Today is the day where people from all across the country come to attempt to become either a inquisitor or a knight, alongside many people come to watch people attempt to join the ranks of these. Among those trying is Eva, a descendant of a knight and somebody who has a lot of experience with an axe, who is trying to become an inquisitor.

Blake Blackrose watches from the crowd, her black painted lips in a slight, cruel smile. I wonder who's going to be my next target? She idly spins a small throwing needle, her weapon of choice. Her tattooed eyes stare around at the common folk. These weaklings disgust me. As if they'll ever catch a true witch. And if they do, those weaklings deserve to die. She chuckles. I wonder who's going to be burned next? I've always enjoyed the screams. She looks up at her raven, who's circling above.

Talon paced confidently behind the gate, swinging his heavy bastard sword with nervous tension. This was it, this was the moment that would define his life. He wanted to be a knight, needed it, and now, with a few swings of his thick blade he could make it happen... he might die trying, but hopefully that wouldn't be the case.

His sister Nala anxiously watched from the crowd, tight with anticipation. She looked around and saw the normal gathering of city folks; bakers, carpenters, farmers and the like. Then her sharp eye landed on a strange girl with black lips and strange markings on her eye lids. "She looks like trouble," she thought, making a note of where she was sitting.

The gate below opened into the arena. Her brother stepped out, shirtless and sweating, cradling his big sword in the crook of his densely muscled arm. To her this whole thing seemed a sham, a pointless show of blood to entertain the people in the town; but she understood what this meant to Talon. To him this was the realization of his dream. The damn fool had always felt himself a knight, defending some fools notion of honor and nobility. Nala understood the world they lived in, a world of empty promises and hateful liars. "Burn it all,"she thought, "Burn it all to Hell!" and if this fools tourney killed her brother, that's exactly what she was ready to do.

All the people who are here to join are lined up in a line for knights and inquisitors and are given standard health checks to ensure they are healthy enough to even become part of the knighthood and inquisition. Quite a few people are removed due to been unfit for duty, the first tests begin, basic combat abilities been shown off by all participants. Eva gets through this test with relative ease due to her training with an axe.

Talon pass the health physical easily because he was strong and fit. He struggled a bit through the basic combat ability years because he hadn't really fought before, but he swung his sword so hard it broke the test and he was given a pass.

Blake watches everything with a small smirk on her face, spinning around a needle between her fingers. She very lightly pricks her finger with it, and begins drawing seemingly nonsensical swirls and shapes on her palm in her own blood. She then clenches her fist, and the blood flashes inside her hand. The next person in line for testing suddenly feels very ill as she tampers with his blood flow.

Nala sees the strange girl with the black lips flinch like as if she were stung by a bee and then her hand flashed red. It happened in the blink of an eye and if Nala wasn't watching she wouldn't have seen it. Suddenly a yelp escaped the arena down below and the man standing right behind Talon collapsed as if struck.

Talon swirled around quickly, his sword suddenly ready in his fists, as the man behind him screamed and collapsed. His first instinct was to look to his sister in the benches watching the tests. She was standing and looking serious and panicked. She made a small gesture with her head to her right and Talon quickly scanned the audience. There was a motley of strange people in the audience but no one stood out to him. Talon turned back to his sister and she was making her way quickly through the watchers and disappeared somewhere behind the stands.

A pair of nurses were now attending to the fallen potential knight or inquisitor, whichever this one desired to be. "He is dead," one of the said sadly to no one in particular, "his heart has failed, may he find peace." She bowed her head in a quick prayer and motioned for two guards standing off to the side to haul the body away.

"The Testing! Shall! Continue!!" Boomed the announcer, and the line turned to keep moving. Talon relaxed his stance and recradled his sword and turned to move forward onto the next set of challenges.

She chuckles, watching the witch doctors drag the body off, making note of where they put it. She waits patiently for them to leave, then makes her way down to the place where they stashed the body, and gestures to it. The still warm body stirs, eyes glazed over in death. She turns around, throwing needles in her hands. "I know you're there. Come out."

Nala gulps, "How did she know?" she thinks. She steps out from behind a wooden beam.

She sees the corpse of the dead man moving and her breath freezes in her throat, she had never seen anything like it before. For a moment heart stops and she stands there motionless, terrified. "ugh... ugh... I..." her courage had failed and she didn't know what she was supposed to do.

"NALA!!" came Talon's voice, booming off the wooden plank walls.
"HEERRRRAAaaahAHHHHGGGHGHGHGH!!!!!" She started to call back and then let out an uncontrollable scream. Once the wail started she couldn't hold it in, staring at the strange, black lipped woman and unnatural undead... thing lurching in the corner was too much for her mind to handle and suddenly she was 4 years old again, helplessly watching her mother being dragged off and burnt to death.

Talon ran up, sword ready in his hands. He stops for a moment to take in the situation, he sees Nala, he sees the young woman with the black lips, and he sees the ambling corpse.

