Zack/Intro6

You feel like you have lost track of how long you have been on the run. You have had many close calls with the forces of the First and Forsaken, as he tried to chase you down. While you managed to evade him, you seem to have attracted the attention of another Deathlord's minions. You managed to evade them as well, thankfully, and now you are walking across the sands of the South, as the night hangs heavy in Creation.

Silence walks with her hood down, enjoying the cool night air that reminds her so much of her real home. She keeps alert for more forces, ready to face them down if need be, and heads generally southward, away from the shadowlands.

After what may be just minutes or hours of walking, you notice what appears to be a small desert village on the horizon. You can't tell much from here besides the fact it is a village, however.

Silence considers, and then heads toward it.

As you head towards it, you see a few flickering torches within the town itself providing some light to whoever lives there. Of course, as you walk, a gust of wind blows some sand in your eyes, blinding you.

Silence winces and brings up her hand, trying to shelter her eyes from the sand. What the hell. She stops walking while she rubs the sand from her eyes, sighing.

You manage to hear some shuffling around you as you remove the sand from your eyes. Once you're able to actually see again, you see a few shambling forms walking about you. Three, to be precise, each wielding blades and some armor.

Silence reaches her hand back to one of her swords, eyeing them warily. Whom do they serve is the question. She waits, cautiously, to see if they're also headed to the village or what.

As the three shuffle around you, footsteps can be heard behind you. That is, before a woman's laughter fills the air around you. "Well well. What do we have here?"

Silence turns, cautiously, to look where the voice is coming from, a little annoyed that other deathknights seem to be /following/ her. Grrr.

It is coming from behind you. More specifically, the woman who is decked out in a soulsteel breastplate, shield, with a sheathed blade with a ice blue stone set into it at her side. She has long silver hair, pale skin as is the norm, and obsidian eyes. "Interesting... I didn't think there were any other deathknights here." She begins to circle around you, hming. The zombies quickly shuffle out of her way as she does so.

<Silence> She narrows her eyes, standing still as the woman circles her, following her with her eyes. She whispers, "I thought I'd go for a walk."

She chuckles. "Is that so? Who do you serve, girl?"

Silence bows slightly. "The Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears. You?"

She grins ever so slightly as she stops circling you, hming. "The Mask of Winters. You are quite a ways from home, sister. I didn't know your mistress had an interest in this area."

Silence replies, "She's curious about the desert here, so bereft of Shadowland or influence. I wasn't aware your Master had laid claim to it."

Silence sighs quietly. It's taking a lot of effort to make herself heard over the slithering sand and the wind.

She smiles. "I had to retrieve a sister of mine and bring her back home." Her smiles quickly fades as she narrows her eyes at you. "Now then. Why have you run from all of the other forces I have in the area? One who is merely curious shouldn't have to run."

Silence raises her eyebrows. "Run? I merely left them to their own devices. I came here to look, not to fight, and ploughing my way through camp after camp doesn't seem the best way to win friends and influence people." She pauses for a breath, then looks over at the village. "I imagined that Juggernaut would be bigger, somehow."

She shakes her head. "That isn't Juggernaut, my dear child. Not even close. Anyways, by my lord's command, I must ask that you depart from these lands. Or to allow..." She trails off as more shuffling and such can be heard before she sighs. "The troops from the First and Forsaken Lion that have been chasing you for the past few weeks finally catch up."

Silence stiffens, her eyes glinting with anger. She takes a step closer, her whisper barely carrying over the wind now as she says, "This is not your conflict. Would you make it such?"

She smiles slightly as her zombies turn towards the new arrivals. As they draw closer, you think there is probably ten to fifteen of them, and more in the distance. "I've been told to stay out of this one, for the most part, I'm afraid. I would advise making for the town as soon as possible, though. I can provide a distraction for you, but not much more." She shrugs.

Silence eyes this woman over for a long moment, hearing the shuffling behind her. She wonders briefly if another deathknight is with them, leading them. That would be inconvenient. She finally turns away from the pale-haired lady, fleeing into the night, her feet silent and swift over the sands, speeding her away from the other forces, though not toward the village.

She yells out as you begin to flee. "There is a group coming to this area that you will be able to hide within, soon enough! The next time we meet will have to be with crossed blades, however!" She smiles before she glances at the zombies, letting out a whistle. If Silence was to look back,she might notice a small form springing out of the dirt before crashing full tilt into the zombies, soon followed by the woman.

