It sure took me a while to read your story so far, but I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. You have a gift for storytelling that seems to come natural to you as your updates are both frequent, long and - best of all - of high quality. "Bloodlust" has many strong points to recommend it, I'll just mention some of them:

1) A compelling, original story that draws the reader in and doesn't let go.
2) Good pacing with a mix of contemplative moods, conversations and action.
3) The diversity of your viewpoints lend the reader insight into very different characters' minds, e.g. the count(s), Savlian Matius, Lavos and Simion. This adds to the suspension because we know more than some of the other characters, e.g. like the incident with the bank manager and Hlodir's visit. Very nicely done.
4) A free-flowing language that suits the story and with careful details to paint a picture of the surroundings to anchor the characters.
5) You portray the characters well by their conversations, e.g. the fight and mocking between Savlian and Hlodir's compatriot, the mage.
6) The deranged Voice and its manipulations with Simion are thrilling; and the gory depictions of murder and Simion/Boethia reveling in them are creepy. The title of the story is fitting indeed.
7) Engaging action scenes with vivid descriptions and battle reasoning of the main participants.

Along with your other readers, I will eagerly be awaiting for future updates.

Well thanks for taking the time to catch up on this massive thing. I can imagine it being a bit daunting for those who just discovered it. Your comments are very appreciated; everyone's comments are.

Unfortunately I don't have an update ready yet. Had some problems transferring my story from my home computer to my laptop, but now I got that all sorted out and hopefully I have some time to continue this story in the near future. But first, I gotta get that duel I owe Jack Cloudy and Lord Revan done. That is now my first priority.

So, just stay patient, loyal readers. I have not abandoned you! I am merely just trying to find some time to work on this thing. College life is busy you know! I'm supposed to socialize with people and whatnot!

Ah, socialization. The bane of students everywhere.

Meh, it's nice to hear that you're still working on things. I never doubted it but it's still nice to hear.

Now I'll just have to prove that I'm still working as well. After school, that is.

Woohoo, we've been waiting months for the clash! But Bloodlust shouldn't be any lower on your priorities than the second or third. I suppose I should be glad I'm not going to college next year.... starting to consider doing home-school until then, but nothing solid as of yet.

One good ploint would be that I could spend more time writing updates and RPing and all that good stuff.

Well this isn't a huge update, but it's a pivotal one all the same. Hopefully I don't keep all waiting so long for the next one. You guys might kill me if I do that considering where I stop this one



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Savlian was prepared now. Simion’s attack was a basic strike, driven by emotion rather than skill. Savlian easily parried the strike and sought a counter-attack. Simion avoided it though by using his immense speed. Simion backed away and began to stalk the Captain. Savlian felt confident in allowing Simion to do so. With the chaos that initially ensued finished, Savlian felt that one on one; he would have the upper hand. With allies he would have to worry about injuring someone. That worry was now out of the picture and Savlian was free to use his full skill set on the murderer.

Simion, acting as the aggressor, feinted to Savlian’s chest. Savlian went to defend and couldn’t catch his mistake before Simion whipped around Savlian’s sword and slashed his dagger against Savlian’s shoulder. Gritting his teeth in pain, Savlian backed away from his opponent, all the while Simion grinned sardonically. With Simion’s speed, any stupid mistake would be costly.

With blood running freely down his side, Savlian pondered what he could do next. Even after dealing with a score of guards, Simion didn’t even appear to be winded. Hoping to outlast his opponent would be hopeless. Any attempt at head games would prove to be futile since even though the mer was crazy there appeared to be some sense of control to it. Savlian’s options were fleeting to say the most.

Unfortunately before Savlian could think of anything, Simion struck once again. This time, with a savage flurry of dagger strikes. The speed and pressure of the blows forced Savlian to back pedal in order to compensate. He knew this wasn’t good, if Simion managed to corner him, he was bound to get hurt before getting back to neutral ground. As a last ditch effort, Savlian changed levels after ducking a swipe of Simion’s dagger and then tackling the assassin to the ground.

In the scuffle, Savlian lost grip of his broadsword and it was sent scuttling across the floor. A power struggle for Simion’s dagger instantly began as Savlian attempted to force the weapon out of Simion’s grip.

The dagger shuddered from the forces exerted upon it by Savlian and Simion. It remained transfixed between the two combatants as it appeared that their strength were equal at this position, shocking given that Simion was at a disadvantage since he was back first on the floor. Savlian’s face was contorted with exertion as he tried to point the tip of the dagger away from his face.

