Episode 7: Dhaune
1st of Solis
When Laura woke, Jeremie was still tending to the fire, though it was now only embers in the pit they had dug. It was the first time she'd been alone with him since Koranth, though that had been two weeks ago. "Good morning, Princess," He said, not looking up from the fire. Jeremie, nor any of her companions, were ever informal with her. Aelita called her names, but Laura did the same. Laura thought Aelita was suspicious, and she needed to tell Jeremie, who had become sort of their leader, though the Fair often tried to undermine his authority.
"Good morning, Jeremie. You're just the Hero I wanted to talk to," She said, sitting next to him by the fire. "Do you want me to get that going for you?" She asked, pointing to the fire pit.
"If you want to, sure," He said as he leaned back so as not to catch his hair on fire as Laura started a larger fire. "Now, what did you want to talk to me about?"
She struggled to find the words. "It's about the elf," She said.
Jeremie let out a chuckle. "Which one? We have two in our company. Three, if you count Odd."
"The magician. Aelita,"
"You two really don't get along, do you?" Jeremie teased lightly.
Laura rolled her eyes. "That's the thing, you see. I… don't trust her. And I don't think you should either." She warned. Jeremie tried to wave her off, but she persisted. "Think about it, Jeremie! She can sense demons, and she won't tell us where she's from!"
"Listen, Laura. Your divination revealed Aelita to us, clear as day. She is a Hero, just like the rest of us. She has every right to be here as you do!" He said shortly as Yumi, William and Ulrich appeared from their respective tents. "Ah, but now we are not alone. I think we're done here."
With Yumi's help, William began to fry fish he'd caught in the river the night before. The smell of food soon brought Odd out of bed, and Aelita eventually joined them. Yumi teased the elf girl gently, "There you are! I didn't think we'd see you at all today."
Aelita smiled and shrugged. "I'm a bit of a night owl. Besides, sleeping really is wonderful."
The teenagers joked and chatted over breakfast. It felt nice on days like this to not worry about the mortal danger they were in, and to socialize like they normally would. But when Odd heard a sound, suddenly everyone was still. Odd grabbed his bow and quiver, and slowly he drew an arrow. The others grabbed their weapons, preparing for whatever threat the Scout had heard.
A dark elf suddenly burst through the bushes, and while Odd almost released his arrow at her, Jeremie ordered him to stand down. Upon closer inspection, the drow was in no way a threat to them. She carried no weapon but the tattered tunic on her back, meaning she was in no way a soldier. Odd also noted that she was not very pretty, considering most elves he met had an air of dignity and beauty that this elf did not possess. Were he a little cruder with higher standards he may have even called her ugly—her skin was blotched white around her jawline and up to about her nose on the right side of her face. Her green eyes seemed out of place on a drow, as did her dim blond hair. "Please, please, you have to help me!" She cried out, holding her stomach in pain.
Laura and William approached the dark elf. "Calm down, sister. How can we help?" William asked as he placed his hands on her quivering shoulders.
The drow moved her arms, revealing her tunic to be stained with red blood. "Gods above, you're bleeding!" Laura said, and she tried to help the drow up.
Ulrich stopped her. "Wait, why are you bleeding? What happened? Did you do this to yourself? Were you attacked?" He questioned.
Yumi seemed offended on the girl's behalf. "Who cares what happened to her? She'll die unless we do something!"
Jeremie looked up at Yumi. "No, he's right. This could be a trap." He looked back to the girl. "What happened to you?"
She hesitated. "I was trying to escape… being sacrificed. I was a… a slave. There were… scouts. They attacked me. Please, I don't want to die!" She started to breathe heavier.
Aelita raised her hands to her mouth. "Oh, the poor dear! We have to help her!"
With William's help, Laura lifted the former slave off the ground and carried her into the aravel, where there were two beds. Laura immediately began to heal the wound while Jeremie shouted for the Vanguard to join them. The scouts the drow had spoken of were constructs, and a dozen of them at that. Odd seemed thrilled. "Six of us, twelve of them. Fortuna smiles on us this day, no?"
