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Impossibilities 2


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#1 Guest_Dadri_*

Posted 27 May 2006 - 04:40 PM

This is not directly after the last one, this is two months later, after she has traveled far, helping villages ravaged by trolls and the like.

"I finally caught up to you." Lathanos snapped. She knew him, she had seen him training under another mage hound, Perikriasah. Upon becoming a mage hound, he had offended an Elder in Halruua and had been sent abroad to hunt down distant threats to Halruua's security. Now that seemed to include her. He hadn't grown as much from his experience abroad as she had. She wondered why they would send him. With all the mage hounds at their disposal it would have been a better move to use an Azouthian priest mage hound, so that she could not simply counter the magic.

"Hmm. You seem irritated." She stated levely. "Surely they didn't send you alone?"

"I never thought I would have to fight you, Sarade, you've always been so...well behaved." He stated darkly. Perhaps they had only sent him because she had always been so well behaved that they expected her to surrender to the first mage hound she came across. Perhaps Halruua didn't have very many mage hounds to spare and needed them at home to keep order.

"Why are they sending you to fight me?" She asked. Usually at least the appearance of an investigation took place.

"Don't act like you don't know. You killed your master."

"I do not believe you. I do not use poisons on my weapons. I do not favor weapons. The wounds were made from someone with a different range of motion and height. A substantial portion of my memory is missing from my mind, and it contains the details of what happened to my master. This mountain contains a pool of memory, and that is what I seek here."

"You should have come back to Halruua and submitted yourself to us. You should not have set off on this task on your own." He said sharply. "You know that it looks as though you are fleeing justice." He said, narrowing his eyes. The intimidation tactics likely worked on many mages, even for one as young as he was.

"Fleeing justice?" She purposefully moved her lips into a carefully constructed ironic smile. "I do not believe that it is justice I am fleeing. As of late it rather appears that it is more expedient for the mage hounds to simply kill any of their charges that may commit an infraction rather than to seek justice. I expect that in the wake of recent events that situation has only gotten worse."

He flashed a quick series of guestures, and she watched him, silently, carefully adjusting her spell resistance, and turning it outwards in a concentrated effort to stop the spell he was casting before the spell energy had been fully gathered. She knew he would cast a spell, though she did not know it would be this one. When the spell energy had been fully disrupted and fizzled, she looked at him sidelong.

"You are not attempting to take me alive. Noted." She said, though she had expected as much.

A panicked expression crossed his face for a split second, long enough to implant itself in her mind. The extreme alarm in his eyes and apprehension in his jaw indicated that he was outclassed, as she suspected.

"I have more spells than you can dispel, Sarade, you'd better just give yourself up and come quietly." He said, trying to assure himself as well as her.

"Now you'd like to be reasonable, after I've countered your most powerful spell." She stated, eyes sparking with amusement. "Also noted."

He took an unconscious step backwards, then stopped and leveled a wand. "That was not my most powerful spell." He said.

"You did not make the wand." She stated. "It was your most powerful spell." She quickly rolled and tumbled before a large jet of electricity shot from the end of the wand tip, only being raked by a few stray clawlike discharges. She continued rolling, silently glad she could still hear his frustrated growling as the lightning failed to hit her. She knew that she could do this all day, it was a personal trial to know that she could stand up to a mage hound, even a young and somewhat unexperienced one. At least, she could, if it were only her life that she was gambling with. However, due to some extremely murky circumstances, she was not only gambling with her life but the life of an unborn child. Her child.

She leapt to her feet. She lept twice more and landed behind him, as she turned around she swept his legs from him. He fell gracelessly to the ground, then drew a very sharp knife and tried to get up again. She swept his feet out from under him once more. "I do not wish to kill you." She stated.

"You're resisting arrest! You're only making this harder on yourself!" He said. "Just surrender, and come with me and we'll pretend you didn't even resist. I'll overlook it."

"Things are a little more complicated than you know." She said gently, reaching down and levering the knife out of his hands. She examined its magic sharpened blade and tossed it back over her shoulder as if it weren't an aimed throw at all. Lying didn't extend to misleading actions. It landed embedded into the rock twenty feet behind her.

"I do not wish to kill you. I am still the Sarade you knew, only with new information and a new purpose, and one that returning to Halruua to await execution would forsake. I am a Jordain Vizier, Lathanos. I cannot lie, though I must not give away the lies of my master. I can not have a family only the family of my master. I cannot learn to cast spells, though I have been taught about their power since I could walk. Even simple woodcarvers can cast cantrips, Lanthanos but I cannot. I cannot use a magical item unless it has been approved by the mage hounds for a specific purpose. I give all this up, and follow every code, every Halruuan law on pain of death for violating a single one of them. I state my rules every morning as I excersize, I devote hours to reading up on texts my master can use, and recount full conversations to him should he ask me what I heard. In short, I devote my life to the mastery of one single thing, the power of my mind. Now it has been compromised. A large chunk of my memory is as black as Shar's hair, and I will not rest until I know why." She said, her jaw set in determination and her eyes glittered menacingly. He swollowed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, young master, I have enlightenment to search for." She turned away from him.

