"What shall become of me now?" - Kyoko Matsukata
-
She had taken him. She never originally meant to do what she had done, but… the opportunity and the idea appeared together at the right time. She grinned to herself as she had carried him off the road south, instead of seeking help for the young Paladin as she had originally intended.
Yes, it was a bad way to take him for help to begin with, but Calen wasn't right at the time, and she doubted Calen would have cooperated otherwise. After she knocked him out and carried him off, she made her way to Norwick. As she carried him down the long road, half way to the crossroads, she suddenly stopped, and carried him back, taking that detour south.
She was glad the roads had been so empty that day, and took him down to the underground tunnels, under that old ruined tower. Making her way to the bridge, she placed her hand upon the rightmost post, and muttered a dark prayer in her native tongue, Shou. Energy crackled and soon formed the bridge of energy across the gap, and faded as soon as she reached the other side. Soon after, 'Kyoko' as they call her, had reached her destination, the solid stone alter in the heart of the caverns.
She groaned as she laid Calen down on the carved rock, and locked the shackles around his wrists and feet, then another around his neck. Calen soon awoke to being slapped a few times on his cheek, and found her looking down over him. Soon after, she began to abuse him for speaking in the Elven tongue, because she couldn't understand it, slapping his face over and over again with her lead-weighted gloved hand. She toyed with his head, switching between the kindness that everyone else knew her for, and her true sadistic nature. After further torment, threatening to break his knees with a hammer, she carved the words 'GIFT FOR ALICE' in large letters on his neck, right above the collar she secured him in place with.
The beatings and mental torment of kindness and betrayal took place for the next week. Waking him, abusing him, then beating him back into unconsciousness. She often dumped just enough water in his face for him to get enough to live, and gave him nothing to eat, then came a day of change.
She tapped his cheek gently, then smiled down at him warmly as he came to. To his usual reactions, she this time told him she would not be beating or harming him, instead taking a damp rag and began to tend to his wounds. He still flinched as her now ungloved hands gently took care of him, and she spoke kindly to him, unlocking the collar that had dug into his skin, making a nice underline for the words above. Then she caught it, out of the corner of her eye... That Hin. She shook her head, still tending to the Paladin she had abused so much, then Benji approached them up the ramp.
After some discussion by Benji of taking Calen, and of her telling Calen if he wanted to see 'Alice' to return, she unlocked Calen, lifting his weak body and walked over to Benji. She jerked away in pain as the first crossbow bolt hit her in the shoulder. 'Damn, he's quick!' she thought to herself, struggling to keep Calen in her arms as she stepped back, the second bolt hitting near where the first one did. Dropping to her knees, it took everything she had to hold Calen to her body. When Benji finally lowered his weapon, then she set him down, and sought shelter from any further attacks on the other side of the stone alter.
As they left, she heard the Hin setting a trap to keep her up there. She grinned to herself at his stupidity, and went to drop down off the side of the twelve foot platform to avoid it. Luck however, wasn't on her side, and she edge of the stone platform crumbled under her ankle, and she fell, hitting her head on the way down and landed hard. 'Just not my day, is it?' she thought, as she rubbed her head and stood, making her way out of the cave, hidden in the shadows, and headed to Norwick.
Upon her arrival, she immediately sought out Aelthas, to turn herself in. 'Guilt' and 'Not knowing what she was doing' were her reasonings. She told them that she didn't want to be overcome again and hurt anyone else, that she should be locked away. Reluctantly the guardsman did so.
"…He said I'd just be in here for a day... He said he was going to transfer me to the care of a priest, for my 'evil controlled actions' that 'I would never do under my own will'..."
She chuckles to herself.
"They're so easy to lead around by the nose, but they take forever to get anything done… Well, here's one way out."
She takes the small rusted knife blade, that she had used to cut Calen, from it's hiding place behind a leather flap in her boot, then brings the point of the blade to her neck. Muttering to herself in Shou, she drove the blade into her throat.
Her final message, 'Sorry, Calen', had been scratched into the wall behind her, with the rusted metal blade.
-
She Sat on the of the many sandy cliff edges, overlooking the red mist below. As she let her feet hang, swaying idly, as a soft smile graced her lips. 'Am I done?' she wondered, with a sigh. It had been such a long time since she had poisoned her own clan, thanks to a little influence from Cyric, and a lot of her desire for pure chaos. So many things she's done since, so many lies told. She stared into the void of crimson below, thinking of everything since.
She figured she'd want to return to the land of the living, after plunging that dagger into her neck, but… Now, a feeling of completeness washed over her. 'I am done', she replied in her head to her own previous question, and laid back in the sand.
"Alice, he will return to you on his own now."
She shut her eyes, waiting to be taken over to the next plane.
