Chapter 2: Unexpected Danger
"Can You Whisper?"
Raziel Voidstalker didn't mind being left alone in the inn. He drank his mead and headed to the bar to chat with some rugged looking people with weapons on their persons. It seemed that no matter where he went, he would always be able to find something to entertain himself.
When Britiana and Chrystianna returned to the main room, that's where they saw him, laughing raucously with a big man with bushy red hair and an even bushier red beard. They shared an amused look.
Britiana excused herself from her mother to approach Moira, to let her know that the tarts were made, but she'd be leaving early tonight. Moira didn't mind.
Chrystianna began to approach Raziel; to let him know they'd now be going to her son.
However, this time that should have been a joyous reunion between a mother and her children was not destined to go smoothly.
Britiana went to grab her cloak just as another woman came into the inn. She was an unusual sight just about anywhere on Thelessia except the Dark Forests on the eastern continent. Because this person was an Eoduun, a Dark Elf. She was good friends with Britiana and her brother. Her long hair was white with many braids. She wore leather boots, pants, and vest over a brown, coarse shirt. Over that she had a cloak. A bow and quiver full of arrows slung across her back. Her skin was medium gray, eyes yellow, and her lips purple. Her pointed ears were pierced, and the teeth and claws of various animals adorned them. She was obviously a hunter.
She carried several dead birds tied to a string. Usually, she would have delivered them to the back door of the kitchen instead of coming in the front door. Her face was calm, but her unusual behavior caught Britiana's attention.
"Sariya," she said in a low, surprised voice.
Sariya saw her and was obviously relieved. She noticed her reaching for her cloak. "Don't go out yet," she said almost soundlessly. "I'll take these to the kitchen," she said in a louder voice and headed that way. As she went, the faces around her had various expressions. Eoduun rarely left the Dark Forests, and when they did, it was rarely for anything good. So, for those passing through, there was some fear and some disgust. But the people of Tarrytown barely blinked. This Eoduun had been there for almost a year, and didn't bother anyone, just nesting as she prepared to give birth. She hunted to make a living. Sometimes she was even hired by local officials to track criminals.
She met the Silvermoon siblings several years ago near the Dark Forest. They were still teenagers at the time. She mostly stayed around the Dark Forest, but her hunting and tracking skills were well known, so she was hired by their gang. They needed help tracking someone who had betrayed them and escaped to that general vicinity.
The three of them got along well. She was one of the few people outside their gang that knew the duo were Dragons from another world. Sariya herself wasn't from Thelessia. She remembered traveling with her parents, until they came to Thelessia, where they were killed. That was a hard time in her life. She took refuge in the Dark Forest. Even though she wasn't fully accepted there, they were still responsible enough to provide for her until she was old enough to provide for herself and take revenge on the people who killed her family.
However, she'd been stuck on Thelessia ever since her parents died. She didn't know where exactly she was from. Her father had always just called home “Undirheim”. It wasn't until she got to know the twins better that she learned that Undirheim was where the Dark Elves of Emphyralis lived. They promised not to leave her behind when they were able to return if it was at all possible.
When she met her husband, a half Eoduun-half Shadow Demon named Qazim who could travel between realms, she wasn't in as much of a hurry to go home. He became her home. But not long after they married, Qazim was called to his father's Shadow Dimension. He hasn't returned since. Before he left, he asked her to stay close to the siblings and go to Emphyralis as soon as she could. He would find her when he was able. He hasn't yet returned, so she went to them. When she realized she was pregnant, she decided to stay in Tarrytown instead of continuing to travel.
Not only would she be close to her friends, but she would also have a stable place to raise her child in the meantime. That was nearly ten months ago. She was an Eoduun, the gestational period was much longer than for humans, so not many people even realized she was pregnant.
Watching her friend head to the kitchen, Britiana pretended to get something out of the pocket of her cloak, as if it were just something she wanted to show her old friend. Something about Sariya's emotions made her very wary. With a blase smile, she hooked her mother's arm before she could approach the man at the bar. Something in the room had changed since they'd been in the kitchen. There was something dangerous in the emotions being thrown around.
Chrystianna seamlessly went along with her actions. "Let's have a drink before we go. After making tarts I'm a bit thirsty," Britiana said lightly and guided her mother to an empty table.
Sariya came back from the kitchen. She glanced and noticed another woman sitting with Britiana who wore a similar glamor. She ordered three drinks at the bar and then brought them to the table.
