Prologue ~ Concieved in Nightmare
The forests were quiet and dark as the young elfmaid took reverie by a gently flowing stream... her trance-dreams were pleasant, and remarkably sharp for such a circumstance.
In the hazy dreamed distance she could see a tall, handsome man, a pale, handsome gentleman elf with auburn hair an eyes of crimson-flecked jet... He came to her, whispered kind words, and the elfmaid felt her heart soften.
He gently brought his hand to her cheek and she leaned forward to look into his eyes... and felt her soul being torn apart.
The elf maid came from her reverie in fear, heaving and clutching at her chest.
~+~
Shunned and ostracized for an inexplicable pregnancy, torn by fear every time she took reverie, the elfmaid's health deteriorated rapidly... the birth of her pale, auburn-haired child was more than she could handle and she succumbed to the veil on her soul in the short months following.
The night of her passing, a dark-robed company strode in, picked the child up from his bed, and walked off into the night.
Chapter One ~ Failure and Exile
The night was cold, but Sul didn't care, he had one thought on his mind, and that was to strive for his goal and collect his payment.
On all sides he could see them in the dark, his brethren of the band, the Shadow Stalkers of the Ailing Forest... and he sensed his quarry ahead.
A renegade devil from the north, supposedly some godling en route to seize the portfolio of murder or some such nonsense. In any case, he was mortal, and would die for his weight in coin.
Dark, crimson flecked eyes cautiously darted from side to side, guaging his partners, reading their silent movements as the hunting party moved steadily forward, encircling the violet skinned fiend they tracked. The supposed godling walked with confidence, robed in regal black velvet and resting his hand lightly on an ashenwood staff.
Suddenly, a cracking stick to the dark hunter's left, beyond the violet skinned man, drew the attention of the fiend... he paused, and narrowed his eyes, his hands beginning to take on a slight glow.
That chanting was superflous, and was over before the dark hunter knew what was happening... all around him, bounty hunters fell, strokes of lightning through their chests. The band scattered.
The hellish mage took a smug look around and continued on his way, satisfied that any threat was now taken care of.
Sul looked around at the charred bodies of what had been his only family... his brothers and sisters, his comrades in arms... only a handful of his band remained. Returning to the town that hired him to report their failure to complete their contract, the dark hunter's grey skin faded to grim white as he surveyed the destruction around him.
The elves of the city rushed to and fro, the stench of death rising from their walls and permeating the area....
"He came here..."
Sul~falaer was livid... and so were the citizens of the once beautiful forest city that he saw laid waste before him. Opportunity to atone for a failure that cost so much would have been an amazing thing indeed, and wasn't forthcoming for the Shadow Stalkers...
The band scattered over the land, and Sul wandered until the soles of his boots wore through, finally pausing in a misty hamlet nestled in the shadow of tall mountains.
Chapter Two ~ Into the Mists
The hamlet was misty and unkind, but there was gold to be made, enough to tolerate the judgmental stares as the man walked from town to camp and back, cutting back the encroaching goblins for no other reason than the money involved.
The bounty hunter's profession was frowned upon... apparently the coin of their town was a less noble goal than for the prestige of a defunct god in a high and lofty temple. Odd, seeing as how the clergy were under the scrutiny of the local druid.
Still though, the thrill of the hunt and the money it brought in was kind enough to make up for the harsh stares and biting cynicism turned back against the dark hunter. He grew constantly more bitter as those he once thought he could find some reparte with sullied his reputation and spat their derision in his face.
What did he care? His wallet was fattening, his sword drank its fill, and life was good. Wasn't it? It was. He was sure of it.
He was sure up until the day a smiling, scarred elfmaid lifted his beltpouch and handed it right back to him.
Her mysterious tattoos, her liquid silver eyes, and her scarred, sarcastic countenance haunted the dark hunter everytime he turned a corner... and he had to admit: the mysterious woman was intriguing.
Chapter Three ~ Regret
(The full story of Regret and Sul~falaer posted as Nocturne (3))
The dance was fluid, though full of twists and turns, dips and weaves. The pair stared into each other's soul with intensity, both reveling in the discovery that the shadowy waltz brought.
