Holier Than Thou

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad pushed the expression out of his face and met her eyes. "He gave his blessing..." he said quietly, a little shocked that it was really possible. He grinned a little, and let go of the pendant. It dropped back against his bare chest without protest. If he waited until after this was over, would whatever was happening get worse? They were making this exception because they believed Thar had shown mercy on him. If that mercy was taken back, how would they feel then?

"The priest needs to focus on the evacuation," he said, knowing it was true.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele frowned. "Yes," she whispered. "I suppose he is." She drew on her long sleeve green hip-length tunic and then the armor corset she wore around her waist. She pulled the steps through the buckles and tightened it before sliding on a second pair of boots she brought just encase things like this would happen.

She couldn't help but be hurt by the knowledge that an army was lurking outside and she was so close to actually being able to be Vlad's wife, and yet so far.

"Well," she sighed. "I'm going to go out to the gate and see if I can spot anyone. Maybe you should see if you can get any information out of our scouts? Or vice-versa?"

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad frowned. "If you're going beyond the gates, I'm staying at your side. I doubt those idiots could possibly know anything useful beyond what they've told us already. Of course," he paused to overcome his aversion to 'playing things safe', "the surest defense may be to corner them into a restricted attack route so that they have to funnel toward us. No doubt the fight would be more interesting, and more dangerous, outside."

[Emora Deen]

Tenele smirked. "I'm just going to the wall, Vlad... I'm not going out. And if I did go out I have Stalker waiting there to follow me." Tenele reached up and ran her hands through her hair.

"Lady Raider... Lord Vladimir," a monk greeted from behind the door. "We managed to get as many into the sanctuary as we could, but unfortunately there are too many people. There are some still in the halls."

"As long as they are indoors, that's good," Tenele told him. "How many men have you rounded up."

"Not many able... Most are wounded. A few... I sent them to the wall," the monk replied.

"Okay," Tenele sighed. "Go to the wall as well."

"But, ma'am... There is one more thing. When we were tying up the Arken soldiers one of them said to tell you thanks," he turned his attention to Vlad. "He said that he was thanking you. Because you killed the beast and now... they can come. Do you know what that means?"

Tenele frowned and looked to Vlad. "That's code if I ever heard it..."

There was a deep wail that grew into a high pitched blare. It was either the sound of a charge, or the sound of warning... Maybe it was both.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad's lips rose slowly into a smirk. "I'm beginning to like those ridiculous scouts," he said. "Last night, the men I caught spying were trying to get a message out - through the sewers. There's a basement level with an easy passage, if nothing's guarding it."

[Emora Deen]

Tenele went to the window, though it was small, and tried to see movement. She couldn't tell if anything was heading their way, all she saw was the top of trees.

"Get all the women and children into the sanctuary, the men can stay in the hall... Do that now," Tenele told the monk firmly.

"If we're surrounded, both of us can't keep watch over the wall and the underground passage together," Tenele told him. "We're going to have to split up now. We have to choose which one will do what. I know you don't want to leave me alone in a fight, Vlad... but you haven't any choice in this. These people are at stake. If Arken gets in here they will rape, murder, and torture everyone in here. They will leave little prisoners to take as slaves... and those that might survive to escape will be food for the demons. So you have to listen to me... We cannot let them in. The lives of the people in here are more important than mine, do you understand. More important."

She was warning him, reminding him. She knew Vlad well enough to know that if the odds were too bad and they were failing he'd scoop her up and take her away. He'd done it before...

But, she couldn't let him do it this time. There were children down there. Frightened women, terrified children, and just as scared men. They had monks, who'd sworn vows to not harm trying to guard a bunch of refugees...

In all accounts, she knew they were royally fucked.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad bristled at her wording. He didn't even know which route would be more heavily attacked. He'd be damned if he was going to see anyone in this compound as more important than her. But the queen's orders remained real, and he didn't particularly want to see these fools defeated by a bunch of lowlifes who used spies to do their dirty work.

"I'll go to the sewers," he said, a little coldly. Maybe he was just a little annoyed, though he wasn't sure it was with her.

[Emora Deen]

She knew he didn't like her words, but he would have to suck it up, and maybe he was even mad at her for suggesting such a thing... But, either way he'd still have to suck it up.