A sudden shifting in Simion’s weight caught Savlian by surprise and he quickly found that their positions had reversed as Simion swept around him. Given the new circumstances, Simion wrenched the dagger away from Savlian. The assassin’s eyes gleamed menacingly as realization of what was about to happen dawned upon him. With a flashy twirl of the dagger, Simion switched his grip so he could stab Savlian easier.

As the dagger descended, at the last moment, Savlian bucked his hips which caused the dagger to embed itself in the floorboard above his head. In that moment, Savlian managed to throw Simion off of him and he scrambled away to get his broadsword.

With weapon in hand, Savlian turned around to face his opponent once more. As he did, he was knocked off his feet. Pain erupted from his chest. Savlian looked down to see the hilt of a dagger standing at attention from his chest. Savlian’s jaw dropped in shock and pain at what he was seeing. A curse sounded from across the room.

“I aimed too high; I usually don’t do that,” the voice said in a scolding manner. Laughter than rang out. “Ohwell, this makes things more fun!”

Savlian could only watch as the silhouette of Simion grew as it came towards him. His breaths came out in ragged gasps as pain seeped into every nerve of his body. He couldn’t believe this was happening! The thrown dagger caught him totally unawares. He attempted to sit up but intense pain racked through his body causing him to gasp loudly before dropping his head hard back onto the cool floor. Simion chuckled at the sight of the helpless Captain.

“Looks like I finally got you,” Simion said happily as he knelt beside the Captain, a smug look on his face. He tapped his shoulder playfully. “I have to admit though. You’ve been a tough one. Actually, as a matter of fact, you’ve been one of the toughest targets I’ve dealt with. Not the toughest though. That award goes to Sethyas,” Simion said, nearly spitting out the last word.

“I’ll deal with him soon enough.”

Savlian could only focus on staying conscious and he knew that he was failing. His vision was all ready speckled with black dots. Simion appeared to notice the state Savlian was in and shook him violently.

“Hey, hey! No going to sleep for you! What fun is it if I can’t hear you?” he said in an annoyed fashion. Realizing his shaking wasn’t helping he withdrew his other dagger and sighed. “Looks like I’m going to have to make this quick after all. Thanks for ruining my fun!”

Savlian blacked out before the blade could descend.

Uh-oh. While he put up quite a struggle, Savlian still got owned. Well, time to bring in Silverbrand real quick.

Cliffhanger! Egad! And another remarkable fight scene!

Great fight. I keep my fingers crossed that Savlian will pull through somehow. I've really come to depend on him to continue in this story on the good side.

One nitpick, though. In the first paragraph, you begin five sentences with the name of a character. Your language flows much more evocatively when you alter the start a bit, like you do later on. But hey, that's just language and as already stated earlier you got an original and gripping story going.

All righty, time to cut the suspense and get right down to the thick of it. I hope you guys enjoy this!

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While the battle between Simion and Savlian raged, Taris and Sethyas were just beginning their trek into the alleyways. With Taris were the two key objects that would be required to defeat Simion, Silverbrand and its respective enchantment stone. Taris decided to go over the plan once more.

“So you’re going to distract Simion in order to allow me to stab him with Silverbrand and, following that, destroy the stone?”

“Sounds easy enough doesn’t it?” Sethyas replied, his mood a mixture of nervousness and excitement. Finally, the resolution was at hand.

“If you say so Grandmaster…” Taris answered.

After that, the two assassins continued on in silence as they made their way to Simion’s hideout. That is, until they heard the sounds of fighting.

“Damn it Savlian!” Sethyas cursed as he broke into a run. He was surprised that the Guard Captain attempted to attack Simion so early.

Sethyas launched himself onto the ladder, his katana pulled free from its sheath. Sethyas could hear Simion taunting someone as he made his way up. Expecting the worse, Sethyas climbed faster. He made it to the top just as Savlian’s eyes rolled into the back of his head as he fell into unconsciousness. Simion, preoccupied and enveloped in his bloodlust, began cursing at the unfortunate event transpiring.

“This ends here, Simion,” Sethyas decided to call out to get his foe’s attention. Simion whirled around.

“Do you know how many times I’ve heard that today!?” Simion snarled in an annoyed fashion, “No one has yet to commit on those words yet. Just look around.” He gestured to his surrounds.

