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Smoke and the sickly scent of death caught their noses as Skul, Astarion, Halsin and Shadowheart pushed through the twisting undergrowth till a clearing opened up. The sounds of talking, although one much more strained reached their ears as they did. One if the voices had the unmistakable scratchiness of the dead, a dead halfling they quickly realised. The clearing was scattered with a camp, candles and papers littered the place, and in the centre, the pair who had been speaking.
“What was your name?”
“Madeline…”
The living figure turned, letting the magic that gave Madeline a voice go, her body dropping heavy and limp to the ground. He was gaunt, pale skinned with dark eyes. A white raven cawed and circled, giving Skul a flicker of a memory. A black raven doing the same above his father's head on an isles far past the great sea to the south east. It vanished from his mind's eye as quickly as it came, leaving an ache in his heart.
“Why… The Raven tells me you have something we need.” The man's voice sent an unpleasant chill through his spine. “A ledger… from the distillery in the town west of here. A ledger of her crimes.”
The book they had found, hidden under loose floorboards behind the bar which contained what he realised now was this woman’s admission to the Justciar of all the goings on… including that of her best friends.
“What crime?” Skul asked, pulling out the ledger from his pack.
“Murder. We know you have read the book. We know that you saw her turn the Justiciar's blade on her best friends unsuspecting back. I am going to bring justice upon her for their deaths. ” The man snatched the book from him.
“I hate to point it out, but she’s already dead. Im not entirely sure how you would go about bringing justice on her.” Shadowheart piped up, crossing her arms.
“I will be the vassel for her soul. And you… will be the judge.” He opened the book, magic welling up in the air as he started to chant. The raven circled like a vulture, stark white in the shadowy hell they were in.
“No.. No. I didn’t mean to. He told me I was to be punished and you’d be the judge-“ a woman's voice poured from the man's lips, the corpses eyes and his alike glowly sickly green. The worm in his head twitched and writhed, Astarion’s own reaching out. [Punish her.] it whispered. Skul glanced at Astarion, the vampires gaze fixed on the pair before them, a hunger Skul recognised fixed in them.
This wasn’t sanguine hunger. He had seen that many a night. No. This was the hunger to make those who wronged pay. With all its bloody glory. And it was starting to seep into him too, he found.
His attention finally fell back to the babbling voice. “I swear she only said she was gonna talk to them! She promised!”
“But she didn’t. Did she? What did she do?” Shadowheart and Haslin glanced at each other uneasily. Skul’s voice and demeanour had changed. Shifting to mirror their other companions. A cold edge to his voice creeping in.
“She… she told them to hold a dagger to their stomach… and when she said stab they were to start… stabbing themselves until she said stop. But she didn’t say stop… please ill do anything. Anything to make it up-“
“Then do the same. It's only fair.” A pleasurable shiver crept from his brain to his feet. The worm twisted and writhed in tune with Astarion's as he spoke. The hunger for justice in all its bloody glory, not his usual softness shining through. The dark eyes narrowed as the vessel hesitated, before drawing a dagger from the body’s hip. “Like this…?”
There was the faintest nod, mirrored by both Skul and Astarion despite the latter standing just behind the former, unable to see his face.
The blade was drawn back, and in an instant plunged into the body's stomach. “I'm sorry- oh gods I'm sorry-“
Another lurch of pleasure rippled through him, approval.
Astarion’s approval.
[Keep going!]
“Keep. Going.”
It hit him like a wave, tossed in the rush of it like flotsam against the rocks. The worm writhed. Astarion smirked.
In an instant Skul was pulled back to the moment as the man forced his way back in. He was screaming at them about punishing her but not at the cost of the body. Skul found that in the moment… he didn’t care. Astarion had enjoyed the display. And he realised…
He had too.