The Warden's Awakening

Chapter VII - Inferno

Senara woke to the smell of smoke. She sat herself up on her right side, avoiding pushing against the swollen areas of her body. What was left from her fall was a sickening shade of green and purple, but at least she could put a bit more weight on her feet. She was, however, still careful as she stepped out of bed to see what was burning.

"What is Nmevra doing cooking this late?" she spoke to herself. Darkness was upon the city of Agalor, and Nmevra should have been in her room sleeping. Perhaps she was simply hungry for a midnight snack and fell asleep in the kitchen.

She opened the door to her room and stepped out, suddenly seeing smoke pillow up to the ceiling. Down the stairs, she saw lights and moving shadows. She rushed down the stairs and turned into the room where the smoke was pouring from. What she saw startled her to her core.

Six Morkai, four women and two men, all setting her house ablaze. At their feet were the lifeless bodies of Nmevra and Tbres.

"No!" she shouted. The six all turned to her and four of them drew swords. One of the men wielded an ax, and a woman held two daggers in her hand. Senara ran.

She rushed passed a stone statue of one of her ancestors, and bolted up the stairs. Unbelievably, her mother stood at the top step, adorned in leather armor, and wielding a sword in her left hand and a small ax in her right. Senara had only ever seen that blade hanging up over her mother's bed. It was a one handed sword with a straight silver cross-guard. The grip was alternating stripes of brown and white leather, and the pommel was an odd diamond shape, painted in a bright blue, with a radiantly blue gem in the center of it.

"Senara, get to safety."

"Like Sann I am. If you're going to fight, then so am I," Senara said, rushing passed her mother and going into her room. She had no time to dawn any sort of armor, but there were two short swords in her closet. She quickly grabbed them and unsheathed them, as she would not be needing to put them away, and rocketed out of her room.

She looked to her mother, who was fighting off one group of Morkai. Three of them were coming up the other staircase, trying to flank her and kill her from behind. Senara would not stand for that. She charged forward, parrying one of the Morkai women's swings, and swinging into her. Her adversary was strong, and had seen her attack coming, dodging out of the way. The attacker swung, Senara parried, but the Morkai's fist slammed into Senara's left cheek. She stumbled a bit, but spun back, and lunged into the Morkai woman, her swords piercing her chest.

The Morkai woman fell, and her fall pushed the two men back down the stairs. Senara took a defensive posture on her step, and the ax wielder rushed her, swinging wildly with his weapon. Senara saw the second man quickly light the rug that covered the stairs on fire, and kicked the ax wielder in the face to move him. Well, to try. She thought her foot might have broken on the Morkai's horn.

The ax wielder lunged up the stairs and caught Senara off guard, pinning her to the stairs. She saw the fire begin to creep up the rug, and soon she'd be burned as well as sore. The Morkai raised his ax above his head, but just as he did, Senara cast camouflage, and disappeared. She watched as the Morkai looked confused, then stabbed him in the chest, blood spilling over her blades. She pushed him aside and rolled, avoiding the fire that was engulfing the rug. The second man had set fire to the curtains, other rugs, anything that was fabric.

Why were they doing this?

"Senara!" her mother called. Senara looked and saw one of the women rush after her, swinging at her with extreme precision. Her movements were calculated: this Morkai had seen action. She lunged, but Senara was able to Parry. Unfortunately, her counterattack fell short, and left her left side exposed. She quickly backed out of the way, just missing the Morkai's blade. Senara then swung her blades over her head, then down, only to be blocked by the Morkai. She grinned and pushed Senara off her, spinning around and kicking her in the stomach.