Bound by Flame
I remember what my life used to be like. I remember when it was about figuring out who she was. I remember when it was about trying to survive. I remember when it was about slaying Lelliana. I wish everything was as simple as before, committing war crimes was always so much easier.
There, finished. I thought to myself as I closed my military diary. It was time to show Sarah the power of the void. "Butt whyyyyyyy?" She whined. "I'm not headed off to war, I'm getting married!" I was about to say something but she sharply interrupted me with, "AND I expect you be there. I gave up, it was no use showing her how to conjure a doom blade. "Alright, alright," I replied, "I'll be there." "Yay!" She jumped up and hugged me, I swear sometimes she seems like the younger one. I headed down to check on my reapers, see if all the ghouls were in order. My reapers had dug up a few blind ones, but I merely sent those to become skaabs. My army was ready. I took my seat inside the skull of a zombie Goliath and took my leave of my home. I didn't bother giving out any good byes, no one in the stronghold was worth it. And with that, my hordes of undead marched to the north.
The road north was arduous, however the dead do not tire. The battle was quick, the casualties low, and the war, coming to a close. The next stronghold was that of Veldakin origin, however it would be best to wait for night fall, ghouls had an advantage in the dark. It would also take time to plan an attack on a stronghold in the middle of an ocea . My ghouls could easily get to the stronghold through the water, but I would need to open the stronghold from the inside. It took some time but I soon hatched a devious plan as to how to take their stronghold. It took two weeks of sitting on our stronghold to get them to send their drakes against us. Azure drakes skimmed across the water, straight for the stronghold. It didn't take much to drop them down. A few doomblades dropped their forces. and with that, I ordered my reapers to take the corpses inside.
Two more weeks passed before the work was finished, and it was my greatest work. My ghouls surrounded the stronghold underwater. My reapers prepared to drag back the corpses, and my latest creation the scrape skin drake prepared to take their first flight. Each bore four pairs of wings, had no limbs, and had a iron jaw clamp that could snap a man in two. I settled on one of the drakes and prepared for my first flight. On second thought, maybe I'd best stay on the shore. I ordered a warpath ghoul onto my drake to open the stronghold. Just as my drakes were about to reach the stronghold, a fireball ripped through the sky and a voice sounded deep inside my head, you're mine. I turned to see a young woman skimming across the water, her hair lit aflame. I sent a doom blade to stop her in her tracks, but she discarded it as though it were nothing. I turned back to my drakes only to see their corpses floating in the water, burning. But hope was still there. My warpath had made it inside! NO! I heard in my head once more. The woman turned to send a lightning bolt across the sky , but I drove a mind spike into the spell. I don't think so. I thought. How did I do that? I could feel my words reaching her. She spat at me, I guess you think you're clever. Yes. I thought. And with that a hand reached out of the ocean and snagged her heel. "Fuck you!" I heard her call out verbally over the ocean. With the woman gone I could see to the strong hold, but when I turned to it my ghouls had already made it inside. All I had to do was wait. As I sat watching the corpses cart out I thought of something. Where is the corpse of that woman? And not but seconds after a Hellkite shot out from the lake, the girl on top her fiery hair turned to soaked auburn, her armor rusted, her eves full of rage. She passed over once, her Hellkite torching my dead. She dropped down in front of me and said, "Checkmate," before knocking me over the head and dragging me off.
Wow. I was lying face down on something soft, something I hoped was my bed. "Morning asshole," the woman called out. She was about twenty three from what I remember, she reaced over and grabbed my shoulder. The response I gave was quick. And toothy. "Yeah, you're awake," she said, seemingly unmoved by my bite. "Mrnfhrmff!" I said, face down in the soft stuff. She grabbed my hair and pulled me straight up. "Pardon?" She mocked. "I said turn on the goddam light," my hoarse voice sputtered out. "We're outside," she replied a bit confused. "Oh," I said slowly, sudden realization gripping me. I flopped down in the soft mud, unwilling to accept what was coming to me. "It'll come back, I'm sure of if." Her words reached my ear but I couldn't comprehend anything. My eyelids flittered open and shut hundreds of times, but nothing changed.
I lay face-down for who knows how long as the woman packed some kind of bag onto her dragon. "Hanweir." She said, "eight years ago." My mind fluttered back to that time, when I knew her name. "Chandra?" My lips formed, uncertain of the words they were forming. Chandra tugged me off the ground and onto something hard. "Hold tight, this is your first time," she said. I slowly realized what I was on the back of. "N- n-no-no-nope," I sputtered out a bit late. The Hellkite took off into the air with a sudden lurch, sending me tumbling down it's spine. I rammed my stomach onto a scale, but I was lurched off regardless. I tumbled thousands of feet through the air, bound by runed ropes. I turned over mid air and hit the ground running. My body miraculously intact I let out a sigh of relief, happy to be alive, but frightened of what was to come. I wanted more than anything, more than ANYTHING, to be out of there. And with that, I shot skyward in a beam of light. I fled the entire plane, and found myself falling from the sky into the streets of Innistrad.
I woke in a cell smelling of burnt fangs and rusted iron. Hanweir's defanging station. "Morning sir." A man's voice called out. A cup that smelled of rust and strong tea reached through the bars, allowing my greedy fingers and parched lips to drink. I tried to speak, without luck, but was hushed by the man. "Rest now, speak later." I took the advice and went to sleep in my cell.
