"No one you should care about"

Garthag said and made a slash like move with his hand, but his cold eyes nailed at Merrin as she was clearly the source of all this and apparently had broken the chains as the dragon would not have waited to release itself this long.

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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!

Merrin met his rather hostile gaze like a princess, and stared unflinchingly at him for as long as he did at her. She looked at Kendath, apparently not trusting Garthag to answer. "Is he Meiltha...?"

_________________

"For reasons unknown, I would say no," Kendath replied with a pointed cough. He nodded at the broken chains. "My dragon asked a good question."

_________________

Merrin looked at him for a moment, and then her gaze shifted to the ground. "I'm...setting you free," she said, almost in a whisper, and met his eyes again. "I know I'm an idiot ten times over. But I couldn't call myself a Renegade if I didn't do what the gods wanted. And don't - don't - ask me why, but they want this."

_________________

Kendath stared at Merrin. Between them, the silence dragged on. Then Kendath did a most unexpected thing.

He laughed.

"You're amusing, Renegade," he said, still grinning mirthlessly. "If you actually expect me to believe that..." Leaving Demon to his own devices in the courtyard, he turned and vaulted back over the balcony and reentered the bedchamber. Once inside, his knees suddenly weakened and he fell back against the wall.

Inwardly, he knew one thing for certain: Merrin didn't lie. Which meant... what? Did the gods see fit to mock him? Or were they truly offering him a second chance?

_________________

"Most interesting yet alarming is it not?"

Garthag inquired from Kendath before he returned to the balcony back with the aim to annoy him as the turn of events was most disturbing, why would the gods set free those that were out to destroy them? Was there a greater plan behind it all? Garthag pondered such questions himself and for him it would be most interesting how the next cards would be played in this game. Garthag turned his gaze at the renegade before him.

"So you are a sorry puppet of the gods and nothing more?"

He inquired and approached her with a confident smile.

_________________

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!

Quite unexpectedly, Merrin whirled and struck him hard across the face. Her brown eyes were furious - and were those tears gathering in them? "You dare," she choked, and whirled away to undo the chain binding Jemx. "You're as bad as them!"

_________________

Garthag was surprised by the strike and was now holding his nose, recovering from the strike on his back. He chuckled slightly in amusement as he stumbled up.

"Bad as them? No... I am... far more simple and not as ambitious, I am not trying to destroy the gods, I am trying to control a small corner of my world, but should they succeed and with the gods gone my dreams of an ever lasting realm will be ruined...

So it depends from your point of view I guess, I want power, my friend wants power, but they want more than power, which of course is not beneficial to me or to speak correctly, to us"

He said with a confident smirk.

_________________

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!

"Power," said Merrin contemptuously. "Do you know what I want?"

She turned to face him. "I want to do what's right, and please the gods. And I want my dragon back. And I couldn't want power less. And..." here she trailed off, and looked at him with a strange expression. "I pity you....you who live for power."

_________________

"For each his own"

Garthag said and took a step closer, she could be an useful ally, if she could be persuaded to see Garthag in a right light. Garthag rubbed his chin as, if he was still slightly shook by the hit against his face.

"You might pity me and it is understadable brave little renegade, but answer me this. You do the right thing, you do what the gods ask of you... your human and then you realise... `my gods! I am old, what did I waste my youth on?`"

Garthag snapped his fingers.

"Too many die for the gods, too many waste their lives in serving them and they have no joy in their own lives.... no attachments, no family or anything to leave behind... except... the gods... now is that what do you want?"

_________________

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 frowned. The clasp on the chain encircling Jemx's neck was proving stubborn. "Yes," she said after a moment. "That is what I want. You say there is no joy in serving the gods - well, you do not believe in them, you would not know. When I grow old, as you say..."

She paused, and surveyed him with her brown-eyed gaze - which was far older than her years. "I want to be able to tell my children I spent my life doing something worthwhile. And this is worthwhile. Besides" - and here she gave a slight smile - "who's to say the gods do not reward those who are faithful to them?

_________________

"Such as setting me free?" Kendath asked with fine irony, stepping back into view. Impassively surveying the scene, he continued, "If you plan on proceeding with your rescue plan, I suggest you hurry before the druids arrive."

_________________

Merrin's gaze shifted instantly as Kendath reappeared. The chain fell from Jemx's neck and she beat a hasty retreat to avoid being eaten - if Jemx awoke as explosively as Demon did, she did not want to be close to him.

However, now that her job was done she appeared to be debating within herself over something. Hesitating, Merrin held out a hand to Kendath.

"I...I want you to know," she began, the ghost of a smile creeping over her face, "you'd make a splendid Renegade."

_________________

"Not unless the Renegades are hiring assassins," Kendath replied in a voice devoid of emotion, neither taking her hand nor returning the smile. He looked up at the open sky beyond the castle courtyard and wondered if there existed some invisible barrier.

Only one way to find out.

He and Evlyn [not planning on leaving you behind] mounted their respective dragons. He regarded Garthag with a slight smirk. For all he cared, the supposedly confident and powerful mage could conjure a portal out of here. His gaze shifted over to Merrin. "You coming or are you training to be a druid next?"

_________________

"You forget, I can leave when I wish," said Merrin, without a smile. I did free him, she thought in annoyance. Some expression of gratitude might be in order.

"I'm going tomorrow, to find Wyvern." She turned away, and scanned the passages leading from the courtyard, wondering which one would take her back to her room quickest. "Well? Aren't you off, to look for that artifact or whatever it was?"

_________________

"Good point," Kendath conceded as Demon spread his wings, lifting up a windstorm in the courtyard. He hovered in the air for a while before gaining altitude and rising beyond the marble walls.

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