<HTML> **** Thryza grimaced as she cast her gaze around the barracks hall. She couldn't see much from her perspective, but her aura-sight told her just what she had suspected: Nasoj's forces were losing, and badly. And worst of all, she still hadn't spotted the Lightbringers who had killed her students. "Damn it, Lothanasi, where are you?" she muttered, caving in the chest of an approaching Keeper with a quick right fist. The man sunk to the floor in silent agony, and she kicked his head contemptuously, snapping his neck. The fool never should have tried to take her alone, she thought, wondering why all of the worthier opponents seemed to be ignoring her. As if in reply, a challenging shout echoed over the crowd. "Moranasi!" She spun around to see the raccoon she'd fought yesterday, his whole body drenched with blood. He was approaching her now with death in his eyes. Smiling, Thryza brought her own sword to the ready. "Let's finish what we started, eh, Shadow Bringer?" the coon said. "Happily," Thryza replied, loosing a quick right slash. The dark warrior stopped her blow easily, and countered with one of his own. The ensuing duel was intense, brutal, and vicious, with neither of them holding back. The power of Revonos flowed through Thryza's limbs, as she dealt him blows that normally shattered swords and severed arms; but the warrior's sword was imbued with some sort of powerful magic that shrugged off even her hardest strikes, and he countered with attacks so strong that they could only have been empowered by Dokorath himself. The man bared his teeth savagely, reveling in the conflict, as their lethal dance spiraled all across the barracks. "You're good," Thryza remarked off-handedly, feinting to the right. The raccoon followed her movement just a split-second too long, and she gestured toward his sword arm with her free hand. With a few muttered syllables the warrior's hand spasmed, causing him to drop his sword. " 'Tis a pity I have to kill you." She swung her blade in an arc toward his neck- And in a flash, he reached out and grabbed it in both hands. With surprising strength -- the war-god's blessing again, no doubt -- he tore it from her grasp in an instant, then drove a fist hard into her nose. The dark priestess flew backward under the impact, but she rolled with the fall until she came up in a kneeling posture. The raccoon was waiting, though, and with an outstretched palm he drove a sizzling green ball of energy into her chest. Thryza reeled under the impact, momentarily stunned. She tried to project another spasm-spell at the battlemage, but he resisted its effects and kept advancing, armed with her own sword. Shaking off the effects of the energy bolt, she rose to her feet, just as he thrust the sword-tip into her belly... Only to find that it stopped against her flesh as if it were solid rock. Thryza smirked. "My sword," she pointed out, slamming her palms against his chest. There was a loud _crack_ of broken ribs as the warrior flew back bodily to crash against a stone pillar. He crumpled to the floor with a sound halfway between a grunt and a moan. As she swaggered towards him, she noticed that he seemed to have worn down badly -- this time, he'd only gotten to his knees by the time she reached him. He looked up at her with a stunned, glazed-over expression in his eyes. "Such a handsome boy," Thryza purred, running her fingers through the fur on his head. "Maybe I won't kill you, after all. You'd make such a wonderful slave..." She stretched out her mind toward his, already weaving the charm-spell... Then snapped back as if she'd been bitten. Her vision went dark and blurry, as a sudden vertigo struck her body. In her fragmented and disoriented aura-sight, she could see a strange amulet glowing red beneath his armor. "Sorry, already taken," he growled, producing a dagger from his belt and driving it into her chest. Thryza looked down in astonishment at the ornamented handle protruding from her sternum. That was magical armor she was wearing beneath her cloak! She coughed, feeling the unpleasant sensation of blood filling her lungs. Dizzily, she raised her hands upwards. "Herumor, nai nuvan mornie!" she gasped. There was a sound like thunder, and a cloud of smoke rose up around the Moranasi, choking the battlemage with its foul scent. Then there was a pulsation of darkness, and Thryza's flesh, blood and bones melted away into nothingness -- until only a living shadow remained. The dagger fell to the floor with