“The concept of offering various things to those who had passed away was a common one amongst various cultures. What was being offered, on the other hand, greatly differed between the cultures. Some cultures offered the favorite foods and drinks that the deceased loved, offering them a farewell feast before their soul departed to the afterlife.

Yet others offered items like effigies of weapons and armors, ships and chariots, items that they believed the deceased would need to navigate the tumultuous afterlife. Some other cultures on the other hand at times offered live sacrifices, be it of animals, or at times, other people. Most often it was the case when the deceased was a warrior, in which case a captured warrior from an enemy tribe would be sacrificed to appease their anger and wrath and thus allow them to pass on to the afterlife in peace.

It may have seemed barbaric and savage to many, but there was perhaps some merit in such thinking as well. After all, who amongst us truly knew what went on in the afterlife? Or if there was an afterlife at all for us to head to after we die?” - Liovar Rhodes, Philosopher from the Clangeddin Empire, circa 419 VA.

Aideen stood a bit ahead of the line of orcs that had formed up to fight off the human cavalrymen, as she waited for their approach. The idea of facing down a cavalry charge – even if it was light cavalry like in this particular case – on their own might be daunting to even the bravest out there, but in her case, she had nothing to fear from either the horses or their riders, nor from the sharp weapons they pointed her way.

After all, at worst it would just take her a while to rebuild her body anyway.

The blade of a spear flashed past, close enough to her face for its side to cut open her flesh to the side of her eyes, yet Aideen did not even blink. In return, she thrust with her own weapon in a single smooth motion of her arms. The sharp blade that acted like a spearhead at the tip of her weapon struck the rider’s armor right in the midst of his chest, the point finding its way into one of the rings that composed his armor and forcing it apart before it plunged deep into his body where it found his heart.

While her spearhead slid out of the dead body of the rider just as easily as it went in, it was still too late for her to parry the spear of the rider behind the one she killed. The second spear pierced through her chest and through one of her lungs, the force of the blow strong enough to break through several of her ribs until the spearhead came out from her back.

She ignored the blow and shifted her grip on her weapon as she brought its back end in a sweep that caught the rider that had just speared her right on the belly, and dug her feet into the ground as she wrenched the man right off his mount. The man landed hard on the ground as the breath was knocked out of him by the fall, and lay dazed for a moment.

Unfortunately for the fallen rider, the next rider in line failed to react fast enough to avoid the fallen man, and the hooves of his horse directly stepped on the man’s abdomen as he rushed past. The rider probably thought Aideen was done for since she still had the second rider’s spear sticking out of her body, and paid her no heed as he rushed past.

He also failed to notice how she shifted her grip and rotated her weapon once more until its perpendicular scythe-like blade was poised just ahead of the rider’s torso.

The distance was too short for the blade to gather enough force to cleave through the armor worn by the rider, but it was enough for Aideen to use it to drag the man off his horse as well. The third rider’s body fell directly on top of the second one, who vomited blood after the horse stomped on his abdomen, and only worsened his condition as a result.

Before the fallen rider could react, Aideen had withdrawn her weapon and stabbed down hard with the blade at its end. She skewered the man right through his throat, even as the next rider in line swerved to avoid his fallen comrades and subsequently missed his chance to attack her. The rider gurgled and struggled even as Aideen pressed down on her weapon with her whole body weight until he laid still.

Then she snapped the shaft of the spear that jutted out of her body and threw it like a javelin at the next cavalryman who rode near her. The surprised cavalryman tried to avoid the wooden shaft but failed as it struck him right on the mouth and dismounted him. Several of his broken teeth also scattered into the air even as the man fell off his steed.

Aideen caught the spear of the rider after that between the two blades at the end of her weapon and shoved it aside, nearly causing the rider to lose his balance. She used the back end of her weapon to strike down the rider once more, though this time her blow struck the man right on the forehead. His helmet took part of the blow, but the force behind it was enough to give the man a concussion all the same.

The rider rode a bit further before he fell off his horse, unconscious on the ground and at the mercy of his foes.

As for Aideen herself, since the rider she knocked out happened to be the last of his group to pass by her, she was on the prowl in search of more enemies, her weapon held to her side even as she nonchalantly pushed the spear stuck in her chest out from her back and healed the injury it caused as if it was never there to begin with.