Commanding My Destiny

LucianDevine

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(Closed for MsAmative)

Warin Bogdan let out a heavy sigh as he pretended to watch the fight play out before him. He had seen more than his fair share of combat, most of it in this very arena. It had sadly gotten to the point where he barely paid attention to them these days, even though he would be fighting the winner tomorrow afternoon.

It wasn't so much that Warin was cocky or arrogant. Granted, he probably should have been after being undefeated for as long as he had been. Then again, it had always been like that, even when he was a child. He had always been stronger and faster than the other children. His parents had made sure that his intelligence didn't fall by the wayside, though. They pushed even his impressive skills to the limits and helped make him the man he was today.

Warin was just under six feet tall and had a lean build. Despite his average size and appearance, though, he attacked with the speed of a cheetah, the strength of a bear, and had the staying power of a Gazelle, things that the winner of the current fight would find out the hard way.

A particularly loud roar of the crowd pulled Warin out of his own head. He lifted his blue gaze to briefly study the large man that stood victorious in the center of the arena. The man spun around, looking at the giant crowd once before turning his gaze towards Warin. It was then that he stood up and stepped forward to the edge of his balcony, letting the whole of the crowd see their reigning champion. He lifted a single hand into the air, just for the crowd, and pulled another giant roar from them before he finally stepped back and sat down once more.

The day and night flew by quickly after that, and almost before he knew it, Warin was putting on his mithral chainmail, pulling on his obdurium bracers, and finally, pulling on his double leather sword harness. He turned towards the full length mirror and gave himself a brief once over. "God what I wouldn't give for a decent challenge..." He muttered softly to himself before turning towards the door.
 
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Linette's hands shook as her horse galloped across the expanse of desert that laid before her. She had left instantly the moment that the elders became aware of the potential attack on one of the temples. There had not been an attack by the followers of Retyx in over a century, and her heart sank at the thought that they could lose under her watch. She had mounted her horse without a second thought, taking no water or provisions with her, her simple dress providing no reprieve from the pounding sun and heat, her long brown hair blowing wildly in the wind. Only now did she realize what a mistake she had made, ignoring the elder's request to stay and allow the templars to handle any issues. Her reckless decision hung before her now as she frantically raced after the templars, who were now merely just within her eyesight.

The minutes felt like hours as she raced towards the templars, her progress in the sand was achingly slow and her inability to ride only exacerbated the problem. When they finally seemed to stop ahead of her she felt as though she could weep for joy, had she had any precious energy to spare. Thankfully, when she finally reached the group Commander was there to greet her.

"High Priestess, why have you followed us? Are you alone?" the Commander asked as he helped her from her horse."

"I could not leave things to fate, I must be there to see that the precious relics are safe." Linette replied, hoping the commander would make no further comment on her recklessness.

"We need to move on, the temple is just over the horizon. Are you ready?" the Commander continued, handing her a flask of water as she stood. "Men, let's move out!" the Commander bellowed as he turned and walked back towards his men. Linette rose slowly, exhausted from her previous ride but did not hesitate as she was helped back onto her horse. Her hands fidgeted with her reins as the travelled the last few miles, her anxiety growing as they grew closer to the plume of smoke rising towards the sky.

The group stopped a length away from the temple as the Commander surveyed the seemingly quiet scene below. From their vantage point they had a clear view of the temple and the nearby village below and there was no human presence that could be seen. The two guards who would stand at the temple entrance were nowhere to be seen, and there were no sounds coming from the village to the east which was still smouldering in the desert heat. Linette and two of the templars were left behind as the group surveyed what was left of the village and the temple, leaving Linette to anxiously await their report.

It seemed to be an eternity before the team returned and allowed her to enter the temple. The white sandstones walls were now stained with soot, the offerings left previously by the villagers to Dorine the goddess of water were now strewn around the room making her uneasy as they walked through the large ceremonial space and down into the space below. Linette halted as they walked into the antechamber.

"Have you men entered the sacred space?" Linette asked curtly.

"No High Priestess, the seal has not been disturbed so we have respected the sanctity of the space." the commander replied.

"Good, you and your men may remain here. " Linette remarked as she stepped through the passageway and into the dim space before her.

It took a moment for Linette's eyes to adjust to the dim light that filtered into the space from the small tunnels that bore through the ceiling and up into the floor of the temple below. It was easy for her to find the candles and flint in the small alcove next to the door before slowly walking across the room and toward the north corner of the room to place and light a candle. All of her actions were done on instinct and muscle memory, finding nothing seemingly out of place in the dim light. Only when she finally lit the candle to place in the candelabrum did she realize her mistake. Before she could even think to summon the templars the shadowed figured had her within his grasp, twisting her arm and forcing his blade under her neck.

