The 5 Trolls You Meet

[The Summoner]

It was a a nice, clean sound. Like when you use a sharp knife to cut through a freshly picked fruit. A long culling fork had speared through the Summoner's bare, heavily wounded chest, and a cheer erupted from the crowd of highbloods that had gathered to see the execution of the rebel leader.
"Your rebellion has ended." Her Imperious Condescension sneered down at the Summoner, who kept his eyes fixed on hers even as his consciousness was fading. He closed his mouth, coughed, and then spat on her, his final act of defiance. The brown mixed with saliva stained the Empress' royal garbs and she frowned deeply, planting her heel into her stomach and shoved.

The culling fork, and all the spikes driven in the prongs ripped out chunks of flesh as the Summoner fell backwards. He landed heavily on back. What a shame. He hadn't expected it to end like this. Had he known, he wouldn't have sacrificed so much. He had made others suffer and die due to his arrogance. The Summoner's eyes slowly looked over to the side, where he could see a bunch of the high bloods gathering closer to the platform that he was bleeding onto.

He could hear the voice of the Condesce declaring that the execution was over, and that his body was to be used as a personal trophy. At least, that's what he thought. Everything was getting muffled, quiet. The Summoner took in a deep breath. He knew it would be his last, and as everything went black, he managed to whisper his final words, "I'm sorry, my love."


Everything was dark, warm, like someone was holding him close. The Summoner knew that he should wake up and open his eyes soon, but this feeling was too comfortable to resist. He let out a low sigh. Is this what death is like? This feeling of drifting endlessly in space, being able to finally rest? It seemed nice. Too nice. No one would judge him here. No one would tell him he had failed, or point out all the mistakes he had made in his life. No, everything here would be perfect. That was, until he felt something shove into him from behind and he landed hard on his face.

[The Signless]

The Signless sat, hunched over on the edge of a small block elevated from the ground just enough for his feet to still be firmly planted in the dense patch of dirt that the concrete base sat on. A large jut stood behind the cloaked mutant, about 6ft tall and made of a smooth glimmering black stone that curved to over-hang above the Signless' head. A cold and bitter-smelling wind blew over Paralith as he sat and waited on his guests arrival, what little grass there twitched at the force of the breeze. The stagnant scent blew through out the valley that the block sat dead center in, an empty dead valley that went on for a vast distance; only small specs of what would be great mountains spaced far apart on the horizon could be seen. The clouds were a dull shade, tinted orange from the sun cresting the horizon and not apparent in the direction it was travelling. The whole place seemed surreal, so large that one could see the curvature of the world simply from looking out into the horizon- and so the mutant sat in the dead valley with hardly any life apparent in his mutant eyes. He stared into the horizon, squinting from the bitter-wind and the cresting sun, it would be apparent that this place is indeed surreal as it was sacred. It was the place where executions happened.

Paralith let out a sigh, as if the gust at his back had seeped into him and forced its way out again He kept his stare forward as the sound of something falling to the dirt echoed quietly behind the mutant. Paralith pulled his hood up over his head to shroud his face from the new arrival, the rest of his form hidden in his cloak. He didn't speak yet, he wouldn't until he was addressed; then the journey could begin.

[I would've written more but i have a time limit and this is all i can manage. ]

[The Summoner]

The Summoner groaned. His body felt heavy. What happened to that warm, floating feeling? He didn't want to move, but small pebbles that were digging into his face eventually forced him to push himself up with his arms. When he opened his eyes, he noticed that this place: what seemed like a valley stretched out around him. This was definitely a different place from where he had been executed.

The one thing that stood out, though, was the large arch in front of him. It was like a pillar. At first, he thought nothing of it, for it was simply a structure from ancient times to him. Slowly, he started to walk forward, around it to get a better view of the horizon and the world.
"Where am I...?" He muttered aloud. He stepped up next to the arch to look around, until he noticed a hunched over figure at the base of the arch. "Whoa. My apologies. I didn't realize you were there."

[The Signless]

At first, the Signless didn't react and instead chose to sit for a moment in the lingering silence of the unanswered question. Soon after though Paralith took a breath of the astringent air and expelled it in a large sigh before standing, rolling his his shoulders; finally speaking to his guest.

"There are no need for apologies here... besides-" the mutant chuckled, the quiet and kind-toned laughter dispersing into the winds of the dead valley "I spent most of my life trying not to be noticed, I think a good part of that skill carried with me; even here . No worries, friend. Those more perceptive than you went without realizing my presence, though that isn't much relevant now is it?" the Signless said with a warm regarding smile, turning to the Summoner finally. His eyes a defined white, in contrast to the rest of his face. There were no pupils, no iris, just white and strangely enough the piercing aspect of his stare stayed even in death. Even when there were hardly eyes that could stare, they still held their ability to stare through others.

He waited for a reaction, a small mischievousness twitched hid in his smile; reminiscent of his younger days. All Paralith dared to say before the flurry of questions could be thrown, the same question he had was "I've waited here a long time here for you, you know?"

