The faes' head snapped towards the woods.
Elly had been rife with annoyance their entire encounter. Whining and growling at Nimara. It'd been five minutes and neither had gotten a good word in due to her antics. Mikhail had just prevented the waterwolf from snapping at the otherworldly being once more, so it took a moment for him to follow suit.
Then the two were staring into the trees, a still quiet only disturbed by the bristling Elly.
"You said she is sensitive to energetical fields?" Nimara whispered with a tilt of her head and a cocked eyebrow.
Mikhail nodded.
A growing rustle came from the forest.
"Brace yourself, something is coming." The faes stance widened and muscles coiled beneath glamour and skin.
Mikhail tensed.
Elly finally picked up the shift in tone and circled his feet, ears perked and alert, suddenly quiet as a mouse.
The rustling grew louder. Became distinctive little snaps accompanied by the crunching of leaves.
A jack rabbit, shot from under the brush, scaring all of them. Elly let out a yip, Nimara released a breath she'd been holding, and Mikhail scoffed. Reactions of relief quickly cut short by the wave of Korins energy.
Mikhail choked on his scoff and immediately reached for Elly, who was turning to bolt. His fingers curled into the scruff of her neck and he held her to him as she began to thrash and whimper.
Nimaras glamour was blasted from her body. Stripped down to her most true state. Feral and glassy large eyes, skin riddled in veins, teeth jagged and bared. "What in the realms?!" She growled, long ears flattening.
A new crashing sound followed with the wave, heavier and wider paces.
Mikhail took a breath and drew forth power, coating the struggling waterwolf in tendrils of satin black and grey smoke. Within seconds she was limp in his arms. Holding the large creature in his arms, he backed away from the edge of the forest, letting the fae have the lead.
As the wave only grew in its ominous terror, he half expected it to be Korin herself to burst through the underbrush. It was a terrifying thought. Not only because of the influence of her power, but because he had seen a minute amount of its true nature before. Images of the two broken and mangled men flashed in his mind. Would she be frightened and crying with that eerie black gaze and hollow voice? Like how he found her? Or would he experience first hand what those men had?
Korins energy was so thick and distracting, even to Mikhail and the demon that when it was Talis instead who sprinted from the tree line, he did not immediately realise that the fae had already advanced. A split moment and she was in front of the other woman. Nimara slammed her into the dirt, an explosion of vines arching into the air and coming down to pin the little healer.
"Wait!" Mikhail screamed. "Don't hurt her!"
Talis was already terrified. Korin, the monster,the men, the vile feelings that pushed her down the hill- it was all too much. Now a new monster was at her throat. Eyes that were so large and starry nearly swallowed her vision. Serrated teeth sat in curled lips. Veins pulsed beneath skin that crinkled in hostility and long straight hair fell onto Talis in a mixture of sage and pale mint.
It was a new terror in a series of terrible happenings. And yet Talis found an ethereal beauty in this new monster. A modicum of marvel sat in her mind. Large starry eyes that had appeared black-up close, were the deepest green Talis had ever seen. The way her long hair felt satiny on Talis' cheek, how it paired with pale marbled green skin flecked with the tiniest glimmering freckles. A series of inky black lines split her face.
It was Mikhail's voice, commanding her safety, that drew her attention away from her horrifying yet mesmerizing captor. When she found him it was as if she were seeing the foreigner for the first time. There was no Korin or random passerby for him to hide behind. A mass sat upon him like a second skin, scaled and obsidian. A bug-like fluttering of shards, powder, chips of exoskeleton and pieces of chopped up wings. Talis had never seen anything like it. It wasn't a spirit, something much more dense and threatening. She found its eyes, sitting inside Mikhail's own, glowing chartreuse.
"Talis, what's happening?" Mikhail asked as the scary woman backed off of her, knotty vines releasing her arms. The air stung burns marred into her skin where they had wrapped around her.
"K-K-Ko- Korin." Was all she could yammer out before bursting into tears, Korins command still crashing onto her.
A scream, muted and off in the distance, herald in another, and then another. A crescendo of howling and moans as the energy washed over the village.
