----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------Breathe
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------All these attacks meant nothing
-----------------Breathe
------------You knew it would not make a difference
------------------------------------------You were just desperate to feel in control
-----------Breathe----------This is how you die------------------------------------------
----------------------------------This is how you die-----------------------------------This is how you die
-------------------------------------------------------This is how you die
--------Breathe
-This is how you die-------------------------------------This is how you die
-------------------------------------THIS IS HOW YOU DIE
------------LEFT AND MARKED FOR DEATH BY A WITCH
---------Breathe
----------------------------------------------------------------------------There is nothing you can do
-When you are overtaken
----by an overwhelming enemy----------------------------There is nothing you can do
------follow your training
-----------------Breathe
-------------If you cannot advance, fall back on the familiar
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------You are nothing
--------Breathe---------------------------------------------------------------NOTHING
------------------Breathe---------------------------------------NOTHING
--------If you cannot trust yourself
-----reduce your actions
-------------to established patterns
---------------------------------Breathe------------------------------------------------------------This is
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------what you
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------deserve
---------------------Do, what you know to do
-------------------------------------Breathe
------------------------Do, what you have always done
----------------------------Breathe
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Why
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------bother?
One, center yourself.
What do you see?
------------------------------You are going blind
Yves stood in a crater. It was one of many strewn across the landscape. It stretched about 80 to 100 metres in diameter. It was roughly 20 metres deep. He had never seen the craters before. He could only assume that they were the aftermath of something that happened after he last ventured to the lighthouse.
--------All of this not to go blind
------------and now you die anyway
The Vicha was approaching him with recognisable intent and increasing speed, four to five kilometres away.
---------------------------------You could have lived with honour
--------------------------------------------Your life could have had value
---------What do you feel?-------Fear
-Fear--------------------------Fear----------------Fear------
-------------------------Fear
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Yves shivered violently. From exhaustion. From the cold. He was not injured. He drew energy from his ring to recover.
He felt sick. He was fine.---------Fear
-Fear--------------Regret-------Fear
Midnight would be all right.----Regret
-Fear-------Regret-------Shame------------------------------------Fear
--------------------Fear------------------------Fear
---Fear
Two, secure yourself.
-Fear-------Regret-------Shame-----------------------------------------------Fear-----------------------------
--------------------Fear-----------------------Fear
Yves forced himself to take a deep breath and unclench his arms from his chest. He started to build. In the heart of the crater, he constructed a shelter against the storm. He erected a rudimentary shard roof overhead and a protective semi-circle around him.------Fear
-----------------------------------------------------------------A pointless death
-----------------------------------------------------------in a hole in the ground. Alone.
--------------------Fear
Three, assess your resources.
The Heartwood Staff lay where the shard dome had dissipated. Yves had held onto it when first caught by the tendrils. He did not have the travel chest, which had dropped on the spot the moment he had lost control over the staff.---------------------------------Fear
Yves unslung the Bow of Light and shed its harness, the cold punctuating every movement. Drenched as he was, his backpack had reduced the flow of water by pressing his clothes firmly against his back. Now, removing it, frozen fabric and water shifted freely over his skin. His body could not stop shivering – Center yourself. Reduce your thoughts. Focus on your actions.------------------Fear
--------------------------------Fear
----------Fear-----------------------------------------------------------Fear
* Check the backpack for acid damage. --Just what
- -------------------------------------------------------------------are you doing?
* Put down the backpack.
* Feel all chains and rings: energy and warding, Number Abyx, witch tear, shard bearer, string of marbles, timegiver.
--------------------------------------------------TThis is what you life amounted to
* Feel Mir’s bracelet.-----------------Ridiculous trinkets
* Feel all pockets: wand, daggers, potions, messenger strings, heartstrings, folded hat, artefact gloves, notebook, quill, map, dice, feathers.
* Let go of the feathers.-------------------------No-one lived to tell the tale of how to survive a Vicha
-------------------------------------------------------let alone such a monstrostity
* Stop shaking.-------------------What makes you so special?
