IV. Midnight Magic
Aislinn hadn't heard a word from Cullen about Driana or Kethran for four days. She hoped everything was going alright with the investigation, but she figured she'd hear something soon enough, especially if anything had gone wrong.
The mages who'd gone to Ostagar and survived had returned late in the evening that day, and Aislinn had gone to her room for the night while hearing some rumblings in the hallways about how one of the senior enchanters, Uldred, acted as if he'd seen some terrible things on the battlefield because he was acting more eccentric than usual, which Aislinn didn't doubt. It was the only thing that made her grateful she hadn't gone into battle. But on the other, and bigger hand, she was sad she couldn't have saved more lives in staying at the Circle Tower.
She turned to shut the door to her private Quarters as she considered this, walking across the room, passing the torches on her wall while she reached up behind her neck and began to unclasp the back of her robe at the base of the neck. Once that was done, she tugged the garment up and off, draping it across the back of her vanity chair before settling down in it, wearing only her unmentionables while she went to pull her hair out of the bun she'd braided it into that morning to allow the copper locks to fall down her back in loose waves. Once that was done, she went about brushing the long mane out thoroughly which took her a few minutes because the locks were so long. She'd been considering cutting it lately, but for now, she'd have to simply put up with it.
Aislinn considered herself while she worked on her hair like most women tended to do at the vanity. She honestly didn't think she was a gorgeous woman, but she figured she was pretty enough to perhaps turn a head or two, but she'd always thought she was a bit plain besides that. For this reason, she liked using makeup to dress herself up, and besides, that was always fun to do anyway.
Her skin was pale from the years spent inside of the Tower and out of the sun, thankfully without blemish, and her hair was much darker than it had been when she was a young girl. She wondered if that was due to a lack of sunlight as well. Right now, it was a deep copper color, almost auburn, but when she was younger, it had been closer to the color of amber, and she kind of missed that tone. Maybe she'd be able to find some dyes to spice it up a bit.
Once she was done brushing her hair out, she stood and headed over to her dresser to grab something that she could sleep in. Her laundry was done as usual - she didn't have to do laundry anymore, that was all an apprentice's task - so like always, she found the clothing she'd sent to have washed all nicely folded or hanging neatly in her dresser, and she grabbed a white nightgown that was only decorated with an ornamental pattern along the v cut collar, but nothing special aside from that. The skirt hung down to her upper knees with two very sort slits up each side, and she'd always considered that this particular garment accentuated her curves fairly nicely, not that she'd had anyone to impress with it recently.
Some devious part of her wondered if Cullen would've been impressed, a thought that had her smirking before she considered that even if he was, he'd more than likely run for the hills when he saw her in it. It's sad that he's so skittish, he could probably make a woman very happy. Where the sudden thought had come from just then, Aislinn wasn't sure, but she couldn't bring herself to think of any reason why it wouldn't be true.
Aislinn kept her slippers on until she made it to the side of her bed and tugged her blankets back, then pushed them off with her feet and then climbed in, bundling under the covers until they were comfortably wrapped around her in a cocoon. She had the thought that it was cold enough for a fire, but she was too weary to think to get up and start one, and ended up falling asleep before she could even try to motivate herself to do it.
The night was passing silently for the most part, peacefully, a typical night until sometime after midnight when everything changed completely. A loud crash sounded from the hallway outside, followed by a few noises Aislinn had never heard before that she couldn't quite place which had her rising from her pillows without hesitation. Listening quietly, she heard several thuds followed by a distant scream that she knew couldn't be good, whatever it was, and so she shot up out of bed and grabbed her slippers out of nothing more than sheer habit alone developed over years of living in a tower with cold, marble floors. She tugged them on as quickly as possible before attempting to make her way to her door.
Aislinn had barely managed to pull the second slipper on however when the door came crashing open suddenly. The force that caused this to happen were the bodies of three Templars, one of which was already dead - easily told because his head was rolling with gruesome thuds of sound across the floor, before coming to a stop at her feet to settle and stare up at her blankly.
With her jaw completely unhinged, Aislinn let her foot lower back to the same floor slowly, her eyes drifting from the head and to the body it'd been attached to a moment beforehand, and then up a little more to a being that was attacking them and moving into her doorway.
