In the Grip of the Deone

A lone redheaded human woman burst from the cave, in a state of fear that left her oblivious to the world around her. I snickered to myself as I loaded a bolt into my crossbow, dabbing a few drops of Fool's Escape onto its head, and whispered a prayer to the goddess when I took aim at the woman's back. With a gentle sigh I pulled the trigger, a wicked grin appeared on my face as I tracked the bolt through the air. Her scream when the bolt thudded into her was like music, my heartbeat quickening in excitement, but I remained at my perch for a moment, watching the woman crumple to the ground. After another moment of observation I scrambled down the cliff, adjusting my hood and veil once on the ground, and warily crossed to the woman's side.

In the mild sleep the dosage of Fool's Escape had induced she looked peaceful but I've been in enough fights to know the humans are anything but. Briefly I considered removing the crossbow bolt from the flesh of her ass before a whistling drew my attention to the cave mouth. The willowy figure of Sabriel was just visible, the pale skin common among our kind standing out against her black clothing, and she turned slightly upon seeing she had my attention. Three others, the remaining members of the guard team I was in, hurried from the cave, cursing as they fumbled with their hoods. Together the four of us carried the sleeping woman back into our dark sanctuary, placing her on a relatively flat piece of rock.
"Sab, go to the fort so another team can be sent here. Lori, we might need your magics."
Sabriel headed deeper into the cave, rounding a corner and disappearing, while Lori slowly approached me, putting an empty vial into a clinking pouch at her waist.

I noticed then how tired she looked, how sluggishly she moved. It had been a group of ten, no doubt glory-hungry mercenaries hired by one of the nearby villages, who'd attacked the cave and while I'd stayed at the look-out perch the other four had been fighting the invaders, her usage of magic clearly draining Lori. With a mental shrug I put her condition out of mind, firmly grasping the bolt and then pulling sharply. The human woke at that, my team-mates and I tightly holding her limbs down, and Lori reached out to touch her forehead with an elegantly-shaped finger.
"Sleep." A wan smile was on Lori's face. "It'll be the last rest you get."
Alandir and Elandria both chuckled as the redhead slumped back to the rock and I turned away, looking for the woman's companions.
"What happened to the others?"
"Lori sent five of them through a portal to… Where was it?"
"I don't know. I dropped them somewhere isolated and desolate. They'll never be found, not even by each other. Not after the terror I put in all of them."
There was a collective shudder of fear, the images conjured by Lori's description being of places utterly alien to us.
"And the remaining four?"
Alandir gestured towards a section of the cave where the rocks formed a natural defensive position.
"We stashed the corpses over there. Stupid fucks didn't know what hit them."

All four of the mercenaries, three humans and surprisingly a hated elf, had been felled by crossbow bolts, the elf pierced multiple times. Turning I quirked an eyebrow, glancing at the three other guards, and Alandir shrugged insolently.
"Like you wouldn't have shot it more than once."
"True. So who managed to put their bolt down her throat?"
Elandria crossed to my side, leaning over the rocks to scrutinise the fletching sticking out of the she-elf's mouth.
"Purple? That's Sabriel's. I think this was the shot that took the elf down."
The named woman's voice could then be heard, unusually loud and argumentative, and Sabriel came into view, an all-male team of guards in her wake.
"The goddess demands sacrifice! And you know the commander allows teams to return whenever they have one!"
A sly expression came over the features of the male at the head of the team and he glanced over at the slumbering human.
"What do you want for her?"
Sabriel bristled, a hand dropping to her sheathed dagger, and I pushed away from the rocks, sauntering towards her and the male.
"She isn't for sale. Get your own captive for a change Morkar."
The named male sneered at me, letting his eyes blatantly roam over my form.
"'Rielle. Go enjoy the sunlight. The adults are talking."
I admit I'm not exactly a normal deone, liking a bit of sunlight and solitude, but Morkar's head still snapped round when I slapped him. There was a rasp of metal as blades were drawn, I noted Morkar's group lacked a mage, and I smirked as he slowly rubbed his reddening cheek.
"Goddess take you Morkar. We have a captive and we're going home."

