I stayed out of sight as I followed the boys. The buildings felt like they were watching the kids, two of the boys seemed to feel it as well as they kept asking the other if maybe they should go back. Clearly they were braver than they had sense and none of them wanted to back out first. The one that seemed not to notice the evil watching them convinced the other two to go into a building with him. What could go wrong? The white witch had told them it was safe right?
I rolled my eyes moving a bit closer so as not to lose the boys. They didn't get far into the building before doing something even more stupid; splitting up. I sighed at the children, what the hell were they thinking? The city made it hard for me to follow the kids as they walked farther in. So I had no choice but to enter after them. I had only entered the first room when the open doorway that hadn't had a door slammed shut and the doors the boys had entered slammed closed as well.
The room went pitch black, I crouched down pulling a crystal knife from my belt. Eyes searching for the red glow of a wraith, ears listening for any other movement within the room. I could hear the boys in their rooms, nothing else was out of place. They weren't screaming, at least not yet.
I started to move towards one of the rooms to see if I could open the door. I had only taken a step when the room changed. The key inside my shirt grew cold as ice. The room now looked nothing like the decrepit room I had entered. I would have believed I had been teleported but I had a very good sense of where I am and I hadn't moved.
The floor was new and polished wood, the walls were whole and freshly painted. There was a rug that seemed to be unable to pick a pattern and stick with it. On the other side of the rug sat an old man in a black robe red eyes staring at me across the room. He sat in a high back dark green chair. His long fingers steepled in front of his face as he studied me. I slid my foot back raising my weapon between me and the figure. I knew he wasn't truly there but it didn't stop the fear I felt.
The old man smirked at me behind his steepled fingers. "Hello, great grand daughter, you are causing quite a fuss." The old man folded his hands into his lap. He was unarmed and he wasn't even really here. I knew that and still I felt my hand tighten on my weapon. The demon that normally wants to fight everything was oddly quiet as I stood facing the old man.
The old man sighed and looked at one of the doors leading out of the room, "One of the pests over steps himself, but it could be fun to watch." The old man turned his red eyes back on me. "You shouldn't trust her daughter, she has her own plans."
I knew who he was talking about. Like I just knew things sometimes, I hoped that didn't mean I could read the shadows mind, or worse he could read mine. "And I should trust the father of lies? The corrupter of men?"
The shadow tapped his fingers against the arm of the chair then smirked again, "I guess not, I do have my own plans, little girl. Then again, I don't pretend to know what is best for you, great grand daughter. I am not the one torturing you or limiting you. Come to me, and I will show what you could do."
"Right, if I would just free you."
A shiver ran up my spine as the old man snorted, "Is that what she tells my children? Truth seems to be a loose interpretation to those that claim to speak it." The shadow seemed to look over his shoulder again. Three voices filled the air to cut off abruptly, "We have seemed to run out of time, my girl. Don't give her what she wants."
Blackness returned to the room before I could think of a response. I jumped up and grabbed a roof beam pulling my body close as the boys came screaming out of the rooms they had gone into. They didn't notice me as they ran past and I breathed out a small sigh of relief. Another man came out of one of the rooms cackling like a madman. He didn't notice me either as he turned and reentered the room. I felt his power as he created a portal to travel. So the madman was a human wizard.
I landed quietly heading the way the boys had gone. I paused looking at the creaks in the floor behind me, something silvery was creeping out of the floor broads. I heard another scream out in the street, this wasn't good.
I moved through the doorway that was missing it's door again. I climbed the side of the building getting up on the roof. It was going to be a trick to avoid the mist and not get spotted, but I couldn't let those boys die here. The white witch's magic drew my attention, she clearly didn't know how to turn her spells so that other magic users couldn't see them as easily. She wasn't very strong so that might be the best she could do.
I kept low as I ran along the roofs, the wraith would have felt that magic same as I had. I knew it wouldn't be far off. I leaned over a roof and saw the witch and her boarder man yelling at the foolish boys as they ran for one of the city exits. Her magic was the only thing keeping them alive as they ran but it was also drawing what was trying to kill them. The group got to the street leading toward the river and out of the city, just in time for a large arm of silvery mist to block their path forward and of course the shadow spawn rounded the corner behind them.
The white witch was panting and exhausted, she was barely able to run in her state. The other two women with her were magic users as well, but they probably weren't trained. They wouldn't be able to clear the mist. The boderlander stopped and turned to face the shadow spawn. The white witch leaned against his back.
The mist was growing moving up to the second story on the buildings around the street. It felt like you could hear people weeping and screams coming from the growing mist. The boys and the two girls were looking at the white witch trying to find out what they should do. If something didn't happen they were not going to make it out of the city. One of the girls grabbed onto her magic without knowing. That was the opening I needed.
I laced my magic into the untrained girls, and directed it at the mist. The spell was much more effective than the white witch's had been and she had been too tired to notice the help, the others didn't know what they were seeing but they did know the mist had just vanished in front of them but it probably wasn't going to stay gone long. They raced across the city boundary. The mist closed behind them but not quite fast enough to keep the wraith and a few members of it's unit from following.