Silence does glance behind her, and once she sees the other deathknight attacking the forces behind her, she angles for the village, vaguely reassured that the woman hadn't set up some form of ambush. She pushes herself harder and faster, squinting a little as she comes closer to the torchlight.

A howl echos from where the fight is, soon followed by a flare of anima as the figure, now engulfed in the form of a canine, smashes into another concentration of the zombies. Then you are too far away to tell much else of the battle, as you near the town. As you draw closer, it seems that there is no one out and about on this night. Probably a good thing, considering the fight going on.

Silence slwos down some as she enters the town, panting. She catches her breath as she walks, looking for signs of anyone living here.

While no one seems to be outside at the moment, there are signs of people living here. A few wagons sit by the largest building of the town. Which isn't saying much, really. Some noise can be heard from there, as well. The rest of the town seems quiet, for the most part, as people rest. In the center of the town there is a watchtower, though currently empty.

Silence pauses to look around. She heads up to the watchtower, looking at it for a moment before stepping inside. All the while, she considers whether to wait for this group the other deathknight mentioned or to keep going and put as much distance as she possibly can between herself and the First and Forsaken's forces.

As you get to the top of the watchtower, you catch the tail end of the battle, as the two finish off the last few zombies before disappearing into the night. A particularly loud shout ensues from the building, then laughing and such. Other than that, though, the area surrounding the town seems pretty empty.

Silence watches, silent and still. She scans the horizon over and over, looking for signs of the pale-haired deathknight or her companions. When she sees none, she leans against the edge of the watchtower, letting the breeze whip her hair about. She should likely see about finding a place to sleep, but these people are ... repulsive to her. Perhaps she'll sleep outside tonight.

Silence finds a room in the watchtower that looks little-used and rests in it, letting sleep take her.

And so you rest. Quite possibly one of the most peaceful nights you've had. Of course, it ends all too soon as a new kind of shout is issued from the outside, soon followed by a rumbling sound and screaming.

Silence rouses herself and quickly and cautiously steps out of her temporary haven, looking around. She listens, her senses alert to what's going on outside, as she makes her way through the watchtower back to the top.

When you reach the top, you see that it is almost dawn. And that most of the town's buildings are in ruins. Zombies move throughout the area, diving upon any people they encounter and quickly dealing with them. There is another rumbling sound before a small, child like form bursts from one building, leaving it to begin to collapse behind him. He lets out a howl, and a few of the creatures join him as he begins chasing a few people.

Leaning against the edge of the railing is your benefactor from the last night, watching the carnage with a slight smile. "Did you rest well?"

Silence pulls her hood up with a glance to the east, nodding. She comes to stand beside the woman, remembering her words from last night. Well, there are worse places to cross blades with, and worse people.

She smiles, nodding as she shifts slightly. "They will be here soon enough, and will more than likely engage me in combat. Join them then, and they should accept you, though with some reservations, I'm sure." She glances at the battle, hrming a bit as she focused on one man in particular who wields a pair of hooked swords to great effect against the zombies. "...Interesting. So he went on ahead."

She smiles. "I'm afraid our own encounter will have to be delayed, sister, until the group arrives. Then we can continue." She glances at you. "Stay in here until they arrive, then do as you will when I greet them. I have a bit of business to finish, however." With that, she vaults over the edge, landing easily and beginning to approach the man as she draws her own blade.

Silence nods politely to the other deathknight, backing away from the railing as the other hops over it, narrowing her eyes and wondering again why this woman is (apparently) aiding her. She shrugs it off after a while, deicding to simply wait and see. After all, each deathknight does things for her own reasons, and if this one was going to betray her, the only thing she could really do to prevent it would be to kill the woman. She's not ready to do that yet. Instead, she turns and heads back into the watchtower, her boot treads light on the stairs as she heads down them.

The sound of blades clashing soon can be hear, followed by a shout or two before a howl of pain and the sound of something shattering. A few moments later, something is shouted in surprise before being quickly cutoff. Soon enough, the sounds of combat and the like quiet down, and all you can hear is silence from within the tower.

Silence goes to the door of the tower and looks out through the village, watching unseen from the shade of the tall structure.

The zombies are beginning to move out, a few bringing along bits of the bodies of those they have killed. They are lead out by the child, who appears to be wrapped in black cloth. Where the man was, the silver haired woman stands with a bloodied blade, smiling as she looks at the scene. The man's hooked swords are shattered, and there is a straight sword buried in his chest to the hilt.

