Private Tales The Last Resort

[Draedamyr]

"I hate the sunlight," he muttered. He didn't really hate the sun. He hated it being quite so bright so early in the morning.

Draedamyr looked up from where he was sleeping, blinking slowly. She was of the moon, but he still appreciated the sight of her framed against the morning sun.

"Red?" he asked as his mind caught up.

Draedamyr sat upright and looked towards where Red had been sleeping.

"But he could have left us back at the town. Gone his own way."

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

She nodded slowly in agreement with his assessment. It made little sense for the man to abandon them now, so far from town. She rose to her feet, and offered her hand - a gesture more than anything since she had neither the strength to help him up, nor the height to even get him much beyond a crouch.

"I do not understand myself," she said. She cocked a head to one side, silvery hair shifting as she did. "He disturbed none of my wards, and left no trace of passing. I...did not think that his trail craft was that good. I am not a master at tracking, but I am not incapable of finding sign if I need to."

She was looking into the woods, and noted that something else was off. More things that did not fit, more things that were out of keeping. "There is something wrong here," she said. There was a hint of uncertainty, a dash of concern there. The silence of the wilderness was unsettling and unnatural. Perhaps Draedamyr would not pick up on something so subtle, but Seska herself had spent so very long in the wild lands, so long far from the civilization that he so enjoyed, that she could pick out the uncharacteristic silence. It was as though the land held its breath. Tense, waiting for something to happen.

"Something very wrong here," she said again. An ear twitched at some distant sound, and she cast her head in that direction. Nothing moved, nothing breathed. "And I do not like it..."

 

[Draedamyr]

Draedamyr was quick to get his sword belted around his waist. It did not matter what the threat was, he would face it with steel in his hand. The demons had not liked the immutability of steel, but they were far behind them.

If another Sidhe like Seska was the threat then it would be as useful as a wet rag, but at least it would feel reassuring in his hand. The ward she had formed for him would be his only real defence, other than standing behind Seska.

"What could be out here and take him like that?" he asked. "Has to be the sidhe?"

He was hazarding a simple guess at her wards not being triggered. Draedamyr hadn't even noticed the lack of the usual woodland sounds.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

She shook her head in response. She was not sure what could have slipped past her wards, but Lia was certainly not the only creature capable of that feat across this wide world. There were even some animals - magical creatures to be sure - that could manage it.

"I do not know," she said simply as she turned to survey the woodlands. They seemed empty of life, the wild things having fled ahead of...ahead of what? She was accustomed to storms driving the lands into quiescence, and predators doing likewise. But she could neither feel a storm coming, nor could she sense the presence of a predator - beyond themselves, and until now their presence had not disturbed the natural world.

The sound that had been tickling her ears continued to grow in volume until it was finally loud enough to be discerned for what it was: the sound of drums. Seska stared in the direction it was coming from; it was clear that it was not a single drum but several sets of them. She cast a sidelong look at Draedamyr, one eyebrow raised questioningly - as though he could answer the unspoken question. He couldn't anymore than she could.

"This is confusing, but I know that I do not like it at all," she said. "That...that sounds familiar to me, if I can just put my finger on it," she said of the drumbeats. They had a certain cadence...a cademce...to them, rhythmic and purposeful. "Wherever the blacksmith has gotten off to will have to wait. He cannot have gone far..."

 

[Draedamyr]

They had come out here to try and find another sidhe. That was concerning enough on its own. Now their companion had vanished through magical snares and there were war drums in the air.

"This is remote for a serious force to be marching through," he reasoned. "If we're this close to an army we could have scouts anywhere around here."

Draedamyr was quick to help finish getting them packed away. They needed to be able to get on the move.

"Got any scouting spells?" he asked quite seriously. "Otherwise we need to get high enough to get a view on whatever that is."

There was a sinking feeling deep in the put of his stomach. The unknown was not agreeing with him at all. And he only had two bottles of wine.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

She grinned at the concept of 'spells', but it was a momentary thing. the problem suggested was real enough; they needed to know what it was that they were dealing with. An army shouldn't be here, in the wilderness. They were too far from Fal'adaas and too far from the fools in Vel Anir - not that those two nations had not fought one another before.

Perhaps the demons had come back, and the world was marshaling its forces to face that threat again? It sent a chill up her spine to even consider it.

"I do not have 'spells'," she said earnestly. "But I do not have any skill with farsight, if that is what you are asking. Scrying was something the centaurs were particularly effective at - not to say there weren't those among my people who are - were = as capable or more." But not her. Her bailiwick ran towards offensive abilities; she had been the Sorceress Queen, after all, the hand that could reach out and strike down even the strongest of her world.

Respite bore being loaded with the camp gear silently. "I think there was a decent ridge not far to the north. We could try to climb that...but if there really is an army out here..."