a muffled clang, surrounded by the black and silver garments of the Moranasi. The raccoon swore in amazement as Adept Mistress Thryza turned glowing red eyes toward him, ethereal claws flashing like silver daggers. He dodged and rolled out of the way, recovered his sword, and rose to his feet, the rune-carved blade at the ready. Thryza was mildly curious as to whether that mystical sword of his could actually harm her in her present form, but there was no time for her to find out. Now that she had used the wraith-spell, it would not be long before she attracted the attention of Metamor herself. "Polteen!" she cried, her voice echoing across the hall like a banshee's wail. "Come on!" There was another puff of smoke on the other side of the room, and within seconds the two Moranasi had vanished into the shadows on the ceiling above, leaving the raccoon battlemage behind. They floated through the stones of the castle effortlessly, racing toward the north wall and the freedom beyond it. Thryza found herself pondering what the Dark Prince would say to Nasoj when he was forced to give an account for this miserable failure. Perhaps he would torture the wizard -- that could prove quite entertaining, indeed. Thryza was just beginning to picture Nasoj writhing in agony in the pits of the Ninth Hell when she and Polteen passed out of the rock and into an open room. A room that abruptly flared brilliant white from every direction. Thryza hissed and covered her eyes, blinded by the divine light that emanated from the very stones. Futilely she threw her wraithlike body against the walls, but with no shadows present there was no way for her to slip through. She tried to summon a darkness spell, but she was already weakened from the battle -- and maintaining her wraith form was already taxing her energy reserves. As her eyes finally grew more accustomed to the brightness, she noticed that Polteen was having the same sort of trouble that she was. Then she heard the awful, piercing metallic sound of mithril sliding out of its sheath. She turned, and a chill of fear ran through her as she saw the Lightbringers -- wolf-woman and cat-child -- bearing towards her, swords flashing in the too-bright light. Treachery ~0~ Shadows and Light Merai held her divinely-blessed sword at the ready and tried not to show any fear. The two forms floating before them, just a few yards away, were nightmarish and menacing: though nearly human in form, they seemed to be made of darkness itself, and their eyes glowed an unearthly red. Ethereal claws flashed like daggers at the tips of long, distended fingers, each looking like it could eviscerate a man in seconds. For all their terror, though, Merai could see that these Shadow Bringers were weakened and vulnerable, their fatigue made clear by her aura-sight. That, at least, filled her with a measure of confidence, bolstering her mind against the animalistic fear she felt at the sight of such unnatural beings. She glanced at the elder priestess beside her, and the subtle motions of Raven's eyes made it clear: Merai was to face the one who had been a woman, while the Lothanasa herself dealt with the Grand Master. No words were spoken as the two sides warily approached each other; there could be no surrender in this battle and no retreat, and melodramatic speeches would only waste time and breath. The Moranasi struck first, rushing with blinding speed at the Lightbringers' throats. Dokorath's blessing held firm, though, and both Raven and Merai stopped their claws with a swing of their blades. Merai focused in on her opponent, forgetting for the moment about Raven and the Grand Master and concentrating solely on the shadowy, vaguely female shape before her. The she-wraith swung her claws in three quick swipes before Merai stopped her momentum and countered with an attack of her own. The shadowy mass before her felt firm but pliable as she struck at it, like leather armor, and in a flash of insight Merai saw the shields that surrounded her opponent's body. Those shields required force of will to maintain, and in time could be battered down. "A nicacce!" the wraith hissed, spreading her palm toward Merai. A sudden, icy chill shot through the cat-woman's body, freezing her from inside out. She went rigid, feeling her innards turn to ice. "N-nai nuva y-yaja!" Merai gasped, teeth chattering. Instantly an aura of fire sprang up around her, countering the freeze-spell and restoring her body to normal. Gritting her teeth, she struck