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幽魂的嫁妆
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2022-11-14更新
最新编辑:Lu_23333
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更新日期：2022-11-14
最新编辑：Lu_23333
幽魂的嫁妆
“诗人们说得很正确。恋爱的确能改变一个人的人生”凯普卡杰纳·格拉·明凡（绰号“幽魂”）说道，“我已经几个星期没有打劫别人的财物了。哎，那天我看见一个商人的家门大开，但我却一直在琢磨婚礼那天应该穿什么好”
“你已经脱离组织很久了”她的朋友卡格尔半赞许半责备地说，“对了，你还没跟我说过你那第一个丈夫怎么样了呢，就是萨满配给你的那个”
“被灰烬食尸鬼撕成碎片了”凯普卡杰纳很恍惚地说，“悲伤还是有一些的。但是我知道沃德沃格身上绝对不会发生那样的事。他不是个喜欢出外冒险的人。他嘛，就是一个帝国士兵罢了。我和你说过我们是怎么认识的吗？”
“说了几百遍了”卡格尔略带牢骚地说，同时伸手去拿他的酒壶，“他是看管你的狱卒，他说你如果不嫁给他，在牢里就吃不上饭”
“你难道听说过比这还要浪漫的事吗？”凯普卡杰纳叹了口气，转而正色道，“我想要说的是，我希望我的那些老朋友们能够祝福我。但是老家伙波斯瑞尔说得好，对不可能的事抱有希望是没有意义的。婚礼结束后，我们就立刻随同帝国军团前往巴莫拉，但是只要我们还在大衮·菲尔，组织就一定会来扰乱我的小日子，让我重持旧业。这点我十分肯定”
“幽魂”的婚礼一天天地接近了，每当她从恋爱的狂喜中清醒时，她就会从当地的空气中嗅出一丝不祥的气息。周围时常有着黑衣的人物神出鬼没。在沃德沃格的城堡周围，她认出了几个伪装成乞丐的老同行，显然，他们是在进行暗中探查。
但是忧惧的时刻还是很少的。凯普卡杰纳满心欢喜地筹备着她的婚礼，她把地点定在沃德沃格当初囚禁她的地牢。她的父亲很久之前就丧命于灰烬食尸鬼之手，但她未婚夫的上司提出会在婚礼上充当父亲的角色。当然，凯普卡杰纳得自己准备嫁妆。她拿出所有之前得来的不义之财，为丈夫选了一件不错的礼物。
按照兽人的传统，婚礼选在午夜时分举行。临近中午的时候，那些帝国军官的内人们都忙着给她穿上红色天鹅绒做的礼服，戴上金银饰品。其中一位，多塞塔，说她听说新娘买了一件很漂亮的礼物作嫁妆。
“就让我给你们看看吧”凯普卡杰纳呵呵地笑着说。她礼服还没穿好，就急忙地冲向藏着东西的地方。待她打开看时，礼物已经被偷走了。
女人们很惶恐。“幽魂”却只是觉得恼怒，但一点也不讶异。这种手法，的确是帮派的杰作。他们知道没有嫁妆的婚礼是不吉利的。她让女仆们帮她把礼服穿好，同时思忖着那些盗贼会怎么处理她的嫁妆。
这个地区遍布着盗贼用来藏匿战利品的秘密巢穴和废弃工地。当然，其中有些地方也很显眼。再三的考虑之后，她想出了在这种情形下藏匿东西的最佳地点。女仆们一帮她穿戴完毕，凯普卡杰纳恳求她们让仪式正常进行，如果她晚到了一会，不要惊慌。说完，她围上一条披肩，以免地牢中的灰尘弄脏了礼服，匆匆前往马拉卡斯神殿。
“幽魂”从来没有想过要打劫自己的朋友，尽管对于他们扰乱她幸福生活的行为感到很气恼，她无意伤害那些朋友。她的风格就是：尽管知道冲突不可避免，她还是会尽量少伤及他人。很多年来，她的导师卡格尔传授给她的技能一直帮助她躲避卫兵和帝国骑士的刀枪；现在就要看她能否应付一群技艺高超的贼人，以及神殿里未知的危险了。最重要的是，不能弄脏礼服。
这个荒无人烟的地方是如此的空旷，以致于当她踏进神殿时，担心自己计算失误了。当她在一条长廊的末端找到一间秘室时，她确信这就是她要找的地方，一个易于设定埋伏的地方。她把装有嫁妆的盒子揣起来，转过身应战。
帮派里的两个老朋友，红色守卫兄妹约朗和姚伊就站在这间秘室门外。他们知道嘲弄和辱骂对“幽魂”都不起作用，于是干脆上来短兵相接。约朗用短剑向左侧猛刺，同时姚伊冲向“幽魂”，试图将她撞倒。“幽魂”灵巧地侧闪，避过姚伊，左腿后退，右肩左进，一个转身闪过剑锋。兄妹两人撞成一团，凯普卡杰纳走过去，迅速地前进。
几乎是一瞬间，亚龙人宾雅尔的狼牙棒就迎头打来，周围的空气呼呼作响。凯普卡杰纳从来没有和这个家伙好好相处过。她迅速下蹲闪避，伴随着一声巨响，棒槌砸到坚固的石墙上，宾雅尔一个重心不稳，摔了出去。她趁机继续向出口奔跑，她已经可以呼吸到外面沁人心脾的空气了。
她嫁妆的最后一位守卫者是一个叫索罗斯的兽人，与她还有过一段短暂的罗曼史。她知道，就是这个家伙组织了这次行动。从手法来看，他对于剥夺她幸福所付出的努力还是很多的。然而现在不是想这些的时候，她正专注躲避兽人的带刺战斧，这柄斧无论是撕毁她的礼服还是撕开她的皮肉都是很理想的武器。
“幽魂”灵活地闪避着对手的进攻：膝盖微弯，头部左摇右晃，脚步无节奏地移动，那柄战斧是无论如何也碰不到她了。尽管她的防御招式很古怪灵巧，索罗斯仍没有放弃进攻，依然守在神殿出口不肯离开。
