Parsh's lips danced across his face in a subconscious humor as the turret
shuddered. Vibrations rang along the walls of the aethership.

One...two...three...

A burst of heat from an algontherine's implosion dispersed through aetherspace.
Shards of metallic debris clashed softly against the hull of the Poisoned
Arrow. Unlocking himself from the mind of the battle turret, Parsh nodded
approvingly to himself. He strode into the fulcrux where a lithe lucidian sat
in a crackling chair.

The lucidian's body was constructed of acute, sharp crystals pointing out
cruelly in all directions. His crystals, however, were brittle and held a
grayish tinge. The captain was obviously of the undead, though he had long
since severed his ties with Magnagora.

It wouldn't do to disturb the captain now, Parsh thought to himself. Besides,
he wouldn't even be able to hear me. Slightly bored, the translucent figure
walked into the platinum rear of the aethership. There, an albino dracnari sat
with arms outstretched across a wide panel covered in flashing veins. Parsh
gave the concentrated dracnari a toothless grin.

"Celindash, da jobsh finished!" Moments later, the pale blue eyes of the
dracnari snapped open. The eyes were large and glazed, with the iris of the eye
completely missing, replaced by a tiny pupil. She squinted at Parsh, and
grinned subtly.

"Ahh, yes...that will indeed teach those insolent taintlings. Yes..."
Celindas arose carefully as the aethership shifted direction, away from
Magnagora's aetherdock, headed for a far-off merchant ship. The Poisoned
Arrow. None could stand up to its infamous might. Many a ship had met a fiery
end by the expertise of the rogue trio. The aethership preyed on anyone,
anywhere, regardless of race, affiliation, or strength. It didn't matter. Few
could even comprehend the complicated maneuvers exhibited by the crew.

"I suppose Ergel will be pleased..." Celindas observed.

"Not unlesh he findsh shome more aederships. Der are more taintlings dat need
to be taught a leshon." Celindas nodded eagerly.

Far off in the seemingly endless bounds of aetherspace, another aethership
hovered, motionless. It was obviously built for stealth. Although it bore
semblance to its namesake, the Taint Wyrm was surprisingly agile. Dozens of
battles had been won by the pride of Magnagora, piloted through the dangerous
mind of Warlord Kriklen. Concerned lips had alerted the Engine of a vengeful
lucidian, Nil-bent on the destruction of the city. For weeks now, he and his
small, ragged crew of outcasts had seized control of the aetherways. They were
filled with malice, attacking anything in sight. Finally, the giant Taint Wyrm
was taking action. They had been wandering near the Dramube Triangle, rumored
to be the last location the Poisoned Arrow had been seen. The finest of
Magnagora were ready to ram the aethership and slaughter its inhabitants in a
moment's notice. So far, luck had not been with the crew, leaving them without
even a single glimpse of the aethership.

A stunted viscanti, with a noticeable deformity on the side of his head, spat
on the floor.

"Hey, Kriky, when're we gonna ram that crystal bastard's ship?!" The stark,
handsome warlord raised an eyebrow at the petite figure.

"Millan, your time will come. For now, please retain a tone of civility and
spare me your irrelevant squabbles with Ergel." Millan muttered something
incoherent and waddled out of the command center. Kriklen sat in a black chair
with jagged thorns jetting out around it.

"Tonight, Ergel pays!" he shouted to the crew. His eyes closed slowly as his
mind grasped the malicious algontherine's controls.

Deep in the recesses of Kriklen's subconscious, he explored the events of the
past several years.

~=*=~

A benevolent viscanti child swam in the Shallach River. The water was
admittedly a bit chilly, but she was having too much fun to notice. At the
river's beginning, the child would continuously dive underneath the surface and
feel the dull ponunding of the waterfall encompass her body. Bubbles of
laughter escaped her nose and popped noiselessly at the water's surface. The
girl, finally finished swimming, dragged herself to the bank and looked atop a
hill near the mountains. A tiny speck, growing larger as it neared her, was
visible descending a pristine observatory. The figure's hand waved to the girl
and its pace quickened. Softly, the viscanti's lips broke out in a smile as she
awaited her forbidden friend.

"If mom knew I was friends with Ergel, she would kill me! But I don't care if
he's lucidian. I like him!" She giggled contentedly.

Two pairs of unseen eyes watched and listened to the young viscanti. The one
to the left, a tall, hefty merian, fidgeted impatiently.

"How sad that the Taint has shrouded these fools in darkness," he said sadly.
"And how sad that we are charged with bringing them the Light." His wife, a
pretty merian with dark, amber eyes, nodded meekly.

"All is for the Light," she muttered quietly. The burly merian sprang out of
the bushes and leapt towards the Shallach River bank.

