Hallowed

Screams swirled around Aisha's ears as a burst of blue fire swept across the city behind her, engulfing the night sky and casting an unearthly glow across the ruined streets. For a moment, Aisha's eyes fluttered and she felt her head swimming. As she looked around her, she realized that she couldn't recognize any of the scenery. Elsword stood next to her shouting, but she couldn't hear a word of what he said. Before she could make sense of her surroundings, the ground beneath her feet began to quake and quiver, ripping apart at the seams as a massive black claw crashed into the earth. Standing before her, a gigantic wolf growled and snorted, it's breath a cold blue flame and its eyes blazing brightly in the night as it bared its fangs prepared to charge.

Cold sweat dripped down her spine and burning smoke scorched her lungs, defeating her words before she could even give them breath. From the corner of her eye, she could see that Elsword's legs were trembling and covered in blood, his knees twisting unnaturally as he supported himself on his sword. All around her, Aisha could hear the shouts and cheers of the townsfolk as they cried out desperately for the beast's demise. Then, as if to taunt her, the demon wolf brought its nose within an inch of Aisha's face, opened its jaws, and cackled. Putrid slime oozed from the beast's fangs as its shrill laughter stirred the flames and shook the ground. Scowling and completely drained of all patience, Aisha slammed her wand into the ground and clapped her hands together, jumping back as a colossal black spiked sphere crashed down from the sky and landed at her feet. Without a moment's pause, she kicked the ball into the demon's hanging jaw and the beast immediately closed its mouth and swallowed. Frozen in time, the wolf's eyes grew larger and larger until a final, deafening burst ripped through its stomach and sent its head flying high into the air.

As Aisha stood back and caught her breath, the flames faded away and the smoke cleared, leaving only rubble and ash and the carcass of the demon wolf. Relaxing just a bit, Aisha turned aside to Elsword and smiled. Before she could take another breath, the cheering crowd rushed forward and hoisted her high into the air, bouncing her overhead as they carried her into the town square. Spinning and flailing about, Aisha could scarcely see anything but the sky above as the townsfolk rejoiced at the death of the demon beast and praised Aisha's efforts. Although the town square should have only been a few dozen yards away, Aisha felt as if she had traveled for miles and soon her chest began to tighten and her stomach churned and twisted up into a tight knot. Her ears were ringing and her head ached as if it were about to split open, but despite all that she could just scarcely make out something unsettling working its way into the chants and cheers of the crowd. Their words were the same, but now their faces were all twisted in rage and spite. As the remaining smoke swirled into thick dark clouds overhead, the eyes of the crowd turned toward Aisha, glowing with the same fire that had once burned on the demon's tongue. As they reached the center of the town square, the voices of the crowd began to blend together into a dark, lurid whisper.

"You killed the beast… You killed the beast that killed the prince."

The sound of smoke and crackling ash seeped into Aisha's ears as the townsfolk paused in the midst of the square. When she opened her mouth to speak, her voice failed her she coughed up a cloud of thick black soot.

"How? How did you kill it when even the prince could not?"

"Beast! Only a beast could kill such a beast!"

"Witch! She is a witch! How else could she be stronger than our prince?"

"No, I…" Aisha struggled for every breath, her words crumbling before the restless crowd.

"Kill her! Burn her! Burn her alive!"

From the back of the crowd, Elsword pushed his way through the angry mob shouting and screaming out to Aisha as the townsfolk lashed her to giant wooden stake. When Aisha tried to resist, the feeling drained from her hands and her body went limp. It took all of her strength just to raise her head and when she did, she saw Elsword forced to the ground, the townsfolk holding him down as they ran him through with a dozen swords. Ash and soot strangled her cries and she struggled against her bindings as the crowd tossed their torches into the tinder pile beneath her, their roaring black flames leaping up to lick the bottoms of her feet. Soon the smoke rising from the fire hid the burning eyes of the mob, leaving only their raucous cries behind as the flames wound themselves around Aisha's ankles. They called her witch, a demon, and a disgrace to their town and kingdom, hurling insults and cheering as the flames howled and gnawed away the tips of her toes. With taste of ash on her tongue and the words of the crowd in her ears, the visceral pain of being burned alive was beginning to overwhelm her every sense. The more she struggled, the weaker she felt, and as the flames climbed up the stake toward her, the sneering curses of the crowd turned into cheers once again.

