Difference between revisions of "Xanthippe (Chapter 4)"

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Xanthippe (Act I)#Chapter 4

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-When she woke up, every muscle in Xanthippe's body was screaming.  She'd been up late the previous night, trying to get the swing of her bardiche.  The thing was so heavy, her hands would slip off the shaft, and once she almost threw it into Charsi's pit of hot coals.  Her hands were blistered, her back and shoulders felt like they'd been in a vise, she just wanted to lie there and ache for the rest of the day, and maybe an extra day for whimpering.  Exerting herself far more than anyone should be expected to, she opened her eyes, and saw one of the Rogues standing next to her bunk.  "Kashya's assigned me to keep on eye on you.  When are we going out?"
-"Right now."  Xanthippe pulled herself out of bed.  "You go do your guard stuff or whatever.  I'll thank Kashya later."  Stretching helped her muscles a bit; at least, it hurt in a different way.  Hey, she could touch her toes for the first time in years.  Looking back, Xanthippe noticed that Rogue still hanging around. "Is my ass that interesting?"  The Rogue blinked, then looked away.  "I'm Gaile.  I'm supposed to follow you.  Kashya thinks you're going to get in trouble."
-That made Xanthippe laugh.  "Of course I'm going to get in trouble.  Unless you think killing a demon lord won't be trouble.  If Kashya is so concerned, she can get off her ass and help me herself."  Leaders who sit back and send underlings to do the dangerous stuff shouldn't be in a position of leadership, in her opinion.  And only idiots follow leaders who are afraid to lead.
-Once they were out in the field, Xanthippe found that Gaile must have been named for the wind blowing through the empty space between her ears.  She kept getting in the way of Xanthippe's charges, standing between her and the demons, just interfering with everything.
-Near an escarpment, a ring of standing stones rose from the damp earth.  They radiated magical power, of an unfamiliar kind.  At the center of the ring, another group of obnoxious little bastard demons was screaming "Rakanishu!"  These guys are so tedious.  Kill one, they all run away, kill another, they all run away again, ad infinitum.  Gaile shot the purple little bastard, and he started spitting lightning!  Xanthippe, who was standing in a puddle at that moment, got the shock of her life.  "AHHH!  Don't shoot the purple one!  Shoot one of the other ones!"  "What?"  "Don't shoot the purple one!"  "But he's the most dangerous one!  We've got to concentrate on him," Gaile yelled, and kept shooting.
-Xanthippe quaffed one potion, then another.  Gaile finally switched targets, and they killed off all the bastards except the purple one.  He was very tough.  Xanthippe would run up to him, hit him once, and run away to drink another potion.  Gaile stood there and shot, lightning crackling through the rain.  Cursing and hissing to stop shooting, Xanthippe elbowed Gaile in the stomach and, when her mouth opened, poured one of her healing potions down her throat.  "Just keep back and keep hitting him!" Gaile said. "No, you've got to keep moving and dodge the lightning bolts!"  "They come in too fast!"  "Quit standing in the puddle if you're gonna do that!"  "There's puddles everywhere!  I've almost got him!"
-Snarling, Xanthippe tried to hop back to little Rakanishu, avoiding the sparkling, wandering bolts, and crush his head, but she just couldn't hit the little bastard hard enough.  Pounding and pounding, he kept spitting lightning and Xanthippe didn't even bother to use her shield, just kept grabbing potions off her belt and swallowing.  Finally he died, but Gaile died too.  Panting, staring at her dead body, Xanthippe wondered if she should even tell Kashya.  She might assign another stupid Rogue to follow her around.
-According to a map Akara had, the mountain pass was beyond the field of standing stones, but there was a short cut.  A cave in the escarpment led to a tunnel which surfaced in a wood very close to the monastery.  The woods were very dark, and full of demons, including a huge group of hairy brutes around a withered old tree.  They hit hard, and nearly killed Xanthippe; she reconsidered telling Kashya about Gaile.  Having someone else, at least to take some of the hits, might not be so bad.  First, though, there was the tree, which just screamed with magic, and had five strange symbols carved into its bark.  Xanthippe copied them down.  You never know what might turn out to be useful.
-The symbols on the tree, as it turned out, represented the stones of the standing circle.  The circle was an old transport point, allowing travel to distant locations; a bit like the waypoints, but only along ley lines, and only to one destination.  The Rogues had taken over the pass, not only for its economic value, but because it lay at the intersection of two ley lines, one of which also passed over the town of Tristram.  That was where Diablo had resurfaced, and Deckard Cain the Elder, last of the Horadrim, lived there too.