Odd was the first to strike, striking one of the crab-like constructs in its joint, bringing it down so he could strike at the center of its head with his clawed gauntlets. He jumped off of it and onto a low-hanging branch on a nearby tree, firing an arrow at a cockroach construct.
Yumi had engaged one of the crabs as well, knocking the construct off of its legs and giving her a chance to kill it from its soft underbelly. One of the cockroaches approached her. "Ugh, aren't you an ugly little thing?" She cringed. It started to attack her, but she kicked it with her steel-toed boot and it hit a tree with such force that it did not get back up. A wasp-like construct hit her shoulder, but before she could retaliate, Aelita had thrown a stone into it. The elf saluted her.
Aelita was a skilled magician, and knew many forms of magic, but she was a glass canon—easily taken down. She'd developed ways to protect herself, and when a crab tried to attack her from behind, she demonstrated one of them. She burst into a cloud of blue butterflies, a skill she'd learned after connecting with nature. The butterflies flew and collected over the crab, and she stabbed the symbol with her dagger.
When more constructs came, William couldn't have been happier. They were the little ones, easily taken down. He used his sword to take down two of them, and following Yumi's lead, he kicked another. He set his sights on a crab, and once he'd sunken his sword into it, he jumped and slashed at a wasp.
Jeremie blocked most of the attacks with his shield, and similar to the attack on Capital Lyoko, slicing quickly at their joints to bring them down, as he could never jump high enough to kill one like the others. He spotted a wasp headed for Aelita, and thinking quickly, he grabbed a cockroach by the leg and shouted, "Odd, head's up!" Jeremie threw the cockroach at the wasp, and Odd shot both of the constructs with a single arrow, pinning them to the tree.
"Nice shot, Belpois! I didn't know you had it in you!" Odd complimented.
"They only weigh, like, five pounds," Jeremie said.
Ulrich was near the entrance to the aravel, trying his best to keep the constructs from entering their portable infirmary. He used his katanna to kill any that came near, and he spotted a dark, gleaming sphere in the bushes. Carefully, he approached, and it opened, revealing a symbol in the center panel. It prepared to fire a laser, and Ulrich blocked it with his katanna, but he felt it pushing him back. "Hey, Jeremie, think you can handle this?" He shouted back. Jeremie nodded reluctantly, hiding behind his shield. Ulrich moved, and the laser wall expanded, now pushing against Barricade.
The Mercenary ran and sliced at the outside of the sphere, though nothing he tried managed to penetrate the shell. "If you could just hurry up and kill the construct, that'd be great!" Jeremie shouted. Aelita shouted for Ulrich to move, and she threw a large boulder at the construct, knocking it off-balance. Ulrich jumped onto it, and he stabbed the sphere's center.
It seemed that the spherical tank was the last monster, and the camp was now littered with construct corpses. Odd slumped against the aravel. "Gods, it should be illegal to work that hard after breakfast!" He complained. Jeremie, Ulrich, William and Aelita apparently agreed, as they slumped around the fire or on the aravel.
Yumi rolled her eyes. "I'm going to check up on Laura and the dark elf." She announced, and she entered the aravel. Laura seemed to have stopped the bleeding, but the elf had passed out. "How is she doing?" Yumi asked.
Laura looked up from the book she was reading. "Oh, Yumi. Did I hear fighting outside? I was preoccupied."
Yumi nodded. "We just took on what felt like a legion of constructs. And don't think that I've forgotten that you didn't answer my question."
Laura looked down at the drow. "She's sleeping now. I managed to get that Xana was planning to use her blood to locate us, and that her name is Dhaune. I didn't get anything else from her, though. Jeremie will probably want to interrogate her once she wakes up."
"Maybe. Anyway, we should pack up. This camp won't be safe anymore." Yumi advised, and Laura agreed.
The teens exited the aravel, and they quickly packed up, giving the horse they'd bought to pull the aravel, Rorkal, a bag of feed before moving camp. They had many small towns to warn before they reached Kadic, a large city.
