A small batallion of 27 soldiers, led under the merciless commander Tacitus Silanus, awaited the caravans of merchants of Canelux. Adeluna is a center of trade, so a lot of goods were to be expected.

Silanus, leader of the Fratis, had sworn to complete his father's dream of conquering Adeluna, burn it to the ground and then re-build it. But to do so, they needed thousands of soldiers, sadly for him, the Fratis had less than 1600 soldiers, all of them scattered in small groups across Canelux. 

 The Fratis were going to raid the merchants, thus earning them money to afford an army. And the time was about to come, a caravan transporting marble was passing through. It had around 32 merchants, but just 10 guards. A perfect target…

The soldiers ambushed the caravan and blocked the way, naturally one of the guards un-sheated his weapon, but a crossbow bolt was shot at him, of course killing him. Silanus, with a spear at his hand, said: "Alright merchants… We are going to make this quick. All the guards, drop your weapons and go to the right, all the merchants put your hands in your heads and head to your left. If you don't show any hostility, you will live, alright?" 

The guards, outnumbered, dropped their weapon and walked to the right, the merchants did not show any hostility and acted peacefully too. Meanwhile, Silanus' soldiers were mounting the carriage horses, stealing the silver and marble. Eeeverything was going just as planned.

On numerous occasions, the Justiciar would leave her realm, venturing out into the mortal plane of Revaliir.  She felt most comfortable around mortals, as it were, and rather enjoyed spending time in taverns.  On this particular day, she had chosen Adeluna as the destination for her ‘mini-vacation,’ and had spent the better part of an afternoon imbibing spiced mead at the Winking Mermaid.  Fortunately, her divine nature had upped her tolerance a substantial amount, allowing her to drink much more than usual without so much as an inkling of intoxication.

Enough time had passed that she was content with leaving the tavern.  Upon her exit, she headed toward the merchant’s quarter of Adeluna.  Rounding the corner, she found herself quite surprised at the scene unfolding before her.  It seemed that a group of marauders had taken it upon themselves to liberate the merchants of their silver and goods - and Dalanesca found herself frowning.  She stood behind the group, hands on her hips, watching as the merchants and guards surrendered, unarming themselves and allowing the marauders to take what they wished.

This would not do.  Firmly, Dalanesca called out from behind the group.  “Bit too much fun for a sunny afternoon, isn’t it?” she called, the annoyance firmly apparently in her voice.  She counted the men who were involved in the attack, her count giving her somewhere around the high twenties.  “Which one of you is the leader of this brave band of soliders?  Adeluna’s been peaceful for a while, and you’re upsetting it’s balance,” she said, a soft lilt to the final word that she spoke.  Beneath her sleeves, two sais sat at the ready in case they were needed - but the Goddess had a way with words.  It was her divine will that she could sway the outcome of any situation to be either light or dark, if she so wished… but she normally chose to see what would occur before she had any real bearing on what took place.  For the time being, she chose not to reveal her true identity, but rather wait and see what happened.

The soldiers, the hired guards and even the merchants turned their gaze at the person who spoke those words. The Fratis soldiers could not help but laugh and laugh. Was she really challenging them?

One soldier asked in a mocking voice tone: "Yeah? You and what army? The City is far away, too bad the army of Canelux doesn't even know we're here!" 9 soldiers aimed the woman with their crossbolts, just in case.

Tacitus Silanus slowly walked to the woman and, with an arrogant smirk in his face, said: "You're surely a brave lass, aren't you? If you really cared about BALANCE you should protest in the Great Cities, where many people die of hunger while the others eat the world! Besides, a little honest raiding does not hurt anybody, HAHA!" Silanus walked some closer bedides her and un-sheated his sword.

Silanus pointed at the woman with the sword and ordered to his soldiers, strangely, in an orchish language: "Very well, someone please send this brave one with the other merchants. Don't hestitate to do some "warning" shots if she shows any hostility." One orc soldier, wearing a different set of armor probably native of the Steppes, approached and attemped to hold her right arm.

Dalanesca sighed, placing her hands on her hips.  She shook her head slightly.  “I’ve no need for the army of Canelux,” she said, her voice firm and steady.  She glanced at the men aiming their crossbows at her, and paid nearly no attention to them for the time being.  

