06.30.08...revising more.

As of 03/01/07…I'm going through each chapter to rewrite the parts I'm unhappy with and to correct my many, many errors since it has been bothering me. Nothing will change very much in the story other than a few details here and there so rereading the chapters is up to you. Happy reading!

Encounters

All he did was watch her. It was all he could do. He could never approach her; speak to her...lest it was to kill her. She could never have any feelings for him other than hate toward him and it wounded him more than he would ever admit. He hated this lack of control over his "feelings". Did he have feelings anymore?

Yes, yes I do have them, he thought. It had been so very long since he felt anything more than irritation or anger that he had forgotten all other emotion.

I feel hate but what do I feel for you, priestess? Surely not love. Has she cracked my once impregnable shell? In a deep, long forgotten place in his mind, he vaguely remembered what love had felt like but it was not like this. This was something different all together. Whether it was good or bad, he could not be sure.

"Why do I let you torture me like this priestess?" He retreated further into the shadows as she looked in his direction. Nothing seemed to truly scare her and that was the first thing that attracted him to her. He easily over powered her the first and only time they had met. It was then that she captured him completely. He was drawn to her like the planets to the sun. An over powering and invisible force led him to gravitate around the unknowing priestess. He remembered fondly of that day.

She lay on the cold floor of Glast Heim abbey; bruised, bleeding and very near death. She should have run away, she knew she should have but she stayed to fight him. She knew she was no match for him but it did not stop her. She was angry at this dark creature for all the horrible fates of the unfortunate priests that met their end here. His shadowy figure loomed over her battered body, waiting for her to cry or do something. Instead, she stared at him with cold green eyes, fearless and determined.

"You've won, obviously, so kill me!" she cried. Her body had never ached so badly in her life and his silence was just as painful. She wanted to cry because she hurt so much but no, she never cried. Not in front of her enemies. She never gave anyone that pleasure.

He grabbed the front of her dress and lifted her to his eye level. She looked into deep, empty crimson eyes far longer than she wanted to. They revealed nothing other than being devoid of any emotion whatsoever. What did he want? She swore she heard him sigh before he tossed her to the ground. She landed with a thud and stayed there for hours. She was too tired and in shock to do anything else. Eventually, she rose on weary legs and warped herself out of Glast Heim and stumbled into the arms of concerned friends.

Something in him had let her live. It had to have been her strength, her conviction and of course, her fearlessness that overcame him that day. It was something so powerful to override his natural inclination to kill her. He wanted to kill her on one hand but on another he was far too intrigued to finish her off. Since when did he care about any of that? She was an intruder in his domain like so many others. The more he thought about it, the more he broke down the barriers he had created within himself. To feel was to be weak, was it not?

"I'll tell you, my beloved priestess, of these "feelings" I have. Even then, I know you would never return those feelings. I'm a half dead monster without a heart or soul. Everyday this ache gets worse and I cannot take much more of this agony."

He had to tell her. It was tearing him apart, piece by piece. Perhaps saying something would rid him of her, that is, if she returned. She would be frightened and avoid Glast Heim, he believed. He was wrong. She did return. When she was gone from his mind, he could return to being himself. In a moment, he disappeared, formulating some way to explain this to her. What would drive her away best? If all else failed, he could kill her.

--

These days, Glast Heim was as effortless to train in as Payon cave. She merely came here to continue her never-ending work of freeing the dead souls wandering this haunted place. They didn't belong here. As a priestess, she mourned the fact that so many souls were at unrest. For each of the undead she freed, she sent a prayer to heaven and hell. She, after all, did not know which place that each soul was destined for so she only hoped that the correct place would claim that soul.

Still, there were two creatures that eluded her. The infamous Dark Lord and his minions the Dark Illusions. They were too strong for her but their day would come. If not by her hands, then someone else would be just a good. Until then, they would continue terrorizing acolytes and priests alike. It was a terribly dangerous place to train but it was one of the most popular for its challenges. Oddly enough, Dark Lord seemed scarce lately.

It had been many months since her encounter with him and it still shook her. She had refused to show him her fear but on the inside, she was terrified. She could have died that day and she almost did. She thanked God for whatever thoughts Dark Lord was having that day. She could not have died peacefully if things had gone differently. Admittedly, it was one of her many bad decisions to stay and fight. Her guild leader had made sure to lecture her on that.

Glast Heim wasn't a particularly cheerful place but was once a great religious center in Rune-Midgard. Now, lost and confused souls gathered here and became pawns of the Dark Lord. No one seemed to know who he was or how he came to be Dark Lord but he was a wicked creature. It was he who devastated the once magnificent city, people had said. The history of the dead city was more a jumbled mess than anything.

