Dark Flower III, Ch. 10: Crime and Punishment

[Mikayla]

Dark Flower III, Chapter 10

Crime and Punishment

Zaleavyl Mylyl, the Yathtallar-A’ni, or High Priestess-General, of Zhennu Orbb, wasted no time in responding to the slaying of the Agrach Dyrr priestess that Sheyreiza reported. The Yathtallar-A’ni’s announcement was carried throughout the strand-ways of the great city by magical and mundane criers alike:

A grievious act has occurred. A Yathrin of Lolth sullied by the hands of slaves and killed. This will not be allowed. Those slaves have already been sent to oblivion but an example will be made.

Two bugbears, one ogre and one orc dared to attack their betters and so this cycle fifty bugbears, twenty-five ogres and twenty-five orcs will be mutilated and ripped apart in the Lolth's Champion Arena by the graduating students of Zhennu Orbb. Another one hundred and fifty bugbears, seventy-five ogres and seventy-five orcs are killed throughout the rest of the city at random by Zhennu Orbb patrols.

Any slave that attempts to harm a priestess will die, and one hundred others of its race will be condemned to oblivion with it.

Sheyreiza sat on a stone bench in the Lolth’s Champion arena. Around her were dozens of Auvryndar nobles and their entourages and around them were hundreds, if not thousands, of other Nasadrians – the stands were filled to capacity for this event. Sheyreiza’s entire murder-team was in attendance, as were her sisters, her brother Celuldor, and Matron Shyntlara herself. While most of the Auvryndar sat together in a cluster, the Matron sat across the arena flanking Matron Aunrae Nasadra on the dais reserved for the ranking Matron Mother in attendance. On the other side of Matron Nasadra was Matron Drisinil Melarn. This was a show of solidarity and force in the face of the slave’s bold slaying of a priestess. Everyone, especially the drow of the city, had to be reminded that transgressions against the clergy would be punished most severely.

In the arena dozens of bugbears, orcs and ogres sat or paced. They were unarmed and unarmored. Sheyreiza guessed that they were probably drugged, at least the ogres; this was not a sporting event upon which bets were being taken. This was to be a slaughter.

The iblith in the arena ring did not interest Sheyreiza as much as her fellow spectators. House Auvryndar was out of favor, and under normal circumstances, that meant they were living on borrowed time. The moment their fall from grace was discovered, other houses would be racing each other to destroy the Auvryndar. For now though, appearances had to maintained, so the Auvryndar showed up to the arena in great strength, heads held high, acting as arrogant and secure as nobles of the third house should. For most this came naturally; only the Auvryndar priestesses and Celuldor knew of the House’s situation. All Auvryndar knew the house was on a state of secret alert, but most attributed this to the threat of a slave uprising. Auvryndar was not particularly vulnerable to slave uprisings, as most of its mundane slaves were undead, but a general uprising could present a minor inconvenience and it was a good excuse to feed the troops as the state of the house’s alert was heightened. The recent fall of House D’dgittu had Sheyreiza thinking that the fall from grace might not be limited to Auvryndar however. So, as she sat in the stands, she surveyed the other nobles gathered to watch the spectacle, searching for any sign that one or more of the other houses might also be out of favor. Though her eyes and mind were sharp, she saw nothing of interest.

Matron Nasadra was reciting the events of the incident now, proclaiming the city’s vengeance upon the hapless iblith gathered in the arena. Sheyreiza found herself restless. The stone benches were uncomfortable and she did not like sitting in such a crowd with people behind her, even if they were family. Especially if they were family, she thought. She stood and stretched her legs, then made her way down through the crowd to the walkway that ran along the arena wall. She would rather stand for the fight than sit, she decided. The view would be better anyway.