That night, when the teens had set up camp again, Yumi went to check on Dhaune. She was awake, and clearly confused. "Where am I?" She asked the Colonist, her green eyes trembling in fear.
Yumi thought for a moment. "I think Jeremie and Odd said that we're about two days from Bryhill, and I trust that they, at least, know where we are. I don't think Odd would lead us in circles, anyway." She shrugged with a smile.
Dhaune smiled briefly, but it faded. "Thank you. For earlier. That was you who stood up to the boy who wanted to leave me to die, wasn't it?" She said.
Yumi nodded. "Yes, that was me. And you don't need to thank me." Dhaune was not like what she'd expected a dark elf slave to be like. Her thoughts wandered to Hiroki, and she sighed sadly at the thought of her younger brother. "Anyway, now that you're awake, I need to get Jeremie. He has questions for you." Yumi left the aravel.
Jeremie appeared moments later, and he sat on the bed across from Dhaune. He was shadowed by Ulrich, who leaned against the opening of the aravel, as so to act as back-up in case Dhaune attacked Jeremie. "So, Laura told me your name is Dhaune, right?" Jeremie stated.
"Yes," Dhaune said, sitting up to face him. Though the wound was gone, the pain remained.
"Where are you from? What did Xana say she was going to do to you?" The Wise Man asked.
"I was in Maera when I ran. The Matron Mother… she had an Overseer drag me into the temple to the Destruction Mother, where she planned to sacrifice me to learn your location. I managed to escape, and I found your camp."
Ulrich wasn't convinced. "Maera is almost twelve days from here. Are we supposed to believe you've been running for twelve days and only found one camp—ours?" He questioned. "You didn't find a town or a group of Rangers?"
Dhaune seemed hurt. "Of course I tried to gain entrance to Narza, but they aren't letting drow inside their gates." She explained.
Jeremie shrugged at the Mercenary, and he turned his attention to Dhaune again. "Do you think Xana will be able to locate you, even if she didn't complete the ritual?" He asked.
She hesitated. "I don't know. Xana is a blood magician, so I wouldn't put it past her to look into my dreams." She admitted as Aelita entered with a plate.
"Gods, I hate blood magic. Is there any better example of the depravity that a person can reach?" Jeremie asked rhetorically.
Aelita smiled weakly, almost forced. "How about a possessed person?" She offered.
The Wise Man shrugged. "I don't know. Up until recently, I would have argued with you that a person cannot truly be possessed, but I think I've changed my mind."
The Outcast approached Dhaune. "Anyway, Dhaune, I've brought you dinner. We're nowhere close to a village, so you'll be with us for at least a couple of days. Better keep your strength up." She said, and then she looked back to Jeremie. "Anyway, lethallin, I think that I'll take first watch tonight."
Ulrich seemed surprised. "Are you sure, kitten? It is my turn, after all."
Aelita sighed. "Yes, I'm sure. I have a lot of things on my mind."
Dhaune had been allowed to sleep in the aravel, unlike the others, who resigned to their respective tents. She was sleeping peacefully until Xana approached her in her dreams. "Have they let you into their group yet?" Xana asked.
Dhaune bowed respectfully. "Yes, Matron Mother. The Mercenary is suspicious, but I feel that they are too preoccupied with settling their own differences to think much of me."
Xana nodded. "Yes, this is good. Just make sure you prove yourself useful, or they'll dump you at the nearest town." She thought for a moment. "Actually, we may be able to use this mistrust. Do you think that you can fertilize the seeds of doubt further?"
"I would do anything for you, Matron Mother." Dhaune agreed.
Aelita poked at the fire with the end of her staff. Unlike Laura's wand, Aelita's staff was long, a skull resting in the gap left by twisting wood and a blade formed at the end. The staff was called Erahalam, roughly meaning 'the end of a dream', though she called the skull Murray. It had been a gift from Edna, an elven magician whom Aelita had called 'hahren'. She always had it with her; though it wasn't often she carried it openly. She looked up at the stars, and she wondered if Edna was watching her.