She did not have to say that they would be vulnerable and easily spotted on such a place. The slow cadence seemed to reverberate in her soul, tickling some ancient memory. It was a useless effort, though; some memories were too tattered to be deciphered.

She took the staff out of its place on the animal's saddle though, absentmindedly and automatic. The climbing roses carved into its length seemed to move hypnotically as soon as she laid her hand upon it. made about as much sense as anything else did right then.

 

[Draedamyr]

"I shall endeavour to avoid such terms again to avoid sounding a fool," he replied, flashing her a smile.

It was starting to feel as if fate had a grudge against them. They had been given a peaceful few days to themselves - perhaps not entirely peaceful - and now they were thrown back into the fire.

The foreboding sound of drums seemed to grow as they took care heading uphill. They walked in silence. Draedamyr wasn't used to the wilds, but he had the senses of any elf. He caught no sign of any scouts.

They took a wide arc around the ridge to remain out of sight. Still he could not tell what the sound was, but it was even greater without the surrounding trees.

Draedamyr unbuckled his sword belt and crawled on his belly forwards to try and catch sight of the source.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

It was being around people that always caused these problems, she had long ago decided. On her own, out in the wilderness, nothing happened. She might run across a random dragon or perhaps the occasional cutthroat, but mostly it was silence and solitude.

People were like lightning rods, though, and the more of them there were, the more trouble they called down. Some individuals seemed to attract trouble, too; she herself was the source of such troubles here and there.

Despite her insistence that she was no spy, she moved as silently as a wraith, footfalls disturbing not a leaf. It was probably familiarity with the world, more than naything else.

There was nothing to say as they ascended the ridge. The roll of the drums did not change its cadence, and aside from growing closer, there seemed to be little change. It wasn't until they reached the crest and Draedamyr had crept forward to catch a glimpse of what lay beyond that there were any words to speak. Crawling alongside him, she peaked a silver-haired crown above the rocky shoulder of stone, and looked at what there was to see.

It was an army, all right, and a massive one. Seska was not the best at guessing at a glance how many soldiers were arrayed before her, but there could not be less than fifty thousand of them. They marched in loose formation, filtering through the trees in rough groups. Those group bore brightly colored banners that did not belong to anything she had seen on Arethil. She could not recall the sigils that were represented here.

More odd, the companies appeared the be mixed. She could see humans, even from this height, but there appeared to be elves and goblins and orcs marching alongside one another. More, people she could barely see mixed in with the others.

"Have the demons returned again?" Her words were low, meant for his ears alone. She could think of no other reason for an army to be here.

 

[Draedamyr]

"It's so many," he hissed. "Most cities can't raise an army this big."

He watched them for as long as he dared. The force was set into a rough column. There were many beating drums, but there were no roads here wide enough for such a force so they pace was chaotic.

Nothing about this explained where Red had gone. Leaning any more would mean getting dangerously close.

"We can out pace them," he whispered. "I don't know much about soldiering but they will take much longer to pack down and set off than we will each day. Where could they even be heading?" he asked, despite there being no obvious answer.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

She slipped back from the edge, brow furrowed in thought. Unlike Draedamyr, she did know something about soldiering, or at least about general tactics. Once, long ago, she had loomed large, a terrifying force that many had strove to depose, to destroy...and most of those had failed, or at least failed to succeed in the long term. Even the faintest ember was all that she need be left with, in those days; the tower infernos of her awe-inspiring sorcery had created the framework that had deposed and destroyed many warlords and ladies through the ages, slaughtering millions in the incessant wars.

"We can outpace the soldiers," she said quietly and full of a confidence he apparently did not feel. "But we cannot outpace the scouts. Any military commander worth the name will have an advance screen, either mounted or airborne," she continued, and looked to the sky. It was empty, but that really did not mean anything at all.

"I do not know," she replied. "There is nothing for days in the direction they march. Not village, not hut, not any trace of civilization at all. They are not even on a course that will take them near to any of the great City States," she said. She sounded puzzled and curious. "We need to stay between the screen and the main body and try to avoid individual scouts, work our way to either side." She did not sound like it was likely to be a plan that would work.

 

[Draedamyr]

"How far ahead will the scouts go?" he asked. "If they are travelling far then the scouts cannot outpace the main body forever."

"What if we go to ground?" he asked. "Find a hiding spot, use a spell perhaps to keep us hidden and let them pass?"

The end of the column couldn't take too long. He knew there would be cargo coming behind the main force, but where was it even from?

"Where could they even be heading..." he muttered.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

She shrugged her shoulders. There was no way to know how far the scouts would go, nor the answer to any of his questions. She did not know the commander of this considerably force, and therefore did not understand the tactics or the purpose. The screen could be a day out from the main force, with light cavalry relaying information from the far flung recon units, or it could be a mile ahead and no further. Or both. Or neither.