At the dais, the Nasadra Matron was pronouncing the sentence of death upon the orcs, bugbears and ogres. She then introduced the graduating class from Zhennu Orbb’s academy that would be slaying the iblith. To her right, Sheyreiza could see the graduates gathering in the tunnel just on the other side of the portcullis. They were lean, young, well armed and well armored. Ensorcelled by spells, bolstered by adamantine, and free from incapacitating drugs or fear, they would slaughter the assembled slaves with ease and delight. Sheyreiza smiled; it would be fun to watch. The slaves seemed not to notice the gathering students. The humanoids were all standing now, but none moved away from the gate; none retreated to the far corners of the arena, none pounded on the far portcullis or clawed at the metal-bound doors to escape; none tried to scale the walls in some futile hope of surviving the next few minutes. They were, in a word, calm. This reinforced Sheyreiza’s idea that the slaves were probably drugged so as not to prevent a real threat to the students – no noble family wanted to waste a promising daughter or son on such a spectacle and the Yathtallar-A’ni certainly was not going to risk the ire of a powerful house – but this calm was unnerving. Certainly some of the beasts had enough survival instinct to try and run? Sheyreiza had seen plenty of drugged beasts in the ring and this was not how they acted – unless you drugged someone into a total torpor, even the dumbest animal would try to survive.

The portcullis separating the students from the slaves began to rise. As it did, Sheyreiza saw a feint red glow appear in the eyes of an orc near to her. The glow grew stronger, burning with a crimson light like the eyes of a demon. She looked from orc to orc, from bugbear to bugbear and from ogre to ogre; all of them were facing the students now, and all of them had the same glow growing in their eyes.

“Something is wrong.” She said aloud, not realizing she was speaking until the words had passed her lips.

Faerylene, standing next to her, gave Sheyreiza a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”

Down in the arena the students advanced on the slaves, and the slaves did not back down. Indeed, many of the humanoids in the back lumbered forward. There was no fear in their eyes, only bloodlust. The crowd above seemed oblivious. The drow in the stands were chanting, clapping, yelling, urging the students on. Few, if any, were seeing what Sheyreiza saw. Quickly she turned to face her kin. “Something is wrong!” She yelled, trying to get her voice over the din of the crowd. “Something is wrong – they are possessed! Shoot them, shoot them now!”

An Auvryndar male standing near to Sheyreiza heard the command. Instantly, he raised his crossbow and fired a bolt through the throat of a nearby orc. Amazingly, the creature did not fall. On the far side of the arena the students finally engaged the slaves, but the fight immediately turned against them. All around Sheyreiza the Auvryndar began standing. “Shoot them!” Sheyreiza screamed. The quick male reloaded and fired another bolt and his second shot was joined by more from the Auvryndar contingent. In a nearby section a warrior from a different house fired into the melee, then another. Faerylene quickly unlimbered her bow a sent an arrow into a bugbear. The beasts did not fall. They surged across the floor of the arena, charging into the ranks of the students and began tearing the young drow apart.

Sheyreiza, turned to her brother Celuldor, the house mage and screamed. “Burn them Celuldor. Burn them down with your magic, burn them down now!” Celuldor hesitated for a moment; it was forbidden to interfere with gladiatorial events. He did not hesitate for long, however; a bolt of lightening leapt from his hands and struck a nearby ogre, then bounced to another slave and another and another and so on. Only the first ogre fell though. Smoke rose from the charred flesh of the others, but some unseen enchantment kept them from falling.

“They are protected!” Celuldor shouted, but Sheyreiza had already deduced that. Spells from other mages began to drop from the spectators down into the arena. More and more crossbows were slinging lethal darts into the mob of red-eyed humanoids, though surprisingly few slaves were falling despite what should have been a devastating barrage. Sheyreiza could also see that none of the priestesses around the ring were casting spells; those who had sprung into action were using crossbows, scrolls, wands and whips. On the far end of the arena the students were getting slaughtered. Initially arrogant, they had quickly advanced into the arena without regard to keeping their line of withdrawal clear of enemy. Now, the majority of them were surrounded by the hellish orcs, ogres and bugbears. Though the students were skilled, their blades were not bringing down the slaves. Broad shouldered ogres picked up lithe drow fighters and tossed them into crowds of slavering bugbears where the dark elf warriors were rent limb from limb. Sheyreiza watched in horror helplessly.

At the dais, Matron Nasadra was waving her arms about and yelling but nothing was happening. Matron Melarn stepped forward and called out to the crowd. Sheyreiza could not hear her words over the din but it was clear that she was trying to take charge of the situation. The Melarn Matron held her arms and while screaming and a red whirlwind of fire rose from the floor of the arena. The incendiary storm grew and in seconds engulfed half of the arena immolating most of the slaves who were tearing at the remains of the slaughtered students. The unholy firestorm scorched the skin and charred the flesh of the slaves and their blackened corpses fell in grotesque, macabre piles. Drisinil Melarn raised a second firestorm after the first had passed, burning to death those few slaves that escaped the initial immolation. In moments it was done. Everyone in the arena, slave and student, was dead.

