The Warlord

Isabella walked over to him and flipped him onto his back, kneeling down on her right knee, she held her hands against his temples and placed her forehead against his and spoke the silent words. After she was done she pushed him away and walked away from him.

She started to pace around like a caged animal, her eyes were wild with the taste of blood from the fight. Her hands clenched and unclenched. Her mother looked over to Aaron. "She needs to be knocked out so her body can relax from the fight." Her mother stood up and waited for her daughter to turn her back to her before hitting her hard on her back to hit a pressure point which made Isabella fall to the ground and pass out.

Aaron watched what was about to happen and quickly went over to the older woman and picked Isabella up. He looked at one of the men. "One of you grab her father, follow me with him." One of the men nodded and picked up the small framed man and followed Aaron inside with the older woman.

* * * * *

During the fight Ter couldn't help but comment. "I think that girl would make all of us step up in a hand to hand fight against her. She's pretty tough."

Dominic didn't say anything. He had a hard time processing from what looked like a fragile woman into a dangerous warrior. He couldn't get it through his head that it was the same woman. Once the fight was over, he watched her mother knock her out then softly said. "Bring her to my room, she can rest there. Her parents can have her room."

Ter nodded before walking away and waited for Aaron to arrived. "Bring her in here. Her father can rest in her room."

Aaron looked up and started to follow Ter. "This door here is her room." The guard carrying her father took him and her mother into her room as Aaron took Isabella into Dominic's room.

* * * * *

Her father woke the next day and explain to Dominic that she wouldn't wake until the day after. Then had to calm Dominic down with the idea of after having a large meal, she would fight her mother the next day.

Dominic was tempted to throw Isabella in the dungeons so she wouldn't beable to fight again but they told him it is the way of the Vrah.

As they told him, on the second day after the fight she woke.

She looked around to figure out where she was then saw Dominic sleeping in a chair beside the bed. His feet were up on the bed and he seemed comfortable enough but she didn't want to wake him. Creeping out on the other side of the bed to get up and he softly said, "You should get some more rest, my Lady."

She looked back at him. "I can't. I have to finish the challenge." Grabbing a robe from the end of the bed and stood up. She stretched a little before going to her room to change.

He sighed and stretched himself before going outside and waited for her to leave her room.

Once she left her room, she was wearing black pants and long sleeve shirt. She stayed bare foot and walked down the hall towards the kitchens.

They didn't speak for a long time before he asked, "Why are you doing this?"

She didn't say anything until they were on the stairs. "Because it's the way of the Vrah. My father did it to his, as his did it to theirs."

"Didn't your mother have to do that?" he asked.

With a slight shake of her head. "She was normal before she was claimed by my father. My father shared his abilities with her when I was born."

That got his curiosity even more. "Your able to share your abilities?"

Giving a shrug when they headed into the kitchen. "Yes, but they have to mean something to me. I can't share them with just with someone asking for it. Emotions are involved to beable to do it." She started to pile food up on a plate as she spoke, "We have to be worn out hence the fight to beable to take them. And yes, one of your future questions will be about taking skills from others not of my bloodline, I can take their skills."

He loaded his plate up as well listened to her speaking. "Are you able to tell the future or something?"

She sat down at the table and shrugged again. "Maybe. I get feelings about things. Dream things that come true. That's why I've taken skills of five Vrah and I'm still alive." Then she began to eat.

Her parents came into the kitchen with Ter and loaded plates up then sat down with Isabella and Dominic.

Her father was first to speak. "You don't have to do this Isa, you know that right?"

Isabella didn't look up from her meal. "Yes, I do. I know you two have been wanting out of the life since the old King retired. This is the only way to do it."

Her mother than spoke, "And where are you going to do then. Hope the Lord here will take someone like you into his rankings? You are to dangerous and will be worse when you take my skills."

She still never looked up from eating. "I have always been dangerous, but I've always had to do what you two wanted me to do instead of letting me do the jobs I wanted. It's because of you two that I've become dangerous."

