Posts: 1675
Sep 14 02 11:10 AM
The Immortal
Brigadier General
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Stavarus stands by grimly as the others hurl their abuse at him. He does not reply directly to them. Instead, he walks back to his spot near the shadows, and seats himself. He murmurs,
"What was said had to be said. I never asked to be found by you, and while you hold me here against my will, the sands of time are running out.
I need not apologise for the truth."
Meanwhile, Soul Reaver charges blindly through the forest, not caring about a destination or a purpose. A rage burns within him so fierce as he has rarely felt, for its fuel is a deep-seated sorrow. His pace eventually slows...
Asaki finds Soul Reaver sitting on a rock at the banks of a burbling stream. Water laps and bubbles against its sides playfully. Soul Reaver sits atop it, one arm resting on his knee, his head bowed. His hair is soaked wet, hanging down in dripping strands, covering his face. Scratches from thistles and thorns adorn his arms and legs. Snow starts to fall gently around him.
After speaking to him, Asaki is startled to realise that his shoulders are shaking. He is weeping.
Soul Reaver looks up, tears streaking down his face. Yet his expression is almost unmoved. It is as if he no longer knew how to cry properly.
Soul Reaver begins in a quiet voice.
"Asaki... I have told no-one this. I had hoped it would all be forgotten and disappear with time... that eventually old wounds would heal. But they do not. They still bleed after all these years. I merely hide them."
Soul Reaver continues.
"Shaana was... my wife, and Darius, my son.
It was millenia ago. In that life, I went by the name of Rhavin Ironheart... a mortal's name. I led a mortal's life... I was a mercenary, a sword for hire, though only to causes I felt were hounourable.
I met, fell in love with, and later married Shaana. She was... beautiful. In mind, body and soul. Long, jet-black hair, sparkling brown eyes, and a soul more kind and courageous than any other I knew.
Together, we had a son, and we named him Darius. As he grew up, when I would come home, I would play with him, then tutor him in swordplay. We would fight with wooden sticks at first... for his thirteenth birthday I gave him his first real blade. It was almost too heavy for him to lift then, of course, but he had his mother's courage and determination.
I began working for a man called Stavarus Revenard, a Daemon-Hunter that paid well for my being at his side. But it was on one excursion with him that everything changed...
We faced, and were defeated, by a Shadowlord. Stavarus had no idea what he was up against, and the Daemon crushed him utterly - that is where he lost his life and his soul. Perhaps I was meant to die there as well... but I did not. It was then that my powers awakened. In a blinking of an eye, I became as you see me now - an immortal, ageless and poweful. Though I did not have all the skills I possess now, I was still far more than ever I was.
I returned home to Shaana and Darius, confused at first. My home seemed to have grown so much smaller, so much plainer in my eyes. Shaana greeted me warmly, but my mind was far away. For a while I was unsure of what to do with my newfound 'gift'. I began to wander the lands near my homestead aimlessly.
I ran across a family, being waylaid and threatened by four bandits. The bandits were mere peasants, and I drove them off. I thought that perhaps this was my calling - to perform deeds brave and just, like the mighty Knights I had sometimes seen galloping down the roads near my home."
Soul Reaver paused, before he continued the story.
"I... I began to travel. I slowly began to travel further and further from my home. I made more than enough money to sustain my family - some from work I found, others from rewards people gave me for my deeds. I was pleased, I felt fulfilled. I travelled ever further afield to conquer greater and greater evils. I moved from bringing to justice petty criminals to defeating heartless, cruel kings. I always ensured my family was cared for... or at least, so I thought...
My absences from home grew ever longer. I had lost any sense of what time really was - I felt how my body was immune to the ravages of age and disease, and so time seemed less... present somehow. I saw Shaana grow somewhat older, though no less beautiful and graceful, and saw Darius mature into a young man.
Then, once, I stayed away for what must have been a few years. How long exactly, I do not know. But when I returned home, my home was empty and cold."
Soul Reaver closes his eyes and draws a shudderning breath.
"There was no Shaana there to greet me, no Darius to welcome me with open arms. I learned that Shaana had grown ill in my absence, and that she had died while I was in some far-off land. She died without anyone by her side... not even Darius.
He had gone off to pursue he thought was his own destiny. I found out what he had become... a tyrant, who had brutally seized power of the lands near where we lived, having murdered the former retainer. The people under his rule were oppressed, crushed by his callous rule. I went to him, to speak to him.
I accused him of being absent from his mother's death-bed, of abandoning all the morals and principles I thought he knew.
He laughed at me. He asked who I was to criticise him? I had abandoned him and his mother for years now - Shaana had thought I was dead. He said that I had not been there to guide him, to teach him, and so he had decided to make his own way, however he would could.
I told him his choice was folly - that I could not allow him to do this. He simply grinned and said I was a fool for presuming I could lecture him.
At this point, I drew my sword. Even if he was my own son, I could not let him harm others as he was doing. He drew his own sword, and he charged at me, still confident he could defeat me."
Soul Reaver looks down.
"I killed him. I ran him through with my blade. I felt his blood wash over my hands as I did so... saw him look at me with a mixture of hate, disbelief and sadness.
I know that the path he chose was my doing. I HAD abandoned everyone I cared for. If I had been there, I could have helped them. But I did not. As I succeeded as an immortal, I failed as a human."
Soul Reaver sobs. Almost imperceptibly, he says...
"I killed her son, and I was not even there to hold her hand..."
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