Dead guards littered the entire room, blood was everywhere and Simion was covered in it. It appeared as if he was bathed in the substance. Even his icy blue eyes appeared to be enveloped in flame. Sethyas couldn’t help but shake his head at the waste of life. Savlian should’ve known it was foolish to bring so many men in such a small space.

From this distance, it appeared that the Guard Captain had merely passed out from pain, but Sethyas couldn’t be too sure. This needed to be done quickly in order to get Savlian to safety. Just as Sethyas thought on this, Taris appeared beside him.

“Ahh, so you brought some help with you this time, Sethyas? Couldn’t do it yourself could you?” Simion mocked as he readied himself.

“I’m no fool, Simion. I know when I need help. You should realize that you need it to.”

Simion’s expression changed, softened in fact. Sethyas knew that this was the real Simion and not the possession. What Sethyas saw was a visage of agony and guilt.

“I do need help, Sethyas. I just don’t know how you could help me without killing me. I don’t seek death!” Simion said pitifully.

Sethyas sheathed his katana, hoping to show that he didn’t want to hurt Simion. “We do have a way to help you. We only need you to come here,” Sethyas said softly, as if he were speaking with a child.

Simion stared long and hard at the two assassins. Taris had followed his Master’s action and sheathed his weapon as well. Hesitantly, Simion began to take a few cautious steps towards them. Halfway there he suddenly stopped. His eyes clouded over and wincing, he fell to one knee, his hands clutching at his head.

“Y-you’re lying to me!” Simion managed to stutter out. It appeared as if he were struggling against something.

“No, don’t listen to it! We’re here to help! We just need you to be closer,” Sethyas said, encouraging the tormented assassin.

Simion shakily rose to his feet once again, his vision was no longer clouded but instead it was replaced with pain. Simion took a few more steps. Anticipation of a non-violent end to this raced through Sethyas’ mind. Mentally he urged on Simion’s every step. With one more step to go, Sethyas nodded to Taris. Taris withdrew Silverbrand and the enchantment stone.

Once Simion’s eyes fell upon those objects he instantly recoiled as if he was just burnt. Sethyas withdrew his katana as he noticed that Simion had lost control once again. The possession had returned.

“Ha! You seriously think I would let that happen? You are more foolish than Savlian!” the Voice spat.

“Enough words. Plan B it is,” Sethyas said before engaging the assassin.

Simion was ready though and blocked Sethyas attack easily with his dagger and with his unnatural strength he threw Sethyas away from him. Taris, brandishing Silverbrand, leapt at Simion’s back, hoping to drive the blade somewhere non-lethal. Simion appeared to sense the motive as he managed to kick the airborne assassin directly in the chest just before Taris could strike. The force of the blow sent Taris scuttling across the floor.

The attention of Simion returned to Sethyas, who was on the attack once again. Simion flipped over Sethyas’ mid ranged attack and on his landing he retrieved his second dagger that was still lodged in Savlian’s chest. Spinning around, Simion caught Sethyas’ overhead chop with his daggers and created some distance between them by kicking the Grandmaster away.

As Taris came to the aid of Sethyas, Simion simply batted him away. The youth did not possess enough of a threat at the moment for Simion to truly care. Sethyas on the other hand was a formidable opponent. He had to be dealt with first. With vigour, Simion unleashed a fury of cascading dagger swipes upon Sethyas, hoping that something would break through the defences of the Grandmaster. Yet, Sethyas’ defence stood and Simion had to break away to avoid getting attacked from behind, since Taris was moving in once again.

The effort of the multiple fights was beginning to take its toll on Simion’s body. He had begun to breathe heavily and sweat was beading down his temple. He knew that if he wished to survive, he’d have to do it soon or else he’d get caught. He was going to have to take some risks.

Blowing out a heavy breath, Simion leapt into the fray once again, attacking both assassins simultaneously. His daggers appeared to be a blur of motion as both Sethyas and Taris attempted to break past the whirlwind before them. Suddenly Taris yelped as a blade cut deeply into his shoulder, causing him to back away. The fury was no entirely placed upon Sethyas.

Judging the situation to be dire, Sethyas disengaged from his enemy in order to withdraw the Black Hands Dagger to assist him in this fight. Simion did not follow and only sneered at them.
“You think poison will defeat me? You are sorely mistaken, Sethyas. Even the legendary poison secreted in that blade will do little to harm me,” Simion boasted.

