Vistus

Once he was outside the inn, Akorri’s legs turned to lead. He could barely move them, knowing full well where they were supposed to lead him. Surely he was heading straight for death? He forced himself to walk, following after Katarina. Jinny was beside him, Shady in tow. Technically he had a lot of backup, but somehow he felt that was not enough for what he was about to face.

The sun did nothing to warm the chill in his body, and the sounds of the distant marketplace, normally calming in their familiarity, were now grating at his nerves. Shots of anxiety accompanied every step he took.

He imagined Lorelei suffocating him with tendrils of Dark magic. Trapping him in his own shadow. Piercing his body over and over again with a barrage of magic shards. Robbing him of his vision, then killing him as he struggled to fight back. She would probably do something he couldn’t even think of. After all, he knew next to nothing about her; but he did know her Dark magic was not just for show.

“Akorri?” Jinny’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. “Are you okay?”

He noticed he had been lagging behind. “Yes,” he said, reluctantly hurrying after her.

“I know you probably don’t feel very good about all this, so...” Jinny swallowed. Akorri watched as she gingerly played with something at her neck, biting her lip as she worked. She took off what seemed to be her necklace and showed it to Akorri. “Here.” It was the dragon amulet.

 Akorri looked at the dragon-shaped gem, an unexpected rush of desire almost overwhelming him. It was so beautifully carved, so deeply coloured, and so shiny... and Jinny was just giving it to him? He remembered how she said she had saved up to buy it. It must be important to her. “No, it’s okay,” he said, a hint of reluctance in his voice. “You bought it, it’s yours to keep.”

Jinny’s ears lowered just a little and she looked away quickly. Akorri mentally cursed himself, realising he had rejected her goodwill. “I did buy it,” she said, “so it’s mine to decide what to do with.” She cleared her throat and tried again. “And I decided I want to give it to you.”

Akorri wondered why she was being so unusually assertive. “But why? Isn’t it precious to you? I can’t take something like this.” However much I want to, he added mentally.

“It is, but...” Jinny’s cheeks turned just the slightest shade of pink. “It’s for good luck. I thought y-you might want it...”

Akorri, despite everything, found himself smiling. Jinny was willing to give a precious possession to him just to ease his nerves. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been exposed to such kindness, and it hurt. He didn’t deserve it, but he was smiling regardless. “In that case...” He took the amulet and put on the necklace. “Thanks, Jinny. I’m sure it’ll help.”

Shady grunted behind Akorri, giving him a gentle shove with his snout and pointing it after Katarina, who was far up ahead. He gave the pair an understanding look and went after the squirrel girl, careful that he did not shove anyone nearby with his large body.

Akorri sighed heavily. “Well. Nothing for it but to keep moving, huh? Even Shady’s getting antsy.”

“Yes.” Jinny nodded solemnly, and the two of them said nothing more as they followed after their companions.

-

Ugh, son of a bitch...

Sharp pain.

My head hurts bad... Oh, ew. My throat’s dry as heck. What’s up with my eyelids? Why are they so heavy? Is this what a hangover feels like?

Laerya could not be sure where she was, and at that moment she was having slight trouble remembering even who she was. Blackness was inside and around her. She was in a haze, as though her mind was wrapped tightly in a blanket and she did not even have the strength to struggle out of it. At any second she felt she might slip out of consciousness again. It would be easy to just fall asleep, so why wouldn’t she? It wasn’t like she had anything to do today... right?

“–not move.”

Laerya’s ears twitched. It seemed she wasn’t just floating in a void after all. It took her a couple of seconds to process that what she had just heard was a person’s voice, meaning she was not alone. With her hearing returned to her, her other senses quickly came back. She tried to move, but her arms would not obey. She shuffled feebly, feeling twigs and soil beneath her body. Her wrists felt deathly cold, almost numb. She recoiled from the reek of carrion assaulting her nostrils. It was still too much of a task to open her eyes, and her head pounded with every careless movement.

“I said ‘do not move’.”

Who was this? Where they talking to her? She opened her mouth to speak, but her throat was so dry she ended up coughing. Pain flooded her head as her body was racked with coughs, and the stench of decay formed bile in her throat. It was a smell she had grown too familiar with recently.

It was the smell of death.

Lae’s eyes flew open as she remembered. She had been about to talk to Lorelei about the digging up of Vacerus’s corpse, informed of the Feln’s role in that task by her ‘friend’ Akorri. She did not remember what she said but somehow she’d ended up here, which meant she had not been successful in her questioning.

