Snippet #2420671

After giving his report and receiving his new orders, Eckhart wasn't too eager to remain in the castle longer than was necessary. So, when he heard the telltale sounds of the Lich appearing in the hallway outside the Demon Lord's chambers, Eckhart restrained a cringe when his name was called. Turning to meet the undead lad's approach, he made no move to take the proffered paper, settling for a nod of acknowledgment. Even now, with the weight of his new orders settling heavily on his shoulders, he was mulling over their current battle strategies and trying to reorganize them to account for the task he'd been entrusted with. He was a warrior not a matchmaker! Although hunting for people wasn't beyond his capabilities... it was the "young" part of his orders that gave him the most discomfort and confusion. How young exactly did his Lord desire for a bride? Obviously not a child? With Gammon, he never could tell but it wasn't something he wanted to clarify lest he be forced to endure another heart-to-heart with his Lord in the form of shared libidinous fantasies.

Ever the perceptive one, of course the boy would sense the General's mood. Being in the higher ranks of Gammon's forces, he also had intimate knowledge of their Lord's more unsavory habits and whims enough to inquire about it. If Eckhart was honest, the teenager made him uncomfortable. Not in the way Gammon did, but the boy's undead state inspired a sense of unease and intuitive distrust. However, fighting closely with Crow and watching him work during some of the more ruthless and bloody coastal battles, he'd come to trust the young sorcerer's instincts and admire his strengths and skills. He was an ally at the top of the ladder where Eckhart stood. Now, the question was, if Eckhart should share this burden with him or not.

Glancing warily around at the empty hallway, making sure they were alone and unobserved, General Eckhart motioned at the lad's elbow and escorted him a few yards away from the door to the Demon Lord's chambers. There were no windows in this part of the castle, the braziers positioned every few yards on the corridor walls offering a suffocated illumination against the blackness that threatened to swallow them. Standing by the light of one of these, he turned slightly away from Crow and listened to the whispers of the nervously flickering fire while he tried to pick out shapes from the shadows at the far end of the hall.

"Our Lord has given me the task of finding him a bride," he said, his smoke-weathered voice echoing loud in the hall, despite his lowered tones. Lazily removing a small box from his belt, Eckhart took a few capsules from it and slipped them under his tongue, his voice sounding distorted while he held them in place. "Apparently, he is bored with his usual playmates and cannot content himself with reproducing by spreading forth his infected brood. I'm to hunt him down a wife who can bear him flesh and blood children."

Sucking on the capsules in his mouth, intoxicated as they slowly dissolved on his tongue and numbed by their gentle chemicals in his veins, he grew more relaxed, abandoning his paranoid search of the shadows to look at his comrade. "There's plenty of room for trial and error but I get the feeling he'll delight as much in the search as in the acquisition of his goal. You're welcome to help, if you like. I could use a young man's opinion when it comes to... taste. Light knows the years have favored me with experience but I no longer have a palate for the youthful or the innocent."

Even through his drugged haze, a shudder rippled through him for a moment and he twisted his lips in brief distaste. He could quibble and waffle all he liked about the revolting concept of a teen-bride but the truth of the matter, what really disturbed him: anyone they chose, whether they were old or young, or even if they were chosen or not, were doomed to be sacrificed to the savage, lustful will of his Lord. They would be consumed within that man's tainted embrace, forced to fulfill every dark desire and eventually give birth to abominations destined to rule.