Dedicated to the remover of wires, Prisim gummy bunny bear.
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Chapter 43 - By shadow consume
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The Master lunged.
Skye met his blade with her sword. The jarring impact ran through her arm as she brought her dagger around, slashing at his midsection. Purple sparks deflected her dagger that would have otherwise tasted flesh.
He was protected. Testing his confidence in it, she forced a parry and stepped inside the range of his sword, dagger aimed for his chest.
It didn’t make contact. The Master retreated several steps, eyes narrowed like a wolf that was reconsidering its prey.
Skye remained where she was, not yet ready to push the advantage. She didn’t yet know what he was capable of and the result could be deadly. Instead, she smiled at him.
The Master sneered in reply. “It seems your weapons have been touched by the deity. Now why would it do that?”
Hoping to hide her lack of understanding, she twirled the dagger in her palm. “Perhaps it knew that you’d try to use such a cowardly trick in a battle you claim has no magic.”
The lull didn’t last long after that. The Master initiated combat again with a powerful overhead arc intended to separate her from a limb.
Skye obliged. Dagger behind sword, she met his sword with her crossed blades to test his strength, absorbing the impact with her knees. Even so, it sent a tremor through her body that surprised her. The shock ensured she wasn’t quick enough to move her dagger and slip it through his ribs, instead having to parry his lightning side cut.
The next time the arc came flying at her, she danced out of the way. He was strong, far stronger than her, by either muscle or magic it didn’t matter. She parried, deflected and outright dodged his next flurry of attacks, feeling him out until she was sure.
She could beat him.
His footwork, the slightest change in angle at which he held his sword. They showed his ineptitude with a blade, as she was sure her lack of magical training was revealed in their previous encounter. It was the only reason he’d be content to let her hack away at him now, if he was confident he could easily overpower her at the slightest whim.
Skye parried another brutal attempt to break through her guard, her thoughts racing. She’d have to make her move quickly before he reached for the magic, and she’d have to do it before Jesse finished whatever he was doing.
She risked a glance at the figure atop the platform. She didn’t have long.
Skye took a deep breath and planned the sequence in her head, waiting for the right moment, trying to coerce him into the attack she wanted.
The Master broke away, giving her a smug upturning of his lips. It couldn’t be called a smile. “Once again, our Sentinel finds herself too enthralled with combat to help the tortured soul,” he said. “Too ignorant and blind, or perhaps she just doesn’t care?”
Skye swung her sword at him in reply. He blocked it. Where the two blades made contact, a purple glow appeared and held them in place. She tried to yank it away. Alarm took hold when the weapon didn’t budge.
His eyes burned. “I believe I asked you a question.”
Skye considered dropping her sword and continuing her attack with the dagger but decided against it. “I won’t turn my back to you, someone who has made it painfully obvious that they mean to enslave me to the shadow,” she said. “Release my blade, or are you worried that I might be better than you?”
“A Sentinel who can barely control her own element?” He smirked, pushing down against her blade. “There is nothing to be afraid of.”
Her arm shook under the pressure but she refused to give in. “I bested your Hunter and made it to Alguarde, didn’t I?”
He laughed at that. It was a cruel, harsh sound that made her shiver.
“You made it to Alguarde because I needed you to be somewhat competent with your magic before I had a use for you.” He increased the weight he was putting behind the blade, leaning towards her. “With Jesse working as my eye, you were never far from my reach. One order from me was all it took for him to catalyse the shadows lurking on your skin.”
Skye tried to jerk the blade away a second time. She didn’t want to hear this. Something akin to betrayal lurked within her at the mention of Jesse invoking the nightmarish visions she’d suffered through. The shadows, the darkness reaching fo-- She clenched the hilt harder.
Not his fault.
“I made sure you wouldn’t become too comfortable in Alguarde, having Jesse alter the ward and place the suspicion on you,” said the Master. “And when it was time, I had him show you what would happen in Naisha. It took him a while to accept the inevitable but like everything else, he gave in.”
Figures, the same ones as she’d seen while sparring with Alicia appeared around her as nothing more than shapeless dribbles of shadow, but she knew what they were. Dying elves that clutched their wounds; reaching for her with clawed hands and begging for mercy as they dragged themselves to her feet.
She pulled again. The blade held fast.
She almost let it go.
“And you came running, leaving the safety of Alguarde’s wards as I knew you would. Jesse poisoned the Queen to ensure the Silverborn, more specifically Tayne, would be ordered to follow you--“
It wasn’t Jesse’s fault. It was hers.