"I can try to misdirect them if we go to ground, but there is no way to know if they will be able to pierce my illusion or not." She was not at home with illusion at the best of times, but she could fool people who were not expecting it. Provided they were not magically inclined themselves.

She looked him in the eyes, her own clear and without any fear or even concern. Curiosity and confusion, certainly, but no fear. And why would there be anything to fear? The last thing they had dealt with was otherworldly, alien and completely impossible to understand. This? This was a known quantity - to her, at least- even if she had no idea why they were here. An army was an army, whatever its purpose might be; it was grounded in things she well understood, not matter the motivation behind the commander leading this force, or the force itself.

"How are you at climbing trees," she asked suddenly as she turned to head back down the way they had come.

 

[Draedamyr]

"Climbing trees?" he asked incredulously. "I hope you are not thinking that we will be hiding by clinging on to branches whilst they pass underneath us?"

He added a stereotypical elven harrumph and lifting of the nose to ensure she new he wasn't being entirely serious. An army seemed much less of a bother than demons corrupting the world around him.

"The other option of course, is to just kill any scouts that come across us." Draedamyr said as he picked a careful path down the slope. It was always more awkward heading downhill. Someone should have put some stairs here.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

She dismissed killing scouts out of hand. "I've had enough killing for one year just in the last few months." She picked her way down the slope carefully, eyes on the canopy of the forest below, searching for any movement. "If we cannot avoid it, well...then we do what must be done, but if it can be avoided, all the better."

The drum continued its insistent beat, the sound rolling through the hills and trees. All the living creatures of the woods seemed to have turned in for the day, hiding in their dens and burrows or else fleeing the area. Humans - be they human or humanoid - were universally distrusted by the wild creatures, and for good reason. Had they the ability to reason, they would have been especially concerned about this lot, as they were armed with bows, spears, and swords.

Not to mention, numerous beyond counting.

Something moved in the trees below, and Seska laid a hand upon Draedamyr's arm to stop his movement. Whatever it was, it was very small and too far away to make out clearly. She felt the hair on the back of her neck rise, some sense of impending trouble crying out its alarm. Nothing else moved below, though.

"I thought I saw something down there," she said as she released his arm and started to slowly resume her downward march.

 

[Draedamyr]

Draedamyr would hardly call himself an expert on warfighting, but he was certain most armies did not make this much noise on the march. It was more like the noise he imagined they made as they marched in battle to intimidate the other force.

He went quite still at her touch. Draedamyr heard a sound, but the motion hadn't drawn his gaze. He did see her suddenly going still in his periphery.

Draedamyr gave a slow nod and drew his sword. After everything they had been through he was taking no chances. He fell into step a little behind Seska and on her right hand side as they slowly worked down the slope.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

The alarm was not serious, at least for her. All the same, she had not lived so long by being unduly reckless in situations like these, when nothing made sense and the threats were all round her. She hesitated to reach out and grasp the prim, though; most mages of this world were not sensitive enough to actually detect someone merely standing ready; few enough had the ability to sense someone using magic at all. If it were any other scenario, she wouldn't have cared.

But this was to do with Lia Moonflower, not some random magi of this world. She could not recall any legends that she had encountered that were a native to this world - other than a certain legendary swordsman whom was certainly legendary in more ways than one. But another of her kindred and not only that, but one from a time and a place unknown to any other? Lia had not been especially stable after the destruction of the Warguard, and fleeing from that world had hardly helped any.

Had she finally fallen to the madness, or was she still sound?

She decided to risk it, and allowed the flow of power to flood into her. It made her steps feel lighter, the world seem more vibrant.

"There," she said, pointing towards something small flitting through the trees below. It was so small that she would have missed it were she not suffused with magic. The small, winged shape raced through the tree's deftly, weaving this way and that.

A faerie?

 

[Draedamyr]

"That's a bird?" Draedamyr whispered.

He remained very still. It was large for a bird, but he was no export on the subject of any kind of animal. In the cities they had plenty of rats and sometimes even werewolves in the darkest corners of the streets.

No one wanted to be an expert in rats.

If he had been certain it was just a bird he would have made for the trees. Once again he found himself waiting to see what Seska thought. He was becoming particularly useless out here without something to swing a sword at.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

"Fae," she said, the single syllable dropped like a hammer. "I've not seen very many in this world. What is it doing with the army near, I wonder," she asked absently.

She expanded her senses outward, seeking any magical source. It was a well honed talent of hers, one that Draedamyr would likely have been pleased to have at his disposal, given that he was wont to chase down magi. The further away any source was, the more difficult it was to pinpoint, to track, and most especially to identify...but she had been doing this for thousands of years and more.

A sharp intake of breath was the only indication she gave of finding anything, and then she was grabbing hold of Draedamyr's arm and pulling at him. That singular sensation that she'd felt was unmistakable in the same way that it was impossible that it should be here.

