Nessalir the Red

"Hold!" cried the black-braided Elf as Nessalir advanced on him, but the drakkowar did not, for she was filled with a righteous fury at the crime this man had committed. She hefted her blade and made ready to strike him down.

Finn dy'Blodyn, seeing that she would not be swayed, dodged her slash and drew his own weapon: a curved sword of sparkling metal. "Will you listen?" he demanded, just barely managing to get his sword up in time to parry Nessalir's follow-up attack.

"Listen to the words of an honorless murderer?" Nessalir demanded.

"It was not me!"

She went low, made to cut him at his abdomen. Finn attempted another parry, but Nessalir's attack was a mere feint. She leapt forward and upward, bringing his sword in a wide arc directed at his throat and jaw.

The Elf jerked backward, narrowly avoiding what would surely have been a lethal blow, but he lost his balance and fell to the forest floor.

With a snarl, Nessalir brought her blade down upon him. Her quarry rolled away.

"The fletchings!" Finn shouted. "Look at the fletchings!"

Nessalir frowned. What was he going on about? "What of them?"

"They're brown!"

Her eyes flickered quickly to the body of Orov dy'Cangen before returning immediately to her murderous foe. The glance was enough to confirm he was correct. "So?"

"So look at my quiver!" The black-braided Elf was now sitting up in the dirt and grass, and he turned his body so that she could see the arrows strapped to his back. Each one sported feathers that had been dyed green.

"This proves nothing," said Nessalir.

"You believe I had but a single brown-fletched arrow? One I neglected to dye?" Finn asked. "I swear to you, upon the light of the Bright Moon and the honor of the House of Flowers, that I did no harm to this man."

Nessalir was not fully convinced. To swear upon the honor of one's house was no small thing for an Elf, but likewise a man who would murder his fellow competitor was not an honorable one, and an honorless man would not think twice about swearing an empty oath. Nessalir had met many honorless men in her time, and few were the crimes that could shock her.

Still, he had planted in her mind a seed of doubt, and now Nessalir's fury was subsiding, and her mind was taking a more analytical approach to the scene she had stumbled upon. It was true enough that the arrow that had killed Orov dy'Cangen did not match the arrows which Finn had carried, and that he was so close to the body, crouching over it as if to examine the fallen hunter, when an assassin would surely have fled immediately, would also seem to support his innocence.

"Vey well," she said. "Talk. Tell me what happened."

Finn shook his head. "Would that I could, Daughter of Dragons. I came upon dy'Cangen's body only moments before you. I could not believe what I was seeing, for while there are many dangers which lurk in the Wildwood, none rely on weapons such as bows and arrows. I was checking the body when you came upon and assumed my guilt." He climbed to his feet, and his eyes blazed with conviction. "Believe me when I say that despite your words, I am a man of honor. Never would I besmirch this sacred contest by spilling the blood of my fellow hunters. I am not the villain here, Nessalir the Red."

She scowled, for there was a hint of chastisement in Finn's words, and while Nessalir's being rebelled against that, she also could not, in good conscience, claim that it was unfair. "Then let us examine the corpse together," she said, "and perhaps we shall learn something of the Hunter of Branches' passing."

So saying this, she approached the body of Orov dy'Cangen, though she did not sheathe her sword. Finn dy'Blodyn, likewise, did not sheathe his. Both hunters crouched on opposite sides of the corpse, weapons still in hand, wary of an attack from the other as they looked over the deceased Elf.

Orov's golden hair was cut short, and his long ears had been pierced with a dazzling array of precious stones and metals. His violet eyes were frozen wide, and his mouth hung open in a soundless and eternal death cry. The arrow which protruded from his neck had struck him just above his right shoulder, and some blood had pooled the crevisses where body parts meet.

Yet what was most striking about corpse and injury was the discoloration of his flesh. Purple bruising expanded outward from the site of the arrow, running in tendril-like lines that ran across his neck, face, and down to beneath the leathers he had clad himself in. With her clawed, draconic hand, Nessalir picked up dy'Cangen's wrist, and noted that the strange bruising had extended down to his hands as well.

"It is as though his blood vessels have all burst," Nessalir said, awe and disgust at the sight warring within her.

"Poison," spat Finn dy'Blodyn. "The arrowhead has been tipped with the toxins of a Bolgara Bush."

"Bolgara?" asked Nessalir.

"It is a venomous plant which grows in remote regions of Ailefgar, deep in the wilderness, where civilization does not reach. Blood, when exposed to it, rapidly crystallizes and expands, just as quickly returning to its natural state. The result is as you see before you."

"A vile way to die," said Nessalir.

Finn nodded in agreement.

"Yet if you are not the assassin, then who is? I have heard that the princess of the House of Branches is thought to be a master of poisons, but here her hunter lies."

The Elf stood, and his mouth was set in a grim line. "There is but one other hunter in these woods," he said, "and the prince of the House of Vines is well known for his ambition. This is the work of Akirim dy'Gwinwyd--I am certain of it! By slaying another hunter, he dishonors the court of our Queen. I swear, I shall bring this treacherous murderer to justice!"

Feeling the strength of this Elf's conviction, Nessalir was moved to join him. "Then I shall aid you, Finn dy'Blodyn, hunter of the House of Flowers. Together, let us bring the Queen's Justice to this villain."

She sheathed her sword and held out her hand. Finn did likewise, and he clasped her palm in his strong grip. The two hunters met one another's eyes, and their promise was made.