Recent content by Alarak

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...

A simple gesture, that nod. But it spoke far more. She was hungry for what came next. Ravenous, the Shrike thought, watching as her breath stuttered and her eyes fluttered and her body relaxed under the euphoric effects of his blood and the cloying shadows. “Good.” He withdrew his hand...

A sharp and pained hiss escaped from between the Shrike’s clenched teeth as her own bit down. Hard. They cut deeply into his thumb and his blood poured into her mouth. The familiar coppery tang, yes, but also a sickly-sweet, euphoria inducing after taste that somehow left a longing for more...

“Oh, I will.” He drank in her seething hate and spite like a venomous tonic, rejuvenating to one such as he. The Shrike did not draw away, he pressed the handle of the lash against her cheek, dragging it down the length of her throat and across her chest, letting the length of rope uncoil and...

An explosion of mental strength struck Shrike's mind in an instant, like a sudden gale springing upon an unready ship. He found his sails shredded and the vessel of his thoughts sent spinning without direction, cast out of her mind in an instant. Alarak took a physical step back and blinked...

"Is that so?" The words ground from his lips. Only she could defy him so and escape alive. He still had need of her talents. Worse yet, the way she rebelled excited a fire in him that he had not felt in seventy years. His teeth grit together and he bared them in a mirthless smile. The Shrike...

“I gave you a choice.” The Shrike’s lips curled in a sneer at her impudence, masking the sudden spike of desire that drove through him. This woman. “Again,” he hissed. The whip whirled through the air. Crack. “Again.” Crack. But the Anirian thrall did not have the skill, or the...

Each crack of wood on flesh made the Shrike’s lips curve upward the barest fraction, though he found it lacked the screams and protestations. Those which pleased his vile heart most of all. “Stop.” The Anirian thrall paused mid swing. There were tears standing in his eyes, though he said and...

“No, I see that I have not,” his voice was as cold as steel and it bore a similar edge. He glanced at the thrall. “Your attachment to him is a weakness. One that can be turned against you until you realize that no one is worthy of your mercy or your empathy. Until you harden yourself, you are...

Every sneer, every spiteful snap, every syllable of defiance tallied up a cost that she knew would come due. A butcher's bill. The thrall stopped choking and dropped to his hands and knees, wheezing for air. Alarak looked at the single manacle fettering her, then gestured. The other came...