* Let go of the feathers.
* Do not look at it.
---------------------It's speeding up
* Let go of the feathers. ------Nothing
------------------------------------------------can save you
* Center yourself.
* LET GO OF THE FEATHERS.
Fuck this. Yves skipped ahead. He knew exactly what he had on him.
Four, assess your knowledge on your enemy.
----------The Vicha is not just
------made to kill you
Common belief held that Vichae existed beyond the laws of nature and wizardry — they were a manifestation of witch energy forged into a relentless, vengeful entity. They passed through lifeless matter and even traversed natural life such as trees and plants, yet they devoured higher life forms. Magical attacks had no effect on them, yet they were capable of consuming energy.
---------------------------------It is vengeance made curse. It will end you slowly
---------------------and in the most excruciating way possible
Severing the marked body part did not sever the curse. Yves believed that the curse mark served as an entry point, a conduit for the witch to infuse the wizard with a fragment of the Vicha. Once the wizard and Vicha fragment were devoured, the entire entity dispersed.
The aftermath lingered. Even after the Vicha’s disappearance, distorted energies tainted the capture site, leaving a sinister imprint on the surroundings. No light fragments settled there, and approaching it induced an unsettling feeling, a warning that you were trespassing into a site marked by the dark arts of witches.
-------------------------------------You have seen Mir die from a Vicha
----------------------------------------It will be torture
----------------------------------------------------It will be so much worse than the elf
-----It does not have to be
Five, let go of the feathers.
Six, affirm your assessment.
---------------You cannot wager what is already marked by death
Never wager your life on hearsay or blind belief. Appearances, experiences, and expectations were treacherous masters. Lessons etched by battles against witches ingrained this truth: Things were not always what they seemed, not always what they once were, not always all they should be.
Initiating his offensive investigation, Yves unleashed the Bow of Light on the Vicha. You would think that a target of such colossal proportions could not be missed — especially considering the ethereal arrows were impervious to the storm and capable to traverse hundreds of meters with ease — but Yves fell short two times and then his hands shook so badly that he did not dare try again. Well, this at least confirmed that it took more than sudden willpower to turn yourself into a master archer, or even to fling an arrow at a mountain, apparently.
------------------------------------You are too weak to laugh in the face of death
-----------------------You are too pathetic to brush off your failure like this
With the Lightgiver Wand depleted, Yves still depended on the arrows. He conjured another, now harnessing its light. His pure light magic was subpar, but sufficient to send a singular beam flying. The light traversed the Vicha without impact. It was followed by various shard projectiles, crafted with different ratios of infused light and shard density. Yves’ assessment culminated in the formation of physical illusions; six walls, diverse in densities and materials, directly opposing the throbbing mountain.
Regardless of what he threw at the Vicha, Yves perceived the energy dissipating upon contact, which meant that the Vicha absorbed it — though not entirely, but in nuances that affirmed the purer and less materialised the energy, the less is was consumed.
What lingered unconfirmed was whether the Vicha absorbed free world energies. Amidst the storm, Yves could not tell. The energies of the Northlands appeared too disrupted from the storm and too sparce compared to the overwhelming presence of the Vicha. However, Yves had never witnessed such ability in the initial days following its conjuration. No, a Vicha could not sustain itself by drawing energy from its surroundings, otherwise it would never expire.
Seven, draw conclusions.
----------It will torture you to death
Yves’ competence as an illusionist hinged on his capacity to imagine and orchestrate multiple complex conjurations simultaneously, all the while adapting to spontaneous shifts in the illusions’ surroundings. He needed to react with a moment’s notice to the unexpected, he needed to foresee even the unrealistic and absurd. As a duellist, his survival stemmed from his versatility, and as a novice, he had prevailed for years by rapidly grasping and applying new concepts. All of this, fuelled by the dread of imminent death, directed his analytical abilities. What would take minutes to articulate had already crystallised within his mind the moment the last shard met the Vicha.
------Nothing in this world will save you
I know.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------