"The heavens shall close and the light shall be bound to an obsidian altar hand and foot as it is shattered upon itself and remade anew. Thereafter death itself shall wander the world looking for company."

- Dimble Al'gan Riel (1450 DR The Year of Holy Thunder)

Angelic Solitude I

The Fate of Innocence

By J. M. Tustison

Prologue

A chilled wind slid through the shattered windows and sifted across the rafters of the Falcons Roost. It glided across the upturned tables and silent corpses strewn about the usually jovial and lighthearted tavern. A shrill moan passed through the blood soaked room as it passed, and the eerie flutter of ripped curtains put the one surviving patron on edge in his place of hiding.

Tam held his spot behind the bar, not daring to look over at the carnage. He was sure she was still around; searching for those that might be left. As he held his breath to silent gasps he stared over at the 1406 Calimshan merlot that had somehow managed to land right side up. Tam suppressed a slight chuckle at the absurdity of it all. What a thing to be marveling at a time like this. But then again, it had been a strange night.

It had started off as expected. The night gave way to a slow arrival of patrons all wanting to hear his stories and listen to his lute. After all, who could blame them? He was Tamshire Ravensage, the great bard of the Silvery Marshes! But alas, there was always some country lout who had to throw proper respect out the window and strike up a game of dice right during the best parts of his epic tales.

And then she came in. Few of the other patrons noticed her. A young girl, not even a few years into her high teens and less than five feet tall, rounded the doorway leading to the common room. She wore a cloak of the darkest black that for a moment seemed to writhe around her like a shadow. Her skin was smooth and white as the newly fallen snow outside, but it was her eyes that nearly held him in thrall. Indeed he had almost forgotten his next verse, and he would be cursing himself to Averus for months for even allowing himself to skip a beat in the flow of his recital. Her eyes stared at him curiously for a few moments. Their cold blue glare could pierce the hardest dragon hide and chilled his spine to the bone.

She stared for but a few moments and shifted her gaze around the room, as if she had been sizing up each and every single man and women in the bar. He had almost let out a sigh of relief when she moved to the farthest table in the corner of the room. There she seemed to watch the crowd with a childlike curiosity. Not an expression on her face, not a twitch in her eyelashes. If Tam hadn't known better, he would even have sworn she didn't blink.

But he didn't have time to focus all his attention on a single member of his audience. He was a master of his craft and he went about proving it. He barely even noticed as the lout who had struck up his rude game of dice stopped all play. It was only a minor annoyance as the bumpkin strutted across the room, took a seat across from the girl and placed his feet upon the table with an air of foolish bravado.

Now as Tam sat there behind the bar, trying desperately not to make a sound, he didn't think the whole event had taken all that long. No more than a few minutes at most. He remembered considering throwing his lute at the lout when he screamed. How dare he interrupt his performance?! Tam had glared over at the two in the corner with such indignation and contempt that it took a few seconds to see that the man was now flopping about the floor, his two legs eviscerated from his body just below the knees. The girl stood before the newly severed table, a single bastard sword held in her hand by her side. Her eyes, no longer simply piercing, seemed to glow with a royal blue light beneath her cloaked hood. She had stared out into the crowd with no expression or threatening gesture, yet still seemed to dare anyone to challenge her.

That's when the real show began. Not a single flourish of his hands or the octave of his voice could compare to the spectacle that ensued afterward. More than one or two adventurers had decided to catch his performance it seemed, and they wasted no time in putting their talents to test against this surprising threat that had sprung up among their ale and wine.

First a hulking man nearly six foot tall, and hefting a sword twice the width of Tams thigh, charged from the crowd, bellowing some foolery about Tempus and his might. He swung his sword from high above his head, scoring one of the rafters and brought the blade down with what looked to be enough force to slice through a dozen men. The girl deftly brought her sword to bare single handed and blocked the giant mans attack as if he wielded nothing more than a feather. The loud chime of metal against metal sung though the room and reverberated along the walls.

