Grim Views

By Thrysta 7/2/2008

"Can ya do it, Thryssy-girl?" Wilek drawled.

Lounging casually, the Forsaken rogue leaned back against a tombstone
as he idly spun one of his knives across his knuckles.

Thrysta stood a short distance away, visible clearly in the soft moonlight.
The priestess had her back to the rogue, staring down at two crystal shards
that lay atop the dirt of a freshly filled grave.

"You are once again among the unliving, are you not?" Thrysta murmured, her
eyes never leaving the two shards.

Wilek pursed his torn lips thoughtfully.

"Reckon you got a point there, girl," he said, flipping the knife into a
throwing grip.

His arm a blur, Wilek drew back and let the knife fly.

With a soft sound of impact, the blade buried itself deep in Thrysta's back,
right between her shoulderblades.

Thrysta gasped, hissing a wet exhalation of bloody mist, turning with a
stagger to face the rogue.

"There...will be time for...diversion...later, my love," she hissed, "but for
now...cease your...foreplay."

Wilek smirked devilishly, shrugging his bony shoulders at the priestess before
producing another knife from upon his person.

"Suit yerself, darlin'," he drawled, "I'll wait."

With a shake of his head, the rogue turned his attention back to idly twirling
the new knife.

Thrysta sighed contentedly, blood running from the corner of her mouth as she
quietly murmured some words of healing under her breath. Her body glowed
briefly with soft inner light, the knife that was buried in her back sliding out to the
earth as her dessicated flesh knitted back together under her magics.

Her eyes narrowing, Thrysta returned her attention to the two shards. Bending
downward with a creak of bones and sinew, Thrysta scooped up one of the two
crystals in her taloned hand. Straightening, she turned toward Wilek.

"Make yourself useful and hold this," she hissed, tossing him the shard.

Wilek caught the shard easily, giving it a further toss into the air above his
head. Producing yet another blade, the Forsaken rogue began juggling the knives
and the shard together, his smirking gaze never leaving Thrysta.

"This tha old fella or the lil' one?" he asked languidly.

Turning away from the rogue, Thrysta focused her attention on the shard that
still lay in the grave dirt.

"That is the girl," Thrysta murmured, "We will start with the old man."

Wilek shrugged at her back, continuing his juggling in silence, the two Forsaken
the only presences in the quiet graveyard.

Sinking to her knees in the dirt, Thrysta placed her taloned hands in the soil
on each side of the crystal shard.

Closing her black eyes, the priestess threw back her head, her cowl slipping back
to reveal her ruined face.

"I am told this one was taken outside the Scarlet Monastery," she whispered into
the night, "so let us give him a proper...vessel...for his return."

"Now don't this seem familiar," Wilek murmured, "You all pullin' a fella back
from the great beyond and such..."

"This one will not stab me upon his...return," the priestess hissed, her eyes
still closed in concentration.

"Awww...holdin' a grudge still, darlin'?"

"I was not complaining," Thrysta retorted, smirking slightly, "Now be silent,
I must concentrate."

Wilek shook his head, a rictus smile spread across his face, before returning
to his juggling.

"Sure darlin', quiet as the grave."

Thrysta opened one eye, glancing sidelong at the rogue, her sharpened teeth
bared in a silent snarl.

Winking at the priestess in return, Wilek quickly pantomimed turning an
imaginary key to lock his ruined lips shut, never missing a step in his
juggling all the while.

Closing her eye once again, Thrysta focused her mind, murmuring words of
prayer, renewal and...resurrection. Hollow, meaningless words to her, but
ones that had the desired effect.

The soul shard began to glow, pulsing with a soft purple light. In addition,
the grave dirt below it began to faintly shift and rumble.

As Thrysta's murmuring rose in pitch and intensity, the glowing of the shard
matched her, turning the night violet in its glow. With a final frenzied hiss of
empty prayer, the shard flashed blindingly, violet-white light engulfing the
surrounding area.