Without warning, muscular arms grabbed the stunned viscanti girl and carried
her into the river. She was slammed bodily into the river's floor, the breath
knocked out of her. Arms flailing, cheeks bulging, and feet kicking, she
attempted to free herself form her slippery captor. But her struggle was
useless. With a final shudder, the child's life left her. For another two
minutes, the Celestian held the body underwater. Satisfied at last, he left
the waterlogged corpse on the bank and beckoned to his wife. Swiftly, they
fled the scene, headed for the Inner Sea.

Ergel's heart was beating rapidly. He raced to the river's edge. Hot tears
poured from his eyes as he saw the bloodshot eyes of his only friend staring
into nothingness.

"Selissi!" he gasped. "No..." Immediately, grief transformed into anger.
Ergel felt an overwhelming wrath against Celest and the smug murderers who
resided there. A child, he thought. Who would kill a child!? Fists clenched,
he left the bank and turned to Magnagora, away from his home, the observatory.
He didn't look back.

Kriklen, at the time, was a boisterous politician with new ideas who had
recently been elected Warlord of Magnagora. He had won over the citizens with
unsurpassed eloquence and hatred for Celest. It was that easy. Ergel came to
him, and pleaded to be let into the city. He told his story, of the innocent
Selissi, and Celes'’s unprovoked slaughter. Kriklen instantly took a liking
to the lucidian. Ergel was young, and filled with anger. His mind could
easily be formed to match the ideals of the Taint.

~=*=~

Celindas was bored. As an empath, her job was to facilitate the Poisoned
Arrow's repairs. However, Ergel had little use for repairs. He effortlessly
outmaneuvered the clumsy merchant ship as Parsh fired precisely at the command
chair and empathic grid. Then they had left. It was Ergel's favorite way to
destroy an aethership--disable its steering and repairing, leaving it at the
mercy of the aetherways. The merchant inside would either starve to death or
be ripped apart by a heavy aetheric storm. There was nothing else the merchant
could do.

The glossy aethership thumped unsteadily as it was docked. Celindas gave a
sigh of relief. Anything would be better than mindlessly scanning the
aethership's status. She stretched, and found Parsh waiting for Ergel next to
the command chair. Several moments passed. Ergel's eyelids snapped open. His
expression did not change at all. He spoke softly to his small crew.

"Good work." His eyes closed once more, signifying entrance into a deep sleep.
Celindas yawned. She curled up next to Parsh on the floor and tried to rest.

Ergel dreamt of his past.

~=*=~

For years, Ergel enjoyed the life offered by Magnagora. He did not join a
guild, but instead focused on the art of Telepathy. Early on, he experimented
with it on a viscanti about his age. Still angered by the death of Selissi,
Ergel wanted others to suffer with him. He snuck up on the unknowing viscanti,
named Millan, and attempted to kill him. Although his skill was not yet adept
enough to complete the task, the disturbingly intense pain he caused severely
stunted the mental stability and growth of Millan. Kriklen could only laugh at
Ergel's actions. A heart surrounded by hate. That was exactly what Magnagora
needed.

Ergel later took up Necromancy. He admired the ability to manipulate life
itself and become of the undead. Whispers were heard in the city of Ergel, and
how his ruthless enmity for life could bring him to be the next Warlord of
Magnagora. On every alley, he was greeted by envious beggars and approving
nobility.

His happiness soon came to an end.

On a chilly Roarkian day, three viscanti children went missing. The suspected
kidnappings were immediately linked to the lucidian observatory nearby in the
mountains. Kirklen gathered the cruelest citizens in the city, including
Ergel.

"Find those responsible, and with malevolence befitting of the Engine, bring
vengeful justice to those 'scientists'!" Roars and screams of excitement
pierced the night air.

The dozen or so capable fighters commenced a brisk run to the observatory.
Ergel's mind was preoccupied with thoughts of an odd dracnari he had met in a
city prison. She had been a citizen of New Celest, kept in captivity since
infancy. By now, the prisoner was slightly older than Ergel. The deprivation
of light had coaxed her once soft, reddish skin into turning a stark white.
She was almost blind in both eyes and was desperate for company. Ergel had
visited this dracnari, Celindas, on several occasions. And though she had been
a supporter of the Light, he could not help liking her.

Shouts and clashes snapped Ergel back into reality. Crystals were shattering
throughout the observatory. Ergel realized what the crystals were. His home.
His lucidian friends and family.

"I can't..." he said in disbelief.

"Ergel! Ergel!" a familiar female voice called to him from the opposite end of
a now-ruined chamber.

Ergel whirled around and gasped. His mother and he stared deep into each
other's eyes. For a moment, time slowed. Ergel's world was reduced to the
slim, aging lucidian that stood before him.

But only for a moment.

A massive orclach archer let a thick arrow, coated in a red, viscous substance,
fly into Ergel's mother. Through the lucidian woman's body, Ergel watched in
terror as the crimson poison pulsed upwards towards her brain.

