Soaring through the night, Vanysa felt a peculiar satisfaction coming over her, a contented kind of happiness brought a smile to her face. She puzzled over the reason behind her sudden enjoyment of what should have been a tedious duty and then it hit her. 'It's a mystery… I didn't expect to enjoy this…' It was a curious thrill, but she leaned in to that enjoyment and beat her wings a little bit harder, the answer to the events of the distant past seemed close, so tantalizingly close…
Vanysa landed with a heavy slap of her feet to the earth and a puff of dust rose up around her ankles. The mountain loomed large enough that she had to tilt her head back to see the whole of it, but even without her strength, the path was clean and the slope steady, only a scattering of rubble barred her way. Briefly she considered, 'Maybe going up by flight would be faster…' However, she put that thought aside. Just where the vision would be triggered was uncertain, and so she leaned into the hill and began her steady ascent.
The warmth of the day faded as she went higher and higher, but her demonic constitution and endurance were such that she never felt the need to slow her pace or even shiver. She did however, frequently look back at the ever expanding horizon. She marveled at the great distances she could see, and the foolish little tree climbing boys from childhood made a lot more sense all of a sudden. 'I never really think about it when flying, just the act of that alone is so marvelous that I barely think about how big this world is… I wonder if Demi ever notices…? Probably not. He's not much for wonder, not outside His Majesty or the Supreme Beings.' It was a faint glimmer of pity that rose up in her gut for a moment, before she turned her attention again to the task at hand.
The mountain path was a winding one, following the gradual rise and making it take an extended amount of time only because she felt sure it had to be followed.
The plants thrust out through cracks in rocks and frequently obscured the path in unexpected places, as if a curtain of green were drawn over a play which ended many centuries before. 'So close, so close I can taste it.' Vanysa told herself when she rounded a curve and proved herself correct.
The path rose up another fifty yards before coming to a clear end with ancient rocks piled high in front of an opening… and the world became gray as dusk again.
"Hurry up." Barintacha commanded as he rushed past his retainers. They were three in number and their horses were gone, their bodies were bloodsoaked and each of those who remained either limped or clutched at limbs or other wounds. Barintacha seemed to have no more than small cuts or bruises on his body, though whether that said more about him or his retainers, Vanysa was unsure.
They hobbled in, and Barintacha, still holding the body of the golden skinned woman cradled under one arm as if she were asleep against his chest, turned around, drew his mace, and smashed it against the cave walls. Vanysa rushed ahead, stretched out her hand, and where there should have been collapsed stones, there was nothing.
She locked her eyes on the corpse-carrying Lord, and he shivered. "We're being watched, I know it." He hissed and smashed his mace against the stone walls again, this time up higher. "It won't do much more than slow them down, but it's something."
"Not… for us." One of his retainers grunted, "We got out of there but-" He paused and spat up blood.
"Potions!" Barintacha ordered, and the trio shook their heads.
"I'm out." Another said as the rumbling stone cracked and collapsed, shrouding the cave in darkness, the tumbling and pounding of stones went on for several minutes as they withdrew inch by inch into the cave.
"Me too."
"Same."
The remaining pair answered his command. "We're done for… leave us." The largest of his retainers grunted and staggered back against the cave wall, his armor scraped along the stone as he tried to steady himself. "Let us buy you a few more minutes, maybe there's a way out of here if you keep going. They won't get their trophy… we'll blood a few more of them for you, My Lord…"
Barintacha looked as if he were about to object, but before he could, the trio were arrayed in one line and facing the blocked entrance, their maces were drawn with sluggish motions and painful grunts, but they stood ready nonetheless.
He let out a slow breath, "I'll leave you to it."
"We'll catch up after we've driven them off." Another of his retainer's made the false promise.
"Maybe they'll surrender?" The third added, and a gallows laugh came up from the four men.
"If I had an army of men such as you… the beastmen would fly to the ends of the world." Barintacha said, and turning away from them, he rushed into the darkness of the cave.
The world of gray and darkness was gone, and Vanysa found herself standing in front of three slumped skeletons. Their armor was rusted to the point of uselessness, their maces still clutched in gloved hands that were surely as skeletonized as the arms which held them. Two of the three had broken ribs and all three had claw marks that raked over the bones themselves. 'That must have been horrifically painful.' She thought and crouched down in front of the corpses. Their jaws had long since fallen away, leaving empty skulls lolling to one side, two of them against the shoulders of the center man, their legs stretched out, as if they'd gone to sleep against the stone wall and simply never woken up again.
"And then there was one." Vanysa said, "You three did a good job." She praised the faithful dead and stood up again, locking her eyes into each of their empty sockets. 'How long ago did you die, I wonder…?'
There was no way to be sure with just this, but they were covered in thick dust, and their fabric clothing had long since been reduced to nothing but a few ragged patches.
She rose to her feet, and then turned in the direction that Barintacha went, feeling certain of one thing. 'Something significant lies at the end of all this.'