by Rhys Thomas
The armour also covered her neck completely going up to closed off her ears and then snaked along the side of her head to form two wooden horns, that’s curled backwards slightly over her head by a foot. On the wooden horns bloomed a violet flower that reminded me Ariana eyes.
When she was done Shre twisted and twirled in delight at her appearance. Then she looked at and I had to smile at her oddly confounded innocent face, “You look- delightful Shre,” I hedged hesitantly. She stopped her spin and tilted her head patiently. “But it’s wooden armour,” I said simply.
“Yes, hardened to the point it can withstand steel. Possibly fire as well, though not for long.” Shre came over to me running a hand idly along my chest as she sway her ass and hips enticingly.
“Okay... What about a weapon?” I asked her. She moved over to a wooden bench which was really just a bent piece of debris warn down other countless years.
Shre smiled coyly and slapped her wood gauntleted palm against the bench paused as her eyes flared a lighter shade, then she tightened her hand into the wood as it’s parted like melting butter. Eventually Shre pull’s a 7-foot tall quarterstaff away from the debris.
With a spin, a quick jab and twirling side swipe, Shre thumped her staff into the ground and raises an inquisitive eyebrow at me.
Raising my hands chuckling, I stepped away, “alright. I guess you’re more prepared than I thought.” I looked back over my shoulder at all the loot and with Shres help I went through what I wanted to take and what Ilya thought would be best in the long run.
Which meant I now had 6 black iron short sword with a bronze guard at the grip, I would’ve had the 7th man’s sword as well but apparently Shade bent the sword when he chomped the man’s arm off.
The 8th bandit, the assumed leader of the merry band, had a cold steel two-handed claymore that had a clover leaf design on the guard and pommel, the silvery blade gleamed hungrily in the night air.
I disarmed the dead bandit of his shoulder sheath as it was nicer that the one I had previously and swung the scabbard over my shoulder as I moved about. I took two more muskets bring my count to three and warped them as well two pistols.
The ammunition was thankfully in quite an abundance as each of the bandits had dual leather pouches. Inside each pouch were neatly lined little white baggie’s containing the mixture for the shot and a small erectable rod to jammed the shot down.
I had a total of 34 musket rounds and 40 pistol rounds at my expense.
I dumped a lot of the clothing as the majority of it was bloody or torn, I grabbed a few extra scabbards and then retrieved a bag of 18 silvers and 9 copper coins. Frowning I glanced at Ilya as she led a stumbling Emilia after her. “The coins for me?” I asked her.
She nodded, “I’ve no use for it out here and we need to rush back to the Naiad. So, it’s yours though I expect you to pay for drinks when we’re back in Ny’thier city.”
“And I’ll do so gladly,” I told her with a nod of gratitude.
A startled gasp erupted from Shre as she rushed towards the dazed Emilia, “is she alright?” I asked Ilya.
“I’ve no idea,” she replied with a shrug. “Though I never seen another witch split her soul and receive a… Flower bud before, and the things the size of my head and the colouring is just off as well...” Ilya voice trailed off as Shre let her an exhilarated cry and bounced with joy.
“Can’t be that bad then,” I muttered as Shre began to talk and coo at the young witch.
“I see you’ve no longer got a stiff… Leg,” Ilya commented, and I looked down at the dark elf. “Shre has a real talent for… Easing ones tensions,” I replied with a smirk.
“Maybe I’ll have to give her ago, as long as her master doesn’t mind that is?” she questioned.
“As long her master gets to watch, and potentially join, go right ahead.”
“Master!” Shre squealed to me, cutting off Ilyas’ coming reply.
“Yes, my dear,” I said dryly to the dryad.
“You must come see Emilia’s’ familiar. It’s wonderful, a thing I’ve seen since the forgotten ages.”
“I’m coming,” I told her finishing up the last of the loot.
Walking over with Ilya a step behind, I glanced at the young witch to see her breathing deeply, every couple of breaths proceeded by a groan. In her hands and clutched to her chest was a sparkling purple flower bud with accents of orange and red around the lining of the closed petals. The bud reminding me of a water lily in the final stages of blooming.
