The sun had not even begun to sun itself and the Inquisition army was already moving into position in the twilight hours where the shadows blended with light, Amethyne hated that she was no where near Morgana for the first part of the battle; Captain Taeris had been clear about their roles she was in the heavy cavalry and Morgana was to ride with the war mages. Even in the predawn light she could still spot the flames of the enemy camp and catch movement of the larger monsters, to see those things made her sick at the thought some of them might have just been people with nowhere else to go.
The flaps of the command tent at the rear of the lines suddenly opened and Cullen came out signalling a runner to raise the signal flags, all down the line of forces muffled movement could be heard as the soldiers rose carefully to lessen the chance of their movements where found out early. Amethyne's group moved forward leading their mounts on foot, lessening the chance of being skylined against the morning twilight moving over the ground Amethyne noticed the morning fog was thicker than normal and not moving as much. Her talks with Simra and the other mages on the Val-Kas let her notice these changes and to know that this was the work of the fog warrior trained mages and rouges among them, this early morning 'Fog' would help keep their movements unseen and unheard.
"Mount up." The whispered order came down the line of cavalry, with her armor wrapped in muffling cloth she swung up into her saddle with a muffled clatter.
'Forward walk' came a flag signal, this was it, the time where if they were spotted too soon she and the other fighters would be unable to retreat to ally lines.
Five tense minutes later they had finally managed to reach the hill overlooking the enemy's left flank, with Sata-Kas sitting in the center of their group keeping the fog thick around them to hide; a war horn torn through the air as fireballs rained down on the unprepared army, as the Venatori forces scrambled to rally a group of light cavalrymen slammed into their lines breaking them and wounding several before wheeling and retreating. After the third round was deflected Amethyne saw her groups flag make the signalling gesture and the kicked their horses into a steady trot, with their heavy armor and weapons the horses were kept trotting until the last minute.
'Charge!' was what the spear flag lowering to level meant, and as one the heavy cavalry spurred their horses to a full gallop; her flames of the Inquisition snorted and leapt forward with a thundering gallop, the enemy on the left flank were the first to notice them but it was already to defend against it. The fighters on the front line of their own forces moved apart for the next cavalry charge, the enemy was expecting a simple light cavalry charge like the one they had deflected last time; what happened instead caused massive panic and fear along with confusion as three heavy cavalry units slammed into them one on each flank and a third that crashed straight into the front lines.
Shokrakar was the war leader for the fight as no one else was as experienced with leading forces with such diverse backgrounds and training, her opening gambit was one that relied on three forces moving in tandem with each other and her opponents being unable to find their own rhythm. By using her mages and fighters she knocked them off balance from the start and used the light cavalry to draw them into her rhythm, the moment the light cavalry was deflected rather than being able to pierce the front like the heavy groups were to charge. With three heavy forces breaking the lines on all sides the enemy would be broken and far easier prey from the soldiers.
Amethyne and her group began their retreat out of the fray to regroup before their unit became separated, she noticed the creature lumbering towards them at the same time as her unit; a total of three behemoths had been seen and random chance had one of the behemoths moved in the night when it got in a fight with the others of its kind. That move had placed it in the right position to catch the unit at the point they were the most vulnerable, and Amethyne was on the outside of the Unit's formation so when the large club of lyrium that served as its arm came smashing into their unit she was hit straight on.
Her horse left the ground as it was tossed by the club, her horse being hit first saved her as the club hit her after she was already being thrown and it lessened the impact, she still felt and saw her shield shatter and felt the bones underneath do the same. The blow sent her flying and unhorsed her, again saving her left as she was able to roll with the impact and land safely. The rest of her unit managed to break free and kept riding, this was war and Amethyne knew to stay would kill them and her, gritting her teeth and dodging a sword swing by an enemy she glanced around for a weapon; with how well trained her horse had been her weapons needed to be strapped to her saddle or the bounce of her weapon would have confused the beast. Sata-Kas had also been unhorsed but she had since vanished in the fray but the sounds of Qunlat cursing told Amethyne she was still alive.
Seeing a sword laying next to a corpse, she leapt for it, ignoring the pain as she picked it up and began fighting her way back to her side. A wave of ice barely missed her instead took out the fighters that had been about to ambush her, she saw Morgana the other war mages making headway into the enemy lines; Arcill was whistling as he and Sata-Kas, who had found her way there after retrieving her spear, cut through the enemy in perfect tandem. Amethyne moved forward staggering as her leg screamed, making it clear she at least fractured it. She saw Morgana cut a maul wielder in half and Amethyne saw a spearmen leap up from the pile of dead and go to kill her mage, Amethyne ignoring her broken bones and cuts leapt forward smashing into Morgana and throwing her out of the way; she caught the spear thrust in a glancing blow just above her right eyebrow.