She was looking straight into the purple glowing eyes of a walking corpse. A Wolfbeast, to be precise. It had its mouth open slightly, magic seeping out of its jaws like smoke. Both its ears were torn off, but it still had all its fur. A recent death, by the look of it. Laerya hated that she could gauge that so easily.

Obviously the Wolfbeast had not been the one to speak. Laerya’s eyes travelled past it to the light blue bat girl standing close by. In her hand she held a spear fashioned out of ice, her grip on it currently loose. She looked back at Lae through narrowed sharp eyes.

They were deep in a forest, most likely the one bordering Greenglade. Trees blocked the sun, dimming the area and keeping it cool. Lae appeared to be leaning back against a tree. She tried moving again, but found her arms completely immobile. Forcing her throbbing head to co-operate, she craned her neck until she found her wrists trapped together at her back, encased in a block of ice that acted as handcuffs. Ah, so this was what was going on.

The Wolfbeast’s paw moved an inch, and Yuli hissed at it again. “Be still!” The walking corpse complied, mechanically withdrawing its paw.

Laerya wanted to speak out, but her throat was still too hoarse, so she had to settle for calmly assessing the situation; not her usual style. Twisting her arm as much as she could, she found she could hardly move it. She clenched and unclenched her fists just to feel her hands, which were beginning to go numb from the cold. These 'ice handcuffs' were definitely a temporary measure; they would melt eventually from her body heat; so Laerya's captives must not be planning to keep her too long.

She saw her backpack lying at her feet. It wasn't even opened, so nobody had gone through her possessions. Lae found herself wondering if this was a deliberately sloppy attempt at keeping her captive. Her bonds, while very well crafted, would melt at some point and her weapon in her backpack was within reach. It seemed too simple.

However she was being thoroughly scrutinised by not only a person, but a dead monster. If she made any attempt at escape they would not hesitate to subdue her again. All in all, she was in a precarious position.

After a minute or two of scrambling to find her voice, Lae was finally able to speak. "Yuli? What the heck's going on here?"

Yuli's grip on the spear tightened a bit. "You can see for yourself what's going on. You're trapped."

"Yeah, I figured that one out, thanks!" Lae exclaimed irritably. "I mean, why've you got me stuck here? Where's Lorelei? And why are you with a walking corpse?"

Yuli simply stared at her with that cold, calculating gaze that was starting to become annoyingly familiar.

Irritated by her lack of response, Laerya tried again. "Explain it to me!"

"I don't think you're in any kind of position to be making demands."

Laerya scowled at her captor, but figured it was better to listen than to fire off another pointless exclamation. Lorelei wasn't there, but this situation definitely had something to do with her, since Yuli was part of it. If this walking corpse was obeying Yuli...

Hold on. The corpse wasn't attacking. It stayed still under Yuli's orders. That meant...

"You're the necromancer!"

Yuli remained silent, her expression never changing. It was as if that shrewd stare was made of stone; permanent, unrelenting to any thoughts she might keep hidden inside. “No,” she said after some time.

“What?” Laerya’s eye twitched. “No? What’s the point of lying? I figured you out!”

“You have not. I would ask you to try again though, if you like. There is still time before we dispatch you.”

Dispatch me? To where? Or does she mean she’s gonna kill me? Lae was starting to realise that she was in quite the unfavourable position. The stench of carrion seemed to be growing stronger; it was all around her now, too powerful to be from the dead Wolfbeast alone. The scent reminded her of the very real possibility that she could be killed, if that was what Yuli and Lorelei wanted.

She’d been in such situations before, but that never stopped her heart from pounding so hard she thought it would burst from her chest. The death grip on her head worsened, to the point where she felt she might pass out again. But she couldn’t. Something bad was going on – not just to her, but back in Greenglade, she was sure. Why else would they keep her locked away from it? So she had no choice but to stay awake and break free to help her friends.

However Yuli’s words bothered her. Yuli had denied the accusation against her; she was apparently not the necromancer who had been possessing dead beasts in the forest. Yet the fact that she knew it was going on, and that she was able to placate the Wolfbeast, suggested she was heavily involved in whatever was going on. If Yuli was not the necromancer, there was only one other person it could be.

Oh, crap.

Suddenly, it all made sense. Akorri’s hesitation to reveal the information. Fericeus’s story about the necromancer he once knew. His abrupt departure in their last call. Laerya’s blackout. Her current situation. Vacerus’s emergence.

She needed to get out.  Now.

-

Akorri’s breath caught in his throat at the sight of her. Clad in dark purple armour, her hands glowing slightly purple from the gemstones studded in her gauntlets, she smiled dangerously. She took a step towards him, and he stepped back.

