*** Mili ***

I stepped back and looked down at the woman on the hammock beneath me. She was unconscious, but breathing faintly. Her right forearm was a mangled mess when she came in. We had to amputate her hand, but she got to us soon enough that she wasn’t in any immediate danger. She wouldn’t die from blood loss, but there was a good chance it might get infected soon. We were working with very limited supplies, so there wasn’t much we could do about that. Practically everyone that needed immediate attention was in the same boat.

I’d picked up a bit about the town while working. Apparently the old woman I met when I first came into the infirmary was Old Lady Kelaren. She had a clinic in town that should have supplies that would help, but she wasn’t able to bring any when she evacuated to Fort Heferal. Herbs that could help prevent infections were pretty common, but things to stop infections that had already taken hold were far less effective and more difficult to come by.

It was so frustrating, looking out through the web of hammocks. How many of them would make it through tonight, only to die within the week? Everything we needed to prevent that was just barely out of reach. When I heard about the clinic, I tried volunteering to go myself, but the guards said that they were ordered to only salvage from the buildings immediately around the fort.

“It isn’t fair.”

I only knew of one way I could help. I really didn’t want to do it, but that one sentence kept ringing in my ears over and over again.

I looked around to see if anyone nearby was watching. The coast was clear. I pressed my hand against the bandaged arm and the air between us was filled with a gentle, warm glow. It was faint enough to not draw anyone’s attention, but if someone looked directly at us it would be obvious.

I felt a cold sweat on the back of my neck as I glanced over my shoulder. No one was watching, right?

--- --- ---

Of all the lessons dad taught me, the most important was that this world was cruel and unfair.

When I was very young, he brought a patient into our wagon to take care of him. He didn’t know what was wrong with the man, so he ordered me to stay away from the wagon while he worked on finding a cure.

I didn’t listen.

He left me in the care of the man’s family while he stayed out on the edge of the village. I tried to obey him, I really did, but I kept feeling drawn to the wagon. Like I was being physically pulled there and had to resist at every moment or I’d find myself idly walking that way. It was so bad that I even ended up sleeping walking several times, finally waking up just in view of the wagon. Eventually, I wasn’t able to ignore it anymore. I waited for dad to go out into the forest to forage and snuck in.

The man was pale and sweaty, and from the smell of waste and vomit that hung heavy in the air, it became obvious he wasn’t able to keep anything in him. He looked so weak with his gaunt, malnourished face. I couldn’t help but reach out for him. He was so pitiful, I just wanted to help ease his pain.

That was the first time the light came from me. I sensed him on a level beyond physical. As the light reached out and bound the two of us together, I felt connected to his spiritual essence and could see the nature of his soul as if it was standing right in front of me. A shimmering form of light. I hadn’t consciously understood what I was seeing, but I could instinctually tell that something was off. He was made of flowing ribbons of light that twisted and swirled around each other, but in the center of the mass of light, there was a knot. Somewhere that the movements of the light were stagnant and dim.

Obviously, the knot was what was making him sick. I reached out and touched it. I pulled at the threads of light to try and untangle them. It seemed like I was making progress, gently pulling each thread loose and watching the knotted mass shrink.

Then I felt it snap.

One of the threads broke. Like I lit a fire to it, each end of the thread began to disintegrate, a spark tracing it’s way through the form. The man laying on the bed beside me thrashed and cried out. I just stood there in horror, watching as his soul disappeared, burning away in front of me until there was nothing there but gentle motes of light floating in the air like the final embers of a dead flame. A reminder of what had been there a moment before.

And the screaming stopped. The man was still on the bed, not even breathing.

I killed him.

Dad found me like that. I don’t remember what happened after that, but according to dad I was practically comatose. He could get me to answer simple questions if he asked, eat when he held a spoon to my mouth, and walk if he led me by the hand. But otherwise, it was like I had completely shut down mentally. By the time I started to remember things again, we had long since left the village where it happened.

When I did finally come to, I explained what happened and he told me about where he came from. An “Empire” to the east. There were apparently people there had powers like what I described, but they were very rare and he had only heard stories. He called it a blessing. All he could talk about was how many people I’d be able to help with it.

I didn’t see it that way. From that night on, I had trouble sleeping. I was plagued with dreams of what happened that night. Of the pull that made me go there that night, dragging me into the man’s thrashing arms, his screams. I never wanted to go through that again, but dad refused to let it go.