“That was not my intention, Simion. You shall see shortly what I have in store for you,” Sethyas replied slyly before turning to Taris, “Are you all right?”

Taris nodded as he staunched the blood flowing from his injured shoulder. Despite Taris’ assurance, Sethyas could tell that the injured arm was basically useless at the moment, or at least extremely painful should Taris decide to use it. Taris was just too determined to concede that impression though. Hopefully the injury wouldn’t prove to be their undoing.

Sethyas charged into the battle once again, his dagger and katana combo swirling in front of him. Simion held his ground and met Sethyas’ attack head on, stopping the Grandmaster in his tracks at metal crashed against metal. Both combatants began to circle around each other, clashing blades forcefully. Taris hung back as the two battle each other, looking for the right opportunity to dive in and sink Silverbrand into Simion.

The fight was becoming more and more intense the longer it went as each fighter struggled to keep up with their opponent’s pace. Suddenly, Sethyas cried out and dropped the Black Hand’s Dagger as Simion’s dagger bit into his hand. Simion kicked the dagger away and continued his onslaught. It wasn’t long until Sethyas cried out again, this time dropping his katana. It also was kicked away. Simion grinned as Sethyas, grimacing in pain began back tracking.

Sensing that his Master was in need, Taris attempted to get in between Sethyas and Simion. A hard kick to Taris’ arm sent Taris to the bloodstained floor, gasping in pain. Yet his action proved to be beneficial. The brief distraction allowed Sethyas to grab both of Simion’s wrists and twist them violent enough to disarm him. As soon as both weapons touched the ground, Sethyas launched Simion into the air with a hip toss.

Despite landing heavily, Simion bounced back to his feet and blocked the head kick Sethyas threw. The fight had shifted into unarmed combat. Feet and fists began flying. Sethyas managed to block a one, two combo to his head and answered back with a stiff kick to his opponent’s liver. Simion grunted in response but kept vigil to his attack as he faked a low kick and bulled his opponent to the ground. From there, Simion began to drop vicious hammer fist punches to Sethyas’ face, each blow emitting a sickening thud. Struggling, Sethyas pushed his opponent away from him with his feet and leapt up once again. Blood flowed out of his broken nose and Sethyas breathed heavily out of his mouth as he was no longer able to breathe out of his nose.

Simion grinned and began circling his weary opponent. He had gained his second wind and knew that with a broken nose, Sethyas would have difficultly keeping up with the furious pace he was about to unleash upon him. While bouncing around lightly on his feet, he began to tag Sethyas right in his broken nose with quick, snapping jabs. Blinking through watery eyes, Sethyas desperately tried to mount an offence, but Simion easily avoided Sethyas’ slower attacks. Simion was growing bolder by the second, as he began changing up his attacks. He feinted a punch and replaced it with a head kick that rocked Sethyas backwards. Simion giggled.

“Beating you to death… What better way would there be to kill you?” Simion asked through a bloody grin.

Panting, all Sethyas could do was wave his opponent to approach. Angered by the action, Simion went to punch Sethyas. The punch was caught and Sethyas trapped it in his arm. Simion tried the other hand. This too was caught. Simion looked into Sethyas’ eyes, stunned that Sethyas still possessed the energy to catch a punch. Instantly following that, Sethyas slammed his head into Simion’s, heavily dazing his opponent.

“Now Taris!” Sethyas shouted.

Amidst the haze, Simion felt pain race up his leg as Taris planted Silverbrand into his leg. Taris then smashed the enchantment stone, which blasted into many phosphorescent colours upon destruction. Suddenly Simion began screaming as if his mind was being torn apart.

Sethyas released Simion then and from his vantage point he saw a deep, black essence exude from Simion, creating an evil of unmistakable hatred. The aura began to pour itself back into Silverbrand. Once all of the blackness seeped back into the blade, it popped out of Simion’s leg, completely unmarked. Simion stopped screaming and collapsed to the floor, shuddering. Taris gingerly picked up the blade and put it away. Sethyas examined Simion’s leg and found no wound where the blade had entered.

“Are you ok, Simion?” Sethyas asked softly.

Simion face looked completely lost but after a couple more quiet questions he looked up to Sethyas. “I don’t feel it anymore… It’s gone!” he said weakly.

