Avel was proving to be right. Old friends, if they could be called that at all, had forgotten him. For months Heldenbrand had persued the drow, been betrayed, deformed and battered all for the sake of a promise to those friends. And not a word in thanks had passed from their lips as the drow finally fell. He'd died for them and still not a single whisper, a single gesture from either of that pair. Only conspiratorial glares, uncomfortable shifts. Myrken was cold these days, the sun hidden behind a veil of slate. Fire-scarred fingers curled into their palms, nails digging into the toughened pristine surfaces of that mutilated flesh. You've never wanted anything more than a thank you... I can give it to you. Shadowdancer was far more than just some incredible, magically appearing weapon. So much more, what they all knew barely scratched the surface! In this all he realized, that was a truth. She could give him everything he ever wanted, in return, they only wanted a soldier; one that would not fail her as Audmathus had.
Glint of cerulean through the shadow which had so long since engulfed him, jading the contours about and blending him to the tomby silhouettes of trees stood all about. Hunched to the snow floor, coat clenched about his tremoring frame. "They're too caug--"--caught up in their own lives? You've been discarded once again, their words of friendship, all their smiles! Lies. They used you. The soldier... did not like to be used. Minute rivulets of ochre eased down between clenched fingers, forced free of the pressure exerted, run down the weather beaten digits. "They deserve what you created... this time I wll not be there to save them."
Words that were shared, to those that might view from the outside in, but a monologue unto the winds, shrill and cold, rattling the branches together and only to serve echo to the howls of the wolves not so distant. The moon was rising and its sterling hue so bright. We could do so much more to make them pay for using you... "No, not yet..." She'd not won him over that much, but oh how that apathy now inched its way across his mind. ".. let them a taste of their own devices for now. When its time, we will fulfill your purpose. And I will have my thanks, even be it from your goddess."
The soldier, did not like to be used...