Where the strands of darkness meet (Bris)

[Anadwen]

"I won't make any promises." Athran growled back, repeating Corey's words.

He didn't need to sleep... If he could get out of those handcuffs, he could slip out of the carriage unnoticed. Even in a hurt state it shouldn't be a problem... He twisted his hands in the bonds, and tried to get his slim wrists out.

It couldn't be that difficult...

[Brisinger987]

Corey took a minute to fall asleep, but he managed it.

He woke up to the sound of a guard hitting the side of the carriage, signalling them to wake.

"Oooh, what's going on now?"

[Anadwen]

"Damn the gods..." Athran muttered. He just managed to loosen them and slip his right hand out of the threads, when the carriage stopped. They couldn't possibly be there yet. But if they stopped... He could escape.

[Brisinger987]

The carriage opened, and guards swarmed in, checking their bonds and re-gagging Corey.

Then they marched the two men outside, where a soldier camp lay, with 70-80 soldiers all conducting duties in this camp.

Corey wasn't going to try his luck.

A captain came over and examined Corey and Athran, deciding that their fate did indeed lie in the mage camps.

And so, the guards began to shove Corey and Athran back into the carriage.

[Anadwen]

Athran didn't resist this time, neither. His hand appeared in the threads again, and he pretended to be still tied up. However, in the moment when the doors of the carriage closed again, both of his hands dropped the threads. He untied himself in a speed that didn't seem natural, and carefully stood up, covering in the shadows.

If he could get out through the back door, he'd be free, and on his way back to Adela...

The Black Sword wasn't going to get into the mage camps. He gripped the edges of the door, and begun to draw them open.

[Brisinger987]

Corey went to go back to sleep, but heard the sound of Athran pulling the door.

"Hey?! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

[Anadwen]

"Saving my neck," Athran whispered, and opened the door wide. It was only one leap into the darkness for him to escape...

[Brisinger987]

What neither had realised was that after being thrown in the carriage, the driver had joined a convoy of carriages, and as Athran opened the door, a guard on the carriage behind shouted, and the convoy stopped instantly.

Shouts of panic and disruption resounded, and Corey found himself well and truly stuck, unable to move.

Then he decided he really didn't like this Athran guy.

"He's trying to escape! Get him!"

[Anadwen]

A mordecai pressed a hand onto Athran's mouth. They weren't going to let him escape that easily... Now he was hold not by one, but right three, in one of the carriages, tied and secured against anything.

He was better off before... He didn't try to move, only stared at the faces of the men that held him, a thousand different emotions mirroring in his eyes. Now was not the time to fight...

[Brisinger987]

Corey had the crossbows of two marksmen pointed at him while the mordecai sorted out Athran. Corey felt something in the air, heavy, chilling and terrifying.

It was the presence of power, death, and the undead. The chilling creep of sealed fates everywhere. It scared him.

The guards were too focused on Corey and Athran to notice the skull that seemed to be floating on the wall opposite the door of the carriage.

[Anadwen]

The door of the carriage didn't even open... Suddenly, Athran felt how the mordecai, one by one, let go off him. They dropped onto the floor as if they were unconscious... So suddenly.

A shadow appeared on the ground. "Hello, pointy-ears."

Ryuch's tall, bent figure appeared in the door, slipping right through the wood. His crooked wings disappeared like smoke, but his claw-like hands were still crossed on his chest. The death god grinned, revealing his razor-sharp teeth.

"Long time no see."

[Brisinger987]

One of the mordecai managed to resist the magic of Ryuch, clearly something supernatural, and as the undercover demon burst into flames, Xerordir leapt from the shadows, the silent reaper, catching the demon in the chest with his scythe, and imprisoning it inside.

"Nice to meet you Athran. Corey, long time no see." Xerordir's voice emanated from the skeleton, which warped to be fully robed and have the wings.

"Nice to see you too Xerordir. Thanks for the save."

[Anadwen]

Ryuch's black lips twisted into an even wider grin. "Xerordir. Heh, heh, what a nice meeting." he cackled. His hands grabbed Athran's shoulders. "And you, Athran? Trouble again?"

Athran frowned. "Thanks for saving my neck - again - but you're pretty much stating the obvious." he muttered. The death god only squatted next to him and tilted his head aside, staring right at his face. "And no, I don't have anything for you..." he added.