As Aisha struggled to mutter even her weakest spell, a sharp, caustic voice called out to her from over shoulder. "Are you happy with the sort of ending?" A scathing chuckle followed those words as Aisha turned her head and search for their source and found only ash and stinging smoke.

"This seems like a terribly tragic waste…" the voice drifted over Aisha's shoulder and she scowled in its direction.

"Shut up and get over here so I can kick your face in! You think I'm too stupid to recognize a dream!?"

Has a voice crackled and faded into the flickering flames, a pair of gleaming eyes and glowing fangs appeared before her. "Of course not…" Another cackle crossed Aisha's ears as the flames wrapped themselves around her waist and sank into her skin. "But does that make it any less painful?"

Gritting her teeth, Aisha winced as the flames burned through her feet and climbed across her arms. Sweating and panting in pain, she held her screams in her chest as she pulled on the ropes binding her hands until finally the flames tore them in half. With her hands free she reached forward through the smoke and struck out at the gleaming eyes that taunted her.

A giant thud echoed through Aisha's room as she rolled out of her bed and fell to the floor. Groggy and disoriented, she tried to blink the sleep from her eyes as she raised her head and looked around. Although she remembered having a dream, she can remember any more than the faint smell of soot and ash. When she looked down to her right hand, she found it clasped around the strange statuette that Elsword had given her and as she released her grip, a sharp pain shot through her spine.

"Aisha! Hurry up and get ready, we're heading into the chapel in an hour!" Rena's voice cut through the canvas flap of Aisha's tent.

"Ah, I'll be there in a second!" stuffing the statuette into her pack, Aisha dusted herself off and headed out into the sunlight.

"Good Morn-" As Aisha stepped out into the open, the harsh summer sun overwhelmed her eyes and she shut them tightly. For a moment, she was blind within a sea of sound; the echoes of a blacksmith's hammer clashed with the electric hum of a welding torch room as a symphony of haggard voices swelled and faded in a restless refrain. As soon as Aisha's eyes had adjusted to the light, she looked around the campsite for Rena only to realize that she had already left. Still groggy from her fitful sleep, she made her way to where they had kept their campfire the night before.

"Tch!" sitting on a roughshod wooden bench near the ash of an extinguished fire, Raven winced as Eve pushed a glowing spine deep into his mechanical arm.

"Please do not move. This requires great precision." Tightening her grip on his wrist, eve began engraving the circuitry within Raven's arm. Curious, Aisha looked on over Eve's shoulder and saw a row of delicate runes glowing behind a maze of wires and metal plating. As Eve withdrew her tools, she glanced aside to scrap of parchment stared at it intently.

"Chung I do not understand this notation…"

"Ah, just a second!" A loud crash and an unearthly crackling spilled out of a nearby tent as Chung stumbled out into the open, hopping along on one foot with a small cloud of dust behind him.

"Oh, Noona! Good Morning!" He waved at Aisha as he wiped a spot of grease from his cheek, his face and hair covered in dirt and oil while his clothes remained miraculously spotless. Slightly shocked at the sight, Aisha stared in surprise and waved back. As he regained his balance and dusting himself off, Chung grabbed his Destroyer and carried it over to the bench where Eve was working. As he hoisted to the cannon up onto the bench, Aisha leaned forward and glanced aside to Eve.

"What exactly are you doing… And what's wrong with him?" She looked at Raven and saw him squinting, wincing, and covered in sweat.

"He is fine, though his pain threshold is lower than expected given my previous experience operating on him." After looking over Chung's cannon tracing the runes inscribed upon its surface, Eve resumed her work on Raven's arm, connecting the last loose lines that she had carved into his arm.

