The Joining of Evil and An Unknowing Host…

In a shadowed canvas tent, a raised cot holds a sleeping Tamrissa. Naraka sits close by her side on a makeshift stool of stone. He watches her with deep dark eyes through raven eyelashes; his elbows on his knees as he leans forward with a finger perched on his flawlessly full lips. When she begins to stir, he takes an audible breath through his nose and brings his hand down to clasp the other.

“Awake, Empress,” his voice caresses, a smile forming on his face.

“Mmm,” she sighs and rolls her eyes restlessly beneath their lids. “Why do you call me that?”

“Because it is the truth, my lady. You are the rightful heir to the rule of the Upper.”

“Pah,” she says bitterly and opens her eyes, squinting against the sudden light of a lantern hanging from the ceiling of the tent. “Where am I? And how did I get here?”

“Abdel, some water,” he gestures to the manservant standing near the flaps of the tent before turning back to her. “You are in my tent where I might watch over you until you are renewed. You’ve been unconscious for days…most obviously the effect of both my spell and your ordeal before you arrived here in the Umbra.”

“Days??” she lifts her head off the pillow and lets out a groan, plopping back down on the pillow immediately. “Gods…I think my head will explode.”

“Rest easy now,” he reaches over and moves a pale gold lock from her forehead. “If what my scouts tell me is true about that ordeal, you have every right to be exhausted…though I am glad to see that your mind has returned to its rightful state.”

“News travels too quickly for my liking,” she mutters, gaze on the poles that hold the canvas up over their heads.

“Do not take offense, my lady. In our search for a new homeland, we overhear many tales and rumors. It is hard not to,” he watches her silently after that until Abdel returns with a canteen. “Here. You are thirsty?”

His hand goes behind her neck to help her get up just enough to drink. She pushes him away roughly.

“I can do it myself,” she slowly raises herself up with her elbows and then her hand, the other hand holding the blanket to her chest. “Ugh…”

Her head lolls forward, curls spilling forward to curtain the sides of her pale face. Naraka’s hand parts a section of that curtain and he smiles at her, handing over the canteen.

“Before I cast a sleeping spell over you, you said something about the ghouls that were inhabiting this plane,” he speaks as she tilts her head back and drinks. “They have been defeated.”

Tamrissa sputters and lowers the water container, widening her eyes at him. He chuckles slightly.

“It took twenty of the priests to have enough power to lock them away and even more to seal the tomb which was used to hold them.”

“Even we could not make them rest,” she lowers her eyes for a moment and then brings them back up to his. “Do you plan to stay here now?”

He stands with a sigh and walks over to peer out of the tent into the misty darkness outside where only the soft glow of lanterns inside of other tents can be seen.

“That, my lady, is up to you. We will not stay if it is not your wish. It is not our way to force ourselves upon people,” he crosses his arms and lets the tent flap fall back into place, his back to her as he awaits her reply.

“If you stay I would only ask one thing of you and your people,” she pulls the blanket closer to her, keeping herself covered.

He turns and watches her.

“I would ask that you help me build the Umbra back to its splendor,” she lifts her chin, the light of the lantern spreading over her face. “It was the wish of the true ruler.”

“I will speak for my people in saying this,” he strides to her bedside and kneels suddenly. “We would be honored, Empress.”

“Oh, get up,” she sneers at him and swings her legs over the other side of the cot, her bare back now facing him. “I have changed my mind. There is one other thing that I wish.”

Naraka bows his head and stays kneeling, a gleam in his eye suddenly appearing which is certainly not from the lantern light.

“I wish to have help in bringing the true Emperor of the Upper back into the world of the living….”