They set out after a wonderful breakfast, packs reloaded with all sorts of food items Mathilde had lovingly prepared for them. The goodbyes were friendly and cheerful on the outside, but all of them felt on the inside that this goodbye may be forever. Laith and Taylia had taken it especially hard, being reunited after so many years. The next time they saw each other, Taylia would be even older, if she were even still alive. Her mortality, was a hard burden for Laith to carry.
Mynix was quite excited to get on with their journey. She had learned a lot in the few short weeks they had stayed there, and being in a place and people of such a good alignment made her stronger, and better able to face her shadow. She knew a small array of spells and was confident she would not be a hindrance in their next battle, and in fact, hoped to be a decisive factor in it.
Grewyn was ready to move on as well. Although he had been content there, is restless spirit was eager to move on. They still had not found out enough about their enemy to launch a counter attack, and that unsettled him. He didn’t mind fighting an enemy, but he didn’t like not knowing one.
Feryl was confused, after burying the Mother she barely remembered, and meeting an old woman who had been the lover of the same man who was her lover now, her emotions were beginning to get a bit jumbled. She just felt tired, and the thought of being on the road, and the dangers ahead made her nerves raw. The respite she had at Taylia’s only seemed to make her feel worse now when the reality of her situation had kicked back in.
In addition to all the personal burdens each bore, the road was getting tougher now, with loose gravel and steep inclines making for treacherous footing. There trees were sparse, with conifers and straggly bushes dotting the landscape. They felt very vulnerable in such an open area, but Laith tried to use what small cover there was to best advantage.
They had camped low on the hill that night, building a small fire because winter in the flat lands was setting in. They sat huddled together under a small overhang. Everyone was on edge, having traveled long on hard paths, crossing back and forth and always weary of danger, jumping at the slightest sound. Feryl looked the worst of all, her mind constantly trying to work out the puzzle of her past, her heart trying to make sense of the complicated relationship she had with Laith, and her senses fighting to keep alert.
It was the grey beginning of dawn when Mynix awoke with a start, the fine hairs on the back of her neck rose. She opened her eyes, and noticed she could see her own breath. Under her breath, she mouthed the words to a spell Taylia had taught her, and she cast a protection over herself, and then raced through a spell granting her nightvision. She slowly looked around, first with just her eyes, then, when the area seemed clear, by turning her head. She slowly raised herself to her knees, then she crawled over to Laith. “I think we are under attack,” she whispered to him. She watched his eyes slowly gain focus, and the quick flinch of his facial muscles betrayed the rush of adrenalin as he awoke to danger. By then Mynix had moved on to wake Grenwyn and Feryl. They drew their weapons and stood back to back around the fire. Mynix cast her light spell and still their enemies did not appear. Then as if from no where, flames appeared in a circle around them. The sudden influx of light caused all of their vision to be lost. Flamed seared their skin and scorched their hair. Mynix had the worst of it as her night vision spell had made her eyes extra sensitive. Reeling from the pain, she heard Feryl scream off to her left. Mynix knew they had to break free of the circle so she cast spell causing a spout of water which she flung toward the flames she felt in front of her as she tried to break for the outside. Everyone had either seen or sensed her reaction as she felt 2 bodies move past hers. “Feryl, no!” Grenwyn cried, followed by the anguished gasp of Laith. She heard the sounds of battle about her, but heard Feryl’s scream overhead. Mynix begrudgingly cast one of her precious healing spells on herself and her eyes found focus just in time to see Feryl carried of into the sky by a wizard on a great carrion bird. Mynix looked to Feryl, then looked back to see Grenwyn and Laith hard pressed against several of the undead foes. She knew if she did not leave after Feryl now, she could never hope to follow her. “Laith, Grenwyn” she called, “I am going after Feryl, will you be able to hold these off without me?” Grenwyn grinned at her, “ye just try and stop me!” he called and Mynix waved as she rose into the air under the effect of her flying spell. She did however, cast a brief firewall before she flew away, to ward off the skeletons trying to flank the two men on the right.
Mynix cast another dweomer about herself to cause her to blend in with the night sky as she flew. If Feryl had noticed her she had given no sign. Mynix kept her distance and flew close to the trees, keeping to cover as she flew. The sorcerer who held Feryl must not have noticed either, for he did not look back as he flew off into the distance, as if he were so supremely confident in his magic that he could not fathom that someone would have survived and been capable of following him.
