Chronicles of a Drow Templar Ch. 01

This time she sat and waited until she watched the prisoner fall asleep. She waited another hour longer before sleeping herself…

The sound of metal clicking into place and an arm twisted behind her back woke Æiristus. Baravti pressed his body weight in heavily from behind her breathing on the back of her neck, holding her other arm, trying to get it into the other manacle. She felt the hardness of his member against the divide of her backside, though they were separated by his trousers.

"You will be mine," he hissed into her hair.

"You don't learn, do you?"

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…In the prison cart the young prince's jet-black face paled to a phantom's blue-gray as he sank to the floor along with his despairing soul. He looked not at his judge, but at the woman who had captured him. "What if I had succeeded?" he asked softly of the warrior not really anticipating an answer from her.

For the first time since his capture and their arrival beneath the earth, Æiristus bothered to look the traitor in the eyes; magenta eyes that might have been charming once, were now surrounded in the dullness of ill health. Æiristus' own wide, vivid green depths narrowed, closing the width of an old scar that ran from just above her left eyebrow, sliced through it, ran over the same eye, across the bridge of her nose and down to kiss the inside of her right cheek. "You would not have," she replied.

Curious glances flitted their way and as for the onlookers knew the prince's query was of his failed attempt at escape. Captive and captor knew otherwise.

House Prince Baravti Mæstre's near fatal mistake was in trying to force himself upon her in the act of Claiming her. Had he been successful in taking the determined huntress as his mate it could have obligated her to protect him. An attempt that through the swordswoman's begrudging prudence cost him only a hand instead of his life.

If you had succeeded, she thought, you would have merely given me the right to kill you, instead of the church. Æiristus kept her thoughts to herself as she turned her face away denying the convict any further acknowledgment. The left corner of her upper lip twitched as the temple's priestesses and her retinue assumed authority of the heretic prisoner returned to the land of his crimes.

I do not harbor criminals.

~End Chapter 1~

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Terms explained:

Templar -- Loosely based off of dual references of

1) the Masonic Order of the Knights Templar established in 1118 AD to protect pilgrims and the Holy Sepulcher, and;

2) the current use of a barrister (lawyer or student of law) or other person occupying (or having) chambers in the Temple, London.

In this case a templar is a member of an elite faith-oriented police-keeping force assigned as individuals to go out and retrieve dissidents to capture and retrieve for especially harsh penitence -- templars usually work alone.

Medjai --Based off of the principle of ancient Nubian militia scouts who eventually were incorporated as a division of ancient Egyptian police during its 18^th dynasty (New Kingdom time frame). In this case "Medjai" is used as a level of rank equivalent to either an officership or sergeant dependant on the individual and level of responsibility that person is assigned.

Og'elend - (drow word) a dissident, "traitor"

DarkRealm -- Popular copyright has come familiar with the term "Underdark" as the home of the drow. In this story, the drow know their home as DarkRealm and the Surface World nicknamed as "TopSide".

Khepshi -- another word for khopesh, the sickle-sword used by ancient Egyptians.

Canoun -- The Middle English spelling for "Canon". There are many definitions for this term. In this case it refers to a clergyman living under specific rules of the church that creates, defines, lives by, empowers, and administers such laws (canon laws).

Terrentene -- Combined of "terren" = earth and "tene" = dark (both Latin). The announcement of a powerful re-commission of a soul back to the primordial darkness, banishment back to the "beginning". Must be pronounced publicly prior to the tortuous ceremony of the rending the living body by the Hand-Maidens. (This is why it is important for templars to return with live fugitives.)

Transfiguration -- Popularly called "polymorph" in gaming systems.

Pahntar -- (drow word) "open".

Lytling -- (a shared elven/drow word) "small one". A word I made up as a term of endearment, one to connect the elven races at their most ancient verbal roots before the racial separation.

Vambrace -- a piece of armor for the forearm, usually made of metal; sometimes the fore and upper arm including the elbow are protected.

Lifemate -- In this world drow don't typically use the term "marriage" or wife/husband, they know of it, but they have a similar, if frequently temporary and dangerous, arrangement referred to as "Claiming" and lifemates. Lifemate is a tenuous term at best. The male is risking his life to "claim" the female as his mate. The act itself is very similar to the mating "dance" of certain species of black widow spiders, wherein it's up to him to convince her to accept him -- usually her temper is chemically unbalanced so badly that a "kill" trigger is set off in her brain, her blood rages and she'll kill him in the act, problem is pheromones are flying, she's in heat with "the scent", and he's just as unstable and must keep his wits to survive. If he's successful, he forces her to acquiesce and he gets his mate (problem is drow aren't limited to one mate -- females of nobility and affluence tend to keep stables and males will wander, but a mated male usually won't "claim" a second female --outside of the house or clan). ALWAYS involves unwanted buggering of the female to oblige the joining (the one time the male gets to be dominant, Lolth does like irony) -- if the act is welcome, requested, the male is not seen as a threat and is encouraged or easily accepted, or conditions are not male/female, no "kill" response is invoked (it doesn't count and the temple won't recognize it if a male wanted to prove it and a female tried to hide it, i.e. detect lie). Note: taking a consort is not the same as a lifemate and does not have the same responsibilities, privileges, or protections.