[Quest] When Darkness Comes (Sela)

by **Paragon** on May 6th, 2012, 11:17 pm

Lucette & Veldrys

The animal fought. It truly did. A beast could be put in a cage, but still it could not truly be tamed. In Lucette's heart, an inferno still burned, ravenous and hungry, churning like wildfire and threatening to explode.

She could feel her captor vaguely in the dark, through her swirling tempest of thoughts. He was large, solidly built, and most likely male. There was strength in those arms, clamping her down with a vice grip.

As Veldrys lurched out of the chapel entrance, he would just make out the two figures with his large Symenestra pupils, and catch the muffled cries of the Kelvic that now carried his offspring. Something powerful was burgeoning inside him. Something paternal. A desire to protect.

The figure that now clung to Lucette whispered into her ears -- mindless words that swirled among the anger.

"You made a mistake when you came to Denval," the voice rasped, "fortunately, it will be your last."

After she kicked outward in a particularly violent fashion, the figure brandished something, gleaming in the moonlight. Bittersweet, metal decadence. The cold blade touched her neck.

by **Lucette** on May 13th, 2012, 4:26 am

Behind the hand that covered her mouth, Lucette’s growl rose. The hunger made her wild. The pregnancy made her unpredictable. The slave’s body thrashed and twisted, her legs lifted off the ground in her struggles as the gossamer gown wrapped tightly to pull at swollen breasts and protruding belly. The man’s hands confined her, and the raging hunger tumbled into fierce anger. Lucette tried to scratch and bite the captor, to make him release his grip. But it didn’t matter - he was too big, too strong. If she could have, the Kelvic would have cried out against the pain of his hold. It was relentless and made her want to cower, but instinct to protect the cub overran her normally submissive nature.

Out of the dark, Veldrys called her name. Lucette tried to answer, but the words were muffled and lost. Where was he? She couldn’t see him through her struggles. But still the slave refused to give into the no-faced man! But he whispered in his foul, human voice, and she smelt him with her pregnant senses. A sense of foreboding burned in the Kelvic at the quiet, threatening words. In wild panic Lucette struggled. The baby! The baby! Again Lucette tried to scream…

At the touch of the blade, the girl stilled and her body slumped against the man as she cowered into him and away from the knife. In panic the fight left her… or perhaps it lay hidden just beneath the surface. Lucette could not say. Her breath came in heavy labored pants. Where was Veldrys? He would help her! The Symenestra had to help her! And Lucette’s tearful eyes searched the dark…

by **Veldrys** on May 22nd, 2012, 2:23 pm

He left the chapel and looked around in panic. Where was she? Was she in pain? He made a step forward and narrowed his eyes. Another man might not have been able to see anything in the darkness, but he was a Symenestra and had been born in a world where the sun never rose. There! He could just about make out two figures. He hesitated for a moment – he wasn’t completely sure if it was her, and it didn’t make sense that there was another person with her – and then he heard her cry again.

It was definitely Lucette! He drew the dagger that he carried with him at all times to make a blood sacrifice and sent a prayer to Viratas, hoping that his god would give him strength and protect Lucette and their child.

„Lucette!“ he called out to her as he approached so that she knew that he was coming. He knew that there was no way he could sneak up on them, not when they were standing so close to the Chapel entrance. It was foolish, he knew, but he had to intervene! „What are you doing? She hasn’t done anything to you! Drop your weapon at once and let go of her! This place will be swarming with people soon!“

Surely somebody else had heard them! Who was this man, and what did he want from Lucette? Why was he hurting her? He hadn’t told anybody besides those at the temple that he was the child’s father! If anything the man should be hurting him instead, but she was innocent!

by **Louie Wein** on May 27th, 2012, 1:57 am

That cry for help, it was a little bit different from the ones he heard for the past few days. It was more urgent, panicked. Unlike the ones where people request for some help from their friends and family here in Denval to rebuild their homes and salvage their livelihood. After Louie was able to push through the horde of curious and horrified onlookers, he caught the sight of her dead undead corpse. The man did not know that she was a nuit but he did know that she was...

"Sela? What happened here?" he asked around without getting so much of an answer. Maybe someone told him but with how everything was he would not be able to hear it. Louie was a man who would trust himself to find out the truth for himself than from others. What happened now was looking bad with the head rolling nearby and that fluid oozing in between the body. It was not blood but that did not stop Louie from wanting to go to the corner or a nearby bush. Somewhere else.