Britiana smiled, took one of the cups, pretended to sneeze and waved her hand, immediately setting up a magical barrier. If anyone glanced at them, they'd see three women chatting and laughing but have no desire to come disturb them.
Sariya glanced at Chrystianna questioningly. Chrystianna returned the look.
Britiana smiled. "Mom, this is Sariya. Her parents are from Undirheim. She was stuck on Thelessia after they died,” she informed, gesturing to her friend. “Sariya, this is my mom. She finally came for me and Dari," she introduced with a proud smile. "Sariya is a good friend. She knows about me and Darius," she added.
Chrystianna’s eyes curved with her smile. "Hello, thank you for being a friend to my children," she said gratefully, reaching out to take the other woman’s hand.
Sariya returned the gesture. "It is I who should thank you for sending them to Thelessia.” She honestly meant that. When she met the siblings, she regained the hope she hadn’t had in a long while.
Britiana took a breath when Sariya took her hand back. A rare serious expression crossed her face. "What's wrong? Who's here?" she asked, facing the Eoduun woman.
Chrystianna glanced at her daughter. Her children actually knew more about her than she did them. She didn't know what kind of abilities they had, but she could tell that Britiana must be a powerful Empath. Her own empathic abilities weren't very strong. Her skillset was telepathy and telekinesis. She could empathically scan a room if concentrated, but she didn't have a natural aptitude. Just as she was about to, Britiana touched her arm and shook her head. Until Sariya explained the situation, they couldn't rashly use active psionics.
Sariya wasn't surprised by Britiana's question. She knew about her empathic abilities. "There are people surrounding the inn. I recognize some of their faces as merchants who've passed through lately, but they are no longer pretending to be merchants. I may have ignored them and just told Moira to be careful in case one of her customers brought trouble," she started to explain. This wouldn't be the first time Tarrytown has seen trouble because of professional and personal grudges because of the frequent travelers coming and going.
"But then I noticed that some of them were using equipment made from Dragons," she said. She glanced at a pair, a man and a woman, who sat at the corner table pretending to be traveling warriors who were also lovers. But they continuously scanned the room as if looking for something. They frequently looked in Raziel Voidstalker's direction. With his unique looks, he was very eye-catching. He didn't look like a native Thelessian elf no matter which angle they used.
"Those two are wearing Dragon scale armor under their cloaks. I think they came for you and your brother," she said.
Chrystianna's heart stopped for a moment and her vision nearly turned black. Her extreme fear even momentarily broke her mental barrier and caused Britiana to gasp aloud at the sudden attack. Chrystianna quickly came to her senses and reinforced her barrier. She quickly apologized.
Britiana shook her head. She understood her mother's fear. Dragon Hunters decimated the Dragons of Emphyralis with a plague and attacked the survivors for nearly a century.
The Dragon Hunters who attacked them looked human but were not. They were long lived, had technological means, and were fiercely brutal. Chrystianna looked at the pair. They looked human, were both tall and almost gaunt but strong. It was the tattoos on their faces and bodies that really gave away their identity. They were indeed the same Hunters they finally defeated only a couple decades earlier.
"How did they know there were Dragons here?" Britiana wondered. Both she and Darius were always careful when transforming. But they were in their Changing period. If they didn't transform regularly until they mastered the transformation, it would cause problems later in life.
Chrystianna made a face. "They always know. But it's strange that they appeared on Thelessia. Raziel chose this world because there were no dragons. The people here didn't even have the concept of dragons, even as myths. There was nothing for the Hunters to be curious about. The magic system here also isn't very powerful, and the technology is stunted. Even if people accidentally saw something strange in the sky, how would a Dragon Hunter know to come?"
She hadn’t sent her children away blindly. She and the Voidstalker chose this small planet very carefully. If anything ever went wrong, she wanted a place where her children would be the most powerful beings. The point was to save their lives, not put them in more danger.
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"The only people who know about me and Darius are the gang that raised us and Sariya," Britiana said with a frown. She rubbed her forehead and thought for a while. The gang had been betrayed before. The lure of money can change hearts. One of their own got greedy, questioning why one of the best gangs of thieves in the world would simply redistribute the money they stole to the less fortunate. Why not keep it all?
He'd stolen their latest score and run away, all the way to the western continent and eventually braving the Dark Forest. Eoduun weren't the only things that lived in the Dark Forest. They'd caught him. But did they catch him in time? Dark Wizards also lived in the Dark Forest. It hasn’t been known for a mage on Thelessia to be above second-tier in ages, was there someone among the Dark Wizards who'd made it to third-tier? Given the right rituals, powerful artifacts, and incantations, a third-tier wizard could communicate across time and space.