Sethyas helped the Breton to his feet. “Welcome back to retirement,” Sethyas said chuckling.

Simion paused, “So you’re not going to ki-“.

“I think we can break tradition in this case due to your discrepancy,” Sethyas replied before Simion could finish.

Tears welled up into Simion’s eyes before he tightly embraced the Grandmaster. “I can’t thank you enough for this!” he cried.

Sethyas closed his eyes due to exhaustion and patted the Breton’s back. “An assassin only kills when he has to,” he replied quietly.

A shout from Taris caused Sethyas’ eyes to snap open. “No Captain!”

Captain Savlian, armed with one of Simion’s daggers had somehow awoken once again and lurched into view. Sethyas tried to push Simion out of the way, but it was too late. The dagger plunged deep into the assassin’s back.

Sethyas felt Simion grow heavy in his arms and tried to lower the body gently to the ground. Savlian went stab Simion again, but Taris tackled him to the floor.

“What the hell are you doing!? Have you gone mad!?” Savlian screamed at the assassin.

“Do you realized what you’ve just done!?” Taris screamed back.

“Let him up, Taris, the damage has all ready been done,” Sethyas said sadly.

Behind the blood coating his face, Simion looked deathly pale. Yet he was smiling and he laboured for breath. Sethyas knelt beside him, a grim expression on his face; he knew that Simion wouldn’t survive much longer.

“I’m sorry, Simion,” he said quietly.

Simion shook his head and chuckled weakly. “You have nothing to be sorry about. It was fate that decided I should pay for what I’ve done. In fact, I think I got it easy. I won’t have to live through the guilt for the rest of my life…” he paused as he struggled for breath, “It doesn’t hurt either…”

Sethyas nodded. “Go now, former servant of Mephala.”

Simion grinned before the light faded from his eyes. Sethyas closed them sombrely and rose to his feet. He looked to the Captain and realized how confused the man was, he didn’t say anything though.

“So are you going to explain to me why I just got tackled for saving your life?” the Captain asked heatedly.

Sethyas simply shook his head. “He wasn’t killing me; we were merely embracing since we had just saved that man’s life.”

“What?”

Sethyas sighed. “Even if I were to explain it to you, you would not understand.” Sethyas examined the surroundings. He nodded to Taris who began to pick Simion’s corpse up by grabbing underneath his arms. Savlian interjected.

“Hey! What are you doing with him? This is a crime scene and must be dealt with accordingly,” he said, angry that he missing something.

“I see you got a mess here to clean up, Savlian. You look after your men, we’ll look after ours,” Sethyas replied calmly before grabbing the other end of Simion’s body. They began to leave the attic. Savlian followed them.

“But what are you going to do with him?” he asked them.

“We are going to give him a proper, Morag Tong burial back in Morrowind,” Taris replied.

Savlian sputtered for words but could not find any. He had no clue what went on while he fell unconscious. He was surprised he was even alive to tell the truth.

“Captain,” Sethyas said, getting the man’s attention.

“I can accept that the way you acted was justifiable. I could see how you could’ve thought I was being strangled and you were merely trying to save me, but I must tell you one thing. The ignorance of your race astounds me.”

With that, both Taris and Sethyas disappeared out of Savlian’s view with the body of Simion, leaving the Captain with the stench of blood and decay of the doomed men he brought with him. All the Captain could do was fall to his knees and shed tears of frustration, relief, and grief.


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All that's left is just to close things up and provide a bit of closure for the characters. That'll just take one more post. And just for the "Needless Fact" section. This update gives me 200 pages on Word. Hehe, I never thought I would write a 200 page story until now!

So stay turned for the closing update. I'll try to bust that one out for you guys sooner rather than later.

Wow, what a finish. Savlian man... that was biting rebuke he earned himself.

Wow, that was one heck of a way to end the fight. For some reason it feels as if Sethyas was planning on getting beat up, just to get the Voice in a cocky mood. Well whether he planned it or not, it worked.

If this wasn't a forum, you would be getting a standing ovation by now.

And a shameless request. Will you finish the Marthyn vs Luper clash once you've finished Bloodlust? I'm sure we would appreciate it.

It is unfortunate that Simion could not be saved, especially given that they had finally removed the possession. But, he did have a good point; this way, he won't have to live with the guild which would inevitably have haunted him.

