"I WILL ALLOW YOU TO RETURN KRUIN, BUT YOU MUST GIVE ME ONE THING"
The pale lady intoned in her eery hollow voice.
"Ok, what ya want from me then?"
"THE MORTALS HAVE LITTLE WE CANNOT MAKE OURSELVES, BUT THE FEELINGS SUCH FEEBLE BEINGS SUCH AS YOURSELVES EXPERIENCE CAN SOMETIMES BE USEFUL. IN YOUR CASE, YOU HAVE MORE ANGER THAN ANY MORTAL HAS A RIGHT TO, AND I WANT IT."
"You want ma anger? Fuck, if that'll stop this hurtin then take it."
With that the pale lady placed her hands upon Kruin's head and a vivid red flame burst forth from it, and from Skrillex, the tiefling appearing to be consumed by it. The flames swirled until they materialised into a form identical to Kruin, demon arm and all.
"What tha fu...what tha...what is that thing?" The original Kruin spluttered, seeming to stumble upon her words, struggling to form a sentence.
"A SHADE OF YOUR ANGER. YOUR BODY WAS OCCUPIED BY TWO SOULS AS IT WAS, I'VE TAKEN BITS OF BOTH KRUIN AND SCRILLEX AND MADE THIS. IT SHALL STAY HERE IN THE DIVINE REALMS UNTIL I HAVE A USE FOR IT."
"Wha...wha...why can't ah speak anymore, you...did....you...di...you take that away?"
"NO, ALL I TOOK WAS YOUR ANGER, AND THE MURDROUS PARTS OF SKRILLEX. YOU CAN TALK FINE, YOU JUST NEED TO FIND A NEW WAY TO EMOTE."
"I...ahhh....bleh..."
"BEST YOU BE GOING NOW, AGAMEMNON IS EXPECTING YOU."
And with that the mysterious dark world around Kruin faded, to be replaced by a flash of white light and the rough stones of the inside of Rappun Athuck. There was Aggy, looking concerned, always such a good friend. "What, did I just think that." Kruin wondered. There were the others, mostly useless, but at least they tried. "No, this isn't how I think." Kruin said to herself....calmly?
Then she noticed the look on everyone's faces, terror at seeing Kruin. She felt hurt. "Why are my friends scared of me?" But then she noticed the strange gossamer imaged around her, one of Erika's illusions, making Kruin look like a demon it seemed. "Sill Erika" Kruin thought, the look on her companions faces as the illusion dropped was amusing though.
The party made their way out of Rappan Athuck, Kruin saying very little. Once they reached the surface she gave a throwaway excuse and stalked off. "What now?" she thought. "I traded my anger so I could live, but my anger was all I was. It was how I fought, it was how I performed magic. What of me now?" She felt powerless, for the first time in her life, though looking back she thought that she should have maybe felt that way more often.
"Where to now?" She thought. "No one really respects me, I've not done anything to deserve that. Why did I not realise that until now. They just fear me or mock me, what kind of existence is that?"
The glass island, surely the work she'd begun there was worthy of respect. She headed to Tarrens Junction, paid a fishing boat to divert to near the islands shores and swam the last few hundred feat. As she scrambled up onto the muddy shore, she smiled. She had done something worthwhile at least. Amongst what had once been blasted fused sand, small plants now sprouted, some in rows of crops, other just growing with irrepressible abundance of nature.
The forest people greeted her in their own odd ways, such a pleasant group of misfits. Up on a cliff next to one of Erika's illusionary watch towers she found Bogbrew swearing at a patch of seedlings. "Grow you fucken useless weeds, grow you bastards or I'll rip ya out by the roots and chuck you into the brine!" Kruin knew it would be effective. He had even more of a way with anger than she did.
"Ahh, Kruin, ya came back I see. What ya bought us this time?"
Kruin felt guilty, these people sacrificed a lot to be out here, and they were used to being rewarded when Kruin visted. Guilty? That was new.
"Sorry Bogbrew, I haven't bought anything with me, Aggy and Erika didn't come, I got a boat, I'm...I'm sick."
"Sick, the slack ass weak little gods'll fix you up in no time. Oi, you little shits!" He shouted at the air around him. "Kill whatver bug this woman's let get inta her!"
"It's not that kind of sickness I'm afraid. I..." and she started to sob.
"What the fuck you playing at? Stop being a weak little baby!"
"Bogbrew, I've lost my anger. I just can't feel angry anymore, no matter how hard I try. And I can't do magic, I can't fight. What can I do without it?"
"Hah?. Well, we'll just have to give it back to ya" With that Bogbrew threw his arms forward with a quick vulgarity and torrent or water sprung from the air smashing into Kruin, who stumbled perilously close to the edge of the sea cliff. He ran forward and shoved her before she could regain her balance and she tumbled off the edge. "Get mad fast and learn ta fly!" he bellowed.
Kruin began to plummet but quickly turned her fall into a graceful arc, rising back up into air to land back on the cliff.
"See, I knew I could get you your anger back."
"Nahh, I'm not angry though, I know you wanted to help. I just think it's hilarious that you managed to do something useful with that spell. Every time I've done it it's failed horribly." And she laughed.
"What the fuck? Did you just cast magic by laughing?"
"Seems I did. Maybe I don't need anger after all, maybe there's other ways to do this stuff..."
