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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 1502020" data-attributes="member: 15043">The Death of a Dear FriendI’m sorry. There is nothing that I can do.The words rang through Siabrey’s head, with the same force and violence as a fullblade crashing through her skull.  Nothing!?  There’s nothing you can do!?  Her heart gave a screeching wail, of which only a plaintive whimper emerged from her lips. It couldn’t have been good, Tess thought, hearing the small, desperate cry that came from her friend’s lips, and the way that Luke continued to buck and struggle against his bonds.  Hate and fury still bellowed forth from his eyes, and Tess saw only one solution left.A sorcerer’s power comes from their bloodline... somewhere in their past, usually, one of their ancestors was not a mortal.. usually a celestial, a demon, a dragon, or some other magical beast, whose traits are now exhibited even generations since their union with mortal flesh.  Should this be destroyed, a sorcerer loses his powers at least temporarily... in most cases, they cannot reestablish contact with the planes of magic, and their powers are lost forever...As these thoughts flooded through Tess’ mind, for a moment, she reflected.And then came to a decision.She pulled from her pocket a ring, which previously had three large rubies set into its electrum metal.  One of the rubies was now broken, and charred.  Cupping the ring carefully in her hands, Tess closed her eyes.“I wish that Lucius would have the demonic influence in his blood banished, and his body and mind be left whole and cleansed...” she whispered quietly.  She felt a surge of power, of might, and felt the small pop as another ruby broke.  She felt the influx of power seem to leave the ring, rushing towards the thrashing and writhing young man.  Luke’s body seemed to glow, first with a flaming, deep red.  His back arched high into the air, as a piercing scream left his soul, blasting through the bindings over his mouth.  His body rocked and shuddered violently, deep, devastating surges flooding his veins as his very lifeforce was altered, shifted, and changed.Siabrey recoiled away from the shaking form of her husband, fear and horror in her eyes as she saw what was overcoming him.  “NO!” she screamed, not realizing what Tess had done, fearing that he was being ripped from his very mortal coils.The glow around him slowly changed, from a blazing red to a neutral yellow, then a blazing green.  His writhing and screaming rose to frightening heights, before in mid cry, his body suddenly collapsed back to the ground.  Drenched in sweat, it lay still... his skin is normal cream, his eyes closed shut.“Luke?” Siabrey’s voice, shaky and wobbling from tears, called out.  She reached out a hand towards him, and gently lifted his own hand to her chest, tears streaming down her face.  Love?  Love...  please....As a finger curled around his wrist, she then felt it.A very faint, very weak, but very existent pulse.Her tears swiftly changed, into tears of joy, as she yanked his hand to her mouth, and showered kisses on it.  “Luke... Luke!  My gods.... Luke!” she repeated again and again.  You’re alive!  You’re alive!“I... I wished for his demonic blood to be banished from him,” Tess said quietly.  “He still breathes... though he may never be able to use magic ever again.”“I don’t care,” Siabrey said, her voice muffled as she leaned over and clutched his prone form, cradling his head in her arms and showering kisses on his forehead.  “He’s back!  You brought him back!”Tess beamed a smile of relief, as Luke’s eyes slowly floated open, and a confused look filled his eyes.“What... what happened?” his voice, quieter than a whisper, slowly asked.  “Love!” Siabrey screeched, showering more kisses on him, “You’re alright!  You’re alright!”  She could tell he was very confused when she delivered a powerful kiss on his lips, and they didn’t respond... instead giving her a very confused look.  “Love... remember me?” she asked, worried.“You’re Siabrey... my love and wife,” Luke said slowly, even painfully.  By the limpness in his body, Siabrey could already tell he wasn’t able to move on his own.  “I... I remember you were beside me, and then my mother showed up, and then...” his voice trailed off ominously, and his eyes danced with despair as a flood of memories he wished he could forget flooded back.“Sssshhh....ssshhh,” she cradled him.  “Its ok.  You’re safe!  You’re safe!”The party had a few minutes to feel relief at their friend’s safe return, before the noises of loud roars, growls and rumbles thundered into their ears from the center of the city.  Tess, Orion and Shaun looked towards the center of Irulas... and gasped at what they saw.In the heart of the city, several massive buildings, one of which the party recognized as the Jeweler’s Guild, another as one wing of the Mage’s Guild, were aflame.  Above the massive pyre were two enormous beasts, seeming locked in mortal combat.The first was enormous... from a comparison to the size of the buildings underneath, it was apparent the creature was easily close to four hundred feet in length, the blazing inferno underneath making his crimson scales seem to glow as if they were reddened by blood.  The slew of horns that crowned his head were majestic and terrible at the same time... Stalatan himself.Facing him was a creature barely a third his size, the blazing of the fire causing her silver scales to shine orange. Around the creature, the even smaller forms of other, younger silvers, golds and bronzes zipped about, nipping at the great beast.All, even the large silver, zipped to and fro, with amazing speed and agility in comparison to their massive quarry.  