Ahana had rested for a couple days following the conclusion of her last mission from Victor, figuring that she was owed a break. With those days now passed, she reported to his palace to find out which enemy he would send her off to brutalise next... only to be told gently but firmly by one of those half-naked maids of his that the emperor was out meeting with the high priest, that he would be away for some time, and that she should come back later.
For a moment, she considered killing the woman out of hand. People these days really seemed to be getting awfully flippant with her, and she was sure that a few public executions of random individuals who’d mildly irritated her in some way would be a great means of reminding the proletariat of their rightful places.
But no, she'd better not. That damned assassin would just end up whining at her if she started murdering civilians for fun. Especially if the civvies in question were part of his own staff. In fact, he might even go further if he was really annoyed, and slash her agency's budget. Which would be totally awful; she couldn't very well build the most merciless and unstoppable army in existence if that clueless bureaucrat decided to cut her funding, after all.
So she’d left peacefully, albeit while grumbling mutinously under her breath. She had then returned some time later, only to be told by a different maid that the emperor was now busy meeting with a promising new recruit named Cho, who could apparently use magic to dig tunnels, or some shit like that. She was barely listening while the lady gushed about how wonderful the rookie was, why they were so fortunate to have him on board, and something about him building a staircase. The moment she was able to get a word in, the bunnygirl excused herself and left, fuming.
She decided then that she’d just wait on Victor eventually realising that he’d not given her any fresh instructions in a while, and arranging a meeting with her himself, rather than bothering to try and contact him again. If he had so many apparently urgent matters to attend to then she wasn’t going to waste her time traipsing backwards and forwards from his palace every day until she happened to catch him before he could wander off.
In fact, now that she thought about it, this was a perfect excuse for her to slack off for a while.
***
Slacking off was easier said than done, though. Initially, she’d amused herself by tormenting Sapphiro, then, when he’d stormed off in a huff, she’d transitioned to messing with Nisse. He endured it for longer than his fellow tribesman, but eventually also got sick of being around her and went out ‘to get some fresh air’. She let him go, ignoring the absurdity his flimsy excuse, given that their city was built in a cavern, deep underground.
She then attempted to infuriate Reinhardt Margrave, as she had the other two. She did this despite knowing that it was almost certainly a dumb idea, what with him being by far and away the finest solider in her Veritable Armed Response Military Agency (VARMA), and so not really someone she ought to be risking losing, should he get pissed off enough to quit. Still, she was bored, and making logical decisions had never been her strong suit anyway.
Disappointingly (though fortunately, in the long run), she was unable to get a rise out of him. Unlike Sapphiro, who had recently lost a beloved relative, and Nisse, whose relationship with her was intimate enough for her to have figured out most of his insecurities, she didn’t really have any clue what to say to the brigadier to cause him to lose his temper.
Instead, she just wasted almost half an hour trying out generic insults, mocking him and making various offensive comments, only for Reinhardt to remain infuriatingly calm the entire time. Eventually, she’d been forced to give in and acknowledge that she’d lost this one.
After ordering him off to go do his own thing, somewhere she wouldn’t have to look at him, the general headed to their indoor training grounds, where she challenged her soldiers to fights, at first individually, then in increasingly large groups, as she figured it'd likely hurt their pride more (and give them a healthy respect for her power) to be beaten whilst vastly outnumbering her, rather than simply losing to her in single combat.
Sadly, maiming and crushing the skulls of immortals with near-inhuman levels of pain tolerance was a lot less satisfying than picking on the weak and helpless, who could be relied upon to scream and weep and beg for their pitiful lives to be spared, in a suitably entertaining manner. That thought gave her a bright idea, though, and she selected the half dozen soldiers whom she thought looked the most cruel and vindictive, and instructed them to follow her, whilst the others were told to return to whatever training they’d been working on prior to her arrival.
Once safely away somewhere private, Ahana looked over her sadistic six, and had to wonder if some of Victor’s racist tendencies were rubbing off on her. One of them was a savage woman with a lean, wiry build, whose loincloth and chest wrap seemed designed to cover as little as possible whilst still technically being able to be considered clothing. A second soldier was a huge, broad-shouldered, red-headed male miner in overalls… and the remaining four were all dwemer.
The four robed, bearded, elven men whom she’d picked had been standing together when she’d been making her selections, smirking about something. She’d gotten a sort of arrogant, contemptuous vibe from them, and so had simply picked the whole bunch. She hoped her gut instinct had been correct, and she wasn’t just unintentionally adopting the assassin’s stupid prejudices.
She was going out to have some fun, she told her merry band, and they were coming with her because someone of her rank was expected to be accompanied by lackeys at all times, and because they looked like they might be the sorts of people who’d appreciate what she had planned.
She had the four elves fetch her litter, then lift it onto their shoulders, with her aboard, whilst the other two took up positions to either side of them, ostensibly on the lookout for threats. Though as they were all essentially unkillable, this duty was a tad redundant. Now all ready to go, they set off out of their barracks and into the heart of Neo-Nippur, to see what fun they could have and what trouble could be stirred up.
