"So..." Kaisinel sat comfortably on a sofa and sipped tea. "What brings you here so suddenly?"
"Ah, Kash, you know already," Vaizel sprawled on an armchair opposite to him. "For how long do you need her?"
"I'm afraid I don't understand the question."
"Lumiel. When do you intend to return her to me? I'm willing to share her, of course, but you know, you could have just asked."
"I'm not returning her anywhere. And neither her servants."
"She's my prisoner," the Lord of Freedom scowled. "And I have the right to access to her any time I want."
"No. In fact, you are explicitly forbidden to interact with her in any way, until my clerics deem it safe."
"Are you fucking kidding me?!"
"You r***d her. You let other men to r**e her. And on top of that, you purposefully broke the integrity of her mind, just to have easier time r****g her. I'm not letting you anywhere near her."
"No, no, no, no. I fucked, her, yes, but I never forced her, okay? She always agreed!"
"You threatened to kill her people."
"She still could have said no, they were just humans," Vaizel shrugged. "What's your point? Don't tell me you care about her well-being! She's our enemy!"
"And even as an enemy she deserves basic dignity. And you being drunk and high is not an excuse to treat her worse than trash. What even was that circlet device you used on her?"
"Gift from Israphel, it just turns her on, nothing special. Other women love it."
"Are you even listening to yourself?" Kaisinel put down the teacup and glared daggers at his fellow Empyrean lord. "For Aion's sake, what's wrong with you?"
"What's wrong with me? You're holed up in this fancy place and don't show up in Sanctum at all! You don't even know what's happening in Elysea!"
"You're right, I don't..."
"Ha!"
"It's your job to inform me about the important events and request help if needed. So? Which Elysean matter do you need help with?" the voice of the Lord of Illusions was ice cold. "Is it about the illegal lab in Heiron?"
"What the fuck?"
"I received a report about a lab, where they experimented on daevas. On Elyos. Were you aware of it?"
"What? No! I have my people there! Why would they not report it? Did you make it up just to make me feel stupid?"
"If you feel stupid, it's not my fault."
"Don't fucking disrespect me, Kash!" Vaizel jumped to his feet and tossed the teapot down from the table. "I didn't come here to be mocked like this. Lumiel is my prisoner. If you don't return her to me..."
"Then what? You'll run to your puppet master Israphel and complain?" Kaisinel scoffed.
"I'm not anyone's puppet! And I surely won't be yours," he walked to the door and opened it. "I'm done here. Azrael!"
The Lord of Illusions sighed and followed his... friend? Could he still call this husk of a person a friend? When did everything turn to such a shit?
"Yes, Vai, what do you need?" Azrael appeared like a ghost and bowed to his lord.
"We're leaving this shithole. Call Lorsa and Aiden to Sanctum, today. We must discuss their competence. And loyalty."
"As you wish. Should I include Ylrian too?"
"No. He made it clear he likes Kaisinel more than us. At least Kash has someone to replace Veille."
Kaisinel frowned, but stayed silent. He didn't need any more incidents, so he only watched, as the two daevas walked to the teleporter statue and disappeared.
"Lord Kaisinel," a servant hesitantly approached him and bowed.
"What is it?"
"It's... Lady Lumiel, she's... unstable."
"That's nothing new."
"No, my lord, it's... much worse. I already sent for a cleric, but she wasn't able to calm her down."
"I'll be there in a moment," he turned around and walked upstairs, where his chamber was. There he lit up an incense stick, put it on the window and for several breaths just stood at the balcony and watched the life below. Vaizel won't let this go. And Israphel is certainly already planning to discredit me. Unless I do something, I won't be part of Elysea for long.
After his thoughts slowed down, he took the last breath of the incense and went to Lumiel's room. The guards in front of it were on edge and looked relieved when he appeared. Inside, the room was a mess. The Lady of Wisdom was pacing back and forth, with her hands on the side of her face and looking only in front of herself, mumbling incomprehensibly. Papers and bedsheets were all around the room, some of them half burned, some wet with slowly melting ice crystals on them.
