[youtube]O1M8ddkiplg[/youtube]
The paladin ran up the stairs, his panicked breaths harsh and rasping as he sobbed out frantic exhales. His armor was heavy but the desperate quest for life spurned the elezen to new feats of endurance, even though his muscles ached and sweat rolled off his brow.
Up and up the tower's circular stairs rose. Up and up the elezen ran, an empty scabbard clacking at his side.
Eventually the mighty flight of stairs met a door and, with a shoulder slam, the elezen threw himself against it. The paladin spilled out onto the snow covered roof, wrapped by an iron parapet. The wind roared and snow threw itself against his face as he peered into the winds, trying to find a way of egress from this point. But the paladin realized he was trapped as he went over and gazed down at the buildings below and the glimmering fires that were rising up the tower with hungry flames to consume the male as if he was tied to a witch's pyre.
There was a noise from the open doorway and the paladin spun, drawing all the power of the twelve he could muster in that moment as his eyes widened in fear.
There it was. The thing they had come to slay. The abomination of nature. The sick defiance of the Twelve made incarnate in the form of a miqo'te.Â
The shadowed form stepped out and, with soulless eyes, gazed at the elezen as a coat made of the shadows themselves hung around the body.
"Thing of darkness!" the elezen shouted, his voice quivering as he trembled. His bravery came from necessity sprung from his trapped state, not from his will. "Before the Twelve, I will banish you, Voidling."
The thing paused as its pale face cocked itself to one side and clicked before a black tongue slid over its thin lips.
Pointed fangs of a Keeper miqo'te could be seen and the tail of snow white that danced about as if it was a wild serpent stood in dramatic contrast the the black coat.
"What an amusing declaration." came the thing's voice. The words were slow, and flat but a half-smile was toying with the edges of the lips, as if the lips were not accustomed to forming smiles. "If this one recalls accurately, that is what your brethren were decreeing down below before you ignited this structure. Before they were rent to ribbons and giblets most...artistically."
The thing's thin lips pulled aside to reveal yellowed teeth as the elezen took a step back.
"You...I banish you! You will not taint our world anymore!"
The miqo'te took a step forward, a massive yawn opening its maw.
"This one finds your religious drivel so, utterly wearisome. Yes, call upon your omnipresent and omnipotent gods. Let them come and deliver you. This one is willing to wait an eternity for that never to occur. If it weren't for the beautiful hymns your churches craft, this one would question if -any- useful benefit came in praising Twelve, inept beings."
"I will end you!" the elezen bristled, finding some inner part of him that had not fallen entirely to cowardice. "You are a blight. A boil. and I will cut you out in their name! I-"
"Oh, do spare this one your slave's drivel. You desire to serve a successive chain of masters held by a set of gods? Then by all means, enjoy your last moments. Unless your gods come and whisk you away by air, or silence the writhing flames of your mighty inferno below, your time is short. This one will not be unkind, however, and will offer this advice: one does not die from the fall, it is the sudden stop at the bottom."
"Enough heresy!" the elezen snarled, enraged. Aether flowed through his veins and he sent out liquid flames of gold. There was a hiss. And then a cloud of black, oily smoke was dispersed on the wind.
So bright was the conflagration the paladin had just made, he had to shield his eyes from it and step back as the intense heat rose up.
The winds howled and the great tower shifted as the massive fire below began weakening the mortar and wooden supports of the structure.
The elezen gasped and fell to his hands and feet as he looked up. The voidspawn was gone. But now golden flames burned hot and sealed him off from the doorway that now had black smoke from the blaze below pouring out of it like a chimney. The male gazed around, but again there was nothing but smoke and the storm.
He was trapped. Trapped and going to be burned alive if he didn't find a way out. He rose and looked around wildly for something, anything. But he truly was without any mode of escape from that spire's zenith save a stairwell of consuming flame or a long fall to the ground below.
The elezen began shivering from cold and fear. The paladin turned his eyes towards the heavens once again.
"Please, almighty Twelve, send me a way."
***
From below, the miqo'te watched from within the crowd of horrified onlookers as the construct burned. So intense was the inferno, that a wide berth had to be given by the onlookers. Any hope of containing the blaze had long since perished as the tongues of fire crawled up and up. Sparks danced as beams shook and wood popped. Stone on stone grinding rose louder and louder, like a giant gnashing its teeth in a thunderous fury as the winter's tempest howled.
The miqo'te knew the elezen was up there.
The miqo'te knew when the paladin died as the tower crumbled in on itself.
And the miqo'te knew the Twelve had never lifted a finger to even try and help.
The miqo'te's lips curled into the broken smile as it turned and walked away into the storm.
