World of Warcraft®

Zenera couldnt help but smirk at the Night elf and Tilt her head slightly at her. She figured play with her for a bit "You know....I can very easily make a poison out of herbs and Plants in Eversong forest or corrupt it with some fel-magic. Whose to say i 'didnt' stop considering you unimportant and have been playing one long clever rouse to get you killed and that the sweet taste you are getting is the taste of the poison i may have put in the soup after i served it out to the rest the people here.....Whose to say I didnt in fact poison your food while you werent looking?....maybe i fed some of the demons blood into the soup afterward i served everyone else out?....."

A lot maybes went into that sentence and if she stopped eating there and then the glorious taunting would continue but with a few words she turned to the rest and said "Think she's looking a little Saytry...See any horns you two?"

She of course didnt actually but she relished the chance to annoy Rithrynn. She turned back with a smirk on Zeneras face and watched Rithrynn saying slyly "You not as subtle as you think you are....or as good a cook..."

“Who’s to say I didn’t poison your soup while you weren’t looking?”

Liaena gulped down another mouthful. “Meh. Either way”

The soup was strangely sweet, with an aroma and taste that she couldn’t exactly place. Regardless, it still tasted delicious and she wasted no time in eating it up. It had been a long day, and Rithrynn was putting food in a way in the sense that she might finish off the pot and go around stealing everyone elses if she didn’t watch out. Liaena kicked off Francis’s boots, which she was still wearing along with about five pairs of socks to curl her feet up into the soft chair.

“You’re not as subtle as you think you are…or as good a cook”

For some reason this comment was absolutely, hilariously funny. Liaena spluttered, nearly choking on her soup. “Ri-rithrynn…..subtle!?”

Covering her mouth with her hand, Liaena tried desperately to restrain her giggles as faces turned round to her, Rithrynn looking mildly miffed. Whatever was in the soup was pretty strong, and her head buzzed pleasantly. “S-sorry, but no way…she’d have to eat less”

Reaching out a toe she poked the night elf in the side, wiggling her ‘love handles’ with a giggle. “chub-chub-chub Ri”

(( Zenera, if you want to annoy Rithrynn you need to learn from the best. You may address me as Li-sensei :P ))

Rithrynn looked outright offended as the little human poked her, glaring down at her with white rage in her eyes. It was perhaps the most accurate explenation of the Sentinel, because she was nothing less than pissed off at the human.

"It could have been worse, though... I could've been a vertically challanged dwarf. At least I have the height to accomodate my proportions, and not have my entire figure grow outwards like a thick block." The Night Elf snickered at Liaena as she gazed down at the human, moving her hand to pat the human on the head.

"I wonder why you monkeys are so short. I reckon it must be because you fell on your head from the trees you were so fond of climbing it. At least it would definately be in your character, Liaena. You're a disaster. And that shows on your height, as you're perhaps the shortest one I've encountered. I bet you fell the hardest."

...

" ... that might also explain how your idiotic ideas always blow up, too, hihi... "

Lifting her own bowl to her head, she took a few spoonfuls of soup before she continued to gaze at the human, clearly bemused by her eyebrows that constantly angled more and more, which, on Liaena's babyface created an utterly bizarre yet hilarious angry frown that forced the Night Elf to restrain herself in order to avoid spitting our her own soup in laughter.

"At least, if the undead decide to attack this temple, we could just roll Li down the stairs and she'd do an absolute strike on any incoming undead. At least her form is good for something, the-hee... "'

(( i wouldn't count on anything worthwhile coming out of that alliance though, Li's a TERRIBLE teacher and you're more likely to become a joke yourself Zen if you listen to her xD ))

Sharon had followed the conversation between the human and Night Elf with a constantly growing concern.
He had seen this all too many times, and he knew just how it would end. There was also now a third variable; Zenera; and that did not help to make the situation any less... 'volatile'.

"Friendship is like alchemy... do it wrong and it might blow up. Especially of both agents are already quite potent and highly flammable."

