"Abstain" he had said, "abstain from reaction". It had been some time since those words had been spoken far away from this current place, this current time.
In simpler times, times of peace, it was far easier to circumvent knee jerk reactions, to feeling what should be felt. When the very greatest of slights was slighted, when all livelihood was liquidated it was exceedingly hard to not react. To not do what was necessary not for yourself but for others, the morality of man could not stand for certain grievous afronts, and yet... Abstain.
On the knoll overlooking the dusty field below, circled by oceans of dead trees sat one figure, waiting. As arid winds blew so too did it pick up dust and dirt, here or there, carrying them off to finer places than this. An exodus of earth that mocked the reality of this exact spot. A mockery of history and time. Ruinous, though Daskar, abstain indeed.
Waiting was simple yet it was not. The Fifth had found waiting to be surprisingly trying at times, especially when there were clearly other routes to travel, easier ways to traverse trials and conflict. Yet it was not always about the wait. In most if not all occasions there was something else far greater and larger at work, waiting was Daskar's role. Beyond the wait and it's effect was the work of someone else, and beyond that someone else. An ever playing game that he was such a small part of.
The simplicity of so small a task didn't irk The Fifth, rather, it was finally nice to have things so simple as they ever were, regardless of the outcomes. Outcomes were beyond his scope.
This ancient area was proof of such things, the result of inaction. Once a wood had occupied this very spot with meadows and hillocks dotting the landscape. Villages stood here or there, families lived, crops grew, fish swam and were caught, game lived and were hunted. Life idyllic. Were this seven hundred years ago he might have retired here with a round woman and a gaggle of children. Seven hundred years ago he had thought otherwise, things were far more convoluted then than they were now. The beauty of simplicity, and the wonder of the eternal ticking of time.
And so The Fifth waited but had known since his arrival five days prior that he was not alone. Daskar's journey to this spot had been tracked for days even prior to that, only closely those last five. There was a comfort in that, to be alone in duty yet to feel the presence of like power. It was lonely to walk, as Daskar did, as not a soul could fathom the responsibility or the reason. Yet out here, at the edge of The Blight, kindred spirits dwelled.
A breeze blew from the west, the gentle gust passing through the rotted wood to produce a symphony of howls. Ah, but even this place recalls you my lady, he smiled. For the past night he had felt the undue pressure of approaching power, while unwarranted it was unavoidable of those attuned and in some cases those that were not. Attuned, my Lord. Not that any of us in service would dream of being otherwise, we made our choice.
At the end of the sprawling and barren field before him a silhouette, dark and large slowly growing. Daskar rose and dusted himself with gloved hands, tightened the few straps of his leather curiass and set off in the direction of his long awaited quarry. Upon reaching a stone's throw from the treeline he halted and stood. The air became slighty thick, the pressure growing stronger and at last he could hear it.
The sounds of light footfalls. Dangerous to let yourself be heard, but then who could threaten and why would they care? Seven shapes moved through the trees, six lumious pairs of eyes and one more of white at their centre. Daskar smiled in spite of himself, it had been entirely too long.
Emerging was The Mistress of his Lord and her six honor guard. The Great White Wolf at the centre stood as tall as he while her six grey counterparts stood slighty shorter in a line directly behind her. She stopped and regarded him. An odd sight, something so clean in a place so filthy, like fire to Ice.
"I hope I did not keep you waiting, there has been much on the wind these days." The voice coming out layered as if three spoke at the same time in place of one, she spoke without speaking. As it ever was.
Abstain. Daskar bowed low, "Not at all my lady, it does me well to see you, trying times indeed".
"Did I say trying?" The Great Wolf turned to her right closest guard who snorted in derision. Vex turned to regard him once more. "Agreed, he is young. However, even the young should do well to know their bounds. Why were you late?"
Nothing missed. "I was detained, Your Grace, the borders are becoming exceedingly hard to traverse these days as I'm sure you're aware." The Fifth paused, The Great Wolf cocked her large head. "There is always a reason. I'm here to pass on information-"
"Which I have already taken from you during my approach, my question remains unanswered," The ancient one cut in, "your errors in Uskend'ar require explanation and we require payment."
