Source: Page 144 of White Noise Keywords: "simple," "shroud," "venom," "blink"

From: foleye@xanth.CS.ORST.EDU (Stilt Man) Subject: Kryalla vs. Ah'khurah Date: 3 Oct 1993 Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn

(ADMIN: Those who were involved in the BBD thread are welcomed to the continuing storyline of the DS tales, as well as others who might want to join . . .) It seemed the sun never shown upon this island, the Shrouded One reflected. The sky, bereft of its light, was instead filled with black clouds broken in patches by an unnatural red glow. But then, Ah'khurah didn't typically pander to what was natural. Kryalla Simuel held her cloak close, for the winds of chill on this island could kill a human being in their harshness, a fact which kept most visitors away from the site of the eternal slumber of Arcania Dorval's mightiest servant. Ah'khurah didn't like to be disturbed often when not on the Dark One's errands, which did not come often. Arcania granted a lot of independence to Ah'khurah, for his fear of her was great enough that no supervision or mystical controls were needed. As such, he was not disturbed much. Visitors foolish enough to come here who were not killed by the evil taint of the weather, or by the poisons filling the air and soil, had to beware the dark creatures, the werebeasts Ah'khurah peopled his domain with. Ah'khurah the Undying One did not share Arcania's respect for natural beauty, and as such he cared less for whether his defenses were majestic or appealing to look upon. But Ah'khurah had been disturbed. Kryalla knew this much. The Dark One had stirred her greatest lieutenant to action, and part of it involved several sailors lost at sea, that had been carried here by flying creatures sent by the daemon lord. She didn't know what was to be done with them, nor did she expect to find them alive here, but the monsters that had brough them here had been more powerful than the warlock lord usually entrusted his tasks to. Ah'khurah usually acted directly, mistrusting any servants to carry out deeds beyond simple protection of his island. No, summoning creatures to do his bidding meant he had something special in mind. If he was active, it meant that Arcania Dorval was scheming something. The question was, what? She had doubts that it was anything good. "Greetingssssss, kind lassssssss . . ." The serpent-headed humanoid had not the time to finish his sarcastic greeting before the glowing katana blade nearly decapitated him. The wereserpent was fast enough to duck the Shrouded One's stroke before-hand, however, and at this sign of hostilities, its four brethren emerged from their hiding places to deal with this interloper. Her sable eyes looked over the five once-men that accosted her. One carried a dagger that he licked lovingly as he prepared to strike; to let the venom he thus covered it with strike her would no doubt be fatal. The others fought with nothing more than claws and fangs. They moved with a sinuous grace and speed that suggested that they were not crippled or hampered in their movements by their transformation to beast-form. Ah'khurah was not so careless or artless. The armed one made the first move, feinting towards her left while the others moved themselves to her right, attempting to encircle her. The katana blade gave him a healthier respect for her space, but the others were all around her by this time. Once made an attempt to grab her, to run his claws through her Shroud cloak and tear her vitals out. He found that the cloak was far more than it seemed, and that his claws could not pierce it. It was not that it was solid or strong; it simply did not yield to the force he applied to it. Kryalla spun with her blade in a swift backhand stroke, biting through his right arm and deep into his ribcage. A gurgling hiss erupted from his maw, and he fell to the ground twitching in his death throes. Once she had committed to this stroke, the one she had turned her back upon signaled to the others, and they moved to cover her entirely, trying to bear her over and pin her against the ground. They crashed into one another, for she was not where they had rushed her. Even as she had struck, she had made her evasive move, leaving the illusory double in her place. The scarlet blast of energy lashed out against the remaining four as they attempted to untangle themselves, eliciting reptilian cries of hate for the force that was destroying them even as they fell. =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Further inland on the island, another ebon-cloaked being watched the Shrouded One. This one was stooped in posture, decrepit in stature, and dessicated in form. Pale gray flesh kept whole long after it should have gone to dust by a combination of mummification and supernatural aid swept an unshaking hand, a gesture over the cauldron in the floor, through which he spied upon the battle. He had to focus his spell upon the area in which she stood, rather than upon the woman herself, for her Shroud made it impossible to bring such mystical eyes upon her directly. Even with this improvisation, she could still elude his detection by moving while he perhaps watched a false double still stand where she had left; her Shroud also made it impossible to detect whether he watched the true Kryalla Simuel or one of her many facsimiles, at least from this distance, with this scry. Were he there in person, however . . . "She has come, Master. Is it yet time?" the figure asked as if to the air. His crypt was a lonely place, lit