Role

Chapter 6

Charine trudges wearily up some rocks and brambles, hurrying to rejoin her
allies in Akan. She has been slaying the dwarves for a while now, and
somehow she finds herself enjoying it, and even enjoying feasting on their
bodyparts... something which puzzles her, but does not disgust her. She
feels so distant from it all, like everybody around her is a little figure
moving on a chessboard. Catching her breath, she pauses and considers the
new spell the Guildmaster has just taught her... the summoning of the
Familiar.

With some trepidation, she whispers the incantation, focuses the threads of
thought necessary to bring the magic to fruition - she is almost
disappointed to see nothing, until she notices a soft hissing at her feet.
She twitches, almost about to retaliate with a bolt of magic, before she
remembers that the viper is one of the familiars used by conjurers...

Tentatively, she explores the mind of the pit viper. A connection like she
has never felt before, a feeling of total control, yet of intimacy. For the
first time in her life, Charine feels alive.

After she rests from her adventures, she takes time to commune with the
familiar - He is male, and his name is something quite unpronouncable by
human tongues, but for convenience's sake Charine calls him 'Slahar'.
Slahar has the usual diet of snakes - small mammals - but also enjoys
drinking the blood of people slain by his mistress.