1629, Earth Season, Harmony Week, Clayday to Death Week, Windsday)
Context
After doing Gorak a favour, Kolyey has earn training in Fireblade. Session Prax6.5.
Events
Before dawn, Kolyey is woken by a junior initiate, his eyes covered by a thick cloth. He has tapped his way to her bed with the aid of a stick, and is now prodding at her.
He is definitely Humakti. He has Truth and Death painted onto him, all over, and a bronze sword hangs at his side. It is too small for him, but it is still a sword.
Kolyey starts dressing. “Good morning, I presume . Do you have a message for me?”
“You are not to confuse the spirits with cloth, only that which is needed for hygiene,” he says, his tradetalk accented but clear. “Nor are you to take food after dawn.”
“I understand,” she says. Kolyey will dress in as little as possible and snatch something for breakfast before dawn.
The initiate follows her, giving more instructions. “Speak to nobody who does not address you first, do not touch a spear or an arrow, do not tread in the shadow of anybody you pass…”
And, once she has had breakfast, “Follow me.”
Kolyey answers, “I understand. Go, I follow.”
Food, as served to Kolyey, is a strip of dried, leathery jerky of some kind, and a surprising luxury, a single fresh fig.
Her guide, still ritually blinded, leads her from the hall where nobody talked to her, to a private meditation chamber. There, an older warrior is waiting. He has a larger bronze sword, and a small iron dagger on his belt, where Berra has her stone knife. He speaks in Praxian to her guide, who answers, bows, and leaves. The man looks at Kolyey, and gestures her to a stool. “You must answer this.” His accent is thick. He did not learn Tradetalk anywhere close to Sartar. “Why is fiyah a thing of sword?”
Kolyey sits on the stool and thinks hard. “Fire can kill, just as a sword can. Fire can separate.”
He looks pleased. “Good. Much to learn. Forget everything first. Why fire a thing of anything?”
Kolyey thinks harder. “Fire is a primary power. Glorantha was made in part from fire.”
The man nods. “Where Death come from?”
Kolyey simply says, “Humakt shaped Darkness into Death.”
“Darkness fight Fire. Why fire sword?”
“Darkness and Fire can both be. Fire kills. Death is hidden in Fire.”
There is a snort of derision. “But here, this Prax. Better answer.” He picks up a handful of ash from a brazier, carefully. “You see.”
“Fire killed the fuel and left something dark behind?”
“Stop guess. Stop talk.” He throws the ash into her eyes. “START BLIND!”
Kolyey tries to close her eyes before the ashes hit them. She will keep her eyes closed, either way. She thinks.
It hurts. He gave her no warning, and her eyes are streaming, and then as she gasps for breath, there is more ash. She can taste something strange, and through her closed eyelids she can see bright light.
Kolyey looks confused.
“Why start with answer. Start with question. Start with want. Start with need. Do not think. BE. DO!”
Kolyey tries to cry her eyes clear. She is not a fan of pain. She also turns in the direction of the bright light.
“Good,” says the harsh voice. “Now you seek. Now you fight. What you want?”
“I want fire!”
She hears a huge voice in front of her, a sound made of a distant roaring. “Come find me…”
Kolyey gets up. She tries to sense heat and will walk towards it. Failing that, she will walk towards the roaring voice.
Ahead of her there is a great, terrible heat, searing and sere. It is the brightest part of all in her swimming vision.
Kolyey walks straight up to the terrible heat.1GM rolls POWx3, to see how much it hurts, and how successful she might be.
It hurts. She can feel her skin scorching, her eyebrows and lashes and hair burning up.
Kolyey yells, partly from the pain. “Help me! Help me bring Death to undead and Chaos!”
She finds herself falling back, hitting the ground in the temple with a thump. “NO BEG!” shouts the sword. “PRAXIAN DO NOT BEG!”
Kolyey gets up and walks back into the fire. “You will help me!”
There is a distant grunt of satisfaction, and then a voice shouts in her ear, and from very far away. “Reach! Take!”
