Labyrinth

[Shadow of Twilight]

Okay, that stung a bit...and he got dragged and thrown around though he got right back up.

"Again, Zahara, you speak of things that you don't know anything about. I knew sevilin desired you before I set that up. You really think that I woudl go through all the hassle of setting you two up when I coudl have set him up with any countless number of slaves in my service? You need to think a bit more before you speak."

Wiping more blood from his nose, and some from his mouth.

"I coudl use a high level rune. your right it woudl cause me a great deal of stress. but the same thing that woudl make me miserable for a few weeks coudl kill you, remember that."

Standing and dusting himself off, and looking at her.

"I've been playing these games, and learning how to do what I do for centuries before you were born. So don't waltz in here and think that you know more than I do."

Though while he was dusting himself off, the runic circle formed just under him, then faded lightly, while he had simpley altered the rune that she had placed on his person, and grinned lightly at her.

"Feeling a little bold and brash, are we. Sevilin's attraction to you remains even now. and your attraction to him was very much apparent they day Piper and I were wed. or did you forget that I was wearing Malvolence then?"

A small smirk.

"But lets say I can turn back time. Who would you prefer I use? most of my slaves could not handle Laudi's brutality, or woudl appear as nothing more to her than food. My necromancers are too valuable to waste. so lets see."

Lightly tapping his finger on his chin.

"Well that leaves...oh look. Sevilin and Arthur. So you would have prefered I did it to Sevilin?"

Though his look turned very cold.

"What piper went through was life or death. so what she did or die. Sevilin did what he was forced to do, or die. Arthur was placed in a room where I was certain he woudl live. there was no thought that Laudi would kill him. her need to breed would overright the need for food. Did I scar his poor little human based mind? Good."

Then his hand shot up, and his necromantic power slammed into her, siphoning her strength to feed his own, and thus stopping his constant nosebleed.

"I would have broken him in half that day for what he did had she not stopped me. I would have shattered his flesh in ways that would have made your and sevilins sisters scream in fear of the very acts that would have caused it. She acted then as my concience."

"But I don't forget such things. and I do hold grudges. The only reason you yourself are alive now is becuase of the child you carried and before because Piper would have stopped my hand."

Crossing his arms lightly.

"Your motherly instinct to protect is appealing, but futile. I have the upperhand then, and I have it now. becuase you are once again forgetting where you are. A snap of my fingers, these gates open. then we can see if your runings and your magics can stop you for getting a real beating."  

[Shadow of Twilight]

Oh that little chuckle got him marching right over there, and his hand grabbed her neck and he quite literally lifted her off the ground, anger showing, near blinding rage, to be more precise.

"Because that wretch was raised by HUMANS. He has NO right to look at Piper in ANY way. Least of all in a condesending manner!"

And he let go, just so she could land her stomach on his knee.

"You have no idea what it's like. maybe I should enlighten you, hmm? maybe I should slice off half of one of your ears and then send you back to Andal right smack in the Requias Penninsula!"

Oh yes, she hit a nerve right there, didn't she.

"And I told you then, didn't I....you diodn't like it, you dealt with me. and you got your reward for taking it out on Piper then, didn't you."

He kept right after her, Malvolence appearing in hand, glowing bright red, feeding on Malik fury.

"I coudl have made a slave work. it's not that damned hard you ignorant wench. all it takes is an illusion. But I didn't want that. I wanted you to know something Piper enjoyed and that she wanted to try to convey to you. I wanted you and Sevilin both to get over your Innoruuk damned fear and distrust to find something worth having."

That sword came down hard, litterally kicking up a cloud of dust in a sweep at her.

"I tried to give you something you both wanted but were too damned stubborn and ignorant to admit it, and then you turn it around as some horrible thing! You and Sevilin's relationship has gotten closer and closer, like YOU WANT, and you have the audacity to curse me for methods that HAD to be taken?!"

He quite literally snarled still stalking at her, his hand glowing a bright flaming red.

"Not only did Arthur earn my ire that day, but he needs to know what it means to be an elf. in all it's aspects. both those Reveries we all have that cuase us Pain, or Fear, or Remorse....just as much as the ones that bring us pleasure and joy. Quit CODDLING him."

"His experience means the only way to give him a true sense of perpective on this life he has CHOSEN to live means to put him through loss, pain, or fear. woudl you prefer I slaughtered his human family? Or maybe I should cut off his swordhand. Maybe I should drag him down here and put him in so much pain that he screams and begs to die. Woudl that be more to your standards, Llothian Priestess!?"

anytime he got near her, that blade came out after her, or his tried to grab her with that very dangerous other hand.

"I chose for him to take the route that serves me best. so he was Raped. You think I haven't been before?! You think my past has just been me riding roughshod over everything?!"

His eyes burned with green energy.