It was a gamble to just stalk past Morkar, we're a backstabbing bunch at the best of times, but you don't become a guard if you want a safe life. Working together the rest of the team carried the human after me, everyone gathering around a faintly-glowing stone. These keystones are integral to our civilisation, creating stable links that allow quick travel between the multitude of guard posts, forts and cities, and after touching it we were in the main chamber of Fort Iydan's keep. Swiftly we all reached for another, the pictograms meaning Cy-Valaton inscribed on the plaque beneath the larger keystone, and then we found ourselves in a large hall.

---

The cavern-city of Cy-Valaton is our oldest, the first stone of the temple at its heart supposedly put into place by the goddess herself. Walking from the Mages' Compound, through streets lit by the glowing moss that was in abundance throughout the caves and tunnels we ruled over, the human we were carting along attracted attention from the masses. Lori made judicious use of her whip, both the crack and the exquisite pain as it struck scattering those curious enough to try and impede our progress. I suspect it was the human's red hair over anything else that drew them to us, it certainly was the reason why I'd only put her to sleep rather than kill her, but the peasant rabble needed to learn to clear from our path.

The crowd slowly thinned as the tramping of many boots became audible. I caught glimpses of armour in the style worn only by the Bulwark, elite warriors tasked with protecting the clergy and its estates, and reached out for Lori, grasping her left arm.
"Be careful now when lashing folk. The Bulwark are coming and you don't want to catch one of them."
A flicker of concern flashed across her face and the mage furled her whip, threading it back around her belt.
"We're still a bit out from the temple. What are they doing there?"
I shrugged, glancing around at the opulent-looking houses that lined the major street we were in.
"Who cares? The barmy brigade are just rabid dogs kept on a tight leash."
"They aren't sent out without a reason, despite their overzealous nature."
Elandria's soft-spoken words had me turning, catching the awed expression on her face when she spotted one of the Bulwark. I knew that before joining us she'd been something within the clergy, she possessed more religious iconography than someone could ever need, and gestured at the armoured females just visible.
"Divine their reason then."
The glare Elandria levelled at me was worth my needling of her but she then pointed at an orb of magical light hovering above a nearby building.
"Crimson. That house has been marked."

We made our way onto a street further from the marked house than before, not wanting to get drawn into whatever mayhem the Bulwark would create. Their full-throated war cries were audible even after we entered a busy plaza, I foolishly turned towards them in time to see the unbearingly bright flash of light from a great explosion, and with that the plaza seemed to freeze in anticipation.
"Everyone keep moving. The temple isn't far."
Alandir gritted his teeth as he resumed pulling the cart and the rest of us swiftly fell in around it, hands dropping to the hilts of our blades. We weren't the only ones expecting trouble either, some of the peasants either bunching together or leaving as quickly as possible, and when we were about halfway across the plaza there was the feeling of a pressure being released. A panicked crowd poured into the plaza from behind us, no doubt displaced by the actions of the Bulwark, and I glanced at Lori. The mage steeled herself and began whispering a spell, the air behind us becoming hazy as it was manipulated. With a crack an invisible barrier was forced into existence, curving around our rear, and I gestured for everyone to again keep moving.

The plaza had been enveloped by a mass brawl by the time we got to the other side. Lori's barrier had kept a decent amount of peasants off our back but we had all spilt blood, a trail of precisely slain bodies marking our progress. It took only a few more minutes for us to reach the temple, the imposing construction looming over its neighbours. One of the Bulwark was at the wooden gates, the temple warden anxiously peering towards where her sisters had gone, and she levelled her glaive at us when we approached.
"Peace holy warrior. We bring a sacrifice for the goddess."
Elandria had stepped ahead of us, her arms spread, and the temple warden moved from her braced position, glancing at the rest of us and taking in our appearances.
"You are of the Exterior?"
Elandria nodded, gesturing at the human.
"We are. The woman is our sacrifice, taken while we defended the realm."
The Bulwark slowly stepped to one side and let off a pulse of magic, the gates opening with a groan.
"Enter, and give the goddess your offering."