Kolyey reaches out and tries to take the fire.
Her hand meets something, which burns, and then there is nothing but a tiny pain her her hand, and the smell of burned hair. “Release,” the sword’s voice says. “Rest.”
Kolyey sinks down to the ground and slumps. She opens her right hand and tries to look at it.
Nothing but a burn mark there. Her eyes are clear, though. There is a light in the brazier that was not there before, a small glow like a handful of fire.
“Sleep. Have learned big secret. Tomorrow, more secret.”
Kolyey says, “Yes, Sword. Here or in my tent?”
“What is Praxian?” he asks.
“The tent,” Kolyey answers. She slowly gets up, shaking as she bows to the Sword. She then slowly goes back to her tent and sleeps.
That is the first day…
It is late at night. Kolyey is being kept awake by a racing mind and a painful hand, when suddenly there is a crash and a crunch and her tent collapses on top of her. Something kicks or strikes her through it.
“OW!” Kolyey grabs her sword and tries to get out of her tent.
There is wriggling and twisting, and as she gets out she comes face to face with a frightened child, who bursts into tears and sits down with a thump. He is an impala rider, too young to shave his head yet.
Kolyey hopes she isn’t violating her ritual requirements by asking the child, “What is wrong?”
There is more sobbing, and then other impala riders arrive on the scene and there is a lot of shouting and explaining. All of it is in Praxian.
Kolyey says in Tradetalk, “I don’t know Praxian.”
One of the larger women says, “HE IS SORRY FOR JUMP ON YOUR TENT,” loudly and slowly.
Kolyey nods. “What frightened him?”
“HE FALL OFF!”
“His Impala?” Kolyey asks.
“YES, HE FALL OFF IMPALA WHEN JUMP.”
Kolyey replies, “Bad time for jumping lesson.”
The woman nods. She knows what young cavalry is like. “DID YOU SEE IMPALA?”
Kolyey says, “No.”
“LOOK AFTER CHILD. WE FIND IMPALA!” The woman nods wisely.
Kolyey sighs and nods.
The child is addressed briefly and Praxian and slumps by Kolyey, looking miserable. He has a long scrape down his back and from the way he moves, quite a lot of bruises.
Kolyey points at the ground and then tries to get her first aid kit out of her tent.
The tent has had a supporting pole yanked out, and the fabric has been ripped where tiny hooves flailed, but other than that it is fine. Everything is where she left it within, although some is a bit flatter than when the night started.
Kolyey grabs the kit. She will treat the child’s scrape first, then try to do something about the bruises.2Fumbled First Aid.
Whatever it is that Kolyey just smeared on his back, it makes the boy scream. There is a loud, LOUD sound, and then Berra arrives, sword drawn, from the direction of her sleeping hides. The small boy keeps crying.
Kolyey salutes Berra and begins to explain this mess. “Commander, the boy was trying a jump on his impala and fell off. His relatives are looking for the impala. I tried to heal him, but I must have grabbed the wrong salve.”
Berra winces. “Alright. Get him washed off.” She starts to turn away, pauses to try to say something to the boy, and sighs when that does not seem to translate. “Start with a water bottle.”
Kolyey replies, “Yes, Commander.” Kolyey will find her water bottle and try to wash the child off.
Berra comes over with a cloth and her own water bottle, for the whimpering mite. “Maalira went to look at someone who had eaten something strange, or she’d be here.” Nevertheless the diminutive Humakti looks over to where Maalira would be were she not helping others.
Kolyey mutters, “What rotten luck.”
Kolyey adds, more loudly, “The child seems to be lucky.”
More sobbing happens from the floor. Berra says, “Maybe we should wash him in the pool they get water from?”
About then, half a dozen riders arrive. These ones are impala riders, save for one zebra, and they all look well armed and armoured. Berra does not look like she is surprised.
“His family is expecting to find him here,” Kolyey points out. She eyes the new arrivals.
They look… sharp.
None of them dismount.
Berra replies, “Best to fix him, and then we can come back.”
