WOT Adv 262 - Fiznak Revealed

== The Wheel Turns ==
Fiznak surveyed the scene, and the Myrddral's eyeless gaze held his with an intensity that chilled his very bones.

"So... *it hissed* It is just you and I worm!"

Fiznak shivered under the terrible scrutiny and the Fade laughed mirthlessly--a sound like rough sandpaper, scraping against dry bones. Daelyn shuddered again, fighting the urge to turn and flee as the menacing gaze nodded toward him.

"You are nothing to me... you think the little wound you gave me earlier will hinder me from slaying you?"

Little wound? Fiznak wondered. Light! I chopped of his flaming arm? Will nothing stop him?

The Fade's horse reared back and landed, iron-shod hooves sparking up the cobbles.

Certainly with its arm gone, it must be easier to face, he reasoned. Fiznak shook his head and raised his sword, blade high. "You've walked your last shadow, FADE!"

Suddenly, three men broke through the line of trollocs and though pale-faced from fear, they were veterans of living and fighting along the blight and had mastered the urge to run. They were brave indeed to face Fade. Brave, yes, but foolish to think he would be an easy kill. The dark blade, flicked high and low, like an adder's bite and soon the three were gurgling out their last breaths, until his foul mount stomped their moans quiet with a sickening crunching sound of iron hooves on skulls. All who approached fell to the fade's might.

Fiznak gulped hard.

Fade chuckled it's low rasping laugh, eyeing him once more. "So... it seems you have some backbone in you. Until I yank it out..."

"Tai'Manshima!" the warriors shouted around him amidst the din of battle.

Fiznak grimaced. "HA! You're no match for the bravery of a blademaster of the borderlands, Fade! Come taste of your death."

The long dark blade seems to swallow the light around it and he plunges it into the chest of one of Daelyn's under lieutenants, sending the man screaming back clutching at his wound.

Fiznak's muscled clenched in rage, then he remembered he had to clear himself of emotion to win this fight.

"One who has been to Shael Guoyl has tasted death many a time, worm. Tasted it and enjoyed it!" The black blade drank in the night and soon the black charger was thundering towards him, knocking trolloc and human aside. The Fade's cloak remains as motionless as stone as it drew nearer, a living nightmare bearing down on him.

Fiznak tensed, waiting to react. He gripped his sword and tried to become one with the blade.

Shadow blade met boarderlander steel in a loud rapid staccato clangs. A slash across his chest, met good hard steel, resulting in a loud screeching sound an a flash of light. The blow rattled Fiznak's teeth and the force of it slammed him into the wall behind him.

Daelyn moved forward, trying to become one with the blade. But it was difficult to concentrate. Thoughts kept rushing back to Shae-Ree breaking his concentration. And then Maeslyn? Shaking his head to clear his mind, emptiness filled him. He flowed from form to form becoming a whirlwind of sharp edges and cold death. And as the emptiness filled him, a pulsing light just out of reach seemed to await his touch. I mere brushing of his fingernail against the light, he knew, would open the flood gates to a river of fire and life twined together.

Parting the silk became boar rushing down the mountain as the blade gets into the Fade's guard. At the last minute he rolled off his horse, and the blade only managed to catch a small part of his shoulder. In a blur like some armored black cat, the Fade was instantly on his feet, facing him with new wariness.

"If I must, I will take you a piece at a time, Shadowspawn!"

"So," the Fade flashed some teeth. "You have at least some skill with the blade. Not enough to save you though, mores the pity. I was rather beginning to enjoy this."

With that his foot lashed out. Fiznak moved to slash the leg, but the Fade easily blocked his blow and the steel-booted foot slammed into Fizzy's stomach, resulting in a loud clang. That still managed to nearly knock the wind out of him.

Fiznak rolled to the right and spun, his blade coming down in a flash, but it met the night-black blade. Again and again, he moved, flowing from form to form. He managed to get into his guard only once and then the blow was so weak it did not penetrate the hardened overlapping steel plate armor that covered the fade from the neck down.

