บท 167: Priestly Duties
5/26 lunch
My impatience was still sabotaging me, I think. I refuse to believe I was actually this bad at shadow magic. I refuse! I was great at it a couple days ago! But yeah. No dice on shadow words. I managed to pick up smite again, at least. Maybe I should see if Tara can teach me some blunter shadow magic? "Rending the mind" might be a more natural lead into mind control than circling around from force fields. When I say it like that, it sounds obvious.
I did receive some theoretically good news by the end of the lesson: team necromancer was done with the Agamand mills. Completely. They cleared it out, once they hit critical mass on minions. They lost three of their ghosts and the majority of their physical undead, but they came out of it with 53 banshees, counting Melisara. 53. Lillibeth had come into her own twisting ghosts to my will, and Tara was in fact exactly as powerful a necromancer as I'd hoped. Hyper specialized in the field of raising and controlling the dead, but that's why we gave her the spear.
Of course, then I had a new problem. How the actual fuck would I make use of all these ghosts? Obviously I wanted them possessing people, but the kinds of people they can capture with possession without using an amulet was a disappointingly limited band of options, and my amulets were currently going at a premium. I didn't particularly want to reallocate the majority of my active amulets from the living to the dead, either.
I could equip the floating amulets I had in Duskwood and Westfall onto ghosts to speed things up when dealing with mid-low range people. I could render people brain dead and let a ghost puppet them until an amulet could be arranged. Or I could find people that ride the edge between too mentally compromised to resist and too mentally compromised to consent. Honestly I didn't expect this to be done so quickly, and to be perfectly frank my thoughts on the subject had amounted to "more ghosts equals more better."
It wasn't even an inaccurate assessment! Having a small army of ghosts was indeed vastly better than not having a small army of ghosts. I was definitely going to find a use for them. It's just that I've hired a huge pile of IT professionals and the office doesn't have wifi or desks yet. I needed to find something for them to do in the meantime.
••••••••••
Sally was happy to see the new acolyte getting along with her supposed peers. As the prophet's chosen consort, Lividia naturally outranked her other acolytes; after all, she would logically outrank Sally herself if she hasn't been placed in the role of student. It wouldn't be difficult to convince Interrogator Vishas to back her version of events; James had been her friend since childhood and they had survived the third war together.
Officially, Lividia would be a transfer from Hearthglen, recommended by a priest that recently died in an assault on Andohol. No need for initiation if the High Inquisitor herself takes interest. Due to her great beauty she needed to be examined naked and subjected to a routine exorcism, of course, but she'd presented herself with absolutely no objections once she saw that everyone involved would be a fellow woman. If anything she'd occupied herself by assessing them in turn.
For this first day, she went through the ritual of acceptance and swore some redundant oaths to Lord Erich; she had to refer to him as the Light, but most didn't realize that the light had an avatar on Azeroth. Yet. After that, her limited skill at healing was put to use, having her assist trainees who were injured along with the rest of Sally's entourage. While she did so, she commended the warriors for working so hard to become strong. The combination of pretty face and encouraging attitude made her very popular, though anyone with serious injuries needed to go to one of the more senior healers for proper restoration.
Naturally, Sally marked out anyone who showed too much interest in the new trainee for supplemental duties. They did not know it, but they were ogling someone that was vastly above them in stature and destiny. To go from complete disconnection from the light to even rudimentary healing in a single day was rare, and to do it with outside of a crisis was unheard of. She approached the Light with such utter certainty that the High Inquisititor could not help but be jealous; Sally could only muster such conviction on a single point: death is for the wicked alone. Sally would be overseeing her training directly; any of the rest of her priests might grow suspicious of her unusual schedule. After all, the prophet would certainly have need of her sometimes.
