Chapter 2: Thrust into a new world.
Neria Surana fell back onto the hard tiled floor as her staff snapped in two, her shoulder and chest burned painfully as an abominations long, pointed claws sunk deep into her flesh and tore her blue robes, staining them red.
She looked past the abomination with tears blurring her emerald eyes, there were so many of them... too many of them.
Alistair was busy fending off the large and brutish pride demon, his shield bashing against the beasts arms and hands as he tried to topple it over. And Wynn was busy encased in a protective barrier reading from the Litany, her voice eching off the walls in an attempt to save all the mages she could.
Surana had done her best to protect her felow warden throwing fire balls where she could but she had left herself defensless and unprotected in an attempt to draw the abominations away from Alistair so he could focus on the pride demon.
Her mana was depleted and her body exhausted and bleeding profusely. Abominations lay dead and charred across the harrowing chamber, the place where she was tested and almost killed. She didnt want to die here, not after all she had been through, not at the hands of the thing she swore she´d never become.
Her breath came in sharp ragged gasps as she dragged herself away from the abominations, her chest and shoulder flaring in pain with every movement. There had to be something she could do, anything she could get her hands on.
Her hand reached behind her, feeling for the sachel she had brought with her in hopes of finding something, anything. Parchment touch her finger tips, it was risky but the only chance she had at surviving this with both Alistair and Wynn occupied.
Her dainty hands grasped the scroll unraveling it with haste, the script was in elvhen and she understood little of it, the words long lost in history even to the Dalish. However two words stood out most to her, protector and elven, she prayed and begged to whatever god would listen that this small parchment she found in Irvings study would work as she spoke rushed words so foreing to her.
Her large green eyes danced with dark spots as she muttered the last word, sapping the last of her mana and leaving her weak and powerless. Through darkening sight she saw someone appear between her and the nearing abomination a dagger shinning in their hand before her eyes closed and she lost conscienceness.
My eyes snapped open as air was rushed back into my lungs, there was a vaguely humanoid being right infront of me it´s stench revolting and wrong. My eyes narrowed, it smelled forced… changed, corrupt even.
I had only a moment to look at the disgusting pink melted flesh of it´s face before it´s twisted arm lurched towards me. My left arm shot out blocking it´s attack as my right hand swiftly took hold of the hilt of my dagger and plunged it into the soft skin of it´s under-jaw, digging it´s way into the abominations skull.
I didn´t have time to ponder what it was I just killed or why it attacked me, all that mattered was the fact that I had killed one and it had friends. There were two more of them to my left, just as grotesque as the first, and one large purple horned ogre with a sharply scaled and muscled body. There was a heavily armored nord attacking it to the best of his ability, his arm shaking with every blow he blocked and his stance wavering with every swing of his sword.
I grabbed my second dagger as the distorted creatures crept closer in a rushed shuffle, my stance pausing as the scent of blood reached my nose.
Someone was bleeding? I glanced to the side seeing a light blue barrier, behind it was a nord mage chanting the words from a long scroll, it appeared to protect those injured behind her. More mages by the look of them.
But the scent of blood was closer, it smelled tainted, poisonous but not wrong like these twisted creatures. It smelled more like a sickness. An echoing growl brought me back to the scene at hand, the abominations were closer now.
I gripped my daggers tightly, the blades pointed towards the ground as I ran forward and dodged under the first abominations arm as it´s clawed hand came slashing towards me. It´s movements slow in comparison to my own and I found myself grinning at the prospect of having the advantage against these unknown creatures.
I forced my heel into the second creature and kicking off of its chest, I bounced back towards the first abomination, dagger plunging into the back of it´s skull with a shuddering force before it even had the chance to turn around. The second one stumbled back with a snarl and lunged forward giving me no time to pull my dagger free. I jumped to the right and out of it´s trajectory with a predatory hiss of my own, it turned to face me yet again as I steeled my stance waiting for it to get closer.
It charged in my direction arms spread wide, claws tense and ready for me to dodge, only I didn´t, instead I stayed still as it got closer and closer until it was arms length away and then I grabbed it´s clawed hand grimacing at the somewhat slimy texture as one of it´s nail teared through the cloth of my armour while I used it´s own momentum to swing it into a column, my dagger soon followed and impaled it´s deformed melted face.
With that done I couldn´t stop the grin stretching across my mouth even as I glanced behind me to find something that caused my eyes to narrow and my brows to furrow, the voice from before echoed in my mind as I saw the small crumpled form of an elf bleeding on the floor.
Protect her.
I stepped towards her without knowing why and soon found myself rushing to her side as the amount of blood she´d lost became apparent. I knelt by her side my hands immediately going to her chest in an attempt to stop the blood from escaping her small body.