With a sigh, she sat down to rest a bit before she went any further. Running a hand through long silvery hair, she studied the dark, crumbling walls. So many years had this place been in ruin. She would have like to see it in its prime. All of a sudden, something very cold grabbed her, pulling her to her feet. The thing did not hurt her but held her firmly. "Let go of me!" she yelled as she struggled to get free of its grip. It was far too strong for her apparently but she fought nonetheless. Her heart, despite her efforts to control it, beat furiously.

"It would be best not to fight, priestess," the thing whispered in her ear. It was a deep, cool voice. The voice sent chills through her and she was not entirely sure about her reaction.

"What the hell do you want?" the priestess growled. She ceased her struggle for a moment to listen. The creature was not trying to kill her so that was a positive thing but what did it want?

"Only to speak to you. I have some...confessions," he said slowly as if unsure of his words.

"Oh please! No amount of confession could free you of sin, I'm sure!" she growled angrily. The thing remained silent. "Who are you anyway?" she snapped and began her struggle again. The creature sighed rather dejectedly. Her eyes moved down to the arms around her and saw that they really revealed nothing. She simply saw gloved hands and covered arms.

"If you stop this useless struggle, I'll let go of you." To be honest, he would give anything to keep her this close. He took in the sound of her voice, the smell of her hair and the softness of her skin. He may never be this close again. In fact, it had been a few hundred years since he had been this close to any female. By the gods, she felt so alive. He could feel her heart pounding beneath his arms and he wished it were not out of fear. In fact, he shouldn't have been thinking this way at all.

"Fine." She ended her struggle and he set her down. She turned slowly to face the creature and was not quite horrified but at a complete loss for words. Even through the dim light, she could see him clearly enough. "Oh...my god..." It was him. She looked him up and down, already familiar with this vile creature. He had never spoken to people before as long as he had been Dark Lord. Well, at least that she knew of. He watched her, waiting for a worse reaction to follow.

"Dark Lord," she said finally, solidly standing her ground. In her mind, she kept thinking "please don't kill me, please don't kill me" repeatedly.

"Yes...I..." Now he was at a loss for words. Everything he had planned to say was now lost. He had gone completely blank. This was a most unusual thing to happen.

Putting her hands on her hips, she narrowed her gaze. He's so much stronger than me, she thought, no wonder it was so easy for him to hurt me like the way he did. The thoughts running through her head were only scaring her more. "Why didn't you kill me? You know, all those months ago? I didn't need your pity!"

He looked down at her, still amazed that she was not cowering before him. "It was unlike me."

"You think so? Normally you attack and kill any poor soul that runs into you!" She was angry now.

This is the end of the line, Dark Lord thought to himself. "You think I didn't try to kill you? I could not! You cannot fathom how this has stunned me and I have no idea what to do about this!" He was practically roaring now and there was just a hint of fear deep in her eyes but she stood her ground.

"My beautiful priestess...what have you done to me?" he closed the distance between them and stared down at her, his fingers stroked her hair and then down to her chin, forcing her to look up. She stared, wide-eyed and in the next instant, he was gone. She just stood there, bewildered at the completely strange situation. What the hell just happened? Running a mental list she began at one: ran into dark lord, two, he didn't kill her, three, he said some very strange things.

"Beautiful? He called me beautiful..." she whispered in the darkness. This was a little too much. She needed to get out of there as soon as possible. Pulling a blue gem out of a small bag tied to her belt, she simply said "Juno" and tossed the gem to the ground. A portal opened instantly shining with swirling blue and white light. She stepped in and immediately appeared outside her guild hall.

--

She pushed open the door and headed through the halls to the kitchen. Mira was always there eating something and she was just the one she needed to see. "Azrielle! You're back early. Where'd ya go anyway?" Her friend and guild mate Mira asked. The blond haired wizard was sitting at the table with an apple in one hand and a book in the other. She was smiling brightly, not realizing that something was wrong.

"I-I went to Glast Heim."

Mira frowned, noticing the slight stutter. "You okay?" She noticed that Azrielle looked a little pale and nervous. What could have happened? She didn't appear hurt at least. She marked her page, closed the book and set it on the table.

"I'm not sure. I'm just freaked out I guess. I had another run in with Dark Lord," she sighed. It took a moment for her words to register in the wizard's mind.

