Dale sighed deeply, his eyes affixed on the ground. 'Asariel please forgive me. For what have I done to spite you so?' He begs the sun goddess for a reply as he tries to ignore the stern gaze of the elven leader that he was assigned to.
"A chance to make up your mistake." The torchbearer Klaid Ligh said. Surely it was just to torture him for his arrogance. To force a human paladin to guard an elf? Outrageous! Did they learn nothing of the elves in their history books?
The western wars of devastation were brought by their desire to spurn the worship of Asariel. Claiming they did so "in their own way" whilst venerating their ancestors as saints. Simply out of the belief that their lifespan and innate arcana proved that her blood runs through them.
Smart-mouthed sinners all of them. Waiting for their chance for humanity and the church to grow weaker, so they can march on us once again.
"The spores diverge." Hedara says out loud attracting, halting the 4 behind her. The elf was able to track to some extent from her younger days. It was, however, a skill she did not sharpen for quite some time, council matters took precedence over all and thus only the basics remained.
"To the left and right... but the one to the left.... why does it go there?" The elf asks her thought out loud. The three titled legion knights and Dale exchange glances and shrug as they realize they're completely out of the loop. "Follow the left track, draw your weapons. Attack anything in sight." She commands the three titled legion knights as she points them forward. The three figures immediately drew their weapons and lead the way. Hedara moves next to Dale at the back as she draws her own blade. "Do you believe in curses, paladin?"
Dale frowns at the question, his own short axe now glowing with a dim but visible light. "Curses are said to be a thing of the past brought for by the darkness before the exalted cleanse. Asariel spared us of ever experiencing such things again." He replies mechanically, responding with what he was taught during his youth.
"Would you recognize one? And could you deal with it?" Hedara continues to ask questions, her unaffected and unmoving stern gaze forward telling enough.
"They no longer exist, so I would not." Dale answers wholeheartedly and with a smile. 'An elf wants to question Asariel and the church? How typical.' he thinks behind the innocent face as he remembers why he was sent with her in the first place.
"Then take something else but similar in nature." Hedara decides to alter her question seeing that the young man's zealousness and stubbornness will unfortunately not be breached. "Perhaps remnants of witches. Would you be able to deal with that, paladin?" She asks purposefully prying deeper, hoping that the young man would take a hint.
"..." Dale stayed silent at first, thinking about the possibility. The witch hunt or the sixth calamity was as all others calamities a tragic event. The world had begun to notice the decline in arcana, making the then arch mages even more important and influential. A fate that could not be trusted especially not after what transpired during the fifth calamity. Those in favor of regulation created "Drearoth" and those not were called witches. The hunt itself was a prolonged event, even now some whisper that the church and Drearoth mages have secret organizations actively tracking every corner for dangerous witches. Still, what exactly transpired was whilst recorded kept as information for only high-ranking members of the involved organization and through time disappeared from common knowledge. Thus making it improbable but not impossible that one of those witches would have used magic as vile after the first cleanse. Those witches, The Invazauri is a clear signal that they're dangerous and should be leased carefully. "That would depend on the strength of this "curse" or "spell." it could have weakened over time." Dale suggests a rather optimistic outlook. A rather odd mixture of confidence and simply being unable to come to terms with a dark reality.
"Or stronger." Hedara responds, breaking Dale's fake smile.
****
Not even an hour had passed properly for the group of Kalid Ligh and Adhred Brave-Axe to find their first encounter with the slavers. Stealth was hardly an option with armored paladins and knights, yet luckily it seemed that these 3 slavers had fallen behind. Two beast-men of feline origin carrying the human, each holding a shoulder. The two felines are large and muscled whilst the man was the opposite, a skeleton with flesh one could call him.
The two feline beast-men turn as they hear, Adhred and Kalid's party approach. Both leaders in front, the decorated knight and shining paladin an uncommon sight in this forest. The larger feline beast men turn as they finally notice their pursuers. With one exchanged glance they look at each other before dropping the light human and jumping climbing the hanging tress. Using their animalistic abilities to their advantage. The 2 creatures jump around near armorless as they only have ripped apart trousers and no other armor of any kind.
"Steady and form a circle!" Adhred yells to his subordinates as he sees one shake. His authority must win over their inexperience. Adhred Brave-axe draws his great awe, the one his father used during "the papal cleanse", something he hoped to make an heirloom for his household. Adhred looks over to Kalid, counting on the man with actual combat experience to not keep quiet.
Kalid kept his eyes on the two feline beast men as his divine power forms an identical vessel of himself around him. He looks over at the lying down man and looks at the back of the neck. The familiar brand of a slave clear to see. "Men are wares and there is no need for defective wares." He mumbles what he once heard a Sopoir say as they were sent to negotiate passage through Slaver's neck pass. It was merciless how he threw away a human life simply because the woman had contacted an illness that cost too much to adverse. "Why would they save someone with a broken leg?"
"What?" Adhred asks hearing the leader of the paladin ask a strange question.
"Capture one of them alive if you can! Only kill when needed!" Kalid Ligh commands his voice louder, greater as if he himself had risen in size. The divine power echoing the voice with the sound of a distant bustling fire. The eyes of the paladin begin to glow ad he prepares for combat.