Talis began to cry harder and a flash later, Mikhail was setting Elly next to her. Tendrils of dark magic encased the waterwolf who appeared to be in a deep slumber. Next he held his hand out to Talis. "Take my hand. It'll help."
Her attention went to the slumbering animal and she was immediately shaking her head. It was dark magic-she was sure- chaotic and dangerous. Taboo and illegal in every country except one that Talis could think of. The Tellan kingdom. A kingdom known for its magical diversity and various colleges. Practitioners from all over dreamed of attending one of their prestigious schools. Though dark magic was not taught in the mainstream there- in little shops and amongst small covens you could find its masters and mentors. Some of the aristocrats of Tellan were even rumored to dabble in the dangerous arts.
Skepticism turned sour, curdled into paranoia and Talis pushed herself back. "No. No. Not dark magic."
"Talis, please," begged Mikhail. "It'll only help you calm down." The demon was pulling at him, on and in his skin, becoming impatient and agitated. It was too present, already too comfortable with its more intimate possession of Mikhail, and it showed. Talis could see it and she was still shaking her head. She let out little cries between sniffles and hiccups as she drug herself back on scratched palms.
"Put yourself away." Snapped Nimara who had regained some of her composure. Her glamour restored, wavered uneasily on her skin. "You are only making it worse."
The demon rolled its eyes and Mikahil held back its growl. Something is happening and you are wasting time. The demon spit. I'm being nice Mikhail. It was an uncomfortable warning. One that sparked a hint of rage within him, an emotion he had often felt superior to.
It was not the demon's growl that left his throat but a rasping huff of anger all his own. He stepped back.
"Take deep breaths." Nimara commanded in a soft and singsong voice. It was aimed at Talis but Mikhail readily took the advice. "Remember that this is only an illusion." Nimara made the magic in her voice as indistinguishable as possible and Talis seemed to calm down a bit. Her eyes still rolled about, wide and full of fear but even level breaths now rose and fell from her chest.
Satisfied enough–and more than a little irritated– Nimara gave a curt nod aimed at Mikhail and shot up the mountain. The trees moved as she advanced, clearing a path. Roots from shrubs and bushes rolled into place, creating footsteps where there were none. Leaves and branches pulled and pushed her up the mountain. The vegetation moved in perfect unison with the fae as she rapidly blurred out of sight.
The demon jerked at him now.
"I'm sorry for scaring you Talis." The screams of the villagers echoed around them, ominous and unceasing. Mikhail looked at his waterwolf with a small sad frown. "You don't have to, but please watch Elly. I don't want her to hurt herself."
And then he was vapor, shooting into Talis's trail of green braided linen, traveling up the reckless path she'd made down the mountain.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Korin was gone.
About halfway up the mountain, her energy had dwindled, dissipated, then vanished entirely, only the wave she'd released into the valley traveling on. Mikhail felt it roll off the mountain and away. Off to terrorize nature and whichever other being lay in its path. In its absence the valley quieted unnaturally, the screams and the moaning of the villagers ceased.
Mikhail burst forth from Talis' trail at the edge of a recently used battlefield. A trail of destruction cut into the mountain from a little overlook high up. Boulders were shattered. Ripped up and gouged out pieces of trees smouldered from destructive energies. The mountain was scarred with violent movements. Trails overlapped and interlooped in a twisting tale of battle. Five trails occupied the space, Korins standing out in the tangle, red and bloody, transformed from its deep magenta into a broiling crimson. It was angrily seared into the air, sucking up all the colors around it.
The other trails meekly peeked out from the saturation of hers. Muted yellows, blue, turquoise, and a pale orange, losing its color and fading away. She had killed one of them, her own essence coiling around the dissipating trail in symbolic victory.
His eyes followed her trail desperate to see which way it had gone. Where she was now.
It ran around, dipped into the middle and drug forward. All the trails met in a sloppy circle. Korin and two others were apparently dragged to the central location, their trails low to the ground where drag marks textured dirt and rock. Then they disappear. Cut short. No fray or loss of color- just disappeared.