Ryuch sighed and turned his attention to Corey. A mortal... He didn't appear to have much time left. And he was still young. "Corey." he muttered.

Athran only coiled up on the ground. Having to put up with one death god was not a problem, but two and that mage were too much for him in this state. He wanted to get lost... If Ryuch could use those wings to actually carry something with him, they could escape easily. At last, he greeted Xerordir. "It's a pleasure. One of Ryuch's kind? Death god?" he questioned him.

[Brisinger987]

"No my dear boy, a reaper, a collector of those whose times on this earth have finished. I decided where you go, what afterlife you deserve. I'm lucky in that there are no rules saying I can't intervene. You couldn't help to be a bit nicer, and kill a little less. Probably starting now. You're not up for a good afterlife at this rate." Xerordir's voice sounded foreboding and forewarning, his rather sinister look giving the message an overall ominous feel.

Then he turned to Corey.

"You already know bloody well that there's debate about you." Corey's predicament wasn't his fault, and some of the reapers were declaring him insane through desperation, while other believed he was doing nothing wrong, while other believed he should be punished.

[Anadwen]

Athran shook his head with a smirk. "The hell itself's not bad enough for the Black Sword. I'll be leaving with Ryuch once I die..." he admitted, joking on the first sight, but in reality, he was deadly serious. The death god beside him nodded. "Exactly. Here Daineth won't be leaving for any normal afterlife... What he's been doing is... Defying the laws by which mortals are judged. He'll go to the realm of the Death gods."

Ryuch shrugged. "I didn't make the decision, but he knows how's it going to be. If you kill several, maybe fifty, you go to hell. If you kill fifty thousands, the hell would freeze with your damn cold soul." Athran sighed. "Ryuch, you don't have to repeat this to everyone!" he hissed. The black eyes of the death god pierced him like a spear. "In the end, you might be afraid..." he muttered.

[Brisinger987]

"Well Ryuch, the underworld gods won't like the special treatment. You'll get some problems with them. I'm the middle man. I don't care, I just collect. And I know underworlds where there are the souls of men who have killed millions single handed. Underworlds for demons and monsters. If there is a problem, he will have to be voided of whatever treatment he's getting, and go to Nel:kra'voy:nem. You do not want to go there. Buddy boy here, who decided he was immortal, is going there. I've been hunting him for days. Finally got him." Xerordir's eyes glowed bright.

"No-one should fear death. Death should be welcomed. Those who fear death, fear their afterlife. Of course, only when the time is right, should one be content with even death. To want to die young is stupid. If it happens, I come and collect, yes, but I take no pleasure in it." Xerordir could feel Ryuch's power.

[Anadwen]

"It has not been my decision. However, Athran is beyond the laws by which ordinary mortals abide, and it was judgement from above for him to accompany me... It is, indeed, worse than hell to abide in the barren realms of the death gods." Ryuch replied, crossing his arms on his knees.

Athran nodded. He already knew all of this... Once he died, he couldn't be treated as living again. "I don't fear death. I have welcomed it once before." he whispered.

[Brisinger987]

"Well, I'll always take you to a better afterlife, whether you've never died, or it's become something boringly regular. Just prove to me you deserve it, and you'll go to whoever will take you." Xerordir's job was to offer that choice, and he would argue the merits and rules with Ryuch another day.

"What do you see for Corey, Ryuch?"

[Anadwen]

"I don't mind going with Ryuch," Athran admitted. "At least I know him. I'd have to follow him for a thousand years... And then become something like him." He shrugged. Ryuch nodded once more, shaking the spikes of his black hair. "He screwed up on a big scale. This here," he grabbed Athran's shoulder, "is beyond salvation, I fear."

"However, you are very nice to offer something like that... What do I see, you ask?" The death god peered at the mage. "Corey Treyburn. He doesn't have much time here left." he uttered, and scratched his head. He couldn't see anything more.

[Brisinger987]

"Then my prediction was correct. Corey, are you sure that is the only way you see things ending?" Xerordir turned to Corey, unable to stop the boy if he was destined to kill himself once he had avenged his one love.

"I'm on a path of revenge. Two graves must be dug and filled."