"Oh my god! He didn't hurt you like last time, did he?" The wizard cried frantically as she nearly knocked her chair over trying to stand up. Azrielle shook her head. Mira had always been a very motherly figure in the guild despite her young age. Mira was only a few years older than her. She left the apple on the table and hurried to the priestess, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. She looked her over and saw nothing out of place much to her relief.

"Not even a scratch but he was waaay to close for comfort," Azrielle groaned, burying her face in her hands.

"How close?"

Mira guided her to a chair and took a seat next to her. "Basically, he grabbed me and held me captive for a minute. He said he wanted to talk to me, Mira, but he didn't act like himself." She didn't even know what he acted like anyway so her comment was a bit of an assumption.

"You mean he wasn't all evil and reminding you of your impending death if he got his hands on you?" Then Mira gasped, "Wait! Oh my god! I can't believe he didn't kill you! That's way too scary for me." She was thankful that there wasn't a repeat of the last incident with Dark Lord. The wizard truly thought Azrielle was going to die last time.

"You know," Azrielle murmured, "that stuff really didn't bother me very much. It was just something he said that scared and confused me."

"What did he say?" Mira asked, inching closer and going back to munching on her apple. She was actually interested now that she knew nothing had really happened to threaten Azrielle's life. Not only that, but the infamous monster actually spoke?

The priestess was slightly embarrassed, "He, um, called me beautiful." She felt her face unexpectedly turn bright red. It was weird, though…Dark Lord was an evil abomination. He would never say things like that, right? For the life of her, she couldn't figure that creature out. Besides, she wasn't really beautiful. She was just one of those girls that you could probably call pretty. Those kind of girls weren't exactly uncommon.

"What!" Mira sputtered, nearly choking on her apple.

"You heard me."

"What's with all the noise? I'm trying to study," a male voice interrupted. It was Kaeru, the guild's other priest. He was not quite as experienced as Azrielle as a priest but he was well on his way. He was easily discouraged though, especially by their guild leader but Azrielle and Mira stood up for him. They were the two people in his life that truly cared about him. His own family had disowned him.

"Dark Lord has a thing for Azi!" Mira laughed, nudging the priestess.

"Eww, that's creepy," he said with a shudder.

"Speaking of Glast Heim, Azi, you promised to help me train there. Maybe in the abbey or the churchyard," he reminded her. She had gotten out of it last time he asked but he wasn't taking no for an asnwer.

"I said that?" She really did not want to go back for a while. A long, long while.

"Damn straight you did! We leave tomorrow at noon to go visit your undead boyfriend." Kaeru and Mira giggled at his comment and made kissing sounds. This was just great, she was thoroughly embarrassed now. They would never let her live this down.

Azrielle stood, about to leave the room, "Whatever. I'm going to bed." So maybe she did promise to take him but what about Dark Lord? Today was way too weird. She recalled his cool breath on her neck and his low voice in her ear. She turned red again at the thought and her guild mates gave her a questionable look.

"It's not even nine yet!" Mira complained.

"I'm tired," she said through a fake yawn. She left them giggling at another joke Kaeru made about her being too tired because of the hot undead action with Dark Lord. She ignored it and went to her room, quickening her pace when she was out of their sight. She shut her door, locked it and fell into bed. "Ugh..." she groaned. Nothing but weirdness.

--

"AZRIELLE! Get the hell up!" Kaeru yelled from outside her door,"It's past ten you lazy bum!" Azrielle cracked an eye open at the ruckus but decided to ignore it. Pulling the pillow over her head, she sighed. The day had come far too soon for her liking. She wanted to stay in her bed where it was safe and there were no crazy monsters after her. "If you don't wake up, I'll put worms in your shoes again!" She cringed at the memory.

A few years ago, he decided to be funny and put worms in her shoes. She completely freaked out when the felt the wet, squishy worms on her feet. So…gross…she shivered. Kaeru waited impatiently outside. He sighed when he still got no answer, "Fine, I'll just go tell Jared what happened to his katars," he grinned. They thought it was a funny story but Jared would kill them if he knew.

They had been out training with the named assassin when they saw a rather large spider leering at them. It was a damn over sized argos! Jared had gone off somewhere so the two of them were left alone. They grabbed the closest thing to them, the katars, and went after it. Unfortunately, the argos won the battle. Not only did it eat the katars, it managed to catch Kaeru and get him half way into its mouth. Yes, Kaeru was more scared than he had ever been because his lower half was inside the giant spider.

Azi, on the other hand more worried about Jared's katars. They were one of the assassin's most prized possessions. Somehow, Kaeru got himself out and they ran for their lives. Giant spiders and priests do not really mix well together. To this day, Jared still gets depressed about those katars. Suddenly, Azi peeked out from her room drowsily. "Whaaat?"

