Sael

It was bad. One minute Sael was walking, next thing she knew, she was thrown over Dexian’s right shoulder and both anakim were sprinting towards her mansion. They were chased by wolf creatures that loped along, half-upright with arms longer than their legs. Their slavering jaws emitted a poisonous-looking green mist upon exhalation; their guttural grunts and short howls sounded almost like speech, yet almost like laughter. Some of them wore rusty armor, some of them wielded grimy weapons, and some of them seemed to rely on their claws and teeth; they all looked at their quarry with the distinct gaze of beings of intelligence, but their grins and jabbering displayed the pestilence of madness.

Though she was being bounced up and down by the running of her guards, it looked like all the wolf-things had green glowing brands on their shoulders. Dexian maintained course, but Frintak would strike at any wolf-thing that got too close, quick as lightning; when he did so, she could hear the skull of the wolf-thing break.

“Dexian, we have to go back!” she shrieked over the noise. That would not be wise, Sael.

“Not likely, Miss Erus!” he said between pants, sounding much more calm than the situation allotted for.

“Eden and Azrael are back there! We have to save them!” Your concern is a good thing, but let your guards do their job.

“There are too many of them to let them surround us!” Frintak called as he caved in the head of another wolf-thing. The monsters flooded the street, shoulder to shoulder, like a grey ocean.

“I concur,” Dexian added between breaths, “Eden and Azrael…will have to fend for themselves…our duty is to your safety…and going back for your friends…is a risk…” He took that moment to swing his left hand and smack a wolf-thing into a nearby building, cratering it. “Gods damn…Frintak, you talk!”

“I don’t care!” Sael yelled, thrashing her arms and legs. “We have to go back for them!” You should care; if they do stop, they will find themselves outnumbered very quickly. It seemed the wolves weren’t just following them, but filtering in from other streets and invading houses, and slaughtering the people who were inside.Sael watched several of them break away from the flood to assault each building as the flood passed them; she could hear the screams of people caught in the middle of packing their things as the creatures tore open doors and demolished everything inside. A wolf-thing latched onto Frintak’s forearm.

“This isn’t an argument, Miss Erus!” he yelled as he grabbed one from out of the air and used it to beat the one attached to his forearm until it released its grip. “Struggle much more and I will render you unconscious and explain to your mother later!” She stopped struggling at that moment and let the anakim work.

What happened? Her father’s force went out to stop these creatures, didn’t they? Were they all dead? Was her father– no, did this army that was here avoid the paladin force completely? Her heart was heavy in her chest. Sael feared the worst for her friends and her father. But what about her mother and sister?

“How far to the estate?” She called to Dexian.

“Almost there.” He grunted. She looked back at Frintak. It really was marvelous, seeing him in action for the first time; she had never thought of him as more than a slab of stone, a walking wall between her and the common rabble, but he was successfully running with Dexian, watching the wolf-things chasing them, and striking down every one that got too close. It looked like he had only been bitten a couple of times for his trouble. Sael was mildly concerned about the bites; were they cursed, venomous, or otherwise detrimental?

They reached the estate, headed through the gateway, and watched as the great stone gate fell shut behind them crushing some of their pursuers and trapping one unlucky wolf-thing between the gate and the anakim. Dexian dropped Sael and turned to look at the now-cornered creature. The wolf-thing’s eyes widened as it realized its mistake, but didn’t have time to do anything about its situation before it was struck once in the stomach with an uppercut from Frintak, lifting the creature off the ground, then once more as Dexian brought both his fists down on the back of its head; the monster spun in the air a couple of times before it hit the ground, head-first, splattering blood in a fifteen-foot swath from its shattered skull, very visibly dead. Dexian grabbed Sael by the midsection and Frintak grabbed the dead wolf-thing by the scruff of the neck as they made their way across the lawn, leaving a trail of the wolf-thing’s blood as they walked. An old human man hobbled from the gate release over to the trio.

“Thanks for the assistance.” Dexian said to the butler who joined them on the walk. “It would have been a rough fight if we had to lower the gate ourselves.

