Dreadlords Terror Within

[Eleanor]

Her fingers went numb right before a strange sensation ran through her body. She could feel the magic pulsing through the brick in the second before it fell from the wall. Before it hit the ground, she felt her magic explode back into her and she gasped. It was a weird feeling being without her magic and she had, unfortunately, felt it before. That damn mission with the fucking elves and their strange magics.

Ella's attention was pulled from herself when Edric cursed. She slowly turned around to look at the carnage of the room around her. Vance looked like he was about to fall over and she rushed over to his side. Edric was healing, Evie was passed out, and Vance was barely standing.

"Hey, I got you, Vance," she said softly. She wished she could explain to him how happy she was that he was actually alive.

 

[Vance Calgrave]

The lightning came back as if it were enraged by being held at bay. The current surged through Vance’s veins and sent his body into full convulsions as it leapt out of him via whatever exit it found. His eyes blinded and his tongue tasted metal as the bolts crackled out like dragonfire. His hands cauterized under the flashing heat and the copper rods along his armor hummed frightfully and sent more tendrils arcing into the air.

He would have worried for Ella’s safety had he remained aware, but he collapsed into a tetanic heap. The lightning gradually diminished in ferocity as the current slowed, and eventually he lay painfully upon his back, twitching and unconscious. He was breathing, but it was shallow and irregular. If anyone cared to check, they would hear a heartbeat but it would be irregular.

If he heard Ella’s words of assurance he made no indication, but his breathing did soothe a little.

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Everleigh continued to bleed out, blood still dripping out from where she had been stabbed in her rib cage and from the stump of a tongue. A good lesson to remind her that perhaps one should speak of a plan before biting off her tongue and speaking gibberish.

Edric Eleanor Vance Calgrave

 

[Edric]

A strangled grunt escaped from Edric, followed quickly by the clattering of chains. A quick glance would show the young Initiate tearing his bonds free from the wall. Magic poured into his muscles, fueling his strength., Stones tumbling to the ground as he yanked himself forward with a clatter.

He stumbled half way into his step.

Hazy eyes glanced over towards Vance on the floor, Ella by his side. No words left his throat, but slowly he stepped towards Everleigh. Through the din of his own death throes he remembered seeing the blade slide into her chest, and quickly he stepped over towards her.

Without a single moment of hesitation his hand came up, pressing against Everleigh's wound.

He clawed desperately at the small pinpricks of life around them. Cockroaches, rats, anything. A trickle, a small stream flowed from them and into him, the barest sip of life injected into Everleigh as he held her wound.

It was not enough to heal, not enough to even seal the flesh, but enough to keep her breathing. At least for a little while longer.

 

[Eleanor]

Ella only cared about Vance in that moment. He was on the ground and he was breathing but he was not doing good. She listened to his chest for a few seconds with her eyes closed. She was sure that he was not going to survive unless...

Her head popped up from Vance's chest and she looked directly at Edric.

"Can you use me to heal Vance?" She asked in a panic.

She and Edric had gone through this offer before when he needed healing but she hoped he would do it for Vance. She needed him to. She never understood before today how much she needed Vance.

"Please..."

 

[Vance Calgrave]

Vance's breathing continued and the twitching slowed and stopped. The majority of the current had been directed outward, and luckily his friends had not been struck.

Ella's words made their way into his mind. Even if he was not aware of them, they were there. Perhaps this would help.

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Everleigh’s eyes fluttered briefly from edric healing her stab wound, but she didn’t stir as she hung from the chains. Attached to the poison eater were her healing elixirs, in a small compartment situated on the lower end of the small of her back, adjacent to the curve of her hip. Of course, only she probably knew where they were, whoops!

 

[Edric]

Edric felt panic rise through his chest.

Eleanor's words rang in his mind, his head turning towards her as Vance lay broken upon the floor. His eyes flickering back towards Everleigh as she lay half ragged against him. Fingers tightened for a brief moment as he thought. A heart beat passing.

He knew his magic had never been exact, knew the risk of what Eleanor was asking, but there wasn't any other way. She was the only one who hadn't been hurt, torn into, stabbed. Lips thinned, and then suddenly he reached out and grasped her.

Almost immediately Eleanor would feel the drain of her life.

A voice dragging and pulling at the vitality within her.

Edric took and took, grasping as much as he possibly could without hopefully ending her life. It poured through him, and then into Everleigh. Enough to heal the wound upon her chest and give her a spark of consciousness.

Then he pulled away, falling to Vance's side and casting his palm forward. Offering him the last of what Eleanor had given.

 

[Eleanor]

The redhead fought the urge to scream as he pulled her life force from her. It was worse than she could have ever imagined but she kept telling herself that Vance was worth saving.

She was not sure how much time had passed as Edric literally killed her to save the others. Everything started to get fuzzy as she was drained and the next thing she knew, she was laying on the ground. Her eyes found every person in the room to make sure they were good before she let them close.

Ella was so tired all of a sudden and she became lost in the darkness.

 

[Vance Calgrave]

Vance sucked in a desperate, rasping breath just a few moments after Edric sent the life force through him. He coughed, and coughed, and turned himself onto his side to spit out the gobs of blood that had formed in his lungs. His vision was starting to clear while he panted.

Everything hurt. Everything hurt so much but... but he could move. He tried to move his hands and found that, despite a horrible stinging, they did work. The skin was raw and red but it was skin... or something that would heal into skin. He sat up, steadied against the wave of nausea, and took in the surroundings.

"Thanks," he coughed at Edric, offering the weakest hint of a smile, which faded when he saw Ella on the ground.

"Shit," Vance fell forwards and crawled towards the unconscious woman. She hadn't been like that a moment ago. Everleigh had stopped bleeding, so that was a positive, Edric was no longer... well... dying. Why were they all ok and she wasn't?

He put a mangled hand on her face. "Hey!"

It was the best he could think of at the time.

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Everleigh woke up, no longer carried away into a warm embrace, forced back into this cold and dank reality. Parts of her ached. Blinking, getting her bearings, everything moved slowly. No, everything was moving so fast it was like a blur and she could only see certain snapshots of movement. Voices echoed, no, not voices, one voice: Vance’s.

“Edric.” Everleigh rasped out, her tongue having healed by like a strange nub. “Get me out of these chains.” She could see Eleanor, supine, not moving, even after Vance screamed at her. Ugh. What an idiot.

 

[Edric]

Edric looked up at Everleigh, his head tipping in a nod. He shot a brief glance towards Vance, Eleanor. His magic had taken it's toll, and he knew that the redhead teetered on the edge of life. She would not die, not if he had done things the right, but it would be close.

His lips sealed shut, not offering the grim advice in his mind.

Two quick steps he pulled himself off the ground and towards the ragged corpse of the man that Vance had beaten to death. Quick hands searched over his form, eventually finding the clipped keys on the inside of his belt.

Seconds later, the click of a lock resounded in the empty room. Chains falling away from Everleigh's form.

"I'll check the door." He croaked to the poison-eater after he made sure she would not tumble to the ground.

 

[Eleanor]

Ella was out cold.

She felt like she could hear something but it was far away. Her body was there and slowly repairing itself but she had given a lot to help her fellow Initiates.