From Shadow to Light
Thrysta - March 28, 2006
The blanket of snow had made the world around her into a blank
canvas, the blood she had spilled covering it like savage art.
Thrysta stood panting with exhaustion, her dwarven enemy facing
her. They had come across each other while traveling the white
wilderness of Winterspring during the late night, the once
pristine land around them disturbed terribly by their magics and
weapons as the two hatefully clashed.
The dwarf’s armor was torn and battered from Thrysta’s wicked
magics, blood seeping from many of the rents and holes. His large
war hammer hung limply in his grasp. Thrysta’s own garments and
cloth armor were torn and ripped, her body bearing the agony of
many savage wounds. As their eyes locked, however, Thrysta could
still see fire within her enemy and knew that their long battle
was not yet decided.
The dwarf growled something at her in his indecipherable guttural
tongue, his face a snarling visage of hate. Thrysta’s lips curled
in a sneer, beckoning him toward her with a taloned hand, mocking
the beardling with a mask of contempt that she did not inwardly
feel due to the savage battle this one had given her.
With a growling war cry, the dwarf charged. Thrysta focused, her
inner mana almost depleted. As the dwarf reached striking range,
she screamed, focusing all her hate on his puny psyche.
The dwarf cried out in terror, back pedaling in fear from the
gaunt priestess before his stubborn mind overcame the psychic
scream. But those precious seconds of terror were all Thrysta
needed.
With a screaming prayer to her Dark Lady, Thrysta focused the
last of her inner mana into a ravaging blast, searing the dwarf’s
brain from the inside-out. With a choking gurgle, the warrior
collapsed to his knees, blood leaking from his nose, mouth, ears
and eyes. A last death rattle escaping his blood-drenched lips,
he plunged face first into the white snow of Winterspring.
Thrysta sank to her knees in exhaustion, a whispered prayer of
thanks to her Dark Lady crossing her lips. Channeling her inner
energy for a few moments, she restored enough of her mana to
summon a small amount of the sickening light that could heal her.
She choked back an involuntary retch as she drew the nauseating
force into her.
It was a willing sacrifice she made for her brethren, healing
them in the thick of battle, but the awful sickening pain it
brought upon her made her loathe using the magic for self-healing
in any but the direst situations. With a final, wracking cough of
nausea, Thrysta completed the flash of healing, feeling her
wounds immediately close with the power of the disgusting light.
Her body mending, Thrysta knew she must feed to regain her
vitality. Trying to overcome the sickness the light brought upon
her, she rose, stumbling to the carcass of the dwarf warrior and
collapsing beside it. Leaning down upon him, her teeth found the
unprotected back of the corpse’s neck, tearing a bloody chunk
away with one savage bite.
But something was wrong.
Thrysta gasped, the bloody meat falling from her mouth as she
retched in the snow beside the dwarf corpse…the light was
building in her, but she was not calling upon it! Screaming, the
intense pain and sickening nausea built in her more and more
forcefully.
Falling onto her back in the snow beside the corpse, twitching in
seizures of agony, Thrysta tried to focus her mind, to call on
Her Dark Lady for aid and supplication. But it was no use…with a
final, agonized scream, the building wave of light inside of her
burst forth, blinding beams of light shooting into the heavens
from her eyes and mouth.
Thrysta’s back arched, her taloned hands scrabbling at the
snow-covered earth around her as the beams lit up the night sky.
After what seemed like an agonizing eternity, the last of the
light left her and Thrysta sunk back into the snow, weeping in
pain and exhaustion.
At last, she was able to open her eyes, in incredible pain, yet
seeming to have taken no functional damage from the searing light
that had passed through them. Upon opening them, she discovered
something.
She was not alone.
A man stood before her. His hands rested protectively on the
shoulders of a small child to each side of him, a boy and a girl.
Oh…by the Dark Lady…they were all hers…her treasures…
A strangled gasp of joy escaped Thrysta as she struggled weakly
to rise, only to collapse to her knees in the snow before her
husband and children. Tears flowed down her ruined face as she
reached imploringly toward them with taloned skeletal hands, but
the three figures drifted backwards, tantalizingly out of reach.
Their feet didn’t touch the ground.
With a further stab of grief, Thrysta realized she could see the
surroundings of Winterspring through their incorporeal bodies…she
could see through the ghostly spirits of her family.
Sobbing uncontrollably, crawling toward them through the snow,
Thrysta struggled to speak.
“Oh…my treasures…I will be with you soon…everything…everything I
do...is to be able…to be able to be with you again…My…My Dark
Lady…Her Will is done through me…all to see you again…once Her
Will is done…my reward…”
Thrysta looked to her husband, his thin angular face set in a sad
smile. His eyes drifted down to look upon their children,
Thrysta’s gaze following his own to take in their faces.
They were terrified.
Both looked upon her with horror, their eyes wide, tears
streaming down their angelic faces, their little bodies shaking
with fear as they stared at her.
“Oh…oh no…no my beautiful birds…oh do not fear me…oh sweet mercy
please…this is just a vessel…it is just a husk…I suffer it…suffer
it to be with you again…oh please...”
Thrysta looked imploringly to her husband, but his face was now
set hard in anger. As the children clung to his legs in terror he
drifted toward her, a hand raised, almost as if to touch her. On
her knees in front of him, tears streaming, Thrysta struggled
speak.
“It has…all been for you…my family…I will kill…kill
faster…slaughter more…more to reach you and be with you
again…more for Her Will to be done…”
At this, the ghostly spirit of her husband snarled soundlessly,
rage written on his face as his arm drew back and darted savagely
forward, the incorporeal hand passing through Thrysta’s forehead.
