The party raged above her head on the dock and near the bar, Shiloh sat on the beach digging her bare toes into the warm sand. The sun was setting and she watched the perfect blue sky turn to orange and red and pink and purple. She hugged her knees, and lowered her head, closing her eyes, wishing the day wouldn't end, wishing the new dawn never came. She was afraid. The dread in her stomach festered, and she felt ill, having not even tasted the meal all of her and Vesuvans hard work had made possible. She had escaped the boisterous Company of Hero's unnoticed. They being more concerned with catching up with old friends, already declaring her Titan's bane, celebrating as if she had already won. She squeezed her eyes shut, and felt hot tears on her cheeks, her nails dug into the skin on her legs. She was terrified.
She didn't know if she would be able to heal Vesuvan, if the elements would hear her and obey, or if she would be met with the same disaster she had encountered in the jungle two days earlier. She had been alone, when she had confronted Ifirit, she had seen firsthand how he had put men in his thrall. She went to Titan with Vesuvan, and the thought of his succumbing to the primals will had never been a thought far from her mind. He had been assigned to protect her, but in this case she had to protect him, and she wasn't sure if she could. She had sacrificed a part of herself to save him once, she would do it again, but if his mind was overcome, there was no cure, his wills freedom would lie in death alone. Her shoulders shook, and she gasped for air between stifled sobs.
"Hydalyn guide me, I don't know if I can win and protect him, please show me how to keep him safe." She lifted her head towards the sky, the stars blinking silently back at her like a million shards from the great crystal, but no soothing voice came to her, no answer to her query.
"There you are, Shiloh." Vesuvan's called out to her.
She stiffened and hurriedly wiped the tears from her eyes. Hoping in the dark he wouldn't notice her swollen and blood shot eyes.
"Here I am." She responded with a wave, her voice wavered.
"I snuck the last bottle, I figured we deserve this. What do you think? Now or after we beat Titan tomorrow?" Vesuvan spoke in a conspiratorial tone, quite pleased with himself for having filched the wine.
She noted the two glasses Vesuvan held in his other hand, and his toothy grin. She tried to smile, but her face contorted and she shook her head, stood up and ran to their shared hut, leaving a bewildered and concerned Miqo'te behind. She escaped into the bathroom, baring the door. She ran the water making it hot, stripping out of her clothes and stood under the spray, letting the water wash away the tears, wishing it could wash away the fear and doubt that was paralyzing her. The steam changed, taking on a black and purple hue. It wasn't until the steam was overcome by smoke making it difficult to breathe that she opened her eyes and realized something was wrong.
"Fear is a powerful weapon, wouldn't you agree Champion?" A dark oily voice spoke softly behind her. The water continued to spray distorting sound, and scent.
Shiloh spun around, the wet tiles making her fall, she was caught by the neck in hands covered by gloves, with metal fingers filed to a deadly point. She was slammed into the tiled wall, with a force that made her real, she saw black spots in front of her eyes, her wet body slide up until her toes could not touch the floor. The only sound escaping her mouth being garbled gasping whimpers.
"Did you know that fear, doubt, and despair weaken the aertherial makeup of the soul? It's how I possessed my current host, fool that he was, he has served me well." He spoke all the while trailing his other gloved hand over the planes of her body, everywhere he touched, the heat of the water was erased, replaced by biting cold. She kicked her legs, struggling impotently against a fearsome strength that had taken her utterly by surprise, the more she feared, the weaker she became.
"When I possess a body, their soul remains, but it is bound, unable to move, unable to act. Their memories, their emotions, all of these baser instincts are left behind. I am old enough to ignore them, the leftovers of the host, but every now and then, it is rather enjoyable to indulge." He lowered her, feet touched wet tile again, but her windpipe was still crushed by his vice grip, allowing only the smallest of gasped breath through. Her hands went from the arm holding her to push against his face, attempting to claw at his face, to remove his mask. She wanted desperately to hurt him, to make him sto. She kicked, she fought with everything she had, panic overwhelming her, only thinking of survival. He laughed at her attempts.
