Prince Feldwar - no longer prince, but slave - stared back, his eyes frantic and fevered. Was he all right? Faugh! No, he was not all right! The Shadow's command throbbed in his mind. He couldn't see clearly, could only see Merrin, no matter how hard he fought the urge...

And then the sensation passed as quickly as it'd come. He stared at his own hands in disbelief, seconds before regaining his composure. He gulped air, mastered himself. Some of the nobles were beginning to notice, so he flashed them a comforting grin, his subtle yet not so subtle reminder that he was Lord and that they were to mind their own business.

"My utmost apologies, Merrin," he said, mind still reeling from the encounter with doom. He righted her chair, which had tipped over in his sudden jump to his feet. "Yes... must have been the wine. Gave you quite a fright, I daresay." He forced out a laugh. How could he live with himself again, much less coerce himself once more into conversation? He stared at his lap, counted to ten. When he looked back up, he was feeling slightly better.

"Forgive me, my - Merrin. I must dismiss you..."

"Pathetic, insolent worm. I will have my way. I will crush you into mindless servitude. Tonight, then. Bring her to me tonight, or I will make your life misery."

The Lord of Amarinth closed his eyes. The words he mouthed were silent, unheard: "Yes... master..."

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"That's...all right..." said Merrin, not knowing in the least how to respond. He seemed not to hear her in any case. A moment more of surveying him in confused anxiety and she stood to push her chair back and step off the dais.

Nobles once more crowded the spacious chamber, conversing in low tones interspersed with austere smiles and polite laughter. Merrin ignored them, held up her skirts and wound through the pairs and groups of lords holding their wine glasses still and ladies hanging on their arms.

"Merrin Dragonrider, is it? You - " a stately lady with raven hair piled on top of her head in an intricate mass stopped her and Merrin dropped a hurried curtsy.

"My apologies, my lady, I fear - I have just remembered - " Merrin broke off upon catching sight of Kendath through the crowd. She must not lose him again, she needed to ask if he'd seen the curious change come upon Feldwar. She hurried on with little more than an apologetic glance, ducked around a lord who looked about to address her, and arrived at the edge of the crowd to find she'd lost sight of Kendath again. No - over there -

Forgetting to hold her dress up and half tripping before she remembered, Merrin fixed her eyes on him and this time succeeded in getting close enough to catch his sleeve. Gods, there was another lord approaching with a lady on his arm.

Not stopping to explain Merrin snatched Kendath's hand and whisked them both into the nearest alcove, screened somewhat by curtains and not visible generally. "Feldwar," she gasped, knowing they should be quick. "Feldwar - did you see what happened?"

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The nobles were not the only one`s who had noted the acting of Prince Feldwar, farther away Garthag stood leaning onto a wall with his hands crossed and a goblet full of wine in his hand. The sudden acting of Feldwar was ever more alarming, Garthag had seen similar acting by some tribal chiefs whose minds he had enslaved. Feldwar seemed to be going that kind of a battle unless he was otherwise weird, but Garthag couldn`t make any rash conclusions all tough he felt a great urge to roast all of the people gathered there.

It could have been fun if he had been in his greatest strength, but no, fate was a bothersome factor as well as his own foolishness. Garthag hmhed and drank some of his wine, he gazed at the wine in his goblet quietly before placing it on the ground. Someone might kick it aside and spill the wine all around, but that wasn`t really Garthags problem, he wasn`t really being noticed by anyone anyway. The glances he received were suspicious, hostile and insulted as, if the very existence of Garthag seemed offensive and he was not worthy the walk on the same ground as them. Garthag found this highly amusing because had he true power or just the opportunity now then all of these people would be covering on their knee`s before him. Yet fighting was not their intention and escape was, but the development with Feldwar seemed worrying enough and Garthag spotted Merrin meeting with Kendath. Garthag made his way trough to them and stopped just to hear the words of Merrin, but he didn`t say anything as he wished to hear Kendath`s opinion.

If they wanted his opinion, they would have to ask for it as always.

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Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

To the abyss, yes, he'd seen what had happened! Seen the man stare at Merrin for a full ten minutes before seizing her wrist and dragging her bodily away.

The moment Feldwar moved, Kendath had leaped from his own chair to battle his way through the crowd. By the time he reached the high dais, Feldwar was once again seated and Merrin nowhere in sight - until a familiar hand grasped his and pulled him alarmingly towards a sheltered alcove, not far from his savior the potted plant.

"Yes, curse it, and if the filthy *beep* touches you again I'll personally see his throat - " He faltered, seeing something else flicker behind her eyes. Feldwar hadn't left any positive impressions where Kendath was concerned, but would he really...? Was there more...? Chosen of the Gods. Kendath didn't believe in coincidences.

"All right," he said with a heavy sigh. "What happened?" He caught sight of Garthag hanging in the sidelines and wondered what the more experienced mage thought of this. He shot Garthag an inquiring look.

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"I caught a glimpse..."

