Memories: Nalga's despair

Conscious again...eyes open, straining to see...see anything but grey. The grey is just the absence of anything...beginning to drift again...must stay focused.

I must have slept, thought Dynmath, I feel as if I have rested. There is something I can remember besides this haze...my past...the combine empire. Accomplished so much, so much power and technology...but all lost.

Why was it all lost? Did we...did they...did I...die? Of course, that is the only reason I can exist here. Why death? Why not power? What happened...

All of a sudden, the memories came flooding back. The last meal where Dynmath and his men ate and talked of growing power. Red, red, black...the horrifying realization of the poison with no antidote... Blood, blood, pain...the wrenching agony of slipping into oblivion...

They will pay...those assassins that wiped us from the face of mortal existence...I will find a way back...they will not get away with this...their blood will stain my hands...

Dynmath's vision grew blurry again. So soon has the time come for rest, he thought as he embraced sleep again, so be it. I will regain my strength and then fight to regain what is rightfully mine.

It was nearing nightfall in the snowy northern lands of Tunaria. Nalga approached the walls of Diren Hold, weary and welcoming an inn to rest inside.

"Arreeeeaaauuugggghhh!!!!" She heard something cry out in the darkness, thirsting for something. Thinking it was just one of the many denizens of the wilderness around the city, she approached with little fear. As she grew closer, this noisy thing came after her, it was some sort of sentient, upright being, clutching at her cape and neck with rotting flesh and vacant eyes.

Terrified, she ran into the town to alert the guard and her heart sank. Dozens of these beings roamed the towns, stumbling and shambling around, none of the familiar faces she knew in Diren Hold to be seen. Casting a quick spiritual barrier around herself, she ran away from the town, more quickly than these zombies could follow.

As soon as she was a safe distance away from the beings, she stopped to rest, gasping and wheezing for breath. This is not a coincidence, she thought, there is peril brewing as I have envisioned. I must warn Halas and make haste to speak with the other mystics.