"Scream and I will kill you where you stand" he hissed quietly in her ear "but if you are a good little whore and fetch me the seal, I will let you live" he continued before shoving her forward with enough force to make her stagger to her knees.
 
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When the large wooden doors leading out onto the field opened, Warin strode slowly and confidently onto the field, one of his swords already in his right hand. The roar of the crowd helped bolster his spirits a little. Moments later, he stood face to face with his giant opponent. At the command of the royal herald both of them turned towards the king and raised their weapons. When they turned back to each other, though, the ground suddenly started to shake. The previous roar of the crowd was replaced with a torrent of screams. Warin had no time to think about either the earthquake or the crowd, because moments later, bolts of lightning fell from the sky, striking the ground all around him. The earthquake got worse, and he was soon struggling just to keep his footing, a task made all the harder by the fact that he had to shield his eyes from the blinding brightness of the lightning.

The earthquake and lightning storm ceased as suddenly as they had come. Warin's knees were shaking, and his breath was coming in rapid pants. He slowly lowered his left hand from in front of his face and opened his eyes. The drastic difference between the lightning he'd been surrounded by and the dimness that he now found himself in left him blind for several seconds. His legs were still shaky when he was finally able to make out his surroundings. His instincts pulled his gaze first to his right. A black-clad person he didn't recognize was brandishing a short sword. On his other side, he saw a woman in white sprawled on the floor. If the woman's disheveled appearance hadn't been enough evidence to suspect what he'd been dropped into the middle of, the black-clad figures sudden charge certainly would have been.

Warin turned to met the charge but he was still shaken from everything that had transpired. He tried to bring his sword around to parry the man's sword and open him up for a counter-attack. The man's attack was faster than he'd anticipated. though. He managed to push it down and away from his head, but the momentum of the charge could not be helped. The sharp point of the blade hit him solidly in the chest, making him stagger backward. His armor had protected him from the blade, but not the force of the impact itself. His upper body sagged for but a second. When his gaze lifted to meet that of his attacker, though, there was a small smile on Warin's lips. The smile seemed to surprise the man, and that was all the time that he needed. His left hand lifted and drew the other sword from his back.

The dim light from the candelabrum on the wall reflected off the metallic purple swords, made from obdurium, just like his bracers. Now it was his turn to attack. The adrenaline coursing through his veins made it all too easy to ignore the pain in his chest as he stepped forward and attacked. His blade almost sang as it whipped through the air. The song was longer than he would have liked, though, because his opponent side-stepped the attack. Warin was ready for the counter-attack, though, and lifted the sword in his left hand to block the attack. The impact of the weapons rang out and echoed in the stone room. Warin didn't miss a beat, though, and with his opponents only weapon out of the way, he lifted his right foot up and kicked the smaller man square in the chest. The kick sent the man sprawling down onto his back, his sword clattering away from him. He turned towards his weapon and scrambled to recover it, but Warin didn't give him the chance. A single booted foot landed on the blade of it moments before one of his flawlessly crafted longswords drove into the man's prone body, piercing his heart and killing him instantly.

Though the battle was very brief, the sheer intensity of it had Warin's heart racing. He turned his gaze towards the woman once more but was distracted by the sound of armor clattering and many booted feet landing on stone coming closer. He cursed softly to himself, the pain from his chest starting to register in his brain as he places himself between her and the door once more. .He had no idea who was coming down those stairs, but he had little choice but to assume that they were enemies.
 
Linette's head swam as she had been shoved forwards causing her to hesitate, but either way she had no desire to reveal the sacred relic hidden within the chamber. She would happily give her life to protect it, and as she heard the man's footfalls echo through the chamber she could only imagine that it would now be her fate.

When the ring of metal against metal reverberated, she could only gasp as she attempted to make sense of her current predicament. None of the soldiers would walk into the sacred space without her permission, would someone really have broken their oath to the gods to come to her aid? How would they even have known? Linette attempted to gather her courage, regaining her feet and half crawled to the far side of the small room as quickly as she could before turning her back towards the wall to see the situation at hand. From her somewhat safe position, she still found herself no more enlightened than she had been when the first sounds of fighting began. She failed to identify either man involved, the cloaked figure she knew belonged to her enemy - but the new addition she could not identify in the least. With his lean figure and dress she could only guess that he was some kind of fighter or solider, but she had never seen armor or weapons in his style before. Where on earth did he come from? Why would they have let him cross the seal? Surely he could not have slaughtered the entire army before entering the room, surely she would have heard that.

Linete averted her gaze when the strange man finally dispatched her attacker, and let her gaze slowly return. If she was to be his next target she had no desire to see it coming. When she did finally lift her eyes and found him standing towards the doorway, seemingly attempting to protect her she was unsure how to act. In the sudden stillness of the room she could hear the footfalls outside the seal, and she could tell that the Commander was readying himself to stop whatever his group was able to hear from their vantage point.