Shadow rest of the shadow spawn died screaming as the mist clutched them. Generally if something killed shadow spawn it was capable of killing children of the light as well. I didn't really want to find out so I was going to have to leave myself. Luckily it seemed the city wall had been built to keep people out not in and some of the buildings went right up to it. I climbed up another floor and then jumped. I cleared the wall and landed hard in the dirt. I didn't want to risk drawing attention by using magic, even if the risk was low. Besides, a four story fall wasn't all that far for me.
The biggest problem was the lack of trees between me and the other group fleeing the city. Good thing they were much too busy running for their lives to notice me. The shadow spawn were too focused on trying to get to the hero to notice me. I moved quickly towards the tree line. I could see Shevern standing just inside the tree line, his mouth was slightly open as he watched me run towards him. I tossed up the shield that he had forgotten.
He blinked in surprise and then looked at me, "What in the world are you?"
The whole unit frowned at the awestruck wizard. I shook my head at the wizard, "Have you not been around the last few days?"
"If that is normal, I don't know why the children even bother."
"It wasn't only my power."
"I saw." Shevren shook his head and sat down on the forest floor.
"Good going Des, you broke the wizard." Cryon shook her head with a laugh and looked back at where the heroes were running. "Looks like they managed to catch a river boat."
I looked back at the group. It did look they managed to get aboard a river boat. "Wonder why there was a riverboat, banked this far from any real port?" I didn't expect an answer, but that would mean more traveling. "It does seem I might have broken our wizard." I smiled at Cryon careful to keep my teeth covered. "Not sure why he broke though."
"Harken told a lie." Shevren stated that like it should tell me everything.
If Cryon had been a cat her hair would have bristled, I was sure. As it was she snapped at the wizzard. "He did not, just because you didn't understand him. You had thought that the crystal creatures had been the source of the magic you had felt before didn't you? Well he warned you she holds back. 90% of the tower at once was what he told you." I tilted my head at Cryon, I could have sworn she bonded with Marcus. Why was she defending Harken so strongly?
Cryon snapped her mouth shut with a click and looked at me watching her. She blushed a bit, and looked down at her feet before looking at Ravon. Ravon and the ass were both looking at me. I wondered if they were going to start fighting again. Shevren cleared his throat and stood up before the two commanders could get into it again. "Your right, that was what he said, but hearing it is different seeing it." Shevren shook his head and look at me, "How the hell are you standing?"
"I don't sleep much, and I recover quickly." I looked at the ass. He had crossed his arms while Shevren and I were talking.
"If you two are done, we should run ahead of the boat."
I smiled at the ass, and shrugged, "Cannot do much from here anyway."
Shevren stayed next to me as we ran along the river bank. The ass stopped us just before the next town. There wasn't much we could do for the heroes while they were on a boat, so better do a little more recon on what the area ahead looked like. The ass ordered the unit to stay in the woods while he and the two islee without magic went to learn about the town.
Ravon watched the ass leave, I didn't bother. Instead I found a tall tree and climbed up and rested my back against the trunk, while looking out over the river as the sun started to rise again. If the boat kept a good pace it would be here just before sundown.
I could will myself to sleep but I wasn't tired, I had slept more then enough in the last few days. I looked down the tree as Shevren cursed luckily for him he had not been that high when the branch gave way. He landed hard and one of the elves I didn't know covered a laugh. Tree climbing was not a pastime of most islee, they preferred their feet on solid ground. I normally did as well, if I didn't know the fall wouldn't hurt me I am not sure I would have climbed up here.
I smiled as Ravon smacked the other elf in the back of her head. Shevren didn't look at the two elves, that was the only clue that he had known about the exchange. "Would you like some help, Shevren?"
Shevren looked up at me and crossed his arms, "No, I will be up in a moment."
I shrugged and went back to looking at the river. I could hear the elves talking. It wasn't anything important but my mind filed away some of the information. What I was really listening to was the town. The accent had changed between the town the hero's had lived in and this town. It wasn't an overly large shift but it stood out to me. My mind filed away everything I could hear. I was probably learning more up in this tree than the ass and the other two were learning while trying not to give away just how foreign they really are.
I closed my eyes and felt Shevren's magic as he used it to fly up to the branch I was sitting on. He was breathing harder but not overly taxed when he set himself on the branch. "Harken had said you had a fondness for heights." Shevren looked down at the dirt below the branch he was now sitting on. He breathed out and looked back at me.
"I bet he did. He tried to heal me once after I fell almost right into his lap. I had left the unit near a cliff to chase a wraith that had been hounding us. I killed the wraith at the top of the cliff, fell off doing it and was a bit distracted so I didn't stop my fall. That was the only time Harken ever tried to touch me. That impact knocked the wind out of me." I shrugged again and turned back to face the river. Why had I shared that? I didn't care about Harken or Shevren, they were both terrible wizards. I sighed and took up the position I used when I meditated.
"I didn't get much time to talk to Harken. Do you have any idea why the tower would suddenly start issuing orders, demanding that any wizard with the time should try and teach you any magic you want to learn?"
