Snippet #2672357

Peasant wasn't really much of an insult to Ridahne, for she truly was one and always had been. Atakhara was not a rich district by any means and the Torzinei clan was even less so. But she was rather affronted by the comment that Azurei's culture was weak, and almost as much by the remark about her being feeble. Hah! He did not know who he was speaking to! She was an Eija Ait'situri, a trained military warrior specializing in stealth, silence, and absolute control of her sword. She lacked the brute strength of the Khadrian, but she thought her own moves were far more elegant, graceful, and artful.

"Azurei is strong. Azurei is the sand in the wind and the waves of the sea. Azurei is fire and stone. Azurei is not dead. Though our bodies may go, Azurei will never die." She was resolute in this and spoke with all the certainty of a hunter reading fresh tracks in soft ground. And part of her, mostly in her eyes, dared him to try and refute it. "Do what you like. We will endure." She was daring him to kill her. She did not care anymore. Not that she didn't want to live or didn't care about life, for she did. But she had done enough worrying about survival for her lifetime and had seen enough violence to not be frightened by it. Indeed, as she saw the man's sword arm tensing, she braced herself for death quite calmly. But...there was no cold steel on her neck, nor pain, nor oblivion. Instead, the man she had followed inside intervened and the two crossed swords briefly.

Ridahne wasn't certain why he did that. She didn't care too much, though she was glad she was still alive. Still, she made no move to leave, even as the ring of water swirled around her like a sentient being. Ridahne had learned these invaders had some command over elements, though each one was different. She found this somewhat disgusting, or maybe just naive--Nature and her elements could not be mastered. Tamed, maybe, but not mastered.

The skirmish between the two ended and the cloaked one clearly won. Did she smell alcohol faintly? The cloaked one informed them both that she was supposed to join his unit. Her! Join their military! Ridahne almost laughed at the idea--she'd sooner die than betray her Azurei, especially not to these uncultured brutes. Besides, she did not like taking orders from those she did not respect ,and she had none for this man. None at all. She snarled at him, and then at Talmar, clearly not liking either of them.
In her native Azurian, she said what translated to, "Good luck with that." Her language was her one small joy--they did not know it and it was a difficult language to learn, especially considering that it was not normal to teach it to an outsider. She could use it to say anything she wanted to without them knowing, or could communicate secretly with her own kin.

She was 'ordered' to put the body back where it had been hung like a macabre flag, but Ridahne did not respond. She would wait until he left, and then take full advantage of the fact that this other man, Talmar apparently, seemed to be quite drunk. He seemed strong, but in his state she guessed she might best him with speed and agility, of which she had plenty. "I take no orders from you," she growled, still crouching over the body like it was treasure and she a pirate. To Talmar, she spat, and quite angrily. It did not matter to her that he had essentially saved her life--he could have had a million reasons for doing that and none of them had to do with him being good. No, she didn't trust him and would exploit his drunkenness as soon as she had a reasonable chance. She spat at Chorlus too, for good measure.

"Here my Sota will stay," she snarled.