"Who are you, and why are you here? Linette asked, with as much courage as she could muster.
 
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Despite the lingering pain in his chest, Warin's muscles were still taut and ready, his body having settled into a much-practiced stance, his left foot in front of his right, his body turned slightly sideways with one of his swords held tightly in each steady hand. It soon registered to him that the ringing of metal against metal and heavy footfalls were coming down a flight of stairs that he couldn't see from his current position. He filed that piece of information aside for later, should he need it, as he waited for his presumed enemies to show themselves.

The sound of the woman's voice behind him broke Warin's concentration, pulling his attention towards her. He glanced back at her, eyeing her up and down once before turning back to the adjoining room.

"My name is Warin..." He said in a soft but confident baritone voice after as long a pause as he dared under the current circumstances. "And I have no idea where "here" is, let alone a reason for being here."
 
"What do you mean you don't know where here is?" Linnette asked frustratingly "You couldn't have just appeared here! If you were here to steal the relic than why did you protect me?" she continued, straining to control her frustration. "You cannot possibly have no reason for being here." Linette remarked, almost to herself as she stood and walked towards the center of the room.

"Commander, you and your men are not to cross the seal. The chamber has already been defiled and I will not have it contaminated further as I have not been harmed."
 
The woman's frustration was quite evident as she responded to his words. He was about to respond with an equal amount of frustration but found himself caught off guard when she not only rose to her feet, walked closer to him, and called out to the men that he still couldn't see. Honestly, he couldn't make out much of anything across the threshold. Everything was blurred out by a strange hazy partition of sorts. He found himself confused, both by the strange partition and by basically everything she said.

Warin turned his head towards the woman fully, letting his attention lapse from the men that he could hear but not see.

"And yet that's exactly what happened..." Warin said as he let himself lower his swords . He took a step back from the entrance and lifted his swords to sheathe them on his back once more. "I was standing in the arena like I've done more times than I can count. There was an earthquake and a lightning storm..." He lowered his gaze from hers for a moment, shaking his head as he tried to make sense of it all, even as he was telling her. "I shielded my eyes from the lightning that surrounded me, and as suddenly as both had come, they were gone. When I was finally able to see again I was standing in this room being charged by that man." He gestured towards the man he'd dispatched.

"I don't know who you are, who they are, where this place is, and I have no idea what relic you're talking about."
 
Linette started in disbelief as the unknown man spoke. The idea that he just appeared here seemed impossible. How could that happen, and more importantly why?

"I just don't understand. I am Linette, voice of Asuna the goddess of Light. You are in a temple devoted to Dorine, the goddess of water." Linette managed to stammer as she attempted to connect the dots. "We do not have any arenas where fighting is a sport, where are you actually from? Your garb and swords are unlike anything I have ever seen. I don't believe we have a metal of this color either, I can only wonder why it is that you were sent here."
 
When Linette started to talk once more, Warin had to take a step back and lean his back against the wall, slowly shaking his head as she spoke name after name that he didn't recognize.

"I live in the desert kingdom of Niccasal, and your clothes are of a style that I don't recognize. I have traveled all across my...world, but have never heard of any of the gods that you mentioned..."

Warin let his words trail off as he tried to imagine what any of this could possibly mean.

"If there truly is a logical reason for it, then it must pertain to your world, because as far as I know, nothing of note was happening in mine as far as I know." Warin didn't know if his words were in any way helpful, but he, like her, was trying to piece together what all had happened and why.
 
"This is the only desert region of our world." Linette practically whispered as her head swam with the information that the stranger Warin presented. "It could only be due to the will of the gods that you have appeared. For whatever the purpose, the relic has been stolen and the fate of the world hangs in the balance. You must accompany me to the council of the elders. Perhaps they can shed some light on your sudden appearance in our realm."

Linette strode towards the doorway with the little confidence she could muster, hoping the strange man could be trusted and would not manage to disappear through some other non-existant door. "Will you come with me willingly Warin?" she asked warily.
 
Warin didn't like any of the words that came out of Linette's mouth. He had never put much faith in gods or anything else that he couldn't see or touch. She was clearly of the opposite opinion, though, and the council she wanted to bring him to sounded like it would be full of like-minded people. As much as he hated to admit it, though, there was no earthly explanation for what had happened, and at the moment she was the only person he knew.

"Linette, was it?" Warin started, ensuring that he had the woman's name right before continuing. "I will accompany you, but only under the condition that I will not be shackled. I have done nothing wrong, and will not be treated like a criminal or prisoner. "
 
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