That night, in Basilica Vadisium, the freckle-faced Sister Solnii is walking alone from the dining room to the nunnery. She looks worried.
Ah, Robert Chandler... Maybe he didn’t kill the Pope at all. All the things I saw there, the noises I heard, Pope Xylen’s lifeless face haunted me like ghosts in my mind. And after I testified, I felt free at last.
But why? Why did they free him? I testified to get him punished for sure, but they freed him anyway. Insufficient evidence, they said. Oh, Father Vadis, where is thy justice? Are you trying to say that Robert didn’t do it? Then who? Who’s the killer? Ah, I need to know who. My soul wont’ rest until I see the killer is brought to justice.
‘So, you want to see the killer, eh?’
Sister Solnii is startled. It’s a whisper, a voice in her mind, or rather, telepathy.
‘Who are you?’ Solnii turns her head here and there, trying to find the source of the voice.
‘You didn’t answer my question. Tell me... Do you want to see the killer?’
‘Who are you?!’
‘Answer me FIRST!’
Solnii pauses for a while, then she says,
‘Yes, I want to see him.’
‘I can take you to him. Are you sure you want it?’
‘You don’t have to ask twice.’
‘Very well, then. You’ll be gone to see the killer about... now.’
A dagger comes and plunges right into Solnii’s heart! The fooled nun turns and finds a hooded monk holding MacLair’s daggers using the bloody one to finish her off.
‘You...? W-why?’ says Solnii in mortal pain.
‘You will meet the killer shortly,’ says the monk. ‘After your body rots and you turn into an undead.’
With her last breath, Sister Solnii lets out a scream, ‘Undead? No...’ Not this way. That last piece only remains as an unspoken thought as she falls to the floor – and her life is snuffed out of her.
The monk then retracts the dagger, puts it back behind his robe and walks away from Solnii’s dead body as though nothing has happened. He only mutters, ‘Long live the Heir.’
The Ultimatum has taken another soul.
==oOo==
In Lore, Arcadia, Valanis and throughout the continent, the rapidly-rotting victims of the Ultimatum suddenly spring up as skeletons and zombies, wreaking havoc. The mages incinerated the turned-undead corpses unwillingly, preventing a scourge.
==oOo==
Back in the Wyrmspine Pass, the mound of MacLair’s grave is still there, except that it has been broken open. On the grave is a big hole, and the Death Dealer’s body is not inside.
End of Chapter 12
Completion Date: December 30, 2007
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Posted By Andry Chang to FireHeart - Exploring Worlds of Fantasy at 8/13/2008 05:30:00 PM
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