Kolyey nods, tries to stand up and says in Tradetalk, “Do you speak this?”
The woman on the zebra says, in a threatening voice, “Explain this.” Her Tradetalk is not bad.
“He tried to jump my tent. He failed and fell off his impala. While his tribesmen are looking for his impala, I tried to heal the scrape on his back.”
There is a long stare, and then she replies, “It went badly then.”
Kolyey nods.
The woman grimaces. “No need to kill you then.”
Berra’s little growl is a challenge she does not speak. That might be fortunate.
Kolyey says, “If you want to fight me once the child is not in my charge, I will do it.”
“We will see.” She speaks in Praxian to one of the riders, who gets off and approaches. “Mirjeem will heal the boy. No scar.”
Kolyey nods and gets out of Mirjeem’s way.
Mirjeem kneels down by the boy and puts a hand on his back, chanting for a moment. The sobs recede. Mirjeem backs up without comment, and the woman on the zebra waits.
Kolyey simply says,”Thank you.”
The zebra-rider nods, and waits. Time stretches out. Berra looks confused, and then thoughtful.
Kolyey sits and waits for the return of the boy’s family.
After several minutes the woman asks a question of the boy, and gets an answer. She gestures the cavalry away, but does not leave.
It takes another two or three of Yelm’s heartbeats after that for the family to return, with an extra impala. The boy climbs up behind someone who is presumably his mother, and does not mount up on the spare.
Kolyey waves goodbye to the boy and his family. She then asks the zebra rider, “Do we have more business?”
“No, I stayed to be sure they were not angry. You need to learn better mending-of-people.” She looks like she might want to fight, but it is not worth her while.
“I agree. I will keep that in mind.” Kolyey doesn’t take her eyes off the zebra rider.
The woman turns to ride away, and does not look back.
When Kolyey is woken the next day, by the same initiate in the same blindfold, he tells her, “Today you will not eat birds or eggs, and you will drink only milk or blood.”
Kolyey replies, “I understand.”
He leads her back to the same room, where the sword who is her teacher is squatting by the brazier, feeding it on dried grass. The tiny flame that totters there makes her hand twinge for some reason.
Kolyey bows to the Sword and waits for him to speak.
“Today you will serve the fire,” he says, and gestures to a pile of half-dried dung and small twigs. It looks like plenty for an hour, not much for a day.
Kolyey says, “Yes, Sword.” She tries slowly feeding the fire a small twig.
It goes about as expected. The fire slowly spreads.
Around the walls there are various masks, made of straw and carved wood. They glower down at her as she feeds the fire, looking terrifying and disapproving.
The fire eats the twig, slowly.
Kolyey waits for the fire to die down a bit, then tries a small piece of dung.
That sputters, and it seems to be killing the fire.3Kolyey fails Survival and does not get hints from the GM.
Kolyey uses a small twig to get the dung out to the brazier. She is trying to use the fire to dry the dung.
If this works, Kolyey will try to dry out all the dung.
The twigs go better than the dung, and stacking some and shredding the rest seems to make the fuel drier while keeping the fire itself alive. However, the twigs are going to run out, and the dung might not be dry yet. It is a close-run thing.
Kolyey prays to Humakt that this will work. She does her best to keep the flame alive and the same size as it was at first.
After a couple of hours, the flame is still alive, but the pile of fuel is considerably smaller. The blindfolded initiate comes into the room with a bowl of food. The spoon fits into two carved slots in the horn bowl, allowing him to hold it without it spilling. “Here is lunch,” he says. “Nothing you can eat.”
Kolyey says, “Thank you,” and examines lunch. If it’s all bird and egg, she will slowly feed it to the fire.
It is a clay-baked bird, still with some moisture in it, but also easily pulled apart to dry. There are dried bits of meat that might be horse, which counts as a bird, and those have a lot of fat in them. The fire jumps up for each piece, seeming more eager than it should. The smell of burning meat and hot fat fills the room. The food lasts for half an hour or so, but afterwards the fire seems larger, and yet it demands no more fuel than it needed before.
