Linwe sat on the railing of the tavern as she is wont to do when days are lazy and there is seemingly no threat of danger about. Her ears twitch, as she looks up seeing small puffs of dust appearing around the side of the tavern. The patter of sandal clad feet beats a tattoo on the ground from the northern edge, and she turns, to see the figure of Dexler, the stable lad, appear in full gallop. Her brows raise as he races past her, and her eyes follow his progress. "What is this?" she muses at the strange behavior. She watches as the lad circles the tavern several more times, as he stumbles over the feet of the dragon Salazar, and then races off to the kirkyard, only to appear again, on the other side of the village. "Enough!" Linwe calls. "STOP!" Linwe jumped from her perch, and stropped over to where the lad stood, quivering and sweaty. "What be this ye be doin' here, Dexler?" she queried, looking at the young man's distraught face. Doubled over with exhaustion, Dexler hesitated and blurted out "N-n-n--nothing" Knowing full well it was something, Linwe continued with her query. "Dunna gie me any of that. I know full well tis summat or ye wouldna be doin such a strange thing." Dexler stared at her, rolled his shoulders, and shrugged. , "I...well...I'm just practicing, uh, running, ma'am" he mumbled. A fic=xed tolerant expression settled on the elf's face as she asked plaintively "Why?" Barely moving his mouth, the lad uttered a garbled, unintelligible reply and once again shrugged, and then shook his head. Looking up, he replied "So I can…run…run away." His gaze traveled down to his dusty feet as he avoided the elf's eyes. "SO I can…run away…until I learn to fight." Linwe's sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Run away from…what?" Dexler looked up from his dirty feet and into the elven eldar's face. "From…Emily." Linwe pressed her lips together and reached out a reassuring hand to the lad. "Come with me to the tavern. There be summat I need to tell ye."
Linwe lead the sweat soaked Dexler to the tavern and deposited him in a seat at a table, then sat down opposite him. She reached into her pouch and pulled out a small carved wooden figurine, and placed it on the table in front of the young man. Dexler's eyes settled on the statue, and hesitantly, he reached to pick it up. At first a look of pain crossed his face, to be replaced by a look of joy, and then bewilderment, as he caressed the wood. "Have ye had dreams of Dante?" Linwe asked in a soft voice. Dexler looked up, the loving expression on his face provided the answer. Linwe smiled at him. The lad looked down at the statue and muttered "I already know, ma'am. I am possessed. Linwe shook her head at this "Sometimes, in the fabric of time and space…things happen. Te be nae possessed." The lad continued, oblivious to her remark, "Some spirit was trapped in this statue. It took me over." Linwe chuckled softly "Nay. Tis not that.Ye be..yer soul be…a reincarnation." Dexler looked up once again. "A reincarnation>" Linwe nodded. "Aye. Tis hard to explain. But I will tell ye what I know. 'Ye see..there were once a man named Loralleti Dexler."
Linwe raised her eyes to Dexler, to watch his reaction to the name. Dexler repeated dubiously "Dexler?" and then continued "Though I do like the name Loralleti. It makes me feel….fuzzy inside." Linwe smiled at him warmly again. " 'Aye...Dexler....it didna cross my mind when first ye came that there would be any…coincidence in that" Dexler nodded, listening. Aye...he were a servant in a powerful rich house in a far away place...called Venice. He had a wife and a son...a son named…Dante. His master...the rich man...were....very evil." Dexler did not reply immediately, his face twisting with emotions. He looked up at her and asked "Wh 'Why......that is allas a hard question to answer." The elThe master.....tried to change Lore...into what he were...evil…like hisselff went on. But he failed in some way...and died trying..and Lore..he were left.....changed...but unchanged" In a coarse voice, Dexler asked "What...happened to him? What kind of evil?" "He were..a vampire"
Dexler slowly lowered the statue back to the table, unspeaking, his hands clutched tightly about it's base, his face paling to ash. A high piercing note pierced the silence, setting Linwe's ears to twitching. Frowning, she glanced around the tavern. Dexler abruptly sat up straight in his chair, a remote stare settling on his face. "Dexler?" Linwe said. Dexler's eyes glazed over as he stared straight ahead, not responding to her query. A few more high, sweet notes pierced the air. Linwe stood in concern. "Dexler!" When no response was forthcoming, she tried again "LORE!" Dexler slowly stood, his face stony, as he turned and faced Linwe. Swallowing down the panic rising in her chest, Linwe said "Dunna let this happen, Dexler. Fight it!" Dexler stood by the table, eyes foggy, body swaying. His hands reached out, eyes unseeing, and he grasped the chair in front of him as if to anchor himself to the room in some way. Dexler sat again, leaden, twitching nervously and then folded his head down onto his arms on the table. Linwe took the seat beside him and grasped his hand. "Dexler, hold tight. Use my strength to fight this!" Linwe gritted her teeth watching the stable lad fight whatever had a hold on him. She felt his calloused and work worn hands tightening around her own, and desperation rise in his face. Dexler...Lore......hold fast...dunna let this take ye.