"Rithrynn. If I may have your attention for just a moment." Sharon commented as he had finished his bowl and placed it back onto the table, now looking at the two girls.
"Be nice, she is our doctor, after all. You might want to stay on her good side. "

Though whether that was true or not, could be debated.
Liaena was quite good at getting the job done as a medic, being mostly successful in her endeavors and attempts to heal and cure, but the girl did have an awful tendancy of doing it the hard way, usually not with too much care about the comfort or her patient, or her mental state afterwards.
Whether it was due to slight incompetence, pure experimentation or a devious urge for pranks coupled with a soft, sadistic side was unknown.

Turning his head to Liaena, Sharon gazed at the human sitting in the chair next to him, which had once belonged to Francis before it had been occupied by the girl.

"And Liaena, you know Rithrynn deserves better. She saved your life after all... and on more than one occassion, I bet."

With a friendly smile, Sharon added; leaning back into his chair as he observed the two girls; without glancing at anyone particular in the room.

"How about you bind together as friends and instead prank someone more deserving?"

Zenera realised there first potential target was very well-going to be herself so she packed herself away with the orb in her hand and vials of demons blood in her pockets.
She put the bowl down,, empty and steaming still, and as she left she turned too sharon with a cold look, almost as if sarcastically saying "Thanks"

The walk into the empty corridor was an odd one, the corridor itself was normal but there was another smell that compelled her to follow it. It wasn't fake it was quite real. She followed down several corridors until the smell was finalized.

The Warlock knew exactly what the smell was, Fel-blood Paint.

So she came to the door where the smell was most pungent. She felt the door for a moment and noticed its warmth. Amazed by how warm a wooden door like that could feel zenera didnt notice that the orb in her hand began to glow.

So, probably against her better judgement, she entered the room and indeed the wide room was filled with an array of demonic symbols.

All around the walls were a hundred maybe thousand Demon runes which each had a meaning to them. Some referred to the birth of the legion others referred to aspects of the legion.
Some referred to specific demon races, Annihilan, Shivari, Imp, Void-walker, Succubus and Incubus the male counterparts to Succubus

The Room was a washed in a deeply disturbing green colour and an unnatural wind permeated the room which washed the smell deep into the building but zenera at that time couldnt care as she was mesmerized by the intricacies of symbols on the floor and the walls and Amazing the ceiling which was high above her.

Turning her attention back down to the floor she noticed that within a boundary set by four tables was a circle a very large one, she approached the nearest table and peered over ensuring she doesnt enter it by accident. Her right hand ,which held the orb ,and her left hand, which was resting on a tray of blood, leant on the table.

“How about you two bind together as friends and prank someone more deserving?”

…hrrm. Tempting.

Liaena twiddled with the cork of the vial she was toying with between her fingers, glowering at Rithrynn. Although not as tempting as leaving Rithrynn at the bottom of the stairs, tied up with an apple in her mouth. Perhaps smearing her down with chutney too, she was sure she had some of that. Maybe right here, in her bag…

“Liaena!”

Liaena ceased routing through her bag in search of hidden evils to pout at Sharon, who was giving her a Look over in the other chair. “But…”

Sharon always looked so adorable when he was exasperated. This could be, it occurred to her, because he always looked adorable, cute and very much hers and her hand re-emerged to smooth her bangs behind her ear bashfully as he smiled at her. “…Fiine. S...so long as you don’t…”

“I don’t what?”

“Nothing” Liaena smiled. Reaching over, she couldn’t help but touch the silken blond hair falling about his face. It was amazing, even after all they had been through today, it still felt so soft. “It doesn’t matter anyway. It’s fine.”

