Acacia Chronicle

Breakfast at the Ancient Cathedral, in the Studio of Our Ecclesiarch Most Heavenly…

Pancakes, eggs, hams, bacon and sausages, fresh fruit, and a whole lot more had been arrayed upon jewelled platters. Alongside it, all the condiments, sauces and syrups one could ever think of in gilded dispensers made of glass and white gold. Tea, coffee, milk and juice as well, borne in crystalline pitchers by silver-masked servants who stood in waiting at this great morning feast.

It was to the sight of this sumptuous decadence that Elena de L’Enfer sauntered into the Studio, dressed only in her white shirt, grey trousers and brown boots. In the grip of her ungloved hands, she held a mug filled to the brim with piping hot coffee completely black and brewed by Claire de la Lune, the way she liked it best. And she sipped it slowly, letting its scalding bitterness rest upon her cold tongue as she joined her mistress, Nhaka Mezalune, and the Ecclesiarch, Iris de Escaflora. They were already there seated at the table, dressed in their usual outfits. Her mistress, in her black and purple gown and the Ecclesiarch in her white lingerie adorned with silver jewellery all over.

“Morning,” Elena said, taking a sip of coffee from her mug as she sat down upon a cushioned chair that one of the silver-masked servants had pulled up for her. “What’s up?”

“The usual, my dear!” Nhaka squealed in reply, her eyes on her Vizier even as the eldritch gaze of her crystalline eyestalks remained focused upon a stack of pancakes  set upon a jewelled plate before her petite self. “I need someone killed!”

Elena took another sip of her coffee.

“Sure, my Lady. Who’s the lucky guy or girl?”

“Cult leader, holed up in some shrine in the wilderness with his little army,” Nhaka said, her mouth partially full with chunks of buttered pancakes. “Name’s Orkus, or Orcus, I think? I’m not sure! But I do know that he claims communion with Elicia herself! Crazy fellow, really.”

It was with this, right after she swallowed her mouthful of pancakes, that her tone turned grim. As all of her purple eyes and all of her crystalline eyestalks looked upon her Vizier's crimson-eyed gaze.

“They’ve been raiding the countryside and the wilderness. Targeting elves, mostly. Killing them, though my sources tell me that they take the women and children to their little hideout! Some kind of holy ritual, I think? Reeks of it, that's for sure!”

“Another lunatic, huh?” Elena remarked absent-mindedly as she placed her emptied mug upon the breakfast table. “Eh, just tell me where he is, and I’ll get ‘em good. Stop the bastard’s ritual as well, while I’m at it.”

“Indeed!” Nhaka exclaimed in reply before taking a moment to gulp down a glass of orange juice. “I know where he is, thanks to my informants! So, you’ll get into their lair, kill that little man and retrieve what he’s got!”

“Yes. Kill him, with extreme prejudice,” Iris added expressionlessly as she held in her jewel-adorned hands, a gilded saucer with a jewelled cup filled to the brim with piping hot tea bearing the scent of freshly-brewed flowers. “Those who seek to undermine the world that our mistress desires must be stopped.”

She then paused to take a sip of tea, closing shut her golden eyes for a moment as she did. And when she was done, she placed her saucer and cup upon the breakfast table, where a silver-masked servant had it taken away as she looked towards Elena once more.

“At any cost, by any means necessary. People like him are a remnant of the past, living still in the era of my predecessor when we were still at war with Abbadon and his Alyssian Empire. When they, the elves of old, brought the Hellbourne into the world. And for what this 'Orcus' is, and what he has done and intends to do, he must be dealt with.”

As Elena listened to this, she picked up her mug once more and sipped her coffee slowly but surely. For indeed, the war between men and elves was all but the frozen heart of the world that was Melodia. Only by Elicia’s will had it all grinded to a halt, to a Peace under the promise of utter annihilation at the hands of her and hers. That even the Hellbourne and the dragons who were once men and elves would bend the knee. It had been so, even if the old hatreds remained simmering just beneath the surface and at the fringes of all that was hers and hers alone, if only to pursue the grudges of the past.

