Vallerian was frozen where he stood. He could feel it suffocating the air. Could see the Chaos leeching away the light around them. Chaos, the antithesis of the gods themselves. Ferren, please protect me. He prayed internally. But when had the gods done anything for him? When had he ever done anything to deserve the gods’ protection?

The Chaos flowed into him, the pulsing darkness clawing its way into him like shadowy spiders skittering down his throat. All at once images suffused his mind. He was in a warehouse, or a broken-down shanty, or just a repurposed pub. They all melded together as he walked into them, his blades held at his side. They were street gangs he told himself, criminals deserving justice. That’s what he told himself as he slit their throats. Children, barely older than Celeste, dead at the end of his knife. Dead because they were in his way, because he wanted to win a slumlord’s trust. He had killed them, and it had been necessary. Among all that carnage, all that blood, he saw a little blonde girl looking up at him.

“Some more coins m’lord?” She asked, proffering him a hand, a Khazimi mushroom wrap in her other hand. Vallerian felt his stomach churn as blood gurgled from her throat, dripping down her dress and staining it a deep crimson. That little girl, just an orphan with no one to care for her. He had used her, and she had died. Had he even spared her a second thought since that day in the sewers?

“Of course you didn’t.” His father’s voice spoke from behind. “You’re better than that Vallerian.” Vallerian turned and came face to face with his father. The man’s cold, disapproving stare making him feel like a child once more. “Always so emotional, are you trying to make me angry again?” No, he didn’t feel like a child. He was a child, standing in his father’s study as the man loomed over him. “Why must you always provoke me Vallerian? Why can’t you be more like your brother?” He growled.

Valleresa’s scream shook Vallerian. His father’s study melted away as Vallerian spun to search for his twin. Then he felt his throat tighten as he watched Valleresa collapse to the ground beside X, her face crushed. His twin sister, whom he had shared a womb with, lay dead at the man’s feet.

An anguished scream filled the courtyard after that. Arabella, the little Jöln peasant girl that his sister was so fond of, leapt at the Korek man with dagger in hand. She didn’t stand a chance as her neck snapped, and she too fell. Her arm splayed out beside her, pinky finger just barely touching Valleresa’s cheek.

Vallerian’s chest tightened as his hand shook, white knuckled around his bow. He should raise it, should shoot a volley of arrows at the man. But he was terrified. This man could kill him without even blinking. There was nothing Vallerian could do to stop him. What good had his arrows done? Coward. His father’s voice echoed in his mind. It was right too. Slowly the oak-paneled study began to form around him again.

A roar shook Vallerian from his daze, shattering the still forming image of his father. His eyes darted, searching for the source of the sound. He found Gardinal, rushing at X with a ferocity in his eyes. Do it man. Vallerian urged. Stop him…

Gardinal came to a sudden stop as X grasped the priest by the throat, lifting him flailing into the air. How can this monster possibly be stopped? Perhaps with an army, with a thousand men and mages beside them. Southshore would burn tonight, perhaps even Silvermarket before this man was stopped. And there’s nothing you can do coward.

A crack echoed across the courtyard as X crushed Gardinal’s throat with one hand. The Ethinian priest fell to the marble slabs, his body limp. Vallerian stumbled back into a pillar with a thud.

The sound of shuffling feet echoed behind him, but Vallerian paid it little heed. His eyes were locked on X, so near Celeste now. The girl is going to die, and all you are going to do is stand there? That was Valleresa’s voice. Vallerian cursed himself out, railed at himself for the coward he was. Fights were easy when you knew you were going to win. When it’s just slaughtering children it’s easy isn’t it? His own voice that time. Breathing short, shallow breaths, Vallerian’s whole body shook as he looked at X.

Charlottes screech echoed through the courtyard. Shooting his gaze up, Vallerian watched as she careened down into X, her claws out like daggers aimed for the man’s skull.

“Charlotte no!” He screamed, the words leaving him instinctively.

X grabbed the bird out of the air without even looking. Vallerian’s best and oldest friend, desperately flapping, trying to claw at the man who held her by the wing. Absentmindedly reaching out, X grasped Charlottes torso with his other hand, and tore the wing clean off.

Charlotte screeched a heartbreaking sound as she fell to the ground, desperately flapping her single wing, trying to move. X didn’t even stop, continuing his slow, methodical march to Celeste.

“No.” Vallerian growled, staring at the trail of corpses that followed the man. “NO!” He screamed, a single tear falling from his eyes. Notching an arrow, he loosed it at the Korek’s skull. Then another, and another again after that. The arrows struck the man’s head, one hitting X’s temple cleanly. They all bounced off as though striking stone. The bastard didn’t even look at him.

Vallerian dropped his bow and unsheathed the two Theremya curved swords that lay at his hip. This man had killed his sister. Vallerian began to run. This man had killed Charlotte, his best friend. He screamed as he ran at X. Gardinal, that perpetually scowling priest, someone he had grown to care for, and now he lay dead next to his sister and her lover. Vallerian roared as he rushed at X, blades held out at his side. They had all died protecting that girl.

He would not let them die in vain.

X swung as Vallerian approached. Vallerian ducked low, dodging the expected strike. Bent low, Vallerian slashed out at the back of X’s legs. At the parts not yet chitinous. Flesh parted, and X fell to his knee. The Korek looked at him now, rage in the man’s mismatched gaze. Vallerian leaped back as another clawed strike aimed for his throat. This man had killed his family, and he would die for it.

Landing on light feet, Vallerian leapt back forward, blades held in a cross and aimed for X’s throat.

“DIE!” He screamed, blades striking flesh.

The blades shattered on the X’s neck. Thin red chitin just beneath the skin, lay barely even nicked. Vallerian fell to the ground, wide eyed in shock as a shard of his blade sliced him across the cheek.

“I told you.” X growled from above, leaning down and thrusting his clawed hand straight through Vallerian’s stomach. “That you would watch your sister die.” The monster lifted Vallerian up to eye height, raising him to meet his mismatched eyes. “But now, I am done with you.”

Vallerian was tossed aside like a rag, crumpling to the ground. Pain surged through him, more pain than he had ever felt before. Like a fire his stomach raged. Looking down at his gut, he saw his intestines slipping out. Like a cook’s pot full of sausages. Vallerian thought with a distant chuckle. His mind spun as he stared at it and tried to put them back in, blood soaking his hands. I’m… I’m dying. He thought faintly. Where was Charlotte? His eyes darted around franticly, desperately trying to his friend.

She lay not far away, barely moving now, but not yet dead. With one hand holding his organs in, he pulled himself towards his friend with the other. He pushed himself hard to get near her, to pet under her beak one last time. His body stopped responding well before he reached her.

I’m sorry Charlotte. He thought, the words not making it to his lips. The world began to spin around him, his vision growing blurry. As everything began to fade away, a strange thought floated into his mind. The image of a woman he had known long ago when he was a foolish youth. I… I never. He thought in a haze, the memory of that long ago mistake. I never did meet our child, did I?