"If they capture you, they'll—"
"Kill the Attendant!" another Reskala shouted.
Auryn's thoughts splintered once again. Kill? Not capture? She froze. Confused. Overwhelmed. Unable to move. And then everything came into focus.
The Reskala were not advancing on Lu'ma.
They were advancing on the Sokâr.
With shackles. With containment webs and shields.
Another voice whispered in her mind, one she hadn’t heard in many years. Familiar and foreign. Like the call of a long-forgotten memory. The thing called Numen spoke…
:: They do not want to cage you. They wish to take your light. This is no game of politics. It is an execution. ::
Her stomach twisted as the circle of shields closed in. Massive, towering bulwarks meant to protect from magefire and spells with large destructive radius.Hershields. The ones she’d invented to protect the Reskala against Solutus invaders. Against more Blightspheres and bombs.
And now, againsther.
How little your compassion has purchased.
With a cry of sorrow and utter frustration, she Veilstepped upwards, jumping from platform to platform, summoning magic into as many points as she could. Pulling back, she fired, and a deluge of white arrows crashed down on the Reskala below. The magic shrieked and hissed as it flew, hitting flesh and breaking bone. She aimed to dislodge the shields. The warriors staggered back. The formation faltered with their screams.
:: Mercy will break you. Strike to end them, or all is lost. ::
Her pulse staggered. She refused. Fought harder. Veilstep. Arrow. Veilstep. Arrow. Her body blurred through the storm, her shafts sinking into knees, wrists, shoulders. Crippling, never killing.
Mercy is not weakness, starlight. It’s strength held on the edge of steel.
Tear them apart. Drown in me. Let me make you strong.
Her jaw clenched.
“No,” she hissed, loosing another shaft into a shoulder seam. “Not like that.”
The clash was deafening, her lungs burning with every Veilstep, every draw of the string tearing more from her ribs. Still she moved, still she struck. The circle of shields broke. Then reformed. Broke again.
“Now!” Auryn screamed.
Lu’ma staggered out of the circle, rolling, twisting, dodging flailing limbs and spears. Auryn covered her flight with a rain of white light and piercing arrows. A portal ripped open, and her friend jumped inside it.A Reskala made to follow, screaming as an arrow in the chest threw him backwards to the ground. He skidded several feet back, blood welling from his mouth.
That’s it! Harder now. Faster. Can you feel me in your blood? Can you taste their screams?
Her lungs burned. Her vision blurred with sweat and mana strain. For every warrior she took down, two more stepped from the shadows. An endless sea of glowing white eyes and glowing golden runes. They pressed in, relentless, shields rising like walls she couldn’t breach.
Cease this folly. You shall not spare them. You are not prey—you are my flame. Loose me. Loose yourself. Kill.
Her fingers trembled on the bowstring. She wanted to resist, to aim for wrists, knees—safe shots. But her arms moved faster than thought, guided by panic, by adrenaline, by the hunger curling in her skull.
By the howl of the Vargrún in her mind.
The next arrow buried itself in a throat. Blood sprayed, hot and sudden. Another loosed into the seam of a gorget, sinking deep into the meat of the neck. A third drove hard between plates into the chest, the shaft shuddering with the force of it.
Her next deluge flew faster. Hotter. The arrows didn’t just pierce. They exploded on contact, magic sinking into the body, burning through veins, then alchemizing, turning each of the Reskala’s carvedrunes into a living bomb. Just like she had seen Kailorien do at Stonewake when fighting the Gliders. The ground shook as the warriors screamed in terror, watching as bodies exploded from within.
No horror came. No shame. It felt easy—so easy to take their lives. The fight was too close, too crushing. Every breath screamedsurvive. Every heartbeat poundedstrike first.
That’s it! Ember mine, see how they fall? See how they bleed for you? You are beautiful when you break them.
