Private Tales Those Fallen

[Deyanira]

A quiet groan scraped at the back of her throat as Kol mentioned the portal stones. “Those fucking stones are what got me into this mess. Then again there’s not much else they can take from me now.” She rolled her eyes. Still, even being near the stones she could feel the thrum of magic reverberate in her bones. They made her uneasy, and the one time she’d been convinced to use them had been a vile trick.

“No. We’ll go by foot.” She sighed. “Best get moving.” She quipped, but there was little amusement in her tone, and she turned back toward the crypt’s entrance.

 

[Kol]

So they walked.

Kol had never much minded journey's by foot. He rarely tired thanks to his gift, and it would be long before the Sorcerer felt ragged enough to take a break.

It was three days after the beginning of their journey that the two of them finally came to a stop. They had left the spine, the land in front of them had turned into the blight which Menalus had brought upon the land. "The touch of the fire-giant."

Kol commented dryly.

"His magics draw over these lands." Head shook. "The port is four days north of here, from there we can take a ship to Sheketh."

Which would be another week.

Slowly he glanced towards Deyanira. "Are the orcs anything to you?"

He still wasn't entirely sure what she was, but he intended to dig until he found his answer.

 

[Deyanira]

Deyanira's gaze drifted over the land ahead of them. "Menalus." she repeated with a quiet sigh. "A name I have not heard in quite some time." she commented.

She had not tired. She had walked for days and had not broken a sweat, her clothes still pristine and not a hair out of place. The woman's lips twisted and her head shook at Kol's question.

"Slaves, once." she said as she turned to look up at him. "But now that my heel has lifted from their throats I doubt they would be particularly amicable toward me if they realised who I am." she mused, and wrinkled her nose.

"Best avoid them."

 

[Kol]

Kol considered the words for a moment, frowning. "Then perhaps it would be best if we avoid the Blight all together."

The words hung in the air for a moment.

"The Wylds are dangerous, but..." He had skirted around them before, but never passed through them. His domain was the north, the Lost Isles and the Tundra that lay just to it's south. The Blight had been a challenge, but the Wylds?

"Perhaps it is the safer option." Kol told her quietly.

As he suggested the option the Dark Gods whispered once more. They urged him to head east, into the Forest, into the Wylds. A frown pulled at his lips as he listened to their calls. "I believe we will find something...favorable there."

 

[Deyanira]

Deya's violet gaze was distant as she considered the northerners proposal. It was a maddening thing to have to consider her 'safety' at all. That one who could once wipe out entire colonies now had to avoid any path for fear of her mortal form's vulnerabilities, was enough to make her blood burn.

There was a whisper again, vague and near inaudible, but she heard it and looked up at him. He was being urged to take the path through the wylds, though why, she had no idea. It was enough to pique her curiosity, and so she nodded and turned on her heels.

"Alright. And what is it your dark Gods want you to find?.." she asked as she walked.

 

[Kol]

Kol slowly looked over at Deyanira. There was an oddity to his eyes, suspicion perhaps. He watched her for a moment, then answered. "I don't know."

The Nordwiir said simply.

"They rarely explain." He told her. "Nor do they often tell the truth."

Every question he had ever posed to them had been filled with half truths and obscurities. They did not grant him their knowledge, not for free. He could count on one hand the times they had not tried to trick him, the rare moments when they had offered him everything he had needed.

All of them were soaked in blood. "They urge us to go east, and say we will find something there."

He paused, then continued. "Something that will take us a step further."

 

[Deyanira]

Deya gave a mirthless laugh under her breath and an opinionated roll of her eyes at Kol's answer. "Really? In my experience they're always so clear and concise, honest and open.. Trustworthy." she muttered away, her words dripping with sarcasm.

"East we go." she said, her voice sounding tired with frustration despite her body showing no signs of tiring. She didn't need to stop and rest, she didn't need to sleep, nor did she have to nourish her body in the way that a human might. It was little secret that she wasn't any normal woman, and hopefully in time, she could regain her true strength and remind the Gods why they'd imprisoned her in the first place.

By nightfall on the second night of their eastbound journey, they happened upon a village, seemingly abandoned. The ground was scorched and most of the buildings lay in ruins and ash. There was a presence there that made her pause, whether it was still there or merely an imprint of memory, she wasn't sure. Flames and the sounds of screaming flashed through her mind, and the sound of carrion birds directed her gaze to the corpses that lay strewn across the ground.

"Seems we missed the party." she murmured, and hesitantly took a few steps further.

 

[Kol]

Kol slowly quickly besides Deyanira. Not shielding her from the sight or any foe that may still lay dormant, but to gather in the view in front of them.

"There were many."
"There were few."
"There was one."​

The voices echoed in his mind like a chorus, each one telling a lie. Each one telling a truth. Yet only one seemed to echo, only one was whispered. Kol frowned for a moment, glancing slowly around the burnt out husk of a home.

Slowly he stepped forward, squatting down besides one of the bodies.

"No blades did this." The Nordwiir pointed out. Each of the corpses had met an unnatural end, but none by sword or ax. Arms were torn off, torso's were torn into, but not a single one had a cut upon what was left of their flesh. "Not orcs, I think."

No, something worse.

 

[Deyanira]

Deya's gaze shifted cautiously around the outskirts of the little village and dropped to one of the bodies to consider Kol's observations. Something worse indeed..

"We shouldn't linger.." she said quietly, as though that were not obvious enough, but she had the suspicion that the pair were being watched very closely. It never ceased to turn her stomach when she thought of her vulnerabilities when once she had none. She feared nothing but the prospect of being eternally bound, but she did bleed, and she did feel pain. She'd lost count of the amount of human bodies she'd felt die, and she had no wish to experience it again.

She'd been about to speak again when a crack sounded behind them, and Deya stopped, her head slowly turning to Kol.

 

[Kol]

Kol looked up at Deyanira as the crack echoed through the village behind them, his lips thinning.

Then, slowly, he gazed over his shoulder.

There, standing a head taller than any man was a creature made of an amalgamation of flesh and bone. It stood as a horror of what humanity might have once been. Three faces donned it's features, muscles pulled over thin sinew and flesh taught over just pieces of it's corpse.

Kol would not have been able to describe it had he not seen it, there was no real telling what it was. "That..."

He breathed softly.

"Is not of this world." The words seemed almost obvious as the flesh golem took a single step forward. From it's broken maw sounded a guttural tone that set even the most hearty stomach upside down.

"Briiiiiiinnnnnnng...theeeeeeeeeeem....sooooouth!"​

It moaned, slowly trotting towards the two of them.