Stalatan’s movements seemed slow and ponderous, though none doubted that each of his claw swings would be deadly, and that a single bite from him could have snapped the silver’s neck.  Despite this, the smaller dragons kept their vicious, snapping attacks, until a split second later, the unthinkable happened.The massive red wyrm swung viciously at a small gold that had flashed near its eye, firing a blast of energy at the red wyrm’s vulnerable orbs.  Stalatan reared back in midair, and swung with his claws... one of which the silver flew right into.The force of the hit, even from this distance, seemed immense, as the silver did a cartwheel through the air, her wings flapping furiously as she tried to regain balance, and she tumbled below the party’s view.  A small plume of seeming dust (likely bricks and pieces of pavement) rose in the air, confirming she had not landed well.As the red dragon continued to fly back, rearing from its blind eye, another silver, easily twice other silver’s size, dove down from high above, claws outstretched, move agape.  Stalatan rolled onto his back, still in a blind fury, and unwittingly offered his throat for the large silver slash.  In a flurry of snaps and bites, the yellow sclaes along the bottom of the red wyrm’s neck became red themselves, and the beast, with the large silver biting furiously on top of it slammed into the center of the city.The party had watched the preceding drama over the course of twenty seconds, and only now began to react.  “C’mon!” Tess shouted, already clambering down stairs on the city-side of the battlements, “they need our help!  C’mon!  Lets go!”It took the party a full fifteen minutes to get from the battlements to where the carnage was, even at a full tilt (with Siabrey carrying Lucius’ still limp form on her back).  What they encountered was pure destruction.The Jeweler’s Guild, along with tends of shops and homes, lay in ruins, the massive, sprawled form of a great red wyrm covering their remains.  From the wyrm itself, the intense, pungent stink of blood hung in the air.  The massive beast no longer had a throat... indeed, Xanadu’s furious form (they coudl tell it was him by a series of familiar notches in his frill)  still hung over the dead creature’s neck, alternating looks between the dead beast, and a shuddering, silver mound behind him.If that’s Xanadu...“Alisandra!”  Tess screamed, running around the broken form of the red wyrm.  As the party, all at a run, dash around the massive head of the decimated dragon, they see the shuddering silver mound is, indeed, the prone form of a silver dragon, a massive part of her side missing... arrows all along her sides and back.“Ally!” Tess shouted.  Oh no!  Ally! she ran a hand along the beast’s shuddering head.  “Grumki!” Tess cried and pointed... the cleric was already making motions to Kord on high.”Little one... come to comfort me in my hour of shame?” Alisandra’s tired voice rang in Tess’ head.  As Tess looked into her eyes, she could see sadness, despair... a lok of abject failure.“What do you mean?  Your hour of failure?  You haven’t failed!  The demon army is routed, the great wyrm has been slain!  That’s hardly a failure!” Tess rubbed her head gently, lovingly.  “You’ve been through a lot, dear Ally.  Please... don’t be hard on yourself because Stalatan knocked you down,” Tess said, as Grumki’s heal spell caused the wounds on Alisandra’s sides to close, and the arrows in her gullet to spill out.”I failed...  I did not protect my rider... and he fell...” she said mournfully, and Tess saw the dragon’s eyes shimmer, as tears began to well up.  ”I failed him!”  It was then that Tess noticed the crushed riding saddle, partly under Alisandra’s frame.  No body lay there.”Failed who...”  Tess started to question, before her mind jumped back to a conversation from a few weeks prior...  “Oh god!  Pell!” An immediate, quick search was launched of all the surrounding rumble, Tess leading the way.  Pelleron!  Pell!  Oh no... not Pell!  He was so kind, so sweet... a gentlemen! her mind cried, as she flipped over timbers and kicked aside stucco.  A few bloodied bodies, mostly of women and children, were pulled from the wreckage, but no sign of the paladin.After five minutes of frantic searching, finally Tess heaved aside a beam, revealing a bloody hand that she recognized, a signet ring emblazoned with the lightning bolt of Hieroneous on its finger.“Pell!  Pell!  Gods no!” she cried, yanking aside more timbers until Pellaron’s bloody, crushed form was finally visible, by all possible means, dead.  Grumki was already at her side, and she listened in fear and despair as his familiar words now echoed in the air for the second time over Pellaron’s form.“Kord, thou strength is needed this day!  Death has seen fit to call home this man of great courage and power, when there is much left in this world that needs his strength and power!  Kord, I beseech the to intercede with those that ferry souls, and inform them that this man is still needed here!” Grumki called, completing the arcane components required for his ressurection spell.  Tess watched in terrified wonder as Grumki then closed his eyes, and she barely heard above the crackle of flames:“Pellaron... your body can be raised, if you soul wishes to return.  Do you wish to return to this world?” the orc said quietly.  His eyes suddenly clinched, and the beast seemed to grit his teeth.  Suddenly they flashed open.And Pell’s body lay still.  No eyes flickered open, no hands clasped and unclasped.  “Hieroneous has called him home, dear Tess.  He cannot return.”</blockquote>

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