Shandak Hurts

Characters in this scene: Shandak

Location: The Abyss

The appropriate preparations had been made. All but Cord had agreed to the plans as laid out, and that had been expected. He had to be informed that, at least for a little while, his departure was necessary, and that, should all go well, he would be allowed to return soon. He just now made his exit, the last one to do so, by his own insistence. Ah, well. This was as it should be. For the first time in many centuries, he was alone, with only the Abyss near him. He doubted there were even many of the Abyss's creatures in his domain, now; even they know when it was time to retreat to safer waters.

Just the Abyss, and Shandak.

He could feel it as much as he ever had, now. The grinding machinations of its many pieces, the distant cries of creatures afar in agony, and most of all, the laughter. The incessant mocking of the Abyss, which hounded him at all times, which he knew from his first entrance would be his doom. Of course, at the time he was able to leave, to escape the echoing sneer of the very fabric of this plane to which he was now bound. He hated it with every fiber of his being, and he knew that it cared not. Even as he at one time may have found amusement in the anger of a small child, the Abyss *knew* it hated him, and it laughed. Why should it not?

He was powerless to stop it, to refuse it. He could only continue to resist, but they both knew that the cracks were beginning to show. That damnable site had been an excellent trap, and he had fallen directly into it. To the Daemonhost with the whole place. His time was measured in years and decades, now, rather than centuries.

There was no doubt that whatever transformation the Abyss had prepared for him would leave him alive and conscious, but that is cold comfort. He might be considered a wonder, a powerful being for having accomplished what he had thusfar, but there is little point in reputation when one is powerless to act upon it. Little point in much of anything, it seemed at times. Of course, there was the Out in play, but he wondered how effective it would truly be. The Abyss would not release its hold on him easily.

Shandak roared, a scream to shake the heavens, to make the skies quake and the earth tremble. His cry of defiance would sound for tens of miles, a terrible sound to tell all who had ears to hear that he was still not a being to be trifled with. A shout that reverberated through his whole being, echoing into all corners of himself, producing such sound as might wake the dead, even in near-far off Sanctuary.

Shandak was a being of power, of strength, and he would not die before reminding all he could that he was still a being whom even gods feared to face, who had left a trail of destruction in his wake, who had torn cities and states from their foundations and obliterated them from the face of the planet. He raised up his arms, and, coming to his full height, beat upon the ground. It cracked, and splintered, and broke before him. What Joy it was, to break and crumble and ruin without care for what might remain.(edited)

He may lose the battle. He may become a malformed engine of suffering driven only by what hatred the Abyss saw fit to leave him. But he would not be forgotten.

Followed By: Shandak and Zachary Reconcile