((Open)) The Death Of Sulajin Bloodbreaze

[Niethan]

Inside the Rest Inn Peace tavern, the fire guttered and spoke.

"You who saught my aid. Come here."

When Niethan, perched up in the rafters did not move, the fire spoke again, flames licking higher on its words. This time he obeyed, and moved to the embers as a roughly humanoid figure flared up out of the red glow.

It crackled and hissed: "The contract has been fulfilled."

The fire reached out for the startled troll and wrapped around him, singing his armor and forcing itself down his throat. It burned-- but the warmth filled up the blistering emptiness left by Witness' absence. When the fire left, leaving a grinning Sulajin standing on the hearth, Niethan couldn't imagine how he had gone without his third sense of self. He grinned at Sulajin, coughing up blood and char.

Then the headache started. He reached into his bag for his painkillers, but it followed him. It spoke in Witness' voice, and Niethan could dimly feel the fragment spinning webs.

He tried to search through his bag. Behind his eyes images flashed. Sulajin was saying something--

The mage tightened the ropes holding the mutilated dwarf to the stone table, humming as he worked. The dwarf was still whispering pleas, throat gone hoarse from screaming. "Ey Niet'an mon, give me a 'and wit dis. Dwarfie here is gonna be de center of de Grom'ja I was tellin' ya about." Behind Sulajin a gnome pasted blodied handprints along the inside of his glass prison.

--asking if he was alright; or worse, if he was in Moment. "Choo don' be a beast, so say--"

Sulajin laughing at pain. Swallowing a living crystal that screamed as it dissolved. Sulajin burning. The Avatar. Shouting at him, grabbing his arm and forcing the bloodied Rune against his palm.

"--somet'ing!"

And then Niethan wasn't there anymore. He pounded against the glass walls of his imaginary prison, while Witness smiled and used his hands to pry open Sulajin's chest. Somewhere trapped in knitted vines, Moment was roaring.

Three quick sharp snaps of teeth, and Sulajin's quivering, bleeding heart was in his hands. The Tavern was silent- Sulajin couldn't scream and there was no one who cared to help him. Before the mage's horrified, darkening vision, Witness tipped his head back and swallowed the heart whole.

Sulajin Bloodbreaze scattered like ash. Witness smiled and went on his way.

[Vilmah]

((Nooooo...!!))

[Sulajin]

*A new location. One known of and spoken of, but seldom seen. A landscape unfolding into vibrant light that burns the eyes and sears the face. There is no vegetation. There is no water. There are no clouds, or any form of respite from the blazing sun that hangs over the sky. It is a land of neverending destruction and rebirth. To walk into it unprepared is madness.

And yet footfalls are not unknown here. A figure moves across the plains, small plumes of ash heralding each step. Sulajin Bloodbreaze sits atop a creature that bears a passing resemblance to a raptor, his homunculus springing across the plains as they quest for something precious that had been lost.

But you do not want to find it, do you? No. You'd rather it stay hidden away forever.

The air shimmers in the unrelenting heat. A firestorm brewing in the distance. The ground cracks underfoot. Vents of steam revealing the presence of heavy volcanic activity. No matter, what is important is to keep moving.

Beside the figure of the Troll the ground cracks open. A geyser of flame springing into the sky. Sulajin stops to watch it.

"Well? Have ya found 'im yet mon?"

"Indeed I have. Now bring me to your world, that I may uphold my bargain."

"Don' rush me mon. Dis takes a lot of enagy."

A folding, a bending, a rending. Space and time shift and slide, opening before the two, that they may return to the realm of all things. A small room is revealed before them, grungy and cobwebbed, the wood damp and moldering. In the ceiling lurks the figure matching that what was retrieved.

The fire calls out to the figure in the ceiling and returns what was once stolen. A blaze of light, and heat and all is back in its place. Sulajin stands on the hearth before his friend, tired and saddlesore, his will all but shot. And yet, it is all worthwhile. The deed is done, his friend colapsing into his arms from relief.

Then Niethan tensed and pulled away. He rushed to his satchel, tossing things aside in his hurry to get at something within it. No matter what the mage says no response is offered. Fearing the worst, Sulajin tries to talk him away from the beast that lurks under his friend's skin. If moment were to break free now, Sul would be helpless before his wrath.

But it doesn't act like Moment, does it? No. It acts like the wretched creature that was returned. The Watcher who finds it his duty to comment. The sneering visage of Witness turns to face Sulajin. Forcing him down on the floor as the weakened mage calls forth flames to protect him from the onslaught.

Pain. So much pain. More pain than Sulajin had ever expected to endure. The creature above him was speaking, mocking him. But Sulajin couldn't make out the meaning of the words over the blood pulsing through his ears. Cold. THere was cold air inside of him. Cold and pulling. Before his eyes a lump of flesh is raised from his body.

He tries to move for it, tries to will a hand of Obsidian forward, to crush the skull of that which would cause him harm. But it lays still. A lump of inert stone. The flames around Sulajin flicker, and through a lull Sulajin can hear words spoken at him.

"Your heart. You aren't using it anyways."

With that, the learing face splits open. The mass of flesh dissapearing before the mages terrified eyes. Sulajin lays there, open and exposed his will spent. But in the recesses of his mind, rage burns hotter than any fire ever wielded. The burning might of T' Ihn blazes in all of it's glory, fueling him on to one final working. Keeping the shadows of death away for a moment longer.

Sulajin's mouth works, the sound faint with the air available from one lung. He pours all he has into it. Strengthens the magic with the very essense of his life and curses Niethan with his dying breath.

"May all you care for be nought but ash in your mouth. May the embers of that which you would love be the death of you."

Then there was nothing.