"We're not sure if it's going to work but we decided to try copying the runes from my cannon onto Raven and Oberon, so that they can actually hit those ghosts if anymore show up." Chung leaned over next to Aisha as Eve replaced the loose panels and bolts in Raven's arm.

"…Oh… that's a good idea," Aisha's shook her head slightly as Chung's words filtered their way slowly through the haze of sleep around her brain, "Where's Elsword at? We should make him put some of those on his sword so he's not so useless next time…"

"I believe he has gone to see the commander of the Red Knights." Eve slid the outer casing of Raven's Nasod arm back into place with a snap and returned her tools to their case. Scowling and rubbing his left shoulder, Raven glared at Eve as he flexed the fingers in his left hand.

"Was that necessary?"

"Yes. If I had not inscribed the runes directly onto the nerve circuits and you would not be able to control them." Eve packed her things away and stood from the bench. "Though in hindsight it would have been possible to perform the same procedure with the nerve feedback detached, but that would have required a lengthy recalibration process…"

"Tch…" Raven rolled his shoulder and stood, breathing in sharply before looking aside to Aisha, "When you're ready, Allegro wanted to see you at the gate."

Aisha nodded and turn towards the chapel gates only to be stopped before her first step.

"But…" Raven mumbled coarsely as he motioned toward a plate of dried meat and stale bread. "Eat something first. It'll be too much trouble if you collapse on your way there."

Aisha blinked and tried to stifle a laugh. He's so awkward, I can't tell if he's actually concerned or pissed off… "Thanks."

After filling her stomach, and then commandeering a jar of pickled pears, Aisha marched over to the chapel gates. Weary soldiers tried from their tents across the makeshift bridge that connected the shrine's courtyard with the base of the spire, their spirits shaking and their bones of throbbing with a persistent pain. As she approached the mass of doors that separated them from the demons taking refuge within, Aisha noticed a small swarm of mages buzzing about at the foot of the doors, their captain frantically shouting orders and shuffling through papers as they struggled to decode the intricate seal that now lay across the chapel gates. The seal itself was massive, not only in scale but in depth; while most magic seals were formed with two or three circles, the sigil scribed into the chapel gates held seven, each shimmering faintly with a spiral of spells and incantations that threatened death to any who opened the door. While she was studying the words within the seal, Allegro rushed over to her side, his hands trembling and his breath ragged.

"Miss Aisha… please, if you could…" he panted as he pointed towards the door, "We've been trying to figure out how to open the door since this morning, but we've had no luck. Can you help us, if it's not too much trouble?"

"Sure, but…" Aisha's eyes narrowed as she stared towards the crowd of mages, "Never mind. I'll take a look."

"Ah! Thank you!" Allegro's eyes beamed brightly, "This way, please." He led Aisha across the bridge, through the gathering crowd of soldiers and knights, beneath the towering pillars that held the spire's outer wall aloft, and right up the foot of the monstrous chapel doors. As Aisha reached out to touch the seal, a sharp voice cut through the air and chided her.

"Stop! Stop this instant!" The mage captain thrust his bundle of papers aside to one of his subordinates, storming it over to Aisha with disdain on his breath. "Don't touch that! Don't even stand close to it! Allegro, what is she doing here!?"

"I-I but she might be able to help, since you haven't made any-"

"We'll have made plenty of progress if you would stop getting in the way. Now please leave." Glaring sternly, the captain pointed towards the bridge and tilted his head, motioning for Aisha and Allegro to return to the other side. Bowing his head meekly, Allegro headed back towards the bridge and took a full fifteen steps before he realized that Aisha hadn't followed him.

"Look, the seal is complicated but it's not very strong," Aisha scowled as she stared back at the captain holding her grounder she pointed towards the glowing letters that hovered above the door, "If you just forced more magic into it, it would break in a second."

