ii | video

[onblackwings]

[ This lady's looking a little different, for anyone that's spoken with her before. Not any older, but there's a sort of crooked quality to her nose, like it'd been broken and healed some time ago. She's lounging in the Initiative apartments, looking like she's recently made friends with a superiority complex. ]

I want to speak to those of you who have seen a war before. Not the skirmishes that the Initiative sends us on here, but actual war.

And failing that, I'll take anyone that knows magic — and can teach it. That part is important. Don't waste my time if all you can do is cast it.

Comments

[freewoman]

The dead command themselves.

[onblackwings]

Maybe you should look into it. It would probably be easier to command them than defeat them. [ a beat, and she smiles. ] Not that it matters here.

[freewoman]

Fire kills'em. [Besides her learning it is useless.] We burn our dead.

[onblackwings]

Why, do they all turn into that?

[freewoman]

Better safe than sorry.

[onblackwings]

Well, I suppose they aren't complaining.

What battles have you seen, then?

[freewoman]

My people finally attacked the Wall. [It's really the biggest thing she had been a part of.]

[onblackwings]

You say the Wall, but you do mean you attacked those holding it. Don't you? There's not much glory in attacking an object.

[freewoman]

It means the same thing. We attacked the Crows.

[onblackwings]

What was the strategy? What role did you play?

[freewoman]

We were t'over take'em, by surprise. They found out though, knew we were comin'.

[onblackwings]

You appear to have won anyway. How?

[freewoman]

I never said we won.

[onblackwings]

That's a pity. I hope you at least got a few kills out of it.

[freewoman]

O' course I did. [What kind of spearwife would she be if she didn't?]

[onblackwings]

Tell me about them.

[freewoman]

They were quick deaths, bloody though. Men, coughin' up blood. I didn't feel anythin'. I thought I would, seein' battle. Maybe I should have been fearful. I saw them, and I knew if I didn't kill'em, they would have killed me. There weren't many women, but it was still bloody. And cold. We tried t'fight'em, but it wasn't long before more of my men were on the ground. You could smell the death and fear then.

[onblackwings]

Well fought. It does sound like you picked the wrong side, though.

[freewoman]

I didn't pick. I was born a free woman.

[onblackwings]

If you're free, then is the other side enslaved?

[freewoman]

They kneel t'their king.

[onblackwings]

That's not so unusual for humans, from my understanding. Don't you follow anyone?

[freewoman]

We chose Mance. We don't kneel to'im.

[onblackwings]

[ a thoughtful pause, and... yeah, she can jive with that. it's the difference in working for Led, and following her goddess. she nods. ]

A good idea. No human deserves too much reverence, that should be saved for the gods.

[freewoman]

Mance is a good man, but he's still a man. Your gods may be different, but mine are of tree and stone. They extend as far as the weirwoods go.