The Man in the Orrian Mask
Atace had left the wine festival on a high like he had never felt before. Such emotion coursed through his veins, lifting him to highs never expected or through possible to a man that had known only deep pits of despair. "Fei Yen! My betrothed." The words were spoken over and over again as he nearly waltzed through the streets of Divinity's Reach, much to the entertainment of light hearted folks that looked on. Some knew that to be a man in bliss, others would simply think he insane. Maybe he was a bit of both, but for a single point in his life, he thought his life to be on a path that he wanted. Some where in the cosmos, this span of perpetual ill fate was coming to an end.
Those light steps carried him into the Salma District. After his brother had went through the troubles of freeing his betrothed from Seraph custody, he half figured the pair of them would of retreated to Beetletun to hide away until the dust had settled. That would of been the punctuation point on a perfect evening. To be able to sit in his own presence and replay the evening in his mind. To let vivid imagination recall her scent and the feel of holding her smaller frame against his own. When a swooning Atace entered the dark mansion, he tossed his coat to the far side of the room. He had just been about to head up the stairs when every torch in the room suddenly burst to light at once, revealing the frame of his brother sitting in a far chair.
"Drahmin, what are you doing here? Where is Lady Rochan, were there problems..?" True concern in the sweet lads voice caught his brothers ears, but nothing seemed to shift the older brother icy stare. "All is well, for her. Not for their family though." That did make him smile. It was one that Atace knew all to well. It was the sort of smile that made his flesh crawl and started him taking a step back towards a wall that offered no escape. "Wh-what do you mean?" Atace some times stammered when he was nervous, and he was nervous because he had a feeling he knew what that meant. "You are going to hide in the hold of their ship. Tomorrow evening, when the ship is well away from port, you are going to kill everyone on that ship. Men, women, children..everything that could live to tell the tale. You will be their escort to death, Atace. For dishonoring not only my name, but your own..and that of the future lady of our house."
Something about Fei Yen's words earlier in the evening had emboldened him. His foot planted firmly into the ground, his back went straight and for a moment, the man didn't look as if he was going to shrivel. "No.." Drahmin's eyes went wide at that. It would appear that he was not used to such a strong posturing from his younger brother. "No? Did you just tell me no?" Drahmin pushed to his feet. Atace didn't back down, instead he seemed as if he was even more emboldened by it. More than once the two brothers had almost came to blows only for Atace to back down. Not this time, he had purpose. He had a betrothed he wanted to be better for, murdering innocent women and children was in no way part of that plan. "No!"
Drahmin's lips curled into a sneer. "That little Canthan who..." Before he could even finish, Atace was reaching for his sword belt and closing the short distance towards him with murderous intent in his eyes. For all his cunning, a straight out fight with Atace was a poor choice for even the stoutest of warriors. That was why there was an ace in the hole. One thing that Atace feared above everything else on this earth. Drahmin stepped back and wrenched a blanket Atace had not noticed before away from the couch. The sight of that ancient, ornate box not only stopped Atace in his steps, but started him reeling in reverse. Despite his superior balance, panic caused him to stumble a single step, and that was when Drahmin struck. Green lightning raced up both arms and arced from his finger tips in a brilliant display. Tendrils leapt into all different directions, yet all converged on Atace's form, snaking through the metals of his vest. For a brief second, a bolt so strong shot through the younger brothers flesh and illuminated the room as if it were day light. A loud "pop" echoed before the lightning died and the smoldering form of Atace dropped to the ground with a thud.
He was still conscious enough to hold his head up. He could see his brother stepping over to the couch to grab the box that had been sitting on the couch. Every muscle in his body tensed as if he was going to run away, yet nothing would respond. All he could do was lie there and twitch. "You insolent little fool..I gave you every chance to sway those xenophobic fools. I gave them every chance..pointed every finger to show them the snake in their midst slowly pulling them apart and making them dance to their tune, but those slanted eyes can't open wide enough to see the forest through the trees." He knelt by his brother, placing the box directly in front of his field of vision. Atace face arose from the floor to protest, to defend the honor of House Lu, but Drahmin's closed fist met him in a fierce blow that smashed the other side of his face into the floor. "She is his. She belongs to him..as he he belongs to her. They will be together if he chooses to be with her. That fool of a Chang will see to it. You are worthless..no one will love this..broken husk you call yourself..so stop.." A second closed fist reigned down in the same spot, causing Atace's eyes to lid, darkening the world around him "lying to yourself. This was a farce..you were their play thing. The only bed you belong in is the one I tell you is yours..and that bed..with that deceiver is not where you will be.
