Created Thursday 10 November 2022
Three years later. 1
After the mid-arc stuff setting up where everyone’s at and what’s happening, we continue in a village within the kingdom. A small, fairly insular community situated alongside a river coming from the Mothers Mountain. This village makes a living mostly off of crafts and fishing. It’s been two years since the last king died, and the threat of the new king’s crusade coming to the village has the people scared.
This community has a family, an older man, Ezhyk, and two adopted "children" named Ataŕe and Etanya. The village has had these two living here for a few years now, but they have not yet learned something pretty crucial in times like this: Ataŕe is a maligned.
Mostly, he keeps to himself. Currently, he is 19 years old, and his sister is 23. Ataŕe is a very light blond, near platinum, furred canidform with blonde hair, cut short roughly. He is thin with a little muscle mass. His sister, Etanya, is more visibly muscular because of her assisting with physical chores, which Atare avoids. She is straw blonde with light hints of red in her hair, none in the fur. His eyes are crystal blue, hers are a dark blue with flecks of gold.
Ataŕe is sitting by the river one day, just outside of the home the old man has made for them. The village is a short walk away, just far enough to make it so they have no close neighbors. So here he sits, trying to stay isolated while being very mean to himself. Suddenly, in the river, not too far away from him, a burst of light explodes out of the water. Once he can see again and he’s turned back, in the calm water where the flash of light happened floats a person. Khazhek, unconscious but breathing.
Ataŕe swims out and drags him back to the shore, bringing him home for Ezhyk Etanya and him to care for. They decide to tell no one and keep this stranger a secret, especially with the way Ataŕe found him.
A few days later, Khazhek wakes up in a warm bed in a small house. One room, large enough to be comfy for three, but not too large. Standard for this part of the world. Ataŕe is there doing some house chores, but he immediately notices and turns as Khazhek sits up. They chat for a bit. Atare tells Khazhek how he found him and he tells Atare who he is. Atare asks him some careful questions about his death, before revealing Ishamel has been spreading lies, telling everyone that Khazhek was the killer. The other two occupants arrive shortly. Khazhek has hit it off immediately with both Atare and Etanya. Etanya confidently flirts with the strange sexy river boy, and Khazhek teases Atare because he reacts funny and shy.
For a few days, things stay like this. Etanya and Khazhek flirt, Atare and Khazhek joke back and forth but Khazhek goes full teasing, and the old man mostly is pleasant and caring. Since Khazhek and Atare spend the most time together, they talk about a lot. They tell each other their experiences in the Abyss, Atare revealing he went down there very young. Eventually, Khazhek trains Atare to fight, which Etanya is against at first until Khazhek reminds her of the current state of the world and the genocide against maligned.
Mostly, they do this at night, because both are very insomniac. Atare will still sleep, but only for a few hours at a time, not well, and not always. Since Khazhek came back, he has not willingly slept once, and he doesn’t seem tired. 2
They never go into town with Khazhek, but one time when Etanya and the old man are out of the village Khazhek convinces Atare to bring him into the town proper. On this day, there’s a traveling entertainer, a duelist who challenges random folks to a spar. Khazhek accepts this, meeting the traveling duelists bluster and bragging with his own. The duelist gave Khazhek an objectively worse weapon, but he didn’t mind. Khazhek is almost too much of a challenging opponent to the duelist, so eventually they make a mistake, tripping and almost stabbing Khazhek entirely on accident with what is a live steel blade.
Khazhek instinctually responds: In one motion, Khazhek slices the duelist’s good blade into two pieces with his maligned claws and pushes out enough force to knock the duelist to their feet. A very mild application of power shouldn’t be noticeable to anyone outside of that area. The townsfolk didn’t see enough to know what happened, but they know it was something weird and are now wary about the new person. Khazhek warns the duelist that they have to be careful.
Turns out there’s a former elder of the clade Eŕe came from living here. He felt Khazhek’s little power burst, but he doesn’t assume the worse. This one exiled himself from the group, idealistically against the current genocide. So, he pulls Khazhek aside and reveals himself, explaining that he has a duty to report any sighting of maligned at all to at least one other hunter. He says it’ll be Eŕe and warns Khazhek to be very careful before he leaves.
Only a few days later, that boy who Khazhek helped spare in the trial from earlier roams into town, having felt Khazhek’s not-too-bad burst of power. He does not seem like he’s okay. People hear him muttering about something, eyes darting at shadowy corners. He’s staying far away from everyone, but he finds what he’s looking for: Khazhek, currently in the town square with Atare and Etanya. He calls out Khazhek and tells him what happened: his entire village got burned down, his sister killed, and they put him to death for no reason. Now he’s full of the dark whispers and they’re telling him to kill Khazhek, that it’s all his fault. He was the one who promised him he’d be safe and then he wasn’t. A fight starts but this guy is going full maligned on Khazhek, so Khazhek has to go harder and harder until suddenly flame wings burst from his back, his eyes become fire, and he just kills the other guy easily after that, moving faster and more skilled. After this, he’s shocked and so is the town. After a moment, they argue about what has to be done. Khazhek, Etanya, and Atare talk the town into being on his side, especially when Atare reveals he’s been full maligned this whole time, since before even the adoptive dad knew him at all. Khazhek trains more of the townsfolk for if anything happens.
