A darkness within

[deviance]

Deviance squated in the cold snow his eyes glaring out into the icy distance.. the tips of his ears dripped frozen sweat drops. The winds tickled and teased his ears.. he heard warnings.. they told him not to fight it.. they told him to let her deal with it.. but she was his family.. he would die for her.. she had been distant but the goddess had blessed her.. and he had grown fond of her grumblings much like kimdreg.

The icy wind surrounded the now half soul/infernal stone.. he stared at it.. "Break it open.. kill it" urged the south wind. "allow the priestess to care for it" whispered the west wind, "keep it" whispered the north wind.. the east wind remained quite.. watching he felt its presence.. but it did not say anything.. he rubbed the back of his neck

He licked his lips slowly as he inched forward.. his fingers touched the burning stone.. the winds avoided this one.. she must be saved.. he threw and slammed the rock against a ice cap.. it shattered and the .. most shocking thing appeared in front of him

She stood there with the leather tight around her legs, her sharpened claws holding her sides up.. and she glared at him with a wicked smile her pointed teeth almost glinting.. "Little man" she walked to deviance "You fool you know the cost of things" he stands, his cloak wraping around him from the wind, his ice blue eyes glaring at her "Ah will not allow chew ta corrupt her any longa"

The infernal trapped in this form grins at him, she walks forward slowly and puts a claw to his chin "I will kill her.. but first.. let us.. play" she pulls out a sword and dagger, she lept forward slicing at his chest.. leaving a large gash, he curses to himself as he blinks away "COWARD" she roars as she gets slammed with a ice bolt to the face, he turns and runs "THEN THE CUBS!" she turns and starts walking to the devi den.. he turns and roars out "NO NO CUBS!" he charges forward the beserker blood going crazy in his heart" NOT DE CUBS" he pulls out his sword and she turns at the last moment grinning, her dagger stabbing into his left eye, deviance falls to his kneels "Not de cubs!" he roared out as a fire ball slamms into her chest.. she falls back but she walks forward slowly as deviance sits on his knees in front of her.. his chest and eye bleeding heavly, he gasping for air.. he peered up to her, she grins "I suppose a eye for a eye" she laughs as she kicks him down and disapears into the heavy snow..

Deviance lay in the cold snow.. moaning "Ah have failed chew.." and his eye closes

[jawaa]

Jawaa trudged through the snow. Something felt different, wrong. The air was very still, to the point that Jawaa couldn't smell anything farther than a few dozen yards around her. Even the wildlife of Winterspring was acting oddly. Jawaa and Xaviera had decided to call the day's hunt off and go relax at Devi's den, maybe listen to the cubs dreams of fame and fortune.

Not far from the Den, Jawaa paused. She sniffed the air and gasped. She smelled troll blood. Devi's blood. Jawaa's senses went crazy, and in seconds she found Devi lying in the snow. Quickly and crudely she wrapped his wounds with runecloth from the Furbolgs, mostly just to stop the bleeding. Beside her, Xaviera let out a low growl. Jawaa nodded, and drew her gun from across her back. She wasn't sure what it was, but she could feel... something close by.

It all happened quickly. Xaviera suddenly bolted forward, roaring and enraging as she ran towards a figure in the snow ahead. The being moved swiftly, sidestepping Xaviera's enraged charge at the last minute and burying her dagger deep into the tiger's side, using the cat's momentum to finish the job.

Jawaa screamed, feeling the pain of her friend as intensely as if it was her own and dropped to one knee, clutching her side with one hand, her other hand holding onto her gun like a staff for support. She looked up, around, trying to listen, to sense where her opponent was now. But Xaviera's pain in herself dulled her mind terribly.

"Oh, how hard it must be, being blind both in sight and in mind." Behind her now. Jawaa turned her head. She recognized the voice. It was Bylin, but it didn't feel like Bylin... it felt like nothing to her. Almost as if...

"Demon." Jawaa coughed, slowly staggering to her feet, hefting the gun weakly into both hands.

"Yes... you can't see demons, not with your eyes, and not with your spirit sight." Behind her now. "Pity, I was hoping for a challenge."

Jawaa squeezed her eyes closed behind her blindfold, for the first time in her life trying to distance her mind from Xaviera's, to clear her own mind enough to listen. She heard the slightest sound of snow crunching under a foot and whirled around, firing in that direction. Quickly re-loading, Jawaa used the echo of her first shot to pinpoint her target and aim again. Before she had a chance to pull the trigger, the demon charged her and knocked Jawaa's gun askew, where it fired harmessly into the air. Jawaa felt a new burning in her side as the demon jabbed her dagger through her armor to the flesh underneath. Jawaa fell to her side in the snow.

The demon twisted the blade once before yanking it from Jawaa. She kneeled, dragging her finger along the bullet graze wound on her thigh, and wiping it on her lips. "Disappointing." And she turned back towards the Den.

