Bloodlines
Act III Chapter III
Dressed and partially awake, Rathel finds his brother back in the study. One hand resting his head as the other draws circles in th air above a parchment of paper.
"Have you slept?"
Alekith's eyes dart up to his brother, bags of black skin underneath of them.
"There's not enough yield for this year. And our treasury is almost depleted." he says in a weaken voice, putting the quill back into the ink can. He leans back and stares into the ceiling.
"We're defending a lost town. It's only time until we can't feed the people." he lets out with a sigh. "Where's Luc?"
Rathel shrugs. "I guess he left back to Town already."
Alekith rubs one of his eyes with his palm. "Go fetch him for me, we'll have to come up with something for the town."
Giving a nod, he leaves his brother. He was aware that the situation they we're in wasn't an ideal one, but Alekith's words troubled him.
Originally: Alekith, Rathel, And Caies came to Tadcelon as sellswords, offering their fighting skills to help defend the proud town from threats. Life to Rathel had always been simple, even before that. No matter what story he had to live through, he wasn't affected by it that much.
During the walk to the town, Rathel found himself in thought. Thoughts of his brothers, both Alekith and Caies. Alekith was the first to suggest that the three should leave their life in Rohan behind and help those in need. He didn't need to convince Rathel, for he had no real direction on what he wanted to do in his life. The only issue he had with the idea was why, feeling the request random.
Caies was troubled at first at the idea, but went along with it. Rathel had put great care into his younger brother, and was glad that he would join the two. Their journey south was long, Caies and Rathel following their elder brother's expedition. Rathel remembers it well, how exciting it felt to journey to lands unknown.
Those days of unity felt long gone, as Alekith had found his cause here in Tadcelon. Helping the town made him feel whole, but it was Caies who brought unrest to them. No matter how much he thought of it, Rathel could not bring himself an answer for Caies's actions.
Shaking the thoughts from his head, Rathel kept on walking. As the sight of the gates come over the horizon, a heavy wind would rush past him from the direction of the town. A murder of crows fly above him, their caws the only sound interrupting the wind from his ears.
Looking up at the passing crows, his spine would receive a sudden shiver, something he does not normally experience. Feeling strangely uncomfortable, he proceeds to the gates.
Finding them open and abandoned, Rathel feels something is wrong. There is no sound emitting from the town, only the wind and now distant crows. Drawing his bow, he pulls an arrow and proceeds into the town.
His heartbeat grows, sweat beginning to form on his forehead as he enters a seemingly empty town. Everything about it feels unnatural and wrong. Cautiously, he proceeds into the town, wondering what is going on and where is everyone.
The silence grew more eerie, almost taunting Rathel as he wanders. His feet grew heavy as he stops, his breathing hard as his eyes look up in horror.
There, in the middle of the town, stood a monument tall and new. It's pieces roped together around a tall wooden pole as it stared back at Rathel. Warped and twisted, the bodies of each resident of Tadcelon forms the shape it hold. A black pool of blood form beneath it, result from all their necks sliced open. Each and every face were mutilated, almost unrecognizable as the dead stare back to Rathel.
The god of sin and evil stood in the center of the town, constructed with men, women, and children as the silence it emits pierces Rathel's ears.
Dropping to his knees, he releases his bow and arrow from his grasps. Unable to look away, Rathel drowns himself in the in the gazes of the dead.
