Irna looked at the woman entering the dark alley. It was not the place a lone good-looking woman should chance alone. This particular stranger wore a nondescript set of clothes not betraying any allegiance. She was hidden under a coat, but still revealed enough of her beautiful form to draw gazes. Irna doubted that any part of her appearance was a coincidence. She walked with a steady and graceful step that almost something feline and predatory about it, making Irna feel uncomfortable.
Narstar said: "Hey beauty, this is a dead end for you." The woman was more confident than she should be in those circumstances and simply ignored him. He gave the sign for us to surround her, something she did not seem to notice. There was nothing to worry about, Irna reminded herself. Everything works as usual and she does not even spent any time surveying her surroundings. They had found an easy victim and the battle would be over before it really began.
What made Irna so jittery then?
The stranger was not overconfident. Her step and her stride where the assured movements of someone who was dangerous and knew it. She did not need to show everyone that she was dangerous. Her appearance made obvious that she could not be a member of Mishima, but there had to be something. Who else was good at close combat? Narstar came to the same conclusion, but he gave the attack sign anyway. This was a dangerous gamble, but Irna decided to be part of it. The gang leapt at her with drawn knives, but they hit only each other. Irna stood there, aiming a gun at the stranger's head.
The stranger took hold of Irna's wrist and tossed her at the next wall, where she slid down and stared at the unfolding fight. The stranger had drawn a blade in the blink of an eye. She parried the attack of a strong man with unnerving ease. Another attack glanced off her coat, obviously reinforced as armour. Irna was stabbed by pain and her vision became hazy. Several of her ribs had to be broken. She drew a ragged breath, explosions of liquid fire rippling through her body. It cost her all of her strength to keep her body from convulsing and do even more damage to itself. She tried to call for the elusive pool of Light within her, but she could not find its strength, unable to concentrate.
Irna heard one of the gang member stammer something that sounded like "spare me", but she was not sure. The rest of the words where swallowed by a gunshot and an explosion of flesh that was not human. Someone accused the stranger: "Bitch, you killed her." Narstar looked at Irna then he faced the stranger, looking at her expectantly. He drew his sword as more cloaked figures shuffled into the alley. The woman was already walking to Irna's position, taking stock of her injuries.
She asked Irna: "Do you think your time has come?" Irna shook her head weakly and said: "No." The stranger touched Irna's sternum and healing energy surged through the body, reknitting flesh and bone into a whole that was as good as though it had never been damaged. Finally Irna found the source of Light within herself, but she did not need to touch it now, for the stranger's healing power was incredible. She had to be a member of the Brotherhood. Irna smiled at her and said: "We have problems for some time. It was time the brotherhood sent someone to investigate and take care of the problem." She had spoken in a low voice that would not carry far.
Another squad of undead lead by a necromutant entered the alley. The stranger turned and killed the leader of the undead before anyone else could react. She sheathed the sword that had been lying on the ground at Irna's side and helped the woman to her feet. She asked: "Do you have a heavy weapon? Usually there are at least five times as many, where those undead came from." Irna nodded and sighed while she ran to a pile of debris, that did not look like any different from many others. Neither female made any sound while moving. "You will make a good mortificator", the stranger said gently. Irna smiled and said: "Maybe I am already more than that. One day I want to be a great Assassini hero like Xira Zarstar."
The stranger smiled a strange, knowing and somewhat sad smile. She said: "You are almost as optimistic as me." Irna removed several heavy pieces of stone and metal and a bloodstained blanket. She positioned herself behind the machine gun and stiffened, as someone tried to control her body. She struggled again to find her fleeting and capricious source of Light to fend off the foul attack, but her defences did not seem to be able to hold against the power she was facing. Again the stranger saved her, using her incredible ability of the Art to shield Irna's mind. Irna smiled thankfully, while aiming the machine gun at the undead, now taking their command from the other gang members, dark heretics. She said: "We hoped they would notice the error of their ways with a little guidance."
The heavy gun began its song of death. Explosions of shots mingling with the clattering of empty shells on the floor and the bursting of dry bones into thousands of fragments. The wet sound when human flesh was hit and the person splattered all over the floor and wall counterpointed the rest of the sounds on occasion. The stranger said: "I will take care of the nepharite. Do not worry about me. I am supposed to so this." Irna reloaded her gun and nodded in acknowledgement. "Typical brotherhood coward", one of the heretics said. "Claim they are the Light and turn tail when it gets close." Irna knew that the man could not be more wrong. The stranger would rather fall fighting the darkness than flee from a battle.
