Uther the unhinged:
Heimgrall looked at the blood slowly congealing on the deck. The assault, when it finally came, had been short and brutal. The few soldiers falling to the guns of the pirates. Even the Windsinger mages�?T spells had died as they left his throat. That was before a bullet had taken the left side of his head. Heimgrall wondered blankly if it was his blood he was watching.
They had spotted the ship 2 days previously. The captain knew what that dark smoke on the horizon meant and had fled before it. It had been futile. The terrified passengers had watched their pursuers�?T slow and inexorably gain with horror.
Heimgrall felt rather than saw the pirates stiffen. He looked up from where he was kneeling. The dwarf in front of him was heavily armoured, like the other Zharr Vyxaa pirates. Yet his armour was trimmed with bronze and gold. Intricate runic designs decorating each scale of his brigantine.
�?oMy Lord�?�
The dwarf turned his head to study Heimgrall. The golden deaths�?T head mask regarded him impassively
�?oMy lord. We are only refugees, Take our valuables but let us live and you will have our eternal gratitude.�?�
The dwarf tilted his head.
�?oWe do not want your baubles.�?� His voice was deep and tinged with humour. �?oWe do not want your ship. We do not want your gratitude. We just want you.�?�
Slavery! Heimgralls�?T last hope flickered and died. Images of whips filled his mind. Tears filled his eyes.
�?oI will never serve you!�?� The voice came from further down the line of kneeling prisoners.
�?oYou may break my body but never my will. I will never serve you!�?�. It was Adrithan, the young blacksmith.
The dwarf chuckled richly.
�?oOh, you will serve. But don�?Tt worry. We don�?Tt need your body or your will. I told you. We just want you�?�
The dwarf raised the strange pistol that he held and fired.
The prisoner grunted. He looked in surprise at the small dart lodged in his chest, the long wires trailing from it and the pistol. Then he began to scream.
Heimgrall screwed his eyes closed to shut out the violet glow from those wires. He could not shut out that sound. The sound that clawed at his sanity. The sound of a soul being torn from its�?T body.
The screaming was to last a long time.