[Galadria]

Today's installment:

At that moment they were interrupted by shouts from the front, where a guide had gone ahead. A rugged mountain man from Kembisha, he came pounding back in a froth. "Orcs, " he bawled, "Orcs ahead!", then suddenly pitched forward, a black-feathered arrow protruding from his back. At his rear howled a dozen of the greenish, bandy-legged beings. In an instant, they were gathered in a circle, the men at the fore. Odo had out his mace that he had named Starshine, for he had had it made from a meteor that had fallen long ago; Attalus was swinging the great sword Corhydras that only one as strong as he, could have wielded. The magicians worked the beginnings of spells. Sefa stood beside Galadria, Strike out and gleaming in the bright sun, ready to give her all for her Lady. The first arrows whooshed in the dirt of the road.
Galadria drew Sefa under her mage robe and began to weave a cantrip. Two arrows hit her, but sprung back, harmless. Sefa ducked back, out of the sheltering folds. She wanted to see.
As luck would have it, the first thing she saw was Morgul, struck in the shoulder by an arrow, the spell he was ready to use spent in useless energy. Sefa gasped, and ran to him. Morgul waved her back. He was pale, but he gritted, "It is naught; see to my Lady. " As Sefa ran back she saw him send a bolt of energy into a seemingly empty knob of land, and wonder if he had become erratic with pain.
She need not have worried, for Morgul's heightened senses had detected a recently buried body in that earth. The spell struck the corpse, reuniting it with the nearby soul, raging against those same orcs who had murdered it. They had stripped him of his weapons, but now the ghosts of them sprang into his hands as he exploded from his grave and charged the orcs as they closed with Odo and Attalus. Those two showed no discomfort at fighting alongside the thing. It was an old story to them. Corhydras and Starshine flashed along with the ghostly weapons, slaughtering orcs.
Galadria spotted an orc archer as he hopped up to take a shot at Odo, and she loosed her spell. It left her hand as a flash of electricity direct to that unfortunate orc but then jumped to each of its fellows in turn,either frying them outright or dazing them and taking them out of the fight. Cythera and Noemi stood between Galadria and the men and their ghostly ally, flinging energy bursts at individual orcs, Morgul staggering up to join them.
Sharp-eyed Sefa picked up a single small orc lurking in the shadow of the nearby cliff., making its way behind the dark mage. She knew Galadria's mind was bent on the mass of orcs surrounding Odo and her husband, preparing some powerful dweamor against them, so she slipped into that same shadow and hid behind a convenient rock. As the orc crept toward Galadria's back, Sefa sprang out from her concealment and planted Strike between its shoulderblades with all her strength. "Galadria! " she shrieked.
Having loosed her spell, which had caused all of the orcs around her menfolk to burst into flames, Galadria spun to see the orc give a great shudder, dribble blood from its mouth, and collapse, dead. Sefa, who had fallen with it in the force of her blow, was astonished to see that the little dagger had driven straight through the leathern jack the orc wore for armor and gone deep within, apparently straight to the heart.
Galadria had no time then to investigate further. She wheeled back toward the battle and joined her companions picking off straggling survivors. Later when all was over, she rejoined Sefa, who was sitting beside the dead orc, mechanically cleaning the monster's blood from her blade. She sat down next to the girl, and together they watched Odo magically remove the arrow from Morgul's shoulder and close his wound. It would only be sore for a few days. Noemi and Cythera were examining the bodies of the slain orcs, and the blonde wizard was to be seen holding up a particularly ugly knife between her thumb and forefinger and wrinkle her nose at it, before throwing it away. That caused Sefa to smile for the first time since the fight started.
Galadria smiled too. There was blood on Cythera's dainty hands, but the dark mage knew that none of it was hers. She turned to Sefa, who was still mechanically cleaning the orc blood from her blade. "You did well, today," she began, "how do you feel?"
Sefa shook her head, making the curls bounce. "Numb. Empty." She remembered whom she was talking to. "My Lady, I mean."
Galdria smiled again. "Today," she said with mock sternness, "we can let that pass." Her expression sobered again. "Have you not seen death, before?"
"Yes, my Lady," the girl replied, "but I have not...killed."
"I said you have done well," Galadria insisted, "That creature probably would not have killed me, but it might have disrupted my spell. We might have lost someone, or had them injured in a way that even dear Odo," she shot the man a look of affection as he was examining a scratch Attalus had gotten, "could not cure. Not to speak of the fact that it would certainly have killed you. Eventually." She paused, to let that sink in. "So," she finished,"do not fret. There are simply some creatures that the world is better without." She then hugged Sefa close and kissed her. Then she rose and went over to see how her sister and her ally were doing.
Odo, having finished with his friends and the guide turned to the animated warrior, still glaring at the bodies of the orcs. He at once saw that the creature was too far gone to bring back to life, so he merely raised his hand in a blessing. "Say your name," he commanded.
"Rawson Groer," the thing croaked.
"Have you family in Tarashia?" Odo asked.
"Yes," It replied.
Odo nodded,"Rest then," he said. "We will notify them at first opportunity and they can retrieve your bones." The thing did not respond, but merely vanished, satisfied, its revenge on the orcs complete.