Lost Souls
((After, Extended Tour of Duty by http://mebanebuzz.livejournal.com/ ))
Stepping onto the landing port, the pale Blood Knight looked around, breathing in deep the comforting briny air. She shivered slightly as the misty breeze rustled her skirts. Making way for the Tavern she turned the corner, nodding at the Baron before making her way inside.
Familiar voices greeted her as she made her way downstairs, as well as many that were unfamiliar. The Tavern was alive tonight, bustling with customers as they drank and were merry. Stepping off the bridge, she noted Dualla was at a table, and raised an eyebrow to the mug in her hand.
Dualla waved cheerfully as Nikoleta approached the table. "Hello Niko!"
Nikoleta smiled wryly. "Hello Dualla. How goes it this eve? I trust that Mari has everything under control then..." She looked down her nose at Dualla and her mugful.
The other woman laughed drunkenly and Nikoleta smiled brightly. Dualla was indeed an asset to the Tavern. She could still function well enough in a state of emergency while drunk off her *ss. Laughing, Nikoleta turned to see Mariveaux approach. A glimpse of nervousness seemed to flash on that sweet face of hers before she casted her usual warm and friendly smile. "Hello, Nikoleta..” Nikoleta smiled and hugged her friend in welcome.
“Can I have a word with you.. upstairs?" Mariveaux asked.
Nodding, Nikoleta peered at her. Nikoleta was slightly anxious to know what was wrong as they walked to the upper floor of the Tavern, for surely there was something wrong. The way Mariveaux wrung her hands and the small line on her brow gave it away, though she seemed as naturally bright as usual.
Coming to a stop, Mariveaux hesitated with her words. "Niko.. there is a body downstairs..."
"Oh no.." Nikoleta snorted. "Well, what else is new." She shifted her weight onto the other foot and smirked.
"No, Niko..." Mariveaux looked at Nikoleta wearily. "It looks like...I mean, I think it might be, Lataal..."
"What now?" Nikoleta blinked.
Mariveaux sighed, frowning. "The body downstairs. I am not positive but... It looks like Lataal."
"No..." Nikoleta reeled backward as the whole world dissolved around her. The air became stifling as she realized that she herself had thought him dead. Setting her face like stone, she all but ran down through the Tavern. Running would only confirm to herself that it -could- be him... And she was not willing to admit to her fears just yet.
Nikoleta looked around anxiously for any sign of a body in the Tavern, ignoring anyone that might call out to her for she did not want to be interrupted. Taking the last flight of stairs by two, she finally spied what had made Mariveaux so worried. A pale body on the floor near the counter.
She paused on the stairs, squinting as her eyes took in every detail:
Tall and lanky in length... flesh the color of moonglow... a white halo of hair... face down.
It was unreal. And as if in a dream, Nikoleta stumbled down the rest of the stairs, feeling withdrawn from the world. She made her way toward the corpse, falling to her knees painfully before it. She hovered above, her expression incredulous, as if waiting for it to rise and laugh at her, as if waiting for everyone to cheer around her and pat her back... a poorly done prank maybe. That was what it was, yes. Nikoleta waited... and waited...
But the chest did not rise. The heavily muscular arms did not lift that familiar statuesque frame. The perfectly chiseled face did not break into a smile that was as soft as the kiss that that mouth was capable of…
The din rose around her:
"Something's wrong here, isn't it? Well, more than one..."
"Always...I mean to say...yes. Yes, there is. Something wrong."
"What is?"
"Have some couth, man."
"I feel no pity for thosse who die."
"He was her..." He was...
"The past always comes back to ...haunt us, doesn't it. Yes. He...was." He was...
"Niko... is everything alright?" No...
"Is there... anything I can help with?" No, this cannot be...
"My friend I know you were just stating fact but there is a better time to do such and a better being to do so to..."
"I'm sorry...I should go to her. Please understand...Sufferthorn? I'm not certain. We spoke earlier but he seemed so tired. I think he fell asleep for a while."