only by the glow of the cauldron, by the glittering red of its eyes that were the only evidence of a face beneath the hood, by the faint light of the greenish mist that emanated from him like a miasma. No living thing existed in this place; he preferred it alone. ....If she has come, then the plan must go forward. Go and confront her, Ah'khurah, and do not fail me, as Parsephulas did.... "Parsephulas was never a match for me, as you well know, Master." ....Quite true, which is why he was sent before to Generica, for you I can less afford to spare.... "Grant me your strength, O Ancient Powers of Darkness . . . " =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Kryalla's eyes turned toward the black pyramid that stood in the center of the isle. She knew this for Ah'khurah's tomb. Four gigantic gargoyles, standing a head higher than the peak of the huge stone crypt, watched all with the unholy crimson glint in their lifeless eyes. They could not see her with their magical sight. However, she sensed that other unnatural eyes than theirs scrutinized her now. The wind picked up, lifting small stones from their resting places and casting them about her. She drew her cloak around her to shield herself, as a whirlwind formed before her. So. Ah'khurah chose to reveal himself. He had been waiting for her all along, drawing her here by leaving enough clues to his activity for her to follow. And she had fallen for it. Stupid, stupid stupidstupidstupid!!! There was no time to chastise herself, she knew. Within the whirlwind, the eyes began to glow the color of freshly-spilled human blood, and the huge shape of Ah'khurah's warrior form began to take substance. He stood three times the height of a stout man, with awesome musculature rippling beneath the gray skin. His cape fell from bracers on his wrists and from a ring about his neck, seeming in its appearance like wings draped from his arms. The eyes and maw glittered in his skull, the gray skin drawn tightly around it. Deep within the eyesockets of the daemon lord pulsed the unholy light like a heartbeat, glittering with mirth that he had brought her here, to her doom. In his hands was a huge blade twice the length of her body, two blades curving in opposite directions from either end of the handle the size of one of her thighs. Verdant flames licked along the cruel barbs of the giant adamant double-sword. And as he spoke, his voice echoed like thunder along the rocky plains of his isle. "INSIGNIFICANT SPECK, YOU TRESPASS UPON MY DOMAIN!! EVENTS HERE ARE NONE OF YOUR AFFAIR, LITTLE SHROUDED ONE, AND FOR DARING TO PRESUME A PLACE IN THEM, YOU MUST BE DESTROYED!!" The wind took hold of her cloak like a sail, and hurled her back against a gnarled tree standing tall from the scrub plain. Barely able to move against the force of the gale, she squinted her eyes open into it, seeing the huge blade coming to disembowel her where she lay pinned on the side of the tree. She moved sideways, going with the wind instead of against it, and hurtled past the tree just before the daemon lord's sword splintered the sequoia- sized growth. She summoned the magical energy to plant her feet upon the ground, needing the extra strength just to stand in the face of the wind. Drawing her cloak around her with her blade held low behind her, she peered out under the top of her hood at her awesome foe. The wind lessened, and the giant wraith-warrior set. With one motion, he hurled his blade in a lethal spin at her. She had no time to think. The raven form was taken, rising above the rotor-blades bearing down on her into the air. The duplicate was left, the true form cloaked in invisibility. The weapon passed through the shadow-form of her and curved in flight to return to its master's hand. Ah'khurah snarled in fury, the glow from deep within his maw adding to the red light from his eyes. He clasped the handle of the sword in his hand, and stabbed downward into the ground. Leaving the weapon there, he watched and waited. The blast of scarlet energy stung. Not enough to cause serious injury, but it stung nonetheless. The Shrouded One came into view, landing on her once- again-human feet. A jolt of lightning knocked her onto her back, pressing down on her hard against her magical defenses. She drew her cloak into the brunt of the blast, and quickly she was able to stand on her feet with it between her and him. She folded her cloak around her entire body, and the black shape being pounded by Ah'khurah's lightning spell shrank into nothing, the lightning passing through the place where she had stood. The daemon lord pulled his weapon up from the ground, his eyes looking for a sign of her. The wind rose up again, seeking to whip her off her feet and off her guard once more. The first indication he had of her whereabouts was the katana blade, using the force of the wind to aid its flight, sinking to its hilt in his left shoulder, Kryalla still holding onto it. The wind shook her free instantly, but the gaping wound was left, the katana blade flying loose to clatter on the ground. Ah'khurah screamed in pain and fury, but even as she regained her feet the wound began to close. Blobs of ichor spattered on the ground, and every place it touched, a foul growth began to swell up from the earth. After a few moments, dozens upon dozens of glossy black-colored creatures of all shapes and sizes, depending on the size of the pool from which they sprang, rose up to surround Kryalla Simuel. Instantly, she saw that to remain on the ground would be fatal. Kryalla