The fire gets lunch. Kolyey says, “Sword, soon I must hunt for fuel.”
He opens his eyes from where he is meditating, and says, “What is Praxian way?”
Kolyey asks, “Can I burn the masks?”
For the first time he smiles. “Not stopping you.”
Kolyey takes a straw mask from the wall, pulls it apart and slowly feeds the straw to the fire.
Now, she has plenty of fuel. The Sword comes to sit next to her. “Feeding fire only can be done if you not stay in prison of mind.”
“Yes, Sword. If we run out of masks, I will try hacking my hair off.”
“No, plenty of fuel. You understand. Feed fire for day.” He stands. “Tomorrow, learn more.”
“Thank you, Sword.”
He walks out without saying anything more.
On the third day of teaching, Kolyey is feeding the fire, having been given plentiful different fuels, to observe how they are different. On the fourth day, she meets the sword as usual, and he tells her, “Make friends with fire. Feed fuel and spirit-fuel. Make promises you can keep.”
The little flame burns in the ash still, as if it has been left overnight and yet not gone out.
“Hello there, Fire,” says Kolyey as she feeds the flames some straw and 3 magic points. “I would like to be your friend and have you help me. I promise we’ll slay undead and Chaos together.”
The Sword nods approvingly. “Good Praxian promise. Good Humakti words.”
The flame grows and bites at the straw, staying tall for a while even as the fuel vanishes. “Today, think of why fire. More reason.”
“By myself, I have trouble bringing the True Death to things that grow back. Together we can slaughter them.” Kolyey feeds the flames more earthly fuel.
“Praxian?” asks the Sword. He seems to use that word a lot.
“I can bring you to those you hate.”
“Why Humakt and the sky-heat?”
“The servants of sky-heat are not strong warriors , as a rule,” replies Kolyey. “They cannot sense the undead. By the grace of Humakt, I can.”
“Never say this to Star Captain,” says the Rune Master, after some thought. “Now, think hard. Why sword only burn on blade?”
“I know it’s the way of fire to burn everywhere and everything. I want you to wrap around my sword, so you may be praised by those who would otherwise fight you.”
The flame gives no indication of having heard. “Good request, too early. Remember. Ask when time comes.” The man comes to kneel down by the brazier. “Fire spirit. Small, but angry. Have hatred. Spite. Learn to be friend.”
“I know you can do it,” Kolyey tells the flame. “You have helped many people since before Time began.”
“From now, feed flame, make friend. Three days, we learn to use.” The man stands up. “Take no food under sky in light, eat nothing raw. Ride not a horse or bird.”
“Yes, Sword.” Kolyey settles down to feed the fire and talk to it.
The sword continues to talk. “Go anywhich in Temple or Tourney Altar. Find food for fire. Beg, raid, take, buy. Find many ways.”
“Yes, Sword.”
“Sleep where Praxian sleeps. Find out where and how.” He stands up, and goes to meditate back where he was when Kolyey first saw him.
Kolyey checks the fuel. How soon must she get more?
There is plenty for the day. Tomorrow and the day after will need more.
Kolyey will go raid for fuel in the afternoon. She’ll try to find out where and how the Praxians sleep.
Raid’ is a big word, of course…
bleysrex: There are plenty of Praxians in the oasis. Most sleep in tents, with their tribe. Some, of course, sleep at the Temple of Humakt. Tents vary; there is even a bison ger here, one of the big felt yurts. Impalas have tiny shelters of sticks and skin into which several of them pile, while the one High Llama rider sleeps next to his beast, out in the open.
Kolyey is relieved to note that she can sleep in her own tent. What about the fuel?
Fuel? People seem surprised that she will pay for it, but they are happy to sell it to her. Dung, dried reeds and seed-heads, straw, and even wood make their way to her. There is a small argument over which animals have the driest stools, and thus are best to burn. Bison and zebra seem to come out ahead.
Kolyey will take the advice of the experts and buy bison dung too. The dung will get dried out and used last.
