(Scars do not appear to be cause of death –shock ... - Bad Request

"Hmnnnn..." Ravel turned, clacked her tusks, then glanced at Annah with a
sneer. "And what of THIS slip of flesh... the fiendling, the tiefling with the
scarlet hair and the fiery passion. What is SHE to you, my precious man?"
Ravel had touched a tender spot with those words, as if she had pressed
against an old bruise. Annah, who had lied to me the first time we met, and
sent me down an alley full of muggers to my death. Annah, who was forced
to guide me to where she had found my corpse, who scoffed at my oafish
ignorance and clumsiness as she tried to keep several paces ahead of me.
And she was the one whose lips tightened when I spoke to pretty women.
She was the one who taught me how to sneak and steal on a cool night in
the silent darkness of the Clerk's Ward, our bodies pressed against each
other innocently in an attempt to pick each other's pockets.
I remembered the flush of her skin, her sudden shyness, her half-spoken
confessions that ached to be heard, and were always brushed off as jest...
"Do yeh know I like the way yeh smell? Oh, aye - it drives me barmier than a
Chaosman, it does." She sniffed up the side of my cheek, and she gave a low,
eager hiss. "I see the way yeh look at me, and I like it. Yeh've got hungry
eyes, yeh do. It makes me a-fire..."
And I remembered how I cradled her body in the alley, desperately trying to
staunch the blood with my hands and keep the warmth from spilling out
onto the cobblestones.
"I could fall in love with her," I murmured, and I knew it was the most
honest thing I had ever said.
Ravel glanced at Annah, then snorted, her black-veined eyes gleaming.
"Hmmmmnnn... so be it."
"Enough of these games, Ravel. Look -"
"My NEXT question is this..." Ravel's voice dropped, almost whispering. And
suddenly, I had the strange feeling that she didn't want to hear the answer.
"Why did you wait so long to return to me? Ravel grew a-lonely without you,
precious man."
"The way to this place is difficult, beautiful Ravel. Efforts have been made to
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