Might pay to read the writeup for cycle 5 first.
The next day had been quite. Eerily quiet. For some reason, not even the Canim howled. In some ways that was worse. When you could hear them, at least you knew where they were. But now they had no idea at all. As they marched, Luxet caught up to Dominus.
“Sir, the men are worried.”
“The Canim?”
“No. Glaive. They all saw him with Vorax near the supplies. A few of them claim that he was seemed like he was about to help Vorax destroy them. Priam in particular is concerned. He saw Glaive falter before killing him. He thinks he only killed Vorax because they’d been caught.”
It was a few moments before Dominus replied.
“Hmm. Okay. I’ll bring it up with the men tonight.”
He ended up putting it to a vote. The majority were for removing Glaive. He approached Glaive, putting a hand on the man’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry. But our company needs unity now, more than ever. If you have served loyally, you will be remembered for what you have done.”
Glaive saluted, facing death proudly. Windcrafting, Dominus snapped Glaive’s neck, and in an instant, it was over.
Glaive’s body was cremated, and scattered, and the soldiers dispersed after a watch was posted. Dominus hoped that they had finally removed the traitors from their midst. He fell asleep, still musing over who else could be a traitor.
...
Optio Dominus Framea Securis woke to the screams and yells of battle. The Canim can’t have caught up to us yet! he thought frantically. He stumbled out of his sleeping roll, buckling on his sword hastily and running out into the night and the awaiting screams.
What confronted him was a scene of horror. Blood everywhere and tents burning. As his eyes adjusted, he could see that even the trees around had caught alight. Strangely, he couldn’t see anyone around - the fight must be elsewhere.
He started to move when he saw a ripple in the air. Instinctively he created a bubble of air around him, changing the trajectory of the thrown dagger. Rather than taking him in the throat, his sliced his cheek open. He responded by causing the earth to explode out near where the dagger had come from.
The shrapnel hit something, seeming to cause ripples like on a lake, except in the air. His assailant had veiled themselves with watercrafting! The veil dropped, revealing his opponent.
“I should have known it wouldn’t be this easy,” Lorn au Volarus said calmly, spoken loud enough to be heard over the din, without sounding like he was shouting. “You have some good soldiers. They made things hard. But they’re not here, are they? Not even your precious Tesserarius.”
From the flames behind him, a burning fury in the form a cheetah emerged. Lorn smiled. “Courtesy of the late Sienis. Send him my regards.”
With that, Lorn leapt forward, letting his metalcrafting guide his blade. Dominus pushed the blade aside with his own sword, and jabbed at Lorn’s throat with his fist, only for it to be caught.
A fireball exploded, throwing Dominus backwards, and he landed on the ground hard. His windshield had prevented the fire reaching him, but the heat still burned and his ears rang. Pushing himself up into the air with a mix of earth and windcrafting, he narrowly avoided the next fireball as he soared over the traitor’s head, landing about six feet behind him.
The man spun, already swinging. It took all Dominus’ focus just stopping each blow from reaching him, still half blinded and deafened from the explosions, making use of his metalcrafting to keep track of his opponents blade.
Then he felt a sharp pain in his side. He threw himself backwards creating a barrier in front of him from the earth, buying time enough to recover his senses. He put his hand to his side - blood was seeping it out. Crying out, he cauterised the wound with some firecrafting, so he wouldn’t bleed out. He looked up to see Lorn stalking towards him with a glass dagger, his sword now abandoned. Dominus readied his blade, and then charged.
What followed was a dance. The two men circled, countering each others furycrafting while continuing to trade blows. After a few minutes, both were covered in bleeding wounds. And then Dominus slipped. As soon as he was thrown off balance, Lorn moved forward, sinking his blade into the Optio’s chest, before pushing him to the ground.
Lorn knelt beside him, placing his dagger against Dominus’ throat. “It was a good fight, I’ll give you that. But now you must die.”
Dominus closed his eyes, accepting his fate. He had fought well, but he had been bested. Where has Luxet been? Every other time she’s been here…
Lorn smiled. Their mission was a success. In a moment, the Optio would be dead. Distracted, he didn’t see the figure approaching until they slammed into him.
...
“Traitor!” Praetoria growled, pinning Lorn to the ground. Frantically, Lorn tried to get free, but his furycrafting failed him.
Praetoria smiled. “I know your tricks.” He slammed Lorn’s head against the ground, stunning him. Seeing Lorn’s glass dagger in reach, he grabbed it, summarily plunging it into the traitor's heart.
...
