Vaid Intro 2

--- The Wheel Turns ---
"I'm no bloody hero!" Vaid growled under his breath. "No bloody hero at all, burn me!"

As he spoke, images of Donovian's pleading face, purple under Vaid's rage crawled out of the dark corners of his mind. Vaid cursed and drove them back down again. He couldn't bring Donovian's young body back to life. But he could save the life of this young girl, or at least die trying. Perhaps one good act erased a bad... perhaps. A part of him wished desperately that it was so.

He also wished he had his sword... not that he knew how to use it, the blade was a trophie from a bandit who thought him but a lone traveler on the road. And so Vaid usually kept it because men were less apt to attack when they saw three feet of naked steel pulled from a scabbard. But, as it was, Vaid only had his small knife, and that seemed a somewhat paltry weapon against two assailants in a dark, dank alley.

His eyes finally fell on a half-broken cart lying just outside the alley's entrance. Running to it, Vaid yanked off one of the large timbers, a sound of tearing wood as it came free.

Then he seized Saidin, the male half of the True Source. Instantly his mind and body seemed to brim with the power, seemed to pulse with a bright light. It ached to be released. Ached to be put to use. He shuddered under the strain of it, under the temptation to draw more and more of it into himself. He felt like he was drinking life itself. But the tain of the Dark One was also there. The taint that had eventually made every male channeler go mad. A putrid taste, like rising bile threatened to overcome him. A feeling of decay, death. A feel of swimming in pure waters with a layer of thick scum. He shoved all that away with an effort of will and advanced into the dark alley.

The alley was much darker than the narrow street. Tall buildings made of stone and brick and covered with a white washed plaster jutted upward two, sometimes three stories on either side. The plaster peeled in places showing the original, dark unsavory walls. The smell of a nearby trash heap would have turned his stomach, but Vaid was already drinking filth, filth mingled with pure light as Saidin coursed through him. Rats ran fled under foot as he approached, squealing in fear and anger at his interruption.

Vaid held his make-shift club in front of him, in what he hoped appeared a menacing fashion. In the dimness, Vaid squinted. He could make out the slight form of the girl struggling fruitlessly, her muffled screams mingled with the course laughter of the men.

"Thank you for the coin dearie!" The voice belonging to the smaller man said. "Now, how about that other thing you were gonna give me!"

"Hold her still." There was the sound of ripping fabric. The men were so intent on the girl with her frantic screams they didn't notice Vaid approaching.

Vaid saw her helplessness and his anger that threatened to pour out in a white hot heat that would have destroyed them. All of them. The girl must not be harmed! He told himself.

So, instead he drew upon three of the five powers, he could see their strands dancing in front of them. Air. Fire. And Spirit. Normal people couldn't see the strands, of course. Vaid had figured that much out long ago. When he had learned to control the power... after a fashion anyway. Without anyone to really teach him, much of the time he wasn't sure what he was doing.

He wove the flows of air, fire, and spirit, one atop the other with the force of his will. The weaving made his already tall form seem to loom over them as he spoke, seemed to make his voice darker, richer, more menacing. He tied the weave off and bore down on them with a steady tread.

"Be gone, villains!" Vaid's voice caused the two men to spin around in fear and anger.

"Who.. who is it?" The closer, smaller man said peering into the darkness, up into Vaid's face. Vaid could make out the shorter man. Small and slight with a balding head and a goatee. A missing tooth completed the picture.

The man, seeing Vaid's tall form moving menacingly towards him, took a step backwards. "Blood and Ash--Ashes! Wha--who is he? He's mad! He'll kill us both!"
Vaid nodded. He wanted to kill them. Wanted to pound their silly puny heads with his club. It would be so easy. He could feel the splinters digging into his flesh from his grip. Could feel the power of saidin coursing through his veins.
His piercing gaze moved from face to face. "Be gone or your lives are forfeit!" And he meant it.

The little man needed no further urging and he turned and ran.

"Let...'s git! We got the girl's coin! That's enough for me! C'mon!"

The taller, larger man grimaced at retreating, he had a dark scruffy growth on his face. He looked like he hadn't shaved in a week and his eyes were cold and dangerous. He sized Vaid up and eventually nodded, then turned and jogged after the little man.

At the far end of the alley, they stopped, and the larger man yelled out. "We won't forget this! Mark my words! We will find you! And when we do, you will wish you had never been born!"

Vaid glared after them and once more began advancing towards them, stepping over the girl's form, he began to jog towards them.

With a sudden shout they turned and ran, their footsteps receeding into the night.
Vaid smiled cruelly after them for a moment. Then remembering the girl and turned and approached her. She was sitting on the cold ground, sobbing. Part of her dress was ripped revealing a small, pale, bony shoulder. Her eyes were dark and wide with fear and she shuffled backwards and her behind attempting to escape this new danger. Her back came up against the wall of a building and she stared into Vaid's menacing form, not daring to look away. Her breathing came in ragged gulps.

"Please.... Please don't hurt me," she whimpered mournfully, shrinking away from him.