A Landen Village in Southern Glacia, Kaeleer [Wednesday Afternoon, Fandom Time]

[glacial_queen]

It was almost time for then to catch their portal home, but Morton had cautiously decided that there was enough time to visit one more landen village before they left. Even Julian didn't have much a problem with this, mollified by the five Blood males (and seven females) that Karla had handwavily, because cons are exhausting offered a place in her First Circle, once she'd made her Offering.

Once there, they'd scattered to their respective duties with an ease that came with having done the same thing many times within the past two weeks. Karla took over whatever building was the largest, more interested in being a Healer than a Queen, taking care of whatever ailments came her way, either with Craft, mundane medicines, or just some brisk advice. Warren sat nearby, making sure she had plenty to eat and drink, while talking to the people about their problems and their woes, making sure they felt heard, understood, and cared for. People who might otherwise have been afraid to come to Karla were set at ease by his openness and, more importantly, his lack of Jewel.

Jono and Julian were teamed up elsewhere, talking frankly about the war that Karla would be bringing to Glacia, about her plans to depose the current Queen and her Ruling Council, and making it clear that any landen who wished to fight--or even learn to better defend his village--was welcome to join with them. Jono made it very clear that the landens that joined with them would be more than simply fodder for the Blood. Their willingness to fight for a Queen that would see them as people too had even Julian offering a grudging respect.

Morton was out in the fields, delivering the Queen's Gift to nourish the crops. A cupful of Karla's blood in a bucket of water was enough to give the tiny plants new life and fullness, ensuring that the village could meet their new tithes while still having enough leftover for themselves. And Kaelas remained outside of the village, keeping watch with his superior kindred senses, which he never failed to point out to their group of tiny noses and ineffectual teeth.

[NFB, and all PCs modded with permission. Violence and dark themes in the comments, because what would a trip to Glacia be without those?]

Comments

[glacial-enemies.livejournal.com]

The village was silent and deserted as the Coach rolled into the center of town. If there weren't signs of previous activity--laundry hanging on lines, the wheat growing in the fields, the remains of a game of marbles hastily abandoned--one would almost think it a ghost town. Heketah smiled to herself over a goblet of yarbarah. It seemed that her reputation had spread. Even coming so early as she'd done had given the fools enough time to hide in their little houses, like rabbits cowering from a wolf.

If the thrill of the hunt wasn't so much fun, she'd wonder how they could have gotten warning in time.

"Ralt," she said, licking the blood from her lips. "Do go and let the landens know we're here."

[kaeleerans.livejournal.com]

With an abbreviated bow, Ralt opened the Coach door and stepped out. "Landens!" he called, voice booming with Craft. "The High Priestess has deigned to visit your...village." The sneer in his voice suggested that he had several better words for it, but had decided to be polite. "Come out and greet her!"

The village remained silent and still, not a single person stirring, not even enough to peek out from behind curtains.

After fifteen seconds with no movements, Ralt tried again. "I said come out and greet her!"

[glacial_queen]

"High Priestess?" Karla hissed. "Who the bloody Hell is that?!"

[furnaceface]

"Trouble," Jono murmured, voice grim. "With a title like that, if you don't know, she can't possibly be anything but more trouble than we need right now."

To say the least.

"Now shut your gob, unless you want them to hear us."

Jono was so delicate in these situations.

[glacial-enemies.livejournal.com]

Oh, how right you were, Jono. About trouble, anyway.

"That's fine, Ralt," Heketah said from inside the Coach. Her voice wasn't raised and yet her voice rang through the village, clear as a bell. "If they don't want to come out, we'll just give them a little bit of incentive. I have always found a bonfire to be so warming on these brisk spring nights. Say...a village-wide one? Do you think that would convince them to come out and say hello?"

[kaeleerans.livejournal.com]

That, at least, drew the people from their homes. One by one, doors opened and people began creeping forward, eyes downcast, hands in pockets or clutching clothing or clinging to one another. Soon, every adult in the village was huddled under Ralt's stare.

For all that he looked petulant and angry, it was the empty window of the Coach that drew their frightened looks.

[kaeleerans.livejournal.com]

"Priestess," Ralt said, bowing once again towards the Coach. "They have assembled for you. Is there any among the great unwashed that suits your fancy?"

[glacial-enemies.livejournal.com]

The door of the Coach swung open and two more Warlords rushed out to hand down a beautiful woman, with long black hair, golden eyes, and light brown skin. She was paler than most of the long-lived of Dhemlan; her kind could not bear the direct kiss of the sun. It was only that pallor and the age in her glittering eyes that gave her away for what she was, the scent of dead flesh covered up by expensive perfume and blood.

Heketah, High Priestess of Hell, dead for other fifty thousand years.

"Thank you," she said batting her eyes at her escorts, her voice a girlish titter. She always spoke like that, even while detailing the cruelest punishments she could devise. Several in the crowd shuddered to hear it. "And, no, Ralt, I don't think there is."

Her eyes scanned the crowd and her lip curled. "I don't think everyone is here. Can you not see who is missing?"

[kaeleerans.livejournal.com]

Ralt glanced around the crowd as if he could spot a hole where someone specific should stand. "Ahh, no, High priestess. My family lives not far from here, but I assure you, I've never spent enough time among these people to recognize them all by face. Perhaps you could--"

[glacial-enemies.livejournal.com]

Hekatah giggled, her hand trailing over the face of a comely young landen man and where her nails slid, skin split and blood flowed. She stood on her tiptoes and licked at it, sliding down his cheek and neck. "No, you ripe idiot," she said, still coy. "Do you know, handsome one?"

