Critiques/Comments welcome! I just realized I hadn't written a Silas chapter in a while...Warning: Graphic.
Silas stood still. From his place on the roof, he could hear a quiet song muffled through the wind. What did humans sing about? With a quick leap, he grabbed hold of the next roof and pulled himself upon it. He examined the surface for traces of a trap, mechanical or magical, and continued to not find any. These were puzzling beings, blind without light, living in their open topped city with no traps on their roofs.
The song seized his attention like a soft whispering hand, and squeezed. He could not move as it continued to deepen. His breath came in short gasps. He could hear her pain. He could not understand the words at first, but it didn't take him long to remember his mother's language... But it had been so long since he had heard a trace of this language, and now it dug into him like claws...smooth, shimmering aquamarine claws. It dug into him and wrenched forth his mother's tortured face; her skin tight and cracking as if it had been sun baked mud, her hair hanging limply and lifeless like withered grass, her eyes, which looked more like rocks then gems.
This woman too was dying...she needed the dance of salt, the life of the water...and she was trapped. She was fading away slowly, like his mother had. He felt the hotness of tears pulling themselves down from his eyes. He wiped them on the back of his hands, and shivered.
The sound came from a window from the building next to this one. During a lull in the song, he jumped from this roof to the next, then approached the closest window. No one moved, so Silas lowered himself into it, casting a quick appraising glance around the darkened room. Simple wooden framed beds lay against the walls. The linens were yellowed with age and a ratty woolen blanket with gaping holes lay on top of each one. A poorly crafted night table held a drawer slightly ajar, and couldn't be closed because of some flaw in its craftsmanship. He pulled it open, and found a few rags and a bronze hilted dagger. Pockmarks covered the steel surface, but it still had a sharp edge in places. He could use it, along with the good one he'd taken from Desreta.
He grabbed it up. The lull in the song had been extremely long, and he began to wonder if it were too late. Now he heard her voice crying out. His feet carried him there, and he saw the scene laid out before him. A large clay lamp lit the whole room with the smell of burning fish oil. Three rough humans, as badly cared for as their grimy, tattered clothes, two of them holding her thin pale green arms, as if waiting their turn. The other...torturing her. Forest green hair curled on the wooden floor. Only slight moans of pain could make it out of the human's thick hand clamped over the bottom half of her face. Expressive eyes screamed for her.
Silas wouldn't survive this. At the moment, he didn't care. Just as long as they didn't survive it either. He reached out and stabbed the torturer in the back. The body slid off the good dagger to the floor, thudding heavily against the wood. The two others looked at him. He leapt at them, taking advantage of the shock by burying the crude dagger in the first human throat he saw. The man's eyes widened, and he grabbed at the knife. Silas let go and watched him pull it out, the man's blood came spraying out with it, like water rushing out of the hole in a basin. The last man grabbed him up by the blood covered cloak. Silas choked, dropping his good dagger, and grabbing at the cloak to keep it from strangling him. He unhooked the clasp, dropping out of his cloak reluctantly, then stabbed the man in the hand with the open pin from the clasp. The man screamed, pulling his injured hand away from him, then stumbling back.
"What in the name of Umberlee's-" The man gasped, looking at Silas's exposed flesh. The man never got to finish. The green haired fey woman had found the dagger and she wasn't waiting to be avenged upon the human. She stabbed and stabbed. Soon she panted, as blood covered as his cloak. The last human was a bloody mess on the ground.
"A landwalker...?" She said, voice hard and guarded, but then softening as her emerald eyes examined his features. Tears filled her eyes. "They have destroyed your face." She said, and her cool, soft fingertips touched his scars.
"Yes." He said, stepping backwards, not wanting to tell her that his face meant nothing to him. If he could, he would peal it off and fling it away from him.
"You are fey." She said, softly, reaching out to stroke his braids. It was his mother's language...soft and beautiful and as natural as rain whispering from the sky.
"No." He denied, painfully. If he were really fey he would have wasted away like his mother. But there was no time for explanations. They should not be here. They would be caught. "You need the ocean, don't you?"
"Yes!" She said desperately.
"Where is the nearest water here?"
"They have seawater in a tub...to keep me alive." She said. "As if it would."
"Fools." He hissed, feeling sick. How could they think that simply putting some water into a tub would preserve her? Didn't they understand that the water was dead when it was cut off from the sea? He knew this. He walked into the room where she led him, and dunked his cloak. A cloud of red billowed out to fill the water instead of the cloak. He pulled the cloak out and shook it off. He squeezed it out, wrung it and then held it up. "I want you to escape." He said. He wrapped the cloak around her, gently pinning it closed under her neck. He pulled the cloak's hood up over her hair. "Don't let them see your beauty." He said. "Discard this cloak when you reach the water." He said.