Araris had been scouting ahead under orders from Luxet, when he noticed the glow of fire coming from the camp. He rushed back to try and help. He got back to find most of the tents aflame. The watercrafters seemed to be having difficulties dousing the fire.
“Where’s the Optio?” he demanded of a passing soldier.
“We haven’t seen him yet. Or the Tesserarius. We need her watercrafting to put out this fire, but no one’s found her yet.”
Araris nodded grimly. “I’ll go find them,” he responded, leaping back into motion. He move swiftly around the tents towards the Optio’s tent.
Rounding the corner, he saw Lorn kneeling over a fallen Dominus. He must be trying to heal him! Lorn was one of the best healers he knew. But as he approached, he saw a figure barrel into Lorn, knocking him away from the Optio, before pinning him to the ground, and fatally stabbing him.
“No!” Araris cried out. But it was too late. He could see now that it was Praetoria. He moved smoothly forwards, and with one motion, cleaning took off Praetoria’s head. It was done - the assassin was dead.
Araris knelt over the Optio’s body. Dominus was still alive, barely. He looked around in frustration. Lorn couldn’t heal him now. He needed the Tesserarius, but where was she?
“Luxet!” he cried aloud, although he knew it was in vain.
“Yes?” she responded calmly, stepping out from behind him. He gasped. “Luxet! Dominus is wounded. It’s bad. Can you heal him?”
She pressed her lips together. “I’ll do my best. Make sure no one attacks me?”
“That I can do,” he said. He turned and walked a few steps, walking over Lorn’s body.
He faltered. “Lorn…” he whispered. Memories consumed him for a moment. Lorn, saving his life by healing him when he thought he’d been fatally wounded. Lorn, checking up on him every day. Lorn, his friend. More than friend. He’d owed a life-debt to Lorn, several times over. And he’d failed.
And suddenly, he couldn’t do it anymore. It was too much. He felt himself collapsing, dimly, but all he could think of was Lorn.
...
Luxet frowned over at Araris. Well, he was out of the way, she supposed, though perhaps not in the way she’d been expecting. Lorn had mentioned something about him being dependent, hadn’t he? Perhaps she could work with that, later.
She dismissed him for the moment and knelt over Dominus, looking concerned. It was certainly a major wound. She wasn’t sure she could cure it.
He opened his eyes, shockingly. His metalcrafting letting him ignore the pain, probably. “Shhh…” she murmured, windcrafting a bubble of stillness around them. “You’re badly hurt.”
“Can you heal me?” he whispered.
“I can,” she smiled, not showing her uncertainty that she could. “That’s not the question you should be asking, though.”
His eyes opened wide. “No. No, you can’t be a traitor, not my Tesserarius. But… Lexa and Heaven thought they were talking to you, didn’t they… And Vorax was under your care, too. You’ve been sending the dreams.” He couldn’t say more, but his eyes did.
“I’m no traitor,” she responded sharply. “I serve Alera. And you wouldn’t have caught any of them without me.” She paused, then placed a hand on his chest. “I’m sorry.”
“Please…”
She hesitated. “Just… know this. You’ve succeeded in your mission. Captain Scipio will hear everything we’ve learned about the Canim. And he’ll hear of your bravery, too, yours and everyone else who died to root out the traitors. Your sacrifice will be remembered forever.”
Then she sent her water fury into his open wound, coursing through his blood until it reached his brain.
She made it as painless as possible. After a moment, she took her hand away, and reverently closed his eyes for the last time.
“I’m sorry,” she said again, then rose, dismissing the bubble of air that had isolated them from the fighting. She was the leader of the legionares now, and she had work to do.
Amanuensis was lynched! He was a Loyal Legionare with Tier 2 Wood and Tier 1 Water.
Bugsy killed himself with fire and traitorous steel! He was the last Traitor with Tier with Tier 1 Metal, Tier 3 Water, and Tier 2 Fire.
Hellscythe was killed by a metalcrafter! He was a Loyal Legionare with Tier 1 Fire and Tier 3 Wood. Vote Tally:
Aman(5): Lopen, Araris, Bugsy, HS, Mail
Mail(1): Conquestor The last traitor has been killed! The village has won. Araris, Joe, Mail, Conquestor, SilverDragon and Lopen survived. Mail got Hellscythe’s Wood fury, and SilverDragon recieved Bugsy’s Water fury.
GM thoughts will be coming eventually.
Doc Links:
> Spectator Doc
> Dead Doc
> GM Spreadsheet
> Traitor Doc
Player List
