(The events of this story take place shortly after The Linhir RIpper - Epilogue 2 )
Nethrida stood at the docks just north of Linhir, staring out to sea with a half glazed look in her eyes, absent and unfocused as she went over the events that had just transpired, Ordan's announcement to the townsfolk of Linhir about her part in driving Mans... Or "The spirit of Death" as he called the spirit. Announcement, which implications troubled her greatly.
Yet all that was immaterial to the storm of relief, anger and sadness she felt. Trembling as the breeze billowed out her cloak. Tears flow down her face as the realisation came dawning in... Anendyl was never the actual target of Mans... She, like everyone else had been decieved and the cost of it had been great.
Not only had they lost Caine but she had lost her mother. By now Mans could've taken her anywhere, and if he had truely been in Ynnabeth all these weeks there little hope of ever recovering her mother alive, a realisation that created an icy sensation in her stomach, a sensation she did not agree in the least.
She reached to draw her sword, again holding it up infront of her as tears continue to stream down her face. The thought of staining the blade with the blood of her mother made the icy sensation ever more unpleasant, and for a moment her posture slouches, the sword pointed down to the end of the pier in defeat as she closed her eyes and simply wept.
Time passed, she didnt even bother trying to reign in the crushing sadness and loss that weighed her down so, how could she possibly move forward now? Ynnabeth might've been gone, but the visage was still there. It may not have been her mother anymore, but her appearance was still that...
And then, amidst the darkness a memory invaded her mind. She was a child, holding back tears after scuffing her knee, having fallen from the back of a moving kart she and her friends had been playing with, and the sight of her mother treating the small wound, cleaning it and wrapping it in bandage, before handing Neth a cupcake and a loving hug for her "bravery"
And then another... And another...Memories from over the years, the feeling of joy and love all those times her mother haed been there to help her through trying times, or tease her over her infatuation with Therion, even to the immense joy she felt coming back home for the first time in five years after her exile.
And now Mans had taken Ynnabeth from Nethrida. Taken away one of the most important people in her life, and had done so with glee, no doubt laughing at her, and the group as a whole. Slowly but surely the icy grip around her stomach begun to fade, replaced with a fiery anger. She straightens her posture, holds her sword back up. Tears still pouring down her cheeks as she murmured "I'll avenge you... So you can be at peace... I swear..."
She murmured, mostly to the blade, and to herself. She turned her gaze back out to sea, the sensation of anger and fury welling up inside of her. This act of Mans having stirred something within her she had thought snuffed out many years ago upon that hill where Therion fell.
She felt her spirit burn with vengeance, and in that moment she resolved to steel herself. To reawaken the warrior she had once been. Mans would pay for taking her mother from her, from her family. This she vowed as she sheathed her sword and spun around, turning her steps back towards Linhir and to rejoin the others...