"Lumiel," Kaisinel said to get her attention. She turned towards him, her eyes were wide and her jaw tense. Tear paths were visible on her cheeks.
"He's here," she wept. "I felt it. There was a burst of aether strong enough to get through these," she pointed at the aether-cuffs on her ankles. "He's here..."
"He just left. You're safe here."
"If he was here, he can come again," she walked to the window.
"The guards won't let him in."
"They're no match for him!"
"Lumiel. You're safe here. I gave you my word."
"Your word means nothing!" she screamed and sat down on the floor, crying.
Kaisinel watched her, pondering whether he should use his abilities and make her forget the trauma. But what she had experienced took way too long to be safely removed, he would risk damaging her mind permanently. No, she had to get through it herself.
"I'll send a cleric to calm you down."
"No!"
"Or would you prefer a sorcerer to put you to sleep?"
"Don't do any of that! Just talk with me!"
"I don't have time for just talking."
"Then why did you bother coming here?"
"Fine," Kaisinel used an aether spell to clean the closest chair and sat on it. "What do you want to talk about?"
"Tell me, what happened after Primum."
~ o ~
"Oh, no, we're at Primum."
It took Lonewolf a few seconds to fully comprehend what Aielyn said. The ruins around them didn't look like the Primum he remembered. But at the same time... the colours of the aether streams were similar to those he watched from a shugo ship and the remnants of the walls had a familiar structure.
"Mira?" he looked at the blonde sorceress.
"I swear I was aiming at the Black Cloud," she looked around, confused. "But I guess my memories of being a prisoner here outweighed that one visit there."
"Then take us there now," Tatran grunted.
"Are you insane?" Mira's eyes widened in shock. "With all this aether-shitstorm here? We could end up in pieces all over the Abyss!"
"If we fly outside, could you create a portal there?" Lonewolf suggested.
"Probably yes. It depends how far these currents stretch."
"Alright, I'll go scout the surroundings. Mer, come with me."
The Asmodian ranger summoned his wings and lifted himself from the ground. The sense of aether under the feathers filled him with joy, even if it was for a brief moment. Sigwyn also summoned her wings, they were black, as he remembered, but also way thinner than usual, their former fluffiness was missing. She waved them and rose slightly above the ground. And then the wings disappeared and she fell.
"What happened?" Lonewolf landed next to her.
"I haven't used my wings for so long," she said. "I won't be flying anywhere any time soon."
"Tatran? Can you fly?"
The spiritmaster also summoned his wings and the same thing happened.
"I'm afraid not," if he could frown more, he would. "Stain?"
The painter was standing several steps aside from the group and staring at the aether currents.
"Stain?" Aielyn walked over to her.
"Yes, that's me, right?" she said as if her mind wasn't present. "Was I here before? I don't remember, but it feels familiar..."
"Yes, you took part in the battle here," Mira said.
"Battle..."
"Stain? Are you alright?" Aielyn asked.
As if the daeva didn't hear her, she took a few steps and dropped to her knees. "No, Chrono..." she whispered and started sobbing. Tatran swiftly walked to her, pushed Aielyn aside, pulled aether from the closest stream and touched Chroma's head. After about a minute she fell unconscious and he gently laid her on the ground.
"She's not gonna fly," he said. "I suppressed her emotions, she shouldn't experience any more breakdowns for now."
"Is it safe?" Sigwyn asked.
"Safer than having her freak out all the time."
"So, flying to a safe distance for teleport is out of option," Lonewolf sighed. "I'll still do some scouting around, the rest of you can try to find something useful in the ruins."
"I can go with you," Aielyn said. "I can fly."
"No, Lyn, you stay here and take care of Chroma. Mer?"
"Yes?"
"Make sure they won't kill each other while I'm gone," he kissed his wife and flew up.
