09-08-2010, 06:51 AM
((Story version of an RP I had with Seraphim's scary DK Seraph in Elwynn after Redis went to go be emo somewhere.))
Annabelle watched Redis stalk off, holding back his tears. He had told her to sit by the lake outside of Goldshire while he went to pack for their trip back to Azshara Crater. She obeyed, fearing upsetting him more by protesting.
Still such a boy in a lot of ways. Though, who am I to talk?
Her gaze was turned back to the pond, her reflection unclear in the murky water.
I need some place to clear my head. Can I tolerate the looks at the Cathedral? Westfall is too far...
...
How long has it been since I visited Northshire?
Tiredly, the young woman pushed herself up and brushed off any errant fallen leaves and dirt. After a glance upwards past an oak that had stood sentinel outside the town for decades to gathering clouds she started her walk North to the historic chapel.
Where is Don? He always wanders off for days...
Her hand went without her mind ordering it to touch the golden bracelet at her wrist. "Should I? No, that's for emergencies..." The bracelet was simple, but obviously valuable with its gold and diamonds. Unknown to most though, was the lavender gate inside the bracelet.
Just think about his plant and I'm there. But...no. I need to stop worrying so much. He's probably finishing things up in Nagrand.
Then a scream sounded somewhere up an incline to her left. A woman's scream.
Felling Defias. What now?
"Oh, Light, please don't- I don't want to die!" The Defias in question breaks down into quiet sobs as what to her seems to be death itself wraps his gauntlet around her face, lifting her off the ground. She lets out a muffled scream into his gauntlet.
The darkly armored human male lifts her higher, and impales her through the midsection, blood cascading down jade-runed greatsword. "Yes you do. You just were not aware of it."
The wielder of the runeblade looks up to the oak leaf canopy, letting out a cold breath through his helm. The only sound is warm, red blood dripping onto the grass below. He looks down at the pile of corpses at his feet. "... We are born to a world filled with pain for which there is no comfort." The knight puts his foot down on the skull of a bandit, applying a hint of pressure. A creaking, snapping sound occurs before the bone is crushed under heavy metal sabatons. Gore leaks out onto the emerald grass. The knight leaned down, picking up the remains of the shattered human head. "... You are free."
Annabelle suddenly reached behind her, hand gripping. There was only air where her staff should be. "...of course it isn't there. In the inn..." She sighed, then looked around again. Her gaze shot up the incline as the cracking sounded throughout the wood. "...hello?" Annabelle called out to the injured party as she carefully walked around the rocky slope.
What the fel did I wander into now?
The knight closed his eyes, quieting the green glow from within his helm. "... More pain to be silenced," he said quietly.
The surviving Defias let out a quiet gurgle in response, and struggled to reach up with one arm. "P-please... H-hhellp..." The streams of sickly light shot from the Death Knight's helm once more.
Annabelle kept her eyes upward along the slope as she walked around the edge of the incline. "Hello?" She called again.
Why did it get so cold all of a sudden? Wonderful...rain.
The bandits' end raises the pommel of his sword above his head, aiming the tip of the blade for her neck. "Your struggle is -over-."
Just as he did so, the priestess steps around, the knight now in full view. Violet eyes narrow slightly as they land on the armored figure.
"No... M-momma.... M-"
The knight cut off her pleas, severing her head with a quick downward chop.
Annabelle winced and looked away as the blade met the earth. "...fel." She took a step back, glancing around, then focusing again on the dark figure.
I should run. Why aren't I...?
The dark knight finally turned his head, jade-glowing eyes locking on Annabelle's. An unspeakable cold existed behind that helmet. Holding the dripping runeblade in hand, he took a step forward.
I can't run. Why?
The girl stiffened and took another step back, violet eyes locked onto the knight's 'face'. Skin was pale, eyes were wide, heart was pounding, her rational mind telling her to run and never return to this hill.
"Do you suffer, human?"
The sabaton that crushed the Defias' skull like an insect took another step. "Do you ache under the weight of this dying world?"
