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Message: <blockquote data-quote="andrew_kenrick" data-source="post: 1180205" data-attributes="member: 6870">The party ride into the night, their invisible mounts carrying them swiftly away from the combat behind. The party have had a long day, and it was already past midnight when they first entered the gnoll camp. It is not long before the adrenaline of the fight begins to wear off and weariness and tiredness to creep into their bones. “I can go on no more.” Pronounces Niltsiar, drawing his horse up sharply and forcing the others to do the same. “I have been riding all day, and am exhausted. Please can we stop now.” Similar sentiments are expressed by many of the others.Aramil concedes. “It seems further flight is beyond us - I suggest we find somewhere concealed to make a short camp.” Owyn finds a good spot and the party members begin to unpack their bedrolls and blankets. Niltsiar clears a large space and begins to incant a spell.Fervil is first to speak. “Right. What exactly was it you, or your goddess, did to Errowin?”“I cursed him that from this day forward Rahanna's gift life would be withdrawn from him. The strength of the curse went far beyond anything I thought I was capable of calling.” He adds, almost as an after thought. “Though I cannot say I am sorry to see him meet such an end”“Did the Lady intervene?” Asks Owyn.“She must have - I ask her aid but she acts as she wills it, Errowin must have offended her greatly in his service to the Void”“The Void is a blight upon this existence, I have no doubt that it offends the lady.” Comments Owyn. As he does so, a sizeable hut appears in front of Niltsiar, seemingly from nowhere. Niltsiar looks pleased, and moves over to the door. “Seven of you can find a bed inside here. the other two, I’m afraid, must use the floor. I will light the fire. And don’t mess with the windows, you'll set off the alarms.”Aramil declines, as do all the party except Ertai and Waldair. Aramil apologises but Niltsiar looks offended all the same. “I hope I will not offend you by choosing to sleep outside. I feel the need to be close to my goddess this night” He turns to face Fyanilin, who is quietly rooting about in his pack. “Come sit with me a while if you would...” Fyanilin comes over to join him as Owyn, Fervil and Gwylith contemplate Errowin’s fate and wonder if the Void will return him to life. The question remains unanswered, for no one wishes to think that he may once again return. Aramil pays little heed to their conversation and begins to speak with Fyanilin. “If you would Fyanilin, please tell us fully of how you came to work for Errowin?”Fyanilin sighs a sad sigh and stands, dropping his pack to the ground. He reaches behind himself and snatches at something unseen. “It begins, with this.” He pulls forward a long, thin, tapering black tail with a sharp-looking tip. “This is the legacy of my grandfather. You will understand already if you know of the Fiendish Domains.” Fervil frowns in confusion and Aramil looks somewhat pensive. Fyanilin continues. “I am of the race which you might know as Tiefling. I am a direct male-line descendant of a devil.”“You grandfather?” Asks Owyn.Fyanilin nods solemnly. “He was powerful, or so I have heard. He was also a servant of the Void.”Owyn shudders. “Born into the service of the enemy … You have my sympathies Fyanilin.”“My father, being a first-generation son of a Devil, was a monstrous beast of a halfling. Scaly, black, and winged like a bat, he was all that mothers would seek to comfort their children about, screaming in the night. My mother, the poor woman, was simply in the wrong place at the wrongest of times. Raped and nearly killed in the process, she was made pregnant by the hell-beast I loathe to call my father. But this tail ... this forsaken tail ... is my legacy of the evil residing in my very blood.”Owyn nods thoughtfully before asking. “So how did Errowin find you? What did he offer you and what did you do for him?”“Living as the spawn of a half-fiend and a forsaken woman is not an easy task, in any situation. One is shunned by all. As badly as my village hated the devils, they all hated me. All save my mother. She raised me as she would raise any son, with love and discipline, but the rest of the town hated the both of us for our circumstances. A bad year came, and with it, a disease that killed many animals and plants, destroying livestock and crops. There was naught we could do to defend ourselves. The villagers decided that it was our presence that brought the deaths of the crops and livestock, and so they came knocking at my mother's door one dark night, with pitchforks and torches.