“It was no trouble,” croaked the old man, adjusting his bowtie. “I saw your progress up the road; I’m only glad I made it in time. Might I ask what is going on, though, sirs? The beasties outside the gate look particularly vicious.”

“When we get inside and activate the wards, we’ll be happy to exchange information.” Dexian replied. “That wall is only forty feet tall, and thin, close to the housing that the gate drops from.”

“Let me down, Dex, I can walk!” Sael insisted, squirming obstinately. He glanced at her, raising one eyebrow, and asked,

“If I put you down, will you promise not to do anything stupid?” She nodded solemnly in reply and he set her on the ground, letting her loose of his grip. They walked quickly up the path to the mansion, entered the doors, and took a look around the mage-lantern-lit house. Sael’s mother and sister were descending the stairs, her sister wearing a blue toga and her mother wearing a brown dress.

“Oh, looks like you made it.” Muriel stated unenthusiastically. Sael opened her mouth to retort. Now is not the time for sororal quarrelling. She shut her mouth and shook her head.

“The gate will shortly be breached.” Dexian interjected, looking at Sael’s mother.

“Oh, Goddess Hecate, Matriarch of Magic,” Sael’s mother invoked, causing the mansion’s defense runes to light up along the walls, “seal this place from outside influence, let no harm nor rot breach the walls of your servants, let no weapon nor projectile threaten your faithful!” And the wards were set. Nothing could get in. “Now,” the matriarch said, “what is going on in the city?”

“These buggers,” Frintak said, throwing the wolf-thing corpse forward, “are overrunning the city and killing everyone they come across. Not even eating their prey, just tearing everything up.” Muriel wrinkled her nose at the dead creature.

Sael stepped forward and took a closer look at the brand on the wolf-thing’s shoulder. It was hard to make out, as it wasn’t glowing any more. It looked like… a skull with long hair, jagged, like lightning bolts, descending from the back of it. She had seen it before, at the temple of Hel, another Yggdrasilic god, the queen of an underworld realm of the same name deep beneath the roots of the universe-tree, Yggdrasil. That might be something important, her Whisper suggested.

“They bear the sigil of Hel.” she said, softly.

“What?” Matriarch Erus asked, as if suddenly keenly interested in what her oldest daughter had to say.

“They bear the sigil of Hel." She said louder. "What does that even mean?” They all looked from the wolf to Matriarch Erus.

“It means,” Sael’s mother said after what seemed to be a long time, “That we need to get out of the city. Either Hel herself or someone who’s got a keen knowledge of fell magics beyond any of us has marked this city for destruction.”

“Has ragnarok started, do you think?” Muriel asked, as if she was asking about the weather.

“What a silly thing to be concerned with, child,” her mother snapped, “ragnarok has started on multiple occasions, and the gods have all acted to thwart it each time it starts; I’m not worried about that. I’m worried that this whole place will end up physically in Hel, and I’d rather not be present when it does.”

No sooner than had the words left her mouth, they all heard a tapping on the window to the side of the door. They all turned to look, and peering in was a regiment of helwolves, all suddenly cackling and howling, as if the group realizing that the wolves were standing outside was the funniest thing they had ever seen.

“They’re just… standing there?” Sael asked to no one in particular.

“It seems they know the wards are in place.” Dexian confirmed. The helwolves, all gathered at the window, parted as another helwolf, this one dressed in ragged black robes, perhaps a spellcaster, forcibly escorted a familiar figure up to the window by knifepoint. Sael could feel her blood pulse through every blood vessel she had; her heart beat loudly in her ears, and she barely comprehended her whisper begging her not to do anything rash.

Stripped of most of his armor, beaten, bruised, and bloody, yet still wearing his helmet, with a knife to his throat, was her father. The helwolf stopped, just shy of the window.

