InsaneJournal

Story Outline

- Meeting between elves and vampires, bit of snarling and posturing but eventually get down to talking about the problem they both face – annihilation. Come to the conclusion that an alliance is the only way they can both survive.
- Both sets of king and queen have advisors with them including their respective ‘Generals’ and in the case of the vampires, their Chief Seer.
- Just at the end of the meeting, once everything has been decided and plans set in place, the Seer has a vision (only then because only then do they have plans that can be spoiled). The vision is of a human who could stop them. The Seer doesn’t know the human’s name but is able to produce and image of him.
- A quick decision is made to send a mixed group of elves and vampires out to neutralise this human. The Generals agree to each send four of their best. (group of eight)
- Ambush is set up by the group hiring some people to act as a noble looking to hire Jamie’s mercenary company.
- Firali has found out about the plan from a friend and the night before the ambush is due to occur, he sneaks into the compound and kidnaps Jamie.
- He takes Jamie a good day’s distance from the compound (he drugs him to keep him asleep). Once Jamie wakes up, he tells him what’s happening either right then or very soon.
- Jamie doesn’t believe him (elves are evil after all) and heads back to the compound. He arrives to find everyone dead and obvious signs that it has been done by both elves and vampires. He rounds on Firali, who has followed him with a fair amount of exasperation, and demands to know what’s going on.
- Firali tells him about the alliance and about the prophecy. Jamie believes that the alliance has occurred but is highly sceptical about the prophecy. In his experience prophecies are just something religious people use to justify their fights with other people.
- Firali tells Jamie that it doesn’t matter what he believes, the elves and the vampires believe it and they’ll keep trying to kill Jamie until they succeed.
- Jamie gets angry. Wants to know what the hell he’s supposed to do. Firali tells him that there is a possible solution. The reason that the elves and the vampires have the power they do and have been able to form the alliance is because their god is active and approves. If they can bind the god then the vampires and elves would be powerless.
- This is the point where Jamie gets extremely suspicious and he asks why Firali would want to render his own people powerless. Firali gets evasive but will finally admit that he has been exiled and among the elves, exile is permanent. He’s not overly happy about this obviously and is quite happy to get his own revenge. Jamie is suspicious but eventually accepts what Firali has to say though he makes a mental note to keep an eye on Firali in case of treachery.
- Jamie eventually agrees to attempt this ritual. Firali knows all the details – where, when, how – and they head off to get the first object required.
- In the process of getting the first object, they run into Baern, who upon recognising Firali as an elf, tries to do his job. Jamie stops him and explains what’s going on. Baern doesn’t believe a word they’re saying but has his mind changed when they’re attacked by a group of vampires. After that he insists on going with them, says he has a duty to keep the people safe from elves and vampires and this way he gets to kill two birds with one stone – he can stop the looming trouble and he can also keep an eye of Firali ‘in case he shows his true colours’. The now enlarged group head off to find the second object.
- In the process of getting the second object, they come to the attention of Jem who finds their little group fascinating. He follows them and watches as they get the second object and he thinks they’re amazing and interesting and he decides that he really likes Jamie and wants to go with them. So he follows them. By the time the group realises that Jem is there, they are too far from the town to simply send him back (with or without one of them), especially since they know the elves and vampires are still following them. Jem insists he can be of help and shows off his ability to throw knives. Jamie isn’t overly impressed but can’t find any other solution right at the moment. He agrees to take Jem along but when he gets a chance speaks to Firali and Baern about his intention of leaving Jem at the next large town they get to. They agree as they can’t see Jem being anything other than trouble.
- In the process of getting the third and final object, Jem gets overly cocky and makes a mistake that causes Jamie and Baern to be badly injured. Firali (with Jem’s subdued help) gets them all out with the object and they find a small abandoned cottage. The cottage has clearly been abandoned because of the increasing activities of the elves and vampires and it still reasonably well-stocked. Some things have gone off but there is enough there to suffice. Firali patches Jamie and Baern up as best as he can but he knows it’s going to take time for them to heal. Jem receives a sharp lesson in the fact that actions have consequences and those consequences can sometimes affect other people. Firali does nothing to make Jem feel any better.
- They lose three weeks while Jamie and Baern heal enough to travel again. In this time Jem makes a few abject apologies. He is a shadow of his former self but he still wants to stay with them. He knows by this stage what they’re up to and he honestly and genuinely wants to help. Jamie reluctantly agrees but only if Jem works with him and with Firali to learn to use his knives properly. Jem agrees without hesitation. He’d thought he was pretty hot shit with them but now he knows he’s a rank amateur – lots of party tricks but not enough knowledge when the chips are down.
- Jem approaches Firali about this teaching before Jamie has a chance and this impresses the elf. When he sees the kind of determination and effort Jem is willing to put in, he takes the opportunity to speak to him and finds that Jem likes Jamie as more than a friend and wants to do whatever it takes to protect him and help him. He doesn’t want Jamie to know how he feels because he can’t imagine how Jamie would ever like him in the same way and he begs Firali not to tell. Firali is amused but agrees to keep Jem’s secret. As both a reward for his hard work and to enable him to protect Jamie better, Firali presents Jem with a pair of long fighting knives as well as a brace of throwing knives – all in elven steel.
- Once Jamie and Baern are healed enough to travel and fight, the group heads off for the ritual place. The elves and vampires will be there because they will be performing a ritual to gain more power from their god. All the group has to do is place their three objects in the appropriate places. That will be sufficient to not only disrupt the ritual but also to bind the god and deny his power to the elves and vampires.
- The elves and vampires know they’re coming and place a lot of obstacles in their way. They manage to overcome them with a few injuries but no deaths only to arrive in the ritual chambers just as the ritual is completed.
- Once again Firali keeps his wits about him and drags them all out and gets them away. Jamie is furious and rounds on Firali, asking whether he betrayed them now that he has access to this power. Firali gets angry back for once and says that he doesn’t have access to the power. Exile means a lot more in the elven community than it does in the human world. He is outcast, completely and utterly outcast – without people, without family (hence no other name), without god. Nothing.
- Once they all finally calm down, Jamie asks what, if anything, they can do now. Firali says there is a possibility but they’ll need to go and find the person who knows about it to see if he’s right. They need to go up high into the mountains and the elves and vampires (now newly empowered) know they survived and are likely to know where they are going. They will be followed.
- After several trials and tribulation they reach the person they need to see. It’s another exiled elf, blind and ancient. She tells that of a second ritual that can be performed at the same place as the first but they’ll need another object to go with the three they already possess. Before she can tell them where it is, they’re attacked. The crone is killed but not before she manages to tell Jamie the location and whisper something important in Firali’s ear.
- They troop off to find the last object then head back to the ritual chamber amid several fights and attempts on their lives that they narrowly escape with injuries of various types. Amidst fending off vampires and elves they perform the ritual but this is the moment when Firali reveals what the elven crone told him. That he would need to sacrifice himself. The others are actually shocked and try to stop him but Firali just laughs and says that he’d only ever been in this for himself and that the thing he wants most is to defeat his people. He steps into the center of the ritual circle and the ritual is completed. The god is bound and the elves and the vampires have their power stripped from them, leaving them vulnerable.