Falnic. Belinswae. Winter...
The elven noble Galacithàné Walashàele glances around the corner to a building across the lane. The elven magic user waits for a few moments, and eventually one of the senior soldiers who has been with him since last night, comes into view down a set of steps.
The soldier in his cousin's army looks his way and shakes his head no. The elven noble from the principality of Maladimbáh slightly winces. Then he quickly crosses the lane, to the building the soldier has just checked out. The elven magic user is followed by the rest of the small squad who has been with him since last night, and now into the following morning.
"Nothing?" quietly asks Galacithàné Walashàele "Nothing" is the quiet reply of the senior soldier who checked out the building first "Damn it" mutters the fairly powerful elven magic user.
They're in the east of the city of Falnic, more north of the city center, than near the east wall of the largest city in the region of Belinswae. And like last night, this morning they're hunting Justifiers, the spellcasters, who are the leaders of Belinswae.
They head up the steps, and enter the building through a second storey door. The elven noble who thought they were close to the Justifier Kaellin, the mage who visited Maladimbáh in both the summer, and the autumn. Follows the senior guard into a room, and across to an open window.
The elven noble who is the younger cousin of lord Walashàele, looks out the window, as smoke from somewhere further north in the city wafts through the part of the city they're in.
Galacithàné Walashàele who has got a pretty good view to both the north and the east. After a couple of moments as he looks into the sky to the east, spots his cousin on his griffon about three miles away, to the east of the city. A little while longer, and he spots his cousin's daughter, Jalindílth on her griffon, further to the south than her father.
The elven magic user then looks at the nearby buildings, wondering if the mage Kaellin is in one of them.
The elven noble from southern Maladimbáh sees a few of the soldiers in his small squad, spread out, and enter the buildings infront of the one he's in.
Galacithàné Walashàele can't fault the bravery of the soldiers who serve his family. As they're going into buildings usually by themselves. Buildings that could very well have a Justifier in them. A powerful one at that, with the mage Kaellin possibly in the area.
"We'll try and round up some of the others in the area, and have them join us in the search" quietly says Galacithàné Walashàele to the senior soldier who is in the room with him. The elven noble slightly frowns as he didn't hear anything in response, which he was expecting.
"Oltharillē, i said we'll have to" says the elven noble who suddenly stops in mid sentence as he turns around, and finds the senior soldier just standing there, dead stiil, eyes wide open and not blinking as he stares straight ahead.
Galacithàné Walashàele who is holding his power within himself, as he has done for much of the previous night, and now into the morning.
First instinct is to stop holding his power within himself, then sense to find whoever it is that's frozen the senior soldier Oltharillē in place. But he refrains from doing that, instead he looks carefully at what's in the room.
Then he spins quickly around, and looks out the open window and tries to find a place in, or on one of the nearby buildings, that can look through the window, and into the room that he and Oltharillē are in.
The elven spellcaster spins around again, when an unfamiliar voice says in the elven language "He's not nearby" followed by "The mage, he's near the center of the city".
"Show yourself" quietly demands the elven noble from the south of the principality of Maladimbáh.
A figure in a white hooded cloak suddenly appears to the right of him, just a few yards away. Galacithàné Walashàele immediately recognises that whoever he is, he's an elf. Though none from Maladimbáh, well none that he knows or recognises.
"Who are you?" asks lord Walashàele's younger cousin "It doesn't matter" is the reply of Helbe the elven thief, who after waiving a gloved hands in a dismissive manner, adds "What is important, is that though the mage Kraelin is no where close, there is another Justifier nearby".
"Oh?" says the elven noble from the principality of Maladimbáh who suddenly doesn't have the urge to find out who this strange elf in the white hooded cloak is.
The young elven noble from south of the equator walks forward, and once he's standing beside lord Walashàele's cousin, and he looks out the open window, he points away to their right, and says "That way, not too far away, there's a cleric".
Galacithàné Walashàele nods his head, for one of the Justifiers of Belinswae who is here in Falnic this day. Is a cleric by the name of Kolvene. The elven spellcaster in the service of his older cousin. Has found out which Justifiers are in the city at the moment.
By the simple means of questioning some of the Justifier's guards, he and his small squad have captured last night, and now this morning. They need very little encouragement to talk, just the threat of violence is usually good enough to get their prisoners talking.
"The building with the domed roof over there" says prince Helbenthril Raendril who points to that particular building, then adds "On the otherside of it, is a building with a butcher's stall out in front of it, the cleric and some of his guards are in there".
"Okay then" quietly says Galacithàné Walashàele who for some reason doesn't think it's necessary to question the information he's given, instead he says "I'll get right over there".
He goes to look at the unfamiliar elf standing next to him, and suddenly finds him gone. By the forest gods? the elven noble from the principality of Maladimbáh thinks to himself.
"Sir what was that?" asks the senior soldier Oltharillē, the elven magic user who is the younger cousin of lord Walashàele looks at the senior soldier who is no longer frozen in place, and tells him "Nothing".
Then Galacithàné Walashàele says "Come along, I've found one of them" he nods for Oltharillē to follow him, as they go and hunt for the enemy cleric who is nearby.
