Gift

[shaila]

The point of light hovered in her dreams. Dreams which consisted of nothing but darkness, now contained a single point of light. It made her uncomfortable. She wished it would go away.It told her to wake up. She didn't want to wake up. She liked this. But it insisted again, and again she resisted. She enjoyed these black dreams. She had never known such peace before. Just doubt, anger and regret.

Then the fire came. The light burst into flames, searing her body, her very soul.



She screamed, opening her eyes as she writhed on the cold stone ground of...wherever she was. A rank smell of death filled her nose as the fire continued to burn her. She looked down at her body, trying to pat the fire out with her hands, and was surprised to find there was no fire to put out. It came from within, but what could...?

She widened her eyes, as the realization hit her.

"FUCK!"

With the realization came a fresh stab of pain, as the Gift of the Naaru continued to burn her. It would burn her until she was a pile of dust, she knew, if only she could figure out -why- so she could stop it. It was then that she heard the voices. Yet the pain filling her drowned out what they were saying, and soon they stopped. A hooded man came into her view, standing over her. He had a knife, that glowed with dark magic.

"Will you let him kill you?"

She grit her teeth as she writhed, wondering at the unfamiliar voice that intruded into her mind. She didn't like it, yet...

The knife was brought down.

"Kill him!"

Her hand shot up and grabbed his arm. She felt rage with all she was being assaulted with at once, and she used that rage to force herself to her hooves, constantly keeping a tight grip on the acolyte, squeezing harder and forcing him to drop the knife.

He said something to her, but she ignored it, the Gift renewing once again.

"MAKE IT STOP!" She screamed at him, twisting his arm and throwing him to the ground. He stayed there, clutching the arm she had twisted. Had she broken it? She turned her furious gaze to the nearest other person, a necromancer that was looking at her cal-...a necromancer?

"You did this!" She yelled. "YOU did this to me!" She growled, swayed, and clutched her head, trying to gain focus through the pain.

"You are the only one who can make it stop."

She fell to her knees, slamming her fists onto the ground, and screamed again. Her tail thrashed, and she grit her teeth. She clenched her fists, digging into the flesh of her palms, yet she didn't feel anything of it.

"Leave me..." she pleaded, squeezing her eyes shut.

It persisted.

"Leave me," she sayed again, gazing ahead with dim eyes.

"LEAVE ME!" She screamed, her eyes blazing with a new, cold and blue fire.

The pain left her.

She collapsed to the ground, and she noticed that she wasn't breathing hard at all. Well...she wasn't even breathing. For the first time since she woke up she was able to appreciate how strange a sensation it was.

"Well done," said a voice, ragged with age.

She looked up to see the necromancer standing above her, his skin pale, his mouth twisted into a smile beneath his macabre hat that seemed to be the skull of some horselike creature.

"Now, get up. You don't need help up. You're not tired."

She agreed. She wasn't tired. She stood up, gazing at the necromancer evenly.

"Welcome to Acherus, the Ebon Hold. You have been recruited as part of the Lich King's next generation of Death Knights."

Akeelah blinked, then smiled.

"Oh my."

[Lans]

((OH SHI- ....accompanying illustration coming soon.))

[Sunshine]

Nov 11, 2008 20:01:44 GMT -5 Lans said:

((OH SHI-

[shaila]

Akeelah frowned. "You look ugly now. Why would you let this happen? You were kinda handsome, y'know."

The man lay against the foot of his bed, bloody burned and broken from the torture that Akeelah had been putting him through for the past hour and a half. His eye gazed dully down at the floor, his other eye missing from its socket. His formerly honey brown hair was now matted and darkened from the blood sticking in it. Akeelah looked at the bed, where the corpse of his wife lay. She had been screaming too much when the death knight had first entered the room.

Akeelah stood there, frustrated, in her black plated armor and kilt, her long and newly white hair framing her face, her metal tipped tail thrashing behind her like a cat's when it's watching its prey.