out at the Moranasi again, knowing the dark cleric had just wasted a portion of her precious energy reserves. Silently, she thanked the gods that Raven had been teaching her Yajiit's proxy spells. Stealing a glance across the room, Merai saw that the battle between Raven and the Grand Master had been vicious: Raven's leather armor was largely shredded, and the fur on her arms and legs was matted in several places with blood. At the same time, the chief Moranasi seemed heavily battered: his shadowy form was significantly faded in many spots, and his "body" was leaking smoke like a censer-pot. Both were fighting like wild animals, attacking and counterattacking with blistering speed. From a quick glance at their auras, though, it seemed clear to Merai that Raven was gaining the upper hand. Merai's attentions were brought jarringly back into focus by a slash of her opponent's claws, slicing through her sword hand. Merai shrieked in pain as the blade fell to the floor, backed away from the attacking claws, then pushed the wraith away from her with a shield spell. The sword now lay several feet away, behind the advancing Moranasi. Biting back a curse, Merai stretched out her hand. "Yajiit, a nasa yaja!" she cried. A blast of flame about a hand-span wide shot from her fingertips, but the fire jet passed through the wraith with no apparent effect. The unholy creature seemed to be laughing. "So that's the way it is, is it?" Merai muttered. "Fine, then..." The young priestess stood her ground, staring the Shadow Bringer straight in her flame-red eyes. Then, steeling her will, she drove her consciousness down like a dagger into her enemy's mind. ~0~ Merai found herself "standing", after a fashion, in the midst of a swirling torrent of hatred. Pushing further in, she saw ground below her -- the solid terrain of conscious thought. In the Moranasi's mind, that ground was bare and hard, devoid of growth or beauty, like the deserts she had read about from time to time. She settled lightly to earth, eyes and ears alert for danger, tail flicking back and forth in anticipation. She didn't have long to wait. The dust in front of her swirled together, driven by the winds blowing around her, and coalesced into the form of a short, red-haired woman with angry, defiant eyes. This deep inside her mind, Merai saw the woman's identity in an instant: Adept Mistress Thryza, the sixth child of Mordeloth Blackhand and right-hand aide to Grand Master Polteen. The Moranasi was proud of her titles, proud of the fear her name instilled in her homeland -- and, at the moment, utterly livid with Merai hin'Dana. "Get out of my head!" she growled, lunging at the young priestess. Merai, feeling for the first time like she was actually in control of things, nimbly stepped aside, tripping up the enraged Shadow Bringer and slashing her arm with a swipe of her feline claws. Thryza landed hard, looked down at her bleeding arm, then looked back up at Merai with an expression of surprise mixed with silent fury. "Don't ask me to explain it," Merai shrugged, her confidence strengthened by the discovery that Thryza was unfamiliar with this sort of battleground. Evidently Prince Ba'al taught his students to focus more outwardly than inwardly, to project their anger at external targets rather than to turn their observations toward themselves. That gave Merai the advantage: if there was one thing that Raven had taught her in her short time as a Lightbringer, it was to remain centered. "Nolalye sulelya", or "Know Thyself", was one of the prime commandments of the Lothanasi; fortunately, that did not seem to be the case for their counterparts. Thryza rose to her feet again, panting, her fists clenching and unclenching as she stared at the intruder in her mind. Merai settled into a fighting stance, claws out, and beckoned to the dark cleric. "What are you waiting for?" she asked, quietly but with a slight edge to her voice. The red-headed woman took the bait. She stepped quickly forward, fists raised, and let loose a flurry of punches at Merai. The cat-woman blocked or dodged most of them, then darted in with a few quick jabs of her own -- each one careful, deliberate, measured. She ducked under one of Thryza's swings and raked her claws across the woman's belly, leaving deep gouges in that soft and tender flesh. The tempest above them roared with thunder as lightning-flashes of anger split the sky, and though the wind blew hard against her Merai held her ground. Thryza howled in