…" Dexler replied in a strained voice "It's...hard..." Seeing this struggle, Linwe raised her staff and quickly cast a ward around the lad and the table. With the ward in place, Dexler sagged in his chair, relieved." It...it calls to me...but it's stopped..." Grateful that the ward worked, Linwe asked "What…be it.. .that ye felt?" Dexler released Linwe's hand and lifted his head from the table. "I felt...glad...a bit sleepy, but...so very happy" Linwe replied with a grimace "A glamour, then, a some sort or other." "I wanted to go to it, to the sound...it was so sweet..." Linwe frowned. "Do ye still have the holy water I gave ye?" Dexler nodded, as he took a shuddering breath and pointed to the pocket of his hole ridden pants. "I want ye to keep that by yerself at all times....and I want ye to wear this" Linwe reached into her pouch and pulled out a medallion. As she handed him the medallion, a sweet, soft voice called out in the distance "Dexler…Dexler…" As he reached for the medallion, Dexler's hand stopped, and he stared again into space. Linwe reached across the table and grabbed up the statue. She pressed it into Dexler's hands. 'Ye take Dante's statue..tis rightfully yours..twil trigger more memories...but...I will tell ye...a great evil be after you. One far more powerful than that succubus that wants yer...erm.....manhood" Linwe stopped and swallowed. "This one wants…Lore's soul." Grimacing, Dexler asked quietly "Why? What did I do?" A look of pity crossed Linwe's face. ""Ye be...so ill -equipped for such as this…" Dexler stared down at the table. "Ye have done nothing...as Lore did nothing...but...he inherited a great deal from that evil master...and somewhere deep inside yerself..ye know where that money be." Dexler slowly pulled himself up from the table, and in a numbed voice said "I think I will sleep here. I am so tired." Linwe sighed as she watched her young friend climb the steps to the rooms above. As he climbed, she called after him "Tis all about greed…lust..ambition..power." The voice, a soft lull, called from without the tavern "Dexler…" Dexler covered his ears and ran up the stairs.
Linwe waited in the tavern until she heard the slam of a door above her, and with a determined step, walked form the building and into the village square. The elf turned several times in a circle, her innate elven senses searching for the whereabouts of the woman. She called out in a loud and firm voice Ye may as well come out, ye fell thing..I know ye be here. " Linwe turned when she heard a sigh come form within the seamstresses yard. She turned to confront the figure of Emily, the necromancer's daughter, dressed fussily in black, her hair waving wildly in the breeze. Linwe pointed a long, slender finger at the woman, her eyes steely green. He knows now. I have told him everything. And I have given him wards against ye!" In an innocent voice, the woman responded "Wards?" Linwe continued, "And if I have ta deafen him to keep ye from him, I will do it! so be it! And aye, wards. Do ye nae know what I am?" Emily's liquid brown eyes widened in disbelief. "You would make him go deaf?" Defiantly, the woman stood her ground "I know what you are. You are an elf that harms those who are close to you!" Linwe snorted in derision at the woman. "To keep him safe from yerself? Aye, I would. For unlike yerself, I also have the power to heal him of it when ye be taken care of." "Does he know?" "He will..for I will explain it to him first. And give him the choice. Summat ye dunna give…a choice." Emily stood before the elf with clenched teeth, anger rising in her eyes. "You are a fell thing, Emily. As foul as any demon here." In a quiet voice, Emily turned to the elf and said "I don't want to ensorcle him. If you would stop scaring him it would be ever so much nicer and easier for everyone." Linwe crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the woman. "Just what be it ye want?" Emily hesitated, lowered her eyes to the dust of the village square, and clenched her jaw again. In a bitter voice she cried "You wouldn't believe me if I told you!" Linwe enjoined "If there be truth in it, then I will believe ye."
The woman's eyes glare angrily at the elf, but she turned her head and looked away. "I love…loved him! Even if it wasn't that way at first. That's why I want his soul! I want his soul to get him back!" The elven eldar breathed in a deep breath and held it. She said softly, as kindly as she could "Ye canna ever have him back. He doesna exist anymore. Except..in the heart and mind of this lad." "But that's what I want! His heart and his mind! He never treated me as if I were a woman just to lay with! Or someone inferior!~" Linwe replied patiently "And if ye purge the soul from this one, he will die. And all ye will have left will be some...lich." Turning away in shame, Emily cried out with torn emotion "I don’t want to purge his soul! I just want…him! Father doesn't know of this! If he knew, he would not let me come back! He scorns love!" Linwe sighed. "But ye see, Lore...he be gone…what be left of him be just his soul…and Emily, this soul…never knew ye." Emily turned away from the elf, trying to hide the heavy sob that wracked her body. "Then I will let him know me! I won’t give up! "The first thing ye must do be to sever yerself from yer father. For how can ye hope, with things bein the way they are, that ye would ever find peace being tied to that evil?" Emily spat back "It's all I've ever known since..mother.." Her voice faded away, having told Linwe that part of her life on another occasion. Turning, Emily squared her shoulders and walked away while Linwe watched, a heavy sorrow for both the lad and this lost woman.
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