plots

Message 402:

Date:     Thu Oct 14 03:13:37 2004 CDT
From:     Rayne (#3105)
To:       *plots (#1506)
Subject:  say Honor the Fallen

Rayne sat quietly before the small fire that flickered before him.  The gentle rise and fall of his
 chest mirrored that of one in a deep and peaceful sleep.  But beneath the calm exterior, a storm
 was roiling in his heart.  He was appalled when he had encountered the one who referred to himself
 as "Master" and the perversions of life he controlled like marionettes on wires of evil.  The man
 himself seemed to defy death, for no human body could still live under such conditions as this man
 portrayed.  But all this was merely an undertone to the dissonance screaming in his soul.
He was trying to track down the stranger who was more corpse than man and had once again found
 himself among the walking dead.  There was something different, however.  A faint glimmer of
 familiarity at first, and then full recognition.  His heart sank as realized the dead before him
 were Corinthian soldiers, and then he heard a laughter from the shadows.  Zalbag Kain stepped into
 the light.  Words were spoken, but he couldn't remember.  They didn't matter.  Zalbag had
 desecrated the sacrifice that these men had made in the name of duty and honor, and he was
 smiling.  And with a simple gesture the undead soldiers began to attack.
Rayne put his blade to work, but his fury was magnified each time he struck down the body of one
 who had fallen once before.  Finally, he could contain his outrage no longer and he swung his
 sword down in a heavy, overhead arc that brought the blade crashing against the stone floor.  As
 the blade impacted, a large pillar of fire circled up around him, engulfing the warriors in
 flames.  The charred bodies crumbled to the floor as the flames died down and Rayne staggered back
 in exhaustion.  He knew he had expended far too much energy on the flames as he glared at Zalbag. 
 Zalbag only flashed another smile and left him there among the ash and corpses.  
His eyes fluttered for a moment as the memory faded.  He was sitting in front of the fire once
 more, and for a second he thought he smelled the charred remains of the Corinthian soldiers again.
  His gaze fell to the spear he had pried from the hands of one of the fallen.  His eyes followed
 the red cloth that draped down from the spear, read the repeating gold characters that read "Duty
 and Honor".  He was going to make Zalbag remember what those words meant, whether he chooses to
 follow them again or fall at the tip of their blade.  Rayne bowed his head and prayed for
 forgiveness of the soldiers he had sent down once more.