010 - video
[This goes up on Monday, before Sylvanas goes after Elric. It's gloriously public, because this is Elric's way of saying "publish and be damned, Ardent". Elric looks like he's in a good mood. An alarmingly good mood. Because he's in that cheerfully nihilist state of mind where he just doesn't care anymore.]
I have promised to Ardent and to Neil Howie a full accounting of what passed with our librarian dwarf. And so here follows the accounting. I expect that afterwards the wardens may petition for my demotion [unspoken: as they have for others recently], or ask that I be cast off at the nearest port of call, or that my sword be destroyed. I submit myself to your [massive irony] keen judgement and discerning tempers without complaint. [Read: I don't give a fuck what you think.]
That I am in possession of an enchanted blade called Stormbringer is known to some of you. Well-now it is known to all of you. It was a blade forged by Chaos in aeons long past in my own world, and it is my saviour and my curse. I have been able to survive without it here on the Barge, but many and long have been the years where I came to rely on Stormbringer for my strength-Stormbringer, and the souls that it drank.
Aye, Stormbringer is the blade that brought me the sobriquet "Stealer of Souls" in my native world. It accompanied me here to the Barge, though I thought it lost, and I have kept it secured by means magical and mundane in my cabin.
But when I heard that Narvin was missing and learned that Ardent might be responsible, I took Stormbringer up again, for I feared that Ardent might have magical means of protecting himself, brought from his own native world-we had spoken once of a metal called octiron, and I thought he might have at last found a means of shaping it into something dangerous. And as ill-luck would have it, I slew Ardent in attempting to subdue him, and Stormbringer drank his soul.
And that is why he woke from death as a mindless body. I restored his soul to him while the good doctor Svetlana watched, and I have expressed my regret time and again for what I have done, though he does not accept it. Consider this public statement as abject an apology as I may muster, and wardens, I ask you all to do as you will.
Be warned, however: I have tried to destroy Stormbringer. I have tried to cast it away. But it is indestructible and whenever I have cast it from me, it has always returned. None but the Lords of Chaos themselves may destroy it, I think, though I should like to see you try.
[He grins terribly at the camera. NO HE'S NOT DONE YET.]
Now, having said that-in the week since Ardent's death, there have been three attempts on my life-one by Drake Stone, one by Omega, and one by some boy who kept shouting about proving himself. I shall second Omega's entreaty: whoever is behind this [ARDENT], face me yourself, coward! Send not these unwilling puppets into my path, for I do not wish to harm them. I have had enough of this.
Aye, I begin to think I have had enough of the Barge in general.
[He sneers a little, and shuts the camera off.]
I have promised to Ardent and to Neil Howie a full accounting of what passed with our librarian dwarf. And so here follows the accounting. I expect that afterwards the wardens may petition for my demotion [unspoken: as they have for others recently], or ask that I be cast off at the nearest port of call, or that my sword be destroyed. I submit myself to your [massive irony] keen judgement and discerning tempers without complaint. [Read: I don't give a fuck what you think.]
That I am in possession of an enchanted blade called Stormbringer is known to some of you. Well-now it is known to all of you. It was a blade forged by Chaos in aeons long past in my own world, and it is my saviour and my curse. I have been able to survive without it here on the Barge, but many and long have been the years where I came to rely on Stormbringer for my strength-Stormbringer, and the souls that it drank.
Aye, Stormbringer is the blade that brought me the sobriquet "Stealer of Souls" in my native world. It accompanied me here to the Barge, though I thought it lost, and I have kept it secured by means magical and mundane in my cabin.
But when I heard that Narvin was missing and learned that Ardent might be responsible, I took Stormbringer up again, for I feared that Ardent might have magical means of protecting himself, brought from his own native world-we had spoken once of a metal called octiron, and I thought he might have at last found a means of shaping it into something dangerous. And as ill-luck would have it, I slew Ardent in attempting to subdue him, and Stormbringer drank his soul.
And that is why he woke from death as a mindless body. I restored his soul to him while the good doctor Svetlana watched, and I have expressed my regret time and again for what I have done, though he does not accept it. Consider this public statement as abject an apology as I may muster, and wardens, I ask you all to do as you will.
Be warned, however: I have tried to destroy Stormbringer. I have tried to cast it away. But it is indestructible and whenever I have cast it from me, it has always returned. None but the Lords of Chaos themselves may destroy it, I think, though I should like to see you try.
[He grins terribly at the camera. NO HE'S NOT DONE YET.]
Now, having said that-in the week since Ardent's death, there have been three attempts on my life-one by Drake Stone, one by Omega, and one by some boy who kept shouting about proving himself. I shall second Omega's entreaty: whoever is behind this [ARDENT], face me yourself, coward! Send not these unwilling puppets into my path, for I do not wish to harm them. I have had enough of this.
Aye, I begin to think I have had enough of the Barge in general.
[He sneers a little, and shuts the camera off.]