Her father slammed his fist down. "How dare you say that. We never made you do anything you didn't want to do."

She finally looked up. "Tell that to Alexia, Breanna, Alec, Daniel and Tomas"

That made her parents go quiet. She finished her food off then stood up, and walked to the door. "I'll wait in the garden for you." And left them.

Once she was gone, her mother looked at her husband and smiled. "That should have her annoyed enough to end it quickly."

Ter looked at the couple. "You said that on purpose?"

Her mother nodded. "The more worked up she is, the harder she hits. I'm not as strong as my husband in hand to hand combat so it should be a quick fight for her. We have already put her through enough with the jobs we were given. Our time is over, its time for her to begin her life."

Dominic asked, "So you want this to happen?"

Her father nodded this time. "We're getting to old, my parents did the same thing when they retired. Only difference from our jobs, Warlord, is you get stronger with reputation and men behind you. The only way we can get stronger is if we fight our own people. It will be the same for her when she shares her strength with the man strong enough to take her as his and then when she has her first child. That is when we share our strength with someone else. But until then, it's hard to find someone who has your frame of mind to beable to have a life with them." He then stood up and escorted his wife out to the garden.

Dominic and Ter finished their meal in silence before they got up and joined them out in the garden. They arrived just as the fight was about to begin.

The older woman made the first hit which connected. And that just made Isabella more annoyed and quickly began full attacks on her mother. Just as her mother had predicted, the fight ended twenty minutes after it began. Isabella did the same thing with her father by kneeling down, holding her head and pressing their foreheads together as she spoke silently before dropping her head and walking around with a predatory look.

Dominic decided to do it since he was down there. He punched her hard to knock her out before tossing Isabella over his shoulder and took her back up to his room.

* * * * *

On the first day of her rest, her parents returned to their home and bought back items from the Vrah. From different types of hidden weapons to different types of swords and poles. They even had a long bow which would have been just taller than they were. They had even bought the light armor chain mail they would wear on missions.

As soon as Dominic saw his men carrying weapons and bags, he asked, "What is going on here?" He recognized the items weren't of his men.

Aaron who had helped Isabella's parents bring the weapons and armor to the castle spoke up. "It's the lady Isabella's 'work' items, my Lord. Her parents spoke to Ter and he told me to help them bring a few item's back from their house. And well, eight men later, we're taking it to her room."

Dominic arched a brow and waved them to continue on and then he went to hunt Ter down. Thirty minutes later, he found Ter in the garden with her parents. Her father was carving something inside a sandstone block and her mother kept tapping Ter's hand away as she was fitting a new tunic on him. Dominic lent against a stone pillar leading into the garden. "Well, well. It looks like the great Ter had been tamed by a woman at last," he teased.

Ter shot his eyes up and laughed which got another smack from the older woman. "Just for the touch of this beauty's hand could tame the most deadly of beasts, my Lord. Her touch is like the softest of silks and could get any man weak at the knees with that hidden little look." Then he took her hand with both of his and looked into her eyes. "If only I had met her in a different time, my Lord, I would definitely throw this one over my shoulder to claim her fully," he said with a cheeky grin and a wink he kissed the back of her hand.

For her answer to his silver tongue, she grabbed one of the pins she was working with and poked it against his bum, which made him quickly release her hand and stand back up straight with a laugh.

Dominic laughed when he saw what she did and went over and sat on the ground near them. "Now we know where Isabella gets her wickedness from." He stretched his legs out in front of him and lent back on his arms. "So my friend, what's the deal with all the new weapons? And why wasn't I told about them?"

Ter stood straight back up as the older woman completed her work. "It would be coming better from Anthony." Motioning to Isabella's father.

Anthony looked up. "It's our law we aren't allowed to keep anything Vrah once our abilities are taken from us. If we do, then it means death to our household. If we didn't give everything Vrah to Isabella before she woke, then she had a right to take it in blood. I'm going to work on building near our home so she would beable to keep her items there and begin her life, so just give me a bit of time, my Lord and they will be out of your way."

