It was two days after the Morning’s Shade members arrived, that they left. Zalia and the twins had finally managed to hunt down the last couple of shapeshifters, a gruesome task yet a necessary one. It wasn’t something Zalia took pleasure in, yet was important for the safety of the town.
She had also tried to work with the Enchanter again but with the man refusing to take any sort of advice and absolutely refusing to change anything about the way he made rituals, she had given up and left him to it.
Ember, Boreal, Aylie and Zalia all waited just outside the gates as the last of the members filtered out. They had left Ostoss in a much, much better state than they had found it, something that Zalia often strived to do, though not always with success.
Tristan was staying behind, of course, as were the Twins and a few other Bronze rank members of the Morning's Shade. Now that the twins were there, the guard could be a little more relaxed and Zalia had even convinced the man to take a little time off to get back into starting up his bakery once more. She knew that the simple and relaxing task of baking was something that would benefit his mental health greatly. Something to pull him out of his past and back to the present, lead him back towards being a baker, not a soldier. He was a great soldier, that much she didn’t doubt. It was what being a great soldier did to him that neither she nor he thought good.
The final thing Zalia had done before leaving was attempt to lay a blessing on the farm. She had brought out her small altar to Nateysta and used the glowing purple mushrooms she had found in Cormaine to ask a blessing on the farm. There was no immediately visible effect other than the ritual itself, yet she felt a little better for having done it. At the request of one of the farmers, she even grew another small altar from her chunk of wood and left it in the house she had grown there.
Hildebrandt had left behind her momentary lapse of confidence and now held her leadership mask on once more. With an end in sight to the indecisiveness that had apparently hounded her, she was more than happy to push on a little longer.
The caravan began to move away with Zalia and her little family towards the front. Aylie would be spending the time attempting to move any particularly overgrown forested areas out of the way with Plant Manipulation while Zalia and Boreal flattened the ground out for their carts with the earth manipulation they both had from Physical Resistance.
There was an actual earth mage in the caravan that picked up when Zalia and Boreal grew tired but an advantage that came with needing significantly less sleep was the fact that they didn’t really grow tired anymore. Of course there was mental fatigue yet a few hours of relaxation had the same effect as a night's rest would have on a normal person. Whatever normal was here.
Days began to pass them by as they travelled, their path taking them past a few abandoned hovels and towns that Zalia and her family had passed on the way up. Ostoss was a little further west than the army camp was, so their path led in a south, south east direction.
The journey would take a little longer than the one north had taken, by Zalia’s approximation, since Ostoss was also further away from the camp than the mountain home of Glemp and their people was. Still, the Morning’s Shade moved quite quick for such a large group. They were also such a strong force that they didn’t really have to hide from the demons, often spotting demons fleeing from them instead.
She was a little concerned that they weren’t able to mask their movements. That concern turned out to be quite well-founded when they were attacked.
A large host of the four-legged spined demons she had fought in Cormaine burst out of a patch of forest within a couple hundred metres of them. Hildebrandt immediately called the caravan to a stop and Morning’s Shade members reacted with speed.
Zalia opened the vault and ushered Aylie in, standing in the doorway to protect her. Boreal faded out of sight into nearby brush and Ember stood near the door, ready to protect them both.
Many of the longer ranged Morning’s Shade members began flinging spells. Bolts of magic made of fire, earth and all other sorts rained down. Arrows were shot, some of them Zalia’s own, while area of affect spells were cast.
A patch of demons died as the ground beneath them ruptured, swallowing them into the earth below. Another group was set aflame as fire rained down from above. Many bigger members of the order holding shields or larger two handed weapons waited in front of the more magic oriented members, ready to protect them.
Others yet charged ahead, bloodlust in their eyes and smaller, quicker weapons in hand. A Silver rank man with two axes and no shirt became a whirlwind of blood as he danced through the hordes, the fire of his allies simply ignored.
What struck Zalia most however, was the sheer presence that Hildebrandt maintained on the field. She stood there like a bulwark, a massive glowing tower shield in her hand. It was an item Zalia had never seen before and its presence seemed to strike fear into the demons. Most dared not come closer, their charge stopped not only by the number of dead but by fear. The few that did come nearer to Hildebrandt died quick deaths to blurred movement or an ability that Zalia could not see. They simply turned to ash as the woman deflected their blows.
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It seemed like a pointless charge, the demons having accomplished nothing except to die. Zalia knew that these hordes of four-legged beasts were controlled by the higher ranked flying demons, something she had seen in Cormaine, yet she saw none of those demons now.