She eyed the man walking towards her, assuming he was the leader of the group.  “Brave’s got nothing to do with it,” she said, giving him a sly grin.  His next words meant nothing to her - the problems of the world were already something she knew well of.  Unfortunately, such poverty was necessary to keep the world in order.  “Honest is not a word that can be used to describe raiding,” she said, an air of disgust barely audible in her voice.  She did not flinch when he unsheathed his sword, nor did she reach to draw her own weapon.  

“They won’t,” she said, as the man instructed his underlings to take her with the other hostages that they had taken.  At that moment, she shot a glance at the men with the crossbows.  “They don’t want to shoot me,” she said.  “They want to shoot each other,” she said, at which moment the nine men with bolts aimed them at one another, their eyes widening in confusion.  One look at the Orc that reached for her and he stopped dead in his tracks.  She did not will the men to fire on one another, but had them hold their aim.  

She turned to the man, no care that his sword was still drawn on her.  “May I ask who you are, that you think you can take the Justiciar as a prisoner?” she asked, referring to herself with her proper title - not caring whether or not the man took knowledge of who she was.  “I am tasked with maintaining a delicate balance, and you… well, you are offsetting that balance,” she said, arching her brow at him.  “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t gut you, here and now,” she asked.

Silanus was astonished after watching how the crossbowmen aimed at each other after the woman spoke. Silanus turned his glance to them and, outraged, said to the rest of the troopers: "You better disarm these fools right now before they shoot at us!" 

Six soldiers surrounded the crossbowmen and disarmed them. They threw them to the ground and also removed their daggers to avoid further problems.

Tacitus Silanus looked back at the woman and, while three more soldiers surrounded her, he said: "You only see black or white, don't you… Justiciar?" The last word was said sarcastically, he had no idea about what she was talking about, but he acted as if he did.

Silanus continued talking: "There is no between for you, right? You can stop us and let the Queen scratch her ass with a jeweled golden claw, let the people suffer. Let me ask, where is the balance if the worst kind of people sit in a throne above everyone and have all the power, where the worst kind of people are criminal lords who kill people cuz' they want too, yet the good people suffer?" The soldiers surrounding the Justiciar un-sheated their weapons. The orc had an axe, a woman human had a sword and the male trooper had a spear.

Silanus' shield hand began to glow, he was casting a spell to make himself stronger! Silanus said: "As soon as we finish our plunder, you will all be free. Show no hostility and everything will go just fine!"

“That’s where you are wrong,” Dalanesca replied.  “The world is everything but black or white.  The world is gray, just different versions of it,” she added.  “Nothing is pure good or pure evil, it’s all balanced out for a certain reason.  The poor go hungry so the rich can be full, just as the sun sets to allow the moon to rise.  It’s nothing new - and nothing that will ever change,” she added, noting the sarcasm in his voice.  

She did not flinch as the soldiers around her drew their weapons.  “I can tell you exactly what will happen if your men use their weapons against me - yourself included,” she said, reaching into the far depths of her mind to pull the information.  “You -what was your name? - you will not die, not you,” she said to Silanus.  “But you will watch your men perish.  That one, there, the orc?  I’ll kill him with his own axe,” she said, casting a glance in the beast’s direction.

She turned to the woman armed with a sword.  “And she… I’ll impale her with her own sword.  Nothing like making love to one’s own weapon,” she said, a devilish grin crossing her face.  “And this one,” she said, drawing pause for a brief moment.  “I’ll snap the spear in half, stab each end through one of his hands to pin him to the ground, and slit his throat with my favorite dagger,” she added, her words flat and emotionless.  

She turned back to Silanus, noting the spell he was casting.  “All of the magically gained strength in the world won’t be enough to change that,” she said.  Dalanesca still did not draw a weapon on the man, but merely continued speaking.  “Tell me… have you met any of the Gods?” she asked, hinting at her true nature.  “They know what will happen… how actions will turn out,” she said.  “When they choose to know this knowledge, and choose to share it with you, it is wise to listen,” she said, her voice becoming firm. 

As Dalanesca spoke, the other troopers continued to load the merchandise they were stealing. It was ready! One orc who served under the Fratis' flag said to Silanus: "It is done, we can go anytime." Silanus, with a hand expression, made the orc understand that he was busy. 