"I can't...I can't believe," she began. They needed to get out of the open, to find some cover. "I can't believe she would actually allow such ambition to burn within her!" A source. A source of power that was vastly beyond anything that Arethil could produce. She had never met a god or a goddess on this accursed world, but she had met many powerful individuals. Whatever this was blazed like the sun beside the guttering candles that those she had met represented. It shouldn't even be possible for someone to wield such power without risking death...

...and yet, this was unmistakable. Unless, by some twist, the source of that power had managed to fool her with illusion. "If that is Lia, then she is seeking to set up her own realm within Arethil!" There was no time to question why now, after all of these years. There was no thought to question where she would have turned up such a massive army, or how she could use such power in light of the Laws.

There was only the ancient fear of her people, long since dead. Ambition only brought ruin and death, and if Lia had succumbed to that poison, then such gods and goddesses as there were in Arethil help them.

 

[Draedamyr]

He fell into a silence. The timing of it all to head into the wilds to find this Sidhe just as an army of magical creatures marched across the land. He was sentiive enough to the way it moved that he could sense the change in magic.

Draedamyr gave a soft sigh. He looked down at the sliver of steel in his hand. Magically imbued, it had been with his family for generations.

Right now it looked pitifully small, no matter how reliable it was.

"Are you going to say that we have to stop her?" he asked. "You have any idea how she would react on meeting you?"

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

She shook her head violently at the idea. "I need time to think. If you have any idea, I am all ears," she said. She was pushing to make her way to the cover of the trees. There was far too much information to process on the fly, and she certainly did not want any kind of clash with another of her kind if she could avoid it. Much less an entire army of unknown origin.

"I don't know what to do," she said more to herself than anything else. "I have been looking for Lia for many years...but I did not want to find this."

Unseen by either of them, a sprite had stopped amid the trees they were descending towards. It had very much seen them, and the little fae was already flying like madness to go report what it had seen.

 

[Draedamyr]

"All this and we still have no idea where Red went," Draedamyr said. "But could Lia have...servants who could slip through your wards? And if they took Red, why not me...or even..."

Surely if one of Lia's servants had seen Seska sleeping it would have been reported. And they would have had their little camp surrounded.

They made the treeline. Within the trees the line of sight was actually quite far. The thick canopy overhead had stopped anything more than fern from growing on the floor. Draedamyr didn't like that, a scout could see them if they got fairly close.

He didn't know that they had already been seen.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

She swift movement was not what Seska was designed for, and after getting to the trees, she was winded. She had not entirely recovered from the initial ordeal all those weeks before, and had never been particularly athletic to begin with.

"Hold on...a moment," she said, leaning against her horse. The beast obediently knelt for her without any spoken command and, after a moment to collect herself, she got on his back. "Your legs are too long," she added as she finally got up to a level where she didn't have to look up at him.

"Now what do we do?" she asked of him. Nothing came immediately to her own mind, but perhaps he had an idea. It was just a shame that neither of them knew that their presence had already been reported, and that a patrol was being rounded up to apprehend them.

 

[Draedamyr]

He had put his sword away for the time being. There was nothing out of the ordinary stirring in the woods around them.

Stood close beside respite, he placed his hand to the small of her back. Just the touch, the reassurance of her presence, helped him settle his nerves and think straight.

His thoughts were straight as an arrow, but that still didn't carry him to any kind of solution.

"Unless you have some way to try and...seek her out without actually getting to Lia, I suggest we find somewhere to hide and them move as quickly as we can at night? Maybe?"

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

She leaned in to the touch, but said nothing immediately in regard to the question. Of course she had a way to seek Lia out, but the problem was that the act of seeking might also draw the sidhe to her, as well. Fae were particularly sensitive to magic, she she and Lia both were part of that group of creatures.

"We should hide," she said in agreement. It would be best to travel by the light of the moons rather than in daylight, at least until they had cleared this army on the march. "We can only hope that Red was abducted and didn't get captured by these people."

Before she could say anything else, though, a pure note from a horn rose, sweet and piercing. She stopped, and looked around, and saw the riders moving through the trees not too far off. Wait, those aren't riders...those are centaurs. She had not seen their like on Arethil before, or if she had she could not remember them. The demi-humans moved swiftly through the trees, with smaller creatures flitting alongside them.

"Quickly, saddle yourself!" She said, voice urgent.

 

[Draedamyr]

"Scouts..." he hissed, before doing a double take. "Those aren't..."

It wasn't a small group of mythical creatures either. Far more than he could fight. He was a swordsman with hundreds of years of theoritcal and practical study in the art. Not much of that time had been spent studying how to fight centaurs.

Draedamyr threw himself up behind Seska, looking back over his shoulder.

"I don't think Respite will outrun them..."