Gossamer Threads (24/8) - Zola
Oct 19, 2023 17:49:45 GMT
Velania Kalugina, Andy D, and 1 more like this
Post by Zola Rhomdaen on Oct 19, 2023 17:49:45 GMT
“So. What happened?”
Zola takes a slow, deep breath. She is sitting just across the stalagmite table from Jaezred and Imryll, in the cavernous gloom of the Underdark Room in Gossamer Threads, but they feel a million miles away. Their faces are obscured in shadow from where she is sitting, barely touched by the faint light from the glowing crystals around the room.
“We found the Copper Sabre’s base thanks to the directions,” she begins. “They’d…already caught Tebrin Zoland. We found him chained to the wall in their hideout. But…”
But Pipper had truesight from her enchanted helmet, and she saw what the prisoner really was.
“But?”
“Um… Well, he’s not just some drow mercenary. He’s a devil — just looks like a drow.”
Black feathered wings unfurled from his back and his strong hands pulled the chains that bound them off the wall when Tebrin Zoland dropped the act. The grin on his beautiful, high cheekboned-face grew wider, and a shiver crept down Zola’s spine. It was like she was standing face-to-face with the ghost of a memory.
“Hmm. A devil, now?”
“Is he a minion of Zarzuul?”
“I…don’t know. But he said he could arrange a meeting for me with someone who was involved in the original deal, the one my mothers made with Zarzuul. In exchange, he asked me to…” She pauses to sigh. “He said the leader of the Copper Sabre was secretly working with one of the houses of Aeschira. He told me to either find out which house or kill her, it didn’t really matter to him.”
“And which one did you choose?”
“Both,” Zola whispers.
Each drow mercenary who ran up to confront her were felled by The Twins in a matter of seconds. Slit throats, pierced lungs, spilled guts, broken bones. Thick, iron blood, clinging to her skin.
She didn’t know any of these people before today — they were simply unfortunate to have been found standing in her way. Wrong place, wrong time.
The last to attack was the leader of the company. She expired with Pollux buried in her chest.
“I killed her and found out that she’d been working with House Gorr.”
Imryll and Jaezred exchange a look with each other. She can’t tell if this means good or bad.
“And what next? What information did Zoland give you for your troubles?”
“He knows nothing of the situation. But he said he’ll arrange a meeting for me with someone who does.” Zola takes a deep breath. “My father. My…birth father.”
The silence in the room is heavy and suffocating.
When Imryll and Jaezred call her name, their voices sound muffled and small, drowned out by her discordant inner song and Tebrin Zoland’s laughter echoing endlessly in her ears.
Zola takes a slow, deep breath. She is sitting just across the stalagmite table from Jaezred and Imryll, in the cavernous gloom of the Underdark Room in Gossamer Threads, but they feel a million miles away. Their faces are obscured in shadow from where she is sitting, barely touched by the faint light from the glowing crystals around the room.
“We found the Copper Sabre’s base thanks to the directions,” she begins. “They’d…already caught Tebrin Zoland. We found him chained to the wall in their hideout. But…”
But Pipper had truesight from her enchanted helmet, and she saw what the prisoner really was.
“But?”
“Um… Well, he’s not just some drow mercenary. He’s a devil — just looks like a drow.”
Black feathered wings unfurled from his back and his strong hands pulled the chains that bound them off the wall when Tebrin Zoland dropped the act. The grin on his beautiful, high cheekboned-face grew wider, and a shiver crept down Zola’s spine. It was like she was standing face-to-face with the ghost of a memory.
“Hmm. A devil, now?”
“Is he a minion of Zarzuul?”
“I…don’t know. But he said he could arrange a meeting for me with someone who was involved in the original deal, the one my mothers made with Zarzuul. In exchange, he asked me to…” She pauses to sigh. “He said the leader of the Copper Sabre was secretly working with one of the houses of Aeschira. He told me to either find out which house or kill her, it didn’t really matter to him.”
“And which one did you choose?”
“Both,” Zola whispers.
Each drow mercenary who ran up to confront her were felled by The Twins in a matter of seconds. Slit throats, pierced lungs, spilled guts, broken bones. Thick, iron blood, clinging to her skin.
She didn’t know any of these people before today — they were simply unfortunate to have been found standing in her way. Wrong place, wrong time.
The last to attack was the leader of the company. She expired with Pollux buried in her chest.
“I killed her and found out that she’d been working with House Gorr.”
Imryll and Jaezred exchange a look with each other. She can’t tell if this means good or bad.
“And what next? What information did Zoland give you for your troubles?”
“He knows nothing of the situation. But he said he’ll arrange a meeting for me with someone who does.” Zola takes a deep breath. “My father. My…birth father.”
The silence in the room is heavy and suffocating.
When Imryll and Jaezred call her name, their voices sound muffled and small, drowned out by her discordant inner song and Tebrin Zoland’s laughter echoing endlessly in her ears.