The...thing...couldn't be described as anything short of an abomination, and that was what Aislinn decided that it had to be. She'd never seen one with her own two eyes, had never cared to see what would happen to a mage who gave into the sway of demons and blood magic, but now that she was witnessing it firsthand, her heart had nearly stopped over the hideousness of it. That, and the fact that it had stopped to stare directly at her as if...she didn't even want to know how it was staring at her.
But one of the Templars laying on her floor had moved to attempt to get up, distracting the Abomination's attention, and the creature turned quickly to move in and attack. Something in Aislinn clicked when this happened, and instead of gaping at the scene anymore, she moved toward the monster attacking the Templar swiftly, lifting her hands as she went, her fingers electrifying on the way towards it. As she got about five feet away, and just when the Abomination was about to land a heavy blow to the Templar's currently helmet-less and bleeding head, the blast of lightening Aislinn had created jolted away from her hands and slammed into the monster's mid section, knocking it backwards and out of the door through which it'd entered.
Aislinn didn't stop moving until she'd reached the door, sneering with her efforts as she fired off the wave of electricity into the Abominations body, making it convulse in reaction, before pulling both hands back to end the spell while taking a deep breath. Her fingertips still buzzed with a few shocks, just as the Abomination did while she looked over her handiwork. The creature continued to lay there, unmoving in the middle of the hallway. Seeing this, she turned to the wounded Templar on the floor, leaning down to help him up to his feet. He was a somewhat older man, maybe in his forties somewhere, and he accepted her help without question. The older Templars always seemed a bit more agreeable than the younger ones anyway, or it could have just been the fact that he had a horrible wound on the side of his head preventing him from thinking straight just then.
Seeing the injury and the blood matted in his crop of silvery black hair, Aislinn used her healing magic on him, which took a fair bit of energy on her part because the wound was actually a bad one. He would've more than likely died in a few short minutes without further attack anyway, but the spell Aislinn used had him completely patched up in nearly a fraction of that time.
As the wound closed and faded away, leaving nothing but the blood trails that had seeped from them, he shook his head and glanced down at the woman standing next to him who was trying to help him to stand straight, then turned his gaze rather blankly to the hallway again, still disoriented.
"Can you stand on your own?," Aislinn asked him.
"Yes," he replied with a brief nod, regaining his senses. So Aislinn let go of him and turned to the last Templar on her bedroom floor to check his life signs. But there was no sense in doing that when she saw the injury to his throat. He was dead too.
She had no time to consider that however, or even start trying to wonder about what in the world had just happened. Suddenly, the Templar Aislinn had just saved reached down and took her arm without warning. Everything had finally come back to him, and he pulled her to her feet and turned her around to face him, asking on a demanding tone, "What's going on, mage!"
The sound of his voice shook her, but Aislinn only gave him a narrowed look of confusion and retorted quickly, "Why are you asking me? I just woke up when you three crashed through my door!"
"You have to know something! Abominations are all over the place! This is no random act!"
Just like a typical Templar, Aislinn figured, always thinking that one bad mage spoiled the bunch. He was older and more seasoned, so his words hadn't been as angry as she definitely knew they could've been, but he was still insinuating that she had something to do with the Abomination she herself had just delivered the final blow of death to. She guessed that some habits just died hard.
So in response, she told him, "No, it's not, it's an utterly confusing act that I'm apparently just as lost over as you are. Just because I'm a Mage," she added on as harsh a tone as she could muster and tugged her arm from his hand, "does not mean I know what other Mages are thinking or doing!"
The man seemed to realize that he'd lost his temper just then, taking a deep breath and giving her a nod of his head. "Very well. You'll need to come with me before more of those...things...wander this way. Quickly," he added on a commanding tone of voice.
"I'll need a robe first," she told him certainly as she moved away from him, "then I'll go with you." She didn't mean the average robe of a mage, but just one to cover her nightgown because, honestly, time was of the essence like he'd said and she didn't want to linger. Her robe was draped on the hanger by the door like always, and she tugged it on quickly, heading back to the Templar as she worked to tie the garment around herself.
