An elf caught by shadow

The man smiled and nodded slightly as he reached down and lifted the motionless elf up over his shoudlers. As they made their way through the narrow streets and pathways Nalokha could not help but to think of the deal she was promised the night before.

A young girl sought her out, she had heard of the Dark Maiden that threaded the paths of shadow around the land. Nalokha hadn’t thought much of her until she called her by her true name, it soon turned out that the girl had been aproached by two elves. They wanted her to steal something from the black witch and in return they would hand over the person that the girl wanted dead. But insted of trying to steal from her the girl asked for her help to fnd and kill the person the elves were guarding. In return she offered her services to the Queen of Shadows, what ever she asked of her would be done. Nalokha had thought it to be a fair deal, claiming one life and tainting another with darkness. But when the girls head had rolled from the box that night, all had changed. The deal could not be fulfilled and thus, with a greatly wounded elf at her feet and the one that the deal had promised her unconscious by the flaming house, she was forced to see the deal undone. But she wasn’t to leave empty handed, the girl she had come for had woken quicker then anticipated and as she fled, Nalokha claimed the elf instead.

“What is to become of her, do we end her life here?”

Nalokha stirrs from her thoughts and looks at the man, as they move further away from the burning house the sun slowly rises over the homestead. As the last supporting pillar of the house tumbles down behind them she looks at the elf as she replies.

”She is of far better use to me alive, at least for now. We take her with us, there is some things she needs to tell me before her life is silenced and her last breath begs for mercy.”

Nalokha looked at the elf once more with darkend eyes, the smile on her lips showed that the night had not been wasted after all. The elf groaned in pain, blood ran from the bolts that had struck her body earlier that night. As the elf looked at her, eyes wide with fear Nalokha grabbed the elf by he hair and raised her head with force.

”I was promised a life” she said with a soft voice.

Nalokha looked over her shoulder as the remains of the burning house behind her collapsed fully. There was no sign of the one she had come for that night but it mattred not. For in her hands now layed a prize far better then that of a silly young girl.

”And if she didn’t fear death before she will come to now”

Nalokha released her grip of the elfs hair and looked back at the small village. The black smoke from the house rose to the sky like a huge beacon. Soon her presence there would be known, but she’d be long gone before anyone was to arrive and investigate. Her smile faded as she looked at the hodded man that carried the elf, a strange encounter that lead to an unlikely ally. She shook her head and made a mental note not to trust this man, even if he was to thread the same path.

She knew this elf from an earlier encounter and she will have her know such pain that in the end, even such a formidable and noble being would fall to the sweet seduction of darkness...