It was good that the majority of the company had already left the room. Even Zenera had buzzed off somewhere else. Liaena leaned in close enough for him to feel her warm breath on his cheek. “I shouldn’t be making stuff more difficult for you. If you don’t want me to fight, I won’t…”

She had no idea why she had had anything against the place they had chosen to stay earlier, with the warm fire, glowing light and Sharon right there. As she moved to kiss him, everything was perfect…

…If it wasn’t for the stubborn, invasive muttering from the sniggering elf behind her. “Heh heh heh…. ‘vertically challenged dwarf’”

Something flashed behind the girls eyes as she carefully reached out behind her. Hand snaking over to Rithrynn’s half-finished bowl, she carefully tapped one – two – three drops from the vial into the soup, then retreated as she broke away from Sharon to beam at him. “…okay?”

Sharon felt relieved to hear the girl say that. To hear that she wasn't going to fight with Rithrynn.
But a part of him still wasn't at ease, because he knew how underhanded Liaena could be. If there was one thing years in the monestary had taught her, it was secrecy and deception - ironically.

"I'm glad to hear." Sharon smiled at the girl who was quite literally beaming at him. He knew that usually meant that she was either:
A: Happy to see him.
B: Covering up for something sinister.

But there was really no point in digging into the question, and Sharon turned to grab ahold of the wine bottle to fill up another glass and offer it to Liaena.

"I'm glad you agreed to stay, Liaena." Sharon said as he handed the glass to Liaena. There may have been some false words to his statement, but such a small deception was something he could live with.
"This place turned out to be quite comfortable. Who would have thought being stuck in the middle of an apocalyptic, diseased wasteland in a dark, unholy temple could almost feel as a vication?"

Sharon chuckled softly, but noticed the flickering eyes between Rithrynn and Liaena as the two girls eyed each other, and the High Elf turned to Rithrynn. It was probably best to have both parts come to a peace agreement if a truce was ever to be held, otherwise it would be doomed for failure.

"And Rithrynn, try to be nice to her. This is neither the time nor the place to fight, so try to watch what comes out of your mouth, please."

As amusing as the whole ordeal had been, the Night Elf finally managed to shut up, only keeping a snark smile as she watched the couple. Especially Liaena. It felt as if victory had become hers in their last 'talk', and the Night Elf was more than content with the result.
Now moving her attention to more important things, such as her belly grumbling, she turned down to the bowl in her hand and took a few spoonfulls of it, the little girl's machinations unknown to her, until she had finished it completely.

"I hope the next time we make camp, I'll have the oppertunity to cook again. That last meal was delicious!"

But the last spoons had been rather hot, the Night Elf felt, and as she lowered herself to place the empty bowl on the floor, it felt almost as if her belly was boiling.

"Goddess, maybe a little more spice than what was really needed... "

Little did she know, however, that is was not the spice...
The hot feeling inside of her continued on, and Rithrynn felt a pressure of air build up inside of her belly. It was almost hard to keep it down, and the Night Elf moved three fingers to her mouth to cover it just as Sharon turned to look at her.

"And Rithrynn, try to be nice to her. This is neither the time nor the place to fight, so try to watch what comes out of your mouth, please."

"BurFHWOOOAAMM!"

What she had thought to be a burp came out as something completely different as she opened her mouth, and a small wall of fire gushed out, across the table and right across Liaena's face, illuminating the entire room in a purple haze!

After the 'fiery outlet', the Sentinel looked shocked. It wasn't the first time she had suffered an incidence with air, but it was probably the first time she had ever spewn out a gust of fiery flames of doom!
Sharon looked unsurprisingly surprised at the event, his blue eyes as large as small golfballs, but Liaena looked even worse.

The girl whom had been standing right infront of Rithrynn was covered in black sot from her shoulders and up, with a small fire burning ontop of her hair and the chair.

Seeing Liaena's equally surprised face, Rithrynn's shock soon passed, and the Night Elf broke into a humerous smile and snickered wildly between her fingers as she pointed at the human.
"Liaena, goddess, are you alright? Mwi-hi-hee... oh, Elune, your hair is on fire!"

Zenera was rather astounded by the complexity of all the demon runes around her, She could speak Demonic but to the level presented to her. All around the Obsidian stone room was green paint, referred to by Demonologists and Warlocks as 'Fel-paint", Which showed nearly 1000 individual symbols eachr representing a word or combination of words.