Her voice was a lilting, sarcastic, biting blade that cut into his body and opened his flesh to bare his soul, and his soul was a warm, dark blanket that enveloped her and drew her in.
Day turned into week, into month, and the two shadows, Sul~falaer and Regret, wove in and out of each other again and again, each watching the other creep along the ground to darken the hamlet, crossing over and meeting them at opportune moments near middays when the light threatened to swallow the darkness, strengthening the presence of the other.
Interest grew into trust, trust to friendship, and friendship to love, and the shades of the misty hamlet found themselves wrapped in beautiful grey embrace that finally shrouded the pain in their scarred hearts.
Sul~falaer, for the first time in his life, cared for another other than himself. His hardened heart cracked for Regret, and poured its myrrh upon her.
And then, as he soared in her hungry kiss, as he rose in her embrace, he fell to the ground.
At the gates to the hamlet, she lay cold and still, her blood still warm when he found her. It began to rain. He lifted her body... she was surprisingly light, but the heavy tears that fell from his eyes to her cooling face and torso weighed her down in his arms, and the walk to the pass was arduous as his heart exploded, sending shards cutting away through his soul, tearing it apart and spraying the blood over him in effigy.
At Mourning Pass, he laid her to rest, under the tree where he'd first realized that someone in that bleak world might care for more than his swordarm and his gold.
As he strode out of the misty hamlet a week later, Sul~falaer's heart scarred over, slowly numbing to any remaining pain.
The dark blade Nightthirst craved sustenance, and every new bounty took Sul~falaer further and further from pain and closer and closer to shadow.
Chapter Four ~ Nightmares
As time passed, they came more frequently... Mild at first, the nightmares came with increased intensity as Sul~falaer grew more and more wedded to the shadows around him.
He saw her, her coy smile upon her face and the playful flash of her silver eyes bringing renewed emotion to his hardened heart. Regret stood at the gates to that damned hamlet with a gaze and countenance both sarcastic and seductive, and she beckoned him to her...
Sul~falaer approached with a deliberate step and a light smile, reaching down to accept her hand to his.
Something was awry.
As he reached down, a black knife flashed before her throat from behind, and Sul~falaer looked up to stare into the face of a tall, pale, auburn-haired elf with dark, crimson-flecked eyes.
The devilish elf held the knife to Regret's throat while she remained disturbingly calm, and spoke, each word dripping with a venomous tone that shook the hunter to his soul.
Feed your blade, shadow-hunter...
The voice came from within his head, and was his own... or was it?
Nightthirst came from its sheath in Sul's hand and flew toward the devil. Regret's form crumbled to ash and the blade flashed into flesh easily...
The devil was nowhere to be found. Looking up from the bloodbathed blade, Sul gazed into the pleading face of a golden-haired elfmaid, impaled on the black sword, the red of her blood staining her snow-white gown.
Her face contorted in agony, but the dying elfmaid managed to raise a delicate hand to softly touch the horrified hunter's face before she sunk to her knees.
You killed them, Sul~falaer Dhamphil.
The voice came to him again, and the hunter dropped to the ground in tears, releasing the sword and clutching his head.
He awoke in a cold sweat...
Chapter Five ~ The Road to Hell
The man in black knew things. For this reason, Sul didn't kill him, although the thought of his pale throat gaping wide was a bit more than tempting, given his manipulative countenance with which Sul was growing more and more impatient.
Still, however, the information the man provided - the resources he offered - spurred the dark hunter on to his new purpose: To find and kill the pale, mocking elf in his dreams, and, if there was any truth to the nightmares, to rescue his mother's and his lover's souls.
At night, Sul was haunted, but with every nightmare brought closer to his goal, each dream seeming to allow him a fraction more ground in the battle against the pale devil.
Time passed, and each new day brought more fruition to Sul~falaer's search for means, and the shimmering mirror that finally stood before him revealed to him the infinite paths through light, darkness, and shadow, all leading to the precipice that symbolized the end of his nightmares.
The tall, shadowed man stood beside it and nodded, hiding his evil smirk with a quick, short bow.
The dark hunter nodded in return and stepped through the portal in to the blasted wasteland beyond.
Watching for a second after the devilkin elf, the shadowed man smiled, chuckling briefly to himself as the portal faded from existance...
