I unsheathed my swords and held them loosely at my sides. It was better to be relaxed, ready. Even if you were fighting alone. I saw a flash of movement in my peripherals and whirled to see Thorn standing in full battle armour.
"You came." I said softly.
"It's my job." he replied, and looked at the foe that was rapidly approaching.
They hit with a ferocity that would have knocked me over if I hadn't used my powers to steady myself. I sheathed myself in flame, pulling from that place within myself of creation. Fire had just as much life as it did death. I saw Thorn do the same beside me and we hacked at them. I could feel them trying to find my fears, trying to hurt me. Images flashed on the battlefield of my family screaming, of my siblings dying.
I felt the tears stream down my face as I killed each of them. As I shoved images of happiness and creation at each of them to drive their hatred away. I could feel my strength fading. Two men appeared next to me and I nearly collapsed with relief when I saw that it was Xevikan and Caleb. If I knew one thing I knew that they were skilled warriors.
"Don't let them get to you." I gasped and drove deeper into the fray. When you killed one, five seemed to appear in its place. One came up at me and landed a hit to my head. I blinked at the spots in my vision and swung, one of my swords getting lodged in its spinal chord. I jerked it free and lopped the rest of its head off, feeling my strength waning. I pulled on my magic, the reserves that were there. It would strengthen me.
I let out a war cry so primal I almost didn't recognize it as myself. Dodge, kick, swing. Duck. I felt Thorn at my back but they were closing in fast, so fast. We couldn't keep this up much longer. There weren't enough of us. We pressed out at them but soon they would overwhelm us by sheer force. I had to act now.
An image appeared in my mind and I felt fear rise up in me. But I knew now what I had to do.
"Run." I said.
"What? No! We can't just let them kill everyone." Xevikan replied, seemingly shocked with my comment.
"I'll hold them off." I said, grunting with effort as I decapitated yet another. We were standing on a pile of bodies almost ten high, and it was only growing.
"If we go they'll kill you." Thorn said as if I was an idiot. Maybe I was. But this was my job. I could feel it. Maybe this was even why the Source had created me to begin with. Stop the total annihilation of the world.
"If you stay they'll kill us all, and then there will be nobody left to protect the rest." I replied, kicking one of them back and sending its arm flying. "Now go. You have sixty seconds to get at least four miles away."
"Then what?" Caleb slashed two more. We weren't even making a dent.
"Then watch the fireworks." I replied. They all looked at each other then back at me again, seeming to hate the idea. "I'm a goddess of protection. This is my job." I was almost pleading with them. Nobody had to die today.
They vanished and the Valg started in for me, the darkness writhed at the edge of my fire. One. This was it. This was what was left of me. Twenty. The shaking had started. Forty. Keep going just a little longer. Sixty. I prayed that they were out of range and closed my eyes. I reached into the full depths of my power and grabbed onto everything that was left. I channeled it, into heat and retribution. I created a barrier, a sort of patch. I could feel it forming around the rift, closing up the hole. It wasn't a permanent solution but it would keep the rift closed long enough for them to bring backup.
When the rift was closed I opened my eyes and smiled at them. "Do you fear death?" I unleashed the fire and for a moment the world was white with heat. It was beautiful. It spread out for miles in either direction, obliterating all life; animals, foliage. I hoped that there was nobody in this area of the Sahara. I felt myself fall at the ground as the bodies under me were turned to nothing more than ash. Hundred of thousand of Valg, dead in one instant. Too bad there were so many more back in that world that would need to be defeated.
The light died and only the sun was there to shine down on me. Spots appeared in my vision and I felt something drip from my nose, my ears. I reached up and my hand came away wet with blood. I laughed and it sounded eerie in the silence. So this was it. I guess immortality was overrated anyways.
The world faded and I have the distinct memory of floating above my body. Ash appeared next to it, Styxx next to him. There was anguish on their faces but I couldn't be sure why. They barely knew me. They checked my breathing and I watched. My chest was barely rising and falling.
Caleb and Xevikan appeared next, Thorn appearing right after them. They all knelt next to me and conferred. I heard them but it sounded as if I was underwater and they were speaking at the surface, so far away.
"If we're going to help her we have to do it now." Acheron's voice sounded above the others.
Styxx looked at him. "She's too far gone. It will take more than one of us to bring her back now."
"I can't. My life is already tied to another's." Ash said.
"I'll do it." Caleb said. I tried to jump at him, smack him but my body wouldn't respond. If I was right they were going to tie two lives to mine to keep me alive. I couldn't let that happen. Caleb had been trapped for so long as the servant of various Malachai's. I couldn't take that freedom away from him.
I would be at their mercy. I knew that. But these men weren't vindictive. Relying on them wasn't something I relished in but I was more worried about them. They would feel obligated to help me for the rest of their lives. Be tied to me even when they wanted to feel free.
"So will I." Xevikan said.
"No, I will be the second." Styxx said.
"You're Cthonian, it won't have the same effect." Ash explained to him. He looked between Caleb and Xevikan. "You realize that in doing this you'll hold her life in your hands forever. If she doesn't get your blood once a week she will die and it will cause a cataclysmic shift in the balance."
They both nodded gravely. I could see it on their faces. Neither of them really loved this but they didn't realize that I might not want this. Maybe I would rather die than be anyone's slave. Maybe I would rather die than make anyone feel like a prisoner again.
"The world needs her." Caleb said. "More than we need to be free."
Tears were streaming down my non-corporeal face. I watched and they started to escape on my real body too. It was strange, seeing yourself not in the mirror.
"Look," Thorn said. It was probably the first helpful thing he'd said. Maybe they would realize that this was a bad idea and let me go.
"We have to hurry." Ash said. "Cut your hands and pray that this works."