Mynix misjudged him though, he did expect someone to follow him, in fact he hoped for it. He cast a ring of fire and then summoned undead who are weak to fire in hopes that they creatures would delay his enemies, but not hinder their pursuit. He wanted Laith to follow him into his stronghold, where he could easily be captured and then destroyed in front of Feryl. Dastrius knew Feryl's madness was held back only by the thinnest thread, and he was consistantly making that strand thinner. First her heart, then her town, and reanimating her own Mother was just a touch of genius in his opinion. To destroy one such as Laith, so devoted and pathetic in front of her destroy her. Dastrius hoped he could then subvert her to his own use.Dastrius misjudged Mynix as well though. It did not cross his mind that the fragile girl could have learned such powers so quickly, that someone capable of taking him down if he was caught unawares followed him and he was smirking at his own superiority.
Mynix could feel her flying spell begin to fade, and the wizard still had not landed. She rose up one last time to be sure of his direction and then quickly lowered herself to the forest floor, always keeping his direction in her mind. She had one spell of magic missiles left to her arsenal for the night, and knew she had to save it for when it would really count. She knew it would never be enough, but she had to try.
Grenwyn chopped a mighty over hand swing at the animated skeleton to his right, one of its arms hung uselessly from it shoulder, crushed by Grenwyn’s mighty blows. He reversed direction, moving his aim higher and knocking the creatures head parallel with its shoulders. Grenwyn would have finished it with the next chop, but it was thrown to the ground by a larger and more intact creature. The smell of the creature nearly knocked Grenwyn over, but he gritted his teeth and pulled together his strength for a massive strike knocking the creature back into the flame. It caught fire like smoke powder and burned itself out in a few seconds collapsing to the ground in a pile of ash.
Laith had been quite busy as well, he battled 3 of the less well animated skeleton creatures. He darted back and forth between them, dodging their slow blows with ease. The skeletons were all missing various pieces, but Laith was beginning to slow, and showed signs of a few scratch marks here and there.
Mynix ran through the forest as quickly as she could, knowing she must break the edge before Feryl and the sorcerer flew completely out of view. She nearly blew her cover when she breached the edge of the woods only to find the sorcerer’s carrion bird circling to a landing about 250 feet in front of her. Mynix stepped back so fast she fell, and though she was sure she must have been sighted, the wizard showed no signs of noticing her. Mynix only realized that Feryl was unconscious when she saw her fall limply from the bird’s saddle onto the hard ground, and she hoped that she was not already too late.
Mynxi waited until nightfall since she could see that the sorcerer intended to make camp for a night. She wondered if today had been her lucky day when she noticed the sorcerer did not even set a guard before he lowered himself to a sleeping roll for the night. Slowly, Mynix crept up to him with as much stealth as she could muster. She had but one spell left to her that day, so she had to make it count. A killing blow would be the only thing that would suffice. Mynix crept up as close as she felt she could without arousing his suspicion, Feryl was still out and seemed to be bleeding from a wound in her head, but the slow rise and fall of her chest marked her as yet among the living.
Mynix aimed her hand and fired, the missles hit the sorcerers head with burning force and Mynix instinctively flinched as she saw flesh boil away to reveal muscle. Unfortunately, her spell had not been strong enough to kill the wizard, and the rage in his face as he screamed in horror chilled Mynix to the bone. He looked her way and spoke words that hurt her ears to hear. Her eyes watered and she could no longer see, she could feel warm fluid filling her ears, her muscles moved of their own accord and she felt her mouth fill with blood as she bit her tongue. Mynix felt as though she were turning inside out, and then she sensed a familiar presence, and a blue white light reached out from her chest to push back at the sorcerer. The wizard screamed out it pain, and the power emanating from his receded. Swiftly blowing through a chant, the sorcerer disappeared. Mynix smiled as she sank slowly to the ground. “Wake up Feryl, Run!” she whispered as she sank into the tall grass. Blood dripped down her neck, seeped from her eyes, and drooled from her mouth as she lay staring at the bright sky without blinking. Everything went white, and Mynix knew no more.
Feryl slowly began to wake and realized she was staring up at the open sky, the sun had just past its zenith. The light stung her eyes, and her mouth felt very very dry. She tried to sit up, but a sharp pain in her head made the world swim and she laid back down again. She raised her hand to her face and it came back sticky with her own blood. Then, like a whirlwind everything, every memory, came flooding back to her. She remembered her childhood, her mother whom she had recently buried, her rescue by Grenwyn, and her flight with her friends, but most importantly, she remembered her love, Dastrius, and all he had done to her, all she had loved and he had destroyed. Her eyes grew hard as mithril and she let out primal growl. “Dastrius,” she growled to the world in general ”Killing you is going to be the most pleasurable experience of my life.” With that she took off running towards Lithaear searching for her vengeance.
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