by Jared Stone
“Alright…,” Lucian stated decisively. “We should attack now. From the front. Blake, go right. Willow and Dareia, go left. I’ll go down the middle while Professor Schuntz attacks from behind us. Everyone ready?” He looked at his allies by his side and felt rather proud of himself at that moment, thinking that he sounded like a great historical general or something. “On the count of three. One… Two… THREE!”
With this, Blake, Lucian, and Willow all leapt up and ran over the hill with loud and harsh battle cries. Schuntz pushed himself up slower than the rest but eventually stood atop the hill with a red ball of spirit energy gathered in his palm, ready to fire. Dareia remained lying on the grass, visibly fuming that her recommendations had not been heeded.
As he was running down the hill, Lucian closed his eyes only briefly and emptied his mind. Though he had prepared himself for it to be more difficult mid-stride, he actually found that the physical exertion, combined with his heightened focus in battle, made it significantly easier to clear away his thoughts and generate his qi. Within seconds, the boy’s hand glowed with a brilliant white light. Sending out the intention that the qi release itself from his body, Lucian pointed his hand at the nearest draugr and blasted it with a ball of energy.
Upon hitting the draugr, the blast exploded and lit up the night, and the creature dropped to the ground without struggle. In fact, both of the draugar beside it dropped to the ground as well. Just as Blake threw a punch at another, it, too, fell to the ground in a heap. One by one, throughout the cemetery valley, the draugar all fell to the ground as lifeless sacks of flesh and bone once more.
Lucian stopped dead in his tracks, sliding down the hill a little farther with his momentum, and looked around him. “Huh?” he said in confusion as Willow and Blake also paused in their charge to watch the unfolding spectacle in front of them.
“What’s going on here?” Willow inquired, looking back up the hill at Dareia for explanation.
Calmly climbing to her feet, the priestess brushed the dead grass off her dress. She surveyed the scene for a moment, and then spoke. “It would appear that the energy keeping these corpses reanimated was insufficient for battle purposes,” she surmised. “At the smallest disturbance, their tie the necromancer was severed, and they all immediately returned to their natural state.”
“But… why?” Lucian asked, puzzled.
Dareia shrugged. “It is likely that the necromancer is too far away at this time to hold proper sway over his servants. Or, he was only holding the very minimum amount of his energy within these bodies while focusing his main efforts elsewhere.”
“Perhaps as nothing more than a clever distraction,” Schuntz added from beside the priestess.
“But… why?” Lucian asked again.
Willow’s eyes grew wide. “My family!” she cried.
* * *
The three students ran back to the car as quickly as they were able, with the priestess following along closely behind. Schuntz said that he would stay at the cemetery and once again clean up the mess that they had made, and this was actually alright with Lucian, as the car wouldn’t have had enough room for all of them anyway…. And he certainly did not think Dareia or Willow would be amenable to sitting in Schuntz’s lap for the long trip back. Upon seeing them return to the car, Gus wagged his tail frantically and bounced around with excitement, but there was unfortunately no time for such frivolity; as soon as the car doors were open, the four humans jumped inside, and Blake immediately turned the key, shifted into drive, and hit the gas.
“Hurry up…,” Willow urged, rocking forward and back nervously in her seat.
Lucian turned around to make sure the girl was alright, and he could instantly see the panic in her eyes. Her stoic exterior had all but melted away, and all that sat before him was a nervous, fidgety girl in a leather car seat. Dareia reached over and put her hand gently on the girl’s knee in an effort to calm her.
“I’m trying,” Blake snapped back, driving the pedal into the floor as the car raced down the road. “Just hope we don’t get pulled over.”
The car whizzed effortlessly across miles of road and darted around bends with agility and grace, aided by its superior engineering and low center of gravity. By either luck or divine providence, the group made it back to the Fosters’ residence without being stopped by anyone, though it did involve some very… creative driving on Blake’s part. He was clearly a man on a mission, and Lucian was extremely impressed, albeit terrified, by some of his roommate’s daredevil maneuvers along the way. Even so, it took what seemed like an eternity to get back to the house, and there was certainly no music playing on this drive to distract them from what they all suspected might be awaiting them.
When they reached the neighborhood security stop, they found the little building empty and the gate already open for them, so they whizzed through and onto their nearby destination. Pulling up in front of the house at the end of the long driveway, Willow had her door open before Blake could even get the car shifted into park. The windows of the house were all dark before them, and the surroundings were deathly quiet, though this was perhaps to be expected, given the time of night. Lucian hoped that this was a good sign, for there were at least no visible indications of a break in or struggle. All the same, Willow leapt out of her seat as the car jolted to a stop, Gus hopping out right behind her, and ran up the front steps without hesitation. Gus tried his best to follow, but the big concrete steps of the house proved to be an insurmountable adversary for the small puppy and his stubby little legs.
“Willow! Wait!” Lucian called out after the girl as he opened his own door and climbed out. His voice cut through the oppressive silence around them at a seemingly deafening volume, and Lucian found himself instinctually hoping that he hadn’t disturbed any of the neighbors… as if that was the most pressing matter at hand. Leaping over Gus and bounding up the steps two at a time, he did his best to keep up with the girl. Blake and Dareia jumped out behind him and also ran up to the house.