Meanwhile, the elder from that town is galloping on towards the castle. He’s currently fairly close. As he goes down the path to the castle, he stops when he sees Khar hanging out a few hours away. He stops and chats with Khar but reveals nothing, holding the info about Khazhek back. Khar gets mad with him—he’s obviously keeping secrets and openly speaking against him and for Ere, so Khar attacks the other elder and leaves him for dead bleeding on the ground.
Back at the castle, we have a conflict between Naya and Ishamel, because Naya just learned about the total extent of the genocide, Ishamel having toned it down, and realizing it was all lies has pissed her off. Ishamel made a lot of promises, none of which he kept, and his paranoia seems to keep getting worse. Naya is furious at Ishamel, and he responds unkindly and talks shit about Khazhek, immediately pissing her off more, so she returns to her room in anger.
Ere returns from a short trip. He had felt the most recent burst, but he has no info. He keeps this from Ishamel, especially after Ishamel argues with him for a bit before Ere immediately goes back outside. In the setting sun, Ere hears and then finds the dying elder, who tells him that Khazhek is alive and where he is as well as who killed him before passing. Eŕe burns his body right there.
Shortly after, Khar returns to report to Ishamel about the powerful maligned energy burst and the general direction of it, and uses this to sow distrust with Eŕe, pointing out that he’s always kept secrets and obviously he felt this too but didn’t tell Ishamel. He pushes the narrative of Ere keeping secrets for a while, about how nosy he is, and he nearly outs him before Ishamel harshly orders him to hunt for this maligned that was felt.3
As Khar leaves, Ere is returning to the inside. They have a bit of an argumentative exchange and Khar implies the murder, which Ere already knew, but he doesn’t reveal that. He goes back inside angry and finds Ishamel pacing angrily. Ere and Ishamel get into an even worse argument, leading Ere to just full on leave.
This makes Ishamel much worse to Naya, even leading to him hitting her. When this happens, he immediately leaves and returns to his room where he argues with the voice in his head, laments that he killed anyone, blames the voice for making him, and the voice twists the narrative around more. The voice also tells him to not trust Ere or Naya at all, and to only trust himself. Ere has a full on mental breakdown in his room as Naya fumes in hers.
Back with Khazhek and friends, we know that Khar and his group are getting closer every day. Khazhek’s vibe is likely to become definitely noticeable by Khar’s hunting magic, so Khazhek goes to leave to save the village. He says goodbye and gives a few parting words before getting onto a horse given to him by a local before galloping off. When Khazhek is just far enough away, he looks behind him, towards the village. He feels dread, like something terrible is about to happen. After a moment of internal conflict, he turns towards the village, faster than he left.
The village is next to a large, cresting hill in a little low valley-like area. From the village a man sees a lone rider atop the ridge.. He waves at the rider, who he thinks is waving back.
But Khar keeps his arm raised, smirking at the foolish man below. He’s waiting until the signal, and once they’re ready, he drops his arm forward, signaling for the archers to loose their arrows. The flame enchantment on them cases them to burst into flame once in air4. Once the village is ablaze, Khar and his cadre gallop down in, attacking random people, looting buildings, spreading flame, etc. Khar jumps down from his horse, readies his whip, and walks forward into the chaos, yelling out with mystical amplified voice5: “Give up your maligned and we may spare you. What may show themselves as angels are monsters who will betray you once they have the chance. Why give them that?”
While he speaks, he gets attacked by Etanya, whom he knocks aside fairly easily after a short fight, and calls to his men to apprehend her. They are being very rough and threaten to assault her, so Atare immediately responds by fighting back, which Khar uses as an opportunity to be brutal.
He knocks him around like he’s nothing, kicks him while he’s down, and then at the end uses his anti-maligned whip to wrap around his neck, pushing the crackling painful energy into the poor boy until a voice gets him to stop.
“Leave him alone, Khar. Leave all of them alone. Tell your soldiers to leave everyone else alone, I know you’re looking for me.”
Khar turns to Khazhek, who is already off his horse and wielding a blade, and he smiles wide. He teases Khazhek about his family, before saying, “Why shouldn’t I just order everyone here killed and bring your head to your brother on a silver platter?”
“Do you think I’d let you?” Replies Khazhek, and then they fight. Khar is very distant, using mostly his whip and trying to keep away, but Khazhek immediately tackles him to the ground where they wrestle for a while, struggling against each other before Khar finally knocks Khazhek off, but Khazhek doesn’t let up. Khar and Khazhek fight each other mostly by Khar keeping away and swinging his whip wildly, Khazhek blocking it and knocking it aside whenever he can. He is very aggressive and zaps Khazhek with the anti-maligned magic a few times. Eventually, Khar activates one of his scrolls, which bursts into a minor explosion that launches Khazhek into a burning house, knocking it down.
