“Would you have let me die then? Let Myrot slit my throat?”
“Yes, a thousand times yes. In fact, I would kill you myself if it gave me even another chance at him.”
It was daybreak now, and tiny morning birds were singing their welcome song to the two suns, gleaming bright across the humid bog. When Aixel returned, panting and dirt-ridden after his calamitous dance with Myrot, he told me to try and sleep. He and Doris would keep watch in the night, waking me to stand guard once he grew tired as it would be dangerous to head back to town, whether we received crane from Milea or not. His excited state seemed to last him until morning, as I slept through the night with my exhausted state overwhelming my need for any comforts. When I awoke, I found him still pacing the perimeter of the long-dead fire, talking to either himself or Doris on his shoulder, I was not sure.
“Gods, I was so close. I could smell his putrid magic, all sickly sweet. Vile,” he paced, tracing dirt ridden hands through a mess of red hair.
I stood with a groan, feeling every joint and muscle ache after a long night asleep on the uneven ground. Much to my embarrassment, my stomach also groaned, only far louder.
“I don’t suppose you brought anything to eat?” I asked.
Aixel stopped his frantic pacing to give me a look.
“Look around, city girl. There’s a feast to be had all around us,” he gestured.
I, indeed, looked around and spotted nothing particularly appetizing.
“What? Mud? There’s nothing here.”
“Don’t be daft. There’s crickets, honeyweed, crayfish. I think I saw a couple of huskfruit trees during last night’s travels.”
“Oh,” I sighed.
Perhaps I could wait until we were back in town to eat.
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There was movement in the water behind us, followed by beating wings and a soft cooing. I turned to see a crane, elegant and white amongst the dark green swamp, long legs slowly moving towards us. Aixel walked towards it, stepping high through the water, before untying the small letter on its long white neck.
As he unfolded the parchment, he let out a sigh.
“Milea says scouts have seen another party of knights from the north and to meet them there so they won’t come any further.”
“So what’s the trouble? That’s why we were sent out here.”
“Any further north and we’ll hit the fields,” his brow furrowed.
“And?”
He gave another sigh of frustration.
“We don’t go to the red fields, it’s forbidden.”
I picked up my blade and shook off the dirt, waiting for further explanation, but he remained silent, reading over the letter again.
“And why is it forbidden?”
“It’s just - everyone in the Barrens knows, ‘Don’t go to the red fields.’ They’re sacred. Ancient magic.”
Never, in all my readings, have I ever heard anything about ‘red fields’ in the Barrens.
“Well it’s either that or we hope they don’t make it to the underground. I’m sure they have another seer by now.”
Aixel made a pained expression.
“Maybe it’s just the sleep deprivation but I’m not sure what other choice we have,” he sighed.
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Burgundy red waves swayed slowly as the breeze rippled through the chest-high grass. Red, deep and dark spread over slight slopes reaching far into the bright blue mid morning horizon, stretched like unpressed velvet sheets. It was quiet, eerily so, save for the soft rustling of grass, free from any sort of tree cover. Even the insects seemed to dare not enter this invisible border between swamplands and field. The immense sight, jarring in its stark nature, left me with an almost paralyzing sense of unease, and even without Aixel’s earlier words, I would have known this place to be sacred.
But, upon the treeline’s edge and slight elevation from the fields below, I could see them. Upon the nearest hill, still at quite a distance, were the familiar golden helmets of Selphene soldiers, slowly making their way to where Aixel and I stood. I waited, still carefully silent and low, and was able to count twelve golden armored heads, shining bright alight with the rising two suns.
“I’ve never been this close,” whispered the void mage with an unexpected sincerity.
“I count twelve of them. Should we send for help?”
“They wouldn't make it in time. And those who did wouldn’t dare cross into the fields.”
Aixel then stood, eyes looking upwards towards invisible gods as he seemed to ask for forgiveness. He then swallowed before taking a steady step forward, body slipping between the billowing red wheat, which parted like water as he entered. He turned to me, still peaking my head cautiously around the lone twisted swamp aged willow tree, and nodded.
“Let’s get this over with.”
I took an unsteady breath then stepped forward into the strange red sea, following close behind Aixel, keeping my arms above the seeded tufts, only for Aixel to suddenly pull me down beneath the grass. He put a cold hand over my mouth.
“We need to keep low - surprise is our only advantage,” he whispered.
I nodded, frightened at his abrupt closeness, with blackened eyes staring through me.
He then quickly pulled his hand away, shaking it as if to free it from my invisible essence, as his face turned into an odd sort of grimace.
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We seemed to be crawling for ages, careful and low, as we made our way towards the knights upon the hill, before Aixel suddenly held his arm out, forcing me to stop.
“They’re close,” he whispered, “Stay here and I’ll get as many as I can from below.”
“Just stay here? No, I want to help,” I shook my head, “I can fight-”
“Quiet. There’s no need to make this more complicated than it needs to be. You’ll know when you’re needed.”
He then turned, suddenly crackling and splitting into his blackened cloud, before shooting forward, weaving through the grass with ease. I waited a moment before crouching upwards, just slight enough to where I could see over the red grass, anxious with anticipation.
In the distance, I heard a muffled scream, and I turned to see a row of golden helmets. There was a brief moment of confusion between the group as they turned towards each other, armor loud and voices loud and unnatural over the hollow silence of the field.
“Where’s Fredrik?” one screamed at the others.