"Okay," she replied with a nod. "I'll go to the wall." She would tell him to be careful, but he already knew that...

Tenele lifted her mothers sword and the belt that was attached. She wrapped it around her waist and buckled it. She moved for the door.

[Soran Nightblade]

"Fight well, Maiden Girl," he said with a smirk as she left to fight. He normally would have been uncannily excited about the prospect of battle, but everything about this one rubbed him wrong. Fighting in a church was about as fun as swimming in a blizzard. Leaving Tenele to another leg of the battle, and having his familiar stuck uselessly outside, were additional frustrations. And instead of a strong, worthy opponent, he had to off a bunch of petty, worthless cowards. Then again, the mental image of tall, steaming piles of dead cowards was not unpleasant.

His eyes came to life as he teleported from the room to the cellar passage he had arrived at the night before. This place was still within the holy grounds of the church, but it was less oppressive than the brightly lit halls above him. Even more appealing was the crowd of enemy soldiers he'd poofed in the middle of. "You boys are efficient," he commended, putting his hands on his hips as he observed the men getting prepared to march up to the main citadel. Within moments, all eyes in the room were staring at him, realizing what he was and drawing swords.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele knew it wasn’t one of their better good-byes, and it left her feeling unfinished. Given what they were up against that could have been the last time she’d see him. Vlad was a good fighter, and though these were humans and he was definitely not, they were Arken soldiers. Many of them trained since birth on how to deal with his kind, as his kind were in abundant supply over the border. And she… well while she was a good fighter she was not a hundred man army. Numbers counted, and she was afraid they were very outnumbered here.

She pushed it aside, knowing that kind of thinking would not benefit her.

When she reached the wall she climbed to the small two foot wide ledge that went around the monetary that sat on the short cliff overlooking the river.

The backside was protected because of that cliff, but the front and side were what needed to be watched.

She looked down at the men who were to be her soldiers, and how frail and frightened they seemed.

“What do we do… if they come?”

“We kill them,” she told the monk.

“K-kill?” he muttered disbelievingly.

“Either you kill them,” Tenele told him as she leaned over the bastion railing. “Or they will feed you to the demons you despise so much… Or worst, they will turn you to one and separate you from Thar forever. You will be a pawn to Verin. So which is it, father? Kill, or be killed?”

The monk stared at her, and then beyond to the forest. She knew in the several clicks it took for the gears in his mind to contemplate that fate he had already decided, and in just a few short seconds she had turned a peaceful monk into a killer.

It was quiet on the wall… And then it came. Huge and lurking it pushed through the forest. Tenele’s eyes widened at the site of it as it approached the wall.

“What is that?” The priest gaped.

“An ogre I think,” Tenele breathed. It was shirtless with a loin cloth to cover its lower half, and around its waist hung the heads of those it had killed. “I haven’t seen one in twenty years.” Tenele brushed her hair back behind her half-pointed ears. “I thought they were extinct.”

It lumbered towards the wall, short enough that the all stood a few feet taller. Tenele looked down as it rose it’s fist and beat the wall. The whole wall shook. It rose its fist again to beat the wall. Tenele grappled to keep from falling over. “Get a rope,” Tenele told him fiercely. “Hurry.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Just get the damn rope!”

The priest ran.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad looked up from the carnage around him as the entire building rattled right to its foundation. He was high on battle and the blood of the men around him. The men around him had actually come armed with holy talismans, and he could tell just by their liquid brightness that some of the blades had been dipped as well. They were well prepared; he would give them that. Unfortunately for them, their provisions meant very little, and their baffled reactions to his invulnerability only served to rile him up into a state of crazed amusement. His claws had dipped into more than half the soldiers in the room with him, and a few were now making a run for the stairs.

"Oh, I don't think so," he said with a wild grin, disappearing from under the blade of the man fighting him and porting to the top of the stairs. The no-life king slammed his hands hard into the stone walls on either side of the stairwell. The walls vibrated and crumbled. A second hit sent cobblestone crumbling down on their heads and those of the men below. The vampire enjoyed their panicked reaction to his little rock storm, but he also didn't intend to bring the whole building down on them. The walls shook again, this time from whatever was attacking beyond their battle.

