“Damn it. How the hell are we supposed to find them in this?” Cass cursed as she, Abby and Liesl landed on the now nearly invisible canyon edge where the death and water guardians had left Anna and Marina hours ago. Next to the disgruntled death guardian, Liesl rolled her eyes and laughed, Abby snickering as well. “What?” Cass asked, glaring at the two while attempting to shield her eyes from the burning sand and wind… *Wait… wind!*
As if reading her mind, Liesl raised her hand, glittering streams of gold, blue and violet drifted from her palm like dust, filtering off into the winds around them. Cass jumped. It felt as if magic were twisting around her, trying to resist the call of the wind guardian. Liesl winced, raising her other hand and closing her eyes to focus more of her power. The twisting feeling faded, relaxing as if it were a strained muscle and the wind began to die down. The flying sands quieted and Liesl dropped her hands and glanced at Cass.
“Sometimes you really don’t think do you?” she sated bluntly. Cass flinched, taken aback by the comment. Abby only shrugged, placing a hand on Liesl’s shoulder, and giving her a ‘look’. Liesl shrugged in silent response.
“Lets find the others,” Abby spoke, changing the subject and lifting her blue-gray gargoyle wings in preparation to take off. Cass sighed and followed suit, she and Liesl extending their own wings and taking off, following the distant scent of power they could feel guiding them towards their friends.
Anna jumped, her concentration broken by the sudden tensing of magic around them. Marina too jumped to her feet, running to the mouth of the cave as the blowing winds died back into stillness.
“Liesl…” she murmured.
“They did it?” Anna extinguished the ball of fire in her hand and joined Marina at the entrance, raising her hand to wave at the three figures flying towards them.
“Liesl!” Marina grabbed the smaller blonde girl in a tight hug as the three landed. Cass smiled at Anna.
“That was quite a storm,” she noted, nodding out towards the open canyon. Anna nodded in response.
“We got caught almost immediately.”
“No luck then?” Abby asked. Anna shook her head.
“With the storm calm, we should find Heather while we can,” Marina spoke up, finally releasing her old friend. “Shall we?” The others nodded and the five took off from the cave, winging towards the canyon’s base. They landed near the small river that cut through the reddish earth, turning and walking towards the mouth of a second cave.
“Is this right?” Marina asked Anna. The fire guardian nodded.
“This is what I saw.” Cass glanced at the two, but refrained from asking. Right now it was more important to find Heather and return home. The feeling that something was very wrong just wouldn’t leave her. They entered the cave, walking through the strangely dry, desert-like tunnel.
There was a pull… that was all she could sense. Something drawing her east and north… or at least that was the direction she thought she was going. Caitlin stopped for a moment, standing to catch her breath. She had no memory of the hours following Azriel’s attack, only a vague sense of need drawing her onward.
Beside her Renian fluttered on his tiny white wings, concern etched into his face. Would the power the demon spirit had offered hold up long enough? Caitlin’s powers were dwindling dangerously and the strength in the jewel at her neck was only enough to support her body, not her magic. If they were attacked…
“We’re getting closer,” his guardian murmured.
“You can sense something?” Renian asked, surprised. Caitlin nodded.
“Ever since Anne mind-spoke me,” she answered. “Something’s wrong though… I need… as soon as…” The girl coughed.
“We need to find a place for you to rest!” the light spirit insisted. Caitlin shook her head.
“No… I can make it. I don’t know why, but I know I can make it.” Blue eyes narrowed in determination. “I can’t let them down.”
They had to move fast; it was the only way for them to stay safe at this point. As soon as they had a short rest they had begun a slow trek towards the nearby town.
It had been the pair of demon scouts that had forced them to move off before Cassandra and the others returned. Now they could only hope that the other guardians would catch up.
Kevin stumbled in his tracks, smiling gratefully when Myrandel caught his elbow to help him along. “I’m sorry,” the seer murmured. “I can’t seem to shake the dizziness.”
“You shouldn’t be moving yet as is,” Myrandel told him. Violet-blue eyes creased in concern. Kevin met his gaze with a false smile.
“I’ll be alright,” he reassured, though Myrandel gave him a skeptical look in return.
“How much further is the village,” Anne asked, ahead of the two. She had also noticed Kevin’s faltering. And the psychic wasn’t the only one. Just in front of her, Rhodry also looked on the verge of collapse, his magic barely beginning to replenish itself. If it were possible, it would be best for them all to find a nearby clearing in this near dead forest and rest for awhile. As it was, they didn’t have time.
Anne watched the forest around them. It was slowly growing dimmer in the fading ‘light’ and there was a faint trace of… was that scarlet?
Crimson mist burst forth in front of them, whirling in its own personal storm before fading in the blink of an eye.