Her eyes squinted slightly at the questioning. "...everyone suffers at some point." She quickly glanced past him, then returned her eyes to him. Still stiff, her other foot slid back.
"Yes. They do. And they struggle, and they scrape, as so many thorns, cutting into one another. And they all seek the long-dead spectre of happiness."
The knight exhaled, the breath coming out as a frigid, green mist. His armored boot fell to the ground again. "This shadow-world need not be... It can be killed."
"One. Life."
Another step forward.
"At a time."
Annabelle turned her head slightly, though still eyeing the death knight. The rain pattered down upon her, though she seemed to have forgotten it. Her black dress slowly soaked. Her feet step back as his step forward, nearly in sync.
The knight moved closer, clearly in no rush. "When will you break the cycle of pain, human? Will you pass this broken world onto your doomed offspring? Or will you show some mercy. Some restraint."
She glanced to the stained runeblade, then back to the two green lights. "...restraint?" Despite her eyes flitting, she remained stone still.
The knight nodded, the metal of his helm scraping slightly against his breastplate. "To renounce the cycle of the damned. To acknowledge the pain that awaits your children, and the ones they would spawn." He spat the last word against the inside of his helmet.
Annabelle shuddered at the sound and paused in her retreating for a moment. She glanced behind the death knight again. "...whose voices were those?"
"The voices of those who no longer suffer."
She glanced down a moment, then shook her head. Wet bangs shed water and she steps back.
Jade grave-lights stare straight into her eyes, questioning her. Reaching for her. Calling her to the inevitable. "Do you wish to join them? To ache no more with the certainty of pain, hunger, sorrow..."
She looked up again to his 'face'. "I...suppose you're asking if I wish to die."
"Or perhaps you would bring peace to this world. Perhaps you could watch as the sun sets for its final call to this cold, desolate reality."
He raised a hand, stepping closer still. The gauntlet rests in the air, offering her everything, and nothing. "To accept death, or to become it. That is my offer."
Annabelle glanced to the gauntlet, one foot behind her though she did not move away. "...I...have...already faced death. Twice. And passed through and back." She stepped back and shook her head. "...I accept death, but not at your hands."
Grave-lights narrowed. The cold glow shrunk and intensified with the action. "You have come back from peace to struggle once more?" The disdain dripped from his words.
Hesitation, then a nod.
The metal scraping sounded again as he shook his head. "You struggle more so against the reprieve of death than most. Do you plan to live forever, human?"
Annabelle stood stone still as he did. A shiver again ran up her spine at the sound of the metal as he shook his head. "...no. I...did not ask to return."
"But you do wish to remain. To wound those around you, and be wounded in turn."
She nodded slowly at the first part, eyes locked on his, seemingly unable to look away. "I will not...run from suffering." She paused in thought a moment. "Balance."
The knight paused. "... Balance." His grip around the handle of his sword tightened "A sweet-sounding lie."
Annabelle sharply inhaled in a breath as he moved forward again. She stepped back, gaze still locked on him.
"It is synonymous with peace. Tranquility. Contentment. All prisons in which one can be caged, struggling to reach for a light that never existed except in their fevered dreams."
"...who...are you?"
Grave-lights stared into her, green wisps licking at the side of his skull. Another step, and he said quietly, "I am the eclipse. I am the darkness that will drown the sky, and ruin cities."
"I am death, and I come for all who yet breathe."
That's why I can't run.
Annabelle seemed frozen again as he stared into her. A foot is again behind her and she waited
Suddenly he lowered the tip of his blade to the ground, and closed the distance between them. The acrid smells of blood, ice, and metal come together as he lifted the backside of his gauntlet to Annabelle's paled face.
"You know of mercy. You know of compassion. And you know what must be done for a sick, dying animal. For a man who is bleeding to death on the battlefield."
