Of Flowing Blood and Piercing Bones

A hand on her shoulder brought her out of her thoughts. She glanced behind her, a pale face dimly lit by the green fires around them.

"Sightseeing?" a feminine voice came from the woman behind her, long brown hair in a loose ponytail and a regal black dress worn over her lanky body.

"It's been a while, 7 years I suppose." she moved her hand from the flame, which centered itself back into position.

"Would you look at that- seems you've turned into an adult while I wasn't looking." The other woman moved towards the balcony door, opening it.

"You definitely haven't." See quickly calculated the number in her head-

This woman's parent's had died when she was 7, upon which she was forced to take up there duties with help from an adviser. That was also the time the first woman was sent away for her training, making the second one 3 years younger than her.

"It would seem you're only 14 yet." she moved into the halls of Magnhildr, the second woman leading her.

"Hush Ivory- there's a summit about to take place in the main hall." Ivory followed suit as she was led through the fortress. She always found her name amusing since she was a Blood Born.

She looked at the younger girl in front of her- she had upheld her duties and her parent's ideals despite being so young. Working her hardest to make people treat all citizens the same no matter what (a sentiment they shared). She grinned slightly as the girl ordered her to pay attention when they arrived at the summit.

"Yes, Duchess Menolia." Ivory walked beside her friend.

 

As they entered the main hall, Menolia grasped Ivory's hand and led her towards the stage, commanding her to stand by the steps leading up. Once she had settled the older girl into position, the young Duchess climbed onto the stage and bowed.

Several people bowed as well or showed some other form of respect.

"As you may or may not know..." Menolia sat down at her chair, the light catching of the two rings worn on opposite hands, red and white "There have recently been several border skirmishes on the allied realms surrounding Alcaeus."

After a few murmurs and whispers she continued "Eventually, they will be upon Alcaeus. It is unknown who the perpetrators are, but in time we will find out. Being one of the major magical cities- the capital Erebus has appointed us as one of the chief general domains. In layman's terms- we have been put in charge of certain plans and strategies."

A few hushed whispers came up about the Duchess' age and such, which she ignored expertly.

"Keeping in tradition- Each General domain is appointed 5 champions for the... ruler I suppose we can say, 2 mages and 3 soldiers. As you know- at the age of 10, all mages are sent off. We have called several of them back. The two champions are-" with a motion of her hand, a noble was called to deliver a parchment.

Unrolling it, she declared the two mages appointed by the capital as guards escorted them onto the stage, flanking Menolia on both sides-

"Erebus Sanguine- Lady Ivory, and Helfid Sanguine- Sir Alden."

An eruption of shouts emerged from the crowd about the illegitimacy of Alden and the fact that Ivory was not even partially of noble blood.

 

Ivory scampered up the steps to catch up with the guards, lost in her thoughts she had fallen behind. Taking her spot she watched some of the crowd scream of her non-noble birth. She cringed- was it true? Did she deserve a place here? The only reason she had come this far was because she was sent to Erebus. Which only happened because for the first few years of Menolia's life- Ivory's mother had been her personal caretaker.

She glanced at Alden beaming with pride and heard the screams of his illegitimacy. What if that was it? Just pity? What if they were only selected because of that?

She felt Menolia's hand slip into her own and gulped as the young Duchess raised the Champions' hands into the air.

"Feel free to say otherwise- But the words comes directly from the Capital." Menolia gave a stern stare at the crowd, her anger causing her nails and teeth to lengthen just a bit by accident "These Sanguine are the Champions of the Duchy Menodora." The two were sat down on simpler, yet still regal chairs beside the Duchess. The last 3 champions, plain soldiers, were called up and seated in a row in front of the Duchess and a bit beneath.

"If you detest this decision that much-" she growled "Then perhaps you would like to test the strength of our Sanguine Champions?" She stared at the crowd watching for any sign of anyone wanting to challenge either of her champions.

 

Unsure of what to do, she glared at the crowd- one of her 'talents' being that her nervous face looked more like an angry one. She thought hard on what to do in that one second- and then it struck her. Alden had used a vial. That was what most everyone did unless someone else had already cut them-

No one would ever purposely hurt themselves.

She inwardly grinned- this was something she could use. She mentally thanked her old mentor in Erebus for scolding her for not being willing to draw her own blood. She dare not speak- sure that anything to come out would ruin her intimidation.

Swiftly she raised her hand to her mouth and bit on her pointer finger- instantly drawing blood. She could see the shock on some of there faces as she pointed to the crowd, shooting a stream of blood to form into a dragons maw that she "animated" to roar at the crowd before pulling the blood back into her slowly, a few stray drop falling before her.

 

Menolia cleared her throat and pulled two small parchments from the hands of a noble behind her, sliding them to the two Champions beside her "As I was saying earlier- We have been appointed as a General Domain and put in charge of certain strategies and plans-"

She leaned forward slightly "Menodora is a powerful mage city- yet we are only 700 strong at the moment. Even the outer boundaries have over a 1000. And judging from your reactions to our champions- None of you are even so much as ready for combat."