For a long while after that, we stayed out of villages and stuck only to the forest. Daily, he’d drag me out into the forest until we found something he thought I might be able to use my power on. We hunted with snares and traps, so any time he caught something he'd bring it to me and ask me to try connecting to it.

Just through sheer persistence, it worked. Eventually I stopped refusing and tried to humor him, but I couldn’t. Something was stopping me from making the connection like I had before. He kept pushing, and my feelings slowly turned from aversion into frustration. I was haunted by what happened that night and thought that ignoring the powers was my own way of taking back control, but I couldn’t even take comfort in that anymore.

For months we kept it up, but I still wasn’t able to connect with any of the creatures. Dad thought he had heard stories about my powers being able to work on any living thing, but we just figured he had misunderstood, so we went back to our old routine and started looking for people in villages for me to try and connect with.

Still nothing.

Months dragged on until a year had gone by and nothing worked. I started to doubt it had ever really happened in the first place, but the nightmares never let me fully dismiss it.

Just as I thought I’d never feel it again, the pull reappeared. Dad was helping assist with a birth. I was out collecting water from the pond near where the family lived when I felt like something was wrong. I dropped everything I was doing and sprinted back. The baby had been successfully delivered but the mother was bleeding out. Dad noticed she was getting faint but was still trying to locate the problem when I came in.

I felt my arm being pulled upward. I heard the familiar screams in the back of my mind and I nearly broke away. Every fiber of my being was telling me to run - to stop myself before I hurt someone else - but I knew that if I did I might never be able to fully connect with it again.

And as soon as I fully resolved myself to that, I gave in and my hand opened toward her. The glow reappeared and I could see the woman, standing before me in a cloud of light. Only this time, it wasn’t just her own light. I don’t know if they were there the first time or not, but I could see threads of light extending from myself toward her. As I tried to look at them, they flitted away, staying at the edges of my vision, but something told me I needed to use them.

I extended my hand and the threads flowed out to the woman. As they got closer, I could sense the warmth coming off of the woman’s light. Except for one area. At the center of the woman, I could feel a single small area that was cold. Like feeling a single cold breeze on an otherwise sunny day.

I could sense that something was wrong, but I had no clue what to do about it. I thought about stepping forward and trying to reach out with my hand, but the screams rang in my mind. That wouldn’t work. There was something else I needed to do.

What was it?

I stood there frozen in that moment until I felt dad’s hands on my shoulders, shaking me out of it. I looked up at him, confused. Why did he interrupt me? I was trying to help?

Then I looked down at the woman and saw why. She wasn’t breathing anymore. How did this happen? Was this my fault? I didn’t even touch her. She was still right there…

That was about when I went unconscious. I woke up in our wagon with a throbbing headache and I could feel the cloth bandages wrapped over my forehead. We were already heading on to the next village. Dad had explained what happened. He made it clear that it wasn’t my fault and that something had just gone horribly wrong with the birth. He kept saying it was something that happened from time to time and to not worry about it. I wanted that to make me feel better, but it really didn’t.

When I asked why we had left so quickly, that’s where the real lesson comes in. The woman’s husband apparently saw me use my powers just before she went unconscious. He assumed I had done something to her and attacked me. Dad stopped him and tried to explain, but he wasn’t able to get through to him. He was barely able to convince him to let us leave without any more trouble.

He also told me that he had lied to me over the past year. Or at least, he left out a big part of the story. Although my powers could save lives and help people, not everybody would be happy to see them. In the Empire, he said that people like me were heavily controlled by the Imperial Family and if anyone there ever saw me use my powers, I’d probably be taken far away and never see him again. He had hoped it would be different in the Helefiran, but apparently there was a war a long time ago between the people here and the Empire and there were still some grudges held.

That’s why the man had attacked me.

He said most people there shouldn’t care so long as I’m using my powers to help, but I’d still need to be careful about it. He apologized about keeping it a secret, but he didn’t want me to be any more scared of my powers than I already was.

I was distraught, but dad still had his big dumb smile plastered across his face.

I don’t remember the entire conversation, but I do remember being furious with him and I remember what he said next. I asked him how he could be so happy, practically screamed it at him.

“This world is cruel and unfair. If you spend your life waiting for only good things to happen, you’ll be sorely disappointed. It’s better to savor every little thing when you get the chance.”

What about any of this was good?

“You finally got your powers to work again.”

In the whirlwind of what had happened, I had honestly forgotten. As I sat there and reflected on everything, I tried to let it fill me with the same joy that he was radiating, but I just couldn’t. I felt hollow. If nothing else, that day was the culmination of a year worth of effort. Couldn’t I at least be happy about that?