Soon she is being followed by a shoal of mid-sized impala children, all of whom have opinions, and all of whom seem to want to ride her zebra. Even in the Temple, some of them hang around fearlessly by the Lay Members, taking instruction on Humakt, Honour, and Death.
Kolyey explains to the children that she needs to tend the fire, but perhaps they can ride her zebra in five days or so.
She can tell by looking at the small, innocent, happy faces that they are plotting to steal the zebra. They are too innocent, too happy.4Pass Insight (Human).
“No stealing my zebra,” Kolyey says sternly.5Special on Death to augment Intimidate, which is a pass.
The small people step back almost as one. A child at the back suggests in a tiny voice, “Borrow?”
“NO.”
As if they were one herd the youngesters flee, bouncing and bobbing and weaving like the mounts they will grow up to own. The Humakti mostly ignore them, save for a few who make sure nothing is being stolen. Kolyey gets left alone.
Kolyey feeds the fire a bit, then excuses herself to move her stuff into the temple. Does the temple have a stable? If it does, that’s where the zebra is going.
Kolyey will lead her zebra, not ride her.
The temple has compounds rather than stables, for the most part, but guests can arrange for a stall for their animals. It is going to take a little bit of persuasion.
6GM: Charm, Orate, or a 1L gift.Kolyey: 1 Lunar gift.
Kolyey warns the staff that the children may try to steal the zebra.
The groom sighs. “You know you’ll get it back, if you do? Or something to ride on? Younglings raid.” He looks like this is a daily occurance.
Kolyey says, “I would rather trust you than them.”
There is a big shrug, and he slips the silver coin into a fold of his clothes. Without being asked, he leans down to pick up a handful of dried zebra dung. Kolyey has a tip, it seems.
Kolyey settles down to tend the fire. “It’s hard to find people you can trust. You should have seen the children who were plotting to steal my zebra. You can trust me.”
The flames begin to climb once more as she feeds it. Distantly, she can hear the roar of a flame, far larger than the one here.
Kolyey thinks that she is making progress. She feeds the flame another magic point.
That makes it flare up more than the fuel, and as before it dies back more slowly.
“If you become my friend, I will be your friend and give you my energy from time to time.”
The next three days pass with learning what makes the fire burn most, and with getting tiny burns all over her hands, and with shooing away the diminutive bands of impala riders who follow just about everyone around, as if their herding instinct includes foreigners and Humakti.
Kolyey is woken before dawn once more, by the usual initiate. This time, he is not wearing a blindfold, but his eyes are painted over with black, and closed. “Hey, gifted of fire. You today will eat egg.” In his hand he has a tiny egg that might have come from a chicken, if the chicken were small indeed. “Big honour.”
Kolyey replies, “Thank you for the honor.” She will take the egg. “Is it cooked?”
“Not yet. Decide how for eating.” The eyes-closed initiate stands straight. “Only egg today. Think on egg.”
“I think I will just eat it now.” Kolyey carefully sucks the egg out of its shell. It’s the Praxian thing to do, she thinks.
He waits, thoughtful. “The shell is good decoration.” He seems to be waking up into speaking as the egg is sucked away, and he sounds more like himself now.
“I will save it.” Kolyey puts the eggshell next to the rest of her gear. She gets into very minimal clothing and says, “I am ready.”
He turns to walk off, tapping his way with the stick.
Soon they are back in the room with the brazier. There the Sword is waiting in meditation. The brazier is burning low, but the flame is there.
Kolyey bows to the Sword, then smiles and waves at the flame.
The man smiles in approval. “Today you eat only of the sun. Touch the flame and try to form it. This will hurt.”
Kolyey replies,”Yes, Sword.” She takes a deep breath, braces herself for the pain and touches the flame. She visualizes a small ball of fire.7Pass POWx3
The flame wobbles into a circle and then begins to die down. “Feed it. Do again.”
It did hurt, but not as much as Kolyey expected.
Kolyey feeds the flames and does that again.