I watched as small motes of light-like dust drifted off the surface of each petal. “What is it?” I asked the dryad.
“I recognised the flower as being from the Twilight moon Za’el,” she replied. I frown as no other explanation was forthcoming.
“I have no idea where that is,” I stated flatly.
A slight flush settled on Shre’s cheeks, “y-yes. Um the Twilight Moon or rightfully named as Za’el to those scholarly enough to know that Za’el was the home of the Twilight Fae.”
“But isn’t Za’el lost now?” Ilya asked the dryad.
Shre nodded, “I’m afraid so.”
“You mean an entire moon is missing? Or destroyed?” I asked doubly, just wanting to confirm which was correct.
“Neither,” said Shre. “It is now a red moon, one long abandoned by the Fae after countless bloody and terrifying wars the moon became unliveable. But every now and then something long lost to that time re-emerges.” Shre finished, gazing at the flower bud held protectively in Emilia arms.
Something nagged at my thoughts, I vaguely remembered having a conversation now with Marisa about Za’el and how Tian Jessem had banished the Shi’en to Za’el after the Fae fled the moon for another named Ari. “I really should pay attention more,” I grumbled and stood straighter. “So, Emilia got her - flower familiar? and we need a plan. Emi can you run?” I said to the young witch who nodded mutely.
Her unfocused gaze had me worried, I met Shres’ eyes as she stood to join me and Ilya. “She’ll be okay, just the daze from splitting her soul and manifesting it into a physical presence,” Shre supplied helpfully.
“Right-” I said, shaking my head at her words, “we need a plan.”
“We already know what we need to do,” Ilya said firmly. I glanced at the Mælic Redeye and saw a hungry glint flickered across her eyes. My mind couldn’t help but be drawn back to the image of her downing that red vial. “We must return to the Glen and inform Penelope about Vivik Grayson, and his dealings with Tyrannos.”
“Okay. Anything else?” I asked looking around at the women.
“That the goldran slavers are salvaging; then kidnapping people after unfreezing them somehow in Zwericania,” Ilya supplied with a helpless shrug.
I tilted my head back and inhaled deeply, “alright, we leave immediately then.” We packed up everything we needed for the journey back to the Naiad, Shre assured us that she could shorten our route considerably as we set out from the grove. A few flowers were already wilting, and the ground and other flora began to show hues of brown creeping across them.
The sight saddened me, and I spotted Shre stopping once or twice to run a hand delicately over a few plants or along a tree’s trunk. “You can feel it all dying, can’t you?” I asked quietly as I moved at her side, Ilya and Emilia bringing up the rear.
“They’re not so much as dying as just reverting back to the natural cycle of things,” Shre answered. Then explained further when she noted my obvious confusion. “A dryad with a grove is a powerful accelerant for all flora tied to the dryad’s heart seed. We nurture life, but too an unnatural degree. Plant life and trees sometimes growing far taller than the previous iteration of their species. When that happens, they require far more nutrient, which is why sometimes the land outside of a grove are considered to be a wasteland.” She finished softly and her eyes drifted off into the distance.
I wanted to ask where the rest of her kind were, but something in her expression held me
back.
~*~*~*~
It wasn’t till the early light of dawn when we stopped for quick break to hand out rations that we heard sounds of our pursuers. A chittering and yipping howl broke through the quiet of our impromptu camp. “Thanes!” Ilya hissed, her blades already sawing out into her hands.
“They’re farer off than it sounds,” Shre said, but she too instantly stood finishing her snack of nuts and berries.
“What exactly do they look like?” I asked them.
“Like an amalgam of human and wolf,” Emilia supplied, she looked pale and her eyes were starting to look sunken. “But furless and feral, and they travel in numbers,” she added.
I stood helping her to her feet, she was more responsive now but still clung to the big flower bud in her arms. “Do we move faster?” I asked Shre. The dryad thought for a moment before shaking her head hesitantly.
“We need to draw them off our trail and to a spot more advantageous to us. The route we’re taking will shave off a day’s travel, but the Thanes will catch up to us eventually.”