-The Horadrim were legendary among mages, even the Zann Esu respected them.  Not that this means much, the Zann Esu didn't always have their priorities straight, but if there was only one left, and he had personal knowledge of Diablo, seeking him out would be a very wise move.  But since Diablo had probably roared through Tristram like a bonfire, approaching with caution would also be a very wise move.  Time to see about getting another meat shield... another Rogue.
-"So, Gaile is dead," Kashya sneered.  "And you're insisting it isn't your fault."
-"I don't suppose you thought to tell them about the wonder that is a healing potion?  They're so handy when you're standing in a puddle and fighting a lightning beast."
-"I will allow you to hire one of my Rogues.  One of them.  And before you do, you are going to listen to me, and listen up good."
-Now Xanthippe got to sneer.  "Oh, please, speak to me, mighty warrioress.  Enthrall me with your tales of daring deeds around the campfire."
-She never saw it coming.  The words were barely out of Xanthippe's mouth before she was flat on her back with a broken nose.  Kashya stepped over Xanthippe, yanked her up by the hair, knocked her mace away, and spoke, punctuating each word with a hard slap to the face. "You.  NEVER.  Talk.  To.  Me.  That.  Way.  NEVER!"  Xanthippe kicked at her boots, flailed with her arms, and finally just hid her head behind her shield.  That got her a knee right in her unprotected stomach.  "Now, come here!" Kashya snarled.  "If you take my women out into the field, you are going to learn which end of a sword is up!"
-Kashya dragged Xanthippe to her tent, still by the hair, and grabbed a sword.  "When you hold a sword, you hold it like this!"  Shoving the weapon into Xanthippe's hand, Kashya forced her fingers around the hilt and squeezed until she screamed.  "The blade's weight falls forward when you swing!  You do not chop with it, you slice!  Like you're throwing the blade!  Got it?"  Xanthippe nodded.  "Now, the polearm.  You do NOT grip it like a staff!  It is not a staff, Archimedes!  You need leverage!  Put your left hand here, above the butt.  That's your fulcrum.  Your right hand goes here, in the middle of the shaft.  That's your impetus, that's where the force comes from!  Then you chop.  Not slice, chop!"  Xanthippe chopped, like it was a big axe.  "Good!" Kashya snarled.  "I do not want to see you misusing another weapon again.  Now go see Akara.  And wipe that blood off your face."
-Akara clucked, and fixed Xanthippe's nose.  "You must forgive Kashya, the loss of our monastery and so many of our warriors has been very hard on her."
-"Hard on her!?  They're the ones who are lying around dead all over the place.  Kashya just stands around by the fire and sends them out to die..."
-"Child, you do not understand the life of a warrior.  Kashya did attempt an assault on the demon queen, in the catacombs of our monastery, and the meager few you see here are the only ones to survive.  She has not sent anyone out to die, except perhaps those who might accompany you, and you must bear some responsibility for them."
-"Gee, I thought they were supposed to be responsible for me."
-"And there is the flaw in your thinking.  Two warriors together must both bear responsibility for each other.  Each works to cover the other's weak points.  It is not a solitary way, you must trust completely.  No one is simply a 'meat shield' for another."
-Xanthippe's face was red, and not from bleeding.  Akara was a lot like the Zann Esu seers, only worse.  The Sightless Eye had irritatingly good vision.  Meanwhile, her new Rogue appeared.  A nice blonde girl named Debi.
-"Like, hi!  I've seen you around camp, it's so nice to meet you.  You seem so, like, exotic, you know what I mean?  You're a wizard, and Abhaya says you must be from Lut Gholein 'cause your skin's so dark, and I thought, this is really cool, I've never met anyone from there, I've heard it's really something, like, all mysterious.  Do they have harems there?"
-Xanthippe frowned.  "Yes, there are harems there."
-"Yeah, they must be so nice, all the silks and satin pillows and lounging around all day in a palace, with, like, swimming pools and parrots and cute monkeys to play with..."
-Debi babbled on while Xanthippe bought her some armor and a bigger bow.  Kashya wouldn't hire her out with equipment; that belonged to the order, not the individual members.  Can't let the order's property go, even if it might save the world.  When they went through the gate to Tristram, Debi finally shut up; the remains of the town were a sobering sight.  Cain, though, was still alive, hanging in a cage in the middle of town, being battered and jabbed at like a particularly amusing pinata.  He was tougher than he looked, though, and cast a portal spell to ride the ley line back to the Rogue camp as soon as he had room to make the gestures.  The rest of Tristram was nothing but fire and corpses, but after killing every monster there, Xanthippe was finally strong enough to use her Steel saber, and her bardiche.  She tested the bardiche on a handy demon shaman.  It split in half very nicely.  She liked it.  She liked it a lot.

Difference between revisions of "Xanthippe (Chapter 4)"

Latest revision as of 07:57, 12 February 2017

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