Private Tales The Shadows of Destiny

[Keyleth]

She turned to follow Nasir's guidance, racing towards the cliffside with the stairs. Her heart was pounding in her chest, afraid of what would happen if the murderous townspeople caught her.

Taking the steps two at a time, she swiftly moved towards the doors that loomed ahead.

"What the hell is wrong with these people?!" She shouted angrily.

One of the villager's was surprisingly fast and was catching up to them. She knew Nasir was behind her, but she couldn't shake the sensation that the man was going to grab her.

It wasn't Keyleth that the man grabbed for, but Nasir. His hand snatched at the man's boot, trying to trip him up from below.

 

[Nasir]

Nasir hissed as he felt the touch of a man's hands on his boot.

For a brief second he nearly fell, only barely catching himself as he drew back and lashed out with his free hand. An odd wave of purple mass erupted from his finger tips. It writhed within the air for a moment, and then suddenly ripped into the man's flesh.

A scream of abject pain and horror erupted from the man's mouth, his eyes popping open as his skin suddenly burst and blood spilled onto the ground.

Nasir waited a moment, then turned back and gently shoved Keyleth through the door.

Almost instinctively the Dark Elf reached to his right, pulling a small lever. There was a great mechanical clack as a stone counterweight fell, and then the door behind him slammed shut onto the earth.

 

[Keyleth]

Keyleth turned, but it took her eyes a few moments to adjust to the Stark darkness. She was breathing heavily, the only sound that echoed through ruins.

"Why... Are you protecting me?" She demanded, seeing Nasir's silhouette by the door.

She tucked the dagger she carried into her boot, quickly getting her breathing under control.

"You could have easily left me behind..."

 

[Nasir]

Nasir still held on to his long knife.

There was a way to open the door from the outside, a switch hidden within the wall. He doubted that the simpletons of that village new of it, but there was always a chance. "I told you I would take care of you."

He stated plainly.

"Did I not?" Perhaps through her trauma she did not remember that moment, but he'd said the words nonetheless.

His eyes slowly folded over the inside of the building, the darkness being no problem for him.

 

[Keyleth]

In truth, she had forgotten the words entirely. They'd been buried deep within her psyche after the torment she endured. All she remembered was being led away from the Mainlander in the barn, but not anything that'd been said to her.

Her hand ran through her pale hair, glancing off to the side.

"I... I don't remember." She mumbled softly, her voice surprisingly weak.

What else had she forgotten? She could still see the disgust on her lover's face, the way he couldn't even look at her. He must hate her with every fiber of his body now. She was nothing now.

 

[Nasir]

"The mind is a funny thin." Nasir mused as he looked around the inside of the House, picking up a small stone that had been left behind on one of the tables.

The rock was a plain tablet, containing etched dwarvish runes. The language was rough, and he himself had never bothered to learn much of it.

Holding it made him feel a spike of anger.

"Weak during some of points" He said as he placed the stone back down. "Incessantly strong at others."

Something he'd witnessed in more than just Keyleth.

 

[Keyleth]

She walked over to Nasir, looking over her shoulder at the tablet he'd set back down on table. There were no dwarves in Minaris, she had no knowledge of their language or culture.

"Can they get through that door?" She asked quietly, looking over her own shoulder towards the entrance.

Her weight shifted uncomfortably, clearly anxious about what waited on the other side of the door.

 

[Nasir]

"Doubtful." He mused. "By the time they hack their way through Mal and the others will be on the village."

From what he had seen of those pursuing them, and his glimpse of the village the day before, none would figure out the secret of the door.

It would take some time for the other bandits to make their way down the cliffisde, but he figured Keyleth and he would be safe. "You are safe."

He told her, the words almost like a command.

 

[Keyleth]

She moved away from him when he took on the stern tone with her, shaking her head. Her arms folded over her chest as she wandered around the room in which she found herself.

"Safe is up for debate." She retorted quietly.

"My memory isn't gone. I remember what happened... What you and your men did."

"I'm fine..."

 

[Nasir]

"Oh I'm sure you'll never forget." Nasir commented simply, no expression creeping across his features.

He watched her for a moment.

"Pain is rarely forgotten." The Drow said slowly. "Nor those who dealt it out."

He took a step towards her. "I'm sure you want to kill me right now."

 

[Keyleth]

"Wouldn't do me any good. The villagers outside ... I don't know how these ruins work... So it doesn't do me any good to kill you." She answered simply, turning a little when she noticed that he had taken a step closer to her.

"What... Do you want?" She said in a low voice, almost defeated.

 

[Nasir]

He smiled at her, a genuine smile that even the mask over his face seemed to reflect. "That isn't a no."

Nasir could see it in her eyes still. The lust to end his life, the need for it. That had always been a part of the intent, that was always a part of it. Part of the game that he had played for so long in order to keep his own sanity.

There was no right or wrong in that, not to him.

"I want what I've always wanted." Nasir said plainly. "But I think you want to know what I want from you."

He was almost looming over her now.

 

[Keyleth]

He was so much taller than her and she had to tilt her head back to meet his gaze. It was intimidating, there was no other way to describe his presence. Keyleth felt a tremor at the base of her spine, her fingers starting to tremble.