rage and hit Merai with a straight right punch to the face, which sent her flying backwards to land roughly on the barren ground. The priestess was up in a moment, and she sensed a ripple of disappointment in the storm around her; evidently, Thryza had been expecting the blow to shatter Merai's skull. "Your strength won't help you here," Merai said, wiping the blood from her nose. In truth, it probably _would_ help the Moranasi a little, simply because it would grant her more confidence in herself. But Merai was attacking her psychologically, and the more uncertainty she could sow in Thryza's mind the easier it would be to defeat her. Merai met her opponent halfway in the next attack, a quick exchange of blows that left both of them bruised and bloodied. They grappled with each other's arms, twisting this way and that in an effort to get some leverage, before both toppled to the ground in a tangle of limbs. Thryza bit, kicked and scratched like a wild beast, and Merai responded with carefully placed blows and measured swipes of her claws. Even as the Moranasi became more desperate and heated in her attacks, the Lightbringer became cool, almost emotionless, filled with a determination as rigid and cold as iron. It was a very different feeling for Merai, but it seemed so inexpressibly _right_ -- as if she had always known, at the very core of her being, what she would have to do in order to win this battle. Rolling until she was on top, Thryza pounded downwards at Merai's face -- but Merai caught her wrist and pulled the punch wide. Digging in her claws, she pulled roughly away from the dark cleric's hand, slitting the woman's wrist in a long, ragged gash. Boxing Thryza's ears, Merai rolled again until she was on top, and with two quick swipes she shredded the woman's dull black tunic to ribbons. It was a symbolic act, representing vulnerability, exposure, and the loss of identity, and the damage it did to Thryza's avatar was reflected in the surrounding landscape: the storm overhead grew darker and more violent, and the earth beneath them rumbled as cracks began to form in its surface. The Moranasi's consciousness was beginning to come apart at the seams under Merai's relentless assault. "Who are you?" Merai asked her, tearing away the shreds of fabric to leave Thryza naked and exposed on the rock. "I am Thryza!" the woman shouted, getting her arm free and punching Merai in the chin. "I am Moranasi!" Focusing past the pain -- after all, it was all in her mind, she thought -- Merai spit out blood and pinned down the woman's arm again. Trapping one of the Moranasi's fists under her knee, Merai quickly slashed a twin-cross on the woman's chest with her claws. It was another deliberate act, "branding" the redhead's avatar with the symbol of her most hated enemy. "Are you really Moranasi?" she replied calmly, holding Thryza firmly in place. "Yes!" Thryza shouted. "Then where are your robes?" "You took them!" she screamed. In her eyes, though, Merai saw a flicker of uncertainty mixed with the rage. The ground trembled, and the cracks around them began to open wider. "You don't look like Moranasi to me," Merai said firmly, locking eyes with the other woman. "You wear the symbol of the Lightbringers on your chest." "No! You lie!" "Look for yourself." Merai gave the other woman just enough slack to let her raise her head and see the bloody twin-cross that the Lightbringer had carved in her chest. "No!" Thryza shouted, struggling to free her arms. "Get it off! Get it off!" "It is a part of you," Merai said simply. "It is who you are." "NO!" Another tremor, and the cracks spread into crevasses around them, jagged and unfathomably deep. "I am Moranasi! I am Adept Mistress Thryza!" Merai scoffed. "You aren't an Adept Mistress," she said. "An Adept Mistress would never wear the mark of the Lightbringers. And an Adept Mistress wears black and silver robes." "I have robes!" "You are naked." "I _had_ robes!" "Where are they?" "I -- I --" The rocks groaned again, and now there was a canyon just a few feet away from them, so deep that the bottom -- if there was one -- was obscured in solid black. Merai leaned in close to Thryza's ear. "You have no robes," she said quietly. "You have no robes, because you are not an Adept Mistress." "I -- I'm ... not?" "No, you are not," Merai said, her voice firm. "You are not an Adept Mistress. You are not Moranasi. You are nothing but a naked woman with the mark of the Lothanasi on your chest." "No!" Thryza insisted, tears of fear and desperation filling her eyes. "I am! I am!" "You are _what?"