Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-5543592-20190701151243/@comment-5583506-20190722001019

Evangeline didn't like gambles, especially not with people who didn't exactly have the most reliable of loyalties. But since there appeared to be no other way, she reckoned that there was little point in arguing. There were worse ways to die than to get torn to shreds by a hail of bullets.

She tried to recall her fateful encounter with the Cult of Ug-Qualtoth. Merely twelve years of age she had happened upon them as they were preparing some sort of ritual. And she still had recurring nightmares of the event.

The voice of their high priest rang through her mind like a chime:

''From the depths of the black water he will cometh! From the womb of the red mark he will come forth! From the blood of his children and the blood of those who oppose him will he be reborn! The blood of the opposite force! With no civilization left to prosecute or stop us, Ug-Qualtoth will be returned. Be afraid worms.''

She had tried to work the meaning of their mantra over and over in her head over the years, but had never been able to make any sense of it. She had ultimately decided it was just the ramblings of madmen, uncanny as it was. Every memory of what had occurred after she had been taken hostage were in a blur.

She recalled being tied naked to an altar of stone. The high priest had lowered his hand over her eyes and from that moment onward her life had been swallowed up by a perpetual darkness.

Ug-Qualtoth's brilliance, as he claimed she had witnessed. He had called her by a number of epitaphs. To the cult she was "the Chosen One", "the Blood of the Opposite Force", and "the Womb of the Red Mark". She did not know what any of these titles meant, nor did she particularly care to delve further into their meaning. All she cared about was what it had cost her, hearing those accursed labels put upon her.

When her Order had finally found her, the cult had already left, but not before painting the symbol of an obelisk in blood on her stomach, and leaving her permanently blinded. She did not know how they had blinded her, and it had even baffled the Order's medic. There was no sign of force trauma or other physical irregularities to her eyes, yet she was blind. It was almost as if her retinas had just decided to give up, witnessing something they simply weren't meant to see.

The mystery of it all still haunted her. She sometimes found herself waking up in cold sweat late at night, or by her own screams. It was almost as if the presence of the cult members were there in the dark room with her when she awoke. It was during moments like when she took comfort in thinking about Tanner and how he would be there to hold her and tell her that everything would be alright.

Wishful thinking, but nevertheless a comforting thought.

She glanced up at him. "Do you ... reflect much upon the past?" she said, starting a conversation seemingly out of nowhere.