Garthag began with a dry tone, but stopped to look around to see how well they were being guarded at the moment or listened to. The guards were still there as always yet the nobles seemed rather disorderly at that moment, all concentrating on different matters.

"Of his eyes, empty eyes as, if he was being controlled by someone. And if you wonder how I know then you might guess that I have turned a few free willed, strong men into mindless puppets that I used to do my dirty work for me. Magic can be used as such yet apparently Feldwar seems to be holding out, but no wonder as enslaving one`s mind might not be the easiest feat that is, if they are strong willed."

Garthag said before gazing towards Feldwar quietly and then looking around for Evlyn who was nowhere to be found.

"We have to make a run for it soon, if we do not want to end up meeting or fighting whatever it is that is having such influence on Feldwar."

Yet Garthag had a hunch on what that something was.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Merrin stared at Garthag a moment, chewing her lip in bemusement, but his words hadn't really penetrated after Kendath's. ...if the filthy *beep* touches you again I'll personally see his throat - Merrin shook herself out of a sudden tingle that ran down her spine, surprised to find that she felt like grinning at his vehement exclamation. For him to feel he needed to protect her -

She could have slapped herself, but it wouldn't have changed her sudden feeling of warm safeness. "He was very...nice," she said, recalling his cordial manner. "I - I don't know what happened. He stopped talking, almost like he was talking to someone else I couldn't hear, and then..." she broke off. There were red marks where his fingers had wrapped around her wrist, the imprint of a hand that she'd only just noticed. Merrin unconsciously wrapped her own fingers around it. "It was strange," she said helplessly. "He wanted me to come with him somewhere, he wouldn't let go...and then it was like...almost like he woke up, somehow - I don't know."

Was Garthag right? Was something malevolent affecting him? "I don't think he would have hurt me," she added to appease the look on Kendath's face.

_________________

Good, Kendath replied inwardly, but aloud he said nothing, immersed in troubled thoughts provided by Garthag the pessimistic realist. Controlled by someone? He racked his mind for any recalling of a powerful magic-user who'd have any iota of interest in them. From the dread pervading his marrow, his subconsciousness already had most of it figured out.

Surreptitiously he cast about for eavesdroppers. The potted plant was proving to be his salvation again. Most passerbys glanced at them curiously but didn't linger. Garthag's presence might have something to do with that.

"We'll go along with it for now," he said, pitching his voice low. "I've been poking around, and I... Never mind. Be prepared to escape tonight."

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Merrin nodded, but she made no move to emerge from their current sheltered position, and seemed to be trying to figure out quite how to phrase something. When she looked up at him her cheeks were rather redder than normal, and she was smiling almost bemusedly. "Will - will you dance with me?" she finally managed, the words tumbling over themselves. "I mean, I don't want to dance with any of those nobles..." she trailed off, indicating with a vague wave of her hand the first strains of an aria and the couples rapidly pairing off. Young men were in abundance.

She refused to acknowledge, even to herself, that she'd wanted to dance with him again since the first time at Vryngard. He'd seemed to enjoy it, too, so she didn't think it was entirely forward to ask... "You - you don't have to," she added - stammered - "I mean, if you don't want to."

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Kendath was still lost in more or less contemplating the meaning of life - or the survival of life, for that matter - when Merrin's words penetrated the haze. It took an entire process of two blinks, his jaw going slack, and him hastily correcting it for him to assimilate her request.

It didn't take much introspection for him to conclude that he did very much want to dance with her. This, coupled with the flush still tinting her cheeks and her delicate beauty in the azure gown, made his gaze drift over to the myriad of colors on the dance floor. He almost said yes, almost forgot about irate nobles and depraved princes and undead legions...

Almost.

Reality hit him with a cold slap, and suddenly he found the whirling colors sickening. He shook his head. "Not... not tonight." He looked at her, then at the expectant Garthag, then at the shadows of nightfall beyond the rows of arched windows. "I suggest you retire early tonight. I'll wake you when..." Not entirely certain if Escape Plan B would work at all, he left it at that.

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Merrin let out a breath - why had she been holding it, her inner self demanded - and only for a moment let herself feel disappointed, even a little hurt. For an even lesser flash of time it showed in her expression. She'd said he didn't have to if he didn't want to, hadn't she?

The doors could not have been further from her, across the room as they were, and judging from the men not paired with ladies she would not get even several steps without being accosted. She nodded, murmured "All right," and struck out for that other side.

Predictably, she was not halfway when a hand touching her shoulder stopped her. Merrin cringed. It was the lord she'd snubbed earlier in her frantic rush to find Kendath. A braver Merrin would have declined to dance even after that, but he possessed sharply slanted eyebrows and a displeased look even offering her what he seemed to think a smile, and she was no stranger to intimidation.

Still she very nearly ran when his hands encircled her waist, and craned for just another glimpse of Kendath before they whirled into the myriad dancers already spinning. Once she tried to stare at the embroidered doublet at her eye level and pretend it was Kendath's, but an inquiry as to her silence cut that short - and it hadn't worked anyway.

