The start of it all...

This is the start of our latest guild plot in the Scythe, enjoy.

Her daggers, two silver arcs in her skeletal hands met his axe in a shower of sparks. Genavie's weapons crossed together in a parry mere inches above her exposed collarbones, causing her to lean back. If she wanted, she could have spat on the axe bearing down on her, it was that close. She was rapidly losing ground, literally as her feet slid back in the dirt, and figuratively as her daggers started to shake and rattle in her hands. If she didn't do something quickly her parry would fail and the axe would be able to cleave into the base of her neck unhindered.

With a grunt, she pushed her locked daggers and her opponent's axe as far away from herself as she could. She was able to move the weapons away from her by precious inches. Then she let go of her weapons and dropped to the ground, the axe narrowly missing it's mark as it fell. Though Genavie couldn't feel it, she was sure it nicked off a small piece of the shell of her ear.

Not dwelling on pieces of ears lost, she grabbed a fistful of dirt as she twisted on the ground under her foe, throwing it up into his eyes. She was rewarded by the sounds of heavy plate armour creaking as he staggered backwards briefly, and then by his low hiss of surprise. Ducking under him, she went for the leather strap securing his shield to his arm. Genavie knew the pointed tips of her skinless fingers, made so from her time as a Scourge ghoul, would be enough to sever it.   

Sure enough, the strap binding the shield to her foe's arm gave way to her fingers - though it didn't fall to the ground as she expected. Her opponent must have been gripping the handle on the inside of his shield more tightly that she thought. Genavie swore aloud while she rolled away and out of his reach. It had been an expensive gamble; her daggers for his shield, and she had lost. While she was prone coming out of her roll on the ground he charged her with a fierce cry on his lips.

Where she Human the air would have rushed out of her lungs on impact. Her opponent had continued his charge after picking her up by the torso on the front of his shield and slammed her back into one of the stone walls of the ruins they fought in. Struggling like a fly caught in syrup as bits of the wall crumbled around her from the impact, she pushed against the unmovable mass of metal to no avail; she was pinned.

"I yield Azgrimm," she spoke, her tone one of deep resignation. "I cannot penetrate your defenses." Ceasing her flailing, Genavie expected her opponent to back away and release her, but he didn't. Azgrimm held her gaze, saying nothing. Genavie's rotten feet dangled off the ground as he held her against the wall with his shield. "W-what?" She stuttered. Had their sparing march become something more serious while they fought? 

"Don't go." He said, the only movement in his face being when he formed the words. Genavie thought that under other circumstances it might be romantic; her pinned against a wall in abandoned ruins on a moonlight night, while a man bade her not to leave. The reality of the situation weighed on her heavily though, she was certain the pressure from Azgrimm's shield was going to cause her last reamining kidney to pop out of her side like the cork on a champagne bottle.

Scrambling and clawing fruitlessly against the front of the shield for a brief, frenzied moment, she relented and looked at Azgrimm in his one functioning deadlight. "What? You can't manage the unit for a few weeks?" One of the eyebrows over her hollow eyesockets rose as she posed to the question. He was speaking of her planned journey to Kalimdor, she was speaking of the fact that she all but ran his military unit for him. Or at least she had, Azgrimm was slowly becoming more than a firgurehead for her to hide behind while she ran things and issued orders from his lips. Soon he would be an Executor in ability as well as name - able to direct their unruly soldiers on his own.

"Yes, for a few weeks." He said. "But if you die on some fool's errand across the ocean near it will be for the rest of my unlife."

"You'd manage." She quipped, not wanting to rub his position in his face - at least not in her current situation. When the original Executor of the unit, Covasius, announced her resignation Azgrimm and Genavie had come to blows. As Corvasius's trusted Lieutenants at the time both of them were considered for her position. They hadn't fought over leadership for the Scythe, but rather they fought over which of them wouldn't have the burden of Executor. Neither of them had desired the rank, at least not publicly. Genavie had few issues with running things behind a figurehead. 

"We have Worgen at our heels, Kor'kron breathing down our necks, and our allies insist on neutering us by limiting the use of our plague." To punctuate his point, he leaned forward and pushed the shield against Genavie further. She was certain that if she had eyes they'd be bulging out of their sockets from the squeeze. 

"Without armour, weapons and supplies to fuel our efforts we won't be any use to the Dark Lady Azgrimm." She scratched at the edges of the metal shield. "I go to replenish our empty coffers. You know this." 

"You're quite vague about how our coffers suddenly became so empty, and how your trip will replenish them Genavie."

Genavie pushed futility at the shield, letting out a low hiss. "Just come out and accuse me Azgrimm!"

"I will not, because you have no motive. So explain." Slowly, he lowered her to the ground with his shield and stepped back.

Genavie stared at the dirt on the ground, obviously reluctant. "We haven't been able to keep a decent quartermaster. I don't have a head for numbers, there were errors and miscalculations."

"Bullshit." Azgrimm spat.

"I stole it."

"And my rotten ass has been hollowed out to store my secret stuffed toy collection." He leaned his shield against his leg and folded his arms over his chest.

Remembering what exasperation felt like when she was living, Genavie threw her hands in the air. "It was a mirror, alright?" She pinched the bridge of her nose over her mask, speaking quietly. "There was a mirror lining the back of the coffers and I thought we had twice as much coin as we really did. Shadow only knows what sick corpse thought of putting it there originally, but it outsmarted me."

Genavie opened her mouth to speak again, but was rendered speechless as Azgrimm shoved his shield into her hands. His expression remained impassive as he spoke. "Fine then, take this." Genavie didn't see as he slipped a small enchanted charm over the front side of the coffin shaped shield. "You can repair the broken strap."

She stuttered. "I have no use for a s-s-shield, Azgrimm. It would slow me down." 

Azgrimm shook his head. "Take it, it will be useful even in your inexperienced hands. If you do, I won't protest further about your mad quest."

All she managed to do was nod mutely in response.