“Help me!” he said, “I don’t want to die.” Somewhere in the back of her mind, these words seemed strangely generic, but at this moment, right here, right now, that was her father, the man who always had a word of kindness and moderation in response to her brashness, who settled disputes between his daughters out of love for them and love for peace–and he was being threatened; the message was clear: let us in, or the old man gets it. Sael, it would be foolish to do anything.

She felt her feet propel herself forward–she had to damage one of the wards; that was her daddy and she couldn’t let anything happen to him! Strong arms wrapped around her, lifting her up and giving her no traction.

“Miss Erus! Please stop! It’s not–” she heard Frintak yell at her; his voice seemed so far away.

“Shut up, Frintak! Shut the fuck up! I can’t–I can’t let him die!” her mouth screamed. She could hear herself, as if she were listening from the other side of a door, and she sounded hysterical. Sael, listen to reason; Frintak cares about you and wouldn’t act this way without reason. Was that her whisper? Why did it sound so distant?

She looked around and saw her mother in similar circumstances–hysterical and being held back by Dexian. Where was Muriel? She turned her head back to the window and saw her sister there, the butler on the floor behind her; the old man wasn’t strong enough to hold her back, it seemed.

“Daddy!” she heard her sister sob as she produced a knife and quickly slashed a line through three of the runes, which immediately stopped glowing..

As she did so, the illusion that the helwolf was casting dropped, and instead of her father, there was instead her father’s helmet with his head still in it, on a pike the spellcaster was holding, discolored and rotten from days of travel.

Sael opened her mouth and screamed, a horrified, bloodcurdling scream that echoed through the whole mansion. The helwolves howled and jabbered, and broke the now unprotected glass, flooding in and breaking down the door, overwhelming and tearing Muriel limb from limb, spraying the white wall with blood; her terrified and pained shrieks cut short. The butler didn't even have the time to get up before he was shredded.

“Dexian, Frintak, the warp plate!” She heard her mother call, for some reason, sounding calmer than Sael.

Both anakim turned and ran around the stairs, opening the door in the floor underneath them that led to the cellar; they dropped the elavis down the doorway, and started to climb down the ladder.

Sael looked around the room; small and empty, except for a blue-ish tile surrounded by magic runes in the corner.

“Sael, Jophiel, get through the portal!” Frintak called. Sael looked up in time to see Dexian be speared through the top of his head with a sickening "chthuck" sound by the first of the grinning helwolves at the top of the ladder, his mouth going slack and his eyes losing focus. Sael and Frintak jumped out of the way as Dexian’s body fell, twitching, to the floor, blood pooling out. “Get through there now! I can’t smash the runes until you two are through!” Go through the portal, Sael.

“Go, Sael!” her mother echoed.

“What about you, Frintak?!” Sael screeched, concern piercing her terror.

“Tell Eden,” he said, giving her a soft smile, “if you see her again, that I’m sorry I didn’t have another conversation with her.” And with that, his arm shot out and shoved Sael into the corner, and she stepped back to brace herself; as soon as her foot hit the blue plate, her surroundings blurred and she found herself stumbling into a grassy knoll under the night sky. Her mother appeared almost immediately after, stumbling, as Sael did, but immediately as Jophiel regained her balance, she turned around, picked up a nearby rock, and smashed one of the runes on the warp plate directly in front of them.

“What are you doing?” Sael cried. “We won’t be able to go back to get Frintak!” Tears streamed down her face. Her eyes hurt from crying, and her mouth hurt from screaming. Her mother turned around and faced Sael, and for the first time, she saw tears streaming down her mother’s face.

“The helwolves had a spellcaster, Sael. Frintak couldn’t risk the possibility that the caster could repair the gate and follow us; the gate had to be broken on both sides.” And that was all she said. No, “oh, my Muriel,” no “Oh, my husband,” just a statement on the necessity of her most recent action. Don’t be so hard on your mother, Sael. Not everyone processes grief the same way.

Sael sat on the grassy knoll and tried to process everything, herself. It wasn’t working. She couldn’t think through this. Her father and sister were dead. Eden and Azrael were in the city somewhere. Were they dead, too? She had to find out.

