Fable - Ask [Phorasmos] To Wake in the Night

[Tristan Locke]

Targets all in mind, one for each Mourner, and Haka taking the lead. A solid plan, now all that was left was to execute. Tristan steeled himself as best he could, short sword in one hand, hand crossbow in the other.

Breathe. Just...breathe.

Easier thought than done. He could hear his own heartbeat hammering away so loudly in his ears, roaring over the quiet din of the forest or the constant scraping being projected by the Possessed that lay before them. Then, it came.

"Three!"

Tristan surged forward along with the other Mourners. Shunk! The bolt knocked in his crossbow was loosed, whistling as it sailed through the air. It plunged into the owl's wing even as the animal clawed at the warding monument. It shrieked horribly, and Tristan was unsure if that horrid sound it made was entirely natural or if it was somehow altered by the wretched spirit inside it.

Regardless, the bird fell to the ground, unable to keep itself aloft with only one functional wing. As he rushed up to it he tried to be quick about finishing it off with a stroke of his sword, but the revenant within would not go so easily. It contorted the owl's body wildly, making it behave much more like a snake than an owl, whipping deftly to avoid being cut in twain by Tristan. It brought beak and talons to bear against ornate steel, woefully underequipped for biting or slashing through the tough plate of the ghost mail.

Click! Tristan racked another bolt in his crossbow and fired again, this time impaling the owl dead in the center of its face. It fell backward, corporeal body bleeding and dying, before Tristan punted its whole body with great force, the feathered form smashing into the stone of the ward, a bloody ruin. The Revenant emerged, furious, shrieking, burning from its proximity to the ward. Oh gods...Now came the difficult part. Though clearly not so difficult for the most senior among them!

 

[Aeris Silversale]

Aeris had spent months becoming formidable with two blades. She had a talent at navigating her off hand just the same as her dominant, and plenty of Mourners tested her ability to wield dual swords in a fight. It made her a menace, feeding her satisfaction and power whenever she saw on her opponents' faces surprise and confusion as she switched up her stance.

But against a revenant, all sense of precision and strategy were not guaranteed.

Some used to be Mourners, movement remembered in their muscles' memories on how to fight, but often times... it's hopeless visitors that venture out into these lands without proper awareness to the goings on here in Phorasmos.

Her arms were poised readily, moving to strike.

The man, or what was once a man, still had a sense of mobility to their being. Aeris swore loudly as her blade aimed for the precise points at the back of his foot to slow them down, but they had moved quicker than Silversale had anticipated. Her second blade came to corral her target, singling them out against the rest.

She supposed it was easier to face something more human, something more familiar to what they hunted. It should be like clockwork, a routine, but that only counted if Aeris herself was consistent in every circumstance.

Her lack of sleep was weighing on her.

Her attacks were too wide, too slow in the recovery, but Aeris worked at slicing at the right places to slow down any mortal form. Thoughts all muddled, she could not decipher if she were simply working harder and not smarter, just as the corrupted man fell to their knees and Aeris took a moment to breathe before piercing her long blade through their chest.

 

[Ihaka Nikau]

Even through the staff's handle and his own armor Haka felt in his hands the tactile sensation of the wolf's neck parting under the cleaving blade. Barely a feral yelp had escaped its throat. Haka wrenched his weapon from his prey with a curt upward jerk, freeing it, and he kicked the body away from himself some few feet, putting some distance between himself and it for when the Revenant would come crawling out of the carcass.

Haka glanced around at the others. Quick looks to see how they were doing. Iruna was wrestling with the Elk; Tristan missed a sword-stroke against the eerily eel-like owl; and Aeris made to hamstring the man, but again odd and deft movements defied a Mourner's attack. Altogether things were going okay.

Haka looked back to the wolf, expecting that familiar sickly green glow to be emanating from the gaping wound, if not the Revenant itself in full. He saw neither—or rather, nothing like what he expected. Some of that green glow did emanate forth, and like some abyssal tentacle it whipped the head almost perfectly back into its place.

