Hydaelyn Role-Players

Tensing, K'ile growled as best her could manage. "Put. Me. Down." He had no intention of making this easy on the undead who were haunting him. Whatever it was they were trying to do to him, or with him, they were going to fail in every way he could manage. So he didn't cease his struggling. It became stronger. He couldn't quite resolve the dexterity of his fingers, but as soon as he could, there was a wound in Thal's side that looked vulnerable.

"Alright." And Thal did just that. Stopping without further comment, he swung K'ile's weight over his shoulder, gripping around the Tia's waist to bring him down hard against the ground. He followed after, pinning with legs and arms. Behind the mask, his features were drawn into a disappointed expression. "How do you think fighting's going to end for you again?"

K'ile cringed as he fell. He was growing tired of blows to the head, and his brain was in full agreement with him. It felt like his skull was made of brittle wood, or else absent entirely by this point. He didn't have the strength to fight the man's undeath. K'ile was sure he'd killed Thal a dozen times over this night alone, and yet the dark magic continued, unrelenting. "You can't expect me to just fold and go along with you."

"Even when I'm just trying to help, huh," Thal muttered, sighed a dry, rattling sound. He leaned down on K'ile a bit, putting some pressure on the Tia's chest in warning. His tail writhed behind him, shifting the dirty cloth of his borrowed robe. "You were being very, very stupid. And if I was as evil as you'd like to make me out to be, I would've let you go ahead with your grand plan."

"You don't have any idea what I was doing," K'ile spat at him, honestly having trouble opening his eyes against the swell of pain assaulting his senses. "You don't remember the tribe. You don't remember your kids, or your women, or your family. You don't know how many of them have died or how many of them have left! You don't remember. No, I don't think you're evil. I think you're just still dead. You don't get to pretend you're not."

"I'm not pretending," He squeezed his eyes shut a moment before letting out a low sigh. His fingers tightened their grip in K'ile's armor and he lurched backwards, lifting the Tia as he stood. "I was gonna just disappear again. But then I see you trying to doom your whole family to Ifrit's tempering? That's..." He grimaced heavily behind the mask, blue eyes catching a glint of light. "I don't have to remember them to know how wrong that is. Maybe I should have killed you."

"And take more of the family away?" K'ile huffed, trying to talk through the whirl of disorientation and thunder roiling inside his skull. "Hey, sounds right to me. That's what the undead do, is wander mindless and skill without knowing why."

He shook K'ile at that and growled low before tightening his jaw and looking away a moment. When he spoke finally, there was only disappointment in his voice, "I'll give you wandering, until recently, but do I look mindless to you? At least I know what tempering means."

"Good." K'ile winced one eye open. "Because you've been tempered. By her." He pointed at K'aijeen.

Even with the cloth tied over her features, K'aijeen's scowl was visible, her shoulders shaking. The scowl was as hurt as it was angry, her shivering bending her to one side. Her thin fingers pulled tight over her grip on her staff, and her other hand strained across the rags that she wore. They tore. She coughed, "Liar."

Thal couldn't hold back the scoff at that, his frustration getting the better of his usually easy-going attitude. "Nope, wrong again. That kid doesn't control me."

"How would you even know?" The Tia hung from Thal's fists with his hands limp on either side, tail shifting behind him. Perhaps he really had given up on the idea of fighting about. At least with his hands. "Now that I've seen her like this, with you, it brings into doubt a whole lot of things. How many other people are walking around who shouldn't be? Not remembering anything?"

"How would I know... how would I... well, I can say no to her for one." Blue eyes narrowed. "And trust me, I'm not too happy with her side of things either."

"Doesn't matter if at the end of the day you're still doing what she wants you to do." He smirked. "Like how Baoht couldn't kill me, right?"

"She wants me to kill you. Seems to think that you killed me. And her," Thal spoke flatly and shook K'ile by his collar again in emphasis. "She's begged for it more than once now. Considering the position you're in now, you should be feeling pretty glad that you're wrong about me. Is she wrong about you?"

"What's it matter? I don't intend to try and talk my way out of this." K'ile scowled at the man, his eyes still mostly closed behind his red hair. "You saw what I was doing. All that matters is what you're going to do about it."