The Templar hadn't completely waited on her, and instead, was glimpsing into the hallway to see if there was any threat present. Spying nothing lurking, he looked back at the woman approaching him and then stepped out of the room with her, giving her a suspicious gaze on the way, though nothing like one of the younger Templars might have. Save a man's life and this is how he thanks you, Aislinn thought with a slight roll of her eyes. She sarcastically reminded herself that, next time, she wouldn't save any Templars until she was precisely certain of what was going on. But hell, then she'd probably be blamed for wrongdoing even more quickly if she did things that way.
The two of them headed down the hallway without hesitation, though they were careful not to make much sound at first until they'd reached the stairwell. In seeing that the flight was empty, they took it, heading down through the enclosed corridor that most stairwells in the Tower were located inside of, and on the way, Aislinn asked softly, "All you know is that there are Abominations everywhere?"
"Yes," he replied. "I was simply standing watch with my friend when we were both ambushed. He was killed, and I barely escaped them."
"Where was this?"
"Just upstairs," he told her, and they reached the bottom of the steps where another door that led into the stock room was locate. Quietly, the Templar cracked the door open to see a number of Mages gathered in the large, circular shaped room with several more Templars, all of them looking confused and bewildered, if not a little frightened. The Templars were trying to keep order, so the man Aislinn had traveled with opened the door and stepped into the adjoining room, saying, "Thank the Maker," to one of his fellows. "I thought you might be dead."
Apparently the man he was speaking to was a good friend, and Aislinn decided to just walk past them while the Templar she'd come in with explained what he knew of the situation to the others and join her kind, though at that point in time, she wasn't sure who she would have rather stood with considering Abominations were usually what used to be a simple Mage before a demon had twisted him or her beyond recognition - often times with the use of blood magic. So that meant that any Mage in that room could have something to do with this.
"Aislinn!," a man said quickly, moving toward her, and Aislinn realized it was Conley who was speaking her name just then. He looked relieved to see her, and she listened as he continued to say, "We thought you might've become one of them when you weren't down here after the Templars got us together."
"Do you know what's going on?," Aislinn asked the blonde mage. "I was asleep in my chamber and suddenly my door's being broken down with Templars' bodies literally."
"No, we just know that they're everywhere on the upper floors according to the Templars," Conley replied, swiping his fingers through his hair to get it out of his eyes, the other mages standing nearby nodding their heads in agreement. Conley then added, "Irving, Uldred, and Wynne aren't accounted for either. They could all be dead."
One of the other mages in the room stepped forward and backed Conley up, though in more of a frantic fashion, "I saw an Abomination and a mage that killed three of the Templars at once! He must have been using Blood Magic!"
Just like she'd thought, blood magic. "Well, this sounds wonderful," Aislinn said sarcastically. "You'd think a mage who's actually contemplating blood magic might consider trying to run away from the Tower first before giving in, considering the eyes settled on this place."
Conley had snorted when she said the line, and one of the Templars standing not too far away who had blood covering his armor and his blade nearly everywhere said, "I wouldn't joke about this if I were you, mage. At best, half the circle could be lost but still recoverable. At worst, the Knight Commander is going to invoke the Right of Annulment and kill everyone here. With all of the Abominations I saw, I'm leaning towards the second option."
Aislinn stared at the man with incredulity, then looked back at Conley, asking, "It's really that bad? I only saw one on the way here."
"There's a lot more," the Templar informed her before Conley could say a word, "they haven't yet come down from the upper floors as we've managed to bar them off until our forces are organized and we can access things."
"And just when do you think that might be?," Aislinn asked with no lack of command in her own voice. "You're hesitating because of what? You're afraid the mages here are going to turn on you?"
"It's possible," the Templar sneered back at her.
"It's also possible that the longer you wait, the more people are going to die. Both Templars and Mages alike."
At that point, Conley had put a hand on Aislinn's shoulder, but Aislinn just wasn't in a good mood. She'd been awoken in nearly the middle of the night to a scream, saved a thankless man from death, and was standing in the middle of a room full of stubborn Templars and mostly scared Mages with nothing but her nightclothes and a robe on. She figured anyone would've at least been indignant.
At least I grabbed my slippers, she thought blandly. Nothing worse than having cold feet.
"We wait for the Knight Commander," the Templar insisted to her, then looked over all of them and added, "and none of you go anywhere until he shows up."