Dominic nodded and wanted more information. "I want to know a few things about the Vrah. Explain to me with getting services, what does that entail?"

Anthony looked down. "There are two ways of doing it. Either giving it freely, like Isabella did. Or having it cheated, like what happened to me." He saw a confused look on Dominic face so said, "The old King heard rumors about me being Vrah. So over a month he got me to make a few things for him. He always said, 'you have served me well, my friend'. So after a while I forgot to listen and the last time, he said, 'you serve me well'. And just with that trick of words, we ended up being in a contract, not of my choosing."

Dominic took the information in. "And true you can feel others around the place?"

The older man nodded. "It's like a pull towards the other person. For Mary and I, it wasn't that strong. We'd get the tingles telling us to watch out. But for Isa, her senses were strong from the beginning."

Arching a brow, Dominic simply said, "Explain?"

"I think she was about twelve when it happened the first time for her. I remember her running into our bedroom and screaming someones going to kill the King. Then she ran out of the house and up to the castle. We thought it was just a dream but since she had taken off, we had to go and grab her and explain what happened." Anthony sighed as the memories came back to him. "Anyways, she used her skills to get to the King's chambers and when she got there, Daniel was standing at the balcony window and was heading to the King's bed. She went and fought him."

Her mother spoke. "It's part of our laws that no interfering can happen during a fight against a Vrah. It has to be one on one. If anyone joins in, both Vrah's stop fighting each other to take out the interrupter before going back to their fight. The King knew that so when his guards got there, he called them back to let Isa fight Daniel."

Then Anthony took back over again. "Daniel wasn't use to fighting anyone short so his attacks were wild on her. She ended up getting the upper hand and took him down. And that was the first time she had taken someones abilities." He put down the sandstone he was working on. "You see, my Lord. Vrah can only do so much with what abilities we start with. To learn how to increase them, we have to take them from other Vrah. It is like when you first started with the sword. You would of started off with a wooden sword, then as you aged, you'd go to the next level sword. As you grew stronger, you'd keep upgrading your weapon until you use the great sword you do now. Maybe over time as your strength grew, you made it a bit more weight. It is the same for the Vrah. Taking abilities increases our skills."

Dominic tried to figure it out then Ter spoke, "Like the Asian, my Lord. He says he's a level twelve in his skills. The Vrah use the same type of grading."

Dominic then nodded. "Ah, I see. What levels that way would each of you be?"

Her mother spoke, "I was a level two and Anthony was a level nine. Isabella was level five but now including ours, she would be a level eighteen." She put in the last pin before standing up and helping Ter remove the tunic. "We have a council who keeps track of records. If they jump a large number like Isabella has done, they will send someone to see us to make sure it is true." Sitting down in a chair, she started to sew.

Dominic nodded with the information he was given then Ter spoke up, "When the Vrah council sees it's true, what will happen to her?"

Anthony sighed and picked up the stone to continue to carve. "If she hasn't gotten a Keeper, then she'll be assigned one. I think that is why she offered serves to you. The council takes requests of people getting their hands on Vrah because there are so few left. Sometimes it's just short term, but with trickery, it can be permanent. Anyone over level five can get assigned if they aren't connected to a Keeper."

Ter then asked, "A Keeper is the employer?"

Anthony nodded. "Yes it is. We use to call them our Masters, but a few times, the employers believed that meant they could abuse the Vrah. Because the Vrah were bound to the employer, we couldn't kill them. When we're given a job to do. We tell the Keeper what it entails, how dangerous it would be, if we thought it was worth it and so forth, like an adviser would tell the lord if they wanted to do something impossible. When we called them Master, a lot thought that when we spoke against their ideas, they could punish us. A few Vrah were damage that badly, they had to retire. The one Vrah I had seen that was treated badly. Each of his fingers and wrists were dislocated so he wasn't able to fix his injuries. He hadn't been able to look after himself so I fixed his hands and took him to the council. The council sent a squad back and killed his keeper for the treatment. He was my first that I had taken skills from."

