Note: all characters in the following story are, while completely fictional, of the legal age of consent. Also, I know, that last line is over-the-top corny, but it felt obligatory.
*
There was celebration in the free city of Siracoza. It was five years to the day since it, in league with several other, now free, cities, had succeeded from the empire of Rus. Their master and champion, still using her former title of Countess for the time being, had chosen the anniversary of that great triumph to hold her wedding ceremony.
While she ruled with an iron fist, as the expression goes, Countess Illyana Rasputin could be generous. After all, for a mage who had been an active combatant in the great war over eighty years past, such ephemera as wealth meant little enough. Power was her real concern. Wealth was only one means of gaining it. This partnership would be another.
The day was treated as an unofficial holiday. Workers were excused from their labors, gathering with their families in the central park, which the Countess had ordered transformed into a festival grounds. Exotic foods had been brought in from other cities and even as far as the Kingdom of Lesanne to the West and the elvish Ilyev Empire to the East. There was much drinking and revelry.
As regarded their new Count, (or King or President or what-have-you, if the Countess should decide to amend Siracoza's current classification as 'free city' and take a new title), the people generally approved. The word was that he was a noble himself and hailed from one of the principalities to the Northwest. Ellegarde or Czernoval. Those who hadn't seen him arrive weeks earlier knew someone who knew someone who had.
Riding at the head of an entourage on a monstrous black mare, the Countess' suitor, Kellish Ny, had cut an impressive figure. Having disdained unnecessary regalia, he had worn an exquisitely crafted matching set of pauldrons, bracers and breastplate and fine, but simple black clothing. Perhaps more memorable than the armor were his demeanor and bearing. Long black hair framed a face set in a cold, impassive cast. He had not waved or nodded, but only briefly scanned those citizens he had passed, as if they were part of the scenery. His pale blue eyes were later described as everything from piercing to haunting.
Popular sentiment held that it would take such a man to survive courting the Countess. Beautiful as she was, there wasn't a man in Siracoza grown past the foolish bravado of his teens who would willingly trade places with Kellish.
The actual wedding ceremony was born witness to by a relatively small audience. In accordance with Illyana's wishes, it was carried out not in any temple or church, but in the cities one sprawling cemetery. This surprised no-one much.
The traditional words were intoned with all solemnity by a man called Bishop. Once a priest, Bishop had many years before fled his native lands to escape persecution and likely execution on charges of practicing magic. (Since the great war, magic was frowned upon, if not outlawed, by most governments, not to mention religious sects) In his travels, Bishop chanced to meet Illyana's highest adviser, who saw great potential in him. He had since quickly risen to a position amongst her high council.
Also in attendance were the rest of Countess Rasputin's so called 'Copper Council.' The moniker came from the unique copper masks worn by the six members. All wore some variation of a black robe. This aspect was more by choice, partly in imitation of the first member and partly in keeping with feeding their perceived mystique.
The first among them was one called Niger Lupus. Tall and lean beneath his robes, it was common knowledge that he had been trained as an assassin once upon a time. His mask was shaped to resemble the face of a wolf, but this was not the true origin of his assumed name. Lupus, a shapeshifter, had been given into the hands of Illyana's father when both she and Lupus were young. They had been like brother and sister. While Illyana had studied magic, Lupus had been trained as a killer. In those days his favorite form, aside from his usual human one, was that of a black wolf.
Chronologically, Bishop was the second to don a copper mask. His was a shallow convex wedge with a few horizontal slits down either plane. He took his place with Lupus as a high adviser shortly after the great war in which Illyana lost her father. He continued to study magic, as well as playing adviser. Speaking and reading several dead languages, he also oversaw research at Illyana's request, especially into secrets of a magic or occult nature.
Third, and not much later, came an ancient crone from the far East who had only ever been known as 'Grandmother Craw.' She was also invoked by the more familiar 'Granny Craw', by parents warning their children to behave. Shortest of the Copper Council and hunchbacked, the hood of her robe drooped down past the point on her mask behind which her eyes must rest. For this reason it was assumed that she was physically blind, and saw only by means of her dark sorcery. What was visible of her false face was a crude representation of a wicked rictus full of huge triangular teeth, like an abstract expression of madness. It was rumored that she was older than Illyana herself.