"We're going to Glast Heim like you promised." She just sighed.

"Fine. I'll go get ready."

"Great!" he grinned.

Like he had planned, they were out of the guildhall by noon and the next moment they stood outside of the abbey. Kaeru noticed her being unusually apprehensive but figured she would get over it. She was probably just nervous about the day before. As they walked in, a ghoul immediately greeted them. Kaeru healed the monster, which was obviously deadly to the undead. As it dropped to the ground, he nodded in satisfaction. He was most certainly getting better at this whole priest thing.

"Do you think they really let go of everything and find peace when we kill them?" He always wondered but no one really knew for sure.

Azrielle shrugged, "We can only hope. All I know is that they don't belong in the world of the living."

"Yeah. Let's keep going."

They spent a good two hours with various monsters around the abbey as they slowly made their way to the churchyard. As they rounded a corner, a mob of very angry Wraiths and Evil Druids started toward them. "Kaeru, be careful!" They held their ground but they also noticed that there was no end in sight. The monsters just kept coming. The numbers were extremely unusual.

"Um, Azi? I can't keep this up!" Kaeru yelled breathlessly.

Azrielle was also running out of energy but she had to get him out of here. "If you can teleport away, do it. If not, I'll distract them while you run!" she answered. She had a vast supply of energy but even it did not last forever. She was starting to dislike Glast Heim more than ever at this point.

"No, I have to rest before I can teleport anymore."

"Then run!"

"What about you?" he asked worriedly.

"I said go! I'll be fine!" With that, he took off as fast as he could. Surely she could kill these things but not if they kept coming, which they did. They were landing more blows on her as she became more and more tired. Then she saw it. As if this could not get any worse, a Dark Illusion decided to join the party.

Kaeru had not left as he was told, but merely went out of their sight. He thought that if he rested for a minute he could go back and help her out. He watched in horror as the Dark Illusion appeared. The monster charged her and dealt her a strike that knocked her off her feet. It seemed to laugh with a raspy, wheezy sound. Despite having the breath knocked out of her, she struggled to sit up and pull herself to her feet. The Wraiths would not have that. They continued their barrage of abuse until the Dark Illusion let out a screech.

The young priest could not watch anymore of this. Tears stung his eyes, as he had never imagined having to watch Azrielle die like this. She was like a sister to him and he did not know what to do without her. When he heard the blood-curdling screech of one of the monsters, he peered around his hiding spot to become even more terrified. "No…" he whispered.

The Dark Illusion fell into the heap of dead monsters. They were falling one by one at the hands of something more powerful. Azrielle could barely keep her eyes open as she watched the last one fall. She was beaten badly but she was not down for the count just yet. She could get up if she tried hard enough. Then a familiar shadow loomed above her. It knelt down and assessed the damage to the priestess. "Priestess…" Dark Lord sighed.

She forced herself to meet his gaze. "What…do you want…this time?" She managed to ask. It hurt to move or even breath. The bright side to all of this was that she wasn't injured like she had been with Dark Lord. She'd be okay after a while.

"I only meant to help you. I am sorry for what they did to you."

Azrielle snickered and winced at the pain it caused, "Funny thing for you to say."

The ominous creature moved his hands to his face. Well, she thought it was his face but as he removed it, she saw that it was nothing more than a mask. He set it on the ground next to him and looked back to Azrielle, "You make me do strange things." How very odd, she thought as she gazed at him. Raven black hair was tied back in a long ponytail and he was very pale but he obviously did not go to the beach very often.

She could just imagine him being out there five minutes and then turning beet red from the sun. Hehe, he would be Red Lord. Wonderful, now she was becoming delusional and her mind was coming up with terrible jokes. Hmm…she could also see him in full Dark Lord gear, chasing poor people off the beach.

"Priestess, are you even listening to me?" His crimson eyes were still the same. Cold and angry. Still, he wasn't terribly despite his evil nature.

"Eh?" she said weakly. She would have rather kept daydreaming about anything other than Glast Heim.

"I said that your wounds need attending."

"Yeah…" she said softly as she closed her eyes. "Is the scary Dark Lord, killer of all that is good, gonna save the little priestess?" she mumbled with a wry smile. Kaeru could not hear what they were saying but he was overwhelmed with worry. Was Dark Lord ever going to leave? He managed to creep silently from hiding and into the shadows.

"Priestess, you-"

"Stop calling me priestess, will you? It's annoying."

