Hit and Run (Part 6)

Sponsored Content

"You realize that if there is some Alacryan Sentry sitting back in Blackbend watching all this, we're going to look like idiots, right?" I told Varay.

 "Ideas?" she asked, not taking her eyes off it.
I had already tried increasing its gravity directly, which hadn't done anything, but thought maybe something a little more powerful might do the trick. Picking a point about halfway between us and the spy cloud, I focused all my energy into casting Singularity.
The black hole was too far from the shadow to affect it, but if the shadow just followed us in a straight line like it'd been doing so far...
We backed away from the perfect circle of pure darkness, no longer able to see our pursuer but hopeful it would stay on course. We made it a few hundred feet away before I had to let go of the spell, unable to support it from such a long way away.
The instant it faded, the shadow flashed across the sky, once again hovering in the distance.
"Damn these Alacryans and their weird powers," I mumbled. "We can't just let it follow us around, so what's the plan, ladies?"
"Perhaps we could absorb its mana?" Aya suggested, her brow wrinkled in thought. "But we can't get close to it," I countered. "Unless..."

Sponsored Content

"We could attempt to approach it from three different directions, boxing it in," Varay said. "Good idea. Perhaps it won't know which way to move."
I stayed where I was as the other two Lances flew wide around the shadow-spy. Once they were in position, we slowly began to fly toward it, attempting to keep an equal distance between it and each of us.
The shadow flitted short distances one way or the other, but it always corrected and didn't seem to be able to move closer to any one of us. Once we were only a few feet away, it began to vibrate quickly as it made tiny adjustments back and forth, likely trying to stabilize in a perfect position between us.
"Carefully," Varay ordered. "Reach your hands in and see if we can draw on its mana."
Very slowly, we each reached toward the vague shape. Once my hand was within it—passing through just like our spells had—I felt for its mana. There wasn't much; it wasn't a particularly strong spell. We each absorbed only a drop before the shadow-spy dissolved, vanishing entirely.
Varay was staring at the empty space between us with a strange look on her face. "Some day, I hope we have a chance to study these Alacryan forms of magic," she said. "The things they are able to do...I've never seen anything like this shadow."

 Aya's expression darkened. "Like they are doing to us in Xyrus?"
"Of course not," Varay snapped. "But if there is an end to this war, I hope our two nations have a chance to share our knowledge of magic...after the Vritra are destroyed."
Aya scoffed. "I would rather send their entire continent to the bottom of the ocean, myself."

Sponsored Content

"Mica agrees that the Alacryans deserve that and worse," I said, drifting next to the elven Lance only for her to move a few feet away, her arms crossed over her chest.
Varay looked...sad.
I didn't know she had such a tremendous range of facial expressions, I thought to myself. Smiles, sadness, icy determination, chilly professionalism...that's easily twice as many expressions as I thought she was capable of.
"This was Agrona and the Vritra," Varay said, "not the people of Alacrya. You didn't see the shiploads of slaves he sent ashore to die at Etistin Bay, Aya. For no other reason than to give us the impression that we were winning, he sent thousands of his own people to certain death."
"And when the dark-haired boy arrived, he killed nearly as many of their own men as he did ours," I remembered. Picturing the boy with his black fire and metal spikes sent a shiver down my spine.
We floated in silence for several long seconds before Varay turned eastward. "There is time enough to debate these things and more when we return to the Beast Glades. For now, we have one more target."
Aya and I fell in behind her as we headed toward the Grand Mountains, the flush of our success overshadowed by our own conflicted thoughts.
***
We hugged the cliffs of the Grand Mountains northward across nearly the entire continent, from Darv in the south to the northern coast of Elenoir. From there, we flew low along the coastline, hidden within the cover of the forest. This was slower than flying over the misty trees, but safer.

Sponsored Content

Aya guided us. The elf changed the moment we dipped below Elshire Forest's canopy. Ever since we'd learned about the deaths of King and Queen Eralith, Aya had been diminished. She was like a candle that had burned out, but now that she'd returned home, her wick had been relit.

 She'd scouted Elshire for us a few times while we hid in the Beast Glades, but I hadn't gone with her. Now I wished I had. Seeing the poise and focus the forest gave her made me think of our early days as Lances. The pride and excitement and competitive spirit we all had. We'd been so ready for the war. We were the strongest mages on the continent, what could possibly stand against us?
The Greysunders should have been our canary in the coal mine. We should have realized then that...
I refocused, turning my mind inward and focusing on my core like I did when I was refining it. There was no point in picking at that old scar again.
Our target was Asyphin. The entire city had been cleared of elves and turned into a fortress for the Alacryans' efforts in Elenoir. They hadn't even kept elven slaves there just in case one figured out some way to spy on them, which meant we didn't have to be careful when we attacked.
Highbloods, scientists, ranking members of the Alacryan army...Asyphin City was full of them. The real reason it had made our short list of targets for this first hit and run mission was because of what Lyra Dreide didn't say, however.
During her entire interrogation, the only time she pretended not to know exactly what was happening was when talking about Asyphin. She had been happy to give us the names of Highbloods, Alacryan officers, important Instillers...all while downplaying any individual's role in the occupation and claiming ignorance of why the city was so important that not even one Dicathian was allowed to stay within it.
It was clear that the Alacryans were up to something in Asyphin, and so we were going to hit it hard.

Sponsored Content

"We're not far now," Aya informed us. "A few more minutes."
"Do you two feel that?" I asked, suddenly sensing an incredible amount of mana ahead.
"A Scythe? I think it's coming from the sky above the city."
Maybe they guessed we were coming and prepared a welcoming party. Unwelcome butterflies fluttered in my stomach as I thought about the black-haired boy from Etistin Bay.
"We could turn back?" I suggested, slowing to a stop and hovering twenty feet off the ground. "Mica could be happy with the completion of just two objectives. Perhaps three was a little ambitious..."

 "No," Varay and Aya answered at the same time. Aya went quiet and let Varay finish. "Let's go up and introduce ourselves, feel out the situation. Mica, you and I stood toe to toe against the Scythe at Etistin, even before Aya got there. If they've trusted the defense of this place to just one Scythe, then our journey to Elenoir may be even more rewarding than we planned."
I began to nervously pick at my nails as a sharp buzzing began growing louder in my ear.
 

Sponsored Content