She rested her hand on her hilt. She was about to draw and slash him across the cheek, when he once again said her true elvish name. She froze, just as she had the time before. Was this man really human? To be able to say a true elvish name with a human tongue…
"I know this because I judged you, and I relized that I must be judging myself. You told that guard that you are a Cleric, but you also fight as a warrior. I know that Elves are not trained as both Cleric and Warrior, so this makes you special. Like all special people you must feel out of place. You must feel like no one understands who you are and what your spirit is telling you to feel. You feel trapped between two worlds." Loto sighed once again letting out a small breath, and hoping Dessana was truly listening to what he had to say.
"I am a bastard, and of whom I don't know. Half of me is either a King or a High Lord, and the other half was most likely a whore or a peasant woman. Half of my spirit tells me I can be the greatest leader Tane has ever had, and half of my spirit tells me I am no one and will always be nothing."
Dessana wasn’t sure she liked having someone talk about her this way, let alone having someone tell her about themselves. She didn’t care. She never had. She had no friends because she chose not to have them; they were a waste of time and effort that she could be putting towards fighting. Her only friend in the world was her sword.
So it was a shock to her; even more of a shock than when he said her name; when he looked straight at her and held out his hand.
"Diessyanya daughter of Asuran, I present this hand to you as a token of my friendship and loyalty to your life. May you have at least one friend in these dark times, and may we fight side by side until we are called home to Misara and be reborn into riotousness once again."
Dessana gaze frigidly at his hand. The only emotion she let out into her eyes was chill. An absolute coldness which could reach even the heart of a man and make him feel cold inside.
She might have taken his hand. She might have sealed the group together with that; placed her trust in him.
But she hadn’t seen him fight yet.
Turning her back on him, she started to the very crest of the hill, preparing to start the fire and keep watch.
“I will see you fight before I judge you, human,” she told him icily, without looking back. “Then we shall see if this blade has any meaning.”
(I would not have posted again so soon, but I wanted to put one more post in before I left, and I wanted to get some information down for you about what’s happening on the villain’s side of the picture.}
Same time, different place.
Location: Unkown
Location: Unkown
The dark marble shimmered and seemed to shift under his feet as he walked. The heels of his boots clicked evenly against the stone, echoing down the cold corridor. It was like walking through a smoothly polished, very dry cave. At least, it made him feel better to think of it that way. He hated being out here on the top of a mountain, in the open. He hated that there was nothing but a ten-foot-thick stone wall to stand between him and the enemy. He would have vastly preferred a mountain…
His heels clicked lightly across the marble, measuring out his pace in even echoes. It was because of this echo that he always knew when someone was around; even the slightest of movements was magnified in this place. So he knew that, here, he was alone.
At least… there was no one alive.
They drifted in every direction, flying through walls and up through the ceiling. The spirits of the dead swirled around him, turning his breath to frost as it left his lips. It might have killed a lesser man, but he was not afraid. Their icy fingers ghosted across his skin, but his flesh did not blacken or harden, as had the flesh of many of his warriors. The touch of the dead did nothing to threaten him.
That was why he was going to win this war.
He would eat away at their forces. Slowly, carefully, he would steal away the warriors. He would snatch them from their beds, and when more came in search of them, he would capture them too. He would add them to his army. Already, its ranks were swelling beyond what this hiding place could hold. He prayed that his demons would find a new place to stash his mindless followers. If they did not he would soon be discovered.
But there was no time to worry about that. There was nothing anyone could do, even if he was discovered. His numbers were too great, and the warriors he had captured were too powerful. Even the white mage, the drow-elf Ravazahana had fallen into his hands. The capture of the mage would bring many strong warriors to join his forces.
Soon, very soon, he would have enough. And then the invasion could begin.
Echoing footsteps called his attention away. Someone alive approaching from behind. He turned, fixing the approaching human firmly in his bright golden eyes. It was a small boy, who flinched and cowered as soon as his Master turned to look at him.
“M-my lord!” he squeaked. The master frowned in displeasure; his language sounded broken and brittle in the human’s throat. “There is news on the warriors you seek.”
“Is there really?” the master asked, turning slowly to face the boy head-on. The human quaked with terror.
“Th-there is!” he assured the master. “T-there are five of them! They s-search for Ravazahana… a-and the others you stole from Eagleview.”
“Are there any that we know?”
“T-there is the elf cleric, my lord. Diessyanya of the Black Heart. A-and the Collector, my lord, and the druid who abandoned the Black Hood.”
“What of the other two?” the master demanded.
“We have never seen them before,” the human answered. He was so pale he looked as though he were about to fall. His knees were shaking. “A dwarf, searching for his father. I believe we took him, my lord. And… a-a kinderling… w-we do not know his g-goals yet, my lord.”
The master nodded slowly, eyes narrowed as he examined a spidery white vein in the marble.
“A formidable threat,” he breathed, but his lips twitched into a smirk. He felt no fear of these mortal creatures. No matter how strong they were, a sword through the heart would bring about their end. “See to it that they reach Ravazahana. In chains.”