Her entire body was slammed against the tile, hard, the smoke a physical weight, holding her as securely as chains. Lips pressed against her own, crushing her, robbing her of breath, sickly oil invading her throat, and she gagged, bile rising. Lahabrea released her lips, holding her face still between metal claws, a deadly smile on his face.
"Shiloh! Open the door, is everything alright? Shiloh!" Vesuvan was pounding on the door, her ears finally registering his presence.
"I hate interruptions. Do try to stay alive a little longer, I so enjoy our chats. It is inevitable, you will die, but I love watching you rage against the storm. Until next time, Champion." With that he released her, and she collapsed to the floor. He vanished in a swirl of smoke. Shiloh retched, emptying her stomach of what little contents there was.
Vesuvan slammed into the door, breaking the lock barging into the room at a run. He looked towards Shiloh, shivering naked on the floor, her body convulsing with every retch. Next he saw the broken tiles. He turned the water off, having turned cold and wrapped his companion in a warm towel. He gathered her in his arms and rocked her, whispering soft and calming words at her as she got her bearings.
"What happened?" He finally asked, when she stopped shaking, when she stopped crying.
"Lahabrea." She whispered, wrapping the towel around her more tightly. She leaned her head against Vesuvan's shoulder. Fear was a weapon, despair, doubt, If she succumbed to these emotions, Ascians or not, she would fail. She looked up at Vesuvan, holding his face in her hands. "Tomorrow, Titan will attempt to put you in his thrall, I cannot rescue you from that fate, if you succumb to Titan's will, your only freedom will be death. If I tell you to run, run, whatever may be happening you run, run as far away as you can so that he can't reach you, so that I'm not forced to kill you as well. The Echo protects me, but I will not have your death on my hands, I will not lose you. So promise me, Lieutenant Vesuvan Nijian, give me your word, that you will run when I tell you."
"I promise. You have my word, Shiloh. He won't take me." Vesuvan answered taking her hands in his, pressing his forehead against hers.
"Good." She nodded her head, closing her eyes, she willed herself to calm down taking a deep breath, then wrapped her arms around Vesuvan, hugging him fiercely. "Good."
Shiloh never did enjoy traveling by Aetheryte it always left her nauseous, knowing this she had barely eaten anything. She didn't want to port in front of the Lord of Crags and present him her digested lunch. Vesuvan paced and checked the sharpness of his axe, the straps of his armor, he lifted then lowered his visor, testing and retesting his equipment for the coming battle. This would be his first primal battle, and he was a mixture of nerves and anticipation. Few were the people who could claim to have killed a god, and though he didn't care much for glory the thought excited him.
"It's ready, go now." Y'shtola nodded to them maintaining her connection to the giant crystal shard.
Shiloh licked her lips, bracing herself for the ephemeral translocation. Her eyes were open but the world went dark as she felt her essence pulled through the Aether, her body, her soul broken down then reassembled. When she arrived she let out a breath a hand going directly to her stomach that was still churning. She felt Vesuvan's hand on her shoulder, felt it squeeze slightly letting her know he was there.
"You alright?" He asked lowly, scanning their location.
"I'm fine." She swallowed the bile, reassured by his presence.
They had been sent to a platform, high above a lake of lava. Large rocks with yellow crystalline veins littered the ground around them. To look at it Shiloh was sure they had been sent to the wrong place, save for the feeling of dread in her heart. The rocks shook and lifted, the ground beneath them bending to the will of the master assembling himself before them. The same hate and malevolence she had felt with Ifirit was there only amplified. Titan was stronger, much stronger than his fiery brother. That much she could tell by the pressure in the air. She was also painfully aware that there was nowhere for Vesuvan to run should he be targeted for tempering. The great Golem took a step forward shaking the platform, bits of earth falling off to be engulfed by the lava below. There was no alternative to victory today. Now that she saw their opponent, Shiloh wasn't sure how they could defeat a being of pure stone.
