"This is nice. I’ve missed this side of you. Yes. I do," he said.
"You know I do love you. This is harder for me than you know. I can’t help it. You’ll never understand, but part of me is gone, and I don’t think I will ever be the same. It is not fair to you. It’s not fair to anyone, but I’m trying here. I am. It will take time and maybe a long, long time." Bella tried her best to make him understand.
Their marriage resulted from a cruel circumstance. It would never be the same as it had been, but with Bella willing and wanting to recreate that bond between herself and Markus, there was hope for renewal. Not as they once were, but something new. Laelliandir was gone. He might never return, but this man before her wouldn’t be going anywhere. Markus deserved a chance at something real, for he had been loyal to Bella since the very beginning. Bella wanted so badly to make this work. For everyone.
She dreamed of a time when everything would come together. She and Markus would kindle a pure fire and ignite passion of their own, free of deception. Luminear would recover, and in some northern city, they would all find happiness. No more fighting. No more war. Forget the madness of the south. It was not their problem.
***
Of the four, Luminear was the only one petrified of what lurked in the shadows. She sensed something creeping closer to her every day, a heartbeat away from terror she didn’t comprehend. She longed for Icaz’s medallion to ease her troubled thoughts. As Markus and Bella talked until they fell asleep, Luminear stayed in a room upstairs, staring out the window down the dusty road leaving the hamlet. Fern shared this room with her, in his bed, fast asleep.
Both skittish and sorrowful, she was but a shadow of the Luminear her company remembered. She didn’t smile. She rarely talked and kept to herself. Because of her subdued manner, Luminear made poor company, and everyone treated her gently, unsure what to say or do in her presence. Luminear had lost touch with her seventeen-year-old self from Garroth, who’d had her entire life ahead of her. At twenty-eight, her sister barely recognized her.
Her comrades feared she might be broken beyond repair. Never again would they see that benevolent child within, the one that adored everyone and always tried to help. While growing up, they beheld Luminear as the light of the four. As the wise, loving, and kindest person in their world, she’d always been available lending her ear to listen or shoulder to cry on. Like a tree, and they the branches, Luminear was the root that kept people together. Lonewolf and Icaz had taken the best of them and darkened the world when they destroyed her.
Despite the damage done to her, Luminear remained sensitive as ever. She’d always seen things others didn’t. She observed, trying to understand the finer details, be it a person or happening. This night, as she stared out the window, Luminear did just this. She woke from a nightmare that startled her. In her dream, she witnessed Icaz giving orders to a grisly pack of undead pulslings. This was not the first time she had seen such oddities in her dreams, but what alarmed her was their location. In her vision, these monsters appeared to travel upon the green fields near where they slept. Since she was sure of so little nowadays, Luminear took herself from her bed to patrol the area.
From her vantage point of the second-story window, she had a clear view. Houses lay left and right of a dusty road stretching several hundred yards to the edge of town, and since it was the wee hours of the early morning, no one stirred. With the moon half full, and stars plentiful, all seemed in order, but Luminear still felt unsafe. Deciphering whether her dreams were fanciful nightmares or held substance proved no easy task. She experienced a shift lately, where she would see things she believed might be happening in the real world. Whenever Luminear dreamed now, terror surfaced. Her dreams were horrifying, but tonight’s also felt unnervingly real.
She stood like a watchful sentinel for a couple of hours. Long after she convinced herself she’d had another random nightmare, she spotted something approaching the village. At first, she couldn’t tell what it was, but then it became clearer. What she had seen in her dream approached the settlement, looking like small blurry people in the distance, but unlike people, they were unruly, yet in a pack.
As they came closer, she saw dozens upon dozens of pulslings who were a few feet tall, their thin rotted flesh consumed in boils, while others had no skin, displaying skeletal bones where parts of their withered flesh had fallen from sections of their face or legs and arms. They ran fast, faster than any mortal, and with warped movements, hither and thither, their footing perverse. Smelling of rot and decay, the charge of the pulsling brought with them their stench consuming the air with a foul odor. Luminear gasped when she made out two horsemen riding with them, and although too far to tell, she did not doubt that Icaz rode with this morbid host.
