# Rites of Passage



## Dirge Eterna (Apr 30, 2007)

I did say I would take a little break, because I wanted to finish up the intro to this. To all my loyal readers, thanks! Don't forget to post feedback! Now then, this is my first WHFB story in a while, and I'm not too familiar with the geography, so don't get angry if I mess up some distances or locations. Now that them nasty nitpicky bits are over, I'll get on with it.

-Dirge
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DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Skyyr Qerazynth, Lizardman Shadowscale

Thurgis Ragni, Dwarven Brewmaster

David Caerson, Empire Explorer

Asildur Stendarr, Elven Mage

Devlin Korda, Empire Sailor

Resiqal, Lizardman Kaidon

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Skyyr licked his lips.

The curtains flickered in the early hours of dawn, light worming through the thin material.

The Lizardman sat comfortably on a block of chisled stone in the center of a circular room, two windows in front of him, a single door behind.

A noise, so slight a man would strain to hear it, crackled down the rock to the outside.

Skyyr's fingers wove across the stone to grip a short, three-sided knife.

Three shades flitted into the room, a half-dozen weapons between them. Skyyr hurled the knife overhand, catching the first in the throat. The shade grabbed the weapon and gurgled horribly as it's blood pooled on the floor. The second shade rushed him, and Skyyr pivoted out of the way, tripping it. The third raised a curved sword, victory gleaming in it's eyes. Skyyr punched it low with a spined fist, and the creature doubled over. Skyyr brought his knee up, crushing it's jaw, and stabbed it with it's own dropped blade. He turned just as the second shade leapt at him, murder in it's stare.

The lizardman dove under it, letting it overextend itself, and turned, slicing it cleanly in two as it flew above him. 

The doors opened, and two Saurus in massive gold armor threw a cloak at him. Skyyr pulled his knife from the throat of the dead assassin, and followed them down the steps.

A massive hall opened before the trio, and a single Saurus, so old Skyyr couldn't tell which lines on it's face were scales and which were wrinkles, sat atop a throne, a sword spinning on the floor under it's claw.

"Kaidon Resiqal." said the first Honor Guardsman. Skyyr walked forward.

"Do you hear it, Silencer?" asked Resiqal. 

"Hear what, my lord?" he asked.

"The sound, Skyyr. The sound of death marching forward. Fate's wheel, my Silencer. Those three were but the first of many deaths today, I foresee. With the newcomers to Lustria's shores, they will certainly not be the last."

"A safe bet, my lord." said Skyyr. "What would you have your Silencer do?"

"I do not need a Silencer, Skyyr. I do not have need of you." said Resiqal flatly.

"My-my lord?" stuttered Skyyr.

"You were the weakest of your Spawning, Skyyr. The smallest, thinnest Saurus I ever saw. Your father, not wanting to disgrace his Keep with a weak offspring, brought you to Shadow's Fall, and here you have dwelt since then. What he saw as weak I saw as potential. You are thin, lithe, and silent. Able to be underestimated, but capable of great action. You are a Silencer no longer, Skyyr. I have need of a Shadowscale."

"T-thank you, my lord." said the Lizardman. A Shadowscale was almost at the Keep's heirarchy, an assassin no longer, but a leader of killers. Proficient at death in all it's aspects.

"Now then. I would have you go to Port Royal. A ship recently arrived from the Empire. Find out it's cargo and make a plan to assassinate it's captain. I want a full report upon your return."

"My honor, Kaidon." said Skyyr.

"Yes, Shadowscale. It is." replied Resiqal. "If you rise much farther, I will be forced to add your lines to the Shadow's Fall saga."

The kaidon pointed to the western wall of the hall, covered in thin, cramped script. A record of the great deeds of Lustria's most proficient assassin's guild. 

"You honor me, my lord. Now I must go." said Skyyr. Resiqal nodded.

"Death to your enemies, and life to your nephews, Shadowscale."

Skyyr took the blessing in stride and left Shadow's Fall, heading east toward the smoke pillars of the Empire's trading port.


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## Dirge Eterna (Apr 30, 2007)

Well, once again, due to the extremely well-planned bureaucracy of the USAF, I am without a flight for this morning. :{
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Skyyr wove through the crowds.

The city of Port Royal was on the very edge of Lustria, on a peninsula jutting out into the ocean separating Lustria from the Old World the humans called home. Lizardmen came to trade with the humans in the Port, and members of both races were found in equal measure. Over half the city was built in the crude wooden style of the humans, but Lizardmen merchants and residents built their homes in the Lustrian brick style. Skyyr nodded to a white-robed merchant, the Lizardman licking his lips as he realized what Skyyr was. Most of the humans were oblivious. The single shoulderpad Skyyr wore over his black clothing was emblazoned with the black sword insignia of Shadow's Fall. A dozen short knives were stuck in belts crisscrossing his front, and a long sword hung low at his waist. The three-sided knife was stuck in a belt wrapped around his thigh.

