Cat for Hire (Onrielle Callus)

[madilore]

Everything was taking much too long. Onrielle was growing increasingly anxious and bored. She took to swinging her sword around a few times to keep herself occupied, but the quiet was killing her.

That was when she heard it, the sound of approaching footsteps.

Onrielle readied herself, shield out and sword ready. But the people who burst through the doors were not who she expected. The slaves had escaped some how. Two men and three woman, one heavy with child. They would malnourished and would not be able to outrun the mages. Whatever had caused them to flee must have been worth the risk. The looked at Onrielle with fear, but she didn't have time to explain who she was.

"Here. Let me get these off of you." She bent down to examine the shackles that each wore on their ankles. The locks weren't magical in and of themselves, but the shackles bore a rune that she knew was placed their for tracking any escaped slave. With very little time to spare, Onrielle quickly pulled out a few lockpicks and set to removing the shackles.

It was proving too slow however. Minutes ticked by and she knew that these were precious moments they could be using to escape. With two slaves completely free, Onrielle started bashing the other shackles with her sword. It took several swings but eventually they busted lose. The last slave suffered a small gash in the Breton's haste to remove the metal, but it was nothing serious and they all dashed off together into the woods without a word of thanks.

Onrielle Callus turned toward the door. The Cat had said no heroics but if something dangerous enough had driven the slaves out then she would probably need help. But more importantly, and Onrielle was almost ashamed to admit it to herself, she really needed to secure those items.

She rushed through the door and almost head long into an approaching Necromancer.

"You?!" The woman shouted before starting to conjure a spell. Onrielle knew she would be done for if hit by their dark magic so she used her shield to bash the Necromancer in the face. The sound of bones breaking cut through the air and the mage stumbled backwards, blood streaming down her face from a broken nose.

Before the mage had time to recover Onrielle drove her sword through her chest. The blade stuck briefly on her ribcage but eventually drove all the way through her. The brunette pulled her sword back out with a sickening squish noise and the Necromancer fell, drowning her boots in sticky blood.

"What happened in here?" Onrielle asked herself out loud. The mages should not have been alerted. This did not bode well for The Cat. She needed to find her before the other mages did.

[raziah]

The waiting was the hardest part, but was necessary in the life of a thief. To move too soon was death... but also to move too late was death. Timing was everything. It was like hunting the small lizards on the sands of Elsweyr, she had learned patience as a kitten thanks to that. Her teacher had been a young male of the clan, Rashid and his words echoed in her ear at this moment, waiting for someone to enter the treasury.

"You do not pounce for the lizards until they get so close that even the shortest of pounces will catch them. You wait silently for them to come and then they will be caught before they even realize there was a trap laid...."

Hearing footsteps in the corridor, Raziah drew her bow, nocking an arrow and drawing it, her arm easily dealing with the tension thanks to years of training. She slowed her breathing, listening to the beating of her heart, counting the rhythm and number of beats in her head to keep calm. That was when the Necromancer entered the treasury, a spell ready in his hand as he looked around, noticing the mess on the floor Raziah had made in her haste to find the journal, growling.

"Whoever did this, I will find you, and when I do..." he began. However, his threat died in his throat as Raziah released the arrow. It hit dead center in his throat, causing him to fall back with a sickening gurgle, his hand going to the arrow in his throat, which due to the close range had pierced fully through his throat, ensuring he wouldn't be able to scream and he would bleed out quickly.

"What was that?!" A second voice asked, another of the Necromancers entering the treasury, looking down at her dying companion with a gasp. Raziah didn't go for her bow this time, instead pulling out her dagger as she moved in swiftly, grabbing the woman's mouth from behind as she slid her dagger across her throat, muffling whatever cry she would have uttered, easing her down on top of her companion, their blood soaking their black robes.

Raziah took no time to look over the pair, deciding now was the time to get out before anything else went wrong. She sheathed her dagger as she ran back up the corridor... however, she was stopped by pain.. unimaginable, unbearable pain. A third Necromancer stood just inside a doorway, a Necromancer she had failed to notice in her haste.

"Well, well, well... what have we here? A hero?" he stated with a chuckle, letting up on the lightning spell he had cast. Raziah had fallen to her knees, twitching slightly as the electricity dissipated. "By your armor I can see you're Thieves' Guild. Tell me who sent you and I'll make your death swift."

Raziah looked up at him with a defiant glare, mustering her strength and spitting at his boots. If she was to die, she would die with her honor intact.

"Have it your way, then," he stated, casing the Lightning spell again, ripping a blood-curling scream from Raziah's lips....

