Silence pervaded the temple. It was unsettling. Rather often Raker took walks outside, or went hunting when Alk’Hath approved of him doing so. The sorceress had taken to her lonesome, either in her room with her handmaiden Arda, or someplace else that Raker had no knowledge of. She was increasingly elusive.
It was during one of his walks that the shapeshifter saw the horse approach. A slender figure was on top, however hunched, and by the smell alone Raker knew who it was.
As the horse approached him, he stepped beside the slowing animal to see Corvus hardly lucid astride. One eye was missing, and more than half their face was incomprehensibly melted into an amalgamation of waxy skin and hair.
“Valcoth,” summoned Raker. “Notify the sorceress at once. Corvus has returned a failure.”
How unfortunate, he heard the shadow say.
Then, he grabbed Corvus by what remained of their collar and pulled them off the horse. Draping them over one of his broad shoulders, Raker returned to the demesne.
* * *
Raker had heard servant and sorcerer alike refer to him as a dog. Specifically, that the end of his chain was in Alk’Hath’s hand. They had no idea how correct that terminology was, but they also lacked the creativity to understand how loyal Raker was.
And what that loyalty meant.
Following some preparation on the part of the sorceress, Raker descended a staircase few knew the entrance to. It was the deepest one in the entirety of the temple, and it led to a place that only he and Alk’Hath herself were privy to.
At the bottom, he walked out onto a wide landing where a set of ornate double doors awaited him. He approached them with a sigh. Weeks before this moment Corvus had reached out to him. Given what had become of them, it appeared that his advice had done little to affect Corvus’s fate. Setting these thoughts aside, he pushed open the doors and entered a large room in which he found Alk’Hath and Corvus waiting for him.
At a raised section where two sets of rounded stairs met, Alk’Hath gazed down at Raker upon his entrance. On the lower section was an expanse of glassy flooring that reflected back the image of Corvus bound with crackling energy. This room was left deliberately dark aside from the candles that lit Alk’Hath’s upper body, and the few that circled Corvus’s feet. He came up behind the sorcerer but merely held his arms behind his back.
“You may continue,” Alk’Hath announced.
Before him, he watched Corvus struggle with their words. Each was more difficult than the last. Aside from the fact that half of their mouth had melted into their chin, it was also that Alk’Hath had already compelled them. He had missed that part intentionally.
“She…The mask…Faces…” Corvus nearly choked. “Caellach…Fire. Burned…Through…Spells…”
Alk’Hath waved her hand beside her.
“And what of Vos’iin?”
Instead of speaking, Corvus only shook their head.
Behind them, Raker looked to the sorceress attentively. Given their state, there was little more that Corvus could tell them.
“Even with the Blood of the Arbiter you failed to produce results. Worse, you allowed Vos’iin to perish.” Alk’Hath closed her eyes, then glanced towards Raker before settling back on the sorcerer below her. “My decision has been made. You are no longer of any use to me.”
The pained sound Corvus made caused Raker to keep his eyes off them. He knew what came next.
“Corvus, born the sorcerer Valto Nyman,” the name rolled off her tongue in an entirely unnatural manner, “beneath the gaze of the Arbiter, I deem you unworthy of the gifts bestowed upon you.”
The sorceress held her hand out in front of her. Behind her, lit only briefly by wavering candlelight, a massive bone-white figure appeared to crown Alk’Hath with its many-fingered skeletal hands. She curled her fingers into her palm. In moments, Corvus began to seize as a wave of incomprehensible energy exploded out from within them. It converged onto Alk’Hath while Raker only watched.
In short order, Corvus slumped. The sorceress merely waved her hand, dispersing what she had gathered from the sorcerer.
“Worthless magic,” she whispered. She then set her sights on the shapeshifter. “Allister, dispose of them.”
“As you wish.”
Raker closed his clawed fingers around Corvus’s head. Without any defenses a sorcerer could conjure, he easily crushed their skull.