Zalia and Aylie had spent a good portion of that day practicing going into and out of the astral, with Lumen there just in case. There might have been some dangers involved in going there, but they hadn’t found any as of yet. Zalia wondered if there was anything that lived there natively, some kind of creature that lived off thoughts, perhaps?
Either way, she had made Aylie promise not to go back until she had spoken to Ro about it. Hopefully, the Ascendant would have some kind of insight into the place.
She had also told Ember about what was happening, with Aylie’s permission of course, and other than concerns for Aylie’s safety, Ember was on board with helping her figure out the changes. Leaving it unattended could lead to a dangerous outcome. It was better she understood what she was capable of than accidentally do something that got her hurt or killed.
Done with practicing for the day, Zalia was looking into setting up a portal to the capital. It would be extremely helpful not only with the things that she was trying to do, but it would also set up a path for trade that was worlds above the current caravans going from city to city.
First though, she would need to find a way to condense the size of the ritual required for the portal. There just wasn’t enough space in the town for another huge ritual. There must be a way to do it, she knew this because the Astar did.
Stored in her vault was a memory of the dormant rituals that the Astar created, she focused on it, solidly centering the image in her mind. Without an understanding of the Astar ritual runes, it was hard for her to figure out how they worked though. None of the people freed from the Astar town knew about them either, it had been one of the first things she’d asked them once they’d been on the road back to Endaria. Studying Astar runes just hadn’t been on their list of priorities as a mindless body forced to do labour.
She gave up on it, after a while, deciding that it just wasn’t going to happen. Not from the memory, at least.
That night, she realised that she would have to go back to the capital. Again.
It wasn’t just that she was awaiting the decision of the council on her plans, it was the fact that Hidey was kept there. It made her sad every time she remembered the dark, blank cell that Hidey had been living in for the past years, sealed away in a tiny cube. He deserved better than that, for what he had been through and what he had managed to do for Endaria despite his situation.
As often happened, thinking about Hidey dragged her mind to the topic of Zayes. It occurred to her that she knew what had imprisoned him in Cormaine. The Astar had done it, she was sure of that. Who else was capable of sending a powerful person to another world, who else was working with the demons that resided there. It was Hidey’s bond with Zayes that had given him sentience and sapience in the first place and it was possible that Zayes death would have removed those things from him. It was her only idea for why the man was still alive.
It also occurred to her that the very bond that Zayes and Hidey held might be the thing that allowed them to get back to Cormaine when the time came. Aylie had been able to send a portal from Ember to Zalia through their bond after all.
Already having everything she needed for a trip to the capital, she bid her family farewell and began the flight. She could fly indefinitely and at a much faster pace than she could with the whole family there, meaning the trip would be much shorter. It would still be an annoyingly long time, though.
Ember had voiced concerns about Zalia leaving the relative safety of the town with its anti-teleportation magic active but out of everyone, she was now the second least likely in Endaria to fall to an Astar ambush, after Hildebrandt of course. Zalia was also insistent that they needed to take a front foot in this, both because it was caused by them and the feeling she had that if they allowed the Astar to have their way, the powerful would be slowly stripped away until Endaria was nothing but people of Bronze rank and below.
It was for this reason that she flew quickly, pushed by winds that she controlled and made weightless by an easy Zephyr ritual.
Perhaps an hour out from the capital, an Astar appeared before her with twin swords at the ready.
Zalia was ready, half expecting something like this to happen, and reacted immediately Her armour already on, she activated Fight or Flight and the speed at which she perceived things slowed down. She could feel where the sword in the Astar’s left hand would strike her and twisted to avoid it, a powerful beat of her wings changing the course of her flight just enough that once the blade had passed her by, she was able to deliver a high-speed armoured boot to the Astar’s face.
She felt something crunch satisfyingly at the impact, orienting herself as the Astar went flying back. Without hesitation however, the Astar was right next to her again, a sword swinging at her.
Fight or Flight saved her again as she summoned her own sword just in time to block the Astar, letting their strike slide down the length of her blade held hilt up, point diagonally down and left towards the ground. The parry gave her a burst of speed which she used to bring her sword around in a strike, blade glowing a bright blue, towards the Astar’s neck on the right side.
The Astar’s second sword came up to deflect her strike but she surprised them by allowing her sword to disappear, a bow replacing it at her side. Instead of her intended strike, she continued the momentum past the Astar’s angled blade to punch it squarely in the face, blood from her previous hit to its face coating her gauntlet.
The Astar was thrown away from her again but this time arrows flew after them. Unfortunately, her enemy was Gold rank and well trained.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Her first arrow was struck aside and the next dodged due to the Astar teleporting straight up next to her again.
Taking a gamble, Zalia teleported away from the Astar as it did so, hoping that there would be a cooldown on the ability.
The gamble paid off as Zalia finally bought herself some space. She began a ritual, combining Zephyr, Water Lily, Flame-root and Manifest into a powerful combination.
