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Inside the monster’s mouth, the light gathered into a sphere. Blinding beams escaped between its teeth and dotted Anna’s golden armor as she rushed in, skidding on her knees to shield Julien. She thought of hoisting him over her shoulder and making distance from the threat, but the uradrak drew its head back, having reached the extent of its magical charge. She instead braced herself, her arm locked in place to hold her shield steady. The monster widened the gape of its jaws the more the sphere grew, and soon the light enveloped everything. Even when she closed her eyes, Anna saw only the blinding whiteness, thought only to pray.
Ardren, protect us.
The monster channeled the sphere it amassed into a singular beam. Suppressing none of its might, it unleashed the full explosive force of energy on Anna’s shield. The blast whistled in her ears like the winds of a blizzard. As it continued, it became more muffled, though the impossible force persisted.
Wrapped in a white silence, she endured not only the massive impact, but the unfettered emotion that tinged all magic, the inklings of the soul that seeped in. Her shield knew well the dreams and woes of man and monster, but never like this. The sheer draconic rage, Julien’s fear, hope, and despair, all culminated into the weight of what felt like a mountain bearing down on her. She thought it might shatter every bone in her body, crumble them to dust. Yet still, she endured.
Soon it was over, no more crushing weight, no more blinding light. Only darkness through squeezed-shut eyelids, and the fleeting notion that Elyn had passed her candle on. But the dead had no such things as a pulse pounding in their ears, nor breath heaving in their chests. Nor did Lusmir’s domain know the hair-raising chill of a nighttime breeze. The ringing in her ears abated, and she picked up another sound: panting.
The beast had weakened itself, spent all of its energy. Likely it had thought the blast enough to kill its threats – a fair gamble, as this was nearly the case. Head hanging and limbs bowed, intent on wringing what drops of stamina remained from its own ragged form, the uradrak began to wobble and sway toward her.
Anna was weak, weaker than the monster. Her arms fell limp, and she could not find the strength to lift her weapon, nor to pick herself up from the ground. Her shield propped itself against her shoulder, mace rolling out of her slackened grip. She strained with all her might, but her muscles cried out, cramping, begging her not to move. The uradrak inched closer every second, its heavy steps rattling the earth.
With a glance over her shoulder, Anna found a helpless Julien lying in the dirt. A sudden rush of adrenaline coursed through her as shadows of demon wings began to dance along the ground. Amidst the grotesque cacophony of laughter and twisted hymns taunting her, she raised her aching arms and cupped her hands over her ears. Julien, she kept repeating to herself, trying to keep her focus, but it was impossible to drown out the noise. Julien. Dead or alive, she needed to protect him, but…
A voice called out from above, one strident enough to frighten the horrors away.
“Don’t move, hen,” Lydie said, hands curled around a fireball much larger and more stable than the previous ones, “We’ve got this.” Her lower lip jutted as she trained her gaze on the creature’s flank. When her aim was focused, she thrust out her palm, propelling the scorching orb at her target.
Strands of fur shriveled and charred. Bubbles hissed across a patch of scalded flesh melting to vapor. Pained cries thundered through the atmosphere. The putrid smoke that resulted prickled across Lydie’s tongue. She grimaced, cupping her mouth and nose. Well, that smells bloody awful.
With her free hand, she waved behind her back, and Tatsidi vaulted over her. He landed on the ground, feet sturdy as he stood face-to-face with the beast. As he caught his breath, he whipped his tail, staring the uradrak in its eyes – they were fading. Finally. He then sprung onto all fours, circling around the beast to distract it. And as he coaxed the creature into facing just the right direction, Anna beheld the raw, drooping flesh of its side, a grimace shrinking her face while Lydie waved a signal across the way.
A bolt whizzed past Anna’s head, narrowly missing her ear. It embedded itself in the beast’s side, penetrating the patch of raw flesh. The uradrak stopped in its tracks with a heavy blink, roared, and turned its face to Anna. A new fervency burned in its gaze. The poison took hold instantly, but death did not – not before the monster could claim a partner in its demise. With its last flare of willpower, it lifted itself onto its hind legs, preparing to lunge.
Anna, against the limits of her body’s diminished strength, propped up her knees, twisted her torso, and rolled over to take hold of Julien’s sword. It took all her effort to keep her arm straight against her quaking muscles, but she took advantage of the creature’s weight and momentum to drive the blade between its ribs. One final twist of her torso gave her the grace to roll to safety, causing her to wrench the soaked blade from the collapsing body. Blood spattered across her face and in her hair.
She lay there, staring the fallen beast in the face. Even now, something kept it from closing its eyes. She offered it a face to look upon in its final moments, for whatever purpose it wanted one. Its fading gaze burrowed into her soul as its own began to drift from its once fearsome body. A low, somber voice resounded in her head.
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Lord Maestus, I am bested.
As its eyes closed for the very last time, blue rays shimmered around its body. Anna watched them beam, then fade to wisps of dust. She repeated,
“Maestus…?” As she palpated her head for bumps, in front of her face appeared Deventh’s outstretched hand. A kind gesture from friend to friend, as always; one that the burden of her size and armor made futile, of course, but kind nonetheless. After twisting her ring to unsummon her armor, she waved him away and wobbled to her feet on her own.
“Maestus?” Deventh asked.
“Yes. It said something sounding like that, I think – you didn’t hear it?”
Deventh shook his head.
“Never mind, then. I may have been hearing things. Even if I wasn’t, there are more important matters.” She plodded over to Julien and crumpled to her knees at his side. As she watched his shallow breaths tousle the hairs above his lip, she doubled over with a sharp exhale, relief overwhelming her body with convulsive jolts somewhere between laughter and sobbing. Of course he wasn’t dead; he had no reason to be.