On the far left wall was the Words fell into Demons with such words As Annihilan, Succubi, Incubi and Other words which zenera could not comprehend.
On the far right wall was the words for Destruction all the words relevant including emboldened and dramatically bigger than all other words was "Sargeras" which had words like "Lord" and "master" Surrounding it.

Words fresh to her own mind were present on the front wall, all were indecipherable at this moment but with time Zenera was sure she could decipher some of them. It was time and patience that was need to findout.
And on the wall behind her were words of infliction and torture, words ,in way , which were painful to read themselves, as was monstrosity of some demons. that event there written words harm.

And She knew all to well not to read them, which why the entire time she had her back to them. She wont about her inspection fo the rooom to find a table of the four in the centre which had a second green orb.

She approached it and noticed within it was not a swirl of clouds or mist but a green eye, an eye of kilrogg.

She reached out her hand and channeled her powers within it and wondered where this one had been implaced and without resistance the orb sucked her mind in and showed her what it saw.

The Eye had manifested within a corner of the Room that the rest of the group occupied and without realising that not only was her vision brought here but also her thoughts transmited, aloud from the eye "Hmmmm....Interesting"

“hair…?” Liaena queried, bringing up a hand to poke the back of her head. She yelped as blossoming flames licked her fingers, half stumbling, half falling out of the easy chair to land hard on the stone floor, frantically trying to pat it out. “Ow. Ow! Make it…”

Freezing cold water, no doubt courtesy of Sharon cascaded over her head and shoulders, dousing the fire and leaving her gasping and shivering. The second spell, an upward cyclone of warm wind whipped all her clothes dry in an instant and left Liaena behind, sitting on the stone floor with an owlish shell-shocked expression on her face.

“……………………..”

Liaena’s face was a study. Her cherubic features could have held any number of different intentions as she carefully, carefully probed the back of her head. Her expression seemed to get blacker and blacker as she explored the damage; much of the dark locks covering the back of her head were considerably charred and crumbled to ash upon touch. The result was that a section of her head had hair that was a lot shorter than the rest and all at different lengths that stuck out. There was also a distinct smell of burning in the air. “That…was…”

“…interesting”

The small notebook and stub of pencil seemed to magically appear in Liaena’s hands at the speed at which she fished them from her pockets. The girl licked the lead to scrawl rapidly on one of the dog-eared pages before glancing up at Rithrynn, her eyes alight with a new fire. “Rithrynn, what were the ingredients in that soup? List them”

“Uhm…”

Liaena had already got to her feet to push purposefully past her as she arrived at the cauldron. Filling a ladle-full, she dabbed at it with a finger before licking. “Rosethorn. Ethanol. Grmph…yes, that would probably do this…” producing a vial from her bag, she tipped the ladle forward to fill it carefully, holding it over the cauldron to avoid spills. “…you don’t mind if I borrow this, do you? Thanks”

"Uhm... I don't, eh... " Rithrynn said, gawking at the Human from when she pulled out her notebook till when she rushed over to the cauldron and began pulling out mysterious yet quite obviously dangerous vials containing nothing but bad luck.

The Night Elf had more reasons to not tell the Human about the ingredients she had used for the soup.

Mainly because she knew the little ex-priestess far too well, and that assisting in yet another of her undisclosed endeavors usually ended bad. Bad for the Night Elf, specifically, but not irrelevant to anyone else for that matter...
Reason number two being that Rithrynn had quite simply... forgotten the ingredients. She only recalled a few of the items she had tossed into the soup. Frankly, she had basically used every last edible piece of food she could scavange from the old drawers and desks.

"Uhm... " Rithrynn's eyes passed from Sharon who looked equally concerned, to Liaena; all the while the Night Elf took a couple of subtle steps towards the exit.
"I'm quite sorry, Li, but... I really need to do something. I'll be back later, but this is.... eh, well, really important, so... got to go! See you soon!"

