Interlude
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She ran. She knew it was futile, but she ran anyway. The world was all wrong. All of it. An almost normal day turned into something cruel and painful. And when the sun set she had been stripped of even the comfort of the school routine. Worse she had somehow gotten the attention of several vampires, and now she just had to run. Even though they would get tired and she wouldn't.
Then something large and glowing with with a terrible golden light stepped in front of her, and she skidded to a stop. It looked at her with glowing eyes, and she felt her nerve break finally. She dropped to the ground and crawled away from it and the vampires.
"Vermin." The glowing thing turned it's direction to the vampires, and they cringed, looking from her to the beast.
They looked like they were going to run. But the metallic being moved faster than it had a right to. One died as the massive hammer it was wielding blew through it's body. Another turned and dropped as the hammer hit it's back and broke the vampire's spine. The third got a few feet away before there was a flash of light, and something stuck into it's back. The vampire screamed and lit up in bright flame. The crippled one tried to crawl away by pulling itself on the ground, and it's killer contemptuously stomped on it's head. The boot crushed down, and the vampire became dust.
Done in a few seconds. Brutally, and without mercy. She had seen slayings before done just as easily of course, but there was something far more terrifying about this one.
She whimpered as the metal thing moved towards her then. It was scarier just knowing that she didn't know this one. "Please..."
"You have demonic taint." The figure reached down and lifted her up by her clothing. She tried to struggle, but it was like fighting a vice. The hand closed around her throat, and the creature spoke again. "Let the Light judge you."
Everything went brilliant in light, and she screamed in pain as she burned. Her very soul screamed, and she felt everything burn completely. Mercifully she passed out before as it got even worse.
She didn't expect to wake up.
She did eventually. Wake up on a cot in a dark area. Everything hurt. Her mouth felt dry, and she had to blink a few times to be certain that she wasn't blind. She felt like she had been roasted alive.
"Up?" A female voice made her cringe back before remembering herself. "Water at your side. Don't worry it's safe."
Cordelia scrambled a bit and found the cup before glancing at where the voice came from suspiciously. Finally thirst made her down it anyway. If they wanted to kill her they would have. After that terrifying encounter, she was quite certain it would have been possible. Forcing her nerves to be calm after she finished Cordelia straightened up all the way and looked at darkened corner that the voice came from again.
"What am I doing here?" She was proud of how her voice kept steady.
"Only the suicidal or the traitors are out at night nowadays. Yet you fit neither of them. In fact, you didn't recognize Paladin. So I wonder." There was movement and the figure walked into view.
Cordelia wanted to cringe back, but she had done enough cringing today. It was a near thing though. The woman was dressed in something similar to the metal thing. Paladin she assumed. But it was silver instead, and muted. No shine. Probably worse though was the obvious disfigurement. One eye on the helmet didn't glow, and one hand looked like a prosthetic. Combined with the limping movement, and she could tell that this was a damaged person. She still felt dangerous though. So Cordelia kept her guard up.
"He shouldn't be here." Cordelia replied back softly after a long moment of silence. "Everything's wrong. And why am I telling you this. I need to find Giles."
"The watcher? That broken man?" The woman sat down and looked at her with that one glowing eye. "That demon must have really messed up your mind. What type was it?"
"How did you know about the demon. For that matter how did that Paladin know? What sort of demons are you!?" Cordelia felt herself get hysterical, and worse couldn't stop it.
Then for a moment she felt as if she was in terrible danger. The woman hadn't moved. Hadn't even so much as twitched. But the girl felt as if she was strangling right then and there.
"I'm the Handmaid of War. My friend is called Paladin. We're human." The so called handmaid still hadn't moved, but Cordelia felt herself able to breath again. "Now tell me about the demon."
"She looked human. Wanted some sort of wish." Cordelia strangled her panic. Whatever this person was, they were nuts. Who called themselves a handmaid? "I wished that Buffy had never come to highschool. Then it was like half the school was dead, and barely anyone would talk. Then the vampires, and everything else."
"Ah." The woman settled back. "Interesting. Yes, the broken watcher should know then." She got to her feet in a painful looking motion. "I'm going to visit him. You're safest here. If you leave... Well, Paladin might not be able to save you."
"No, no. Wait. Explainations! Who are you really, and why are you here if Buffy isn't?" Cordelia got off the cot and stalked towards the woman. "I've been burned, chased, and then interrogated. I want some answers. Plus look at you! You're barely able to walk. I'm not letting a girl with half a leg try to fight vampires. No matter what you call yourself."
"You're worried?" The Handmaid tilted her helmet. "Hah. Been awhile since I've had that happen from anyone not Paladin."
A motion, and then Cordelia was tumbling through the air and on the cot. She was dizzy, and disorientated. But she was coherent enough to realize that the woman had managed it. The woman had barely moved. Furthermore, the prosthetic was gleaming and moving as if it was alive now.
"A few answers then." The woman settled at the side of a cot. "Buffy Summers, the Slayer, is currently halfway across the country last I checked. Her actions shifted the vampires around some, to where Paladin and I were. Things got bad, and we got badder to handle it." The Handmaiden of War flexed a metalic hand in front of Cordelia. "Got this when things got really bad. Paladin went deep into his Light. We cleaned it out, but couldn't really go back to being normal. So we came where the things were really bad. And started a war."
"A war?" Cordelia swallowed. "What, so you killed those people?"
"Escalation killed them. We stopped holding back." The Handmaiden tilted her helmeted head forward. "Part of getting me functional made Paladin sort of start openly broadcasting what he does. Most people don't believe it. But enough do that the demons and vampires want to stamp it down. When night falls there are hordes sometimes. Only us and the faithful against them." A soft laugh, and Cordelia felt a chill as she realized that the woman was entertained. "It's fun and wickedly cool. "
"You're insane." The girl swallowed as she said it, but didn't regret it.
"Eh, probably. Doesn't matter in the end. It's kill or be killed now. Same as for you." The Handmaiden of War tilted her head forward to look at Cordelia, and then nodded. "But you're sane. And still kind even in this. There's a golden book nearby here. Paladin doesn't need it anymore. But you might find it useful. You want to make things better? Gather the power and faith for it. Until then I have things to kill."
With this the woman's prosthetic hand stopped moving as if it was alive, and the woman began to limp out. Cordelia couldn't bring herself to object again. As broken as the woman was, she was still one of the most deadly things Cordelia had seen. And that was including Buffy in full kill mode.
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Interlude end. Please return to your regularly scheduled voting.
Also, adjusting the upgrade to cleanse.
PS You can do the stable quest whenever. It's not one you need to take. It's an additional quest to your normal stuff.
To answer a previous question on skills as well, upgrades for skills can be gotten with skill points. I'm going to be adding an option for training for that soon as well. (It's going to take a lot of time though.)