He walked through the city, marveling at the humans' variety. Saurus looked the same, unless you knew who you were talking to. Humans came in all shapes and colors. A merchant twice the girth and a head shorter then Skyyr pushed past him, making a growl of challenge issue from his lips. The man turned and sniffed at the Lizardman, cooling himself with a feathery fan. 

"Animals." he whispered as he turned to walk away. Skyyr's teeth bared as his temper rose, but he calmed himself and whispered the Litanies of Silence under his breath. 

A dozen ships were moored at the Port Royal dockyards, large three-masted boats with a dozen cannon barrels sticking out from their sides.

"Hail, Lizardman. Welcome to Port Royal." said a guard. He held out a fat book.

"You here on a ship? I'll need to know your name." 

Skyyr shook his head. "From inland." he said smoothly, contorting his mouth into painful shapes to pronounce the Empire's language.

The man nodded and procured a quill. "That's three bronze pieces, and I'll still need to know your name."

Skyyr reached into his pocket and deposited a dessicated finger, a shard of bone, and a tooth onto the guard's tome.

"Um. Very well, Mr. Smith. Welcome to Port Royal." said the guard hastily. He shook the trophies from his book and retreated.

Skyyr made sure he was gone, and dove off the side of the pier. The cool, salty water felt good on his scales and he rolled, coming up to land on the underside of a ship. He crawled along the edge until he came up on the opposite side, and looked at the name plaque of the ship.

_Osiris_. Good. That was the new ship. Skyyr had shaken down a quivering merchant for a list of the newest shipments into Port Royal. 

He crawled through a gunport, avoiding a single sailor belowdecks.

"Gunpowder?" he asked himself. He stepped across the cargohold, peering into the dozens of barrels stacked around the room. Each one was filled to the brim with the black powder. Enough destructive power to send every citizen in Port Royal to their gods. He rubbed it between his claws and sniffed it. Definitely gunpowder.

He crept out the same way he had gotten in, and climbed along the side of the ship to the captain's balcony on the rear. He tested the lock, then stove it in with a knife when the door failed to open. A sparsely furnished cabin presented itself to him. He made a note of the place and left. 

Skyyr walked across the dockyard, watching and memorizing the patrol routes of the guards. Sailors of all creeds and colors walked to and fro, dropping cargo, insulting each other, and running about.

"Hey, Shade! Get over here!" yelled a voice in the Lustrian tongue. Skyyr turned to see a Saurus heaving a crate over the railing. He walked to the creature and helped him push the crate onto his ship's deck.

"Thanks. Can't trust these animals with anything." said the Saurus. Skyyr nodded.

"Who's the victim?" asked the Saurus, looking over Skyyr's gear.

"Ship's captain. Not you." said Skyyr. The sailor nodded.

"Bless you for that, at least. My name's Asiqel. The folks around here call me Runs-Storms-Faster though."

"I am Skyyr." said Skyyr. "Why do they call you that?" 

"I run storms faster, of course. My second is called Hauls-Ropes-Faster. Guess what he can do?"

Skyyr allowed a smile to come to his face. "I imagine he hauls ropes faster?"

Asiqel nodded. "These humans can't pronounce our tongue, so we have to use theirs. Indifferent animals to a one."

"Agreed, Asiqel. Now I must report to my kaidon. Farewell."

"Goodbye, Shade. May luck and happiness follow you."

Skyyr reached Shadow's Fall by nightfall, and made his way to the throne room, avoiding the enticing smells issuing from the Feasting Hall. He nodded to the Honor Guard as he passed, and stopped suddenly as he saw another in front of the kaidon.

"So, after all these years, you have dishonored the Keep." said Resiqal. 

"Have mercy, kaidon. I knew not what I did." said the Silencer.

"You knew not?! You knew precisely what you were doing! And now you will pay the price!"

The kaidon did not appear to move in the slightest, but suddenly a half-dozen knives appeared in the Silencer's chest. The Saurus looked in awe at the kaidon, then the knives, and then toppled over as the virulent poisons killed him.

"The Veqal line is to be purged. Hunt down his nephews and behead them. This heretic's treachery is not something I want to spread throughout Shadow's Fall."

"My honor." said the Honor Guard's captain. He dispatched several warriors.

"Ah, my newest Shadowscale. How was your trip?" asked Resiqal, a look of bemusement on his face.

"Port Royal is a vile place, my lord. Animals mix freely with Lizardmen. I have identified the ship in question, and have destroyed the lock leading to the captain's quarters."

