Eternal

Alison might have a point, but you’re not willing to defy the Emperor so directly.

“Nothing can be done, we’re just going to have to stay here.” You remark.

Alison throws her hands up in the air and rolls her eyes.

“That’s not going to change a thing you know.” You say.
“Oh believe me, if I thought it would, I would’ve done it a long time ago. I’m just going to say one more thing, and I don’t give a shit if this is stepping out of my boundaries. This little arrangement you have with Eldolith is getting out of hand. I can’t believe I’d actually start feeling sorry for a svelk, but a couple nights ago when I was making my own perusal of our perimeter I caught her sitting by herself actually crying. I didn’t even think that was possible for a svelk. Of course she tried to play it off and told me to mind my business and called me a blonde monkey, but she wasn’t fooling anyone.”
“Really? She was crying? Bitch doesn’t cry when we’re together, glad to hear she at least does though.” You chuckle.

Alison is shocked by your gleeful sociopathic behavior.

“By the Emperor, even when I served with fucking Kane, I never heard him speak in such a manner. Look I know most of what we do for the Empire is pretty ruthless and merciless. I also know you’re probably among the most cold hearted when it comes to such things. But what you’re doing is…”
“What am I doing Alison? What am I doing that is oh so terrible? Didn’t you tell me years ago that you’ve run into Empire officers that take advantage of underlings via sexual favors?”
“Yeah, and I never said that was right either. Also I said sexual favors. The key word being sex. Whatever it is you’re doing to Eldolith is going beyond sex and you know it.”
“So what? She’s a svelk anyway. She’s not even a proper Empire citizen, let alone soldier. Hey I’ll tell you this, the svelk would treat ALL of us like I treat Eldolith if they could get away with it. I know that from experience.”

“So that’s your excuse? Because a svelk woman was cruel to you, you’re going to act like her? You’re going to act like a svelk?” Alison says which causes you to grab her by her throat and slam her to the ground.

Alison’s eyes widen in fear when she sees this person that she thought she knew stare at her with a murderous rage and squeeze tightly around her throat.

“Don’t you EVER fucking accuse me of that. EVER. You do that again, and you’ll be in this tent right along side that svelk cunt. We’ll have that three way you said you didn’t want. And you know what? NOBODY is going to do a damn thing about it, because I’M in fucking charge here. Got it?”

Alison continues to stare as you slowly release your grip to she can talk.

“Got it.” She answers.

You get off of Alison who can’t leave your tent quick enough.

Later you begin to feel like you went a little too far with Alison. You really didn’t mean to, but her words just set you off. She should’ve known not to compare you to a svelk. The next day you try to speak with Alison, but she’s very distant. She doesn’t want to talk about what happened and as far as she’s concerned the pair of you should just keep things professional now.

“Alison, I didn’t mean…”
“If you really do have any sort of respect for me at all, you’ll just leave me be unless its concerning military matters.” Alison remarks.

You back away from Alison, you realize you’ve destroyed your relationship with her forever.

You go back to your tent and begin pacing back and forth thinking about your mistake. The more you think about it, the angrier you get. You’re angry with yourself mainly, but then you realize something.

Eldolith was the initial aggressor in your arrangement. Not you. This might’ve been a set up right for something else right from the start. It was Mistress! She did this! She was jealous of your relationship with Alison, so Eldolith was sent to fuck it up.

Even worse, you fell for it all and you hit the final nail in the coffin yourself.

Now seething with fury, you storm out of your tent and head over to the svelk encampment. The svelk barely have time to realize who is attacking them before you cut down several of them. You start shouting for Eldolith to come out along with how you intend to

The Empire encampment at first thinks gnolls are attacking, but when some of the troops arrive and see you massacring svelk, they aren’t entirely sure what to do.

“Sir, calm down! I know you don’t…Ack!” a soldier says, trying to restrain you, but only gets a sword in the stomach for his trouble instead. Another soldier tries to reason with you, and you cut him down too. You’re completely unreasonable at this point and the only thing that’s going to stop you is either your death or Eldolith’s.

As you set fire to three more svelk with a fireball you begin laughing at the carnage you’re causing. Still you aren’t going to be truly happy until you find Eldolith.

And then you see her running in the distance. You cast a lightning bolt at her, which drops her instantly. You know it isn’t enough to kill her though, but that wasn’t your intent anyway. You pull out your dagger and walk towards her.

“It’s time to learn another lesson Mistress. And its gonna hurt you a lot more than it will me.” You say.
“I’m…not Mistress…you crazy monkey…” Eldolith manages to utter.

At this point you don’t even hear her. Indeed it’s probably not only irrelevant at this point, but most likely unclear if you’re even mentally in the present because all you can see is Mistress’ face. You saw her face on all the svelk you killed. You enjoyed killing her over and over. And now you’re going to enjoy killing her again.

Or at least you would have if a arrow through your neck didn’t stop you first.

You gasp and clutch at your throat before you slump down to the ground a few inches away from Eldolith.

“Shit! He’s dead!” one of the Empire soldiers remarks.
“Hm. I’m surprised myself. It’s been awhile since I used a bow.” Alison answers.
“You killed him! You really killed him!” another remarks.
“Yes, but he needed to be put down. You saw him kill Empire soldiers.” Alison says.
“But wasn’t he the Emperor’s right hand man or something?”
“Yes. Are there any svelk left alive?”
“No, I think he killed them all.”
“Not all of them.” Alison says.

Alison takes aim with her bow again and aims for Eldolith who is just starting to shake off the effects of the lightning bolt. She slumps down dead as well.

“Okay this is what we’re going to do…” Alison says when turning towards her soldiers.

Alison neatly explains away everything with a gnoll attack. It also helps that the gnolls did attack soon after this incident in greater force than before. Fortunately for Alison she’s well respected and liked by the soldiers so nobody ever contradicts her story. Not to mention they’re glad to be rid of the svelk and to a small degree you as well given how fearful they all were of you.

Still, part of Alison always regretted that it had to be done at all.
End Of Story