Anger tightened her grip. “That’s enough.”
Magic rushed up her arm and fed the blade. The flower on the pommel bloomed while green light ripped at the spell fusing the blades together. The Master stepped away, holding his arm out and watching it with an amused expression.
They broke apart. Skye jerked her sword away and evaded the blade crashing down on top of her. She vaguely recalled her plan, knowing she’d have to act before he simply spelled her useless.
Dancing out of the way, Skye took another glance at Jesse.
Shadows concealed most of him from view. With every pulse like a heartbeat, they swirled faster and grew. Another beat, and she couldn’t see him anymore. She had to end this now or risk losing Jesse to the corruption entirely.
Skye risked it. She lowered her blades the slightest amount, offering the Master a subtle opening.
As she’d guessed, the Master tried an overhead swing. Skye deflected his blade, pushing its point to the ground and lashed out with her foot, catching him behind the knee. He stumbled and though he recovered quickly to sidestep her next cut, he was on the defensive. She followed up with her dagger, slashing at his arm while her sword flew at his now open side.
His only option was to leap backwards to avoid the blades. She gave him no chance to recover, no chance to gather his thoughts, unleashing a rapid series of attacks that had him struggling to block.
The Master seemed to realise what she was doing. He switched his sword into his left hand and his right began to gather sparks of magic. Alarmed, Skye struck out with her dagger and caught him on the wrist, leaving a thin red line traced on his skin.
He staggered back in surprise, clutching his wrist. The magic faded from his grasp.
Skye took her chance.
She brought her knee up into the Master’s chest. He doubled over, and using his weight against him, she swept her leg under his feet. He landed hard on the ground, sword clattering from his grasp. Skye leapt for him, intent on driving her dagger through his throat.
There was a noise behind her. Something flashed through his eyes, too quickly gone to be identified. It didn’t matter. Her dagger was at his throat. Its tip pierced his skin.
She had him.
And then, she didn’t. His body dissolved into smoke beneath her, slamming her knees into the Naclictite floor.
He’d shadow-stepped.
Somehow, outside the shadow cycle, the Master had shadowstepped directly in front of her.
Skye got up quickly, looking around. He wouldn’t leave Jesse unattended with her. Of that she was sure. She scanned the room, wondering if it would quite literally kill her to look for his aura. Something was wrong with her magic. Whatever Jesse was doing had it restless inside her soul.
She ran towards the platform. It had to stop now.
“Skye!”
The familiar voice turned her head to see Tayne pushing through glowing violet strands that blocked the doorway. He jammed his blade into them, trying to break their hold but they wouldn’t budge. With a curse, he disappeared from view.
Her newfound relief faltered when she couldn’t see him and her step hesitated, altering towards the door. With an agonising movement, she forced herself to continue towards Jesse. Tayne would be fine without her. Jesse wouldn’t.
A loud clang came from the other side of the door, followed by a second and a third. She didn’t look, focusing her gaze on Jesse. Only when the creak of metal followed by a colossal crash reached her ears did she turn once more to find Tayne climbing through the section between the wall and where the door should have connected, Kiarae in tow. Taldorei’s light gleamed in her hand.
Skye’s foot was on the bottom tier of Jesse’s platform when she saw Tayne glance up at her. Even from this distance, she saw his features change, his arm moving through the air to point behind her.
“Behind you!”
She couldn’t turn fast enough. Something hard slammed into her back sending her flying across the floor. Pain lanced up her spine and she cried out as she collided with the ground, head snapping against the unforgiving Naclictite. Her vision crossed. She tried to get up, but fell back as something crunched in her hip.
Footsteps came towards her. “Jesse isn’t finished yet dear. The enchantment isn’t quite done. Let him be.”
“Get away from her Anton!”
A blast of silver magic flew over Skye’s head. A purple shimmer materialised in the air, absorbing the missile.
“What, no wings Kia? Such crude magic from one such as you,” said the Master. His voice took on a sly edge. “Or is it just that you can’t?”
"I am not the only one incapacitated," said Kiarae. "You might be in the shadow's domain, but you cannot escape the ramifications of using a power that does not belong to you!"
Skye rolled on to her back, biting back a groan and pressed a palm to her hip. Green light responded, soaking the waves of agony rolling through it. She pushed herself up, empty hands searching the Naclictite for her blades.
