[IRP] The Dead One Calls

[Swift_Assassin]

Shad looked back upon his sister one last time. Next time he sees her, he thought, they'd be walking out of this cell together, preferably over the corpses they left behind. "Go back to your singing. I'll be back before you know it." Maria nodded her head and took up where she was sitting before. Shad heard a bit of a humming as Maria tried to get the tune back.

"The air is fresh and it darkles,
And smoothly flows the Rhine;
The peak of the mountain sparkles
In the fading sunset-shine."

Shad didn't know where this song had come to Maria. Perhaps it was taught to her by Maisie or one of the Fens. Perhaps it was something from his past, but it was lost to him. But this tune matched the first verse he heard as he entered, meaning this was the same song. He turned around and closed the door behind him, staring at the door and trying to listen to Maria's song.

"The loveliest wonderful maiden
On high is sitting there,
With golden jewels braiden,
And she combs her golden hair."

As he pulled back from the door, someone grabbed Shad by the back of the head and rammed it face first into the door. He was dazed, he felt his weight falling when it happened again. This time, something caught him by his hair line, something sharp. It hurt like hell and he could already feel the heat gushing out. He caught himself and turned around as the assailant grabbed him by the face and repeated smashed his head against the door. Four times in total.

"Who are you and what are you doing by the bitch's door?"

Shad couldn't respond, so the brigand opened the door and tossed Shad against the wall. He put his left arm out to catch his fall, but in landing he felt something pop. Shad left the torch burning on the floor so Maria wasn't stuck in the dark. The brigand lifted the torch and directed towards Shad's face. He then looked at Maria, who paused in her singing. She resumed.

"It hath caught the boatman, and bound him
In the spell of a wild, sad love;
He sees not the rocks around him,
He sees only her above."

"Quiet you monster," the brigand said, looking back at Shad. "You look like the people in those paintin's. You look like 'er. Your the brat we've been waiting on. Hahaha!" The man laughed, trying to get Shad to acknowledge him. "Since that damn rider showed up, it's only a matter of time before the military comes too. So I'm taking the two of you to Lycia and getting rich. But first..." He pulled Shad back up, grabbing him by his left arm and right shoulder, and rammed him face first into the cell, pressing his face between the bars. "Get over here. Look me in the eyes and tell me this isn't your brother."

Maria halted her song, humming the tune as she approached Shad and the brigand. Shad's bangs were stained with blood, his eye obscured under the blood. It started dripping down around his mouth and started dripping off his chin. Shad only had one eye open and it was looking down. Maria couldn't understand why, until she saw it. An opportunity. She tried her best to hug Shad, or at least appear to.

"Now if you stay quiet, I'll try to get us out of here. Hopefully I'll get a lot of coin out of the two of you."

"The waves through the pass keep swinging,
But boatman or boat is none;"
And this with her mighty singing"

The brigand was confused by her resuming her singing. Then he saw it. Maria was holding a magic tome in her hand and was forming magic sigils in a triangle shape in front of her. That was when Shad took a dagger and stabbed the brigands hand, cutting his left arm in the process. He dropped to the ground by the cell as a larger magic sigil formed in the middle of the triangle. Almost instantly, a pair of small fire balls fired through the cell, erupting into a small tower of fire upon contact with the brigand, roasting him. He fell to the ground, writhing in agony, having narrowly survived the spell.

"The Lorelei hath done."

Shad got back up to hit feet, staggering as he was, and approached the brigand. He removed the spade from his waist and put the edge of it to the brigands neck. Before he begin to plead, Shad propped his foot against the spade and punctured the man's throat, silencing him. Shad then stumbled back towards the cell wall and collapsed against it. "Good shinging-ing there. What is that song about? It makes me...want to fall ashleep."

Maria's eyes widened as she saw the amount of blood gushing out of the back of Shad's head. He must have some damage from what happened. "Its about a woman who causes the boatmen who hear her song to die, because they are too focused on her song to notice the dangerous rocks they sail into. Shad, you can't go to sleep now."

"I guess that makes you the Lorelei, huh?" He chuckled, noticing how he was so distracted with her song, he almost was done in listening to it. "Why not? I haven't shlept in over...in over a day." Shad replied, his eyes feeling heavy. He looked around and tried to focus on a spot on the wall, but the room started to spin while doing so. Shad closed his eyes, but then he just felt everything spinning.

"I haven't slept since this ordeal started. They wouldn't let me."

Shad just stared into space. It was hard for him to register this. "How about food? I can make us shomething."

"I haven't eaten either."

Shad blinked with his unobscured eye and inhaled. "Water?" He attempted to look back at Maria without turning his head, but still couldn't see her.

"Obviously."

He grabbed the side of his head, as a rushing pain consumed it. Of course they gave her something to drink, she would be dead probably without it. "Did they attend to your wounds?"

"No."

"Let you wash?"

"No."

"So you've been barred from eating or shleeping, with unattended to injshuries covered in blood...and shweat and tears for five days now?"

"Yes."

Shad sighed. He climbed back to his feet. "Then, I'll go without." Maria looked at him oddly. "If you've been able to deal wittthh...deal with it for thish long, I'll be able to deal withh...it for a few more hours. Schrew food. Schrew shleep. Schrew fixing my arm, hand,....hand, and foot. And most of all...schrew them. I'll kill every one of them I get my hand on."

"Wait, what?" Maria cut in. "Arm? Hand? Foot? What happened?" Shad removed his Sacaen top, down to just his pants and his boots. A gross bump showed itself on his left shoulder. Maria looked at his hand and saw how swollen it had gotten. She looked at his feet and saw the blood stains. "How'd you do all this to yourself?"

Shad looked back at the brigand behind him. He kicked him with the broken foot and fell back against the wall afterwards. Shad struggled to pull himself back up, only having one functional arm at the moment. He tried to think why he pointed out his hand or foot. This feeling was familiar. But he couldn't place it. "I'll be...be. Yeah.." He said, walking out of the solitary cell, leaving a very concerned Maria with a corpse with a shovel in its neck. The prisoners looked horrified at him, looking much like a shambling corpse come to life. Lowell tried saying something to him, but Shad didn't register it. He had two goals in mind and only one left to carry out. Liberate the castle. It was the only thought that came out from the fog of his mind. He walked out the prison doors to see a wyvern and a large group of people.

"I am Lord Shhaadrach Hyperion! Of Arretshium! Of Eshruria! This ish MY Cashle! You messhed with MY MEN! With MY sishter! And forr that...you will pay in blood!" Shad boastlfully proclaimed through his slurred speech. He then proceeded to fall to his knees and vomit on the ground in front of him. He didn't even know he had anything to come up, but he got back to his unsteady feet and drew the schiavona. A brigand noticed him and approached, figuring him for an easy kill. "Be careful there. I'm recklesh even when I'm in the right shtate of mind."

"No worries."

Shad charged the man, which surprised him with the state he was in. It was a move he did before in Santaruz. He positioned the sword in a stabbing position and treated it like a lance. The man swung his axe, hitting Shad in his left arm, which was currently numb from its own issues, as Shad punctured the mans stomach and speared the man into the ground. The axe was stuck in Shad's arm, so he unceremoniously pulled it out and finished the job, planting the axe in the brigands head. He pushed himself up and surveyed the field, finding himself unable to process the action. He vomited again, next to the body of which he sat upon.