Cerryl stepped toward the six bandits and started pacing back and forth in front of them. "Very unwise, attacking a wizard... Very unwise..." Cerryl stopped and stared at them. "Working for anyone?" He looked at the last man in the row of bandits. He was trembling and shaking his head violently.
"No! No! Spare us--"
Cerryl hit the man with the same fist of chaos he had used on the bandit he had previously interrogated.
"Aaeeii!"
"Silence!" But, Cerryl's senses to him that the man was telling the truth about not working for anyone. He glanced at the other men, then turned away. "Then you are just attacking wizards..." He sensed nothing from the others. "Then you want me in particular dead. Why?" There was no answer. "Fine." He turned back towards them. "You will suffer." He glanced at the lancer captain from before. "Tell me captain, what were the last of my orders from High Wizard Sterol again?"
His voice squeaked as he rattled off the message from Sterol. "O-Once the culprits are found, you are to deal with them in whichever maner is to your liking. You are creative enough to find an extremely painful punishment for the vermin. Have f-fun."
"Fun, huh?" Cerryl's penetrating gaze was fixed on the vermin. He hated using force, but such was necessary to keep the peace.
Fear was in the eyes of the bandits. Horrid, grotesque, unadulterated terror . . .
Cerryl gathered a ball of chaos in his hands. He turned his head to Benthann and Beryl. "Ladies... I am about to... punish... the bandits. Would you like to be escorted home?" he asked gently.
Benthann squared her shoulders. "We will watch." The scorn in her voice was overwhelming.
"Beryl?" There was still a soothing calm in Cerryl's voice. "Would you like to go home."
She shook her head.
Satisfied, Cerryl nodded and turned his attention back to the bandits. "Standing is so innappropiate. Not respectful at all. How about you kneel?" He sent flame across the legs of the men, and with a glance ordered the lancers to let them go. They writhed on the ground in front of him. He raised his voice so that the crowd around him could hear his words. "You already know that none will attack a wizard and go unpunished... but no one will harm the citizens of Fairhaven. The White Order of the wizards will not stand it. I won't stand it. Those who go against the people of this city will perish, painfully... and slowly." He looked into the eyes of the bandits, and in his eyes, they saw death. "Am I understood?"
The first three bandits he killed in the same methodic fashion as he had used to interrogate the very fist bandit, slowly burning their bodies piece by piece, keeping them on the brink of death, but never giving them that peace. When the three of them lost all sense of feeling because of the damage to their nerves, Cerryl sent a powerful jolt chaos through their bodies, ending their pitiful lives.
Cerryl could feel chaos build around the last man in the row, the one whose face he had burned. "Why are you trying to do, you worm?" A pathetic puff of chaos fire was hurled at the student chaos wizard, which he easily deflected with his shields. "You are trying to use the forces of chaos on me? Are you mad?" Cerryl got up close to the man, using more chaos fire to deform the rest of the bandit's face.
"Aaeeeiii!"
"For that, you will suffer. You have no idea what the forces of chaos can really do... But I will show you, worry not about that."
The man twitched on the ground, clutching at his face.
"No," commanded Cerryl as he seared the bandit's arms. "Now, you may wonder why I protected your ears when I melted the skin from your face, you rubbish. That is simple: you will be last to die, forced to ear the torturned, strangled cries of your companions." Cerryl returned to the fourth and fifth bandits, disposing of them as well. The sickly sweet smell of charred flesh mingled with the smells of springtime. "Have you suffered enough, or do you require more?" he asked the sixth, and final, bandit."
"...more...much more..." mumered someone behind Cerryl.
He turned to see that it had been Benthann. "What else did he do, Benthann? Why does he deserve such pain?" Tears streamed from the woman's eyes--tears... from Benthann... Cerryl walked over to her, speaking in the most gentle of voices. "Tell me Benthann. What did he do? What did he do to you?"
"He... he forced me to... I had to... Well, instead of hurting Beryl, he took me and..." Benthann was sobbing even more fiercly, and the tears of Beryl--Benthann's mother--began to stream as well.
Cerryl nodded and sighed, removing his own cloak and wrapping around Benthann. He held the weeping woman close. He understood what she meant. "There, there Benthann." He nodded to Tellis, who took the woman into his own arms. Cerryl stalked over to the heap of flesh that was the sixth bandit and kicked him in the small of the back. "You monster! How dare you!" By the time I am through with you, you will wish you had never laid your filthy fingers on her! Cerryl aimed a slow-consuming ball of chaos fire at the man's groin.
"AAAEEEIIII!"
The man's screams continued for long moments at Cerryl slowly, slowly killed him. As the last traces of life faded from him, Cerryl gave a kurt nod and turned towards Tellis and the ladies. "Are you alright for now--"
Tellis's eyes widened as he ran forward. "Cerryl! Watch out!"
In a matter of seconds, Cerryl was on the ground and blood was everywhere.
Cerryl scrambled to his feet to see several lancers tackling a man to the ground. Looking down he saw blood streaming from the back of Tellis's shoulder. "May the angels be damned! Tellis, are you alright!"
Tellis gruffed an affirmative reply. The dagger sticking out of his back was cold iron. Someone is trying to kill me! They have all along! "Beryl, come and help me. I can't pull the dagger from him. It is completely cold iron. Luckily, the dagger hadn't gone very deep. Cerryl chaos-cleaned the wound of any infection and helped Beryl wrap the wound. "Will you be alright, Tellis?"
"Sure. Just smarts a bit."
Cerryl looked at the man held by the lancers. Another bandit. But he looked familiar... "Are there any more of you?"
"No."
Cerryl could tell the man was lying. "How many more?"
"None."
"Very well. I shall find out eventually anyhow, won't I? Since I am your target, afterall." Cerryl turned to one of the lancer undercaptains. Cerryl raised his hand and gathered the forces of chaos. The bandit's eyes widened. But Cerryl paused; he knew that the punishment for attacking wizard is sudden death by chaos fire, but... "I have a better idea. Send him to work on the road."
Surprised, the guard slowly replied, "Yes, ser."
"No! Don't!" cried the bandit. "You're supposed to kill me! You're supposed to kill me!
"Oh, and undercaptain?"
"Yes, ser wizard?"
"Be sure to request that the strongest, most painful mental bind be put on him."
"Yes, ser."
The bandit's screams could be heard for several miles. Cerryl turned toward the crows, sensing another disturbance, another sense of urgency... What now! . . .
now, i realize that this is totally out of the plot. it never happened. thus, i had to make room for it. i had to make room for it by tweeking MINOR parts of the basic plot. i had to tweek it by changing it b/c it never happened; hence its being a FANFIC... ;D