Events and Eventualities 1

From Atlantic Roleplay Wiki

Events and Eventualities I by Bal-Anon Dak

"My lady, do you require anything else?" Sascha watched her mistress carefully as she placed the tray on the side table. The servant girl had come to recognize her lady's moods and she had only seen this one twice before. Once when Lord Kil'Jaeden disappeared in the New Lands and again when Lord Vailen was taken, some say by daemons a while ago. An ominous gloom had invaded the house as once again Lady Velaska fell into another of her somber brooding states. This one was different, darker.

Lady Velaska had taken to sleeping most of the day, rising just as the sun set in the evening. She refused to see anyone, 'cept Lady Tara and on occasion that eerie man know as Yarp. Sascha never liked that Tara woman. She drank too much and her mouth as a foul as any common seaman. 'Twas said she was once the admiral of the Lost Order's navy. A job no real lady of quality would even consider. Now it seems she was around more than ever, creeping up to the door like a shadow. Sascha shuddered. Between Tara and that Yarp fellow, she wondered if Lady Velaska wouldn't have the devil himself show up one eve as a dinner guest. She glanced at the woman as she continued to write furiously.

"Milady, .?" "Begone!" spat Velaska, " and do not come back 'til I call for you." "What milady?" Sascha was in shock, her employer had never spoken to her this way before. "I said get out and stay out! Are you deaf? Now go!"

Tears streaming from her eyes, the servant girl rushed from the room. She could not stay here any longer. The abbey, she would seek refuge in there. As the last rays of twilight surrendered to nightfall, Velaska remained at her desk. The tray of food had long since lost its warmth. Then they came. First one voice, then a second and a third. More and more voices joined the malignant cacophony calling to her. She did not resist as the shadowy chorus washed over her, baptizing her in their vile song. Closing her eyes, she hoped sleep would claim her before the shadows did. Later that night she awoke to a child's song. She recognized the tune as one she and her sister Jade often sang as they played together as children.

Going over to the window, she pulled back the curtain. It was well past any normal child's bedtime but little Mary was out, wandering about the village. As her eyes adjusted to the pale moonlight, she watched quietly at the scene unfolding in the courtyard. A macabre mockery of a child's tea party. The little girl dutifully attended to her guests, each cup carefully filled with the deadly brew of nightshade and madness. One of them, a noblewoman begged for mercy. A few brief words would relieve the agonized woman from her pain. For the briefest of moments she considered intervening. It seemed an eternity passed before she slowly let the velvet curtain fall from her fingers. As the heavy material slipped across the window blotting out the mayhem below, a darkness manifested in the room. Blacker than night itself, the shadow smiled as yet another light in the Order flickered and died.