When Irna had to reload her weapon another time, she looked down into the alley where she thought the other female had gone. The tip of a blade pierced through the creature's breast and its horned head flew away, trailing slime. The swords where crackling with vibrant white energy that had to be magic. Among the nepharite's guards the woman danced with deadly grace, killing them. Irna turned to her own battle and blew necromutants and undead legionaires away.
A nerve wracking screech made her stop. Irna turned to the other woman and saw the twin pretorian stalkers with their blazing guns. The stranger was already charging them with her twin blades and the attack seemed to stop for the time being. Irna closed her eyes and steadied her breath. Three heartbeats later she opened fire. She cursed as a bullet ripped through her shoulder, her body exploding with another wave of agony. She held on with gritted teeth and continued to fire.
She wondered how much time she would have to spend on concentrating on the source within her to heal the wound and if she had the time. Irna realised that she did not even have to wait. The energy flooded her out of its own accord and a bolt of white energy surged through her wound, healing it in an instant. She looked at her shoulder for a moment to be sure that the wound was gone. It was not a result of superfluous healing energy from the powerful Brotherhood warrior, but a manifestation of her own unreliable power. Light, one day she had to learn controlling it.
The unnerving screech of a heavy necrotech weapon firing made her stop again and she looked at the stalkers. One of them was left, while the other lay on the floor bleeding slime. It had almost been split into half by the force of a titan. The pavement splintered and burst where it was hit, spraying the area with stone shrapnel. Fortunately there was nobody to be hit by the bullets or splinters caused by the second stalker bleeding from a deep wound in its breast and belly.
Suddenly the stalker's eyes widened, his bullets almost reaching Narstar, his boots already surrounded by the dust of recently disintegrated stone. The creature stumbled another step, loosing its hold on the trigger for some reason. Finally it dropped to the floor, shaking it by the force of its impact.
At the same time another group of undead charged into the alley lead by a dark centurion. Irna reloaded and started to fire again, splintering the undead into tiny bone fragments to reach the leader, who was this time behind his troops. As the undead where gone, the centurion had a face smashed to pulp and collapsed to the floor, clutching its own head in disbelief. The stranger was standing there, just now holding her gun for a moment, the wind blowing her coat. Then she holstered the weapon and her sword disappeared. Irna thought she saw a spearcross engraved into the pistol.
She walked to the three remaining humans and stayed Narstar's hand. He just wanted to decapitate the last of the heretics. She pulled him to her with more than gentle force and made him look at the carnage. He screamed: "What do you want?" The stranger said: "This is what you are fighting for, what you want to become? Do you want to these abominations to overrun all of us?" He went limp and the stranger put him down into a sitting position. She continued her little speech: "No-one in her right mind supports the Dark Legion. They may outnumber us, but we make up in skill." The poor man collapsed, having endured too much.
"Why did you leave him alive?", Narstar asked. "I have sown the seeds of doubt in his mind. If he understands their meaning, he will seek out the next cathedral to be cleansed and maybe even join. If he returns to the darkness, he will be killed. I have left a mystical mark on him, that he will always be seen as one of us by the dark symmetry, so we can be sure, they will kill him. An undead legionnaire might resemble him in some future battle, if he choses the wrong way." The stranger shrugged and said: "One more or less does not matter a lot. We are always badly outnumbered. I think this time it is worth the risk. He was not obsessed by the dark soul, he just looked for power the wrong way, but did not get any. I think he will see the truth."
Irna and Narstar exchanged a loving gaze and looked at the stranger. She said: "Looks like you saved our lives. A nepharite and two stalkers. That was more than I ever expected." The stranger nodded and said: "You know who I am. I wonder if you still want to go the way you have chosen." She nodded and said: "Yes. People like you give us hope." The stranger agreed and looked at both of them. "I recommend to go to the next cathedral. If you have not already done so, you should join the Brotherhood. Maybe you will even live to become a member of the furies.
"If anyone asks stupid questions, tell them that Xira Zarstar sent you", the stranger said. Irna looked at the stranger for some time, finally realising that she was facing her hero in person. Xira ignored the gaze and said: "Read the chronicles, until you understand their meaning beyond the words. Never repeat, write or paraphrase anything of the chronicles. The penalty is death." Both gazes followed the Assassini warrior for some time. Finally Irna broke the silence and asked: "What are we going to do?"
