(Slight prequel to the events happening in Silvermoon)
The last time a city she was living in had augurs and reports telling them it was going to be destroyed, Nahi had fought the whispers with denial. This time, she prepared for something that might happen, or might not happen here, but she was leaning into their word for it.
Her personal items in her house had mostly been packed already. Just a little over a week ago, she had faced the possibility that she was going to legally lose it all, or do the same when the void came.
Tal had used his portal magic to open one in her backyard. He had known the rumors and helped her with things while she talked to him about everything since her mother’s death. When he asked if she was alright, she smiled and said she was. If he pushed, or had taken her into a hug, she likely would have broken down. There was a war right in front of them. There had been no time for that.
When he left, she began to prepare herself for a battle ahead. The bronze and bordeaux armor she had bought when she went to war with the Mercenaries, over a year ago, was a little too big. Nothing anyone but her and the armorer would have noticed.
During her preparations, she had a couple of guests. One was her firearms trainer and lover, who invited her to his home. There was a lovely dinner, sweet words and a night spent proving that the world had things, other than people, to fight for.
The other was his niece the next day. Sun-bright eyes side-eyeing her uncle, who actually blushed, giving Nahi ammunition for teasing in the future, if they got to see one. The urchin took Nahi to her father, who ran her through a couple of drills leaving her many bruises, a reminder that this was why she should not have stopped coming to him for training, no matter what was happening in her life.
The other things he handed her were a couple of knives forged by a Light wielder, small things that would be tucked into her medical kit as tools and protection. One looked more like a letter opener, long and sharp, patterned with what her uninformed mind assumed was steel and Light-blessed metal striped like a tiger’s fur.
A hint of gold glinted off the other knife, barely perceptible. It was more of a chopping blade, and she could see uses for it in the kitchen as well as the medical tent. Though she tried to gloss over the obvious use of a weighted blade while working as a healer, she could not help but see them in the abstract.
She had not expected the gifts, but when he handed them to her, she saw the look of a man who had seen battles for hundreds of years and was lays prepared. He was protective of his past, and she truly had no idea of the work he had done. There was no clue if he had been military, always an underground fighter, or something else. All she knew was that she felt just a tiny bit safer when she left his space, between the lesson and the knives.
Silvermoon’s atmosphere hung like a weighted blanket across her shoulders, and she hated the waiting. Nahi packed and unpacked her kit a number of times, always thinking of little things that might help her in the tent, or in defending herself and others, if needed.
There were a number of bottles of pills like she had given Xylaes for the holiday, healing, poison resistance, and regenerative potions that had been distilled down so they were easier to carry. She was not sure of their potency, but the alchemist had said he had used the same process successfully to make poisons easier to hide. That was what she got for buying items at a black market, she supposed, but if they worked, that was all that mattered.
The rest of the gear was easier to pack: bandages of all kinds; a kit that included silk threads and needles for stitching; antiseptics; small bits of anything she could think of that might be needed. Her short staff, which would be less in the way. A gown to go over her armor, showing her place in the healer’s tent, but easily stuffed away so she would not make herself a target.
Most of these tips had come from Irenthalas while he put together his own bags, he had been a battle healer himself before retiring to work in a hospital. They went through Nahi’s packing together, him offering advice for both her ability to help others and to survive. He wanted to see not just her success as a healer, but as a daughter that he wanted to come back to him. The last held most of his influence, he could not lose anyone else.
When the signs of attack solidified and Talon called, she grabbed her things and locked her door, not that the action would have mattered if the city fell. @themercenaries
(Small mentions of @talthorn-sylvoran and @talonoa)