I couldn’t, but I still tried to take his lesson to heart.

--- --- ---

That was just about 10 years ago… it honestly felt like it happened just yesterday. From that day on, I had no trouble initiating my powers. Once the mental block was gone, tapping into it became almost second nature, although I had learned a lot about how to use it.

I had pretty much completely learned through trial and error, so I’m not sure how to explain most of what I do. I guess to start, everybody’s physical body and soul (or at least that’s what I’ve been calling it) are tied together, so inducing changes in one naturally affects the other.

For instance, as I looked down at the woman’s arm below me, I could see that her soul had been broken apart as well. It was clearly fractured on one end, like the threads on a rope coming apart after it had been cut. Leaving the soul open and exposed like that could cause all sorts of problems. Just like a physical cut, it was bleeding light and warmth. It was already working on knitting itself back together, but it was going slowly. Physically stemming the bleeding helped to repair the soul a little - and if I had tried fixing her soul first it would have made stopping the bleeding easier - but neither completely fixed the other. I found out a long time ago that helping the soul recover as soon as possible after an injury drastically reduced the chances of infection or other problems.

I let my own soul flare, reaching out to hers and gently massaging the frayed edge. I guided the threads back together, helping speed up the process of the soul’s natural healing, until she looked whole again. Just like looking at her arm made it clear that her hand was missing, it was also obvious by looking at her soul that something was missing, but at least it was a solid image again.

That was the best I could do for now.

The whole process took a very small amount of time. Only a minute or two. I kept glancing around to make sure no one would disturb me, and luckily no one did, but I couldn’t lose the feeling that I was being watched. All of my father’s warnings were ringing in my ears, and I couldn’t put them out of my mind. We had intentionally kept our distance from Anghelen to avoid drawing people’s attention. I felt like I was betraying everything he taught me by being here, but it couldn’t really be avoided right now.

I knew that I probably shouldn’t be using my powers at all while I was here, but just like before I felt the pull in the back of my mind. It might get me in trouble, but so long as I can just hold out long enough to see it through the fight and get back out into the forest, it would be worth it.

She wasn’t the first person I had helped like this tonight. As I moved from person to person, I looked for opportunities like this where no one was looking, but for every person I was able to help, another two that needed it slipped by.

I started scanning the rows, looking for the next person that needed a medic’s attention but the last of the people that needed immediate attention were already being attended to. There were still people that needed basic care for simple things, but everyone in critical condition was either stabilised or dead. There were far too many hammocks that were simply covered by blankets to hide the bodies beneath.

It was easy to ignore them while I had more pressing concerns, but as I looked around and the scene started to set in, I felt my chest get tight. I needed to find something else to keep me going.

Kene.

I should go and check on her.

I almost pushed my way past the curtains that were being used as a barrier between the infirmary and the rest of the barracks before I looked down and saw that I was pretty thoroughly covered in blood.

For a while after I got here there was a constant stream of people coming in. Apparently, the creatures had fallen back into the forest which gave the rest of the people in town the chance to move to the fort. It got really crowded in the barracks, but at least we had a lot of extra hands to help do simple care. Unfortunately, that didn’t last. A guard came in and called for everyone that could fight to come out and help prepare for another attack, so it had emptied out a lot and only a handful of people were trickling into the barracks.

At this point, there were only children and people whose bodies wouldn’t be able to fight.

None of them needed to be reminded of what was happening over here. I quickly found a wash basin to clean off my arms and face, but my clothes wouldn’t be dealt with easily. Even once I got out of here and was able to properly wash them, I might not be able to get the stains out. I had fastened my cloak so that it was bundled up around my shoulders, so I pulled it free and saw that it was mostly clean. There were a few blots of red, but nothing too obvious.

Another one of dad’s lessons. Getting messy when attending to people was inevitable, but he constantly chastised me when it did happen. “Always keep yourself tidy as you work. Having loose clothes flopping around just causes more problems.”

I wrapped it around myself to cover the front of my body. That would have to do.

I stepped past the barrier and sighed in relief at how much less dreary it was. There was still tension in the air, but for the most part people were busying themselves to forget. The children were gathered up around a small group of elderly men and women, who were talking to them and telling them stories. It was a pleasant distraction and I would have normally liked to listen, but I had another purpose now. I looked back at the hammocks where Nephern and Sterthen had left Kene, but she was nowhere to be seen.