Holding it is another woman, who, while lacking the soulsteel and all that, is most definitetly from the shadowlands at least. The man manages to cough out a few words amid the flow of blood from puncutured lungs and the like, prompting the woman to just twist it before he collapses, dropping the remnants of his blades.

The woman, it should be noted, seems to be one of the most beautiful women you have ever seen.

She and the other deathknight look quite alike, really.

Silence watches from the door, taking everything in carefully. She moves forward in the doorway a little, stepping into view while carefully avoiding the first rays of sunlight as they warm the ruins of the village.

The woman lacking the soulsteel removes the blade from the man, cleaning it off as she smiles. The other nods, grinning. "Nicely done, sister. Our lord will be pleased with this news. Prepare the greeting for his friends." She nods before getting to work on the body. Impossibly, he seems to actually still be alive, judging from how he screams in pain as he is drawn and quartered, then soon relieved of his arms and legs.

Meanwhile, the deathknight who you talked too before wipes off her own blade before turning towards you and sheathing it, raising a hand in a slight wave before she begins to approach.

Silence raises her hand, returning the wave. As the other gets close enough to hear her, she asks, "Who is that?" She pauses, then eyes the ex-man. "Who *was* that?" she corrects.

She glances over, as the other woman calls a few zombies over. She gives them a few instructions, and they nod before heading towards one of the buildings and ripping out a fairly well sized piece of wood before bringing it over. "One of those chosed by the Sun. He was a part of the group coming here, but it seems he decided to leave." She smiles. "Now he is freed from his life. He survived our last encounter."

The zombies push up the shard of wood before setting it into the ground, letting it stand. The woman nods before returning towards her work with the man. She begins removing his internal organs, not seeming to mind the blood or gore as she sets them aside. Once she finishes that, she quickly runs her blade across the limbs, cutting open skin to reveal muscle and bone.

He's /still/ screaming.

Until his lungs are removed, anyways. Oops.

Silence watches what's being done to the Exalt with a detached sort of interest. "... they are your enemies, and yet you wish me to band with them."

She smiles slightly. "I have a score of a sort with the one who gathered them. The rest seem willing enough to come after me after I retrieved my sister from them." She glances over. "They will cause trouble for the First and Forsaken Lion, and that is enough for both my purposes and my lord's. I would think you would like the chance to help in that regard, considering."

The man is soon mounted onto the stake with other bits of wood, seeming to have finally died. He is quite literally skin and bones, having had all other organs removed. The woman hims before she takes a few of the open limbs and his intestine, beginning to tie them back onto the man in what probably would be considered and artful fashion. For the complete desecration of a corpse, at least.

Silence tilts her head. The girl has talent. Shaking her head a little, she looks over at the closer one. "I won't ask how you know of the Lion's hunt. He was never very subtle anyhow." She steps away from the doorway again, more comfortable out of plain view. "Who are you?"

She smiles. "Sorrowful Solitude. You would be?"

The man's limbs are soon reattached by ropes fashioned from his intenstines, as the woman continues her work. She cuts and slices, arranging his other organs around and on him as she sees fit as an artist might paint a masterpiece. She removes a sparkling jewel from the man's pack and places it in his chest cavity, held in place by his rib cage. This is soon followed by her driving the blade through his throat into the wood behind it.

She stands back, admiring her handiwork.

Silence arches an eyebrow at the woman, then looks out toward the man again. "Beautific Silence. She has some talent, I think."

She nods. "A pleasure to meet you." She calls out to the woman, smiling. "Head back home with Hound, sister! It won't do for them to see you just yet. I'll be along after I greet them." She nods, turning and quickly walking away from the area before disappearing in a wisp of darkness. Solitude nods as she smiles. "She was raised for the purpose of becoming like us, serving our lord personally. I am quite proud of her, to be honest."

Silence inclines her head, keeping her thoughts to herself. She finally asks, "What do you expect in return for this, Lady of Sorrowful Solitude?"

She shrugs ever so slightly. "I do this on the orders of my master. However, once you join with the group, I can't help you anymore." She smiles faintly. "I suppose soon enough all will become clear. If you'd excuse me, I must go get ready for their arrival. They will be here in a few days, and I want to be ready for them."

Silence nods, once, then heads back into the tower to meditate, pondering why the Mask of Winters would bother with her. She finds her way down to the lowest level in the tower, taking comfort in the dank stone surrounding her.

And so you meditate within the tower's basements. Though they don't shed any light on the motivations behind this, they do calm you. And so we end.