The Night Elf had backed carefully up against the exit, and with those words, she turned around; almost smashing into the door before opening it; and escaping into the corridor as quick as she could, heading towards the exit with great haste.

"Elune, I pray Sharon survives this! ... though I wouldn't mind the Warlock expiring... "

As she reached the exit, Rithrynn rushed forward. But unfortunately, she was all too busy looking behind her and back into the temple that she completely forgot to see where she was running, and a few feet infront of her, Francis was sitting on the steps; completely oblivious to the blue and purple tornadoe coming behind him...

*BONK!*
*CRASH!*

Francis was kicked forward like a ball and Rithrynn tripped on the Forsaken, falling forward and rolling down along the stairs with him.
All the way down the hundred and twenty steps to the bittersweet embrace of the half-frozen soil below...

"Ooof!" Rithrynn gasped as she hit the dirt, moaning in discomfort, she rolled over and peered angrily at the shambling Forsaken who had landed not too far away from her, and growled at him.
"Watch where you stand! I could have broken a bone! .... owwwh, even though it feels like I just broke all of them... mngh!"

"Liaena, I don't think that this is the time for anymore alchemy lessons." Sharon said with a slightly worrying tone as he glanced at the human by the cauldron as if she had been some kind of ticking time-bomb of a natural disaster just waiting to happen...

"Light, I can't believe they ever let her study alchemy back at the monestary, lest it'd in most likelyhood not exist anymore."

The High Elf finally rose up from the comfortable chair and walked over to Liaena, peering down into the contents of her cauldron; but kept an ever vigil and precuatious distance from it as if it was going to blow up any moment now.
"If I may inquire, Rune, what exactly are you making?" He asked as he placed a hand gently on her shoulder as he looked at her.

The Mage, despite being quite a capable alchemist himself, could not quite fathom what Liaena was making that would have a genuily positive effect on their mission, which being was mainly consisting of getting through and out of the plaguelands alive.
But to question Liaena's logic wasn't always such a logical thing to do in itself, as he knew all too well that her obsession of dangerous and volatile chemicals and alchemical compounds often (or always?) bordered on the insane.

"And... wouldn't it be best to clean the cauldron first?" Sharon asked as he peered down into it, spotting some of the remnants of Rithrynn's 'old' soup lying around in the mixture.
"You know... Rithrynn just used it herself and, I doubt throwing food into the mix is such a smart idea."

"I'm pleased to see you too, Rithrynn" Francis replied, not even bothering to argue. "I'll have to be more careful"

A sudden moaning filled the chill air, as a zombie shambled its way into view, about a dozen feet away from the couple. Catching sight of the night elf, it raised its arms and gave another, slightly louder moan, then made a beeline straight for her.

It didn't get far. From the floor Francis pointed a hand at the zombie, a bolt of arcane energy shooting towards it and entering through an eye socket with a wet spatter of ichor. The creature began to shake, the faint glow of its eyes growing brighter, before the back of its head exploded with a deafening crack and a shower of white and purple sparks. Now truly dead it fell forward onto the ground, joining a few dozen other bodies that had almost certainly not been there when everyone entered the building.

"That's the problem with mindless" Francis sighed. "They're drawn to sound. And of course, once one finds something it moans, which draws another one and- what? Why are you looking at me like that again?"

With a grunt he pulled himself, magically hauling Rithrynn to her feet with a wave of his hand also. "Now, do you mind telling me what's happening? Why are we running? ... did Liaena blow something up again? It's not even morning yet."

“Oh no. It’s fine” Liaena said blithely, filling another vial with the lumpy, slightly congealing reddish mixture before stowing it in her bag. Turning to Sharon, she bestowed upon him a kiss on the cheek, standing on tip-toes to do so, and a dazzling smile. “I’m not making anything. I’m taking some samples for study. It’s nothing to worry about”

Whether or not that was true was defiantly up for debate, however Liaena seemed to be done with the cauldron with the dismissive way she turned away from it, leaving a small portion of Rithrynn’s cooking congealing in the bottom. “Where did Rithrynn go? You see where she went?”

