((Forgive the lack of editing, I'm tired.))
"There was a time where I would have relished such...moments," Thrysta mused, one
of her taloned hands idly brushing the prone figure lying next to her.
Thrysta sighed, taking a sip of the small vial clutched in her other hand as she sat next
to the figure.
Nether-lightning danced through the sky above her, illuminating the surrounding rock
in violet hues. Thunder crashed shortly after in the wake of each flash.
Thrysta cocked her head to the side, listening. Her mouth creased in the semblance of
a smile, revealing sharpened teeth, red and wet.
Glancing down at the prone figure next to her, Thrysta sighed once again, pursing her
lips thoughtfully before speaking.
"Despite my lack of...enthusiasm...child, I must confess," Thrysta purred, leaning over the prone
figure, "your tongue was fucking delicious."
The elf lying next to her gurgled wetly, blood running freely from her mouth as she
quivered in agony. Both her arms were shattered, bone glistening where it had broken
through the skin. Her eyes, wide in terror, rolled in their sockets as Thrysta rose to her
feet, her dimunitive frame creaking and snapping.
The elf girl gurgled again, shaking her head side to side, beseeching the Forsaken woman with
her eyes.
Thrysta watched her impassively, then glanced over her own shoulder at the flag waving in
the nether-breeze, planted firmly in the stone. She turned her attention back to the dying elf.
"You cannot have that," Thrysta stated flatly, "Apparently it is...important."
Removing a small, wickedly-sharp skinning knife from her torn and stained vestments, she advanced
on the prone elf girl, whose gurgling increased in intensity as she stared at the approaching Forsaken.
Thrysta knelt down over the girl, whispering to her.
"Shhhh," the Forsaken purred, "You will see."
With that, Thrysta's knife went to work, the elf's legs kicking wildly as violet lightning tore the sky.
-------------------
The rogue approached silently, moving quietly through the rocks toward his desired objective.
Rounding a final outcrop, he caught sight of the flag fluttering in the warm nether-wind.
His attention, however, quickly moved to the undead creature crouched near it. His lip curled
in distaste at the woman-thing, once human like him, now an abomination. As he watched, she
rose, moving toward the edge of the natural stone bridge, her back to the flag.
Moving forward silently, he crept toward the creature's back, intent on putting her out of her
vile existence before grabbing his objective.
Then, he saw the corpse she had left nearby.
His breath caught. He had killed, done what needed to be done, but the elven woman,
what was left of her...he nearly retched.
And for just the tiniest of moments, his concentration slipped.
-------------------
At the sound of the soft scuffle from behind her, Thrysta whirled, a flash of burning light exploding
in a nova around her, throughout the surrounding area.
A human male stumbled from a nearby outcropping of rocks, his eyes shut in pain, his leather armor
trailing wisps of smoke from the corruscating aura that had caught him.
Thrysta hissed words of pain, but the rogue recovered, gathering the shadows around him to defeat
her magics as he danced toward her, drawn blades flashing out for her ruined flesh.
A bright shield of power encased the Forsaken at a spoken word as she mentally called forth her
shadowfiend.
The beast tore into the human, as the results of his own strikes opened wounds on his own body,
Thrysta's magic shield twisting the force of his own blows back at him.
The rogue groaned, blasting through the Forsaken's magic shield, only to be met with a primal
scream of hate, bloody spittle and grave breath washing over him.
Reeling backward, the rogue backpedaled in terror for a brief moment before seeming to focus his
resolve, lunging back toward the creature in front of him as the shadow beast that had been hounding
him thankfully dissipated.
Thrysta gasped as the rogue's blades found her, slicing and tearing.
Hissing words of renewal and healing, Thrysta moaned in pleasure, wounds on her body opening
under the rogue's assault and closing immediately under her own magical ministrations.
She smirked as the rogue drew back, panting in exhaustion.
Thrysta's vestments hung, tattered and bloody, from her dessicated frame.
Scars and blood crossed and coated the exposed flesh as she coughed wetly, exhaling a fine,
bloody mist.
"You cannot have it either," she murmured, staring at the rogue, knowing he did not comprehend.
Or did he?
His gaze tilted toward the flag, then back to her.
Suddenly, with a burst of speed, he tore straight for the fluttering pennant, grasping it in a flash and
turning to sprint back the way he had came.
He almost made it.
Thrysta took his mind at the last instant, snapping his will like the spine of a small rodent.
Focusing her effort, she bade the rogue to come back to her.
Plodding dumbly, jaw slack, the rogue stumbled to a halt in front of the Forsaken woman.
Thrysta spoke directly into his mind.
"Hold out your hands."
Dropping his blades, the rogue held out both of his hands, palms up.
Thrysta's taloned hands reached into a pouch at her waist, withdrawing objects.
She place them into the rogue's hands.
Each of his palms now held a glistening wet eye and a torn elongated ear.
"Let her see it...let her hear you," Thrysta murmured to the rogue, driving her final command
deep into his mind.
Noddly slackly, his mouth trailing a thin line of drool, the rogue stepped to edge of the rock
bridge, and jumped.
Thrysta waited briefly, then severed the mind link.
The screams of the rogue faded down into the void.
Turning, Thrysta leaned down, retrieving the discarded pennant from the ground and limping
forward, set it back in the recessed sconce within the stone.
"Meaningless," she murmured.
Idly, she turned at the sound of approaching steeds.
A large group of her enemies were riding toward her...their blades and spells promising such
exquisite hurt, such beautiful wounds.
As Thrysta prepared to make them scream for their effort, to relish how they would tear her
open, she wondered...
...did the girl enjoy the view?