Ilya nodded sheathing her scimitars. I felt the comforting weight of the claymore on my back and the falchion on my hip. I was worried about using the two-handed weapon effectively, but since separating from Shade I didn’t really feel any weakness as such, just more tired. I wondered if it was that, or that somehow binding Shres heart with my delve was counteracting the weakness.
Pausing to quickly throw myself roughly into my delve and driving my conscious mind deep within. I noted how easily it was now as I floated in the vast domain of my delve, the intense glare of the sun at the centre, now a white-hot star.
Frowning when I saw the chain-like leash that connected my aetheric pool to the sun was cut off and just floating about. “Huh… I guess I just need to reattach the leashing after, binding Shre. Considering that my construct isn’t the same anymore,” I mumbled to myself. I flew over to my aetheric custard pool and saw that was a quarter full, the highest I’d ever seen it.
“Wonder how that’ll feel when I reconnect it,” I said and concentrated on what I wanted. I kept my link into the delve active and paused my floating as I went to work restoring the leash binding my aether pool in back into orbit of my sun. Then I threw myself into the sun to check on my construct within. The grey areas within my construct, floated with inactive runes, now were interrupted by thin sinuous green roots weaving throughout my body from my chest and head, seeming to spread everywhere.
Would my own use of aether going forward affect Shres own power base, considering her control of nature came from her own essence. Which was essentially inside me now.
I reached out through construct and stroked an ethereal finger along one of the stranding roots, it quivered under my touch fearfully yet excited. The two conflicting emotions warring with each other. I guessed the roots were unused to being touch or seen, what I got from the brief contact was that they liked to be hidden. Yet my touch was a drug they so yearned for. I chuckled and withdrew from the delve, disconnecting from the source.
I breathed sharply as everything brightened around me, sharper contrasts and the sudden intensity of sounds and smell of the forest. Then the decay and rot of Farland buried deeply beneath the earth like an ancient sinister presence and I understood now that we were far outside of Shres grove.
I looked to the girls and saw them walking a few feet ahead of me. My whole being thrumming with the need to expense some energy, even though I wasn’t connected to the delve. A smile formed on my lips, my fingers and feet twitchy with need, a strange sense of elation washing over me. *Chick?* I sent to Marisa.
*Yes Al,* she replied demurely.
*We’ll talk later about everything. I just want you to know, I don’t blame you. I’m as much at fault for not pushing you to tell me, which seems pointless now as nothing has really changed.*
*Hasn’t it Alaric?* she asked me, her voice sounding stern and angry. I ignored the question, some part of myself considering the plausibility that I might’ve changed, but how? I would have to wait and see.
*Look, I just want to say I’m not mad at you. I’m annoyed that you didn’t tell me and that you may’ve been hiding more from me. Like the fact that we can apparently communicate from quite a distance now.* I felt her wince and nod sheepishly, *I’ll talk to you later alright, see you soon.* I sent through the bond.
*We await your return, my love,* Marisa thought to me sincerely. I took a deep breath and pushed all my concerns away, another chittering howl echoed through the forest and I jog to catch up with my friends. We spent the next few hours jogging at an even pace and then walking for long periods. Emilia refused to ride Shade when I told her too, claiming she could keep up just fine. Now the young witch was really lagging behind and Ilya kept beside her.
“We should be able to reach the area soon, where we can make a stand and have the high ground against the Thanes,” Shre informed us as we pushed our way through a dense thicket of dangled bushes and tightly packed trees. The soft crunch of twigs and the snaps of branches as Ilya carved her way through made me wince and cast a worried look at Shre. Yet she met my eyes with acceptance and a firm resolute nod.
We came out into a clearing of tall grass, though at the centre of the clearing was a mound of rocks and stubby trees raising high above the grass. We ran through the tall grass, making sure everyone had each other in sight. The chittering howls came again, and I noticed how the sound seemed broken up and distorted. Like a continuation of hiccup’s were interrupting their howl.