The Lord of Crags didn't allow for much thought, outraged at being discovered, he swung his arms causing a horizontal landslide, Vesuvan rolled out of the way easily, but Shiloh caught the full force of it and was hurled backwards against a small outcrop of rock. She felt her bones rattle and tasted blood in her mouth. Vesuvan threw himself at the beast, his axe sparking and grinding against the stone body, hunting for a weakness. Shiloh spit the blood from her mouth staining her teeth red, she gripped her staff and grit her teeth aiming for the same section of rock Vesuvan was hacking away at. The Aero found its way into the beasts chest, splitting the already loose stone. Vesuvan dug his axe in as deep as it would go, using himself as leverage to crack it open even more. He could see something glowing, pulsing beneath the stone, a heart, if he could get to it, and destroy it, then surely the primal would fall.
Shiloh channeled the air enhancing it, when the pressure around her brought her to her knees. Under her feet the ground shimmered, she tried to move but an impossible weight held her down. She felt as though she was falling and being crushed at the same time, the weight of the land pressing down on her. She screamed.
"Get it together, Private! You're better than this!" She heard Vesuvan's voice through the echo and blood filling her ear canal. She lifted herself up, her teeth bared. She had been so concerned with everyone's expectations of her, so concerned about her identity and her feelings. This was not the place for thinking, now was the time for instincts and power. She would melt his body in the lava below, and with that thought she willed the same earth below her to slam into its master. He wasn't the only one who could command the earth. She enhanced the slam with a gale of wind, pulling apart the casing of Titan's heart. Vesuvan growled a guttural war cry, hacking and kicking the pulsing stone. Titan screamed. This time when the landslide aimed at her, she rolled deftly to the side. She ran forward and filled the platform with bursting prismatic light, further chipping away at the heart. Titan shook Vesuvan off who fell with a thud, Shiloh filled him with a healing glow that would continue to regenerate and sustain, she cast it on herself and they both resumed the attack.
Vesuvan went into a berserking rage, feral and wild, she surrounded him with the power of air, his body forcing more stones out of Titan's chest. She bent the earth to her will, forcing it to stab and attack until the pulsing yellow heart fell out of the Primal, a gem split in two. The howl Titan released was deafening, bringing both Meqo'tes to their knees. Titan turned his gaze on Shiloh, and spoke in a grinding voice.
"The light does not shine here." He encased her in a stone prison. "I will grind you to dust." His gravelly voice echoed around her.
There was silence. Shiloh slammed her fists against the walls that encased her, she tried to force the stone to release her but it was Titan's will and would not heed her. The stone prison rendered her blind and deaf, the ground shook beneath her feet.
"VESUVAN." She screamed, her own voice dulled and deadened by the earth surrounding her.
She was entombed, buried alive, the air thick and slowly running out and panic began to overwhelm her. She clawed and punched, feeling nails break, and her knuckles bleeding and raw. She was knocked down, every inch of her prison vibrating and shaking, chips fell onto her head. A crack, then a stream of light, followed by the cacophony of falling rock and a growling Vesuvan as he broke her free of her prison. The air was still heavy but she gulped it in anyways before she was hauled to her feet by her partner.
"You're supposed to be the hero here, why am I doing all the work?" He chided with a half smile.
She looked around to discover over half the platform was gone, Titan slammed his foot down causing another outer ring to fall. He lifted the earth beneath him raising mountains, a wave of hard earth hurtling towards them. Shiloh lifted her hands and a wall of blue prisms stopped the attack. She lifted her rose eyes towards the monster bent on destroying them. The prisms began to crack and her rose eyes flared red. The magic barrier broke, but not before Shiloh lifted into the air the crystals light bursting from within her. She reached her hands out, finding Titan's elemental base, she started to pull.
"Vesuvan, help me." She spoke in an otherworldly voice, the same voice he had heard when she made the earth swallow Haukke Manor.
He nodded and ran forward, every swing creating sparks, he hacked at the golems center, as Shiloh who was infused with Hydalyn's strength tore the Primal in half, stone cracking, guttural voice screaming in agony. When Titan was split in two a gale force wind sent both halves into the lava, melting the earth, ending the Lord of the Crags rule.
