Chapter 5 - A Test Of Faith

It felt like but a heartbeat but the five minutes were up. Tagada still hadn’t figured out a solution. The banquet table had been moved and a space had been prepared. There was a large circle with the twin tailed comet in the middle, but inside the comet there were strange runes that made Tagada’s head hurt just to look at them.

This place was as rotten as anything he’d come across. He’d come across plenty of rotten worm-filled apples, this was just the first time the outside of the apple had looked so crisp and delicious.

He didn’t know what had infiltrated this enclave, only that something had. And it had left the pretense that it served Sigmar - the better to trap people like him.

Tagada stood across from Anna with the window overlooking the sea behind her. It was dark outside now and the stars twinkled in the night sky.

“She’ll undergo my test first?”

“Now that wouldn’t be fair,” Lord Feterene said as a grim smile passed across his face. “The tests shall occur at the same time.”

And just like that, it didn’t matter that Tagada didn’t have a plan. Anna came at him swinging her cursed sword and it was all he could do to stay in front of her.

He ducked her first wild swing and side stepped her thrust. For someone that was head of the guard, he expected her assault to be neater. To her credit, she probably expected him to die like a pilgrim rather than evade her like a warrior.

She backed up and glared at him. He held the comet before him in both hands. He still hadn’t drawn his hammer, but he wasn’t very good with it anyway - he’d grown up with the bow and spear and had secondarily trained with the sword.

Anna feinted and then swung the blade down in an overhead arc. He was hemmed in by their makeshift arena with no place to dodge. At the last moment, he lifted up the comet to block the swing.

The clang exploded through the room like a thunderclap as her cursed steel met the blessed surface of the comet. Many of the onlookers covered their ears. It was as if there was an actual thundercloud in the room.

“I wasn’t lying,” Tagada said through gritted teeth, “it really has been blessed by the Steelsoul.”

Tagada pushed back and she stumbled backward. His pilgrim body might be lean, but his frame still carried most of its old strength.

He felt for his rage. His rage at their befouling Sigmar’s name. He embraced it and raised the comet into the air. “Sigmar,” he yelled, “I beseech you for aid!”

And he drew in a ragged breath. Nothing. No thunderclap. No lightning bolt.

Anna righted herself and snarled. “You sniveling infidel.” She dashed towards him.

A step later and she stabbed the blade towards his gut.

He slashed the comet down and managed to turn aside her thrust at the last moment. She followed up with a kick to his knee. He raised his knee to save the worst of it but she still knocked him off balance.

Tagada stumbled.

She slashed in a wide arc and he was too slow, the blade cut into his arm. It burned as if lit on fire. He screamed in agony and the metal comet went flying from his hands.

Anna laughed. “Your faith has been tested. And you’ve been found wanting.”

Tagada staggered backwards and looked at his arm. There was a thick scar where the blade had stabbed him. He looked around, there was no blood on the ground. No spray at all. The blade had drank all the blood.

He felt weaker than before. No telling how much of his blood it had drunk. Any more and he’d be easy prey.

Tagada’s blood began to sing to him. He’d been in battle before, but this was different. This was the hunt and his blood, his ghurish blood, knew it. He was balanced on the keen edge between predator and prey right now. His mother had always told him that in Ghur one was often both at the same time. That’s how he felt now.

But he wouldn’t fall here. Even were he the prey, the prey often took down the predator. He would make his mother’s memory proud. He gritted his teeth and drew the hammer from his belt. Anna didn’t know he was useless with it. He settled into a fighter’s stance and inched over to where the comet had landed.

Anna didn’t let him. Laughing she approached with a wild swing. No longer cautious, trusting in her first victorious strike. And it’s true. He was slower. He turned the first strike with the hammer, and managed to sidestep the second - but barely. It cut a gash through his robes. Tagada knew he couldn’t keep this up.

He lifted his hammer and whipped it at Anna’s head. It turned end over end and she managed to duck in time.

But it had never meant to connect.

He was right behind it. He grabbed the wrist of her sword arm and brought his knee up into her gut. He felt the air whoosh out of her lungs as she curled forward. And he brought up his elbow to meet her.

Her head cracked back and the sword hit the ground.

Tagada shoved her and she collapsed to the ground in a fetal position.

And then he was slammed from behind and sent flying. He hit the ground and rolled over. Lord Feterene had pushed his way into the circle and stood over Tagada.

The old man’s eyes were wide and he was panting like a bull.

“This wasn’t a brawl but a test. You have clearly failed hers. And I can only assume that she passed yours, since I didn’t see any sort of test that I could recognize.” Lord Feterene said. He turned to Anna. “Get up child and get your sword. It’s time to end this infidel and put his soul to Sigmar’s work.”

Rage rose up in Tagada. He’d won and been cheated. And worse, they still somehow thought they were doing Sigmar’s work when they were clearly being manipulated by whatever entity was in the blade. But he leashed the rage. Charging at Feterene would do no good. Anna had pulled herself to all fours.

“Anna,” Feterene barked. “Now.”

Tagada turned to the side and saw the comet. He’d landed right next to it. What did the comet’s tails say again? He couldn’t forget. He’d recited them countless times while dragging his bloody feet across the ember road.

“The realms are cleansed by the rage of the believer,” Tagada muttered. “The realms are purified by the blood and sacrifice of the faithful.” He looked at his arm. There was a scar but no blood there. The blade had drank it all. Wait. Tagada’s eyes widened. His bloody feet.

“What’s that heathen?” Feterene asked. His face was torn into a rictus of rage. “You seek to talk your way out of this?”

Tagada ignored the man. He’d tried his rage and it hadn’t worked. He reached down and wiped his hand along the sole of his foot. Still bloody from being carved by the shells earlier that day.

He lunged for the comet and grabbed it with his bloody hand. Coursing with adrenaline, he raised it into the air one handed from his awkward position.

“Sigmar! I beseech you with the blood of the faithful! With my sacrifice in your name!”

The room was silent, the only sound was Tagada’s heart beating. He looked around. Anna was on her feet, sword in hand and still a bit glassy eyed. Lord Feterene stood next to her, eyes wide too. It was clear that just like Tagada, he had expected something from Tagada’s gesture of faith.

And when nothing happened, a smile slowly spread across his face.

Feterene took a step forward and held out a hand to Anna. “Anna, give me the sword. I’m going to dedicate this heathen to Sigmar’s glory myself.”

He took the sword and stepped towards Tagada and …

A flash of light pierced the room and Tagada found himself momentarily blinded.

BOOM!

A massive thunderclap exploded and Tagada’s world was turned upside down.