Learning Fel Armor

by Sooka

"What you have for Sooka, eh?"

Sooka peered at the wizened elder who huddled behind the simple table. Though twisted and withered with age, his teeth were white as pearls when he flashed her his sly smile.

"Something new.. something powerful." His brittle voice clear and uncontested in his cramped little hut. "But not free, no.." Those jagged pearls flashed at her once more.

Sooka grunted, faintly amused as ever by the elder. Her hand passed behind her, fishing a small leather pouch from under her cloak. It fell onto the table with a weighty, metallic clink. "Nothing ever is free with you, Sooka knows this well."

He didn't count it. He never did, a fact that impressed the young warlock more than most. She knew he didn't have to. It was unwise to toy with one such as Morldo the Elder. And unhealthy.

He motioned for her to come closer and she did. "Your hands, child. I will show you this. I sense you are ready." Unafraid, Sooka stepped closer to the table's edge and took his thin hands in her own carefully.

She never grew used to this. Her eyes closed, she allowed a part of her mind to open to his, to welcome the knowledge he chose to share with her. Like a flame, hear ran between them, heating her flesh. Burning a hot path to her brain.

Sooka grimaced faintly against the pain, but bore it as she had before. Seeing disjointed images, dark imaginings lit by sickly green fel fire. Discordant sounds, foul smells. She imagined she could even feel a damp, slimy touch at her ankle, her shoulder. All irrelevant fragments from the dark memories locked within Morldo's twisted mind. Ignored.. unimportant to the spell knowledge which set root in her head.

It ended suddenly, the withered orc's hands releasing her. Her eyes snapping open as she drew a deep, shuddering breath. Morldo watched the young warlock with amusement as she sought to dismiss from her thoughts the lingering shadows of his dark past. Letting her gather herself again.

"Show me, child.. show me."

Sooka smirked as she centered herself, letting the forcibly implanted knowledge come to her. Just as it had so many times before. In a few moments, she understood. Her hand lifted, making a sign in the air as she spoke a dark phrase.

The effect was instant, if invisible. She could feel the Fel energies rising within her. A great wave of softly burning energies that permeated every fiber of her being. Lingering within her. "Yes.." Hissed lowly as she focused on the energizing sensation. Feeling something else.. a void aching to be fed.

"You can feel it, yes?"

Sooka focused on Morldo as he spoke. "Sooka feels it. This is good, Morldo.. very good. Sooka feels her magics will flow stronger with this."

"Yes, yes.. and so too will you gain more when you draw upon the life energies of your enemies," Morldo crows with a cackle.

Sooka smirks anew as she produces another small leather pouch, adding it's metallic payload to the first. "Sooka will return soon. Make sure you have more to show Sooka and Sooka will make sure you have more coin."

Morldo gathered both pouches up, making them disappear within his ragged garb. "Yes.. return again, young one. Morldo will have more secrets for you. If you are ready for them."

Sooka nodded and turned to depart. Still she could feel the Fel energies lingering, buzzing within her. Adding a faint greenish luminescence behind her eyes, though she knew it not. Yes, this was new. This was powerful.