The paladin ran up the stairs, his panicked breaths harsh and rasping as he sobbed out frantic exhales. His armor was heavy but the desperate quest for life spurned the elezen to new feats of endurance, even though his muscles ached and sweat rolled off his brow.
Up and up the tower's circular stairs rose. Up and up the elezen ran, an empty scabbard clacking at his side.
Eventually the mighty flight of stairs met a door and, with a shoulder slam, the elezen threw himself against it. The paladin spilled out onto the snow covered roof, wrapped by an iron parapet. The wind roared and snow threw itself against his face as he peered into the winds, trying to find a way of egress from this point. But the paladin realized he was trapped as he went over and gazed down at the buildings below and the glimmering fires that were rising up the tower with hungry flames to consume the male as if he was tied to a witch's pyre.
There was a noise from the open doorway and the paladin spun, drawing all the power of the twelve he could muster in that moment as his eyes widened in fear.
There it was. The thing they had come to slay. The abomination of nature. The sick defiance of the Twelve made incarnate in the form of a miqo'te.Â
The shadowed form stepped out and, with soulless eyes, gazed at the elezen as a coat made of the shadows themselves hung around the body.
"Thing of darkness!" the elezen shouted, his voice quivering as he trembled. His bravery came from necessity sprung from his trapped state, not from his will. "Before the Twelve, I will banish you, Voidling."
The thing paused as its pale face cocked itself to one side and clicked before a black tongue slid over its thin lips.
Pointed fangs of a Keeper miqo'te could be seen and the tail of snow white that danced about as if it was a wild serpent stood in dramatic contrast the the black coat.
"What an amusing declaration." came the thing's voice. The words were slow, and flat but a half-smile was toying with the edges of the lips, as if the lips were not accustomed to forming smiles. "If this one recalls accurately, that is what your brethren were decreeing down below before you ignited this structure. Before they were rent to ribbons and giblets most...artistically."
The thing's thin lips pulled aside to reveal yellowed teeth as the elezen took a step back.
"You...I banish you! You will not taint our world anymore!"
The miqo'te took a step forward, a massive yawn opening its maw.
"This one finds your religious drivel so, utterly wearisome. Yes, call upon your omnipresent and omnipotent gods. Let them come and deliver you. This one is willing to wait an eternity for that never to occur. If it weren't for the beautiful hymns your churches craft, this one would question if -any- useful benefit came in praising Twelve, inept beings."
"I will end you!" the elezen bristled, finding some inner part of him that had not fallen entirely to cowardice. "You are a blight. A boil. and I will cut you out in their name! I-"
"Oh, do spare this one your slave's drivel. You desire to serve a successive chain of masters held by a set of gods? Then by all means, enjoy your last moments. Unless your gods come and whisk you away by air, or silence the writhing flames of your mighty inferno below, your time is short. This one will not be unkind, however, and will offer this advice: one does not die from the fall, it is the sudden stop at the bottom."
"Enough heresy!" the elezen snarled, enraged. Aether flowed through his veins and he sent out liquid flames of gold. There was a hiss. And then a cloud of black, oily smoke was dispersed on the wind.
So bright was the conflagration the paladin had just made, he had to shield his eyes from it and step back as the intense heat rose up.
The winds howled and the great tower shifted as the massive fire below began weakening the mortar and wooden supports of the structure.
The elezen gasped and fell to his hands and feet as he looked up. The voidspawn was gone. But now golden flames burned hot and sealed him off from the doorway that now had black smoke from the blaze below pouring out of it like a chimney. The male gazed around, but again there was nothing but smoke and the storm.
He was trapped. Trapped and going to be burned alive if he didn't find a way out. He rose and looked around wildly for something, anything. But he truly was without any mode of escape from that spire's zenith save a stairwell of consuming flame or a long fall to the ground below.
The elezen began shivering from cold and fear. The paladin turned his eyes towards the heavens once again.
"Please, almighty Twelve, send me a way."
***
From below, the miqo'te watched from within the crowd of horrified onlookers as the construct burned. So intense was the inferno, that a wide berth had to be given by the onlookers. Any hope of containing the blaze had long since perished as the tongues of fire crawled up and up. Sparks danced as beams shook and wood popped. Stone on stone grinding rose louder and louder, like a giant gnashing its teeth in a thunderous fury as the winter's tempest howled.
The miqo'te knew the elezen was up there.
The miqo'te knew when the paladin died as the tower crumbled in on itself.
And the miqo'te knew the Twelve had never lifted a finger to even try and help.
The miqo'te's lips curled into the broken smile as it turned and walked away into the storm.
"No wealth, no land, no silver, no gold,
Nothing satisfies me but your soul"
Nothing satisfies me but your soul"