Ash then worked his magic of rebirth and I blinked out and back into existence. I opened my eyes and there were all their faces above mine. "What have you done." I said hoarsely. My eyes accused each of them for the part that they had played.
"We saved you." Styxx said.
"You've imprisoned me." I said. "You have imprisoned them - because they are good men and they won't leave me to die, and they won't leave the world to die." The tears kept coming and I bit back a sob. "You sentenced two good men to a lifetime of this." I waved my hand at my face that was still covered in blood.
Styxx flinched as if I'd slapped him. I may as well have. The look on Ash's face showed that he knew exactly what he'd done. But he had accepted it. And was ready for me to hate him. He'd had to choose between me and the world and he'd chosen the world. If I was being honest I would have made the same choice.
I wiped at the tears and stood up.
"It's okay if you hate us." Ash said. "But don't take it out on them."
I tried to push the anger back, clenching and unclenching my fists. My legs shuddered. I guess their blood hadn't totally fixed everything. "I could never hate you. You're my brother." I closed my eyes again and swallowed against the lump in my throat. "I just... need time to be okay with this."
He nodded, and kept his distance. Styxx stood next to him and shifted to pick up my dropped swords, handing them to me hilt first. I took them and slid them back in their sheaths. They were covered in black blood but I didn't have the energy to clean them. I need to sleep and I needed to think. What I really needed was to not be around these people.
"Let's take you home." Caleb said, taking my elbow gently.
I stepped away, not aggressively but firmly. "I have a roommate who doesn't know anything about this. I can't really bring home two bloody men." I shifted my shoulders. I was already starting to feel some of the effects of the healing. I could teleport home myself. If I was right, Lanna would still be at work so I could shower quickly and then sleep. "I go home alone. Ash has my number. You can contact me tomorrow."
With that I flashed out and landed awkwardly in my shower. I flashed off my armour and turned the shower on, hissing at how cold it was. I let it heat up until it burned and scrubbed at the black goo on my body. My tears mingled with the water and I scrubbed until the water once again ran clear and then long after that. I turned off the shower and my skin was raw from scrubbing.
I didn't have the energy to put clothes on. Instead I stumbled into my room and on my bed, remembering to shut the door before I passed out.
x.x.x.x.x
My lease was up in three months, but I had a feeling that I was going to have to leave sooner. It would be too dangerous for Lanna if I stayed. I would have to tell her about myself. About why. I had a feeling that this wasn't the last that we were going to see of the Valg. I had named their world Maas world V. So far my patch on the rift was holding, but we had soldiers stationed there constantly just incase things went south. Thorn's Hellchasers could handle it at least until reinforcements arrived.
A knock sounded at the front door and I sighed. Time for an amazingly awkward encounter. I opened the door to find an unhappy Caleb and Xevikan. We all walked upstairs and then sat across from each other.
"So, now what?" I asked awkwardly. Caleb and Xevikan each took out a knife and a cup. They cut themselves and the blood poured in. I hurried to the sink to grab some paper towel beside it and when I came back they were already healed. Awesome. Now my inexperience was showing.
I took the cups and took a sip from the first one. I gagged. It tasted exactly like regular blood - like when you bit your lip and a little blood spilled into your mouth. It was like copper and totally unappetizing.
"What the fuck," I gagged again, and yet my body yearned for it. I was salivating even as my stomach muscles contracted and bile came up my throat. They both grimaced across from me, neither really liking what was happening any more than I was. "Isn't it supposed to taste better?" I asked, trying to choke back another gag. I couldn't even look at the stuff without gagging.
"It tastes like blood." Caleb said, the sarcasm dripping from his voice.
I glared at him but he didn't balk. Annoying demon-man.
I managed to choke back the rest of it, with lots of gagging and swearing throughout. When it was finally over I felt sufficiently humiliated and we all just sat there in silence.
"We should really talk about the living situation right now." Xevikan said.
I raised my eyebrows. This was going to probably be offensive.
"You should think about living with us." Caleb said.
I nodded slowly and pressed my lips together in the facsimile of a smile. "Why?" So far they hadn't said anything ridiculous but I was already on the defensive. These two were just so... attractive? Dangerous? They made me uneasy.
"We can protect you. It'll be easier for you to get your... weekly gifts. And you would be closer to your brothers." Xevikan finished. It really all did sound pretty practical. Except for the whole insinuation that I couldn't protect myself.
"Are you saying I can't protect myself? Because I'm pretty sure we're all in this mess because I protected you." I gestured to them. "I protected the whole world so I am more than capable of protecting myself." I snapped.
"We're not saying you can't-" Caleb said.
"I know exactly what you're saying. You're concerned about the world. You think that if something happens and you're not there to help me pick up my pieces with your blood then the whole world will collapse." I said and even as I spoke the anger in me dimmed to a sort of emptiness. I had to accept that things were going to be different. They were right. And I had already been thinking that I may have to leave my apartment.
I sighed. "I do know that I'll need to distance myself from this place soon, though. If things keep going the way that they have been."
"You mean if another universe collides with ours?" Caleb said, seeming a little skeptical. "What are the odds that would happen twice?"
"What are the odds it would happen once?" I countered.
"She has a point." Xevikan said. I smiled at him. He seemed to be the smarter of the two - or at least, the one that would agree with me most.
"Excellent." I stood. "And while we're agreeing with me I assume that you'll agree when I say it's time for you to leave. I have plans with my friends and I need time to think about all of this."
Caleb opened his mouth to protest but I silenced him with a glare. He had the good sense to close his mouth and walk down my stairs. Xevikan followed after him and sent me an appologetic look.
"See you in a week, Arrosa." Xevikan said. And when he said it, I almost didn't hate it.