Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 1929501" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #295b] Stepping Down[/PLAIN]Ixin followed Ledare's path and after a short walk found her leaning against a tree and staring intently at something in her hand. The mage approached and called out to her as she came."Ledare?" she called and the woman half-turned her head to regard Ixin with dark, slitted eyes."Leave me, Ixin," she said, wearily. "I'm not good company just now." Ixin stopped where she was and said nothing for a moment until Ledare sighed and turned away."What ails you, my friend?" the drakeling asked sweetly. The question brought a cold, hollow chuckle from Ledare."An ailment of the mind... and of the flesh," she answered sardonically. "A diseased soul, made weaker and more hollow with each test.""If you would like to talk about it, I am here to listen. But I will respect your privacy if you do not," Ixin told her, her draconic features softening with compassion for her friend's suffering. "Clearly your recent experiences have left a mark on you.""A mark?" the woman laughed mirthlessly. "I feel a wasted, graceless presence within by heart that grows only more hollow and more bitter from chasing these..." She hunted for the right words for a heartbeat and when she found them she punctuated her response by crushing the papers in her fist. "...ridiculous riddles!""Ledare..." Ixin began, but her own words failed her and she stared sadly at the half-elf's back for an agonizingly long stretch of silence. At last, Ladare spoke again."I knew something of the hearts of my first companions," she ruminated, running a gauntleted hand across her face and up through her tousled auburn hair. "I knew what compelled them to venture into depths such as these, to combat unspeakable horrors. I knew them, Ixin, and they are nothing now. But you... and the others... whom I don't even know...and Feln...""You are not responsible for our experiences. We chose to accompany you," Ixin began, her voice small and soft in the twilight of the forest floor. She reached out a hand to lay it on Ledare's shoulder, but something in the other woman's demeanor made her stop. Her hand hung suspended a few feet short of Ledare's back and after a heartbeat, Ixin let it fall to her side before she continued. "That said, it is surely your choice as to whether or not to lead us. We can certainly choose another leader.""Do what you want," the half-elf replied. "I've had my fill of making decisions." Ledare looked once more at the crushed knot of parchment in her fist and then she threw it off into the trees. It landed against the roots of a tree some distance away, a bit of litter that looked alien and utterly out of place in such natural surroundings."Will you continue on this quest with us?" Ixin asked, suddenly certain that Ledare was going to walk off into the trees and never come back. The idea shook her more than she'd thought it would. "Will you continue to be a member of our team if not its leader?"The half-elf sighed and her shoulders slumped. "I'll stay as long as I can, and I will fight until whatever life left inside me has died," she said and turned to face Ixin. Her eyes had a dark, sunken look as if someone had sunk two polished copper coins into the shadowed pits of her eye sockets. They flickered hotly amidst the darkness there. "But I will carry this banner no longer," she said and walked off again into the solitude of the spider-haunted woods.Ixin stood there in the gloom, uncertain of what she should do. She'd never experienced such a power vacuum before. Questions of succession in the Dragon's Claw were always handled through spell duel, sword fight, or the more common poisoned dagger. She was always appalled by the savagery, but she could at least understand it. This, however... This was totally new to her and she suddenly felt very far from home. Very far indeed.As she turned to walk back to their camp beside the druid's shack, she spied Ledare's crumpled papers lying in the dirt a few paces away. She looked around to make sure that Ledare was nowhere in sight before she walked over and retrieved the crumpled papers - a series of sealed letters addressed in Ledare's own hand. Ixin, of course, couldn't read anything of what they said; her enchanted cutlass' Peristant Tongues spell allowed her to speak and understand this world's languages, but not read them. Even if she'd been able, she wouldn't have recognized the name Delaroux at any rate.Thinking them likely important clues that they might need later, Ixin smoothed them out and slipped them into one of her cloaks extra-dimensional pockets before heading back to rejoin the others.</blockquote>

Verification