A beacon she must extinguish and destroy so it could never be alight again.She wasn’t fickle though and a mage was a mage after all.
The inquisitor finally looked up from his desk, but didn’t look the Seeker in the eye, instead he nodded to the sack.
“Take that to the laboratories see what they can discover.” with that he looked back down at the book on. his desk. He could feel the venomous yellow eyes staring at him, unblinking.
“ Inquisitor” Ari nodded slightly before turning and leaving, a smug smile curled her lips as she heard his sigh of relief as she pulled the door closed behind her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“ You should let me get to her before she gets her bearings whilst she is still on the back foot.”
Charon was leaning on the table in the small natural alcove, of which there were many in this substantial cave system the resistance called home.
“ I don’t think that's necessary, I think this one is genuine, she was as good as dead for fucksake.”
Luna’s voice remained hushed,” interrogate her now we could lose her completely,she is still in a very fragile state and i think she will come around on her own.” The master tactician and technomancer flipped a coin back and forth along the back of her fingers all the while watching the smouldering glare coming from her comrade and the resistance most effective interrogator.
She felt as though the space around them was getting smaller and darker but when she glanced around nothing had changed, her brow furrowed. “Charon?”
“ Very well, but i should at least be able to talk to her at some point soon, just to ask some basic questions.” His demeanour shifted, straightening up, relaxing a little crossing his arms but his one good eye still seemed dark and uncertain.
“Agreed,” Luna conceded eager to keep her friend from brooding, she knew he had a point, they knew nothing about this girl. But she had endured much and if she broke under interrogation she was no used to anyone.
Charon made his way out of the communal area, along the roughly hewn tunnels towards his own room. They were high enough that at 6’ even with his arms stretched above his head he could only just reach the ceiling. The light provided by enchanted quartz, gave the compacted sandy earthed floors a soft warm appearance. The whole complex was heated by geothermals that ran deep beneath them. No one really knew how this place came to be or when it had first been utilized by the resistance, all they knew was thanks to some natural anomaly it was hidden from the usual means of magical detection. No matter the amount of Chaos channelled within these walls it was undetectable from without. Not that they took chances, the area surrounding the cave system was to be magic free for 5 miles in every direction. Protection runes, wards that alerted those on watch if anyone was in the area. False trails. If there was a way distract or disguise what was here they used it, often with help from the locals.
Those not tainted with Chaos who just wished to return to a life where the did not have to be afraid for their children. Afraid of having them snatched away never to be seen or heard from again. Not that they particularly trusted the resistance, they were still Tainted after all, but at least they gave back to folks. Healed sickness, fixed machinery, paid for services. The Consul just took. Took their children, their stores of food, their livelihoods. Sometimes a choice was just the lesser of two bad choices, and that's how it was for the people under the rule of the Consul.
Charon arrived at his room in the far depths of the cave system, some people struggled living underground but Charon didn't mind. Kicking off his boots he lay on his bed arms folded behind his head. Staring upward he considered the implications of the new arrival. It would take a little over a week if they decided to bring her here. That would depend on what the leaders decided. In the meantime he would perfect the line of questioning he had in store for the supposed runaway.
At some point during the second week the lead Seeker of the hunt began to suspect a trap. The erratic, instinctive plays for time had been replaced.
Caustic yellow eyes blink out of the darkness, despite it being a moonless night she sees everything from her position. Below her in the bottom of the gulley lying face down a tainted resistance fighter, fatigued and broken from weeks of running. Approaching from the east two Seekers, mage hunters, their mission, to hunt down and eradicate all those not loyal to the Black School and in turn the Consul. It's a battle that's been fought for generations, and will continue for many more.
Ari blinks again, releasing a careful slow breath. She is perched in a tree overhanging the steep banks of slippery wet grass that slide down to the prone Terramentalist, ‘dirt shifters’ the Seekers call them. The two Seekers, her allies, continue to approach, pistols drawn. There is still no movement.
That is until Ari spots the shimmer, like ripples above baked earth in the summers heat. Only this isn't heat it's Chaos, this Elementalist is in fact alive and well, much as Ari had suspected.
