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1/30/2022 7:08:37 PM
6

A Return to the Earth Below

"[i]Wake up.[/i]" Looking around Nil finds the undercroft as empty as she'd left it. She sits against a large stone coffin at the center, sickly pale and thin with deep bags beneath ruby eyes of which the whites have turned oily dark. The only corpse left beneath the abandoned Temple of Bernthal. As always, Nil is draped in black from head toe; boots laced to the knee over tight fit trousers, a blouse with web-like patterns of lace around the neck and shoulders, all wrapped within a long cloak with a mane of raven feathers. Her messy hair, also black, is recently sheared unevenly short, and several charms of small bone dangle from her Elven ears. Leaning her head back, Nil closes her eyes again- "We need to discuss Lord Balen." -then opens them to see a reflection. An angry one. Ann's pink eyes glare through a curtain of snow white hair. Ignoring her, Nil rises and turns to retrieve the pointed hat from the lid behind her. "You need to feed," Autumn, a more accurate reflection with longer hair and tattered robes, looks up sadly beside the hat, and Nil turns to leave. She didn't want the hat anyway. It's so last millennia. "He was an uncle to us," Ann is unrelenting. "Go be dead elsewhere," Nil finally responds, which was a mistake. "He allied with our enemies," Melinoa growls, hulking frame leaning against a column that definitely wouldn't hold her weight if she were real. "Do we know that for certain?" The pirate Scylla beside her, blue green scales glimmering in the dim candle light. "All we saw was a handshake," Winter, bored, checks her nails sat opposite the hat from Autumn, who adds helpfully, "You're mad." "[i]Kill them all![/i]" The dark eyed creature chuckles from the ceiling above. The cacophony bicker as Nil stands alone, ears ringing, then with a quick slash of her crystalline blade she decapitates Ann. "[i]Yes![/i]" The creature laughs, "[i]Kill them![/i]" Nil turns to the next. "[i]Kill them![/i]" And the next. "[i][b]Kill him![/b][/i]" And then her blade is a hairs width from the nose of Lord Balen. Nil's eyes dart around her new surroundings, a meeting room within a tall glass tower looking out to the night sky and lights of the city far below. Several figures in suits have risen from their chairs, glaring as she stands on the table over the Dwarven man sat at its head. Balen also wears a suit, pressed tight against broad shoulders. His auburn hair and beard are thick but neat and his eyes are the same gold as the rings upon his fingers as he looks up to Nil, solemnly. "Leave us," he commands, and the thralls silently obey, then he pinches the blade and examines it. "I remember the day I presented this sword to your father. I was honored to have worked with such material and proud to call him my friend." Balen meets Nil's glare, "Why are you trying to kill me with it?" "Thought the old pact null," Nil smirks awkwardly, "Since you're all chummy with Eddie now." "Draug? Child, I am a businessman," the child bit stung, but he has a few centuries on her so fair, "I sold him arms and supplies several years ago, but when he offered a seat on his council I declined." "And I'm to take your word for it? The word of an opportunist?" Nil snarls, "You didn't join my father, your friend, in the war either. You weren't there when he died. You only crawled out of the shadows after I'd taken everything back. When there was something to gain from it." Balen seemed genuinely hurt by Nil's words, which was often the point of them, but this hurt her too. "We passed eachother on the mountain that day, do you remember?" Balen sighs, "The last time we saw each other alive." The memory hurt. Nil wasn't to leave the mansion for fear of the enemy, but there was a girl in the village below. The road was slim and she'd tried to hide within a crevice, but Balen saw her and smiled putting a finger to his lips. A few hours later her father lay dead in the street as the village burned. "It wasn't his fault," Ann pleads, and Autumn adds, "It was yours." Melinoa protests and Scylla contests and Winter just laughs while the creature insists, "[i]Kill him![/i]" "[b][i]Shut up![/b][/i]" Nil snaps, and Balen's face goes hard as stone once more. "I came to your father to offer all my House had, despite what it would cost us, but he refused my offer Annie." The blade is at his throat again before she realizes, the creature growls through her and a drop of dark ichor falls to the table between them. "You still in there, girl?" Unfazed, he leans into it, "Or is this monster all that's left?" For a moment Nil lingers, then pulls away and drops to her knees. "Gil'ne mir din'en," queit words in a dead tongue, "Ir ibelis." Balen sighs with relief, "I understood 'I'm sorry' and that's good enough for-" An arriving elevator down the hall draws his attention and Balen jumps up to pull her to the ground.

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