"What was the vessel carrying?" asked Resiqal.

Skyyr shook his head. "Gunpowder, my lord."

"Gunpowder? That isn't like Port Royal. They do not ship war materials this far south often. I will report to my Silencers, they will eradicate the buyers. Port Royal must not become a base for invasion."

"A noble decision, my lord." said Skyyr.

"A Slann Priest from Itza was here but four hours ago. He reminds me of the weakness of Shadow's Fall's religious tendencies. The Keep is lacking of late, my Shadowscale. I am in need of stouthearted warriors. Have you found reason to contribute to the Spawnings?"

Skyyr was taken aback by the question. "No, my lord. I am a young Saurus, it is true, but my duties to Shadow's Fall have taken precedent over any.... other... activities."

"I see. Well, Skyyr, at your leisure. Now then, Tharaq has informed me of trouble to the north of the Keep. Skaven are building a nest of some sort. Itza has sent a host led by a Third Spawning Slann to eradicate them. He has asked for the Silencers to take to the fields. I sent Seraqil and his warriors."

Skyyr nodded. Seraqil was a vicious, white-colored Saurus with an appetite for blood second to none. He would reap a grim tally among the Skaven.

"Seraqil will fight like an unleashed army to gain honor." said Skyyr. "Isn't it overkill, my lord?"

"Did I not tell you of the Slann here earlier? The favor Seraqil wins on the field of battle today will honor Shadow's Fall, and gloss over our eccentricities, at least for a time. Now then, about the _Osiris_. It is my decree you return to Port Royal tomorrow and eradicate this captain. We cannot allow him to continue to ship murder into that settlement, and we cannot allow our people to come to harm."

"My honor, kaidon." said Skyyr.

"Now go, and bring swift death to your enemies."

And with that, the Shadowscale ran from Shadow's Fall for the second time, closing on Port Royal.


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## Skyyr (Mar 6, 2009)

...........


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## Dirge Eterna (Apr 30, 2007)

Impression is the sincerest form of flattery, they tell me.


-Dirge


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Another... Another story? For us? Oh you tease, Dirge.

=)))


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## Skyyr (Mar 6, 2009)

Dirge Eterna said:


> Impression is the sincerest form of flattery, they tell me.
> 
> 
> -Dirge


check your PM's, please


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## crabpuff (Aug 5, 2008)

Hmmm......Ship Captain Assasination, lizard names, Oblivion references? Also wouldn't some one have seen him climbing on the outside of the ship in broad daylight? Other than that pretty good.


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## Dirge Eterna (Apr 30, 2007)

crabpuff said:


> Hmmm......Ship Captain Assasination, lizard names, Oblivion references? Also wouldn't some one have seen him climbing on the outside of the ship in broad daylight? Other than that pretty good.


Never said it was broad daylight :victory:. Thanks!


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## Dirge Eterna (Apr 30, 2007)

Attention! Due to a rather unusual turn of events, I'm shutting this down immediately.

A member (by the name of Skyyr) has informed me not only does he have a copyright out on the name, but people have asked him if he had a hand in this. We've exchanged some PMs, and apparently if I make any money off of this AT ALL, or use it on radio or TV, I am infringing his copyrighted name. It's rather humorous, actually. I have written a dozen plus stories on this board, using mostly generic names (Anyone remember Lukas Altair?), but the moment I make up a really weird sounding, off the wall name, within a DAY, a member joins and informs me that he owns the rights to "Skyyr".

Either way, I mean no disrespect to Skyyr, this is merely to inform, not to discredit. Please don't whine about it to me in PM, or in this thread. I am a little frustrated by this, and will be taking a leave of absence to a Halo 3 board, to write there. I'll be back on when I get home. Sorry to leave you guys hanging, but it's rather tiresome arguing about what is essentially unprovable to a person who is rather good at arguing. Anyhow, Skyyr, I mean no offense by this, I still believe fully that this is a pointless debate, but I'm just getting more and more frustrated by the PM discussion, and I believe it's best for all involved if I just let you be. Enjoy the name, my friend.

See you all around March 23. 
-Dirge


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## crabpuff (Aug 5, 2008)

Dirge Eterna said:


> Never said it was broad daylight :victory:. Thanks!


But you did state he reached Shadow's Fall by night fall, it leadme to believ it was a short trip, but hey its ok doesn't take away anything. 

Too bad about the name, but you can use it all you want aslong as you don't seek profit. Plenty of names are copyrighted but are still used, I would ask for proof as well. Sucks since it was coming along pretty nicely.:angry:


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## tssxxx (Feb 5, 2008)

why wouldnt u be able to use the name Skyyr how do u no he is not lying and dosent have a copyright for the name Skyyr, or has he given u proof, regards


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