Daskar put a hand to his hip, the fluid motion causing The Six to start and growl. Teeth bared from six maws, Teeth long as short swords, a burgeoning promise of death emitting from the guard. The Fifth flinched at this, the overwhelming malice and dread hitting him like a punch, fear made his blood turn to ice, while Vex remain unperturbed. Eyes focused still on Daskar's own, she had not moved a hair, pure calm in this chaos. With shaky hand he pulled away a pouch from his belt while the guard edging closer to him, heat and power radiating from them. He could feel it from these fifteen yards away, a sickening display of such status that he knew they would not lament him being lost if one false move or gesture was made. For his role in things even he was expendable, that sense he had instilled in himself that he was not was indeed measured at this moment and for the first time in so long he had felt what it was like to be human once more. There is worse than us, there is worse than what we have become, mercy be upon them when the time comes.
Shakily he held the pouch out and dropped it as the power from The Six continued to climb, as they continued to edge forward step by agonizing step, the fear in Daskar rising like a tide. The pouch landed between himself and The Mistress, dust pluming as it landed. The mouth of the pouch opened from the impact and from inside it rolled a glowing orb of gold towards The Great Mistress. As it left the bag and rolled towards them all power in the air ceased, The Six were silent and snapped in the direction of the artifact rolling towards The Great Wolf.
The absence of so much obscene power and intent made Daskar stagger back a few steps, gasping. He hunched over, hands on knees, gasping and weeping. Sweet lungfulls of air, even so dry and dusty, were such a joyous relief. But in the absence grew knowledge. Even we will be cast as the cards are in the end for our actions. Have we been so arrogant? Surely not, we-
"You have actually." That layered voice invading his mind once more.
Daskar looked up and stood straight to see the orb had reached it's destination. Vex stood in the same place she had before but beneath her right forepaw was the orb, yet her eyes were still on his. The Six had not moved from their approach to where he stood but were eyeing him curiously.
"This was the cause of delay? One Vek'har?" She asked tightly.
"It's- it's not what you think" Daskar replied, his composure hanging by a thread.
"Do enlighten me, I have been so very much missing your diatribes." Raspy laughter accompanied this statement, not from The Great Mistress but from her cadre. Like a knife cutting through silk, six great throats filling the wood with their mocking laughter, something so sepulchral in the tone. It certainly seemed the day for it.
Abstain. "Surely you have noticed a certain absence to it my Lady, there is no signiture, or rather that the signiture within is veiled." The Great Wolf's white eyes narrowed at this.
"You lie, that is not possible. What you are saying is not possible in this age," Vex growled, the pitch akin to the vile storms that rise in these lands, destructive and indiscriminate in its nature, unyeilding as the Lady herself was, "the logistics behind what you describe cannot possibly be reached by their smiths in any quantity."
"You will forgive me, Your Grace, but they are not crafting them."
Fury erupted across The Geat Wolf's features, The Six backed away slightly. She stepped forward, each step rising dust but none marred her pristine white coat. Mercurial power built and assaulted him, forcing him to his knees. Sweat slicked his skin, he burned at his core, cried out in pain as wave after wave of ancient energy lashed him. "You are doing his bidding then? You would dare do business with that traitor? You held up our effort for him?!"
Vex's face mere inches from his own, Daskar looked up into the glowing white eyes and the accompanying silver bared teeth, the storm of energy raging about the field, dust and stone flung in every direction as hammer after hammer of energy pounded him. Pain lanced into his skull threatening to crack in two.
"A meeting with the Chronicler" He screamed out.
The air grew still. All was suspended. All dust and stone, all dried leaf and broken branch.
"He cannot, he is banished." The layered voice boomed.
"He-" Daskar spat blood onto the ground around him, a clear path cutting through the suspended dust, staining it on its trajectory. "He asked for audience by right of Brotherhood. One-" Daskar made move to rise, gingerly though his body screamed in protest. At this Vex snorted in derision, Daskar halted. The Great Wolf lifted her head slightly and stared past Daskar without saying anything more. The Six glared at him with a furious intensity, hackles rising. A low growl like thunder without end.