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Kendath stared after Merrin for a while, watching her twirl with a peachy nobleman who resembled every other peachy nobleman in the dining hall. Upon snapping out of it, he found his arms crossed stubbornly over his chest. He shook his head, resisted the urge to bang said head on the wall behind him, and concluded that headbanging and royal halls must come in sync.

He managed to preserve his fragile skull by turning his attention to Garthag. "You know more than you're letting on," he said flatly, not an accusation but a statement. In reality he was stabbing in the dark. Past experiences showed that Garthag always knew more than he let on. Nonetheless Kendath thought he'd seen some tell-tale recognition flicker across the wizard's face upon mention of their enigmatic enemy.

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Evlyn had drawn her sword as had been about to strike Feldwar, when he dropped Merrins hand. The sword slid back into its sheath with a hiss. Luckily none of the nobles had noticed.
As Merrin hurried away, Evlyn looked throughtful for a moment, before magangeing to accidently-on-perpose knock a table over containing all the wine for the high table. A few more moments of pandimonium for Merrin to speak to Kendath.

Under the cover of the dance Evlyn glided over to her two conpanions. "Feldwar is not acting of his own volition." she said flatly "He told her to come with him, whilst he was haveing that attack of whatever it was. He then emidiatly retracted that once he was himself and was as 'charming' as ever." she paused for a moment "he might have mouthed something that looked like 'master' but i can't be sure." She looked at Garthag coldly "Well, this would be your area?"

_________________

Made by Lembas

Garthag crossed his hands on his chest and chuckled with clear amusement towards Kendath`s attitude not to mention his words. Normally they would have never wanted to work together or even get to know each others, but they had come to know what the other one was like. Yet Garthags smile faded away as Evlyn came to them and he threw a cold, demeaning glance her way and spoke with an annoyed tone.

"Oh thank you Evlyn for filling us in on information that we already were fully aware of..."

Garthag gazed over to the other side of the crowd at Feldwar or where Garthag had at least been the last time he saw him. Garthag stared back at Kendath.

"Lich"

He simply said as Kendath did not seem all too happy with his earlier answer.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Kendath narrowed his eyes. The term sounded familiar. It brought to mind memories of Meiltha archmages and their experiments in dread laboratories. He'd heard it uttered with the reverence of an unsurmountable accomplishment. Lichdom. Something to be proud of, though he had no idea...

"Care to explain?" he asked dryly. Evlyn's words only confirmed his suspicions, that Feldwar was enslaved to a higher power, this Lich or whatever.

_________________

Garthag hmphed and threw a surprised, disappointed and then finally despising gaze at Kendath before staring into the crowd.

"I thought you knew, the lord of the shadower's is a lich, a powerful undead mage and he is the one behind enslaving Feldwar, it all fits. Feldwar`s interest towards Merrin and his attempt to take her somewhere, before the lich no doubt..."

Garthag spoke with a disgusted tone every time when he mentioned the word "lich", it was something that he knew as a way to escape death, but the cost was what even he found too high. Despite being power hungry and selfish, Garthag had set some strict boundaries for his own actions.

"Once I have my chance I will dispose of that backstabber"

Garthag muttered, now his tone had a vicious tone to it as he could only remember what had brought him to this point, revenge. Yet that also made him wonder whether his `friend` was around, in the shadows watching how everything would play out between them and the lich.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Kendath involuntarily sucked in his breath. His mind flashed back on that scorching day in the desert, when Garthag had crawled to them a broken man, abject and defeated. This Lich had taken down Garthag, a powerful wizard in his own right. A powerful wizard now almost fully robbed of his powers.

It was coming together now. And Kendath didn't like the finished piece.

He swore quietly and glanced at Garthag. His next words died on his tongue before they even formed. He couldn't ask, not even to chance it - the man was as helpless as he was. At least his falchion made a pretty butter knife. Butter knives... undead lords...

They had to get out of here.

He darted out from the alcove and plunged into the colorful crowd. Where had he last seen her? Still dancing with the peachy nobleman, in the general vicinity of the bard striking out the aria. He tugged his maroon cape over his left side - no need for these prigs to wax squeamish over his jeweled butter knife - and waded through the mire until he reached the dance floor, polished to such perfection that he could see his face mirrored in the marble. "Sorry," he grunted, promptly after stepping on some frangible maiden's toes. The girl uttered a small yelp and melted into the arms of her parter, who proceeded to glare at Kendath's retreating back with indignant intensity. Bruised toes. Ugh. Consider yourself lucky, my dear lord. Next time I'll cut them off.

There. Peachy Nobleman was just in the process of spinning Merrin out, when Kendath popped in and grasped the arm she so conveniently threw to the side. Peachy Nobleman didn't release his prize, only tossed the new arrival an uncannily familiar glare. "Can I help you, good sir?" he demanded with the displeased look that'd daunted Merrin before.

"My dance," Kendath explained with a hearty grin and a wave. He disconnected Merrin, placed a hand on her shoulder, and steered her away. Once they were safely off the dance floor, he glanced around and murmured, "We have to leave. Now."

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