"What do you mean under attack?" King Sian's voice was filled with rage.
"Shadows." I whispered out. "Men in black - these are not knights." My eyes were seeing everything. These were not men; no, they were magic. And yet - my sight took me once more.
They raided the castle, raided the rooms. Steel met flesh. Doren, he was fighting along the halls and his breath was even. Northern knights also fought alongside him; they met the shadows. But soon the shadows gathered and made way for-
"Mitus!" It was all I could bellow out before the shadows gathered in the dining hall. It was like a swirl of tar and smoke before they detached and form into men once more. Grossly figures of men, dripping onto the floor of the dining halls. Everyone was still. Mitus and the four knights stood in front of the Kings, the Kings having released their own steel. Alxander stood in front of his mother. It was maybe a second before the shadows lunged. My barrier lashed out from my hands. Wrapping around the Kings, the Knights, Mitus. The shadows bounced off and recoiled, then struck once again. The barrier flared with light. A groan let out my mouth. I could not hold this for long.
"Where are your witches?" I huffed out to the Kings. Another recoil and what sounded like glass shattering. And my body - it started to hum with power, with pain. I sucked in a breath as the feeling grew.
"In our quarters, of course." The glass broke and the shadows speared toward us. Queen Dasyna let out a scream as a shadow made its way through one of the Knights but bounced off him and fell to the floor. My eyes found the door where the mother witch of Anna stood, her hands in fists as she used her magic to send the shadows out the window of the dining hall. More glass shattered and wretched screams of the outside reached our ears. It was an attack. The lawn of the castle was littered with men fighting to keep the shadows at bay, but where they dissipated, they reformed all the same.
"Lyia!" King Dota barked out to the witch. But she was solely focused on me, on my face as she moved past Mitus to stand in front of me.
"My daughter. Anna. Please" She fell to her knees. The screams, the shouts, the sounds of the many swords clashing around us faded quickly as my heart sank at her next words. "They have her." She barely whispered out.
I dropped to her. "Where? What happened?"
"She was seeing. I know not of what but they came as she was still under and...and, they entered her, they have her. Her eyes glow of black ore. It speaks through her." Her haunted eyes found mine. "You." A shudder ran through me. This magic, it was like that of Damaris's caves. Though... I turned to the Queen who was still frozen in shock.
"Where are the girls?" Her face turned to me, and her lips dared not move. "Where are they?" A strong wind suddenly found my cheek, so strong that I think I was bleeding now. I must have been bleeding because her eyes widened, and gasps of the Kings sounded around me. Then my neck, a stinging pain. My hand lifted to my face. It was wet. It was red. Aryk. He was must have been in the battle, outside or in I had no knowledge. Mitus walked to me, placed his hand on my back, where I let out a hiss. His hand that he now showed me was also bright with blood.
"Nasya." The Queen's voice shuddered. My eyes found hers.
"Where are the girls?" My voice was hard. It was Alxander that spoke.
"The cellar beneath the library." My eyes narrowed. "Mitus will take you." I looked to the mother witch.
"Please, lead them to their men." She looked like she was ready to refuse, to demand she be with me. I shook my head slightly. "I cannot get to her if this castle is overrun. Please." She looked to King Dota who simply nodded for her to stand. I went to grab Mitus and one of the Knights. Mitus who looked at my face with unease as the mother witch and the remaining knights made their way to the back door of the kitchen. It would lead them around to the front of the castle and a back gate that met the lawns of the castle. Hopefully, they would make it to regroup. The Kings followed with tense air and swords ready until King Dota only stood. His eyes looked at me with everything he had.
"Anna is mine." His words rough, his eyes becoming hazy. His eyes begging me to understand. And I did, it made sense. Why the witch seemed rather untouched, why Anna knew very well of her place. They could not risk it. I nodded to him.
"I will get her back." Mitus nodded to me as he braced me between him and the older knight. The latter who pulled out a dagger from his back and slowly handed it to me. My eyes raised at his face. He only nodded as he turned to face the other way and continued to walk backwards, monitoring.
The cellars beneath the castle, mainly used as a place for the dead. If not for torture. I had not been there since I was a child. It was the worst of visions I had ever Seen beside reliving Death. For the girls to have been down there this whole time...I could only hope they were as strong as I've seen. And my mother - no. I would not go give her the disrespect.
Mitus made his way down the halls, halls which were littered with bodies. My eyes glazed over as I pulled him to a stop. "The next hall." I blinked as I heard the crash of glass and tumbling. It came from the left when Mitus and the older knight both encased me with their bodies. It was O'Sirens knights and the some of King Sian's who crashed into the hall before us. The only way to tell the difference was the color of their banners. The black smoked warriors swarmed into a solid wall as they regrouped. My magic barreled out and into a shield as they stood. Though the pain came back. My womb was slowly burning as the shadows attacked the barrier with an immense force.
"Get up!" Mitus ordered out and slashed forward. It was hopeless. We needed more power. I turned to the older knight, but his body heaved over. His body shaking violently and so slowly a slither of smoke invaded his body. He stilled and then turned to me ever so slowly, his eyes clouded as he gave a malicious smile.
