A darker night

[Kalinda]

As Dimitri said that he knew she was not Diana, something happened. The creature before him, that beautiful goddess, transformed. Her body seemed to melt before his eyes. All color drained from her form until there was just a swirling mass of shadows there, weightless and nearly insubstantial.

“You a correct. I am not Diana”, it said. It still spoke with the godess’ melodious voice. “And yet, in some way I am. I am whatever people want me to be, whatever they fear the most. I am Diana, Haya and Jorel and all the gods and planetars combined. I am the murderer that is waiting for his next victim behind a corner, the orc that slaughters innocent humans, I am death, I am that disease that makes you suffer endlessly, the loss of love, of happiness, the death of your children, of your wife, your parents, everything you fear ...”

The shadow drifted away from him a little.

“An agreement? The only thing I crave souls. I crave memories, emotions for they are the only things that remain. I feast on your fear, on everybody’s fear. Can you give me fear? Can you give me nourishment? Do you dare to release me? They trapped me here to study me. They told me I was once like them, a necromancer, but I am so much more. Do you dare to help me?”

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

Dimitri nodded carefully, "I have seen horror and held my stomach together, I have danced with fear and held my feet." He spoke, "You frighten me but I will not let you control me whatever you are." He paused, "Yet I doubt many are as warped as I to deny fears."

He paused again and mulled for a moment, "Perhaps an agreement is in order, I will grant you lodgings here wherever you require, you will have enemies I wish to destroy, you can take their minds and feast on their fears." He paused, "You may take on a pleasing form and stand beside me, then if you are willing to do me some favours I would be pleased." He paused, "I see your value as an assasin of wondrous potency, to be able to move unseen and then attack in a form so horrific, such is a talent I do not wish to waste."

He paused, "Does such please you.....whatever you may be."

[Kalinda]

„The shadow does not do anybody favours“, the creature who had been Diana only a short while ago said. “All it wants is to feast on the emotions of others. As long as you bring me your enemies, as long as you bring me food, I shall be there. I do not want to stand besides anybody. Such things would have appealed to my mortal self, but I do not need the attention of humans or their company now. I do not need power or fame. I will kill, maybe for you, maybe for others, but only as long as I want to and only if I find something worthwhile inside their minds. As long as you accept that, we have an agreement. The moment you fail to deliver souls to me, I will leave this place.”

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

He looked at the shadow carefully and nodded, "Yes this suits me, I will bring you some who will sate you, stay here in the dark and live in my home. You are an honoured guest and a good resource to have I feel."

He paused carefully and turned to his initial guide and nodded, "There, business is concluded I think. Any more secrets to reveal?"

[Kalinda]

„That is acceptable to me“, the shadow decided – and disappeared. Everything that needed to be said had been said, and thus it saw no reason to linger. It preferred to stay in the dark, to wait for its victims. It had very few goals besides that. Things had been different once, when it had been human, but it rarely remembered those times now.

Dimitri’s initial guide smiled. “A most interesting creature, not unlike a Yid, I think. In time I hope to discover them all.” She gestured for him to come to her and follow her. “That was all there is. You should have seen the Collegium when there were still necromancers here, not those foolish vysstichi with their goddess Haya, but true necromancers that served no god, but only lived for their art.”

She sighed.

“Let us leave. For some reason I suddenly feel melancholic. Even my kind are not save from such emotions, it seems.”

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

Dimitri nodded as the vreature vanished. He turned back to his guide with a little look of dissapointment, "How sad, power has left this place and I feel like a shadow lingering in its wake." He shuddered as he recalled the invident that had just occured. In a strange show of affection he went over to his guide and wrapped the fingers of his right hand about hers.

"Let me hold your hand, so I might truely walk with the past and feel its touch, it is thrilling." He paused, "You are fortunate to be lost between worlds, away from the eyes of the gods, the greatest artwork man can acheive of his own free will, you are in my eyes a perfect being."

He squeezed her hand softly wondering why he did such exactly, he was a strange being, driven by carnal hunger and an appetite for affection.

"Where would you have us go?"