The Scorpion and The Warlock

“Do you want to play a game with me?”

Eskadinya doesn’t say anything, or even react. If anything, she seems irritated that he’s even bothering her. 

It means he’s bored, and that just means trouble. She slams her ax down on a log of wood, splitting it in half, and exhaling for a moment. She wipes her brow with a gloved hand. It’s hot, but she resists the urge to take off her clothes in case there is someone around who will see her markings.

“Eskadinya,” there’s his voice again, lapping along the folds of her brain and making her shiver. “Humour me.”

“Fine,” she says, bending over to pick up another log of wood. “How will you toy with me today?”

As she brings down her ax, she realises with a horrid twist of her gut that she can’t see anymore. She feels relieved when she hears the blade go through the wood, and plant itself in the tree stump. “Stop!” She yells, reaching up her hands to cover her eyes.

“Have you ever heard of, ‘pin the tail on the donkey’?” Xornoth hums, right beside her ear. She jumps and stumbles backwards. She falls on her ass, and breathes heavily.

“This is not funny.”

“It’s… amusing,” he says, a twinge of a chuckle in his voice. “The rules are simple, if you can get a hit on me with your little ax, I’ll give your vision back to you.”

She feels something push at her lower back, and she stands up warily, expecting the ground to crumble beneath her feet. When it doesn’t, she exhales, and starts grasping for the handle of her ax.

She feels around the grass, and the wood chips and splinters, before she manages to wrap her fingers around the handle. She carefully wedges it out of the stump, terrified that if she puts more force into it it’ll land on top of her and severe her in half again.

She tries to ignore the splitting pain in her gut at the memory of the cart accident. 

“How am I supposed to find you?” She questions, gripping the handle of her ax fearfully.

Eskadinya feels a large hand on her shoulder, and she jumps and whips around, trying to slam the ax in his arm. Xornoth laughs as she staggers when the ax does not make purchase, and tries to prevent an impromptu amputation. 

“Just to make it fair… you can ask for a hint,” Dinya angles her ear in the direction his voice is coming from. “Every minute or so.”

Eskadinya’s lower lip trembles for a moment, before she swallows and steels herself. She walks slowly, expecting tentacles to trip her at any moment. Nothing happens, and it’s eerily quiet now. “X-Xornoth?”

“Over here.”

She trips over her feet trying to run towards the sound. She swings the ax back and forth, and only stops when she realises that she’s not getting anywhere. She takes deep breaths, and strains to listen for her patron. 

After what feels like an eternity, she caves and calls for him again, feeling her way past some trees. She feels the sun press down on her shoulders, and she realises something is off now.

“Come closer,” Xornoth says. She’s known him for a long time, now, she can hear the suspicious amount of delight in his voice.

“I- I don’t trust you,” she says. She stops walking towards him, trembling and hugging her ax to her chest.

“You have no one else you can,” Xornoth sounds a bit disappointed now. “Would I lead you astray?”

Eskadinya stands there for a few seconds. She knows it’s a trap now. He’s not moving, and he wants her to come closer. All she can do now is play into his hand.

She walks forward, slowly. 

“Closer,” he breathes.

Eskadinya shifts the ax to one hand, now, and reaches her hand out, trying to find something to support herself on, to get an idea of her surroundings.

One of her steps meets air, and she screams as she falls forward.

---

When Eskadinya wakes up, she’s at the bottom of a cliff. Her ax is covered in blood and flies, and her body is wrapped in her cloak, which is now the same red as her magic. She gasps and shivers, hugging it closer. 

It’s twilight, and as the moon rises, Eskadinya weeps into her cloak, caught in the moment of when she fell towards the Earth beneath her.