The morale of most of the prisoners increased, seeing how the Justiciar came gave them hope; however the soldiers of the Fratis did not believe in any God, they only worshipped the Nature and their ancestors, so her words were not as powerful for them. Silanus, with a neutral expression, replied: "How… Sanguine; you have a real bloody imagination. You are truly brave, shit-talking to a group of armed soldiers!" 

Silanus stood in silence for a moment, looking at his shiny sword. He then gave an order to his comrades: "Very well, ride your horses and lets go, our goal was to plunder and we did so, let's go and give all this merchandise a better use." Silanus looked back at Dalanesca and told her: "As for you… You got powerful words, honestly simply thinking on what you said made me cringe, ugh… You should give those words a better use instead of trying to intimidate armed people."

Silanus thought of a good way to make fun of the woman he had in front of him. Instead of taking her as a prisoner, he sheated his sword, reached for his coin-back and threw two coins at her feet. "Here, go back to the city and buy some bread or whatever, my honour tells me to not harm an un-armed person, so you should think twice instead of taking us as the evil people. Go and give your talk to bandits or other people, take care, miss Justiciar!" Chuckling, Silanus walked 6 steps away.

He finally said: Very well, humble merchants, you are free to go. We'll keep the guards' weapons too. Don't try to follow us!" Before mounting his horse, Silanus looked back at Dalanesca, he then raised his arm and waved his hands: "Take careeeee!" He said. The other soldiers, making fun of her, did the same.

It became clear to Dalaneca that these men were not followers of the Gods.  The problem for the men and their leader was that whether they believed in divine beings or not, Dalanesca was a God.  She possessed every ability that she threatened the men with, but fortunately for them she was not feeling overly violent.  “My imagination is just the start,” she said, her voice quiet but with darker undertones.

When Silanus tossed a couple of coins to her feet, she actually laughed out loud.  “The ignorance of mortals is laughable,” she said, shaking her head.  “And for your information, I’m never unarmed,” she said, her eyes narrowing.  As Silanus waved his arms at her and bid her farewell, coupled with the actions of his men, she rolled her eyes.  When they turned to leave, she cast one look in the direction the men were heading.  

A black mist swirled before the men, not solid but still preventing them from travelling any further.  It was quite obvious that the mist came from Dalanesca, but she said nothing for a few moments, instead watching the men intently as they attempted to leave.  “Weapons don’t have to be swords and spears,” she said, the mist swirling a bit as she spoke.  “So tell me - would you like to return the goods to their rightful owners, or would you like to see what happens when this darkness decides to slide down your throat and take over your body?” she asked, the mist inching ever closer to the men.

A drop of sweat dropped from Silanus' head, this was getting serious… "What kind of dark sorcery is this?" Thought Silanus. He turned his gaze at Dalanesca and kept thinking: "Who did we cross this time? Why so many random women claim to be a divine? Why!?" Silanus frowned, thinking of a solution.

One trooper said to Silanus: "This is getting out of control, sir! But we can't leave the goods like this, what do we do? We retreat? We fight?!" Silanus looked down nervously and answered: "First she turned our loyal soldiers against us, now this? Ugh… I don't even know if those things are worth the trouble… L-let me see…" The soldier remained in silence as Silanus approached Dalanesca.

The commander walked towards Dalanesca, looking at her for some seconds before speaking… What… Was her? Silanus finally spoke: "I do NOT even think if this crap is worth my troops' lives and I surely won't change my mind. If you want those damn goods so bad, take them and do whatever you want, we'll get riches somewhere else… But I assure you, on the name of the almighty Fratis, that this is NOT the last you hear from us…!" It was clear that the soldiers were not happy to hear this, giving all those goods to a SINGLE person… Unbelievable; however, they tried to swallow their pride and understand they cannot always win…

On the other hands, the merchants could not believe this; the caravan would get their goods again. Silanus gave one last glare at Dalanesca and said: "Justiciar, be sure to bring justice where it is needed, and NOT helping tyrants… You are too close-minded to understand my father's cause… OUR cause!" 

The soldiers mounted their horses, ready to leave. They left the carriage behind with the wares still there. One trooper looked back at Dalanesca and said: "Anything else, or you will remove this cursed bloody fog out of our sight?!"