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Anawyn’s sobs were interrupted by the priestess’ body falling to the ground beside her. Vessadial’s laughter echoed in the tiny cell, and Anawyn scrambled away from the woman on the ground.
And I wanted to meet someone still living, Anawyn thought bitterly. She destroyed Zaere! In all the time that Anawyn remembered, Zaere’s presence had always been a subtle pressure in the back of her mind, until now.
She sent him to hell! Anawyn only had a vague idea of what the afterlife held. She knew it was terrible: the ghouls existed in terror of it. The fact that he could release their souls back to the icy plains of damnation was the threat Vessadial used to command their obedience, above all the other threats he possessed.
Anawyn grabbed the woman’s fallen mace. She was still alive: in the dim light of Tabrin’s burning corpse, Anawyn could see the woman’s body stir from breathing. “I’ll send you to join him!” Anawyn screamed. “He can have you while he waits for me!”
She brought the mace up and swung it down at the helpless woman’s head.
“No,” Vessadial hissed, and the mace bounced off a block of solid air. Anawyn screamed in fury and tried again, but this time Vessadial’s telekinesis caught her arm and broke it.
The elf’s howl of fury changed to pain. She was wrenched off her feet by her broken limb. With a flick of his fingers, Vessadial pulled her through the air until she hung suspended by her arm before him. “I desire prisoners,” the lich said mildly.
Anawyn whimpered. Her arm was a blazing mass of pain, made worse by the weight of her body pulling down on it. “Please,” she whispered, “bring him back.”
“Zaere?” Vessadial hissed. There was no expression on his skeletal face, but his voice was venomous. “He tried to kill my prisoners, too. And he failed to protect you.” The lich’s voice grew louder with each word. “He’s worthless! You are my slave: you do not dare ask for him! You exist to serve my purposes, and he failed in his! I will never bring that demon back to this realm!” By the end, Vessadial was screaming. Hot, rancid spittle sprayed from his mouth, and the force holding Anawyn up twisted her arm until she cried out again in pain.
Then, abruptly, Vessadial released her arm. Anawyn fell. She caught herself on her good arm, he palm scraping across the rough stone, and sobbed. Zaere. Gone forever.
Vessadial was talking, but not to her. “Ghoul,” he said to someone else, “you did well where my death knight failed, and shall be rewarded. But for now, see to my slave’s well being. I will want her power tonight, and will be displeased if she is in a weakened state.”
Elik, Anawyn realized. He’s talking to Elik. And just as suddenly, she realized that Tabrin too was gone. Forever.
Elik’s clawed hand closed on her shoulder. He helped her to her feet and half pushed her through the door. Anawyn stumbled into the hallway, too hurt emotionally and physically to protest.
They were waiting for her. Zaere’s 'select.' The most vile of Vessadial’s ghouls, the ones she had been warned countless times to never be caught alone with. Their eyes burned hungrily, but Anawyn was not alone.
“Hurry,” Elik rasped in her ear. “They won’t do anything with Vessadial in the room behind us, but lingering tempts fate.” He pushed her forward and guided her down the corridor. Zaere’s ghouls had been busy dragging a ragged collection of living prisoners into the cells, but they paused to watch her pass.
Anawyn shuddered. There was no sign of Zaere’s armor. The ghouls must have heard Vessadial’s proclamation and already disposed of it somehow. They knew she no longer dwelt beneath the death knight’s protection. With Elik a step behind her, Anawyn hurried from the dungeon.
From the main castle floor, Elik led her back through the courtyard, past the charred, shriveled corpses and out the ruined gate. “I don’t think the castle is safe for you right now,” he said as he led her down the path to the fountain. “Ghareb and his lot will be eager to take out their hatred of Zaere on those he’s left behind. Staying there will just keep you where they can find you.” He stopped beside the stonework pool of the fountain and tossed the bundle of clothes he’d carried from Anawyn’s room beside it. “Strip.”
Anawyn struggled with her armor, and Elik had to help her remove it. He took her arm and examined it, then set the broken limb with a wrench that made her scream and fall to her knees. He made a splint of her opposite bracer: the one that matched that arm had been bent when the bone was broken. “Hurry and clean up. I’d like to be far from here before they realize we’re not in the castle anymore.”
Anawyn stepped into the pool and did her best to scrub away the ache in her limbs and the previous day’s dried sweat and tears. She’d never heard Elik talk so much before, let alone give orders. She was too worn down to care. “Where are we going?”
“The prisoners’ ship. There should be food and new clothing there for you, and it seems as good a place as any to hide ourselves.”
Anawyn nodded and stepped out of the pool. “You’ve already thought a lot of this out, haven’t you?” She had not been thinking, just reacting, ever since the gate exploded in the courtyard.
“I’ve always been thinking,” the ghoul replied. “I just haven’t always shared my thoughts.”
Anawyn picked up a cloth to dry with. “But now that Zaere is gone, you are?”
“No. At least, not just because he’s gone. After all, he can always be summoned back.”
Anawyn’s hand clenched into a fist. “Didn’t you hear? Vessadial won’t do it,” she said – and was shocked when Elik laughed at her.
“Vessadial? Fuck Vessadial!” Elik held up his own shattered arm. “This is why I’m speaking my mind: I felt holy fire, and it didn’t burn! I’m not afraid of fucking Vessadial – what’s he going to do, release my soul from my corpse and send it to reincarnation? Or even heaven? His power comes from threatening us with hell, but that’s nothing he can hold over me anymore, or I’d already be so much kindling. And then there’s you. What the fuck do you think you owe him? Your life? He’s been stealing that for centuries! Damnit, Anawyn, you are the source of his power. That makes it your fucking power, so why don’t you use some of it to fucking re-kill him, and summon Zaere back yourself?”
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