Fable - Ask Breaking The Chains

[Zephyrine]

Getting rid of the underling had been easy, but the pain searing through her caused her to grit her teeth. She was a Dreadlord. This pain could not stop her, not when they were taught to overcome such small hurdles.

She got up, going to the girl and nodding as they ducked beneath the stone dome.

The Underlings came for them, but Zephyrine knocked them back with the bits of stone and dirt from the dome, buffeting them to clear a path for their escape.

"This way!" She had spied a horse, a desperate idea. "A horse is faster than being on foot!"

 

[Aeyliea]

She nodded and regretted it as she took to follow. Other parts of her body were starting to register their complaints now; the searing light nearly blinded her and made everything too bright. Worse, the flash-burns across her face and exposed belly and legs screamed agony. Her bruised throat was some distant thing by comparison.

She followed Zephyrine with a gasp of pain at the first step; the Dreadlord was a hazy shape in front of her. Behind her, the twisted shape of Traveler remained with back bent and masked face staring at the sky; motes of dust swirled in the light streaming in from hole in the dome. The creature was not dead; the stirrings of power rolled from it like some twisted heartbeat.

Most of the undead had collapsed where they were standing when the heavenly bolt struck down. Some of the broken bones began to shiver and pull themselves back together again as bits and pieces of Traveler pulled themselves back together.

"Don't go too far," she managed to say in a pain voice as she staggered along behind. "Not...see well. Not run..." she whimpered as she stumbled, only just keeping her feet. Blisters were rising on her skin.

"My...horse?" She couldn't see clearly enough to know. She hoped so, because she still had other weapons in the sling on her saddle. The spear she had struck Traveler with had fallen from her hands while they were choking the life out of her.

Behind them, Traveler continued to pull itself together. Oddly, there was the sense of many creatures entwined in the ashen figure.

And every single one of them was furious.

 

[Zephyrine]

Zephyrine groaned and came up to take some weight of the young woman, hastening her steps but slowing down the Dreadlord considerably.

"It's a black horse." She provided. There was a saddle and gear, probably too much weight to add two people to it. She would need to construct something, like a wagon to be drawn by the single horse.

The thought had come, and the recreation began to construct itself before them both, ready to be kitted with the horse to be drawn. She figured the stranger would ride the wagon, only made for one, just so Zephyrine knew that if she passed out, she wouldn't fall off a horse. But then a pain struck her. In her back, where the wound had been, it began to throb and threatened to riddle her with searing pain.

Holding up the stranger was taxing.

Zephyrine didn't have the time to heal herself. She was still too slow to mend flesh, but if they made it to the horse, perhaps then she would have the time.

 

[Aeyliea]

"Not mine," she said thickly. She strove not to put her weight upon the other woman but it was proving difficult. The flash-burn from whatever otherworldly sorcery was registering itself in an ever louder voice that her nerves found increasingly difficult to ignore.

Flashes of power rolled through her like a pulse. It carried a presence that she could not fathom with it - a thing of ancient and unknowable intelligence. She could see it in her minds' eye.

Half rotted, try and dusty. The coiled remains of a wyrm long, long, long dead. And yet... not.

That regard was on her now, the faintest whisper of something long gone to dust. You must eventually face the truth. Not her words nor her thoughts, not especially when delivered in an unknown language that spoke of antiquity. It carried much of the ancient way of speaking that her and other Seers used in their benedictions to the Seven.

Aeyliea stepped away from Zephyrine and clicked her tongue. Blurry though her vision was, she could see well enough now that the animal in question would serve. "This beast... will serve," she said. Power throbbed within her, beckoning her to use it. It was different in nature to that which the Dreadlord used. "Help me up," she said.

Behind her, the demon reshaped itself. Its missing pieces were nearly whole again and a song of rage began to rise from it on the edge of hearing.

 

[Zephyrine]

Zephyrine was not going to argue with the Stranger, but she did not let go of her doubt that the woman was in no shape to ride.

Then they would leave the cart. The horse was sturdy enough to carry the both of them.

"Here." Zephyrine kneeled, prepared to help the Stranger up to the horse. She would give her that needed boost to mount, and only when the other woman had swung a leg around, the Anirian would move to sit behind her.