Mary smiled. "He came to live with us until he died of old age. He taught Isa the basics until she became to quick for him and we took over her training. That is why she has so many choices in weapons. He didn't have a blood family so he adopted her as a granddaughter and taught her his bloodlines abilities." She saw the confused look on Dominic and Ter and smiled. "Each Vrah bloodline specializes in certain techniques. Anthony's bloodline was poisons. Dimtri's was weapons. Alexia and Alec were both movement, Daniel and Tomas were strength and Breanna was agility. Each time a ability is taken, they train the basics to the person. So if someone takes Isa's abilities, she would train them in each of those."

Anthony added, "We're all trained in those skills, but some of the bloodlines master in them. Isa is a master in all the abilities which makes a Vrah, that is why she is dangerous."

Over the next few hours, Anthony and his wife explained more about the Vrah. Dominic knew it was what he needed so he felt right within himself of the task he had to do the next day. When the night grew longer, he stood up and excused himself while Ter and the couple continued to talk.

* * * * *

Like after the first fight against her father. Isabella woke up with Dominic sleeping in the chair beside the bed. She carefully slipped to the edge of the bed and once more a deep voice asked, "Where are you going?"

She turned to see him watching her. "I'm hungry," was her simple reply.

He nodded and pulled the bell ribbon. "Get back into bed, we'll get food bought up."

"I will after I clean up. I stink." Giving a half smile to him.

He chuckled with a nod. "Alright stinky, but then it's back into bed with you."

She gave a soft nod before disappearing into the wash room to clean herself up completely. By the time she returned to the bedroom, a tray of fresh food was sitting on the bed. She climbed back into bed and moved the tray between them and they began to eat in silence.

Dominic started to study her as she ate and asked, "Your still the same woman I met on the first day, aren't you?"

Looking over to him, she nodded. Finishing the mouthful she had and said, "Yes. I wasn't allowed to tell you who I really was on the first night because of our laws. I had to wait for my parents return, but then I let a hint of who I was when I had my guard down around Aaron by showing him the daggers. I guessed because I told you my father taught me how to work with metal that you would of thought it was something he did with weapons to make them stronger. So thought it was alright to do. But then feeling my parents there. I knew it was only right to tell you who I was completely."

He nodded as he took a piece of ham and rolled it up. "What was the argument about?"

Cringing a little. "They didn't know you and by telling our secret, they thought you would force their hand like the old King did. But I knew from the night before I wanted to give my services to you. You don't force people into doing what you want and I knew that was the type of Keeper I want to serve. But I understand if you don't accept. I know having one of my kind around probably wouldn't be to your standards of fighters."

"Probably right about that." he said. He watched as a sort of disappointment crossed her features and decided to let her wait it out and not tell her what her parents had spoken about.

They finished the meal in silence and then he stood up. All he said was, "Get dressed, and bring five with you." Then he left with the tray.

She was a little confused as she got up and headed to her room. She shook her head, five what? Then it all clicked when she saw her weapons in the room. She couldn't help but squeal. She loved her weapons, most of which she made herself. She quickly dressed in loose fitting training robes, tied her hair up so it wasn't in the way and grabbed one of her multi-sheaths backpacks and belt picking out one of the poleaxes, the twin dagger war fans, her twin battle maces, long sword and twin daggers. Once she had slipped them on and picked up a small bag, she headed downstairs to find Dominic.

Ter headed her off and told her he was going to meet Dominic as well so they walked together out to the training field. Dominic spread it around that Isabella was training and needed some sparring partners. He didn't bother telling his men that weapons would be involved. But each thought, since her parents were small compared to their muscular bodies, they'd have no problem, taking the small girl on so a lot came to volunteer for the sparring matches.

Once the men were in the training field, Dominic called out, "Grab your weapons and chest plates and start warming up."

Once Ter and Isabella got to the training field, she put her choice of weapons down beside Dominic and started to warm up with stretches. She looked around at the men and looked up to Dominic. "All of them against, little old me?" she tried to say in her sweetest voice.