Seer. It lunged for me, and I barely lifted my dagger to block before I started running down the hall. "Nasya!" My barrier broke as Mitus yelled out to me, but I kept running. I ran down the hall and stopped in the foyer of the castle. There was blood everywhere as the smoked warriors kept invading the bodies or were just being killed. The stairs I stood on overlooked the grand hall where Sian's knights were being killed by the second. My eyes hazed again; my body pulsed harder than before as I felt the possessed knight shove into me. We crashed down the stairs before I landed hard against the wall. A knight of King's Dota's laid beside me.
I groaned as I lifted my hand to my head, the wetness let me know that it was a bad bleed. I turned over to see the knight at an awkward angle before the smoke exited his body and soared inside me. My eyes closed as a scream ripped through my throat. It was evil and it was burning everything inside me.
Foolish foolish Seer. Do you know why we have come? The voice so alluring so voided of emotion. My body arched with pain. This was not the same magic as the cave - no, this was more raw. My eyes hued as visions took over me. "NASYA!"
Nikoli stared at his King in horror. What were they doing here? He looked to the other knights he had put on the doors and did his best to not grasp the hilt of his sword. They had been in Tereyanna for more days than he had hoped. But now, standing in front of...him, Nikoli wished he had brought more men. Or even his sister.
"NASYA!" My eyes cleared, my head pounding as I heard my name yelled again.
You should know who sends us little Seer. I willed my body to stop shaking from pain, from the vision that wrecked my brain. It was different. I had felt Nikoli's emotions, I had seen him and yet felt him...though I was not seeing within him.
"NASYA!" I let out a scream as the snoke exited my body. Though it left me, my womb was now searing. And suddenly hands were grabbing me, lifting me in their arms. Then running, I groaned as my body was so sore from the violation. I looked around to see Chael and several other knights running with us. Then I looked to whose arms I was in; Aryk.
"Inside! All of you!" We hurried inside what looked to be a parlor of the castle. The sound of the door slamming shut, the moving of objects, the huffs of tired breaths. Aryk set me on my feet softly. His hands gripping my shoulders. "Are you all aright?" I looked to him, his hair that was splattered across his face and his shirt stained with blood and tar. His face that held the very same marks I now bore, and looking into his eyes, his eyes that were scanning my body and went utterly still at my face. I shook my head lightly.
"I am fine. The castle-" My speech stopped.
"Were you successful?" Troy O'Siren let out with an annoyed sigh.
"Patience is unbecoming of you King O'Siren." The man spoke so softly that Nikoli could only plant his feet to the ground. It was unnerving, the man. The warlock. He was an average foot taller than most knights and his chest was broad, as if he trained somewhere. But it was his eyes. His eyes were the deepest of brown almost black as an orb. They cracked along the edges, the burst of veins a deep, yet subtle purple. They blazed with knowledge and a life of their own as Nikoli looked upon him. Upon the infamous Novark.
I gasped and nearly fell to the floor were in not for Aryk's arms. "We need to move. This is a bad refuge," Chael spat out blood as he huffed to us. The knights were indeed still holding the barricade against the door, and some were still out of breath.
"We need-we need the dungeons opened." I huffed out. "Or at the very least, we need to make sure that they are unharmed." My body was groaning in pain. "We need more power."
"Doren was on his way down, though I do not know if he was successful." A crash into the room made us all turn to the window where another swarm of smoke made its way to us. I launched out a shield with a groan. "It will not hold!" I yelled out. Though as soon as the words left me, my body dropped to the floor. The immense pain too much to stand. My breath was heavy as I gritted my teeth.
"Nasya-" Aryk tried to reach for me, but he was suddenly thrown across the room, into the knights at the door. Chael stood only in front of me, blocking the path to me. I let out a scream as I felt what could only be described as liquid fire racing down my spine and soon my magic was pooling in front of me.
"Chael. Move." I bit out as sparks started to fly across the room, all stemming from the Aadun. It was larger than ever before and clearer, like a pool of summer water. It glistened as it held still in front of me. Waiting... I grunted as I hovered my hands over it, feeling its power. It's power that I felt I could finally tame. But I was still so hot, my body still in so much pain. "Now, Chael!" He ducked to the ground as I shot my power straight into the clouded smoke and once they collided, my power turned stark white against the pitch black of smoke. It spread clear and wide across the room, wrapping around it. Making it disappear.
My body heaved forward as I groaned at the pressure and slowly, so slowly, I felt my magic pool back into me. It wrapped around me and coated my skin. "It is coming back!" I heard a knight yell out from a far and yet I could not move. No, my power was still wrapped around me and I was suffocating. This was different. It felt like it was protecting, hiding me away.
That was when the shadows made themselves known and wrapped around my me and my power. It was playing with it, bouncing off my skin and all too soon it was trying to break the coat of my power. My voice screamed as I felt the pressure building from it, trying to get to me. I screamed louder as I felt the next wave of pressure, in my womb. "NASYA!" Aryk's voice was strained but then there was silence. Silence as I felt the ground beneath my hands touch against the rug of a room and not the wood of the parlor. My breathing was rough as I slowly looked up. The shadows as black as midnight and my power as white as a dove. They swirled around me, not battling each other but...listening. My feet found the floor as I stood. There was no commotion around me. No sounds of glass, no swords, no yelling. Only magic.
My breath hitched as an opening was created and I realized I was in a King's chambers. And Anna stood before me. Her eyes glistening as black as an ore.
Seer