herself shifted her shape to be identical to one of the creatures she saw, a winged daemon about half the size of Ah'khurah himself. The Undying One quickly lost track of her in the ensuing mess of monsters, and beckoned to them all, drawing their attention to himself. His clawed index finger slid sharply across his throat. Immediately, all the daemons began turning their claws upon themselves, and dozens of ebon twitching things littered the ground. Not one of them failed to kill itself. Ah'khurah cried out in fury, his rage setting Kryalla's hackles on end. "FOOLISH MAGE! YOU CANNOT HIDE FROM ME FOREVER, AND YOUR EFFORTS HERE AVAIL YOU NAUGHT!! THOSE YOU CAME FOR WILL NEVER BE FOUND IN THIS WORLD AS THEY WERE KNOWN BEFORE, FOR THEY HAVE BEEN SENT ELSEWHERE TO CARRY OUT THEIR DESTINY . . . THE DESTINY THE DARK ONE HAS SET FOR THEM!!" Kryalla's mind raced. Sent elsewhere? Perhaps the daemon lord sought to deceive her, distract her enough to not be concentrating on her magic as she should if she hoped to fight him. But somehow, that did not have the ring of truth to it. "COME NOW, SHROUDED ONE! YOU AND I HAVE FOUGHT FAR TOO MANY TIMES IN OUR PAST FOR YOUR GAMES OF HIDING YOUR TRUE STRENGTH TO FOOL ME! SHOW YOURSELF, AND LET THIS FRAY BE DONE!!" He ducked abruptly, to avoid the hurled shuriken that would have impacted on his shrivelled ear, hurled from nowhere. He turned toward where he thought it had come from, trying to get a glimpse of her. True sight spells were no match for her concealment magic, this much he knew. But perhaps he might get some sign of where she stood . . . There. A rock turned over with no visible cause. Lightning lashed out at the spot, and a grunt of agony marked the invisible foe's location, as her magic of concealment gave out under the attack. She was hurled backwards by the blow, but not off her feet. With the Shrouded One in evidence, Ah'khurah again unleashed his might. The winds rose to beat against her, and blasts of flame and lightning and frost assailed her, deflecting off her Shroud. "DO YOU SEE NOW? YOU CAN HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH NOTHING HERE, WHEN THE MASTER WEAVES HER WEBS IN GENERICA ONCE MORE, PITIFUL ANT! THE ONLY THING YOU MAY EARN HERE IS A MEANINGLESS DEATH AT MY HANDS!!" At the mention of Generica, Kryalla immediately ceased holding back. In an instant, the wind died town to a more tolerable level, the showy attacks were blocked by an invisible wall that held his strikes back from her cloak long enough for her to fight back. A ball of white flame flew from her palm, bathing him in the pure elemental fire that burned body and empty soul. The daemon lord stepped back from her, screaming from the agony it visited upon him. However, inwardly, he smiled. She was submitting, in effect; she fought his sort of battle now. With a backhand motion with his free hand, he shrugged off the flames. The pain subsided for a moment. It was all the daemon lord required. The double- sword was hurled through the air once more, and Kryalla was forced to leap from its path. Ah'khurah's grin widened. As he had intended, her reflexes worked faster than her brain. The sword could possibly damage her cloak; the magic upon its adamant metal was powerful enough that she risked not taking its fearsome strike even upon the Shroud's shielding magic. As such, she instead dodged the attack. Dodged in a manner that left most of her body exposed, uncovered by the cloak. Lightning erupted from both palms in twin cones that bathed her in its fury, knocking her ruthlessly to the ground and coursing its rage throughout her slender body. Kryalla drew her cloak into the brunt of the attack, but in this position she was quite stuck. She could not launch a counterattack, could not even move, for his strike completely covered her. Abruptly, she heard a tear in the cloth of her cloak, and felt a tremendous pain in her leg. The sword had returned, cutting her leg through a small cut it had made in the cloak! The cloak's magic reconstructed its own mass, but it knocked her out of her squat and to the ground, before the blade returned to its master's hand. She fought against the blackness that creeped against the edges of her vision, trying even as she clenched her teeth in pain to work the healing magicks that would close the wound, prevent the blade's magicks from working more harm upon her than they had already. It was a losing battle. More and more, she began to have tunnel vision, the pain reducing her view of even that tunnel to a reddish haze made redder by the glow of Ah'khurah's eyes, amused in his triumph. He had ceased his lightning attack when the true thrust of his flying blade had impacted. He stood over her, plucking her off the ground by her cloak and dangling her in front of his eyes. "AND SO IT ENDS, SHROUDED ONE. THE MASTER WILL REWARD ME WELL FOR DESTROYING YOUR OBSTACLE TO HER INFINITE POWER. GENERICA WILL FALL, AND SOON, SO SHALL YOUR UNUTTERABLY PITIFUL FELLOWSHIP OF WIZARDS!" Kryalla's katana flew from its resting place back to her hand. In blind desperation, she struck, lancing through his collarbone. He screamed anew, dropping her to the ground, sending new tendrils of pain lancing through her injured leg, but buying her added time, she hoped, to heal it and be ready for his next strike. The thought was deed, and the pain slowly eased, but to fully heal it would require more time and magic than she could spare if she wished to survive. In fury, Ah'khurah bathed her in the cones of lightning once