Jawaa lay gasping in the snow. Slowly, the feeling of her wound, of Xaviera's, and the cool feel of the snow faded from her mind, as she slipped into unconsiousness.

[beiame]

Beiame sat in meditation within the rich, green forest of Feralas she loved so well. With her eyes closed and her mind deep in thought the Demon-Bylin had no trouble appearing from invisibility right behind the shaman. Bylin’s quick fingers moved right to the base of the tauren’s neck; her sharpened fingers plunging through the thick skin as if it were butter to pinch the spinal nerves. The demon-orc nuzzled her cheek against Beiame’s braid and hissed into her ears. “Good morning, cow.”

Beiame’s eyes flew open at once as she lost the feeling of her body from the shoulders down. Fear struck her as she wasn’t able to turn her head, although her ear twitched at the sound of Bylin’s husky voice. “Bylin… wha..?”

“Oh, please, that very *friendly* person?” the demon-orc interrupted. “She’s a tough cookie but what a wonderful container!” There was a metallic snap at the back of Beiame’s head and Bylin strutted her way around in front of Beiame allowing the tauren to disgracefully slump to the ground. Bylin peered down into the water of the nearby pool and grinned with approval at her reflection. “Yess..,” she hissed, “yes, much better then the other who failed…”

Beiame’s mind raced as panic clouded her senses. The muscles of her face twitched in her desperation to feel the rest of her unresponsive body. She could feel her heart beating the quick staccato of panic, she could also feel her lungs fill up with air with each quickened breath, but she could not will the other muscles of her body to move. Unsure of what was happening she stared in disbelief at Bylin. “Who... who are you?”

Bylin frowned and turned her face back to the tauren. “Aww... didn’t you recognize my greeting?”

Beiame’s eyes flew open at the instant recognition; those same three words spoken over whisperstone nine months ago; the beginning of the conversation that shattered her life as well as those of her closest friends. “Adocton!”

“NO!” The demon-orc yelled. A small hatchet appeared in her hand and was launched into Beiame’s ankle, just above her hoof. Although Beiame could see the hatchet wedged deep within her leg and could see the blood that spilled from it, she could not feel the pain. “What are you, some kind of idiot? These months of silence made you stupid?” raved Bylin. “I just TOLD you, that worthless piece of nuts failed me. His task was a simple one, I even allowed him to toy with you just as a challenge and STILL he wasn’t able to complete the tasks I gave him!”

Beiame gasped. “Grimthalagor! But no... How could you be here?”

“There’s the smarty I knew and adored,” cooed Bylin, “but still not smart enough. I was always here, just under a different face.” The demon-orc grinned with satisfaction at Beiame’s clueless look. “Oh come on honey, use that tiny brain of yours, I know you knew Adocton the most, it was you, after all, I allowed him to play with. So many sides to that man… Let me see if I can remember them all…” Bylin struck an exaggerated contra-posto pose, placing a finger on a tusk. “Lets see here, if I can remember.. Adocton the Mad… Adocton the Bad… Adocton the Wise… and of course the heart of the good man, Adocton the Pure.. but hmm, I’m forgetting someone.. aren’t I?”

Beiame was glad she couldn’t feel her stomach as she was sure otherwise it’d be sick. Her throat dry she only managed to whisper. “The Liar… you were the Liar…”

Bylin heaved a content sigh and smiled proudly. “But of course, cow, Adocton was a mad man, but not even he could talk the good part of him into remission. It kept getting in the way. Silly humans. I was needed to whisper those dirty lies to keep the Good in remission.” The demon-orc sighed and shook her head. “As it turns out it didn’t matter, you’re silly orc friend killed off the silly git before I was able to gather enough power to stop him. Lucky for me though my answer came from you.” She grinned wickedly at the tauren. “You got that other warlock involved and now look at me, I am stronger and in control. I can finish this ritual myself now and be done with these retched containers and nothing now can stop me.”

Beiame’s head throbbed with the effort of taking it all in. “You mean to kill me.”

The demon laughed long and hard. “What? Kill you? After all this?” She stepped up to the tauren and leaned down over the slumped form grabbing Beiame’s jaw roughly in both hands. Leaning her head in close to Beiame’s face she hissed at her. “You think you’re so special? You’re not. Why did I pick you? It was nothing special, a random choice. I just happened to see you on that zeppelin. It could have been anyone. I chose these carriers because they have a penchant for the darker areas of life; sadism, torment, harassment and lust. All fine qualities I find endearing. I couldn’t be happy simply working in secret, what is it the Wise told you? Everything is more fun when you have an audience. I’ve enjoyed it very much, my dear. Did you? What about those gifts in the mail, my personal favorites...” she chuckled darkly. “No, you have and always will be a toy to be fooled with. Killing you now would defeat the purpose of sharing so much knowledge! No I’m happy to let you suffer; see what madness you have caused? It’s your entire fault!” Bylin paused to contemplate that, and then laughed. “What a lucky choice I made after all, you were just a toy and in the end you brought about my return so much quicker then how I planned!.