接近午夜了，“幽魂”决定结束这场对决。当索罗斯挥出下一斧时，她向左闪身，伏低身体，缩起头部，战斧就从她右肩滑过。在那一瞬，他的右侧露出破绽，“幽魂”很不情愿地用盒子猛击他的身体。凯普卡杰纳也不管他是死了还是晕过去，抬腿就跑。她心里想的全是婚礼的事。
在午夜，沃德沃格和凯普卡杰纳幸福地结合了。新郎对新娘的嫁妆非常满意：一套漂亮的护甲，漂亮得足以让其他的狱卒嫉妒他。听了新娘夺回嫁妆的经过后，新郎更是惊讶和兴奋。
“你就没想过在被埋伏的时候穿上那身护甲吗？”他问道。
“我不想把你的礼物弄出凹痕”新娘吻着他说，“当然，我也不想弄脏我的礼服”
Wraith's Wedding Dowry
The Wraith's Wedding Dowry
"The poets are right. There is something life-changing about being in love," said Kepkajna gra-Minfang, sometimes called the Wraith. "I haven't wanted to rob anyone or anything in weeks. Why, the other day, I saw the door wide open at a wealthy merchant's house, but my mind was fully occupied with what I should wear on my wedding day."
"You have been out of the right society for very long now," frowned her friend Khargol approvingly. "You never told me what happened to your first husband, you know, the one the shaman gave you?"
"Torn apart by ash ghouls," smiled Kepkajna dreamily. "It was rather saddish. But I know nothing like that would happen to Wodworg. No life of adventure for him. He's practically an Imperial. In fact, he is one. Did I tell you how we met?"
"Hundreds of times," grumbled Khargol, reaching for his flagon. "He was your jailer, and he refused you food until you promised to marry him."
"Have you ever heard of anything so madly romantic in all your life?" sighed Kepkajna, and then grew serious. "I was going to say that I hope my old friends will wish me well, but as Old Bosriel used to say, there's no point in hoping for what cannot be. We'll leave with the Imperial Knights for Balmora immediately after the wedding, but as long as we're in Dagon Fel, the gang will find some way of disrupting my love life and bring me back to the light. I know it."
As the days approached towards the Wraith's wedding day, there was certainly something sinister in the air that Kepkajna could smell when she was not transported by heady bliss. Dark figures seemed to shift in the shadows and disappear when approached. She recognized the clothing of some beggars near Wodworg's cottage as costumes, but the mendicants hurried away before she could recognize which of her old gang was stalking her.