"Probably because the source of your magic suddenly took an interest in me. Which makes me wonder more if it might be related to the elven prince. Maybe it isn't quite as worried about its ability to control me, but that doesn't make much sense, considering I gave my oath a long time ago."
"The elven bond is not the same as the oath. It is written into the soul. Or that is what the instructors I had in the tower said about it."
"Oh, so defying the bond is worse then breaking the oath since the bond is made by god not just to a god. If the islee believed that they wouldn't be able to stay children."
"If the average one believed that you would be right, but the histories in tower, the elders and the magic users aren't your average islee. Then again you probably know more about the bond now than anyone since the brothers. Since you could track one."
I shrugged, "I felt bad for the commander, which my demon did not understand."
Shevren frowned, "The demon isn't you?"
I looked back at him with another shrug, "It depends on how I look at it. The closest thing I can think of to compare it to is seeing someone you want to fuck. A part of you would do it right then and not care about the consequences, another part might be repealed by even the idea. It might think about what could happen to you, or even the partner if you did give into the first side of you. That is pretty much how I view the world, one side of me wants to kill everything, or fuck everything, all the time. Recently it has been a bit more complicated than that but for the most part it isn't. These base feelings are just what the demon is, what I am is stronger though. If I thank the gods for anything it is that. The demon doesn't see past itself. I can. There seem to be rules the demon exists by but I am learning those slowly."
"There are rules for putting oneself before everything else?"
"For demons there seem to be." I looked down at the branch, "They seem to line up with the laws of the army, especially the older laws. Which is probably why I wasn't as shocked as I should have been to find out that the brothers were half breeds."
Shevren looked at me with a bit of surprise, before frowning and looking down at the ground. He quickly looked out at the river. He was clearly not a fan of heights. "I have never stopped and thought about it. You would be better served taking Sarah up on her offer to become your master."
The demon growled out from behind it's cage and I closed my eyes to restore my control. "Sarah, the shadowhunter? That sounds like a bad idea. Then again I still feel like being within a block of the crystal tower is a bad idea. I am not going to willingly spend any more time there than I absolutely must. I was the same way while learning control and it still took me 4 years to get out of there."
Ravon jumped up onto the branch next to me. "You still haven't asked the right question wizard." Ravon sat with her legs on both sides of the branch, it was not what I would call a lady-like position, but then again who was there to see? "Sorry, your highness, these ears aren't just for decoration." Oh, me I guess. Do I care enough to point out how she looked? She had picked a branch just a bit above mine but she was shorter than me sitting that way. "So are you ever going to ask the million dollar question or should I ask it for you?"
"What are you talking about, commander?"
Ravon rolled her eyes at the wizard, "Can you really not conceive of someone not wanting to learn magic?"
Shevren blinked a couple of times, "Not wanting to learn magic? That would be like not wanting to learn to walk. If you can do it, you want to do it."
"Sure but not every one who learns to walk then goes on to want to be best at walking, or running or swimming. Some people don't even want to swim at all now that I think about it. Islee are known for not liking water, but they can swim." Ravon looked up at the tree top for a moment, "I think anyway."
I and the wizard both made the sign to ward off evil. Ravon smiled at me for a moment. "I should do that to you, I had thought I would still have a few days before going out on another mission. You are keeping me from my mate after all."
"For some reason I don't feel sympathetic, Ravon."
"I thought you might say that, now I do have to ask. Do you love him?"
"I thought you were going to ask his question for him?" I waved my hand at the wizard, he wouldn't care if I was in love with the prince.
"I might, when I get curious enough, but right now how you feel about my future king is much more interesting to me. Also who knows how often I am going to be able to get you away from the islee to ask such prying questions."
I could feel my demon growl at the elf but I didn't think it showed this time. Ravon was not behaving as a loser should, I was being too nice to the weakling. We are both children of the light and within the army she outranks me. My demon didn't like that thought at all. "Not again if the ass figures out you want me around. He is still in the mode that being around me is bad for one's career if not one's health."
"That is true, so guess I had better try and get an answer out of you now. Who knows if I will be able to corner you in the city?" I pretended to have a laughing fit to cover how angry that statement had made my demon. I also had to focus on not attacking my superior officer. Ravon turned her head a bit as she watched me. I didn't think I had covered it well and her next statement proved it. "I am joking, which is why I asked it as a question, I would never do something so foolish, my lady. I am a palace guard first, it is my job to keep anyone from trying to corner the royal family. You aren't an elf, but you are my lady, and not just because you can beat me sober with both hands behind your back and carrying on a conversation with a god."
"How drunk were you? As for carrying on a conversation at the same time; If I hadn't been distracted I would not have hit you that hard. I shouldn't have broken your rib."
Ravon shrugged and leaned forward on the branch. "Would not have changed the outcome, I am not a master, yet." There was a twinkle in Ravon's eye for a moment, "On the other hand if you want to make it up to me you could start by telling me if you love Theon."
Shevren looked at Ravon like she had lost her mind. "I would think that might still be a sore subject, considering you were trying to bed him just two days ago."