By the time she comprehended what transpired, they had already entered the hamlet and began pillaging. Like ants in a swarm, the fiends surged into the homes, flinging themselves through windows and barging through doors. Her eyes shot wide open, and she covered her mouth with an open palm. Her nightmare had previewed this end.
"Bella!" Luminear screamed at the top of her lungs. Fern shot up, alarmed as Luminear jolted from their room to reach her sister.
Startled and uncomprehending, Fern looked around confused. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary, but Luminear sure feared something. "Another nightmare," he said to himself, looking at Luminear’s bed. The bed linens lie all twisted and turned like she had been rolling around in her sleep for hours. It was the most reasonable explanation. After a few moments, he popped up too, figuring he should try to help settle her disorder.
"Oh, Lumi," he worried, hopping from bed to follow her. This was far from the first time Luminear woke affright, unsure of her surroundings. Fern exited the door of their room, looking about the area. With but a few ningual lanterns in the lobby, muted light flickered as shadows danced upon the wall.
He stood for a moment on a wooden walkway outside their room to get his bearings. Other than Luminear, who had run downstairs in a hurry, he saw no one. The innkeeper had retired to his home hours earlier, and the four of them were the only guests here. Fern wouldn’t chase her, but he headed to the stairway, wondering what he should do for his friend and her nightmares.
By the time Luminear pushed her way into Bella’s room, Fern was halfway down the stairs, near the front door of the resort. When he reached the ground floor, the entrance door flung open. Charging inside, taking Fern by surprise, Laelliandir in his menacing black armor barreled through. Sword in hand, he spotted Fern right off.
"SHITE!" Fern shrieked. Realizing he had become the object of Laelliandir’s fierce desire, he spun around and hurtled back up the staircase. Up, Laelliandir pursued Fern, while Bella, Markus, and Luminear hurried disoriented out of their room. Markus, still shirtless, and Bella squeezing into one as she went, spotted them as Laelliandir chased Fern with Fern screaming for help.
"No!" Markus yelled as he sprinted toward the stairs to pursue, armed with his blade. Bella wasn’t armed, and she turned back to retrieve Betrayer’s Bane. Perplexed and petrified, they were all stunned.
"Help!" Fern lunged down the hall to reach the safety of his bedroom, but Laelliandir proved every bit as quick. In a furious race, Laelliandir completed the steps and dashed toward him. Fern stumbled and fell, mere feet from his door. "No, please," Fern begged, twisting around with Laelliandir now right on top of him. Laelliandir did just as he had been ordered. Without pause, across Fern’s face, he ripped through gouging his eye and tearing through his nose and lip. He withdrew his steel and shoved it into his chest. Fern’s squeal of wrenching pain cut short. His wound fatal, soon to meet his end.
"Fern!" Markus yelled in aching fury. He was still climbing the stairwell when he witnessed the cruelty above. Laelliandir had killed his best friend. "You sarding filth!" Now in the upper hall, Markus scowled at the menace who murdered his friend. Riddled in rage, he’d kill this man. On impulse, he charged. Bella, from the lobby below, screamed for Mar
kus to run the other way. But he couldn’t hear her with his mind now bent on one desire. Markus would not let Laelliandir get away with this. Bella charged up the steps, all too aware Markus was no match for him.
Laelliandir turned to behold Markus charging toward him, screeching through his tears. Bella tried in vain to persuade both these men to stop. Neither listened. Markus was not a bad swordsman, but a novice compared to Laellaindir. Markus possessed the skill of an average soldier while Laelliandir was a master of the blade. Still, Markus swung fearlessly while Laelliandir defended. They clashed a bout or two, but by the time Bella reached the walkway, she was too late. Already slower, but also consumed in emotion, put him at an even more severe disadvantage. Markus became Laelliandir’s victim when he sliced across his chest and ran his sword through his gut just in time for Bella to witness the grisly scene. Markus collapsed onto the railing as Laelliandir jerked back the blade from his belly.