The Fade counter-attacked, the blade darting in and out like some dark thing that seemed alive. Fiznak found his back against the wall again, and stopped a heavy handed overhead strike by parrying and scraping the sword out of the way. Sparks skittered down onto his arm. Then he held the blade there for a moment, his fear yammering at him from some deep part. The glow seemed to pulsate inside him.

The Fade gave a hiss sound and with a sudden spin, he batted aside your sword and plunged his into his left shoulder, sending him down onto one knee. Fiznak groaned, but inside this emptiness, the pain was a secondary thing. Secondary to the bright light that seemed to be drifting nearer.

"This death will not be so sweet, Fade!" He stood suddenly and with some effort pushed aside the Fade's blade fighting him backward.

The Fade's answer was a gaping maw of a grin with sharpened teeth. "We will see worm!"

Another blow and again his armor protected him. Fiznak's eyes narrowed. The Fade was quick. Too quick. Even with the emptiness around him, it was all he could do to defend the creature. Even off-handed this Fade seemed to exceed the vaunted skills in the blade the Bors possessed before he had come to this strange dream existence. Even though he was Tai'Manshima, this Fade had him outclassed.

Suddenly the blade pierced his side where only his mail shirt protected him. It felt like hot steel boiled inside him. Daelyn screamed and rocked backwards. His vision swam before his eyes. Countless stars that he tried to blink away with mixed success. Around him he could hear the sounds of dying and the thrub-a-dub of his own heart beat loudly in his ears. He shoved a fist onto his side and felt wetness ooze through his leather gloves.

He clung to the emptiness, knowing that if he lost it, there was a good chance he would go unconscious from the pain. And plus, the warmth from that pulsating river of fire was beckoning for him. It was not something he could easily deny.

"So, it ends here." The Fade hissed. "And you and she will both die. I think I'll kill her last though. I so enjoy a little sport now and then."

Fiznak only barely stopped the blade from puncturing his lung. It stabbed into his thigh. The pain was a distant thing, but the muscle wouldn't work right and he fell to the ground in a heap of pain. He rolled to a sitting position his back against the wall, blocking powerful overhand blows again and again.

The Fade grinned his lips a pale white smear against the dark death of night.

Daelyn felt the power within him, and resisted the urge to unleash fire as he had before. Who knows what would result? The Fade leered at him his blade smashing down against Daelyn's sword again and again.

The river of fire looked inviting.... and the though Maeslyn beckoned from within that flame.

"I want to see you die begging for life for what you did to me...." The Fade hissed.

"Fiz....nak ...." A voice sounded somewhere inside his head.

Again and again the blade hammered down.

"Maeslyn?" Fiznak groaned.

"My heart.... I need you."

Fiznak's hatred for the Fade and Maeslyn's need--it was Maeslyn wasn't it-- loosed all restraints. Somehow he ripped apart the barrier between him and that river of fire and light, and it flowed towards him, through him. He rode the tide like a piece of flotsam over a waterfall a mile wide.

"Maeslyn! NOOOOOoooooo!!!"

It was a river--an ocean of rage and heat.

Fiznak held his blade weakly, managing just barely to hold onto it as the blows rained about him.

An ocean of rage welled up in Fiznak as he thought of Maselyn and Shae-Ree. He felt his skin begin to tingle and then burn intensely. He looked at the fade one last time as his final strike was preparing to fall and a fountain of fire poured forth from Fiznak's hands as he released his grip on his sword.

Daelyn felt something... weaves like thread...and could see them now. Weaves of air and fire, he pulled on them hard enough to rip them out of the pattern, bending them to his will and instead of a wall of fire eighty feet long, a circle of fire as tall as he was. Tall and white hot blazed about him, scorching all who came near.

The Fade had leaped backwards but he wasn't fast enough. The Flames leaped out and up the fades arm, superheating his blade and causing him to hiss in pain as he dropped it. He jumped back out away from the circle of pain and flame, drawing a dagger from his belt.

The flames still danced about Fiznak, and he held them by concentration and force of will alone in a rough circle. "So fade, it appears you don't find me such easy fodder."