Helbe the elven thief stands upon a rooftop in the east of the city of Falnic. The blurred and shielded elven magic user is not too far from the city center.
And as a little way behind him, the elven noble from Maladimbáh, Galacithàné Walashàele goes off to find the Justifier Kolvene.
The young elven noble from the principality of Laerel in the Southlands looks towards a nearby tower, the tallest one in the city by the looks of it. The elven princeling then glances at Narladene the ground pixie who is standing upon his right shoulder.
"That mage is beyond that tower" quietly says Narladene the ground pixie, who can sense the particular spellcaster in question, even though he's holding his power within himself at the moment.
"Walking north and east" quietly adds the naturally magical creature who has 'attached' herself to the young elven noble from south of the equator.
The Southlander nods his hooded head, then looking up at the nearby tower, and seeing that it has the best vantage point in all the city to see things from. He shifts to the top of it, so he can spot the Justifier who started the war against the dwarven clans of the Stone Hills, when he decided to invade the mountain range to the north of Belinswae. So he could use the wealth of the clanholds to fund his raids into the Nomads Plains to the east of the region that he helps rule.
As the elven princeling from the Southlands tries to locate Justifier Kaellin.
The elven noble from the principality of Maladimbáh, Galacithàné Walashàele is in the process of locating the cleric Kolvene, another Justifier of Belinswae.
After making his way with some of his small squad to the building pointed out to him. The cousin of lord Walashàele looks across the empty street to the building with a butcher's stall out the front of that.
"Hear that?" quietly says the senior soldier Oltharillē who then adds "Fighting". The elven magic user from Maladimbáh nods his head as the sounds of combat can be heard from within the building across the street, and from behind it.
"Down the lane there" quietly says Oltharillē, Galacithàné Walashàele nods in agreement, then quietly says "Let's do it". One of the squad runs across the street to the lane that's to the side of the building that has a butcher's stall out the front of it.
Another of the soldier's follow, then the senior soldier Oltharillē and the nobleborn elf follows. The rest of the small squad with them follows after them.
They hurry down the lane, at the end of which they see an elven soldier from Maladimbáh come into view, backing up as a couple of Justifier's guards swing their swords at her.
One of the guards goes down with an arrow in the neck, shot by the elven archer at the back of the small squad.
While the other Justifier's guard hits the ground when the soldier in the lead, dives forward and tackles him.
They run out into a large yard, that's used for storing animals. There's a dead cow nearby, while a pig and her squealing piglets run by. And a pair of sheep in a pen are bleating. Due to the fighting that's all around them.
Soldiers in the army of lord Walashàele are fighting Justifiers guards, mostly in the service of the cleric Kolvene. Who is in the thick of the fighting, helping his guards.
He's easy to spot, as he's in a long coat of chainmail, and is wearing plate armour across his shoulders.
And the fact that whenever he swings his mace, there's a bright white flash when it connects with one of the elven soldiers, killing them instantly.
Galacithàné Walashàele stops holding his power within himself when he spots the Justifier. The elven magic user casts, then he mutters "Shit" as he instantly realises that the spell he just cast won't be powerful enough to penetrate the protection spells the cleric has around himself.
As Justifier Kolvene staggers back a few steps from the blast spell that just hit him, he quickly looks around for the enemy spellcaster. He spots the elf in question, who looks little different to the other elven soldiers.
In the opinion of the cleric, all elves look the same to him. The only difference he can see, is that some of the soldiers from the principality of Maladimbáh are female. Something that he finds totally repugnant. As women, no matter what race they are. Should not be involved in the pursuit of combat and warfare.
"Holy Strike!" shouts Justifier Kolvene as he casts and swings his mace over his head as he looks across at the elven magic user who has just come out of the lane on the otherside of the yard.
Galacithàné Walashàele winces as a column of white light shoots down out of the clear blue morning sky, and strikes him. He staggers as his hastily erected barrier and protection spells barely keep him in one piece.
Not so for the senior soldier Oltharillē and another of his small squad, both of whom are barely touched by the column of white light before it disappears. The two elven soldiers are turned to ash, not even burning. Just instantly turned to grey ash when the white light touches them.
Using all his power, dropping his barrier and protection spells to do so. The cousin of lord Walashàele casts again.
The ground beneath the cleric Kolvene erupts upwards, elven soldiers and Justifier's guards both, are flung up into the air. As sharp spikes of earth that solidify as hard as rock, some a dozen feet long and more, shoot upwards from the ground.
The barrier and protection spells of the cleric Kolvene pushes them aside as they're directed up at him, but not all of them.
One slams through his left leg and lifts him up off the ground. The Justifier who is screaming in pain, instantly falls silent when another of the twelve foot long spikes, almost a foot wide, punches up through his abdomen, and out his back. While another goes through his side, and finally one slams up through the top of his chest, and takes off his head.
The headless cleric hangs there on the spikes of solid earth, a dozen feet off the ground. When his guards, who are still alive, see what's just happened to their Justifier they run from the stock yard.
"That's another one of the bastards" mutters Galacithàné Walashàele in disgust after he wipes some of the ashes of the two dead soldiers off his face as they blow around the yard, this cool winter's morning in Falnic . . . . . .
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