“Come, do not fear little one.”
I jumped, startled as it took me a moment to grasp my surroundings. There I was, just a rogue in a hunting party. Our small troupe consisted of dragon killers, or so proclaimed by mass popularity due to our prestige in battles. Our leader, fearless and weathered – lead us off the beaten path to a more direct path towards our destination, a fishing village terrorized by the spirits of the deceased.
Sadly, the path he choose was through the woods. There was no inn or tavern to be found; no merry melodies or sweet Meade to sooth our exhaustion. It was in the frozen forest we camped. Devoid of life at nighttime, for fear of what lurks in the dark. The dying embers of the flame that kept the troupe in formation slowly wrought to nothing. Still midnight, I thought to myself as my eyes closed, and I started to drift yet again…after this mission, a day of drink and song to follow.
“Come now, I am waiting for you”
The second time, my eyes lit ablaze. Met again with silence in the frozen wastes around us – minus the snores from my comrades. They were all dead asleep, was it just me that heard that….voice? It could not even begun to be described. It was a mere whispers of temptation that held each word into a tangible thought. It was just that… beautiful. It was unreal, probably exhaustion kicking in.
As my eyes begun to shut a third time, I heard that sound again.
“It is real… I am real.”
My eyes darted in the clearing where we made our camp. The embers doing no justice to what I could not see. Trained I was in the art of the shadows, yet still my eyes caught nothing. Maybe it was that same confidence that made me leave my post. My silents steps were less than missed, even by our leader. Sleep had taken its toll on them, curiosity was dancing onto my mind. Checking my daggers were sheathed on my side, I vanished into the night.. driven by a new coin of words.
“Follow my voice.”
Though it sounded as if it came from all directions, something stirred in my instincts that it was coming from the east. And, through what I’ve seen so far – instincts were the gods gift to be trusted. What was it though, what could hold such a voice over me, to blindly lead me into the night. Soon enough though, I received my answer.
I know not how long I walked, just that it was still in the dead of night that I arrived there, to that meeting place. A pond, not frozen like everything else in this forsaken place, seemed undisturbed by years of overgrown foliage around its edges. It was there, upon a rock she sat. I assumed it was a she, for her body was slimmed in the robes of the darkest night. His voice cloaked beneath a hood that matched the colours of her attire.
She sat there, not paying attention to my arrival, staring directly at the water in front of her. Was she just a statue? So still, so elegant in the moonlight. I abandoned my training and stepped out of the shadows and spoke up.
“Mi’lady, what brings you out here in the dead of night? Reports of banshees in the areas have been made.” Her gaze never met mine, nor even changed from what she was staring intently at. Her body though, at my voice seemed to just slip from its sitting position to its full stature. She was not tall, but not short as well…she was perfectly sized. Her form seemed to shift in the moonlight, like an illusion as I started to speak again – my words caught in my throat with her soft voice echoing through the clearing.
“Sinu a’manore, Sunstrider.” The voice echoed. What was said, I know not. It seemed like, a foreign language. My mind wandered, and half tempted to step back into the shadows. Actually, I should stop back in – it was obvious from her foreign tongue that she was not of the alliance. As the panic built up, a soft wind graced my cheek, caressing my eyes to close.
“Fear not….worry not..just gaze upon me.” Opening my eyes, I looked onward. She had left her post, and in just a second I found her again. Her body was floating listlessly over the water’s surface, a soft ripple forming where both her feet would have been planted on solid ground. An almost, rippling aura surrounded her robes – almost as if the robes themselves were animate.
“Fear holds us firm.. keeps us in shadow.. I have a way for you to leave the shadows.”
As my eyes did not leave her visage, I was almost mesmerized by the aura. It was expanding, almost as if the robes were becoming wings around her. The air between the wings, becoming twisted darkness – almost like…velvet curtains, drawing down onto a window. Unbeknownst to myself, I was walking closer to her – drawn to her words.
“Leave your shadows, and come to me. Open your mind.”
The twisted darkness around her began to distort. The distortion forming what looked like a rift, a vortex of shadows dancing around her. Was I dreaming? It had to be for I’ve never seen such a thing in my years of fighting. Her voice was so silken smooth, her body so mesmerizing. It was then I noticed my feet were moving, but I cared not. What did she have to offer?
“Bash’a no falor talah.”
Once again cryptic words were spoken, but my mind did not have time to register them for I felt a sharp pain stab me through the chest. The sunlight was boring into my eyes as it dawned on me where I was. It was no longer in the middle of the night, but the beginning of the day. The lake had vanished – as did the lady of the lake. Where was I though, what was that pain?
A second stabbing pain took me by surprise as my instinct reached for my blade, but it was not in its sheath. A final pain brought me down, as would any blow to the leg. My body hit the ground hard, as my mind cleared and my vision saw true. I was surrounded by my troupe, all of them aroused with weapons drawn. Besides the leader.. a few moments of searching located his body, both of my daggers embedded in fatal wounds on his corpse.
The look of anger on my comrades faces towards me explained the situation. But how, and why? I was in the clearing with the lady, it was there that she started swaying me with her words. I didn’t remember anything else, I swear. Those words never left my mouth though, my voice came empty – silenced. Almost as if a powerful censorship has taken hold of me. My comrades words, fell upon me as nothing more then gibberish. I could not understand them, or the situation I was in. I did understand what was coming, as the sword was being brought down upon my neck in its final blow. It was not painful, it was nothing. For when it connected, my mind blacked out into that vortex, her words guiding me.
“Open your mind to my darkness, trust me, and join me.”