---

Heading through the gateway I glanced around the courtyard, my gaze finally resting on the large statue at the far end. The goddess was flanked by doors leading into the temple itself, a judgemental expression on her cruel features and her gaze aimed down at the interior mouth of the gateway. I bought a hand to my heart as I walked towards the statue, assuring the goddess that I was still committed to her, and then helped carry the human into the building. A young-looking priestess crossed the vast chamber, her gaze darting between all of us.
"You bring a sacrifice. Follow me."
We fell in behind the priestess as she spun on a shapely heel and stalked towards the main altar. There was a sacrifice already suspended over it, the final droplets of blood falling from the corpse, and a pair of deone were just rising from their knees.
"We'd like to prepare the sacrifice ourselves."
The priestess glanced over her shoulder at us, a sculpted eyebrow arched questioningly.
"We have our own torturers." She sniffed, arrogance in every word." Better torturers than you could ever be."
"That might be so." Elandria's tone was firm. "But the goddess gives greater rewards to those who show their devotion personally."
"You can use one of the lesser altars then." The priestess swiveled towards the nearest of the doors lining the length of the hall and opened it with a frivolous pulse of magic, gesturing at the chapel on the other side. "This one is free."

Thick layers of dust covered everything except the small altar and the goddess statue behind it. Elandria scowled as she reached under the altar, producing a tray of flensing knives and other implements for inflicting ruin.
"Bitch should've ended up above one of the altars."
I filed her muttered comment away for later use and pulled out my dagger, joining the rest of the team in cutting the leather armour from the human. She didn't stir, typically only magic can cancel magic, and we tied her to the grate atop the altar, selecting our initial implements with relish. When we were ready Lori pressed a finger to the human's forehead, shuddering with pleasure as she reclaimed the magical energy. The woman's eyes shot open and she tried moving, struggling against her bondage. We watched her for a moment before Sabriel stepped up, lightly drawing her knife up the human's left leg. She froze, noticing us for perhaps the first time, and I grinned as an overwhelming despair appeared on her face.

Alandir was the next to go, carefully removing the fingernails from her right hand. The human's response was a wail that bounced off the chapel's vaulted ceiling, still hanging in the air long after the human had actually stopped screaming. I then moved before either Lori or Elandria, my blade cutting shallow lines through the inner flesh of the knees and elbows. The human warily watched me, panting slightly and covered in a thin sheen of sweat, and I purposely held her gaze as I licked her blood from my knife.

Elandria graciously let Lori have her turn first, the mage toying with her whip for a moment before lashing out with her knife. The human stared as one of her nipples was neatly removed, seating upon Lori's weapon, and she let her head fall backwards with a stifled sob.
"Pray to the goddess." The human was wide-eyed as Elandria spoke to her in a surface language. "Pray now."
Elandria had a predatory look on her face and she leant over the human, carving the goddess' symbol around her bellybutton.

---

We tormented the sacrifice for several hours, taking turns in cutting away pieces of her while Elandria carved soul-catching symbols into her flesh and exhorting her to pray to the goddess. When the human was lacking her fingers and toes, when the outline of the grate had been burnt into her back , and her voice was hoarse from all her wonderful cries of pain we gathered around her for the last time. Acting in unison we flipped the human onto her front, savouring her sharp gasp as her breasts were cooked by the still-hot grate, and then we began hauling the metal into the air, suspending her above us.
"Astarielle. You captured her and so will receive the greater amount." I knelt beneath the grate, tilting my head back so that I could stare at the human. All the suffering we*d put her through had rendered her on the verge of being comatose and her eyes had long glazed over. "Take her life's blood."
With her knife Elandria punctured the human's throat, a heavy flow of crimson liquid falling to splash against the skin of my forehead. I closed my eyes to better sense the steady streams running down my face and quietly whined when Elandria told me to move.

Standing to one side I watched the next three members of the team kneel under the sacrifice. Now she had come back to herself, futilely twitching against her bonds, but it was just too late. I swapped with Elandria at the end so that she could kneel, watching as her finely-boned features acquired a bit of colour. With a sigh the sacrifice expired, the atmosphere within the chapel briefly turning oppressive as her soul was absorbed into the fabric of the building, and Elandria blinked as she rose to her feet. Red streaks had been left on her face, just as they had been left on our's, and it added a savageness to her beauty. With a serene grace Elandria reached up to swipe a drop of blood from the corner of her mouth, popping the finger into her mouth, and then she glanced at us, a lustful smile appearing on her face.