She heard him struggling with trying to pull the knife out as she continued to climb up the mountain, smiling softly to herself. He would not be able to pull the knife out without magical assistance. She could have more easily tossed the knife into him. Hopefully he would reflect on that and understand that she'd spared his life more than once in this encounter.

#2 Sumpton

Posted 27 May 2006 - 08:00 PM

Again another very good look into Sarade. I like the way you are using short burst within the story to help us understand her backround and the Halruuan ways

Her child.


This one line said alot about her new feeling about her present condition.

Thanks...
=============
Cheers...

#3 Guest_Cel_*

Posted 27 May 2006 - 10:32 PM

Oh, so that is why she is fleeing for her life! I somehow thought it was her pregnancy that was the big problem when I read chapter 1 :wink:

Seeing as I know nothing about Halruua other than it being very magic centric - is her profession/class one that exists in sourcebooks, or did you make it up? Either way, it's definitely different from anything I have ever seen in a story before!

#4 Guest_Dadri_*

Posted 28 May 2006 - 12:37 AM

Thank you! :D I'm glad you liked that line. It's the line that makes this on topic! :wink:

And thank you for reading and commenting! :D

#5 Guest_Dadri_*

Posted 28 May 2006 - 01:01 AM

Oh, so that is why she is fleeing for her life! I somehow thought it was her pregnancy that was the big problem when I read chapter 1



Actually, she would usually turn herself in and let the mage hounds sort it out, maybe even going through her memory or appealing to an elder, since it seems so obvious to her that the blood spatter patterns in the room rule her out as a possible suspect. However, she still would present herself as having failed her task and submit to their judgement for that, since she did legitamately fail to protect him. However, the fact that she is pregnant means that it's not just her life anymore.

Seeing as I know nothing about Halruua other than it being very magic centric - is her profession/class one that exists in sourcebooks, or did you make it up? Either way, it's definitely different from anything I have ever seen in a story before!



The Jordain Vizier prestige class is mentioned in the Shining South source book. Halruuan elders and Mage Hounds are both also detailed out there. The Mage Hounds are considered above the law, they enforce it and they only answer to the council of Elders...mage hounds start out as wizards, sorcorers or priests of azuth. The Jordaini are a specially trained sect of monks that are strictly policed but they are taught to develop spell resistance to arcane magic. They are taught how to turn this spell resistance out to disrupt the weak points when mages are casting spells...they still have to correctly identify the spell that the mage is casting so they can properly disrupt it during it's weak points. They are assigned to help serve and protect specific powerful spell casters. I read about them and found it so facinating I was actively trying to figure out a way to use one. When I was wracking my brain for a certain character's mother, I decided it was my chance. :D

Thank you for your enthusiasm! :wink:

#6 Guest_Wyvern_*

Posted 28 May 2006 - 04:27 AM

This is not directly after the last one, this is two months later, after she has traveled far, helping villages ravaged by trolls and the like.

Doing good, and levelling up.

He flashed a quick series of guestures, and she watched him, silently, carefully adjusting her spell resistance, and turning it outwards in a concentrated effort to stop the spell he was casting before the spell energy had been fully gathered. She knew he would cast a spell, though she did not know it would be this one. When the spell energy had been fully disrupted and fizzled, she looked at him sidelong.

Interesting power. Am I correct in assuming she can only counter one spell at a time?

She heard him struggling with trying to pull the knife out as she continued to climb up the mountain, smiling softly to herself. He would not be able to pull the knife out without magical assistance. She could have more easily tossed the knife into him. Hopefully he would reflect on that and understand that she'd spared his life more than once in this encounter.

You have to wonder just how he's going to report everthing that happened. And if he'll keep following her.

#7 Guest_Dadri_*

Posted 28 May 2006 - 05:15 AM

Doing good, and levelling up.


Yup!

Interesting power. Am I correct in assuming she can only counter one spell at a time?


Yes. If he'd had backup, she would have been more offensive, needing to concentrate on rendering them unconscious rather than attempting to talk or explain anything.

You have to wonder just how he's going to report everthing that happened. And if he'll keep following her.


Oh, he's not going to stop following her. As of yet, they still don't know she's pregnant but he's been told what can happen if a Jordaini learns magic or starts breaking laws. They have doubtlessly moved to kill them quickly because of past failure's lethel effectiveness. :shock:




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