[madilore]

Onrielle stepped gingerly over the dead body at her feet, slipping slightly in the blood that had pooled there. She wasn't sure what had happened but The Khajiit was in danger. The last thing she needed was for the woman to die on her account. Her conscious couldn't take any extra baggage.

The cave was eerily silent as she marched inside. An alchemy table on the right sat completely unattended but a Charrus egg had already been ground into a powder with the wing of a Luna Moth atop it. These were the first ingredients to an Invisibility Potion and would lose it's potency if allowed to sit for awhile before completing it. The mage mixing this had been forced to rush off. Whether it was the one she just murdered or another, she couldn't tell.

Books were piled in several corners and Onrielle looked briefly at them as she hurried onward. The ones that were opened all seemed to be about the Daegon Ritual. A terrible bit of magic where a sentient creature had their soul ripped from their body then destroyed. The body was then filled with the spirit of another individual, one that could be easily manipulated and controlled.

"A soul had a great bit of energy attached to it and, if harnessed properly, the energy it emits when destroyed could permanently increase a mages power. However, if this ritual is approached lightly then the soul could accidentally get the upper hand and drain the mage's power before passing on. Only the most experienced Necromancers should attempt this."

She could almost hear the voice of her father whispering in her ear and for a brief moment she was back there, sitting on his knee and listening as he told her tales of Necromancy that caused her to vomit when he wasn't looking. He wanted an heir and got an enemy. That was irony for you.

Onrielle had only seen this ritual performed once before. It was terrible. Ripping the soul out of someone's body was an incredibly painful process. She shook her head to stop the memories and focus on the task at hand. At the moment there was only one non-Necromancer in the area. Onrielle couldn't let the Khajiit suffer such a terrible fate.

Running through the winding caves was difficult. Her boots didn't have very good traction, but she managed. Twice she managed to slip on various obstacles, Necromancers were terrible housekeepers, but they didn't slow her down for more then have a second. Each room was more desolate then the last and, beside the sound of her own desperate footsteps, all was silent.

But, as she rounded the bend to the last room, a scream reverberated across the walls. It was terrible, painful scream and her made her heart drop instantly.

As she turned the corner, Onrielle saw him. He had his arm extended, casting a lightning spell at a crumpled figure on the floor. She didn't need him to turn around to remember his face. A Breton. Blonde hair and scars across his body. A mustache and beard that always had particles of food trapped inside. Fetid breath she could still almost feel upon her neck. He was the one who got away.

"HADLEY!" She screamed at him, cave walls intensifying the volume tenfold. He faltered with his spell and it ceased.

"Well, well, well. I didn't expect you to walk into my lair like this. Apparently the discipline really gave you a backbone. You can thank me for that if you'd like." Onrielle didn't want to move yet. He was much faster with his spells then she was with her sword.

"I am going to enjoy killing you."

"But you used to enjoy so much more about me. Remember our daughter. Please sit down. Let us reminisce." His back was to the storage room now. He gestured toward the table in between them.

"Don't you dare speak of her, you black-hearted monster." Onrielle rushed at him, ignoring the table in their way. She jumped onto a chair, then ran across the flat surface, kicking cups and silverwear off as she went. The charge surprised Hadley, but it didn't slow him down. He held his right hand outward and sent a lightning spell her way. It hit the center of her shield, and coursed through her hands, shoulder, and chest. She felt like someone had knocked her against a wall, but Onrielle kept charging.

The lighting started to really take hold, and her vision started to darken. First she lost her peripheral vision, then it was utter blackness. In desperation she lunged forward, off the edge of the table, toward her assailant. The sound of metal hitting stone echoed through the room and Onrielle fell to the floor, bashing her face hard against the cobblestone.

Fetid breath met her ear as she began to lose consciousness.

"You missed."

[raziah]

Raziah lay on the floor like a dead thing, body entirely limp and appearing lifeless. She was unconscious for the moment, but even in her unconscious state she felt the presence of someone close, gently nuzzling at the nape of her neck.

"Come on, kitten... you're not down and out yet. Your mother would never forgive you... and neither would I..." a calm, loving voice whispered in her ear.

With difficulty, Raziah blinked her eyes open before shutting them again against the pain of the shock he had just received. Trying not to make noise, she shifted, her ears swiveling ever so slightly to see where her opponent was.

"Well... I suppose this night hasn't been all bad... the slaves are gone, as are my companions... but on the bright side I've three corpses to revive into regular slaves until I can catch some livign ones... and two perfect specimens for the ritual," she heard the necromancer state, chuckling darkly.

