This sadistic woman reveling in my pain wasn’t Izzy at all… and yet it was.I… I need to fight… her?I needed to fight someone…
My head was so damned heavy and mixed up I couldn’t tell which way was up. And Izzy’s betrayal, binding me, keeping me bound, going back on her word, that… that hurt far more than Osserime’s betrayal ever had.
I struggled harder and harder, but nothing worked. The woman wouldn’t relent. She laughed at my efforts, whipping me harder, getting off on my pain like Osserime had. It was everything I’d dreaded for the last hundred years. I couldn’t believe Izzy would do this, but the proof was right before my eyes.
I think…
Why was everything so confusing and foggy?
It was Izzy’s fault.
She’d done something to me.
That had to be it.
I thrashed and writhed, but she wouldn’t let me go, laughing more and more.
How could she?
My spirit waned, flagging, giving in. I couldn’t fight her; she was too strong. This would be my existence, trapped as her slave.
Her betrayal crushed me.
KOARTHANDRIS
I hadenough air magic to resist the mental attacks of the sylphim all around me. Yet, I could see how it had twisted the minds of the others. Even Izzy wasn’t immune. I needed to get to her, help her. Valnea was ripping her apart and all Izzy could do was raise a mild defense and heal. She needed me now more than ever!
But I had my own fight.
Valnea must have suspected I’d resist the mental attack, so she’d sent a whole squad of experienced dragons against me, six on one. Even so, I was so enraged, so desperate to help Izzy, that I fought those six to a standstill, a draw. But that was all I could do, overpowering them wouldn’t be possible. They all had magic similar to mine, so my destruction and fire did little to them.
I fought in dragon form. Initially, I’d shifted to my natural form so my size would help to push away the sylphim, but those nasty little air-wielders had quickly recovered, keeping up their attack on me and my friends from a distance as elves moved in to attack. I’d tried to get to Izzy, but this flight of dragons had intercepted me, and ourfight had spiraled up into the skies, farther and farther from the woman I’d sworn to protect at all costs.
No!
I fought with tooth and claw, magic and destruction, everything I had. I focused on one of my opponents, leaving myself open to the others, feeling their magic and physical attacks tear into me. But it worked. My rage-fueled attacks took down the dragon I’d targeted and I resumed my defenses against the others.
Maybe I could get out of this.
But then I realized how hurt I was, how much healing I had to do, and knew I’d been fooling myself. Leaving myself open like that again might work, but after that, I’d be too weak to fight any of them.
Fucking hell!
I needed a little help. Just a minor distraction and I could defeat these bastards and get to Izzy. But no help came. My comrades were all overwhelmed, just like I was.
It was an impossible fight.
And the only way we’d win would be through Izzy, if she somehow managed to regain herself and defeat Valnea.
But when I risked another glance at my beloved, her strength waned, flagging under the unrelenting assault from the false queen.
Izzy needed help more than I did.
And I should be the one to help her.
This was everything I’d feared.
The only way for us to win…
