-blackened heart-
lost souls
The demonsoul imprisoned within Azure’s own body was one which the world was never meant to have to deal with. Yet even the strongest of hearts sometimes fail when pushed too far and not even Azure could fight it when Shadow was brought screaming to the surface by the man known as the Bloodspiller. For several weeks, Shadow locked Azure’s soul away and claimed her body for its own until finally he was once again defeated and imprisoned.
Yet though he left his marks on her, only the rogue herself truly knew how deep the scars ran, and in the end she sought, against her better judgement, that which so many seek.. revenge..
Silence.
No sound save that of the whispering through her hair and the sound of her own heartbeat under the muffled whisper of shallow breathing. White knuckles grasping the hilt of a shimmering black sword, warm blood trailing down her arm and dripping odd the blade’s edge onto the hard ground.
Up on the barren cliff, time stood still under the blackened skies warning of an impending storm. The raging river farm below them but a distant roar drowning itself out.
She could hear him struggling to keep upright, though her tear filled blue eyes still gaze into the distance as if not wanting to see him. A burning hatred flaring deep down in her azure gaze.
“You killed me…” she whispered, tightening her grip of her blood covered sword, feeling another drop of blood trace down her face, melding with sweat and dirt.
A darkness flickered across her eyes, like shadows across the surface of a full moon.
Again the wind howled through black skies, tugging at her torn clothes and her flowing hair, causing a soft clinging sound to fade into the breeze as the glass beads of her braids touched in a soft dance. A silent cold seeping into her body though paying it no heed. Her senses oblivious to everything save the sound of his heavy breathing and staggering steps.
He coughed, spitting up blood though managing a weak smirk there he kneeled on the ground, leaning on his sword to keep from falling over.
Despite his usual towering presence the heavily armoured man once known as the Bloodspiller appeared almost weak compared to the blue clad rogue standing a few yards away.
He’d fought well, and they’d fought long. His sword had drawn blood and maybe he would have defeated her had she just been another elf. But Azure wasn’t just another elf now was she? She was something more. Something darker. Something more sinister.
“Monster…”
His voice was a low, blood tainted chuckle. His words causing Azure’s eyes to widen in rage as she spun around, the blackened wings of flickering shadows spreading out to full size as she locked her gaze on him.
She looked almost more demon than elf like this. Her torn armour stained with blood. Bruised and cut. Blue eyes flaming with dark fires and shadows licking up her arms and across he batlike wings that had manifested. Their shadowy surface sucking up any light which might be present, trapping and imprisoning it to create a menacing aura of dread.
“Monster!?”
She screamed the word at him, a shiver running through her aching body, though not from cold of physical pain, even though it by now was impossible to tell how much of the blood was his and what was hers.
“You’re the one who did this to me! You destroyed me!”
Her voice was a high pitched scream, searing with anger and despair, and even more so, hate.
Jerran struggled to get off the ground, but finding his broke body unable to obey his will, he fell back down to his knees. Yet again coming to rest on the broken sword plunged into the ground to keep from falling over.
From countless cuts and stab wounds, a steady stream of warm dark blood kept flowing forth, draining his strength as well as his life away as it coloured the ground around him a sickening crimson red.
She hadn’t fought like anything of this world. She’d fought like a demon, her shadow blades having shattered his heavy plate armour as if it had been glass upon impact.
“I’m not the one denying a child its father..” Jerran coughed, another mouth full of blood finding its way past his lips. And again his words stung her like a blade to the heart.
She hated him, despised him and everything he was, yet Hogan loved him. The rogue knew, cause she’d seen the look in the woman’s eyes and there was no denying that her feelings had been true. And yet, here she stood, sword in hand, ready to take the life of another’s love and for what? Revenge?
Azure felt no compassion for this man, but she did for Hogan. And still…
She trembled, hesitated. Yet the words which next passed her lips were as hard and cold as the steel which had cut her flesh.
“If ever you spawned a child... I would kill it as well just to make sure no other demon like you ever got to walk this land” she growled in a low whisper from behind gritted teeth as the darkness reached out towards him, shadowy tendrils manifesting from it and reaching out to wrap around his body like the tentacles of a nightmare creature straight out of hell.
There was no sound save that of the wind yet there was as if the lingering scream of broken souls for ever trapped in purgatory soared on the cold breeze as the tendrils lifted him off the ground and spread his arms out.
The groaned, muscles tensing. But left with too little energy to fight back there was little he could do as she rogue stepped closer, meeting his defiant gaze with searing hatred.
“And you call me a monster…? Look at yourself.. you’re about to take my life knowing what it will do to your friend, to the child she carries.. Have you no soul?”
Azure closed her eyes for a moment, lowering her head as her words passed her lips in a low whisper.
“Maybe I don’t… but I this I do know... that I will find no rest until I know for sure that you’re burning in hell”
“I’ll see you there then.. demon”
He grinned.
Azure raised her gaze, her expression derived of any feelings what so ever, her voice as if cut from stone.
“After you…”
A shimmer of sudden light shattered the skies as her sword struck, a trail of warm blood spraying across her face and trailing the edge of her blade in a crimson arch as she watched the body fall off the edge towards the raging river far below. His expression forever burning itself into her mind as she followed him with her gaze.
Time froze. Everything moved as if in slow motion. All the sounds of the world drowned out by a deafening silence.
Then the river consumed his body, and the world once again awoke with the boom of a distant thunder rolling across the heavens as the skies opened up and let loose their tears.
Cold was the rain that that touched her body, washed across her skin and mixed with the blood and the sweat and the tears falling down her cheeks.
She regretted nothing and yet that was which caused the turmoil welling up inside her.
She’d failed. She’d gone against everything she’d ever believed in for the sake of something as trivial as revenge. A revenge which brought no sense of victory nor closure, leaving but an empty nothingness in its wake.
Her friend’s words echoed through her mind.
Do not strike in anger, do not strike with hate. Do not strike for revenge, but for justice..
Slowly the rogue fell to her knees, closing her eyes as she curled up on the ground, sobbing softly under the roaring thunder and the weeping skies. The blackened wings folding themselves around her to shield her from the cold and the wind.
Everything she’d ever believed in and fought for, all shattered in a brief moment.
Had she become that which she feared?
The tears stung like fire as they trailed down her face, her hands closing into tight fists as she hid from the world around her in her own little corner of shadows.
Maybe he was right..
Maybe she was a monster..
Subject: The Twilight Blade 
Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:12 pm
