Acts of Possession

[Zadown]

Tap, tap, tap.

 

Numilye stilled her hand and returned to the now and here from where her mind had been. She grabbed the balustrade with gauntleted hands and looked down at the dark swirling waters that surrounded the Temple of Innoruuk, Father of Hate. The sight was familiar but always as relaxing - tiny waves, magical neon lights of the temple reflecting themselves on the rippling surface. This was her home, no matter how seldom she visited it these days. The feeling of belonging was reinforced by small things - corrupted smell of decay wafting from the direction of necromancer's guild, the very faint but always present smell of blood, acrid aroma of the temple incense. Beyond the moat a lone guard wearing the red and silver of Neriak patrolled, his boots making a crunching noise on the bare stone.

 

Weak guards, hardly fit to guard this place. Mere soldiers, not heroes.

 

Numilye's white teeth shone when she grinned - a wicked, hateful visage as was appropriate for a high priestess of Hate. The world was beneath her. She had plundered the secrets of the Triumvirate of Water, faced the condemned drake-kind in the Temple of Veeshan and fought her way to the planes of gods. The few lights of the underground city played on her sea-green platearmor, a gift of the dragons of Skyshrine. The lesser races trembled when she walked past, afraid she'd unleash the hate of her Father upon them ... and it was all true. But going through her accomplishments here, at the center of her power, was like reciting a false chant.

 

Why do I feel this unease rising? As if there were some unseen enemy I can not crush, something that can penetrate the defenses of my city ...

 

She felt a sudden unexpected vertigo. Yes, she was high up near the top of the temple but it was a familiar spot .. and not that high. This was a vertigo of a different sort, a feeling she was at the brink of some inner chasm that loomed in front of her immeasurably deep, unnaturally dark.

 

And then someone pushed her down.

 

When the dark elf turned away from the balustrade and back towards the temple, her eyes were swirling black of cold chaos. Ghostly lights shone near her as lines of magic connected to her body, eldritch incantations streamed out from her crimson lips in a hasty rush conjuring runes of protection and enchantment to flicker around her. Her eyes shimmered and changed color, started burning with vivid yellow and red. A new voice spoke in her head, muttering to itself, drowning the high priestess under a roar of whispered chaos.

 

... can't face them with what I can use safely. These mortal vessels are so fragile and useless ...

 

Speaking aloud one of the very few useful spells this body knew, Numilye rushed down the stairs ignoring the arrows and crackling bolts of energy of the ambush as they slammed against her divine aura. She pushed through the assassins easily, showing far more strenght her small supple body should've contained, and turned back towards them when she reached the far end of stairs. Four of them, all dark elves, with the weak, almost invisible, aura all ordinary mortals had. A passing priest took one look at the commotion and ignored it, hurrying away to not get caught in the crossfire - only the strong survived here.

 

... not Sarnael, he would've come himself. Must be some older enemy, some useless god rotting somewhere with nothing but time and the dying light of some old baubles infused with the power he used to have, some decaying old power I insulted during my earlier years. I can handle this one without a mark that anyone would notice in the lines of power, in the currents of the Void. Just another tiny move in the games of the planes ...

 

Reinforcing the weak divine magics by the forces of the planes, she summoned a hammer to her empty hand grinning as she felt the wrath of Innoruuk humming strongly in the bone-white head of the weapon. Her face muscles twitched as she grinned again, this time a lop-sided grin of arrogance.

 

This would be ... fun.

[Valdar and Astralis]

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