Chapter Six:
Lasting Changes(?)
Davien lay under a layer of hoar frost that covered his body and the ground nearby. Leira quickly began brushing away what she could while she wracked her brain for something, anything, to help him. “Fix him! I will not be denied!” Expecting to see the Fiend looming over her shoulder as she turned, Leira was surprised to see her son’s mentor. Though the details of his face were always vague she knew he was incredibly angry.
“What do you mean, you will not be denied?” As Leira spoke, she stood and squared her shoulders. Facing the crackling blue and black void that made up the body of her child’s mentor, Leira began to speak again.
A crash and clatter of steel and flesh on stone interrupted the confrontation. The Fiend, now capable of using his powerful legs, had jumped and now landed heavily upon Davien’s body, Jymgreen clenched tightly in one hand. Leira noticed the Mentor’s form fade abruptly, the crackling energy along the void of his body siphoning off and supporting the frog demon’s weight preventing Davien from being crushed. The mentor, some nameless ancestor, was finally using some of his own energy though only in defense of her son’s now broken body.
Realizing that it had failed to crush the body of that impertinent gunsman, and seeing that two newcomers had arrived to join the brawl, the Fiend once again attempted to release, or crush, the goblin that had strapped itself to his left hand before lurching towards the woman. The goblin resisted both release and crushing force.
Brief jolts of pain traveled from the Fiend’s right heel to his calf as his foot touched the ground where Leira had knelt just moments before. She had nimbly stepped out of the creature’s path, her lithe frame missing being squashed by less than a handbreadth. The brief pain turned into a continuous, though mild, burning sensation in his calf, as the Fiend swung his left hand attempting to strike the ghostly blue enemy and dislodge the hateful goblin, but it passed harmlessly through.
Quickly recalling where she was, Leira spun on her left heel and dashed towards the bag she had dropped. Just as her hands were about to snatch the sack, something unexpected happened. The Fiend shouted, “I do not think so wench!” Which was quickly followed by a whoosh, a loud wet slap and a sucking sound as the frog demon’s tongue lashed out and grabbed the sack itself.
The bag was just leaving the short ledge it had been dropped upon, spraying bits of white crystals into Leira’s face and clothing, when the Fiend began to scream uncontrollably. Airborne and spraying its contents across the blasted corridor, the sack was entirely forgotten by the demon in the face of a pain it had never felt previously. The burlap and tongue dropped heavily to the ground several feet short of the demon, with the Fiend itself collapsing moments later, spasming in pain.
“Salt? I love salt!” The harsh voice of Jymgreen rang out. The hall sparkled ever so slightly in the scant blue light coming off of Davien’s mentor. Jym and the demon were covered entirely on one side in the crystals. The Fiend lay twitching and quietly whimpering, its mouth and nostrils crusted. With one good eye, and the other twitching uncontrollably as the salt grated further in, the now terrified fiend looked on in dread. The creature’s limbs no longer responded to its no doubt frantic commands.
Looking around the destroyed hall, Jym extricated himself from the demon’s hand, wiped his mouth and said, “How long you figure ta cook these legs? They are huge. Whatever the thing is, I bet it is tasty.”
Before Leira could formulate a response, the Mentor’s light went out leaving the room in darkness. Leira’s eyes took only a moment to adjust, allowing her to quickly find her salt covered son. Kneeling beside her motionless child, Leira once again experienced the flash of light and the woman from before.
Chapter Six Eh?:
A Moment in Time
“Leira,” The older woman from her earlier vision stood before her. The two women were no longer in a ruined hallway, instead Leira found herself standing amidst a chaotic battlefield. “You must bear witness to events that may yet unfold.” The woman, while speaking normally, was completely clear to Leira despite the clangor of metal on metal and the cries of dying men. Everything changed in an instant as a bellow of rage stunned the combatants.
A silence clung to the battlefield with friend and foe alike turning to the high walls in the distance. For a moment the only sound was the crackling of flame and snapping of wooden frames. Slowly even the flames quieted and vanished.
The woman, tall with severely graying hair, spoke to Leira again though the soldiers didn’t notice, “These men, they all fight for you.” Quickly ripping the sash of station Leira had seen earlier the woman violently threw it at her feet and sneered, “Which makes your station and this symbol, “ The older woman said the last word with a deep well of anger and sadness, “Worthless.”
The quiet was broken with a sudden explosion, the walls collapsed and the soldiers were knocked off their feet. A void, in the shape of a giant beast, crackled with a cold blue luminance as it stomped its way into the ruined city.
Finding herself unable to voice an opinion, despite her desire to do so, Leira began to panic. Seeing this, the older woman spoke again, “Watch it unfold and listen as best you can. Which, of course, means ‘do not speak’.” Frustrated, but unable to break whatever prevented her ability to talk, she glared defiantly at the woman for a moment as their perspective changed to one high above the battlefield causing a moment of terrifying vertigo.
Unintelligible curses were bellowed as the void made its way ever so slowly to a shining building of alabaster and gold. The creature’s goal was apparent; A small band of soldiers clad in gleaming ivory armor and three others with them. As the crackling blue beast drew nearer a thin line of blue light emerged from the smoke and dust of the fallen city to link the beast with one of those in the group.
“Think for a moment Leira, why would this creature … This ‘Mentor’ … Be free to roam but still linked to someone so dear to you? What you do in the moments ahead matter. More so now than ever before you need to teach, rather than be taught by, your child.” Leira watched the next few moments in horrified forced silence.
With a thunderous cackle of glee the creature snatched up the man to whom the blue light led. A scream of anguish burst forth from him as the void of the creature touched, and enveloped, his body. A harsh, mirthless smile crossed the creature’s face before it violently smashed the man to the ground, obliterating his body and spewing blood upon the troop of ivory clad soldiers.
“Even these soldiers, exemplary as those two idiots could muster, could not save your son. You could not save your child or his soul.”
Gazing up and acknowledging the two women, “I am returned! Thank you, witch.” To punctuate his statement he raised his foot and quickly crushed many of the soldiers in white with a savage stomp.
Finally allowing a moment for Leira to voice her rage, the younger woman screamed a primal cry of anguish and rage. Suddenly, Leira found herself once again in the blasted hallway, the blueish light had been replaced by a roaring fire; Jym had set up a spit roasting contraption.