She looks over at the tall man, and grins, flicking a needle into the crook of his arm, making it go limp and drop his sword. "Looks like you lost your weapon." She spins several more needles between her fingers, and chuckles. "Fools. You really think anyone could catch a true witch?" She laughs, a cruel, heartless sound. She then flicks more needles, until he's completely immobilized. "Awww, how sweet. Two siblings, trying to protect each other."

@Shadow Dragon

---

Nala's fear melted at the sight of her brother. "Talon!" She sighed, but then suddenly his arm went limp and he dropped his sword. A confused look flashes across his face just as his body falls to the ground like a puppet with cut strings.

There was no time to think. Nala's mind had cleared seeing her older brother, but her body was pumping adrenaline like holy fire and she felt an intense focus like she had never felt before. By instinct she reached out with her mind and grabbed the walking corpse with an invisible hand, bewildered but intent her hand pantomimed the movements from her mind. She gripped the freshly dead creature with and violently hurled it towards the black lipped witch.

During the confusion, she had grabbed a bow and aimed it at the witch who was taunting the other person, firing at said witch to try and harm her and catch her by surprise, and also make a point of proving herself for the test

She laughs, and blows them a kiss with a small lit match. A wave of fire shoots from her mouth like a dragons breath. It consumes the undead, and races toward the others like a tidal wave, setting everything in it's path ablaze. She screams with pain when the arrow stabs into her arm, and she clenches her fist, swinging her arm. Eva is thrown into the wall with the arcane blow, like her blood was struck by a hammer. She then vanishes, reappearing behind Nala, and stabs her in the spine with a needle, paralyzing her nerves, making her drop like a rock.

The wave of fire and force that emanated from the witch before she disappeared hit Talon like a hot brick. Suddenly though, he could feel his arm again.. and move his legs!! Whatever evil magics she had used to immobilize him had somehow been dispelled, but Gods did his body hurt! And it was moving slower than it should.

The witch suddenly was behind Nala, Talon gripped his sword and willed himself onto his knees and toes like a runner. Nala dropped, Talon's eyes shot wide with surging adrenaline and he struck out with the point of his sword like an angry viper. The sword sailed just over Nala's head as she was falling and Talon locked eyes with the surprised witch who seemed stunned and slightly annoyed that he was on the offensive, then her eyes moved to point of his sword as is moved with deadly force towards the space between her eyes.

She frowns as he gets back up, and watches the sword move toward her, bending backwards, and letting the blade stab the air where her head was a moment before. How'd he recover so quickly? She then grabs the blade near the hilt, ignoring the slice to her palm and hands, and heats up the blade, summoning a fireball in her hand from the nearby torches, making the blade red hot, and twists it out of his hand, catching it in her now bloody palm. "Well that was rude." She scowls, looking at the blood dripping down her fingers, and she flicks her hand, spraying blood into the mans eyes.

Nala writhed on the ground in pain, her legs useless but she still had the function of her arms. She saw Talon getting up just in front of her and work weakly to plunge his sword. "Well that was rude!" came the exclamation from the witch and to Nala's dismay she felt heat above her and then saw her brother let go of his sword and with a yelp of pain, fall to the ground. Nala reached to her belt and pulled out her short vegetable knife, she slammed into the witch's foot with a grunt.



The blood hit Talon's eyes and added to the sting he felt in his hands. His body was weak and slow and not reacting to his will. He fell to the ground barely conscious, his head smacking the pavement.

*The local guards are not getting involved, and priests have set up an anti magic field to prevent anymore magic spells and the guards are now attacking the witch with both bows and weapons, while ensuring to protect others. As for Eva, she's just recovering from latest attack, somewhat, still holding a half burned bow.

Black spins, ducking and weaving around the attacks, and growls, fighting against the antimagic field, flicking needles all over the place, dropping guards left and right as she gets covered in cuts, and flicks a needle into the eye of one of the mages, killing him instantly. The field weakens, and she backflips out of the way, receiving more cuts and slashes all over, and attacks the mages, spinning seven inch needles like daggers, leaping over their heads, and scales a building, using the needles like climbing pitons, landing on the roof. "Now you've pissed me off." Blood drips off her body, and she lets darkness swirl around her, vanishing.

Nala reached behind her back and with a yelp of pain pulled the needle from her spine. She immediately bent to help her brother. "Talon," she said shakily, "Talon, Brother! Wake up!" Groggily his eyes fluttered open, he looked at his sister ands smiled, and then abruptly passed out again.

Nala stood up and took stock of all the soldiers and priests around her. The black witch had leapt away in a flurry of carnage, her sharp needles still glittering in the blood speckled sunlight like a macabre morning dew. How could one witch do all this? Nala asked herself, God, one witch! No wonder filling the ranks of the Inquisition is so important. Servants of the Inquisition to hunt the black hearted and cruel, and knights to clean up the mess. Some knight, she thought looking at her fell brother, some knight indeed. She let out a sigh and slung her brother's limp arm over her shoulder and helped him to his feet. He responded like a bag of meat, but he did respond, and they were able to walk/limp to the direction of the healers.