He took a good look over the lay of the land. The floating islands were broken and arranged differently than what he remembered, but he still could guess they landed in the main building. He changed direction towards the Eastern shard of Latesran. It was quite far, from the ruins of the fortress he could see only vague outlines, but he got there with a decent amount of stamina left. Flying was great, but also exhausting. As he landed, he immediately hid in the shadows. The rocky platform, as well as everything else, was illuminated by a giant burning ball of fire in the center of the Abyss, the Core, so the shadows were sparse and only in one direction. He explored the entire plateau and the lower base of the tower, but found only old traces of fights. Both Asmodian and Elyos camps, that used to be there, were empty. Even the green substance on the walls that used to glow was now dim. As he turned around to leave, he saw three persons descending through the Latesran tower. He immediately jumped into the shadows again and waited. Those three were Balaur, with dark violet skin and white clothes and armor. Ereshkigal's. And they were headed towards Primum!
~ o ~
After the dream with the statue, scales and shield Cathy didn't fall asleep again. The shield was the most important thing of that dream, nothing else was that detailed and she also felt a familiar connection to it, but she'd never actually seen it before. The stars wanted her to do something about it, but as in all dreams before, they didn't tell her what.
Someone opened the door and the new light blinded her. Someone walked in, grabbed her by her arm, lifted her up and led her from the room. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the stone hallways lit by numerous lamps on the walls. The guard leading her had a dark red uniform and a sword and a gun at his hip. He pushed her to a room and closed the door behind her. A woman in a similar uniform, at the closer look it was clearly Lepharist style, was waiting there, looking bored.
"You can wash yourself," the woman pointed at a bathtub partially hidden behind a wooden screen. "And there's new clothes for you."
Cathy looked down at her wrists, which were still tied by the pair of aether-cuffs.
"Of course," the woman pulled out a crystal from her pocket and split the chain in the middle. A bit of aether returned, but not enough for Cathy to do anything with it.
She walked behind the screen and examined the clothes. They looked very similar to the guards' uniform. She put it aside. With hesitation she undressed, quickly washed in the tub and got out. She put on her own clothes, even though they were a bit dirty. She didn't want to wear anything resembling the people who kidnapped her. She was a Lady of Fate now and Richelle already gave her several lessons on symbols and appearances.
"That's not the new clothes," the woman rolled her eyes, when Cathy stepped from behind the screen. "Go get changed."
Cathy frowned and shook her head.
"Whatever, stay in the dirty ones then," the woman shrugged. "Come with me."
They walked through the hallways again and the woman led her to a fancy looking room with an ornate table and two comfortably looking armchairs. There was a teapot with steam rising from it, two empty porcelain cups and a plate full of tiny cookies shaped like their broken world. Cathy stood halfway to the table, unsure what to do. The space next to her twisted and a white-haired man in a long black robe with golden ornaments appeared in the room. Even through the cuffs she felt the amount of aether around him. She had seen that face before only once, but she would never forget it. He had several names and all of them scared her.
Lephar.
The Lord of Space.
Israphel.
~ o ~
Again, she was left behind. Aielyn was so happy, when Lady Triniel finally picked her for an important mission like the lab in Heiron, but since they left the lab, she struggled with making herself useful. She knew she was inexperienced. She knew she wasn't as powerful as Lonewolf or Tatran or even Sigwyn. But she still wanted to help. And even though she was the only one who could fly, Lonewolf still didn't want her to help him with the scouting. Why?
"Tatran, Mira, come with me, we'll search the ruins," Sigwyn said. "Ortiz, Aielyn, you stay here and watch over Chroma."
"But I can search too!" Aielyn protested.
"And someone still needs to stay here and defend Chroma and Ortiz if the Balaur or Shulacks find us," the assassin said.
"Why does it have to be me?"
"Because you're fucking useless at anything else than sitting and waiting," Tatran spat.
"Tatran, enough, she's staying here, because Lonewolf, the leader of this group, said so. Lyn, you handled Chroma's breakdown in Eltnen well, so keep her company, if she wakes up. That's it."
"But... fine," Aielyn sighed and sat next to the unconscious daeva.
"And keep an eye on the surroundings too," Sigwyn turned around, gestured at Tatran and Mira and walked to the ruins.
The ranger watched them disappear between the debris and then shifted her attention to the unconscious Stain. Or Chroma? What happened to her? Well, obviously, she was captured by the Lepharists and brainwashed. Or tortured? Could she be helped? Could Aielyn help her?
