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"Melost, wait!" A voice cried from behind him and he raised his head slowly. Khalad came running up to him, breathless, his cheeks flushed and angry-looking. Tears stood in his eyes as he looked down at Melost. He stretched out his hand to help the Elf to his feet and Melost gladly accepted. "Khalad, you don't have to do this, I go not to riches or to reward, I go to my death. Do you understand?"
Khalad nodded, then they both turned sharply as they heard the sound of running feet coming through the wood. Melost's pulse quickened. Was it Vlad? Had something he had said stirred old memories within that warrior's heart of his? But no, it turned out to be only Fid. He looked wild-eyed and frantic. "What in hell was that all about? Why did you run away, Elf? Khalad?" he looked from one to the other as though surely they held the key to what had just torn him from the only life he known for many years.
Melost bowed his head wearily. "I barely know you, yet you honour me by your loyalty. And now, you follow me to a far worse fate than you ever would have known with Vlad. He has protected you, cared for you in his way, this is plain for all to see who have eyes. He will see this as a betrayal of his efforts on his behalf and I have no wish for this to be laid at my door. Please reconsider and let me go my way, for mine is the way of death. My time grows short, but the two of you are young by the standards of your kind. Don't throw your lives away for a stranger, I beg you! Return to what you know, to one who needs you. I need no one to show me the way to the darkness of death, I see it before me, clear as the trackless night sky."
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