It made the vampire a little more serious. This was just one wing of their attacker's forces. It was not the front. He had no more time to waste on them. He struck out with his claws into the stone immediately around him and stepped back as the walls fell in where he'd stood and blocked the passage. Let them go around the long way, if they even dared to come back.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele took the rope and tied it off to one of the bricks on the railing. She judged the distance to make sure she left enough slack, and she wrapped the rope around her arm.

“What are you going to do?” the monk asked fearfully as Tenele stepped up to the edge.

She didn’t reply. She looked down at the ogre rearing back for another go, and drew the dagger from her belt. “This is really… really stupid,” she muttered before taking a step over the edge.

The monk rushed to watch. Tenele fell, and swung along the side of the wall just as the ogre was sweeping in for another attack. She swooped underneath his neck, dragging her blade across it. The ogre roared, stumbling back, and then he fell forward into the wall. The top half broke and the brick that Tenele’s rope was tied to fell.

Her stomach went into her throat as she dropped, and the air knocked from her lungs when she landed on her back with the ogre stumbling above her. Tenele saw him start to collapse, and she got up to flee. She made it a ways before the rope snatched her back. It was tangled around her arm, and still trapped under the stones.

Her green eyes looked on the ogre as he stumbled towards her, knees buckling. She pulled on the rope, pulling foot by foot, and then he fell. Tenele pulled as hard as she could and managed a few extra feet. The ogre fell over the rope, two feet from squashing her, and the force snatched her to the ground.

She stretched her hand to get to the dagger she’d dropped in the fall, listening to the sound of metal and leather as the army moved in from the forest.

“Lady Raider!” the monks called from the wall.

She reached to her ways and drew her sword, bracing the blade against the ground as she drug the rope across it. She broke the rope, and rose to her feet as the Arken soldiers; both demon and human began to slip from the forest like ants from a mound. The sneered and some chuckled at her.

“Stalker,” Tenele called, looking at the distance between her and the gate.

[Soran Nightblade]

As the demons and men rushed toward the compound, a shadowlike form burst ahead from the midst of their ranks and went straight for her. The hound fit in well with the hoard of demons and wolves, but he was waiting for a very different kind of opportunity. He slid to a halt just before the maiden's form, his eyes glowing with resolution. He sniffed at her face, as if confirming her.

[Emora Deen]

"Hey," she told him with a smile, touching the top of his head with her hand.

The army seemed to slow at the site of a hell-hound affectionately being greeted by an Ighten woman.

"Is that her?" someone whispered from the back of the crowd. She barely heard it. And then something moved to the right.

A man, in robes stepped from the crowd. He held in his hand a swirling ball of light, and he reared back, tossing it at the wooden door. The gate exploded, splintering apart. The force jarred Tenele, she covered her head as shards of mahogany shattered into the air.

She looked to the gate, and then to the sorcerer who calmly walked away, as if his deeds were done for the day. There was a momentary pause... and then the soldiers flooded towards the compound.

"Get them out!" Tenele called to the monk. "If there is any way to get them out, do it! Just get them out!" They would be destroyed if they stayed there.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad turned from his handywork in the stairwell and commanded his magic to take him to the wall. However, he was ripped out of the spell halfway and wound up falling on the ground in a barren first-floor hallway. His chest pounded, and for a few long moments, he literally couldn't seem to move. The pendant around his neck glowed. "Not now," he smirked painfully, clasping his hand around the hot metal.

Then he heard the explosion.

Stalker stood alert at Tenele's side as the forces poured toward them. He lunged at and easily de-throated a soldier who got too close, regrouping closer to her.

Meanwhile, the forces inside the church conveyed Tenele's orders to those holed up in the sanctuary. "There is no stronghold beyond this," the high priest said with a frown. We have no choice but to keep them out of this room."

He jumped along with his men as an unusually mortal-looking Vlad appeared in their midst. His posture seemed wrong, but the change was only there for a moment before the vampire resumed his usual cocky stance. "You're still alive. Kudos," he said, putting an arm casually over the shoulder of the monk next to him. He glanced toward the door, hearing the roar of the incoming forces. "How many entrances to this room?"