Before I left Verity's house, she gave me some amulets that could work even for a magical novice like myself. Easy to use, she said and let the heavy metal chains and stones fall into my hands. I have too little magical energy in my body to wield magic, and the stones sometimes help with minor things. Blinking, shielding, and such.
--
I hold the grey crystal in my hand as we run on the unstable gravel road towards - somewhere. We haven't had a chance to slow down, to look for somewhere to hide. Wherever we go, every turn we take, even as we leap off the road and into the forest, the thick mist follows, and we can hear the echoes of the Dredge hounds barking, salivating at their fangs. Ready for warm pulsating flesh.
My heart is in my throat, every breath shallow and cold. Mikhael holds onto my hand as I continue to lead the way without knowing where we are going. He doesn't say anything, doesn't try to steer me anywhere, so I just continue and hope the hounds will grow tired.
They don't.
Sunlight beams strongly over the cold autumn foliage and not a single human or other is in sight, as if we are trapped inside a snow globe, running around and around, always haunted, always alone.
Suddenly, Mikhael falls, I can hear the bone in his foot crack as his entire weight falls on top of me, pinning my body to the wet ground. He screams in pain as I shift from my belly to sit up, the mist is all around us now. Shutting out the sun, shutting out everything else. I hear it explode with lightning and thunder, green and grey. The metallic scent of blood. Mikhael to my right, his hands around the broken foot. I look at him, and he looks at me.
"I'm sorry", he says, lips barely moving.
With one hand I pull out my knife and slit my palm open, holding the crystal in the other, smearing blood on both the stone and myself. I try speaking to the runes, no, I'm commanding them. I need more time, more than a few seconds. I speak in every language I know, commanding the runes inscribed on the stone to last. The shadows close in as I take Mikhael's hand in mine and let the stone fall to the ground. A sound like an explosion emits through the shadows.
The light emerging around us is nothing like the shields I've seen before, it's pure and clear. It's like the sun, shimmering, pulsating, almost alive. I reach for it. It's like touching a river filled with stars, it flows through my fingers, tingling at the touch.
I can hear the hounds squeal in pain, howling and whimpering as the light stretches out around us, creating a perfect circle that grows and grows until no mist is left. I laugh, relieved, and the shield fades. I look at the stone, wondering what power could've been inscribed within the runes. It's still whole and glittering in the sunlight even as its purpose has come to an end. As I twist the stone in my hand, trying to figure out where that power came from. A passing inquiry flutters through my mind; could it have been me? Tethered as I am to the book, perhaps it shares its powers with me?
Then I hear a voice, no two voices… no three. They're cheering, loudly, and as I look over my shoulder, back the way we came from, a group of four people stands and watches as the shadows and mist pull back from the open field and retreat to the forest. They look like warriors, all of them in different clads of armor and colors. The group now looks at us, surprised perhaps, but also, again that communal relief.
"Are you okay?!" One of the women shouts as they all start to walk towards us. I look at Mikhael, who by the look in his eyes can't believe what just happened either.
"Who are they?" he mouths, and I shrug in response. The party reaches us before I can even utter a single word.
"Did you see that shield, Meia? I'm in awe!" The woman who called to us exclaims, but just as I'm about to say that they're welcome, seeing as my shield saved both them and us, the other woman of the party – a tall woman with raven black hair and blue thorns tattooed on her face – smiles.
"I guess all my practice finally paid off." They all grab her shoulders and smile at her in celebration. Communal pride. I instantly realize that she is a descendant of the Deities and that the thick, glowing shield was hers. The tattoos on her face are a sign of her mix of divinity and humanity. The group, two men and two women look at us as we're sitting disheveled on the ground. The blonde woman extends a hand to me and I grab it. The men help Mikhael up on his one good foot.
The raven-haired Deity looks at me, Meia. She smiles again, looking almost shy as her gaze shifts toward the left side of my face, where the red and pink scar still tells a gruesome story.
"Are you okay?" The blonde one asks again, and I nod at her, my eyes still peering at Meia. This is the first time since the Pink Island that I've met a Descendant of the Deities. They're much prettier and stronger than the rest of us. Different. I can feel the power emanating from her as she calmly brushes some dirt off her tunic.
"Sorry, I'm staring", I manage to say. "My name is Elyse, and this is my travel companion, Mikhael. Thank you for saving us… I don't know what we would've done if you hadn't come along."
"Oh, but don't be silly Elyse, you had that magical rock with you", Mikhael coughs and makes the party of strangers laugh awkwardly. I give him a cold stare, trying to telepathically tell him that I'm going to strangle him in his sleep if we somehow manage to stay alive until sundown.
"My name is Terie, and this is Meia, Rogan, and Collum", the blonde woman says and points to each of the members of her party. Rogan, a burly bald man with half an ear on his left side and a massive axe, and Collum, a scrawnier-looking fellow, with leather gloves and rounded knives in his belt. A Bruiser and an Assassin, as well as a magically empowered being and a quick, chatty woman.
"You guys seem to be quite… well prepared for anything, " I say, looking at them all.
"Yeah, I mean – we are heroes", Rogan says and crosses his arms. The others chuckle at his words, but they don't seem to be joking.
"Heroes?"
"Yes, we were chosen by the Crescent City priestesses to stop the spread of the mists from the Shadow Isle… have you heard of it? It is quite a gruesome tale… a whole island slaughtered, drowned in the cold midnight shadows… families dying together, holding each other as their lands were pillaged and ravaged and turned into a mirror of the afterlife," Terie says. Her eyes are almost brought to tears at her own words, the story of how the mist had swallowed my home seems to be nothing but a bit of spice to the story to be told of her future heroic endeavors. Meia doesn't tear her eyes from me as I nod at her comrade and bite my tongue, as if she can read my mind.
"Do you need help to set that," Meia then asks, looking at Mikhael's foot, twisted and swollen. He doesn't even have time to decline, probably too used to taking care of his injuries, before the demi-divinity puts her hands on his foot and whispers some words. I can tell by the sudden change and relief on Mikhael's face that it's worked, and he puts his foot down on the ground, stomping it twice to make sure it holds.
"So, you guys are Crescent Cities heroes…" he says calmly and looks at me with something in his eyes I can't deduce. "Do you think you will succeed?"
"Of course, we will," Rogan exclaims. "We are chosen by the Moon Spirits and will carry out our quest with valor." Mikhael nods, seeming pleased with the answer.
"Where were you headed before… the monsters found you?" Meia asks with a soft voice.
As I explain that we're on our way to Emerald City, the group seems to listen halfheartedly as I calmly state that we don't have enough time to look where we're running as the hounds found us, and are probably a bit lost.
"You are about four miles off course," Terie says, pointing east. "You want to head that way to get back to the right path. Wow, the beasts must really have been chasing you for a long time if you got this off track…" She looks at us as if she's trying to see if we're hiding something.
I hope that the book will stay silent until we're free of them.
"As a matter of fact, we're heading in that same direction," Rogan says, putting an arm around Mikhael's shoulders. "We could join you… you know, to make sure you're okay."
Internally, I scream every curse that I know, the smugness of this group is unbelievable. The only reason they're tasked with anything is probably due to Meia's magical powers, the others are just – bait, at best.
The book laughs and taunts my jealousy, but the others don't seem to notice as we all fall into a sort of formation, walking back toward where we started earlier this morning.