Then the wolf stood up on its hind legs like a man. The head listed heavily to the left like a sinking ship, its long tongue hanging lifelessly down from its slack jaw.

"Ai! What nasty trick is—!?"

The now bipedal wolf rushed at Ihaka like a necromancer's crazed minion. Haka had instinctively spun his taiaha around to greet the creature with its spearpoint, but the wolf impaled itself in its effort to tackle him and hardly was its frenzy stilled by the steel.

Both Haka and the wolf went down to the ground in a mad scramble.

Iruna Reverio Tristan Locke Aeris Silversale

 

[Iruna Reverio]

Iruna looked out to the others, and it seemed as if everyone was in a predicament. Aeris looked far more sluggish than usual, Tristan looked like he might struggle with the Revenant as close as it was considering his weapon, and Haka had to deal with something new with that demonic dog. The Man and The Owl were about to release their revenants into the air, so it should be one of them. Iruna apologized to Haka in her head as she eliminated him from the equation.

Aeris looked more immediately vulnerable so it was her that Iruna chose to defend. She sprinted with a speed only afforded by her armor, ideally just in time for the Revenant to be released. If she was too late then Aeris might take a hit from the revenant, too early and she'd lose her momentum for a less effective cut. She hoped her timing was true.

Aeris Silversale Tristan Locke Ihaka Nikau

 

[Tristan Locke]

The Revenant that emerged from within the owl had a form like billowing smoke, a pale blue light pouring from within its face and chest. The ward seemed to keep it from anything resembling coherency, both in a physical sense and in its ability to focus. Revenants were always chaotic creatures, of course, but this one seemed erratic, its hollow eyes unable to focus on any of the living things around it for more than a couple of seconds at a time.

The others were each handling their own ordeals; Tristan couldn't allow himself to be dead weight. Not now. There was an advantage to be had in the ghost's distraction. Tristan surged forward, finding his courage, and circled the Revenant. It swiped at him in turn, where he was previously, where it thought he would be, but never quite where Tristan actually stood. Time itself seemed to be eluding the thing, even as it sprouted extra limbs to try and claw at the life around it that it hated so deeply.

More limbs meant more targets. Tristan slashed with his requiem blade, cutting through ghostly smoke as though it were as true as flesh. He whittled away at its form, blow by blow, all the while Fane's energies imbuing Tristan's armor with just enough speed, just enough guidance, to stay out of the Revenant's reach.

Finally, the light that leaked from the creature's eyes and "mouth" (or what counted for one) became violent, skyward pillars. With a final shriek, the spirit fled with all haste into the night sky, far above the trees. Banished, but not slain. That would have to suffice for now.

Tristan wheeled. What was left? Iruna made to aid Aeris, but Haka fought alone. Tristan rushed to help him next. There might well have been no end to the tricks these Revenants held.

 

[Aeris Silversale]

Fuck, she was tired.

She could feel her arms weigh more in the seconds that had passed. That breath she had heaved into her lungs felt too heavy to expel, and her eyes flicked up to watch the unholy ghost of the Revenant seep from the mouth and hollowed spaces where eyes once were. It rose and rose, and Aeris gritted her teeth, told herself this was over soon.

But, to her shame and gratefulness, Iruna was at her side.

Blade forged to quell those restless spirits, made to undo the tethers that kept them here to this body.

Her strike was true.

Aeris witnessed as the phantom released skyward, and finally, her eyes could shut. She allowed herself a second to pretend that was all the rest she could take, before expelling that waiting breath from her lungs and pull her sword free. The Mourner turned, pulling her helm from her head and truly looked at Iruna. Emotions fought in those eyes, but Aeris was grateful either way for the assistance.

She will fall into the guilt later, when she was in bed and in a dark room.