For the sake of giving Julien the attention he needed, Anna pulled herself together. A soft, golden glow radiated from her hands as she grasped his arm. He was stable, more afflicted by exhaustion than his wounds. A bit overzealous – much like herself at his age – but expending magic to his limits would become far less sustainable over time. As she focused on healing him, the fading demon chants still clung to the edge of her mind, persevering until they fizzled out completely. The terrors often came and went in the same manner, under the right circumstances.
She caught Deventh watching her from afar, hands in his pockets, somehow emanating a sympathetic cognizance even through that damned mask. By then, Julien was healed enough to seal his wounds against any further blood loss, but for the sake of conserving her energy, she would leave the rest to Ardmy.
“You lost it?” shouted Tatsidi, shattering all manner of somberness between the two leaders. “After all your bellowing and pleading, you lost it?”
“No, I didn’t lose it,” Lydie said, biting the tip of her tongue as she hung from her boulder perch by one hand. She let go and landed flat on her feet with a slight bounce. “I dropped it. Left it at the ugly bastard’s nest, probably. We can go back and look now that it’s dead.”
“Fine. But if we run into another one of those things, I hope you are prepared to die this time.”
“Rather be dead then listen to you gabbin’ about how I always fuck everything up.” Cocking her chin in the direction of Deventh and Anna, she curled a hand against her hip. “You two need us for anything, or can we go back and look for the whinge-master’s bow?”
“There are muscles cramping in my lower back that I didn’t even know I had,” said Anna, “But I believe Deventh and I can handle Julien. Go, it’s best not to be short on weapons if you can recover it.”
The group parted ways. Anna and Deventh headed back to camp with Julien in tow, Lydie and Tatsidi to the uradrak nest. Along the way, Lydie crouched mid-step from time to time and bounced back up with an item or two she’d dropped during the chase. Each occurrence made Tatsidi’s eyes ever narrower, stretching his patience thin with the anticipation of turning up empty-handed. When they came upon the nest, however, a moonbeam lustered upon the mislaid bow as if putting it on display for its long-lost owner. Lydie’s gait changed suddenly, arms swinging and a spring in her step. Tatsidi held out his arm in front of her chest to cut her off, picking up the bow himself.
“You will not be handling this anymore,” he said, “no matter how much you beg for pity next time.”
“Fine. I caught us all dinner with the bloody thing, but you can starve if—what’s that?” Lydie spotted something in the center of the nest, a faint shimmer among the shadows. Tatsidi caught sight of it as well, but he was rather content to leave with his life and his bow. Reluctant as he was to stay any longer, Lydie gave him no warning before she began sloughing through the leaves and interwoven twigs.
“A-ha, and on top of no roasted peasant, you won’t get to share the gold from sellin’ this beauty,” she teased, holding up what appeared to be a necklace.
“Pheasant.”
“What?”
“Roasted pheasant. Unless you have managed to stuff a hapless old man into your pack. No longer would something so outlandish surprise me. You should put that necklace back – Oenar only knows what sort of curse it bears.”
“Really?” Lydie hopped out of the nest, clutching the necklace in her palm. “Ya got your bow back, and I just found this, and you’re standin’ there correcting me? Lecturing me about curses? What do you care if it’s cursed? Didn’t you steal an entire jewelry box from the Oath hall?”
“One with a brain larger than a melon seed might consider that there is a whisker’s difference between locating a personal stash and finding a singular piece of jewelry, deep in the woods, with no body or clothing to accompany it.”
“That’s a lot of words. You’re just jealous ya didn’t find it first.” She dangled the necklace in front of Tatsidi’s face. A short puff of air whistled out of his nose, and his tail dropped to the ground.
“Of course. Foolish me.” As he reached out to swat the pendant away, his eyes widened. “Wait, Lydie… Does this not look familiar to you?”
“What do ya mean?” she asked, turning the pendant to face her. Sticking her tongue between her teeth, she contorted her cheek to inspect it. “S’pose it kinda looks like that one we looted off that one elf prince we—”
“No, Lydie. Much more recent than that.”
She looked closer, twirling the chain between her fingers.
“Oh, aye. Looks a bit like the one Rauleth—oh.”
“Perhaps we should bring this back to camp.”
“Should we? What if it is cursed?”
“I do not know, Lydie,” said Tatsidi after a short contemplation, the hairs on his neck standing on end. “But what we do know is that Miss Jessa was sent home with a similar item and returned empty-handed. That is all too suspicious for my liking. If it is anything like the previous, then we are safe to keep it for now. Anna and Deventh must see it.”
On their way back, they passed some patches of scorched ground and Tatsidi only then recalled Lydie hurling fireballs with ease. A sly grin spread across his face as he addressed the incident.
“So,” he said, “Do you still deny your abilities for magic?”
“Surprised no one’s killed you yet for flappin’ your stupid maw when ya haven’t got the whole story,” said Lydie. “You don’t know what my life was like before House Sorilarei.”
“Perhaps if you’d ever told me, I would.”
“There ya go again.” Lydie crouched down and bounced back up with some of her belongings that fell out of her pack during the chase. “Sometimes things hurt and ya can’t just talk about them. Y’know, I was supposed to go to a magic school, get real smart like Jessa. Problem was I couldn’t trap pixies in bubbles or pick up spoons with my mind by the time I was four like the other weans. My parents kept me locked up in my room like a prison for years, said they wouldn’t let me out until I could make somethin’ happen. Only opened the door to feed me, send in private magic tutors who couldn’t teach me a damned thing, and then beat me for wastin’ their money. It didn’t end ‘til I ran away.”
Tatsidi’s ears folded over, his whiskers drawn back.
“I am sorry, Lydie,” he said.
“Ya damn well better be.”