It was a sudden movement that caused Velentham to pause, to utter a spell of invisibility, to cloak himself and silence his rage. The beggar, and he was heading for the cottage. Velentham uttered a spell, lifting his feet into the air, and drifted along well behind Thasmudyan. He watched as the man went straight to the front door and knocked. He watched as the love of his life answered the door... and came outside.
Velentham drifted near enough to hear them, to hear the goddamned beggar stand there as though innocent, sharing with Sanria their plans. "He said that... he wanted revenge... on Gilean. He wanted me.. to carry it out," the beggar said.
"What did he say he wanted you to do?" Sanria returned.
"He wanted me to.. well, take Gilean to the Lifestream and 'accidentally' leave him there."
"And you didn't do it..." she said, and Velentham clenched his teeth as the beggar got into her good graces just as easily as butter melting on a hot griddle.
"...No."
They talked more, driving Velentham into a fever. He ran his hands through his hair, he drifted to and fro, she was so near. So close. If she would only come slightly away from that ward, he could just do what he wanted - take her away. He might not be able to flee the material plane with her, but he could take her to a place that they'd never look, he'd just have to get her away from the cottage. Away from the dopey bastard that stood talking to her and making himself more esteemed in her eyes. Velentham had enough.
His invisibility spell gone, his levitation dismissed, Velentham walked from the woods with a rage barely contained. "So here you are, beggar. Telling all our plans."
"So you are here, after all..." Thasmudyan said.
"Unlike you I never left. I don't cower from the things I want."
"And what do you have to say, beggar? I thought we were friends."
"I've decided that if I have to resort to deceit, trickery, and murder to get what I want, then perhaps that thing is not worth having."
"Truly a man after my own cousin. Perhaps that's why he has her and you don't?"
"If I have to deceive her to have her, then I don't really have her, do I?"
It was in that moment, all sanity Velentham had remaining drifted away. He had no thought of what his people might do to him. No thought of being banished from his own kind. The only thought Velentham had in his mind was the eradication of the beggar. Thasmudyan would die.
