Nond and Scorch reached the outer wall as the sun rose. The gate had been broken. Scorch was no mage but he could feel the residual effects of the magic used to blast it open.
"How long?"
"More than a thousand, yesterday morning, the warlock is being caried on a sedan, Nieldic silk drapes. The Monastary is not equipped to resist a force of this size."
"Then we need to hurry."
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Alicea woke to the taste of blood; not hers, it wasn't metalic enough. Then the smell filtered through, death and more blood. It was a fresh smell, she wasn't sure she wanted to open her eyes. She felt oddly full, but couldn't remember eating. That could only mean one thing; it must have been a full moon. A quick glance restored everything she'd forgotten.
She looked at Ogini's mangled remains. He'd died badly, what was left of his face displayed fear. There were claw marks on the ground, to small to be hers; He'd strugled fiercely in his last minutes. It was a fate he didn't deserve, had it been her father who'd died she'd have been no less eager to see him dead.
Nothing started a day worse than having to clean up after the beast. It didn't help that she knew she'd lost. If it weren't for the beast she'd be dead, but her curse just kept waking her to the smell of death and another ravaged corpse to clean up.
She washed off, fetched clean clothes from her bag; which she'd stashed on the other end of the island, and placed her adversary's remains on what was left of Cavel's altar. She gathered wood and herbs from the forest, and arranged them a best she could in preperation for cremation. Burial would have been preferable, but she still needed to find Vel and ready her to slay Kron. It would be an honorable cremation, as much as that was possible for a warrior of an exiled clan.
Ogini, son of Haown, would fight for the spirits by midday, but Alicea was returned to her quest.
(This post added on September 4th, 2010.)
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