"Honestly- You should be delighted we were appointed as a General Domain of combat- be grateful the monarchs have spared what would certainly be your deaths. I want all of you to go home and study your maps, books- everything! At least get your minds ready!"

The nobles nervously showed different signs of acknowledgement.

 

"That I am glad to hear, Sir Alden." Menolia grinned and motioned to a guard "I'm finishing the summit to hold the meeting with the Sanguine Champions- Make sure everyone in here is actually trying to learn something."

As she hopped off her chair and led the two champions to a private room, the noble began providing spare maps and texts to everyone leading them in the conversation.

Menolia opened up a small back room behind the main hall, sighing as only a single had been lit. Ivory dropped a bit of blood into the small candelabra, Menolia using a bone from her wrist to strike at the blood, creating the greenish fires that lit the duchy.

She swiftly placed a map on the table, unfurling it and hastily placing chess pieces onto the map. "The black pieces are us- the king and queen are on the capital, rooks on General Domains for attack, Bishops on General Domains for strategy, Knights on the remaining inner cities, and pawns are our borderlands."

She swept her hand across the south east border, placing white pieces as she went "The unknown enemy has begun moving up from the south east towards our center. Various border skirmishes have occurred in the outskirts of Nawl, Pteras, and Sein. The metal mines in Nawl were captured upon the duchy's defeat." she replaced the black peice with a white one "Sein managed to stay alive using there moderate magi population, the foes have no magic on there side. Half of Pteras has been captured and the mills are somehow being put to use."

She pointed to a spot to the north of Sein between it Pteras. A small duchy was flanked by hills on three sides and a dense forest on the southern end "This is Brisca. It was recently captured and turned into a fort of sorts. The close proximity to Sein has caused them to ask permission to charge- but the they are also close to Pteras, which is half captured. Journey over hills could take a while and the forest is, well dense. It's no different from a normal one other than that."

 

Menolia mulled over his words "A sound plan, I suppose."

She looked over the map again, specifically the surrounding of Brisca. The hills to the northern half and the dense forest to the south were particularly favorable if they had a creative plan.

"Ivory?" she mumbled trying to get the other champion involved.

"Er- well." Ivory went through a shelf quickly before hurrying back with a parchment "We have 700. Pteras is 1000. Sein is left with a measly 233. Nawl is 920. Brisca is 1390... If we liberate the captured half of Pteras, we'll lose about 200, but would gain at most 500."

"We become around 1000 for the north rush of Brisca. South troops from Sein would be small-" She stopped and looked at the map.

"Maybe..." she looked at the distance between each city "It would take around 5 days to get to Pteras. At least one day to finish there. And then 3 days to get to Brisca... which would be without the hills..."

"I think... Well no one is crazy enough to go over hills in a situation like this. But if we can have Sein come up from the south as planned and have them wait in the forest, setting up bone traps- we can climb the hills and rest at least a day up there. When given a signal Sein would spill out the south of the forest while we launch bones and blood shots at the fortress, another group running down the hills. The goal is to get them running through the forest where Sein has had enough time to trap all over. They would be substantially lowered in number when they got outside to face Sein, and we'd be behind."

 

"I believe..." Ivory looked over the map again "There is another way."

"Sein would come up from the south and block the exits from the forest by using there men and women to erect a large bone wall. Over the course of time it will take to get to Pteras, free it, and then head to Brisca the wall should be quite powerful. Intel says that the troops at Brisca are holed up inside the duchy, training and healing. I understand there is a general stuck in Pteras who is able to control the blood of others- if we can save him, he can slowly suck the blood out of the fortress' soldiers while they try and fail to escape."

 

"Wonderful." Menolia answered for Ivory "It's getting late now and I suggest you eat. And fast, there's work to be done in the morning."

Menolia hurriedly pushed them out sending a guard to lead them to the next floor as she ran back towards the main hall. The guard led them up the black steps to an ornate door. With a small needle he pricked each of our fingers before pressing a small stone into a slot and asking them to drip there blood onto the small candelabra placed beside the door, the door unlocking and the man stepping away while explaining that there blood on the candelabra would work like a key.

Inside was a medium sized table with an array of food and drink. There were about 10 candles lighting the walls. Two ornate beds on opposite sides in the back of the room, with a window around the middle of the space between them.

 

Ivory poured herself a cup of tea, not in the mood for anything else to drink at the moment, before getting herself a small plate of salad "Er, well- I'm Ivory Cruor. I'm not really of noble birth. The only reason I was able to be sent to Erebus was because of my mother, who most every just called Pin or Pinprick."

She smiled fondly as she sipped her tea "My mother was Menolia's personal caretaker. We weren't even nobles but somehow the old Duke and Duchess took a quite a liking to us. It was almost as soon as Menolia was born too- I was about 3. My mother died when I was 5 and the Duke and Duchess put me in the care of some maids. Other than my mother, Menolia knew me best so I was charged with helping in her care."

Ivory felt nostalgic at the thought of a 2 year old Menolia trying to pull Ivory towards her with small little hands "I remember she couldn't say my whole name and called me Ry. It ended up becoming a habit she kept until, I suppose, I left 7 years ago."