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< Underworld Battle | Sol Invictus Logs | The Three Lights >

Four days after the near-fatal battle with the pair of Immaculate Masters, three of the Sunlander Circle had returned to the villages where the meteor had fallen to Creation. Now taken away to the Labyrinth by Zahara's demons, the meteor would not attract any more attention but according to the Fire Master that now serves Markuran there were others already there. Three other Dragon-Blooded and over a hundred mortal soldiers had been sent to recover the precious metal before the Anathema could make use of it and, if possible, they were to dispatch the Anathema and as many of their followers as possible. The burned out husk of a small village gives grim testament to their mission. An ash-coated bell tolls mournfully as it hangs from a burned rope.

• Birds-of-Trinity paces back and forth over the wreckage.

<Birds Of Trinity> "This was unnecessary. I don't think this Hunt is about the metal any longer."

<Markuran> "If it ever was.."

<Cerin> "They sought to hurt you, and if they couldnt hurt you, then everything you care about"

• Birds-of-Trinity spits on a discarded ivory dagger, dyed red to look like jade.
• Markuran shakes his head in anger, looking at the hastily burried bodies, placed only with the bare courtesty required to prevent hungry ghosts from spawning. "They did everything but summon the dead back as a taunt."
• Cerin starts to look about to see where the tracks left after the killing, studying the ground
• Markuran snarls into the wind. "They call us demons, yet they slaughter the innocent. How dare they walk this world."

<Birds Of Trinity> "Revenge isn't exactly the best way to beautify the soul."

• Cerin shakes his head from looking at thee tracks "No, it is not, but...they seem to have people with a mediocome of skill in this wyld hunt..persueing them would be interesting.."
• Markuran waves that away with a clenched fist. "These souls will rest easier when the blood of the Hunt soaks into their graves from my dripping fists."
• Cerin looks towards the west "They went that way, about 2 days ago"

<Markuran> "Then we will follow them. Rannath can bring up some of his army, if he wishes to stir himself from whatever it is he had wandered off to do this time. It will take time to raise my warriors or his..but I think the Hunt moves with little speed, busy as it is laying waste and bringing misery."

<Cerin> "They are only a hundred or so men, and a handful of 'blooded..."

<Markuran> "The two they sent as scouts were masters of their damned Immaculate Martial Arts. Three more won't be easy to kill." Mark's hand traces a still-tender wound across his chest, a deep slice from an icy Chakrum.

<Cerin> "Quite probably not, but then that is what makes the hunt interesting"

• Markuran looks carefully at Cerin from under heavy brows furrowed slightly with unreadable emotion. "Do you think of these monsters as nothing but sport to enjoy hunting?"

<Birds Of Trinity> "We were ambushed then. I have no intention of being so unprepared again."

• Cerin shrugs his shoulders slightly "If I decide to hunt them, then yes, to do more, or less, would be foolish. Do you think of them as nothing more than pests to be crushed beneath your army's might?"
• Birds-of-Trinity gestures to Smoking Mirror. "Be my eyes. Find the Immaculates. Bring us to them."

<Markuran> "They are devils to be exterminated, cut down and made to suffer for their crimes."

• Cerin 's face looks slightly distateful "I see little point in making them suffer beyond death. That does both of you a disservice"

<Markuran> "It was not your friends and followers murdered without cause. They will not die well if I have a choice."

<Cerin> "Then perhaps you should not have that choice. One should never start a hunt without the intention of a clean kill. Whatever one hunts."

<Markuran> "Would you tell the children under this piss-soaked ground that the men who did this deserve clean, honorable deaths? That they should be placated better in the afterlife then their victims, because it salves *your* conscience?"

<Cerin> "It is not a matter of my conscience. It is a matter reason. These men have done ill, they will earn their reward in the next cycle, there is no need to sully yourself in this one for unnessary vengance that will just engender more events like it"

• Birds-of-Trinity quirks an eyebrow.
• Markuran snorts. "Let Fate feast on my soul, so long as I do what is right. Regardless of your moralizing, we need move quickly. I will send some men to give proper honor here when we meet with my warriors."

<Birds Of Trinity> "What is it they say in Varang? 'Living well is the best revenge.' Perhaps you can turn these killers back on themselves and make them perform good to balance out their wickedness."

<Birds Of Trinity> "It would make you seem like a wise and just ruler, and put the Immaculates under our thumb to crush whenever we choose."

<Markuran> "We will see how deep their crimes run."

• Birds-of-Trinity takes this as a statement that the discussion is over, for the moment. Smoking Mirror returns, and plucks at a fallen pig.
• Cerin returns to eyeing the tracks

fade to the catching the hunt in a clearing, to the west of the destroyed village...

• Birds-of-Trinity eyes the breastplate of the Earth Immaculate standing in the clearing below her. "Peleps Ino! I would recognize the shoddy craftsmanship of that breastplate anywhere! I thought I had killed you."
• Peleps Ino straightens up and scowls "You failed foul one, the Earth within me endures even your vile magicks"
• Cerin is silent as he stands there, red armour flapping and twisting in a non-exsistant breeze, not commenting, simply marking the positions of the 'blooded"
• Markuran steps forward from the brush cover that had been hiding him from the sight of the Immaculates. "None of you will endure long. Your crimes have sentenced you and we have come to carry out that sentence. You slaughtered innocent folk and anointed their graves with the slop of your men. You will pay dearly before death."
• Birds-of-Trinity watches her fingernails light up as she invokes the Flaring Halo Technique. "Earth endures only at the sufferance of the Sun. And we have suffered you long enough."
• Markuran glows faintly with an aura of unmitigated hatred and loathing. The feelings of disgust radiate from him in palpable waves, thundering against the Immaculates minds and hearts like surf against a sand manse. The presence of Markuran bears down upon the monks with strength almost equal to that of his steely sinew.
• Peleps Ino snorts derisively and thumps the ground with his weapon "They paid the price for unrepentant defiance of the Perfected Heiarchy, their deaths are on your hands for encouraging such unreightous behavior"
• Birds-of-Trinity looks puzzled.

<Birds Of Trinity> "You really mean that, don't you? I'm sorry that I don't have time to convince you otherwise."

• Markuran snarls, clenching a fist. "You are the ones who defy the Celestial Hierarchy. You defy the Sun's Children when you should bow to us, as your friend the Crimson Dragon now does."
• Birds-of-Trinity jumps down out of the tree, and lands delicately on the Immaculate's tetsubo, bending to pat his head. "You could have been such a nice pet."
• Peleps Ino glares back "The Five Elemental Dragons are the Pinacle of Spiritual development and all else is blasphemy. I sorrow for Crimson Dragon, their weakness weakness is only compunded by your sinful nature. I look forward to sending you all to your next lives. Hopefully the Dragons will bless you with another chance to learn a proper way to live"
• Birds-of-Trinity decides to leap back into the canopy. In case Mr. Immaculate gets testier.
• Cerin gives a subtle shake of his head at Birds antics

< Underworld Battle | Sol Invictus Logs | The Three Lights >