Vox Machina Book One: Nobodies to Heroes

Chapter 23: Whatever the Price

~Years ago...~

A castle sat on a cliff with a lake and a perfect view of the sunset. But lying in the castle was a dying Slyas as his wife, Delilah sat next to him, laying her head on his chest as his heartbeat slowed with each beat.

A Priest stood at the other end, looking at the weeping lady. "There's nothing more to be done. His fate lies with the gods," he tells her, Delilah just sat up, anger overtook her as she reaches for the cup on the stand.

"Liar!!" she shouts, throwing it at him, she misses as it hits the mirror above the fireplace, chasing the priest out. She looks back at her husband.

"Sylas, please, hold on," she begs, his eyes fluttered open, eyes were slowly drained of life as his ragged breathing slowed.

Tears formed in her eyes as she looks back at her husband. "This is not the end." she declares, refusing to let some disease take what she loves.

Then a fate whisper echo in her ear, she looks over towards the window, standing to her feet as she tries to find where the whispers were coming from.

She strides towards the window and looks out at the horizon as the whispers were beckoning her.

~8~8~8~

No hesitation. No need to think Delilah ran into the woods, fast as her legs could carry her, heading into the dark forest.

She trips and stumbles, falling into a pond, but the whispers did not relent as they call to her, begging her to follow.

No matter how bruised, dirtied, or cold she was, Delilah was never going to stop until she had the solution to save her husband.

She strides forward as she found an old ruin that looked to be hundreds of years old.

She tugs at the doors as they were bolted shut, but pushes the door in, gaining access to the inside, the whispers were louder now, and she covers her mouth, coughing as the old library chamber.

Scaling through one book after another, she searches for where or what the whispers wanted from her.

But she found nothing, just old, dusty, and forgotten books. She falls to her knees, weeping as if it was all for nothing. She was going to lose her Sylas and be all ad utterly alone.

But the whispers called to her once more, she pulls from her hand, looked over, and saw a death-like purple glow, the whispers calling to her once more.

She quickly crawls towards the glow and picks up the book, the glow imminates from the skull on the book as she was in awe. It was her answer. Her solution.

~8~8~8~

Standing next to her dying husband, she places the book down and quickly searches through the book. "Kuthos Lavi Kushak Vetom Grash Thidrondas." she reads aloud as she picks up a shard of glass.

She raises her arm, carving the symbols into her arm "Oo Dovidi... Rudas Kirum Thranokas!" she spoke as her blood trickles into the pot filled with her husband's blood.

The whispers spoke once more as the magic shot out, spiraling into a pillar before her. It sinks into the ceiling above them as Delilah just watches as the dark magic vanishes for a moment.

The skull face seeps from the ceiling, eyes glowing purple as he stares intently at Sylas, charging him, forever.

The sweaty brow, sunken chest, and peach skin all vanished. His eyes shot open, glowing that death glows for just a moment as they fade to glowing amber.