Then, another armor muffled scream as a second helmet disappeared underneath the red waves. The remaining soldiers held their weapons at the ready, scanning their surroundings in a now silent caution. As they rearranged, I saw someone else among their ranks, unmasked and starkly out of place. Shaking, with blackened tears streaming down her face, was a young, raven haired girl.
“Please,” she wept in a quiet sobbing moan, “We can’t be here. We shouldn’t be here. It’s forbidden. It’s for-”
A tall knight turned to her suddenly.
“Quiet! We are not alone -” he started before suddenly screaming. As he reached for his helmet, his body suddenly plumed into a blackened cloud, and his armor dropped into the unknown red below.
“Void mage!” another knight called, and the others rallied around the seer, who was screaming now.
“He’s at our ankles - we just need to grab him,” another knight cried.
The circle of knights lowered into the grass, golden helmets disappearing to leave the bewildered girl to quietly look around, twirling in anguish. The grass around the party began to rustle, and I watched as Aixel flew upwards, now clinging to one of the knight’s backs. His hands were on either side of the golden helmet, trying to pull it free from the flailing knight’s head.
“Now!” Aixel shouted towards me, and I shot upwards, running at full speed towards the party.
Aixel ripped the helmet off, but instead of placing his hands on his face to corrupt his magic, he instead turned to me.
“Take it - Take it now - take his magic!” he screamed.
I leaped forward towards the knight, whose eyes had grown wild and wide, and raised my hand upwards automatically. I then watched as the knight’s body, now unarmored and vulnerable, began to fade into a familiar white haze, before drifting above the red and towards my open mouth. Before it reached me, Aixel was already on the next knight’s thrashing shoulders, carefully weaving between swinging blades of the other knights.
The warmth hit my lungs like flames, burning bright and radiant, as the new magic twisted inside me. It rippled through every sore muscle, every tiny cut and bruise, cradling me and feeding hungers I did not know I had. As the magic swelled through my arm holding my blade, it tightened, seemingly extending past my fingers and into the blackened steel, lighting it aglow with violet flame.
A Selphene knight spotted me, raising golden sword above his head and rushing towards me as he trampled through the red waves. He was aiming directly towards my bare, unarmored head, and I met his weapon with the side of mine. There was a spark of intense magic that echoed off the silent hills in a shrill crackle, and I skidded backwards from the impact, still holding against the impact with new profound strength.
He turned to the side, letting me stumble forward, and took aim again at the back of my head. Instead of pulling upwards to avoid the blow, I sunk lower, diving, and using the red grass as cover. I rolled then jumped upwards behind the knight, readying a swing at his back, only to be pushed forward with the impact of another blade at my own. The Halmore armor held strong, but the wind was knocked out of me, and I crouched beneath the grass, desperate to recover.
There was a whoosh above my head as the blade swung like sythe above it, and burgundy confetti flew through the air above as the grass was cut with ease with the sharpened blade. I jumped forward, hoping the weight of my armor would be enough to take down the knight as I hit the back of his golden legs. There was a crash of armor as he hit the ground, and before I could raise my weapon, another blade swung at me from above, forcing me to once again roll away.
I gathered myself, raising my head over the grass to see the knight once again charging at me, this time with an ax almost the width of his entire body. He swung it with a wide sweep, far too fast for me to avoid, and my body was flung, vertically as it rolled with a crash, flying across the velvet field, slamming into the ground every few rolls before finally stopping at the bottom of the hill. I immediately tried to stand, nerves wound and bounding me forward, until I was hit with a ricochet of pain splinting through my ribs and to my lungs. Every breath felt like a new dagger in my chest as I doubled over, choking in the pain. I tried to steady myself, grasping at the ground to pull myself upwards, but was only able to inch forward.
As I reached forward with my forearm, blade still in hand, I was met with metal resistance. Before me was the grand golden boot of the Selphene knight, and I rolled on my back with a groan. The suns silhouetted the ominous figure above, ax raised and ready to split my skull in half with one easy swing, and I covered my head with my weapon, waiting for impact.
But, before I could take another unsteady last breath, a larger shadow suddenly loomed above. There was a horrid crackle of bone as giant jaws filled my vision, melting through the metal armor with ease as the knight was pulled away, screaming and flailing through the air.
With great effort, I rolled over once again, leaning on my knees and raising myself upwards, pain splintering through me at every slight movement. Using my blade as leverage, I finally pulled my head above the grass. Taking in the scene, I saw Doris in all her twisted glory, gorging on the knight, Aixel swirling around her in a black cloud above the red. Her black beastly form gnawed through the armor before heading towards the next charging knight. But just as she dropped the corpse from her jagged teeth, and blood began to fall from her mouth to the grass below, something strange happened.
There was a rumble below my feet, and the ground began to shake with a strange haunting moan. Birds began to flock from the tree line, and even the remaining soldiers stopped their charge, frozen at the noise.
The seer, who had hidden from the battle, silently raised her head from the grass, face ridden with untold anguish, as she reached for the sky, grasping. Her head bobbed above the grass, struggling, before she was finally pulled to the unseen depths of the grass with a final defeated gasp. The rumbling then suddenly stopped, and we were met with the similar silence once more.
The knights looked around, but seeing no threat, continued their charge towards Doris and Aixel, who to my surprise, were not charging back, but making their way towards me. I watched, confused as Aixel materialized on Doris’ back. My eyes met his. He was terrified.
“Run.”
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