Snarling she parried the next thrust and used the opening to drive her sword into the man, who looked shocked as he collapsed. Amethyne turned make sure her mage was all right, a sharp pain in her right side made her gasp and stagger falling to her knees to see a spear sticking out of her back; the dying spearman's blind thrust of his spear found a gap in her plating that had been opened in her unhorsing.
"Amethyne!" Morgana screamed, but Amethyne thought is was odd how quiet her scream was, and why the blurring was not clearing.
'Fucking blood loss.' Amethyne thought vaguely as she realized she was dying.
Morgana scrambled to Amethyne's side and began pouring her magic into her, healing was her strength but even she was horrified at the extent of damage Amethyne had. She was bleeding out faster than she seal, and the spear was still lodged in her side Morgana cursed that she could not pull it out as the haft had broken off in her fall and that meant she would need to take the armor off but she did not have time to pry it off. With every second her soulmate was dying, and Morgana could feel her soul mark starting to burn, cursing she started to use force magic to pull the armor apart Arcill and Sata-Kas along with others were holding the enemy back while she worked, the moment she yanked with her magic the worst thing happened.
A piece of her armor shattered, and the shard caught in her magic shot off, right across Amethyne's throat Morgana saw this happen in slow motion as her magic cause the armor shard to cut Amethyne's throat; the arteries opened began spraying out the lifeblood. Morgana tried to heal the cut but when she tried to she realized something, she could pick only one of three arteries cut.
"Help! Please, Someone!" Morgana cried, Arcill and Sata cursed at the sight of her trying to stop the flow but before they could help another wave of enemies.
'How about us sweetie? We can give you the power you just need to let us in.' Lust one of the four demons that haunted her purred.
"Fine you can have me, just save her please!" Morgana begged with tears in her eyes, she felt the Demons start to take control only to be thrown out of her body and into four soldiers behind her.
"What who dares take our prey!?" Arrogance roared, only for a harsh brimstone grinding laugh to answer.
"First come first serve my brothers." Resentment taunted as it walked forward, Four undead with black mist rose up from behind them and stabbed them Morgana could feel their essence being devoured until they were gone.
"I needed them to save her!" Morgana screamed at the creature who laughed, and pushed her over onto her releasing the pressure she had been keeping on her soulmate's throat.
Before she could scream a black mist rose from the ground and seeped into Amethyne, the blood stopped at once and Morgana watched in amazement as the armor vanished along with the spear and sword Amethyne had been using; the undead swarmed around the fighters turning the tide as unlike his avatar Asaaranda his undead did not fall when they killed someone they only slowed. Amethyne suddenly gasped and the mist retreated as Amethyne rolled over and on all four began hurling, to Morgana's horror she saw it was blood she was throwing up.
"You know just because we made a deal does not mean you can ignore my advice girl, I don't like it when my workers don't listen to me. Next time I need to save you I will be taking more of your memories, better hope that your captain's lessons are as good for none mages as they are for mages. Oh by the way, my mist has changed you by merely touching you, demons will flock to you so try to attract good ones my little staking goat." With that Resentment walked off causally beheading as warrior that tried to attack it.
"Amethyne!" Morgana yelled as she tackled Amethyne, noticing that they were the only ones around as the battle raged forward.
"Morga-Ahhh!" Amethyne screamed, Morgana pulled back like she had been burned and it was then that she noticed the broken leg and arm, all life threating wounds and bleeding ones had been healed but not the bones.
"Sorry sweetie, this is all my fault I should not have used my force magic!" Morgana sobbed as she healed wounded her soulmate, noticing the faint but clearly there line across Amethyne's throat.
"It would not have helped, Resentment knew this was going to happen and told me ahead of time⦠and I made a deal." Amethyne admitted.
"What did you give him?" Morgana demanded, frightened that her own weakness had caused her soulmate to damn herself.
"When a member of my family dies it will claim their weapons, and for an up front payment it demanded my most precious memories. That is why I cried last night, I could not remember the first time we met, the first time we kissed, the first time we made love, or any of my treasured first!" Amethyne cried, Morgana simply held her and they cried together alone among a field of dead.
'This battle better be worth it.' Morgana thought bitterly as she held her soulmate, one crying for the loss of her memory and Morgana for the knowledge that she had caused it.