Aislinn sighed, turning away from the stubborn Templar who was apparently too afraid to act and send more of the Templars standing about the room now to help stop the situation, or too indifferent to it to, and folded her arms over her chest in thought. As she did this, Conley said softly so only she could hear, "This is the last place you really want to anger the Templars, Aislinn. So just try to be calm. I'd rather not experience a Holy Smite."
"I am calm, Conley. I'm just...worried and scared," she replied, "and I tend to get a bit snappy when I'm like that."
"Well, hopefully that'll be a good thing if push comes to shove. We don't need anyone else shivering in a corner, pissing their robes."
Aislinn smiled over the statement, hoping he was right and that this wouldn't get too ugly, but she had a sinking feeling that it would. Oddly enough, her mind didn't go to what she thought it would either. She figured she'd be worried about the Tower or perhaps Irving since he was unaccounted for and she was fond of him and amused by him - he reminded her of her grandfather in a very gruff sort of fashion. She was worried about that too, but her mind had suddenly gone to Cullen with the thought I wonder if he's still alive. It was actually a worry, and she wasn't completely certain where it'd come from. He's a good person, of course you'd be worried about him. She had to admit that to herself, and didn't feel bad for doing so.
Not to mention that investigation he'd gotten started on at her behest. She hoped that had nothing to do with this at all. Once she'd thought of it, she scanned the mages around to try to locate Driana, but she didn't see the woman anywhere.
Before she could really consider it though, a loud explosion sounded from the floor above them, so loud in fact that it shook the walls and the ceiling, making a few people around them whimper in fear. The Templars had grabbed their weapons however and moved forward as if waiting for something to swoop through the ceiling to come and get them, and just when Aislinn had thought they couldn't get anymore slack in their duties, the one, blood covered Templar spoke.
"Alright, that's it. You three, stay here and bar the doors. The rest come with me. We can't wait any longer."
Under her breath, Aislinn grumbled out, "It's about time," and Conley tried not to smirk over it, agreeing with her in that these particular Templars were apparently not the best the Circle Tower had to offer.
They were currently on the floor where the stock room was kept, one of the Tranquil Mages named Owain who ran that part of the area standing there acting as if absolutely nothing was going on while the Templars leaving had flooded through the door, and it honestly made Aislinn feel uneasy.
Especially when he said, "I wonder if everyone will be able to return to their rooms soon. It's hard to keep the stock room clean with everyone here," on a voice that was completely deadpan.
Aislinn and Conley exchanged a sideways glance over the Tranquil mage who had absolutely no emotional reaction to offer to what was going on around them at all which was a good bit creepy before looking ahead again, and they'd both decided not to even try answering his question. They couldn't anyway because a loud boom sounded from the stairwell nearly as soon as he'd spoken which got their complete attention, the Templars who'd currently barred the door leading into the stairwell becoming alert. They poised themselves just incase something managed to break through, and the mages in the room all grew tense, either readying themselves for a fight, or the less seasoned ones backing off, looking to run.
Among them, Aislinn noticed the Senior Enchanter Leorah, a blonde Elf who hadn't been a Senior Enchanter that long, and a mage Aislinn had met before named Niall who looked much less ready to fight than Leorah did, both of them standing there waiting for...something to happen...along with everyone else. She turned her attention back to the door, waiting as well. Whatever came through it, she wouldn't let herself get caught off guard. I just wish I had my staff damn it all.
A loud crash then sounded against the door, followed by some yelling on the other side. Apparently a fight was taking place inside the stairwell, lines such as, "Get back, Demon!," coming out loudly enough to hear clearly. This was followed by a cry of anguish, and that by some kind of demonic snarling which made everyone uneasy. The air in the room Aislinn was standing in seemed to grow thick enough to cut just afterwards. She and Conley both watched their surroundings when, without any warning, Shades began to form within the room where they were standing, and headed for the door the Templars were barring.
"Stop them!," a female mage with a little good sense yelled from the crowd, and Conley was the first to move, using fire magic to send an inferno into one of the Shades before it could reach an unaware Templar. Aislinn had been just about to cast a warding spell of her own to stop the Shades in their tracks momentarily when a movement behind her caught her attention.