Arabella, one of her finest abbots in training, was coughing. She did not heal herself, though she could. Last night, when the gift of the light came to her, Sally had pulled Arabella aside and explained the situation. She had been given an inoculation against the Plague of Undeath, and it was time for Arabella to receive it in turn. It was to be kept quiet, as some of the more zealous among them would demand it for themselves. It had a few trifling side effects to be endured. Sally had injected her with two days worth of her essence, and the girl was growing to look just a bit more like Sally as she was perfected in mind and body. It was flattering, in a way, to see her own best features reflected in her student.
It was simplicity itself to ensnare her so. She was a good and trusting girl; too trusting, really. She was unfit for the position of abbess in wartime, despite her skill as a healer. She was being held in reserve for a better time, when strength born of kindness could flourish again. A time that would come all the sooner with a true prophet leading them.
••••••••••
I named my new archer Claire, and we checked what she was capable of. Mostly good stuff. She'd been provided with fairly light and revealing armor, sentinel standard, as well as a longbow. Excitingly, all of her equipment could be dismissed or summoned with a thought, just like my own armor, moonblade, and items in my inventory. It was one hell of an advantage. My archer would always be an archer from now on. The bow wasn't going anywhere, whether she was on patrol or pretending to be a maid.
Like me, spontaneously being an elf chick now didn't seem to bother her at all. Of course, there's a decent chance she'd been a dude a few days ago, so she probably had a very fluid self identity at the minute. She might even just cling to this form, just to have any definitive identity at all.
https://imgur.com/a/GzftFAs
I had Caledra assess her, and the ranger put her firmly into the category of well trained but unexceptional. Any reasonably athletic and disciplined elf could reach this level of skill with 6 months of strenuous training, plus maybe one battle to season them. Most of the tier 2 elves I had here in the basin were at about the same level of skill in the bow or sword, my app assessed her as tier 3, however, possibly because she was still a worgen. One that would hulk out and remain at least lightly armored, possibly keeping the bow too.
I didn't consider training her to be a waste of resources, not by a long shot. Having someone that's "merely" equivalent to a rank and file soldier in the Silvermoon army, who can turn invisible at night and summon her gear at will? That's a worthwhile investment, especially with further upgrades on the way. Not exactly going to revolutionize my forces on its own, though. I'll keep looking, and see if Caledra can bring her up to full Ranger standards.
••••••••••
Talaada was happy to have such an important role, but she was worried she might overwork herself. Throughout the day, she would hear declarations of love from her new companions as they underwent initiation. The sound of several dozen voices from the northern expedition had warmed her heart. She didn't need to do anything but listen to those, and she always did.
In the morning, she would visit the High elves. They were perfectly reasonable people, really. Every day a few more would agree to join her, and around half would go with her to the Twilight Grove to integrate with the new community. She encouraged those who still had friends to stay and share the good news. Slowly the rest would be worn down. She was sure of it.
Then she was to check in with Moira. She had been given a necklace, making Talaada's part unnecessary with the princess herself, except to expedite the process. They were crude and slow, but for the headstrong they were necessary. Moira was certainly headstrong, so Talaada approved. The rest weren't ready yet. They didn't trust humans, and they weren't open about what they wanted. Getting them to declare their love would be difficult without magic. If only Talaada could charm them. The shadows still mostly eluded Talaada, and it was infuriating. She did her best to befriend the dwarves instead; bringing them small gifts, learning how to play cards, listening to their gripes, and expressing her confidence in the future alliance between their peoples.
The last stop was the worgen. This was the difficult part. Ideally, the wolf men would be mostly in their human forms, allowing her to assess and speak to them all. It was rarely that easy, but she usually had several options. She would go to whoever seemed most open to her message, and speak to them. Give them one of the amulets from the guards, and work them through initiation. Some of them were resistant, or seemed likely to question the process. Those ones were separated and given a mushroom. It was a shame they couldn't be trusted as they were, but they would be happier now. Vanessa would mold them like clay into perfect servants, who would live for nothing but the Prophet's wishes.
It was a shame to see people reduced that way. Individuality was important, the prophet clearly believed so. Diversity was the greatest strength of the brotherhood, second only to unity.
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