“Anne!” Anne looked shocked as her sister ran up to her, golden eyes wide with fear and worry.
“Marina…” she looked back at the others behind her sister. Liesl and Heather waved back amiably. “You found them… you’re alright?” Marina nodded, pulling her sibling into a tight hug.
“We went back to the base and found it… I thought you were dead!” the life guardian exclaimed. Cassandra moved forward to place a hand on her counterpart’s shoulder.
“She wouldn’t listen to me,” she told Anne. “Even though I told her I would know if you were dead.” Cass surveyed the exhausted group. “You look near it though…”
“That’s not a funny joke coming from you,” Jason snapped at her, his eyes hiding a bit of mirth. Joe chuckled, whacking his brother over the head.
“I think he’s still bitter about the time you brought us through the death realms…”
Cassandra matched his laugh with one of her own. “Who’d have known?”
“What happened anyway?” Anna walked deftly up to the others, fixing her gaze on the dark guardian. “We know you were attacked, but…”
Silence…
“It was Tooya…” Rhodry was the one who spoke finally. “He ambushed us with a group of Balthas’ soldiers… there was something… wrong…”
“They took us completely by surprise,” Myrandel continued. “They must have been waiting for you to leave.”
“They took advantage of the single able guardian…” Mark spoke up next, folding his arms over his chest. “Occupied Anne with the swarm… Tooya went strait after Myrandel.”
Cass blinked. “Why you?” she directed her question at the aforementioned half-breed. Myrandel frowned.
“He said he had… specific orders for me… I don’t know whether or not he truly meant to kill me, but…”
“But why, I think is the question,” Abby stated.
“You haven’t done anything personally to piss Balthas off have you?” Heather asked. Joe laughed.
“Which of us haven’t?” he asked them. Heather rolled her eyes and glared, effectively shutting him up.
“I don’t think it was Balthas…” Myrandel explained.
“Then who?” Cass asked him. Marina finally let go of her sister and glanced at the half-blood expectantly.
“I don’t know,” Myrandel answered. “It just seemed too… personal for it to be him.”
“Could there be someone else?” Liesl asked reluctantly. “Someone working from the shadows?”
“That doesn’t seem to be Balthas’ style,” Marina commented.
“This attack wasn’t his,” Anne told them, causing a few curious glances. “His commander Azriel showed up… he was as surprised as we were, not that Tooya was… corrupted, but that he had led an attack. Whoever organized the strike did it independently of Balthas.”
“It seems like there are more players in this game than we thought,” was Kevin’s somewhat cryptic comment.
“Yeah,” Myrandel sighed. “And it’s not a fair game unless you know all of them.” Anne smiled wryly.
“Who ever said any of this was fair?”
“What is the meaning of this!” Balthas was in a rage, staring down at his shrouded advisor with pure fury in his eyes. “Why did you authorize an independent attack when one was already on the way? And with your new pet, no less!” Calm, amused, mismatched eyes gazed back at him from beneath the dark hood, half a pale face showing a smirk.
“I wasn’t aware it was so much of a concern, my lord.” There was a mocking tone in that voice, and Balthas snarled at it, his eyes narrowing sharply.
“I told you, you can have the older half-breed. *After* I kill the rest of the guardians. You haven’t shown me one spark of this illustrious plan of yours to destroy them for good. One more move like that, and I’ll send you back to hell where you came from!” The hood nodded and though the smirk didn’t leave that half-hidden face, Balthas felt a sense of understanding from his advisor.
“Very well, my lord.” Balthas humphed.
“If we have that clear…” The shrouded figure smiled.
“Rest well, my lord.” As Balthas left the room, a dark hand lifted the hood from the still shadowed face. The smile curled, a fang showing in a malicious grin. “Rest well…”
“Aria!” The loud voice of a young boy caused a few startled glances and broad smiles as the weary group entered the tattered village. Aria sprang into a run, dashing ahead of the group and dodging Marina’s worried attempt to grab her arm. The life guardian looked up in confusion, catching Joe’s grin out of the corner of her eye as the speaker came into view.
The two children met in a run, clinging to each other in a sure sign of relief, cheer and close friendship.
“I thought we told you to stay out of trouble Colin,” Joe laughed good naturedly, ruffling the young boy’s hair when he got close enough. Young Colin ducked and swatted at the man’s hand as he laughed excitedly. He spun around, only to bump strait into Anne. The boy jumped, looking up at her with wide, surprised eyes.
“Sorry…” he apologized meekly. Anne just grinned, ruffling his hair in the same fashion Joe had. “Who are you?” the child asked her.
“I’m Anne,” she replied, smiling down at the boy. “I’m a friend of Joe’s.” Colin smiled brightly back at her with his eight-year-old charm, then peaked around her leg to stare at the rest of the weary group.