One of the Mages in the group she was standing in had turned and slapped the woman who'd yelled for the Shades to be stopped right across the face, backhanding her hard enough to send her falling down onto the floor.
"Shut up, treacherous bitch! Do you really want the Templars to win!"
Aislinn stared at the mage who'd done this and noticed that his hand was bleeding. He'd summoned the Shades himself, had waited until just the right time to do it while hiding amongst the mages who'd been gathered into the stockroom so far. Instead of call him out on it and draw his attention to her however, Aislinn used his unwittingness to her advantage and cast a barrier spell to stop him from doing further damage. Because he'd had his back turned, he hadn't been able to defend himself, and once he was frozen into place temporarily, Leorah invoked a warding spell around him that was stronger than the barrier to keep him contained when Aislinn's spell had worn off.
Aislinn turned and hurried over to the downed woman he'd slapped to help her up to her feet, seeing that she was fine just when the sound of the door crashing open was heard.
Apparently, things were about to get heavily complicated.
More shades were on the other side of the door along with some Abominations, flooding into the room and attacking whomever they could find. Magic burst to life as this happened, the mages in the room defending themselves, while the Templars coming from the floor above all moved in behind their foes - those who'd survived anyway - many covered in blood, but unhurt, tearing blades through the summoned creatures and slamming shields into their bodies. For a brief moment while Shade and Abomination were torn down by Mage and Templar hands alike, there was a union between the two forces that was seldom to be witnessed while defending the Circle Tower.
Shades fell to the ground, more Abominations moved in behind the Templars who'd killed the Shades, and the fight continued. Aislinn made sure to keep a good distance, using her magics to keep the Templars and Mages both healed if she could since more defense was needed in this situation, standing near to Leorah, who was using powerful offensive magics to attack the creatures. She, luckily, had her staff, an item that would have helped Aislinn to focus much better just then, but she made due.
While casting a healing spell on one of the Templars who'd just been knocked over with a burst of blue light enveloping his body, Aislinn saw a mage falling to the floor after he was jumped from behind. She would have reacted to the situation, but she heard another sound behind herself and looked back as a Shade was trying to ambush her, reacting by reaching to pinch the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes. As she did this, she sent a blast of telekinetic energy from her mind to knock the creature back and into a daze, which would allow her escape.
Leorah was grateful for the quick act as she hadn't seen the Shade when Aislinn had, and she grabbed Aislinn's hand to help her get away from the monster more quickly so that hopefully, when it came to, it would find someone more sturdy like a Templar to physically pick on until it could be taken down.
Screams began to fill the chamber, and Aislinn realized as she came to a stop with Leorah standing next to her that three more mages had come into the room - and they were apparently reinforcing the actions of the monsters with blood magic. It was at this time that she heard the voice of a man standing nearby, saying to Leorah, "We need to get the Litany of Andralla! Otherwise we're all doomed!"
"Niall, wait! We need help!," Leorah called back to him.
But Niall wasn't listening to her. Instead, he was risking things by slipping in and out of the fighting until he could make it to the stairs, and actually managed to disappear through the doors. Aislinn watched him until he'd escaped the room after she'd cast a rejuvenation spell on a Templar who was being triple-teamed by two Shades and an Abomination when she'd noticed her friend, Conley, being knocked back by another one of those same creatures. Before Aislinn could offer any aid whatsoever, the floor beneath her feet began to change in color, and behind both herself and Leorah, a Rage Demon sprung up from seemingly no where, knocking the two women forward with ease.
The strength of the blow cause Aislinn to slide across the floor after she'd hit it fairly hard, and she ended up slamming right into the wall head first. The blow to her crown made a light seem to flash before her eyes, her body ending up laying in the corner of an alcove, not completely out of sight from everyone else, but concealed enough that she was overlooked where she lay. She felt a warm trickle working its way down the side of her face just a moment later, and realized she was bleeding from a gash in her temple. She'd been knocked into too much of a daze to react however.
Her vision grew blurry, and she tried to force her eyes open, in case something came her way, but she wasn't sure if she did or not. She just hoped that, whatever might've found her, it would kill her quickly. She did not want to turn into one of those horrible creatures before she died. If the Maker had any mercy in him at all, which she sometimes questioned, it wouldn't happen.
It was the last thought she had before she blacked out.
