Forsaken by the Light

[dard 756]

“Ash and soot from forsaken past,  

Has made our anger burn;  

But Mankind shall stand steadfast  

Where broken Men shall learn. 

  Lightless souls afeared again,  

Where Gods and Men shall clash; 

  Xion's time is now when the Gods shall choke on ash.” 

—Oath of the Lordsguard

 

 

 

As the clerics completed their task, a stale silence filled the air.  Emptiness, yet accomplishment.  Vengeance, yet satisfaction.  Screams of innocence, yet thick with guilt.  The onlookers came, staring at the site to behold.  The holy man of dark disposition chimed down when he realized his protests would all go unheeded. 

 

The clerics did not know how he was captured.  They did not care to know, because it didn't matter.  They saw the pale, grisly elf looming in the distance with his coarse, sunken features distinguishing him with distinction.  Perhaps the thought even crossed their mind, but evidence was all but naught.  They weren't there for Sataric—they were there for him. 

 

The day waned, yet after the deed was done the man in question sat there in silence.  Karyssmov had saw Sataric without his armor before, but he knew any accusation he threw at him would fall short.  Sataric's original company left shortly after the clerics did, but he remained.  The disgraced cleric traded glances with the Resonant Knight every now and then from across the square, but he remained silent, in contemplation, in anger, in fury, but absent of righteousness.  Sometime between the daze of realizing what had happened, the haze of the disgraced former-cleric watching his subjects, enemies, and former friends leave, the Second Judge had reclaimed his armor and abandoned Karyssmov to the damning peace of night.  He did not need to rub salt in the wound.  Such an act was below him for the ultimate punishment was given already.

 

The very thought of the clerics turning on themselves served to reinforce Sataric's biases that they were all cutthroats, though such a poisoned mind could never be cured in the first place.  As the moon rose above the forsaken city, the bronze-clad man stood brooding over the city the forsworn man on the desolate beach-side next to his companion Adjutant who had assisted him in this matter.

 

"And let it be known," while he spoke, Sataric's bronze armor remained darker under the moonlight as if such glimmers were stolen and eclipsed by his righteousness, "Those who would share in the power of Gods shall share his fate.  They will be stripped of their gifts, cast out into the world of Man.  They shall be forsaken by Taharaie, Aerial, Xan, Iblees, or whatever other blasphemous idol because they are but pawns to them.  When their usefulness is served up, those who did not retain favor in their death shalt not spend their eternities in an ill-gotten heaven, but a hell of Man, tormented by the judgement of their peers."

 

His eyes glanced over to Varen'thal but the Judge's visage remained fixed on the darkened heavens above.

 

"I could have ended him—but such would be a mercy.  Fire and brimstone shall becomst his own thoughts, perdition his scorn, and a miserable, lonely death his salvation." There was a short pause before he clarified, "For hadst I had made a spectacle of him, tortured him, raised his sons as mine own, or even spoke to him, I would'st a villain be made and a martyr be of him.  Be it this outcome, it is crueler than execution.  They will all come to know mine cruelty and savor its flavor when comes the day to choke upon the fruit of my wrath."

 

Finally, the Judge's gaze parted with the heavens and fell back to the earth.  Back to his duties, back to his Adjutant, back to Mankind.

 

"Remember this lesson as it is taught by the Old Lords, my disciple: 'The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you shalt know the Way of the Old Lords when I lay my vengeance upon thee.'"

 

It was at this moment Sataric removed his helmet, shaking his head.  He began to walk off, Varen'thal taking his own direction as the mission had been done.

 

"He had this coming.  They all have this coming."

 

[Ixli 1472]

Varen'thal's gaze travels once more to the broken Karyssmov from afar, the elf slowly re-donning his armor. "Whoever sheds our blood, by our blood their blood be shed."

[gandalfo 1452]

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.