"Wormling..." it hisses and then licks his lips as if to run. "I'm not done here. Not by a long shot!"

Fiznak picked up his sword and pointed it at the fade Sneering, the Fade ran towards his horse, and scrambled up, dagger in hand.

"Maeslyn!" Fiznak yelled as he ran at the Fade--well tried to run; his leg gave him some difficulty---and attacked with everything he had. The power inside him beat in time with his sword blows. Begged to be used. To be set free... The pressure was building again... pressure. Somehow the fire within him infused his sword and it became a fixture of flame and metal, the sword was the instrument of his wrath!

The Fade saw him coming and yanked on his reins desperate to avoid the flaming blade, the blade slashes towards him, fire and light and metal suffused in one. The horse, black charger and hooves, leaps back, hooves pawing the air...and are summarily sliced off at the knee. Screaming in pain the horse rears back and onto the Fade--except he moved with inhuman speed, rolling free before being crushed.

Then the Fade gave a spiteful glare, and threw his dagger. Fiznak tried to move, but the blade flew through the flames and sunk into an unprotected area between Daelyns collar and neck, sending blood down the outside of his breast plate. He gasped in pain, but managed to keep his grip on the fountain of fire raging within him.

The Fade seeing the fire still wreathed about you utters, coarse orders and then backs out of the gate, using the trollocs as cover.

"Coward! may Shaitan himself flay you for your cowardice!"

Naming the Dark One was never a good idea, but the fire within him made him feel a little light-headed.

Seeing the Fade run, Daelyn channeled the fire towards him in a conflagration of enormous proportions, a ball that consumes both him and his shadowspawn forces in white hot flame. Pillars of fire shoot up from the ground and burn trolloc after trolloc into ash...

When the flames die down, just outside the gates, Fiznak can see a pile of superheated metal, the remains of the Fade's plate armor.

Several of the trollocs run fleeing into the trees and others with the foul link between fade and trollocs gone, lie twitching on the courtyard ground. It is a victory... but at what cost? Did it matter? To be with Maeslyn, Fiznak wondered, he would pay any cost!

Any cost? a voice inside of him mocked him.

Daelyn half crawled and pulled himself towards Shae-Ree.

Borderlanders were beginning to pick themselves up. He heard shouts that the
Dai'shan has taken a deathly hurt. Those borderlanders who saw what you did... saw what you are, they shy back from you as if you are the dark one incarnate. Some are crouched low, teeth-bared, others are shrieking in fear. Others, still, watch you impassivley.

Ignoring them all, Fiznak finally collapsed beside Maeslyn. Forcing himself into a sitting position he studied her. It was her or his imagination. Either way it seemed so real, that it didn't matter. And she was somehow lying there before him, a wound on her head. Fearing the worst, Fiznak groaned in pain and cradled her head in his hands on his lap.

"Maeslyn!" His head lowered and and he kissed her gently. "Please! light, please let her live!"

And gently enfolding her in his arms, Daelyn bent and kissed Sha-Ree. "My heart!" the words came out of Fiznak's mouth, yet Daelyn was saying them. "Please! light, please let her live!"

Please...

"No, Sha-ree, no!" And then suddenly Alena was beside him, her face an impassive mask as she knelt beside Shae-Ree. Her hair was disheveled and her clothes somewhat singed. She passed one hand over Shae-Ree and then grimaced. "She will live, I think..."

Daelyn suddenly relaxed, holding her to him.

"But you, borderlander, are hurt." She put a hand to his forhead and Daelyn felt a flood of cold course through him. He only grunted. "That's about all I can do. I can only stop the worst bleeding. I told you before, my talents lay not so much in healing."

"My thanks..." Daelyn muttered. Thankful Shae-Ree was still his. Still his to the end.

"And now, borderlander, you must face an unpleasant decision." She paused for a moment and it seemed that Daelyn hadn't heard her. "You can either stay here as one feared by even your own wife or leave for the good of all to descend into the blight and fight the dark one of your own volition."

Daelyn grimaced in confusion. "I... I don't even know what happened."