We climb up at the rocks. Myself bringing up the rear as Ilya scanned back the way we came, I pushed gently on Emilia ass to get her moving. “Do you see them?” I called to the other as I helped Emilia up the climb and onto the marginally flat surface of the mound. I came up after and leaned against one of the two solidary trees on the mound.
“They’ve covered quite the distance already,” Shre answered.
Ilya frowned shaking her head, “I cannot see them.”
“Neither can I, Ilya. I simply feel the taint they carry like a sickly odour through the forest,” Shre placing a hand on the dark elf’s shoulder.
I stood up straighter, “hang on, let me try something,” I murmur loudly enough for the others to hear. Taking a deep singular and unique breath, I reactivated the connection to my delve and gasp as aetheric power poured through my runes washing them in power.
With a grunting effort I managed to assuage the onslaught of power and rescind it back to a trickling stream. My runes blazed with a renewed life, they burned cool and bright and I saw a hazy grey edge to my vision. Though unlike the night vision this didn’t take over my sight but more enhanced it even further.
Through intuition I send a pulse of aether to the runes behind my ears and watch a rippling film like substance slid over my sight. Then everything was a bright grey and sky was pitch black. I felt a hand gently tap my arm and I looked to see the cool glowing blue figure of Shre’s body, her entire person coated in the cool blue light, as were Ilya and Emilia.
I turned from them, having a sneaky suspicion of what I had just done and cast my gaze back out across the clearing to the thick treeline. Off in the distance but closing fast were six cool red coloured figures bounding towards our location.
Then something hit me, “wait,” turning from the approaching thanes I looked to my friends, “has anybody seen Shade?” I asked them.
They all looked around in confusion, as did I trying to spot his form with my knew Detect Foe sight. Yet I saw no sign of him, Shade, where the hell are you? I cast the thought out projecting it widely.
Patience and resolute, came across the bond.
Turning back to the women, “they’re on their way. Shade is somewhere nearby but I’ve no idea. Oh, and they’re 6 of the fuckers following the exact trail we left behind.
Three distinct chittering howls came a moment later I watched as the Thanes approach the thick brush with caution. “What’re they doing now?” Emilia aske
d me and I saw her reluctantly place her familiar flower bud into her satchel.
“They’re... conversing?” I said in questioning disbelief. I could see the thanes almost clearly now. They looked exactly like how Emilia had stated them, hairless wolf-human hybrids yet, the amalgam of their creation was wrong.
They were effectively human except for the elongated arms and legs each ending in claws, the legs bending backwards at the shin to form paws. Their heads hideously disproportioned, thick wrinkles of flesh bunch together along the snout that jutted from their extended jaws. Their scalp was hairless with two small sharp canine ears poking out to either side.
“Oh wait, I think they’re sending a probe.”
“Probe?” Shre asked me curiously.
“Testing to make sure it’s not a trap,” Ilya supplied, and I nodded.
“Thanes aren’t known for self-preservation,” Emilia commented as the thane crouch low and slunk steadily through the bushes like a sacrifice.
“Maybe they’re learning,” Ilya noted, then she snorted derisively. “As if that matter’s. They’ll still try to kill us. I’m just surprised they’ve not gone insane yet after losing their lord.”
“Like you said, maybe they’re learning,” I said. Conversation died after that as I watched the lone thane cautiously step out from the bushes and into the clearing of tall grass between us and them. The thane sniffed the air for several seconds and then rose up to stand at a full 7ft height. It’s head just clearing the grass to stare directly at us, I saw it’s eyes widen and then narrow.
“I believe they’ve spotted us,” Shre mumbled.
“No shit Shre, no shit,” I said with a sigh. I looked at the women as they prepared themselves. The lone thane howling and yipping for its friends, I considered tossing the fellow a fireball, but I didn’t want to burn everything down.
“Okay. Everyone keep your backs to the trees,” Ilya said to all of us, her scimitars sliding out of their hip scabbards with a graceful silence that embodied the death of any foe she faced. “Al, use that bloody-claymore of yours, it’s got reach. Same rules as a quarterstaff, don’t over extend and keep the mid field. Shift your weight with each stance and keep the pointy end between you and the thane.”