Sidestory 3: In Hardsoil

[Dracos]

Jan 07 18:24:02 <Kamvakua>   It was quiet in the inn in Stratusberg.  The townsfolk largely out at work, and the innkeeper behind the desk, glancing over the finances.  Inside his room at the inn, Kamvakua was largely indifferent to such, a day after the fearful experience, his guts still twisted inside as he stayed largely put in the large flat bed he was renting, his feet off the end and hoped the ceiling would stop producing Dwavish orchestras in slime green at some point.  At the side of his bed was a book in Auran, left open from the last attempt to try and distract himself from the foul poison.  If anything, being laid up with poison was boring.
Jan 07 18:28:29 <Nikkolai>   Nikkolai has been out all of the previous evening and most of that day, prowling restlessly in search of information regarding where the Air Elemental and Wynverns had come from. After over a year and several months free from *Her*, he felt the old familiar fear begin to creep upon him.
Jan 07 18:31:54 <Nikkolai>   He found old habits returning to him; shrinking back from crowds, peering closely into unfamiliar faces, and walling his heart away from the world. There was nothing to do but run from Her, flee. He might put up a brave front in front of his comrades, but terror and fear consumed him. He reaches the inn, starting up the stairs to his room. At the crest of the steps...he pauses at the entrance to Kamvakua's room. A sliver of guilt shot through him.
Jan 07 18:32:14 *   Nikkolai knocks gently on Kam's door, half-hoping he's not heard.
Jan 07 18:41:25 <Kamvakua>   A terrible cough was heard in answer, Kamvakua's hearing still fairly good, despite his head throbbing miserably.  "If you've come for my life, take a number, and I will thrash you soundly when I am ready."
Jan 07 18:43:07 *   Nikkolai opens the door and steps in quickly, closing it behind him. "Fortunately, I'm not here to stick a dagger in your chest." Nikkolai eyes the large man before striding closer to the bed. "I merely stopped by to see how you were faring."
Jan 07 18:45:14 <Kamvakua>   "I have been better.  I will have to remember...what those things were.  Not to let their tails get that close."  His blue eyes looked closer to grey as he turned his head, eying over the blurry form of Nikkolai.  "Are you alright?"
Jan 07 18:47:43 <Nikkolai>   "They were wyverns. I hadn't realized that She had gained such nasty servants." Nikkolai pauses, apparently thinking on how to answer the question posed. "I'm well as can be, considering I didn't take the brunt of the damage."
Jan 07 18:49:08 <Kamvakua>   He gave a gentle wave with his large hand, gesturing the man in from where he seemed almost paralyzed against the door.  "That is well.  Wyverns, huh?  The further you go, the stranger things you find.  They seemed more like flying scorpions."  He waited for Nikkolai to get closer. shifting onto his side. "It seems you have..." He coughed. "A grave worry of your own."
Jan 07 18:51:32 *   Nikkolai glances about for a stool or a chair. Spying a rickety chair in the corner of the room, he dragged it over to Kam's bedside. "So long as we aren't here to meet it, it won't be much of a worry." He responded lightly.
Jan 07 18:52:55 <Kamvakua>   "A life spent fleeing, is no life at all.  Who has so afeared you?"  He rubbed his forehead, moving over his bald head.
Jan 07 18:56:38 *   Nikkolai had had no intention of telling the Goliath anything. As it was, only Mari and poor Bard knew who and what he was running from, and Eva had taken the secret to her grave. The large warrior was nothing more than a quiet newcomer, useful for keeping Nikkolai safe. But seeing him wracked with the pain of the poison, poison he'd been given in the course of defending Nikkolai as he would a friend...perhaps he could share the story with one more. They all would have to hear it one day, though he hoped that day was far off.
Jan 07 18:59:15 <Nikkolai>   "When I was very young," He began in a quiet voice, "my parents sold me into slavery to a local Sorceror, the Lady of the Green Kirtle. My parents could not abide my manifesting powers, especially since I had accidentally burned down the family home."
Jan 07 19:01:14 <Nikkolai>   "I was bound to her for many years, and though she taught me how to control my power, she dangled the knowledge I craved beyond my reach." He reached up and pulled aside his neckline, revealing the small green necklace at his throat. "This was how she retained her mastery over me."
Jan 07 19:04:02 <Nikkolai>   "She was a cruel, vicious old woman, and delighted in making me suffer. She would often tell me of her plans to achieve immortality and I realized that I would live out the rest of my days under her lash should she achieve her goal."
Jan 07 19:04:21 *   Kamvakua listened, his eyes taking in the story with patience.
Jan 07 19:06:19 *   Nikkolai hides the necklace from sight once more. "For years, I fetched ingredients for her and helped her prepare for a spell that must have been enormously complicated and required vast amounts of power. I learned eventually that she planned to become...a lich."
Jan 07 19:08:07 <Kamvakua>   "A...Lich?  Isn't that an undead?  Why would anyone want to be such?" He coughed, trying to understand a bit.
Jan 07 19:09:23 *   Nikkolai shrugs. "I honestly do not know. It seems to me that death would be preferable to a half-life to the one she desired."