That was definitely an amazing fight scene, and a great way to end Simion's story. I'm not sure what loose ends you think need tidying, so I'll have to wait and find out.

Oh yea! I still need to finish that don't I? Hehe, I'll try to get on that soon. But I definitely would prefer to bang out the conclusion/epilogue to this first. So please, bear with me.

To planty:

I just feel like bringing a bit more closure to this story is due. Like, I can see that I could potentially just end it here, and while it could be considered effective, it just doesn't exactly sit well with me. That's because I know I want to express a few more things through some of the characters in order to show the overall effect their journeys had on them. I kinda want to give a finality to it.

I;m speechless! Just speechless, I didn't expect the fight to end just tha way it did...What a writer you are Mallie!

A few hours later, soldiers sent out by Ormellius arrived at Simion’s hideout and were shocked to see the carnage of the battle that had taken place there. Faces drained of colour began to search through the bodies to check on any survivors. In the middle, separated from most of the bodies, Savlian Matius rested face first on the ground. Blood loss from his wounds had caused him to fall into unconsciousness and the soldiers immediately took him down and sent him to the barrack’s infirmary. They then began the solemn task of collecting the dead that Savlian had foolishly led to their demise.

It took a full week for Savlian to completely recover physically from his battle with Simion. Mentally was another issue. Throughout the week, Sethyas’ final words had kept repeating in his mind. Obviously the fact that Savlian had killed Simion had displeased the assassin. Still, Savlian was having a hard time believing that a man could flip dispositions from maniacally insane to passive, wounded victim in a heartbeat. If the possession was at fault for Simion’s crimes, and the Captain was beginning to believe such a reason more and more, Savlian still felt that at times it was Simion himself that was trying to kill them. Wouldn’t killing him then be justified? Somehow Savlian was beginning to think not.

Savlian thoughts also drifted to all those loss during this whole ordeal. Sure, Kvatch was a better place without the likes of Hlodir, Simion, and Vernon, but was the cost truly worth it? The Town Guard has taken an extremely heavy loss due to Simion’s assassinations and the battle with Hlodir’s bandits. Innocents such as the homeless Madsen and Bernise also dismayed Savlian’s conscience, so deeply in fact that he dreams were being haunted by the good people loss. It resulted in fitful sleeps that left him haggard and distraught. Still, life had to go on. He still had a job to do.

Shortly after being cleared from the infirmary, Savlian made his way to the Count’s Castle decked out in his uniform. Despite the troubles of recovery and the sense of loss, Savlian couldn’t help but feel of small sense of restored vigour while wearing his uniform. As he passed through the gates, the men attending returned warm welcomes and salutes. Savlian returned the gesture, happy to see that his men still had trust in him. It was another worry he had as he rested in recovery. Despite the hell the Town Guard went through, his men appeared to understand that Savlian himself had experienced the brunt of it.

It wasn’t long until Savlian found himself before Ormellius’ quarters. After a sharp knock, the Count bade the Captain of the Guard entry. Ormellius, dressed in well made, but reasonably plain clothes, smiled as he exchanged a handshake with the Captain.

“You look much better than the last time I saw you,” Ormellius stated.

A quizzical look crossed Savlian’s face. “I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t recall seeing you after fighting Simion.”

Ormellius waved the remark off as he went back to his chair and gesturing for Savlian to take one. “That’s because you were still unconscious. I checked up on you right as you were brought to the infirmary. Sethyas had told me that you have been seriously injured.”

“You’ve spoken with Sethyas?”

Ormellius nodded. “He and Taris arrived with the corpse of Simion. He told me what happened once they got there and I allowed them to take Simion back to Vvardenfell. I immediately issued soldiers to get you once hearing your predicament.”

A small smile crossed Savlian’s face as he listened to Ormellius’ words. He was touched to hear that the Count cared about his well being. It appeared that things were mending between them.

“What do you think about his rendition of the fight?” Savlian decided to ask.

“Well…” the Count began, pausing as he looked closely at the Captain, “I believed him.”

Savlian looked away. “I apologise for being so foolhardy. At the time I simply believed Sethyas’ concept to be ludicrous. I’m sure if I really thought about it –,” Savlian began before Ormellius cut him off.

“Captain! You were simply doing what you thought was right at the time. In the current state you were in at that time, it would’ve been difficult for you to process things quickly. Both Sethyas and I agree with this. He certainly wasn’t happy about how it ended, but he has accepted it and left that day. I suggest that you don’t try to communicate with him less you bring up those dark feelings once again,” Ormellius said sternly, yet with care and conviction.

