Multiverse of Magic & Mistakes (Completed)

Part Three - New Lives - 2.3.21 Chapter 21

Cirmore Island, Azuhelm, November 2019.

Violet could not stop the tears falling freely down her face as she took in the horrific aftermath of the battle of Cloud Bridge.

The Guardians had won the battle, won the war even, but at such a heinous cost.

Bodies, of Reynold's mages, Guardians and some Azuhelmians, lay scattered over the ground. Many were unrecognisable, charred lumps of flesh. Others were in pools of red, looks of anguish upon their faces. Brains leaked from smashed-in skulls. Bodies with holes blasted straight through the abdomen leaking guts onto the road. Some mage bodies were covered in some sort of slime. Others had been sliced cleanly in two.

Vi let out a shriek and fell to her knees upon spotting the crushed remains of a familiar face. There was Freddie, his black shirt, wet with blood, his eyes wide open and unseeing. She fumbled checking for his pulse, casting a broad healing charm but it did not take. She had been too late. Oh. No.

With deep sobs racking her body, she forced herself to continue onwards.

There was Cary, the Head of the Guardians Council, in eagle form, her dark-blue wings bent underneath her at impossible angles. Still and lifeless.

And then, surrounded by the charred bodies of four mages, was Parrie, the Council member who had been so helpful in teaching her and Rho free magic. Oh no. Oh no!. Not Parrie! He was one of the oldest and strongest of the Guardians. How could he be lying here, motionless on the road?

Vi had never realised it was possible to cry this hard. To be so consumed with great racking sobs that she could not breathe. Could not move. Could not see or think.

Those who had been taken as prisoners had been the lucky ones.

She turned to the side, dry heaving sharply. She had seen enough.

How some of the Guardians could stand this, to be out here working at covering the bodies and organising them into neat rows, she had no idea.

She dry heaved again. It had been too long since she had eaten for there to be anything left to vomit up.

All of this ultimately had been her fault.

She had opened the portals and started this mess... but also, she was the one who had closed the portals and ended it. Had she done enough?

Shouts echoed through the woods. Azuhelmians searching for any mages had escaped, she presumed.

The Guardians and allies had gathered at the far side of the bridge. Tents and been pitched, and fires flickered against the indigo evening sky. She could hear a hum of voices, and cries of the wounded, and someone shouting orders.

She felt at the same time, an urge to remain here among the dead and the body-collectors, and an urge to join the others and be comforted by the familiar faces of her friends. She found her hand twisting in a familiar motion, opening a portal to the fireside before she had decided to join them.

Unconsciously her feet shuffled forward.

The world went black.

And then was filled with soft crackling flames.

Vi jumped. For a second she was back on her dryfter board, back shielding and dodging attacks, back with the flames being magical jets. She forced herself to take several steadying breaths.

This was a fire on the regular cooking variety. Not cast by someone to maim her. Just a regular fire.

"Violet?" came an unfamiliar voice. She turned. An Azuhelmian woman with messy dark hair and a bandaged leg sat by the flames. She was stirring a huge pot of something fragrant. Vi nodded.