Searing black shadow energy exploded behind Thrysta’s eyes as her
mind was devastated with memory after bloody memory.
slay the paladin eat his flesh burn her mind with shadow make her
fly spill blood kill the fool rend slaughter kill more for her
will watch them fly to their death slice them flay their mind
kill more faster faster to rend their bodies summon the shadow
magic slaughter them all bring death through shadow kill kill
more burn them spread the hurt the pain the agony the tears make
them all die savor the screams listen to them beg hurt them eat
the flesh consume her while she still lives channel the shadow
the shadow magic use it to slay slay slay more shadow more death
more suffering more shadow more tears
Thrysta screamed, her body unable to pull away from the ghostly
grip her husband had on her mind.
death death kill faster the shadow slays the light sickness hurts
hurts embracing the shadow using it to kill more more nothing but
blood screams death hurt slaughter more more more
“No more! Please! Oh pleeeease! Noooooooooo!” Thrysta sobbed. Her
mind teetered on the edge of sanity, her body wracked with pain
and sickening nausea as the shadow energy she had so recently
embraced coursed through her.
With a slow movement, the spirit of her husband withdrew his hand
from Thrysta’s mind, staring down with no trace of his former
anger at the ravaged undead husk of his wife. She struggled to
meet his gaze as she knelt in front of him, tears of pain and
horror streaming from her eyes, her body wracked with sobs as she
swayed in exhaustion and agony.
She could feel the residual shadow energy growing within her,
making her sick. It was nauseating, filling her with horrible
pain. All the death encompassed within it, the suffering, the
agony…she had helped it to grow…she had spread it…she had made so
many scream and suffer…the energy was building within her, oh,
how had she not realized it before? How had she not known? Now,
the shadow energy was going to bring an end to her…take her from
her loved ones…separate them forever…
Biting back a sobbing scream of agony, Thrysta looked to her
children one more time as she felt herself truly dying, her
existence about to end.
They were serene.
Her boy and girl looked upon her calmly, with slight smiles and
much warmth. They glanced at each other and then reached out,
each placing a small ghostly hand on their mother’s shoulders.
Light flooded through Thrysta…and it was glorious.
The delicious warmth of the light filled her, searing the shadow
energy from her undead body, her mind awash with new knowledge of
how to manipulate and use this wonderful force as new vitality
coursed through her.
The children smiled beatifically at her, their father joining
them with a soundless mirthful laugh of his own.
Thrysta threw back her head and for the first time since her
human death laughed in pure, unbridled joy. She rose to her feet,
the holy light coursing through her. There was so much to say to
her loved ones, so much to tell them! She moved closer to them,
hoping to embrace their spirits and finally be with them forever.
But they drifted back, out of her reach.
She moved toward them, more swiftly, confusion on her face. Her
confusion rapidly turned to desperation as they continued to
drift away from her, faster and faster. A yawning dark rent in
the air appeared behind them, dark shapes moving within it,
shadowy purple flame ringing its exterior.
The spirits of her husband and children looked back fearfully at
the portal as they were drawn faster toward it, tears on their
faces. Her husband gathered the children in his wiry arms,
tucking their faces against his chest as they began to
soundlessly sob.
Thrysta screamed, reaching out for them as they were swept
through the portal, the dark shapes within converging upon them.
Thrysta’s tear-filled eyes met those of her husband as the portal
closed around her three treasures. He silently spoke five words
into her mind as the portal closed completely, as if it had never
been.
Use the light…Save us…
Thrysta fell to her knees in the snow, throwing her head back,
screaming in utter anguish to the heavens as her mind snapped
with the realization of what she had done with her use of the
shadow for so long. Coruscating white light exploded out from
her, washing her gloomy surroundings in blinding brilliance as
her desolate wail continued.
Her scream finally died away…and so did much of Thrysta’s sanity.
Only two thoughts remained…use the light, save my loved ones. She
rose shakily to her feet, now instinctively channeling the light
for strength. Stumbling off into the snow-blanketed forest as the
last of the brilliant energy faded from the snowy clearing, she
mumbled those words to herself like a mantra.
A few minutes later, a low groan broke the stillness of the
clearing. Rolling over and sitting up, the dwarf warrior mumbled
groggily to himself, suddenly looking around in panic for the
priestess who had felled him…who had…killed him.
He quickly stared down at his body, his hands going to the rents
and tears in his armor. Inspecting himself, he could find no
wounds…no hurts…even his old scars were gone.
In fact, he felt better than he had in many, many years. His
arthritic hands, which bothered him so much in the cold, felt
young and spry again. His whole body felt suffused with warmth
and healing energy, despite the wintry surroundings.
Looking about him, the clearing teemed with budding life and
veritably hummed with energy and vitality. He had died…he
remembered his last thoughts of his little grandchildren…but
something had brought him back. And where was the priestess who
had done him in?
Grabbing his war hammer, he stood up, wondering if any of his
clan would believe this tale. Shaking his head, he strode off
through snow, vowing that he’d find that Forsaken wench again…and
discover the truth of what had happened to him in this clearing.
But for now, someone or something had given him back his life and
he could think of little else but going home to his loved ones.
He had much to tell his dear wife, and suddenly longed to bounce
all of his little grandchildren on his knee and let them pull his
beard. He inwardly longed for their laughter and innocent joy.
There would be time to find that priestess later, after he had
gone to be with those who truly mattered.