[The Summoner]

This stranger seemed vaguely familiar to the Summoner as they talked. He watched them carefully, trying to remember who this person was. As the stranger turned to face him, his eyes widened. Those eyes, completely white, just staring right through him. Little did he know that his own eyes were the same way. But what probably shocked him more was the troll's face, his clothing, his horns. All of them matched what Mindfang told him of, and what he had imagined when hearing the stories of the old rebellion.

Suddenly, everything in this place made sense. He understood what this valley was, what that arch meant, and who stood before him. "Y-you are... The Sufferer?" He managed to choke out those words. The first thing he did was drop to his knee. He wasn't sure what to do, but he knew he had to at least show some kind of respect.

[The Signless]

Paralith quirked a brow as the brown-blood spoke an alias he'd not heard before, his eyes returning to their original yellow with his irises following suit; converting to a bright scarlet tint. He had became what his memory was, an infidel with his mutant eyes returned.

"Is that what I'm remembered as?" the Signless said with a concerned edge in his voice, before turning to face the horizon again as he sunk into thought momentarily "Hm, that sounds so harsh, though I'm sure the Empress struck all she could from the records so I guess that is a fair title." the mutant continued with a small sigh, its sound overtaken by the continuous air stream.

He almost continued before pausing- turning to see the Summoner on his knee in a sign of respect. This made Paralith stop his train of thought abruptly, to look over the troll before him; examining his form. It was silent for a time, in the place they were it wasn't entirely clear for how long- to the Signless it didn't much matter. It could have been a minute, or a sweep but while in the silence all Paralith did was stare at the rebel leader with a mixture of understand and amusement shown in his expression. The mutant lowered to his knee as well, the cloak drooping to the ground around him expanding and covering over a small area of densely packed dirt and rough brown patches of grass around them. He out reached from the cloak to offer his hand in greetings, now revealing the ring of heavily burnt flash around his wrist that mirrored the one on his other hand. He had certainly came what his memory was.

He smiled warmly again, speaking quietley "Welcome."

[The Summoner]

The Summoner took his hand and shook it firmly before kissing at the back of his hand. "It is an honor to meet you, sir. For many sweeps I've followed your teachings, as passed on by my matesprit. She has told me much about what you've done." He kept his eyes trained on the ground, not daring to look at his eyes unless given the privilege to. "I've tried to rebel too, and make your vision a reality, but..." He trailed off, closing his eyes again and remembering his bitter defeat and execution.

[The Signless]

The wind shifted, it's direction flipped unexpectedly and threw its bitter smell in his face and at the Summoners now lowered back; the dead and browned grass followed suit. Paralith pulled his hand away gently with a soft smile, his cloak now whipping behind him as the wind picked up and examined the troll before him as he asked the bullhorn to stand to his feet. Signless gestured for Summoner to follow, keeping his welcoming smile apparent as he began to walk down the field at a very slow comfortable pace towards the cresting sun and the seemingly endless twilight it caused.

"There is really no need for formalities here-" Paralith said, making sure to emphasize the word 'here' as if where they were was of some kind of importance. He glanced over to the Summoner again as he pulled the cloak closer to him to attempt to guard himself from the wind.

Laughing lightly the mutant said "I am glad that my life did have some sort of impact, with things like infidelity to ones home-world you can never be sure." Paralith paused, some distance away from the shrine now and turned on his heels to face the Summoner. "Here however, I can be sure of most things-" he said putting emphasis in his phrasing again "Except for if you know exactly what is going on..."

[The Summoner]

The Summoner followed the Sufferer as he walked, listening to his every word. The breeze was picking up, turning into a rather strong gust. The Summoner would've tucked his wings away, but he remembered that the Condesce had ripped them off before his execution. He frowned at Sufferer's words.
"I don't think I understand what you're talking about, sir. What do you mean what's going on? Isn't this the.." He paused for a second, gathering his thoughts. "Isn't this the afterlife...?"

[The Signless]

Signless stopped, the sun had begun moving again, the endless twilight was nearly over- and though it was moving much slower than it should be it's movements would still be apparent as the light crawled across the valley. The mutant turned on his heels as the wind whipped up again, wafting his cloak up as he smiled an replied "Welcome to heaven, friend."

He spread his arms and gestured to the entire the field, the empty brownish field. No life in sight from mountain too mountain, save for the two. The bitter wind continued to whip up around them, the valley they found themselves in was dead; much like them

[The Summoner]

"Heaven..." The Summoner echoed, staring at him, and the valley before him. It was... Hard to take. He swallowed, taking in the scenery. "A-Are you sure? I mean, I thought Heaven was supposed to be a pretty place. You know, like, clouds and trees, and flowers.. But this place is... It's so..." He struggled to find the right words. "...Dead.. I guess.." He stared at the ground, letting that word sink it. Dead. Just like him. Just like the troll who stood before him.