Stathis ducked as the shadow attacked again, the shape staggering to the side as brief un-words came from nearby, Janaxia casting spells, her bolts impossible to see in the darkness. She could hear the others all fighting, but had no idea how many attackers they were facing. Pajaran’s voice sounded out, a point of grey light to Stathis’ side as Pajaran ran through a swift prayer, invoking a blessing. The blades chimed again, this time sounding soft and gentle, like bells.

‘Descend into the darkness!’

Stathis grunted in pain as sharp nails gouged into her skin, blood oozing out. A barely-visible shape moved in front of her, and she stabbed out, feeling the blow connect, the thing stepping backwards. It must have brushed against one of the hanging blades, a thin line of painfully bright white light appearing, and it hissed in pain, as the scent of sizzling meat made Stathis feel queasy.

She took advantage of its distraction to call up her wings, bathing the entire room in dawn-light, the metal catching the golden glow and reflecting it about the place, until the whole chamber was well-lit.

Their attacks paused, momentarily blinded and letting Stathis see them properly. They were wearing rough and tattered travellers clothing, but the visible skin of their faces and hands were ragged and raw looking, as though they had been flayed. Their flesh flowed like it was liquid, shaping itself into almost-faces before fading back to the muscle and bone beneath, stubby shards of dark metal occasionally visible.

Stathis stabbed forward, running one through with her sword, a clean strike through the belly. Ichor welled up around her blade as it gasped, eerily mundane eyes looking at her as clawed hands scrabbled at the blade, gripping the edge and lacerating their hand further, the bleeding wounds they opened up healing as Stathis watched.

It was impossible to tell if they were smiling, or just unable to make any other expression, their face warped into a skull-grin. ‘The child of light shall perish!’ It glanced at Janaxia, as she brushed against a hanging weapon which burst into light and hurt her, if her expression was anything to judge by, part of her clothing melting away and not regenerating. ‘And then that one shall be questioned.’

Stathis wrenched her blade back out and attacked again, using the length of her weapon to try and stay out of reach. But the thing was fast, and didn’t seem to worry about getting stabbed, although it was still evading the hanging weapons.

‘Who are you? What do you want?’ The others were all engaged in their own battles – Pajaran was protecting Hakara and Kivata, using her mace to splatter flesh into paste, as they offered supporting spells. Kivata gestured, a shadowy hand gripping at regenerating flesh and seeming to slow its healing, as Pajaran smashed through a leg. There were seven of them – all moving with unnatural speed, leaping and twisting through the air.

Bones and gristle cracked as Semari got one in a lock and twisted, an arm wrenched loose of a socket, the muscles healing and keeping it attached, but only barely. But in exchange, it scratched across her face, blood welling up and starting to drip into her eyes.

‘When the light is destroyed, then the darkness shall rule. Child of broken night, we shall rule this place, until the stars burn out!’

Stathis blocked another strike with her arm, feeling the sting as her skin was ripped open, but slamming the hilt of her sword into the things head and sending it staggering backwards, its regeneration apparently not making it invulnrable to being dazed. Then she used her sword to swing one of the hanging weapons at it, stepping around and making her own weapon ignite with sacred light.

When it struck flesh, the thing screamed, as meat sizzled and burned, her blade leaving a lasting wound this time, a long sear the ran across the shoulder and onto the chest. ‘I don’t know who you are! But I’m going to stop you.’ She thrust again, this time stabbing into an arm muscle, hard enough to stab into bone and using it to drive the thing back against a wall.

They stumbled over something, the air shimmering, Skotadi appearing from nothingness, a cocoon of darkness appearing and then bursting open to reveal her form, still wrapped in her cloak. She opened her mouth in a fanged yawn as the attacker managed to wrench his arm free and dodged another swing, before ducking to claw at Skotadi’s unprotected face.

She moved with sudden and impossible speed, her hand flashing out and stabbing into his own belly. He faltered with a gasp, arm going slack.

‘A shard of my brother? More power to devour!’

The figure gave a pained whimper and dropped to their knees, Skotadi slamming her other hand forward to grab their head, then her head lunged forward and her fanged teeth flashed as she bit into their neck.

Their body started to shrivel, muscles sinking inwards, meat-raw flesh fading into grey leather, bones visible beneath as they shrank away into an emaciated wreck. They sank forward downwards, arms juddering as they dried to move, before dying with a wracking gasp. Several shards of metal were embedded into their bones, one on their skull, two on their ribs, surrounded by mottled patchworks of tainted bone.

Skotadi’s head dipped forward and she bit at them, her tongue appearing and licking the metal, and it vanished, before she moved backwards with a satisfied expression and a belch. Then she saw Stathis looking at her, and vanished in a twist of shadow, teleporting herself away.

Stathis severed the head of the corpse, just in case, then turned to the rest of the fight. Vrintar’s axes were keeping two of the creatures at bay, but even the heat-haze that surrounded her seemed to have little effect on them, their wounds regenerating almost as soon as they were caused. She struck one from behind, letting power surge up along the blade as she ran them through. They sank downward, the wound not healing as Stathis withdrew her blade, using her free hand to shove a hanging axe towards the other, forcing it to flinch backwards and duck out of the way.

A dry, sickening ashen sound came from nearby, another of them fading into leather and dust, as a twist of shadows faded from sight. The one that Stathis had attacked twisted around far more than should have been possible and hissed at her, stabbing at her leg and scraping the skin again. It managed to evade another strike by contorting its body around the blade, rolling along the ground, as the other scraped claws against Vrintar, her blood steaming away already.