After watching for a little, the Sword says, “Mm. Enough round. Make sharp. Away from you.”
Kolyey nods. This time she thinks of a sword of fire.8Fails POWx3
The shape quivers, and falters, and then there is just the flame. Her finger is on fire.
Kolyey tries not to yell. She thinks of the flame on her finger jumping back to the main fire.
“Shake it out,” the Sword says, and gets up with a sigh. “Praxian way. Always Praxian way.”
Kolyey shakes her hand until it’s not burning.
“Tell me. Think. Why bad to burn?”
Once her finger is not burning, Kolyey will feed the flame. “Because I burn and can die.”
“Yes. Praxian answer. Why use fire, then?” The Sword looks at her challengingly.
“Fire does things I can’t do.”
The man nods. “Yes. All tools good. Is a tool.”
“A powerful tool,” Kolyey says in response.
He relaxes a little. “Is a sword a tool?”
“Yes.”
“Is a sword anything else?”
Kolyey has to think that time. “It’s a symbol too.”
“And?” He comes close, offering an open pot to her. It smells of sharp herbs.
Kolyey takes the pot. “A sword is death and separation. As a tool, a sword is good at killing and separating.”
“For finger. Burn … batter.” He might mean butter, or paste. “Why am I Sword of Humakt?”
“Humakt chooses to be known by His favorite tool. A Sword of Humakt is a powerful tool in His hands.”
There is a dismissive sound. “No. But works, so yes.”
Kolyey puts some of the herbal remedy on her burnt fingers. She is still thinking hard.
The man is watching her. The salve is cool, and a little tingly on her burned skin.
“This is good. Thank you. Shall I shape the flame again?”
“Sword. Make a sword. Understand size.” He moves his hand, finds the word. “Shape.”
Kolyey nods. She reaches for the flame and holds the image of a broadsword of flame in her mind.9Fails POWx3
The shape forms and dies. “No,” says the Sword. “Just… blade. What for you want to hold flame?”
“To slay undead walktapi.”
“No, fool. That… no. Do not want to burn hand. So, just think, one shape. Blade that is fire. No handle. Away from hand.”
Kolyey nods and tries to do that.10Fail POWx3, but only just.
Now, at least the failure does not hurt. The flame breaks away from her, but goes out each time. almost instantly. Nevertheless, a small fire remains in the brazier.
“If you not get. Not udder stand. We have many days.”
Kolyey feeds the flames and tries again.11Pass POWx3
The man nods. “Pracite. Practice. All today, just that. Eat egg, think of Yelm and Oakfed. Command flame.”
“Yes, Sword.” Kolyey settles down to a long day of practice. She keeps the pot of salve handy.
“Tomorrow, show fire new home,” the Sword says. “Learn to use.”
Kolyey is woken by the same initiate as always, his eyes covered with a mask of chalk this time. “Good morning. Today, you eat nothing until you have succeeded. Please follow along.”
Kolyey replies, “Good morning,” and follows along. As usual now, she is wearing the bare minimum of clothing.
The Sword is waiting, standing in a cross-shaped posture, and looking like the pain is getting to him. “Good,” he says. “Join me. Be sword.”
Kolyey bows to the Sword, then adopts the same posture.
He drops out of it after a moment. “Within you, Air.”
He looks to the close-eyed initiate, and speaks in Praxian. The young man translates. “Within you-as-sword-shape is a place for the fire. Make that in you. Find it in you. Behind heart-bone, back of skull. It will be somewhere.”
Kolyey closes her eyes and concentrates on finding a space for the fire.
She becomes more conscious of her body, all the nicks and hungers and the old scars. Her muscles are well cared for. Her bones are good. Her shoulders are starting to hurt.
Kolyey feels the hollow space inside her skin. She thinks a warm space would be perfect. She feels around her heart until she feels the right space.12Passes STRx3 and POWx3. Kolyey can understand the thinking before she starts to get tired.
“Got? Good. Consider the place. Think how to move fire to sword. Dangerous. Place in body, place in sword.”