The Night Elf had indeed left the room fast enough to leave small dust-balls in her wake. This was rather a shame, since it put all the nasty ideas Liaena had running through her head to compensate for the loss of her hairdo on temporary hiatus until she reappeared. Quiet, subtle ideas clearly, to better accomodate for Sharons wishes. The girl sighed, running a hand through her newly shortened hair as specks of carbon covered her shoulder like black snow. ‘Quiet’ and ‘subtle’ tended not to be her best techniques, by general definition….

And to cover her distemper, she sank back into the slightly charred chair and tried to inspect the back of her head from the reflection from the plain brass bowl. What she found was not deeply optimistic, and she placed it aside as Sharon sat back down, her hand quickly finding his.

The room had completely emptied in the course of the evening. It should have been lovely, just her and Sharon together, but it wasn’t. Not through any fault of his own of course, but the intoxicating effects of peacebloom and soup were slowly subsiding, leaving new anxieties of the place in which they were in. Finally giving up the attempt not to break the fallen silence, she glanced nervously at him.
“When we get through this place, it’s the plaguelands due south of here, isn’t it? The city of Stratholme, is there. We’ll need to go around. A long way round”

Stratholme. The city that featured equally in modern history lessons and macabre ghost stories. Liaena chewed her lip before starting on her next bit. “You know…Sharon, when we get there, I’m not sure if we’ll find anyone to help us. I heard there’s this group there, that were….kicked out by the cathedral. Gone. Finito. They’re sorta ‘Extreme’”. She sketched fingerquotes for the last word, glancing rapidly around the room before looking back to Sharon. “They’d kill Zenera for sure. And Francis, too”

"No, but I fear that she might be about to do so... " Rithrynn replied as she got onto her feet and brushed off the dirt from her clothes, and peered back at the Forsaken who had, remarkably enough, not returned any snide, cocky or otherwise ludicrous remarks at her comlaining.

"Must be the dead zombies that must've cheered him up."

"So in CASE anything was to happen, I was going to make sure to have at least a few hundred feet as a 'buffer zone' and precaution... " Rithrynn's eyes trailed off the Forsaken and up the stairs, back onto the great ziggurat.
" ... but seeing as the roof hasn't blown up yet, I think it might be safe to return... "

"I think... "

Usually by this time, if Liaena's experiments did go awrong, they'd have done so by now. But judging by the lack of smoke, explosions, flying roof-tops or seismic events, the Night Elf felt that it was safe to assume the experiments had not gone bad.

... or at least not ended in a total failure and disaster. Altough she questioned whether Liaena even had the same definitions of 'success' and 'failure' as she had, assuming the field of alchemy... and explosives.
For the latter, the crazed priestess was a pioneer and an idiotic genious.

" ... it ought to be safe enough. I'm going in." Rithrynn finally concluded, and her eyes rolled over to Francis.
"You said they followed sound. And probably the smell of dead flesh as well. Perhaps you should come inside too to avoid creating a whole gothic, undead style fesitval right outside this temple, please?"

Not waiting for an answer, the Night Elf turned her head towards the steps and began walking, but rapidly turned around and looked back Francis.

" ... oh, and don't forget to burn the bodies!"

"I don't think it's quite that bad anymore... " Sharon said as he gave her a pat on the shoulder.
"Last I heard from that war, it was going pretty well for the Argent Crusaders. If we are lucky, they will have wrestled control of the city from both the Scourge and the Scarlet."

Sharon smiled at the thought. Stratholme, being conquered by the Crusaders. It would be a safe haven in a land filled with turmoil and dread.
Last he had heard about the war in the Plaguelands was that it was going well for the Argent Crusaders, backed by the Horde and Alliance forces. The Scarlet Crusade was in shambles, and the Scourge were breaking apart almost surprisingly easy.

With any luck, all they had to do was reach Stratholme and all their fears or worries should be gone. A good inn, a warm bed and shelter from the evil that stalked the land around them would be assured by the Crusaders.