"Lae! Please!" Bella howled through her grief, unable to act. Markus looked back at her, and she read the terror in his eyes. Helpless, she could do nothing but watch. "No, no-Markus!" Laelliandir, without mercy, plunged his steel through Markus’s heart, then kicked him off the banister into the lobby below.
Bella hit her knees. Devastated, she succumbed to defeat. Laelliandir didn’t care. After he slew Markus, he targeted Bella wailing on her knees. For a moment, Bella hoped this man would realize what he had done and cease his madness. He proved her wrong by lifting his steel and bolting toward her. Her eyes shot open, "Oh no, Lae! Please, I’m begging you!"
She couldn’t fight him. Her body trembled as she struggled to stand. Bella raised her blade to defend, pushing herself up as he paraded forth, slamming his sword toward her face. Bella blocked and faltered backward, sobbing between her gasps. Her knees weak, and her body near to collapse, Bella did her best to shield herself. In this state of mind, Bella could not best him. She could hardly look at him after what she witnessed him do. "Lae, please!" Bella begged, but he circled her and jammed his fist into her face, knocking her back to her knees. Up she lifted Betrayer’s Bane to deflect a killing stroke upon her neck. She knew it was over.
***
This isn’t happening. Luminear’s mind raced as she fled from the downstairs bedroom with a hammer she collected from Markus’s possessions. No sooner than she’d made it back in the gallery, was she met by a gruesome horror that stopped her dead in her tracks screaming.
Markus’s body fell from above and plummeted before her, wide eyes staring up at her. "Markus," she gasped affright, kneeling in reflex until she realized his haunting eyes were lifelessly frozen in terror. Oh, no! She jumped, and a sudden knot heaved in her stomach, the sour taste of vomit in her mouth, but the cracking voice of her sister drew her back.
"Oh no, Lae! Please, I’m begging you!" followed by the sounds of steel clashing above.
You’re not taking my sister. Panicked, Luminear dashed toward the stairs and sprinted up as fast as her legs would allow. Halfway up the steps, she spotted Bella on her knees. With no fight left in her, Laelliandir lifted his sword, intent on mercilessly slaying her. Luminear wouldn’t allow it.
Before Laelliandir delivered the stroke to kill her sister, Luminear took him by surprise. As she brought down the hammer to strike, a tingling sensation tickled her senses, and she landed her weapon in colossal potency, slamming his wrist. In an instant, he was disarmed, his sword laying useless on the floor. Luminear followed up, bashing the hammer hard across his face. The force of her blow sent him back with such might, Laelliandir’s body splintered the banister as he crashed through it. He was light as a feather to Luminear, yet her ferocity matched that of a potent gale. Down he flew across the expanse of the lobby below and into the wall.
What in the-? Did I just do that? Shocked by her own strength, for a brief second, Luminear fell lost in thought, and a twinge filled her body, mind, and senses, but no sooner than Laelliandir landed, he let out a groan while struggling to stand and glowering up at her. It’s not over.
Bella struggled to grasp what had happened as she looked at her sister. "Come on, Bell," Luminear instructed, grabbing her hand to help pull her to her feet. Bella did as told, having no thoughts of her own anymore. She couldn’t lead them anywhere. Luminear took charge. With Bella’s hand in hers, she guided toward the back of the walkway, past her guestroom chamber.
"The window. We get to the window and jump," Luminear said in confidence, somehow knowing what must be done. She felt powerful beyond comprehension.
As they neared the back window, a loud crashing came from behind, followed by ghoulish shrieks echoing in the inn. Luminear looked back over her shoulders to see several pulslings storming inside. They pounced in, some with withered flesh, others with prominent skeletons. Instantly their beaming eyes met their prey on the banister above, and a foray of high pitched screeches erupted in excitement. Death had come, and up the steps, they charged.
"Hurry!" Luminear screamed, pushing her dazed sister along. Still, she kept her eyes below. The hasty filthy creatures proved faster than they. We’ll never make it. Just as she thought it, her heightened senses told her what to do. Fire. Burn them. She darted her eyes below, finding the fireplace, and with the mere thought of using it, something peculiar occurred.
