Gift

Reborn a Shadow

'With blood shot eyes I watch you sleeping The warmth I feel beside me is slowly fading Would she hear me if I called her name? Would she hold me if she knew my shame? There’s always something different going wrong The path I walk is in the wrong direction There's always someone hanging on Can anybody help me make things better?'

''Shadows… consuming... warping.''

Entriia’s eyes flashed open. Her hair and pale face were plastered in sweat. Carefully Entriia raised her head, glancing down at the sleeping form lying peacefully besides her. Kissing her gently on the lips; Entriia did her best to slip away silently. Entriia examined herself, with a mixture of revulsion and fascination, in the small mirror hanging on the meeting chambers wall. A gaunt corpse stared back at her, her once brilliant white eyes, an unnatural expressionless black.

A purple clad guard shivered and drew his cloak more firmly around himself, glancing around in distrust at the long, flickering shadows of the Eastern Keeps dark silent halls. One shadow in particular slipped past him and darted down a corridor, reveling in her newly improved abilities. Hours later just before the break of dawn the shadow slipped back into the main hall, slipping under the rugs and skins laid out across the stone floor. Entriia frowned slightly hearing her lovers murmured words as she slept restlessly.

Entriia flicked her head slightly. A long, barbed hunting arrow flew past her head. She threw out her hands and hissed a string of unintelligible words, tendrils of pure shadow arched out from her palms. Her target screamed in pain, dropping to the ground writhing in pain as the shadows ate away his flesh. The kal’dorei giggled softly and scanned the copse for more playthings. Three more bandits broke cover and charged towards her, their crude weapons unsheathed. Entriia waited till the last moment then spun out of the closest bandit’s reach, one hand curling around her whip handle. The bandit sneered and came at her again, blade raised. The kal’dorei spun lighting fast behind him and flicked the whip out sending it cracking against the males head, He staggered and turned, spitting at Entriia. “I’m goin to fucking kill you, elven whore!” the bandit promised angrily. Laughing, the kal’dorei extended her whip, forcing a second male to jump back. Her other hand drew a long ornately carved kris, with a flick of her wrist Entriia sent it spinning to her side. The third bandit cried out and fell to the ground, hands desperately scrabbling to pull the embedded dagger from his throat. Without pausing to see if her weapon had disabled her target, Entriia curled the whip under the bandit, who had promised her death, legs, tugging and bringing him hurtling to the ground with a curse. The remaining bandit approached the laughing elf cautiously, a dagger in one hand, gleaming short sword in the other. The pair circled each other for a few moments. The bandit came in high with his sword. Entriia brought the dagger up, deflecting his blow. They traded blows for a few more seconds before Entriia suddenly stood back, throwing a hand out with a cold laugh. The bandit’s eyes widened in surprise and horror as a glob of writhing black fire flew from her palm. Entriia descended on the last bandit, still struggling in vain to free himself of the writhing whip that had coiled around his limbs. Entriia drew her hooded and shadow shrouded face close to his. The bandit spat at her, increasing his hopeless efforts to escape the bindings. Entriia answered only with a grin.

The shadows beneath Entriia’s hood oozed outwards, spreading across the doomed mans face rapidly consuming him. The bandit scream was like music to the kal’dorei. Entriia grasped the dying man’s left wrist, her other hand slashed a cruel looking ridged dagger across his artery, the fountain of blood drenching her hands. With a smile of pleasure Entriia whispered coldly, “All comes to an end, Death...” With that, the kal’dorei placed a long, sharply nailed finger on the bandits blood covered wrist and hissed “Rakil Melar”. The dying man shivered slightly, his eyes rolling back into his head as Entriia drained his body completely of blood. With an ecstatic groan of pleasure the elf finally pulled her hand away from the dead corpse. Purring contently Entriia began licking her long slender hands clean of the killing before letting out a piercing whistle, calling to her nearby saber and riding back towards the Keep before dawn broke once more on a new day and her companion woke.

' The moments died, I hear no screaming The visions left inside me are slowly fading Would she hear me if I called her name? Would she hold me if she knew my shame? -Bullet for my valentine, Tears don’t fall'