It was not to be, however, because the air was sliced apart by a scream from the entrance of the Coven. A scream that could be heard even if the person was deaf, such was it’s power and fury. 

“FILNON!”  

It was nice, that they made the object of their obsession clear, and so with leave from the Death Hag, Filnon would walk to the entrance of the Coven. There, stood with a dozen Executioners, was Hellebron. Or at least, what was left of her. She was missing one arm completely, the other was severely mangled, and her once beautiful face was covered with burns and scars. One eye was mutilated as if half-boiled in it’s socket, and she generally had the air of a woman standing only by sheer stubborn will. 

“Hellebron. You seem displeased” Filnon’s cool and sardonic tone opposed Hellebron’s blazing fury with an infinite degree of mockery. Hellebron’s working eye blazed with an intense fury, and she let out a shrieking order, pointing with her mangled arm at Filnon. The Executioners readied their weapons and leaned to rush into the frey, but they were waylaid by a dozen Sisters of Slaughter before they got two steps. The equal number of the most elite warriors the Coven could muster was a loud statement in and of itself.

“The laws of Har Gareth bend for no being. Neither King, Emperor, or God may spill blood in the streets of Har Gareth” the voice of the Hag Queen who had brought the Sisters was one of command and bridled fury, stepping between Filnon and Hellebron. “You will not be permitted to break these rules simply because you were on the other side of a scheme for once. This dispute will be dealt with-” 

Hellebron’s patience ran out half-way through the Hag’s speech, and she threw a knife at the woman who had the left side of her face cut by it as she narrowly failed to get out of the way. Her temple was sliced by the incredibly sharp blade, and blood was streaming down her face. That throw was clearly aimed for her eye, an instant kill should it have landed. There was a few seconds of silence as the Sisters realised what had happened, and then the whirlwind began.

The air filled with the sound of clashing blades and whipping hair, the Sisters of Slaughter and Blades of the Blood Queen were equally matched on the field, and victory would come with great effort. The Hag Queen would step forward to engage with Hellebron, but she was stopped when Filnon put a hand on her shoulder.

“Let me. I started this whole thing, I should-” Filnon was cut off however, when a figure appeared from the sky and delivered a ground-shaking axe-kick to Hellebron’s head. The crunch of bone and splatter of flesh was all but lost in the cacophony of the battle, but the Blood Queen’s head turning concave from Estaria’s heel was not missed by Filnon or the Hag Queen she was stood next to.

The image of a woman in beautiful courtly dress, popping the head of one of the most notorious Druchii on Naggaroth was a bemusing one, but however much they wished to show their grief and rage, the Blades were locked in mortal combat with the Sisters, and could not back away from it, for even a second’s hesitation would relieve them of their head. Not one to pass up the opportunity to dance with her Sisters and claim some dark Orange opponents, Estaria joined in the fight, and with her aid the tide turned against the Blades. Filnon joining in was icing on the cake. With the last of their throats slit, the surviving Sisters regrouped around the Hag Queen, and then departed deeper in to bury their dead and bind their wounds.

“Ow” Estaria exclaimed, slumping a bit to the side. Supported though she was, the Blades were beyond exceptional at combat, and her clothing was hanging on by a thread, while her numerus wounds showed through it. 

“Bloody moron” Filnon exclaimed, shaking her head and walking over to support Estaria. 

“I was irate. She stole a week of my life and didn’t even do anything exciting with it. Just arena fights in her honour, standing around a court talking about how cool she is, and other self-aggrandizing bullshit. I’m a fucking wrecking ball, I can hip-toss an Ogre! Do something more creative. She didn’t even have sex with me!” Estaria ranted, before looking up to the Hag Queen. As much as she was talking about herself, the confidence in being able to deal with all twelve of them by herself. Matching the Sisters was not something one did with ease, and was not an act one kept up for long if they could. 

“Thank you, Ma’am” Estaria would state, bowing her head.

“Arreina. And you are a foolish child to leap so readily into that kind of frey. You did spectacularly well to dance with the Sisters like that however, so I shall not chide you too much about it. Now get back into the Coven, Har Gareth is about to erupt into violence and bloodshed, and we must prepare for this storm” the Hag would then turn, and head inwards to tend to her wounded SIsters.

“We have terrible luck, huh?” Estaria asked Filnon, looking to the woman.

“People shouldn’t touch our stuff. Hopefully between that Lord and this Hellebron, that will sink in and peiole will….stop touching our stuff” Filnon replied, shaking her head.

“Ohh?~ I am your stuff now, am I?” Estaria asked, giving Filnon a teasing kiss on the cheek. 

“Did you not hear me in the throne room last week? No man nor beast will ever take you from me” Filnon would reply, in a romantic tone.

Estaria would blush, and open the door back into the room, where she took a seat on the bed, and then laid down on it and exhaled.

“It’s been a long week. But the thoughts I had when dying in this room were about you. To reconcile what I am feeling, and finally deal with everything that has been building up. Come to terms with the idea that I am not going to be leaving here and returning back to my Altdorf girlfriend, and getting back into my life as a Captain of the Empire. I don’t know if it is really love, or if it is just that you are the only person I can really relate to in a world of crimson and a mounting addiction to murder and bloodshed, but I do care about you. And I do want to be part of your life” Estaria would speak, more to the celling than anything to help her not stumble or stutter in her words.

“So you want to get married?” Filnon replied, after a few seconds of silence. Estaria, for her part, would sit up and frown.

“That’s your only reaction?” She asked, cocnfused at the whole situation. 

“You are the only one wrestling with yourself, darling. I’ve been in love with you for a few weeks. Or at least in lust with you. I’ll see how my feelings change after we have sex, but I’ve just been waiting for you to get to this point. The words didn’t really matter so much as the conclusion you came to yourself” Filnon would take a seat down next to Estaria, and look to her. “Either way, even if I don’t want to be sexually intimate with you after I get the unknown into the known, I still want you. Your company and your support and your delightful exploration of yourself. 

Being your wife means that you are mine in a way far beyond owning you as a slave. This is Naggaroth, I could get two dozen slaves today alone. But you as a wife is far more than that” Filnon would put a hand on Estaria’s, and smile gently. “After all, our hearts are now bound with the silken string of Fate, so how could I give up on you so easily?” Filnon would finish, though a little apprehensive at Estaria’s dumb expression.

“I…never knew you to be so poetic about things” Es commented, scratching her head.

“You…didn’t get a pop-up?” Filnon asked, opening her status screen to confirm that she wasn’t just dreaming or was drunk.

“Err…probably? But I wasn’t really present last week so I don’t think I acknowledged it. It was like watching someone else pilot my body” Estaria would then open her own status screen. She had levelled up a lot in the week, with two spare talents to play with from the levels. But the most pressing one, was the big red one at the top of her Talent List.

Silken String Of Fate - Two hearts, connected as one, through trial and tribulation, they will never be parted. Share exp gains up to 190% 

“Apparently, after we both got all three of the sharing traits, that trait was made automatically. It’s very helpful on account of getting exp. I picked it up yesterday just as I was about to arrive in Har Gareth. All this mushy emotional stuff aside, you wanna go test it out?” Filnon asked, a coy smile on her face. It was a perfect Filnon thing to say, and really eased the tension of the situation. However it turned out sexually, Filnon was always going to be Estaria’s friend and companion. 

“Sounds good”