#—desolation

[twicetainted]

THE  EMPRESS:  A  sprawling  garden  in  full  bloom. - Durafein

The Urge within her twisted—it saw it too. She had hoped it wouldn’t notice, but that wasn’t how this worked. Silver came to rest against a stone half-wall, her gaze narrowing at the sprawling garden before her.

Specifically, at a patch of flowers nestled among the orchids and lilies was an interesting collection of very dangerous plants—plants she was sure would kill anyone on contact. The thought made the void within her smile.

There wasn’t even a gate to keep people away. This wasn’t a private garden. As far as she could tell, it was a public space. A park. Did no one see them?

Whoever had done this had chosen plants with beautiful flowers. It looked almost welcoming. But she knew them—and what they could do to a living person.

Why? Silver didn’t know. It was just one of those things she had an extensive knowledge of. Whoever she was before this was well versed in poisonous foliage for reasons she could not begin to fathom.

Someone had to have known this would kill people. There were too many in one spot. It felt deliberate. It was so horrifyingly efficient, so unassuming, so simple—it impressed both her and the Urge that scratched at her skeleton.

Leave it there, it whispered.

No. Something had to be done. Touching those flowers was not safe—fire was the only way she could think of.

Without a second thought that might make her hesitate, she summoned a flame into her hand. If she aimed right, she figured, she should be able to hit the deadly patch of flowers and miss all the people who were just trying to enjoy their afternoon.

[twicetainted]

𝕮𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖚𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 @darlingbardling

Silver was the last to join the party. She wasn’t the most approachable person, so any communication was kept brief and to the point. Normally, that was enough to keep people at arm’s length—stopped them from getting too chatty. Apparently, Bree was immune to that.

Silver didn’t like getting close to adventuring parties. She never knew how it was going to end for them, knowing The Urge. Why bother getting to know them?

The others seemed so familiar with each other; she just assumed Bree was part of that in her own way, or at least in the know.

“They didn’t tell you?” She scraped her plate clean, gathering a final bite. “Purification. Some Lathander artifact got corrupted by Sharran magic. They’re trying to restore it.”

With the plate empty, she tossed her fork onto it, a deep sigh escaping her—almost content, even though she had room for more. She always had room for more.

“How much do you know about the ritual?" She pushed her plate away, done with it. A book caught her eye: Cobblers and Pies: Baked Beans Can Be Fun by Friar Cookpot. She'd reached for it.

[twicetainted]

THE  MOON:  A  foggy  forest  path

𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐓  𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐃  𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐄  𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒

A thick fog rolled in with the early morning sun, covering the forest path in a warm white mist that rose too quickly and spread too fast. Silver watched the sunlight melt between the trees as she stabbed a steam Mephit in the mouth, quickly turning away to shield her face from the steam that burst out of its corpse. The sunrise was breathtaking.

This was one of those rare times when she and The Urge were in sync. This was pure bliss. Here, she could just let go—kill everything in sight—and there were plenty of Mephits to cleave through.

The job was easy enough on paper: find and kill the creatures hiding in the fog, locate the source, and collect its head. Easy. Should be done in time to still catch breakfast at the tavern.

…But then she saw how wide the fog spread, how many Mephitis were hunting between the trees. This was way more than she’d expected. What gave her pause made The Urge cackle with delight. In these moments, she knew to trust her Twitching Knife Hand. Sword and dagger in hand, she cleaved and stabbed her way into the steaming fog. There was a source—a wizard, a sorcerer, or maybe even hag,—she just had to cut her way to it, then drive her dagger into its heart.

The Urge purred at the thought of killing something that could bleed.