[Anguirel]

Guilt. Guilt.

How could he continue to feel guilt about his attachment to Tasareni so keenly as he fought for her very life? It made no sense, but it was true. It seemed somehow...bound up in the wind...

The crows seemed to be faltering before him now, more inclined to sweep off when he swung Cirlach through the air. Tasa's entrance, her blades drawn, was having a decidedly pronounced effect. As he severed the neck of yet another crow which had lingered just too long, it came to Malris, and he received another confirmation that Orc-spirits indeed were about here.

The whole murder was heading for his friend and ally. He was now nothing more than a distraction. The scavengers were whirling over his head and not returning because he no longer interested them. He had been the bait in this trap, not the mouse.

With a bellow of frustrated fury, he pushed his way towards her. The birds showing most animation, with slashing claws and hideous, experienced eyes, were now about Tasareni. Malris felt another twinge of guilt that caused him an almost physical chill. What was going on here?

"I am Malris," he said, softly at first, but so that it carried, so Tasa would be reassured. Then louder. "I am Malris."

"Crows and orcs and whatever else creeps behind black eyes, know that I was master of this place. I dwelt with my wife..." a sweep to one side, as Cirlach's edges grew pale and furious. An anticlimactic downfall of ragged black feathers.

"I dwelt with my love in the bastion you defile. It is me you have business with! Look to me, and leave the lady alone, lecherous cowards..." a lunge and a crack of a bird's skull. Still the fluctuating curtain of crowmeat kept him from Tasa.

"If any among you have speech...and I have seen Morgoth's craven folk among you...what do you want with us?"