I briefly worried, but then I noticed that Guisen and the woman he carried in also weren’t there. She was probably with him. After another scan of the room, I found them sitting in the hammocks at the farthest end of the room, away from where everyone else was gathering.

“Hey…” I called out to them as I approached, but trailed off as I wasn’t sure how to continue. What do you say at a time like this? Kene glanced up at me, but quickly turned her eyes back down to the pouch in her hands. What was in there?

Guisen smiled and waved me over.

I sat down on the hammock next to Kene. She moved over to make room, but still didn’t look up from the pouch. This whole night must have been so hard on her, I couldn’t blame her for shutting down like this. Still, I wanted to help her if I could. How would dad handle something like this?

“I saw your mom gave that to you. What’s in it?”

“...”

“Kene?”

“... it’s candy…” I vaguely remembered overhearing part of the family’s conversation with Girin when we first met.

“Is it the candy that Girin brought you? It must be pretty tasty if he brought it all the way from the inner cities.”

“... it’s good…”

“My dad always used to say that when things are hard, you should focus on the good things that are there. Now might be the perfect time to eat some of it.”

“I’m not hungry,” Kene said forcefully, taking the pouch and stuffing it down her shirt. She kicked her feet up onto the hammock and curled up into a ball with her back to me.

“I- I’m sorry…” I said quietly. She didn’t respond. I wanted to push, to get her to open back up, but clearly this wasn’t the time for it.

Dad wouldn’t have messed it up.

I shook my head. There was no point in thinking like that. I couldn’t let myself get dragged down at a time like this. I set my eyes on Guisen.

I stood up, careful to not disturb Kene too much, and stepped over toward him. He was gently stroking the face of the woman who was still out cold. In fact, I realized I hadn’t seen her awake this entire time. Was she okay? I could see that her chest was slowly rising and falling, but her breathing was slow and ragged. She was definitely alive, but something felt off.

“What’s your name?” My thoughts were suddenly cut off as I jumped at his words.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I just realized that we were never properly introduced. I’m sure the outsiders said your name at some point tonight, but I’m old and I’ve been distracted so I don’t think I caught it.”

“Oh… I guess you’re right… I’m Mili.”

“It’s nice to properly meet you. I’m Guisen.”

“Yeah, I heard Sterthen call you that...” I said, trailing off as I was still focused on the woman beside him. “I’m sorry, but who is this?”

“Her name is Paran. She’s my wife,” he said, gazing down at her.

“Is there something wrong with her?”

“Yes, although I’m not really sure what it is,” he said, his voice filled with resignation more than sadness. “About a year ago, she started getting weaker. Lightheadedness, fever, trouble eating. At first it came in waves and she’d go weeks at a time feeling fine, but the rest of the time she’d be bedridden, unable to do much of anything. And slowly, the bad days started to outnumber the good ones and we’d be lucky if she could even stay awake. She’s been asleep like this for two weeks now, which is the longest it’s ever been.”

“Have you had a doctor take a look at her,” I asked, although I knew the answer. He wouldn’t have gone this long without looking for help, but I felt the pull again.

“Yup, but nobody has been able to do anything. Old Lady Keleran said she’d seen quite a few people our age suffer from something similar, but there was nothing to do about it. Eventually, they reached this point and that was the end of it. Another doctor from out of town came in with one of the caravans about six months back. He said he had seen it too, and that there was apparently an herb that grows on the coast way up north that might help reverse it.”

“That’s good. At least there’s something to hope for.”

He shook his head.

“When the doctor left, I sent an order through the trade guild for some. It came in with the caravan a few days ago…”

Seeing her current condition made it clear how well it worked.

“At this point, I’ve made peace with it. We’ve both lived long, happy lives so this is sort of inevitable. I’m just glad it doesn’t seem painful. I plan on watching over her until it’s all done, but there isn’t really anything else I can do.”

This was supposed to be a distraction from everything else, but I felt my chest tightening up again as a nagging sensation in the back of my mind forced me to look down at her.

I felt the pull.

I looked around to see if there was anyone else around, but they’d made themselves as isolated as possible. I could try and help her. The only people that would see would be Guisen and Kene. That should be fine right?

My hand moved on its own reaching out to her before I had a moment of clarity and realized the seriousness of what I was about to do and caught it with my other hand. Guisen did seem like a good man, but I’d known him for less than a day. How could I know for sure? What if he told someone?

