Aeirt sees Sera clear the fog just forty feet in front of him. He lowers his bow immediately, and Sheo beside him raises his sword, but Aeirt puts his left arm out to stop him.
“That’s my daughter, Sheo!” He yells at the the man besides him, and turns to face his daughter, and holds out his free arm to her. “Sera! Come here! We can-”
"I know that, but..." Sheo points towards the girl running towards them.
Aeirt swallows heavily when he realizes what Sheo had probably seen first. Sera is grown, it doesn't take a genius to spot the way her chest bounces underneath her cloth shirt from this distance, nor does it take one to spot her definitively more lean form compared to before, she's taller too, but that’s not what catches Aeirt's eye first, even if it is what caught Sheo's. The front of her clothes are spattered with blood, and her sword arm also has a fair amount on it.
Her sword arm, as in Sera has a sword covered in blood in her hands as she makes her way down to Aeirt. He briefly starts to wonder if maybe she’d managed to escape her captors, but logic takes over the moment he remembers that the bastard that kidnapped her wasn’t one of these bandits, but that priest. Aeirt wonders if that really is Sera, but that is replaced by the fear that she must be running from that undead monster.
“Dad!” Sera steps down onto the more even terrain, and picks up speed as she does. “Dad I have to introduce you to-”
Aeirt stops listening when something else exits the fog, that white skeleton, with its arms also covered in blood. He instinctively draws and looses an arrow at the monster, but misses as some sort of purple force deflects it away from its target. Aeirt draws another arrow when Sera shouts again.
“Dad! Don’t shoot him!” He turns to that moronic request, and sees that Sera is… smiling. Sheo looks at him from the side, and steps up further, to stand between Aeirt and the undead. “Dad, he’s-”
“Sera! What are you doing!?” Aeirt hears the shouted question from somewhere behind Sera, from a voice that sounds entirely unnatural, with flat enunciation and the only emotions in it conveyed by volume and phrasing. He connects the fact that the voice seems to be moving closer with the monster bearing down on them, and his eyes go wide when he realizes what that must mean.
“Sera! You… You’re… You’re... Run to me! I won't let that bastard get you! But what’s going on?” He shouts at her, though given that she’s now slowing to a stop about twenty feet in front of him, he probably doesn’t need to anymore.
“Sera, there’s still at least ten of them left, we don’t have time to-” The skeleton starts, but is interrupted by Sheo charging towards it, ignoring Sera. Aeirt still doesn’t know exactly what’s going on, and fires his next shot at the monster to aid Sheo.
A mistake, it turns out. The moment Sheo passes by Sera, sword drawn, moving towards the path of the skeleton, Sera brings her sword around his midsection, and drags it up along his side. Once freed from his stomach and side, she steps forward, and lands a diagonal slash on Sheo’s falling head, cleaving through his neck with far, far more ease than Sera’s visible musculature should allow. Aeirt’s eyes go wide as he registers what just happened.
“SHEO! Sera! What… Why!? Why did you kill-”
“He was pointing a sword at my Vey…” That tone, that same damn tone Aeirt remembers her using what feels like eons ago now, when she was a kid. That mix of shame, childlike innocence, and a complete lack of responsibility. Aeirt shivers as that tone vanishes, stunned into silence, as her childlike voice is replaced by one of absolute confidence when she continues. “He deserved it.”
“Sera. We should be leaving, there’s still more of them, and I don’t think I can protect you while fighting them all off. I only have 10 mp left.” The skeleton had managed to approach his daughter while Aeirt was distracted, and now rests one of its bloodied hands on Sera’s shoulder.
“I’ve been doing fine though! Even without a class, I can fight! Plus I want to talk to dad!” Sera’s voice is different from both times before, and only now does Aeirt register that look in her eyes and face. Her ears twitched happily when the skeleton put its hand on her, and twitched again when she exclaimed that she’d ‘been doing fine’, when apparently what she’d been doing was killing her and Aeirt’s fellows. He swallows as he realizes that at least four or five people must have died at her hand by now to produce the amount of blood on her, and that look of deranged madness in her eyes confirms this for him.
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“Sera! Don’t listen to that monster, come here! We can-” The words choke his throat as she turns her gaze towards him, with that vacant stare that seems to look through him rather than at him.
“Why is he a monster, dad? He’s my bondmate!” Sera plays with the grip on her bloodied sword as she says the word ‘bondmate’. As in… Pactbond?
“What have you done, Sera! The priests… they’ll lock you away for that… You won’t ever be-”
“No one will be taking her from me.” The skeleton extends an arm in front of Sera defensively, a gesture Aeirt knows he himself has used when defending his own wife’s actions. Ah… So that’s how it is… My daughter has been somehow seduced by an undead… First I lose Endri... Now this...
The melancholic thoughts are enough to kick him into fighting gear again. He knocks another arrow as he takes a leap backwards, and fires it immediately as he lands, though the skeleton doesn’t even seem phased by the shot, just allowing it to bounce harmlessly off that barrier of purple energy. Aeirt reaches for his quiver for another arrow, but stops as he sees Sera move to stand in front of the skeleton protectively.