"Ergel...why?" the strained voice asked. Ergel's mother gagged, and fell to
the ground. Shards of crystal flew through the air.

~=*=~

The faint taste of salt awoke Ergel. He blinked repeatedly before it dawned
upon him. Hastily, he wiped his reddened face and stood up awkwardly. He
watched Parsh and Celindas move about before their eyes opened.

"It is time," Ergel declared. He returned to where he felt home--in the
algontherine mind. The Poisoned Arrow began to dart through the aetherways, in
search of prey.

There we are, though Kriklen. At long last, the Poisoned Arrow had been
sensed. The Taint Wyrm was now headed directly for it at an astonishing speed.
All turrets were aimed at its hull. Every combatant stood ready for action.

Fidgeting with his boot straps near the ramhead, Millan waited impatiently.

"Ergel won't last a minute," he spat.

The Poisoned Arrow was a small ship. Its hull could not withstand much. Nor
was its crew prepared for a sudden onslaught from the Taint Wyrm. Three battle
turrets fired simultaneously. The Poisoned Arrow's hull was ripped apart, and
the aethership did a complete barrel roll with the impact. Not sparing a
moment, the Taint Wyrm lunged toward its enemy. Though his mind was throbbing
in pain, Ergel was able to turn his aethership with the oncoming blow, forcing
the Taint Wyrm's attempt to utilize the ramhead to fail.

The Poisoned Arrow began circling the Taint Wyrm at tremendous speeds, given
its miserable state. Concentrating on the rear of the Taint Wyrm, where he had
detected the primary repairing to be, Parsh let a slow blast fire.

It hit precisely where he was aiming.

A blinding light pierced aetherspace, followed shortly after by an unnaturally
high-pitched sound--beautiful, but haunting. The Taint Wyrm spun around to
regain control. Parsh had succeeded in destroying the empathic grid.

Da rest ish downhill form here, he thought to himself. Ignoring an empathic
pulse that wrapped around the Poisoned Arrow and restored its gull, Parsh fired
a thick black sludge through the air. Once. Twice. Three times. A dark,
slippery substance coated the Taint Wyrm's exterior. Without mercy, Parsh sent
a jagged yellow bolt streaking towards the Taint Wyrm. Immediately, any
struggle to move the doomed algontherine was ceased. The Taint Wyrm floated
slowly, quietly, through the vastness of aetherspace, immobilized.

Standing in disbelief near the Taint Wyrm's empathic grid, a huge, frustrated
orclach began to kick the broken module angrily.

"Shouldn't have meddled with this crew!" he fumed. An expertly aimed turret
blast knocked him off of his feet. Unable to withstand his inability to repair
the module any longer, he grabbed his lethal bow and poison vial, darting away
from the scene.

Kriklen was livid. Sweat poured down his brow as he concentrated as best he
could on mobilizing the Taint Wyrm. Unfortunately, only the empathic grid
would be able to do such a thing. Nearby, Parsh's accuracy ripped open a hole
in the wall. Shrapnel was flung everywhere. A particularly large slab of
serrated metal struck a horrified Millan with tremendous force, killing him
instantly.

A final turret blow ended the job. Kriklen opened his eyes just in time to
witness a fiery explosion race towards him.

"Damn freak." he said quietly. In an instant before his death, memories
flooded into his head.

~=*=~

Ergel stared into space, shocked. His whole life had been compromised for
revenge on Celest. Not to murder his own family.

"Where can I turn?" he croaked hoarsely. On the ground, he saw a crystalline
figure, bearing resemblance to an adolescent viscanti. Ergel, looking through
his translucent body, saw the very blood running through his veins. His teeth
had been removed, his ears mutilated, and he bore deep, cruel lacerations
across his legs. The result of a disgusting experiment.

"Pleash, don't kill me. Pleash..." Ergel obliged willingly. Scooping up the
injured figure, he ran. He would forsake his home, Magnagora. For needless
slaughter of those he had held close. And his family. For unprovoked
brutality and hate for the innocent.

Ergel ran.

He ran to the tower where Celindas was kept. With a stone dagger, he silently
killed the sole krokani guard. Taking the set of keys from the corpse, he
sprung open the door. Bewildered, Celindas stood there motionless.
Reassuringly, Ergel spoke.

"Come." She did.

The trio left the smoggy, twisted city in a haste. They ran west, to the
mountains. Away from the troubles that plagued them. Before long, the
crystalline figure gave a muffled cough.

"Water, pleash...I'm parshed," he groaned. Ergel handed him a flask of water.

"Parshed. Yes. Parsh." Ergel let a weak smile play about his lips.

There, the trio promised each other to bring suffering to Magnagora. They did
not know how, or when this would happen, but it would.

It would.