The initiate adds, “The great one says that when you move the flame, which you will do before you eat, you must move it to your sword, in the same place as the space inside you. We will cut onto you the marks for summoning it out once it is there. It lives within the sword and not inside you, but you will know it is there by the mark inside you.”
Kolyey draws her sword and places the flame on the beginning of the sword, just below the crosspiece. She tries to, anyway.13Fail POWx3
Every time she tries to move the flame, it dies down as it touches the sword, and it needs feeding up, and putting back into the brazier to rest. On its bed of ashes, unchanging unless she changes it, it looks as much like a tiny egg made out of fire, as a living flame.
Kolyey starts to get hungry. The Sword has not moved much, and has spoken only to tell her to keep trying. The initiate with chalk on his face is asleep in a corner of the room.
Kolyey begins to think of the eternal hunger of the flame. She wonders if behind her stomach would be a better place. Kolyey resolutely keeps trying, occasionally thinking of how good it would be to burn undead.14Passes Hate Undead but fails POW check it augments.
Her hunger is certain, her anger definite. The flame does not move into the sword. Time passes on, and she is offered water by the man watching her.
“Is no trick,” he says. “Just right feel. Flame into sword, like water into body.”
diry: Kolyey nods and pays attention to how drinking water feels. She then tries to pour the flame into the sword.15Passes POXx3!
The flame disappears, but for a moment she did think it was getting poured into something. She feels hot inside.
“Now, summon from within to sword. Give spirit.”
After a little bit of concentration on the space within her, Kolyey sees the flame spread up her sword. It goes slowly, learning the way, and when it is done the sword seems a slightly different shape. It is the boardsword she has been imagining for days, training the flame to be.16Pass POWx5 to cast Spirit Magic.
It is also hot, far more so than she recalls. This is not the mild little thing that needed only a salve and a few bits of straw. This is a furnace in the shape of Death’s blade, and the roar of blood in her ears is the roar of flame she heard when she took the tiny spirit from its home.
Kolyey shouts for joy!
“Hey! Concentrate. Keep flame.” The Sword is doing his best to be severe, but he did smile too. “Is sword. Show.” He draws his own, and a flame springs up it at a word from him.
Kolyey shuts up and concentrates on the flame.
“Fight. Slow.” He takes up a stance. “Feel.”
Kolyey nods and goes through the very first sword drill she was taught. She moves very slowly, keeping the flame on the blade.
He adds the parries, and lets each clash linger. The flames on each sword do not melt together, but stay in their own shapes. The feel of the blades touching is different. They are kept apart by pressure, or by will, and they could easily slide along each other. “Faster. Be used to blade. Practice now, sleep later.”
Kolyey nods and picks up the pace. She is still not fighting at her best speed.
When the drill is finished he nods, and sheathes his sword, which goes out as he moves it. “Now, keep flame.” Then he steps past the guard and hits her with his hand, without warning.
“Ow!” Kolyey does her best to keep the flame.17Passes INTx3
“Thank you, Sword!” Kolyey salutes him, sheathes her blade and hustles away in search of FOOD!
The darkness of the evening is faintly lightened by a grumpy-looking hawk stumping around the temple. “In my day we put more perches where they were needed.” It is being followed by a small crowd of impala children, some of whom have been painted with mud, enthusiastically rather than skillfully.
“I am sorry for that,” Kolyey says to the bird. “Shall I mention that to the High Sword?”
“Yes, I think you should,” it replies. “He needs to be told that Yelm wants more perches, and a sacrifice of fresh fish.”
“The high sword is asleep,” says one of the children.
“I will ask him for an audience when he wakes up, Sun Emperor.”
“Good. The lack of stars in this place is also wearing on me. Inform him that I demand stars.”
“I don’t think he can do that, Emperor, but I will mention it.”
“And a footstool.” The hawk draws itself up. Behind it, one of the children is creeping up with a tiny hood.
“And a- Don’t do that!” Kolyey shouts that last bit.
The hawk screeches and takes off, yelling, “DAWN!”