[glacial_queen]

The youth stood still and silent, his eyes focused on a point far away.

[glacial-enemies.livejournal.com]

"Pay attention to me when I speak to you!" Heketah demanded.

He looked at her, but still said nothing.

This time when her hand struck his skin, it burned. He struggled not to scream, but her Craft was stronger than his will. He sank to his knees and she yanked him up, fastening her teeth to his neck and tearing through flesh and vein.

"I asked you if you knew who was missing," she repeated, drawing her mouth away. The girlish voice was an obscenity with blood smeared across her mouth.

[glacial_queen]

"The...children..." he wheezed, the blood at his throat bubbling as he spoke. It spilled down his front, stained his cheeks and jaw, pouring from his neck in a torrent.

[glacial-enemies.livejournal.com]

"Very good," Heketah cooed, swiping a fingerful of blood and licking it. She dropped him carelessly to the ground and turned back to the other villagers. He did not move again.

She didn't care.

"Now then, my darlings, where are the children?"

[wwiii]

Warren wasn't panicking, there at the bottom of the well. He knew those sounds. He knew those sounds far too well, by now. The sounds of murder and desperation, crowding in around him from all sides like the cold water they were waist-deep in and the crumbling stone walls of the well...

Warren. Wasn't. Panicking.

He was just... reminding himself over and over that he couldn't get out of the well without help, and even if he did, he didn't stand a chance trying to change anything that was going on up above.

He wasn't panicking. He was just putting forth that much more effort to keep from throwing up.

[furnaceface]

Jono wasn't panicking, either. He was simply looking upwards, his face pulled into a very carefully schooled mask of calm.

Of course she wanted the children. Psychopathic murderess, bloody vampire. Of course she'd want the easiest prey.

He wasn't panicking. But he was shaking with the effort it took to restrain himself from flying up there and trying to cleave her head from her shoulders before anyone realized what he was about to do.

"Somebody remind me that I can't just kill her," he murmured, lip curling back and eyes glowing red fury up toward the tiny circle of open sky above them.

[glacial-court.livejournal.com]

"Don't you fucking dare," Julian hissed, looking at both of them. "If you were ever hoping for a chance to prove to me that landens can be a full part of Karla's Court, now's the fucking time. Keeping Karla safe isn't just the most important thing right now, it's the only thing. So you keep a lid on your temper and put some steel in your damn spine, because if either of you do a damn thing to jeopardize my Queen, I will gut you both."

He glared, switching his gaze from one male to the other. "Am I fucking clear?"

[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

"And I'll help." Morton's tone was soft but uncompromising. "We have a duty. First rule of service--we cherish. And by that, I mean we protect."

It certainly wasn't obey, not with the hand he had clamped over a very red-faced Karla's mouth.

[furnaceface]

Jonothon rolled his eyes. Not that anyone would be able to tell, not with the way they were sold red, casting a dim haze of crimson over his features.

"Th'request was a hypothetical," he intoned dryly. "But thank you both for th'reminder."

He hesitated a moment, looked down, and then winced as he saw the reflection of his own eyes, glowing back at him in the muddy water. Jesus. He might as well light twin flares to let everyone know they were down there.

He was closing his eyes tightly shut immediately after. He wasn't going to go flying in to save the day, but the things that twisted inside of him, longing for bloodshed-- he couldn't just shut those off on a whim.

This was going to be a long night.

[I'M SLEEPIN' I PROMISE.]

[glacial-enemies.livejournal.com]

Hekatah hadn't paused while Team Well-Hiders bickered amongst themselves. She'd grabbed another handsome young man, dragging him over to her, smirking at the cry that came from a pretty young girl about his age.

"Important to you, is he?" she purred. "Then you should tell me what I want to know, shouldn't you? I can try to take the information directly from his mind, but that will leave his brain ashes inside his skull. You don't want that, do you?"

[kaeleerans.livejournal.com]

"Please," the girl sobbed. "Please don't hurt him. We're supposed to be married this summer..."

[glacial-enemies.livejournal.com]

"Well, then, you know what to do, don't you?"

Hekatah tittered again, but the girl stayed silent.

"Still quiet? Well then, this is your fault, isn't it?"

And she tore open his throat, bathing her face in his warm blood before drinking him down. "Now tell me where the children are!" she howled, teeth still stained red. "Or I'll open your throat next!"

[glacial-court.livejournal.com]

"What do we do if they give us up instead?" Julian hissed. "Save their children by giving that bitch a better prize?"

[furnaceface]

"We deal with it," Jonothon said simply, eyes still tightly shut. "One way or another, we deal with it. But that hasn't happened yet. They could have saved at least a few lives by now already. And it hasn't happened."

There was a faint crackle of energy at the corners of those closed eyes. He swallowed, and then raised his hands to press the heels of his palms against them.

Bite it back. Bite it down. Don't let it out, don't let it show.

[glacial_queen]

"Kaelas can kill her," Karla said in a low voice. "Kaelas can leap through her shields and tear her throat out before anyone else can react. The rest of us can take out her guards and then we can clear the village. Move them all somewhere else. Relocate them where they won't be found. Haven, maybe."

She wanted to eviscerate this 'High Priestess.' But watching Kaelas do it would be enough.