Dread Mage

"An Elf's soul is powerful, and even just a part is not something to laugh at. You've evolved with the power that is now inside you. You're not a thrall anymore, what exactly you are I don't know yet. Maybe you're on your way to becoming a banshee or are a ghoul now. Don't you feel happy?" Vell said to Sonder.

She didn't know how she was supposed to feel. She did feel more, in general. The heat, the cold, nervous and somewhat lost; in short, she felt more alive than before.

"Tell us," Vell turned to the orc and now alive again elf, "Are you keeping her family in one of those cages outside?"

"No," the elf answered, "the ones we took recently have already been sold."

"Ah, and who to? You could at least answer that."

"I can't," the elf said, her eyes nervous and frightened of Vell, though not frightened enough to tell him.

"I can," the orc said instead.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"What are they going to do? Kill us?" the orc said sarcastically, "He already did it, and was kind enough to remind us that we are not the most important people in the world. So what does it matter?"

They looked at each other and the elf gave way.

"Irath."

"The Irath?" Vell asked.

"Yes, a troop of them came not too long ago and asked for dozens of fresh people, and chose this girl's village people."

"Any other detail that might be useful to know?"

"They didn't seem like normal Irath. They also had a mage, but he had a hood on so I didn't get a good look at his face, but he seemed to be important. He limped and walked with a stick."

"That is unusual for an Irath."

"Can you speak Irathy?" Vell asked, "Or does anyone here do?"

"No, they spoke common, but with their accents, they couldn't be mistaken for anything else than Irathy."

"Describe it to me."

"What do you mean?" The orc asked.

"How did they sound like? What did their accents entail? Do they roll their R's or swallow the S in words? Or sound out a C like a K? You're a smart orc, think about it and then describe it to me."

The orc rubbed her chin, "I do believe that they sounded a bit stranger than the average Irath, not that I heard many speak. They were unusually quiet and spoke in just a few words and very short sentences. They didn't say 'O' but rather 'Uh' instead, you get what I mean?"

"Yes, yes, and?"

"They prolonged their I's into 'Ee's."

That description connected something in Vell's mind, and then he turned to leave with Sonder accompanying him.

They left the bandits and their camp to be. Vell thought they had learned their lesson and that the elf, whose name they never caught, would suffer her whole existence.

She only lost a small part of her soul but any creature with one would feel the loss of any of it.

And soon, he thought, the orc would realize that her way of life caused so much suffering she didn't want to continue this path.

The only thing that twinged at his heart were the other prisoners and hostages they had taken, but he didn't think that it was his business to deal with them.