Fear Among The Shadows

Chapter II - An Oath in Blood

No word had ever resonated more powerfully in that small sitting room, my dear reader. It was a word infused with a power the like of which they'd never seen before. A word that penetrated deep into their hearts and they could finally understand why the holy men called magic The Corrupt Craft.

Adilah felt a chill set itself deep inside her and the sudden urge to curl into a ball and cry in a darkened corner. Her eyes flicked back and forth as if searching for something, but she did not know what. Everything inside her was screaming at her to run, hide, go back to the room and wrap herself around her little sister and rock them back and forth. Then, she realized she was feeling fear like she'd never felt before. Her father was clearly experiencing the same thing but multiplied tenfold as he began to cry uncontrollably. He fell to his knees, apologizing and begging the man to stop, to spare his life.

"Please, please, I beg of you, have mercy! I'm an old widower and a fool but I have two daughters that need me. I cannot abandon them! Please, forgive my mistakes, oh, merciful one!"

The man's fingers twitched and her father's whimpering increased and he curled into himself. Walking towards Rikkard, the man said in that strange tone of his that made the chill in her bones get heavier,

"Oh, do I look like I give two shits about your daughters? They could rot in a ditch for all I care. And if you had cared a bit about them you wouldn't have been going around making impossible promises and illegal deals in the first place. And the Lord of Fear doesn't exactly have a reputation of being merciful."

Our strange rider clenched his fist tight and Rikkard's face went slack and his eyes rolled into the back of his head so only the whites were showing. Adilah gasped. She had never seen magic before and for a second the sheer impossibility of the action almost made her forget her father's suffering. He convulsed and twitched, letting out a deep sobbing as though he was witnessing his demise, and there was nothing he could do about it. Adilah was jolted out of her fearful stupor and, like the good daughter she was, stormed out and yelled, "STOP!"

Well, the man didn't exactly stop, but he was distracted enough to loosen his strange magical hold on Rikkard, so the sobbing fell to a gentle whimper. The stranger looked at her from top to bottom and sighed, "I'm guessing you're one of the daughters. Come to make sure dear old daddy doesn't die?"

Adilah could tell he was mocking her which allowed rage to replace the fear inside. So, he was just like those other arrogant handsome asses that infested the earth. She crossed her arms and jutted her hip to the right.

"No, I'm the local milkmaid come to deliver at midnight."

The man looked at her with exasperation, but also a slight hint of amusement in his eyes. She was quite used to the exasperation, not much the amusement. I was baffled, personally, by this act you humans seem to call sarcasm. Such a strange folk.

Now it was her time to sigh, "Clearly, sarcasm isn't welcome in this situation. But yes, I'm his daughter and whatever my father couldn't pay you, I'm sure we can figure out an alternative."

"Oh, really?" he looked frustratingly condescending as he made his way towards her. Rikkard tried reaching out to his daughter and telling her something but it didn't make it past his whimpers. The man stood just in front of Adilah and she could feel an odd tingling sensation emanating from him. Was that what it felt like around magic?

Now that he was closer, she could see his face even more clearly; his scar was a garish red as though it was fresh, but it did not look so; despite his arrogant tone, his mouth was set in a tired, deep-set line; and his eyes, oh his eyes with the dark bags underneath, were burning with something clearly suppressed beneath the surface that for a second she was tempted to lean closer as though that would show her what it was.