"Perhaps I won’t take you yet, Watcher. You fight in my image and live in my shadow, and if I leave you where you are I know you’ll provide much fresh meat for my children. Kill an army for me, Raif Sevrance, any less and I just might call you back."

With those words in mind, JV Jones named the 4th book in her Sword of Shadows series. Watcher of the Dead.
She is one of THE most stunning writers of our time, in my opinion of course. If you enjoy fantasy books I highly recommend that you check her out, she does not disappoint and is fan friendly to boot! [link]

Seen above is Raif, his Sull bow raised high, the legendary sword Loss in hand, screaming out his frustrations where no one can hear.
In front of his inner eye he can see glimpses of other forces involved in the conflict of the coming Long Night.
The Endlords with their army of Unmade ready to devour every living breathing soul, just waiting for their prison walls to shatter for good.
In the center of everything is Ash March, the rakhar dan, sacred warrior. The balance upon which everything seems to hang, her unique powers reaching past the barrier that keeps the Endlords imprisoned.
Looking over the mountain is Death herself appearing in the shape of Mallia Argola, a young woman that took strong interest to Raif.

Unimpressed by everything else, the raven, the Watcher of the Dead, looks on...

The characters and stories around them are copyrighted by JV Jones.
The image is fictional, there is no such scene in the books. It simply is how things fell in place in my head.
There's a few things I'm not happy with, such as the partial smear of the bow or Ash's hair. I'll admit hair is tough for me to meddle with and apparently silvery platinum blondes even more so!
I might fight with it more and release a second version but all in all I wanted to wrap and move on to other things.
I don't often do images of this size but making it any smaller would just be a crime.

Credits:

Background: Selfmade with Terragen
Endlord: Myself. No I won't upload the original, it was taken with a 5 bucks camera some years ago..more grain than is healthy for the eye!
Ash:
Thank you for supplying an amazing Ash March.
Death:
A very captivating and beautiful face.
Raif:
I hope she won't mind that I turned her into a guy, the pose was perfect!
Raven:
He's a beauty.
Skull:
Just what I wanted.
Cloak:
Though you would not recognize it now, it is there.
Brushes:
Thanks!

Inspiration: JV Jones - [link]
Done with PSCS3, a bucket of creativity and two buckets of patience.