"I will thank you to step away and leave, we will take care of this matter ourselves." Indignant, the captain's lips curled up as Aisha stepped out of his shadow and crossed her arms.

"Why?" Aisha's eyes filled with ice as she defied the captain's gaze. "You've been at this for hours and you haven't made any progress? Would it really hurt your pride so much to just let me look at it?"

"This is not a matter of pride." The captain took a step forward and glowered down at Aisha, "The shrine is a sacred space, and I will not have it tarnished by your touch!"

The ice in Aisha's eyes turned to fire in an instant and she locked eyes with the captain. "What!?"

"Make no mistake, I am grateful to you for all you have done for us, but you are most certainly not welcome within the chapel. You practice the same craft as the demons, and your presence in the chapel would only further profane its halls. I am sure you understand, and I ask that you show respect for the sanctity of our shine by leaving at once. You are needed no further."

A strange sort of fury welled up inside of Aisha's chest. It clawed at her throat and twisted her stomach, twisting her mouth up in rage as it constricted her heart like a snake. For a moment, she wasn't sure whether she would scream or faint, and she could scarcely explain her own reaction to herself. Clenching her fist, she slammed her hand into the seal and shattered it into a million pieces, storming off without a word as the fragments rained down around her. On her way back across the bridge, she passed Penensio. He waved and called out to her, but she was too distracted by the churning, nauseous rage in her stomach to hear what he said. Frustrated and suddenly exhausted, she returned to her tent and gathered her supplies.

As she gathered the rest of her books and bundled up her bedroll, a sudden wave of weariness washed over Aisha and she let out a long, slow yawn. Why do I feel like I didn't actually get any sleep last night…? She slumped forward and stared blankly at her open pack for a moment before shaking her head down and searching through her tent for piece of parchment. As she rifled around through her things, she caught a glimpse of a small shadow passing across the outside of her tent. Slowly sitting down the pile of spare bandages and her arms, she stared toward the corner of the tent and waited to see if the shadow would appear again. As she watched the canvas walls fluttering in the wind, a broken whisper floated into her ears.

"Ai…sha…"

Startled, Aisha quickly snapped her head to the side and glanced over her shoulder only to find an empty room behind her. The moment she returned to packing, the wind picked up and a whisper returned.

"Ai…sha…"

"Alright, I don't have time for this," Aisha muttered under her breath as her eyes narrowed and she glanced around the room, "Either show yourself or shut up!"

"Ai…sha…hehehe…"

Scowling fiercely, Aisha ran to the corner of the room trying to trace the source of the cackling whisper, stopping abruptly when the sound suddenly shifted. As the wind died down and Aisha held her breath, the last lingering traces of her name seemed to be coming from a small pile at her bedside. Then, as she approached, silence. Cautiously, she knelt beside the pile and slowly pushed it aside only to find a barren floor. Quietly, she turned back towards the pile and her eyes fixed on the small statuette that she had knocked over that morning. Although she could've sworn that it had no expression before, it seemed as if it started to grin. Her sense of time melted away as she slowly reached out towards the statuette, the faint echo of her name still ringing in her years as her fingertips brushed its cold marble claws.

"Aisha!" A quick shout filled the entrance of her tent and Aisha turned to see Elsword standing there glaring at her impatiently. Shaken from her daze, Aisha stood and set the statuette back on her night stand.

"Huh? Oh, what is it?" Aisha brushed an errant strand of hair out of her eye and tried to clear her head. Now grimacing with a furrowed brow, Elsword stepped inside and began to fume.

"What you mean 'what is it?'"

Aisha blinked and stared at him, half confused, "No, you're actually going to need to be more specific this time."

"You-" Elsword stuttered, lowering his eyes and looking away. "Everybody said you looked really pissed… so…" He blushed slightly, immediately aware of how bad he was expressing concern in a casual, sensible way. He braced himself and prepare for Aisha to tease them again, but instead he was answered with a sigh.

