Revelations

Tarick and his squad burst into Ter Adun's sleeping quarters, jolting the general awake. Instinctively knowing this wasn't a friendly visit; the general grabbed his blade and confronted the intruders. 'What the hell is this?!" He roared.

Tarick smirked. "Sorry my Lord, this is business."

Majiya stared at Logan, who merely grunted in her direction. She despised his brutish nature, and he had made no secret of the fact that he despised her reliance on "witchcraft". Since agreeing to Ter Adun's alliance, Majiya had been waiting for her chance to get more information about what exactly he wanted. And what she could stand to gain.

The infuriating thing was that they had been waiting in this damp cave for almost an hour, and Majiya was at her wits end. Her hair was soaked through, not to mention her clothes. There was only so long you could stand under a leaking roof and not have your mind turn to murderous thoughts.

Finally the sound of footsteps broke the uneasy silence. However stepping out of the shadows was not Ter Adun, but his bodyguard Kairos. "I'm glad you both heeded my call." He stated in that distinctive voice.

"Hold on, where is Ter Adun?" Logan demanded, his guttural roar filling the cave. Majiya stood silent; she already had an inkling of what was coming next.

"Ter Adun is currently… indisposed." Kairos replied simply.

"You mean dead." Majiya frowned. I should've seen this coming.

"Indisposed." Kairos corrected.

"Well, you can count me out of this little alliance then." Majiya stated, turning to leave. In response to her statement a blast of lightning knocked her down, the smell of singed flesh filling her nostrils as she groaned in agony. As she slowly picked herself up, she could see the grinning skull of the necromancer Gravebone staring at her from the shadows.

"Before you leave my dear, at least hear me out." Kairos replied, his deathly voice exuding unspoken threats of violence.

Majiya clenched her teeth as she rubbed the burn left behind by the lightning strike. "Do I have a choice?"

"Not really, no."

Lyra Blackrose followed the small squad of human mercenaries as they moved away from Ter Adun's camp. She had originally gone there to get eyes on Kairos and to keep up her end of the bargain with Ka'thax. However when she had arrived the camp was in chaos. Ter Adun was dead, along with half a dozen human mercenaries. Kairos was nowhere to be found. The various captains of his army were struggling to maintain order and fortify the camp in preparation for the expected human assault. In the confusion, no one had noticed this small band of humans leave the camp. No one but Lyra.

The humans, led by a rather rough looking man carrying a war hammer slowly made their way down the road, before rather abruptly turning into the forest. Lyra followed, doing her best to avoid the many fallen branches and dried leaves that were scattered over the forest floor. She wasn't entirely successful, and more than a few times she had to use her gift to ensure various members of the squad "forgot" the sounds they'd heard.

They continued on for some time, occasionally making seemingly random direction changes. They're ensuring they aren't being followed. Lyra smiled. They wouldn't shake her, even if she had lost sight of them; their minds were like a shining beacon in the forest.

They stopped at a large cave, with an entrance easily able to accommodate a man without him having to duck. Lyra waited for a few minutes after they had all entered the cave before following. The cave entrance was much longer than she expected, and it wasn't straight, it curved and branched off in many directions. Having lost sight of the mercenaries Lyra began to track them mentally. There were others here too, but not humans. The mercenaries employers?

The tunnel eventually began to widen out into a cavern, which was reminiscent of an arena. The walls on the sides were not vertical, but sloped up gradually to meet the curved ceiling at an angle. Water dripped quite heavily from the ceiling, so much so that Lyra suspected it was a fair way underground and probably beneath one of the lakes in the area. Thankfully with all this moisture many large stalagmites had formed for her to hide behind as she surveyed the gathering at the far side of the cavern.

In addition to the human mercenaries stood a number of Shadow agents. As Lyra moved from cover to cover to get closer she began to realise the gravity of this meeting. Both Majiya and Gravebone were here, though they didn't look happy with each other, and Majiya was nursing a nasty wound to her flank. There was a massive Minotaur as well, but she wasn't sure if he was another leader or merely protection. Standing on an elevated position was a giant of a man in blackened armour. As they all spoke, Lyra realised the man was Kairos.

"Are you insane Kairos?" Majiya exclaimed. "That's one of the most heavily fortified sites under human control. If not THE most fortified."

"Hmmph. Nothing the humans put up could stop me." The Minotaur gloated.

Kairos looked at the Minotaur. "Quiet Logan." He ordered, his voice like the winds of death. He turned back to face Majiya. "I'm not insane, I know their strengths, and their weaknesses, and I have tailored my forces to suit. Not only that, through varied means I have stretched the human defenders so thin that there will be no way for them to amass a force in time."

Like Windspire. Lyra thought to herself. This Kairos knew what he was doing. Now she had to figure out what he was aiming for.

"Even so, do you really think you have the troops to pull this off?" Majiya asked.

Kairos nodded. "My forces, combined with your magical might and Logan's clan will be more than sufficient. Corvinus will be ours."

CORVINUS! Lyra almost fell backwards. They're going for the Corvinus Mine. If the Shadow got a hold of that the war would be over. She began to back out of the chamber, she had to get this information to Gunther. Not looking where she was going and in a hurry to get out, her foot sunk into a puddle. The splash was loud enough to get the attention of the congregation, and within moments she was avoiding fireballs launched by both mages.

Running for her life now, Lyra could feel the heat from the magical onslaught and hear the thunderous footsteps of Logan as he pursued her. The concussion wave from one of the fireballs knocked her to the ground and gave Logan the opportunity to catch up. She managed to roll under the swing of his massive blade and seek shelter behind a stalagmite, though a second strike cut it down as though it were a blade of grass.

Desperate, Lyra concentrated on Logan's mind, tearing at it and disorienting him for a moment. Using this chance, she sliced his Achilles tendon, hobbling him and preventing him from pursuing her further. As Logan dropped to his knees, a thundercrack shattered the air and Lyra was blown backward by the lightning. Struggling to stand, Lyra reached into her pockets for her insurance policy. Throwing the smoke capsule on the ground as the mages moved forward to press the attack, the smoke obscured her just enough to cause the next lightning strike to go wide. Adrenalin kicking in, Lyra got to her feet and ran into the tunnels. With the pain from the lightning burns affecting her every movement, she repeatedly smashed herself against the tunnel walls as she fled. By the time she hit daylight there wasn't a single part of her body that wasn't cut and bleeding.

Not stopping, she half ran/half limped back to the road as fast as she could. It was there the wounds took their toll and she collapsed to the ground, unable to continue. The pain overtook her and Lyra lost consciousness.

"Miss? Miss?"

Lyra's eyes opened to the sight of an old man shaking her awake. She was in the back of a trader's caravan as it moved down the road. "What… what happened?" She muttered weakly.

"I found you on the side of the road." He replied, voice filled with concern. "You looked like you'd been attacked by bandits. Are you alright?"

Lyra propped herself up on her elbows, the pain shooting through her back as she did so. "I've been better." She said through clenched teeth.

"I need to get you to a healer." The trader said. "You need a priest."

"No. Windspire. Get me to Windspire."