No one was more surprised than the would-be warrior. He stepped back for but a second, apparently giving her all the opening she needed. In one fell swoop she brought her sword through the air and stood behind him a moment later. The hulk cried out in pain as he dropped his sword and clutched his midsection, a giant gash his hands could not hope to cover bleeding from belly to back.

The rest of his comrades bolted into action. A slender Halfling darted under tables in an attempt to flank her from behind while an elvan woman drew her swords to cautiously engage the girl. Meanwhile a red bearded dwarf bearing the symbol of Moradin chanted his prayers while a gangly wizard released a spell that exploded around the girl in a mighty ball of fire. As the smoke cleared she stood untouched and unafraid. In fact she seemed not to have even noticed.

"What in the nine hells is it dwarf? Another lich? Some new form of Zombie?" The elf had asked, attempting to put a bit of humor in her unsteady voice as the rest of the patrons choose that moment to vacate the bar. A few made it. The girl moved with a fluid grace and speed that seemed inhuman. Everywhere she glided over the wooden floor, patron blood spilled. Screams rose in a horrifying chorus from the din of the small tavern in the Nether Mountains that night only to be dulled by the chilled winter wind.

The elf and dwarf had stood in shock as patron after patron fell in a matter of seconds as they ran for the door. A few smart ones launched themselves out the windows, a few of them even decided to use the ones not facing the steep cliff of the mountain.

Finally the elf had had enough and hurled herself at the girl, her swords raining down in a flurry of motion giving her prey that seemed to give her no time to counter. The Halfling moved up and launched a dagger at the girl with a sly flourish only to see it casually deflected aside by the girl's sword.

Finally with a simple dance of elegance the girl launched her own attack, seemingly oblivious to the elf's longsword streaking toward her shoulder. The elf's blade pierced the girl's cloak and leather armor, leaving it poking out the other side. Not a scream or twitch gave any sign that she'd even felt the wound. The elf had not been so silent. She howled in a frustrated scream of pain as the girl's sword pierced her belly. With a deft flourish the girl twisted her blade and sliced it though the elf's torso like butter.

Oh how the Halfling had wailed in hatred and loss as he charged the girl, even as the dwarf sounded his warning. The girl, still with a longsword skewering her shoulder, flicked her blade through the air three times before the Halfling, sending a torrent of blood and bone sailing around the room.

Tam had watched all of this in stunned silence from his stage across the room. Never had he witnessed such horror and carnage. Never had he seen such courage and foolishness as that displayed by the rapidly diminishing unnamed adventurers. This would all make a wonderful tale, despite being a tragedy, if he managed to survive.

It was that thought that brought Tam to his senses and told him to hide if he wanted to keep his skin. Quickly he drifted through the shadows, of which there were now many thanks to the wind blowing through the newly shattered windows snuffing out the few candles that had lit the room. Finally he came to rest behind the bar.

He heard and felt the wizard and dwarf meet their end. He suspected the wizard went first. The tavern had shaken with great thunder as he launched an unsuccessful spell. The rafters cracked and several supports fell, crushing the glass case behind the bar sending the ale and spirits, along with a lucky bottle of merlot, crashing to the floor.

The dwarf had apparently figured it all out... or so he had thought. Tam had to suppress a contemptuous chuckle as he heard the dwarf exclaim "Hold ye back, vampire! Ye not be able to wi'stand de might oh Moradin!" Tam could just see the dwarf in his mind's eye. Standing there full of indignation and brandishing his holy symbol as though it were the ultimate authority. Not but a few precious moments later Tam heard the dwarf cry out and a spray of fresh dwarven blood painted the bar. So much for the vampire theory…

Now here Tam sat. The frozen wind of the icy peaks whistled about the rafters, bringing with it a fresh hint of snow. Countless bodies littering the ground not but a few paces from his hiding spot. And the gods knew what kind of demon dancing about the place searching for fresh kills.

Tam listened hard as he tried to hear anything that could give away her location. Any creak of the beer and blood soaked floor. Any cry of a newfound victim wrestled from their hiding spot. He heard nothing but the endless wailing of the winter wind.