The Outcast jumped when she heard someone stir behind her, but it was simply Dhaune. "By the Creation Father, Dhaune. Don't sneak up on me like that; I almost attacked you."
Dhaune laughed half-heartedly. "It would be the second time today." She said. "I noticed that you are a wilder. Why are you travelling with a group of shemlen and not your clan?"
"My clan is gone. I do not know where they are, though my hahren… is dead." She looked back to the stars. "I am travelling with these humans willingly." She clarified.
"Willingly… for now," Dhaune stood and went back to the aravel, and Aelita seemed shaken by the words.
Laura appeared from her tent. "Oh, Aelita. I expected to find Ulrich. Anyway, you can go to bed. I'll take over watch."
Aelita stood quickly. "Yes, perhaps you should."
2nd of Solis
"We may be able to reached Bryhill by tonight if we take a shortcut over the plains here," Odd said the next morning as he and Jeremie looked over the map. Jeremie argued, despite Odd usually having a good idea of where they were. The argument stopped when they heard a nearby roar, and heavy footsteps.
Jeremie looked at Odd with an almost uninterested look upon his face. "Odd, are we near a bridge?"
"I think so, yes," The Scout said. "Why?"
Jeremie stood. "Because that sounds an awful lot like a troll,"
The troll approached, about twice William's size. It had green skin with bumps and calluses, and it was covered with moss. This confused Jeremie, as he'd read about trolls and only those who had been stationary for many years grew moss on their bodies. In any case, there was no way the teenagers would be able to stop such a monstrosity, and they stood to run away.
Dhaune realized what she had to do. She had a mediocre knowledge of illusion magic, and while it wouldn't get the Heroes to trust her, it would be enough to fool such a stupid monster as a troll. The troll roared in her face, and Dhaune created a calming blue aura. After a few minutes, the troll blinked, and it stomped away to look for food elsewhere. She sighed, almost convinced that her spell had failed. She turned to look at the Heroes, and she saw approving looks on their faces. She was in.
Eventually, Jeremie decided to follow Odd's advice, and they arrived at Bryhill in time to get dinner at a local tavern. Along the way, Dhaune had spoken to each of the Heroes, and had planted seeds of mistrust in their minds. It had been done easily for some—Ulrich and William, as well as Laura and Aelita, and to a smaller extent Odd and Jeremie—though Yumi was harder. In any case, Dhaune seemed the least suspicious member of the eight. She sat quietly and enjoyed her handiwork.
"You have a grasp of magic I'd never have expected to see in a knife-ear, Aelita," Laura said, carefully drinking from the goblet that she'd been offered.
"I wish I could say that I believed that, you wine-soaked Imperialist." The Outcast spat. "I'll bet that you'd be happier to see me in irons than casting spells!" Aelita reached over the table and struck the bottom of Laura's goblet, spilling its contents onto the princess's shirt.
"William, I think that you need to take it easy on the battlefield," Ulrich advised. "You'll wear yourself out if you keep on fighting like you do, and I don't want to be the one hauling you into the aravel on my back." Ulrich chuckled.
The Vanguard scoffed. "It's more likely that I'd haul you back, Ulrich. You aren't exactly the most durable of fighters." He gathered gravy onto his spoon and threatened to fling it at the Mercenary.
Odd looked smugly at Jeremie. "And, once again, my path has given us a safer, shorter route to where we're going. Why do you even carry the map, Jeremie?" He asked.
"Because if you carry the map, you're likely to sell it for a quick fix of poppy and a prostitute," The Wise Man said.
Yumi looked over to Dhaune with a grim expression. "We don't normally fight like this. Today is an off-day." She said.
Dhaune shrugged. "And the start of many more to come, it seems like."
A/N: Hey, I need a beta. You know, someone who reads the chapter before it is officially put up? Yeah, one of those. I may take one or two of the first people who contact me, so drop me a PMif you're interested.