more. She gave no sign of further pain. Snarling in anger, he looked about. In this weakened state, in his homeland, her illusions could not hope to hide her for long. Where? Out of the corner of his eye, he saw. Not illusion. The figure before him, merely intangible when his latest attack fell upon her. She lifted her katana to strike. He responded with a vicious downward slash that sent the blade to the ground, breaking one bone in her wrist with the sheer force of the blow. The follow-up slash with the other blade struck her with the flat, lifting her up from the ground and sending her hurtling onto her side. This did not help her arm or leg whatsoever. A scarlet lance of energy full in his chest drew a grunt, but did not stop him. Kryalla's eyes widened as the giant blade descended to claim her life . . . . . . and went ka-THUNK into empty ground. The short blink spell had placed her behind him, next to her weapon, but with little time to act and still with only one functional hand. A beam of energy formed into a shuriken that spun at his shoulder, perhaps hoping to aggravate the collarbone she had struck earlier. He moved almost lazily to avoid it. As it passed before his eyes, it exploded into a kaleidoscope of blinding colors, leaving him sightless. He spun the double-sword in his hand before him, seeking to avert the follow-up strike he knew would come soon. The ball of white flame struck, scorching his hand and sending excruciating pain throughout his huge form. The sword fell from his hand to the ground. His vision went from complete loss to multi-colored spots just in time to see the Shrouded One, with her cloak taking the form of wings, passing her katana blade under his chin on its way through his neck. As his head rolled free, his consciousness blurred and the journey back to his crypt began. The huge body fell, Kryalla landing atop it, unable to move. She hoped she had succeeded this time, for she had not the energy for a second strike. She never remembered the body beneath her collapsing in shape, decomposing into impotent dust that scattered about her in the breeze, covering her in a light coat where she lay. She was brought back by inhaling it, coughing instinc- tively, her head rising to see the pulsating green globe floating back toward the pyramid. She rose to one knee, pulling her hood over her head and returning to invisibility, such that his long-distance scrying spells could not find her. The healing magics slowly took effect, well enough to enable her to walk and use her right hand again. She had not killed him, she knew; his alias was not mere idle boasting. She had merely sent him back to his crypt for the time being, time that would be ill spent here. The sailors were nothing; even did she still wish to find them, they were no longer here. He had mentioned Generica, referring to it as the object of the Dark One's planning of late. The words held the ring of truth to them. If Arcania had found something worth seeking there, she had to do something. The portal yawned open, and the Shrouded One stepped through. The familiar interior of her small house in the city of Generica appeared to her, merely a temporary lodging for her affairs here. The pool of clear water parted and allowed her to rise from it, stepping from the invisible disk that was the portal onto the floor. How many had gone through this portal before? Emrikol, the man with the bandaged hands, had been through. What was the lost barbar's name? Tylos, too had been through many times. She did not know where he was now; perhaps out on errands. She saw the black adamant armor he sported in battle standing in the corner of the square house, his bedding on the floor also present. And on the table . . . The healing draught was applied, and full walking returned, though the leg would be stiff for a day or two. She pulled her cloak about her and stepped from the house into the streets. A few minutes, and she was in the friendly Dragon's Inn once more, taking her hallmark place in one of the inn's 19 corners. Funny, when she had first taken this place, no one else had really cared about corners . . . then all kinds of people suddenly started making a cult thing of the idea of acting all dark and mysterious in the corner . . . but let *them* try to claim that when they first sat there, the inn was but an empty wooden shack with no staff or owner as of yet, and people did nothing more here than share french fries they had cooked themselves. Ah, the memories . . . Drax, Emrikol, Thondor (that was the barbarian's name), Zebron Twilight when he first sword-danced here, the minstrel Rowan . . . how things had changed with time. A glass of Mistwine floated from Serene's tray to the wooden surface of her table, and the brooding began . . . =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= In the crypt, a ghostly image of the stunningly beautiful arch-magess Arcania Dorval floated in the wisps of mist above the cauldron. Ah'khurah stood, again in his misshapen true form, before the likeness. "She has escaped my trap. Even now, she has gone to Generica, to gather allies against your cause there anew." Ah'khurah bowed his head low, awaiting her response. "Excellent. Everything proceeds according to plan." +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+ + Kryalla Simuel the Shrouded One +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+ + fol...@xanth.cs.orst.edu + +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+

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