She watches unmoving as his fingers spread wide through the wet mud beneath him, the ripple of chaos travels beneath the ground towards the approaching threat. Ari tilts her head slightly waiting for the moment her two unfortunate companions will realise their fate. Perhaps they are tired, or perhaps it was true what they claimed about Ari, that she could follow the threads of chaos where others could not. Whatever the reason, the earth beneath their feet has already begun to roil and turn before they understand their opponent is in fact alive and quite well. Both shout out in surprise, releasing their shots but their enchanted bullets miss striking the ground on either side, of the now grinning mage.
Ari watches calmly as her companions for the last two weeks are pulled down into the earth, struggling and fighting,scrabbling for a hand hold, crying out for air until at last it all goes silent. That was no small feat, and as the mage gets to his feet he begins to wretch violently, his nose begins to bleed, as he continues staggering towards his victims.
Ari finally begins to move, enhanced reflexes allow her to drop from her perch without a sound, she hits the steep bank running, loading a small wrist mounted crossbow as she goes. The mages instincts make him pause, and Ari taking no chances slides pulling the shadows from the ground around her, cloaking her from sight. Shaking his head the mage continues to the patch of disturbed ground, and starts sifting through the top layer, as though looking for something. Ari is back up on her feet, still running she takes careful aim and looses a dart into the unaware adversaries neck.
He goes to cry out and realised he can't, his neck and throat paralysed, the numbing sensation spreading down his shoulder towards his arm. The feeling that his air airways are beginning to close, causes panic giving Ari time to close the distance. His attempts to pull the earth up under her feet are weak and sloppy, his concentration broken. To marshal the earth you must be of it, as immovable, as absolute. It's Ari's turn to grin. She can see the threads of Chaos as clearly as if the were fireflies, it traces beneath the earth, she sees his intentions even before he can execute them. A side step, a skip, a jump a turn, and before he knows it she is upon him. He frowns as he sees no blades, but something glints. He lashes out with weakened blows, she ducks and sways a viper fast strike and her hand grabs his collar, then her foot slams against his, she pulls him and he spins, he is shocked at the ease she manipulates his larger build. For a moment he thinks she is done,then something brushes the skin of his face, she springs up a knee between his shoulder blades then, for him nothing.
The garotte slices quickly and cleanly through the soft tissue. Ari still with knees in his back rides the corpse to the ground, it lands face downs with a thud finding the space between his vertebrae with a quick sawing motion she severs the spinal cord. There is a strange silence as the Chaos connection is lost. Ari watches as the slick iridescent energy bleeds out beneath the body of the mage, collecting itself into a pool it then blinks out of existence.
Pulling a thick canvas sack out from beneath her heavy woollen coat, she places the dead man's head inside, dusting it with preserving powder from the alchemists. She pulls her hood up and fastens her belt snuggly to keep out the persistent autumn chill and so begins the long solitary trek back to the Black School, and the Consul.
2 weeks later.
Ari approached the imposing black stoned building. It's slick black walls stopped at the edge of the sheer cliff faces where they continued down as one almost beyond sight. It was like this on three sides. At the front an ominous winding path also bordered by nothing but sheer plummeting drops on either side lead up to the wrought iron gates. Huge cogs with glowing stones inset in their centers would turn feeding thick horizontal bars across the middle locking the gate in place.
The lone Seeker did not approach from the front however. She had followed the coast for the last day and a half, through what most would consider impenetrable terrain. Dense northern pine woodland that surrounded the base and the lower slopes of the mountain where the Black School stood.
Deep beneath the school, the maze of perfectly crafted, symmetrical corridors and rooms that housed the Consul. From it's mediators and politicians, to the inquisitors and Technomancers. Deeper in the lower levels, the Alchemists and more specialised transmutation experts… perfecting their living experiments, altering the very essence of what it meant to be human, or any other creature that had the misfortune to cross their paths. Then finally below them the dungeons and torture rooms. From there you never came back.
Somewhere between the inquisitors and the alchemists the Seekers made their home. Unnatural creations their very biological structure twisted, mutated and enhanced to create perfect mage hunters. Each one was as individual as their genetic code. Their strengths maximised, their weaknesses crushed, emotional responses muted so as to avoid being swayed by sob stories and bleeding hearts. They did have some things in common though. They could track the use of magic for miles, see where a spell had been cast, where chaos was channelled. They were immune to many forms of magic, but in turn their own connection to the chaos was severely weakened. Some unable to cast at all.