Seeing what she was doing, the Astar floated towards her as fast as it could, which thankfully wasn’t very. It appeared that while the Astar were powerful spacial mages, they weren’t very quick with their flight.
As the ritual neared completion, the Astar used its aura like a weapon. The force came crashing down on her, ripping Healing Presence aside and striking at her soul. She gasped, barely maintaining the ritual as pain seared through her. The only reason she was able to was her experiences under the clutches of the Astar who had used a demon to torture her.
The ritual activated, a storm that ripped at the Astar manifesting around her. The Astar continued its attacks on her soul until a second ritual, one made from Soulroot and Dodge-vine, snapped into place. This one protected her from the attacks against her soul.
There was a momentary pause in the fight as the Astar considered its next action. It continued to deflect her arrows with ease before teleporting to her again. With Fight or Flight gone, Zalia didn’t react in time, her sword appearing in her hand just as a strike hit perfectly between armour plates and took her arm off at the elbow. She let out a pained scream but had to ignore it as she caught the arm, activated Protection of the Wilds and pressed the arm back against the stump. The burst of healing allowed it to knit itself back on, the shield from Protection of the Wilds blocking the two strikes that followed the first.
The ability was enhanced with Zephyr, further fueling the storm whipping around her that tore at the Astar. It had burns and cuts across its body and wasn’t looking great considering the difference of rank in the fight.
Things turned in Zalia’s favour even further when the shield broke under the Astar’s onslaught. A bright flash of light struck the Astar, blasting a small hole through its lower abdomen.
At that moment, Zalia saw shock on the Astar’s face. It obviously hadn’t expected her to put up this much of a fight, let alone injure it substantially.
Zalia prepared herself for it to attack again but the Astar simply vanished.
She looked around wildly, expecting it to have gone behind her to attack, yet it wasn’t there. Her heart beat as she spun around again, expecting a surprise attack at any moment. A headache built and she realised that she was running out of mana. She had to drop both other rituals, only able to maintain flight due to it no longer requiring mana.
Still worried about where the Astar had gone but not planning to stick around for it to come back with more of its kind, she continued her flight towards the capital as quickly as she could. Concern came down the bond between herself and Ember so she sent a comforting wave back, a sign that she was alright. Ember would have felt the pain and stress that she had experienced during the fight.
She was looking over her shoulder the rest of the flight there, feeling paranoid without someone to watch her back. This was the second time a Gold rank Astar had shown up near the city and she had a feeling that it was a trend that would continue. She would have to get the portals between the cities working sooner rather than later.
When she arrived at the city, four guards met her in the sky this time. It appeared they had increased their security.
They allowed her through and she went straight to the keep.
A guard there showed her to Faian’s room upon arrival and Zalia stepped in, thanking him for his help.
“Zalia, you’re here again already.”
It was a statement, not a question. Zalia came to the capital very rarely.
“To grace you with my chaotic presence, of course,” Zalia replied somewhat sarcastically, taking a seat.
Faian tensed and Zalia held her hands up.
“No, I didn’t do anything or start anything. I did get attacked by that Gold rank Astar on the way here though.”
Faian relaxed.
“Did you…?”
“No, didn’t manage to kill it. The Astar kind of ran away.”
Faian arched an eyebrow.
“You made a Gold rank Astar run away.”
Zalia shrugged.
“Their magic is strong, their auras even more so, but if you have a good way to counter both of those things then they are quite weak, physically. Even the ones that are trained with weapons aren’t particularly strong.”
Zalia had to ignore the slight ache in her elbow, well aware that the fight could have gone very, very differently for her. One wrong move would have been death for her, where the Astar had much more room for error.
“I see. And why are you here so soon, might I ask?”
Zalia rubbed at her elbow.
“Ah, right. Yeah, Indis has completely refused to help so I have had to make a revision in the plan. I think I’m going to have to annoy the Astar that controls Hidey into fighting me. Kind of um, play with its ego and insult it so much that it has to.”
Faian put her face in her hands, voice muffled through them.
“Zalia, that is a terrible plan. Not to mention dangerous.”
Zalia tapped the desk between them.
“It’s not as bad as you might think. From my experience, the Astar are quite sure of their own abilities and have paid for that mistake more than a few times. A group of them attacked me and the large number of Silver rank people I freed and paid horribly for that, the two Astar that captured me played with me instead of just killing me outright, paying for it when Hildebrandt arrived. Now this Gold rank Astar wasn’t able to kill me because I don’t think it expected me to fight back as well as I did. If it had gone all out to start with, it might have actually got me. Instead, it wanted to play with its food and its food kicked it in the mouth. Not that they have mouths.”
Faian looked back up.
“Alright, I see your point but why do you think this will mean insulting the Astar is going to draw it out?”
Zalia locked eyes with her.
“Because, if I insult this overconfident asshole, they are going to want me dead more than they already do.”