K
Katlene
Guest
Viktor Cotume
The cold stone provided diminutive comfort for the wearisome ache in his bones accrued from spending so long in the confined, dank quarters. It had been four years, four long years of slowly wasting away in this ruinous pit.
The spark of youth had fled his once vibrant, grey eyes, leaving nothing but dark, vacant sockets and deep lines that marred his brow reflecting the burden of age he now felt within.
He saw no bars, the smell of death and decay eluded his senses as did the agonizing cries of the fellow captives further down the dim corridor.
Here he resided, in his own clandestine, tormented existence deep within the bowels of Yew.
He recalled his last visitor, a man… perhaps his father, their face had been distorted by the shadows but he had known the voice, it had been all too familiar… unlike the words that emanated from his lips.
Sinister… treason… vile… murderer.
How long ago had that been? It didn’t matter… time seemed to have lost all significance.
Voices and the soft drone of footfalls brought his mind from the fanatical place in which his sanity dwelled… Someone approached.
A resounding, metallic clink besieged his sensitive ears as one by one the steel hinges of the crude cell sprung open.
Slightly obscured by the murky shadows, a figure transpired in the narrow doorway, their petite form encased in folds of dark material.
“This is your lucky day, Cotume,”
---
Her intense violet eyes shone through muddled darkness of the courtyard, gleaming like beacons in the late ebon haze. She moved like a blur of living shadow, quickly yet with a practiced, deadly grace.
The nobleman’s brow furrowed deeply; tightly stretching the weatherworn, almost translucent skin across his forehead as his eyes narrowed towards the approaching figure.
“Ah Viktor Cotume, how long has it been? Twenty years?” Drawled her familiar, feminine voice. “And just look at you, an officer within the ranks of the Royal Guard,” a wry smirk played across her ashen features.
“What... What do you want with me fiend?” Viktor stammered, his countenance perturbed by her presence.
“Fiend? So brusque! What ever happened to exchanging pleasantries, Viktor?” she grinned, mischief dancing in her luminous eyes.
Viktor averted his gaze abruptly; the mere sight of this creature made his skin crawl.
“If you recall, Viktor… when I found you, you were nothing more than a foolish, pathetic boy languishing away in some filthy cell!” The words sounded almost alien as they escaped her lips in an ill-humored hiss. “Who had you released and your charges erased… you owe me Viktor and I have come to collect!”
Nng? What? Did I miss something? 