"I am Larraiz." She said, handing him a large, lustrous pearl. "May the gods bless you, landfey!" She said, then fled.
He retrieved the good dagger from the floor, then looked over the corpses. It hadn't been hard to kill them. They weren't any harder to kill than goblins or orcs.
Bhaal's Youngest: Chapter 54
Started by
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, Jan 31 2007 05:43 AM
10 replies to this topic
#2
Guest_Cel_*
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Posted 31 January 2007 - 07:27 AM
Well, this certainly shows a new side to Silas!
I love how you showed his bonds to the fey side of his nature; it seems he has pretty positive bonds to his mother and her people, and it adds a whole new dimension to him.
Great chapter!
I love how you showed his bonds to the fey side of his nature; it seems he has pretty positive bonds to his mother and her people, and it adds a whole new dimension to him.
Great chapter!
#4
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Posted 31 January 2007 - 03:39 PM
Interesting observations of Silas, focusing on the fey side of his heritage. I suppose his time with the drow has given him at least basic competence with weapons? He seems to have been on good terms with his mother's people. By the way, why were those men torturing the fey? Did the pearl have any special attributes? I don't suppose this will affect Phoenix's group? It will be curious to see how Silas and Phoenix react to each other.
#5
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Posted 31 January 2007 - 05:02 PM
Very interesting chapter and tells many new things about Silas. While you've displayed influence of his fey's blood, he still seems to be more human than before due to his (unexpected) compassion. Is he really that good with weapons or he won mostly due to surprise+luck?
#6
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Posted 01 February 2007 - 03:02 AM
I love how you showed his bonds to the fey side of his nature; it seems he has pretty positive bonds to his mother and her people, and it adds a whole new dimension to him.
Well, yes, there aren't very many fey in the under dark and this is the first he's seen since he was a child.
#7
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Posted 01 February 2007 - 03:08 AM
Aww. I don't have much else to add, but Silas' actions just made me want to go aww. It's nice to see a bit more of him, and the way he reacts to other fey.
Well, I appreciate it anyway, because that means I know you read it and enjoyed it! Well, even if he usually acts it, he's not just a drow with white skin and scars.
#8
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Posted 01 February 2007 - 03:36 AM
Interesting observations of Silas, focusing on the fey side of his heritage.
Thank you. It hasn't needed to be done before this, because the drow had a profound amount of influence, but his senses are still sharpened by sensitivity to the state of wood, stone, wind and things going on around him.
I suppose his time with the drow has given him at least basic competence with weapons?
More than basic.
He seems to have been on good terms with his mother's people.
He can't save his mother, she is already dead. But he can try to save this other imprisoned fey.
By the way, why were those men torturing the fey?
The reason that men take beautiful fey women prisoner and let them waste away and torture them in the meantime is anyone's guess. Most likely because the men think they have the right to. After all, we've all heard about 'temptresses' who deserve it.
Did the pearl have any special attributes?
No, it's just like the one she has in the game, but she wanted to give him something for the dagger she took. (She doesn't know it's the fishermen's dagger.) On the plus side, it's pretty and expensive compared to the little bit of gold he has...and he can spend it without worrying about it's origin.
I don't suppose this will affect Phoenix's group?
Well, Phoenix won't have to preform that mercy killing when she gets to BG and it's too late to save the sirine. After all, because of this, it won't be too late to save her.
It will be curious to see how Silas and Phoenix react to each other.
I'm curious myself.
#9
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Posted 01 February 2007 - 04:28 AM
Very interesting chapter and tells many new things about Silas. While you've displayed influence of his fey's blood, he still seems to be more human than before due to his (unexpected) compassion.
Well, usually he's too guarded and apprehensive to be compassionate.
Is he really that good with weapons or he won mostly due to surprise+luck?
He is very good with weapons and he's very fast. (Had he managed that strike with scalpel on Rebos, Rebos would have been dead). But surprise and luck did play a part. The first one didn't even know what happened, the second barely had time to register that the first one was attacked. The third one was lucky, grabbed his cloak and pulled him off his feet. (Silas is really light weight compared to the heavier humans). That one would have been swiftly stabbed too if Silas didn't have to worry about being strangled with his cloak. The shock here came from seeing what was in the cloak. After all, fisherman number three expected his attacker to be human. Silas would have retrieved one of the daggers or both of them, then it would have been over for the third human, but the Sirine wasn't going to wait for that.
#10
Weyoun
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Posted 04 February 2007 - 07:23 PM
[quote]
The song seized his attention like a soft whispering hand, and squeezed. He could not move as it continued to deepen. His breath came in short gasps. He could hear her pain. He could not understand the words at first, but it didn't take him long to remember his mother's language... But it had been so long since he had heard a trace of this language, and now it dug into him like claws...smooth, shimmering aquamarine claws. It dug into him and wrenched forth his mother's tortured face; her skin tight and cracking as if it had been sun baked mud, her hair hanging limply and lifeless like withered grass, her eyes, which looked more like rocks then gems.
