Hel screeched, and Wren did so with him, falling to his knees as the vampire realized that his control was slipping. At a certain point, a beast stopped fighting if they knew it was futile, as Hel had, but now it saw an escape and was clawing at him from the inside. Blood poured from his eyes as if he was weeping, both from him and Hel as their magics fought and tore at each other from within their bodies.
"Wren, release him," Kopje begged.
The grand mage was suddenly so close, and Wren hadn't even sensed his approach. Anyone could kill him right now and he wouldn't see them coming, not with all of his being scrabbling to keep Hel from breaking free.
"It's all right." Kopje touched his forehead, and his skin was so cool compared to his feverish state. "Our allies are here. Please, rest."
Wren lifted his eyes to Kopje to see the truth of his words, and the man gave him a nod, now supporting his back as they both rested on their knees. Out in the fray, Wren could sense the Arcs and the Shades, their allies, coming closer to back them. There was still fights left to settle, but they would have to be without him. If he held any longer, he'd die and Hel would still live.
Letting go of his spell released the built up heat within him, and Wren teetered as a rush of cool light magic flooded to replace the dark magic he'd been holding onto as puppet strings. Chains of magic snapped and retreated back to him, and Wren gasped for air as a roar shook the area from Hel. How the man could move was beyond Wren, but he flew, right through the frontlines with such force and so much lightning that no one could stop him.
Luna didn't even bother with a shield because Hel breaking it would devastate her, but the Aurion girl didn't move. Perhaps Meredith was surprised, frightened, or both, but Wren gave Kopje a push and the man knew what to do. Wren had lived long enough and his life wasn't worth half as much as the heir to the Aurions and the mate of one of their allies. If Meredith died, so did their alliance.
Kopje grabbed Meredith and took her to the ground with him to get her out of the way, and Wren turned to face Hel Valk. On his knees, the same pictures flashed before his eyes as always. The idea that one's life flashed before their eyes just before death wasn't often true for mages who died in an instant, but in the span of the ten seconds it took Hel to get to him, Wren's called to him.
Nothing great or profound.
Just faces.
The children who's used to run at his feet in the Song territory, all so jealous of how powerful he was. The admiration. The love. The crimson eyes of the woman he'd taken from this world faced him, with that look of surprise just before everything had been crushed, and Lieder's tears dripping on Wren's face during the last night of his life.
All seemed normal.
It was the last face that had him clenching his hands as he stared at the ceramic tiles awaiting his end. Crimson again, but they were Tala's. The way they glowed when he laughed, how they darkened when he growled about something he hated, the way they'd refused to leave him in the bathhouse the night before. All of them had been together, and Tala had reiterated that no one killed Wren, but him. It might as well be the man's mantra for how he lived that line. Why was Tala the last one he thought about?
A burst of magic nearly blew him away and Wren leaned closer to the ground to keep from losing his hold on the ground to let the power wash over him. Wren lifted his eyes to the crackle of lightning as it battled flames a mere few feet from Wren. There, Tala's broad, bare shoulders shook as the man grappled with Hel Valk. Tala had caught the man mid lunge, but Hel broke off the contact with a low growl.
They circled each other, Hel visually trembling and too exhausted to fight, and Tala snarled with a ferocity the likes of which Wren had never heard. It was the most terrifying and yet reassuring sound he'd heard in a while as Hel lunged for Tala. There was no question who would emerge the victor as Tala braced his legs and gave off such a potent dark aura that Hel's week bolts couldn't make it through.
Then Hel folded.
All Tala did was stand up to his full height, Hel's hands caught in his where they'd grappled, and allow his magic to flow into the ground below him. Flames devoured the air around them both, and as they turned on Tala and Hel, only one of them screamed for their life. Tala stepped out of the blaze not a moment later, dusting off his chest as Hel's wails rose and fell until they choked off in his death. It was gruesome to hear, but Wren's end would have been worse had the man got a hold of him.
Wren was so lost in the sight of Talamayas standing with his flames as a backdrop, fangs lengthened in huger and rage, that it took Luna Aurion's curse to alert him to Tala was moving in his direction. Faster than any bolt of Hel's lightning, Tala was so close that Wren could feel the steam coming off of the man's flesh, as it did when he fought. It wasn't entirely unexpected as Tala grabbed him by the collar and yanked him up to his face with rage, but Wren was so weak that all he could do was tremble under the man's hold.
"What did I tell you?" Talamayas voice was a low rumble that was actually nice to hear as Wren's sight wavered.
"I'm not... dead yet," Wren rasped, just the sheer irony of this situation lifting his lips in confused amusement. "Also not moving, so if you want to take a seat and watch, I might yet perish."
Why Tala's grip tightened, Wren couldn't say. Was it not satisfying to Tala if he died without the man inflicting the wound? Powerful light magic ended his train of thought as Kopje approached Tala. Clearly uncomfortable being near him, Kopje wasn't so much terrified since he'd spent the last few weeks in the Sol castle as he was concerned for Wren.
