by SinVraal » Mon Jul 23, 2007 5:38 am
"Ah yes," Vraal purred as the woman transformed himself, silently, before his very eyes. A playful smile quirked at dark, slender lips as obsidian eyes, wide with wonder and curiosity, plied her body rather boldly with quiet, unasked questions.
"I have not seen one like you for a long time," he murmured, his words drifting off into the scope of memory. "Over a decade to be sure, in a far, distant land." He paused then, his mind clearing as he intruded back upon the present. "A land I will not likely see again, at least not for some time to come."
With a twist of the waist, he regarded the top of the plateau behind them several yards yet and gestured towards it with a hooked, leather-sheathed thumb. "If that is what you are after, then you have found it. I arrived only moments ago, and saw the Ashfiend take the girl into the larger of the two buildings." He straightened then, fingertips tugging one glove more firmly against the flesh of an opposing hand. "I consider it to be a dormitory of sorts, as the smaller structure appears to be the remnants of a chapel. All blackened with fire."
"Make no mistake," he murmured in a velvet voice, resonant yet hushed, while he leaned forward and turned his gaze upon her feline own. "It is quite fitting that he choose a place such as this for his lair. Poetic in some ways... and ironic in all the rest. It is really a testament to how small the world is that here, in this.. Snowstill Priory.. in the midst of some forsaken backwater of a dutchy, that the Ashfiend would find such a poignant reminder of home."
His smile quirked into an angled, wry gesture as he shook his head in disdain. "Yet it is a reminder to him in appearance only. His home was not set ablaze for his being important to some... devious mastermind or another. It was only after the ruin of his home that he became important at all. But I say too much."
After trailing off for a time, the silence between them uncoiling, he slipped gently to his feet. The subdued sheen of a black cloak tumbled over one shoulder and across the length of his back. "I suppose that this place strikes me with nostalgia as well. As a good citizen, I assume, you'll be wanting to report the lay of the land and its name to your Constable."
With that he began to make his way from the creature, serpentine lips spreading into a broad, contemplative grin. What the Ashfiend sought in Myrken of all places remained yet a mystery but this barmaid seemed to play an integral role. If he could compel the Myrken Wood forces to strike against Teron he might finally learn the spectral knight's true plans.
And then, perhaps, the Ashfiend could once again be compelled to obey or, failing such, finally annihilated.
If you are near to the dark
I will tell you about the sun
You are here, no escape
From my visions of the world
You will cry, all alone
But it does not mean a thing to me...