“It is a sorrowful thing when out of fear blame is laid at the door of innocents.” Comments Aramil.Owyn agrees. “Awful and all to frequent in this world”“I will not relate to you what kinds of things befell my mother, nobody deserves to hear such a gruesome tale. I was... ‘Lucky’ ... in that I was out that night, and came back only in time to look in through the window to our home, and watch. A young boy, close to 4 years younger than I, was out that night, mayhaps wondering where everyone was. He had the misfortune of being there just after they finished with my mother. He no longer lives, and but a single cry of pain came from his lips as my anger took me. I know not what I did to that boy. After I came back and saw more than red, heard more than the blood pounding in my ears, dripping from my nose, I fled. I ran far, and I ran fast. I stumbled, but got up and continued running. I did not stop for over a day, when I fell and passed out from exhaustion. I know not how, but I found my way first to a stream of fresh water, and then into a large city. A youth with no place to live and nobody to rely on in such a place become exactly what I did, a common street-urchin thief. But, I was more than a common thief, I was gifted, or so it seemed to the local thieves guild.”Those of the party who remain awake listen intently. Only Marenon, Ertai and Niltsiar sleep unawares.“Years passed, I grew older, smarter, better at my new-found ‘craft.’ I know not, to this day, whether it was misfortune or if it was planned that I should meet the Knight, who we now know to be Errowin.”“Planned I'd wager...” Says Owyn.“But meet him I did, to my own misfortune. At a tavern, I hoped to steal his purse, which for a man of so great of obvious stature would be large and heavily laden with gold. I succeeded, thinking he was drunk, and walked out of the bar with the large sack of gold in my hands. I thought it was gold, but opening the purse, I found naught but copper. I knew I had been deceived, when I suddenly felt pain, and then blacked out. When I came to, I was bound and sitting in a very uncomfortable chair, staring at the hateful grin of Errowin. He had pulled loose my tail, which I had always sought to hide, and silenced me before he began to talk. He told me about myself, about how wretched my existence had been and about the torment which I had witnessed and endured in my short life. Then, knowing all this, he offered to employ me. You may not know how it feels, all of you having lived in the light all your lives, with devotions far beyond those of coin or flesh, but that a man would willingly employ a being borne of evil …”Aramil looks sadder and sadder as the tale progresses.“It was indescribable, such as being given a, though very clichéd, second chance at life.”“And you jumped at the chance...” Sighs Owyn.Fyanilin nods. “So I followed this man, whom would have me only refer to him and know him as The Knight. He was my saviour, my benevolent master. It was that way, at least, until he started having me do the work he truly wished.” The tiefling closes his eyes in memory for a moment before continuing. “Do you know how it feels to walk behind a man and end his life in the coldest of blood? Do you know what it feels like to push a small, sharp dagger through a man's spine, to see the surprised look of pain and anguish, that goes beyond a scream? To know that man had got up that morning hoping to do the best he could with his life, knowing that he would have a great day of doing whatever he did?”Aramil looks aghast. “No. Of course not. But then we have not lived as you have had to.”“I do, because The Knight wished it to be so. I have taken, in cold blood, the lives of dozens of men who did not suspect such a thing could even come to them. I have ended bloodlines, all because the Knight wished it so. And even after all I did for him, I rarely saw him....he always sent his "pet" raven to give me the instructions.” Shocked, Owyn asks. “Could you not have stopped yourself?”“Did you not hear him Owyn? This man gave him a chance when no other would shelter him - when all hands were turned against him because of his blood. Why should he not serve the only man who had showed kindness?” Replies Aramil.Fyanilin continues. “Could you, on a whim, stop serving your god? Could an angelic servant of a god just stop doing what it's master wills? Can the sun stop shining because it wishes for darkness?”“My Goddess would not ask me to murder in cold blood.” Responds Owyn, bowing reverentially.Aramil’s answer does not fill his heart with joy. “We do not know what She may require of us. If she did would you? Would I?”“Cold blooded murder of an innocent? If She required that of us would She deserve our loyalty? She would not ask it.” Replies Owyn.“I didn't say of an innocent. And remember the schism within the church was fought over the simple question 'do the ends justify the means'. Regardless can you blame Fyanilin for what he has been forced to do?”“I remember the schism and I remember the outcome. And no, I cannot and do not blame Fyanilin completely for his life nor what he has done yet he must shoulder some of the blame and responsibility. They were his actions in the end.”