2007 Figgies Derik Clip
The following is one of my favorite Derik posts ever. Consider it as you vote for 2007's Best Male Character Figgy.
--Scen 02:34, 13 March 2007 (CDT)
Two Defense Ministry agents escorted a small, unassuming old woman through the sterile white corridors of Truce Medical Center. They were in the East Wing, in the Royal Suite. Doctor Millburn and everyone else in the Suite had been ordered off the premeses. Derik and Leene were alone in the darkened, lifeless suite of the hospital.
The Ministry agents handed the little lady over to King Derik, who then dismissed them. When they left, only three living souls remained in the entire complex: the King, his ailing daughter... and Tresca the White, who had been operating in Guardia under the guise of Tessa Whitten before she was found out to be one of the Merge League's Seeder agents by the ZAPS, who then handed her over to Brand to have tossed into Valleyville.
"This way," Derik said.
Tresca gave a little giggle, then followed. The hospital room was darkened save for the light of a single bedside lamp. Leene lay motionless on the bed, which had her laying slightly at an angle. Wires ran from her forehead, chest and arms into various machines at her bedside: monitoring her heart rate, breath rate, alpha waves, blood pressure and platelet count.
Tresca smiled victoriously. "Well well well," she said. She cackled with glee. "The technological marvel of Guardia has failed. And where your artifice cannot even save the life of your own daughter... you would turn to the sorcery of the League."
Derik narrowed his eyes.
"Just as well," she said. "I came here to test the viability of Revolution in these lands. And though I failed... this symbollic victory has made an old woman very, very happy."
"Heal her," Derik said. "Or I will kill you." He smiled. "And then so much for your symbollic victory."
Tresca's smile faded. "You would place yourself alone in a room with an Archmage of the League, and dare to level a threat?"
In a flash, Derik's sword was out. "Not a threat. A promise."
Tresca faltered. She was powerful, but in close quarters with a swordsman of Derik's repute, a white mage stood little chance. She smiled weakly, and did her best to conceal her fear. "Right then... I'll... have a look..."
The old woman crept close to Leene's bedside.
"Well, dearie," Tresca said sweetly, in a grandmotherly voice that did little to betray her nature as a rabidly militant communist agitator, "Let's let Granny Tessa have a look at you..."
Tresca shut her eyes and laid her hands upon the child, and there was a faint blue glow. Tresca smiled. Then, the glow dimmed, and Tresca's eyes wrenched open. Sweat beaded on her wrinkled brow, and her hand moved from Leene's forehead to her chest. With both hands she pressed into the child's aura. Her teeth were clenched and her aged lips peeled away. Finally, with a gasp, Tresca backed away.
One of the beads of liquid on her forehead was slightly blue in color.
"I... I cannot..." Tresca said. She collapsed onto her knees and dabbed at her forehead with the hem of her dress. Her eyes widened at the spot of blue. "I've tried to the point of nearly bleeding my mana itself!!... this child is beyond my power to save..." She looked up at Derik pleadingly. "I... I did try... I tried... I tried my best..."
Derik sighed. "I know..." he said, shaking his head. "I know you did. ... Thank you."
Derik looked down at the woman and smiled. Weakly, she smiled back.
"But a promise is a promise."
He cut off her head.