"Lean forward, keep low." She instructed, ignoring the pain that begged for her attention and discomfort. "If you fall..." Zeph left her frustration there.

Never had she met something she could not bring down with the might and strength she had learned from the Academy. Never had she realised how human and insignificant against something so Old.

 

[Aeyliea]

Stubborn pride would not allow her to bend her stiff neck in the slightest. She made a noise at the back of her throat, part irritation and part pain as she stepped into the stirrup and swung herself up with practiced ease. The effect was somewhat spoiled by the fact that she was unable to easily lift her leg and the hiss of pain. She managed to catch herself and receive a boost from the young woman. Fresh trickles of blood from the lacerations on her back and from blisters on her belly and arms that burst at the twisting motion.

That she wobbled a bit in the saddle was understandable.

"Thank you," she said. One hand on the saddle horn, she offered a blood-smeared hand to Zephyrine. "Will not fall," she added. The certainty in her voice was at strong odds with reality though.

You shalt use my breath, something whispered in her mind. Aeyliea shivered in the saddle, makign a quick warding gesture with her free hand as the other tightened to a white-knuckled grip on the saddle. The shape of Traveler had blurred now. Something enormous was shaping itself from the now misty form in the middle. Bits of stone and ground sloughed away and trickled into the thing that was growing.

Aeyliea knew what it was. So did Zephyrine, likely. There were not too many things the size of a small house with wings on it and indistinct as it was, the shape was nevertheless familiar. <"You are a demon,"> she whispered to herself in her native tongue, addressing the unwelcome voice and completely careless of present company. The dusty-dry not-voice in her head laughed. <"I will not use the power of a demon,"> she added.

"What you...need me to do?" She asked of Zephyrine instead. The horse shifted uneasily beneath her, hand outstretched to assist in mounting whether capable of helping or not.

 

[Zephyrine]

"Stay low." She commanded as she pulled herself up, with some help, to sit behind the stranger. Zephyrine pulled the reins from her, forcing her weight against the other to ensure she stayed still. She knew how to ride, knew how to manage with an extra person in tow. She dug her heels in and commanded the horse to move, to ignore the mass of a figure growing with evil and mystery.

Get away, that was all Zephyrine wished to do. To travel a fair distance away, to get away as much as possible. She could have left the woman there, but there was a sense of protection that overcame her, a need to fight and defend.

The streets were eerily quiet, devoid of any life or activity. It should have served as a warning of the kind of power and magic being wielded out here, but Zephyrine's understanding of magic was adapted for military efforts and not of the risks and might that transcends the magical understandings of Vel Anir.

 

[Aeyliea]

Her heart hammered out a quick tattoo as the beast beneath them lurched into motion. The powerful ripple of muscle beneath her reminded her of her own beast. Too late to worry about it now; the horse would either find her or else keep running in the opposite direction and not stop short of Elbion.

Aeyliea wasn't entirely sure she didn't agree. Fear was not a thing she was accustomed to acknowledging. Saying she didn't feel it would be a foolish lie. Displaying that fear for all the world was almost as shameful as running from a fight. Even one she couldn't win.

Behind them, the devil that they had briefly stood up to let out a bowel-shaking roar, launching itself skyward. The snap of great leathery wings echoed through the street; a moment later, the deep shadow of an enormous shape sailed over them. Aeyliea looked skyward and blanched; a great fucking dragon pulled sorcerous current around itself and climbed higher into the sky. There was something...wrong with it. The eye danced across it as though it were oddly out of phase.

It made her eyes water and her head hurt.

She clamped down on the fear and shoved it down, thighs tightening their grip on their shared mount. "Know how to ride," she said. The affront was forced; her eyes remained locked on the sky as the winged lizard shrank in the dusky sky. "Bigger question. Are you strong? Was...that magic all you can do?"

All. All. As if she could wield even a tenth of that power herself.

Frantic as it was, a plan was taking shape in her head. She didn't like it, but being alive was much more preferrable to keeping her pride intact.

 

[Zephyrine]

"I can do Recreations." Zephyrine's eyes narrowed, unsure of the angle this woman was asking questions. "House falls apart? I can recreate it back to new. A bridge breaks? I can recreate an entirely new one. I can make weapons out of thin air if I wanted to."

