| The stage is set for the final step....
Balok turned to his lieutenants and smiled (as much as his new face
could do such a feat).
"So....while we've now officially have only now begun
to turn out munitions and guns from the bolt holes we'd set up for
slightly.....different reasons than this we've reached our goal of secretly
squirreling away caches of guns and ammo for ourselves in the forthcoming
uprising?"
"Aye.....'tis so," the gruff voice of his uncle says softly. "Once we've
struck a blow against the other Non-people, we shall turn and.....redress
this issue with our allies. Ifin we can't find a way back to our gods given
form....then at least we can be the 'top dog' of this pathetic collection
of hairy, wild arse lot of cretins! Don't know about you, but I didna like
the less than respectful way some of those higher caste SOBs treat
some of us....when others aren't lookin'!"
Dark, hostile murmurs of agreement go about the table with that. This
meeting, ostensibly to discuss matters of production and arming of themselves
and their allies against those who's hand was raised against them, continues
to discuss (softly) concerns of how to redress issues with their allies.
Soon, however, the discussion drifts to less heated topics. In this case,
it again drifts to the sour tasting water and spirits the orcs had been
bringing them. Again, the youngest former dwarf suggest, fearfully, that
perhaps the orcs are up to something.....poisoning them or something even
darker. The older former dwarves again jeer this idea, dismissing it as
being "to sophisticated for such a crude people."
Then, when they hear a young shaman's chanting echo through their minds....and
they drop all that they are doing to head for the public meeting grounds.....they
dimly begin to fear that the young one had been right.....and curse their
own foolishness in forgetting that they are orcs now, not dwarves!
Meaning that while they may be almost impossible to poison still, they
no longer enjoy the resistance to magic that they once possessed!
"....and I take away your names and burn them!" Lord Sithe gloated as
he took a piece of paper and threw it into a fire within a bronze brazier.
The former dwarves groan as they find they can't even remember what they'd
been called, before.
"You shall be renamed to fit your new people you belong to....and given
names that suite your station in life," the orcen lord chuckled. "You will
obey my and my lieutenants wishes and desires without a word of protest....without
a moments of hesitation....with a smile on your ugly faces! So shall it
be for the rest of your life!"
Sithe smiled and his newest subjects groan.
Time for the finishing touch.
He intones the solemn words he had been taught from the holy visions
from the scrying chamber.
"Resistence is futile," he said, intoning the Words
of Power finishing his part in this magical ceremony that he and
the young shaman had begun with the first infusion of alchemical ingredients
into the drinks of the former dwarves. It was sealed now, and could not
be altered in any way, shape or form.
Silently the newest orcs shuffle off to be processed by various lieutenants
to be given names and such.
Silently, some like those who'd been named Balok and such silently
vow that this insult will not go unavenged!
Silently, the young shaman curses Sithe for being a fool!
Sithe was slack jawed at the rage and blatant lack of respect by the
young shaman. Who was this young pup to think such as he could act
in such a way against him!?
Giving a shout of rage the orcen lord bellows and pulls his sword from
his weapons belt, wanting nothing but to ram it through this insolent bastard's
disrespectful, black heart! Bullets are good for some things, but Sithe
wanted to enjoy a little old fashioned blood spilling!
"I am your Master and you will obey me!" the young shaman
snaps, his Words of Power, a secret set of Words
handed down from shaman to shaman since the earliest days of the orcen
race. The enraged Sithe drops his sword and stares blankly at the wall,
a hum of magic roaring within his ears and mind.
"I wish I could have done this earlier but had to move slowly in order
for you and I to be alone in this sound proof room," the shaman mutters,
"my caste may be the real power behind the throne, but it's a delicate
balance. Oh, the Leader caste thought they ruled us....but it was
quiet the reverse. The Shaman class never wanted the attention....and ire
if a plan failed. Let the ravening crowds tear apart their fallen and disgraced
Lord
while we shamans went about picking and grooming a new stalking horse.
Gods damn my sire for going out on that one expedition to retrieve that
human woman and her whelps.....he should have sent me!"
"It should have been me," the young shaman mutters, swallowing a lump
in his throat.
"Not all orcen minds have totally lost their sharp edge upon the Gifting,"
the youngster continues, sneering at the slack jawed Sithe, "some kept
their sharp minds upon becoming Orcs....able to still caste magic.....something
that needs intelligence to do right! The rest of you blighters may have
had your wits atrophied, making ruling the lot of you easier.....but......
"But you broke free of my sire's hold upon you....and didn't have the
wit even to know that you'd been bewitched and now were free. You did,
however, make it ticklish for me for a while until I was finally able to
get you alone to again ensnare you, fool. Not before bollixing the conditions
on the new ones I'd suggested you give. No, you had to be your own
orc, didn't you? Well, perhaps nothing will come of it, or maybe disaster.
Hopefully, if they do find enough freedom to wiggle out from the geas you
placed upon them with your sloppy rendition, I'll be able to do to their
leader what I did to you. It may be harder, but.....at least I'll have
a puppet with a better grade of mind than the fecal matter with this gross
head!"
The shaman angrily whacks the head in question with his walking staff,
staggering the orcen lord, but only causing the spell besotted orc to lay
on the ground.
The power behind the throne sighs and sets the plan in motion.
-
 Maybe some type
of kingdom could be established if not out and out world conquest. Before
it had looked easy to sweep the land. Now? Who knows....
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