Khar assumes he won, and so asks the battered crowd if anyone else wants to fight before they die. But when he hears something moving in the burning rubble behind him, he turns and he sees Khazhek standing back up, knocking the burning rubble off of him and standing in the open flame without trouble.
Khazhek: “I’m not done with you yet,” Making Khar mad. Khazhek might say something about how this cruelty has to stop and shit. Khar walks over, expecting Khazhek to be injured, and takes a swing with his sidearm dagger, but Khazhek blocks the blow easily and they get locked together again.
Khazhek knocks Khar away and starts talking about how watching and hearing the stories of those harmed and hurt, maligned and otherwise, has shown him how bad monsters like Khar, Ishamel, others make this world for good people, orphaning people, letting them rot, pushing them down, and saying that if Khar wants to kill him, he’d have to fight him in hell. Back to more fighting and more back-and-forth swings.
Once separated again, he says that the dishonorable people massacring and spreading fear and hate through these lands for the sake of fear and hate are not truly part of the people, that they bloodied their hands by their own actions, and that they are the real demons, draining the life from those around them, pretending to be a savior. He says he knows the fear he felt in the air forces good people to hide their resistance until they make themselves sick, and he will stand in front of it alone if he needs.
Khar laughs, finding this hilarious. He tries to retort, but then Atare tackles him. Khar, being a brick wall of a shithead, isn’t knocked over. Instead, Khar throws him to the ground before pulling out another one of those exploding scrolls, saying “Why don’t you just die” before activating it. But before it hits Atare, Khazhek jumps in front of the wave of magic and as it hits, a shell of fire surrounds them.
“are you alright?” he asks, Atare stunned but uninjured. Despite his defenses, the spell hurt Khazhek. But he stands back up and turns towards Khar. “I don’t care if anyone listens to me, as long as they don’t listen to you. This world has suffered people like you enough, and while I still breathe, I won’t let you win. We may have seen the Abyss, but it’s nothing compared to what you deserve.” Khar doesn’t laugh.
Khar swings the whip at Khazhek, who catches it and pulls, pouncing at Khar as he’s knocked off balance. Khar responds immediately with his blade, but Khazhek gets a good hit in, knocking Khar back and coming in with another strike. This knocks him off balance and soon they’re wresting on the ground. Eventually, they get locked, trying to force their blade against the other as they’re held back.
Khar: “You are the monster who murdered your father and brother! You have no right to talk!”
Khazhek: “I fought against the blame for that in my hell. I could barely survive against the punishment for a crime I didn’t do, and you think your words can stop me when that couldn’t?”
Khar knocks him off and they’re back to fighting on their feet in a second, Khazhek yelling out, “You have to do better than that!” as he advances. The fight seems evenly matched, but now that Khar isn’t off balance, his focus seems to be on dodging and weaving, but sometimes it seems as if he’s goading Khazhek into moving certain ways.
Khar: “Maybe you weren’t the one who delt the blow; your birth was the real crime that killed them.“
Khazhek: “Even if I’m only innocent in the eyes of my dead loved ones, even if I can’t convince anyone, I will not be killed before the one that hurt them!”
Khazhek attacks, and Khar continues his weird tactic. Khazhek is on the offense, but Khar seems to expect and wanting this.
Khazhek: “You shouldn’t listen to them, you know—they might call you down there too.” Referring to the voices Khar hears, but Khar has told no one about that. Khar responds with shock, finally making an offensive move, but when it’s resisted, he immediately falls back into the rhythm of the other more defensive tactic. They lock swords once or twice, but eventually Khar leaps back and grins.
Khazhek steps forward, but unexpectedly, Khar drops his offhand blade before dropping to the ground, putting his hand against a groove their motions have caused in the dirt. “Thought you were smart.” He says coldly before his enchanted tattoos and the magic ritual carving beneath sets aglow. Khazhek barely has time to respond before magic chains of binding jump from the ground, wrapping around his limbs and neck before tightening hard. He can barely breathe, his arms and legs are being squeezed so hard it hurts, and he’s being dragged to the ground as shocks of painful magic shoot through them, trying to get him to drop faster. He resists as best he can, swearing and thrashing as his eyes fill with fire. Until now, just his irises were fiery, but now it’s all of the eye.
Khazhek’s wings of fire burst forth, breaking the chains that bind him, shocking Khar. Khar feels the wind before he knows its Khazhek, he feels himself shoved to the ground with unearthly powerful hands wrapped around his throat, almost crushing it. Khazhek’s face is rage, and he can only barely use his last contingency, a final scroll that freezes Khazhek’s entire body as if a stun gun, just long enough to allow Khar to escape, hit him. No one can stop him, but the fight is over. The villagers (and Khazhek once he recovers) fight off the soldiers who didn’t already run, letting the rest surrender and offering them a chance at redemption. A lot of them joined out of fear of Khar.