"And the only reason you even call it rape is becuase he said no. anyone that did that willingly woudl look the same. She's a Drakklin, a half wyvern. She's not exactly a gentle creature. and I need her to breed to expand my territory. So that I can provide for my child to be, and so that I can help protect yours. So that when they grow up, they can have lands of thier own, so that they aren't forced to follow right in our footsteps. So don't you talk to me about what I should and shouldn't do, what I can and can't do, when you can't see farther than a day from the moment you are in right now!"  

[Shadow of Twilight]

"You don't understand."

His voice was cold, cruel, and calculating.

"How many human empires have you seen. How many decades and centuries have you spent around them. How many have you seen that revel in thier mortal lives, and do what they want to do, becuase they can't comprehend an existance longer than fifty years."

He stood still, dust clouds around his feet, malvolence glowing in from of him.

"How many elves fall prey to us, how many elves die so easily because the first time they experience terror, or pain, or fear...they die. Arthur has to learn that no matter how horrible things may be, or what happens to him, he will endure. he will exist long after that. and raised by humans, that is not a concept he will understand by it being simply told to him."

A small glower.

"Suffered for a year, did you? I can recall oh so often how much you enjoyed the feeling of life in you. how often you wondered what your child will look like, what he might become as a child or an adult. wether you admit it or not, even now, you look fondly on that child. that you want to care for him, and be there when he needs you."

That blade got lifted up.

"you didn't suffer so much as you act. the only time you really suffered was when all women suffer, during childbirth. And my son, or my daughter, will not need to be put through what I put arthur through, because my child, same as yours, will be raised to understand an elven life. will know that they will endure things that will shatter others. that they are elves, and everything that goes with it."

A glower.

"I've seen what happens to human bred halfelves. I've seen them go mad. I've seen them take thier own lives. why? because they never went through an experience that really put life as an elf into perspective. where they don't view living beyond fifty years as a damnation. Arthur will not feel that way. he'll look back on what happened to him with Laudi and say he lived through that, and nothing could be so terrible. so he will look to the future, and be ready for it."

His eyes followed her.

"The ends in this case, DO justify the means. I gave you and Sevilin a great gift, that you were unwilling to give yourselves. and while you may consider how it happened to not be worth it, I bet after you spend more time with your son you'll think differently."

"Arthur may hate me for decades. and that anger will fuel him to train harder, to learn to fight better, to master his innate magic even more so, becuase his hate will drive him to desire it just for a chance, a shot to strike me down. And as time passes, he will find more joy. he will find more things to make this one instance a terrible thing, but something to remember that he lived through. that even the most horrible act that one can do to another, didn't break him into a sniveling worm."

"there are moments in all our lives that define who we become. when you first learn magic..when you first felt the stirrings in you of intolerance to the acts of your brethren, when you ran away. For Piper it is what happened to her ear. What happened when she and I met, the place we met at that forced her to confront and at least try to conquer her fear."

"For me, it was the day I was brutally butchered and nearly murdered by Cymarron, when I died for the first time at Bloody Kithcor..and when I met Piper. And, long ago, when I was raped by the Vah harem girl of my father, her only way to act out the vengence she wanted to give my father for his treatment of Cymarron."

And he moved forward keeping that blade pointed at her.

"I will not see Arthur follow the human road to madness. I will not see him become another De'Lere, Miragul, or Seru either. And if this is how I have to do it, then this is how I will."  

[Shadow of Twilight]

"Finally, you see what I am talking about."

Malvolence disappeared from his hand, and he turned his back to her, already starting on his way out.

"I only needed her bred to another once. I have no need to do such a thing to him again. once she has her brood, they can interbred with eachother without the usual problems that arise from such in other races."

See, they could agree on it.

"You might want to have Sevilin take a look at you. Perhaps he can do something to help your nosebleed."

Then he was gone, heading on his way to pay the Piper. Yeah he was sure she was going to be really unhappy with him.


Onyx shrugged.

"I'm sure he'll be fine. as long as he doesn't become a drunk. Maybe this will give him a reason to use his powers. He never seems to want to use them, like he's afraid or ashamed of them. Maybe one of you elven types can talk to him, you guys usually have a better graps on that subject...after all you guys life forever."

Hey look, home..and hey..new smells.

"Looks like the rest of the good captain's crew and allies have come over. At least the non drow ones."  

[Shadow of Twilight]

Malik knew how it had torn at her. he coudl feel it. hey a little numbness in the fingers already. seemed the second time aroudn those after effects came a little quicker. well that was something to know.

"Everything is set in order. Zahara has finally got it through her thick skull that what I do isn't just because of some sadistic need. But I'm more worried about you and our child. is everything alright?"

His voice was soft, and he sat down on teh bed, looking at the hardly touched food, and gave a sigh.

"Why is everything I do, wether it's a good or a bad thing, always seen in the absolutly worst possible light?"