"What is going on?!" Melina shouted as the tree itself seemed to freeze the crumbling debri in place. Melina leaped over to the last spot she had seen Morgott when he threw her. Her eyes widened in horror as she landed. He was two frozen pieces away.. with half of a said wall piece through his chest.
"Morgott!" She screamed as the tree began to unleash pulse after pulse of golden light. Each pulse radiated further from the trunk, and everything it touched vaporized. The particles then swarmed into the tree, absorbed into it. Every glance made Melina think that it was growing.
She landed beside him to the gargled cough of the old brother. "Brother..."
"Not the circumstances... I had hoped to hear you... call me that..." He coughed a violent heave of blood. His old eyes were bleary and fogged by pain, yet a smile still held to his lips.
"Come on, we can get you to Mother!" She looked to see where she had left her, only to find an empty space in a void. Where was Marika? "M-my spell. It... it should have locked her in place. Kept her safe..."
"She is probably fine... but.. we do not.. have time.."
"The hell we don't! Morgott, I am taking you back with me one way o-" She was cut off as an elderly hand rested atop her hair while another draped the last pieces of his cloak over her shoulders.
"It is time... that those with..eyes for... change... Lead the way... Melina..." He smiled even as tears slowly rolled down his grey and black face.
"Morgott..."
"It is alright..." She knelt down beside him. "We have no time for ... e.. eulogies..." He pointed behind her as each pulse vaporized more, and more.
"We have to get this off you then!" She screamed, digging through her book for a spell. An idea.
"Melina.."
"I-"
"It's.. Okay..."
Both sets of eyes locked. One pair at peace. One pair in turmoil.
"Let this.. haha.." He coughed painfully. "Let this old soldier have his warrior's death..." He smiled softly. "Father... would have been so... proud..."
Melina watched as his body began to lose all color, all light from his eyes. Her hands on the book tightened to a feverish white knuckled grip. She stifled it for now. She had not truly known Morgott, but no man deserved to die far from home.
"May the Lady find you.. and hear your story." She whispered the soft prayer Luna had taught her as she placed a hand on his chest. The air pulses behind her, and she could feel the heat of the power within feet this time. "I am sorry..." She jumped away as the next pulse reduced the remaining area to little more than glowing motes of gold and fell into that endless abyss.
...
Marika slowly sat up, eyes heavy with exhaustion as she felt soft soil beneath her. Her nostrils soon filled with the most horrid stench of decay as she stumbled shakily to her feet and coughed a painful amount of blood. She glanced around in a panic as the darkness covering her eyes faded and revealed the darkly lit cavern.
It was... Vast. It had life here, too. Morbid life. Things that almost resembled corpses twisted into the rough shapes of flowers and grass. Trees seemingly comprised of bone mixed with twisting vines. Darkness beyond, as far as she could see. The only light were dim glowing plants above that hung off a few trees and bathed the field in a strange, almost sun like light that was far too dim to be quite the same.
"Where...?" She started to stand just as a painful lurch hit her stomach. She put a hand to it and instantly found the protection spell Luna had placed was... Gone. Then the pain hit.
"AHHHH!!!" She screamed as consciousness in full brought to bear the extreme pain in her abdomen. She clutched at it, half buried in the dirt and rotting half-formed plants. "No...!" Her mind began to burn with fears. How long had it been dropped?! Every part of her stomach was alight in agony. It felt like part of her insides had broken.
She cried as the pain refused to subside. "No... not n-not this..."
"Maybe we can help." A coarse female voice said as Marika caught the sound of squishing shoes on the soft ground. She looked up to find a short pair of women. The darker one extended a band, and all her pain began to fade.
"The child is not lost, but you will not be fighting for a while." Her voice was a dull monotone as she approached. Short and dark skinned in a strange shroud that resembled a flightless Northern bird covered her. Her deep purple eyes seemed odd, like they weren't catching light. She was radiant as well. Unnaturally gorgeous with perfectly smooth features. Her lips were a hardline on her stoic face of brown that had a single sharp fang overbiting the right.
The other was a little taller, but not by much. She had dark brown hair that settled in a bun behind her. A single bang was left to cover up her left eye, and she wore a black cheongsam with a fox pattern in orange. The left sleeve seemed... empty.
"W.. who...?" She coughed weakly as the taller one offered a hand, which she took and rose.
"Cinder Lilium. This is Kimisa Lilium, my sister in law." She spoke with a raspy voice that suggested a lifetime around smoke. Perhaps a smith.
"We are lovers of a certain idiot." The darker one said rather bluntly.
"... Yeah."
"I see..." Marika had honestly not considered what she might do when she met her dear knight's other lovers. She had thought she would be angry, but these two... She felt wary but not hostile outright.
"It's good to have you on board." The taller one smiled slightly. "Not how most of us end up at the Home, But." She chuckled softly. "Our fox can't do anything normal."
"Fox?" She mused weakly as she leaned a little on Cinder for support. She was stunned to find no arm under the other sleeve, though Cinder did not seem burdened by the much greater woman's weight at all.
"Well, I guess she is a knight here." Kimisa said as she pulled out a small set of cards. "Mm.. why could I not be -"
"Because Skith said so."
The smaller girl grumbled as she scattered the cards in the air and caught three. A type of divination? She caught the ones that resembled a woman with fox ears dancing, though it was upside down, one resembling a woman sitting on a throne, and the last, a crown shattering. The gilded queen was not particularly fond of seeing that set.
The shorter Kimisa, however, smiled. The barest smile, but it felt pure and sincere. "Seems her mission is going well."
"That so?" Cinder asked with a chuckle as she pulled Marika's arm over her shoulder more securely as a strange shadow wrapped over Marika like a bandage and secured her to Cinder's side.
"Shadows...?"
Kimisa glanced back at her with a different smile. This one wasn't on her face. It was on a strange globule of black mass that rose from where Marika suddenly realized the girl shpuld have a shadow, and didn't. The mass slowly opened dozens of tiny mouths in a set of fanged smiles.
"Not all things that lurk in the dark are cruel. Some are simply evil, to other evil things."