"You don't have to do everything, you know?" Ortiz sat next to her. His voice was calm, quiet and soothing.
"What do you mean?"
"I know you only for a short time, but I can see you're trying to jump at any opportunity to do something, especially if it's dangerous."
"I want to do at least something right," Aielyn looked at the rocks under her feet. "I messed up in the lab. And in the fortress. I... I want to be useful. Tatran can't be right about me."
"Doing the little things is useful too," the Reian smiled. "Maybe it's not that grand and you won't be... how do you Elyos say it? In the bright light?"
"I guess so... I'm not a proper Elyos anyway."
"What I wanted to say is, that taking care of someone, who needs help, is also important."
"I..."
"What happened?" Stain woke up, rolled over to her back and stared at the aether swirls above them. Her voice was bleak and her face tense.
"Stain! Are you alright?" Aielyn moved closer to her and held her hand. "You fell unconscious..."
"Stain? Yes, that's also me. I remember being Chroma... and turning into Stain. Not that I forgot, I just buried it. But I should be Chroma, right?"
"What do you remember? Do you... want to talk about it?"
"No. Yes. Maybe... My mind is in a fog, I can't think... my brother died here, I should be sad... What happened? Why am I not sad?"
"Tatran said he suppressed your emotions, that it would be safer for now..."
"No, that's wrong. I can't think like this."
"Well, he's not around," Aielyn looked in the direction where he went, but no one was there. "But we can ask him to reverse it when he's back."
"No. I'll do it myself," Chroma sat up. "Where's my bag? Any my white dot?"
"On your ear?"
"Miss, are you certain you'll be able to handle the flood of emotions when you reverse the spell?" Ortiz asked. "Wouldn't it be better to wait until we're at a safer place?"
"Nope. My thoughts move like half-dried paint, any work with aether takes too long when I'm like this. If a battle starts, I'll be useless," she took the white blob of paint from her earlobe and smeared it over her forehead.
"Do you need help?" Aielyn asked.
"If you know any lullaby, it might help after I remove the block."
"Yeah, I know one."
Chroma removed the paint from her forehead and examined it. After a few seconds she returned it to her ear and found a pink and a violet jars in her blanket-bag. She carefully mixed a bit of them on the stone, added a tiny drop of black and put the mixture on her forehead and her cheeks. At first nothing happened. Then she curled into a fetal position and started sobbing. Aielyn hugged her.
"Shhh, it will be better," she whispered.
"Sleep my baby, the night is dark and the darkness is your shield.
Light of stars will guide your path in the aether realm of dreams.
The aether is warm, the shadows are here.
Wrap yourself in them and drift into dream."
During the song Chroma calmed down. She was still weeping, but her breath steadied and the tension in her body subsided.
"It... it's a lot to take," she whispered. "But I'll be alright."
"What in Aion's ass are you doing?" Tatran returned from the ruins. He was seething and his eyes were glowing red, piercing directly into Aielyn's soul.
"Your spell had negative side effects on Chroma, she needed to remove it," Ortiz said.
Aielyn gently let go of Chroma and got up.
"This time, I didn't do anything. As you said, I was just sitting and waiting."
"Always acting so innocent, you Elyos aren't satisfied with stealing our lands, you have to steal our customs and our songs too."
"That's your problem? Well, good news, I didn't steal it, my mom taught me that song, of her own will."
"As if it mattered if it was you or your mother who stole it!"
"She was an Asmodian!"
The glow in Tatran's eyes disappeared, he held his breath and took a step back. Chroma and Ortiz watched the exchange in silence.
"What... was her name?" he asked.
"Why the fuck do you care? She died, you..."
"Was her name Laila?"
"You... knew her?" Aielyn tried to keep the sudden hope she felt away from the tone of her voice.
Tatran's expression shifted from shock through a brief moment of pain and settled on anger.
"So you're the reason why she died," he spat and the red glow returned to his eyes.
"N-no... the Lepharists..."
"Yes, the Lepharists were the ones who killed her, but if you or that piece of trash your father never existed, she could be anywhere else and still alive."
