[sigh] I intended this to be longer, but Tamoko was very rude, perhaps becase of the way I had Sarevok think of her, and refused to share her POV. On the topic of Tamoko, I don't know that she is a kensai officially or anything, but I figured every story could use at least one kensai, and she was already yelling "Kai!" from the last chapter, so why not?
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Chapter Three: Sarevok
Sarevok pulled his sword free of Gorion's body and brought the blade up and around before the corpse could complete its fall to the ground. The dead mage's head fell away from his shoulders. Satisfied that the old man wouldn't be returning to the world of the living in that condition, Sarevok knelt beside the body and felt around Gorion's pockets for anything of interest. No common bandit, Sarevok was not looking for gold, nor did he have any interest in the black dagger that the mage had probably “acquired” from Quincy.
His own weapons were far more powerful than anything the assassin could ever have hoped to own.
Sarevok was looking for information, and he found it in the form of a scroll. The fiery intensity of his eyes increased twofold as he read it silently.
Tamoko pulled herself to her feet and came up to stand behind him. The kensai's voice was soft and calm, as it always was—before, during, and after battle. “That was a teleportation spell, I believe. He could be anywhere now.”
“And you wonder how we will locate him without a mage,” he observed, as he slipped the letter back into its owner's bloodied robe. “We have no further need to divine his whereabouts. He will head for Beregost.”
“We can likely ambush him there if we move quickly,” she suggested.
“We have more important matters to attend to in Baldur's Gate.”
“I respectfully disagree. He is too dangerous to take chances with. We would only be delayed—”
“We would be delayed longer than is necessary. The doppelgangers grow more rebellious with each passing day. They need the kind of reminder that only we can provide.” And if you had him so cleanly beaten, he will not provide the test of my power that I had hoped for. Sarevok kept the thought to himself because to the extent that he respected anyone, he respected Tamoko. “Do not fear; there is no risk. The Sword Coast has no shortage of assassins and bounty hunters. A price of ten thousand gold on his head will attract the attention of even the deadliest of the deadly.”
The kensai obviously disagreed with his priorities, but she obviously knew that Sarevok was honoring her greatly by even bothering to explain his reasoning. “It shall be as you wish.”
It always is, he thought to himself, a wolf's grin on his face, as he started to walk north. He paid no heed to the fallen form of Cythandria, nor did his eyes dwell on the twin knives in her throat. Unlike Gorion, she was probably still revivable, if proper care was taken with her body. But Sarevok would not go to any lengths whatsoever to reacquire the services of a mage who did not have enough sense to so much as cast the most rudimentary of protection spells on herself before initiating battle.
Besides, Sarevok knew a mage much more powerful than she. The only reason he had even kept Cythandria around was to keep Tamoko on her toes. Taking into consideration that Tartanos had killed the former nearly instantaneously, there was no real contest. Nevertheless, it would not do to have the kensai think she was irreplaceable to Sarevok simply because she shared his bed.
After all, Sarevok's respect only went as far as the power of the individual in question, of course.
And I have never met one who can match my power, Sarevok mused as he swung his massive obsidian sword in one hand, casually felling a sapling that blocked his path.
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Well, there is my interpretation of Sarevok. I tried to make hime sound arrogant without being willfully stupid and totally evil overlordish, but I must ask, does he sound a little too full of himself?
Also, what about his speech patterns? Does it sound like him? (I've become obsessed with this type of thing ever since I looked back at Chapter 1 and said, "The protagonist shouldn't talk like THAT.")
