Zakiyah jumped as Venger's voice boomed through the room, and she stared at him in frank astonishment, before a deep flush of embarassment spread over her face.He had changed quite a lot from the man she remembered...his physique was huge, powerful, extremly muscular and covered with skin that seemed dusted with something other than human flesh...something alien, scaley without being shiney, powerful wings rising from his back like those of a great gargoyle. His eyes glowed red with fury.
He towered over the tallest of them by at least a foot, even without his usual imposing armor and robes, unaware or unashamed of his nudity. (Until, of course, it dawned on him that his magic was useless in this room...)
Zakiyah couldn't help but compare him to what he'd been, before...KNEW he had changed but hadn't realized how much.
And suddenly Sterling's sword flashed and stabbed, shocking her enough that she shrieked in horror at the brutal sight, feeling sick and faint. She'd seen battles, she'd seen horrors, but this was somehow so deeply personal and cruel and fitting that she wanted to vomit then and there.
Sterling was talking to her, telling her to come with him...Numbly, she obeyed, talking his hand and walking woodenly away, wherever he lead her, eyes wide with confused horror. About halfway down the stairs she found her voice.
"He's not dead....he can't die," she said weakly in a quavering voice. "And he won't rest until he...oh...gods...a Lorekeeper witnessed it....." Much as she hated Venger, and had often WANTED exactly what Sterling had done to happen to him, seeing it happen made it another matter entirely. Some irrational particle of her wondered if her centuries of wishing, and inadvertant prayers to whatever gods of vengeance would hear, somehow made her responsible as well. "He'll heel," she said. "And he won't forget...."
It occurred to her that they were free. "You came after me," she said in confusion. "Why? He wouldn't have held me long. He never did. He...needed..." Her voice breaks as she realizes again Venger no longer would need a Lorekeeper...in fact, he would long to destroy the knowledge she now posessed.
Well...nothing else for it now...everything else had just fallen apart, and there was nothing to do for it but bite the bullet and ask. She closes her eyes as she walks, whispering a humble prayer under her breath in the ancient tongue. "Validor....guide me..."
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