"As for Zenera, we did agree to hand her over to the authorities when we got to safety." Sharon said, looking at Liaena.
"She's a Warlock, after all. The things her ilk does is worse than that of even the most foul necromancer. If anyone knows what to do with her, that will be the followers of the light."

Sharon did not wish to let Zenera just leave. Warlocks were a threat to the very world they walked on. They collaborated with demons, and harnessed unholy, corruptive and damning powers that they bought in exchange for innocent souls damned to an eternal hand in some dark, demonic pit.
If he let her go, her doings would be his responsability, and Sharon had no desire to have any of that on his conscience.

"A necromancer may warp and bind a soul, whereas a warlock would damn it for eternity. The first is unforgivable. The latter, is... beyond mortal punishment."

"We would be just as guilty of we let a Warlock continue to walk the earth... "

Zenera Felt the urge to comment as Sharon spoke, He spoke of her as if she were like those who were part of the Burning Legion, Part of the Group, monsters of the a distant reality that would see the death of Alterac.

And the comparison took the cake, she spoke through the stationed Eye of Kilrogg and said to Sharon "A Necromancer has no Qualms with those they twist, Warlocks who aren't of that Legion of monsters interestingly do. Ive taken the souls of murderers, attackers, monsters in there own right. warlocks twist Fel-magic and fight against its corrupting ability, Necromancers embrace it.

Have you ever seen how withered Necromancers are? Have you ever seen up close how thin they are? Sharon, You simply do not understand being a warlock or more accurately One that doesn't belong to what i call the "Bastard Legion""

The Flames of the Eye of Kilrogg had burned slighty bright as they spoke in reaction to Zeneras building anger but quickly it subsided as Zenera controlled it.

And So she spoke once more "I've got something interesting you might want to see. Its something i cant do and something interesting you might want to hear. The alliance has some very dirty little secrets about its positions on warlocks."

The smell that had flown from the room as she opened the door finally had made its way into the room sharon and Liaena were in. It smelt of Burning Blood and only grew stronger as the source would grow closer.

"Come find me, Sharon. It seems it wasnt just necromancers who lived here once. If you can smell burning blood follow that. This room is rancid with it."

Chewing her lip, Liaena mulled over Sharons words. The picture he painted was heartening, and made you want to believe it. Defenders of the Light instead of the city of ghouls and gremlins? Yes please….even though optimism seemed harder than it once was, for some reason. “…maybe, I haven’t heard much news for a while. We would have to think about Francis, though. And Rithrynn” a mild grin tugged at her lips. “You know what she’s like, always talking about that god of hers and irritating everyone. I could try to keep her out of trouble, but…”

‘Trouble’ was probably an understatement. In retrospect, inviting Rithrynn over was probably Liaena’s masterstroke in her annual tradition of livening up the Yuletide Festivities. People had probably missed her, which was a shame as she had promised to show. If she was still alive when they found somewhere hospitable, Liaena vowed to send letters. “I suppose we still need to get through the ghostlands first. Sharon, if we scoured this place for regents do you think you could set up some sort of portal, or spell? I was thinking—“

“Have you ever seen how withered Necromancers are?”

Well as a introduction, it certainly served to kill the conversation. That and the comments that followed.

This could be bad. Very bad. Ver.

Liaena stared dully at her knees in the silence that followed. The soup seemed to have congealed, to form a heavy lump of iron inside her. “…Light, why did I ever let her go off alone? What was I thinking?...”

“……………”

Withdrawing her hand from her pocket, the girl held a fist of crushed white petals, which she held to her mouth to inhale deeply. Having done this she got up, trotting over to the kitchen drawers to begin to rattle around inside.

The very first thing she pulled out was a sizeable kitchen knife, slightly flecked with rust but shiny and serviceable. Dragging out a vial of thick oil-ish liquid, she began to smear the stuff all over the sharp blade as she rapidly crossed to the door, climbing over it to step into the dark corridor. “Cmon Sharon. Lets go”

"Necromancers pervert life, but it's child's play compared to condemning a soul to eternal suffering, Warlock." Sharon answered, sounding slightly annoyed. The upstart warlock was becoming troubling.