Matron Melarn stood at the head of the dais, arms upraised, yelling to the crowd about the superiority and faith of the Melarn, whose power was such that they would act when others could not. “Rothe-dung!” Sheyreiza spat, her voice lost amidst the chaos. It was a set-up. Whatever possessed those humanoids had been arranged by the Melarn just so they could make this demonstration of power. Sheyreiza wanted to reach out across the arena and knock the Melarn Matron’s teeth into the back of her skull with a blow from Lolth’s Blessing. She wanted to scream heretic at Drisinil at the top of her lungs, but that would commit her to engage Drisinil here and now, and the Melarn had obviously prepared for this event while the rest of the city, including Sheyreiza, had not.

Matron Nasadra, who had been powerless to stop the ensorcelled slaves, simply stood back, eyes wide, watching the Melarn like any other spectator. Sheyreiza had never seen such a thing; indeed, she had never even heard of Matron Nasadra being humbled in such a fashion. Shyntlara was not humbled however, she was angry. Even from across the arena Sheyreiza could see her Matron Mother’s fury.

“To the matron!” Sheyreiza cried. She drew her morningstar and began pushing her way through the crowd as hundreds of commoners and nobles from other houses fled the arena in a panic. The Auvryndar nobles moved together quickly, forming a wedge with Sheyreiza and her murder team at the front. They pushed their way to the dais stairs where Shyntlara met them.

“Sheyreiza, Shalen, Xenia – lead our people back to the Qu’ellar, I will meet you enroute.” Sheyreiza was loath to the let the Matron stay near the Melarn and Nasadra amidst all the chaos without the benefit of as many guards as they could muster, but she knew better than to argue with the Matron. She also knew that if there was one person in all of Ched Nasad who could handle a dangerous situation alone, it was Shyntlara. The vampiric high priestess was death-on-foot in combat and more than capable of escaping most foes she if she had to.

The Auvryndar contingent reversed direction and headed towards the exits. The stone stands of the arena were emptying fast as the spectators ran. Here and there knots of nobles and their retainers formed up and pushed through like the Auvryndar. At the gate, the overwhelming size, obvious station and clear lethality of the Auvryndar party cleared the path. Once outside, they aligned in a diamond formation and moved through the strand-ways quickly, brooking no resistance or obstacles. Matron Shyntlara joined them as promised and took charge, leading her clan from the head boldly. No one dared stand in their path.

Once back through the Qu’ellar gates, Shyntlara turned to her third daughter, the judicator Ghal’tera. “End this ruse; triple the guard, put the entire house on alert and let everyone see we are prepared for war.” With that the Matron strode inside where she was met by her vampiric bodyguards.

Sheyreiza gave orders to Ghal’tera as well; no one was to be allowed to leave Qu’ellar Auvryndar alone without orders from the Matron or one of the high priestesses. Also, a code system for entry and re-entry would be established. Finally, Sheyreiza dismissed her murder-team with orders to get themselves ready for war, as it was clear that was what lay ahead.

The situation was now clear; Melarn had revealed themselves as the enemy. Melarn’s crime was heresy; in all likelihood they were now serving that abominable demon Wendonai. Their punishment would be total destruction. That destruction, however, was contingent upon the city finding someway to achieve it without Lolth’s aid, for the city had committed a crime as well – the city had not discovered this heresy and destroyed it fast enough. Lolth, to punish and test the city, had withdrawn Her favor - the sign was as clear to Sheyreiza as the sign Lolth sent when Inthara had failed her test – Melarn must be destroyed for she, Auvryndar and indeed all of Ched Nasad to find Lolth’s grace again. Sheyreiza looked back out the gates towards the city outside. The pieces had been placed and the board revealed: Auvryndar and Melarn would now fight to the death, and in the balance hung the fate of not just those two houses, but all of Ched Nasad.

[Zakharra]

Oh, that session was so cool. I remember it well. The heretics were revealed to those who know Lolth's will.

[Vendrin]

Awesome read.

[Burt]

Yeah, that was uber indeed.