When I woke I tested my throat, without luck. I stretched my eyelids, but I was still blind. I heard the sound of wood screech across the floor. "I'm back," the same man's voice called out. I sad straight up and threw my legs over the side of my bunk. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions so I'll tell you what I can," he said,"We found you lying face down in the streets of Hanweir, enteirley surrounded by ghouls." "But what I find confusing is that they didn't attack you." "Drink this tea, your voice should return within a few muinits," he said, slipping some more rust-flavored tea through the bars. I gratefully drank and within a few muinets my voice worked once more. "Where am I?" My hoarce, mangled voice sputtered out. " militia camp outside Hanweir." The man said. Hanweir. My mother used to make several trips here for supplies. I've only made it once myself though." I said, my voice a little less shaky. "Well, there's someone outside the camp who wants to see you." "Can you guide me? I'm blind." I said. I heard a snicker as the man walked out. I shuffled out of my cell, grumbling and walked to the folds of the tent.
"JACOB GERALF VESS!" My mother's voice boomed. "Where on earth have you been!" She said, gripping me by the ear. "Ahhhhhhhhh I don't know there was this battle and then I met this girl and then I wou-" "What!" You ran off with someone?"she said gripping me now by the neck. She raised me off the ground and spat out, "Who. Is. She." My mother tightened her grip and raised me higher. But, before she could say anything her hand suddenly let go. Screaming, I heard her two feet run away. "You are a real pain in the ass, you know that." I heard Chandra's voice call out, just before I passed out.
"Drink." Chandra's voice was soft and kind.
"Thanks," I said
"How're you feeling?"
"Burnt out." I said, gratefully drinking some more water.
"Your eyesight will be back shortly," she said and with. That my eyes filled with bright color. Chandra's armor was off. She wore some kind of black pants and a grey shirt Without sleeves. She later explained to me that her garments were referred to as jeans and a tank top.
"You really don't remember anything do you?" She said, "about earth, about your home, about what your plane used to be."
"No, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about." She grabbed my wrist and I felt a burn awaken my elder memories. Once my plain was called earth. But earth had been in exile it's whole lifetime, ad when leliana brought it out of exile she burned it's inhabitants out in an event known as the black sun's zenith. My memories were slowly pieced together. My last name wasn't Vess. I was once Jacob Wilson, but looking back is like looking back on someone else's lifetime. I had no idea who I was now. My spark ignited the day I saw my friends die. But, not all. As it turned out a large cat man took some, hopefully to safety. But first, I had some unfinished business. And I needed Chandra's help.
"So let me get this straight," Chandra said, "you want me to show you red magic so you can burn the stronghold, full of people who were once your best friends, to the ground."
"Yes."
"Cool let's get started." And with that, Chandra became both a teacher and a friend. She trained me hard, and I used my own blue magic to create fast spells and combinations. After almost one year, Chandra felt I was ready, it was time to destroy the very stronghold I built. "Ready, Chandra said, offering me her hand onto an Hellkite.
"Ready," I said, "hey there's something that's been bothering me."
"Shoot," she said.
"Who am I?" I questioned further, " I'm done with the name Vess and looking back on my memories feels like looking at a complete stranger. Chandra swung her leg over one side of the dragon, allowing her to look at me.
"You can be Jacob Avacyn Nallar," Chandra said, "from this point out you're my little brother. She patted me on the head as her dragon took off, forcing her to swing her leg back over her Hellkite. Jacob Avacyn Nallar. I thought. I wonder where she got my new middle name. Little did I know the ebon stronghold wasn't going to house what I wanted.
I arrived at the stronghold but something was amiss. No archers were preparing for our coming, no soldiers mounted their posts and a lone arbalest was the only equipment I took notice of. "Something's not right ," I said. Chandra didn't reply. "Chandra?" I said. After I finished the last syllable Chandra fell sideways off the seat, revealing a long, blue vein in her neck. "CHANDRA!" I shrieked, turning the Hellkite downwards and snatching Chandra out of the air with its claws. I hurtled off the Hellkite myself after we touched down. I rushed down the stairs and threw open each door the stronghold held; finally I lit the door to the library aflame and shattered it into ashes. Leliana stood facing the window. I said nothing and drew my sword, marching furiously towards her. I lifted my blade high and prepared to decapitate her.
"Please no I'm not-" she said, swiftly turning around. I ended her pleading with the swift cut of my steel. But I had not cut the woman who I was looking for. Sarah's head lay there on the floor, blood slowly dripping out. I slumped to my knees. /What the hell am I./ I thought. I looked at my reflection in the pool of blood I was kneeling in. My hair was scorched black, burned from all my failed spells. A single bar pierced my lower lip, protruding on both sides with a ball on both ends. A long scar rippled around my neck from a failed attempt at fire breathing and three long gashed ran down my cheek, a reward given to me by a baby Hellkite. I was grotesque both in and out. I was a murderer of innocents and my closest friend. I fell over face first into the puddle and lye there for several minuets before I remembered chandra. I raced upstairs to find what appeared to be a dragon and a boy of the house, Wesley. I didn't bother to draw my steel, I couldn't take these two combined, they were planeswakers. I stepped back, preparing to run.
"Leliana isn't here if She's who you want." The two of them eyeballed me closely before the dragon asked,
"Is he the one?"
"No," Wesly replied, "but he will do just fine. " the two of them lunged at me, firing an assortment of black, red, and blue magic. I dodged some of the bolts, but their ultimate spell struck me dead in the stomach. I lost sight of most of my spells, but with all the mana I could muster I let loose a torrent of flame towards he ground, and hurled myself skyward. I saw with horror a knife plunging into Chandra's stomach, and my I felt the same pain reel in mine. I fell from the sky and into the sea. It didn't take long for the creatures of he depths to finish me off. I couldn't planes walk, couldn't fight. I could only die. But even as my last breath left me, the only pain I felt was the knowledge that Chandra had died with me.