This was not how he imagined his next meeting with Lorelei. He was her agent, and disobeying her would result in a penalty. He knew that, but he still betrayed her. He had to. And now he was going to pay for it.

They were at the edge of Greenglade, close to the forest. No one else was around, driven inside by a sudden overpowering stench. It was a smell Akorri recognised, but not to this capacity. It was strong enough to make him gag, but Lorelei’s gaze kept him fixed in place.

Beside him stood Jinny, Katarina and Shady. Jinny was visibly shaking, but she held her ground. Katarina stood tall and proud, eyeing Lorelei up with no hint of fear. Akorri heard Shady growling.

“So, you spoke up. I have to say, I didn’t really expect it,” Lorelei said in a matter-of-fact tone, taking another step closer. “I always pegged you as too much of a coward to defy me. But you have. And you are going to suffer for it, along with everyone else.”

“Why are you threatening this boy?” Katarina asked.

“Because he’s a treacherous rat,” Lorelei replied. “You don’t simply let traitors go, do you?”

Akorri flinched away from her glowing outstretched hand, but he managed to speak. “Where’s Laerya?” he asked, fighting to keep his voice steady.

“She’s currently away from this danger, don’t worry. I have no intention of harming an innocent, but I cannot speak for my corpses. If Yuli fails to subdue my Wolfbeast, then...”

Akorri bit his lip. He knew Yuli’s steadfast loyalty to Lorelei would be enough for her to keep the Wolfbeast away from Laerya. If Lorelei said she did not intend to harm her, Yuli would definitely stop the beast from trying anything. For now, Laerya was safe.

But what about him? Why were these friends not exempt from Lorelei’s punishment? Surely they were also innocent? “Fine. If Laerya’s safe, then Jinny, Katarina and Shady should be too,” he said.

“No.”

Akorri blinked. “Why not?”

“They aren’t innocent in this. They live here. Anyone who lives here is tainted.”

Akorri glanced at his friends. Jinny looked puzzled, but Katarina and Shady simply narrowed their eyes.

“What do you mean, ‘tainted’?” Katarina spoke carefully.

Akorri heard a rumble in the forest, as if something large was currently making its way through. The sound was heading this way.

“All of you are sick. All of you are part of Greenglade.” Lorelei’s smirk gave way to a venomous glare. “You are all disgusting maggots who deserve to be stamped out. You rip your weaker people away from you as if they are infected limbs, and you sneer in the process. This village had a chance to redeem itself in my absence, but I see it’s just as sick as it was when I lived here. It’s about time I fixed that.”

Akorri was completely lost. In the end, he wasn’t Lorelei’s target at all. He only ended up that way through his own volition. He was just a small inconvenience to her plan. It was Greenglade she had been after this whole time.

“And how are you going to do that?” Katarina said calmly.

“Don’t you see?” Lorelei held a hand out to the sky, the gemstone in her palm shining a brilliant violet. The ground shook beneath them as a shadow emerged from the forest, approaching the group slowly. The head was the first thing Akorri saw, protruding from the trees like a tower; with glowing pupil-less eyes, it was almost entirely shrouded in dark purple magic. Its sharp toothed snout was elegantly long and horns protruded from the skull. The earth shook with its every step, bringing its massive winged body steadily closer. As it drew nearer, the whole world seemed to darken. Akorri was sure that beneath the magic engulfing its body was the skeleton of a dragon.

“You are all going to die.”

-

“Crap! Let me go! Let me go!” Laerya struggled against her bonds, desperate to return to Greenglade. Something huge had passed by, briefly blocking out the sun as it walked. Its tail had almost knocked her out in its passing.

“I can’t do that, or you will die too,” Yuli said. “Lorelei left me with instructions to keep you alive.”

“I don’t care! I need to go back there, I need to stop this!” Laerya snarled as her arms twisted helplessly against the ice that held her. All her composure was gone in favour of urgency.

“Why?”

Laerya couldn’t believe Yuli had asked such a question. “Because Lorelei’s about to slaughter an entire village, that’s why! Can’t you see that’s wrong?”

Again with the cold stare. “And what could you possibly do to help them? You are just as powerless as the Greengladers – even more so because you lack magic.”

Shut up, jerk, Laerya thought, but kept her stung pride out of this. There were more important things to think about. “I just know I need to go help them, and you should too. Come on, Yuli. You know what Lorelei’s doing is too extreme! Stop this!”