The latches on the box were popped with one deft motion. "I will find you a bride. Someone pretty that will pretend to love you as long as I pay her to. That way you can live the lie you so desperately long for. Who knows, maybe she will wish to control you like I do..you were meant to be controlled. You are nothing more than an animal anyhow.." When the lid of the box was opened, he could see into the dark eyes of what he feared most. That ornate mask with it's green and black sunburst pattern and the ancient glyphs still as visible as they day they were carved. Daze feared filled his eyes long enough to watch one hand lift the mask just before the other fell upon his cheek again and sent him into a world of darkness
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Eyes fluttered open into darkness. "I..what? Where is thi.." His voice stopped short noticing the muffled trait it held. Both hands raced upwards to feel for his face. To his horror, he felt that all to familiar piece on his face, hiding his handsome features from the world. "No..please Dwayna. No not this.." Words of his brother flooded back to him about what he was to do. It was about that time that the subtle rocking of a ship at sea caught his attention. Darkness was all that he knew down here. Looking above between the planks was enough to tell him that the moon was out, not the sun. That made sense, as this mask did not see the light of day lightly. He had been leaned against the wall, so as he leaned forward to push himself up to his feet, his hands brushed over an object that shifted, then clanked with the sound of steel on steel. Just the weight of it in that brush was enough to let him know that it was one or both of his blades. As he found footing, he carefully felt for their hilts and lifted them.
Weekly, he trudged through the dark towards a hatch that was left open to the upper deck. "Where is everyone..why is there no sounds?" All he could hear was creaking wood and the rolls of waves against the ships hull. Upon reaching the hatch, he took not that it was just not open but broken from the inside. Both doors that closed shutter style were not on their hinges. If that omen was not ill enough, perhaps the moonlight directly above shining down on a thick, almost black liquid trailing down the steps would do the trick. "No. No. No no no no!" Atace vaulted up the steps, taking them three at a time, once nearly slipping on a pool of blood to send him back down to where he started.
When he hit the top step, his foot caught on something that this time did cause him to stumble. Both blades went sprawling out across the deck as the rest rushed up to meet him. Now free hands worked in tandem to catch himself from falling crashing too her, stopping him instead with only a minor bump that took a bit of the wind from his sails. The pain of that seemed minor to the sting his heart felt when his eyes arose from the wood. A woman's dead, wide eyes stared into the eyes sockets of the mask, her jaw slightly parted as if to accuse him with a word that would never come from her again. Atace's feet scrambled over what he had tripped on. As he looked back to see, it was a far younger body that his feet had caught. It's light weight vanishing over the edge into the hull to go sliding down the few slow steps with a dull thud..thud..thud. "Please..please no.."
His head whirled about. Every where he looked there were bodies, gore, blood and items strewn about the deck. Musical instruments and banquet foods. Cups, forks, knives, weapons from the armored guards that had came to protect this family and failed. "Lord Rochan..oh gods no.." Tears welled in his eyes as he finally pushed himself to his knees. He felt as if he was going to be sick. Did he do this? Could he of done this? He dare not let his stomach expel for fear of vomiting into the mask he could not remove as he had done in situations like this before. The wind picked up just slightly to catch the loose sails of the drifting vessel. No sea birds feasted on the corpses, no land in sight, just Atace on a ship a drift to no where that was now full of bodies.
In the moon light, he got the answers he looked for. His battle attire was caked in blood. Some of it from an open wound at his left arm, yet most of it came from the obvious sources laying about the deck. "Why do you do this to me..why?" His backside stayed in the air as his masked forehead pressed into the deck, tears that had welled starting to fall free from their hold. "Monster.." A single, familiar voice began in the wind. "Monster, monster, monster, monster." The number of voices grew, causing the volume to raise above whispers and swirl into a crescendo that echoed loudly through the mans ears. No one else could hear it, even if their was another living soul aboard the ship. That was the nature of this mask that spoke in his nightmares. Like he had just been cut himself, Atace fell onto his side to listen to the voices repeat their horrid chant over and over as heavy sobs racked his body. Knees curled towards his chest with fingers curling through his shortened strands to try and press over his ear to attempt in vain to block out the accusations felt as if they came from within his own mind.