With a life of its own, the flames spurted from the hearth and reached like long arms flooding the stairs with hungry flames. The pulslings’ excited screams shifted to angry torturous ones as untamed fire devoured all in its path. The front door combusted in raging heat, and the lobby floors burned near Markus’s body and Laelliandir, who now looked for a way out.
"What’s going on?" Bella yelled through her tears as she slowed her pace to turn around.
"Keep going!" Luminear yanked Bella’s wrist to follow. Luminear didn’t understand what had transpired either, but she knew somehow she was responsible. Still, her mind continued to tick at an accelerated speed, and she felt vigorous.
Luminear led them to the back gallery to the windows opposite the front of the town. "Bella, jump!" Under them lay the stable where they kept their horses along with a daunting fifteen-foot drop. But Luminear didn’t give Bella an option, nearly shoving her sister out the window. Bella jumped first and took a tumble into the fenced-in stables. Luminear came next. Collapsing on her feet like a cat, she dashed for the fence line. "Untie them!" Luminear ordered Bella, who understood what Luminear expected of her and went for the horses. At the same time, Luminear unlatched the gate of the wooden fencing.
Once outside, they heard foul shrieking everywhere. An overwhelming stench and the violent screams of people and fiends alike consumed the hamlet. While they could see nothing, Luminear understood what was happening. Every single person in this humble hamlet was being ripped apart in a search for her.
In the night, the two fled alone. Markus, Fern and likely Laelliandir were being buried in flames. But Bella and Luminear would not die this day. With nothing but the clothes on their back and Betrayer’s Bane, they charged now for Cassenneth to freedom and warning. The northerners would let them pass, even if it meant riding to the pillaged colony to see for themselves. Something out there hunted them. Far from over, a merciless malevolence seeped in, bringing pestilence and plague, its cruelty growing.
Chapter Four
The Darvane Dwarfs
As Luminear and Bella escaped peril in the Freelands, two others arrived at Darvane Hills. Had Darius been able to make sense of his many strange visions, he would have raced straight north to find Luminear and Bella, but he didn't know where or who they were or why he kept seeing them. His ongoing visions confused and worried him, but he was grateful for the distraction his companion offered. With Calysto beside him, his jumbled qualms beset him less.
Darius and Calysto should have arrived in the Darvane Hills long before they did, but, on foot, it proved an extended journey. Darius had a horse when he arrived in Tragmont, but once he neared the ruins of Crusayla and the black cliffs, the steed came
to an abrupt halt, refusing to proceed. The poor creature had more wits than Darius and Calysto, and Darius completed his quest to find the magical trinket without his horse.
Calysto, likewise, had no horse, but for a different reason as she explained to Darius. "Calysto rides no horse. Dwarfs ride no horse. You don't know dat? Dey big, dey tall. Hurt bad to fall." Darius wasn't about to remind Calysto that she, like most elves, would easily ride a horse. He assumed her attitude came from her upbringing. "Dey not for Calysto. I fast anyway. Faster than most." And she was. If she wanted, Calysto could take off running and leave Darius in the dust, continuing at an escalated pace for days before feeling strain. Elves had remarkable endurance and a high tolerance for almost everything. Dwarfs, too, for that matter, but Calysto saw things her way. Since she was so young, Darius figured she would change in time and let her go on believing whatever she wished.
For months the two hiked by foot until reaching the high mountain beside the sea. Just as Calysto had said, the city of dwarfs welcomed her just like any other dwarf. She was their family, and after seeing them interact, Darius understood. Calysto proved to be quite dwarf-like when she met her people with burly hugs, chest, and head butts. She also wrestled with a dwarf named Pogo. They charged into one another and play-fought. Both peculiar and amusing, Darius relished watching the dwarf excitement. Darius joined in drinking stout dwarf ale only, but he enjoyed watching Calysto's jubilant dancing and wrestling performances.
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