That’s not even considering Kene. She was just a kid. She might let it slip just out of carelessness, even if she didn’t do it out of malice.

I had been using my powers all night which was a risk in and of itself, but doing it now would be knowingly outing myself to at least two people while still risking a third party seeing. Dad’s words of warning echoed in the back of my mind, fighting back every impulse I had to act immediately.

But it wasn’t enough. I still had to do something.

“Guisen… Can I try something for her?”

He looked up, but didn’t answer right away. He had a quiet resignation around him.

“I doubt you can do anything that we haven’t tried already, but sure. So long as it won’t hurt her,” he said with pained resignation in his voice. I could tell I was teasing at a hope that he had long since let wither. If this didn’t work I’d feel horrible, but hopefully he hadn’t had anyone with my powers try before. Hopefully I was a t least something new.

“Alright… Even if this doesn’t work, could I ask you something before I try?”

“What?

“Don’t tell anyone about what I’m about to do.”

He seemed skeptical. I felt like I might be scaring him, but I needed to hear him say it. My mind was split in two right now with one half telling me to act and the other telling me to stay put. I needed his permission to push me over the edge.

“Sure. I guess.”

That was it.

I extended my hand out toward her and the faint glow began to appear.

Her soul was faint and blurry around the edges. It didn’t have the defined lines and threads that a healthy soul had. It was more like a cloud of dirt in the water, slowly drifting apart until it all settles and there’s nothing left. I had actually seen something like this many times before.

This was what happened when somebody died. When a death is sudden and violent, it’s like the soul bursts and disappears all at once, but if someone dies peacefully and gradually their soul lingers for a while after they pass and slowly fades. A normal soul usually only took an hour or so to completely vanish. Which meant if she would have to have just died. I panicked for a moment, but then noticed that something else had to be happening.

Her soul was dispersing far more slowly than anything else I had ever seen. At this rate it was hard to tell how much of her was left, but she would probably continue like this for at least another few days and maybe even longer. Normally, I wouldn’t be able to do anything for a soul that was already dead, but with how gradual her decay was I might be able to at least slow it down.

I let my soul reach out and gently massage the edges of hers, turning the fraying edges back in on themselves. I worked slowly, careful to not agitate her and speed up the process of her decay. I had never done anything like this, so it was taking its toll. I could feel a sweat building up on my brow.

By the time I was finishing up, the places that I had started on first were already looking like they were going to come apart. I took some time to smooth everything out and it seemed like now that the entire soul had come together, it would hold for a bit longer. It wasn’t much, but I had at least shored up the boundaries of her soul and stemmed the bleeding. This would have to do.

I dropped my hand, the light faded, and I realized that at some point I had started to hold my breath. I finally breathed in and all of a sudden it felt like I had been hit by a falling tree. My entire body ached and I wasn’t able to hold myself up anymore. I dropped to my knees, gasping for breath. I had used my power too much before and been hit with a similar wave of exhaustion, but it never came on this suddenly and harshly. I must have really overdone it.

“Are you okay,” Guisen asked, kneeling down beside me.

“I’ll… be… fine…” I said between gulps of air. “How… is… she?”

Guisen looked up and his face froze. He stood up and stepped over to the hammock, completely forgetting about me.

“Paran…”

“Gui…” I heard a weak voice speak out from inside the hammock.

It had worked. The aches in my muscles settled into a warm glow. They were badges of honor. Proof that I had done something good. I still felt like shit, but it was completely worth it. I forced myself up to my feet. A moment like this was exactly what I needed right now. A moment of good to help me ignore the bad.

But then I started to shake.

I fell back to the ground again. Was I really that weak?

No.

I wasn’t the one who was shaking. It was the floor.

I heard a wet squelch come from the wall, not far from where we were resting. A few small pebbles came loose from the wall and ceiling, clinking against the floor. Then another squelch. And another, and another. A barrage of wet slapping echoed through the room.

I hadn’t heard anything like it before. I had no clue what was going on. As the sounds continued, the wall slowly bent inward with each impact, stone bricks coming loose and falling to the floor. Then the entire wall caved in.

A plume of dust kicked up and the cold night air slapped me in the face as a massive hole leading outside opened up barely twenty feet from where we were sitting. I was already breathing heavily, but inhaling the dust made me cough and wheeze. It stung my eyes as I forced them shut, trying to figure out what was going wrong.

Then I heard the flapping of wings.