"...there are few whom i pity"
"Please excuse me..."
Focus!! Biting the inside of her mouth, Nikoleta shot a hand out toward the corpse. She needed to touch it... that would confirm it was not him. It would be someone else…!
As her palm made contact Nikoleta could sense how much trouble the body had been in before it was cast into the Tavern. She felt its pain and fell backwards as if burned. She sat there and muttered to herself, trying to figure out the logistics of what has taken place which only came out as ramblings, and she was unable to come up with an answer.
Nikoleta closed her eyes as she felt a soothing hand on her hair. Mariveaux. Suddenly, with that one touch, the world came crashing down upon her.
"Im so... sorry Niko.." Soft arms enveloped Nikoleta tightly as tears started to flow. It was Mariveaux, of course, that held on to her. "What can be done?" She asks softly.
Docimop, their newest hire, asks, concern in his voice, "Is there anything I can do to help Miss Nikoleta?"
Nikoleta bit at her lip to come to her senses enough to give orders, if for only a moment. She whimpers slightly as she draws blood but ignores the taste of it in her mouth. She looks up at Docimop, only now noticing that there are others watching her and nods to the Troll. "Take him to a room." She headed for the counter, turning her back to the scene as Docimop and Mariveaux figured out how to get him up. Reaching under the counter Nikoleta produced a cloak to drape around the body of the Kal’dorei who she had promised herself to, so long ago now.
"It sseemss to me that hiss mind wass losst or he wass sslain by the goblinss..." Said the voice that had claimed to have no pity. Nikoleta frowned, wondering why Lataal was dead -here- and shook her head. She could not ponder these thoughts. She had to concentrate...
Docimop hauled the body over his shoulder with a surprising tenderness that Nikoleta was grateful for. They paraded up to an empty room and stood aside as the Troll laid the body down on the bed, straightening it out in a traditional Troll burial pose and bowed to Nikoleta.
"Thank you," Mariveaux smiles at Docimop as Nikoleta tucks the cloak around the cold body. She ventured to stroke his hair gently, her fingers trembling.
She heard Mariveaux and Anthoros whispering behind her.
"Should we leave you with the Kal'dorei?" Anthoros asked.
"I... think she will want to... be alone..." Mariveaux responded.
"Filthy elf, Night Elvess have done little to endear themsselvess to me..." She heard the rasp of the pitiless creature in the hall and her face was stone. This. This was why he was dead, more than likely. Some racial prejudice. Why he was here at the Tavern, Nikoleta still could not figure out.
"I don’t even know anything... Why he is here.. Why he is..." Nikoleta said helplessly to Mariveaux, though her eyes did not leave that lifeless face.
"I don't know..." Mariveaux says sadly.
Nikoleta sank next to the bed, a hand outstretched, holding onto his fingers. "Oh Mari... " She looked up at her friend, now that she was alone and started to cry. Mariveaux knelt and held on to Nikoleta as wretched sobs tore at the Blood Knight's body.
“Can you feel him…?” Mariveaux asked in a hushed whisper.
Nikoleta grasped onto her dear friend, grateful, though she could not say it. Looking up to Mariveaux with tear-filled eyes she rambled. "I.. don’t know.. I don’t know what I can do... he feels almost like how.. -you- did..."
Mariveaux took Nikoleta's face into her hands. "Niko..." She sharply inhales. "We will find out... how to bring him back. I promise you. We will find a way."
Nikoleta nodded in her hands and whimpered. "Mari.." She tried to express her love and gratitude with her eyes and sobbed instead. "..I am going to stay here... I need to find him... he feels lost... I need to be able to redeem him…" She had to locate his soul before returning him to life, as she had tried to with Mariveaux. That was the only way. She had to be able to do it…
Mariveaux tenderly tries to wipe Nikoleta's tears away, her own eyes darkened with sadness. She nods and stands heading for the door as Nikoleta nestles next to the bed, breathing irratically as if trying to calm herself down.
"I'll close the door... and leave you... alone with him."