Eos’s fugue state ended after another week. During this time, her parents shot down her instance of learning magic repeatedly. She hadn’t left her house again during this time, devoting herself to reading and exploring her newly found memories. She learned in her past life she- or he- was a math student. But she couldn’t apply it, she didn’t know applications- and, most importantly to her, she didn’t know magic. And all the reading she didn’t reveal a path to turn math into magic.
One afternoon, she decided to go play with Cedric, Saer, and Aderyn. When She left her house, she spotted them playing in the town center. It looked like Cedric and Saer were sword fighting, while Aderyn watched. It took Eos a while, but she eventually reached the town center where the others were still playing. Aderyn sat off to the side, and Eos decided to sit with her.
As Eos sat down, Aderyn turned to her and her face displayed a range of emotions in a second: surprise, regret, happiness, and ultimately landing on solemn. She hugged Eos and simply said, “Are you okay?”.
Eos gently hugged back, “Yeah I’m fine. How have you three been?”
“We’ve been fine. It’s been weird without you. Our parents have been really odd.”
“Weird? What do you mean?”
“Aderyn, it’s time to go!” Saer said. He and Cedric finally noticed Eos after their most recent bout.
Eos turned to Saer, “But it’s midday?”
“Ah, sorry Eos…” Saer said, itching his head, “But we really have to go.”
Eos turned towards Aderyn, who was looking towards the ground now. “See you tomorrow?” Eos said, which Aderyn met with a simple mutter. Aderyn got up from her seat and walked away from Eos and Cedric without turning back.
“What was that?” Eos asked, facing Cedric.
“Ah, well… uh…” Cedric said, contemplating, “There are rumors going ‘round and stuff ya know?”
“Rumors?” Eos asked.
“They’re not important. Just their parents don’t want them being ‘round you. To be fair,” Cedric looked away from Eos, “Nobody really wants to be ‘round you or your family right now.”
“Wait what? What happened?”
“Err…” Cedric said, “I don’t believe what they say, I think y’alls have been nothing but nice.”
“What do they say?” Eos said, exasperated.
“Well…” Cedric says, “It’s just that well… and like demons… with your eyes… and Saer and Aderyn… in the forest and…”
“What do you mean?”
“Just don’t remember anything,” Cedric says, “And the town’s been fearful with elves and demons and others- that’s all.”
“What about your parents?” Eos asked, looking down at the ground and feeling guilty for no explainable reason.
“They told me the same thing,” He said, “I shouldn’t be around ya.”
“Why are you then?”
“‘Cause your nice, and it just aint fair.”
“I wonder why…” Eos began to muse, looking up.
What she saw when she looked up stunned her. She knew what it was- it was something that shouldn’t. Miles out, from atop the small knoll the village sat, she saw on another of the rolling hills in the plains, a horrifying sight. The sunlit hills abruptly ended about 100 miles away from the village- black clouds were rolling in, with black, dead land below them. Between the two, a black, dead, unmoving army. About 50 or so troops of cavalry on skeletal and zombified horses. Eos couldn’t make out the weapons of any individual troops, but the blackness of the land seemed to follow them.
“100 miles out or so, 40, 50 miles per hour” Eos began to speak aloud in English, “We have 2 hours.”
Cedric looked at her like she was insane, “Whatcha saying?” He said, confused.
“Sorry Cedric,” Eos said, turning around, “It looks like a.. Bad storm is incoming!” She quickly pointed to the incoming army, knowing that Cedric wouldn’t be able to see the individual cavalry members, “It looks like it’ll be here in 2 hours or so!” Eos began to sprint with childlike energy towards her house, leaving a stunned Cedric in her dust-filled wake.
2 hours, it’s going to take approximately 10 minutes at full speed to reach my house- leaving 110 minutes. 50 cavalry is about half the size of the village, we couldn’t take them two-on-one. That doesn’t include time to reach that speed, so this should be an underestimate- more accurately, we’ll probably have 120 minutes at most when I reach my house. We can’t outrun the horses, and the whole town can’t hide.
She was breathless by the time she reached her house, and rushed in to find her parents only mildly less panicked than her. She still tried to explain regardless of her ability to breathe or the state of her parents. “Dark storm is coming… With dead horses… and dead people…”
Moore instantly shot up, “How close are they?”
“About two hours.”
Thea looked at Moore, “When will he be here? He should be here by now!”
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“I don't know!” He responded, frantic, “We need to get them out asap.”
Eos looked out towards the village and saw a covered wagon led by two brown-and-white spotted horses entering the town square, entering the opposite way the dark storm is coming in from.
“He’s here!” Eos shouted, her parents again stunned, “Meddyg is here!”
A wide range of emotions ran across her parent’s faces, from confusion, shock, and realization before resting upon the emotion before Eos said a word, panic.
“Let's go!” Moore said, grabbing a handful of things around him. With their arms full, Eos’s parents ushered her out of the house, and they all began to run back toward the town square. By the time they reached the town square, the cavalry had already moved half the distance to the town, far outpacing the gloom.
They’re moving way too fast, Eos thought, This speed is impossible! Especially for such a distance- Are we all dead?
There were villagers murmuring about- the arrival of Meddyg caused quite a stir, along with the storm that was seemingly approaching. Meddyg had in his wagon a dozen or so children, sitting loosely in the back.
“Moore!” Meddyg shouted upon seeing him, “Can you tell the villagers I’m here not to kidnap them?”
