Bayn too stumbled and blinked.
All three started to come around.
Great.
I turned back to Valnea, but my lapse in attention had given her time to reclaim her sword and stand. She ran her blade through my stomach, all the way to the hilt.
A sneer of superiority twisted her face as she laughed.
“I win! Pitiful half-breed, I win!”
AMARHUK(ROOK)
Inky?
Only Izzy knew that name, and her voice had cut through my thoughts like a razor. She wasn’t dead.
She wasn’t dead!
I blinked away the last of the fog in my mind, my mental defenses strengthening. I looked to the left as she’d instructed… in time to see Valnea run Izzy through with her blade.
Fuck!
No!
She was alive, but for how much longer?
I went wild, and now that I could truly see those around me and wasn’t fighting shadows, I threw myself at them with everything I had. Fire blazed out from me in a wave. Elves and sylphim screamed.
I pushed through the flames, trying to reach Izzy. I lost sight of her and my heart lurched again. I didn’t even know why. She’d been in peril before, but somehow not seeing her made it even worse.
A burning elf lunged at me and I batted his sword to oneside with mine, then removed his head. The fire must have weakened him, or my fury strengthened me, I shouldn’t have been able to do that to an elf.
I strode through the last of my flames and Izzy was still there, not much had changed. She seemed to be struggling with Valnea over the sword which was thrust through her body.
Just the sight of it made my entire soul cringe and my emotions run wild. I couldn’t watch Izzy die, not again.
I killed a burning sylph and tried to run toward my love, but more enemies piled up in front of me, trying to keep any help from getting to Izzy. I hacked at them with my sword, screaming in emotional agony.
My conversation with my mother kept echoing in my mind.
…end it now…
…before fate takes her…
I don’t’ know what I’d do if I lost her… it’s going to hurt like hell.
And I’d been wrong. I’d lived in Urval, essentially hell, for most of my life and life there was harsh and painful, but nothing compared to watching my love suffer.
And as I struck down another elf — it must be my fury empowering me, I hadn’t been this strong before — I realized something: losing Izzy would always hurt.
Seeing her in pain was pure agony. There was nothing I could do about it, other than help her, save her… which I was trying to do, if these damned soldiers would get out of my fucking way! Because I needed more time with her. We needed more tender kisses and sinful kisses and times to just hold hands and enjoy each other’s company. I needed to have dinner with her, and not fancy dinner out, but normal dinners, every night. It didn’t matter what we ate, as long as wewere together. I wanted to have kids with her, little elf-nymph-salmaeri-concubi running around and messing up our lives. I wanted to grow old with her, tend to her when she was sick, hold her when she hurt, celebrate with her when she rejoiced. I wanted it all. Because love hurt beyond any pain imaginable when it was taken away, but it was the abso-fuckin-lutely best thing in the world when you had it. And we needed more time to enjoy this miracle.
Huh… Maybe it wasn’t my rage fueling me. Maybe it was my love creating this indomitable drive to save Izzy. In the face of that, what could any elf do?
A grim smile spread on my lips.
Previously, I’d fought in fury because I’d thought I’d lost her, but now, I fought with a burning desire to live with her, for her. That made all the difference. Flames leaped to life on my skin and lit my sword.