 

[Ihaka Nikau]

Snapping jaws lunged at Haka's helm. He rolled his head to the left. To the right. The wolf's maw missed twice. It made to snap at him again, the very bones within its jaw creaking and snapping as its mouth stretched open to a gaping, snarling, salivating width that it just barely should not have been capable of. Haka, horrified by what the Revenants could do to the Possessed, spoke a hurried exclamation in his own tongue—

—just as the wolf, before it could snap down and lock its teeth into Haka's helm, went flying off of him. Something had smashed into it. Knocking it off. Haka looked. Tristan!

"Just in time, my friend!"

Haka stood upright, taking up his fighting stance side-by-side with Tristan. A ribbon of fleshy gore dangled from his weapon's spearpoint, torn out viciously from the wolf's body as it had been knocked off. Haka twirled the taiaha around, the ribbon fell to the ground with soft squelch, and Haka had the blade forward once again.

The wolf, twitching with inhuman spasms, nevertheless continued its imitation and stood again like a man. Green light poured now from the grievous wounds inflicted on the wolf, the ghostly creature wearing the wolf's body like a shell revealed all the more. Haka readied himself.

But a curious thing happened. The wolf suddenly dropped to the ground, completely limp, as though it were a thin garment discarded from the body of its wearer. The Revenant was now revealed in full, and it turned and fled, legless ethereal body soaring away through the forest as though a swift wind aided its retreat.

Haka relaxed, but only a little. He spared a glance over his shoulder, and then said to Tristan, "Was that the ward? Is it working, do you think?"

Tristan Locke Aeris Silversale Iruna Reverio

 

[Iruna Reverio]

"Two got away."

That didn't quite bode well, but it was better than any of their hearts stopping in their chests. They won, and that was most important. Iruna looked over everyone. They were all intact. The ward hopefully was as well. She turned to Tristan, and seeing he was okay, Iruna called to him.

"Get Ensis so he can take a look at this ward. It's obviously not working correctly and needs mending."

Iruna took her attention back to Aeris and held out her hand for stability. The poor girl really needed some rest. Hopefully it would come soon in some form or another.

 

[Tristan Locke]

That was that, at least for the moment. Tristan barely heard Iruna's command over the sound of his own heartbeat pounding in his ears. He turned his head towards her, panting, and nodded, nearly unable to register the words.

The young warrior gathered his wits and sheathed his sword.
"Ihaka," he said, frazzled eyes landing on the bear of a man. "Best to stay in pairs, at least. Would you join me?"

He didn't wait for an answer before jogging off, back towards where they'd left Ensis, Arlen, and Ghiran. It didn't take long before Tristan began to hear something else. Something that set the hairs on the back of his neck on edge. Distant, muffled cries, and some otherworldly grunting.

"Oh no."

Tristan broke from a jog into a run. Something huge and hairy moved among the trees, snapping branches aside and brush underfoot. Fane, too, was on edge now, Tristan's armor bristling with an uncomfortable pale energy.

The sight that greeted Tristan on the other side of the vegetation was one that he wouldn't soon forget:
A massive boar, or something close to it, horribly disfigured as it was. It was swollen beyond the scale of any that he'd ever seen before, wholly at least twice the size of a horse in length and stature. It twitched unnaturally like the other possessed, but this one was somehow even more disturbing.

Sickly light poured from its eyes, nostrils, and mouth, unruly fangs jutting in every direction as it slobbered towards its prey. Its skin writhed and pulsed, and occasionally what looked like the outlines of faces pressed themselves against the inside of its skin as though trying to rip outwards. Ghostly limbs wriggled like a second mane along its back, and the monster's moaning cries sounded like many voices in unison.

"...What the fuck...?" was all that Tristan could manage to utter on laying eyes on the thing. His eyes glanced around, panicked, looking for signs of life.

Ghiren's body lay behind the boar in a ruined, bloody heap, his armor smashed as thoroughly as his body must have been. Arlen was in front of the boar, one of his arms dangling uselessly at his side while the other clutched a spear. Ensis was behind Arlen, slumped against a tree, blood running down his face.