[/quote]
I see what you mean by 'graphic'.
[quote]
"What in the name of Umberlee's-" The man gasped, looking at Silas's exposed flesh. The man never got to finish. The green haired fey woman had found the dagger and she wasn't waiting to be avenged upon the human. She stabbed and stabbed. Soon she panted, as blood covered as his cloak. The last human was a bloody mess on the ground.
[/quote]
He was gonna say 'ass', right? She seems like that kind of goddess.
quote]
"Fools." He hissed, feeling sick. How could they think that simply putting some water into a tub would preserve her? Didn't they understand that the water was dead when it was cut off from the sea? He knew this. He walked into the room where she led him, and dunked his cloak. A cloud of red billowed out to fill the water instead of the cloak. He pulled the cloak out and shook it off. He squeezed it out, wrung it and then held it up. "I want you to escape." He said. He wrapped the cloak around her, gently pinning it closed under her neck. He pulled the cloak's hood up over her hair. "Don't let them see your beauty." He said. "Discard this cloak when you reach the water." He said.
[/quote]
[quote]
"I am Larraiz." She said, handing him a large, lustrous pearl. "May the gods bless you, landfey!" She said, then fled.
[/quote]
Hey, is that the one you find the fisherman's house in BG1? Nice to know she got the upper hand this time.
[quote]
He retrieved the good dagger from the floor, then looked over the corpses. It hadn't been hard to kill them. They weren't any harder to kill than goblins or orcs.[/quote]
Goblin, orc, human... it's all a matter of hitpoints.
The song seized his attention like a soft whispering hand, and squeezed. He could not move as it continued to deepen. His breath came in short gasps. He could hear her pain. He could not understand the words at first, but it didn't take him long to remember his mother's language... But it had been so long since he had heard a trace of this language, and now it dug into him like claws...smooth, shimmering aquamarine claws. It dug into him and wrenched forth his mother's tortured face; her skin tight and cracking as if it had been sun baked mud, her hair hanging limply and lifeless like withered grass, her eyes, which looked more like rocks then gems.
[/quote]
I see what you mean by 'graphic'.
[quote]
"What in the name of Umberlee's-" The man gasped, looking at Silas's exposed flesh. The man never got to finish. The green haired fey woman had found the dagger and she wasn't waiting to be avenged upon the human. She stabbed and stabbed. Soon she panted, as blood covered as his cloak. The last human was a bloody mess on the ground.
[/quote]
He was gonna say 'ass', right? She seems like that kind of goddess.
quote]
"Fools." He hissed, feeling sick. How could they think that simply putting some water into a tub would preserve her? Didn't they understand that the water was dead when it was cut off from the sea? He knew this. He walked into the room where she led him, and dunked his cloak. A cloud of red billowed out to fill the water instead of the cloak. He pulled the cloak out and shook it off. He squeezed it out, wrung it and then held it up. "I want you to escape." He said. He wrapped the cloak around her, gently pinning it closed under her neck. He pulled the cloak's hood up over her hair. "Don't let them see your beauty." He said. "Discard this cloak when you reach the water." He said.
[/quote]
[quote]
"I am Larraiz." She said, handing him a large, lustrous pearl. "May the gods bless you, landfey!" She said, then fled.
[/quote]
Hey, is that the one you find the fisherman's house in BG1? Nice to know she got the upper hand this time.
[quote]
He retrieved the good dagger from the floor, then looked over the corpses. It hadn't been hard to kill them. They weren't any harder to kill than goblins or orcs.[/quote]
Goblin, orc, human... it's all a matter of hitpoints.
TnT Enhanced Edition: http://www.fanfictio...rds-and-Tempers
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Sith Warrior - Master, I can sense your anger.
Darth Baras - A blind, comotose lobotomy-patient could sense my anger!
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Sith Warrior - Master, I can sense your anger.
Darth Baras - A blind, comotose lobotomy-patient could sense my anger!
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"The New Age? It's just the old age stuck in a microwave oven for fifteen seconds" - James Randi
#11
Guest_Dadri_*
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Posted 05 February 2007 - 12:49 AM
I see what you mean by 'graphic'.
Yeah. I figured that a nymph dying from being separated from her area would be a horrid sight to see. Especially to her child.
He was gonna say 'ass', right? She seems like that kind of goddess.
Yep. I figured any goddess that doesn't smite the people who called her the bitch queen but instead took it as one of her titles would probably not mind people cursing by her ass.
Hey, is that the one you find the fisherman's house in BG1? Nice to know she got the upper hand this time.
Yes. It has always annoyed me that the only thing you could do was kill her.
Goblin, orc, human... it's all a matter of hitpoints.
Exactly!
Thanks for reading and commenting!
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