I lay there, helpless on the ground as I hear the screeches of those creatures echo around me. I can feel the air from their wings slapping me across the face as I can sense them move above me, but all I can do is curl up in a ball and hope for the best.

People screamed all around me. Time slowed to a crawl and it seemed to carry on for ages while I waited for whatever fate would find me.

And waited.

And waited.

The screams and crying kept going, but after a moment I realized that something was different. I couldn’t hear the wings anymore. The screeches were distant. The creatures had left. I rubbed at my eyes to clear them of dust. It was still hazy, but I could see. Everyone was doing the same thing as I was, cowering and waiting, but there were no more creatures. What had happened?

I forced myself to my feet, my legs screaming out in pain as I did so. I stumbled over to the hole in the wall and looked out into the night. There were bodies of the creatures littering the ground in front of me and I could see more of them flocked in the sky over the city, but they were flying away from the fort.

I couldn’t have guessed at what that meant until I heard a voice echo out over the skies. It wasn’t in Ang Peralan, the language spoken in the Empire. It was Mag’kele, the language spoken in the Helefiran.

“Leave the fort be. Our only priority are the two Sun Eaters about to leave its walls. Once they are dead, we can take it at our leisure.”

Sun Eaters was a slur used by the Magora to refer to the people of the Empire. Who could he be referring to? What was going on?

Something clicked. I turned back toward where I had been when the wall went down. Guisen had thrown his body over Paran’s to shield her and he was still sitting there like that. Next to him, there was an empty hammock.

I knew who he was trying to kill.

And sure enough, I began to see familiar flashes of light coming from out in the streets.

*** Nephern ***

“Kene!”

The moment I realized what the flying creatures were doing, I started to panic. Every ounce of preparation we made for the fight left my mind and was replaced with a singular goal.

Stop the creatures from making it into the tower.

I tore off across the top of the wall, Sterthen keeping pace right behind me. I heard the wall of the tower beginning to collapse and the creatures flew up to intercept us. I dipped and dodged as they dove at me, talons and snapping maws searching out any opening they could find. At this point, killing them took a back seat. Stopping to fight just slowed us down, so I didn’t even bother. If I had to, I’d strike out to give myself an opening to dart past, but nothing more.

At first that was enough, but soon enough they started swarming down on us all at once, even suicidally throwing their bodies in front of us just to stop us from moving forward. We had to hold our position to avoid being overwhelmed, but they weren’t even trying to fight. They were just trying to keep us there and it was working.

I heard the screams up ahead, coming from the barracks. A stream of creatures shot out over the buildings in town. At the front of the stream, I could see it was carrying someone.

My mind went blank.

My body was acting on instinct. It was like I was watching myself from the outside. I pretty quickly started to put together all the pieces in my mind, but I had no control over myself. Why the creatures were acting so odd. What their goal was. It was all building toward this moment. I knew that they were trying to force me out of the fort, but I didn’t care. I leapt.

I dropped down, tracing the wall with my hand as I went, catching any uneven surface I could to slow my fall. At the last second, I kicked off, landed with a roll and was already chasing off after the creatures in the sky. The one with Kene in it’s clutches was making its way out of town, but it wasn’t moving at full speed. It was taunting me. Staying just within sight to keep me chasing.

I took it’s bait.

Between me and it, I saw a horde of glowing figures. The Elves. I barely considered them. Just like before, I dashed straight into the middle of the horde. I struck to kill when I had to, but my singular focus was on catching up to Kene. The Elves were incredibly fast and strong, but they gave no thought to their actions. I could see every move they made a mile away, so I had no problems forcing my way past them.

Even though they were fast, they didn’t work together. They scrambled over each other, trampling their friends in an attempt to get to me. More than a few times, I deflected or dodged a blow only to see it strike another glowing figure. If I had to kill them all, they’d be a huge problem, but while I was focused on not getting hit they couldn’t do anything.

Running full tilt, I was halfway out of town. I could see the creature with Kene. It was already hovering over the tree line. I was losing ground, but as soon as I made it through the horde I’d be home free.

Then I hit a dead end.

Not in the road. I was out on the main street that should have been wide open, but as I cut my way through a wall of the Elves and forced my way forward, I realized I was trapped. The Elves had clumsy formations so I had made it that far by finding weak points to make my way forward. Now I was surrounded on all sides. I couldn’t find a weakness to let me advance. I’d have to fight until I could make one.

If I could coax the wall of them in front of me to charge, they’d fall all over themselves. I could cross over them then. It would be risky and give them a chance to attack while I made my way over, but I still had to do it. There was only one way forward.