A sound across the battlefield began to bug her, almost soundless and like a pressure building in her ears. Hildebrandt noticed it too and looked around for its source but found nothing either. Realistation struck Zalia just as a force did.
Two Silver ranked Astar appeared in front of her, the runes on their body glowing in mesmerising colours as their aura washed over the Morning’s Shade. It wasn’t an oppressive force like that of the demons was, yet had an attention drawing effect just the same.
The whole battlefield seemed to turn to the three beings as the two Astar grabbed Zalia and everything disappeared in a flash, the sound of a water drop heard across the whole field.
⪼ ⪢ ℋ 𝒶𝓃𝒹 ℋ ⪡ ⪻
Zalia woke up on the cold hard floor of a room, the sounds of a language she didn’t understand above her. She opened her eyes and lifted her head to see the same two Astar in conversation and realised she wasn’t on the floor after all. She was on a little floating bench, the stone glowing with power.
Without hesitation, she jumped up and punched one of the Astar in the back of the head. She didn’t know what they wanted with her but she also wasn’t prepared to sit here and take whatever it was.
The Astar stumbled forwards as the other looked at her in shock, as if surprised by her awake state. She summoned her sword and chopped at its arm, finding that it cut through with ease, blue blood flowing to the ground below.
She was about to strike again when the glowing stone beneath her pulsed, dropping her into unconsciousness again.
⪼ ⪢ ℋ 𝒶𝓃𝒹 ℋ ⪡ ⪻
The next time she woke, her wrists each had a metal bracelet wrapped around them. She had a moment of panic as she couldn’t feel her powers but feeling a little closer, they were there, just… restrained. The bracelets had an aura about them that felt similar to the demon's aura in that it was oppressive. She hadn’t felt an object ever having an aura before.
Healing Presence was still there, still active, yet dulled down significantly. The feeling was claustrophobic, as if she had been pressed into her own body.
Looking around, she identified that she was in some sort of prison room. There was a flat stone bed built into the wall, a stone construction that looked like a toilet, except it was covered in runes and a cell door, built fully from iron and also glowing with runes.
Naturally, the first thing she tried was summon her weapon. It took a lot more conscious effort but she managed it eventually. Her bow dropped into her hands, a weight giving her comfort in the silence of the cell.
Her panic built again as she realised that she couldn’t feel the bond she shared with Boreal and Ember. What had happened to it? Was it simply gone? Surely such a thing couldn’t just be broken.
She looked closer and felt a tiny, tiny stream of consciousness connected to her own. Boreal.
There wasn’t any of the normal emotions or thoughts coming across the bond, not even an inkling of a location or direction. She could feel it was there, though. Her bond with Ember wasn’t there however, though maybe it was simply subdued so much as to be practically invisible. That bond had not grown as deeply as her one with Boreal after all.
Next, she summoned her armour onto her body. It made her partially intangible as she hoped, yet when she tried to step through the wall it failed. To her dismay, she realised the walls and door were most definitely magically protected. Of course they were, you didn’t imprison a higher ranked person without making sure they wouldn’t escape.
Uncomfortable realisations came to her then, as she recalled the events of the past few… minutes? Hours? Days?
The Astar had captured her, for whatever reason she did not know. They had captured her, after the Morning’s Shade had been attacked by demons.
Were they working together?
She heard a lock click and a hatch in the solid door slid open, two depthless eyes peering at her through it.
“Stand back interloper.”
The thought slammed into her mind and she involuntarily took a step back.
The door swung open and the Astar from earlier, at least she thought it was the same ones, stepped in. She pressed herself back against the wall, her bow transforming into a sword as she got ready to attack.
One of the Astar flexed their hand and looked to the other nervously. The same ones then, only it had regrown the arm she had cut off.
“What the hell do you want from me?”
“Want from you? Nothing. Your interference has grown annoying, so we have taken you. You will wait here until the envoy comes to meet you.”
Thoughts raced through her head. Her interference? With what, the invasion?
Her mind flashed back to when she had been in a similar situation, trapped in a cell as Juniper spoke to them, almost absentmindedly. They had theorised that someone must have given Juniper the information she needed to bring back Zayes. Someone who had an excellent understanding of teleportation. But why? Why would they do this?
“The envoy? Who is the envoy?”
Her bracelets pulsed, much as the stone platform she had been on had and her focus trembled. Her sword puffed into mist, though her armour remained. They seemed to realise that it wasn’t linked like her sword was and stepped forwards, but she quickly stored it back away. No need to lose the armour.
“You will wait here.”
She almost attacked them again, but they stepped out and the door closed with a fatalistic thud.