"Don't show your weakness. Show your capabilities..." a familiar voice hissed in his head. Trying to compose himself, Louie looked and recited to himself the very visible facts of the situation. Someone meant to kill Sela and since there was no one captured, the murderer was on the loose. "Did you see the murderer?" he shouted at the ones nearby. "Did you try to stop him?!" he asked again shaking one close by. How can it be that with so many people nearby something like this has happened?

What else did Louie know? Sela just came to Denval a season ago...could she have made an enemy so fast? It was possible since she got into such an important event as with that stone thing in the Opal Clinic. Ugh, this was going too fast that he felt like he wanted to collapse but the voice in his head kept urging him to "go on, go on." To find out what was going on here.

He shut his eyes to compose himself, sending the djed from his body to his eyes just as he was breathing to maintain the air in his body instead of suffering from a panic attack. When he opened, the djed showed him things. He focused on Sela's lifeless body looking all over. Hoping that whatever was left of the aura would tell him what happened. Maybe from the emotions he could tell if Sela knew her attacker, an enemy or a friend?

But just then something else got his attention. It was no aura but his eyes which was scrutinizing the body spied on a bound scroll on her corpse. Untainted by ichor, Louie could only guess it was put on her later. Grabbing he continued maintaining the djed in his eyes as he shifted its target to the scroll. From what he could tell from the aura left in it, it did not belong to Sela either. The glow, the colour was different. It might even give some clues to what has happened.

He stopped the djed to get a better look at the scroll but the exertion and his emotions already took effect. As Louie tried to loosen its bindings, his hands slipped and the scroll fell to the floor. He would have to wait for a while before the shaking stops. Only then he can retrieve it and then read it. Only then...

by **Paragon** on July 3rd, 2012, 12:05 pm

OOCFirst off, apologies. This Quest isn't going anywhere, due to all the changes that occurred after I planned it - namely Denval exploding! I'm sorry I never got to see it through for you guys, but I'm going to bring this thread to a conclusion so you at least get something out of it. Thank you for being awesome sports, and perhaps we can play with Sentinel again someday. I will grade this thread shortly after this post.

Veldrys came, like a saviour in the dark. Lucette's senses flared, seeing him there, ready to try and save her, it summoned up all the emotions that had faded in her capture. She writhed, kicking and punching at her captor again, the animal within threatening to explode.

Veldrys held the dagger tightly, walking closer to the figure who had taken his Lucette. There was a standoff in the dark, the silence broken by the man's deep, growling voice.

"Ah... I see the dirty spider has come free of its web."

Veldrys launched himself at the man, initial confusion fading into something else. He saw his Lucette bound, and the insult touched his ears like poison. He managed to scrape his dagger along the man's arm before being thrown off. Lucette was freed momentarily, and he pulled her to safety as they made distance.

The man brandished his own knife, circling like some sort of deranged vulture.

"It seems they all emerge now. And you two... are together in some way?" he laughed aloud. Rain began to trickle from the sky, falling upon the ruin of the town, "well you deserve each other. Dirty muddied blood...."

He came at them again, the knife in his outstretched hand, but Veldrys parried him away, and when he lunged a second time, a tempestuous Lucette tackle him off of his feet.

The man knew he was outnumbered, for now. Pitifully, he climbed from the ground, face slick with wet soil and defeat. He waved the knife at them while stepping back.

"You are both safe - for now. But don't ever get complacent. We'll be watching," he began to vanish into the darkness, "remember our name. Sentinel."

The authorities had arrived at the Baths, forcing all the visitors to leave the horrific scene of the beheaded nuit. Louie came out into the rain, along with the others. In the darkness, they could just make out the Symenestra, holding his Kelvic, hair plastered to their faces with the rain. The spidery-man held the woman close.

They had escaped death for now, but Sela had not been so lucky. They would remember his final word, Sentinel, the terror that now stalked Denval's nights.

by **Paragon** on August 21st, 2012, 6:45 am

Adventurer's Loot

Veldrys's Loot :

Louie's Loot :

Lucette's Loot :

I'm really sorry this fizzled out, as I said before. We had Denval go boom mid-way through, so that really changed what I could do. I hope you guys had a little fun regardless, I'll try bring Sentinel back properly one day. Also, you only asked for this grading the other day Lucette but you seem to have vanished. If you return, let me know and I'll give you your due XP and Lores - if you have ANY questions or concerns about this grading, don't hesitate to PM me.