Vivid, horrid memories flashed through her mind at his words and she tried to shake her head with a soft whimper. "No... I won't."

Her voice was weak, as though she was struggling with the fear that he held over her. She took a small step back from him, accidentally bumping into a table behind her.

He was so close that she could feel the heat radiating off of him, the scent of blood and smoke filling her nostrils.

 

[Nasir]

Nasir looked down at her, the eyes of his mask staring.

There was no expression to his human face. No smile. Nothing that would denote his intent.

Then there was a brief flicker. A small moment where the viasge he wore seemed to shift and shimmer. White skin was replaced with a plaid gray. Whites of the eye were replaced with full blue. Then it was gone, and he spoke only two words. "Do it."

 

[Keyleth]

Her heart stuttered in her chest at the words he uttered, the strange visage of his face shifting before her very eyes.

"You're... You're not human. What the hell are you?" She sharply demanded, bracing a hand on the table behind her.

It was far easier to deflect than to face the reality of what he wanted, what she knew was going to happen. Fear clutched her throat and she struggled to keep from whimpering.

 

[Nasir]

Nasir stared down at her, his eyes unchanging.

For a moment he considered things. There was truly only one thing that he wanted, one thing that he had always wanted; to go home.

Everything else he'd done was a distraction. The Bandits, the burning, even what had happened with Keyleth. All of it had been to keep some tenuous connection to this world. To keep quiet the thing that lingered within him.

The god that he had stolen.

This was just another distraction. He wanted her to try. He wanted her to bury the knife in his gullet. Just to see if she would. Just to see which direction she chose. Just to see how she would reclaim what he knew she could be.

The image around Nasir flickered, and then suddenly the mask disappeared.

In a wash of purple flame the Drow revealed himself for what he was; Better than any man.

 

[Keyleth]

Her eyes widened at Nasir's image finally manifested right in front of her. She'd been right. He was something else entirely. Something she had not seen in decades.

She swallowed hard as she took in the sight of him.

"Why hide yourself?" She asked hesitantly.

 

[Nasir]

"Because I know them." He said plainly.

There was no point in lying now. No point in hiding the truth of what he was and why he did what he did. "Because they fear what they don't understand."

He leaned over her.

"Because I hate them." Anger entered his voice.

Lips turned to a snarl. "They are pale imitations. Lesser things that scurry about in a desperate need to survive."

He looked away from her, then slowly back.

"I've watched them for centuries. Killing, stealing, debasing themselves at every opportunity presented." A scowl formed on his lips. "I'm better than them. You are better than them."

A single step, and he pressed against her. "Now do what we both know you are more than capable of. What they only wish they could do."

 

[Keyleth]

She flinched as Nasir came to press against her form. Her breath froze in her lungs and she stared up at the drow's face.

She swallowed once, leaning back slightly into the table. The knife she carried was in a difficult position to reach in her boot.

But with him pressed against her, she felt the anger surge through her form. Before she recognized what she was doing, she shoved hard on the Drow's chest, trying to push him back from her.

"Don't touch me! You don't know anything about me!"

 

[Nasir]

Nasir didn't move an inch, her hands forcing against his chest not even seeming to budge him in the slightest.

He had been born a soldier. He had fought all of his life. All he was, all he could be was hatred. That was something he'd accepted long before he had walked the surface world, long before he had ever even met Keyleth. "I know hatred."

With a flick of his wrist Nasir stabbed his long-knife into the table besides Keyleth. The stone split, the tip sinking into solid rock.

"I see it in yours. I see the desperation to take back what you lost." His fingers unfurled from the hilt of his blade. "Do it."

 

[Keyleth]

With a blade slammed close enough for her to reach, Keyleth did not need to be told another time. Snarling, she snatched the dagger from the stone and lunged forward, slashing at his throat.

A feral scream clawed its way free from her.

She drove her knee towards his gut, trying to drive him further back to get space to maneuver.

 

[Nasir]

Nasir moved back as soon as she grabbed for the knife, his hand shot up, catching the end of her wrist and stopping the blade just as it touched the side of his throat.

Blood pooled on the razor sharp edge of the blade.

Her knee came up, his own leg raising as the two appendages slammed together. Pain lanced through his leg as their bones crunched together, a jarring hurt that strained across his face for a brief few seconds.

Then his free hand shot forward.

His fist shot forward towards her face.

 

[Keyleth]

The blow struck her face and she gasped in pain, reeling backwards; but she had the wherewithall the wrap her leg around the one he'd used to block her kick earlier and attempted to pull him off balance.

She wasn't holding back, giving in to the rage and need to feel strong again as she lashed out at him.

He'd taken everything from her and she desperately wanted to make him pay for what he'd done.

"You took EVERYTHING from me!"

 

[Nasir]

Nasir used the momentum of his hooked leg to fall forward and into her. His weight pressed against her, and then his free hand once again came down to bash her in his face.

He aimed to twist and turn her around, face her away from him using the momentum that she herself had imparted. "I've taken more."

The Drow said as his fingers tightened on her wrist, turning the blade away from himself.

"From you, from them." His words dropped to a whisper. "And I'll keep taking."