But what could she do against a magic she had never fought against before?

Zephyrine was trained to kill enemies, human enemies. Mortals. Something like that figure back there, something otherworldly and eldritch. Untouchable. The Academy had not prepared her for one day feeling inferior to another being.

"You got a plan, lady?"

 

[Aeyliea]

"Aeyliea," was managed to grate out as the jarring motion lit her left arm aflame. Her back was a distant throb, leaking blood every now and then. "I am Aeyliea."

It would be beneficial to have another know her name. Especially if she was fated to die here. Far from home, far from the land of her birth. She didn't think overly much of that death, though; the plains and desert were an inhospitable place to begin with. An honor society like hers made it more harsh, and constant fighting with every other tribe and intruder made it harsher still.

But none of those things were a fucking dragon the size of a house.

Her unwelcome guest stirred in her head, shifting about like an uneasy sleeper. Aeyliea shivered as she contemplated.

"Maybe," she said. She didn't look up at the circling shape. They were not going to lose it amid the houses or in the country. Sooner or later it would come and finish what it had started. "Mine is... not so strong." A way to say that her unwitting companion was in a different league altogether than she herself was.

Use mine breath, foolish child.

The shaman winced at the acerbic voice in her head.

"I need my weapon. Spears. Shield," she said after a moment. A thunderous crack far overhead announced that the dragon had shifted its flight. The thing still seemed to be out of phase with the world, a haze of images not quite in focus. Even from here, she could feel the power of it. "Maybe...maybe then..."

A laughable image, her going head to head with a dragon with nothing but her short stabbing spear. Except she could feel a wellspring of power coiled round her spine.

Maybe...

 

[Zephyrine]

Where had she left her weapons? They were not on her person when the lady — no, Aeyliea — had gone to the inn earlier.

"Where is it? Your spears? Your shield?" She asked, brows furrowed deeply with urgency. "Arm yourself if your magic cannot sustain you."

Because she knew the other woman was a fighter, just like Zephyrine. They were not going to run away and lick their wounds. They were the type of women brought up to stand and fight after recollecting themselves. Dreadlords wiped the blood from their faces and stand taller, and she would not abandon Aeyliea when faced with this threat.

"Are they special? Your weapons? Or can I just make you new ones?"

 

[Aeyliea]

"My horse," she said. "In scabbard on saddle. Bolted when fight started."

There was an edge of frustration in her voice. She was usually well prepared. The preceding days had shown that she was just as fallible as the other races she scorned day-to-day. Her human companion was certainly better prepared than she was right now.

"They are not. Spears, like so," she drawled thickly in her accent, sitting up and letting go of the horse long enough to show a narrow arms span of length, thighs gripping the animal beneath her with practiced ease even if her seat wasn't proper. "Long, heavy point. Steel. Small buckler." She paused for a moment, frowning as she draped herself round the neck of the beast they rode.

"No shield. What point? Great skarka dragon. No block." She laughed, and it was a mirthless thing. She could easily imagine trying to black and getting flattened instead.

 

[Zephyrine]

There, there was that language barrier between them. Zephyrine could have made an attempt at recreating this spear Aeyliea spoke of, but trying to get a clear description from her would prove difficult.

"Your horse can't have gotten far. Can you call for them?" The young Dreadlord could only resort to suggestions at this point. Out of her depth, but still prepared. Zeph was ready to go into motion when the other woman told her so.

The dragon in question loomed above, and she had been doing her best to ignore it. They needed a plan, they needed to recover. They needed to not be filled with apprehension...

They needed to do this right.

"Alright. So we are not defending ourselves. We are on the offensive." Zephyrine sighed. "Got magic that could catapult hundreds of steel pikes of my making up at that thing?"

 

[Aeyliea]

She pointed skyward wordlessly. Even if she whistled for the beast, it would not come so long as that was there. No sane creature would. She made a frustrated sound at the back of her throat.

"Any spear. Can make it right." She shook her head in answer to the Dreadlord's question. "The wind and rain, the beating heart. Not... like you." Not strong. She could, given enough time and resources, shift the weather. Misdirect enemies, find water. Heal the sick and wounded.

