Also Unnamed

Ardulace Melghym sat quietly in the corner of the large room, scowling at her fellow priestesses.  Since the coup months earlier, she had been barricaded within the academy with fourscore adepts.  They had plenty of food to last decades if the need arose, but Ardulace did not have the patience to wait decades.


The eldest female in the lowest house seated on the council, Ardulace was next in line to sit on the council before the coup.  As such, she taught at the academy until her ascension to the matriarch of the house.  Because of this, she was spared the fate of the priestesses elsewhere within the city, and the usurpers had not been able to shatter the wards protecting the few remaining priestesses in the city - though Ardulace wasn't holding out on that lasting forever.

For the last few months, she had been busy training the adepts and now, the final group of adepts were being elevated to the exalted position of priestess of their goddess, and Ardulace's preparations were soon to be given purpose; she was obligated to strike out at the usurpers of her city, and it was for this that she still trained.

On the dais far below her, the matriarchs of the academy weaved the magic required to sanctify the adepts and bring them into the fold of priestesses.  The ceremony had already run many days when it should have been hours, but the number of attending matriarchs - and thus, the number of weavers required to finish the ceremony normally - were a fraction of what they should have been, forcing the matriarchs to alter the ceremony.

Ardulace was bored of watching the ceremony - on normal occasions, it was a beautiful ceremony, each adept being wound with magic to allow them easy communion with their goddess; on this occasion, however, it was simply tedium to watch the entire ceremony - so she spun on her heel and strode swftly out of the chamber.

She walked through the silent halls briskly; where once she would have heard screams of agony or pleasure and the drone of teacher, she only heard the bleak sounds of her own footsteps echoing until eternity.  She moved with purpose, however, intending to scry on the outer world - Only months have passed she thought with a sigh, and already the city is foreign to me.

Shaking her head sadly, she stopped outside her door.  Muttering the passphrase, she pushed the door open and strode in.  Unlike the spartan decorum of the rest of the chambers, Ardulace's private quarters were lush and filled with curtains and expensive rugs and exquisitely carved tables and chairs.  Walking to her armoire, she shed her ceremonial robes and stood in the chilly room bare as the day she was birthed.

A shiver ran down her body as she walked to stand before one of the many mirrors on the room, admiring her perfect stature and poise.  Contorting her body into various poses, she took note of the effect the poses took on her skin, stretching the skin in some parts, and bunching in others.

Satisfied with what she saw, she walked to the adjoining room where she kept her magical implements.  Taking down a silver bowl etched with runes and foreign symbols, Ardulace sat it down upon a table also etched with runes and heavily enchanted.  Next she retrieved a decanter whose bottom was a portal to the elemental plane of water which never ran dry.  Filling the bowl with the water, she then took a deep draught of the water, quenching her thirst before she began her spell.

Returning the decanter to its place on the shelf, she knelt before the table and began chanting to her goddess, beseeching her to allow Ardulace to peer through the depths of the water and see the sacred city beyond.  The chant lasted an hour before the effect became apparent.

Before her eyes, the water began swirling unexplainably before darkening and showing the room in which she called a vision of: the council chambers.  There was a meeting in session, though instead of the matriarchs that originally presided over such a meeting, the room was desecrated by the foul presence of males.  Ardulace uttered a curse over such sacrilegious behavior, and narrowed her eyes dangerously as she saw the male in the dominant seat of the council: none other than Zak Myneld, archmage of the city.  The scrying bowl did not allow sound to travel through the medium, so the purpose of the meeting was unknown, but it didn't matter.

As she watched, Zak suddenly stiffened and closed his eyes for a moment before opening them and staring directly at her.  She did not know how, but in that moment, she sensed he knew of her presence in the chamber.  Their eyes seemed to meet and Zak smiled and winked at her.

Startled at this exchange, Ardulace broke the connection and fell back into her study, the sudden surge of power caused by the abrupt end of the spell sending her flying through her room before slamming into the wall and shattering the mirror upon it.  The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was Zak winking at her.

(Out of Context: This also takes place in the same setting as the last two posts.)