"I do not know about you, but I should go to the next cathedral." Irna nodded and said: "It is about time I returned." They looked at each other for some time and Irna started to walk to the nimrod to pick it up. A red armoured and robed figure appeared out of the shadows and said: "You did not really mean what you said. Irna calmly said: "Actually I do. Just by the way, have you ever seen a brotherhood assassin shadowcharge?"
"No. It was the first time", the man agreed. "This woman gives me creeps." Irna shrugged and said: "It is said that she makes even the dark apostles afraid, but that might be exaggerated." The man nodded and said: "Nice to know, but this does not change your situation." He drew a blade and attacked without warning. Irna parried with her punisher short sword, that had still been sheathed only a fraction of a moment before. She was not as experienced and powerful as Xira, but she was a good warrior in her own right and she had not been instructed by the deathbringer. He had to realise that he had badly underestimated his opponent.
He wanted to reach for his gun, but he was too busy defending himself from a dazzling assault from an opponent who held a pistol in her off hand. She presented only a flank to him, so that he had to break her defenses first. Her lightening speed of her blade prevented him from doing anything except keeping it away from his body. She paused only a moment and he drew his gun to shot her. Deathbringers had no honour. Something hard hit his hand and numbed it. The gun fell to the floor cleanly cut into two halves.
This attack left a hole in his opponent's defences, but he was not fast enough to exploit it. Irna's punisher leapt back and forth with dazzling speed. Several minutes only the sound of steel ringing on steel filled the alley, then it was followed by the sound of steel ringing on stone, when the female disarmed the deathbringer. She asked calmly: "Do you want to know what your brain looks like on the wall behind you?" The deathbringer looked at the business end of her weapon, trying to focus on her instead, but finding himself incapable of doing so. Finally he picked up his sword and disappeared, leaving the useless remains of the gun behind.
Irna had not even started to sweat. Narstar said: "I never knew you where that good with a blade." A wicked smile curved Irna's lips. She said: "I have long ago learned to work in the shadows. My gun is silenced and my sword poisoned." She looked at him and said: "I have to return to San Dorado cathedral. Are you going with me?" He nodded and said: "There is more darkness here." Irna said: "I know. It is not our battle. I for one want to be far away from a battle where the cardinal sends his best killers." She smiled sadly and said: "There is more darkness everywhere, but you cannot fight it all in a single day."
"Besides, Xira has her own entourage of furies elite guards, she has trained to be specialists at infiltration and stealth. In addition she is usually accompanied by grand inquisitor Zolar Dreamfire, a man of similar power and reputation. Some say that they could take on Algeroth himself and live to tell the tale." Narstar nodded thoughtfully and said: "I have heard that there is something important around here, a chief nefarite or one of the dark apostles themselves." He looked around uncomfortable and said: "Maybe this is too much for us to handle." Irna nodded and said: "Definitely."
Narstar nodded and looked at her quizzically. Irna said: "There should be a transport waiting for us, when we arrive at the rendezvous point." She looked at their nimrod and said: "Would you do me a favour and carry it? It is a little ungainly in the shadows." He picked up the heavy weapon and wondered that Irna was still visible. She said: "Do not worry about me. I will be somewhere nearby." He felt more uncomfortable than she had expected and showed it.
"We look like we are marching right into a warzone", he said. Irna corrected: "Out of a warzone. If we have to fight, be careful with the ammo. I used most of it up in this battle." Narstar nodded in acknowledgement. He did not expect an answer, seeing that Irna had vanished. The knowledge of her presence reassured him. When they came to know each other, her sneakiness had made him nervous. Now it was reassuring to know that a friend was watching over him. She was far more than only a friend to him.
Almost as he had expect, a Mishima samurai stopped him. "Where are you going with this gun?", he asked. Narstar replied calmly: "I am leaving thin place." The samurai looked at the weapon and asked: "What did you do with the ammo?" Narstar stayed calm and said: "We had a nasty encounter with the Dark Legion. I was lucky that a brotherhood Assassini chopped the nefarite and the pretorians up." The samurai said: "You do not look like you have been in a battle recently." Narsatar said: "Undead do not bleed." The samurai insisted: "You are just talking."