He frowned, "If I knew your name, I would use it."

"Azrielle."

He nodded, seeming to like the name. He started to speak again but she had fallen unconscious. He picked her up gently and began to walk off when he heard a gasp. He turned around sharply to see a young priest on the verge of tears. Kaeru froze as Dark Lord looked at him. Dark Lord appeared human but just as chilling without the mask. He could not let Azi be taken but he was nothing to Dark Lord. There was absolutely nothing he could do for her except watch helplessly.

"She will not die," Dark Lord said sharply. He strode off, without his mask and with Azrielle in his arms.

Kaeru dropped to his knees and prayed for Azrielle's safety. Please don't let him hurt her, please. The priest quickly returned to the guild to tell someone about the situation. He ran through the doors up to the Mira's study. "Mira!" he cried. Mira nearly dropped her book at the priest's outburst. He was out of breath and looked ragged. Something had happened and it was obviously not good.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Dark Lord! He t-took Azi. I dunno what he's gonna do, Mira!"

"Kaeru, calm down." She stood and hugged the shaking priest, trying to relax him. They could not do anything if the priest was hysterical. Moments later, they heard the clanking of armor nearing the room. They knew very well who was coming to the room.

"Oh no…" Kaeru whimpered and buried his head in Mira's shoulder. He felt like such a little coward, hiding behind Mira all the time but his fear of Alexander overrode all other feelings.

"I heard yelling," a stern voice stated. Alexander was not only a Lord Knight but also their guild leader. He was very serious and stern by nature. Mira often called him names but he never did anything to her. It was only with Kaeru that he acted two times worse than normal. He had little patience and Kaeru was one of those got under his skin. Few people would stand up for the younger man though.

"What did you do this time, Kaeru?"

"Come on Alex, don't make him more upset," Mira muttered. She knew that Alex would only make things worse. She was constantly bickering with the lord knight over his treatment of Kaeru and others. Often, she was the only one who stood up to him so she was unofficially the "mother" of the guild. She laughed when Azrielle had deemed her as such but took it as a compliment.

"I won't ask again, Kaeru, what happened?"

The priest heaved a sigh, "Azi and I went to Glast Heim and everything was fine until we got mobbed. We fought them off for a while but they kept coming. Azi told me to run and I didn't want to but she insisted. I hid instead of leaving and then a dark illusion showed up and-"

"You didn't help her?"

Mira snorted, "Be realistic Alex. If she can't take down a dark illusion, he definitely can't. They're just priests." Alexander was so hardheaded sometimes and failed to see the obvious things. Usually, she or Azrielle were the only ones that would argue a point with him.

"Not too long after, Dark Lord showed up and he-"

"You should have done something! Hiding like a coward makes you no good to anyone! You're an idiot!" Alexander shouted. Kaeru felt bad enough as it was but to have Alexander yelling at him only made it worse. He was not upset that Alex was angry but that he had to leave Azrielle. Who knew what would happen to her. He knew he could not have helped her but he felt ashamed for not trying. If she died...he'd never forgive himself.

"Alexander! How can you say that? You know what? You're an ass," Mira scolded. She turned to the priest and put her hands on his shoulders. Getting Kaeru upset would not help the situation so she spoke gently, "Kae, hun, you couldn't have done anything. Now where's Azi?"

"T-that's the main thing. Dark Lord k-killed the mob," he stammered. He was glad that she had not died but he could not get the images of Azi being beaten to the ground out of his head. What a nightmare.

"What!" Alex and Mira exclaimed at once.

"He d-did. He took Azi somewhere though. She was hurt really bad but he said that-"

"He spoke to you? So he did see you," Alex growled, "and he took Azrielle somewhere? You're useless!"

"Ugh, Alexander! Stop calling Kaeru names!" She was sick to death of Alexander's attitude and his holier than thou self. She would have liked to see someone cut him down a few notches.

"He said she wouldn't die," Kaeru said as he started to walk out of the room. An arm blocked his path just before he walked out. He glanced fearfully at the lord knight. Alexander, without turning his head, spoke.

"Find Luzien. I need a priest I can count on to find Azrielle. I also need to organize a guild meeting." He had a bitter edge to his voice and it further terrified Kaeru. As Kaeru scampered out, Mira glared at the Lord Knight.

"Handled reeeal well. I can't believe you're so mean to him, you…you…stupid knight!" He gave her an odd look and walked out. "Oh Azi, I hope you're okay," she sighed worriedly to the empty room.

A/N: R&R, yes? I also accept endless adoration :3