Willow reached the door first, turned the unlocked knob, and threw it open. “Mom? Dad? Olive!?” she cried out into the house. There was no answer, and she reached out to flip up the light switch and turn on the entrance lights, but to no avail. She flipped it down again anxiously, then back up, but the house remained as dark as it had been; the power had apparently been cut off or shorted in some way.
“Olive!?” Willow called out again with even more desperation as she abandoned the hope of providing light and rushed forward through the foyer and into the living room. Lucian saw her disappear around the corner as he passed the threshold into the house, and he continued to follow her with Blake and Dareia right on his heels.
As Lucian, too, stepped into the living area, he beheld a room bathed in the red glow of smoldering embers from the fireplace. The fire had long since faded away, and only the last vestiges of a flame still remained, struggling in vain to survive. Before this dying light stood the darkened silhouettes of Willow’s father and mother, who had their backs toward Willow as she stood there behind them, frozen in the entrance.
“Mom…?” Willow asked in a meek and trembling voice. “Dad…?”
Upon hearing the girl’s voice, the man turned around slowly to face her. As he did so, the blank expression and dead look in his eyes betrayed the fact that he was no longer her living father. Her mother’s body soon did the same, and the pair of them stood there, lifelessly, before their daughter.
“No…,” whispered Willow in shock as she took a step back.
The man before her stared blankly in her direction for a moment, then made a move forward, toward the girl.
“Willow!” Lucian said, grabbing her arm to pull the girl away to run.
“NOOOO!!!” Willow cried out suddenly, throwing both her arms down to her sides and pushing off Lucian’s hand. He went to go grab her again, but he immediately felt a searing pain coursing through his entire body.
“Arrrrgggggg!” Lucian groaned, doubling o
ver and dropping to his knees. His head was throbbing, feeling as though it was about to explode, and his limbs experienced the sensation of being torn by millions of shards of glass. Behind him, he could hear Blake and Dareia also collapse to the floor in exclamations of pain. He struggled to crane his neck over his shoulder and saw both of them on the living room carpet, completely engulfed in their respective black and gold energy as it writhed around their bodies in pulsating wisps and tendrils. Looking down at his own body, Lucian could see his bright white qi also spasming in random bursts.
“Willow…,” Lucian moaned to the standing girl, feebly reaching out to her again. Casting his eyes up, he saw her standing there, enveloped in twisting flames of energy which oscillated in color between white, black, gold and red like a manic kaleidoscope of unpredictability. She was grabbing at her hair in anguish and rage.
“RRRAAAAA!!” the girl then screamed, throwing open her glowing red eyes toward the two draugar before her. Before the creatures could even react, the embers from the fireplace behind them burst forth in tremendous flames which surrounded the pair and incinerated them instantly like a whirlwind of destruction. The heat thrown off by this furnace was almost too much for Lucian to bear, and he covered his face with his forearm to protect himself from it. Within seconds, Willow then collapsed to the ground as the vortex of fire twisted itself out of existence, though the furniture and drapes around the room still burned fiercely.
“Uggh…,” Lucian groaned, his energy once again within him and the throbbing pain fading from his extremities. Feeling the intolerable heat partially subsided, he now lifted his head to see what had happened. The inferno around them was growing ever more intense, and he knew that they would have to escape as soon as possible.
“Is everyone okay?” he called out over the crackling sound of the blaze.
“Yeah,” Blake yelled back. “But we gotta go, man!”
“What about Willow?” Lucian asked. The girl in black still lay unconscious upon the carpeted floor, and the fire was hungrily advancing ever closer to her.
“Don’t worry, I got her,” Blake answered, achingly climbing to his feet and stumbling over to the girl. The boy began coughing as the room and his lungs began to fill with smoke, but he used his superior strength to effortlessly throw the girl’s limp body over his shoulder and carry her out of the fiery tomb, right behind Lucian and Dareia.
As soon as they were all outside, Blake carefully laid Willow’s body upon the grass and inspected her for serious injuries. Though her clothes had been singed and her hair pulled and disheveled, she appeared otherwise unharmed. The silver star necklace given to her by her sister still hung around her neck, twisted off to one side. Gus ran over from the bottom of the steps and worriedly began licking the unconscious girl’s face, as if his kisses would somehow wake his sleeping princess. Seeing that the girl was likely alright, Lucian twirled around to face Dareia and exclaimed “What the heck was that!?”
For once, Dareia seemed almost at more of a loss than the boy. “I… do not know…,” she admitted with a hint of shock. “It appears that Willow, also, might have just accessed a latent ability of which she was previously unaware. Rendering each of us incapacitated in such a way would require not only a command of her own energy, but of those energy sources around her as well. I truly do not yet know for certain what transpired here, but I will admit that it was highly unexpected….”
“What about Olive!?” Lucian suddenly realized in horror. “Willow’s sister! She could still be in there! We have to rescue her, too!”
Dareia held out her hand. “No,” she insisted. “Do you truly suppose that they left the girl alive? No. I assure you, not a soul remains living in that house. You must let her go.”
