Ravumo, Hegemony of Silua
Pulling herself upright in the ancient alder bed that held the sleeping bodies of so many of those rulers that had come before her, the supreme leader of the Siluan Hegemony looked up at the ceiling. Her bedchamber was an enormous, cavernous thing with a lofty vaulted and domed ceiling with several oculi that allowed her to view the star filled Siluan sky. She then moved her pale blue eyes from the ceiling and then looked at the walls on either side of her. They were constructed of highly polished black basalt and were decorated with countless shields, tapestries, and weapons from throughout the history of Siluan lands.
Breathing deeply and then exhaling just as deeply, Aima III removed the voluminous burgundy blanket that covered her and scooted to the edge of the bed and lifted up her left leg and rubbed the small stub that remained of its lower portion. It had sent her howling into wakefulness with a sharp pain only a few minutes ago but the pain had quickly subsided to be replaced by a dull ache. Her doctors said there was no physical reason that she should feel pain as intense as she did from her mangled leg, but she would be damned if she let them tell her she was imagining it.
“They make me sound like I am touched in the head the way they say it,” she whispered to room and whatever spirits might by floating around. Letting out another exhale, Aima then reached out with her right arm and opened a large silver encased dresser and pulled out uncannily realistic prosthetic lower arm and quickly attached it just below the elbow of her left arm and tested it by flexing her fingers. The motion of the fingers in this model was far smoother than those in the first arm she had received more than twenty years ago. They were also far stronger and much more flexible. They Siluan medical and technological community where the whiz kids of human prosthetics without question.
Her arm attached, Aima opened a drawer below the one that normally held her arm and pulled out the prosthetic that attached bellow her left knee. Like what she used on her arm, the leg she attached was of exceptional quality and looked nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. Once her limbs were attached, Aima then sat on the edge of the bed for several more minutes before letting her naked body slide to the plushly carpeted floor beneath her. Before doing anything else, she let the luxurious texture of the rug caress her right foot and remind her that she was fortunate to still have at least one of her legs fully intact. Some of her sisters in arms had not been so lucky when the explosive had ripped through their vehicle.
A soft exhale escaped Aima’s lips before she left the side of her bed and strode across the room and to an elephantine mirror framed with Siluan Blue Spruce. The Pukias Sualkaranė was a tall woman of six and half feet with rich golden hair, pale blue eyes that burned like icy fire, a pleasant face that was neither too gaunt nor too chubby, somewhat broad shoulders, and an overall slender form encased within a steely and flexible musculature. The Siluan leader only stood before the mirror for few seconds before striding to a large wooden door reinforced with crossed bands of wrought iron and letting herself into a hallway that was easily three times her height and nearly as wide. Unlike her bedchamber, the walls of the hallway were barren except for filigreed sliver sconces that provided pale green light to anyone who found themselves wondering down the hall’s length during the nighttime and early morning hours.
A few moments later Aima was rummaging through a closet that was about the third the size of her bedchamber, a fact she found absurd, searching for something to garb herself in. Lifting up a black thermal bra Aima frowned and then chuckled. It had been a very long time since she could wear the thing. After surviving breast cancer and a having a double mastectomy she had received implants to return her body to a proper feminine appearance. If she had not, she would have looked more like a man than the strong imposing woman that she was supposed to be. She had even increased her size one step from her pre-surgery size to make sure no one would doubt her femininity. Pushing thoughts of her days dealing with cancer aside, she tossed the bra onto the floor and found something that would fit her and pulled it over her womanly bosom.
With a warm wool undergarment cuddling her breasts she took a moment to consider the state of her own body and then laughed derisively. She felt like a fucking cyborg with so many foreign parts attached to her body. Not a full bodied human, but a damn fucking cyborg. Those damn crusading children of ogres and even her own body had seen fit to destroy her. But they had all failed and that helped to assuage her anger. It was comforting to know that death had tried to take her twice and both times she had sent it packing.
Thirty minutes after she had been awoken by her leg, Aima was sitting in her private dining room eating a large bowl of boar and mushroom stew, a large hunk of crusty rye bread slathered with a piquant lingonberry and chili preserve, and a hefty mug of a dark, chili infused beer.
Ķemeri National Forest
West Silua
Major Lauma Kaupers surveyed the area around the hunting lodges from a platform situated one-hundred feet above the forest floor on a Siluan Silver Pine. She was twenty-five years of age with all of the features the Vaunus people were known for. She had snow white hair neatly styled to fit underneath her white headgear, finely sculpted facial features, skin as smooth and pale as finely worked alabaster, and piercing silver eyes.
After a few minutes of surveying the area, Major Kaupers put down her binoculars and hoisted her rifle onto her back. She then stepped down onto a ladder and climbed to the forest floor with the quickness of grace of a cat. Once she was on the snow covered floor of the forest she stamped her boots four times and strode to a wood and stone cabin situated at the center of the circularly arranged lodges she had been observing. It would be the place from which she would coordinate the Rangers assigned to the hunting station to provide security and maintain order while the foreigners were entertained by the Pukias Sualkaranė.
Once she was inside the cabin she removed her cap and placed on a table in the center of the cabin and walked over to a small gas stove and turned on a burner. She then grabbed a kettle hanging above the stove, filled it with water from a large basin to the side of the stove, and then placed the kettle on the stove. When the kettle began to whistle, she removed it from the burner it was on and placed onto a heavy woolen trivet. That task completed she then walked to a small cupboard and removed large teapot, a large tin filled with black tea, and another tin filled with pieces of Tennaiite cinnamon.
Several minutes later Major Kaupers was sipping her cinnamon tea and reviewing the rosters of each of the four eight woman crews assigned to her command. “Sergeant Glinskis: Group Alpha: Assigned to Ossorian contingent,” she read aloud in soft tones, “Sergeant Dapkūnaitė: Group Beta: Assigned to Alemarran contingent. Sergeant Dvarionas: Group Gamma: Assigned to Shalumite contingent.”
Every one of the officers and their groups had superb service records and had received numerous commendations. They were the perfect women to keep the guests from slitting each other’s throats or shooting each other in the backs. Those women had the easy job. Since she was their commanding officer and also the liaison between all the contingents, she would have to deal with every little complaint thrown her way. She was to be a babysitter for bickering children that would just as soon smash each other’s skulls in than share a cup of tea.
“This will be an interesting week,” she thought aloud, “I wonder if this meeting will suit the Pukias Sualkaranė’s plans or be a complete waste of time.”
One could never tell with the children of ogres that were the Shalumites and Alemarrans. Both loved to spill the blood of those who did not adhere to their religion and even those that they thought practiced their faith incorrectly. They were strange and bloodthirsty people indeed.
