[Imladris]

The cool night was ripped with the screaming orcs as they neared Arshalous's mansion. She watched Semra slip into the shadows and disappear...it had taken some work persuading Semra to flee, but she had finally obeyed. And now what would she, Arshalous, do? Flee with Semra? Sit and wait?

Sighing, she walked to her chambers and knelt at the foot of her bed before an old and weathered trunk. Turning the key in the lock, she creaked the lid open, and took a slim dagger from within the trunk. The simple blade gleamed in the dim moonlight.

Gripping the handle, breathing quickly, she once again considered what she must do. Pashtia had fallen into darkness, there was naught she could do against the tide. Her death would serve no purpose, would not rescue Pashtia from the fist of the Emissary and his Lord. Flee today...fight tomorrow a voice whispered in her ear.

No....she could not flee. Fleeing stunk of cowardice and uncontroled fear.

Now she could hear the trampling feet of the orcs and glancing out the window she could see a dark shadow streak towards her. Even if she wished to flee it would be too late.

She glanced fondly at the scrolls of tales that were collected in her room, and it was then that Arshalous fully realized that they were in just another story still in the writing. And, as such, the time for great deeds had come. Too long had the citizens of Pashtia allowed The Emissary to manipulate them and their king to darkness. She was tired of sneaking in the shadows, wondering who to trust with the constant fear of betrayal poisoning her. Tonight she would fight against the black tide, and, in all likelyhood, die against this evil. She did not fear Death -- she embraced him for he would save her from existing where darkness and lies rose like a dying sun over the wasted land.

She girded the dagger at her waist and waited in her chambers. The orcs burst through the front door and rampaged through the house looking for her. Finally they found their way to her chambers. She gripped her dagger more firmly, and stared at the swarm of orcs in front of her, at their barred yellowed fangs dripping with spit. They rushed at her, but only one was able to force its way through the narrow entry and into the chamber. She slashed at him aiming for his throat, but instead struck his face and gashed his eye out. More tumbled into the room and she pressed herself into a corner, slashing wildly as she did so. One of the brutes knocked her down, another stepped on her wrist and kicked the dagger out of reach as she grasped frantically for it.

They bound her wrists and dragged her from the house, ignoring her furious struggle to escape.