“Please stop assuming that I am trying to relieve myself of any blame. My choices were my own, and I was not powerless, but still weak.” Replies Fyanilin.Aramil turns away from Owyn and back to Fyanilin. “Much as it saddens me to hear, please continue - I would know how despite everything you came to stand with us at the end”“And I am sorry for interrupting you, please do go on, much as your tale distresses me I feel that we need to hear it's conclusion.” Apologises Owyn.Fyanilin continues. “I had given up my soul the moment I tore the life from that young boy. I was never given the chance to question the Knight, things simply were as they forever would be. I knew that what I was doing was wrong, but would I give mine own life for someone who would shun me if they even had the slightest idea, the smallest hint, at what I was, what I was born to be? No, I could not bring myself to protect with my own life those whom I would be hated by. But, it seems, there was a small problem with the last assignment I was given. His raven flew to me in Maan, and brought with it my last quest. I was to infiltrate and travel along with a band of adventurers some ways outside the city. They had sent one of their own in to retrieve supplies, but he had been arrested that morning. You all know most of the story from the moment that I rescued Sir Waldair up to this very point”Owyn’s brow furrows in confusion for a moment. “Yes, but what changed? Why did you find the strength to defy Errowin at last? Why did you help us fight?”“Why did you turn against this master who had so ruled your life. What did we do to earn your trust?” Asks Aramil.“While travelling, even the small amount we did together, I finally realised that there were people who would be able to help me rid myself, and this world, of the Knight.”Fervil raises his voice for the first time and asks “What was your task once you had infiltrated us? Simply help slay us?”“Errowin did not want you slain, because one, or maybe more of you, is required to open the gate to The Void, to unleash the nothingness upon all. I was here to report to him, to do his bidding, and eventually slay whomever he needed gone.”“But now it is he who is gone, by the power of the Goddess and Aramil through whom that power is channelled. So what shall you do with yourself?” Asks Owyn.“A man can live only so long without his own soul, and I have reached my time. If I was going to die, I decided, it would either be at my own hand, or in a battle to destroy Him. I have given up on it all. If I hadn't made this decision, more than likely some, or all of you, would be dead now, save for whomever is needed to open the gate.” Says the tiefling.Fyanilin suddenly jumps at Aramil, pulling forth his shortsword and driving it tip-first into the ground directly in front of the cleric. Gripping the handle with his left hand, he braces himself, then slides his right hand from tip of the blade to the hilt in a long, slow motion. He uses his left hand to spread a small streak across his own forehead, then a singular dot in the middle of Aramil's. “I now bind myself, by my very blood, to you. Your judgement is now, to me, law. In your service, from now forward, I live. You are my only master, and I shall obey no other before thee.” Fyanilin then withdraws the blade and proffers it to Aramil, kneeling in front of him as he does so. “You have done an incalculably brave thing.” Begins Aramil. “To have come to stand in the light, though you began in deepest darkness. It is easy for one who has always stood in the light to continue to walk in it - but for one to willingly move from darkness, that is true grace. It is I who should be kneeling to you. I am no master to rule men - I am a priest and I can offer you only what a priest may offer.”Fyanilin remains still in front of the priest.“Do you regret your actions in the past Fyanilin? Do you repent the evils you have done? No matter how they came to be - are you sorry?”“Yes, Master Cleric.”“Then take my hands.” Aramil offers Fyanilin his hands, palms up and Fyanilin drops the bloody sword to the dirt and does as Aramil says. “Stand up.” Fyanilin stands slowly. Aramil breathes in deeply and begins his prayer. “Mother and Daughter. Here stands one who seeks the light. There are shadows in his past but he has overcome them to stand before you as himself. His heart is pure and his intention true. Welcome him into the light.” Aramil gently releases Fyanilin’s hands as the others look on silently. “You have forgiveness for your past deeds Fyanilin. The shadow is gone from your soul – nothing remains but the blue of grace.” Even though it is the middle of the night, a warm breeze blows and the party feel the dawn light on their faces, although the sky remains black. Fyanilin again kneels with his chin to his chest, on one knee. “From this day forward you are as one reborn - your path in life is yours to choose as you will.”“Thank you, Master.” Answers Fyanilin.“Please rise - you are free of all masters now. You belong to yourself, no longer bound by your past. I could no more command you then I could command the trees or the rocks - your path is your own to walk.”</blockquote>

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