Captivity Amidst the Veils; Part 2

It felt like black velvet draping over her chilled skin. Suffocating folds of coal -pitch floated merely a breath away, allowing her only small breaths of the fetid air, and held her ensnared once more. After lying painfully still for what seemed like hours, Elessaria opened her eyes with a mixture of a groan and a moan. Just as the elfess had thought, she was no longer ensconced in the safety of her suites at the Red Dragon Inn. Gone was the brief respite and the pleasant weariness that followed her attendance of the Masque earlier that evening. At least, she guessed it had been earlier that evening. There was simply nothing available for her to use as a reference to gauge how much time had actually past. The chill was greater against her left side under which her arm was pinned at an uncomfortable angle; now Eless knew she was prone and pushed herself to sit upright, rubbing away the tingling sensation prickling along her freed arm.

"Damn it all," she muttered and scowled while assessing the area about her. "And, by the gods and goddesses, why' Where in the Nine Hells am I?" The Lady Fire of Evandar had a very vague idea of where she was" once more captured and held captive between the Veils. She was caught between the worlds of life and death, magic and non-magic, Light and Dark. The weight of the darkness dampened her spirit and the empath simply sat and stared into it, until she could see the nearly imperceptible gradations of grey and black that encompassed her trembling form. Gathering her legs beneath her, Eless then pushed up from the floor and stood still while the "room' swirled around her and the chill, dank air washed over the thin, ivory silk of her chemise.

Once she had regained her balance, the diminutive magess called forth a minute amount of mana to form a small sphere of blue flame to illuminate her passage. A small smile formed on her lips, because so far this little bit of light was much more than she had been permitted during her last captivity; or perhaps, she was more prepared and stronger " at least she'd hoped it were the latter. Several steps ahead and to her left, the flickering blue light revealed a shadowed hallway. The only sound to reach Elessaria's ears was an odd crackling sound; a sound very similar to the one that heralds the beginnings of a wood fire. As she tread the path before her " it was the only one afforded her" the crackling and popping increased to a thunderous roar. The scent of smoke stung her sensitive nose and the sudden screaming forced her to clamp her shaking hands over her lightly pointed ears.

Elessaria froze in spite of the incredible heat pouring off the scene before her. The trees were fiery brands of orange and red flames and there were a rapidly dwindling number of Eldar who were being slaughtered mercilessly by a gathering of races that had been perverted by evil, and transformed into hideous warriors. Slowly, she realized she recognized the image emblazoned on their shields" a black, mutated hand that dripped blood from its twisted fingers.