Becoming more alert by the moment, Raziah began to take stock of her injuries. Her left arm and part of her left side felt entirely useless, probably due to damage from the spell. If she could get access to some sort of healing potion quickly it would likely fix itself, but she couldn't risk trying to down a potion while the necromancer still drew breath. Magic worked much, much faster than any potion or salve. If he knew she was still moving she'd likely be dead, whether he needed her for some ritual or not.

Watching him through half-lidded eyes, she waited until his back was turned to her before getting up as silently as possible, biting her lip in effort to keep silent, even though it hurt so damn much to stand. Taking her dagger in her right hand, she quickly rushed the Necromancer, stabbing him dead in the back while biting him ferociously on the neck, her teeth sinking in deep.

He yelled and screamed, attempting to get her off of him. His own struggles worked against him, for just as when a saber cat got it's jaws around a deer, Raziah's jaw was clamped tight and his struggles were only harming him in the long run. He began to cast his lightning wildly, but due to their close proximity the spell hit them both.

After a few moments, he began to weaken due to bloodloss from the neck wound and the dagger in his back as well as the depletion of his magical stores. In one last act to ensure his demise, Raziah gave his neck a quick twist in a way it was certainly NOT supposed to go, not letting go until she heard the snap of his neck bones. Letting go of his neck and her dagger, she let him fall at her feet before collapsing onto her back, breathing heavily.

"Well, Raziah... at least you're alive...." she stated softly to herself, trying not to black out once more....

[madilore]

Her father glowered down at her angrily. The switch in his hand twitched as though it sought to sting the backs of her hands once more.

"No. No. No. Focus. Concentrate on the spell you are trying to conjure. Fire. Focus on the flames."

Onrielle looked at the candle before her, hoping desperately that her father wouldn't burn her with it again to get his point across. She desperately wanted to create fire, but it wasn't working.

He slapped her hard across the hands with the switch, Onrielle didn't even yelp.

"Enough. Go back to your mother. I'm done with you for the day. Perhaps tomorrow we can find a way to expand your powers." Onrielle left her father's side immediately. Running through the cave to the slaves quarters where her mother would be. Pahja stopped her halfway.

"Did he hurt you again?" She looked at Onrielle with those sweet yellow eyes of hers, the only thing she had inherited from their father the Altmer. Onrielle subconciously rubbed her face where a new scar had been added through her father's cruel methods of expanding her magical power. Pahja grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly. "Nevermind. Mother found a rabbit near the entrance today. She's cooking it in a stew." Pahja pulled her half-sister onward. They sang gleefully as they ran, a small bit of innocence in an otherwise desolate place.



Onrielle regained consciousness to find the slumped and bloodied body of Hadley beside her. The man's through was torn, neck broken, and a dagger was still poking out of his back. The Breton looked around for a moment before she noticed the slumped shape of The Cat beside the dead Necromancer. She rushed to her side as quickly as her injuries would allow.

"Come on." She said as she began to pull the woman to her feet. She was trying to be as gentle as possible. The Cat looked pretty bad. There was no way to tell how long Hadley had been hurting her and magic was particularly painful for those who hadn't felt it before. "We need to get out of here."

The Cat's arm was draped around one shoulder, and Onrielle put her arm around her waist. Slowly she pulled her onward toward the path, hoping the woman would regain the ability to move quickly.

"Did you get everything?" She asked, hoping she didn't sound self-centered.

"

[raziah]

"Ow ow ow.... Meridia's tits, ow!" Raziah complained noisily as she was pulled into a sitting position and then up onto her feet. Luckily, Onrielle had pulled her up via her right side, jolting her back into full consciousness via pain. Raziah was bitching, which was a very good sign indeed. A bitching Raziah was a living Raziah.

"Wait a minute, Mouseling..." Raziah said, voice breathless as she grunted, shaking slightly as she leaned heavily against Onrielle. Taking her right arm off of Onrielle's neck, she pulled a Potion of Healing from one of the many pouches on her Guild armor, uncorking it with her teeth and spitting the cork off to the side. She downed half of it in a single swallow, grimacing at the taste and slight burning sensation as the liquid went down. However, she felt much better and started to get feeling back in her left arm and side. She gave her left hand a little flex, opening and closing her fingers experimentally. She breathed a sigh of relief, offering the other half to Onrielle.

"I got it all, don't fret Mouseling. But you owe me the full story for this one.... I haven't had to kill anyone in a while and now I've got three deaths on my hands... One of which I've got blood on my teeth..." Raziah commented airily. "I've a place in Riften on the lower level. You can rest up there if you like. Bed's big enough for two if you don't mind a cuddly cat."