“You should’ve left the village when I told you to.” Yuli’s brow furrowed worriedly; the first real sign of emotion from the girl.

Laerya wondered why they were so adamant to spare her. Kill everyone except the innocent seemed to be their way of thinking, but surely some people in Greenglade were innocent too? Not all of them could have been part of Lorelei’s past. Jinny and Akorri definitely had no part in this. And in any case, this form of revenge was more than a bit excessive. “Surely you don’t agree with her.” Lae tried again. “You’ve gotta know how messed up this is. Lorelei’s gonna kill people who have nothing to do with this.” She didn’t know why she was trying so hard to convince Yuli; she wasn’t sure the bat girl had even a shred of compassion in her. But she had tried to warn Lae off, and she supposed that had to count for something. There was a chance.

Yuli’s expression hardened. “I have my orders,” she said.

“Disobey them! You have free will, you know!” Laerya started moved her legs. They were not bound; a big mistake on her captor’s part. They thought keeping her hands tied would be enough. Such an underestimation would now cost them dearly; it was just as well they did not know who they were dealing with. Nevertheless, Laerya wanted to talk Yuli out of this, if possible.

However as soon as Yuli caught sight of Lae’s legs moving, she twirled her ice spear and pointed it at the rabbit in one swift motion. “Move and you die.”

“I thought your orders were to keep me alive?” Because Laerya knew Yuli would not act on her threat, she took action. Hopping up onto her legs in the blink of an eye, she dashed away from the spearhead. In less than a second she was behind Yuli, kicking the bat girl’s legs and tripping her up.

Yuli was quick to roll away, but Laerya was just as quick to intercept her. She placed a foot on Yuli’s back, putting her weight into it to keep the bat mobilised.

The Wolfbeast lowered his body to pounce at Laerya, but Yuli’s sharp, “No! Keep away!” kept it in place. “You think this will keep me pinned? I can still use my arms, you know,” the bat girl hissed. She still had a tight grip on her spear, but she stayed down.

“I’m not trying to do that, I just wanted to demonstrate how easy it is for me to move around despite your ice handcuff things,” Laerya said, attempting a shrug. “Next time bind my legs too, yeah?”

Yuli said nothing.

“So I’m just gonna rush back now, whether you want me to or not. I’m sure I’ll be able to smash this ice against a tree or something, or it’ll just melt. Whichever. So long as I can use my legs, I’m good.”

“I see.”

“Why aren’t you struggling?”

Yuli sighed. “Let me up and I’ll undo the ice magic.”

Laerya blinked. “Eh?”

“I’m serious. I’ll let you go.”

Hope swelled in Lae’s chest. It looked as though she had gotten through to Yuli after all. She stepped back, allowing the bat girl to stand up and dust the soil from her tight suit. She tensed her muscles, ready to spring if Yuli tried anything again. But Yuli was true to her word; she touched the ice binding Lae’s wrists and it melted in a second, leaving her hands free.

“Thank you!” Lae said earnestly, rubbing her wrists vigorously to generate warmth. “But... you’re disobeying Lorelei, you know?”

“She said I should keep you alive. She did not say I had to keep you bound.” Yuli looked away. Clearly she was ashamed of her insubordination, but Lae was glad to see her sense of morality was still somewhat intact.

“Are you gonna help me stop her?” she asked.

Yuli closed her eyes. “I had plenty of chances to before this. It’s too late now.”

“No, it’s not. There’s still time to fix this.” Laerya watched Yuli, biting her lip anxiously. “Please, Yuli.”

“You’re wasting your time here.” The bat turned away. “Go back to the village and do what you can.”

Laerya wanted to tell her, “Come with me, then,” but she knew she could not stay long enough to convince her. Every second she wasted here might mean death for a Greenglader. With a nod, she picked up her backpack and ran.

The dragon had trampled plenty of foliage as it moved, leaving a flattened path in its wake. Laerya followed it, but she knew she would find the way back even without it. The shouts of terror in the distance were enough to lead her.

Within minutes she was there. The massive draconic shape seemed even bigger up close. Lae had to crane her neck up to even see its head. She rushed past it and into the village, her heart sinking at the sight.

Already buildings were destroyed. She watched as the dragon's tail smashed through another cottage with ease. She heard screams from inside, the house reduced to rubble in seconds.

All around her, people ran. Some were unlucky enough to get caught by the dragon's claw swipe, their lives immediately snuffed out. Others were flung back by its thick tail, bones breaking from the impact. The village was reduced to a panicked swarm of ants, helpless against the colossal dragon.

 Helpless against Vacerus.