“Wow…” he exclaimed in awe. “Everyone came with today!” Joe knelt down to the child’s level, glancing at Aria before turning back to him. The spirit guardian’s face was narrowed and dark, her concern showing plainly through. She caught his eye for that one moment, then looked away abruptly, glancing up again in surprise when Cassandra placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“Colin… we need to talk with your grandfather,” Joe explained cautiously. “Can you lead the way?” The boy nodded, his face taking on a slightly confused expression at Joe’s guarded tone. The man was never like that, not towards him. Even an eight-year-old could tell something was wrong. And these new… friends… all of them, the men included, looked exhausted.
It was then that Colin caught a glimpse of Kevin, who was leaning heavily on Myrandel for support. The seer’s breath was coming in short gasps and Myrandel’s expression was plainly worried. Colin turned back to Joe and gave a second, solid nod.
“This way,” he said, before taking off ahead at a half-jog as the group followed behind.
Understandably, Mr. Thomas had been more than a little concerned when the group had showed up on his doorstep near collapse and led by his obviously worried young grandson. He had immediately gone about setting up cots on the floor of the small hut he and his grandson lived in, rolling out frayed blankets and old mats and, with Mark’s help, any food he could come up with on short notice.
Kevin and Rhodry had been the first to make use of the set of cots, both too exhausted from power use to move much further. Next to his brother, Myrandel was still half awake, blinking slowly as he wavered between the boundaries of sleep.
“But really, I am surprised,” Mr. Thomas was addressing Joe and Jason, with the eight present guardians and Mark loosely strewn around them, some sleeping and some not, within hearing distance. Heather leaned against the doorframe, her blue eyes narrowed in concentration as she focused on the conversation. Next to her, but sitting on the floor against the door, Liesl was just as intent. It was they who had been asleep the longest, and both felt that some information would be helpful.
“Surprised about what?” Jason asked, raising an eyebrow.
Absently raising his hand, Mr. Thomas gestured to the young women in the group. “I hadn’t realized there were more of you,” he replied. The elder had already heard the entire story of the attack, but that explanation had been inadequate to explain the extra members of their formerly small group. There was no way they could have hidden fourteen people in that underground fortress, not without someone noticing. Speaking of which… where was Tooya…
Joe glanced at the slumbering members of their group, smiling softly at the sight of Aria and Colin curled under the same blanket and Cassandra, who was leaning against the far wall, her head nodded, with Marina’s head in her lap as if she were watching over all three in her sleep. His gaze shifted to Kevin and Rhodry, who appeared as if they were being watched over in a similar fashion by the finally asleep Myrandel.
“You could call them the little ray of hope Kevin saw,” he replied concomitantly, glancing up at Heather who raised an eyebrow in return.
“Don’t get your hopes up too much,” the brunette reminded them, even as Mr. Thomas gazed at her and her partner in surprise. Liesl grinned wryly back.
“Our ‘little ray of hope’ is still long in the coming,” she explained in the same tone. “We still have a long ways to go.”
“What do you mean?” Mr. Thomas asked, his eyes still wide. “Who…”
“Legend tells of nine women destined to save earth from hell’s power.” The way the conversers jumped it was as if Anne had materialized from pure shadow. She smirked at Mr. Thomas, her eyes lit with something dark and foreboding. “I can’t tell you if that legend is true,” she continued. “I don’t give a damn about destiny. But this bullshit has gone on long enough.”
Across the room, gray-blue eyes stared back at the dark guardian, taking in both words and expression. The eyes narrowed. *So it has…*
A few hours later found Mr. Thomas just outside the village with his grandson, Aria and Mark away from the others and distant enough that only a loud cry would have drawn anyone from the village to investigate any mishap. Mr. Thomas was kneeling in the half-dried grasses, diligently gathering the few herbs that grew there while pointing out the various plants to the two children and telling them their uses. All the while, Mark watched the surrounding countryside, keeping a particular eye on the dying forest that lay less than half a mile away.
The landscape was quiet, dead, unmoving. Not even a breeze marred the barren scene and the gray clouds moved on above them, blocking all thought of sunlight from the earth.
Then there was a sound. Shuffling… like quiet footsteps or a roving animal. Mark spun.
All he saw was darkness…
Kevin
“Aria!” Kevin jolted awake with a gasp, his hand outstretched to grasp at nothing and his chest heaving as if he had awakened from a nightmare. He stumbled to his shaky feet, moved desperately for the door. He stumbled, and was surprised when a pair of arms caught him before he fell. The seer looked up, even more shocked to meet Myrandel’s worried gaze. The angel halfling helped him to his feet, slinging one of Kevin’s arms around his shoulders.
