Thaler had been content, neither happy or sad just indifferent. She enjoyed the quiet, this brief reprieve from all that was wrong and broken in the world. She may not have trusted the strangers but unlike some they'd shown no reason to be unworthy of trust. Jaelnec liked them, Olan too and Aemoten had been okay with them before he'd fallen asleep and for now that was enough. It was the last detour, the last distraction. No more attacks, they'd promised her, no more stress, they'd said, no more anything, at least until they get to Zerul. That was their promise at the edge of the road before running into the foreigners, when Thaler all but stubbornly refused to follow Etakar. 

There was a rustle [i]No he promised[/i]. It was there again, a skulking predator. Too large and clumsy for a wolf, too small to be anything like a bear or cat. [i]No[/i]. She repeated to herself. No more fighting for a while, no more bloodshed, no more demons and gods and monsters, no more men trying to kill them. This was a quick detour, they were getting these foreigners, going to Zerul and they were all going to have a good night's sleep. Thaler trembled slightly be it from fear or suppressed anger even she couldn't tell anymore. 

What good was a deal with a stupid damn god if they didn't give her a break? What was the point in getting rid of Rilon if they were just going to get attacked again. [i]No.[/i] She heard the foreigner speak, she heard Olan and Jaelnec and as Jaelnec moved, as the rustling creature burst forth a dam in Thaler broke. 

Turning to the sound she screamed, not the scream of the angry but the scream of a frustrated, exasperated, exhausted woman and she uttered one word that reverberated around the air like shattering glass, that translated into all but no language, that compelled a person to do as it instructed without thought, without pause but with utter obedience. The word had been so close to being a different one, so very close to a three letter word that would end this stupid problem for good. Die. Such a short, beautiful word, such a marvellous word, a word that would silence her problems completely. A word though she'd promised Olan she wouldn't use, a word that she wasn't sure wouldn't hit her friends. A word that in her soul she knew shouldn't be used. Although it was tempting, so very tempting.  

She didn't care that she'd just warned Olan not to be frivolous with his gift, she didn't care that it might hit the foreigners, perhaps even Jalenec -she'd lost track of him as she hit breaking point- she had just had enough. [b][i]"STOP!"[/i][/b] One word, with all the power of a falling tree, all the urgency of a final breath. It was deeper than rivers and taller than mountains and it demanded respect. Stronger than when she'd used it before, in controlled and measured ways but as always with emotionally charged works of the arcane it was charged by her utter resentment of the situation, it was fueled by her disdain for whatever thing had decided it was time to ruin their day a little more. She couldn't see the sword, the creature, all she had was its intent palpable on the wind and the fact her leader had drawn his weapon. Jaelnec never unsheathed Roct for anything but a fight. 

Thaler held what gaze she had on the area her voice had been projected, she stood without breaking that point of contact, every ounce of her will behind the word she had unleashed. This was why she'd wanted a weapon, a real one, one to keep things like this away from those she cared for. Of course she'd always had one, she'd never wanted to use it as a weapon before, to get her own way but never to kill or harm. Although now perhaps that was why Rilon lost, perhaps he'd known she'd snap, perhaps he'd felt her potential. The True Voice was going to rip her soul apart but if it meant that they could have an hours peace, she just didn't care anymore. "If you so much as breathe funny." She hissed quietly, "I'll kill you with a word." Thaler was done playing games, this was no idle threat, this was no empty promise, if the thing so much as sounded odd to her ears she was going to use that 'forbidden' word and rip the life from its body. She was eerily calm, eerily still, she wasn't acting on emotion anymore but on pure instinct. [i]Another promise broken, when will I learn?[/i]