It was times like these I wished I knew more about magika and how to heal others, I had only had to worry about such a thing once before in my younger days but hadn´t bothered to learn it due to my becoming a vampire, now I found myself trying to heal something I didn´t even comprehend how to heal.
Healing oneself is much easier than healing another, I know my own body and what is wrong when I am injured but her, this small elf girl I didn´t know... I couldn´t heal her properly, the most I could do was stop some of the bleeding but even that wasn't much. I needed a healer or a health potion, perhaps one of the injured mages was a healer.
My hand snapped to my belt remembering my attire, a row of potions were attached by fine pieces of leather on the side of my belt but only one of them was a restoration potion and it was a weak one at that.
I frowned, the grin disappearing as I quickly applied it to her chest and shoulder, not bothering to clean away the blood, this would only be temporary to wade off infection. I pulled a slave from another pouch on my belt and smothered it over the gashes. This would have to do for now.
I got to my feet quickly and went to one of the abominations I had slain to retrieve my dagger, it still being imbedded in it´s skull, once I pulled it free I returned to the short brown haired elf girl, not wanting to leave her alone for long, and just stared at her.
She was dainty even for an elf, a bosmer, and she smelled off. The poisonous scent from before returning to the forefront of my mind... she was sick? I pulled my mouth piece down angrily, uncovering my mouth and nose, a deep frown marred my features as the full force of her scent filled me, my eyes creasing with worry before I caught myself. Why was I worried about her? I did not know her, did I?
A fearsome growl filled the room and drowned out the mages chanting breaking my line of though, I turned swiftly at the sound and once again held my daggers tightly at my side, I had forgotten about the ogre. How was that even possible?
It was still fighting against the blond nord, its large form slowly overpowering him. He would need some assistance, I glanced back at the small elf as I ran toward the beast before focusing all my attention on it.
The warrior watched me curiously as I placed myself quietly behind the giant beast, his shield protecting him from the ogres massive hands as it tried to swipe the blond man to the side to in vain. The beast was large and, for the amount of attacks the blond man had delivered, it was still fairly undamaged.
We would need to attack it´s less scaled parts, it´s chest or it´s unprotected joints. However, the horned beasts large arms and pointed claws kept the blond at bay, leaving him to block with his shield and attack when he was able, which wasn´t that often.
I watched his shoulders shake from the force as I pulled my daggers tightly against my chest and dropped to the ground, rolling to the side of it´s legs one dagger striking against the back of it´s right knee.
The beast roared at the shallow wound angriliy, leg buckling slightly. The ogre turned rapidly, its large arm rushing toward me in one foul sweep, forcing me to jump back out of the way.
I quickly gathered my bearings and weaved out of the way again as it decided to focus on me. Its arms swung wildly trying to knock me down, I glanced behind me and, seeing the bosmes crumpled not too far away, I growled refusing to let it get close to the bosmer, I wouldn´t let it hurt her.
I stabbed downward my blade meeting thr ogres large hand and piercing through it. The beast reared back, roaring in pain while it held its palm. I rushed forward, the nord doing the same from behind the ogre.
The warrior took this time to deliver a harsh hit on the things knee pit, blood glooping out of the sliced tendon, the giant fell to its knee. A small smile played on my lips as I saw the nord ready another attack, his sword held high before bringing it down with force.
I readied both of my blades and dashed forward as the beast arched its back in pain, pouncing up daggers gleaming in the light before they dug into the beasts large neck. A shriek tore from it´s lips as I pulled them down his thick skin, blood gushed out and covered my arms.
I dogded its haphazoured attempts to grab me, pulling my blades out one after the other only to sink them into its with eyes with all my strength. As the beast roared yet again, my feet struggled to find friction against it´s smooth chest, leaving me unable to pull my daggers free and I swore my undead heart started beating just to stop again.
One of it´s hands managed to take hold of my leg and I held onto my deeply imbeded daggers for life. But it wasn´t enough, the beast ripped me from it´s body, daggers and all. I blindly slashed at it´s arm as it swung me around in an attempt to be set free before it turned me into nothing but a smuge on the ground and sent praise to Nocturnal´s luck that the warrior let out a battle cry as he leapt forward, long sword plunging into the beasts upper back, it´s large hands unable to stop him as they were too occupide with me.
The beasts arms went limp, my leg freed from it´s clawed grip and I rolled to the side as I was dropped to the ground the beast following shortly after me, my short blond hair mussed and the hood was left pooling my neck.
I watched as the massive creature collapsed onto the floor the warrior looking like a knight as he pulled his sword free of the things back with an unbelieving smile. He must have severed the spinal colum. This beat was unbelievably hard to kill.
"Well, that was fun " he chuckled sarcasticly keeping a weary eye on me as I went to clean the blood off of my daggers only to watch as it slowly dissapeared, turning to dust much like the large beast that lay dead next to me but moments ago. My eyes widended, it just dissapeared... evaporating into the air. The smaller melted creatures were still here, having been born of mage flesh and remaining bound to this relm.