Lucianna Korvinus, (another assumed name), came many years after Grandmother Craw. Once he had heard rumors of a young elf girl with a natural affinity for magic who was living on the fringe of the city, it took no time for Lupus to find her and bring her into the fold. While she did not have the cold-hearted immorality of the others, her magical ability grew by leaps under the tutelage of Bishop and Illyana herself. In her free time, Lucianna was once something of an amateur bird watcher. Hence her assumed name, as well as the distinct, exaggerated beak sloping out from her mask.
The fifth and sixth members were both inducted during the year Siracoza won free of Rus. Nex, a young half elf, had been sold into slavery as a child. After freeing herself at the age of twelve through deceit and murder she was determined never again to find herself at the mercy of another. Employing a great deal of relentless tenaciy she managed to secure training from a retired duelist.
Later, during the fighting between the Sepratists and Rus, Nex was refused entry into the military. Instead she gathered a ragtag band of refugees and began a campaign of guerrilla warfare against the Rus. With an uncanny instinct for tactics and strategy, her actions soon earned her unit a certain notoriety. After the war, when priorities permitted, Lupus arranged to have the young warrioress brought to Illyana's palatial stronghold. Grandmother Craw in particular, finding Nex's mercilessness and violent tendencies amusing, wholeheartedly endorsed her addition to the Council.
The Sixth and most recently joined member was also a combatant during the revolution of the free cities. A young human woman named Pearl. She was from the next now-free city to the east of Siracoza. As a moderately skilled mage specializing in defensive and healing spells, she spent time with a unit at the front lines. Caught in a tight spot by a larger enemy force, the unit was decimated. Generally good-natured and a bit on the sensitive side, Pearl was traumatized by the rampant carnage. Something in her mind snapped.
Utilizing her spells creatively, in ways never intended, the psychotic, crazed young mage wrought terror greater than anything the soldiers themselves had done. Thus it was that Pearl escaped with her life. Found days later in a catatonic state, Pearl was taken to a field hospital nearer to Siracoza. After the war, as with Nex, Pearl was brought before Illyana and the Council on Lupus' orders. Efforts by Illyana and Grandmother Craw saw Pearl's sanity restored, but her morals and personality forever warped.
As the sun began to sink, blazing a brilliant red across the treetops, the wedding procession wound through the town. The long tail of soldiers and functionaries followed as far as the base of the switchbacking road cut into the face of the cliff at the Northern edge of the valley. Only the new couple and the Copper Council, along with a few family servants, continued up to the summit, from which the towers of the ruling family's keep overlooked the valley.
Once inside the keep, the Council dispersed, each member off to see to some piece of business. Illyana and Kellish made their way to the base of the East tower where they took their time climbing to the third floor. A chamber there had been prepared for the occasion.
The two stopped before the open door of the chamber. They looked at each other. Illyana shrugged.
"Very well."
Illyana reached up and clasped her hands behind his neck, allowing him to bend and lift her in his arms. She gave him a teasing smirk as he carried her into the room. Apparently this was some sort of time honored tradition where he came from.
Kellish surveyed the room curiously as he set his bride back on her feet just inside the door. He absently closed the door behind him, pale eyes still wandering over the incongruent trappings.
On the other side of some fifteen feet of open stone floor, against the far wall, was a magnificent bed. It had to be eight feet wide and ten feet from head to foot. The blankets were of thick mink fur. The many pillows were sheathed in silk. All the bedclothes were dyed a vibrant red.
On the center of the open floor between them and the bed was an array of chalk markings. A dozen or more groups of archaic occult symbols spaced in a rough circle. At the center of this circle was a single sigil, drawn larger than the others.
To the left of this curious witchery was a low table. Upon the table were layed out various ritual items. Knives, tiny urns holding various herbs and chemicals, a thick stub of chalk, two plain silver goblets and a small book. Antiquities all, by the look of them.