_ "I am ... I am ... Thryza! I am Thryza!" "Who is Thryza?" Merai asked. "It is only a name. What does it mean?" "It means ... it ... I ..." The woman was sobbing uncontrollably. The canyon widened yet again, and now she and Merai lay at its very brink. The winds of the storm howled even in the bottomless chasm below -- a tempest of pure, uncontrolled emotion. "I shall tell you what it means," Merai said forcefully. "Thryza is a helpless, naked, defenseless woman who wears the mark of the Lothanasi!" Thryza shook her head violently, barely able even to speak amidst her shuddering sobs. Merai loosened her grip on her hands, and the woman pulled away from her like a frightened animal. "No! Go away! Go away!" she cried, pushing weakly on Merai's chest. Finding that she couldn't move that way, she pushed with her feet against the rocky soil, bringing herself and Merai closer to the edge of the cliff. "Don't run, Thryza!" Merai all but yelled in her ear. "We can help you! After all, you wear the sign of the Lightbringers, so you must be one of our own! We will take care of you, poor, helpless, vulnerable Thryza!" "No!" Summoning more strength than Merai would have thought possible in her current state, Thryza pushed the cat-woman off of her. "You stay away! I'm not one of you!" She was edging backward, sheer terror in her eyes, not even noticing the chasm behind her. "Aye, you are, Thryza!" Merai insisted, holding out her hand to the frightened woman. "You are Lothanasi! Look at the mark! What else could you possibly be?" Thryza backed away even further. "I am ... I am--" And then, abruptly, there was no more ground behind her -- and Thryza fell tumbling into the bottomless depths of insanity. "I am!" she shouted, her voice echoing off the walls of the chasm. "I am! I am! I am!" And then she vanished from sight. Instantly, the ground beneath Merai crumbled to dust, Thryza's consciousness shattering in the wake of her fall into madness. With a thought, Merai propelled herself away from the disintegrating landscape, back into the storm of emotions raging above. She felt her mind twist sharply to the right, spiraling outward-- And then she was back in her own body, as Thryza -- once again in human form -- collapsed numbly to the floor. "I see you survived your trip." Merai looked up to see Raven standing beside her, Elemacil in its sheath. "The Grand Master?" she asked. "Dead," Raven assured her. "He vanished like a puff of smoke. And his adept will soon be joining him." Merai looked at the Lothanasa in shock. "Is it truly right to kill her like this?" she asked, incredulous. "There is nothing left of her but madness!" "We do not have to kill her, Merai," Raven said, putting a hand on the younger woman's shoulder. "For good or ill, that decision has already been made for us." "What do you--?" Merai turned, looking at the crumpled form of Adept Mistress Thryza, and suddenly saw what Raven meant: there was a grave-looking knife wound between the woman's breasts, which Merai's aura-sight revealed had pierced the woman's heart. Even now her life force was ebbing; in another minute or two, she would be dead. "Someone must have dealt her that blow before she changed," Raven said. "In her weakened state, her body apparently returned to the condition it had been in before, wounds and all. I suppose they must have some way of restoring themselves when they return to human form, but after you defeated her from within..." "There was nothing left of her mind to put her back together again properly," Merai said soberly. " 'Tis sad. For a moment there, I truly believed that we might help her to find a new life. One free of all the hate that she had been raised in." "It is sad," Raven agreed. "But it is also just. She killed many in the pursuit of personal gain, and she was an accessory to the murder of countless others. She has paid the price for her actions." Merai nodded, eyes still fixed on the dying woman before her. "I understand," she said softly. "But it is still ... so very hard." "May the gods help us if playing the executioner ever becomes easy," Raven said. "Now, come. Let us see what has become of the others." Turning away from the fallen Shadow Bringer, the two priestesses took the door that Kyia had provided and began walking towards the barracks hall. Behind them, the glow of the stones faded into darkness, and all was silent. ***** End part 74 </HTML>