Mikhail was grinding his teeth when the Fae joined him. She was immediately sniffing the air, nose twitching up and down, long ears pinned against her head. "It's more of those pesky little priests." She said after a moment.
"The priests?" Panic rose in his voice.
"Yeah. The Priests of Elmo or something like that." Nimara nodded her head with confidence. "One attacked me on the way here. Spouting some supremacist nonsense. The remnants of this magic smells just like his."
"No, no no." Mikhail groaned,the demon's own voice riding his, as equally agitated. He'd assumed the Eenoans had left town with the caravan. He hadn't seen them since. There had been three in the market that day, yet the trails indicated a fourth he had not been aware of at all. Had this one been the one to find Korin?
"I also taste the remnants of one of your silencing wards." Nimara followed up, one eyebrow raised quizzically at the demon man.
"I've been with you this whole time." Mikahil hissed. Mikhail circled the grounds, following along the trails, looking for anything dropped or forgotten.
"The plants are traumatized. It is definitely one of yours or one eerily similar to yours."
Mikhail's brow furrowed in agitation as he bit his tongue. His eyes swept into the trees looking for any traces where the trails might pick back up. Only the old cold trails of Korin and the Imore elders could be seen beyond the overlook. They trailed up the mountain and then back down. He continued to pace around, scanning the destruction.
Nimara drummed her fingers against her thigh. Yuen's agitation was already playing in her mind. She hoped that his dog Delta would not be in tow. The lines of ink maring her face suddenly felt heavy and hot in her skin. As if the Night Prince were already alighting his explosives at the Imperial Princes command. Punishment for her failure.
Nimara sprinted around the circumference of the used and dispelled ward. The plants perfectly mapping the path. They readily guided her along as she tasted and sniffed at the air. No signs of the priest or the woman were present. In fact it was as if they had appeared on the mountain and then simply disappeared. There were no scents or trails to indicate that the assailants had been anywhere but the small clearing.
She ended up back next to Mikhail, who now stood still on the border of the destruction, hands stuffed in the folds of his skirts, angry scowl on his pretty face while the demon raged with a fire in his eyes. "They seem to have appeared and disappeared. I can not find any traces of them anywhere near here." It begged the question if the priests were capable of teleportation. Or they were just very good at hiding.
"This is very advanced sneakery indeed." It was the demon who spoke this time. Voice crackling and deep.
"What do we do?" Mikhail's voice asked after. The same lips now speaking in the more melodic and smooth cadence of the man.
The demon did not reply.
"That's a good question, human." Nimara mumbled mostly to herself. "I suppose there is no choice but to stay and see what fate has in store for me." Her directive was gone, taken from under her nose. Granted, that dipshit prince didn't really give her a lot to work with. His instructions had been vague at best. Yeah! This is his fault! She told herself. And if the worst came to worse, the kudzu was strong. Delta would do his damage and she would be reborn once again. Getting her face blown off was gonna suck though.
While Nimara thought through conflicts of her own Mikhail thought through his.
He'd have to tell his aunt, his mother and whatever agenda she had all fluttered through, but it was Korins father who stood at the forefront of his mind. Samhir would know when night fell and his daughter did not return. The sun was beginning to sink into the jagged peaks of western Ipahn now. There was also a nagging sense of duty to inform the man. Something inside of Mikhail, a growing care that already stored Korin in a soft spot in his heart, urged him to go to her father.
"I'm going to go inform her father of what has happened."
"Her father?" Nimara thought of the man who had been outside the residence, traveling too and fro and how he smelt of liquor and labor.
Mikhail licked dry lips with a dry tongue then nodded. He was dazed, even the demon had been phased. Quiet in him. "Yeah."
"Do you think that's a good use of time? Maybe if we search a wider area we can pick up their trails before they get too far?" Said with uncertainty, it was wishful thinking and Nimara knew that. And even if she managed to find some lead as to the woman's whereabouts she would have to wait for Yuen anyways. Otherwise the prince might assume she had run away and then she'd be dead for sure.
Mikhail didn't even acknowledge the fae. Instead he slipped into a trail and disappeared down the mountain. Headed for Korin and Samhirs house.