“Where are we?” she asked, her sinuses fighting every word.

“An empty lot, about two miles west of the city. We should be safe enough from here.”

“Two miles?” Sael asked. She looked around and found a spot of light on the horizon: the city that was probably burning. Stay with your mother, Sael. She will need you.

“I have my own needs, too, you bitch.” Sael replied aloud, before she took off running. She heard her mother protest, but ignored it.

***

About fifteen minutes later, Sael was a mile away from the city, huffing and puffing. She had gotten tired after a few minutes and flew until her wings’ magic wore off, and jogged the rest of the way. She was exhausted. Sael could see the city fairly clearly from here, and, she thought, she could even hear the screams and howls; from here she could see that the city was entirely surrounded by an army of helwolves, their torches illuminating their numbers. To her surprise, her mother showed up less than a minute after her, as Sael was catching her breath.

“Sael,” her mother huffed, “don’t be ridiculous; we need to get away from the city, as fast as we can.” Catching her breath, Sael retorted,

“Don’t you have anything supportive to say? I’m going to find my friends, even if it kills me. They might be hiding or something.” She knew it was a long shot, and hearing herself say it, she could tell that she didn’t sound particularly convincing or reasonable, but army or no, her friends were all that she had left. She would find a way in.

They both heard a ringing sound coming from the city, like when one’s ear decides to cease functioning, temporarily. Both elavis, mother and daughter, turned and looked at the city.

And then the horizon detonated. Sael didn’t hear it. One instant she was looking at the city, the next, the entire landscape was enveloped in an explosion that was briefly shaped like a white hourglass, stark against the dark sky. The white of the hourglass grew until that was all she saw for a long while, even after the shockwave knocked her off her feet gods-knows how far back, she only saw white, and only heard silence. She was dazed and briefly wondered what happened, and was even more confused when she saw a black figure standing over her, against the white. The white faded to black and the figure came into focus; it was her mother, and her mother was mouthing something to her. Strange. Why did it look like she was yelling? She’s saying that you need to run.

“Run?” She asked, still dazed. “Run where?” She realized she couldn’t hear her own voice. Where was her voice? Northeast, she says. There’s a farming town less than a week’s travel to the northeast. They might provide shelter. It’s worth a try. Did her Whisper just respond? Was it interacting with her?

“Yeah, shelter.” she said, still not hearing her own voice, “But what about–” She turned and saw a deep, smoldering crater where the city was before; rivers of molten earth ran down to the bottom.

“Wha– Did– why–?” Her silent words wouldn’t summon a complete sentence, but her questions were clear to her Whisper and her mother: “What happened? Did my friends make it out okay? Why did this have to happen?” And though her Whisper tried to answer her to the best of its ability, all three of them knew the answers: “Tragedy; Probably not; we can’t be sure there is an explanation.”

Jophiel stepped in front of Sael’s vision and mouthed to her, “Come, Sael, we have to leave. Follow me. Don’t stop, don’t look back.” Sael looked at her and opened her mouth to reply and coughed, instead, realizing her throat was raw. Had she been yelling?

“I can’t– I can’t–” she mumbled, in that moment not realizing, not hearing, that she was erupting in frantic screams. Her mother calmly stood with her hand on her shoulder, saying something… something she couldn’t make out, her eyes too blurry to see. Sael, you should listen to your mother; there might be more helwolves lingering outside where Almaz was. You should make your way northeast as quickly as possible. Sael felt herself being led by the hand. She stumbled forward. One step. Stumble. Two steps, then three. Stumble again. She wiped her eyes and stared at her sandals; it seems they were moving of their own accord, but she tripped, from time to time. She focused more on walking. Sure enough, that reduced the tripping.

What is she going to do? She has nothing. She is nothing. What more could there be?

Don’t give up hope, Sael. You and your mother still have each other. Just get through right now and when you have made it through this crisis, then you can take time to ponder the existential. Sael shook herself.

Hope. Okay. She'd go northeast, then.