The child with the hood gives Kolyey a glare, and a rattle of Praxian. A tiny foot stamps.
“The last time that bird got mad, the sun didn’t rise here. There’s other birds.”
More shouting.
The one who can speak tradetalk says, “It is Yelm’s bed-time. He gets cross if he is up too late. How could you not know that?”
“I think he’ll sleep now if left alone.”
“No, he will complain about the state of his realm.”
From up in the rafters comes a lofty sigh. “I see the Sky Dome is in need of cleaning again.”
“If we all leave, he should sleep.” Kolyey tests the hypothesis by beginning to leave in the direction of food.
There is a lot of Praxian conversation, including some shouting from the hawk. One of the initiates takes the hood – it looks more like he will use it than a confiscation.
A few of the children start to tiptoe out, obviously.
Kolyey sighs and heads to the kitchen fires. At this point, just about any food will do.
The kitchen here is one big stone slab in an earth-floored room, on which fires are lit. There are a few children there as well, but they run away guiltily when Kolyey arrives, leaving their prize behind – a lump of pemmican wrapped in dried leaves.
Kolyey shakes her head. She scoops up the pemmican and offers it back to the cooks.
One of them is a short fat man who was sitting down pretending not to see the small people sneaking. He makes sure the pemmican is put where he can almost but not quite see it, and asks Kolyey, “Feed?”
“Please. I haven’t eaten all day.”
He finds her a soft-boiled root vegetable, and a bit of dried meat that stabs through it.
“Thank you.” Kolyey devours the food. “If you have fresh fish, Yelm-the-bird would like some of it.”18Fails Listen and does not notice the impala children sneaking back in.
“No speak trade-talk.” He shrugs. “Yelm no.” But companionably he picks up another of the roots, makes a hole in one end, and sucks out the innards in one go.
Kolyey asks in Heortling, “Do you speak this language?”
He does not even blink. “No speak trade-talk,” he repeats.
Kolyey shrugs, smiles and says in Tradetalk, “I need to learn Praxian.”
He offers her a second bit of meat, and then looks to where the pemmican no longer is, and nods in satisfaction. He points her towards the door, still smiling.
Kolyey accepts the meat, smiles and leaves. While eating the meat, Kolyey searches for her fellow Humakti.
The temple is closing down for the evening, with most of the children being chased out. Berra is meditating in the lay hall, where the toddlers have been removed.
“Commander,” says Kolyey, “I have two questions.”
Berra gives Kolyey a mild look. “If I ask you only to say one, can you choose between them?”
“Yes. Where can I safely practice fighting with a Fireblade?”
“In the open, where people can’t come up behind you by accident. And where people know you’re going to be. What’s the next?” Berra shifts comfortably, despite being in the lotus position. She is very stretch.
“How can I leave a message for the High Sword from Yelm-the-bird?”
“One of the people here, probably. Pay them a donation to the Temple for the message. You should also tip the initiate who was talking for the Sword. Give him something of value, even if it’s small. He did a favour for you.”
“Yes, Commander.” Kolyey begins to leave in search of other Humakti and an empty practice enclosure.
- 1GM rolls POWx3, to see how much it hurts, and how successful she might be.
- 2Fumbled First Aid.
- 3Kolyey fails Survival and does not get hints from the GM.
- 4Pass Insight (Human).
- 5Special on Death to augment Intimidate, which is a pass.
- 6GM: Charm, Orate, or a 1L gift.
Kolyey: 1 Lunar gift. - 7Pass POWx3
- 8Fails POWx3
- 9Fails POWx3
- 10Fail POWx3, but only just.
- 11Pass POWx3
- 12Passes STRx3 and POWx3. Kolyey can understand the thinking before she starts to get tired.
- 13Fail POWx3
- 14Passes Hate Undead but fails POW check it augments.
- 15Passes POXx3!
- 16Pass POWx5 to cast Spirit Magic.
- 17Passes INTx3
- 18Fails Listen and does not notice the impala children sneaking back in.