Savlian nodded and his mood brightened. “Thank you, sir.”

Ormellius stood and clasped hands with his Captain. “We must put this dark time behind us. I can’t have you living in misery. I need you to keep this town safe. A lesser man would’ve broken long ago, but not you. I like to think I’m a good judge of character so please don’t make me disbelieve that notion,” Ormellius said smiling.

Savlian visibly squared his shoulders and stood to his full height. “You are right, sir. Expect the best out of me. This Captain isn’t going anywhere!”




A small, cool breeze lapped water against the beach. The Redoran Canton of the city of Vivec loomed in the background as several robed figures stood before a coffin and an open grave. One figure, dressed in a deep red robe lowered his hood and revealed himself. Sethyas stood before a small gathering of Morag Tong assassins, Taris stood by his side. One of their own was being put to rest today.

“Brothers and Sisters, we are here today to remember one of our fallen comrades. Simion Mandrake was a skilled member of our guild. During his time in the guild he served Mephala faithfully. For that, we must remember him. In his retirement, he suffered from a vile possession and did many inconceivable things that would tarnish the good name of our guild should it have been known he was one of our own. Yet, in the end, he died as himself, a Brother of this guild. It is this reason why we honour him today as we would any other member,” Sethyas stated, placing a fist over his heart. “So please, Brothers and Sisters, let us pay our respects to our fall comrade.”

With that, Sethyas knelt down next to Simion’s coffin. “May Mephala guide you on to the next life,” he murmured softly before rising to allow the others to do so.

Taris clasped a hand on Sethyas’ shoulder. “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”

Sethyas nodded, a solemn look on his face. “It is what he deserves,” he simply stated.





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Well, that's it! Done! Finito! Whatever else that means "it's over". Yet, do not fear loyal readers (and I definitely mean loyal due to the amount of breaks I've been taking!), I do intend to continue posting stories here. My next one I don't expect to be as long as this one, but I hope it proves to be as successful as I believe "Bloodlust" has been.

I'd like to thank anyone who has read even a portion of this story, even if they haven't posted a comment. Still, I'd like to specially thank those who have posted comments: your praise definitely kept me motivated. I'd also like to thank Chorrol.com for creating such a wonderful site with wonderful people. I'd also like to thank all my fellow writers here as their stories have certainly entertained me and have also provided ideas and techniques that will certainly help me to be a better writer in the future.

Cheers to you all!

Well, Bloodlust is complete...... Congradulations, Metal Mallet, here's to literature and hard work. Now I absolutely need to finish a certain story of my own, have a nice break...... wait a second! You still need to finish the Marthyn vs. Luper match!!!


Jk, enjoy the break while it lasts, MM. Bloodlust was a masterpiece, I remember reading it for the first time.......

I believe I questioned earlier whether this story needed this final installment. I'm glad to see that you made excellent use of it, and clearly proved me wrong. It was indeed nice to have everything wrapped up. I feel quite hopeful about Savlian's future in the guard.

Thanks for this excellent story and it's excellent conclusion. I do hope we'll see other writings from you in the future.

I don't think I have anything to add that hasn't already been said.

Well, I'll just babble like a donkey without a head for a while then. (Donkey without a head, how did I come up with that?)

I'll be looking forward to your next story. Whether short or long, as long as you put the same skill into it as you've put into Bloodlust, things will be fine. And I would have given you a subtle nudge towards a certain project, but it appears that someone got in ahead of me.

Anyway, take it easy and stuff. Don't get stressed out and try to rush updates all over. It will only make you feel horrible.

I agree with Dr Planty....excellent ending....of this story! I'm glad you will continue sharing your good writer's skills with us

Thank you for this Mallie!

Wow, I have been gone for a bit. But it lookas though it was well worth it friend. And I thank you for the honor of using Sethyas in this wonderful story.

Not a problem Black Hand, I'm glad you're happy with the result. It's excellent to hear that I did your great character justice.

Funny thing that you popped up though. I was thinking about PMing you to notify you that the story was complete because I was fairly certain that you'd be interested in how things turned out. I hope your visits become more frequent but we all know how real life can be...

Hmmm, I tend to include Sethyas in my story as well, he must have made a great impression that guy....heh