The knight let his hand drop, the frigid metal of his gauntlet tracing a line down Annabelle's cheek. Her skin seems to pale even more as the dark metal runs down her face, a white line left in its wake. "And what is this world, but a rotting husk. A wounded soldier. An animal that is consuming itself from the inside, begging for compassion."
"Balance. I will...live. And...accept suffering. And death...when it finally keeps me."
The knight was silent after her words. The leather glove of his gauntlet slowly rose, and his cold, hard fingers wrapped around the front of her throat. They remained there, not choking her, but seemingly testing something.
"You can accept your pain, human. But you would not even try to save others from theirs."
Annabelle raised her chin as his fingers encircle, the skin again paling again. "...I...would. Our...our methods are...different."
His grasp tightened, the strength behind those muscles completely unnatural. "My method," he stated, lifting Annabelle off of her feet, "Is the only way. Where there is life, there is pain. Can you deny this?"
Her hand instinctively went to hold onto his. "...no. Death is..." She closes her eyes. "Wasteful."
That sounds...familiar.
The knight held her in the air for a moment, considering that point. "Life produces waste. Death, by contrast, wastes nothing." His tone lacked any concern for the girl's limited ability to breathe.
She gasped a moment. "Why do you...speak to me?" Her relatively small hand tightened. The other moved up to grip as well.
The knight released Annabelle, letting her fall back to her feet. They hit the ground, and she collapsed to her knees soon after. A hand quickly goes to her neck and she watches the knight silent and wide eyed.
Without warning, he turned, and started to walk in the other direction. "We are not so different, human. In the end, death will claim us all. I will come for you again. Perhaps then you will be ready to accept my offer."
Annabelle kept her hand on her neck, rubbing it. Color slowly returned. "...do not...expect it...Ender."
The ender stepped away slowly, armor thudding heavily against the ground. "As your friends and loved ones die; as they are killed senselessly, for no better reason than chance... Perhaps then you will see the fleeting nature of happiness."
The priestess shakily sighed and fell forward on her forearms, staring at the ground. By the time she lifted her head, the knight had vanished.
Annabelle watched Redis stalk off, holding back his tears. He had told her to sit by the lake outside of Goldshire while he went to pack for their trip back to Azshara Crater. She obeyed, fearing upsetting him more by protesting.
Still such a boy in a lot of ways. Though, who am I to talk?
Her gaze was turned back to the pond, her reflection unclear in the murky water.
I need some place to clear my head. Can I tolerate the looks at the Cathedral? Westfall is too far...
...
How long has it been since I visited Northshire?
Tiredly, the young woman pushed herself up and brushed off any errant fallen leaves and dirt. After a glance upwards past an oak that had stood sentinel outside the town for decades to gathering clouds she started her walk North to the historic chapel.
Where is Don? He always wanders off for days...
Her hand went without her mind ordering it to touch the golden bracelet at her wrist. "Should I? No, that's for emergencies..." The bracelet was simple, but obviously valuable with its gold and diamonds. Unknown to most though, was the lavender gate inside the bracelet.
Just think about his plant and I'm there. But...no. I need to stop worrying so much. He's probably finishing things up in Nagrand.
Then a scream sounded somewhere up an incline to her left. A woman's scream.
Felling Defias. What now?
"Oh, Light, please don't- I don't want to die!" The Defias in question breaks down into quiet sobs as what to her seems to be death itself wraps his gauntlet around her face, lifting her off the ground. She lets out a muffled scream into his gauntlet.
The darkly armored human male lifts her higher, and impales her through the midsection, blood cascading down jade-runed greatsword. "Yes you do. You just were not aware of it."
The wielder of the runeblade looks up to the oak leaf canopy, letting out a cold breath through his helm. The only sound is warm, red blood dripping onto the grass below. He looks down at the pile of corpses at his feet. "... We are born to a world filled with pain for which there is no comfort." The knight puts his foot down on the skull of a bandit, applying a hint of pressure. A creaking, snapping sound occurs before the bone is crushed under heavy metal sabatons. Gore leaks out onto the emerald grass. The knight leaned down, picking up the remains of the shattered human head. "... You are free."