"Oh, Tatran, this is not fair," Ortiz said.
"Not fair? This little..." the spiritmaster pointed at Aielyn, "brat's existence is not fair. How dare you be still alive when Laila is dead?"
"But..." she squeaked through the tears rolling over her cheeks. She wanted to scream. She wanted to say she would gladly give up her life to bring her parents back. But the words got trapped in her throat. She turned around and ran away from the group. When she reached the edge of the floating island, she summoned her wings and flew to the next one. And then another one. As she landed on an island far enough, she collapsed to her knees and tried to make sense of what happened. A sound of something heavy on the stone nearby pulled her out of her thoughts. A huge Balaur in heavy white armor was towering above her, his sword was probably as big as she was. And in her panic she left her bow with the group.
~ o ~
"Hello, Lady Cathy," the man smiled, which sent cold shivers down her spine. "I apologise for the somewhat rushed travel, however, I believe it was necessary, otherwise we wouldn't be able to have this conversation."
She stared at him, unable to move.
"There's no need to be afraid, you won't be harmed in any way, unless you become hostile yourself. Please, have a seat," he gestured at the table and sat into one of the armchairs.
Cathy hesitantly followed. Israphel poured tea for himself and then for her.
"Please, have some tea and cookies," he still kept smiling.
Is it poisoned? Cathy wanted to ask, but couldn't. She looked down at her hands in her lap. No, he wouldn't tell me if it was.
"Well, if you're not hungry, I won't force you. Do you know why you're here?"
She shook her head.
"When Marchutan died, he left most of his power behind, in the form of an aetheric barrier. He wasn't the only one, Nezekan and Zikel also left behind their powers, as well as Siel. These powers are now inside items we call relics. You were the only one to access this power, so it would be only fitting, if you helped us unlock the relics we have."
Cathy looked at him in surprise. No, he can't have that! That's bad! He's evil!
"We tried quite a lot of people, but none of them could access the power from the relics. Except you. So I wonder, what did you do? According to the witnesses, you were sleeping when you absorbed the barrier. Did you have a prophecy dream? Marchutan used to have those sometimes."
Don't move. Don't let him guess anything.
"Ah, so you did. You will need to start cooperating, we won't get anywhere, if you just keep quiet. Come with me, I'll show you something."
He reached towards her with his hand. She took it. His black glove was smooth and soft to touch. With a gesture he split the space and led Cathy through the crack.
~ o ~
Lonewolf followed the Balaur patrol. They sprouted spectral wings that looked almost like ice and flew towards the ruins of the former Asmodian fortress. As they reached the edge of the aetheric chaos, they headed down around it, careful to avoid the streams. Of course, the aether hurt them in high concentrations. They could survive in it, but they had no reason to go there right now. He followed them in distance, trying to keep in the shadows of various floating rocks.
Once they were behind the main island, one of them stopped and pointed to the side. Something grey was flying between the debris. Aielyn? What is she doing here? One Balaur grunted something and detached from the group to pursue her. The other two continued in their original direction. The ranger silently cursed. He waited, until he was sure the two were far enough and wouldn't see him, and then he flew after the single one, who in the meantime disappeared between the floating debris. After several long moments the noise of skirmish led him in the correct direction, just in time to witness as Aielyn summoned her wings and tried to fly away, but the Balaur grabbed the wing and threw her to the nearest remnant of a wall. Lonewolf fired several aetheric arrows in succession, all of them hitting the Balaur, who although injured turned towards him. He cursed again, grabbed one of his last four wooden arrows and aimed. The Balaur summoned his spectral wings, which was all he could do before the arrow pierced his skull. His body fell next to Aielyn, who was trying to get up.
"Are you alright, Lyn?" he landed next to her.
"I... think so," she dusted herself off and kept staring at the ground. She had bruises on her face and hands and her eyes were red, as if she was crying recently.
"Really?"
"Just a bit bruised, but nothing's broken or bleeding," she looked at him and grinned.
"Can you fly?"
She summoned her wings and rose a bit up. One wing was ruffled and slightly twisted, but she was able to steady herself.
