Unliving

"Some people just can't get it into their heads that the world doesn't revolve around them. My advice for those kinds of people? Either avoid them like the plague, or put them down to spare everyone the misery of their existence." - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

Southern end of the western border

Western section of Shadow Forest / Ævietønavæel

Lichdom of Ptolodecca

5th day, 4th week, 1st month, year 84 VA.

For the past three months, Aideen had been working hard from the north of the border towards the south, helping heal the maladies of those in the refugee camps as best she could.

 

Many of the refugees were injured, either because they were displaced by the civil war, or because they had run into outlaws during their escape, or even both at once. Some of the better camps had healers amongst them who also worked to aid their fellow refugees, and in those cases Aideen usually had little to offer than some help finishing up, but the majority were not as lucky.

 

In most of the refugee quarantine camps she found work to do, and she went at it with a passion. It was deep in the winter months by now, and when she came by and brought blankets on top of her healing, she was always welcomed.

 

She heard how at first some of the refugees had balked at being made to wait in quarantine for a month before they were allowed entry, but those were days when she was still busy with the Ptolodeccans who had suffered from the plague. Nowadays the refugees were well aware of such rules, and told each other and rarely were there any issues.

 

Of course, at times some privileged "refugees" arrived who still thought that the world revolved around them. The Bone Lord was not fond of those types, and generally they were forcefully removed or worse by a horde of skeletons within a day of their arrival. One such annoyance arrived right when Aideen was in the midst of healing a middle aged man who had lost his left arm years ago when a river crocodile ate it.

 

The first sign Aideen received of their arrival was the sound of heavy footsteps, made by boots like those favored by the military, followed by a haughty voice that apparently addressed her. She noticed how the man she was healing stiffened and looked nervous as well.

 

"You, healer, drop that peasant and come with us!" said one of the men behind her brusquely. "Our mistress demands your service."

 

Aideen noticed that the man wore the sculpted chestplate commonly seen only amongst imperial soldiers who served the imperial family of Elmaiya, with a cape and a feathered helmet, and a short short sheathed by his waist. The man was human, and she recalled that the former imperial family - they had been toppled after all - was human, and only allowed humans amongst their personal guards.

 

"This is not Elmaiyan land, nor does your empire still stand," she replied with equal brusqueness, not even pausing with her healing of the villager, nor paying the guardsman any attention. "Your mistress means all of fucking nothing here." The tone of her voice made her loathing of said mistress obvious.

 

"How dare you-" yelled the guard as he unsheathed his sword. The man did not get to do anything more, as a black metal staff suddenly struck his neck from the side just as he was about to take a step forward, and he crumpled to the ground on the spot, dead with a broken neck.

 

Aideen had not even turned around, the left handed strike done blindly, and her right hand was still busy channeling magic to the middle aged man before her. Said man looked with stupefaction at how she had just nonchalantly killed the guard.

 

"Stay here, and make sure you refamiliarize yourself with that arm in the future before doing heavy work with it," said Aideen to the villager before she stood up, and left the tent the man had lived in with his family. His wife and daughter were away at the stream nearby at the moment. "I'll go see what sort of bullshit dragged in this dog real quick."

 

When Aideen walked out, she heard the cries and angry shouts from further away, and approached the source of the noise. There she found more of those guards, over twenty of them, surrounding and confiscating the rations distributed to the refugees to weather their quarantine. In their words, the filthy refugees should be honored that their pathetic foodstuffs could even grace the palate of her highness Histra, cousin to the late emperor.

 

Tempers were flaring from the angry refugees, and the only reason they hadn't already mobbed the guards was that the refugees were unarmed, while the guards were all armed and armored. When similar cases to this happened elsewhere, the situation hadn't escalated this badly so soon, and she figured that if it was left unattended, it would likely end up in a brawl, which would more likely than not result in the deaths of some refugees before the soldiers guarding the border noticed the fuss.

 

She had already seen the aftermath of one such case in a refugee camp further north, a month ago, almost for identical reasons as this one, and she had no desire to see the same happen here, so she stepped up instead.

 

One angry guard had just shoved an old villager away and was about to unsheathe his sword when his wrist was suddenly broken by a strike from Aideen's staff, followed by another couple of strikes that shattered both of the guard's kneecaps.

 

His screams alerted the other twenty guards - two squads of ten, likely with a decurion commanding each, Aideen noted, adding the one that disturbed her to the count - and several turned towards her, and quickly pulled their swords out the moment they noticed the condition of their fellow guard.

 

While the remaining guards were alert to Aideen's presence, it did little to help them. The refugees on the other hand backed away, surprised by the sudden violence that happened.

 

Aideen herself just took the chance to let loose of her frustrations and depression on the poor guards. The guards' traditional armament of short swords backfired on them as she struck from far beyond their range with her staff, tempering her strikes to shatter limbs instead of going for the kill.

 

It only took five guards getting crippled by her hands before the rest decided to charge her as one, hoping to overwhelm her with numbers and get close enough to strike at her. Aideen just responded by segmenting her staff and continuing onward, striking down any guard that got within her range.

 

The last ten men charged her together, and it devolved into a chaotic melee for a while before Aideen put down the last of the guard by breaking his limbs. Nonchalantly, she walked towards the palanquin that was carried on the shoulders of four chained orcish slaves, shattered their chains and set them free, then ripped off the curtains.

 

Inside the palanquin she found a bejeweled middle aged woman dressed in expensive silks that screeched at her loudly. Aideen just tuned out her words, having no intent to listen to her drivel, and slapped the entitled woman silly with an open hand, before she tossed the woman to the ground.

 

"Do with them as you see fit," she then said to the crowded villagers, many of whom watched the mess with schadenfreude. "No punishment will befall you, not from their ilk. Not anymore."

 

When she walked away, the crowd parted before her. Behind her, she could already hear the angry shouts and pained screams as the refugees lynched the guards and the middle-aged woman they worked for, but she paid it no heed.

 

It was only when a young girl, probably ten or so approached her and asked her if she was all right did Aideen notice that one of the guards had gotten his strike in after all, and his sword was embedded in her abdomen from behind. She had been so numb to pain of late she had bit even noticed. She nonchalantly pulled the sword out and thanked the girl nonetheless, leaving the building lynch mob behind.

 

As she left the refugee camp - the man she was healing earlier was the last one who had anything she could help with - and submitted to being hosed down with death magic to prevent any possible disease being carried, Aideen briefly wondered if the rest of the late imperial family was so daft, and if they were, just how were they even staying in power?

 

As she donned a fresh robe after the "cleansing" was dome and she had regrown her scoured flesh, she decided it wasn't something she should bother with.