"What is it?" My partner yelled at me through the geist created whirlwinds, his figure in front of me bearing the brunt of the winds, protecting me. It was expected of him, he was the one trained to fight, I was just the scout.
Using my Sight, I saw the middle of the storm. I had expected to see the knot of typical geist, but the strands weren't even wound around another, they flying, chaotic, extending from the ground. It was a collision of colors, I couldn't even begin to tell what it was. The only thing I could see were the tens of shades around it.
"I don't know." I replied, fear treading the bond that connected us emotionally and mentally. "Keep your center within you, you don't want one of the surrounding shades to latch onto you."
The bond was something every pair of partners shared, it allowed Sensitives like me to share our Sight with Actives like Keelan, so the Active could push the geist back to the other side, where they belonged. The bond was handy in that way, but sometimes it was burden having someone else know your every feeling and thought, it took years to learn how to keep such things to yourself.
I flinched as the geistwind flung my long auburn hair around my head, whipping me in my eyes. It would have blinded me if I didn't have a Sensitive's double vision, allowing me to see beyond the normal plane of sight and into living things themselves.
I felt Keelan draw upon our bond, and activate a rune, a blue fire erupted in his gloves. If he was invoking Teisyat, things were dire indeed. He thrust out a hand, throwing the otherworldly fire into the geist. The shades that were in the way screamed as the fire burnt them away, but the center of the geist seemed to double in strength.
Teisyat wasn't a good idea. I told him grimly. Instead of killing the geist, it had opened the portal to the otherworld even wider, allowing it to draw in more strength.
"By the Bones!" Keelan let out a curse as he let the flames die out. "Can't you do something?" He yelled at me, glancing back at me with his red eyes, a color scar from the time he was possessed as a child.
I could do one thing, but it would break one of the Orders rules. Invoking Teisyat was enough for an inquiry, but if I tried what I was thinking of on top of that, we would risk be expelled from the Order entirely.
He heard my answer through the bond, and reached out behind him and took my hand. I glanced up at his grim face, he seemed resigned. He would never make me do anything against my will, he was a great partner, and husband because of that.
Suddenly, I felt a gigantic pressure on me, causing my knees to collapse and I fell to the ground. Keelan's confusion washed over me as he knelt beside me, trying to figure out what was wrong. I let out a scream as the pressure increased, hearing a bone snap in my leg. The geist was crushing me!
I grabbed my strop and tied it around my crying eyes through a haze of pain. Using only my Sight now, having blindfolded my eyes, I saw Keelan invoking all seven of his runes now, trying anything to save me. His desperation washed into me.
I grabbed his arm, invoking the run that etched inside it, a rune only I knew. I felt it flare to life, and then darkness.