Jan 07 19:12:17 *   Kamvakua nods.  "It is hard to understand the thinking of those who are so very different.  The gap can often be insurmountable.  What did you do though, when you discovered her odd plan?  it sounds as if she hurt you greatly, and I would not wear the symbol of any who so strove to harm me."
Jan 07 19:13:38 *   Nikkolai closes his eyes in remembrance."I hoped that in the hours immediately after her transformation, she'd be weakened just enough for me to flee. I snuck past her wards and stole into her chambers while she was sleeping off the effects of the transformation. How I got past them without alarming her, I'll never know."
Jan 07 19:15:12 <Nikkolai>   "I wanted to kill her right there. But...I could not. Her power over me was still that great. " He sighed. "I stole her phylactery, the source of her new power as a lich and fled the keep, burning it down behind me as I went."
Jan 07 19:16:21 <Nikkolai>   "The next several weeks are a blur. I gained access to the Planes and dropped the phylactery in the first place that looked good, I imagine. I've been running ever since, hoping that she had died in the fire or forgotten about me."
Jan 07 19:16:45 *   Nikkolai opens his eyes. "As to the necklace...I have never been able to take it off. No matter what I do to it."
Jan 07 19:17:47 <Kamvakua>   "A harsh symbol to bear...and, you think she wants you back?" He groaned, his words a bit slow with the poison.  "This...Kyrtile?"
Jan 07 19:19:39 *   Nikkolai grimaces, the first emotion to pass over his impassive face during the entire conversation. "I do not know a great deal of liches. Perhaps she needs me to lead her to her phylactery. Perhaps she wants me back as her slave. Or perhaps...she simply wishes to extract revenge."
Jan 07 19:22:23 <Kamvakua>   "You..." He used a strange word that Nikkolai didn't quite get, sounding somewhat like rocks clicking along a river. "those with the Dao, didn't you?"
Jan 07 19:23:23 *   Nikkolai frowns. "I...what? I didn't catch that word you used."
Jan 07 19:24:56 <Kamvakua>   He blinked.  "Oh... ' He shook his head a bit, and then regretted it, going silent for a while as the walls seemed to swirl around him.  "Understood or was as one with?  Common is not so expressive at times."
Jan 07 19:27:42 <Nikkolai>   "Unfortunately not." Nikkolai agreed. "I think the word you're looking for is 'empathized'. Yes, I...understand the mind of slave, having been one myself. Freedom is still relatively new to me." A hard look enters his eyes. "All slavers deserve to die."
Jan 07 19:30:59 <Kamvakua>   "Freedom, I have known all of my years.  The notion of being restrained is foreign.  From my youngest days, to even now.  i know not the one who follows, but as long as you are in our company, it will need to cross a sea of blood and suffering to lay a hand on you again.  I am not one that stands by as others are chained."
Jan 07 19:34:48 *   Nikkolai nods stiffly, not really sure how to respond to such a heartfelt declaration. "My thanks. I had originally joined this group in the hopes that it would provide a distraction for me to escape, if ever I should be discovered." He looks down in his lap. "I think...that perhaps standing by my friends would be better than simply using them, as I have done before."
Jan 07 19:42:28 <Kamvakua>   "If you flee always, and treat others as distractions, you will find yourself alone when she comes.  It is hardest to wrestle a man with a thousand friends to the ground." An odd collaquism.   "Though, you should find a way to remove that brand.  It cannot be good for you," He coughed again, leaning back into his bed as he quivered a moment, his normally golden sheened skin seeming more bronzed.  "Nor it seems wyverns are any good for me."
Jan 07 19:45:54 *   Nikkolai ponders quietly for a few moments. "I've yet to meet anyone who could help me get this off. I've simply given up trying." He nods in Kam's direction. "No, they most certainly are not. Rest is the best remedy for such things. If worse comes to worse, we shall pay a healer to remove the poison from your veins."
Jan 07 19:49:36 <Kamvakua>   "I can survive it," He laughed roughly.  "One does not walk the road to heaven and falter on one's own strength.  It is a long road though." He smirked weakly.  "Another day or two and I will be hearty as normal, and maybe a bit swifter next time with pike."
Jan 07 19:53:43 *   Nikkolai smiles slightly. "If you can overcome this poison in mere days, you are a stronger man than you know." Nikkolai pauses. "You are the only other person who knows of my past. I'm not sure if I told Mari as much as I've told you. Even so, I would ask that you keep this to yourself. I would like to tell the others on my own terms, if I must tell them at all."
Jan 07 19:58:19 <Kamvakua>   "If you have not noticed, I can be as silent as the mountains.  But it is not my story to tell and I will keep your confidence."  He reached over, picking up his book.  "You should tell them yourself though.  They will not think less of you for it.  You are among Bright folk, as the Eladrin would say."
Jan 07 20:00:39 <Nikkolai>   "Perhaps that is so." Nikkolai rises from his seat and absently waves it back to its corner. It goes, floating quietly. "In any case, rest and get better. We should leave here soon."
Jan 07 20:01:01 *   Nikkolai walks back to the door. "Good day, Kamvakua."
The thoughtful giant turned back, trying to focus again on his studies as the room grew darker before his tired eyes.  Auran was such a flighty language.