Finally after many moments Tam managed the courage to look up from behind the bar. As he expected he saw the many corpses of those who had less than a half hour ago been enjoying his lute and rhetoric. Of the girl, there was no sign. There was not a single footprint in the pools of blood saturating the floor. Franticly Tam's head swung side to side eyeing every nook and shadow in the room. Nothing…

Tam let out a sigh of relief and plucked the bottle of merlot from the floor. Using his teeth he uncorked it and began to hop over the debris and corpses to get back to his lute and other belongings. It was high time to be out of here and on to somewhere safer. Where psychotic young girls didn't spring out of nowhere and repaint the walls. He took his pack and lute, slinging them over his shoulder and took a mighty swig from the bottle. As he drank the decades old nectar he gazed into the bottle to see a bluish reflection that sent a chill reverberating down his spine.

Dropping the bottle he swung around to see the girl staring at him from the very doorway he'd first seen her. Her hood had come down, letting a long shimmering mane of silver hair blow in the wind. The elf's longsword was gone, replaced by a bare patch of untouched skin.

"Now, milady… I want no misunderstanding. I have no quarrel with you and mean you no harm!" He said through a panicked breath as he stepped back. She stared at him with those pricing blue glowing eyes. Taking a slow step forward she brought her sword out from beneath the folds of her cloak. She cocked her head ever so slightly and did the last thing Tam expected. She sang…

"Come little Elm, and Dance with me…." Her voice was pure and childish as she sang what Tam could only guess to be a child's nursery rhyme. "Under the starlit moon tonight…" She took another step forward, taking a jagged path around the debris and stepping over corpses. Her voice cut Tam deeply and sent shivers of horror though his mind.

"Now, now miss… there's no need for that! I mean you no harm! Just... just let me go on my way and you go yours... Please…" Tam pleaded as his back hit the back of the stage. He looked about franticly searching for a way out. He saw the support beams resting about the room. The whole building must have been a stray bird away from collapsing. Damn that wizard!

Suddenly Tam saw it. A length of rope that must have been a part of a candled chandelier wrapped around one of the support beams. The beam itself was certainly not being held solely by the rope, but if he was lucky the loss of the support would be just enough to send the roof crashing down. If he was quick enough he might make it out the window while she was distracted.

"Come little Elm, and fly with me…" She was almost to him now, still slowly moving toward him as if gliding on the air. Her voice began to reverberate along the stage causing the harmony of her tune to sound even more pure and childlike.

"Where the angels sing and play…."

He would have to move quickly. One more verse and she'd be too close for him to even think about making it to a window. With a deft motion he reached into his pocket for one of the many concealed daggers hidden there. One learned not to go unarmed on stage in a remote location such as this.

The dagger dropped to the floor as she moved faster than his eyes could fathom. Her sword skewered his belly, pinning him to the wall. Blood rushed up his throat and coated his shirt. Tears filled his eyes as pain coursed through him, and through the misty haze he saw her bring her face to nearly touch his. As she leaned in close she whispered her final verse.

"Come little Elm, and lay with me…" She twisted the sword, splintering the wood behind him and sending new definitions of pain up and down his spine. "Before the glory of dawn…."

"Enough now..." Tam gasped through the blood. "Do what you came to do Luv... I'll see you in hell."

The words seemed to take her by surprise. For the first time since she had stepped through the door and into his audience he saw true emotion on her face. Fear... Remorse… An aching pain inside her mind had suddenly flared to life and she was totally unprepared to deal with it. She stepped back, taking her sword with her. Tam fell to the floor and into a small pool of his own blood. In one smooth motion he brought out another dagger and flung it at the support rope. His aim was true, and the support cracked and crumbled as soon as the ropes support no longer held it. The whole building began to lurch and sway.

In a desperate bid for survival Tam grunted through the fire that had taken hold of his belly and jumped for the window. His aim was not so true. He missed by only a foot slamming against the wall underneath the window. As he hit the bottom he couldn't help but appreciate the irony. The walls and roof tumbled down upon his head. The last thing he saw before the darkness took him were those glowing blue eyes…