Ari’s journey was nearly at an end, climbing around the steep based of the mountain, she found the narrow crevice amongst cold dark stone, you would never know it was there unless you knew where to look. She slid in behind the rock face then carefully picked her way through the narrow tunnels climbing steadily upwards. After half an hour of climbing she came to a small solid door, what it was made of noone was really sure. As solid as iron but was strangely warm to the touch, and there was only one way to open it. Taking a blade Ari made a small incision on her palm, watching for the blood to well up in the wound, she then pressed it to the door. It hummed softly as the liquid made contact with its surface, then there was a click and it slid back into the wall allowing Ari entrance, before sliding shut behind her.
The next few hours were spent in the company of the inquisitors recounting her expedition casually omitting that she had realised the the mage had laid a trap,and used her companions as bait. Instead claiming they had simply split up in order to flank him. The loss of Seekers on the job wasn’t an unusual occurrence, however they had lost 3 more at the school while she had been away. This would mean hunting would have to only take place only under special circumstances for a while. No scouting trips, only hunts if there was something to be caught.
Even the Consul mages felt uneasy around Ari, there was something about the way she looked at them, the way she looked at all mages, that made them go cold in the pit of their stomachs. Early on in her development they discovered she had a talent for hunting elementalists, something about the way they channelled the chaos called to Ari like a beacon. A beacon she must extinguish and destroy so it could never be alight again.She wasn’t fickle though and a mage was a mage after all.
The inquisitor finally looked up from his desk, but didn’t look the Seeker in the eye, instead he nodded to the sack.
“Take that to the laboratories see what they can discover.” with that he looked back down at the book on. his desk. He could feel the venomous yellow eyes staring at him, unblinking.
“ Inquisitor” Ari nodded slightly before turning and leaving, a smug smile curled her lips as she heard his sigh of relief as she pulled the door closed behind her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“ You should let me get to her before she gets her bearings whilst she is still on the back foot.”
Charon was leaning on the table in the small natural alcove, of which there were many in this substantial cave system the resistance called home.
“ I don’t think that's necessary, I think this one is genuine, she was as good as dead for fucksake.”
Luna’s voice remained hushed,” interrogate her now we could lose her completely,she is still in a very fragile state and i think she will come around on her own.” The master tactician and technomancer flipped a coin back and forth along the back of her fingers all the while watching the smouldering glare coming from her comrade and the resistance most effective interrogator.
She felt as though the space around them was getting smaller and darker but when she glanced around nothing had changed, her brow furrowed. “Charon?”
“ Very well, but i should at least be able to talk to her at some point soon, just to ask some basic questions.” His demeanour shifted, straightening up, relaxing a little crossing his arms but his one good eye still seemed dark and uncertain.
“Agreed,” Luna conceded eager to keep her friend from brooding, she knew he had a point, they knew nothing about this girl. But she had endured much and if she broke under interrogation she was no used to anyone.
Charon made his way out of the communal area, along the roughly hewn tunnels towards his own room. They were high enough that at 6’ even with his arms stretched above his head he could only just reach the ceiling. The light provided by enchanted quartz, gave the compacted sandy earthed floors a soft warm appearance. The whole complex was heated by geothermals that ran deep beneath them. No one really knew how this place came to be or when it had first been utilized by the resistance, all they knew was thanks to some natural anomaly it was hidden from the usual means of magical detection. No matter the amount of Chaos channelled within these walls it was undetectable from without. Not that they took chances, the area surrounding the cave system was to be magic free for 5 miles in every direction. Protection runes, wards that alerted those on watch if anyone was in the area. False trails. If there was a way distract or disguise what was here they used it, often with help from the locals.
Those not tainted with Chaos who just wished to return to a life where the did not have to be afraid for their children. Afraid of having them snatched away never to be seen or heard from again. Not that they particularly trusted the resistance, they were still Tainted after all, but at least they gave back to folks. Healed sickness, fixed machinery, paid for services. The Consul just took. Took their children, their stores of food, their livelihoods. Sometimes a choice was just the lesser of two bad choices, and that's how it was for the people under the rule of the Consul.
Charon arrived at his room in the far depths of the cave system, some people struggled living underground but Charon didn't mind. Kicking off his boots he lay on his bed arms folded behind his head. Staring upward he considered the implications of the new arrival. It would take a little over a week if they decided to bring her here. That would depend on what the leaders decided. In the meantime he would perfect the line of questioning he had in store for the supposed runaway.