And for that, it seemed only right that a reminder was in order. Seemed just about right, at least. It was only fitting that the madman was also a sorcerer of some kind. Who else, after all, could possibly inspire mortals to such madness? To bring about, with such callous disregard for life, this ‘holy’ ritual? She, of all people, knew of such situations all too well.

“Either way, his days are numbered!” Nhaka exclaimed, breaking the silence as she smiled from ear-to-ear at Elena, and then to Iris. “Their little cult’s numbers have been dwindling ever since Iris’s Lightsworn repelled their raid on one of her Elven Reservations out on the countryside!”

“Yes, and with little to no means of recruiting as my Lightsworn expedition close in on their little lair in retaliation, this is indeed so,” Iris remarked in turn as she reached for some strawberries in a gilded bowl. “But that also makes them dangerous. They grow desperate and mad as they cling on to the lunacy of their leader. That the ritual Lady Mezalune speaks of would somehow save them.”

And with the strawberries held within her jewel-adorned hand, she then looked at Elena, her golden-eyed gaze upon the elven Vizier’s crimson eyes unwavering.

“It will not. Lady Mezalune can have this weapon as is her wont, but I will see to it personally that he who claims violent communion with our mistress will be crushed by my own hand.”

“Wait, what?” Elena said to Iris while she stole a glance at her mistress, who nodded and smiled at her in turn with all of her purple eyes glinting fiendishly. “Iris, you're gonna do what I think you're gonna do?”

“Yup! Iris will be accompanying you. What an honour!” Nhaka squealed to Elena while Iris nodded in agreement. “I mean, Little Miss Escaflora here thinks that battles are won by provisions, tactics and an absence of disease, but she’s going to take a leaf from my grimoire and win this one by killing their leader!”

“Indeed. I will follow your directive, Lady de L’Enfer. I understand that you usually work alone in service of Lady Mezalune, but allow me to be your sword and your shield in this… errand,” Iris added, a tear of blood streaking down both her golden eyes as she held out, floating upon her jewel-adorned palm, a sphere of golden light made manifest from her angelic sigil. “With this ‘Orcus’ dead and his ritual stopped, what remains of his militia will fall to my Lightsworn with minimal losses, as is our duty as Archons to preserve the lives of all who live under Elicia’s Law.”

She then cupped her palm into a fist, such that the golden sphere floating upon her palm imploded into a shower of shimmering sparks upon the breakfast table.

"As well as those who live beyond it as well, even if my colleagues like Ser Ebondrake beg to differ. This is what it means to wield power, Lady de L'Enfer, something I am sure you are well aquainted with. That we who have it will have the courage to stand on behalf of the defenceless."

“Right…” Elena said in reply as she scratched the back of her head absent-mindedly, her elvish ears twitching slightly as she reached for her coffee mug. Which had, much to her surprise as she looked at her mistress, been refilled to the brim with piping hot coffee. “Well, let’s do it, then! My Lady, I trust you’ve all we need to know? About this… madman? To find ‘em, and… you know?”

“Of course!” Nhaka exclaimed, a forkful of pancakes skewered upon her fork as she smiled at her Vizier, who grinned at her in turn. “I’ll have the specific details passed to Claire after this most splendid breakfast! Oh, and an exact copy for my dearest Iris as well! As soon as possible!”

“Alright,” Elena said, coffee mug in hand as she got up from her chair. “I’d better go get ready, then. I’ll see you in a bit, Iris? To talk strategy for dealing with that bastard elf-killer, and all that.”

When this was met with a nod of approval from Iris, she smiled and headed for the door.

“Good luck, and have fun out there with sweet little Iris!” Nhaka called out to Elena as she watched her Vizier leave, her eyes and crystalline eyestalks glowing fiendishly in shades of violet. “Be sure to bring to me his super-secret weapon at your earliest convenience!”

Upon hearing this, Elena stopped in her tracks. Without turning around, she turned her head sidewards and gave the best smile she ever could to her mistress.

“Of course, my Lady. I’ll do that much and kill ‘em all. Like I always do, just for you.”