Role

Chapter 3

Paladins always kill the duergar first. Wood-elves always run at the sight of
any duergar with an iron axe. But paladins and wood-elves together? Now,
that's a real problem. And it's amazing what can be done with a stolen
slave's robe.

I don't know the particulars of the attack, I only know the particulars of my
victimization in it. I was giving Elbio dinner when the pair exploded into
our dwelling. They were, as mentioned, a storm giant and a wood-elf. The
wood-elf was female with dulled armor and dirty blonde hair. She held a spear
made from whitesteel. The storm giant, whose bulk struggled against the
confines of our home, stood just behind her with a large two-handed sword
that glowed with holy power. With practiced, almost casual ease they
descended upon mother.

Whitesteel and prayers of holy wrath fell her into a burned, bloodied and
lifeless heap before my brother and I could react. As she was lain asunder
before us, we shrieked. Elbio, because he loved her. Me, because I would
never learn the truth of my father. It was a natural reaction, but it was not
a wise one. How much wiser to have been quiet, still and hidden. Alas.

Without a thought the wood-elf lanced Elbio with her spear, killing him
instantly. From the stories you would think this a more dramatic thing to
witness. You would expect the world to move in slow motion, for an orchestra
to begin playing solemn music, for a tear to form in his eye and
painstakingly caress his cheek before falling to the ground. Then for the eye
that shed it to forever close. But, the real world isn't like that.

In the real world you're so full of fear and adrenaline that the moment snaps
by so fast your brain cannot grasp it. You stand in a sort of shock asking
yourself foolishly if what you're seeing is real. Somewhere in your mind you
know. You know it's real. You know the heart-wrenching, agonizing pain of the
loss is coming. But for that moment, it hasn't arrived. There's only shock.
Shock, and the small matter of knowing you're probably next.

"Wait!" I said, before the pair reached me.

They paused, and in that brief pause I saw two different expressions. Both
shared a measure of surprise that I spoke, but anger was only in the eyes of
the wood-elf. The paladin seemed upset, as though wrestling with whether or
not he agreed with killing children, duergar children though we were.