But these moments of apprehension were few. Kepkajna was truly happy, making arrangements for the ceremony to be performed at the very dungeon where Wodworg had imprisoned her. Her father was long since dead -- another victim of the ash ghouls -- but her fiance's commander volunteered to act in his behalf. Of course, Kepkajna had to supply her own dowry. She spent every last mark of her savings of ill-gotten gain to buy her beloved a truly wonderful present.
The wedding was set for the stroke of midnight, as is Orc tradition. The handmaidens, wives of Imperial officers, were busily sewing her into her gown of red velvet and fine gold filigree in the mid-morning. Dolcetta, one of the handmaidens, remarked that she had heard that Kepkajna had bought Wodworg a truly beautiful gift for her dowry.
"Let me show it to you," Kepkajna giggled, dashing from the room half-dressed to her hidden alcove. The present had been stolen.
The women were horrified, but the Wraith found herself merely irritated, not surprised. This was truly the old gang's style. They knew that a wedding ceremony without a dowry was marked as unlucky. She asked her handmaidens to finish dressing her quickly while she pondered what the burglars would have done with her treasure.
The whole region was honeycombed with secret lairs and abandoned sites thieves used to store their loot. There were obvious places, of course, but after much reflection, she thought of where she would have put it under similar circumstances. Once the handmaids had finished, Kepkajna bade them to make certain that the ceremony went on as scheduled, and not to fret as she might be a little late. She wrapped herself in a shawl to protect her gown from dungeon dust and set off for the Shrine of Malacath.
The Wraith had never before attempted to rob her own friends, and though she was peeved at them for trying to ruin her happiness, she had no interest in hurting them physically. Her style was to avoid conflict, though she knew it would be inevitable. The lessons her mentor Khargol had given her had helped her avoid the lances and blades of guards and Imperial Knights over the years: now she would see if they would allow her to survive a den of thieves and the unknown dangers of the Shrine. Without, most importantly, ruining her dress.
The desolate place was so empty as she delved into it that she feared she might have made a miscalculation. It was not until she found the small room hidden down a long corridor that she knew she was at the right place, and that it was well suited for an ambush. She grabbed the chest with her treasure within, and turned to face the assault.
Two of her old gang, Yorum and Yohr-i the Redguard twin brother and sister, were outside the door as she came from the room. They knew the Wraith better than to taunt her and immediately attacked. Yorum struck out with a left thrust of his blade while Yohr-i sought to rush her. The Wraith neatly sidestepped Yohr-i, while dropping her weight to her rear left leg, shifting her right shoulder to the left to slip past Yorum's strike. The twins crashed into one another and Kepkajna passed swiftly on.
Almost immediately, she was set on by the Argonian Binyaar, his mace whistling through the air at her head. They had never much liked one another. The Wraith snapped into a duck, so the mace whacked with a tremendous clamor against the stone wall. Binyaar was thrown off balance, giving her a few seconds lead hurrying up the passage. Ahead she could smell the fresh night air.
The last of her dowry's defenders was Sorogth, an Orc with whom she had shared a brief romance. It was he who Kepkajna knew had masterminded the theft. In a way and in context, she thought, his devotion to her misery was rather sweet. At the moment, though, she was most concerned with avoiding his barbed ax that seemed ideal for breaking her dress's fine stitchwork and the flesh beneath.
Bending her knees slightly, bobbing to avoid strikes to the head, weaving her head to confuse Sorogth of her next move, shuffling her feet arrhythmically, the Wraith made an impossible target. She ducked inside his thrusts, sidestepped his swings, and then sidestepped his thrusts, and ducked his swings. As erratic as she tried to make her defensive moves, Sorogth still kept pace with her, refusing to budge from his position at the dungeon outlet.
Midnight was coming, and the Wraith finally decided that she must end the confrontation. When Sorogth swung out next, she sidestepped to her left, swayed down, and ducked her head, so the ax whistled over her right shoulder. In that instant, his right side was exposed, and she reluctantly smashed the chest hard into his torso. There was not enough time for Kepkajna to see if she had killed him or merely knocked him unconscious. In truth, she thought of nothing else but rushing to her wedding ceremony.
At precisely midnight, Wodworg and Kepkajna were united together. He was delighted with her dowry gift, a fine suit of armor that would make him the envy of other Imperial jailers. Even more, he was enchanted by his wife's tale of retrieving it from the Shrine of Malacath.
"Did it occur to you to put on the armor when you knew that it was an ambush?" he asked.
"I didn't want to dent your present," she replied, between kisses. "And I certainly didn't want to wrinkle my gown."
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