Chapter 4–Memories
Gondar returned back to his side, where a camp had been set up for the night. Zeus was watching over them, they were in the shadow of a tower and Luna was patrolling the perimeter, so Gondar wasn't worried about a surprise night attack.
With all the gaiety around the camp, you'd think we weren't even at war.
But I can smell the blood, see the fatigue, feel the sorrow of lost friends.
After four weeks of war, most of us mortals are dead. Many had friends who've died. The pain, the fear, the knowledge that this may be your last supper. It's all there, just hiding.
And nothing can hide from me.
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Gondar was strolling through the camp, seeing Tusk and Bristleback drinking together, each trying to outdo the other (How'd they survive this long anyways?), when he came upon something which made him start.
How'd you get in here?, Gondar wondered as he drew his shuriken and aimed it at Clinkz, but stopped when he saw who he was with.
Lyralei the windrunner and Clinkz were standing side-by-side, looking down, heads bowed, at a shroud.
Gondar was glad to see Lyralei alive after all this time, and yet was puzzled as to why she and Clinkz were standing together over a shroud. Not wanting to disturb whatever vigil they were maintaining, he started off, but at that moment Lyralei looked up.
Her sad, joyous smile was more radiant than Keeper's staff, and for a moment even Gondar forgot they were in a war. A single tear, like a liquid diamond, slowly rolled down the pale face of the fastest woman alive.
Seeing her smile, he remembered a time when it all seemed like a big adventure.
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They'd all thought they were so important.
The sun was shining, the creeps were charging, Legion Commander had given an inspiring speech, and everyone was clamouring to the front. Gondar had thought he'd return home with a monstrous rack of bounties under his belt.
Tidehunter had proven him wrong.
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On the middle lane and in the front line had been Sven, Davion and the Omniknight. Behind them had been Gondar, Lyralei and Kardel Sharpeye the sniper, among countless others. There had been so many of them. When they saw the Dire army, they almost laughed. It was a motley crew of beasties, not a true army, and it was outnumbered too.
A man in a mask with tonfa-blades had arrived first, screaming "Blood for the flayed ones!", and was cut down by Sven's sword.
They began fording the river, the Dire forces staying back, all but one. Gondar remembered Sharpeye had shot the beast three times, but it kept coming. When it reached the river, the beast that Gondar now knew as Tidehunter shattered their hopes with a single spell.
Tentacles rose up. They dashed Davion against the rocks and crushed Sven into jelly. The fleeing Omniknight knocked Gondar down and he was sure he'd die there, But he was hauled to his feet and carried off by Lyralei –though then she'd been only Windrunner to him– who'd dropped her bow into the water to save him. Out of everyone who'd been in the ford that day only he, Sharpeye, Lyralei and the Earthshaker escaped.
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Is that a tear I feel?
I never cried before I came here, but then again, I'd never felt helpless before. That day, lying in the water, knowing no amount of cunning or skill would save me from the wrath of Maelwrawn, I knew what it was to be prey.
"Gondar!" Lyralei called quietly, her face actually lighting up, glad to see him, and then her smile fell. She beckoned, her natural energy buried but not gone.
Gondar came to stand next to them, and Clinkz looked at him and asked "Who are you to her?", gesturing at the shroud. Gondar looked down at it, and could not believe his eyes.
"Who are you?", he hissed angrily. Clinkz responded "I admired her. I respected her, and in the end, I killed her."
"Then why are you here?" hissed Gondar. "I've had no friends since my transformation. The loss of such a worthy opponent… it felt just like when my last friend died," responded Clinkz, his voice betraying the tiniest hint of mourning over Traxex' death, but Gondar had no use for his explanations. He drew his dagger, and was about to slash at the skeleton when Lyralei grabbed his arm and said slowly and sharply "If I died, I'd want a fight, I'd want gossip and controversy and a feast and jokes and stories. But Traxex wanted a silent vigil, and she asked Clinkz to come as she died. So let's just… shut up."
I suppose it would be what she'd want. Traxex was always so silent, so reserved. She never let us get too close to her…
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Gondar had found Lyralei's bow and given it back to her out of gratitude, and Lyralei had thanked him. Then she and Traxex nodded at each other and took off. Gondar followed as they helped defend the top lane, ignoring their own frailty in comparison to their foes, Lyralei distracting and binding and letting Traxex finish them. Gondar had followed along, marvelling at their skill, their courage, and especially Lyralei's cheerful nature, as though her spirit was unbreakable.