“Don’t shoot him!” Sera shouts, almost begging, and Aeirt pauses for a moment. Long enough to spot a dozen corpses in various conditions littering the hill now that the fog has lifted, as well as several of the militia in various states of panic, concern for their downed comrades, and blind rage. Two are bearing down on the pair of Sera and the skeleton, and Aeirt wants to shout for them not to attack his daughter, but doesn’t find the words or strength to do anything at all.
“Sera, there are still more of them. Let me handle your father, you should run to-” The skeleton starts, but as always, Aeirt’s beloved daughter doesn’t let it finish.
“No! You go deal with them, I’ll talk to dad!” Sera demands while starting towards Aeirt with purpose in her step. He finds the strength to try and back away very, very slowly, not nearly fast enough to outpace his smiling daughter. The skeleton is forgotten as she gets within ten feet of him, and holds out her arms for an embrace as she approaches. Something Aeirt shivers at, because she hasn’t let go of the sword that killed Sheo. “Dad… I’m so glad I got to see you again… So much happened, it was bad at first… but now I have Vey! And I’m going to get a class soon, and… Where’s mom? Is she ok?”
Aeirt doesn’t manage to say anything to her, only managing to drop his bow and stare. That look in her eyes, a look he’s only ever seen on truly broken men, like the soldiers who come back missing arms and legs, or with stories of terrible victory. And yet such a distant and cold look is juxtaposed by a warm, somewhat insane smile. The cute child he’d raised, a young girl who showed all the signs of being a peerless beauty if given time to grow into it, and this Sera, with the same beautiful face, only with a spatter of blood on her cheek and a look fit for a serial murderer, the two ideas seem impossible to reconcile for Aeirt. Especially combined with the questions she’d asked, the tears reach his eyes instantly, and he accepts the embrace without a hint of resistance.
“Endri… is… The bandits took her… One of the first to go… I’ve known she’s gone… But I came here to root out the…” Aeirt barely manages to choke out the words as his dau-as Sera squeezes him far too tightly for comfort.
“I see… Don’t worry father… The bandits are gone, Vey and I killed them. There’s nothing for you to worry about.” Sera says as she squeezes tighter around Aeirt, and he tries to throw her off to stop himself from being crushed. He presses a hand into her stomach, and the other on her side, and pushes, which only succeeds in ending the embrace, without moving Sera any further away from him. “Dad? Why? Aren’t you happy to see me? I’m alive, aren’t I? And I’m happy too! Vey and I are going to have a very nice life down-”
“Sera… Would you listen to yourself! You’re insane! What did that monster do to you! What… What happened to you!?” The shouts escape his mouth before he can stop them, and his eyes drift to Sera’s tightening grip on her sword.
“He’s not a monster. He’s mine. And I’m perfectly fine, there’s nothing wrong with me.” Sera takes a step back, and Aeirt does as well, and finally focuses back on the battle on the side of the hill. The end of the battle, actually, as the only thing Aeirt can make out is that the skeleton is the only one standing, walking back down towards him and Sera. “See? Vey can keep me safe, and he loves me. I love him too, we’re true partners, just like the priests always said bondmates were. Dad, I know you think what happened to me when I was taken was horrible, and it was! That sort of stuff probably happened to mom as well, but it's ok, because I’m safe now. I’m happy, now.”
“You… You’re a monster… My daughter is…You… Skeleton! I’ll fucking-”
--
Vey stops walking forward as he sees the man’s head tumble through the air before hitting the ground next to Sera, and the knife he’d drawn as he’d shouted slips out of his hands. Sera turns, smiling, and runs up to Vey, throwing her arms around him and rubbing her face into his ribs.
“Vey! I did it! I’m useful to you! I can fight! I…” Sera’s voice trails off, her eyes nodding away in the same way Vey had seen them do when he cast [Sleep] on her yesterday, and he catches her in his arms as she starts falling. It’s only as she lets herself be held that the sword falls out of her grip, and Vey looks down at the beginnings of tears in the sides of her eyes. “Now… I’m yours… There’s nothing…”
Vey picks her up as she finally falls unconscious. He inspects her for injuries, but finds nothing beyond a scratch on her arm, probably a minor spear wound, not serious. So that’s not why she fainted. The answer, Vey knows, is shock, and he finishes her thought for her. Nothing to hold you back, I know.
--
Skill Gained: Butcher
Title Earned: Aegis
Skill Earned From Title(Aegis): Guardian
Your skills Butcher and Elven Dexterity have produced a unique skill: Appendage Crusher, replacing Butcher
Your skill Guardian, alignment(Evil), and blessing [Error] have produced a unique magical effect, Foreverqueen's Shroud, replacing Guardian
Encounter Ended! You have leveled up!
After your most recent encounter, you are now ready to level up a class of your choosing!
Congratulations Sera!
You have leveled up, your available class options are: Barbarian(BRB), Bard(BRD), Fighter(FTR), Hexblade(HEX), Rogue(ROG), Ranger(RGR), Spellblade(SPB). Some of your options have been overwritten by statuses: Non-Chaotic, Evil, Str<14, Int<13. You have (3) level ups available. Would you like to level up?