Hurrying Marialena around the corner of the staircase, Viktor headed towards the door to the porch, looking back only once to see his uncle still sparring hand-to-hand with Silas while Marialena's uncle and Lara Arkerys fenced with beings of pure shadow and ash, holding blades made of something akin to pure darkness. Reynar bled from his face under one eye and somewhere near his chest while the other man, Silas, who limped on one leg and bled from near his sternum.253Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDkl1AEhEch
"Viktor, look for Raelan Valayre. He'll find you!" He and Marialena reached the porch and headed for its stairs as Reynar shouted after them, feeling the weakened floorboards wobble a bit beneath them as they did. "Mari, can you keep going? Should I try to carry you?" He turned to her. With her breathing like that, she might pass out soon. "Go wolf, let's make it to the forest. Together." She gritted her teeth, pressing into his shoulder harder in a sign of solidarity and he nodded, admiring her steely resolve. As they approached the tree line, they could just make out the others, centered around a small torch which Kellen appeared to have taken from somewhere inside the inn. "Mari?" Kellen's voice called out towards them and she appeared shortly, fully in view just in front of them. 253Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeyriLFCBTH
"We just made it out. Everyone else is fighting something out of a nightmare." Viktor coughed, surveying his friends' bedraggled visages. 253Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5umBeVrB2K
"What do you mean?" Fjalda appeared on his opposite side.
"Do you remember Reynar's book about the Cheshen'ai? The one we always used to read at the onset of winter?"
"Yeah, the one in his library, sitting near the back of the bookcase. But they're just stories?" She inclined her head to the side, her eyes wide, shining burnished amber in the deep night. "They're real." Viktor felt limp, though he accepted a hug from Kellen as they all came together and smiled at Eliza who had come in for a hug at the same time around his legs. "Vik, there's no way..."
"They're real, Hawk." I wish they weren't. I wish with all my strength they weren't.
"I, for one, have seen enough to believe anything tonight," Marialena said through gritted teeth, smiling as Enialis came to her side and put a hand around her back to steady her as she almost toppled to the ground.
"Well if both of you do.." Fjalda raised an eyebrow but swiftly fell silent.
"I think what's most important is that we all agree on why these people are looking for us. It is us they want." Marialena glared at Kellen and he muttered, "well it's true." Silence reigned again until Fjalda spoke. "Let's not talk too long," Glancing back toward the inn, she shuddered and Viktor watched as she slid her hand into his, causing a sudden serenity to flow across his body until she released her grip.
"She's right," He sighed deeply, then began to redden. Looking down at the leafy, needle-covered ground, he continued, "these people believe we can all access Maeranthyr." He rolled up both of his sleeves completely, fully revealing dual sets of three faintly glowing, leaf-filled vines, and raised his arms to eye-level in the circle.253Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWbpXtNkMdy
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"You know that's true," Kellen followed suit, revealing a slightly different tattoo of dual spirals on each arm, slightly intertwining at a midpoint and glowing faintly blue. Slowly but surely, the others followed each one of them revealing tattoos of different sizes, made up of distinctly different images, with Marialena's being five stars of varying sizes on each arm, which gave off a faint golden glow in the moonlight, Fjalda's being a flight of birds, outlined in pure white and only one arm, while Eliza's almost matched Fjalda's, but contrasted in the pale blue of polar ice.
For a time, only Enialis remained, until he chuckled and revealed dual, vermilion snakes with their fangs out, almost touching near the tips of his wrists.
"We're all like you." Fjalda echoed Kellen after they had all finished. I know. I just didn't want to remember. Better if I went at this alone.
If it's the marks they're after, then we're already dead. 253Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOV6NwKWYsw
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