This was far more dangerous than anything Tristan had heard of or encountered in the Pines before. The night's ritual was not meant to go this way...what was going on? What were they meant to do?!

 

[Aeris Silversale]

She should be grateful they were to go in pairs. Aeris could work with Iruna without problem, but if she were to assist Tristan and Haka, guilt would rise like bile within her when it became apparent she was only holding them back.

Aeris had waved off Iruna's offered hand, a muttered "I'll be right," was meagerly used to decline.

But she did feel grateful that her partner did not hurry off on the heels of the young men returning to the rest of their unit. A moment of reprieve, a moment of regret and guilt she would later drown with sorrows and rum, until she could ignore or forget them again.

"Do you think Ensis kno—"

Something strange overcame Silversale. It stilled her, filled her with a strangeness they had all felt coming into this vicinity of the wards. Her eyes sharpened, her exhaustion suppressed once more as she stood tall and without another word, lead them both to follow the trail the others had taken.

 

[Ihaka Nikau]

"I'm at your back, paompa!"

Together they sped off, Haka and Tristan. Now that work of Requiem weapons was done, Master Ensis could work on the ward. Two of the Revenants had gotten away, as Iruna said, but they had taken flight, retreating from the ward as fast as could be despite the ward's damages. That counted for something! And when Master Ensis fixed the ward it would be all the stronger, just as it should be.

Yet ill news, coming in the form of far off cries and grunts, preceded Tristan and Haka's return to their fellows.

Tristan ran, and Haka ran in his wake. Was there more? More of those Possessed beasties? But surely Ghiran would have taken care of them?

At last through the coverage of bush and trunk came the sight of a cruel battle. A grievous assault Ghiran and Arlen and Ensis alike had suffered! A true monster, that boar twisted beyond all recognition of its natural form, stood as the menace which had done it.

Behind his helm Haka's mouth dropped open, seeing the twisted boar and ethereal limbs writhing from cracks in its body, as though a whole host of Revenants had all made their home inside the animal.

"No one's ever spoke of this!" Haka said in a breathless whisper, scarcely able to believe what his own eyes revealed before him. Like Tristan he for the moment was stunned as well. "No one's ever told tale of anything like this!"

Tristan Locke Iruna Reverio Aeris Silversale

 

[Iruna Reverio]

Iruna listened to Aeris's question, but the end never came. Aeris rose and walked as a woman possessed, a realistic concern considering where they were. Iruna considered asking where her companion was going, but something made her think the question would be useless. She simply followed with the utmost trust in Aeris.

Their pace was strong despite Silversale's trance and the head start the other pair had. Something seemed terribly wrong as they approached. The shouting and the heavy heaving, the crash of brush being trampled by something monstrously large. Iruna pushed past the other mourners and caught sight of the thing. It disgusted her. Her gaze fell down to see the injured, the dead, and Arlen standing in defiance of the thing. There was no time to speak.

Iruna raced forward with a mourner's quickness, and grabbed Arlen by the nape of his neck, throwing him towards the others. She turned her head and shouted.

"PROTECT THE INJUR-"

Iruna's order was cut off in the blur of the great thing hitting her head on with its snout. She flew back and was only stopped by a hard oak tree. She blacked out for a small moment, and came to just a second later to look back at the sizable dent her impact had caused. She was lucky she didn't catch the tusks on that one. Still, she stood despite her shaking knees, holding her greatsword at the monstrous boar.

Tristan Locke Aeris Silversale Ihaka Nikau

 

[Tristan Locke]

"Iruna!" Tristan shouted after her. She still lived, fortunate enough to have not been sundered like Ghiren, but looking much worse for wear.

Each passing moment moved the situation from bad to worse. Aeris and Iruna arrived only for the most senior warrior among them to be promptly cast aside by the looming abomination before them. Fear clutched Tristan's heart, truly, and Fane's energies pulled at him with a gnawing chill.

