#verbena does general operations and missions and stuff

[poop-flying]

0. Decision

Kind of part of @ringleaderising's Tooth application! But this was mostly a fun way to establish the dynamic between the leaders of the Realmwalker Corps. You can have competent leaders who care about you or you can have leaders who all get along! Anyway. From left to right, according to the pictures above: Udyr, Agramant, Verbena, Morien and Voltimand.

There were many things in his life that Agramant considered a waste of time, chief among them the biweekly meetings the heads of the Realmwalker Corps held. He’d attended enough of those meetings that he knew how every one went:

Verbena would go down the agenda with his usual steadfastness, then Morien, impatient as ever, would make a snide remark on the speed or the tone or the content of his delivery. Verbena would bring the whole meeting to a halt to address that. Morien would retort with her usual derisiveness, and on and on it would go until Voltimand put a stop to the quarrel.

They’d just finished fighting over a word that Verbena had stuttered slightly in pronouncing. Fortunately, there were only two more items left on the agenda. Agramant pinched the bridge of his nose with one claw and massaged his bad leg with the other, turning his exhale of pain into a sigh. Only a few more minutes now.

Pain momentarily forgotten, Agramant straightened.

“One more thing,” Udyr said. She shifted a few documents idly pushing four copies to each of the heads. “The Sentinels.”

Morien, who’d been crotchety and fidgety for the past thirty minutes, groaned and slammed her claw on the table. “Again? Stormcatcher take them all, I thought we were done with those pretentious fucks. That business with the obelisk who turns into dirt — ”

“Sand,” Verbena interjected, shooting Morien a withering stare. “Sacrosanct shifts into sand.”

“Sand,” Verbena interjected, shooting Morien a withering stare. “Sacrosanct shifts into sand.”

“They can shift into shit for all I care — ”

Voltimand’s voice rang out, silencing them both: “Udyr. Continue.”

Udyr slid four copies across the table. Agramant inclined his head in thanks; he rarely spoke in meetings and most of the heads usually forgot he was there.

It was a case file. Not one of theirs, Agramant observed as he flipped it open.

“Where did you get this?” Voltimand asked. Her voice was light but there was an accusation in those words. “This is Sentinel material.”

Udyr shrugged, unfazed. “You have your spies, I have mine. Have you read it?”

Agramant turned his attention back to the file. Grinning grotesquely up at him was a guardian clad in tattered rags, a wicked-looking cleaver at her side. Young, Agramant decided, but judging by the bones she clad herself in, she knew how to use that weapon. Her teeth were unusual too: she had swapped a few with gaudy prosthetics. Gems, mismatched bone, precious metals. Her eyes were a red so bright they almost glowed.

She had a dagger sheathed at her side that looked familiar. Agramant squinted, connecting the dots. Efficient.

“Fuck,” Morien breathed. “Agramant, you’d love this girl — she doesn’t even waste her own teeth. How many of those do you think she’s made?”

He ignored that. His eyes skimmed over the next few sections. Last known location, favoured weapons, known magic, familial ties, casualties…

And stopped. Status: In Pursuit, written in a hasty hand. Instructions: Detain. Eliminate as last resort.

Udyr waited till they were all finished. Verbena was the first to speak, “What does this have to do with us?”

“Target?” Morien bared her teeth, her eyes alight with excitement. “I can set Hemera on her. Give me five days.”

Udyr said causally, “Not a target. A recruit.”

Verbena shot to his feet and gave an outraged shout at the same moment Voltimand said, “Absolutely not.”

In that same level voice, Udyr replied, “She’s a necromancer. She’ll be an asset.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Verbena growled, “but she hardly seems sane. The Sentinels only demand detention when the target has harmed one of theirs. We stay out of their business, they stay out of ours. This isn’t an ‘enemy of my enemy situation’.”

“I didn’t say it was. I’ll take it your vote is a no.”

“It is. And it’s hers too.” Verbena jerked his head at Voltimand, who shook her head gravely at Udyr.

Voltimand pushed the file back. “Verbena’s right. I can’t see her as one of our own.”

“Morien?”

The fathom had been unsually quiet during this exchange. She looked up now, her claw tracing patterns into the table, and asked, “Why her?”

Verbena swore aloud as Voltimand sighed defeatedly, reclining in her chair.

For the first time tonight, Udyr grinned. Agramant averted his eyes. That expression on Udyr’s face was as unnatural as rain falling upwards. She said, “Reports of strange and impossible quantities of magic appearing out of nowhere, groups of dragons gathering before it happens to siphon it up. Strange groups, too, affected in their own way by that magic. It doesn’t happen often — or at least we don’t hear about it often. Rumour has it that she — ” Udyr tapped the case file “ — comes from one of those clans.”

“What would you do with that information, hm? That strange magic? ” Verbena barked.

Udyr glanced at him coolly. “What would we do, you mean. The same as our predecessors: we assess and we decide. The Corps is sworn to face the unknown head-on; don’t tell me you’re afraid now.”

Morien lifted her chin and said, “Then I vote yes.”

“Good. Agramant?”

Agramant gave a start. His leg twinged in protest, and he had to force himself to relax, exhaling through his nose till the pain went away on its own. The group was silent now, everyone’s attention turned to him.

“Recruiting’s not my department,” he managed, trying to keep his voice as steady as he could.

“Still.” Udyr’s voice was quiet. Insistent. There was no weaseling his way out of this one.

“You can abstain,” Voltimand said reassuringly. “Besides, Udyr, we can’t interfere in Sentinel busine — ”

Morien snapped, “You just don’t want him to vote!”

“No, you insolent child, internal affairs has no sway over — ” That was Verbena, rising to his usual fury.

“Fuck you, old man!”

Agramant took a deep breath. He considered the file again as though it would yield further secrets upon a second round of scrutiny. Sure, she was young. Inexperienced in the ways of the world. Why Udyr wanted her to join the Realmwalkers Agramant could probably guess. Any way he looked at it, she’d probably bring trouble crashing down upon all their heads.

Sworn to face the unknown head-on.

Ah, hell. Why not? There was no guarantee they’d be able to snatch her out from under the Sentinels’ noses anyway.

“I vote yes.”