After some time her gaze returned to him, "before answer is given what were you personally offered for this? We are curious."
Daskar hesitated and laid prone on his back, there was no hiding it now, this was it. "A conclusive end."
"You wound us with your deception, not because this is what you did, but you did this because this is what you wanted." Vex turned and walked back to her cadre, power in the air diminishing, everything that floated fell, blanketing the earth once more. Where he spat was indiscernible under so much debris. Erasure. Like what he had done had never been. Lost to time and only privy knowledge, however trivial it was, to those that witnessed it. Daskar looked at the spot and then back at Vex, pushing himself to his knees.
"I know, but after so long I am tired-" He choked.
"There were better ways, I am personally unsure how you thought this would end, however, what comes after will not be... ideal." The last word hung in the air. "The Brotherhood was broken, Unity no longer stands and he is an exile. He knows this. It is wholly irrelevant what he wants, what you want, in comparison to the overal will of his and your Lord. This act will not go unpunished. Exis's answer is no. Judgement is passed."
With that statement The Six closed in on Daskar in a blur of sickening speed, massive teeth closing on him and crushing him completely. A weak scream and gurgle came and went within moments, the ground slick with gore and filth. Daskar's carcass was hurled in every direction, the hallowed ground of The Blight paid with his offering. The field and the guard were covered in the foulness of what had once been, while Vex remained untarnished. It was not a clean end and his soul would never know peace, he was bound to this place now. There would be no end beyond that which his Lord deigned appropriate. Taking such liberties in these matters against His will was itself a sin, things would change. Her love would see to that.
This act of defiance by Daskar would require probing and enquiries, likely reforms. Such tedious and drawn out recourse based on the actions of one's impertinence.
She looked beyond the carnage before her into the field towards the knoll where Daskar had been sat. An image of a large white wolf her size stood bipedal and ethereal, swathed in the armor of Artus. A relic of a long lost age of craftsmanship, powered solely by the wielder. A set of summoning that no longer existed, only two still possessed this gift, her love was one of them.
"Interesting he chose to ask this at this time, my love. The question begs 'why now?' He's had so long." Vex asked the figure.
A deep rumble filled her mind "Bring to me the Chronicler, we will see what he knows."
The Mistress of The Blight cocked her head. "What he knows, my love?"
The figure in the field turned, "to the citadel, if you please, after the ritual of sealing. Appoint here a Grievance."
Vex nodded her large head and with that the ethereal projection was gone. She shivered, a Grievance, oh Daskar, you poor bastard. The Six had finished distributing the remains by means of hurling them around the field and had returned to her flank, with an exhalation of breath and power the field itself shook slighty and abated. Tendrils of coruscating power began to emerge and on the knoll stood a small familiar figure. The spirit of Daskar rose once again amongst the orange mist of power. He looked around briefly and made way to abscond when he was stopped. His ankles shackled to the ground by the ritual. From the opposite end of the field stood a Grievance, tall and silent. An aberration of The Blight, a contruct made of the fallen heathens that came to these lands, bound together by the perverse workings of Diviners. A body filled with nothing but malice and purpose.
"Cast no shadows." Vex intoned, Daskar turned awkwardly to stare at her, face in horror, pulling at his legs locked to the ground. He jerked rigidly.
"Tell no lies," The Six said in unison. "Judgement is carried." Their voices layered as Vex's own, final and reverberating. At this the giant figure sprinted in a blur towards Daskar's position atop the knoll. The former Fifth turned towards the advancing figure and began shouting, pleading.
Vex and her cadre turned and padded off the way they had come to exact her Lord's intention. She would not fail, she never had. From behind her a symphony of screams, Daskar would become well aquainted with his new host over the next thousand years, but then, this was the price paid for betrayal. The only thing Vex lamented was time. A thousand years is not nearly enough.
An interesting and rich world is behind a lot of this story. I want to know more, the differences of magic and the reasons for malice and malcontent.
I did really like Daskar's punishment, left an impression of a very dark purpose behind Vex.