"Good, then let's go back to the others," he said and summoned his wings too. "Why were you here?"
"I... I wanted to scout something too," she looked away again.
"Lyn..."
"I'm sorry," she added quickly. "I won't do it again."
They flew the rest of the way without saying a word. Aielyn has been acting weird since her capture in the Eltnen lab. Lonewolf didn't blame her, she was drugged when they found her, so who knows what effects it had? But he also had no idea on what to do with her. They needed all to work together and not haphazardly break off from the group. He was sure he could still trust her, but could he rely on her? As they reached the group, Ortiz and Sigwyn were discussing something with Tatran. Mira and Chroma were out of sight.
"Ah, finally, you're back," Sigwyn welcomed them, when they landed. "What did you find?"
"Balaur," Lonewolf replied. "Ereshkigal's. Also, they found us and they will probably be missing their patrol soon. Tell me, at least you found something useful."
"Maybe, we found a remnant of the teleporting tower, Mira and Chroma are on it to see if they can make it work."
"Let's check on them, then. Lead the way."
As the group moved through the debris, Ortiz handed Aielyn her bow. Did she really go scouting without a weapon? Once they get to a safe place, he'll have a serious talk with her. They got to a remnant of a wharf that was wedged between the rock and a collapsed wall, where Mira and Chroma stood and sat next to a broken device and experimented with its parts. Aether was swirling around and occasionally puffed in colourful sparks.
"So, what did you find?" Lonewolf asked without delay.
"It's similar to the towers on Teminon landing," Chroma said. "It should attract this end of an Abyss gate. Somehow. Well, Abyss gates are just rifts that have been anchored and stabilised. Without these towers and the big circles on the other side they just lead to random places. At least that's how my brother told me these things should work and the structure is similar..."
"But with all the Abyss gates in Asmodae closed, I don't know if we can redirect it to Elysea," Mira continued. "Not to mention all this aether interference."
"Beluslan is open," Aielyn pointed out quietly. "They can't close it, otherwise the fortress will collapse."
"Are you sure?"
"I was there around a month ago and it was open."
"Then if we find the right configuration, we can attract this end of the rift," Chroma smiled. "And then go through."
"There are two problems we need to solve before we do that," Tatran said. "First, the Balaur. We have to close or disconnect the rift behind us, or the Balaur in the Abyss will have free access to Beluslan. And second, there will be guards in Beluslan. They would be stupid to leave the open Abyss gate unguarded, so we'll have to get through them."
"I can create a paint bomb that explodes after we leave. So, that's solved," Chroma shrugged.
"And the guards?"
"I have an idea," Lonewolf grinned.
~ o ~
Cathy followed Israphel through the rift and they appeared in a clean, cold room. They were on a raised dais with a narrow staircase along each wall. In the lower and larger part was an Elyos man with a breastplate over his uniform training with a greatsword against wooden dummies. Behind him on the stone wall were metal hooks, one set was empty, the other held a large ornate shield in green and gold colours. It looked exactly like the one from her dream.
"Lord Israphel," the man bowed. He looked familiar, his smirk, as if he knew more than he let know, his eyes could be pools of lava...
Oh, no! He's that guy from Morheim?
"Hello, girl, so we meet again," he grinned and rested the tip of the greatsword on the floor. The blade was made of some dark metal she didn't recognize and was menacingly jagged. "Oh, my apologies, you're the Lady of Fate now. Welcome here, my lady," he bowed to her too.
She wanted to run, but Israphel held her hand firmly.
"Any progress, Herlen?" the Lord of Space asked.
"No, my lord," the man became immediately serious. "I've trained with it for two hours and I can feel the power inside, but can't access it. Even duels were no help."
"Well then, he was the Lord of Destruction, maybe you need to destroy something," Israphel smiled coldly. "Bring the prisoner."
"Already? Of course, my lord," Herlen bowed, put the sword back to the hooks on the wall and walked to the door. There he spoke with someone outside and returned. "He'll be here in a moment."
