6- Shadows & Decay

The feeling of revulsion worked its way through the messenger's body and made its presence known in the form of a stammer. The fact that he could speak at all could be attributed to the powerful warding spells and protective runes that covered his body. They glowed brightly beneath his robe and seared his flesh as their magic expended itself. The messenger prayed that this conversation would end swiftly. Should the protective magic falter and expose him to the horror that he felt moving in the air around him, he would surely rot instantaneously.

"Speak with haste, lest you wish to be consumed on the spot. I am confident that my rending of one of his curs would do little to change our arrangement. What do you think, wretch? Would your master mind if I sent you back to him in a pail?"

The grotesque entity spoke with a voice that mocked the mortal tongue. Its voice spewed forth, as if the words would cause the listener's ears to fill with a rotting liquid. Each word was coated in filth.

"No Suh? Sire? I am nothing and no one. I am merely a vessel for the word of Innoruuk. My liege has sent me to you with a message," the young courier said, as his pallor grew more apparent.

A hand extended from the shadows and pointed its rotting finger at the courier. The voice sloshed forward from the darkness again, "Then deliver your message, wretch? before your master is forced to send another."

The trembling messenger dropped to his knees and began to convulse. The symbols covering the Tier 'Dal's flesh glowed brightly and began to dance in the filthy air of the room. The symbols slowed their pace and began to gather in front of the massive rotting god. They shifted and aligned until they read like an ethereal piece of parchment.

The room grew silent, as the hulking figure contemplated the symbols' meaning. Then the silence was quickly broken by a roar followed by the swing of Bertoxxulous's great rotting arm. Both the symbols and the messenger were swatted and sent flying though the air.

"Am I expected to be concerned with the meddling of mortals? This problem has already been dealt with. Nothing can change what has been done! Leave this place and tell your master that I will have no more talk of this matter!" the creature roared at the slumped figure.

As the messenger ran from the room he could hear the words being shouted again, "Nothing can change what has been done!"


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