“Here,” said Tayne. He knelt behind her, supporting her back with one hand and clutching her dagger and sword in the other. “Can you stand?”
Skye nodded, carefully sitting up to ensure nothing else was damaged. Tayne watched her closely, offering her a hand. She took it and he pulled her to her feet. His grip was firm on hers, and she found herself resisting the strange urge to fold herself into his arms and yell at him for scaring her.
Instead, she took her weapons back, curling her fingers around the familiar shape.
“We have to get to Jesse. The Master’s corrupted him.” She saw the question in his eyes, but shook her head. “Explain later. He’s got the nature deity’s name and whatever he’s doing isn’t good.”
Tayne glanced over his shoulder at Kiarae. “One of us should help her.”
The celestial Sentinel stood between the Master and them, acting as a barrier. She intercepted whatever magic the Master threw at her with her staff using graceful movements that bordered on dancing. Her torn dress swayed around her like the finest of silk, silver hair gleaming around her, absorbing any residual magic and reflecting it straight back at him with a silvery missile of her own.
“If she can’t handle him, neither of us have a chance,” said Skye, already running towards the base of the platform. “Jesse won’t--“
A wave of pain blurred her vision and she stumbled. She clutched her head, squeezing her eyes shut. She felt a hand on her shoulder and blinked furiously, but her sight was no longer in the mortal realm.
The magic within her was unruly beyond belief. It hummed with such urgency that the rest of her moved with it. She staggered forward, pulled as if caught in a windstorm towards where the head of the platform was in the mortal realm. She looked up.
A great beast, not entirely animal, human or plant but somewhere in between all three was desperately fighting for its freedom. Cloaked in a fading emerald glow, black shadows continually rose from the ether around it while talons at the end of limbs spiked and shaped with bark tore at the black tendrils threatening to tie it down.
Wisps of jade light circled its head, and at the beasts command, slammed into the darkness, dissolving both in a flash of brilliance
Skye couldn’t tear her eyes away nor could she move, in complete awe of its presence. She knew without being told what she was looking at.
The deity’s fearsome head curled its lip, revealing rows of pointed teeth. It snapped, ripping apart a tendril that tried to bind its snout. The rough-skinned tail swept across the ground, continuously cutting off the tips of sprouting tentacles as its hand extended and sucked a torrent of emerald sparks back towards it and away from the blackened void they all drifted towards, renewing the glow outlining its figure.
When it seemed the deity was getting the upper hand, an eerie voice like gathering twilight echoed around the Nether.
“Ash’lianai.”
It froze, as did Skye, a shudder running through her soul. It held her captive, unable to move. The deity’s head twitched, jerking upwards with small movements until it released a powerful roar and shattered the enchantment holding nature immobile.
Not a moment too soon. It twisted once, twice, struggling to snap the tendrils wrapped around its girth. Their numbers were growing faster than it could deal with them.
Skye fell to her knees. The deity caught her eye.
Stop this! Evi’ll grows stronger with every moment it is summoned to my essence, Sentinel! Go back to the mortal realm and stop this! NOW!
The last word was a roar that shattered her direct connection to the Nether realm. She blinked. The platform was back. Tayne was beside her, holding her off the Naclictite. She pulled herself away, hands shaking. The magic within her soul wanted to go to where Jesse stood. It was being called. Pulled. Summoned.
She clutched her head. The pressure was building. “The deity... it’s...”
“Keep it together, Skye,” said Tayne. “Jess needs you. Come on!”
He grabbed her hand and started towards Jesse but even his grip couldn’t break the fog descending over her mind. With every step, her resistance weakened until she reluctantly took her hand from Tayne.
“I can’t go up there. Not without being caught in the spell. You have to do it. I can’t...” Skye took a deep breath. Deities above how she hated her magic sometimes. “I can’t go up there.”
Tayne’s lips tightened but he nodded and turned without another word, taking the steps three at a time to Jesse. Skye clenched her hands around the hilt of her blades letting their solidarity run through her, and using all the willpower she could gather leapt down to the floor.
Her magic settled somewhat within her, dying from the raging torrent to a calmer buzzing sensation in her chest. Even so, it was uncomfortable and it felt wrong. The balance was broken.
Kiarae and the Master faced off from several metres away.