“No, I will not kill you, cow. Instead, I thank you. I’ll be sure to keep you updated on my progress and can not wait to show you my true form.” Bylin gave Beiame a wicked grin and let her head drop. “Until then you can lie here and contemplate this mess you have created.”

The demon-orc laughed bitterly and vanished in thin air, leaving the shocked, panicked and paralyzed Beiame behind.

[deltarno]

"You created this mess," the rotted horror snarled over the table, "and now you're going to fix it!"
Deltarno slowly lifted the gear to his good eye, looking it over carefully before he set it down. Working out the grease with a clean rag, he answered without looking up. "As I'm sure your...voyers have already told you, it was not I who started this mess. That was done by a forsaken named..."
"Adocton, yes yes, I know." The woman waved the aside with one long talon. "But my spies" She emphasized the word "have told me off all the trouble you got into when you began to toy with this yourself. A demon of the Burning legion is running wild, supposedly due to the troll who took your special little rock away from you, and if you don't fix this soon, your last trip to the pit will seem like a vacation compared to what will be done to you."
"My...punishment is a matter of public record." Satisfied that the gear was clean, Deltarno fit it into it's place, working it back and forth to make sure it moved freely. "What I fail to see is why you are so...interested in this. Surely this matter lies out of your interest...or territory."
She looked down at him, her hands clenched into fists. Leaning across the table, she grabbed him by the jaw, pulling him close until they were inches apart. "You've caused enough problems with your experiments, Deltarno. I'll not have you bring shame upon me by letting a demon you helped summon run wild."
They stared at each other silently for several moments. Finally, she pushed him away, turning her back on him and snarling over her shoulder. "Get this done and over with. If it's suspected that you're involved, and the Tauren take offense, the Dark Lady may revoke your status. And your miserable existence."
Deltarno sat back down, watching her stalk out of the room as he pushed his jaw back into it's socket. "Nice to see you so concerned... mother." He muttered, keeping his voice well below the level she could hear.
Still, she had a point. He was quite tired of the attention he had gotten lately. His body and heart had been abused enough for any lifetime, and he only wanted to focus on his duty, forgetting everything he had lost.
In addition, part of him truly wanted to change. To give up the shadow play, the twisted experiments, to be someone he could be proud of again. He missed Bylin, in ways he couldn't understand, and wanted her to be with him again.
However...
This was an ideal opportunity. He would never have another chance to study demonic essence like this, and the potential for knowledge and power was quite high.
He hesitated, his ethics and desire pulling him one way and another. He had expected to have more time to make a decision on this, since Bylin's trapped soul wasn't going anywhere. If Deviance hadn't interfeared...
"Deviance." Deltarno hissed, a slow rage building inside of him.
Deviance had broken Deltarno's happiness.
Deviance had stolen the essence.
Deviance had ruined him.
"Fine." Deltarno sighed into the open air. "I will see this experiment to the end."
The mechanical chicken didn't see fit to respond, so Deltarno put down his tools and walked out of his small hut he had been given on Thunder Bluff. Walking through the crowds, nodding to familiar faces, he made his way to the caves where most of the forsaken here made their home.
Finding a quiet corner, Deltarno took a seat. Pulling out a small soul shard, he gently crushed it to powder, ignoring the pitiful wail that echoed from the stone. With the powder, he drew a small circle, then began to write.
His notes had been taken from him, but Deltarno knew this experiment well. Layer upon layer of spells had been placed upon the dark essence of Bylin's spirit, as he had gained further influence with it. While he had been mistaken as to the true nature of the darkness within, the spells themselves were still potent.
Or rather, most were. The containment spells, so strong against the elements and magic, had failed against a hard rock. He didn't know what it was up to, or why it had been set free, but the connection was still there. He could feel the demon, as he had felt Bylin back then.
A quick scry showed that the spells of control, corruption, and influence were still in place. What he had used on Bylin, he would use on the demon. Controlling demons was his forte, and while this one was stronger than usual, his spells lay upon it like a web, thick and strong.
It would take time, perhaps hours, perhaps days, but Deltarno firmly believed he could take charge of this situation, to his own betterment.
"And," He muttered as he felt the demon react in a rage to his first casting "Perhaps for a bit of revenge, as well." Holding his hand out over the circle, he began to chant. The runes began to glow, growing warm as the demon fought back. Even at this distance, he could feel her hot rage through the connection.
"Ignore me, demon." Deltarno whispered. "Ignore all that I do, and focus on your rage at the delay, your delight in pain, and your eagerness for more suffering. Find those you seek, and take revenge...for us both."
Deep in the caves, Deltarno plotted. And if a hint of moisture slid down his cheek, he did not notice.