But the ride was turning now, the momentum shifting now that everyone could see. The weapons were jangling on their chains, drawn towards the attackers (and Janaxia, who was fortunately able to stay out of their reach) and inflicting unhealing wounds and making it harder for them to move. Semari kicked a spear, sending it swinging with enough force to embed into flesh, then charging and shoving it further in, twisting it to deepen the wound, and then pummelling at flesh, sending blood and ichor splashing out, a drumroll cascade of blows that outpaced the thing’s regeneration, shards of bone splintering out.

As the raw muscle was pounded away from the skull, the bone could be seen to be a mottled, metallic colour. Semari kept attacking, the skull starting to splinter from the sheer force of her repeated blows. Another fled from Pajaran, accepting a mace-blow that crushed an arm before managing to retreat out outside, vanishing into the darkness. That just left three – Vrintar’s axes flashed as she attacked the neck of one, slicing from both sides, cutting through their throat and deep into the spinal column. As they flopped forward, she flicked them out and then attacked again, this time severing the head entirely. The regeneration halted, that apparently enough to put them down for good.

Seeing how the odds had changed, the two survivors both tried to flee. One made it, but the other was bought down by a cascade of spells from Hakara and Kivata, bolts of arcane energy and rays of frost slowing their retreat enough for Stathis to catch up with them and skewer them through the heat, focusing all her power through her blade. Brilliantly bright sunlight flared, and then it sagged to the ground, light erupting from it’s mouth and eyes, body smoking, parts of that grotesque skin turning to ash. Semari approached and then snapped its neck, tendons and cartilage making horrific ripping noises as she spun it all the way around.

Silence, except for the sound of the rain from outside, until Vrintar broke the silence. ‘Sorcerous abominations.’ She swung her axes, taking the head off completely, Semari having done most of the work for her. ‘Bold of them to attack in a sacred place.’

‘I think they were after me.’ Stathis looked around, looking for Skotadi. Although if she had gone invisible again, she could be close by and impossible to see! Her wings began to gutter and fade. ‘Let’s get the fires started. Rojax, Pajaran, Hakara – can any of you put any alarms or anything in place? Don’t want to get ambushed again, but this is the safest place to stay.’ Kivata had emerged from behind Hakara and cautiously approached one of the bodies, wincing as she moved to inspect the face. ‘You know anything about them?’ Kivata flinched as she was addressed, looking away as Janaxia approached, weapons tinkling as they followed her progress.

‘A rather grotesque bunch of individuals.’ And we do once again appear to be drawn into some drama of yours, Stathis.

‘Not exactly something I asked for! Anyway, Kivata, is this anything you know about?’ Stathis took a knife and carefully peeled wet and sticky flesh away from the bone, finding another stub of metal melded somehow with the skull. Before Janaxia could move away, Stathis grabbed her hand and pressed it against the bone, ignoring Janaxia’s protest.

The metal faded away, motes of darkness trailing through the air and getting drawn into Janaxia, like soot that faded from vision. Kivata whimpered, looking panicked, shoulders shrinking in on herself again.

Kindly do not force me to touch such things! Janaxia fastidiously cleaned her hand before shaking off Stathis’ grip and retreating. Stathis spoke softly to Kivata, trying not to be overheard by Janaxia.

‘Do you know what these things are? Either the people, or the metal shard-things?’

Kivata gibbered for a moment, before Hakara gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder. ‘Are these the shards you mentioned? Broken off from the magical blade, and then used as a self-sustaining conduit? Although not without some rather unpleasant side-effects, it seems. I am still unsure as to how, uh… some people can apparently disrupt the coalesced and bound effect, when it is bound into a physical form and so should be proof against most disruptions. And I suppose sometimes there are unexpected and catastrophic failures?’ She pointed at one of those that Skotadi had attacked, a grotesque heap of skin and bones, looking like something that had been dead for a very long time.

‘I…’ Kivata’s eyes flashed over to Janaxia, who was settling herself close to the fire, wrapping herself in her cloak, Skotadi pulling close to her, having re-emerged or re-appeared or whatever she was doing.

‘Don’t worry, you can tell me. I won’t be upset or anything.’

Kivata bit her lip before words tumbled out of her in a torrent. ‘These are mercenaries, hired by Mother, and experimented on. The shards give them power and vitality, but breaks their flesh, warps them into these forms. And has deleterious mental effects as well, making them angry, but also easier to command mentally.’

‘Building an army? Or is it not up to that scale? They’re nightmares to put down, put them in armour and they could be pretty disruptive in the field, especially in massed ranks. Any idea why they’re after me?’

‘Mother believes you to be the child of the light, blessed and sanctified! One that must be destroyed so that she can rise to her true power.’

‘Well, I’m not dead yet. Or fully dead, anyway. So do you know what’s up with Janaxia absorbing them? Hakara, you got any theories?’

‘Yes, but it would take some time to explain.’ She still looked drained and exhausted, clearly not yet fully recovered. ‘And I’m still not sure how she hadn’t collapsed in on herself.’

‘Well, you can tell me on the road tomorrow. And I need to hunt down Skotadi and talk to her.’ Stathis sighed. ‘I guess we’ll have to figure her out as well. Kivata, you know anything about her family? She mentioned them when she attacked one of these guys. I’ve still no idea what her deal is.’

‘She is not of any blood I recognise, although I was rarely allowed to participate in such things.’

‘Have a think and let me know.’ She reached out and gave Kivata a friendly pat on the shoulder, the woman smiling in pleasure.

‘Yes, I will do so. Thank you for your faith in me!’

She sounded far too excited and happy, but it was better than dealing with Janaxia’s brooding and creepiness.