"Run! Begone, all of you! While it is focused on me, flee while you can!" Ensis called out with as much strength as he could muster. Arlen looked back at him, shaken, unsure. Tristan was hardly any better. Could he really bring himself to run? To cower at the cost of lives yet again?

Move, damn it, move!

The plates of Tristan's ghost mail shook as his body trembled. If he didn't do something then he would die, as certainly as the sun would rise. Yet even still...

"That's quite enough."

A hollow voice rang out through the trees. Chains wreathed in red and orange shot forth and snaked their way around the monstrous boar. It squealed and a thousand ghostly shrieks squealed along with it, the beast suddenly wrenched backwards. Arlen froze, and Ensis eyes went wide.

A figure descended from the thick branches above, a man wrapped in twisted armor and draped in chains, a tattered hood and weathered mask concealing most of his face. Eyes bleeding spectral energy, scarlet red, peaked from behind the guise. The figure landed atop the boar and pulled the chains binding him to the boar taut, and the creature was called to heel as though it were naught but an unruly stallion. Still, the souls within it protested, writhing beneath the creature's skin and wailing that ungodly chorus.

"Yes, yes, you've all had your fun. Yet the Celebration has yet to begin..."

Again the man yanked upon the chains, and this time the boar dropped to its knees. Burning eyes turned from the monster to look down upon the crowd of ghostly warriors below. Madness roiled behind his gaze, plumes like fire wafting from the edges of his vision. A laugh not unlike the cackling of coyotes echoed about, and the figure cleared his throat.

"Fair Mourners! Forgive the poor manners of my pets, if you will. I came only to deliver a message, and I fear the scamps simply...got away from me, aha..."

Arlen, Ensis, and indeed Tristan, remained stunned. They met the stranger's odd appearance with only silence as they awaited what bizarre twist of fate might come next.

 

[Aeris Silversale]

Aeris had listened to Ensis when he told them to run.

She ran, hoping to come across more Mourners, to plead with them for aid on what they had stumbled upon. Natural balance had become inflamed, unnatural, and she could not help but feel as if she were not built to handle this. Tears, of which she blamed were due to her lack of sleep, fell hot and steady down her cheeks as her eyes frantically looked for living beings.

But then something wrong made her recoil, almost stumbling over her own feet. Aeris came to a stop, had fallen to her knees in an attempt to stop herself from running. Her head lifted, her helm almost blinding her to the figure that walked towards her before disappearing into the treetops.

It had been something haunting, sentient, and all she could do was recall the story she had told Arlen earlier.

Unpleasantness and nausea swelled in her stomach, and Aeris could taste an acid on her tongue.

Fear.

She had tasted and felt fear.

She could not do this. She could not move. Fear kept her there, on her hands and knees desperately trying to breathe. Aeris whimpered, clawed with one hand to remove her helm so she could breathe unrestricted.

 

[Ihaka Nikau]

Iruna down. Haka and Tristan and Aeris alike stunned each in their own measure by what they beheld.

And as the man (for Haka knew not what else to call him, for he had the likeness of such even if in truth he might not be) descended from his unseen perch and exercised command and power over the beast, Haka didn't know what to think. Quickly had this night gone beyond—far beyond!—even the most outlandish tales told in the Mourners' seldom hours of quiet camaraderie.

What could he possibly be, this man? It wasn't unheard of for hunters, warriors, mercenaries, fighting sorts of all kinds from lands afar to come to Phorasmos, to lend a hand or require aid from the Mourners. Haka even thought, or hoped rather, in those first moments that it might be so, that this might be all some big, awful misunderstanding, and that Ensis and Arlen and especially Ghiran would be made well again and come through this.

But Haka knew—and his father Nikau knew, for Haka felt it coursing in his armor—that this was faulty wishing. Ill boded here.

Haka steeled himself. He gripped his weapon with renewed resolution despite his fear and dismay.

He spoke cautiously, warily, "Who are you? And what is your message, Mainlander?"

Iruna Reverio Tristan Locke Aeris Silversale