“What is it?” he asked, cobalt eyes concerned.
“Aria…” Kevin answered. “I heard her cry…” From her place near the doorway, Heather immediately stalked through the frame and out the door before anyone could say more, Liesl following closely at her heals. The two knew better than to question Kevin’s senses. With their luck, such mistrust could be deadly.
Heather shouted.
Quickly behind the yell, Cassandra leapt to her feet, her semblance of sleep broken by the possibility of disaster, though she was surprisingly gentle about lifting Marina’s head from her lap before she dashed out the door. Anne followed more slowly, her hand clutching her black sword tightly. Myrandel was the last to make it to the door, with Kevin supported by what was left of his strength.
Both men stared with shock and horror at what they saw. Mark was holding a weeping Colin, his eyes vacant and a bleeding trail running down his face from where he had been struck in the head. Other than that, the two seemed unharmed, but the other two… Heather was cradling Aria’s unconscious form, pressing her hand to a piece of fabric torn from her loose shirt that was covering a bleeding wound in the spirit guardian’s side. And Mr. Thomas…
“He’s gone…” And Myrandel didn’t doubt Kevin’s words for an instant.
They buried Mr. Thomas later that day after Mark and Aria’s wounds had been tended too. They had bandaged Mark’s head, but there was nothing they could do but wake Rhodry to care for Aria’s wound. The healer was visibly drained now, the strain of so many injuries obviously taking its toll. Even with Marina’s inexperienced help, the healing had left Rhodry on the verge of feverish unconsciousness. Joe was watching him now, making sure that the healer didn’t lapse further.
Colin had been in tears since his grandfather’s death, unable to talk or do anything but cling to Mark’s arms as if his life depended on it. Mark too was unusually solemn, even for him. Something… what ever had happened had shaken the swordsman badly. It was Cassandra who had spoken to him later, after Colin had fallen into a fitful sleep from the trauma of the day.
“Do you remember anything?” she had asked him. Mark had shaken his head in response, his eyes dead and cold.
“Only darkness…”
Cassandra had contemplated this long into the night, far after the others had gone to sleep. Darkness. She gazed at Anne’s sleeping form. It was strange. She had no reason to doubt the older woman, no reason to believe her dangerous, but something… some sense told her, reminded her, that Anne could be a danger to them all. Her power… it was something unnatural. Darkness without taint. Any sense of darkness she had ever seen in her life had been filled with an indescribable foreboding. And she couldn’t help but feel that Anne would one day betray them. Maybe it was her own arrogance or misplaced accusation that made her fail to realize that her power was just as ‘unnatural’ as Anne’s.
A sharp pain stabbed at Caitlin’s chest. She gasped, the pain of the strange sensation almost causing her to fall to the ground.
“Lady!”
“I feel like my heart’s being ripped in two,” Caitlin gasped, struggling to her feet as the pain dulled. Her knees were scuffed and dirtied by the fall, but she didn’t notice as she stared out at the horizon. Renian hovered close to her, the tiny spirit watching the same direction she was.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Caitlin replied. “Something… something bad.”
When Marina awoke the next morning she found her sister gone and Cassandra asleep beside her with a dark frown across her face. Despite the events of the day before, her companions seemed peaceful in their sleep. Rhodry was no longer gasping for air and now slept soundly, his strength slowly building.
Marina reached into her own magic to brush against the healer’s. Another full day of rest and the half-blood would be in good enough condition to heal once again. He wouldn’t be at top strength, but he would be strong enough for most of what they might encounter.
She brushed over Kevin next, noting that the seer was still weak, far weaker than the healer and still in danger of relapsing into a dangerous state. Still, he too was growing stronger with the rest. She sent a small tendril of her magic out to the psychic, feeding it into the man to give him strength. It was a simple trick that Rhodry had taught her during her attempts to help heal Aria. She was still new to healing, but the gift came so naturally to her that she thought she might master it in very little time.
The others appeared fatigued, but they were strong, and Aria was healing steadily and swiftly from her injuries. Now they would just have to convince Mark to allow one of them to heal his head wound. It was safely bound and the swordsman was in no danger, but Marina would feel safer were it completely healed.
The life guardian stared out the cracked door of the small hut they rested in. Curiosity struck her, and she couldn’t help but wonder… just where had her sister gone?
Anne stared out at the landscape before her, clutching the hilt of the sword that rested next to her with one hand, and the fabric of her shirt over her heart with the other. She sat atop a smooth boulder, her body resting calmly on the grayed stone.
Her heart… it hurt… like she was being torn in two. It was that pain that had drawn her from the hut that morning. Her eyes narrowed at the sensation. It was almost like a warning… but of what?
Author’s note: Fun coming. ^_^ Just wait, much more fun coming! Anne torture ahead!