As Skye ran towards them, Kiarae raised her staff, creating a thin blade of magic that sliced towards the Master. He met it with a purple wave of energy that hurled towards them. Kiarae grabbed Skye and pushed her behind, slamming her staff into the ground with her other hand. The silver shield erupted from the gleaming crystal as the wave hit them, but even with her magic, both Kiarae and Skye staggered from the impact.
The Master advanced forward. He pointed an accusing finger at Kiarae. “You always did have an annoying habit of getting in the way.”
Kiarae backed up a few steps, staff gripped across her chest. She didn’t reply to him, instead placing herself beside Skye.
“He has the name of your deity, does he not?” asked Kiarae.
“Yes. Jesse’s trying to bind the deity in the Nether realm and my magic’s being pulled with it.”
“With the name he will succeed unless we stop him,” said Kiarae. “The corruption cannot fell another deity else this war is over.”
The Master was within earshot now. Tendrils of pure darkness wisped from his hands, curling like ethereal smoke around his hands, snaking up his arms and around his back. No traces of purple were left in the magic.
“This war was over the day that Kumos took over the academy, Kia. Surely you know that. Yet, there’s always some hope filled fools that will continue to fight against the impossible. There are greater things than the deities, dear sister, and the Corruption is one of them.”
Kiarae pointed her staff at him and unleashed a blast of magic. This time, the Master simply raised his hand. A black void opened in front of him, consuming the silver energy, then closed on his signal.
“I told you. This war is over.” His eyes were dark pools, humanity drained from his being. “The binding is nearly complete. I’m done playing with you.”
The tendrils struck. Skye dove out of the way, but she wasn’t its target. It wrapped around Kiarae’s waist, absorbing any magic she threw at it and dragged the celestial along the ground.
Skye lunged after it, making a grab for Kiarae’s hand. She missed. Scrambling along the ground she chased the tendril, catching up to it and slashing it with her blades. They passed through its misty length, so she lit her hand with magic and tried to break it that way.
The Sentinel mark on her arm lit up like a beacon, green sparks materialising from it only to hover for a moment then fly towards where Jesse was. Where the spell wanted her to go, to surrender to the growing shadows.
She increased the magic in her hand. The tendril stopped retracting, but her nature magic was having no effect on it. It swelled with every pulse she put into it. The Master was talking, but she ignored him even as he got closer. She had to free Kiarae. Kiarae was their only hope.
More of her magic was consumed by the tendril. Then it happened. A golden fleck. It appeared from her hands and ate away at the blackness. It wasn’t absorbed, and it was working. A second and third joined the first and Skye ran her hands up its length until the tendril was thin enough to break.
She had no idea where they were coming from, but they worked. That was all she cared about.
She glanced back at Kiarae. The Sentinel’s eyes were closed, but she was alive. Skye switched her hands and pressed them to Kiarae’s chest, desperate to make the corruption let her go. The flecks re appeared and worked their magic. The bindings disappeared. Kiarae opened her eyes, and the warning in them was all too clear.
Skye turned as the Master backhanded her across the face. She lashed out with her leg, aiming for his feet but a black tendril rose from the Naclictite floor and wrapped around her ankle. She kicked out, trying to snap it as it consumed her foot from view. Another rose from the ground and wrapped around her knee. Then another around her waist.
She reached for the tendril, trying to break it as she had the first. The Master intercepted her hand, grabbing her wrist and digging his fingers into her skin until she let go of her dagger. With his other hand, he reached out and placed it over the corrupted mark on her shoulder. Fear spiked through her.
“I’ll teach you again.”
Burning agony seared through her shoulder. Any thoughts of the flecks helping her vanished.
Skye thrashed around, trying to free herself from his grip but he and the tendrils snaking up her legs held fast. The Master shook his head in mock exasperation above her, but she didn’t care. Panic had taken control. She couldn’t move. She had to get out.
Kiarae was beside her, once more consumed in the tendrils. Taldorei’s Light lay useless on the ground, but its Sentinel was still fighting the corruption. The strain was evident on the Master’s face. But as the darkness rose and covered her chin, Kiarae’s eyelids flickered and whatever resistance she was putting up faded. The corrupted magic rushed over her head and covered her arms like a second skin.
A shout that sounded like Tayne’s voice came from somewhere behind her. Everything was consumed as the whispered name echoed through her soul from the Master’s mouth.
“Ash’lianai.”
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A/N - Take two seconds to vote / comment if you liked it ^.^ Also the cover doesn't have wires in it anymore, yay! ...Even if the silhouette is squished still. Ah well.
Om nom nom shadows.