Her strength lay in spirituality and honor and a stubborn will to not surrender.

 

[Zephyrine]

"Any spear?" Zephyrine raised her brows, as if waiting for Aeyliea to change her mind before the Dreadlord stretched her arm out to the side.

She had spent a month in the forges of Vel Castere, learning all she could about the best foundations to quality weapons. Spear heads had been her goal to master, and with great confidence in her work, Zephyrine's magic pulled together fragments from her pouch and constructed a worthy spear any Anirian would be proud to wield.

"How about this?" Presenting it for the other woman by holding it line a lance, Zephyrine grinned as she admired her own work. Her instincts in recreating a quality item was getting better, as if the girl had worked away at this spear by hand and not by born magic.

 

[Aeyliea]

"Will...fix, if need," she said shortly. She had had to do so many times before. She was no stranger to a battle, to broken weapons, or to improvising with what she had as needed.

She was surprised when the woman manifested a lance in her hands from nothing. It was definitely a much prettier weapon than she had held before, even if the quality was the same. She was accustomed to workman-like blades and hafts designed for durability without any care for appearance. It would be a shame to break the pole across her knee to shorten it properly.

She hefted it and grunted in satisfaction. "Shorter would be better but can break handle." She said as she nodded to herself with a confidence she did not feel. There was a note of shock and admiration in her tone at the ability to call forth something from nothing.

A giant shadow passed over them and a moment later the hulking form of the winged lizard slammed into the earth a hundred yards ahead of them. Dust billowed as it snapped its wings to slow the descent at the last second, wheeling tightly around to face them and opening a tooth-line maw.

It drew a breath.

Foolish children. No escape for you. Accept your fate...

Magenta fire flared at the back of the beasts' throat, and then a roiling ball of sorcery wafted out to engulf them.

 

[Zephyrine]

This was the risk of entering wider plains, leaving the weaves of roads and dots of houses to hide their location. Out in the open now, their foe came to face them and was sure to spook the horse. The steed reared onto it's hind legs, surprising Zephyrine and ultimately throwing the two women off of it.

Even as the drake spoke, Zephyrine ignored all the pained responses in her body at being thrown, moving before the pain truly registered. She picked up the other woman and moved them out of the firing line of flames.

Their horse had not made it in time. Half of it was caught, and the winged creature was only so hungry in it's bloodlust that it took the momentary distraction of the dying steed.

Never in her life did she think she would ever contend with a beast such as this. To be at arms with sorcery in this manner.

"Aeyliea." The red haired Dreadlord breathed, setting her down and helping her keep upright. "If something happens to me... please write a letter to Ivan Skender in Vel Anir. Tell him what happened. Tell him that... Zephyrine Caddel finally had an adventure." Because that was what she had last written to him. That instead of following through on her plans in Elbion, she listened to what she wanted. To see what was beyond Vel Anir. To meet other people. To travel through lands not many had before.

"Tell him I am glad to not have died a hero of Vel Anir."

Because what use was she against sorcery and draconic fire?

 

[Aeyliea]

Something reached out and through her in a rush of power that left her breathless. It was a struggle to maintain her sense of self amid the torrent - it threatened to wash her away like banks of a wadi in full flood. The Seer grunted and swayed in the saddle in front of Zephyrine.

Magenta fire licked over horse and riders but did not touch so much as a hair on their head. The intense heat washed over them like an overheated breath, but the killing magic washed over an invisible barrier before them. The draconic amalgam blinked in surprise as its magic failed to end their mortal existence.

"Seems like we live," Aeyliea said after a moment. Sweat rolled down her ashen face, her lungs working like bellows to get enough breath. Fire lanced down every nerve in her body except (perversely) her left arm and shoulder. There was a note of horror in her voice; she had channeled power that was not her own and through no volition of her conscious mind. She knew the source and feared it.

The pale, dusty remains somewhere beneath the plains and the otherworldly voice chained to it echoed in her mind.

"Demon," she breathed but without any real conviction or strength. "But if a demon can grant me enough strength..," she said and then trailed off. Her eyes narrowed, lips compressed into a thin line. She hefted the spear she had been given and looked round to Zephyrine. "Can you make haft shorter? Bring back round and let me down. Have plan."