As the glow finally faded, Thrysta still yet knelt unharmed, while Wilek
remained lounging against the tombstone, never once having missed a beat
in his juggling during the shining ritual.

Thrysta opened her black eyes, looking down into the grave dirt in front of
her.

The shard was gone.

In its place, a dessicated hand was clawing at the dirt from below, a length
of bony arm soon following.

"Success," Thrysta murmured.

"Didn't doubt ya fer a minute, sweetness," Wilek drawled, deftly catching his
knives and the remaining shard in sequence as he rose to his feet.

"Now, let's give the old fella a nice proper greetin'," he growled...

((To be continued and edited very very soon))

"Now, let's give the old fella a nice proper greetin'," Wilek growled.

Thrysta smiled, her bloody teeth shining wetly in the moonlight as she rose
to her feet. She watched the dessicated hand clawing through the grave
dirt from below, struggling to free itself.

A second hand plunged up through the dirt, digging, clawing. The top of
a rotting head soon came into view, along with the growling, hissing noises
of exhertion.

Thrysta took a slow step backward, watching the risen corpse's progress as
it struggled to extricate itself from the grave.

With a final growling push, the torso of the newly risen undead shoved free
of the dirt.

At Thrysta's feet, still buried below the waist, was the rotten husk of a young
woman. Blinking her ruined eyes rapidly, spitting dirt from her torn mouth, the
undead woman's head whipped about rapidly, taking in her surroundings, before
setting quickly on the Forsaken prietess looming over her.

The corpse's eyes widened, it's hands scrabbling at the dirt as it rushed to fully
free itself, yelling at Thrysta.

"Abomination!" It howled, "Brothers, rally to me! The Scourge, the Undead are here!"

Thrysta smirked mildly, watching the struggles of the corpse as Wilek circled silently
around to stand behind the thrashing woman.

Planting her arms on each side of her, the corpse dragged itself fully from the dirt,
surging upward...and promptly fell flat on its ruined face.

As the undead woman flopped at Thrysta's feet, Thrysta knelt down into a crouch, her
voice just above a whisper.

"Perhaps, Crusader...you have by now noticed the corpse you inhabit...is missing
its legs."

The woman scrabbled onto her back, panting in panic with ruined lungs, staring up
at the priestess.

"The...vessel...is what is left of a woman I came across," Thyrsta murmured, "my
shadowfiend found her quite delicious."

"No...no, I...died?" gasped the woman.

"Oh yes," Thrysta hissed, "You were taken outside of your...monastery..."

"What...what is...this body?!" the corpse woman wailed.

Thrysta smirked wickedly.

"Why, it is quite a success," the priestess giggled, "I have brought you back,
in a vessel of...my choosing."

"I hope very much that you have enjoyed your time, old one, as a young legless
rotting husk of a woman," Thrysta murmured, trailing the talons of one hand
through the corpse woman's dirty hair, "because with the proof here in
front of me, I no longer need you to exist..."

With a nod of her head to her lover, Thrysta rose to her feet and turned away
from the mangled undead creature...

...just as Wilek fell upon the wailing woman from behind, knives rising and
falling with blinding speed.

Wails turned to screams, which in turn became wet gurgles and finally, silence.

Thrysta stood, lost in thought, as Wilek came to stand next to her, awash in
rotting gore. His knives gleamed red in the soft moonlight.

"Hell, sweetness," he muttered, "didn't reckon you were gonna put tha fella in half
a girl's body."

"It was an experiment, my love," Thrysta murmured, "where our goal was to see if
the soul of that wretch could be brought back...to whatever vessel we wished."

"Yeah, I get ya, girl, but it kinda took the fun outta the job."

Thrysta smiled, her hand going to Wilek's face, her talons sinking slightly into
the ruined flesh.

Wilek winced and smirked at the same time, as Thrysta continued.

"Fear not for your lack of...exhertion...my love, for you forget..." she murmured.

"...we still have the girl's stone left."

((To Be Continued))