Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

The war.

It was all she could think about, all she could do and she knew - absolutely - that she needed to keep a very clear grip on everything. She'd started the process earlier, but now she needed to make sure that she did this the best possible way she could. So, Faith took out some pins with blue glass heads and she started to place them on the map of Idalos. Because she'd realised that, rather than starting with the number of cells and then trying to fit them in to the world, with the numbers that she had, she was better off starting with this. This map. They had to have a network, after all. They had to be able to see, at a glance, what was what and who was where.

And so, she started putting pins in the map. Twenty six pins later, she stopped and she stood back, looking at it again. It was good, she thought. It was enough, without them tripping over each other. Alright. That was a start. Twenty six cells. Five champions, twenty one exalted.

But then, she considered. Why? Why put someone in charge of an intelligence cell, or a resource-gathering cell based on the level of their mark? No, that made no sense when she considered it. No sense at all. Skills and experience here were vital and what she needed to do was to give people every opportunity to shine in their own areas of expertise. That way, they would all work most effectively. Yes. Nodding her head, Faith considered that and then she made a few final adjustments until, finally, she was satisfied.

For the moment, to-trial, with the information they had, this was how they were going to be separated out. Each blue-glass pin a cell. Yes, that would work.

Next, it was the details. She had to get things to the right place, and so she needed to organise. Faith smiled slightly and considered. if there was one thing that she was good at doing, it was organising. What she had to do was think about this in terms of scale. So. now they had to get down to business. Each cell was assigned a number, and then, she could get the records and so on set up.

It would be a feat of logistics if she could pull this off, Faith knew. But equally, she'd thought the same thing when she'd realised the size of the Scalvoris Docks relief effort - and that had worked out. She'd learned a lot from it, certainly. A big lot. So, first things first, she did some maths.

In her neat hand, she wrote:

Faith wrote: EACH CELL ROUGH NUMBERS:

• Zuuda:
  • Exalted: 1,300
  • Adored: 3,800
  • Favoured: 15, 000
• Wisps: 160

APPROX: 20,260

EVERY CELL EXPECTED TO:

• Intelligence Gathering Focus: Intelligence in their geographical area re: the Coven, Ellasin, Necromancers. Identification of targeted strikes
• Resource Gathering: Anything useful
• Targeted Strikes: TBD
• Wisps: Recruit ghost army.

Plus focus below.

Putting that on the wall next to the map, she then started.

It was already very obvious to Faith that she was woefully unprepared for this task. Yet, it had been given to her and she would do her best - as she always would. In the first three trials of Ymiden she had collated and collected all the resources they had - and they had begun to get information. Most noticeable to Faith, and forefront to her mind at the moment, was Rynmere. Ellasin ha been there, and her conversation with Carter and Jess had told her that, not only was Ellasin actually collecting up plague-bodies, there was a lot more going on. It was here that Faith's attention turned.

Ellasin had been meeting with the noble houses - getting protection money from them. Then, she returned a high ranking Venora noble to the family for ... foreign assets. Faith was meeting Carter and Jess in two trials and, in the meantime, she had to get herself planning. Just two trials ago Faith had received a letter from a Lord of house Venora, although not one that she knew. Apparently, he was in Quacia, which was good in one way, but inconvenient in others. Still. Needs must and all that. So, Faith put out a call for the Zuuda in Quacia to find out if this Lord Venora was home. He was not, nor had he been there for some time, apparently, and so she wrote her reply, and handed it to the Zuuda in question. At least it meant he'd get it on his return, she figured. "I want to make sure that this correspondence comes to me as quickly as possible. Please, ensure that he has a place to send his reply. Use a courier if you prefer. Thank you."

Then, once she had sent her reply Faith put that out of her head. It was useful, potentially, but she needed to do this without relying on anyone who belonged to that house. The fact that Alistair was not only a necromancer, but a disciple of Ellasin was too much for Faith to consider and so, she put it out of her mind. She poured over the notes which Carter had given her, looking for the weakness. These foreign assets were handed over - not something Venora would do easily, Faith knew. Whoever she had returned to the house must have been someone important. So, continuing on this she kept reading and, when she knew the whole story, she looked down at it.

"Really. I have to admire the irony, I suppose," Faith said, and she lowered her head to start making notes. She had, after all, once been an asset of House Venora. Now, she was making damn sure that Ellasin didn't get her hands on them. The people involved - of course - didn't know who they were were working for, they just got their orders. The trick here, she knew, was to act in a decisive and clear fashion.

So, she planned.

Faith woke with a start.

Her head had been on her arms, where she had just rested on her desk for a moment and then, she was asleep. She had to admit, she was tired and as she lifted her head and her hand went to her mouth but, relieved that she had not drooled, she looked down at the papers she had been working on. The last part of her report on the cure. Faith had sent it out and that was the end product of course. It was what people saw. Yet, what they neither saw nor wanted to, was the sheer amount of work behind it. Here, in the detail they needed for their academics to peruse and then, hopefully, publish, what she had found, here were all the steps and stages. She left out no detail - every drawing, observation, question and false path, they were all here.

From Sharilla, the first patient who had died here in Zuudaria, to the very last one. She had the details on all the patients here, but to show the process of what she had done, and how she had done it, she mainly followed one patient. "It's about you, this bit," she said and Jack, the first patient she'd met gave her a smile. He'd decided to stay here with her, to help as best he could. Faith was grateful to him for that, but she'd suggested more than once that he might go home. He'd said no, not yet; when they were sure that everyone had the cure, the information, that kind of thing. Then, he'd go home. They needed every hand on deck for this, so Faith didn't argue.

"You snore, you know. Just a little," Jack said and Faith pulled a face.

"So my husband tells me. I personally refuse to believe such nonsense." She smiled at him. Jack ran his hand through his hair and looked at her, a sad expression on his face.

"I'm sorry I let you down, Faith," he said.

"Don't be ridiculous, it's me who let you down," she replied, immediately. "I was so hopeful, so incredibly hopeful." She shook her head, "you haven't let me down at all."

"Yes I did," Jack insisted. "After all. I said I'd live."

When she looked up to answer, the ghost of the man she had failed to save was no longer there and Faith felt a tear fall down her cheek. "I said I'd save you." Her low whisper held a depth of emotion few ever saw in the young woman, but which was always there. Wiping the tear away, she started to tie together the notes, ready at last to send to the Universities and Libraries, research institutes and medical centres across Idalos.