The Past of Opheila Grymm pt.2

I wasn’t sure when the battle ended, at the end everything went black – it was only something wet along the side of my face and the intense pain it brought with it that forced a rise to a semi-conscious state.

The mages had entered the camp now and had begun sorting the living from the dead. Longbow recruits placed in one pile to be raised again the other to be sacrificed to the spectral demon lords in the next few days.

A spectral lord floated by and turned to me its cold dead eyes seemed to crave what little life force was left in me. There are not many that will pick a fight with a spectral lord, yet in my mind this little imp would pay dearly for the pain and suffering of this night.

I don’t remember what was said; just fragments of Longbow and betrayal from within, but it must have been good as the spectral lord went from draining my soul to flinging me away into a tree. I felt a few of ribs crack on the impact of a branch before falling into the shrubbery underneath, where I blacked out again from the pain.

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I think I died that night, or I should have. There are nights when I can still hear the screams of the dying and damned.

When our group did not report back to base camp a search party was sent. Upon arrival the search party found everyone gone, only the ashes of life remained, sometimes I wish they never found me, well what was left of me.

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One thing I can't fault Longbow for is they have a nice medical plan. I spent a couple of months stuck in a room with nothing to do but ponder broken memories and try and forget. Due to the violence of the event a therapist was provided to help me come to terms with what happened. The problem is I needed answers to questions that no one was willing to provide. . .

I’m not sure when the whispers started; Longbow did a full inquiry but did not publish any results, well no results worth the paper they were printed on. Whatever was found was decidedly not meant for common ears. The rumor is I have betrayed my recruits joining in the revelry as the Circle of Thorns butchered us, my wounds cosmetic, and that my skin was turned blue from a pact made with the Circle.

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It was rather surprising how quickly my new reputation spread and I was black listed by even the Longbow hierarchy. This didn’t stop me from asking the questions I needed answered – even my ‘therapist’ began to whisper warnings to me of how dangerous my search had become.

Due to my 'field' injuries they never let me train recruits again, and shuffling papers in an office only reinforced my depression and desire to search for the truth of what happened that cursed night under the Hunter's Moon.

It was during this time that I really found out who my friends were as my questions landed me in the ZIG. Longbow wasn’t providing answers and they were sick of my questions after the bloodbath yet the cowards never had the guts to just end me out right, so the put me here to rot in solitary confinement, drugged up and left in a foggy screaming nightmare of the past that I couldn’t shake. My prey had grown tired of me and cursed me to this existence in a hell.

That was until the breakout . . .

Now I search for the answers no one will tell, through the cracked skulls and broken bones of my enemies. In the end Longbow will be scattered, the “Red Wall” will come down, the truth will be exposed and while justice is served cold.

To do this I build my army. Arachnos’ will be my part of my army, a tool, a crushing force against who ever it is in Longbow that sold me and the recruits out to the Circle for enslavement and sacrifice to the spectral demon lords, a fate worse than death.

May the guilty burn in the pit of nine hells, and the gods show mercy for what needs be done next. . .