What was that? Never had I seen such a thing. Only summoned creatu- it was a spirit?
"I don´t believe we´ve met... "I looked over to the warrior briefly, he was watching me out of the corner of his eye a grimance tugging at his lips as I blatenly ignored him in favor of returning to the small elf on the ground that I felt the need to help.
It was maddening I decided, that I felt so compelled to protect this girl. I didn´t know her, of that I was sure and I had no particular reason to care for her but I found myself doing so regardless of everything.
I heard the blond gasp behind me, his eyes following my path as I knelt by the elf. "Neria, oh Maker no... WYNN! ". I heard the heavy foot falls of the warrior as he ran towards us, my hands were covering her chest again the elfs blood seeping through the salve.
He was getting too close, much too close. My head snapped up in a viscious snarl halting him in his tracks at my red eyes and tense posture. The elderly mage came up behind the warrior and placed a calming hand on his armored shoulder, she looked at the both of us in concern.
"Alistair, check on Irving. I shall see to Neria" the warrior pursed his lips, his steel gaze never leaving mine. "Alistair it will be alright" with a stiff nod the blond nord left, sending one last worried glance towards his companions before going to the Enchanters side.
I hissed as the old mage kneeled on the other side of the small mer, my hands pressing harder against the gashes in her pale skin. Protect her, the voice whispered again but why, why did I need to protect this elf?
My bloodied gloved hands were grasped by the old wrinkled hands of the mage. She only hesitated briefly as she caught sight of my sharp teeth, ignoring my threatining hiss.
"Don´t worry deary, she will be just fine " her words reasurred me as I saw the mages hands glow a soft blue, she was a healer... she could help. The hiss died on my lips as the mage pulled my hands away from the elf and I couldn´t stop the sigh of relief that escaped me as she wiped away the salve, replacing it with her glowing hands.
The deep wound was less angry than before and had stopped bleeding so profusly but as soon as the healer got to work the gashes slowly knit itself back together leaving it puffy and raw but sealed.
The grey haired woman didnt say another word to me, it seemed that the practice was draining her as I noticed her eyes flicker now and then, almost as if she was losing energy. The same clean crisp smell appeared, it was the smell of magic? I sighed, mages.
I stood up slowly and properly took in the surrondings; tall brick walls and columns that seemed to reach the heavens, empty rooms and birght tiles. It was different to what I was used to, no wooden floors or creaky staircases, it was all much more solid.
I noticed the warrior, the mage had called him Alistair, walk over to us with an elderly man with dark grey hair and beard leaning heavily on him, two other robed men behind them. Both limping.
I wondered what exactly had happened, I had been in a cave not long ago and now I was here, in an unfamiliar room with people I have never seen before. Where even is here? How did I get here? What in the name of the Divines is going on here?!
"We should head down to the main floor now, to inform Gregoir there is no need for the Right of Annulment" The healer said, standing up slowly and walking over to the rest of the mages, and the warrior.
She stopped next to me and, with a hand on my shoulder said "You can carry her, her wounds are healed but she will not wake for some time yet" And offered me a naturing smile. I didnt return it, instead pulling up my hood back over my head, hiding my eyes as the others got closer.
The warrior looked like he was going to protest as I knelt down to the elf but thought better of it while I carefully picked her up, gently holding her in my arms, almost scared that I might hurt her. It was true, she was tiny and quite frail, even for a mer.
I follwed the rest of the group down countless stairs, occasionally looking at the small brunnette in my arms, hopeful her eyes would open and maybe, just maybe she could explain what happened to me.
I ignored those around me for the most part, aware of another armored nord joining us on the way down. He was similair to Alistair in a sence, but wore even bulkier armore with a flaming sword imprinted on the chest piece of his armor.
He watched all of the mages with narrowed eyes and kept himself between the mages and I, he was protective of the little mer in my arms and would occasionly glance back at us as we got closer to the lower levels of this tower. I believe they called it a Circle, it resembled the Collages but also greatly differed from it.
My eyes lifted from the limp body in my arms, there were voices up ahead. They were starined, echoing off of the empty stone halls and a majority of the voices were young and scared. Children? Why were there children here?
My grip tightened as those around me perked up hearing the voices themselves. We passed through a threshold and found ourselves in a large room, there were mages everywhere most of them were young probably having seen only ten to thirteen summers but some of the were even younger than that and I found myself frowning.
All of them were thin and pale, almost sickly looking. Didnt these people get fed? The thought worried me if only for the fact that the girl in my arms resembled them greatly in that aspect. She was probably a student here learning the ways of magic.
Alistair and Irving went over to the heavy wooden doors leading into the next room. The mage that healed the elf in my arms glanced at me one last time before going over to the opening doors.