I charged, trying to bait them forward. They held their position.

This was different.

This was the first time they were showing restraint. Were these one’s different?

...or had they tricked me? The reckless behavior up until now had been a ploy. They were waiting for me to rely on it. Now they could make their move.

I pivoted, stopping my charge. I couldn’t let the horde closing in behind me force me up against them. If I got pinned down like that it’d be over. I’d have to force my way back and find another way out.

I had cut down a few dozen of them at that point. Getting too close was dangerous and so was dragging out the fight. I needed to end them in one strike before they got a chance to fight back. I found my target in the approaching line and my spear began to glow. I let it flare out in front of me, catching the Elf square in the head. It dropped and I had my opening.

I dove toward it between the two Elves on either side. I dodged a sword from one and deflected the blow from the other. I had found a way out.

Then I felt a flash of pain in my gut.

I looked down and the Elf I thought I had killed had his jagged, claw-like hand stabbing into my side. It had managed to tilt its head just so. I could see the massive bloody gash across it’s head and it’s brain faintly visible beneath, but my blow had only managed to shatter the skull. It was still a fatal blow, but not enough to end him immediately. The claw only barely managed to pierce my armor, but it was enough to slow me down.

I struck out, severing the grounded Elf’s hand so he couldn’t hold me there and tried to advance forward, but I looked back up to see three of them closing in on me. Tme froze. I could deal with at least two of them, but I couldn’t find a way to get out without taking another blow. This wouldn’t kill me, but it was the beginning of the end. I wouldn’t make it out of here alive, much less save Kene.

Each blow I took slowed me down. Made me more likely to take another. This was the first moment I fully processed the situation I was in. There was no way out. I hadn’t even made it halfway through the town. What would I do when I finally caught up to Kene? I’d be exhausted, the horde would still be here chasing us, and I definitely couldn’t fight them all while also defending her.

It was over.

I knew it in the back of my mind, but I refused to just stop. I’d fight to the bitter end, even if it was just for one step forward.

Of the three in front of me, I could dodge around to either side and cut the farthest off from having an angle to hit me. Then I could deflect the one that I ended up closest to, but I couldn’t find a way of stopping the middle most one from getting a hit in. If I moved right, I could make sure it was a glancing blow to my arm. It’d slow me down, but I had to take it.

Time slowly sped back up as I shot to the side. Just as I had planned, one shot hit air. The next glanced off of the shaft of my spear. The third was homing in. I braced for impact.

It never came.

With a flash of light, the middle Elf lurched forward and fell to the ground, his sword deflected harmlessly off of my armor. Sterthen had slammed into him from behind with his shield.

Suddenly I was back in my body. The feeling of watching myself disappeared in a snap. I was back in control. I didn’t need to fight through this alone. I was so focused on acting, that I had completely forgotten everything else.

I wanted to apologize to him. He must have been right behind me this whole time, but I never even looked back. There was so much I wanted to say to him at that moment, but we didn’t have time. All I was able to do was give him a look and hope that was enough.

Either way, this was still far from over. Hold on Kene, we’re on our way.

*** Sterthen ***

We had broken through the horde, just on the edge of town. We could still hear the roars and snarls at our heels, but we were clear. The only things in front of us were the forest and the flock of flying creatures above it. They were staying just close enough for us to see them, but always out of reach. We didn’t have the time to fully discuss a plan, but in a moment of calm as we ran through the field outside of the forest she managed to get out a few words.

“They’re taunting us. We need to catch them off guard.”

That was enough. If that was their goal, it meant that Kene should still be okay. They wouldn’t hurt her while she was still valuable, but it also meant that getting her free would be dangerous. If they were planning to hurt her, they’d do it just before we got her away from them. We needed to act quickly and definitively to not give them a chance.

First we needed to buy some breathing room, away from the horde of Elves. We couldn’t get Kene free just to be overrun by them. We tore off into the trees north of the main path. We wanted to thin out the crowd and the best way to do that was to use the natural brush to our advantage, but we also needed to stay as close to Anghelen as possible so we could retreat there with Kene. We intentionally found the most treacherous terrain with the smallest spaces to move through. Individual Elves might be able to follow, but it would slow down the group more than it did us.

Second, we needed to find an angle on the creature that was holding Kene where they wouldn’t be able to see us. Once we had some space from the horde, we slowed our pace. We ran for a few minutes at that speed, keeping an eye on their position. Sure enough, as we slowed down, they did too, keeping a consistent distance between us. We slowed down a little more, feigning fatigue, and they did too.