For a moment, she considered killing the woman out of hand. People these days really seemed to be getting awfully flippant with her, and she was sure that a few public executions of random individuals who’d mildly irritated her in some way would be a great means of reminding the proletariat of their rightful places.
But no, she'd better not. That damned assassin would just end up whining at her if she started murdering civilians for fun. Especially if the civvies in question were part of his own staff. In fact, he might even go further if he was really annoyed, and slash her agency's budget. Which would be totally awful; she couldn't very well build the most merciless and unstoppable army in existence if that clueless bureaucrat decided to cut her funding, after all.
So she’d left peacefully, albeit while grumbling mutinously under her breath. She had then returned some time later, only to be told by a different maid that the emperor was now busy meeting with a promising new recruit named Cho, who could apparently use magic to dig tunnels, or some shit like that. She was barely listening while the lady gushed about how wonderful the rookie was, why they were so fortunate to have him on board, and something about him building a staircase. The moment she was able to get a word in, the bunnygirl excused herself and left, fuming.
She decided then that she’d just wait on Victor eventually realising that he’d not given her any fresh instructions in a while, and arranging a meeting with her himself, rather than bothering to try and contact him again. If he had so many apparently urgent matters to attend to then she wasn’t going to waste her time traipsing backwards and forwards from his palace every day until she happened to catch him before he could wander off.
In fact, now that she thought about it, this was a perfect excuse for her to slack off for a while.
***
Slacking off was easier said than done, though. Initially, she’d amused herself by tormenting Sapphiro, then, when he’d stormed off in a huff, she’d transitioned to messing with Nisse. He endured it for longer than his fellow tribesman, but eventually also got sick of being around her and went out ‘to get some fresh air’. She let him go, ignoring the absurdity his flimsy excuse, given that their city was built in a cavern, deep underground.
She then attempted to infuriate Reinhardt Margrave, as she had the other two. She did this despite knowing that it was almost certainly a dumb idea, what with him being by far and away the finest solider in her Veritable Armed Response Military Agency (VARMA), and so not really someone she ought to be risking losing, should he get pissed off enough to quit. Still, she was bored, and making logical decisions had never been her strong suit anyway.
Disappointingly (though fortunately, in the long run), she was unable to get a rise out of him. Unlike Sapphiro, who had recently lost a beloved relative, and Nisse, whose relationship with her was intimate enough for her to have figured out most of his insecurities, she didn’t really have any clue what to say to the brigadier to cause him to lose his temper.
Instead, she just wasted almost half an hour trying out generic insults, mocking him and making various offensive comments, only for Reinhardt to remain infuriatingly calm the entire time. Eventually, she’d been forced to give in and acknowledge that she’d lost this one.
After ordering him off to go do his own thing, somewhere she wouldn’t have to look at him, the general headed to their indoor training grounds, where she challenged her soldiers to fights, at first individually, then in increasingly large groups, as she figured it'd likely hurt their pride more (and give them a healthy respect for her power) to be beaten whilst vastly outnumbering her, rather than simply losing to her in single combat.
Sadly, maiming and crushing the skulls of immortals with near-inhuman levels of pain tolerance was a lot less satisfying than picking on the weak and helpless, who could be relied upon to scream and weep and beg for their pitiful lives to be spared, in a suitably entertaining manner. That thought gave her a bright idea, though, and she selected the half dozen soldiers whom she thought looked the most cruel and vindictive, and instructed them to follow her, whilst the others were told to return to whatever training they’d been working on prior to her arrival.
Once safely away somewhere private, Ahana looked over her sadistic six, and had to wonder if some of Victor’s racist tendencies were rubbing off on her. One of them was a savage woman with a lean, wiry build, whose loincloth and chest wrap seemed designed to cover as little as possible whilst still technically being able to be considered clothing. A second soldier was a huge, broad-shouldered, red-headed male miner in overalls… and the remaining four were all dwemer.
The four robed, bearded, elven men whom she’d picked had been standing together when she’d been making her selections, smirking about something. She’d gotten a sort of arrogant, contemptuous vibe from them, and so had simply picked the whole bunch. She hoped her gut instinct had been correct, and she wasn’t just unintentionally adopting the assassin’s stupid prejudices.
She was going out to have some fun, she told her merry band, and they were coming with her because someone of her rank was expected to be accompanied by lackeys at all times, and because they looked like they might be the sorts of people who’d appreciate what she had planned.
She had the four elves fetch her litter, then lift it onto their shoulders, with her aboard, whilst the other two took up positions to either side of them, ostensibly on the lookout for threats. Though as they were all essentially unkillable, this duty was a tad redundant. Now all ready to go, they set off out of their barracks and into the heart of Neo-Nippur, to see what fun they could have and what trouble could be stirred up.