Annabelle suddenly reached behind her, hand gripping. There was only air where her staff should be. "...of course it isn't there. In the inn..." She sighed, then looked around again. Her gaze shot up the incline as the cracking sounded throughout the wood. "...hello?" Annabelle called out to the injured party as she carefully walked around the rocky slope.
What the fel did I wander into now?
The knight closed his eyes, quieting the green glow from within his helm. "... More pain to be silenced," he said quietly.
The surviving Defias let out a quiet gurgle in response, and struggled to reach up with one arm. "P-please... H-hhellp..." The streams of sickly light shot from the Death Knight's helm once more.
Annabelle kept her eyes upward along the slope as she walked around the edge of the incline. "Hello?" She called again.
Why did it get so cold all of a sudden? Wonderful...rain.
The bandits' end raises the pommel of his sword above his head, aiming the tip of the blade for her neck. "Your struggle is -over-."
Just as he did so, the priestess steps around, the knight now in full view. Violet eyes narrow slightly as they land on the armored figure.
"No... M-momma.... M-"
The knight cut off her pleas, severing her head with a quick downward chop.
Annabelle winced and looked away as the blade met the earth. "...fel." She took a step back, glancing around, then focusing again on the dark figure.
I should run. Why aren't I...?
The dark knight finally turned his head, jade-glowing eyes locking on Annabelle's. An unspeakable cold existed behind that helmet. Holding the dripping runeblade in hand, he took a step forward.
I can't run. Why?
The girl stiffened and took another step back, violet eyes locked onto the knight's 'face'. Skin was pale, eyes were wide, heart was pounding, her rational mind telling her to run and never return to this hill.
"Do you suffer, human?"
The sabaton that crushed the Defias' skull like an insect took another step. "Do you ache under the weight of this dying world?"
Her eyes squinted slightly at the questioning. "...everyone suffers at some point." She quickly glanced past him, then returned her eyes to him. Still stiff, her other foot slid back.
"Yes. They do. And they struggle, and they scrape, as so many thorns, cutting into one another. And they all seek the long-dead spectre of happiness."
The knight exhaled, the breath coming out as a frigid, green mist. His armored boot fell to the ground again. "This shadow-world need not be... It can be killed."
"One. Life."
Another step forward.
"At a time."
Annabelle turned her head slightly, though still eyeing the death knight. The rain pattered down upon her, though she seemed to have forgotten it. Her black dress slowly soaked. Her feet step back as his step forward, nearly in sync.
The knight moved closer, clearly in no rush. "When will you break the cycle of pain, human? Will you pass this broken world onto your doomed offspring? Or will you show some mercy. Some restraint."
She glanced to the stained runeblade, then back to the two green lights. "...restraint?" Despite her eyes flitting, she remained stone still.
The knight nodded, the metal of his helm scraping slightly against his breastplate. "To renounce the cycle of the damned. To acknowledge the pain that awaits your children, and the ones they would spawn." He spat the last word against the inside of his helmet.
Annabelle shuddered at the sound and paused in her retreating for a moment. She glanced behind the death knight again. "...whose voices were those?"
"The voices of those who no longer suffer."
She glanced down a moment, then shook her head. Wet bangs shed water and she steps back.
Jade grave-lights stare straight into her eyes, questioning her. Reaching for her. Calling her to the inevitable. "Do you wish to join them? To ache no more with the certainty of pain, hunger, sorrow..."
She looked up again to his 'face'. "I...suppose you're asking if I wish to die."
"Or perhaps you would bring peace to this world. Perhaps you could watch as the sun sets for its final call to this cold, desolate reality."
He raised a hand, stepping closer still. The gauntlet rests in the air, offering her everything, and nothing. "To accept death, or to become it. That is my offer."
Annabelle glanced to the gauntlet, one foot behind her though she did not move away. "...I...have...already faced death. Twice. And passed through and back." She stepped back and shook her head. "...I accept death, but not at your hands."
