<div class="floatleft">(http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h357/daniellex28/barbarian_by_la__boheme-d6xc4fq22223333444_zpsrsqomeyv.jpg)</div><strong>Name</strong>:<em>Gabriel Bersk  </em><br/><strong>Hit Points</strong>:<em>55/55</em><br/><hr/><br/>If there was anything that could elicit a profound reaction from the worn down barbarian, it was the very memento put on display between them. Dark eyebrows raised into a look of incredulity as his gaze bore into the sight of the simple necklace. The ocean blue center stone had the fine symbols of his home town -<em>their</em>home town - etched into its core, but even without there was no possible way that Gabriel would fail to recognize the pieces of jewelry his little sister had worn since the day she'd first learned to walk on her own two feet. Gabriel was shaken; perhaps not visibly, but the mere sight had him moved to his very core. He realized a few precious moments too late how much he had given himself away, but then, Tannik knew so much about him that undoubtedly he had already known what emotions this would instigate.<br/><br/>He reached out for the trinket with a tremor to his hand, the gesture tentative and slow. When his fingers wrapped around the small beads Gabriel half anticipated that his flesh would burn where the cool stone seared his skin, but even that would have been a mercy he did not deserve. The necklace looked tiny in his palm as he turned his hand, allowing himself to observe it up close. His thumb perused the aquamarine in an affectionate manner he did not think himself capable of any longer. Mental images long suppressed - but never forgotten - resurfaced, with the bittersweet image of a young girl rushing through lavender fields haunting him with relentless ferocity. Gabriel wrapped his fist around the object and slowly allowed his forehead to come to rest against his knuckles. A terse silence ensued, one in which he attempted to contain the dark, grievous emotions that had become his only drive forward.<br/><br/>"Nothing in my past will change what I've done, who I am in this day." Gabriel spoke through gritted teeth, although his features slowly relaxed, abandoning that strained expression and settling in a solemn acceptance of a fate he no longer wished to escape. "The path of redemption has been lost to me many years ago."<br/><br/>He opened his eyes, slowly, the aurum irises focusing on Azzir Tannik with genuine interest for the first time. His voice was filled with a restrained calm, weary almost. "How did you gain possession of this necklace?" he asked, each word pronounced with deliberate slowness. There were possibilities, but each of them so terrible that even Gabriel dared not linger on them.