She swayed in the saddle again, face somehow even more pale.

 

[Zephyrine]

Never had she felt this heavy weight in the pit of her stomach before. As if anticipation now sat inside her with nowhere else to go, and that their fates had changed in the last mere seconds that Zephyrine could not comprehend what had just happened.

She stared at Aeyliea with motions of dumbfounded and incredulity.

"What?" She asked, merely for clarification. The Dreadlord shook her head, eyes wide as she looked around them.

They may have survived this moment, but who was to say they would not be so lucky to survive the next? With this thought, Zephyrine recreated the shaft, but this time to the specifics Aeyliea asked of her. Their steed followed the direction, circling back to a distance that Zeph deemed reasonable to help let down her ally.

"What are you planning?" All pretense of knowing what to do in this situation had left her. This was all out of her domain now, and all she could offer was being of assistance to whatever master plan was brewing in Aeyliea's mind.

 

[Aeyliea]

"Something...stupid," she said after thinking about the question a moment. Something breathed a kind of certainty into her accompanied with a flash of empty eye sockets and the cold dread of an open grave. "We attack not together. Separate. Can only attack one at a time."

She thought that through and nodded to herself grimly. There was another part that the ancient wyrm had whispered to her. After so many years of faith given to the Seven, it felt almost blasphemous to grant even a sliver of it to some long-dead monster buried in the plains.

But it spoke of...

She shook her head. "You have weapon? I need to ... touch it," she said, stumbling a bit. She felt the cold of that grave, and her flesh was chill to the touch with it. She could feel another dragon riding her soul, reaching out from beyond its tomb to thread fingers of power through the hair of her soul.

Her breath misted in front of her.

 

[Zephyrine]

"Kress." Zephyrine invoked the name in vain.

She sighed, fashioning herself a longsword by the time she dismounted from the horse. The red head figured if she was to attack, it was best to do it on her own two feet she was sure of than trusting a horse to ride into dangerous terrain. Extending it, she could feel a coldness sweep in. As if the air had not been warmed by the heat of dragonfire.

"Who's going to take the first attack?" She asked, her gaze steady. Zephyrine was ready to carry out this plan coming together in Aeyliea's mind. She was never really a leader, not when her entire education had been in solitude most of the years she was at the Academy. An experiment to see what type of soldier she would become. Working in smaller groups always worked for her the moment she was shoved into blending into lessons with the rest of her class her graduating year. "Anything I can do with my magic to distract?"

 

[Aeyliea]

Scarcely knowing what she was doing, the Seer grasped Zephyrine's blade hard enough for it to cut into her tough skin. As her blood stained the blade, she felt something sweep through her in a dizzying rush of power far beyond her ken. The ice in her veins seemed to deepen, the chill in the air grow sharper.

Recalling the things that this woman had already accomplished, Aeyliea grinned fatalistically. "If swing big tail at us, raise wall of stone," she suggested. Anything that might blunt the weight behind such blows would be welcome. Hurling stones would be ineffective; she could practically feel the layered wards that the dragon had woven round itself like a shell of adamantine. "I will take lead. May the Seven protect us," she said. There should have been dread in her voice but strangely she felt nothing but a fatalistic determination.

The dragon huffed a laugh at her invocation of the Great Ones.

No'rei did not fear death, but they were not eager to be sent back in to the gleaming Sea overhead. She herself had stared death in the eyes enough times before.

Just never a dragon.

"If I die, burn this vessel," she said briskly. Shortened spear in hand, she cursed at the lack of a buckler until she realized that trying to stop anything this creature did with a bit of wood and leather was as pointless as trying to stop the sun from rising.

She darted forward, braid flying like the tail of an angry cat as she went. The terrain was smooth enough - a boon and a curse all in one. The dragon chuffed a draconic laugh and drew breath again. Didn't work once, won't work now either.

Scorching sorcery lashed from its gaping maw and washed over her in a tide of cold, burning magic. She felt the rush of answering sorcery within her and the chill in her blood and bone that announced the channeling of the unknown power and the presence of the undead Wyrm.