"I messed up," she finally said. "I'll admit that. I'm a big enough woman to admit when I've made a mistake." She folded her arms, considering, then shook her head. "It was a mistake to kill your wife right off. Y'know, she just annoyed me, and I lost my temper, and I killed her, and now I'm sorry for that."

She crouched down, peering at the man.

"I bet you woulda talked if I had tortured her in front of you. But, I think I can salvage this!"

She stood up, clapping her hands together once and smiling, then strode over to the bed where his wife lay dead. Akeelah chanted some low, demonic words, and placed her claws, swirling with dark energy, over the body of the man's wife. He stirred only slightly as she carried out her spell, twitching. The man's wife began to twitch as well, and then she began to scream.

It was a scream you only hear in a mental ward. The newly animated corpse began tearing at its own skin, writhing and twisting in place, trying to destroy itself as Akeelah continued the chanting, her own eyes widening in fascination at the spectacle this silly woman was making of herself as she was revived. Within another minute the spell was over, and the mutilated, now very lively but still very much dead corpse lay curled on the bed, gibbering to itself. The man was now quietly sobbing, hunched over a bit more, a hand on each side of his head.

"Ahhh," Akeelah whispered. "We have a response." She made a quick gesture to the ghoul, bidding it to rise.

It rose, gazing at Akeelah with empty eyesockets. Akeelah pointed at the man, and the ghoul turned to look at him.

"Reunite with your loved one. Make it a reunion worthy of Lovelace, will you?"

The ghoul growled, and began crawling over the bed to the man.

"W-wait!" He coughed with the effort of speaking, his voice hoarse. "Please...no...anything but...but to end like this...with her like...like that. I'll tell you. I'll tell you about the Crimson Dawn."

Akeelah smiled brightly, bidding the ghoul to stop. She walked over to the man, and knelt down in front of him. She raised his head up to face her, caressing him gently with her claws.

"Good," she whispered. "Tell me what I need to know..." Her metal-tipped tail raised behind her, pointing the razor sharp tip towards the man. "...and you may finally die. It will end, just like that."

He nodded grimly, and began to tell her everything he knew.

[shaila]

Akeelah leaned against the side of the balcony, gazing out over the plaguelands from the Ebon Hold. In her mind she went over the events of the past few days. The razing of the Scarlet village. The battle at Light's Hope. Tirion Fordring. After that battle, the death knights of Ebon Hold had regained their complete free will. They had all realized they had been tools.

Akeelah had regained nothing. She had regained nothing because there was nothing for her to regain. Only when she had first awoken had the Lich King ever felt a need to whisper into her mind. She had been drunk with the new power that flowed through her body. It was all she had ever wanted. In the past few days, countless people had knelt at her hooves. They had regarded her with awe, and fear. She wasn't just a slut for people to scorn, and attack with that -look- they always gave her. Making fun of her behind her back, mocking the silly little whore.

She had always had a venomous tongue. Now she had the power to drive that venom into their very souls. To bring them to their knees, while making them doubt all they had ever known and seeing her as their savior from the pain of it all. They would praise her before the end. They might even worship her, as she sliced her sword right through their necks. The white-haired goddess with the blazing blue eyes. And now her beauty would truly last forever, even past the naturally long lifespans of her own people.

And at the end of it all, Boreaul, her father, the wretched man'ari scum that had made her all she was today, would beg her for mercy. She gritted her teeth, eyes narrowing and her fists clenching. The stony ground around her frosted over, icicles forming on the edge of the balcony.

He would get -none-.

A gargoyle alighted on the edge of the balcony, and made an inquisitive chirp at her. Her face softened, and she layed back on the steps leading to the balcony, holding out her arm for the gargoyle to perch on. It did so, and she scratched its chin fondly, cooing at it.

"You are such a comfort, Delanithan," she said, smiling. "You're right, I was thinking too far ahead. We have catching up to do with our friends. And before all of that..." She sighed, resting her cheek on a hand. "I really need to thank the one who gave me this wonderful gift of death."

[shaila]

And that's it for Akeelah's re-introduction story. Thanks for tuning in!