Perfect.

Finally, we needed to act decisively. We found a clearing. It was only a few hundred feet long, but it would do. We slowed down even more, barely limping along compared to our pace at the beginning of this trek. We needed to make sure they saw it. As we reached the far end of the clearing, we shared a look. It was time.

As soon as the line of sight between us and the creature was broken, we started off at full tilt again, keeping to areas where the canopy was thickest. They shouldn’t expect this burst of speed at this point. We gained as much ground as we could. I could see an empty patch ahead of us where the moonlight filtered down through the branches. Soon they’d be able to see us again. That’s where we had to act.

“Neph! Now!”

I took the lead, speeding off ahead of her. I turned, skidding to a halt and presenting my shield to her. It began to glow. She lept and stepped on the center of my shield, kicking off into the air. The moment before her foot left, I shoved upward and it let off a flash of light, launching her into the air with a shockwave. The recoil dropped me to my knees and I could feel them flare up in pain, but I didn’t have time to wait and recover. I set my eyes to the sky and charged forward in the direction that she had flown.

Through the openings in the trees I was able to see her. Our plan had worked, at least in terms of positioning. The creature was exactly where we expected it to be. She was aiming just below it. As she soared through the sky, her spear began to glow and she let off a single shot. It pierced the creature straight through its head. It dropped, releasing Kene in the air. I could see the other creatures starting to swarm toward her, either trying to catch Kene before Neph could or strike Neph down while she was helpless in the air. Luckily, we had fully caught them off guard. Neph caught Kene in one arm, right over her shoulder, and by the time they realized what had happened, Neph was already descending.

It would be a hard landing for her, but she had her own ways of managing. The only problem was that she’d have no time to recover before they were on her. I needed to get there as soon as possible to help, but she must have landed a few hundred feet ahead. At this point it was up to her more than anything else.

There was finally a moment to let out a sigh of relief. We were past the biggest hurdle. Kene was back with us.

I was running as fast as I could, but the last twenty-four hours were rapidly catching up with me. We were technically faking our fatigue from earlier, but it wasn’t totally a ruse. I could already feel my muscles starting to lock up and my joints ache. That was only talking about the physical toll. The powers we used took a toll on our body like any other physical activity, but they also drained at our Inner Light. The edges of my vision were darkening from the strain. I was almost tapped. Physically and otherwise. We needed to wrap this up, soon.

I never knew Neph to go down easy, so I can’t imagine this would be the thing to finally finish her. Especially not with so much on the line. She’d at least hold out until I got there. I was halfway there and I could see the flashes of her spear in the distance. Good. That meant she was still up.

Then I heard a deafening sound. It was almost like I was standing right next to a lightning strike. It pierced the air for a moment, but disappeared just as quickly, leaving only it’s echo rolling through the forest and a ringing in my ears. It was so loud, my vision went blurry for a second from the pain in my ears.

Then it rang out again and again. Each time I staggered on my weakened legs and struggled to keep upright. Whatever it was, it was coming from where Neph was. This was completely unexpected. What the fuck was that?

And then it went silent.

I crashed through the brush and stepped out into a clearing. Neph was there. She was holding Kene close against her chest, but she was limp. I saw blood running down her face

No...

This couldn’t happen. We fought so hard to get here… How the fuck did this happen?! And why wasn’t Neph doing something? Anything?

“She’s okay, Then.”

She hadn’t looked at me. She was keeping her eyes locked at the other end of the clearing.

I followed her line of sight and saw that we weren’t alone in the clearing. The bodies of the flying creatures were scattered around, bloody messes. A handful had the distinct black scorches of her spears, but the majority didn’t. They had massive, messy holes torn out of their bodies. I had never seen anything like it, but as I surveyed the scene I could guess at what had done it.

Nephern was staring at a group of giants. Five of them from what I counted. Every one of them stood at least a head above us. The one at the front of the group was closer to two. It was covered from head to toe in some kind of armor, or at least that was what I had to guess it was. It was smooth and white, but it didn’t seem like metal. It had a helmet that completely covered its face and replaced it with a smooth white orb. And most importantly, it was holding some sort of short metal rod, pointing one end at Neph.

From the way she was keeping her eyes fixed on it, that rod was the thing that made the thunder sound. It was probably also what had torn apart the creatures.

We had saved Kene from the monsters but now we were the ones who were caught.