"No I am not", Narstar said. He was as insistent as the samurai. He pointed at the cloaked figures behind the other man. They walked with the shuffling steps of undead legionnaires, while others where the hulking figures of necrumutants and possibly a centurion or two. All of them showed their necrotech weapons, making the disguise pointless. "If Mishima does not use kratachs", Narstar said, "You are in serious trouble." Of course the samurai thought he was going to be tricked by the oldest trick in the worlds, but he turned his head anyway. He just managed to dive to the floor in time to avoid being ripped to pieces by the whining bullets. Narstar dropped to the floor and braced his nimrod.
Several samurai hidden among the crowd reacted and started to fire their shoguns at the unbidden guests. None of them had the devastating effect of the Bauhaus produced nimrod. Narstar knew, why he had spent the extra money to get the best machine gun in the world. Unfortunately Irna had already used up most of the ammunition in the last battle. Still he managed to slay three squads of undead and their leaders. Then a heavily armed razide stalked into the fray, easily killing the samurai with its nazgaroth. Narstar cursed and aimed at the foul creature. He fervently hoped that he could blast it to pieces before it could make him out as a target.
The metallic hide of the artificial creature scattered into all directions like shrapnel. A moment later fleshy mass, metallic tubes, bones, slime and disgusting green blood was all left of the creature. The nimrod was empty and Narstar reached for the last belt of ammo left. Before his hand made all the way, he saw something in the corner of his eye and turned. A masked creature holding a sword glowing with evil runes ran into his direction. The shoulder pads showed the triangular sign of Ilian. Narstar barely managed to roll out of the way to avoid the charge. Desperately he reached for his blade, counting five of his new opponents, one of them a leader.
He managed to get blade free, but there was no way to fend off the attacks of five Ilian templars lying on the floor. They where surrounding him, but he continued to struggle, hoping for the best. One of the attackers lost its head. Another was hit by three bullets. The first reflected from its armour, the second did not seem to do any harm and the third felled it. The bloody tip of a blade burst through the breast of a surprised third templar. It collapsed, disbelief in its evilly glowing eyes.
Narstar finally had enough time to get to his feet and face the remaining two templars in combat. Unfortunately one of them was the more skilled leader, the mysterious assassin had not killed. Soon the man found himself crossing blades with two opponents facing each other, circling him. He had already fought a long battle today and was not going to last. Narstar calculated his chances of completing and surviving a desperate attack. Before he was done one of the templars turned to face another opponent.
Irna parried the creature's attack with practised ease. Soon they began to circle each other in a bizarre and deadly dance of steel. The sword in her hand glistened with poison. It moved in an erratic pattern, confusing the templar and pierced right through its armour. Some of the damage was absorbed by the strange nature of the thing, but there was deep wound left that oozed thick bluish blood like slime.
The human parried several furious and brutal attacks. Finally he found the time to strike back and force his opponent to defend. He attacked several times, using all the skill he could muster with his two-handed sword. He felt anger surging through him, but he did not know why. Narstar barely noticed that he hit the templars blade with incredible force. The creature was stunned for a moment. The human's blade pierced right through the templar, but it was still breathing and tried to go on, impaling itself even deeper on the sword. Narstar violently jerked his blade upwards, nearly splitting the creature into half. He looked for something else to attack, driven by bloodlust and fury.
The female barely parried an attack of her opponent and was hit at her free arm. The wound ached, sending stabs of pain through her each time she tried to move. She ignored the pain and continued to fight. The high templar had smelled blood and pressed its attacks into his opponent, barely able to defend herself. Irna had expected the creature to react this way. Its bloodlust made it less careful. The punisher cut a second smile into its throat. There was still poison left on the blade and Irna hoped that these things had an anatomy at least remotely resembling a human's.
The templar collapsed, cursing something in a foul language, Irna did not even feel a remote desire to learn and finally stopped moving. Now the templar dissolved into a black cloud of mist, drawn by planar corridors that would return it to its infernal home. Irna looked for Narstar. He looked wild-eyed into several directions. When he saw the nepharite of Ilian, he raised his sword and charged the creature, screaming something that reminded Irna of "Banzai." She cursed and leapt for the nimrod, bringing herself into position. At the same time hundreds of voices echoed: "Banzai!" Their owners charged everything left of the dark forces.