After several minutes of silence the door opened again and two guards brought in Darrand. He was unarmed, beaten and his skin was covered in fresh scars and injuries. Despite being dressed only in trousers (they even took his shoes!) he walked as if he didn't feel the cold. Cathy's eyes filled with tears and she wanted to run towards him, but Israphel's grip on her hand stopped her.
"No, Lady Cathy, you need to stay with me, it will be dangerous over there soon."
"What did you do to her?" Darrand growled. "Release her!"
"And who are you to speak for her? Lady Cathy, do you wish to leave this place?"
She stared in shock at Israphel. There was a trick, right? Then she looked at Darrand and back. She nodded.
"Ah, well then," the Lord of Space was still smiling. "If you beat my champion in a duel, I'll let her leave. Give him a sword and remove the cuff from his main hand. Zikel loved challenge, after all."
The guards looked at each other, unsure which one should risk that. After a few seconds one of them unlocked the aether-cuff from Darrand's right wrist, the other gave him his shortsword and both backed away quickly. Israphel dismissed them with a gesture. In the meantime Herlen took the greatsword from the wall.
"This will better work," he muttered.
"That sword will never work for someone like you," Darrand grunted.
"Oh, you mean Elyos?"
"I mean asshole."
"From what I heard, the original owner was quite a big asshole himself, so..."
Darrand didn't let him finish and attacked, his eyes were glowing red. Herlen acted surprised, but he deflected the blow with ease. They exchanged blows too fast for Cathy to follow, but it soon became clear even to her, that Herlen had all the advantages and was only prolonging the fight. To stand a fair chance the templar needed a shield. Cathy's eyes locked at the green-and-gold one on the wall. Was this what that dream meant? Will this shield really help? But he doesn't have time to get it! Cathy looked carefully at Israphel. He was watching the fight and didn't pay any attention to her. She tugged at her hand and jumped from the dais, the surprise and her weight helping her slip from the Lord's grasp. She ran along the wall, but even that was too close to the fight. The air in front of her split and Israphel appeared. As she barely dodged him, her foot slipped and she fought for a few seconds to retain balance. A shiny aetheric rope wrapped around her and yanked her away. She landed next to Darrand, finally lost her balance and fell to her knees.
"Stay behind me, my lady."
"Tsk, you should focus on the fight, Darrand," Herlen smirked and attacked, slashing Darrand over his thigh and taking his attention away from Cathy again.
~ o ~
Aielyn stood next to the teleporting tower, along with the others and waited. Chroma and Mira figured out how to make it work, although they couldn't test it, so they had only one shot. But they decided it's worth the try and now everyone stood around the tower, ready to get teleported on command. She couldn't see anyone, though, Tatran covered them in the aether curtain, while they waited for Lonewolf's part of the plan. And within several moments he appeared from behind the ruins, followed by two Balaur. He led them directly towards the tower. As they were right next to the group, Sigwyn stepped out of the shadows and stunned one of them. That was the signal for Tatran to drop his spell and as soon as he did, Mira redirected one of the aether streams to the tower. It started glowing.
"Oh, no, something's wrong," the sorceress said.
But the light enveloped them all and they were sucked into the rift.
~ o ~
Cathy looked around, the shield was now closer. And Israphel was getting ready to teleport again. As quickly as she could she crawled alongside the wall right under the shield. She stood up, pushed against the shield to lift it from the hooks. It was heavy. Heavier than any shield had any right to be. And it held a tremendous amount of power inside. Come on, just a little bit! The shield fell from the hooks and hit the floor with a loud noise.
"Darrand!" Cathy screamed as Israphel caught her hand again.
"So you can talk," the Lord of Space said. "You should have behaved. Now you're coming with me."
Cathy bit his hand and stumbled away from him.
Israphel pulled out a pistol and aimed at her.
As if time slowed down, Darrand appeared in front of her, grabbed the shield as if it weighed nothing and deflected the shot.
The gash on his thigh, as well as all smaller wounds over his body, began healing.
The red glow in his eyes changed colour to gold and the one remaining aether-cuff on his left hand shattered into pieces. A huge wave of aether burst out from Darrand's body.
At the same time Israphel opened a rift. And two dark-skinned Balaur in white armor stepped out of it.