Chapter 2: Vengeance
"Ahhh.." Darrian moaned, clutching his pounding head as he awoke, his eyes flickered open to see Soris leaning over him, his expression dire.
"They took them! Shianni, Valora, Nesiara... all of them!"
After forcing himself onto his feet, Darrian gave Soris a grim smirk. "I've always wanted to see the Arl's estate. Haven't you?"
Soris sighed with resignation. "I'd knew you would say that..."
"Calm down!" The Hahren commanded, his usually gentle voice raised in warning as he addressed the group of elves that had amassed since the kidnapping.
"They have our women!"
"What are we going to do?!"
"That was my sister!"
The elves called out, panic in their voices and on their faces.
"We've got to think of a plan. . .we can't act ras-"The Hahren had began, cut off by Soris and Darrian approaching.
"I'm going after them." The young Tabris said simply, crossing his arms over his chest.
"M-Me too!" Soris chimed in.
Valendrian sighed. "I knew you'd want too. I will not stop you."
Not even ten minuted later, armed with weapons loaned to them by Duncan and following an elf that worked at the estate, Darrian and Soris had left the Alienage.
"I hope you have a plan, Cousin." Soris muttered out of the corner of his mouth as they made their way through Denerim's side streets.
"We kill them." Darrian responded, shrugging his shoulders. Soris stared at his cousin in mute horror.
"Kill them. That's it? Kill them all? Guards and everything?" Soris said hoarshly, not wanting to think about it.
"Yep. All of them. Every single shemlen that works for that Maker forsaken piece of shit." Hearing his cousin sigh at this made Darrian smile grimly. And if you've hurt them, if you've hurt her... There will be no end to your suffering, mark my words.
The estate was dark and foreboding, only a few windows flickering with light.
"There's the servants' entrance." The elf leading them whispered, indicating a door guarded by two men. "Now, be careful. Don't expect any help inside, even from the elven servants. Most are too terrified to disobey their masters."
Darrian nodded, and unsheating his daggers and advancing forward.
The elf exchanged a glance with Soris. "Determined, isn't he?"
"You have no idea.." Soris sighed, unshouldering the loaned crossbow and beginning to follow.
The guards barely had time to notice the intruders before Darrian's knives were at their throats, sliding across them and ending their lives. Crimson blood soaked Darrian's front as he moved the guards to the side and Soris joined him.
"Come on." He opened the door, slipping inside. Darrian became lost in thought as he carved his path through the estates numerous guards, cutting them down with the fevor of a much more experienced killer. He only paused to loot the occasional chest, deftly picking the lock and righteously relieving the nobles of the contents within.
While Darrian seemed to be enjoying every moment, Soris was frightened. Not frightened enough, however, to resist the urge to fire a few bolts into the onslaught of guards.
"27." Darrian stated, looking satisfied as he wiped off one of his blades on his already bloody breeches.
"You're keeping count?" Soris asked, looking exasperated.
"Of course. This is something to be proud of."
"Only you would think that."
"And that, Cousin, is what makes me special." Darrian said with a grin as he moved to open the door infront of them.
"She's still warm, how picky are ya?" A rough-sounding guard chuckled from within, nudging the body of one of the elven bridesmaids with the toe of his filthy boot.
"I ain't picky!" Another guard lustfully responded, his hand moving to his belt as the other guards chuckled.
"Darri-"Soris called out as his cousin rushed into the room, all common sense gone from his head and replaced by the rage welling from his heart. The guards scattered as Darrian approached, swiftly planting a hard kick to the lustful guard's face.
"It's one of them dirty knife ears!"
"SHUT UP!" Darrian shouted, ducking under the swing of the guard's longsword and rising up to implant his daggers in the man's stomach. Blood gurgled from the guard's mouth and his sword clanked against the hard stone floor as it was dropped from his limp fingers.
"Get 'im!" One of the other guards shouted in his superior tone. "Make the knife-ear pay!"
Pain rushed through Darrian's body as an arrow pierced his left shoulder and he let out a murderous howl. The howl was followed by a dull thunk as the offending guard fell to his knees, a crossbow bolt right between the eyes.
Darrian ripped the arrow from his shoulder, biting his lip as pain attempted to overwhelm him again, and out of the corner of his eye he noticed the last guard raising a maul behind him. Moving as though he had not been injured, Darrian ducked again, slid across the blood stained floor, and shoved the arrow he had held straight under the last guard's chin. With the guards felled, Darrian let out another growl of pain.
"You all right?" Soris asked, coming up to Darrian.
"That was a good shot." Darrian managed a smirk for his cousin.
"It was luck, that's what it was." Soris sighed, his eyes falling onto the elven maid on the ground. "Nola.. One of the bridesmaids."
"Look. Defensive wounds. She fought back." Darrian remarked as he knelt down next to her to rearrange the woman's dress. Shianni would fight back. . . please don't let this happen to Shianni. . .
Darrian retrieved his daggers than turned to the last door that stood between him and Bann Vaughn.