All the villagers' heads turned towards Moore, and the mobbing around his wagon seemed to die down only temporarily. Moore addressed the crowd solemnly, “I’m sure you’ve heard the news, and it’s, unfortunately, our turn to become the news. That storm,” He said gesturing to the oncoming darkness, “is no natural storm. The riders of the storm are already on their way, and we must defend against them. However, this is our fight- not our children's fight. As such, I’ve asked my good friend Meddyg here to take the children away, and come bring them back when we’re done with our task.”
The silence in the crowd was deafening, but Moore continued, turning directly towards Eos. “Eos, go with Meddyg. He’ll keep you safe- I promise. It’ll only be a week or two, and then everything will be alright again, okay?”
Eos knew he was lying. She felt it in her core that, whatever happened, it would not end the same way it started. But she also knew what she had to do, and hugged Moore tightly, before walking into the crowd of people, parting as she clambered into Meddyg’s wagon. She slipped on the wagon step, but was caught by a callous hand. Turning back, she saw that Saer’s mother had caught her, before she assisted Eos in clambering into the wagon. The tense air said everything that needed to be said, and only after a few moments, Saer and Aderyn were waving their parents goodbye from the wagon as well.
All of the townsfolk were preparing: Barricades thrown up, weapons passed around, formations planned. There was no animosity between anyone anymore, everyone knew what needed to be done. A storm was approaching, and this was no time for calm.
The wagon parted from the crowd, and Eos saw that once they were out of earshot, the town seemed to move rapidly, preparing for what would be. But, only a few moments later, Aderyn said something aloud, softly.
“Where is Cedric?”
Eos paused, all of the blood draining from her. She turned back, and began to look through towards the villagers, but was interrupted by Saer.
“Where is Cedric?!” He shouted, causing every child to stir uncomfortably.
Meddyg responded quickly, “Where’s his house?”
“Left, half a mile,” Eos responded instantly, turning that way. She hadn’t even thought to look at where his house would be. However, what she saw was the worst instead- the cavalry had arrived. And they had a flank position, directly from the left of them.
“Dammit,” Meddyg said, “We can’t go that way. We have to bail, now.”
“But Cedric!” Saer yelled, the tension rising in the kids.
“Look!” Meddyg said, “They’re already at his house- they move too fast. If we delay any longer, they’ll be at our throats too.”
It was when that last word was finished, with every kid looking at Cedric’s house, its door burst open. Cedric’s father with a finely crafted sword and shield, with Cedric behind him, as the Cavalry were only seconds away at their current pace- three to four times faster than what Eos thought possible.
The cavalry quickly descended on Cedric’s father, and Cedric tried to rip away as soon as he could. Two cavalry members peeled off from the flank to attack Cedric’s father, as the rest headed toward the village center. The two cavalry members quickly struck at Cedric’s father from opposite sides, one glaive bouncing off of his shield and the other being parried behind his back. In one smooth motion, as if the parry never made contact, Cedric’s father cleanly swiped at the leg of the horse in front of him. As quick as it was moving, the horse slid on the ground a few dozen meters, black ooze and tar leaving a trail of where it made contact with the ground. Its rider had its leg pinned underneath the horse, and Eos got her first good look at whatever it was.
She could easily make out the bones beneath wherever the skin was- and directly see the yellowed bone wherever it wasn’t, as its head only partially had flesh on it, hanging loosely wherever it was. It had eyes, with yellowed whites and blood-red pupils, and its hair was surprisingly well taken care of for the rest of its face.
With the fallen rider, Cedric’s father turned towards the last cavalry. It was now two hundred paces away and charged directly at Cedric’s father. Eos saw the world slow, the rider barely moving, and Cedric’s father unmoving. In front of the cavalry, a green outline of it began to move forward, and the outline rushed forwards, before slamming into the shield of Cedric's father- or seemingly doing so, but Cedric’s father didn’t move. Instead, his own green outline appeared, and reacted to the glaive slamming into- and through- his shield, swinging its own sword into the body of the rider.
Eos paused, and suddenly the world became full speed again. The cavalry rushed forward at Cedric’s father, and the scene played out the same as in the green lines- the rider’s glaive pierced through Cedric’s father's shield, cutting into him, but he retaliated by throwing his body further towards the rider, his sword cutting halfway into the rider.
The rider simply threw his glaive down onto the ground, with Cedric’s father falling with it. Meddyg had slowed the wagon down, and Cedric was rapidly approaching it. But the rider began to ride towards the fleeing Cedric- however, before Cedric was reached, the rider slumped on his horse, and Eos noticed the flesh of the rider around the sword embedded in their stomach was bubbling and fizzing in black, necrotic ooze.
“Cedric!” Saer shouted, “Just keep running!” Saer reached out a hand, and Cedric was only a dozen meters away.
Solid black lashes leaped out of nowhere, cutting Cedric down just as his hand was about to grasp Saer’s. The black ropes pinned the unmoving Cedric under them, seeming to warp reality around them- everything was desaturated around them, and fuzzy. However, the sharp, unseeable void of the lashes was clearly defined, even as Cedric became less and less. Eos saw the origin of the magic: Black light softly radiated from the pinned-down rider.
Meddyg’s wagon suddenly began to speed up, as soon as Cedric seemed to be unable to be saved. There was a second lash of black magic that sped towards the wagon but narrowly missed it due to the ever-increasing speed of the wagon. Soon, the speed of the wagon took the village and raiders out of eyesight, but Eos could still see the village, and she saw the rider who was once pinned down now standing over the body of Cedric.
The atmosphere in the wagon was still tense by the time they had exited Eos’s eyesight of the village, and not a single word had been said. We’ll reach the Capital soon. A few days at most. Eos thought, the visage burnt into her mind, and more questions than ever before.