One time came to memory: the time when they had accepted Gondar into their team. The time they'd made a fool out of Tidehunter himself.
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They'd been on the top lane, and Tidehunter had come lumbering out of the river, blocking their escape. Lyralei and Traxex had gotten diamond-hard arrows to penetrate thick hide beforehand. Lyralei had run forward, leaving Gondar and Traxex in her dust, and hit Tidehunter in the stomach with an arrow so tiny compared to Tidehunter that he barely noticed.
Tidehunter lumbered forward, and Traxex fired an ice arrow, sticking in, while Gondar reluctantly held back. Tidehunter swung at Lyralei, but she leaped twenty feet into the air, the wind carrying her over Tidehunter, and shot him in with a tether arrow, anchoring his anchor to a tree as he tried to smash her.
Gondar, meanwhile, had decided to sneak around Tidehunter as he gnawed the tether off. He lumbered towards Traxex, ignoring Lyralei's arrows glancing off his more heavily armoured back.
Traxex retreated, but Tidehunter blasted her with a water stream, pinning her down as he moved in for the kill. It was then that Gondar struck.
His serrated blade shearing through Tidehunter's tendons in the back of his knee, he yelled to Lyralei and Traxex "Target his joints!" and Lyralei fired her power shot, skewering his other knee.
As Tidehunter fell, Traxex got back up and limped away, her leg crushed, before applying healing salve while Gondar and Lyralei danced around Tidehunter, frustrating him as they dodged every wild swing and destroyed his joints until he could barely move at all.
Tidehunter roared the first English they'd heard him speak, "Damn you all!" and attempted to call Maelwrawn before being silenced by Traxex.
Sometimes it's the little things which bring down great beasts. A bolas tethering an anchor, realizing he has tendons too, a little bit of extra power, even a well-placed silence spell. Alone, none of us would have done much to him, but together…
They did not kill Tidehunter that day. His shell was too thick, his constitution too strong, and besides Lion and Venomancer had been coming up, but they had made a fool out of him.
Fleeing into their outpost, Lyralei had given Traxex a tiny peck on the lips and then a big hug, which had thoroughly surprised the ranger but she'd reciprocated after a couple seconds.
Lyralei then thanked Gondar for saving Traxex, and asked him if he'd like to join them.
Gondar had accepted.
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That was only three weeks ago. Three weeks ago, we three featherweights bested one of the most powerful fighters in the war. And now, we can never hear her calm voice again, never see her graceful strides again.
The three stood over Traxex; two friends and one foe, friendship, love and respect gathered around her shroud, only her face showing and her bow on top of her shroud. The only sound was the faint crackling of Clinkz' hellfire heart.
Gondar remembered the last time he'd seen Traxex, when plans long forgotten had torn them apart.
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After the Tidehunter incident, they'd become inseparable.
Lyralei and Gondar joked, laughed and kept each others' spirits up, though sometimes Gondar wondered if Lyralei was doing it just for his benefit, so unquenchable was her optimism.
Traxex kept them on track, occasionally competed with Lyralei and was the closest thing to a leader they had. She was always so professional, but Gondar could tell there was something more to her and Lyralei than just coldly professional colleagues, though Traxex acted quite coolly towards her and Gondar.
But nothing escaped Gondar's notice, and he could tell that over those golden two weeks they had together, Traxex had counted Lyralei and Gondar as possibly her only friends in the world.
Two weeks they were together. They made a good team, though they never distinguished themselves as greatly as on their first day, they nevertheless did well, and more importantly they did what most "squishy" (as Ursa referred to them as) mortals couldn't do in war of the gods: they had survived, and they had stayed sane, even optimistic if you balanced out Lyralei with Gondar.
Then it had all ended.
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They were in Legion Commander's HQ tent. She had insisted that no-one call her by name, and she never used people's real names either. That was just how she operated.
"Bounty hunter, Windrunner and Drow ranger," she began matter-of-factly, "You three make a good team, but I'm afraid you'll have to split up for a while. See, Drow and Windrunner are needed with me around the middle lane and Bounty, you're needed on bottom lane. It's only a temporary arrangement, and you'll get the rest of your orders when you're in position. Now, off with you! I have a war to win."
They didn't question Legion Commander's orders. After the first day, she'd rallied them together, coordinated the entire Radiant army. They'd been winning the war quite handily thanks to her leadership.
