Kantos - Book Two of The BrightStone Saga

- Chapter Fifteen -

"Wait," Kantos says, as he eyes Aurora more closely. His mind is focused fully on her, blocking out the battle that rages around them. "You... you look... different?" he muses, his mind searching for the answer.

"I am... different. I just hope..." she pauses, the time seeming to ebb away from them both. " I hope you will still... love me?"

Without hesitation, Kantos reaches forward and scoops her into his arms, squeezing her tight. He holds her to him, he inhales, taking in the earthy aroma and the sweet petals that is her scent. "By the Gods you smell good." He laughs aloud, his booming voice stopping some of the men close by. "I will always love you, Aurora. Know this and believe it." He smiles at her now, his eyes on her and nothing else.

Without another word, Aurora kisses him. He trembles at the touch, moving closer as he wraps her up once more. He breathes her in, taking in every possible moment until they finally part. They stand together, eyes locked on one another before they are brought back to the here and now.

A blood-spluttering gurgle erupts from a man three paces away, but before he can react he watches Aurora move. His eyes dart after her, only barely able to keep up. In one fluid movement she side-steps, releases her sword, skips forward five paces as if floating, and ends in a low stance with a flash of her blade. She stands holding her sword at her side. Kantos turns to face a smiling Oskari standing in front of him but before he can take a single step the smile fades as the daemon collapses to the ground, his body separating in two. He shifts to look at Aurora in awe. Her blade hanging loosely in her grip is clean, not a single drop of blood mars the blade as the suns reflect off its surface.

"Aurora... How did... Is this part of the—"

"Yes," she nods, her focus still ahead of them, her eyes fixed on the enemy. "The change," she utters quietly.

Her voice carries across the battlefield as an eerie silence descends. Kantos watches her, how she moves with a certain newfound grace, the movements not jerky but smooth as if she were gliding through the clear waters of Tula lake. She turns to face him now, their eyes meeting. She smiles, but it disappears as she catches the crimson eyes of Neymar stood off behind with his short swords dripping blue liquid on the ground.

"You," she seethes, her sword arms rising to point at his chest. "You will be dealt with, that I swear."

"Aurora," Kantos says softly. "We had to work—"

He is cut off as she pivots around to face him. "I understand. We have a common enemy right now. But what of after? We must prepare for the—"

"Yous there?"

The voice breaks through everything: the talking, slamming weapons and even the dying cries of the fallen men. They all turn as one to face a lone Oskari that breaks away, as the rest seem to melt backwards as one. The daemon is bigger than the rest, his arms and legs thicker and his neck compact with a bony skull atop, wrapped in the pitch-black skin like the rest. Its eyes pierce through them all like a twisted beam of light stolen straight from the suns high above.

"Yous. Yess, yous," it points at Aurora. "Yous will dies next for that." The speech coming from the smaller mouth hisses with an authority unlike anything Kantos has ever heard.

But then his focus shifts suddenly as he begins to see more of the Oskari pour into the space in front of them all. They stream into the pass like ants fleeing their burrow. Body after body merging with one another in a mass of black.

With a sudden tightness in his chest, Kantos sucks in a breath flicking from Aurora, the Oskari and the new threat beyond.

By the Gods! We are all going to die.

The Oskari smiles cruelly, sharpened teeth showing as it broadens into a grin. "Yous will all dies, but yous will be first," it hisses once more.

Before any of them can speak, Aurora steps forward. Her feet move slowly, as if time itself had slowed. She takes another step before halting. Her sword flicks up as she twirls it around at an accelerated speed, faster than even she thought possible. Then she lets it drop to her side. She flicks back a lock of her then continues her walk towards the daemons in front of her. 

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