The bitter cold nearly made her forget where and what she was doing. She had to stop short and nearly tumbled into snapping teeth and blood red, furious eyes. "...!" she managed to exclaim, sidestepping and avoiding being eviscerated.

Narrowly.

 

[Zephyrine]

Gather your wits, Caddel.

She had heard that command many times in her training. To let go of the worry and anxiety. The thoughts of how an action may proceeed...

Instead, she reminded herself of her magic. Her might. An assurance that all her years had led to something extraordinary.

When that tail swished and began to arc, Zephyrine's magic was ready and alive at her fingertips, already reaching into the earth and disturbing the turf as stones and rocks came to her aid and softened the blow. This action also left her precious seconds to advance, to twirl her longsword into a better offensive position. The tail thrashed again, clearly frustrated that it had not broken down Zephyrine's recreation of a fortified stone wall, but she knew it would not withstand yet another blow.

The magic thrumming through her blessed blade called to her. So filled with life and presence, Zephyrine's own magic pressed against it in hopes to learn just how to recreate this one last thing she had never been able to quite master. Perhaps the recreation of magic was far too great of an ambition, that perhaps that was not her purpose in this life to possess. Was it not enough to learn of another's magic until it needed to be mended in small patches, to be fortified with her own magic's bolstering to heal?

If her blade may break, her own magic would be there to fix it. Bring it back to it's original creation's condition.

She had to trust that Aeyliea was not leading her into a useless attack. That the other woman had a plan and that would see them through this onslaught.

That Zephyrine may live to see her home again, for the familiarity of Vel Anir and the boy that taught her to laugh would be a comfort she never thought she would think of until now.

And so, the red haired Dreadlord was running. She was fast, for all her time being idle was rare and that running the perimeter of the Academy also gave her a moment of seclusion. Unseen, having chosen a path that put her in the blindspot of the draconic being, Zephyrine lifted her arm and gave a powerful swing from below and arcing upwards in a deadly slash, she felt the wardings fall and shatter from the magic that sung louder than steel.

 

[Aeyliea]

Her blade cut through magic that was as strong as mithril, as adamantine. Traveller huffed a laugh as it felt the blow land, supreme confidence in its superiority over the humanoids that thought to fight a god with weapons of steel and wood.

The blade struck belly scales and tore through them in a fiery lance of pain. In a lesser being, it might have been a critical wound. Given the size and the power of the dragon, it was still painful if for no other reason that it was completely unexpected.

The beast let loose a bellowing roar that carried the seeds of magic in it in an oppressive wave. It washed over the two women in a tide that the warding presence of Lorien could only blunt. The beast twisted its serpentine neck round and snapped razor teeth at Zephyrine. The strangely resonant voice of it hammered into their skulls without being bothered by such physical things as ears.

"One a traitor, the other an outsider," it said. The voice shifted between male and female, deep and soft and completely at random. "The traitor should fall on her knees and accept the will of the Seven made manifest," it said.

...but they are not Seven, are they? Wry amusement in the voice within her skull. They number but five. Five ungrateful souls bound together...

...to barely equal their mother.

"The Seven would not wish my end. I am faithful," she replied in her own native tongue. Anger edged the words, making the music of that language jagged and cruel. "You are a base beast," she snapped.

Before it could turn to face her - preoccupied as it was with Zephyrine - the Seer shifted and darted forward. Like the Dreadlord, she was well trained in combat even if the means were different. Sensing her approach, the Traveller began to swing its horse-like head round, but she reached its great body first. Only a shifting of its leg saved it from having the spear driven into its chest. As it was, the wards it had wrapped round itself folded in like wet paper and the foot of steel sank into a foreleg until it was fully buried to the haft.

It screeched in abject rage, and spun round with a fleetness that belied its size. Its leathery tail connected solidly with Aeyliea's side in a sickening crunch and sent the tribal rolling bonelessly dozens of feet to the side. When she landed, she remained unnaturally still.

The dragon ignored both the No'rei and the Dreadlord, snapping at the wooden shaft protruding from just below its shoulder and streaming iridescent blood down that limb, bellowing and shrieking in wordless rage as it did so.