So they said their goodbyes, convinced they'd see each other again. Lyralei had given them a big group hug, Traxex had calmly thanked Gondar and Lyralei, and Gondar had sworn he'd track them down once they were in the "real" world, so their little dream team could get back together once this was all over.
But the plans they were in were all forgotten on the night everything went to hell, the night Legion Commander died: The night of terror.
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That was the night when five individuals made an army of heroes fear the dark, when it turned from an orderly war they were winning into the chaotic struggle for survival it was today. No-one admitted it, the number of outposts destroyed seemed to deny it, but everyone felt it: from that night on, the Radiant army was losing.
Gondar hadn't seen most of it, he'd been in the bottom lane, but it was the day after Legion gave those orders. He supposed some part of him thought that Traxex and Lyralei had died that night, but he didn't know.
Lich, Lycanthrope, Night Stalker, Bane and the Ancient Apparition. He didn't know their real names, only what they did.
That night, the Radiant army slept soundly. Then it got cold. Not the cold of winter, not the cold of night, but the primal, all-pervading cold that makes your soul shiver. Howls could be heard, and a base fear gripped the stoutest hearts.
Those sleeping were jolted awake, or else held in the grip of nightmares while their bodies froze in their bedrolls. Mirana had seen Lycanthrope and his pack coming, but she hadn't seen Nightstalker, who had dragged her off her mount and killed her in the middle of the camp.
Lich came in next, escalating the cold into a lethal chill that claimed more lives than Tidehunter's tentacles. The fear, the cold, the blood. It was everywhere. Heroes were held frozen with cold and fear in their tents and killed where they lay. Creeps were torn apart by the score.
And Legion Commander died, torn to ribbons in her own command tent.
The remaining heroes of the middle lane gathered together and tried to defend, but many were killed by Lich's chain frost spell. More were torn apart by Nightstalker or Lycanthrope, and still more fell to Bane's sorceries.
Then they had disappeared to terrorize the bottom lane, and Gondar was glad he'd been in the jungle, away from the camp at the time. Finally, they'd used their scrolls to get to the top lane in the last minutes of the artificially extended night.
There Nightstalker and Bane had met their end. They'd grown overconfident, so sure in their own strength that they'd thrown caution to the wind. They'd met Elder Titan and Nature's Prophet: two of the heaviest heavyweights Radiant had. They had ended the night of terror, but it had cost Elder Titan his life to do so.
Afterwards, the Radiant's army was in tatters. They guarded the night with the all-seeing eyes of Zeus, the darkvision of Luna and the safety of outposts and sentry wards. They knew that it could never happen the same way again, but nonetheless the damage was done: they'd nearly collapsed as an army, and they'd learned to fear the night.
Afterward, Gondar had searched for his friends. he'd gone up and down, searching fruitlessly for Lyralei and Traxex, until two days ago he'd come upon Magnus and did that stupid rodeo maneuver.
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The night dragged on and on. None fell asleep that night, all stood there until the dawn broke over the camp. It was just as beautiful even in this place as it had been in the "real" world.
As the sun rose, it's radiance illuminating Lyralei's teary, tired, beautiful face, Clinkz spoke up.
"I must return. Luna and Zeus have let me in for Traxex' vigil, but the more bloodthirsty ones may not be so lenient," Clinkz said. "I… I wish we could have been friends, she and I. But the world the Radiant is creating has no place in it for skeleton archers, and I owe Ostarion everything. Loyalty does not end in death in the empire of bones, not even final death. So I must go."
Without another word, Clinkz vanished in a puff of smoke and fire, though Gondar could hear his feet as he ran to his side of the battlefield.
"Goodbye Clinkz!" called Lyralei. Gondar, still not sure if he should say this, said "Goodbye."
For a skeleton archer, he's not so bad after all.
I suppose I'd better–
Lyralei leaned down and hugged Gondar, rested her face on his shoulder. Gondar didn't hesitate to hug her back.
"I'm glad you're alive, Lyralei," he said, his hand caressing the back of her head.
"I'm glad you are too," said Lyralei, an unusual affection in her tone.
They broke their embrace, and Lyralei said "So what now?" her usual sing-song voice beginning to return.
"I say," began Gondar, "We get some sleep. Then we can talk."
It was all too easy, after over 24 hours of wakefulness, for Gondar to fall into a deep sleep.
He slept there, one tent away from Lyralei, each dreaming of half-forgotten memories of the past and dreams of what might have been, but for the life of them, neither of them could remember what they were.