Grave-lights narrowed. The cold glow shrunk and intensified with the action. "You have come back from peace to struggle once more?" The disdain dripped from his words.
Hesitation, then a nod.
The metal scraping sounded again as he shook his head. "You struggle more so against the reprieve of death than most. Do you plan to live forever, human?"
Annabelle stood stone still as he did. A shiver again ran up her spine at the sound of the metal as he shook his head. "...no. I...did not ask to return."
"But you do wish to remain. To wound those around you, and be wounded in turn."
She nodded slowly at the first part, eyes locked on his, seemingly unable to look away. "I will not...run from suffering." She paused in thought a moment. "Balance."
The knight paused. "... Balance." His grip around the handle of his sword tightened "A sweet-sounding lie."
Annabelle sharply inhaled in a breath as he moved forward again. She stepped back, gaze still locked on him.
"It is synonymous with peace. Tranquility. Contentment. All prisons in which one can be caged, struggling to reach for a light that never existed except in their fevered dreams."
"...who...are you?"
Grave-lights stared into her, green wisps licking at the side of his skull. Another step, and he said quietly, "I am the eclipse. I am the darkness that will drown the sky, and ruin cities."
"I am death, and I come for all who yet breathe."
That's why I can't run.
Annabelle seemed frozen again as he stared into her. A foot is again behind her and she waited
Suddenly he lowered the tip of his blade to the ground, and closed the distance between them. The acrid smells of blood, ice, and metal come together as he lifted the backside of his gauntlet to Annabelle's paled face.
"You know of mercy. You know of compassion. And you know what must be done for a sick, dying animal. For a man who is bleeding to death on the battlefield."
The knight let his hand drop, the frigid metal of his gauntlet tracing a line down Annabelle's cheek. Her skin seems to pale even more as the dark metal runs down her face, a white line left in its wake. "And what is this world, but a rotting husk. A wounded soldier. An animal that is consuming itself from the inside, begging for compassion."
"Balance. I will...live. And...accept suffering. And death...when it finally keeps me."
The knight was silent after her words. The leather glove of his gauntlet slowly rose, and his cold, hard fingers wrapped around the front of her throat. They remained there, not choking her, but seemingly testing something.
"You can accept your pain, human. But you would not even try to save others from theirs."
Annabelle raised her chin as his fingers encircle, the skin again paling again. "...I...would. Our...our methods are...different."
His grasp tightened, the strength behind those muscles completely unnatural. "My method," he stated, lifting Annabelle off of her feet, "Is the only way. Where there is life, there is pain. Can you deny this?"
Her hand instinctively went to hold onto his. "...no. Death is..." She closes her eyes. "Wasteful."
That sounds...familiar.
The knight held her in the air for a moment, considering that point. "Life produces waste. Death, by contrast, wastes nothing." His tone lacked any concern for the girl's limited ability to breathe.
She gasped a moment. "Why do you...speak to me?" Her relatively small hand tightened. The other moved up to grip as well.
The knight released Annabelle, letting her fall back to her feet. They hit the ground, and she collapsed to her knees soon after. A hand quickly goes to her neck and she watches the knight silent and wide eyed.
Without warning, he turned, and started to walk in the other direction. "We are not so different, human. In the end, death will claim us all. I will come for you again. Perhaps then you will be ready to accept my offer."
Annabelle kept her hand on her neck, rubbing it. Color slowly returned. "...do not...expect it...Ender."
The ender stepped away slowly, armor thudding heavily against the ground. "As your friends and loved ones die; as they are killed senselessly, for no better reason than chance... Perhaps then you will see the fleeting nature of happiness."
The priestess shakily sighed and fell forward on her forearms, staring at the ground. By the time she lifted her head, the knight had vanished.
![[Image: tumblr_nfm4t0FZcT1rtcd58o1_r1_500.gif]](https://33.media.tumblr.com/3291026593060f4cddcea972b198a89e/tumblr_nfm4t0FZcT1rtcd58o1_r1_500.gif)