Broken Facade
Xoscyl - February 21, 2006
"How could he make me do this? Force me to confess it all! Make
me forget my lies!! He expected me to just give it all up, the
security, the comfort of my facade!" Xoscyl's eyes poured tears,
streaming off the side of her face as she rode a bat out of the
Undercity Sewers. She gripped the bat's fur tight. "He could show
me no mercy, he could give me no time to feel out the truths! For
so long I had it all worked out. Why?" She sobbed as she flew
through the air, her head and body shaking violently. "I thought
I was protecting you... couldn't you see? I just needed time!"
She let out another blood curdling scream as she had in the
sewers as Taegol walked away from her. The scream disoriented the
bat and It thrashed about, then, with increasing speed, drove
itself high into the sky. The heart broken huntress could nae
catch her breath as the air whisped by her. Her grip lessened and
her world began to fade. The bat bucked the Orc from it's back
and she came tumbling out of the sky. The only sound she heard
before her world went black was the sound of her hearthstone
shattering against the mountain side before her. Xoscyl had
landed in the mountains just east of the Ivary patch near
Sepulcher. She lay on her back side, eyes open, seeing nothing.
The conversation between herself and Taegol that eve played over
and over in her head. She could not move, she could not speak,
her broken body could do nothing more than ache. The words slowly
drifted away as her body urged her to sleep. She would get the
time she needed, but would it be too late?
[Taegol]
Taegol turned away from Xoscyl his eyes filled with anger. He
loaded his crossbow and walked out of sewers into the night air.
He made haste to the city of Brill and quickly scribed a note
that he handed to a courier. "I will not be cast aside any
longer. She fears some armageddon plot has been set against her,
fine! I'll show her that it is all false." He tossed some coins
at the bat Handler and made his way to Hammerfall.
From there his true journey began, he bought enough provision and
arrows to last him months. Once prepared he set out to the south,
through Arathi into the wetlands, then through the valley of
kings into the heartland of the dwarves. He would slay many,
taunt the short beasts from their very homes. Taegol looked to
Zark, the animal's maw and fur coated in blood. Yet with each
blow, with each dwarven body that slumped to the floor the anger,
hurt, and emptiness inside grew. He recalled the conversation
Xoscyl and he had shared earlier that night. All of the lies were
broken down, he recalled the aching his heart felt for her, yet
all he showed her was the anger that rose from his mind. He hated
some of the words he said, and thus he killed... to try and bury
his pain.
In the depths of the night he came upon a small village. Creeping
up slowly he snatched a young dwarven girl covering her mouth
with his hand and drug her away into the snow. Once at a safe
distance he drew the girl close to him whispering in her ear.
"You will run to your village child, and tell your people that
Taegol has arrived to rain death upon you and yours. You will
learn to fear my very name." For the rest of the eve Taegol
battled dozen's of guards and heros. Knights and mercenaries rode
out to meet him simply to fall to his bolts and blade. All the
while cutting the beards from each that fell, so that he might
bring back a gift.
Still the emptiness grew, as did his frustration. He did not want
to care anymore, he did not want to be weak. "I am a murderer, a
killer and a damned good one" he repeated over and over, yet the
words lacked conviction and soon the world came crashing in
around him. Once the darkness had hit him the conversation shared
earlier was repeated. Yet he was not speaking the words but
merely watching. He could see himself and Xoscyl talking, sharing
everything with one another. Witnessing the lack of compassion he
gave her, wanting to scream at himself to do what was needed to
comfort her. Realizing that in those moments he may have lost the
one person he ever cared about, all because he feared being hurt
again.
He awoke in a cave that smelt of fresh death, his sight was
blurry and mind racing. After a moment he realized the smell was
coming from the corpses of dead bears, and a sharp pain resounded
in his arm. Then memories slowly filtered back in, small flashes
of consciousness about the night before. When he had blacked out
Zark begun to drag him into the cave for shelter. The wolf
slaughtered the previous residents and laid with Taegol for the
night to keep him warm. "Ah, thank you. Even in my foolishness
you stay beside me." slowly rising to his feet Taegol patted
Zark. "Come my friend, we have someone to go see." With that he
gathered the dwarven beards and set off.
[Xoscyl]
Xoscyl stood by the gates of Iron Forge. Her silvery white hair
blew in the wind as she stared off in the distance. Her hands
dripped blood, bits of hair hanging off her fingers. The
perimeter was secure, there was no retaliation force coming to
protect the great forge.
She bent down and grabbed a handful of snow, rubbing it against
her hands to remove the blood. The red ice dropped from her hands
and plopped to the snowy floor. She had done what she came to do,
the Dwarven King hang by his feet, skinless and breathless, by
the very rope the Orc hand made throughout her training. She had
crafted the rope to 100 ft, all of it 1 1/2 inches thick. It was
a master piece by anyone's eye.
Slowly, she raised herself back to a standing position. So long
had she planned and plotted. Her life's work was now finished.
She no longer had anything to fear.
She felt a presence round the corner behind her and she smirked.
"Your will has been done. You have followed through on your
promise." The voice grew nearer. "It was a grand battle, much
blood spilt." Taegol stepped beside Xoscyl, placing his arm
around her hip, something that seemed so natural and comfortable,
as if it had happened a million times. "And here we are,
unscathed." The hunter grinned at the huntress, running his hand
down the side of her face. "Come, the Grim await within."
The two walked back into the dwarven city, deep to it's belly
where the members of the Grim rejoiced for the victory in their
battle.
Xoscyl watched all this from a third perspective, outside of the
city in the white snow. She could feel her self blend into the
white ice around her. Her mind raced and her heart ached. She had
seen the impossible, she and Taegol so close without fear of
danger. They did not have to live in fear, they had lived in
anticipation for the moment she just watched.
She felt foolish. For so long she felt as if she were protecting
others, when she was only protecting herself. And for no other
reason but fear of being hurt. It was false reasoning and she
hated herself for it. She longed for the night in the hovel, she
longed to go back and stay under the furs.
She felt her body begin to ache again. She was forcing her self
back to consciousness. To long had she allowed herself to sit
idle in fear. She needed to fight for what she wanted, as she had
asked Taegol to in the sewers. She needed to follow her own
advice.
The pain was horrendous as she awoke. But, regardless, she
demanded her body to move. It took some convincing, but finally
her arms slid back and she raised her body to and upright sitting
position. She breathed heavily, each inhale painful. Grabbing
some bandages out of her sack, she wrapped her wounds. Her
potions had all been destroyed and her hearthstone cracked into 3
pieces. She needed to get to a healer before long, or there might
be permanent damage. Drawing in a deep, painful breath, she
whistled for Latagu, hoping he would have tracked her down by
now.
The white lion ran up to her, whining. The orc touched the beasts
chest, calming him, reassuring him that she would be okay. She
then took the dwarven hair rope from her hip and placed the
middle piece within the lion's mouth. Then she wrapped both ends
around her wrists a few times. Gripping as hard as she could, she
ordered Latagu to pull her, slowly, to the city of Sepulcher.
Latagu obeyed, and pulled his master slowly along the side of the
mountain. It would be painful, but it was her only hope.