Recent content by Alarak

From the highest tower's balcony, pale gray fingers wrapped around the balustrade and a hooded figure with red eyes, unnoticed in the haze of thickening rain, peered down at the conflict far below on the walkway of the battlement. Watching. Waiting. Upon the battlement, chaos reigned. Hurled...

“Minotaur,” said Xun, pointing helpfully. Raith rolled his eyes. “Black seas below, Agravayne, kill it.” The drunk swordsman sniffed, eyeing the charging beast thundering up the stairs, then the much smaller dark elf beside him. The rain pattered on the elf’s muscled frame, cascading in...

Xun dragged her out of the room, the other two following behind talking nonsense. The stone stairs were cruel to stumbling feet and knees, but he sacrificed her comfort for speed. They emerged from the tower onto the battlements. As ever in Cerak, a light storm had set in and a shower of rain...

"What the hell was that?" snarled Agravayne, wiping ale from his chin as he eyed the kneeling girl. "Shh," Raith held up a finger, having gone very still and tense as he worked his own magics to sense... to sense... His eyes flared wide. "How?" "What?" barked Agravayne. In the corner, the...

The blade she stole whistled through the air with her blind slash. Agravayne had honed its edge to a razor fineness, so it all too easily peeled apart the belly of its victim like the skin bursting on an overripe peach. "Oh shit," Raith chuckled, "Didn't even see the thrall there." Threnody...

The greatest swordsman in Cerak At'Thul stood before her. The greatest. And also, perhaps, the most intoxicated. Agravayne's wine sopped mind processed the incoming knee a heartbeat too slowly. It crunched into his balls and he let out an astonished grunt before doubling over in pain...

“Hah!” Agravayne’s barking laughter drowned out the unsettled expression Raith bore at her words. The best swordsman in Cerak At’thul stepped up until he stood chest to chest with her. She didn’t even reach his chin. “Sure, let’s ask him…” Agravayne looked around as if searching, then leaned...

“Like them… you mean monsters?” The door suddenly thudded with the sound of a fist hammering into it over and over. “No…” whispered Threnody, eyes wide. He got up off the bed and backed into a corner of the room, holding the harp tightly to his chest. Outside the door could be heard muffled...

"Killing?" The Anirian man frowned and pulled back. "I don't understand." Idle fingers found his harp and toyed with a string there, plucking the note over and over softly, creating a discordant noise. "Does killing make you evil? I suppose I am too then. I think everyone on this island...

The Anirian man listened for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Probably," his voice bore a tremor. "Can you get stronger?" A pause, then he pushed on, turning more to face her. His eyes shimmered. "I don't want you to die." Suddenly, he wrapped his arms around her in a hug and his head...

"No. Not exactly." Threnody frowned. "Don't you know the stories about this place? They say the stones themselves drive people insane. Have you not noticed how difficult it is to stare at them? How they hurt to look at?" The musician hunched forward, elbows on knees, "It's enough to drive...

"It doesn't make it any better, does it?" He couldn't look at her, still hunched over his lyre, which sat silent on his lap. "What I did?" His fingers tightened around the lyre, twisting against the wood, then he held it to his chest. "Maybe if I played enough for you, if I drowned out...

Dexterous fingers plucked at the strings, beckoning forth haunting notes that hung softly in the air. As the chords vibrated, the Anirian man opened his mouth and sang, the words soft and forlorn. He sang of a sailor who fell in love with the sea, but the sea did not love him back. Time and...

He flinched away as if her touch were a branding iron. “It doesn’t matter. Threnody,” he whispered, “the Wardens call me Threnody.” The Anirian sat up and moved to the edge of the bed where he sat for a moment, shoulders shaking from tears. “What are we doing to each other?” He asked the...

The body by her side stirred and rolled over. The Anirian man was awake. He wiped away her tears with a thumb and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to the warmth of his body, as if he might heat away the cold despair hollowing out her soul. “Shh. I know,” he croaked, “I know. I’m...