Britiana shook as she thought about it. Seven years. Seven years was plenty of time for someone to contact the Dragon Hunters. Seven years was plenty of time for them to make their way across time and space to Thelessia. Especially once a beacon was set up. Then it was only a matter of time before compiling reports of any strange atmospheric phenomenon was gathered. A cloud appearing in a cloudless sky. Odd fogs in the forests. Eventually, there would be the news of two siblings who live in the woods and mostly keep to themselves.
She took another shaky breath. "I have to warn Darius. If they're looking for me, they may be looking for him as well," she said.
When she carried them in her womb, Chrystianna had formed mental links with her children when their brains developed enough. But after sending them away, she hadn't felt them in over twenty years. But now, she felt a long dormant twinge. She could feel her daughter reaching out to her son.
She opened her eyes with a sharp gasp. She felt a killing intent all around the tavern. "They are coming closer. Did they notice my barrier?" she asked.
Sariya shook her head. "That tarty Vella was chatting with the man just now. I couldn't hear what they said, but she made two facial expressions while talking. One she only makes when talking about your brother, like she can't wait to eat his bones clean. And the other when she talks about you, as if she'd pick your bones clean to get you out of the way," she said. Vella was a server at the Oxhead. She was plump, pretty, and popular. Even in glamor, she always looked at Darius like she was hungry. She did not like “Bittany” who she felt was in the way of her happiness. "She also glanced over here.”
Britiana worried her bottom lip. She was on the cusp of being a fourth-tier mage, but she wasn't there yet. She was only in her early twenties after all. Some high-level magic was beyond her. She couldn't make them invisible or freeze time.
At some point, Raziel disappeared. He must have noticed the barrier and suspected something was wrong. Chrystiana didn't expect him to help her out of this predicament. The Hunters must be using some way to communicate. If she incapacitated them, would the others know?
Britiana looked at Sariya. "Thank you for helping. If we get out of this, we'll definitely come back for you, but you shouldn't get involved in this," she said.
Sariya shook her head. "I won't be safe. They'll realize I warned you. I'll stay with you. You might need my help," she said simply.
Britiana gave her a grateful look. "Mother, you're experienced facing Hunters. Will a psychic attack work?"
Chrystianna nodded. "But I'm afraid that the others will know," she said.
Briti smiled reassuringly. She took each of their hands. "Now," she said.
Chrystiana looked at the hunters with a grim smile. She reached out with her telepathic abilities before they could react and exploded a wave of mental noise so loud and debilitating that blood leaked from their ears and they fell to the ground. They were shaking and frothing at the mouth, revealing the armor beneath their cloaks made of metallic Silver scales on the woman and stunning iridescent Onyx scale on the man.
Britiana pressed around the wall and pulled both of them into her embrace and said a deep word in Emphyralian Draconic “Halahk.” They disappeared from their seats and appeared on the other side of the wall. They actually moved through space less than a yard. This kind of teleportation spell was a third-tier spell that was looked down on a lot. Moving through time and space was difficult without a medium and only fourth-tier mages could do it well. This spell that could only move things less than a yard was considered by other mages as nearly useless.
Yet, at this moment it came in surprisingly useful. If Britiana didn't know the layout and terrain of the inn and couldn't psychically feel where the danger was and wasn't, it would have been a disaster. They could have ended up in the wall, or on top of the Dragon Hunters.
Outside the inn, in the dark cloudy night, they could hear exclamations from the Hunters as they ran to check on their companions.
Chrystianna followed Sariya and Britiana, who seemed to know where they were going. They seemed to have a tacit understanding. They ran away from the inn and tavern in a particular direction.
The Hunters came into the tavern where the staff was checking on the two who were having convulsions. A big man pushed a server out of the way to check on them. He scoffed. "Psychic attack. Disgusting. Silver Dragons," he said in a language that no one in the bar could understand; it was harsh and guttural. He looked around. He noticed three women chatting as if they were oblivious to the uproar in the room. He strode over to them and slashed a long fiery amber sword, and the illusion dissipated to reveal an empty booth.
He cursed. "They used a trick. They escaped!" he shouted. "Ull. Treat Kith and Ontha. The rest chase!" he said and ran out. The other band of hunters followed, leaving only one person to feed his companion's medicine.
Modern hunters were bred to withstand psychic attacks from Silver Dragons. So, the condition of the two being so severe was very strange. Such a powerful Dragon's brain would be quite a trophy. Ull thought about it and hurriedly injected the two from two syringes until they woke up.