Again the nimrod blazed. Irna did not take care to brace it, just hoping to distract the creature long enough for her lover to reach it. Several bullets hit the formidable armour. One even penetrated, but it did not seem to have any effect on the foul creature. It raised its nazgaroth and aimed at her. Irna leapt for cover and drew her sword-gun combo. She was better with those than with the heavy weapon. The nepharite wondered, where she was, but before it could find her, the man attacked.
His blade leading he ran into his opponent and struck the creature. The momentum of his charge made the blade penetrate deep into the monster's body. Quickly he pulled the sword out of the wound and parried the following attack. The creature used a bayonet mounted on its heavy machine gun, wielding it as a melee weapon with horrifying ease.
At the same time Irna reached for the source with her. This time the Light flowed easily and filled her being for a few moments. She focussed the energy into a newly learned power and prayed it would work. She became a shadow and felt oddly lightweight. She slid over walls and people until she reached the back of the nepharite. There she materialised and stabbed it with her sword. It penetrated hilt-deep into the monster. She had to hold it with all her strength when it jerked its body around. Fortunately the sword was free of the foul flesh and rested in her hand.
Crackling filled the air accompanied by the sound of a sword hitting armour. Electric shocks shook the nepharite. Irna retreated a few steps and took herself the time to aim carefully at the creature's head. She fired and the horned thing exploded, eyeballs leaving their sockets and flying free into the streets. Irna leapt to the side, avoiding the falling body. She sheathed her weapons, looking for Narstar. He was leaning heavily on his sword. His hazy eyes cleared, slowly recognising the woman he loved. Weakly he asked: "What... happened?"
"You shouted something, sounding remotely like "banzai" and charged the nepahrite. I think you already went berserk before. I distracted the nepharite with the nimrod and shadow charged it to help you. After that I retreated and blew its head away." He looked at woman and asked: "You can shadow charge?" Irna nodded and said: "This was the second time you saw an brotherhood assassin shadow charge." Narstar nodded and said: "We are going to the next cathedral, right?"
Both looked over the carnage and the ghostly empty main street, that had been busy only a few minutes before. The ground was littered with corpses of samurai, hatamoto, undead, necromutants and a few centurions and even three shadow walkers. Narstar sheathed his blade and slowly walked, leaning on Irna. The female picked up their nimrod, amazingly neither damaged nor stolen. Irna could feel her lover recovering his strength as they slowly left the city. The watchful eyes of the deathbringer, they had encountered before, followed them.
They walked through the gate and saw that the air transport was still waiting. Soon they walked over the ramp. It rose as soon as they where inside. The jets of the glider spat fire and the regular sound of the engines created a sense of safety. In addition to the recently arrived pair, a group of mortificators and a keeper of the art where sitting in the transport, all of them utterly exhausted. Only a valkyrie, a female inquisitor, still seemed fresh. Obviously she was the transport's guard. "What kept you so long?", she asked. "Attack. Algeroth forces and a pack of Ilan's templars plus one of her nepahrites."
"Why didn't you run for it?", she asked. "We instantly reacted. Then he", Irna pointed at Narstar, "went beserk and charged the nepharite. I could not leave him." "Why?" "Would you leave your lover behind?", Irna asked. The valkyrie shook her head and said: "No." Irna nodded and said: "Second it is our goddamn mission to kick the dark legion's butt." The valkyrie, who was among the elders of her order, which meant a more powerful vestal nodded and said: "You look like you are in need of rest. Just by the way, did you master the shadow charge?"
"I do not master anything mystical. The source is too fickle and unpredictable within me. Only desperate situations and mental stress seem to make it work. I still need a lot of training, but before that I need a lot of rest. I think I am completely drained." The vestal picked up the nimrod the pair had dropped and nodded approvingly. "Bauhaus", she muttered more to herself, then she said aloud: "You have an eye for quality." Narstar said: "The thing was expensive enough." The vestal said: "It's worth the price." Irna sat down on the bench and Narstar was on her side, leaning heavily on her, cradled in her arms, his head resting on her breasts.
"I just wanted to thank you for saving my life", he said gently, "I did not really deserve it. You know, I have dishonoured my clan long ago. Do not ask now, I will tell you the story another time." He looked at her and his face moved towards hers. After only half the way down he suddenly felt the touch of her lips and they kissed each other eagerly, allowing their feelings to flow for once. On the battlefield they always had to surpress them. The vestal smiled at the two and wondered silently, if they were going to any battle soon...