“Yeah, man. I mean, they killed her parents,” Blake practically shouted from the ground beside her, “and most likely stole Lilly, too. They got just what they wanted, those bastards!” The boy pulled back and punched furiously into the grass, leaving a huge indentation in the lawn as chunks of dirt erupted everywhere.
In all the tragedy and commotion, Lucian had lost sight of the bigger picture: the enemy had just succeeded. They had managed to discover Lilly’s hiding place and come to seize the girl. All while her only protectors were off on a fool’s errand. He felt both manipulated and profoundly guilty, as if the death of Willow’s parents was now somehow his fault.
“Well, then,” Lucian stated with certainty, “we need to go and rescue her.”
“Lucian,” said Dareia, placing her hand upon the boy’s shoulder. “They are too powerful; you cannot triumph over such a superior adversary. The girl is a lost cause. We must focus on protecting ourselves and anticipating the enemy’s next move.”
Lucian looked at the priestess with defiance in his eyes. “No,” he countered forcefully. “It’s our fault Willow’s parents are dead. I’m not gonna let that be in vain. I’m going to that mansion to rescue Lilly.”
“Me too,” Blake added, standing up and taking his place beside Lucian.
Dareia could see the firm resolve in the boys’ faces as they said this, and she realized that there would be no talking them out of it. “Fine,” she said with an air of resignation, “then I shall join you.”
Lucian shook his head. “No,” he countered. “I need you to take care of Willow right now. I don’t know what’s gonna happen to Blake and me, but she needs someone to be there for her. After what we saw in there tonight, we don’t know whether or not she could be a danger to herself or others. Please take her back to Rome with you; get her far away from all of this until we can figure out how to stop them. Blake and I will deal with the necromancer ourselves, and I’ll contact you as soon as I can.”
Dareia looked the boy straight in the eye for a moment. Lucian could swear he saw at first a hint of surprise, then great pride in her face.
“You are truly developing into a fine young man, Lucian,” she finally said approvingly. She paused again before adding, “Fine. I shall take the girl with me. Notify me as soon as you are able to, regarding the status of your operation.”
“Thank you,” Lucian said earnestly, glancing back down at Willow on the ground beside him. Seeing a flickering light out of the corner of his eye, Lucian looked up. The flames that had once been strictly internal had burned their way through the roof of the house, and one could now see them reaching up and licking at the darkened night sky like hungry beasts, consuming everything they touched.
“We gotta get outta here, man,” Blake said. “Before people see this and blame us.”
“Good idea,” Lucian agreed. “Blake, can you carry Willow to the car?”
“On it,” Blake said, picking up the girl once again like a weightless ragdoll and cradling her carefully in his arms.
“Come,” Dareia said with a beckoning gesture. “Let us return to my estate and collect ourselves before you venture off on your intrepid rescue mission….”
16 - Descension
Saturday, December 20th
Dear University Students, Faculty, and Staff,
It has come to our attention that there is growing concern within the University community regarding the recent desecration and theft from cemetery grounds in this city. While suspects have not yet been identified, police have stated that they have no reason to believe these activities pose a threat to anyone in the surrounding areas. For those students still on campus during the holiday season, the University has gone to great lengths to ensure the continued safety and well-being –
“Sending away Dareia was probably a dumb idea, man,” Blake said from his bed, cutting into Lucian’s internal monologue as he read the university’s email on his phone. “I mean, I know we need to take care of Willow and all. But I kinda feel like we might get our asses handed to us tonight....”
Lucian sighed and laid his phone down on his lap. Gus, who was lying down on the bed next to him, raised his head at the movement for just a moment, then rolled over and fell back asleep.
&n
bsp; “I know,” Lucian said apologetically. “I kind of got wrapped up in the whole ‘be a hero’ thing.” He dug around in his mind for a silver lining – anything that might exonerate him. “But we still have Professor Schuntz, at least! I’m going to go and meet him in his office in about an hour, and you’re welcome to come with me. Hopefully he’ll be able to help us rescue Lilly.”
“Yeah, hopefully,” Blake agreed.
It was terribly uncomfortable for Lucian to lounge around in his dorm room, idly waiting to storm the enemy stronghold. Blake and he had both agreed to wait for the cover of night to try and sneak into the mansion on the hill and save Lilly, but the time between her abduction and the next nightfall felt excruciatingly long. Lucian found himself caught up in a concoction of emotions; everything from anxiousness, to dread, to excitement, to exhaustion. Overall, he had every hope that the girl was still alive; he could see no reason why the villains would have taken her alive if they had intended on killing her anyway. But, even so, deep in the back of his mind, there was this gnawing sensation….
They hadn’t gotten much sleep at all the previous night, with the traumatic events and general mood creating an environment not conducive to slumber. When they had left Dareia’s that morning, Willow had finally regained consciousness but remained absolutely silent, as if in a catatonic state. The one word she managed to quietly repeat over and over again was “Olive,” though it was more as if by instinct than of proper cognitive function. With a departing hug from Lucian, lick from Gus, and awkward rubbing of the girl’s shoulder from Blake, Willow was driven off to the airport with Dareia for their return flight to Rome.