"You can channel," Alena replied, and as she said it, her breath came out a little shaky. "Yes, a channeler. A man that can channel. Fated to go mad and break the world if not stopped. What happened tonight explains it very clearly.

Daelyn blinked? A channeler? Him? It was impossible wasn't it? But then... there was the fire... twice.

"And should you remain," Alena continued. "I and my sisters will be required to take you to Tar Valon. For your own good and for the protection of those you hold dear."

"I would never see her again..."

"But you are not who you once were either. You have become more than what you were and in the eyes of some, less--an animal to be hunted and slain--in the eyes of others."

"I am NO animal!" Daelyn roared. Some boarderlanders ran at that. Fearing more of the fire and flame that had fought along side them.

"No not an animal, but some see you as such. I admit even some of the reds would see you as such and would, I fear, treat you as such," she sighed and stood looking down at him. She brushed at dirt on her dress and then nodded. "Better that you go into the blight and give your final offering there or come peacably to Tar Valon with me and my sisters."

"Never. I know what you would do..." Daelyn said his voice cold and dead, emotion gradually dribbling out of him.

"Think on it," she stood, gathering her skirts and pushed back some stray hair into some semblence of order. "I await your answer in one hour's time. See to your wife. It will be the last time you will ever see her."

Fiznak floated outside, a mere spectator now. He saw Dealyn holding Shae-Ree... Maeslyn was now gone... Or was she? He looked around, but Fiznak couldn't see himself either?

Gently, he sat there and lovingly kissed Shae-Ree and held her for a long moment. But the inevitable waited. Even now, he could feel the light just beyond him, beakoning.

Daelyn sighed. The truth was there burn him. The proof inside of him, the light take him! He pulled himself painfully to his feet and grimaced with the pain. But his misery at knowing the truth. Knowing that Alena was right and cursing her for it, that was worse pain a hundred times over. He let that black pain mix with the taint of Sai'din that he could still feel within him.

He lurched forward. The crowd shifted and took a step backwards. And using the wall for balance and lumbering and lurching between buildings, he gradually made his way to his home. Their tower. He slowly ascended the tower, leaving Sha-Ree down below in the care of others. He paused a moment at their bed chamber and stood looking into the room for a long silent moment, and then his head dropped in acquiescence.

He would not go and be gentled or killed by the Tar Valon witches. Yet nor could he leave his Shae-Ree. She was his life his all. His everything. Perhaps it was madness, madness that was fated to come. But it didn't matter now did it? There was only one thing to do.

Climbing beyond their rooms, he stood atop the tower, he opened his arms wide as if to gather in every last scent of Shae-Ree. Her memories danced before his eyes. But what would it matter if he stayed? She would despise him or worse. That he could not abide. A dark mood settled on him. Foul and dark as the taint inside him. And a dark voice seemed to cackle gleefully inside him, "Do it! Do it! Better to end it now than live forever as one hated by those you love! Hated and fated for madness to run ruin among you!"

Groaning in misery. Daelyn reached and pulled once more on that white-hot stream of liquid filth. He felt the joy of life and the stench of death even as he drank both in. And then he brought home fire and lightings. Air and fire and earth and even spirit twined about him and about his heart, entrapping him. Flames burst from his hands and feet. As his last strength was about to fail, he uttered his final words, enhanced now, so that all could hear.

"Sha-Ree. I love you dearest! Name our child... Name our boy child... " Somehow he knew, knew it for a truth that it would be a boy child. "Name him..." He struggled as the flames began to burn away his stomach and intestines. "Name... him... Fiznak!" He roared as fire erupted from his
mouth and eyes.

And with that, the thunder pealed and the lightnings crashed, a multitude of lightings scorched down and he fell forward, as a burning ember to the stones below.

---

Even as he fell, Fizzy reeled back and felt himself tumbling backwards, down a dark hole, sinking.

"No! Father!" he reached out with one hand, and with a last ounce of...something... something that Daelyn did, perhaps across the wheel of time, Fiznak thought it was--certainly hoped it was--a hole opened. Slicing open to some other place and time. And he fell.

"Maeslyn!" he screamed, and then all was darkness.