Kith and Otha were groggy but angry. They immediately dragged Ull to rejoin their party leaving the staff and patrons of the Oxhead in confusion.
--
Britiana and Sariya weren't running recklessly. They were headed for the homestead of the richest man in the town. He had horses. He loved horses and raced them in the city. He had five of them. Britiana and Chrystianna couldn't fly, they'd be too easy to track by the Hunters. If anything went wrong, the Hunters had a way to keep a Dragon from regressing to their humanoid form when they died. It became common for Dragons infected with Plague to commit suicide in their humanoid forms rather than letting their bodies revert to their natural state to prevent the Hunters from grave robbing their body parts.
They were only halfway there when the Hunters caught up. Despite the silence wrapped around them, they still left traces as they desperately fled. There was a harsh guttural shout and then the air sizzled as dazzling blue energy shots ripped through the air.
They wouldn’t be able to outrun them at this rate. Even though Dragons and Eoduun were hearty and quick, the Dragon Hunters had longer legs, and had been evolved to chase down fleeing Dragons. Chrystianna gritted her teeth and turned, holding up her hands and Manifested a domed shield from telekinetic energy. Though invisible, it glimmered with a light electric silver energy as the shots bounced off it.
Sariya grabbed the bow slung across her back, crouched down, and watched the darkness. She was Eoduun, the night was like daylight to her. These things were walking targets as they ran toward them. One arrow hit their shots every time. Although they didn't die, and ripped out the arrows on the go, it did slow them down.
Of eight arrows she shot, she hit eight people. That was almost half the Hunters. At first it seemed that it had little effect. They even laughed and taunted in their language. They slowed down, seeing that the trio had no way to leave, or risk being hit by their energy weapons. They even put away their hot weapons and drew their cold weapons made of Dragon bones, teeth, or claws.
Britiana was transferring some energy to her mother when they saw them. They felt anger but were helpless about it. If it comes to it, they'll fight in full Dragon form.
Suddenly one of those hit with an arrow staggered and grabbed their wound. Black smoke was beginning to float from their wounds as black veins began to spread over their body. Another one started staggering.
The other ones noticed their companions' abnormality. "What's going on?" someone muttered.
"Poison! What kind of poison is this?" Someone explained as they watch their poisoned companions turn ashen gray and their lips turn black.
The Hunters paused. Should they take care of their companions or continue the Hunt? Their leader holding the amber sword spit. "There's nowhere on this puny planet they can hide," he said. He made a hand movement, and the Hunters took their companions and withdrew.
Chrystiana watched them go, but didn't lower her shield. Britiana scanned the area. "They've gone," she said.
Chrystianna gasped and let go of the shield. She almost fainted, but the sturdy Eoduun caught her. She smiled gratefully. "What did you poison them with?" she asked curiously.
"Shadowbane. It's an herb from the Shadow Dimension. My husband gave me seeds, taught me how to cultivate them, and make poison from them," she added with a cold smile. "They can try whatever antidotes they want. They're dead," she said simply. She looked in the direction the Hunters retreated with a grim smile.
"Well done, my dear. Shadowbane. I haven't seen this in millennia," a magnetic male voice said, piercing the night. Raziel Voidstalker was crouching where one of the Hunters had fallen. He touched a blood stain and rubbed it between his fingers.
Sariya was going to warn him not to touch it, but he only magically cleaned his fingers and stood. She was surprised. He just gave her a smile, flashing his fangs slightly. "Where to, ladies?" he asked.
"We'll go to Darius," Britiana answered. "Let mom rest first," she said. She pulled a stool out of her skirt folds and helped her sit down. She then pulled out a small bottle. "Here's some wine made from a silvervine fruit. It's not as good as dragonwyne, but it'll help with the overdraft of psionic abilities," she said. She popped the cork and handed it to her mother.
Chrystianna smiled and drank the soft but astringent, fruity wine. It did indeed help her overdrawn psionic pool feel better. It wasn't as good as what was available on Emphyralis, but it would do. Despite her young age, she had a large psionic pool; comparable to a Dragon five times her age. But Manifesting was hard for her.
Manifesting was the ability to use telekinetic energy to create tangible objects, like the barrier. Manifesting didn’t come as naturally to her as telepathy and basic telekinesis. She had to push herself. The constant bombardment of the energy weapons helped drain her psionic pool.
Britiana let her rest and then reached out to Darius. He answered quickly this time.