Please Win

[ThatWeirdGirl 432]

Spoiler

 

 

Please win.

 

The witch and the golden sage stared each other down, their faces twisted into scowls. Sparks flew off his hair, burning her skin where they hit. His gauntlets glowed a pale gold, threatening to erupt into flames.

 

He’s going to win.

 

The only thing she could focus on were his glowing golden eyes, and the fist he sent toward her face wasn’t noticed until pain flooded her mind and stars clouded her vision. Her movements were no longer hers as the holy fire erupted into existence above his palm.

 

You’re losing.

 

The thought echoed in her mind as she lunged again. The air around them grew colder, but her ice didn’t begin to form yet. The golden sage’s flame grew brighter, and he wrapped his arms around the witch. He pleaded, but she couldn’t make out his words entirely. She repaid his kindness with a bite.

 

He won.

 

The flame passed into her head, and her vision went white with agony. She slumped in his arms weakly, lips pulled back in her pain. She tried to step away from his embrace, but the sage held her close. Relief flooded her mind, and she murmured to her old friend as he held her.

 

I lost.

 

The frost witch’s eyes closed, and when she opened them she had to jerk her head around to scan her surroundings. Stone homes surrounded her, and the canopy of massive trees shielded her from the sun. She had to look up to see the blurred faces of the Mali’ker around her, and her blue eyes turned down to her pudgy tan hands.

 

“Analiana!” A female’s voice called, one she could barely remember. Her head turned, and she looked up to see a dark elven woman with blue eyes. Beside her stood a familiar man in blue robes, his green eyes kind and thin hand resting on his hip. They were smiling, their eyes filled with love. Her heavy heart turned light.

 

The chubby child grinned, legs swiftly carrying her toward the pair's waiting embrace. A second before she could reach them, everything went dark and the space around her turned unbearably cold.

 

She was alone.

 

He won.

[Slayy 816]

Clutching her hands around a book, she peeled it from the confines of the bookshelf. Soon, with the leather bounds falling to it's side, the pages reveal a list of names, soon she began to add upon the long list. Closing it, she repeated the words, "An eternity of pain."

[luv 3469]

 

 

Ilene moved swiftly through the woods, adjusting her blindfold every few steps. Pressing hands against the bark of trees to push herself forward as she traversed the Sutican forest. Upon arrival to the bridge, her jaw dropped as did she. Her hands reaching for her now gaping maw. Everything went silent in her mind, but it was apparent by the reaction of the man before her, she was screaming. Within his arms was the body of a far too familiar woman. 

 

"Please... Please..."

 

The witch's 'guise nearly broke as her voice shattered with it. Her shaky hand reached out for the man, but he did not return the gesture, simply held the wood elven woman close.  The seer examined the wounds of the woman from afar, taking not all too quickly. Her body began to violently shake as she melted like warming ice.

 

"No!"

 

As she rose, the man before her began casting, soon incinerating the witch in his arms. Ilene turned rapidly, moving away from the scene with tearless sobs. Quickly rushing away from the scene she'd continue to scream and run. Never looking back, hoping in the back of her mind that her new eyes had failed her, deceived her.  Her friend, her partner, her sister, gone. 

[Lhindir_ 3691]

"It is over, at long last. Daughter."

[Areln 199]

The news of Analiana's demise found Laeth late. Far too late. Too late for her to help, too late for her to fix it. She didn't know who caused it, and she didn't know where or when. She didn't know how, or whether her sister had been in agony. Deities above, she hoped not.

 

Thoughts swarmed her mind like termites, nibbling away at her threads of happiness, utter chaos in the druid's mind. Could she have done something? Anything?

 

She slid to the floor, barely aware of the soft rug below her and the cold sandstone wall at her back. Tears stained her cheeks for hours, pained sobs heard throughout the desert around her small home. Even as she eventually rose, the world seemed like it was less than it had been. Less happy, less vibrant. Less warm.

[molly molly molly 1329]

After Greiret was aware of the news, his heart shattered. The following days were dark, and gloomy, as part of his life was violently ripped from him. He was adopted into the family, sure, but she was his sister nonetheless, and one of the only people he truly cared for in the world. He had hunted men with her, taught her magic, and schemed. She was the closest thing that he could recall to being a true sibling, and a true friend.

The coals were hot, and his fury even hotter. "Murdered," he thought. He pounded at the metal in the hot forge furiously, violently smashing his hammer against the steel, working the metal into a new sword. This sword would be one for vengeance.

[dard 756]

Though he had assumed his duties as Second Judge which prevented his past from surfacing in his duties, the man once known as Nasir, and Dardonas before him, hung his head in solemnly at his crow's return.  Dardonas, Nasir, Sataric, the Second Judge—with all the names he had gone through throughout the years—he shared a bond with Analiana, being one of the few that knew the fate of Dardonas Drakon.  He simply remained silent in contemplation of the truth behind her demise.

 

The Second Judge did not need to hear the news.  He knew it—her absence, the crow's fruitless journey as it returned with the note he sent to the woman—she was dead.  Feelings of shame washed over the armored mali'fenn; his heart skipped a beat.  The apology the woman deserved for his betrayal on behalf of the Gravelords' hunger for power would never fall upon her ears.  The very Gravelords who had forsaken him to his demise as he withered into nothingness.

 

The resonant knight lifted his head within the privacy of his sanctuary, donning his bronzed full-plate helmet.  With the death of Analiana, the final piece of Nasir, thus Dardonas Drakon, died out from Sataric.  As another mortal tie carved out violently and cast out from his being, the Second Judge turned, resolved.  He spoke no words and expressed no disdain, but remained in his thoughts.

 

Moments turned to minutes.  Minutes turned to hours.  There he brooded over his burning, damned city, for what seemed to be an eternity.  He stayed his tongue, as if he were unworthy of offering any condolences, any words.  In this moment, however, his honor did not exist.  Sataric would speak the words the woman should have heard before she should have cast him to his fate, but not on the behalf of a Judge of Xion, necromancer of the coven, or a member of the Drakon family of the mali'fenn, but as a friend.

 

"I did betray you.  It was not to save you, or for relieving you of your curse.  I lied; I was a coward.  I did it for me.  I did it for the favor of those who cast me aside after they had what they desired."  Sataric shook his head, turning to face the ruined wall as he placed his gauntlet on its stone face.

 

"'Sorry,'" he quoted the word, musing on it, "that was the one word you wished to hear, yet even in the face of my demise I refused to utter it for foolish pride and depraved cowardice."

Sataric turned to face the fountain of ash and fire in the ruins of Mordhelm, "Well, I am sorry, Analiana."

[devvy 1348]

Moved to The Great Library. It shall be sorted into the appropriate category shortly.

 

If you feel this is a mistake, please contact myself or any FM and we'll restore it.