"Oh, that." Aisha frowned softly, her annoyance tempered by exhaustion, "Some stodgy old dried up shrine mages tried to tell me that they didn't want me to go inside the chapel, even though they were completely useless on their own and I had to break the seal on the door for them. They had a lotta nerve too, thinking they'd be able to stop me."

"Hmph." Elsword scoffed. "What did they look like? What were their names?"

Aisha's smiled slightly, "You can't the go beat them up, you know."

"I know, but…" He scowled and crossed his arms. "I don't get it, why'd they act like that when you're trying to help."

"Yeah but…" Aisha sighed wearily, "Old men are always like that. I've had the same problem with them since I was a kid."

Curious, Elsword turned toward her as his scowl relaxed. "Huh?"

"Nothing…" Aisha's shook her head slowly, "Well… Okay, imagine that you spent a lot of time getting really good at something, almost your entire life, and then one day a little girl comes along and does that same thing so much better than you that you didn't think it was even possible, and she does it in a way that you don't even understand… How do you think that would make you feel?"

Elsword's eyes when wide, "That would be amazing!" he quickly forgot the topic at hand and drifted off into daydreaming about a small girl swiftly dispatching an army of bears in the forest. "…I gotta learn how to do that…"

"That…" Aisha stared for a moment, stunned by his reaction before bursting into a fit of laughter. More than a little annoyed by her response, Elsword glared sternly. After a moment, Aisha collected herself and rose to her feet. "Sorry, it's just… That was a really perfect answer and I wasn't expecting that from you."

Still feeling as if he was being teased, Elsword frowned, though his irritation faded quickly. "Anyway, screw those guys. They're not as good as you so they're not worth getting mad about."

"Yeah, you're right." Aisha smiled bitterly, "I guess it's at least partly my fault though… I was pretty sure this is how people would react when I got my grimoire, so I should've expected this."

"Like hell you should have. It's not your fault they're all assholes and there's nothing wrong with your grimoire so why the hell should you take the blame for it." Elsword huffed and fumed, a spark of vicarious frustration alight in the corner of his eye. Aisha, however, was shocked into silence. She had thought that she had been the one who was ultimately responsible for the gazes of contempt and disdain levied against her, that it was her choice in studying her grimoire that caused people to shun her… and now, unexpectedly, she realized that was wrong. It wasn't her fault that the old mages looked at her with eyes full of spite; their hatred had already existed since long before they knew she even existed, and they were just now revealing it because they saw her as a threat… not to their shrine, but to their position and power.

As soon as this realization had sunken in, Aisha felt a sudden surge of pride, both in herself and in Elsword, for taking her side even when she wasn't entirely willing to take it herself. She blushed and are breath quivered, and before she knew it, she had wrapped Elsword in a tight embrace.

"You know, sometimes you say something really, really good." She clasped her hands together behind his back and rested her chin on top of his head, "Not often, but sometimes."

"A-A-Aisha w-wha-" Caught completely off guard, Elsword's face flushed red and his brain nearly overheated. After floundering about for several seconds, he slowly, clumsily raised his hands and pressed them against Aisha's back. For just one moment, even though their hearts were beating rapidly, they felt strangely calm as the wind faded away and the air grew still around them.

"Hello? Aisha~? Are you in here?" Rena pulled back the flap of Aisha's tent then stepped inside. The moment she did, Aisha disappeared to the other side of the room, leaving Elsword standing alone and awkwardly clutching the air in front of him.

"Rena!" Aisha stumbled and nearly fell over and she steadied herself, "What-what is it?"

Rena stared skeptically, "…did you just Teleport across the room…?"

"What?" Aisha glanced towards the wall, "Of course not."

"Y-Yeah, we were just in here, talking about magic, and other magic things," Elsword avoided Rena's gaze tapped the toe of his shoe into the ground. "Just like this right before you came in"

For a single tense moment, Rena stared at them in silence. Then, a broad, mischievous grin spread out across her face before quickly fading into her usual warm smile. "Well, finish up soon. Lento's gathering everyone at the gates. We're about to head inside."