"Talamayas, let me care for him," Kopje nearly demanded, if the quiver in his voice hadn't ruined it. "If you don't want him dead, I should–"
Wren's consciousness cut out for a moment, but he jerked to life for only a moment as he fell on Kopje. It felt as if Tala had tossed him. That was entirely probably considering how furious Tala was, but Wren slipped back into his limbo as Kopje carried him closer to the complex. The rest of the fight was more feelings than anything else, as he was too tired to keep his eyes open.
Everything felt so heavy with dark magic until Kopje's light magic flowed into his body, and Wren struggled just to exist. Songs didn't normally fight alone, and he'd over exerted his magic and his body, so while Kopje might able to heal him enough to stand, that would be it. A sneeze would knock him on his ass for the better part of a week. At least the burning stopped after a few moments, and it left Wren to loll his head back against the complex wall and feel the fight ahead.
So much dark energy gathered near the complex, which meant their allies had retreated from the battlefield, something that didn't make much sense until Wren sensed the flare of Talamayas' powers. It swept over him in a pulse of heat that threw Wren's body into a panic, even though he knew it was to burn the remains of the men ahead. For too long, Tala's growing power had meant torture, and it was not something easily removed from his body's memory. Light magic danced with Tala's–Forest's, Wren knew–and the shrieks echoed in a finale to a fight that had dragged on far too long.
It was the quiet that was worse. Wren struggled to open his eyes, and the light of the rising sun had him shading them with a hand. Daytime was still as taxing for him as it was for Tala, and under the sun's rays, he could make out Tala nearly knocking Forest off his feet with a slap of his hand on his shoulder. The man didn't know his strength and had to grab Forest before he fell, but they both smiled.
Something on Wren's wrists burned, and he looked down to the blood writ's seal. Terror seized his calm as he watched the runes peel away and disintegrate as if it had been a cheap water tattoo. How had he forgotten about the writ's annulment clause? It had not been something Wren had cared about a year ago, because the conditions for it had seemed ludicrous then. But now... Tala had to have known, and Wren doubted he'd forgotten. There had only been one way for Tala to put Wren back in the dungeons, and now he had the ability.
If the bearer of the seals is saved by the creator of the writ of their own volition, the blood debt has been repaid.
Tala had saved his life.
Vampires crept into the dais in front of the complex, and Wren's eyes darted from one to the next, finding Neil arc with Silvia Copse, conversing with Tala about something. Remus Shade remained with his mate, and Lorenzo de Fleur had gone nowhere, eyeing him on occasion to make sure he was immobile. The Sol people were still on the battlefield, and the normal thing would have been for Tala to go to them. Instead, Tala turned away from Neil and met Wren's eyes, his darkened crimson shining with a need that Wren had never seen before.
The urge to run overtook him, and Wren was barely standing on his own feet when light magic cut off Tala's approach. Luna and a few mages stood as a shield while Kopje came to Wren's side to help him stand. All the while, Wren could feel the blood pumping in his ears. The knowledge that he was too weak to do anything to stop this had him shaking so hard that he nearly collapsed as Tala's dark magic churned in the air around them.
"Get out of my way," Talamayas growled beyond the mages, and Wren knew that nothing Tala said was a request.
If the mages didn't move, he'd kill them to get what he wanted. And what he wanted was Wren's life, caged for the pleasure it brought the man to hurt him.
"Wren!" Talamayas called over all of them, and Wren lifted his hollowed eyes to the man.
Eyebrows crunched so low it wrinkled the skin on his face, Tala stood with his teeth bared in anger, and smoke actually seeped from his mouth as he reached for him. Just that much movement, even yards apart like they were, had Wren shaking his head and falling into Kopje as his heart beat too fast in fear for him to keep himself up. Wren couldn't look at him, and he was so weak that Kopje took a knee to keep him stable as he slid to the broken tiles.
"We will not give a mage over to you for torture," Luna spoke for him, her light magic the most powerful among the mages who now stood at his defense. "This has been a long battle and we all fought in it. Can't you cast your lust for revenge aside for at least a few moments?"
"Wren Song is mine." The area shook with dark energy as Talamayas' anger grew.
"Tala, stop," Neil Arc said, and Talamayas' power ebbed. "Look, perhaps you could allow Wren to rest and recuperate here, and we can discuss his return in a few days' time when we convene for negotiations."
"Why would I do that?" Talamayas asked, never having known the feeling of not getting something he desired. Anything he wanted, he took, anything he disliked, perished at his feet.
"To avoid needless, animosity, Tala," Neil said with a frustrated growl. "It won't kill you to give him a break. When he is strong enough to stand on his own and form coherent sentences, I'm sure he can make his own desires clear to both you and them."
Wren, at the best, managed to look at Tala's ankles and they were stiff as the man's power fluctuated again in frustration. A deep inhale of breath from Tala ran a shiver down Wren's spine, as he knew the man was only remembering what scent to hunt.
"If you hide from me, I will find you," Talamayas said, but he didn't need to. All this had done was buy Wren time to barely heal enough to walk and shed his final tears before he lost everything again. "We will reconvene in a few days' time to discuss this new alliance, and at that time, if you do not relinquish Wren Song to me, I will wipe you out."
Word Count: 2267