"So, a plan? A plan would be good?" Soris pleaded, knowing full well what the look in Darrian's eyes meant.
"We kill them." Darrian growled as he kicked open the door to Bann Vaughn's room. Laying on the floor between Vaughn and several lackeys was Shianni. She appeared almost.. broken.. as she laid on the cold floor, clutching at the ripped remnants of her gown, her eyes darting around nervously until they locked on Darrian as he entered.
"Darrian.." She said weakly as Vaughn turned to see who had barged into the room.
"Ah, the knife ear that dared raise his tone with me at the.."Vaughn supressed an evil chuckle. "...wedding."
"I will KILL YOU!" Darrian raged, lifting a dagger and pressing it against the soft flesh of Vaughn's neck.
Panic fluttered in the spoiled noble's eyes as he noticed the cold steel pressed against his throat, the scent of blood that filled his nostrils and the murderous look of the knife ear that had burst into the room.
"Now, now... no need for that!" Vaughn said, failing at sounding calm. "Tell you what, Forty sovereigns. I'll give you forty sovereigns and you leave the women here." He offered, a hand moving to his coin purse.
"YOU THINK I WOULD TAKE A BRIBE FROM A FILTHY SHEMLEN BASTARD!" The elf countered pressing the dagger harder and causing Vaughn to stumble backwards. It did not take long for the nobleman to realize he had the elves outnumbered and he roughly pushed Darrian back, than withdrew his own weapon.
"Pfft! I always regret talking to knife-ears! Now I'll just gut your ignorant carcasses instead!" Vaughn spat, his friends moving in to help him as a grim smirk spread on Darrian's lips.
"Try it!" Darrian dared, charging forward. Steel clashed against steel as the shemlen swung his blade and Darrian deflected the blow with one of his daggers. Neither combatant was without skill, and it seemed like hours passed with neither landing a blow. Desperate for an opening, Darrian ducked closer to Vaughn, cauing the shemlen to stumble backwards. That gave the elf the opening he needed, and with swift hands he plunged one of his daggers into the shemlen's gut. Color faded from Vaughn's face, his sword falling from his grip as his eyes filled with terror.
"Me-Mercy.." Vaughn begged.
Darrian merely laughed as he swung his other blade in an arc and Vaughn's head went flying across the room, crashing into the wall.
The other nobles were easily dispatched, leaving Darrian surrounded by the corpses of the shemlens who had wronged his family. If not for the pleading call of Shianni, he might of gone on a rampage and killed all the nobles in Denerim before he would of been stopped.
"C-Cousin.."
"Shianni!" Darrian rushed to her side as Soris went into the next room looking for the other women.
"Yo-You came..." Shianni smiled up at Darrian as he took her into his arms and brushed a stray hair away from her face.
"Of course I did.. Soris too."
"I knew you would... Did you... Did you teach that Shemlen bastard a lesson?"
Darrian smiled, leaning forward and planting an affectionate kiss on the wounded girl's forehead. "Course I did, Cousin. Of course I did." He slipped an arm underneath Shianni's knees, and lifted her as he stood. He carried her all the way back to the Alienage as Soris and the other women followed.
"What have you done?!" The elvish woman Elva shrieked as Darrian and the others returned and told their story to Valendrian. Darrian pointedly ignored her, his brow furrowed slightly with worry, quite aware of Duncan's scrutinizing gaze on him.
"...Nola is dead.. they cut her down as she resisted... Shianni..." Darrian's voice broke, unable to speak anymore as Valendrian placed a calming hand on his shoulder.
"You did us proud, boy." The elder said quietly as a troop of city guards came storming into the Alienage.
"There was an incident at the Arl's estate." The guard captain stated, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the gathered elves. "The Arl's own son murdered in cold blood. I have come to bring the one responsible to justice, Valendrian."
Soris and Darrian locked eyes, the former turning slightly pale. It was no secret that the punishment for slaying a shemlen, no matter how deserved the slaying was, is execution. Darrian gave his cousin a small smile, than stepped forward, his expression now hard as stone.
"I did it. I'm the one responsible."
The guard captain looked a tad shocked at that, perhaps not expecting the one responsible to step forward so easily. His gaze traveled along the blood soaked clothes Darrian wore, and the guard captain nodded.
"Good of you to come forward. Save your fellows a lot of heart ache."
"Excuse me. Guard Captain?" Duncan asked as he stepped to Darrian's side. "I am invoking the Right of Conscription on this lad."
The guard captain met Duncan's gaze, and looked from him to the bloody elf. "It is your right, Grey Warden."
Grey Warden? This shemlen is a warden!?
"I only ask that you get him out of the city. Today."
Duncan nodded in agreement and the guard troop left. Duncan turned towards Darrian, a somewhat sad look in his eyes.
"I'd say your goodbye, its unlikely you'll be back here again."
Darrian blinked, looking startled, his gaze darting from the elder to Duncan to Soris than back to Duncan. "Wait... what?!"