As for what he had said, he very much meant it. As much as he may dislike Necromancers whom tortured and turned their victims into undying slaves, a parade to mock the very nature of life and death, it was nothing compared to what a Warlock did for their power.

To sacrifice a soul was the most unforgivable act of wickedness...

To be consigned to a living hell at the depth of a daemonic pit, torn apart and skinned by daemon hounds over again, living through every moment it utter, horrifying pain and destined to scream forever as your body was destroyed and renewed over and over again, all for the amusement of some arch demon and so that a Warlock could have a tiny bit of its power or boon; was something no one deserved.

Sharon could think of a thousand punishments for his brother, Sherraine, but for all evil he had done, despite all the cruelty and destruction, he could never even imagine dreaming about consigning him to such a fate.

"I ask that you stop your demonic spells, Zenera." Sharon said as he followed Liaena out into the corridor.
"If you are ever going to have the slightest chance of seeking redemption or have this party to work, you will have to rid yourself of such forbidden sorcery!"

The thought of calling Rithrynn did cross Sharon's mind, but he knew that if the Sentinel smelled fel magic at work, Zenera's head would probably be flying through the air before he could utter 'wait'.
He truthfully did not know who was the most zealous, Rithrynn or a Paladin? If Rithrynn was the image of a Night Elven 'grunt', he was certainly glad there were no such thing as 'Night Elven paladins' or whatever their version would be.

Outside, Francis had been busy. He'd started by rifling through the pockets of the corpses surrounding the ziggurat. Slim pickings, but his search rewarded him with a bits and pieces. A few coppers, the odd bit of jewellery, and other assorted bric-a-brac.

His next course of action was more pragmatically driven, as he stripped the bodies down to their undergarments. Trousers, shirts, dresses and boots were thrown into sad little piles on the bottom steps. It was a little distasteful to the Forsaken, but scavenging in such a manner was nothing new for his kind. Besides, he (and doubtless his companions) could probably use a change of clothes at some point. He also managed to find a really nice pair of intact leather boots, which seemed to be about his size. They were currently around his neck, the laces tied together.

Finally, the bodies were stacked. One layer of seven laid side by side, then the next layer laid at 90 degrees to the first. This continued until it was about seven layers high. It would been shorter, but a few more zombies turned up during, and had to be added to the pile.

Francis took a step back, to admire his handiwork. Yes, this would do fine. Rithrynn was right. He should burn the bodies.

He opened his arms wide and closed his eyes, feeling magical energies flow through him to where they were needed. Without a release the power continued to build and build, like water rising behind a damn. It felt like electricity was dancing just behind Francis's eyes. He felt alive!

He opened his eyes and pointed at the body pile, only expending a small part of his mana at first. It burst into merry yellow flames with the loud 'whoomph' of rushing air, and the sharp hiss of boiling liquid. For a second it smelt strongly of roasted pork, which caused an unexpected feeling of hunger in Francis. He shook his head a few times to chase this feeling away, then stopped holding his magic back, and began waving his arms upward.

Like water behind a dam that had just burst, magic poured out of Francis and into the fire. It's size grew until it covered the entire pile of bodies, it's voice transforming into a mighty roar to match. It was a white inferno, so powerful and bright that it could almost be mistaken for a second sun. The electrical feeling was now more akin to being struck by lightning.

As quickly as it started, it ended. The flame sputtered and died with no magic left to feed it, and Francis fell backwards into a sitting position. He thought that perhaps he shouldn't have pushed himself so, he felt more drained than he had in months, and he was shaking like a leaf in the wind.

But at least the deed was done, and he gave a faint smile at his handiwork. The pile had burnt so fiercely that even the bones would be reduced to ash. He'd like to see any would-be Scourge make anything out of that!